Internship report internship task teaching assistant at ames english center

VIETNAM MARITIME UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN STUDIES ENGLISH LINGUISTICS MAJOR INTERNSHIP REPORT Internship task: TEACHING ASSISTANT AT AMES ENGLISH CENTER Student Name: VU TUNG ANH Student Code: 82267 Class: NNA60DH1 Supervisor: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to thank Ms Vu Thi Ly, Ms Bui Thi Thao from AEK Class, and Mr Pham Anh Trung and Ms Bui Thi Thu Ha from AET Class and my colleagues in AEKT Department, for giving me lots of support with the internship tasks during my intership I would like to show my appreciation to Mr Nguyen Ngoc Hai – the Senior Admission Officer, and Ms Nguyen Thi Hai Hau – The Branch Manager, for providing me many improtant information about AMES ENGLISH Lach Tray COMPANY’S APPROVAL Contents INTRODUCTION 1.1 Purposes of the internship .5 1.2 Significance of the internship A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE CENTER 2.1 Organization 2.2 Functions & Business Activities .6 2.3 Detailed department description INTERNSHIP DESCRIPTION .8 3.1 Specific tasks & Responsibilities 3.2 Experience learned from the internship: .10 3.3 Management techniques observed 10 3.4 Classroom skills employed 10 3.5 Problems encountered 11 3.6 Lesson learned .12 CONCLUSION 12 RECOMMENDATIONS .13 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Purposes of the internship Providing opportunities to enter working environment, to apply acquired knowledge for specific tasks in businesses, corporations that use English for their work Learning the way a business works and how to behave appropriately in business environments Applying English language knowledge (Speaking, Writing, Listening, Reading, Interpreting, Translating) in the internship Understanding more about procedures as well as formalities in a business or a company, having a clear orientation of my future occupation Developing and improving skills such as communication skills, presentation skills, problem-solving skills,… Having more responsibilities for tasks assigned, getting to know more about colleagues, being more energetic and more active 1.2 Significance of the internship Providing a better perspective when completing the interhsihip assignment Acquiring necessary qualifications, skills, and knowledge that are not learnt during the time in university, so that having vital preparations for choosing appropriate occupations in the future Knowing more about an organisational structure and understanding more about its function and how it works Knowing how to behave and communicate, knowing how to cooperate with colleagues and managers to solve problems, and to achieve the best results in the tasks Being more flexible and decisive in any situations, coming up with solutions quickly in order to fulfill the tasks successfully A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE CENTER Name: AMES English Center – Lach Tray Branch Contact: 0225 3739 589 Address: A2 Building, Vietnam Maritime University, 484 Lach Tray, Ngo Quyen District, Hai Phong Business sector: English for Kids and Teens, TOEIC, IELTS, Cambridge, Communicative English Products and services offered: Providing and teaching English courses AMES ENGLISH was established in 2003, and after 15 years of developing, AMES ENGLISH has become the leading unit that applies artifical intelligence into teaching English There are over 40 branches of AMES ENGLISH in VietNam, Hai Phong has three, namely Lach Tray, Thuy Nguyen and Hoang Van Thu AMES ENGLISH provides a variety of English courses, from English for Kids and Teens to Academic English,…AMES English Center in Lach Tray was established in May, 2013, and after nearly 10 years of functioning, the Center has become one of the branches that many parents and students entrust The courses in AMES are certified internationally With English courses for Kids and Teens, students will receive Cambridge Certificate With highschool students studying at AMES, they will be provided with IELTS Courses and receive IELTS Certificate Being an intern at AMES ENGLISH Lach Tray, I would like to learn more about the organisational structure, how departments work together for the common goal In addition, I would like to learn how to work professionally in a business environment, jand how to adapt to it so that I could accomplish every task given 2.1 Organization Organisational hierachy Chief Executive Officer Regional Manager Branch Manager Accountant Department Admission Office AEKT Department AEE Department ACSS Department SAO AEM AEEM ACM AO Teachers Teachers SS 2.2 Functions & Business Activities The potential customers are students in Hai Phong (age from years old to about 15 years old) These customers’ parents trusted AMES English Center and are willing to register for their children to study English in the center and they look forward to seeing their children can acquire and improve their English knowledge There are several strengths of this center Firstly, the teachers at AMES English are required to have IELTS Certificate, and there are foreign teachers who are native people from England, South Africa, Australia,… Secondly, AMES English offer courses for every students from the age of four, for individuals who want to apply jobs that require English Thirdly, The courses in AMES are certified internationally With English courses for Kids and Teens, students will receive Cambridge Certificate after they finish their courses With IELTS learning, students will receive IELTS Certificate after they complete their examination Furthermore, the study schedules are flexible depending on students decision, so it is rarely for students to be abscent from their classes However, there are many English courses so