Teacher Goals

Our goal is to teach our students to speak English, right? Of course, but as EFL teachers we have so many more goals than that. Well, to be more precise, the goal of teaching English can be broken down into many smaller goals. As teachers we can work to achieve these goals in our classrooms so as to help our students get even closer to their goal of speaking English. Here are four teacher goals you can strive for to do just that.

Encourage communication

The ultimate goal of our lessons is for our students to speak, understand and communicate in English with other speakers of English. We can try to encourage this in the classroom by creating an open and engaging atmosphere so our students feel comfortable enough to talk to their classmates. This means not only getting to know each other and having a chat but also cooperating and collaborating together to achieve their language goals.

Be an agent of change

Learning a language requires a great deal of commitment and dedication. It takes hours of exposure to the language and practising the language. When you think about it, students need to embrace the use of English outside the classroom and in their real lives, which can be quite tricky. It’s not easy to step outside your comfort zone and persevere in the face of such a daunting challenge. As a teacher, we need to try to provoke change in our students’ lives so they are motivated to take their English learning with them outside the classroom and incorporate the language into their daily lives, which will make the learning process feel more natural and comfortable. How you can do this is by personalising your lessons so your students can connect with the language.

Teach your students to learn

If we want our students to continue learning outside the classroom we need to give them the tools to do so. Doing grammar exercises and playing vocabulary games is not enough. Instead, we need to show our students how they can engage with English in a fun and meaningful way in their real lives. How you can do this is by using authentic materials. Show your students how they can understand newspapers, series and TED talks, for example, and they are more likely to utilise those after class. You can also show them useful apps and websites for learning purposes.

Arouse curiosity in your students

Curiosity is a sure path to learning. If you bring appropriate materials and activities into your classroom, your students will become interested in the language and more motivated to learn how to speak it and use it. You can do this by making sure the materials you use are relevant to your students. Doing a needs analysis will provide you with this necessary information.

Teaching people to speak English is no easy feat. However, it is necessary for teachers to think beyond the obvious goal of communication and focus on smaller teacher goals which will help our students progress further along their learning journey.