Category: Education

English is the universal language that we use to converse with everyone else. Non-native English speakers put immense value on learning it because they believe it’s necessary to be competent, particularly globally. They do so that they even seek help from other races who speak the language proficiently to learn.

Teaching English or any language is already a demanding job, but teaching it to people that didn’t speak it as their first language is a different animal. Depending on the demographic, non-native speakers have varying objectives as to why they want to learn English. As aforementioned, it’s about competence for professionals.

Teaching the universal language as a career is now a more viable option than ever because of globalization’s demand. Finding an online teaching job is becoming easier.  Being an educator, you’d want your students to learn it properly from you so they can speak and write it with confidence. This article discusses how you can adequately teach English to non-native speakers so you can help them succeed.

Work to get certified

Certification makes you more credible as an English as a second language (ESL) teacher. ESL teachers usually work with all levels of English learners, with most of them being non-native speakers. It’s your job to help these non-native speakers improve their English reading, comprehension, and speaking skills, so receiving proper and specific training helps in doing that well.

Having such a credential will prepare you for anything and everything. It’ll also enhance your chances of securing teaching jobs for private companies or community programs.

You need at least a college degree to be a certified ESL teacher, while a master’s degree is preferred for teaching adult learners. A well-known ESL certification is the Teaching English Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), which is recognized internationally.

Use clear and simple instructions

Instructions are vital in teaching any subject but more so when it’s language. The words that you’re using should be comprehensible. Keep in mind that your students only know a few to zero English words.

Start by using simple words and shorter sentences. You can say: “Please, get your books,” or any material you need them to have. Depending on the setup, you have to accompany your words with gestures.

If you’re teaching English online, then you’ll have to move more. Use more gestures so your students can easily understand what you’re telling them to do. Other than your movements, you can also use visual aids, like a Powerpoint presentation or cue cards.

Using long sentences will confuse your students regardless of their age. Always have them see and hear your instructions so they can absorb and process them easier. Also, don’t progress to more complex words and sentences until you’re sure they’ve learned the basics well enough.

Have your students speak a lot

The next step after having your students listen is to use what they’ve learned. Always use oral communication during all your lectures. It’s the most effective way for you to assess their skills, aside from writing.

Establish a culture of oral participation in your class. Make sure that your class is a safe space for them to speak English without any judgment. Encourage them and constantly remind them that it’s okay to make mistakes.

You can start with group work if you have enough people in the class. If you’re teaching individually, do pair activities with your student to make them feel comfortable and empowered.

Put more context when discussing terminologies

Talking about figures of speech, subject-verb agreement, or verb tenses is a bit advanced for non-native speakers. But, it’s essential that your students understand them if they want to be good enough English speakers. The key is to put more context to these terms during discussions.

Don’t just tell them; show it to them as well for them to understand your lesson with more context. The best approach is to have exercises to know if they understood it or not.

Incorporate innovative ways that make learning fun, such as the use of subtitles in movies and YouTube videos.  This also helps give context in multiple scenarios.

Avoid long lectures

Dragging lessons will not make your students better. You have to know when you’ve been talking or showing them too much. Allow them to process and absorb an ample amount of information.

Shorter lectures, combined with plenty of interaction and visual aids, are better for non-native speakers. That way, you can easily see if they’re picking up your lesson. You must know or at least have an idea of their learning pace during lectures, so you can address anyone who’s having difficulties.

Final thoughts

Put in enough effort and patience to teach your non-native English speakers students to learn the language. It’s a challenge that will be gratifying and rewarding once you’ve overcome it. Let them learn through engaging and meaningful lectures, activities, and tests, and see them develop as your time with them progresses.

Author’s Bio:
Angelo Castelda is a freelance writer from Asia. Besides writing, he also spends his time traveling and learning about diverse cultures, which opened his heart more to learning and imparting knowledge about ESL.

For children that already know English, check our the 5 reasons to sign your kids up for online Spanish classes.

It can be challenging to create the ideal workstation for your students. Even the most ergonomically designed settings have plenty of distractions. Today, technology is among the biggest offenders. In some cases, it’s technology that stalls students from beginning their work.

In other cases, it’s technology that diverts the students’ attention away from their work once after they’ve finally obtained focus. Video games, push notifications, you name it. These are all technological features that are distracting to educational modes. However, lowered student performance is not the only result that can stem from an intrusive work environment. 

Distractions can lead students to stress and anxiety, condition them into a mindset that deprioritizes education, and even influence them to lose interest in their studies. Still, our society is heavily reliant on technology, so ridding screens from educational settings isn’t the best solution. 

