16 july 06

Greetings,

We've completed week 2 of the TEFL course. We focused on grammer - the big "G" or the set of internal rules governing the use of language - and all it's offspring; word classes, simple and complex sentence structure, verb tense and time, modals, phrasals, voices, aspects and conditionals.

We also studied and designed sample language analysis, interactive communicative activities and content-based teaching techniques.

We wrote lesson plans and taught 1-1. My student, Saundra 50, spoke very little English. She practiced saying her name using simple greetings, using simple verbs, counting to ten, identifying simple objects; apple, water, banana.

We have many tasks the next two weeks. The primary focus is writing lesson plans, preparing realia and materials, teaching groups, updating our teaching portfolio and filing observation reports on fellow trainees.

We'll teach children ranging from 9-13. We work in teams with various topics; hobbies, family, holidays, weather, and plans/dreams.

Our team rotates through four lesson models with a teacher focusing on a single aspect for their lesson plan to fit the topic: Core dialouge and vocabulary expansion, Reading and Speech (including skits), Listening or Song & Chant, and Communicative Games.

We are busy and totally engaged. Student/teachers are researching potential job prospects, filing resumes on-line and discussing China travel plans after finishing on the 28th.

Peace.