Teach English in Caozili Zhen - Tianjin

Things I wish I would have known before starting the courseAs a native english speaker, I thought I had a good understanding of the english language. I wish I would have known that english is much more complicated and difficult to learn than I expected. By the second unit I realized that my knowledge of english grammar was very poor. Although I can communicate well in english, I see now that I did not understand what I was doing and why. For example, I now realize that I use gerunds every day but I had never heard the word, gerund, until I received the materials for unit 2. I did not know many of the language points covered in the course including modal auxiliary words, phrasal verbs, conditionals, phonetics, intonation, and nine of the twelve tenses. Without understanding, english speakers generally follow these grammar rules naturally but english speakers who are planning on teaching ESL need to know all of these language points so that they can teach students properly. This course has opened my eyes to the lack of english grammar and pronunciation education for native english speakers. I wish that I would have known the information presented in the grammar units before taking the course. I believe that the information is greatly beneficial to any english speaker, even native english speakers who can already communicate well. Although I have been a student for a long time and have had many different teachers, I did not fully understand the complexity of the teaching position prior to taking this class. I thought I knew what was involved in teaching a class because I have volunteered teaching children during extra-curricular activities for three years. I have also volunteered in a classroom as an in-class math tutor. Even through these experiences, I still did not fully understand the duties of the teacher. Before taking the course I wish that I knew how complicated teaching was and how many factors must be considered when teaching a course. There are so many different aspects of learning, teaching, evaluating, lesson planning, materials, equipment, classroom arrangements, etc that I did not realize before. I found the units on teaching very informative but I wish I knew this before doing the course so that I could have done more research on teaching and teaching methods. Teaching is not as easy as it may appear and those who want to pursue a teaching job or career must be aware of this. Before taking the course I wish I knew how difficult it was going to be and that it would take me much longer to complete the course than I had anticipated. I would have started the course earlier and given myself a longer amount of time to complete each unit so that I could fully absorb the material. I found that I was rushing through the material at the end of the course to complete it by a certain due date. I definitely will go back to those units at a later time to make sure I fully understand the material. It was helpful to have a tutor to point out any information that I had overlooked or misunderstood. I am thankful this course has shown me that grammar and teaching are much harder that I originally thought. By taking this course and experiencing how difficult the english language is, I have a better understanding of what ESL students experience. I am also more aware of what I will experience when teaching ESL and can better prepare myself.