Teaching Beginners - 30 Teaching Techniques

On 15th April we had our first VES “How To Teach Beginners” Training Session. We covered -

Key Principles - big ideas to bear in mind when preparing and teaching for VES

Cool Tools - ideas for topics / vocabulary to teach beginners, even with no resources

Teaching Techniques - different methods you can use to teach.

Teaching techniques are different methods you can use to teach. Each teacher will gravitate towards 3 or 4, but it’s good to use a variety through a class, and through classes, in order to keep things fresh. Our principle is “teach one word a hundred ways, rather than teaching a hundred words in one way”. Here are different techniques you can use:

#1 Modelling e.g teacher demonstrates how a word is pronounced, or a phrase is read.

#2 Use an assistant as a model student e.g. ask your assistant the question first.

#3 Round the circle (and back again) e.g. ask each student the same question in turn.

#4 Correcting (to an appropriate level) e.g. correct a student’s pronunciation

#5 Revising e.g. ask questions that were covered earlier in the lesson.

#6 Get the students to write it down e.g. tell them to copy what is on the board.

#7 Chorus - ‘all together now’ e.g. the whole class counts to 10 together.

#8 Progress until gaps - e.g. keep counting upwards until the students don’t know how to say the number, like 13 and then teach from there.

#9 “What am I pointing at?” e.g. point at the number 8 written on the board, ‘what am I pointing at?’

#10 Dictation i.e. listen and write. e.g. say a number or spell a word on the board whilst it’s reversed, and the students try to write it down before you reveal it to them.

#11 Practise in pairs

#12 Elicit for next step e.g. begin to elicit and record names of the months when teaching date of birth with numbers.

#13 Gap fills e.g. “I wake up at _______” “I ______ rice.”

#14 Round the circle progression e.g. one student says ‘Monday’, the next student should say ‘Tuesday’ and so on.

#15 Show something on your mobile e.g. what time is it.

#16 Act it out e.g. cup ear for ‘listen’

#17 Get student to write on board e.g. ‘how do you spell your name?’

#18 Write basic sentences on the board.

#19 Basic gap fills.

#20 Short basic writing activities e.g. “I wake up at 8am.”

#21 Teach words with flash cards.

#22 Flash cards mix and match all together

#23 Flashcards mix and match in two teams

#24 Teach content from worksheet

#25 Get student to read from worksheet

#26 Work through worksheet exercise on the board.

#27 Work through worksheet exercise in pairs

#28 Work through worksheet individually

#29 Check through worksheet answers.

#30 Brainstorm e.g. vehicles, what different vehicles are there?