How to Teach Languages Online – Tips for Teachers

In this article you’ll find tips for teachers that were published in previous Newsletters. 

Tip Index

March 2016: Importance of feedback 

February 2016: Explaining the meaning of words and phrases without translating them 

January 2016 (2): Format for the First Lesson

January 2016: First Lesson Format 

December 2015: Checklist for first lesson with new students 

November 2015: Ten great ideas for H.W. assignments

September 2015: Charting individual progress in language course

August 2015: How to help students that have low expectations of themselves

July 2015: Input and output

June 2015: How to deal with students that think they know how you should teach them

May 2015: Fine tuning language skills of students that are already at an advanced level

April 2015: Practicing conversation

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March 2016: Importance of feedback 

Your students want to know what you think about their progress. For most of them, your feedback is the only accessible and reliable means by which to measure their success. Whether they bring it up or not, they’re interested in what you the teacher have to say about their vocabulary level, conversation skills, pronunciation, grammar, etc. So don’t be stingy when it comes to giving feedback, but do try to follow these general guidelines:

Try to give feedback every lessonWhenever possible incorporate something positive to be reinforced, with something that needs to be improved.   Example: “I’m happy to see you’re making more of an effort to do your H.W. assignments; it’s really making it easier to make progress during the lessons, instead of wasting so much time on reviewing the previous lesson’s material. I know it’s difficult, but keep it up, it’s really going to pay off in the near future. You are still making quite a lot of spelling mistakes, so please be careful about that and use the dictionary when necessary.”

At predetermined intervals (approx. every 5-10 lessons) have an in-depth feedback session in which you:

A-Shed light on the learning process as a whole and progress made thus far in relation to the overall goals of the course (as opposed to feedback related to a specific lesson or group of lessons). 

B-Give the student a chance to weigh in on the learning process, methods used, etc.

Be practical, not judgmental. Instead of blaming the student (“you’re not making progress because you’re lazy”), offer practical tools that if used properly can create positive momentum (“I know you’re very busy, but it’s important that you go over this material. I suggest that instead of trying to do it all in one go, try to commit to going over just one paragraph a day.”)  

Be honest! If you’re not, the student will know and your feedback won’t be worth anything at all.

Be sensitive. It’s easy to forget how much our students respect us as teachers and even want to impress us. Needless to say, they’ve invested many resources, including emotional resources, in learning the target language, so make sure you treat every student with respect and take into consideration their specific personality, needs, etc.

February 2016: Explaining the meaning of words and phrases without translating them 

Teachers who teach students with whom they share a common language know how tempting it can be to translate a word that the student doesn’t understand, as opposed to trying to explain the meaning using the target language.

Ask teachers who don’t speak their students’ mother tongue about this and they’ll tell you that it’s certainly a challenge, but far from impossible. More importantly, while trying to grasp the meaning of one word he’s not familiar with, the student is using many other words he does know and is therefore practicing conversational skills, which is in many cases the main goal of the course to begin with.

So what do we do when we come across an important word that the student doesn’t understand?

Let’s say we’re trying to explain the meaning of the word “refinance” in the sentence: My banker told me that I should refinance my mortgage in order to lower the interest rate I’m paying.

Step 1

What part of speech is the word?

In this case, the word refinance is a verb

What is the function of the prefix “re”?

To do something again.

Guess what the word has to do with in general? Does it have a negative, positive, or neutral connotation?

Something to do with money or banking. Neutral connotation.

Step 2

Describe the term as it would be explained in a dictionary (explanation, not translation), use synonyms and antonyms wherever possible.

To refinance = to replace an existing debt (money you owe) with a new one, under new conditions.

Step 3

Give a few examples of new sentences with the word and ask the student to think of a few, in order to make sure he or she really understands not only the meaning, but also how to properly use the word.

If I don’t refinance the loan, I won’t be able to go on vacation this year.

Since we refinanced our mortgage the level of stress at home has gone down dramatically.

It’s always tempting to refinance, but the banks aren’t giving anything away. They always end up getting more of your money out of you.

January 2016 (2): Format for the First Lesson

In our last Newsletter we outlined a checklist of questions you as a teacher should ask yourself during and after the first lesson with a new student. In response to that Newsletter a couple teachers asked for a recommended format for the first lesson. During the first lesson you want to create a personal relationship based on common goals and trust; and a professional framework based on an agreed upon strategy to realize the student’s goals.

