What can you do when you find your student’s English is
lacking and there are just not enough hours to help them improve their English
at school? You encourage them to self-study, of course.

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Encouraging students to self-study English can help them to
take control of their own learning. They can set their own pace and focus on
the topics they’re interested in.

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OK, so how should students go about this self-studying stuff. Well, here are four things you can suggest your students to do:

Listen to songs

Kids around the world enjoy listening to English songs. All you
have to do is to motivate them to learn the lyrics too.  

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For learning English, pop
songs are arguably the best choice since the beats are generally not too
fast. Kids can easily pick up phrases from the songs. Do advise the students to
avoid songs with profane lyrics. Songs in the hip-hop, heavy metal, and
electronic music are generally peppered with profanity. Just stick to pop to be
on the safer side.

Watch movies

Watching movies is also a great way to learn English. Watching
English movies with subtitle can help students practice their listening and reading skills at the
same time. Talk about hitting two birds with one stone, eh?

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Actually, you don’t have to limit students with watching
movies only. There are many great TV shows and documentaries out there. You
should compile a list of TV shows that will not only improve students English
but broaden their minds at the same time.

Try online quizzes

One of the great things about the internet is that it’s full
of quizzes. English teachers are especially blessed with the ever-increasing
number of English quizzes made to help people around the world to learn English
online.

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Encourage students to take online quizzes covering the topic
their bad at. For instance, students who are having a hard time understanding
pronouns should keep taking quizzes about pronouns until they can get 90%
correct answers.

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“Does it have to be
90%?”

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No. You should set this number to whatever the passing grade
is you have at school.

Use a grammar checker

Let’s say you give students an English writing assignment. Some
students may be confident about their grammar skills, but tell them to use grammar-checking tools anyway
to see if they’re as good as they think they are. 

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Suggest students to keep track of which errors missed their
eyes repeatedly. Write the errors out in a journal so they can steer clear from
those same errors in the future.

Conclusion

Independent learning will not only lessen your teaching
burden but it will also help students develop their thinking, planning, and
self-evaluation skills. Listening to songs, watching movies, taking online
quizzes, and taking advantage of grammar-checking tools are all great ways to
help students self-study.

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Please remember to give students proper feedback on their
self-learning journey. Teacher feedback still plays a great role in students
learning even when the students spend much of their time doing things on their
own.