Teach English in XujiahuZhen - Linyi Shi

At first, teaching beginner students may seem difficult, especially in a mono-lingual classroom where the students use their native language most of the time and you know nothing of their language. Soon this will be the most rewarding teaching experience one can have. Beginners can be at any age and have their own reason for learning English as a second language. They don’t have many opportunities to practice or be in contact with the target language outside the classroom. One of the most challenging thing as a teacher in a foreign country is to make your students to use the target language at all times inside the classroom. One thing to do regarding that is to create activities so that students can get an exposure to real life spoken English. It is to be expected that the learners will not feel relaxed in speaking the target language at first, so classroom activities should be more interactive than competitive, that will help lessen the anxiety. Get to know your students first and let them know you. This will build trust and make the environment more relaxed for them but also for you as a teacher. We all have been in the situation where we first start a new project with a new group, or the first day of school where we didn’t know each other and we didn’t feel comfortable with the new teacher. Relax the students and not force them to produce language before they are ready. For them to learn and enjoy doing that, keep it real and interesting, keep the instructions clear and simple. Besides the course book that will be provided by the school, use as many other authentic materials as possible. Keep your learners engaged in activities and also make it fun. For example, if the purpose of the lesson is to teach the students the vocabulary for animals, don’t tell, show. Use pictures, mime, sounds, flash cards, etc. This will help them to learn faster as it helps them to also visualize it. Don’t use your entire duration of the lesson just to teach grammar for example and to write at the board this entire time. The internet is a good resource to be creative at all times. Let’s take for example YouTube. There are songs that can help you as a teacher to introduce your students with new vocabulary or show them short movie clips from real life. All these materials available on the internet can be adapted for any age. Using games is another interesting and fun way to start your lesson and introducing learners with new vocabulary. You just need to learn what your students are interested in and work from there. Before starting any activity, make sure they fully understood what is required from them and don’t assume they did. Don’t just ask the question if they understand, let them demonstrate or give the explanation. As mentioned in a paragraph above, one of the most challenging things for a teacher is to make his/ her students use the target language at all times inside the classroom. Use as many communicative activities as possible, like role play, working in groups, discussions, describing a picture. You will notice that when working in groups or pairs they will mostly use their native language because they feel comfortable with it. In all activities, monitor your students, try to make them use English when talking to each other, but don’t force them. Some students will feel more relaxed in using English, others won’t. Some of them will learn faster than others. Change pairs all the time and mix the students between them so they can also learn from each other. Change activities at all times, don’t use the same activity each lesson, this will make them bored and they will know what to expect. Practice with them all four skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing. One cannot go without the other. For example, use cassettes for listening a song or a short story and then hand them in study phase a worksheet based on what they listened. Role play is a good activity for listening and reading, not to mention again this is a good way in making them use English. It is important to pay attention to the pronunciation. Let them listen fist and them make them repeat. Don’t move on until they pronounce the word or phrase correctly. One important thing to have in mind is to know when to correct your students. Don’t do it in the engage phase when the purpose is to elicit target language and to make them speak and think in English. Also, don’t over correct. This will only make them more nervous and they will stop participating in class. Instead, try to elicit the correct answer from them. Repeat with them what they have learned in previous lessons. Praise them a lot after an activity is finished. The purpose is for them to feel they are doing a good job and be more confident in their use of target language. As a teacher you will learn together with your students, you will have to prepare a lot all the time to make your lesson efficient and interesting. As long as your learners are happy in being in your classroom, you will be happy.