MODEL LESSON 1

Prepare the classroom. Attach to the side walls the posters to be used by the students during
the lesson, prepare the computer and video projector (if any) to show the video for the days
lesson, and lay out on the desk the materials (if any) that the students will be asked to choose
from for their work groups. This should be done before the lesson begins or, if that is impossible,
during the first few minutes with the help of student volunteers.

Posters:
On one side wall, in giant letters, a poster with the title Clarification Routine in the
target language (in the present case, English):
Sorry; I dont understand.
Can you repeat that, please?
What does that mean?
What's the (students' L1) word for that?
Please go to the Free Spot!
Can you speak more slowly?
Can we have more time?
May I go to the restroom?, etc.
On the other side wall, in giant letters, a poster with the title Useful words:
Listen
Write
Read
Repeat
Sing, etc
As this is a beginners class, posters are pre-prepared by the teacher, with just basic hints.
Then the teacher asks the students to tell her/him, in their L1 or Lingua Franca, more useful
words and sentences to be used in the class, translated by the teacher, that each student can
add by him/herself to the posters. Posters must be updated with students progress, directly by
them. Example: So, now you know how to say.., who adds it to the right poster?.
While the teacher cant ask the students to speak the target language spontaneously during the
first lessons, s/he can get them to use, on occasion, the above phrases learned by rote. In any
case, the first weeks of the course are dedicated more to input, and less to output.

On the front wall (even covering part of the blackboard), poster(s) of cities and
famous places of the target culture with the title Famous places in!

This will create an exotic atmosphere in class (the classroom becomes part of the target
culture world); in addition, students may acquire the desire to visit those places, or, if they cant
travel, at least to learn something more about the target culture. After every four lessons, the
teacher can ask the students to choose another famous place. Thus the posters attached to the
front wall will remind students during lessons, that they are in a new culture and should speak
and act accordingly.

The teacher introduces him/herself in the target language giving students the necessary words to do
the same, written in speech bubbles, on the blackboard or asking students to write themselves even
in a wrong spelling. After all students have introduced themselves to the others, the teacher steps
into the Free Spot and, using the students L1 or a Lingua Franca, explains the convention of the
Free Spot. Then, when s/he steps out of it, s/he returns to English.
1 minute silence exercise

Inside the Free Spot, the teacher explains to the students that they will be required to
observe a minute of silence at the beginning of each lesson, announcing silence exercise. S/he will
also invite the students to consider this moment of the lesson as a sort of divider between their
workday, their daily duties, and the world of English into which they are going to enter.
The teacher steps out of the Free Spot and her/his voice and tone will be very calm in announcing, in
the target language, the minute of silence. An alternative (if people feel embarrassed by the
silence) is to play a 1-minute musical selection during the period of silence: in future lessons, simply
starting the familiar music will signal to the students to be silent and to break with what they are
currently doing if not related to the lesson.
Teachers role: relax the class and help them to enter inside the new culture. Use the
silence exercise also during lessons, if students become too noisy, simply by playing the same
music (or announcing: silence exercise), which students associate with relaxation and concentration.
30 minutes to form the working groups:
The students are divided into working groups; each one chooses a leader. Students are free to
form groups by affinity and in case of difficulty, the teacher helps the students to form the
groups, using the list of students names.
Students will introduce each group leader to the entire class in the target language saying our
leader is. This sentence is given by the teacher and students can write it even wrongly
spelled this help memorisation.
The working groups are established at the beginning of the course and should remain the same
until the end.
The teacher asks the students to use, from now on, the closest equivalent to their name in the
target language (which the teacher can suggest). Students are required to say aloud their
English name using an easy sentence (given by the teacher), such as: My names Giorgio, here Im
George
All this is done in the target language although, if necessary, the teacher can step into the Free
Spot to explain something not understood after which the teacher leaves the spot and thus returns
to the target language.
Teachers role: Let students freely form and chose the desired group. Help them only in case
of difficulties, and remember that small groups enable all participants to be involved in the
performance of assigned or chosen tasks, even in the short time available.

