Expanish TEFL Blog
How to Deal with Challenges in the TEFL classroom in Buenos Aires.
Teaching English in Buenos Aires is a very rewarding, fun, and interesting work to take on and many teachers say that teaching abroad in another country is one of the best experiences they ever had. Like any job, TEFL can come with its own challenges and these challenges are the same that any type of teacher around the world deals with; how to handle students that are a challenge in the classroom.
Depending on what age group you are teaching, there are different methods to use, so for now, we are going to look at the adult student who is unmotivated in the TEFL classroom. In Buenos Aires there are many professionals who take English classes as a request from their employer and many students who must learn English for their school courses. These students may be a challenge in the classroom if they do not have a real desire to learn English.
What can you do?
- Make a student profile. Find out ‘who’ your student is, what they like, why they are learning English, what they want to get out of the classes, life goals, family etc.
- Pay attention to your student responses to your lessons; are they interested in the topic you chose? Are they excited about playing games or do they seem to prefer more individual focused classroom tasks? Create a learning program that they like.
- Talk with your student about the challenges in class but do not accuse them of creating challenges. Ask them if they like learning English this way; ask them what they enjoy about English and what they do not. Try to motivate them from the answers you receive.
- Give positive feedback at all times even when your student fails. Always find the bright side to their situation and on the positive; nothing puts a student down more than hearing about their failures from their TEFL teacher.
Find passion in your teaching and strive to be the best teacher you can!
