Activity

 I should practise (with children) a particular grammatical form or vocabulary in different

contexts
 the activity itself should not be too difficult
 the activity should be heterogeneous (I should give everyone the opportunity to answer at a
level appropriate to him or her
 I should include the interest of students ( a game-like „fun“, interesting topic)
 I should appeal to student´s feelings, challenge to their intellect or creativity
 I should make sure that everyone is listening to me (especially when they are divided into
groups or pairs or they got a worksheet)
 I should not paraphrase and repeat instruction, I should make them clear as possible (asks
students to recap the main points (checking to understanding)
 I should do (show) one example with students
 I should make sure that pupils understand (instruction in English, repeat in Czech or they
repeat in Czech)
 I should help the students succeed in doing the task (be „there“ for them)
 I should give them feedback
 I should comment on their suggestion and idea (discussion), pool their ideas on the board
(brainstorming activity)
 I should give instruction before I give them materials
 I should prepare another activity for the faster student
 Students interact with one another to share or discuss ideas (interpersonal communication)

Homework tasks:

 The homework tasks often are connected with repetition (routine review) – re-read the text,
to learn lists of lexical items, a grammar exercise
 students prepare a presentation as a homework ( to improve their fluency – 3-5 minutes
long)
 students prepare a project (research on famous people, historical events, information about
a topic, hobby, profession etc.) – could be done individually, in pairs or small group
 I should go through their homework task, check and correct them
 I should tell students why they are doing this task
 I should take time to explain what they have to do at home (not just briefly tell something
at the end of the lesson)
 I could give optional homework

Activity route map

 Before the lesson: familiarise yourself with the materiál and activity; prepare any materiál
or texts you need.
 In class: lead-in/prepare for the activity
 Set up the activity
 Run the activity: students do the activity (maybe in pairs or small groups while you
monitor and help)
 Close the activity and invite feedback from the students
 Post-activity: do any appropriate follow-on work

The basics of lesson planning

Tips:
1. General
 If I am unsure I have to prepare a detailed lesson plan
 I have to think about
o Goals: set the general goals of the lesson
o Activities
o Timing: How much time will be spent on different activities
o Order of the activities
o Resources: What materials will be used (textbook, worksheets etc.)
o How to make a lesson more attractive for students (how to motivate them)
 Think through the content of the lesson
2. Opening
 I have to say and describe the goal/s of the lesson
 Students could solve or guess the topic of the lesson - by crosswords etc.
 Reduce the disruption caused by late-arriving students
 Review learning from a previous lesson
 Describe the relationship between the lesson and the student´s needs
3. Instruction
 I have to give clear, simple instruction (avoiding of needless or lengthy explanation)
 I have to think about the sequence of each activity
o Example – Listening
Pre-listening – prepare the students for listening
While-listening – activities that focus on identifying information in the text
Post-listening – activities involve reviewing comprehension and dealing with any
difficulties the text posed
4. Pacing
 Select activities at an appropriate level of difficulty
 Use a variety of activities rather than one (for the whole lesson)
5. Closure
 I should summarize the lesson
 I should make links to future lesson
 I should praise pupils for what they have done during the lesson
6. Be ready to: (be sensitive during the whole lesson)
 add activity to fill out time (or dropped)
 modify the activity to the increase interest level
 change sequence of activities
 add activities to provide more language work

Remember!!
A good lesson is not necessarily one that follows its lesson plan. There are often good reasons
such as focusing on vocabulary, listening, reading etc.
 I have to be able to adapt and respond to the learners
 I should think about the atmosphere in the classroom
 I should think about how to engage all the learners
 I should think about what materials/activity I am going to use
 I should not jump from idea to another idea
 I should use current, relevant and interesting materials
reading - magazines, books, articles, product labels, posters
watching – English films or television channels
 texts should be interesting for the learners and simplified
 I could use activities that promote memory or noticing or preparation
 I have to consider background information about the class
 a formal plan has to include: the main aim of the lesson, a description of activities (+ their
aim)
 I should have a routine actions
 I do not be confused about the difference between procedure aims and achievement aims
(is more useful for planning a lesson)
 I could use a piece of material in many ways, in different activities
 I should plan the „critical teaching moments“
 I should not always start the day with the same kind of work
 Classroom management
 involves desicions (what is done in the classroom) and actions (about whether to do these
actions, when to do them, how to do them etc.)
 achieving a good atmosphere depends on how both the teacher and students build up a
sense of mutual trust and rapport (= results from the relationship between the students and
the teacher)
 lists a number of ways in which a teacher can convey personal attention to his/her students
(greet students, smile at them, notice interesting features of their appearance – new haircut,
ask them about their lives outside of school, show interest in their hobbies, move around in
class, refer back to what you have talked about before, send notes to absent students)
 „action zone“ = reflects the fact that the teacher may look more often to one side of the
class than the other (may call on students whose names are easiest to remember, call on
brighter students more often than others, call on girls more often than boys

Maximising studen interaction in class

 ask questions rather than giving explanations
 really listen to what they say
 allow time for students to listen, think, process their answer and speak
 increase opportunities for STT (StudentTalkingTime)
 (if possible) arrange seating so that students can all see each other and talk to each other
 if student speaks too quietly for me to hear, I should walk further away and give him/her
space

