Ravish Malhotra’s Post

HOW DO I TEACH ENGLISH SO IT IS PRODUCTIVE, EFFECTIVE, AND ENJOYABLE? It is balancing between doing opposite things that often works. CREATE ROUTINES. These can really make learners feel at ease as they know what to expect in each class.  BUT YOU NEED TO BREAK THESE ROUTINES FROM TIME TO TIME. This can help learners improve their adaptability and reaction and bring a bit of a challenge into the learning process. PRACTISE INTENSIVELY. This stands for learning new things, be it grammar or vocabulary. Intensive practice requires more effort from learners, but it is something that helps them progress. AND COMBINE THAT WITH EXTENSIVE PRACTICE. This is where you ask learners to talk, write, ask questions and do other things a lot. In other words, it is about doing something that they already know well to build their confidence and fluency. MAKE THINGS PERSONAL. Personal examples work best when you need your students to practice. Most people enjoy taking about things that relate to them or interest them. BUT KEEP IT NEUTRAL. That is not about forcing a person to talk about their personal life, it is more about showing a genuine interest in someone’s personality. LET YOUR STUDENTS TALK. Keep the 20% to 80% ratio in your head, where 20% is you asking questions, giving prompts, explaining rules, etc., and 80% is your students talking.  AND ALSO MAKE THEM ASK QUESTIONS. Speaking is not only about answering questions, but about asking them as well. Give learners a framework to do this, e.g., role-playing interviewing a candidate to do their job. CHECK AND COMMENT ON STUDENTS' HOMEWORK. Encourage any type of homework your students are eager to do. Written comments or a loom overview are very likely to benefit them. BUT DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF IN-CLASS PRACTICE. Be flexible and don’t push homework on grownups. Doing their best in class is an effective option as well. SET THE TONE IN CLASS. What is your teaching style? Take a minute to think it through. Positive, assertive, supporting? Try to think of things your students value in you and use it to your own (and their!) advantage.  BUT BE FLEXIBLE WITH PEOPLE. One might come in class not feeling their best, and you need to act accordingly, i.e., cut them some slack. DO CLASS PREPS. Preps might sound excessive, but they are not when you are teaching multiple classes in a row.  BUT BE READY TO PLAY IT BY EAR. Tasks might take less or more time than you expected, so it is nice to have a go-to task at hand. BUILD TRUST. Teaching people is often about personal connections, and the rapport that teacher and learner share often motivates them to meet in class. BUT DON’T FORGET ABOUT FEEDBACK. You can ask learners how they find your classes once a season, or you can ask for short feedback  after a new activity. P.S. This photo is of me teaching a short-term English course for Interior Designers.

Teaching vocabulary to adults can be both rewarding and challenging. Here are some effective strategies to help you create an engaging and impactful post on this topic: 1. **Relevance**: Understand that most adults learn English for a specific purpose, such as passing an exam, advancing their career, or traveling. When selecting vocabulary to teach, focus on words and phrases that are **useful and necessary** for their goals¹. Consider their interests and reasons for learning English. 2. **Topic Selection**: - Begin by asking your students to create a list of **10 vocabulary topics** they want to learn. This gives them time to think about their preferences. - In the next class, compare the lists and identify the most popular topics. Write these on the board. This approach ensures that you teach vocabulary that keeps your students motivated¹. - For individualized needs (e.g., writing a CV/resume), assign specific homework or direct students to online resources¹. 3. **Contextual Learning**: - The challenge with new words is that they're often forgotten quickly. To address this, **attach context** to vocabulary. - For instance, when teaching the phrasal verb "to come up with," provide examples related to problem-solving, creativity, or brainstorming. Use real-life scenarios to reinforce understanding¹. 4. **Engaging Activities**: - **Bingo**: Create vocabulary bingo cards with target words. Students mark off words as they encounter them in class or daily life². - **Listening Activities**: Use audio clips or videos to expose students to new vocabulary in context². - **Reading Aloud**: Have students read texts aloud, emphasizing pronunciation and comprehension of new words³. - **Word Clusters**: Group related words together (e.g., synonyms, antonyms, or words from the same topic) to reinforce memory³. - **Practical Exercises**: Engage students in activities like surveys, scavenger hunts, and directed drawing, where they encounter and use vocabulary naturally². 1. **#InnovationNation**: Perfect for showcasing groundbreaking ideas and technological advancements. 2. **#CreativeMinds**: Celebrate creativity and originality with this hashtag. 3. **#FutureForward**: Use this to highlight forward-thinking concepts and futuristic visions. 4. **#TechTrends**: Ideal for discussions about the latest tech trends. 5. **#InspireChange**: Encourage positive transformations and inspire

