Teaching Different Classes

Nombre de la alumna: Oriana Acosta y Micaela Moreno

Nombre de la profesora: Julieta Nievas

Asignatura: Didáctica del Inglés II

Carrera: Profesorado de Inglés

Curso: Cuarto año

Villa María

2021
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“TEACHING DIFFERENT CLASSES”.

Unit 13 from “Learning Leaching” by Jim Scrivener

Answer the following questions.

1. ESP (PDF p.1)

a) What is it?

ESP stands for English for Specific Purposes. Those specific purposes are often jobs.

Every individual student has his or her own 'specific purpose', even if it may seem a little

vague in some cases.

b) What does it require from teachers?

It requires the use of lexis, examples, topics and contexts that are, as far as possible,

relevant to the students and practice relevant specific skills. If there are no appropriate texts,

recordings, etc to hand, then it may be possible to get students to provide them by giving

them feedback and support on their language. Another essential starting point for ESP

teaching is a Needs Analysis.

2. Business English (PDF p.3)

a) What is it?

A Business English course is taken by students while still at school or college, before

they begin work. These courses are often based around generic business skills, language and

texts that are likely to be of use to anyone entering any kind of business. Such courses may

also have a second aim of providing an introduction to the world of business itself, for

students who have no previous experience of it.

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b) What skills does it include?

A Business English course mainly includes the following skills: writing letters and

emails; writing reports; reading reports and business-related articles; negotiating; telephoning

and conference calls; talking about facts, figures, graphs, diagrams, etc; participating in

meetings and video conferences; making presentations; using social English- meeting and

greeting, small talk, dinner-table conversation and is also likely to include an introduction to

how business works: business terms and expressions; negotiation; sales and marketing;

finance; projects; business travel; working with people.

c) What are “in-service” courses? What type of activities can be done in these courses?

“In-service” courses are the opportunity to take English lessons when participants are

already in work; this course has the possibility of becoming much more tightly focused on

real and immediate needs, by the use of:

● Presentations: participants prepare, rehearse and do presentations in class about their

daily work, current tasks, problems, etc followed by feedback, discussions and related

language improvement work.

● Diagrams and models: The use of Cuisenaire rods, models or pencil and paper to get

participants to create and talk through images of their work- e.g.: my office space, my

travels, who I communicate with around the world, the manufacturing process, etc.

● Diaries and blogs: Instead of traditional exercise-based homework, participants write

(and read each other's) diaries and blogs. They can record details of their daily work,

difficult situations and language problems they have faced. Use excerpts as the seed

for in-class discussion, language work, etc.

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● Role play: Find out as much as you can about the specific kinds of meetings,

negotiations, discussions, etc that participants do in their daily job. Create similar role

play opportunities in class, making use of as much unclassified, real stuff as they can

provide (documents, images, diagrams, Powerpoint slides, etc).

d) What are “in-company” courses? What is important about them?

“In-company” are courses organized within the workplace itself, bringing the teacher

to the students, rather than the other way round, often with lessons very early in the morning

or very late in the day.

What is important about them is that we, as teachers, need to liaise with the training

manager and find out what policies the company has to encourage or require attendance;

then, it is essential to emphasise the importance of regular and on-time attendance as well as

take into consideration all the needs and/or expectations students.

e) What are “teaching one-to-one business” lessons? What do they require?

A “teaching one-to-one business” lesson is a popular way of working that allows

more flexibility for workers who don't have time to go to school or can't attend regular

classes due to work and travel commitments.

Here are a few requirements:

● Rapport: Relationship is crucial. Take time to find out about each other. Take time to

go on building that relationship over future lessons.

● Needs: Spend time on discovering needs. Go back to discuss and re-look at them

every few lessons.

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● Plan lesson to lesson: Create the course from lesson to lesson rather than entirely in

advance or by relying entirely on a coursebook. Use the coursebook to supplement

needs-related work as it emerges.

● Study what is live and relevant: Bring along material suggested by errors,

discussions and ideas from the previous lesson.

