CIACI VIP ENGLISH Now Online - Study English Anywhere

We at CIACI VIP ENGLISH are very proud to announce that we have completed our English course program with an online learning platform. It is now easy to study with a Native Speaker via live chat no matter where you live and at any time you want. Whatever suits you and your schedule. Please check out our newly established online platform. http://ciacivipenglish.wixsite.com/bandung/online-courses . 

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New Projects

CIACI VIP ENGLISH is always dedicated to new ideas and strategies for success. We are now planning and developing totally new workshops for both private and public groups. We hope that we can invite companies from both Bandung and outside of Bandung as well to stay in a luxurious Hotel for 4 awesome days of super intense total English empowerment. We believe that empowerment is absolutely vital to our learners' success in that they can continue to learn and develop themselves through applying what they learned during our workshops. If you are interested in learning more, please never hesitate to contact us. You can get information about our programs by visiting our website at http://ciacivipenglish.wix.com/bandung .

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How to Teach Teenagers for the EFL Teacher

Ice Cold

The first day of a new class is always a challenging one in that you the teacher do not know the students and the students do not know you. Please do not think that you are just going to waltz in there with all your charm and infinite wisdom and instantly win them over. The class clowns are ready to throw tomatoes and crack wise jokes and probably in a language unfamiliar to you. The quiet ones will be more quiet than ever with poker faces of steel. Yet in still there is light at the end of the tunnel due to the fact that you the teacher are not the only nervous one in the room. In fact, the students just might be more nervous than you and this can definitely be taken advantage of. At the end of the day, your students look to you for guidance and knowledge. You may feel like a clown, but in their minds, you are the all knowing English language expert.

Use your Sweat

If you are anything like me, you tend to sweat whenever standing in front of people. If this is the case, then you should use it the way I do. Own that sweat darn it and turn an otherwise nervous and tense situation into a fun and cool one, no pun intended. When the sweat is rolling down your face like a small stream and your shirt is soaked like you just took a bath and used it as a towel, it is the perfect time to crack a joke about how cold it is in the room or at least make a shivering gesture like you are stuck in Antarctica in the middle of the snow. Of course your temperature is more likely to be a billion degrees. That is beyond the point as you calm yourself down by making fun of yourself. Unless it actually is a billion degrees in the classroom, this harmless attempt to make the students chuckle should do the trick. Remember to repeat this joke over and over again as the class goes on, and just when the students start completing your sentences or copying your gestures, switch it up on them and make a comment about how hot it is.

Now it's time to earn that sweat of yours. Don't be afraid to get out there way on a limb with the latest dance moves, funny faces, screams, and rambunctiously scurry about like a mad man. Remember teaching in the EFL classroom is just as much about entertainment as it is about learning. The students will appreciate you for your efforts no doubt.

Lay Down the Rules 

Let them know who the boss is straight away. Do not be afraid to come up with a list of rules for your classroom. An established set of rules helps the students to correct one another. Do not assume that their previous teachers have done this. Besides, Your rules for class management may be slightly or drastically different from the rules the students are used to. Try to make this law giving session interesting and fun via game or group activity. Try to get them to determine some rules on their own and who knows, they might actually come up with some of your rules. After that, add your rules to the list and go over the list as a class. Next time, bring printed copies of the rules to class and have each and every one of those buggers sign it. Get them to sign it in blood if you can! Please don't do that by the way. :)

Continuous Assessment 

After each day of teaching, you want to ask yourself how effective you were and how well did you stick to your lesson plan. Yes, you should be planning your lessons. :) Be your own worst critic and leave no room for pride. Determine if every assigned task, game, or activity really met the purpose it was designed for. If not, think of how you can tweak it to meet the need. Ask yourself how effective your instructions were. Could your students really understand what it was that you wanted them to do? Give yourself realistic goals in the classroom about what it is exactly you wish to accomplish each time you have a class. Any progress no matter how small is much earned and worth it. Just as you should be continuously assessing yourself, you should be assessing your students through various activities and other creative ways you can muster.

