Teach English in Meigui Zhen - Jinan Shi

Teaching different age groups can be a challenge. This is more so if you are a new teacher in the field. No matter the age group you're teaching one must be prepared to adapt what they know and the materials to the students' needs. When teaching kids from 5-7 years old you have to take into consideration that they may not be there with a motivation to learn a new language, so you will have to make it interesting by adapting your lesson plan and appeal to their attention with imagination and curiosity. From teaching experience, there was no need for me to create a lesson plan. The company I worked for was an independent English school and had its own methodology, books, CDs, material anything that a teacher will need for the class. The energy was a must when teaching young learners even though the school provided you with the training materials and how to teach a class they never taught how one must adapt the lesson plan to the students' needs. At first, it was trial an error because of some of the grammar for some kids were a bit more advanced than others. With time I learned to adapt certain activities in the lesson plan to the students' needs without affecting what was being taught. I was able to learn to create activities, games, and worksheets (for the students that knew how to write) that they were familiar with. Based on the experience of teaching kids having patience, being enthusiastic and creative is key to teaching young learners English. Teaching age groups 7-12 was a challenge at first. You are dealing with different older age groups, interests, and levels. With time and trial and error, I was able to develop warm-ups that would help me identify which students were the strong ones, which ones liked to participate and which ones were the weaker students. This was easy to identify because the school that I worked for was located in a small town and a class at most was from 3-5 students they were always small classes. Once I was able to identify the level of each of the students, it made it easier to adapt the lesson plan's activities accordingly to each students' needs. Warm-ups, activities, group work, worksheets, and interaction were carefully assigned to the specific student/group, or class in order to stimulate the interest of the student, that way it makes their learning easier to master and fun. By having them communicate and adapting the lesson to be interactive it has a positive effect when furthering their language in grammar, writing, and speaking abilities. The next age group was always a mix with teenagers and adults, those classes at the maximum would be up to 4 students the age groups would be from 12 years old and onwards. Depending on the lesson that was taught the students were always evaluated to see what level each of them had. Both teens and adults had already a certain level of knowledge. With a mixed group, there were some teenagers that just do not want to be there and there were some that were there because they were curious about the language and eager to learn it (mostly for school). The challenges to teaching teenagers was to plan activities that would engage everyone and make learning fun. Adults that went to that school had specific reasons for learning English and already had previous knowledge. The Lessons are more structured and formal and the focus was to improve their English on their specific reason(university required it, job offer, moving to an English speaking country for a certain period of time, traveling). Versatility in-class activities, feedback, corrections(not always)amongst other factors were key to help with mastering their language skills. As a teacher, one must awaken interest in students to always learn more, it is always good to test learners in accordance with the students’ age, and done in a way that will put each language skill to the test whether if it is speaking, reading, listening comprehension and writing. Every age group processes a new language differently for a teacher it is important to be able to understand the differences so it is easier to fit the needs and abilities of students. Patience and understanding of your students’ goals and needs are part of many factors to help them reach their success in learning the English language. Students will flourish because of the teacher's ability to meet each one's own learning level. As a whole, the class will maintain a sense of unity, as no particular student is singled out or left to catch up on his or her own. Even though I was provided with everything, I learned to adapt to what I had to suit each student's needs. It is a very rewarding experience being able to awaken a language that is already within one.