How to Teach English to Teenagers: Top 5 Tips for ESL/EFL Teachers | Fun Games for Teens

If you’re looking for some of the best ESL games and activities for teens, then you’re in the right place. Keep on watching for everything you need to know about ESL activities for teenagers to make your English classes even better. Have some great TEFL classes with teenagers by checking out these awesome tips and tricks.

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Timestamp
0:00 Intro
0:15 1: Don't take things personally
0:52 2: Students' needs vary
1:34 3: Build a relationship
2:00 4: Choose relevant topics
2:37 5: Use a variety of activities
3:05 Conclusion

Transcript for teaching ESL to teens:

The first tip I have for teaching ESL to teens is to not take things personally. as you know when you're a teen yourself or maybe you have some other teens in your life, hormones are a real thing. They're going through ups and downs, and their emotions are all kind of wacky so that means when you have a group full of teenagers in your class, there's often a lot of drama.

Maybe people are crying, people are angry and most of the time it has absolutely nothing to do with you. so if a student is having a hard time in your class, have some empathy and don't take it personally. Their bad behaviour or their bad mood likely has nothing to do with what you're actually doing in class so just take it all with a grain of salt and kind of let it roll off your back if possible.

All right the second tip I have for teaching ESL to teenagers is that student needs vary considerably. Think about people in high school. If some students are maybe going to an English-speaking university, obviously their needs are very, very different from someone who's going to a technical college to study car mechanics in their own country.

Definitely do a needs assessment and try to meet students' needs. Do they have to prepare for the IELTS exam? Are they going to Canada or the USA to study, or are they just staying in their own country and maybe just want to like be able to say hello to a foreigner that they happen to see on the street? Definitely check with them and find out.

The third tip I have for teaching teens is to build a relationship based on mutual respect. Definitely give your students some respect and they'll also respect you back. That said, I have some rules for sure. Things like cell phones and food and drinks. Whatever is appropriate in your teaching environment and enforce them but also don't be overly strict as well. I'm saying aim for the happy medium and your class will go much more smoothly.

The fourth tip I have for teaching ESL to teens is to choose relevant topics and interests. No teenager is gonna love talking about, for example cooking a four-course meal. Probably that's more of the interest of like the 30 and 40 and 50-year-olds that you might be teaching. Teenagers, probably their parents just cook for them all the time so doing a whole unit on cooking, they're probably not that interested but if you do say a unit on fast food and the impact it might have on kids. Should teenagers and children be eating fast food? Should fast-food companies advertise to kids? Stuff like that would be interesting I think to teenagers because it would be relevant to them.

Tags: esl, teaching esl, english, learning english, english teacher, learning language, ESL kids, TEFL classroom, classroom tips, TEFL, efl, tefl, teaching English, teaching teenagers english, teaching kids english, ESL teaching jobs, TESOL, no prep activity, low prep activity

[miss_kpop]

Thanks for this. The tips are very helpful and I'm now keen to look at your blog and book. I teach ESL to small groups of Japanese teens of mixed abilities - some near fluent and some beginner - IN THE SAME CLASSROOM! Yes, it's challenging. Nevertheless, your tip about the relevance of topics for teens is gold. As a 48 year old, I have to bite my lip whenever I start talking about cooking (this is especially true just before lunchbreak)! Have you made a video or do you plan to make one about teaching mixed ability classes? I would find that useful, at least.

[soccer]

Great video! Love the suggestions and your way of presenting them

[HJCAA]

I work in an English Language Center where we, teachers, have an schedule to follow each day and have to strictly follow the book. It has so many activities that there's no time to extra ones. Each month we are assigned different classes of different levels, so it's hard to keep track of each ss progress. I try to do as much as possible to teach as best as I can.

[Aberwrachterrible]

Thank you! Very useful and I love your energy!

[aymanalprincewabas]

An awesome work keep it up, my name is alprince am from sudan, I've been working as an English teacher, if I could ask you a question that would be how could I figure out if they fully understand what am giving to them ??? cuz sometimes when I get to ask them did you comprehend what I was explaining, ??? they say yes and all of sudden it turns out they don't don't, how could I effectively deal with this matter????

[halerahnama]

Hi mrs Bolen. I’m a student, l am studying for mastery degree in teaching English. I am researching for issues in language teaching٫ l want to know about effective factors in learning English between teenagers. In your opinion what’s effective factor for teenagers?

[PrincessPowerranger]

First tip is the mother of all tips😅 dont take things personally ❤