Fixed, semi-fixed and large seating

particularly circle the horseshoe arrangement

Giving instructions
 simple point after point (no long monolog and wait what happen)
 demostrate (gestures, mime) rather than explain wherever possible
 simple questions
 eys contact
 right instructions on the board
 get learner´s attention
start making eye contact with as many people as possible
establish a gesture that means you want to speak
do not look impatient
Monitoring
 monitoring to check the mechanics
immediately after I have given the instructions for a task and students start doing it, there is
often an immediate need to check to make sure that students are doing the activity that you
asked them to do
 monitoring discreetly
I maintain a presence in the room, bu do not offer help, interfee, correct etc.
students know I am there, but I am just watching and listening
 vanish
sometimes the best option is to vanish (= get out of immediate eyeshot), go into a corner of
the room and be quiet
need to keep a small percentage of attention on the room (activity is reaching an end or a
crisis point
 monitor actively
as describe above, but more visible and allow students to be more aware of my presence
(calling for help, advice)
 participate
sit down and join a group (temporarily or for the whole task)
offering ideas, helping with questions, joining in discussions
quietly move on to another group
working with one group but still watch what do the others

Using the board

 to separate sections of the board (volabulary column for new words, substitution table for a
new grammar item, pictures sketches,
 to avoid long teacher writing times while students are just watching and waiting
 write on the board while students are working on the other things
 during the writing do not block the view for the class
 everyone can draw, do not be afraid

Eliciting
 use hand gestures to indicate who is being asked to speak
 give very clear feedback on each student utterance (they want to know if what they said
was acceptable)
 use eliciting regularly as a basic technique in most lessons for keeping my class active and
involved
How to prevent learning – some popular techniques
 TTT (Teacher Talking Time)
allow them the time and the quiet they need, do not feel the need to fill every gap in a
lesson
 Echo
do not repeat everything after students
it has a dramatically negative effect on ineraction patterns within the classroom
 Helpful sentence completion
let students finish their idea, sentence
 Complicated and unclear instructions
unplanned, unstructured instructions are extremely confusing to students
 Not checking understanding of instructions
monitor the start of the activity to see if they really do what you wanted
 Asking „Do you understand?“
it is useless questions
students should demonstrate or paraphrase what they should do
 Flying with the fastest
can lead I to fly at the speed of the top two or three students and to lose the rest
completely
try directing questions at infividuals and sometimes actively „shh!“ the loudo nes – or
simply „not to hear“ them
 Not really listening (hearing language problems but not the message

Intuition
 intuitive responses are important in teaching because things happen so fast in lesson time
and there is so much to notice (how the activity is proceeding, how each student is
reacting, etc.)
 on the spot, I will not have much thinking space
 being able to quickly read the classroom situation moment by moment and respond

Richards
WHOLE-CLASS TEACHING
 teaching all of the students together
 teacher-fronted teaching
 teacher-dominated teaching
INDIVIDUAL WORK
 allows students to work at their own pace
 the teacher´s instructions have to be clear and precise (allow students to work quickly)
PAIR WORK
 provides opportunities for sustained interaction
 advantages:
o students can learn from more capable peers, recieve more input
o opportunities for negotiation of meaning
o students are exposed to other viewpoints and cultures, learning becomes a social,
rather than an individual
o it makes large-class teaching easier for the teacher
GROUP WORK
 can help promote self-esteem (sebevědomí)
 increases studen talking-time
 it could be time consuming

Instructions
Techniques:
1) Giving instructions to lower-level class
o use vocabulary that is a tor velow the learner´s current level
o short sentence, simple
o speak slowly, pause agter each instraction
o key words write on the board
o using gestures to support your instructions
2) Recognising elements of instructions
o number of posible features of on instruction in A-Z
e. g., the timing – How long the learners have to complete the task
the organization – whether tha task is to be done in paris, group or individually
3) Being very clear about concrete details
o put emphasise on details of the task, perhaps repeating the details and checking them
back with students
4) Showing materials, doing worked examples and giving demostrations
o 1. Indicate the task (point clearly at the exercise or text, paper etc.)
o 2. Show materials
using of materials in a task, hold these up and read out what is on one or two examples
o 3. Do worked examples
when I set an exercise, I should do 1-2 examples
(wrong answer write on the board and discus it) and then do it on their own
o 4. Demostrate the task yourself
 o 5. Role play the task with a student
student as volunteer help you to show what they should do
5) Reducing the level of detail in your instructions
o connecting with regular aktivity (I do not have to repeat the instructions in details)

6) Making up for bad instructions

o 1. Monitor for potential problém
check to find out if they really know what to do
o 2. Avoid multiple repetitions
when amount of student do not know what to do (repeat it but to whole class not
individually
7) Learners give instructions
o 1. Learners read from the book (aloud)
+ do example – make sure they understood)
o 2. Learners read from cards
o 3. Learners correct the teacher
o 4. Learnes prepare instructions
o 5. Learners plan and organise

Golden rules (tips)

 plan instructions and practise them
 get their attention
 be decisive
 speak clearly (short sentence and simple language)
 speak to the whole class
 use visual or written clues
 gestures (body language, point at it)
 demonstrate
 check that they understand (not questions – „Do you understand?“)

The dominant approach to teaching linguistic form explicitly is present-practice-produce (PPP)

Presentation
Deductive vs. inductive presentation

Deductive
 learners are given an explanation of the target structure and, typically, examples are
provided to illustrate its form, meaning and use
 advantages
o quicker and easier way to teach the rule to learners
o respects the intelligence and maturity of learners, especially adult learners
o time-saving (explaining rules is usually quicker than guessing from examples)
the class time can be used for more practice
 disadvantages
o grammar explanation tends to be teach-fronted and does not actively involve learners
o starting with grammar might demotivate learners
o it leads to the belief that learning language involves just knowing the rules

