Heya all!

I'm what one would call a newbie to these forums, so please forgive me if something like this has been asked before (a quick skim of the forum posts suggested otherwise but I could be wrong!).

I've only recently booked myself onto the 140-hr TEFL course just the other day, having recently graduated in July. But prior to that, I'd submitted an online application to Interac and things have gone well so far, meaning I've now got an interview in Oxford this Thursday.

Is there any advice anybody who has gone through the interview process can give me? I just want to do the best I can considering you normally only get one shot at it! I don't know any Japanese but a couple of friends have given me a list of Japanese phrases to learn for the 1 minute introduction (not exhaustive, but hopefully enough) which I hope will put me in good stead. I was a bit nervous about the imaginary 'teach' but, after speaking to the recruiter, think I have a good couple of games to engage the imaginary kids in.

Also, any advice about the difficulty of the grammar test would be welcome. I'm sure I should be at least decent on it but I say that with the caveat that it doesn't always pay to be overly-confident! 

Thanks everyone!

Taz

P.S. This may be a long shot, but is anyone making the interview this Thursday in Oxford?

dont panic and dont worry.

when i had mine there should have been 13 people...only me and one guy turned up...that guy didnt read the whole email and didnt realise he had to chose a topic/age group to do the imaginary teaching... lets just say, because he wasnt prepared, he didnt get the job!

So thats another bit advice...be prepared.

My game was color - i went through the hassel of printing off flash cards... when asked why did i go through all the hassel i replied that im treating as the real thing and this is what i'd do because flash cards are very useful (so use flash cards)

My game was "find something that is..." - this was tricky... but i basically placed a few things off camera...i did a brief "repeat after me" with the flash cards and then said "Lets try"... "I want you to look around the classroom and find something that is blue and bring it too me" (yes i was doing all the hand actions to go with it...gestures help)... i would then go slightly off camera and say "thank you... wow... good job... this is a bottle, its a blue bottle"

You get the idea... the idea is to give a glimpse of your teaching style, show that you can prepare, show you are serious about the job and that you can let yourself go.

When i did it, it was me, the camera and the interview person.

You have a personality test (you cant fail)... and the grammar test is easy.

BTW - you will be asked WHY you want to go to japan - think carefully about this... dont say "I like anime, i read manga etc"... this wont get you the job...remember your main priority is teaching (at least thats what they want to hear), also mixing with the community, being part of the school, learning about japanese culture etc...

they will also ask what level and location - be sure not to limit yourself too much but also to be honest... Saying "i want to be in Tokyo" will probably not get you the job!

good luck

Thanks a lot for your reply! There were some really useful gems of wisdom you put in there! I couldn't find flash cards at my local supermarket (it's a big supermarket too!) but I did get some sticky notes that I will be able to use for my activity. I'm glad the tests aren't too bad too! 

Hopefully it'll go okay, I also need to practice some basic Japanese for it to be able to impress them a bit and show them I'm dedicated! I have 4 out of 6 phrases down...just things like introducing myself and saying my age! It's tough stuff, but lots of fun! 

Did you speak any Japanese for your interview - did you know some from before or did you just learn it before the interview?

Thanks again!

really now - you went to the supermarket... have you ever heard of a PC, printer and paper... MAKE YOUR OWN.

I used A4 flash cards (basically i downloaded pictures, used microsoft words, wrote them out and printed them off) - if you want to be super cool - laminated them

i think you are thinking of study cards - the ones the size of playing cards - but even if you wanted to use those kind, you just buy some card and cut to shape

as for speaking japanese - nope!

i attempted rosetta stone but only after i got the jon...even now im too lazy to study BUT you pick it up when youre out here

the only thing you need to know is Hello, nice to meet you... my name is______. I'm from _________. I'm ______ years old. It was nice meeting you.

Konnichiwa

Hajimemashite

Watashi no namae wa ________ desu

igirisu-jin desu / Igarisu shusshin desu (I'm british / im from the UK)

ni-ju-go sai desu (im 25 years old)

yoroshiku onigaishimasu

(make sure you check pronunciation because its different to english letters - example Desu = DESS... ni-ju-go sai desu = Knee - JEW - GO - SIGH - DESS)

Ahahaha, you got me there! I am now taking your suggestion to heart and using printed flash cards - thanks for the hint! Now I just need to practice doing it to the time limit, which I've left quite late I feel :S. Hopefully time shouldn't be a huge issue....one would hope!

