Well, I don’t know about anyone else but this year has flown by, and it reached the end of the year before I knew it. Therefore, I’ve written this article sharing twenty practical and personal tips that you could consider (or not) with your teaching. I hope this gives you some inspiration into how one could approach their teaching as well as their lessons.
Tip 1: Develop Rapport with Learners
One of the first things that I learnt when doing the CELTA course was to develop rapport with all students. It was explained that developing such rapport was incredibly important, and that it builds trust while also improving an atmosphere for learning in the physical classroom. After 20 years, this has been proven beyond a doubt and it should be the first thing that anyone consider when they encounter a new class of students.
There are a range of activities you could incorporate for first lessons (perhaps I should write another post about this in the future) that you could potentially develop rapport with your learners as well as with themselves. Nonetheless, you will notice that once you develop rapport with your learners, everything will fall into place – whether you teach online or face-to-face – and essentially students will find the whole classroom much more accommodating.
Tip 2: Correct Student Errors
The second tip that was I reminded to me when I returned to the UK to teach English, was to correct student errors. When I attended an inhouse training session, the speaker spoke about how little feedback is provided after speaking or writing and ways to develop this in lessons. Essentially, students are wanting to improve their language skills and if we are not providing any feedback it could come across as unaccommodating with potential learners.
What I would remind anyone when they are teaching is to make the effort of providing student feedback and correction on errors that have been produced, otherwise learners will start to find that their lessons are not worthwhile. Try to consider incorporating five to ten minutes of error correction when teaching, as students will always appreciate such effort. Anyhow, one thing I could focus on is potential hot or cold feedback tasks which could be incorporated into a separate future post.
Tip 3: Teach Different Learners
When I first started my teaching career, I started teaching young learners in South Korea. Obviously I had no teaching experience nor any teaching qualifications. It was also at a time when teachers did not necessarily share any teaching practices with one another online or via video content. The best we had was the British Council Teaching English website, so I would spend countless hours prepping for my lessons but I certainly learned a lot.
After 20 years, I have taught a range of ages, nationalities, as well as specialities which could include Business English, exam preparation, as well as General English. What I have learnt over the years is that no matter the context, I am able to plan lessons based on a variety of needs or requirements. Thus, I would recommend anyone to teach a variety of different students no matter their age, nationality or expectation.
You will learn to accommodate student requests, teach a variety of courses, or approach new teaching contexts with an air of confidence. If you have a chance to teach different students, please do.
Tip 4: Observe Your Students
Something that I have picked up over the years is to actively watch your students regardless, to see how they respond to any lesson activities, pairing tasks, or while they are completing in-class work. Try to walk around the classroom, if you are teaching face-to-face, or enter breakout rooms, should you be teaching online, and monitor your students, making a note of any observations that you could consider after the lesson.
After the lesson, try to put yourself in the position of the students and reflect on how they may have felt during any class activities and ask yourself:
- How did students respond prior to the task?
- Were there any factors which impeded the task?
- What would I do differently next time?
- How were the students after the task?
- What feedback did I provide after the activity?
This will place you in a better position to learn more about the students and what activities would be suitable or unsuitable for your learners. With consistent reflection, you will find the lessons running more smoothly. You may wish to receive student feedback at the end of the lesson in the form of a short survey asking what they enjoyed, what they learnt, what they would prefer next time, etc.
Tip 5: Teach the Students, Not the Material
During my time on the CELTA, and any other related initial teacher training course, you are introduced to coursebooks and then provided the chance to supplement where necessary. This obviously makes sense at the beginning as coursebooks do have a place but they are not quite the be-all and end-all of teaching.
As my teaching experience continued, I soon realised that the coursebook is there to help give your courses some structure but you should not stick so rigidly to the coursebook as it obviously becomes inflexible and unaccommodating for student needs. When I did my Diploma, and later on my dissertation for my MA, I focused more on Teaching Unplugged, aka Dogme ELT.
After researching this philosophy of teaching, I determined that there needs to be a balance between an unplugged approach and the more traditional methods on teaching. It became obvious that teachers should teach the students rather than teaching the material. Try to focus on student needs or expectations and everything will fall into place rather than attempting to fit coursebooks or other material to students.
Tip 6: Focus on Teaching Authentic Communication
The sixth tip here would be to focus on teaching authentic communication rather than grammar or coursebook language. There have been a number of times when students say that they are able to communicate effectively in the classroom and do all the required roleplays, grammar worksheets, etc. but the moment they step out of the classroom, they are unable to comprehend or communicate with other speakers of English in a natural or authentic setting.
Obviously, if we focus on the coursebook, much like what I mentioned previously, you are going to be teaching a diluted version of English and it is not exactly a true version of the real English spoken by those in the UK or elsewhere. It is then no surprise that students struggle to understand more natural English. Thus, what I would recommend teachers to consider is by incorporating authentic English into the classroom.
