Teaching English as a Foreign Language for Dummies (7 page)

With so many different kinds of teaching situations and places to teach in, you’d have to know the language of everyone you may meet in the classroom at any point in your career, so neither you nor any other teacher would ever get started.

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Part I: Getting Started in TEFL

Do I have to translate?

Even though your students inevitably speak to you in their mother tongue from time to time, you can respond in simple English, with gestures or pictures. Of course, you may not understand what they’re saying anyway and this just gives them real motivation for learning your language. In a way, it makes the whole situation more authentic.

If you do translate in the classroom, you have to be absolutely certain that what you’re saying corresponds exactly to the students’ language. Students sometimes expect one language to translate word for word into another, but it just doesn’t work like that. For example, you can’t translate ‘bon voyage’ into

‘good journey’ if you want to get the sense of the expression.

Will the students be children?

Youngsters in many countries need English lessons, but the state takes care of this by using primary and secondary school teachers. TEFL teachers sometimes give support to the state education system but do most of their work in the private sector. Parents often pay for extra English lessons, especially during the summer months.

However, many adults and teenagers preparing for work abroad or in an international environment have a great desire to learn English. These students are highly motivated and usually well behaved.

Do I have to know all the grammar

in the English language?

You don’t need to know every last bit of English grammar, but you should aim to have a good working knowledge of all the tenses and be able to identify and explain all the parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives and so on).

Check the chapters in Part 4 for some help with grammar issues.

The aim of TEFL is to produce students who can speak the language almost as well as you can, at the most. In reality, very few students have the time and resources to stay in the classroom setting beyond upper-intermediate or advanced level (proficiency is the highest level). As soon as students feel confident that they can use English for whatever purposes they need, they often get on with their lives. This is why you don’t need to know every last predicate and gerund.

Chapter 2: Looking at What TEFL Teachers Actually Do

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Can I teach without a degree

and formal qualifications?

Yes you can, but finding work is easier if you have them. Most schools advertise vacancies for graduates in any discipline who have a TEFL certificate comprising about 100 hours of training.

However, if you actually live overseas and are prepared to trawl around the local language schools, you may find that these schools welcome native speakers with open arms, without or without the typical entry requirements.

Get some training if you can as this gives you better opportunities.

I hated language lessons at school.

Will the job be like that?

I remember some of the phrases I learnt in my O-level French lessons. Most of them are pretty irrelevant to my life now and even to my life back then.

Fortunately, language teaching has moved on rather a lot in the last thirty years. So these days there’s less emphasis on grammar drills and more emphasis on practical role-playing and creating a relaxed learning environment.

Even if education in general in your chosen destination is still rather dry, you can expect to teach according to the livelier techniques of the modern TEFL

industry.

Are there lots of books and exercises

for students to work through?

You can make use of the stacks of course books, work books and resource books on the market but most schools encourage teachers to use their own ideas too. Depending on the country and the employer, you probably have a book and syllabus but a fair amount of latitude as well.

Most large bookshops have a section on English as a foreign language, so have a browse through some popular course books to get an idea of the kind of material teachers use. Some examples of course books that are popular in many countries are titles such as
Innovations
,
Cutting Edge
and
English File,
which are available for each level of English students and cover elementary, pre-intermediate and so on.

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Part I: Getting Started in TEFL

What kind of person makes

an ideal TEFL teacher?

A good EFL teacher enjoys meeting people and is interested in other languages and cultures. The most successful teachers are often the ones who can put the students at ease and who have a sense of humour.

On the other hand, it’s not all about personality. You have greater insight into the students’ learning issues if you speak another language yourself, but this is not a must.

You definitely need to have a methodical approach, which usually includes taking the time to do your research and preparation before you enter the classroom. So, in a way, good teachers of English are also good students of their subject.

Does it matter that I’m

not a native speaker?

The answer to this depends on your level of English, who you’re teaching and in what situation. Most employers expect you to be proficient in English and have excellent, native pronunciation. You may get away with fewer skills if you’re teaching young children or if you’re teaching in your own country where native English speakers are in short supply.

You’re far less likely to find work in the private sector in an English-speaking country because students who pay to travel to and study in the UK, for example, quite reasonably expect their teachers to represent the vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation of that land fully. However, in the public and voluntary sectors this may be different, as the students are usually immigrants who may relate well to a fellow immigrant who has found her feet in the English-speaking community.

How many students will I have?

Most classes have 10 to 20 students in them, but I have heard of ‘classes’

with more than 40 students, which are actually more like lectures. It depends on the country, the economy and the integrity of your employer.

Chapter 2: Looking at What TEFL Teachers Actually Do

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Is it okay if I don’t ‘talk posh’?

Yes, but you need to have good grammar and a clear speaking voice, with or without a regional accent. If native speakers have trouble following you, you need to make some changes. However, there’s no point trying to sound aristocratic because the vast majority of students are unlikely to mix with the upper-class set in real life anyway.

Will the students like me?

Although you should aim to put your students at ease so that they’re more receptive to learning, you’re not there to be their best mate. Students should like your lessons and respect you as their teacher. If they happen to like you personally, it’s a bonus, not a prerequisite for a good course. In general, you can be a likeable teacher by being fair, considerate, responsible and well prepared.

How will I know what to do?

If at all possible, get yourself some training and observe some lessons before you start teaching. Once you’ve done that, speak to your colleagues for tips and guidance.

