by Revel Arroway

Created on: November 20, 2009   Last Updated: September 24, 2010

Building trust between the ESL teacher and the students can be an important aspect of a productive learning experience. Before standing in front of that class, the ESL teacher should have a clear idea of who his students are going to be and what they are going to expect. Being prepared for the students first, then being prepared for class, finally being prepared for the preconceived, will help establish a bond of trust that will lead to learning, communication and understanding.

*Know the students

Make a profile of your students. You should know what age group they belong to, how far they’ve gotten in studying English before entering your class, where they go after they have left your class.

Being familiar with age helps in choosing activities for learning. Repetitive, childish songs may work on a daily basis with pre-teens, may be unworkable with adolescents, may serve as a sidesplitting icebreaker for older learners.

Using the newspaper may interest the adult learners, bore the middle learners and simply confuse the littler folk. Though certain activities may bridge ages, using inappropriate activities can bring mistrust: does the teacher really know what he is doing?

Students expect the teacher to readily evaluate where they are in their study and offer new information, based on old. For complete beginners, everything is new and trust is felt through building strong foundations that can be used again and again for communication. Intermediate and more advanced learners see less progress, but must also feel that the information being shared by the teacher is of use, is helping them to improve.

Knowing where your students go after class is not limited to knowing where the students live, but rather includes how they live. By both understanding and respecting the cultural roots and the social circumstances of the students, an ESL teacher helps those students build bridges between their own reality and that offered by learning English. 

*Prepare class

The resources available may be limited or the most complete and modern. Teachers may have a computer available with access to the millions of ideas posted on the Internet, or they may have a backpack full of books and realea that they have had to open six times to show to airport security guards. The basic resource all teachers have though is their own creativity. This creativity should be applied to the preparation of the classes.

In preparing class, the teacher should make a template. First, we will

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