Introduction To Teaching Methods

Teaching English as a second or foreign language entails the use of both traditional teaching methods as well as instructional techniques that are unique to the study and learning of language. Traditional teaching methods include teacher-centric approaches such as explicit teaching as well as approaches that encourage active student participation. Based on the teaching experiences of educators around the world, different techniques should be deployed depending on the instructional purpose, the subject matter, and the students' level of competency, cognitive ability and enthusiasm. Concentrating and using just one approach has often been found to be grossly inadequate while a rich combination of approaches result to the most favorable learning outcomes.

This article describes the most common and effective methods that are being used in traditional classrooms as well as the alternative or improvised techniques that have been developed specifically for language instruction.

Fundamental Methods of Instruction
The primary approach in sharing new knowledge is basically the teacher-centric model that entails the techniques of 1) Exposition/Explanation/Description, and 2) Demonstration. Meantime, the participatory approach balances the responsibility of the cognitive process between teachers and students and employ the techniques of 1) Collaboration and 2) Teaching from a student perspective.

In the teacher-centric approach, the learning process follows the classic knowledge transfer model: teacher-to-student. The basic techniques used in this model include direct exposition and explanation of different subjects through formal or mini lectures that may be accompanied by audiovisual materials (whiteboard notes, CD ROM, videos, music, presentations, and other instructional multimedia). Using the techniques of exposition-explanation-description, students are often required to memorize different concepts, and, in the case of language instruction, the actual verbalizations (oral recitation) of words and phrases.

The Good Side Of Homeschooling Your Kids

Homeschooling as the terms connotes is an educational methodology wherein a child is taught by a parent or a tutor at home. Home schooling is more popular in urbanized countries as another option over private and public schools.

In the traditional processes, children are taught at school. Home school education on the other hand, gives emphasis on self - paced education and independent learning strategies. Certainly, by adapting this approach, parents are eased that their child are given the best education there is.
In order to supplement teaching, most parents and tutors make use of home school materials and resources. Without this, the entire experience will eventually fail. Educators can either create their own curriculum program or download pre - planned curriculum online. Starters are recommended to buy completely written curriculum, lesson plans or study guides until the lessons are mastered and got used to home school teaching.

Most definitely, home school education will require educators to exert effort and dedicate more time in teaching their home schooled child. The parent (as the teacher) should foster good relationship to the child (as the student) and entail motivation and perseverance throughout the whole course. Proper assessment must be carried out in order to tell the productivity of the child. Self - assessment is also important in order to improve the teaching strategies of the educator.

Home schooling appears to be difficult but rewarding at the same time. It develops family interaction and the family's closeness is practiced. Another benefit of home schooling your child is it prevents untoward incidents like violence and school related accidents.

Classroom Management Techniques

In addition to being highly knowledgeable in the subject matter, teachers also need to know how to manage classroom dynamics effectively. This entails organizational and disciplinary skills that both help make different types of classroom interactions more systematic and aligned with the learning objectives. Otherwise, classes that are conducted by teachers with very minimal classroom management skills tend to produce less favorable outcomes, such as low student achievements. Some studies, in fact, suggest that when teachers are inefficient at managing disruptive classroom behavior, the average pace of cognitive development among all students suffer greatly.

If you are a native English speaker who intend to teach English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL), it will be well to note that the paired factors of 1) disruptive behavior of students, and 2) inability of teachers to effectively manage classroom behavior, jointly cause an alarming number of new educators to leave the teaching profession. This means that in addition to generating mediocre results in terms of the learning goals for students, ineffective classroom management also cause stress, deep resentment and burnout among many teachers, to the point of compelling some of them to consider another profession. In second or foreign language learning, the cultural and linguistic gaps among students and teachers can also aggravate the learning conditions in many ways.

That said, the underlying principle should be obvious: teachers need to develop classroom management skills in order to attain positive learning outcomes. While it is true that managing student behavior is not an absolute guarantee to success, well-managed classroom behavior is a requirement for establishing an environment that is conducive to learning. After all, learning takes place most positively when students are properly motivated to learn.

Given this teaching scenario, don't lose heart nonetheless. Disruptive behavior is a normal occurrence in the learning process such that veteran educators have established different methodologies and techniques in order to quell learning disruptions. In addition, the demand for English language educators are in the uptrend globally simply because there is a real need to learn the lingua franca of globalization among non-native speakers. Behavior among learners also varies, depending on many factors such as location, economic segmentation, and the motivation to learn. While there is a real linguistic and cultural gap between teachers and students, such differences have been used by enterprising educators as positive inputs for learning.