10 February 2015 / by Radmila Gurkova

ESL teaching through the eyes of Cynthia Amuneke from Nigeria

My name is Cynthia Chinonso Amuneke. I am 29 years old, Nigerian by birth and a public relations officer by profession. I love meeting with people and relating with them in different circumstances and situations and also see how I can be of use to them and the organization I work for. I have also had teaching experience when I freshly graduated from the university and was waiting for my results and my call up for national youth service. I developed my passion for teaching during this period of teaching primary school students, I had the satisfaction and pleasure of transmitting knowledge and satisfying their curiosities about nature and environment in social studies. I really enjoyed the experience.

I admire organizations and foundations who inspire and fund the education of children in Africa, their impact on so many young lives cannot be over stated. I feel that education is the key to the development of a nation, a major means of eradicating poverty and creating equality of all nations. Hopefully in the nearest future I would like to co-found a non governmental organisation that will build schools for free and quality education for girls in my country.

Teaching English for me is all about helping individual learners understand the language and putting it into functional use, this can be achieved by using the communicative approach where students are encouraged to talk to learn not learn to talk. There is no use of learning a language where one cannot use it to express basic ideas and feelings without inhibitions.

Cynthia Amuneke: In my opinion children should be exposed to the language from their kindergarten ages and teachers are to become bilingual so that the use of native language is reduced in schools.

C.A.: ESL teaching in my country is different from that of Spain in the sense that we are taught to use the language from an early stage, everything we are being taught is in English and the use of native tongue is restricted in schools, L1 is only used by teachers in few cases when trying to check for comprehension or when students give ideas in L1 then the teacher reformulate in English language. In fact one is considered a good student if he can speak and write the language very well in class.

C.A.: One of the biggest challenges of a teacher is knowing what to teach and how to make sure that the lesson is well transmitted in class and understood by students. I would overcome this by making a lesson plan that corresponds to the level am teaching and their age group. With the age and level factors in mind I would include topics, vocabulary and structure activities that will interest and engage them in class.

C.A.: As a professional teacher, one should be grounded in different methodologies and approaches in teaching and know when to apply them in English language teaching. A good teacher should also identify the individual needs and goals of students and their different learning styles in order to prepare very well for each lesson and achieve good learning outcome. A professional teacher should be passionate about teaching and help motivate students by being patient, knowledgeable, empathetic, a guide, play maker and a good conversationalist.

Schools on the other hand should provide good environment for learning to be conducive, employ qualified teachers, provide books and other materials necessary for learning and setting rules and regulations governing the school which may include the use of native languages or not, types of sanctions given to students for bad conducts and rewards given to the good ones.

C.A.: A memorable experience for me in my ESL teaching was in my last class of my teaching practice at OxbridgeTEFL. Usually I struggled with my low level classes and also a bit with pre-intermediate students. On my very last class I had a pre-intermediate student who started to make use of the target languages I taught before the end of the class, I took time to explain each and everyone of them and talked in slow pace which my supervisors always corrected me on. To my surprise she began to ask me questions with them when we were having another activity and she used them so freely and naturally although it was her first time of encountering those words and phrases. After the class I was so fulfilled and happy to have transmitted knowledge which was understood and put into use and I hope all my classes will improve especially with beginners.

C.A.: I advice new teachers and those who have the interest of becoming ESL teachers to always be confident and try to be knowledgeable in whatever you are going to for each class and prepare your lessons very well. When in class try to identify with each and every student and try to carry everyone along. Finally at the end of each class check for comprehension to know if the lesson was understood or not.

OxTEFL: Best of luck in your ESL career!

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