30 minutes to explain and practice the function of the posters on the wall:
This can be done in the target language through acting out movements: Clarification Routine,
Useful Words and Famous places in! While giving a dialogue to illustrate the Clarification
Routine and Useful Words, the teacher plays both parts (teacher and student). Here is a sample
dialogue:
The teacher says a few words, the last of which is deliberately incomprehensible. For
example, holding up a cell phone and touching it from behind, the teacher says: This is a housing
Then the teacher plays the role of a student who, with a puzzled face, interrupts to ask for
clarification: Sorry, Can you repeat that, please? or I don't understand 'housing'
Then the teacher returns to her/his role as teacher and says: This is a house (drawing one on the
blackboard), and this is the housing for this cell phone, (touching the external part of the
phone when saying housing)
Lastly, the teacher returns to the role of the student, assumes a facial expression of
satisfaction, and says I see, thanks
The teacher then invites the students to repeat the Clarification Routine. The same kind of
mimes should also be done for the Useful words.
Teachers role: Act in a very emphatic way, as much as you can, in order to show the
meanings and help the memorisation.
During the first lessons, make sure that every student has interrupted the lesson to ask for a
clarification or a request, at least once. Repeat this activity over several lessons until the students
feel confident enough to use the word chunks spontaneously.
14 minutes viewing of a video

This exercise is not intended to teach students the content of a video, but rather to present the
video to be used for home study, where the real learning takes place.
The teacher will show the students a short video. Considering the short attention span that
beginners have in the initial phase of the course, choose a short video (30 seconds, the length of a
TV commercial is more than enough).
Before projecting the video, the teacher introduces the persons or the situation appearing in the
video (showing a key-image taken from it) and explains what happens in the video and the
overall communicative goals of the speakers. S/he does not explain individual words.

S/he will repeat this information after the first viewing of a video.
Then s/he will ask the students simple yes/no questions such as: Is she Jane? (showing an
image, or the image of other people involved in the conversation) Is Jane asking their nationality?
The teacher will not ask any student in particular, but will give the students the chance to
decide who replies. This will reveal something about the personalities of the learners.
Teachers role: This is a preparatory activity for the real one to be done by the students at
home. Videos should be shorter than 30 seconds for very beginners while, for false beginners,
chose a longer video (up to 1 minute) and ask more complex questions.
Be clear, simple and use gestures if questions are not understood.

15 minutes to assign individual tasks to be done at home:

Retreating to the Free Spot, the teacher explains to the students the homework assignment to be
done.

In the Free Spot, before giving the task:

The teacher explains the importance of keeping a Diary to be used for the entire course. At home
after each lesson, students are to note down what they have learned. This give them the feeling
of making progress, besides reinforcing what they heard and did in class. They are to keep AT HOME
the notebook they use as a Diary, i.e., they do BRING IT TO CLASS only for comparison with other
students and revision of the previous lesson.
The teacher uploads today's video to a special YouTube channel created for that English
course. The teacher gives the students the channel name or link so they can find it at home. On the
web page the video will be entitled: Video 1 Title. The teacher will be using this page for additional
videos and activities, giving an identification number and title to each video and activity.
The homework assignment (the teacher is still in the Free Spot)

Re-watch the video At home students watch the video again as many times as they want.
Write in the Diary. Before the next lesson, students are required to write in their Diaries the name
of objects they can see in the video, in the target language.
The teacher gives students some hints on how to find on line dictionaries, supplying some links.

In their Diary, students must simply write : Video 1. Title, before writing the name of objects.
The teacher explains students that in this stage they are NOT requested to understand the words
(both spoken or written), so they do not need to stress themselves, just listen to the sound of
the language.
After the explanation of the homework assignment, the teacher leaves the Free Spot and moves into
the target language classroom and says good-bye to the students.
The students are to find name of objects and write them on their Diaries using the target
language, by finding the words on the Internet. The teacher informs students how to find words:
Google translate, a web bilingual dictionary, a web site with target language phraseology, or a play or
film transcript in which those objects appear. The teacher does not suggest any choices, s/he just
gives some input to facilitate the research: it is up to the students to find their own method, which they
will share with the members of their group during the next lesson, and, in some cases, with the entire
class.
This activity is structured in a way that students get confident with the sound of the language and the
listening activities since the first lesson, also to avoid the exaggerate request of grammar.
Teachers role: in this activity the use of L1/Lingua Franca enables students to understand the
tasks better and become independent faster and more responsibly. So, stay inside the Free Spot all the
time needed during this stage.

