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It may be daunting embarking on a new career as a TEFL teacher or even coming into a new classroom. It is increasingly difficult when students don't speak English as a first language, and even more problematic when these students may not speak any English at all due to being absolute novices. In any case, this essay will attempt to outline some simple competencies which will be useful to adhere to as a TEFL teacher with regards to teaching styles. To develop a balanced and individual teaching style, it is essential to possess a genuine personality, organisation skills, and a thorough knowledge and skills competency base. These three factors will be discussed in the paragraphs below. The first essential factor in developing a teaching style is implementing a genuine personality to establish rapport with students. This typically includes having a warm, friendly, and approachable nature in addition to a genuine and non judgemental attitude. This can be done by utilising body language and eye contact accordingly whilst being mindful of cultural sensitivities. Having a good balance between tone, pitch, and pace as well as utilising various positive gestures will be important. Possessing these innate qualities when dealing with students will allow them to feel safe in the classroom to freely practice their English skills. It will allow them to increase their self esteem which often leads to greater success. Another key part of establishing rapport with students is having a genuine curiosity for students interests are, and what is motivating them to learn English. This cannot simply be done in the first initial lesson and will often be done over a course of time. Subtly implementing activities or materials over a sequence of lessons is extremely beneficial as it will further captivate students attention (this will be discussed in more detail later). Finally, it is extremely important to have a fine balance between being a fun/friendly teacher and maintaining order. Fine organisation skills are an essential facet of everyday life however in the TEFL world it means being prepared for lessons. Throughout this course I have learnt the importance of developing lesson plans with various structures such as straight arrows, boomerangs, and patchwork. It was discussed that each teacher, including myself, will have a different style when it comes to lesson planning however I believe that it will be most beneficial to plan lesson plans with a good structure. This will mean having learner objectives for the lesson, activities and time estimate for each phase (engage, study, and activate), materials, and anticipated problems. Whilst adhering to this lesson plan is not essential at all times, as flexibility is often encouraged more, it will assist with the initial stages of TEFL teaching. It will also be more beneficial to plan a sequence of lesson plans that fit an overall structure with an overall aim/goal. This will further assist when evaluating and reviewing the progress of the students. As stated earlier, these lesson plans do not have to be rigid and adhered to overtime, but will be of greater benefit to myself initially as a more natural style will tend to develop over time. The final factor relevant to this essay is having a solid knowledge and skills competency of TEFL course content. This includes designing lessons with a balance between all four skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing). In addition to this, having thorough understanding of grammar (present, past, and future tenses) as well as conditionals, reported speech, modal/auxilary verbs etc. Whilst it is impossible to know the definition and use of all of these, having a thorough understanding will instill confidence in students and further assists with establishing stronger rapport. It will be important to use materials from a variety of resources and changing these regularly to avoid repetition or boredom. Again having greater rapport with students will be useful to include things that interest them directly. The effective use of materials/activities will depend on a variety of factors such as the level of english and class size. Ultimately, adhering to a balanced use of these competencies will increase the likelihood of becoming a successful teacher. Over time I will start to develop a more natural style with regards to personality, organisation skills, and knowledge/skills competency. I believe that I already possess the personality required for a TEFL teaching role due to working in the human services field with children for many years. Although this was in a different setting, it was essential to develop rapport with the children which I think will be easily transferrable to this role. I possess general organisation skills from everyday life from my university degree and previous professional roles however, I will start to develop greater flexibility with lesson plans and build inventory of available materials. The most difficult skill to master will be the skills/knowledge competency of TEFL course content however I will become more confident as time progresses with building greater knowledge base. I will not be able to know all grammatical structures off by heart but this will start to become more automatic. In summary, I believe that I have the building blocks to implement a balanced and individual teaching style which will further flourish in a TEFL teaching role.