Let’s talk about an interesting concept in Teaching. Teacher Talk Time (TTT). This is the amount of time a teacher spends talking in a lesson. The appropriate thing to do as a teacher is to make sure you reduce your teacher talk time as much as possible. This will enable your pupils to be more expressive and will make teaching to be more student-centered. Remember, gone are the days when teachers used to be dictators of rules, givers of instructions and sole custodian of information. That strategy rarely achieves results because students do not feel included. But you might be wondering, is it advisable to reduce my talk time as a teacher. Am I not supposed to know more than my students and then pass the knowledge to them? If they knew, would they bother to come to school? Yes, it is advisable and it is possible. I will share some tips that can help you reduce your TTT 🔥Give clear instructions: Make sure your instructions are simple and clear to understand. This will prevent you repeating yourself as a teacher. 🔥Use gestures: Body language in teacher is a vital concept. When you use gestures, it gives a pictorial or graphical representation of what you are teaching. This reduces your TTT as well as making the lesson stick. Remember, more often than not students do not forget what they see but they are likely to forget what they hear. For example, when teaching the word “happy”, you can have a smiling or laughing face. 🔥Ask concept-checking question: When teaching a new vocabulary instead of explaining it, ask the students some questions to check that they understand. For instance when teaching the word “house”, you can ask “what do you do in the house”, “is a house big or small?” etc. 🔥Use pair and group work: When students are working in a group, they are talking to one another and not to you. So this should be included often When you ask a question, give students time before you call on someone to answer. This will give them time to come up with accurate answers and prevent the teacher from explaining the answer at the end. This also gives weaker students an opportunity to participate. 🔥Don't interrupt: If a student makes a mistake, it's not always necessary to correct it immediately. Sometimes another student will notice the mistake and correct it, or the student will realize their mistake later. Definitely, there are times when the teacher must talk during the lesson for instance when giving instructions, explaining grammar or vocabulary. But the point of this concept is that when a teacher talks too much, students might lose interest. So make sure that your TTT is not too high, and that you give your students plenty of opportunities to talk. Have you heard this concept before? Which of these points resonates with you? Share with me in the comment. I am Elizabeth Abraham, your favourite English language coach and professional proofreader. #educator #teachingtips #teachertrainer #bvlc #bvlcrockslinkedin

Like many teachers/trainers/language coaches, I derive great satisfaction from knowing I've done all in my power to help each individual student/coachee to reach their potential, by accompanying them in their journey, by adapting content/resources/activities to their objectives, by being sensitive to their needs and preferences. In honing my skills over the years, I've been increasingly aware of the truism of the old adage "less is more", and I'm finally learning to accept - hard as it is - that success lies in doing "less" myself, in order that my student does "more". This doesn't mean backing off and leaving them to it, but it does mean encouraging them to find a sustainable learning method which works for them, and will give them the satisfaction and thus the motivation to continue. I was recently inspired by Jason R. Levine (Fluency MC) at an TESOL France event in Paris, who pointed out the following analogy: Just as an athlete wouldn't dream of going straight from their coaching sessions to a competition without some serious practice in between, or a musician make the progress required to play in a concert by not playing from one lesson to another, why should learning a language be any different? What is learnt in lessons needs to be assimilated and practised over and over before being put - successfully - into practice in a real "performance" situation. There are so many great resources out there to help independent learning, which is why I put this little poem together, to encourage my learners to be responsible for making their own progress. (I recorded it at a very slow pace to make understanding easier, but, depending on your level, you may prefer to increase the speed of delivery.) Why a poem? Well, firstly I can't do "rap" (I'll leave that to Jason R. Levine (Fluency MC)), but poetry has for me very similar advantages. Listening to "poetry" is a great way to tune into the rhythm of the language, especially as the rhyming words aid vocabulary retention, and in addition, speaking a poem out loud is also an effective - and fun - way to improve pronunciation. So, whether you're a learner yourself or a teacher/trainer/coach, I hope you find this useful. I'd love to hear your comments. Perhaps you could add other independent activities you'd recommend?

