How can we encourage our students to practise what they learned outside the online classroom and use more target language in our short online sessions?

Working in the online space with language learners from across New Zealand is a hugely enriching and exciting but at times challenging experience, particularly considering the limited “face-to-face” time with our online learners.

Speaking another language is an immensely valuable skill, especially in today’s globalised and connected world but how does one become more fluent? As with many other skills we acquire in life, learning a language needs time to practise. So how can we encourage all our learners to do their homework before each online “face-to-face” session, e.g. practise their language skills outside class? This does not only apply to language learning but equally to many other subject areas.

This is closely related to my second question on how to maximise the short online “face-to-face” time for our learners to practise speaking the target language when they need input to learn at the same time, especially if they did not prepare for class? One way to make time for speaking in class is to flip the classroom and provide a variety of language input for individual learner time. But this can be challenging when learners do not do their homework.

If these challenges of online teaching practice resonate with you, I invite you to watch my short video to find out more, and to join our NEX online platform to discuss how to address those challenges.