Teach English in Yangxiaba Zhen - Wuwei Shi

This unit, was my favorite until yet. I have 7 years experience teaching EFL in Japan to Japanese students. I have taught mostly children, some private tutoring, some adult conversation classes, and this year I started teaching business English. I have had the least confidence with business, but, the advice offered by the unit is gold, ?you are not teaching them business, you are teaching them English.? This unit gave names to many things I have learned the hard way over my years teaching in Japan. I feel much more confident. I already know my own teaching strengths and weaknesses, but it felt so good to see that many of the questions for adult learners, or business classes, match what I already do. Overall, my teaching style is very nurturing. I am very good at making students feel comfortable and elicit more English than they realized they knew. I also have a tendency to give long-winded explanations. All of my students comment initially being nervous, but that my sense of humor and encouragement make them begin to speak, and my long responses both improve their listening skills and sometimes teach new words. Teachers should always have backup activities and a few extra materials. Any instance where the dynamics of a class (any level!) where your lesson is completed early, or too difficult, require flexibility on the spot to tailor and adapt. Sometimes, the extra grammar point (high level classes), or game (low level classes) you make up on the spot, will actually be better than one with a lot of preparation. This will be an activity based on exactly what the students have been doing, not what you think or hope they will be doing at a certain point. I slightly disagree that L1 should never be used in the classroom. I agree that English should be the main language, but, particularly with young children, I find it is to my advantage to not hide that I speak Japanese. Three years ago, I taught at a school with a very firm ?English only? rule, they wanted me to pretend I spoke no Japanese. My first lesson, one kid made a very funny joke in Japanese. I faltered, and laughed. All jaws dropped, they asked, in Japanese, ?Do you speak Japanese?? I answered, in English, ?Yes, I speak Japanese.? I find it is an advantage to understand the side conversations during class, and sometimes students will complain in L1 when confused, allowing me to address that concern, in English, and the students amazed that I understand. With very young students, it is important to allow some requests for help, in the L1. I had a 6 year old girl crying because she missed her mother. I used some Japanese to ask what was wrong and calm her down, then, I invited her to try a game in English, signifying a return to class. I also have found that sometimes, discipline (?Get off of that bookshelf right now young man!?) is more effective in the L1. Explaining rules to a class of young children can take less than one minute in L1, or about 12 in English with miming to give clues. Of course you want to gradually teach the students those phrases, but, sometimes to limit teacher talk time, using L1 can be more effective I will concede and say that you must be very careful to only use L1 when absolutely needed. I had a university student ask me a question about an English grammar point, in Japanese. I began to answer and said two sentences in Japanese before I realized what I was doing. I switched to English, then laughed and reminded the class of the ?English only? rule. I was very honest and told that class, ?If you speak to me in Japanese, I am very likely to answer you in Japanese. If I am speaking Japanese, you are not learning English. This rule is for all of us!? That made my university students laugh loudly, then they were more careful.