Tag: <span>Skills</span>

31 Jul

ESL Teachers’ Guide to Teach Business English Communication Skills to Students
Posted in Education by anshbookstore on July 31, 2023 @ 9:20 am

English is the global business language of the day. Many schools, colleges and universities are all offering English teaching for students and business professionals. With the growing demand for English, many ESL teachers are also trained to meet the global demand of ESL training needs.

For example, in many Asian and African countries, the English language is being taught as the Second or Third Language. Also, there are many varieties of English given the mother-tongue influences in countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, India, Brunei, Australia and Canada. As an ESL teacher, you will find that this ESL teaching guide provides you with a quick checklist of tips, helping you to make your ESL classes fun and easy for foreign students.

1) Understand Your ESL Students:

Basically, you will have two types of students – school students and corporate clients. ESL school students are those who do not have English as the mother tongue. They need help with Basic English grammar as well as Advanced English conversation for daily living. Corporate business clients are those managers and employees who need to polish their English in an ESL class for effective global business communication. By understanding your ESL students, you will be able to design teaching strategies that address their specific needs.

2) Break The Ice:

Breaking the silence in the first 10 minutes of each ESL class is essential for success. Most ESL students are very shy to speak and write anything in English. With a positive and supportive learning environment, you will be able to encourage them to try speaking and writing in English every day. To break the ice, you will need to make the first 10 minutes the most fun and relaxing for your students to open up themselves and speak English freely through mini games and exercises. Invent fun games for them to introduce each other, tell funny stories, or explain something in English.

3) Create Interactive Activities:

English learning should not be boring. Make your classes fun and interactive for all your ESL students. Then, they will be interested in learning and will become engaged throughout the lessons. Organize learning activities that keep your ESL students involved and will enable them to learn from each other. Ask their opinions and suggestions on new topics. Discuss problems and challenges that they encounter in English speaking and writing. Integrate seasonal events (e.g. New Year, Thanksgiving and Christmas) as part of your teaching curriculum.

4) Focus on Communication Skills:

If there is one thing you can teach ESL students, it’s to focus on their communication skills. This means helping them to improve daily conversations with others, to polish their telephone manners and to polish their writing style. With telephone conversations, ESL students will have no visual clues so it is important to speak clearly and slowly. When in doubt, they should always ask a question to clarify and confirm what they intend to say. With written communication, ESL students just need to practice writing something or anything every day from a simple note, a letter, an invitation or email message to a full essay or report assignment. Teach them the right choice of words and phrases to minimize confusion for others. Practice speaking in front of a mirror every morning and night.

5) Work on Vocabulary:

Very often, ESL students cannot communicate well due to their lack of proper vocabulary. Then, without the right words, they face social and cultural barriers to communicate effectively in different situations. Help your students to build their vocabulary using different teaching aids. Create flash cards. Build digital folders. Use some of the latest games and apps in mobile devices. Focus on what kind of vocabularies will help them communicate well in school or business settings. In some cases, English words have different meanings for different cultures and situations and so it’s your job as an ESL teacher to clarify and explain how to use those words in detail.

6) Practice with Role Plays:

The best way to learn is through real life situations. In your classroom, you can always use role play exercises to create situations that mimic how ESL students should speak and respond to others. For example, you can have different scenarios from ordering fast food and dining in a fancy restaurant to having a job interviews and speaking to a customer. This way your ESL students will learn how to observe, listen and respond in various situations.

7) Teach Social and Business Etiquette:

Helping your ESL students to be effective communicators means teaching them social and business etiquette as well. This means teaching them manners, politeness, social norms, business customs and cultural cues. ESL students will need to learn how to communicate with proper words and manners from casual to formal settings. More importantly, you can teach ESL students both verbal and non-verbal communication techniques and skills. For example, how make good eye contact, shake hands, greet people, and express themselves through their facial expression and body gestures.

8) Provide Constructive Feedback:

Anyone can give an opinion or feedback, but you as an ESL teacher will need to provide the most positive and constructive feedback to your ESL students. They have to feel encouraged and supported, to continue learning and improving their English. Learning a new language like English is difficult for some because their own mother tongue may have a very different language structure and linguistic sound. Your positive attitude will translate into their positive mindset for English learning. Provide specific examples and tips to help them understand what is right or wrong to speak and write every day.

With these eight ESL teaching strategies and techniques above, you will become a very efficient and effective ESL teacher who is liked by all your ESL students. Even though there is a quiz, a test or a grade on paper, your ESL students will only remember what they have experienced and how they felt in each ESL class. You are there to provide a positive, supportive and constructive learning environment with no judgment, but only opportunities to learn and grow as individuals. Be proud of yourself.



Source by Dr. Vivian W. Lee

10 Nov

What Skills Should a Teacher of Mathematics Teach His/Her Students?
Posted in Education by anshbookstore on November 10, 2021 @ 8:09 pm

Before the advent of universal secondary education, the mathematics teacher had a select group of students who were most likely, in terms of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, maths-logic thinkers. So there was no real need for the Mathematics teacher to change the pedagogue away from “chalk and talk” and lots of exercise practice.

But the second half of the twentieth century saw most students progress to secondary schools. Soon, most students were continuing on to complete their secondary education with most continuing to study Mathematics. This meant that these students had a variety of learning styles which we might equate to Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences.

This meant that teachers of Mathematics had to expand their pedagogue and teach new skills to help all students in their mathematical development. At this time, I was the head of a Mathematics Department in a large school going through the introduction of new syllabuses designed to bring Mathematics teaching into a position where it could cater for these different learning styles.

The syllabus content was being modernised. The use of computers, scientific and graphics calculator along with the Internet became mandated. This lead I to think about the additional skills my students needed to develop. Other teachers in other subject areas were most likely wanting to develop them, too.

