Anyone Have Any Experience In Teaching Igcse English?

[phuturatica]

I have been asked to teach iGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) English to a student who has been living in the UK for 2 - 3 years but is coming home to Bangkok for the summer holidays. He wishes to continue his studies over the holiday period, however I have absolutely no idea where to start in teaching a student English literature and English language at such an advanced level. I did GCSE's myself when I was 15 - 16 years old so its pretty intense stuff.

Do any fellow EFL teachers out there have any experience in teaching iGCSE English and do you have any tips? This kind of stuff isn't really EFL teaching as the student already speaks perfect English. This is the same kind of teaching I was taught when I was leaving high school!

[Phatcharanan]

Hi,

You need some more info first. The English Language to be taught,.........is it English first language or as a second? IGCSE offers both.

You can check out this Cambridge website http://www.cie.org.uk/qualifications/academic/middlesec/igcse/subjects

You may also wish to check out the Edexcel website too http://www.edexcel.com/quals/Pages/default.aspx

The above sites have most of the information you need.

[Somtamnication]

Worse comes to worse, request that the student bring all the books and follow them. They do a lot reading and essays. Pretty tough stuff. I teach IGCSE Spanish and it makes my head spin.

[LucidLucifer]

Maybe you should hold your hands up and accept you're not qualified to teach what you've been asked to do. I did GCSE maths, i did A level economics, which I followed on to degree level (both had a high level of maths involved) .

Does that qualify me to teach GCSE maths...no!

Should you be teaching GCSE English, unless you're a qualified GCSE English teacher...no!

I think you should pass it on to someone who is qualified to do what they want.

However, you've been asked to do it, so....you may be surprised at how easy and obvious the GCSE English content is (i've worked in secondary in the UK) go for it.........and god bless ya student!!!

Edited April 10, 2012 by LucidLucifer

[Somtamnication]

He may not be qualified to teach it, but he can tutor it, follow the books and make the student think about task at hand.

[LucidLucifer]

As I said.....go for it!!

[ivan96822]

I teach British Literature and there is a lot of wonderful stuff out there. "Beowulf" has a universal appeal that many young people can find appealing. A monster destroys a village and murders residents on a nightly basis, so Beowulf, the hero, comes in to stop him. "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is excellent, too.

Of course, you can't go wrong with Shakespeare. "Macbeth" is Shakespeare's shortest (and in my opinion) best play. It is about a greedy, selfish man who kills everyone in his path toward becoming king. Again, the students really seem to find this appeal, too, since they all wish they could do things in order to get power.

You can also make the student do daily journal entries. Go onto google or yahoo and type in "high school journal topics" and you should be able to find hundreds, if not thousands.

If you need to brush up on British Literature, I'd look for an old anthology book as well as a literary terms book in order to assist with explicating the poetry. Yes, it may be challenging for your current situation, but the end result can be rather rewarding.

Edited April 13, 2012 by ivan96822

[phuturatica]

Maybe you should hold your hands up and accept you're not qualified to teach what you've been asked to do. I did GCSE maths, i did A level economics, which I followed on to degree level (both had a high level of maths involved) .

Does that qualify me to teach GCSE maths...no!

Should you be teaching GCSE English, unless you're a qualified GCSE English teacher...no!

I think you should pass it on to someone who is qualified to do what they want.

However, you've been asked to do it, so....you may be surprised at how easy and obvious the GCSE English content is (i've worked in secondary in the UK) go for it.........and god bless ya student!!!

I was asked to do it as most of the other teachers are American. and IGCSE is British curriculum stuff. Anyways... I've been doing it for 2 weeks and it's going really well actually. A lot of research was needed but the student is already pretty good anyways, he just needs to practice English language essays. I've actually been emailing my old English GCSE teacher and she has been giving me loads of advice and tips!

He may not be qualified to teach it, but he can tutor it, follow the books and make the student think about task at hand.

I'm a she by the way.