Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Having listened to the students and teachers talking about coursebooks, it is clear
that they have different views of coursebooks and use them to varying extents. Of
course, how much you use your coursebook depends on your students and it
depends on which coursebook your course has been assigned. It is very common
for teachers to have a preference for a particular book.
Overall, it can be said that coursebooks are useful for the following reasons:
they have been designed to be graded appropriately for the students’ level
they provide students with a variety of topics, skills and language work
they offer a logical structure for the course to follow. For example, the skills
work becomes increasingly challenging to reflect the students’ progress and
revision activities are often built in, so the students are constantly recycling
the language they have covered in previous chapters
the students expect to use the coursebook and value the logical structure it
gives the course
they are a valuable reference resource for students and enable them to look
ahead and/or revise
the teacher’s book often suggests ways to adapt activities to supplement the
coursebook
the workbook can provide ready-to-go homework tasks
they save the teacher valuable planning time.
but they can also have the following drawbacks:
the coursebooks are written for students at that level but they cannot know
the needs of your particular students
they can be unsuitable for particular learners in terms of topics, for example,
dating and relationships can be inappropriate topics for discussion in certain
cultures
they can be too grammar-based if they follow a grammar syllabus
they can date quickly if they use authentic materials, for example, articles
about celebrities or technology
they can be too focused on certain parts of the world which may not be
relevant or interesting to students
the students can become bored by the structure and/or layout of
coursebooks.
I would tell students to pair up and discuss if they think laughing can have positive effects on
our bodies and how. I would get feedback from them and write their answers on the board.
Then I'd show the picture and ask why the people there are laughing. Finally, I'd ask them what
they think a "laugh club" could be about and what people do in a meeting of the club - telling
jokes, watching comedies-their ideas would be brainstormed on the board and then they
would read the text to check their answers.
Below is Fan’s lesson plan. Complete the plan by choosing the correct name for
each stage.
Time &
Stage & Stage Aim Procedure (Teacher/Student Ac
Interaction
Lesson aims: To enable students to develop their reading skills by reading a text on
laughter clubs for general and detailed information.
Materials /
Time & Procedure (Teacher/Student Activity)
aids: Face to Interaction
Face
Intermediate
pages 8 & 9
Now listen to two trainees matching the stages to the procedure and check your answers.
Writing Aims
So before you write your main aim you need to be clear whether the main focus of
the lesson is skills(reading, listening, speaking or writing) or language (grammar,
lexis or phonology). The main aim of the lesson we saw was skills, in this case,
reading.
Remember to be specific in your main aims. Thus for a listening lesson include
what type of text they will listen to, for example, a short TV documentary about
animals in captivity. Make sure you include what listening skill(s) they will develop,
such as listening for gist or inferring the speaker’s attitude. Similarly, if it is a lexis
lesson, include examples of the lexis students will see and specify the context, for
instance, a lexical set to do with leisure activities (go climbing, play computer
games). If your main aim is grammar, include the structure, the use of the
structure you are teaching and the context. For example, to enable students to
extend their understanding and use of definite, indefinite and zero articles for
identifying specific and general information in the context of a text about animals in
captivity. For example, ‘the environment’, ‘tigers’.
It is important to write the aims as student outcomes. The main aim needs to
written in terms of what the students will be able to do by the end of the lesson,
not just describing the activities that the students will do in the lesson.
Finally, lesson aims are written from the students’ point of view, not the
teacher’s, because the lesson is designed for your learners and to meet their needs.
Therefore, your main aim has to begin with the students, for example, to enable
the students to …, or to give students the opportunity to ….
Checklist
Here is a useful checklist to refer back to when you are writing your main aims.
Have you written your aims from the students’ point of view?
If it is a skills lesson, have you said which skill students are practising
e.g. reading for gist?
Subsidiary Aims
As you write your main aims, you will find that the students will be developing more
than one skill or that the learners will be doing a mixture of skills and language,
that is to say that your lesson often has more than one aim. Therefore, your lesson
will have a main aim and at least one subsidiary (sub) aim or secondary aim.
For example, in the lesson previously examined, students not only developed their
reading skills but also developed their speaking skills as well when they shared
their opinions and discussed their reactions to the text. Therefore, the teacher
would write the lesson aims as follows:
Main aim: To enable students to develop their reading skills for gist and detailed
understanding in the context of reading a newspaper article about a boy and a
bank.
Sub aim: To enable students to develop their speaking skills in the context of a
newspaper article about a boy and a bank.
