Skip to main content

3 Tips For Livening Up Your Private Lessons (Part 1)

From the first lesson you give to the thousandth the same question is always: What can I bring to the lesson for it to be effective and engaging? Here are 3 simple tips to liven up your lessons.
1. Use Images!
Using images is a great way to reduce your talk time, change the dynamics,and to encourage creativity and fluency. Using photos and image can support learning for all levels of students.

Example activities
1. Descriptive Writing: Set a set time limit and get your student to freely write a story based on the image you have provided. Sure to get creative juices going!
2. Comparatives: Provide two photos of  people, places, or events and get student to verbally compare the content.
2. Get up!
A new teacher might be shy about doing this and a more experienced teacher reluctant to. Get your students to move around! It provides variety, gets the blood moving, and is energising!

Example activities
1. Role play: Act out an authentic interaction such as buying ticket, asking someone out, or ordering a coffee. If you're giving the lesson in a cafe, make the most of it and get the student to act out being a customer or waiter. 
2. Walking around. Putting aside some time to use English with your student while you are mobile will take the pressure off the learner, will change the dynamic of sitting at a table together, and is about as authentic as it gets for language use! You can offer to have a lesson in a park one day, and walk and talk, or finish the formal prat of the lesson early and walk with your students for the remainder.
3. Lose the Paper!

If paper is a teacher's best friend it is the soul-mate of the student. Teachers often use paper for good reasons such as clarifying grammar points, spelling words, and utilising worksheets. For students these pieces of paper and their notes can become a crutch which students rely on heavily to produce language, look to constantly, or bury their head in; when the real objective should be using English in a natural way.

Example activities
1. Speaking English! In the final 10 minutes of your lesson put the language to use. Ask your student to put everything away and to have a conversation, as best they can. It's not a time for correction but for encouragement, confidence-building, and praise.  
2.  20 Questions: You have an (imaginary) box. Your student needs to ask present simple questions to understand what's in it. Is it a person? No. Is it an object? Yes. Is it large?.. If it wasn't clear from the name of the game, your student has 20 questions to guess what's in your box. Swap roles. 

We hope you enjoyed these tips to freshen up your teaching. If you'd like to leave any comments, please feel free below. If you'd like to contact us directly, you can on: contact@learneng.eu

Read more: 'Keeping Your Private Students Happy'
'Being a Professional English Teacher'

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Using Technology with Your Private English Students: 5 Ideas!

How can technology help each of us be better English teachers for our private students? Here are 5 ideas!  1. Laptops for Lessons As teachers we are used to using paper and pens, and that's in part because as teaching and learning resources, they work. Obviously nowadays people are often more used to reading, writing, and learning via a screen. It's quite remarkable that with technology helping us in every other aspect of life, education is still off the pace. Laptops in particular lend themselves to in-person lessons, and they can useful for searching for interesting topics and vocabulary together, using online study resources, accessing videos and images, or creating documents together. 2. Set Watching Videos and Listening to Podcasts as Homework In the age of the flipped classroom , it is perfectly normal to set homework which is fun, stimulating, and engaging. If you spend some time looking for good quality podcasts, such as from the BBC , or potentially inter
Post a Comment
Read more

Best of The TEFL Blogs

For every path we walk down, someone else has trodden the same route. As teachers we rely on the wisdom of others to guide us and help us develop. In this vein there is an abundance of great blogs out there on teaching English. They range from the academic to the practical, they include lesson plans, tips, insights, cautionary tales, and pearls of wisdom. Here is our list of some of the best ELT blogs out there! Chia Suan Chong Chia is well-known on the conference circuit and she blogs about many different aspects of TEFL. Her blog posts are layered with theory and practical advice, as well a wonderfully personal touch! Scott Thornbury: An A-Z of ELT Scott is one of the most dominant authorities in contemporary English-language teaching and his blog charts the world of ELT through the vehicle of the alphabet. A is for accent among other things, and Z for ZPD.. Scott speaks with the the confidence he has earned from his position in the TEFL world. Great go-
Post a Comment
Read more

Creating Your Profile: Top 5 Tips

To make your profile stand out and represent you, we offer these 5 top tips: Write in the Language of Your Students  'Bubbly and articulate newly qualified English facilitator looking to take on board some new English-speaking wannabes, specifically interested in teaching starters and beginners! If you understand a word of this -- get in touch!' Writing in the language of the students is not essential and might not be possible for you. But, if you write in the language of your students, you will be able to attract lower-level students, and you will be able to create a connection with the student faster. Be Precise with Your Location 'Italy. Top half.'  Being more precise about where you can teach will enable students to know whether having lessons with you is feasible or not. You will get more appropriate inquiries. Don't give your full address (and it is not necessary to write or give out your phone number), simply give an indication o
Post a Comment
Read more