Teaching English as a Foreign Language for Dummies (5 page)

Foolish Assumptions

I wrote this book with the intention of helping people who want to teach English for the first time, or who are inexperienced at the job and need some tips to improve their teaching.

I assume these things about you:

✓

You are a native speaker or proficient in speaking English.

✓

You are not a fully qualified TEFL teacher although you may have an initial qualification.

Introduction

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✓

You want to do a responsible job in the classroom and give students value for money.

✓

You are more interested in the mechanics of teaching than the methodology behind language learning.

✓

You are not enrolled on a full TEFL course leading to a diploma or MA.

Please note that this book is not for you if you just want to improve your own English. The focus is on how to explain language points to students not simply to you, the reader.

How This Book Is Organised

This book is organised into six main parts, and two Appendixes. The parts cover the TEFL industry, putting together lessons and their content, and then to the courses as a whole.

Part I: Getting Started In TEFL

In this first section of the book I cover the information you need to know about the kind of people who go into TEFL and what the job can do for them.

I help you to decide whether to only teach for a couple of summers or as a career, by explaining what the job entails. I tell you what the students expect from you too. You find out about the qualifications and training you need, if any, as there are different kinds of courses you can enrol on. As well as this, I include the points you need to keep in mind if you are moving abroad to teach. This is an introduction to the industry as a whole.

Part II: Putting Your Lesson Together

For most people who are new to teaching or have never done it before, the task of finding a point to teach and then working out how to package the information into an effective lesson is rather overwhelming. In these chapters I break the lesson down into different stages, known as Presentation, Practice and Production so that there is a clear structure for learning. There is also advice on how long the stages should last and who should be doing the talking. I include lots of examples and suggestions for classroom activities, whether you use a course book or design your own materials. You find out when and how to correct the students’ errors and keep them in check during the lesson through good classroom management.

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Teaching English as a Foreign Language For Dummies

Part III: How to Teach Skills Classes

In language courses there are four main skills which need to be included to make students truly proficient. These are listening, speaking, reading and writing. In this part of the book I take a look at each skill in isolation, showing you how to put a lesson together which is dedicated to one skill. These lessons have a slightly different structure from grammar and vocabulary ones. There is also a chapter on pronunciation which is so vital to good communication that there are phonetic symbols and particular techniques for assisting students to speak clearly.

Part IV: The Grammar You Need

to Know – and How to Teach It

Grammar for foreign students is the topic of this section. It is the area which so many native speakers dread teaching, not having done much of this at school themselves. Although this book is not an exhaustive reference on the English grammar, here I cover most of the questions you need answered in order to hold your own in the classroom. You can you use this part of
TEFL for Dummies
along with your dictionary and reference works if you want to go deeper. So, you review the way sentences are put together with subjects, verbs and objects.

Then you find out how to improve your students’ sentences with adjectives, adverbs and conjunctions. I present each tense explaining what it does and what it looks like. Finally there is a chapter covering modal verbs, phrasal verbs and conditional structures. There are lots of suggestions on practising grammar too.

Part V: What Kind of Class Will I Have?

First in this section I provide advice on using tests to get students in the right class and how to use testing progressively during the course. Following this there are sections on different kinds of courses and advice on handling them.

You learn about one to ones classes, business English, teaching young people from small children to adolescents and exam classes. Finally, I compare two kinds of classroom situations. The first is the class with students who all speak the same language and the second is the class with students from all around the world. I take a look at one nationalities of students in detail. As a TEFL teacher you need to be ready for anything!

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Part VI is the part of tens which gives you ten tips each on a couple of TEFL

issues. The first offers suggestions on making your lessons more lively and the second one looks at resources you can use to improve your teaching skills.

Introduction

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There are two appendixes offering you extra information. Appendix A gives you templates which help you plan, observe and assess lessons. Appendix B takes a brief look at popular locations around the world for TEFL teachers and gives you an idea of what to expect from the country and the job.

Icons Used in This Book

When you see this icon, you know you’ll be getting a real-world illustration of a language teaching idea or situation to help you grasp what’s going on.

This icon draws attention to points you should try to lodge in your memory.

This icon highlights helpful ideas for making your lessons run more smoothly.

If you want practical suggestions for how to go about teaching a particular point, look out for this icon.

This icon alerts you to common mistakes among newer teachers and suggests pointers to help you avoid problems.

Where to Go from Here

If you have never taught English before but are considering it as a source of income, the best place to start is probably Part I. That way you’ll know what the job is before you start digging deeper. For example Chapter 3 tells you about who is eligible to teach.

If you are living abroad and have already examined the local demand for English lessons you probably know who your prospective students will be.

In that case, take a look at Part VI as you can start finding out about specific teaching situations. You could browse Chapter 19 on business English, for example.

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Teaching English as a Foreign Language For Dummies

Existing teachers should already know something about their shortcomings, be it explaining grammar (Part IV) or correcting students (Chapter 7), so you can find individual chapters which deal with your weak points. Perhaps your boss has just given you a new kind of course which is making you nervous and you want to know the best approach: Try Part VI.

