Greenacres, Florida TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

Teachers most often are faced with the problem of meeting a new class on in their new teaching job. It is therefore important to establish a good rapport with the students and set a tone for the rest of the course. The classes basically fall into two groups: There is the `new group‘ of students that don’t know each other and so the teacher will have to establish a rapport between the class members. The second group is the ` existing group‘ where students are already familiar with each other and therefore very comfortable in the classroom. In the first lesson of teaching, teachers should try not to use the coursebook, but to rather use activities that will create a rapport between the students (new students) and also between the teacher and class. Teacher’s should also find out the English level of individual class members, find out the students’ interests as this will enable the teacher to tailor the course to meet the needs of the class. Various activities such as questionnaire/surveys, pass the ball game, needs analysis and `tell us about‘ board game are activities that will help the teacher know more about his/her students as well as create a good first rapport. In order to get students motivated before starting a lesson, teachers should start with (warmers) activities that will inspire and motivate the students to get them talking and thinking in English. Warmers should be short, fun and communicative activities and would be useful if they are linked to the study phase. Such activities include games like hangman, pictionary, tongue twisters, memory games, etc. Another problem that teachers may face when teaching a group of students, is that not all students may have the same level of English. However, this is because some students learn quicker than others and so gaps may start to appear in the classroom. Teachers can deal with this by splitting the class into two groups (the weaker and stronger group). In this sense, students can be given material that is appropriate to the level of each group, or the teacher can decide to give the same material, but different tasks to each group. Another solution is by pairing the stronger students with the weaker ones so that the stronger students can assist the weaker ones. In some situations, teachers may find themselves teaching in large classrooms which at times can be very difficult to manage or teach. Teachers can employ a number of techniques to manage and create a successful class. these techniques include: Rather then trying to go through or finish activities, teachers can use hand out work sheets. In this way everybody participates and benefits. Teachers should make sure that their voice and board work is visible or audible to the whole class. Appoint group leaders to hand out copies, collect work and keep control of groups, etc. Students using their native language is a problem which is mostly characterized in monolingual classed. Teachers should therefore make sure that they use appropriate activities for the appropriate level of students. Also, make sure that explanations are clear and precise, while constantly reminding the students to use English. This can be done by encouraging and cajoling the students. There are always some students who may feel reluctant to participate or speak in the classroom. This may be as a result of cultural or confidence issues. What ever reason it may be, teachers must look for encouraging ways to get the students involved. Some good ideas include using plenty of paired work, role-play, using tape recorders and ensuring that students are able to use the language in a controlled way before expecting them to be able to produce fluently. Difficulties with listening texts is a common problem with all students. The aim of this is to improve on the receptive kills of the students. Teachers must make sure the problem is not the quality of the tape or volume being too low. Another common problem that teachers may face are students who have finished their task before others. The best way to deal with this problem is to keep extra materials ( example: word searches or crossword puzzles) or plan extra exercises for those students who finish early.