50 heart-to-heart Letters to Teachers
Author: Duy PES
https://www.facebook.com/ca.co.526/
PREMIER ENGLISH SCHOOL
PREFACE
‘As English teachers, only 30% of what we do is teaching the language, the remaining 70% is about something else.’ – Jan
This book dives into that 70%.
For a long time, what Jan – a colleague of mine – , said, remained one of the most mysterious things I've ever encountered in teaching English.
He's a very simple, down-to-earth and humble man.
Yet, whenever students see him, they literally jump for joy!
He has a kind of warm, laid-back aura that makes everyone feel like he can really understand, deeply listen and fully sympathize with anyone’s suffering.
Perhaps, that is one of his unique selling points.
He once said, ‘I value authenticity, if students are unhappy, I’ll sit with them, and even cry with them.
They don’t have to put on any fake smile when they learn with me, they only need to be themselves.
I’m more than happy to be the first person who takes them for who they really are.
I don’t judge! I listen and seek out ways to understand.’
Perhaps, that partly explains the 70% of the mysterious language-teaching method in Jan’s classes.
Back to my own life story. I used to work with a very depressing thought, depressing enough to knock me down every single day.
Even now, I can hardly imagine how I survived all those terrible days!
Here’s my disturbing thought:
Over a billion people around the world can speak English, so being able to speak this language is far from special.
Students can use ChatGPT to check their grammar and vocabulary,
AI can also help them do exercises, get them engaged in conversations and carefully provide writing corrections for them.
The space in which English teachers play their role has significantly been diminished!
What is left for us, as teachers?
..................................................
Every day, I went to work, haunted by the thought that everything I did in class would soon be replaced by AI.”
Just to let you know, I have two households to support, kids to bring up and a company to build.
I can’t just let AI take over my job!
So, I constantly thought about how I, as a teacher, would survive in the age of AI?
What could I do to offer real value to students?
With these haunting questions in mind, I started looking for answers.
I soon realized:
students’ writing is just the same: flawless in grammar and vocabulary, monotonous in tone and almost identical in content;
some students don’t even know how to interact, they almost never make eye contact when talking to me;
many sound very robotic and unnatural;
some even don’t know how to work in teams, actively getting engaged in debates;
when some lose motivation, they tend to give up quite easily;
some believe success comes overnight and AI can solve all problems for them!
…
Then I eventually realized, there’s a whole deep blue ocean of self-discovery and real-life learning teachers can help students with.
English is only a tool,
a vehicle, which should be constantly refined to the finest, to serve a higher purpose:
HELP STUDENTS GROW.
That realization gave me the courage to share my thoughts on Facebook often, because I believe there are also teachers out there, depressed and hopeless, having no clue about what the future of education would be like.
I just hazard a guess that the future of English education should be less about the technicality of learning a language,
but more about all the real-life applications of the language into our reality, thus improving our lives, shaping them and making them the dream lives we - language learners deserve to have.
AI doesn’t replace teachers; it only reminds us of what no machine can do —
to touch hearts,
awaken curiosity,
and guide students toward the mastery of not just a language, but of themselves.”
Link to the audiobook on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFHuK4upocw