Teaching English as a Foreign Language for Dummies (53 page)

Maps of entire countries and cities are great too and even neighbourhood layouts give students a bit of insight into how English-speaking communities work. A map of the world is a must-have when people of different nationalities meet.

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Newspapers and magazines

If you can, keep your old magazines and a small supply of newspapers in the teachers’ room for back up. Even though you can find images of just about everything on the net these days, students tend to feel a greater sense of accomplishment when they are leafing through an original glossy magazine in full colour. It’s what native speakers do and it allows students to get better acquainted with the culture.

Printed materials offer opportunities to select reading activities from among the articles and advertisements, pictures to describe and stimulate the imagination, and interesting comparisons regarding the students’ cultures whatever the publication is about. Do not forget those interesting pages like the TV guide and the problem page which reveal a nation’s lifestyle and values from an unusual angle.

Personal memorabilia

Things like theatre tickets, tacky souvenirs and photographs are wonderful aids for storytelling. Learners are often curious about the secret life of the teacher and prefer having it slowly unravelled. So, get your class to guess the relevance of an object to you. Make it a game of twenty questions and only answer yes or no. This helps to get the students talking without focussing on grammar and later in the lesson they can tell their own stories and anecdotes based on similar experiences.

Playing Board Games

Specific board games are language based but even games that aren’t often provide practise of other useful vocabulary such as numbers and colours and phrases such as ‘It’s your turn!’ or ‘I have no idea!’.

It is always worth having a dice and some counters stashed in your bag anyway as many printable and downloadable resources involve this kind of turn taking. Of course you can design your own snakes and ladders or trivia games as well.

Some particularly effective games include:

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Scrabble:
For great spelling and vocabulary practice for all levels, this is a board game which you play by distributing letters of the alphabet on small tiles. The players have to make words and place them on the board in a crossword type formation. You get extra points for using trickier letters like Q and Z.

Chapter 24: Ten Great Resources for TEFL Teachers

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Scategories:
For upper-intermediate level students and above. It is fun and effective for building groups of similar vocabulary. Players have a time limit and they have to think of words which are suitable for particular categories. You get extra points for originality.

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Taboo:
This gets students defining words without giving away what it actually is. A player gets a card with a main word to define and describe to their partner or partners, but there are other words on the card which that player is not allowed to use and this makes the game quite challenging.

If you do not have the funds to buy board games (and they can be quite costly), arrange a class project in which students design their own.

Roping in Friends and Family

Language is all about communication and the people you communicate with most are your friends and family. Some have unusual accents, others have fascinating stories to tell and still others have jobs which raise eyebrows.

Why not take someone you know into the classroom to provide your students with a little variety?

One of the disadvantages of always being around your students is that they become dependent on their familiarity with you. They may convince themselves that all English speakers have the same pronunciation, gestures and expressions as you. And of course you can only milk your personal anecdotes so much.

After that they become old hat. So bribe one of your mates to come in for 30

minutes and see how your class cope with the situation. If they are particularly nervous, you can always get them to prepare interview questions to ask your pal beforehand.

People who are not used to dealing with non-native speakers have a tendency to shout or speak too slowly. Encourage your friend to be natural at all times.

Students can ask for repetition if they need it.

If you cannot get anyone to come in, get yourself a tape recorder and see whether your friends and family mind you recording ten minutes of a normal dialogue. These authentic listening texts tend to be very tricky for students to understand, but short clips are usually manageable. You can use these to show students that, just like them, native speakers use poor grammar and incomplete sentences too, sometimes, but it is the overall communication which really counts.

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Pointing to Charts and Posters

By charts and posters I mean both those designed for teaching English and ordinary ones from your own culture.

Everyday posters advertising films, pop groups or whatever else are useful in two ways. Firstly, they set the scene in the classroom. Students will definitely get the feeling of full immersion into an ‘English’ world if the images around them represent the language and culture. The vocabulary will seep in subconsciously or consciously, if you make a poster the basis of your lesson.

There is a constant reminder of that teaching point on the wall which reinforces the idea.

You can ask shopkeepers for out of date posters which would otherwise end up in the rubbish, or write off to larger organisations you are interested in for freebies. Most big companies and charities love the publicity.

Posters and charts designed for EFL can be useful and can save time in class.

For example, if you have a phonemic chart (a display of all the symbols which represent the 44 sounds in the English language) and a verb table on the wall, you can quickly point to the right sound or verb when a student slips up. The class can refer to these displays by themselves, too, so they can increase their independence.

Of course the question is, ‘How do I get hold of them?’ Well if you have not yet attended any EFL seminars, conferences and events where these things are freely available in conjunction with new book releases, write to publishers of EFL books and ask them. Oxford University press at www.oup.co.uk, Cambridge University Press at www.cambridge.org/elt , Longman at www.pearsonlongman.com and Thomson ELT at www.elt.thomson.com are very cooperative with requests like these.

