unique ways to teach English

As a teacher, you’re probably always looking out for new and interesting ways to inspire your learners. Once you’re equipped with a handful of options, you can tailor your teaching approach to help your students progress and aim for outstanding results

 Here, we provide  unique ways to teach English – more inspiration for creative lessons that target the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. These ideas should help to relieve any boredom, spike motivation and stimulate progress

 The art of English conversation

Why not set aside a specific time each week for a conversation club? It can be on whichever day and time suit you and your learners. The key is to give them the majority of control – or at least as much as possible – on the topic of conversation. Use props, pictures, music or whatever you may have on hand to start, stop and sustain the activities so your learners get used to speaking their new language.

 Using social media… for good

Every second, on average, about 6,000 tweets are tweeted on Twitter, and Facebook has more than one billion daily users. And there are plenty more options for today’s online socialiser, including Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Tumblr. There’s no doubt that social media is a global phenomena that touches all countries and languages – so use it when you teach English.

Use social media to bring the real world into your classroom. Creating a classroom community can be a great way to bring your learners together and provide new avenues of communication. The language used on sites like Twitter and Facebook can also be used as examples of English slang words or acronyms. Introducing your students to “GTG” (“got to go”) and “BTW” (“by the way”) is an amusing way to create a relaxed atmosphere and encourage input from students on what they’ve been noticing – or been puzzled by – in interactions with English-speaking friends and family.

 Encouraging performance

Group work and role-play have long been used as tactics to teach Engish, but how about stepping it up a level? This suggestion may be for the braver teachers out there, but it could really engage your learners.

Teacher Jason Levine, otherwise known as Fluency MC, is an English teacher based in New York. He uses rap songs to teach learners collocations and vocabulary and provides PDFs of the lyrics to help students absorb his teachings. He’s getting some good results, and covering all the four skills areas, so how about trying a similar approach with your learners? And in case you aren’t the type of teacher who raps, Fluency MC has created several videos that you can use with your learners.

 Teaching English in virtual worlds

Language learners of all ages are immersing themselves in virtual worlds to learn English. You can encourage your students to create an avatar that travels through a virtual world such as Second Life, and they can interact with others and objects. Much of the communication is text-based, although it is also possible to speak with other Avatars.

 Get to know a celebrity

The tactic of using biographies is particularly useful when teaching learners about the use of verbs when speaking English. Find out which celebrities or sports stars your students admire, then use a short biography or write one yourself summarising their life or main achievements. Read the bio with your students and make sure they understand the differences between past and present: “He starred in his first hit film in 1985, but now he prefers theatre acting as a career.”