Review tips for new teachers

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Tips for new teacher
Once you get over the nerves and adrenaline rush of your first few lessons, it’s worth considering the advice
below – the 50 most common tips given to new and improving Ts:
1. Don’t correct good, natural sentences just because you want Ss to use “full sentences” eg in
answer to, “Are you going to visit Greece next year?”, “No, I’m not” is actually a better answer
than, “No, I’m not going to visit Greece next year”.
2. Getting Ss to repeat single words is less useful than real-world phrases eg “marry” is less useful
than “He’s married” or “She’s going to get married”.
3. Move around the classroom more. Don’t get stuck at the front.
4. Don’t just aim for Ss to “understand”. Plan for Ss to be better able to use language.
5. Don’t over-rely on stronger Ss. Don’t assume everyone has understood something just because
one has “got it”. Did all the learners understand? Find out!
6. You ask “All agree….?” (There is silence from the Ss). You say “OK ….” and then continue on to
the next item. Is it worth waiting? Don’t try and “fill all the silences”.
7. Be careful that your games don’t become more important than the language work itself. If you
get too focussed on who’s first, winners, points, etc it can obscure the real aim.
8. Checks out different individual Ss. Don’t rely on the general mumble from the room as a
whole. Pick random victims, rather than “Ss in a row one-by one”.
9. To stop one S dominating, name the S you want to answer. Pretend not to “hear” the loud S if
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he shouts out an answer.
10. Try using “traffic police” gestures to control interaction (eg “stop talking”, “you can speak
now”). Nominate Ss with hand gestures to show who’s to speak.
11. Wait before you accept some answers. Let Ss discuss the answer a little. Try a quick “blank
face” when Ss give a response (ie look around without immediately smiling and nodding). Once
you “rubber stamp” an answer, all discussion is ended.
12. Surprise your Ss with unexpected voices eg SHOUT a word to surprise them, WHISPER to talk
about something secret, use different VOICES for people talking in dialogues or stories, etc
13. Is your plan just (1) Ss do lots of exercises; (2) You go through them checking and correcting
the answers. How can you get more variety into that?

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14. When Ss ask a question or try to explain something to you, don’t talk over them! Listen!
Separate your talk from theirs (it’s not a chat in a cafe!)
15. Are you finding out if all your Ss know the items … or is it just the first person to call out? One
person gave you the answer - what about the others? Are you steamrolling answers?
16. It can be useful to “disappear”. Sometimes there are tasks you can just let Ss get on with. Your
visible presence can be interference. Sometimes step back and let the Ss get on with it.
17. Are Ss only talking to you, the T? If you set up an activity well, they should often be able to do
it on their own. Find ways to encourage them to tell each other things more often.
18. Don’t start speaking into a general classroom hubbub. Get their attention first. Be patient.
19. You can only elicit things Ss know/half-know. Otherwise you need to input. If you anticipate
words will be “new”, plan to teach, more than elicit.
20. When Ss ask “Can I say…?” (ie to check if you can say things a certain way), try to avoid
artificial encouragement like “Maybe” or “Well, we could say that”, if it’s simply not true!
21. Do you tend to make eye-contact mainly with the centre/back/front of the room? Could you
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spread it around more?
22. Remember that it’s nearly always much harder for Ss to listen than most Ts ever believe!
23. Don’t hold pictures/flashcards in front of your face.
24. In listening activities, are you more concerned with collecting right answers than with helping
Ss to listen? It’s not a “test”. Your aim is to help them get better at listening.
25. Does this classroom moment ring any bells, “So, did they meet the famous person?”. All the Ss
say, “No”. You start rapidly nodding “Yes”. One S says “Yes”. You say, “Good, so the answer is
yes, because in the recording she said….”
26. Some Ts make requests like, “Can you say that for me, please?”. Why say “…for me”? Whose
benefit is the practice for?
27. When you write on the blackboard, keep looking at the Ss and talking to them.
28. Let Ss finish their sentences. Don’t dive in to try and help them finish.
29. To give discussion some spark you may need to be slightly argumentative, or play “devil’s
advocate”. Often just saying “Really??” after an answer makes Ss think more deeply.
30. With mumbling Ss, walk further away rather than closer! It encourages them to speak up!
31. Don’t keep apologising, telling Ss how hard, fast, boring etc it was/will be. If you really want to
raise this, ask for their own ideas in a way that doesn’t mean you apologising.
32. Don’t ask big questions like, “What do you think about what you heard?”

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33. While Ss are doing a listening exercise, sit/stand still! Don’t fuss around; it’s distracting.
34. When doing a listening activity, don’t automatically replay the tape. Check first to see if Ss can
already do the task after one listening. Ask Ss if they need to listen again.
35. If timing is a worry, try planning a lesson backwards ie if you really want them to have time to
do presentations at the end (and discuss them), plan your timing backwards from that and
calculate back to the lesson start.
36. Never write in CAPITALS unless you have a very good reason to.
37. Be careful of interrupting too much once you have set Ss to do a task. A basic guideline is “Set
up and shut up!”. Make sure you explain everything they need to know before they start.
38. Is your lesson a little on the easy side? Are you holding their hands a bit too much? Do you
back off a little from really “grabbing the bull by the horns”? Do you side-step tricky,
interesting or challenging bits of the lesson (maybe because it’s trickier for you)?
39. With grammar, theoretical understanding is the smallest part of the problem. It’s actually
making use of that knowledge to make “live” decisions when communicating that is difficult.
40. Are some of your lessons OK, but a little “mechanical”, as if you are doing the lesson to the Ss
rather than working with them? Make sure that, in execution, you leave space for Ss to
influence the flow (at least a little) of the lesson. How much are you really listening to them
and altering the lesson in subtle ways to respond?
41. Lots of oral practice! Both in and out of class.
42. Don’t over-help the Ss. The learning is often in the struggle. Don’t feel you have to “save” them
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from every difficulty.
43. Allow time for your Ss to think about something. Silence doesn’t necessarily mean nothing is
being learned.
44. Plan how your blackboard should look by the end of the lesson and then see how close you
got!
45. If the main aim of the task is “reading”, one of the skills they may be working on is
understanding the text even when they don’t know every word. In that case, vocabulary work
could come after the task rather than before. Let them struggle to try and read it first.
46. When you teach or check a word make sure your definition is as precise as possible, rather
than just in the general area, eg if a S didn’t understood the meaning of “crash” would
someone hitting their hand on the board really help? Or could they totally misunderstand?
47. Don’t let the “intro” stuff take too long. Work on “getting to the meat” quicker.

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48. Ss writing on the board can be very hard to read. Don’t avoid it, but remember that they may
need encouragement to write more clearly if it’s for public reading.
49. Ask Ss questions rather than giving information or answers, whenever possible.
50. Planning, confidence and a sense of humour go a long way towards teaching excellence.
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Adapted from “Learning Teaching”
by Jim Scrivener
MacMillan (2005)