● Plan beginnings, not whole lessons: Plan lessons in terms of starting points

(interesting documents, relevant video clips, important language items, etc) rather

than complete planned-through procedures.

● Take your lead from the participant: For at least part of each lesson, take your lead

and pace from the student. Start with discussion; respond to comments, questions and

requests as flexibly as you can.

● Vary the challenge and pace: A leisurely pace is fine for much of the time, but also

make sure to include concentrated, challenging tasks and exercises.

● Cooperative work: Work with-rather than in front of- your student. Don't feel the

need to be the presenter or entertainer at the front of the class all the time.

● Reformulate as a correction strategy: After your participant has done an oral task,

rather than correcting lots of errors and problems, give them the chance to see you

doing the same task in your way. They can take notes, ask about what you said

afterwards- and then try again themselves, using any of your ideas, expressions or

approaches.

● Silences: Don't worry if there are silences. Silence is thinking time and adjusting

time.

● Board: Use a pad of paper on the table as your shared board. You can both write and

draw on it, adding to and editing what the other writes.

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● Build progress: Get the participant to prepare and do iliings (e.g.: role playing

something they do in their daily job, explaining how something works, making a

presentation) - then give them feedback - then get them to do it again.

● Audio recording: Use your computer's microphone and software to record what the

participant says. Listen together, work on raising awareness of problems and

improving them. Practise - then record again.

● Writing: set an in-class writing task as a change of pace without being too present

while students work or swamping them with helpful advice. Remember that one-to-

one can get very intense so students need to breathe too!

● Internet: Exploit the Internet by looking up things as you need them, finding

examples, viewing video clips, writing tweets or emails to each other, getting other

online people involved, contributing to forums and making phone calls from class.

3. EAP (PDF p.6)

a) What is it?

It stands for English for Academic Purposes. An EAP course focuses on the language

and skills that students will need on a future course of study, typically a higher education

course. This means that the majority of EAP students worldwide tend to be between 16 and

20 years old.

b) What does it include as part of the course?

An EAP includes work on some of these elements:

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● Listening to and understanding lectures, i.e. following long monologues, often

delivered with digressions and perhaps having minimal contextualisation or visual

support.

● Note-taking, i.e. making effective and usable records in a number of different learning

situations: lectures, seminars, from course book reading, etc.

● Effective reading and researching- working with both short and long texts.

● Using references, avoiding plagiarism.

● Raising awareness of formal styles of language used in academic writing. Don't

underestimate how different the style conventions may be in different cultures.

● Essay writing, eg: planning, drafting, writing, editing.

● Making presentations, e.g. book reports.

● Taking part in seminar discussions including awareness of cultural issues, eg:

expectation of contribution, enjoyment of a good argument, etc.

● Generic academic language points, e.g. use of passives in formal descriptions of

processes, avoidance of colloquial language, use of tentative language items to state

interpretations or conclusions.

● Academic stylistic conventions, e.g. use of an impersonal tone, getting to the point

quickly- avoidance of flowery padding since it may be common in certain cultures

and use of concrete examples.

● Learning to learn-general training in study skills that learners may not have looked at

in previous education.

● Contextual and cultural awareness -learning about the way that things are done in the

learning environment.
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CONTEXT & CULTURE (PDF p.7)

Why is it important to take them into account?

It is important to take them into account because students may face numerous cultural

difficulties- to a lesser or greater degree will affect every learner moving from one learning

culture to another. If one student grows up in one education system and is now faced with one

where all his basic assumptions about what to do and how to do it may suddenly be wrong.

PLAGIARISM & CHEATING (PDF p.7)

Why is it important to take them into account?

This method can come badly unstuck on arriving in a culture where copying is very

tightly defined and is much more often actively sought and detected. Students need to be

warned very clearly of this - and very clearly shown how to avoid it by using techniques such

as keeping detailed notes of sources when reading, referencing accurately and so on.

ATTITUDES TO MARKING (PDF p.8)

Why is this topic important?

This topic is important because work is marked very differently in different countries.

