TESOL ESSAY #2

Jin Suk Choi

There are many different kinds in teaching methodology starting with Grammar-Translation Method, Audio-Lingual Method, Total Physical Response, and so on. I have met a lot of teachers with different methodology, but one of the most impressive teachers I remember was the History teacher when I was in Fukuoka, Japan. His teaching methodology was combination of ALM, TPR, and CT. I would like to be a teacher in the future who is very flexible on teaching methodologies and that I use different methodology on different situation of the class.

His class was different from other classes such as English and Chemistry. Both English and Chemistry classes were dull and boring since the teachers used Grammar-Translation Method and Direct Method for most of the time, which students rarely or not at all, use productive skills. However, my history class was very interesting in a way he taught students differently every time. He used variety of teaching skills starting from TPR to GTM. I was wondering one time how he could prepare classes so well and in a variety of ways. One day he assigned us a final project before final exam and he assigned us to teacha a class about any history that I was interested for 30 minutes. I had a problem getting prepared for the project and I asked my teacher how I should prepare for mini-teaching project. He emphasized the phrase he always tells himself, “ always consider the worst situation and prepare for that.” He meant that there’s always a chance of having an accident of any kind, so prepare for an alternatives for activities or an extra activities in case the presentation finishes too early.

He taught me not only how to teach students with different methodologies, but also he taught me some skills to teach other students which is very helpful now. His teaching methodology was half of the time Total Physical Response methodology and half communicative. Since it was an international school, there were students with varying english skill levels, some including ESL learners. He prepared many kinds of activities and debates. The activities he prepared was not a boring activities which native speakers also enjoyed very much. Also, for the debate, a lot of students had many opportunities for them to express their opinion freely which greatly helped ESL speakers improve speaking skills and how to tell others their thoughts in English.

In near future if I become a teacher, I would like to be a teacher like my history teacher who can well prepare for the class and consider many incidents that can occur in the class. Since I would like to be a teacher in International school in other countries, the class must contain students with different level and I would like all the students to understand the equal amount. In order for my objective to be successful, I would like to prepare my class with many activities that are on topic as well as easy for every students to understand and remember what they learned from me.