Anticipating Problems
When planning a lesson, a teacher needs to predict what problems might arise in
the lesson to ensure the lesson is as effective as possible. For each of these
problems the teacher needs to have a solution ready before the lesson. There are
two types of problems. Firstly, these could be practical or classroom
management problems, for example, the teacher may have planned pair work
activity, but there might be an odd number of students in the class.
Reference List 1
Here is a useful list to refer to when you are writing your lesson plans so that you
know what to include in each section of the plan. It has been divided into three
sections according to which sheet of the lesson plan it belongs. Copy this into your
work folder for your reference.
Front sheet
Main aims: This is the most important part of your lesson plan. This is what the
students will be able to do (or do better) by the end of the lesson. Express your
main aims in terms of student outcomes not teacher or student actions. For
example:
To enable the students to write a formal letter of complaint in the context of poor
service on an airline.
To enable students to develop their fluency speaking skills in the context of
discussing feelings and opinions about food.
To enable students to develop their listening for detail skills by listening to a news
broadcast.
To enable the students to understand and use ‘used to’ for past habits in the
context of childhood e.g. I used to spend the weekend with my family.
To enable students to better understand and use verb/noun collocations for daily
routines, e.g. brush your teeth, have a coffee.
To give students an opportunity to extend their understanding and use of
expressions to do with shopping exchanges, e.g. Can I try it on? Here you are. How
much is it?
Sub aims: These are the subsidiary aims of the lesson. They are also written from
the point of view of the students and will detail what other skills or language will be
developed in the lesson. Jacqueline’s subsidiary aims for the mid-intermediate
reading lesson you watched at the beginning of this unit were: To enable students
to practise their fluency speaking skills by exchanging opinions and reactions to the
newspaper article and To enable students to extend their lexical range in the
context of discussing their reactions to the newspaper story.
Personal aims: These are aims that relate to you developing as a teacher. These
are included to help improve your teaching skills and they are part of your
professional development as a teacher. These might include aims such as, to
maintain a good pace or to give clearer instructions. Look at the action points you
receive in feedback from your tutor on your lessons in Teaching Practice for
guidance as to what to include.
Assumptions: These are what you assume the students already know or have
already experienced. Think about what you already know about the students. For
example, I assume that the students will be interested in the topic because they
enjoy real life stories or I assume the students have seen the past simple before
because last week they used it to talk about events in the past.
Materials: These are all the resources you will be using in the lesson. These
include electronic materials (on a memory stick or a computer) as well as books or
handouts which you will give to the students. Remember one of the Cambridge
CELTA requirements is that ALL your materials be referenced to credit the author
and the publisher. This is for copyright reasons and the page/exercise numbers
must be included if using materials from books. For example, English Unlimited
Elementary, Rea, Tilbury, Clementson & Hendra (Cambridge 2010) pp10 Ex2 & 3,
Cambridge.
Anticipated problems and solutions: These are vital to ensure your lesson is
effective for students and runs smoothly. Here you need to think about what
problems students might have during the lesson, such as issues with the materials
or classroom management. For each problem you need to provide an appropriate
solution.
Reference List 2
Procedure sheet
Stage and stage aims: These are the parts of the lesson (stages) and why the
students will benefit from these (stage aims). For example, when students are
checking the answers to an exercise together the stage is Peer check and the
reason they are doing it, i.e. the stage aim, is to compare answers, build confidence
and encourage peer teaching.
Procedure: This is what the students and teacher will be doing in the class. For
example, Ss work in groups of 3 to put the story in order or T monitors and notes
any problem areas to focus on in feedback. You can also include the answers to the
exercises here and your instructions.
Interaction: You must include the interaction pattern for each activity in your
lesson plan. Different patterns include: individual (S), pairwork (S← →S), groups
(Ss← →Ss), whole class (T→Ss or T← →Ss). Make sure you have a variety of
patterns throughout your lesson to make sure learners are engaged and actively
involved; if you just have T→Ss the students will be too passive and you will not
know how much they have understood.
Timing: Make sure you include estimated timings for each stage of the lesson, for
example, language feedback – 5 mins. Try not to break down stages into too many
one or two minute stages, otherwise it will be difficult to keep track of time in class.
An exception is peer check which may only last a couple of minutes but as this
stage is crucial it needs to be separated from feedback with the whole class.
Reference List 3
Language Analysis: The language analysis shows that you have researched the
area of grammar or lexis that you will cover in the lesson. As you saw on the
template you need to analyse the following areas on your language analysis sheet.
Use the questions to help remember what to include for each section.
The MEANING of the language – what does it mean in this context? What is
the function of this language?
The FORM of the language – how is the structure formed? Can the word
order be changed? What parts of the form do not change? What type of
word is it?
The PRONUNCIATION of the language – how does it sound? Where is the
word/sentence stress? Are there any weak forms or contractions? Are there
any difficult sounds?