Here’s a general format that can be used for first lessons with new students:

ü  Getting to know one another on a personal level (10 minutes) – Tell the student about yourself, family, work, hobbies, etc. Have the student tell you about herself.  Some students are shy, while others can keep on talking for hours if you let them. Be considerate of the student’s feelings, but don’t forget that you’re the teacher and therefore you’re in charge of setting boundaries when necessary. {This part can be a bit longer if the conversation is in the target language. If not, try to keep it short and sweet, in order to leave enough time for the other parts.}

ü  Why are we here? (5 minutes) – Ask the student to outline his goals in regards to the target language. Make sure you have a good understanding of why he wants to learn the language and what he wants to focus on during the course.

ü  Set expectations (10 minutes) – Set the ground rules for the lessons. Have the student articulate her expectations and concerns and then try to address them one by one. For example, if the student is worried that she won’t have enough time to prepare her homework, you could suggest dividing homework assignments into two categories, really important H.W. and H.W. that is less important.

ü   Start learning (20 minutes) – This is a really important part of the first lesson, because it gets the student used to the idea that there’s actual work to be done and it also motivates the student that sees that he’s already started the course and hasn’t just been talking about it.

ü  Give H.W. (5 minutes)– It’s important to get used to doing this from the very first lesson.

ü  Give feedback and ask for the student’s feedback regarding the first lesson (7 minutes)- Most students won’t mention anything negative, but you can induce an honest dialog by asking to hear one thing that went well and one thing that the student would like to change. Better yet, ask the student to write about it for H.W.  

ü  Don’t forget to schedule the next lesson (3 minutes)

 January 2016: First Lesson Format 

In our last Newsletter we outlined a checklist of questions you as a teacher should ask yourself during and after the first lesson with a new student. In response to that Newsletter a couple teachers asked for a recommended format for the first lesson. During the first lesson you want to create a personal relationship based on common goals and trust; and a professional framework based on an agreed upon strategy to realize the student’s goals.

Here’s a general format that can be used for first lessons with new students:

Getting to know one another on a personal level (10 minutes) – Tell the student about yourself, family, work, hobbies, etc. Have the student tell you about herself.  Some students are shy, while others can keep on talking for hours if you let them. Be considerate of the student’s feelings, but don’t forget that you’re the teacher and therefore you’re in charge of setting boundaries when necessary. {This part can be a bit longer if the conversation is in the target language. If not, try to keep it short and sweet, in order to leave enough time for the other parts.}

Why are we here? (5 minutes) – Ask the student to outline his goals in regards to the target language. Make sure you have a good understanding of why he wants to learn the language and what he wants to focus on during the course.

Set expectations (10 minutes) – Set the ground rules for the lessons. Have the student articulate her expectations and concerns and then try to address them one by one. For example, if the student is worried that she won’t have enough time to prepare her homework, you could suggest dividing homework assignments into two categories, really important H.W. and H.W. that is less important.

 Start learning (20 minutes) – This is a really important part of the first lesson, because it gets the student used to the idea that there’s actual work to be done and it also motivates the student that sees that he’s already started the course and hasn’t just been talking about it.

Give H.W. (5 minutes)– It’s important to get used to doing this from the very first lesson.

Give feedback and ask for the student’s feedback regarding the first lesson (7 minutes)- Most students won’t mention anything negative, but you can induce an honest dialog by asking to hear one thing that went well and one thing that the student would like to change. Better yet, ask the student to write about it for H.W.  

Don’t forget to schedule the next lesson (3 minutes)

 December 2015: Checklist for first lesson with new students 

We’ve talked a lot in the past about the importance of discussing and setting expectations during the first lesson of every new course and then following up on that discussion in subsequent lessons. Now I’d like to focus on the first meeting and suggest some questions that you as teachers should ask yourselves during and after the lesson. By doing so, you’ll make yourself more attentive to direct and indirect inputs from the student that could be useful in creating an effective course plan.

1-What do I know about the student in general (personality, hobbies, family, age, occupation…)?

2-What is the student’s overall current level?

3-What is the level of the student’s current performance in specific areas, such as conversation, reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc.?

4-Am I as a teacher and my student in agreement regarding the student’s current level? If not in which areas do discrepancies exist?  

5-What is the main reason, motivation, or trigger that has prompted the student to start learning (employment opportunity, upcoming test, leisure…)?

6-What are the student’s specific goals? Are these goals (including timeframe) realistic?

