HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH

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 HOW IS LANGUAGE TAUGHT

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 Grammar Translation Method
• Present students with short grammar rules
and words lists and then translation exercises
in which they make use of the rules. It teaches
people about language but doesn’t really help
them to communicate effectively with it.

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 Audio Lingual
• Describe the grammatical patterns of english
to students, have them repeat and learn them.
Habit-forming behaviourist approach perform
the correct response to a stimulus so that a
reward is given. Drilling (choral and individual
repetition and cue response drilling) is still
considered useful especially with low level
students.

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 PPP
(Presentation, Practice and Production)

• The teacher presents the context and situation for the

language (describe someone’s holiday plans) and both
explains and demonstrates the meaning and form of
the new language (e.g. Going to ….. He is going to visit
the beach). Students then practice sentences with
going to …… this is called controlled practice. Teachers
can use drilling, teach pronunciation and allow
students to speak more freely about themselves…..
Next week I am going to ………

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 CLT
Communicative Language Teaching

• Involves language function such as inviting, agreeing,

disagreeing, suggesting, etc. Teaches appropriacy when
talking and writing to people (formal, informal,
tentative, technical, etc). This method assumes that if
students get enough exposure to language and
opportunities for language use and if they are
motivated then language learning will happen! Focus
on allowing students to communicate real message
and engage in communicative activities where they use
all and any language they know to communicative.
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 TBL
Task Based Learning

• Emphasizes tasks rather than the language.

Students perform real life tasks such as
timetables, schedules, presentations. Students
are given a pre task (introduces to the topic),
which is followed by a task cycles (students
plan the task, gather language and
information) and produces an outcome
(writing, oral performance, etc)

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 WHICH METHOD IS BEST?????

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 TEACHING READING

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 Extensive Intensive

Reading for pleasure, refers to Reading texts, study activities,

reading which students do look for meaning , grammar,
often, away from the vocabulary (SCAN– find a bit of
classroom, novel, web pages, information-name, phone
newspaper, magazines, number ,small detail vs SKIM –
students should choose what get a general idea of what the
they want to read, be article is about , read for
encouraged to read by the detailed comprehension
teacher, share their reading
experiences.

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 Reading Principles
• Encourage students to read as often and as much as possible
• Students need to be engaged with what they are reading
• Encourage students to respond to the content of a text (and explore their
feelings about it), not just concentrate on its construction
• Prediction is a major factor in reading. (book covers, photographs, headlines,
web page banner)
• Match the task to the topic when using intensive reading texts – the activity
is important! (For preparation – brainstorm, discuss visuals, headlines,
phrases, students predict; For Skimming – identify main ideas, match
subtitles with paragraphs, create titles or headlines; For Scanning – pre-set
questions, chart filling, lists of elements for students to find; For intensive –
vocabulary, answer detailed questions, answer inferential questions.
• Exploit reading texts to the fullest extent … activities, feedback, further tasks!

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 READING ACTIVITIES

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• Guided reading teacher supports students to
become better readers. The teacher provides
support for small groups of readers as they
learn to use various reading strategies
(context clues, letter and sound relationships,
word structure, and so forth).

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HOW ?
• Students should be divided into small groups (4-6 students). The younger
the student, the smaller the group.
• Guided reading lessons are to be about 15-20 minutes in duration.
• Appropriately leveled reading materials must be selected for the group
and each student should have his/her own copy of the literature.
• Pre-Reading: The teacher establishes a purpose for reading through
making predictions, vocabulary introduction, or discussing ideas that will
provide the readers with the background knowledge required for the text.
• Reading: The teacher observes the students as they read the text softly or
silently to themselves, provides guidance and coaching to individuals
based on her/his observations by providing prompts, asking questions,
and encouraging attempts at reading strategy application.
• Post Reading: The teacher asks questions to ensure that the text has been
comprehended by the readers and praises their efforts. Further, the
teacher may observe gaps in strategy application and address these gaps
following the reading in a mini-lesson format.

