Category: Advice for Teaching Abroad

Handling conflict in the ESL classroom will be part of your job as an educator. Teaching your students life skills such as compassion and conflict resolution is just as important as teaching the nuts and bolts of the English language.

Using movies in the ESL classroom can be a great way to engage your students and provide a juicy topic for discussion. However, it has to be used in the right way so that you don’t end up with students viewing this as a time to relax.

Classroom games are an essential part of the ESL classroom. You can engage students by telling a captivating story, explaining concepts in a way all students can understand, or simply creating a dialogue amongst students, even in the simplest of ways. Another way to get students attention is to play some fun and creative games.

ESL games are an important, almost vital, part of the ESL classroom. When you are teaching beginners, it’s easy to come up with simple games to incorporate into your lessons. With advanced learners, finding activities that are fun, engaging, and deeply beneficial gets a lot more challenging.

Positive reinforcement quickly became the most preferred method of classroom management for ESL teachers, mainly because it works so well. But there are a variety of different teaching styles that stem from teachers’ backgrounds, personalities, and experiences.

Cell phone’s in Chinese universities can be a bit of an issue. No cell phones in class is usually the key rule in college, but cell phone usage in some Chinese universities can be quite rampant. Some students say they study so hard in middle school, once they take their college entrance exams and make it to university, it’s party time!

Keeping your cool as a teacher is something we all have to do. As teachers, we have all had those moments of complete frustration. You already have had a rough day, your students are having difficulty focusing, and you’re starting to lose your cool. At these points, it’s even more important to remember, stay calm and keep teaching on.

Your ESL class should always have a daily routine to follow to allow some structure. We all need routines throughout our days. They keep us focused, keep us productive, and help us know what to expect.