TEFL Kearny New Mexico

Why should I complete a tefl course? A simple question, right? For many people (or aspiring teachers), it's because they love children and love teaching. For others, it might be an opportunity to seek out a new career. For me, I wanted to learn more about teaching and how to teach my students better. I look back at the past few months and wonder how I made it through the course. Dedication, determination, sacrifice and passion. Yes, indeed, all the above are necessary to be a truly successful teacher. Currently, I have 2 years of esl teaching under my belt while living in Korea. I feel I have learned a great deal about teaching, working with people from a different culture towards the same goal and understand what works in some countries does not necessarily work in others. I have also realized how much I have learned since I have gone through the tefl training. Being a good teacher involves really knowing your material. If not, the students will be able to sense if you aren't really secure in your knowledge of the subject. They will also think that maybe the teacher doesn't care enough about what they're doing to put serious effort into learning it first themselves. Let me discuss a few reasons why I would recommend a tefl course to anyone who has a desire to pursue a career in teaching, especially in a foreign country. For one thing, a tefl course will give you an amazing insight on how to plan a well balanced, successful lesson that includes all the necessary elements of learning. Before taking the tefl course, I was hardly used and was unaware of how valuable the ESA structure (Engage, Study, Activate) can be to someone. I was simply putting together lesson plans based on what others had done or suggested. Not only will the course give you an outline to work from, it also gives many helpful ways of putting it into practice. A tefl course also gives you different sources to find materials that will be best suited to your needs. Another very helpful aspect was that the tefl course takes you step-by-step through potential problems specific to an esl/efl class, and then gives you advice on how to deal with those issues. For instance, how to respond to a class that continues to speak in their native language. I probably would have just let things continued on as they were or lost my patience with the class. Thanks to the course, I now have an idea of how to manage things like this effectively. Reviewing verb tenses and other grammar was also highly beneficial for me. I've spoken english my entire life, taken english courses in school and been taught countless times the many rules regarding grammar and tenses. The tefl course helped reiterate everything and will be a source I refer to in the future when I have questions. I'm not saying that if you don't take a tefl course that you wouldn't be able to teach the language, but for anyone who has ever struggled with english before, it's amazing how much this course can help solidify things in your mind. Lastly, taking a tefl course will provide you contact with professional esl/efl teachers, which is a huge asset to beginning teachers. Being able to email questions and obtain comments is truly amazing, and the opportunity wouldn't be available to me if I hadn't decided to do the course. I don't believe anyone would regret taking a tefl course. I now feel more secure in my knowledge and won't be so nervous about entering a classroom for the first time because now I'm prepared. Sources: My tefl Units and personal experience.