This has made me realise that knowing the rules is not always enough. I would like to help my students become more confident when speaking English, even when they are unsure about their grammar. For example, instead of only practising questions in a written exercise, I could ask them to interview each other about their interests or weekend plans.

However, I think one difficulty with CLT is that not everyone feels ready to speak, especially when they are afraid of making mistakes. I would start with short, guided conversations and gradually give students more freedom as their confidence grows.

I would also keep grammar explanations as part of my lessons. If I noticed the same mistakes during an activity, I would discuss them afterwards, so students could understand what went wrong without feeling interrupted or embarrassed.

One of the main limitations of this kind of procedure was its rigidity. It often seemed to focus on learning and memorising linguistic rules and information that could be used at a later stage, sometimes long after they had been introduced. Despite providing a solid foundation, it did not always make it easy to use the idiom spontaneously. Later, I had the opportunity to experience more immersive learning environments, where language became something to live and use - this encouraged a more communicative, practical approach.

If I were to learn a new language today, I would choose a combination of "structure and communication". I believe these are not separate stages or rigid blocks, instead I think that effective language learning requires flexibility, with structured practice, communication and task-based activities alternating and complementing one another according to learners' needs, goals and progress. In other words, a balance between learning about a language and actually using it. 

How do you manage this intercultural dialogue in classes where students come from cultures with vastly different norms regarding public self-disclosure or authority?

Hi Oriana,

In my experience as both a language learner and an educator, listening is almost universally the more challenging receptive skill to master, particularly when transitioning from controlled classroom settings to real-life communication.

Why Listening Presents Greater Challenges

While both skills require decoding meaning from input, reading provides learners with control over pace. Readers can pause, re-read complex syntactic structures, look up unfamiliar lexical items, or analyze punctuation.

Listening, by contrast, happens in real time:

• Fleeting Input & Cognitive Load: Acoustic input disappears instantly. Learners must process phonological features—such as connected speech, elision, and weak forms—simultaneously with lexical and syntactic meaning.

• Variability: Accents, speech rates, background noise, and informal registers create significant perceptual barriers that written text shields learners from.

• Access & Motivation: While reading materials (articles, books, graded readers) are easily accessible and allow for self-paced study, authentic listening materials (podcasts, casual conversations, movies) can easily overwhelm learners if not carefully scaffolded, sometimes dampening motivation.

  Effective Strategies to Overcome Listening Challenges

  1. Narrow Listening: Focus on multiple short recordings on the same topic to build thematic vocabulary and phonological familiarity.

  2. Dual-Input Practice (Subtitles to Transcripts): Start with target-language captions, move to listening while reading a transcript, and finish with audio-only listening.

  3. Focus on Micro-Skills: Explicitly teach phonological phenomena like linking, assimilation, and schwa sounds so learners recognize how words blend in fast speech.

  4. Interactive Listening Tasks: Shift from passive listening to active task-based listening (e.g., note-taking, predicting, summarizing) to build real-time comprehension habits.

article :https://tahricteaches.com/nn/classroom-management-strategies-esl/

The article highlights the importance of using non-verbal cues and consistent routines rather than relying solely on spoken instructions to manage an ESL/EFL classroom. Non-verbal attention signals—such as raising a hand until the class mirrors the gesture and goes silent, using rhythmic claps, or deploying visual timers—provide clear, immediate feedback without overwhelming students with auditory language input. I chose this strategy because in an EFL setting—particularly in mixed-ability classrooms—students can easily experience cognitive overload or anxiety when trying to parse long verbal instructions during transitions. By relying on non-verbal signals and predictable visual routines, the teacher lowers the affective filter and saves valuable instruction time. In my view, this approach establishes a calm, structured environment where learners always know what is expected of them, allowing them to save their cognitive energy for meaningful target language production rather than trying to decipher classroom logistics

Language awareness—the explicit knowledge about language and conscious perception of how it functions—plays a transformative role in learning, teaching, and intercultural communication.

For learners and teachers, language awareness bridges the gap between passive reception and active mastery. Rather than simply memorizing rules or vocabulary, an aware learner notices underlying patterns, subtle nuances, and stylistic variations. For educators, it enables precise feedback and empathetic instruction, as teachers can anticipate learners’ challenges by understanding how native and target language structures interact.

In communication and culture, language awareness fosters empathy and prevents misunderstandings. Language carries embedded cultural values, politeness strategies, and social hierarchies. Being attuned to pragmatic nuance helps us navigate diverse settings respectfully, recognizing how tone, word choice, and non-verbal cues vary across cultures.

