Mart, Texas TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

In this lesson I learned about specialized groups of learners. In teaching beginners it is important to follow several best practices including having clear and realistic goals, moving at the right pace, giving clear and simple instructions, encouraging students to speak English in class as much as possible, using pair and group work, and more. Beginners themselves are not always a clean slate--some are 'false' beginners that already had exposure to English. The age of beginners will also likely impact their motivation (i.e., was the class their choice or not). If you have a mix of real beginners and 'false' beginners in class, you can pair them together so those with stronger language skills can help their peers. One-on-one lessons are becoming more popular, especially in the business world. In this situation there are some pros: highly-motivated student, no mixed levels to contend with; and cons: loss of class dynamic and group activities. In these situations it's important to still have some structured learning around grammar, topic, and vocabulary, even if the student just wants to practice conversation. You may or may not choose to assign homework. It's also a good idea to over-prepare material as one-on-one sessions tend to go more quickly through activities. Teaching children can be rewarding and their innate curiosity is an excellent motivating factor. However, children have shorter attention spans, so it's best to change activities with more frequency. It's important that the teacher acknowledge and recognize the students and their accomplishments to encourage them to use and explore the language. A note on discipline: it's best to start of firm and later choose to relax control. Many factors can be impacting a child's behavior--as a teacher it is important to be consistent and fair, and bring a good attitude to the classroom. Of course you should never raise your voice or be threatening. Business English/English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is another growing field of English teaching. Classes might be one-on-one, in-company, or in-school. Often there is a wide range of students' ages, the classes are small, and most likely the students (or 'clients') are tired from a day at work. Language ability might vary as well. Sometimes it may be best to turn it into a conversation class. It's important to be aware of group dynamics in the classroom (e.g. some one is a manager, another is an associate). Before starting a lesson plan it's important to conduct a 'need analysis' to gauge what they need to learn to help them in the business context. Following the analysis, you can further have a group-wide 'need negotiation' to decide on class priorities as a whole. You can also have a mid-course evaluation to check in one-on-one with students and see how they feel about the course. It is helpful to use authentic materials in classes, and learn a bit about their company to know what will suit their learning needs. Classes might also be multilingual or monolingual. Multilingual classes have the advantage that usually the only common language between all the students is English. In monolingual classes students are likely all in their home country so you do not see the same advantages, however it is likely they experience similar challenges and can help each other more easily. It's best to avoid using their mother tongue in the classroom, but sometimes it can be helpful for students to resort to their shared language to better teach each other or understand instructions for an exercise.