How to be an
efficient teacher
1. Learn your students' names.
This cannot be overemphasized. You will be able to
control your class better and gain more respect if you learn the students'
names early on. If you are one who has a poor memory for names, have all the
students hold up name cards and take a picture of them on the first day of
class. On the second class, impress them by showing them you know all their
names.
2. Establish authority from the beginning.
Expect your students to use English 100% of the
time, and accept it if they only achieve 95% usage. Do not let them get away
with speaking their mother tongue to communicate with their partner. Deal
quickly with inappropriate conduct in a friendly yet firm manner.
3. Be overly prepared.
If you don't have a clear lesson-plan down on
paper, then make sure you have a mental one. You should know about how long
each activity will take and have an additional activity prepared in case you
have extra time.
4. Always consider the learners' needs when
preparing for each lesson.
Why are your students studying English? How will
they use English in the future? What do they need to learn? If many of the
students are going to study abroad at an American university, for example, then
the teacher should be preparing them for listening to academic lectures and
academic reading to some extent. If, on the other hand, most of the students
have no perceived need for English in the future, perhaps you should be
focusing on useful skills that they may use in the future, but may not be
essential--skills such as understanding movie dialog, listening to music,
writing a letter to a pen pal, etc.
5. Be prepared to make changes to or scrap
your lesson plan.
If the lesson you have prepared just isn't
working, don't be afraid to scrap it or modify it. Be sensitive to the
students--don' t forge ahead with something that is bound for disaster.
6. Find out what learners already know.
This is an ongoing process. Students may have
already been taught a particular grammar point or vocabulary. In Japan
7. Be knowledgeable about grammar.
This includes pronunciation, syntax, and
sociolinguistic areas. You don't have to be a linguist to teach EFL--most of
what you need to know can be learned from reading the students' textbooks.
Often the rules and explanations about structure in the students' texts are
much more accessible and realistic than in texts used in TESL syntax courses.
8. Be knowledgeable about the learners'
culture.
In monolingual classrooms the learners' culture
can be a valuable tool for teaching.
9. Don't assume that your class textbook has
the language that your students need or want to learn.
Most textbooks follow the same tired, boring
pattern and include the same major functions, grammar and vocabulary. The main
reason for this is not scientific at all--it is the publisher's unwillingness
to take a risk by publishing something new. Also, by trying to please all
teachers publishers force authors to water down their materials to the extent
of being unnatural at times. It is the teacher's responsibility to add any
extra necessary vocabulary, functions, grammar, or topics that you feel the
students may want or need.
10. Don't assume (falsely) that the class
textbook will work.
Some activities in EFL textbooks fall apart
completely in real classroom usage. It is hard to believe that some of them
have actually been piloted. Many activities must be modified to make them work,
and some have to be scrapped completely.
11. Choose your class textbooks very
carefully.
Most teachers and students are dissatisfied with
textbooks currently available. Nevertheless, it is essential that you choose a
textbook that is truly communicative and meets the needs of your students.
12. Don't neglect useful vocabulary teaching.
The building blocks of language are not grammar
and functions. The most essential thing students need to learn is vocabulary;
without vocabulary you have no words to form syntax, no words to pronounce.
Help your students to become vocabulary hungry.
13. Proceed from more controlled activities
to less controlled ones.
Not always, but in general, present and practice
more structured activities before freer, more open ones.
14. Don't neglect the teaching of listening.
It is the opinion of many ESL experts that
listening is the most important skill to teach your students. While listening
to each other and to the teacher will improve their overall listening ability,
this can be no substitute for listening to authentic English. As much as
possible, try to expose your students to authentic English in a variety of
situations. The best way to do this and the most realistic is through videos.
Listening to audio cassettes in the classroom can improve listening ability,
but videos are much more motivating and culturally loaded.
15. Turn regular activities into games or
competition.
Many familiar teaching points can be turned into
games, or activities with a competitive angle. A sure way to motivate students
and liven up your classroom.
16. Motivate your students with variety.
By giving a variety of interesting topics and
activities, students will be more motivated and interested, and they are likely
to practice more. With more on-task time they will improve more rapidly.
17. Don't teach linguistics.
Language and culture are inseparable. If culture
isn't a part of your lessons, then you aren't really teaching language, you are
teaching about language.
18. Don't teach phonetics.
By all means teach the more important aspects of
pronunciation, but don't bombard the students with minimal pair drills that
cannot be applied to real communication. They don't really understand the
meaning of any of those minimal pairs you teach anyway, do they? A more
rational approach would be to teach pronunciation in context, as necessary. For
example, if you are teaching a section on health, teach syllable stress with
sickness words: fever, headache, backache, earache, constipation, etc.
