Michelle Pøhls
I am an American/Dane living in Denmark. I've taught English for over 20 years in Denmark. Before that, I taught in Honduras and China.
I am now looking to go to Asia to teach for some years.
Location Denmark is a real fairy tale land. The systems work quite well and the people are very secure economically and safe personally. Therefore, it was voted the 'happiest country' in the world for several years.
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@GerardIrvine I might have to hit you up for advice. I was supposed to go to Vietnam in 2020, but for obvious reasons, never made it. I'm still hoping.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
Am I correct in saying Duo Lingo offers a more realistic test? I know some of my students have told me about a test you can take online which is more appropriate and is being accepted by more and more organizations. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
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My father taught in Finland for a year when I was five. The only one in my family who learned any Finnish was my 10-year-old sister. Definitely not an easy language to learn.
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Australia relies heavily on immigrant workers for agricultural jobs, etc. It's a bit ironic if you need to achieve the same language level as a university student just to work in the fields or as a dishwasher.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I don't know about Australia, but in the US and Denmark, understanding information about government services, laws, and obligations (taxes), requires a high level of language proficiency which even many native speakers don't possess. Rather than require a high level of proficiency for immigrants, governments should consider how to communicate more clearly with...
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
Anybody working with contracts. Here's a good example. It wasn't life or death, but it was an expensive mistake: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/09/us/dairy-drivers-oxford-comma-case-settlement-trnd/index.html
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Michelle Pøhls replied to Emma C
For the university student, I wasn't thinking as much pre-assessment, but final assessment. If you're accepting a student into a program, maybe it's not as important that he isn't as good at the language because he can study hard and learn as he goes along. However, if you're assessing a student upon completion of the program, he may use those scores to obtain...
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I always like to give the student the benefit of the doubt, but luckily, I'm not testing students for life and death situations. In that case, I'm afraid I'd have to be tougher on students than I like to be.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
Mr. Bean is expected to taste the wine before asking for a glass. If he approves the wine, it is a given that he would like a glass. By approving it, but refusing the glass, he is not following convention. I had a friend once who, when offered to smell the cork (which some used to do), would bite it, just to see the reaction of the waiter.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
Honestly, it's one of those areas that I'd rather not think about when flying. I thought the fourth exchange of the second part was the hardest to understand, even though it seemed to be a native speaker who was giving the information. I wouldn't blame the candidate for not understanding what he said. This all goes back to the discussion earlier about how it...
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I found it funny that the system started in China. When I taught in China several years ago, my students blatantly copied from each other during tests. They didn't understand why we got angry at their 'cheating'; they were only helping each other. :-)
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I'm always looking forward to learning new ideas to improve my lessons. Right now, I'm going to check out the English vocabulary profile.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I look forward to a discussion about what vocabulary to teach in our courses.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
1. Not correct but acceptable
2. Without -
While many of my students claim they feel that they are at a disadvantage when they talk to native speakers, often, the bigger problem is they are afraid of speaking English in front of their own colleagues. I would like to see some type of training to stop employees from being so judgemental about their colleagues' language abilities.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I posted this in an earlier comment, but I'll do it again. I thought this podcast about English in the workplace was quite interesting.
https://www.npr.org/2021/04/21/989477444/how-to-speak-bad-english -
Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I love the idea of companies adopting a language strategy. In my experience, many Danish companies have decided that the company language is English, but the employees don't usually know what that means, as they all continue to use Danish. It would be helpful for the employees to know when they had to use English and when they could use their native...
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In Denmark, the first thing the Prime Minister said was, 'Will we make mistakes? Yes.' I think it helped that people realized that the government were admitting that they didn't know all the answers, but we just needed to work together to solve the problem.
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I'm curious about the statistic regarding spelling, the one that showed the largest difference. Where does that come from? I mean, why would women be better at spelling?
