10 ESL Teaching Strategies That Successfully Motivated My Students To Reach

The Next Level

We ESL teachers stick with our students through thick and thin.
For better or for worse.
Alright, maybe were not married to our students, but were definitely
committed to their success.
So, what to do when your students start to despair?
If your awesome in-class learning games cant get the job done, you might not
have anywhere left to turn.
Wondering how to keep your ESL students motivated and determined to
overcome serious linguistic obstacles?
Whenever Im asked about strategies for teaching ESL students, I always think
back to my experience with Mayda.
Mayda is a former student of mine who had become utterly discouraged by her
slow progress towards English fluency. Over many years, shed done an
outstanding job building her vocabulary, improving her grammar skills and
increasing her reading fluency. Still, with all that progress, it seemed like the
homestretch was the most difficult phase for her.
No matter how much time she spent studying, reading and speaking the English
language, fluency did not come nearly as easily as shed anticipated.

As Maydas teacher, I knew how determined she was to master English. Shed
invested in quality language classes and was one of the most hard-working and
motivated students in my class. She studied relentlessly and always came to
class on time, prepared and with a positive attitude.
In all honesty, I dreamed of cloning her on several occasions.
Nevertheless, I could certainly understand how falling short of her personal
goals, despite all her hard work, could be both frustrating and discouraging
enough to affect her desire to carry on with English.
Hang in there this story has a happy ending. Mayda fueled my motivation to
create more effective strategies for my ESL students, and now Im going to
share these strategies with you and your students.
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10 ESL Teaching Strategies That Successfully Motivated My Students To

Reach The Next Level
Now, to figure out the right teaching strategies, I knew I needed to understand
exactly what the problem with Mayda was.
As we discussed the roadblocks she faced, Mayda told me about the language
learning strategies she used outside of class. To my dismay, I learned that this
time consisted of completing textbook assignments and studying the text
materials and resources from class.
Ugh.

Although Mayda was determined and consistent with her study time, textbook
study isnt meant to be the sum of a students outside learning practice, and it
alone was certainly not what Mayda needed to achieve her goals.
Im pretty much ashamed to say that, until then, Id never truly focused on my
students learning strategies outside of school. As teachers, we tend to
concentrate on how we can help students in class, but we oftentimes neglect
giving them tools to continue learning the language when they leave the
classroom.
This is unfortunate because, for many students, the majority of their practice
time happens at home and within their communities. We cant argue the
importance of teaching our students strategies they can use to maximize their
learning opportunities outside of class.
This was the basis for my new set of foolproof teaching strategies. They hone in
on the intersection of classroom teaching and outside study, and can make a
huge difference in your students attitudes towards learning English.
1. Get yourself in the right mindset: Classroom learning vs. outside
practice.
After my discussion with Mayda, I had to reevaluate what I was doing to make
sure my students were making the most of ALL their practice time. As teachers,
we cant assume that students know how to practice effectively or even see the
importance of doing so. From that point on, I began seeing myself not only as a
teacher but as an English learning advisor as well!
You have to create a holistic English learning experience which extends outside
the classroom and into every corner of your students lives. This outlook
certainly changed the way I approached teaching, and ultimately helped many of

my students to take their English speaking and listening abilities to the next
level.
2. Create in-class strategies that effectively translate to outside practice.
Sure, our primary responsibility is classroom instruction. Most of us have no
interest in following our students everywhere they go. Its useful to focus on inclass strategies and ideas that simultaneously benefit students outside the
classroom.
Although some of these ideas may seem obvious to us as teachers, we have to be
explicit about teaching them to our students. As you incorporate the following 8
ideas on the list, remember to make no assumptions about your students basic
knowledge of language acquisition. Remember, they arent professionals. YOU
are!
3. Take the time to teach students basic principles in second language
acquisition.
Studies show that over 80% of language learning students have misconceptions
about what it takes to actually learn a second language. Unfortunately, those
misconceptions usually translate to ineffective learning strategies.
For instance, some students believe that learning a new language simply entails
acquiring a large amount of new vocabulary in the target language. Because of
this, they focus their practice time on learning new words and are unaware that
vocabulary acquisition is an ineffective learning strategy all on its own. While
they need not be experts, equipping your students with a basic understanding of
the process of learning English will ensure that their practice time is effective
and grounded in sound language learning practices.
4. Use technology to garner motivation and student interest.

Research clearly indicates that motivation is a huge factor in a students ability

to learn a second language. I mean, thats just common sense, right? Some
students may come to your class intrinsically motivated and require very little
from you to build interest. Others will require a large degree of extrinsic
motivation, and you may need to be creative to find out what excites them.
To make your job easier, experts have identified common motivating factors that
generally apply to different age groups. For instance, tweens and teens may be
motivated by the prospect of socializing with English speaking peers, while
adults may be motivated by the prospect of acquiring a new job. Whatever the
motivation, todays technology has a vast variety of resources and tools to build
on that interest.
Talk to students about changing their Facebook or Instagram profiles into
English, instead of leaving them in their native language. Play entertaining
English language video clips that are targeted to your students age
groups. FluentUs awesome English language video collection contains clips
from news channels, cartoon programs, YouTube, MTV and more youre
bound to find something that your particular students will enjoy. Have the
grown-ups browse English language career boards as homework. Have the kids
send English language Tweets. Not matter what age group youre teaching,
technology can be a true interest builder that students can use outside of the
classroom.

