Hi, I just did an interview for an adult teaching school and they asked me to come in and do a teaching demonstration. The only problem is I’ve never taught english in my entire life and I have absolutely no idea what to do.:help: Its suppose to last at least 20 minutes, they said I can choose the language level, does anybody have any suggestions?
How many students?
I have seen damn awful demos. Usual problem is the teacher talking too much and wasting time doing personal intros i.e. “What’s your name?” repeated ten times around the class student by student.
Try something like this.
Very quickly introduce yourself. Then get them to introduce themselves. “Tell me your name and one interesting thing about yourself.” Go around the class.
Then: Where are you from? Perhaps you could do something about your country or city?
Let’s say you are from New Zealand. You could put them in pairs and get them to discuss what they know about it, and to come up with a couple of questions. After about seven minutes you get them to ask one question each. If nobody in the class knows the answer, you can answer it.
The demo is to show that you can manage a class, use suitable language, and that the students like you. And that you don’t spend all your time perving.
I’ll put in my two cents here. Stay away from “open” questions like “Do any of you know what onomotopaeia is?” or “What is the most important thing you’ve ever thunk?” The students will gaze at you blankly, waiting for you to give the correct answer. Don’t ask any “closed” questions - “Do you like your mother?” The answer will be “yes” or “no”, and you’ll be thinking frantically of how to fill in the remaining time. Ask guided questions like, Why do you like your teacher?", and give them a prescribed sentence pattern to repeat and fill in the blanks. Variations of this will keep them busy for a while. Listen to their mistakes and refrain from correcting them immediately. Try to identify repeated mistakes, and then “teach” the mistakes after the students are done talking. Maybe more later - I’ve got to run…
Hi MoS,
I have been teaching at university level and did a good number of adult classes
[quote=“YI-DE”]
Worse still, why would you like to work for a language school that would give you a job without any previous teaching experience? If they give their students a teacher pretending he is qualified, they
YI-DE[/quote]
To be fair, most of the language schools here will hire people with no teaching experience. Many will hire anyone white, whether or not they can speak English. At least demanding a native speaker shows the school has some standards.
OK, point taken.
So it is a classy school - for local standards.
Ever so sorry,
YI-DE
Chances are, they won’t even have real students there. Maybe 2-3 of the school employees. “Just pretend we’re beginner/intermediate/whatever students.”
[quote=“YI-DE”]Hi MoS,
I have been teaching at university level and did a good number of adult classes
I say give everyone a card with a number on it. Ask questions, and when no one speaks up . . . . pick a number.
At any rate, this sort of methodology keeps the class moving . . . .
As an alternative, you can number the seats, and in that way everyone already has a pre-assigned number.
I would stay away from open-ended questions or inquiries like “Introduce yourself” or “Tell us something about yourself” . . . . in my experience the local Taiwanese students aren’t very good at such introductions. You would be better to talk about the weather, or the traffic, or people’s jobs or something.