Teaching Conversational English

Today I had the great pleasure of teaching my first conversational English class. Here in the Philippines the ability to speak in English is a necessity if you want to market yourself for employment, especially for the women enrolled in our Job Readiness Program. When I recognized this need I offered to teach a conversational English class at the center once a week and conduct individual tutoring sessions as needed.

I expected only a handful of clients to attend the class but was surprised to find that I had nine students staring back at me at the top of the hour. I started the lesson by explaining that in my class we would only speak in English and all of the women responded by grumbling and wailing dramatically. I just laughed, telling them I believed this was the most effective way for them to learn.  I encouraged the students to write down any vocabulary they heard but didn’t recognize and promised that we would define the words at the end of the class. 

We started by practicing the past tense. I asked each student to stand and share what they did over the previous weekend. As they shared I wrote the corrections on the board and they all diligently took notes. We paused often for questions and I quickly learned that offering examples rather than explanations made my job much easier. 

For homework I assigned the students to complete a personal introduction that includes their name, age, where they’re from, family information, any previous studies or job experience, hobbies, interests and aspirations for the future. Next week the students will present their introductions and in time we will begin to expand them further into greater detail. 

By the end of the hour I was shocked to see that we had already run out of time. I never imagined that I would be teaching English but I was pleased with myself and surprised at how easy it was. I’m excited about the prospect of creating lesson plans every week and watching our clients grow in their English language abilities. Teaching also provides a great outlet for me to share some of the American culture, which will hopefully provide an opportunity for growth and understanding from both sides of the classroom. You can call me Professor Kent from now on.