Teach English in Chewang Zhen - Linyi Shi

Being a teacher comes with many responsibilities. It is important to hone multi facet skills to deliver such responsibilities with great results. Especially it is more challenging when a teacher handles a class for teaching a language. Teachers must, first and foremost, teach the curriculum, but they are also required to meet testing standards, fulfill administrative tasks, and develop lesson plans based on the needs of the students. Before we analyse, understand and practice various teaching skills in a classroom it is important to identify and asses the various challenges a teacher encounter during day to day handling of students in a language class. Students from diverse culture, mixed of students, lack of motivation...... As a teacher it is very much important to adapt a specific personality to be kind towards the students and hold a lot of patience while teaching mixed group. Constant motivation to students and keeping them engaged throughout the session are two key factors which play a major role. While taking a lesson it is very important for a teacher to take complete control of the class and of course giving opportunity to each of the students to stay involved and gathering timely feedback. Many a time when a class constitute varying level of students , the teacher need to organise them in to different groups and assign them varieties of activities. Throughout the learning session , the teacher should stay responsible and must be skilled enough to monitor what is going on in the classroom and do time to time assessment, grading and giving feedback. When a classroom comprise students from different cultural background and mixed level of knowledge, then it is very important for the teacher to assess the situation and decide what kind of teaching methodologies should be adopted. The teacher must try different strategies to get the learners to respond and opportunity to speak in the class which will eventually lead to self discovery of learning by the students. It may be by asking simple questions, showing objects, drawing, etc. Before jumping on to the real topic it is always a good strategy to begin with a warm up session by stimulating or engaging students through fun, games, stories, etc. After the engagement phase, the teacher should start the study in a slow pace , not to create panic and boredom among the students. As we discussed above, feedback is an import methodology, for that teacher must activate the students to discover what they learn. This may be through communication games, debates, story writing , etc. Being a good teacher it matters how effectively he or she manages the classroom. It is not necessary to be too much extrovert or maintain a low profile. However to bring out the best from the students the teacher must be able to inspire the class to build a confidence through good rapport with the students. The teacher must know where to stay flexible and when to get firm to control the disturbing the students in a class. A good eye contact, explaining with right gesture and addressing students by their name helps a teacher to engage students with a great deal of involvement. In addition, a clear voice modulation help the students to understand the lecture session much better and remove boredom. Wherever possible the teacher should use visual clues and demonstrations by using pictures and mime. Soon after the explanation, it is equally important to check and ask the students what they have understood. Over and above, as a teacher we must take utmost care to develop the receptive and productive skills among the students. The teacher should adopt a balanced approach to inculcate the skills of reading, listening, speaking and writing among the students. Before the lesson is started, the teacher must understand with what motive students have come for a particular course. Is it for a specific purpose and career , or for a fun to know about the subjects. While encouraging and assisting students to read and listen, it is always important to describe the context of the topics , otherwise some time it may lead to confusions and misinterpretations. To improve the receptive skills of students, the teacher should first decide what topics shall be discussed in the class. An interesting and amusing topic may encourage the students to focus more on listening , reading and remain engaged in classroom. Pre-teaching of frequently used vocabulary and careful selection of texts in reading materials plays an important role to prepare the students to understand the topics better. Whatever learnt, the student must be able to use it. Especially in a language training session , the students must be able to speak and write by using the new language. Instead of giving home works on writing, the teacher should assign brief tasks of writing in the class room and guide them where to correct and what to improve. Classroom assistance on exercises related to speaking and writing helps in clearing up many misunderstandings on the spot. The teacher should ask students a lot of questions and not recommended to talk with them in their native language even though he or she knows it. Especially in a class of mixed level of students, the teacher may go for splitting the class into multiple groups based upon students' level of understanding or pairing weaker students with stronger. Teaching is a skill and an art, but it need a proper planning to get ready for the class and complete the topics as per stipulated schedule. Writing a lesson plan helps a teacher to think logically about what to teach within time and tracking the progress of completing a lesson. This becomes a working document and a record of what has been taught in a class by using what kind of teaching materials. This also helps a teacher to understand what topics were more interesting for the students and where the teacher have to give more effort to enhance the receptive and productive areas for each student.