- must enjoy helping people;
- must be organized;
- must be professional;
- must be knowledgeable;
- should be creative with lesson planning;
- should be energetic to keep learners motivated; and
- be patient and empathetic because learning a second language can be stressful, especially for adults.
Which of these skills do you possess?
RECOMMENDATIONS:
When you prepare to teach Conversational Language classes to adults or children, try to use a variety of activities that allow learners to practice the target language through real life situations
- role plays (E.g. Greetings, Shopping, Finding a Job, and Renting an Apartment);
- presentations (E.g. My Favourite Hobby/Trip/Book);
- conversation/board games to practice new verbs or grammatical structures;
- computers to research and create assignments; and
- hands on learning approaches.
In this role, I enjoyed the challenge of creating 'Memory Books' with my learners and/or staff team for the summer programs. And, I even directed two plays--one with adult learners and the other with children!
In my opinion, teaching these various workshops challenged me to expand my skills sets and get really creative! Also, I provided opportunities to enable learners to practice and experiment with language development in other ways!
- organized guest speakers to aid in discussions;
- monitored participants' progress;
- administered and evaluated listening and class placement tests;
- graded course assignments; and
- addressed students' concerns.
Personally, I believe that learners respond best to an educator who uses fun, informative, and practical ways of sharing information :)
So how will you use your digital literacy skills to motivate your learners?
