Training teenagers to teach English

Last week IH London teacher and trainer Catriona spent a day showing twelve teenagers how to teach English. The teenagers were Sixth Formers at St Marylebone School in London with a special skill in common….they all are fluent in English AND at least one other language.

Learning how to use language skills

At St Marylebone School, these teenagers are members of an Interpreters Club. The club runs workshops to show pupils how they can use their language skills. The twelve pupils spent a day at IH London to learn more about teaching English. They will soon be teaching both children and adults as part of Marylebone School’s volunteering projects.

Catriona gave them an introduction to teaching skills and techniques to increase their confidence when they do it for real!

Introduction to English Language Teaching (ELT): What the pupils learnt

Classroom management

Catriona started the day with a group discussion about how to manage a class effectively which is perhaps the biggest challenge faced by any teacher!

- Catriona explained different techniques teachers can use to set up classroom activities and get feedback from students.
- The group looked at different scenarios and discussed what they’d do in each scenario.
- They then looked at how to handle difficult situations in class and strategies for dealing with them.

Setting up speaking activities

After the break, Catriona showed the pupils how to set up speaking activities. She showed them the different methods teachers can use to encourage students to speak up. For example:

- motivating and engaging the class in the topic,
- giving the class relevant language that they can use,
- using prompts,
- setting an objective.

Role play

The pupils got into groups of three with one person playing the teachers, and two playing the students, to practise these methods. They loved getting into the role of teacher, but realised how difficult it is to set up class activities at the same time!

Using the skills they’d learnt the pupils did their own speaking activity group task about planning a dream holiday. Afterwards Catriona showed them how she’d adapted this task from a course book - something the Sixth Formers could try doing.

Top teaching tips

Catriona ended the day by looking at language teaching and how to deal with student errors. She showed the Sixth Formers some of IH London’s teacher training videos which they loved.

Catriona finished with a summary of top tips for different teaching areas (classroom management, dealing with student errors, teaching language and speaking activities), which the pupils made into posters to take back and display in their school.

Putting language teaching skills into practice

The pupils will participate in two voluntary English teaching projects run by St Marylebone School. Some will teach primary school children who are learning English as an additional language, and others will help Marylebone School’s adult teachers to teach English to parents who need help with their English.

After their day at IH London, the pupils will also visit a London university to learn more about careers in interpreting.

Check back next week for an interview with Catriona about the rewards and challenges of training teenagers to teach English.