Running Head：Internship Report

Internship Report

Mengzi Cai

Colorado State University

Internship Report

Mengzi Cai
E687
Internship report
24/09/2018

After talking with my advisor, I decided to find an internship in the 2018 summer

vacation to gain more teaching experience and get credit for graduation. I submitted my resume

online and eventually I had an internship in the YABO Educational institution in China, which

provides instruction after class in many subjects and has language classes for adults or teenagers.

I worked there for about 16 days and 8 hours per day. I was an English teacher and TA for some

classes.

At the beginning of my internship, I had to learn the organization and culture of the

institution and my tasks from my supervisor. Moreover, I needed to discuss the lesson plans for

my classes with my supervisor and write the reports of the classes for my supervisor. My work

was divided into three parts. I was a tutor and an instructor for a vocabulary class. I was also a

teaching assistant in an English immersion class. I have some reflections from these three roles.

Firstly, I had to teach a student who was in middle school. The student plans to go to an

international high school and he wants to study abroad for college. Therefore, the requirement of

the tutoring was to enable the student to know more about the TOFEL and the IELTS and to

improve his English skills. According to the student’s learning needs, I talked about the

difference between the TOFEL and the IELTS and learned about his interests. I chose topics:

NBA which he liked and prepared the lessons, focusing on the vocabulary, listening and

speaking skills. I give model for students and asked him to follow. I ask him to repeat several

times. After the drill, students can remember the spelling and pronunciation of the words.

Providing the video of NBA, students was able to comprehend the listening material with the

visible support. However, I eventually realized that the student had no impetus to study even
Internship Report

though I chose interesting topics. My supervisor recommended that I take a stricter attitude to the

student and ask him to learn, which is a different technique than the previous way I tried. When I

was strict, the student seemed to concentrate more. The class changed from learner-centered to

more like teacher-centered.

In the vocabulary class, we had three components: recognition, spelling and

pronunciation. I tested the students because I thought they should repeat the words and practice

these words after class. I design my test based on the form, meaning and use of the vocabularies.

For example, I will show students Chinese meaning of a word then I ask them to write down the

English word and use it to make a sentence. 5 this way, students have practice to remember the

form, meaning and use of the English words which I learned in E515. What’s more, when

students complained that it is hard to remember English word, I would teach them to focus on the

affix which I learned. Some affixes have specific meaning. If students know the meanings of the

affixes, it would help them to remember the meaning and form of words more easily. As a TA,

my duty was to help the teacher, who was from England, to finish the class. Most of the students

couldn’t understand the teacher, but I tried to help by using simple words to explain. I did this

because I am Chinese, and I knew which parts the students might not understand. I tried my best

to make students immersed in the English language instead of translating the English into

Chinese for them. One thing I learned in this class is that as a teacher, I should take measures to

make students feel comfortable to speak out. For example, when students had no idea how to

answer the teacher’s question, I would ask them to pay attention to what I answered, and I was

an example for them to know how to answer the questions.

Internship Report

I strongly recommend that TESOL students should do an internship to gain more

teaching experience because they will learn a lot from the practice, as I did. It is a good

opportunity for students to combine the learned knowledge and practice in a classroom.