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About the Author
Michelle Maxom began teaching part-time in 1997 after doing an intensive Trinity TESOL certificate. She later moved to Italy where she furthered her studies in EFL and honed her skills working with students of all ages and from a wide variety of backgrounds. She toured secondary schools and gave seminars in Caribbean literature and Britain’s multi-ethnic culture showing how the English language can open doors and minds. On returning to the UK she took on the post of Director of Studies at a central London EFL school, bringing it to accreditation by the British Council for the first time and learning how to work behind the scenes in the industry. She has made an instructional film for Thomson ELT and become a specialist in one-to-one courses. After becoming a freelance teacher/trainer Michelle delivered a work experience programme, taught on intensive TEFL courses in London and Paris, and tutored those studying EFL by distance learning. These days she can be found teaching at the University of the Arts, London.
Author’s Acknowledgments
Many thanks to those who supported me during the writing of this book. In particular, I would like to thank The Language Centre staff at UAL for being flexible and providing many wonderful colleagues to learn from. Thanks to Rashida for helping me hit my dealine and to all my students who inspire amazing ideas with their enthusiasm. Lorraine and Letitia you egged me on all the way. As usual, my family have been supportive at every turn, especiallly Myrtle May. I appreciate you all.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at (001) 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
The Teaching English as Foreign Language (TEFL) industry has been in full flow for many years now. In this chapter, I give you an overview of workplace jargon, and various points that may be taken for granted in language schools but are still unclear for many new teachers. The chapter aims to help you understand the job of a modern-day teacher of English as a foreign language, which sets you up to dive into the lesson plans I provide in the later sections of the book.
Understanding TEFL Language Terminology
Understanding how sentences are put together is essential. Words have different classifications, and defining how these work in English provides the rules and patterns that help students learn. You, as the teacher, must know the terminology for describing language appropriately.
For a more detailed description of TEFL grammar, please refer to Teaching English as a Foreign Language For Dummies (Wiley, 2009).
Verbs and tenses
At primary school, pupils often learn that verbs are the ‘doing words’. They tend to describe both actions and a state of being. For example, look at the following sentences in which the verbs are in italic:
I went to the shop to buy a newspaper. I was happy to find that the price had been reduced.
Notice the verbs in their most basic form: ‘to buy’ and ‘to find’. This is called the infinitive and it means that the verb hasn’t been changed in at all. Take off the word ‘to’ and you can find the infinitive form in a dictionary.
On the other hand, ‘went’, ‘was’ and ‘had been reduced’ have been transformed into particular tenses. Often, extra verbs are added to the main one to create a tense. These extra parts are called auxiliary verbs (for example, ‘have seen’). When ‘ing’ is tacked on to the end of a verb it is called a gerund (for example ‘listening’).
Table 1-1 shows you the names of the various tenses. So, for example, ‘I have taught’ is called a present perfect sentence.
Nouns and pronouns
You use nouns and pronouns to indicate a place, person, an animal, or a thing. They can also represent more abstract ideas. In the following sentence the nouns are in bold:
I use a diary to write down my thoughts.
As you can see, nouns can be singular or plural. Nouns you can make plural are called countable nouns, but others are uncountable so they use words like ‘some’ or ‘a little’ instead of a specific number to define the quantity.
Use of my money to buy bread at the supermarket.
Pronouns replace nouns so that sentences become less repetitive:
Florence needs water and Florence gets the water from the kitchen.
Florence needs water and she gets it from the kitchen.
Subjects and objects
The subject of a sentence is a noun, a pronoun or an entire phrase, and it tells you what the sentence is about. For example:
Florence needs water.
I went to the shop.
Reading books is fun.
After the subject of a sentence there is generally a verb. Then, sometimes there is another noun or pronoun that receives the action and this is called the object. For example:
I love it.
She reads a book.
They waved to the boys.
Prepositions
Prepositions introduce the object of a sentence. They include words such as ‘with’, ‘through, and ‘among’. For example:
You should walk through the park.
Mike lives with Jenna.
Adjectives
Adjectives give more information about nouns or pronouns. They may indicate size, colour, or quality. For example:
The enormous book lay on the fabulous desk.
Adverbs
Adverbs give more information about a verb, often showing how it is carried out:
The girl smiled sweetly and timidly as she stepped behind her sister.
Qualifiers
Qualifiers appear before adjectives and adverbs and show degree. For instance:
That meal was rather nice.
Gold is quite expensive.
Articles
Simply put, the articles in English are the indefinite articles ‘a’ or ‘an’, and the definite article ‘the’. These words come before nouns and are types of adjective. However, the indefinite articles show that something is general, while the definite article indicates something more specific. For example:
A man arrived and the nurse greeted him.
