Every school is an amazing institution where knowledge is imparted and bright minds are being developed into the leaders and managers of the future. All of this is possible thanks to the hard working people that spend about half of their working week preparing to be in the classroom, the other half of their working week to implement and deliver an amazing lesson. All this preparation, which requires a great deal of creativity and time takes place in one place, the little sacred place where coffee flows almost non-stop and friendships that last a lifetime are formed: the Teacher’s Office.

Given that the Teacher’s Office is such an integral and important part of every school, it is important to keep in mind that while it could be a sacred haven for teachers, it’s a special place shared with others, thus, it is imperative that any new ESL professional comes in with the right disposition when it comes time to join an Academic Team.

The Teachers’ Office

The Teachers’ Office is more than an office where you will have a desk, a place to leave your books and stationery and a place where you will access a computer and the school’s intranet. The Teacher’s Office is where you will start building your network, you’ll be able to exchange ideas, learn from others and make contributions that will follow your entire career. The following are a few pieces of advise that will help you make your presence in the Teacher’s Office a tool for your own success and also a couple of suggestions on what to avoid so it doesn’t turn into a disaster.

A Place to Connect

The Teacher’s Office is a place for you to Network. You have just started your new ESL career, and even if you won’t be teaching the rest of your life, those individuals that share the Teacher’s Office with you are there for similar reasons to yours, and for the year you’ll spend there, these people will be like your family. While they can be a great support system, the ESL career is one of the nomads, particularly encouraged by the one-year contract policy. Those individuals will have successful careers and might hold management positions, one of them might become your manager one day, so start networking, start building a rapport with everyone, build a friendship so in years from now, when you are looking for a new job or they are, that job hunt might be a short one. But that might be too long term and right now you might be focusing more on short term, then, network for short term, the people in the Teacher’s Office will be willing to help you and will have great advice to help you adapt and adjust to life in your new country and career.

The Space and What it Represents You

The Teacher’s Office is a place where you will spend a great deal of time, now that you have figured out the great individuals that you are working with and how to work with them, let’s put the Teacher’s Office in the spatial perspective, the space and what it represents to you. During your time at the school as an ESL teacher you will spend time at your working station writing lesson plans and developing materials, in order to complete your tasks successfully, you will need to have the proper atmosphere surrounding you. Start with your working station, keep your desk, cupboard, teacher’s box, board (not all schools offer these but most of them do) well-organized and tidy. Use folders, notebooks, thumbtacks and whatever office supplies available to make sure your lesson plans are organized by course or by day, your timetable is in a place easily visible to you and others, your stationery is properly stored. If you are ever in doubt, have a look around the teacher’s office and see how people keep things organized and if still in doubt, speak to your direct manager for company guidelines or just some good suggestions.

The Right Attitude

While keeping a tidy and organized working space will help you be an efficient teacher, there is something that will affect you or others in the Teacher’s Office, and this brings us back to people and the biggest DON’T: Having the wrong attitude! Things like idle gossip, speaking ill of the company or other co-workers will simply create a negative atmosphere in the Teacher’s Office and will definitely affect your work. Unhappy teachers make for poorly planned and prepared lessons, a happy teacher projects a better energy and enthusiasm in the classroom. A friend once told me that he was working at a school and the manager said: “ even if you are not happy, just be a good teacher” my friend left the school shortly after that, he also explained how there was a lot of gossiping and being in the teacher’s office just became unbearable. As a new member of the Academic team, contribute to the team by having the right attitude, avoid gossip, if you disagree with management, speak to your managers, propose solutions to the problems (don’t complain) and above all be respectful of the place and culture that you will live in for the next year.

