Franklin, Wisconsin TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

Unit 1 Overview Unit 1 has taught me the personality traits and the relationship skills needed to be able to fully engage with his/her students. For example a good teacher needs to be empathetic towards students and should enjoy teaching. A good teacher should be lively and entertaining which in turn (in my opinion) will actually help to motivate the students. A teacher that seems uninterested in the class will reflect this energy onto the students, thus having a negative affect. A teacher needs to be able to involve all students equally and be able to correct students but still encourage them, so to not affect their motivation. Unit 1 has taught me many roles of a teacher. From manager to organizer, assessor, prompter, participant, tutor, resource or facilitator, model, observer or monitor. Being a manager involves taking control of the class in a professional manner, in a way that is quite different to simply setting the students a task and leaving them to complete it. This could entail standing at the front of the class and giving explanations or reading aloud. The teacher as a controller has its place in the classroom but shouldn't be overused. An organizer is a very important role. This involves instructing and organizing the students to do various activities. Such as working in groups/pairs, initiating activities, bringing activities to a close and organizing feedback. It is extremely important to be comfortable in this role to prevent a class from descending into chaos. Acting as an assessor is to give feedback and correction as well as evaluating and grading. Be aware of your students emotions and reactions and be sensitive towards them but always provide the necessary support. There will be times when your students will lose the the thread of what they are trying to say or become stuck for ideas. This is when you need to take the role of "prompter" to keep the lesson flowing. This could simply mean gentle encouragement, perhaps explaining to problem in a different manner. Be careful not to take the initiative away for the student. It is common to find yourself prompting the student to use English and not their native language. Being a participant is to take part in the class alongside the students. Doing this can help to liven up the activities from the inside and keep the students motivated on the path to completing the activity. When participating it is important not to dominate the task or focus attention upon him/herself. Being a Tutor implies a more personal role for the teacher. This will often come into play when students are working individually and need some 1 on 1 guidance. This can be as simple as stopping to briefly give encouragement. Care should be taken to give all students equal attention and not to over-intrude. When acting as a Resource or Facilitator we need to be helpful and available to any students who require assistance but resist the temptation to spoon-feed. This can happen while the students are instructed to participate in tasks without interruption of interference, requiring the teacher to withdraw from the activity, but still be available to help if required. Acting as a Model is to be the fount of all knowledge on English grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. You are the students biggest resource when it comes to learning English. Learners will want to benefit from the speech or pronunciation model that the teacher offers. Being an observer or Monitor is to over-watch the goings on of the classroom. This can tell you how long a given task may take and how successful it has been. During oral communicative activities it's wise to take notes for correction or praise at a later stage. While observing its important to maintain distance from the students so as to not distract them from the current activity, but also be flexible in this position to sometimes move in a little closer to hear spoken work or look at writing progress to really monitor effectively. Which role you take and when is largely going to depend on the type of activity at hand and what you wish the students to achieve. This requires versatility. Some stages of a lesson will require that the teacher is more dominating or leading, while other require a more withdrawn role. Language Level For my own notes I have listed the various language levels. Beginners - From zero knowledge of English to a very basic knowledge of English which cannot be quickly or easily activated. Elementary - Students at this level are likely to be able to form basic sentence structures and communicate on simple topics. Low/pre-intermediate - Able to communicate and understand a greater variety of topics but lacking general fluency and depth of language awareness. Still likely to make many errors even with basic structures. Intermediate - Able to understand and communicate on a wide range of issues using limited vocabulary store but still lacking in accuracy and fluency. Upper Intermediate - Should be able to actively communicate on almost all topics using a greater range of language but still lacking in accuracy. Advanced - Students should have a very good knowledge of the English language and now will be studying more subtle language items. The above terms are the most commonly used but their actual meanings may differ considerably depending on where you work and which textbook you may be using. For example, an elementary student in one country or teaching environment could be viewed as intermediate elsewhere.