Conjunctions
Conjunctions, sometimes called linking words, join parts of a sentence together and they include ‘because’, ‘but’ and ‘although’. Note how they connect the words in this example:
I like plays and films, although I don’t enjoy operas much.
Recognising the Different Types of English Course
It isn’t enough to get a job a job teaching English. You really must know what kind of course it is and, in addition to its target age and level, how each course differs. Here’s a breakdown of the main English courses available:
Academic English: For students who want to undertake a course of higher education in the English language. On a course of this nature students learn how to express concepts, ideas, and theories using formal, impersonal language. Students also practise essay writing, giving formal presentations, listening, and note-taking for lectures.
Business English: Tends to cover the same grammatical structures as general English. However, the context for using the language is always a business meeting, a negotiation, a formal letter, or another function of day-to-day business life. These courses may be sponsored by a company for its employees.
English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL): For students who are now living in an English-speaking country where they want to settle. Practical skills such as speaking to employees at government offices and banks or visiting healthcare professionals are included in the course material.
English for Specific Purposes (ESP): A branch of teaching whereby you analyse exactly what the student needs to do in English and gear the whole course towards that outcome. For example, you may teach English for nurses, or English for the banking industry.
Exam classes: When students plan to take a particular exam, the preparatory course is entirely focused on this outcome. So you show students how to tackle the exam questions, breaking them down so that they understand what the examiners are looking for. Students analyse past papers and do practice tests.
General English: Teaches students everyday language and usually comprises reading, writing, speaking, and listening, which are the four main skills of language learning.
One to one: This might also be called a private lesson, although it could be arranged in the teacher’s own time or as part of a job at a school. It basically means that there is one teacher and one student in the class, so you get to focus on the learner’s individual needs.
Presessional and Insessional: These courses are for students who have received an offer of a place on a degree course. A presessional course is generally run by the university that’s offering the placement and is designed to acclimatise students to cultural differences and academic expectations. Successful completion of the course may be a requirement before the student can take up his place on the degree course. Then, insessional lessons are for international students who are already doing their degree course but require extra support in using academic English in order to succeed.
Determining the Common European Framework Levels
Most courses divide students into varying levels of proficiency. These days the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) descriptors are frequently used to specify a student’s level in a particular language. The framework is based on what the student should be able to do in that tongue when a particular level is reached. Table 1-2 breaks down the levels.
Table 1-2 Classifications of proficiency levels in language teaching
CEFR Level
Everyday Level
Approximate Hours of Study
A1
Basic English / beginner
Less than 100
A2
Basic English / elementary
200
B1
Independent user / low intermediate
400
B2
Independent user / high intermediate
600
C1
Advanced
800
C2
Proficiency
1,000+
Refer to the Cambridge English website for a set of descriptors for each CEFR level: www.cambridgeenglishteacher.org/what_is_this.
Getting to Grips with Lesson Planning Terms
As a teacher you’re perfectly entitled to set out your lesson plans in the way you please … except, of course, if someone else needs to read them (such as another member of staff or an education inspector). In that case, you should follow certain conventions.
The traditional TEFL plan sets out the stages of the lesson and the different types of activities that you do with the students. It shows who is speaking to whom and may show what you intend to put on the board such as grammar and pronunciation features.
Organising a lesson
You can label major shifts of focus in your lesson according to the planning model you adopt. There are three main models:
Engage / Study / Activate (ESA)
Authentic use / Restricted use / Clarification and focus (ARC)
Presentation / Practice / Production (PPP)
Refer to Chapter 3 of this book for guidance on using different styles of planning.
Look who’s talking
TTT stands for Teacher Talking Time, whereas as when students speak it’s STT. T usually represents the teacher throughout the plan and students are represented by Sts or Ss. Use any obvious abbreviation for pair or group work.
Noting aspects of pronunciation
Phonology and phonemics are terms related to the sounds that make up a particular language. One phoneme is a single unit of sound that you recognise in a language as part of a word. For example, the word ‘fish’ has three phonemes: f+ɪ+ʃ. You should write phonemes between forward slashes like this /fɪʃ/ (by the way /ʃ/ is the ‘sh’ sound).
If you compare /b/ and /p/ while touching your Adam’s apple, you should feel the difference between voiced and unvoiced phonemes, because in the latter there isn’t much vibration, just air forced from the mouth.
A monothong is a single vowel phoneme, but dipthongs are made by pushing two vowel sounds together as one; for example, /ɑɪ/ is the vowel sound in ‘my’.
Minimal pairs refers to two words that are pronounced in almost the same way except for one different phoneme, such as ‘pill’ and ‘pull’.
