How can we encourage English learners to feel self-confident?

Jeanne Perrett
A group of students in a classroom sat at their desks, smiling and looking towards their teacher at the front

Encouraging learners to feel more confident in the classroom is a problem often faced by teachers. Below are five simple things you can adopt in your classroom to encourage learners to feel self-confident.

The small things

Let’s start with the physical comfort of our students. Having the room adequately heated or cooled, asking if they would like the window open, making sure everyone has had some water or checking to see if anyone needs to go to the bathroom or wash their hands only takes a minute at the beginning of the lesson. It helps our children to know that their welfare is our concern.

Then, make sure that everyone has their books and praise them for being organized or having their pencils sharpened and ready. These things seem trivial, but they count. They count because we are acknowledging the fact that it isn’t always easy to get up and ready for school every morning, day after day and that just managing that well is an achievement.

So, starting by checking the small things helps to give our students a feeling of well-being before the lesson has even begun.

Clarity and familiarity

Be clear. Be clear about what you are all going to do and why you are going to do it. There is no such thing as ‘the obvious’ when it comes to learning. For example, you know that English is spoken internationally, but primary-aged students may have no concept of what ‘internationally’ means.

They may never have considered the concept of language itself. So, we must state the ‘obvious’ and do it in ways which are meaningful to the children, through videos, pictures and relatable examples. This goes for everything; what a verb is, how we form negative statements, what question marks indicate and what today’s lesson aims are.

Whatever they need to know, we need to state it clearly and when they have forgotten, we tell them again without ever making them feel that they ‘should’ have remembered. They forget – we remind. That’s our job.

Then there is the familiarity of a routine. Apart from making us feel reassured that we know what is happening, routines also feed into the innate need for repetition. Young children want their favorite bedtime stories told to them exactly the same way each night and will pop their heads up to correct us if we do something differently. That repetition is part of practice; doing, saying or hearing something repeatedly until we are completely sure we know it.

Most teachers don’t need reminding of this, but it might be helpful to remember that within that routine, one can also have surprises.

A five-minute ‘something different’ slot could be built into your routine. This could be a fun quiz, game or song and dance. A straightforward way of managing this is to write the names of different ‘surprise activities’ on pieces of card, put them into a pot and let a different student pick a card each day.

Room to maneuver

We all feel more confident if we know that we are free to experiment and, within that experimentation, to make mistakes. It can’t be stated often enough that we will only ever learn something by doing it wrong, often many times, before we do it right.

This message may be even more important nowadays when we see and hear perfect versions of whatever has been created - music, cookery and writing to name but a few - especially on social media.

The learning process is not brought to our attention as often as the result, and the results are often digitally altered to look more impressive. We need to remind our children of this and make them feel good about their efforts, however small and halting.

Peer pressure often contributes to a lack of self-confidence; you only need one mocking ‘friend’ to put you off. So, we must be vigilant in noticing little glances or whispered asides and praise the majority of the students who are quietly accepting or encouraging.

Space to flourish

Finally, confidence in our language learning abilities will soar when we know we can make the language our own and use it however we want.

This goes beyond personalizing activities, which can be done at any level ("What’s your favorite food?" "Do you like tomatoes?") and is dependent on the teacher noticing and accepting what individual children are really interested in. So, for example, if we continue with the example of food, a sporty child might be interested in what famous sports people have for breakfast or which foods give us stamina.

A child who is interested in nature might want to know what birds and animals eat. For this to happen, first we need to notice their interests, show enthusiasm for what they are finding out and encourage them to share what they have learnt with the class.

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  • A teacher helping a teenage student working at her desk in a library

    How teachers can use the GSE for professional development

    By Fajarudin Akbar
    Reading time: 4.5 minutes

    As English teachers, we’re usually the ones helping others grow. We guide learners through challenges, celebrate their progress and push them to reach new heights. But what about our own growth? How do we, as educators, continue to develop and refine our practice?

