I’ve recently had the opportunity to “mega” teach for the past month — while waiting for another contract to come up I completed my weekly hours with individual students — and LOTS of them! Each of them having a specific focus and goals which they entrusted me to help them achieve.

Well, 2 things have been reaffirmed after working these past few weeks:

#1 - I bet that I am the only ESL teacher who can say she’s taught in over 15 different countries in less than 1 month (no joke) — I can tell you the weather in each location and than some.  Teaching English via the Internet has got to be the greatest thing out there — not only am I teaching – but I’m learning something new from each student at the same time — did you know that in Spain they eat 12 grapes at each strike of the clock at New Years? or that in South Korea they count years differently — so a western aged 29 years old is really a 31 year old in South Korea? — Really these things and a whole slew of others leave me that much more knowledgeable about different cultures and experiences.  Not to mention I am finally starting to understand LOST — thanks to my student who explains the principles of quantum physics to me.

#2 - Positive feedback never gets old.  Is it redundant to tell your student more than once a class what a great job they are doing?  Or outline goals that they should work on for next class — and develop ways with the students to achieve them?  Do they get sick of hearing that the practice answer for the IELTS test was perfect? Or that their expressions and use of new vocabulary is impressive?  No — they don’t and I don’t.

Positive feedback is uber important to encourage anyone to continue.  Learning English is hard — but doing it blindly and without any kind of feedback or guidance is almost impossible. I make it a point and a habit to let my students know how they are doing not only during the class but afterwards as well with a follow up email outlining their strengths and areas that need improvement.  Some students feel that they have poor vocabulary — that they are unable to express themselves fluently or that I have NO idea what they are talking about or saying.  People need to hear that they are doing a good job — no matter how small of a job they are doing.  It encourages them to continue and to excel in the areas that they are doing great in and to take a closer look at the areas that may need a little bit of work.

I encourage ALL teachers to include positive feedback into their daily lessons — you’ll see how your students smile and really put in that extra bit of effort to maintain their level — trust me you won’t be disappointed.