Methodologies and Approaches

You now understand quite a lot about the students in your

class; what drives them to learn a language, about their
preferred learning styles and what current research tells
us about how we learn languages.

In this unit we are going to examine the ways in which

teachers teach. Here you will discover the building blocks
which are used to teach a language.

There are three issues that we will cover. Take some time to think about the following questions.

- How can we best help students to learn a language from our lessons?
- What methods can we use to teach a language in an effective way?
- What can we do as teachers to make our classrooms positive and enticing places to learn?

Words

Here are some words and issues that we use when talking about learning and intelligence. Check you know what
they mean.

inductive cue engage

cycle cognitive deductive

role elicit facilitate

council factor monitor
 What exactly does a teacher do? Have you ever
thought about it?

We asked some teenage students in a school in

Cambridge to define the role of "teacher". Look at
the ten definitions below. Which ones do you think
are most important? Put them into a rank order from
1 (= most important) to 10 (=least important), and
then compare your ranking with your partner.

A language teacher is someone who …

My ranking My partner’s ranking

Helping learners understand

Explains the rules of the language to learners

Gives homework and checks it

Ensures that learning takes place

Makes lessons interesting

Makes lessons fun

Can motivate learners

Has lots of knowledge about the subject

Develops learners' knowledge and skills

Is a qualified professional

Can you both think of any other teaching roles to add to the list?...
Naming the parts
We often give titles to these teaching roles. It is very useful to have these titles to refer to when you are discussing your
professional life, when you are asked to provide a lesson plan or outline, or when someone is going to observe your
teaching.

Talking Point 1
Can you guess what we mean by the following titles? Talk together and think of activities a teacher might do
when she plays each of the following roles:

language resource diagnostician informer involver counsellor

manager monitor facilitator planner assessor

Charlotte's roles Charlotte's actions

Talking Point 2 Planner Guiding learners and managing activity
Informer Giving feedback on performance
Manager Providing learners with information about
language and tasks
Involver Encouraging learners to participate, contribute
ideas (e.g. though brainstorming)
Diagnostician Checking/clarifying language
Language resource Guiding learners, checking/clarifying language
Facilitator Answering language questions
Counsellor Checking an activity is working, listening to
identify learner strengths and weaknesses in
language and skills
Monitor Helping with/modelling/giving feedback on
Charlotte is an accomplished teacher in a language
language school in Cambridge, England. We Assessor Teacher plans the lesson and materials
asked her to keep a diary over five teaching Checking
hours. To the right is her list of the different
Encouraging learners to participate and contribute
actions she performed in the course of her
ideas
teaching.
Providing support and advice, for example on
She listed 17 activities. Work with your language or performance problems etc.
partners to decide what role Charlotte was Observing
using for each action.
Occurring throughout the lesson, as the teacher is
Don't worry if you disagree, there is no fixed constantly collecting information about learners
rule about what goes where. Even Charlotte by observing their work, and maybe asking/
interacting with them at times
might disagree with us! The main purpose of
this exercise is for you get a feel for the Managing class groupings and interaction,
handing out info-gap sheets
different kinds of jobs and roles we perform in
Organising activities, explaining what to do
the classroom.
First principles
Every lesson is different. Lessons can focus on grammar, vocabulary, reading or writing. You may introduce new language items, or
revise, consolidate or expand upon things you have previously covered in the course of your teaching.
We have a distinct and separate form of instruction which we use when we are teaching reading, writing, listening and speaking skills
lessons. Ther e is a whole module on doing skills lessons later in the cour se, so r ight now we'r e thinking only about when you ar e
teaching language.
The two teaching methods most commonly used in TESOL are:
ESA (Engage, Study and Activate), which is used in the
planning stage
PPP (Pr esentation, Pr actice and Pr oduction), which is used in
in the delivery stage
These are not the only approaches but they are the most well-known
methodologies. They are more likely to be recognised by your
employers, line manager or your Director of Studies (DOS). Thus, we
are going to start with them.

ESA: Engage, Study and Activate

Pre-planning stage
Before you do anything else, think about these three elements:
How will you engage the students, capture and hold their interest?
How will you help them study the language so that they can learn it?
How will get them to want to use the language confidently and comfortably?

Engage
Students who are interested in, involved in and enjoying what they are studying tend to make better progress and
learn faster. As teachers, it is important to provide students with lessons that are not only well-structured but
which are also interesting and enjoyable. Careful thought and preparation will help to achieve this.

Study
In any lesson students usually need something to study. In an English teaching lesson there needs to be some
language focus for the class, and this is can be a grammar item, vocabulary, wor k on language functions, or
phonology. We like to call this the learning object. Students need to be intr oduced systematically to the way
that the learning object is put together. A study stage does not always have to include new language input. It could
also cover revision and extension of previously taught material.

Activate
Simply telling students about the language is not enough to help them to learn it.
In order for students to be able to develop their use of English, they need to be given time to understand and assimilate the learning
object, then have the chance to produce it.
In the Activate stage the students are given tasks, normally writing and/or speaking activities which require students to not only use the
language they are studying that day, but also to reuse other language that they have previously learnt.
Here are some reasons why it's important to include the
The starting point for a lot of theories about learning is
ACTIVE stage in your lessons:
the: Kolb Cycle
 It gives students the chance to rehearse English as if
they were producing it in the real world, but in the
Experience
safe environment of the classroom.
 Some theories of language learning suggest that by
giving students this kind of practice, it helps them to Testing of ideas in Observation and
"switch" language that they have recently studies, practice reflection
and which they have to actively process, into
language which they can use without needing to
Development of
think about it.
ideas
 These kind of activities are often fun for the
students. As we have mentioned before, providing an
enjoyable classroom experience for students helps
Kolb's "cycle of learning" is typically expressed as a four
the learning process.
 Because it does not restrict the students to using only -stage cycle of learning, in which "immediate or
a particular area of language, this kind of activity is concrete experiences" provide a basis for "observations
an effective way for both the students and the teacher and reflections". These " obser vations and r eflections"
are assimilated and distilled into "abstract
to assess how well the class is progressing.
 Providing suitable tasks which the students can concepts", producing new implications for action which
achieve, and which prompt them to use lots of can be "actively tested", in turn creating new experiences.
It is a useful way to think about how we acquire language
different language, has a positive motivational effect
as well as our learning habits in general.
on the students. And as you know, motivated
What do you think?
students learn better!

Talking point 3: Engage, Study or Activate?

