Teaching Guidelines

Be Patient
 Smile and Be Patient
 Smile when you speak as it affects your vocal intonation
 It lessens the tension during the lesson because you'd look more
approachable to the student.
 Tone of Voice
 Be more patient and encouraging to the student.
 Don’t sigh and sound bored
 Avoid being sarcastic, having demanding tone or sound rude or annoyed
 When correcting students, mind the intonation
 Correct students in a not condescending way.
 Do not directly tell students that they are wrong. You may give your students
with a positive tone by acknowledging his effort.
 Avoid Inappropriate Action
 Laughed with the student, not at them.
 Make sure that your student understands why you are laughing. They can be really
sensitive and might interpret your laughter as a sign of insult because they are not
good enough in speaking the language.
 Do not criticize them outright; use the sandwich method in giving feedback and
commend them when necessary.
 Don’t raise you voice at the student. Instead of repeating the question or statement,
rephrase it using simpler words or phrases for better comprehension.
 Attitude
 Apologize or excuse yourself when you cause the student any trouble or
interruption during the lesson.
 Teach based on the reserved material.
 Student-Centered Class and
Adjusted to Student’s Proficiency
Level
 Give student an opportunity to speak
and encourage the student to talk more
 Teacher Talk Time Vs Student Talk Time
 Ask more open-ended questions
 Give your student time to understand and compose a sentence. You may
slowly guide your student making one but not giving him/her the answer.
 Utilize visual aids, gestures and other resources. Use the chat box at all times.
 Focus on the Language Goal
 Guide the student in meeting the lesson objective.
 Use the chosen material of your student. If the student chooses to have a
free talk lesson, you still have to use the topic from the lesson material and
expound it.
 Discussion should be about the lesson topic. Use one topic at a time and just
expound it later on. Jumping from one topic to another will confuse your
student.
Effectively Correcting Grammar and
Pronunciation Mistakes
Consistent Corrective Feedback
 Listen carefully to the student and type down the mistakes. Focus not only
on the mispronounced words but the grammatically incorrect sentences.
 Be consistent in correcting the student's error to prevent them from making
the same mistakes again.
 Correct Student’s Mistakes
Properly
 Be mindful of your tone of voice and facial expression when correcting the student.
 Sound positive and encouraging
 Commend the students for expressing their ideas. Tell them specifically what they
need to improve on and suggest a better way of conveying their ideas.
 Have a dictionary open to help you teach correct pronunciation to your students.
 It is also important to enunciates words well when speaking so your students will
also do the same.
• Not all students prefer to be corrected promptly, some would like their
teacher to point out their mistakes at the end of the lesson and some prefer
to just see their teacher's correction in the lesson memo.
• It is not advisable to cut the student off mid-sentence as it interrupts their
train of thought and it becomes difficult for them to continue with what they
have to say.
• Always make sure that you know the student's correction preference before
you begin the lesson.
 Give Performance Feedback
 Wrap the lesson up properly. Have a short recap of the lesson then an
overall performance feedback.
 Provide the specific good points and areas for improvement. Refrain from
giving generic feedback. Give concrete learning suggestions.
Knowledge Expansion
 Ask Comprehension Questions
 Manage the time well. Anticipate how long does a question would last.
 Base your extended questions according to your students answer. Consider
that some students are not content based. They want to be asked questions
that will make them talk more.
 Be Coherent in Asking Follow-Up
Questions
 Coherence should be done in manner from the easiest to the most complex one.
The importance of asking coherent questions is to prepare the student to the topic.
 Don’t veer away from the main discussion or topic
 Asking questions that are not coherent will make your student confuse and have a
perception that you lack of structure or you don't have a lesson plan.
 Keep in mind that in order for your conversation to be productive, you have to ask
sensible follow up questions that are appropriate to the topic. Avoid asking
irrelevant questions that could sidetrack the flow of your discussion.
 Level-Appropriate Follow Up
Questions
 Teachers should be knowledgeable of the differences of the level of their
students. That's your first step to being a flexible teacher. You must know
how to assess your student's level first through listening to students when
they speak.
 Consider that the level of difficulty of your questions should be in line with
the level of the student. And the words that you're going to use should level
appropriate. Simplify each of your word as much as you can.
 Avoid Too Personal Questions
 We all have our different beliefs, opinions and traditions that we have to
respect.
 Do not ask questions about civil status, religion, politics may lead to a debate
or simply will make your student lose interest when you merely stating your
opinion that is opposite to them.
