Dazhou, China TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

When teaching English, it is important for instructors to keep their audience, or students, in mind. Are the students beginners? Is it an individual student, in a one-on-one session? Are the students young children? Are the students from a company? Do the students in the class all speak the same first language? Unit 19 discusses these different class types, and ways that teachers can alter their approach for the various situations. One example of a different teaching dynamic is teaching students one-on-one. This is extremely different than a classroom setting, and some teachers lament the loss of the classroom atmosphere. However, there are many good points to teaching individual students. First, they are often highly motivated, and can get through content quickly. Also, the instruction is much more casual, and teachers can develop close relationships with their individual students. It can be much easier to tailor content for the single student, since the teacher doesn’t have to worry about a surrounding classroom full of students. While these are all great points, it is important to strike a balance between what the student wants from the lessons, and what the teacher feels that the student needs. Students often can’t identify all of the areas they have problems with, and some only want conversation practice. So it’s important for the teacher to focus on improving their student’s abilities, as well as having them feel satisfied with the lessons. If the teacher only focuses on what they feel the student needs and not what they want, they might become frustrated and end the lessons. So the balance between needs and wants with individual students is crucial. Another classroom dynamic that teachers should keep in mind is a monolingual class versus a multilingual class. Monolingual classrooms can be convenient, because student problems can be anticipated by the teacher (based on trends), and students can easily consult with each other if they have questions or want to create a certain sentence. However, multilingual classrooms have their benefits as well. Students who all speak the same language can develop similar “bad language” habits. This can include improper pronunciation or poor grammar, among other things. These habits can be difficult to break, since all of the monolingual students understand each other. However, it would be much more difficult to pick up “bad language” habits in a multilingual classroom. Since each language has its own structures, they all lend themselves to having different “bad habits” of English. Students in the classroom would all have various first languages, so they wouldn’t be able to understand all of the each other’s “bad habits” very well. This forces students to communicate in more proper English, and not take so many “lazy” shortcuts. Also, it would give students a more realistic use of English, since when they are out traveling most people won’t know their first language. By knowing the backgrounds of the students (monolingual versus multilingual), teachers can work to the strengths of the classroom, and anticipate possible difficulties. In this unit, many different techniques and approaches were discussed for different classroom styles. This includes teaching individual students and monolingual versus multilingual classes, as well as teaching beginners, teaching children, and teaching business English or English for specific purposes. The longer someone teaches, the more likely it is that they will teach in classrooms with various different levels, ages, and purposes. Needless to say, the same teaching approach cannot be given to these varying classrooms. So it is vital for teachers take into account the specific details of their teaching situations.