The teacher throws a ball to someone in the class, who The teacher plays the song "She's Leaving Home" by
then has to say "my name is...". They then throw the ball the Beatles and asks the students to fill gaps in the lyr-
to another student who says "lovely to meet you!" ics where dates, times and actions are missing.
 Engage  Engage
 Study  Study

 Activate  Activate
The teacher gives out worksheet A with 5 sentence In one room, a student memorises a short piece of Eng-
beginnings to one half of the class, and worksheet B lish (a letter, a postcard or a set of instructions, for in-
with 5 sentence endings to the other half of the class. stance) which contains the target learning object. This
Students with worksheet A pair up with students with student then goes into another room and dictates the
worksheet B to match the sentence beginnings and
learning object to their partner, who writes it down.
endings.
They then compare their version with the original.
 Engage
 Engage
 Study
 Study
 Activate
 Activate
The teacher provides pictures of vehicles and says what The teacher plays the song "She's Leaving Home" by the
they're called in English. Beatles and asks the students to discuss why the girl
 Engage wanted to leave home.
 Engage
 Study
 Study
 Activate
 Activate
The teacher asks the student to bring 3 food objects to
class for the next day, to be used in connection with a The teacher gives the students sets of three words (e.g.
lesson on taste, texture and smell. car, lorry, bike) and asks them to find the odd one out
and explain why it doesn't fit.
 Engage
 Engage
 Study
 Study
 Activate
 Activate

Advances in the study of neuroscience in recent decades have helped us enormously in un-
derstanding language teaching. Through the use of powerful scanners, we can actually see
what the brain is doing when people are communicating! Neuroscientists have found, for
example, which areas of the brain are used for understanding words, and which areas "light
up" on scans when we are producing words. As these two areas are in different places, we
now have physiological evidence to show why it is harder to say a word than to recognise it
– the age old problem of an expression being on the "tip of the tongue!"

PPP: Presentation, Practice and Production—The anatomy of a lesson

Presentation

This involves presenting the target language object (the language being taught),
initially through eliciting and cueing the students to see if they recognise it. If no one
in the class can explain it, then the target language object is usually put on the board,
either in structure (grammar-type) charts or in model dialogues, accompanied with
lots of explanation. It is more common that the students will half know or half guess
a word or phrase, so the teacher models the language object by saying the correct
form, wr iting the cor r ect for m down, then asking the class to r epeat it in a
number of ways to fix it in their short term memories.

Presentation is teacher-focussed, meaning that it features more teacher talking time

than the other stages of the lesson; the teacher can talk for as much as 65-80% of this
stage.

In planning our lessons, we must keep in mind the attention span of our students, their
preferred learning styles, and their maturity levels. As a proportion of the total
lesson, the presentation stage should not occupy more than 20-40% of the time you
have with the students. Remember, you should aim to create a lesson which helps the
students to engage with, study and activate the language. If you spend more than 40%
the lesson explaining your learning object, some other stage will have to be reduced,
or worse, left our altogether. If you omit one of the later stages, you'll have to do the
whole presentation again next time, as the students won't remember it!
Practice

Next, the students practice the target language with two or three short
activities that move from highly structured and controlled (where
students are given activities that provide little possibility for error) to
less-structured (as they gain confidence and familiar ity with the
material). This stage is monitored closely by the teacher who should
be circulating the class, busily minimizing and correcting errors.

The practice stage should include as much "student talk" as possible.

Though written activities can provide a useful structure and thinking
time, the teacher should avoid focussing on writing at this point in
the lesson, as "sounding out" the language before writing it down is
recognised by most experts as the "natural way" to acquire language.

Part of the controlled practice phase of a

grammar lesson. What, do you think, is
the teacher trying to focus on here?

The students are processing and assimilating the rules of the target language object during this phase of your lesson, so the
practice should be mostly student talking time.

The teacher should be minimally involved in speaking, and they should ideally only speak to correct a student when some-
thing (pronunciation, for example) is interfering with meaning or understanding. Gestures, facial expressions and signals
are the best way to limit teacher dominance during the practice stage.

More on this in the Teacher’s Toolkit!

During the practice stage, at least 80% of the time should be dedicated to the students' talking. This is the time for students
to interact and experiment with the new learning object with minimal teacher interference - this stage is highly individual
and largely mental.
The proportion of a lesson given to practice varies according to the complexity of the language and how different it is from
the student's mother tongue, but should ideally occupy 30-50% of the lesson time.

Talking Point 4
Look at these practice exercises. What order would you put them in? Why?
a) Students match the meanings of new words with b) Students change ten sentences by replacing a word
their definitions. with an antonym.
c) The teacher gets the students to repeat the words d) Students write ten sentences using the new
after her. (They must not read the words, in case they vocabulary.
confuse the pronunciation with how they are written).
Production

This is the stage of the lesson where the students personalise the
target language, taking it as their own and use it to generate real
communication.
Written work should feature in this phase, alongside spoken
language. We have to be careful that learners do not lose sight of
the written form of the language, especially with a language as
complex and notoriously difficult to spell as English!

Production should involve students talking almost all of the time,

with the teacher trying her hardest to sit back and observe,
encourage genuine interaction between students in groups, or
pairs, or threes, or even silent and individual processing time.

This component of a healthy TESOL lesson could occupy between 20-30% of the class time.

The general structure of the production stage of a lesson

is fine-tuned to the object you are teaching and its
special features, but an important aspect is the movement
from controlled and structured practice, to less-
controlled and more freely used language, and finally
to genuine creative communication.

Another important feature of PPP (and other methods

too) is the rapid reduction of teacher talk time and the
increase in student talk time as you move through the
lesson.
One of the most common errors that untrained teachers
make is when they talk too much. Generally speaking,
EFL students get very little chance to actually use the
language they learn outside the classroom, and so the
EFL classroom must be structured to maximise student
talking time.
 Task 1: Presentation, Practice and Production

Look at these phases of lessons that just didn't work, and think what might have gone wrong. What changes
would you make to improve them?

Presentation stage

1 Language too complex for the students

To a class of low level learners aged 10 – 12.

Teacher: "Okay, kids, let's look at this example of some facts about the life of our Prime Minister. (Shows
them an article from a magazine) … (Students read for 2 minutes). As you can see he likes water-skiing but
he doesn't like cooking. So, when we like something, and we write an affirmative sentence, we write:
(writes on board)
He likes cooking.
And when we don't like something, we say:
He doesn't like cooking.
And when we want to ask a question, we say
Do you like cooking?"

2 Instructions not good enough (unscripted, unplanned)

Teacher: "So, sometimes, I mean, sometimes we use "I am doing" when we're talking about the future, but
only when the future is planned. What I mean by that is, I made a decision before the moment of talking –
which is like… now, right? – and I am telling someone, like my friend who has, like, just asked me "what are
you, like, doing this evening?" and I then tell them about a plan to meet my friend, another friend I mean, at a
restaurant, so I might say (writing on the board) I am meeting my friend at a restaurant."

