Teach English in Caohe Zhen - Jining Shi

The best thing I learned is that teaching and learning can be exciting and fun. The teacher sets the mood for the class and helps the students achieve their goals. The teacher’s confidence and positive attitude is important to establish a learning mood in the classroom. If she respects the students, and cares about them, they will respond by trying to learn. The English as a Foreign Language student has an incentive to learn English. He may need to be accepted by a university or gain employment and function in his job with English speaking people. A new student is naturally a bit overwhelmed with the task of learning a new language. The teacher’s task is to understand his language level and slowly introduce new material each day. If the teacher makes the work easy enough and interesting, the students will enjoy learning. The students will be tested by placement and diagnostic tests. The teacher will then know how to plan her course. Progress tests show the teacher what has been learned and what needs improvement. This course uses Jeremy Harmer’s Engage, Study and Activate method. In the Engage phase, students are encouraged to become involved and interested. Games, questions or flash cards can be used to get them to respond. In the Study phase, new language is introduced. There can be drilling exercises and worksheets to fill in the blanks. Thirdly, is the Activation phase. The students get to use the language they know and the new language introduced. Games can be used again or students can talk to one another in groups using the language they learned. Receptive skills are reading and listening. Vocabulary and language structure are introduced. Topics should be interesting to the group being addressed. The students could read or listen to a text about Elvis and then answer questions and write a paragraph about him themselves. Productive skills are speaking and writing. First the teacher can control the activity to give students a safe environment to practice the language. Then the teacher can use guided dialogues and help only when needed. Thirdly, students can practice role playing and discussion on their own with little help from the teacher. There are many games a teacher can use to lighten the mood in the classroom. A game can be competitive with teams or cooperative in a group. Fluency will be developed with various games using the new language. When they respond, they will feel included in the group. New material is then introduced in the study phase. Lastly, they are encouraged to use what they learned with others. Interaction with the teacher and others to improve their skills will give them confidence. It’s very important for the teacher to be organized. Each day will have a lesson plan. Course books have guides for teachers that correspond with the course books and learning materials. The teacher should have all materials ready for each teaching day. Course books will have guides for teachers to plan lessons and give tests. After the course, the students can use practice tests so that they will be able to get a good score on the various external examination exams. Once they make the effort to learn something new, they will feel proud. The feelings of insecurity about learning will be overcome. I enjoyed viewing the two videos of an actual teacher. The first teacher made many obvious errors. First, he had a poor attitude. He was unfriendly and rude to the students. He was unclear in his instructions. He embarrassed the students that he called on. In the second video his behavior greatly improved. He clearly stated the point he was trying to teach. He was polite, friendly and encouraging. I’ll remember the difference he made in the atmosphere of the classroom just by his behavior. A teacher can inspire students to enjoy learning. If she can empathize with her students, and understand their needs, she can be a good teacher.