Perhaps learning the long-lost art of concentration can assist in remediation, as well as taking some time to understand how the role of sleep contributes to productivity. Mind wandering is so natural that we often don’t even realize we’re drifting focus. 

Does a child’s IQ have anything to do with their ability to stay attentive and focused?  Learn what an IQ test can teach parents and teachers about kids by measuring reasoning, memory and a brain’s processing speed.

A study by Microsoft Canada found that our average attention span is 1 second less than that of a goldfish! 8 seconds! Furthermore, The Journal of Neuroscience found that continued lack of sleep could destroy our brain cells. For example, when mice are deprived of sleep, neurons in their brains begin to die. 

Although distractions are impossible to completely vanish, simple steps can point your students in the direction of success. Take a look at the infographic below for a complete reference guide on how to help students focus better.

In educational institutes, a parents-teachers meeting (PTM) is essential to inform the parents about their child’s growth in school. Often, the arrangement does not take place with effective measures leaving miscommunication, partial communication, or no communication.

As well, in the current scenario, both parents are mostly working; hence, they do not make it up for the PTM sometimes.

If you are looking for tips and tricks for improving the parent-teacher school meeting, you have landed at the right spot. Here, we are listing the top tips that will enhance the overall PTM experience.

#1. Use school management system

While you want to strengthen parent-teacher communication in the meetings, you should use a school management system. The system offers a quick and easy communication facility where teachers can send direct notifications or updates to the parents. Apart from this, they can make students’ results and progress reports available online, so parents can view the details without visiting the school.

In fact, the use of such software is being increased day by day. The educational system insists on delivering a high-quality experience to the students and parents, which can be fulfilled by online learning effectively and efficiently.

#2. Offer personalized meeting experience

Each student is unique, so the teacher needs to inform all parents of different details. In this instance, it would be a great idea to deliver a personalized experience for all guardians. This will enable in maintaining the privacy of students’ improvement and allow parents to converse openly. Besides, personalized meeting conversations will enhance the school’s reputation and image among all the parents.

#3. Design shorter, frequent communication

Do not opt for one long communication or wait until the end of the term to reach out with an extended recap to communicate with parents. This will not only create complications in the communication but also create flaws in informing the details.

Just as schools have shifted to more frequent evaluations of students, school communications should also be short and frequent to keep parents in the loop on a continuous basis. A school management app is the best way for this type of communication, where parents and teachers can stay connected frequently.

#4. Allow flexible meeting schedule

This is one of the highly demanded options by the parents. As both parents are working (in most instances), they might not be able to make up at the designated time for the PTM. If your institute’s goal is to strengthen parent-teacher communication, flexibility in the meeting schedule should be there.

Furthermore, in today’s digital world, parent teacher communication can also take place online via school management software. The accessibility of communication with teachers from anywhere, working parents admire this type of facility from a school.

#5. Keep students’ report ready beforehand

 If a teacher has prepared the students’ reports beforehand, it will be a lot easier to communicate the details effectively. With the complete record and progress report on hand, teachers only need to focus on emphasizing having an effective conversation. Moreover, they can present students’ work quickly so that parents can get an overview of their child’s progress at the school.

#6. Provide actionable information

Providing information to keep parents up-to-date is recommended, but schools also need to make sure they share information that parents can act on. This can include opportunities for parents to encourage or prepare their child for classroom assignments or learn about forthcoming extracurricular activities and special events.

Apart from the above mentioned tips, here are some other consideration that helps in improving parent teacher communication;

• Encourage teachers to be proactive about communication with parents. If parents are not participating actively, send them reminders and ask them to join a meeting.
• Build a report with the parents and inform them about their child’s overall behavior or progress at school. If required, teachers should connect with specialists for the betterment of students.
• Arrange for the translator if there is a requirement for making the communication a flawless process.
• Assess family dynamics for students who have parents no longer living together and ensure proper communication for both households.
• Make sure a teacher is using appropriate verbal and nonverbal communication.
• Do not forget to mention the positives about each student to their parents.
• Take advantage of technology where possible and needed.

Effective communication between parents and teachers is crucial for the betterment of students. As teacher and parent relationships play a vital role in the development of a student, both of them need to communicate frequently and on a continuous basis. Once parents are aware of their child’s progress at school, they can take certain measures to notice visible improvements in the student’s progress.

In a nutshell, when you are trying to make parent-teacher communication an effective process, there are certain elements that play their role. For instance, if you opt for a tech-savvy approach, it will be a lot easier to share information with parents. Also, it will advance the manual tasks and create a positive impression. If a teacher keeps the above mentioned points in mind while conversing with parents, the PTM can be as effective as expected.

