Eslteachingtips03042009 091105205959 Phpapp01

ESL Teaching Tips
to Solve
Common Classroom
Problems
Will you imagine
if this happens in your class
while teaching?
www.chantyta.blogspot.com 2
Outline
 ESL Lesson Planning Problems
-Prep Time
-Finding Fresh Ideas
-Finishing a Lesson Early
-Unexpected Substitutions
-ESL Activities that are Falling Flat
-Mixed Levels In Class
 Problems with Materials
-The ESL Textbook is Boring
-ESL Textbooks That Aren't a Good Fit
-Finding Materials
 ESL Students
-Students Look Bored Or Don't Seem Motivated
-Students can arrive late
-Students Don't Listen, or Keep Speaking Among
Themselves in Their Native Language
-Lecture Hall Setting And Large ESL Classes
-A student refuses to join in with games
because they seem silly
-Students who only want to study one aspect of English
-Traumatized Students
ESL Lesson
Planning Problems
Prep Time
There are schools in Japan where English

teachers get all of ten minutes to find out who
their students are going to be in the lesson, and
then prepare their activities. This is an extreme
example, but there are few ESL English
teachers who would not like to have a bit more
planning time. While you can't add time to the
day, you can make efficient use of the time you
have.
Finding Fresh Ideas
Keeping a file of language

games for re-use is great,
but it's just as important to
find fresh ideas and ESL
activities to keep classes
fun. But where can we find
ideas?
Finishing a Lesson Early
Every now and then a lesson will go faster than

you thought it would, leaving you with ten or
fifteen minutes to fill. This can be a panicky
moment if you don't have a backup plan.
Unexpected Substitutions
Occasionally a colleague will

become ill or have an
emergency and you will have
to cover an ESL class that
would otherwise be left
without a teacher. Sometimes
you'll have a lesson plan to
work form, sometimes you
won't.
ESL Activities that are Falling Flat
Probably the worst feeling in the world is

watching an activity you've selected fall flat
with your students. It happens to the best
English teachers, and how you handle it is what
makes the difference between success and
failure for the overall lesson. How you handle it
will depend on exactly what is going wrong.
Mixed Levels In Class
You will probably never have a class where all

the students are on the same language level in
all skills.
Problems with
Materials
The ESL Textbook is Boring
This is a fairly common problem, since no

textbook is perfect and every textbook will
probably bore at least some of your students
some of the time. This is when you start digging
out alternative ESL materials and activities.
ESL Textbooks That Aren't a Good Fit
Sometimes you will have

an ESL textbook that is
just too hard or too easy,
or simply so out of date
that it isn't appealing to
students.
Finding Materials
 Money and location can both limit your access to

