Read Online Teaching English as a Foreign Language for Dummies by Michelle Maxom - Free Book Online
Authors: Michelle Maxom
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classes, they need a system or methodology so that they can measure their progress and balance this against the money they pay. The next sections give the basics on teaching methods.
In the classroom, students learn actively through direct instruction from the teacher and pick up the language incidentally at the same time. It’s surprising how many of your favourite phrases your students imitate just because you drop them into your lessons. A couple of mine are ‘Okie dokie’ and ‘Here we go’.
Teaching the easier words first
When you pick up a language by hearing it spoken, everything is thrown at you at the same time and you have to wade through a lot of ‘noise’ before you hear something you recognise. However, when you teach systematically you generally start with easy words and phrases and then add a bit more each time. You save the most difficult words for the end.
In TEFL you grade whatever you say so that your speech matches the students’ level of English. When you start a beginners’ course, for example, you use a lot of pictures, gestures and repetition to put across the meaning of basic words like ‘car’ and ‘bus’.
Figure 2-1 uses an imaginary language – we can call it Dummese – to illustrate a dialogue typical of a Dummese beginner-level lesson.
The teacher in Figure 2-1 uses only four words to teach ‘car’ and ‘bus’ –
‘deeba’ and ‘dooba’ respectively. How about ‘Dum dim’? They must be equivalent to ‘this is a . . .’ in English. With only four words to decipher, the visual aid of the pictures, along with the reassuring smiles of the teacher, it’s quite easy for students to crack the code.
The lesson would logically continue with another few words connected with vehicles and transport as you use easy words in a clear context and build up from there. If you had to pick out words like these by listening to a complicated traffic report in Dummese, you would have a much more difficult, if not impossible, task.
Chapter 2: Looking at What TEFL Teachers Actually Do
25
Dum dim ‘deeba’.
Deeba! Deeba!
Deeba!
Dum dim deeba
Dum dim ‘dooba’
Dooba!
Dum dim deeba
Figure 2-1:
Starting off
simply with Dum dim dooba
props.
26 Part I: Getting Started in TEFL
Focusing on the most useful words
In theory you can spend your whole life learning a new language, especially a global language such as English to which new words are added or borrowed from other languages all the time.
Most people, however, make do with a few thousand words and leave the rest to those who particularly need them. So the question is, if English has around half a million words in its vocabulary, which ones do you teach? Obviously, you can’t teach them all.
The idea is to focus on teaching the words that allow the students to function competently in the language.
You only have 90 minutes or so per lesson, and perhaps 60 hours or so to complete a course, whether it’s a beginner, elementary or intermediate course. With that in mind, you can’t afford to be sidetracked by talking about words that particularly interest you but are seldom used.
Your students need to know all the words typically associated with a given level of English so that they can measure their progress and move on. The best way to become familiar with what students need to learn within each level is to refer to the syllabus at the beginning of an EFL course book.
Usually the syllabus sets out the vocabulary areas and grammar chapter by chapter. In most cases the language school has approved a course book or set of materials, which you should use as your guide.
Giving students room to talk
Learning a new language is a great deal harder if you feel stressed. You’re likely to feel embarrassed about pronouncing the words and discouraged by grammar rules and differences from your mother tongue. This is why an important aspect of TEFL work is to present lessons in an enjoyable and engaging way.
In the TEFL
In the classroom, students learn actively through direct instruction from the teacher and pick up the language incidentally at the same time. It’s surprising how many of your favourite phrases your students imitate just because you drop them into your lessons. A couple of mine are ‘Okie dokie’ and ‘Here we go’.
Teaching the easier words first
When you pick up a language by hearing it spoken, everything is thrown at you at the same time and you have to wade through a lot of ‘noise’ before you hear something you recognise. However, when you teach systematically you generally start with easy words and phrases and then add a bit more each time. You save the most difficult words for the end.
In TEFL you grade whatever you say so that your speech matches the students’ level of English. When you start a beginners’ course, for example, you use a lot of pictures, gestures and repetition to put across the meaning of basic words like ‘car’ and ‘bus’.
Figure 2-1 uses an imaginary language – we can call it Dummese – to illustrate a dialogue typical of a Dummese beginner-level lesson.
The teacher in Figure 2-1 uses only four words to teach ‘car’ and ‘bus’ –
‘deeba’ and ‘dooba’ respectively. How about ‘Dum dim’? They must be equivalent to ‘this is a . . .’ in English. With only four words to decipher, the visual aid of the pictures, along with the reassuring smiles of the teacher, it’s quite easy for students to crack the code.
The lesson would logically continue with another few words connected with vehicles and transport as you use easy words in a clear context and build up from there. If you had to pick out words like these by listening to a complicated traffic report in Dummese, you would have a much more difficult, if not impossible, task.
Chapter 2: Looking at What TEFL Teachers Actually Do
25
Dum dim ‘deeba’.
Deeba! Deeba!
Deeba!
Dum dim deeba
Dum dim ‘dooba’
Dooba!
Dum dim deeba
Figure 2-1:
Starting off
simply with Dum dim dooba
props.
26 Part I: Getting Started in TEFL
Focusing on the most useful words
In theory you can spend your whole life learning a new language, especially a global language such as English to which new words are added or borrowed from other languages all the time.
Most people, however, make do with a few thousand words and leave the rest to those who particularly need them. So the question is, if English has around half a million words in its vocabulary, which ones do you teach? Obviously, you can’t teach them all.
The idea is to focus on teaching the words that allow the students to function competently in the language.
You only have 90 minutes or so per lesson, and perhaps 60 hours or so to complete a course, whether it’s a beginner, elementary or intermediate course. With that in mind, you can’t afford to be sidetracked by talking about words that particularly interest you but are seldom used.
Your students need to know all the words typically associated with a given level of English so that they can measure their progress and move on. The best way to become familiar with what students need to learn within each level is to refer to the syllabus at the beginning of an EFL course book.
Usually the syllabus sets out the vocabulary areas and grammar chapter by chapter. In most cases the language school has approved a course book or set of materials, which you should use as your guide.
Giving students room to talk
Learning a new language is a great deal harder if you feel stressed. You’re likely to feel embarrassed about pronouncing the words and discouraged by grammar rules and differences from your mother tongue. This is why an important aspect of TEFL work is to present lessons in an enjoyable and engaging way.
In the TEFL
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