Have you ever opened a textbook, only to find a lesson that is uninteresting and unrelatable to your group of students? While it may not always be possible or practical for teachers to personalize lessons to a group of 20+ learners, there is always the option of adjusting or adapting materials to make them relevant to your students’ learning experience. This article will outline the importance of using relevant materials and activities in the classroom and will also shed some light on how teachers can apply this knowledge to make use of the resources they have.

The problem with most textbooks

The truth is that not all textbooks are made equally when it comes to the quality of content. While textbooks serve as a great resource for foundational concepts such as grammar rules, there are instances where the scenarios in readings or examples are unrealistic and difficult to relate to. As teachers, we have the responsibility to be selective when it comes to choosing the resources we use. It is up to the teacher’s discretion to handpick the material that could be used to facilitate an engaging lesson or activity. As a result, this begs the following question: how can teachers adapt their materials to make them more relevant to the ESL classroom?

The importance of relevancy in the classroom

Several studies have supported the fact that relevant materials help to keep students engaged in a lesson because they give the target language real meaning. This is especially true in teaching contexts where English is not the official language. The use of relevant materials and activities has also been shown to have an effect on increased memory of vocabulary and grammar. Choosing relevant materials means choosing materials that encourage students to start talking about themselves. Since relevance is a huge part of the communicative approach, it is important that teachers take relevance into consideration. When students can relate to the target language, it makes it easier for them to express their own opinions, ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

What should be considered before choosing what is relevant and what is not?

The first step would be to conduct a needs analysis of the students in your class. Observe your students. What motivates them? How do your students learn best? What are their interests? What do they do outside of the classroom? For more specific details, you can ask them to conduct a survey individually or amongst their peers, or even have them write a journal reflection. You can use the following journal prompts or questions:

• What are your goals for learning English?

• Why do you need to learn English?

• What do you want to learn about?

• What are your interests outside of the class?

• What are some things that don’t interest you?

This works especially well for higher levels or mature learners. For lower levels or younger learners, you can have them share their likes and dislikes with their peers or have them draw pictures to get an idea of how to make your future lessons more relatable and to create a more dynamic learning experience.

Doing a simple needs analysis can help you choose appropriate materials or activities that suit your classes best. Of course, the authenticity of the materials you choose will vary based on the context such as where you are teaching or even who you are teaching. It is up to you to decide which materials to use whether it be from the textbook or authentic sources such as newspapers or even video clips.

How to adapt materials to make them relevant

Let’s now move on to discuss the application of relevant materials in the ESL classroom. After conducting a needs analysis, you may notice some patterns in your students' answers. Using this information, try to adapt materials or activities that will help the majority or the class as a whole. For example, if you know that a majority of the students have an active lifestyle or enjoy doing extracurricular activities, you can use this information to create meaningful examples to explain a variety of grammar concepts such as the present simple or present continuous. Students are more likely to pay attention when they can make a more personal connection to the content.

Many teachers also like to include cultural references to make their lessons more relatable for their students. Depending on where you are and your students’ backgrounds, you can allude to different cultural references such as holidays, traditions and customs, national symbols, traditional food, and so on. For instance, you could adapt the students’ knowledge and love for traditional food to teach verbs like ‘to have’ or even in practicing descriptive writing or in developing presentation skills. Some questions you could ask are: What kind of food does your country have? Does your country have spicy food? What do people usually have for breakfast? What kind of food do you have in your fridge? As you can see, basically any activity can be adapted using cultural references to provide your students with more opportunities to use English. It has been proven time and again that familiar topics help students to better identify with the language and help to promote interaction with the use of the target language, so try to implement it when teaching all the skills.

However, there is one small caveat when it comes to cultural references. Steer clear of any topics that may be taboo or sensitive in the local culture. These usually relate to politics, religion, or social mores. Apart from the fact that you may risk causing offence, the consequences can, in some cases, be very severe indeed and lead to either deportation, arrest, or both. Therefore, it pays to understand as much as possible about the local culture in which you are teaching.

The adaptation of materials does not end with cultural references. You can also make materials relevant by helping your students to make personal connections with what they read, hear, write, or discuss. Say for instance you are teaching students studying English in Thailand, and the text that your students have to read talks about what John did in New York last week. If we want to make this scenario more relevant, we can approach it in two ways. First, you could substitute John for the subject ‘you’ or ‘I’ and then change the information to be relevant to where the students live. By doing this you would get something like ‘What I did in Bangkok last week.’ Depending on what is included in the text, you can also work together as a class to create an entirely new story by adapting the reading into a gap-fill activity.

The example above is one way to personalize the material; however, you could use the original reading about John’s week in New York to get your students to use their critical thinking skills to make connections to the text. Although the context of the story might seem to be far removed from what the students might know, a closer look at the similarities would suggest otherwise. If students compare Bangkok and New York, both are big cities, and this could also be an opportune moment to talk about globalization. Potentially, Thai students could also relate to John in New York if his day includes riding the subway, going to school, and then meeting a friend at a café. If there are any differences in routine, it is also a great topic for discussion.

Similarly, if you are teaching learners who are immigrants to Canada, you might want to include activities that focus on the Canadian way of life or the local culture. You could also create lessons that focus on helpful language that allows them to perform essential daily tasks which include but is not limited to going to the bank, grocery shopping, and ordering at a restaurant. Likewise, if you are teaching senior high school students in China, relevance could be on more academic English as many of them would be studying abroad or entering an international program at home.

By adapting our materials to make them more relevant, our students can start to make connections with what they learn, and this is the key to helping them acquire and understand what is taught in class. So, from now on, whenever you open a textbook, ask yourself the following question, “Can my students identify with this material in any way?”

Relevance is an important aspect of teaching English or any language for that matter. Teachers ensure that their activities and materials are relevant when their lessons provide opportunities for their students to communicate real information about themselves which they can potentially use in their day-to-day lives. Use what students know to teach the target language and change or adapt your resources to fit your students’ needs. Changing up your lesson plans in this way can help to break the monotonous learning routine and will help to make English something that your students look forward to learning each day.

Sourcing resources that can be easily adapted for students goes some way in aiding teachers make their materials more relevant that is why all TeachThis resources can be easily edited directly in the PDF or converted into Word using a PDF editor.

Words are the building blocks of a language, and as such, the acquisition of vocabulary is extremely important. Through building vocabulary, students can express themselves more fully and with more confidence. Conversely, having a limited vocabulary can negatively affect how students are able to communicate.

Teaching vocabulary should go beyond a focus on the direct teaching of vocabulary through common methods such as using word searches, crosswords, gap-fills, and vocabulary journals where students write definitions of new words. While these have their place, other approaches such as exposure to target vocabulary in context can be more effective. It is also useful to focus on practice that requires students to use target vocabulary through the productive skills of speaking and writing. This aids deeper and more permanent acquisition.

