Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in ZhAngyebaopinghe Muchang? Are you interested in teaching English in Zhangye Shi? 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.
From unit 17, I have familiarized myself with equipment and teaching aids. There are a lot of different teaching aids that could be used to make lessons more interesting and fun. I will now explain different resources often found in classrooms. Normally, in ever classroom there should be some form of a writing board (black or white) for teachers to write lessons and important information about the lesson being taught. Board work can be planned and organised sometimes on paper beforehand too. It can be used for writing, drawing, sticking things or for projecting overhead transparencies. Some basic principles for board work are, to start with a clean board, write legibly and clearly, use different colours and adjusting your hand writing size. The second one would be interactive white boards (IWB). These are technologized boards that can be touch sensitive or have wires inlaid. It is advisable to always test and have a back-up plan. Maybe to even take a IWB training regime. The overhead projector is useful for showing pre-prepared OHT. The advantages of a system like this is that it focuses the students attention, OHT can be prepared in advance and can be used for timed reading, gap fills and the OHT can be reused. The disadvantages though, are the you will need a classroom surface without direct sunlight and it can be complicated an difficult to set up the OHP. Visual aids could be aids like, real objects, pictures and photos. It is used to illustrate meaning more quickly, sometimes to bring the outside world into the classroom, stimulate discussion and can be prompts for communication games. Worksheets and work cards, are mostly used to adapt published materials, it can act as a prompt and as a teacher you can write your own exercises with authentic materials. This type of material can also always be reused if it is taken care of and covered for protection. A casette recorder is a very useful tool, that can accompany many course books. On blank ones we can record authentic material. Always be sure to familiarise yourself with the casette player. Before the lesson, be sure to set the appropriate volume and to listen in advance to the recording you want to play during the lesson. A CD player, Is now more famous in todays day and age. It is easier to use and more efficient. Video's and DVD's could be effective in a classroom. Using this as a part of your lesson could make sure that the students see as well as hear the lesson. Using video material holds the attention of the students better and for longer. Video camera's can be extremely useful in the classroom. As we can use it to record the students during an activity, and then to play it back to the class for discussion. The most important thing to watch out for is correct usage of equipment. Othe materials that are important for the classroom are materials like, dictionaries, course books, resource books and photo copiers. These days computers also play a valuable role in the classroom. Because teachers can have access to a word processor, emails, video clips and reference tools. When you have access to the internet there are also online sources available. Many examples can be taken from CALL@Hull, compiled by Fred Riley.