To sum up, the Teacher’s Office will be a place where you will be able to meet great people who could be an asset to your network of professionals or even friends for life, if they are just an acquaintance that you befriended on Facebook, it’s always a win. You will be sharing this space so keep it tidy and well-organized so your work can be done well and efficiently. Above all else, have the right attitude, never gossip, keep the lines of communication open, your managers will do their best so you are happy at work, but you also need to make an effort towards being in a Teacher’s Office where ideas, cooperation and teamwork flow alongside never-ending cups of coffee.

Teaching The Family

Your ESL career will most likely lead you to be at the front of a classroom full of toddlers. While teaching young learners has its challenges and amazing rewards, if you have a classroom with 10 students, you are actually preparing lessons for 30 people in total. Your young learners’ lesson will always have a clear aim and objective. You will want them to learn and be able to apply a lexical set or grammatical point within a certain amount of time to a degree of ability relevant to their age and scope of what’s being taught. But, keep in mind, as your students are learning so are two other people: their mom and dad.

The parents of a young learner are learning, but they are not learning to speak English as a second language as some of them already do, they are learning to be the parents of a bilingual child. If the parents already know some basic English, then they have a clear advantage and they would be able to help more at home, one might think, even parents who speak the language nearly at a fluent level can still struggle to help their child learn at home. Then, if regardless of knowledge of the language, parents are still struggling to help the child practice at home, what can be done?

Getting Them Involved

This is when the scope of your teaching responsibility goes above and beyond, particularly beyond the needs and wants of your immediate students – the ones in the classroom. Now you need to tend to the needs of your secondary learners – your students’ parents. What are their needs and wants?

Parents need to know and understand. They need to know everything, or as much as possible in regards to their child’s participation, behavior, involvement and development within the group, during the course and as an individual. The best way to satisfy this need is with open and direct communications. Don’t be a robot, your lesson starts at 9:00 and finishes at 10:00, don’t go running to the teacher’s office to sit on your chair watching the clock or play on your phone until the next class (this is, by the way, super unprofessional). Go to the classroom a few minutes earlier to set up and chat with the parents, say hello to the students, get to know everyone, the parents will see that you are an approachable teacher and will feel comfortable and willing to communicate to you their concerns. Don’t speak the local language? Easy, speak with your Academic manager, most schools have staff dedicated purely for this purpose, at EF schools, like EF Shijiazhuang, an amazing team of Progress Advisors or PAs will always be there to act as a bridge of communication between you and the parents.

Wants vs Needs

What you want is not always what you need, but when it comes to parents of young learners, there is a very thin line separating their “wants” and “expectations”. Parents expect their child to be able to communicate with any foreigner with confidence, but they also want their child to learn, make good progress, see results and be reassured that they are being taught by a professional ESL teacher, someone they would deem responsible. It’s important to highlight at this point that Chinese parents use the term to refer to teachers who make their work visible with punctuality, having a good rapport with students, clear and precise marking of papers and an active teaching atmosphere.

have a reputation for being tough, which they are not, they are actually loving and caring parents who are aware of the tremendously challenging and competitive world their child will face, plus it’s their one and only child, so they want to guarantee they will provide their child with tools they need to succeed. One of those tools is English and you will have a great impact on many children’s lives and also their parents. Up for the challenge?

Congratulations! You have taken some very important steps towards starting a very successful career as an ESL teacher in China. You have found the right recruitment agency which will help you find a post with some of the best schools in the market. Probably you will have your choice of jobs in no time, but all these wonderful feelings can vanish in a second if you don’t ask the right questions at the end of the interview.

During the interview you will be asked various questions that will assess your willingness and ability to teach, your character and your intentions to come to China and the answers to all those questions will give your future employer a clear idea of who they are hiring but there is a small part of the interview that new ESL recruits usually tend to ignore and that is their chance to ask questions.

