Teach English in Yuhu Zhen - Jieyang Shi

This unit discussed how to select and tailor lessons to both the students ability and needs for learning English, and the types of ESA lessons to teach grammar, function, and vocabulary. I have been teaching EFL in Japan for 7 years. Sometimes I have strongly disagreed with some vocabulary lists and have also witnessed my students struggle with those words. I now see that some words I felt were too difficult, were probably included in the unit because the authors of the book felt those words occur with great enough frequency to warrant their introduction. The longer I have been in Japan, I have learned to anticipate what words students here might find difficult or simple. My first year teaching, I was astonished that most of my students were confused by the word, \"duck\" yet had no problem saying \"elephant\". Eventually, I learned that to the Japanese ear, \"duck\" and \"dog\" are nearly indistinguishable; ergo, the confused expressions on my students faces. From a native-speakers point of view, \"duck\" is phonetic, and therefore easy, but from the EFL point of view, the pronunciation was too similar to a different animal and would lead to confusion. ESA method was discussed earlier in this program, but this unit provided more examples. This unit also suggested when boomerang, patchwork, or straight arrow might be best. Any lesson plan needs an ultimate goal or objective for language production. On a personal note; last week, I found myself using some ideas from this course in one lesson, and then used two concepts from this course to help plan lessons for classes I will teach this week. I was very excited to already be applying what I have learned from this course. My motivation has increased for continuing this program. I already know I am a good teacher, but this course is fine-tuning my skills by taking things I have noticed over the years, and explaining why certain lessons might have certain results.