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One of the roles of a teacher is to be the students cheer team. When learning anything new, particularly language or the arts, where there is no one correct way to go about using it, self-criticism and self-doubt come into play. Confidence is a skill that is also built within the learning process. It’s important for the teacher to encourage their students and to create a supportive environment within the classroom. There are many various methods to encourage students. Verbal appraisal is among the easiest. It’s confirmation that what they said or did was correct. It boosts confidence to use the language again. Even in the instance the student wasn’t correct, saying “you’re so close (students name)” and asking them to try again, helps encourage them to keep trying. As a teacher, we can even bring up the incorrect answer later in the lesson, to be reused as a correct answer for another question. Even encouraging students to encourage each other, by providing them with the language necessary, will boost overall class moral. Another simple method of encouragement is to use non-verbal cues. Smiling is among the easiest. It provides a welcoming, non-judgment reinforcement. Even in the instance where the student may be slightly incorrect, there’s a difference between addressing this with a smile versus a straight face. A smile encourages the student to try again and that mistakes are okay. A method to encourage and elicit English out of students is to simply not respond to their native tongue. Even if this frustrates them, in order to get a response out of the teacher, they’ll be encouraged to use English. This method isn’t harsh or demanding of English, it’s a fun and teasing method to draw the target language out of the student. Particularly with young learners, we can make it almost like a game. It’s good to be playful with it, so as to not offend or frustrate anyone, but simply look confused if they resort back to their native tongue. The flip side of the prior mentioned method, by responding positively and engaging the students with their use of English, their confidence and motivation to use it will increase. It’ll reaffirm that what they are saying is making sense, and begin to build further dialog with the associate language. With young learners, repeating what they said also allows them to hear the correct pronunciation. Young learners often repeat what adults say, so this acts as an informal language drill. No matter the age, we feel confident repeating what we see and hear native speakers say. Regarding young learners, they are often suited to more physical activities. Keeping the classroom engaging and interesting for them boots motivation and as a result, boots their confidence and willingness to use the language. For them, knowing that class will be fun is enough for them. They learn subconsciously. So encouraging them to use the English they do know while having fun is best for them. Their learning processes are slower than adults, but they retain a lot of information without realizing it. We as teachers need to keep them engaged in English stimulation and usage. We learned our native language as small children, and foreign language young learners are learning a second language the same way. They learn through activity, repetition and encouragement. Encouragement begins with the teachers’ attitude toward the student and the classroom. It’s to be inclusive, and if used correctly, encouragement becomes infectious to other people.