The APPROPRIACY of the language – is it formal or informal? Is it used more
in writing or speaking? Does it carry any positive or negative connotations?
Anticipated problems students will have with the meaning, form and
pronunciation of the language and how you will tackle these.
NB: The starting point of language analysis is considering how the target language
is used in the context and how it is used by expert users. Then check the language
analysis in the coursebook and the teacher’s book before looking at
grammar/language analysis reference books because it will be graded for students
and should be analysed in the context of the lesson.
Look at the following incorrect student utterances and decide what the students did
not fully understand about the language items in bold. Write your answers on the
notepad.
Notepad
A. The student thinks that this form of the verb (present perfect simple) can be
used in this context, perhaps because of L1 interference.
B. This phrase is too informal given that the speaker is talking to a bank
manager and is making a significant request. This is a problem of
appropriacy.
C. Here the student has not understood that this form of the verb (past simple)
cannot be used to describe a longer, interrupted action in the past. As it
stands the student is saying that when the phone rang, they started driving.
D. The student thinks there is only one word for this part of the body (over-
generalisation or L1 interference). For example, in Russian, the word is
used for both arm and hand.
E. The student has confused sensible with sensitive, probably because of L1
interference.
F. As in example 2, this word is inappropriate. The concept of ‘prettiness’ is not
normally associated with moustaches (connotation).
Apart from timelines teachers can also use a variety of ways to check students’
understanding of the language. Below are six different ways of checking. As you
read them, think about which ones you have used and/or observed on the course
so far.
1. Clines are visual scales that show the difference in degrees of meaning.
Students can be asked to position the following words on the scale to
illustrate the meaning of the adjectives:
2. Personalisation is when students use the target language to talk about
their lives. This can help to show that a student has understood the concept.
For example:
Did you use to smoke at school, Ahmed?
One common technique is to ask concept questions. These are short, simple
questions that help guide the students to understand the meaning of the target
language as fully as possible and allow teachers to check students have understood
the target language.
'There was the big safe, right in front of us. I wish I'd taken a picture of it. There
were no alarms going off or anything.
Look at the part which is in bold. In order to work out the key elements of
meaning, think about:
'There was the big safe, right in front of us. I wish I'd taken a picture of it.
There were no alarms going off or anything’.
Write at least two or three simple sentences which cover each key element
of the meaning.
e.g.
'There was the big safe, right in front of us. I wish I'd taken a picture of
it. There were no alarms going off or anything’.
e.g.
Task 6: Problems
Look at the following examples of concept questions. Why are they not
effective? Write your answers on the notepad.
Concept questions
BThis is asking too much of the learner. The teacher is expecting Kumiko to
give a clear and precise definition of a complex language item and so she is
being asked to come up with a grammar book definition on the spot.
C.This question presumes too much and does not check anything, and does
not really encourage the learners to respond.
D.As in C, the teacher is assuming too much and most learners will
probably pretend they have understood rather than stop the teacher’s flow.
When you are preparing for your language analysis for your next language lesson, follow the
for devising concept questions:
1. Make sure you know what the target language really means in its context and follow t
you saw on the screen Concept Questions.
2. Avoid using the target language in the concept questions. If the target language is ne
the concept questions doesn’t always check students’ understanding. So, if your targe
‘I’ve been to Spain’, asking ‘Have I been to Spain’ means the students can guess ‘yes
understanding this use of the Present Perfect.
3. Keep concept questions as simple as possible so they are easy to answer:
Grade your language
Ask yes/no questions, wh-questions or questions which offer two options.
Ask a useful rounding off question where appropriate, for example: Did Jan fin
tickets? Yes, Was it easy to find cheap tickets? No, How do we know? Because
4. Make sure you have enough concept questions so that there can be no ambiguity, but
three is typical.
5. Make sure your concept questions do not focus on irrelevant items in the example sen
the target language and not another part of the sentence.
6. Make sure each question focuses on one element of meaning.
End Notes-unit 8
‘Chilly’
Here are the answers that the three trainees came up with.
When you are considering problems students might have with the language area you are tea
to do some research.
Remember that before consulting a dictionary or reference book, think carefully about how y
language in the lesson you are teaching. The dictionary will provide you with all possible mea
word but it is important to focus on what it means in the context of a lesson.
When you do need to find out more about the language, here are some books to help you:
The grammar reference book you bought for the course i.e.
NB All of these grammar reference books will cover the same areas so you need only refer to
texts.
For lexis:
If you are interested in finding out about which problems are common to particular language
Swan, M, & Smith, B (2001) Learner English: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference and O
Problems,Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers.