Why is it necessary to ask questions at the end of an interview? There are two important reasons. First, this is your chance to ask, to remove any doubts, questions you may have. After all, you are taking a big step and moving to another country. Make sure you are making the best decision with all the information. Secondly, this is your chance to show your employer that you are committed to the job, if there is something an ESL recruiter does not want to hear is: I want to come to China to travel. Here are five questions that will help you impress your future employer and why you should ask them:

Question 1:
How would you describe the atmosphere in the teacher’s office?
This will give you a clue as to what kind of atmosphere you will be working in. Is it a relaxed and casual atmosphere or is it rather strict and formal? Listen to the answer attentively and start figuring out how you could thrive in such an atmosphere so you can provide a bit more information about yourself. For example, if your employer says that the working environment is rather casual while maintaining a level of professionalism and dedication then you could say how that is a great environment since professionalism is always your first rule. You also believe that a casual and relaxed atmosphere is more inviting and allows people to share ideas which are something you are looking forward to do as an ESL teacher.

Question 2:
Can you tell me a bit about my future students? What do they expect from their new teacher?
When you ask this question, you will be reassuring the interviewer about your intentions to come to China and teach. This question will help the person interviewing you understand how committed you are to the most important people in the school: the students. But this is a good question that will also provide you with a good idea of how well the manager you’re talking to knows the students which will be a reflection on the other teachers in the team, a good manager means a good team. Furthermore, this will help you adjust your expectations. Chinese kids are adorable and very smart but of course there is more to them than just that.

Question 3:
Can you describe for me what a week at work would be like?
This question is crucial as it will give you a clear idea what the workload is like. This question is merely for you, as the information provided will allow you to determine whether or not that’s the kind of workload you would like to pursue for at least a year. No two schools are exactly the same. Some schools have lessons off-campus; do you want to commute to different places? Some schools teach on Saturdays and Sundays while having days off during the week, is this is something you are willing to do? Some of these changes might seem small but these small details will become part of your day to day life when you come to China, so consider your options carefully and choose the school that’s right for you.

Question 4:
What do the teachers like to do in their free-time? Can you tell me a little bit about the expat community in your location?
Do your research about the place first, before you ask this question, mention something you know about the expat community in that location. It could be something along the lines of: I read online that a lot foreigners in Location X like to frequently go to a pub called “something” that sounds interesting…and then make a transition to the question so you can get more first-hand information. Some people like to come to China and experience cities with little to no expat communities while others would like to experience China with more comforts from home and people to share it with. Rest assured that working for an ESL school, there will be other expats there who will guide and help you enjoy your new city.

Question 5:
What are the next steps?
This simple question should always be the last question you ask; your interviewer is ready to answer this. If you ask this before the interviewer, it will show preparedness and pro-activeness, two qualities every teacher should have. Some schools are quick to make a decision while others will take their time. This will not only give you peace of mind and know what to expect, but it will also give an insight into how the management team works. If they can give you a clear answer, clear deadlines and they stick to them, then you are probably working with a good manager. If they tell you that it will take them some time and that they are not sure how long it will take them then, you are better off exploring other options.

These are very good questions you can ask at the end of your interview, you can test your interview skills and get interviewed by the excellent team at EF Shijiazhuang who is looking for talented and committed individuals to join their team.

It’s Your First Week in China!

Congratulations on becoming one more international talent who will be in charge of an ESL classroom and launching a successful career (if this doesn’t apply to you yet, you are on the right website, contact Gold Star to be placed in an amazing school like EF Shijiazhuang and join their team). The school will help you and guide you through the visa and immigration process, in fact is a fairly simple and straightforward procedure. But if you’ve never been to China, what are your expectations? What is that first week in this amazing country like?

Before you arrive, do your research! Go on-line and read up on the city and the surrounding areas. You know about the school and you can get in touch with teachers who are already working there to give you some advice on what and what not to bring. But then go on-line and ask yourself:

• What is the city famous for?
• What’s the local cuisine like?
• What’s the transportation system like?
• What form of Chinese is spoken? (Mandarin, Cantonese, dialects?)
• What is there to do in and around the city?