they can be sometimes difficult for teachers to deliver their knowledge at the same time But because the learning materials are so different, they create a diversity of lesson contents so that every student can time to get used to studying English and acquiring as much knowledge as possible 2.3 Detailed department description I conducted my internship in AEKT Department which specializes in teaching English for teenagers (from 11 years old to 15 years old) and for kids (from years old to 10 years old) My team members: AEK Class: Vu Thi Ly, Bui Thi Thao (both are managers) Nguyen Quang Huy, Bui Phuong Ha, Tran Tien Dat, Thu Trang, Khanh Linh (part-time employees) AET Class: Pham Anh Trung, Bui Thi Thu Ha (both are managers), Pham Le Anh Dung, Nguyen Quang Minh (both are part-time employees) Most of my intership I worked in AET Department, I taught English and supported students with their studies I worked as a teaching assistant and I worked approxiamately 12 hours a week, each shift took hours I taught English to a group of students (sometimes 6, depending on total number of students of one shift) I used my English knowledge and some soft skills such as communication skills to deliver what students need to learn and acquire Everyone in the Center got along and they helped me a lot during my intership The organization was effective when they divided several levels that were suitable for students to learn These levels are: Pre-Starters, Starters, Movers, Flyers, KET and PET, and Specific (for students who learnt Grammar only) In AET Class, the students were levelled from Flyers to PET (some were at Movers) In AEK Class, the levels are from Pre-Starters to Movers At the beginning of the week, I had to register for my work schedule which was the shifts available for me Then the supervisors would decided the shifts that I had to work I worked 12 hours a week (sometimes 14 hours, depeding on the number of shifts The working condition was very convenient, the room is wide enough to fill to 7 tables (including desktops for supervisors) My supervisors and my colleagues were very helpful Whenever I had difficulties (especially on the first days of my internship), they supported me and I learnt a lot of things from them, such as being more active at work, how to working under pressure,… There were several activities that I particiapted when I was taking my internship Me and my colleagues and my supervisors decorated our department as we celebrated MidAutumn Festival by hanging beautiful lanterns and stars,…Furthermore, at Halloween, AMES hold an event to celebrate the occasion by organising some activities such as music and fashion show, visiting haunted house, watching movies,…To prepare for the event, I joined with my colleagues and my supervisors to decorate our offices with balloons, stickers with an edition of Halloween And at the event, we dressed up our own Halloween costumes to enjoy the atmosphere of the occasion with our students and their parents INTERNSHIP DESCRIPTION 3.1 Specific tasks & Responsibilities On Monday, when a new schedule was uploaded on my department Facebook group, I had to register for my week schedule which was putting a tick in the shifts that I could go to work The my supervisors, who are also my managers, would decide and arranged my workimg shifts I started working from Monday to Sunday morning Most of my shifts took place in the evening because students had to go to their school in the morning and in the afternoon Each shift had the amount of time of hours, and I worked about 12 hours a week (sometimes 14 to 18 hours, depending on the number of students coming to the class in a day) On the first days at work I had several difficulties on how to be familiar with the place where I was an intern, how to make friends with my team members and how to behave in a business environment I had to remember the levels of the English courses that students were learning and that took me a few weeks to get used to the levels Furthermore, there were a lot of tests that need to be given to students and I had to remember when students would their exams For example, after every Unit in Student’s book there would be Unit Tests, after students finished studying Unit to Unit 5, Unit to Unit 9, there would be Final Tests And these are the points that I had to put in my mind To assist me with my internships, I had to meet my supervisors I worked at AET Department and AEK Department, each department had its own supervisors The AEK supervisor is Vu Thi Ly, who first contacted me after I applied my CV to the center And the AET supervisors are Pham Anh Trung and Bui Thi Thu Ha All of the supervisors are full-time employees and teachers in their department My other team members included Pham Le Anh Dung, Nguyen Quang Minh, Nguyen Quang Huy, Bui Phuong Ha, Vu Doan Khanh Huyen,… and they were working as part-time employees In AEKT Department, I was assigned to be a teaching assistant and taught English to my students In the morning, my shifft started from o’clock to 10 o’clock In the afternoon, the time started from o’clock to o’clock and from o’clock to half past in the evening Before I taught my students, there were some tasks that needed to be done First, students’ homework must be checked and any students who didn’t complete their homework, their parents had to be inform about this situation immediately After that, I needed to note the date and time that students attended in class in something called syllabus which was a report that contained lesson contents of a course Then I checked students’ homework to before telling them to learn new lesson, and I took attendance for my students There were three types of book: Student’s Book, WorkBook and Worksheet (which contained reviewed exercises of the