TEFL Lindsborg Kansas

Many students in Korea are subject to attend after school tutoring better known as cram schools. They are often kept late and work on drills that may seem boring and mundane. For those that have taught in Korea, they can see the effects of these cram schools and what they do to students. Due to the late hours and drill like procedures students often come into school tired and highly unmotivated. So in this case teachers have to take on a new approach and try to motivate children as much as possible so they may think positively and feel eager to learn english. This may be through: Using technology in the classroom A smart board, which many Korean classrooms are equipped with, can serve as a stimulating visual aid that can focus a students attention. With a smart board, students can see clearly and font can be easily enlarged without poor penmanship problems. As well a video camera can be used to either let to students see themselves or let them speak to another Native Speaker via Skype. The TV screen should be accessible to all students, within their view and away from direct sunlight. Visual Aids children are often stimulated in a variety of ways and one way to bring “color” or life” to english can be through the use of visual aids. To start the class the teacher can have a daily board up that has the weather, date, word of the day etc on it and have a student come up and change it everyday. As well for games large dice can be used so the students can see which groups are called upon. Visual aids are also important for when describing new vocabulary or to introducing new topics. teachers Role The teacher acts as the main motivator in the classroom and it is through them that the children will decide whether they will enjoy or not enjoy the class. The teacher must take control of the classroom and act as an organizer, assessor, prompter etc to have a successful classroom environment. teachers need to be well prepared, as students thrive on structure and a well balanced classroom environment. Students are keen to receive positive reinforcement that they are doing a good job, this will instill confidence and they will feel good about what they are learning. The teacher's rules must also be fair and balanced so the students never feel like they can never be the best student because of preferential student treatment. Students also need encouragement by prompting either through visual or verbal cues to let them know that they are on track. Discipline With a disciplined environment students can become more motivated than they would be in a non-disciplined one. Gestures are really important in an efl environment where not all learners can understand english to a high level. So with gestures all the students are able to understand when it is time to stop or listen up. By also using the volume of your voice students can understand your words more clearly, it is important for efl teachers to speak very clearly as the students not paying attention may just not understand what is going on and then become disengaged in the lesson. Seating also has to be taken into account, will students be more motivated playing a game individually or as a group and vice versa with class discussions as everyone has their own opinion and may want to give their own ideas rather than agreeing with the rest of the group. Conclusion According to the author, in the classroom Korean students apparently employ a passive approach to learning which creates an inefficient learning environment. Without proper stimulation they are likely to take the same actions of passivity without the progression. The related research shows learning involves not only a different approach but a more manageable one. By having a highly motivated and interactive classroom the students may then, rather than pay selective attention, absorb more information therefore decreasing the future need for further cram study. Resource used: - ITT tefl course materials - http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2094427,00.html