Teaching English is not the easiest to do, especially when working with learners whose home countries do not use English as much.

If you are offering English tuition services, or working for an English tuition agency and looking at ways on how you can boost your English teaching skills, then here are some tips from us on how you can fast-track your students’ English learning progress:

1. Measure your students’ performance

First on the list of things that you should do to ensure that you’re able to help your students in improving their English skills is to measure performance. Yes, tracking their performance is the first step to fast-track their learning.

At the beginning of your service, make a habit of properly assessing their current English proficiency so you know which among the various facets of English education you’ll need to focus on.

It is important to note that tests are not the only way to measure English skills. You should work on assessing exercises in terms of reading, writing, and speaking too. After key teaching milestones, check for how they improved, and address areas where they are still experiencing some challenges.

2. Maximize the use of visuals

Visual learning tools, when used effectively, such as through compelling presentations and teaching materials, can be of great help in boosting your students’ English skills. Some may think that presentations can be a challenge since we’re talking about spelling, pronunciation, and a lot of words.

But actually, complementing your teaching materials with visuals, such as pictures of the word you are discussing, can help students remember these words more. It can also help learners associate their native term for the object if they can see what it is.

3. Balance listening and speaking opportunities

An effective English Language teacher would know that listening and speaking are crucial in learning the language. As an English teacher or an English tuition specialist, you would do a lot of talking, and this is an opportunity for students to hear how words are pronounced, and how sentences are structured. But of course, it’s essential for the students to learn by practice so provide a decent amount of time for speaking exercises.

Of course, don’t forget about writing, but what you test in speaking exercises is the immediate thought process, so this is a crucial area that needs to be improved when learning the English language.

4. Don’t underestimate the value of fun in learning English

In as much as you can, instill some form of fun and exciting learning opportunity in your class or tutoring session. Fun is a very welcomed element in teaching as students appreciate this very much.

Some of the things you can do are to hold some word games or an occasional spelling bee. You can also have a short dramatization exercise in English.

There are many ways in which you can take a step out of a typical lecture and leverage an interactive teaching strategy that your students will enjoy.

5. Encourage your students to ask questions

Asking questions from the teacher should be normal. However, there are some cultures where a two-way learning process is not that much observed. There are also some students that are very shy and may not ask questions even if they don’t understand something, especially when they feel embarrassed that they don’t get the concept at hand.

Make it a point that you tell your students that they should definitely ask questions when they need to clarify anything. You can also be proactive in terms of checking for understanding especially at the end of crucial learning topics.

Teaching English is not the easiest thing to do, but there are ways that you, as an English language educator can help your students learn more effectively. These 5 tips can boost your students’ learning progress and can help you, their teacher, as well.

Image Credits:
Image 1: Image from Pexels

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Image 2: Nathiiiii, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons