5 New Fun Ways to Teach Grammar to ESL Students

Mention the word “grammar” and students will cringe. In fact, most teachers will
cringe, too.

Of course, teachers know correct grammar rules, but it's one thing to know them, and
another thing to effectively teach them, and transmit them so that students not only
understand the rules, but also apply them correctly.

In my experience, grammar shouldn’t be taught “by the book”. At least not in teaching
English as a second language. That’s not what students are there for. They don't want to
know all of these rules; they’re not interested in them. They want to learn English. They
want to speak, read, and write in English. So, how do we as ESL teachers teach them
essential grammar and give them what we need, rather than boring them to death with “the
rules”. It’s actually quite simple: by teaching grammar in context. And in fun ways.

Let’s move on to some examples, and you'll see what I mean.

How to teach the ever-elusive past perfect tense

Yes, it’s hard to find an ESL student who spontaneously uses the past perfect tense. In fact,
there are some “native” English speakers who don’t use it either (along with other forms of
“correct” English). But it must be taught, never overlooked, or your students will be lacking
something that they need to take their English fluency to the next level. So, how can we
teach the past perfect tense so that it may be fully grasped by our students? Here are the
steps:

 Go to OurTimeLines.com where you may generate your personalized timeline and

see when major historical events took place throughout your life. For example, if
you were born in 1971, you’ll see that the Internet was invented when you were 2.
 Show students your timeline (or anyone else’s) and set up the past perfect like this:
“Sam, the Vietnam War ended in 1975. I was born in 1971. You were born in 1995. So,
when you were born, the Vietnam War had ended 20 years earlier. When I was born it
hadn’t ended yet.”
 Give as many examples as you like, go over briefly how the past perfect tense is
formed (had plus past participle) and make sure they understand you’re talking
about two events that took place in the past, but one before the other; then, have
students come up with examples of their own using the timeline.
 Once they are comfortable using the past perfect in affirmative sentences, move on
to examples with questions; then have them ask each other questions: “Laura, when
you started primary school, had terrorists attacked the World Trade Center?”

Save the timeline because it will come in handy to practice the past perfect in passive voice.
Naturally, timelines are great for many tenses, like the simple past or the passive voice.

Action!

Nothing shakes them up better than getting them out of their seats. When you see your
students daydreaming, not paying attention, or simply bored, tell them to get up and form a

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circle. Now, this simple exercise works great to teach numerous grammar points, but here’s
an example:

Say you want your students to practice the simple past of regular or irregular verbs. Grab a
small ball or bean bag and say a verb out loud; toss the ball to a student who will have to
say its past form. He or she tosses the ball back to you and you choose another student.
Whenever a student makes a mistake, he or she has to leave the circle. The last student left
standing gets a reward sticker or other prize. You can say a sentence in affirmative, and
they have to supply a question, or vice versa; this activity can be adapted to any grammar
point.

Celebrity Profiles

An awesome way to teach and practice any verb tense is through biographies. Try this
activity to contrast the simple past and present perfect tenses. Find out which celebrities or
sports stars your students admire. Then find a short biography or write one yourself
summarizing a celebrity's main achievements. Read the bio with your students and make
sure they understand the differences. Point out examples that clearly illustrate this: “He
starred in his first hit film in 1985. But he has worked in 20 hit films throughout his career.”

Celebrity Photos

Another way in which you can use your students’ interest in certain celebrities. Cut out
celebrity pics from entertainment magazines (in fact, I recommend stocking up on a big pile
of photos to use in a variety of activities). Use these pictures to teach comparatives and
superlatives: “Katie Holmes is taller than Tom Cruise.”; “Shakira is more talented than Ricky
Martin.”; and it works great with comparative adverbs: “Shakira dances better than Ricky,
too.”

A or an?

This activity works great with beginners, including small children. Cut up a list of several
words that either take “a” or “an” and mix them up. For very young learners, you may use
pictures instead of words. Then divide students into pairs of groups, and have them put the
words in two piles, depending on the article. Once they have their piles ready, ask them if
they can figure out the rule by themselves.

By far the best ways to teach any type of grammar is through the use of either realia or real
life settings and contexts. Why would a student be motivated to learn the conditional tenses
if he has no idea why he’s learning them, in other words, he doesn't understand when and
where he'll have use for them? When teachers use real life settings and objects students will
know the grammar structures they learn will be useful for them.

So, take the cringing out of grammar lessons, and put some fun into them. You’ll see that
your students learn much faster, too.

G - Games that Work Without Fail in the ESL Classroom [Teacher Tips from A to Z]

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Everyone likes to have fun as they learn. One of the advantages to being an ESL teacher is
that there are always games centered around language and words.

You can use these games either to take a day off from the normal classroom routine or to
enhance what you are already teaching your students. Either way, your students are sure to
have fun while they improve their English skills.

Games That Will Work Without Fail in Your ESL Classroom

1. 1

Pre-purchased Games

In stores today, there are many games made for native speakers that are effective in
the ESL classroom. One of the most popular games to use with your ESL students is
Scrabble. Most people know that Scrabble is a game where the players make up
words using preprinted tiles. They score points based on the letters they use and
where they place the word on the board. Ultimately, the player with the highest
score at the end of the game is the winner. This game is useful for ESL students
because it builds their vocabularies in a fun way. If you allow your students to use
an English dictionary, they will learn words as they search for plays on the board.
More often, you, the native speaker, will play a word that they are not familiar with
without even trying. In this case, your students will usually ask the meaning of the
word which you should then explain to them.

Catchphrase is another good game that you can buy to play with your students. The
object of the game is to not get caught on your turn when the buzzer goes off. If you
ever played hot potato when you were a child, this is similar. The way you pass on
the display is by getting the rest of the players to say the word that the display gives
you. You can pass to another word if the word is too hard of you don’t know the
meaning of it, but there are no restrictions in the words you can use to get the other
players to guess, so there should be some word each student can describe. For
example, if your word was “farm” you might say, “a place where they grow
vegetables for money.” The rest of the players can shout out answers at any time.
Once one of them gets the word correct, the player taking his turn passes the display
on to the next person. The newer versions of Catchphrase are electronic, so there are
no pieces to change or lose. This game will also increase the vocabulary of your
students as they play though they may not want to stop to ask for a definition when
they are trying to pass the display to the next student.

2. 2

No Preparation

Several games you can play with your class require little to no preparation.
Charades and Pictionary are both good for reviewing vocabulary with your class.
For both games, divide your class into two teams. One person from each team will
play at the same time as the other. Give each player a word, usually one from a
vocabulary list you have already taught with a previous unit. In charades, each
player must act out the word for his team without using any words. While he acts
out the target word, his team should watch him and guess at the answer. The first
team who correctly guesses the word scores a point. Pictionary is similar except that

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 instead of acting out a word, the player must draw a picture of it on the white board.
She cannot use numbers, letters or symbols in her drawing. Again both teams guess
at the answer, and the team that guesses correctly scores a point. Continue until you
have reviewed all your vocabulary words or until one team has reached a set
amount of points to win the game.

Twenty questions is another game that requires no preparation though it is not as

lively as the previous games. In twenty questions, one player thinks of an object. The
rest of the class then asks yes/no questions to try to narrow down what the object is.
They may ask, “Is it an animal? Is it smaller than a breadbox? Does it live under
water?” After each question, the player answers either yes or no. Based on those
answers, the class must strategically develop a course of questioning. If the class can
guess the object within the twenty-question limit, the class wins. If the class cannot
guess the object, the player wins. You can then choose another player to select an
object for the class to guess. If you want to make sure all your students get practice
asking and answering questions, divide your class into pairs and have each pair play
against each other. Though it is an old-fashioned game, twenty questions is very
useful for reviewing question grammar and getting in speaking practice.

3. 3

Make Your Own Games

When you have the time or inclination, these games take some prep work but
usually only the first time you use them, and you can use them any time you teach
the lesson in the future. Icebreaker tumbling blocks is good for more advanced
students and takes more physical skills than the other games mentioned here.
Purchase a set of stacking blocks (like Jenga though any brand will do) and gather
several icebreaker questions. Then take a permanent marker and write one
icebreaker question on each block. You can use questions like, “Do you prefer a hug
or a kiss? What is your earliest memory? Do you write with pen or pencil? What is the
last song you purchased from i-tunes?” These or any other questions will work. Then
as each person takes his turn, he must pull a block from the bottom of the tower (the
top two rows are off limits), answer the question and then place the block on the top
of the tower. Play continues around the table until someone knocks the tower down.
Your students will enjoy learning more about each other and find the game itself
exciting. No one will want to make the tower fall!

A simple game that you can use with any vocabulary list is the memory game. In this
game, a set of cards is arranged on a table face down and each player may turn over
two cards on her turn. If the cards are a matching pair, she may keep them and then
turn over two more cards. If they do not match, she must turn them back over and
try to remember where each of the cards is located for her next turn. If you are
using this game with beginning students, you can have one card from each pair have
the vocabulary word and the other a picture of the object. For more advanced
students, have the word on one card and the definition on another. You can also
make matching pairs with either synonyms or antonyms depending on the skills of
your students and your goals in teaching. If you provide your students with index
cards, they can even make the pairs themselves. You can then compile all the cards
your students have made and use them together as one set. With this game, you will
need a relatively large playing area, but you can use the cards any time you teach

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 the same material in the future. You can also change it up a little and use the same
matching pairs to play Go Fish for some variety.

Playing games in the ESL classroom is always fun and a nice change of pace from the
normal daily routine.

You can use any of these games to fit in with a unit you are teaching or just use them to
break up the semester. Your students will enjoy themselves as they increase their
vocabularies and laugh with their classmates.

Top 10 Board Games for the ESL Classroom

Board games can be a useful and ready asset for the ESL classroom. Most require little to
no preparation, and with a little patience, your English learners add a new resource to
their language studies. On top of all that, board games are a fun way to learn new
vocabulary and make a change from the normal routine.

Here are some tried but true board games that many ESL classes have enjoyed.

Try These Top 10 Board Games With Your ESL Class!

1. 1

Scrabble

Hundreds of ESL students have played this classic word game. In the game, students
receive a selection of letters which they must use to make word in a crossword style
grid. When you, the teacher, also play, you have the opportunity to introduce
unusual vocabulary to your students. Straying slightly from the rules makes for a
more enjoyable game for nonnative speakers. Try allowing use of the dictionary at
any point for any player and refrain from keeping score.

2. 2

Upwords

Upwords is a game very similar to Scrabble. In this game, students use their
collection of letters to build words on the crossword style grid. Unlike Scrabble, in
Upwords players can place letters on top of existing letters to change a word that is
already on the board. For example, on a player’s turn he may add a T to the word
bash turning it into bath. In this game, your students will see the relationships
between words and recognize patterns in English spelling.

3. 3

Bananagrams

A relative newcomer on the game scene, Banagrams uses letter tiles to create a grid
of words, but in this game no structure is permanent. Players start with a set

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 number of letters and use them to create their own word grid. When one player has
used all of his letters, everyone must draw another tile and incorporate it into their
own structures. Each person can rearrange his word grid as desired. This game can
be fast paced when higher-level students play, but even with less advanced students
it is a ready source for learning new vocabulary. In addition, it teaches students
flexibility with words and spelling structures.

4. 4

Scrabble Slam

Similar to Upwords, Scrabble Slam uses cards printed with letters to modify an
existing word. In this game, there is only one four-letter word on the board and all
players must use their own cards on this word. By the traditional rules, everyone
plays at once, and the player to use all of his cards first wins. However, ESL classes
may want to take turns playing on the word so your class has time to think and
absorb each of the words that are created.

5. 5

Scattergories

Scattergories is a way for your students to practice using the vocabulary they
already know. In this game, students receive a list of ten categories. With a roll of
the 26-sided die, a letter is designated for the round. Players must then think of a
word which begins with that designated letter to fit each of the categories. Answers
may be something like the following: boy’s name/Tom, food/tomato, city/Toronto,
game/tic-tac-toe. A timer is set, and when time is up the group reviews the items they
listed. Any words that more than one player listed are eliminated. Each remaining
word is worth one point. This game can be a challenge for students still learning the
language, but it can easily be adapted for lower level students. Feel free to define
your own categories, linked, perhaps, to a unit you are studying in class and then
continue as usual.

6. 6

Catch Phrase

Catch Phrase is a word guessing game in hot potato style. The starting player has a
disk which gives him a word. He can say anything to get the rest of the players to
guess the word on the screen. Once that word is guessed, he passes the disk on to the
next player. That person then does the same. After a random amount of time, the
disk will signal that time is up, and the person holding the disk at that time receives
a point. The goal of this game is to have as few points as possible. To make the game
easier for your ESL students, you can challenge each person to have his word
guessed before the timer buzzes. Then reset the disk and send it on to the next
player.

7. 7

Taboo

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 Taboo takes the concept of Catch Phrase and brings an even greater challenge. In
this game, players must get their team to guess a given word, but each word comes
with related vocabulary that cannot be used in the description. They key in this
game is to think of another way to give the clues on the card. Players do this by
using similar but not the same vocabulary. You can modify this concept and have
your students write out clues for a given word, avoiding the vocabulary on the card.
Limit the description to four or five sentences. If the class can guess the word from
the clues that are provided, the writer scores a point. You can feel free to use
vocabulary that the class has studied or select specific words from those that the
game supplies. This game challenges your students to be creative with their
language use – a skill that is useful for all language learners.

8. 8

Balderdash

The game of balderdash is best reserved for advanced students. In this game, on his
turn, a player is given an obscure vocabulary word. Each player must create a false
definition of the word in hopes that the other players will believe it is the true
definition. When playing this game, the teacher should be moderator every turn and
correct any grammatical problems in the fictional definitions as well as write the
correct definition on an identical slip of paper. Then s/he should read all of the
definitions to the players who must vote for the one they think is correct. Any player
that guesses correctly scores a point as does any player who receives a vote from
another player.

9. 9

Jenga

Though not a traditional board game, Jenga can be a handy resource for students to
get to know each other. Using any list of icebreaker questions (you can try these: 50
Most Amazing Conversation Starters) , write one question on each block. Then
when your class plays the game, each person must answer the icebreaker before
placing the block on top of the pile. By doing this, your students get speaking
practice while getting to know one another better. Besides, it is always fun to see
who makes the tower fall!

10. 10

I-Spy Books

Create your own board game with pictures from an I-Spy book or any other pictures
that contain a plethora of objects. On a piece of paper, have your students write the
letters of the alphabet from a to z. Then let them look at the picture for a set amount
of time (three to five minutes is good) and try to identify an object that begins with
each letter. Of course, it will be nearly impossible to find an item for every letter, but
by using creative vocabulary and having keen eyesight, your students will be able to
fill in more letters than they might think. This is another game that is good for
vocabulary development and is less threatening for beginning level students.

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Sometimes the best ESL classes do not come from within the pages of a book but from a
piece of cardboard painted with bright colors.

Try one of these games in your classroom or find others that work for you and your
students, and bring a little laughter to today’s learning!

Top 10 Time Fillers For Your Classroom

Try as you might, careful as you are with your planning, sometimes what you plan to cover
in class does not work with the clock.

When you are ready for the bell but the bell is not quite ready for you, try one of the
following time fillers to keep your class busy until it is time to dismiss.

Try These Top 10 Time Fillers With Your Class!

1. 1

Twenty Questions

Do you remember car trips as a child playing twenty questions in the back seat? You
think of a person or object and your siblings have twenty opportunities to ask yes/no
questions to determine what object you are thinking of. This is an easy and short
activity for you to do with your ESL class when you have a few minutes to spare.
The first time you play, your students will need specific direction as to the types of
questions to ask. You should help them understand how to ask strategic questions to
identify the object. The more practice you give your students with this activity, the
better they will get at it, and before long they will be begging you to play!

2. 2

Pictionary

No matter what you are currently studying in class, you most likely have a list of
vocabulary your students need to learn. When that is the case, a few minutes at the
end of class is a great opportunity for either of these two vocabulary revision
activities. Have your current vocabulary list written on index cards that you can use
at a moment’s notice. Then, when you have a few minutes, have one student come
up to the board and select one of the vocabulary words. Set a timer for between one
and three minutes, depending on how difficult you want to make the activity, and
allow him to draw pictures to try to get the class to guess the word. His classmates
can call out their guesses while he draws. He is not allowed to use any letters,
numbers or symbols as he draws. If his classmates correctly guess the word, you can
either give another person a turn or have him select a second word. As you study
more vocabulary throughout the year, add those words to your collection. By the
end of the year, you will have all your vocabulary words collected ready for a review.

3. 3

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 Charades

The second vocabulary revision activity is similar. You can play a few rounds of
charades with your students in a similar manner to the Pictionary activity. Use the
same vocabulary cards, but this time have your student or students act out the
vocabulary word rather than draw it. Either you can have one person act out the
word for the entire class or have two people act out the word for one half of the
class. As is traditional with charades, the actor cannot say anything. The first group
to guess the word wins a point. If you like, keep a running score for the two teams
for a month at a time and then award prizes at the end of the month. Then you can
switch up your teams and seating arrangement for the next month’s competition.

4. 4

Write a Communal story

With a few extra minutes, you can also have your class work together to write a
communal story. Start with one sentence on the board. Have your students take
turns coming up to the board and adding one sentence to the story. Each person will
be able to use his or her creativity to further the story, and the whole class can make
sure the grammar is correct with each addition. The more often you do this, the
more creative your students will become in their additions. It will be fun for your
class to see just how crazy they can get and still keep a logical plot.

5. 5

Why/Because

This silly little game has the potential for some laughs with your students. Give each
person two index cards or two small scraps of paper. On one card, each person
should write a question that begins with the word ‘why’. Then on the second piece of
paper, each person should answer his or her question starting with the word
‘because’. Then collect all the why’s in one pile and all the because’s in another. Mix
up each pile and then read one why card with one because card. The combinations
can be very funny, and then after reading all the random match ups you can have
your students match the correct answers with the correct questions.

6. 6

Would You Rather

This activity is a good one for getting to know your students better. Keep a list of
questions for your students starting with “Would you rather…” For example, you
may ask, “Would you rather be a leader or a follower? Would you rather eat ice cream
or cake? Would you rather have a cat or a dog?” You can be straightforward with
your questions or be creative and out of the box. Ask your class a question and have
your students move to one side of the room if they answer one way, the other side of
the room if they answer the other way. Then ask random students on each side to
explain why they chose the answer that they did. You can do as many or as few
questions as you have time for. You may learn some interesting facts about your
students and their preferences with this activity.

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7. 7

Telephone

This old-fashioned game can get new life in the ESL classroom. Have your students
arrange themselves in a circle around the room. Come up with a long sentence
yourself or have one of your students do it (check to make sure it is grammatical)
and whisper it in the ear of the first student in the circle. The listening student then
has one opportunity to whisper it in the ear of the next student. The process
continues around the circle until it reaches the last person. That person then says
the sentence aloud to the class. You should then tell the class what the original
sentence was. Your class will be surprised at how much the sentence changed as it
travelled around the circle. If you like, challenge your students to be as careful as
they can when speaking and listening and see if the sentence can make it around the
circle with minimal change.

8. 8

White Board Slam

This activity will increase your students’ vocabulary as well as fill time at the end of
class. Start by writing a word on the board that contains four letters. You can start
with anything. Then, challenge your students to come up and change only one letter
of the word to make a new word. If someone has an answer, have him come up and
make the change. Then have another student come up and change the word again.
See how many different combinations your students can come up with by changing
one letter at a time with no word repeats. Also, give them the opportunity to ask for
a definition of any of the words that they may not know throughout the activity.

9. 9

Open Question Session

Sometimes just a simple opportunity to ask questions can benefit your class. If you
have a few minutes, open the floor for your students to ask you questions. They can
be about material you have covered in class, situations they have encountered that
may be unfamiliar culturally, new vocabulary words, or any of many other
possibilities. Likely, the question that one student asks will lead to another from a
second student. Everyone will benefit from hearing the answers, and some students
may even be able to answer questions of their fellow students. If so, let them share
from their knowledge and experience. If no one has the answer but you, share it
with your class and be glad that the question opened the chance to share.

10. 10

Read Aloud Comprehension

If you have a newspaper or magazine with short articles handy, you can also use this
to fill a few minutes in your class. Read aloud a short passage and ask your students
to relate back what they heard or answer comprehension questions. You can never
give your students too many opportunities to practice their listening skills, so the
next time you have a few minutes, read a paragraph or two from the paper and ask

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 your student what the article is about, what they know about the situation from
what they heard, what they think the rest of the article is about, and what else they
would like to know from the rest of the article.

Having some unplanned time at the end of class is not necessarily a bad thing for your
students.

Make the most of the minutes by using one of these engaging and entertaining time filling
techniques. You will be surprised at how quickly the time passes.
See our ‘Warmers, Time Fillers and Ice-Breakers’ category for more short 5-minute lesson
activities!

How To Break The Ice: 5 Creative Ways To Get Your Class Talking

Icebreakers are important when you are trying to get to know your students.

They are even more important if your students do not know one another well either.
Depending on how your school organizes its classes, you may use these types of activities
primarily at the beginning of the school year. You can also adapt icebreakers into activities
to use when starting new topics. It is sometimes easier for students to share their ideas if
they know the rest of the class will have to share theirs too.

Here are some fun icebreakers you can do with almost any class.

Try These Ice-Breakers:

1. 1

Learn The Names

In order to learn students’ names, you can conduct an activity where students take
turns saying their name. You can make this more challenging by having students say
the name of the last student to speak or even the names of all the students who have
already said their name before saying their own name. To make it more interesting
and to learn a little more about your class, ask students to include something specific
such as their favorite cereal, color, sport, or movie. By the end of the activity you
should try your best to say every student’s name. If students are learning the names
of their classmates for the first time, conduct some other name activities for
practice. For one activity, have students stand in a circle, on a student’s turn he
should say a word or sentence related to whatever prompt or topic you choose, and
then call out the name of a classmate to go next.

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2. 2

Find Someone Who...

If students know one another’s names, get them talking about some other topics by
having them play “Find Someone Who ~” where students ask and answer questions
based on pictures or phrases to find someone for each question who can answer
“Yes.” The model question for this activity could be “Do you like ~.” or “Do you
have ~.” After five to ten minutes, depending on the number of questions students
have to ask, have everyone sit down and call on students to read some of the
answers, for example “Ben likes soccer.” this way the class can learn more about
individual students. Try to encourage students to give sentences about people who
have not yet been mentioned. This gives everyone the opportunity to share
something.

3. 3

Talk and Remember

Another activity gets students talking with the people seated around them. Have
students talk to the person to their right about hobbies for instance. After a minute
or two have students turn to the person to their left and talk about another topic.
You could also do this as a mingling exercise where students have a limited amount
of time to exchange information before moving on to the next person and
conversation topic. Be sure to ask some students things they learned about their
peers at the end of the activity so that they try their best to remember the
conversations they had.

4. 4

What's Important
If your class is quite small you may also consider having students think about the
three things they would take with them to a deserted island and then share why they
chose one or all of those things. This is an excellent way of getting to hear about
what is important to your students and how they are able to organize their thoughts.
If your class is larger, you can conduct the same activity in groups which is good for
getting students talking with one another but will exclude you for most of the
activity. Another similar group activity is to have students write down the first word
that pops into their head when they hear you say a certain color. Students can then
discuss why they chose certain words in their groups or just have the student with
the most unusual choice explain his choice. After a few minutes give them another
color to think about and discuss. Groups should present the class with a brief
summary of their discussions towards the end of the lesson.

