I feel that this is one key component to teaching English that is ignored too often. There are some Westerners who feel that they must be uptight and on some kind of power trip when instructing a class. But being too serious in the classroom is the worst thing you can do when teaching ESL and such an attitude will antagonize a great deal of students. In reality, teaching ESL is half teaching and half entertaining. This is not to say that you have to be a clown and you should never be a clown. There is a qualitative difference between being a clown and being humorous and funny. As mentioned before, people from other countries aren’t as uptight and pretentious as we are in the English-speaking West. They are serious about studying, but they
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Can you remember a class or two where the instructor was painstakingly dry, mundane and seemed to drone on and on for eternity? Better yet, can you remember a class when the instructor just lectured the entire time like a dictator with little feedback from the students? Your ESL classroom should never resemble this scenario in no shape or form. As stated before, you should never be lecturing up there even when teaching grammar. The ESL classroom has to be fluid, fast-paced, engaging and active. In my opinion, this should apply to all language courses. I’ve taken a few Spanish and Japanese courses in which I felt I was being held hostage for 60 minutes. Never let your students feel in this way. Traditional teaching methods do not work when it comes to language instruction. It is your job as the ESL/language instructor to construct a classroom setting around creative activities, exercises and discussion questions. Teaching grammar is no exception. It’s ok to show them a few examples on the board and explain it, but do it quickly and efficiently. Find creative ways to allow them to practice the language during class time, so they can effectively use it outside of school. As stated in point number 2, student talk time should always be maximized in the ESL classroom and being creative is the only way to hit that 70% …show more content…
If you are going to spend a significant portion of your day around people of other cultures and colors, then you need to be open-minded and receptive to these differences. If your only interest to teach abroad is to save money, then you should reconsider. Sure, saving money is a worthwhile goal, but teaching abroad is also about the experience of living in another country. It’s 2015 and the world has changed drastically during the past twenty of thirty years. If you think that because you are white, people will love you everywhere you go, think again. The world has become hip to reality and knowledgeable on matters of race and culture compared to even twenty years ago. This rule also applies to how you treat other teachers. If you are planning on teaching in Asia. you are going to be working with teachers of other colors as the demographics these days of who actually teaches abroad is changing rapidly. When living abroad, you will be in the same boat as every other foreigner, so learn to get along and put preconceptions about people on the
Can you remember a class or two where the instructor was painstakingly dry, mundane and seemed to drone on and on for eternity? Better yet, can you remember a class when the instructor just lectured the entire time like a dictator with little feedback from the students? Your ESL classroom should never resemble this scenario in no shape or form. As stated before, you should never be lecturing up there even when teaching grammar. The ESL classroom has to be fluid, fast-paced, engaging and active. In my opinion, this should apply to all language courses. I’ve taken a few Spanish and Japanese courses in which I felt I was being held hostage for 60 minutes. Never let your students feel in this way. Traditional teaching methods do not work when it comes to language instruction. It is your job as the ESL/language instructor to construct a classroom setting around creative activities, exercises and discussion questions. Teaching grammar is no exception. It’s ok to show them a few examples on the board and explain it, but do it quickly and efficiently. Find creative ways to allow them to practice the language during class time, so they can effectively use it outside of school. As stated in point number 2, student talk time should always be maximized in the ESL classroom and being creative is the only way to hit that 70% …show more content…
If you are going to spend a significant portion of your day around people of other cultures and colors, then you need to be open-minded and receptive to these differences. If your only interest to teach abroad is to save money, then you should reconsider. Sure, saving money is a worthwhile goal, but teaching abroad is also about the experience of living in another country. It’s 2015 and the world has changed drastically during the past twenty of thirty years. If you think that because you are white, people will love you everywhere you go, think again. The world has become hip to reality and knowledgeable on matters of race and culture compared to even twenty years ago. This rule also applies to how you treat other teachers. If you are planning on teaching in Asia. you are going to be working with teachers of other colors as the demographics these days of who actually teaches abroad is changing rapidly. When living abroad, you will be in the same boat as every other foreigner, so learn to get along and put preconceptions about people on the