He was my professor and I can reassure you that his class was the best english class I ever had.

Can uh tell me that tips which he share uh during class time plz if uh do ..

Where are uh from

I can imagine ur good times... His narratives are beautiful

@Viviane Martins sorry for the late reply. Can you please send your email?

This is gold .... thanks so much for inspire all of us.

@leiber jesus posligua de la cruz ooo

Hello Alejo!! What a nice surprise to see you here...just like I am 😂 you know...what he says is exactly what I think and try to do with my students, I simply loved his speech!! By the way I just bought your two books and they are amazing!! I was doing something very similar to your second book and when I started reading it I thought that you and me...teaching together...think about it 😉😂

He wrote a book y'all, called A Book For Amaia

(Hjärta)

Clearly

This is exactly how I teach English, for the same reasons - I want my students to be able to use and enjoy the language, not just pass an exam! Roberto explains it so well, and his passion shines through. Love it. :-)

So do I

Does this work for all grades 3rd grade , 4th grade , 5th grade ??

@Johnny Barrera Ignore the books! Get back to them when you're students are ready.

What if my student doesn't care about anything? He has just his work and his son and doesn't care about what is happening in our country moreover in the world? He doesn't have general overview and no passion for anything. He is studying English only because they told him to at work. I am really trying to initiate some debate based on a video we've just saw or an article we've just read, but he is cold as a stone. Nothing. I guess in his case this method will not apply on him. ATM I am teaching him only business English - meetings, presentations, useful phrases, etc. That is the maximum I can do.

how about begginers?

As a newbie teacher I sometimes feel really anxious about teaching my students the correct form that I neglect what they want to express. This was really eye-opening, thank you so much.

This is one of the most inspiring talks I've ever watched. Thanks a million professor Guzman for sharing your experience on here.. hats off!

Thank you Shaban for your kind words...

Wow!!..............

It's OK to make mistakes. The mistakes I make as an advanced speaker have nothing to do with those I made when I was a beginner or an intermediate learner. Besides, I now intuitively know that something is not right with some sentence, even if I can't detect the mistake immediately. Sometimes, I even correct mistakes to native speakers, teachers, and advanced speakers like me. I find this quite impressive and this has encouraged me further to continue practising my English. Thanks for the talk.

@Worri not everyone uses American spelling 💀

@Nugihan Deniz I like reading fairy tale for children.I believe it is the best way for learning .If you want,we can speak each other for improving our skills.

​@Lenka Višnićh If you don't mind me asking, what kind of books did you read to improve your English?

@Lenka Višnićh slow progress is progress. Also, you need to practice speaking to improve. Have someone discuss something with you, like a news article.

practicing*

all teachers should use content-based teaching methods. great point

This is harder with students who know nothing of the language and are just starting out, but it is still doable.

content based emerged with communication ..

Kannada's itihasa

I think the most effective part of this method is the fact that it's meaning-making. Meaning-making has been shown to be a highly effective method of motivating students to learn a language, and he seems to be utilizing that aspect of language learning very effectively.

This is information that soooooo many people need to hear right now. It doesn't matter whether they're English Language Learners or not. We are all lifelong learners. This teacher does a great job of explaining how to speak in public even when expressing differing ideas. He's amazing!

Outstanding speech, thank you Professor

A really inspiring speech for a beginning English teacher like me who's looking to improve my ways of teaching for those who are serious about learning and growing. Changing how students learn is definitely harder than teaching them the skills and knowledge itself but once they understand how to learn more effectively and how to apply it to anything they're hoping to learn about rather than focus on the knowledge itself, that changes the way they look at the world and knowledge. It's beyond teaching a language.

"Ask questions, always questions" I found my best students are always the ones who ask many questions, as well as the ones being very confident in their learning, not being afraid of mistakes and always keep on going. I am on my way to change the way I teach French here in Taiwan. I am also pretty frustrated of the traditional way. From what I observed when I learnt language myself, and also in my students or polyglots, the traditional method is not efficient. Students should "dive into the language" and the teacher is there to guide them and give them the keys to understand how other people communicate....not the grammar. Thank you very much for your talk!! Muchas Gracias!

