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This is how our TEFL graduates feel they have gained from their course, and how they plan to put into action what they learned:
Teaching StyleI think that one of the most important aspects of teaching English to a class is the style the teacher decides to portray towards the students. It is one thing to just drill your students on a bunch of material they are not familiar with. However, this may not be enough to get the students engaged and actually learn to love English and school in general. Every teacher will have their own way to go about teaching and maintaining a class.
It is very important first and foremost to know the students that you are teaching. This is tougher when you have a larger class versus a small group or one on one teaching. I feel that after a day or two with the students the teacher should get an idea of what kind of personalities they are dealing with. They should use that as their advantage to organize the style they will use to instruct. When a teacher comes in to the class with an optimistic attitude and a great big smile, the students just naturally feel more comfortable and perhaps even excited to be in class. I myself, have a very enthusiastic and loud personality. I feel like I would be a great teacher if the class was motivated to learn and could get students really interested into the lessons and material. However, sometimes you are put with students who are more introverted and shy. I would have to learn to adjust my style of teaching with the variety of the class. This could include less class participation and more single or group work to get the students feeling comfortable.
Another important teaching style is in the way you praise your students for a job well done. I feel that, like anyone in this world, we like to hear it when we have done a good job. It is important to notice the hard work that the students put into their work. This typically leads to more hard work down the road, and raises their confidence. This also goes for encouraging changes and improvement to any wrong answers. It is inevitable to get everything right. This goes especially for a beginner class learning a completely different language. However, by adding a simple ?good try? or ?Next time try this? can really allow the students to not give up or feel bad towards them for doing something wrong.
Also, an important thing to acknowledge is the way a teacher disciplines their students. There needs to be a certain appropriate style that fits with the type of student they are dealing with. I personally feel that a good medium degree of discipline is what works best. You need to be firm with the students in a way in which they well hopefully not act up in class again. However you also need to realize that if you are too harsh then they may loose respect in you. It could affect how they end up learning the material and not do well in the class.
Overall the teaching style is something that all teachers of any kind or age should really put some thought into. It may be difficult to have every student you have ever taught to all enjoy the way you go about your lessons. However you make for a much better teacher if you try and match the style with the students. This will also make your job as a teacher a lot more enjoyable.