As you find answers to these questions, you will find that coming to China just to teach is just not worth it. Its people, food, landscapes are an entire world to discover in their own right. You’ll be able to discover as many things as possible if you come prepared, not just with the necessary supplies but with the necessary information. Having this information will also give you something to look forward to and with so many public holidays and handsome paid-holiday packages from schools; you’ll have plenty of time to explore.

However, that’s the fun side of things. Prepare yourself to start teaching, having an ESL Certification means that you have the basic knowledge to teach English as a second language but that’s theoretical knowledge. Get practical, you’ll be able to find hundreds of games and activities over the internet that you’ll be able to use in the classroom. Make sure you familiarize yourself with a few activities, you’ll probably start teaching on your first or second week (depending on the school) so if you already have a couple of tricks up your sleeves, you’ll make a good impression and you will fit right in.

Lastly, before you arrive, think about what age groups you are going to teach and find articles that will help you understand different learning styles and approaches so once you meet your students, you’ll be able to understand them better which will result in better teaching and therefore attaining better academic results.

If you are the adventurous type, just get here and roll with the punches, but if that’s not your cup of tea, then contact your future Director of Studies and set up a time to talk over Skype to go over some last minute preparation advice. Ask questions and if possible, go over your first week’s timetable/schedule so you can prepare and get organized.

You are here, your first week. Your first week in China will be hectic; don’t feel discouraged, it’s the one week in a year when you have to become a teacher and a Resident of China at the same time. Fortunately, it’s an easy task because most schools in China have people that help you and guide you through this week. The weeks leading up to the trip to China are filled with anticipation and perhaps some anxiety, but once you have arrived, you will see that all that preparation was worth it and you will be able to settle in well and have a wonderful start to your ESL career in China.

As teachers, we spend many hours preparing for our lessons, creating handouts and materials. As we go though the creative process, we are thinking: this is so easy; my students will be able to complete this with ease (assuming of course that you have provided them the relevant scaffolding/preparation for it). And then, the great day arrives, you enter your classroom proudly and happily to see your students. After successfully getting their attention and making sure they have understood the relevant lexis/grammar, you check your lesson plan and see it’s an appropriate time to handout the materials you have designed for the occasion. You give clear instructions and distribute the materials uneventfully. In your mind, everything is going well until you hear this phrase: “Teacher, Teacher!!!” sometimes going as far as: “Teacher, Teacher, come here!” Oh no! What happened?

That’s the call most students will make when they need our help, a quick reminder that we are not just there to instruct, but also to mentor and educate. Here are a few ideas you can use when you find yourself teaching and you hear this call. These are some ideas and suggestions that have been tried and worked well in the classroom. The names are not the actual names of the techniques, they are more like pneumonic devices to help you remember the technique if you choose to apply when you start your ESL career. A section of pros and cons has also been included for each technique.

The Lifeguard

This is a situation in which the teacher will go to the student’s desk one by one, until they have all been helped. Sometimes, if many students need help, then the teacher can call for everyone to stop, give instructions again and then monitor just as a lifeguard would tell everyone to get out of the water if there is a major threat and then let them go back when it’s safe.
Pros: The students receive individualized attention from the teacher.
Cons: Students can get impatient while waiting for the teacher and might start talking to others in L1 (their mother tongue) or even copying.

Pre-emptive Strike

As you walk around the classroom monitoring their work and making sure they are completing the task, zoom in, try to catch an exercise they have skipped or read their face/body language, if they need your help, you’ll know instantly. Offer your help in an inconspicuous manner. For instance, you see that little John is scratching his head and he is staring at the last exercise (a crossword puzzle) you can approach and ask John questions about the first clue (what color is the car?) John replies: “It’s blue”, show him with your fingers that “Blue” has 4 letters and then show him how they would fit into the squares.
Pros: The student will finish the exercise with more confidence.
Cons: The student might expect you to help every time s/he doesn’t understand something thus affecting academic results. This technique is best used sporadically and/or with strong students who have already formed the habit of asking for help.

