ESL Article: Opportunities To Learn

Hi bloggers, today I will post something that is fundamental for us, as English teachers; the importance of giving students opportunities to learn (OTL).

Recently, I attended a conference, which shared the same title as this post, and I realized that this is not a common topic among teachers. I will try to summarize the main points of the talk.

Firstly, we need to know what OTL are. Well, OTL deal with the promotion of learning, the destruction of emotional barriers, the qualities of the school as well as the teacher's assistance.

When it comes to promoting learning, we are talking about the materials used for teaching and the study program. Both of them must encourage language development in learners. This is to say, they have to improve the skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) that each learner posses. The materials  should be engaging and attractive in order to have successful results. Likewise, the curricula should be well structured, so there will be no misleads during the program.

Furthermore, by having no emotional barriers, the learning environment becomes a safe place for students. There are many ways for lowering the stress in the classroom; for instance, TPR (Total Physical Response) activities or some humanistic behaviors towards your students may make them feel better while learning.By doing this, you will see how the environment in your class changes and allows students make mistakes withouth feeling bad about it.

To conclude with the definitions of the aspects above, we have to know the role of the school as well as the teacher.  First, the school should make very clear what are the objectives of the program. This is really important because you will know what you have to do in order to accomplish the terminal objectives. If you do not know what are the objectives of your school, you should ask to the prinicipal or the person in charge of the English subject. In this way, you will know how to manage your time and the way you plan your lessons.

In the teacher's role, we have to list some of the requirements that will assure opportunitites to learn. First of all, he / she must be competent in the language. Also, he / she must be organized in his / her planning as well as  in the assesstmenet. Moreover, a good teacher is someone who scaffolds his / her studnets until they feel they have mastered what he / she taught.In this manner, schools should be very meticulous when they choose the new elements of the team.

Finally, the reasons why we should give our students opportunitites to learn rely on their language development. By giving them OTL, we will be fostering their language skills and they will become competent users of the language. Keep that in mind.

Do you give your students oppotunitites to learn?