5. 5

Three Adjectives That Describe You

For introductions, you could also have students choose three adjectives to describe
themselves. Perhaps a the end of the year have students fill in adjectives for all their
classmates, nothing mean spirited, and give students a summary of what their
classmates said about them in the last lesson. This should give students some positive
reinforcement and point out their personality strengths. It may be interesting to
compare these with the adjectives students chose to describe themselves too.

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Icebreakers are excellent because they give students the opportunity to share things about
themselves and learn about their peers. These activities often get students moving or
thinking creatively. They can be lots of fun and dissolve any tension or nervousness there
might be in your classroom. It is important that students be able to interact with one
another easily because learning English is all about communication. Students will need to be
comfortable sharing ideas with the class and talking with other students in groups or in
pairs on a regular basis.

First Lesson Magic: How to Introduce Yourself

First lessons are the perfect opportunity to tell students a little bit about yourself and get to
know something about them as well. This may be your first chance to determine your
students’ English level so it is important to encourage them to speak as much as possible.

How to Proceed

1. 1

Warm up

Most teachers find one or two great warm up activities and use them often in their
classes. If you have an activity that you like to start classes with, the first lesson may
be the perfect time to introduce it to your new students. If you are not attached to
any particular warm up activities, you can use the first five to ten minutes of this
lesson to generate an interest in the topic, in this case, yourself. One way to do this is
to have students guess things about you such as where you are from. You can use a
handout of about fifteen questions for this activity and leave enough space for
students to write their guesses as well as space to write the correct answer which
they will learn later on in the lesson.

2. 2

Introduce

Especially if you are from another country, students will be very interested in
hearing about where you are from and specific cultural aspects of your country.
Using pictures or flashcards will help students grasp the meaning of your self
introduction without understanding every single word or sentence. The best
approach is to use the simplest possible language during this section of the lesson. If
students seem to understand the material very well you can prompt them to
complete sentences based on the materials you are showing them to give them an
opportunity to demonstrate things they have already learned. If you plan to do an
activity later based on the introduction, you may have to repeat the material a
couple times.

3. 3

13
 Practice

Now that your class has learned a bit about you, have them fill in the correct
answers on the worksheet you gave them earlier or ask them questions based on
your presentation and see if they can answer them. This will give you time to
evaluate your students’ level and also see what they understood from your
presentation. If your presentation was too easy or difficult, you can adjust it before
presenting to other classes.

4. 4

Icebreaker

At this point an activity would be important. You can use an ice breaker to get
everyone moving and more relaxed. This also shifts the focus of the lesson from you
to the students. Starting the activity yourself will give students an example of what
they are being asked for. A very simple exercise would be to say your name and
favorite color and have students take turns doing this. If your class has been
together for years and years and the students are very familiar with each other, you
may even ask the student whose turn it is to say all the students’ names that have
been said already before saying his own. This will give you more time to learn the
names and you can end the activity by attempting to say all the names in order.

5. 5

Produce

Now you can ask students to volunteer to give self introductions. This activity can be
structured a number of ways. If giving a full self introduction is too challenging, ask
students to just say one thing about themselves or to use the worksheet as a guide so
that if the first question on the worksheet was “Where are you from?” the first
volunteer can answer that question. Encourage all students to participate.

6. 6

Review

Use the last three to five minutes of class to have students ask you any questions they
might have. This can be intimidating so you could expand it into a larger activity
where students work in groups to think of a question to ask. The benefit of being the
first group to ask a question is that no one else has asked the question already. Tell
students that questions cannot be repeated so if another group asks the question
first, they will have to think of a different one.

The first lesson is very important. You have to strike a balance between having fun and
maintaining order in the classroom. Students need to respect you in order for you to have
control of the classroom environment so use the first lesson to introduce yourself, learn
something about your students, have fun, and establish your authority.

How to Write a Lesson Plan: 5 Secrets of Writing Great Lesson Plans

14
Writing a lesson plan will ensure that you are prepared for your class and will make it run
more smoothly. It is important to break the material up into several sections and choose
activities suitable for each. Knowing approximately how much time an activity will take is
important, but after the first lesson you may need to adjust things accordingly. It is best to
be flexible seeing as different classes will respond to material differently. If at any point
students struggle, you will have to dedicate more time to instruction or drilling before
moving on to practice activities. For the purposes of this example let’s assume that an
English class is forty-five minutes long.

How To Proceed

1. 1

Warm up
A warm up activity can be used in a number of ways. It can get your students
thinking about material that will be used later on in the class, review material from
a previous class, or simply get your students thinking in English, moving around, or
awake. This activity should only take up a small portion of your lesson, perhaps five
minutes.

2. 2

Introduction
A good introduction will create a need for students to learn the material you are
going to present and get them interested in the day’s topic. This is the part of the
lesson where the teacher does the most talking so try to get students involved and
use choral repetition to keep students talking about half the time. Depending on how
complex the topic is or how much new vocabulary there is, the introduction could
take some time but in most cases, about ten minutes should be sufficient.

3. 3

Practice
The practice activity would normally be about ten minutes and have students
working individually or in pairs. Practicing model dialogues, completing
worksheets, and doing short activities would be appropriate. This may take about
ten minutes including going over the answers or having some demonstrations.

4. 4

Production
In the production activity students should have to produce material on their own.
Rather than reading sentences, perhaps they have to answer questions or make their
own sentences. Longer activities such as board games, which can be played in
groups, or activities for the whole class, where students work in teams, would be
best. The remaining class time can be devoted to this activity.

5. 5

15
 Review
It is a good idea to plan another five minute activity that can be done at the end of
class as a review or used as the warm up in the following lesson. If the production
activity does not take up the remaining portion of the class period, you have a
backup plan.

Important
When writing lesson plans, be sure to include what part of the textbook you are covering in
the lesson, the target structure, new vocabulary, directions for all the activities you intend to
use, and the approximate time each section of your lesson will take. The idea behind a lesson
plan is that another teacher could pick it up and successfully teach your class without
further instructions. If there is an activity where you plan to ask the students questions so
that they use the past tense in their responses, write down the questions you plan to ask. It is
more difficult to think of appropriate questions on the spot and you are more likely to ask
them a question using vocabulary they are unfamiliar with as well. If there is a group
activity in the lesson, write down about how many students should be in each group because
two to four students is a lot different than five to ten. Writing out your lesson plan can also
help you figure out what material you must prepare for a lesson because if your production
activity will only take about ten minutes, then you are obviously going to need an additional
activity to end the class with.

Not all lessons will be conducted the same. In some instances, the introduction of new
material may take an entire lesson or the production activity may be an entire lesson. It is
always good to have familiar activities to fall back on in case something doesn’t work quite
the way you had planned. If students are playing the board game without actually speaking,
in other words just moving their pieces around the board, they are not getting the necessary
practice so you may have to either join the group having difficulties or change activities
altogether.

At any rate, lesson plans are enormously helpful and if the following year you find yourself
teaching the same material, preparation will be a breeze.

Do you have any advice on how to write lesson plans? Please share your best practices in the
comments below!

How to Write a Lesson Plan: 5 Secrets of Writing Great Lesson Plans

Writing a lesson plan will ensure that you are prepared for your class and will make it run
more smoothly. It is important to break the material up into several sections and choose
activities suitable for each. Knowing approximately how much time an activity will take is
important, but after the first lesson you may need to adjust things accordingly. It is best to
be flexible seeing as different classes will respond to material differently. If at any point
students struggle, you will have to dedicate more time to instruction or drilling before
moving on to practice activities. For the purposes of this example let’s assume that an
English class is forty-five minutes long.

16
How To Proceed

1. 1

Warm up
A warm up activity can be used in a number of ways. It can get your students
thinking about material that will be used later on in the class, review material from
a previous class, or simply get your students thinking in English, moving around, or
awake. This activity should only take up a small portion of your lesson, perhaps five
minutes.

2. 2

Introduction
A good introduction will create a need for students to learn the material you are
going to present and get them interested in the day’s topic. This is the part of the
lesson where the teacher does the most talking so try to get students involved and
use choral repetition to keep students talking about half the time. Depending on how
complex the topic is or how much new vocabulary there is, the introduction could
take some time but in most cases, about ten minutes should be sufficient.

3. 3

Practice
The practice activity would normally be about ten minutes and have students
working individually or in pairs. Practicing model dialogues, completing
worksheets, and doing short activities would be appropriate. This may take about
ten minutes including going over the answers or having some demonstrations.

4. 4

Production
In the production activity students should have to produce material on their own.
Rather than reading sentences, perhaps they have to answer questions or make their
own sentences. Longer activities such as board games, which can be played in
groups, or activities for the whole class, where students work in teams, would be
best. The remaining class time can be devoted to this activity.

5. 5

Review
It is a good idea to plan another five minute activity that can be done at the end of
class as a review or used as the warm up in the following lesson. If the production
activity does not take up the remaining portion of the class period, you have a
backup plan.

Important
When writing lesson plans, be sure to include what part of the textbook you are covering in
the lesson, the target structure, new vocabulary, directions for all the activities you intend to
use, and the approximate time each section of your lesson will take. The idea behind a lesson
plan is that another teacher could pick it up and successfully teach your class without
further instructions. If there is an activity where you plan to ask the students questions so

17
that they use the past tense in their responses, write down the questions you plan to ask. It is
more difficult to think of appropriate questions on the spot and you are more likely to ask
them a question using vocabulary they are unfamiliar with as well. If there is a group
activity in the lesson, write down about how many students should be in each group because
two to four students is a lot different than five to ten. Writing out your lesson plan can also
help you figure out what material you must prepare for a lesson because if your production
activity will only take about ten minutes, then you are obviously going to need an additional
activity to end the class with.

Not all lessons will be conducted the same. In some instances, the introduction of new
material may take an entire lesson or the production activity may be an entire lesson. It is
always good to have familiar activities to fall back on in case something doesn’t work quite
the way you had planned. If students are playing the board game without actually speaking,
in other words just moving their pieces around the board, they are not getting the necessary
practice so you may have to either join the group having difficulties or change activities
altogether.

At any rate, lesson plans are enormously helpful and if the following year you find yourself
teaching the same material, preparation will be a breeze.

Do you have any advice on how to write lesson plans? Please share your best practices in the
comments below!

How To Teach Boring Grammar Points: 7 Quick Proven Tips

Most ESL teachers at some point have come across a certain grammar point that they
struggle to find activities to liven up the class or add some life into it.

Mine personally is the dreaded ‘Gerunds versus Infinitives’ lesson that always seems to crop
up. Most of us generally loathe the topic and would rather find ourselves watching an
episode of ‘Days Of Our Lives’ or, even worse, a drama series of our local country, rather
than teaching that horrible topic again. The bad news is, when we think like this, it can
negatively affect the vibe of class without ourselves even realising it. When we find a topic
boring, we can generally pass this vibe onto students. This is something that all teachers
must look out for, as when a student loses focus, it is very difficult to gain their attention.
The best approach is to keep the energy levels of your class high and vibrant. There are a
number of tips and tricks that can be adapted for all lessons, grammar points and topics
that will keep your students focused and in the right frame of mind for learning.

How To Teach Boring Grammar Points: 7 Quick Proven Tips

1. Show off your best asset

No, I’m not referring to your chiselled face, voluptuous curves, and especially not
your bank account. I’m talking about your personality. When you’re teaching a
grammar point that you know is boring and the students will switch off over, lighten
up, smile and become an ‘Edu-tainer’. As an ‘Edu-tainer’, your task is to keep them
interested and attentive. Be funny, amusing and light hearted while at the same time
teaching the dry-as-hell topic. You can throw in jokes, be a little bit irrelevant at
times, just turn on the charm and keep them from falling asleep on the desk.

18
2. 2

Be a little unexpected

One little gem I like to use in the classroom when teaching a boring topic, is to keep
them thinking. Instead of feeding them the answers or elicit the answer out of them,
I like to keep them on their toes. One such method is to give the students an answer
to a question that is incorrect, and see how long it takes the students to recognise the
error. Being unexpected means that they must always be thinking, and they are not
going to find themselves anticipating the answers.

3. 3

Tell a story

If you are explaining a grammar point, why not keep your students amused and
educated with a story. This is a good way to keep their attention while explaining
some of the more dull aspects of grammar. Great for children and lower-level adults,
a well-known story such as The Hare and the Tortoise are the best choices. Using a
short story that the students know provides the students with a picture and connect
the grammar with an event in the story.

4. 4

Take the tabloid approach

One nifty little way to liven up any lesson is to use the lives of celebrities to explain a
grammar point. To do this, find out about a local celebrity in the country, find out
who they’ve been dating, associated with, previously dated, been married to, been
embroiled in some form of scandal, and create a time line while explaining the tense.

Example: Tom Cruise was married to Nicole Kidman (Past tense – Finished Action,
They’re divorced

Tom Cruise married Katie Holmes after he had divorced Nicole Kidman (Past tense,
finished action / Past Perfect – the first action to happen in the past).

No matter what the topic, taking a popularist approach by using celebrities in a

class is always bound to entertain while adding a sense of realism to your lesson.

5. 5

Be practical

I am personally a big advocate of teaching English that students will find beneficial
and useful in their jobs or their lives. One way I like to do this is to try to use
practical examples wherever possible. It is incredibly simple and can even be
improvised on the spot. An example is explaining tenses by throwing a pen. By
actively going through the motions, saying the sentences and explain the points
while doing it, you can keep your students attention on you while teaching them the
grammar point. For topic specific tasks, another great way for students to learn

19
 vocabulary is to create a presentation. One example is a class Fashion Show to talk
about clothes and accessories or a role-play to practice vocabulary and phrases
related to food and dining.

6. 6

Use the news

English language newspapers are fantastic for students to learn about English as
they generally use simple words and provide an example of what’s happening
around the world that the student’s may already know in their native language. This
allows them to easily connect the times and even some of the more difficult
vocabulary in the newspaper article, while the timing implications of a the events of
the news article can be used to describe tense. Newspapers are a good introductory
activity for any class, as they provide a real-life vocabulary source that can then
progress into a discussion, before getting into the grammatical deep-end. See ‘How
to Teach Current Events to ESL Students’.

7. 7

Play a game

Have you ever been in class and noticed that the following exercise in the book was a
typical ‘fill in the gaps’ or something that you knew would send the students far
away into a dreamlike trance? Well, this is the point where you can tell the students
to stop everything, put their pens down, close books and stand up. Students love
competition with each other, and any activity where two teams can be created and
scoring is involved is a sure-winner with any tasks. Instead of having the students
complete the activity in the book, in silence and on their own, they can learn and
have fun at the same time by working together as a group.

Practically any grammar point can be ‘spuced up’ with a little help of fun activities that will
keep you and your students from falling asleep.

We’d love to know what works for you, so leave us a comment with your tips and tricks of
turning the dullest, driest lesson into educational gold that captivates the students.

What You Can Do With a Song: 5 Creative ESL Listening Activities

Practicing listening skills in class can be a real drag to a student, marking the correct
answer in their workbook, while listening to repetitive dialogues voiced by the same
people, over and over again. This is where the student’s mind begins to shut down and
take a five-minute breather, and whatever happening outside captures their
wandering attention.

20
Listening involves a great deal of concentration, and so when the brain has switched off and
gone for lunch, the listening skills follow suit.

How can teachers avoid this from happening, you ask?

Well, the answer is simple. Why not try something a little different. Think outside of the box
and provide the students with something that you may not have tried before.

Songs provide a great alternative to listening tasks, as they are effectively the same dull
listening exercises, but dressed in disguise as something that’s entertaining and fun.

Another reason why songs are great in the classroom is that they can be used as part of an
entertaining and amusing, yet thoroughly educational warmer that will set right tone for the
remainder of the lesson.

You don’t have to do a song and dance about it? Just a song on its own would be fine, thank
you.

Adding the occasional song along with an accompanied activity to your class every once in a
while, you’re giving the students more variety in the class. This keeps their attention
towards you, their brain’s switched on and a stronger ability to listen for detail in the long
run.

Here’s some creative activities that are aimed to not only entertain students, but to inspire
and educate as well.

5 Creative ESL Song Activities

1. 1

An opener for classroom discussions and debates

Before getting started on a debate, a song could be played to give an idea of the
situation. So for example, a classroom discussion on crime and punishment is on the
cards, an oldie but a goodie like The Clash and Bobby Fuller Four’s ‘I Fought The
Law’ (see the Green Day’s version here) provides a great little opener while getting
the students thinking about the concept of “Fighting the law” and the law winning.
This can also lead to some interesting topics such as why people turn to crime,
justice, as well as the consequences of crime.

2. 2

Tense explanations

As English grammar is heavily reliant on whether an action is completed or

unfinished, songs can help paint a clear picture of the timing implications tense. A
great song that provides a good example is Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac’s
‘Landslide.’ A much simpler explanation, for example between present tense and
past tense is ‘Yesterday’ by the Beatles. An easy lesson plan for pre-intermediate level
students is to print out the lyrics, play the song numerous times, and get the students
to underline the present and past tenses in different colours. An adaption to this

21
 activity give the choice between the present and past tenses, with the students
required to underline the correct form of the verb. Boring exercise made fun with
the simple introduction of a song.

3. 3

Conditionals

There are literally hundreds of sounds out there that involve conditionals. Using a
song like Beyonce’s ‘If I Were A Boy’ will not provide a clear image to the concept of
conditionals, but also bring you to new levels of “cool” in the eyes of your students.
The entire song details some of the things she would do if she was just a boy for one
day. Getting your students to put their thinking caps on and be a little creative, get
them to talk about if they could do something for just one day. The whole class will
surely have a laugh at some of the hilarious responses.

4. 4

New Vocabulary Builder

Songs can also be used as an aid to build the vocabulary of students. With songs on
practically every topic on the planet, it’s incredibly simple to find a song relating to
a specific topic and using examples from the song to teach the students. One
example of this is a note taking activity using the song ‘New York’ by U2. If, for
example, the topic of the class is cities, the students would be instructed to take notes
about specific details in the song relating to one of the most famous cities in the
world, New York. Note taking is an important skill for students as many will one day
be faced with that challenge in their professional lives, while the song adds an
element of depth to the class.

5. 5

Working out the context

One of the great things about some of the more lyrical songs is that they don’t serve
the answers up to the student on a silver platter. They involve the student to think
about what is really going on, based on not just the words but also the feelings,
emotions and other variables. One example of a song that really gets students
thinking is the song ‘Father and Son’ by Cat Stevens. What makes this song quite a
brain bender is Stevens’ singing both the parts of the father and the son. If students
can work out the context of what is being said, the answers become blindingly
obvious. An exercise like this works out great with a conversation class as the
students can put forward their ideas about what is happening in the song.

So there you have it, a few simple activities that will acclaim from your students and add the
all-important variety into your class.

All it takes is a little bit of adaption and some creative thought, and you will be almost as
much of a genius as me.

A few final points of advice for using songs in the classroom:

22
  If you use a cassette tape to play the song, anyone in the class born after 1995 will
look at you in total confusion and puzzlement
 Don’t play songs like Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues, not even we know
what he’s talking about there.
 Listen to the CD before you play it in class. The last thing your four-year old
kindergarten students need is to hear your mix tape of death metal or happy
hardcore.

10 Easy Ways of Sprucing Up Your Classes

Many teachers sometimes will feel, at one point in their careers, that they need a change of
tactics. This could be for a variety of different reasons. Perhaps they feel that their
methods are not working anymore, and they are not engaging the students in the ways
that they used to. A lot of people feel that they themselves might even be getting bored
with the particular method of teaching.

This can have its toll on a teacher’s performance. As a result, it is important for them to
think of new ways and refresh their old outlook. Many people will also find that having a
look through the notes of other teachers will also help. Ultimately, our goal is to teach
students how to speak English, and in order to do so we must keep the students interested
and engaged. But for this to happen, we ourselves need to be interested as well. It can be
very discouraging for a student if the teacher doesn’t really seem to care about the topic at
hand and appears bored in the class. This will have a detrimental effect on their learning
and will be the complete opposite of what we are trying to do. Following, one will find a
number of teacher-tested ways in which one’s teaching methods can be “spruced up” and
passion restored.

Spruce Up Your Classes Today: Here's How:

1. 1

Speak With Other Teachers

Some teachers will work on a freelance basis and therefore may not have a lot of
contact with others. Usually they will be sent out to various businesses and have
little contact with others, save for the occasional e-mail and phone call from the
company. Taking time to meet and talk to other teachers will give one some insight
into any new methods that might be out at the moment. It can be a great learning
experience for everyone involved. Everybody will go away having learned something
new and will be able to apply it to their classes. This will be easier for teachers who
work in a language school which they are at for most of the day. Over coffee in the
morning, or during lunch break, it might be a good idea to sit down and see how
one’s colleagues are handling certain situations. Speaking about any problems that
are happening with certain students at the moment, and gaining solutions to them,
will also help.

2. 2

Observe Another Teacher

23
 This is a very good idea for teachers who are new to the game. It is something that
normally slips many peoples’ minds but it is definitely something everyone should
do. If one is lucky enough to teach in a set language school, then this should be no
problem. Ask that teacher if they don’t mind you sitting in on their class, taking
notes and seeing how they work their method. Very useful tips and hints can be
picked up here so it is important to record everything that goes on. Note how they
interact with students, what sort of games they use to challenge the students’
speaking skills, and see how they distribute talking time amongst them. All of these
can give you better ideas at how to teach.

3. 3

Attend Training Seminars

Have a look on the Internet for any teacher training courses that might be available
at the moment. Depending one where one lives, there may be very few. Usually in
foreign countries, English speakers and teachers tend to stick together so it won’t be
too difficult to network with others in order to find out what is going on at the
moment. Sometimes it might even be a good idea to do an additional TEFL
certification course in order to get some new tips and ideas, as well as boost one’s
own qualifications. Sometimes companies will offer training courses as well to their
employees.

4. 4

Try New Methods

The Internet is a great resource in this day and age. There is a lot of information out
there, so a good idea would be to have a look through the reams of information and
see what might be out there. Some teachers, particularly if they have been teaching
for a long time, might be a little more set in their ways and therefore less willing to
change. Be open to experimentation and you might find methods that work even
better than your old ones did.

5. 5

Books

Never underestimate what you can find in books. Like the Internet, there is a lot of
useful information out there. Reread what you have already read before, and try
and see if you can apply it in a new way!

6. 6

Give the Students a Chance to Teach

This is a very interesting exercise which could wield some even more interesting
results. This is particularly useful if one happens to find that one student tends to
dominate the class with their talking. Get them to go up to the board and ask them
to explain a specific concept. Do not make it seem like you are punishing them,
however. Allow them to get a feel for what it is like to be the teacher, and see if they
can explain a particular subject to you in an understandable way.

24
 7. 7

Be Creative

There are many ways in which a teacher can creatively get a class learning. Having
the class come up with a story - particularly for younger learners - is a great way of
getting everyone interested. A lot of amusing situations can be imagined, and
everyone involved will have a lot of fun creating characters.

8. 8

Challenge Your Students

Don’t make things easy for them. Giving them increasingly more complex tasks and
sentences will keep the students on edge and keep the wheels in their heads turning.
When studying, we need to be constantly challenged in order to learn more. Once
they have mastered one particular aspect of language, the students will gain a lot
more confidence.

