Choice in the EFL Classroom (by Vicky Saumell)

I have been teaching teens for 20 years and finding effective strategies to motivate them is something that I have always been interested in since it has really helped me with my teen classes. The best strategy in my bag of tricks is CHOICE.

The first time I came across an academic concept of choice was when I read “Choice Theory in the Classroom” by William Glasser. This 1986 book may seem too dated but it was an eye-opener for me and has deeply influenced my teaching. Later, in the late 90s I was presented with a coursebook that had the distinctive feature of allowing for choice of tasks at certain stages of each lesson. The book I’m talking about is Cambridge English for Schools by Andrew Littlejohn and Diana Hicks.

Ever since, I have experimented with different ways of introducing choice into my lessons and I would like to share my experiences. It should be clear that you cannot just let students choose what they want to do. I refer to choice as a planned strategy within a lesson. In order to do so, you fist need to identify the main objective of your task. That is not up for choice! Once your main objective is clear you can come up with more than one way of achieving it. The choice can be in the type of task, the tool to be used, the way to present it, among others.

Here are some examples:

If you want students to write a narrative or argumentative essay or any other type of text, you can provide a few alternative titles for them to choose.

If you want to revise certain vocabulary or grammar, you can write at least two different task types for the same concept.

If you want students to make a presentation on a specific topic, you can let students choose what tool to use to make the presentation. Powerpoint? A video? A poster? Let them choose!

If you want students to improve their presentations skills and fluency, you can allow them to choose the topic. Let it be something they are interested in!

If you have worked with a book and you want students to do a wrap-up project, you can let them come up with ideas of what to do. You can always guide them by giving them a few options so that they know what you expect from them. In this case it is a wise idea to approve the choices before any work is done in order to avoid misdirected tasks or projects. Here`s an example of what my students did after reading A Midsummer Night`s Dream.

You may be thinking that this implies more work for the teacher and although it is in some cases, the benefits in terms of motivation are far greater. And even though I have focused on teenagers, this can easily be applied with all age groups and levels.

Note: This article by Vicky Saumell originally appeared on Teaching Village, and is licensed under a Creative Commons, Attribution-Non Commercial, No Derivatives 3.0 License. If you wish to share it you must re-publish it “as is”, and retain any credits, acknowledgements, and hyperlinks within it.