The role of the English tutor is to help the learners to acquire the opportunity to enhance their skills. Online English tutors empower their students and boost their confidence. They also help their students to master verbal comprehension.
However, keeping the students engaged is the biggest challenge for online tutors. There are a lot of distractions like students losing their focus or feeling tired watching the screen for a long time. All of this results in lost learners’ interest in the online class.
Are you also a teacher who provides English tutoring services and want to master the ways to engage learners and keep them motivated? If yes, then the below-given tips can help you to capture the students’ interests.
Tips To Make Online English Teaching More Engaging
Know The Basic Information About Your Students
The first tip is to know your students personally and interact with them. You can ask the learners about their hobbies and interests as most individuals like traveling, writing, playing, and exploring new things. This way, the tutors can maintain a good relationship with students. Knowing about their culture and residency is also a better way to interact with them.
Understand Student’s Goals
You have a right to know why your students are learning English. Do the learners want to go to another country for higher study? Whether they want to crack a competitive exam or are willing to improve their scores in board exams? Once you understand why students want to learn the subject, this makes it easier for you to guide them and help them learn. Be sure that you and your learner set a measurable goal so that both can achieve it. It will be a great way to learn new skills.
Find Techniques That Inspire Students
The most important thing in virtual classrooms is interacting with the learners. Apart from this, finding what inspires them and keeps them motivated.
Try different things with your learners and inspire them. You can narrate motivational speeches or stories to them. It will help the students to learn from others’ mistakes and stay on the right track for their studies.
Give Them a Break For Relaxation
Sometimes while teaching, it’s hard for the tutor to engage the student in an online class. Most students are unable to sit in front of a screen because they can’t focus while studying for a long time. To avoid this problem, the tutor can give them a short break for relaxation. One way is to play music and also do some fun activities with the learners that keep them motivated in the class.
Host Quizzes or Group Discussions
Have multiple students? This is a great method to interact with them. Divide the students into two groups, group A and group B. The learners who are in group A ask questions to group B students on a specific topic, such as their interests, their culture, etc. The students should only ask questions that are easy for the other group to answer. The answer should not be in the form of yes or no. If the questions have a simple one-word answer, the discussion can’t be further carried out.
Host Mock Test To Know Their Progress
On weekends, give your students mock tests related to those topics which were covered within a week and get to know about their performance. This is the way through which you can find the learning progress of the students.
Use Good Quality Equipment
By using quality equipment to deliver online tutoring sessions, the tutors can ensure a good learning experience for the students. Here are some key points:
Visuals:
- Choose the best background while teaching an online class.
- Make sure the camera lens is free from dirt and scratches.
- Use slides and videos which are of good quality.
- If you show your face during online classes it will also be helpful for them to interact with you.
Audio:
- Use audio clips that are of good quality.
- Develop your skills such as storytelling that can encourage the students.
- Use microphones that are of good quality.
Build Strong Relationships with Learners
Learning is not limited to delivering lectures and conducting exams. You can make it fun to interact with your students and develop a great bond with them.
Introduce yourself and tell them your interests & hobbies and ask them about theirs. Address each student with their name while teaching and ask questions related to topics. It helps the tutor to figure out whether the student understands the topic or not. Create a comfortable environment for them so that they do not feel hesitant while sharing their problems.
Begin a class with a chat that asks them how they are doing. Make a suitable environment where they share their feelings easily. It helps the students to avoid stress and focus on their academic tasks.
Use Electronic Tools While Online Teaching
With the vast technology, some electronic tools can be used by tutors to teach their learners. Discussion boards, pointers, projectors, and screen-sharing tools all can make your class interesting and keep the students focused in the class. The tutors must be familiar with all these tools so that they can use them during the classes.
Create a Routine
Develop a routine that will help students to complete their tasks effectively. Divide the lectures into different sections for various activities. To exemplify, you can begin your class with activities like starting a discussion related to the topic or playing a game, etc. Then going to review their project work or homework. This will give clarity to students on when to submit their homework, and stay focused in class.
Take Regular Feedback From Students
Feedback helps the teacher to know the needs of the learner and also it will help them improve the productivity of their class. This is a way through which a tutor can solve the problems of the students. By doing this, you can get to know where the learners are lacking and accordingly fix the issues.
Celebrate Students Achievement
It is a good way to motivate your learners and support them. When you celebrate the student’s success it keeps them motivated to reach their next goal. You can also give learners a chance to celebrate their accomplishments and also they can share their achievement stories with other students.
Providing Notes And Assignments To Students
In online classes, it is a responsibility of a tutor to provide notes and study materials to the students that will help them while studying. Also, give learners some project work or assignments related to subject topics. Recommend them to books or e-books that will be helpful for them. Providing handmade notes or sending PDFs to students is a better way to develop their skills.
Conclusion
English teaching is much more challenging but after going through the above tips, you can make the classes interesting. By knowing about learners, inspiring them, building a strong bond, creating a routine, and more; keeping the learners motivated and engaged in online classes becomes easy. With the help of these approaches, students can express their ideas and support each other. This way, they can become confident learners and speakers of the English language.