Read Online Teaching English as a Foreign Language for Dummies by Michelle Maxom - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Michelle Maxom
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However, by the end of your course your students want to feel that it was all worthwhile because they’ve bettered themselves.
Encouragement goes hand in hand with improving English skills. Your class wants to know that you’re on its side by the praise you give the students when they do well.
From the students’ perspective, it’s reassuring when the teacher seems to know her stuff. You don’t have to be a professor of the language but you do need to inspire confidence overall. Students want to know that you as the teacher are an expert (and as a native or proficient speaker of English you are) and that you know the process involved in making their English better.
Nobody wants to have a boring experience, so students rely on you to make their lessons as lively and memorable as possible. They don’t want a stand-up comedian or anything too eccentric, but there should be smiling, laughing and interesting contexts. In this way your students won’t just remember that they had a lesson about words for sports, for example, but they’ll remember the story of a great athlete that you gave as the backdrop to the vocabulary.
Remembering is also a big deal for people learning a language, because they need enough repetition to drive the point home but not so much that it becomes tedious.
In most cases you use books and handouts to help you present your lessons.
Students want nicely presented, informative documents that they can still understand when they look back at them a year later. Conscientious students Chapter 2: Looking at What TEFL Teachers Actually Do
29
always turn up with a pen and notebook because they want to make their own notes on the course, but they expect any materials you provide to be concise and effective.
Unless you’re teaching a dedicated speaking class or writing class, most students want some kind of coverage of the four main skills in language – reading, writing, speaking and listening – so that they can function fully in English.
They don’t usually want to cover all four to the same degree but they expect to work in each area.
Because TEFL doesn’t require the same degree of training as some other educational roles, teachers sometimes forget the importance of professionalism.
Even though your students may be of the same age group as you, and some may encourage you to socialise with them at the local pizzeria or wine bar, as a class they expect you to work professionally and conduct yourself in a dig-nified way. This includes the overall management of your classroom – what it looks like, what time your lessons start and finish and your supervision of the students.
Some people enrol on language courses because they want to make new friends but you can still help them to focus on the course aims so that they take learning seriously.
Students want you to be both fair and flexible. They become irritated if you seem to favour one student over another. Equally, they expect you to understand the real world involves many pressures so it’s not always possible to do homework to perfection or arrive early every single time. When something of particular interest happens in the world, they want you to depart from your lesson plan so that they can talk to you about it (hopefully in English).
The USA and UK are major players in world politics so some students want to discuss current affairs with their new tool, the language of those nations.
Culture is very important in a language lesson; it’s almost impossible to teach one thing without the other. So students want a role model who can give them a window into the English-speaking culture while showing due respect to their own. They definitely don’t want a hint of superiority from their teacher but instead they want to know about any pitfalls in terms of appropriate behaviour and expressions.
Students want you to point out the customs of English speakers in certain situations but they don’t want to be forced to accept these as
However, by the end of your course your students want to feel that it was all worthwhile because they’ve bettered themselves.
Encouragement goes hand in hand with improving English skills. Your class wants to know that you’re on its side by the praise you give the students when they do well.
From the students’ perspective, it’s reassuring when the teacher seems to know her stuff. You don’t have to be a professor of the language but you do need to inspire confidence overall. Students want to know that you as the teacher are an expert (and as a native or proficient speaker of English you are) and that you know the process involved in making their English better.
Nobody wants to have a boring experience, so students rely on you to make their lessons as lively and memorable as possible. They don’t want a stand-up comedian or anything too eccentric, but there should be smiling, laughing and interesting contexts. In this way your students won’t just remember that they had a lesson about words for sports, for example, but they’ll remember the story of a great athlete that you gave as the backdrop to the vocabulary.
Remembering is also a big deal for people learning a language, because they need enough repetition to drive the point home but not so much that it becomes tedious.
In most cases you use books and handouts to help you present your lessons.
Students want nicely presented, informative documents that they can still understand when they look back at them a year later. Conscientious students Chapter 2: Looking at What TEFL Teachers Actually Do
29
always turn up with a pen and notebook because they want to make their own notes on the course, but they expect any materials you provide to be concise and effective.
Unless you’re teaching a dedicated speaking class or writing class, most students want some kind of coverage of the four main skills in language – reading, writing, speaking and listening – so that they can function fully in English.
They don’t usually want to cover all four to the same degree but they expect to work in each area.
Because TEFL doesn’t require the same degree of training as some other educational roles, teachers sometimes forget the importance of professionalism.
Even though your students may be of the same age group as you, and some may encourage you to socialise with them at the local pizzeria or wine bar, as a class they expect you to work professionally and conduct yourself in a dig-nified way. This includes the overall management of your classroom – what it looks like, what time your lessons start and finish and your supervision of the students.
Some people enrol on language courses because they want to make new friends but you can still help them to focus on the course aims so that they take learning seriously.
Students want you to be both fair and flexible. They become irritated if you seem to favour one student over another. Equally, they expect you to understand the real world involves many pressures so it’s not always possible to do homework to perfection or arrive early every single time. When something of particular interest happens in the world, they want you to depart from your lesson plan so that they can talk to you about it (hopefully in English).
The USA and UK are major players in world politics so some students want to discuss current affairs with their new tool, the language of those nations.
Culture is very important in a language lesson; it’s almost impossible to teach one thing without the other. So students want a role model who can give them a window into the English-speaking culture while showing due respect to their own. They definitely don’t want a hint of superiority from their teacher but instead they want to know about any pitfalls in terms of appropriate behaviour and expressions.
Students want you to point out the customs of English speakers in certain situations but they don’t want to be forced to accept these as
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