For this reason, colleges should always warn new students about their way of evaluating. This

is highly recommended since students could feel shocked and lead to confusion and distrust

of the whole system..

4. EXAM CLASSES (PDF p.8)

a) What are they?

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They are national or international school exams. e.g. British or US based international

exams.

b) What type of international exams are there?

They are Common European Framework, Cambridge ESOL, IELTS and TOEFL.

c) What should an examination preparation course include?

An examination preparation course includes:

● Language work that is likely to be relevant to that needed in the exam.

● Tasks and activities to raise general language awareness, ability and skills.

● Specific practice on exam techniques (e.g.: multiple-choice questions, writing essays,

etc).

● Work on study skills (e.g.: use of dictionaries and grammar books, ways of working

with recordings at home, etc).

d) What is the balanced approach suggested for an examination preparation course?

A more balanced approach gives students a lot of general language work and study

skills in weeks one and two to give them the foundations for working successfully through

the course. As the course progresses, the study skills work could be reduced and much more

specific work on typical language problems could be done. Work on examination technique

would be introduced gradually and increasingly through the course and build up towards

complete 'mock' tests in the week or two just before the exam.

4. TEENAGE CLASSES (PDF p.16)

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a) What type of learners are teenagers?

The learners are discovering a range of new possibilities for themselves, as well as the

impact they can have on the world and can be very motivated. Moreover, teenagers can bring

a strong enthusiasm for topics they are interested in, and they can get very focused on

specific things relevant to themselves. They often respond well to work that is clearly

organised and takes their interest into account. But although teenage classes can be among

the most interesting and exciting, they also have some reputation for being demanding on the

teacher.

b) Why might teenage classes seem demanding on the teacher?

Teenage clases can seem demanding for several reasons:

● It's a difficult period of life. Teenagers are often unsure about themselves and how

they feel about things.

● Strong emotions of various kinds may be rising and falling and these may alter the

workings of some techniques and activities.

● Teenagers have changing interests. They get bored quickly.

● Activities might be rejected or done without personal investment because the learners

feel silly or embarrassed when doing them.

● Motivation may appear to be low, especially if learners feel that they have been

forced to attend something they don't want to.

● Teenagers can come across as outspoken. They may be more willing to state clearly

what they think and stand up to a requirement they disagree with.

● Discipline can seem to be a problem. Teenagers seem particularly averse to things that

they see as imposed on them.

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● 'They say they're fed up,' 'They sit there and do nothing,' 'They try my patience,' etc.

c) Why is it important that teenagers, as well as adults, feel that studying English is a

personal choice and investment?

Learning a foreign language, such as English, means having the opportunity of

acquiring new skills, knowledge, and mental, physical and emotional resources can open a

whole new world of possibilities in the business field. Moreover, this second language is used

as a medium of communication among people of different countries.

d) What is the balanced approach suggested for an examination preparation course?

A more balanced approach gives students a lot of general language work and study

skills in weeks one and two to give them the foundations for working successfully through

the course. As the course progresses, the study skills work could be reduced and much more

specific work on typical language problems could be done. Work on examination technique

would be introduced gradually and increasingly through the course and build up towards

complete 'mock' tests in the week or two just before the exams.

e) Which key techniques for teenage classes are suggested?

Key techniques for teenage classes might include:

● A willingness to listen and be flexible in response.

● Following the class as much as leading.

● Where appropriate and possible, sharing the responsibility for key decisions topics,

work methods, work rate, homework, tests, etc.

● Ways of getting usable feedback regularly through lessons and courses.

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f) Which ideas for teenage classes are suggested?

Some of the ideas for teenage classes are:

● Avoid anything that might be seen as childish to students.

● If whole-class work doesn't seem to be working, try avoiding it where possible.

Instead, consider the possibility of work groups.

● Experiment with a mixture of qwet, working-alone activities and activities that require

active participation.

● Avoid too many activities that put embarrassed students in the spotlight.

● Select reading and listening materials from up-to-date sources that are relevant for

learners.

● Better still, ask learners to bring in materials they want to work with.

● Consider project work on topics entirely selected by the learners and involving

research methods that they will fmd both interesting and challenging.

