{"id":3594,"date":"2017-03-14T17:11:20","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T21:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog?p=3594&preview=true&preview_id=3594"},"modified":"2017-03-14T17:14:03","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T21:14:03","slug":"do-i-know-enough-about-english-to-teach-esl-overseas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/do-i-know-enough-about-english-to-teach-esl-overseas\/","title":{"rendered":"Do I know enough about English to teach ESL overseas?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As an Oxford Seminars instructor, one of the most common concerns I hear from teachers-in-training is that they might not know enough about English to become an effective teacher.\u00a0 Is such a fear justified? The short is answer is\u00a0no<\/em><\/strong>. \u00a0<\/em>If you speak English comfortably, you can learn to teach it!<\/p>\n

But what if I don\u2019t know much about grammar?<\/h2>\n

You may not\u00a0feel\u00a0<\/em>like you know much about grammar, but you know more than you realize. \u00a0Much\u00a0<\/em>more!\u00a0 If you grew up speaking English as your first language, you already have 95% of the knowledge that you need; a TESOL\u00a0training course\u00a0will help\u00a0you with\u00a0the remaining 5%.\u00a0 Think back to a time you\u2019ve had a conversation with a non-native English speaker.\u00a0 If their knowledge of the language wasn\u2019t perfect, you probably noticed a mistake or two in their speech.\u00a0 Maybe they asked you a question incorrectly, like \u201cWhere did you bought<\/em> that?\u201d\u00a0 Of course, you know immediately that we should say \u201cbuy<\/em>,\u201d not \u201cbought.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 You may not know why<\/em> that is, but no matter the circumstance, you know how to put the right words in the right order.\u00a0 That\u2019s the hard part.\u00a0 It helps to know the terminology, but rest assured that employers probably don\u2019t expect you to be an expert when it comes to explaining grammar.<\/p>\n

But what if English isn\u2019t my first language?<\/h2>\n

Congratulations! You have one significant advantage over native speakers:\u00a0 If you learned English in school, you probably know more of the terminology than your native speaking peers do. \u00a0So long as you speak English fluently, you likely have far less to learn about how to describe the language than those who learned English at home. Most people who grew up speaking other languages finish their training reassured that they in fact do <\/em>know plenty about English grammar.<\/p>\n

But what if I\u2019m not a great writer?<\/h2>\n

If you want to teach advanced classes at the University level, or help working professionals improve their written communication in English, strong writing skills are a plus.\u00a0 But fortunately, most native speakers are hired primarily to teach conversation\u2014not composition.<\/em>\u00a0 If you are comfortable helping your students write individual sentences, then there is a job out there with your name on it.\u00a0 Plenty of employers around the world value enthusiasm above\u00a0all else.\u00a0 Especially if you\u2019re planning to teach children, it\u2019s more important that you can be an eager, encouraging conversation partner than if you know when to use \u201cwhom\u201d instead of \u201cwho.\u201d\u00a0 Schools aren\u2019t necessarily looking for an essay contest winner; a passion for teaching might be of greater value than your ability to produce a well-polished paragraph.<\/p>\n

So what do I still need to learn?<\/h2>\n

You just need to learn how <\/em>and why <\/em>we say what we do.\u00a0 Why do we say \u201cmore comfortable\u201d and not \u201ccomfortabler<\/em>?\u201d\u00a0 And why do we pronounce the word \u201ccats<\/em>\u201d with an \u201cs\u201d sound at the end, but \u201cdogs<\/em>\u201d with a \u201cz\u201d sound. (We do, by the way\u2014say it.)\u00a0 If you speak English fluently and\u00a0are eager to learn the mystery behind English\u00a0rules, then you have what it takes to teach ESL\u00a0overseas. Give it a try!<\/p>\n

Want to learn more about\u00a0Teaching English abroad<\/a>?\u00a0Visit a free information session<\/a>\u00a0near you or download a free course guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Written by Jeremy White<\/p>\n

\"J.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jeremy White has lived and worked in several states and countries, most extensively as a TESOL instructor in South Korea<\/a>. He has a master’s degree in linguistics and has taught Oxford Seminars courses<\/a> in both New York and Minneapolis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As an Oxford Seminars instructor, one of the most common concerns I hear from teachers-in-training is that they might not know enough about English to become an effective teacher.\u00a0 Is such a fear justified? The short is answer is\u00a0no. \u00a0If you speak English comfortably, you can learn to teach it! But what if I don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":3599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344],"tags":[9,7,87,126,5],"class_list":["post-3594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teaching-esl","tag-education","tag-english","tag-esl","tag-grammar","tag-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3594","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\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3594"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3595,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3594\/revisions\/3595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}