18 Tips to be an Effective Teacher of EL
How to be an effective English language teacher? Keep the following pieces of advice in your mind to realize your desire.
1. Be enthusiastic! Don’t do it just for the money.
Students appreciate the teacher who shows genuine interest in teaching. Teachers who are not, they should consider moving on to another profession.
2. Show interest in the students as individuals.
Treat students as individuals, not subjects. Don’t belittle them; listen and talk to them. Only in this way will true communication take place.
3. Allow time for free communication.
For speaking this would mean allowing time for free conversation, for writing; doing free writing, for reading; allowing time for extensive pleasure reading, and for listening; listening for entertainment sake.
4. Use humor to activate the class.
Make it a habit to get the students to laugh at least once per lesson.
Move around the classroom. Sit with groups and monitor, Take part in the communication. Walk about, listen and observe.
6. Make your instructions short and clear.
Demonstrate rather than explain whenever possible.
7. Speak up, but don’t break anyone’s eardrum.
You should be heard and comprehended without annoying students.
8. Don’t talk too much.
Depending on the subject, you should be talking from about 5% to 30% of the lesson. Most lessons should be student-centered, not teacher-centered.
9. Don’t talk too slow.
How do you expect your students to understand real English if you don’t speak at a fairly natural speed? Oversimplified and affected speech will hurt your students in the long run.
10. Be sensitive to your students.
Watch their faces and reactions. Do they understand you? Are they interested or bored? Try to be aware of what is going on in your classroom at all times. If you are starting class and one student is still talking, try to gently get him/her to stop. If you are sitting with a group of students on one side of the room, try to be attentive to what is happening in other groups as well. There may be a group across the room that is confused and doesn’t know what to do.
11. Respect both “slow” and “fast” learners.
Language learning is not about intelligence; the important thing to stress is that the students are improving.
12. Don’t lose your cool.
If you do, you will lose respect. Even if you have to leave the classroom, do it in a controlled manner, explaining to the class or students why you are unhappy with them.
13. Be frank.
Praise your students when they are getting better and encourage them when they are not doing as well as they can.
14. Be a coach.
Some times you must be a coach more than a teacher. Push the students to write those few extra lines, to get into their groups faster, to extend their conversations, ….. etc.
15. Be fair and realistic in testing.
Teach first and then test; don’t test things that haven’t been taught. Also, remember that the main purpose of language is communication.
16. Don’t overcorrect.
If you think a student can correct their own mistake, don’t supply the correction for them, rather allow for some self-monitoring. Remember, some mistakes can be kept uncorrected if you are for fluency.
17. Be reflective.
Think about your own teaching. After each lesson is over take some time to reflect. Was the lesson effective? What were the good and bad points? How could it be improved?
18. Keep in shape.
Renew and update your knowledge about teaching from time to another. Look at new course books and teacher training books to get new ideas. Share your ideas with colleagues. Go to conferences.