Inductive
 there are only examples aimed at helping learners work out for themselves the meaning
and use of the target form
 the teacher „helps the learner to tell himself“
 the aim is to encourage learners to notice the target structure and think about it
 advantages
o discovering rules by learners is likely to lead to more „meaningful, memorable“
knowledge
o involves greater depth of processing with assists memory
o more challenging than simply receiving explanations
o can be done collaboratively in the classroom
 disadvantages
o time-consuming – it takes up time better spent on practice
o it places high demands on teachers for class preparation
o it might frustrate students who are used to a deductive type of learning
 Teaching grammar
= is set of rules
= not only a noun, but also verb (to grammar)
= people think that learning English means learn grammar
Grammar (meaning, form, use) – mostly we focus only on form and use,
we forget about meaning
Balancing presentation and practice
 the primary learning experience is doing the thing yourself, not listening to someone else
telling you about how do it
 it is not only about information but also about expectation
 children need more challenging opportunities to try using the language items themselves
 what makes the lesson challenging is not the level of theoretical knowledge the lesson
deals in, but what you ask students to try and do
 up-here knowledge x knowledge-in-use

Clarification (=presentation)
= I want my learners really focus in on a piece of grammar, to see it, think abou it and understand it
(meaning, form and use)
 difference between one hour presentation and when I nudge and help my students
towards discovering much of the same information for themselves via a proces of
questioning and looking at suggested reference material
 3 general categories:
o teacher explanation (teacher tells the learner)
I tell a story about my weekend and write verbs on the board, at the end I write „past
simple“ on the board and explain that I used all these verbs in the past because the
story happened last week
o guided discovery (teacher helps the learner to tell himself)
example – I hand out a list of 20 IF sentences, I ask students to work together, discuss
and find out what the „rules“ are
o self-directed discovery (the learner tells himself)
example – students decide they want to learn about something and they go to the
library and find out more
Teacher explanations
 2 minutes of focused explanation more helpful than 20 minutes (makes students
confused, bored and embarrassed)
 let learners try using language first and give the explanation that clarifies the issue only
when they hit problems
Guided discovery
= creating activities that allow learners to generate their own discoveries and explanations
 teacher should nudge learners towards key points (long explanation can be avoided,
learners are more active in their progress
 my tasks are a) select appropriate tasks, b) offer appropriate instructions, help, feedback
and explanations, c) manage and structure the lesson so that all learners are involved and
engaged and draw the most possible from the activity
 THE KEY is ASK GOOD QUESTIONS
o oral, on a worksheet (that leads learners in a structured way to make conlusions
o = this kind of guidance is sometimes referred to as „Socratic questioning“ =
leading people to discover things that they didn´t know they
o I can ask questions that focus on the meaning, context, form; ask learners to
analyse sentences from texts, to reflect on language they have used, to analyse
errors
 requires imagination and flexibility
Restricted output
 language practice activities are arguably the most important part of any grammar lesson
 learners have a chance to use the language themselves
 the activities are defined by: limited options for use of language, limited options for
communication, a focus on accuracy
1) Drills (oral)
Good for „automatise“ things
a. repeat: the grammar item on its own or in a phrase (sentence), intonation, giving a
part of sentence – students complete it, giving opening of sentence – students
complete it,
b. by doing them: as a whole class, as a half (quarter) of a class, as an individual in
front of the whole class, as an open pair across the room, as closed groups, loudly,
quietly, singing, shouting, fast, slowly etc.¨

2) Exercises (written)
It is common and useful way of giving students concetrated practice of language
items.
Can be done in pairs, in small groups, in teams (make a competition out of it), together
etc.
Try to make exercise more game-like:
 3) Dialogues (elicited)
= short dialogues which contain a number of examples of specific items to be
practised (use it in typical context or situation
4) Games (grammar)
= are designed to focus on the use of particular items of grammar
a. Split sentences

b. Grammar quiz
run a quit for teams (a verb infinitive on the board and they have to write past
participle)
c. Memory test

d. Picture dictation
The picture for „Memory test“ could be used as a picture dictation (teacher or
student) describe the picture while other students, who have not seen it, try to draw
it from the instruction.
e. Miming an action
= it is something like „Activity“ game, I show a card to students and he/she have to
show (mime) the action written on the card
f. Growing stories
Storybuilding activity is excelent for work on the past simple.
1) Start a story by saying one sentence in the past simple tense. The students
continue the story by adding one sentence each.
Other ways to grammar
Test-teach-test
Example:preposition of place

Total Physical Response (TPR)

Task-Based Learning (TBL)

= is a general term for some more variations on the „exposure-test-teach-test“ lesson

Text starts
100% exposure

PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production)

Presentation – clarifying language
Practice – controlled practice, dril
Production – free practice

+ - straightforward for (novice) teachers

„logical“ approach
easy format for course books
minus – delivers language in grammar „Mcnuggets“ (ne nabalujeme, jen to bereme jako
téma k probrání)
TTT (Test, teach, test)
(explain above)

TBL (Task based learning)

+ is very flexible
minus – difficult for teacher
 Grammar
Sentence grammar (= refers to knowledge of parts of speech, tenses, phrases, clauses etc.)
 is the focus of many grammar-reference books and grammar-practise books for
students
 correct language use is achieved through a dril-and-practice methodology, controlled
speaking and writing exercises that sought to prevent or minimize opportunities for
errors
o a specific grammatical geature is isolated for focused attention
o the learners are required to produce sentences containing the targeted feature

Text grammar (= refers to how grammar is used when sentences are connected in longer stretches
of discourse to create texts – students also need to that)
 the importance of moving beyond the sentence level is now recognized in current
approaches to grammar

Accuracy (= refers to the learner´s ability to produce discourse that is free of grammatical errors)
Fluency (= refers to the ability to produce continuous speech without causing comprehension
difficulties or a breakdown of commuication)

Accuracy-focused teaching Fluency-focused teaching

reflects typical classroom use of language reflects natural language use
focuses on the formation of correct examples of
calls on implicit knowledge
language use
produces language for display, calling on explicit
elicits a vernacular speech styla
knowledge
reflects controlled performance reflects automatic performance
requires the use of improvising, paraphrasing,
practises language out of context
repair and reorganization
practises small samples of language requires real communication

Communicative language teaching generally emphasiszes the importance of a focus on both –

accuracy and fluency (in language teaching).

