Teach English in Hongzhiyi Zhen - Yuncheng Shi

While teaching beginner students presents certain challenges, it also serves as an opportunity to build a solid base of vocabulary and grammar as well as a chance to inspire a life-long passion for English language learning. In my experience teaching beginner students in Chile, I have found certain strategies useful in capturing their interest and motivating them to participate and learn. Striking a careful balance between feedback that is useful but not discouraging is very important for beginning learners. Giving feedback on written work is fairly objective, so there is no need to hold back when correcting worksheets or tests. In terms of spoken feedback, however, remaining encouraging is of utmost importance. If a learner feels as if they have been shut down by the teacher, he or she will likely lose all motivation to participate. For that reason, I only correct pronunciation when the oral output is not understood. Further, when I am looking for a specific answer and a student offers an incorrect response, I never say “no.” Instead I say, “not quite” or “very close” before offering the question again to the class. This strategy shows them that the answer is incorrect while also valuing their participation. I also reward students with high fives, thumbs ups, or simple smiles when they do a particularly good job or give me a correct answer. With my younger students, games and activities are an easy way to engage them and create a fun classroom environment. Transforming a speaking activity into a simple competition automatically captures the interest of my students and encourages them to work in their team. This can also help them thinking of English as a fun and communicative subject. I teach English in Chile, and I learned Spanish for years prior to moving abroad. For that reason, I stay in the target language and encourage students’ understanding not only by speaking simply, clearly, and slowly, but also by using cognates. For example, if I am explaining a game in which a Team 2 has the chance to steal a point if Team 1 answers incorrectly, I say “rob” instead of “steal” because it is closer to the Spanish translation (“robar”). This still communicates the meaning but makes it easier for my particular students to understand. If students do not pick up on the cognate from me saying it aloud, I can also write them on the board. I have found that beginner learners can get easily frustrated when they cannot express themselves or communicate their message in the target language. One way to circumvent this frustration is to allow them to feel accomplished whenever possible. For every class, I write the Agenda on the board. A sample agenda for a straight arrow ESA lesson about parts in the city may look like this: Agenda: What city do you want to visit? New vocabulary: parts of the city Worksheet City Tour After completing each item, I simply check off the item on the list. This gives students a sense of accomplishment. The agenda also tells students what they can expect from the lesson and helps keep me on track in terms of time. Although beginner students cannot use as many authentic materials in the classroom, I try to use lower-level authentic content to make the material interesting and fun. Technology helps a lot with this. For example, using a Pacman game simulation to learn about directions (turn right, turn left, turn around) can engage students in a real-world context. Another idea could be using iPhone printouts to learn about technology vocabulary (listening to music, playing games, sending messages, making calls, etc.). There are also great online tools such as LyricsTraining that cater to all learning levels and can engage beginners in a real-world context.