English teacher is a quite rewarding and interesting profession. Mostly, people take it up because of two possible reasons, either they can explain complicated things in the easiest way or they are fond of the language. Despite, English seems to have a clear structure and system, some people still struggle to learn it. Language acquisition takes some time, patience and much practice. That is why ESL tutors, who are interested in critical-thinking and logical approach, prefer to work with grown-ups.
It is believed that adults shoulder responsibility for the result of their efforts. As for teachers, it is easier to keep focus on needs and progress, rather than entertaining. Don't get me wrong, lessons always must be riveting and absorbing, but when you teach adults, you don't need to make students study in comparison with children.
People start learning foreign languages when they have important goals to pursue. And if you feel you can help to reach them, go for it.
There are the most popular reasons why adults turn to English learning:
As long as you are qualified to help to solve any of this problem, you should teach grown-ups. Let's think of what you need to start.
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As you understand students' needs, you should decide what you are a master of. It is really difficult to be good at everything. So, a lot of tutors make their choice, what things they can do better than others. It will help you find a niche in the market and attract only motivated students. Even if you are not ready to be self-employed, you will get much more respect from language schools as long as you are focused on one thing in ESL teaching.
You can be high-qualified professional to teach:
When you found your feature, it is a high time you chose where you would like to work.
Online teaching gives a bunch of advantages in terms of comfort. You can save time on commuting to work and have a work-life balance setting your work hours. However, sociable people can find it boring and depressing, as you have no chance to communicate with coworkers and be in the spotlight.
On the contrary, working overseas may be an excellent experience in your life. You can make foreign friends, get familiar with other culture and see the world. That's a great chance for people who get itchy-feet.
As soon as you make a decision in terms of a workplace, start searching job and checking employers' requirements to know how to fit the bill. Requirements may change from school to school, however there are the most important.
Common requirements to English teachers:
Don't worry if you don't fit in, there is always a way to become an attractive candidate. Professional development will help you not only to enhance your teaching and language skills, but also to start filling a role.
Teaching children and grown-ups are based on different ideas. The first obvious difference is a goal pursuing. Most of the kids have no intention to master English but their parents will. Even if some children have inspiration to take a new activity up, they need a constant support and encouragement from a teacher. That is why, teaching process is focused on entertainment rather than learning.
On the bright side, kids acquire new information so fast that they don't need to use a logical approach in studying. They rely on feelings and images rather than memory. They have no structure of grammar tenses, they repeat after you. Also, they are not afraid of making mistakes, they can speak up without hesitation.
However, it is hard to keep kids' attention for a long time. That is why ESL teachers turn to a bunch of games to diversify a lesson and make children interested.
There are some ways of teaching kids:
It doesn't mean that lessons for adults are boring and dull. They just need other things to engage with the language with enthusiasm. In this case, we just replace trivial songs and cartoons with short YouTube videos relate to students' interests. People with a clear purpose want to measure the result of every lesson. So, before you finish a class, make learners reflect on things they have learned today.
It is an illusion that grown-ups don't like playing games, they do. But any game must be prepared with a certain purpose, whether it is a vocabulary revision or grammar one. As soon as people reach Pre-Intermediate level we teach them how to discuss different topics, how to react on complaints and complements. It is one of the most important skill that they will implement in the real life.
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English knowledge and learning approaches are obviously significant to start teaching, but not enough. The one common thing exists in teaching people of all ages. Having a good rapport with your class is such a thing that must be your priority all the time. Try to make a friendly atmosphere in your class. It is easy to become a favorite teacher for kids rather than adults.
Children feel your positive energy, and that's enough for them. When you teach adult students, you should take into account a lot of information about each member of the group. That might be stressful for you too, especially if it's your start in teaching. Here making mistakes is more serious because students may notice it.
But don't worry, do your best and follow our recommendations to make your lessons for adult students perfect and interesting:
Encouragement is always one of the main factors that can drive students to succeed and do homework. As long as people see your professionalism and concern, they trust you.
Working with grown-up students doesn't mean you shouldn't have fun. In other words, learning a language is enough difficult process, so we need something that can make us laid-back. Moreover, a comfortable atmosphere, when students think they just laugh and play games, facilitates overcoming a fear of mistakes. As for teachers, such interest-based activities can help to reveal fossilized errors and current struggles.
Taking students' answers and difficulties into account you may easily adapt a course program to revise something important. In comparison with kids, adults don't care the victory in games, they enjoy the process. The more interesting and specific game rules you come up with, the more intrigued your class will be.