Reflections from class:  Tips for a successful First lesson with adult learners/teens 1. Keep things simple  It's the first day of the language course, and you may meet a group of diverse learners. Some could be fast learners or ones who require additional guidance. So, keeping objectives simple and focusing on getting to know your learners will be the foundation to adjusting upcoming lessons and materials. 2.Find a strong icebreaker A strong icebreaker will let learners mingle and it helps you initiate a discussion. Even the typical name game would break the ice with a creative twist. Having a couple of GTKY tasks in between the language input would keep learners more engaged throughout the session with seamless transitions. 3 Expectations Vs. Reality One of the lessons I have learned during my role as a course facilitator is to have less expectation on the first day since anything to everything may head south in a split second. Let it be either instructions or reluctance to engage in group tasks. The delivery of the first lesson may vary depending on the learner profile yet your role of monitoring and identifying which worked well and not will be crucial in the long run. So don't surprise when things head south but constant adjustments might help you survive. Hi, I'm Kasuni! Your go to ELT educator to make you confident in the language teaching. Follow my LinkedIn handle for more insights and updates on educational trends. Subscribe to my weekly newsletter Revelations for more in-depth musings or send me a DM for a 20 minutes consultation.

As I continue my journey devouring everything there is out on CLT (for a project to be announced soon), I find myself heartily agreeing with this quote. But before I share the quote, let me first say this. The quote seems to explore the essence of language learning - arguing that authentic language use is key to engaging the cognitive and emotional aspects essential for acquiring a language. And I believe this approach hinges on meaningful communication—interactions that are relevant, engaging, and personally significant to the learner. Oh ... and here's the quote 👇 "In spite of trendy jargon in textbooks and teacher’s manuals, very little is actually communicated in the L2 classroom. The way it is structured does not seem to stimulate the wish of learners to say something, nor does it tap what they might have to say. … Learners do not find room to speak as themselves, to use language in communicative encounters, to create text, to stimulate responses from fellow learners, or to find solutions to relevant problems (pp 8-9). Which made think of two prompts for reflection ... 1️⃣ How can we better tap into our students' desires to say something meaningful, rather than just responding to textbook prompts? And ... 2️⃣ What changes can we make in our teaching practice to provide learners with the opportunity to use language as a tool for real-life problem-solving and creation?