I remember my french teacher (a non native speaker) the first lessons he gave us was how to pronounce the french words(by the way in spanish is similar, you learn a few rules and you can pronounce decently most of the spanish language), we used to study with books without dialogs just the characters in given situations. The other common tool he employed a lot was repetition: "Répétéz avec moi" and with our participation from day one we had to open up our mouths and say the sentences aloud(when you heard "et vous monsieur" it was your turn to repeat. I must say we learned a lot of grammar without knowing it and without the formal study of grammar. At the same time we had english with native speakers with traditional methods. I was able to have a talk with french speakers at a basic level and my english skills were far, far from that. Je pense que l'apprentissage d'une lange étrangère c'est une aventure où nous sommes hereux d'être invités, à bientôt

Wonderful  insight Marion. Thank you for sharing your experiences as an educator. We are all in a very real sense students even if we happen to be teachers.

Marion Batard I thought I have written me any question. baychance mistakes then what can I do. I am indian men be you talk Indians is not good. but mail problem I understand some word English now a days talk to speaking very impossible. thank you for your teaching sentence.

Well I am an English teacher too and found this man greatly inspirational as a teacher. Do not feel you learning a language rather you are living the language 😊

Amazing talk! I tutor in ESL online and there is so much that I've learned and can use to help my students.

"Specificity entails responsibility. " Super on point.

He reminds me of my high school Spanish teacher. She introduced us the history, arts, culture and philosophy.

Professor Roberto Guzman, I've watched your talk repeatedly and the more I do it, the more interesting I find it. You seem to be the kind of teacher who has devoted a lot of time to thinking and trying to figure out how to teach better. You remind me of the teacher I will become in some years. Thank you professor.

Definitely one of the best TEDx talks I've seen, thank you for sharing your ideas. As I prepare to teach overseas this gives me extra motivation and a semblance of confidence :)

Thank you sir! That was fantastic and so important!!! This is all a process, and we have to develop and change in order to learn well.

It is really a great talk and many things can be learnt from it, however, when we speak about English teaching we always have to keep in mind students´ age and the level of English that they already have... This kind of approach can't be applied all across the different groups.Based on my observations and experience, I firmly believe that language learning depends mainly on the attitude - in Europe we still have very academic approach to language learning and great results among young people speaking not one but 2 or 3 foreign languages... but in American continent/s people are much more behind with second language acquisition/learning, because the students here (especially in Latin America) have unreal expectations that teachers are going to teach them... in addition, they do not read, and have little interest in other cultures (huge drawback in foreign language learning). Language can't be taught - it has to be learnt. People find the way to express themselves when they have something to say. If a person is short of expression in his/her native language, it is hardly possible to make him/her speak in a foreign one. Nevertheless, I do agree that Mr. Guzman in this talk made a clear point that the teacher may contribute to that learning by setting up an adequate environment.

@Jenita Lawal Environment is key for example if only they acquire what they teach and for example at home they don't speak English at home only in the classroom they are only limited to the classroom they will struggle to learn of fhey don't go back at home and enrich their vocabulary how will they learn

Very interesting point. May I ask, where do you currently teach? I am studying International Education and how culture or environment can influence learning. My experience is with the US and Mexico.

Awesome!!! I had been a teacher for some time and I applied some of this and the result is amazing!

love him!! I learned english by not learning English, to find that this is an actual technique used by this professor was so cool! this was so eye-opening for me

I teach English with communicative method..İt works.

This is one of the best presentations I've ever seen in TEDx

One of the best ted talks I've seen, very inspiring and as a teacher of English myself, (starting today!!) I'll definitely use your method, I couldn't agree more! Thank you Roberto Guzman.

I feel as though I'm listening to myself. I'm so happy this exists and that there are teachers out there with whom I can agree with completely. Keep up this excellent work!

No, thank you.  I feel honor to have the opportunity to listen to you.  I take with me a valuable lesson and great advise in my pursuit to teach English.  Gracias Profesor

@lifeismeaningful Hi professor, I volunteered at a small town in Panama. A group of Peace Corps members in the area asked for my help. It is very interesting as I get a comment from you; and I just enrolled in a Coursera TESOL course from Arizona State University....

Regina hi do you teach English to adults or primary school learners?

