Puzzled! How to teach English better?

Having been an English for 2 years, I feel that the most important thing for kids to learn anything is interest. The traditional way of teaching in China seems a little bit old-fashioned. Our classroom needs some more joy elements deadly. I'm working for myself now, also as a teacher.We plus many games and activities into the teaching procedures.Our teaching plan contains about 4steps:warm-up-present-prctice-activities.Kids really love those funny games. By the way, our students are between 6 to 14 years old. You can refer to many game books which are available on the net.

To teach English better even to uninterested students is to make the classroom ready with motivation situationally with some happy situations like role play by the kids,words game,reading very easy sentences with prizes of not only things but scoring board for competition.

I've been teaching English in Japan for 17 years and have always found high school students to be the most difficult. If they don't have the basics by then it can be very difficult to keep up. One thing I do is repeat certain things in each class. My students only meet once a week, so I feel that it is important to drill basics every week. With some classes this is just a few minuets warm up, like begining gym class, with more slow classes it can take longer. I use a soft ball or bean bag and toss it to the students and ask "What's your name?" they answer and toss it to another student. I ask things like age, grade, favourite colors, food etc. Then I do what ever they are studying that day, always making sure that the students get plenty of chance to talk, the less I talk the better the class. I always keep it light,try and have fun, find things that are unusual to talk about, but within the scope of the lesson. I've been surrounded by Japanese for 17 years but I still am not fleunt, daily things are okay but beyond that is a mystery. But the words and sentences that I need I find easy to remember. Lanuage learning is hard, even when motivated, when not interested it can be very difficult. Maybe you could talk about your experience in other countires where English is the main language, this might give less interested students an idea that English is important to visit another country. Good luck, teaching English isn't easy but when the students finally understand it is really worth the struggle. Jacks

I found the use of songs helps a lot in motivating students who are poor in English. This is in addition to role play and story telling. Initially use songs which are popular. This is to ascertain their level of interest. While singing the students should act out the words. This means you will have to do it first, or at least ask a student who can understand the lyrics. After you have caught their interest, the lyrics can be changed to suit the situation. all the best, rosdimy