English Teaching 101

Ok, so you’ve landed a job and were given your class schedule and syllabus. Now what the heck are you supposed to do?

You, your employer and your students will all likely have somewhat different expectations about your role in the classroom. While it is important to both please your employer and your students, I personally think your relationship with the students trumps all.

Here are some tips to help build rapport with your students and ensure that they make perceivable, tangible progress in English.

English Teaching DOs and DON’Ts

Whether you are new to teaching completely, or just teaching a particular student or group for the first time, here are some tips to help make the experience as smooth and painless as possible.

Introduce Yourself and Have Students do the Same.

You will of course want to introduce yourself and get to know your students. But to make things more interesting and add an educational component, make an activity out of it. I like doing a True/False game where each student (including the teacher), writes down 5 statements about themselves, 3 of of which are true, 2 of which are false. Each person then goes one by one, reading out the statements and having the class guess which are true. I find that even with students who all work together and should know each other well, there are always some big surprises and lots of laughs.

Dress Sharp.

You don’t need to wear a suit and tie necessarily (though it might be a good idea if you are teaching at an off-site office location), but making the effort to spruce yourself up will make your job all the easier. It shows to the class that you take your job seriously, and perhaps most importantly, that you take them seriously.

Don’t Be Late.

Being late, especially on the first day, is a great way to make a horrible first impression. It makes an already awkward situation (meeting new people) even more so.

Set Expectations

You are being paid to provide a service and it is critical that you find out exactly what services your students expect. If their expectations are unrealistic, you need let them know this in the beginning.

First of all, students should know that whether or not they learn is mostly up to them. You will of course do what you can to provide them with as much language input as possible (both listening and reading), give them plenty of chances to use what they learn in meaningful contexts, provide feedback on their performance, and answer any questions they have.

Since most classes only meet once or twice a week, just showing up is not enough. If students really want to make perceivable progress, it is essential that they sopend the requisite time outside of class listening and reading, they will not make any noticable improve. A good minimum is at least 1 hour per day.

Some other essential questions that should be discussed in the first class:

• What will be covered over the term?

• How will students be assessed?

• What happens if a student is absent?

• Can students contact you if they have questions outside of class time?

• What can students do to get the most out of the course?

Don’t Over-Promise and Under-Deliver.

This is a very common mistake made by nearly all rookie teachers, and even some veterans who haven’t taught in a while. While you certainly want the students to have a positive outlook on the class, it won’t do you or the students any good to promise fast progress (this is up to the student more than the teacher), 24/7 contact for questions (say goodbye to your social life), or immediate grading of all assignments (life happens.) Set positive but realistic expectations. Remind students that fluency in a foreign language is a marathon, not a race. Consistency and interest are the most important factors for success.

Don’t Lecture

The biggest mistake most language teachers and learners make is treating language like an academic subject, not the physical skill it truly is. Teachers spend the vast majority of class time spewing facts about the language, and then testing students on how much of this information was stored as “declarative memory” (explicit facts like grammar rules, word classes, vocabulary lists, etc). Speaking a language well, however, requires procedural memory, which is created only when a learner hears or reads enough of the language to begin subconsciously picking out the patterns.

Therefore, your role is not “teaching English”, but rather providing as many opportunities as possible for your students to hear English, internalize English, and when they are ready, use English to communicate.

Don’t Use the Classroom as Your Soapbox.

This is one of the most common complaints from unsatisfied students. While creating a personal connection to your students is important, sharing your personal opinions or problems should not be the focus of the class. That said, getting students to share their opinions (though perhaps not problems lest you take on the additional, unpaid role of therapist) should be a major part of the class.

Don’t Go Into Class Empty-Handed (or Empty-Minded!)

This is the mantra of an effective teacher. The better you prepare, the more you can relax and the better you can deliver a useful, enjoyable lesson. And the better you can do that, the more your students will like you (and provide positive feedback to your employer), meaning more classes on your schedule and more money in your pocket.

Create a Teacher’s Toolkit

Here are some suggested tools and materials to include in your teacher’s toolkit:

• iPod touch. While any MP3 player will do, I recommend an iPod for the following reasons:

Since they have such massive storage capabilities, it is possible to carry around a wide range of podcasts, songs, pictures, and video.  No matter what topic comes up in class, you can always have related listening or viewing content on hand.

If you buy a good aftermarket recorder, your iPods can become a serious audio recording device.  You can record your classes for later review and feedback, or interview native speakers to create “narrow listening” activities (see Listening under Teaching Core Skill Areas below)

• Laptop or Tablet. Bringing a computer to class gives you a lot activity options. You can:

Type up notes that can be e-mailed to the students after the class.  This allows the students to focus on listening instead of frantically trying to jot down key words and phrases, it provides a record of what was discussed, and it makes it easier to generate student reports down the road.  Not to mention that it will show your students that you take their learning seriously.

Watch movies, listen to podcasts and show pictures.

As opposed to using a CD player, you can avoid skipping through countless CD tracks to find the one you want. You can also see the track titles if there are any.

Access Wikipedia, Dictionary.com, Google, or other online resources in real-time.  If you are discussing different kinds of foods, for example, you (or the student) can just do a quick online search to find a picture of the target item.

