Category: ESL Classroom Tips

We all know droning on about the fundamentals of parts of speech can put anybody to sleep. Students will find anything to distract themselves and others if the teacher bores them. Not only will they not pay attention but they won’t remember your lesson when they need to.

We often think that the role of a teacher is to impart wisdom and knowledge, but it’s easy to forget that learning goes both ways. Children can be our greatest teachers if we are willing to let them.

It can be a rough couple of weeks when you start in a completely new classroom but building rapport with your students will benefit both you and them. It can be nerve-wracking for both the student and the teacher at the beginning of a new semester, but here are some tips to build rapport with your new classroom.

We’ve all experienced the frustration of talking to someone who clearly has a good working knowledge of English but still seems almost unintelligible. Maybe you’ve been that person, too, struggling to master the unfamiliar sounds of a foreign language.

As teachers, all of us bring something of ourselves to the classroom, which comes from our socio-economic, cultural, education, and familial backgrounds. These experiences that we bring can create amazingly positive effects in the classroom and can, at times, create tension as well. In this article, I will detail a couple of the cultural differences between Western teaching styles and styles I have seen in Taiwan.

When we were babies we learned through the constant exposure to language and environment. How many times do you think our parents said “mama” or “daddy” to us before we finally said something? Just because our students are older than babies doesn’t mean the same principles don’t apply. Teaching in an immersion environment is actually proven to be the MOST effective means of language education.

The easiest way to understand your students’ lives a little better and get some insight into things they might be struggling with, is to meet and communicate with their parents. Communicating with parents can be intimidating, especially the parents of students that you consider to be difficult.

Holidays are a great way to break out of the normal classroom routine, grab your students’ interest, and introduce some culture to the ESL classroom. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it’s a great time to think about ways to incorporate this fun and meaningful holiday into your classroom.