Waterloo, Alabama TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

This unit helps to identify the various types of students a teacher would encounter. There are types of students such as beginners, individuals, young learners, business English and monolingual or multilingual. Within the group of beginners, there are five subgroups. Absolute beginners are students with no language knowledge in that particular language, have never been taught or exposed to the language. False beginners are beginner students who have been exposed to the language via television, radio or tourism or in the past and have forgotten the language. Adult beginners and younger beginners are similar in skill and knowledge level but differ in age. The separation of the age happens between the ages of 16 to 18 that differentiate a young beginner from an adult beginner. Beginners without the Roman alphabets have to be taught basic and simple structures such as the alphabets. Individual students usually involve a one-to-one setting. The advantage of an individual student is that there is only one level of ability since there is only one student. A disadvantage of working with an individual student is that there is very little dynamic with only the teacher and the student present and it would require the teacher to be involved in the process of teaching much more so than in a usual classroom setting with more than one student. When it comes to young learners, there are certain techniques and methods that work and some that do not. For example; when working with young learners, teachers should constantly praise them which serves as motivation for young learners. It is also important to keep it fun for young learners as their attention span is shorter. Teaching Business English students is more about teaching English rather than Business. Teachers do not have to be an expert in the students' industry or job scope to be able to teach English. Within Business English there are three types of subgroups of students such as individuals, an entire company department attends lessons at a school or teachers teach at a company. Similar to teaching young learners, there are certain techniques and methods that work with Business English Students and some that do not work. For example; using a teacher’s ignorance about the student's job to their advantage by encouraging the students to use the new language they have acquired to explain their job scope of details. Monolingual students all share the same first language and whereas multilingual students do not share the same first language and speak various languages. For example; teaching English to Vietnamese students in Vietnam would be an example of Monolingual students whereas teaching international students from various countries in America would be an example of multilingual students. There are advantages to teaching a monolingual class versus teaching a multilingual class. For example; an advantage of teaching a monolingual class would be that the cultural difference is similar for all student whereas this would be a disadvantage of teaching a multilingual class. An advantage of teaching a multilingual class would be that they have no common language and will have to help each other to learn and master English. Different types of students require a different level of attention and skills from their teachers. Understanding which group your student belongs to would help plan efficient lessons to accommodate the needs and interests of your students.