Page 316 - Teaching English as a Foreign Language for Dummies 2009

Chapter 20: Getting Youth on Your Side: Coping with Young Learners
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✓ Good classroom management: There’s no point trying to get in with the kids. You aren’t one of them! What they like to see is that you’re in control of the class and that you’re a figure of authority without being too uptight.
✓ Showing them respect: Teenagers are moving towards adulthood and they like you to acknowledge this by asking their opinion about various topics and encouraging them to be independent in their learning when this is appropriate.
✓ Fun activities they can actually learn from: You can play games at any level and with any age group but with teenagers you need to make your aims and objectives clear so they know why the activities you do are relevant to them.
✓ Challenging activities: Take the level up half a notch from time to time so that students feel stretched. Easy activities can lead to boredom.
✓ An invitation to comment on the course or lesson: Hand out questionnaires so that students can tell you what they want. You can ask them to suggest topics they’d like to talk or write about.
Have competitive team activities on a regular basis but be sure to mix up the teams regularly.
Intriguing students with
international English
If you’re teaching in a non-English-speaking country, set your students a challenge. Ask them to find as many examples of English words and slogans as possible over a week. Get them to cut out examples from magazines and newspapers, or take pictures of advertising hoardings (lots of teens have camera phones). This can become a short project resulting in a class poster.
As a result of their findings, students discuss with you with the pros and cons of adopting English words into their language. Discuss questions like:
✓ Are English words used correctly when they’re borrowed?
✓ How are they pronounced?
✓ What about the grammar? For example, in many languages words have to be designated masculine or feminine. Who should decide whether a foreign word adopted into your language is masculine or feminine?
✓ Do older people use English words or just the younger people?
✓ What kind of image do companies who use English in their advertising want to have?