Teach English in Xiyan Zhen - Yangquan Shi

For three months now, I have been teaching English online to kids from China. Every lesson is one-on-one, 25 minutes long, and lessons are prearranged as presentation slides highlighting grammar, topics, and vocabulary. The experience has definitely challenged me in many ways, but gaining the education and insights from ITTT’s TEFL Course has been extremely valuable in helping my lessons be more organized, engaging, and thought provoking for the students I get the pleasure to work with. The children I work with vary in age, knowledge, and proficiency with English. The experience has shown me how diverse and challenging learning can be between each individual student, and how methods towards success and learning can be extremely different for each student as well. One of the first things I noticed when teaching online was the challenge of building a rapport with a student in a small window of time. I learned early on that creating a good first impression was crucial for a positive experience for the student. Like highlighted in this TEFL course, I realized how important it is to create a welcoming and fun environment for students. When my students are able to feel relaxed and valued, they are more open to learning English and are better able to express themselves without the fear of making mistakes. If I am able to connect with the student early on, the material covered in the lesson is more enjoyable, and learning is improved. I also found it important to try to strike a balance between matching the student’s personality, demeanor and learning style, while also challenging them in ways to help them realize their strengths to improve their learning and abilities. For example, I have a student that is very quiet and shy, and has a hard time feeling confident speaking English. In most lessons, he struggles and can be hard on himself when he makes mistakes. I have found success with this student by being a little bit more quiet and calm when teaching, but also challenging him to speak freely and creatively off topic. I have learned to not correct every mistake he makes, and to focus more on what he does correctly and praise his engagement and attempts with English as often as possible. This has helped him feel less scared to make mistakes, while also pushing him to use English outside of the slide topics. He knows I care deeply about his learning, and has become more lively and confident over the lessons I have taught with him. I have also learned a lot about the dynamics when teaching students on an individual basis compared to teaching groups of students. Prior to teaching online, I have some experience teaching kids from ages 3-9 in classroom settings. I have realized that there are a lot of positive outcomes that result from one-on-one interactions. I believe part of this is due to the cultural and family values of China, but most of the kids I teach are highly engaged, prepared and well-mannered during lessons. Being able to focus your attention on one student also makes the lessons more focused and tailored to the student’s learning style. You are better able to recognize patterns of specific mistakes the student will make, and can correct the mistake more promptly compared to teaching in groups. When given the opportunity to work with a student on a frequent basis, you have a strong likelihood to establish a meaningful connection with them, and get to see their English learning in a very personal way. Despite many of the benefits to teaching lessons individually, there are also downfalls as well. One of the major problems I have encountered with students is the absence of group work and social interaction with their peers. Socializing with others is so important to learning a new language. It requires students to use their prior knowledge of the language in new ways, and gives them the opportunity to be more creative with concepts and ideas. This can happen to a certain extent with a teacher and a student, but it’s limited. Even when a student is comfortable with a teacher, there is oftentimes a lingering hesitancy to speak freely compared to speaking with their friends and peers. Group work can make lesson learning more fun and engaging and gives students more exposure to both listening and speaking skills in a more natural way. I have also found that some of the lesson material through the online program to be boring and tedious for students. Oftentimes when I see a disengagement from a student during a lesson, I work to try and extend off the lesson material to new ideas, or try to talk to the student about things they are interested in and loop it back to the concepts being covered. When a student finds the topics or interactions fun and interesting, they want to learn and have a better time improving their English. Using the skills I have learned from this course has helped me be more prepared for the students I am working with now. I believe it’s crucially important to constantly strive to learn and improve, and that the process can still be fun and engaging along the way. This course has given me valuable skills in my confidence and ability to teach English to students of all ages.