“It must be such a long and harsh journey for me to become an ESL teacher”, “Oh children, they are such playful and annoying creatures ever”. That’s what I thought when I was a student in university a few years ago. In my whole student life, I had no students as I had never been a tutor like my other friends at that time. To be honest, I also had no intentions to teach English to anybody as I was doubting myself about my teaching motivation, teaching methods and capabilities; the only thing I did is sharing my learning experiences with other people to easily remember knowledge and get better marks. Those people called me their “special teacher”; frankly, I did not think I was a teacher at that moment, I just thought a teacher has to do something else even bigger, greater and he/she does not need to be too close with students. However from time to time, I come to realize a teacher should not be too distant with their students, he/she needs to understand what his/her students need, what he/she can do to help their students learn more useful knowledge, remember what they learned, or even encourage them come to the class. I realize that something meaningful comes from small things, small actions of each teacher with students.
Until now, I still wonder how come I started my very first teaching with young learners while I did not really like them, while I did not know how to handle them well or having nothing to back me up, how strange but wonderful it was. From that start, I totally changed my mind and what I thought about kids. The first thing I learned from teaching English to young learners is not any new words or academic grammar, that is the thing I have tried to learn for more than twenty years in my life “Love for Children”. That sounds unbelievable and unreal but it is truly what I learned. I cannot tell since when I came to miss my students when I was not in the class with them. I cannot tell how much I miss my students’ smiles and naive eyes but I can tell I always feel so relaxed and joyful joining them after extremely stressful working hours. Teaching English to young learners, I learned how to be more patient, more creative and more responsible with other people. It is totally wonderful for teachers to teach and learn good things at the same time “Learning by teaching!”. What we teach is “Knowledge”, but what we learn is “Love”. Why have to be more patient? The only answer is: Kids are impatient and playful, that is why the teacher needs to be patient. If a teacher cannot wait for their students to finish writing some simple words “HELLO, HOW ARE YOU TODAY?”, he/she must not be able to teach them how to write English correctly; if a teacher cannot wait for their students to finish spelling their names in English “MY NAME IS HUYEN”, he/she must not be able to teach them how to pronounce and speak English appropriately. In order to assist the kids remember knowledge more easily or build their growing characters, a teacher needs “Love”. He/she needs to be smooth, gentle, humorous or even careful like caring for his/her own children. No wonder why there is a very popular saying in Vietnamese society “A teacher is like a mother!”
Why to be more creative? Children always like something incredible or related to senses like vision, hearing, feelings, etc. That is why a teacher needs to be more creative in designing lessons for young learners. New vocabulary (tangible nouns) has to be illustrated with something visible like objects, worksheets or flash cards; students can also draw or color pictures to learn new words more quickly. Pronunciation has to be simulated with something hearable like music, funny sounds and memorable songs. Verbs have to be simulated with something like actions or animations, etc. There are various ways to teach English to young learners. Teachers can use games like crosswords, bingo, word search…., candy coupon (attached picture), extra-curricular activities to make students more interested and motivated to study English. They can even dance, sing along and play with their students also.
Why to be more responsible with other people? I always bear in mind that children are pure papers, what a teacher teaches children at a very young age may affect them in their whole life. With young learners, teachers do not teach only knowledge, they also teach children how to treat people, how to be sympathetic and become a good person. It is undeniable to claim that teachers have a great influence in building characters of the young generation for our society.
With some teachers, they may find it is difficult and challenging for them to teach English to young learners but if they spend more time with kids, learn how to interact with them and try to understand more about their world, I am pretty sure that they will also love teaching children like me. We cannot tell anything for sure if we do not try. Right now, I still agree with what I first thought about teaching English, I surely need to learn more to become a good ESL teacher but I also changed my mind about children “They are the most wonderful creatures we have had in this world”. It is teachers’ true happiness to see their students growing up physically and mentally with what they taught them before. Though I am postponing my journey to be an ESL teacher to try other things in life, I still believe if I have fate to do that, I will come back and do what I need to for my students.
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