Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Dazhangjia Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Liaocheng Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.
I began teaching ESL with only a brief 30-minute class and a referral to online materials created by past volunteers. We were taught to track the number of new vs. ongoing students in our classes. It was up to us to come up with the topic, materials, and to advertise the classes to the residents. It was recommended that we use the same materials that we were given to learn the country’s local language, but in reverse. It was assumed that since we were all native speakers of English that we could easily teach English to others. In the beginning, I was full of ideas and had a lot of interest in the classes I was offering, but the number of attending students soon dropped off. Some volunteers suggested various approaches to keep students coming, but nothing worked for me. I talked with other volunteers and found out that they had similar experiences. I was determined to learn how to successfully inspire my future students to learn and was determined to teach in an engaging way. After returning to the USA, I wanted to continue to teach ESL, but needed the skills to more effectively teach it. I researched online and found ITTT. I took a TEFL and TEFL for BE courses. I realized the tools provided focused on ESL learners in a way that enabled me to fill in the gaps in my brief experience teaching ESL and highlight the areas I already knew to have more positive experience on my students. The TEFL taught me how to write an ESA lesson plan, adapt the training materials to adults, create progress tests, and how to use and adapt games to enhance the learning process. These are all items that I wish I had learned before I taught my first class. I can now see after taking this course how these tools would have worked together to engage and inspire my students, as well as deal with conflict within the classroom. For example: I had a situation where one student eager for attention would answer all the questions asked of any student. I had tried to ask her to allow the other students to talk, she didn’t listen. That student left the class shortly after and never returned. I realize now that I may have been able to redirect her attention to help the others through pair work or perhaps have her be a teacher’s helper. In addition, I should have used a language placement test at the beginning of the class to determine the level of the students. I should have also obtained their feedback on what they want to learn to help provide buy-in to the teaching process and to encourage the students to come back to class. My lack of planning and not knowing what the students were interested in meant that most of my students left after 5 or 6 weeks. In conclusion, I am excited to use the knowledge I’ve gained through this course on my future classes. This course has provided the tools and resources to adapt my future classes and provide a good learning opportunity for my future students. I would recommend these courses to assist future teaches of ESL for Business Learners.