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Thanks for that article. I had also heard that statistic, so I appreciated the full explanation. I think, however, that the article refutes your claim that women speak more than men.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
As an instructor of Business English, I found this podcast very interesting. It really made me reconsider my approach to teaching. https://www.npr.org/2021/04/21/989477444/how-to-speak-bad-english
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I would love to see this project repeated in Denmark. I like the way they look at both angles, from the employers and the employees, to reduce miscommunication.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
Hi all,
I've been teaching English to adults for many years. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I've switched to teaching online through italki. I love taking these classes, as I always find some new ideas to use in my teaching. -
Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I think it's a great system, especially when there are large classes. It's easy for quieter students to get overlooked, so if no one is specifically looking after their interests, they may fall between the cracks.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
Musical instruments could be fun to use to practice making sounds in different parts of the mouth and throat, plus just singing songs to learn all sorts of new words.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
The adult should be exposing the child to different opportunities to learn new vocabulary/language structures. It's good to build on a child's interests, but we also need to expose them to situations they are unaware of to learn even more.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I used to think it would be difficult to teach English to children, but now I see I just need to do the same things with my students as I did with my children when they were young. Now my main concern is figuring out how to discipline the kids so they don't go bouncing off the walls ;-)
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I still do this with my adult children.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I don't know if I was labeled as a clever girl, but I definitely can relate to Maria's experience. Since I never had to work hard in school, starting uni came as a huge shock. It was also difficult for me in the beginning of my teaching career to help students who were struggling as I had no tips or study methods I could share with them.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I love this. It's been a long time since I've interacted with young children. Most of my interactions earlier were with my own children, but now I'll be teaching young kids. It is nice to be reminded of specific things I should do.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I can't remember being compared with my sisters, but I think my daughter often gets compared to her older sister which makes me sad. They are so different and talented in each their own ways.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I remember playing with my sisters and our group of neighbors. I was the baby of the group. The oldest girl made up all the games for us to follow: treasure hunts, theater productions, etc. We definitely learned to work in teams among other things.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I am a parent, but my kids are grown now, so it's been a long time since I've worked with young children. I teach English and have occasionally taught young kids, but only on a one-to-one basis and not really based on any pedagogical theories.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
Hi all,
I am an English teacher who has been teaching mainly adults for more than 25 years. I'm planning to move to Vietnam and applying for pre-school and primary school teaching jobs. I know a lot about teaching English, not so much about teaching kids; hence, this course. -
That's exactly why I teach adults. I tried kids for a few years and gave up.
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@HonorWroe I keep telling my students that I'm going to patent the rule :-)
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I have been reminded of certain issues in different languages that affect my students' abilities to learn English. I like seeing all the examples from the different participants of the specific challenges they encounter depending on the language they are learning. Does anyone have any advice on some type of comprehensive list of problems that often arise for...
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I remember learning about the tense aspect in Mandarin years after having taught in China. When a Chinese person who was living in England explained it to me, I remember thinking how much easier my job would have been if I had known about it when I was teaching there.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
After many years of teaching in the same country, I have learned some differences in the languages and why students have such a hard time learning certain aspects of English. This has allowed me to focus much more on certain issues and not waste time on others.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
Many of my students have difficulty with subject-verb agreement. My rule to them is: one 's' and only one 's'.
The boy plays--The boys play.
The 's' is either on the subject or the verb. I, of course, always add the caveat that it's not 100% since nothing is in English. -
This is also why the written message can be problematic (minus emojis). We can't hear the tone. I had a friend once who had just come back to town and her boyfriend texted her 'Where are you?' (in a friendly manner to find out where he could meet her) She wrote back 'Where are YOU?' (in an accusative manner because she had misunderstood the tone of his text...
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
1. Hi, how are you?
2. Fine, thank you, how are you?
1. Fine, thank you.This is one that drives my students crazy. They can't accept that this is just a standard greeting in English and we're usually not asking about the person's well being; we're just being polite before we get to the reason for calling, etc.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
Meaning is how you want your message to be understood by the receiver. This is a real challenge when speaking a foreign language, especially if you translate the message directly from your own language. We often use words or structures to convey the pragmatic meaning without realizing that they don't translate the same way in the other language.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I think children especially are genetically capable of learning a language fluently, but it depends on the motivation. For a child, the motivation is basically to satisfy her needs and/or get praise from parents, etc. As a person grows older, the motivation may be greater, but physically, it may be more difficult or impossible for her to be able to create new...
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I have had a lot of learners who think they can't speak English because some teacher in the past has convinced them that they would never learn.
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@AdriennSzlapak my youngest daughter refused to answer me in English (we live in Denmark) for many years. When she was about 4, I gave up trying to speak English to her because she was embarrassed to be with me. When she was about 9 and we were visiting family in the States, she realized that her older sister could get a lot more (ice cream or whatever)...
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
English is my native language, not to mention the language I teach, so I use it every day in my job and at home with my family. I live in Denmark, so I use Danish out in public and with my in-laws. I've also learned Spanish, which I used when I lived in Honduras. Now I look forward to learning Vietnamese when I move to Vietnam.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
Hi all, I'm Michelle. I've been teaching--mostly business English and lately TOEFL preparation--for over 25 years. Once the borders open, I hope to go to Vietnam to teach or do some teacher training. I'm assuming I will be challenged in a way that I haven't been so far, so I'd like to get some new ideas.
