TEFL Lafayette Colorado

Improved understanding and teaching in terms of grammar. This has given me a deeper insight into the english language and its grammar components, which is something I hadn't been taught before in so much detail. This is not only essential for being an esl teacher and understanding the inner workings of the language but also since I have gained this knowledge from this course I have put it into practice more often during my lessons. Before I perhaps felt apprehensive to talk about grammar in class, but since picking up various vital and useful points in this course it has given me the confidence to teach and answer more questions concerning english grammar. Thus I have benefited and my students now have a better understanding of grammar. I have also gained a better psychological understanding of both teachers' behavior and students. Even though this may not have been immediately obvious whilst studying this course either in the materials or coursework, I do believe that many of the points covered within the course did connect in some way to psychological matters both for teachers, students, teaching and the classroom atmosphere. I have now managed I think to gain a better insight into students mentality and expectations even more so than I used to, by learning from this course how students should be taught and what teachers need to do in order to establish a connection with their learners and the environment we teach in and learn in. By learning about the ESA method with lesson planning I have realized that all lessons should include some structure to them and be separated into individual parts. Better lesson planning along with different lesson stage processes within my classes have made for improved time management and clearer goals to be set and met for a lesson. I have also been able to clearly set and differentiate between interaction times within a lesson as in should the lesson stage be involving both teacher and students or just students and students. By utilizing the ESA method in my classes more often or at least forming some kind of separated structure to my lesson planning, I have become more aware of how much time teachers spend talking and just how important it is to organize activities beforehand to increase student talking time. I have learnt that by using various materials, tasks and worksheets in classes that attention is drawn away from the teacher and allows students to work more independently. The greatest contribution this has to teaching is in expanding student talking time and reducing teacher focus within lessons. This has given me fresh ideas and approaches to lesson activities of which I have implemented in my lessons. I now also appreciate that relying on mere chatting techniques within the classroom aren't perhaps always the most productive. By taking this course I am now able to understand students' requirements more, by this I mean what they expect from their teacher and what they require in terms of esl learning. This has already given me a better insight into teachers' behavior and presence in the class and how it directly impacts learners and what I can do as a teacher to insure students are satisfied as well as feel comfortable with an esl teacher's presence. What I have perhaps gained most from studying this course is the desire to study further and read more in relation to tefl practices and what new methods are being put into use within the esl field, as well as teaching methodology. Since studying to become tefl qualified I firmly believe and have learnt the importance of esl teachers worldwide and just what an impact we have on developing people's lives and society. Therefore I would like to continue developing my own skills within esl teaching both independently and through professional organizations in order to become more experienced and more qualified with my teaching.