Be confident as you proceed. There are many things in your favour:

✓

You already know English. You have probably been learning it since infancy.

✓

You have probably taught someone something before and seen them apply what they have learned.

✓

Most people who start out in TEFL are not academics. They just enjoy travelling and like people but they manage to pull off great courses. You can too.

✓

If you gradually go through this book you will have all the information you need to get started.

Part I

Getting Started

in TEFL

In this part . . .

This part covers the TEFL basics. Here’s where I tell

you all you need to know about why TEFL is a great

idea and what the job can do for you, whether you want to

teach whilst travelling round the world, or as a full-time

career.

This part tells you what to expect in the TEFL environment

and what the students expect from you, too. You should

also dip in here to find out about the qualifications and

training you need to meet your requirements and those of

prospective employers. I also include the points you need

to bear in mind if you’re planning to move abroad to

teach.

Chapter 1

Discovering the Wonderful

World of TEFL

In This Chapter

▶ Realising the need for English teachers

▶ Finding out where you can teach

▶ Travelling to foreign lands

▶ Considering how far TEFL can take you

So you want to teach English as a foreign language. In this chapter you get an overview of the industry and an idea of what the lifestyle of a person in this rewarding career is really like.

Understanding Why English

Many factors contribute to the market for Teaching English as a Foreign Language The historical factor offers the legacy of the old British Empire that took the language around the world. The political factor gives the current dominance of the USA. Science and technology have developed with English at the forefront. In addition, there’s a need for a global language to make international communications smoother, and tools such as the worldwide web truly accessible around the planet.

These days English is viewed as a language which gives you access to the world. Some want to study at prestigious English-speaking universities; some want a high flying career with international connections. Others just want a better chance in life and move to wherever the money seems to be, and then again, some just love Hollywood, international rock stars or their English girlfriend. Even the free-spirited backpackers need English to get by in far-flung lands.

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Part I: Getting Started in TEFL

Looking at the TEFL Marketplace

For most would-be TEFL teachers, the draw of the job is the ability to travel and work. Even if your responsibilities don’t allow you to leave your own shores, at least working in TEFL brings other travellers to you.

Considering countries – both

home and abroad

Before entering TEFL, give some consideration to where you want to teach and who your ideal students would be. Subtle differences exist between the criteria for teachers in English speaking countries and elsewhere. The training you need for particular student groups also varies. In addition, unlike a career change at home, teaching abroad presents challenges you may not have considered.

Staying in the home market

Finding work in TEFL in an English-speaking country can be more difficult than doing so abroad. The problem is that, unlike being a foreigner overseas, you have no novelty value when you’re at home. As many English-speaking nations are economic powerhouses, they tend to have various regulatory bodies governing the employment of teachers and trying to ensure high standards in education. In other words you need to jump through more hoops to get a decent job.

Very often TEFL jobs are advertised as
ESOL (English for Speakers of Other
Languages)
or
ESL (English as a Second Language).
Teaching English as a Foreign Language, English as a Second Language and English for Speakers of Other Languages are all the same kind of work depending on which country you’re in and who your students are. There’s a slight difference between learning a language to survive in the English-speaking country you now live in and learning English while you’re in a non-English speaking country.

ESOL students may be refugees or economic migrants who need help with day-to-day situations such as seeing the doctor or understanding letters from their child’s school.

Many students are entitled to attend government funded courses or free classes run by charitable organisations. In addition, private language schools offer courses from two weeks up to two years. In the latter case, students pay for their lessons and often have other activities to make the experience more fun, including a social programme that teachers generally get involved with too.

Chapter 1: Discovering the Wonderful World of TEFL

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Although the basic skills of the job are the same in each sector, you may not be eligible to apply for all of these jobs. The first thing you need is to be able to speak English well (whether you’re a native speaker or not). Most employers require teachers to have a first degree and a TEFL qualification (certificate, diploma or Master of Arts) although in the public sector you usually need a qualification specifically for teaching adults in further education. Non-graduates can often get onto a training course but fewer job opportunities are available to them.

Amongst countries in the European Union things have been changing.

Citizens of the EU have rights in the UK, including the right to enrol on courses offered by the state. This means that instead of learning English in their home country and then moving to the UK to look for work or higher education opportunities, it’s quite feasible to move over and then learn the language through the state system and full immersion. There have been quite a few changes in the number of jobs offered in countries like Poland for these reasons. Unfortunately the British economy is not what it was, and as the world struggles with the recent banking crises, people are thinking twice about their prospects abroad anyway.

Working abroad

You can find far more opportunities for TEFL abroad than on home soil. The world is a big place, after all! However, despite the thrill of setting off on a new adventure overseas, you need to approach a TEFL work with a balanced outlook that considers both the advantages and the disadvantages.

The advantages are that:

✓

You get to experience another culture and broaden your horizons.