Production stage

1 Too fast
Students are given five minutes to rewrite 30 statements from affirmative simple present to negative and
interrogative simple present forms.

2 Make a video
After a lesson about the weather, students are asked to make a news report using i-Phones, dressed up as
weathergirls.

In the Answer Key, you'll find comments from an experienced teacher here in the UK, along with her
opinions about what went wrong at each stage, and what she could do to rescue these lessons.
 Practice stage

1 Practice activity too vague

(After a presentation about Present Perfect used for experiences – e.g. I have swum with dolphins, I have nev-
er eaten sushi….)

Teacher: "Now you have looked at these examples, I'd like you to talk about some special experiences you
have had…"

2 Practice activity too complex

(Students have looked at the use of used to for describing past habits. They have looked at photos of the teach-
er in 1985 and the present day, and teacher has modelled sentences such as "I used to have long hair", "I used
to go to parties"… etc.)
Students are now asked to improvise a short interview with each other, pretending to be retired film stars, or
people who used to be very poor but recently won a lot of money.

Bringing engaging productive activities into your classroom requires a certain level of cognitive ability from the students,
and you should think about this when you are planning your lesson. Great ideas do not always make great lessons, but often
the desire to make entertaining activities for your students compromises the learning outcomes.
Production activities for Young Learners in particular need to be carefully thought out and prepared.
Some good examples of effective production activities include situational role-plays, debates, discussions, problem-solving,
narratives, descriptions, quizzes and games.

The Teacher's Toolkit has some great suggestions for ready-made lessons which are successful
with the right planning!

Task 2
Here are the 7 stages of a lesson which is introducing new language. Can you put them into the right order?

Warm up: teacher puts up on Focus on form: students notice the Homework: using internet
projector pictures of two form – bigger/dirtier/more crowded/ sources, students write a
cities and elicits adjectives to more expensive used in a text. similar text comparing their
describe them, then with hometown with a different
both pictures present, Reading task: students read an article place
compares them. of 150 words on the two cities in the
pictures.
Focus on form: students
Controlled practice: students
inductively work out the rules
apply the comparison rules to Speaking practice: in pairs students
for making comparisons from
10 sentences in a worksheet make more comparisons based on
the examples in the text.
working alone then in in pairs. pictures of other cities.
 Unit Test 1

Below you'll find two stages of a lesson, then three more stages to choose from. Which of these three options would be
the most obvious and sensible to follow on from the first two?

1.) The class listens to a conversation between two people about Saturday jobs. Then they listen for a second time and
they have to tick 5 true or false questions about the conversation. Then:
 The teacher asks if they understand.
 They check their answers with each other in pairs.
 The teacher invites them to give opinions about Saturday jobs.

2.) The students listen to the teacher's description of a room, and draw it at the same time. Then the teacher asks the
students to describe it back to her so she can draw it on the board from their descriptions. Then:
 They write a description of their bedroom for the teacher to correct.
 In pairs they draw each other's living rooms.
 The teacher shows the students her original drawing and compares it to the one on the board.

3.) The teacher shows half the class a short clip of Mr Bean. Then she tells the students to describe it to the other half of
the class. Then:
 The teacher repeats the activity, but with the other half of the class.
 She asks the students about Mr Bean, and their opinions of the clip.
 The students record their commentary over the silent clip using the voice recorder on their phones.

4.) The teacher asks the students to imagine they have crashed a small aeroplane in the desert. She gives them a list of
objects. Then:
 The students have to write a diary of their time in the desert.
 The students discuss what they could use the objects for in order to survive.
 The students list the objects according to their usefulness.

5.) The teacher models the example of language: "W hat are you going to do?", emphasizing the rhythm. Then she asks
the students to repeat it. Then:
 The teacher tells the students the aims of the lesson.
 The students talk about what they're going to do later.
 The teacher drills the sentence and corrects the accuracy of their pronunciation.
 Managing Learning

In the first unit we looked at the methods we use for planning

lessons and for teaching a language, and we thought about 10
different roles that a professional teacher will assume in her
work.
Now it is time to consider your most important job: being the
learning manager. This unit will contain all the information
you need to become an effective force for learning in the
classroom.

There are five separate chapters which deal with the fundamental elements of excellent teaching. These are:
1. Managing the room for learning
2. The role of error
3. Classroom language
4. The language of instruction
5. Setting S.M.A.R.T. targets

Talking Point

In your experience, what makes a great teacher? Not a good teacher, but a great one?

Now we will look at the techniques that will make you a great teacher too.
In Unit 1 we covered several different aspects of planning and delivery of lessons, so now we are going to consider how we
use the classroom spaces we have to actually do those lessons. At the end of this chapter, you'll know how organise your
space into a setting which is appropriate to the aims of the lesson.
A good, interesting lesson should involve two or three different learning contexts. There are times when it is best for
learners to work on their own, while at other times pair work is best. We often establish group work in groups of four or
more, and of course there are times when all the students need to work together as a class.

Talking Point 1
Talk together and think of as many different reasons why you should organise your students:
 As individuals?
 With partners?
 With small groups?
 In teacher-led whole class activities?

Here are some activities to help you. Think of 5 more!

comparing answers in an
a test grammar exercises a project giving out news
exercise

comparing information
watching a video discussion dictation practising a dialogue
in two texts

The Teacher’s Toolkit contains many hints and tips about doing pair work!

Making the space work for you

In an ideal world, where you can do anything you want

with your teaching space, what would be the best way to
set out a classroom for:

 A test?
 Presenting new language?
 Pair work?
 Group project work?
 Talking Point 2

Sometimes teachers find themselves in difficult or

impossible situations and spaces!
What is wrong with this lesson and this use of space in the
image on the right?
How would you improve it?

Techniques: Classroom layouts

Here are a number of suggestions for rearrangements. Try one or more of these!
What do you think are the advantages of these 12 seating plans? Don't forget to include your needs as teacher. If a
teaching role requires you to move around for example, which seating plans would work best? If you have students who
are self-conscious about speaking English in front of an audience, which arrangement would work best?
We have thought a lot about how we teach, and how we can use our classroom for maximum effect. We have begun to
create a perfect recipe for teaching and learning English. Next we'll turn to another essential ingredient in learning a
language: making mistakes!

Unit Test 1: Room layouts

Look at these classroom plans.

Can you decide what plan would work best for these activities?
1.) Telling a story
2.) Teaching from the board
3.) Watching a video
4.) Pair work
5.) Group work
6.) Test
 “Litel mistek not mistek”
(Found scratched on a table in an English classroom in Saudi Arabia by Michael Swan in 1975)

Categorising learner mistakes: Errors and Slips

As we read in the last module, a critical part of learning is making mistakes. In fact, we didn't need to tell you that: you'll
know it from your own experience!

