Millerville, Minnesota TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

Unit 20 was on Troubleshooting. I thought this unit was one of the most helpful and practical ones because it focuses on possible problems in the classroom and how to handle them or prevent them from happening. I think the first lesson is very important because it gives the students a first impression of you as the teacher and your lessons. It should be used to establish rapport from the get go. It is also important to find out more about your students and their level and needs. Possible problems can be caused by classes with different levels. Here you could try and pair weaker and stronger students with each other, so the students can help each other. The second problem can be caused by larger groups. Here it is difficult to focus on each individual student. Maybe group and pair work could work here as well. Students sometimes fall back into using their native language. This is usually because they don´t understand the teacher or maybe even to help one of their peers. The teacher should be understanding to a certain point but also try and enforce English in the classroom. A technique could be to only respond to English or to always answer back in English. I have tried this out myself actually and I have had good results in my classes. The last point are listening comprehensions. Theseare always more difficult for learners due to various reasons. I find that accents can be tricky to understand but also a lot of students struggle to understand a spoken text without reading along. A good technique here could be to give the students all the needed vocabulary in advance and prepare them for the topic of the text. Listening is a very important skill and should not be neglected, even though it is difficult.