Teaching vocabulary is a broad and complex topic. This article aims to introduce some useful and practical ideas to help make this important area of language teaching a little easier. The article begins by introducing some simple but effective exercises for teaching vocabulary, and then continues by discussing the issue of vocabulary acquisition, the needs of learners according to level, learning through context, and the use of two well known word lists.

What are some useful approaches to teaching vocabulary?

A good place to start is by using some simple but effective ideas suggested by Paul Nation, a widely respected expert on the subject of vocabulary teaching. Below, he suggests some useful vocabulary learning exercises that require little or no preparation. Before using these exercises, he offers some advice on how to select target words for these exercises.

Choosing the words

1. On a rotational basis, appoint a special vocabulary secretary whose job is to identify difficult words encountered in class for future attention.

2. Select words that have appeared in classwork and materials in the last week or two.

3. Select words that you believe are important for students to know.

Once target words have been identified, employ a combination of the exercises below which are grouped according to some of the key criteria for what it means to 'know' a word.

Exercises that focus on word meaning

Find the fundamental meaning: Students read through dictionary entries and find the common meaning of the different uses of the word.

Word card testing: In pairs, students give their cards to their partner who tests them on their recall of the meaning by saying the word and asking for a translation of the word in return. This process can also be done in reverse i.e., saying the word in the first language and asking for it in the target language in return.

Using the dictionary: When a target word occurs in a text, the teacher trains students in the correct use of a dictionary to locate the meaning of that specific usage.

Guessing meaning from context: Whenever a guessable word occurs in a reading text, the teacher trains the students to employ the various strategies of inferring the meaning from context.

Exercises that focus on word form

Spelling dictation: The teacher calls out words or phrases for students to write down as accurately as possible.

Pronunciation: The teacher writes words on the board and asks students to choose a word and attempt the correct pronunciation. The teacher then gives feedback and/or models the correct pronunciation.

Word parts: The teacher writes words on pieces of paper and students cut them into parts and give the meanings of the parts. This is obviously useful for teaching prefixes and suffixes.

Exercises that focus on word use

Suggest collocations: The students work together in pairs or small groups to list collocations for a given word.

Word detectives: A student reports on an unfamiliar word they have found in their reading. They then give a mini-presentation about the meaning, spelling, pronunciation, word parts, origin, collocations, and grammar of the word.

Now that you have been presented with some simple and practical ideas for teaching vocabulary, it may be useful to delve a little deeper into vocabulary learning and teaching.

It is not always the case that students need to resort to specific vocabulary study books to learn new words. Many people who possess an extended vocabulary do not report having acquired it through direct learning activities and commercial coursebooks.

A common approach to vocabulary teaching starts with a list of words found in a reading or listening activity accompanied by translations in the students' first language and vocabulary exercises. Often, not much attention is given to approaches that ask students to build vocabulary from reading and listening through context, which presents a missed opportunity.

How does successful vocabulary acquisition take place?

For successful vocabulary acquisition to occur, students require a considerable amount of exposure to new words. The process of acquisition should follow a similar path to first language vocabulary acquisition: through context, associations, and constant exposure.

Students must be provided with opportunities for using vocabulary in memorable and meaningful situations. Selecting vocabulary learning activities should be guided by key factors such as how often the words are likely to be encountered and how necessary they are for producing effective communication.

Learning new words involves building up vocabulary from repertoire - that is, relating new words to previously acquired language. Try to imagine building blocks and stacking one layer over the other to consolidate vocabulary and build a strong foundation for future communication.

Teaching vocabulary should also take flexibility and creativity into account. The teacher should avoid approaching words as isolated and independent objects and preferably expose students to the way they are used in sentences and how they can group with other words to form collocations. As an example, apart from simply working out the meaning of the word 'go', it would also be effective to associate it with the preposition 'to' and present it as 'go to' - preferably in a sentence.

With lessons that focus on the receptive skills of reading and listening, it is useful to identify which words are most likely to be unfamiliar to students and do some pre-teaching. The idea is to make sure the students find the activity not only interesting but also meaningful and comprehensible. After students have read or listened to a text, the new vocabulary can be reinforced in other ways such as using flashcards or asking students to use the words in short writing or speaking activities.

Vocabulary learning needs according to proficiency level

Students' level of proficiency is another key consideration when approaching vocabulary learning activities.

Beginners benefit through direct vocabulary teaching as it fosters quick expansion in the number of words they know. Relevant activities might include using flashcards and illustrated handouts along with other memorisation strategies. This is a stage of early development, so it is important that the teacher also focuses on building confidence and a sense of self-accomplishment.

The approach with intermediate students should focus on expanding on already acquired vocabulary. For instance, students can explore the fact that the same word can have multiple meanings. This might involve students discovering how many different contexts they can use words like 'head' or 'park' for example. In addition, it is also valuable for intermediate students to work with affixes such as in-, un-, -less, -ly, and word families as in 'beauty, 'beautiful' and 'beautifully' as a way of expanding vocabulary range.

To build learner autonomy, encourage students to use their imagination so they can come up with their own ways of memorizing words based on their repertoire to consolidate the way they link new words to familiar ones.

Advanced students sometimes become frustrated because they feel that their vocabulary learning has plateaued. This often happens because they may already be familiar with the most frequent general words in the language. Therefore, consider increasing their exposure to academic vocabulary, which is likely to be far less familiar, but more likely to be encountered in future academic and professional life.

Learning vocabulary through context

Regardless of the level, activities requiring students to guess the meaning of a word from context are useful. This invites them to develop their self-sufficiency in contrast to a dependency on the teacher or dictionaries.

It is not only through reading that students can guess meaning from context but also through listening to stories, music, podcasts, and also from watching TV series, and films. Using the same principle of building vocabulary through repertoire, they provide audio and visual context clues.

An example activity would be to choose a story that students are familiar with in their first language such as the story of "The Three Little Pigs". This will make it easier for them to guess the meaning of keywords as they should be able to relate them to an already known context. Students would likely already be familiar with many of the words in the story from their mother tongue. They would also be very familiar with the plot, so there is a rich and accessible context for them to guess the meaning of vocabulary.

Teaching strategies that can help students understand the meaning of unfamiliar words from context is important for their development as independent learners. To do this, they should be looking for context clues such as synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples, and explanations.

For example, students should become aware that when encountering an unfamiliar word in a text, they should look for words in the sentence or surrounding sentences that help them deduce what the unknown word is. In the example below, we can see that the second sentence offers an 'antonym' that should if the student is aware of the strategy, help them decipher the meaning of 'distraught'.

The English supporters were distraught after losing the final. They were not happy losing another penalty shootout.

