Foreign Language Teacher
Summary
Teach students how to speak another language.
What does a Foreign Language Teacher do?
No, a Foreign Language Teacher is not a Math Teacher, though in class Math Teachers do sometimes sound like they’re speaking another language. When you’re a Foreign Language Teacher, you literally speak another language (aside from English, of course). And you spend your days teaching students things like how to conjugate verbs in that language, and the culture of the people who speak it.
Like any Teacher, a Foreign Language Teacher creates lesson plans, gives homework assignments and tests, and grades students’ work. You also give extra lessons to those who can’t keep up, educate yourself on new teaching techniques, and integrate outside sources like movies or novels into your teaching.
What makes you different from other Teachers is your subject matter. You can teach any language in the world, though for the most part, you handle the more common ones (think German rather than Farsi). That being said, this position can be found in schools of all levels, and some high schools and many colleges offer more obscure languages.
Elementary-age kids start by learning the basics, like colors or numbers. University students, on the other hand, handle essay writing and complex business language. You vary the lessons and activities depending on what age you’re working with and how well your students are picking up the skills. For example, you might play games with or read children’s books to kindergartens, and have college students debate foreign policy and economics in another language.
The focus of your teaching revolves around skills like verb conjugation, pronunciation, vocabulary, and reading and writing in a language other than English.