Complexity
For the learner´s linguistic systém to také on new and more complex linguistic items, the
restructuring or reorganization of mental representatitons is required, as well as opportunities to
practise these new forms
Criteria for choosing sylabus items
a) Importance
typiccally focus on what rare considered core features of English grammar (simple and
more central basic structure of English than complex one)
 SV, SVSC, SVO, SVAdv., articles, adjectives, present simple tense, past simple,
prepositions of time and place, be, can, should, would. will, yes, no etc.
b) Difficulty
may be selected based on the difficulty they present to students in tests or on lists of
common errors made by second language learners
c) Differences between languages
d) Usefulness and frequency
items which learners encounter very frequently

Spoken grammar
Criteria of SG:
1) Establishing core untis
conversational turns often consis just of phrases or of incomplete clauses
structures that are incomplete, interrupted or whose grammatical form is unclear
2) Phrasal complexity
in conversation the number of adjectives tend to be limited
written form include more adjectives than spoken form
Spoken Yeah, i tis a big house, six bedrooms.
It is a large house, lovely, just rught.
Written Living in a big, dirty communal house, eating rubbish …. .
The cosy lace-curtained house … .
3) Tense, voice, aspekt, and interpersonal/textual meaning
in written form – certain verbs such as WANT, LIKE do not have progressive form, in
spoken form they could have – speakers could create appropriate interpersonal
meanings with them
4) Position of clause elements
written form could have fixed rules on the positioning of elements in the sentence,
however, in casual conversation, positioning may be very flexible
5) Clause-complexes

Features of learner language

1) Language transfer
 positive transfer (= the native language and English have the same formo r linguistic
feature)
 negative transfer = interference (= is the use of a native-language pattern or rule that
leads to an error or inappropriate form in the target language
 2) Overgeneralization (= refers to extending the use of a form, by analogy, to an
inappropriate context)
 learners of English as first lan. and also learners En. as second lan. do these mistakes
3) Simplification (= when learners reduce a complex aspect of grammar to a much simpler
set of rules, and reflects a process that is used when messages need to y conveyed with
limited language resources)
 example – learners use first person for all personal pronous (I want, she want, he want,
we want instead of I want, she wants, etc.)
4) Underuse (= learners underuse a from they have studied and practised many times)
 they use – I did not know so I did not tell her – instead of - If I had known, I would
have told her about it. (they use „easier“ way how to say it)
5) Overuse (= learners may become over-dependent on certain grammatically correct forms
and use them in preference to other forms)
6) Fossilization (= refers to the persistence of errors in a learner´s speech, despite progress
in other areas of language development)
 examples – I doesn´t understand what she wanted. He never ask me for help. Last
night, I watch TV till 2 a.m.

Accessing and using learned grammar

Factors affecting use of grammar
 Performance factors (include time pressure, the setting and the degree to which the
learner has the opportunity to control the channels of communication)
 Automatic processing
the distinction between controlled and automatic processing suggests that learning
involves develpment from a stage where tasks require considerale control, management
and planning to a stage where they can be performed under automatic processing – a
level where little conscious effort is required
 Task factors
some tasks may require little attention to acciracy (free conversation), whereas others
require much more (a written task)
o Familiarity – an activity is familiar beecause it has been frequently encountered
previsously
practice can lead to the devlopment of routines and strategies for managing the
processes of communication, and as these processes become automatized
o Difficulty
to involve more cognitive efforts than simple tasks, and this can influence how
fluently they are performed
Focus on form
the role of feedback – question – What kinds of errors should be corrected, when and how?

Approaches to teaching grammar

Inductive learning x deductive learning
Inductive approach = students are encouraged to „discover“ the rules themselves, based on the nput
presented to them.
Deductive approach = the rules are given to the students , along with language exemplifying them.
There is no single „right“ way to teach or learn grammar.
Providing support prior to the activity
By pre-teaching certain linguistic forms
By reducing the cognitive complexity of the activity
By giving time to plan the activity
Providing support during an activity
 Participation (Whether the activity is completed individually or with other learners)
 Procedures (the number of procedures involved in completing an activity)
 Resources (the materials and other resources provided for the learners to use while
completing an activity)
 Order (the sequencing of an activity in relation to previous tasks)
 Product (the outcome or outcomes students produce, such as a written product o ran oral
one)
Providing support after the activity
 Public performance (after completing an activity in small groups, students carry out hte
same task in front of the class or another group)
 Repeat performance (the same activity might be repeated with some elements modified,
such as the amount of time available)
 Performance by others (the students might listen to more advanced learners completing
the same task)

Choice of task type

1) Selected response
a. Multiple-choice – students have to select one appropriate response from choices
provided
b. Matching task
2) Limited-production tasks
rearranging, gap-filling, rewriting
3) Extended-production tasks
could involve essays, report, writing and speaking tasks involving information and
problém solving, simulation and role-play
A well-planned language course should reflect the central role grammat plays in both written
and spoken language and provide learners with opportunities to develop grammar as a
communicative resource.
 Vocabulary
vocabulary knowledge is a core component of all language skills

The nature of vocabulray knowledge

 Form (Spoken, written, word parts)

Receptive knowledge – What does the word sound like?, What parts are recognizable in
this word?
Productive knowledge – How is the word pronounced? How is the word written and
spelled?, What word parts are needed to express thie meaning?
 Meaning (form and meaning, concepts and referents, associations)
R – What meaning does this word from singal?, What is included in the concept?, What
other words does this make us think of?
P – What items cant he concept refer to?, What other words could we use, instead of
this one?
 Use (grammatical functions, collocations, constraints on use)
R – In what patterns does the word occur?, What words or types of words occur with
this one?, Where, when and how often would we expect to meet this word?
P – What types of words must we use with this one?, Where, when and how often can
we use this word?

