TEFL Classroom - How to Boost Your Confidence

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Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2010 Time: 5:12 AM
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If the thought of facing a room full of expectant English learners makes your tummy go all wonky and sees you reaching for the door, you're not alone! Most new TEFL teachers find summing up the courage to take their first few lessons pretty tricky, but help is at hand. Here are seven easy ways to boost your classroom confidence.

1. Do a TEFL course

Want disengaged students, sweaty armpits and stressful lessons? Don't do a TEFL course! Simply being a native English speaker is enough to nab you a TEFL job, but doesn't mean you'll know what to do when faced with your students. Doing any TEFL course to gain a TEFL Certificate, no matter how short, will give you a good introduction to the principles of teaching English and lesson planning. And if you know what to do in theory, your confidence in practice will soar.

2. Be prepared!

If you have a good idea of what you're aiming to cover in each lesson, the activities you're going to do and the materials you'll need, stepping into that classroom will be massively less scary. Your lesson plans don't need to be fully fleshed out works of art (most experienced teachers just scribble some ideas down on scraps of paper), but having some clear ideas will stop you turning into a gibbering wreck.

3. Have a few tricks up your sleeve

No matter how wonderful your lesson plan, students are unpredictable creatures and things can quickly go off track. As a result it'll make you feel a lot more confident if you've got a few aces up your sleeve to deal out when your lesson doesn't go to plan. There are some great, foolproof activities here that are worth keeping in reserve: http://www.tefl-chalkboard.com/emmafoers/posts/1165-7-foolproof-back-up-classroom-activities

4. Focus on your successes

No matter how much preparation or study you do before you start teaching abroad, your first few lessons are likely to be a little shaky. Don't beat yourself up about it - no one expects you to be a super-star teacher on your first day. So your confidence doesn't take too much of a battering, focus on your successes during your first few weeks as a teacher, however small. Learn from your mistakes, but don't dwell on them - otherwise you risk total loss of confidence!

5. Enlist the help of a local teacher

You're probably doing better than you think. If possible get one of the local teachers at your school to sit in on one of your lessons and give you some feedback. You'll find they're very likely to be complimentary giving you a good ego boost - and if not you'll get some handy suggestions about how to improve your classes.

6. Don't sweat the grammar

A lot of new teachers get crippled by the thought of having to know every single grammar rule from the off. The good news is that you don't! Keep a decent grammar reference book, like A Concise Grammar for English Language Teachers, on hand to get to grips with the particular grammar point you'll be teaching before each lesson. If your students start asking tricky questions just say you'll cover it in another lesson. They don't need to know that you have no idea what they're talking about!

7. Start small

Facing large classes of students is pretty daunting for experienced TEFL teachers, let alone newbies. To help build your classroom confidence you might want to give private one-to-one lessons to a few students in a more relaxed atmosphere. Not only will it give you some extra cash, it will also help you hone your teaching skills in a less pressurised atmosphere.

What do you think? How would you boost your classroom confidence?

About the Author

Chris Soames - Online TEFL courses with over 20,000 course graduates each year, international accreditation and certification recognised by schools worldwide.

To TEFL is the perfect opportunity for any English speaker to explore the world and immerse themselves in new cultures. Whether you're a trained teacher or a complete beginner, a TEFL Certificate is your ticket for the journey of your life.

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