In the old days, we just had books to learn about something. Now, we have the technology to aid us in whatever we wish to do with ease. And that too without leaving your home in most cases! For me, using the Spectrum Cable services feature online to pay my monthly bill is a huge convenience. The same goes for education!
Learning a new language can be tough but if you have a great teacher, it can turn into a piece of cake. Presentation, practice, and production (the PPP methodology) are known as the common sense approach to teaching a new language. Today, you can easily access tools that you can apply to your PPP methodology in the classroom, hence making it easier to teach a new language.
Check the list below to learn about these tools:
#1: Skype
It is a tool that is worth mentioning. Skype lets you chat with your students and even engage with experts around the world from the comfort of your desk. Your students get to know you as a teacher from face to face interaction.
#2: Zoom
When you have to hold online group sessions, no other tool can beat zoom. You can make both voice and video calls. Zoom allows you to share a screen with all connected devices (Android and iOS). Voice calls are automatically recorded. You can also share files on zoom.
#3: Prezi
Prezi is a presentation tool. It allows you to interact with information visually. It is a highly organized tool that lets you teach content to your students. The software uses zoom, motion, and other spatial features to bring your ideas to life. You are able to teach content in a manner your students will remember.
#4: Quizlet
It is a flashcard app that allows students to send each other questions and play matching vocabulary games. It is highly useful for teaching language. It makes vocabulary memorization easier. Students can even study on the go.
It breaks down the information, lets you emphasize on the important material and organize comprehensive study sets. Its swipe flashcard feature lets students know what material they know and what they would like to learn.
#5: LiveBinders
It’s a pain to carry those huge 3-ring binders, right? These binders contain handouts, lecture notes, worksheets and homework of your students. No matter how much you hate them, they help keep everything organized in one place.
With LiveBinders, you don’t have to carry physical binders. It lets you upload student presentations, worksheets, documents, and more under relevant tabs. Both students and their parents can see their work and track progress. This simplifies teaching. In other words, with this binder, you will be able to organize everything.
#6: Tandem
Tandem is a language exchange mobile app that lets you connect with native speakers. You can use it for communicating through audio, video, and text. It also lets you copy messages, add comments, and translate the words that you don’t directly understand.
With Tandem, you can chat in real-time and reply to conversations whenever you are free. The app has over 160 languages. So even if you are teaching your students less popular languages, you will find it there.
#7: Michel Thomas
Michel Thomas has made language learning very simple. He follows a groundbreaking approach to break down a language and teach it to students without giving them homework, written tasks or making them memorize stuff. You can use his material and approach to make it easier for your students to learn a language
The audiotapes provided by him let students who are completely new to a language become proficient. You will be surprised to see how your students will get to form sentences without effort. Even though his work is quite effective, yet, schools haven’t adopted it.
#8: Kahoot
Kahoot is very useful in teaching language to younger students. It is basically a game-based learning platform. It’s also being used in educational institutions. It lets the teacher and student create fun quizzes. You can also reinforce the less learned previously. You can create great homework tasks for your students as well. It lets you generate quizzes with video clips, points and also set time limits.
#9: RealTimeBoard
When teaching a language or any other lesson, sometimes you have to use a whiteboard for explaining things through visual aid. There is no other way about it. But how can you possibly do that when you are teaching a language online?
This problem has been solved by RealTimeBoard. It is an online whiteboard that lets you use visual aids to make your students learn stuff. You and your students both can edit the page at the same time. At the white space, you can draw, write text, share attachments, and webpages. If you are teaching students a language remotely, this can come in very handy.
#10: Audacity
It’s a recording tool that gives you the ability to record and upload podcasts along with instructions. That makes it so much fun. Your students won’t even realize they are working on a project when using it.
Conclusion
It can be overwhelming to try all these tools. Pick a bunch of them to start with. You would want to make your students feel welcomed just like the customer service agents make you feel welcomed when you call the Spectrum service number. Good luck with creating an engaging experience and making language learning fun.
