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Undertaking this course has given me a variety of new approaches to the way I used to teach. I have been teaching english as a foreign language for the past year, and with experience, and the content of each unit, I have adapted the way I run my classroom. Not only have I improved my grammatical knowledge, I have learnt different ways to experiment with these language points in the classroom. One thing I will take from this course is the importance of group and pair work for students. I have learnt not to be such a control freak in the classroom; I do not need to hear every word spoken by every student! It is more important to increase student talk time by using pair work, and to make them feel more comfortable speaking english in front of one another without being put in the spotlight in front of the whole class. Although I have always used games and fun activities in lessons for young learners, I have neglected to appreciate their importance in the adult classroom. As I worked through this course, I started to introduce more and more communication games, and less formal activities into my classroom with the adult students. The feedback I have received from my students has been very positive. I always felt like they would not feel as though they are learning anything if they are enjoying their lessons rather than studying hard! However, this is not the case at all. As long as we do some grammar work, and they can see the connection between the “fun” and the grammar they have been learning, they are more than happy. It is also very important to start off with an engaging activity in the classroom, even if it is just for a couple of minutes to get students’ attention. It is incredible what a different it makes. Another great point I have learnt in ensuring students remain engaged with the lesson is using them to write things on the board/mixing up the order in which I ask them questions. It definitely means they are less likely to go to sleep or operate on autopilot. I have started to employ these methods in my lessons, and will continue to find new and exciting ways to do so. Feedback is also something that I have started to value a lot more in my lessons since doing this course. Previously I would rush through the feedback stage just to make sure that all students had the correct answers on their worksheets. However, now, it is much more a feature of the lesson with a high level of student involvement. I call upon students to provide answers, and if there are any mistakes, or pieces of information missing, it is up to the students to resolve these. If none of them can come up with the correct solution, I will step in and help them out, but only as a last resort. Self-correction not only helps students pay attention, it heightens their learning and ensures they are more likely to remember in the future. This course has taught me the importance and usefulness of using mime and gestures in the classroom, as well as using pictures/real life objects, particularly with lower level students. I have always taught in a country where I am able to speak the native language of my students, and in the case of lower level students, my bosses have always asked me to use their native language in my lessons. In my experience, it has always lead to the students expressing themselves in english a lot less often than they would be forced to otherwise. If I believe that a student should be able to express what they want to say in english, I will always ask them to do so. As we progress through the course I use english more and more, and stop responding to any questions in spanish/Portuguese, and will rarely speak a word myself. When it has been specifically requested by the boss, it is hard to go against this, but I think any future job I take will be one which requires TEFL, and therefore should have requirements that run along the lines of this course. I would like to use this to one day teach in a country where I do not speak the language, and maybe can’t even read their lettering. I think that with my TEFL qualification I will look to find a job somewhere in Asia in a country which does not have the roman alphabet, and I do not speak a word of the language. I am also very interested in teaching multilingual classes. I have also learnt the value of making a thorough lesson plan, not just as a means of planning, but also as a reference tool for the future. It is important to create a detailed lesson plan, and to make notes on it during the lesson to ensure it is representative of what was actually achieved in the classroom. Creating lesson plans using the template provided forces me to think more about potential problems that may arise during lessons, and ways to avoid/resolve these. In my lessons I tended to avoid using listening exercises, as students found them difficult, and it is also hard as a teacher to find interesting and appropriate audio to use. However, I have realised that understanding the teacher’s instructions, or only doing listening activities where I am reading to them is not sufficient listening practice. I have actively started to seek out more interesting listening activities, and have even asked my friends to record some when I could not find pre-recorded audio on a topic I want to use, or at a suitable level. Exposure to voices and accents that are different to their teacher’s is very important for students of english, or they will have a lot of trouble when they start trying to speak to anyone that is not their teacher or one of their fellow students on a pre-known topic. I have already started to build everything I have learnt from this course into my lessons. I think that as a result of studying this course, my lessons have improved immensely. My students are not only enjoying their learning a lot more, but they are learning and retaining more english. I will continue to employ everything I have learnt throughout this course, and look forward to using the techniques at the start of a course with new students.