Let's use 'definition' as another example. Below, we can see that the second sentence essentially defines the word synthesise. Students should be made aware that phrases such as 'in other words' often signal the clarification of a key term or concept.

Academic writing often requires students to synthesise the ideas of multiple authors. In other words, take key ideas from texts and combine them to produce an original text.

It is important to realize that these context clues may not always be so obvious. Hence, teachers need to carefully evaluate if the activity is suited to students' proficiency level and current vocabulary range.

Learning vocabulary from context is effective, but it should not exclude direct teaching, especially if used as a way of increasing students' awareness and speeding up the development of specific language. By using context, it encourages students to identify and acquire new vocabulary independently because they are equipped with practical strategies. In addition, this approach should be directed to useful vocabulary which will not only enhance their comprehension of listening and reading texts but boost their ability to communicate in spoken and written English.

Word lists for vocabulary learning and teaching

Just as important as understanding what constitutes effective vocabulary teaching, it is also important to be clear on which vocabulary to target. It may not always be obvious for teachers to decide which vocabulary to teach. A good starting point is to consider established and recognised word lists such as the New General Service List (NGSL).

What is the NGSL?

The NGSL is a list comprised of words considered to be the most common and frequently occurring in English - roughly 2,000 headwords. These headwords define word families, for example: 'with: within, without', or 'day: daily, daylight'. It is estimated that the list covers 80% of all words found in general reading texts and 90% of the words used in spoken English.

As previously mentioned, advanced students should already be familiar with a wide range of general words so working with the NGSL might not be a priority for them. Instead, the Academic Word List (AWL) is a better alternative as it focuses on academic vocabulary. Students at this level are often entering universities where English is the medium of instruction, so the AWL provides not only a more challenging and rewarding set of target vocabulary but also one that is highly relevant.

What is the AWL?

The AWL consists of 570 word families of which 90% are not found in the NGSL. They cover 10% of words in academic texts and are often the most challenging. The list is divided into 10 sub-lists in line with the frequency they appear in academic texts, with sub-list 1 being the most frequent and sub-list 10 the least frequent.

For advanced students, both lists are important as when combined, they are estimated to cover 90% of the words found in academic texts.

How can wordlists be used in vocabulary teaching?

Teachers must consider a variety of ways and approaches when selecting vocabulary learning activities, especially regarding students' proficiency level. While beginners can benefit more from direct teaching and activities such as flashcards, intermediate students would be suited to more challenging activities such as guessing meaning from familiar and rich contexts.

Advanced students with a greater familiarity with words in the NGSL can take advantage of the sub-lists in the AWL, especially through reading activities. But it is important to keep in mind that it can be a rather tedious activity if planned for the duration of a whole class. At this level, students are most likely expecting practice in improving their speaking skills in more dynamic tasks such as peer and group interactions.

Therefore, it is better to approach the AWL as a self-study exercise through activities such as reading, matching, and writing exercises. These can be assigned as homework and later checked during class. This way both teacher and students can optimize class time by focusing on the practiced use of specific vocabulary rather than in direct learning.

To illustrate, the teacher could highlight AWL words in a reading passage. Students could then be asked to match these words with their correct definitions or work out their meanings from context, or even use a dictionary (if needed). After working with definitions, students could then match the target words with synonyms. Additionally, students could complete a chart of word families as a way of increasing exposure to their corresponding variations.

In summary, teachers need to deal with vocabulary as a long-term goal and be constantly aware that vocabulary acquisition can be a slow process that requires repetition. Simply presenting new words to students and expecting them to memorise their meaning is an ineffective practice. It is important to link vocabulary to previously acquired language. Meaningful, continuous, and thoughtful exposure to vocabulary is the key. Ultimately, teachers should not only seek to employ effective vocabulary learning activities, but also remember to be patient, attentive, and empathic.

Planning a Lesson

Planning a lesson before teaching is a fundamental part of giving an effective ESL lesson. Depending on the experience of the teacher and the nature of the lesson, the planning process can be quite varied. Less experienced teachers should consider detailed lesson plans with one or two variations of tasks and exercises in case things don't go to plan, or at the very least, they should have an organized list with a logical and effective order of activities. The more experienced teachers become, the simpler their lesson plans can be. But planning is always essential no matter the experience of the teacher.

Lesson planning is important for developing the structure of a lesson and organizing its content. Planning improves your ability to select teaching activities and materials that will best match the needs of your students. A lesson plan gives the teacher a framework for the lesson and guides classroom management, student participation, and interaction patterns. A lesson plan also helps the teacher with the timing of activities to ensure the students receive a well-balanced and time-managed lesson. Furthermore, planning encourages the teacher to think about the process of teaching, which gives them a feeling of security knowing they are prepared to instruct the class.

Planning should not limit or restrict the teacher. On the contrary, teachers still need to employ creativity and improvisation skills. Following a lesson plan to a tee is not recommended. Teachers need to be able to think ahead for unexpected scenarios because it is not realistic to expect that a meticulously planned lesson will proceed accordingly.

Many factors need to be accounted for when planning a lesson. For example, consider students' learning preferences, their level of proficiency, the class size, seating arrangements, etc.

To create effective yet realistic plans, teachers should try to anticipate and prepare for what can happen during a lesson to the best of their ability.

Here is a list of factors to consider when planning a lesson:

Lesson Aims

A good place to start is to ask, ''What language skill am I trying to develop?” A lesson plan needs to start with aims so that classes have a clear purpose and direction. Using 'will be able to' statements is a useful way of articulating lesson aims. For example, 'By the end of this lesson, students will be able to follow a lecture and note down key points by listening for signposting language.'

By doing this you are prioritising aims that focus on achievement and help ensure lessons are more student-centred. In other words, you are aiming to create a lesson that ends with students possessing more knowledge and skills than when they started. At the end of any lesson, students should get better at something.

Language Focus

The language focus should be directly linked to the aim of the lesson. If the aim is what you want your students to be able to do by the end of the lesson, the language focus specifies the elements of the language they need to work with to achieve the aim that was set. Look at the example below:

Aim: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to employ a variety of sentence structures in their writing.

Language focus: complex sentence structure: subordinating conjunctions, dependent and independent clauses.

For students to become better writers, the teacher has set the aim of having students use varied sentence structure as this is an important component of good writing. Therefore, the lesson could review complex sentence structure as a way of helping students achieve that aim.

In short, think of the 'aim' as the communicative skill you want the students to achieve and the language focus as the elements of the language that will allow them to achieve that skill.

Teaching Activities

After defining the aim and the language focus, consider the types of activities that will be used in the lesson. Activities should have a clear link to the aims and language focus.

