Senin, 24 Januari 2011

Suggestion to Teach TOEFL (by Ari Prabowo)

I have been teaching English for a little more than 5 years now, 3 of of which I've spent in TOEFL prep classes (mostly Paper - Based Ones). First and foremost, I would wish you all the best for your newfound profession. On the other hand, there are several tips that I would like to point out regarding the matter of being a "test teacher".

1. Be confident.
Students often look up to their teachers for the comfort of guidance and motivation. Being humble is an admirable trait as a teacher but when a teacher is too humble than he or she might lost his/her students' faith. It is inspiring to see that a teacher is being confident in his/her skills and that inspiration often becomes the factor that brings comfort and confidence to the students. Be positive and confident, gan, because those two traits are contagious

2. Be prepared.
Darleana McHenry, a facebook acquiantance and an education expert in USA, once said to me that an hour of great class is worth 10 hours of preparation. Plan your lessons well, choose your handbook carefully, strategize on how to make the class flow, keep track of what you have been doing and what you'll do, and, last but not least, always put yourself in your students' shoes in your preparation. A well prepared class often determines the line between a good teacher and a bad teacher.

3. Be a good test teacher.
I obtained this useful tips on a webminar of EOT (English Out There) by Jason West, another facebook acquaintance. A test teacher doesn't have to be as fluent as an English native speaker and, in fact, he / she need not even take the test him / herself! Shocking? Yes.
All that one need to do to be a good test teacher is to familiarize oneself with the type of test being discussed (TOEFL, TOEIC, IELTS, G-MAT, PET, SAT, SMPTN, etc) and to be able to provide students with references and materials that are accessible and relevant. There are literally thousands of books and hundreds of website and people on the internet giving out tips and tricks on TOEFL; a myriad of resources waiting for you to dig in.

4. Know thy pupils!
Another useful tip from Jason West and the one matter that is paramount to me when starting a class is summed up in the question "What do the students need?". Many test teachers mistakenly think that these walkthrough classes have to cover all the points to ponder in the test whereas the students might not always have the time and need to do such a long tutorial. This is why diagnostic tests play a very important role (and is relevant to tip #2 & #3) in figuring out what the students need which eventually will make the knowledge transfer more effective. Don't bore the life out of the students with things they already knew.

5. To err is human, to know how to get away with it, is diplomacy.
As a teacher, there will always be times that you may be asked with a question you may not have the immediate anwswer for or when you make mistakes. Know this, chekalova : a teacher is a human being with limitations, not all native speakers of English are proficient in grammar and Indonesians are not native English speakers. It's okay to make mistakes every now and then. It is not okay to make mistakes most of the time. That's why a good test teacher prepares well; he or she isn't necessarily smarter or more intelligent than his / her students, he/she merely master the materials before the students do. After all, an anagram for "teachers" is "cheaters"
For times like these, you will have to know how to handle yourself. Keep calm and reason with your students, promise them that you will come up with an answer, keep your promises and remember to smile while doing so.

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