The English language is widely used in all economic sectors in Mexico. Employees are expected to know English in technology, tourism, business, communications, humanities, sciences, and social services. English language proficiency is one of the most important school subjects for Latin American students. Unfortunately, many schools and educational programs have little to no English lessons in their curriculum. Students need charismatic English teachers to not only teach them, but to spark their interest in the language, and inspire them to learn and continue their studies in the future.
Although experience teaching English is not a requirement of these placements, teachers must be patient and willing to work with others. The volunteer must create weekly lesson plans to keep the students on track with their studies and attend a weekly meeting with an experienced TEFOL-certified staff member to review the upcoming week’s lesson plan and reflect on the past week’s lessons. Basic Spanish is helpful to communicate with the children and take disciplinary action when needed.
Teaching English
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Volunteers can expect to work in-and-around Merida with public schools, non-profit English language-learning programs, and after-school tutoring programs for low-income communities.
Because Merida is located in a warm climate, classes at public schools are generally taught early in the morning. Some after-school programs are a few days a week in the late afternoons and evenings. During summer holidays volunteer teachers participate in summer programs hosted in libraries located throughout Merida and in our English language summer camp at the Institute of Modern Spanish with adolescents from local shelters.
These programs normally don’t have learning materials for the volunteer to work with, but our sister school, To fill in the gap, the Institute of Modern English, our sister school, has a library of teaching material available to be copied and used. Volunteers build lessons based on the learning needs of the class and lesson plans left by previous volunteer teachers. Volunteers also collaborate with each other to prepare materials, create activities and play language-learning games with the students.