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dkreaper32
Joined: 26 Jan 2005
Posts: 2
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 Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 7:22 pm Post subject: Prep for teaching at NOVA |
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Hi there,
I am heading over to work for NOVA in early March and was wondering if there was anything I should do before I got there to help me prepare to teach? I just graduated from college last May, and am kind of nervous having never taught before. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks |
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worldwidealive
Joined: 03 Mar 2004
Posts: 84
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 2:40 am Post subject: |
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I wouldn't stress too much about it, DK. You will get a very quick and short "training" session that is quite lacking and you will be thrown to the wolves. However, after the first week or two you will wonder why you worried that much about it, because you'll be able to teach with Nova's methodology with little thought after a bit.
That said, some basic grammar review did and still does serve me well. Pick up a cheap grammar book from home to review now and to bring with you. That way, as your days pass at Nova, you can check it out after work to answer your own grammar questions. Soon you'll probably know more grammar than most of your supervisors. Although Nova doesn't focus at all on grammar, and the new books REALLY don't, students will still sometimes ask and appreciate if you can help them with their grammar questions.
Really, don't worry about much. If you want to be a good at what you do, just take it all in - watch other teachers, learn from your mistakes, and give yourself as much "on the job" education as you can.
I don't find Nova to be as miserable as so many do, nor is it a wonderful company. It is what it is. I try to go to work and do the best I can, because in spite of where Nova comes up short, I owe that much to myself and to the students paying a large amount of cash to be there. Good luck and enjoy Japan!
WWA |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 3:13 am Post subject: Re: Prep for teaching at NOVA |
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| dkreaper32 wrote: |
Hi there,
I am heading over to work for NOVA in early March and was wondering if there was anything I should do before I got there to help me prepare to teach? I just graduated from college last May, and am kind of nervous having never taught before. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks |
working at NOVA is not so much about teaching as providing a student an opportunity to sit in a room and hear and native English and have English come out of their mouths, which they dont get after 6 years of high school. What you do is provide input, content and a native speaker sounding board for them. the school is paying you for your foreign-ness and your native accent, not for your teaching ability and your knowledge (or lack of) knowledge of grammar. they are not paying you for your grammar skills, which most native speakers know little or nothing about. You know how to speak English and thats about it.
Like the poster above says, you will get some initial training in how to use the text book, how to get students asking and answering questions and the texts are designed so the book is as teacher-friendly as possible. You may have short dialogs with a particulat grammar point for the lesson, and the students will practice with each other and with the teacher. What you really do is help them with their pronunciation, serve as a sounding board and get them talking. By your physical presence students will be motivated to speak English and by and large you wont use or need Japanese in the lesson. NOVA uses Streamline and Qwest which i have never used, but after a month you will know the lessons backwards.
My advice is probably to pick up some books about basic language teaching techniques and theory of language learning, as what often happens is teachers teach themselves on the job, re-invent the wheel when teaching English. Knowing a few techniques will take the edge of the routine and give you some variety. Avoid speaking too much in the lesson as you will be teaching 6 or 7 classes a day and your voice will get tired by the end of the day. The teacher should talk no more than 10% of the lesson and there are ways to get students doing most of the talking. Stream line emphasises pattern drills and repetition after the teacher which I would try and avoid. You will learn what to do in your training and you can also ask other teachers what they do in their lessons.
PS NOVA doesnt refer to its own students as students buy as "customers" buying a product. Essentially NOVA is a business, language and English conversation is the product they are selling and you are the salesman that sells the student on why they should study English (not the hard sell in the literal sense but the soft sell of getting students to come back for more lessons because you are interesting, American, young etc) . Actually teaching ability has litttle to do with it, but more the image of how you 'sell' speaking English and communicatin with foreigners. |
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dkreaper32
Joined: 26 Jan 2005
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 4:51 am Post subject: |
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| Thanks for getting back to me, both your responses were extremely insightful and helpful, and I really appreciate it. I'll take it all in as it comes along. |
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