TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) teachers must adopt creativity and flexibility when planning and implementing their lessons. To meet the needs of their students, these educators must engage their pupils in language-rich activity and allow for authentic language use practice time. To ensure your non-English speakers build their language skills while adding to their content knowledge, integrate some proven techniques into your teaching.

Reduce Teacher Talking Time
Non-native speakers learn to speak best by actually speaking. To allow them as much active speaking time as possible, you must fill as little class time as possible with lecture or instruction-giving. When you must present new information, do so quickly, then move on. Don't feel it is necessary to give extended lectures or long strings of directions, as these are not generally beneficial to your pupils.

Use Journals
Provide students with an authentic reason to practice their writing by engaging them in the keeping of journals. Provide each pupil with a notebook, and ask him or her to record thoughts, ideas or opinions daily. Collect these journals once a week, review the students' entries and write responses. Students will likely enjoy this attention and teacher-student communication, and it will encourage them to continue their writing skills development.

Practice Oral Reading
When students read, ask them to do it orally. You cannot adequately assess their fluency or pronunciation if they are reading silently. Listen to your pupils as they read, and make note of areas in which they may need additional assistance.

Use Role Playing
You cannot necessarily take your students into society to practice their daily language skills, but you can do the next best thing with role playing. Set up real-life scenarios and ask your students to act as players in these prepared situations. For example, you could have two students take on the roles of grocery store clerk and customer. As students act out these interactions in the safety of the classroom, they will develop their skills and feel more comfortable when they must interact in real life.

Make the Most of Index Cards
Index cards are inexpensive and useful. Use these tools to make flash cards, jot down phrases or prepare matching games. Your students can benefit from the hands-on nature of index cards and the numerous language practice opportunities they afford.