Practical Tips for Improving Language Awareness

• Notice and Compare: When reading or listening, pay conscious attention to how something is expressed rather than just what is said. Compare target language structures with your native language to identify subtle shifts in meaning.

• Shadowing and Active Listening: Listen to podcasts, broadcasts, or audiobooks while paying deliberate attention to stress patterns, intonation, and connected speech.

• Keep a Language Journal: Record interesting phrases, collocations, or cultural expressions encountered in daily life, media, or books. Reflecting on why specific words were chosen deepens lexical and pragmatic insights.

• Engage with Diverse Media: Read literature, news, and idioms from various dialects and regions to broaden your sensitivity to stylistic choices and sociolinguistic context.

Ultimately, cultivating language awareness transforms us into more reflective communicators, empowering us to build stronger, more empathetic connections across linguistic and cultural boundaries.

Multilingualism: The benefits of using learners' (other) languages in the classroom - British Council, TeachingEnglish

The article explores the benefits of recognising and using the languages students already know in an EFL classroom. Rather than seeing students’ first language (L1) as an obstacle to learning English, it suggests that their existing linguistic knowledge can be a valuable resource. I find it particularly interesting as it introduces the concepts of code-switching and translanguaging, which offer different ways of understanding how learners can use more than one language to support their learning, encourage participation and help create a more inclusive learning environment. Code-switching refers to switching between languages during communication (a teacher could briefly use Italian to clarify a difficult point before returning to English). Translanguaging takes a broader approach, encouraging learners to share ideas and make connections between languages. 

Personally, I believe that students’ L1 can play a positive role in the EFL classroom, and I do not think that an English-only approach is always the most effective choice. Although exposure to the target language is essential, I believe that learning should also involve making connections with what students already know. Their first language is part of their linguistic knowledge, and I see no reason why it should always be excluded from the learning process. One aspect I find especially stimulating is the idea of code-switching. Briefly switching to Italian, for example, could be a useful teaching strategy, especially when explaining a difficult grammatical structure, clarifying an ambiguous word or checking whether beginners have understood an important instruction. Sometimes, a short explanation in L1 can save time and prevent confusion.

I also find the concept of translanguaging interesting because it goes beyond simply translating words. For example, students could discuss a difficult text in Italian, compare an English expression with its Italian equivalent and then summarise their ideas in English. In this way, L1 becomes a tool for thinking and learning rather than just a way of finding direct translations. It can also encourage collaboration, particularly among students who are not yet confident enough to express complex ideas entirely in English.

Of course, I would not encourage unlimited use of L1. If students constantly rely on Italian, they may end up not developing their listening skills fully, or they would not improve their fluency and learn to communicate effectuvely. I believe that the key is to use L1 purposefully, according to students’ needs, proficiency levels and the objectives of each activity. For this reason in my classroom I use English as the main language of communication while allowing some flexibility. With younger learners and adult beginners, I would be more willing to use Italian to clarify essential concepts or reduce unnecessary frustration. As students become more confident, I gradually encourage them to rely more on English, particularly during speaking activities, discussions and pair work.

To conclude, I believe that using L1 and maximising exposure to English are not necessarily opposing goals. What matters is not simply whether the first language is used, but how and why it is used. As teachers, we should aim to help students become confident and independent users of English, and sometimes drawing on their first language can be a useful step towards that goal.

Having experienced language learning in both ESL and EFL environments, the EFL context resonates most with my career goals.

My language journey was deeply shaped by an intensive ESL experience as a teenager during a study abroad trip to Malta, where I was immersed in daily English communication outside the traditional classroom. Today, teaching English at a liceo linguistico in Italy places me firmly in an EFL setting. Here, students have limited natural exposure to English in their daily lives, which makes creating authentic, highly engaging communicative opportunities essential. Understanding these contextual differences helps me design better scaffolded lessons and CLIL activities tailored to learners who lack constant immersion. I would love to hear how fellow peers adjust their pedagogical strategies when transitioning between ESL and EFL environments!

From my dual perspective as both a bilingual language learner and a secondary school teacher, I find listening to be inherently more challenging to master than reading.

While reading allows learners to process input at their own pace, re-read complex syntactic structures, and utilize textual cues, listening occurs in real time. Listeners must continuously decode acoustic signals, handle varied accents, cope with natural speech phenomena like connected speech and elision, and process content simultaneously without a "pause button." In real-life interactions, this temporal pressure often triggers high affective filters, particularly in lower-level learners who feel overwhelmed by authentic speech rates.