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Teacher Technique
Good groupwork organisation
What are the criteria you should consider in organizing groupwork?
How to cut out or limit L1 use in class
1. Punishments For example, a yellow card for the first time they speak a language other than English and a red card for the second time (you might need an ultimate punishment like extra homework, standing up and giving a speech in English or even temporarily being asked to leave the classroom, or the embarrassment of [...]
Putting students into groups
1. Gestures For example: point to pairs of people who should work together while saying “Student A, student B- work together”; use your forearms and open palms to “cut” between people to divide the class up; show the spot on the floor someone should move their seat to; make a sweeping circle motion
More ways to boost your teaching confidence
1. A priority Setting a single priority for how to improve your lessons will make the job seem more manageable, make it easier to see improvements, and make it easier to ask for help from your boss and other teachers. Try to make it an aim that is very specific and where the results will [...]
15 ways to stop students translating
The fashion for the use or not of L1 in the classroom and language learning more generally tends to come in waves, and the present trend is to write about how an English-only classroom is unrealistic, non-politically correct or an unfair advantage in the market place for native English speaking teachers. I absolutely accept all [...]
Ways to boost your teaching confidence
1. Read or reread a teaching basics book For example, How to Teach English by Jeremy Harmer (rather than The Practice of English Language Teaching, which has got rather complicated since my days on the CTEFLA) or the Oxford Basics Series. This will: give you a boost by showing you how much of that stuff [...]
Ideas on Classroom Management in YL Classes
During my career as an ESL teacher I have come across plenty of teachers who dread teaching children. Because they are naughty. Because they cannot concentrate. Because all they want to do is run around and make a lot of noise. Having taught kids for six years now I wholeheartedly agree with all the aforementioned [...]
15 ways of dealing with students who pause before they speak
1. Shadow reading In this well-known activity students try to read aloud along with a recorded dialogue, keeping the same speed and rhythm as the people speaking on the CD. You can then try turning down the volume to zero while they are speaking and turn it back up towards the end of the dialogue [...]
15 ways of dealing with pre-experience Business English and ESP students
This is one of the most common problems for teachers of Business English and English for Specific Purposes (Medical English, Financial English etc) – students who know nothing about their own subject yet and so have as much problem understanding the concepts in the textbook as they do the English language. Here are some ideas [...]
15 ways to bring lucky chances into your classroom and lesson planning
According to most books and teacher training courses, making your classes more professional consists mainly of making them more systematic. Most teacher (like many artists or sportsmen) would be happy to admit, however, that many of their best ideas came through some kind of lucky chance or spontaneous interaction, be it a worksheet found in [...]
15 more ways of using a book that is too low level for your class
1. Prepare for an exam at the same time For example, spend some time on the language and task types of FCE, TOEFL or IELTS. Even if students aren’t going to take the exam, you can justify this by telling them that it will help them really test their level and know their strengths and weaknesses, [...]
15 ways of coping with a textbook that is too easy
1. Use higher level communication games For example, with a class with an intermediate level textbook take the supplementary activities from Advanced Communication Games. 2. Add exceptions and extra meanings For example, if the book presents “Use any for
Yet another 15 ways of dealing with a book that is packed full of material
1. Combine the small talk with the classwork If you have a class who want to be asked about their weekend (and that is almost anyone as long as they don’t think it’s a waste of time for language learning purposes) but lack classroom time, try to lead naturally on from that conversation to the [...]
15 more ways to adapt an overloaded textbook
1. Miss out some complications and exceptions For example, cover exactly the same basic syllabus as in the students’ book but leave out things like explaining the difference between “Can I have some tea?” and “Can I have any tea?” etc. 2. Set a fixed time for each unit And then move onto the next [...]
15 ways to adapt a textbook with too much stuff in it
1. Leave out a unit or units For example, leave out the first two units of the book because they already know that stuff or leave out the first unit when a new grammar point is introduced as there is a contrasting two tenses (e.g. Present Perfect/ Simple Past) unit later on that does it [...]
The Relationship Between Language & Culture and the Implications for Language Teaching
The relationship between language and culture is deeply rooted. Language is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties. Different ideas stem from differing language use within one’s culture and the whole intertwining of these relationships start at one’s birth.
Common complaints about TEFL workshops
… and how to respond to them. As the number of workshops about teaching English I have attended and given is well over a hundred, I’ve heard and made a fair number of complaints over the years and tried to respond to those grumbles when planning the occasional workshops I give now. Below are some [...]
Criteria of a good needs analysis
An effective and popular needs analysis: 1. Looks at their needs in many different ways E.g. analyses the language they need by function (complaining, making polite requests etc.), skill (e.g. more emailing than speaking), genre (minutes, reports, job interviews etc), and formality, and analyses other factors such as the nationality they will be speaking to [...]
What Makes A Good Free-Speaking Activity?
Points to consider in devising free-speaking activities for your students.
Difficulties in teaching the language of describing people
…and how to cope with them 1. What is he like? / What does he like? This can be a classic example of students mastering one form then coming across a form that is similar in some way and the confusion seeming to put them back to zero- which at least we can say is [...] |
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