Notes on Model Lesson 1

Using posters is very important for all lessons (and for all levels). From the first lesson on,
students must interrupt in the target language when they need clarifications and to request something.
The aim of this activity is to put the students in charge of their learning. By using the verbal
commands on the posters, they can stop and replay the teacher (as they would stop and replay a
video or a listening aid) and then tell the teacher to continue with her/his lesson. This take charge
attitude contrasts with traditionally passive students, who do not always ask questions when they don't
understand and who even pretend they understand when they don't. At this stage, a minimal Diary will
contain some simple words. A more complete Diary, that will develop during the students learning path,
will contain from the initial simple words to more complex structures, most of them from the same video
and others. At the beginning teacher asks for simple activities (objects, greeting, etc.) then s/he can pass
to describe the actions in the video, peoples descriptions, etc, and also attempts, from students, to
change some parts of the video(s) with different forms, dialogues, advertisement message, and so on.
During the revision of Diaries in class, made by peers and/or by the teacher, students can
compare and change what they misunderstood for a very effective self-learning. Teacher does not ask
students for their Diary, but the correction is made only by students themselves. During the revision of
Diaries (that is the revision of the previous lesson), the teacher can retreat to the Free Spot to ask
students how they came up with their words; this will afford the teacher the possibility of criticizing the use
of some procedures not useful for the learning process (for example Google translator) and approving the
use of others (web pages with phraseology in context, or on line dictionaries).
Pedagogical considerations on Model Lesson 1
Note that the first lessons are oriented more to oral input: just few activities have been done about
speaking and writing in the target language. The fact that students are asked to write just few words in
their Diaries at home, discovering for themselves the right words, is an invitation to become autonomous
in one's language learning. Students are expected to find things out on their own. Since the Diaries are to
be kept at home, during the lesson the students can take notes if they want (not in the Diary) and then
recopy what they have written into their diaries. So, remind students that the Diary shouldnt be used in
the class, but ONLY at home.
But note taking is not required and should not even be encouraged. When students take notes, they do
not pay full attention to the lesson, but they are more concentrated to write as much as they can. They
should be encouraged to follow the lesson in total, in order to remember it and write notes about the lesson
the same in their Diaries, when they get home. And, during the review of Diaries, at the beginning of each
lesson, they will remember the content of the previous lesson, even better if what they wrote in their
diaries corresponds to what the teacher writes on the blackboard and what peers have done. If
students don't notice their errors, it doesnt matter at this point of the course. After all, what they are really
learning, by doing this task, is to sharpen their sensibility for the new language and its sound, as well as
their memories and to take responsibility for the correctness of what they write at home. These are
gradual processes and it is unreasonable to ask for immediate perfection.
The task of writing in their Diaries also gives students a glimpse of the written forms of the target
language, without any explicit instruction on the part of the teacher. This procedure contradicts, of
course, what some educators say about how to dose and present learning items progressively.
The students are learning to learn on their own, and to take initiatives, each student according to her/his
personal rhythm of development (and according to her/his work and family life pressures).

MODEL LESSON 2
For each activity in the following lessons, from now on, the teacher explains the task inside
the Free Spot only if required by student(s).
1 minute silence exercise
The usual procedure is followed.
20 minute review of previous lesson so that students can self-check their Diaries
The teacher asks the students to compare each other their Diaries, inside the group. The group
leader collects the list of all objects names, and also the tools used by each student to perform the
task, and then refers all info to the class.
The teacher writes all words on the blackboard, so that students can check and correct the spelling. If
a student needs to know the meaning of a new word, s/he can use one of the questions written in
the Clarification Routine poster, such as What doesmean?, and a student of the group who
gave this word will mime the required meaning. The teacher intervenes only if required by students. In
future lessons the answers may be more varied and complex, as students experiment with the
target language.
The teacher, before starting the viewing of the video, repeats the practice of the Clarification
Routines in English, using various examples and inviting the students to practice each others
14 minutes viewing the same video as lesson 1:
The teacher shows the students the same video explaining once more the most important
information about it and the communicative purpose of it, in the same way as the first lesson.

40 minutes active listening group work

For the first time the teacher will assign a task to each group:
- The first task can be to identify and to repeat the most prominent sentences (or parts of sentences)
used for interactions among people or used to communicate the message in the video (it depends
on the kind of video), that they are able to catch in each utterance.
- Group members practice the sentences they found. Spelling mistakes are not relevant in this stage,
though the peer correction should be encouraged.
- Each group reports to the class the utterances they practiced. The group chooses the most likely
spellings. The teacher asks for the meaning and use of each sentences.
- The teacher writes the sentences on the blackboard to check spelling.
- Students can take notes to use at home for writing them on the Diary.

