Tips to make your lessons student-centered

By Kira Vera
COPEI Academic Coordinator

What is the purpose of learning a language? Why do people register in a language course? What is language all about?

These are key questions we have to ask ourselves as teachers but most importantly, we have to carve the answer in stone: We learn a language to communicate. Then why do we worry so much about our students being experts in grammar and completing book exercises? Is that the mean or the goal?

On one hand it is true that book exercises and drills are necessary to learn about grammar and other important skills, but what happens when everything we do revolves around practice? Do we provide our learners with adequate opportunities to interact in a meaningful way?

A common answer is “yes, of course we do.” But how much time do we really give our students to communicate in L2 in our classes? Does it depend on the book we are using? What if the book is a traditional one? Are we bound to follow the material we have by hand or is there any way we can adapt what we have to increase, our students’ production?

Regardless the material we have, the level we are teaching or the extra resources we could possibly get, it is our duty to make sure language learners have spaces for meaningful interaction. Here are some ideas to make your classes more student-centered:

1.       Give clear instructions to your students. In many cases the reason why students stay silent is because they do not understand what to do.

2.       Model the task. A lot of students feel frustrated and paralyzed because they do not even know how to get started. By giving them a clear picture of what to do, they will feel more confident about how to perform and develop the task.

3.       Avoid extending controlled practice and switch to freer practice once you make sure your students know exactly what to do. A lot of teachers have the misconception of teacher student interaction being a useful tool to get students talking. This can be useful, however if you do not switch to student- student interaction then your class is a teacher centered one.

4.       Have students compare their answers orally with a partner.  This is very positive for several reasons. One is that students learn in a collaborative way, another reason is that it releases tension as they share and help each other before the teacher can give them feedback and tell them whether they did right or not. Also, this is a way to enhance students’ talking time and make your class more student-centered, too.

5.       Bring games that make your students interact collaboratively.  The best ones are board games, which can be adapted to grammar, vocabulary practice, reading comprehension, meaningful interaction, etc.

6.       Implement information gap activities for your students.  In these activities one of them has some information and the other doesn’t. This kind of activities emulates the essence of communication, which is exchanging information to make meaning.

7.       Provide students with useful expressions they will need in order to carry out the task. Many students do not speak because they do not know or are not sure how to say things on the first place.

Having a student-centered class will give learners an authentic sense of progress. They will communicate, which is the reason why they registered in your class to begin with.