materials. There are ways around both these
problems, however.
 Talk to other ESL teachers and find out what they
are doing. This is probably the single most helpful
thing you can do. Don't limit yourself to other English
teachers. Content classes often have materials and
realia that are wonderful for ESL and EFL lessons.
 Internet – Join a blog on ESL teaching tips and share
with teachers there. Here is a teaching tips blog:
http://teachingenglishgames.blogspot.com/
More materials log on…
Sites to Link Description
www.chantyta.blogspot.com Various interesting things for everyone – more than you expect!
A blog for teacher, focusing on methodology, strategies, and
http://englishwithjennifer.wordpress.com/
classroom activities
A site for developing language teachers with teaching tips, lesson
http:// www.developingteachers.com/
plans and articles
http://www.eslflow.com/ ESL Lesson plans and Ideas for teachers
http://www.col-ed.org/cur/lang.html#lang2 Language arts lesson plans by Columbia Education Center
A blog of an ESL teacher with a lot of lesson plans, teaching tips,
http://dreamingenglish.blogspot.com/
professional development ideas, reading materials...
An online new teacher support site with information on lesson
http://newteacherresourcecenter.com/ plans, learning styles and many issues faced by new ESL
teachers
Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab. Listen to everyday
http://www.esl-lab.com/
conversations with adults and Children’s voice
Listen to real people talking real English from easy listening to
http://www.englishlistening.com
advanced listening passages
http://www.youtube.com/user/Jennifer ESL? Online English lessons (videos) for learners and teachers of English
gl=ES&hl=en-GB by an experienced ESL teacher
Magazine by young writers and artists (8-13):reading and
http://stonesoup.com/
listening to young writers and artists’ essays
A place for stories, materials, lesson plans to enhance extensive
http://www.awesomestories.com
reading
The American Academy of Achievement online resource: written
interviews, inspiring life stories of eminent achievers of our
http://www.achievement.org/
time, transcripts, audio of insightful discussions with Academy
members
A public dialogue about belief: reading and listening to inspiring
http://www.thisibelieve.org/
essays discussing about life
http://www.betteratenglish.com A site for English learners, various materials
http://www.urch.com/forums/ Test Magic Forum: students discussing about English tests
This virtual library brings English textbooks including teacher
books, student books, audio material and other learning
http://www.englishtips.org/ materials to your fingertips. Subscribe to this website to
receive weekly newsletters and download books, audio CDs,
DVDs all for free
http://www.americanrhetoric.com Interesting speeches made by famous people
http://www.musicalenglishlessons.com/ Various activities to use music in English lessons
A website focuses on developing ESL/EFL learners’ conversational
http://focusenglish.com/
English skills
English Grammar exercises, Video lessons, Quizzes, Vocabularies
http://www.englishmedialab.com/
Exercises
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish BBC learning English
http://edition.cnn.com/studentnews CNN Students News
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/students/ The New York Times Students Connections
A magic site where you sent your today’s mail and you’ll get it
www.futureme.org
back after around 3 months
Problems
with ESL Students
Students Look Bored Or Don't Seem Motivated
Activities that fall flat

were discussed above,
but sometimes it isn't
the ESL activity that is
the problem. Sometimes it's the students'
attitude. It's important to find out why the
students are in class.
Students can arrive late
This can be really disruptive if you aren't

prepared
Students Don't Listen, Speaking Among Themselves
in Their Native Language
This always happens to an extent, but you can't

let it take over the class.
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www.chantyta.blogspot.com ce g ðótb u¨niþ c. … … 25
Lecture Hall Setting And Large ESL Classes
Sometimes your classroom isn't a good setting

for practising conversation or games, or the
class just seems too big.
A student refuses to join in with games
because they seem silly
 There will always be students who think games are

beneath them.
 Clearly demonstrate the purpose of the game and
show through the demonstration that it is a more
effective way of learning.
Students who only want to study
one aspect of English
conversation or reading or writing

 If the class is meant to be a well rounded class, rather
than specifically a class focused on a single skill, then
try using games and activities that integrate more
than one skill at a time, like shopping games,
sentence relays, and role-plays.
 Demonstrate to the student that most uses of English
integrate all the skills you are studying in class. Role-
plays and videos can provide evidence of this.
Traumatized Students
If you have students who have been recently

traumatized due to war or political upheavals
in their home countries, it is best to steer clear
of any games that rely on personal
information.
Conclusion
 Lesson planning – helps teacher know where to start
and where to finish the lesson. A good teacher must
have an explicit lesson.
 Teaching materials – Not all books are suitable for
students. Hence, a teacher needs to choose interesting
topics or materials for the students.
 ESL students – read the students like a book trying to
understand what their needs are and what their
expectation is. REMEMBER you teach the students NOT
the textbook.
Make yourself like water
‘Be flexible’
W E ARE PROUD
www.chantyta.blogspot.com TO BE A TEACHER32

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ESL Teaching Tips

There are schools in Japan where English

Keeping a file of language

Every now and then a lesson will go faster than

Occasionally a colleague will

Probably the worst feeling in the world is

You will probably never have a class where all

This is a fairly common problem, since no

Sometimes you will have

 Money and location can both limit your access to

Activities that fall flat

This can be really disruptive if you aren't

This always happens to an extent, but you can't

Sometimes your classroom isn't a good setting

 There will always be students who think games are

conversation or reading or writing

If you have students who have been recently

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