Teach Abroad teaching tips

Some more teaching tips provided by Allen Williams.
Take note while reading this article because Allen has been teaching English overseas for a long time and is a real professional and very down to earth with easy to understand and apply methods and ideas that can be applied to your ESL classrooms right away.

Pair Work for the Language Classroom

Pair work is one of the standards of the language classroom. This helps the instructor and the students in a number of ways.

It allows the teacher time to visit the pairs and listen in or comment, make suggestions, give encouragement, or to say "Good job!" It also helps the instructor to better know the students, their abilities, and in what areas they may need more focus.

Students benefit by having one-to-one practice time. They also gain confidence by practicing in a non-threatening environment.

The keys to good pair work are that students need to have a variety of practice partners. There simply isn't enough time in a given class for the instructor to act as a practice partner for every student individually. Even in small groups this just isn't practical.

In order for students to benefit the most from their pair work, they need to understand what it is that they are doing. "Just what is 'pair work'?" "What is it doing for them?" And "What can they hope to gain from it?"

They need to do their practice conversations in as close to an approximated reality as possible. That is, they need to practice as if it were a real situation, using tones, gestures, pacing, and accents in as realistic a fashion as they can for whatever level they may be.

When doing activities that aren't necessarily conversation based, it's important to for students to understand their roles and responsibilities for the given task or tasks.

They also should understand that they are both teacher and pupil in a pair practice, and that no matter what level they or their partner are, or whether it is comparable or not, they each have something to offer the other. In most cases, even the lowest of beginners will know something that someone of a higher ability may not. That might be a certain expression, vocabulary, situation, or chunk of vocabulary.

I play guitar, and I've played for years. This doesn't really reflect how well I play. Frankly, I should or could be much better. The point is that in all of the years I've been playing guitar and playing guitar with others, I've always found that there will be one song, one chord, one little trick that I can learn, if I am willing, from others who are 'less experienced' than I am. The same is true for language study.

Another thing is that in order to truly understand something, or to better understand something, being able to share that knowledge or skill with another only makes your skill better. That is, teaching is learning. Sharing the duties, responsibilities, and experiences as partners will greatly increase the productivity, and help them to better appreciate each other, and the instructor and the exercises and goals that are before them.

Use pair practices and exercises for better time management, to help the group dynamic, and to better utilize your skills as an instructor to be both instructor and facilitator.

About the author:
Allen Williams is a professional educator, speaker, and writer. You can find out more of what he is up to by visiting:
http://www.tcobag.com kNow Thinking Aloud
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http://www.powermeup.com Personal and Professional Growth