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This is how our TEFL graduates feel they have gained from their course, and how they plan to put into action what they learned:
1. Teachers and learners.
I learned why people learn english, now I can understand my students more easily.
2. Introduction to english grammar and parts of speech.*
I recapped basic grammar, so when students ask questions I have more confidence to answer accurately.
3. Teaching theories, methods and techniques.
I learned about different types of lesson planning which allows me to vary my lesson structure, making classes less boring. I also learned good and bad points about teaching theories from the past and present.
4. The present.*
I can now make activities more fun for the students when teaching tense.
5. Managing classes.
I can understand why my students are quiet, or disruptive. I yell less now…
6. The past.*
I can now make activities more fun for the students when teaching tense.
7. How to teach new language.
Instead of listen and repeat and spell, I spend more time introducing new words to students now. They make sentences with the words and explain the words to me. This way I can check their understanding better and they are more active.
8. The future.*
I can now make activities more fun for the students when teaching tense.
9. Teaching receptive skills.
Listening and reading- I have learned to make these more interactive. With a lot of group brainstorming and note taking. The students find listening and reading hard and boring so I have learned to make it more interactive.
10. Modals and conditionals.*
This was really hard to me to learn… I can understand why my students find modals impossible to use correctly. I learned new activities to use to help them learn.
11. Teaching productive skills.
My students usually lack confidence in speaking. I learned how to encourage my students to speak more e.g. preparation time, pair work, group work and not to over correct the students or interrupt them while they speak.
12. Passive voice and other commonly taught grammar items.*
Last week I helped a coworker when he was confused about how to teach passive voice. I really like the memory game where students match passive and active sentences.
13. Teaching pronunciation.*
This unit was really, really difficult for me. When I teach vocabulary now, I draw lines to break each word into syllables. I also pronounce each syllable separately and have the students copy. Actually, I don’t teach phrases or much grammar at the moment, so I don’t teach the sentence intonation techniques..
14. Lesson planning.
I learned how to plan my lessons more fluently. In the past, my lessons were much less structured and lacked the engage stage.
15. Lessons in practice (video/CD ROM
I rarely see others teach ESL, so I wondered sometimes if they have the same awkwardness I sometimes have when the students don’t follow or are tired or I cannot motivate them.
16. Course books and other classroom materials.
I learned that I am lucky to have the materials that I have and that my materials in themselves can help motivate and interest the students. I learned about their restrictions too. It’s kind of a problem for me because the books lessons are always structured the same, so it gets boring. I must complete every page of the book and the book takes 40 minutes to complete each lesson… I only have 10 minutes to change the lesson’s style..
17. Educational technology.*
Again, I learned that I’m lucky to have the resources I have
18. Evaluating and testing students.
I actually do this a lot. I didn’t learn much here.
19. Teaching special groups.*
I really liked the questionnaire idea. I never thought of giving that to students and employers before beginning a course. Actually, we just finished a class term. I asked all my classes what games they like to play so that I can adapt them to include english for next term. I also asked them what things they like in class and don’t like. It was kind of a group discussion and brainstorm.
20. Trouble shooting.*
I learned what to do in the first lesson. I always hated the first lesson of each term because everything is so unstructured… I can’t remember the names of the kids.. usually, I give them a seating plan, get them to write their names on their books, look at the book and play a talking game, and tell them about myself… I think that’s pretty boring… I find it hard to fill in 50-55 minutes… I will try using the lesson plan I just make for today’s new tem classes.