Drilling Tips
Drilling - Jayne models and drills the phrases as they are written on the
board. She also uses the signal pronunciation so that students know to
listen and repeat. Jayne drills the language in whole phrases rather than
individual words. This helps to fix the language in their memory and to
encourage natural and comprehensible pronunciation.
End Notes
Unit 15
Nahed says she finds long words difficult to pronounce; for example, she
identified environment as challenging. This is because it has a number of
syllables. Some words have only one syllable, such as dogor door, whereas
others may have two (ea-sy, wa-ter), three (com-pu-ter, te-le-phone) or
more (tech-no-lo-gy, cos-mo-po-li-tan). In words with more than one
syllable there is one strong stress and students often have trouble knowing
where to put the stress. For example, in environment, the strong stress is
on ‘vi’ as in en-vi-ron-ment. This area of pronunciation is called word
stress.
Other learners of English can make similar mistakes. For example, Spanish
speakers might say message with the stress on the ‘sage’ rather than on
the ‘me’. This is because in Spanish the word is mensaje and the stress
falls on the ‘sa’.
Another area that can be problematic for students is when word stress
changes depending on whether the word is a noun or a verb. For example
in Can you record that programme? the stress on the verb ‘record’ is on
‘cord’. But if we use the noun as in I need to make a record of your
progress the stress falls on the first syllable ‘re’.
Word stress is a very important area for students to focus on since it has a
great impact on whether or not they will be understood by proficient
speakers. Often learners can make a change to a sound
e.g. pronunshiation instead of pronunciation but the listener can still
understand the message. In contrast, wrong word stress e.g. pro-nun-ci-a-
tion rather than pro-nun-ci-a-tion can cause difficulty for the listener and,
as they may fail to recognize the word, lead to a breakdown in
communication.
In summary, it can be seen that in speech the words which will normally
carry the stress are the meaning or content words. In this way, it helps
guide the listener to what the key information in the message is. This is
often referred to as neutral sentence stress.
Although the student knew these words, they were unable to recognise
them in connected speech. This suggests it is important for learners to be
aware of the features of connected speech and how sounds and words link
together as they are spoken.
You will probably have noticed that your voice rises and falls depending on
the information which is being given.
In C, the intonation will rise and fall depending on which information the
speaker wishes to highlight. As was discussed earlier with sentence stress,
the new information is stressed for the listener. To make this clearer,
intonation is added to guide the listener.
falling, i.e.
i.e.
You may wish to copy this and save it to your work folder.
Pronunciation is a key part of language and it is a part that students need and
enjoy developing. When you focus on pronunciation in class, remember the
following points:
remember to make time for this in the classroom; not only will you be
helping students’ pronunciation but you will also be improving their listening
skills
give students the opportunity to listen to proficient speakers using the
language and focus on how they sound and how their speech connects
give students plenty of practice by drilling both chorally and individually
so that learners become more confident with their pronunciation
encourage students to notice differences between how language is written
and how it is said and use your board to give learners a visual image of
sounds, stress and intonation and make pronunciation more memorable
remember that each student is different and will have different areas to
work on so ensure there is a variety of activities in the classroom to cover
all aspects of pronunciation and cater for different learning preferences
students value pronunciation work and often find it very enjoyable to
do in the classroom.
UNIT 11
Difficulties 2
It is clear that there are a number of common difficulties that arise with listening
outside the classroom:
1. Students cannot always listen at their own speed, in other words they
usually have to listen at the speed of the speaker. (Of course, students can
use strategies to deal with this, e.g. ask the speaker to speak more slowly).
2. The absence of non-verbal clues, for example, on the telephone where there
are no images or facial expressions, can make listening more challenging.
3. Unfamiliar accents can create problems for students’ understanding.
4. Aspects of pronunciation (e.g. weak forms and connected speech) can mean
students do not always recognise words/expressions they already know.
5. Background noises, such as other people talking or the television, can make
it difficult for students to concentrate when they are listening.
6. Unfamiliar lexis, such as colloquial phrases, make it difficult for students to
follow the stream of speech. Students cannot usually go back and listen
again to the parts they found difficult (e.g. they cannot go back and work
out the meaning of unknown lexis).
The five situations in the previous task show two different processes which you use
when you are listening. These processes contribute directly to the comprehension of
the listening text.
In the first situation, when the listener is listening to a friend and her break up,
they use top-down processing where they use their own background knowledge to
predict content and language. This helps them to predict and interpret what they
hear. For example, the listener knows her friend, the ex partner and knows their
history so they will use this background information to help understand what their
friend is saying. In the airport and in the phone conversation, bottom-up processing
is used. This is where the listener uses their knowledge of grammar, lexis and
pronunciation to interpret the message. For example, when the listener hears the
stream of speech: hesafriendofmine, they will use their knowledge of these three
systems to break it down into constituents and assign meaning to the clause.
