5 Challenges of Teaching EFL to Kindergarten Level Students
This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Susan W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
1. Self-introduction
I am Susan and I'm 40 years female from Kenya and I have graduated with a bachelor's degree in Art in Education. I have been teaching young learners in Kenya for two years and I was invited to teach English in southern China and I am ready for the new challenge teaching abroad.
2. Reasons for practicing as an EFL Teacher
I decided to do a TEFL test online so that I can acquire the Certificate and be employed as a qualified EFL teacher. I have learned a lot when studying the TEFL test and as an EFL teacher, I have come to realize that the social environment, age of different levels of students do play a significant role in teaching English especially when dealing with kindergarten Kids. It requires more effort and devotion because of their language background. Therefore, the effective way or method of knowledge towards the children must be interactive, demonstrative and fun-based teaching. The reason why I choose to deal with the young ones is that they are funny and lovely and friendly towards the foreign teacher and I would love to show them love and to nurture them with English skills, games and teaching them songs which will help them learn English gradually.
Also Read: How much can I earn teaching English abroad?
3. Ways in which EFL will guide me achieve my goals
This TEFL test will help me manage activities, teaching methodology and language skills to deal with kindergarten kids. I have learned a lot through this course and from my personal experience vocabulary building is an important aspect in learning a language where the rule in teaching these vocabulary states that a learner's receptive vocabulary is much larger than his or her productive vocabulary. In other words, this is clearly to say that they can usually understand more words than they can actively use. The best and lovely part of teaching kids in kindergarten is when you introduce games in the classroom which will enhance learning and understanding of a lesson.
4. Games and activities in the classroom
Games in the classroom are vital because they motivate the kids even those who at times are reluctant to take and feel bored. I have different indoor games I like to play with my students, for example, Pass the ball game, musical chair game, touch game, mime and action games. They are easy to play and kids love to participate and give a reward to the winner and this does motivate even the weak students to take part in similar games. The use of flashcards in class helps kids to learn in a better way the new words and to recognize different pictures or flashcards.
I have learned some teaching skills that teachers need to apply for the students to excel in learning English and this is through Engage, Study and Activate. For a New lesson, I need to engage my students to have some basic understanding of a certain lesson.
Also Read: The Best Countries to Teach ESL When You're 50+
5. Planning my New Lesson
Let’s take an example of TRANSPORT where we have flashcards with vocabularies like Bus, Train, Taxi, and Motorcycle. During the Engage phase, the kids will use their native language to describe pictures and I will ask some questions if their parents have any of these vehicles then I will introduce the vocabulary and see who can pronounce the words in English. After a couple of minutes of vocabulary drills, I will decide on which game and music to introduce that will be more lively and entertaining.
The next part is the study phase, where I will get to know if the kids have gained any knowledge of the lesson. Here I will introduce some simple sentences for example: I like the bus, I like the train and so on.
In the next study phase two, I will make the sentences a bit broad enough for example: Do you like a bus? Yes, I do/ No, I don’t. In the next study phase three, I will twist the question a little bit depending on their understanding. If the performance is poor in class I will have to review before I go to the next level.
And lastly, activate phase I will gauge their vocabulary and pronunciation and see how they can interact among themselves using the sentences that we have already learned.
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Having accomplished this teaching plan successful and see the progress of the kids expressing themselves in English I will be one of the happiest EFL teachers to have achieved my goal
Apply now & get certified to teach english abroad!
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