Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified in China? Are you interested in teaching English in Linxia, China? Check out our opportunities in Linxia, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English in your community or abroad! Teflonline.net offers a wide variety of Online TESOL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Here Below you can check out the feedback (for one of our units) of one of the 16.000 students that last year took an online course with ITTT!
This unit discussed vocabulary, grammar, and functions in teaching English. I recognized some of the concepts from my college education courses, and from my own days of attending grade school as I read through it. I appreciate that teaching a new language is split into three categories like this, and can understand how it would make it easier to learn each part individually.
Since my original classes were about teaching English here in the states, I picked up on the differences and strategy in teaching my own language to someone of another culture who is learning it as a second language. I can see how you would need to keep it simple with showing how its similar to what they already know, making sure they spell things properly, and what is appropriate to say in their new dialect.
Having home schooled my daughter for a year, and helping my niece with her spelling homework from time to time, I understand that vocabulary is not just about learning new words, but also making sure those words are relevant to the students. This helps them make a connection to what they are learning and can assist in the process of linking the new words to what they know in their minds. One phrase in this section I learned was realia, as I was unsure what what meant by that for the engage phase, something I now know of as objects from their daily lives. Once again I see all kinds of exercises I remember doing in school, and having my students do as a substitute teacher.
Grammar is a concept I recall studying in middle school, learning the meaning and use of the language, its forms and patterns, but I picked up on showing the difference in the spoken and written forms as something I had not considered actively. I can see how that will be important, making sure my students know how to properly pronounce the words, not just how to spell them. With this being a change from their usual way of speaking, I can respect the challenge of that having taken french in college.
Something new I learned toward the end was about teaching the function of language in regards to inviting people to activities, as was the example given here. Obviously there are more functions to learn than that, but the idea of teaching how to properly extend an invitation and politely decline or accept can be highly useful for anyone wishing to visit the states, or simply spend time with someone from here. I had not thought about that at first, but now I can see the purpose of it and it has given me new areas to think about in preparation for teaching in this genre.
