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I began my TEFL courses after already having a year of experience in an English as a second language classroom. I worked as a teaching assistant alongside a Colombian co-teacher in Medellin, Colombia, teaching students in grades 6-11. While the courses would undoubtedly have been helpful prior to that experience, in hindsight, there was just as much benefit to completing the courses afterward. I now have a better perspective into teaching English, what is effective in a classroom or not and why, and ways to be more effective as a teacher in the future. Without my personal classroom experience, all of the course components would have been merely theoretical, but I was able to apply the lessons in the context of my own experience. Between both the 120 hour TEFL and the Teaching English to Young Learners courses, I was able to see that not only did I need improvement to be more effective, but that just because someone is an official teacher, does not necessarily mean they are better trained. Becoming an effective English teacher takes time and dedication. Many of the co-teachers I worked with were not particularly invested in improving their students’ English skills and were mostly going through the motions. I found it is important to try and relate to students’ and their interests in order to engage them. Our classes were typically between 35-45 students, loud, and chaotic. The students were great as individual people, but there was a lack of discipline. I struggled with that, as it was not supposed to be my job to control them (that was left to the Colombian teacher), but due to cultural differences between American and Colombian schools, things were run a lot more loosely. The classrooms were typically arranged in a more traditional manner of rows of students, when it may have been more effective to place students in small groups, or a horseshoe formation, to encourage participation and paying attention. I began part way through the school year, which complicated things, as the students were already used to a certain way of doing things and certain rules (or lack thereof). Working with a teacher from another culture proved to be difficult at times, due to our own communication issues. My teacher was older, more set in his ways, and the students did not relate to him particularly well, so they were less engaged. We followed along with a curriculum and textbook provided by the Ministry of Education, although the book was far too advanced for the students’ actual level of English. Appropriate adjustments were not made because of the pressure to use the book, even though additional activities may have been more effective. As is common in many educational settings, the book seemed to have been written by people with little actual knowledge of the abilities of the target audience. I often tried to supplement the textbook with games and activities to get the kids speaking in English, but it was difficult to implement because they were used to mainly filling in worksheets and not being active with the spoken language. While I certainly feel a curriculum and textbook can be beneficial, I see now that it’s often better used as a guideline and supplement to other activities. Telling students to do a certain exercise from the book was often the path of least resistance for the teacher, so more potentially beneficial activities were often pushed aside. Being a co-teacher was an educational experience in itself, as I often wanted to do things in a different manner, but felt it wasn’t my place to challenge the main teacher, especially due to my lack of official training. Overall, my experience teaching English was difficult, and there was much room for improvement. After completing the 120 hour and Young Learners courses, I see the importance of getting students to think and speak in English, rather than mindlessly following along with a textbook that may not even be suitable for their level, or just trying to drill grammar. I felt very unprepared and overwhelmed in the classroom the first time around, but feel much more suited for any future teaching endeavors.
