Teach English in Lailong Zhen - Suqian Shi

In a world where things are constantly changing, we may find ourselves feeling lost and confused in all aspects of our lives, especially in our field of working. When we finally decide which path to choose, that is where it can get complicated because we might not encounter the right people to guide us nor the right material to enlighten us. And this is the kind of scenarios in which ‘fear’ might come and set in and prevent us from what we wanted to do all along. Therefore, in the case of a beginner teacher, being able to rely on different fountains of knowledge is extremely important, since aside from the experience we obtain from every class, the rest has to be learnt by studying, observing and asking people with more experience than us on how to deal with certain things. Hence, we can now very logically deduct the importance that completing courses such as the TEFL has on an inexperienced teacher. First of all, no matter how good you are with a language, that doesn’t mean you are ready to teach it. One must first know how to explain the language simply enough that any student from any age can understand it. One must know language pedagogy and that is not something many individuals have as an intrinsic characteristic in them; so it is something we must all learn in order to manage the class well, assist students when necessary and so on. Subsequently, for someone with a vast knowledge of a second language that doesn’t necessarily knows how to convey it, taking a TELF course is of vital importance. To begin with, the TEFL course provides you what it is mentioned above. Not only we have access to the basics of the English language but also how, when and where to teach it. So for an early career teacher such as myself, the next few items that I will mention are only a few of the many things that I have learnt during this course that have allowed me to become a better professional and that I know are crucial for others like me too. As an example, we can start with teaching pronunciation and phonology. If you have not studied this before, then when faced with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for the first time, you will probably feel dejected. But knowing it makes you capable of expanding the way you teach a sound. Sometimes just using your mouth and hands is not enough when the student you are trying to reach is not even familiarized with the Roman alphabet. So since pronunciation it is key for students, it also has to be very relevant to us if we want them to be good at it. Accordingly, some other significant items are lesson planning and dealing with problems in the classroom. Firstly, planning a lesson is not easy and it requires a lot of imagination and creativity to be able to do it from scratch. But this course guides you through the whole process very effortlessly, providing you with ideas and ready-made plans, as well as space to practice what you have learnt in the worksheets after very unit. In the same manner, the TEFL guides you through dealing with problematic situations, such as students themselves or our on inability to convey something correctly to the class. We are then able to make the distinction between problems from the outside and from the inside of the classroom, while we are taught what to do and not to do. This, for someone with little to no knowledge is very helpful, since there are some things you can instinctively realize, but others come only with studying and guidance. Likewise, this course is about the ESA method of teaching, which I personally found it to be remarkably effective because it is simple to understand, therefore also to apply it. We can use and adapt this method into anything we think is more appropriate for the classroom level and what we are actually teaching. In a very subtle but straight forward way, we could apply it to many different languages, since we must always Engage the students first with any kind of resource like photos or videos. Afterwards, through the Study phase we can see what we just learnt and how it grammatically works. And later we can see how we can use it in a “real” situation during the Activate phase. This is a Straight Arrow method, but we can use Patchwork or Boomerang methods depending on what we try to achieve. So for someone like me that tends to incorrectly mix the subjects or does not know how to time activities, this is a great method to follow by. Lastly, one of the most important things this course also offers you is the large amount of resources and extra material that is included in every single lesson. That is something that must have taken a long time to compile so having it readily available for use is essential for the quality of the class that the teacher will produce. Considering that resources are hard to get by, especially for students of every level of English, this allows the new teacher to feel more comfortable in their role, to have back up materials and to never be scared of losing their way in the classroom. From simple beginner games to more advanced role-plays, the amount of ideas and content given by this course has personally amazed me and allowed me to provide my students with a more fun and didactic class. In conclusion, taking a TEFL course is of extreme use for a beginner teacher because it lays the foundation for them to be better at what they are. The course is presented in such a way that you can flow though it while you do it, as well as strengthening what you know and upgrading what you do not know. It is also a starting point for many other courses one can take and it gives you international prestige. But most importantly, it provides you with the structure necessary to start building on your own lessons and materials whilst feeling more confident as a teacher. This way one is able to establish good rapport with the students while offering them a class to which they will be excited to come back to. Because thanks to this course, we will transform into the source of wisdom our students were looking for all along.