Talking Point 3

When we think about learning, we divide mistakes into two types: Thinking about these kind of errors below, which type
errors and slips. We look out for mistakes which ar e can learners usually correct themselves? Which
"developmental". These are the mistakes that a learner makes would you need to help them with?
because their learning of the item is as yet incomplete.
 The learner has learnt the simple past rule
Look at this learner's language: but has not yet discovered that there are
I buyed a newspaper exceptions
I er, I go…er before? Buy newspaper  The learner does not know how to talk
Which one could be a developmental error, and which one could about actions in the past.
be a fundamental error? Discuss in pairs or small groups.

Task 1: Types of Mistakes

Using this grid, work in groups and outline the different types of mistakes that learners can make. Use the list below the
grid to categories each example, and suggest a description for each fault. The first one is done for you.

Category Example Description

Grammatical “I go to the bank yesterday” Misuse of the verb and forgetting the past simple
It is safety city.
He is writting an essay right now.
“I joined a golf crab”
“I require a pen”
P1: “I won't go to London today, I don't have the time”

P2: “Me too, I want go London.”

P1: “ Would you mind if I open the window?”

P2: “Mind?”

Register Pronunciation Grammatical Spelling Misunderstanding Other

Why do we make mistakes?
When adults learn a language, research shows that they go through a stage where we apply the rules of our first language to
create expressions in the second. So, a German person who is in the first stages of learning English might quite naturally use
German rules of grammar until the English rules become systemised. For instance, Germans make questions by reversing the
subject and the verb, and don't have a "question forming word":

Where live you? (not where do you live?)

We call the type of language which learners create from two languages
interlanguage. Inter language constantly changes and over time
fades with exposure to the target language

However, the mother tongue (also known as L1 = Language 1) always

has an influence on the target language (L2) in adult learners,
especially where the two languages are similar or very different. For
example, Cantonese speakers have real difficulty with not importing
the sing-song intonation of their tonal mother tongue into their English.
French speakers have many problems with English vocabulary, where
the same words exist in both languages but have developed completely
different meanings, like sensible/sensitive which actually mean
completely the opposite! And actually, the word for actually in French
means "now"! This type of problem is called L1 interference.

Very often though, mistakes and errors are down to carelessness. We

call these slips. Young learners care a lot less about meaning, and it is
challenging for the teacher to make them consider accuracy and control
as well as fluency. Some people are very poor monitors: they simply
can't self-correct ver y well, and these guys will exact a lot of
patience from you as the teacher. Everyone seems to move at different
speeds.

Then there are cultural reasons for carelessness.

Languages like Bahasa Indonesia or Mandarin are
languages with few grammatical or vocabulary rules.
They are beautiful tools of communication because they
are fast to learn, direct in meaning and unambiguous, but
speakers of these languages struggle to cope with the
complexities and nuances of grammars like English. So a
speaker of Mandarin might mix up he/she/they because
such a gender distinction does not feature in their L1.

Look at this transliteration of Chinese to English. You can

see why Chinese learners of English have problems of
interference!
A Bahasa Indonesia speaker has a lot of interference in terms of tenses and aspects, because their language has a much
simpler and more effective system of indicating events in time. Compare:

Bahasa Indonesia English

I go London now. I'm going to London.
I went to London yesterday.
I go London before.
I've been to London.
I'm going to London tomorrow.
I'm going to go to London tomorrow.
I go London tomorrow. I will go to London tomorrow.
I shall go to London tomorrow.
I'll be going to London tomorrow.
I ever go London. I've been to London.

In many cases people cause errors because they just

translate fr om their mother tongue to English. Using
Google Translate can cause hilarious results. If you
haven't tried this already, put these expressions into an
online translation tool into your language then re-
translate them back to English:

Traffic jam
Fruit flies like a banana

Translation software algorithms are improving. When

they are very good, the world will be a much less fun
place to be in!

Over application of lear nt r ules cr eate another set of

errors. Consider:

the mans have all the power in my country.

The learner is applying the plural "s" rule incorrectly to man/men because
she doesn't know that exceptions exist.

Very, very often, people make errors because of what is politely called
cognitive deficiency. Possibly (and for a number of r easons) they have
found themselves in a class level that is too high for them or they are just
not cut out for learning languages. They just can't do the lesson. We'll
consider how to deal with these situation in the next unit.

Finally, let's not forget human factors: working in a second language can be
incredibly tiring for a student and very often they make errors simply
because of tiredness. Then, of course, there is the social anxiety. It can be
extremely difficult for some people to speak in a foreign language, and to
make mistakes in front of a friend, and above all to have the fear of failure
in an interaction with someone can be terrifying. Teachers have to learn
quickly to respect the student and their wishes.
 Talking Point 4

Look at this grid which lists the kinds of errors in the article. Working together, match the example to the cause on the left.
There are no absolute answers! Part of the skill of teaching is developing an intuition for the causes of mistakes. Talk to your
partner and see if you agree.
Causes Example Example
Interlanguage
(Learners mix elements of their own
language structure, rules, or Er, this, er, maybe, I don't know….
pronunciation with the target (Producing disjointed sentences with
lots of hesitations, or speaking in
language when they use English. This single words.)
is constantly changing as they
progress and improve.)
Mother tongue interference
I just wearing my coat. (Meaning: I'm
(Applying the rules of the mother
just putting my coat on.)
tongue to the target language.)
I have gone to the cinema yesterday.
Carelessness
(Meaning: I went)
(Not paying attention.)
I no like.
Translation
(The learner has not yet "acquired"
(Converting from the mother tongue.)
the auxiliary "Do +not".)
Over generalisation/ over "Teacher, finish lesson?"
application (missing out words or using simpler
(Assuming a rule applies in all cases forms. They can correct these if
and overusing it.) prompted.)
Tiredness A)Thank you very much!
(Feeling tired and therefore making B)Please!
mistakes.) (Misuse of the word please.)
Anxiety How many childs have you got?
(Feeling nervous about something.) I teached them yesterday.
Cognitive deficiency
Teacher, no understand!
(The learner just doesn't get it.)
The Answer Key shows one set of opinions from a group of teachers in Cambridge. There was a lot of argument about the
answers!

