Teach English in Baita Zhen - Zibo Shi

How to teach beginner students? 1.Introduction When it comes to teaching beginners, especially for inexperienced teachers, it can be a tough and sometime a fearful experience. On the other hand, it can be one of the most rewarding and enjoyable parts of teaching. Though teachers may use different approaches when facing different types of beginners. 1.1 Types of beginner Basically, beginners can be divided into two groups: absolute beginner and false beginner. There are also different aspects when considering beginners’ categories, such as age, motivation and so on. 1.1.1Absolute beginner The absolute beginner means students who have no English at all. They usually come from developing nations and often have had very little education. These students can be more challenging to teach as they do not have a minimal amount of English, thus teachers need to explain from the very beginning. Particular in this type of beginner, some students are without Roman alphabet which will need a lot of initial work on basic skills. 1.1.2False beginner The false beginner- students may have studied or been exposed to English previously but have not retained much language (ittt International TEFL and TESOL Training, Unit 19). Usually these learners are familiar with basic conversations and grammar concepts. 1.1.3Young and adult beginner These types are based on there age or so to say, their motivation to learn English. Younger students often lack of motivation as they usually cannot see the benefits of learning and also the decision maker are often not them. On the other hand, younger beginners do have the advantage of learning new language than the adult. Whereas adult beginners, who have made their own decision either for work or for personal improvement, will usually highly motivated. 2.Methodology and techniques 2.1Speaking Every opportunity for speaking in classroom should be taken in order to encourage students to realize their need for language and by this they can also increase their confidence and fluency. There are different aspects when considering teaching speaking. The first one is accuracy, which involves the correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation (Gower, et al. 1995, p.99). However, teacher should not be too focused on accuracy as it may reduce the motivation and willingness for a student to speak in the class. Thus, teacher should make it clear to students in which areas accuracy is expected. Then is comes to fluency, which is the ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously (Gower, et al. 1995). In this aspect, teachers should reduce their taking time (TTT) to give students more space. And what’s more important, do not correct students middle of a fluency task, it can interrupt the flow which also reduce students’ willingness to speak. Finally, pronunciation & vocabulary which is the basic tool for every language teaching. The important thing is choosing vocabulary according to students’ level. 2.2Writing Writing is a specific skill which helps people to put their thoughts into words in a meaningful form through pen and paper. According to Grossmann (2009), “Writing can take many forms, including anything from a shopping list, acting as an aide-memoire, through letters, both formal and informal, to academic texts like this essay.” (p.3). Harmer (1998) noted that, writing is a basic skill, students should know how to write letters, how to put reports together. Moreover, they should know how to write using electronic media. So, Harmer (1998) emphasized writing as important as speaking, listening and reading. As beginners, it is essential for teachers to teach a good example of handwriting. In addition, correcting spelling is very important for a good piece of writing. Commas, full stops, quotation marks, capitalization of proper nouns, names, months these things come under punctuation. As there are well-established customs for punctuation so, violation of this makes a piece of writing look awkward. Different genres of writing have different layouts so, learners should be aware of these layouts while writing. 3.Motivating 3.1Encourage students’ interaction In speaking classes students should get the chance to interact with each other. A teacher should try to make speaking classes interactive. Gower et al. (1995) suggested that, a teacher’s aim should be to create a comfortable atmosphere where students are not afraid to speak and enjoy communicating with their fellow students as well as the teacher. 3.2Set a positive and co-operative attitude towards writing Whereas in writing class, it is the responsibility of teachers to motivate learners for writing. Gower et al. (1995) suggested some ideas to the teachers to motivate the learners in writing in class. They are:  “Encourage real writing tasks in the classroom. For example, for the birthday of a member of the class write greetings cards.  Plan sufficient time for writing activities and give them due importance in the program of work.  Encourage the students to show each other their writing and to ask each other for advice.  Try letting the students write in pairs or groups sometimes.  Give encouraging feedback.  Be selective about the kind of mistakes you are going to mark so that you do not have to mark every mistake made.  Display finished tasks on the wall or in a class book”. 4.Class activities As for beginners, it is crucial for teachers to set different types of activities during lecture. Especially for young learners, activities and games seem quite important to them as they can increase their motivation and willingness to study. There are many kind of class activities suit for beginners, such as information gap, role play and simulation. However, discussion might seems a bit difficult for beginners as they have limited vocabulary and are also afraid to speak. Group work and pair work, on the other hand, are good tolls for interaction. Reference: Gower, R., Phillips, D., & Walters, S. (1995). Teaching Practice Handbook. UK: Macmillan Heinemann. Grossman, D. (2009). Process Approach of Writing. Assignment Module, 1, 1-22. Harmer, J. (1998). How to Teach English. England: Addison Wesley longman Limited.