English is about practice. Students are good in
English when they do some practice, written or spoken. What we found in the
field, most of students are difficult to speak English. It is caused by some
factors that most of them come from themselves. Here, the role of teacher
should be shown. A teacher should be able to encourage student in speaking
English. There are 5 principles can be conducted by teacher, namely:
1.
Positive
Reinforcement
As
a teacher, you should focus on your students successful attempts to use
English. At first, reward ANY success however small. If students speak out
loudly and clearly, but make a mistake, praise them just for speaking out or
for pronouncing it well. As students improve, you can focus on the most
outstanding successes. Whatever you encourage, students will continue to do. On
the other hand, if you do not encourage them, they will likely become passive
in class.
2.
Clear
Goals and Instructions
Students
need to know exactly HOW an activity is done, otherwise they will be out
of control when the activity starts. If necessary, write the instructions on
the blackboard or overhead projector. Or, model the activity with one of your
best students so everyone can see what they need to do.
Students
also need to know WHY an activity is being done. Dictations are done to
train the ear, so they will be more successful in learning in the future. Pair
practice is a simulation of real-life conversation, so they should not show
their questions to their partner. Without understanding why, many students
think an activity is not important and give up or practice half-heartedly.
Be
sure to include goals and instructions in your lesson plan. That way you will
be sure to remember to do them, and if you do have any problems, you will
easily see how to fix them in future lessons.
3.
The Element of Surprise
Students
usually know exactly what will happen in class and answer questions
mechanically. By adding suprises to your lessons, students will be forced to
think about meaning and will pay more careful attention. For example, you could
ask students ordinary questions such as whether they like pizza, or if they
like chocolate. Then ask them if they like chocolate pizza. You might ask
students about their families, then ask if they are married, or if they can
drive a car. Students who are answering without thinking will say
"yes" automatically. In such cases, their classmates will usually
laugh at their mistake, and they will realize the importance of paying
attention.
Of
course, laughing is good in general, so saying anything strange will improve the
class atmosphere.Whenever you have a list of questions or a lot of language to
cover, add something funny or strange at the end of the lesson. Add some
intentional mistakes to see who will find them. In a sense, this is a kind of
listening exercise. If you do this often, then some day if you really do make a
mistake, you can casually tell students it was just a test!
A
variation of the Surprise Principle is called the "information gap".
When students all use the same textbook, they already have the same
information. But if you give only SOME students certain information, a text or
picture for example, the other students must use English to find out what
information they are missing. Successful pair practice and language games
include "information gaps" to encourage students to discover what
information they do not have.
4.
Variety
is the Spice of Life
Very
often when teachers find a good technique, they use it more and more and come
to depend on it. After some time, students become bored doing the same things,
and this wonderful technique no longer looks very good. In reality the
technique is still good, but variety is required to keep students' attention.
Various activities can be organized according to how communicative they are.
Start with a simple, mechanical activity, then continue with something more
meaningful, and finish with a communicative activity. When students do a
variety of activities, classes are not dull for either students or teachers!
5.
Friendly
Competition
Competition
automatically grabs students' attention. The easiest way to have friendly
competition is to divide the class into two teams and play some
kind of game. You could have the left side of the room against the
right side, boys against girls, or each row against all the others. Competition
can be used on an individual level as well, by giving points to students for
their work. Make sure all students have a chance to succeed at getting some
points so that nobody feels bad. You can give points for any written work such
as dictations or mini-quizzes. Students enjoy seeing their progress over time,
keeping them motivated in the long term. You can also give points during the
whole term, by giving points for all kinds of activities during your classes.
Conclusion
Apply
fhese five principles to your teaching and see how your students change over
time. Positive reinforcement and having clear goals and instructions can be
used right from the beginning, in every class. Introduce surprise, variety and
competition to your lessons slowly, so as not to overwhelm your students. Make
one or two small changes in every lesson, and pretty soon your students will
call you "Super Teacher"!
