How to Teach English Online to Chinese Students
China has a huge demand for online English tutors. But how do you teach English online to Chinese students? Carry on reading to find out.
Factor in the Time Difference:
When teaching English online to Chinese students you definitely need to factor in the time difference. Depending on where you live in the world, you might be expected to work mornings, evenings, and even weekends. Chinese students tend to study English online as an extra-curricular activity, so you’ll need to be flexible with your schedule! However, as most companies have a minimum teaching requirement of 10 hours per week, you’ll still have plenty of time to yourself – yes please!
Create Your Virtual Classroom:
To kickstart your career teaching English online to Chinese students, you’ll need to create a virtual classroom. Whether it’s the corner of your flat or your parent’s spare bedroom, it’s important to have a dedicated workspace. You’ll usually be teaching young learners, so you’ll need backdrops, props, and a strong internet connection. Teaching online can be pretty tricky so try and avoid as many distractions as possible especially when teaching children. Younger students tend to have short attention spans so make sure your virtual classroom is fun, welcoming, and exciting.
Most online teachers experience technical issues during their lessons so don’t be put off if you’re ever in a similar position! To avoid the oncoming stress fest, make sure that you have a backup device that you can stream your lessons from. Not only will this save you from panicking, but it will also prove to parents that you’re a reliable teacher.
Plan Your Lessons:
Like with any online English lesson, planning is key when teaching Chinese students. Although some online teaching platforms provide you with pre-made lesson plans, not all companies do. So, it’s worth having a couple of trustworthy lessons up your sleeve to fall back on in case of an emergency. These can be pretty short and easy to adapt to your individual students’ needs – amazing! The majority of your students will be young learners so make sure your activities are short, interactive, and engaging. For a 20-minute lesson, you should aim to get through 3-4 activities. This can include songs, games, and learning tongue twisters. To benchmark how long your activities should be, why not use a timer on your phone? This will help indicate when it’s time to move on to the next part of your lesson.
Memorising is an integral part of Chinese teaching methods so try and use props and flashcards where possible to teach vocabulary. Not only will these help with repetition, but they’ll also help with pronunciation. This is super important as Chinese and English phonetic systems are completely different, so you want to teach your students correct pronunciation from a young age.
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