Ben J

My Passion & How I Inspire

The most important factor in deciding materials, methodology and general approach to lessons is and will always be the student sitting opposite me. Following the student's interests is paramount as engaging materials/subjects and therefore lessons result in faster learning and higher retention of the target language discussed in the lesson.

For younger learners, it is sometimes asserted that every lesson should include lots of games and a wide variety of different types of activity. While I employ flashcards, boardgames, word games, physical games and a large number of other materials and techniques, I find that just as often children and teenagers will engage with the right kind of activity quietly by themselves for an hour if they are engaged and, vitally if their creativity is ignited or curiosity piqued. I have found one way to achieve this is through projects such as designing your own school or the best way way to resolve a genuine problem in their town/city.

With older learners, an example of some of the materials I use would be newspaper/magazine articles, videos, TED talks, blogs and other publications. These are chosen not only for their level of interest but often for the type of language contained in them. These are given with tasks as homework and then discussed the following lesson. Grammar and vocabulary are pulled out and examined and expanded upon.

In planning individual lessons I have found post-planning to be extremely important. In this way, a record of language that crops up during lessons is kept and recycled from one lesson to the next

For exam lessons we focus on exam techniques as well improving you skill bases (reading, writing, speaking and listening) with the objective of maximising your potential of gaining the highest possible mark in the shortest possible time frame