Teach English in Meli Zhen - Yuncheng Shi

Generally teaching English as a second language for beginners is a hard task for anyone. No matter what someone`s background, or experience level, teachers will encounter constant new challenges when teaching English as a second language. Like teaching other subjects, teachers will find that every student learns differently. At the same time, depending on the primary language of each student, teachers will face new challenges unique to that language. However, with some work and knowledge, teachers will be able to gain the needed skills to teach English as a second language to beginners. In my personal point of view, teaching beginners can be a difficult way, especially when it’s a monolingual group and teacher knows nothing of their language, or it’s a multilingual group and the only common language is the English teacher has been tasked with teaching them. Nevertheless, not only is it possible to teach beginners only through English, but it can also be one of the most rewarding levels to teach. According to my teaching experience the below mentioned goals are the most important teaching tools. Firstly, I want to mention some vital activates that teacher should cover while teaching English as a second language for the beginners. Teacher should identify the learning goals Teacher should figure out that beginners have little background to the English language; they have absolutely nothing to build on. Teachers should start with the basics, but consider what students will need to know first. Probably, it makes sense, that students need to know first is how to introduce themselves and greet others. Encourage students for small achievements Absolute beginners will tell teacher they don’t speak English – till the very end of the course. What they’re thinking is that they don’t speak English fluently, or like teacher, for example. But make sure they’re aware of what they can do. Teachers have to use students’ senses Beginners may not have enough knowledge to understand explanations, synonyms, definitions, i.e. anything you describe with words. Instead, use students’ senses to maximize learning. The easiest to use with beginners are visual aids like flashcards including plenty of gestures, as well as real life objects. Better to show then tell Because students haven’t been exposed to the English language enough, try to minimize their reading of dialogues and conversations, and act out the situations, instead. This goes for most of the expressions and functions they will have to learn. Teacher should build on what students have learned before It is essential for absolute beginners to review what they’ve previously learned, and it’s a great idea to start each lesson with a brief review. But teacher can also re-use previously taught language points and introduce them into a new context. Teacher must be honest Just because students are beginners, it doesn’t mean they can’t handle real life situations. Teacher should still teach in context, and provide as many examples of real life situations and real props. Even though real maps, brochures or catalogues are filled with vocabulary students won’t understand, it is important to help the absolute beginners deal with, precisely, these types of things. Secondly, the fundamental basic steps that the teacher should pay attention to are very essential. Especially with beginners it is important to go slowly. The teacher needs to introduce easy information and do not add in more information until the students are comfortable with what they have already covered. May be from the first lesson they were not able to understand the topic completely but in a few lessons they will be able to cover it with the help of different tasks. In the classroom the teacher should prepare lesson plan in advance. In the classroom the teacher will need to talk slowly for the students to be able to understand. And when the teacher does choral repetition or drill exercises, must be sure that the whole class is included. After the explanation of the topic it is necessary to choose practice activities that are simple, easy to understand, and easy to explain. If the teacher gives hard tasks or tasks including many unknown words anyway it won’t be acceptable for the beginner to understand. That is why choosing an available and easy task is very important. After each task it will be good for the students to give them a feedback of they manages the task, so to say to evaluate what they have done. Another important thing in teaching the beginners is having fun. As the material is totally new for them it is very important for the students not to get bored or tired during the lesson, so for that the teacher must combine two in one: teaching and having fun. Regarding having fun the teacher can make use of different games, role-plays which will both activate and teach the learners and they will attend the lessons with pleasure being sure that a new game is waiting for them in every lesson. In conclusion, regarding to my personal investigations it is very important for the teachers all the basic activities to figure out students` interests and needs and it doesn’t matter if she/he teaches a group the attitude should be individual and respectful. The teacher should be as a model to encourage students to learn English with fun and pleasure. The teacher should consider each student equally and not to distinguish between weaker or strong ones.