This has inspired me to open my own English academy in my country. Thanks for the push I sorely needed.

Wow this is a really interesting Ted Talk! I’ve taught both English and Spanish and I’m constantly trying to find ways to engage students beyond the surface grammatical level. My question would be: how can we apply his model to ground zero level learners with barely enough language to introduce themselves?

"We never use textbooks". Such soothing words.

Wonderful talk! I wish so very nuch that he were my teacher. His priorities are correct, and not even touched on in many classrooms, even with kind and helpful teachers, because these skills aren't even on school districts' radar. Let us all together go to school board meetings and advocate (in a collegial spirit) for the fostering of these skills.

I have been teaching English for four months now and this was definitely an enlightening talk. I have been trying to get the students out of their shells, to talk more, to have conversations with them. I often take TED Ed videos to the classes for them to have a little debate, but it's very hard to get them to come out, but when it finally happens, it reminds me of why I love my job, and why I shouldn't give up on my students, because they and I know they can.

I felt inspired just listening to him. His passion for language and learning for his approach. My favorite is sticking to the content instead of insulting. People get so side tracked at times and start making it personal. I don't know why it has to get to that point and can't just stay on the topic at hand. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him speak.

This is the best way to teach! Thank you, Roberto, for opening doors for teachers, too! Muchas gracias!

After watching this video I realized I'm going in the right direction. I wish every educator thought this way, we would have so many English speakers around the world! Thank you for that!

This is very inspirational. Thank you very much Professor Guzman for your being a guide, a coach, a light, ... to the students. We have been discussing similar concepts, ideas, methods within our Facebook group. Our topic is about STEM Education and Entrepreneurship but it occurs to me that the process of learning/teaching is regardless of the topic under consideration, so what you assert here can really be applicable to many more fields than anyone can imagine. Thanks a lot again.

I only teach small groups (and prefer one-on-one), but I have my students answer 3-4 questions for homework. I feel it allows them that chance to get "como se dice" out. The next day, they turn in their written answers, but then we talk about those exact same questions in class and opening up conversation. I really like Mr. Guzman's idea of using current events; I typically use personal experiences (ex: "Tell me how you played your favorite childhood game") because I feel that it's more vocabulary you might use when first getting to know someone. Politics and current issues can be heated topics, but childhood games (example) is something we can all relate to fondly. "Oh, yeah? We had a game that was similar to that! It was called ________, but it was a bit different because you did _________ instead of ________."

Wow, this guy is so inspiring I feel like I'd like to go back to teaching! Passionate teachers are the cornerstone of a country that wants its citizens to evolve as human beings, learn critical thinking and not just become taxpayers.

I look forward to one day traveling the world and using my skills to build bridges between myself and people of all languages. This video was really encouraging.

Excelente!!! Ahora mismo, as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I am learning Spanish in a foreign country and gearing up to teach English for the first time in my life. This talk is a true inspirationl. Muchas gracias!

Roberto Guzman, I absolutely love your talks and your intelligent, tender spirit. I am going to be starting school in the Spring, and I aim to get a degree in ESL. You inspire me to no end.

janejuliet

+Robert Guzman :::: Me siento muy feliz y agradecida de conocerle a traves de esta via. Your message comes from a kind heart full of wisdom and good humor. Los mejores estan en TED! :) Gracias por su valiosa contribucion a la prioritaria area que es la Educacion, fundamental para una sociedad que represente la conciencia del nuevo mundo, el nuevo ser humano, esto desde los valores que exalta Ud en este metodo, como es el Pensamiento Critico ejercitando el Razonamiento por sobre las ofensas para erradicar la maldad que de adultos se convierte en soberbia desde la ignorancia. Yo tambien me estoy formando como Profesora, en Idiomas, tanto Español como el Ingles. Le estare escribiendo, seria un honor estar en contacto con ud, ya lo tomo como mi mntor y seguire sus recomendacions. Somos los humanos mas que prejucio, somos contenido no forma. Gracias maestro, gran legado :) Saludos con alta estima desde Venezuela.

Robert Guzman Robert Guzman Thank for answer my message..I saw Sugata M. videos, OMG!!! he is incredible and he ideas are perfects (You never know is you never tray). I'm goin to put in practice you advice and thanks for them.

