Teach English in Baiyin Mengguzu XiAng - Zhangye Shi

In this unit, I learned about points to bear in mind when teaching beginning EFL students, young children, individual students, and students who need business-oriented English or English for Specific Purposes (ESP), as well as some of the differences and commonalities between monolingual and multilingual classes. There are different categories of beginners, including absolute beginners (with no prior knowledge of English), false beginners (with a very small prior knowledge or exposure to English), young beginners, adult beginners, and beginners without knowledge of the Roman alphabet. Being aware of beginning EFL students' needs, and understanding that teaching them requires unique psychology and skills, is tantamount to helping them succeed in the classroom. Being as visual as possible, using simple and easily understandable language, giving clear and concise instructions, not using the students' native language(s), and encouraging students to speak English as much as possible are important rules for teaching beginning students. Teaching individual students has some advantages, such as the fact that students are usually well-motivated and the teacher can develop a close relationship with them. However, having only one student in the classroom can make many activities effectively obsolete and cause the one student to feel uncommon amounts of pressure and expectation. Therefore, teachers should take care to be attuned to the needs of individual students and develop a close relationship with them (exchanging contact information may be useful), and adapting individual activities from course books can be helpful for the teacher if the loss of a classroom dynamic leaves them feeling confused as to how to proceed. When teaching children, it is important to use English and encourage students to speak English as much as possible, to incorporate repetition into every aspect of the lesson, to give positive responses to all (even imperfect) participation, and to use slowly and carefully pronounced speech in the classroom. It is also important to avoid using students' native language(s) and to neither reward (with attention) nor completely ignore problem behavior; understanding the source of disruptive or otherwise problematic behavior and working to address it accordingly should be the teacher's course of action. Business English and ESP classes can be challenging to teach, as the age range of classes can be quite large and older students may have had very little or even no prior English education. Furthermore, as many of these students are full-time workers, they can be very tired during class and have a difficult time engaging with the lesson. It is important to administer needs negotiation sessions or needs analyses in which students state what they use English for currently and what they will need it for later (this information should be shared publicly in the case of the former), and for the teacher to make it known that the lesson plan sequences of the class will attempt to accommodate as many of these needs as possible. While monolingual classrooms can theoretically be easier to teach to (as students share similar if not identical cultures and the same language), multilingual classrooms can result in more interesting discussions and dialogues as the cultures and languages of different students can intersect in unique and memorable ways. Although, as the meaning and cultural significance of gestures, expressions, and other factors may not be shared, it may be more difficult to teach to multilingual classrooms. However, as multilingual classrooms include a mix of students who cannot communicate with each other in one mother tongue, it is easier to ensure tat students speak English in the classroom with each other.