Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Longtan Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Changde Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.
You would think, why take an English teaching course if you already know the language? Why couldn’t it be as simple as just teaching students what you know from firsthand experience alone? I went into this course thinking exactly that, but it’s honeslty not that simple at all. Regardless of if you are fluent in English doesn’t mean it will be easy to impart your knowledge onto others, especially people who are learning it as a second language. If anything, I found that being a native English speaker made it harder, because a lot of the concepts that you learn throughout the course that you have to teach your students are things you already know and just do or say without thinking. This makes it harder to condense everything and really pinpoint the main ideas and skills that you should focus on the most when teaching students who want to learn English as a second language, because you use it all in your every day life. This course really helped prepare me to have the mindset I needed going into teaching an English class. There is so much to the English language that is already overwhelming to a native speaker and I can’t imagine how intimidating it would be for someone learning it from the beginning, this course did a really good job of picking and choosing the basics and what was essential to becoming a well rounded English speaker. It went over the fundamentals of the language as well as provided multiple helpful and useful examples. But my favorite part about the course was less about learning how to explain how to speak and write the language well, but more on the units about how to best conduct lessons and interact with your students in the classroom that would best benefit them and make it easier for them to participate and retain all the information you were trying to teach them. I enjoyed reading up on all the examples of the different activities. Things that seemed liked common sense were given proper terminology and made it easier for me to understand. Breaking lessons down to engage, study, and activate were so useful and a structure I can’t wait to apply to my own teachings. Learning of all the different ways to approach different students like having to deal with problem students, beginners, children, shy students, etc. was all valuable information. I liked the units on how to make the learning environment as welcoming, friendly, and beneficial for the students as possible. At one point there was a video portion to the course that was particularly helpful, cause it showed actual visual examples of how a class should be and shouldn’t be taught on the teacher’s part. And towards the end, the course discussed teaching materials such as going about using a course book for your class, and how to choose the proper text and also how to incorporate it into your lesson plan. As well as other teaching materials like use of the white board, cassette tapes, overhead projectors, visuals, etc. I could go on and on, on how much this course has helped me to prepare for the possibility of teaching English to my own students. Any questions or uncertainties I had, especially when it came to dealing with students whether they are problem students or just students who are having a difficult time with the material, were all answered. All the units were super informative and thorough, as if I was learning English for the first time as well, which was appropriate, and all the examples provided and tests at the end of each unit were all useful in some way. None of my time felt wasted. I came in thinking I knew what to do, realized I knew nothing, and at the end of it I feel very comfortable and confident with the knowledge I was given. It took me a while, and I wasn’t as motivated in the beginning but once I got going it was easy going from one unit to the next especially since all the past units helped with your understanding of future units so it was to your best interest to keep going while the information was fresh. This course was very well structured and I can’t really say I have any complaints, and I would definitely recommend this resource to others. I know it is not a requirement to have a TEFL certificate to teach English but after taking this course I can’t imagine teaching abroad without one.
