Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Huaikou Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Chengdu 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.
Upon signing up for this course I had a great, dreamy vision of how wonderful it would be to teach English in a foreign land. But as is often the case when someone first has a dream regarding an endeavor they want to pursue, the dream was lacking in a complete understanding of what it would entail to be successful. I feel through working on the TEFL coursework I now have a good understanding regarding the challenges I will need to tackle. Six years ago, I lost my wife/soulmate of 24 years to cancer and it was as one would expect a life changing experience. One of the best things that has helped me work through the loss and grief since her death is foreign travel. I was fortunate that my son convinced me to go with him on trips to Japan and Vietnam when I did not really have any enthusiasm to do so. Those trips were very therapeutic for me. Much of my world in America seemed to have died with my wife, but travel and learning about new cultures was new, fascinating and it made me feel alive again. I followed those trips with several more, traveling solo. Trips and adventures included bike tours in Thailand and Vietnam, trekking in the Himalayas of Nepal and Bhutan and tours in South America and Africa. When I was in Myanmar another traveler told me about volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity. Subsequently I signed up for Habitat projects in Nepal and in El Salvador. I found that in the process of giving and helping others, I was also helping myself. Being involved in building a home recently (May, 2019) in the African village of Mulanje, Malawi was especially gratifying. On that trip I heard from another volunteer about English teaching opportunities. I believe this background demonstrates that I already have some important qualities that are important to be an English teacher, a passion to help others and a love of travel and foreign cultures, etc., but certainly not a full idea of what teaching would entail day to day in the classroom. After completing the twenty units in the course I now have a much fuller idea of the challenges that will be involved in teaching English abroad. The first major revelation that came to me was that the English language will not be easy for others to learn. English is second nature to me, so it was interesting to learn the basic rules of the language and to understand how difficult it can be for others to learn. One area that struck me as being particularly difficult for new students was the use of tenses. I have noticed that many native English speakers have problems in this area, but the three units involving tenses in this course really addressed the problems in detail. The fact that English has three tenses with four aspects each for a total of twelve tenses in all compared to just one for many languages really makes you realize the difficulty that other learners will have trying to master the language. This made me realize that I will need to be patient and empathetic regarding the students struggles to learn. I also discovered through the course that the teacher needs to keep interest of the students and engage them. This means having the appropriate balance of speaking and class participation. Too much teacher speaking can both bore the students and take away time from their actual use of the language in the classroom. The Engage, Study and Activate teaching technique was thoroughly discussed throughout the course and gave me a good idea of how to maintain the interest of the students and motivate them to learn. The Video lesson unit showed a great example as well regarding the importance of attitude, gestures, eye contact and patience. Another unit discussed the considerations for how to address different groups of students. Young learners, older learners, fast learners, slow learners, business students, etc. all may require different approaches to be successful. It isn't necessarily one size fits all. I am looking forward to taking on a new adventure teaching English abroad. I believe the course providing me with an understanding on how to approach this challenge by being prepared with the right tools, empathy, patience and attitude to do so.
