By: Carlos Gontow
People like to imitate others. Imitating is fun. When we were kids, we used to dress up as adults and imitate their way of speaking. We imitated our parents, grandparents and other people around us.
As we grew up, we learned how to imitate other people. We had fun imitating people’s accents. We had fun imitating our favorite singers and bands.
Have you seen the video clip “Single Ladies” with Beyoncé? After the video was released, lots of people imitated it and posted the videos online. Famous people, ordinary people, you name it, many people gave it a shot.
Here are just a few of them, but you can find more online.
Single Ladies (original, with Beyoncé)
Joe Jonas, from the Jonas Brothers:
Single Ladies on “Glee”:
Even Neymar, Robinho and Ganso gave it a try on this TV commercial:
Everybody likes to imitate! We imitate the hair of our favorite celebrities, we try to imitate the way our favorite soccer players play. We imitate the way politicians speak.
Imitating is a great way to learn. Watch my daughter Bruna learning how to sing. She learns by imitating me.
What does that have to do with teaching English? Well, everything. Imitating is a great learning tool. As English teachers, I think it’s important that we encourage our students to imitate.
Speaking English is not just saying words in English. The melody of the language is important, too. Encourage your students to imitate the speakers they hear in their CDs. Imitating the pronunciation and the intonation is great to speak English better.
Encourage your student to imitate you. After all, you’re also a role model for them.
Encourage them to do it in class and outside the class. Tell them to imitate the way actors speak in the movies and TV shows they watch. It’s very helpful and it’s also great fun.
Encourage them to do it in class and outside the class. Tell them to imitate the way actors speak in the movies and TV shows they watch. It’s very helpful and it’s also great fun.
And I’m not talking just about pronunciation and intonation. It’s a good idea to imitate expressions and phrases they hear. Tell them to repeat the sentences they hear. At first, they will just imitate what they see and hear, but with time those expressions will be incorporated into their vocabulary and will help them to speak English better. When they have to speak English in a real situation the words will come to them naturally. And then they won’t be imitating anymore. They will be really speaking English.
Carlos Gontow is an English teacher, actor and teacher trainer. He has had about 25 years of experience teaching children, teenagers and adults. He’s involved with teaching English through theater, games and songs. He’s the author of the books “The Classroom is a Stage – 40 Short Plays for English Students” and “101 Dicas Para Você Aprender Inglês Com Sucesso,” both published by DISAL. He’s also the author of the blog “Dicas Para Aprender Inglês”
Once I was taking some students to Hopi Hari and I was playing Bingo with my students..suddenly one of them ( a seven year-old-boy)shouted in Portuguese:" Espera" and I immediately replied " in English" I expected him to say "Wait a moment" as we usually teach them to say in the classroom. However, he shouted without hesitation.."Wait for me! using the same intonation I use when I invite them to get out of the classroom to play a game and they start running…I was delighted…We do have to speak English with them as much as we could..some things are learnet just by being exposed.
Anna Silva http://www.considerasobreeducacao.blogspot.com