Error is an important part of learning, and effective teaching happens as a result of identifying the reason for errors.
Developmental errors ar e par t of the lear ner 's jour ney thr ough the language, and we know how to fix them – the
correction should come from the learner herself, facilitated, and encouraged and supported by a positive teacher.
Slips and persistent errors come fr om poor self-monitoring, and are especially frequent when the difference between the
mother tongue (L1) and target language (L2) is very great. All we can do it be patient, repeat the exercises, recycle the
language regularly and try different approaches that might appeal to different learning styles – V, A or K. Training students
to be better self-monitors often helps.
Environmental factors like tir edness and car elessness ar e entir ely within the teacher ' s domain. Be lear ner kind, be
motivating, be willing to try different approaches and be sensitive to your learners' circumstances and feelings, and many
problems will disappear - eventually.
Finally, we cannot avoid the fact that some people sadly will never learn a language because their brains are just not wired
up in the right way, and some people are in the wrong class by some administrative error. As with environmental factors,
be humankind, and always blame the situation and not the per son!

Talking Point 5: Learners, teachers and mistakes

Work alone to complete the questionnaire below by putting a tick in the boxes of the answers which are closest to your
own opinion. You can choose as many options as you like.

1.) How would you feel if your learners make mistakes in speaking work?

 I look for mistakes – they are a natural part of learning.

 I want to correct all my students' mistakes.
 My teaching must have been poor.
 Annoyed, the students didn't pay attention.

2.) When should you correct speaking work?

 Whenever I hear a mistake.

 At the end of the activity.
 Only if communication breaks down.
 If a learner is not understood by the others in the class.

3.) What should you do when a learner makes a mistake in speaking work?

 Point out the error and ask them to correct it themselves.

 Point out the error and give the correct version to the student.
 Use a gesture to indicate "error" and invite learners to try again.
 Indicate an error and ask the class to supply the right answer.

4.) How should you correct written work?

 Underline mistakes in red and ask learners to correct their work.

 Underline mistakes and write correct versions next to the errors.
 Use correction symbols and then ask learner to correct themselves.
 Write notes and questions to guide learners towards making corrections for themselves.

Correcting written work

The piece of writing on the following page was produced by a student in an elementary class. Before the students were asked
to write this they had studied:

 The present simple

 Vocabulary related to describing families, cities, and the weather

So, you are expecting them to write, with some confidence, about facts and descriptions of familiar things in their
world. The class were asked to write a short letter to an English speaking friend which should include three paragraphs:

Paragraph 1 – about their English class

Paragraph 2 – about their family
Paragraph 3 – about the city they live in
 The class had read and analysed a similar piece written by a native English speaker before they wrote this, although they
were not allowed to look at the text when they wrote this letter.

Now read the letter below and discuss with your partner how you would mark this piece of work and whether you would
give a grade or write a comment to the student about how they had done.

dear . Joanna,
how are you i'm fine. i study in the school. we are thirty students in my class and they come from different country
china, africa and japan. my name teacher michael and he from wales. In my contry lives in flat my man and daughter.
my daughter two year old, your name mona. every week visit my parents. Cambridge vry intrsting town. it old and
pritty. the weather hot in summer and cold in winter. the parks beautiful and universty are very old. i hope you come
and visit me soon.
your firend,
Jumilla

Task 2: Correcting written work

We like to use the same correction codes all over the world. These are international correction codes for correcting written work.
Can you guess what the codes mean? The answers are in the key at the end of the module..

WW WO SP
WV P X
? T ^

What advantages are there to using a standardised system like this in your own teaching?
Look back at the learners' text above. Use the correction code to mark the writing.

Now we will begin to look at the language of

teaching. It is a very important subject and one we
will break down into several different areas. There
will be some more work on this in the next unit.
 Talking Point 6: Teacher Talk

Look at these statements in these contexts. What do you think is wrong?

1. Said to a class of adult students

"Names!"
2. Said to an elementary learner
"I believe that your hard work has really produced results. Congratulations."
3. Said to a teenage intermediate student
"You clever boy. Your mummy will be pleased with your mark."

4. Said to a group of young learners aged 9-11

"While it is possible to use the past tense here, it's much more common and natural to use the present simple instead."

5. Said to a poor achiever who has just produced a good piece of work

"Yes….nice. Make sure they're all like that in future."

6. Said to an adult student

"This work is awful – careless and poor quality. Do it again."

7. Said to a group of teenage intermediate students
"Could you get into groups and check your answers together."
8. Said to a group of beginners

"Okay, check your work for errors now please."

[Link] to a group of college students

"Colour the pictures for homework, and write the names of the objects under each picture. OK?"
10. Said to a 35 year old student in a class of his peers
"OK. Now can you stand up and tell us the answers."

When we are selecting appropriate language for the

classroom, we have to consider three different factors:
Social dynamics can have a tremendous effect on your class.
Some cultures prohibit men and women who are not related from
interacting; in cultures like Korea, the age of a person very much
affects how you talk to them. Then, imagine what it might be like
to have your boss in the same class as you! Or a very strong
personality, or perhaps someone with a development disorder
which makes interaction with others very difficult for them.
We will go into this in more detail in the next unit, which is about
classroom management.
 Task 3: The language of instruction

A teacher is setting up a speaking activity to practice language he presented in the last lesson. However, the instruc-
tions have been mixed up!
Work with your partner/group and decide what the correct order should be.

order instructions
But before that we're going to conduct a survey so you get lots of ideas to put in your compositions.
OK?
Right, now here's a worksheet for your survey.
OK. Is that clear? Has anyone got any questions about what you need to do?
Right, well, today we're going to write a composition.
I'd like you to mingle round the class asking people their opinions, like the questions on the worksheet.
What I want you to do is this:
After that, I'd like you to get into groups and make a list of all the different ideas you've collected.
Then I'd like you to note down their answers.
Check your answer in the Answer Key.

Task 4: Sequencing instructions practice

Now it is your turn! Your trainer will give you a language activity from a course book. Work alone and prepare instructions for the
activity.
Regroup in groups of four and give your instructions to the group as if they are students. They should give you feedback on how
easy to understand your instructions were.
Remember:
 Grade your language.
 Use short, simple sentences.
 Pauses and gestures will help learners to process instructions.
 Only say what you have to say to get students on task– don't talk about what will happen at later stages of the lesson.
 Demonstrations of what you want and models of the kind of answer you want are more effective than spoken instructions.
 Check understanding. Ask a student to repeat the instructions or use concept check questions.
 Asking "Did you understand that?" to everyone is not useful. A few students will nod or say yes but that doesn't mean the
whole group understands
 Monitor. Even after all of the above and there will be one or two who didn't get it. Walk around and make sure everyone
is on board.
Be SMART

Probably the best way to manage student progress is to set proper targets for them. Targets are best talked through together,
and these should be milestones along a language journey: regular enough for the student to know how well they are
progressing, and how far along the journey they have come already.
Use target setting as the basis for your tutor time. Target setting together helps the students to share responsibility for their
own their progress, and establishes a learning partnership between you and your student, rather than making it a struggle you
have to face on your own.
The acronym S.M.A.R.T. represents:

Specific (= exactly what?)

