Thomas Brock, our resident travelling English teacher has been working hard recently on creating his very first course and he is going to tell you all about his plans for future courses. Read, learn some new vocabulary, and practise English!
Vocabulary List
Rewarding: making you feel satisfied that you have done something important or useful, or done something well.
Intricate: with many complicated details that make something difficult to understand.
Dense: containing a lot of matter in a small space.
Technical: relating to the knowledge and methods of a particular subject.
Opaque: preventing light from travelling through, and therefore not transparent – writing or speech is difficult to understand.
Accessible: able to be reached or easily obtained or understood.
Obsure: not known to many people.
I recently started a course.
You may have noticed that last week there was no blog entry. That’s because I have been busy with my the start of my first ever English course!
This course is all about poetry.
I first thought of the idea to teach an English course based on poetry when talking with one of my regular students. We talked about reading poetry, how it can be challenging but rewarding. It is a great source of advanced vocabulary and intricate language. Whilst at the same time it can be dense, technical, and opaque.
To add to the troubles, a lot of resources that help us to understand poetry in English are made for native English speakers, and so they themselves use advanced language and difficult concepts. I wanted to make poetry accessible to English learners.
But why teach English through a difficult and obscure subject?
Well the underlying idea was to give my students an interesting and entertaining experience using their English language ability.
Poetry can be fun.
Reading isn’t just something we do to improve our language ability. We read to entertain ourselves, to wonder and imagine, to learn, to lose ourselves. We can find joy in interesting language, in carefully chosen words and masterfully crafted sentences. In reading we can experience emotions. Literature is interesting and entertaining.
However, poetry is not the only interesting and entertaining thing that there is. What’s more is that poetry is not the only thing that interests me. I have a number of topics that I enjoy learning about and that I think my students will too. And so, I will be making and teaching more courses in the future.
I will certainly offer more literature courses, but I have ideas for courses in history, philosophy, and culture. I also want to teach courses based on skills in English, such as writing and communication. Especially in a work setting, covering skills such as presentations, meetings, interviews, public speaking, and emails. – all useful stuff.
I myself enjoy writing.
Writing is a skill I would like to teach more, and courses are a great way to do that. I plan to offer a number of writing courses for students with different writing needs and interests.
If you are looking to improve your English writing ability then I teach 1 to 1 English classes where we work on whatever skills you need to improve. Including writing!
Book a Trial Lesson to Get Started
Find more onformation about my courses on my website!
Have you ever taken an online course?
Would you take an online course in English?
What kinds of courses would you like to see offered in the future?
