72th/   Essay1/   Lily

When I got this essay assignment, I was going back to my several years ago. I couldn't

remember exactly when started to study English, what mt purpose to study Eglish was.

Actually, there were two clear goals ot me. One was getting good score on TOEIC, the

other was speaking English fluently. I had experienced several kinds of institutes when I

got the score satisfied me, and also a few of institutes teaching English focused on

improving speaking skills. Among those kinds of institutes, I'll write this essay about the

experience I had in the institute I attended much longer than any others. And among

teachers who taught me English, I'd like to start writing on Sandra, who is Austrailan.

When I first registered the institute, I had to attend level1 class. There, the level were

divided into 6 levels. If I did well to be in upper level for 2 months, I could register level

2 class in the institute. Anyway I did well for 6 months and then I could be in level 4

class. Sandra is the teacher who taught me English when I was in level 4 class. At

that time I was really interested in developing fluency in English. I could listen to

teacher's words and also understand them though not perfectly. I stayed there 2 hours a

day,5 times a week for 10 months. On entering the institute on time, students had to

practice words' pronunciation, sentences repetiton and had to repeat after the native

speaker 50 minutes through the audio system equipped well for each individual. There

was no teacher, no teaching and no forcing. As an adult learners, we all were so

autonomous, self-directed, oriented people that we could be aware of what to do, how

to do well. Therefore we didn't need to be forced. Of course, there were rules we had

to keep in mind, and we could be responsible for our wrong actions. After finishing

individual work there, we were supposed to move to another class where were a lot of

desks, chairs and a board. There were 15-16 available seats in two rows, we had to

face a teacher till before starting group activities. Sandra was an involver. She knew the

subject she had to input that day very well and introduced a variety of activities after

finishing explaining about a brief grammar, sentences arrangement, difficult pronunciations.

Sometimes she made us listen to the audio cassette to lead us to pronounce exactly,

distinguish the sound of r and l or b and v. She would draw a picture on the board to

let us know the tongue's position. Through those kinds of methodologies, we were

becoming active participants. Then we had to make sentences looking at picture cards.

she gave us enough or short time to practice making them, had us tell the sentences in

a loud voice. When students sometimes told wrong answers, she encouraged the person

to keep going rather than scolded the student. I think she showed us respection as we

were adult students. Obviously, she focuced on students' learning not her teaching. Then

we had English conversation time in pairs or groups talking about 10-15questions. This

time always made me nervous. So I used to practice speaking about predictable answers

to those questions in advance. I'm sure my English ability was really improved by going

through these processes.

By learning TESOL, I realized that it's not easy to teach English to someone. To be a great

teacher I'll make an effort. Before starting the class I'll continue to make academic researches

to meet my students' various needs. During the class I'll give my students a conviction of

successful class respecting them at all times. And also I'll be careful about reactions of them

judging what kinds of teaching skills are effective. After finishing the class I'll look back to my

behaviour in the past class thinking  what my lack was, giving feedback to myself.