I" want to improve my English"is not really
specific enough. Try to negotiate with your Measurable (= how will you know you have met the
student for more manageable targets – "I want target?)
to work on my vocabulary"or "I'd like to
If "I want to work on my grammar" is the
participate more in conversation classes"are
much better targets to work towards. specific goal, then a measurement could be
'"'d like to be able to get all the answers right
in the Use of English section of the
Cambridge test".

Achievable (= can it be done?)

If the student scores 6.5 in IELTS and needs
a 7 in IELTS in under 4 weeks, this might
Relevant (and realistic!)
be a realisable target, but raising an IELTS
score by half a band often takes a lot longer Thinking about the last entry, IELTS is an
than that. important exam, but is it the best option? It
is only "live" for two years, so unless the
student has quite short term plans for
university, they might be better with a
different exam. TOEIC might work better
Timely (= by when?) for example… Make sure your students'
It is vital that S.M.A.R.T. targets have a time goals fit in with their plans.
frame for learners to work towards. It is
important that the next meeting to review this
set of targets is noted in the calendar, and that
the amount of effort required for the S.M.A.R.T. targets are considered by many experts in
the UK and US to be the most useful invention in
S.M.A.R.T. target is stretching, challenging,
teaching this century! What do you think?
but not impossible.
 Classroom Management
The third unit of this module is about how we manage our
class. We will look at the ways in which teachers control
learning experiences and create the right atmosphere for
learning. To prepare yourself for this unit, think about these
questions:
- Apart from being strict, in what other ways can a teacher
control class behaviour?
- What is the best way to change a student's behaviour
when it is unacceptable?
- How can we give instructions to a class in a language they
don't speak well?
- What things can we do to a classroom to make it a
positive, productive and stimulating environment?

Talking Point: A happy class is a learning class.

Discipline
We cannot pretend that teachers sometimes don't face discipline problems.
When we are teaching young learners, the responsibility for keeping
motivation going and maintaining discipline rests more with the teacher. Read
this comment on discipline issues from Chris McFarlane. Chris is a highly
successful Science teacher in Cambridge:

In the first school I worked in there were so many rules, but the children were really naughty. In my second school,
there were only two rules. These applied to every part of the school. They were:
1.) I will never ask you to do anything that I would not do myself
2.) will never ask you to do anything that is unreasonable

Whenever there were protests about something, all I had to say was, "Do you think what I am asking you to do is
unreasonable?" and almost always the answer was '"no sir'" If it was "yes", then all I had to do was ask them to
explain why they thought it so.
Treating the students like responsible adults resulted in almost no disciplinary problems. And if I asked myself the
question, "Would I do that? before getting the class to do something, I managed to spare myself a lot of
confrontations.
Try it!
Difficult conversations

Meet Kieron Wise. He is one of the UK's "superteachers" brought in to problem schools around
the country to help teachers with discipline issues.

I started life as a captain in the British army, did tours of duty in several zones of conflict and
spent years in Germany at the time when war between the Soviet Block and NATO seemed
imminent. Now I teach children in a little town in the beautiful South-West of England.
I learnt how to resolve difficult situations in a non-violent way (of course violence does not
have to be just physical). This is my method for solving conflict, disagreements and difficult
situations in the classroom, in war zones, and in life in general.

Kieron

There are three simple things that I believe are essential for successful resolution:

Awareness of one's own needs. You have to say what it is that is affecting you personally when someone's behaviour
is unacceptable. Very often we immediately get into a rage without knowing why. A better starting point is to
understand what your needs are.
For example, as a teacher it is reasonable that your students should not have mobile phone communications during
your lesson. You need their total attention, and also you find it hard to concentrate on your job when people keep
getting text alerts. Don't get angry. Explain what the effect of mobile phones are on your ability to do your job: very
often your students will not have thought about this and will agree that it is awful and come to some agreement.

You also need to have empathy, which is understanding and sharing an emotion expressed by another person; or even a
cat, or a dog. If you don't involve empathy, you will never arrive at a successful resolution.
There is always a reason behind unacceptable behaviour. Going back to those infuriating text message bleeps. What if
the student's child is home alone, and the student needs to be updated about her wellbeing?
It is also important to remind yourself, the annoying action is rarely, if ever, there to deliberately annoy you. Don't make
a conflict a problem between two people. It is a conflict between you and a thing the person does.

Finally, honest self-expression. This means expressing yourself in an authentic way: don't try to act as if you are
offended if you are not.
If a rule really doesn't matter to you, or doesn't cause a big deal, don't waste your time on it. Life is too short.
Don't be a tyrant over little things. So often I find myself telling students off for using their mobile, then I get a text my-
self – yes, I too forget to put my phone on silent!!!
Nonviolent Communication

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is based on the idea that all human beings have the capacity for compassion and only
want to get angry, aggressive or violent when they don't recognize more effective strategies for getting what they want.
Violence, psychological and physical, are learned. Perhaps the person had a troubled childhood, or perhaps they come from a
society where shouting and making a fuss is recognised as the right way to get ahead in life.
NVC, the system I use in school, is a different way to solve problems. It supposes that if people can identify their own needs,
the needs of others, and the feelings that surround these needs, harmony can be achieved. There are four parts to the process:

1. No blame!
The first rule is to remove You are not letting the other students speak!
blame from the situation. Joe, I see that you are doing a lot of the talking in class. This means that the other
Just describe the situation, or students do not get a chance to contribute to the conversation.
the behaviour that is causing (Of course, this conversation should happen in private!)
the problem

You should give other people the chance to speak you know!
2. How you feel about this This makes it difficult for me as the teacher because I need to give all the students a
chance to practice their English, and I feel like I am not doing my job properly.

I need to have my class back without you dominating it!

3. Your needs
What I need is a situation where everyone gets a chance to speak.
I want you to shut up!
4. Requests So what I'm asking you to do is wait a few seconds before you say the answer. Would
you be willing to try that?

How would the conversation work if you used some or all of the crossed out sentences, do you think?

Talking Point 1

Now, with a partner, try role playing this difficult conversation.

The situation: Gemma always comes late to class. W hen she does, it causes a lot of disruption and means you have problems getting
started.

Things for the Teacher to think about Things for Gemma to think about

 What do you notice about her behaviour?  Have you got a reason for being late?
 How does her lateness impact on you?  What is the effect on the class when you come in
 What do you need from the class with regard to late?
starting on time?  If your lateness is a problem, what can you do
 What are you asking her to do? about it?