● Be truthful. Try not to be just a spokesperson for school or society. Say what you

really think about things.

● Dare to ask important questions such as, 'What could we do in English lessons that

would really be interesting for you?'.

● If discipline becomes a problem, as far as possible ask the learners themselves to give

advice as to what should be done. Where possible negotiate and agree codes of

behaviour and penalties in advance of problems boiling up.

7. CLIL (PDF p.18)

a) What is it? What does it stand for? What are its aims?
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CLIL is a European term dating back only to 1994. It stands for Content and

Language Integrated Learning. It refers to teaching content (e.g.: secondary school

curriculum subjects) through a language other than the first language of the learners.

There are two aims in CLIL: the learning of both the subject and the language. The

language is the means to the end of learning subject content.

b) What is the difference between English-medium teaching and CLIL?

The difference is that English-medium teaching refers to any courses that are taught in

the English language in which there is no attempt to integrate the teaching of content and

language. On the contrary, CLIL integrates the language and content in order to be successful

– and success is determined when both the subject matter and language is learned.

c) What’s the essential point of CLIL?

The essential point of CLIL is that the language teaching isn't separate and

disconnected. It is integrated: it supports and is directly relevant to the subject teaching.

d) What is the difference between “General English” and CLIL? Regarding Subject Content,

Methodology and Language Focus.

Regarding subject content:

- CLIL: Topics are relevant to the students because they are in the actual subject areas

that they have chosen and probably need for their exams and their future. Everything

studied is useful.
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- General English: Coursebooks try to feature a range of appealing general interest

topics but some students may find them uninspiring or irrelevant to their lives and

needs.

Regarding methodology:

- CLIL: The best way to learn a language is to be very focused on learning about

something else (i.e. a content area) rather than focusing on the language for its own

sake.

- General English: Task-based learning (TBL) methodologies are very much based on

this, but they are faced with the difficulty that most General English classroom tasks

remain artificial, created solely for the purpose of learning English rather than for

some other motivating goal.

Language focus:

- CLIL: It works with the language you need as you need it- or just before you need it.

- General English: works on languages you might need in case it is important at some

point in the future.

e) Who can teach CLIL?

Some CLIL is taught by the subject teacher only (who has responsibility for both

subject and language work). In other cases, work is split or shared between subject and

language teachers.

f) How can CLIL be implemented?

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CLIL is implementable in a wide variety of ways. It can range in quantity from being

a small part of one subject to having the bulk of the curriculum taught in English. The ways

that teachers work can also vary hugely. For example:

- Small segments of some lessons: Only a part of some subjects is taught using

English.

- Integrating themes across school subjects.

- Separate language support: The subject teacher and the language teacher have some

lesson-planning time together.

- Fully integrated classrooms: There are no English lessons as such- only subject

lessons.

g) How can an English teacher help a subject teacher?

The English teacher can play a vital role in helping subject teachers feel more

reassured and to ensure that the students get the best course they can. What exactly this is will

depend on the specific CLIL arrangement in your school but will almost certainly involve:

● Language feedback to teachers Observing subject teaching and giving feedback on

teacher language use and potential problems;

● Language advice to teachers Advising the subject teacher on good ways of grading

their own language or helping make texts and tasks more accessible (eg in

presentations, in handouts);

● Language support for students in subject lessons Participating in subject lessons and

providing language support for learners (eg monitoring work, offering one-to-one

help and advice)

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● Language support for students in English lessons Doing work in language lessons to

directly support work in subject lessons (e.g. work on necessary grammatical and

functional items, skills and strategies needed for classroom work).

h) What are some important points about CLIL?

● It's more about different ways of working than about specific techniques. The big

decisions about CLIL are often made higher up the hierarchy. For example, decisions

about whether the language teacher can go into subject classes to listen and support

live in class. Or if the subject and language teachers will be given preparation time to

liaise together. These crucial decisions are often out of the individual teacher's hands.

