IELTS Teacher e-newsletter – February 2015

Teaching in Practice

Using WeChat with students

In December, we ran a workshop for teachers in Beijing. It was amazing how many people were exchanging contact details, scanning QR codes for the British Council apps, posting pictures of the workshop to their WeChat moments. It left us wondering how teachers and students are using technologies such as WeChat in English classes.

How do you and your students use technologies such as WeChat in English lessons?

Here are some ideas:

    •Use speech to text function to check pronunciation: ask students to read out corrected sentences from a piece of homework for example. Can they get the phone to spell out the sentence they are dictating?

    •Get students who don't have much confidence in speaking to discuss first through text chat and then act out the same conversation. This can work well with Speaking part 1 questions

    •Get students to send you minute long voice messages – good for Speaking Part 2

    •Use voice message functions to provide oral feedback on a piece of homework (read Elena's article about video feedback for more information on this idea)

Do you have other ways that you use technologies such as WeChat in English lessons? Send us your ideas via the feedback survey link and win a goody bag full of IELTS resources for teaching and learning!

Please note that we do not promote any particular form of social media

Additional reading: Video feedback for writing assignments