It is important to note that when you listen, you usually use top-down and bottom-
up processes at the same time without even realising it. In the crowded restaurant,
for example, the listener will be using bottom-up processes by focusing on the
individual words they manage to hear (Berlin, so expensive, wonderful, have you
ever) and then using their own knowledge, or top-down processing, they will get an
overall idea of the conversation. By using both these processes the listener will
conclude their friends have just come back from a holiday in Berlin, which they
thought was wonderful, if a little expensive, and they are asking if the listener has
ever visited Berlin.
Similarly, when listening to the audio guide, after a while the listener will use their
knowledge of the museum and the history of the exhibition to maintain a general
understanding of the guide (mainly top-down), but when an interesting anecdote
begins the listener will focus on the individual words to build up the whole message
(mainly bottom-up).
Listening Sub-Skills
The five situations clearly show that the way we listen depends on the type of text
we are listening to and the reason we are listening. This is similar to what happens
when we read. The purpose for reading or listening influences the sub-skills we
employ. Some of the sub-skills used in listening are as follows:
In order to help students develop their listening sub-skills, coursebook material and
teachers can do different things. It was established earlier that outside class people
use both bottom-up and top-down sub-skills when they listen to something. In
class, when students are listening to something (e.g. a CD or computer sound file),
normal contextual clues to help with top-down processing can be absent. Therefore,
coursebooks include additional stages in listening lessons to replace these. This
often takes the form of a prediction task, where students predict what they are
going to listen to, based either on their background knowledge and/or on
information provided from the listening text. The aim of this is to activate students’
top-down processing.
Stage Aims
Learners face many difficulties when listening to English, for example the
speed of the speaker, unfamiliar accents, and aspects of pronunciation.
However, there are a number of strategies which teachers can use to help
their learners become more effective listeners.
The way we listen depends on the type of text we are listening to and the
reason we are listening. This means that a variety of processes and sub-
skills are used by the listener. Top-down processing is when the listener
uses their own background knowledge to predict content and language,
and bottom-up processing is when they use their knowledge of grammar,
lexis and pronunciation to interpret the message. As we process information,
both top-down and bottom-up, we employ a variety of sub-skills.
The structure of a listening lesson is very similar to a reading lesson as they
are both receptive skills. As in a reading lesson, it is important to engage
students in the topic before they listen by asking them to think or talk about
the topic. This pre-listening activity helps to activate students’ top-down
processing so that they can predict content and language.
The initial listening task should be easy and should help learners to get a
general understanding of the text, or to listen for specific
information in the text. A clear task gives them a purpose to listen, which
replicates real life. The second task should encourage students to listen for
a more detailed understanding of the text.
Learners should be given the opportunity to respond to the text and they
can do this in a follow-up activity. This needs to be related to the text and
it can be a speaking or writing task. It is often necessary for teachers to
design their own post-listening activity so that it suits their group of
learners.
Unit 12
Commentary
Commentary
Students match beginning and end of collocations, e.g. have- a penpal, go-
to university
Teacher uses concept questions e.g. have a penpal- Do you write to this
person? (Yes) Why? (To make friends/practise foreign language) Do you see
this person a lot? (No) Why not? (Often live in different country)
Students identify word stress, e.g. get stressed out, get older
Teacher models and drills
Students identify linking sounds e.g.
Students finish gaps with possible words e.g. it can’t get any
_____________
Teacher asks concept questions, e.g. it can’t get any worse – Is the situation
good or bad? (Bad) a little bad or very bad? (Very bad) Is he happy about
the situation (No)
You may wish to copy this and save it to your work folder.
End Notes
Lexis is a broad term covering individual words and chunks of language. Different aspec
lexis include lexical sets, synonyms, antonyms, prefixes, suffixes, and word families.
Chunks of language can be described as collocations, semi-fixed expressions and fixed
expressions, some of which are idioms.
As with grammar, when teaching lexis, MFPA should be clarified in sufficient depth. The
same clarification techniques can be used to check meaning, for example, clines, persona
and concept checking questions. Appropriacy, form and pronunciation can be clarified in sim
too.
Aims
Practice activities which give students less choice over language and ideas are
sometimes referred to as controlled practice activities, while those which allow
for more choice over language and ideas are sometimes called freer
practice activities.
Generally speaking, activities where students have a limited choice over the ideas
and language can allow the students (and teacher) to check they understand the
meaning and form of the target language. Activity 3 in Task 2, in which
students have to correct the mistakes, is a good example of this. In activities where
there is a restricted choice over language, there is often only one correct answer.
