Teach English in ZhoujiAng Zhen - Meizhou Shi

The final unit in this program taught me how to deal with common issues in the classroom. This includes how to approach first lessons, how to encourage motivation and interest at the beginning of classes, how to handle classes involving different level learners, how to handle large class sizes, how to handle the issue of students using their mother tongue, how to deal with reluctant to learn students, and, finally, how to adjust to using tapes or any other form of listening texts. Adjusting to the use of tapes is imperative for teachers because they play a large part in teaching a language, therefore not using them is not an option. Techniques for building rapport with a class you are just meeting were discussed, as well as techniques for building a rapport between students that are just meeting for the first time. The text referred to these two groups as existing groups and new groups. Establishing rapport and a comfortable atmosphere sets the tone for the rest of the course. Out of the techniques suggested by the text as useful in dealing different level students, the one that struck me as the most appealing was pairing higher level students with lower level ones. However, as the text mentioned, this could result in unfairness with the higher level student dominating and completing all the work while the lower level student is left doing nothing and therefore not benefiting whatsoever. This issue must therefore be monitored. Similarly, the idea of appointing team leaders in large classes is appealing because it keeps the students involved and the class in manageable pieces. These are just a few of the things I learned in this unit, and I know I'll be referring to it often in my career as it is a very helpful section of information.