In October 2019, italki asked teachers to contribute to the setup of italki Teacher Knowledge Base by sharing their knowledge and teaching best practices. 29 teachers have kindly shared their experience and wisdom with us. We would like to say thank you to these teachers and we encourage students to look at their profiles!
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James L.
Teaches English Professional Teacher |
Before applying any pedagogies, the most important thing you can do is to create a safe space. Confidence in speaking is a problem for so many learners, and if they don't feel comfortable in your classroom, you cannot be an effective teacher. It's crucial to make it clear from the beginning that they will not be judged for their language or their opinions. For many students, this is their first time learning online. You must make sure they feel confident speaking about any topic and, most importantly, asking questions that they may feel silly for asking. (From James L.)
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IELTS Coach Kate
Teaches English Professional Teacher |
When teaching the present perfect in English to students who have no concept of this tense in their language, I use the following example: Teacher: What time is it now in your country? Student: It is 2 pm. Teacher: So I guess you have eaten lunch, have you? Student: Yes. Teacher: What time did you eat your breakfast? Student 8 am. Teacher: Can you think of a reason why I said "what time did you eat breakfast" not "What time have you eaten breakfast." Student: I'm not sure. Teacher: Well, breakfast is not still in your stomach. It is not important any more; it is not your current experience." Student: But lunch is still in my stomach, so you said "have you eaten lunch," but "did you eat breakfast!". (From Kate)
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Ariana
Teaches English Professional Teacher Profile: https://www.italki.com/teacher/5305244 |
It's important to maintain a structured system of review. Teaching online can become scattered and disjointed if not planned properly. A teacher may give a series of interesting lessons and the students will enjoy them, but if they don't build on what has been learned in previous lessons, the students will not see progress. I start each class with a quick gap-fill, error correction, or speaking exercise that utilizes previous' lessons grammar and vocabulary that I know the student still struggles with. This takes about five extra minutes of planning, but the student will be grateful for it and they can solidify what they have learned in the past. (From Ariana)
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Anna
Teaches English and Russian Professional Teacher |
Learning online is like learning live, but it has its own characteristics. First, the teacher himself must be a confident PC user (be able to use various functions of programs such as Skype, Zoom, Quizlet, Google Docs), know what applications exist for independent work of students. It is useful to compile and constantly replenish your list of online resources (sites, Youtube channels). Secondly, the teacher should take into account that although students found it online, not all of them are well versed in computers. If you are teaching students for whom the keyboard of the language of instruction is different, they may refuse to complete written tasks, and then you need to teach them how to use the virtual keyboard. Students below level B1 must be required to write by hand, keep a notebook, print lesson files and write in them, and not just on the screen. Coursera has courses to prepare teachers for online learning, it is useful to take them or read the relevant literature on online teaching. The online teachers' forums (eg Online Teacher Summit or “RCT Teachers” on Facebook, as well as Smart Teacher's Library by Elena Mutonono) are very useful, where teachers share resources and give tips on specific situations. Studying at italki is a one-to-one lesson that is different from group classes. And this is another difficulty. Therefore, we need textbooks on one-on-one teaching methods, for example, Learning One-to-One by Ingrid Wisniewska. (From Anna)
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Lui
Teaches English Community Tutor |
If students are nervous they easily get mental blocks and cannot think what they want to say. You can hear and see this, especially in the first lesson you have with them. Unless students are already confident in speaking, my first goal is always to make them feel comfortable and relaxed. I start with easy topics, so they don’t have to think to hard and find it easier to speak. Once they are relaxed they are much more able to say what they want without having to think too much. They feel happier with themselves (and you) for their immediate improvement. (From Lui)
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Ms. Morgan (Accent)
Teaches English Professional Teacher |
It has been said that the first step to change is awareness. Most italki students are not aware of their fossilized mistakes, so it is our duty as their teacher to help them. Most of the mistakes are articles, plurals, and verb tenses. After explaining each mistake to the student, I make a list. During a 5-minute conversation and I mark each time they make a mistake. After I show it to them, it encourages them to try harder the next time. Now, they are aware of their error. Then, we continue the conversation for another 3 minutes, but I always do on-the-spot correction when I hear the mistake. I either say, "mm?" or "excuse me?" and they correct it themselves. After this, I do another 5 minutes of conversation and silently notice their errors. Most of the time, the students auto-correct during this round. For homework, I give them questions to answer in an audio file. When they hear themselves speak, they become more aware and the fossilized errors become fewer and improve. (From Ms. Morgan)
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Lucy Lockhart
Teaches English Community Tutor |
