Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Huangkou Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Shangqiu 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.
One factor that has been on my mind since the early units of this course is how to explain a topic, or a task, in the clearest way possible to somebody who is going to have difficulty understanding what I am saying, or have no understanding whatsoever. Concern over this is very necessary I feel, for somebody who does not imagine these situations is going to be left completely bemused and lost for words in the real situation of teaching beginners. My conclusion for this problem is that when students understand a small amount of vocabulary, which can be achieved through visual aids, this can then be used to develop further understanding of other words. For example, if I needed to teach students the meaning of the verb ?go? I could use visual aids to show places such as shops, schools, hospitals, followed by a sentence involving each. Other necessities I have come to believe vital in being successful at teaching english, include the tone and atmosphere created by the teacher in the classroom. Particularly with students who cannot understand much english, body language and relaxed expression are essential to make them relax and motivated by the lessons. Whilst it may take a couple of lessons before I can completely relax myself, it is very important to make students feel welcome and appreciated, particularly across cultural and language boundaries the most effective form of doing this can be to smile. During some points of the course some of the questions have required me to show how I would explain certain grammar forms to a low level student. While doing this in the simplest manner possible, I still find it hard to imagine in practice with students that still have basic knowledge of vocabulary. My conclusions drawn from this are that grammar must be taught to a student early regardless of their low understanding of the language. Only on recognizing grammar patterns such as verbs, past participles and the tenses, can a student really begin to develop their english. Understanding how the language is constructed is seemingly more useful than acquiring a large range of vocabulary.