● It's not just subject vocabulary. One wrong assumption that subject teachers may

make is that CLIL mostly means teaching the English words for subject words. There

is a lot more, such as specific grammatical forms, functional language, discourse

structures, the ability to write in specific genres, and listening skills.

● Students may have BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills), i.e. the ability

to greet, chat with people informally and spend social time together. Many students

who have studied some amount of General English have this ability to some degree

and some may give an impression of being very capable with English. A teacher

overhearing a student chatting in English at the school buffet might assume they will

have no problem using English in class.

● Much more challenging is CALP. This stands for Cognitive Academic Language

Proficiency and refers to the academic language needed for thinking, understanding

and working with challenging school topics. It may be dense, complex, abstract and

decontextualized. It is acquired slowly and with difficulty. The learner's visible BICS
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does not give you a clear picture of how their CALP is. Don't predict one from the

presence of the other.

● Translation has a place- but on its own is not sufficient. Subject teachers (who may be

unfamiliar with language teaching techniques) often resort to using a lot of

translation. While this can be useful in many circumstances, students need to be

helped to understand and learn the vocabulary, texts and other input in a variety of

ways (as they are in English language teaching). If everything is processed via the

first language, there will be very little in-depth thinking and learning in the second

language.

● It's crucial to help students better understand subject texts Hence - the widespread use

of graphic organisers in printed texts and when encouraging students to take better

notes. Graphic organisers are ways of conveying information in more visual ways that

are easier to understand and interpret than dense wodges of text- for example: flow-

charts, tables, labelled diagrams, grids, mind maps. It's also why CLIL texts often

have more white space on pages, allowing students to annotate with comments about

language items, meanings, translations and so on.

8. LARGE CLASSES (PDF p.22)

a) How does the size of a class affect English teaching?

Besides the fact that Groupwork and pairwork cannot be done in classes where the

student’s number is high since they can’t move their seats in any direction. There are other

problems such as:

● Teachers can't move easily.

● The seating arrangement seems to prevent a number of activities.

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● There is limited eye contact from you to students.

● There is limited or no eye contact amongst students.

● You can't give attention equally to all students.

● Interaction tends to be restricted to those closest to the front.

● The seats at the back tend to attract people who want to do something other

than learning English.

● There are people who 'hide' away.

● There is often a very wide range of abilities.

● Discipline can be a problem.

● Lecturing seems to be the only workable lesson type.

● A lot of techniques outlined in this book seem impossible.

b) Which ideas can be suggested to help with the problem of large classes?

These ideas might help to revert the problem:

● Rearrange the seating.

● Move to a different classroom.

● Get them to climb over the seats.

● Push the seats up against the wall.

● Get half the students to turn around and face the students behind them.

● Let them sit or stand on the desks.

● Go into the school hall for English lessons.

● Go outside on the grass.

● Don't worry about the noise.

● Warn other teachers in advance about potential noise.

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● Ask other teachers what they do.

● Take the risk that getting them to move will be 0 K.

● Ask the students what they think about these ideas.

● Tell students the problem and get them to work out a solution.

● Negotiate a contract: quiet movement in exchange for a larger variety of activities.

● Divide the large group into smaller 'classes' within the class.

Complete the chart with your own words to explain what the following types of classes and/or contexts are:

Business Online Blended Flipped SOLEs ESP EAP Exam CLIL

English teaching learning classroom classes

Business Online Blended Flipped They ESP EAP Exam CLIL

English has teaching is learning is classrooms are refers to stands classes are stands for

to do with the faculty the are not an models English for basically a Content

the specific of teaching combination easy thing in which for English gradual and

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acquire language in-person essential in s, mic procedure Learning

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work for a not to get compute universit it to a national and a

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One-to-one Large Teenage Bilingual Immersion

teaching classes classes schools programmes

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or also idea of what the classes which schools are a second language,

being flexible to name itself are made up institutions living in a

students in order says, it’s of teenagers where people community that

to help them about who are learn two speaks it regularly.

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their lack of time with large of 12 and 18 simultaneously. programmes,

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that are the most related to adolescents

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or pair

work

activities,
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etc.