At this point students already know the general intent of each utterance so they do not need to
understand each word or syntactical form they hear; their task is simply to repeat the words that
seem to be most prominent, whether because of stress, tone, duration or whatever. This teaches
them to focus on stressed words when listening to speakers of English, and to pay less attention to
those words that the speakers themselves often degrade phonetically a key ability in listening
comprehension of English.
For group listening, a good idea, if possible, is that at least one member of the group has a
Smartphone connected to the Internet, to listen to Video 1 on the class YouTube channel. One
Smartphone per group is sufficient if the phone speakers are loud and clear enough; they should

not be so loud as to disturb the other groups, however. If there is not a possibility to use
Smartphones, other tools can be used, such as computers, CDs, etc.
Teachers role: While the students are performing the task, stand aside, and intervene only
if the learners ask for help. By moving around and observing the interaction among the students, it
is also possible to learn something about their personalities, useful in proposing to each of them
appropriate tasks in the future.

15 minutes to assign individual tasks to be done at home

The teacher goes to the Free Spot and explains students that, before the next class, they should
repeat at home the exercise they did in class as a group: that is, they should say out loud the
stressed sentences in the video already in their possession, that they have already practised. They
write them down in the Diary.
In the following lesson each student will bring the Diary to class to compare what s/he wrote with
the approximations of the other students in the group.

As the students have no idea of English spelling rules, as of yet, explain to them that they
can write whatever seems like the best representation of the stressed words that they hear. The
student does not have to know what the word really is in English or what it means. It is enough to
guess what group of sounds constitutes that word and write those sounds down in the Diary.

Teachers role: Keep a passive role, just explain how to carry out the task . Be ready to
face possible complaints (adults usually are afraid to make mistakes in front of everybody),
reassure them that perfection is not required, and tell them that all this is the first step toward
gaining independence. This matches with Montessori teaching: it is up to the student to take
charge of her/his learning, including verifying answers, making an honest evaluation of what was
missed and, if needed, seeking remedial help from the teacher.

Notes on Model Lesson 2

This activity might seem complicated and beyond the capacity (or interest) of any student -especially an office worker, extremely tired in the evening, after a long day in the office and then duties at
home. In reality, office workers -- as well as pensioners, university students and hospital doctors etc.. -all find this kind of exercise less challenging than the typical grammar exercise and much more useful in
helping them finally "hear" all those things that escape them when listening to the foreign language.
In this listening activity students are not supplied with the transcriptions. Although, to some extent, a
written transcript would clarify much of what is said in the videos, nonetheless a transcript is not a
crutch: seeing the written text does not help the students listen better. Thus, when students hear a
new video clip in the target language, by themselves they may have the impression of hearing confusing
"little things" with no way of getting a hold on them; so, in this case the transcript becomes a necessary
crutch.
Pedagogical considerations on Model Lesson 2
Maria Montessori has taught us that we should help learners explore the reality they collide with,
not with some substitute (like "written transcripts" in the present case). Learning materials should focus
on single aspects of that reality, without falsifying it. The present exercise does just that: it gets the
students to explore the world of target language sound that they collide with, by treating it as sound, and
only afterwards as "words" or as writing.
In Montessori teaching, the teacher does not need to check the students' Diaries because s/he certainly
does not have to "give them a mark", that will count for their final grade! This is because, in
Montessori teaching, there are no marks and no grades. If the teacher's Institution insists that teachers
assign marks, the teacher can ask the students, periodically, to bring their Diaries to class. The members
of each group, by looking over and comparing the Diaries, will assign the marks. It should be clear, after
these first two lessons, that Montessori language teaching automatically eliminates the causes of stress
and inhibition found in foreign language classrooms, as stated in Chapter 2.
There is no stress because students:
1) take charge of their own learning
2) take charge of assigning marks
There is no inhibition because:
1) students prepare to carry out a task within a support group of peers
2) the group offers non-judgmental support and examples of how to do the task
3) the task itself is done in the safety of one's own home
4) language is explored naturally, as students experience it (not through the mental elaborations of
grammarians)
When little children in upper class families once learned a second language from their nannies, or when,
today, illiterate immigrants learn a second language through contact with native speakers, they
pursued/pursue precisely the subordinate objectives listed above.
Objectives that they found/find far, far easier to attain than could ever be the study of the grammar of a
foreign language and the completion of textbook exercises. While the grammatical study of a
language has undisputed value for the intellectual discipline it confers, it is the least efficient way to learn a
living language for practical purposes.

