Course TESOL Cities

Teaching skills in the classroom In english teaching, the environment plays a very important role. One of the main reasons that we cannot learn english effectively is without a proper english environment. In this way, even students make a lot of efforts on memorizing vocabulary and grammar; they will gradually lose their interest of learning english. Therefore, we have to consider carefully about our teaching skills and lesson plans before teaching in the class in order to inspire students’ motivation and let the whole english teaching activity become a positive, interesting and exciting procedure for achieving better learning results of students. There are some of teaching skills based on my experience and knowledge. Situation Design ? Visual Aids When teaching vocabulary, it is better to use visual aids such as pictures, models and objects so that students can memorize with their instinct. Using visual objects to assistant our teaching is very helpful to transfer the knowledge to the students and also to stimulate their enthusiasm for learning. It is an effective way to bring the better learning result and avoid students’ boredom. For example, when teaching the name of country, we can use the national flag to correspond to the country name and let students speak out the country name when we show them the flag. In this way, they not only memorize the country name but also the national flag during the class. It seems like that students need to memorize more, but with this combination, students can learn with a complete package to reach an expecting learning result. ? Multimedia When planning the lesson of asking directions, we can use a computer to show an interactive map. One student asks directions and the other student answers. For example: Ask: “Excuse me, how can I get to the park? Excuse me, which is the way to the bank?” Answer: “You should turn left on the next corner.” While students are answering the directions, we also move the creature from the map based on the information from students. With this activity, students can practice the conversation with an interesting method and also be able to memorize it in a pleasant way. ? Create a Real-life Experience Learning how to shop is an important part in english lesson. Using real objects such as fruit, clothes and writing materials to create a real-life scene can also achieve a good learning result. For example, the teacher designs a scene of shopping in the classroom. Some students play clerks in the supermarket and the other students play customers. All the objects are on the students’ desk. Students need to practice how to sell and buy through this activity. This method can make students practice actively in a real-life environment. Game Design In english learning, there are many things to memorize such as grammar and vocabulary. Continuously training and practicing is easily to bore students, however, if we can use some games during the class, students will pay more attention and be actively involved in the class. There are some examples below. ? Solitaire When the teacher says a vocabulary like “teacher”, the first student needs to answer a word starting with “r” like “ride” and the second student needs to answer a word starting with “e” and so on. In the whole game, none of the words should be repeated. This kind of activity can make students involve actively in the class and achieve an effective learning result. ? Charade Some vocabulary can be shown by body language such as run, jump, dance, sing, swim, skate, sleep, open, close, smile, sit, drink and so on. When teaching this kind of vocabulary, body language is a good method to express the meaning. Dividing the class into two groups, the teacher acts out a word or phrase without speaking to let students guess what it is by raising their hands. One correct answer gains one point. The team with higher points wins. Through this practice of image memorizing, students will easily remember the new words with stronger impressions. Evaluation Design ? Evaluate Students with Different Directions The evaluation of students cannot simply be made from the result of their exam. The class participation and the learning attitude should be also important in the evaluation. We should always encourage the students in a positive way to increase their confidence of speaking and to stimulate their learning desire. ? Define the Rule and Content of Evaluation The rule and content of evaluation cannot be unpredictable. It must be with specific indications. For example, the evaluation of learning attitude can be divided into some parts like “Class Participation”, “Homework Completeness” and “Mistakes Correction”. Even though it is not possible to define them perfectly, the students will still have better understanding about how the evaluation goes with clear definitions. They will understand accordingly why they have “A” instead of “B”. ? Evaluation Should Play The Role of Inspiration and Encouragement ? Teachers should give more positive evaluations to students during the whole learning procedure. Don’t correct student’s mistake immediately whenever they make one. They will feel they fail the class and may be scared to attend the following activities. We should praise them with their correct parts to let them have the sense of accomplishment in front of the class and ask the class to repeat the correct answers provided by the teacher. In this way, the students will still understand their mistake and accept the correction in a pleasant situation. Conclusion When the learning is full of fun, it will be more effective. Using the right teaching skills is really important when we teach our students. If we have designed a number of interesting activities before walking into the classroom, there will be full of vitality in the class and the learning of students will also achieve better results.