Teaching English Abroad Programs: When choosing a Teaching English Abroad Program during your gap year, you will teach different English levels, as explained below.
Beginners – The beginner level is where I have found most of my challenges with the language barrier. It was interesting to observe many institutions still using the mother tongue as a way of forming an understanding for the new target language. To get around this challenge, I used many visuals, props, videos and picture stimulus to help the learner/s create an understanding of the topics being taught/discussed. I found that preparing my lessons for these students were by far the most simple for me as I was able to draw on my own resources from my teaching experience back home.
Teaching English Abroad Programs
Intermediate – This level of learner varies considerably from low intermediate to high intermediate, so in order to have a successful lesson, I needed to be prepared to decrease and increase the complexity of the task to suit the students needs. What I found most challenging was choosing a topic that lent itself to many learning opportunities. For the most part, we were unsure of the students’ level prior to the lesson, so we needed to be adaptable and have a contingency plan, in the case that the work set was too easy/challenging for the learner.
Advanced – This level of learner was by far the most challenging, providing stimulating activities, with a balance between conversational practice, writing, reading and listening. I did, however, enjoy preparing for these lessons and finding ways to challenge the learner with topics such as figurative language, discussions methods and debates and analysis of writing samples.
Teaching English Abroad Programs in Argentina
Children – This teaching experience, for me, was the most comfortable. It was familiar to me and sourcing materials was simple, as I had a sleeve full of ideas. I was able to offer support and guidance to my peers as many tackled their first experience, teaching children. As I had expected, there were some communication challenges with my class, particularly as they were a beginner class and had not had a lot of exposure to the English language as in any Teaching English Abroad Program. With the little Spanish I have, I was able to get around most of my instructions when they were not understood, but expected students to ‘have a go’ with the support of visual and oral support. The use of visuals, actions and slowly articulating my words, aided students understanding of the task and they were able to complete it to the best of their ability. As in any Teaching English Abroad Program, our TEFL course in Buenos Aires covers a wide range of topics related to teaching English as a second language. These includes an overview of teaching English, teaching methods, motivation techniques, phonetics and phonology, classroom management, teaching grammar, lesson planning, teaching the four basic language skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening), how to use games and songs, how to create materials, assignments in the classroom, and professional development. The course also includes real life classroom observations and teaching practice sessions.