Before I started teaching English to foreign students, I thought, how hard can it be? I have spoken this language all my life, I had to be an expert. I have taught in many primary schools and have planned and delivered hundreds of lessons. It will be simple, right?
WRONG!
In fact, many fluent, non-native speakers have a much better grasp of the English language than natives do. This is because they must learn it inside and out. Unlike native speakers, the language is not acquired naturally, it has to be studied, practiced and understood.
For example, English primary schools in the 1980s did not require children to learn the many different tenses that EFL students have to learn (although I think this has changed recently). As a child, I learnt about the past, present and future and that was all I needed to know. We did not explicitly learn about the simple, continuous or perfect tenses, because we were able to use them intuitively. Of course, as children we made the odd mistake, but as we grew, we became better at English- without even trying.
When I completed my PGCE (teacher training), I was still in the dark about English tenses, I didn't even know they existed. Past, present and future - that was it as far as I was concerned. It wasn't until I completed the CELTA qualification that I was thrown into this confusing world of tense. It left me feeling frustrated as I listened to my tutor describe the perfect tenses, watch him draw timelines on the board and provide explanations about why and how we use them.
As well as learning the tenses, English teachers need to learn the parts of speech, which refers to the way in which words are used in a sentence.
Parts of speech include:
· nouns
· pronouns
· verbs
· adjectives
· adverbs
· prepositions
· conjunctions
· articles/determiners
· interjections
The image above demonstrates the parts of speech in a sentence. This image was was taken from a booked called Help your kids with English by Carol Vorderman.
As shown in the image above, for a sentence to make sense, every word performs a different function and must be linked to other words in the correct way. Teachers need to know why and how words are used and must be able to answer any difficult questions their students have.
Are you thinking of becoming an English teacher? Fear not.
Through teaching lessons, you gain a wealth of experience and your knowledge quickly builds. Even if you are already qualified to teach, like me, I would still definitely take a CELTA or TEFL course. These courses boost your confidence and give you the necessary teaching skills to support English learners.
I love teaching English because there are always new things to learn and wonderful people to meet.
If you or your child are interested in having English lessons? Then please contact me here.
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