Dimensions of knowing a word

Word relations
 it is easier to learn words if they are presented in connceted groups, rather than as a list of
unrelated items
 synonyms, antonyms, having the same root (start, begin, finish, starter-restart

Multiple meanings
vocabullary learning is not simply about learning new words, but also about learning new uses of
previously encountered words.

Register
refers to the kind of vocabulary ( spoken x written language, bussiness x medical talk, children´s men
´s talk, formal x informal context)

Collocations
= refers to restrictions on how wrods can be used together (preposition and verb, 2 or more nouns
create an important aspect of vocabulary learning because the combinations could be unpredictable

Multi-word expressions
= items made up of two or more words, and whose meaning can often not be understood from
knowing the meaning of the individual words in the expression
(it could be idioms, phrasal prepositional verb
Learning – write each chunk on a small card, with translation on the other side, repeat the chunk
aloud, remembering, use it in the sentence, situations, visualizing examples of the meaning of the
chunk.
Grammatical properties of words

 to use vocabulary effectively, learners need to be able to learn the main grammatical
categories of words (such as nouns, vebs, adjectives and adverbs) and also prefixes and
affixes (happy – unhappy – happiness – happily) also transitivie and intransitive verbs
etc.
 help to students extend their vocabulary

Cross-linguistic differences
 it is conncted with false friends
False friend = a word in a language that has a different meaning from a similar-
sounding word in another language (mother language)

Targets for vocabulary learning

Core vocabulary
basic spoken English vocabulary for second language learners contains seeral different categories of
words:
 modal items: can, must, should may (lexical modals – look, seem, sound), and adverbs
(probably, deifnitely and apparently.
 delexical verbs:
these are words with little lexical content but high frequency - do, make, také, get. and
their collocations
 stance words:
these communicate the speaker´s attitude towards something and include words such
as jsut, whatever, really, clearly, honestly.
 discourse markers: these are words that are used to organize talk and monitor its
progress (you know, I mean, right, well, good)
 basic nouns: referring to common activities, events, situations, places and people –
person, problém, trouble, days of the week, family members
 General deictics: relate the speaker to the world in terms of time and space – here,
there, now, then ago
 basic adjectives and adverbs: lovely, nice, horrible, brilliant, terrible, great x today,
tomorrow, always, usually, suddenly
 basic verbs for actions and events: describing everyday activities – give, leave, feel,
put, say
Academis vocabulary
in addition to core vocabulary, there is another set of words common to academic disciplines
the most frequent words are: analyse, income, function, principle, simial, procees, proces, p olicy,
contract, define, consist, context etc.
Technical vocabulay
= the words that are most frequent in a particular subject area – computer science, law and medicine
(cell, gene, organism, microbe etc.

Learning vocabulary
The gradual nature of vocabulary acquisition
1. how to spell the word. 2. how to pronounce the word. 3. the core meaning of the word. 4. the
word receptively. 5. related words (synonyms, antonyms). 6. the grammatical function of the word.
7. the word productively. 8. other meanings of the word. 9. the affices the word is used with. 10. the
collocations the word occurs with.
Direct or indirect vocabulary learning
Direct vocabulary instruction (explicit learning) refers to activities that seek to teach students
paricular words (group) to help them remember words they have already encountered.
Indirect (incidental) vocabulary learning is learning that takes place without specific vocabulary
instruction. It is learning that is a by-product of angaging in other activities (reading, listening
The role of memory
Short-term memory (holding memory for a short period, while i tis being processed)
Long-term memory (retaining information for future use)
The goal of vocabulary learning is to establish new wrods in long-term memory.
This involves: meeting the word repeaedlyover an extended period of time and connecting new
wrods to known words through different forms of links and associations (word families, similar
meaning etc
Noticing
could occurs in a variety ways:
 while listening or reading; the learner notices that a word is new
 the teacher highlights a word while writing it on the board
 the learners negotiate the meaning of a word with each other or with the teacher
 the teacher explains a word for the learners by giving a definition, a synonym or a first
language translation
Spaced repetiton
repetition that is spaced over time is more effective than massed repetition over a short time period
Techniques:
 to write words on cards and to review them regularly over time
 flashcards
Repetition of words can be achieved by recycling important words, by including words from earlier
lessons in homework and classroom practice, by compiling a list of key words from past units and
placing them on a visible location in the classroom and using activities in which students are
encourage to use newly learned words as often as possible
Generative use
refers to the use of a word actively and productively in speech or writing

The role of learning strategies

= specific actions and behaviours that learners use to improve their skill in learning or using second
language
Strategies for discovering the meaning of words
  analyzing word parts: using knowledge of aggices to identify of clarify meaning
 using context: using information provided by the topic
 comparisons with the mother tongue
 using resources: consulting dictionaries, glossaries or other resource
Strategies for remembering words that have been encountered
can help students remember words
 recording: noting the word in a noteboo to allow later review
 organizing: organizing wrods into groups
 practising and producing: trying out the word several times in a sentence (spoken or
written form) or finding other ways of using the word
Principle for vocabulary instruction
Planning vocabulary teaching
Planning effective vocabulary teaching involved:
 detemining learners´ vocabulary level
knowing the student´s current vocabulary level can help the teacher select reading and
other materials that are at an appropriate level of difficulty
 setting vocabulary-learning targets
teach a limited set of words and teach then in depth
the targets set should not overload student´s capacities ( a realistic target – 5-10 words per
lesson
 reviewing the vocabulary content of coursebook
 include a vocabulary strand in skills lessons
useful words should be identified that occur in listening, reading and other skill lessons
and can be used as the focus for a class or homework activity
Integrating vocabulary teaching into the lesson
Teach high-frequency and high-utillity words
It is important to assess whether the words are of high frquency and value andwhich o them will be
important words for students to know
Deal with vocabulary systematically
pre-teach, replace the unknown word in the text before giving the text to the learners, put the
unknown word in a glossary, put the unknown word in an exercise after the text, quickly give the
meaning, do nothing about the word, help the learners use context to guess, use a dictionary.
Teach words in meaningful groups
grouping them according to topic or in semantic role (synonyms, antonyms)
Use graded readers
= are often assigned for reading out of class as an extensive readin activity.
Level New words Cumulative words
1 400 400
 2 300 700
3 300 1000
4 400 1400
5 400 1800
6 700 2500