Moreover, the intellectual discipline it confers can be acquired just as well, and more usefully, by studying
the second language as a conceptual system after having learned it as a culturally-marked will to mean
(which is what native speakers do as children with their L1).
All this does not mean that languages should be taught to adults the same way little children learn their L1:
adults have acquired intellectual tools and social skills that should be taken advantage of. It does
mean that languages should be taught to adults with the objectives that little children and immigrants
pursue in learning a foreign language, objectives that adults can more easily and more quickly reach
than children, by taking advantage of their intellectual tools and social skills.

MODEL LESSON 3
The teacher greets the students as they enter, calling them by their English names
How does the teacher remember each name after only a couple of lessons?
Although this was not mentioned before, after the groups were formed during the second lesson, the
teacher asks each student to bring a photos of him/herself. Then, during the third lesson, the
teacher asks the group leaders to write the English-language name of each student under each
photo.
The greeting routine will be repeated at the beginning of each lesson, to mark the students'
transition into an English-speaking world.
1 minute silence exercise
The usual procedure is followed.
10 min, review of previous lesson (so students can self-check their Diaries)
The teacher, moving into the Free Spot, asks the students how their answers compared with the
answers provided by the other members of the group and the teacher. Even if no clarifications are
necessary, the teacher should repeat the most prominent sentences and their communication use,
inviting the students to repeat them. This is to help the students get into the rhythm of English
utterances. (see: Teachers role).
The teacher plays the video one more time and stops it at intervals, where those sentences are, so
that the students can correct their pronunciation. After the teacher encourage role plays where
students act in accordance to the different communicative situations.

10 min, first homework assignment for the next lesson

Still in the Free Spot, the teacher presents the first of two assignments for the forthcoming lesson.
S/he explains that, from this lesson on, to mark the transition into an English-speaking world, the
students are to wear something different when they enter the classroom something made in or
representative of, the English-speaking society that is currently the focus or they can simply make a
pin or badge with a slogan referring to Britain, that they can put on their shirt our blouse before
entering the room http://bit.ly/brit-slogan.
This request, together with the teacher's greeting using their target language names, the
posters on the wall showing the target-culture society, the minute of silence, a dish with target
culture biscuits and candies on the desk for them to taste, and, of course, the need to use the target
language (at least to ask the teacher to move into the Free Spot), all these things create a break
with the students' ordinary life and their L1 and culture. Putting on something British (or American or
Australian, or others) before entering the English language classroom is therefore a significant Rite
of Passage into the target language world.
This ability to transform one's consciousness and to put oneself in the shoes of one's interlocutor
is an acquisition of inestimable value, useful even in one's home culture. Moreover it makes
students more perspicacious and help them go over the stereotypes
The teacher then leaves the Free Spot and, before starting with view of the video, repeats the
practice of the Clarification Routines, using various examples and inviting the students to practice
each other.

15 minutes viewing of a video conversation

The viewing exercise follows the standard audio-visual and communicative approach procedures,
that we illustrated before. The teacher will show the students a short video of an interview with a
native
speaker of English. The following 24-second extract is from the Picture Project (see
http://www.worldenough.net/picture/). Here the interviewers are two Dutch university students
waiting outside a museum for tourists in Amsterdam; the interviewees are two British tourists, on
holidays in Amsterdam, who have just arrived at the museum. The teacher should have uploaded
this video to the YouTube channel of the English course, before starting the lesson:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4013735/interview1-picture.wmv
25 minutes to introduce the evaluation grids
The teacher will distribute copies of a special evaluation grid to each student and then move back to
the Free Spot to explain how to use it. The grid lists four behavioural tics that characterize
stereotypically circumspect British speakers of English, when making affirmations: 1. hesitating, 2.
stating 3. expressing personal opinion.
Table 1
Indicate tics with X
Total
1. hesitating
2. stating
3. personal opinion
The grid is in English, so the teacher must translate each term for the students, if they cant
understand.
The students of each working group will watch the video again. Each student will note, on the grid,
the number and kind of tics observed and, when the video is over, will confer with the other students of
his or her group. If there are wide discrepancies (there usually are), the students of that group will do
the exercise again.
Each group will give the compiled grids to the teacher, who, before giving answers, asks groups to
exchange their results to facilitate peer assessment.
After the teacher has given the results, s/he plays the video again and writes, in a grid like the
following one, words or chunk of sentences used for the communication purposes 1. 2. 3.:
Table 2
Words /sentences
1. hesitating

