How to Teach English as a Second Langage
Students all over the world want to learn English for business, for travel, for pleasure or for school. As an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, you may be dealing with children or adults, with immigrants in an English-speaking country, or with students inside their home country. All students are different and it's your job as a teacher to find the best way to teach each one.
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Instructions
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Tailor your lesson to your students' ability level. You may have a class of students who have never spoken English before or you may have a class of students that have been studying English for years and are at a very advanced level. You must identify the level of your students' English and develop lesson plans that are challenging, but not too far over their heads. For example, with beginning students, you may want to practice learning vocabulary words or inserting vocabulary into common sentence patterns. With advanced students, you can practice conversational skills or advanced grammar concepts.
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Follow a curriculum. Choose a textbook that walks students through the different stages of learning English, from basic to advanced. The "Let's Go" series, for example, is ideal for children learning English, while the "Market Leader" series would be more appropriate for those learning business English.
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Create a daily lesson structure. Students will feel more comfortable when they understand what's coming up in a lesson. While the material that you teach will be largely based on the curriculum that you choose, you can use a daily lesson structure to help you plan lessons. For example, you may start with a 10-minute warm up period just asking basic questions, then review old material, teach new material and use activities to reinforce the new material.
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Incorporate multimedia into your lessons. There are many aspects of learning English--reading, writing, speaking and listening. You can capture students' attention by using a variety of resources, such as American movies or TV shows, music, computer games and excerpts from books.
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Play games to reinforce knowledge. Games can help students stay active and interested in your classes. Once you've taught new lesson material, use a game to help students practice that information.
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Tips & Warnings
Many ESL teaching jobs will require you to have ESL certification.
References
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