{"id":2909,"date":"2016-09-15T16:12:54","date_gmt":"2016-09-15T20:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/?p=2909"},"modified":"2017-02-15T09:51:14","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T14:51:14","slug":"4-tips-for-teaching-english-overseas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-teaching-english-overseas\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Tips for Getting Started Teaching English Overseas"},"content":{"rendered":"

So you’re teaching English overseas\u00a0and it\u2019s your first day in the classroom, what do you do? If you have a TESOL Certificate<\/a> you will have plenty of materials to get started, but if you’re still nervous here is a list of four tips to help you get started.<\/p>\n

Best ESL Teaching Tips for Your First Day of Class<\/h2>\n

1. Ice Breakers<\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re teaching adults, the first thing you want to do is get to know them. Simple introductions are important. Students will want to know something about you and what brought you to their country. You will want to know something about them beyond their names and professions or studies. Try an ice breaker. There are many classic ones that are used in a variety of academic and business settings. One of my favorites is \u201cFind Someone Who\u201d where you make up a list of situations or assumed facts about your students and you set them off to find the person who has climbed a mountain or has two sisters.<\/p>\n

An added benefit to the exercise is you can use it to work on the grammar of question formation. Two truths and a lie is another good one. Ice breakers can be funny or serious depending on the makeup of your class.\u00a0 After the activity, you\u2019ll learn something about your students and they about you.<\/p>\n

2. Establish Rules<\/h3>\n

If your class is composed of children or young adults, you may want to begin with a series of classroom rules to follow so that discipline won\u2019t be an issue later on. Remember you want to find a happy medium, neither too lax nor too strict. Sometimes younger students cram in English classes after an already full day at school. That means the lessons have to be engaging enough to keep their interest if they arrive to class already exhausted. Never let the class get out of control. This will depend entirely on the country where you are teaching. When teaching English in\u00a0Spain<\/a>,\u00a0I had to keep games for the very end of class or the kids would go wild.<\/p>\n

3. Make Your Students Comfortable<\/h3>\n

Enough can\u2019t be said about the importance of creating a comfortable atmosphere in your classroom and establishing a connection with the students. Sometimes something as simple as changing desks or tables around in a semi-circle can foster communication. You also want to make sure you are approachable so the students feel comfortable asking questions in class and not feel embarrassed if they don\u2019t understand a point. The same applies to you the teacher. You may be stumped by a question. That is normal. Just tell the student you will research the answer and get back to her. If the students connect with you and each other, they are more likely to continue studying especially if they are adults with many outside responsibilities.<\/p>\n

4. Don’t just Entertain<\/h3>\n

There is a fine line between teaching and entertaining. You want to make sure you are teaching concrete skills and the students are aware of what skills you are presenting. One simple way to do this is to write the objectives of the day on a whiteboard or whatever format you have. This way the students know what to expect. This doesn\u2019t have to be a detailed in depth explanation but something they can understand like \u201chabits in the past\u201d or \u201cvocabulary for travel\u201d. Another way to make sure everyone is on track is to ask them at the end of the class what they have learned.\u00a0 They can write this down in a notebook or express it verbally to you or to each other.<\/p>\n

Your first days\u00a0teaching English abroad\u00a0may be nerve wracking but they will be exciting too.\u00a0Teaching ESL\u00a0gives you the opportunity to meet\u00a0interesting students, and gives you the\u00a0important role in helping them reach their goals.<\/p>\n

Want to learn more about what it’s like teaching English overseas? Visit a\u00a0free information session<\/a>, or download our\u00a0free course guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Written By Teresa Peipins<\/p>\n

\"Teresa<\/a>
\nTeresa Peipins spent many years teaching in Barcelona, Spain<\/a> at institutes and\u00a0at the university.\u00a0 Her first job abroad was in Medellin, Colombia<\/a>, and she\u00a0never looked back.\u00a0 From there, she taught in Malaysia<\/a> before finding a home in\u00a0Spain.\u00a0 Presently she’s teaching at the Savannah College of Art and Design Language Studio in Atlanta and has a novel forthcoming with Black Rose Publishing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So you’re teaching English overseas\u00a0and it\u2019s your first day in the classroom, what do you do? If you have a TESOL Certificate you will have plenty of materials to get started, but if you’re still nervous here is a list of four tips to help you get started. Best ESL Teaching Tips for Your First […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":2917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344],"tags":[155,9,157,90],"class_list":["post-2909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teaching-esl","tag-classroom","tag-education","tag-teacher","tag-teaching-english-abroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2909"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3457,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909\/revisions\/3457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}