Teach English in Liudu Zhen - Tai'an Shi

Teaching methods have changed vastly in the last decades and are rapidly changing all the time as more and more studies are done, and as more about learning is understood. Considering what really is important when it comes to humanity and new generations, teaching new skills is arguably one on the top the list. This is why teaching, basically anything, in an efficient way is extremely important. Therefore, how teaching has evolved the last years, is a direction towards a better world. It’s not only about teaching one thing, like English, but teaching in general. If we dig a bit deeper, the new generation should be “better” than the previous one, the next generation again better etc. Teaching efficiently means understanding the target group, keeping the students motivated and making learning fun. By keeping the topic to teach interesting and motivating, we can achieve the best results. Basically, it doesn’t matter what kind of a group is to be taught, the most important thing is to keep the lessons fun and enjoyable. Different types of games and perhaps competitions where the students don’t feel pressured would be therefore good to be involved in most of the lessons. This way learning happens naturally and, in a way, the students don’t even notice they’re learning at that moment. There are many types of teaching methods and there’s no right or wrong way to do it. One method might work for one environment whereas another one would work in another occasion. Choosing which methodology to use is an essential part of teaching and the teacher should be aware of the way to teach in a certain environment. With previous generations, teaching happened mostly controlled by the teacher. The teacher would speak and the students would listen. This type of teaching, where the teacher places him or herself in the center of focus, is useful for some occasions but might not be the most motivating way in most of the situations. When teaching kids, a lot of visual and playful styles should be used. A good way to achieve this is a use of games where the kid doesn’t really realize they are learning. They learn naturally as they suck in a lot of information. This way, learning is fun for them. Another important thing to consider with kids is the expression of the teacher. Kids very easily create role models for themselves and therefore, being a good role model is an essential part of a kid’s motivation. Young adults possibly have some lack of motivation, but they might (or might not) understand the reasoning of the topic to teach. With this kind of a group it would be useful for the teacher to place themselves in the students’ position. A good way to do this would be to tell a personal story when the teacher was their age to increase the motivation of the students. If teaching a language, the take away of the story could include a reasoning why it’s important to learn the language. Adults many times have their own reason to learn and probably have an inner motivation. Dull lessons might, however, kill the motivation, even if they know the importance of the topic to learn. Likewise kids, adults also are playful in nature. However, many adults nowadays don’t show the playfulness and not let it out that easily. The activities in a classroom don’t have to be childish, but most people like games. It’s important to involve an engage phase in the beginning of the lesson to get the students feel comfortable and not being afraid of making mistakes. Humans learn efficiently through trial and error, and it’s important to understand it’s okay to make mistakes. In language lessons, this could be done for example by reading something and discussing about the topic, not focusing too much on the mistakes. In the Activate-phase (which is followed by a Study-phase, where the focus is on using a correct way to use the language), different games are a good way to get students use the knowledge they have just gained. Like mentioned, it doesn’t matter what kind of a group we are teaching, the important thing is to keep the lessons fun and enjoyable. This way we create an environment in which learning is pleasurable and learning happens in the most efficient and natural way. Using the ESA (engage-study-activate) method as a platform for the lessons is an interesting and efficient way to achieve results that are long-term and supports the students to stay motivated in the subject.