Hello, my name is Iva. I volunteer in the project called “Eco Inclusion”. As part of my service, I teach Bulgarian language through English language to our two Turkish volunteers – Emine and Can.
A short introduction of me: I am a student in 12th grade at the Language school “Romain Rolland”. Of course, I love languages. So a took this challenge with so much hope in the heart.
I worked together with my fellow volunteer Silvana. From the very beginning we knew we should make a strategy plan. Bulgarian is considered a difficult language to learn. So we wanted to start slowly and not scare our leaners with complicated constructions and phrases. The good things were that our learners asked a lot of questions and were very diligent with their homework. But still, they struggled.
How did we approach the teaching?
At first, we gave them some basic vocabulary to accumulate. They also learnt new words from their everyday work at school. We didn’t focus too much on correct grammar at start – it is expected that they will make mistakes.
Through the process, we found out so many common words between Bulgarian and Turkish! So my next tip is – search for similarities! It is much easier for them to remember similar words.
And the last one is the most important in my opinion – make it enjoyable, make it a game! We did different role-play games, gave our learners tasks to do outside our classes, for example at the shop or at school. We used a lot of visual stimuli and challenged their minds all the time. After all, they did really well and even start using some phrases in their everyday life here. Maybe someday I will fulfill my dream to become an outstanding teacher. Who knows…
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