Hit the Books

When I first started teaching English as a foreign language, I noticed how little I actually knew about my own language. Once I realized it, I came to work early every day in order to take advantage of the vast wealth of knowledge available to me on the bookshelf in the teachers room. When you finally realize that all that infinite wisdom wasn't worth a dollar or couldn't get you more than 30 minutes through your lesson, it is the time to enrich your knowledge and brush up on how much you actually know about the English language and all of its complexities. Fortunately this can be accomplished over time as long as you strive to stay at least one step ahead of your students. The more you teach and apply what you have learned, the more you will remember, and the more you will improve in delivery of the given points.

Know your Pet Well

We all hated teacher's pets when we were still in school right? Well, unless you were one. In that case your classmates might have hated you.:) As a teacher, you will come to find that your pet is the most accurate source of information. Your pet has all kinds of ways you can improve your class once you get through all of the meaningless compliments that come forth automatically. It is your pet after all. Always tell him/her how important he/she is to the success of your class and how much you value you the advice and suggestions. Give him/her the inside scoop on lessons to come so your pet can do some of the leg work in preparing the rest of the students for future material. Reward your pet by implementing some of his/her suggestions in your lesson plans.

Make them Stars

Technology is just wonderful these days, wouldn't you agree? Let your students know just how important they are to you by creating a safe blog or Facebook page showing how bright they shine in your classroom. When I say safe, I mean do not mix your controversial very private social media profiles with pictures of you drinking beer and etc. with the account you use to showcase your students. Once you have the page or site set up, let your students know you have it and add them to the page. This is the perfect place to highlight class achievements and dish out fun homework in an interactive way. Hopefully your students will feel a sense of pride and want to be all they can be.

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English Course in Bandung - Great Students make Great Teachers

I remember when I made a post on Facebook about how great students can make teachers become great. It kind of just came out when I was thinking of something cool to so, but later after deeply thinking about it, I discovered that I was exactly right. Great students cause us teachers or educators to challenge ourselves more. We want to be better for them and somehow we want to be deserving of their attendance each and every class. Please don't forget to check us out at http://ciacivipenglish.wix.com/bandung !

Amazing Students of Unpad

Last Monday I had the opportunity to give a lecture at Unpad and I absolutely loved it. The students of the Nursing Faculty were so motivated and excited to be taught by a Native speaker. They tried their best to participate in activities and did not hesitate to show off their English skills. I also think my lecture on effective writing skills and mind mapping was pretty good. I am looking forward to teaching them again. Go Unpad!

Digging Deep for the Teacher Within

We all have those classes that we would rather not have. You know the one I'm talking about. That class with zero personality. I have had quite a few of those actually. I remember wishing that a tsunami or tornado would hit, or even an alien aircraft would come and vaporize everyone. I would pray for anything to cancel the class or at least postpone it. I know you are thinking, oh come on, it couldn't have been that bad. Well I am telling you that it was worse. How can one cope with such classes? How can an ESL teacher survive? When all hope is gone and hangman just doesn't quite cut it anymore...

Remember why you are there

Sometimes we as ESL teachers have to remind ourselves why we wake up each day and put on our good shoes. Sometimes we have to remember the first time our lesson fell into place and everything just clicked. Sometimes we have to dig deep down and search for the teacher within. Remind yourself that you are not responsible for only making entertaining lessons, but for making meaningful and educational lessons as well. I know some teachers that only survive by making their students laugh, but when those teachers get home, they ask themselves "what in the world did I just teach". If you remember that you are there in front of that class to teach English and not to be a clown, you will do just fine!

Plan for the worst and then plan for worse

You know that saying, there's no such thing as a bad plan. Well I disagree. You know when we plan not to plan because we are just that great. That's a bad plan! Never underestimate the power of a well-thought out lesson. It can save you a million times over. It is very easy and quite simple to deviate from a plan if something doesn't go your way, but how do you deviate from a "no plan"? It simply just makes the class or lesson even worse. I normally try to anticipate any and everything that might come up during a class. Sometimes, the best student in the class is absent and you are just left with the unmotivated and untalented individuals. You should plan for that.