The request from another school to have me explain how my department coped with a change from 40 minute to 70 minute periods began me thinking about these skills. I discussed my list and gained its acceptance at the workshop.

Below is a list of the additional skills I believe we, Mathematics teachers, should strive to develop as early as possible. (A short explanation may be included with each skill.)

They are:

  • Communication skills. One of the aspects of some new syllabuses is the introduction of problems in unfamiliar contexts which need the solutions to be fully communicated.
  • Calculator skills. The calculator enables the student to do necessary calculations quickly. Students need to be taught checking and estimation skills to facilitate their use correctly. Graphics calculators have in-built programs that allow more in depth real life problems.
  • Computer skills.
  • Internet skills.
  • Skills in how to concentrate effectively in class. This is important as there is less time allocated to the teaching of Mathematics than in the past. This should incorporate skills in how to be a powerful listener.
  • Textbook skills. This is the student’s first option in consolidation of the classroom learning. The student needs to know how best to use it.
  • Homework and study skills.
  • Examination skills including how to go about solving a problem and how to develop an examination technique that helps guarantee the best results.
  • Problem solving/critical thinking skills. And
  • In the senior school where life becomes extremely busy, organisational skills.

These skills cannot be developed overnight. There must be a commitment by all Mathematics teachers to introduce them from day one of the student’s secondary school life as the opportunity arises. Separate lessons on the skills are not the best options. Dropping different skill ideas into day to day lessons is a better option since the student will see it in an everyday event, not a contrived one.

What I have suggested here in many ways is a “Wish List”. If all the Mathematics teachers adopt the need for these skills, they will gradually, over the years, become a natural part of the student’s Mathematics persona.



Source by Richard D Boyce

28 Jul

Teacher Tips: Improving Social Skills in ADHD Students
Posted in Education by anshbookstore on July 28, 2021 @ 7:17 pm

Thank you to all of our professional educators who dedicate themselves to our children! We know how difficult it can be working with ADHD children, so here are your teacher tips for the week, brought to you by the ADHD Information Library and ADDinSchool.com. This is a sampling of over 500 classroom interventions for your use at http://www.ADDinSchool.com. Here are some tips on Improving Social Skills: Provide a safe environment for the child. Make sure the child knows you are his friend and you are there to help him. Treat him with respect. Never belittle him in front of his peers. Both he and the other children know that he stands out, and if the teacher belittles the child, then the rest of the children will see that as permission from the teacher to belittle the child as well.

Students with attentional problems experience many difficulties in the social area, especially with peer relationships. They tend to experience great difficulty picking up other’s social cues, act impulsively, have limited self-awareness of their effect on others, display delayed role-taking ability, and over-personalize other’s actions as being criticism, and tend not to recognize positive feedback. They tend to play better with younger or older children when their roles are clearly defined. These students tend to repeat self-defeating social behavior patterns and not learn from experience. Conversationally, they may ramble and say embarrassing things to peers. Areas and time-periods with less structure and less supervision, such as the playground and class parties, can be especially problematic. Enlisting the support of peers in the classroom can greatly enhance your student’s self-esteem. Students with good social awareness and who like to be helpful can be paired with him. This pairing can take the form of being a “study buddy”, doing activities/projects, or playing on the playground. Cross-age tutoring with older or younger students can also have social benefits. Most successful pairing is done with adequate preparation of the paired student, planning meetings with the pair to set expectations, and with parental permission. Pairing expectations and time-commitments should be fairly limited in scope to increase the opportunity for success and lessen the constraints on the paired students. Students with attentional problems tend to do well in the cooperative group instructional format. Small student groupings of three to five members, in which the students “sink or swim” together to complete assignments/projects, encourage students to share organizational ideas and responsibilities, and gives an ideal setting for processing interpersonal skills on a regular basis. Small “play groups” of two to four students can help your student to develop more effective social skills. These groups are most effective if socially competent peers are willingly included in the group. The group should be focused on activities that stress interaction and cooperation. Board games, building projects, and sessions that promote frequent verbal interactions provide the greatest opportunity for learning appropriate social skills and controlling impulsivity. Your student would benefit most when the target social skills are identified and practiced with them prior to the activity and processed after the activity.

Many students lack friends to be with outside of the school-setting. It can be beneficial to strategize with your student and his parent on developing a “friendship plan” for the home setting. Sometimes the goal of establishing one special friendship is ambitious and sufficient. This could include steps of identifying friend possibilities that might be available/accepting, practice in making arrangements using the phone, planning an activity or sleep-over that is structured/predictable, and tips on how to maintain friendships over time. A subtle way for your student to learn social skills is through the use of guided observation of his peers on the playground. Accompany them on to the playground and point out the way other students initiate activities, cooperate in a game, respond to rejection, deal with being alone, etc. For many students, thirty minutes on the playground is beyond their capability to maintain peer relationships successfully. If necessary, break up the recess into ten minutes of activity, a ten minute check-in with the teacher/playground supervisor, then another ten minute activity period.

Restricting the area available for your student during recess can increase the contact with adult supervision and lessen the complexity of social decision-making. This can be done privately with your student prior to recess. Many students welcome this manner of simplifying their social interactions during this period of low structure. It is helpful to meet with your student prior to his lunchroom/playground period to review his plan for recess activity and with whom he will sit during lunch. Have him ask peers in advance of the recess block to do a certain activity with him. Process the activity with your student after recess and make suggestions for the following day. Hopefully these will help the ADHD students in your classroom to be more successful. You can learn more about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder at the ADHD Information Library.



Source by Douglas Cowan, Psy.D.