Not only, but also • • •
Chia Suan Chong looks at what English teachers teach apart from language.
In this issue, she looks at time-management skills.
How many times have you heard your students say ‘I had no time’
as an excuse for failing to complete the homework you have given
them? Time management is one of those life skills that never
really gets taught at school, and yet it is a skill that could end up
making a real difference to how our students live their lives.
• • •
As children, we rely on our parents to plan our day, taking us from
home to school, to play dates, to piano lessons. As we get older,
we are somehow magically expected to know how to organise our
own time, and some of us cope better than others.
A good friend once said ‘You can always make more money, but
you can’t make more time’. If your time is poorly managed, you
could end up wasting away your days and feeling disillusioned.
Using your time wisely could not only result in getting more things
done, but also in an increase in self-confidence as you find
yourself thriving on the adrenaline you get from being productive.
• • •
So what does time management actually comprise, and how can
we incorporate it into our lessons? In order to manage their time
effectively, our students need to be able to do the following:
Plan and prioritise
Before planning can begin, the students need to know their
goals and understand the importance of certain tasks/activities
over others. Do your students know why they are in your class?
Help them practise their goal-setting skills by getting them to
write down their own short-term and long-term goals (linguistic
or otherwise).
With their goals in mind, have them consider how they spend their
time. Do they need to re-consider the priorities they’ve given to
certain activities or tasks? Once their priorities are clear, practise
planning the days and scheduling time for important tasks.
60 Issue 114 • January 2018
Manage distractions
There will always be other things that require your students’ time:
things that crop up (eg urgent emails, requests from friends) or
things that might seem more interesting to do (eg checking
Facebook, playing Candy Crush, sorting out their photos),
especially when the task at hand is laborious or tedious. Find out
from your students what interruptions tend to occur during their
day and discuss strategies to minimise distractions.
Or perhaps your students welcome the distraction because it
allows them to procrastinate? But why are they procrastinating? Is
it because of fear? Is it because they are unsure about what they
need to do? Is it because of a lack of support? Confronting their
feelings about each task can shed light on how best to manage it.
Achieve a good work–life balance
While it might be important for our students to spend time
achieving their goals, it is crucial that they maintain a healthy
work–life balance. How do your students spend their free time?
Are they constantly staring at a screen? Are they allocating time
for exercise? Do they have time to take in the fresh air and the
scenery outside?
• • •
Of course, the need for better time-management skills is
not something confined to our students. Many teachers
would confess to needing help in this area. By working with
our students on their time-management skills, we will find
ourselves re-considering how we spend our time, and
learning from the process as well.
Chia Suan Chong has been ETp’s resident blogger since 2012. She is a
teacher trainer and general English/business English trainer, currently
based in York, UK. chiasuan@live.co.uk
www.etprofessional.com