Teach English in Anli Zhen - Weinan Shi

Throughout the journey of a TEFL or a TESOL native or non-native English speaking teacher, there are many unforgettable moments of achievements and moments of challenges. Some teachers might think their challenges are easy, others find it very difficult. One of these challenges is building rapport with an English Class. Why is building rapport important for any class? How does a teacher establish rapport in a given class? These are questions that I shall answer. In order to establish rapport in a class, a teacher generally tries to conduct a fun, engaging, and sometimes intellectual activity to be acquainted with the students. Imagine on the very first day of a school term, in the very first lesson that a teacher teaches, she doesn't know the students all that well. Therefore, she needs to be acquainted with them first. She will first get the attention of all the students in the class with a greeting phrase such as "Good Morning Everyone!" or "How are you guys doing?". Next, she will conduct an ice-breaker activity, an example can be passing the puppet around the class one by one. Every student who holds the puppet need to introduce himself or herself (or say a colour, number, an alphabet, an animal one by one for young learners). At that point, she can listen to the students' introduction and not only learn something from the students but also evaluate the English level of those students. She could also do a "Tell us about you" activity in which the students are required to pair up and come up together to the board and present to the class about each others' hobbies, goals, or talents. After these ice-breaker activities, students should be more active and engaged in class and will be prepared for the lesson. Therefore, by doing fun, engaging, and interactive activities, we can establish rapport with the students. A teacher regardless of his or her experience should also be an active participant in his or her own lesson to build rapport and be a role model for the students. Students need teacher's care and attention when they are unsure or don't know about the new materials learned in class. In this case, if the teacher first demonstrate how the activity is played, then the students will have a much better understanding, and will do the activity in the right way. An example can be, the teacher first explains a game that uses an object--a puppet; students need to pass the puppet around in a circle until the teacher says "Stop!". Whoever has the puppet get to pick a question from the hat then answer the question. The teacher also joins the game to serve as a role-model; she or he will first pick the question and answer it for the students--"What's your favourite subject to teach and why?". "My favourite subject to teach is Travel and Tourism because I love to travel around the world, to learn different cultures and to meet different people of other nationalities". After the teacher answer the question, the students will feel much more comfortable to answer the questions themselves, therefore, they will feel very happy and a pleasure to be in class. Furthermore, the teacher should also use simple and clear instructions when explaining the activity to allow the students to understand the activity; he or she should also consider the students' English level and select appropriate questions for them to answer. In this case, questions such as "What is your hobby?" or "Why did you decide to study English?" are all relevant questions for a pre-intermediate class. Establish rapport with the students is crucial for the success of the class. If the class is very bland without any engaging activities, then the students will easily be bored, tired, or lost interests in learning English altogether. It's even worse when they start to disrupt the class or doing something else by not listening to the teacher. So as English teachers, we need to make sure our students are actively involved, engaged, and encouraged at all times in order to have a successful and productive lesson. It is also very important for the teacher as well! If your lesson is productive, and the students are actively involved and engaged in your lesson, then the parents of those children(if they are young-learners) would be very satisfied. They would eventually brag about how wonderful your class is, thus, your ratings as a teacher would rise and referrals as well! If they are adult learners, they would refer to their friends, relatives, colleagues, and other acquaintances to even have a demo lesson with you. In general, establishing rapport is very important for the success of your lesson and career. In fact, in any kind of job in the service work industry, it's important to establish rapport and maintain a great relationship with your clients, colleagues, or managers. Whether you work in Sales or in the Education field, it's imperative to establish rapport with anyone you meet. In conclusion, establishing rapport in a class is vital and important for the success of your lesson and for your own benefits. We should conduct fun, interactive, and engaging activities at the start of the class to get students interested in the lesson. Then we should also be a role-model and an active participant of the activities that we conducted to further instigate the students with our lesson and lecture.