My first ESL teaching experience was terrifying and humiliating. I was 23, newly certified and had been hired at a language school in New York city. I'd been so nervous before my first hour-long lesson, that I'd prepped for eight hours; writing and rewriting my lesson plan, scripting in witty jokes, games and even an art activity. But as I stood in front of the class sweating through my new suit, I was horrified to realize that despite all of my preparation, my lesson was bombing - big time. 30 adults, most of them twice my age, sat in stony silence as I blundered through an explanation of the past progressive. Worst yet, they stubbornly refused to participate and then challenged the way I pronounced the word 'Elementary', insisting that I was saying it incorrectly. Somehow in the first 20 minutes of the lesson, I'd managed to lose all respect and authority as a teacher, to the point where even my American accent was called into question. The next day, I was brought into the director's office and told that the students had written a letter of complaint and that I would be assigned a different class, effective immediately.

I was mortified. And as I blotted my tears with a tissue, I wondered in dismay: Where had I gone so wrong?

It would be nine months before I'd finally learn the answer to that question. And below is a description of the three mistakes I made and what you can do to avoid making them yourselves.

Mistake Number One: Reinventing the Wheel

Before that fateful first day, I was warned that that the class would be a tough one to win over. The previous teacher had been incredibly popular and I was advised to model his teaching style if I wanted to succeed. But I found his 'repeat after me' approach boring. He taught mostly from the grammar book and rarely incorporated any games or group activities. And new teacher though I was, I believed that lessons should be creative and fun. I also felt that I had a lot to prove and therefore needed to be innovative; different.

In reality, it was very arrogant of me to think that I knew more about teaching than a school that been in operation for over 20 years. While grammar exercises and dictations weren't my preferred learning method, they were obviously what the students liked best because their old teacher would have never become so popular otherwise.

Advice: Being a new teacher is stressful enough. Don't add to the stress by trying to be different. Master the tried and true method first, gain the students' trust and then you can experiment with new techniques. Remember that the only way you can develop your own unique teaching style, is through years of experience and modeling the experts. Take time to ask the students' previous teacher and your supervisors for advice, feedback and ideas first.

Mistake Number Two: Not Considering the Needs of the Students

For those first few months of teaching, I chose to ignore the fact that most of the students at my New York city language school were overworked, undereducated immigrants. I taught the lessons that I favored as a foreign language learner and thus incorporated a number of creative writing activities and role-playing exercises. I neglected to consider that maybe those activities weren't suitable for the type of student that the language school attracted.

Many of my students were barely literate in their native language and some even had to be taught how to hold a pen. It was unrealistic of me to think that they could or would even enjoy writing stories or poems. They could barely write their names and yet I would insist that they write essays entitled "Why I Want to Study English". What I failed to see was that these particular students didn't want to study English, they had to. They were studying English for survival; either for their jobs or for their children or so that didn't have struggle to understand street signs or shampoo bottle labels.

I remember the day it finally dawned on me that perhaps I needed to change my approach. It was the beginning of class and I asked each student in turn to answer the question "What time did you go to sleep last night?" One of my students, a 16-year-old from Mexico who'd lied about his age so that he could enroll in an 'adult-only' English class, answered: "I didn't go to sleep." Confused by his answer and thinking that perhaps he'd misunderstood, I repeated the question. "No, teacher," he insisted. "I worked. I don't sleep." Apparently, he'd worked all evening at his janitor job and then had come straight to class. He'd frequently nodded off in the middle of the lesson and until then, I'd thought that it was because he didn't want to be there. As it turned out, he was just exhausted

After that, I stopped wasting the student's time with Bingo, word-searches and vocabulary basket ball tosses. I realized how patronizing these games had been - insulting even. I stopped worrying about whether or not the lesson would be fun for me to teach, and started to think from the learner's perspective instead. I focused on helping them develop skills that they would need to survive - and thrive - in America. Together we worked on decoding slang, practiced phrases needed for ordering take-out and drilled vocabulary they could use in the post office, subway or school. Perhaps my new teaching style was less entertaining, but it certainly was better tailored to the students' needs.

Advice: Take the time to ask the students their reasons for studying English. Depending on where you are in the World and the age of your students, the reason's will differ. Maybe your students are five-year-old Japanese kindergarteners, in which case your lesson's focus would be less on English proficiency and more on English exposure. You'd therefore fill your lessons with games, songs and chants because your main objective would be to get your students excited about learning English. However, if you're teaching Business English to a group white-color businessmen in Germany, for example, then perhaps a game wouldn't be appropriate. Remember that rarely will the lessons you love to teach be the lessons your students need.

Mistake Number Three: Rushing through the Lesson

For the first year I taught English, I always made sure to over-plan for each class because that way, I'd never end up with 20 minutes left on the clock and nothing to do. Pacing was a huge problem of mine. But instead of relaxing and slowing down, I'd spend four hours lesson planning for every one hour I taught. Soon, my part-time job had turned into a full-time, 60 hour a week nightmare. Part of the reason I sped through my lessons was because I was nervous. In my anxiety over wanting to be well-liked by my students, I would find myself cutting activities short or skipping them all together at even the slightest look of disinterest on my students' faces.

They're bored! I'd think, panicked any time I'd see a student's eyes begin to wander. And then I'd self-consciously rush through the end of the homework correction or halt the reading with a curt "Well, we can finish that next time...Let's move ahead to..." So afraid was I of being boring, that I'd overload the students with too much information, far too quickly. My poor students would be so overwhelmed they'd end up quitting. And not because I was boring but because the class was moving so fast that they'd couldn't keep up and thus became discouraged.

I think that half the time, I misinterpreted their glazed looks to mean that my lesson was too easy or uninteresting. When in actuality they just needed time to think; to fully process what I'd said. And the times that they were indeed falling asleep or not paying attention, more than likely had nothing to do with my skills as a teacher at all. The level of concentration it takes to listen, process and respond in a foreign language is enormous. If a student's mind wanders off for a few minutes, it's probably because his brain is tired and needs a break.

Advice: Pacing is a common struggle with new teachers and something that is usually only resolved through practice. But one thing that helps is an organized lesson plan. Bullet point each activity in your plan and write a realistic estimation of how long each activity will take. Incorporate 30 second pauses into your lesson, to give the students a break and to let what has just been covered sink in. You can use this time to erase the board or organize your supplies. It will also help you catch your breathe and clear your thoughts in preparation for the next activity.

Reannon has been an ESL tutor and teacher for seven years. She's taught in the US and Japan and most recently, Guatemala. For more advice on teaching ESL, you can visit her ESL tutoring site, http://www.tipsfortutors.com.