Tips to Create a Great Classroom When Teaching in China

An excellent ESL teacher has strong adaptability, no matter where they take the class, they can adjust the available resources to suit the teaching of each class.

The following is an introduction to some auxiliary tools to create a great classroom for teaching English in China.

1.     Flashcards

Images usually allow young learners to remember words more quickly. For example, bring a set of cards about classroom supplies (such as desks, chairs, podiums, whiteboards) and let students point out the corresponding items.

If you are teaching older children, you can ask them to make sentences with words on the card, such as "There is a ceramic cup on the table."

2.     Music

Music can activate classes, and you can easily find many high-quality music resources online. Playing a lyrical piano song before the start of class can calm overly excited children. Also, music is very effective for students' learning.

For students in the lower grades, you can play some slow-paced or simple and easy nursery rhymes, ask students to listen carefully to find out the keywords in the songs.

For advanced students, you can ask them to find out the missing English words and fill the blank in the lyrics, or let them figure out the meaning of the lyrics.

3.     Movies

Of course, I don’t mean that you should sit down with your students and enjoy "Star Wars" for the whole class, but use editing software to cut out interesting segments in the movie or directly drag the progress bar to the segment you want, which will be a great help to assist students in learning English. You can ask students to do cosplays and dubbing about movies in class, or make them mark the idioms in the lines.

4.     Books and Newspapers

Young children are usually attracted by storybooks full of cute illustrations, so you can lead them to read the stories in the book together, and for advanced students, you can ask them to read English newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal, to search for target words or slang, or just ask them express their opinions on one piece of news.

5.     Pictures

Students will always be curious about their epact teachers. Most of them don't know anything about your background, so make good use of this. Show the photos of your hometown in class, let the low-level students recognize the objects in the photo, or ask the advanced students to create a story based on the photo. This method not only satisfies the curiosity of students but also allows them to learn English proactively and happily.

In short, no one likes to get stressed when teaching aboard. Knowing some teaching skills in advance can help ESL teachers create great classrooms for students, and ensure that they can handle some "troublesome" teaching situations.

Check here to find 7 ways to make fun and engaging online lessons