Are you a teacher? Are your class activities starting to bore you? Do you feel like your students need more encouragement during your lessons? If your answer to any of these questions was “yes”, you might want to continue reading.

It is common for teachers who follow a daily agenda to start feeling that there’s a great deal of repetition in their activities. However, there are many things you can do to stay creative on the teaching side, especially if you have the opportunity to travel abroad.

Work with real material

One of the things that will encourage your students the most is seeing how the target language becomes part of their reality. In order for this to happen we must close the class books for a few minutes and start working with the things you would find daily at the place where their target language is spoken. When taking English classes visitors feel they apply the language constantly, even once their lessons are over. This feeling of usefulness triggers their learning even more. When you travel abroad, you are surrounded by valuable material like newspapers, flyers, magazines, signs, etc. Even food packages will work. Collect them and start thinking about all the new learning activities your students and you could do.

Use T.V shows, sitcoms and movies of their interest

Once again, the core of these activities has to do with the real use of the language in everyday life. When we watch sitcoms, T.V shows and movies we listen to the informal language that is used on a daily basis in the country where the language is spoken. Ask your students which movies or T.V shows they enjoy the most and try to apply them to their agenda. Try to bring their attention to those expressions that are not generally taught in language schools but often heard when travelling. For instance, “Have a good one” is one of those things you hear every day and for some reason expressions like those are never taught.

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