Our 12 Great Challenges

I had the opportunity to attend a workshop led by the writer Paul Seligson during the BrazTesol convention and it was just great. The writer, who has worked in Brazil for 2 years and has vast experience in observing and helping English teachers in the country, reported that there are 12 top points we need to work on in order to improve our performance in the classroom. Those are:

1) Checking concepts, questions and  instruction;

2) Lower teacher profile, all involved, pair work not private lessons and group management;

Paul has noticed that is hard for Brazilian teachers not to focus the class on the talkative student who usually talks over the whole class and leaves no room for the colleagues' contributions. The author recommends interrupting eye contact with this learner whenever he turns into a chatterbox so that they will stop speaking and other participants who are less extrovert will be able to participate in class as well. That can seem impolite in our context, so be careful.

3) TTT; self-control, really listen/ not talk over students;

4) Clarifying meaning and form;

And using body language. We don't use it enough and I have tried, it really helps.

5) Timing, pace and less rush;

We should organize our class in a way that it has a clear beginning, middle and end. We usually run out of time and the bell rings in the middle of a task that will never be wrapped up.

6) Correction, variety;

We overcorrect our students, we interrupt them whenever they make a mistake (many times, also out of the classroom). Does it really change anything? Or it just makes our students embarrassed?

7) Drilling, from written word, knowing when to, range

It's not about having a whole class based on it, but use it appropriately.

8) Phonology, more pronunciation;

We need more serious work on pronunciation. Reading outloud? Sometimes, but not all the time.

9) Echo

T: what's your name?

S: João.

T: João! How are you?

S: I'm fine.

T: You're fine...

And so it goes. Let's stop echoing our students and treat the conversation as a real one.

10) Monitoring, listen to students, unobtrusive;

11) Eliciting, context setting, range, patience;

12) Info gap, low level of challenge, spoon feeding;

We overpraise and underchallenge our students because we're afraid of hurting their feelings. But we can challenge them and be realistic in assessing their outcomes without being too hard. Let's say something has been done well when it's for real, not just a habit. Our learners know when they've done something worth being praised, let's not overestimate their work and underestimate their good sense.

Paul Seligson has published many books and he has also coauthored the much loved English File.

English File has a great website with links for all levels Beginner, Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Intermediate plus, Upper-Intermediate and Advanced, with great grammar and vocabulary exercises, games and more.