Category Archives: Teaching Guides
ESL Teaching Jobs – 10 Important Things to Consider When Deciding on an ESL Job
Picture by Rex Pe http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldendragon613/
ESL teaching jobs are a dime a dozen but there are 3 very important questions you should be asking yourself before and while you are performing your search for the perfect ESL job. There are also 7 crucial questions to ask the institution that is considering you (or that YOU are considering) before or after you have made contact with them. What you will learn here are those exact questions. Let us read on and explore these questions and the reasons why I recommend that you ask them.
1. Is the position in the country you would like to visit?
If you are interested in China, be sure to just check out the ESL teaching jobs in China. Checking out other positions in other countries will only confuse you.
2. Do you want to teach in the country or the city?
As I said before, there are millions of positions out there. Are you considering an ESL teaching job for the money or for the chance to immerse yourself in a different culture and have it funded by a teaching job?
If you are looking at an ESL job for the money, then I recommend you hit the bigger cities. For instance if you are considering China, then I would only look at positions in the bigger cities of GuangZhou or Beijing. Shanghai’s cost of living makes it impossible to save anything. The reason I say this is because cities tend to pay double, sometimes triple that of their country counterpart because the cost of living is so much higher than in the country.
If you are looking to immerse yourself in the culture and your income should be just enough to support you, then I would recommend trying to find a position in the country. The money won’t be anywhere near what it would be in the cities but you will be FULLY IMMERSED into the culture of the country. You might even be fortunate enough to land a room with a family of nationals. Then you will TOTALLY experience the culture first hand!
3. What qualifications do you need and do you have them? (IE: TESOL, TEFL, CELTA, etc…)
Each country has their own requirements and regulations and they are quite different from each other. Some countries are VERY strict about you having your Bachelors Degree in any major (such as Thailand, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan) and some like China just look at your ability to teach and the fact that you would be a “Native Born English Speaker” as they put it. Also, many countries will choose you over others if you have some ESL training such as TESOL, TEFL, CELTA, etc.. These courses can be had at home easily and very inexpensively. I have seen signs that advertise that you could have your TESOL certification over the course of a weekend. Those ones I would be leery of. But generally speaking, you can have your TESOL certification over the course of a couple weeks and the cost varies from school to school. It usually is below one thousand dollars at the time of this printing. I highly recommend you start with this as soon as you have made your mind up about teaching esl.
4. Does the institution cover your flight or reimburse your flight costs before or after your contract is finished?
Some institutions will pay for your flight to get to the position. Most Korean jobs are like this. Others will cover the cost of your flight (to a certain dollar value) AFTER you have finished the contract. But beware of this one. Sometimes they will try to find reasons to keep the money, similar to your landlord trying to find reasons to not reimburse your damage deposit. But don’t let that deter you from your dream of teaching overseas. Most institutions are honorable.
5. How many hours per week will you be expected to teach?
Be very, VERY clear on this one. Make sure you KNOW exactly how many hours you are required to work each week. I know of MANY teachers that have been USED by the administration where their contract said 25 hour work week and they ended up working 50. Your time is YOUR TIME! If it is not something that YOU decided to do, then that time just became THEIR time and your pay won’t go up any higher than what the contract said. Make sure you know HOW MANY HOURS and What the hours are.
6. Are you living on or off campus?
Living on campus can be convenience or a nightmare for you and/or the school. By living on campus you usually have a 5 or 10 minute walk to or from class BUT this could also make it too convenient for your students to come knocking on your door. You will get no privacy and are totally bound by their rules. On the other hand living on campus usually will consist of covering the cost of the accommodations, electricity, water and food. That could be a big savings in itself.
7. Are your accommodations shared or private?
As you can probably guess, living with a strange person could turn ugly or you could become best of friends. But if you prefer to live alone, then do not even consider the postings for ESL teaching jobs that only house you with someone else. They are now OFF your short list.
