Interactive Class.

The traditional environment in a classroom constantly has the teacher at the whiteboard and occasionally looks at over student’s shoulder to finally criticize their work.

At the beginning it seems no sense since we were taught to teach a language with an apparently failed academic system that never helps teachers to learn how to teach a language when they are at school and force them to do wrong things and completely different.

Without exception, we should teach entirely in English, even with those that begin a course because this forces them to communicate in English, rather than seing the language as list of rules. Many traditional academic courses teach English through the mother tongue of the student or who learn, which makes it more artificial and less like means of communication. We absolutely have to use the language way more than just occasionally.

Talking about grammar,  it is recommended to teach it using examples or discussing cases or giving them real life cases, so that will give the sense that there is not really grammar because at least you are  a grammarian, grammar boring. It must be taught, but in a communicative context as some suggestions were given in methodology. DO NOT forget to make fun classes, when you take teaching away from the blackboard and copybooks and replace them for games, puzzles, competitions, activities, interesting assignments, among others, rather than a simple homework it adds important vocabulary along the way and help to correct mistakes that they would make; learning process is more effective, and your students will be more able to participle in class because it is fun and those strategies work perfectly for children and adults.

No matter how small the achievement is, encourage your students to participate and congratulate them on their efforts. If a correction is needed, do not embarrass your students, it makes them feel stupid and they suffer about a marking system that emphasizes their mistakes rather than their progress. Finally, the most important thing is that learning English can be fun and not all is about mistakes and feeling stupid, grammar or vocabulary. It’s up to you!