A good lesson plan needs to include careful consideration of teaching activities. For example, does the lesson require or is it suited to speaking activities, role-plays, brainstorming, listening exercises, etc. Teachers should also consider if activities should focus on accuracy or freer practice or both. For accuracy, the teacher leads and controls the practice, usually through structural and accuracy-focused exercises such as drills, grammar exercises, and mirroring. These normally take place in the early stages of a lesson. Freer practice activities give students opportunities to use what they have learned without direct control by the teacher and could include discussions, mini-presentations, or timed writing on a topic of their choice. Freer practice normally takes place at the latter stages and should be as authentic as possible. In other words, if the aim is to improve writing skills and the language focus is complex sentences, the students should be given a writing practice that resembles a writing task they are likely to encounter outside of the classroom. For a business English student, this could be an email, or for an EAP student a timed essay.

Suitability

Students should be interested and motivated by the activities provided. Therefore, consider if your students will enjoy the lesson. And just as important, consider if you would enjoy teaching the lesson. It is key that you know your students and what they are interested in.

No two students and no two classes are the same, so what you have planned for one group may not be suitable for another. Would the topic of your lesson be the same for a group of teenagers and a group of adults? Catering to the interests of your students helps foster more engagement and interest which are two important requirements for successful language acquisition to occur.

Timing

A common problem encountered by teachers is not completing everything that they set out in their plan. This is often because they have underestimated the time certain activities require, or they have not allowed for flexibility in their timings. Therefore, if your first guess is that an activity will take 15 minutes, plan for 20 minutes instead. Also, consider incorporating flexible time into your plan. For example, when your plan is completed and you have added up all your timings, allow for extra time. So, for a 60-minute lesson, aim for your timings to total 50 minutes, so that you can allow for the unexpected. In this situation, it is wise to also plan a backup activity just in case you need it.

Backward planning, which simply means starting from the final activity, is also helpful when trying to account for timings in your lesson plans. This is particularly so for lessons that are planned to end with a communicative task such as a role play. In this case, all the other activities in the plan should be working towards this end and should be subordinate to it. Try to look for any lead-up activity that might be considered superfluous and scrap it if it means there is not enough time to complete the role play.

Sequencing

A simple way of sequencing a lesson is to view it as a collection of three basic stages that can be categorised as input, learning, and use.

Input is the way language is presented to students which can be through authentic materials such as magazine articles, movies, or instructional materials specially designed for language learners. Another way of presenting input is through clarification where students examine a feature of language and seek and receive explanations from the teacher.

Learning deals with the process of understanding, memorizing, and noticing new language features. For instance, in this stage of the lesson, a teacher may decide to plan pre-communicative accuracy-based activities that focus on the presentation of structures, functions, and vocabulary.

In the later stages, students are commonly prepared for spoken or written outputs. Output at this stage should usually be authentic (free and more natural) practice such as discussions and role-plays. After free practice, it is usually a good idea for the teacher to check using elicitation that a new structure, skill or strategy has been learned. A final step at this stage could include further practice where students are required to use the new structure, skill, or strategy in a new situation.

During these stages, consider if the tasks make sense regarding the level of difficulty and complexity in the order they appear. It is more productive to work on simpler tasks before complex ones as a way of building up the lesson and gradually increasing the difficulty of the learning process, continuously providing students opportunities to practice and produce. It is also recommended that activities that involve receptive skills come before those that require productive skills.

Materials

The choice of materials used in class should be thought of as a means of achieving the stated aims of the lesson. When considering the suitability of materials to the students' background and level, aim to provide comprehensible input that is slightly beyond their current level. Krashen's simple equation of 'I + 1' is a useful tool for doing this. 'I' represents 'input' that is at the students' current level and '+1' 'input' which is at the next stage of language acquisition. This helps ensure that materials are not too easy nor too difficult but present a more optimal level of challenge.

Using authentic or real-life content such as magazines, books, or podcasts can be used with higher-level classes as an effective way of finding material that is relevant to their interests. Conversely, lower-level students might benefit more from traditional instructional materials as they tend to focus on specific language points and provide clear examples. Being simplified and using graded language they can actually boost students' motivation and sense of accomplishment. This contrasts with materials that, despite their authenticity, students may find too challenging.

Learner Interaction

During some activities, students are expected to work alone such as in reading or listening tasks. Pair work provides optimal speaking time if you consider students individually and not being in the spotlight can be beneficial for introverts. Group work fosters social learning and allows students to perform more complex tasks, e.g. a role-play with four or five characters in the same dialogue. Also, group work can provide more points of view when having discussions and working with expressions for agreeing and disagreeing, for instance. Regardless of the interaction pattern, they are all necessary for language acquisition to occur in the classroom. Therefore, lesson plans should always accommodate for a healthy amount and mix of student interactions.

To enhance student interaction, consider some of the following suggestions:

•  Provide opportunities for students to work in pairs and small groups and use multiple modes of interaction such as discussions, individual and group presentations, or brainstorming.

•  Encourage students to work together in group projects.

•  Devote a significant proportion of class time (15-30%) to student interactions.

•  Set time limits to give interactions a sense of urgency.

•  Switch up groupings of students so that they are not always talking to the same partner.

•  Repeat tasks so that they become familiar and less time is wasted setting up an activity.

•  Pre-teach task language that is critical to task achievement.

•  Give adequate preparation time to allow learners time to think about what they want to say and how to say it.

•  Have different levels of a task prepared in classes with mixed levels so that, for example, lower-level students are enabled to participate.

•  Provide activities that give students a reason to interact such as an information gap activity or project work.

Alternatives to Formal Planning

There are some reasons for not using a formal plan. Possibly it is not a priority as the lesson focuses on feedback, or maybe the session has been given over to project work, or perhaps the teacher simply doesn't have the time.

An alternative to a formal plan could be to use a simple running order, which simply involves jotting down activities in a logical order with brief observations and comments as in the example below.

1. Lead-in to the topic: Students discuss questions related to university study.

2. Vocab preview: vocab definition matching activity for difficult words in the reading.

3. Students read the article and answer short answer questions: students share and discuss answers in pairs and report back to the class.

This approach is simple and can be done virtually anywhere, on a piece of paper or a notes app on a mobile phone.

For more experienced teachers, planning may only require listing critical moments. They can be organized like a bulleted list of aims and what is significant and relevant for each of them to be achieved. They can also be articulated as an important instruction, example, or response that needs to be prepared in advance. For example, a critical moment could be a phrasal verb that students might find confusing: 'I ran into my friend last night' versus 'The driver lost control and ran into a tree.'

As conceptualising is a big part of planning a lesson, it is a good idea to just sit down and try to visualize the lesson taking place. Ask yourself how you could start the lesson and what the possible outcomes of activities could be. This can help you better handle issues that emerge on the spot and that wouldn't fit in a lesson plan or adapt to problems like an activity finishing much earlier than anticipated.