I have a couple of friends who've been helping me with it, so I have a few phrases under my belt (the basics, but hope it'll go far!). 

Maaaan I am nervous and excited at the same time for this interview. Here's hoping nothing untoward will happen!!

Thanks again for all your help mate - you're a life saver!

Remember its an interview but dont treat it as one - if that makes sense

just relax and enjoy it, when i went it was more of a seminar on interac and japan and a means of answering some of the many questions you have.

They will be watching to see how well you can take instructions, listen to others, know when to speak up (just remember in japan they dont like people who have strong opinions, so be thoughtful of what you say!)

dont over think it though... that can get you more in a pickle... as for the timing - i generally did an over view of a lesson...

i did a morning greeting "Ok class, please stand up...Good morning class" (paused a waited for an imaginary responce) "and how are you?" (paused) "Me? I'm fine, too. Thank you for asking. now please sit down. Ok, so today we will learn colours. Do you remember any? Last week we learnt 4 colour! What are they...yes! That's right! Good job! Red...Everyone please say red"...then i break character and state after saying 4 colour i will then introduce 4 more and we drill - i demonstrate drilling - then we play a game "activity"...

for me i just stated that i will do a game and explained it - my time was up but the interviewer was like "oh no, this is good but i want to see the game...dont worry about time...lets play the game" - i was crapping myself because i had an idea of how to do the game but i hadnt rehearse doing it...BUT as teachers we are suppose to work under presure and think on the spot...

lets just say i had a little more help then the other person because i had shown an interest in not only japan but also the company (check out their website because it has culture stuff and FAQs too, which will help you look less stupid if you ask a question thats already on the sight) - one of the things i did was say "oh, when i looked on your site, it said_______... could you explain that in a little more detail"... little things like this help

good luck...let us know how it goes!

when is your interview again?

That, again, is pretty sound advice. Yeah I'm trying not to overthink it, but at the moment I'm just sorting out the details of my game. I've picked option 2 and I'm trying to make it work by demonstrating it without copying the demo lesson too much. My warm up activity is going to be charades, where I just mime out objects and ask the students to guess what the word is. But it's a good thing I got the time to rehearse now because it's good practice for the real thing.

Yeah I'll have a read of the website too, just so I can seem clued up on the company (which they always rate quite highly). 

My interview is tomorrow morning until the afternoon, presumably. I will let you know how it goes, cheers! Either way, it's all good experience :) thanks again for all your help!

How did your interview go?  Mine is Saturday and I am so nervous.  I have not had much time to prepare due to my current job forcing me to work overtime.  Oh well guess I need to get  used to working under pressure and without alot of  preparation time.

Sorry to hijack this thread a bit but I am alittle confused by the instructions.  For the final part are we suppose to choose one topic, such as a shopping conversation.  Are we suppose to take one of those and make an activity on it or create our own situation?

Generally you take one of them and make your own activity - if memory serves me well it tells you the level etc

When doing this my advice would be to pretend its a second lesson, so either expanding or a review...but be prepared to explain how you would introduce it.

For example - say in the last lesson you taught items - review the items... in this lesson you teach a model dialog and then get them to practice it using the items from the previous lesson... depending on the level depends on the items you chose and the dialog you practice - the aim of this is to see whether you have done your research in to the level of the students, understood the assignment and to see what style you will bring...

for my interview i chose an elementary color class - even though i requested high school level - they asked why i did this and my answer was to show that even though my preference is high school, i am also able to teach other levels

good luck!!!

Thanks again for the advice.  I think they may have changed the formart since in the email I recevied, they added this option.  TASK FOUR (3 minutes)
Choose one of the three options from the VideoGuidelinesOptions.pdf file attached. Prepare an activity for your students and demonstrate it for them. Make sure you drill the required vocabulary. Be sure to model, NOT explain your activity.  So, it seems as if I do have to use one of their options for the 3 minute demo.  Well I am now just preparing a way to do a lesson on shopping dialog.  it does not seem to bad.

Really sorry I haven't replied to this thread since - been spoilt by Facebook when thinking I'm going to be notified by e-mail of posts and such....should check back here more often!!! 

But I've replied in your other thread, icedout :) so not much to say here except Paul is great!!!