lesson) Every student learnt only pages in Student’s Book and Workbook, and I had to check student’s answers in his/her exercises to see if they are right or wrong so that I could assist students to avoid their mistakes (if any), as well as with new English knowledge that they were learning In the classrooms, there are some tools that I used to assist me with my teaching such as MyAMES App (which is an app providing listening files for students) and Tflat (an online dictionary) At the end of class, I assigned homework to my students and reminded them about completing their homework before next lessons When I went home from work, I did administrative work which was giving my comments about student’s performance in class I did it on a website called softech.edu.vn On the system, I added students’ lesson contents, their homework and comments about them in class (including how much knowledge they had acquired, whether they had finished their previous homework and their discipline while learning) During the time in class, students had to keep silence and focus on their studies, especially when they were taking exams There were exams that students in AMES needed to take: Unit Tests (taken at the end of every Unit), Mid-term Test (taken at the end of Unit and Unit of Student’s Book) PRESTARTERS STARTERS MOVERS FLYERS KET PET LEVEL PreStarter PreStarter Starters 1, Starters Starters 3, Starters Movers 1, Movers Movers 3, Movers Flyers 1, Flyers Flyers 3, Flyers KET 1, KET KET 3, PET PET 2, PET LEARING MATERIALS Hang Out Big English Big English Big English Big English Big English Big English Gold Experience A2 Gold Experience B1 Gold Experience B1+ Every student learnt their category in 30 days, in Day 15th, they would Midterm Tests, and Final Tests in Day 30 th (for Gold Experince Books), in Day 12 th and Day 30th respectively for Big English Books Before Midterm and Final Tests, I gave students a specific amount of time (usually 30 minutes) to review what they had learnt, then they would their tests In these tests, I assisted my students with the Speaking Test which contained a series of questions that needed to be answered After that, I did a video shoot for my students with their Speaking Test examiners who were foreign teachers When I carried out my internship, I realized that the things that I learnt at the university and the things I did at the center were quite different Although I had a chance to use my English knowledge to teach students and to revised them for myself, there were a lot of other skills that I hadn’t learnt before, such as managing my students Furtthermore, because my department was shortage of human resoures, I was offerd an opportunity to take a role as an administrator As an administrator, my job included several tasks such as taking attendance on an Excel file by filling names of students studying previous class, filling the number of hours they studied in particular, and marking Midterm Tests, Final Tests, and writing a report based on the results of the tests, and sending them to students’ parents so that they can know about their children’s performance in class As an administrator, I had to register for four more shifts in a week, and the working time in the morning is from o’clock to 11 o’clock, and from o’clock to o’clock in the afternoon The work as an administrator was a meaningful experience to me, although its tasks were demanding, too 3.2 Experience learned from the internship: There were some responsibilities that I were entrusted during my internship period, such as being energetic, being enthusiastic,…And during my internship, I gained several skills and qualifications I learnt how to manage my working time and my finance wisely, I acquired more knowleadge about techonology, such as how to print a document which was the skill that I hadn’t done before I felt that I was more and more active and more and more responsible for what I did, so that I could adapt quickly in any business environment And I had a chance to reinforce some skills that I had acquired such as communication skills, problem-solving skills, working under pressure… And above all, my internshop met my expectation because of several reasons Firstly, I had an opportunity to work at a well-known English Center, I had many colleagues who were part-time employees and were my friends as well Secondly, I learnt a lot of things that I learnt during my internship such as skills, qualifications and knowledge Thirdly, the most wonderful was that I become an official part-time employee and was paid an amount of salary at the end of every month, and was received some bonuses for my excellent performance I think the experience gained during my internship will have a significant influence on my future career plans I will have much clearer plans for choosing a suitable occupation The experience will help me become adaptable in any business environment and get on well 10 with people there And the skills that I acquired will assist me in completing tasks assigned 3.3 Management techniques observed As I mentioned above, during my internship, I acquired some necessary skills of management such as time management, finance management,… About time management skills, I managed to arrange my working schedule wisely so that I could have some day-offs, and I always tried to go to work on time so that I would not have to pay a fine for being late And during my teaching hours, I divided my time in order to check exercises and to teach and review knowledge for my students About finance management skills, for each month that I earned my salary, I always had them in my ATM card so that whenever I needed to spent my money for personal purposes, I could draw a specific amount of money 3.4 Classroom skills employed During my work experience, I