Those who teach face many challenges and difficulties every day in the classroom. These problems can be compounded by language barriers for those who work with children and adults who are learning English as a second language. As our world becomes smaller and cities become more multicultural, our schools have to find ways of working with children from all backgrounds. However, fun and innovative teaching methods are making the task easier for educators on the front lines. In this article, we will share some tips from experienced teachers who truly know how to reach out to their students.

Adequate preparation time is essential for instructors. When planning how to teach the material in the curriculum, they must think about the needs of the students and how those needs can best be met. For example, when teaching adults, the material should reflect usage in real life situations. Instead of using repetition drills and echoing as a teaching method, have the students role play common situations, like ordering a meal in a restaurant or asking for directions. Instructors set the tone for the room, so exercises that are light and funny will help the students to feel less self conscious.

Visual aids are a very effective tool for teachers. That is why children’s preschool and middle school books come with bright illustrations. Try using flash cards around your classroom to identify items like chairs, desks, walls, cups, or paper. By frequently seeing the word, the student will memorize its meaning and spelling. You can also create visual aids with fun activities like making a picture dictionary. Have students cut pictures out of magazines. Use categories which complement your program of study, like food, furniture or colors. Encourage students to add to their dictionaries whenever possible.

Reading out loud to students is critical in order for them to gain language proficiency. This is how they will master pronunciation. English language teaching facilitators should read out loud in a clear voice and speak slowly. For particularly difficult words, over enunciate until it becomes clear to the students. Watching television with the closed captioning turned on is also as excellent exercise. Have the students listen closely to how the words are said. English can be tricky because there are so many silent letters. Hearing the words being said while seeing them spelled out will help students to make the link between the two.

Repetition is essential to learning to speak English fluently, but it doesn’t have to be mind numbingly boring. Teachers should try to find new and interesting ways to teach the syllabus because students will ultimately pay more attention during class and will take the time to study English at home. As instructors prepare their lessons, they should think about ways to include visual aids, pop culture and other tools that are of human interest. How about making sandwiches to teach students the English words for a variety of foods? Or, print lyrics off the internet and sing along to hit songs to learn some new words. These are all ways to get students to laugh and enjoy the experience of learning the most popular language in the world.

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Duration : 0:0:7

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OfficeMax Partners With Adopt-a-Classroom For "A Day Made Better, "Driving Community Action To End $4 Billion "Teacher-Funded Classroom" Spend

One thousand teachers at 1,000 schools across the United States will be surprised with in-class ceremonies featuring more than $1 million worth of donated school supplies (nearly $1,200 worth per school) on October 2, as OfficeMax® Incorporated (NYSE:OMX) kicks off its "A Day Made Better" campaign to eliminate "teacher-funded" classrooms. Due to budget shortfalls, teachers are now forced to spend nearly $4 billion annually out of their own pockets (an average of $1,200 per teacher) for basic classroom supplies.

Duration : 2 min 29 sec

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(I submitted this for a school ignment and thought I’d share it with everyone for thoughts/comments, if any.)

Since the founding of Singapore, English has been the medium of instruction in schools for a largely pragmatic purpose as described by then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in his National Day Rally Speech, We learn English in order to communicate with the world. The fact that we use English gives us a big advantage over our competitors (Goh, 1999). This denotes the key role that the English language has played in helping Singapore attain her level of success in the world today.

In recent years, however, politicians have decried falling standards of English in Singapore, the solution being a push to encourage Singaporeans to adopt a Standard form of English. This has been apparent not only in campaigns such as the Speak Good English Movement, but also reinforced in political messages from our leaders, causing scholars like Chng (2003) to remark on a speech by then-Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew that [t]he intention and the power of policy makers to manipulate and shape a specific linguistic reality in Singapore is clearly evident (p. 48). Then again, this statement begs the question of: how much of the impoverished linguistic reality that has been painted thus far is really true?

The falling standards of English might be a paradigm we have to move away from, for as Gupta (2001) argues,

its easy to be misled by Singapores political discourse of failure when a Singaporean politician bemoans a decline in the standards of English it should never be forgotten that there has been an immense rise in the standards (and use) of both.

Deterding (2007) reinforces the argument for the rise in standards by stating that figures from the Ministry of Education showexam results in English language have been gradually but consistently improving among the population as a whole (pp. 91 92). Nevertheless, the increase in the use of the English language could be the key to the perception of why standards of English have been falling: the majority of the population might simply not be equipped to use Standard English, and I suggest that this is very much a consequence of their learning environment.

Although the majority of Singaporeans pick up the use of conversational English through communication with their friends or their family, the strictures and structures of English are learnt during English lessons in school. However, I dare say that it is also in schools that Singaporeans unlearn the standard use of English, due in part to teachers of other academic subjects who may unknowingly impart one or two linguistic idiosyncrasies to unsuspecting students.

My proposed solution to this requires another paradigm shift, but this time, in terms of the teaching of English: since the English language is the medium of instruction in all Singapore schools, let us not view English teaching as the sole responsibility of the English teacher, but as a shared responsibility by all teachers. My vision to achieve this is for all pre-service teachers of non-English academic subjects to also undergo English Language Content Enhancement, so that they can also attain a certifiable standard of English, in order to improve standards of English in oral communication across the board.

Though some might deem this proposal as an idealistic recommendation, I beg to differ; I think this is a recommendable idea for the teaching of the English language in Singapore, which will, hopefully, become a reality one day.

Thank you.

Bibliography
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Chng, H. H. (2003). You see me no up: Is Singlish a problem? Language Problems and Language Planning, 27(1), 45 62.

Deterding, D. (2007). Singapore English. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.

Goh, C. T. (1999). Prime Ministers National Day Rally Speech. Retrieved 12 Sep 2008, from the National Archives of Singapore website: http://stars.nhb.gov.sg/stars/public/viewPDF.jsp?pdfno=gct19990822a.pdf .

Gupta, A. F. (2001, Jun). English in the linguistic ecology of Singapore. Paper presented at the GNEL/MAVEN Conference The Cultural Politics of English as a World Language, Freiburg. Retrieved 13 Sep 2008 from A. F. Guptas webpage: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg/freiburg.doc .

Duration : 0:3:20

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