About us
ABOUT ME
I'm Rita, a Hungarian EFL teacher. I got my masters in English and French Language Pedagogy in 2015 and I've been teaching very enthusiastically ever since.
I spent the first years of my career at ELTE at a preparatory programme for international students, where I taught mixed ability students coming from different parts of the world. A year ago,I started teaching English majors at two Hungarian universities, which has been an absolute pleasure.
How can I describe my teaching methods?
Actually, I am an advocate of 21st century pedagogy, I'm a fan of innovation and I really think that being a teacher is not just about teaching the subject. So, English teaching is not just about teaching the language but also about teaching STUDENTS. So, developing students to be effective 21st century global citizens is my priority. In order to achieve this, their 4 Cs must be nurtured: creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication. Every single day in the classroom, these are my guiding principles. In order to do that, it's vital to create an environment where students feel valued and encouraged to speak up about anything. Student-teacher rapport is extremely important to me. Students should also be motivated to participate, that's why I use these lots of songs for example - to show them a more enjoyable side of speaking the language.
Contact me
Should you have any questions, just drop me an email.
OUR MISSION
I can't really spend a day (let alone an hour) without listening to music. It means that I don't really want to keep out music from my classes, either. :D
Of course, songs (and most specifically contemporary songs) have lots of advantages:
In my opinion (and I think a lot of researchers and EFL theorists would agree with me), one of the skills students have the most problem with is listening. After some years of learning English, our students can speak more or less (well) but sometimes they just can't understand the gist of a simple commercial, the news, a short audio clip or a song. So I think we should put more emphasis on developing students' listening skills, because if someone understands the pieces of information on the radio and the song the follows in a foreign language, that person can understand everything in that language.
How to choose the right song?
A lot of teachers tend to choose songs they think are worth showing to the class. OK, first of all, what does that mean? They usually choose classic hits from the 60s, 70s... Personally, I love the Beatles, Frank Sinatra and Rod Stewart... but as a teenager I didn't really appreciate them. It's true that you can't choose a song that all your students like, it's just impossible. However, you should attempt to do so.
Start with the right genre: it's not pop or EDM. Yes, they are fancy and popular, but usually the lyrics don't make much sense. You should orientate yourself towards rock, alternative rock or indie music - that's not a warranty of meaningful lyrics either, but at least, there are some bands who want to SAY something and your students will enjoy the music as well. (hopefully)
So, contemporary anglo-saxon music and its advantages:
- it's a great tool to explore spoken English and all its varieties and registers
- it allows the learners to follow the new tendencies of the language and hear how the British/ Americans/ Australians communicate without even visiting the target country
- students can get to know the newest slang expressions at first hand
- music is culture, culture is language, language is culture <3
It's extremely important to choose songs that seduce our students, especially our teenager students. If they like the songs, they will listen to them several times, they will learn with enthousiasm and they will develop their listening skills and vocabulary without noticing it. So, let's start with the music, the interpretation and the feelings the song evoke in the students and then work on the lyrics and the linguistic points.