Principle 1: Positive Reinforcement
As a teacher, you should focus on your students successful attempts to
use English. At first, reward ANY success however small. If students
speak out loudly and clearly, but make a mistake, praise them just for
speaking out or for pronouncing it well. As students improve, you can
focus on the most outstanding successes. Whatever you encourage,
students will continue to do. On the other hand, if you do not encourage
them, they will likely become passive in class.
Principle 2: Clear Goals and Instructions
Students need to know exactly HOW an activity is done, otherwise
they will be out of control when the activity starts. If necessary,
write the instructions on the blackboard or overhead projector. Or,
model the activity with one of your best students so everyone can see
what they need to do.
Students also need to know WHY an activity is being done.
Dictations are done to train the ear, so they will be more successful in
learning in the future. Pair practice is a simulation of real-life
conversation, so they should not show their questions to their partner.
Without understanding why, many students think an activity is not
important and give up or practice half-heartedly.
Be sure to include goals and instructions in your lesson plan. That way
you will be sure to remember to do them, and if you do have any
problems, you will easily see how to fix them in future lessons.
Principle 3: The Element of Surprise
Students usually know exactly what will happen in class and answer
questions mechanically. By adding suprises to your lessons, students
will be forced to think about meaning and will pay more careful
attention. For example, you could ask students ordinary questions such
as whether they like pizza, or if they like chocolate. Then ask them if
they like chocolate pizza. You might ask students about their families,
then ask if they are married, or if they can drive a car. Students who
are answering without thinking will say "yes" automatically. In such
cases, their classmates will usually laugh at their mistake, and they
will realize the importance of paying attention.
Of course, laughing is good in general, so saying anything strange will
improve the class atmosphere.Whenever you have a list of questions or a
lot of language to cover, add something funny or strange at the end of
the lesson. Add some intentional mistakes to see who will find them. In a
sense, this is a kind of listening exercise. If you do this often, then
some day if you really do make a mistake, you can casually tell
students it was just a test!
A variation of the Surprise Principle is called the "information gap".
When students all use the same textbook, they already have the same
information. But if you give only SOME students certain information, a
text or picture for example, the other students must use English to find
out what information they are missing. Successful pair practice and
language games include "information gaps" to encourage students to
discover what information they do not have.
Principle 4: Variety is the Spice of Life
Very often when teachers find a good technique, they use it more and
more and come to depend on it. After some time, students become bored
doing the same things, and this wonderful technique no longer looks very
good. In reality the technique is still good, but variety is required
to keep students' attention. Various activities can be organized
according to how communicative they are. Start with a simple, mechanical
activity, then continue with something more meaningful, and finish with
a communicative activity. When students do a variety of activities,
classes are not dull for either students or teachers!
Principle 5: Friendly Competition
Competition automatically grabs students' attention. The easiest way to have friendly
competition is to divide the
class into two teams and play
some kind of game.
You could have the left side of the
room against the right side, boys against girls, or each row against all the others.
Competition can be used on an individual level as well, by giving points to students
for their work. Make sure all students have a chance to succeed at getting some points
so that nobody feels bad. You can give points for any written work such as dictations or
mini-quizzes. Students enjoy seeing their progress over time, keeping them
motivated in the long term. You can also give points during the whole term,
by giving points for all kinds of activities during your classes.
Conclusion:
Apply These five principles to your teaching and see how your students change over time. Positive Reinforcement and
having Clear Goals and Instructions can be used right from the beginning, in every class. Introduce Surprise, Variety and
Competition to your lessons slowly, so as not to overwhelm your students. Make one or two small changes in every lesson, and
pretty soon your students will call you "Super Teacher"!
Source: Ideas for ESL Classroom
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