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-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-two

Interview with Andre Alipio: Training Parents to Join the Team of Teachers During the Pandemic

Show Notes

In this week’s episode, we’re joined by André Alipio. André has been the Director of Studies at GTP (Global Teaching Practice) for 10 years now, but he has been a teacher trainer since 1995. He has worked for different institutes in Brazil, like International House Sao Paulo. As the director of studies, he is responsible for designing and delivering a range of courses for teachers of English, as well as training tutors of such courses. André is an active CELTA and DELTA trainer, and has trained on courses in Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, and other countries. He is also a local trainer for ETS products like TOEFL Junior. More recently, André has been developing ELT materials and consulting to the educational market in general.

Today, André joins me for a conversation that is certainly relevant to anyone who works with young learners or has children who are currently learning at home. At the time of recording this, schools around the world are temporarily closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This means that those students are currently learning from home by attending their classes online. In this episode, André shares practical strategies for how we, as teachers, can help train parents to support their children in online learning.

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In this Episode

• How the newness of this situation means that we are all still learning how to deal with it

• Why there has sometimes been tension in relationships between parents and teachers, and how the pandemic has affected this

• How children learning from home can be viewed as an opportunity for parents to understand more about their children’s education

• Helping parents understand what goes on in the classroom

• Giving parents the syllabus: why they need to know how the course is intended to progress

• Presenting lesson objectives in a way parents can understand

• Communication between the parents and teacher/school

• Why it’s not necessary to be technical in our communication with parents- but how to help them have a practical understanding of classroom methodology

• Helping parents understand how to create a set difference between “school” and “home” inside the house

• Creating a classroom environment at home - setting rules and establishing routines/ rituals

• How these routines help change a child's behavior when it’s time to learn

• How small changes can produce big results

• The importance of having a sign or signal to show young learners when it’s time to focus

• What to do when parents are reluctant to be involved in their child’s learning

• How to encourage parents to be part of the teaching team

• How to encourage parents to listen to their children in a different way during learning time

• Advice for coping with parents who might want to be too involved in their children’s learning or are overbearing

• Helping parents understand the purpose of their children’s education activities

• The importance of allowing for some silent time during class

• How to prevent parents from overloading their child with materials

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Quarantined? You can now get CELTA certified completely online. 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!

Episode Twenty-six

How to Teach Writing

Show Notes

How do you approach teaching writing? Do you actually give your students writing exercises in class, or do you just assign writing tasks as homework? In this episode, we look at the benefits of working on writing in the classroom, and we go through exactly how to structure an effective writing lesson. We discuss why the writing task itself is the most important piece of the whole thing, and we describe the practical process that allows you to turn your students into better writers.

Want a free reference chart outlining the stages and advice for an effective writing lesson? You can download it below!

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In this Episode

• Do you think writing in class is a waste of time? Why many teachers give writing exercises as homework

• Why it’s actually helpful for students to practice writing in class

• Making sure your writing lesson is more than just the students coming to class, writing something, and then leaving

• Why not just any written work in class counts as an actual writing exercise

• Making your task authentic: what we mean by an “authentic” task and examples of what this might look like

• Why “write ten sentences about…” or “write a paragraph about…” is not a good writing task

• How to make sure the writing task you set is achievable in the amount of time you have in the lesson

• Why everything in your writing lesson stems from what the writing task is

  The structure of a writing lesson

• The first stage: the lead-in - why it’s not necessary to start by saying, “Today we’re going to do some writing…”

• How your writing task informs the context you set in your lead-in

• Why you want to give your students a “model text” as an example of whatever you want them to write in the lesson

• Why the model text should look as authentic as possible

• Why students first need to read the model text for gist (the main idea) before doing anything else with it and how this helps support them later on in the lesson when they start their own writing

• Why you should adapt the model text if you need to- and how to know if you need to

• How to help students notice and use the structure of the model text in their own writing

• Why it’s helpful to give students “useful language for the task” and how to choose what kind of language this is

• Why those useful phrases should be planted in the model text you give students earlier on in the lesson and how this makes for a smooth transition from one stage to the next

• How to help students brainstorm before writing and why you don’t want to skip this stage

• The actual writing stage: why it can feel a bit strange to sit in silence while students write… but why it’s necessary!

• How to make sure you leave students enough time to actually write in the lesson

• A tip: give students time warnings as they write

• How to conduct a peer editing stage: why it’s helpful to give students instructions for what to look for in their partner’s writing

• What to have students do with their writing after they write it: “publish” it!

• How to conduct a successful publishing stage

• Why students need a task for reading each other’s work- and how to make this authentic depending on what your writing task was

• Getting content feedback on students’ writing

• Why you shouldn’t ask students to read their writing out loud to the class

• Delayed error correction, or language feedback, at the end of a writing lesson

  General Tips for Writing Lessons

• Managing timing: shorten the task itself if you need to save time

• Alternatives for just “write a paragraph about…” - how to turn this into a more authentic task

• How to deal with students writing different amounts or taking different lengths of time when writing

• Fast finisher tasks: what you can ask students to do if they finish writing early

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Did you enjoy this episode? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

Download your free writing lesson reference chart to review instructions for each stage of a writing lesson.

