The Panel Discussions’ Theme:
“Common Mistakes That Teachers Make”
Being a great teacher is not easy...
Teaching English as a foreign language is not easy. Being a great teacher, one who educates, inspires and encourages, is not easy either. In order to feel fulfilled in your job, you must recognize some common teaching mistakes. Fortunately, once recognized, they can be fixed.
“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
Oscar Wild
Common mistakes that teachers make
1. Inadequate preparation
2. Too much teacher talking time
3. Complicated and unclear instructions
4. Not checking the understanding of instructions
5. Helpful sentence completion
6. Echoing
7. Not listening
8. Missing the other layers
9. Keeping to a script
10. Ignoring boundaries between teacher and students
11. Poor or inconsistent classroom management
12. Forgetting cultural differences
13. Not gathering enough information on students’ backgrounds and needs
14. Correcting them in free-speaking activities
15. Not boosting student confidence
16. Not offering praise
17. Not teaching in context
18. Not making all learning goal-oriented
19. Not giving them chances to succeed
20. Teacher: do you understand?
As a teacher, you will continually come across problems in the classroom. It’s important to face each one, and do your best to patch-up any holes in your teaching abilities. Analyze what you can do as a teacher to fix the problem, as well as what the student can do. These are the most common mistakes. Hopefully by outlining them you can start correcting them today.
