Set your learners firmly on the path to increasing proficiency by finding ways to tailor your teaching style to the students’ level of understanding and comprehension. Teaching ESL to beginners can be very challenging because they typically know next to no English. Nevertheless, the task only becomes difficult for a teacher you have no idea how to deal with beginner students. With that, take these tips as the backbone of your teaching style approach.
Maintain the Clarity of Instructions
In online ESL teaching, you will encounter both young and old beginners. With this, explain the lesson and activities in your politest and simplest language. You can keep your instructions clear and simple to understand by using only a few words at a time. You can also supplement this by articulating with hand gestures to further emphasize your point. For instance, instead of telling a beginner student to “repeat after what I say”, you can simplify the instruction by saying “repeat after me”.
Repeat the Drill
Understand that beginners require plenty of repetition. As an online ESL teacher, it is your duty to never get tired of going over the same sentences again and again. One way to do this is to follow a systematic process that begins with back-drilling, breaking the sentence down into individual units, and then building it back up. You will know when the beginner student already understands a word when he or she is already able to pronounce it without difficulty.
Always Check For Understanding
When teaching a beginner student, one common mistake teachers make is assuming the lessons taught were already understood. Chinese students learning to speak English may not be accustomed to the Western way of schooling wherein they raise their hands when a topic is confusing or unclear to them. Instead, they will just nod their heads to affirm you. With this, you will have to go out of your way and try to decipher the body language of the student.
The best way to know if the student understood the lesson is to recap and allow him or her to retell you the words, phrases, or sentences you taught them. With this, you will know whether they understood or not. In the process, you will also find ways to change your approach and teaching style. Finding ways to tailor your teaching style to how a student learns is giving them the best ESL experience. Sooner or later, these students will be booking the same class schedule with you.
Have Visual Cues
Instead of just using the phrases, words, and sentences included for the day’s lesson or chapter, incorporate visual cues for a better learning experience. The best visual cues that you can use as an aid for the topic are actual objects. Since you share screens with students and they are already able to see the slide you are teaching them, having other relevant objects around as supplementary should increase and speed up the learning process.
For instance, if you are teaching an adult beginner about utensils and what they are used for, preparing an actual table setup can do wonders for comprehension. Showing such effort and exceeding the expectations of students will result in more bookings. Later on, you will realize that you are teaching the same students because of your efficiency in teaching and how fun you make learning for them.
Always Use Positive Reinforcement
Being an ESL teacher will require you to stretch your patience a mile long, especially for beginner students. Expect to meet all kinds of students, from the shy and timid ones to those who just won’t listen to you. With this, you will have to find ways to adapt to their learning style because it is your duty as an ESL teacher to give them the best learning experience.
Try immersive activities and if need be, begin the class in a different way. A game, drawing session, or deciphering riddles in their language is a great way to keep them interested in the class. Finally, never show the student any negative expression. Take note, quality assurance personnel is watching your class as you conduct it. The last thing you want is to receive a warning letter for showing negative reinforcement on the student.
Establish Classroom Language
As a teacher, you must always put yourself in the position of your student. What if you were a student learning a new language? The experience can be extremely daunting, especially if the teacher is reinforcing authority on the student. Take note, online teaching is very different from traditional schooling. Here is an example outline for classroom language that you may use for young and adult beginners.
- Beginning of the class
- Good morning! How are you today?
- Good morning! How are things with you?
- Starting the lesson
- Let us begin our lesson now.
- Are you ready to start the lesson?
- Now, let us get down to work.
- End of the class
- Thank you for listening.
- See you again in the next class.
When establishing classroom language, you must avoid using metalanguage or a form of language that uses past simple, irregular verbs, or adverbs of frequency as this can confuse them. For beginner students, use simple English words that are easy to understand and remember.
Key Takeaway
Unlike ESL students at higher levels, beginners do not have the linguistic resources and skills to converse with even the simplest exchange of words in English. Teaching ESL to beginners is like teaching a toddler how to speak for the very first time. With that, make sure to take the lessons as slowly as possible. Incorporate classroom languages and make the activities interesting to maintain the student’s attention.