Episode Twenty-five

Interview with Jackie Bolen: Teaching in Korea and ESL Games

Show Notes

In this week's episode of Expand Your Horizons, our guest is Jackie Bolen. Jackie taught English in South Korea at private institutes and universities for over ten years. She now lives in Vancouver, Canada where she does some teaching, writing, and various online things, including running her two websites, eslactivity.org and eslspeaking.org. She is both CELTA and DELTA certified and believes in the value of communicative, interactive language learning. She’s particularly interested in using games in the ESL classroom, and she’s published several books of games and resources for ESL teachers. In her spare time, Jackie is usually on the hunt for the most delicious kimchi she can find, which she says isn't that easy in Vancouver! She joins us on the show to discuss teaching in Korea and share tips for finding a job, and she offers some great advice on how to make the ESL classroom more fun.

“I’m all about student-centered teaching. I think anytime I can take two minutes to set up an activity and then students are interacting and talking with each other for 30 minutes, I can think, ‘I’ve done good work here.’ (. . .) So that’s always my goal.” ”

In this Episode

• How Jackie decided she wanted to teach English and got her start

• Why she decided on Korea as her initial teaching destination

• How requirements for teaching in Korea were different in the past than they are now

• Why university jobs in Korea are coveted and what qualifications a teacher needs to apply

• What a “hagwon” is, and the pros and cons of teaching at one

• What to look out for when applying for a job- potential red flags

• Questions you should ask (and where you should look) to make sure the job you’re applying for is legitimate (https://www.waygook.org/)

• The importance of using Facebook groups as a resource for checking out jobs

• Checking out hagwon black lists to avoid scams/ unpleasant working situations

• What daily life is like for a teacher in Korea

• The expat community: activities and clubs

• Saving money in Korea

• Why Jackie decided to get CELTA certified after teaching for five years

• Her experience on the CELTA course

• How her years of teaching contributed to her success on the course

• Her advice for prospective candidates: brush up on grammar!

• Why knowing the grammar terminology makes the CELTA course much less stressful

• Her experience on the DELTA course - how the DELTA exam helped her solidify her confidence in language analysis

• “Pragmatic competence” (the term I couldn’t remember in our discussion of the DELTA exam)

• The benefits of using games in the ESL classroom

• Balancing the use of a textbook in class with time to play games

• How to motivate students by getting them moving around

• Why less teacher talk is an indication of a successful lesson

• The feedback Jackie got on one of her first CELTA lessons and how this changed her teaching philosophy

• One of her favorite interactive classroom activities: a class survey, or “find someone who” (you can download an example of it below!)

• Why activities with a communicative goal are effective

• How Jackie gets inspiration and ideas for her ESL resource books

• Why she started two Facebook groups for ESL teachers: English Teachers Abroad and Resources for ESL/ EFL Teachers

• Her favorite thing about the ELT industry

• Why she spent most of her teaching career in Korea, and why she moved back to the United States

• What she doesn’t love about the ELT industry

• Her favorite travel destinations in Asia: Hong Kong, Laos, and Thailand

• The resources Jackie offers, including her websites: https://www.eslactivity.org/, https://eslspeaking.org/, and her books on Amazon.

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Want to try out a version of the “Find Someone Who” activity Jackie referenced in this episode? Download it by filling out the form below.

Episode Twenty-four

How to Teach Speaking

Show Notes

We know that helping students develop their speaking fluency is important, but are students really getting better at speaking EVERY time they're talking in a lesson? How can we measure whether students’ speaking skills have actually improved during class? In this week's episode, we look at how to devote an entire lesson to speaking fluency. We’ll walk you through the stages of an effective speaking lesson, break down exactly what to do and why, and give you practical advice for helping students experience a boost in their fluency— even from a single lesson.

In this Episode

• Why teaching English isn’t just teaching grammar and vocabulary: it’s about skills, too!

• The productive skills: speaking and writing

• How teaching a skills lesson is different from teaching a systems (grammar or vocabulary) lesson

• How students speaking in the classroom is different from practicing speaking outside the classroom

• How you can make sure your speaking lesson is more than just “speaking and leaving”

• The suggested structure for a speaking lesson

• Why starting with a lead-in still matters (because it always matters!)

• Why ANY speaking activity isn’t THE speaking activity in a speaking lesson

• How to set the speaking task with intention (and how this differs from students actually doing the task)

• Why a speaking task needs a communicative goal

• How to design a speaking task that will motivate students to speak

• Why a demo of the speaking task is important and how to set this up

• Why it’s helpful to give students “useful language” for the task and what kind of language that might be

• How to plant this “useful language” in your speaking task demo

• Why you should think of this language input stage as “language light”

• How to let students prepare for the speaking task (brainstorming time!)

• Why there’s a lot that goes into a speaking lesson before students even get to the speaking task! (But also why you don’t want to make your speaking lesson too “top-heavy”)

• How to pair or group your students for the speaking activity (why it’s helpful to be deliberate here)

• Why you’ll want to stay out of the way while students are actually doing the speaking task

• What to do while the students are speaking/ engaged in the task: monitor (but stay aloof!)

• What to listen for as you monitor

• How to prepare for a delayed error correction stage (why you don’t want to correct errors on the spot in a speaking fluency task)

• What to do immediately after the speaking task and before delayed error correction: content feedback

• How the communicative goal (that you set up for the task) contributes to content feedback

• How to maximize content feedback and ensure everyone is engaged

• How to get the most out of delayed error correction

• A summary: the three keys to a speaking lesson that make it truly effective

• The ideal way to extend a speaking lesson: have students repeat the task after error correction

• A variation of how to structure the speaking task(s) if you have a longer lesson

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Want to teach this speaking lesson? Enter your email address and we’ll send you the party planning speaking task we referenced in this episode, so you can try it out in your classroom!