Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Dong'erying Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Tianjin? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.
Teaching grammarTeaching grammar can be considered by an english teacher to be either a bane or a blessing. One the one hand, there are established rules and there are many style books and other reference materials to be found. On the other hand, a teacher has to deal with the grammar rules that the ESL students have grown up with. The key to teaching grammar effectively is knowing the student's level and knowing the appropriate grammar points to teach at his or her level. After finding out the student's level, it's very important for the instructor to come up with the right resources and the right teaching strategies. It's not always easy to do this, but once the teacher has become accustomed to the leveling process and has become familiar with the resources, it will become much easier. Teaching beginners and elementary level students Perhaps the most challenging students to teach are those who can barely understand simple phrases, let alone complex grammar rules. When dealing with beginners or low-level learners, the instructor must think of alternative ways to teach grammar, rather than simply explaining the form and function of a grammar point. One good way to teach grammar to a class of beginners is by giving examples. By creating patterns and helping the students detect those patterns, the teacher has a better way of helping them understand the structure of a phrase or a sentence. For example, when teaching the subject-verb agreement rules, the teacher can do this: Teacher: My dog likes to play. It plays outside every day. It eats a lot, too. My cats hate to play. They like to sleep. They eat less than my dog. What do your pets like to do? The teacher can emphasize the sound of the letter ?s? at the end of plural nouns and singular verbs, thereby introducing the subject-verb agreement rules without having to explain all of the details. Another alternative strategy would be to use pictures. For instance, a teacher could introduce the concept of prepositions by showing a photograph and again, giving examples of sentences describing the positions of objects in relation to each other. Afterward, the students can use the prepositions in a simple activity. It is important to remember that the goal is not for them to be masters of english grammar, but simply to be able to communicate in and be more comfortable with the language. Teaching intermediate and advanced students While it can be assumed that it is easier to teach grammar to high level learners, we must also remember that the topics that they have to learn are also more complex. For instance, conditionals, phrasal verbs and perfect continuous tenses are not that simple. The good news is that it will probably be easier to discuss the rules in the Study stage. For the Activate stage, the teacher can be more creative when it comes to applying the grammar lessons. For business english learners, this could mean being able to discuss work experiences and hypothetical situations related to work. Engage, engage, engage Grammar can be intimidating to both the student and the teacher. It's like knowing how to ride a bicycle and then being taught to do it with one's hands off the handlebars... blindfolded. It's not always easy, but with the right teaching strategy, it can be fun, easy and something that the students can look forward to, rather than dread.
