How you learned to teach

Deciding on your role

while students do an activity. We have
Recall how you learned to be a teacher on
two steps:
your teacher-training course. You have to
Step 1: after you have given the instructions for apply the intuition and teaching if your
a task and students start doing it. initial experience of teaching was anything
Teaching like my own
Teaching specific
specific aspects
aspects of
of
Step 2: speaking fluently and trying out things languaje
languaje
without too much interference and correction. The study element
element has been Your use of intuition: As a teacher, how much
The study has been
We have to take the monitor discreetly, vanish, brief do you make use of intuition to know what
brief because
because it
it has
has met
met with
with
etc. your students are thinking, to read their
almost instant success.
reactions to things.
Gesture: Try to develop a range of gestures to Many people have contrasted
| save yourself repeating basic instructions: work two approaches (called,
How to prevent learning: TTT (teacher
in pairs, stand up, etc. rather unhelpfully, deductive
and inductive) for talking time), Echo, helpful sentence
and inductive) for introducing
introducing
Using the board well: The teacher has to students to specific aspects of completion, etc.
students to specific aspects of
use a board, at the start of lesson language.
draw a few dividing line

Explaining
Explaining meaning
meaning
Explaining
Explaining language construction
language construction
One of the clearest ways of
explaining the meaning of We
We cancan use
use fingers
fingers oror hands,
hands, too,
too,
something to
to show
show howhow ‘he‘he is’
is’ turns
turns
something isis to show it.
to show it. Teaching into ‘he’s’ in
into ‘he’s’ in speech
speech oror how
how ‘fast’
‘fast’
A way of making meaning
absolutely clear, of course, is
the and
and ‘er’
‘er’ are
are joined
joined together
together toto
make
make a a comparative adjective.
comparative adjective.
to translate words and language We can
We can also
also demonstrate
demonstrate wordword
phrases.
phrases. and
system and sentence
sentence stress
stress by
by beating
beating
Sometimes this is easy; all time with our
time with our arms.
arms. WeWe can
can
languages have a word for show
show intonation
intonation patterns
patterns byby
‘book’. Sometimes, however, ‘drawing’
‘drawing’ the the tune
tune in
in the air.
the air.
it
it is
is more
more complex
complex
Practice
Practice and
and controlled
controlled
Board drawing:
practice
practice
Clearly the basic skill is to draw people in We
We ask
ask students
students to to practise
practise thethe
language they are
language they are studying
studying so so that
that Students using their own
some from, and stick people are in many they can try it out and
they can try it out and language
ways better than detailed figures.
get used to
get used to saying
saying it or writing
it or writing it.it. As
As
they do this,
they do this, we
we maymay well
well correct
correct
Eliciting: means drawing out information, them They always talk in their own language. I can
them if if they
they make
make
language, ideas, etc. form the students. It mistakes, so that
that they are clear
clear about
about ´t get them to use English
mistakes, so they are
enables me to start from where the learners are how it works.
how it works. This
This practice
practice helps
helps
and then to work forward from there. them to internalise
them to internalise howhow the
the language
language Student attitudes to using English class:
is constructed so
is constructed so that
that when
when it passes
it passes
from their short- Using English in class, some teachers have
Planning questions to elicit specific things from their short-
found that competition a bribery are
term
term memory
memory to to their
their long-term
long-term
Consider the next lesson you need to teach. memory,
memory, theythey know
know how how itit is
is put
put
techniques that get results.
Write down one specific item of factual together.
together.
information that the students will need to know Intuition: is fundamental to teaching. It´s the
skill of spontaneously understanding
something, bypassing the supposed
conventional route of thinking

REASONS FOR
LEARNING
Because it is on the
curriculum at primary
or secondary level
Because people
are moved to a
target – language
community
DIFFERENCES
Age: Learners are described
as children (2-14 years old),
young learners (5-9 years
old), adolescents (12 – 17
years old), young adults (16 –
20 years old) or adults.
Intermediate:
Students have
already achieved a
lot, but they are less
likely to be able to
recognize an almost
daily progress.
Advanced: Students at this
level already know a lot of
English
LEARNERS
CONTEXTS FOR
LEARNING
Because it´s a kind
Schools and language
of choice schools: Students have
EFL, ESL, ESOL: Students not chosen to do this
tend to be learning so themselves, but learn
that they can use English because English is on the
For specifics when travelling or to curriculum.
purpose communicate with other
people, they may need
to combine their
learning of English with
knowledge of how to do
things in the target
LEARNER language
Real and virtual learning
environments: Students
can learn even when they
are literally thousands of
miles away from a
teacher or other
classmate
Responsability
for learning
Instead of imposing autonomy,
teachers need to gradually extend
the students’ role in learning
Getting students to do various
Level kinds of homework, is one of the
best ways to encourage students’
autonomy. Teachers should
choose the right kind of task for
the students.
Beginner: Success is easy
to see at this level, and
easy for the teacher to
arrange.