• Home
  • Login
  • Registration
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS
ESLarticle.com
Tweet
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Blog
  • Members
  • Add Article

Top Categories

Teaching 509
Other 210
Classroom Management 138
Career Development 135
Learning Methodology 121
Study Skills 90
E-Learning/CALL 87
English Language Learning (ELL) 78
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) 77
Teaching Methodology 76
English Language Teaching (ELT) 73
English as a Second Language (ESL) 64
Teach in Shanghai
Home / Articles / Classroom Materials / View Article

Publishing

  • Articles
  • Add Article
  • Articles Archive
  • Latest Articles
  • Popular Articles

Latest Articles

Jan 5, 2019

Metacognition in Reading Competency

As related to the reading process, metacognition can be defined as contemplation concerning one's own thinking processes or knowledge of one's own...

Jan 5, 2019

Mass Media Literacy Reflections for Language Instructions

"You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself." Galileo Galilei Mass media forms thrive today. As development...

Nov 30, 2018

Ideas for the First Class with New Learners

~~The first class with new learners can be an anxious one for all concerned – teacher as well as learners. Below are some tips to make that first...

Nov 19, 2018

10 Amazing Hacks for English Learners

10 Amazing Hacks for English Learners It is estimated that there are over a billion English speakers in the world, including native speakers,...

Nov 15, 2018

Building Reading and Writing Knowledge with Very Young Children at Hom

Education Today, December 2013 Building Reading and Writing Knowledge with Very Young Children at Home  Timothy G. Weih University of Northern...

Popular Articles

1143032 Views

5 Creative Ways to Decorate Your Classroom Bulletin Board This Winter

Back to school, fall leaves, Thanksgiving and Christmas all easily lend themselves to great decorating themes, but what to do when those are over...

381770 Views

Three Unique Ideas To Make Your Bulletin Board More Useful

Bulletin boards have long been existent in campuses. They have proven to be such versatile and useful aids in both the learning and teaching...

140671 Views

History of the Chalkboard

Walk into just about any classroom and you will find one: A dark green board on the wall, lined with pieces of chalk and felt erasers. Chalkboards,...

65168 Views

Report Card Comments

For a small minority, writing report cards isn't a big deal. But most teachers generally dread report card writing time. Completing the comment...

49173 Views

Second Language Acquisition: Swain's Output Vs Krashen's Input

1. Introduction: Input versus Output. A general overview In order to assess how compatible Krashen's and Swain's views are, it is essential to...


Classroom Atmosphere

by Helene Jarmol Uchida

Nov 8, 2008 Classroom Materials 14361 Views

_notregistered/art_548_6d8ef59349~.jpg

For many of our students, the classroom is the focal point of their English exposure. It is the base of where, when, why and how they speak English. The physical appearance of the classroom in itself is very important. And because of its importance, I am often amazed at how many English classrooms in Japan lack stimulating visual English materials. From a Westerner's viewpoint, most schools here appear plain and gray; English classrooms looks too Japanese. And since they look so Japanese, it seems only natural that students speak Japanese in such an environment.

I think English teachers should try to give the impression to students that they are making a visit abroad each time they enter the English classroom. Not only is their visit there a chance to speak English, it should also be a cultural dip into a foreign setting and international atmosphere.

How can we do that? At our school, we have travel posters in the office, and we have the American flag and state flags scattered throughout the building. Maps of the U.S.A. and the world hang in the lobby. And in each classroom, posters not only decorate the rooms but are also used as instructor's tools for warm-ups, teaching new concepts, reference and review. For example, there are ABC Posters which teach alphabetizing, initial letter sounds and vocabulary expansion.

Color Posters are a great physical warm-up booster; often we ask students to stand up and touch something in the room which is the same color that the teacher is pointing to on the color poster. Consonant and Vowel Charts help teachers reinforce phonics; the Body Chart is a good follow-up after singing "Head & Shoulders." Opposites Posters are often children's first exposure to adjectives; Animal Posters (both farm and zoo) help elementary school students learn the names of all their favorite animals.

We have three classrooms at our school whose posters are rotated every few months. Thus, the students feel the atmosphere is fresh, and they also get to learn or review basic concepts on a constant basis. In addition, the parents, waiting for their children in the lobby, get to see English from any position in the school. And for them seeing is believing.

I also think a bulletin board filled with pictures of the students in their classrooms with their teachers and classmates or from their trips abroad triggers a sense of community at their "home away from home".

Needless to say, after their lessons, students feel like they have made a mini-trip abroad, and the usage of Japanese has been kept at a minimum. They leave class feeling they "have been somewhere else" and they look forward to coming back next time. I firmly believe good visual materials help create an atmopshere which contributes to this experience.

Article source: http://eslarticle.com/pub/classroom-materials/548-classroom-atmosphere.html

  • General Information
  • Pictures
Author Info

Author Name: Helene Jarmol Uchida

About Author: Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools (http://www.littleamerica.co.jp/) and le

General

Pictures:

Most Recent Articles

  • Jun 14, 2018 Using Pictures in the EFL Classroom – Some Activities by Helene Jarmol Uchida
  • May 15, 2018 Craft Activities for Young Learners - The rationale by Helene Jarmol Uchida
  • May 11, 2017 Using “ASEAN Now - Weekly Wrap” Video Clips in the ESL Classroom by Helene Jarmol Uchida
  • Apr 29, 2017 The 21st Century Classroom: Five Things You Need to Consider When Sett by Helene Jarmol Uchida
  • Feb 3, 2017 Project-Based Learning: A Newspaper Project for High School Students by Helene Jarmol Uchida

Actions

  • Print Page

Articles Archive

  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021

Random Articles

Classroom Management

Workshops For Classroom Management Techniques

Building classroom discipline is an exercise all well-meaning and professionally qualified educators love to do. Teaching is surely one of the most...

English Language Teaching (ELT)

Essay Writing For ESL Learners

If you have a choice of essay topics, then choose the one that is most interesting to you. If none of the topics interest you, then choose the...

English Language Learning (ELL)

10 Rules for Achieving English Fluency

Rule 1: Use Synonym Swaps - The Strength of Simplicity I'm sure you know what synonyms are. If you don't, a synonym is simply a word that has the...

Teaching

7 Insightful and Timeless Quotations on the Importance of Knowledge an

All through history, great thinkers from all areas of society have spoken on the importance of having a good education, but recently the importance...

Learning Methodology

Bloom\\\'s Taxonomy in Education

What are the various aspects of learning that needs to be taken into account to make education wholesome and effective? Many educators, thinkers,...

About ESL Article

ESL Article is a private ESL/TEFL site designed and maintained by educators and educational administrators. It was launched in August 2008 with the aim of bringing ESL/TEFL students, parents, teachers and schools information and articles about the teaching profession and learning community.

Icon Group Member

ESL Article is a member of Icon Group Thailand (IGT), a group of ESL TEFL TESOL websites providing educational resources and information to teachers, schools and students around the world. The group was founded in 2003 and now includes 15+ websites covering educational information services, teaching resources and e-learning.

What is ESL?

English as a second language (ESL) is the use or study of English by speakers of different native languages. It is also known as English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), English as an additional language (EAL), and English as a foreign language (EFL).

  • Home
  • Registration
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Help
  • Partner
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
​

© 2022 ESLarticle.com.
Member of Icon Group Thailand - Educating the Future:
TESall All TESOL  Total ESL  ESL Job Feed
TEFL World  TEFL Jobs Overseas  Teach Overseas
Asia TEFL  ESL Powerpoint  Teacher Training