text: Teacher Talk » 3 Things I Learned From a Dreadful Teacher
  Luckily for David Sedaris, his French teacher's comments–"Every day spent with you is like having a cesarean section" and "You exhaust me with your foolishness and reward my efforts with nothing but pain"–turned out to be motivating for him. Entertaining as it is, his story, as far as I know, presents a rare picture. Tags: Ela Newman, teaching methods
  Loved your blog post, Ela. We always read "Me Talk Pretty One Day" in my high intermediate EAP reading course. Students have a lot to share about what makes a teacher good or bad. You know what I really love? When the students get so comfortable that, as a class, we CAN laugh at each other's truly funny errors and no one feels bad. There is a lot of humor in learning a language, and it's great when students loosen up to see the humor, laugh at themselves, and move on. Thanks for a great read.
  I'm glad you enjoyed my post. It's great to know that "Me Talk Pretty One Day" is so popular in ESL courses. I use it in a writing class when we brainstorm ideas for our argumentative piece in which we defend or criticize the teaching methods that the French teacher seems to enjoy. I'm always curious to see what students' ideas are. Will they find anything positive about her approach? Will they share similar stories? To my surprise, some do appreciate one or two things about her. They point out the outcome, saying that in a way, she was inspiring enough to stir some genuine motivation in at least one student. As for humor in language learning, you are absolutely right. It is really something when students recognize and accept the fact that they are, in a way, playing with the language; they are experimenting. I also remind them that we make funny mistakes in our native lanuages. It's all part of life. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Maria!