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In this lesson, I learned about troubleshooting. I learned that when a teacher is assigned to a class, there can be two kinds of classes. There can be a new group of students or an existing group of students. The new group of students typically doesn?t know each other and don?t know anything about the EFL style of teaching. The existing group of students typically already know each other and are comfortable with each other, and are already familiar with the EFL style of teaching. One the first day of class, an experienced teacher typically won?t teach out of the book, but will choose to do something that builds rapport with the students as well as finding out the overall English level of the class. These things can include the pass the ball game, questionnaires, surveys, games that are like the ?Tell us about? game, as well as a needs analysis. Some good warmers for a teacher?s first class include things like memory games, pictionary, tongue twisters, hangman, etc. When dealing with a class that has students on different levels of English learning, it is good to have sperate but related materials for each group of students. The more advanced students will be required to answer more complicated questions whereas the less skilled students will have work that is of the same topic, but with less challenging questions. It is also effective to pair one less skilled student with one of the more skilled students for pair work so they can help each other develop their skills in a comfortable setting. For larger classes, it is helpful to have class leaders who help pass worksheets out as well as help with group activities. In the classroom, and ESL teacher should avoid the use of the L1 of the class. The students are there to learn English, not to speak in their native tongue. It is not always a bad thing, however, for students to briefly help another student in their own language. Pair work works well for students of different English levels as well as for getting the more reluctant students to participate. For a class that is having trouble with listening texts or even listening to the words being spoken on a video, it is helpful for the teacher to have gone over the more difficult vocabulary prior to playing the listening text or video.