Hopefully, you will have achieved a solution without blaming, or finding fault, or doing anything that will make either of you feel like the
other person doesn't value you.
This thing you do...
Now let's try some freer practice in your pairs:
1. One of you is a student who yawns very publicly and noisily all through
class. The other person is a teacher who feels that this behaviour undermines
their role. Can you find a resolution where both people feel valued?
2. One of you is a teacher. You are not returning homework in good time, so
students aren't getting adequate feedback on their work. The other person is a
student, and it's their job to ask the teacher to change her return rate. Can you
broach the subject without sounding accusatory?
3. The school secretary is a neighbour of yours. He likes to come into your
class for a chat while you are trying to supervise reading classes, or when you
have a load of marking to do. This puts you under a lot of pressure. Can you
speak to him about it without hurting his feelings?

Group Dynamics - Training them to do what you want

Task 1: What are language functions?

Look at the examples of teacher language below. What is the function of each example? Choose from the twelve options
on the following page to complete the table, and then add another example for each function.
Good morning.
Function:
Another example:

This is a listening activity. Close your books and put your pens down. Listen to the recording, is John happy or sad?
Function:
Another example:

Goodbye. See you tomorrow.

Function:
Another example:

Are you having problems with this?

Function:
Another example:
 Why can't you say "there is many money"?
Function:
Another example:

Two men walked into a coffee house and walked up to the counter.
Function:
Another example:

“Welcome in Cebu"– good English or bad English?

Function:
Another example:

What is it? It's a fruit. It's red. The first letter of the word is 'S'.
Function:
Another example:

Repeat after me: "Sally speaks Spanish… ."

Function:
Another example:

Yuko, what do we call this in English?

Function:
Another example:

Look at this picture on the projector, what is this?

Function:
Another example:

Switch off your mobile phone please, we are in class now.

Function:
Another example:

monitoring narrating disciplining finishing the lesson

setting up an activity prompting checking learning eliciting

correcting greeting drilling nominating

Grading your classroom language

It's vital that you adjust your classroom language to the level of your
learners. The general rule is that instructions, especially spoken
instructions, should be Language Minus One, that is, one level lower
than the featured language. So an upper-intermediate class should
receive instructions in intermediate English. Let's look at an example.

Find someone who is a very useful game for practicing language in

class. Students typically have some information and have to ask their
classmates questions to find answers which match their own. Below
you will see two sets of teacher talk, instructing students to collect
answers to a series of questions about travelling to work. The teacher
is using the same concept but with two classes of different levels.

 What differences can you see between the two

sets of teacher talk?
 What levels are the classes, do you think?

Teacher: "Right, now, has everyone had time to do the questions for the survey? Yeah, everybody okay with that?
Good. Okay, this is what we are going to do. We are going to go round the room and ask everyone these questions!
Right, when you ask the questions, if your partner answers yes, put his or her name in the box next to the questions,
like this right? (Shows paper to the class and simulates action of writing a name next to one questionnaire.) Then,
when you have asked the three questions, move to the next person, until you've interviewed everyone in the room.
Right? Everybody ready? Cool, 1,2,3 let's go!"

Teacher: "Okay everyone, now we are going to play a game... Ask the other members of the class these questions.
(Shows paper to remind the class.) Does anybody have a question? Everybody understand? Okay? Okay? Good. Now, if
they say yes, write their names next to the question.
But… ask three questions to one friend, then you must change. You have seven minutes for this. Alright? Everybody
understand? Okay, 1,2,3 start!"

 Why is it important for a teacher to grade

language in the classroom?

 What are the main differences between the

two sets of instructions?

 Which set is clearer for learners, and why?

Why instructions fail
Rob is teaching English for Media studies in College. It is two minutes to the end of a lesson. The class has been studying
the opening scene from Baz Luhrman's film version of Romeo & Juliet.

Rob: "Okay guys, this is, just... right, yeah what we've got to
do now is write…. three , no, better is four sentences about
the opening scene of Romeo and Juliet for Tuesday, Tuesday
morning right? And you should write about how Baz
Luhrman's adapted Shakespeare's Verona to, to Verona
Beach. Yeah it's about what changes you liked or... didn't
like. Okay, Tuesday, you got that? Right, class dismissed."

Rob's language is quite typical of unplanned instruction.

Unplanned instruction confuses the students and make the teacher look bad. It creates a lot of work for the teacher too as
they have to repeat the instructions several times.

Here are some ways of avoiding unplanned instruction. Read them and underline the key words in each tip.

1.) Become aware of your own instruction-giving. Listen to yourself!

2.) Pre-plan your instructions. Be clear in your head what you want the learners to do.
3.) Analyse the instruction beforehand so that you include only the essential information in simple, clear language
– remember, L minus 1.
4.) Sequence this information in a sensible order: First, second, third…
5.) Use short, unequivocal sentences – one sentence for each key piece of information.
6.) Don't say things that are visible or obvious like ''I'm giving you a piece of paper".
7.) Never give instructions until they need to know them .Never say: "later we will do y but let's look at x now".
8.) Use silence and gesture to pace the instructions and clarify their meaning.
9.) Demonstrate rather than explain wherever possible.
10.) Check that students have understood what to do. Don't assume that everyone will automatically understand
what you have said. For example, ask concept checking questions or get one or two students to tell you what they
are going to do.
11.) Grade your English. Keep it simple. We are saying this twice because it is the most common problem: never
use language in your instructions that your students don't use.
12.) Allow enough time for instructions. Especially at the end of the lesson – never give out homework right at the
end, as your students' minds have already switched off.

Task 2

Looking back at Rob's instructions, can you see what he has done wrong? Rewrite his instructions using the tips above,
then compare you version with your partner's.
Listening is an important skill for teachers. We have to teach listening, so we have to be good listeners ourselves!
Let's look at the different kinds of listening we humans do.

Conversational listening is the kind we do with friends. We are

listening, but we allow ourselves to drift back a little bit from time to
time, like when you have already heard the story that your partner is
telling your brother, or when you are thinking of the next thing to
say. The other important thing about conversational listening is it is
two way: you can always ask someone for clarification if you didn't
quite understand them the first time, and you can take over or
redirect the conversation when you want to.

Analytical listening is what we do in class when we are paying

attention to aspects of our students' spoken English. The biggest
difference is that we are listening to the language, not the message.

Supportive listening. There are times when we have to put aside our
analytical skills and listen to the student's message. We have to find
strategies that allow us to bypass the errors and do our best to
understand what they are trying to communicate.

Here's a superfast, subconscious checklist to help you work out which kind of listening you are doing:

A student says: “I must to make my homeworks this night.”

So you instantly assess it for acceptability – the message is clear, but there are obviously language errors. Your first decision is,
therefore, are these errors acceptable or not? Your reaction will certainly be determined by a simple factor: Is the message important, or
the language important?
If your aim is to encourage fluency, then the decision needs to be made based on the errors:
1 Are the errors impeding communication? In other words, do you, as a listener, have to work hard to get to the meaning?
2 Are the errors too intrusive? In other words, are there so many errors that you can't concentrate on the message?

