Top Mistakes Committed by Tesol Teachers
No person can claim to have not made a mistake in their field of work. As Oscar Wilde once stated, “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
This is true of everyone stepping on to a new career, and TESOL teachers are no different. The point is not to ignore mistakes and try to learn from them to become a better person.
Following are the top mistakes committed by TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) teachers with TESOL certification:
Dominating the talking time
What is the main motivation for students to enrol in TESOL classes? Obviously, it is to learn to speak in English. So, what happens when, most of the time, it is the teacher who is doing the speaking?
The students will not have adequate chances to really practice their speaking skills.
Those new to TESOL teaching tend to make this vital mistake: they devote excessive time to talking. This could be because either they feel uncomfortable with long silences or pauses or because they are too enthusiastic and attempt too hard to share their erudition.
Therefore, obviously, dominating most of the talking time is simply not the right thing to do. So, the question is -how do we strike the right balance between TTT (Teacher Talking Time) and STT (Student Talking Time)?
A general estimate is that students must talk 70% of the time in class, and the teacher could talk the remaining 30%.
Such rules of thumb can be tweaked in the case of students who are absolute starters (50-50) or are highly advanced students needing intensive practice of speaking (90 to 10).
This implies that in the majority of cases, your participation must be limited to the provision of instructions and explanation of vital points.
The over-arching target must be to elicit responses from students and facilitate all kinds of speaking practice.
Not setting boundaries
An important concern is clearly defining boundaries between students and the teacher. Of course, TESOL teachers must be friendly and work hard to bond with students to accomplish the best outcomes of learning.
However, there is a clear line between being a friend and being friendly.
Teachers need to be authority figures who are most certainly not on equal terms with their students. This mistake happens often with new TESOL teachers who may not be much older than their students.
It may be good to communicate some personal things like hobbies, interests and pets, but never get excessively personal.
Any personal information should be shared only to provide context for teaching some new concepts to students. It must not be shared only with the objective of gaining acceptance and approval from students.
In the latter case, students will become confused with the lines between them and their teacher becoming blurred.
As such, the teacher will lose all authority, and there will be a serious compromise in the effective management of the classroom. So, be friendly, but set boundaries that cannot be crossed.
Talking too fast or too slow
The TESOL teacher could always repeat herself or sound out words, but she must speak as she would like to be spoken to as if she is learning a new language.
If you speak too fast, you could confuse even the best students in class; after all, you could be the first speaker of English they have encountered.
At the same time, speaking too slowly and breaking down every word will contort their concept of the actual sound of words in the English language. To strike the right balance between too fast and too slow, get trained in TESOL online courses.
Forgetting the goal of students
At the start of every English course, you would want to evaluate the goals of each student. Most of your students would wish to get trained in English for specific goals: to pass an English evaluation test/ to get admission to a specific course/ to learn to converse in English/ to become an English teacher, etc.
By learning English, students can use it in the real world; note this while designing lesson plans and speaking in the classroom.
Poor management of classroom
This common mistake happens because of less experience. Management of the classroom is not an exact science; it is not simply teaching past tense or present tense.
Every group of students is different, and rules must be tweaked for every group. The matter of concern is that new teachers might not possess teaching styles that are clearly defined. Therefore, they are either too strict or too lax.
There is plenty of literature on classroom management. You might comply with certain techniques, disagree with some others or opt to implement some of your own.
The idea is not to be overly strict but to be consistent. Weak threats and empty promises tend to repel students; once you have defined your strategy of classroom management, be consistent and stick to it.
Ignoring cultural differences
Many a time, TESOL teachers might ignore the cultural facets of their students from diverse backgrounds. For instance, certain common gestures they make might offend the cultural sensibilities of their students.
What is suitable in Western culture might be unacceptable in Oriental or Arabic culture. So, devote time to learning about the customs of your students in order to create a positive environment of learning.
In sum, the road of TESOL teaching is full of pits and ditches. Only with experience will you know how to deal with these.
Do not be afraid to face such challenges head-on and emerge as a successful TESOL professional.