Teacher Discussion Forums

Alex, An important point to remember is that every student has worth and the possibility to be great. Even if you have heard the student will be trouble, approach him with no expectations of such. This clean slate mentality allows you to perhaps get the student on-board before any problems arise. Al...

To expand on Roger's idea, I find pair dictations are somewhat useful. Everyone has to be involved and it helps focus their listening as well. Number dictation is also helpful, but only in very brief amounts.

For small classes, carnival-type games are awesome. For example, take a large denomination coin and have the students stand at the other end of a table and try to toss it on a plate after asking a question. Someone has to answer the question before the student can toss the coin. If the coin lands on...

Hi all, I gave a "No Korean" rule at my hogwon and made all the boys or all the girls do something (pushups or rasing their hands over their heads) whenever they had three check marks on the board. It may sound harsh, but it worked because the students started to regulate themselves and forced each ...

Once the student has the basics like yours has, the best way to learn vocabulary is to read. I challenge my excellent students not to use a L1 dictionary at all, and an English-English dictionary only in the rarest instances. This forces vocabulary learning from context. It also improves motivation ...

I loved reading "Night" by Elie Weisel. It is a translation, which makes it easier for L2 learners, and also offers much fodder for great discussions about deeper issues, which will help the students stay involved. I think any translations would be useful as well. You might want to look at a series ...

I have enjoyed reading this thread and feel that the following might be relevant to the discussion at hand. I have formally studied French and informally studied many other languages. The reason public speaking type exercises are useful is because they help the students overcome their fears of speak...