Learning to Teach Better

Business Result series offer interactive online resources where you can work with texts. One of the activities is called a TEXT BUILDER, wher you can read the text, take some of the words out and write the missing words in again.

Session 4 was full of useful tips , I’d like to share my views and experience on reading aloud and guessing meaning from context as these two points resonated powerfully with me, my colleagues and other teachers in the community. READING ALOUD I have been dealing with reading aloud a lot in my teaching. On one hand a lot of students asked for reading aloud because they feel, as Penny mentioned in her talk, it’s part of their learning culture, they are used to it and like it. On the other hand, I clearly saw that reading aloud focuses on decoding and production rather than comprehension. I decided to accept the request from the students to read aloud in some situations showing understanding of their needs and preferences. I do believe that sometimes students are right and the teacher should follow their requirements to be student centered. However, I do explain a lot what is happening when they focus on reading and not comprehension. I show the logic behind reading for gist and detail,...

With my one-to-one classes I design a so-called ‚self-error correction plan‘, where we work on getting rid of fossilised mistakes and bad habits step by step. Together with my student we define the mistakes that are the weakest points and difficult to get rid of and we create a chart on the wall/flipchart in their office/ word document in their laptops. The chart includes typical wrong sentences and expressions on the left with examples and collocations of correct usage on the right. We try to focus on a particular mistake for a certain period, one month or two and we keep coming back to the mistake if they appear. The principle is to focus on one type of a mistake and keep drilling. Then we move on to another one, etc. It’s a long-term project but seems to be working. The fact that students see wrong and right options on the wall ideally fosters the learning process. The students appreciate the feeling that they have a good chance to manage their mistakes, the sense of achievement is...

The session on error correction and use of L1 was so spot-on, full of good points and smart tips. I did find the survey findings on students‘ views on error correction interesting, they showed the effective ways to approach students. I feel that teachers’ judgement and intuition proved right when reflecting students‘ preferences. I’d like to share a few ideas and raise some questions as well. ERROR CORRECTION I absolutely agree that as teachers we have to bear in mind that error correction is not a one-off thing, it works partially and gradually. So patience and techniques are our tools. To deal with a range of learner types you need to try different techniques and see which works most. Combining tips suggested in our session works. Error correction developed as a habit or routine in class creates the atmosphere of security and support. Once students know when, why and how they are corrected, they tend to cooperate and are more open to deal with their weak points. It's such a sensi...

DICE One activity I found extremely effective is using dice for drilling particular target language or useful phrases, it’s in In Company Intermediate course book for training the language of meetings (checking understanding). I modify this game for any language I intend to drill and it’s great fun both for group and individuals. You actually make the students say the key phrases over and over again. The principle is to identify 6 key phrases and allocate one number to each phrase. Then students throw the dice and have to say the phrase (which is gap-filled on board). Of course, you could use 2 dice and 12 phrases if there’s more language to drill.

Hi everyone, session 2 was great. Penny, your input is inspiring and spot-on. Sorry I couldn’t participate and enjoy it life but going through the slides makes me think and evaluate how to approach my students again and again. I’d like to share the following ideas regarding the points made about speaking: 1. The problems Shyness,being introverted, inability to express themselves, fears of losing face and making mistakes are extremely sensitive issues to handle. My business students find it difficult to be challenged with tasks where their background work knowledge , skills and experience are vast but they are thrown off balance by realising that they lack foreign language needed to express themselves properly. 2. Level appropriate I explain to my students when they can tell the level is appropriate for them, I show them that some expressions are familiar to them, some of them can be guessed and some of them are totally new for them. This usually puts them in a more comfortable positio...

The first session was really interesting, suggested points made me think about how I approach my students and how they benefit from activities during the lesson.I have been teaching for many years and being reminded about the basic principles is always helpful. I work with adults and most of my courses are individual so I spent the week after the presentation thinking and evaluating how much my students learn and what added value they take from every lesson. Listening is usually quite challenging for many students, they struggle in many ways. What seems to be working with business adults is clear communication of goals of every activity. I explain the purpose, tell them about gist and detail listening tasks and they respond to justification well. Students feel they know what the expectations are form them as they are used to performance indicators at work. The theory behind communicated briefly makes their teacher a respected authority and students actually find how things are done fro...

Hi everyone, this is Katarina Brezani from Bratislava, Slovakia. I've been teaching for more than 20 years, I am a Language coach, Business English teacher and an Academic Director at ProStaff . I run and design tailor-made courses for corporate and individual adult students focusing on employability & life skills development in combination with ESP. I'm excited to be a part of this fascinating training with Penny Ur. I see the course as a great opportunity to hear from one of the world's leading authorities on teaching sharing her wide experience and providing useful teaching tips. I'm particularly interested in student-centered approach, error correction, teaching one-to-one lessons and teaching techniques to adult students.