8. What is your compensation for overtime?
Make sure that your overtime rate of pay is WRITTEN DOWN! Don’t just go on what the ad says or what the administrator you talked to said.
9. Does the institution cover the cost of your housing/food/transportation?
This one is self explanitory. If they cover it, you save money.
10. MOST OF ALL…What is your pay?
With ALL these things, make sure they are on the contract you get sent to you from the school. Then when you get there, make sure that the contract on their end is the same as the one YOU have. There have been stories that after something has gone wrong and they check the contracts, it turns out that they are different. Something has been changed without the teacher noticing it.
All in all, its just a case of common sense and using your head. Most teachers, after finishing one contract, end up going on and signing another contract. If not with their existing boss, then with another one.
If you are REALLY interested in teaching ESL overseas then you owe it to yourself to check out ESL For All. There is VERY IMPORTANT information there to help make your decision one you won’t regret. Check out ESL For All today!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kelvin_Nikkel
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Instructional Video of the Week: Teaching Activities for Speaking
Getting students to speak and participate in class activities can be one of the more difficult aspects of teaching English as a second language. Speaking English in class gives students practical experience in the day to day usage of the language and can become a fun element of lessons. Certain barriers need to be overcome such as shyness or fear of making mistakes however with proper planning many of these issues can be overcome.
Lets look at some of the steps you can take to make your speaking class a success.
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Plan
When devising a lesson set out key the learning outcomes you wish students to achieve. Make sure you provide the necessary tools and resources your students will need to be able to participate in the discussion. Decide how the class will be set up. Will it be a class discussion with the where everyone participates together or will the conversation take place in smaller groups.
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Preparation
Give your students the opportunity to prepare and practice what they will be saying or discussing. Provide them with the vocabulary they will need and help them to use it in the situations that will occur in the discussions. You can also provide prompts to the students to help them to remember key phrases or vocabulary.
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Create involvement
By selecting a topic/s that students are interested in or feel passionately about you create an atmosphere where students want to put across their ideas or views. This can lead to even the most shy students becoming involved in a discussion. By relating the conversation to the students lives you are able to highlight the practical uses of English, encouraging them to implement what they have studied in conversational form. With younger learners adding storytelling and role playing into the class can allow students to practice their speaking in a fun informal way.
Below is a great video from the British Council focusing on making speaking activities effective.
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Top Tips for Teaching Business English
Image via Wikipedia
It’s a common misconception that teaching Business English is a lot more difficult that teaching general English. Granted it will take a bit more research depending on what business sector your students are from, but preparation is the key to seeming confident and knowledgeable in front of your students. The following tips should help you feel more prepared when you take on a Business English class for the first time.
1. English Needs Assessment
Before you start any course I highly recommend a needs assessment session in the first lesson. Not only will it break the ice and get people talking, it’s also imperative to find out what the students are hoping to achieve from the course. This way, with the information you have collected you can pick out interesting lessons in the books (instead of following it from Chapter 1 all the way through). For example, one group I taught was mostly secretaries and admin staff so they wanted to focus on phone conversation skills and email writing.
Another important thing to ask students is about any specialist vocabulary they need in their day to day work that you can teach them. That means you’ll be able to go back and do research straight away and find out similar terminology that they may need in their sector. This comes hand in hand with researching the company your students are from as well as reading up on their sector and finding specialist terms.
2. Books
If you’re asked to buy or choose books for classes I can recommend the In Company series by Macmillan. I found them really good with the audio CDs and the worksheets at the back of the teacher’s book. These worked well from Pre-Intermediate to Advanced, although if you think that your students will be moving up classes a lot, the topics tend to be the same throughout the books. Another series I have used is Powerbase by Longman – this was good for absolute beginners and elementary groups. I had my own material as well of course to complement the book, and the internet is always full of ideas and activities.
