Teach English in Xuzhuang Zhen - Liaocheng Shi

Why learning grammar is important. Introduction In everyday life where one may come across different people for different reasons, whether it be a job opportunity, making and maintaining relationships of all kinds, good grammar is needed. I view grammar as something that can be seen as the colour in words people say or read regardless of the language, it can be a way of getting a point across or a message , e.g people use adjectives to describe how they feel ,e.g “Jim is suffering from a small heartache, since Jane left” or even describe things such as a book e,g , “the witty book” or even a movie ,e.g “ the action packed movie”. Grammar helps people add character and their personality to everyday conversation, it is also a way to showcase a level of intelligence, one can hide messages by using subliminals or euphemism, finding ways to let the truth out in a less offensive or disheartening way , e.g “before I go/ before I die”. Why complete a TEFL course Completing a tefl course will broaden your way of teaching and view of the classroom. As a teacher I have been able to apply my knowledge from this course and I find myself exercising a lot of knew techniques to deal with problems in the classroom that I learnt from this course. Completing a course of this nature only elevates you as a teacher and allows you to grasp and feedback a greater understanding of the englishlanguage back to the students. Course material In my experience as a teacher, course materials can either open up a directed streamline approach to teaching, or restrict the style of teaching. It really depends on the teacher, individuals differ in terms of they receive/perceive course materials. Some can be very informative with practical examples and some materials can be less informative and give limited information and guidance. Course material is not only books, it can be a wide range of media ; cd, songs, poems or brochures even. There is a time to use course materials, sometimes it is needed to use different media to break the mood and direction of learning. Learning techniques In my daily progressions as a teacher I have seen that children are receptive to different ways of learning. Some students require hints and they are confident in finishing off, some require little to no assistance, some who are less confident or knowledgeable require a teacher to give synonyms to get a point across or a question. Sometimes students are able to open up when a lesson is centered around them and they run it, this technique is called the Community Language Learning, with the teacher limited to a guiding role. Motivation in the classroom Motivation in the classroom is dependent on many variables. Coming from a high school background I am now in a primary school were children light up when there is print rich them, kids learn better. Motivation in the classroom differs to different students of different stages; it can be tone or even dress code to motivate students to be attentive and to participate. Rewarding students also goes a long way in keeping kids motivated. Teaching Monolingual vs Multi lingual groups Some students may have been exposed to English at some point and some may not have, teaching students often comes with challenges and one of them may be having students who are monolingual and those who are multi lingual. A teacher can face a very hard time when teaching students who only understand one language, this may be a language the teacher is not capable of speaking so the transfer of knowledge can get lost or slow. Multilingual groups allow a teacher more elbow space to move around, should worst case scenario appear a teacher can, even if it is not textbook method, but assist the lessons progress by switching languages. Conclusion I conclude that there are so many factors to teaching and learning grammar, this affects how one hears questions, phrases them, understands statements, or reads in between the lines. A good understanding of grammar allows us to even understand witty jokes. A statement said in a particular accent can make an audience aware of who is at the receiving end of the joke. Dialect also comes into play and this helps with locating areas and origins of where the speaker comes from. In retrospect I am a much better teacher now that I have completed this course, I am equipped to manage in tough situations and I am able to say that the tests I have completed have opened my mind to the different avenues of teaching grammar, whether conventional or new age method, I conclude with a joke to show how important grammar is, let’s eat grandma! when in fact we should be saying…let’s eat, grandma. Punctuation saves lives.