+Elia Deida thank you writing. Communication must be meaningful to the language learner. Identify areas in which you are interested in. Explore them for the sake of their content not their form. As you do this more and more you will acquire vocabulary, grammar and content. Find others that share your same interests and are equally motivated. Learning will be inevitable. Explore Sugata Mitra's wonderful research in this are. His talks are at TED and YouTube. Tell me what you think.

I have been learning English for more than one year and when I started I made many mistakes and until now I do make mistakes but the mistakes are not the same I used to make mistakes about the easiest grammar now I use them correctly and that`s the most important thing ! my English is increasing day by day

The question is, which method is correct?

Great speech! So much valuable advice in a short video.

What a great talk--so holistic even though it's supposed to be about learning English, it covers a lot of education!

"Fear people who fear questions" this should apply to all things in the dimension.

This is what we need in every language school! Thank you so much professor, I love your teaching style. I'd love to be your student!

I had some ideas about effective teaching, but you made an amazing method because students want to talk, give their opinions and usually It doesn't happen in the classroom. Thank you for your idea, I am going to follow your steps and see what it happens.

Damn, Roberto, I've actually been teaching like you for the last year. I think it's because I was never educated as an english teacher, my education was in literature. So I wanted to aim my english classes towards that sort of literature education rather than grammar. This was basically my instinct from my first month as a high school teacher and I thought I was doing something wrong because I was not teaching grammar or using textbooks, and also because well, I didn't have teaching education and this is my first year on the job. Listening to this talk by an experienced teacher who reached the same conclussions as me reassures me on the path I want to continue as a teacher.

Teaching grammar is important too. Roberto explains that his students already knew a lot of grammar.

OMG!!! I was your student too!! I loved your class. Even though I already knew how to speak and write English, I loved being in your class because I learned how to improve reading and writing skills. I still remember that I was going to travel to NY to visit my fiancée at that time, and you kept recommending me to go see the Play: The Capeman. Ironically, I am currently a Spanish teacher at a Middle school in New Jersey. I moved to NJ shortly after I graduated in 2002 and I've been here since. It is such a great pleasure being able to listen to your voice again and being able to see this video because you still show the same passion towards teaching that you had back then when I was your student. You are a true inspiration to me!!! I wish that I show the same passion towards teaching in the future. I would like to teach Spanish without Teaching Spanish      -Jackie Valle (López-Acevedo)

@Robert Guzman this is so wholesome ;.;

Jackeline Valle nice to hear from you and know you're doing well. If you ever come to PR look me up.

I am a language teacher and I totally agree with Roberto. In my class, I emphasize that linguistic competence is secondary to communicative competence.

It depends highly on the purpose of language learning. If the purpose is academic, the form and linguistic competence are very important. If your students only want to use English for travelling purpose... fine, you may focus mainly on the oral communication.

Thanks a lot for the great ideas and hints which can be applied not only in teaching but in life generally 🙏🍀👍

Probably the Best Ever presentation I ever seen on How to Teach... anything, to anyone. It really make me to whish having Roberto Guzman as my teacher.

Thank you Roberto for this wonderful lecture. I hope that every teacher of a second language will learn and internalize your approach. I am teaching Hebrew as a second language and I definitely took home many of your ideas and thoughts. Thank you!!

great talk full of passion and warm language . i m so impressed . really that is the way how any learner of any language can taste its wonderful texture .... speaking and being engaged in communication without any fear or anxiaty.

Thanks so much for this! Some of my favourite classes to teach are things like presentations and public speaking, or academic writing to second language learners where students focus on other things besides English but they pick up a lot of English in the process!

This was an inspiring speech.Thank you.I can relate very much,I try to emphasize the same points in my classes, do something quite similar with my students,taking life experience and their interests as basis.Unfortunately,I'm not as successful in this field yet.But hearing you gives me hope to push on.)

When the teacher does his job with love... this is creativity

As a 4th grade teacher, I took his approach (without knowing of Roberto Guzmán or having watched this video) 3 years ago with a student from México. It works. Immersion into the language with cooperative learning, casual conversation and inclusion into the school’s culture.