(example: Mmmm! I dont know)

2. stating

(example: Yes, it is)

3. personal opinion

(example: I think that)

Then the teacher asks students questions and they are required to practice and act using the found
words/chunk of sentences (example: Teacher: Is it cold today? Students: Mmmmm! I dont know)

19 minutes to assign the individual task to be done at home

The teacher will move once again into the Free Spot, to illustrate a new grid.
Students, after listening the video as much as they need, should note the seconds when they listen
the words below:
Table 3
Words
Which seconds
Yeah
I think
I suppose
That good
erm, uh, mmm
At home, they enter, into their Diaries, those words and their communicative use which must be
written using the affirmations as in table 1 (1. hesitating, 2. stating, 3. expressing personal opinions)
The following lesson the teacher writes the correct answers on the blackboard and students check
their Diaries and self-asses the task.

Teachers role: Teacher should pay attention on the right rhythm in English, more than the
right pronunciation of individual words, to make oneself understood. This is true of many other
languages as well. Teacher should explain this part to students for helping them to perform their
listening skill without being stuck in the meaning of each word.
We all know that translation during the listening should be avoided and that, most of the time, it is
better to give students the chance to deduce the meaning/s of the words from the context. But to
perform the present task, it is necessary that the learners comprehend perfectly the tool they are to
work with as well as the way to work with it.
The exercise to fill in the grids was meant to prepare the learners to the task they are going to do at
home.
Activity in Table 2 will start to introduce students, since the 3rd lesson, to a conversation in the
target language. This part should be repeated many times during the following lessons and kept upto date with other communication forms as the students get more familiar with the language, its use
in the different communicative forms, and its cultural behaviour. Those updates should be done
directly by students any time they find a new communication form, with the encouragement of the
teacher.

Notes on Model Lesson 3

The second class exercise with a video (Table 1 and 2) and following homework assignment (Table
3), this phonological task, may indeed seem like a horribly abstract and complicated exercise, of little
use to a student who has a very limited knowledge of the target language. In reality, just the
opposite is true.
For this strategy gets students to focus on the material aspects of language as it is spoken; this enables
them to pay most attention to the key words of target language speech encountered in real life. In other
words, they learn to hear the target language (English, the present case) much more distinctly and to
guess words and meanings much more easily. This example is a simplified version, and can be adapted
by teachers, using different sounds and keywords to focus.
In addition, students find exercises, like the ones just described, much more interesting than
traditional exercises, most of them focused on grammar rules that students often generally find divorced
from life and boring.
Exercise in table 2 can be considered as the entrance door to the communication in target language
and also to the culture, as students are required not only to use the right words (or chuck of sentences)
for a given communication purpose, but also to act in the way this communication requires in the target
culture.
Pedagogical considerations on Model Lesson 3
Traditional education, in other words, obliges learners to focus on purely mental constructs, the ones
that grammarians have discovered (or think they have discovered) in a given language, usually in its
written form, and then apply these to the target language verbal phenomena encountered during
lessons.
Whereas Montessori education starts with the experiential reality that learners collide with during lessons,
on the Internet, in street interviews, or in video exchanges with learners in other countries. It helps
students make sense of the confusing reality encountered by using learning materials that select and
focus on the key phenomena encountered.
Thus traditional language learning and Montessorian language learning do, in the end, many of the
same things; but they do them in a different order and through a different discovery process, with a
different role assigned to teacher and students.

MODEL LESSON X
This lesson has been called X because it is a lesson for output, and teachers can decide when
to start with the real communication activities, considering the level acquired by the students.
minute silence exercise
The usual procedure is followed

Review of previous lesson (so students can self-check their Diaries)

Practice of the Clarification Routines in English, using various examples and inviting the
students to practice each others.

