Teaching English As A Foreign Language: A Life-Altering Challenge
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) is a life-altering challenge. You will meet people from all over the world and fall in love with their passion for language, culture, and learning. You will speak to countless students and share your own experiences that might have otherwise remained buried in your subconscious mind. There is nothing more rewarding than helping others learn something you love, which makes the time spent in the classroom well worth it.
This article is about how teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) has changed me. I am not alone in having this message, many of my colleagues share this sentiment. A lot of our writing is just the daily struggle of keeping up with the workload and delivering quality lessons. For this reason, it seems more appropriate for us to share some of our personal experiences and thoughts rather than merely to focus on how good we are at our job.
As an English teacher, you will be forced to work harder than almost any other profession. But what you get out of it is worth it. The feeling of satisfaction, exhilaration, and pride that you get even when you think you have gotten the whole day off to do absolutely nothing is amazing.
Once we step into the classroom, everything else seems to fade away in comparison. Every class is different and it takes a bit of time to get used to that new person and their preferences. However, once they become accustomed to your teaching style, they would be happy to see one or two more lessons from you each week. I know that I am always happy when I see my students coming back for another lesson and sharing with me what parts of their lessons worked better than others.
I have picked up TEFL because I wanted to help students from all over the world achieve their dreams of learning English. That is my job and that is what I do.
When you start as an English teacher, you should expect to sacrifice your time for your students because at that point in time, you are not able to spread some of your time for yourself. You will not be able to take a break for a day or two because all the money you earn goes into paying the bills and saving for future trips. You will continue sacrificing until you get five years into the profession and this process continues on and on until you retire from the profession due to old age or burnout.
I had already experienced four years of teaching English, but I still continued to sacrifice. At the end of the day, if you want to stay in this profession, you must be able to compromise on your personal life and wellbeing.
Without compromising on anything and with a positive attitude towards my students, I was able to not only stay in this profession for five years but also have a great time doing it.
As an educator, it is important for us to adopt an understanding of the learning process so that we can adjust our teaching strategies depending on what is best suited for each student.
In most instances, the first step that we take when teaching is giving the class some time to settle down and get into a comfortable and quiet environment. I spend some time talking to them about their goals and objectives for lessons and what they expect to get out of this lesson. After that, I begin with the lesson itself and use whatever materials we have as well as whatever resources available in my course materials.
The next step would be to tailor each lesson depending on what is needed by each student, which requires us to pay attention to what they are doing. We would then show them how they can achieve those things at their place of work or in whatever way they prefer.
The last step is to give them some time to reflect on what they have learned and what they have done. This is also where we talk about the context in which they learned that particular lesson.
We would then ask them to write down what they have learned and explain it through a story or an essay. Once we do this, we can see how they can apply their knowledge by completing tasks in their offices or by making changes in their workplace based on what they have learned.
This process is repeated again and again until I feel that I am satisfied with the results obtained from my students.
If this process is followed with the goal of helping students achieve their objectives in the lesson, teaching is a very rewarding profession. Remember that as an educator you may be able to help people accomplish their goals. You will not be able to help them learn English, but you can at least help them achieve their objectives.
When you are a TEFL teacher, you will have no time for yourself and your friends. There is nothing that I would rather do than hang out with my friends or go for a leisurely walk to do something fun but relaxing.
However, since I am an English teacher, when I have a day off, I have this feeling of emptiness and boredom because my mind is stuck into thinking about lessons. However, with perseverance and dedication, you can easily become an effective English teacher.
Finally, teaching is an amazing profession where you get to make a difference in people's lives. If you are ready to sacrifice your leisure time for the sake of students who look up to you as their gatekeeper to learning more about the world, then go ahead and teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) because it is definitely worth it.
Thank you for reading this far. I hope that this information helps you in your search to become a teacher. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]
About the Author
Hi, reader! My name is Cris and I have been teaching English as a Foreign Language for more than five years now. I am from the Philippines where I grew up but decided to wander around and teach students from different backgrounds how to speak English properly. In my free time, I do a lot of things such as hiking, camping, singing in a choir and composing music. Writing about my experiences has always been one of my hobbies.
I always believe in the power of words and how they can change lives. I hope that this blog or my writing will inspire you to take charge of your life and make the best out of it.
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P.S. I write my articles sometimes in the wee hours of the night after my children are asleep. If you have a difficulty reading or don't understand what I have written, please feel free to send me an email at [email protected] and we can work on it together.