HOW TO MAKE STUDENTS ENJOY LEARNING THE ENGLISH SUBJECT

In a country where English is not the native language or the first language taught to its people, it just imperative to say that learning the foreign tongue is indeed a huge challenge. This might have been as well a great deal of dilemma for English teachers here in the Philippines.

Due to the reason that English is not our mother tongue and not being used on conversations on a regular basis, there are still Filipino learners who still need help to improve their communicative skills with the use of the English language. This has been the primary objective of each English teacher to make their students good speakers or users of the language. Yet, there are still some ways to aid the problem of students still struggling in learning the language especially in making the class interesting.

It is as well important first to make the students realize that the English language is something that needs to be utilized to make it useful especially in verbal communications. Make the students learn the art of English conversation. The key is to give them the majority of control or at least as much as possible on the topic of conversation. Use props, pictures, music or whatever you may have on hand to start, stop and sustain the activities so your learners get used to speaking their new language.

You could as well use collaborative works. Encourage students to make or do performances using the language. Group work and role-play have long been used as tactics to teach English. Advise students to as well deepen their vocabulary skills in creating dialogues and lines for their performances. In such manner, guiding the students in developing their performances must be the prime lookout of the language t each er.

It is as well effective is you can relate class content to their lives. When you create a real-world connection to what students are learning, it will give them a greater understanding of why they need to learn it. If your students are constantly asking you why they need to learn something, and you always are answering with “because you have to,” you will lose credibility with your students, and they will continue to not be interested in what you are teaching them. Instead, give them a real answer. In this way, they will be able to understand the benefits of learning English language in their daily lives.

It’s not about making students love English but making sure they understand how much they need it. This means creating practical and useful lessons with English words and phrases they can immediately use when they walk out the door. In this way, students come back to class so much more excited and motivated when they’ve had opportunities to use what they’ve learned.

These are just practical ways to make the students enjoy learning the English language. In the long run, helping the students to develop their skills in English, written and oral, allows opportunity for language teachers to expand their horizons of language teaching in the most effective ways.

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The author is Teacher III at Betis High School