Many of my Chinese students are incredibly hardworking and ambitious people, but have a tendency to be very literal in their approach to learning English. Sometimes they are so caught up in the perceived correctness of grammar, that their meaning gets lost or is awkwardly conveyed. This is largely down to the 'verbatim drilling' in which English is taught in China. Many students fall into the trap of using complicated vocabulary in an effort to impress, but is not always the best solution. My approach teaches them the nuances of the English language, introducing colloquial phrases and patiently explaining that ‘less is more’. It is important to remember that communication is really just a conversation, whether verbally or on paper, in making themselves clearly understood. This is easily solved by getting them to read their text aloud, and then asking them to rephrase it off the top of their heads in simple speech. Nine times out of ten, they successfully express the conversation or essay in a more comprehensible, fluid way. My advice to all language students is not to struggle trying to use impressive language all of the time at the cost of losing the sense of what they are trying to convey. It works every time, and their ability to pluck the right words out of the air becomes increasingly instinctive as well as noticeably boosting their confidence. Importantly, all students suffer a confidence crisis now and then, but as a tutor, I constantly remind my students that they are far better than they think they are at learning English and unfailing encouragement and patient support really makes a huge difference in their progress. (From Lucy Lockhart)
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Guyomar Teaches English and French Professional Teacher
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A good teacher is genuinely interested in the student's answers. This shouldn't be confused with prying or badgering the student with invasive questions. Rather, the teacher doesn't see the conversation solely as an exercise to provide practice --- though practice will certainly take place, incidentally --- but as a real interaction with another person. They build on the student's answers, asking for more detail or commenting on something, reacting as we do naturally, and hence creating more opportunities for the student to see how a true conversation proceeds and feel encouraged to share more. (From Guyomar)
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Sylvia Teaches English and Italian Professional Teacher
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Teaching on Italki has been an incredible learning experience as I come in contact with people from all over the world , of different age . My approach in teaching to be as empathic and flexible as I can be. So far this has been a winning tool. Already from a trial lesson, I get the feeling not only of the language level of my potential student but also of his personality and energy(being also a Yoga teacher has been a great training!) I let my potential student be the protagonist of the trial lesson letting him feel at ease and carefully listened to , when he shares the first general information about his motivations and goals in learning the language. Creating a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere during the lessons is the initial main key. The more at ease and comfortable the student feels , the more the lesson will be productive and enjoyable and therefore successful also for the teacher! Sometimes I have students who feel a bit edgy and unmotivated or simply tired after a long working day. Being aware of the different atmosphere can help the teacher being more sensitive about it and use a simple "How is he weather in...? Did you have a nice weekend? can bring some lightness to the lesson and maybe help changing the mood. I can give some other happy ending examples happened in my teaching experience. For ex. I have several senior students and sometimes they apologize their memory is not as good as before and they almost feel sorry and sad about it .Making them feel reassured, encouraged and understood will rise back their self esteem and therefore also their capacity to get the most out of the lesson .Last but not least ...seeing their happy satisfied smile at the end of the lesson is priceless! (From Sylvia)
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Nicholas
Community Tutor Teachers English and Czech |
One of the biggest and most frustrating learning challenges students have is the constant repetition of the same mistakes, such as repeatedly mispronouncing certain words, using the incorrect sentence structures again and again or never being able to remember certain vocabulary. Helping your student get rid of these habits is a three-step process: your pupil should, at first, recognize the errors in context, later, understand and review the mistake and, if necessary, critically correct any repeated errors all by himself. To paint a picture, let´s imagine you teach Spanish to Bob. Bobby has some type of language trouble, let´s say he is yet to learn the difference between the rolled and classic Spanish “r”. Now, let´s imagine that Bob misuses the word “perro” (dog) for the word “pero” (but). When this happens for the first time make sure to talk about the mistake with him, sending it into the chat along with the correct version. If Bob continues having trouble understanding the difference, be keen to explain it to him with more context using sentence examples, photos or videos. (stay away from direct translations to English!) Remember to stay consistent, try to repeat this process with all other mistakes Bob makes. Secondly, at the end of each class ask Bob what new concepts and vocabulary he had learned giving him the opportunity to reflect and think critically about the errors. Furthermore, after each lesson you or Bob should gather and write down all the recently developed ideas and new words (it also helps to import them into memory apps, e.g. Quizlet or Anki) Furthermore, if Bob repeats a mistake in later lessons, before telling him the right way to say it, let him first correct the fault himself by referring to his notes/words from the previous classes. In most cases Bob will not only successfully correct himself, he will even remember the last time he had tried to use the given concept or word! Lastly, and most importantly, make sure to check up on the Bob´s progress once in a while. You may do this by letting Bob write a pop-quiz or giving him a chance to elaborate a project with the given words/concepts. By doing this Bob receives valuable feedback and stays motivated. In conclusion, it doesn’t matter whether your student is called Bobby or not, the teaching pedagogies above will help any pupil better understand her/his mistakes and develop a strong and positive attitude towards her/his weaker spots. Also, the given suggestions will allow the students to learn from their errors in a dynamic and critical way. (From Nicholas)
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Marly B.