After the Lesson

After the lesson has taken place, reflect on how the lesson went. In many cases, a lesson plan is just used before and during the lesson, but a good practice is to revisit plans regularly to keep track of activities that worked well. Lesson plans should also be kept as a record of what has been covered.

Lesson plans are also a valuable resource of feedback in the form of self-reflection. Going through the plan after the lesson helps promote self-development and address recurrent issues such as reducing teacher talk time, providing better examples, clearer instructions, and optimizing time management.

Here are some questions that you can use to evaluate a lesson's success:

•  Did the students enjoy the lesson?

•  What problems were there during the lesson?

•  Which activities were successful, and which were not?

•  Did I manage to achieve the aim of the lesson? How do I know this?

•  Will I teach this lesson again in the same way?

As a teacher, you may find a lesson that worked perfectly well with one class has different results in another. You should always be prepared to go off plan if needed and adapt to the needs of the students. However, planning is an essential component of good teaching as it helps ensure lessons are relevant, purposeful, and most importantly, effective.

Eliciting is a technique that ESL teachers often use to obtain information about what their students do or don't know. Eliciting techniques are helpful as a diagnostic tool, allowing teachers to easily determine what their students need, without having to waste time rehashing content already covered in class. Eliciting also creates a learner-centered environment as it prompts students to think about the chosen topic in a broader sense, allowing students to share what they know with their peers. There is much you can elicit from students such as language knowledge, background information, general knowledge, opinions, feelings, associations, ideas, questions and answers, etc.

Studies have shown that students become more involved in a lesson through elicitation because they are actively producing speech and giving information. In other words, students become active learners, rather than just passively listening to teacher instruction. Elicitation allows students to exchange ideas and tap into their own collective knowledge. Furthermore, research supports the notion that students are more likely to retain new content through elicitation as it helps to make the teaching and learning of new knowledge more relevant to students.

Depending on the objectives of a lesson, there are many ways eliciting can be used to promote active participation from students. However, there needs to be some initial input or stimulus from the teacher to get things started. Examples of initial input or stimulus can be warm-up questions or visuals, which are covered in more detail later in the article.

Elicitation can present a bit of a challenge with students who come from countries where teachers have a somewhat elevated social status and where maintaining face can be a real concern. This can mean they may be reluctant to respond because they are conditioned to expect that teachers have all the answers, and there is also a fear of giving the wrong answer and appearing foolish in front of peers. However, if the teacher promotes a cooperative learning environment and is persistent, these students can feel more comfortable with elicitation and even enjoy it.

One way to avoid long silences is to consider nominating students to answer particular questions. Do not always rely on a select group of students to respond and give praise and encouragement for any response regardless of it being relevant or not. The aim is to positively reinforce participation. It also helps to give students time to think about what they are going to say and for the teacher to ask more open-ended questions, which have more than one possible correct answer. If you find there is a minimal response from the class, try giving them more input to help direct their thoughts. Below are some techniques you can use in your classroom for eliciting.

Eliciting Vocabulary

Use elicitation when you want your students to come up with a word on their own. Many teachers try to elicit vocabulary from their students as a way to review a previous lesson. There are many ways this can be achieved. A commonly used technique is to have students match words to their definitions. Provide students with a definition and see if they can supply the correct word. Learner dictionary definitions normally contain clear definitions that are easy for students to understand, so having those on hand is ideal when you are trying to elicit vocabulary.

You can also use synonyms to elicit target words. When you use this technique, make a statement and ask students to paraphrase it by using synonyms. You can also use antonyms as a useful way to elicit words from students. Even the act of pretending to forget a word serves as a prompt to get students guessing the particular word you are trying to elicit from them.

For young or visual learners, flashcards or pictures help elicit vocabulary. You can play a variety of games with flashcards to elicit vocabulary. Some examples include Flashcards at Dawn, Mr Wolf, or Whisper. Instructions for these activities can be found in the ESL Flashcards Games section of the website. Or you can use the flashcards as visuals to play a memory review game or even Pictionary. Another way to use visuals in the classroom is by incorporating 'spot the difference' activities, which students often enjoy. More often than not, students become more engaged the moment they see pictures or visuals as they add an element of fun to lessons. Pictures help to bring words to life and allow students to make the connection between the word and the object associated with the word.

Instead of having students write things down in a list, try using mind maps or word clusters. Mind maps or word clusters work better with older students and can also help to elicit vocabulary. Studies suggest that mind maps encourage creativity because the visuals help to promote ideas by encouraging students to see the links and connections between different concepts or words. Simply start by writing a general topic in the center of the board and have the students add words that relate to the topic.

Students often pick up new words quickly, but a problem emerges when they are not given sufficient opportunity to use the words they have learned. Without repeated exposure and practice, the retention of new vocabulary wanes. So, try to find ways to regularly practice the words you teach in class and use them in contexts students will remember. For instance, after eliciting vocabulary about the four seasons, students can work on a review activity like "Seasonal Sort-Out" where they use their existing knowledge to complete a sorting activity. Another example could be after completing an activity about food and drink for beginners, you revisit the items by applying them to the context of creating a shopping list. Try using the worksheet, "My Shopping List" as a way for students to review language connected to food and drink. There are a variety of supplementary worksheets that can be found throughout the website, many of which include fun activities that can be used to review General English topics.

Eliciting grammar

Many teachers often use close-ended questions to elicit grammar. When incorporating teacher-centred methods, asking close-ended questions allows for more control over the lesson and the target language that you want your students to produce. However, there are alternatives for eliciting grammar that are more engaging and interactive. For instance, you can use modelling, a drawing, or a situational dialogue. Create some kind of context for the students to understand the grammar point and then follow up with Concept Check Questions. As an example, let's use this technique with the present continuous. To start the lesson, show a picture of a student in the classroom. For learners who need extra information, have a list of base verbs on the board for students to access. Then, write the following question on the board: What is the student doing (in the picture)? If the students are struggling to come up with words, provide more context by modelling an example sentence or increase the wait time after each question.

If you are doing a reading exercise, ask students to give you examples of the grammar point from the text. For example, have students do a treasure hunt, where they need to find as many present simple verbs as they can. You can also ask students questions that require them to answer using a particular grammatical form. Try dividing your students into smaller groups and giving them a list of conversation questions or dividing the class into pairs and giving each student in the pair a respective set of questions. Certain topics lend themselves to particular grammar structures such as talking about the weekend or a recent vacation or trip (past simple) or describing a routine (present simple). You may also want to try giving students the grammar points first and then eliciting some example sentences.

