TEFL Ball Ground Georgia

efl in Kindergarten Something that has a spot close to my heart is the teaching of english to children. I have had personal experience teaching children of preschool and kindergarten age and enjoy it very much. I worked an au pair for two years with the objective to teach the children to speak fluent english. We are also raising our son bilingual, speaking english with me, and German outside the home and with my husbands` family. With four official languages and english spoken worldwide, Swiss students start language studies very early. If my husband hadn't taken english in elementary school he may not have had the drive to continue language studies into college and wouldn't have been fluent when I met him. Learning languages when young instills something special, a spark, and the drive to continue; if the student had a positive experience with learning. It's very interesting to watch how children learn languages. Their minds are soaking everything up, almost, it seems through osmosis. I have watched young students, at our international school, who come from speaking no english at all, who seem to magically pick up the language and are further along with their english in a few months then I am with my German after two years. I have personally found that keeping things simple with the kindergarten age is the best. Their minds are expanding and taking in so much, and their attention span is significantly shorter than older children or adults. With all of this they can get frustrated easily and temper tantrums will ensue. Keeping activities fun and light, with many visualizations and movement will keep them entertained and engaged. Flashcards, videos, stories and games are all helpful to have in your repertoire. At this age your lessons will be mostly vocabulary and picture recognition, as students are too young to read or write in most countries. With this, repetition is the key. When I was working as an au pair the boys aged 3 and 5, would sing english songs all day, over and over again. They knew the lyrics by heart and thoroughly enjoyed learning in this form. Obviously in a classroom setting you cannot sing or play all day, but fun repetition of subjects is very useful. To the teacher with this age group, many teaching tools will come in handy; Puzzles with the alphabet are valuable, as students may have learned to recognize the letters by this age, flashcards with colorful pictures, songs to sing along and dance to (head and shoulders in a good one), materials to create and draw with, and story books, I have found that no child objects to being read a story, no matter what the language. Teaching the kindergarten age will be very different than teaching older children or adults. You will find that your class has a lot more movement and chaos, your lessons will have to be cut shorter and your class discipline may get creative. This age has its challenges but it is also very rewarding! children in the preschool to grade 2 ages are eager to please. In my experiences children are willing to trust and try anything, if met with positive encouragement and fun activities. If you, as a teacher work hard to establish a good relationship with your younger students and to know a little bit about each one, they in turn will try hard and love learning. Students at this age may not understand why they have to learn english and motivation will be lacking. Your job as a teacher is to give the students a classroom where they want to be and a teacher they want to please. The kindergarten age can be very frustrating, personally though, it is one of the most fun, rewarding and entertaining ages.