Chapter I questioning strategies

Teach ‘international’ pronunciation

Torn between British or American pronunciation, we sometimes forget that most of our students don’t just need English to have a cup of tea with the Queen one day or to ask their favourite American rapper for an autograph. They are much more likely to meet and talk to people from all walks of life, whose English will not be their mother tongue, too. The criterion for good pronunciation is ‘How easily will it be understood by most English speakers today?’. So, if your students end up speaking with any kind of accent, this is fine unless it is understandable.  Some can say that this book is just a compilation of conventional wisdom. Start your lesson with a smile, make it interesting, learn students’ names, use your coursebook selectively… Well, it might be true. But after all, it covers lots of topics which we, English teachers, do discuss again and again. Not to mention the ones that can lead to really heated debates.  If you want to find out why it’s a good idea to minimize guessing from context; how come that a teacher should talk a lot increasing their TTT; and when teaching out of context can be beneficial, get yourself a copy of ‘100 Teaching Tips’. I promise you won’t regret it. Everyone and their mother has an opinion about teaching students English properly. Are you about to start your career as an ESL teacher? Have you just begun working as an educator? Or are you an experienced teacher looking to reevaluate your teaching strategies? Any one of these situations can feel pretty daunting. Well, don’t feel discouraged by what other colleagues might have told you about the problems that arise while teaching difficult classes. Yes, they’ve probably got a point about the difficulties that you’ll undoubtedly face during your career, but this doesn’t mean you can’t overcome them. You just need to be creative, well-prepared and resourceful. You need to plan ahead and write a lesson plan before every lesson. Take into account your students, the available time and the material and resources you have at your disposal.

You should remember that the more detailed your lesson plan, the more effective and less stressed out you’ll feel. In other words, the key to a stress-free teaching experience is to figure out your warm-up, presentation and production activities before class. What about the follow-up activities that you’ll assign? Your teaching practice will be safeguarded and more effective if you plan and prepare carefully. Once you’ve gotten all that sorted out, take the time to rehearse parts of your lesson. Practice by doing a quick read-through of major talking points and estimating how long it’ll take your students to understand, absorb and complete certain lessons and activities. Time yourself. This will ensure that your classes never run short or long.