TESOL Weekend Courses

Even though I am a native speaker of english, this course provides valuable insight into how to effectively teach english to non-native speakers. Oftentimes people believe that they are capable of teaching anything to anyone. However, it takes a lot of pre-planning and the ability to adjust lessons to be able to effectively and efficiently teach. Many underestimate the importance of logistics and making certain that you have all the equipment and materials necessary for each lesson. While lesson plans are great in organizing what to teach, when and how, it is still necessary to be able to change those plans according to the dynamics and needs of the individual classes and students. Oftentimes an activity may not be suitable or the students are quicker or slower in completing tasks or understanding a concept. A good teacher is capable of recognizing these and adjusting the lessons as needed even at the cost of strictly following a lesson plan. While my plans of actually teaching english abroad have gone to the back burner and are not currently in my immediate plans, the lessons learned from this course can be applied to other work situations. Working for a non-profit, these skills of learning the skills and motivation for individuals and why they are volunteering and why they are taking a particular course offered by the non-profit is valuable information. This information helps to formulate plans on keeping those volunteers engaged and making certain that they are getting what they want from volunteering. This is similar to how an instructor learns the motivation for their students to learn english. Additionally, these same techniques of how to best teach english can help formulate meetings by having a set agenda and getting volunteers to introduce themselves to each other and in courses offered by the non-profit as well. These are transferable skills that apply to many areas.