Teaching Tips_web feature

TEACHING TIPS – PART 1: KEEPING STUDENTS ENGAGED

โ€ผ ๐—ข๐—› ๐—ก๐—ข! ๐— ๐—ฌ ๐—–๐—Ÿ๐—”๐—ฆ๐—ฆ ๐—›๐—”๐—ฆ ๐—ง๐—จ๐—ฅ๐—ก๐—˜๐—— ๐—œ๐—ก๐—ง๐—ข ๐—” ๐—ข๐—ก๐—˜ ๐— ๐—”๐—ก ๐—ฆ๐—›๐—ข๐—ช!

๐Ÿค” Have you ever felt like your students donโ€™t focus on the lessons as much as you expected? If the answer is yes, then this post is for you.

๐Ÿฅฒ Your lesson plan is organized logically and the lesson should go off without a hitch, yet sometimes, students donโ€™t respond to you as much as you want them to, and the whole class remains quiet most of the time. This could be daunting for teachers, and it goes against the goal of making students produce English as they donโ€™t have the chance to practice.

โ“ What could have gone wrong?

โญ The problem is, you may be taking up most of the talking, your instructions are not clear enough due to complex wordings and a lack of demonstration. Letโ€™s take a look at how we can solve these troublesome problems via these photos.

LESS IS MORE

In classrooms, Teacher Talking Time (TTT) is inversely proportional to Student Talking Time (STT), meaning that the more the teachers talk, the less likely the students raise their voices. Since the goal of English teaching is to make students produce the language, overusing TTT can place students into the respondent role and limit their English output. If you feel like your classes are being quieter than you expect and students do not have many chances to speak English, try asking yourself if you are taking the dominant proportion of speaking in classes and make some adjustments. Here are a few strategies you can make use of to minimize TTT:

๐Ÿ‘‰ ๐—˜๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐˜ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐˜๐˜€: Instead of providing detailed explanations such as grammar rules, let your students look at the examples and discover the rules by themselves.

๐Ÿ‘‰ ๐—”๐˜€๐—ธ ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ณ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—น๐˜†: A simple question such as โ€œDo you like going to the amusement park?โ€ sometimes can only get you a yes/no answer. Try asking open-ended questions like โ€œWhat do you like about going to the amusement park?โ€, this should keep your students engaged and allow them to answer in multiple ways based on their experience.

SIMPLIFY CLASSROOM LANGUAGE

Simplifying complicated words can help improve classroom efficiency by lowering the level of distraction among students. The attention spans of children are much shorter than those of adults, thatโ€™s why they can easily lose focus and interest during classes once the teachersโ€™ deliveries get too lengthy. In order to keep studentsโ€™ minds on track, make your explanations and instructions simple using clear and minimal language. These tips may help you:

๐Ÿ‘‰ ๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ธ ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ด๐˜๐—ต๐˜† ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜€๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜€: Pausing between segments of a sentence and removing any unnecessary details can help students have enough room to digest what you are saying. Using simple sentences is also an appropriate approach if you want your students to easily understand you.

๐Ÿ‘‰ ๐—ฃ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜ ๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ๐˜€: When giving instructions, put stress on words that you want students to focus on and understand. This can help them identify important information in your speech and fix their attention.

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS

Visualization is key when organizing classroom activities. Demonstrating what students need to do using actions instead of spoken or written instructions proves to be much more effective. Seeing teachers demo the activities can help students reduce the time it takes to grasp whatโ€™s about to occur as they donโ€™t have to transfer words into actions inside their heads. Here are some example steps for a speaking activity:

๐Ÿ‘‰ ๐—ฃ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ so students can look at them and practice.

๐Ÿ‘‰ ๐—”๐˜€๐—ธ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—พ๐˜‚๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐˜ ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—พ๐˜‚๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ to see if the students understand what to do.

๐Ÿ‘‰ ๐— ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—น ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† until itโ€™s clear.

๐Ÿ‘‰ ๐—ฃ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—ฎ ๐˜๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ and let the students do the activity.

๐Ÿ‘‰ ๐—ข๐—ฏ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ด๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ so students know where they can improve.

โœจ Once these problems have been solved, it is time to aim for a class with no hitches at all. Got any friends with the same worries? Do not hesitate to share this with them and keep checking back for more insightful teaching advice!

#VUSEnglishTeachersย #TeachEnglishAtVUSย #Vietnamteachingjob

———————————————

๐Ÿ”ฅ For the best English teaching job in Vietnam, look no further than VUS. Please visit our website to learn more about the school and apply:

๐ŸŒ https://teachenglish.vus.edu.vn/