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I was focusing on #6 not so much as an ESL teacher but as a teacher of TOEFL preparation. In the writing and speaking tasks for the TEOFL test, many of my students have an adequate level of English, but they don't know how to organize their ideas in a way to make themselves understood.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
The topic is a good one as it is representative of a contemporary problem. There are also several approaches to dealing with the problem, so the essays can include several angles to the solutions.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
1. Efficiency (noun) should be efficient (adjective).
2. Healthy (adjective) should be health (noun, as part of a noun phrase).
3. High (adjective) should be height (noun).
4. Sells (verb) should be sales (noun).
5. Fast is the correct form of the adverb.
6. Unemployed not unemployment (noun). -
Michelle Pøhls made a comment
1. Why have they chosen this approach?
2. What problems have arisen in the process?
3. To what extent has the approach been successful?
4. Who approved the approach? -
Michelle Pøhls made a comment
The main difference is that you are basing your opinion on what you have learned from others. As the purpose of going to university is to learn from others, i.e. authors and professors, it is important you are able to demonstrate where you have learned the facts from which you base your opinions.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I think all are important, but I tend to focus mainly on #6 when teaching.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
My lesson plan is similar to these, but it's usually in my head, not written down.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
The only way my plan is similar is I would write down what tenses we are covering, but I wouldn't write down how I am going to introduce the subject or what exercises we will do.
As far as planning goes, I never plan until after I've met with my students for the first time. I may have some ideas of an activity we could do the first day, but since all of our... -
Michelle Pøhls made a comment
Most of my planning goes on in my head and much of it on the train or on my bike on the way to class. I am not bound by the school's expectations, however. I am bound by my student's expectations. If I have a student who wants a detailed plan, I make it for them, but usually, they appreciate the way I can identify their needs and respond to them. Of course,...
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
As most of my classes are 121, I tend to make course plans, rather than lesson plans. I have an idea of what I want to do on a given day, but we often end up going off-script and discussing something completely different.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
What a great example of what can be done with large groups.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
In my business classes, we often write emails. I use 'email English' to teach the type of email and then use Macmillan's assignments for writing a specific type of email as homework. I always tell the students to keep the email as close as possible to their real work situations. Thus, if someone in the class doesn't need to write a given type of email, they...
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
In most of my classes, pretty much everything we do is collaborative, whether working in pairs or groups. The only class I have to lecture in is TOEFL preparation, but between every point, the students work together on some example exercises.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
When possible, I try to mix the groups so I don't have people with the same L1. Otherwise, I use pairwork for grammar exercises and groups of 3-4 for discussion exercises. With the discussion groups, I usually mix them up halfway through the class so they're not speaking to the same people for the whole period.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I agree with the idea of making groups with mixed levels, but I don't do it all the time. When the levels are mixed, the higher-level students can help the lower-level students, but sometimes the higher-level students should be given the opportunity to just practice their speaking with each other without having to explain everything to the others. Sometimes I...
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@TariqMahmood I'd be happy to set up a meeting in Zoom. Would anyone else be interested in joining?
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
Danish students usually aren't afraid of speaking, so that's not a problem. I think the problem lies in getting them to slow down enough to think about and correct their mistakes.
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My first job was in China 30 years ago. We had a discussion about television that was really good, then every other topic was a bomb. I guess things haven't changed that much.
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The teachers are not only energetic, but they also allow their students to use their energy. For both the primary and secondary classes, the students are allowed to joke around and have fun. It's a balance to allow students to have fun without the class getting out of hand and bouncing off the walls. I was never able to maintain that balance; that's why I...
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
In my experience, the most important thing is to be a good listener. Sometimes you need to just listen to a student and not worry about the mistakes. Once a student feels more confident in speaking, you can slide in some corrections.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I have the luxury of teaching mostly 121 classes, so I act mostly as a journalist posing questions about the student so she can talk about herself. I also love to laugh and I laugh a lot with my students. I try to limit corrections until the student has become comfortable in speaking so she feels more like she's talking to a friend rather than a teacher.
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Michelle Pøhls replied to Monica Costan
I have so many students who had the same experience with their English teachers. It makes me so sad that they think they can never learn English because some teacher convinced them of it when they were kids.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I studied both German and Spanish as language requirements for high school and college. I enjoyed studying the languages because I like languages, but I can't say whether I would have taken the classes if they hadn't been required. I never used German (and still shy away from saying anything in the language when I go to Germany), but I ended up living in...
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I've been keeping some notes in a notebook during the past couple of courses I've taken, but I don't keep notes reflecting on my own classes. I'm pretty bad about even keeping notes about what we did in any given class, much less what did or didn't work well. I keep telling myself I need to get better at it. I think I'll try using the online tools instead of...
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Michelle Pøhls replied to حفيظة سواقي
@ClaireRoss if a student needs a translation, I usually try to get someone else in the class to do it. Usually, their translation would be better than mine (their pronunciation definitely is). Since I know the language, I'll know if they are translating incorrectly.
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@DilaraS. Thanks for putting me in my place. And here I'm the one who always complains because the people in this country have no idea what life is like outside of our fairytale world. My parents taught in Lithuania in the early nineties and I remember it was the same for them. They were making an ok wage while living in the country, but couldn't really afford...
