Teach English in Huacheng Zhen - Meizhou Shi

This final chapter, unit twenty, covered the various challenges a teacher of an ESOL class might face, and it provided clarity on these issues and solutions. The unit provided a list of warmer activities, which are fun, engaging activities that can be done as a class, to get all of the students thinking, speaking, and writing in English while avoiding throwing them into rigorous course work that would probably discourage or bore them from the start. Some fun warmer activities the chapter provided were hangman, memory games, and pictionary. The unit went on to cover the advantages and challenges of teaching large classes and classes where there are different language abilities. One important thing I noted from this chapter was that different language abilities can occur even in classes where the students all began at the same language level. I learned different ways to teach and complete activities for classes where something like this occurs. For example, I learned that rather than simply resorting to pairing strong students with weak students, which can lead to the stronger dominating the weaker, the teacher can give the same activity or material to the entire class but ask different students or groups to complete different parts more suitable to their language level. This will not only challenge the students but do so in a way that will not embarrass them or hinder their progress. The unit also discussed why students might speak in their native language in class and why they would be reluctant to participate. It provided helpful lists of solutions to both of these issues which would make the classroom atmosphere informative, supportive, and always geared toward engaging the students in class material as a group and not resorting to singling any one student out for either of these issues.