Eliciting target language in reading activities

Prediction is often used when teaching reading. Normally, headlines or photos are used to elicit ideas from students. This approach gets students to predict elements of the story, key concepts or themes, and language that are likely to be encountered. This helps students focus their reading and usually aids their comprehension of the text.

presenting headlines or showing photos from current event stories, is one way of incorporating realia or authentic materials in the classroom. Studies have shown that the use of authentic materials in the classroom makes lessons more meaningful and allows students to make the connection between the target language and real life. Predicting is also a useful strategy to help students apply the target language for giving descriptions concerning who, what, where, when, why, and how. You can also get students to expand on a text to practice giving more details. If you've recently covered a lesson on parts of speech, for example, you can ask students to add adjectives to particular nouns or add details to the story.

Retelling a story or text can also serve as a tool to elicit target language. For instance, you can start by providing techniques for how to paraphrase sentences and how to summarise longer passages. To make things more interesting, students can also tell or summarize the story from one particular character's perspective, in the first person or third person, or even present the story as a TV news item. Another way to review a text is to divide students into two groups and have them create their own questions about the text and quiz each other. Alternatively, you can divide the students into smaller groups to elicit the target language through book talks. In these sessions, you can get students to share new words they learned from the text, or share their ideas, opinions, or feelings about what they have read.

Eliciting techniques for current knowledge and new ideas

When a lesson is topic-based, it's useful to begin by eliciting students' current knowledge and understanding of the topic. This can be done by brainstorming with the aid of mind maps or other graphic organizers. Brainstorming helps students to come up with ideas and information related to the topic you are going to teach. The students can work in groups or as a whole class to think of words and associations related to the topic. If done as a class, write up any vocabulary or ideas given which the class might find useful. If done in smaller groups, students can explore the topic with their peers and create word lists or clusters which can then be shared with the rest of the class. Other ways to elicit current knowledge and understanding include using text, pictures, or even telling a story or anecdote and then asking for students' reactions. This approach to eliciting is a benefit to both teachers and students. Teachers can gain more insight into students' understanding of particular topics which helps inform future lesson planning. For students, brainstorming activities help reinforce existing knowledge and assist in acquiring new knowledge.

Freewriting is also a useful activity to help draw on students' existing knowledge. Ask the students to free-write for a few minutes in response to a topic or question. Students will likely draw on past experiences or existing knowledge to help them complete the activity. Again, specific questions or prompts can help to get students started, especially for students who require more input.

Final Thoughts

Eliciting is a helpful tool that all teachers should utilize in their classrooms. As you can see, elicitation can be employed in numerous ways and can be used to teach and review a variety of English skills. Elicitation does not have to be limited to a repetitive question and answer routine. Instead, try implementing the techniques mentioned in this article to make your lessons more interactive. Not only does elicitation serve as a diagnostic or formative assessment tool, but it is also an effective way to help your students become active learners. Elicitation also helps students to explore the target language by comparing their existing knowledge with new content. Most importantly, it allows students to apply what they've learned in different contexts in a more meaningful and memorable way.

How can you know a particular task or lesson achieved its aim?

What is concept checking?

Concept checking questions are simply targeted questions used at the end of an activity or lesson to gauge students' understanding of a concept or language point. For instance, at the end of a lesson about ‘be going to for future plans’ rather than asking a question like, “Do you know how to use ‘be going to’ for future plans?”, which will not generate much useful information if any, you could go around the class and ask students what their plans are for the weekend.

For example:

        Teacher: What are you doing this weekend Rodrigo?

        Rodrigo: I am going to visit my grandparents.

        Teacher: What are you doing this weekend Aluna?

        Aluna: I go to shopping mall.

Here we can see clearly that Rodrigo has a better grasp of ‘be going to’ for future plans than Aluna does.

There are a few reasons why concept-checking questions should be employed in your teaching. Firstly, they are efficient and effective. Asking a question like, “Do you understand?” often results in the teacher, later on in the activity, realising that the students did not understand. This may require halting the activity and restarting from the beginning. Students will often reply yes because they may genuinely believe they have understood something when in reality, they have failed to grasp the concept. Students can also often be reluctant to answer the question honestly for fear of losing face. Therefore, it is necessary to be more strategic in the way you concept check.

Another advantage of concept checking questions is that they can be used in almost every lesson and are very versatile. They can be repeated to check the same or similar concept or teaching point and can be adapted to check other language concepts.

In addition to helping teachers measure their students’ level of understanding, concept checking questions encourage students to actively participate in the lesson which is an important part of discovering and understanding new language. Through concept checking questions, students are called upon to convey their language knowledge in class, which then allows the teacher to clarify and enhance that knowledge. Concept checking questions are also a good way of informing the content of subsequent lessons.

Another benefit of using concept-checking questions is that in the process of preparing them, you will soon realise whether you have understood what you are teaching or not. Before asking concept-checking questions, it is necessary to prepare them as an integral part of the lesson planning process. This requires fully understanding the concept being taught, which means taking the time to examine the language point more closely. This may seem a little onerous, but this process can actually provide a useful catalyst for generating concept-checking questions as you will see later in the article.

While the preparation of effective concept-checking questions may seem daunting, there are some straightforward ways to approach them. Here are some tips for creating successful concept questions:

The questions should be easy to understand and contain no new or difficult language. Vocabulary is an important consideration when formulating concept-checking questions. The simplest of language points can become extremely confusing if the questions contain advanced or unfamiliar words. Therefore, try to stick to vocabulary that students have already covered in the course or is as close as possible to their current CEFR level. Also, the questions shouldn't contain the target language itself. A final point about language is that the questions should not require answers that contain complex language. Therefore, simple either/or questions, ‘Wh’ questions, or yes/no questions usually work quite well.

The questions should get the students involved in thinking about the basic concept of the target language regarding such things as tense and time. The questions should also clarify the form, function, or meaning of the language.

Try to ask as many concept questions as you can to cover the various aspects of the language and to get feedback from as many students as possible.

It is important to repeat the significance of avoiding questions like 'Do you understand?' Such questions will not give you any true insight into the students' understanding. Similarly, avoid general questions such as:

        Incorrect: Do you understand how to use the present simple?

        Correct: What do you like to do after school?

        Incorrect: What does ‘benefit’ mean?

        Correct: Tell me one benefit of learning English.

        Incorrect: Do you know how to use prepositions?

        Correct: Do we say ‘at’ Monday or ‘on’ Monday?

It is also helpful to remind students that clearing up misunderstandings are a part of everyday communication and an essential and unavoidable part of the learning process. Hence, try to make it clear to students that concept checking is not about embarrassing them, but it is about helping the students improve and helping the teacher teach more effectively.

Concept questions vary greatly due to the diversity of the English language. They are not only useful for grammar points and structures, but also vocabulary, functions, and idiomatic expressions.