19. Don't leave the learners in the dark.
Explain exactly what they are expected to learn in
a particular lesson. Make sure that students know what they are doing and why.
The lessons should be transparent to the students, with a clear organization.
20. Be enthusiastic! Don't do it just
for the money.
You don't have to be an actor or clown, but
students appreciate it when the teacher shows genuine interest in teaching.
Teachers who are jaded with EFL would do best to hide it, or consider moving on
to another profession.
21. Show interest in the students as
individuals.
Treat students as individuals, not subjects. Don't
patronize or talk down to them; talk to them as you would any other person.
Only in this way will true communication take place.
22. Allow opportunities to communicate
directly with students.
Students want, more than anything, to talk with
the teacher. Don't overdo pair and group work to the point that they haven't
had a chance to interact with you, too.
23. Allow time for free communication.
For speaking this would mean allowing time for
free conversation, for writing doing freewriting, for reading allowing time for
extensive pleasure reading, and for listening, listening for entertainment
sake.
24. Use humor to liven up the class.
Make it a habit to get the students to laugh at
least once per lesson.
25. Show an interest in the students' native
language.
This is especially important in the monolingual
classroom. Ignoring their L1 causes some students to think (erroneously) that
you don't respect them. If possible, use the L1 periodically as part of the
lesson. If nothing else, it will show the students respect, and may loosen them
up.
26. Don't have pets.
This is extremely hard to avoid, especially when a
student is more outgoing or interesting than others. Nevertheless, try to call
on and attend to students as equally as you can.
27. Circulate.
Move about the classroom. At times sit with groups
and monitor, as well as joining in on the communication. At times walk about,
listen and observe.
28. Make your instructions short and clear.
Demonstrate rather than explaining whenever
possible.
29. Speak up, but don't break anyone's
eardrum.
If the students can't hear you, you are wasting
your breath. Not as bad, but still annoying is the teacher who thinks s/he must
speak louder to be comprehended. Research has already proven this to be false.
30. Don't talk too much.
Depending on the subject, you should be talking
from about 5% to 30% of the lesson. For speaking or writing, more than 10-15%
would probably be too much. Most lessons should be student-centered, not
teacher-centered.
31. Don't talk too slow.
How do you expect your students to understand real
English if you don't speak at a fairly natural speed? Oversimplified and
affected speech will hurt your students in the long run. Shoot for moderate
complexity and more repetition if needed.
32. Be sensitive to your students.
Watch their faces and reactions. Do they
understand you? Are they interested or bored? Try to be aware of what is going
on in your classroom at all times. If you are starting class and one student is
still talking, try to gently get him/her to stop. If you are sitting with a
pair of students on one side of the room, try to be attentive to what is
happening in other groups as well. There may be a group across the room that is
confused and doesn't know what to do.
33. Don't be a psychiatrist.
Shy, introverted students are not going to change
their personalities overnight in order to learn English. Give these students
opportunities to talk in small groups, but don't expect them to shout out
answers in front of the whole class.
34. Respect both "slow" and
"fast" learners.
Language learning is not about intelligence; the
important thing to stress is that the students are improving.
35. Don't lose your cool.
If you do, you will lose hard-won respect. Even if
you have to go so far as to leave the classroom, do it in a controlled manner,
explaining to the class or student why you are unhappy with them.
36. Be frank.
Praise your students when they are getting better
and encourage them when they are not doing as well as they can.
37. Be a coach.
At times you must be more of a coach than a
teacher. Push the students to write those few extra lines, to get into their
groups faster, to extend their conversations.
38. Be fair and realistic in testing.
Teach first and then test; don't test things that
haven't been taught. Also, remember that the main purpose of language is
communication. This means that when marking a dictation portion of a listening
test, for example, a "What [ ] your name?" response should get nearly
full points because the listener has demonstrated full comprehension.
39. Don't overcorrect.
For example, when correcting a narrative
composition at low-intermediate level, it doesn't make much sense to correct
mistakes with relative clauses. Likewise, if your class is practicing simple
past tense, don't correct article usage at the same time. If you think a
student can correct their own mistake, don't supply the correction for them,
rather allow for some self-monitoring.
40. Be reflective.
Think about your own teaching. After each lesson
is over take some time to reflect. Was the lesson effective? What were the good
and bad points? How could it be improved?
41. Keep in shape.
EFL teachers don't have to become jaded with
teaching. Get into it. Look at new coursebooks and teacher training books to
get new ideas. Share your ideas with colleagues. Go to conferences.
42. Laugh at yourself sometimes.
There are those times when nothing goes right
despite our best intentions. We must be humble enough to admit to ourselves and
to our students that we just messed up.
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