Teach English in Heping Zhen - Wuwei Shi

This unit covered some tips and methods for teaching special groups such as beginners, individuals, children, and business people. There are many different types of beginner English students, who may have been exposed to the language to varying degrees. One of the most important things to remember with beginners is not to cover too much material. The other difficult thing for teachers to remember is to control their own language and simplify everything they say. Repetition helps, as does pair or group work and giving homework. is very important. The key with beginners is to do everything slowly and review as much as possible. Teachers should create a relaxed and positive environment, try not to correct too much, and focus on easy tasks. Individual lessons have become more popular in recent years, especially for business students. There are many advantages to one-on-one lessons, such as being able to customize material to the needs of a single person. There are also challenges, however, especially as relates to the types of activities that are possible and the extra energy required for both teacher and student. Lessons should be tailored to the individual?s interests and language needs, and should be as varied as possible. Even if a student claims to want only conversational practice, some vocabulary and grammar topics should be interwoven to ensure that they are learning something new. An interesting new idea is to give a reading assignment for homework, or to ask them to prepare a presentation for the next lesson. When teaching children, it is essential to be positive and encouraging, while giving attention to all students equally. Children tend to be more curious than adults, but they also have a shorter attention span and need to be constantly stimulated with new and interesting topics. The classroom environment should be made fun and welcoming, and English should always be used for instruction. The teacher should speak slowly, use many visual aids and gestures, play lots of games, and plan crafty activities. When it comes to discipline in the classroom, the most important factor is the attitude of the teacher. It is always better to give a first impression of being strict and then to relax a little bit if possible. It is also necessary show consistency and fairness to all students. Yelling and threatening never help. The section on teaching business clients was most interesting to me, because that is my primary job at the moment. Groups are usually small and include mixed ages. It is true that the younger generation has often had some English at school, whereas the older generation frequently wish to go at a slower pace. Some challenges for business lessons are the low motivation and tiredness of the clients, inconsistent attendance, and resistance to homework. It is also the case that many classes are made up of mixed levels because it is more convenient for the company. The teacher should be especially aware of group dynamics when the boss of the company is in the class. I found it helpful to distinguish between what the clients want and what they need. They often want to play games or just chat, and they never want to practice grammar, which is something they all need. It?s important to balance the needs and wants in a class. Even if the clients still need basic English, you can relate it to their job in some way. There should be a level placement test at the beginning of each course, as well as a needs analysis. This is very helpful for finding out the experience of each client and what goals they have for using English in their working life. After the needs assessment, it is suggested to give the students a lesson plan for the first 15-20 hours, outlining the language goals and course material to be used. Everything should be related to specific objectives and the teacher should ask for feedback. They also suggest a mid-course evaluation, done with each student individually. Authentic material from real companies, such as emails, reports, or marketing material is extremely useful. I had never thought to look for those materials, but I do use business newspapers and magazines. It is not necessary to be an expert in the client?s field, but the teacher should try to learn as much about the company as possible. Multilingual classes have the advantage of forcing everyone to speak in English. In my experience, these classes also have a better vibe because everyone is already out of their own comfort zone by living in a different country. Monolingual classes don?t have that advantage, but the students will all have similar language problems to work on.