Non-formal education în teaching english

Introduction

Why have I chosen this subject ?, is a very simple question with a simple answer, because I feel I can do more than just formal teaching and I want to be able to explain what every type of education means and how we can incorporate all of the types for our message to be understood.

I become a teacher because I felt I was able to help children learn and I wanted to give something back to the community I grow up in. As I knew from the beginning , teaching is not easy. I consider myself a good hard-working student , but it was hard to keep up with the formal learning, I always had to improvise and learn in my own way. As a teacher, I tried to discover every day new methods of teaching to be able to make my classes more attractive , more valuable and easy to understand for all types of children. Everyone is different , so why not try different methods than formal education to be able to help them learn.

Practically we start learning from the first day of our life. Just experiencing the environment, learning to talk , to take our first steps and than to walk , all of this represents the informal learning, where your models and the people who teach you are your family and close friends. This is your first contact with the reality and the first education system you interact with.

At 4 years old we interact with the non-formal learning by being a part of a preschool program, or a daycare , which is very common in nowadays due to the busy programme of the working parents. We are not surrounded by teachers but capable taking care-of persons able to offer you diverse information using non-formal methods, games, music and pictures , to develop our primary skills.

At the age of 5-6 years we enter in the Formal Education System and we will be a part of this system during Primary School, Secondary School, High School and University. For all this time we will have a definite program , we will be given grades and at the end of every level we will be given a certification , all of this being a part of the most elevated education.

After University, Non-formal Education will be again a part of our live, developing new skills an competences during our working period. Finally, the cycle of life ends with the Informal Education, the same type of learning we started with. All this steps are necessary in our lives to be able to develop as a person, but do we have the time to be able to take one step of a time?

We are living in the era of technology and all around us is promoted to us , as the best thing to do with your time and in the same “time” the technology works for you. Also the century of speed , you have access to everything but time and everywhere you look , someone wants to take your time from you. Every product, good or bad , even the best , needs a commercial these days , everything is about how it looks. The same problem is with education ,

who lately takes steps back because is not updated , other types of education are not all included in the formal education system .

We are not prepared as a person for the actual Society when we finish University. We have the certification but we don’t have the facts, the skills and the competences necessary to be a part of the working class. We don’t understand how the system works because we missed the non-formal part of the education, the practice and we don’t have the time and the means to be able to do this after in a competitive society.

Different measures have been taken lately regarding the implication of Informal and Non-Formal Education in the lives of Youth, different programs are ready nowadays to develop your skills and competences and give you access to the world wide community of youth for international cultural exchanges.

Trough this Paper I will present the Types of Education , their advantages , their strong points and the importance of every type in our lives. I will also present different success programs and the importance of Non Formal Education in the Education System to be able to develop professionals.

Non formal Education aspects in Teaching English will provide a big picture of different methods used in our daily programs to be able to help students learn easily , to understand better the terms and purpose of Learning English, in a more attractive and interactive way.