Teach English in TiAnjin Gang Baoshuiqu [Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone] - Tianjin

Building Confidence in Students Successful language learning can contribute positively to a pupil?s self-esteem, and improved confidence often transfers to other areas of the curriculum as well. Self esteem and confidence are often boosted in situations where all students start learning the target language together and all pupils will be expected to make linguistic errors. However this is an ideal situation because, more often than not, teachers inherit a class of students with a range of language levels. In this case, building confidence in students is a vital issue and teachers should take into consideration the following aspects, not only to improve the quality and effectiveness of their teaching, but also to build and maintain confidence in students. Reducing Anxiety Pupils who are afraid of making mistakes are unlikely to be eager to speak, so how errors are handled can be very important. It is not necessary to correct every mistake and over-correction can be counter-productive when it destroys confidence. The best approach seems to be to provide enough opportunities for whole class practice for students? first attempts to be ?anonymous and not to insist on individual performance until the student is ready to volunteer. Teachers should make sure that students hear and repeat a variety of new items before they ask students to speak. Using games in language work helps to divert the attention away from the individual to the materials being used and this encourages students to participate who would otherwise be too self conscious to do so. By having students work in pairs or in groups removes the pressure of producing and presenting individual answers and helps to build class rapport as well. Hand or finger puppets can also be a good way of reducing anxiety: some students who will otherwise not speak are willing to make puppets do so. This can also encourage students to perform beyond their usual level when they believe that their puppet alter-ego can only speak in english and no other language! Praise and congratulatory remarks are essential for reducing anxiety and building confidence. The teacher can do so just by using the appropriate body language, eye-contact as well as through speech. Praise cards can also be personally significant as students can keep these as a reminder of the positive improvement they are making. Multisensory teaching It is important for teachers to cater for differing learning needs by providing as many ways as possible for the learning to be assimilated. As well as vision and sound, providing opportunities for students to participate physically is important. This can be done by chanting, singing and choral verse with appropriate movement, by using different tones and volumes of voice, marching, hand jiving, etc. Mime, gesture, demonstration, facial expression and intonation significantly increase students? ability to understand and reproduce the language. The use of authentic materials and other ?outside? input allows students to be challenged and stimulated, although the teacher must keep in mind to give the correct ?dose? of information at the correct pace. young learners or students with special educational needs thrive in a classroom which offers them small ?bites? of language and many opportunities to rehearse and revise in a variety of settings. Differentiation Differentiation allows the same activities to be accessible to a wide range of levels and learning styles. Activities should be used and assessed in more than one way to allow all students to learn and progress in a manner that suits them best. Easily accessible support No one remembers everything, and some pupils will remember very little. The teacher must provide easily visible and/or tactile prompts and posters which can serve as unobtrusive reminders or points of reference. Opportunities for consolidation work are also essential in effective learning: insufficient familiarity with core material makes it impossible for a student to perform as desired and this can quickly result in a lack of confidence which in turn leads to a lack of motivation and even behavioural problems. In conclusion, students learn better when they understand their reasons for learning in a context which is relevant and meaningful. It is important to link language learning to the students? own real-life experience. Only when students feel confident of success will they venture to use the language for themselves and this will in turn encourage risk-taking and creative use of language.