Criteria for the organization of the School of Languages

How to be a good teacher? 
As teachers of English as a foreign language we are always trying to give a satisfactory answer to this question. We have come up with what we feel are some good answers:
Caring for your profession and for your students is the first essential ingredient. 
Caring about education and about people made you take up this profession in the first place.and when you really care, the rest follows naturally: getting the necessary training, and after this is completed, understanding that professional development never stops and becoming a good teacher takes continual learning on your part.. 
Our aim is communication and skills training as quickly as possible, students get discouraged if it takes too many years before they can communicate in English. So, developing their communicative skills as soon as they start their training is our goal.
And this is what we have been doing for the past 19 years and we have been rewarded with excellent results and thankful students.

Curricular innovation and new approaches in English language teaching 
Technology has greatly influenced language teaching. Therefore, teachers should make the best possible use of all the teaching- learning advantages the Internet has to offer in order to maximize their students’ learning potential and creativity 

English learning practice through the Internet
New technology can sometimes be a very useful complement of classroom activities and what Lenguas Vivas teachers do is apply technological advances to professional teaching strategies. 
W cater to students with different levels of language ability , but for all levels revision and practice of new vocabulary and language structures is done by means of exercises and tasks that students can download o directly do from our Web page. (students’ Section)
In the classroom ‘visiting laptops’ make their didactic contribution in the way of interactive CDs, didactic games, and so on.

The language teacher and technology
Experience seems to show that language learning can be greatly enhanced by resorting to the technological advances that are available nowadays. They deepen students’ motivation, and enlarge their cultural backgrounds. That is why we feel they ought to be used. An extra bonus is that our students not only become more proficient learners of English, but they also develop further strategies as technology users. 
In the classroom ‘visiting laptops’ make their didactic contribution in the way of interactive CDs, didactic games, and so on.

Beware of Technology
Technology can be a valuable tool when properly used by competent teachers who can guide their students in their browsing and Web search and provide them with appropriate materials to support and enhance their learning.

Qualified teachers
Teacher training is essential in the sense that it provides and develops the skills needed when the teacher addresses a foreign language learning classroom. Some of those skills are language proficiency, a knowledge of teaching methods and strategies, the ability to apply them, a knowledge of the cultural background of the language they are teaching, class management, just to mention a few of them.
But teaching adolescents and children requires much more than that.
Caring for students is essential, learning how to motivate them, finding the right approach to deal with them, being concerned about their progress, not only as language learners, but also as human beings. This is what the teaching profession entails. So, becoming a good teacher is a process which starts on the first day of our teacher training and lasts a lifetime.

Staff :: What’s special about our staff?
All the members of the staff are qualified teachers, trained either at our Institute or at other Higher Education Institutes or Universities. Our teachers are encouraged to share their ideas, their experiences and the materials they design, since teaching is a collaborative activity and we are all involved in continuing professional development. This also ensures professional growth. But the main thing is, we all love teaching!

Curriculum Design and Implementation
The curriculum has been especially designed for skills training.
Students need to be exposed to as much language as possible. This input, provided by EFL teachers, native teachers, tapes and videos (American, British, Australian, Canadian English) helps to develop effective oral comprehension. Also, reading and writing skills are taught by means of specific instructional strategies, but the main focus is placed on speaking, with the support of the other skills.

The classes
In each class students are the same age and they share the same level of language ability. This is important because the teaching strategies that will suit a group of adolescents greatly differs from those needed for younger students. Also adults must be carefully grouped together and need a special kind of teaching. They are generally nervous of learning and come to class with a previous learning experience and definite opinions about the difficulty of learning a foreign language. Yet, if the right strategies are applied, they become wonderful learners!

Speaking Sessions
Just talking!, talking, debating, reviewing, asking questions, giving opinions, developing willingness to experiment with the language while incorporating new vocabulary and language structures.
These lessons are very carefully planned and highly effective.

         Contact us for Speaking Sessions 2005