You could include radio segments, newspaper articles, YouTube videos, or other material which has not been stripped away by coursebook publishers to teach a version of English which is no longer close to the original authentic version. I recall I recorded the news from BBC Radio 2 and then created some material to give students the skills necessary to approach future authentic language.
Tip 7: Review Previously Taught Language
The next advice that I have for teachers is to give students the opportunity to review language that you have previously taught rather than creating individual lessons which are disconnected. When I used to observe my young learner teachers in the UK, it was great to see that they delivered some quality lessons but I failed to see how the lesson contributed to overall course.
One way to ensure there is some continuity between lessons is to give students a chance to review language from the previous lesson. You could set up a variety of fun and competitive tasks to improve the energy or motivation of the students. For example, you could put students into two groups and give them a minute to write up all the words or phrases from the previous lesson and the group with the most amount written up are the winners.
The more you get students to review the vocabulary or language from previous lessons, the more you will discover them progressing over the course or semester, and that in turn will motivate them to continue improving.
Tip 8: Get Comfortable Teaching Pronunciation
When I first started teaching English, I shied away from teaching pronunciation as it felt rather obscure and I lacked confidence about including this in the classroom. It took around 5 years for me to build up the confidence to include it in my lessons, and it was actually Pete Clements, from ELT Planning, who helped me overcome my insecurities regarding pronunciation.
Pete also introduced me to The Book of Pronunciation, by Jonathan Marks and Tim Bowen, which included a variety of practical tasks to help raise learner awareness about pronunciation, but more importantly gave me confidence to incorporate practical activities into my lessons. I now include a range of pronunciation tasks when introducing vocabulary, such as word stress, connected speech, or introducing the phonemic chart to students.
Since embracing pronunciation into my lessons, I feel more comfortable whenever any pronunciation issues arise and know how best to approach such challenges. I was so pleased with my progress that I had my newly certified young learner teachers watch a YouTube video of Adrian Underhill’s Introduction to Teaching Pronunciation Workshop as part of their initial onboarding at the previous language school that I was at. Perhaps if you devote an hour to watching this, you will find the confidence to include the pronunciation in your future lessons.
Tip 9: Move Around the Classroom
This tip is really a reminder for us teachers that we need to move around the classroom when we teach. I have seen teachers that appear to just stand at the front of the classroom and not move around which kind of sets up the atmosphere for all in the lesson. As mentioned previously in Tip 4, I suggested that we need to observe the learners to truly understand how students respond to any tasks provided and we are unable to do this if we stand at the front of the classroom.
Something that I like to do is move around, particularly when learners are completing group work together. I like to go round the groups and see how they are getting on, or sit at the back of the classroom from time to time. It kind of says to students that I am not going to teach you in the traditional sense but we are all here as equal.
One thing that I didn’t mention in the video is also getting students to move around the classroom, and what I would add is that you need to get them up and about the class as much as possible. Get learners out of their seats, get them up, experiment as much as possible, and don’t fall into the trap of ‘students sit here and the teacher stand there’.
Tip 10: Make the Last Minutes of Class Fun
When I started teaching young learners in the UK for summer schools, I attended a workshop that was given by a colleague who had many years of experience teaching teens from Europe. Something that kind of stuck with me was that young learners tend to remember the final few minutes of the lesson, and we should try to make the those moments as fun as possible as students will remember this.
Furthermore, if you end your lesson on a fun and engaging task, they are likely to return refreshed and keen to participate in the next lesson. On top of that, students will be wandering around with a smile on their face as they leave the classroom having completed a fun activity together.
You may want to review vocabulary or grammar with a variety of games (i.e., back to the board, twenty questions, etc.) at the end of the lesson and something that I did at the summer school was a back to the board task with two groups and the group with the most points at the end were the winners. When it got to the final phrase, I always put up ‘lunch time’ on the board and the students were shouting and attempting to explain.
Tip 11: Rely Less on Technology
When I was working initially in South Korea, back in 2005 onwards, there was a surge towards getting technology included within the classroom and while I did the CELTA at the British Council in Seoul, they were the first to have interactive whiteboards (IWBs) connected and installed throughout their centre. However, when I returned to the UK, it was stepping back in time when the school that I worked with still had cassettes and CDs rather than have all audio on a central server and accessible to all classrooms through a network like in the British Council in Seoul.
Nonetheless, I was grateful to return to the basics of teaching where there was a whiteboard, the students, and yourself. There was no opportunity to truly engage learners with all the technological bells and whistles, so I had to learn how best to gain the interest of learners in the classroom. It is also nice, in this day and age, to get students more involved in their lesson and away from their smartphones or electronic devices from time to time.
