10 ways to survive TEFL teaching

10 ways to survive TEFL teaching

Do you want to improve your teaching skills? Have you just started teaching, or would like new ideas? Is so, keep reading! I always like to refresh my skills, and my lessons-it's all too easy to get stuck into the same lesson plans, and the same activities. If you've already been teaching for a number of years, keep reading, and feel free to add suggestions in the comments box.

1. Go in with a plan.

Sounds simple, and logical, doesn’t it? Surprising how many people don’t bother, and then wonder why students are getting bored.

2. Prepare Extension activities

There are always bright sparks in the class, who finish super quickly! Have a simple extension task to do so they don’t get bored. This doesn’t have to be a worksheet, as long it is a well thought out task. You’ve just had a lesson on adjectives, and they’ve written a simple description in two minutes flat (it was supposed to take 10 mins) So give them a picture to write a longer description, get them practising their speaking skills and asking/answering questions about the picture, ask the students to imagine they walked into the picture (it could be a room, or a place); Get the students to describe how they feel and why, not just describe what they see.

3. Always recap knowledge

Don’t presume that now your class has ‘learnt’ something that they are going to remember it. No that would be far too easy! Include vocabulary learned in a previous lesson and incorporate the new vocabulary, play a memory game at the beginning of your lesson to warm up. There are lots of ways to reinforce students’ knowledge.

4. Try and tap into the interests of your pupils

Again, this can be difficult on a one-to-one basic. Don’t make my mistake and teach Spike Milligan’s ‘Can a Parrott eat a carrot’, if your student is into racing cars. Always tap into your students interests, no matter how boring you may find the subject.

5. Have a ‘bag of tricks’

What do I mean by a bag of tricks? When you begin teaching, sometimes things do ‘go wrong’. No matter how hard you plan, you will inevitably get caught out! This is because you yourself are still learning! So have a game, or a quick activity, break your students into groups and brainstorm a subject. Buy yourself some time to collect your thoughts

6. Take notes

When something goes wrong, don’t blame your students! Do not wallow in ‘I’m such a bad teacher’ mode either-this is not productive. Every good teacher has made (and still makes) mistakes; get over it! Instead, do something constructive. Make a note of what went wrong, and try and work out why it went wrong. This will help you become a better teacher, and hopefully prevent you from repeating the mistake.

7. Create a bank of useful games

Games used well can be very useful (click here for ideas). Games needn’t be riotous affairs, or a waste of time providing they are well thought through. Personally, I am not a fan of dice games or simply reading out cards, however they do provide a good starting point and there are always exceptions to the rule. There are games to practise every skill, and for every ability.

8. Use a variety of media!

A picture tells a thousand words! Use a clip from a film (emotions, setting the scene); use for teaching grammar (present continuous-What is he doing?) and prediction (What do you think he will do next?).

9. If you are bored, your class is going to be bored too.

If you are bored with your lesson then the chances are your class will be too. This is where you need to think about the pace of your class. Look around you-are students looking out the windows when you are talking? Are you giving long-winded explanations that they haven’t a hope of understanding. Or could your activities do with a refresh?

10. Try and balance your class

There is a sense sometimes from some TEFL videos, that if the class isn’t ecstatic with enjoyment, then you the teacher are doing something wrong. This is true of almost every marketing video out there. I would like suggest another view. If your class is going wild all the time they are not learning as much as they should be. Timetable in quiet working time (for your own sanity) speaking time, and the fun time too. If you utilize all four skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) you won’t go far wrong.