Highland, Arkansas TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

In this lesson I learned about teaching special groups and the different types of classes. The first type of class in this unit was for beginners. There are a few categories that students can fall into. The absolute beginner is someone who has no English experience at all. The false beginner is someone who has studied English before but hasn't retained much of the information. The adult beginner is someone who has made the choice to learn so is usually more motivated. The young beginner often lacks motivation and usually hasn't made the choice to study. Lastly, there is the beginner without Roman alphabet which this student needs a lot of work on basic literacy skills. A few tips for teaching would be aware of your students needs, adaptability, being visual and encourage students as much as possible. A few things not to do in the classroom is not to over-correct, be sensitive and focus on what is easy (simplicity is genius). The next section went over teaching individual students. These students are usually highly motivated, no mixed levels, needs are clearly defined and you can develop a close relationship with them. A few things to keep in mind is to use a lot of activities from the course book, find out students specific language problems, be unpredictable with activities and techniques and utilize students interests. A few examples of some great activities that you can use are goal-oriented activities, personal history of family, relevant topics, music and photographs. Another type of class is teaching children. This may be one of the most rewarding classes to teach because kids are very curious and innocent. The lessons are usually positive and focus on real objects, people or activities. Some things to be aware of when teaching children are to be clear & articulate, repetition and positive responses to children. A few tips that you should do in a lesson: always use English for instruction, don't use their native language, speak slowly & clearly, play simple games and smile a lot & hand out rewards for good work. A few things for discipline and management would be problems at home or outside the classroom you cannot control. Try being as attentive as you can to all the kids in the class. Always be consistent with fair treatment to all the students. Try not to ever issue threats as well. Another class that English teachers can get involved with is business English. This is geared toward clients who are trying to build skills for their jobs or a career they are pursuing. The range of students you can get here are all skill levels and ages are typically from 20-50 years old. You want to generally have an idea of your clients business so you can align your teaching to be applicable to job needs. A few things to keep in mind with business English is that they are going to be sporadic with attendance, they are often tired and some not motivated. The balance of people you have learning you will need to be very adaptable. One thing that you should do is a needs analysis before planning out the course. This will give you a good idea for future lessons and what the students need/want to learn. It will also be good like I said previously to get information on their company. During the course it is a good idea to record attendance, covered material and details of the lessons. After the course you will want to write a post-course report that will include details of the course content, student evaluation and suggestions for further study. The last type of class is for multi-lingual students from different nationalities. These classes are normally in countries where English is the native language and students are residing there. The good thing about these classes is that most of the students are going to all have different native languages. The one thing they will have in common is English so you can use this to your advantage for students to get to know each other they will have to do it in English. A few things you can do to make it easier on students are: describing your rationale clearly and getting their support, your placement in the classroom, keeping activities short until students gain confidence and doing a lot of pair work so students will talk more. Finally, don't be overly concerned if students revert back to their native language. It will sometimes save time but try to keep their talk time high so they are getting plenty of practice.