The teacher moves into the Free Spot and explain the tasks of the day:
Analysis of cultural information about life in English-speaking countries.
Aim of activity: The students are to try to perceive what is different in the U.K.and in the U.S.A. etc.
Tools: Videos.
Examples of British videos of different varieties (same American, Australian, etc videos are available
on the Internet):
Travelogue :; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyp7icIOuEs
Sociological :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUcEAMqJXaw , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0kQ4pEAN2A
Ethnographic : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLp4QxkMIFs

Activity:
each group chooses its own identity American, British, Australian, etc.. and watches the
video related
each member of group takes note about peoples behaviour and communication utterances they
see and hear, during the play
each group collects all notes and practices the right pronunciation, behaviour and utterances,
in accordance with the chosen identity, as seen in the video
the leader, with the help of other members, share notes and practises loud with the class, for
comparison
As we are in a low level, the teacher corrects the pronunciation or utterance only if strictly
necessary.

Homework assignment for the next lesson

In the Free Spot (if necessary), teacher asks students to practice the American (or British,
Australian, etc..) pronunciation (depending on the groups identity) by learning recent pop song hits.
The songs can be learned even blindly, if the student does not have the time to discover the meaning
of the words, or, as an extension of this activity, they can translate the lyrics, using on line dictionary
(not translators).
In this examples we took into consideration videos with subtitles and videos with only images.
This activity can be adapted to all levels, so for higher level choose more complex videos.

Teachers role: Encourage this kind of activity: it allows students to practice the spoken language
and go deeper, reaching in this way also the psychological aspect of the learning process. In fact it
facilitates the feeling of group identity, helps to eliminate the affective blocks due to the sense of
loyalty towards own Language and culture. In one word: it helps to open students mind, that means
easier learning. On the Internet there are many tools for listening to the pronunciations, as some of the
videos, previously suggested, are mute.
Explain students that the use of automatic translators does not help the learning, as there is no
memorisation activity, and often those translations are far from the original meaning, while the use of
dictionary for single words (on line or hard copies) is an active action and helps the memorisation.

3.1 Final comment on Lessons 1, 2, 3 and X

The model lessons just described show how it is entirely possible to teach a language class in which
the students become responsible step by step for their own learning, in which the teacher's job is:

not to teach,
not to judge,
not to correct homework,
not to correct exams,
not to attend boring meetings to program course syllabi,
not to look up answers to student questions (they should learn to do it themselves),
not to motivate students,
not to discipline students,
not to do anything during a lesson except present the materials and then observe how
they are used, in order to know what to eliminate or change for the next time.

Indeed, although it may seem like a paradox, the Montessori with Adults method demonstrates without
a doubt that the less teachers teach, the more they enjoy teaching and the more their students learn.
3.2 Suggestions for designing own Montessori language course
Below some practical suggestions:
Getting to know the learners 2
In order to structure a course, that corresponds to the interests and needs of the learners, we have to
define who the learners really are, considering background, points of view and diversity of
expectations.
It is not possible to structure a set of lessons adaptable to any educational situation.
This means that teachers must find out what students think they want and then find out what the
students really want. Students can, in fact, be unconsciously motivated by more than the desire to use
the target language for their initial motivation.
For example: not only for work. Students in a company may secretly have the desire to take a break
from the office, get out of their daily routine, and learn about different ways of life in other places; this
will become clear by the interest shown toward the materials that illustrate the target language
culture, mentality and social life. Or they might be unconsciously motivated by the desire to overcome
learning traumas (and redeem deficits) acquired during childhood at school.
This will become clear by the interest they show in the materials that permit them to understand and
memorize the grammatical intricacies of the target language, in a non-threatening way (by using selfcorrecting aids in their homes). In a Montessori course the teacher helps students learn what they really
want, by observing them and prompting them with the right materials.
A Montessorian teacher, to be able to lead the students to discover their inner and unconscious learning
needs, should get to know the students from the very beginning chatting with students before and after
lessons, to find out something about them and how they are reacting to the course.
Abundant input before any output for lower levels (Beginners to A2).
During the first lessons there should be mostly hearing and seeing, a little speaking and little writing.
If it is possible to do target culture cooking in the classroom, there will also be smelling, tasting and
touching. The use of videos, songs, films, pictures, folk dancing with steps illustrated on posters and
called out by the teacher are suggested tools and activities to activate the senses since day one, and
produce real Total Physical Response learning and natural memorization.

About writing: although students start learning the new language with little writing, they
improve this skill by observing the teacher (Maria Montessori calls this the silent period).
Teacher should encourage students to find by themselves the correct spelling and sentences,
also suggesting links of forums and chat rooms, as well as dictionaries available on the
Internet.

