1. Difficulties in and Strategies for
Teaching English as a Foreign
Language

2.  Who am I?
 Scott Brewer
 Born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina
 Attended the University of South Carolina
 Received my degree in Russian language and
Linguistics
 I teach at CREF, a trilingual language school with
locations in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, and Kiev

3.  Language has a special place among school
subjects
 In some ways, formulaic like a hard science
 In others, very subjective like the humanities
 Therefore, we cannot treat its instruction like as
we would another area of study

4.  The English learned in the classroom isn’t
always what will be encountered in the real
world
 Dialectical differences can often be a source of
confusion
 Most teaching materials we use here are
British, but the current driving force of English-
speaking culture is American
 Though often trivial, there are times when
these differences can cause confusion

5.  Which English did you learn?
 Which pronunciation will you teach?
 Is its grammar the same as the materials your
using?
 If not, can you adjust to the differences?
 Present perfect vs. past simple
 “have” vs. “have got”
 “got” vs. “gotten”

6.  The global nature of English
 Vocabulary differences can be jarring and
confusing, even for a native speaker
 Rubber vs. eraser
 Holiday vs. vacation
 School vs. college vs. university
 “Lie in” vs. “sleep in”
 The dizzying array of phrasal verbs with identical
meanings
 How do you translate “включить/выключить свет?”

7.  Conversation
 Make them talk
 Make them come up with new ways to answer your
questions
 Expose them to genuine spoken English
 Gonna, wanna, gotta, have/has to
 Use the abundance of English-speaking culture
available to you
 Music
 Movies
 Written Word

8.  They must feel comfortable speaking
 Language is, first and foremost, the spoken word
 Conversational competency must always be the
primary goal
 What’s the point of studying English if all you can
do is understand a bit of written langauge?
 Teach them to embrace the diversity in English
 Above all, be supportive; learning another
language isn’t easy

10.  It’s important to keep students interested and
engaged
 Your choice of teaching aids should reflect that
 Videos
 Warm-up Exercises
 Games
 Projects
 Quizzes

11.  Videos allow a high level of authenticity in an
example
 Younger children, especially, appreciate them
 3 Rules for video use:
 There must be a purpose
 They should be used in moderation
 If you’re going to use them, do it regularly
 The Drawback
 Proper preparation

12.  Have a starting routine to get the students
engaged at the start of every lesson
 Ask questions about their weekend
 Ask them to explain local traditions around holidays
 Play games with them
 Different games are appropriate with different levels
 Competition will naturally elicit participation
 Use the games to reinforce learned grammatical
structures
 Involve technology; young people spend an average
of 7 hours a day using some kind of electronic device

13.  Projects are an excellent way to encourage
students to apply what they have learned
 They also force them to use the language
outside of the classroom setting during its
preparation
 Quizzes are useful for teaching them how to
search for and locate information online in their
second language
 Quizzes can also be turned into a competition,
which is always an effective way to engage
your students

14.  From the very beginning, create an open
atmosphere that encourages participation
 Avoid formulaic language in lessons; try to
speak naturally
 Always try to make learning a form of
communication in the classroom and maintain
students' ongoing commitment to this process.
 Always include the study material in the
speech activity. This is what allows you to store
it in your memory.