This is one of the best ted talks that I've seen. Gracias sr. Roberto

Inspiring! I always tell my students same thing:" l just give you the keys that open the world for you"..they go and open them and it won't be my job any more..Great speech!

Had I seen it right away, it would have been a great birthday gift :) Roberto Guzman, thank you for this talk, I wish you had been my ESL teacher back in the 90s. Right now, I teach English too and I'm really thankful for this inspiration.

Irina, all English teachers should share their experiences and create a new method to make English teaching perfect.

Amazing! estaba buscando algo para mejorar mis clases y encontré este video, me ha cambiado mi perspectiva de la enseñanza. Gracias :)

This is a life changing speech that everyone whether you are a student or a teacher should study this deep, logical and educational talk. Content is more important than the form. Every language learner should keep this in mind.

Hi Roberto, I am a qualified English teacher in the UK. I stopped teaching in mainstream immediately after completing my training, not as a result of bad behaviour, not as a result of hours of preparation and marking before and after school, on holidays, on the weekends, Not because the school I worked in was mismanaged or because the teachers were apathetic. (I loved and still loved my training school!) I stopped teaching in main stream education because our government decided that grammar, above all else, (particularly learning grammar terms and identifying them) was, above all, THE most important part of the English curriculum. It was depressing and upsetting to watch students who were, had been, and had the potential to be, incredible thinkers, debaters, philosophers, writers, and so on, become apathetic, bored, and disinterested in my lessons. I empathised - because I was too. I had a teacher during secondary school who behaved and taught in ways that you do - she taught us correct use of grammar, syntax, sentence style, form etc. through newspaper articles and interesting novels, poetry and plays. I did not know that I was learning grammar and all of the skills required for the language paper until, a month before the exam, I rushed to her office in a panic, telling her WE DID NOT PRACTISE anything for any of the language papers. I had interrupted her as she was writing an important paper. Instead of shouting at me, or berating me, she calmly raised one eyebrow and said 'didn't we?' We looked through a few past papers and the mark scheme and I realised that I had been learning language while learning literature, in much the same way as you are teaching expression and voice and confidence, while quietly teaching all of the 'language' parts in the background. I would love to say that I could be that teacher, I wanted so desperately to be that teacher, I believe that I am to the number of students I currently teach. I hope that the next government senses the mistakes of today and reverts back to understanding that great writing, speaking, and thinking are so much more important than knowing the difference between a noun and a pronoun. That will come, and if it does not for some, who cares!

What country are you in?

... so darn interesting

Loved the dish and proofread book metaphors, so true! This is a great method, everybody should take inspiration from teaching this way, it's way more effective :)

One of the biggest TED talks ever. I agree, deep, clear, and meaningful thinking with a bit of humor, and fun with some intermittent words in Spanish. It would have been a dream to attend an English course with Roberto Guzman.

This TedTalk is brilliant! I’m an English Language&Literature graduate and I can say that I would have loved this kind of professor! His approach to language is amazing. He also uses some Psychology concepts and strategies and apply them to teaching English. I admire him and his passion for English language. ♥️ Thank you for sharing your knowledge! 🙏

Why hadn't I seen this before? This is truly inspiring! I'm going to try and apply this approach! Thank you, I mean THANK YOU!! 👍🏼

This is one of the best TED talks I have viewed. Mathematics is a language too. Mathematics should be taught this way.

@Loreana Lankister Mathematics is fundamentally about patterns, describing and predicting them. Puzzles are an equivalent to newspaper articles for example. Exercising the ability to see patterns. The puzzles can be in any medium. Word, picture, sound, etc.. Games are another example. Recognizing patterns and developing strategies. Prediction.

How would mathematics be taught in this way? In English there are newspapers and articles so what would be the equivalent for math? Genuinely curious because I teach math as well

I absolutely agree with the inclusion of a b.s. detctor for students. The emphasis on analyzing, questioning, and investigating is something that should be a bigger part of educating students to create a smarter society, ready to defend against a sea of flawed information surrounding the world. Plus upon analyzing information in English, students can have an easier time using English once they are trained in their expressions of thought and analysis.