Teaches Spanish Professional Teacher |
Features that a good online language teacher must have -Patience: because you will meet people of all kinds of personalities, sometimes students do not feel well during the day and your responsibility is that at the time of learning their new language, your Student forget your problems, smile and see how beautiful life is, enjoy your learning process and have a great time. -Tolerance: In the world people have different perspectives and different opinions, that is why when practicing a new language with someone you must be tolerant and respect their point of view, whatever the case. -Respect: This is a wonderful job because it is full of respect, in the world of education, students feel a lot of admiration and respect for their teachers, it is good to joke and be fun, but it is always important to maintain respect in the student relationship -Teaching, -Good humor: Who doesn't like to laugh and have fun? Everyone loves to feel happy, which is why a teacher should have a good mood so that his students feel comfortable and relax in their language classes. - Honesty: Every teacher must be honest, and for that reason it is important to make clear the goals or objectives that the students plan to achieve, you cannot promise a student to learn a language in a month, because learning is a process, and everything The process takes time, and each person is different, we all have different rhythms, so it is important to be honest in every way. -Originality: people chose you because you are unique, there is no one like you, for this reason just be yourself, you will find students who will feel comfortable with a teacher like you. (From Marly B.)
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Enrique
Teaches Spanish Professional Teacher |
Practicing grammar and vocabulary through games is an excellent method to reduce the stress level of students, especially when they feel blocked. You should avoid practices that put a lot of pressure on them, such as direct questions or irregular verb tables, for example. (Enrique)
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Carmen
Teaches Spanish Professional Teacher |
I often find that students from English-speaking countries do not know their own grammar, which makes Spanish grammar more boring or more complicated, because some grammar does not exist in their mother tongue. Therefore, I have studied English morphology and syntax in order to give them examples with their mother tongue and explain concepts to them. Later I do the same in the Spanish language. It has been super useful and beneficial. (From Carmen)
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Concha
Teaches Spanish Professional Teacher Profile: https://www.italki.com/teacher/1392172 |
Make sure your students don't feel under pressure. Try to get a relaxing atmosphere in which students feel confident, even if that means working on a lower level than the one the student is supposed to have. Little by little students become confident and feel ready to take any challenge. Speak clearly and repeat as many times as needed, even when the student is not asking for it, but you can tell they didn't quite understand, because of their facial expressions. Be patient and smile, and get the student to know it is fine to commit mistakes and make them realize they are the "owners" of the lesson, so it is you, the teacher, who must reach their expectations... and excel them whenever it is possible. Don't take anything for granted, and ask your students for their needs, goals, and desires. (From Concha)
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Mariela
Teaches Spanish Professional Teacher |
Students feel motivated when I let them know the topics that we are going to study in the upcoming months and I give them the order in which we are going to study them. The students like to have a program of the topics they are going to study with me. (From Mariela)
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Irene
Teaches Spanish Professional Teacher |
Students can be influenced by their mother tongue or other languages they know. Depending on each country, they have different problems when pronouncing. Chinese students have a hard time pronouncing the "rr". Practice as much as possible with them and give them audio to work with in their spare time to improve pronunciation on their own. Always motivate your students and in no case make them feel bad for their mistakes. The best advice I can give is to study the language by yourself. It will help you a lot to understand how your students feel and will make you improve as a teacher. (From Irene)
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Olivia Teaches Spanish and Japanese Professional Teacher |
Most of my students are fast learners but they also struggle to speak fluently because of their shyness. Effective strategy consists of conversational lessons based on their hobbies or motivations. A desirable topic in which the student has plenty of knowledge will keep their spirits high enough to enjoy the class and learn new things at the same time. (From Olivia)
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Berna FCO. RGUEZ.
