Benjamin Ellinor

My experience in teaching English is unfortunately limited to my time studying at the Maximo Nível Language Institute in Antigua, Guatemala. I taught English for 1 week, including 6 hours to non-English speakers and class obvservation for a total of 10 hours. The class size I taught was 11 students aged 16-28, who were majority Guatemalan students. Their level was high basic II and I tended to a humanistic teaching style with a sizeable focus on student talk time and a light atmosphere. The class was in person and I used a mix of the teaching material supplied by the institute and my own crafted material. During the week, I taught about comparative and superlative adjectives; morning routine vocabulary; and adverbs of frequency. Whilst I was incredibly nervous at first, I definitely grew into the role after a day or two and really cherished the experience!


I want to be a tutor because I enjoy conversing with people and seeing them learn. Especially, English is such a key part of today's world and knowledge of it is huge for students from non-western countries, so being the one to impart this knowledge is, I think, really a gift. Regarding student involvement, I believe intriguing activities are the best way to keep them engaged. For example, if one week I used a role play activity to check the students' understanding of phrasal verbs towards the end of the lesson, the next week I might have the students read an article and then write their own about, say, modal verbs, just to keep things interesting. Of course it would be remiss of me not to mention body language as a teacher, which should always be positive, engaging and respectful. This means always listening to the students and showing you care what they think about the lesson or topic. Equally, feedback is important as a teacher and so by listening intently to what the class/student feels, the teacher's lessons can be improved via such feedback. A bright and bubbly personality then would go hand in hand with maximising student achievement and intake, as the best way to learn is always by having fun and not overloading on pressure.