Teach English in Lushui Zhen - Zhuzhou Shi

Topic: Why complete a TEFL course As a teacher with the passion of teaching young learners, experiencing and exploring new language and culture in other parts of the globe, I have come to realize that, to meet my career expectation and needs, I need a certification to kick start. I strongly believe Teaching English as a Foreign Language(TEFL) certification will better prepares me to teach English language skills, classroom management, plan lessons for foreign language learners, refresh understanding of English grammar concepts, methods and techniques of teaching new language, evaluation and trouble shooting. It’s just the right decision to take a TEFL course. Coupled with the fact that teachers play a vital role in the lives of the students in their classrooms. As a teacher, I should not only be known for the role of educating the students, I also need to possess an excellent communication skill, understand classroom management and appropriate discipline techniques to ensure a positive learning environment which are all offered by this course. As with all skills, teachers need to continue to improve their teaching skills. The first skill is the ability to give clear instructions and classroom management. Effective teachers need to be able to employ strategies such as breaking down instruction, modeling the activity and using visual aids for clearer understanding. Classroom management is the skill of organizing and managing the class, having a friendly, relaxed manner and maintaining discipline. Class management entails: eye contact, gesture and voice, grouping students, class arrangement, writing on the board, giving individual attention, teacher/student talking time, giving instructions, establishing rapport and maintaining discipline. The second skill that an English language teacher needs to possess is checking to see that the students understand the lesson, language point, instructions and others. This skill includes strategies/ methodology to prompt the students/teachers to show, model, use the language correctly. As learn from the course, there has been a continual and often heated debate as to which method and technique produce the best result. The most common methods are: grammar -translation, audio-lingualism, presentation practice and production, task-based learning, communicative language teaching, silent way, suggestopaedia and Engage Study and Activate(ESA). Among these approaches, the Engage Study and Activate(ESA) is considered the best approach as it allows students to be expose to the language, opportunity to use the language, motivation, less stress and anxiety. As learn in course unit 3, the Engage phrase allows the teacher to arouse the students' interest by getting them talking, thereby getting the students interest in the lesson through some activities like, games, music, stories and interesting pictures. The study phrase of this approach allows the students to focus on the language point, how it is constructed and correct usage form. The ideas of the study stage includes: elicitation, pronunciation, spelling, meaning, word order among others. After the language point has been covered, the activate stage will be practice by allowing the students to use any/all of the language they know. Here, the students are allowed to use the language freely. The difference ways of presenting a lesson using the ESA includes: straight arrow, boomerang and patch work. The third skill of a teacher is the ability to break down topics into manageable parts. It's therefore important for teachers to plan lesson in a flexible way, as it will guide the teacher towards the lesson objective. As noted from the course unit 9, there are a number of important functions to consider such as: aids to plan, work documents and record. It is important to keep the lesson plan, simple, not script, maintaining same structure, anticipated time, balance skills and flexibility. The fourth skill as an ESL teacher is the ability to make classroom more student-focused by creating opportunities for interaction. The interaction can be teacher to students, students to teacher, student to student. The teacher need to come to class well prepared with a clear lesson plan with a precise learning objective. Well detailed instructions on how to engage the students to get their attention, worksheet and other study materials for the study part of the lesson and activities to activate the point of lesson the teacher wants to ingrain in the students. As in each new teaching position a teacher is face with meeting a number of new classes for the first time. After having gained vital teaching skills from the TEFL course and applying it daily in the classroom, not only my approach and teaching techniques has improved but it has also increase the overall performance of my learners. I am all ready to start the corporate ladder.