Teach English in WenchAng Jiedao - Tianjin

TEFL for non-native english speaking teachersThey always say that a native english speaking teacher is better that a non-native english speaking teacher. I disagree with this statement always, because we can?t stereotype something like that just because the native english speaking teacher speaks english better than the non-native english speaking teacher this doesn?t mean that he teaches english better than him. In many cases a native english speaking teacher can?t successfully teach english to beginners who are trying to speak english as a second language, also many non-native english speaking teachers can?t even speak english correctly which prevent them from helping their students to speak english. Of course the fact that the native english speaking teacher gives him advantage that he represents the perfect model for the students, but there are many things we should keep in consideration. The first thing you will notice that the native english speaking teachers care mostly about is the fluency of their students, but on the other hand the non-native english speaking teachers care mostly about grammar and the right structure. This is normally of course since the native ones facing no difficulties in making a sentence or a structure as they do it unconsciously and at certain times when a student who tries to speak english as second language asks the teacher why he made the sentence like this. The teacher will say that because it sounds right or that he needs to learn it like this. But on the other hand a lot of non-native english teachers can give him the right answer as their strength point is the grammar. Most of the non-native english speaking teachers lack the confidence in themselves as they always feel that the students prefer native teachers, what they need to do is to accept the fact that they are both learners and teachers and they need always to develop themselves and not only in the accent area which represent the biggest nightmare for them but also in the culture area which most of them have no idea about it because they never lived in an english speaking country. Here comes the TEFL to represent the first step for them to be a successful teacher. As the TEFL helps any teacher to know what to do, how to do it and when to do it? The non-native teachers will understand that they need to learn a lot of techniques and methods to teach students and not only to translate for them the words and make them memorize them, or even to present the grammar rules. I will speak about my own experience in this area. Since I started to study english as a second language in schools what the teachers used to do is to give us the grammar rules, some words to memorize and homework at home. But the fact is it wasn?t helpful at all since no one made us try to speak english at the class so what I discovered is we were learning about english not learning english. As a result many students can memorize and get the full mark in any english exam but when you put them in a situation they won?t speak english. The TEFL will make sure that the students interact with the teacher, also raise their speaking time and reduce the teacher talking time as much as possible, because the teacher will learn how to make the lesson student centered not teacher centered. Also the teacher will learn how to make balance between teaching all the aspects equally (the receptive skills and the productive skills). The TEFL gives the non-native teachers the opportunity to enjoy what they do; they learn how to teach things as games to make the class lively and enjoyable. Also they learn how to get the best out of the lesson by the lesson planning which help the teachers to anticipate what will happen in the class and prepare the solution for it. A big advantage the TEFL also did to me at least is that I knew how to evaluate the course books and how to get the best out of them, either by adding or omitting parts to relate it to the student?s real life. When we relate what the students learn to their real life they will use it which means they really learned it. What the TEFL did at the end is that it built self-confidence again in non-native teachers and made them discover some advantages the native ones will never have like: 1- That the non-native speaking teacher represent a successful model of someone like them who learned english as second language, as the native ones might give them the idea that they will never be able to speak english like them unless they were born or lived at english speaking countries. 2- That they can teach learning strategies more effectively since they are themselves tried them and learned through them. 3- They are able to understand the needs and problems their students will face while learning english. 4- They can benefit from sharing the students? mother tongue but of course making sure that they don?t abuse it. So if there is one advice I can give for any non-native english speaking teacher it will be that you must take the TEFL course because it will change your whole life and your career.