Learning to Teach English

I was recently asked to teach Basic English to a group of Spanish speaking students. It was to be a class of six students and I would be teaching two hours a day, twice a week, for six weeks. I thought that it would be rather easy considering that English is my first language and I write quite a lot. However I found out quickly that being a teacher is not a simple as it sounds.

Out of my six students there was only one who spoke a enough English for a basic conversation. The rest truly needed to learn the basics. There was a problem though; how was I supposed teach a group of students the grammar of a language that they couldn't speak? I could have taught in English but they obviously wouldn't understand and it would end up frustrating and disheartening the students.

Some people do find that teaching entirely in the language that is being learned is best. I went to Turkish school for a while and that's how it was. However the problem was that I always felt like my head was going to explode because I couldn't understand anything that was going on.

I personally find that it's better to have someone who speaks your language. That way when you have questions you can actually ask them. So that's the way that I decided to go in teaching English. My first class I taught almost completely in Spanish, but afterward the students asked me to teach in English. So the next class I tried teaching nearly everything in English. That turned into an awkward situation because I stood teaching for two hours to six blank faces. So finally I came to the conclusion that the best way to teach would be to come to a compromise. I started teaching in English and then explaining important grammatical points in Spanish. That way the students heard English and learned some vocabulary and pronunciation but were able to grasp the ways to use them through Spanish.

Another very important thing that I learned is the importance of pronunciation and how to teach it. I figured the best way to teach how to pronounce a word would be by drawing a picture of a mouth and the picture of where the tongue would go. This way the student can have a visual guide on what to do. If you try to teach someone how to make a certain sound by speaking it without showing anything, it may be too difficult. I find that having a visual aid helps greatly in teaching different sounds.

So in the end I found that teaching has a lot more to it than I thought. The students learned some English and I have much more respect for teachers and the amount of work that goes into teaching. Coming up with material for two hours a day is not as easy as it may sound. So thank you to all you teachers out there! You are changing lives and your work is not unseen!