    The Global Scale of English (GSE) is often seen as a tool for assessing students. However, in my experience, it can also be a powerful guide for teachers who want to become more intentional, reflective, and confident in their teaching. Here's how the GSE has helped me in my own journey as an English teacher and how it can support yours too.

    About the GSE

    The GSE is a proficiency scale developed by ÃÛÌÒapp. It measures English ability across four skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – on a scale from 10 to 90. It’s aligned with the CEFR but offers more detailed learning objectives, which can be incredibly useful in diverse teaching contexts.

    I first encountered the GSE while exploring ways to better personalize learning objectives in my Business English classes. As a teacher in a non-formal education setting in Indonesia, I often work with students who don’t fit neatly into one CEFR level. I needed something more precise, more flexible, and more connected to real classroom practice. That’s when the GSE became a turning point.

    Reflecting on our teaching practice

    The GSE helped me pause and reflect. I started reading through the learning objectives and asking myself important questions. Were my lessons really aligned with what learners at this level needed? Was I challenging them just enough or too much?

    By using the GSE as a mirror, I began to see areas where I could improve. For example, I realized that, although I was confident teaching speaking skills, I wasn’t always giving enough attention to writing development. The GSE didn’t judge me. It simply showed me where I could grow.

    Planning with purpose

    One of the best things about the GSE is that it brings clarity to lesson planning. Instead of guessing whether an activity is suitable for a student’s level, I now check the GSE objectives. If I know a learner is at GSE 50 in speaking, I can design a role-play that matches that level of complexity. If another learner is at GSE 60, I can challenge them with more open-ended tasks.

    Planning becomes easier and more purposeful. I don’t just create lessons, I design learning experiences that truly meet students where they are.

    Collaborating with other teachers

    The GSE has also become a shared language for collaboration. When I run workshops or peer mentoring sessions, I often invite teachers to explore the GSE Toolkit together. We look at learning objectives, discuss how they apply to our learners, and brainstorm ways to adapt materials.

    These sessions are not just about theory: they’re energizing. Teachers leave with new ideas, renewed motivation and a clearer sense of how to bring their teaching to the next level.

    Getting started with the GSE

    If you’re curious about how to start using the GSE for your own growth, here are a few simple steps:

    • Visit the GSE Teacher Toolkit and explore the learning objectives for the skills and levels you teach.
    • Choose one or two objectives that resonate with you and reflect on whether your current lessons address them.
    • Try adapting a familiar activity to better align with a specific GSE range.
    • Use the GSE when planning peer observations or professional learning communities. It gives your discussions a clear focus.

    Case study from my classroom

    I once had a private Business English student preparing for a job interview. Her speaking skills were solid – around GSE 55 – but her writing was more limited, probably around GSE 45. Instead of giving her the same tasks across both skills, I personalized the lesson.

    For speaking, we practiced mock interviews using complex questions. For writing, I supported her with guided sentence frames for email writing. By targeting her actual levels, not just a general CEFR level, she improved faster and felt more confident.

    That experience reminded me that when we teach with clarity, learners respond with progress.

    Challenges and solutions

    Of course, using the GSE can feel overwhelming at first. There are many descriptors, and it can take time to get familiar with the scale. My advice is to start small: focus on one skill or one level. Also, use the Toolkit as a companion, not a checklist.

    Another challenge is integrating the GSE into existing materials, and this is where technology can help. I often use AI tools like ChatGPT to adjust or rewrite tasks so they better match specific GSE levels. This saves time and makes differentiation easier.

    Teachers deserve development too

    Teaching is a lifelong journey. The GSE doesn’t just support our students, it also supports us. It helps us reflect, plan, and collaborate more meaningfully. Most of all, it reminds us that our growth as teachers is just as important as the progress of our learners.

    If you’re looking for a simple, practical, and inspiring way to guide your professional development, give the GSE a try. It helped me grow, and I believe it can help you too.

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