Just because they like you doesn't mean they like your class

We all want to be liked and loved by our students. I can't imagine anyone who would want to be hated. Right? It is easy to fall into the cycle of planning lessons and condoning certain undesirable behavior in order to be liked by our students. It is ever so tempting, because we all remember how much fun we had when we were in school and being taught by that teacher who just let us do whatever we wanted. But if we asked ourselves what did we learn from that teacher, the answer would be hard to find. Just remember that students will laugh in your class and smile every time they see you, and then when the student questionnaire gets passed around, they will trash you behind your back. They like you, but they just don't like being taught by you.

Back to zero personality

So, if you have to face that class with no personality, you should consider the following. Are your lessons balanced? Do you spend enough time explaining activities and giving directions? Do your lessons accommodate a wide range of learning styles? Are your lessons both teacher and student led. Are your lessons communicative and interactive? Do you remember to smile? Do you in fact have a personality yourself? Do you know what you are talking about? How much time do you spend planning lessons? Do you teach exactly from the textbook? Would you want to be taught by you?

Loyal and motivated students

It is nothing like seeing eager and motivated kids waiting to get their next English lesson. I have one student in particular"Adil" who is so motivated that he comes almost 2 hours before the lesson begins. Sometimes, I have to send him back home to rest so he won't be so tired before class. Regardless of the activity that we do, he remains just as eager. He is such a great student to have, because sometimes as teachers we find ourselves lacking the motivation to keep teaching. Students like Adil remind us why we wake up in the morning. Ciaci VIP English is alive because of the students and I am thankful for that.

Super race of English speakers

I remember when I first started teaching English at EF, or shall I say first started learning English, hehehehehe. Boy was I devastated when I realized that as intelligent as I thought I was, I knew absolutely nothing about my own language. What the heck was the present perfect tense? If I had been on who wants to be a millionaire, I would have had to phone a friend. But then again, who would I have called? The average native speaker does not know much about English grammar, but I like to think that we get along just fine although severely lacking in English knowledge.

I remember sweating bullets in front of my "students", tons of bullets. I'm surprised that I am still alive today and didn't die due to dehydration. Everyday, I arrived at work super early so that I could crack open those grammar books and study away and after about six months of that my confidence soared and things started making sense. At that point, I started to become proud of being an English teacher. I was actually able to answer my students' questions with the correct answer instead of saying that is just the way it is. Before I knew it, other teachers started coming to me for advice on how to plan their lessons and teaching grammar the correct way.

I remember hanging out on several occasions with other teachers and could not believe what our drunken conversations were about. We would talk for hours about different grammar points, vocabulary, tenses, and so on. Right then and there I realized that my life would never be the same, that I would become this person that could only have a meaningful conversation with other ESL teachers. The first time I went back to America for a visit and went back to my "hood", my homies looked at me like I was literally an alien from another planet. They could not believe the words that came out of my mouth or maybe how the words came out of my mouth. I felt like a freak. I enjoyed talking about English more than just about anything else.

I remember when I first started teaching TOEFL and thanked God that I was born in an English speaking country. At that time I realized that we as ESL teachers are in essence creating a super race of English speakers that can not only effectively communicate but can actually correct a native speaker and tell him/her why he/she is wrong. We are teaching people how to speak better English than we do. Is this crazy or what? In this age of globalization, the native speaker of English reigns supreme because of his/her "mastery" of the international language. But if you really think about it, studies have shown that the average business email written by a native English speaker is completely and utterly structurally unsound. We (native speakers) know this to be true and I am worried that the secret may get out to the rest of the world. Just imagine a day when English is truly spoken by just about everyone, will native speakers be able to have an ESL post or will we be undercut by the products we have created? A super race of English speakers that will take over the world. Just some food for thought i suppose. Please forgive me if this blog has many mistakes. I am just a native speaker after all. :)