Teach English in Daying Zhen - Xinzhou Shi

Gilbert Torres: July 9, 2019 End of Course Summative Essay. Page 1 Teaching Styles for ESL (English as a second language) ESL (English as a second language) teachers work with ELL (English Language Learners)for whom English is not their primary language. The purpose is to help them acquire when speaking, writing, reading English language skills. Not to mention listening skills, which are extremely important also. Therefore becoming an ESL teacher is not as simple as it may seem to some. It’s not as easy as just knowing the English language well and speaking it well. An ESL teacher has to be skilled in teaching very young, Teen, and adult students. Becoming a good ESL teacher is achievable; by applying his/her self and passing the required TESOL and TEFL exams to become skilled and certified. Besides being certified, a teacher must develop a unique teaching style that identifies the teacher and promotes his/her ability to teach English to a variety of students on many levels. In the following paragraphs, we will present some of the most prevalent teaching styles used by ESL teachers throughout the teaching community worldwide. Teaching Styles Quinones N. (2014) proposes the following teaching styles: • Teacher-centered approach • Direct instruction • Formal authority • Expert • Student-centered • Personal model • Delegator • Cooperative learning • Facilitator • Delegator • Cooperative learning Teacher-centered approach: The focus or main theme is that the teacher is the main actor or primary figure in this approach. The teacher takes an active role, while the students take a passive role and focus on learning the subject and passing the tests. Page 2 Direct instruction: This method is used as an adjunct to the primary purpose of the teacher-centered approach. It is mostly accomplished through the use of lectures and teacher-led demonstrations. Formal Authority: This Teaching style places teachers as the supreme authority in the classroom. It establishes that the teacher holds a higher status as compared to the students in the class. Management of the class is usually based on teacher established rules, with little or no room for deviation. This style can succeed when controlling unruly classes, but for the most part, this style is not useful for teaching very young or very mature students. Expert: The teacher in this model is a fountain of information due to his/her extensive knowledge of the English language, and his/her experience in the ESL profession. Students are considered to be the receptors of information. Personal model: This approach puts the teacher at the center of attention, but the students are required to do more than just emulate. They are expected to be able to imitate the teacher in his pronunciation, vocabulary, and listening skills. Student-centered approach: In this approach, although the teacher remains the authority figure, the students begin to play a more active role in the learning. Seemingly, the teacher gives-up some of his/her authority, and allows the students to take a more central role in the teaching. Inquiry-based learning: In this teaching style, the students are encouraged to actively participate in the learning process. The teacher acts as a guide or consultant in giving the students advice and guidance. This role would be very popular with teens, who are more mature and want to experiment with new experience in learning English. Facilitator: This model is well suited for more mature or advanced students. This involves letting the students “Do their own thing” to some extent. The teacher facilitates (by providing the tools needed by the students) to adapt to the more advanced elements of learning English. The teacher’s role is more Page 3 that of an advisor with few controls on the students and more sharing in the learning process. Delegator: This teaching style seems to be an offshoot of the facilitator style. It provides the most independence for the students in that they are allowed to carry out the lesson, make decisions, and decide how a lesson is to proceed. Of course, the lesson is well monitored so that the desired results for the lesson is achieved. In this model, the students run the class and the teacher acts as an advisor. A structure is provided making students take turns in conducting the class. Cooperative learning: The emphasis of cooperative learning is that students learn best by speaking English and interacting with their fellow students. To that end, projects are conducted that require students to listen, speak give and follow instructions, in exercises that allow maximum exposure within peers in the class. In conclusion, some basic teaching styles were presented. The details of some of the more commonly used teaching styles have been covered. These apply when teaching very young ESL students, teens, and even giving instruction to adult students. Remember that these styles are not absolute in themselves. They can be combined and variations of the styles are acceptable. The style that a teacher adapts to or employs depends on his/her personality. This can be dependent on his/her personality traits and factors. There are no right or wrong teaching styles. Whichever works for you and gets good results is the right teaching style that should be employed. Page 4 References Retrieved from http://www.oslteacheredu.org Quinones, N. (2014, February 25). Different teaching styles and how they affect your students [Udemy].