General Tips for teachers

Classroom tips for students

1. For adult students: If you need to go to the bathroom, just go quietly. You don't need to ask!
2. Bring a pen and notebook to every class.
3. Take notes during class.
4. Ask lots of questions. Teachers love questions!
5. Don't use your phone for personal messaging during class, but do use it for research, dictionary, recording, or taking pictures of notes.

Classroom tips for teachers

1. Arrive early and check everything works.
2. Decorate the walls with homework and review material.
3. Move the chairs and tables into the right formation before or early in your class. Should students be in groups, pairs, or facing the teacher?

Giving instructions & setting up tasks

1. Ask questions to check students understand your instructions and what they need to do.
2. Allow students to answer your checking questions, don't answer them yourself.
3. When setting up a task, do a demonstration. Show, don't tell!
4. Choose a student and ask them to explain the activity back to you.
5. If the activity is a speed game or a points game, do one trial run first to check that everyone understands, and then you can start the game properly.
6. Get one group or pair to demonstrate the language or the task in front of the class so everybody can see how the activity will work.
7. Always provide or elicit one example answer before doing an activity. For example, matching, brainstorming, categorizing, multiple choice questions.

Feedback & correcting errors

1. Help students to understand that making mistakes is part of the learning process. Mistakes are good!
2. Give students some time to see if they can recognize and correct their own mistakes.
3. Don't stop an activity or conversation suddenly to correct a mistake, wait until the end.
4. Correct mistakes anonymously, it's not important who made the mistake.
5. Try to understand if it's a performance mistake because the student was focused on meaning/fluency, or if the mistake is due to deeper misunderstanding.
6. Encourage students to correct each other 

General teaching tips

1. A demonstration is better than an explanation.
2. Move around the class while students are doing activities.
3. Don't echo or repeat student answers. Give meaningful responses and let students respond to each other.
4. Praise good work. But don't overdo it!
5. Accept appropriate responses even if they are not what you expected.
6. Practice your handwriting on the board and use the board for notes during class.
7. Use the board for drawing pictures to demonstrate words and concepts. Don't worry about the quality of your pictures. For example, simple stickmen are fine!
8. Allow enough time for students to think and finish tasks.
9. The teacher shouldn't read all the answers after an activity. Choose students randomly to give the answers and let other students correct if needed.
10. Always have a little extra work available for students who finish quickly, such as language game worksheets.
11. Spend regular time reviewing previous content. One lesson is not enough to learn something new.
12. If you don't know the answer to a question, tell the student you will check later. When they are busy with an activity, quickly check using your smartphone and then review the answer at the end of class.

Lesson planning

1. Think carefully about the warm up. It should be interesting, capture your students' attention, fairly easy, and lead to the topic of the lesson.
2. Build on previous material by re-using vocabulary and grammar, but also include new words and structures.
   
3. Try to include language that is useful, practical, and suitable for the age group.
4. Split the target language into manageable chunks. This could mean starting with the vocabulary or cutting up a dialogue.
5. Include a variety of activity types to appeal to all learning preferences.
6. Look online to find materials that fit with your target language. You don't need to create everything and only using a textbook is boring!
7. Minimize the time that you talk. Try to encourage the students to interact.
8. Think about the needs of your students. What kinds of skills and language will be most useful for them.
9. Think about your students' interests. Lessons can be made more fun with cartoon characters or celebrities.
10. Use a variety of materials, such as pictures, photos, videos, real objects, worksheets, flashcards, charts, maps, and drawings on the board.
11. Plan alternative activities and be ready to be flexible.
12. Try to include aspects of other cultures where possible. Using a second language often means communicating with people from other countries.

Teaching young learners

1. They respond although they do not understand. 
   
2. They learn from everything around them: they learn indirectly rather than directly. 
   
3. They understand mostly when they see, hear, touch and interact rather than from explanations. 
   
4. Abstract concepts are difficult to deal with. 
5. They generally display a curiosity about the world and an enthusiasm for learning a language 
   
6. They like talking about themselves and respond to learning that uses their lives as the main topic. 
   
7. They love discovering things, making or drawing things, using their imagination, moving from one place to another, solving puzzles. 
8. They have a short attention span; they can easily get bored after 5-10 minutes. 
9. Teachers should have a rich repertoire of activities to help young children receive information from a variety of sources and plan a range of activities for a given time period. 
   
10. Teachers should work with students individually or in small groups. 
    
11. Teachers need to be aware of the students’ interests to motivate them. 
    
12. The classroom should be colorful and bright with enough room for different activities. 

Teaching adult learners

1. They can engage with abstract thought, such considering alternative scenarios and viewpoints.
2. They have a whole range of (positive or negative) life and learning experiences. 
   
3. They have expectations about the learning process and they have their own patterns of learning 
4. They are more disciplined than the other age groups and know how to struggle on despite boredom 
   
5. Unlike other groups, they know why they are learning and what they want to have at the end. 
   
6. They sustain a level of motivation even for a distant goal, which is difficult for the other groups. 
   
7. They can be critical of teaching methods or they may feel uncomfortable with unfamiliar methods. 
   
8. Older ones worry that their intellectual powers diminish by age. 
   
9. They have a longer concentration span to continue an activity than other age groups. 
   
10. Teachers should consider their previous (positive or negative) learning experiences. 
11. Use engaging and provocative topics. Learn about what interests the students, from gossip sites to current issues.
12. Try to foster real conversations and interaction. Embrace spontaneity when needed.

Using Multiple Intelligences

1. Linguistic: Reading, writing, telling stories, playing word games, etc.
2. LogicalMathematical: Experimenting, questioning, figuring out logical puzzles, calculating, etc.
3. Spatial: Designing, drawing, visualizing, doodling, etc.
4. BodilyKinesthetic: Dancing, running, jumping, activities adding motions to songs and chants
5. Musical: Singing, chanting, humming, creating melodies for favorite rhymes
6. Interpersonal: Leading, organizing, relating, manipulating, mediating, etc.
7. Intrapersonal: Setting goals, meditating, dreaming, planning, being quiet
8. Naturalist: Understanding, categorizing, explaining things in the world of nature
   

Motivation

1. Understand the goals of your students and what makes them feel success and achievement.
2. Teach for all learning styles. Use visuals, audio, video, group work, movement, songs, competitive games, and puzzles.
3. Be aware of students who disengage from the class and try to understand why. Provide extra materials or support when needed.
4. Respond to students' immediate feedback during the lessons. Be flexible with activities if possible, for example changing the types of tasks or groups or topics if students don't seem interested.
5. Vary the learning environment. Do field trips or visit the library. Give homework that encourages language use outside the classroom.
6. Be spontaneous if interesting topics or questions come up. A real conversation in the classroom about something the students are interested in is more engaging than a pre-planned lesson.
7. Give options. Let students decide the topic of the discussion. Let them decide the outcome of tasks, for example a presentation, poster or essay.
8. Encourage friendly competition. Try a variety of games and groups (pairs, boys/girls, left/right of the class, etc.) to see which appeal.
9. Think of creative rewards. For young learners, a cute ink stamp on the hand is fun and cheap. For adults, you could print silly certificates for different achievements to make it fun. Rewards can also have benefits like extra games time.