9. 9

Plan Your Lessons Differently

When beginning, the new teacher goes into a class with all the best intentions. They
will probably be very meticulous about what they do and plan their classes down to
the very smallest detail. While it is always a good idea to plan one’s classes, you
might find that sometimes things never go according to plan. In this spirit, one
should take a new approach to planning a lesson. Perhaps jot down a few ideas
which the class can be based around, and work from there.

10. 10

Use Media

When you think about it, there many different ways to teach a class. Even in a place
where there are very poor resources, one might be lucky enough to have access to a
computer or the Internet. If this is the case, then one can come up with a whole
range of different ideas for helping the students learn. One great way to help
children learn is through the use of rhyming songs.

As you can see, sprucing up one’s classes takes a little bit of thought and effort. Sometimes
people need a bit of change in their lives, and therefore one needs to be able to adapt
to particular situations.

Always remember to keep the students’ best interests in mind, but also remember that a
happy teacher will make for a more fun and interesting class!

25
Teacher-Tested Ways To Keep A Class Interesting

Many teachers will find that a particular class might drag. For them, this could sometimes
be a once-off thing and generally they get on well with a particular group of people.
But everyone, now and then, will come across a group of students who appear bored
by everything.

There could be a number of reasons for this. When teaching in a large company, it could be
that the people there are only doing it to get out of work. Having a language trainer in is a
great excuse for many people to skive off for a bit. Children might be taking classes because
their parents are making them: this is usually the case. Therefore, one needs to keep the
students interested and engaged at all times. Allowing them to become bored will cause their
minds to wander. Not paying attention will mean that they will absorb very little
information. Here are several pieces of advice which a teacher can use in order to keep a
class’s attention.

Try These Ideas To Keep Your Class Interesting

1. 1

Role Play

Putting two people into a situation where they have to act out specific roles can be a
very effective method of language learning. A lot of people quite enjoy this, too.
There are many benefits. The student isn’t simply sitting there and passively taking
notes: they are actively involved in the class and hat is going on. They need to think
creatively, and this will stimulate the mind in a specific way. Using the language they
already know, the students will be able to come up with new words and phrases. It is
important to start the class off, perhaps, on a warmer exercise by giving them a set
dialogue. After this, however, one is completely free to allow the students to follow
their own dialogue and see where it ends up. See our collection of role play ideas
here.

2. 2

Games

Games are definitely a great way to keep people engaged. Both children and adults
enjoy them, but these are especially important for children. Turning class time into
play time, and helping them to speak English is definitely a good idea. Teachers of
younger learners will discover that the kids will pick up the language a lot quicker.
Bingo is often a good idea for teaching beginners, particularly if one is teaching
numbers. People can get very competitive, and it is important to make sure that
even if arguments arise they must speak in English. This way, the class’s attention
will be held.

3. 3

Writing Exercises

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 Allow your students’ creativity to flow. Writing doesn’t have to be a boring exercise.
Perhaps give them a topic and, in groups, let your students think up all kinds of
situations for particular characters. This way they will be able to come up with their
own unique story. Tell them to write out a plan, a draft and then write the story in
full. Beforehand, however, have a brainstorming session to which everyone can
contribute. Another great idea is to have a brainstorming session about two
characters, and write half of the story up on the board with help from the students.
Afterwards, pair them off or get them into groups and ask them to finish the rest of
the story off. People will be interested in finding out what is going to happen next,
and their attention will be fixed on the readers.

4. 3

Chinese Whispers

This little activity is usually a schoolyard game but it can be a very interesting
exercise in terms of language. Students might find it amusing with the kind of words
and sentences that one comes up with in the end. In order to play this game, seat the
students in a circle if at all possible. Start from one end, and think up a sentence but
do not tell the rest of the class. Whisper it to the first student in the line, and have
them whisper it to the person next to them. Usually the end result is completely
different from the one which they began with!

5. 4

Sudden Death

This is a very simple game which language teachers everywhere use in order to test
vocabulary. It will keep the students on edge. Give them a list of vocabulary to
memorize within a few minutes. This will give them something to focus on and, once
time is up, have everybody stand up. At random, ask students to describe a
particular word. If they get it right, they remain standing. If not, then they have to
sit down. Other names for this also include “bowling” or “knock out”.

These are of course, only a few ideas. It won’t be difficult for the skilled teacher to come up
with more interesting ways of keeping a class’s attention. Classes need to be
interesting in order to allow the students to keep thinking. There is no use in them
just sitting there, taking notes and learning passively. Language learning is an active
and creative process. It needs to be taken advantage of as much as possible.

Allowing your students creative freedom in their learning is essential. Learning off set
phrases is useful up until a point. After that, they need to be able to understand why a
particular word is said in a particular way, and how they can manipulate it to suit the
current situations.

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10 Fresh Roleplay Ideas for General English

Role plays are an excellent way of getting your students to practise their English. They
simulate real life situations and allow them to act out what they would do in a real
situation.

There are two ways a role play can go: scripted and non-scripted. With a scripted role play,
the teacher might use an example in a text book. This is a good idea for a warm up exercise,
by getting everyone to split up into pairs and allow them to speak to their partner, taking on
different roles. Non-scripted ones are when students are given a role each and must use
whatever knowledge they have in order to speak with that partner. Below is a list of ideas
for a general English class. This can be adapted to suit a situation.

Try These Fresh Role Play Activities With Your Class

1. 1

Telephone Conversation

Speaking on the phone is different to a face-to-face conversation because one relies

solely on language to communicate. Get the students who are practicing to sit back
to back in order for this to work properly. There is a whole range of ideas which one
can use to act this out. Examples include: phoning to make a complaint, speaking to a
friend or inquiring about a job position.

2. 2

Going to the Shop

A great one for younger learners as it will teach them the basics of interacting with
people. Children generally rely on their parents to buy things for them, therefore
this will boost their overall general confidence in buying. It can be as simple or as
complex as one wishes, depending on the situation. Key phrases are often important
here, such as “I would like…” “How much are…” “Good morning…” and so forth.

3. 3

Booking a Hotel

This will allow students to practise a specific type of language. Usually this will be
formal language as it is a business conversation. This can also be done in the format
of a telephone conversation, or it could be someone approaching a text. There is a
wide range of opportunity here for the students to learn new forms of vocabulary.

4. 4

Sharing Opinions

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 Choose a topic that everyone appears to be interested in. Get the students to pair up
and give them a list of questions to follow (for example, see our ‘130 Topics for
Discussion (more than 2000 questions) For Any Level’). This will allow them to
come up with their own phrases and use language in a much more practical way.

5. 5

Job Interview

Work is usually a good topic to begin with when teaching adults. Many are learning
English in order to improve their career prospects. As a result, a job interview role
play is an excellent way to get the class learning that all important material. Again,
this can be scripted or non-scripted. A good idea would be to have the interviewer
have a list of set questions, and the students can take it from there.

6. 6

Getting Everyone to Speak

A traditional method is to ask the class to pair off. Of course, one cannot monitor
every student particularly if the class is quite large. Therefore, it is important to
make sure everyone is speaking and getting the most out of the language they know.
If one has time, have each individual group come up to the top of the class and speak
in front of everyone else. This will allow people to use their language more
creatively.

7. 7

Argument Between Neighbours

Again, this is a new opportunity for learning different types of vocabulary. This
could be between two neighbours who are having an argument. Perhaps one plays
music too loudly in the middle of the night and is disturbing the rest of the apartment
block. This can be as absurd or ridiculous as the students’ want, as long as they are
speaking and using the language correctly. Some of the situations thought up can be
quite amusing. See some suggested situations here: “Neighbour Problems Role
Play”.

8. 8

Body Language

Body language is just as important as spoken language, so in their role plays try and
let the students get into the role. Of course, one does not have to be an expert at
acting but it is important for them to get a feel of the flow of the conversation. Using
body language effectively will allow them to become a lot more in tune with the
language they are using.

9. 9

Debate

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 Debates are a brilliant way of encouraging language use. This is because they can
become somewhat heated, and many new words can come up. It is important to
choose a topic which might not be too controversial to some students. Remember to
be sensitive to their age group and the general attitude of the particular country.
Divide the class into two sides and give them each a side of an argument to defend.

10. 10

Have Fun

When it comes to role plays, it is all about the creative use of language. The student
must put what they know to the test. This doesn’t mean they have to list off a boring
dialogue. Allow them to be as creative as they can. Put them into challenging
situations, and this will allow them to think of new ways of saying things.

Role plays can work as a great ice breaker for the beginning of the class.

Always remember to be sensitive to any particular issues at the time, however, and be wary
of the students’ age. Usually, the likes of filing a complaint will not really be of interest to
children. Once the students are having fun and speaking English, there are no limits to their
own learning!

Pair Work vs. Group Work: What's Better For The Learner?

Both pair work and group work have a place in ESL classes.

Using a variety of seating arrangements and groupings of students is important as it allows

learners to practice different types of things. Working with others gives students the
opportunity to interact with a variety of people and learn from one another. It also
encourages cooperation which will help students get along in class and could reduce the
number of student outbursts too.

The Perfect Balance Between Pair Work And Group Work

1. 1

Appropriate Activities & Benefits

Pair work is great for practicing model dialogues, playing games such as battleship,
conducting vocabulary checks, and completing worksheets. Working in pairs gives
individual students a lot of speaking time. If working together, students will often
have more confidence than when completing exercises individually. If students are
competing with their partners, they will be more motivated. Students can work in
groups or form teams for role plays, races, games such as board games or card
games, and discussions. Groups give students the opportunity to create more
complex dialogues, explore relationships between characters, pool knowledge
together, and have a more social learning environment. Additionally there is a better
chance for self correction or peer correction and for a discussion on a wider range of

30
 thoughts and opinions with larger group sizes. On the other hand, individual
speaking time is limited when working in groups. You can increase the amount of
speaking time students have by decreasing the size of groups to three or four people.
If you are in a large class and want all the groups to present material at the end of
the lesson, larger groups may be necessary but limit group size to about six.

2. 2

Monitoring

Pair work is harder to monitor than group work because there are going to be many
more pairs of students than groups of students. Be sure that everyone has a very
clear understanding of the material before beginning any activity. The best way to
monitor students working in pairs or groups is to walk around the classroom during
the activity correcting students who make mistakes and answering questions. You
can gauge the effectiveness of the activity by doing comprehension tests afterwards.
If students are having difficulty with material after completing an activity, it is likely
that they practiced incorrect structures during the exercise. This is unfortunate and
highlights why it is so important to ensure that students understand material by
completing practice exercises as a class before asking them to work in pairs or
groups. If you find that students have practiced incorrect material, you have to
review the key points of the target structure again and be sure to explain everything
more thoroughly before using the same activity with another class.

3. 3

Pairing/Grouping Students

If students sit in the same seats for the entire year, they are likely to be paired with
the same person throughout the course. For pairs that work well together, this is a
good thing but usually not everyone benefits from having the same partner for a
long period of time. Try to change the assigned seating regularly so that everyone
can maximize the amount they learn in class and have an opportunity to work with
different people. Creating different groups of students is easy especially if seating
arrangements change throughout the year. If your class size is under thirty, you may
be able to group students by row or column for activities. You can also tell students
sitting near each other to form groups or have students count off for example from
one to five and then ask students who said the same number to form a group. In
order to better facilitate this method of forming groups, direct students who said
each number to different areas of the room. Keep in mind that if students count off
from one to five, there will be only five groups so you need to determine which
number will divide your students into appropriately sized groups.

Besides pair work and group work, students can also complete activities individually and as
a class.

Mixing up the structure of your activities will keep classes interesting but be sure not to
waste a lot of time rearranging the classroom. If you make groups for an activity at the
beginning of class, it may be best to stick with that arrangement for the duration of the
lesson.

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Too Loud To Be Heard: Handling Noise Levels in Your ESL Classroom

While ESL classes should encourage students to speak English, you also need to maintain an
environment in which everyone can be heard. Depending on the activities you choose
to do in class and the nature of your students, keeping noise levels reasonable can be
challenging especially with younger students.

Ideally your classroom will be an area in which everyone can participate and students listen
respectfully to one another. Let’s talk about some ways to achieve this.

How to Handle Noise Levels In Your ESL Classroom

1. 1

Class Activities

For activities that are being done as a class such as checking homework, a student
wishing to speak should raise his hand rather than call out. This is a common rule in
classrooms around the world but some students easily forget this basic guideline. If
you reward students for volunteering answers, simply say that answers that are
shouted out will not count towards their participation points and that they have to
take turns and respect one another. This should help encourage students to raise
their hands. Some more tips on teaching large groups can be found here: ‘How To
Teach Large Groups: The More The Merrier?’

If you are doing a team activity where everyone is working frantically and loudly
with their teams members, consider having a bell or some other noisemaker so that
you can save your voice when signaling the end of the activity. You can only shout
“Go back to your seats!” so many times before your voice gives out and there is no
need to strain yourself. It is fun to do these types of activities so you just have to
have a plan for dealing with the noise. Choose something and stick with it so that
students can become used to your chosen system of communication.

When doing loud activities consider the classes around you too. If you think your
students may be so loud that other classes will be affect make a different lesson plan,
change the activity, try to meet in another location, or at the very least ensure that
those other classes will not be taking exams and tell your students at the beginning
of the activity that they should keep it down. It could be that the majority of your
classes have absolutely no problem with volume while one just goes absolutely crazy.
Remember this next time you want to do a similar activity.

Group Work & Pair Work

32
 When students are working in groups or in pairs, they should keep their voices at a
normal level. You may want your students to be interested in learning English but,
with the exceptions of performing role plays, students are usually not going to be so
overly enthusiastic that they must raise their voices. Remind students that there are
other people working and that you have to be able to hear learners who are
practicing. Some role plays will require more emotion and volume variation based
on the situation you are working with. Even your students that are enthusiastic
actors should keep themselves in check. If you find yourself repeatedly telling a
small number of students to take it down a notch, speak with them outside of class
to address their disruptive behavior.

Individual Work

When students are working individually they are usually not doing speaking
exercises and therefore should be working silently. Unless students are asking a
question or responding to feedback you have given them, the class should be
relatively quiet. Put your classroom management and discipline skills to work if
students insist on being distracting during these times.

Tips

Set up rules. From your very first day in the classroom you should establish some
ground rules. If you allow students to behave a certain way for the first month you
are at their school, it will be nearly impossible to change their behavior later. From
the beginning ensure that students who wish to speak raise their hands and that
students maintain an appropriate volume when speaking and completing activities.
You can even post these rules on the wall of your classroom to refer to when
necessary.

When a student or group of students will not stop talking to one another while you
are speaking, just stop teaching for a minute. Let them see that you notice them, ask
these students if they understand the material or have questions. Ask them to
rephrase what you were saying to see if they were listening. Point out to them that
students should not be talking while you are talking and that their peers are being
deprived of an education because of their disrespectful behavior. If students do not
stop after several warnings, take some disciplinary action. This will vary depending
on your school.

If you know that your students are especially loud, plan activities that require them
to be quiet such as Chinese Whispers. This will maintain a low level of noise in the
classroom and prevent you from disrupting the surrounding classes.

When you are showing students videos or listening to music, turn the volume down
to begin with and then find an appropriate level once the material has started
playing. This will keep something from starting out excessively loud.

It can be challenging to keep a classroom full of students quiet.

Large classes are especially difficult to manage simply because so many people are
contributing to the overall volume in the room. Forty people speaking at a normal volume
are still going to make a lot of noise. Thinking about the different situations and tips above
can help you tackle this issue with your students.

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How to Teach English to Beginners

Students just starting their English studies risk being overwhelmed by new material.

Showing them that lessons can be fun and that they can perform well is important to get
them engaged in and positive about your classes. Your curriculum should be designed with
this in mind so be sure to dedicate plenty of time to each section. If students are doing better
than expected, simply use the free lesson period to review or better yet, have fun with a
cultural lesson or holiday activity.

How To Proceed

1. 1

Lesson Material
Especially with beginners it is important to go slowly. There is a steep learning
curve at the very beginning of their studies especially if you are the first to introduce
them to the Latin alphabet. Try to introduce manageable chunks of information and
do not add in more information until your students are comfortable with what they
have already covered. This may mean that they are not able to understand the
purpose of learning certain things initially but perhaps after a few lessons on a
topic, you can help put it all together and then they will be amazed at how much
they have learned. For example, in one lesson you may teach your students the
words I, you, he/she/it and what they mean but they cannot make sentences with this
vocabulary until you give them some verbs to work with which may not be
appropriate until a later lesson.

2. 2

Teacher Talking
In the classroom you will also have to slow down your talking speed. Students are
never going to understand you if you are talking a mile a minute. If you assist a
teacher who is not a native speaker and would like you to speak at a normal speed,
you can speed up slightly but a normal speed would not be appropriate for
beginners. At the intermediate and advanced levels, you may speak more rapidly as
their grasp on English increases and they can follow you better but it may still be
challenging for them. When you do choral repetition or drill exercises, be sure to
enunciate clearly and be loud enough for the entire class to hear you. It is often
difficult for people to understand you, if your mouth is hidden from view which is
odd because your students are supposed to be listening but even so, try to direct

34
 your attention towards your students, as opposed to the blackboard for instance,
when you are talking to them and hold flashcards at an appropriate level.

3. 3

Practice
Choose practice activities that are simple, easy to understand, and easy to explain.
Using lots of words that students don’t recognize to explain how to do a practice
activity is only going to further confuse them. In many cases a demonstration may
be your best option. As your students improve, you can introduce more complex
activities but if an activity ever takes longer to explain that to complete, it is not
worth doing again. Practice activities should revolve around students having the
opportunity to speak English so even worksheets should be used for that purpose.
After a worksheet has been completed, ask for volunteers to read the questions,
translate the questions, and give the answers. Try to involve as many students as
possible and give them continuous positive feedback.

4. 4

Have Fun
Language studies give students the opportunity to learn in a different way. English
should not be taught the same way Mathematics or History is taught. There is no
room for lectures because luckily as the teacher, you already know how to speak
English while the students really need to practice more than anything else. Getting
students to communicate with you and each other in a positive creative environment
should be the goal of every language teacher. You can incorporate many different
games into your lessons and with lots of miming and role plays students will
probably laugh at you, in a good way, on more than one occasion. Taking the focus
away from grammar rules and focusing on communication will encourage them to
try their best, which is all you can really ask of them.

Students just beginning their English studies have absolutely no idea what to expect so it is
beneficial to you and all their later English teachers to help them enjoy it by encouraging
them and showing them that learning another language is not an overwhelming task.

How To Teach Young Learners: One Step At A Time

Young learners, those attending preschool and kindergarten, will not have any personal
reason for studying English.

It is simply another subject that they have to study at school or that their parents have told
them they need to learn. At this point in their lives, they may not know or comprehend how
important these classes can be. They might view your classes as simply another fun daily
activity and that is just fine. Even at this early age, you can encourage them to develop an
interest in learning English which will stay with them long after they have finished your
classes.

How To Understand And Teach Young Learners Better

35
1. 1

What Young Learners Want

Students at this level are just starting their academic careers. School may be
intimidating for some of the students in your class so, in order to encourage
everyone to participate, it is important to make your lessons relaxed and fun. YL
Students will be learning very basic material but you can design creative lessons
that get students moving around and speaking with one another. Young learners are
generally very enthusiastic about songs, especially if they can sing along, and active
games. Be sure to provide lots of encouragement and positive feedback. You want to
create a safe, stress-free environment that everyone can enjoy learning in.

2. 2

How Young Learners Behave

Keep exercises fun and short because these students have short attention spans and
are easily distracted. Overacting and projection will help keep the focus on you.
Teach students how to behave in a classroom by asking them to be quiet while you
are talking and raise their hands if they have questions or want to answer a
question. This may not be directly related to ESL but it is important that students
learn good behavior early on; it will make their transition to primary school easier.
Teach them to respond to basic classroom English phrases such as “Please sit down.”
because these are expressions that they will hear repeatedly throughout their study
of English. For students at this age, you are responsible not only for starting to teach
them English, but also for preparing them for their next level of education. Students
will perform better in their classes if they behave well and have a good
understanding of basic principles.

3. 3

What To Focus On

The primary focus of these lessons will be on communication and laying a solid
foundation for further English coursework. Students should practice the different
sounds of the English language and learn material such as the alphabet, numbers,
colors and shapes. You will introduce vocabulary words gradually and may choose
to study some simple structures that relate to everyday life too. It could be that
reading and writing never enter into your classes but a focus on speaking and
listening will help students become more comfortable and confident with English.

4. 4

More YL Tips

There are many other things you can do to ensure that students succeed in class.
There is no need to assign homework at this stage but be sure to track individual
and class progress so that students can visually see what they have learned and how
they are doing. Encourage students to try their best and create a constructive
learning environment where students do not need to worry about making mistakes.
Create activities and exercises that are entertaining. Help students learn how to

36
 interact with one another as well as how to speak English. Students will also feel
more comfortable if you stick to a regular schedule so if you decide to make
changes, implement them over a period of time rather than all at once. Constantly
review and avoid introducing too much new vocabulary at a time. Students may not
remember material from one day to the next so repetition is important. The more
students are exposed to certain material, the faster they will learn it. This is how
native speakers learn English, by listening to people around them and expanding
their range of vocabulary gradually.

These learners can be a real pleasure to teach because they do not feel stressed by their
studies and approach everything with youthful innocence.

You play an important role in helping them develop into lifelong learners. Foster a love of
learning by creating lesson plans that appeal to them, suit their maturity level, and focus on
what will help them excel in future English courses.

Keep ‘Em Under Control: How to Handle Disruptive (and Disrespectful) Students

Disruptive and disrespectful students can be a pain for any teacher.

This tends not to be so common when it comes to teaching adults. A lot of people who are
learning English are doing it for their own gain. Normally the money for the classes is going
to come out of their own pockets, and therefore they will be wanting to pay as much
attention as possible. In some countries, people might even just take English classes in order
to get out of the house. Either way, those who are paying for the service themselves will be
paying the utmost attention to their teacher. But when it comes to teaching children, there
might be problems in this department. It is therefore important to know how to handle
them. Also be aware of the different rules and regulations of the school on is in before doling
out punishments. Usually teachers of English as a second language tend to have pleasant
experiences in the classroom, but on rare occasions when things don’t go right you need to
understand what to do.

How to Handle Disruptive and Disrespectful Students

1. 1

Disruptive Students

Students who disrupt the class may or may not know they are doing it. This depends
entirely on the situation. When teaching adults, there could be one member of the
group who enjoys speaking. They may speak a lot, and therefore cause others to
miss out on their turn. This is usually not a problem, and one will easily be able to
turn this around in order to make it useful for the entire class. Organizing an
activity which will involve everybody, but with that person leading it is often a good
idea. This way they will be able to continue talking as much as they please, and
everybody else will be able to get their say as well!

