The first time you stand in front of a classroom full of EFL students can be a daunting experience! All the faces are looking at you, waiting for you to improve their English language skills. That can feel like an enormous responsibility and your first thought might be: quick run! But fear not – you have the skills, the training and the knowledge – you just need to calm down enough to remember it all.
Take a deep breath and don your teacher’s hat. You can sail smoothly through the first lesson as an EFL teacher and impress your students – or at least you’ll be able to pass through unscathed, ready to teach the next lesson! Here are a few tips for EFL teachers to help you on that first day.
7 Tips for New EFL Teachers
1. Think Positive
The thoughts running through your head can often be read on your face – so think positive and smile. Just by smiling and relaxing you will help the students relax, which should help you relax too.
Try to focus on the main aspects to begin with, such as feeling at home in the EFL classroom, talking slowly and clearly, writing clearly on the blackboard and being friendly.
Take it step by step and focus on the small things first. This is one of the very first tips for EFL teachers and it really works.
2. Get to Know Your Students
It’s important that you know the level of English of all your students. This is where the needs analysis comes in.
This need not be a formal questionnaire or anything so regimented, but can be simply asking questions aloud and getting the students talking to each other about their families or hobbies while you observe.
Once you’ve found out the English level of your students, it is much easier to feel confident planning your EFL lessons.
3. Be Friendly
This informal assessment of the English standard can also be a handy way to get to know the class on a friendly level and help everyone feel relaxed. Many tips for English language teachers forget this simple point – that being friendly can go a long way.
It’s a great idea to share some information about yourself at this stage. This personal touch can help to give the students ideas of points to talk about when discussing their own hobbies and interests.
Talking about yourself also helps to engage with the students on a friendly level and encourages the class to feel relaxed.
Don’t be afraid to make a few jokes about yourself to lighten the atmosphere. For example, ‘I like to cook but I always burn everything’ or ‘I play the trumpet, but I only practice when everyone else is out of the house because it sounds so bad!’
Something like this will build a friendly atmosphere, as well as give the students a chuckle. Tips for EFL teachers should always include a touch of self-deprecating humour!
Keep it light and don’t be afraid to laugh at yourself – image source
4. Do Your Preparation
This is related to getting to know the students. Because you might not know the English language abilities of the class, it is vital that you prepare some exercises that can work for different levels.
You might ask your students to write about their family, friends, school, work or interests, or they could ask each other questions verbally in pairs. This can work on different levels, for both advanced language students and beginners.
Students can talk in a simple way to state facts or discuss their interests in a more sophisticated way (e.g. simple: ‘I like football’ or more advanced: ‘I enjoy watching football on the TV and I play every weekend as a goal keeper’).
Remember, it’s great to keep the students talking and producing the language as much as possible.
5. Organise Your Equipment
One of the most important tips for EFL teachers is to make sure you organise your equipment before the class. So check that your blackboard or whiteboard is clean and ready to be used, or that it is full of your previously planned material.
Ensure you have pens or chalk, that you have enough photocopies of worksheets and that your tape recorder or CD player works properly.
It’s also a good idea to have a brief lesson plan or a few notes written down in case your mind goes blank. Oh and most importantly of all, don’t forget your own name – this is something you’ll want to tell your class at the start of the lesson!
Don’t forget your own name! – image source
6. Play Games
Games are always popular in the EFL classroom because not only are they fun, they are great ways to fill in a bit of time at the end of the class. They are also good standby options if you feel your students’ enthusiasm is waning. For example, bingo games are ideal for introducing new vocabulary or numbers.
Games perk up the class and work particularly well at the end of the lesson in order to help students practice the points discussed during the class. They are also ideal for filling up a spare 10 minutes at the end of the lesson.
For younger students, songs and simple poems are also great fun, while teaching English with nursery rhymes can also help students remember new words.
7. Remember: students are nervous too
However your first lesson goes, it will have gone better than you think. The next lesson will definitely be easier!
Always remember that students are nervous in your first lessons too, for reasons that are nothing to do with you.
Students have to meet a new teacher and demonstrate their own English language skills, so that can be daunting for them. By remembering that the other people in the room can also be nervous, you can put your own feelings into perspective.
You will only get better – and it can only get easier!
Whatever happens in your first EFL lesson, the lesson will always be useful to your EFL students as they get to listen to a native English speaker for the duration of the lesson.
This first lesson is great experience and the only way from here is onward and upward – towards better, easier, more relaxed teaching!
Share your thoughts
Do you have any tips for new EFL teachers?
How did you get through your first EFL lesson?
What are the 3 most important things to remember when teaching a new EFL class?
Share your thoughts in the comments!