For ESL Teachers: In order to teach ESL, will I need to know spanish; or other lanuages as well?
Hi! Excellent question! And congrats on your decision to pursue this field! It is soooo fun to be in the ESL field! It is not necessary that you know other languages to teach ESL. There is a large movement towards authentic instruction in the ESL field, where students do task-based activities, which help them to begin to produce the English language in a more natural way. ESL teachers do not do as much traditional instruction anymore, where you would stand in front of the class as the students listen in. This is proven to be less effective in language classes. But because ESL instruction is more authentic now, it helps to have somewhat of a creative spirit! If you like to make up new ideas, lesson plans, and fun activities for students to learn language with, you'll love teaching ESL! But back to the language requirements....as mentioned, no, you don't have to know other languages. If you had, say, 10 ESL students who all spoke 10 different languages, obviously, knowing even just one of them will not help the rest. Also, you don't want to be tempted to talk to them too often in their native tongues, because then it will be easier for them to avoid speaking to you in English.... Having said all of that, usually you will have to learn at least 1 foreign language if you pursue a BA or MA in the ESL field. With a certificate, you may not have to do this. But for the BA or MA, you definitely will. I must recommend my alma mater, the Univ. of Memphis! They have a certificate program, a BA, and an MA in ESL, and you can earn almost all requirements ONLINE! Isn't that amazing?! If you would like to look into this, you'll need to look specifically at the English department on the UofM website: www.memphis.edu Well, I hope that helps you in your ESL journey! Good luck with everything, and happy learning/teaching! ;o)
List all of the following in order of importance for teaching & why: Experience, Education, Attitude, Skill?
Attitude, skill, education, experience. You have to have the right attitude to put up with kids and the problems they give you, skillful teaching is a must, the education you've recieved or the experience you have mean NOTHING without the first two. Two years ago i had a math teacher fresh from an average grad school who taught my AP algebra class. Algebra was not my strong point, but he managed to help me out and used techniques that helped me to remember how all the rediculous equations worked. the next quarter i took the second half of the class with a teacher who had been at the school for 30 years, and had the same level of training and education. he had a sh!t attitude, and didnt give a crap about the 2 or 3 students who didnt understand, and he didnt know how to teach AT ALL. He just assigned pages and that was that. My grade dropped 2 letter grades and it never recovered. He had much more experience teaching but did a very poor job. If he'd had a better attitude about getting all of his students to have good grades he may have been a successful teacher to many more students.
Should a student obey a teacher's order without question?
In Guillermo del Torro’s film Pan’s Labyrinth the main character Ofelia has to complete three tasks from the faun in order to return to her true family. Set in the Spanish Civil War, the evil fascist leader Vidal rules his troops and servants through fear, violence and torture. They obey him blindly, unthinkingly. Ofelia gets to the last task, which is to sacrifice her brother to the faun, and she refuses. She is found and killed by Vidal. Through death she is reunited with her true father and mother who welcome her back as she passed the ultimate test, which was doing the right thing, even though she had to disobey the faun in order to do it.Blind obeyence will only get you so far in life. After that you have to trust your morality and intuition. I think a class will do what a teacher says when they trust them. But that goes both ways. The more I trust a class, the more risky I can be with fun activities, like off-site activities for example.
Do you think education is the only way to success?
Absolutely not.This is such a tricky topic to elaborate on.To everyone who has a college degree, don't get me wrong - I am not saying you studied for nothing.I am just saying that education is not the one way to success.Education is A WAY to success but it is most definitely not THE ONLY way to success.Your education can and will help you very much in life. And it is totally for respect.I just want to point out that if you haven't studied a certain subject, that does not mean you won't be good at it.Do you know how many people are self-taught developers? Way too many.DO you know how many people are self-taught marketing specialists? Way too many.Do you know how many people are self-taught writers/publishers? Way too many.You will meet people in life that don't have a college degree yet are very successful at what they do.You will also meet people in life that in fact have a certain college degree but in reality, their profession is completely different.And finally, you will definitely meet people in life that have a college degree but are pure failures.This is all due to your own drive and willingness.Don't get me wrong - I am not saying that you can be a doctor or a lawyer without a college degree. I am talking strictly about more light professions that don't include a risk towards people's lives.Those professions can be taught. And college is not always the only way of doing that.If this question is actually referring to colleges when it reads ''education'' then no, schools are not your only way to success.But, self-educating, or finding whichever ways that serve you in order for you to get familiar with a topic are a necessity.You have to educate yourself, you have to make mistakes and learn from them.That is the only way of becoming a professional.