TEFL Hefei

This has been a very interesting course for me. I have studied a foreign language myself, but I have had no confidence that I would be able to teach someone else a language. To tell the truth I expected the course would include a lot more grammar and lessons about the actual structure of english. But that of course can be learned from any grammar book. I have been pleased that the course has focused much more on how to actually teach, rather than on english itself. My friends have tried to encourage me that I would make an excellent english teacher, but I have lacked confidence in the actual methods of teaching. Yes, I can speak english but that doesn't mean I can impart it to others. Now, I feel like I could take the curriculum from an established language school, and work with it, to teach students what I know and will learn about my native language. I do still feel a lack in knowing what to teach, or the skeleton of the lessons if you will, but having that in hand I have more confidence that I could teach. The curriculum from the school should supply that. The things I have learned about teaching from this course really could be applied to any subject, not just english. How to manage a class, how to plan lessons, how to manage discipline, etc. Those are basic to teaching anything. My thought at present is to return to Colombia where I have worked as a missionary for the last ten years, and teach english there. It is a required subject in the schools, and yet the standard of english is poor except in the very costly private schools. Of course the public school system can't afford to send their teachers to study english, and so the teachers try to make do with what english they themselves learned in school, and what they can pick up from books. Pronunciation especially suffers in those methods of learning. Fluent english opens up so many more opportunities for people, both for better paying jobs within their own country, and for employment abroad, as well as opportunity for immigration. So, I see teaching english as a way to better the lives of people in poor nations, a way to pull themselves up out of poverty, if they are willing to really study and learn.