Homophones such as ‘ate’ and ‘eight’ sound exactly the same but with different spellings, whilst homographs ‘bow’ /bəʊ/(one you tie) and ‘bow’ /bɑʊ/ (lower the top half of your body out of respect) are written in the same way.
You can put stress on one syllable in a word, or particular words in a sentence, by pronouncing that part more strongly. Intonation, meanwhile, refers to the way you make your voice go up or down to show your attitude, or whether you’re asking a question instead of making a statement.
See Chapter 12 of Teaching English as a Foreign Language For Dummies (Wiley, 2009) for more information about teaching pronunciation and a list of all the phonemes.
Fathoming the Business of Language Schools
When you first enter the teachers’ room and hear the everyday banter of your colleagues, you’ll doubtless find a tremendous amount of jargon to get through. Here’s a brief explanation of teachers’ room chatter.
Equipment
Authentic material is borrowed from the real world (such as a newspaper) rather than something specifically designed for TEFL, and if you bring in some props to help you explain a point (such as a pair of socks to teach the word ‘socks’) that’s called realia.
Key books for learning typically include the students’ course book for everyday use in the classroom, the workbook, which contains homework exercises for students, and the teacher’s book, which contains all the answers as well as lesson plans and extra activities. Many of these publications are accompanied by a CD/DVD/CD rom. There should also be learners’ dictionaries in the classroom, which feature the most commonly used words in the language and useful information on grammar. Finally, you need readers, which are very slim novels written to match a particular level of English.
Technical equipment in the best-equipped classrooms include an interactive whiteboard (IWB), which is a board connected to a computer and projector, and a visualiser for showing printed documents from hard copy on a computer screen. Of course, you ought to have a TV and PC, but if you’re using older resources on a cassette you might have a professional-standard cassette player such as those manufactured by Coomber.
Student exams
A range of widely recognised examining bodies exist for the UK and for the general international market.
The Cambridge suite of exams is particularly well known and wide-ranging. For young learners, you have Starters, Movers, and Flyers tests, which are progressively more difficult. The general English exams are KET (Key English Test), PET (PreliminaryEnglish Test), FCE (First Certificate in English) CAE (Certificate in Advanced English), CPE (Cambridge Proficiency Exam) and ESOL(English for Speakers of Other Languages) Skills for Life, which cover all the stages of learning from elementary to proficiency. Cambridge BEC (Business English Certificate) and BULATS (Business Language Testing Service) are tailored towards business English. For more information see www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-qualifications.
Pearson tests of English, or PTE, in general English, academic English and younger learners categories are also available. See pearsonpte.com/Pages/Home.aspx.
IELTS is an exam students can take in a general or academic English format. It is recognised by government immigration departments, employers, and educational establishments. Find out more at takeielts.britishcouncil.org.
TOEFL serves a similar purpose as IELTS, and many institutions accept a set score in either. TOEIC, on the hand, is used by employers. The website for these two exams is www.ets.org.
The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) offers a range of ESP exams in English for tourism, speaking in business settings and accounting. Check out www.lcci.org.uk for more information.
Teacher qualifications
Generally speaking, it’s best to have a degree and a TEFL qualification that includes real live teaching practice observed by a tutor, if you want to be accepted in a broad range of teaching establishments.
The most recognised initial qualifications in the UK are CELTA and TrinityCertTesol. However, if you want to move forward in the job and be eligible for higher positions, you need a diploma such as the DELTA or Trinity DipTESOL. Masters degrees in TEFL/TESOL tend to be for new teachers, but serving teachers sometimes go on to do a master’s in applied linguistics.
For the UK ESOL sector, new teachers need to do a course leading to an award in Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector (PTLLS).
For more information about EFL teacher training courses, see Chapter three of Teaching English as Foreign Language For Dummies (Wiley 2009)
TEFL organisations
Here are some organisations you’ll likely come across:
The British Council works to share aspects of British arts, education and the English language with other cultures around the world, and English as a Foreign Language organisations in the UK generally seek to be accredited by the council. You can apply to it for teaching work abroad, but if you’re in the UK, be aware that when your colleagues are talking about this organisation it’s usually because the inspectors are coming to visit the school. That means a thorough review of the school’s practices, including your teaching. The British Council website also provides teaching materials and advice. Visit www.britishcouncil.org/learning-teaching-english-gateway.
English UK is the national association of accredited English language centres and it runs fairs, conferences and training days for the TEFL industry.
UKBA is the border agency for the UK and its rules and policies about visas influence who can study in the UK. The agency influences the number of hours visa holders can study (Tier 4 visa students are mentioned most) and how teachers record student attendance in class.