Use up-to-date course books to help you. Most course books have a teachers’

book too that gives you a complete lesson plan and some even include online training so you can see model lessons.

Talking to Students and So Much

More – Teaching Basics

The human brain is a marvellous instrument with the built-in capacity to decipher language. If you hear the same words in the same context enough, you start to work out what they mean – it’s like cracking a code. You discovered this as a baby. Mum said the word ‘teddy’ every time she waved that cuddly little chap in front of your face and pretty soon you made the connection. Perhaps your Indian neighbour says ‘Namaste!’ every time he sees you.

Pretty soon you understand that this means ‘Hello!’

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Part I: Getting Started in TEFL

Picking up language this way is almost effortless. However, busy people want-ing to learn a new language can’t go back to the restful days of babyhood, or take a couple of weeks to pick up a simple greeting. So, when students attend language classes, they need a system or methodology so that they can measure their progress and balance this against the money they pay. The next sections give the basics on teaching methods.

In the classroom, students learn actively through direct instruction from the teacher and pick up the language incidentally at the same time. It’s surprising how many of your favourite phrases your students imitate just because you drop them into your lessons. A couple of mine are ‘Okie dokie’ and ‘Here we go’.

Teaching the easier words first

When you pick up a language by hearing it spoken, everything is thrown at you at the same time and you have to wade through a lot of ‘noise’ before you hear something you recognise. However, when you teach systematically you generally start with easy words and phrases and then add a bit more each time. You save the most difficult words for the end.

In TEFL you
grade
whatever you say so that your speech matches the students’ level of English. When you start a beginners’ course, for example, you use a lot of pictures, gestures and repetition to put across the meaning of basic words like ‘car’ and ‘bus’.

Figure 2-1 uses an imaginary language – we can call it Dummese – to illustrate a dialogue typical of a Dummese beginner-level lesson.

The teacher in Figure 2-1 uses only four words to teach ‘car’ and ‘bus’ –

‘deeba’ and ‘dooba’ respectively. How about ‘Dum dim’? They must be equivalent to ‘this is a . . .’ in English. With only four words to decipher, the visual aid of the pictures, along with the reassuring smiles of the teacher, it’s quite easy for students to crack the code.

The lesson would logically continue with another few words connected with vehicles and transport as you use easy words in a clear context and build up from there. If you had to pick out words like these by listening to a complicated traffic report in Dummese, you would have a much more difficult, if not impossible, task.

Chapter 2: Looking at What TEFL Teachers Actually Do

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Dum dim ‘deeba’.

Deeba! Deeba!

Deeba!

Dum dim deeba

Dum dim ‘dooba’

Dooba!

Dum dim deeba

Figure 2-1:

Starting off

simply with Dum dim dooba

props.

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Part I: Getting Started in TEFL

Focusing on the most useful words

In theory you can spend your whole life learning a new language, especially a global language such as English to which new words are added or borrowed from other languages all the time.

Most people, however, make do with a few thousand words and leave the rest to those who particularly need them. So the question is, if English has around half a million words in its vocabulary, which ones do you teach? Obviously, you can’t teach them all.

The idea is to focus on teaching the words that allow the students to function competently in the language.

You only have 90 minutes or so per lesson, and perhaps 60 hours or so to complete a course, whether it’s a beginner, elementary or intermediate course. With that in mind, you can’t afford to be sidetracked by talking about words that particularly interest you but are seldom used.

Your students need to know all the words typically associated with a given level of English so that they can measure their progress and move on. The best way to become familiar with what students need to learn within each level is to refer to the syllabus at the beginning of an EFL course book.

Usually the syllabus sets out the vocabulary areas and grammar chapter by chapter. In most cases the language school has approved a course book or set of materials, which you should use as your guide.

Giving students room to talk

Learning a new language is a great deal harder if you feel stressed. You’re likely to feel embarrassed about pronouncing the words and discouraged by grammar rules and differences from your mother tongue. This is why an important aspect of TEFL work is to present lessons in an enjoyable and engaging way.

In the TEFL industry, you challenge the stereotype of teachers as boring, sour-faced characters who spend most of their time writing on the board with their backs to the students. Neither do you lecture the students, forcing them to simply listen and take notes.

Actually, the students should be doing the talking for most of the lesson.

They need to try out what they’ve learned, get to know their classmates better so they work as a team, and feel relaxed enough to laugh at their own
Chapter 2: Looking at What TEFL Teachers Actually Do

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mistakes. Speaking to a classmate in small groups or pairs and role playing is one of the more effective ways to learn. In TEFL the aim is to give your students practice and a nice safe environment to try out everything they learn.

People really need to be able to speak a language to master it, so remember that in your lessons.

Keeping things relevant

Whatever you teach the students should be realistic and have some relevance to their lives. Depending on the situation, students sometimes come to you with their own goals. If the class is a general English course, the onus is on you to select the words and phrases most used in the situations your particular students are likely to meet. For example, youngsters often compare their ages as soon as they meet, but adults rarely do (it’s actually quite rude to ask someone’s age in many cultures) so teaching the ‘How old are you?’

question is far more relevant to a class of children than to a class of adults.

Likewise, students who are living in an English-speaking country need some colloquial expressions to survive. For example, in London you teach students that the underground transport system is called ‘the tube’ within the first week, whereas a class of students in Costa Rica may never need to know that.