What I like to do is set the rules during the initial lesson by explaining to students that there will time for them to complete tasks with technology but there will also be times when I ask them to put their smartphones, tablets, or laptops away as they can be rather a hindrance and distract learners while they are in the classroom. Funnily enough, one of my Korean learners told me that there is a phrase that is a portmanteau of ‘smartphone’ and ‘zombie’ which best describes people that are constantly glued to their phones which is ‘smombie’, so I tell them that I don’t want any smombies in the classroom.
Tip 12: Create your Own Teaching Material
The twelfth tip that I recommend is for teachers to create their own teaching material. As mentioned previously, a coursebook is a great resource for newly certified teachers who are wanting to have some structure or support while they get used to teaching in the language classroom. However, the best way you can improve your teaching is by observing your learners, personalising activities, and creating teaching material that is suited for your students.
I have learnt so much when I have wanted to develop material for my students and it is always rewarding to see your class responding positively to the lesson which you have spent time planning and prepping. To get you started with creating your own material, open up a coursebook and consider how you would go about teaching the content that is suitable for your students’ needs. Otherwise, if you come across a newspaper article that genuinely interests your learners, consider how you would make the article more accessible for them without losing the authenticity of the language.
The more experience you have developing and creating your own material, the more confidence you would gain in the classroom. These days, I am expected to plan and deliver courses for higher educational learners and if I had little to no experience at creating my own material, I would feel a sense of discomfort when planning a 16-week course. Thankfully, I can now plan a variety of face-to-face or online courses at ease.
What are you waiting for? Create some material to use for your next lesson.
Tip 13: Experiment with Different Teaching Methods
When you do an initial teaching qualification, such as the CELTA or the Trinity CertTESOL, you are likely to be introduced to the communicative approach to language teaching as well as the PPP method. All this is fair and good but there is a lot more to teaching using these methods and there is a whole history of teaching approaches that have informed the current acceptable methods of classroom language acquisition. Thus, my next recommendation for all is to learn more about different teaching methods and to experiment with them in your classes.
There is a particular book that I would recommend any to purchase so they are able to enhance their knowledge about the teaching approaches and methods which is Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Third Edition by Richards and Rodgers. The publication looks at the major trends in twentieth-century language teaching, current approaches and methods, alternative approaches and methods, and the teaching and learning environment. There is a lot packed into this book which spans almost 400 pages.
Nonetheless, reading this book will give you some knowledge and awareness about the range of teaching approaches and methods, which you could then experiment with to see how your learners would respond to each. Through this experimentation, you may discover what works well with your students and which they struggle with.
Tip 14: Record your Own Lessons
When I was doing my Diploma advanced teaching, I was given the opportunity to do some experimental teaching practice so I chose to do an unplugged lesson which was influenced by Dogme ELT. Once I had chosen the method that I wished to try out with my class, my trainer asked whether I wanted to have the lesson recorded, and I leaped at the opportunity. This was the first time that I had a chance to have my lesson recorded, and the first video that I shared on my YouTube channel. It is now available to watch.
Anyhow, from this recording, I was able to reflect on my teaching the experimental approach that I decided to try out. Once I received feedback from my teaching practice, I decided to share my approach to Dogme ELT with the world and I edited the video down using Windows Movie Maker in 2013.
If you have the chance to have your lesson recorded, I would always recommend that you consider doing so. It is the best way to improve your own teaching noticing the habits or tics that you have when teaching. For example, I always tend to say ‘Okay!’ when I want to guide the students on to the next task. Furthermore, with the development of online teaching, having your online lesson recorded (with permission from the students) makes things a lot easier and I have now shared much of my teaching with the world. Perhaps you have something to share with other teachers or you wish to observe how a new lesson is considered, so get your skates on and start recording your lessons, particularly as we all have a camera in our pocket nowadays which can be more conspicuous than 12 years ago.
Tip 15: Observe Other Teachers
The next tip that I suggest would be to observe other teachers. The reason is that when you take a respectable initial teaching qualification, you will be observing other trainers teach, but you will also have the opportunity to observe other lessons taught by other experienced teachers and it always better learning from others. Once you successfully complete this course, you don’t need to end all observations. Have a chat with colleagues who are more experienced to see if you are able to observe a lesson that they are delivering.
What I would suggest is that whomever you decide to observe, consider a particular focus for the agreed observation. When I was managing young learner teachers, I would do the formal observation but then give these teachers something to develop over the next few months and the best way was to observe other teachers. So, if you have a focus, such as instructions, the whiteboard, or giving feedback, that you wish to improve, then it will make the observation much more valuable.
Something that you could always incorporate could be to sit down with the teacher that you had observed and have a brief informal chat about the lesson and anything that you noticed during the lesson. There is so much that you can learn by merely observing other educators.