7-Have I outlined my expectations as a teacher and does the student have a clear understanding how these expectations are directly linked to his or her success?

8-What do I as a teacher have to pay special attention to during the lessons (pronunciation, student’s concentration or engagement level throughout the lessons, tendency to deviate from lesson topic …)?

9-How does the student feel after the first lesson (tired, optimistic, confused, confident…)?

10-How do I feel after the first lesson (tired, optimistic, confused, confident…)?

If you have any additional suggestions, please share them with us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.”>info@lingolearn.com . 

November 2015: Ten great ideas for H.W. assignments

  1. Prepare a one page dialog between you and a colleague at work or a customer/client.
  2. Write an email to a friend you haven’t spoken with for an extended period of time describing what you’ve been up to lately.
  3. Take ten new verbs you’ve learned and conjugate them in different tenses and forms – not just as verbs (example: dedicate – I’m sure she will dedicate all her time to winning the nomination; He hasdedicated his life to helping the poor; The project took a lot of hard work and dedication; He’s a dedicated father…).
  4. Watch a short movie excerpt and write a short summary about it.
  5. Learn the lyrics of a song.
  6. Solve a crossword puzzle.
  7. Prepare a sales pitch (pitch a product, service or yourself).
  8. Read an article and write a letter to the writer of the article with questions and comments.
  9. Translate your CV into the target language.
  10. Prepare a list of 10 sentences in your mother tongue that you think you can’t say in the target language; then try to translate them, if necessary, using a dictionary. 

September 2015: Charting individual progress in language course

We’ve spoken quite a lot about the importance of reflecting to your students the progress that they’ve made. From the students’ perspective, it’s not always clear how much progress has actually been made, due to the fact that at any given time, they’re actively taking part in the learning process and not necessarily in a vantage point from where the progress made can be clearly seen.  

A fun way of enabling such a perspective is to write a “course log”, a kind of diary that records each lesson’s main topics. Either work on it together with the student at the end of each lesson, or have the student fill it in on his own after each lesson.

Take a look at the following example of an entry into such a log. You can add or change the categories; what’s important is to update the chart after every lesson and revisit previous entries every now and then in order to see how far you’ve come.

DateReading Comp.GrammarNew Vocab.ConversationWriting
20/5/13“My First Real Job”We practiced the past tense in the positive form: I worked, It was difficult, They hired me…Employer, employee, position, salary, satisfaction, schedule, motivation, job securityWhat’s more important, enjoying your work, or earning enough money?H.W. – essay about choosing the right career  

August 2015: How to help students that have low expectations of themselves

As you probably know, when learning languages, students’ expectations influence both their objective and subjective success rates. Students that have relatively realistic expectations of themselves and their teachers, work hard and get high quality guidance are likely to persevere and make progress over time. Unrealistic expectations tend to quickly lead to disappointment and loss of motivation. That’s why it’s so important to discuss expectations and reflect progress made with students on a regular basis.  

But what can we do when we have a student that has very low expectations of himself or herself? What can we do when a student isn’t just pessimistic about the expected pace of learning, but about his or her chances of making any progress at all? 

Recently, a new student said the following: “For the longest time, I’ve wanted to learn Arabic. It’s a dream of mine that I currently don’t believe I can fulfill. A few years ago I started a course and dropped out after the third week. It was too hard and I couldn’t keep up with the other students that apparently all had some previous knowledge, or maybe they’re just better students than me.”

Without going into too much detail, here is the plan of action we implemented (as for as the student’s success the jury’s still out, but so far so good…).

Show that the student’s apprehensions are legitimate and natural. Learning a new language is always a challenging endeavor, especially when we get older. Just like with any new project we begin, it’s only natural to question our ability to see it through to the end. This is especially true in cases of students that have little or no previous experience learning a foreign language.

Outline a realistic roadmap to success. Now that the student understands that his concerns are totally understandable, he’ll be more emotionally available to deal with the cumbersome realities of optimism, i.e. “if you work hard you’ll make gradual progress and you certainly won’t be the first one to do so”.

Create a fun and unthreatening learning environment. Clarify that the student need not feel like he’s in a race or a contest. The pace of the lessons is always according to what he feels comfortable with. You’re there to walk with him hand in hand throughout the process-he is not alone!

Incorporate elements of a life coach into your lessons: encouragement, empowerment, confidence building, reflection of successes however minute they may be, etc.  