Use the learner´s mother tongue as a resource

bilingual word lists, glosses in texts of mother-tongue equivalents of words and flascards with an
English word on one side and the translation equivalent on the other
Teach students to guess words from context
 contrast – the word means th eopposite of another word or expression in the text
 cause – the word is the cause of something described in the text
 consequence – the word is used to described the result of something
 explanation – the meaning of the word is explained, a definition o ran example is
given
 hyponyms – a reader may be able to see the rlationship between a familiar and
unfamiliar word by looking at the general word class (boat, ship, tanker)
 definition – definitions of words may sometimes be found in the text.
 punctuation – readers can use the punctuation in the sentence to figure out the
meaning of the word they do not know
 inference – contexts give examples from which a reader cn infer the meaning of a term
Encourage active learning
 students bring words and lexical items they have encoutered out of class into class for
discussion
 students keep a vocabullary journal in which they enter words they want to remember
(could be organized by category)
 students builld up lists of words in different categories and their equivalents in the
mother tongue and review these regularly
Teach word-analysis strategies
 if there is a prefix or suffix and ask them what it means
 aske them what whe base is and what it means
 have students check the meaning they have come up with to see if it fits the context of
the sentence they are reading – can they think of a synonym for the meaning
Use the resources of technology

Assessing vocabulary
vocabulary testing is frequently combined with the testing of other skills, such as grammar
 multiple choice
these are common in vocabulary tests, though are difficult to construct and only allow a
small number of items to be tested
 matching
these are matched with synonyms or definitions or with an L1 equivalent
 senteence completion – a sentence is given with a terget word replaced by a blank
 sentence writing – a student are given a word and asked to use it in a sentence
 gap-fill (or cloze) test – the learner supplies a word to fill in a missing word in a text.
 self-rating – the learner rates how well he or she knows a word.
 Skill integration
skills:
 productive – writing, speaking
 receptive – listening and reading

Input – what we hear, read (information) – audio material, reading texts

Output – speach, writing

Integrating tasks task-based learning

Top-down processing– the reader (listener) gets a general view of the reading or listening passage
by, in some way, absorbing the overal picture.
Bottom-up processing – the reader (listener) focuses on such things as individual words, phrases or
cohesive devices and achives understanding by stringing these detailed elements together to build
up whole

Receptive skills
 involves Type 1 and Type 2 tasks
Type 1 – those where we get students to read or listen for some general understanding
Typ 2 – those where we get studets to look at the text in considerably more detail
(specific information, language points)
 the procedure for teaching RS generally starts with a lead in.
Text makes difficult - sentence length and the percentage of unknown words play part in a text´s
comprehensibility.
 Pre-teaching vocabulary
o words that occurs in the reading or listening text (but not all)
o on the other hand students should try to understand the general information
(meaning) of the text
o give them the words which may suggest topic, genre or construction (or all
three), then students first research the meaning of the words or phrases and
then preditct what a text with such words is likely to be about.
 Extensive reading and listening
o take place when students are on their own
o intensive – often done with the help and intervetion of the teacher
 Authenticity

Productive skills
key factor in succes – the way how teachers organises tasks and how they respond to the student´s
work.
 lead-in stage – students know the topic and may say what they know about the subject.
 set the task – teachers explain exactly what students are going to do (demonstrate the
activity in some way)
 give task feedback – after finishing the previous activity

 a task-related follow-up
Dealing with difficulty:
- when students do not know a word or juct can not remember it
 Improvising – trying a word that students can come up with in the hope that it is about
right (but it could be very wrong)
 discarding – they may abandon the though that they can not put into words
 paraphrasing – when we do not say concreate word (toothbrush) but paraphrase
(something for cleaning the teeth)
 foreignising – when we use a word from different language

The language issue

 students can be frustrated when they just do not have the words or the grammar they
need to express themselves

Help students achieve succes:

 Speaking
Topic and cues (narážky)
- it is a good idea to prepare more cues to move discussion forward if it starts to drag
Structuring talks
the teacher´s main role is to structure the talk, trying to prevent it getting boring
Avoiding the talk-talk loop
- give students space to create a question or commentary and do not shut up questions after
question when you see that noone response
Open questions
- teacher should use „open quesins (who, where, why etc.)“ because requires longer answer than
„closed quesitons“ whre answer is YES/NO
Playing devil´s advocate

Fluency and confidence – are important goals when considering speaking lessons
It is better to organise speaking activities in pairs (or small group of 3-4) rather than with the whole
class – there is not more space (speaking time) for individual student.
To create activities in which learners feel less worried about speaking, less under pressure, less
nervous about trying things out.
Fluency – involves maintaining the flow of speech without disruptive pauses, restarts and
breakdowns.

