When I first started teaching online back in 2014 with a variety of platforms based in China, most lesson material was rather dry and stale. Many of the educational platforms had their own material organised for lessons and I was required to deliver this rather questionable material to various students who were predominantly based in China.

Despite being involved in creating lessons for online platforms in 2018 and attempting to make more interesting and engaging content for students and teachers, it was still a little challenging to get such material accepted. These days, more entrepreneurial English teachers are attempting to carve out their own niche and offer a variety of courses. For those that use platforms to connect with students, some English teachers still seek out material to help them structure their online lessons, with websites available for teachers to help them with their lesson planning such as LinguaHouse, ESL Brains, and Fluentize.

In this post, I shall be sharing how I source and use LinguaHouse material for my online classes with an example of an intermediate English student based in Mainland China through the platform of Preply.

1. Sourcing Appropriate Material

When planning your lessons for students, it is important to find suitable material that would benefit the student. For example, if you are helping students to pass an examination such as IELTS, then finding relevant material would be beneficial. What I have discovered with LinguaHouse is that they organise material depending on the key focus for lessons, such as Business English, Exam Preparation or General English.

In the example video, I was looking for General English material for the student as they have no desire to pass an exam and are just wanting to develop their fluency. Therefore, I search for material which was more general and would engage the learner, despite the minimal preparation that I left myself for the lesson. As they had recently starting working out at a gym, I thought a sports-related worksheet would engage them.

2. Delivering Material

Once material has been sourced, the tutor must consider how best to go about delivering the content. In the video above, I briefly (perhaps a little too briefly) looked at the different tasks and considered there and then how best to get the student involved in the activities. Having taught the student previously and given a little more time on training them up to speed on the Preply whiteboard, I was confident that the student would be able to complete any tasks set before them with minimal disruption. I would always encourage tutors to consider the best approach and to give any time towards the delivery of any course content by asking the following questions:

  • Has the student completed any previous activities like this before?
  • Will the student be able to follow my instructions so that they can undertake any tasks set?
  • If I try anything new, is the student trained appropriately and effectively with the online tools?

If you are teaching students online, then a little training on the tools is a worthy investment later down the line as students should be able to complete a variety of tasks such as matching, gap-fill or marking stress patterns.

3. Reflect on Your Teaching

One thing that strikes me between teachers who are mediocre and great teachers is the ability for the latter to reflect on their craft. I was very candid with how my lesson went and was very quick at determining how little I prepared prior to the lesson. Perhaps I relied too heavily on the technology working without any anticipation for it not to be so. Anyhow, for those that seek to improve themselves as practitioners, reflection is crucial. The time when one stops reflecting is the time one decides not to be human. I am very candid with my experiences as I genuinely believe that it will improve my ability as a teacher, which is perhaps one reason I do not mind recording and sharing my lessons – I have nothing to hide and we are fortunate in this profession to be amongst many other great individuals.

I hope you enjoyed this post and apologies if this was perhaps a little too candid at times. It is just nice to share my experiences in the hope it benefits others. It was nice to share the material that I use from time to time with online students as well as how I deliver lessons. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.