Nowadays teaching English by skype is becoming more common as it more convenient for many people to have an English lesson in their office, house or even hotel where they are staying on business. In this article, I would like to offer some simple, but effective techniques and activities you can use when teaching one-to-one lessons on skype.
First of all, I would like to point out that although you are not physically face to face in the same room as your student, what you can see on your screen is obviously what your student can also see. Therefore, we have a wonderful opportunity to analyse ourselves performing as teachers throughout the lesson and also notice our student´s reactions. I would like to share with you some techniques (which are not new) in order to have an effective skype lesson.
- Try not to get distracted. Full engagement with your student is important.
For example, you may get distracted by messages coming in on your cell phone. Although your students may not be aware that your cell phone is near the computer, you will inevitably lose concentration for a few moments while checking your phone. This also goes for phone calls and any interruptions such as people calling you or your dog barking!
- Respond to what your student says
There are different ways we can conduct a conversation in an English lesson. You could: ask a question to get more information about something the student is telling you; use a phrase such as “tell me more about this” so the student will have the chance to expand the conversation; use a concept question to check your student has understood what you have just said; correct your student diplomatically, perhaps by asking “Do you mean you went to the cinema yesterday?” (they may have said “I go to the cinema yesterday”). Remember the more your student talks in English, the better.
- Make use of the screen
There are some techniques that we use in the classroom that work just as well on skype. For example, you would like to make your student aware of the number of syllables in a word. You can put your hand near the camera and show the number of syllables using your fingers (as in the picture below for the word “interesting” – 3 syllables).
We can use our head to indicate yes by nodding and no by shaking (in some cultures). This sounds obvious, but it is very effective on the screen when a student is insecure about what he/she said and asks for your confirmation. Most students want you to correct them and seeing a nod or a shake gives them immediate feedback. If what they are saying is incorrect, a head shake followed by the correct answer can be useful.
Of course, body language is very important. Reacting to what your student says by smiling, laughing and being serious at the right times to show you are fully engaged is motivating for your student.
- Using the chat
The chat icon can be found in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. This allows you to send instant messages to each other. The possibilities of using this for teaching English are great. You can use it to dictate something to your student. For example, let´s imagine you want to set a task, why not dictate it to your student and get them to write what you are saying immediately on the chat. For instance, an IELTS speaking test, part 2: “Describe a special person you would like to meet. You should say: who this person is and why you would like to meet him/her and why this person is special.” After you have corrected any spelling mistakes, you can dive right into the task.
You can also use the chat for: providing new words to your student; correcting what they are saying; showing the stress in words by using capital letters (e.g. INteresting) and for setting homework. As everything is saved on the chat, there are no excuses for the student to say he/she didn´t know what to do for homework!
- Giving students time to think
There may be times in the lesson when your student needs time to think about how to respond to a task. In this case, it could be appropriate for you to say “I´ll just give you 2 mins to think about that”. You could then leave the screen for 2 mins or look somewhere else so that the student knows this is not “full engagement” time, but rather “reflection” time.
Conclusion
To sum up, I have tried to show some simple techniques to use while teaching one-to-one English lessons on skype. Of course, there are many other facilities that can be used such as sharing a text and showing a video. However, my intention was to go back to some basics of effective communication so that both the teacher and student can be totally immersed in the learning process.
