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How to help students to overcome stress when they learn English? English is one of the most important languages in our modern world, hence it is spoken in many countries around the world as a first or second language. In many countries, the English language is therefore a main topic in schools. Learning a new language requires a lot of time, motivation and effort. My experience with learning topics like English at school is that you can learn something very quickly, it can be a lot of fun with other classmates and at the other side it can cause stress. I have experienced it all myself. Studies show, however, that an average of 37% of all the international students feel very tensed when they study. Nearly 47% of the Australian students say that they feel very tensed (The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 January 2018). Unfortunately, a lot of activities in class can affect stress. Asking Questions when you don’t understand something, the fear of failing for a test, projects with other students, receiving feedback and presentations in front of the class are examples of activities that may cause stress. As an English teacher, one of my main tasks is to teach English. But I think that too much stress will be an issue in slowing down the developing of my students. Therefore, one of my other main tasks is to help students to overcome stress while learning English. In this Essay I would like to show you how I think I can reduce the stress level in my class. The atmosphere in the class is a very important thing in my opinion. The first meeting with a new class is a very important moment. In this moment I have to create a comfortable, enjoyable, but disciplined atmosphere. In the first couple of lessons I would like to know my students a bit better. Personal goals, motivation and their hobby’s after school will help me to know how my students are like. I think that a personal approach and a slightly informal connection with my students will make them feel more comfortable. I think when my students feel comfortable in my class, they will have less fear to ask questions or to step out of their comfort zone. Therefore, they feel less stressed in class. Secondly, my students need to be able to make mistakes. I want to show my students that making mistakes is very natural. Since, I am not a native English speaker myself, I will tell about my own experiences in learning English. Hopefully, using my own mistakes, failures and uncomfortable moments, it will help students to feel more comfortable to make mistakes. Embarrassment is a thing I do not want to see in my class. Therefore, I need to correct students when they laugh at others when they make a mistake. In my opinion you can only learn by making mistakes. I have to make sure that I will correct students, but not in every phase of the lesson. I must only correct my students in the study phase, and I need to be consistent in doing this. That will make my students more comfortable in making mistakes. Asking questions is another important part of learning. Asking questions may cause stress. Creating an atmosphere where no stupid questions exist is very important. Every question needs to be taken seriously. I have to give time to answer my students and if I don’t know the answer, I will save the question for later. Finally, giving feedback. When you give feedback in class or while correcting exams and projects, you should give positive and negative feedback. Feedback needs to be information the student can use to improve. So, in my opinion it needs to be specific and clear what the student has to improve and how to improve that. Giving back results of a test or project can be very stressful for the students. Therefore, I will try to praise good results, but never hold down the students with bad results. Instead, I will try to make a plan to improve and give them back some self-confindence. Hopefully, I can make the classroom a comfortable place to go to and help the students to overcome stressful situations. The Sydney Morning Herald, Nearly half of Australian school kids are stressed. Here's how to fix it., at 28 January 2018 via https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/nearly-half-of-australian-school-kids-are-stressed-heres-how-to-fix-it-20180126-h0omvq.html
