The Significance of Good Teaching Skills in The EFL Classroom
hy is learning proper teaching skills necessary, you ask? I'll tell you why!
This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joshua D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
Personal Teaching Experience
At the moment, I am teaching at a training school in Changsha, Hunan, China. I came to China with no previous teaching knowledge and no desire to teach or plan any suitable lessons. After my almost two years of teaching, a lot has changed. I now know how to manage my unruly classes properly, plan lessons, be assertive and patient and friendly when needed, and much much more.
The Benefits of Professional Development
Secondly, the difference between my lessons from that time and my classes now is night and day. My student's motivation levels and desire to learn have increased so much! Just a simple change of the teacher's attitude and demeanor in the classroom has changed my students so much.
For example :
- The students' willingness to listen to the teacher has improved drastically
- Any problems that I had with classroom management have gone away (for the most part)
- The overall atmosphere in the classroom is now more relaxed, and there is no tension
Teacher-Students Relationships
Building a good connection with your students and getting to know them on a personal level helps. Many of my students will call me by my first name and ask how my day was and generally want to know me better. This gets them interested in speaking English, and they are participating and active for most of the lessons.
When I had first started my teaching career, I ended up with what seemed like a nightmare of a class. "All these students are the worst!" I thought. But then I realized it wasn't them. It was me. My lack of proper teaching skills and even motivation to teach had bled through to these children. There was no respect for the teacher, and the class had no motivation to learn. After really putting my foot down and studying essential classroom management and teaching skills, the class transformed. They are now one of my favorite classes.
Promotion
I am now the manager of the foreign teacher department as my training center. Most of the teachers come from their countries fresh with no previous teaching experience. I try my best to teach my staff the importance of using proper teaching skills and techniques in the classroom and its effect on the children and even the teacher (often using myself as an example).
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In conclusion, learning proper teaching skills is very important because it affects so much! Such as motivation, overall happiness, and the student's desire to learn and speak English. Learning how to teach using the right skills and methods properly is the most important thing, in my opinion! Without this, the classes will fall into disorder, students won't respect you, and you as a teacher will start to lose determination!
Every class you have will be affected negatively if you don't use some proper technique. I've found this TEFL course quite helpful in confirming many things I have learned firsthand in China. I hope it will serve me well in my future years of teaching!
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