Finish First

This doesn’t call for a race, this calls for students to finish everything they can complete and when they can’t, they should raise their hand and ask the teacher for help. When they come for help, make sure you don’t give them the answers but rather guide them and encourage them to understand what they need to do to complete the task successfully.
Pros: Different students will work at a different pace thus staggering the students you need to help.
Cons: If the students finish around the same time and don’t need any help, you can play a game to check the answers; you can put them in pairs and have them check each other’s work. You can also collect the work and return it at a later time. In order for this to work, you need to create the habit in your students that if you don’t know something, skip it and then you can come back to it later. You can create this habit by including it in your instructions and during your monitoring. Also, stay vigilant and make sure to attend to the student as soon s/he finishes.

The Zone

After the students have started doing their work and everything seems on track, go to a corner of the room from where you can see all the students and they can all see you, creating a sort of consultation zone. If they need help, they can go to you and they will receive the help they need in the zone.
Pros: This allows students to work quietly and more independently as well as receiving individualized attention.
Cons: Some students, especially teenagers are stubborn to ask for help or they will see standing up and asking for help as a matter of “losing face” which is a big deal in Chinese culture. Usually, young learners prefer this method, as they want to interact more with the teacher.

When you start your ESL career at our school, you will receive a great deal of support training, as you learn, so will your students, so pay it forward and apply some or a combination of these techniques so you can provide the best help and support to your students.

A few years back to look up a word and have it translated into another language in the blink of an eye seemed impossible. You had to go to your local library and find specialized dictionaries that weighed a ton and didn’t smell so great. Going even further back in time, when ESL first started towards the end of the nineteenth century, it was all about repetition and direct translation. Looking back at it all, one might wonder, why would people be interested in learning languages if it was such a hassle?

Modern Day Technology

It might have represented more work compared to the ease of use that modern technology provides us with. Today, if for some strange reason you want to know how to say “extrovert” in Bahasa Malay, the answer is just a couple of keystrokes and mouse clicks away. With the world of information so readily available, why not take advantage and bring the world into the classroom?
In order to bring a world’s worth of information into the ESL classroom you need to have the right facilities. EF schools around the world have an area dedicated to computers and internet access better known internally as the iLab Zone.

Merging the Worlds

In previous articles, it was discussed how teenagers need a great deal of motivation. Is there greater motivation than a computer and the World Wide Web for a teen? Doubtful. The question remains, how to bring one and one together? How to incorporate this fountain of information and these wonderful facilities into the curriculum? The best way to illustrate this is with an example.

One of the EF books for teenagers features an article about fast trains from around the world. The main aim for the lesson is for students to be able to read itineraries and timetables with ease as well as develop simple dialogues based on the information provided within the context of traveling by train. With this aim in mind, after completing some activities that would have helped them read and understand the featured article and to practice reading a train schedule it was now time for students to put into practice what they have learned.

iLab Zone

The internet turned out to be a very useful tool in this case as the teacher was able to bring the students to the “iLab Zone” and in pairs they had to find and compare train schedules and prices between Japan and two European countries. The students were very resourceful. While they were working in pairs, one student was looking up prices and timetables for the Japan East Railway company but they are working in pairs, so what’s the other student to do? The other student took advantage of the free Wi-Fi connection the school offers and with his iPhone he downloaded an app that allowed him to book a ticket on the Eurostar.

After the search and all that resourcefulness, the students were able to come up with really clever and interesting dialogues about the trips they would like to take on the rail-tracks of the world all thanks to their school and their teacher guiding them in making a world of information manageable.

Chinese teenagers…why are they amazing students?

