Teaching with Limited Resources

As with any new job, teaching English will take some getting used to.

If you're planning to travel abroad then you can expect the teaching environment to be completely different from that which you yourself were brought up in. Within minutes of entering a Weekend TEFL classroom students have been shown that the teaching techniques they are going to be taught will revolve almost entirely around making lessons fun and keeping students interested. This is so different from most "usual" teaching environments that you may wonder if it will really work, but I assure you, it will!

If you think back to your own school-life, your favourite teacher was the one who made lessons fun, not the one who tried to pack everything into one lesson and certainly not the one who flashed the latest technology (but probably never let you touch it). When you're working in an environment without the usual resources or teaching aides making lessons fun is all the more important. Should you choose an i-to-i TEFL course, be it weekend or online, you will be taught just that - how to make lessons fun with the minimum of resources (and even how to make your own teaching aides for minimal expense).

Just what resources will be available to you depends on where you want to teach. If you're planning to travel to an economically successful country such as France then you're likely to have the latest gadgets and as many photocopies as you like, but if you're travelling to a developing country, like Africa, it's a very different story. The vast majority of TEFL tutors would argue that teaching in these developing countries is all the more rewarding because they cannot afford even basic resources.

The fact is that when it comes to teaching English all you really need are willing students. With a bit of creativity and a lot of imagination you can make your own resources or you can even encourage your students to make your resources for you. This is a great way to get students involved in the lesson and it will save you a bit of time in the evenings as well.