Here are some examples of how concept questions might be used with present tenses:

present simple: Harry lives in a one-bedroom apartment.

        Information question: Who lives in the apartment?

        Information question: How many bedrooms are there?

        Yes/no question: Does Harry live in a house?

        Yes/no question: Does Harry live there now?

        Shared experience question: Does your family live in a one-bedroom apartment?

present continuous: The students are taking an exam.

        Yes/no question: Is the exam finished?

        Yes/no question: Is the exam happening now?

        Yes/no question: Are the students taking the exam tomorrow?

        'Wh' question: Who is taking the exam?

        Shared experience question: Do you enjoy taking exams?

An easy and practical way of formulating concept questions is by writing down all the elements of the concept, which can act as prompts from which to create your questions.

For example:

1. Jum has been exercising.

Concept: She isn't exercising now, and I didn't see her exercising, but I could guess she was exercising because she might be sweating, breathing heavily, or wearing workout gear.

        Is Jum exercising now?

        Could Jum be feeling tired?

        Do you think Jum is wearing a school uniform?

2. Omar is going on holiday to Jamaica.

Concept: He is not in Jamaica now, he is probably flying there, and he is not going for work.

        Is Omar in Jamaica?

        Will Omar fly on a plane?

        Does Omar have a business meeting in Jamaica?

If the students answer the questions appropriately, it shows they have understood the concept. You can then move on to ask other types of concept questions. For example, in the first example above, you could follow up with a shared experience question such as, “What is your favourite type of exercise?”

Concept questions can also be combined with other methods to check understanding. Here are some other possible methods:

Paraphrasing or summarizing exercises. These are especially useful for higher-level students when teaching listening and reading. Accurate paraphrases and summaries require a solid understanding of the source material.

Activities that require the arrangement or categorisation of content are useful ways of checking understanding. For example, having students create timelines can be used to check their understanding of the difference in meaning between various tenses. Students can be asked to apply scales or grades to show their understanding of such things as adverbs of frequency – always (100%), usually (75%), sometimes (50%), occasionally, (25%), and never (0%). Arranging words into categories also works well. For example, students could be asked to arrange animals into categories such as pets, farm animals, or wild animals.

Worksheets or homework assignments that contain guided practice exercises are an easy and effective way of seeing what students have or have not grasped. In addition to Yes/No or Wh questions, teachers can ask negative checking questions such as, “Do I say, 'You was'?”. Fun games such as ‘Hot Seats’ are a good way to check students' understanding of new vocabulary as the students are asked to define words through both description and the use of synonyms without actually saying the word.

Concept checking can be used at any point during a lesson. However, avoid any temptation to overuse it as this can cause a lesson to get bogged down and lessen some of the positive energy an activity initially generated. Concept checking should generally be limited to the specific learning aims of the lesson. If used correctly, concept-checking questions provide a rich source of information from which to make your teaching more successful. They are also an effective way to help make lessons more participative and less passive.

Effective classroom management is important because it has a very positive impact on your ability to teach and your students’ ability to learn. Without good classroom management, a negative learning environment can emerge where students are demotivated and distracted, and teachers are stressed and eventually feel burnt out. Proper classroom management, on the other hand, results in a situation where a teacher’s time and energy are primarily focused on teaching with less time wasted on dealing with behaviour management.

While successful classroom management requires planning, preparation, and effort in the early stages of a course, it does make teaching easier in the end. It also results in improved student progress because they are learning in an environment where expectations are clear and there are minimal interruptions. Students can just get on with the business of learning. This article will cover some of the key areas to consider when developing an effective classroom management plan.

Arranging the Physical Environment

The physical setup of your classroom is perhaps the most obvious place to start. This can have a significant impact on the way your classes run. Some thought is required for how furniture and materials are arranged within the classroom. There is no one size fits all answer for this aspect of classroom management as teachers find themselves in a variety of situations and circumstances. For example, classes often vary in terms of size. If you are teaching a small class, perhaps using a horseshoe arrangement might work best, but for large classes, arranging the tables in groups may work better. You might have classes in which students are required to access certain materials, so you may need to think about where the materials are kept and how students can easily access them without causing too much disruption to the lesson. Not all classrooms are designed well so when thinking about how to arrange desks, make sure all students are in clear view. This ensures that you can easily check that all students are on task and that they can clearly see anything you are explaining or demonstrating.

As the course progresses and you get to know your students better, you may want to play around with your seating arrangements. You could develop a seating plan to manage certain unwanted behaviours. You can decide to seat disruptive students at the front of the class, separate pairs who are continuously talking in their first language, or you can arrange the class so that groups contain a mix of weaker and stronger students. Do what you can to ensure a suitable physical environment for learning. Reorganizing classroom seating also allows for easier movement from student-to-student or group-to-group and this has the benefit of preventing time wasting.

Establishing and Maintaining Appropriate Authority

While it is appropriate and beneficial for teachers to have a friendly relationship with students, language classes require a certain amount of structure and discipline that ensures that classes are productive and meeting learning outcomes to at least a satisfactory level.

Authority begins with teachers having the necessary self-confidence in their teaching ability and their capacity to lead a group of learners. For some new teachers, confidence may be in short supply, but rest assured in the knowledge that all teachers feel slightly nervous before a new class. It is normal and very human. You may feel nervous, but your students do not need to know this. As far as they are concerned, you are a hardy professional. The key is to present yourself with confidence.

It helps if you have prepared thoroughly for the lesson as this will give you some reassurance that things are likely to go to plan. It also helps to project a sense of professionalism to your students by dressing the part and arriving early to set up the classroom and greet students as they arrive. If you are lacking a sense of confidence and feeling anxious, simply fake it. By not coming across as hesitant and unsure, you are more likely to get a sense that your students have a good initial impression of you. This is something you can take to your next class and build from there. In a short time, any insecurities you may be feeling about your teaching abilities will subside, and you will find your classes becoming increasingly more rewarding. With a sense of confidence, establishing authority in the classroom becomes easier.

Creating a Balance between Friendliness and Authority

While maintaining a friendly relationship with students is required to build a positive learning environment, it should not be forgotten that the teacher has a certain responsibility to maintain an orderly, safe, and respectful classroom environment. For this to be achieved, teachers need to establish a certain level of authority. Authority is not something that is automatically bestowed upon the teacher and is something that needs to be developed and earned. Building authority is fairly straightforward and common sense. First, establish clearly defined rules and boundaries. When there is a clear and easy to understand set of academic and behavioural expectations, students are less likely to make transgressions. Get the students involved in creating a set of rules and corresponding penalties as this helps ensure more buy in and compliance. It is also important to enforce class rules with consistency and fairness.

