Few things are truer than the feeling of anxiety when stepping into a classroom of English language learners.

“Will they understand me?”

“Are they actually learning?”

“Is this stuff useful?”

If you’re like me, these questions roll around in your head daily as you examine the sea of faces in your ESL lesson; catching glimpses of blank stares here, or even worse, a yawn there.

Then, how do you engage students who aren’t fluent in your language?

Planning enthusiasm into an ESL lesson is just code word for ‘hook.’ Get your students hooked, or interested in the lesson, before you even open a book or ask them to hand in their homework. Hooks are a way to get a discussion started that both you and your students want to participate in.

Having been both a teacher, and a senior leadership member, I realize that a significant number of teachers don’t often like what they’re teaching.

Perhaps it stemmed from being given a crappy book with outdated content. Or having had to cover a topic they didn’t find particularly interesting.

And I ask out loud, ‘Why?’ Why are you doing this to yourselves? You’re the teacher who has to see these kids every day and you’re selling out to a book?!

I can already hear some of you saying “Well, I have to teach to standards and blah blah blah.” And I get it. But is there only one way to tell a story?

Imagine you’re an ESL history teacher and your students need to analyze the underlying cause of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

Most of your students couldn’t care less about a war that happened more than 50 years ago and why it started.

If you begin your lesson by asking your students “Why do you think the U.S. got involved in the Vietnam War?” your students will check out immediately.

“Who CAAAAAARES,” I hear them screaming. And they’re right. Why should they care?

What you could do instead is get students to think about the Domino Theory. To do this, you could point to one student and say,

“You’ve cheated on my exam in the past.”

To that student’s shock and horror, they’ll deny it. And you say,

“No, no. I know this for a fact. You’re wearing (point out something they’re wearing) and everyone who wears that has cheated on my exams.”

Then point to a student next to them and say,

“And you, you’re sitting next to ____, it’s only a matter of time before you do the same.”

You can repeat this as many times as you want. Then you can ask if your theory has any weight behind it.

Get the kids riled up, and introduce them to the Domino Theory, the fear of communist takeover by proximity that basically brought the U.S. to war in Vietnam.

Now that they’ve seen a simple version of what the Domino Theory is, do you think they’ll have an opinion on a country going to war over it? Do you think they’ll be more invested in the conversation now they have a basic understanding of what it’s about?

Beginning each ESL lesson with clear objectives will help you and your students know exactly what is expected by the end of class.

Have you ever been in a professional development seminar and wondered what the heck you were doing there? Why, on a Friday morning, were you made to sit and listen to a bunch of crap that you’re sure you already know and already do?

Well this is pretty much what your students feel like on a daily basis and you have to create a disruption in this thinking.

Think about this for a second. If your friend picks you up for lunch and you ask “Where are we going?” and your friend responds, “Somewhere with food,” would that put you at ease?

Probably not.

It is imperative that both you and your students are on board from the beginning of class with what everyone will be doing. And if you’ve got a great hook, your objective should already be clear.

You don’t need to write out long, fancy objectives either. Leave that paperwork for your school admin.

Instead, it’s better you write your objectives in a way your students will understand, especially if you’re teaching lower level English language learners.

Let’s say today’s standard is:

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

Phew! That’s a bit too dense for even native speakers to understand. It also sounds dry and boring.

Instead you could get students to think about this standard in the context of, let’s say, a news article about the spread of fake news and its ability to shape public opinion. After you’ve introduced your ESL lesson with a great hook, you could state your objective:

By the end of class, you’ll be able to define fake news and know the difference between black and white journalism versus grey journalism.  

This objective requires students to cite strong evidence to support the analysis because they’ll be given the elements of black and white journalism (which will include an article’s ability to cite strong evidence) and they'll be contrasting that with fake news (which usually has no evidence or points to a very weak source).  Comparing and contrasting articles will also help students identify and understand inference, as well as uncertainties.

The attitude of many seasoned teachers is that their material is important, and therefore the students should learn it.

