This document provides guidance for English teachers on engaging teenage students and maximizing their learning potential. It discusses the cognitive and social characteristics of adolescents and emphasizes understanding students' needs, interests and abilities. The document recommends making lessons engaging through the use of technology, interesting topics, variety, creativity and student-centered activities. It also stresses the importance of images and their role in conveying meaning and promoting memorable learning experiences. A variety of engaging lesson techniques are proposed, including the use of games, entertainment, role-playing, personalized learning, and open-ended tasks.

1. Full Blast
Part 1
Intermediate School
English Teachers Training Program
Thursday 26th / 12 / 1434

2. Prepared by
Abdulrahman Gadah

3. Open books open minds

4. Teaching teenagers:
How to engage the
disengaged and maximize
your students’ learning
potential

6. Features of adolescence:
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•
•
•
•
•
Mood swings
Impulsive, risky behaviour
Egocentrism
Concern about appearance
Need to ‘belong’ / peer pressure
Finding one’s own identity

7. Features of adolescence:
Cognitive
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•
•
Longer concentration span
Growing ability to work independently
Ability for abstract thought
‘Black and white’ world giving its place
to ‘grey’

8. Do’s and Don’ts with teenagers
Do’s
Don’ts
Take an interest in your Ss’ lives
Ignore Ss’ opinions
Respect your Ss
Treat them like children
Get Ss involved in setting class
goals
Treat them like adults
Make Ss responsible for their
actions
Let Ss do what they want
Establish limits
‘Play teenager’
Be friendly
Offend Ss
Encourage autonomous learning
Be dogmatic
Trust your Ss
Make fun of Ss

9. Teaching teenagers is often seen
as a daunting task, whereas in fact
it can be a rewarding and enjoyable
experience.
How?
Well, the better we understand their
needs, interests and abilities, the
more engaging our lessons become.

10. How to make the lesson engaging:
technology
topics (up-to-date, interesting)
attractive layout
variety
motivating activities
creativity
student-centered lesson

11. A perfect marriage
words & images
=
memorable & productive
learning experience

16. collocations
semantic
info
written
form
image
sound
NEW
WORD
grammatical
characteristics
prior
experience

19. Travel & tourism

20. Food

21. Meaning
Image is not just an important factor for
understanding the meaning of a piece of
language.
Image is meaning.

22. Technology and the image age
WOW!

25. Which of the following topics would
your students find interesting?
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•
•
•
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•
•
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A famous football team
A restaurant review
Supermarket shopping
Extreme sports
A real-life mystery
A theme park
Cooking for fun
Interview with a young cook
Fast food vs. homemade food
……..

28. Allow students to use their
creative thinking through…
•
•
•
•
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Brainstorming
Encouraging originality
Taking risks
Elaborating (embellishing existing ideas)
Inspiration
Problem solving
Don’t forget!
Provide students with the relevant knowledge and skills

31. Because...
•
•
•
•
Boredom
Irritability
No concentration
Low productivity...

32. Quiz

33. Comic strip

34. Magazine article

35. E-mails

36. A window on the world…
• Ss learn to make connections
• Ss learn about cultural similarities and differences
• Appreciation of other cultures
• Because learning a language is not enough…

37. WHEN I ARRIVED,
I GAVE HIM A
PRESENT, BUT HE
DIDN’T WANT IT. I
HAD TO OFFER IT
AGAIN AND
AGAIN UNTIL HE
FINALLY TOOK IT.

39. Students should have an idea of
what they will learn.

40. Me
Myself
and I

41. Ways of engaging students:
1. Clear goals
2. Varied topics and tasks
3. Visuals
4. Tension and challenge: games
5. Entertainment
6. Play-acting
7. Personalization
8. Open-ended cues
Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching

42. Thank you
Abdulrahman Gadah