5. Set realistic expectations and goals, early and regularly.

One of the largest factors in Maydas frustration was her unrealistic expectation
of how long it would take her to learn to speak English fluently. Simply
examining those expectations and re-establishing her short and long term goals
did wonders for her self-confidence.
After my experience with Mayda, goal-setting is now an integral part of my time
spent with beginning students. Setting 1-3 realistic goals and tweaking them
along the way can assure students that theyre on the right track, redirect them
when needed and avoid the anxiety that makes language learning unnecessarily
difficult. Furthermore, goal-setting worksheets allow students to outline clear
plans while giving them an opportunity to practice writing and planning skills.
6. Give students explicit instructions and ideas on strategies they can use at
home.
As teachers, we often assume that our students have a basic understanding of
English learning strategies. Because of this, we may give students general
guidelines and strategies instead of being explicit and providing much needed
examples. Remember that your students dont have the training or pedagogical
background that you do, nor have they spent countless hours studying language
acquisition.
One tidbit of advice that I gave to Mayda was to make sure that she spent a lot
of time thinking in English. But that advice in and of itself was not enough. If I
expected her to really put my advice into practice, I had to specifically give her
examples of ways in which she could incorporate this into her daily life.
I gave her specific strategies for thinking in English. For example, I explained
how she could try narrating her daily activities and routines in her mind in
English. I also recommended websites such

aswww.newsela.com and www.newsinlevels.com to help her immerse herself in

news and current events that are on the minds of English speakers. That way, she
could read articles at her level of English, reflect on the topics and form
opinions about them. This was one tangible way that I advised her to make sure
that she was thinking in English outside of the classroom.
7. Set up English speaking peer groups.
We know that, in order to learn a language, students have to practice speaking to
others in authentic situations. Setting up peer groups is one fun way to facilitate
and encourage this. Just as content area teachers assign group projects pertaining
to their content area, ESL teachers can assign group projects with the goal of
increasing the amount of time students spend in meaningful communication
outside of class.
As with any group project, you should be purposeful in how students are
grouped in order to achieve the maximum benefit. Also, there should be some
sort of final product as well as several smaller ones along the way to give
students the opportunity to demonstrate what theyre doing and learning. These
products will also allow you to adequately supervise, assess and advise them
along the way.
The Teaching Channel has a short video that discusses Project Based Learning
(PBL) and cooperative learning for ESL learners. You can also find specific
ideas for projects here!
8. Build and maintain a classroom library.
Reading teachers understand that reading as much as possible is a major key to
improving reading fluency. This is also true for gaining reading fluency in
another language. Unfortunately, not all students will have access to English

books at their level, and others will need assistance in choosing books that are
appropriate for their specific reading levels and interests.
Building and maintaining a classroom library is one way to make sure your
students have access to an adequate amount of reading materials for at-home
reading practice. Accessing virtual libraries like Open Library andLit2Go is
another option to consider, especially if your resources are limited.
9. Decrease Teacher Talking Time (TTT).
As a teacher of English language learners, you probably know all the research
regarding decreasing TTT and ensuring that student talking time is maximized.
The research behind this is substantial to say the least, and I dare not attempt to
touch on all of it here. However, I do want to point out that the more
opportunities you give your students to speak in class, the more likely it is that
theyll be using the language as often as possible outside of the classroom.
By maximizing student talking time, youre demonstrating to your students that
they have an active role to play in conversation and English learning as a whole.
With that idea instilled in them, theyre more likely to play a more active role in
learning the language outside of your classroom.
10. Make your classroom speaking and listening experiences as authentic as
possible.
Some experts wholeheartedly believe that, when it comes to language learning,
the words classroom and authentic are incompatible. This is probably true in
many situations. However, I do think that its possible to strategically
incorporate authentic speaking and listening time into your lessons AND meet
your learning objectives at the same time.

The key to this is pretty simple: build opportunities for your students to talk
about things that interest them. This will show them that youre interested in
what they have to say and what they like. Maintain a positive and encouraging
atmosphere for these experiences to take place and dont be afraid to get off
track (you can always get back on track later). After all, the overall goal isnt for
the students to learn scripts or how to answer questions correctly. We want them
to ultimately be comfortable with spontaneous, authentic communication. The
way to get there is to you guessed it! practice spontaneous, authentic
communication!
Embrace and look positively on your role as an instructor and English learning
advisor. Simply by being conscious of your classroom effectiveness and making
small changes accordingly, you can be confident that youre giving your
students the tools to continue their English learning journey wherever they are.
As for Mayda, she is now employed with an American company and only speaks
English at her job. According to her, the changes she made in her study
methods outside the classroom made all the difference in helping her meet her
goals.
But dont take our word for it! Try these strategies out in your own classroom
and see what your students make of it.