Don't Make These 4 Preschool TEFL Praise Mistakes

In some recent observations I got to again see the joy and challenge that comes with teaching preschool EFL. It was, as always, awesome to see what kids can learn & do, but also a reminder of all the things that can go wrong. Managing a class filled with little learners is not easy – especially for new teachers! There are so many things we can mess up that undermine our lessons and our sanity. One set of mistakes I saw a lot was with how teachers praised their students and the problems that followed. Here are four common preschool TEFL praise mistakes I saw, their consequences, and what to do instead.

Preschool TEFL Praise Mistake #1: Unclear Praise

“Good!”, “Great job!”, “Alright!” I hear these praise phrases a lot when I observe classes. They can be fine in some contexts (more on that later), but they really leave a lot to be desired. The major problem is they’re just not clear enough for little kids.

When students hear this praise they might have an idea that their teacher is happy, but they don’t know WHY their teacher is happy. And that’s crucial. Because if students don’t know what made their teacher happy then they don’t know what they can do again in the future. This means many students won’t be able to make improvements in their behavior over the short or long term in their English class.

Instead, use praise like this;

“Wow! I’m very happy. You all sat down on your chairs quickly and quietly. Great job!” or,
“I’m happy because I saw everyone listening and playing the game together. Very good!” or,
“Thank you Timmy. I saw you help Sarah clean up. That’s nice and makes me happy.”

You’ll notice a few things with this praise.

Clear Feelings: First, it expresses how the students’ actions makes the teacher feel. This is really important for children. Remember, they’re little kids and they’re just starting to learn about emotions, relationships, and consequences. Some of them only recently learned to identify their own basic feelings in their first language. They need your help and guidance to understand that their actions affect your emotions for good and for bad. Telling them this will make your praise much more powerful.

This is especially true because children want to have a positive relationship with you, but they don’t always know the best way to go about it. Make it easy for them to understand how they can make you happy and they’ll do it.

Clear Actions: Second, it tells them specifically what actions they did; sit quickly, keep hands to themselves, line up quietly, clean up together, share nicely, etc. Don’t leave it up to your students to figure out on their own; that will either take forever or never happen at all.

If you can, relate your praise to your rules, routines, and expectations so you’re reinforcing them further. As examples, you could praise students for doing your Attention Grabber promptly and enthusiastically, or you could also praise them all for putting their hands in their laps when they sit down.

Clear Gestures: In addition, build a set of gestures you consistently use for common actions like listening, speaking, singing, sharing, cleaning up, and more. Use these as you’re giving praise to help your students keep up with all the language you’re using. If they can’t understand your praise at all then its not worth much.

Related Post: Use Gestures for ESL Awesomeness

Finally, your body language and gestures should communicate that you’re actually happy. So, move like it and smile!

Preschool TEFL Praise Mistake #2: Insincere Praise

This is another common praise mistake new TEFL teachers make. It’s giving praise for behavior that doesn’t deserve it. I see so many teachers praising students when they don’t really believe the words coming out of their mouths. In many classrooms I’ve watched students run around, talk with each other, and generally ignore their teacher. Then, I’ve seen that teacher praise everyone for being good and to please, PLEASE, be quiet.

No Feedback: As teachers, we do this for a lot of reasons. Mainly, we just want to get along with our students. We want them to like us. It’s uncomfortable to give negative feedback to children and we don’t want to hurt their feelings. Sometimes we also don’t even realize we’re praising poor behavior because we’re not clear about our own standards. We don’t know what we can or should expect from our students. Or, we’re not really sure how we feel about what they just did.

Destructive Denial: Whatever the reason, insincere praise is really destructive. It lets students off the hook for bad behavior. It even trains them that we’ve got low expectations for them. Running around and ignoring the teacher are praise-worthy behaviors!

It’s also really harmful for the teacher. When we give praise for misbehavior we’re denying our own emotions and our own reality. This isn’t good for the long term. All those denied, deferred emotions build up until we’re suddenly yelling at a class of four-year-old children to just. be. quiet. That’s not good for anyone.

Give Negative Feedback: Instead of giving disingenuous praise, take a moment and give your students some negative feedback about their behavior. It’s okay! They won’t hate you for it. They might even respect you and like you more for it. Here’s what you should do.

First, make sure you have everyone’s attention with your Attention Grabber. There’s no use in telling off students when they’re not even listening to you. Once you have their attention, tell them clearly what they did, how it made you feel, the consequence, and then let them sit with it for a second.