Unless you come to China to work at a Kindergarten or a Primary School chances are you will be teaching all age groups and that includes: teenagers! Most prospective teachers, during the interview, when asked which age group they like, the most common answer usually goes something along the lines of: the little ones are very cute, the elementary school level kids need a lot of attention but I like teens and adults because I can communicate with them. But of course, this is not true for everyone; some are terrified of teaching teens, especially when it comes to behavior and attitude. So, let’s take an in-depth look at Chinese teenagers and discover how to make the experience of teaching teenagers an amazing one every time. In order to do this, we will start by meeting a Chinese teenager who is currently an ESL student at EF Shijiazhuang and then looking at some challenges faced by teachers when teaching teens and how to overcome them.

A day in the life of a Chinese teenager

Meet John, he is 13 and he lives in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, in China. John has a very busy life, Monday through Friday he attends his middle school, a very early start around 7:00 in the morning and after a full day of lessons there comes a few extra hours of homework after a short bike ride home and he’ll make it to bed shortly past midnight. If he doesn’t have homework, he’ll still make it to bed way past midnight as he would use the free time to enjoy his favorite computer games or chat with his friends on WeChat or QQ. When does he have time to have fun? During the weekend, right? Wrong! During the weekend John will attend on average three extra-curricular classes ranging from music (he plays the guitar) to math to the most important subject of them all (and his favorite): English! Whatever little time he has left he will go play basketball with his friends at the local sports center or dedicate more hours to sharpen his skills as an avid computer game player.

Don’t feel bad for John, he actually has a full and very busy life, and he is quite fortunate to be able to have access to the education he’s receiving. Still feel bad? Then, think about this. If you come to China, you’ll have plenty of students like John, for a couple of hours a week he will be your pupil, make sure he is having fun and enjoying the process of learning English. Furthermore, build a rapport with your students, get to know them and personalize your lessons to their likes, for example, you might love Nirvana, but your students will appreciate it more if you played some Michael Jackson or Linkin Park who are by far more popular and better know by Chinese teens, Nirvana is something their parents listened to. Many teachers sometimes wonder if they make a difference in their students’ lives. Small details like playing music they like, creating engaging lessons make a huge difference.

Teaching teens is always rewarding

You’ve met John, the time he spends in your classroom will be a time he’ll use to learn, improve on all his skills, to talk to his classmates and to his teacher. Since teenagers have an attention span of over 50 minutes from the age of 11, they learn a lot faster and retain a lot more, thus, they are eager to practice what they have learned.
During class, after class, every second he is in school, John will jump at the opportunity to communicate with his teacher and this is something that ESL teachers really appreciate. Being able to communicate more naturally, without having to grade language so much, but is this is only reason teenage students are so great? It is actually the challenges they pose that makes them so great.

In fact, teaching teenagers can pose many challenges, for instance:
– Discipline problems – if the topic is boring they’ll tune out
– Attitude – having a bad day? Problems with friends? Teens don’t leave their problems at the door
– Motivation – If they don’t have a genuine reason to learn, they will never genuinely learn

While these problems are always present, they are manageable. There are always ways to keep teenagers engaged, it’s all a matter of getting to know them, find out what their interests are and incorporate that into the lessons. By doing this, the teen will find the topic interesting and he will feel motivated enough to leave any problems at the door and participate in class. Of course, this is not fool-proof, but it helps a great deal, students will respond well and your lessons will be a success.

The pursuit of motivation

Chinese teenagers have very busy lives, they have tonnes of homework to do and their love for computer games is almost an obsession. But, they are great students who are eager to learn and participate. This doesn’t happen automatically, the teacher brings the magic by getting to know the students and incorporating their thoughts and ideas into the lesson so they will feel interested and motivated.

If you’d like to teach amazing teens and all other age groups, click here and apply for positions available at EF Shijiazhuang, they are interviewing now!

Spring is Here

Spring has a great deal of meaning in Chinese culture. Come to experience China and the word ‘Spring’ is a word that you will encounter but best of all, you’ll get to experience it. As in the West, in Chinese culture, spring is a time for things to be new again, flowers are in bloom and everything seems bright and refreshed after a cold white winter.