This allows students to test themselves to see if they have understood what has
been taught, to answer the question: Have I got it right? This in turn can give
students initial confidence using the target language.
Again, generally speaking, practice activities where students have more choice over
the language and ideas allow students to communicate using the target
language. Activity 4 in Task 2, in which students have to tell each other about
their life plans, provides a good example of this. The focus is less on the accurate
use of the target language and more on using that language to communicate their
ideas. It also allows students to experiment using the new language and to use it
alongside the language they already know.
Because freer practice activities usually provide students with the opportunities to
communicate, the aim of this stage is sometimes written as a communicative aim.
While language aims focus on what language is being used, communicative aims
focus on the communicative purpose of using that language. Here are some
examples of communicative aims:
To enable students to discuss a problem (by using modal verbs of deduction e.g. He
can’t have left the party early because…)
To enable students to plan a party (by using future forms e.g. What are you going
to bring?)
To enable students to discuss their opinions about different topics (by using
functional language for giving opinions e.g. I completely disagree, I see your point
but…)
a. Unjumbling: Unjumbling words or phrases into the correct order e.g. tennis
like I (I like tennis)
b. Gap-fill: Completing gapped sentences or a text with the correct grammar or
lexis
c. Sequencing: Putting words, phrases or sentences into a logical order
e.g. book a flight, arrive at the airport, go to check in etc
d. Matching: Matching halves together e.g. beginning and end of collocations,
phrases or sentences
e. Categorising: Categorising language into different groups e.g.
positive/negative, phrases which use take or have
f. Deleting: Crossing out the wrong alternative e.g. I
was absolutely/very freezing.
Activity Description of practice activity
c. A real life task 5. Students are given the photos of an empty room. They
are told it will be
used as a classroom in a school. Students have to decide
how to organise
and decorate it.
Unit 14
Why Correct
As can been seen from the interviews, students often like to be corrected and see it
as a valuable part of the learning process. Indeed, this view is in line with what is
known about how people learn languages. A lot of research suggests that people
learn through trial and error. When students speak in English they are often
experimenting with the language they know, trying out ideas and attempting to
communicate. In this sense they are trying to make progress and mistakes can be
evidence of them trying out new language. Correction is a way of giving students
feedback on how effective they have been in using the new language and can thus
be viewed in positive terms. Feedback should focus on both successful language as
well as improving learner language. It can be seen as supporting students in their
attempts to extend what they can do in English, and acknowledging that they are
making progress.
This view also blurs the traditional distinction between correction and teaching. For
example, if a student is struggling to use a recently learnt grammar structure and
the teacher supplies the correct version, then it can be argued that the ‘correction’
is, in fact, part of the learning process and not a criticism of students.
Who Corrects
Furthermore, the teacher can encourage and prompt peer correction to involve
other students in the learning process which means the correction can be useful to
all of the students, not just the student who made the error. For example, in
feedback:
However, if the students are unable to self- or peer-correct then the teacher needs
to step in. At this point it is still important to involve students fully by guiding them
to the correction rather than giving it to them because it is more motivating and
memorable for students to correct their own mistakes. Finally, if the teacher feels
that the students will be unable to correct because it requires new language to do
so, then the teacher must correct.
Wherever the correction comes from, be it the student who made the error, their
peers or the teacher, it is important for the teacher to check the correction to
ensure the learner(s) have understood why correction was needed.
Correction techniques
1. Non-verbal means
2. Finger highlighting
6. Ask a question
Categories of errors
Gramar
Lexis
Pronunciation
Appropriacy
Reformulation
Scaffolding
When students speak in English they are often experimenting with the language
they know, trying out ideas and attempting to communicate. From this perspective,
correction can be seen as a way of supporting students in these efforts. One
approach to doing this is called ‘scaffolding’.
The term ‘scaffolding’ is used metaphorically to describe the way a teacher can
support a learner in constructing what they want to say. Here is an example:
This is a useful approach to dealing with student output and teaching in general. It
can be done while you monitor pair and group work and in one-to-one lessons.
However, it should be used judiciously in open class, as it can be quite a long and
involved process and may not engage the whole class.
When to correct: when dealing with confidente students who are making erros in relation to
recently learned language.
It’s better if we praise students at the same time we correct them. To do so, we can use the
board and mix the good examples with the ones which need correction and ask them to
identify the mistakes and say why they are wrong.
You can also divide the board and show the good examples and the ones which need
correction.
End Notes
This unit has explored a broad range of issues involved in dealing with students’
spoken output. In the remainder of your teaching practice, try and remember these
key points:
UNIT 16
What is Grammar?
