Dates Week TESOL

I started the course back in October. I am 40 years old, married with three children and live in Italy. I graduated 19 years ago – the last time I did studying of any kind. When I looked at the first unit and started reading, it was a challenge to put down what I had read on paper, remembering key points, writing things from my point of view. I found it really quite a challenge! After 20 units the whole studying process has become infinitely easier and I have become much more confident about expressing my ideas. I look back on unit 1 and think how crazy I was to find it daunting!! The course has been incredibly useful to me as it has given me guidelines of how to go about teaching. I have little experience of teaching english – have just ‘dabbled’ in it. But now I feel armed with tools and techniques that will enable me to put together a solid series of lessons. I found the balance of grammar versus classroom teaching techniques very good. It has provided me with lots of ideas and underlined my own ideas. I registered for the course with no real intention of going into teaching english in the immediate future – I simply wanted to study something and get a qualification under my belt. The course has transformed my ideas! I am enthusiatic (although very nervous/ lacking in confidence) about going out and teaching. When I have finished I shall do my best to try and find a way of starting to teach english. Obviously I would have preferred an on-site course where I could interact with other people and had classroom experience, which would have boosted my confidence. I was unable to do this due to commitments with children and a husband who has to travel for work. I intend to try and get some experience – get a job at Inlingua or as an assistant in a school. From there maybe I’ll discover I really want to continue in which case I will probably look at teaching from home (independently or maybe even setting up my own language school.