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The title alone may leave you with your head scratching. Why take an online TEFL course if I am already teaching high school students in Japan as an Assistant Language Teacher? There are a few reasons why I chose to do so. First, with the JET program, our formal teaching training is severely limited. This is partly because every teaching situation will be different for each ALT at their respective schools. Moreover, I arrived in Japan later than most JET arrivals, so my already limited training at orientation became even shorter. Over the years I have picked up some teaching techniques and tips by watching other experienced teachers and by teaching with them, but I wanted to gain even more teaching techniques and knowledge to supplement my English teaching career. The second and more minor reason was that I received a grant from the JET program to take this course. So, I thought “Why not give it a shot?” I may learn something useful. I am happy to say that by taking this course I have indeed learned something useful. First and foremost, the grammar sections were, if not a bit difficult for me, incredibly enlightening. Before, if a student asked me a grammar question I would have to ask my co-teacher if they knew how to answer, but now I feel more equipped to answer their questions myself. Of course, as the course stated, it would take years to develop a full understanding of the rules of English grammar, but this course has helped me in that regard. I suspect that I will reference the grammar explanations many times in the future. Another aspect that I found useful from this course was the lesson on managing classes. Before coming to Japan and becoming an ALT I had no teaching experience, so I wasn’t sure how to present myself or go about conducting a class. I gradually learned that I had to really project my voice and talk clearly in order for my students to hear me. As an introvert, it was a bit difficult for me at first. I also discovered that using simple, concise directions, visuals, gestures, and demonstrations helped greatly. Before reading about the lesson I didn’t realize that students are so sensitive about the teacher’s position. I realized that I stand most of the time, so I may want to try sitting sometimes to relax the students, perhaps at an activate stage. Also, due to the fact that I am an ALT I don’t have a lot of control over the class or classroom, but while reading the lesson I liked how the horseshoe or circle set up was described. That’s the setup that was used when I was studying Japanese in college. My last take away from this online course was a combination of things from the theories, methods, and techniques lesson and teaching new language lesson. I’ve gained an idea of the flow and parts of an ESL lesson simply through teaching, but to learn more in detail the individual parts such as Engage, Study, and Activate was enlightening. Moreover, breaking down these parts into things done in the classroom gave me some new ideas to try out, especially scenario building, gap fills and information gaps, and role-play. In the future I also want to try to elicit student-to-student correction. If I were to list the myriad ideas and tips that I gained from this course we would be here for a very long time, but all in all I have gained new knowledge and ideas that I want to try and test out in my classroom. This course has been a worthwhile experience and I look forward to taking the business English course and English for young learners course.
