Agency TEFL

The course has been very informative and helpful in many areas and gives a good preparation for teaching english as a foreign language. The grammar units were very helpful and laid out in a manner which made it easy to understand. The tasks in the worksheets were well designed to help prepare for grammar lessons in a way which will benefit both the students and the teacher. It gave a good framework to teach with. The ESA boomerang and patchwork method of teaching gives inexperienced teachers a good variety to choose from and an excellent framework to work with in planning lessons incorporating all the main elements. Having three distinctive areas in a lesson allows the new teacher to have a balanced framework to work with and keeps the lesson from becoming boring or too one sided. The course produced plenty of lesson ideas and example lessons which can be easily used or adapted for use for the new teacher. Games and ideas for games and activities are numerous . The information for new teachers to gain new material is very helpful and gives good guidance in where to get appropriate material for teaching. There are good ideas and professional help on how to form paired group and whole class teaching with various ideas and helpful information. The information will be invaluable. The Phonics section was very comprehensive and detailed incorporating all the essential elements. It was full of informative material which will be a good grounding for teaching pronunciation. The section on articulation was helpful especially for mouth diagrams and sound pronunciation. The phonemic alphabet was helpful and the stress section and rule for syllables are invaluable information which was well laid out and easy to understand as was information on intonation. The section on authentic material worksheets and tasks was helpful and full of good ideas. It helped bring understanding as the task required a lesson made from authentic material. To put into practice helped demonstrate in a real way how it can be used to teach to a class. The CD teaching lesson was helpful as the contrast between a good and bad lesson. This was well presented and aided the inexperienced teacher to be aware of the dangers of teaching in a negative way which is discouraged and warned in the course material. The good practice lesson was a good model to follow and was presented in a way which could be mimicked to some extent. The evaluation and test section was very useful to help to know how to section new students into appropriate groups. The completion of the worksheet for this section gives a good grounding in what is needed to evaluate the students. Having an idea of the different courses available is also useful and informative. The last section was good in that it is beneficial to know how to start a group for the first time with an introduction, warmers and a questionnaire which are good practice for a first lesson as it professionally demonstrated. I have been pleased with all parts of the course including the constructive feedback from the tutors who have been helpful and professional in conveying this. I have enjoyed every part of the course and am enthusiastic about teaching it. I feel the course will be very beneficial and has prepared me professionally to teach english abroad and in the UK.