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The Life Eikiawa Pt 3: Demo Lessons

The hardest 5 minutes of English you will ever teach is the first 5 minutes.

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The rubber hit the road in the second half of my assessment centre – with the dreaded lesson demos. Probably the most nerve-wracking part of the process, I definitely wasn’t spared that feeling of judgemental eyes by both the recruiters and the fellow applicants alike.

We had to prepare a half hour lesson beforehand to submit, then teach 5 minutes of it against what felt like an incredibly slow 5 minute timer. The other job applicants were to be our students. No problem right?

Well not quite – even with some public speaking experience it was still a task to get my head wrapped around teaching ‘English’ to people that already knew all about it. One of the hardest parts is suspending the reality that these people actually already speak English!

Usually you’ll get to pick your own topic, mine was ‘am going to’ with some basic verbs to talk about future plans.

Tips 3 to 8 for prospective Eikawa Teachers:

Keep it simple – the recruiters might suggest that you bring in props or flashcards to enhance the demo, but honestly, these seem like more trouble that they are worth. In a 5 minute demo, the goal is to actually get some teaching in, rather than spend most of the time explaining what’s going on.

Choose the easiest part! – A typical English lesson will have a number of activities within it, graduating from introducing new vocab or grammar to freer, conversation style activites. Again for a 5 minute demo, some sort of drill or very straightforward exercise is probably what you want to go for.

Prepare – I know that this is an obvious one, but it’s worth mocking up a basic script for yourself that goes into more detail than your lesson plan. Not only will you get more confidence in your lesson (see the freezing problem below), it will also teach you exactly how long 5 minutes is (hint, it’s much longer than you think)

There are also a few things to avoid, as I painfully experienced from some of my peers:

Speaking ‘less than great’ English: Starting off your demo with ‘Ok youse guys’ probably doesn’t get you off on the right foot. The way you communicate with low level students is really important; clarity and brevity of expression will be something the recruiters are looking for.

The dreaded freeze: One poor girl got up in front of her makeshift class and was simply unable to speak. It was possibly the most awkward 5 minutes of my life, and almost certainly of her life. While she was gently encouraged by the recruiters (and the rest of us), the words just couldn’t make it out.

The “Ultra-Genki”: There is such a thing as too much energy, in my opinion. While enthusiasm and a warm attitude are core to the job, screaming “OK LETS HAVE FUN LEARNING ENGLISH” at your audience while staring at them with a serial-killer grin just makes everyone feel weird.

***

So at last the day was over, and the invitations were handed out for personal interviews the next day. Ripping open my envelope, I was happy so see that I had a time to come back for round two.

In the one on one interview there was another teaching demo to negotiate, with the ante upped even further. This time I was given 10 minutes to prepare a 5 minute activity around a specific grammar point.

All of above advice applies, but the extra curve ball I wasn’t expecting was that the recruiter suddenly transformed from a professional into a giggly schoolgirl. It would have been funny if it wasn’t so surprising how well she could channel it.

After the buzzer went off, I sighed a sigh of genuine relief and we talked more about the details of daily Eikawa life and preferences for a placement and general teaching duties.

Tip 9 for prospective Eikawa Teachers – Be honest!

When they ask you how you would feel teaching a full roster of kid’s lessons – don’t be afraid to say you would rather not. Be flexible rather than oppositional, but definitely make your preferences known about climate, the types of students you’d like to teach and location, as this is the best time to set up the recruiter’s expectations. After they offer you a job it’s usually to late to adjust these things.

***

2 weeks later I was notified that I had been selected for a placement, which would be coming in the following weeks. I was excited! But what I didn’t realise is that the job effectively started as of that moment. There are a lot of things to think about and do before you fly over – next time I’ll discuss communicating with your employer long-distance. I’d also love to hear any of your war stories from group interviews, or tips for success!

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  • Ed Williams says:

    Couldn’t agree more. I took a basic EFL course online in preparation and realised that my own knowledge of grammar was definitely not up to scratch. I would especially recommend it if you are coming from a background outside of teaching.

    While I didn’t get any curly questions like that in my interview, preparation = confidence and can only be a good thing.

  • I recently went through the same experience with interviewing for an eikaiwa. I got the job, but man the interview process was intense and the job does start once you get accepted for a teaching position. I would definitely agree that you should make your preferences known right then and not later!! I got my preferred location and leave here in a couple months! Excited And Nervous ^_^

  • Khiry Washington says:

    Thanks for the tips, I have a month before my group interview to get ready and this definitely helped.

    • Ed Williams says:

      No problem at all – good luck with your interview, let us know how it goes!

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