TESOL Certificate, Part 1: Teach English Now!

Specialization
Arizona State University

Week 01
Lesson 3: Summary and Essential Question – Peer-graded assignment

Anyone who speaks the language can teach the language

Hello everyone! It’s a pleasure to meet you all. My name is Binoy, and usually go by the nick name Bee. Today, I’ll be
sharing with you what my opinion is, on the essential question, “Anyone who speaks the language can teach the
language”, my opinion on that statement whether I agree or disagree with it and the reasons to justify my opinion.
First off, I thank all of you in advance for taking your time to review my assignment, and here we go!

Anyone who speaks the language, can teach the language. Well, is that possible? In my point of view, I disagree to
this essential question, assuming it is similar as the statement, “everyone who has a garden are good farmers.” If a
person knows a language, it won’t mean that the person will surely be a great teacher because the skills requires to
speak a language are not necessarily the same when it comes to teaching a language. There are a lot of techniques
and methods involved in teaching a language which the person, proficient in the language, may not know. There is
an aspect of training and development which is crucial to teach a language, where a fine balance between the
content and technique must be struck which comes to an educator with training, practice and experience. To be a
successful teacher, one must consider students’ needs, both as class and individuals. It includes an understanding of
why they want to learn language as well as awareness of their learning strengths and weaknesses.

Maintaining a good balance between content and technique and working within the zone of proximal development,
is important for teachers. Presenting the content in an effective way will boost student learning. Introducing content
that is challenging is much better as intrinsic motivation arises at that point. Overwhelming and too elementary
material will get students to be offended and bored, while too complicated material will get students to feel lost.
Training in technique is mandatory. A teacher should have good body language techniques as it helps communicate
information. Teacher talk and scaffolding are two other valuable techniques. Teacher talk includes repetition,
reduced grammatical forms, simplified vocabulary, signpost expressions, common cultural references, elaboration
and clarification of questions. Scaffolding is creating opportunities for students to learn step by step where the
teacher provides a module, then moved on to offer guided practice and lastly get the children to work
independently.

By the above study, it is clear that teaching a language is not an easy task but instead a complicated process that
involves not only a knowledge in course material but also a strong and insightful relationship with the students along
with a solid understanding of teaching techniques.