10 Commandments for ELT (English Language Teaching)
Have you ever sat down to consider what the main principles are that you follow, or that you should follow, in English language teaching (ELT)? We can find “ten commandments” for many fields of endeavor these days, and that of teaching is no exception. Each list, good as it may be, varies from others, and none are particularly specific to second language teaching or to ELT in Korea. Here we will take a look at ten items that seem to be most important in the Korean context of teaching English as a foreign language.
1. Be Motivated
The more motivated the teacher is, the more motivated the students will be. You should feel enthusiastic about teaching your class before you enter the classroom door; before you enter the door at work in the morning, actually. If students do not detect in you a sincere enjoyment in teaching them, whatever motivation they brought into the classroom will also drop to a lower level. But how can one keep motivated when teaching numerous classes day in and day out? Knowing your subject matter, knowing how to best present it to your students, knowing your students’ interests and needs, and taking pride in knowing that you are providing your students with your best efforts will go a long way in keeping yourself motivated.
2. Be Motivating
Any intrinsic motivation that a student may have for learning is great. But when the subject is a required one – as English is for more than a decade of the Korean student’s life, intrinsic motivation may need to grow. It becomes the teacher’s job to supplement by providing extrinsic motivation. This can readily occur by the teacher showing sincerity in their teaching, by showing that they actually care about each individual student, and that they want the student to be successful at language learning and in life afterwards.
3. See Yourself Through the Eyes of Your Students
The way others view us is always different from the way we view ourselves, and that difference of view can be particularly pronounced when it is a student’s view of a teacher. The Korean view of teacher has traditionally been that of a highly respected person in society, an authority whose words are not to be questioned, and whose shadow is not to be stepped on. This becomes challenging for the EFL (English as a foreign language) teacher who is trying to maintain a friendly, interactive classroom atmosphere. Rather than merely thinking from our own English knowledge base, we need to think from the student’s to understand the language problems they may be facing and how to go about solving them.
4. Know the Material
It goes without saying that every teacher should have a firm grip on the material that they are teaching. The non-native English-speaking teacher (nNEST) puts many hundreds of hours into this. The native English-speaking teacher (NEST), however, needs to avoid the false confidence created merely from being an L1 speaker of English. While having native intuition is good, the NEST needs to be able to explain to the questioning student why an English structure is used the way it is rather than just replying to the student, “Because that’s just the way we say it.”
5. Know How to Best Present the Material
Just knowing the material one is to teach does not make a good teacher. In addition, the teacher must know the best methods and techniques available to present the material to the students they are teaching. To the EFL teacher, this means that they must take into consideration both student age and language proficiency. Because of differences in student cognitive development, the good teacher knows that they cannot give grammatical explanations to the young learner that they might give to the teenager. They also know that teaching methods are constantly improving and that they need to keep up with developments in their profession.
6. Know Your Impact
In your role as a teacher, you undoubtedly have many class hours with the same students. This gives plenty of time to make deep impressions upon your students. As students view teachers as authority figures to be respected, and Korean students are certainly no exception, what you say may have a profound influence on the student. Therefore, it is important to not say jokingly what students might take very seriously. In particular, the NEST needs to be careful to give positive rather than to provide a negative stereotype about NESTs and about learning English.
7. Be Sure That Your Students Know the “Whys”
People are reluctant to do things when they don’t know why they are to do them and can do a job better when they know the reason for doing it. The same is true of students and learning English. Explain to your students why you are using a certain technique instead of one that they are more familiar with. Point out what the focus of an activity is. Point out what the purpose of the lesson is, what the goal of the course is. Let them know what is expected of them by the end of the lesson, and by the end of the course. Knowing why will lead to learning how.
8. Create an Atmosphere of Inquiry
Humans are innately curious; they want to learn new things through new experiences. The teacher needs to foster this inquisitiveness in the classroom. Emphasize understanding; de-emphasize memorization. All too often, and particularly in the Korean EFL classroom, one will see employed the outmoded, outdated method of the teacher orally transferring information to the student – information which they are then expected to memorize and regurgitate on a written test, only to forget the next day. Effective learning, learning that “sticks,” best comes through inquiry. It is the teacher’s role to guide students in this discovery process, to encourage students to take risks, to not be afraid of making mistakes, to have students realize that language learning best occurs through making mistakes and learning from them.
9. Challenge Your Students
The role of the teacher is to help their students exceed the expectations that they have of themselves. They can be attained by challenging them. Challenges should come in small, attainable, and regular doses. A good teacher knows their students’ abilities well and knows at what new tasks they will be able to succeed. It is for the teacher to lure them toward that success.
10. Be Reflective.
The good teacher does not sit down at the end of the day, wipe their brow, and put the day behind them. The good teacher will again put the day before them to reflect upon. They will reflect upon how each lesson went and how it could be improved upon for the next time. Not only that, they will reflect upon how well they have done on the nine items above to help them in their professional development to be a better teacher tomorrow.
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Gwangju-Jeonnam KOTESOL Conference
Date & Time: March 14 (Saturday), 10:30 – 17:00
Place: Chosun University, Main Building, Left Wing
Pre-Conference Workshops, 10:30-11:50
12:00 Registration // 13:00 Plenary Session
13:45-17:00 Concurrent Sessions
Details on Korea TESOL website.
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