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There are various classes were offered and can be from all over the world with different teachers online, and it seems to be the popular and convenient way in people’s mind when considering about learning English nowadays. As an English teacher taught both online and offline courses, I think there are some differences between them and need to adapt with different teaching techniques and methods. In terms of online adults’ course, there are six aspects that I think teachers need to do to teach classes online. First one is choosing a proper platform online. Different from physical classroom classes, online classes usually rely on a software online platform to teach. It would be much better if teacher can find a software or application that can share screen, share text message, draw something or share pictures, which would help students understand better and make the class more interactive and enjoyable. In some occasions, teachers may only use voice call to teach, but in that case teachers should make sure students have the textbook or materials in advance to keep you and your students always on the same page. Second is manage the volume of the class. For online courses, it can be a bit messy if there are many students attend the class at the same time. Personally, based on my experience, I think one class should not include more than ten students. It is not easy to observe what the student are doing during the class and to get the reaction from your students on time. Although teachers can ask concept checking questions to get the feedback from your students, a lot of students in a class means more questions to ask and that would be time-consuming. Next one teachers should prepare the class well. The same as offline courses, teachers should prepare a lesson plan included language point, anticipated problems, procedure, timing, interaction and class level. Teachers usually don't need to prepare teaching aids but if they want to express something by pictures or videos, they also need to prepare them on computer before the class. In a class, ESA is still a very useful way. In engage phrase, teachers can let students think something in English by asking some topic-related questions or show something on the screen to get students’ ideas. In study phrase, teachers can use pictures, texts or charts to elicit the targeted language. And if they can use shared screen, gap-filled activities, grammar exercise or worksheets are still useful to check whether students grasp the targeted language well or not. In the activate phrase, unlike in-class courses, online courses are unable to apply group work or class survey activities because students can talk in a separated group. But they can do role-play activities, for example let one student acts waiter and another one acts a customer to practice language in ordering food. Or they can do individual work with one related topic and present their work to all. During a class, personally I’d like to keep asking some concept checking questions to check students’ feedback. If they have any confusion, I could adjust my language to make my explanation or instruction simple and clear. There are some disadvantages having classes online as teachers are not sure if the students is 100 present focus in class or students may be distracted by something else out of the class. Moreover, if teachers meet some reluctant students to talk, it is not easy to balance work to keep everyone talking equally. In this case, I suggest teachers can do more pair work activities that students usually are willing to talk and share more when they are doing a conversation work. At last, teachers can give a clear and short conclusion about the language point and address the homework to students. I think homework is important for online courses because that’s a direct way to check what student already got and what they are still confused about. These are some ideas I think how to teach an English class online. And with the trend that more and more people choosing study online, although it cannot replace in-class courses, teachers should get more trainings and try move some of the classes online.