Take time to listen and get to know your students. When students feel heard and respected, they are more inclined to act in a reciprocal manner as they will not want to disappoint someone who they respect. Also, if you are seen as open and approachable students are more likely to open up about any issues they may be experiencing in the classroom. In getting to know your students, you will build empathy for them and will be less likely to disparage them, embarrass them, or talk down to them.

A positive learning environment often stems from the teacher’s energy and demeanour. Projecting enthusiasm for a lesson or topic sets a model for students to emulate. Students are less likely to be motivated if they sense the teacher does not believe in what they are teaching. Using appropriate humour is also a good way to reduce anxiety among students and shared laughter helps bring the class together.

It is also important that you do not unconsciously undermine the authority you have worked hard to establish. Often as teachers, we may share aspects of our personal lives as a way of building bonds with our students or to even illustrate a teaching point. However, show discretion in what you decide to share as this could weaken your authority. For example, refrain from sharing anything controversial as this may impact negatively on the way certain students view you, especially if what you share relates to any prevailing cultural or societal taboos. A situation like this could also result in a teacher being disciplined by the school authorities, which if made known to students, may harm your ability to control the class.

Getting Classes off to a Good Start

Thinking about the way we begin our classes is important as the beginning stages can set clear signals about the general tone of the class and what is expected of students. It is often the case that classes do not start on time. It is very difficult for teachers to get the class underway as soon as the bell rings as students arriving late eventually disrupt the first activity. To deal with this, it may be a good idea to set the students a task that is productive and academic as soon as they arrive at their desks. This could be as simple as having students read independently until all students are present. By assigning specific tasks for students as they enter class, the teacher is establishing a routine that helps instill in the students the right mindset for successful language learning.

Activities

A language lesson is essentially a simple collection of related activities designed to meet a set of clearly defined learning outcomes. Thus, the way activities are managed is a crucial area of consideration. When setting up an activity, make the learning objectives of the task clear from the outset as this imparts a sense of purpose and provides a focal point for the lesson. In addition, it is important to preview content and highlight and examine any important or challenging language or concepts, which if followed up with some concept checking, gives you and the students confidence in completing learning tasks.

When giving instructions, use clear and precise language. Repeat or rephrase your directions if necessary as it is often the case not all students are paying attention or were able to comprehend. Take time to explain the purpose of the task and make sure your students understand. Use an appropriate tone. If you use an enthusiastic tone, this will project onto the students and contribute towards building their enthusiasm for the task. It is important to describe the specifics of the task as this gives students a clear idea of what your expectations are and what the challenges involved include. This helps learners prepare appropriately. Where possible, provide examples of the end product. Especially for complex tasks, break them down into manageable chunks. So, this might require taking the time to pause and review at various critical stages.

Dealing with Critical Moments

No matter how good your class is, there is always the chance of inappropriate behaviour raising its head. The way inappropriate behaviour is dealt with can determine how disruptive the behaviour ultimately becomes and how likely it is to be repeated. Whatever the circumstances, it is always best to remain as calm as possible. A teacher who handles inappropriate behaviour with a certain amount of grace can gain empathy from the remainder of the class who can then exert some positive peer pressure on the disruptive student. Depending on the nature of the incident, the teacher may wish to deal with the issue after class to avoid disrupting the class or the teacher can also decide to deal with it immediately in the presence of the class as a way to ensure that the behaviour is not replicated by others. As a rule, it is recommended that if you deem the incident serious, you should consult with a supervisor as they can provide advice, assistance, or inform you of any necessary school disciplinary protocols.

Monitoring

Another key element of classroom management is monitoring. Monitoring involves teachers moving around the classroom, observing how well or poorly students are progressing through a task and working with students one-on-one as required. Most successful teachers have systematic procedures for supervising and encouraging students while they work. Monitoring allows teachers to assess the progress of individuals and the class as a whole and informs what needs to be re-taught or practiced further.

There are some reasons why monitoring is a powerful classroom management tool. Firstly, it helps you to become aware of whole class dynamics. You can ascertain whether the pace of the lesson is too fast or too slow, and which students may need individual attention. This helps shift the focus from simply following the lesson plan to focusing on the needs of the learners themselves. While monitoring, teachers can listen for errors in the target language and address these immediately or in subsequent teaching. Monitoring allows teachers to intervene and address problems such as helping individuals or pairs who have clearly not grasped the aim of the task, or the language point being taught. Continual and consistent monitoring also provides a type of formative assessment for both individuals and the whole class, which becomes a good source of information for end-of-course reporting and feedback.

Monitoring also allows you to assess a task. We all know that some activities are more successful than others. Through monitoring, a teacher can evaluate the task and then decide whether to make future modifications or decide to replace it.

Monitoring can help maintain discipline as it helps ensure that learners, simply through the teacher’s presence, stay focused and on task. Also, large classes can become restless and bored when some students finish a task early. In this case, the teacher can provide some short backup activities for early finishers or could use these faster learners to assist weaker students.

Using Rewards

The use of rewards as a classroom management tool is somewhat controversial. On the positive side, reward systems make behavioural expectations clear to students and make it easy for them to conform to those expectations. Rewards can have an immediate positive impact on motivation with students showing more interest, participating more, and acting more responsibly to receive rewards. However, according to some, rewards are a form of bribery and manipulation and do not result in the more valued intrinsic form of motivation. Children, it is argued, are more focused on the reward and less so on their learning and developing good behavioural habits. However, if we shift the intention of using rewards from one that seeks to control behaviour to one that aims to provide positive feedback, rewards can help foster intrinsic motivation. For this to happen, it is important to highlight a student’s specific skills or achievement and their hard work when giving a reward. Instead of saying, “Well done! You completed the task. Now take this sticker.”, say something like, “Wow! You worked really hard, and now you are writing very clear paragraphs that always begin with a topic sentence. Here’s a little reward for your achievement.” In this way, the student becomes aware of what they did well, which helps them become a more reflective and independent learner more capable of repeating that success.

If you do decide to implement a reward system in your class, there are three simple approaches you can choose from.

A token-based system: with the individual student, set a shortlist of achievable goals which are rewarded with things like stickers or points when they are achieved.

Group points: based on a class-wide set of learning and behavioural goals, groups or tables collectively earn rewards competing against other groups or tables.

Class points: The entire class earns rewards together for meeting previously identified goals.

You can decide to use a combination of the three approaches as this ensures that all students, at some point, have a realistic opportunity of receiving a reward.

To sum up, classroom management is a fairly broad topic, and this article has discussed just some of the more important areas to consider when looking at ways to help your classes to run more smoothly and effectively. It is an area where all teachers, no matter their level of experience, can improve, and develop. Hopefully, this article has provided you with some useful tips and information which can be used as a springboard for further reading and discussion with colleagues.