This weekend I began my TEFL course (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). The course teaches you how to teach English to learns whose first language is not English. There are a few different course lengths and types; I went for the 120 hour course that consists of a 20 hours classroom based weekend course, followed by a 100 hour online section, complete with assessments and a tutor.
I chose to do my course with the TEFL Academy. Why? Because their accreditation is excellent, and they also offered the best prices for the 120 hour course. Usually it's meant to be around £349, however they had an offer to do it for £175, how could I say no?!
The weekend section of the course is completed first. It's undertaken over a weekend (obviously...) for 10 hours on each day. I believe the minimum age you can be to do the course is 16, meaning the class is very varied in ages and you can be with any number of different people! I was the youngest in my class, with age ranging from 20 to about 60!
Naturally, I was nervous about the weekend as I'm not the most confident person when it comes to standing in front of people (I hate it) as well as being very anxious about new situations and people. The teacher/leader of the course made everyone feel relaxed and comfortable with each other, by doing ice-breakers and warm up exercises. It felt a bit silly doing the ice-breakers, but everyone is in the same boat so you all get involved and get to know each other.
Over the two days, we were taught the importance of ice-breakers and how to introduce yourself a to a new class. This was followed by a lot of classroom management tips and advice, such as classroom rules, how to make a good first impression and how to control your class from the get go.
Getting to the teaching English side of things, we began with a "how to teach absolute beginners" lesson. Our teacher showed us how to do a lesson like this, by giving us a lesson in Russian, only Russian, so that we would understand what it's like to be an absolute beginner with someone not speaking a word of your first language. It was funny because we were all at a loss as to what was being said, but it was so interesting to see how things are done and the best way to get a class involved in learning a new language.
We also learnt about teaching grammar, pronunciation, speaking, listening and writing. It's difficult to keep reminding yourself that you're not being taught these things, but being taught how to teach others about them! I think some people on my course didn't quite get the grasp of that (cheeky).
In addition to this, we also had little "teaching practice" lessons, which saw us pair up and give the rest of the class a lesson in English (or another language) to have a go at seeing what it would be like. As someone who hates standing up in front of people, I was so nervous. It was difficult to feel like the one in charge of the class but very good practice and a good insight into how it will be. We were given a "class" (meaning what age range we were teaching) and had to plan our lessons around that. It was actually great!
I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and I can't wait to get started with my online course and then become a qualified TEFL teacher!
Getting to the teaching English side of things, we began with a "how to teach absolute beginners" lesson. Our teacher showed us how to do a lesson like this, by giving us a lesson in Russian, only Russian, so that we would understand what it's like to be an absolute beginner with someone not speaking a word of your first language. It was funny because we were all at a loss as to what was being said, but it was so interesting to see how things are done and the best way to get a class involved in learning a new language.
We also learnt about teaching grammar, pronunciation, speaking, listening and writing. It's difficult to keep reminding yourself that you're not being taught these things, but being taught how to teach others about them! I think some people on my course didn't quite get the grasp of that (cheeky).
In addition to this, we also had little "teaching practice" lessons, which saw us pair up and give the rest of the class a lesson in English (or another language) to have a go at seeing what it would be like. As someone who hates standing up in front of people, I was so nervous. It was difficult to feel like the one in charge of the class but very good practice and a good insight into how it will be. We were given a "class" (meaning what age range we were teaching) and had to plan our lessons around that. It was actually great!
I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and I can't wait to get started with my online course and then become a qualified TEFL teacher!
Hey!
ReplyDeleteI really like your Blog, nice Stuff and Pictures :) Would you like to support each other and follow via GFC? But only if you like my Blog. I hope we can stay in touch. :*
Greetings, Sophia xx
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Aww thank you! That's so kind :) I would love to do that! xx
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