Episode Thirty-five

Updates for the New Year and a Few Things I’ve Learned About Online Teaching

Show Notes

Welcome to the first Expand Your Horizons episode of 2021! In this episode, I'm sharing a few personal and professional updates, as well as summarizing a few key takeaway lessons I learned about teaching English online in the last year.

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In this Episode

• 2020: it was quite a ride! A few personal updates

Professional updates

• Lauren’s transition from TEFL Horizons to pursuing an MA

• The launch of the Online English Teacher course - a culmination of everything I’ve learned so far about online teaching and methodology, which I’m extremely excited about. The pilot session is starting in February!

• My own transition from in-person to online teaching and training, and how I’ve adapted

Six things I learned this past year about online teaching

• 1. How to use and adapt resources: lesson frameworks don’t change, but the materials do

• 2. Technology takes practice and patience… why you need a backup plan (or five)

• 3. Communication and connection still matters (and is still possible!) online - why it may be more important now than ever

• 4. Everything takes longer online… and how to plan accordingly

• 5. Overall, the good outweighs the bad: the things I now love about online teaching

• Practice makes (almost) perfect: why good training matters even more for online teachers

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What do you want to hear on the podcast in 2021? Leave a comment below and let me know!

Looking for tips and strategies for your online teaching? Sign up for an invite to the next series of free webinar workshops, coming at the end of January.

Episode Thirty-four

Differences between Teaching English in Person and Teaching Online

Show Notes

By now, you may have tried your hand at teaching English online, or perhaps you’re just thinking about getting started. So what are the key factors to consider when you’re teaching through a screen as opposed to in the physical classroom? In this episode, we look at the important differences between teaching online and teaching in person.

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In this Episode

• The most obvious difference: the addition of technology, and how this affects your lesson

• Tips for handling/ troubleshooting potential tech issues

• Class size: how the online environment impacts groups and one on one lessons

• Why teaching online may mean you’re more likely to be teaching one on one

• Sharing materials online- what to do when you can’t just hand them to the students

• Board work and making your lessons visual: planning ahead for how you’ll clarify language and ensure this is clear and accessible for your students through a screen

• Methods of giving feedback to tasks in an online platform

• The task cycle; just because the lesson is online doesn’t mean students should be doing everything together as a class. Why you’ll want to continue to use microstages such as individual time and pair/ group work

• A special offer on the online CELTA course through IH Mexico

• Register for an upcoming free webinar workshop!

How do you feel about teaching online? Leave us a comment below!

Episode Thirty-three

Interview with Ricardo Fajardo: Teaching Exam Preparation Classes Online

Show Notes

Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of Expand Your Horizons. Today our guest on the podcast is Ricardo Fajardo, who is joining us to talk about teaching a specific type of English class – exam preparation.

 Ricardo has been a teacher of English for 24 years and a teacher trainer for the last 12 years. He is currently a CELTA tutor and assessor, which has given him the chance to travel as well as help and learn from other teacher training centers. He is also an ICELT and DELTA tutor and works as a freelancer on different projects such as writing materials for course books or helping teachers remotely as an online consultant. He is an accredited IELTS examiner as well as a Cambridge KET, PET, FCE, CAE, and CPE oral examiner, so he clearly has a good deal of experience with proficiency exams and what students need to know in order to succeed on them. In our conversation today, we’re discussing tips for teaching exam preparation classes, and how we might transfer or adapt these strategies for online classes.

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In this Episode

• What “proficiency exams” are, and popular proficiency exams: Cambridge exams, IELTS, TOEFL, etc.

• How teaching exam preparation differs from teaching general English classes

• Why it’s important to understand how each exam works, plus what exactly is being tested and how it’s being tested

• How the different exams may differ in terms of content and scoring

• How the exams test the four skills

• What teachers should know if they’re teaching exam preparation classes for the first time

• How and why to check students’ current English level to understand what to prioritize in exam preparation classes: remembering that students can be stronger in some skills than others

• How to conduct a needs analysis: using a mock test of the exam students are prepping for is a great idea!

• How to find material to use for a needs analysis/ diagnostic test at the beginning of an exam prep class

• Setting realistic expectations and understanding how to prioritize time spent in the course

• A typical misconception students may have coming in: that all they need to know is the format of the exam

• Why it’s sometimes necessary to improve a student’s general English level before focusing on exam prep

• How to transfer what we know about teaching exam preparation to an online lesson format

• Getting accustomed to teaching online exam prep classes

• Dealing with interaction patterns online

• Potential challenges of teaching exam prep online

• Helping students practice speaking and writing in online classes

• Providing helpful models of language online

• Helping students identify functional language and structure in writing practice

• Providing feedback on students’ writing

• Why it’s important to understand the parameters of the speaking and writing tasks on the exam: fluency is not enough!