Your comment might go like this,

“Students, you were shouting and not listening to me so I’m not happy. I’m sad. Now I can’t give you a marble.” or,
“Oh no. You didn’t play nicely. I saw students pushing. That’s not nice and now I’m sad. We can’t play the game and I can’t give the class a marble.”

You’re Not Angry, Just Sad: Again, it’s really important to make your emotions clear so students know the effects of their actions on you. They want that positive relationship and they don’t want to make you sad. Your comment will affect them.

One quick note, I find it more effective to say you’re not happy or you’re sad than you’re angry. One reason is some boys can find eliciting anger to be entertaining. Making you sad, on the other hand, is a more empathy-inducing feeling that your students will more naturally want to remedy.

Clear Expressions: Also, again make sure to support your feedback with gestures and clear emotional expressions. With the younger kids, don’t be afraid to act up your emotions a bit. They don’t do subtlety well, so make your expressions easy to read. Just don’t go too far and become comical or start crying on the floor.

Preschool TEFL Praise Mistake #3: No Eye Contact

Have you ever praised your students while busily looking for papers or drawing on the board? If so, many of your students probably didn’t receive your praise like you wanted them to. This is for a few reasons.

Discarded Praise: First, it doesn’t seem genuine, sincere, or valuable if you’re distracted while doing it. That means your students won’t take it seriously.

Context Needed: Second, kids need to see your face while you’re talking. You, as an adult, might be able to understand when someone unseen is speaking (like on the radio), but that’s much harder for a child and especially in their second language. They need all the context clues they can get to understand you – and your face is one of the best! If they can’t see your face, chances are they’re not able to follow what you’re saying.

Instant Connection: Next, making eye contact with someone creates an instantaneous connection. You can tell if they’re paying attention and understanding you. You get information about how they’re feeling and even what they’re thinking – and they for you, too. If you’re not making eye contact then you’re missing out on how your praise is being received, or even if it’s being received at all.

So, what to do?

Rearrange: First, make sure you’re positioned so everyone can easily see most of your face. If you’ve got kids to your extreme right or left who can see into your ear canal but not your eye then you’ve got a problem. Those kids are probably already struggling to keep up – and they’re not going to get the full benefit of your praise.

Position yourself back enough to everyone can get a good look at you. If that’s not possible, consider moving everyone further back and arranging things to make it possible. This will be best for the whole lesson, too.

Eye to Eye: Second, scan and connect during your praise. You can try to make eye contact with as many students as possible, or you can aim for a few key individuals who especially need to hear that praise. Whichever you choose, try to consciously connect with students for brief moments as you speak.

Preschool TEFL Praise Mistake #4: Not Prompt

The final EFL praise mistake that we often make as new teachers is waiting too long to give praise. This can get pretty extreme. I’ve seen teachers go until the end of a lesson before they remember that, oh yeah, they didn’t give any stars or marbles. Then their students get five all at once and everyone cheers, but the students don’t really know why.

Past Expiration: This can be a real problem for getting students to improve their behavior and learn. The further the praise is from the praise-worthy behavior, the less effective it is. It just doesn’t feel as powerful. And, a lot of students won’t even be able to make the connection between the action and the positive comment. It’s already gone and forgotten.

Keep it Regular: Instead, try to praise and encourage your students regularly and often throughout your lesson.

How often? A good habit to build is to give your students feedback after each activity or lesson stage. Since these can be quite short with preschool EFL students this means you’re taking time to give feedback every three to five minutes. Just take a quick moment to comment on what your students did and how well they did it.

Short Phrases: But actually, you can do do even more. This is where those short phrases like “good,” and “alright!” come in handy. These go great during activities as students are participating. When the context and meaning are really clear, such as a student is pointing at the right picture or doing the right mime action, then students can be effectively encouraged with quick praise.

Non-Verbal: In these cases you don’t even have to speak sometimes. A big smile, a thumbs up, a high-five, or other non-verbal praise can do the same trick of letting students know they’re doing well.

In the end…

In summary, your lessons should be filled with praise, encouragement, and feedback. Use some class time to give longer, clear praise that will help guide students into understanding you, your expectations, and how well they’re doing.

In addition, use short phrases and non-verbal praise to give continual feedback as needed. All of this will give you plenty of opportunities to encourage your students and build a positive learning environment.

And remember, all of us make mistakes in the classroom. It’s a natural, normal part of becoming an experienced and effective teacher. The key, though, is to recognize that we’re making these mistakes and make changes.

I can tell you that time after time in feedback sessions teachers have told me they knew, in the back of their head, that they were making these mistakes. They just didn’t take the next steps of acknowledging the fact and changing their behavior. The good news is, once they did their lessons and their experiences improved.