In fact, many go as far to say that it isn't their job to make class “interesting,” it’s the students’ job to learn and get on with it.

This kind of attitude will always make teaching a long and arduous task.

No one is saying that your students should be giving you a standing ovation after each lesson, but teaching and learning require some duality of respect - both earned and given.

The students I taught in Kyrgyzstan, for example, only use Instagram. Facebook - they say - is for old people.

My Chinese students used WeChat, a micro-blogging, social platform that incorporates basically everything you can imagine into one super app.

My Korean students were very much into Snapchat and filters, while my Nigerian and Ghanian students still appreciated the likes of Facebook.

However, they all loved and adored YouTube and the influencers on that platform.

Armed with that information, let’s say we’re doing a unit on entrepreneurship and the book has outlined Alexander Graham Bell as our subject.

While Bell was a phenomenal inventor and businessman, someone who lived over 100 years ago and invented something almost none of the students use (the actual telephone, not cell phone) may be a bit out of touch.

Remember when teaching ESL, unless you’re a content teacher (e.g. you’re a history teacher who happens to have ESL students in your class) the content doesn’t matter.

You’re trying to get your students to use target language in a context that makes sense. So it’s really up to you to decide if you want to use a boring text or not.

For me, I would use one of the YouTube stars like Casey Neistat and talk about his story. He’s an incredible filmmaker who dropped out of high school, had a kid at 19 and no direction.

Today he makes multiple millions of dollars and it all started on YouTube. Pretty sure his kind of entrepreneurship would be more relatable with these students, wouldn’t you say?

Having great content means more than just sensational articles to read, or interesting videos to watch - it goes far beyond that.

Great content means:

• The material is appropriate for both the level and interest of the students.

• You have differentiated how the students will consume the content.

• The perceived value is known and accepted.

I realize this might sound like a lot, but once you do it a couple of times, it becomes a kind of working template into which you plug different topics. Before I give you an example, let me expand on the three points above.

Appropriateness of Material

More often than not, when I observe an ESL class, I find the material is either too difficult or too easy for a large portion of the class.

This typically happens because placement of ESL students is largely flexible. Some students have incredible speaking abilities, but their reading and writing is three grade levels below their speaking and vice versa.

Compound that by the fact that many ESL departments, if they are within a school, are usually understaffed. If it is part of a training center, it’s often because it’s more economical to place greater numbers of students in one class.

These factors make ESL lesson planning and delivery rather challenging for teachers. One way to confront this is by scaffolding lessons, which helps differentiate for the higher/lower attaining students.

One also has to be careful that if you’re teaching a beginner or advanced class, to make sure the topic fits the age.

If I’m learning a new language as an adult, for example, I certainly do not want to color pictures or label body parts.

Differentiating Content

I’m sure you already do this, but you need to be reminded: coming to class and being given a daily worksheet is no bueno.

Take it from this guy, students do not enjoy busy work.

If you want to get this part right, you’ll have to look at your ESL lesson plans in more than 1-day chunks. Decide which day you’ll show a video, podcast, article, etc., so it makes sense to you and the students.

Perceived Value Status

This point reinforces having objectives that answer the questions what are we doing and why are we doing it.

Except here we are asking what are we (reading, writing, analyzing) and why are we doing it? If your students don’t see any value in what they’re doing, they either won’t do it, or they’ll do it haphazardly.

So how do we tie this all together?

Let’s say I’m teaching a unit about advertisement to a bunch of teenagers. This week we’re learning about advertising to children. My objective is to get students to correctly use expressions and transitions for debating.

Throughout the week, students will study the different forms of child advertisements through tv ads, print ads, radio ads, and sneaky ads (like the ones on cereal boxes).

At the end of the week, the students will debate whether the food and beverage marketers are responsible for the childhood obesity epidemic or if it’s up to the parents to make healthy decisions for their family.

One of the reasons I’m a huge advocate for project-based learning is because of the tasks that are often unforgettable.

An article I read recently had quoted George Couros from his book Innovator’s Mindset, where he notes the differences between school and learning:

School promotes starting by looking for answers. Learning promotes starting with questions.

