Lineville, Alabama TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

Learning a new language is extremely challenging and frustrating. In teaching a new language, it is important to understand how a language is acquired. It involves being exposed to it, and then able to practice and produce it. Activities in the classroom should provide more opportunities for the students to use and practice what they have learned. In this lesson, I have learned about the important approaches in teaching vocabulary, grammar structures and language functions. I have gained better understanding of the ESA (Engage Study and Activate) teaching methodology. I have learned interesting and fun lesson ideas such as using pictures, discussions, posters, role plays, and such in teaching these areas of the language. Activities is more student-oriented. It gives students a chance to practice the language in a controlled way, and then to activate or produce the new language in an enjoyable, more communicative way. In teaching Vocabulary, I have learned about the important criteria in selecting what vocabularies to teach. The teacher should consider how appropriate it is to the students or task, how often the students are likely to use it or apply it to different situations, and how students are capable of learning or being instructed. Students should know that it isn`t merely about memorizing a word. Learning vocabulary involves knowing quite a lot about a word, its meaning, appropriate usage, grammatical structure, spelling, pronunciation, and such. The teacher should facilitate students to gain more productive command of their vocabulary acquisition. Teaching vocabulary should center more on how the students learn vocabulary rather than how to teach it with long, and boring explanations. I think it is also important to facilitate our students to rely on their own vocabulary acquisition. There is a lot of vocabulary items to learn and a teacher won’t be able to teach them all at once. Teacher should teach students about the important things to know about learning new word, how to use a dictionary, provide activities to elicit, practice and produce what they have learned in the classroom. I have also learned about points in teaching grammatical structures. It includes teaching the meaning, usage, forms and patterns, and spoken and written form. Learning grammar can be difficult and overwhelming that often discourages a lot of students. To present a structure in class, it should be used in communicative way with students. The teacher can ask certain questions, for example to present past tense, ask “What did you do this weekend?”. Students may already have knowledge in this grammatical structure. Engaging students in communicative activities such as discussion, prompting, scenario building and so on is a good opportunity for students to hear more examples of the new structure, figure out the meaning of the structure or how it works. By this, we can also find out how much they already know about a certain structure. Thus, we could focus on what they really need and not wasting time telling students what they already know during the study phase. Activities in the Activate stage includes communication games, role play, discussion and debate, and so on. In teaching grammar, I think student should understand that it isn’t about mastery of grammar per se but being able to communicate practically in a meaningful way. I have also learned about language functions that includes inviting, refusing, agreeing or disagreeing, asking for permission, suggestions, advising and so on. Role plays is an effective way to teach language functions. For example, We can use prompts. We can give students cards with a certain problematic situation written on it. By using should, ought to, must or have to, ask students to discuss what advice they would give for that situations. I have learned a lot about teaching a new language and I hope to be able to make my own lesson plans appropriately.