Genial!! So glad I've just found this video. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with the world, Roberto Guzman! 👌👍

What a perfect speech teacher!! I love the way you teach and I try to do the same with my students...is there anyway to contact you to exchange ideas? I’d love to do it!! Thanks! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

This is a great video. I teach at a school in Korea and my boss asked me to put together a 1 month-long extra course for the adults. I was already doing it on this model. Now I know this can work with older children, too.

Mr Guzman! No sé si me lea algún día, pero le comento. Soy maestra de inglés, acabo de empezar mi carrera, tengo solo 23 años. A veces me sentía igual que como usted lo describe, "incómoda" por el hecho de que algunos alumnos no quieren participar. Pero usted me ha dado herramientas valiosas en su TED Talk para aplicar como maestra. Muchísimas gracias! Le agradezco mucho. Espero no solo mejorar yo cómo maestra, sino que mis alumnos mejoren en el hábito de preguntar y cuestionar. Gracias!

Excellent...I love the way he thinks. Mandatory viewing for all educators, tutors and instructors.

Wow. This is so well explained. Thank you sharing your methods.

You are the inspirational teacher, if we are lucky enough to have teach us, that triggers our curiosity and a lifelong desire to learn and enjoy it for our whole life. Thanks for this, it's great that teachers like yourself keep coming through every generation to kick start our kids to a 'life well lived'.

Roberto Guzmán, me recuerdas a mi profesor de inglés en la secundaria. Creo que tú y él se llevarían muy bien, ¡jaja! Él también nos hacía debatir en inglés y veíamos muchas películas. Yo me hice muy amiga de él. ¡Gracias por la plática! Como maestra en entrenamiento, te agradezco mucho esto. :)

Thanks professor Guzmán. I,'m an English teacher myself, I want My students feel the pasión I feel for the languages AND Learn how to use it critically. Love your talk.

I'm truly inspired. Thank you for incredible talk Mr. Roberto.

One of the BEST ted talks ever. Literally worth every second. Thanks for sharing such enlightening knowledge.

The God on your profile, he's/she's cute ✨.

Great talk, he gives a very important message. 'I want my students know how to cook, not just how to read a recipe book.'

A great teacher! Thank you for teaching people not just English, but to think and ask!!

Proud of Roberto, one of my favorite professors!

Thank you Prof. Roberto for this inspiring & informative speech.

One of the best college professors I've ever had

Thank you so much for speaking out! I have been thinking about many of these questions for a long time now. I, too, try to integrate philosophical thinking (questioning thinking) into my lessons. What I have found is that students have such great ideas and so many intersting questions that in the end it is me who is taught!

Se nota que es el mejor profesor de ingles del mundo... Con la facilidad que habla y lo bien que habla.

Thank you so much to you , Professor! Your closing words I will keep in mind " i want to my students to learn how to cook, not to learn how to read a book" will be memorized for ever!

I’’ve been a teacher for more than 20 years, have worked in many parts of the world. And while I agree that content is fundamental, he doesn’t tell us how he would teach different levels, different nationalities and age groups. Clearly one can’t expect the same output from a beginner as one would from a more advanced student. And there are great many other questions that need to be answered, but I won’t go into them now. Ironically he didn’t ask these questions and wasn’t specific enough as to the exact step by step process that would take place in the classroom. Furthermore, if a teacher is working with students who have paid for the course and demand to be taught grammar more than anything else, the teacher has a problem. The client is always right and I can’t go against the school, which is a business more than an educational institution, that has a specific curriculum as to how English should be taught. I’ve had many complaints that I don’t teach enough grammar. At the end of the day, I have to keep my job. It’s sad but true.

I do agree.English teachers must create their own style or adapt it to students.

What you are saying in the first paragraph wasn't the topic of the presentation. Thet opic was about teaching language through content. For the second paragraph, I agree that teachers are not left with the ideal context for teaching so there has to be an agreement between student - teacher - organization of the teaching process. If a student comes and says he wants to only learn grammar (form), then the teacher must establish that hemust learn the language, and that grammar is just a part of it. I agree that form must go after content in this case, and that the student has to understand this sequence in order to get expectations right. The customer is always right is a really old term that, while it applies to some cases, is a simplification. The customer knows he has a problem that needs solution(s), and is the job of the tutor to recognize the problem and come up with a solution. Sometimes the customer thinks they have the answer to their question, but it's usually not the case.