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• Jigsaw reading – students read different texts and share what they
have found out
• Reading puzzles – reassembling text, out of sequence stories or
dialogs, mix up two stories
• Newspapers – match articles with headlines or pictures, reading for
opinion, read ads, reply to the letters written to the editor
• Fishbowl fun – students write questions about a story they’ve read
on a small slip of paper, drop it in a bowl, let students fish for
questions from the bowl and attempt to answer them
• Following instructions – put instructions in the right order, follow
recipes
• Poetry – reassemble poems, find similarities and differences in
poems, leave blanks in poems for students to fill in
• Play extracts – read and act – thinking about how lines are said,
concentrating on stress, intonation, speed

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• Predicting from words and pictures – given a number of words, students
predict what the story tells then compare with the original text or given
phrases – write the story or given pictures … do the same.
• Different responses – answer comprehension questions, T/F, find words, put
information into graphs, tables, diagrams, describe the people in the text,
guess the endings of stories
• Reading Activities Center - song and poetry cards, big books, other book type
reading materials are at a centre so that students may browse and read as time
permits.
• Write the Room - students copy any print they see anywhere in the room, even
if they can't read everything they write. Beginning writers draw pictures to
help them remember the words.
• Read the Room - reading anything that is posted in the room
• Rainbow Spelling - Post the week's spelling words on a half sheet of chart
paper, students write them 3 times each with colored pencils
• Spelling Activity Center - using their word lists create tongues twisters,
sentences, stories, word scrambles

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• Stamp a Word - take a tub with rubber
alphabet stamps, stamp pads, and large sheets
of paper to a work area and stamp any words
they want to stamp (use potatoes as the
stamp)
• Book Bins - independent, silent, or small
group reading
• Star Authors - A place to read student created
work

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• Listening Centers - Record the books you read to the class. Have parents help out -
have students record for others. How nice to hear your friend, mom, dad, sister or
brother read a story at center time!
• Word Wall – place a list of common words on a wall, each week add vocabulary or
have students add words
• Making Words Centers - Throughout the week students can go up to a pocket chart
when they have a few minutes and try to make words out of the scrambled Mystery
Word. On Fridays - students share all of the words that they came up with and
decode the mystery word. It's a great activity for your average and high students.
• Bookmaking Center -place numerous materials in a basket (writing utensils, colored
pens, markers, crayons, stickers, etc.), a tablet of story paper and a stapler. Encourage
students to make books about topics that interest them.
• Overhead Journals - Have one student write their journal entry on the overhead. The
student reads the journal and gives the class permission to edit the entry. The
student gets to correct the errors and the class rereads it out loud.
• Puzzle Center - Find copies of appropriate word searches, laminate them, and let the
students write on them with washable markers. When done, they use towels to clean
them off.

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• Making Greeting Cards - have samples of greeting card verses, titles, etc -
cut them up for students to refer to for ideas. Add anything from yarn,
wiggly eyes, letter and picture stencils, etc....Encourage students to make
cards for their family, teachers around the building, and students within
the room.
• Game Center - think word games - Scrabble, Story Scramble, Silly
Sentences (cards)
• Computer Center - reading of living books or student created e-books
• Message Centers/Student Post Office - for writing to each other on
special occasions
• Dramatic Play – have students act out very simple plays - need costumes
& props, give students mood cards (jealousy, silliness, fear) and have them
make up a short skit or play of their own
• Word Hunt - kids get a letter or digraph and see how many words they can
find that start with or contain it.
• Browsing Box - Take interesting writing and place in a box. Have a special
privilege for a student to choose from the box and read to the entire class.
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• Literature Circle - A group of students will read a literature selection
together and discuss their favourite part. Once they are comfortable with
this process, they can map the story on large chart paper, make puppets
and put on a play for the class, etc. This allows children to own literature.
• Buddy Reading - The students can read with a partner, this can be familiar
or unfamiliar texts. Then they work with their buddy to draw or write
about their favourite part.
• Journal Writing: Give students content related pictures or journal prompts.
• Absurd Sentences – read absurd sentences to students and have them
make the corrections (The room was hot, so Jim decided to open a football.
For our vacation we drove across the country in a wastebasket.)
• Hidden clues – read sentences and find the hidden clues or inferences (Mr.
Dobbs took the rake from the cellar and walked out to the lawn. What
time of year was this? John came in from the barn and took off his dirty
chaps. Where does John live?