About the author:
Shobhit Srivastava is an avid writer. He holds spectacular skills in school automation, loyalty programs, marketing, and customer retention. Connect with him on Twitter!

It is normal to feel nervous before you go for an exam. Exams are important and they weigh heavily on your final grades. Success in life is often directly related to how you learn to handle pressure in a healthy way. It can help you stay focused, improve productivity and enable you to do your best at whatever you set your mind to.

Experiencing anxiety or stress before an exam is completely normal.  However, if it is excessive it can interfere with the performance of any student no matter how much they have studied and prepared. It has also been referred to as test anxiety. So what should you do if you feel nervous before taking exams? Here are some tips to feeling more confident before a test.

1. Take a break from the books

There is such a thing as over-studying. If you spend too much time studying without a break, it will exhaust your mind and bring about fatigue. Fatigue can lead to a loss of concentration and it affects your memory as well. If your memory gets affected it will lead to frustration as you begin to think you haven’t learned anything at all. When you begin to notice this, realize that stress and anxiety has settled in, causing you to become even more nervous about failing your exam. It’s a sign that it’s time to walk away from the books for a while.

 2. Breathing

Stress can result in nervousness and anxiety and it will affect your breathing pattern as well. Test nerves can also lead to this. Concentrate on slow breathing to help manage your nerves and calm your body.  It can also prevent panic attacks for those who struggle with them. Wait for a moment and take a deep breath. Shut your eyes and take ten deep breaths.  For this situation, having a fidget ring could prove the most useful. Due to the tactile experience of manipulating the ring in one’s hands during stressful times, this type of physical stimulation can help calm the body and mind during anxious moments such as when taking exams. Using fidget rings before exams may prove an ideal way for individuals to take back control in these high-stakes situations.  Simple exercises like these only take a minute but can make a world of difference in calming your mind.

 3. Get light exercise

There is a strong link between a sense of well being and regular exercise. Exercise leads to reduced anxiety and also helps with handling stress. Even while studying, going for a walk or a bike ride can work wonders for your brain and body. Exercise is also responsible for releasing those feel-good endorphins. It takes your mind off nervousness you may feel about upcoming exams. Clinical studies have indicated that regular exercise results in several emotional and psychological advantages that can aid you in gaining more confidence overall. Additional ideas for exercise are jogging, swimming and dancing.

4. Add fuel to the brain

Many times students get caught up in preparation for exams and as a result, they forget about taking care of their bodies. All physiques need food for optimum operation. Even your brain needs energy to work at full capacity.  Nervousness and anxiety can often stem from a lack of proper diet.  Drinking sufficient amounts of water is also important to avoid nervousness and anxiety, along with consuming a well-balanced diet of food that is rich in antioxidants. A light snack and drinking a glass of water while studying can help ease tension.

5. Prepare yourself well

To assist you with your regular studying can also search for online practice tests or study guides to help prepare yourself on the day of an exam.  Online resources can also help you organize your course work and study notes.  It doesn’t matter what level you are at or how old you are, even medical students can get nervous about taking their USMLE step 1 and they need to prepare well before entering the test. Although it might sound obvious, if you are confident about your preparation, you will feel better when walking into any test.  This results in less anxiety which in turn can help you maintain focus.

 6. Sleep

When there is a lot of information floating around in your head it becomes tough to make sense out of it.  Sometimes while studying you may just need to take a break and simply close your eyes. A power nap or even a longer sleep refreshes the brain.  This is why it’s always better for you to spread your studying out over more than one day and not cram it all in at the last minute. Developing good sleep habits on a daily basis is important so that you’re not playing catch up, especially before an exam.  Similar to energy from food your body and brain needs recharging.  A sufficient amount of sleep every night is important. Lack of sleep can lead to much negativity such as lower affability, memory issues, depression, and anxiety.

7. Music

Research has shown that listening to music can reduce anxiety and blood pressure and even improve sleep quality, mental alertness and memory.  Other studies have also shown that it is not just one particular type of music, but music that the listener enjoys.  Therefore, it’s the enjoyment of the music that counts to open up your brain and reduce your stress level.  It probably not a good idea to listen to music constantly while studying, but it can be a healthy way to do it in moderation and definitely a good thing to do give your mind a break.  I can also calm your nerves just before taking a test.

Resources for Teachers and Parents

• Read how teachers can recognize the signs of stress in students.
• Learn the 4 reasons why students struggle with math.