 These topics are sensitive ones and most of them are not comfortable
discussing them. Therefore, you should not discuss these at all especially
when you have just met the student.
Complete Focus on the Class
 Actively Listen to the Class
 Active listening shows that you are respecting your student's time and that
you show how professional you are.
 Always acknowledge your student's comment by paraphrasing or simply
nodding, or use small verbal comments like yes, “uhuh”.
 You should practice active listening by focusing only to what your student is
saying.
 Drop everything that is distracting you from your class. Most importantly,
listen to your student's body language.
 Avoid Distractions
 Avoid playing games, using your mobile or talking to anyone in your
household to avoid distracting your student during class
 It is imperative that you should always prepare ahead of time. That includes
checking if it's the right material you will use and downloading it prior to
your lesson
 Do not say "I don't know" because it would make your students think that
you are a passive teacher and your student would most likely feel disregarded.
 The lesson should not be compromised by you by being pre-occupied typing
for the Lesson Memo. What you can do is do a paraphrase of the wrong
sentence of your students while typing it in the chat box. Students are visual
learners and it will be easier for them to be corrected when they see that you
are typing your correction in the chat box, therefore, you also have a proof
that you are typing for a purpose.
 Utilize Resources
 Use the DELAYING TECHNIQUE when you get caught by a question
that you don't know
 Ask clues like where and when did you hear it? Who said it? and while you're
student is answering those questions, search the answer on GOOGLE or
other resources
 Ask Contextual Clues
 Have the creativity to make a fun learning atmosphere to the student.
 Incorporate your lesson with a game. You may give out contextual clues to your
students by giving them hints to what the correct answer is. This would make them
feel challenged. You may also provide a reward once they've guessed the right
answer.
 Before proceeding to the next activity you need to make sure if the student has
understood what you've discussed. You may ask Checking Comprehension
Questions this would test if the student has learned something from you.
Simplify Explanations
Avoid Complex Sentence Structures
 The lesson should be a student centered
 Consider the student's level and use words that are only meant or suitable for
his level.
 In this case, you will be able to help the student to hit the target language
because you were FLEXIBLE enough to use words that he can only
understand.
 Don’t Read Dictionary’s Description,
Jargon and Technical Terms
 Explain the word in a simplest manner
 Use the Communicative Language Teaching Approach which means you
are going to provide opportunities for learners to learn the language by citing
examples that are connected to their daily routines.
Engaging Learning Atmosphere
 Level Appropriate Vocabulary
 Use level appropriate words.
 instead of using "come across" you may use the word "find" "see" new
words that you can use when you are in a meeting.
 Use simple sentences when giving instructions and explanations. Use your
own words and examples instead of directly reading it from the material or
other reference.
 It would be best if you say, let's read the dialogue / lets do a role play using
this dialogue then we'll do question and answer later about what we read.
 Do not be too content-based
 It would be best if you ask question where in the student will be able to use the
words you discussed during the lesson instead of moving on to the next activity or
exercise.
 Make use of wh-questions or yes no questions to confirm whether the student
understands the lesson.
 Ask comprehension check up questions about the dialogue before moving forward.
 Instead of instructing the student to make his sentence using the vocabulary
discussed in the lesson it would be best to ask questions which you think your
student will be able to use some of the words tackled.
 Build Rapport
 Acknowledge how the student feels on the day of the lesson
 Ask questions related to the topic to establish a comfortable atmosphere
instead of going straight to the topic.
 Be Engaging and Enthusiastic
 Avoid dead air by listening to your students attentively as it will help you give comments to whatever it is that
they share in class.
 Acknowledge student’s response. Give a bit of your opinion or your idea when your student explains
something or make use of some encouraging words
 Also instead of replying “uh..yeah”, it would be best if you show some corrections or revised sentence from
his answers explaining why it should have been that way.
 Facial expression and body language can help teachers and students develop a way of understanding the way
each other thinks, believes, acts and perceives things. It would be best if you show your students that you are
interested and happy to teach them by smiling.
 Be consistent in displaying enthusiasm. We should always make sure that we know how to balance our
emotion and control your energy. When you are very energetic first half of the class then lose energy the
other half your class will totally be a mess. Make sure that everything is balance and in control.
 Manage Time Well
 Be mindful of the time.
 If you will be late, explain why to let the student know what happened
instead of just apologizing then going straight to the lesson
 Avoid wandering away from the topic that may lead to a misunderstanding or
confusion.
 Make sure that you have a timer in front of you so that you can adjust the
pace of the lesson to make time for corrections and feedback.