2. 2

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 Set Down Rules

When starting with a specific course, or at the beginning of a class if one is

substituting, it is important to set down the rules. Tell the students what is
appropriate and what isn’t. This will usually help to set the tone of the classes that
are to follow. This is especially important when one is teaching teenagers and
children. Encourage them to raise their hand when they wish to speak, and also
state that it is important that they speak only in English. Emphasize this to the
students. By having a list of rules by which they have to abide at the beginning of
the class, the students will be more likely to listen and participate accordingly. It is
also a good idea to emphasize respectfulness. This is not just to the teacher, but also
to their fellow students.
Also see: ‘Classroom Management and Discipline’

3. 3

Singling Students Out

Although a lot of teachers don’t like doing this, it is usually a very effective method.
By putting the student on the spot, they will realize that all the attention is on them
and therefore they will probably be a little quieter in the future. Again, this is
usually more so the case with teenagers than any other type of student but it is also
possible with adults. If one finds that the students is continually talking, then ask
them a question about the subject at hand. If they weren’t listening, they won’t be
sure what to say. This is also a good opportunity to discuss the topic further and
might lead to some insight. Of course, some students relish attention. It is therefore
a good idea to turn this attention into a positive thing. Try getting them to go up to
the board and explaining a particular concept or idea.

4. 4

Talkative Students

A good method is, if a student is speaking too much and disrupting the class, to walk
over to them and stand next to them. Often they will feel embarrassed and quieten
down a little bit. Another good idea is, if one hears students talking, to ask them to
share it with the rest of the class. Normally they will be a lot quieter after this, for
fear of being singled out.

It is vital that one addresses the issues at the very beginning and nips it in the bud.

Other suggestions include drawing up a “classroom contract” which the students should all
agree to. It might also be effective to get the students themselves to think up the rules. Ask
them what they think should be appropriate classroom behaviour with regards to listening,
respect and disrupting the class. All of these methods usually work quite well, although
there may be special cases. If one is working in a secondary or primary school, it might be
pertinent to send continually disruptive students to the principal.

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Keep Your Cool: Tips for Handling Difficult Students

Imagine this: you are trying to give a lesson on the past progressive tense.

You stand up at the white board talking about agreement between the subject and the
helping verb and that this tense is used to describe a continuous action that was happening
at a specific point in the past. While most students are listening and concentrating, a child in
the back taps his pencil, kicks his feet against the desk, leans back in his chair and then falls
over on to the ground. With the clatter from the back come laughs from the front of the
classroom, an end zone style dance from the student in question and a complete loss of
concentration about any facet of English grammar. What is an ESL teacher to do?

Almost every teacher has had a difficult student in one class or another, and some of us are
lucky enough to have one in every class.

Though we want to be good teachers and be sensitive to our students, having a difficult
student in class is confusing and frustrating for us. We want to give our student the best
education that we can, but we do not want to condone misbehavior and disruption. If you
find yourself in this situation now or in the future, take heart. Here are some tips for
handling difficult students that will help you teach better and enable them learn better at
the same time.

It’s Not About You

1. Though it may be a tough thing to hear, the first step is to remember it is not about
you. As a teacher, you are there to educate, guide and help your students. You are
not there to have a captive audience hanging on your every word. We teachers
sometimes have to shift our focus and remember why we started teaching in the first
place. It is so easy to be caught up in our natural patterns as a teacher, especially
when they have been effective up until this point. Having difficult students reminds
us that we, too, need challenges and changes in our teaching style. If you can
germinate the attitude in yourself that you can always improve, always learn, always
find some way to be a better teacher, teaching a challenging student becomes an
opportunity rather than a chore. Use the situation to your advantage to refine and
deepen your craft as a teacher. All of your students, both current and future, will
benefit from it.

Take a Closer Look

1. Ann, a special education teacher, gives this advice when dealing with a difficult
student. “Read your students.” What she means is to pay attention to facial

39
 expression and body language as you teach. Challenge yourself to spend more time
facing your students than you do the white board. Look at them and notice the
difficulty coming before it hits you and your classroom in full force. As you do this,
pay attention to why the misbehavior is beginning. Sometimes students are not
challenged. They may be a quick learner and find themselves bored before the
lesson is over. They may be a struggling student who has not understood previous
lessons and is giving up on this one as well. There may be a learning disability
coming into play. If you suspect this, talk to an expert on the signs of and solutions
for different learning disabilities. Another reason they may be acting up is because
of a cultural issue of which you may not be aware. All of these situations and more
can make class hard to handle for both you and your student. Take heart, teacher.
There are things you can do to make things easier on you both.

Change It Up

1. Group work can be the most effective way of engaging under and over performing
students. Pair your most advanced students with those who are struggling. In this,
your advanced student will become more of a teacher, challenging her to explain and
learn the material better. Your struggling student gets individual attention and,
perhaps, a different explanation of the concept being taught. Sometimes, too, a
student with the same native language as the one who is challenging may be able to
explain something in way in which it is easier for the challenging student to
understand. Though you are the teacher, you do not have to make all the learning
happen solely by your hand. Use the resources you have in other students to reach
the ones you are having difficulty reaching.
2. You can also change things up by breaking out of your curriculum when necessary
to challenge students who are beyond what today’s schedule says to teach. There is
nothing wrong with assigning special projects to advanced students or letting them
work at their own pace even if it is beyond where the class is. When a student is not
challenged in class, it is not uncommon for that student to exhibit behavioral
problems. A student who is challenged, on the other hand, will be more cooperative
and tolerant when the class is studying something he understood long before that
time.
3. Getting physical is another great way to help students who have difficulty sitting
and paying attention to a whole lesson. When a student starts fidgeting, it is time to
get your students up and moving. If you can, relate some physical action to whatever
you are teaching. Use Simon Says to teach the grammar of commands. Have a
student follow your instructions and move about the room. Do partnering activities
where students must move their desks or walk to another area of the room.
Anything you can do to engage the body with the mind will help these students be
more attentive and absorbent to what you are teaching. Even if you cannot relate
something physical to what you are teaching, take a seventh inning stretch to make
the final part of the lesson more accessible.

There are many ways to help engage students who may have behavior issues. The most
important thing to remember is not to take it personally.

Students do not refuse to engage because they do not want to learn. If you can find the
underlying issue behind the disruptive behavior, you can tailor your lessons or assignments
to best meet your students’ needs. As a teacher, you do not always have to do things by the
book. In fact, the best teachers are often the ones who do not.

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5 Most Common Misconceptions Beginner ESL Teachers Have

Many ESL teachers that are native English speakers have little to no teaching experience
before being placed in a classroom.

This may be true for recent graduates who have degrees in education too. For these
beginning teachers there are a lot of things that may come as a surprise. Teachers with more
training are less likely to have these misconceptions but some may still apply.

Misconceptions and What to Do about Them

1. 1

ESL Misconception 1: Teaching is easy

How this idea ever got started is unclear. Teaching is a very challenging career
choice. Teachers are responsible for planning, teaching and grading possibly
hundreds of students a week, often participate in at least one extra curricular
activity, and may act as private tutor or counselor to students who seek or need
more individual attention. The number of hours in the classroom does not even
come close to representing how many hours a teacher works. Teachers, especially
those just starting out, will find themselves planning lessons or thinking about
classes even outside of school. It can be difficult to separate your work and personal
lives when you devote so much time and energy to helping your students.

2. 2

Misconception 2: If you speak English, you can teach English

While native English speakers bring a lot to ESL classrooms, especially when it
comes to pronunciation, they often cannot explain grammar rules clearly. Native

41
 English speakers can often tell when something is wrong based on how it sounds
rather than on what rules are being broken. Without any experience in the
classroom, these teachers can struggle with classroom management and lesson
planning too. It takes more than just a handle on the material to be an efficient
teacher. With experience, research, and training, you can succeed in ESL classrooms
and having some good resource materials on hand will definitely help.

3. 3

Misconception 3: You don’t have to speak another language

If you have students with different native languages in the same class, knowing one
other language is not going to be especially useful; however, if you are teaching a
class in Korea with only Korean students, knowing some Korean can only help you.
Knowing simple commands and encouraging phrases can help build a rapport with
the students. They will appreciate your efforts and may be eager to help you
improve your vocabulary. On the other hand, learning the language fluently may
hurt you because once students know that you can communicate with them in
another language, it may become more difficult to get them to use English.

4. 4

Misconception 4: Students want to learn English

This really depends on what kind of school you teach at and who your students are.
Most likely your students will have different reasons for learning English and it is
almost never for the love of the language itself. Not all students are self motivated or
well behaved so giving encouragement, providing positive feedback, and classroom
management become as important as being able to plan and give lessons effectively.
Students who feel that they will never have the opportunity to speak English are
often challenging to motivate so try to provide them with some real life experiences
where their knowledge of English will be useful. When teaching directions for
instance, tell students that if you were an Australian tourist visiting their city, you
might ask them for directions and it would be so great if they could help you.

5. 5

Misconception 5: If students perform poorly, it is their fault

In most places teachers are held accountable for the performance of their students.
The thinking is that if a teacher develops good lessons and motivates students to
work hard in class, students will do well. This means that you should be prepared to
devote extra time and energy to helping students who struggle in your classes. Be
sure to plan activities that appeal to different types of learners. How much students
study on their own time will impact their scores but if the majority of your students
are struggling, you should probably reevaluate your teaching methods.

These are just some of the misconceptions teachers might have.

Knowing the truth can help you determine whether or not ESL education is right for you
and adjust your image of being a teacher to match reality. It will help you be more prepared
for stepping into the classroom.

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How To Avoid Sensitive Issues When Teaching ESL

Depending on where you are teaching, it is important to remember that certain issues might
be taboo.

Of course, this is going to vary from culture to culture. A lot of teachers will find that they
are going to be going abroad for work. Popular destinations at the moment include South
Korea, Vietnam and China. China in particular is currently experiencing a boom. As a
result, more English teachers are required than are actually available. Whether you are
teaching as an online job, or are actually physically in the country, do a little bit of research
before going over. Take a look at what the main culture finds acceptable, and what it
doesn’t. There have even been certain cases where people have been jailed due to certain
perceived insults, although there was actually no harm intended by them! Usually, within a
lot of Western countries, these won’t be very big problems. It is still a good idea to take a
look over how they differ from your own culture anyway. Germany, France and many other
countries in Western Europe tend to have only a few cultural differences, due to a common
history. This won’t necessarily be the case if you are intending to go and teach somewhere
like Saudi Arabia or Shanghai. Avoiding certain issues will therefore be something that
every teacher needs to watch out for.

How to Avoid Sensitive Issues

1. 1

Avoiding the Issue

Sometimes students might want to discuss something which may not necessarily be
appropriate for the class, and might even be offensive to certain members. If this
happens, then it is a good idea to quickly direct the conversation away. Perhaps
introduce a new part of the topic. Another good idea is probably to suggest that
everyone play a game in order to practice their language skills. As the old saying
goes, two things should never be discussed at the dinner table, and those are politics
and religion. In general, the same can be applied to a class. Of course, sometimes
topics of religion come up so it is important to be aware of the students’ reactions to
it. Keep the debate civilized, and above all, try to avoid your own personal opinion.
At the end of the day, you’re trying to teach a language. A culture class is something
else, therefore it is no sin to change the topic at hand.

2. 2

Being Aware of Cultural Differences

Another way of avoiding certain issues which might be deemed sensitive (such as
women’s status in Islamic countries, if you happen to be teaching there) is to be
aware of the difference from the beginning. Depending on how strict a Muslim
country is, if you are female you will probably have to cover up to a certain extent.
Respecting a country’s ways is key here.

3. 3

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 Multiple Cultures

Even teaching abroad, you might find that you have a classroom filled with people
from all over the world. This is particularly true in countries like Germany. A lot of
the time, they will be businesspeople as this is probably the most in-demand form of
English teaching available. The teacher must also keep in mind that just because
students share a similar language, it does not mean they have a similar culture. For
example, English speakers can be found all over the world. They come from many
different backgrounds: South Africa, Britain, Ireland, the United States, etc.. Whilst
there are similarities, Irish culture can be seen as being vastly different from
American culture right down to the difference in slang. Likewise, those students
who are Spanish speaking might not necessary be from the same part of Spain, or
even country. There are often huge differences between Spanish and Latin American
culture. Within Spain, one can find people of Basque origin, Galician, Catalonian
and much more. Therefore one needs to keep these facts in mind when teaching the
class to ensure that certain issues might be avoided. An example being that the
Basque people have been aiming for independence from Spain. Keeping this out of
the conversation will allow for a much more peaceful lesson.

In countries where discussing certain topics might be a big risqué, it is important to stick to
rather neutral issues such as housing, cost of living etc.

If there is an economic recession going on, be careful when discussing things like
unemployment. Religion, for the most part, is a no-go area in countries such as China. If
you have any doubts, then speak with the head of the school and see what is acceptable and
what isn’t. It is always best to be safe than sorry!

How to Evaluate Speaking

You are in a small classroom at your local language school or university. It is almost the end
of the semester, and your speaking class has been fun all year. They have learned
vocabulary, done role plays and strategic interaction, and practiced speaking to one another
and to you. The big question now is how do you evaluate their progress? You either speak or
you don’t, right? It’s either good or it isn’t. The good news is this: you can give objective
grades in a speaking class. Just use the following criteria as you evaluate your students’
speaking abilities, and you can give them helpful feedback as to their language learning and
also a fair and well earned grade.

Here's How You Can Evaluate Speaking

1. 1

Create a Rubric

Most teachers will be familiar with the concept of grading with a rubric, a table with
different criteria and a grading scale. If you have never created a rubric before, it’s
really quite easy. Simply choose the criteria on which you will grade students and
list them along the left side of the page. Then create an even number of columns
along the top of the page. Four is the easiest to start with if this is your first rubric.
These columns will represent potential skill levels of your students. For each

44
 criterion, define what level of the ability a student at each of the four levels would
exhibit. For example, the most straightforward way to label the boxes on the rubric
would be, “Meets expectations high, meets expectations low, slightly underperforms,
does not meet expectations.” The more rubrics you make, the more detailed you can
be in your descriptions. Then, as you evaluate each student, determine at which level
he or she is performing. Take the average level among the criteria and you have an
objective grade with suggestions for areas in which your student can improve.

2. 2

Pronunciation

Pronunciation is a basic quality of language learning. Though most second language

learners will never have the pronunciation of a native speaker, poor pronunciation
can obscure communication and prevent an ESL student from making his meaning
known. When evaluating the pronunciation of your students, listen for clearly
articulated words, appropriate pronunciations of unusual spellings, and assimilation
and contractions in suitable places. Also listen for intonation. Are students using the
correct inflection for the types of sentences they are saying? Do they know that the
inflection of a question is different from that of a statement? Listen for these
pronunciation skills and determine into which level your student falls.

3. 3

Vocabulary

After noting your students’ pronunciation levels, move to vocabulary. Vocabulary

comprehension and vocabulary production are always two separate banks of words
in the mind of a speaker, native as well as second language. You should encourage
your students to have a large production vocabulary and an even larger recognition
vocabulary. For this reason it is helpful to evaluate your students on the level of
vocabulary they are able to produce. Are they using the specific vocabulary you
have instructed them in this semester? Are they using vocabulary appropriate to the
contexts in which they are speaking? Listen for the level of vocabulary your students
are able to produce without prompting and then decide how well they are
performing in this area.

4. 4

Accuracy

Grammar has always been and forever will be an important issue in foreign
language study. Writing sentences correctly on a test, though, is not the same as
accurate spoken grammar. As your students speak, listen for the grammatical
structures and tools you have taught them. Are they able to use multiple tenses? Do
they have agreement? Is word order correct in the sentence? All these and more are
important grammatical issues, and an effective speaker will successfully include
them in his or her language.

5. 5

Communication

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 A student may struggle with grammar and pronunciation, but how creative is she
when communicating with the language she knows? Assessing communication in
your students means looking at their creative use of the language they do know to
make their points understood. A student with a low level of vocabulary and
grammar may have excellent communication skills if she is able to make you
understand her, whereas an advanced student who is tied to manufactured dialogues
may not be able to be expressive with language and would therefore have low
communication skills. Don’t let a lack of language skill keep your students from
expressing themselves. The more creative they can be with language and the more
unique ways they can express themselves, the better their overall communication
skills will be.

6. 6

Interaction

Being able to say what you mean with a foreign language is one thing, being able to
interact with others is another. Ask your students questions. Observe how they
speak to one another. Are they able to understand and answer questions? Can they
answer you when you ask them questions? Do they give appropriate responses in a
conversation? All these are elements of interaction and are necessary for clear and
effective communication in English. A student with effective interaction skills will be
able to answer questions and follow along with a conversation happening around
him. Great oratory skills will not get anyone very far if he or she cannot listen to
other people and respond appropriately. Encourage your students to listen as they
speak and have appropriate responses to others in the conversation.

7. 7

Fluency

Fluency may be the easiest quality to judge in your students’ speaking. How
comfortable are they when they speak? How easily do the words come out? Are
there great pauses and gaps in the student’s speaking? If there are then your student
is struggling with fluency. Fluency does not improve at the same rate as other
language skills. You can have excellent grammar and still fail to be fluent. You want
your students to be at ease when they speak to you or other English speakers.
Fluency is a judgment of this ease of communication and is an important criterion
when evaluating speaking.

These criteria, pronunciation, vocabulary, accuracy, communication, interaction and

fluency are all markers of a student’s overall speaking abilities.

Students may excel in one and struggle in another, and not necessarily the ones you might
think. Help your student understand these qualities of effective speakers. Let your students
know that you will be listening for these qualities when you evaluate their progress and
encourage them to improve their English in these areas. Also, listen to them both when they
talk to you and when they talk with other students. They should be able to speak well with
one another. After all, most of the English they will use in the future will be with other
nonnative speakers. Finally, remember that a true evaluation will take into consideration
more than just the oral interview on the final exam. Listen to your students throughout the

46
semester. Note how they improve in these areas. Encourage them as speakers and learners,
and you are sure to reap the benefits, too.

HOWTO: 3 Easy Steps to Grading Student Essays

In a world where number two pencils and bubbles on an answer sheet often determine a
student’s grade, what criteria does the writing teacher use to evaluate the work of his or her
students? After all, with essay writing you cannot simply mark some answers correct and
others incorrect and figure out a percentage. The good news is that grading an essay can be
just as easy and straightforward as grading multiple-choice tests with the use of a rubric!

What is a rubric?

1. A rubric is a chart used in grading essays, special projects and other more items
which can be more subjective. It lists each of the grading criteria separately and
defines the different performance levels within those criteria. Standardized tests like
the SAT’s use rubrics to score writing samples, and designing one for your own use
is easy if you take it step by step. Keep in mind that when you are using a rubric to
grade essays, you can design one rubric for use throughout the semester or modify
your rubric as the expectations you have for your students increase.

How to Grade Student Essays

1. 1

What should I include?

When students write essays, ESL teachers generally look for some common
elements. The essay should have good grammar and show the right level of
vocabulary. It should be organized, and the content should be appropriate and
effective. Teachers also look at the overall effectiveness of the piece. When
evaluating specific writing samples, you may also want to include other criteria for
the essay based on material you have covered in class. You may choose to grade on
the type of essay they have written and whether your students have followed the
specific direction you gave. You may want to evaluate their use of information and
whether they correctly presented the content material you taught. When you write
your own rubric, you can evaluate anything you think is important when it comes to
your students’ writing abilities. For our example, we will use grammar, organization
and overall effect to create a rubric.

2. 2

What is an A?

Using the criteria we selected (grammar, organization and overall effect) we will
write a rubric to evaluate students’ essays. The most straightforward evaluation
uses a four-point scale for each of the criteria. Taking the criteria one at a time,

47
 articulate what your expectations are for an A paper, a B paper and so on. Taking
grammar as an example, an A paper would be free of most grammatical errors
appropriate for the student’s language learning level. A B paper would have some
mistakes but use generally good grammar. A C paper would show frequent
grammatical errors. A D paper would show that the student did not have the
grammatical knowledge appropriate for his language learning level. Taking these
definitions, we now put them into the rubric.

Appropriate
Some grammatical
grammatical
Free of most mistakes but Frequent
knowledge not
Grammar grammatical generally shows grammatical
displayed for
errors successful grammar errors
current language
usage
level
Organization
Overall
Effect

The next step is to take each of the other criteria and define success for each of
those, assigning a value to A, B, C and D papers. Those definitions then go into the
rubric in the appropriate locations to complete the chart.

Some Appropriate
grammatical grammatical
Free of most Frequent
mistakes but knowledge not
Grammar grammatical grammatical
generally shows displayed for
errors errors
successful current language
grammar usage level
Essay shows
Essay lacks
Essay shows clear good
clear Essay is
organization with organization but
Organization organization disorganized and
appropriate may lack
and appropriate confusing
transitions appropriate
transitions
transitions
Essay struggles
A strong overall A good overall Essay has a poor
overall and does
Overall effect with clear effect with some overall effect and
not give a
Effect communication support and does not fulfill
coherent
and support adequate clarity assignment
message

Each of the criteria will score points for the essay. The descriptions in the first
column are each worth 4 points, the second column 3 points, the third 2 points and
the fourth 1 point.

3. 3

What is the grading process?

Now that your criteria are defined, grading the essay is easy. When grading a
student essay with a rubric, it is best to read through the essay once before
evaluating for grades. Then reading through the piece a second time, determine

48
 where on the scale the writing sample falls for each of the criteria. If the student
shows excellent grammar, good organization and a good overall effect, he would
score a total of ten points. Divide that by the total criteria, three in this case, and he
finishes with a 3.33. which on a four-point scale is a B+. If you use five criteria to
evaluate your essays, divide the total points scored by five to determine the student’s
grade.

Once you have written your grading rubric, you may decide to share your criteria with your
students.

If you do, they will know exactly what your expectations are and what they need to
accomplish to get the grade they desire. You may even choose to make a copy of the rubric
for each paper and circle where the student lands for each criterion. That way, each person
knows where he needs to focus his attention to improve his grade. The clearer your
expectations are and the more feedback you give your students, the more successful your
students will be. If you use a rubric in your essay grading, you can communicate those
standards as well as make your grading more objective with more practical suggestions for
your students. In addition, once you write your rubric you can use it for all future
evaluations.

How To Assign Highly Effective Homework Your Students Will Actually Enjoy

Homework is a good teaching tool. In order to be used effectively you need to make sure it is
helping your students and that the exercises you assign are not just busy work.

Students will know if homework is really benefiting them or not so be sure to make it worth
their while or they will be less willing to complete assignments in the future. Let’s take a
look at the different steps you can take when it comes to using homework appropriately.

5 Secrets Of Effective Homework Assignments

1. 1

Preparing for it

Homework should be a review or further practice of something learned in class so

ensure that whatever homework you have assigned can be completed by students
independently and with ease. To do this, conduct several comprehension tests and
practice activities in class so that students feel confident enough with the material to
work on their own. Encourage students to ask questions about anything they are
unclear on. Indicate what pages of the textbook you are using so that students can
find key information later on when you are not available to help them.

2. 2

Giving it

Think about the objective of each homework assignment before giving it to students
to make sure that it will actually benefit them. Also, try to use a variety of exercises

49
 rather than the same ones over and over again (see our article ‘5 Most Creative
Homework Assignments: Homework That Works’). When handing out homework,
go over the directions in class to check that students understand what they are
expected to do at home. Have students read the instructions aloud and ask them if
they have any questions about the exercises. Do not assign new material as
homework as students will not understand it and only become frustrated with the
exercises as well as less open to discussing the topic in class. Sometimes you might
want to give students the opportunity to think about a topic before you introduce it
in class but in this case you should assign something very general for example tell
students to try to think of three directions related words for the next class. This is
not something you would collect so students do not have to give it a lot of thought or
get stressed about it. In this case, you can spend some time at the beginning of the
next class eliciting words from students about directions. If some of your students
find homework assignments too challenging, arrange a tutorial once or twice a week
either before or after school so that students can get extra help.