Here is the full version, with the grammar highlighted in bold. Looking at this text
in more detail, it is clear that grammar includes many different language areas.
Introduction
As the text in Task 2 shows, grammar can be viewed as ‘the glue that holds the
language together.’ Grammar refers to a range of structures, including:
Like any five-year-old, Oliver Pettigrew found weekend shopping with mum and
dad a bit of a bore. So, when they stopped off at local bank to get some cash out of
the ATM, he wandered off and tried the bank's front door. The next thing they knew,
Oliver was inside, wandering around, having found the front door had been
left open for about 24 hours with no alarms to be heard.
Your version may be different from the original. This shows that there are different
ways of communicating the same message. This kind of task where the learners
rewrite a text by adding in grammar, known as agrammaticisation task, has a
number of advantages:
End Notes
It is important to remember the following points from the unit:
Grammar can be viewed as the ‘the glue that holds the language
together’. In comparison to lexis, it carries relatively little meaning in itself.
When teaching grammar it is necessary to clarify its meaning, form,
pronunciation and appropriacy. Equally, it is important to focus on the
grammar in a clear context and provide opportunities for the students
to practise the language in a meaningful and communicative way.
Remember that when teaching grammar teachers can use the students as
a resource. After grammaring tasks, highlight correct and incorrect
examples the students have produced so that they can see what they can do
and what they still need to focus on. This makes learners see the relevance
of grammar because it relates to the language they produced.
UNIT 17
Addressing Difficulties
As Messeret mentioned having little planning time when speaking, it is a good idea
for teachers to provide a stage in the lesson in which students can prepare their
ideas and think about or ask for the language they need. In addition, focusing on
phrases that proficient speakers use to buy themselves thinking time, for
example, you know, I mean and erm can make a marked difference to students’
fluency and boosts their confidence. Messeret also felt that her lack of confidence
was affecting her speaking so she would benefit from a good deal of practice and
positive feedback on good language she produces.
Both learners said that understanding what people are saying often makes
communication difficult, therefore it is clear that the students also need to develop
their listening skills. It would also be useful for the teacher to provide listening
texts with a range of accents for the students to become more confident with other
accents.
False starts are somewhat different to the other features. They are
something which students need to be made aware of but do not need to be
taught. Learners can be reassured that the phenomenon even occurs for
proficient speakers of the language. In contrast, the other features can be
clarified and practised in class.
Sub-skills & Strategies
Many people refer to a number of sub-skills which are deployed in speaking. These
include:
A. The model: Students can listen to proficient speakers of the language doing
the task.
B. Language focus 1: Students can look at the transcript of proficient speakers
doing the task. The students or teacher can choose language from this to
focus on in class.
C. The students do the real-life task.
D. Language focus 2: This is a feedback stage to the task. It focuses on what
the students said during the task and the language areas they need help
with.
E. Students can do the same task again with different partners.
Some Assign these students a role in the activity, e.g. the scribe for the group.
students are Think carefully about groupings and pair quieter students with other quieter
very reluctant students so that they are not dominated by more vocal ones.
to talk or say
very little.
One group Encourage students to extend what they have been talking about.
finishes Set the group an additional task related to what they have been doing.
before the
other groups.
Students say Explain to students the usefulness of the task and what skill(s) they will be
it is a waste developing.
of time. Relate the task to the students’ own lives, e.g. This will be useful when you
to university/for the FCE exam.
End Notes
A range of things have been looked at in this unit, including the sub-skills and
strategies of speaking as well as two different approaches to developing the skill.
Here are some key points to take away:
UNIT 18
Your lesson plan is a guide to help you before and during your teaching. On the front
sheet of the plan there are main aims and subsidiary aims. It is important that these
aims are specific and include reference to the topic of the lesson, which might also
be the context of the target language. These aims should be written in terms
of student outcomes – that is to say what the students will be enabled to do by the
end of the lesson. There are also the anticipated problems that might occur with the
language you plan to teach as well as classroom management. The main section of
the plan will include the stage aims (which say ‘why’ you or the students are doing
something), the timing, interaction and the procedure itself (which says what you
and the students are doing).
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Teacher tells students to complete the guided discovery handout about the
narrative verb forms (the past simple, past continuous and past perfect) in the
story.
Pairs do the exercises on the handout concerning the meaning and form of the verb
forms in pairs.
Teacher monitors and helps as necessary.
Teacher conducts open class feedback, eliciting the answers onto the board.
Teacher asks concept checking questions to check understanding of meaning.
Teacher elicits the form of the different structures onto the board.
