Most of the freshers and experienced TEFL teachers use a communicative language teaching approach in their TEFL classroom. In this approach, every teacher uses presentation, practice, and productive lesson-planning methods.
However, there is one teacher-friendly method that you can use in your TEFL classroom called the “Teaching Unplugged” method. In this method, you don’t need coursebooks or photocopies which makes your TEFL teaching job easier.
Sound interesting?
Then, read our blog post, to understand why the “Teaching Unplugged” Method is the best way to improve your TEFL teaching experience in detail.
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So, without any further delay, let’s get started.
What is Teaching Unplugged Method?
Teaching Unplugged simply means that teachers don’t have to make early preparations to teach. Instead of spending most of your time on your lesson plans, this method is totally dependent on the students. However, Students are the primary catalysts of the Teaching Unplugged method.
This method also demands teachers to think on their feet, because this method teachers need to utilize those resources only that are present in the TEFL classroom, i.e.; teacher and student.
How You Can Incorporate Teaching Unplugged Method In Your TEFL Classroom?
On paper, it’s well and good that you don’t have to make any preparations for your lesson, but you need to prepare yourself to think on your feet! You can do that by-
- Before even starting to teach a lesson or initiate any discussion it’s better to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of your class
- You must think on the student’s level and figure out what potential language point might come up, regardless of the topic that is being discussed.
- Discuss the topics of the lesson which has been recently completed in your lesson, which can be considered as a revision session.
After preparing yourself for various situations that might crop up in your TEFL classroom, it’s time for you to walk into your classroom and start discussing any random topics if in between the discussion any student might talk about any other topics then just go with the flow, don’t interrupt.
One of the attractions of this method is there’s no need to make a link between every part of your lessons, it can be random but at the end, you will find there are certain connections.
How Teaching Can Play a Part?
So, you might be wondering where’s the teaching part. What and how are you going to teach during the discussion on any random topic?
The answer is quite simple. All you need to do is observe what they are saying and process their language to figure out if they are making any mistakes while forming sentences or making grammatical errors.
Once you find the error, draw every student’s attention to it to help them learn what’s the correct way to form that sentence. You can use whiteboards to write explanations related to any mistakes so that every student learns from each other mistakes.
For example- If you ask your student- How was your picnic last Sunday?
Then, the student replied- Although it was raining, but we had the picnic and we enjoyed a lot.
As a TEFL educator, you can see there’s plenty of opportunity to help students form the right sentence.
The right sentence would be- Although it was raining, we had the picnic and we enjoyed a lot.
Like this, you can conduct the TEFL class with the help of the “Teaching Unplugged” method and once a topic ends you can begin discussing a new random topic.
Some of the Teaching Unplugged Activities that you can incorporate in your TEFL classroom are-
- Vocabulary Games
- Debate
- Buzz Group Discussion
Benefits of Teaching Unplugged Method
Let’s get to know some of the benefits that the “teaching unplugged” method can bring for both teachers and students-
- There’s no need for teaching or learning material to carry.
- You don’t need to make early preparations for the lesson plan.
- It allows teachers to focus on the learner’s needs as the focus is not on the syllabus.
- Teachers have the freedom to adjust the language point according to the student’s language level which is not restricted by the coursebook.
Teaching Unplugged Method Is The Way to Improve Learning Experience In TEFL Classroom
If you’re using a communicative language teaching approach in your TEFL classroom to teach language lessons, then wait. There’s a new method called “Teaching Unplugged” which can be highly beneficial not just for the students but for you as well because the catalyst of this teaching method is you and the students.
However, paperless lessons can be daunting and challenging to implement. But the good thing is the power is in your hand and you can vary the speed and structure which don’t have to follow any coursebook rule and which is being tailored especially according to the student’s need.
Additionally, if you’re looking for more effective ways to implement the Teaching Unplugged method in your classroom then you can consider pursuing courses like the 120-hour in-class TEFL course for TEFL, where you will get guidance from a top expert trainer who also helps you to become a capable TEFL teacher.
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Written By : Abhishek