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• Reactions – read sentences and have students write down
how they would feel if this happened to them. (Tony spent
hours building a snowman on the front lawn. When he went
inside, a big branch broke and fell on the snowman, smashing
it to pieces.)
• Comics – cut off the last frame in a cartoon, have students
draw or write to complete what they think happened
• If it happened – read sentences to students and have them
decide how they would feel …. If they heard a strange sound in
the night or If I received something I wanted for my birthday or
If I tried and tried to do something and couldn’t.
• Zodiac signs – have students read their horoscope, discuss
their qualities and characteristics, decide on the sign of a
character in the book you are reading, surmise about others

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 TEACHING WRITING

• Allows students time to process language

• Process: plan, draft, review, edit

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 Writing Activities
– postcards - (leave out words), imagine a holiday and write a postcard (where, what, wish
you were here)
– journals or diaries – daily thoughts / feelings, select journal topics given by teacher
(topics: my favourite subject, the worst day, I can’t face it, a secret, a special person, first
meeting, gone but not forgotten, dream holiday, swimming upstream, an important
lesson, lost in a blizzard, rainy days, the afterlife, surprise!, going home, guilt, my
grandparents, temptations, a lottery win, etc.
– interview - (begin with a short biography), What is your idea of perfect happiness,
greatest fear, trait you most deplore in yourself, makes you depressed, most embarrassing
moment, greatest extravagance, most treasured possession, favourite smell, favourite
book, costume of choice, guiltiest pleasure, greatest regret, single thing that would
improve the quality of your life, your greatest achievement, keeps you awake at night?
– report – analyze topic, gather information, draft, produce: benefits/dangers of mass
tourism, business opportunities for women in Mongolia, banning song lyrics, world
poverty, freedom to choose (smoking, gun ownership), whether parents should be liable
for the actions of their children

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 – instant writing – dictate half sentences for students to complete,
write two sentences about a topic right now, give 3 words and have
students put them into a sentence as quickly as possible
– use music and pictures – play music and have students write out a
film scene, dictate the first line of a story and have students complete
the story based on the music they are listening to, look at pictures and
write about what they see, the characters within the picture
– newspapers and magazines – analyze headlines, analyze how an
article is written, write a news article
– brochures and guides – look at a variety of brochures – health clubs,
entertainment centers, answer questions
– poetry – acrostic (letters start each line, read downwards to form a
word), poetry alphabet (a line for each letter), sentence frames – I like
… because … x3, But I dislike …, Write about this person as if they were
a kind of weather, study real poems, imitate given poems

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 – Fortune Cookie Forecasts – predict a future for one of the characters in the story
– Rewrites – Have students choose the final paragraph of a story they’ve read and
use it as the starting point for another.
– Pick your ending – Read a story aloud to the students and have them write the
ending.
– collaborative writing – have students construct texts together – write a story as a
class, sentence by sentence or story circle - write one line of a story and when
time is up, pass the paper to the next person or dictogloss – have students try to
recreate what they have heard
– Oh, What a Story! Arrange students into groups of 5 or 6. As time passes, the size
of the groups may shrink or expand for variety. The Play: Each student begins by
writing a story for one minute on a topic of his or her choice. When time is up,
the teacher says, “Stop!” Each story is passed to another member in the group
who reads and continues the story until “Stop” is called. Repeat this process until
stories pass through the entire group, allowing more time as stories get longer.
The last person or the person who started can conclude the story. Read some of
the stories out loud.
– pen pals, live chat or keypals
– other genres – brainstorming ideas
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 TEACHING SPEAKING
• Speaking activities provide rehearsal
opportunities, make them real situations
• Use gentle correction, reformulation (teacher
repeats correctly)
• Do it often!

