The best teacher is a teacher who makes students study!

What's up?

Some teachers teach all pages and all questions included in the textbook during their lessons. The teacher then may be teaching the same unit for 2 or 3 lessons, only going over the textbook's content. This is often not such a good idea, especially for students who come already prepared for each lesson. Many students leave our school to attend another offline school, or because their current offline academy gives them too much homework and they have no extra time. Most parents and students regard our teachers as just teachers for talking. So they look for a grammar or reading teacher outside our school. Of course we do not agree with this phenomenon. Instead, our teachers at EnglishAloud can take on a more important role, for example, as a lesson planner. In this case the teacher goes over reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and most importantly the teacher guides the student to study on their own as well as during their lesson. 

What is the goal?

 At this point, our status in Korea has been often as only providing a "talking teacher", when really we should be providing general English teachers. The end goal is to keep students reaching all their English goals easily and effectively so they continue coming to our school, instead of leaving for other private English academies. The level of the students' English should be much higher than when they started through taking lessons, so that we have a positive effect on the status of English learning in Korea. 

What can we do? 

An important role of the teacher is as the lesson planner. During the first lesson with a student, discuss with the student what pages or assignments they can do at home between lessons, and also what their goals are. Then, for each lesson, prepare a way to test the student on what they did at home. If they seem ready to move on, then you can continue with the student on new material. However, if they are having trouble, you know you need to review the material from the assignment. 

For example: you decide with the students that they can complete five pages of the book before the next lesson. During the next lesson, you test the student on the material in a way they could not do on their own (a discussion, for example). If the student does well maybe you can reward them with a fun video in English (or whatever the student enjoys most). 

This is beneficial to the students for many reasons. The students will study more because they know they will be tested during your lesson. Also, the student will be provided with a lesson that is perfectly matched to their level. It is more efficient and interesting. 

If there is a problem and the student feels they are using too many books (they will be going through them faster when doing more at home) then remember you can also use learning websites or other creative techniques to supplement. Although this is usually not a problem because parents are happy to buy books if their children are studying a lot and improving. Also, it is beneficial for the teachers to use the school's books, because they come to know them well as they use the same books for various students. Remember, you should always ask the student what they feel they can finish between lessons and come to an agreement together. 

The best teacher is a teacher that makes their students study outside their lesson. At this point, our status in Korea has been often as only providing a "talking teacher", when really we should be providing general English teachers. Each student has their particular needs with their English learning and we should be able to fill any of them. The teacher should get to know each student well, including their experience and interests with English, so that they can provide a fitting lesson for their students. It is okay to be "nice", but it is much more important to be a good teacher. Remember, the parents of the students are more critical than you may think. 

The principal behind this idea is that the student can learn more on their own if the teacher helps them manage their studies. This is what every teacher should do.