Some tips on interviews and demo lessons and resources to find a new job.

Interview Tips

Everyone gets nervous when going for an interview, and if you don’t have much experience then having to give a demo lesson can be daunting.

Aside from all the usual stuff about preparing for interviews getting ready for the demo lesson (if you have to give one) should probably take up most of your time.

The demo lesson

Of course you need to consider your audience first and foremost. If you are teaching at a regular junior or senior high school etc then you need to think about the likely level of the students, their level of worldy experience and what turns them on or off (difficult in my experience – teaching moody teens is the biggest challange I’ve ever faced!)

Adults are often easier to manage as they have more motivation (they’re probably paying for it, unless its a company class in which case it could go either way!), and more worldly experience and can see the point of studying – they have real world goals with real reasons to get there unlike kids who are probably just studying to pass a test.

The best way I’ve found to approach a demo lesson, which by its nature is gonna be short, is to have a variety of prepared material focused on different levels which is all related and can be integrated easily on the fly.

A kids demo lesson

For example for kids I would prepare a couple of word games with simple rules which are easily understood and cause excitement.

Some ideas are:

  • Elicit / introduce some new vocab with flash cards (e.g. some adjectives: strong, tall, fat, thin)
  • Integrate that into a grammar structure the students are already likely to know (e.g. “The ____ man is eating a cake)
  • Get the students to make up their own sentences using a simple replacement drill.
  • Reinforce with a game like bingo to practise listening and spelling.
  • OR play a game like Grab where students get into two teams and line up opposite each other. You put a toy between them and write the target structure on the board. When you shout a word they try to grab the toy, and the one who dosen’t get it has to say the sentence with the word you shouted. You can give points or deduct for correct or incorrect answers etc.

An adults demo lesson

Adults tend to sometimes be more shy about making mistakes so try to be more encouraging.

An example adults demo lesson may go something like this:

  • Quick warm up activity, get everyone ask each other basic questions to get introductions going.
  • Introduce a picture and elicit as much language from them as possible to describe the picture and situation.
  • A good example is to use one with two people in a situation (e.g. buying something, at work etc). Then introduce the target language (could be a snippit of conversation related to that situation like how much is it/are they and common purchasing phrases (I’ll take it, no thanks, etc).
  • Try and elicit the conversation flow, write it on the board and add in vocab and corrections.
  • Get the students to practice together and encourage them to add in their own vocab and extended the conversation.
  • Change pairs.
  • Give feedback on errors.

Timing

Timing is another important part of a lesson, especially a demo where you have to impress quickly and stay on time as more than likely there’ll be a few more people to see.

In my experience as an interviewer I’ve been bored to tears time and again by hopefuls who’ve spent too long on one part and have never even gone near the meat of a lesson before I’ve had to say “stop” and “don’t call us…”.

Before the interview run through the demo a several times with a friend and nail the timing down. Try to give the most time to the part where students are talking followed by language input and then feedback.

After all, they’re paying for the lesson and want to have a chance to speak. If all you demonstrate is that you’re a windbag then probably your students are gonna get unhappy and not come back. No employer wants that.

That’s about all the advice I have to now.

Good luck and remember – be confident and enjoy it!

Here are some recommended links to good TEFL job sites.

TEFL.net

TEFL.com

Edufind