Teaches Spanish Professional Teacher |
If I get the student relaxed, much of the work is already done. Therefore, the first rule in my classes is "no stress" and the second "relax." Another thing I do is to celebrate a lot any achievement a student gets, however small. From our own experience, it is important to be aware that no matter how small the step, at least we are moving forward. I always avoid talking about stereotypes (unless the class is focused in that regard) and personal questions. I try to be interested in how you know your life and life in the place where you live, habit. I think a good teacher should be patient, empathetic and motivating. (From Berna)
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Jara H. Quijada
Teaches Spanish Professional Teacher |
One of the situations that we must avoid is the loss of motivation. And I do not speak only of the motivation of the student, but that of the teacher. We are essential in the teaching process. If we are not motivated, how will our students be? But how can we find the necessary motivation to continue teaching students with whom we have been teaching for years? For me the answer is clear: your class is the only thing you do until the end of the class. I explain myself: close all the pages that do not have to do with the class, pay maximum attention to what the student tells you, make notes in a shared document, use materials that are interesting for the student, but also for you. Turn off your mobile! Don't give your classes in pajamas! Don’t let the comfort of the home environment distract you from giving your all in a professional manner. The student will notice. Apply a little mindfulness to your classes and you will see how your motivation is increasing. And as you are motivated, so your student will be too. (From Jara)
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Viviena
Teaches Spanish Community Tutor |
Teachers should focus on motivating our students and encourage them to live with the language on a daily basis based on their initial reason for learning the language. Give different classes and adapt to the improvements and changing needs of the student, so that each student learns at their own pace and in their best way. (Viviena)
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Léa
Teaches French Professional Teacher |
With my students, I used a variety of media ranging from interactive websites to app's and books. Of all the supports, the books remain the most effective and particularly those of the publisher "Editions CLE International". Although I strive to produce innovative learning tools, my students and I remain faithful to this series of books. (From Léa)
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Shirin Ayazi Teaches French and Farsi Professional Teacher |
Students from Russia are more persistent, they do everything they can to succeed and never give up their learning. Therefore, whenever I have a reservation from a Russian student, I am happy to know that it will be a more productive and serious course. (From Shirin)
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Béa
Teaches French Professional Teacher |
Asians really like to do exercises. There are many parents who book lessons for their children. (From Béa)
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Sylvia from France
Teaches French Professional Teacher |
Japanese are rather reserved and discreet on these points. Talking about yourself is not polite in Japan, as I discovered a little later. Imagine my first conversation lessons with my first Japanese student: It was a nightmare! "Could you tell me about your last vacation?” »Answer« “It was good! “But still ?” »Answer« “It was cool.” Not easy to last an hour with such succinct answers. To finally succeed in conversing with my Japanese students, but also with some other more introverted students, I had to stay on neutral ground. For example: describing a photo, a landscape telling a film or a book explaining to me the content of an article or a video (without them having to give an opinion), talking about Japanese culture, talking about the differences that 'there is between France and Japan (or another country), and making a game like crosswords or cut words. I have also talked about myself on certain occasions and told an anecdote or an experience. So, little by little, through their passions and the confidence that was building up, I was able to get them to talk a little more about them and their experiences and thus broaden our subjects of conversation. (From Sylvia)
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Julie
Teaches French Professional Teacher |
Students of Spanish origin, South America, it rolls "the r", and difficulty of pronunciation of the "I" Students of German origin, difficulty to conjugate the verbs Pupils of Korean origin, Japanese, Chinese, African difficulty of articulate the words. Solution: gradually correct these pronunciation errors through games, so that the student is not too aware of its difficulty. It is important not to dwell on these mistakes, which can frustrate and demotivate the student. It is also the accent brought by a foreign person to the French language which is magnificent in the learning of the language. (From Julie)
Other Language Teachers
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Daniela
Professional Teacher Teaches German |
Chinese students are often used to learning grammar and memorizing vocabulary but are unable to express their opinion openly. They often tell me what is a correct and appropriate answer and rarely contradict me. If they learn German because they intend to move to Europe to attend university or find a job, I discuss these cultural differences with them by explaining to them that in Germany, it's common and in certain situations expected to express our opinion and have discussions with colleagues, superiors or university professors. In that way, they know what to expect and start expressing their opinions. (From Daniela)
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MuRong
Professional Teacher Teaches Chinese |
In the lesson, it is better to have a circle: Learn, practices, revision and application. I will do lots of preparation before the lesson to create lesson materials. (From Murong)
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Cara Sue
Community Tutor Teaches Chinese |
As a teacher, I always chat with my new student what's their goal for learning Chinese, and what's the motivation to keep learning Chinese, help my student understand the process of learning a language is very important. I always share good materials such podcast with article and good Youtube Channel such as Litao Chinese & Yoyo Chinese is very suitable for beginner to learn Pinyin system. 慢速中文 is good resource for reading. I share my experience for learning language such as plan the schedule for study, such as I learn Korean three times a week and take class once a week. (From Cara)
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Desi
Professional Teacher Teaches Italian |
The students learn by doing. They must do things with their target language. They must be the protagonists of the lesson and the teacher must work to improve their learning autonomy. To make this work you must use authentic material with high motivating potential for the students. Follow a good syllabus—you can't go ahead without a plan and a program. All the good textbooks are the result of hard work on acquisition phases, lexical corpora and certification levels. So to say "Textbooks are boring and I will not use them" is a very superficial point of view. We just must use them in the right way. (Desi)
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