The teacher wipes the board and tells students to turn their handouts over. Teacher
then models and drills example sentences of the verb forms chorally and
individually. Teacher corrects when necessary.
Afterwards, the teacher re-elicits the sentences that were drilled onto the board,
eliciting sentence stress and weak forms, and marking these on the board.
Stage 5
The teacher tells students that they are going to complete a written story about
childhood by completing the spaces with the correct verb form.
Students do the exercise individually.
Teacher monitors and helps as necessary.
Pairs check together.
Teacher elicits the answers onto the board.
Stage 6
The teacher tells students that they are going to tell their own stories from
childhood.
Students prepare their stories by thinking about the ideas, and then the language
they need to tell the story.
The teacher monitors and helps students as necessary.
Students tell each other their stories in groups.
The teacher monitors unobtrusively. Teacher helps students as necessary and notes
down some of the things students are saying.
Stage 7
To understand the logic of this order it is necessary to think about the rationale
behind each stage i.e. why the teacher and students are doing what they are doing
(these are the stage aims) and how these contribute to the main aim.
A main aim expresses what the students spend most of the time in the lesson being
enabled to do. In this case, this was understanding and using the past verb forms.
The main aim, as with all lesson aims, should be expressed from the students’ point
of view. It should also state what the lesson enables the students to do
communicatively, e.g., tell a story, write a letter or give opinions.
4. Language Teacher tells students to complete the guided discovery handout about the narrative verb for
focus (the past simple, past continuous and past perfect) in the story.
To enable Pairs do the exercises on the handout concerning the meaning and form of the verb forms in
students to pairs.
understand the Teacher monitors and helps as necessary.
meaning, form Teacher conducts open class feedback, eliciting the answers onto the board.
and Teacher asks concept checking questions to check understanding of meaning.
pronunciation Teacher elicits the form of the different structures onto the board.
of the target The teacher wipes the board and tells students to turn their handouts over. Teacher then mo
language. and drills example sentences of the verb forms chorally and individually. Teacher corrects wh
necessary.
Afterwards, the teacher re-elicits the sentences that were drilled onto the board, eliciting sen
stress and weak forms, and marking these on the board.
5. Controlled The teacher tells students that they are going to complete a written story about childhood by
Practice completing the spaces with the correct verb form.
To give Students do the exercise individually.
students initial Teacher monitors and helps as necessary.
confidence Pairs check together.
using the Teacher elicits the answers onto the board.
target
language.
To allow
students and
teacher to
check students
have
understood the
target
language.
6. Freer The teacher tells students that they are going to tell their own stories from childhood.
Practice Students prepare their stories by thinking about the ideas, and then the language they need
To enable tell the story.
students to The teacher monitors and helps students as necessary.
use the past Students tell each other their stories in groups.
simple, past The teacher monitors unobtrusively. Teacher helps students as necessary and notes down so
continuous and of the things students are saying.
past perfect to
tell a story.
7. Feedback The teacher asks students to share one or two of their stories.
To give The teacher writes examples of good language which students produced and language which
students needs further work on the board.
feedback on Pairs discuss the language, discussing how to correct or reformulate the language which need
their ability to more work.
communicate. The teacher praises students for the good language and elicits corrections and reformulations
To give the rest.
students
feedback on
their language
use.
Notice that the first stage (context) is similar to the final stage (communication).
Both have language in communicative use. In the first stage, students can meet the
language in communicative use; in the final stage, the students can use the
language in order to communicate themselves.
Remember that the language focus stage involves the clarification of the meaning,
form, pronunciation (and appropriacy) of the target language – MFP(A). In the
lesson in the quiz, the teacher used a range of techniques to do this: for meaning,
they used concept questions; for form, they elicited the structure onto the board;
for pronunciation, the teacher modeled and drilled chorally and individually.
The controlled practice controlled practice stage here might best be described as a
bridge between the language focus and communication. It allows the students to
check they have understood the target language. If they have not, then the teacher
can step in and re-clarify whatever needs re-clarifying. It also gives students initial
confidence using the language with plenty of support.
It is important to state that these are only the basic stages of a lesson. A lead-in
stage has not been included, for example. Furthermore, there may be more than
one controlled practice activity and there may be more than one communicative
practice activity at the end. It depends on what is being clarified and the students’
needs.
Approaches 3
Here is a diagram which summarises the key stages of the lesson which has just
been examined. This is often referred to as Test-Teach-Test where the teacher tests
students’ knowledge of the language area, uses the language focus stage as an
opportunity to teach in response to students’ needs and a final teststage where the
teacher checks students’ knowledge of the language area again. It is important to
remember that the Test stages are not actual tests, rather they are an opportunity
for the teacher to diagnose where students need help.