Teach English in Machengfuqiaohe Shuiku - Huanggang Shi

When employers need to hire a professional for a position in their company, they certainly demand that he/she possesses the skills required and predefined that position. Thus, the same can be said about an applicant who is applying to teach English language abroad. This means that this applicant has to possess specific pedagogical skills, which will allow them to be successful in their teaching, and interact effectively with their students. As many foreign English language teachers may realize from their teaching experience, a number of students, parents and institutions may have higher expectations about the teacher’s teaching skills and methodology. Furthermore, the cultural differences may cause a certain level of stress among novice teachers, especially when they are not aware of the cultural aspects within this new teaching environment. The lack of awareness may also be one of the causes that may turn the teaching task to an even more challenging one. Nevertheless, and as mentioned above, a different environment may also provide to the teacher with some opportunities for self-assessment and self-improvement. This may be the reason why learning teaching skills could play a major role in the teacher’s prospects. And as any other sort of professions, a teacher may not know in advance about the challenges that may appear. Therefore, the more trained the teacher is, the better suitable he/she would be for such a daunting task. Being able to communicate ideas in English has become so relevant that many companies may not accept to hire a professional who lacks this ability yet. These teaching skills are not only relevant to teach English to kids or pre-school students (so called young learners), but they are necessary to deal with new situations and challenges that could appear, as the number of adult learners willing to attend English classes and eager to pursue their studies is on the rise. Although teaching skills required to teach English varies from kindergarten, to pre-school, and to high school levels; teaching adult learners require additional expectations. These expectations, such as learner, school’s requirements and teaching environment expectations. In fact, learning teaching skills has become of great value due the fact that many people from a varied background are turning to schools to either learn English, or to just improve their oral abilities in the spoken language. In this situation, the ‘classic’ way of teaching English to kids can still be implemented, even though we may notice that different groups of people are bringing new demands to schools, as well as their previous experiences inside classrooms. A skilled teacher may take advantage of these circumstances and turn them into a teaching moment. This will also bring a new and rich classroom teaching experience to the instructor’s existing portfolio of teaching skills. Moreover, and within this new context where adult learners are turning back to English schools, it is both the institution’s responsibility and the teacher’s task to keep the learning method enjoyable and challenging at the same time. Especially, because these groups of students are self-motivated and career oriented and may have lots of affinities to be shared among them as well. This may become a particular challenge for a less experienced teacher, while making decisions on course material and teaching methodologies and assessments to be implemented in the classroom. While many students, worldwide, cannot afford to live in an English speaking country, where they become surrounded by the language in their daily life, a caring and competent English teacher may somehow improvise, and bring this environment into the classroom itself, where students can have a taste of the culture and the experience of living in an English speaking country. In reality, one of the teacher’s main tasks will be to pay attention to different circumstances that may affect the classroom dynamics, such as learners’ background, culture and specific needs. A common practice that may be observed is that all students need as much exposure to language as possible to help them boost their confidence in the communication process and exchange of ideas. In some cases, some students may have more confidence in practicing their language than others, and this can lead to a situation in which other students will not feel confident enough to share their views during the classes. An attentive and careful teacher will be aware of these issues and will work on balancing the exposure to language in a more equitable way among all the students. As presented above, learning teaching skills may equip the teachers with many resources to deal with a different range of students’, which can raise from some unexpected situations, and may transform the teacher’s professional career as an English teacher. The main purpose of this paper is not to enlist the best techniques or methodologies that should be used inside a classroom, it’s merely an assessment of some new teaching skills an English teacher should be aware of in order to provide his/her students with a customized learning experience.