How to be an Effective Teacher

1. Learn your students' names.This cannot be overemphasized. You will be able to  control your class better and gain more respect if you learn the students' names early on. If you are one who has a poor memory for names, have all the students hold up name cards on the first day of class. On the second class, impress them by showing them you know all their names.

     2.Be overly prepared. If you don't have a clear lesson-plan down on paper, then make sure you have a mental          one. You should know about how long each activity will take and have an additional activity prepared in case             you have extra time.

     3. Be prepared to make changes to or scrap your lesson plan. If the lesson you have prepared just isn't                     working, don't be afraid to scrap it or modify it. Be sensitive to the students--don't forget ahead with                       something that is bound fordisaster.

     4.Find out what learners already know.

     5.Be knowledgeable about the learners' culture. In monolingual classrooms the learners' culture can be a                   valuable tool for teaching.

    6.Don't neglect useful vocabulary teaching. The building blocks of language are not grammar and functions. The        most essential thing students need to learn is vocabulary; without vocabulary you have no words to form                syntax, no words to pronounce. Help your students to become vocabulary hungry.

   7.Proceed from more controlled activities to less controlled ones.Not always, but in general, present and practice         more structured activities before freer,more open ones.

   8.Don't neglect the teaching of listening. It is the opinion of many ESL experts that listening is the most                   important skill to teach your students. While listening to each other and to the teacher will improve their overall       listening ability, this can be no substitute for listening to authentic English. As much as possible, try to expose         your students to authentic English in a variety of situations. The best way to do this and the most realistic is           through videos. Listening to audio cassettes in the classroom can improve listening

   9.Turn regular activities into games or competition. Many familiar teaching points can be turned into games, or           activities with a competitive angle. A sure way to motivate students and liven up your classroom.

  10.Motivate your students with variety. By giving a variety of interesting topics and activities, students will be more       motivated and interested, and they are likely to practice more. With more on-task time they will improve more       rapidly.

  11.Don't teach linguistics. Language and culture are inseparable. If culture isn't a part of your lessons, then you         aren't really teaching language, you are teaching about language.

 12. Don't teach phonetics. By all means teach the more important aspects of pronunciation, but don't bombard the       students with minimal pair drills that cannot be applied to real communication. They don't really understand the       meaning of any of those minimal pairs you teach anyway, do they? A more rational approach would be to teach       pronunciation in con****, as necessary. For example, if you are teaching a section on health, teach syllable           stress with sickness words: fever, headache, backache, earache, constipation, etc.

13. Don't leave the learners in the dark. Explain exactly what they are expected to learn in a particular lesson.              Make sure that students know what they are doing and why. The lessons should be transparent to the students,      with a clear organization. Be enthusiastic! Don't do it just for the money. You don't have to be an actor or clown,      but students appreciate it when the teacher shows genuine interest in teaching. Teachers who are jaded with EFL      would do best to hide it, or consider moving on to another profession.

14. Show interest in the students as individuals. Treat students as individuals, not subjects. Don't patronize or talk        down to them; talk to them as you would any other person. Only in this way will true communication take place.

15. Allow opportunities to communicate directly with students. Students want, more than anything, to talk with the          teacher. Don't overdo pair and group work to the point that they haven't had a chance to interact with you, too.

16. Allow time for free communication. For speaking this would mean allowing time for free conversation, for writing      doing free writing, for reading allowing time for extensive pleasure reading, and for listening, listening for                entertainment sake.

17. Use humor to liven up the class.Make it a habit to get the students to laugh at least once per lesson.

18. Don't have pets. This is extremely hard to avoid, especially when a student is more outgoing or interesting than      others. Nevertheless, try to call on and attend to students as equally as you can.

19. Circulate. Move about the classroom. At times sit with groups and monitor, as well as joining in on the                     communication. At times walk about, listen and observe.

20. Make your instructions short and clear. Demonstrate rather than explaining whenever possible.

21. Speak up, but don't break anyone's eardrum. If the students can't hear you, you are wasting your breath. Not        as bad, but still annoying is the teacher who thinks s/he must speak louder to be comprehended. Research has      already proven this to be false.

22. Don't talk too much. Depending on the subject, you should be talking from about 5% to 30% of the lesson. For      speaking or writing, more than 10-15% would probably be too much. Most lessons should be student-centered,        not teacher-centered.

23. Don't talk too slow. How do you expect your students to understand real English if you don't speak at a fairly           natural speed? Oversimplified and affected speech will hurt your students in the long run. Shoot for moderate         complexity and more repetition if needed.

24. Be sensitive to your students. Watch their faces and reactions. Do they understand you? Are they interested or        bored? Try to be aware of what is going on in your classroom at all times. If you are starting class and one              student is still talking, try to gently get him/her to stop. If you are sitting with a pair of students on one side of        the room, try to be attentive to what is happening in other groups as well. There may be a group across the            room that is confused and doesn't know what to do.

25. Don't be a psychiatrist. Shy, introverted students are not going to change their personalities overnight in order        to learn English. Give these students opportunities to talk in small groups, but don't expect them to shout out        answers in front of the whole class.

26. Respect both "slow" and "fast" learners. Language learning is not about intelligence; the important thing to            stress is that the students are improving.

27. Don't lose your cool. If you do, you will lose hard-won respect. Even if you have to go so far as to leave the            classroom, do it in a controlled manner, explaining to the class or student why you are unhappy with them. 

28. Be frank. Praise your students when they are getting better and encourage them when they are not doing as          well as they can.

29. Be a coach. At times you must be more of a coach than a teacher. Push the students to write those few extra           lines, to get into their groups faster, to extend their conversations.

30. Be fair and realistic in testing. Teach first and then test; don't test things that haven't been taught. Also,                remember that the main purpose of language is communication. This means that when marking a dictation            portion of a listening test, for example, a "What [ ] your name?" response should get nearly full points because     the listener has demonstrated full comprehension.

31. Don't overcorrect. For example, when correcting a narrative composition at low-intermediate level, it doesn't            make much sense to correct mistakes with relative clauses. Likewise, if your class is practicing simple past              tense, don't correct article usage at the same time. If you think a student can correct their own mistake, don't       supply the correction for them, rather allow for some self-monitoring.

32. Be reflective. Think about your own teaching. After each lesson is over take some time to reflect. Was the               lesson effective? What were the good and bad points? How could it be improved?

33. Keep in shape EFL teachers don't have to become jaded with teaching. Get into it. Look at new course books          and teacher training  books to get new ideas. Share your ideas with colleagues. Go to conferences.