Which Lesson Stage Matches Your Teaching Persona? Watch and find out!

[@MohammadAhmadShaibah]

First It worth preparing a lesson that you wanna teach very well which makes me feel confident and it will all be easier. In my class I often try to give simple,direct, and clear instructions, using as simple language I could to get my massage across (demonstraions rather than explanations associated with gestures and facial expressions) Inever speak a lot instead I let the learners speaking more. l also manage to exploit my limited valuable time of the class on meaningful kind of language rather than wasting the whole class time for example on explaining, dissecting and analyzing grammar rules. This pattern is repeated every day in most English classes in my country ( Teaching grammar communicatively is the key)

[@elenadob7715]

You hit the nail on the head. I'm a combination of an explainer + warmer-upper. I caught myself overexplaining grammar & voc. However, as boring & unnecessary as it sounds, my rowdy teenagers listen & try to answer questions & continue my sentences when I pause. My CELTA tutor & collegues say that I have a rapport with my students. I don't know how it happans, I am just being myself. I understand the importance of group work. I still try to get them work in groups & pairs. Once I set a task & give instructions, they lapse into L1 (They are all Chinese). Students say it's "unnatural" for them to speak English to each other, but it's "natural" to speak English to me. They enjoy minglies & TPAs though. My question is: Shoud I persist implementing group activities? Should I stop being an expaliner when it's not just me talking? I usually introduce a structure or a word or expression. I stand in the middle of the class & students come up with their examples. It works pretty well; they get excited when I ask them to make examples personal. They describe each other & themselves, their classmates giggle & attempt to come up with some ridiculous examples about the one who used them as an example. I love your approach, & I'd love to have you as my DELTA tutor. I took CELTA in August, & I'm planning on taking DELTA in 2 years. I'd like to know where you're teaching, so that I could apply to that center. Thanks.

[@elttraining]

Hi Elena- rapport with a class is so important- everything starts from there, I think. As to should you persist with pairs and groups, I'd say 'definitely'! It WILL be unnatural for them to speak in L2 together if they share an L1, but the only way to make this more natural is to do it more! Getting examples from the class is useful, especially when you're setting things up, but it really limits the amount of interaction any one learner has, so persevere with the pairs/ groups. I'm so pleased you like what I do - I'm afraid I don't teach on Delta courses, but if you want some recommendations for good Delta tutors for Modules 1 and 3, try Sandy Millin, Daryna Luvhovska or Julie Lehner. Good luck with it all!

[@TeacherNa3im]

Great insight Jo. It kept me scraching my head all morning but couldn't place myself in one of these categories for more than 10mns. Is it normal to fit in all of them? (except perhaps for the over explainer)

[@elttraining]

Hi - absolutely possible to fit into all categories - a lot will depend on the class. age, level etc, I think. For me, the important thing is to be aware of your practice- what you do well and maybe what you could change :)

[@TeacherNa3im]

@elttraining in my case it depends on the learners needs. WE can't thank you enough Jo.

[@LadyCell]

Thanks alot for the videos❤ I think I'm an explainer.

[@elttraining]

I think that's a common one - have you ever tried recording yourself to see if you could make your explanations more concise to give more time for practice?

[@LadyCell]

@elttraining Thank you so much for taking time to reply, I will try this method ❤️

[@marijagrinevica8809]

I am fond of free practice and occasionally overdo with explanations and checking - I tend to overextend the time allocated for HW check which I wish I knew how to diminish!

[@elttraining]

Hi Marija- great that you're aware of what you want to change. Have you thought about giving learners more explicit instructions for the homework in writing so you don't have to spend so much time explaining? or you could make a short video to explain and share the link in a place all of the class have access to? What do you think?

[@alext3760]

I'm the Explainer. I always feel tempted to dig deeper into any topics at hand. It's obvious that I can't keep up with the prepared lesson plan, isn't it?. I think I should control this temptation a bit more and make sure that I follow my lesson plan more rigidly. But here's the question: There are eager students who usually interrupt teachers to ask questions out of curiosity, not disrespect. How to deal with them effectively so that teachers are able to accomplish their lesson on time? I'd love to hear your thought on this. Thank you. :x

[@elttraining]

I think that if your learners are engaged and curious, that's great. I guess the question is - are they ALL engaged and curious, or are one or two keeping you talking? I don't think you need to rigidly follow your lesson plan at all (Scrivener says 'teach the learners, not the plan') but you need to ensure THEY get practice speaking (IMHO)....

[@maymyintzu7848]

OMG! I'm a mixed one. In other words, I'm not sure about what kind of teacher I'm.

[@elttraining]

Hi May- it's OK to be a mix! The main issue is to be aware of the parts you do well and maybe what you could work on :)

[@maymyintzu7848]

@elttraining Thanks you so much for your precious suggestion, Tr. I'm really looking forward to watching your videos every week.