TESOL Pretoria

In Unit 20, we learned how to troubleshoot some common problems that teachers might encounter. We discussed how teachers can establish a rapport with students during their first lesson. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of teaching new groups and existing groups of students. The part of this unit that I found particularly useful was teaching students of different levels. Even though entrance testing should group students together in groups with similar abilities, some students learn more quickly than others. And some students are more motivated than others. This unit gave some recommendations for dealing with these challenges. For example, stronger students and weaker students can be given the same learning material and tasks. But the stronger students can be given longer and more complicated tasks to perform. Also, stronger and weaker students can be paired together. Another useful topic that was introduced in this unit was dealing with students that are reluctant to learn. The unit gave some helpful suggestions for this issue. For example, putting students into pairs allows reluctant students to practice with a peer in an environment that might have less pressure. Also, role play allows reluctant students to communicate as someone other than themselves which might result in more comfortable communication.