July 2015: Input and output

I was reminded this week of the importance when planning lessons, of allocating sufficient time for both input and output oriented activities. A quick reminder for those of you who’ve forgotten the difference:

Input: from the student’s perspective, this part of the lesson is passive in nature. The student is taking in new material or reviewing previously studied material, by reading; by listening to the teacher explain a grammar point and so on. For many students this is the easier part of the lesson, because they aren’t required to put their knowledge into practice yet, but rather to focus on passively understanding.

Output:  this part of the lesson is active in nature. Here the student is asked to put newly acquired knowledge into practice, for instance, by writing sentences with new vocabulary or grammar rules. This part of the lesson is challenging, because it requires the students to combine and integrate material they’re already familiar with, with new material that they don’t yet feel comfortable with.

A good way of summing up a lesson is to do so through the prism of input versus output…

“So in today’s lesson we reviewed conditional sentences, after you mentioned in our last lesson that you were having some trouble with them. We went over the three main forms, read a lot of examples and highlighted conditional sentences that we found in the article from last month that we revisited. {=INPUT}

Next, we did some exercises where you had to complete conditional sentences.  It wasn’t easy, but it was great seeing how you implemented the rules we had just learned. Finally, we practiced by having a conversation, in which we purposely inserted conditional sentences all over the place. In the beginning you kept getting stuck, but after about ten minutes you seemed to be using them more naturally”. {=OUTPUT}

June 2015: How to deal with students that think they know how you should teach them

One of our teachers recently brought up an interesting issue that could very well apply to other teachers. Her student is learning English, but the case study is relevant regardless of the target language in question. This is what she wrote:

“I have recently started lessons with my new student Yael. She’s very nice and it’s easy to see that she is highly motivated and willing to work hard in order to improve her English. She is also very assertive, (thinks she) knows what she needs and is at times impatient when it comes to getting what she wants.

With my other students we talk in the beginning of the course about their goals (improving grammar, improving conversation, etc.) and then they more or less trust me to guide them (safely) through the learning process. Yael on the other hand is very opinionated about how she ought to be taught, probably because she herself is a teacher (math teacher). That’s fine; I actually encourage my students to be active in structuring the lessons and choosing content. The problem is that Yael and I don’t seem to agree on where she’s having difficulty and therefore the path forward is in contention.

Yael is sure that her problems with English have to do solely with grammar, specifically the tenses. So all she wants to do is learn the tenses and practice using them in sentences. I have pointed out to her (as sensitively as I can) that this strategy will only get her so far and that we need to work on other things as well in order to make real progress. She says that she understands, but in practice, when we work on reading comprehension for example she acts as if as though she’s doing me a favor.

Can you offer me any suggestions?”

The following is a summary of the answer sent to the teacher:

 “The first thing that has to be agreed upon in every course is the goal of the course. The goal is always subjective. We sometimes get into trouble when we fail to make a clear distinction between goals and means or methods.  For example, improving knowledge of English grammar can be a goal in and of itself (for academic purposes, out of curiosity, etc.) or it can be a means to a goal (better grammar will help us accomplish your goal of improving writing skills).

In many cases students need help articulating their goals. For example a student may talk about improving conversation in general, when actually he or she is only interested in getting through an interview in the target language. The clearer the specific goal is, the easier it is to outline a path to success and to measure and reflect progress made.

It turns out that Yael has two main goals: 1 – to have a good understanding of English grammar. This may be linked to the fact that she herself is a math teacher and therefore appreciates “mathematical” explanations that grammatical equations tend to offer. Yael’s insistence on focusing on grammar exercises is therefore in line with her goal.  2- Yael’s second goal is to improve conversation. She is mistaken in thinking that grammar alone will do the trick. The teacher is absolutely justified in her insistence on incorporating other elements in the lessons apart from grammar. What the teacher forgot to do was explain how each element has a direct influence on accomplishing the student’s goal of improving conversation. 

So when the teacher kept saying to Yael that she needs to improve her reading skills for example, the student wasn’t interested because she didn’t make the connection between reading and conversation. If on the other hand the teacher had explained that reading is a great way of learning new vocabulary, improving pronunciation and gaining insights as to how professional writers express themselves (and that these insights can in turn be used to improve conversation), Yael’s willingness to read together would have been much greater .”  

