Why I Use Chat Groups with My ESL Students

It’s 2022. We were already living in the age of technology, but since COVID, we’ve just become more and more familiar with merging education and the online world.

Each semester, I set up an online chat group with each class of students I have. Other teachers I’ve talked to have balked at this idea, saying they want to have a personal/professional separation between them and their students. But I don’t find that these chat groups interfere with my personal life at all, and in fact, I’ve found that they only improve my professional life. So here are 5 reasons why I always set up chat groups with my ESL students.

Note: If you’re in China, three great platforms to use are WeChat, DingTalk, and Tencent Meeting. (For even more professional distance, go for DingTalk or Tencent Meeting, since they’re strictly for business, whereas WeChat is often used for personal use.)

1) Direct communication with students

Having direct access to my students has proven itself to be invaluable. There have been multiple instances when I needed to send out a general announcement about a change in our class time or location. In the past, before I had chat groups, I would have to track down one student in particular or relay my message to the school administration, and hope that it would get to my students.

Also, it helps to have direct access to any student. If I need to confirm someone’s student number while submitting grades, I can find that student in the group chat and send him a private message.

2) Sending things in writing

Because each class can have a variety of English levels in it, I like knowing that I can send important information in a group chat where everyone has a chance to better understand. If I say a particularly important announcement in class, I like to follow it up by sending a reminder in the group chat. For some students, it’s enough of a struggle to just understand what’s happening in class. I don’t want to put them further behind because they didn’t understand the requirements for the final exam. Students can take their time reading the message, or even translate it if they can’t understand.

I also like knowing that everything has been clearly communicated in writing. If, at the end of the semester, a student comes to me, begging for a passing grade, I can refer him back to the class rules that say “You must be present for 60% of the semester’s classes to pass.” All of my expectations are clearly communicated in writing at the beginning of each semester.

3) Sending materials in class

But I don’t just use group chats for after class. I love to take advantage of group chats during my classes as well. Sometimes textbooks just don’t have enough information inside them, and I like to supplement my classes with my own activities. With just a few clicks, I can send extra activities, charts, and pictures directly to their phones. For example, in my lesson about career choices, I have a graphic with a list of adjectives that are requirements for different careers—patience for teachers, or courage for firefighters. Students can look through the graphic and choose a career that might correspond with their own personalities. Or sometimes, a picture in a PowerPoint just won’t cut it. For example, in my lesson about résumés, I send an example résumé in our group chat so students can read it in more detail—something they couldn’t easily do by looking at a faraway picture on a screen.

Bonus Tip: If you need to share information with just a part of the class, you can divide the class into two supplemental group chats. For example, in my five-week negotiation class, I assigned each student into Group A or Group B. Each time we had a practice negotiation, I sent group-specific information into the corresponding group chat. That way, all the students who were on the same side of the negotiation would see the information they needed, without the opposing side being privy to it.

4) Sending supplementary materials after class

This can be a great way to elevate a class experience, especially if you don’t have a lot of time with a specific class or if you want to help students feel a little more interested in English. Have a lesson about American food? Sending a video after class could really help students get a better idea of what American food is really like. Have a lesson about education in America, but don’t have time to go too in-depth? Sending a video discussing high-school life and pressures could be really interesting for students. Have a lesson including a complex grammar topic? Sending a link with more example sentences could help students better understand the topic.

5) Students can easily communicate with me

Not only can I have direct communication with my students, but they also can have direct communication with me. In my experience, I’ve found that this allows me to build better relationships with the students who are actually interested in that, since they’re able to reach and message me. It also helps me better help students individually. Most of my classes have at least forty students in them, so I can’t work individually with each student. But, if a student has a question or is struggling with something, he can message me individually for help. Last, it just helps my semester go smoother overall. If a student is going to be absent because of a doctor’s appointment, he can send me a message to let me know. I don’t have to track him down after class to find out why he wasn’t there.

I held off on using group chats with my classes for a long time, and once I started using them, I regretted not doing it sooner! Most take just a minute or two to set up, but they will make your classes much more rewarding and efficient.