What I learned from TESOL advanced course

It is difficult and challeging to learn Tesol Advanced Course, but I do acquire a lot from this course for the past four days. The following are what I have learned from this curriculum.

Before we begin our class, there are four things we should do: welcoming, name tags, greetings and warm-up. The we begin the class, there are various methods that instruct us to finish our class successfully.

Every teacher desires to be an excellent teacher, and this course gives us the ways to be a great teacher. “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” Thus, a good teacher allows students more time to speak rather than speaks by himself/ herself the whole class. In addition, a good teacher is an entertainer, so they should use physical movement like gestures, postures, facial expression and mime to show what they want to deliver to students. A great teacher is talented, elegant, awesome, charming, helpful, efficient and respective. The teacher should use different materials depending on different styles of learners.

There eight styles learning such as visual, musical, verbal, physical, logical, solitary, social and combination. Therefore, teachers should present in different ways.

The first one is Visual Learners.Some learners prefer to use pictures, diagrams, images and spatial understanding to help them learn. Therefore, it is better to presenting charts, graphs, or pictures and photographs to the class.

The second one is Aural(audio) Learners. Some learners prefer using sounds or music or even rhythms to help them learn. Thus, presenting music or songs to the class is very important.

The third one is Physical Learners. Some learners use their hands, body and sense of touch to help them learn. They might ‘act things out’. As a result, it is wise to design incorporate activities that involve acting or dancing.

The fourth one is Verbal Learners (Linguistic Learners). They prefer to use words both in speech and in writing because words are their strongpoint, so teachers should encourage group discussions.

The fifth one is Logical (analytical) Learners. Some learners prefer to use logic, reasoning, systems and sequences to simplify learning. Thus, it is importatn to have material requiring problem-solving activities with students.

The sixth one is Social Learners. They like to learn new things as a part of a group. Explaining what they understand helps them to learn.’ Thereby, incorporate role-playing can be used in the class.

The seventh one is Solitary Learners. These students prefer to study alone, so teacher can ask students to keep personal jounals, and acknowledge their individual accomplishments.

The last one is Combination Learners. They combine two or more methods of the above learning styles. As a result, teachers had better distribute students in to discussion group, make a dialogue by their own, and share with others.

There are four types of excellent techniques and methods which are used in Writing classrooms of English as the Second Language.

The first one is needs analysis designed, which means that teachers should firstly analyze what their sudents demand, and then design and arrange their courses of different levels and contents depending on students’ different needs.

The second one is cooperation interaction designed, which represents that co-operative and group work, including collaborative writing, fairytales and fold-over stories, should be designed, thereby enhancing the community of the class activities.

The third one is learning styles and strategy training designed, which refers that students should be taught correct and efficient ways of learning by class training with the help of scientific methods ------ eight types of learning styles, including visual, auditory, verbal, physical, logical, solitary, social and combination. As the saying goes, teaching someone to fish is better than giving him fish.

The last one is reliable materials and tasks used in realtion to the topic. All things showed in Writing classrooms should be closely related to the topic, thus ensuring the effiency and effectiveness of the whole class. In addition, contents such as materials, data and stories are trustworthy, thereby making sure that the fact is repected.

Additionally, there are five teaching methods that give me a lot of ways and inspiration and these methods make me exciting.

The fisrt one is Rassias Method, which tells us that it is the best way of improving the levels of the second language for learners to speak the language and to use it in daily life. In addition, both thinking and feelings should be involved in language learning. This Method aims to soon enhance the learner’s sense of comfort and naturalness while learning, speaking and using the second language.

The second one is Direct Method which is known as “natural method”, which requires students to use the target language only, thereby resulting in much talking, gesturing, acting and communicating. Students are encouraged to clarify the rules of grammar by theselves rather than by the teacher. The aim of this method is to encourage students to talk even if their levels are not high.

The third one is Project Method, in which students are encouraged to cooperate with others and thus have various viewpoints. This method has a positive effect on language improvement because of each student’s responsibility for one another’s studying, through which everyone plays an equally important role in completing the task successfully. This method gives students a great improvement in communicating with others, solving problems, cognizing the language and thingking critically, which are necessary in successful access to academic career.

The fourth one is Grahpic Method, which gives students great help in the brainstorming and organization of their viewpoints and these ideas will be vividly showed by popular charts such as KWL chart and T chart. This method can be applied in a wide range of lessons, including writing, brainstorming, problem solving and decision making.

The fifth one is TPR Method, and that is Total Physical Reponse, through which a second language learning is based on the linking between listening and physical activies desinged to make the language easily undertand. It is beneficial to learners of any age, and without more pressure, it is easily to do and it is excellent to build teamwork spirit. For example, “I say I do, I say we do, I say you do, I say but one by one, you say you do.”

Therefore, I acquire various methods of teaching, and I will practice and apply them in class, and I believe I will be a great teacher in the future.