3. 3

Checking it

Once students have completed homework, you have to check it. This can be done a
number of ways and depends a lot on the type of activity you assigned. You should
check most writing exercises thoroughly for grammar, spelling and punctuation
errors before asking students to present their work to the class. This will help them
practice the right material rather than repeating mistakes. If the worksheet consists
of fill in the blank or short answer type questions, check answers as a class before
collecting the sheets from your students. This may mean that students who did not
complete the homework will fill in the answers as they come up in class but if you
notice a student doing this, you can mark him down for not doing the work at home
and should take some time to talk to the student individually.

4. 4

Grading it

Not all homework has to be graded but this encourages students to actually do the
work. Be sure to collect all homework assignments even if all you do is ensure that
they have been completed. Other activities, such as the writing exercise mentioned
above, you may consider giving grades on. It is up to you how many points the
exercise is worth. When grading subjective material try to create a rubric which you
can use to help you grade all the work the same way. Breaking down points into
different categories such as spelling, content, and grammar will certainly help you
with grading fairly.

5. 5

Returning it

When you return the homework assignments to your students give them another
opportunity to ask questions about the material and encourage students with
questions about their grades to meet with you after class to discuss their concerns.
Students who consistently perform at a low level might need a second opportunity to

50
 complete the exercise once they have a better understanding of what you are looking
for. This will give them the chance to earn more points towards a higher overall
grade. In this situation, it is still better to be proactive and give these students
special attention to begin with but a combination of both approaches may be the
most successful.

Homework is a valuable tool that can assist students by giving them extra practice using
course material.

By reserving larger reading and writing assignments for homework assignments, you can
maximize your class time by conducting lots of speaking and listening activities. Homework
also gives you more material to better evaluate individual student performance so it is very
helpful when used correctly.

5 Most Creative Homework Assignments: Homework That Works

Most ESL teachers agree that homework assignments are an absolute must in an ESL
course.

But ESL students, on the other hand, may disagree. Adult learners will argue that they have
busy schedules and a life outside the classroom, which translates into “no time for
homework”. Young learners and teens may come to terms with the fact that they have to do
homework, but do we want them to do it because they are compelled to do it... or do we
want them to do it because they are excited to do it? Which would you prefer?

The only way to get young students excited about doing homework, and get adults to set
aside some time for it, is through highly creative and thoroughly engaging homework
assignments. And here are 5 examples:

Homework Assignments That Work

1. 1

A Word Book

A Word Book or Vocabulary Journal is a classic among teachers of very young

learners who are not adept at using dictionaries; here they have a chance to make
their own. Help them design their very own Word Book from scratch, out of
construction paper, cardboard, or any materials you have on hand. At the end of a
reading task or activity, make a list of the words they have learned for the day. Their
homework assignment is to enter each of the new words in their Word Book. The
littlest ones simply copy the word and draw a picture of it; older students can use
the word in a sentence that illustrates its meaning. There is no need to copy
“dictionary” definitions. They may also cut out pictures from magazines or
newspapers and get as creative as they like. But one thing is certain… these will be
words they won’t easily forget!

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2. 2

Do My Research!

This is an extremely engaging way to provide extended practice of any grammar

point. Say you want your students to practice comparatives and superlatives. Tell
them you need information on this year's Oscar nominations. Tell them to go to
Oscar.go.com and give them a list of questions they must answer:

o Which of the nominees for Best Picture is the longest film? Which is the
shortest? The most popular? Earned the most money at the box office?
o Which film has the most nominations?
o Which in your opinion is the best film?
o Compare two of the actresses nominated for Best Actress. Who is older?
Younger? Taller? Prettier?
o Etc…

You may assign any number of research tasks: ideal places for a family vacation
(LonelyPlanet.com), best restaurants in the city (Zagat.com), or anything based on
local information. Just make sure you give them a website to go to, a set of questions
to answer or a task to complete, and above all don't forget to plan the assignment
with a grammar point or learning objective in mind.

3. 3

In the News

This is an ideal assignment for adult students. Most read the newspaper anyway,
right? Or watch the evening news. Ask them to choose a news story that has piqued
their interest, and have them:

o Write a report on the news story

o Write a dialogue in which a journalist interviews someone involved in the
story.
o Answer a question like, “What could have gone differently?”, thus prompting
them to use conditionals, for example (If the truck driver had not answered
his cell phone, he would not have caused the accident.)
4. 4

Email Writing

This is clearly one of the homework assignments that works best with adult learners
or those who specifically study Business English. Give them an email to read and
ask them to write an appropriate reply. Or give them a situation that would require
them to compose a message, like a complaint over a bad service experience or an
inquiry into vacation rentals.

5. 5

Watch It!

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 Choose a TV series that is shown in English, either with or without subtitles (you
may ask students to cover the subtitles). Choose a show that is suitable to your
students’ ages. Tell your students that their homework for that night will be to watch
an episode of Modern Family, whether they usually watch the show or not. Give
them a task to complete after viewing the episode: a synopsis of the episode, a
character description, or a questionnaire (Do you usually watch this show? If not,
would you start watching it? Why/why not?)

Another great way to get students actively engaged in their homework assignments is to ask
them to come up with some ideas for creative assignments on their own and share them with
the class. They may surprise you!

And if you’re still stumped as to which worksheets to assign to practice grammar,

vocabulary, or reading, BusyTeacher.org is always available to help, 24/7, with wonderful
ideas for activities and great ready-to-print worksheets.

If you have any ideas for other wonderfully creative homework assignments, share them
below!

How To Test Your ESL Students: Best Practices

You may have horrible memories of taking tests as a student but now that you are teaching,
it is important to test your students on the material you cover in class.

Tests are essential because they allow both you and your students to evaluate their
performance. You will discover what areas they are struggling with and they will find out
where they need to focus their attention. Here are some things to remember when testing
students.

How to Proceed

1. 1

Frequency

Rather than save material from the whole year to include in one massive exam,
consider quizzing students at the end of each chapter and then every quarter or
semester to break material up into more reasonable amounts. It may seem like
students are always preparing for a quiz or test but as long as they have clear goals
and material is covered thoroughly, they should adapt to the routine easily. Another
benefit is that with more tests, each one is a lower percentage of the overall grade so
there is less anxiety about performance on individual tests.

2. 2

Content

Sometimes tests should focus on very specific material while others should be more
comprehensive. It is important to check that students are retaining information in

53
 the long term and not just memorizing information. Use questions or question types
that students have already seen in class. Springing a new type of question or activity
on them during an exam can be incredibility confusing while including the exact
questions from the study guide can be too easy. Take the middle ground here. Use
familiar formats and ask different questions or variants of questions. This will give
students the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned without getting
bogged down in reading directions.

3. 3

Variety

If possible try to include a variety of exercises in your tests. Not every school is able
to do this but interview tests can be very effective because students have to
demonstrate their ability to listen and speak as well as read and write. Since the first
two are critical for students who will have the opportunity to speak English outside
the classroom, they are also very important in the evaluation process. You can also
use projects to grade students if you are willing to attempt something new. Perhaps
for one semester skits can be the primary factor in determining overall grades.
While these can be a challenge to evaluate compared to multiple choice questions,
they also give students who do not perform well on tests the chance to more fully
demonstrate their abilities.

4. 4

Preparation

It is important to help students prepare for exams so that they can feel confident
going in to them. By creating a study guide, reviewing material in class, giving
students information about the test, and answering any questions students have, you
will help them immensely. Stress can reduce student performance so simply
encourage them to study the material and do their best. By reducing their anxiety,
you have ensured that they will be more successful.

5. 5

Incentive

You can also set goals for your students when it comes to exams so that they have
something specific to work towards. Depending on your students, you should
consider individual and class goals. Make these reasonable but challenging and do
not reveal individual test scores to the class as this might cause some students some
embarrassment. You may decide the goal should be a class average of 85%.
Assuming that students performed about this well on past exams, this should be a
reasonable and attainable goal. The incentive might be that you will not assign
homework for one week which will help motivate students to achieve their target
score.

6. 6

Review

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 After returning the graded tests to students, go over the answers so that students
can figure out what they did incorrectly. Simply telling them the answers will not
help them understand their mistakes. You can mark the papers without correcting
them and then go over each and every question in class so that students can correct
their answers and ask questions. While students really should take advantage of this
opportunity to correct their mistakes so that they have correct material to review
another time, you may need to use an incentive to encourage students to make
corrections.

In most courses, you will have to give your students tests on the material you cover in class.

While they are actually great tools to gauge how well students are doing, tests also cause
learners a lot of anxiety so try to make them as painless as possible. You are not out to make
students miserable so avoid trick questions. Approach the material directly and in familiar
ways so that students can succeed.

12 Teacher Tips for Writing Good Test Questions

We all want our students to succeed. We try to encourage honest learning and do not just
teach to the test.

We do assess our students, but can we influence their success merely by the test questions
we write? We most certainly can. Following are some helpful tips learned from experience
to help you write successful test questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 1

The grammar you use in your answer choices may be influencing how your students
choose an answer. Make sure all your choices are grammatically parallel. In other
words, if you ask, “Where does a rabbit live?”, phrase all your answers as
prepositional phrases.
A. In a house
B. In a car
C. Under a bridge
D. In a warren.
If you offered choice E. dangerously close to the highway, it will obviously be
incorrect because it is phrased differently than the other choices.

2. 2

Though every education student has probably heard it, watch your vowels. Always
give the possibility of either a or an when asking a question. You can include the
choice either in the question itself or in the answers.
What does a rabbit eat for breakfast?
A. a carrot
B. a protein shake
C. an egg
D. a piece of toast,

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 (or a rabbit eats a(n)___________ for breakfast).

3. 3

Keep all your answers around the same length. If one answer is significantly longer
or shorter than all the rest, it will likely be the best choice or an easy elimination.
Try to write about the same amount for each answer option to avoid give away
answers.

Fill In the Blank Questions

1. 4

There is a difference between recognition knowledge of a word and recall knowledge

of a word. Recognition knowledge means you understand the word when you hear it
or read it. Recall knowledge means you can and will use the word in your own
speech or writing. Everyone no matter what his language has a greater recognition
vocabulary than a recall vocabulary. Test your students’ ability to understand the
material you have presented, their recall knowledge, by providing them with a word
bank. The word bank can have more words or the same number that your students
will need to fill in the blanks. Because providing a word bank tests their recall
knowdlege, it is a better measure of what they have learned than testing their recall
knowledge and asking them to elicit vocabulary words on their own.

True False Questions

1. 5

Do not try to trick your students with questions that have minor changes in them to
make them false. When testing on literature, do not make up false names for
characters or change letters in words to make them incorrect. This is confusing for
your students and does not give you a useful gauge on their comprehension of the
material. Instead, try to test general comprehension of the material.

2. 6

If you really want to know what your students have learned, have them correct the
false statements to make them true. This will eliminate random guessing and also
give you a better idea what concepts your students might not understand yet. You
may also find that you have to cover specific material again or explain a concept in
another way.

Difficulty Level

1. 7

Start your test with the easiest questions and move toward those that are more
difficult. Though you might want to mix up the order to challenge your students,
going from easier to harder questions alleviates stress for your students and makes
for a better testing experience. Not to mention, standardized tests like the SAT and

56
 TOEFL follow this organization, so structuring your tests that way will help your
students on these important tests in the future.

2. 8

Test multiple learning levels. The majority of your questions should target the lower
learning levels of recall, comprehension and application. Do not be afraid, however,
to add one or two questions testing higher levels of learning like analysis, synthesis
and evaluation (see Bloom’s taxonomy of learning for more information on learning
levels). Test these higher levels sparingly, especially if you have not spent a lot of
time during class on these types of activities.

General Tips

1. 9

Give your students experience with the types of questions with which you will be
testing. The test should not be the first time they have seen a fill in the blank or
made corrections to an incorrect sentence. Your students should have practice with
the form so you can test the content and not the form.

2. 10

Tell them ahead of time what will be on the test both in structure and in content. It
does not hurt you as a teacher or skew your test results to give your students a heads
up about the type of questions that will be on the test. Giving your students this
information ahead of time means you cannot write your test the night before, but
that makes for a higher quality piece of evaluation anyway. Also, give them some
idea what content will be covered on the test though you do not have to give
specifics. Page numbers, lecture dates or book chapters are sufficient.

3. 11

Include the points each section is worth. This way students can budget their time to
be most impactful for them. Neither you nor they want them to spend ten minutes
struggling to answer a question of minimal importance. Let them have full
knowledge of what is weightiest as they take the test so they can prioritize as they
take it.

4. 12

Expect your students to have “foreign” handwriting. Even though English is taught
in places all around the world, handwriting is not the same everywhere. Do not be
surprised if your students consistently write in a penmanship style that is
challenging for you to read.

When a person is scared, angry or is experiencing any strong emotion, language will
instinctively revert to what is most natural for that person. Do what you can to relieve as
much of your students’ stress as possible by writing good test questions so that you are
testing their knowledge at its best, not its worst. It will make you a better teacher and your
students better learners.

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Tests Are Your Friends: How to Make Test Preparation Fun

Your current unit has come to a close, and you have put your heart and soul into your
classroom activities over the past weeks. Your students have had a good time and have
learned, too, and now comes the most dreaded part of all. No, it is not the unit end test but
getting your students ready to take it. With all the creativity and energy you put into the
lessons along the way, how can a review of the material be at all interesting? Here are some
ideas to try the next time you have to get your students ready for the test.

How to Add Fun To Test Preparation

1. 1

Let Your Students Write the Test

Well, maybe you do not want them writing the test itself, but you may want to let
your class write the review questions. By assigning each person to write a specific
number of review questions, either in class or for homework, they become the
teachers during the review. As any teacher knows, teaching a subject only makes
you know it even better, so having your students write the review and conduct their
parts in class will make them experts on the information assigned to them.
Depending on what your unit covered, you will need to break the information up
among individuals or groups in your class. You can divide the information by page
numbers (give each person one or more pages and the information on those pages),
by topic (assign certain topics you have covered to individuals or groups), or
randomly assign content by pulling topics out of a hat. No matter how you break the
information into pieces, assign each person or group to write five or more
review/potential test questions that cover the information. You may want to motivate
them to do the best job they can by choosing to include one or more of the best
questions in the test itself and letting them know you will be doing it. That way, the
writer of that question should have no problem getting the answer right and neither
should your class if they pay attention during the review!

2. 2

Foster Creativity

Another way to let your students do the review starts once again by assigning topics
to groups of students. This time, instead of writing review questions, ask each
person to do one of two things. The first option is to teach the material to the class a
second time. They can use any method they choose, and making them responsible
for the review will ensure that they engage throughout the process. The second
option is to present the information to the class in a creative way. They may choose
to do a skit, a song or another presentation that will free them to think out of the
box. The more outrageous the presentation, the more of an impact it will have on the
viewers, and your class will be sure to remember the information during the test. If

58
 you make a habit of reviewing in this manner, your students just may get
competitive about how creative they can be, and the end of every unit will become a
celebration and students will look forward to it with energetic anticipation!

3. 3

Make a Game of It

Perhaps the best method of test preparation is to play games with your class. You
can find several ideas for ESL games on Busy Teacher, but here are some that work
well specifically for review of material. Charades and Pictionary are great reviews of
vocabulary you have covered in class. Not only will your students have fun, they will
be energized with creativity and showmanship. To review content, try Jeopardy with
your students. Though you will have to write the questions ahead of time, your
students will have fun buzzing in, working in teams and getting in some terrific
practice forming questions in English. If your students wrote test review question in
the first activity, use those questions to play classroom baseball. Divide your class
into two teams and get one team “up at bat” first. Designate each corner of the room
as a base. Ask a question, and if the first person answers correctly, he walks ahead a
base. If the answer is incorrect, he is out. Continue to play and only count points as
players pass home plate. After three outs, the other team is up at bat. If you really
want to make things tough on the teams, let the team “in the field” choose the
review questions to ask of the players at bat. They must know the answer to the
question they ask, but they can use their books and notes and work together to come
up with the questions. If the team asking the questions gives a bad question, the
other team automatically scores a point.

Test review does not have to be the most boring part of the unit.

In fact, it can be fun and engaging and something your students look forward to the day
before a test. By putting the material in the hands of your students, they not only review the
material but also put themselves in the role of teacher cementing the information in their
minds like no other activity can.

How to Drill: Drilling Activities for Your English Classroom

59
After introducing new vocabulary words, grammar points, or sentence structures, you have
to drill them with your class.

There are many ways to drill new material. Using a variety of drilling methods in your
classes will help make this portion of the lesson more interesting and keep students focused.

How To Proceed

1. 1

Choral Repetition
Choral repetition is a commonly used method of drilling. Students simply have to
repeat words or phrases after you. This is a good method because it means that
students are given excellent model pronunciation immediately before they are asked
to respond. Going through vocabulary this way many times in a single lesson will be
boring for your students and they will be less inclined to perform well. Break up the
monotony by changing the speed or volume you use and have students change their
responses accordingly. Using this method, students are not called on individually to
pronounce words therefore you will need to check individual pronunciation and
comprehension separately. Integrating these checks into your drill activities will
keep students alert because they will never know when you may call on them.

2. 2

Drilling with Flashcards

Drilling using flashcards can be useful as well. In the introduction, show students
both the image and word sides of each flashcard. When you start drilling words for
the first time, show students the word side of the flashcard so they can practice
reading and pronouncing it. Later on, rather than show students the word you want
them to pronounce, show them the image. This will help check their comprehension
of the material. With flashcards, you can also challenge your students when they
become more familiar with certain vocabulary by flipping through the cards at a
faster rate.

3. 3

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 Comprehension
Asking for volunteers or calling on students to give you a synonym, antonym, or
translation of a new vocabulary word will check individual comprehension. It is
always nice to ask for volunteers as opposed to calling on students individually but
generally a volunteer will be more confident in his answer so this will not properly
show whether or not the class understands the material. When you find it necessary
to single out particular students who are not participating in drill activities, calling
on them for answers is an easy method of focusing their attention on the lesson.
Doing comprehension checks is also a good way to break up the drill activities a bit.

4. 4

Drilling in Pairs
As material becomes more familiar, you may want to conduct short pair activities
where a student’s comprehension is tested by his partner. To do this with a
vocabulary list for instance, have student A read the translation of each word in
random order while the student B says the word in English. Student A can then
place a checkmark next to all the words student B got correct and then the students
can switch roles. With this method students can check each other and have visual
proof of how well they performed afterwards which they can refer to when
practicing material on their own or preparing for exams. Conducting an activity
such as this on a regular basis will help students review vocabulary often and should
not take more than five minutes even with fifteen to twenty vocabulary words. It
may still be necessary to practice using choral repetition before performing pair
activities so that students are reminded of the proper pronunciation of the
vocabulary.

5. 5

Games
Breaking your classroom up into sections where each section says one portion of a
new structure is another way of drilling material. In small classes you can conduct
some drilling activities in a circle. The more variation there is to an activity, the
more students have to pay attention but it is best to start off with the simplest,
easiest variation of a game and build on it as opposed to trying to explain a complex
activity from the very beginning. Challenging students but not overwhelming them
is important in maintaining their attention and participation.

Drilling is generally not the most fun part of teaching or learning English but it is an
essential step when learning new material. Varying your approach can make it more
enjoyable and encourage students to participate more fully.

How to Teach English Using Printable Worksheets: 5 Killer Recipes

Worksheets can be used in many lessons to not only practice material and prepare for
exams but also to allow students to have fun.

You can create worksheets to go along with listening, reading, writing, and speaking
activities so they are a very adaptable teaching tool.

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How To Proceed

1. 1

Using Worksheets to Teach Listening

For listening activities you can have fill in the blank exercises that go along with
songs as well as matching or multiple choice questions that relate to passages you
read aloud. For these types of activities, it is best to review the worksheet as a class
and provide an example before having students listen to the material. Two to three
repetitions may be needed before students have completed the worksheet. Correct
the answers aloud as a class to give students some speaking practice and when
appropriate you can have students listen to the material once more after they have
corrected their answers and before moving on with the lesson.

2. 2

Using Worksheets to Teach Reading

Creating worksheets for reading passages is an excellent method of testing students’

comprehension of the material as a whole as well as the meaning of specific
vocabulary words. For a short reading activity, have students read the material you
have prepared silently and then take turns reading sections of the passage out loud.
On the worksheet you can use true or false questions, fill in the blank sentences, and
basic questions to test comprehension and then an activity such as matching
synonyms to ensure students understand certain vocabulary words. These answers
can be checked aloud as a class.

3. 3

Using Worksheets to Teach Writing

Worksheets can help give students a clear structure for writing activities too. You
can have students create sentences using the target structure, giving them as much
or as little guidance as you choose. For example, for the writing section in a past
simple lesson you can have five questions such as “What did you do yesterday?” that
students must write answers to or simply ask students to write five past tense
sentences. You could also give a prompt such as “Write five sentences about your last
birthday party.” Sometimes it is best to combine these so that students work up to
writing longer passages. The first section can be five questions centered on a specific
theme and the second section can be a prompt relating to the same theme. This way,
students already have five complete sentences they can use in the paragraph for the
second section. While a little redundant, students are often overwhelmed by the idea
of writing an entire paragraph in English and find it difficult to think of words or
phrases to include when a specific theme is given so this method allows students to
answer simple questions, provides a lot of thematically appropriate vocabulary, and
gives students the support needed to perform well on the second task. Reading
paragraphs aloud at the end of class will give students an opportunity to learn about
their fellow students and further speaking practice.

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 4. 4

Using Worksheets to Teach Speaking

Even speaking activities can be structured using worksheets. Pair activities, where
students ask and answer questions which they have already answered on their
worksheets, gives students time to compose their responses in advance but also
practice expressing themselves aloud as well. Interview activities are an excellent
way to get the entire class moving; students have to ask classmates questions and get
different signatures for every question on the worksheet. As mentioned above, you
can check the answers to any section of a worksheet aloud as a class and turn it into
a speaking activity. Students can be asked to translate the questions, provide
answers, and even translate the answers if you think something is unclear.

5. 5

Using Worksheets to Teach Combined Skills

The best worksheets will combine several types of activities so that students can
have more variety in their lesson and are not bored by a particular type of exercise
dominating their class time. Worksheets can easily focus on listening or reading
exercises to start off with, turn into speaking exercises when checking answers or
doing a pair activity, and then finish off with a writing section where students can
use the new material or target structures along with previously learned material in
their answers. If you think some students will finish activities more quickly, you can
include a fun section such as a crossword or word search for those students with
extra time.

As worksheets play an important part in ESL learning, it is worth putting in extra effort
when creating them and trying your best to make them appealing to students. When
possible insert related images or activities such as crosswords and word searches that
students perceive more as games than as learning exercises. When appropriate you can also
reward students who perform especially well with stickers or stamps to give students more
of an incentive to spend their class time productively.

How to Check Comprehension: Easy Ways

Throughout lessons, teachers have to ensure that students are paying attention and
understanding the material. Conducting comprehension checks will highlight what students
are struggling with and what needs to be covered more thoroughly before completing
additional activities or moving on to the next topic. The comprehension exercises you do are
often determined by the type of activities you have decided to include in your lessons. This
how-to guide describes some easy ways to check comprehension.

