Teach English in Xuhui Qu - Shanghai Shi

Learning teaching skillsTo teach english effectively, teachers should be aware that teaching and learning a foreign language cannot be reduced to the direct teaching of language skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing). To be a good teacher includes much more since a teacher has different roles in the classroom. He/she is not only a monitor, facilitator, organizer, coordinator and tutor, but he/she tries, above all, to help and inspire students to learn. Different skills and qualities are required to reach this goal and to perform all these roles. As teachers we are, therefore, confronted with the question: ?What skills should we learn and enhance so that we help and inspire students to learn and work harder?? To begin, a teachers training is of great value for a ?good? teacher because it will help him/her a lot to explore and learn more about the required skills and knowledge to teach english effectively. For example, I learned throughout the TEFL course the following essential skills: how to develop and structure lessons plan and courses, how to understand and respect learners, how to deliver lessons that facilitate learning and interaction, how to evaluate and assess the learner, and how to manage my classroom and my own professional development. In addition, there are some functional ideas a teacher should learn. For instance, keep eye contact with the learners at all times, focus attention, use students? names, use the board effectively, be varied and interesting, etc. Further, it is extremely important that we, as teachers, are constantly trying to get into students shoes, develop learning strategies, help students realize what they have learned and encourage them to continue learning more. To enhance all these skills, we should put great emphasis on the teaching practice. As for learners, teachers learn the best through experience. Moreover, learning teaching skills in theory can be slightly different from the practice you will be faced with. In order to build this gap between theory and practice, teaching practice is crucial and will help a teacher a lot to effectively develop his/her teaching skills and professionalism. However, not only should a teacher put into practice in the classroom what he/she have learned, but he/she should also talk to more experienced teachers, observe them, reflect on what he/she does in the classroom, experiment with new resources and ideas, observe the behaviour and progress of his/her learners and trying to find solutions to problems he/she faces. It is important to highlight, however, that some important differences will be encountered when teaching an individual or a group, young learners or adults, beginners or advanced students. Nevertheless, and in all cases, each teacher has to continue to constantly adapt to the classroom dynamics that he/she will find him/herself in. What is more, each teacher should continue to be flexible, to explore his/her own personal style of teaching, to improve his/her language and communication skills and to not forget about the importance of motivating the learners, being varied and interesting, have a good knowledge of the english language, etc. In conclusion, an effective teacher needs to learn and enhance constantly his/her teaching skills and style in order to help and inspire students to learn. However, be a ?good? teacher and learning teaching skills is not a one day job but an ongoing process of growth which should continue throughout each teacher his/her own career. In other words, teachers must always be both teaching and learning inside and outside the classroom.