• Visual Dictionary. The 5 LanguageVisual Dictionary (WǔZhǒng YǔYán TúDiǎn 5種語言圖典) by Dorling Kindersley and Suncolor (SānCǎi WénHuà 三采文化) is a lifesaver for teachers and students both. Instead of wasting ten minutes trying to explain what an “artichoke” is, you can just flip to the vegetables page and point to a picture of it. And best of all, it includes the translation of the word below in Chinese so the student can instantly connect it to their first language and you the teacher can learn some Chinese, too! The book is available at the Xinyi Eslite Bookstore (ChéngPǐn XìnYì Diàn 誠品信義店), just outside of the City Hall MRT Station.

• White board markers. It may seem too obvious or trivial to even discuss it, but trust me on this one.  Classrooms and off-site meeting rooms often lack working markers (if they have any at all), and if they do have any, they are often the cheap kind that stink up the whole room, cause headaches, and lead to cancer in lab rats and people.

• Extra paper and pens. Get in the habit of always bringing a stack of lined paper for writing assignments, plain paper for drawing activities or mind maps, a box of pens or pencils, and colored markers, pencils or crayons (even for adult classes!)

• Maps. Geography often comes up in the classroom, especially during self-introductions or when reading news articles.  Instead of wasting time (and energy!) trying to explain where Paraguay is, it is much easier to just whip out a map.  I recommend the following:

An English world map or globe: I would avoid using a bi-lingual world map because most students will instantly look at the Mandarin name and ignore the English equivalent.  When you are teaching at the school, an actual globe can add a nice, tangible touch to your lessons.

A bi-lingual map of Taiwan: When it comes to discussing places in and around Taiwan, however, it is best to have a map with both Mandarin and English place names.  This will make it easier for students to describe to you where they are from, recommended travel destinations, etc.

An English map of your home country: This is especially important when meeting a class for the first time.  But even down the line, having a visual can make your patriotic (or critical) home-country ramblings much more interesting and purposeful.

• Bingo Cards. Bingo is a great, low-prep activity, and is even easier if you bring pre-made bingo sheets.

• Sample Schedules. Comparing schedules can be a great way to practice verb tenses, time words, making arrangements, setting meetings, etc.  While students could of course make the schedules themselves, I find that their routines are often too similar to make the activity interesting. To make the activity more effective, create two versions yourself with lots of conflicting time slots.  This will help make the activity last longer (good for you the teacher), and force students to use a greater variety of language during the activity (good for the students.)

Create Lesson Plans

Lesson plans are not essential, but they do make things much easier, especially if you are new to teaching (once you’ve taught a given lesson a few dozen times, it’s probably safe to leave the lesson plan at home…)

In addition to making your job easier, lesson plans have a number of perks:

• They help substitutes pick up where you left off: If you are ever sick (or too hungover…), lesson plans make it much easier for colleagues to take over your class for the day with minimal preparation. Trust me, they will thank you for it!

• They give you credibility. There is a (mostly justified) stereotype that English teachers in Taiwan are a lazy bunch who don’t take their job seriously. Having a lesson plan shows both your students and staff that this stereotype does not apply to you.

• They make it easier to write progress reports. Most schools require that you write periodic reports for your classes and students. Having lesson plans are written up makes this otherwise tedious process into an easy cut-and-paste affair.

Here are some online lesson plan resources to help get you started. Many can be printed and used as is!

• Dave’s ESL Café. This arguably the most popular ESL resource on the web. Heaps and heaps of useful lesson ideas, games, actitivies, you name it!

• IE Languages. I wish I would have known about this gem years ago. Tons of lesson plans in MS Word and PDF format. Just print and go!

• TEFL.net. While not as comprehensive as Dave’s ESL Café, you will still find quite a few good activities and lesson plans to help get you started.

Printing & Copying Materials

At Work

If you’re lucky, you can pass off your photocopying duties to a friendly staffer or tell a newer instructor that it’s part of the “teacher hazing process.” But regardless of who does the copying, make sure you allot enough time to get all your copying taken care of as early as possible.  Don’t wait until the last minute; more often than not, Murphy’s Law will come into effect, and there will either be a 10-teacher cue, no paper or ink, or a freak power outage.

At Home

Having to buy ink every month can seriously drain funds.  If you don’t mind the moral implications, you can refill your cartridges at many of the electronics shops at the Guanghua Computer Market (GuāngHuá ShāngChǎng 光華商場) located near Xinsheng MRT Station.

On the Run

If you don’t have a photocopier at work, school or home, or need to make copies on the run, your best bet is 7-11.  They allow you to make color or black & white copies on either A4 or A3 paper. You can print from a USB or just photocopy a book, magazine or newspaper.

Sharing Files with Students

Use PDFs

Make sure to save all handouts, assignments, notes, etc. as PDFs, especially any that you e-mail or post online. Why? They are harder to copy by would-be plagiarizers, and you don’t have to worry about people being able to open them if they don’t have the same software you used to create the document.

Use Google Docs

The era of expensive software, compatibility trouble and version control is over! Google Docs have revolutionized the way the world creates, edits, collaborates and shares. Their software is similar to MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint in all the right ways, but different in 3 key respects:

• Google Docs are free!

• You can collaborate on them in real time anywhere on the planet.

• They can be shared with and used by anyone, anywhere, regardless of their operating system or software version.

• To get started with Google Docs, go to docs.google.com.