#teachinginternship

[usmanschool]

Usman Public School System - Paid Internship Program 2024

#InternshipProgram #TeachingInternship #PaidInternship #UsmanPublicSchoolSystem #TeacherTraining #CareerOpportunity #EducationCareers #ProfessionalGrowth #ECETeachers #PrimaryTeachers #SecondaryTeachers #TeachingOpportunities #FutureEducators #BuildYourCareer #TeachingJobs

[learnenglishwithjulia]

Why is the listening skill so important and yet so difficult for EFL learners?

Diary submitted by Mathilde S, Erasmus+ internship in Madrid Amongst the four skills – reading, writing, speaking and listening – learners of a foreign language should master, listening is very intricate. Receptive skills are often considered easier, meanwhile transmissive skills tend to scare students more. The latter indeed require full engagement of the student. Surprisingly, I have noticed throughout my internship that students often struggle more during listening classes than during writing, speaking or readings classes. Why is that? Firstly, listening has multiple dimensions

Listening involves many aspects of a language, such as pronunciation, getting familiar with thespeaker’s accent and intonation. Listening also entails identifying and understanding the lexis used by the speaker, as well as the tone (i.e. formal or informal). Putting aside the quality of the audio/video, speed represents a major obstacle for EFL learners. Similarly, the clarity of the speaker’s voice and the way he/she enunciates highly influences EFL learners’ understanding. Once, we were practicing listening with an episode of Kids Reacts, and students found it particularly difficult to understand kids, as they often mumble or speak quite low. Secondly, rather than being a passive skill, listening is active. Listening requires particular attention from EFL learners and demands them to engage with the recording. In this respect, a mechanical way for teachers to make sure that their students understand it to ask them repeatedly if they understand and what they understand. Listening is not a mere receptive skill, and a methodological and critical mind is often needed to handle the activity. Different steps can be distinguished: before rushing into catching specific details, students should identify the number of speakers and their identity. Then they can identify what is the topic of the audio/video, and finally they can focus on getting detailed information. Thirdly, what makes listening so crucial is that it implies speaking. Active listening is ultimately important when students have conversations with each other, or when they will be interacting with other English speakers. In fact, one of the main concerns of an EFL learners is not being able to understand and reply to an English interlocutor. A situation as simple and common as giving/asking for directions can be problematic. As a result, practicing listening is of high importance for EFL learners. In the class, listening activities include dictation, listening to news, TV shows, movie trailers, podcasts... Dictation is also a good exercise during which students focus exclusively on what is said and can get familiar with English pronunciation. “How can I improve my listening skills?” is a question that comes up regularly. Answersare in fact numerous, since most of the listening activities can also easily be done at home. A prolific way for students to improve their listening competences is to incorporate some English into their daily life, by listening to music, watching films or series for instance. In this respect, listening to the radio is a fruitful and passive way of getting used to hearing English on a regular basis. An advice I give them is to look up the lyrics of the songs they like, and start watching a movie with their language’s subtitles.However, students often tell me that they tend to read the subtitles more than focusing on what is actually said. To counter that, I suggest them to watch a movie they already know with English subtitles, so that they can focus primarily on the speeches. Listening is part and parcel of language learning and of everyday life. It may not be the most difficult skill, but is surely important. Read the full article

[learnenglishwithjulia]

What are the advantages of volunteering in TEFL and how TEFL Trainer has it opened up job opportunities for me?

Diary submitted by Reanna C, Erasmus+ internship in Valencia It is clear to me that there are many advantages which have come from my time spent in Spain. Thanks to TEFL Trainer I have not only explored a new culture and improved my language skills, but also developed a better understanding of the options I have for when I finish university. This diary will concentrate on the different job opportunities working abroad has given me.  One main advantage of volunteering in TEFL for me, is that the opportunity has opened up many doors for me in the future. As a languages student I thoroughly enjoy travelling and living abroad. Living in Spain for 5 months has probably been one of the most enjoyable stages of my life so far; therefore, thanks to TEFL Trainer I now know I have the chance to do something like this again in the future if I wish. Whilst living in Spain I was able to absorb a lot of Spanish culture and really explore the city of Valencia to my full potential. However, the biggest advantage for me was the fact that thanks to my job at the language school I was offered free Spanish lessons in another academy. This was another great chance to improve my Spanish, and therefore, I took full advantage of these lessons which I feel have been very beneficial. ‘Speaking the language of the destination country multiplies advantages in the country’ this may include ordering in a restaurant, speaking to a doctor or dealing with bureaucracy (Colby, 2015). This has presented how teaching abroad has entitled me to more than just living in the country. Moreover, I have browsed the TEFL site and realised that there are a number of countries both inside and outside Europe which I can travel to with this qualification, including both summer camps and teaching jobs spanning over several months. This presents how TEFL Trainer has widened my windows of opportunity for after I finish university.  Secondly, the main advantage of volunteering in TEFL for me is that it has helped me realise that teaching is a possible job option for me in the future. I have always resisted the idea of becoming a teacher in the past due to both my parents being teachers, however TEFL has given me the chance to experiment with teaching languages first hand and I have realised I am better at it than I thought. Due to my mentor leaving soon after I joined a language school in Valencia, I was forced into taking a full time teaching role with my own class. At first this was a scary concept to get my head around, however, after a couple of days it became really natural. In addition to this, at the academy I was working with students aged 16 to 70. I realised I prefer this age range because it means that the students have given up their free time to be in your class and have a higher drive to learn, as appose to languages being a compulsory subject in a secondary school. ‘Older learners progress faster in the initial stages of language acquisition’ (Cenoz, 2009) and this may be because of their increased desire to learn. Consequently, TEFL has helped me develop a few key ideas surrounding the criteria I look for in a teaching job.  To conclude, the main advantage of TEFL for me is that I now feel more confident about my future. As I have mentioned in this diary, I now see teaching as a valid job option. Furthermore, thanks to TEFL there are countless destinations around the world that will allow me to take advantage of my qualification. This has made me feel more secure and I can now look forward to teaching abroad again in the future.  Sources: H. E. Colby (2015), Unlock Your TEFL Success, Published by GD Publishing LTD, (accessed: 14/07/19) J. Cenoz (2009), Towards Multilingual Education: Basque Educational Research from an International Perspective, Published by Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, (accessed: 14/07/19)  Read the full article