[MUSIC] Welcome back to Teach English Now!

So far we have discussed how learning a

language can be a delicious experience but that teachers can hurt that
experience without proper technique. In the next few videos we will
consider several techniques to break down information and
make meaning clear, so that your students will
ultimately progress. Please understand,
if you can't make information simple and understood, there is no way that
students will be able to learn. Now, let's talk about good
teacher technique in general. I am sure that if we gave you a minute,
you could think of great teachers you have had who used all kinds of techniques
to communicate information clearly. Your great teachers
probably used whiteboards, PowerPoint presentations, diagrams,
hey, maybe even metaphors. All of these when done well can
help foster communication and make meaning clear. In fact, whether your teachers
knew this
consciously or not, they were probably presenting information that was just
right for your brain to process. They were teaching within a zone that
was not too hard and not too easy. As Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist,
explains, teachers should be aware
of three different learner zones. One, what the learner can already do. Two, what
the learner cannot do. And three, what the learner can do
with guidance from the teacher. This third zone he calls
the zone of proximal development. I call it the sweet spot, because cake is the
most delicious when
you are teaching within this zone. Stephen Krashen, an ESL theorist, has a similar
theory called the input hypothesis. This hypothesis states that learners need
to receive input that is just beyond their current understanding
in order to grow. Just a little bit hard,
a little bit new, so to speak. He calls it i + 1,
meaning input plus new information. Can you see how this resembles
the zone of proximal development? Now, let's talk about what happens when
you don't teach in the sweet spot. Here's a brief story. A few years ago, I taught
in two places,
at an English school and at a university. One of my students from the English
school asked if she could visit a class
I taught to university students. She was a very smart young woman, but
had only been studying English for the past three months and so,
she was a beginning English student. She was doing fantastic and I loved to see her
smile in class
as she answered every question. When she asked to visit my upper-level
university class, I said of course! She came early and was smiling. However, as I
began speaking, I remember
how quickly her smiles turned into frowns. She told me afterwards, when you are
teaching in my class,
I understand everything you are saying but in your University class, I felt like
you were speaking a different language. For this visiting student,
I was speaking too fast and using language too complex for
her to understand. Krashen calls this i + 10. Indicating the input at least for
now, is out of the student's
range of understanding. On the other hand, maybe you have
encountered the opposite problem. Welcome to Animals 101. Please repeat after me.
This is a dog. Dog, dog. This is a cat. Cat, cat. In this situation, you understand
all
the concepts the teacher is explaining, so it is, simply put, boring! Krashen
called this i plus zero,
meaning the input is completely understood by the student
and no learning is taking place. So, in summary, we don't want to share
information that is too high and we certainly don't want to share
information that is too low. We want to provide information
at the i plus one level, just new enough that it is challenging but
not so hard that it is overwhelming. You have to find that sweet spot and help
students by breaking down information, going the correct speed and
using techniques to help students understand concepts that without you,
they would not understand. I will now present three different
techniques to help you reach students better, starting with the first technique,
body language. This technique could be what
students in the Embody and Rosenthal study were noticing when
they were observing teachers. There is so much a teacher can do to help
learners understand through the use of hands, eyes, and movement in a classroom. In
fact, some researchers put
the level of non-verbal communication as high as 80% of all communication. Albert
Mehrabian is noted for
finding a 7, 38, 55% rule, supposedly denoting how much
communication is conferred by words, tone and body language. And did you know that
in the language
classroom, a teacher who turns his or her back from the students while
talking is three times more likely to be misunderstood than
a teacher who faces the students? This is because most non
verbal communication comes from the arms and the face. Body language and movements
can also be
used to help students make connections with specific vocabulary. I'll never forget
when my Spanish teacher,
who knew I was going to Venezuela, taught me a particularly
Venezuelan Spanish word. It is a word that means to go forth, or to
move forward with strength and ambition. The word is [FOREIGN]. To go forward. What
a great visual, to help me
remember the meaning of the word, [FOREIGN]. While body language is a simple
technique to understand, please take a minute to recognize
that body language is an essential, integral and
necessary part of your teaching. Thanks for watching Teach English Now. And
remember to never go back,
and always [FOREIGN]. See you next time. [MUSIC]