applied my English knowledge and theories to teach and assist my students in their studies And I gave students some tips and advice to and avoid mistakes when doing exercises related to skills in English such as Speaking, Listening,… I think the things that I have learned at my university and things that I did during my internship were quite different For example, I had to learn and acquire more skills such as technology skills, and how to work under pressure despite the fact that I could English anytime that I wanted And I needed to know how to deliver my knowledge that I had learnt to students appropriately so that they could understand as much as possible And when I completed my internship, I realized that the experience that I gained helped me understand more about what I had learnt and understand more about how to work in a professional environment 3.5 Problems encountered When I was an intern in AMES, there were several difficulties that I encountered Firstly, my mental health On the first day of the job, I was very nervous because this was the first time I got of out of my comfort zone and entered a new environment But after a few weeks, I had more and more confidence and started to get used to completing the tasks assigned for me The second difficulty was remembering the levels studied by every student Full-time employees would decide the level for a student depending on their entry examination results Each student studies different levels so it was important to remember them At first, it was very hard for me to remember because I only knew which course books that students were studying However, I asked my supervisors to provide me an Excel file showing all the syllabuses (including books name and their levels), so that it was easier for me to remember the levels of students Moreover, there were some lesson contents which 11 contained many exercises, such as in books Gold Experience A2, B1 and B1+, so I had to divide my time appropriately to mark and correct their exercises Another challenge was noting the right time when students came to class (especially when they came late due to the time they finished at their schools) When I did this, I had to ensure that no student lost every minute of their time in class, because this would decide their tution fee Furthermore, when marking the Final Tests and Midterm Tests, especially marking Speaking Skills, I had to watch the Speaking clip of students so that I would decide how many points they would get The process was not easy because not only did I have to wath the clip, but I also needed to listen carfully to assess students’ performance, such as their pronunciation, the vocabularies that they used, how well they apllied grammar structures in their answers But I managed to fulfill this task as smoothly as possible so that the Speaking test result would meet the expectation The supervisors and my colleagues always assisted whenever I encountered challenges in my work Especially on my first days at work, my internship supervisors introduced and provided me some brief information about the department and tasks that had to be done And I had to follow the rules that the department had planned, and when I did something wrong that against any rules, I had to pay a fine (different rules had different fines) I got along with my supervisors and my colleagues and we cooperated together to bring the best service and products to students I would recommend AMES English Center to other students who want to find a part-time job in order to gain experience, skills and necessary qualifications, and to make money as well They would have an opportunity to work in a professional environment and to use English anytime so that they can improve their English skills 3.6 Lesson learned After my internship, I have a much better understanding of what this organization does, and that is teaching English to students who have the interest in this language The organization provides other services such as advising students’ parents about the cirriculum at the Center and what their children are going to acquire after they finish their studies Furthermore, from my experience gained during my internship, I know more about the administration of work, such as informing my comments to students’ parents about their performance in class, or how much knowledge they acquired I have improved my communication skills as I had a chance to communicate in a business environment, knowing how to talk to my seniors, to my colleagues and to my students My problem solving skills are getting better and better as I knew how to make the most suitable solutions for my mistakes and problems during my internship Furthermore, I think I fulfilled my expectations as an intern because I want to gain some experience 12 and skills that contribute a part to my future occupation About the work conducted by AMES English Center, I contributed them as positively as I could for the benefit of the organisation and for its customers as well From the experience that I gained during my internship, the greatest lesson that I learn is that in any business environment, we have to contribute our knowledge and our hard-work so that we can achieve our goals, and help organisations reach their achievements CONCLUSION In conclusion, my role as a teaching assistant has given me a lot of experience, I learned and acquired more skills, knowledge and qualifications that can contribute a lot in my future career With the experince that I gained from my internship, I will have more and more choices to choose an appropriate occupation, and have more confidence to work in professional business environments Being a teaching assistant was an extrodinary experience for me, and although I made several mistakes during my internship, I