The Most Important Skill in TEFL Teaching

“One book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world” Teachers influence the lives of students much more significantly than we imagine. A teacher with the right skills inspires and influences entire student lives. They are instruments who can ignite powerful thoughts in students, helping them unleash their true potential.

This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Oleksandr U. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.

The Essence of Teaching

Teaching is an incredibly rewarding thing to do and good teachers are needed everywhere: in schools and college classrooms to educate the young, as well as in the workplace and other settings to teach adults and colleagues.

Downsides of Teaching

However, teaching anyone can also be tiring, stressful and demanding. It is a responsibility and any slip up is very visible. People's minds and motivation vary a great deal and teachers have to find many different ways to connect with their students.

To bring about such long-standing impacts, teachers need to have certain teaching skills. Let’s take a look at them.

Also Read: Teaching EFL in a Kindergarten - What Is It Like?

Classroom Regulation

The first one is discipline. It is an important skill that you should possess a teacher to be labeled as effective. A vital component of effective classroom management, your discipline ensures that positive behavior is encouraged inside classrooms.

Unlike common belief, discipline is not about punishing students. Rather, it is a way to manage and guide students. Discipline is directly affected by the kind of relationship you have with your students.

The most important discipline skills you can have includes being respectful, responding to students, and reciprocating their interest. A teacher should be skilled in setting an effective routine with the right amount of flexibility. As you might be already aware, proper communication and relationship building is very important skills as well.

Also Read: How to Implement TEFL if You're a Non-native Teacher

Classroom Organization

The next one is classroom management skills. As a teacher, by ensuring the good behavior of students, the battle is half won. But to be an effective teacher, you should also be able to help students develop study and work habits. Good classroom management skills start with setting certain ground rules to stress the importance of classroom dignity. Teachers should exercise patience along with a deep sense of care and kindness towards their wards. You as an empathetic teacher will win over the hearts of your students by demonstrating sensitivity, especially during student rifts.

Rapport Building

Better student-teacher relationships emerge when you demonstrate a willingness to lend an ear to the problems faced by your students. Teachers need to establish a good rapport with students so that a positive, productive and safe learning environment is created in classrooms.

Tagged as a noble profession that can change the lives of students for the better, every effective teacher requires good inter-personal skills along with effective speaking and strong presentation skills. Teaching skills include all of these and more… such as great organizational skills. Teachers should be well-prepared for their lectures ensuring that they carry all the material that aids in teaching, to the class. You should have a penchant for working in groups.

Along with motivational skills that will keep the fire burning in the bellies of students, an effective teacher should rank high on empathy and rapport-building strategies.

Also Read: 5 Questions about English for Specific Purposes

Feedback

Giving timely feedback about the behavior and performance of your wards are also part of effective teaching skills.

It is easy to get carried away by so many different aspects of teaching. But you only have limited classroom time.

Alongside ensuring that the curriculum is completed within the pre-defined time frame, you should also attach importance to the time taken by students to complete their assignments. You should follow a strategy to organize your working day around educational and non-teaching priorities.

Other Thoughts

An effective teacher, to offer repetitive practice to students, should strategically plan homework tasks. You can ensure the best use of classroom time by framing and structuring assignments which will help students sit for studies while at home.

Effective time management skills are vital for providing quality education to students while also meeting the specific learning needs of each student.

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To be an effective teacher, everyone should be able to motivate and support students so that they are well-equipped to deal with any challenges life throws at them both academically and otherwise. With all the above skills in place, everyone will invariably take on the title of an effective teacher who inspires students in more ways than one.

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