How to Proceed

1. 1

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 Reading

When doing reading activities, you should spend time introducing new vocabulary
and topics before reading the material. Give students the opportunity to read
silently at first and then have them do some pronunciation practice. While
conducting these pronunciation exercises, you can ask students for synonyms or
translations for words and phrases. Teachers often use simple true or false
statements, multiple choice questions, or ask for students to summarize or
paraphrase key points to check that students understand the content of the reading.

2. 2

Writing

For writing exercises it is important that students understand the questions they are
being asked or the topic they are being given before beginning the activity. Prior to
even introducing the writing activity, have students volunteer to answer similar
questions or talk briefly about the same topic. Once students have been given the
assignment, provide them with a clear sample response and write it on the board if
you think that students may need to refer to it later on. If students are required to
use a specific structure in their answers be sure that they have had plenty of practice
using it and when you mark their papers, pay special attention to whether or not
students are using it appropriately.

3. 3

Speaking

Speaking activities are very important in English classrooms. Most of the

comprehension checks for speaking exercises will be done during the initial
introduction and practice sections of the lesson. You can have students practice the
pronunciation of new words, provide synonyms for certain vocabulary, and give you
translations of target structures to see if students grasp the meaning of certain
material. During speaking exercises it may be difficult to correct students because
correcting a student during a class activity brings him negative attention while when
students are doing exercises in groups it is impossible to catch everything they say.
The most important things you can do during speaking activities is listen for correct
pronunciation of key vocabulary and make sure that the material students are
producing are appropriate for the structure or topic being covered. If you notice a
trend in student errors, this could point to a comprehension issue that you will have
to review before moving on.

4. 4

Listening

For listening activities students can complete some of the same activities they would
for reading exercises. If your students have difficulty answering true or false
questions without being able to refer directly to the passage, multiple choice or fill in
the blank exercises may be more appropriate. You should ask basic comprehension
questions about the material. If the passage was about Lisa getting a dog for her
birthday, you can ask if Lisa received a dog, cat, fish, or horse as a comprehension

64
 question. If these types of questions are too easy, you can also ask questions about
things that are implied from the tone of the passage. Using the example above you
may ask if Lisa was happy, sad, tired, or hungry at her birthday party even if the
passage did not directly address this. Fill in the blank activities are generally more
challenging than multiple choice ones but you can provide the missing words so that
students have some guidance when completing them.

At every stage in the lesson be sure that students have a firm grasp on the material.

If students are struggling with something in one exercise, the same thing may give them
trouble in the next one as well. Rather than let them become frustrated due to lack of
understanding, explain key points again. You can do this individually if only a couple
students are having difficulties or as a class if the majority of students have questions. In
certain classes, pairing or grouping students who understand the material well with those
who do not may also help.

How to Lead Discussions: No Need to Speak Like Obama

For intermediate and advanced learners it is important to dedicate time to discussing topics
so that students have practice organizing their thoughts and expressing their views. Lessons
focused on debating, giving advice, and reading articles are some examples of when
discussion activities could be conducted.

Debating

There are a lot of phrases and vocabulary words that go along with debating but
introducing only a couple new things each time you have this kind of lesson will allow
students to focus mostly on the lesson topic while still building their vocabulary. Phrases
such as “I see your point however…” and “I agree/disagree with you but/because…” would be
appropriate. To lead a debate, divide students into two groups with each one representing
one side of the argument. You can give them a passage to read about the topic and some
facts or perhaps give one side facts to support its argument while giving a different set of
facts to the other. While students are working in groups, it is important to ensure that each
student has the opportunity to practice speaking. Give students some time to review the
material and organize their thoughts before conducting the activity. Students should decide
who presents the initial argument for their group and then take turns presenting their case
and responding to the other group’s points. You may decide to judge the groups based on
how they present material and the strength of their arguments or simply conduct the
activity for fun. Once students have exhausted the topic, it may be appropriate to have
groups switch sides so that students get to argue both sides of the same discussion or have
another debate on an entirely new topic if there is enough time.

Giving advice

To start this lesson, you could ask each student to write down a problem he has and submit
it anonymously at the beginning of class. This way, the advice given during the lesson is sure
to relate to issues that the students are dealing with and thus gives it much more relevance
than any sort of problems you may think of to use for this activity. To start, simply draw a

65
problem out of a hat, box or jar for instance and read it aloud to the class as if it were your
problem. Ask students to take turns giving you advice about the problem. After a piece of
advice has been offered you can open it up for discussion by saying “Do you think that’s a
good idea?” and perhaps having students raise their hands if they agree with the advice.
Then ask why students agree and why other students disagree with the advice. Call on a
student who disagrees to give another piece of advice and repeat this again or move on to
another problem. This gives students examples of real life situations where they may need to
give advice as well as lots of speaking practice.

Reading articles

Articles relating to current events, new technology, fashion, travel, or any hobby may be
appropriate reading material for your class. It is important to choose a topic which will
appeal to your students. You can use the article to practice pronunciation and introduce
vocabulary but also to lead into a discussion. An article about soccer might lead to questions
such as “Do you like soccer? Who is your favorite player? Did you watch the World Cup?” and
then move on to more complex questions such as “Do you think soccer is getting more or less
popular? Why?” Students can be asked lots of questions based on their responses and you
can encourage other students to ask questions as well.

Discussions are often challenging to lead in larger classes because there is a lot of time
where students are not speaking so you may want to have students work in groups to
discuss and then present material on a specific theme. Each group could be given a different
theme and then students would have more time to express their individual opinions. With
smaller classes discussions are much easier to conduct but you may have to prepare more
questions for these lessons because students may move through the material more quickly.
With both class sizes discussions are an important part of learning English because students
need to be able to produce their own material based on their thoughts and opinions as
opposed to simply regurgitating information and memorizing grammatical structures.

Discussion classes are an excellent method of encouraging students to express themselves

and give students lots of speaking practice.

How often do you have discussion classes? How successful are they? Please share your ideas
below.

9 Cool Classroom Management Tricks: Are You Using Them?

Try these fresh classroom management tips and tricks with your class - they do work! Tell
us about your experience with them in the comments, we would love to hear your thoughts!

Classroom Coupons

Why not create coupons to give as rewards for good behavior, special efforts, good work?
Coupons could be for eating with the teacher, a night off from homework, having lunch with
another class, moving one's desk to a preferred spot, etc. Coupons are a fun way to reward.

Compliment Box

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Have a special box for just compliments. Encourage students to write a compliment when
they catch a classmate doing something nice. At the end of each day, read each note aloud
and then give the notes to each student who was complimented. This tactic can build up
students' self-esteem. You might want to keep a list of those who receive notes in order to
make sure that each student gets a note from time to time.

Payday

To make this technique work, you must have a pocket folder for each student. On the first
day of a two-week period, students are given a set of homemade money, cut and stapled in a
durable envelope with their names on the front. Students will, initially, write their names on
the back of the money. Set up a system of values.

Students can lose money for the following reasons:

 $___ no pencil
 $___ no homework
 $___ chewing gum
 $___ eating in class
 $___ running in the hall

Students can earn money for the following reasons:

 $___ a clean desk

 $___ a good grade
 $___ bringing homework
 $___ being helpful

Adjust rules as you wish. Have an end-of-the-period sale. Provide small items that the
students can purchase such as stickers, books, pencils, etc., or even a no-homework night.

Reward at No Cost

If you do not want to always buy things as rewards, here are a few reward ideas that do not
cost anything.

 be first in line
 draw on the board
 use the computer
 no-homework-night pass
 go to the library
 be the teacher helper
 do work at the teacher's desk
 move desk to another place
 read to a younger class or student
 have extra center time
 operate the projector
 go to another room for lunch

Zip the Lips

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Make a large set of lips, complete with zipper. Cue in your students that when you make a
zip motion over the lips, the meaning is the following: "Zip your lips." In other words, get
quiet!

Fishing on Friday

Want to have good behavior during the week? One way to encourage following rules is to
have a special surprise. Obtain two small fish bowls. Label the bowls, one bowl for the girls
and one bowl for the boys. At the end of the week, have a drawing for both the boys and
girls. Place the students' names in the appropriate bowl if a student was good for the week
and followed all the rules. Have some type of special treat for the week's winner.

Smile Face Reminder

Sometimes it is hard to remember to smile. Make a large smiley face and suspend it from
the ceiling. When you notice it, it will be a great reminder to stay positive.

Be Human

Students need to know that teachers are human, too. Everyone makes mistakes, even the
teacher. Sometimes it is effective to deliberately make a mistake in order to let the students
react and correct! When using this approach, be careful that you do not let students get
away with being disrespectful. Students respect is a necessary component of good teaching.

Silent Signals and Signs

Silent signaling to your class is always a plus. To silently signal to students that they should
stop talking, create a signal light. Put up the red signal when they are too noisy and need to
be quiet. Put up the yellow signal when they can talk and share in low voices. Use the green
signal for saying talking is all right, if money is no problem, purchase a small stoplight
through a teacher supply company.

Other proven methods involve using hand signals. A thumbs up can mean "excellent" or
"I'm proud of you." Work with your students to develop signs. This can be a fun way to talk
about people who are deaf and how they communicate with each other.

5 Worst Mistakes All Beginner ESL Teachers Make (And You Too?)

Oscar Wilde once said, “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes”. This holds true
for everyone starting out in a new career, and ESL teachers are no exception. But one thing
is accepting we’ll make mistakes as we go and chalk it up to a lack of experience, and
another is completely ignoring the worst kind of mistakes you could make. Since anyone can
learn from their mistakes, then we can certainly learn from the five worst mistakes beginner
ESL teachers make.

5 Worst ESL Mistakes

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1. 1

Taking up all of the talking time

In an ESL class, what is the most common reason students are enrolled? They want
to SPEAK English! And what happens when the teacher speaks most of the time?
They don’t have enough chances to actually practice their speaking skills. Those
who are new to ESL teaching often make this very crucial mistake: They take up too
much of the talking time, either because they feel uncomfortable around silence or
long pauses, or because they are over-enthusiastic to share their knowledge. So
clearly, hogging most of the talking time is out of the question. But, how to find the
right balance between student talking time and teacher talking time?

As a general rule of thumb, students should speak for 70% of the class time, while
teachers speak for the remaining 30%. These percentages could be tweaked in cases
where students are absolute beginners (50-50), or at the other end of the spectrum,
very advanced learners in need of intensive speaking practice (90-10). This means
that in most cases, your participation should be limited to giving instructions and
explaining essential points, but above all to eliciting response from students and
facilitating all types of speaking activities.

2. 2

Ignoring boundaries between teacher and students

ESL teachers should be friendly and strive to bond with students in order to achieve
the best learning outcomes. But there’s a line between being friendly and being a
friend. A teacher is meant to be an authority figure, one that is most definitely not
on equal terms with students. This is a very common mistake in young teachers,
especially because they might be the same age as their students. It's all right to share
some personal things and talk about family, pets, interests or hobbies. But you must
never let it get too personal. Any personal information shared must be supplied to
give students context when they are learning something new. It is not meant to be
shared so you may be accepted by students. This is when the lines become blurred
and students get confused. You lose all authority and any effective classroom
management is severely compromised.

Be on friendly terms, talk about your dog or what you did last weekend, but make
sure students feel there is a boundary that can’t be crossed.

3. 3

Poor or inconsistent classroom management

This is one of the mistakes that is often made due to a lack of experience. Classroom
management is not an exact science; it’s not like teaching the past simple tense. Each
group of student is different and rules must be set as a group. The problem stems
from the fact that new teachers may not have a clearly defined teaching style. So,
they either become too strict or too lax. There are plenty of articles you can read on
effective classroom management; you may agree with some of the techniques, you
may disagree with others and choose to implement your own. For example, you may
choose to forego stickers as a means of rewarding students, and choose another

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 method. It’s not about being stricter, but rather being consistent. There’s nothing
worse for a group of students than empty promises or weak threats. Once you define
how you'll manage your class, stick to it!

4. 4

Forgetting cultural differences

Some teachers are so focused on teaching things about the English culture, they
completely ignore their students’. Some gestures ESL teachers commonly use in the
classroom, like the gesture for OK, may be very rude in other cultures. In some
countries, students may be used to lecturing, and may not react positively when you
propose a game. This is a mistake ESL teachers make above all in foreign countries
where the culture is very different from Western culture, like Arabic or Oriental
cultures. Learn about their customs, especially greetings, and use this information to
create a positive learning environment.

5. 5

Not gathering enough information on students’ backgrounds and needs

How many beginner ESL teachers start a lesson with a new group and don’t even
find out where they’ve studied English before, how long, and with which results?
What if you have a student who has studied English countless times, off and on, over
the last 20 years, but is still at an intermediate level? It doesn't matter if you obtain
this information from your department head or from the students themselves; this is
essential information to have if you want your students to advance, to make
progress in their English language skills.

Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, for mistakes will surely be made. There are valuable
lessons to be learned from each and every one. Start by avoiding the ones listed above, and
you’ll start your teaching career off on the right foot.

We’d love to hear from all of the experienced teachers out there! If you’ve made any
mistakes you'd like to share with us, please do so below in the comments.

Staying Positive: Tips and Tricks to Keep That Smile on Your Face

Teaching ESL or anything else for that matter can be a challenge.

Classes do not always go as planned, students may not behave well, and planning, teaching,
and grading is a lot of work. In spite of everything, since your attitude affects your students,
it is important to remain positive in the classroom. There are a number of simple ways you
can make your life easier and deal with teaching related issues.

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How to Stay Positive No Matter What

1. 1

Prepare Well

Doing sufficient preparation before class will make lessons run more smoothly and
cause you much less stress than walking into a lesson without a clear plan. Create
organized lesson plans and make copies of materials well in advance. When creating
a plan, keep in mind that another teacher should be able to pick it up and teach
your class without any difficulties. You do not need to include every single warm up
question but having some examples will help you get started especially if you teach
many different levels and classes every day. While making lesson plans can be time
consuming, they will help you maximize class time and you can save all your
teaching materials for future use too.

2. 2

Mistakes are Fun

Do not be afraid to laugh at yourself especially when you make mistakes. People
make mistakes; it happens to us all so it is alright to highlight your mistakes. You
can use a mistake as a learning opportunity by giving students the chance to correct
you as if it were an intentional comprehension check. You can also just say “Oops,
that’s not right.” and fix your mistake too. Owning your mistakes and deciding what
to do with them yourself is definitely better than having a student point something
out that you were trying to gloss over or confusing students by modeling something
incorrectly.

3. 3

Encourage

Even if students are struggling, be sure to provide lots of encouragement. Getting

upset when students are unable to understand new things is not productive. You can
explain key points again using simplified language and sneak in some simple
comprehension checks. Really basic questions can help pinpoint where exactly
students are having difficulties and go a long way towards building student
confidence. If your students are confident and have positive attitudes, you will too.

4. 4

Be a Good Actor

You will undoubtedly have plenty of opportunities to act in the classroom. Being the
teacher all the time is boring for both you and students so take advantage of
opportunities to be someone else. This will make your lessons more interesting and
break away from your routine. For instance, use different voices for each character
when demonstrating model dialogues or a role play. See our article on how to teach
using gestures and mime. Try to give your students more opportunities to act too.
Some classes have one or two blossoming comedians and as long as they are
practicing English and not a huge distraction, they can really improve the

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 atmosphere in the classroom. Acting also gives students practice using different
tones which is really important. You wouldn’t say “Oh, that’s too bad.” the same way
you’d say “That’s such great news!” so make some practice activities revolve around
acting and tones. Your students may both amaze and amuse you with their
performances.

5. 5

Have a Backup Plan

When students are not responding well to the course material or when things just
are not working out the way you want them to, be prepared to do something else.
Stumbling through an exercise that students do not understand, cannot do, or
dislike is only going to prolong everyone’s suffering. Be prepared to change activities
when necessary. Having a few reliable activities to fall back on will save you when
things are not going well. You can use these same activities at the end of class if you
have extra time.

6. 6

Simple Things That Matter

Even something as simple as your morning coffee or afternoon snack can help you
stay positive. These may be small comforts but they also give you energy and make
you more alert during difficult times of the day. If you realize that your energy hits
bottom at a certain point of the day, schedule a pick me up before that period. It will
help you and your students remain focused and engaged in class.

If you are not in a positive state of mind before walking into the classroom, remember to
take deep breaths and leave it at the door.

Going into a class in a negative state of mind is certainly not going to improve your day and
your students will suffer from your lack of energy, involvement, and cheerfulness.

B – Thinking Outside the Book (Textbook, That Is) [Teacher Tips from A to Z]

Textbooks are an important part of an ESL class. They provide direction and explanations
of key ESL concepts. While textbooks are of great value to the ESL teacher, the world
outside the textbook is vast and has limitless potential.

If you think about what resources you have around you, there are many possible activities
you can do with your class, outside the textbook. Read on to get started thinking outside the
textbook.

B: How to Think Outside The Book

1. 1

Dig a Little Deeper

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 Magazines and newspapers are some of the best reading materials that you can use
with your ESL students, and there are several activities you can do with just one
paper. With just a newspaper you can review and practice all three reading
strategies that your students should know.
☛ Skim some articles for the main points. Encourage your students not to read
every word, but to focus on headlines, subheadings, and portions of the rest of the
article.
☛ Scan the paper to see when a movie might be playing or for the events that will
happen locally this weekend. When scanning, students should look for answers to
specific questions.
☛ Finally, do some careful or detail reading for other articles, and ask
comprehension questions. Also, review unfamiliar vocabulary with your students.
You will find many opportunities to expand their knowledge of vocabulary in the
newspaper. There is also culture to be learned from the paper, especially in the
obituaries.
Your students can see what a culture value is by noticing what is mentioned in an
obituary. In addition, do some compare and contrast work between this newspaper
and one from a student’s native language. If possible, borrow a foreign newspaper
from the library and ask your student to explain the different sections. He will be
challenged to use English to explain to the rest of the class, and they will learn more
about his culture.

2. 2

Something May Catch Your Eye

Now that you are out of the book, keep going with a movie. Movies are a great
resource for many different classroom activities. Some ESL programs have entire
classes devoted to American film. How you decide to use movies in your classroom is
up to you. Generally, you can choose to use one movie and do several activities with
the whole movie or particular scenes. The other option is to pick and choose scenes
from different movies and do one or two activities with each.
One activity you can to with any move scene is a cloze listening exercise. Be warned,
this will take some preparation ahead of time. Before you meet with your class, type
out the dialogue from a particular scene of the movie. Then delete key words in that
dialogue and leave blank spaces for your students to fill in as they listen. If you have
already taught them the vocabulary, play the scene one or two times and have them
fill in the blanks. Then have students compare answers and give them the correct
answers. Then have groups of students read the dialogues as if they were the actors.
If you have not taught the vocabulary to your students prior to watching the movie
clip, give them a word bank from which to choose the answers. Before watching,
read through the words in the word bank and review their pronunciation so your
students will be able to recognize the words when they hear them. It is also
beneficial to your students if they think of words that would logically fit into the
blanks in the dialogue before watching the clip. They may be able to guess some
words correctly, but most likely your students will come up with synonyms for the
words actually in the scene. You can then explain to your students that guessing in
this manner is a useful strategy for ESL reading. When they encounter an
unfamiliar word in their English readings, they can guess at the meaning of the
word based on the context, and they should be able to determine a synonym or a
word with similar meaning to the target word. This will increase thier
comprehension without them having to use a dictionary.

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 3. 3

Get Out (and about)

To get your students using language in authentic situations, take a field trip. It does
not have to be something elaborate or requiring special transportation. Think of the
resources that lie within walking distance of your school, and make use of them.
This may mean that your students go to a restaurant and place an order or ask the
server questions about a menu item. If you teach in a city and there are public
courthouses nearby, take your students to listen to some of the proceedings and then
discuss what was said with them after returning to your classroom. If you teach near
a beach or a public park, take your students out to do some surveys with people who
might be there. There are also many restaurants, theaters, post offices and other
businesses that will give free tours to students. All of these trips are great speaking
activities and listening comprehension activities for your class, and it can also be a
way to learn less common vocabulary in a purposeful way.

You do not have to keep your students’ noses in their textbooks to ensure a productive ESL
class. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your students is to get out of the book
and into the real world.

Your students will be challenged, but the opportunity for learning will be unlike anything
chapter six has to offer. So next time you want to liven up your class, get out of the book and
into some real life situations to practice English.

How To Motivate ESL Students: The 10 Best Ways to Increase Teenage Student Motivation

Ah, the joys of teaching! Young learners are so full of energy that most activities you
propose are met with loads of enthusiasm. Adult learners are focused on meeting their
language goals and have a wealth of skills and knowledge to contribute to the class.

However, things are not as simple with teens. Most are very clever and insightful kids, but
this is not exactly the most talkative age group. Have you ever faced a class full of blank
stares where most of the replies you hear are “Yes”, “No”, or “It depends”? Have you ever
felt frustrated by their lack of interest?

Here are some strategies that should get your teens a bit more motivated.

How To Motivate ESL Students

Use as many references to pop culture as you can

Consider your teens’ interests. Imagine you want to discuss last week’s events to practice the
past simple tense. Will they be more interested in what President Obama did last week, or
which outrageous outfit Lady Gaga wore to an awards show? If you’re not willing to discuss

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Eminem’s latest album, or any of the Twilight books or films, then you won't connect with
your teen students.

Give them a little friendly competition

Little kids like to compete, and teens are no different. Whether they play sports or games on
the Wii, they always try to out best each other. Why not introduce some friendly
competition into the ESL classroom? Games are easy ways to do this, but you can also have
them compete in any activity.

 Give them 60 seconds to write down as many words as they can related to a topic,
like “clothes” or “foods”.
 Tell them that whoever finishes a written exercise first or has the most correct
answers, gets to choose a video to watch or a song to listen to in class.

Cater to their skills and exploit their talents

Most teens are talented at one thing or another. Take your time to get to know them and
discover what these talents are.

 Students who are artistically-inclined may draw pictures, sketches or cartoons of a

story you read out loud to the class.
 Do you have a student who plays the guitar? Ask him or her to bring it to class and
play a song while the class sings the lyrics in English.

Use pen pals to motivate writing

If your students are not enthused about writing assignments, give them pen pals to write to.
At ESL Teachers Board, or any other message board for ESL teachers, you can post a
request for pen pals for your students, and find another teacher with whom you can trade
email addresses. Writing to pen pals is a great introduction to what they may have to master
later in life: business emails.

Make reading age appropriate

To get students excited about a reading assignment, make sure you choose material that will
pique their interest. Naturally, books or stories about teens are sure to work, but you can
also include celebrity biographies, anything sports-related, or any topic that may interest
them, but is also up to their reading level.

Play songs to improve listening comprehension

If you play any of the audio that typically comes with course materials, your teens will most
likely tune out and not hear a word. The best way to motivate them to listen is by playing
songs. But you should also choose songs they like, or can relate to.

 This worksheet for Photograph by Nickelback provides a great warm up exercise

and a post-listening activity.
 Listen to So Sick by Ne-Yo and ask your students to complete the tasks set forth in
this worksheet.