School is about consuming. Learning is about creating.

School often isolates. Learning is often social.

School is standardized. Learning is personal.

School is about giving you information. Learning is about making your own connections.

School promotes surface-level thinking. Learning is about deep exploration.

If you come to class every day doing the same tired tasks and activities, will your students even come close learning?

Putting together a stellar task sometimes takes a great deal of planning, especially if it involves a number of resources. That’s why, I would aim to do one of these a week if you’re strapped for time. That means the students get at least 35 times in an academic year to experience deep and meaningful learning that will last.

I was teaching 11th grade ESL once and for some reason a large percentage of the class really wanted to start their own business - as soon as they left high school. And they were serious too. So I took this information and ran with it.

We did a six-week project where the students did a practice run to see what it takes to start a business. By the end of the six weeks, I set up an expo where the students pitched their ideas to other teachers and got feedback on a small card. The one who got the most teachers to invest in his or her business would receive $50 from me.

Each week they performed interesting and engaging tasks on the lead up to their pitch.

They learned about unique selling points and how to write them, determined startup costs and break-even, did a SWOT analysis, market research, and so on.

It was one of my most favorite projects, and even to this day some of my students say it was their favorite class.

Peppering feedback that is personal throughout your ESL lesson is a small, but mighty practice that will not only keep the students engaged, but also keep them on task and eager to dive deeper into the material.

Let’s be honest here. We love when others notice the effort we put into something. Even better is when that praise comes from someone who is in some way superior to us.

Our job as teachers is not only to impart knowledge on our littler underlings, but to also inspire and motivate them to reach beyond their potential. This means giving them little nudges here and there of encouragement and positive feedback.

Do not confuse generic feedback with personalized feedback. Often, out of habit or to check off a box, I’d hear myself saying things like “Great job!” and “Excellent answer!”

If you teach older students like I do, they can see right through this (and younger students can too, although they’re less likely to call you out for it).

Constantly giving generic feedback to your students can feel a bit patronizing and end up having an effect opposite of what you intend.

I’ve found the best way to do this is to only say something when you have something meaningful to say.

Meaningful, in this situation, could be when a student has shown his or her mastery of the ESL lesson objective, or when they perform a task above and beyond what is expected. These are behaviors you want the class to replicate, so your praise serves as a two-bird-one-stone deal.

Do you remember how much you loved to laugh when you were younger? I still love to laugh, but man when I was a teenager everything was funny.

Whatever the hell were we laughing about for 20 minutes at time, who knew, but it was hilarious and we felt great for doing it.

Humor in the classroom brings a lightness to the atmosphere that tells the students that it’s safe and it’s okay to be yourself and have a bit of fun.

Will you make your students laugh for 20 minutes straight? No, and why would you want to? But, you can and should find ways to lighten the subject from time to time.

I’m not funny, even though I really wish I were. Instead, I use low-hanging fruit humor. LHFH is where you infuse the students into the content in a way that makes everyone giggle because it’s so unlikely to be the case.

For example, if I’m teaching a unit on cyber bullying and I’m trying to illustrate a scenario, I might pick the kindest, sweetest student in the class and use him or her in my story as the bully.

Now obviously I would be conscious of their personality type and make sure this wouldn’t embarrass him or her or make them uncomfortable.

I might even design a role play where I take the class clown and have them being bullied by the nice kid (because that sometimes happens!) and the nice kid will really get into his or her role.

It has everyone in stitches and makes for great discussion afterwards.

Getting English language learners to be more active, engaged, and excited about your listen isn’t a complicated feat.

Rather it is knowing that for this to happen, it takes more consideration than a hope and a dream.

Like many successes in our lives, success in the classroom requires planning, diligence, and a willingness to remember that your happiness is just as important as the students’. It also takes knowing that clear objectives, relatability, great content, memorable tasks, personalized feedback and humor go a long way!

What are some of the things you use in your lesson planning to spice up your classes? Comment below.

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