I'm an Asian and I teach English to Koreans. How could I improve my teaching skills?

Answer 1

You could take a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course online or in your local area, to improve your skills and get a qualification. Sometimes there are evening classes at local schools. See wikipedia article for details, the UK Guardian Newspaper article on choosing a course and also google search for TEFL.

There is a lot of commercial and free TEFL articles, learning materials, programs, etc on the net.

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Every week, ask your students what things they find very difficult then research on the internet how to teach them better or ask for suggestions on TEFL chat sites, Korean English teacher websites or on here.

For example :-

Spelling (inconsistant in English)

Pronunciation (inconsistant - unlike Spanish etc, a letter isn't always pronounced the same way in different words). Listen to them and get them to speak the sounds and words very precisely and clearly. If they can't be understood by english people, there is no point in speaking.

A particular aspect of grammar such as the 3 ways to say things in the present tense - I smoke (habitually), I do smoke (emphatic becasue of DO) and I am smoking (right now). These 3 ways also mean there are lots of versions of past tenses.

Contractions of phrase, such as I don't = I do not

Why do we use the plural form of verbs such as 'are' in 'You are going to the station' when YOU refers to one person, instead of having a singular form like the no-longer-used 'Thou art'?

Teach them US/UK culture - People like it when tourists speak some english. Its OK to talk and make mistakes. I read that some asians have learnt english to a high standard, but won't try speaking it on vacation because a 'failure' would cause them to 'lose face' in front of their friends or tour-group. Teach them that we just smile at mistakes and that laughing at mistakes isn't an insult, just friendly.

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Try out different language learning methods by learning a bit of any language you haven't done before on the internet, using the free example lessons on sites such as Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur. See what is good or bad about the methods and whether you can use any of the techniques in class using flash-cards or recordings or videos or computer-based lessons.

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Most koreans have internet access. If the language school allows it, give them internet-based homework, such as online tests or reading an English wikipedia article for a simple topic, such as food, drink, fruit and vegetables, tourism, the weather, etc.

You could also create your own simple website with a few pages of lessons or tests or add a set of photos for a topic (with text captions) to a photo sharing site and give them the web-address of it. Blog sites may allow you to create the pages you want, without you needing to learn website skills.

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There is a program called supermemo (super memorisation), which is good for teaching and testing vocabulary. You can create sets of Questions and Answers as a test. Supermemo98 is free to download. You can import whole sets of questions into it from a text files in this format :-

Q: Where is the hotel?
A: Donde esta el hotel? (a spanish, not korean example)
Q: Where is the car?
A: Donde esta el coche?
etc.

The space after the colon is needed.

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You can teach the linkword memory-training method of learning vocabulary, which uses unusual visual images to memorise words. see Linkword site and books by Michael M. Gruneberg, Harry Lorayne and Dominic O'Brien on amazon.

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Get the students to type english words into the 'google image search' box to see pictures with english captions. The picture confirms they are looking at the right sort of object and the caption contain 4 or 5 related words.

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Your students can type one english word into the 'google sets' box and see a related set of words. For example, enter 'apple' and see a whole set of names for fruits - orange, banana, etc.

You can also type one word from a set such as 'apple' into a great online tool called 'find related images'. It displays not just the words but also pictures of related objects - orange, banana, etc. Its good fun and great for learning more vocabulary.

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Download and print out the lyics for english songs and get the music then get the students to sing them Karaoke style. It really helps vocab sink in. You can also get MIDI .kar karaoke files with music and lyrics combined in one file and programs to play them.

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English magazines with lots of pictures are a good way to teach english. In-flight magazines from airlines are free and have lots of easy to read articles and a nice variety of subjects.

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Free product catalogs from stores or mail order companies sellings thousands of different items are good. They have lots of pictures of household items, like microwave ovens, toasters, chairs, etc, with english text names and descriptions.

Answer 2

Hello dear! There are many ways to improve your teaching skills:
1-Prepare yourself very well and read everything you can access which is related to the topic you're goign to deal with.
2-Use teaching aids, such as PowerPoint presentation with a datashow, so as to help you present your self well.
3-Try to be a good model to your students. For example, try to train yourself in pronouncing words very well because speaking skills are very important to Foreign Language Teachers. Always check your dictionary for word spelling and pronunciation, even when you have a small doubt of how a word is pronounced.
4-Use effective modern techniques and methods in your instruction, such as cooperative learning, CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning), role-playing, dramatization, brainstorming, active learning strategies and so on.
5-Monitor yourself by video-taping your teaching so as to identify your weak points and reinforce your good point. PLease feel free to contact me at: [e-mail] for more elaboration. Sincerely, Dr M.Sayed

Answer 3

I feel your pain. I was an ESL teacher in Korea and got really screwed. Practice your English with the native English speakers in the ESL institute there. Go to Itaewon and hang out with the GIs there. They'll appreciate a clean-cut girl anytime.

Answer 4

Use children books. Like the See Jane run books. It may seem silly but it works.

Answer 5

try to know how to speak english well. know how to translate english to korean well. be good at explaining the structue of an english sentence well.

Answer 6

try to talk with occidental teachers in chats or contact people in a occidental embassy, but whatever you do, never try to get help from french, they are not nice people

Answer 7

just think they are student and they dont know anything so you will improve

Answer 8

mingle with english -speaking people more...