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Have video lessons

Videos have great potential in the ESL class. Thanks to recent advances in technology, we
no longer need to have a TV and DVD player in the classroom to teach a video lesson. A
laptop will do for a small class, and a speedy Internet connection is great, but not entirely
necessary, as you can have video files already downloaded to your computer. To keep teens
focused on the task, choose short interviews, movie trailers, music videos, or how to videos
on YouTube.

Integrate technology into the classroom

In the previous point, we mention how easy it is to show videos on a laptop, but you can
integrate technology in so many other ways. Most teens have excellent Web surfing skills, so
why not assign them a WebQuest? A WebQuest is an online, inquiry-based activity where
students are required to search for specific information within links provided by the
teacher, and then produce a report or a PowerPoint presentation. Here are some great
examples of WebQuests for teens, but you can also design your own to suit your students’
level.

Play games

ESL games motivate any learner whether they are 5 or 50 years old. But with teens, it’s
important to choose games that will challenge them, give them the right competitive feel,
and help them effectively practice an ESL item. A guessing game or any type of quiz show
game should get them motivated.

 Try this Passive Voice Quiz Game, or design your own with similar categories.
 The 6 Clues Guessing Game will have your students competing to see who guesses
right with the least amount of clues.
 Need another example of a great game to practice grammar? Download the Wh-
Questions Game

Use realia in the classroom

The use of real life objects is also a great way to motivate students of all ages. But it is
particularly effective with teens who are already lacking in enthusiasm.

 Giving directions: Choose places that teens frequently visit like malls, concert
venues, or sports stadiums. Use anything from real city maps to brochures of these
locations to practice giving directions.
 Tell me about yourself: Instead of just telling the class about themselves, ask your
teens to bring photos, as well as some of their favorite things, like books, CDs, a
skateboard, or anything that represents them.

Make sure that at the beginning of the course you discuss what their learning goals are.
They may not have thought of this earlier, but they may come to realize that they need
English to surf the Internet, understand their favorite band's songs, or chat with foreign
friends. And talking about the things that interest teens is a great way to establish rapport.
Once you connect with them, you won’t find any more blank stares. You'll see a room full of
eager, smiling faces!

7 Best Ways to End a Lesson

76
Who among ESL teachers does not understand the purpose behind a warm up activity? We
all agree that it’s important to get students focused, to introduce a task or topic, to break the
ice, or simply place your students in “English mode”.

But what about cool downs?

Many teachers are not aware of the importance of a cool down. And what is exactly this
importance?

Many teachers just play a game or let students work on an activity till the bell rings. When
you do this you neglect to give your students closure on what they have learned for the day.
You’re not capitalizing on your unique opportunity to effectively wrap things up in a way
that will benefit your students’ learning.

The warm up and the cool down are like the introduction and the conclusion of an essay.

An essay with no conclusion has a very abrupt ending. If you just let students work on an
activity till it’s time to go home, you are not only giving them a sudden and abrupt ending to
the lesson, you may also come across as disorganized and improvised. The cool down,
however, clearly shows students that this is the way you planned for the lesson to end and
that you’re ending it like this for a reason. The cool down has its own purpose.

7 effective ways to end a lesson – because those last minutes matter!

What have you learned today?

It goes without saying that you should never end a lesson by introducing something new,
just to leave your students hanging till the next class. The best way to end a lesson is to give
students some kind of review activity, so that they may see the progress they've made in just
one lesson. One of the most common and easiest to implement is simply taking the last 5
minutes of class to ask your students, “What have you learned today?” Notice, here, that
you’re not the one telling them what they’ve learned. They may give you a list of new words,
or say they learned to speak about what they did in the past or what they will do in the
future, etc... Students may pick up something they missed earlier. Also, it's important to
speak in functional ways, for example not say they learned to use the “simple present” but
rather that they learned to speak about their habits, schedules, and everyday activities.

Performance correction and feedback

Right before the last 5 minutes of class you can have some sort of performance activity, for
instance a role play. Usually we don’t correct students during the role play so we don’t
interrupt the flow, but when they’re done you can end the class with corrections of words or
expressions they used incorrectly; things they forgot to say, etc…and your students will go
home with these corrections fresh on their minds. Students may also give their opinion or
feedback on their classmates’ performance.

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60 seconds

Choose a few students and give each 60 seconds to speak about something you’ve covered
that day: what they did yesterday if you worked on simple past; talk about Halloween,
professions, or animals; older learners may even give a “how to” lesson; they may also
summarize a story they heard, or place themselves in another person’s shoes, like a
celebrity, profession, or even animal. But they must speak for a full minute. To motivate
students to speak, you may choose to reward the student who says the most, or includes the
most information, with a reward sticker.

Write an email

Ask students to imagine they have to write an email to a friend or family member and tell
them what they did today in their ESL class. Students have a chance to summarize what
they’ve learned in written form. This writing activity may be tailored to any topic. If you
talked about farm animals, ask students to write about their favorite animal and why it’s
their favorite. And the same goes for foods, sports, celebrities. Adult learners may write a
business email with the new vocabulary they’ve learned.

Say goodbye

For very young ESL learners the best way to wrap up a lesson is with a goodbye song or
saying goodbye to a puppet. The puppet may “ask” them questions about something they
learned, and even give them a short “review” by asking, “What’s this?” or “What’s that?”
or any other question or expression they may have learned. You may set aside this special
time with the puppet every day at the end of the class, so children know what to expect, and
even though they may be very young, they will still have this sense of closure.

Tidying up

After a special holiday class, or right after a lesson packed with arts and crafts, ask students
to help you tidy up the classroom. Make sure you factor in this tidy up time when you plan
crafts. Letting students run off with their art work just to leave you in a classroom littered
with papers and art supplies gives them the wrong message.

Sharing with the class

Another great way to end your class is by asking your students to share whatever it is that
you worked on that day: a fall collage; a painting; they may read something they’ve written.
The important thing here is to give them a space to share something they've produced with
the language elements they've learned. Even adult learners may read a letter or email
they’ve written.

You can do anything you want to wrap up your lesson and be as creative as you want to be.

However, it is essential that you provide these three things:

 a time for students to cool down after an activity-filled class

 some sort of review of what they’ve learned
 the proper closure to the day’s tasks

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Private Classes: Structuring to Get the Best Results

For many teachers, having private students can be a blessing.

In some cases, it can be very profitable to move abroad and post advertisements in places,
offering private lessons in English. It is up to you as the teacher to set your own rates. You
basically work the hours you choose. For many who are employed by an official school, this
can also be a great source of supplementary income. Of course, you will have to have a look
at the rules and regulations of whatever school you work with in order to make sure that
this doesn’t contradict them. In certain countries like Germany, teaching English is mainly
a freelance job. Teachers will usually be subcontracted by different companies in order to
teach at various places such as schools and businesses. As a result, one will need to make
sure that they get contracts with a number of different companies. When taking on private
classes, the atmosphere can be a lot more relaxed. But it is still important to make sure that
the class is structured so that the student who is paying you gets the most of out their lesson.

How to Structure Your Private Classes

1. 1

Make a Plan

This might seem like an obvious one, but a lot of teachers, especially beginners,
forget about it. Even if you are only teaching a conversational class, it is important
to give it structure and have goals. For the first meeting, speak with the student
about what they need. Organize the date, times and other important aspects of the
class. If you work mostly on a freelance basis, it should be easy to accommodate
your students whenever they need it, so you can schedule classes depending on when
they’re available. Other teachers may not be so lucky, therefore in most cases it is
important to set up a regular routine.

2. 2

Focus on the Student’s Interests

This will allow you to engage them more in the class. For example, if your student is
a history teacher, tailor a class to his own interests, by focusing on different
proverbs and the historical attachments behind them. If your students has an
interest in current affairs, then have a look for different news articles on the
Internet and print them out. This can be a great way of finding relevant vocabulary,
especially if the student wants to practise his or her conversational English.

3. 3

The Importance of Structure With Children

Often parents might recruit a private tutor for their son or daughter who doesn’t
appear to be doing too well in school. This can obviously be a challenge due to their
apparent disinterest in the language. Therefore, engaging them (again!) is key.

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 Because there is only the two of you, it will not be like an ordinary classroom setting.
This leaves a lot open for distractions. Having a well set out plan with, maybe with a
break depending on the length, will achieve much better results.

4. 4

Follow Regular Class Timings

In order to maintain an air of professionalism, it is a good idea to bill your classes to

the same length as they normally would be in a professional language school. Do
some research on this if you haven’t done so already, or haven’t worked in a
language school yet. See what the standard hour is, and what the standard pay rate
is as well. With this, you will be better prepared. If students want longer or shorter
classes, then it is a good idea to organize this within the first lesson. This will clear
up any confusion.

5. 5

Warmers, Fillers and More

As with a normal class, it is important to fill up your private one-on-one classes with
the same structure methods. Introduce warmer exercises and use fillers in case there
is any time left. This will ensure the student that they are receiving a proper service.
It is important to be professional with all clients, as you can often benefit from the
likes of referrals in order to gain more students.

Again, we cannot stress how important it is to make sure that your private classes are more
structured.

A lot of the time they will be in a more relaxed setting such as the individual’s home, or in a
coffee shop. Keeping the class professional will ensure the best service.

Keep ‘Em Under Control: How to Handle Disruptive (and Disrespectful) Students

Disruptive and disrespectful students can be a pain for any teacher.

This tends not to be so common when it comes to teaching adults. A lot of people who are
learning English are doing it for their own gain. Normally the money for the classes is going
to come out of their own pockets, and therefore they will be wanting to pay as much
attention as possible. In some countries, people might even just take English classes in order
to get out of the house. Either way, those who are paying for the service themselves will be
paying the utmost attention to their teacher. But when it comes to teaching children, there
might be problems in this department. It is therefore important to know how to handle
them. Also be aware of the different rules and regulations of the school on is in before doling
out punishments. Usually teachers of English as a second language tend to have pleasant
experiences in the classroom, but on rare occasions when things don’t go right you need to
understand what to do.

How to Handle Disruptive and Disrespectful Students

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1. 1

Disruptive Students

Students who disrupt the class may or may not know they are doing it. This depends
entirely on the situation. When teaching adults, there could be one member of the
group who enjoys speaking. They may speak a lot, and therefore cause others to
miss out on their turn. This is usually not a problem, and one will easily be able to
turn this around in order to make it useful for the entire class. Organizing an
activity which will involve everybody, but with that person leading it is often a good
idea. This way they will be able to continue talking as much as they please, and
everybody else will be able to get their say as well!

2. 2

Set Down Rules

When starting with a specific course, or at the beginning of a class if one is

substituting, it is important to set down the rules. Tell the students what is
appropriate and what isn’t. This will usually help to set the tone of the classes that
are to follow. This is especially important when one is teaching teenagers and
children. Encourage them to raise their hand when they wish to speak, and also
state that it is important that they speak only in English. Emphasize this to the
students. By having a list of rules by which they have to abide at the beginning of
the class, the students will be more likely to listen and participate accordingly. It is
also a good idea to emphasize respectfulness. This is not just to the teacher, but also
to their fellow students.
Also see: ‘Classroom Management and Discipline’

3. 3

Singling Students Out

Although a lot of teachers don’t like doing this, it is usually a very effective method.
By putting the student on the spot, they will realize that all the attention is on them
and therefore they will probably be a little quieter in the future. Again, this is
usually more so the case with teenagers than any other type of student but it is also
possible with adults. If one finds that the students is continually talking, then ask
them a question about the subject at hand. If they weren’t listening, they won’t be
sure what to say. This is also a good opportunity to discuss the topic further and
might lead to some insight. Of course, some students relish attention. It is therefore
a good idea to turn this attention into a positive thing. Try getting them to go up to
the board and explaining a particular concept or idea.

4. 4

Talkative Students

A good method is, if a student is speaking too much and disrupting the class, to walk
over to them and stand next to them. Often they will feel embarrassed and quieten
down a little bit. Another good idea is, if one hears students talking, to ask them to

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 share it with the rest of the class. Normally they will be a lot quieter after this, for
fear of being singled out.

It is vital that one addresses the issues at the very beginning and nips it in the bud.

Other suggestions include drawing up a “classroom contract” which the students should all
agree to. It might also be effective to get the students themselves to think up the rules. Ask
them what they think should be appropriate classroom behaviour with regards to listening,
respect and disrupting the class. All of these methods usually work quite well, although
there may be special cases. If one is working in a secondary or primary school, it might be
pertinent to send continually disruptive students to the principal.

Have a classroom management idea that works very well for your class? Please share it in
the comments below!

☺ How to Make Your Grammar Lessons a Little More Interesting

Unless linguistics and language is a passion, most people despise grammar and hate learning
it.

Indeed, there are many different teaching methods which people today purport which do
not focus on solely teaching grammar. It is important to realize, however, that students have
different learning needs. Some will take a more logical approach, whereas others will be
more inclined to simply use the language as they receive it. An effective teaching method is
learning how to blend these two together. Some schools will focus entirely on language
acquisition. They will forgo the use of teaching grammar techniques. However, when it
comes to teaching in schools and other institutions this might be required. Sometimes the
examinations which students are preparing will focus solely on grammar and therefore it is
essential to know how to get these points across to the students. There are many different
ways of making grammar a little more interesting. A variety of different games can be
designed in order to help with this. The Internet is a brilliant resource when it comes to this,
and is indeed a blessing to many teachers. Another important thing to remember is
repetition. Repetition will often allow the words to sink into the students’ minds easier.

How to Make Your Grammar Lessons More Fun

1. 1

Using Songs

Music is often a great way of getting students to learn. By singing phrases, this will
become embedded into the mind a lot faster. This is particularly true if one is
teaching children or even teenagers. In order to do this, find a song that uses several
tenses or differing grammar points. Get the students to sing along, and then write
up the lyrics on the board. Get them then to sing it together, getting the tune into
their head. After this, one can then quiz them on what tenses or grammatical points
are in the actual text. Make this short and quick, and once they get the hang of it
have them sing the song again. After this, try and make a game out of it. Select
individuals to say or sing a verse or phrase from the song, but change the tense. This
way they will be able to practise with using the different tenses and verb forms, but

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 in a much more light-hearted way. See our other articles “Classroom Songs: 16
Creative Ways” and “How to Teach Using Songs” for more ideas on using songs.
And don’t forget that we have tons of esl song worksheets here: “ESL Songs for
Teaching English”!

2. 2

Make It Into a Game

There is no doubt that playing games will make learning a lot easier. Both adults
and children love these. Perhaps even make it into a competition. This will often get
the students motivated to get the answers right and therefore allow them to learn
much faster. Amongst teenagers this can be particularly effective, whether the class
is divided into two or more groups. By turning it into a competition, everyone will
become a lot more active and a lot of fun can be had by everyone.

3. 3

Tell a Story

Another way to make grammar a little easier to digest is to teach it in the form of
storytelling. Perhaps get the students to form a “story stick” whereby everyone
contributes a line to the overall story. If there are any grammar mistakes in this,
then leave it until the end. When the entire story is finished and written out on the
board, get a student to come up to it and make the appropriate corrections. With
participation from the class, have the entire text corrected. Ask the students
questions as to why certain tenses are the way they are. Having something to focus
on like this will keep the students’ attention and therefore allow for the
understanding of grammatical structures to sink in a lot easier.

4. 4

Start Simple

If you are preparing students for a college entrance examination or any other kind
of test, then simply knowing grammar structures may be the key to passing it. If the
learners have been doing grammar all along but still don’t understand the
mechanics, then it is important to make sure that they receive a crash course in it.
English grammar can be relatively simple when it is all laid out. Start from the
beginning, give them a few practice exercises and let them work their way up. It is
also a good idea to create a “grammar book” whereby the students can write down
the various sentence structures and tenses, class by class, so that they will always
have a reference.

In fact, having a comprehensive reference for grammar is probably one of the best
things to do. At the beginning of the course, it is a good idea to start simple and help
the students to work their way up to the more complex forms. A reference will allow
them to be more solidly grounded and can be good for doing exam revision with.

Do you know any other great ways to make grammar lessons more fun? Please share them
with us in the comments!

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How To Teach an Amazing Observed Lesson

Be positive and consider yourself fortunate. You are lucky enough to be in the privileged
position of not only knowing when the observation will take place, but have advance
warning of the timing and can PREPARE beforehand.

How To Proceed

1. 1

Treat it as part of your CPD.

The observer will assess whether you follow certain criteria to a satisfactory
standard and comment upon, giving advice and recommendations accordingly. This
will give you an independent appraisal of your teaching methodology and provide
you with positive/negative feedback on your role as a teacher. But remember this
exercise is to benefit all concerned – you, your students and the educational system
of which you are an integral part.

2. 2

Take a moment to appraise yourself.

If you were ineffective or doing a bad job this would have already come to light and
remedial or disciplinary action been taken. So this is all about your future in
teaching, rather than the past. So ask yourself the question ‘where are you in
teaching THIS class?’ Focus on this particular class only for the time allotted for
your observation, prioritizing your planning/teaching appropriately. Some
schools/institutions may ask you to complete a pre-observation form, which gives
you a further insight to what particular format the observation is going to follow, so
you can react in a suitable manner.

So let’s think what will the observer generally be looking for? It’s usually 3 criteria, which
makes things pretty simple:

- Planning – are you as a teacher aware of your student’s knowledge and development and
do you plan your lessons with this in mind, taking into account the diversity of learners and
the suitability of resources, so that outcomes can be identified in your class?

- Instruction – do you provide engaging, challenging and relevant classes?

- Classroom Environment – is it conducive to learning? Are you supportive? Do you manage

the classroom well and maintain high expectations from your students?

Of course you answered a resounding YES to all the above, but let’s check if you really are
ready for the BIG DAY. These are suggestions in addition to the desirable qualities outlined
in the article ‘How to be a better teacher’ at busyteacher.org. You may have to produce a
specific lesson plan in advance for your observer, but you must have this ready as a matter
of course in many teaching situations, so there is no real excuse for being ill-prepared.

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Lesson preparation.
You should have an appropriate use of target language, linking with the previous lesson.
Explain your tasks clearly and effectively and check for understanding. Ensure you close
the session positively and clearly having achieved your aims.

Classroom management
Make sure you know all the students’ names. Maybe you don’t always call upon them in
such a fashion, but this creates a good impression during the observation. Use the room
effectively to compliment your lesson and the envisaged activities. Encourage and handle
questions effectively and be appreciative of your student contributions.

Lesson relevance/ Materials management

Modify your text/lesson to improve communication by making it relevant to students’ lives
and culture.

Listening/Reading management
Clarify understanding and ask concept questions.

Breaktime management
If there is a break during your observation, keep students continually involved in English
speaking activities e.g. Find someone who …

Voice
It is important to be very clear and concise, pitching at an appropriate level. Emphasize key
points and structures. Manipulate your articulation speed.

Attitude
Be enthusiastic, professional, responsive and flexible. Establish your presence.

Vocabulary/Grammar Presentation
Show your skills in eliciting vocabulary. This is an area where you must be thoroughly
prepared.

Pacing/Variety
This is your chance to soar during the assessment. Use numerous activities that are
appropriate to the length of your lesson time e.g. dialogues, cloze questions, matching,
roleplays and skits, accuracy work. Don’t overdo it. A balance and variety of activities is
sufficient. Don’t overwhelm your students and pressurize them to perform too much
without pre-practice in prior classes, as otherwise it will be very apparent that this is a
break from the norm.

Error correction

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Correct generally and exploit for accuracy opportunities, while giving particular focus to
pronunciation.

Props/Visual aids
Eye contact and clarity of body language is essential, as you are being observed and possibly
videoed for the post-evaluation. Be aware of negative gestures. If using OHP etc, ensure it is
set up properly. Don’t let your equipment fail you or be over ambitious in your
presentation.

Behavior modification
Make sure you restrain the dominant students. Give direct feedback and compliment
desirable behavior. Encourage rapport amongst students and ensure you are creating and
maintaining a conducive class atmosphere at all times.

Student empowerment
Maybe you usually allow dictionaries, but it should be discouraged on observation day, as
your teaching skills are primarily in focus. Let your students become involved in other ways
e.g. you might ask them to write some sentences on the whiteboard during the various class
exercises.

Student/Teacher speaking time

This is a crucial area. The TT should have these features – quality, quantity, appropriacy
and competency in English.

The observation day should be a showcase for your teaching. So make sure you use your
strongest artillery. A good relevant warmer or ice-breaker at the start of class will set the
scene nicely, or show continuity from the last class by checking homework etc. Work with
your most active learners on more difficult tasks and don’t ask hesitant or reluctant
speakers to initiate. Make sure you achieve high levels of interaction in whole class, pair
work, group work and individual situations. Show your manipulative skills in controlling
the direction of the lesson, the time proportioned to task work and the balance between
TTT/STT.

Finally don’t let sloppy writing or work on the board undo all your other good work. Plan
your grammar timelines, substitution tables, vocabulary lists etc methodically. You can’t
anticipate everything and your plans may go adrift for numerous reasons e.g. change in
number of students anticipated, tasks over-running, etc. But the observer is not looking for
perfection and criticism will be constructive.

Be proud of your accomplishments and take the post-lesson feedback as a mandate for your
continuing career in your chosen profession.

Becoming A Teacher: What Makes A Good Teacher

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Some people are born to teach, whilst others must constantly strive to reinvent themselves
and recreate their lessons in the perpetual pursuit of perfection. It is an ever evolving yet
challenging and lifelong learning environment of which we are an integral part. This article
attempts to summarize top qualities of a good teacher, looks into what makes a good
teacher, and provides ideas on becoming a better teacher.

Hope you find it interesting and make another step on the road to even better teaching!

What Makes A Good Teacher?

 Creating a positive learning atmosphere and developing a good rapport without

showing favoritism. Having the ability to engage and involve students with your
personality.
 Being patient – for slow learners, ‘needy’ students requiring attention and those
lacking motivation.
 Clarity – answering questions in a clear and concise way.
 Organized – punctual, producing well-planned lessons with suitable material.
 Sense of humor – miming and body language often require this quality, without
resorting to circus antics.
 Adaptable – being resourceful.
 Imaginative – in creating and adapting teaching materials and also empathising
with students in building rapport.

Becoming A Teacher. One Teacher = Many Roles

1. Controller - the person in control of class management.

2. Assessor – checking and deciding the method of giving feedback e.g. error
correction.
3. A Resource – this is especially the case in developing countries, where there are
limitations
4. Coach – encouraging class participation, especially for shyer students.
5. Tutor – in one-to-one teaching.
6. Organizer – instruction of students for activities and providing feedback.

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 7. Facilitator – for student interactive communication.
8. Counsellor – solving any language learning problems.
9. An instructor – in the traditional sense on language points such as pronunciation,
vocabulary or grammar.
10. A provider of experiences – in order for students to practise the four skills they
require, as many language examples as possible are needed.
11. A model – particularly for pronunciation.
12. A motivator – balancing activities to achieve language targets and student interest.
13. An authority – students rely heavily on teacher pronouncements and so
generalizations should be avoided/explained as such.
14. An arbiter – balancing fluency with accuracy in assessing error correction.
15. An examiner – continuous monitoring and testing.
16. A disciplinarian – essential to maintain class control.
17. A balancer – a sliding scale which constantly changes.
18. A mentor – giving language insight to another culture.
19. A prompter – without taking away the initiative from the student e.g. role-play
activity vocabulary support.
20. A participant – e.g. discussion.
21. A performer – with suitable behavior according to the activity being undertaken.
22. Rapport builder – recognizing, listening to, respecting and being even-handed with
students, in a professional manner.