About grammar: few grammar books should be available inside the classroom so that
students can consult them any time they need. The grammar books should be in the students'
L1 for lower levels (up to A2), to help them to become autonomous without the teachers help
exemplifying the Montessori motto: Help me to do it myself.
2

See table 1 Stress management and Needs Analysis table 1 Annexes

Since there is no single, official textbook that the whole class uses, the whole didactical material
available inside the classroom, constitutes the de facto course textbook. In a Montessori classroom,
the teacher IS a class library, too: her/his knowledge is a resource at the disposition of the students
when needed.
Sign-up sheets for individual or group projects with self-evaluation at the end
Such projects are the equivalent of term papers or research papers in other courses. Each sign-up
sheet, scotch-taped to the classroom wall so students can add their names, indicates few projects
proposed by the teacher that last at least a week, to be done outside the classroom. An example might be
conducting and then reporting an interview to native speakers of the target language using their language,
according to the students level; the interviews should be recorded and face-to-face.
Weekly, at the beginning of the lesson, the teacher or the group leaders ask for information about the
project and note down the progress made by each student or the group. These weekly evaluations
serve to make sure projects are completed and to give each student or group the chance to explain the
obstacles s/he may have encountered and to ask for help.
Diaries in which to write down the things learned in class
The writing is done at home after lessons, not during this forces students to recollect the lesson and
reinforces what was learned. The teacher suggest students that the Diary can be divided into
traditional sections: vocabulary learned, grammar rules learned, pronunciation tips learned, ways of
interacting learned, cultural principles learned, but leave students free to organize their Diary in the best
way for them.
Diaries reassure students giving tangible proof of what students have learned, and it is a good tool for
the self-evaluation. Students are asked periodically to bring their Diaries to class and exchange them
with the other members of their group for peer correction of inaccuracies. Teacher only asks
students at the beginning of each lesson if they have written things said and done during the previous
lesson.
Learning Materials
Learning materials in Montessori approach for adults help students to become autonomous. In other
words, during class lessons the teacher will make the students familiar with the materials that the
students will use at home. It is at home that the real learning will take place. This is the secret of the
success of the Montessori Method for adults: give learners the right materials that they can use on
their own, materials that are stimulating for the self-learning.
The Montessori Method tries to educate the whole personality of the learner and expands the
students' minds. In the case of language learning, that means helping students take charge of their
education and learn, on their own, how to interact fruitfully with, and relate genuinely to, a new linguisticcultural world.
We know that many language courses begin with initial interaction between teacher and students, in the
target language. The difference here is HOW the students learn the abilities to give and ask for
information. Because, in Montessori teaching, while the students are acquiring these two simple abilities,
they are, at the same time, learning how to continue to learn on their own in the future. 3And because
the emphasis is on exploring language as Culture, they are also learning that, when they speak the target
language, they must change the way they act and the kinds of things they say. They must be different, in
order to fit into their interlocutors' culture, or, in the case of English, a language spoken

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See the use of posters model lesson 1

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worldwide by different cultures, students must be prepared to leave their own

culture because they are going to interact with various other cultures, where
some behaviours or attitudes could cause misunderstandings.
Learning materials have to correspond as closely as possible to the students'
backgrounds, interests, needs, and to the institutional requirements of the
specific learning situation. The learning materials are to be used at home. This is
possible because they are self-corrective. These materials can be bought in stores
but most of them are prepared by each teacher so that they correspond to the
interests and needs of that particular group of students and also pleasant to the
teacher.
Maria Montessori's teaching practices, along with those of other leading
educators worldwide, who preceded and followed her, could profoundly influence
how languages are taught in many educational institutions. Some teachers are
already applying them, unaware of the origins of the principles they effectively put
into practice.
For example, in some language learning centers students self-direct their language
learning, with a teacher (phot on the right) always on hand to intervene when
needed.

This kind of language centers offers the ideal environment for the kind of
autonomous learning that Maria Montessori advocated. Although these centers
are usually intended as a simple service centers sometimes for the university's
language departments, they constitute, in point of fact, a genuine Montessori
language learning school.
The alternative kind of teaching practiced in certain American universities is
another example of how Montessorian methodology has permeated a certain
number of educational institutions everywhere. Below is a picture of a language
learning class conducted out in the open at a Californian institution of higher
education.

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On the far right is the teacher, observing and ready to intervene. At the
bottom right is the Class Library, a trunk opened at the beginning of
the lesson. Neither the teacher nor the students may ever have heard
of Maria Montessori but her principles, popularized worldwide, probably
are what inspired this kind of teaching.

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