What skills should an English teacher have?

[jfranco]

I posted a thread before, but was a little too vague. This time, I'm looking for something slightly different. I'm currently studying Mandarin Chinese and am living in the United States. I am employed as a technical writer for a corporation. I already have a Bachelor's degree and am interested at some point in teaching English in China.

I am wondering, beyond a degree, what skills are useful/helpful. Does anyone have any suggestions on skills that should be developed, strengthened, or acquired prior to teaching English in China? Any suggestions are appreciated.

[wix]

In short you need a variety of skills to teach English -- good language awareness, classroom management, lesson planning, a good repertoire of games and activities, etc. If you are really serious about acquiring some of these skills then I suggest doing a TEFL certificate course. Although they do require you to spend a lot of time and money they are worth it.

For a basic rundown on TEFL courses have a look at http://www.geocities.com/wix99/teachtaiwan.html#tefl

[roddy]

Agreed. Even if you can't take the course, get hold of the reading list for one and work your way through it.

[mlomker]

The CELTA seems to have the best name recognition. I'd strongly recommend that you do some reading on Dave's ESL Cafe as it's the best place on the `net for this topic, imo.

[wushijiao]

I took the CELTA, and would highly recommend it. You learn quite a bit about EFL and language acquisition, but more importantly, you get critiqued classroom experience. When teaching, if students don’t think your classes are effective, unfortunately, few students have the ability to give you useful constructive criticism. Students know that something is wrong, but they don’t have the knowledge yet to tell you how to improve. Having knowledgeable educational experts give you advice, and teach you how to critique yourself, is a valuable experience.

Otherwise, I agree with the skills that wix has already suggested.

[Harry]

Hi folks

I WILL try to be non commercial (Moderator please note) but to give Kosher advise I need to stray into recommendations---OK?.

CELTA is actually very 'In Depth" English at a high academic standard and in this country [Australia] expensive even on WWW.. TESOL (Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages. TEFL in Europe and UK) is about Conversational English runs at about half the price (sorry said this could get commercial) in AUD TESOL is around $1500AUD against CELTA at $3500AUD and CELTA needs four weeks full time classroom physical presence.

TESOL can be done "On Line". I did mine with 80hrs of www and 40hrs of classroom. I know my providor who is CITA (Commission for International and Transregional Accreditation, USA) accredited can cater for overseas students and gives RPL (Recognition for Prior Learning). Want more info?? Mail me............I dont want moderators banning me!!!! I travel the world on TESOL from an Aussie providor who is web based.