Teach English in Sunzu Zhen - Linyi Shi

Teachers function as managers, controllers, assessors, prompters, organizers, models, facilitators, and much more in their Teacher role. The Classroom is an effective tool because it creates a setting where focused learning can take place. Universities, Schools, and other institutions invest resources into having space and facilities reserved for classrooms because of their high value. Its realization depends on how well the teachers do in their classroom management as anyone, even extroverts, can be successful English classroom teachers through effective classroom management techniques. These go far beyond the physical characteristics of classroom management such as seating arrangements and visual displays. Optimal classroom management can be achieved through having a general foundation of teaching habits and lesson planning skills, along with effective English teacher attributes and skills on planning the types of lessons that are effective for teaching English. Teachers should develop effective teaching habits. They should maintain good eye contact, effectively use gestures and their voices, involve the students individually and collectively, organize individual work, pair work, and groups effectively, and appropriately arrange the classroom towards this objective. An important part of classroom instruction involves “writing on the board” and there are strategies that can effectively minimize the risks such as using an overhead projector or modern technology tools, preparing cards, inviting students to do the board writing, make sure you are well-prepared with chalk, erasers, and have board work already up before class starts. Give individual attention by knowing all their names, spending longer time with struggling students, use more randomness in calling on students, and work to build confidence in introverted students. Teacher talking time should be effective and limited so classroom time can be more focused on students speaking and actively participating in class. Teachers should develop effective lesson planning skills. The 3 primary purposes of a Lesson Plan are as a planning aid, work document, and a record. Keep it simple, do not try to script the lesson, structure all your lessons the same, in the margins estimate the time needed for each activity, check for balance of skills, and keep it flexible. Be organized and include some standards in your lesson plans such as Learner objectives, Personal aims, Language point, Teaching aids, Preparation for Lesson challenges, Procedure, Phase, Timing, Interaction, and track general factors like class level, number of students, Date/Time, names of teachers/observers, etc. Use a form template for the lesson plan and have activities put in a grid with column headings such as Procedure, Phase, Timing, and Interaction. Use a form template for Self-Evaluation. It’s helpful to plan sequence of lessons. But keep in mind the principles of Flexibility, Goals, Revision, and Variety/Balance when doing so. Successful English teachers should love teaching, have good subject knowledge, involve students, correct students appropriately, be kind & patient, and have other attributes like always improving their teacher skills. Good students have a willingness to listen, desire to experiment, acceptance of error corrections, desire to learn, and they will especially be successful if they will think about their own process and methods for learning as they take ownership for their own learning. The 6 general levels of language learner fluency are Beginner, Elementary, Low Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate, and Advanced. A Beginner has zero to basic language knowledge. Elementary learners can do basic sentence structures on a very limited number of topics. In the Intermediate levels the students are able to communicate in the language to varying degrees of levels. Advanced level students are able to communicate very well about anything in the language and their learning focus is on the nuances of the language. The primary motivators for students to learn a foreign language is for their career prospects, travel purposes, doing better in classes and exams where knowing the language is needed or helpful, they plan to study or live in a country where the language is natively spoken, they want to be able to more effectively communicate with friends, relatives, and colleagues who use this language, or they have an interest in learning languages. The types of lessons are "Straight Arrow" Engage-Study-Activate, "Boomerang" Engage-Activate-Study-Activate, and "Patchwork" for 4+ phases where we start with Engage, end with Activate, but customize to best fit the objectives of the lesson. Throughout history the "Grammar - translation" methodology has been the mainstay of language teaching, many new methodologies have evolved, and effective teaching now focuses on the "Engage Study Activate" methodology. In "Engage" we arouse the students' interest in the lesson and get them warmed up with speaking English and ready to learn material. In "Study" we do the activities that focus on the language, its construction, and activities to master new concepts for the language and/or reinforce and build upon previously learned concepts. In "Activate" we help students use the language "freely", not learn new concepts but reinforce the ones they've known and now just learned and focus on helping them develop fluency. Some common "Engage" phase activities include Introduction prompts, partner information shares, Fizz-buzz, and Alphabet relays. Some common "Study" phase activities include Elicitations, Pronunciations, Spellings, Meanings, and Word orders. Some common "Activate" phase activities include Role-playing, Surveys, mini-drills, communication games, Story building, and producing materials like brochures or advertisements. It’s vital to give effective feedback and to understand the differences and best ways to handle mistakes and errors. Facilitating self-correct and student - student correction will make lessons flow more effective and language learning more successful by reducing the needs for teacher-student correction and keeping feedback more positive while maintaining the lesson plan flow. In correcting writing it’s important to standardize with codes. The TEFL course recommends s, wo, t, s/o, ^, [], m, na, and p as the standard ones. Teachers may make up their own list as long as its standardized but for early and intermediate learners its best to have things standardized for all teachers in order to reduce confusion for students.