Level Up Your ESL Lessons With These Authentic Materials At Your Fingertips

Are you tired of teaching through dull textbooks and injecting real-world excitement into your ESL lesson through the old way?

Then look no further!

The world around you is brimming with various authentic material sources that have hidden potential waiting to be unleashed in ESL classrooms.

There are plenty of authentic materials such as-

• Songs
• Movies
• Newspaper articles
• Social Media posts
• Podcasts
• Magazines, etc.

By incorporating all these authentic materials in your ESL classroom will not only make your students engaged but also help them to gain a deeper understanding of the English language while having fun.

If you also want to incorporate authentic materials in creative ways in your ESL classroom, then we have got you covered.

In this blog post, we will be sharing the top 3 creative ways to integrate authentic material in our ESL classroom to make the learning experience engaging for your students.

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So, without any further delay, let’s get started.

1. Choose Relevant Materials of Student’s Interest
 

Source: twitter.com

Students tend to face difficulties in learning any new language like English due to various reasons as mentioned in the above image. To make their language learning experience easier you can choose relevant authentic material to your ESL students' learning needs, interests, and goals.

For example-

• If your students are preparing for any exams, then consider choosing the material that is relevant to the topics and format of the exam.

• If your student is a music enthusiast, then you can consider using audio materials like songs, and lyrics of your student’s liking and encourage them to sing along with the lyrics.

• If your students are learning the English language for a specific purpose for work, study, or travel then consider choosing materials like- newspaper articles, and magazines to read aloud and discuss any mentioned topic with their peers.

Also, make sure that whatever material you choose should be challenging enough to motivate students to get engaged in the language learning process but too difficult which may discourage them and demotivate them.

Learn how new innovations have changed English language teaching, here:
 

2. Scaffold The material

In the next step, you can consider scaffolding the English language learning materials, which makes the material more accessible and comprehensible for your ESL students. To provide the necessary support and guidance to your ESL students, first, you need to understand their learning objectives and understanding level.
 

According to the assessment, you can modify or simplify the learning material by modifying the difficulty of vocabulary, grammar, and length of the material. You can consider highlighting the important phrases, words or you can even use visual aids, like-

• Charts
• Picture
• Diagrams
• Graphical videos, etc.

To make the language learning experience easier for your students.

Additionally, you can introduce the learning material and vocabulary to students before presenting the material. And, make it a routine that after the class ends, students need to practice all the new vocabulary, sentence structure with their peers for effective language learning.

3. Choose Material according To Student’s Learning Purpose

Every student has their own different purpose for learning Enlgish. However, no matter what the learning goals might be for every ESL student, they need to develop their Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking skills. Below we have shared how to help students to learn each skill-

Reading Skills: You can give students articles and magazines and instruct them to read aloud, skim, or scan any particular words or sentences.

Writing Skills: You can provide reading materials to students and instruct them to write a summary, review, or opinions related to that particular material.

Listening Skills: You can play different videos and audio and ask students to what they have listened to, and repeat it.

Note: Audio or video clips should be very short for the easiness of your ESL students.

Speaking Skills: You can give materials to read and instruct them to choose any topic they feel they are confident to discuss. Then, you can conduct a debate, or discussion session where either students can participate in a group or they can discuss individually with their peers.

Use Authentic Material To Make Learning Experience Easier For ESL Students

Learning a new language like English for non-native speakers can be a daunting experience. However, you can use various authentic materials in the above-mentioned creative easy to make the language learning experience easier for your ESL students.

If you also want to learn various effective ways to make the English language learning experience easier for your ESL students, you can consider pursuing courses like Online TEFL Courses in Thailand, where you will get guidance from top expert trainer, who will also help you to become a top-notch ESL teacher.

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