Apps to Supplement Your ESL Classroom
If you are interested in starting a career as an ESL teacher, then you’re probably wondering how to find the right balance between the number of classes and the amount of knowledge you want to provide your students with. With that in mind, you must think about the way to create engaging and interesting lessons that will help your students learn a lot as soon as possible.
With that in mind, many beginners are scared about the things they are about to face when they start their new careers. However, things don’t need to be that scary, and you can start working properly on your lessons without wasting time on being scared of them. The right approach for you is to find the right tools you can use to make things work. Thankfully, that doesn’t require too much of your attention.
When you finally decide on the tools you will use, then it becomes much easier for you to create engaging lessons. It wouldn’t hurt to make them as interactive as possible. But before you can decide on the tools you will include, you need to know about the ones that will provide you with the most benefits. Now, we want to provide you with a couple of the most useful ones out there.
FluentU
If you are an English teacher, the first thing you need to think about is how to help your students comprehend the language used in anglophile countries. There are not many better ways to do this than to find the content that will help them understand the basic language, but at the same time, you can help them learn about the slang. We know just how widespread slang is in this day and age.
Naturally, you will need to find content that is both informative and entertaining for them. It is the only way for them to stay interested in what they are seeing at the moment. Doing so, will not feel like a waste of time for them. But the most important thing is that the students will be exposed to the native content. It is the shortest way for them to understand how the locals are speaking.
Sure, there are many apps out there you can use for this purpose. However, we feel that not many of them are better than FluentU. The reason why we believe this is the case is that this one is designed solely with education in mind. Not only that, but it is also possible for you to assign some quizzes for the students. But the best of all is that you can see, on your dashboard, what videos your students have seen.
Nearpod
The next one we want to point out is known as Nearpod. The reason why we believe this one is such a good solution is that it can make your lessons as interactive as possible. It’s not only about it being as engaging as possible but it helps you create interactive content, which will help your students to be motivated enough to remain part of your group for as long as possible.
One of the best features of this tool is that you can, let’s say, gamify the whole procedure. It comes as a result of a plethora of in-built features. You can build your lessons from scratch. Plus, building them is quite entertaining since you can do it easily, just by dragging and dropping the features on the screen in front of you. However, you can use some templates if you lack the time.
Another thing we believe is exceptional about this one is that it is shareable with students. It means that you can share your screen with your students, and vice versa. So, you can carefully monitor their progress and see what things they should focus on in the future. We are not talking about just lessons as a lesson, but you can also add numerous images, videos, quizzes, and numerous other features.
Business English 23
The last tool we want to talk about is known as Business English 23. We are talking about a completely different tool from those we have described above. Instead, we are talking about the advanced and precise video search engine that will help you find the right videos you can share with your students or make a part of the lesson. The reason why we believe this one is one of the best decisions you can make is simple.
As you can see from the name of the tool, we are talking about something designed to help anyone who is learning English to have a better understanding of business-related terms in this language. As you know, most of the terms people are using in the world of business today come from this language. So, you need to find the right approach how to motivate your students to learn these terms.
We know, this can be an exceptionally challenging process in cases you are teaching people who are complete beginners. Thankfully, the tool offers you the possibility to look through massive numbers of videos. The reason why it will be possible for this search to be as fast as you need it to be is that you can use filters that will easily determine what are the niches that you need to focus on and what should be ignored.
In some of these videos, you will come across some really interesting things, such as tutorials on how to conduct a business meeting or how to have a proper conversation with an HR when you apply for a job at a company. As you can see, we are talking about exceptional content. The best thing about this tool is that it is exceptionally easy to use, and you will not need to spend a lot of time understanding how it works.
Summary
As you can see, there are some quite useful apps and websites ESL teachers can use to improve their lectures. We are certain that you will find all the recommendations we’ve made useful.