Do TELL - Todd's Extensive Listening Lessons

Now, practice listening to the grammar in a longer talk.

Hello. In this lesson, I will talk about my teaching style. So, I often get questions from students and other teachers about my teaching style, so I thought I would answer some common questions that I get.

First, do you correct students' mistakes?

No, I don't. I usually don't correct students' mistakes, but I do keep track of their mistakes and I do write down the correction or the problem on the board if I can. But I don't correct them immediately if they make a mistake, I just point it out later.

Question #2: Do you do lots of listening in class?

This is interesting. I get this a lot because I make ELLLO. I actually don't do listening in class very much. I do it sometimes for a speaking activity, so they listen and then they talk. But I do give lots of listening homework, and I do use ELLLO as part of my listening homework, and I do assign special tasks that are journals - listening journals - that the students have to do. But I don't do that much listening, actually, in class time because the students are together and that's the best time for speaking practice.

Similarly, do you give lots of homework?

I don't give lots of homework but I do give a little bit of homework every night, and I do assign something that is very manageable and that they can do easily. I don't like that the students have to do a lot of homework but I do encourage them to study - self-study a lot - and to study at home as much as possible. But I don't want to make English really stressful or make it a big burden, so I don't assign too much homework.

Next, do you let students use their phones in class?

Yes, I do let students use their phone in class because we do a lot of activities online that require them to use the phone, such as games like Kahoot and quizzes. So, I do let them use their phone.

OK, next question: do you teach in Japanese?

I don't teach in Japanese. My Japanese is not that good. I do speak some Japanese and I do understand when the students ask me questions in Japanese, usually. But I pretty much only use English in class.

And, related to that: do you encourage students to speak only English in class? Yes, I do encourage students to only speak English in class. But I do understand that they have to use their own language sometimes, and it's unavoidable, but I do nudge my students, or I do kind of persuade my students or plead with my students to only speak English in class. But I do realize that I can't do that all the time.

And that's it! Those are some of my teaching principles.

Does your teacher do the same?

And do you think these are good rules to follow?