Teach English in GAojiAfAng Zhen - Yueyang Shi

Over the past couple of months, I have learned a great deal about what it takes to teach English in a foreign language. Not only has this course helped me with curriculum development, course structure, and teaching skills, but it has helped me gain an understanding of how to strategize different ways to help students learn and comprehend English successfully. I graduated college with a Bachelors Degree in Education and have been teaching in the United States for 8 years. With this course, I have learned new concepts and strategies in teaching, but have also been able to review ways to be a great teacher. Through this course, I have come to an early conclusion that completing a TEFL course is absolutely crucial in learning how to become an effective teacher in a foreign country. As a teacher, I have taken courses in college that have thoroughly taught me, through study and practice, how to find my way as a teacher. Through the years of practice inside a classroom, I have discovered methods and strategies that work best for me in order to create a successful curriculum for my students. Entering this course, I had a great deal of understanding of how to be productive and efficient in my teachings. Although I found a great deal of similarities between teaching in a classroom inside the United States and in a foreign country, I have learned a great deal of differences as well. The course material alone is a completely different structure. The depth in which this course teaches the specifics in past, present, and future for verbs, nouns, and adjectives is incredibly useful. The detail provided throughout course is helpful for educating in a classroom, but also a great way to gain a better understanding of the English language, as it can be complicated with many differing rules. I found myself learning concepts and rules about the English language for the first time. The course goes further in depth by giving an abundance of examples that help teachers taking this course increase their comprehension. This course has introduced the International Phonetic Alphabet to me as well, which almost felt like learning an entirely new language. Not only does this course help you attain new knowledge of the English language, that often times get overlooked growing up, it also gives teachers strategies and activities that will be helpful while teaching English in a foreign language. The activities and strategies are incredibly helpful and fun for students. It teachers to become creative in lesson planning to assess what works best for their classroom environment as well. This course has also allowed me to become familiar with the ESA teaching method, which is used in almost every unit. I find it helpful that this course continued to come back to that method as it gives you examples of how to successfully use it in a classroom. I appreciate the mix of concept skills as well as classroom management skills in the layout of this course There are a lot of different variables to consider when entering a classroom. In my prior eight years of experience, it has always differed every year as all students have different preferred learning skills as well as personalities. It is crucial, for a teacher, to be flexible and accommodating in order to create a safe, comfortable, and fun learning environment for students. There were a great deal of familiar similarities that I found during these particular units that I have found inside my classroom, however, it is important to understand the different problems that English learners face in order to best aid them in their journey. This course covers learning difficulties that learners may have, as well as explanations and strategies to help combat any obstacles. There is a particular unit on the importance of the teacher and the role that they play. It explains how it is essential for teachers to establish a respectful foundation with their students. The video portion of this course helped a great deal in learning the difference between how to be a present and effective teacher verses a teacher solely focused on what needs to be taught on paper. The video unit is an important way to gain a better perspective on how to value teacher roles. It is pivotal to complete a TEFL course for teachers who want to teach in a different country. Not only does a TEFL course give you an overview of what it is like to teach in a foreign country, but dissects every aspect of education in a different part of the world. The course not only gives depth to course materials, but also teaches strategies that can be applied inside a classroom. This TEFL course provides plenty of resources as well that teachers may look into to gain further understanding. This course is a great way continuous learning tool for teachers and I would not be able to take any further steps in my goal to teach English in a different language without successfully completing this TEFL course first.