Teach English in Sima Zhen - Jining Shi

Why TEFL Educator can have greater impact than TESL Educator. My chosen topic is why I believe TEFL has a greater impact on students than TESL. While some places will use the two terms interchangeably typically TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) is applied to teaching English to people in a country English is not the native language while TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) is normally reserved for teaching English to non-native speakers of English in a country where it is the native language such as England or the United States of America. There are many reasons why someone will become a student of a foreign language i.e. job advancement, travel, college or curiosity to name a few. If we put the motivation for learning the language aside and remove the relevant life experience, there are serious advantages to learning English is a native English-speaking country. The student is fully immersed in the language with the potential exception of their family or social network allowing for continuous exposure to the nuance of the language and usage. In the context of a TESL class you could utilize the same exact Straight ESA, patchwork or boomerang lesson plan as a TEFL class yet the benefit from the lesson can be almost immediately put into actualization by the TESL student who only need step out of the classroom where as the TEFL student may never be able to have a natural conversation in direct context other than in the classroom. While teaching English as a foreign language in a non-English native country you as an educator have a much more powerful role in your student’s life. Once again putting aside the motivation for the student to be in your class and assuming that their household does not speak English, it can be assumed that you may very well be the only English-speaking person in their life at that time. You must be able to engage and relate to your students on a much for meaningful way in order to prepare them to absorb the lessons. Teaching a foreign language can be a challenging endeavor in any situation, now try to imagine that you are the only person they must rely on for actual conversation as opposed to watching movies or television shows. It is not only up to you as the educator to teach the fundamentals or past and future tense or how to properly spell a word and associate it with its physical representation such as teaching someone the work book and then being able to associate it with an actual book. You are that students most important resource because once they step outside your classroom what they have learned is not immediately relevant to them if you have not adequately motivated them. To give an example of motivating students in a TEFL course I will share my experience in Vietnam where I want to teach both professionally and as a volunteer. Vietnam is a beautiful country filled with amazing people and breathe taking scenery everywhere you look, however the most amazing part for me were the children. Children who are learning English as a second language there who are very often encouraged to reach out and engage foreigners in conversation. It is highly probably that if you in anyway resemble a native English speaker that you will have children of all ages approach you with a happy and energetic “Hello, how are you?”. It is amazing to see the motivation and eagerness of student there to try to gain as much real-world exposure as they can. Motivating student in such a way is a powerful tool, but for many students who are not so adventurous you as the teacher are their only real-world exposure. It is for this reason I believe there is a much stronger impact of a TEFL educator on their students. To end I would like to emphasize the importance of education and communication regardless of where it is taking place or by whom. Education and communication are the corner stone of civilization and should be respected in all forms.