10 Tips & Tricks that will add interactivity to your English lessons

No one likes boring lessons. Studying is already not an easy task, and when the subject is not interesting to the student, he cannot concentrate on the task and is constantly distracted, and then there will be no benefit from such an activity. But interactive and exciting lessons have many advantages. Take a look for yourself!

Creating emotional connections

Interaction with the teacher and other students plays an important role in learning. Discussion of common topics and active participation in educational games helps to involve the student in the context and better assimilation of information.

Better awareness

Interactive elements stimulate deeper thinking in students than passive learning. In this way, you actively involve them in the process.

Accessibility

Every student has different learning requirements. With the help of interactive tools, the same information can be presented in different formats, which allows you to meet any needs in studying the material.

A more effective result

When a student actively participates in the learning process, he becomes more interested and acquires new skills faster.

In general, today's students have many advantages in learning, which consist in the combination of various multimedia and sensory experiences. Interactive scenarios that encourage participation, choice, collaboration, and discussion are more engaging. In fact, interactive education helps students learn six times faster than other methods.

So, what Tips & Tricks can you use in your online English lessons to make them more interactive? We give some effective tips!

Segment your lesson

This is about time and information. It will be appropriate to maintain a fast pace of the lesson and break the information into small parts that will be easy to remember. That is, long explanations and slides with too much text should be avoided!

Interactivity will also be facilitated by mixing the pace of the lesson and adding different types of activities. Thanks to this, time will fly by very quickly for your students.

Use different formats

Virtual classes will be more interesting if various learning formats are involved. For communication, it can be:

¢ discussion forums,

¢ course email,

¢ text message broadcasting systems,

¢ group chat,

¢ announcement on the home page.

For the presentation of the material, explanatory screencast videos are well received by students, which are very easy to create and distribute.

Use visual content

Just as during offline classes, visual content is effective in the virtual space as well. It ensures efficiency and comprehensibility of the online lesson. It can be anything:

¢ video,

¢ schedule,

¢ photo,

¢ slide show

Research shows that a student will remember a lesson faster if it contains visual graphics than plain text. Involving visuals will make complex concepts easier to grasp, improve retention, and engage students in the process.

Try storytelling

Storytelling is the easiest way to get people interested. Instead of just giving a boring lecture, make up a story. What will storytelling give you?

Storytelling inculcates values

Stories usually describe life situations that serve as lessons. When students find something useful in the story, they are more engaged in the lesson. Through history, students can also develop important virtues such as kindness, compassion, honesty, and courage.

Storytelling improves listening comprehension

It is extremely difficult to keep students interested during an online class. It is the story that can hold their attention and thus improve their listening skills.

Storytelling helps to remember

Telling stories will help you break the monotony and allow students to absorb the material. If students empathize with the characters, they will better remember what was discussed in class thanks to the emotional component.

You can also use technology to improve the way you deliver content. Create a story with animation, video, and audio so that students can better immerse themselves in the events and understand the content. Interactive video learning is a proven way to increase engagement.

Use technology

Learning online comes with a lot of challenges, but it also gives you a whole bunch of really cool tools.

Depending on which technologies you use:

¢ boards,

¢ pointers,

¢ virtual games,

¢ text editors,

¢ drawing tools,

¢ file editors,

¢ rooms for subgroups,

¢ screen sharing tools,

You can diversify your lessons and constantly keep the attention of students.

First of all, make sure you know how to use these virtual tools and explain their features to your students so they feel confident too.

Then think about how you can use them to bring your lessons to life. For example, a few minutes of interactive drawing as a reward after successfully completing a grammar exercise.

More discussions

Impromptu conversations will help spark insights, develop creativity and communication skills, and improve student relationships and bond.

Using web conferencing software, you can create a variety of opportunities for student interaction, such as small group or whole class discussion of specific topics.

Learning is a game

Students absorb information best when they become active participants in the learning process. That's why engaging interactivity is a great way to make your students learn a topic faster and make learning fun for them.

Set aside time in each class for brainstorming, problem solving, or situational assessment scenarios or puzzles or strategy games.

Through these activities, your students will be able to sharpen their problem-solving and decision-making skills, as well as become more resourceful and cooperative with each other.

Also, encourage them to create presentations or projects on a current topic. This will force students to research questions more thoroughly and better understand the subject of study.

Administering humorous quizzes is another great way to see how well students have learned the material. In addition, do not forget about the reward, because it motivates to work better.

This will keep the students on their toes and also promote friendly competition between them.

The hit of the season is scripted learning

Learning according to the scenario is the latest trend in the field of education. It consists of demonstrating specific skills in the context of the role.

For example, you could ask one student to play the role of a doctor and another to play the role of a representative of a pharmaceutical company.

The teacher's job is to guide both students and provide feedback every step of the way.

This type of learning is best suited to modeling and acting out real-life scenarios. And when students are interested and involved in the process, you don't have to think about how to make online classes more interactive.

Check your progress more often

It is in the online class that you should check your progress more often. You can conduct a test on already studied topics or ask students a few questions to assess their knowledge.

Online polls and quizzes with rewards for winning will be another great way to get increased student attention. So you can attract and check the level of knowledge of each of them.

Modern technologies allow you to create tests and surveys at a professional level. You can set a timer to run the test. Some platforms independently calculate the score and create a final report. All this can save you valuable time and make your online classes more interactive.

Another effective way to engage students will be to evaluate their classmates.

This is a classic technique that also works great online. Viewing each other's work will improve their understanding of what they are learning. This type of assessment also encourages the sharing of knowledge, which will be an extremely valuable experience for students.

Value your students

Of course, you realize that the isolation that students feel when taking online classes can be a big factor in making them feel demotivated.

Many students may think that no one will notice or care if they miss class. Besides, one can find so many temptations and excuses not to join the class.

The best way to fix this is to make your students feel valued in the classroom. How to do it? Here, for example:

¢ call students by their names more often;

¢ recall the material and interesting moments from previous lessons;

¢ your students need to be constantly aware of what is happening in the classroom and how the learning plan is progressing;

¢ learn about students' interests and include them in the lesson whenever possible;

¢ provide feedback on your students' work regular bases;

¢ be positive, encouraging and present.

And also ask your students for their feedback. This will be another great opportunity for interaction. Any student feedback will provide an opportunity to optimize the training program, your work and increase the effectiveness of classes.