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It's also good to have a record in case the student becomes dissatisfied. You can go back to a needs analysis a course plan that the two of you have agreed upon and discuss whether the student and teacher are living up to the plan.
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What is the game? Perhaps I could use it myself;-)
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I agree. In our school, we've done a lot of training on how to clarify needs and student commitment before we plan a course.
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Michelle Pøhls replied to Joanna K
I didn't see your previous comment. What type of institution do you teach in?
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
As I teach mostly 121, I get to know my students by just talking on the first day. I ask them why they need English and how they've studied English in the past. I also get them to decide what they are willing to commit to in order to learn English and what their attitude is to the language. As Jingli said, it's important to find out what experiences they have...
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@STYLIANIGRAMMATIKOU while studying for the Delta Module 1 this spring, I learned about the dogme method of teaching. Now when my husband accuses me of being lazy and not making lesson plans, I just tell him that I'm teaching dogme style ;-)
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Michelle Pøhls replied to Anila Hashwani
Based on my experience from 1 and 3 and what I've heard about 2, I think 3 would probably be the easiest. It's just researching and writing a thesis paper which you are guided through step-by-step. I didn't have time to work on it during the week, so I spent all day Saturdays and Sundays doing it.
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@suzannemordue I'm teaching an online class with a Danish woman who recently moved to Seattle. In between lessons, she does grammar exercises online and then she writes in her diary about what is happening in her new life, using the tenses she has been practicing. When we are together, we go through her entry and correct her mistakes. This way she learns about...
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@JoshuaUnderwood I never liked doing group work much as a student, but when I teach language, I use it all the time. The whole point of learning a language is to be able to communicate, so I hate it if my classroom is quiet. I like to have the students discuss whatever exercise they are doing. It also promotes peer learning.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
My best lessons are usually ones that I think up on the spot, so I can't really call them plans. I'm not very good at planning, hence enrolling in this course.
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Michelle Pøhls replied to Michelle Pøhls
@ChrisMo actually, I did 3 first, then 1. I've heard 2 is really tough, not to mention much more expensive.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
Thank you for such a wonderful course. I've already begun to use a lot of the recommended websites in both my f2f and online courses. I just have one question about the upgrade. Does that only give us access to the material which was taught, or are all of the comments also available? I find I've learned just as much from my classmates here as from you two...
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
As I'm hoping to relocate soon, I've joined different fb groups of teachers or expats in different cities I'm interested in checking out. Some of them are quite good, but there are also a lot of haters who are very critical of anything a teacher posts. I find that very unfortunate.
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I mentioned in an earlier comment the peer-to-peer evaluation we did at our school. We observed each other's classes and then gave feedback regarding specific issues that the teacher had asked to be observed. This could also work online. In a Zoom session, a third party can be a blind participant. You would, of course, tell the students that you were being...
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That's a great idea depending on the student's cultural background. In some cultures, it would be unthinkable for the student to criticize the teacher in any way.
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Michelle Pøhls replied to Michelle Pøhls
@SPJinks definitely, especially if we are working with a specific grammar issue, e.g. verb tenses, but also with phrases that are direct translations from the student's own language. They may not know the correct phrase, but when they read out loud what they've written, they can hear that something isn't quite right.
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Interesting. Thank you.
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Sam mentioned LinkedIn, which I had kind of forgotten about. They have a group called ELT Professionals which I enjoyed following but haven't looked at for some time. I think I'll get back to that.
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Looks great, thanks. In our school, we did a program of peer-to-peer observation and feedback. It was extremely useful. Before the sessions, the teacher being observed set the parameters for the behaviors she wanted feedback on. The observer was only allowed to comment on those specific areas and was not allowed to give advice. We worked in teams of three, so...
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I definitely agree. I'm in the same position. I've been teaching more-or-less the same way for 20 years. Now I'm working towards a Delta Diploma, and what I've learned from that, along with the information from this course, has brought my teaching to a whole new level.
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I'm not sure I understood it that way. Doesn't the student also have to buy the coursebook?
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Michelle Pøhls made a comment
I think I might go with Test your English or one of the others mentioned in the comments and then do an online interview to test oral skills and determine needs.
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Michelle Pøhls replied to Joanna Wilson
I use this too to test productive skills, but I like the idea of some of the tests here to test receptive skills and grammar.
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Michelle Pøhls replied to Catherine Fisher
I think I would go that way too.
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Michelle Pøhls replied to Matt Bury
Interesting. Thanks for sharing.
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Michelle Pøhls replied to SIMON FERGUSON
Good point. When I do TOEFL preparation I use a Cambridge book that has diagnostic tests which then refer the students to the areas in the book that they should practice.
Which grammar book was it? I'm pretty sure I have a copy of a Swan grammar book somewhere. I may have to dig it up and review it.
