We have all heard about the power of suggestion – if we are led to believe that something is too difficult for us to achieve we are bound to give up sooner than we would otherwise, just as if we are told that we have what it takes to succeed we will probably have extra motivation to accomplish our goal. Now, if this is something that we know applies to us imagine the impact that our remarks, comments, encouragements and criticisms have on the children that we interact with.
As a teacher we must remember that our words carry far more weight than we may think. As an E.S.L. teacher the same can be said for our hand gestures, facial expressions and the few words of praise or criticism our E.S.L. students know. For most children such a large part of their life is spent in the classroom that they begin to gage their worth on how they believe their teachers perceive them.
With this in mind we must remember that when we are grading, critiquing, assessing and evaluating our students we must always try to pull out the positive from their participation and assignments. We must also place our expectations at a level that allows our students to see that we expect great things from them. However, before doing so we must make sure that the goals we help them set are reasonably attainable. We must also remember to be patient with our young learners. This means valuing each student as an individual with different skills and abilities and therefore different levels and areas of success. With this in mind, the saying ‘you get what you expect’ holds true- if we show our students that we expect their best by encouraging and standing behind them they will be more likely to believe they are capable of achieving at a higher level. If they hear it and believe it, then as corny as it sounds, they can achieve it.
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