was proud that I could encounter them, tried to fix them and learnt valuable lessons from what I did There are some strengths and some weaknesses of of my university curriculum when applied to the real world of work As for the strengths, my curriculum consists of subjects that are related to English skills, such as Listening, Speaking, Writing,…and other subjects such as Translation or Interpretation,…With these subjects, it was easier for me apply to the organisation, and I could use the knowledge from the subjects of my curriculm to support for my role as an teaching assistant, to deliver the knowledge to my students so that they could understand more about English As for weaknesses, my curriculum does not offer more subjects specialised in English grammar As a result, when my students had difficulties with their studies on grammar, sometimes I found it hard to explain the lessons to my students so that they could have a better understanding Also, I had had no experience in teaching before, and because the subject about English teaching methods was eliminated, I had a few obstacles when teaching on the first days during my intership I would strongly recommend that other students within the Faculty of Foreign Studies have an opportunity to intern at this organization for several reasons Firstly, this is an organization that offers students a chance to use their English skills and knowledge to support for their work Second, every department in this organisation offers a variety of bonuses and rewards for employees who have the best performance in their duties Thirdly, students will work in a business environment in which they can gain their first experience, learning how to cooperate with senior managers and colleagues, learning 13 some vital skills,…in order to adapt to any other business environments in the future There are several advices that I would suggest for students who want to start their internship: Firstly, being prepared for everything (knowledge, skills, manners, attitude) before starting an internship Secondly, researching companies that are targeted for conducting the internship, being willing to learn new skills, new knowledge, and being more active and more responsible in every task Last but not least, being able to resolve any problems yourselves if you encounter, doing that help you become more independent in business environment RECOMMENDATIONS There are several suggestions that the Internship Program can be improved:  Providing more information on the function of AEKT Department from the beginning of a candidate’s internship, such as the age of the students that can study in AET or AEK class  Giving more details of about the students’ courses and levels that they are studying  During the first week of the internship, the supervisors should watch over more closely of the performance of the intern so that they can give feedbacks about the intern as soon as possible  Introducing more specifically the materials of every lesson content, the tests and revision materials Suggestions on the core curriculum with the aim of improvement based on internship experience:  The core curriculum should provide more subjects on teaching methods for students (especially for students in Faculty of Foreign Studies)  More subjects that relates to English grammar and pronunciation should be provided so that students can develop and improve their knowledge  Offering more practices on subjects teaching students necessary soft skills such as presentation skills, communication skills,…So that students can be more confidents when they work in a business environment  Offering more practices on some core subjects such as Interpretation, Translation, subjects that specialised in culture such as Cross Culture Communication,…So that students can be more flexible when applying their 14 English knowledge during their internship Suggestions for students who want to participate in an internship  Students should identify their intern roles, especially the roles that are specialised in their major They can some research online, such as on the website of companies, or on social networking sites such as Facebook,…  Students should prepare their knowleadge and skills acquired during their years at university carefully  Then students should look for a company that offers their intended roles They might get some advice from their families, friends or relatives, or doing research online Some companies may require to apply CV in order to take the internship assignment, so students should prepare their CV as carefully as possible  Being willing to learn new skils and new knowleadge during the internship assignment, being more responsible and being controlled in any situations In order to suceed in an internship, there are some advice that students should follow:  Students should research their duties before they get on with their tasks  Doing research about the company that students are going to to their internship  During internship, students should have more responsibilities for their duties, adressing problems that they encounter (if any) to their senior managers as soon as possible Being able to fulfill the tasks assigned, joining as many as activities of the company (such as charity, vonlunteering, ) as possible Furthermore, they should follow the rules and disciplines of their department  After the internship, if the manager has positive feedbacks about students, they can consider to apply to work for the company in the future 15 ABBREVIATION AEKT: Active English for Kids and Teens ACSS: Academic Coordinator Student Service AO: Admission Officer SAO: Senior Admission Officer AEE: Acitve English Exams ACM: Academic Coordinator Manager AEM: Active English Manager AEEM: Active English Exams Manager SS: Student Service 16