After nine years and two hundred students, I've learned one thing. The textbooks aren't wrong, but they're not enough.
People ask me a lot why I teach the way I teach. It seems like a simple question. Every time I sit down to answer it, I end up writing more than I planned.
So here it is, for anyone curious, or anyone considering working with me.
The textbooks aren't wrong
Of course, textbooks are a fundamental part of helping students and teachers along their paths. They provide a clear line of study and a wide range of exercises that are very useful.
However, they slowly became just support material in my classes.
My main goal, since always, as a language student (back when I started my language-nerd adventure), has always been to know how to communicate orally.
There is no doubt that writing and reading are essential, but what I wanted was to feel that people would understand me on the streets and to be able to make friends.
Because of that, and also because a lot of my students have the same main goal, I started to focus on how to teach students outside the normal system. I have studied different ways and techniques of teaching a language through different paths. I read some out-of-the-box ideas on how to acquire a language instead of learning it through grammar, and I explored various methods.
The idea that most people can acquire a language almost just like a kid does is tempting (and it makes sense in its own way). Even though you can't just listen and repeat and hope to miraculously learn it, the truth is that if you are in contact with native speakers every day, you will be surprised by how fast you can learn. If you get too obsessed, you might even start dreaming in the language.
So, I decided to give special emphasis to communication and conversation in my classes. All of my classes have a part where we talk and try to understand each other.
That being said, the more I learn, the better I understand that, in the end, the main goal is not to pass the test, but to feel familiar with the language and be able to say what you want to say.
When I was focusing my teaching solely on grammar and textbooks, I realised that some of my students were very good at reading and completing the exercises, but not at speaking.
They might be able to describe the weather, but they would freeze if the conversation took a different path.
And that's why confidence is important. And you build confidence with intense practice.
Language is culture, and culture is messy
As you might know, Portuguese isn't one thing.
The Portuguese a grandmother uses when she's telling a story is not the same Portuguese a taxi driver uses when he's complaining about traffic, and it is not the Portuguese of fado songs and newspaper editorials and children's books.
So in my lessons, we do both. We do the grammar, because without it you're guessing. We do it in the context of real things. A news article. A short film. A poem. A conversation I had with my neighbour last week.
The student is the teacher's best teacher
Every student who's worked with me has made me a better teacher.
Maggie from the US went from zero to B1. She taught me patience and the importance of small wins.
Eliott passed his B1 exam. He taught me how to prepare someone for something specific without losing the joy.
Jules has been with me for three years. He's taught me that the best lessons are the ones where you forget you're teaching.
This is why I never use the same plan twice. Even for students at the same level, the path looks different.
What I want for you
I want you to walk into a café in Porto, order a coffee, start talking to the person next to you, and forget, for a moment, that you're speaking a second language.
That's the goal.
If that sounds good to you, get in touch. Let's have a conversation.
Nuno