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Teaching English as a Second Language

Teaching English as a Second Language: Although teaching is one of the most rewarding professions, there are various challenges that teachers face when Teaching English as a Second Language. Teaching English can be especially challenging when teaching your native language in a foreign country. Before one can begin teaching in a foreign country looking for Teaching English as a Second Language Certification Programs it’s important to get comfortable with your new home and the different culture; assimilation is essential when moving to a foreign country. One of the most important aspects of teaching is connecting and building a strong rapport with your students. It can be difficult for foreign teachers to establish a connection with students from a foreign country. Although I haven’t had too much difficulty with this, it is worrisome that I will come across a student that I can’t connect with due to cultural differences and language barriers. Learning about the culture and people in Buenos Aires is important when trying to get to know students, it’s best to have an understanding of the differences and similarities between Americans and Argentines. A significant challenge for me when teaching is the language barrier, yes the goal is to teach your students a new language but it can be very difficult. Although it differs between levels English as a Second Language Certification, it can be challenging to talk slower and simpler for your students and to not allow Spanish in the classroom.

Teaching English as a Second Language

Teaching English as a Second Language can drastically change between the different levels, every level has specific aspects that need to be taught and ingrained. When teaching a beginner, it is important to speak slowly and very simply so the student can grasp what you are saying. If the student is an absolute/false beginner it is necessary to use as many visuals, actions and sounds as possible to increase understanding. Since beginners have little knowledge of the language it’s important to make your lessons interesting and diverse, this will increase motivation and attentiveness. An important learning method for beginners is Total Physical Response, this will help your students connect word meanings to actions. Patience and understanding are two of the most important characteristics for a teacher and especially crucial when teaching a beginner. It is important for teachers to encourage and prompt as much conversation as possible when teaching beginners. Although sentences will be very basic it’s necessary to connect basic nouns, adjectives and grammar through the use of sentence structure, this will help increase confidence and to move to an intermediate level. Although it is still key to speak slowly with intermediate students you will notice a change when speaking with a beginner versus an intermediate student. With intermediate students you can begin teaching other tenses, more descriptive adjectives, movement, location and time prepositions and various other parts of English. When organizing a lesson plan for an intermediate student you can incorporate more challenging topics, activities that interest your student and small conversations. Conversation should be more frequent with an intermediate student to help increase the student’s confidence and pronunciation skills. It is easier to build a more personal rapport with intermediate students because now the student and teacher can learn more about each other. The easiest students to build rapport with is an advanced student, due to the fact that they can converse extremely well and aren’t afraid to make mistakes and correct themselves. Advanced students usually have a strong grasp on grammar therefore lessons tend to be centered around conversation. When Teaching English as a Second Language Programs, The teacher of English as a Second Language should encourage their advanced students to ask questions, discuss and analyze topics. Although knowing how to converse is crucial when learning a language it is still important for your students to be able to correctly read, write and listen. When teaching every level the teacher should be consistently incorporating speaking, reading, writing and listening to achieve fluency.