Many people think that because they can speak English, it should be easy to teach it.
It’s not.
Others think that teaching English is an unskilled position.
Wrong, again.
My English language centre is looking to hire new teachers. The problem is, they can’t find good teachers. They’re struggling to even find people that they think they can mold into good teachers. Until now, they’ve (almost) only hired teachers with a CELTA or TESOL that has in-class teaching experience. Now they’re considering people who have online-only TEFLs.
In the last few weeks they’ve had two people that have accepted a job and started the training and observations of other teachers.
They both walked out just before they were due to start.
This wasn’t a surprise to me, as I’ve seen it happen a few times before. What happened was that they saw classes being taught by experienced teachers, and thought they could never do that.
Another thing that happens is that teachers start teaching, and realise how difficult it is.
This happened to me. Like many others, I felt like giving up straight away.
What new teachers need to understand is that, like other careers, learning the skills of teaching takes a lot of time and practice. And, many things that you might instinctively think to do, aren’t good teaching practice.
Any good language school knows this.
They don’t expect you to be a good teacher for quite some time. Therefore, most of them will look for people that want to become good teachers rather than require they have the existing skills.
I remember one of the documented observations of my classes. It had been conducted by someone with no teaching experience. The only thing I got a good rating for was turning up on time! I only saw that observation form the day that I resigned from the company. I had to go through each and every point, and explain to human resources the rationale for the decisions I made (which were all conscious decisions), and why they are considered good teaching practice. With the majority of the choices I made in class, I’d have made exactly the same one in the same circumstances. A non-teacher though would not have an understanding though of why I’d made certain choices.
Which leads me to my next point.
There aren’t lots of hard and fast rules or absolutes in teaching English.
When I first started, I berated myself because I couldn’t live up to the standards I’d set myself. I’d taken the ideas and practices of my centre manager as being gospel. It was a very long time before I realised that there is a lot of disagreement around many aspects of teaching and technique. For example, our teachers had been told that all students must speak only English in the classroom, even beginning students. Many teachers in my centre went to great lengths to enforce this rule. I later learned, this isn’t universally practiced. In fact, some of the most respected names in EFL English don’t practice or enforce this with their Starter classes. Instead, I came to the conclusion that I need to be able to make a case for and support the decisions and choices I’ve made in my classes. At the same time, I need to be open to trying different things and examining different perspectives.
What was a huge relief for me to know was that the person who had trained me (who was an exceptional teacher), didn’t have all of the answers. It gave me the freedom to try different ideas in the classroom, and choose those that worked for me.
Another thing is, that teaching the skills required for teaching the alternative levels of students is quite different. Teaching Very Young Learners is different from teaching Young Learners, teens, or adults. You’re unlikely to have some who will teach you how to specifically teach each of these groups of students. Most teachers have to figure it out for themselves, and the path can be bumpy sometimes. This is especially the case with the Starter level where you’re likely to have a mixed ability class with students of vastly different exposure to English, and varying capabilities.
As someone that loves learning, something that has been interesting to discover is that you can be really good at one aspect of learning and development, and not another. For example, I have really good facilitation skills. However, I’m terrible at explaining things. I’ve tried making video software tutorials, and they take me hours to create something that is even mediocre! (Someone I admire who has great explaining skills is David Pogue, and for teaching software, David Rivers) And yet those that are exceptional at explaining things, might not be good as in-person trainers, facilitators, or teachers. I think the same applies for teaching English. One can be exceptional at teaching a particular age group, and not another. Personally, I have little interest in teaching adults, and it is not even a skill I have an interest in developing.
Given all of the above, I feel that as a new teacher, you need to go easy on yourself. Your beginning months can be a very challenging (and stressful) time. Your initial classes will likely take forever to plan, and have many things that will go wrong. Know that this is normal, and try not to add pressure to the situation by judging how you’re doing. Its also best (for your health) if you don’t take on too much work at this time. I spent my first few months living off sugar, and catching sleep whenever and wherever I could. It is not a path I’d recommend.
Once you get over that hurdle, things will become easier though. However, in teaching there are always new things to learn and ways to grow and evolve. That’s one of the things that is so exciting about teaching English.