• Why practice makes perfect in exam preparation

• Why learning a particular formula increases students’ exam scores

• Tools and resources for teaching exam preparation classes

• Teaching platforms: Zoom, Skype, Vedamo

• Interactive white boards

• idroo.com and Google Jamboard

• A useful resource for understanding and comparing the different exams: examenglish.com

• Collaborating with other teachers and understanding the exam criteria

• Tips for learning how the exams are structured

• Checking out Youtube videos to help understand the different exams

• Encouraging peer collaboration among students and prompting them to continue their practice outside the classroom

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Looking for more in-depth training on teaching English online? You can now get your CELTA certification 100% online - with live online teaching practice! Check it out here.

And don’t forget to sign up for our next free webinar workshop here.

Episode Thirty-one

Interview with Eliberto Salinas: Teaching Learners of Different Levels in the Same Class

Show Notes

In episode 31 of Expand Your Horizons, we're pleased to welcome Eliberto Salinas as our guest. Eliberto has extensive experience as an English teacher and is also a CELTA trainer at International House Mexico, where he is based in Mexico City. Today, he’s joining me to talk about something many teachers find challenging: supporting students of different English levels in the same classroom. join us for our conversation about how to identify and cater to students’ differences in the classroom, including some practical strategies for adapting activities and presenting materials to accommodate students of varying language levels in the same group, even in an online class.

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In this Episode

• The fact that any class with more than one student is heterogeneous: students will differ!

• Ways in which students can differ in a classroom

• Where to start: how to become aware of your students’ differences

• How students’ perception of their own English level can affect their motivation

• How having students of different levels in the same class can be challenging for teachers, and how it can affect the lesson

• Differentiated instruction: what is it?

• What students at lower language levels need in order to keep up with the lesson

• How the way you ask questions can cater to students at different levels

• How to use timing to change the ease of your tasks

• Giving instructions: why this is not the time to teach anything - how to make these simple

• How you can tweak your activity design to cater to learners at different levels

• Pairing: different ways you can pair students to accommodate different levels

• Encouraging students so they know it’s ok to make mistakes

• Individualization: what it means and how to incorporate this principle

• Giving students some autonomy with tasks

• Personalization: how to make the lesson relevant to each student

• Open-ended activities: what these are and how to employ them

• “Tiered tasks:” creating different versions of an activity for different levels of learners

• How to motivate learners with praise

• “Compulsory” vs. “optional” tasks

• Using answer keys

• Making sure all students feel like they’re a part of the group

• Adapting these strategies to online learning

• Using “breakout rooms” in online platforms

• Using the “task cycle” to provide processing time for all students

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The CELTA course can now be done fully online! Check it out here.

And don’t forget to sign up for our next free webinar workshop here.

Episode Thirty

Interview with Andrew Watson: Differences in Teaching Adults and young Learners and Strategies for Teaching YLs Online

Show Notes

In this week's episode of Expand Your Horizons, we're talking with Andrew Watson about strategies for teaching young learners online. Andrew has great insight on working with young learners as well as extensive experience in the ELT industry. He got his first teaching job in South Korea in 1994, and since then, he’s held a variety of EFL jobs including teacher, IELTS oral examiner, young learners’ coordinator at the British Council, CELTA and ICELT teacher trainer and developer. He holds a DELTA certification and an MAEd in Applied Linguistics.

In our conversation, Andrew and I discuss the key differences between working with adults and working with children in the ESL classroom, and Andrew shares a wealth of practical tips for teaching YLs both in the physical classroom and online.

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In this Episode

• The key differences between adults and young learners

• The fact that most teaching around the world is of young learners

• Attitudes and motivation of adults vs. children

• The factors that influence young learners in their learning and development

• How developmental differences, even in the same age group, may affect young learners in the classroom

• The division of young learners into age groups: how they’re typically categorized

• Differences between main age groups of young learners

• How very young learners who are still learning their first language may start to learn English

• The learning history that adults bring to the classroom vs. the “blank slate” of young learners’ educational experience

• The difference in the speed of progress between adults and YLs

• The importance of incorporating other learning (social skills, critical thinking) with language learning

• Areas in which children are superior to adults in their language learning ability

• The importance of giving young students lots of input and clear models

• Advice on bringing creativity to your YL classroom

• How to reduce your workload: getting mileage out of your material

• A helpful resource for teaching young learners: Carol Read’s site

• What the abbreviation “SOS” means in terms of teaching strategies

• Fun activities to try with students in online classes

• Further tips for teaching children in online classes, including giving them options, dealing with shorter attention spans, and scaffolding activities

• A very helpful tip on balancing activity types and aims in your lessons

• Bloom’s Taxonomy

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Interested in more in-depth teacher training? Check out the fully online CELTA course at IH Mexico.

And sign up for our next free webinar workshop here!