It’s not just the weather that changes during this wonderful season. There are also lots of parks and mountains where the new flowers and all kinds of blossoms can be appreciated and admired. In China, the cherry blossom is in bloom during the first weeks of April as well as the pear blossoms that turn the country side into a multi-colored rainbow of colors.

Festivals in Spring Time

All the new colors, new flowers, milder weather get people thinking about what to do next. As an ESL teacher in China this is a very exciting time to be in the country. While the world-renowned Spring Festival actually takes place in winter, the first week of April brings about the first festival of spring which is the Tomb Sweeping Festival. One the fourth day of the fourth month, families gather and pay homage to their dearly departed and to their ancestors, street corners come to life with bright fires of people burning paper offerings to provide their loved ones with a better in life in the here after.

It is a great time to visit the mountains during this festival. China has hundreds of national parks and if you are a big fan of Ang Lee’s movies, the final scene of ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ was filmed near the hanging temple of Mount Can Yang Shan near Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province (if you would like to live and work in Shijiazhuang, just apply, they are currently looking for teachers).

To appreciate the beauty of spring, it’s not necessary to go outside the city, within the city limits parks are filled with people. Little children are running around, some are learning to ride a bike or even to take their first steps. Old gentlemen use large brushes to practice calligraphy on the bricks using water. With the heat, it quickly evaporates and they get to practice all over again. Some people will practice Tai Chi in the morning before going to work or have salsa lessons in the evening. All of this while surrounded by the old traditional charm of old bridges and blossoming trees.

Still Waiting?

Don’t just use your imagination to create a beautiful picture of all this in your head, you can experience this yourself while working and living in a fast growing city with a solid and well established EF school. Come and enjoy spring in China. Maybe by the time you are reading this article it’s not spring, but you’ll be coming to China for at least a year, so you’ll definitely have a chance to experience it!

Don’t speak Chinese….but I’m in China?

If you are reading this article, you are probably thinking about starting one of the most exciting experiences of your life: living and working abroad. What are the expectations for such an experience? Simple: try new food, make friends, immerse yourself in a new culture and learn a new language, just to mention a few. What would your reaction be if your new boss tells you: ‘Don’t speak the language’.

Taking this out of context, it does sound like a strange idea, but put that in the context of an ESL classroom and then, the rules of the game change completely. If you come all the way to China, Korea, Japan or Taiwan, learning the local language should be on your to-do list. The reasons to learn the local language of the country you’ll call home for a year or more will bring you endless advantages and opportunities, like making new friends, being able to order at local restaurants and have a more independent more culturally immersed life.

Since you are reading this, it means you may soon be a valuable member of the many academic teams Gold Star places around Asia. Say you will join the team of a well established school near Beijing and while your new Director of Studies has introduced you to the free on-line Chinese lessons and the in-school lessons (also free), at another training session you hear: Don’t speak Chinese. What?

No Chinese

The phrase “Don’t speak Chinese” is a phrase that you will hear often in ESL classrooms, but why? Well, simply put, ESL teachers want to encourage their students to communicate in English and to provide them with an English speaking atmosphere so they can get the most out of the couple of hours they spend in the classroom.

However, this has been at the center of arguments and disagreements across the board. Some argue that a three year old cannot effectively learn a second language without the instructor speaking in their first language, Chinese (also known as their L1). While some will argue that a three year old will learn faster if the instructor only uses the second language, English (also known as their L2). This debate can be the basis for many articles, the main point here is to remind you, the future ESL teacher, of the importance of delineating when and where the local language will have a role. To better illustrate, let’s have a look at an example.

How to Prepare Myself?

