Watson, Alabama TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

This unit helps to identify common problems and situations that a teacher may encounter in the classroom as well as highlights the basics of approaching a new group of students. New teachers are likely to encounter two types of classes; students who are new and have not been exposed to the EFL methodology or students who are have been exposed to the EFL methodology and know their classmates. First lessons are crucial for teachers to establish a rapport and set the tone for the lessons to follow. The first lesson helps teachers to understand their students better which would help teachers plan lessons better suited to the students needs and interests. There are several activities that can be used to understand the students better, one such example is a pass the ball game where students who get tossed a soft ball need to answer a question that the teacher directs at them and as they pass the ball, the next student with the ball has to answer another question. Getting right into the crux of a lesson during the first lesson would not encourage nor motivate students best. As such warmer activities are fun and short communicative activities designed to motivate and encourage the use of English. Examples of such warmer activities are Hangman, Pictionary, tongue twisters and memory games. It helps ease into the lesson plan or main focus of the lesson if the warmer activities can be linked to the study phase of the lesson. When teachers encounter mixed ability levels in a classroom, there are various methods and techniques teachers can use to help deal with such a situation. In the event that the ability difference is wide, teachers may spit the students into two groups, this would help tailor materials needed for both the group with the stronger ability students and the group with the weaker ability students. Another way of dealing with a mixed ability level would be to hand out the same materials but differ the tasks for the stronger ability group and the weaker ability group. Another way of dealing with a mixed ability level that teachers use to deal with the situation is to pair stronger ability students with weaker ability students. This would give the students a chance to help each other and increases student to student talk time for activities. Another situation that teachers have to deal with a large class. There are several methods to handle a large class. For example; using worksheets, pair work, group work, choral drills and appointing group leaders. The use of native language in class has been observed for a few reasons such as the students do not understand the lesson content, are bored or are trying to help a classmate. Countering and ensuring these reasons never occur are within the means of the teacher. A class is bound to have a number of shy students or students who are reluctant to participate. The use of pairwork, controlled practice, use of role-playing and encouraging these students to use a tape recorder are ways of encouraging and motivating reluctant students. As highlighted previously in the receptive skill unit, the prerequisite to covering listening texts would be to pre-teach difficulty vocabulary. Also, playing the listening text a few times or at half the speed would help students of both the stronger ability level and weaker ability level to grasp the listening text properly. Having an extra set of activities or materials for the stronger ability students once they have completed listening to the listening text while they wait for the weaker ability students to complete the listening text is a good way to maintain the attention of the students.