3. Areas to Focus On
One area which I would definitely recommend you focus on is Telephone Talk through role plays. What I found useful were role play cards where, for example, one person is a receptionist and the other wants to speak to someone in the company and leaves a specific message. Put students back to back when doing these exercises. It will force them to listen to each other more carefully as in a phone situation. Role play activities are excellent practice too which will allow them to act out common situations such as meeting someone for the first time, or what to say at a dinner party. Make sure that all these activities are as relevant to their real job as possible.
Another very important topic is Email writing. Give your students the tools and confidence to start and end emails in a professional way. Go over phrases that they will come across and get them to practice writing each other emails that they would need to write in their every day jobs.
It’s always more beneficial to tailor the lessons to students’ specific needs rather than follow a book too closely. I recommend you be open with your class and ask them what they would like to learn and get regular feedback about how they feel they’re progressing. During lessons also keep a note of other areas or terms which may need a bit of work on as they come up. I hope these tips have been of use!
About the Author:
Nadia Zehni has extensive experience teaching English as a Foreign Language in England, Malta and France. She is a regular contributor to EnglishForums.com, the world’s busiest EFL community, which receives over 30,000 visits a day. It?s an excellent resource for EFL teachers looking for information about grammar, phonetics, EFL jobs and teaching tips. English students on the other hand can learn English by posting questions and getting help from volunteer EFL teachers, as well as speaking with other learners. To benefit from this fantastic resource sign up for free at http://www.englishforums.com!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nadia_Zehni
How to Control Your Class
Photo by missyxlovesxyou
Even the most skilled teachers will have days when they lose control of their classroom. All it takes is a single rowdy kid and before you know it, you’re sitting at your desk unsure of how to regain the control you had ten minutes ago. How do you take control of your class back from this kid? Here are a few suggestions to help you out:
1. Use your voice.
This doesn’t mean that you have to yell. There are a great many teachers who think that the best way to control a class is to make sure that their voice is always the loudest. In many cases, however, it is the quietest voice that gets the most respect. This doesn’t mean whispering, it means that you tell your class simply, in a calm voice or even a lowered pitch, that you will not tolerate the continued misbehavior. No matter what age your students might be, they still need to hear that what they are doing is unacceptable.
2. Take action.
The idle threat is useless. It is the threat that they know you will carry out that carries the most weight. Younger kids react strongly to public discipline-names being put on the board, having to sit outside of the class during story time. The punishment itself does not have to be harsh-having them sit on a chair next to your desk at the front of the room for ten minutes is hardly corporal punishment-but it is public. Older students, however, sometimes need the larger punishments-detention, sent to the office, disciplinary meetings with parents. Asking a senior to sit outside of the classroom won’t carry the same weight that it will with a child in the second grade.
3. Resist the urge to react.
Students, no matter how old they are, act out because they want to see your reaction. When you react to what they are doing, they feel rewarded. Instead, continue with your class’s lesson as you planned. Eventually even the positive attention the student has been receiving from his/her peers will go away when they see that you aren’t going to do anything about it and they will want to get back to work. If you allow yourself to show anger or frustration then the behavior could grow worse. Take deep breaths and keep your cool.
These might seem like very basic ideas for class control, but many teachers forget about them when faced with a classroom full of unruly students who refuse to give the teacher the respect that she/he deserves. Sometimes all you need is to take a moment to let the class act out and they’ll calm themselves down. Other times you’ll have to put every student’s name on the board. Every class is different! Take your time. You’ll figure out which methods work best for you and your class.
For more information on classroom aids, visit http://www.classroommicroblog.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Parks
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Instructional Video of the Week: Teaching Listening: Gist & Detail
Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/journeyscoffee/
Learning English and having conversations in the classroom can be very different from what a student will experience in the real world. Different dialect phrasing and structure may hinder the students understanding. By giving lessons focusing on gist and detail it builds the students skills in picking out key parts in a conversation and collecting the information they need to understand what is being spoken about.
This video gives guidelines and presents an example lesson that focuses on gist and detail. In this lesson they are able to hone their listening and comprehension skill when listening to a conversation between two native speakers. The activity requires the student to piece together the events being talked about what the conversation is about.
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