Discussion
Frame the discussion well – it helps to find ways to lead in at the beginning and ways to close at the
end.
Preparation time – student should got a time to think about „the problem, the question“ – not write
but think about it, look up vocabulary etc.
Do not interrupt the flow – e. g. students do not have to hand up before they want to speak, teacher
could invite them to speak with a natural gesture or comment such as – Tom, what do you think?
Specific problems are more productive than general issues
Role cards – it can often be easier to speak in someone else´s character than in your own
Buzz groups – first, students discuss the topic in small groups, and than the group´s ideas share with
the whole class.

Communicative activities
= clasrrom activities designed so that learners speak and listen to one another
Picture difference tasks
- in pairs, one student is picture A, one picture B, without looking at the other picture, they have to
find the differences
Goup planning tasks
- e. g. planning a holiday – each group makes presentation and the class disccusses and chooses a
holiday.
Ranking tasks
- prepare a list of items that learners can discuss and place in a particular order according to their
opinions (What are the worst programme in TV, What is the most useful invention? etc.)
Pyramid discussion
- indtroduction of the problem – individual thinks about the solution – then in pairs discuss the
solution and they have to agree on something – then in small groups – again they have to agree on
something etc.
Board games
Puzzles and problems

Role play
 learners are usually given some information about „a role“ – informations are on „role
card“
 Role card – it could be simple (singer, doctor, thief), more information (mother, 19-year-
old-daughter, 3-month-old-baby) or they offer guidance as to what to do (buy a train
ticket to Brighton, complain that your train has been delayed for two hours)
o includes also backround information: name, job, sex, age, personal appearance,
character, interests, your opinion about the issue/people/problem etc.
 Running a role play
o make sure the students understand the idea of role play
o make sure the context or situation is clear
o do they understand the information on their own card?
o give them time to prepare their ideas before they start
o at the and of the role play, make sure that you give some feedback on how wel (or
not) the students completed the activity
Real play
= a powerful variation on role plays
The characters are drawn not from the cards but from a participant´s own life and world (so the most
useful tool is a blank-framework – in effect, a card that allows learner to create their own real play
role card) – than students improvise a conversation as i fit was a normal role play

Simulation
= is really a large-scale role play
- the intension is to create a much more complete, complex „world“, say, of a business company,
television studio, government body, etc.
Main aim is to get the students to speak - one way to achieve that would be for you to reduce your
own contributions
Scaffilding
 showing interest and agreeing – eye –contact
 concisely asking for clarification of unclear information (repeating unclear word)
 encouragement echo: repeating the last word – to encourage students
 echoing meaning: picking on a key element of meaning and saying it back to the
speaker
 giving correct pronunciation of words in replies without drawing any particular
attention to it
  unobtrusively (nenápadně) giving a word or phrase that the speaker is looking for
Varieties of speech genre
 giving an academic lecture
 telling a joke
 greeting a passing colleague
 chatting with a friend
 making a phone enquiry
 giving military orders, explaining a grammatical point
 giving street directions, making a business presentation
It is better to be more specific about genre.

Stages is speaking lesson

1. Set task
2. Plan the speaking
3. Rehearse the speaking
4. Do the task
5. Feedback/review the succes
6. Add/correct/revise
7. Redo the task (the task is done again)

Giving a feedback on performance

 walk around the students and make notes about their mistakes (the most common) and
after a speaking activity, the teacher could write errors on the board and students could
chose the correct one etc. (put it out as another game or activity)
 Writing
 involves a different kind of mental proces
 there is more time to think, to reflect, to prepare, to rehearse, to make a mistake
1. Copying
- students practise forming letter shapes in handwriting, copy examples from a texbook
2. Doing exercises
- ss write single words, phrases, sentences, etc. in response to very tightly focused tasks
with limited options and limited opportunities for creativity or getting things wrong
3. Guided writing
- teacher guide students to write longer texts (with samples, models, advice, possible
language item etc.
4. Process writing
- ss write what they want to (they choose topic, ideas etc.), with help and feedback of
teacher and classmates
5. Unguided writing
- ss write freely without overt guidance
Student can learn to become a better writer by
 being actively encouraged and helped to follow through a series of preparátory steps
before the final text is produced
 becoming more aware of that preparation proces, so that it can be done more
independently and transparently in fiture
We could help – choose topic or genre, get ideas, make noted, find grammar and lexis suitable for
the text, plant he organisation of their text, get feedback on content or on language use, make
alterations and rewrites, do practise exercises on language items that will be useful, study sample
and model texts similar to what they want to write etc.

Planning classroom writing work

1. Introduce the topic – get students interested
2. Introduce and summarise the main writing task – make sure ss are clear what they have to
do
3. Brainstorm ideas – whole class ideas – collect on the board (small groups)
4. Fast-write
5. Select and reject ideas
6. Sort and order ideas – structure of the text
7. Decide on specific requirements: style, information, layout etc.
8. Focus on useful models
9. Plan the text
10. Get feedback
11. Prepare draft(s)
12. Edit
13. Prepare final text
14. Readers!
We need to make sure that learners mainly get practise in the range of real-life writing tasks that
they will face. (select the tasks most relevant for their needs) – write real letter or email, own
newsletter or magazine (blog), advertise (products, school events), long-term projects, apply for
things, fill in forms register for things.

Examples
o write a feedback and evaluation of a new product, film
o write a review of a new game on a computer forum message board
o write your personal profile
o leaflets
o academic esseay summarising arguments for and against a viewpoint

Fast-writing
= a piece of paper where students start writing about their ideas, not worry about grammar, spelling
etc. they just write, and then they write a final text (with help of the previous paper)

Ideas for helping writing

o structuring and organising
o looking at samples texts
o getting feedback on drafts
o using computer (it is readable, multiple copies can be printed out for as many readers
as needed)

Reflecting real-life writing purpose

o you want to persuade someone to change their mind and come to your party (write a
letter)
o you want to sell your bike (newspaper, leaflets)
o you want to inform a colleague who phoned and when
o you wan to make people laugh (write a joke)

Marking (variations)
o use a green or blue pen
o discuss the marking criteria with students – agree on a mark or grade
o write nothing – discuss the work with the individual students
o only write a comment about the meaning and message of the piece
o write the correct answers or use correction codes in the margin
o underline errors of one type (all spellings, all verb tense mistakes)
o write a letter in reply

Tell students before the writing what will happen afterwards.

