7 great strategies on how to teach ESL

There are many ways to teach students as each individual has their own way of learning, we have compiled seven great strategies to teach your ESL class.

Visual

This type of teaching involves using pictures, images and spatial understanding as the preferred education media for visual learners. Students that learn better via visual stimuli are your detailed note takers, think in pictures and learn best-using techniques such as visual displays, slide shows, posters, clips and other visual tools.

Sometimes, simple things like writing an outline of your grammar lesson on the board will also satisfy your visual learners’ desire to take notes and capture everything in their own creative and vivid manners.

Aural

Auditory learners rely primarily on music and sound for their learning. These students often best acquire knowledge through verbal lectures, discussions and mini-presentations. While your auditory learners are perfectly content with you giving a 60-minute lecture, adding songs and movies into your lesson this can also be helpful in engaging with your non-auditory students.

Verbal

These are students who learn best through words regardless of whether they are communicated in speech or writing. When learning something new, students who belong to this category prefer hearing a detailed explanation overviewing a physical, visual demonstration.

Physical

Your hyperactive students may simply be your curious kinesthetic learners who prefer using their body, hands and sense of touch to explore the world. These students tend to have trouble sitting for long periods of time, but with the right strategy, you may be able to enthral these energizer bunnies.

Logical

These students prefer using logic, reasoning and systems. You may find them to have a keen sense for numbers, sequence association and problem-solving.

Social

Group learning streamlines the learning experience of social/interpersonal learners. They are quite verbal and are always anxious to apply what they have learned in interactive settings.

Solitary

As the name suggests, these kinds of students are your quiet angels who can work alone with minimal directions from the teacher. Oftentimes mistaken as the shy ones of the classroom, solitary learners can be quite extroverted when given the opportunity.