Dear educators, don't pride in ignorance. I recently corrected my student on the correct pronunciation of letter 'r,' but to my amazement, she immediately looked blue. So I decided to enquire on what the sudden new look was about, only for her to tell me that her class teacher was not satisfied with the way she has been pronouncing some words lately. I thought it was a joke, so I just made a joke out of it and continued with the pronunciation class, but guess what? My dear student started crying. Oh my God! I couldn't believe it. So I had to really pay attention to what was going on. That was when she told me that she was asked to pronounce the word "departure," and afterwards the teacher told her that she was wrong. That little drama had affected her learning efficacy and she was drawn back into her shell. As a diction instructor-and I believe most diction coaches can relate to this-one of the most appalling situations I face in class is the indifference and leissere ferre attitudes of some educators, who either think they know enough to have a job and earn a salary, or those who think they don't need what you have to offer. "After all, who English help," they'll say. I thought of the scenario and presumed that if my student's teacher had gotten at least, an online dictionary, she would have given a better judgement to what the laden believed, rather than to shut her down and even instill the fear of future learning in the child's formative stage. So sad! Educators, have a listen. 📍Gone are the days when ONLY your first degree gives you an edge over so much. Continuous learning is the game changer. So opt for crash courses and mentorship. 📍The world has evolved, even the planets have reduced to eight, but your mind is still full of your traditional and old time syllabus. Please find a way to learn and relearn, but this can only take efficient effect if you unlearn the old and outdated patterns and procedures that you have held on to for too long. This also applies in Pronunciation. 📍Since English is your communication language, learn it and learn it well in order to communicate effectively and confidently. Guess what? English is a dynamic language and it's keep getting renewed everyday. So deal with it. All the aforementioned will not be possible without a GROWTH MINDSET. As Debola Deji - Kurunmi calls it, "Expandable brilliance" is what sets you apart in a time as this. Someone once said that ignorance is not being unaware, it is simply ignoring the fact. Don't be like that teacher in the story. ▪️Seek knowledge, learn new ways to teach ▪️Become a teachable teacher. It doesn't make you any less of yourself. If for anything, it adds to your pedigree. ▪️Don't take pride in ignorance, learn today, utilize your learnings and posterity will thank you tomorrow. #Yourchoicedictioninstructor #elocutiontips #effectivecommunication #pronunciationdrill #sygloriousdiction

𝟱 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀… 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 📚 ➔ 🌍 #NinaEnglishStory continued.... 🟡 For the first five years of my teaching career, I taught from coursebooks. But I was bored – and my 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀. 🟡 Then I took a year off for maternity leave, and everything shifted. That break gave me time to 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆. The English I’d truly absorbed didn’t come from textbooks. It came from: ✨ real-life experiences, ✨ communication with foreigners, ✨ watching movies, ✨ singing along to songs, ✨ reading magazines... 🟡 So I decided to reinvent my approach, 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 Scott Thornbury's 𝗗𝗼𝗴𝗺𝗲 𝗘𝗟𝗧, and built something entirely different: my first experiential course. _________________________________ 🟡 Here’s how I made the switch: 1️⃣ 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 We didn’t just “practice” language; we lived it. We’d go out to cafés, cook together, dance, tour the city, and meet for pub nights with international friends. The goal? Real situations that made English relevant and unforgettable. 2️⃣ 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 I paired up my students as study buddies to keep them accountable and encouraged connections with my international friends to create authentic conversations. Every lesson felt like a mini immersion trip without leaving the city. 3️⃣ 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 From day one, I’d ask my students to set goals, reflect on progress, and focus on their reasons for learning. This framework turned each lesson into a step toward their personal milestones. _________________________________ 🟡 In the first comment, you can listen to a short 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲-𝗮𝗻𝗱-𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 of a student who used to study with me using coursebooks for 1.5 years with little progress. After switching to this approach, she advanced 𝗻𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀. Hearing her transformation says it all! WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HER PROGRESS? _________________________________ 🟡 Now, 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿, 𝗜 𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 – to dive deep into what they love, to teach in ways that fuel their passion, and to build courses that feel truly alive. Because 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼, 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗼. Right? ********************************** 🔶 As a 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 for women teacherpreneurs I will empower you to find fulfillment and success in your teaching journey. 🟡 Join my 𝗖𝗟𝗨𝗕 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗦𝗨𝗖𝗖𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗙𝗨𝗟 𝗘𝗟𝗧 𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗨𝗥𝗦 –⁠ click here: www.NinaEnglish.cz - “For teachers”

