Teach English in Shaogen Zhen - Chifeng Shi

While any TEFL institute can tell an English native-speaker the importance of obtaining a TEFL certification, one cannot understand to what extent that importance is held at. It seems rather obvious to obtain a certification in order to teach but there are native English speakers that go to a foreign country and teach based solely on the fact that English is their native tongue. This comes from not only secondhand experiences but also first-hand encounters that led to the conclusion that it is important to obtain a TEFL certification before teaching English. There are so many technicalities and emotion flowed into a language that speaking the language is separate and different from teaching a language. Native/Mother Tongue speakers are never taught the technicalities of a language. This pertains to people who want to teach English to non-English speakers with little to no teaching background and little to no prior education on teaching English. Technicalities including: grammar structure, all the types of verbs (tenses, modal, phrasal, etc...) and the verb conjugations, idioms, manners, passive voices and the list goes on. An example of this could be: the past simple passive formation of “My mom chose the curtains” is “The curtains were chosen by my mom”. These are sentence formations that are instilled in native speakers; the passive formation is communicated naturally. Through the TEFL course native English speaker learners in the program are able to learn the technicalities of the language to better assist any English learner. A TEFL certified person can further and fully explain the grammar construct and when to use these types of sentences. A TEFL certification learner can also understand the English language more in-depth which allows one to teach the language more easily. For example, take a non-TEFL certified teacher and a TEFL-certified teacher. A non-TEFL certified teacher who is only an English native speaker teaching English would have a much more difficult time explaining phrasal verbs or active and passive formations because they have not been exposed to information on how to teach these sections of the English language. From personal experience, it was the first time to encounter these types of sections. While using “passive formation” in a sentence is so obvious – to explain it is a completely different story. Learning a language requires more than speaking, comprehension, listening and correct grammar structure. Teaching incorporates a lot of emotion. When one learns a language it takes more than knowing a language and the technicalities within the language to be able to teach it. Teachers need to learn how to create good rapport with students and make learning a language enjoyable. All of which includes a considerable amount of emotion because teaching students is a human to human interaction. Most people can agree to at least one teacher, through their schooling experience, that has made learning the subject very difficult and not enjoyable and most cases this was in a person’s mother tongue. All students learning a new language has an added layer of difficulty as the subject they are learning is in an entirely different language to what they are comfortable with. Also considering that many english learners use a different alphabet system with different phonetics. English teachers need to create an inviting environment that encourages students to learn and grow in. When students feel discouraged because the teacher enforces strict rules and expects the student to know everything they learn; the student could end up not wanting to participate in learning anymore. Learning how to deal with those types of environments are very vital when teaching another human being. TEFL certification is important in that, not only does it teach the TEFL certification learners the technicalities of English but also how to structure a class to make learning engaging, how to create and maintain good rapport with students, and how to get past difficulties while teaching. Language cannot be looked at simply. Native speakers take the language they speak for granted. Correct sentence structures, correct use of vocabulary, phrasal verbs forms and everything else in between flow out so naturally without thought. In this it is imperative that especially native speakers learn about the technicalities within the language that they speak without thought. Additionally, important for the native speaker to also take into consideration the emotional aspects that is very much embedded in teaching. All aspects that are a part of the TEFL certification.