As you jumpstart your career in ESL, you will find yourself in a new country, China for example. Let’s take our well-established school near Beijing as the setting. Even before arriving, try learning some basic expressions, even if your pronunciation is wrong, the fact that you are trying will take you further than if you don’t know any words at all. At your school, after completing the initial training period, you will start attending on-line Chinese lessons as well as classes in school that will help you learn Chinese fast. After a couple of months, as you get to know your students better, you will also get used to some common classrooms expressions, before you know it, you are speaking in Chinese to your students!

If this was an article about the use of L1/L2 in the classroom then the debate would have started, but this is just to advise you. It is amazing that you can develop and acquire a second or third language so quickly, amazing, but use caution. Is using Chinese in the classroom helping at all to achieve your lesson aims? Are you blurring a professional and personal line here? Is the classroom the best and most appropriate place for you to be practicing our newly acquired language? Probably not, whenever in doubt, approach your Director of Studies and if you are really brave, go ahead and spark a debate with your new colleagues.

To conclude, learning the local language has several advantages and one of them is that you will be able to better understand your students, however, remember that you have a lesson with an aim, make sure that remains your highest priority and that the students can have as many opportunities to communicate in English as possible.

The Traditional Classroom Setting

EF provides students with state of the art classrooms. Comfortable chairs, big windows, heating, air conditioning, interactive whiteboards, cupboards, everything you need to create a fun and relaxing atmosphere for your students to learn. Classrooms are spacious enough to engage students in a vast array of fun and educational activities from “Run to the Flashcard” with young learners to debate clubs with the older and more able teens. In the classroom, students can engage in conversation about jobs, school, practice colors and numbers, allowing them to put into practice what they have learned from their textbooks.

Part of the content of every good textbook designed for the ESL classroom most likely will include a section on food and drinks. In the classroom, students will be happy to share ideas and talk about their favorite food, but what if you could enhance that experience and get them to actually try the food they are talking about? Would you bring a blender into the classroom? Well, that wouldn’t be necessarily safe, plus the classroom is not exactly designed for it, however, a great number of schools at EF have a classroom called: the ChEF Station.

The ChEF Station

The ChEF Station is an amazing multi-purpose room equipped with multimedia equipment, cooking gear (oven, microwave etc) and a working table where teachers can take their students’ learning experience even further!

Having a ChEF Station is a great tool for teachers. So, what can teachers do in a multi-purpose room like the ChEF Station? Like the name of the room suggests: ChEF Station, it’s an ideal place to combine the great fun of cooking and learning. Teachers can prepare lessons that revolve around preparing a dish or if the students are learning about tastes, then the teacher can prepare a lesson in which students actually taste different food items that they would have to describe using the target language.

An Example Lesson – Juice Club

A great example of how cooking and learning come together in the ChEF Station is a “Juice Club” held by EF Shijiazhuang’s DoS and his elementary level students back in January. Unit seven of the HF1A book (pre-A1 in the CEFR scale) students learn about fruits and to use formulaic expressions to express preference such as “What juice do you like?” “I like apple and kiwi juice”. After completing the workbook and plenty of practice in the classroom, the students spent one hour in the ChEF station letting everyone know what their favorite fruits are and making juice mixes with the help of their teacher. As a teacher, preparing this activity was very simple, all it required was getting the materials in advance, the school reimburses the teacher for any expenses incurred and then all is left is delivering an amazing lesson the students will definitely enjoy and have a chance to use the target language in a real life situation.

Cooking with English and Beyond

Since the ChEF station is after all a multi-purpose room, there is a lot more teachers can do other than cooking with the students. Around Easter, it’s a great place to dye eggs; it’s a great place for science experiments like a classic volcano made active with baking soda and lemon juice. With an excellent work surface, it’s also ideal for arts and crafts, learning about animals and what you can or can’t do at the zoo. Then go to the ChEF station and have students build their own zoos or complete cool animal themed puzzles.

While the success of a lesson will depend on the delivery, preparation and dedication of the teacher and countless other factors, having different kinds of classrooms definitely helps to add a great deal of variety and enhance the students’ learning experience at EF.