Teach English in Lixinzhuang Zhen - Heze Shi

How can a teacher apply the TEFL course while teaching in a China? Teaching in a foreign country is one of the dreams for a lot of people that’s passionate about education. It is always confusing and scary not knowing how being in another country with a different culture and different language would be. The answer is simple, as long as you are a trained, professional and patient teacher, you should be fine. Teaching English in any country it’s always a challenge and being in a different country such as China makes the challenge a little more difficult. However, that’s what makes it interesting! A good teacher is the person that not only prepare his lessons but always cares about their student’s improvement and well being. Teaching in China might seem a big challenge since you arrive. Suddenly you face a huge language and cultural barrier that could catch you off guard when you enter a classroom, especially with small kids. However, there are many techniques and teaching methods that a professional teacher would be able to apply for the lesson to be successful. So, the question is: How can a teacher apply what we have learned in the TEFL course in a Chinese classroom? Let´s imagine that you have a class with a group of young learners that can barely communicate in English. As we have learned during this course, the lesson should be divided in different learning stages in order to have a successful class that achieves the goals that the teacher has set. the first part of the class should be the ¨warm up¨; Use your imagination, act or sing, get the students excited and involved using basic sentences and vocabulary that they can understand. Start with colors, numbers and from there you can start assessing the English level of the students. In training centers in China, it is very common to have classes with students of different ages, different English levels and different learning skills. So as a teacher, you should be able to create activities that can integrate and motivate each student during your class. Continue with the ¨study phase¨, it’s essential for a successful class with young learners the use of flashcards or any other visual aids. Focus your attention on the words that are difficult for the kids to remember or to pronounce. Don´t forget the use of proper and simple grammar! Chinese grammar is very different to English so, basic structures can easily be mistaken because of the bad formation of sentences. Make sure to be clear when explaining grammar and mostly be aware of those common mistakes. (You can read about teaching techniques on the TEFL course). For the ¨activation stage¨, I would recommend games and competitions that can show and make them proud about their progress. The culture is different and teamwork activities aren’t very successful if the teacher doesn’t know how to control them. Remember to always give a positive feedback to the students. If they make mistakes, you can correct them but be careful with the output. Children and mostly parents here, are very sensitive when talking about the learning abilities of the students so choose your words! As conclusion I would like to say that this course has been very helpful for me. I have been a teacher in China for three years and having the opportunity of studying this, has been very useful. Reading about some of the techniques that I already knew, gave me another perspective on how to apply them and learning new techniques of classroom management and variation of the activities, gave the tools for improving my lessons. I would recommend this course for any teacher or person that wants to become an English teacher because, it is important to be prepared and to know how to handle a classroom when the time comes.