How to become a good English teacher to non-native speakers of English

Joseph Jin Jung

There are many ways to teach English, but it is cumbersome to find a perfect way to teach. Maybe it is impossible to find the perfect and easy way to teach. However, as we would consider(?) ourselves as decent educators, we just have to find effective ways to teach English well. It will be ludicrous to say that native speakers of English are the best English teachers. Just because one can speak English well does not mean that he/she is an excellent English teacher.

To become a good English teacher, one must educate oneself to become one. In fact, a person has to have a desire to become a good teacher. Of course you can not deny that there are some gifted people who may not need any education or enthusiasm to become a good teacher. More power to those God gifted people. Well, I am sorry that I am not one of those people. I'll be afraid to use the word "gifted people". But, I can say with my heart that I have a sincere desire of wanting to become a good English teacher and I trained myself to become a good English teacher.

Students can see if you are a good teacher. They will have a respect for you.

It took me over five years to grasp what is needed to become a good English teacher. What I have learned may not be the best way to teach and may not bring a huge interest to many, but it sure worked for me and many students whom I had a pleasure of teaching.

Now, I'd like to share my teaching methods and strategies with you. The methods and strategies that I'm about to introduce maybe very basic and simple. It may bore you to death, but please bear with me.

Suppose if I were to teach English to a 20 year old native Korean, what advise should I give him? Let's first examine a 20 year old native English Speaker and look into the fact of how he can speak English well. It is obvious that the native English speaker had been exposed to, spoken to and listened English for 20 years. It does not take a miracle for any person to speak English well if he/she has spoken to and in English for 20 years. Can you imagine how many times he said 'Good morning' or 'how are you' in 20 years. Probably many, many, many times. So, if a 20 year old non-native speaker of English wants to speak English well, all he has to do is do the same thing that the native speaker of English did for 20 years. Did it bore you?

Learning Style

Types of learners (learning styles):

1. Visual

2. Auditory

3. Kinesthetic, tactile

There are other facilitators that assist learning such as:

1. Activity

2. Investigation

3. Experimentation and discovery

4. Imagination

5. Asking questions and searching for answers

6. Using all of senses when possible

7. Repetition and drill

8. Sorting and combining objects

9. Learning step-by-step and in sequence

10. Modeling

1. Class structure - Learning is best in a structured environment. It lessens student anxiety.

2. Sequence - Learning takes place if in sequence. You cannot learn to write a paragraph until you've learned how to write a sentence. Ask yourself if you've taught all the parts to the new learning.

3. Pacing - Ask yourself three questions: a) How long (time) should be spent on the new or old learning. b) How often should they practice the new learning. Students will forget if practice sessions are too far apart. If they studied it in October, does this mean they will remember it in May? c) How much of the new learning do they study at a time. If they have 20 spelling words to learn, you might consider having them study five at a time.

4. Closure - In humans there is a powerful drive towards closure. You shouldn't leave too many things open. Incomplete work and work never getting done lessens self-esteem. You need a beginning and an end.

5. Opportunity to gain competence - Students should learn and practice a new learning until they are competent with the new learning.

6. Concrete - abstract - Many learnings need to be made concrete for better understanding. The term furniture is abstract. To make concrete you must father chairs, tables, etc.

7. Self-concept - Self-concept is very important to learning. Students need to feel self-worth. Build success into your program. What we are successful at we like to do. What we are not successful at we don't like to do. If we think we can't do it, we usually don't. Assist students in feeling good about themselves.

8. Guidance - Guide a student to correct answers. The student should hold the pencil and be doing the work, not the instructor. If you always tell the student how to spell dog, he doesn't need to learn it for himself. Provide ways of assisting them to find the answers.

9. Practice - Practice small parts. Make them meaningful and add more only after those have been learned. Make practice periods short enough to meet student's attention span requirements. Do a great deal of practice at the beginning. Once the material is learned then review practice to retain material.

10. Motivation - Whenever a student finds his work too difficult or too easy or boring, he becomes passive. Once the material is learned then review practice to retain material.

11. Knowledge of results - Students are move sensitive to doing their work if they

get immediate feedback of test and work results. The more immediate the feedback, the easier it is for the students to improve his/her performance or correct errors.

12. Length of study - It is better for students to study with sessions spaced with rest periods.

13. Retention - Maintaining what has been learned.

Retention factors:

a. Meaning - Give learning as much meaning as possible.

b. Original learning - Make sure the learning has taken place. Test for knowledge.

c. Make learning pleasant, stimulating, and exciting. We remember pleasant things.