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1.3. Teaching tips
Twenty or thirty years ago, ESL teachers didn’t have the multitude and range of resources and materials that we have today. Technology has undeniably assisted us in this area. At the click of a button or the tap of a touchscreen, we can explore thousands of textbooks, worksheets, lesson plans, games, activities and PowerPoint presentations. We can share our most successful materials with one another, expanding the reach of our knowledge and building upon each other’s experiences.
However, the great number of available resources and material can confuse and disorient us. What should we choose and how do we know when the given material or resource is appropriate for our learners? Do your research, visit trusted sites, talk to other colleagues and come up with the best material and resources that you feel will fit your learners in the best possible way. Oh, and you can always check out what we post here at FluentU. Our blogs are filled with hand-picked resource recommendations from across the internet. Don’t forget that you’re teaching a foreign language that, in most cases, isn’t spoken as a first language in your learners’ communities or households. As a result, you’ll need to include authentic material that will familiarize your students with the language they are taught. Nowadays, we ESL educators definitely can’t complain about struggling to find authentic material. The Internet has given us thousands of convenient solutions to this problem. We can dive into websites, videos, films, song lyrics, online magazines, video games or even social media.
The FluentU language learning program is loaded with its own collection of authentic English video content. If you're looking for creative ways to teach English, then you'll love using FluentU in your classroom! FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons. It's got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch regularly. There are tons of great choices there when you're looking for songs for in-class activities. You'll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids' singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more. They need to follow the rules. But first that means that you need to establish hard and fast classroom rules. This is how they’ll come to realize what’s expected of them while being there. Always be clear and explain rules and expectations on the first day of class. Reinforce these rules and expectations when students fall out of line. Assign a different student each day to be your “helper” or “police officer,” who’ll keep an eye on their classmates and encourage positive behaviors and attitudes.
Depending on the cultural background where your students come from, this solutions to this matter might be as diverse as your students themselves. Consider how parents and other teachers typically manage children in the local culture. Add your own influences and change things up as you see fit, but some familiar elements from their parents’ management styles might help students better understand the pecking order in class. Improve your teaching skills and get tips on how to teach with The Teachers' Room, our series of teaching tips to help you in the classroom. On this page you'll find a range of teaching techniques and ideas for your language lessons. In each programme, Sian and Dan cover a key teaching point with all the explanations, examples and activities you need to become a teaching champion. Topics include how to teach reading, how to teach grammar, using social media, using cameras and much, much more. Penny Ur, a professor and a teacher with more than 30 years of experience, is familiar to almost every teacher of English. Well, if not Penny Ur herself, then her books for sure. She has written a number of them including ‘100 Teaching Tips’, ‘Discussions and More’, ‘Five-Minute Activities’ (co-authored with Andrew Wright), and ‘A Course in English Language Teaching’. Most of them are highly practical and packed with ready-to-go activities which require little or no preparation. Today we will talk about the book ‘100 Teaching Tips’ that is one-size-fits-all. Novice and experienced teachers working in a variety of contexts will find there something to catch their attention and answer a question or two. The book provides a set of 100 hands-on tips on 18 different aspects of teaching, such as teacher talk, using a coursebook, giving and checking homework, discipline, games, testing and assessment etc. Ms Ur says that she has written it as a collection of experience-based insights which might prevent other teachers from ‘re-inventing the wheel’. Each piece of advice out of 100 takes just a page. The author recommends her readers not to ‘try to read straight through the book, but rather browse through it, looking for headings that interest you’. You’ll find the headings that seemed thought-provoking, a bit controversial or just interesting for me below.
Don’t give homework at the end
Unexpected, right? We are used to the fact that the final 2-3 minutes of each class are for assigning and writing down homework. Why change it? Well, for a number of reasons. First, attention is generally lower at the end of the lesson and students are more relaxed and more likely to miss something important. They may be packing up, answering some messages or talking to groupmates. Second, the homework you are giving can relate to some particular component of the lesson. This component does not necessarily come at the end of the class. By giving homework earlier, you:
make sure that students notice that;
can explain better if there is a problem or some misunderstanding;
are able to link the homework to the lesson component it relates to.
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