Great course!

My experience in the Text & Talk TEFL course was great. I learned about the Thai culture, dealing with difficult students, and teaching English to children and adults. The course broke down the important elements of teaching a lesson to non-native speakers. The PPP method is an important factor in teaching English as a second language and can be used for any lesson. PPP is an acronym for presenting, practicing and producing the target language. The TEFL course also taught us how to develop a lesson and be efficient with delivering the target language. The course assisted with understanding Thai culture and how to react to young students without embarrassing them. The Trainers also helped with how to elicit students’ answers with hand gestures, flash cards or real objects without giving away too much information. Using hand gestures, I found to be very useful because I use it when I travel to non-English speaking areas. I particularly enjoyed teaching young students because I don't have a chance to be around young kids back in the States. They were very eager to learn and happy to be in class. The TEFL course taught me different ways to have fun and still teach a lesson. The fillers are great ways to engage with students and teach the lesson at the same time. The course emphasized the need to keep the lessons simple for beginners learning English. This was difficult for me because I had to think of easier ways to get the message across. The TEFL course explained how much time needs to be presented by the teacher (TTT) and how much time the students need (STT). This is important because a lot of teachers will do most of the talking without engaging with students. The TEFL course drilled us on how to set up a proper lesson for non-native speaking students. The Trainers explained how important it is to have a lesson plan before you teach a lesson. The lesson plans can be altered depending on the class, but the overall structure is similar. Lessons should be fun and should help develop a rapport with students. Developing a rapport with students is essential because the students should respect you, not fear you. I feel much more confident in teaching a lesson than I did a month ago. I learned all the principles used for each lesson and how to use them with students. The lesson plan set up is something I will always need and something I will have to master.