Teaching Practicum II Portfolio Martinez Alexis Portfolio Complete | Page 19

As EFL teachers our job is to break down this rich and complex language into manageable chunks for our students . These chunks of language are what EFL teachers call target language We are going to look at an example of what a piece of target language might be and then you will be given more detail on how this would be taught in a PPP lesson before finally watching three videos with some key aspects of each stage of the lesson highlighted for you .
During the course we will spend a great deal of time in the training room equipping you with the tools to employ a successful methodology for teaching the English language . You are going to get opportunities to both hone these skills in the training room and put them into practice in authentic classroom settings .
Of course , you might be thinking , I don ’ t have any experience of being in a classroom ! How on earth am I going to cope with standing at the front of a class with 20 plus pairs of eyes looking at me waiting to see what I do ?
All good TEFL courses are designed to train those with no teaching experience whatsoever . We will spend the first part of the course in the training room making you familiar with all the new skills you will need whilst giving you opportunities to practice them in a supported and controlled environment .
Only after that , will you be put in an authentic classroom environment . It goes without saying that the first time anybody stands up and delivers their first lesson will be a nerve-racking experience . However , it is also an experience that mellows over time , and one that all teachers remember fondly as time goes by and they feel more at home in a classroom .
There will be some of you out there with experience of teaching in a classroom already . You may be well versed in employing many different methodologies and strategies in your classroom already , but many or most will have been with native English speaking students , or those with a near-native levels of English . This means that some of the skills we will be equipping you with may feel a little alien at first , but your experience will not prove to be a hindrance . Indeed , you will already have successful classroom management skills that can be adapted to fit a second language classroom fairly easily and other trainees on the course will benefit from your presence .
In addition , some of the skills that you will learn on the course can also be adapted to work in a classroom of native speakers too , and it is not unusual for experienced teachers to comment on exactly this after completing a good TEFL course .
You may have delivered a few presentations in your time but the type of presentation we deliver in a second language classroom will differ quite a bit from those . For a start , you were speaking to proficient users of the English language about something they were , most likely , vaguely familiar with anyway . In an EFL classroom we don ’ t have those luxuries , so we have to be careful about the language we use and how clearly we present the new language that we wish for our students to acquire .
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