Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified in Tennessee? Are you interested in teaching English in Gainesboro, Tennessee? Check out our opportunities in Gainesboro, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English in your community or abroad! Teflonline.net offers a wide variety of Online TESOL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Here Below you can check out the feedback (for one of our units) of one of the 16.000 students that last year took an online course with ITTT!
This unit first presented some background into different teaching methodologies, explaining the basic theories behind them and also pointing out some of their strengths and weaknesses. I was able to recognize certain aspects of these methodologies that have been used on me in the past when learning a foreign language—for example, I remember a strong component of grammar-translation when learning Spanish in middle school, but there were also some aspects of suggestopaedia and audio-lingualism. I found it very interesting to think back in this way and remember what was effective for me personally.
Of course, there is no “perfect” methodology, but one that has proven to be very effective in situations similar to those that I might find myself in is the ESA methodology: Engage, Study, and Activate. These three words refer to components of a lesson, each with a different focus. They can be used in multiple configurations, but it is important to begin with an Engage activity and end with an Activate activity.
In Engage and Activate activities, corrections are kept to a minimum and the focus is on encouraging the student to use what s/he knows of the language. I see this as an opportunity to begin and end each lesson in a way that makes the student excited to come back. Engage can be seen like a fun warm-up, while Activate can be seen as putting to use the student’s accumulation of knowledge and helping them to grow their confidence.
The Study component(s), in which new information is presented and practiced, will fall somewhere in between the first Engage activity and the final Activate activity—but can sometimes be placed among further Engage and Activate activities. The possibilities are endless, and the material in this unit included a plethora of ideas for activities and games in each of the ESA stages.
Finally, I thought that the discussion of how and when to offer corrections (and praise) was extremely helpful. I would hate to accidentally discourage my students by offering too many corrections, but I also want to avoid being unhelpful and losing authority by not correcting enough. There is a balance to be struck here, and there are ways to “pick and choose” your moments for correction in a way that doesn’t overburden or discourage your students.