Tip 16: Focus on Continuous Professional Development
Tip number sixteen would be to focus on Continuous Professional Development (CPD). The benefit to undertake CPD would likely improve your knowledge and awareness of education. To date, I still attend a variety of teaching courses and workshops which would certainly help my teaching as well as be a direct benefit for the students that I am teaching. Most people think that CPD would only be certified or recognised qualifications, but it isn’t just that. You could focus on CPD by attending informal training sessions, going to in-house workshops, engaging with webinars or contributing to external teaching events.
Obviously, there is the Continuous Professional Development framework for teachers which has been set up by the British Council and there are a variety of resources available which would give the necessary support to educators who wish to continue their professional development. All of this obviously this gives teachers the skills and confidence with their teaching that would directly benefit all involved in the classroom.
If you feel that you would like to gain more recognisable qualifications then you could consider doing an MA or a Diploma, as this will also open more doors for teachers. For example, if I had not done my MA, I would not have had the opportunity to work within higher education and teaching at a university in South Korea would not have been possible. So I always encourage other teachers to invest in their professional development as you could gain opportunities soon afterwards.
Tip 17: Conduct Action Research
The next tip that I have for English teachers is to conduct some action research based on a topic or in response to something of interest in the classroom. This will help you solve specific issues in the classroom as well as to develop reflective practices based upon your teaching context. For example, AI generated work is becoming more prevalent within higher education, and I wish to research more on how students use AI for their learning. Hopefully, after conducting some research with learners in the coming months, I would be better placed to see how students could use AI with their learning.
No matter your context of teaching, you will find something that would be of interest and you may wish to research more about the topic. Consider approaching discussing your ideas or opinions about undertaking action research with colleagues to see if they have any other views regarding the topic. With more reflective practices, you will find a place within education.
There are some interesting literature available for educators if they wish to complete action research, which would guide inexperienced researchers. These books include Research Methods in Language Learning, by David Nunan, and Teacher Research in Language Teaching, by Simon Borg. Both these publications give some insight about how best to engage or conduct research within language education, whatever the context.
Tip 18: Present your Action Research Findings
It is commendable for any educator to conduct action research but it is better to share your action research findings by contributing to workshops or presenting your experiences. This will give agency over your own research and you would also be able to connect with other teachers who may have encountered or thought more about, and you would have made the next step towards contributing to the collective good within education.
Furthermore, the results of your research, as mentioned by Borg (2013), could be a catalyst for change that could support changes on how courses are delivered, as well as inspire other educators to look at their own courses, undertake additional research and change their syllabi (p.203).
Tip 19: Write Articles for Teaching Publications
There are a variety of teaching associations and EFL magazines published around the world, so it would make sense to reach a wider audience by writing articles for teaching publications. You don’t only need to share your action research but you could also share practical activities or tasks that focus on teaching.
Peter Clements highlights reasons for writing for ELT magazines, which include:
What you write could help others in the profession
It might give you further motivation to reflect on your experiences inside and outside the classroom
It’s a good way to engage with a wider ELT community
You might find your voice in the industry!
If you’re a blogger it might help you reach a wider/different audience
Writing in magazines may encourage you to read them more and get some great ideas for improving your own practice
It can be a fun short-term project
It’s nice to see your name in print (bit egotistic maybe!)
It would be a good thing to put on your CV
You can follow in the footsteps of your idols… I only sent something to ETPro as I wanted to be like John Hughes, a teacher training guru!
It leads to further opportunities. If you’re published in one magazine, you might be contacted by another…
Peter Clements, ELT Planning
Read more on Pete’s website about writing for ELT magazines.
Tip 20: Set Up a Teacher’s Website
The final tip that I recommend would be for other educators and teachers to set up their own website. This would give you the chance to reflect on your own teaching or context, have a depositary of information to share to other teachers, as well as to develop professional visibility.
I created this website many years ago, removed all historic content, and am returning to share updated content which is more relevant to my teaching these days. Why do I do this? Well, I have a desire to share my own practices and teaching experiences with other educators, and it also gives me a chance to reflect on my lessons. This is why I would always welcome new teachers to set up their own website so that they are able to develop an online presence.
There are a range of free blogging tools available and I started on Blogger when first establishing this website but I am now use WordPress.org. In additional to blogging tools, you learn a lot of technological skills which is transferable outside of teaching.
Finally, you could share lesson plans or ideas, reflect on experiences in the classroom, or develop a website which is merely for your own benefit with no upfront cost with free blogging tools.
Well, these are my personal tips for teachers who are either experienced or have just started teaching. Don’t stop developing nor stop improving your teaching skills. Your students will benefit from your improvement and we are no longer constrained by a physical location, you can share your development and reflection online and could connect with other likeminded professionals.
I hope you enjoyed the rather long article but feel free to share your tips.
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