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Hitch Your Wagon to a Star – Using Unconventional Methods
By Mohammed Alfadhel
How to impress, encourage, and motivate your students using
unconventional methods
In my view, the most difficult moment for almost all teachers is
having to impress and stimulate their students from the very outset.
As such, teachers need be creative and imaginative as well. In this
article I would like to propose and recommend some extremely important
guidelines so as to make teachers’ lectures substantially appealing
and desirable whether teaching literature or linguistics. First and
foremost, it is essential to stress a known fact that in order to
attract our students, we need to update our information regularly and
keep pace with the changes taking place in this field of study. To
achieve this objective, we need to adopt different approaches without
having to worry about covering the course in a given amount of time or
having to be fully abided by the required course since our ultimate
goal is to make teaching of English language more appealing.
To give a clear picture, I will disclose the secret of the most successful recipe I have always used in my classes, with the ingredients added. Firstly, teachers need to be self motivated and enthusiastic to enhance their students to compete and make the atmosphere more challenging. Secondly, after serving the meal, we can
present some appetizers such as riddles, jokes, and games, or adopt unconventional methods for they have guaranteed results and impact on all students regardless of their levels and interests. It is no exaggeration to say that using these aids as a means of stimulating will prompt students to adore English language to such a degree that your lesson will be more enjoyable and productive. Furthermore, you will always be remembered as a dedicated and committed teacher.
Having adopted these ways myself, I will get to the point and explain
them in detail using examples as follows: Using riddles (are questions
with a surprise answer).
1- Why do you go to bed? Ans. Because the bed can’t come to you.
2- What seven letters did a man say when he opened his wallet and
found nothing in it?
Ans. O- I-C-U-R-M-T
3-Why do birds fly south in the winter? Ans. Because it’s too far to
walk.
4- Why did the boy bring a ladder to school? Ans. He thought it was a
high school.
Customer: Excuse me. There’s a fly in my soup.
Waiter: Don’t worry; sir the spider on your bread will eat it.
Using games: Here is one which is very interesting that I always employ on the first day I teach. You need to choose one of your students asking him, “Are you good at math?” If he replied, yes, tell him you can guess his age without telling you. Here are the steps:
1- Ask this candidate to take out a small slip of paper and to choose any number without telling any one.
2- Tell him to multiply this number which you don’t know yet by 2.
3- Tell him to add 5 to the total
4-Tell him to multiply by 50.
5- Tell him to add his age which you don’t know.
6- Tell him to give you the total.
Now based on the total that he gave you, you subtract it form 250 and
tell him about his age.
Teaching Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
You need to provide a setting to illustrate the magical view using the
internet, photocopy this view and distribute to each student. Tell
your students to close their eyes and imagine they are in these
charming woods. Bring a tape recorder and play a soft music to set
the scene. Bring the poem recorded on a tape by a native speaker so
that your students will listen to. Now your students are physically
and emotionally ready to respond and take an active role in the class.
Ask them how they feel when seeing the snow falling. Read the poem
yourself and explain involving all your students.
In fact, the aforementioned examples are not only beneficial but also
essential to adopt as long as they break the ice and enhance students’
understanding and enjoyment. In conclusion, I hope that my fellow
teachers find these examples of some help since they enliven our
classes and eliminate boredom.
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Mohammed Ali Alfadhel is of Syrian nationality and did his M.A. in English literature in 2005. He has been teaching 
English since 1997 in different schools and institutes. He is the author of many articles on different educational and literary topics. Mohammed Ali Alfadhel currently teaches English Language and literature at the Department of English, University of Alandalus for Science & Technology in Yemen, where he serves as the Head of Department. He believes in educating all individuals in society irrespective of their backgrounds. When not working, he is fond of listening to classical music and drawing. Mohammed Ali Alfadhel’s motto is “Judge me all you want, but keep the verdict to yourself’.
