Bringing the real world into the classroom

Many times I have felt as a student that the teacher was only concerned with delivering what she had planned for her lesson, not really listening to her students if there was anything they wanted to share. And what she had planned usually dealt with topics remote from the students own experience, which resulted in most of them completely losing any interest in participating. It is only logical that if a subject is not of your interest you will have little to say about it. Because we are teaching a language, and languages are used as a means of communication, it is essential that we discuss issues about which students have something to say.


Now, this does not mean we must leave the books aside; there are things that have to be dealt with, whether our students like it or not. But we should not deny them the opportunity of expressing themselves in real communication.

Take as an example the World Cup. Talking about it is going to be inevitable, so why not taking advantage of this fact? It is an event that can be exploited in many different ways inside a classroom, from doing research and presentations about the participating countries (which could include topics such as their history, economy, and  culture) to discussing the matches themselves, which is something that particularly boys will enjoy. There are also numerous vocabulary items or grammatical structures which could be introduced related to football, its rules and history.



If sports is not your cup of tea, the Glastonbury Festival, about which some of the girls posted on their journals, provides another great opportunity for getting them involved. This festival could be compared to the ones in our country, reflecting upon the differences between our culture and that of the target language community.



I guess it is just a matter of understanding that it is not necessary to be always following the course book in order to teach English. We have to get rid of this idea that the world should be left outside the classroom, since this is neither convenient nor feasible.