Gulmira Batyrkhanova
4Th year student
Multimedia technologies
Hello there, colleagues!
I remember the first time I had to teach a class full of teenagers who seemed very intimidating at the moment, but when I think about that experience I now feel nothing but pure joy since it went great because I found ways to make my classes fun!
It is essential to mention there were difficult situations related with both the preparation process or educational process itself… However, this is the reason why you are reading this information now – you are on your way to (I hope) learn something new and make sure you are ready to teach your first class using best of the internet and multimedia technologies!
Before we get started, you know that globalization is real and is happening, right? And thanks to its advantages we have the Internet full of available valuable information from all over the world. Therefore, we obviously cannot discard technology and its perks - especially when modern kids are so proficient in using those. Moreover, based on Edgar Dale’s Cone of Learning, on average, people remember:
10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, 50% of what they hear and see -> multimedia approach.
And hey! We all know it is more efficient to learn English in an English-speaking environment. But since we do not get to teach our students in an authentic environment it is crucial to build an atmosphere with the help of all the possible authentic materials.
In this section, I will focus on useful online teaching materials that I used during my internship; I will also give you some tips on how to help your students to improve English language and integrate multimedia technologies into teaching English!
1. Let’s start with reading skills where I suggest using current events for reading comprehension.
First of all, I personally recommend you to keep track of what is going on around the world that is to say, with the help of authentic language teaching materials that will literally put the world in your hands. Current event stories are some of the easiest materials to get your hands on for the foreign language classroom, thanks to modern technology. Many foreign language newspapers are available online, so you can access articles in just a few clicks.
For instance, The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/) is an excellent choice for American English, while British English is better sourced via The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/) or The Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/uk). Make sure you and your students read as much as possible in English in order to strengthen your knowledge of grammar and enrich your vocabulary. I also recommend reading BBC news (http://www.bbc.com/news) on a daily basis; and for better English language comprehension and inspiration check out TED Talks (https://www.ted.com/) + there is also a YouTube channel where you can watch all of their videos. Oh, and BBC radio 4 is my favorite – it is a great online radio station where you can listen to various stories, news on current events and simply listen to people speaking online using the language as it is and as if you are surrounded by native speakers.
Furthermore, finding suitable materials is only half the battle. It is important to organize you students by pairing materials with appropriate lessons and activities. Therefore, you can also use all of the above mentioned materials during teaching process.
For beginners, for example, it might be interesting to pick a very short article (100-200 words) and have them work together to summarize the article. As for more advanced (intermediate and upper-intermediate) students, you could ask them to respond to the article or even have a debate. Advanced students may be asked to write article review (an opinion piece reacting to the article).
Whatever lesson you choose, be sure that enough class time is devoted to explaining the directions of the assignment before asking students to work alone or in pairs. Start by passing the materials around and asking some general comprehension questions, for example:
Is this more a political or personal interest story?
What section of the paper do you think this article comes from?
Once you've done this, begin looking more closely at the article, either via comprehension questions or through class discussion. Once you’re sure that all of the students understand the article, you can then address the lesson you wish to teach and the assignment you intend to have your students complete.