EFFECTIVE ESL TEACHING Cisarua 2016

ROLE PLAYS The language you want your students to use should be functional. Set a scenario (such as ordering food in a restaurant, at the market, asking for street directions) and ask your students to create a dialogue. They may need to use a dictionary or app to translate. The teacher should edit the dialogues as best as they can. Students repeat the pronunciation and read aloud the short dialogue until they remember it. Change roles with their partner. Present the dialogue to the class to practice confidence.

Your turn Student A: You want to go to the museum and need to ask a stranger how to get there. Student B: You are a local person in the town and can answer the questions of Student A.

PERSONALISE Use personal examples among your students. Change the names in examples or texts to the names of your students. Elicit verbs from the students. Get them to make up sentences about each other and about themselves using those verbs.

Your Turn Eg. Teaching Present Perfect. Positive: subject + have/has + past participle + object Ali has drunk 4 cups of tea this morning. Question: have/has + subject + past participle + object Has Ali drunk 4 cups of coffee this morning? Positive: subject + have/has + not + past participle + object No, Ali hasn't drunk 4 cups of coffee this morning.

ICQs: Instruction Checking Questions How do you know if a student really understands the task, or they are just polite and smiling but actually clueless??!!! Check! After giving instructions you can ask specific students to repeat what you said by asking them yes no questions or open ended questions. Eg. Teacher says: Open your books to page 53 and take it in turns to read the dialogue with the person next to you. ICQ: Are we on page 53 or 35? Are we working alone or with a partner?

Your turn What does ICQ stand for?! Example teachers instructions: Work in groups of four people and discuss questions 1 - 6 on page 54 of your workbook. When you are finished you can check the answers in the back of your book on page 96 and write down any answers you got wrong so you can study them for homework. 2. With the person next to you, think of at least four ICQs for the above example and write them down.

MONITORING Listen to what your students say. Walk around and take notes (but don’t interrupt them!). Afterwards share your information with students individually or as a class so everyone benefits. You can write the examples on the board and everyone tries to correct it together.

Your turn With the person next to you, talk about the following topic: In your opinion, talk about the best and worst jobs there are. What are the benefits and disadvantages of being a Grave digger? Lawyer? Doctor? Flight attendant?

Drop the TTT! Take a guess what you think TTT stands for? Think about your own teaching style, how much time as a percentage are you usually talking? 20% 50% 80% 90%? What ways can you think of to reduce TTT?

REDUCING TTT As a teacher, time yourself and be aware how much you talk Ask more questions to your students Design activities with more PARTICIPATION and GROUP WORK Use non verbal clues and body language (tapping on the board) Ask your students for (anonymous) feedback. Get them to feel comfortable to share their feelings of learning with you!