Have you ever wanted to become a teacher? Neither have I! But it has worked out well for me on many levels. And if you are not thinking of changing your career path, I still insist that you read this post, which may give you a reason to want to become a teacher. Not professionally, but in your everyday life. When I find myself procrastinating instead of trying to memorise a sophisticated word or complicated structure in English, which I want to actively use in my speech, I employ the trick called “abuse of authority”. I try to integrate this lexical or grammatical item into my plan for the session with various learners. I am not doing it for exclusively selfish reasons. Quite the opposite, I am happy to help learners become better and smarter than their teacher. However, why I do what I do, has a purely practical meaning. Did you know that teaching new material to someone else solidifies the memory trace in long-term storage? Often when we believe that we have learnt something, we have only managed to put it into our operational memory, which capacity is limited to several “containers”. Thus, if we haven’t worked hard enough to transfer the piece of knowledge from operational to long-term memory, we are bound to lose it soon. One of the “easiest” ways to learn the information for good is to teach it! This phenomenon is known as "learning by teaching": when you teach someone, you retrieve and explain the information you've learned, which reinforces your understanding and strengthens the neural connections associated with that knowledge. It deepens your comprehension of the material and helps consolidate it in your long-term memory. Teaching promotes active engagement with the information, its deeper processing, and better retention. Thus, teaching is learning! And not just any learning. It is an incredibly valuable learning strategy that can be applied across various subjects and contexts. So, are you sure you don’t want to be a teacher? Remember, teaching doesn't have to be confined to a classroom. You can incorporate teaching strategies into your everyday life to deepen your understanding of various subjects and enhance your learning experience. So, are you sure you don’t want to be a teacher? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below. Let's embrace the teacher within us and unlock the power of learning through teaching! #LanguageLearning #learningenglish

The Technical Points to Know While Teaching Quran Tajweed As a Quran Tajweed teacher, mastering the technicalities is essential to provide accurate and effective instruction. Here are some key points to consider: 1. Understanding the Articulation Points (Makharij): Each Arabic letter has a specific articulation point in the mouth or throat. Properly identifying and teaching these points ensures correct pronunciation, which is fundamental in Tajweed. 2. Mastery of the Tajweed Rules: Familiarize yourself with the main Tajweed rules such as Idgham (merging), Iqlab (conversion), Ikhfa (hiding), and Qalqalah (echoing). These rules govern how letters and words should be pronounced and connected. 3. Emphasis on the Characteristics of Letters (Sifaat): Each letter has inherent characteristics such as strength, softness, or airiness. Understanding these traits helps in teaching the correct modulation of sounds, which is crucial for recitation. 4. Rhythm and Melody (Tarteel and Tajweed): Teaching the rhythmic patterns and melodic recitation styles adds beauty and depth to the Quranic recitation. It’s essential to practice and impart these aspects to students to enhance their recitation. 5. Breath Control and Timing: Effective recitation requires proper breath control and timing. Teachers should focus on exercises that help students manage their breath and pace their recitation, ensuring smooth and continuous flow. 6. Utilization of Modern Tools and Resources: Leveraging technology can aid in teaching Tajweed. There are various apps, online platforms, and audio resources that can provide visual and auditory aids, making learning more interactive and effective. 7. Continuous Practice and Feedback: Regular practice and constructive feedback are key to mastering Tajweed. Encouraging students to practice consistently and providing them with detailed feedback on their recitation helps in continuous improvement. 8. Tailoring Teaching Methods: Each student has a unique learning style. Adapting your teaching methods to fit the needs of individual students can enhance their learning experience and help them grasp Tajweed rules more effectively. 9. Encouraging Memorization with Correct Tajweed: Memorization of the Quran should always be accompanied by correct Tajweed. Stressing the importance of memorizing with proper pronunciation ensures long-term retention of accurate recitation. 10. Patience and Consistency: Teaching Tajweed requires patience and consistency. Encourage your students to be patient with themselves and maintain a steady pace in their learning journey. Consistency in practice and reinforcement of rules helps in solidifying their understanding and skills. #Quran #Tajweed #Teaching #QuranTeaching #IslamicEducation #Makharij #Sifaat #Tarteel #BreathControl #ModernTools #Consistency #Patience