It is so hard to teach in an environment where you're reminded that you are paid for a service and you have to give what they exactly ask of you. Teachers are degraded when they're asked to fulfill all the expectations of the school, parents and students. They should only be concerned with the quality of education.

I agree with his opinions, but I also understand your situation. In his case, he mentioned his students didn't have problems with English exams, but they have problem taking in English. Thus, he found a solution- teaching english without teaching English. Now, in your case, your students' learning goal is grammar, which is good for exams. But why do you say " I’ve had many complaints that I don’t teach enough grammar"?

What a beautiful message! Thank you professor!

This man is a freaking genius... Wish I could take this class

Ili Rueda where are you from?

His*

Roberto, eres un genio man!!! me has inspirado!!

Content before form - what great advice for teaching! Gracias profesor!

Great presentation! I am currently teaching ESL in China to Masters students in education. I have showed and discuss this TED talk with my students and some of them were absolutely thrilled. However, some of them didn't understand parts of it and asked me if it is possible to find Mandarin Subtitles. I am assuming not but If anybody has is bilingual and could possibly produce this translation I would be eternally grateful for it. I would even be willing to pay for the service Thanks

Jonoboyle English teacher and aspiring writer You are so right in experience with Chinese students. Im in China as well and I go through yhe same thing. However, I did get some ideas from both the video and you. Thank you.

Antoine Zaharia I'm in china too. Critical thinking I use...basic Socratic method of the west. Doesn't wash too easily in China as they are conditioned out of holding opinion on many topics as disagreement is culturally unacceptable, generally it means you must choose a topic which is acceptably controversial, usually involving the rules around Chinese society. You know what I mean...if you challenge the accepted rhetoric of the country you're going to have great responses or fuming anger. Lighter topics work but I find them boring, marriage or some other bull. However they will listen to you go through a global or other topic, as a group with a couple who may join if you know what I mean so from cultural political and human issues...I took a class through the entire western development to try to enlighten them as to why we are so controversial and argumentative...compare Socrates to confucious etc. you'll have them mesmerized. I push them to discuss in Chinese as a group before pushing a volunteer to give me the run down on the opinions. It tends to be slow and passive all the same. Comparing media is cool for them or singers bla bla. Chinese schooling is not critical for reasons of safety by all participants, do be aware of their modern history. I was shocked when discussing female equality for example, the intrigued were silent because the norm is harsh on such values...smoking or mentioning menstruation. I learned the hard way...I like his constructive approach shame we could see his notes they were great. I'll take a process into next semester. Too often to the poor sods are exhausted, they really appreciate being entertained so if it turns dry I'll discuss the topic and fight against a video resource I might use for example. I once returned from break to find the whole lot asleep so pitiful I didn't wake them up and just waited;) gotta get into the mind of the Chinese for sure to bring out language, they have little interest in life outside of this place, I kind of agree too these days, it's peaceful. To translate his talk turn on the subtitles. Make notes of his gist and run it through translate then hand out a script to each. It'll be restricted concise and encourage them to focus on his concepts and grammar. How to translate t que t que i don't know. Hehehe. What a inspirational talk indeed. 加油

I hope you can find that translator you need. Let me know what happens. I would be honored to have the chance of reaching a wider audience. China is just about as big an audience as anyone can dream of. Gracias...

Hi! Greetings of the day!!! I've really enjoyed listening to you, Mr. Robert Guzman. I, myself, am in this Noble profession of teaching since 1984 and I've just now realized how similar our pattern of thinking and delivering is! The moment I started listening to the talk, I found out that I'm there with you. There are many more points to be discussed but, due to time constraint, I think you focused on some of the important relevant points on teaching a language. You're doing a GREAT job and I'm very PROUD of YOU, Mr. Guzman. Hats off to You.

Great presentation! Striving for the same things in my classroom too! :D

Amazing! Richly resonant with my experience and conviction too. Thank you for sharing

So well-said! What an inspiration.

Perfect. I'm glad I watched this video as I am an English teacher as well. Thank you.

This is fantastic stuff! I took notes on this lecture, so now I have a better method of tutoring english to my Finnish ESL students.

This is great, I've done this practice in my classes and it worked really well