Step 1: Identify the errors

If your aim is to focus on language correctness, then you have to decide what the problems are:

I must to make my homeworks this night

verb form error collocation countable lexis error

error noun error

Step 2: Decide the possible causes

Are the errors happening because the student hasn't learned the language correctly? Are they slips because she isn't
monitoring carefully? Is it interlanguage because she has "half learnt" it informally? A translation issue? Or interference
with her L1?
(It might help to know that this is an example of "Spanglish" – English words spoken by a Spanish person who lives in
Miami and who is using the rules of Spanish to create English!)

Step 3: Take action!

Slips – they should know this. Revise in a minute with the class

Interlanguage – incidental, stuff to learn "by the way": explain this feature of English to them now/correct it

Error – a good time to analyse it because it is useful and L + 1

I must to make my homeworks this night

verb form error collocation countable lexis error

error noun error
 Unit Test 1: Language instructions - What's wrong?

The following instructions are from different lessons. Refer back to the 12 tips we gave you on page seven.

Which of the 12 tips from the previous page are not being followed? Simplify each instruction using less confusing language and/or
a gesture.
1.) Now please read the dialogue and then look at the questions and you have to try and work out something from
reading the passage – it's in one of the questions – then you refer back to the passage.

2.) It's the unit on food and drink, somewhere, it's near the middle, page 101, 102 or something, can you find that? Have
you got it, no, not that one, the next unit, and take a look at the picture, then we'll listen and you fill in the bill with the
amount she paid for the specific items… oh, and the amount she bought too.

3.) If I were to ask you for your opinion on the wearing of animal skins, what do you think you might say to me in reply?

4.) Well that's not exactly right, in fact it's not right. No, you see, you really would have to use a continuous form here,
because you are describing what the birds are doing, rather than the birds' singing being an event in the story – do you
see? So, does anyone, I wonder, have the answer I'm looking for? Now look at the second passage and change all the
tenses so it sounds ok…like a story... like the first one after we…you. whatever…..changed it.

5.) Would you like to tell everyone the answer you were thinking of again because I don't think they heard it when you
spoke so quietly, and I'm sure we'd all be interested in hearing it, if you could please?

Eliciting
We always tell our students too much. Every time we just tell
them the answer it is a missed opportunity for learning.
Elicitation is the wor d we use for br inging the answer out
of the learners, rather than putting it in their minds. Make
elicitation your habit!
A teacher is using this picture to initiate a lesson. Look at
two versions of her teacher talk:

1. What can you see in the picture? Yeah, a man and a

woman…What do you call a man and a couple who are,
like, "together"?' anybody? Yeah, couple! Let's write that
on the board. C O U P L E, repeat after me, okay?
Right where are they? What are they doing? Right, they're
chatting… and where are they? Why do you think it's a 2. Here is a picture of a man and a woman sitting at a
café? Well what can you see? café. It is in Paris, and we know that because here we
Okay, where is it? Why do you know it's Paris? Because… can see the Eiffel Tower. I think that they know each
other because they are about to hold hands. Now…
What is the difference between the two
versions of the introduction? Which is more
engaging? Why? What happens when we
present lessons like these?
Things to think about:
1.) Balance. Do be car eful not to over -
elicit. It is possible to lose your direction.
We have done far too much elicitation here
as we are aiming to prove a point.
2.) Eliciting should be L+1 (a bit harder than
the students are used to). Instructions are L-1
(a bit lower than students are used to).

Talking Point 2

Look at these bits of teacher talk. Working together, see how many elicitation questions you can add without losing
focus.

All the following words are synonyms of walk: Let's look at this picture together. There is a man,
stroll, wander, march, hike, limp... next to a mountain and in front of him is a dog.

Here are two cars. This one is bigger. This one is

more expensive. We can say, costlier. We don't
Here's a photo of my dog. My dog is three years
say expensiver. Why not? Because it has more
old and black and white. I like him very much.
than two syllables. We don't say beautifuler but
we do say nicer. Okay, you've got that.
 Unit Test 2: Choosing the right role

Look at these situations and make a decision about what kind of role the teacher should take on. First though, you might
want to look back at Module 2, Unit 1 for a quick reminder of what we said about teacher roles.

1.) The teacher has just introduced If I were… I would (hypothetical conditionals) to a group of teenagers who have been
learning English for two years. She gave them a piece of reading called "imagine" where famous people say how they
would solve the world's problems if they had absolute power. Now she wants to see if they have understood what the
structure means. What role is she performing?
 Assessor
 Monitor
 Resource

2.) The students are writing a script for an advertisement they will make. They are working in groups, and the teacher is
walking around. She has told them they can ask her for any words or phrases they are not sure about.
 Counsellor
 Monitor
 Resource

3.) The teacher is starting a new class with some Japanese executives from tomorrow, and she is designing a series of five
lessons. She looks at their entry test and decides that their level is elementary, so she will change the beginner level book
for something a bit higher.
 Assessor
 Planner
 Resource

4.) A student has stayed behind after class. After the others leave, she tells you that she is very worried about her pro-
gress. She feels she will not be ready for the end of term test next month. The teacher recommends she changes the
course and postpones the exam.
 Diagnostician
 Monitor
 Counsellor

You can find the answers in the Answer Key at the end of the module!
 Unit Test 3

Here are four class management situations. Read them and decide which course of action is the right one.

1.) The teacher had planned to start Monday's lesson by going over the answers to the homework from last week. Now he
finds that only half the class has actually done the work!
Should he...
 go over the homework just like he planned,
 put the students into pairs: one who hasn't done the work with one who has and then ask them to work togeth-
er, or
 change his plans. Collect the homework from the half who have done it and insist the others give it in tomor-
row.

2.) The teacher has finished the lesson early. There are five minutes until the official end of the class.
Should she...
 tell the students to leave early,
 tell them to close their books and come up to the board to play a vocabulary game, or
 go back over the harder parts of the lesson again and tell them to concentrate more this time.

3.) Five students arrive late to a teacher's class because they have to travel across campus to get there and there isn't
enough time.
Should the teacher...
 do workbook exercises with the class until the latecomers arrive,
 punish the latecomers with detention, or
 tell the whole class to arrive five minutes later.

4.) The students prefer not to say anything in class. There are very long pauses every time the teacher asks a question.
Should he...
 just say the answers to break the terrible silence,
 get the students to work in pairs to solve the problems, then report back, or
 just wait until finally one of them cracks and says something.

You can find the answers in the Answer Key at the end of the module!