Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified in Alabama? Are you interested in teaching English in Malcolm, Alabama? Check out our opportunities in Malcolm, 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!
In this unit I learned about common problem situations in the classroom. When considering first lessons, there are two categories that these classes can fall into - new groups, where the students don't know each other and some work will be needed to establish rapport between the class members, and existing groups, where the students are already likely to know and be comfortable with each other and are usually familiar with EFL teaching. It is important for the teacher to establish rapport between the students (and teacher), to find out about the students, to find out about eh students' needs/aspirations with English, and to find out the English level of each individual class member. I learned a number of activities that can be used for these purposes, such as questionnaires/surveys, 'Tell us about', pass the ball game, and needs analysis. I also learned about warmers, which are usually short, fun, communicative activities designed to get students motivated and using English. Typical warmer ideas include: hangman, pictionary, tongue twisters, and memory games. One of the biggest problems that teachers face is a group where students are at varying levels. There are ways that the teacher can deal with this kind of situation, such as the use of different materials, the use of the same materials but with different tasks, letting the students find his/her own level within the class, or pairing stronger students with the weaker ones. Large classes can also present a number of problems, and techniques that can be used to aid with this are worksheets, pair/group work, clarity, choral repetition, group leaders, and dynamics. As discussed in the previous unit, it is important to motivate the students to speak in English rather than their native language. It is sometimes necessary for students to explain to each other the meaning of an activity in their native language, but it is the teachers' job to have the students practicing and using English as much as possible. I also learned about how to deal with reluctant students, using activities such as pair work, controlled practice, role-play, and utilizing tape recorders outside of the classroom. There are also common difficulties with listening texts and the speed of individual students' work in the classroom.
