The English language is officially big business. There could be as many
as a billion students learning English around the world at this time and
that is reason enough to consider moving into Teaching English as a Foreign
Language (TEFL). However, when you combine this with the freedom the job gives you to move around the world and earn your keep, the case for TEFL gets even stronger.
While English speakers move out to different lands, students of English migrate to other parts of the globe in search of a better life and new horizons.
Teaching English is something people do when they are ready to change their
lives and this book gives you some of the basic tools you need to make that
happen.
Most people who speak the language well can teach others to some degree.
We do it all the time with children and with foreign friends. We explain words and concepts to each other on a daily basis. TEFL is an extension of what
we do naturally and this book helps you zoom in on your language skills and structure them. People often surprise themselves by discovering that even without attending months and years of language study, they can teach. You are probably no different.
Throughout this book I use a few conventions which you need to know about
up front:
✓ I use the words student and learner interchangeably.
✓ Presentation, Practice and Production written with capital Ps refer to
specific stages of a lesson, not general concepts.
✓ English refers to whatever is normal in most English speaking countries
not just England. There are so many countries where English is an official language that I have chosen to keep it simple in this way.
✓ Web addresses appear in the book in monofont type, so they stand out.
✓ Sidebars – boxed text on a grey background – are chunks of material
which you might find useful as background knowledge, or as enhancements to the techniques you read about in the main text. Fun and helpful, but not essential reading: skip them if you want.