May 2015: Fine tuning language skills of students that are already at an advanced level

Last month’s tip was admittedly longer than necessary and we actually got a tip back, suggesting we keep thing short and sweet this time. So we’ll try to do just that. J

In last month’s Newsletter we suggested using a system of incremental lengths of conversation, as a means by which to encourage students to develop active communication skills. That system is suited to students that are just getting over their reluctance to utter anything at all in the target language. But what about students who are already chatting away? How do we help them improve and fine-tune their communication skills?   

Here are a few tips:

Read an article (preferably a short article or just a couple excerpts from an article)that’s a little bit challenging for them (but not so challenging as to discourage them) and then discuss the article. Encourage them to make use of new vocabulary found in the text.

Have your students read an article in advance of the lesson and then discuss it in class.

Instead of stopping the flow of the conversation to make corrections and or suggestions; agree in advance to talk for about 10 minutes, stop for feedback and continue using the same pattern (10 minute conversation + 5-10 minute feedback….).

 Should I correct all their mistakes? Great question! I’m glad you asked. My suggestion would be to choose your battles carefully. If a student is making only infrequent miniscule mistakes, you know you’re in the fine-tuning phase, in which you really want to get in there and focus on those lingering and stubborn mistakes. On the other hand, when working with a student that’s making mistakes left right and center, it would be advisable to follow this rule of thumb: Focus on correcting mistakes that pertain to material previously taught: “Remember last week we talked about the Present Simple tense. You just said I am driving to work at 9:00 every morning. How can we improve that sentence”.   

April 2015: Practicing conversation 

Many teachers ask us how they can encourage their students to start actively using the target language in conversation. Even students that are making significant progress as far as the theoretical aspects of the learning process are concerned, may have difficulty actually using the language in real life.

Unfortunately there are no magic solutions to this problem; but one way of dealing with it is to create a mutually agreed upon framework for progress and to stick with it. For example, you can decide that every lesson shall include an active continuous conversation, lasting one minute longer that the previous lesson. Accordingly, you could time the conversation and do everything possible to meet your goal, even if that means stopping, going over relevant subject matter and then starting the conversation from the beginning. 

The reason this is such a good tool, is because it is performance based (the length of the conversation is measured) and gradual (the student is expected to hold a conversation for lengths of time that gradually increase each lesson). This system also enables you the teacher to reflect to your students the progress that they are making in a very effective manner (“Two months ago you could hold a 4 minute conversation without making mistakes or getting stuck and now you’re up to 20 minutes. Good for you!).

The disadvantage of the system lies in the fact that it’s quite arbitrary, in the sense that you’re only measuring the length of time and not necessarily taking the actual content into consideration. Some student might feel that it’s putting too much pressure on them to perform (rather than to understand).

Try it! You have nothing to lose! 

Your students want to know what you think about their progress. For most of them, your feedback is the only accessible and reliable means by which to measure their success. Whether they bring it up or not, they’re interested in what you the teacher have to say about their vocabulary level, conversation skills, pronunciation, grammar, etc. So don’t be stingy when it comes to giving feedback, but do try to follow these general guidelines:

1.       Try to give feedback every lessonWhenever possible incorporate something positive to be reinforced, with something that needs to be improved.   Example: “I’m happy to see you’re making more of an effort to do your H.W. assignments; it’s really making it easier to make progress during the lessons, instead of wasting so much time on reviewing the previous lesson’s material. I know it’s difficult, but keep it up, it’s really going to pay off in the near future. You are still making quite a lot of spelling mistakes, so please be careful about that and use the dictionary when necessary.”

2.       At predetermined intervals (approx. every 5-10 lessons) have an in-depth feedback session in which you:

a.       Shed light on the learning process as a whole and progress made thus far in relation to the overall goals of the course (as opposed to feedback related to a specific lesson or group of lessons). 

b.       Give the student a chance to weigh in on the learning process, methods used, etc.

3.       Be practical, not judgmental. Instead of blaming the student (“you’re not making progress because you’re lazy”), offer practical tools that if used properly can create positive momentum (“I know you’re very busy, but it’s important that you go over this material. I suggest that instead of trying to do it all in one go, try to commit to going over just one paragraph a day.”)  

4.       Be honest! If you’re not, the student will know and your feedback won’t be worth anything at all.

5.       Be sensitive. It’s easy to forget how much our students respect us as teachers and even want to impress us. Needless to say, they’ve invested many resources, including emotional resources, in learning the target language, so make sure you treat every student with respect and take into consideration their specific personality, needs, etc.



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