How to Teach English Online: What Do TEFL Teachers Need to Get Right? - S01E10

How do you move face-to-face English lessons online? Which video-call platform should a TEFL teacher use? How can you improve sound and connection, share worksheets and videos, manage turn-taking, and keep online lessons organised?In this episode of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em share their first-hand experiences of teaching and learning English from home. Em explains how her face-to-face lessons moved online and why she discovered that the fear of online teaching could be worse than the reality. Gav and Em then work through the practical questions teachers and learners face when the classroom moves onto a screen.They compare platforms including Zoom, Webex, Microsoft Teams, Skype, WhatsApp and Whereby, discussing video and audio, screen sharing, invitations, access restrictions and the importance of having a simple backup when technology fails.The conversation also gets into the details that can make or break an online English lesson: staying near the router, using headphones and a microphone, reducing background noise, managing turn-taking and delays, checking mute and camera settings, and practising with the technology before the first lesson.Gav and Em also explore how teachers can share screens, worksheets, documents, audio and video while keeping students involved. And once the lesson is over, they discuss saving annotated materials, emailing work to students and creating individual folders so previous lessons and homework are easy to find.Whether you're teaching your first online English lesson or looking for practical ways to improve your remote TEFL setup, this episode is full of realistic advice from two teachers working through the same problems.00:00 — Should we talk about teaching and learning English from home?02:00 — How do you move face-to-face English lessons online?03:00 — Which online teaching platform should you use?04:00 — What features does a TEFL teacher actually need?06:00 — Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams and access problems07:00 — How do students join an online English lesson?08:00 — Which video-call platform works best?09:00 — What should you do when the technology doesn't work?10:00 — Chargers, routers and internet connections11:00 — Do online English teachers need headphones?12:00 — How should turn-taking work in online classes?13:00 — Setting online classroom rules and anticipating problems14:00 — Preparing students for technical difficulties15:00 — How can teachers share worksheets and other materials online?16:00 — Screen sharing versus sending students documents17:00 — Sharing audio and video during online lessons18:00 — Mute buttons, cameras and checking your settings19:00 — Why should teachers practise before their first online lesson?20:00 — Creating a comfortable, distraction-free teaching space21:00 — Lighting, cameras and the advantages of teaching from home22:00 — Can you teach speaking, listening, grammar and vocabulary normally online?23:00 — Saving lesson materials, organising student folders and final thoughtsOnline teaching changes the location and technology, but it doesn't have to change the fundamentals of good English teaching. As Gav and Em conclude, teachers can still work on speaking, listening, questions, grammar, vocabulary and familiar lesson materials once they become comfortable with the tools.☕ Enjoy How to English TEFL Podcast? Support Gav & Em and help us keep making the show:ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpodHow to English TEFL Podcast — Teach and Learn with Gav & Em.In this episodeReferences:Zoom: https://zoom.us/Skype: https://www.skype.com/en/Skype for Business: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/skype-for-business/download-appWebex: https://www.webex.com/Microsoft Teams: https://www.microsoft.com/en/microsoft-teams/group-chat-softwareWhereby: https://whereby.com/Whatsapp Web: https://web.whatsapp.com/Google Hangouts: https://hangouts.google.com/Foxit PDF Reader: https://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf-reader/