Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Renhe Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Bazhong 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.
Learning a second language is not always an easy task. There are many factors that go into helping someone acquire their second language. Age, location, environment, motivation are all important, but another factor that will affect someone’s learning ability is whether they are in a monolingual or multilingual group. There are pros and cons to each group and teachers must take that factor into consideration when they are teaching. When teaching multilingual groups, it usually means that the class is held in an english speaking country. This means that the teacher will be speaking and teaching entirely in english. This can be a good thing since the students will be hearing the desired language in a learning environment. It will force the students to only communicate in the desired language during class time and activities. It is also beneficial since upon leaving the class they will interact with people speaking english and will be able to quickly apply what they have learned. However, when teaching multilingual groups there can also be some cons. When there is confusion in the teaching or an explanation, and the teacher does not know the languages that the students speaks, it can be hard for both the teacher and students to be confident that the correct meaning is coming through. Also in multilingual groups it is more of a possibility to have a greater range in proficiency, which is not an impossible task but is more of an obstacle. In a monolingual group the most likely case would be that the class is being taught in the groups original country. This means the teacher would know at least some of the students first language since they are probably living in that country. This can be helpful when giving instructions or teaching students that are at a zero level. The acquisition of the language would be a more thorough job since any and all questions or confusion could be ultimately translated back to the first language for understanding. This would boost the confidence of everyone involved. Another advantage would be that since they all speak the same first language and are equally learning the same second language, the students proficiency range would be closer, making it easier to provide good teaching material. Again there are downfalls to this environment as well, such as the motivation to learn a second language would not be the same since the urgency to learn by being in a different country is not there. The benefit to being surrounded by people speaking english and therefore being forced to use the newly acquired language would be missing as well. A teacher that knows the groups first language might get caught up in speaking and teaching in that language without exposing and forcing the students to the english language. In conclusion each group type has its pros and cons. It is up to each individual teacher to decide where and who they want to teach and to keep in mind the pros and cons to be able to reap as many benefits from the experience as possible.