Keep your posters fresh by putting up new ones every few months. Old ones don’t generate interest after a while. If you are overseas, see if your friends back home can send you a few and if they are in really short supply, rotate them so you swap the posters with a teacher in another classroom.

Appendix A

Lesson Plan Templates

This appendix offer templates you can use in planning and observing lessons. These should help know what to look for in a good lesson, at a glance.

PPP Lessons

The first template, Figure A-1, sets out the Presentation, Practice and Production model for lesson planning. (I cover these concepts in Chapters 5

and 6.) I also include a section on any ‘warmer’ activity you might want to do to relax and engage the class before getting into the meat of the lesson. You can include details of interaction, so you can say who is speaking to whom, and the table also has a time column so you can say for how long the stage lasts.

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PPP Lesson

Class:

Level:

Aim and Objectives:

Materials:

Anticipated problems:

Time

Warmer

Presentation

Practice

Production

Figure A-1:

Template

for a

lesson with

Presentation,

How successful was the lesson? Explain.

Practice

and

Production

stages.

Appendix A: Lesson Plan Templates

351

Skills Lessons

The template in Figure A-2 is for a reading and listening skills lesson. These are receptive skills so they need to include gist and detail stages. So, for example, in a reading lesson there is usually an easier task to get students skimming through the text (for the gist) and then another which requires more time and careful analysis of it.

Listening/ Reading Lesson

Class:

Level:

Aim and Objectives:

Materials:

Anticipated problems:

Time

Warmer

Preparation task

Gist task

Detail task

Figure A-2:

Template

for Listening

How successful was the lesson? Explain

or Reading

skills lesson

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Needs Analysis

Before taking on a one to one course you need to find out as much as you can about the student. The template in Figure A-3 provides a basis and record for student assessment.

Needs Analysis for One to One Lessons

Student’s name:

Language:

Background:

Level and form assessment:

Reading

Writing

Listening

Speaking

Pronunciation

Long term aims:

Short term aims:

What does the student need to do in English?

Interests:

Learning Preferences:

Course Length:

Course Location:

Figure A-3:

Proposed timetable:

Template for

recording

Suggested Materials

individual

needs of

one to one

students.

Appendix A: Lesson Plan Templates

353

Observing Lessons

Hopefully you will have opportunities to observe other teachers. The template in Figure A-4 helps you to focus on what is taking place and how teachers achieve successful lessons.

Observing Other Teachers

Teacher’s name:

Class profile and level:

What were the aims and objectives of the lesson?

How well was target language presented?

Was the teacher’s language well graded?

Comment on the teacher’s use of the board.

How varied was the interaction?

Which activities did the class do?

Which materials did the class use?

How clear were the instructions?

To what extent did students participate?

Did the stages of the lesson flow?

How did the teacher handle correction and feedback?

Figure A-4:

Which points from the lesson would I like to apply?

Template for

notes when

observing

others

Is there anything I will avoid doing?

teach.

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Appendix B

TEFL Locations around the World

In this appendix, I offer information about some popular locations for TEFL jobs.

In many places employers ask potential teachers to have a TEFL certificate.

While courses vary, evidence of 100 hours of training or more is desirable.

Whether this needs to include teaching practice with students or not depends on the employer.

Brazil

Brazilians are ethnically diverse but most people speak Portuguese. Football is a national obsession and most people are Christian. They are exceptionally friendly. Networking is important in Brazil. Use your contacts to get ahead (if you have any).

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Accommodation:
Quite expensive in the larger cities.

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Classes:
Lots of business people and other adult learners.

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Contracts:
Generally for 10 months, though it’s often easier to find work once you’re there. Hours are often unsociable.

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Cost of living:
Expenses are low. You can live well but not save much.

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Qualifications:
You can find work without any qualifications. Schools offer training.

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Salary:
£375 a month. The local currency is the Real.

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Travelling:
TAM Linhas Aeras, British Airways

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Visa:
For an official work permit you need two years of compatible experience (in TEFL or a similar educational field) and a degree.

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Where to teach:
Sao Paolo, Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro 356
Teaching English as a Foreign Language For Dummies

China

China is one of the most historic civilisations in the world. The main languages are Mandarin and Cantonese. The people respect foreigners and are generally friendly. It helps if you ride a bike.

Standards vary so much in China that you should get as much information as you possibly can before accepting a job.

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Accommodation:
About £140 per month

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Classes:
Ages vary from young children to older business executives but there could be up to 100 students in a class! You may find yourself submerged in homework to mark.

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Contracts:
Jobs are available year round. Be prepared to negotiate.

You can expect to get help with accommodation, and have medical insurance and airfares provided and to get ten days paid holiday plus public holidays. You work an average of 15 hours per week.

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Cost of living:
For the average Foreign Teacher it’s usually necessary to take on private lessons to allow for the standard of living you are used to.