Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Jiufang Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Baoji Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.
Had emigrated to the US from China at the age of 18,I am delighted to be able to share my new language acquiring experience, and shed some light on some of challenges a new language learner might encounter during the course of learning. English is taught in middle and high schools in China as a compulsory curriculum, so, before arriving in the US, I had some prior exposure in English. However I found myself act like a complete novice upon arrival in the US, I could not understand nor be understood by people around me. The English I had learnt in the school were of very little help. I was total dumbfounded. Now, after completing this course I realized that as state institutions, high schools employ Grammar Translation method in teaching English, which places greater emphasis on teaching grammars and sentence structure than fluency of the language, thus though I did well in the tests, I was totally ill prepared for the real world. To overcome the language barrier I enrolled in a ESL program at a community college, and embarked on a long and eventually rewarding journey in mastering English. however that journey was not without obstacles, especially at the beginning stage, I was often disheartened by setbacks. I could barely understand the instructions that were given by the teachers, the courses were too difficult for me, chosen topics did not appeal to me and made very little impact on improving my English, marginal progress were made for the first few months. I was frustrated and was on the verge of quitting. One of the instructors sensing my frustration and offered his help, he advised and guided me to start reading and listening to the news, especially local news, because news are more relevant in daily life and are often discussed by people around me. I started by reading just the headlines and progressed into reading contents of news gradually. Soon , I was able to get a general idea of what people were talking about , and occasionally joined the conversation when a familiar topic came up. Elated by this new found success and an eagerness to socialize , I expanded my reading list by venturing into various specialized magazines , newspapers, and English novels. Also I started to watch documentary videos. With an expanded store of vocabularies I was able to carry on in-depth conversations with greater confidence. English study had become a source of enjoyment rather than a torment. I had formed a habit of spending an hour every morning reading a newspaper. Eventually I can speak and read English as naturally as a native speaker. From my endeavor in acquiring a new language, I would offer these observations: Importance of course books, such as school text books should not be neglected, though lacking flexibility, these books can help to build solid grammar foundation for further study. However to truly achieve English proficiency ,doing well in school examination is for from enough. Extensive reading on a wide range of topics is vitally important. As a TESL teacher I would encourage students to subscribe to a habit of reading newspaper for its relevance to the real world , and a healthy dose of perseverance is the key to realize the dream of mastering a second language.