What Other Attributes Must A Good Teacher Have?

 The teacher has to exploit his/her talents as a visual teaching aid to incorporate
mime, gesture and expression to convey meaning and atmosphere in the classroom.
 Language modeling is important as students may find video and audio recordings
difficult to understand.
 Teacher Talking Time (TTT) should be used productively and the importance of our
voices never under-estimated.
 Observation skills in assessing student performance and progress are also vital.
 Teachers must be culturally aware e.g. Japan has a masculine collective culture,
virtually all classes are monolingual, long-term oriented with a high degree of
uncertainty avoidance.

How To Be A Better Teacher: The Secret Recipe That Every Pro Knows

Qualities of a good teacher - what are they? This article attempts to look into the practical
side of being a good teacher by reviewing the various aspects of a 'successful teacher'
strategy that contains both internal and external teaching tools. Happy teaching, and we
hope after reading the article you'll be one step closer to becoming the teacher of your
learners' dream!

How Can You Be A Good Teacher?

 Voice – Speak in a normal native speed. Do not slow further for understanding when
giving key directions. Use of language clarification.
 Attitude – Natural, attentive, exigent, assertive, challenging, energetic, personable,
at times uses humor.
 Lesson Preparation – Announce objectives topically/functionally. Have a lesson
outline on the board. Lesson should proceed from presentation/checking for

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 understanding to practice to application stages. Summarize lesson at the end. No
hesitations. Material selection is appropriate.
 Classroom management – Set time limits. Use pairs. Monitor and modify behavior.
Call on students randomly. Switch partners, Create accountability. Hurry students
along. Take charge of seating. Efficient switching of partners i.e. student on one end
has to move to the other end.
 Materials management – Give directives clearly, efficiently and concretely. Modify
text lesson to improve communication and relevance. Use writing as a springboard
for production. Use brainstorming as a prelude to presentation.
 Break management – Assign mingling. Check on a few students after the break to
create accountability.
 Vocabulary/Grammar Presentation – Present grammar inductively. Pre-teach and
brainstorm needed vocabulary. Explain vocabulary through context, paraphrase,
gestures etc. Lead students with cues, hints, silent pauses. Challenge students.
 Pacing/Variety –Activities may include pair/writing/review/grammar awareness/info
gap/grammar correction /presentation/fluency. Aim for a good variety.
 Student speaking time –60% of class time in pairs is ideal.
 Lesson relevance – lesson is consistently applied to the student’s world.
 Error correction – Correct directly/anonymous indirect teacher correction. Use
peer/self correction.
 Student empowerment – Allow the students the opportunity for using language
clarification. Students should cooperate and peer correct. Compliment students for
desirable SE behaviors.
 Behavior modification – Compliment for correct responses/emphatic behavior
modification.
 Props/Visual aids - gestures/handouts/mime/student’s imagination/facial expressions
etc.

What About Special Teaching Situations?

A ‘good teacher’ should focus on particular needs:

1) Young Learners – It is important to consider how children learn, so classes should be

child-initiated, creating a need to learn and then filling it. To get a child involved
emotionally and psychologically requires skilled judgment and imagination.
2) Senior Learners – You must pace the lesson according to the students and appreciate that
knowledge may not be retained or quickly forgotten. Patience and understanding and
sometimes socially therapeutic talents are called into play.
3) Large Classes – This is so challenging as you must cater for individual learning styles,
different levels and interests, activate quieter students, delegate responsibilities and
manipulate group activities to ensure maximum potential.
4) Limited Resources – This really tests your resourcefulness without the dependence upon
technical equipment or supporting materials, as you communicate and interact directly and
creatively by generating your own ideas as situations demand.
5) One-to-One – This requires the ability to ‘tailor-make’ lessons based on a preliminary
needs analysis and then streamline or modify your course as necessary, whilst performing a
variety of roles including participation as a fellow student.
6) Business English – Commerciality necessitates a high level of focus on customer service
and personalization of course design and delivery to client needs. Language trainers should
desirably bring their own corporate background to class and be able to understand, analyze
and produce results in a highly demanding environment, to ensure repeat contracts.
Sensitivity, negotiation skills and a genuine interest in business are also important.

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8) On-line teaching – this may be the future format for many teachers and you really need
to be up-to-date with the latest developments-and creative in composing materials.

Follow this simple formula:

 Be presentable and professional in your approach.

 Always have a lesson plan, but be flexible as required.
 Be enthusiastic, positive, challenging and motivating.
 Create fun and give that added value to ensure economic survival in these
recessionary times.

What makes a ‘good teacher? You do.

Teaching English One-on-One: Tips and Tricks for a Perfect Lesson

Teaching English one on one offers numerous benefits to both teacher and student.

Teachers have the chance to customize each lesson to his or her student’s needs, and the
possibility to target activities to a student's strengths and weaknesses is a huge plus. But the
greatest benefits are for the ESL student. The student has the unique opportunity for
intensive practice. If the student speaks for most of the lesson, he or she will make progress
faster. And the same goes for other skills. Still, the teacher is the one responsible for
maximizing their time with the student. Here are some practical tips for effective one on one
lessons.

Tip # 1: Use lots of realia

The use of real-life objects works in any type of class, whether they are lessons one on one or
large groups. But it works exceptionally well in one on one lessons because you have closer
contact with the student. For example, if you work with real city maps, you can sit next to
your student while he or she gives you directions to a specific location and both of you
follow the route on the map. Realia also makes the class more fun in general, and if you
have a student who is a bit shy or reluctant to speak, real objects come in handy to break
the ice or motivate the student. Needless to say, realia is absolutely essential in a one on one
lesson with a child. If you have an adult student who wants to polish his or her business
English, ask your student to bring brochures or print pages from the company’s website.

Tip # 2: Use your student’s background

Do you have a student who comes from a foreign country? Say you know nothing about the
country and ask him or her to tell you about it: what it’s like to live there; who the most
popular celebrities are; customs and traditions. For example, when talking about Christmas
you can compare the way the holiday is celebrated in the US and in your student's country.
If your student works in a particular industry, say advertising, ask them to tell you about it:
what the job involves; what the company does; who their clients are. In any case, your
student will feel proud to share this information about something they do know.

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Tip # 3: Use Internet resources

Using the Internet effectively in a large class can be a bit of a challenge; students may have
to share computers and they usually wander to other sites, check their email, etc... But the
Internet is absolutely perfect for teaching one on one. You can do reading activities with real
websites; play an online game; listen to a podcast or watch a video; and even have your
students take a test online. The possibilities are endless. But remember that proper lesson
planning is still essential. Make sure you check all links and websites before your lesson.

Tip # 4: Allow some quiet time

It all depends on your student’s level, of course, and although some advanced students are
willing to talk for hours, most find it hard to speak for a full 10 minutes. Make sure you
follow a very active speaking activity or game with a more relaxed and quiet exercise: a
young learner may draw a picture of the story they heard; a business English student may
write an email; any student may complete a writing assignment or written exercise for a few
minutes. Don't be afraid of silence. Remember your students need some quiet time to gather
their thoughts and relax.

Tip # 5: Plan multimedia lessons

Remember that the greatest benefit for students taking lessons one on one is that they have
more time to speak. A great way to spark discussion is with video and audio. Show your
student a video, check for listening comprehension, then discuss what you saw. The same
can be done with any audio file. Keep in mind that there is a large variety of audio and
video files available on the Internet, most of which are very easy to download.

Tip # 6: Ask your student to give presentations

A student who has to give presentations at work in English will be very thankful for having
the chance to practice with you first. But children can also have a show and tell session: ask
your young learner to bring his or her favorite toy, book, or stuffed animal, and tell you all
about it (who they got it from or where, why it’s their favorite, etc…)

Tip # 7: Speak less in role plays

Naturally, the teacher is at an advantage because you manage the most words and
expressions. But what if you “play dumb”? Pretend you are lost, don't understand, ask lots
of questions, and you'll have your students not only speaking more in the role play, but also
laughing a lot! This works great when you reverse roles: you are the student, and your
student is the teacher, and he or she has to explain something to you.

Tip # 8: How to handle games

Playing games one on one can be little tricky and sometimes no fun for the student (he’s
playing against the teacher!) So here’s what you can do:

 Give your student a head start of 30 seconds

 Give your student bonus points when you start the game
 Give your student 3 or 5 points for every one of yours
 Lose deliberately by making mistakes, being slow, pretending you got distracted,
etc…

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Above all, no matter if you’re teaching a child or an adult, make your lessons fun!

Many students feel uncomfortable at first; they may not be used to being the center of
attention! And although they learn a lot faster, they may also get tired faster. So, variety is
key. Use a variety of teaching strategies and practice different skills, and you’ll see your
student progress by leaps and bounds.

How to Teach Using Games

A wide variety of games can be used when teaching English.

The key is to ensure that everyone fully participates and has enough practice with the lesson
material to play. If students are not confident, they will struggle and not get the most out of
the activity.

How To Use Games

1. 1

Whole Class games

Some games such as interview activities, bingo, jeopardy, and board games can be
played by the entire class.
- An interview activity to practice the “Where are you from?” and “I’m from ~.”
structures might start by handing out slips of paper with eight to ten different
country names. Students can then be given a worksheet with all the country names
written on the left and told that their goal is to get a student signature for each
country by mingling with their classmates and asking the target question. When
asked the target question, a student should respond based on the slip of paper he
received.
- Bingo can be played with numbers, letters, vocabulary words, or many other topics
you may want to practice.
- Jeopardy is more of a review activity because it focuses on listening and does not
give students lots of speaking practice. The easiest thing to do is have students make
groups of four to five, write categories and stars for each answer on the board, and
explain that groups will get three points for a correct answer after the first clue, two
points after the second clue, and only one point after the last clue. You will need five
or six categories and perhaps five answers per category. If you would like to focus
on a particular tense, simply use that tense for at least one clue per answer. You can
choose the first category but after that, the group who provides the correct answer
first should choose the category. This activity could take a whole forty-five minute
lesson and the group with the most points at the end of class wins.
- Board games are often best played in small groups but if introducing a very
challenging game, it may be a good idea to play as a class first. A group of students
can be represented by a game piece and students can work together to answer
questions. In the class following this, students can play the game in groups for
further practice.

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 2. 2

Games in Small Groups

There are also lots of games that can be played in groups of about four students.
- Board games where students move pieces and answer questions or form sentences
based on images make for good practice activities. For practicing the “If ~, then ~.”
structure a Chutes and Ladders layout may be fun for students.
- Card games such as Go Fish, Memory, and many more can be adapted for
classroom use. When you are teaching comparatives, card games can be an
invaluable tool. You can also use simple card games to test comprehension by
making up decks of cards with letters for example. Have students spread all the
cards face up on their desks, you then say a letter aloud, and the first student to slap
the correct card gets to keep it. Repeat until all the cards are gone and the student
with the most cards at the end of the game wins. To make this more challenging, you
can tell students that if they slap the wrong card, they have to take one card out of
their pile.

3. 3

Paiwork Games

There are many of pair activities students can do to practice English but very few of
them take the form of a game.
-The best and most versatile one by far is Battleship. This will take a lesson to explain
and practice but once your students are familiar with it, can be played as a twenty to
thirty minute activity. Battleship is best used to practice tenses. The worksheet
consists of two identical seven by seven grids, one above the other. The first box in
the upper left is kept blank, the first row is filled in with phrases such as “play
soccer” and “study English”, and the first column is filled in with words such as “I,
You, He, We, They, The students.” Students should secretly draw their “boats” on
the grid. Typically one boat should have five squares, one boat should have four
squares, two boats should have three squares, and one boat should have two
squares. Boats can only be drawn vertically or horizontally. On the board practice
the structure that students will use for the activity for example “I played soccer. You
studied English.” until every row and column has been practiced and then instruct
students to say “Hit”, “Miss”, or “You sank my ship!” when appropriate just like in
the original game. Students can usually play two or three times before moving on to
another activity.

Again, there are lots of different games out there that can be used in the classroom. Be
creative and have fun! Ensuring your students have the necessary instructions and practice
before starting any activity will make it more enjoyable and beneficial for your students.

How to Encourage Student Participation

Encouraging student participation can be difficult.

Students who generally perform well will be more willing to volunteer and more confident
when completing exercises whereas students who struggle in the classroom will be more

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reluctant to do these things. As a teacher there are many ways you can encourage all your
students to participate in activities.

How To Encourage Student Participation

1. 1

Classroom Environment

Ensuring that you maintain a constructive classroom environment will help

immensely. It is important that students not feel like they will be laughed at or given
negative feedback. Try to provide students with positive criticism as opposed to
reinforcing the fact that they have made a mistake or performed poorly. Making
mistakes is simply part of the learning process and students that make mistakes will
give you a good idea of what you need to focus on because there are probably other
students in your class that have the same questions or misunderstandings.

2. 2

Activities for All Types of Learners

Planning exercises that appeal to different types of learners is an essential part of

getting all your students to participate. Perhaps some students who perform well on
tests are quite shy while students who perform poorly on tests are natural
performers and enjoy role play activities. Giving a range of activities that target
visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners will increase student participation. The
more variety there is in your lessons, the more your students will gain from them.
Having a combination of worksheets, role-plays, games, listening exercises, etc. will
keep students engaged and provide them with plenty of practice.

3. 3

Motivation Matters!

In group activities making groups or teams and having races often gets students
motivated. Competition will drive students to not only be the best performing group
but also work hard to not let down their teammates. These activities should still be
conducted in an encouraging and friendly environment so as to not cause your
students lots of stress. It is important to have students take turns when working in
groups so that all students are required to participate. While working as a group to
answer a question is great, there should be a set order that determines which
student presents the answer to the class at any given point in the activity. By having
students form groups in a variety of ways, you can ensure that students are placed
in different groups throughout the course and thus no serious rivalry can take root
between groups of students. Sometimes simply the satisfaction of winning is not
enough to motive students and then just as you would for motivating students at the
individual level, prizes or points may help.

4. 4

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 Individual Level Incentives

At the individual level incentives such as points or, if acceptable on occasion, some
sort of prize may lead students to participate more fully in activities. Participation
should always be kept in mind when grading students however besides reminding
students that they are graded on participation, it can be challenging for both you
and them to keep a record of it. A points system where students acquire stickers or
stamps throughout the semester by volunteering to answer questions or doing
exceptional work in class would be a good idea. Simply tell students that they need
maybe ten points to get one hundred percent for their participation grade in a
semester and that additional points could be considered extra credit. If a student has
a little card to collect these stickers or stamps, it will serve as a visual reminder
throughout the term of how well they are doing in reaching the target number and
will make calculating a student’s overall participation much easier for you as well.
Towards the end of the term it is a good idea to have a lesson where students place
their cards on their desks so that you can give students who have not actively
participated much throughout the semester special opportunities to raise their score
somewhat as opposed to giving very active students too many extra credit points.

Students need to practice speaking English to improve so it is in their best interest to

participate fully during their lessons. You can plan lessons accordingly and start incentive
programs in order to encourage students to try their best and speak more often in class.

Top 10 Tips to Deal With Indiscipline in the Classroom

It happens to every teacher at some point. Sometimes it is with the first class. Other times a
teacher gets a few good years under his or her belt before it hits. Sometimes it seems like it
happens in class after class. The problem that all too often rears its ugly head is lack of
discipline. Every teacher experiences it, and no teacher likes it. The good news is that there
are ways to handle indiscipline in the classroom. Here are some tips to try with your
students.

How to Deal with Indiscipline in the Classroom

1. 1

Set Expectations Early

Set expectations early in the year. The old adage that a good teacher does not smile
until after Christmas may or may not be true, but it is easier to lighten your
leadership style as the year goes on rather than get stricter after being lenient. If it is
too late to start the year off with a firm hand, you can always make a new start –
with either a new calendar year or a new month or a new unit. Make sure your class
knows that your are wiping the slate and that your expectations of them will no
longer be compromised!

2. 2

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 Make Rules Together

Let kids be involved in making the rules. Before dictating a set of classroom rules,
ask your students how they would like their peers to behave. Have them discuss
what kind of an environment they would like to have in class. By directing a class
discussion, your students will define a set of rules that meet both their criteria and
your own. Because they have set the expectations, they are more likely to follow the
rules and to keep one another in check, freeing you to do things that are more
important.

3. 3

Contact Parents

Depending on where you teach and where your students come from, their parents
may be an unexpected support when it comes to good behavior in the classroom.
Often American parents will side with the child when it comes to conflicts in school,
but if you teach students from other cultures, and it is very likely that you do, your
students’ parents will not automatically take their children’s side of things. In fact in
many cultures, parents will automatically side with the teacher against their own
child if there is a discipline issue. That is not to say that you should take advantage
of either your students or their parents, just do not be afraid to approach your kids’
parents if the situation necessitates it. Be warned, though, you may not want the
child to act as interpretor if one is necessary.

4. 4

Invite Volunteers

Depending on the age of your students, you may even choose to ask parents into the
classroom as volunteers for a day. Children may behave better if their parents are in
the classroom with them. Not only that, if your parents interact with each other, the
stories of how a certain child may behave in class could get back to mom and dad
through other channels ultimately saving you an awkward and unpleasant
conversation!

5. 5

Invite Another Teacher

Trading teachers could be helpful in your quest for a composed classroom. If your
students have gotten used to the way you operate class and what behavior you may
let slide, having a different teacher for one or more periods of the day may spur
them to act a little more restrained. Not only can the atmosphere of class change,
your students will benefit from listening to another voice and another style of speech
when another teacher stands in front of the class.

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 Why, Oh Why?

Think about the reason behind the rudeness. Is it possible that your ESL students
may be acting up to make up for a self-perceived inadequacy in their language
abilities? If there is even the slightest possibility that insecurity may be behind
classroom misbehavior, try to look past it and address the real issue. Does your
student need confidence? Does she need a feeling of success? Does he need to feel
equal to his peers? By addressing the issue rather than the symptoms, you will have
a healthier and better-behaved set of students.

7. 7

Quick Learner Detected

It is also possible that a misbehaving student is bored with class because he is a

quick learner. Though it may seem counterintuitive, putting that child in a
leadership role may give him the extra challenge he needs to engage in the classroom
activities. He will not only not be bored; he will have some investment in making
sure the other students in class behave.

8. 8

Attention Span

Remembering the attention span of children can also help you keep your calm when
kids act up in class. As a rule, estimate a child’s attention span to be one minute for
every year of his age. That means a seven year old will max out on attention at seven
minutes. Keep the pace moving in class without spending too much time sitting in
one place. Let your kids move around, go outside or work independently to keep the
(stir) crazy bugs from biting.

9. 9

Respond, Not React

It is extremely important for teachers to remember to respond and not react. There
is a big difference between the two. A person who reacts acts impulsively and out of
emotion. The person who responds, on the other hand, takes more time before
acting and separates his or her emotions from the decisions he makes. It is a good
rule to follow in all areas of life, but it is especially important to remember when
your class is just plain getting on your nerves. Do not let your emotions get the
better of you but instead stay calm and make logical and intentional responses.

10. 10

Discipline In Private

Still, moments will come and days will come when one or more of your students will
misbehave. The best way to address the situation is quickly and with as little
disruption as possible. Refrain from disciplining any child in front of the class.

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 Choose instead to have those conversations in private. If you respect your students,
they are more likely to respect you.

Ultimately, no classroom is perfect. Your kids will have good and bad days, and you will,
too.

Do your best to keep your cool when your students start getting out of control. Tomorrow
will be a new day with limitless potential and it may just be the right day to get off to a new
start!

Teacher-Tested Ways To Keep A Class Interesting

Many teachers will find that a particular class might drag. For them, this could sometimes
be a once-off thing and generally they get on well with a particular group of people.
But everyone, now and then, will come across a group of students who appear bored
by everything.

There could be a number of reasons for this. When teaching in a large company, it could be
that the people there are only doing it to get out of work. Having a language trainer in is a
great excuse for many people to skive off for a bit. Children might be taking classes because
their parents are making them: this is usually the case. Therefore, one needs to keep the
students interested and engaged at all times. Allowing them to become bored will cause their
minds to wander. Not paying attention will mean that they will absorb very little
information. Here are several pieces of advice which a teacher can use in order to keep a
class’s attention.

Try These Ideas To Keep Your Class Interesting

1. 1

Role Play

Putting two people into a situation where they have to act out specific roles can be a
very effective method of language learning. A lot of people quite enjoy this, too.
There are many benefits. The student isn’t simply sitting there and passively taking
notes: they are actively involved in the class and hat is going on. They need to think
creatively, and this will stimulate the mind in a specific way. Using the language they
already know, the students will be able to come up with new words and phrases. It is
important to start the class off, perhaps, on a warmer exercise by giving them a set
dialogue. After this, however, one is completely free to allow the students to follow
their own dialogue and see where it ends up. See our collection of role play ideas
here.

2. 2

Games

Games are definitely a great way to keep people engaged. Both children and adults
enjoy them, but these are especially important for children. Turning class time into
play time, and helping them to speak English is definitely a good idea. Teachers of
younger learners will discover that the kids will pick up the language a lot quicker.

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 Bingo is often a good idea for teaching beginners, particularly if one is teaching
numbers. People can get very competitive, and it is important to make sure that
even if arguments arise they must speak in English. This way, the class’s attention
will be held.

3. 3

Writing Exercises

Allow your students’ creativity to flow. Writing doesn’t have to be a boring exercise.
Perhaps give them a topic and, in groups, let your students think up all kinds of
situations for particular characters. This way they will be able to come up with their
own unique story. Tell them to write out a plan, a draft and then write the story in
full. Beforehand, however, have a brainstorming session to which everyone can
contribute. Another great idea is to have a brainstorming session about two
characters, and write half of the story up on the board with help from the students.
Afterwards, pair them off or get them into groups and ask them to finish the rest of
the story off. People will be interested in finding out what is going to happen next,
and their attention will be fixed on the readers.

4. 3

Chinese Whispers

This little activity is usually a schoolyard game but it can be a very interesting
exercise in terms of language. Students might find it amusing with the kind of words
and sentences that one comes up with in the end. In order to play this game, seat the
students in a circle if at all possible. Start from one end, and think up a sentence but
do not tell the rest of the class. Whisper it to the first student in the line, and have
them whisper it to the person next to them. Usually the end result is completely
different from the one which they began with!

5. 4

Sudden Death

This is a very simple game which language teachers everywhere use in order to test
vocabulary. It will keep the students on edge. Give them a list of vocabulary to
memorize within a few minutes. This will give them something to focus on and, once
time is up, have everybody stand up. At random, ask students to describe a
particular word. If they get it right, they remain standing. If not, then they have to
sit down. Other names for this also include “bowling” or “knock out”.

These are of course, only a few ideas. It won’t be difficult for the skilled teacher to come up
with more interesting ways of keeping a class’s attention. Classes need to be
interesting in order to allow the students to keep thinking. There is no use in them
just sitting there, taking notes and learning passively. Language learning is an active
and creative process. It needs to be taken advantage of as much as possible.

Allowing your students creative freedom in their learning is essential. Learning off set
phrases is useful up until a point. After that, they need to be able to understand why a

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particular word is said in a particular way, and how they can manipulate it to suit the
current situations.

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