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 SPEAKING ACTIVITIES
• competition – photography competition, for example where students are shown 4 finalist
pictures and must decide the winner
• role-play – set up a dramatic situation and assign roles for students to play (crime – suspect,
police officer, lawyer, concerned parent)
• portrait interview – show a portrait – Arnolfini Marriage by Jan van Eyck – place students in
groups and have them compile a list of questions to ask the others in the portrait …. Jigsaw –
and have people answer these questions in their new group
• discussion – give discussion topics ahead of time, place students in small buzz groups to
explore and gather ideas, give statements for students to complete – Boys don’t like
shopping.
• information-gap activities – two speakers have different bits of information and they can
only complete the whole picture by sharing that information because there is a ‘gap’ between
them eg. Describe and Draw – sit back to back, one person describes the other draws (and
is not allowed to ask questions) …. Progress to asking of questions! Compare results.
• find the differences – students look at similar pictures to one another and they describe their
pictures and try to find 5 differences.

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• telling stories – story reconstruction (show pictures out of order and have
students reconstruct in order), place objects on a table and have students
invent a story, retell a story they read in a newspaper, tell a story about their
family vacation, a scar, a goal
• favourite objects – students bring in an object and talk about its importance
• meeting and greeting – role-play an occasion where they must meet people
and introduce themselves
• surveys – design a questionnaire and interview one another (sleeping
habits, # siblings, climbed a mountain) – good for get-to-know you activity
• famous people – decide on which famous person, alive or dead, that they
would like to invite for dinner, what they would talk about and what food
they would give to them
• student presentations – oral presentations
• moral dilemmas – present students with a moral dilemma and they must
come to group consensus to come to a decision (student gets caught
cheating on an exam – ignore the incident or exposing the student publicly
or come up with 3 other solutions and decide on 1 course of action)

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 TEACHING LISTENING
• Taken from recorded extracts, CD, tape, MP3
players
• Live listening, face to face encounters
• Show pictures, read the questions first, predict
what is coming, listen to the same audio track
more than once, play only extracts.

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 LISTENING ACTIVITIES
• live interview – bring in a guest speaker, brainstorm questions
ahead of time, have students ask follow-up questions
• using pictures – show pictures, have students listen to an oral
discussion, answer questions about what they heard
• prerecorded interview-narrative – listen to prerecorded
interviews
• message-taking – students listen to a phone message, airport
announcement, etc. and answer questions about what they
heard
• music and sound effects – listen to songs for mood or message
they convey, isolate for grammar points or themes

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• news and radio genres – listen to a news broadcast, radio
commercials
• poetry – listen for words, mood, message, predict
outcome, decide on punctuation
• stories – draw a picture about what they heard, graph the
results, finish the ending to a story
• monologues – match the speakers with the opinion
• complete the picture – give one student half of a
completed picture, partner has the whole picture and
describes to the first student how to complete the drawing
• idioms – listening to idioms and guessing what they mean,
placing them in context

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 WHATI IF

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 Students are all at different levels?

• Use different materials / technology

• Do different tasks with the same material /
technology
• Use the students

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 The class is very big?

• Use worksheets
• Use pairwork and groupwork
• Use chorus reaction
• Use group leaders

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 Students keep using their own language?

• Talk to them about the issues

• Encourage them to use English appropriately
• Only respond to English use
• Create an English environment
• Keep reminding them

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 Students don’t want to talk?

• Use pairwork
• Allow them to speak in a controlled way at
first – in stages
• Use reading aloud and acting out
• Use role-play
• Use recording

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