Teaching Tips: Instructing ESL
English as the Second Language (ESL) classes are about teaching English to those that have another language as their primary spoken language.
If you are teaching ESL, then here are some important tips or suggestions that you could use for your next class:
• For them to understand you, you do not have to speak louder. They are not deaf, they are not just as fluent as you are in English. Speak slowly, clearly and with distinct sounds. Think of those movie and television scenes when the person just starts speaking louder to a deaf person, people really do this and it is just wrong.
• To correct pronunciations, teach them how each sound is created, the proper position of lips, tongue, and teeth for each sound. It would be better if they would speak slower first so that they would be more understandable. As they increase their ability, they could increase their speech pace too.
• Grammar can be very difficult and complex. Even fluent speakers have problems or miss with grammar. You can use numerous methods that would easily help them understand, like reading newspapers, watching ESL programs, role-playing, writing short narrative and actual conversations.
• Encourage your students to participate or ask questions or clarify some points that they do not understand. If you think your students are not confident enough to raise questions in front of the class, you can explore other methods. Before your class ends, ask them to write points that they do not understand or their questions. Make these questions the starting point for your next class.
• To emphasize on a specific point or make sure that students will be taking notice of important parts of the discussion, make them understand that what you are saying should be noted.
• When learning a new language, being exposed to it as much as possible is important. It would help in speeding up their language understanding and being articulate. You can encourage your students to participate in social activities that would allow them to be surrounded with English speakers. Watching English shows, movies, and listening to English valtrex music can help out immensely.
• Show some energy when teaching. Move around the room, use different gestures. Just make sure that your gestures would match the words that you are using. Do not be afraid to be funny and make fun of yourself once in a while. When the students have a hard time understanding you they tend to pay attention even less, so anything you can do to counteract that is extremely beneficial.
• Positive reinforcement works with everybody. Acknowledge their improvements, compliment them with their developments. Something that is great with elementary and younger students is stickers and getting to watch short cartoon clips at the end of class.
If you are teaching a beginner, then it would be best to expose your students to different voices speaking the English language. This would make them exposed to different kinds of accents and recognize English words easily. There are games that can encourage shy and reluctant students to share their thoughts. Icebreaker games are a great way to get students to participate, using English, and comfortable with your classroom.
Teaching formal English responses can be boring and dreadful for some students, you will also find that they may only respond in that manner, which can often times sound odd and out of place. You can introduce slang terms and responses that they would normally hear in public places, or from people within their own age group in English speaking countries. This would make your students acquainted with language that they would frequently encounter.
As a teacher, you would need to adapt to your students level and ability. Some teachers would have a checklist where they would be able to monitor their students’ development. This would allow instructors to improve or suit their teaching methods to their students’ interest, ability and capacity. Learn from your students too. Allow yourself to learn too. A student should learn from teachers and teachers learn from their students.
Would these tips help you in your classroom as an ESL Teacher? Do you know any other tips that would help people?
– For Teach Recruiting