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Teaching English with a twist

Tips

Teaching English as a Foreign Language or TEFL

 

TEFL will open up a wealth of opportunity to make your lessons a little different. Depending on your location and the age of the children, there are various ways to adapt your lessons to be a little different! So just to help you on your way, here are some ideas to get you started.
 

Step outside: Outdoor learning is becoming a hugely popular teaching technique, particularly as research shows it helps children to feel more engaged with their lesson. By stepping outside, you’re able to show exactly what you’re talking about first hand from the sun and the sky to the hills and even the sea… Stuffy classrooms can leave children feeling tired and bored but fresh air will boost their energy levels and give you a hugely attentive class… sounds awesome to us! 
 

Get creative: Sometimes you just need to get a little messy! Art is an awesome way of bringing a little fun into the classroom! Use art time to teach children about colours, textures and patterns. If your age group is older, you can even consider using the colour vs mood comparison - e.g. Green for envy, Red for anger etc etc.
Art is also a great way to help teach geographical place names, using famous paintings depicting well known places around the world. You could perhaps ask your students to pick their favourite and try and recreate the paintings themselves?
 

Festivals: Festivals and national days are commonplace around the world, so it’s a great opportunity to bring a little festival celebrations into your classroom! By teaching children not only about their own national days but other countries too, it gives them an opportunity to immerse themselves in other cultures. Try using food, scent, sounds and even costumes to get the children involved and learning more! 
 

Be dramatic: Using drama within your TEFL lesson plans can prove hugely beneficial. Not only is drama fun but it can also encourage children who are learning English as a second language to learn new ways of movement, speaking and responding. Children often respond positively to the imagination and multisensory side of learning and this in turn helps them develop their creativity, enquiry, communication, empathy, self-confidence, cooperation, leadership and negotiation even further. It’s a win win all round then! How about putting on a play about a well known figure or topic you’re currently learning? You never know, you could discover your inner talent as a playwright…  
 

Have you got any creative, weird or wonderful ideas to help your fellow TEFL UK teachers teach English on their assignments? Get in touch and share them with us on our social media, we’d love to hear from you, and we’ll be sure to share some of our favourites too! 

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