Although people know their goals, they can easily lose their motivation to complete tasks even during a lesson. Doing exercises isn't a lesson objective. As long as you remember what your class is going to acquire at the end of a lesson, students keep focus and interest. Let them know what such practice can improve. Adult learners will do tasks with more excitement, when they know exactly what they will have from it.
There are many ideas how to vary a typical lesson plan and add more fun. Turn to some applications to make usual tasks more attractive. A couple of years of experience simplifies the process of creating absorbing tasks. We have prepared some ideas that you can implement right away.
Fluent English speech may seem confusing for some people, especially for beginners. But they will put more efforts to understand if they have to listen to an interview with their favorite actor. Don't overload learners with information, a short video should last about one minute for the start. Assign students to write down 5 questions from an interview to train grammar or, give them a chance to revise vocabulary. Prepare new words and phrases, which may cause difficulties, in advance and conduct a gap-filling exercise. Also, after watching, make a video mute and conduct a role-play, where students have to pronounce phrases from the video to deliver the same meaning.
If it seems too difficult, true and false statements may help. Prepare some sentences and ask students to listen carefully, paying attention to some points. At the beginning, it will help to check students' listening comprehension. Let them know, they need to understand only the main idea, not all details.
Usually adults find it difficult to memorize a bunch of new words. The more times you revise phrases during a lesson, the faster they will start using them in speaking. There are several ways how you can do that and not to overwhelm students with vocabulary activities.
Alias game is a good short break during a lesson, where students have to explain new words with their own vocabulary. It also helps to get used to paraphrasing rather than translating.
You can prepare Bingo show. A typical sheet for this game has 25 spaces, but you can adapt depending on the topic. Students cross out those words they guessed from your explanation or flashcards. A person, who crossed out the most of the words, is a winner.
Try to turn typical conversation questions into fun. Use some simple board games, where learners have to roll the dice and overcome some obstacles going to finish. Those obstacles are questions.
Children love illustrations so much, and we also use pictures with adults. Choose random photos on the Internet. The more interesting story you see in the picture, the better. Assign students to create a story according to the picture. There is an advantage that they have to recall particular grammar to describe all events. You can change terms asking to use Present, Past, or Future tense.
Popular quotes are very useful for speaking. Use them to conduct a debate between students. They have to agree or disagree with an author explaining their opinion.
You can read more about ESL speaking activities and games for adults here.
There are few people who love reading. It's a time-consuming process, especially in a foreign language. Short stories can grow on your class. Pick 3-5 questions about the main events in a book, and assign people to find answers.
There is a more active exercise to spark interest to reading. Print an article and cut it separating all paragraphs. Students will have to work in a team to understand the order and coherence of all pieces of a story.
Some people love discussions on controversial issues. The world bestsellers will cause curiosity and necessity to express an opinion. So, conduct a time for a book club, and assign learners to read a chapter every week to discuss at the end of the lesson. Such practice usually works with higher-level students.
People find writing exercises tedious because it is difficult to produce ideas in English and write them in appropriate way. Essays, CVs, letters have different structures. Instead of explaining them as rules, assign them as a game. You can give a situation to write an essay, but each member of a group will be responsible for only one paragraph. Then you can read a whole piece of writing and have laugh with your students.
Some learners struggle even to start writing in English. Brainstorm ideas together. Ask a class to think of all phrases and idioms relate to the topic, and give them some linking words to make the process easier.
Use peoples' interests to make a writing task. Students may write a film or a book review that they have enjoyed recently. They will be glad to share their opinion about the plot and start thinking about that in English.
Even though teaching ESL contains a lot of details that you should figure out before your career starts, it is a benevolent call that allows you to help people. Taking care of your students makes them love the language. As we know education doesn't finish as soon as a class is dismissed. Tutors do their best to grow autonomy and responsibility in students. There is no bound for learning a foreign language, however teachers can split information to make it more reasonable and clear.
It is impossible to become a professional ESL teacher overnight, but it is real to make the first step. Practice makes perfect. The more lessons you prepare, the easier it will become. It takes some time to get a huge work experience, however you can save your time studying teaching approaches. After learning the most effective techniques of teaching you will get enough knowledge to adapt any tasks. Online course TEFL/TESOL provides theory, practice and training videos about teaching people of all ages and difference between learning approaches. There is a chance to purchase it at a 50% discount and get an international certificate and job search support.
We hope that this article will help you and give a plan to teach English language. If you have more relevant questions, leave them in the comments below.
ESL, TEFL, TESOL
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Cases 💼, life hacks 🔑, tips 📝 and useful articles 📚 for English language teachers. Enter your email 📧 to receive the checklist and stay updated on the latest news 🌟.
