Teach English in Nanyang Zhen - Yichng Shi

Teaching techniques are a crucial aspect within the classroom and encompass all the different ways to take important information that a learner requires in understanding a specific topic and projecting it across a classroom/skype in a way that all the learners will listen, comprehend and apply. Teaching techniques come in many different forms. They can be in the form of simplistic games or in the form of choral repetition. Different teaching techniques target different and specific areas of the subject and in the case of a TEFL teacher, the teaching techniques target different areas of the English language from grammar to fluency and are interpreted differently dependant on the individual students, age of students, level of capability of students and their motivation to learn. In this text, I will explain some of the crucial teaching techniques teachers use and how they are appropriately used. The first and most common teaching technique that is present in almost every language class across the globe is choral repetition. Choral repetition is the process of the teacher saying specific vocabulary, phrases or sentences that the learners must repeat in sync directly after the teacher. Choral repetition is important because it is the most basic way of developing students’ pronunciation of English words. It gives learners a chance to listen to the teacher’s way of saying certain words, phrases or sentences correctly and imitating how it is said. Choral repetition works for individual students, students of all ages and language ability and large classes. It may also greatly help with class involvement and therefore is extremely effective and largely used across the globe. Another common teaching technique used by most teachers across the world and of different ages of students is the incorporation of games to project information across to the class. Games are extremely versatile and greatly stimulating which makes them so popular in the classroom, but it is important to take note that over-using games can be distracting and take away the real point of a lesson and thus must be used in moderation. A couple of examples of effective games are; word searches, Hangman and “pass the ball” activities. Games can be used to build rapport with teachers which helps with the willingness of students to learn and thus greatly impacts your teaching. Games can be used to help uplift the stale environment within a classroom and help bring some suspense and stimulation to the classroom which often helps young learners with short attention spans. Games are not only for fun but greatly help introduce new vocabulary, increase class involvement and even increase a learner’s fluency. The setup of a classroom can often be overlooked by novice teachers but the way a teacher organizes the desks and orientation of the class, as well as the configuration of students, will greatly impact the environment in which you teach and how much information is absorbed and this is why I am involving Classroom organization as a teaching technique. There are different setups of desks such as the Horseshoe, Orderly rows and Separate tables, all used in different circumstances. The Orderly rows are often used when a teacher has a large group of learners that he/she needs to maintain discipline and good eye-contact with. The Horseshoe setup is used to increase class discussions and class intimacy which is often used when a class needs to be more vocal and the teacher wants more conversational English flowing around the class. Many teachers overlook the efficiency of peer to peer learning and how it often greatly affects the absorption of information. The Separate tables technique is used to separate learners and decrease classroom discussion and rather increase the conversation between the teacher and the learner. It is important to note that although you may change the orientation of the desks, the way learners are seated also greatly affects your classroom environment. A common approach is to seat students with stronger capabilities with students with weaker capabilities. This often helps build student to student rapport and increases your peer to peer learning which often helps with the absorption of information. In Conclusion, there is an extremely large list of teaching techniques, but I have only covered three. These three are among the most common teaching techniques used in almost every classroom across the world, using minimal resources and time. Each technique appeals to learners differently as all learners are different. This is important to note as what may work for a couple students or even one class may not work for everyone else and so it is important that teachers have a sense of creativity and adaptability to be able to identify when and where to use these techniques to maximize overall student absorption and learning.