Correction codes
it is used for marking student´s work
SP = spelling, WO = word order, V = verb, WW = wrong word etc.
Classifications
 by genre (detective story, menu, essay, song)
 by text type – letters, reports, text messages, labels)
 by context – work, home, school
 by audience – self, friends, teacher, client
 by purpose – to warn, inform, persuade, request
 by writer – friend, employer, employee, colleague
 by medium – print, electronic
 Reading
a) Skimming
a. read quickly to get the gist of passage (discover key topics, main ideas, basic
structure)
b. typical task would be – general question ( Is this story set in a school or a
restaurant?)
b) Scanning
a. move eyes quickly over the text to locate a specific piece of information
(name, address, fact, price, number, date etc.) without reading the whole text
b. typical task would be – What time does the Birmigham train leave?

Top-down reading – from overview to details

= suggests that the reader makes use of backround knowledge together with conceptual knowledge
and processing strategies, in order to arrive at understanding of texts
it is based on the view that the reader actively controls the comprehension proces, directed by
reader goals, expectations and strategic processing
Bottom-up processing = suggests that when a reader processes a text they do so in a cerain order i.e.
from words to phrases to sentences and so on – until the meaning of the text is arrived at
1. Pre-text (get students ready – backround, key words (2-4)
 give them backround knowledge
 introduction and lead-in (get learners interested in the topic, initial discussion of key
themes, focus on important language that will come in the text
 first task could be – predict from some extracted information (illustration, key words,
headlines), read questions or make (compose) them, brainstorming
2. While Text (make students comprehent (understand) the text)
 tasks to focus on fast reading for gist (skimming) – put events (pictures) in the correct
order
 task to focus on fast reading to locate specific information (scanning)
 focus on meaning – answer questions about meaning, make use of infromation in the
text to do something (make a sketch, fill out a form), discuss issues, summarise
arguments
 focus on meaning – more intensive comprehensive understanding
 focus on individual language items – vocabulary, grammar exercises, use of
dictionaries
3. Post-text (make students apply the info from the text (speaking/writing)
 task could be – role play, debate, writing task (write a letter in reply), personalisation
(Have you ever had an experience like this one?)
 closing – draw the lesson to a conclusion, review what has been studied and what has
been learned
 vocabulary activities, summary
Reading tasks
 put these illustrations of the text/ cut up paragraphs in correct order
 find words in the text that mean the same as the words in this list
 read the text and find the mistakes in this illustration (or draw your own)
 read the text and make a list of particular items (jobs, advantages and disadvantages,
grammar things etc.)
 give a headline to each section of the article (or match given headlines with the
section)
 write a reply
 discuss (or write) the missing last paragraph of the text/ interpretations, feelings about
text

Extensive reading – reading longer texts, such as novel, over time) – students pick up items of
vocabulary and grammar from the texts, often without realising it, and this widening language
knowledge seems to increase their overal linguistic confidence

Reading skills – reading to find facts and details, as a preparation for writin discussing a topic, to
connect information from different sources, skimming a text quickly for gist, etc.

Reading strategies – depends on text, topic, purpose of reading, level of diffuculty of the text etc.
„What kind of information do I expect to find in the text?“
 Listening
Factors that help listening:
 background knowledg- The topic, the world, the genre
 language knowledge – sounds, grammar, vocabulary

Top down
 from the context we could guess what was said
 making use of what we already know to help us predict the structure and content of the
text and getting a general overal impression of the message

Bottom up
 building up the messages from the individual small pieces
Features of a listening text
 sounds (phonemes, morphemes), words, group of words (collocations, chunks,
sentences, text)

Listening lesson
1. The pre-listening phase
 provide essential backround information (presenting unknown vocabulary, helping the
student to select a suitable listening strategy)
o choosing a strategy – „What kind of information do they think it will contain?
Should they listen for main ideas or for details?“
o brainstorming – students could come up with some vocabulary connected to
the topic
o predicting –of thing they could hear in the listening (based on topic, picture
etc.)
o picture description – disccussion of picture/s related to the topic
o questioning – genereate a list of questions they think might be discussed in the
listening
o story building – students are given a list of 8-10 action verbs from and try to
put them in the form of a story.
2. The while-listening phase
 the main focus of a listening lesson
 examples of activitites
o predicting – students hear part of the story and predict what happens next.
o sequencing – students number (očíslují) a series of events that occur in the text
o true-false – they do it while they listen
o matching – matching pictures with their description
o key words
o gap-fill (cloze) dialogue – students receive a dialogue with one speaker´s part
deleted, they try to guess the missing parts and then listen and compare
o check predictions - connected with prediction – first line
 o chart filling – students complete a chart as they listen, based on information in
a text
3. The post-listening phase
 analyze problems – the teacher checks comprehension problems with a text and
replays the part of the text that caused difficullty, to identify the problem
 extension activities
 language study
 read and compare – read the text on the same topic and compare the information
 vocabulary development
 summary – student prepares a summary of the text and compare in pairs (or groups)
The most useful tasks may be ones that require students to listen in similar ways to how they might
be hear such a conversation in real life
1. to get a general overview of the main story or message of conversation
2. to catch specific details such as names, numbers, addresses, etc.
The task-feedback circle
Lead in – pretask work(optional – working on vocabularyy, looking through worksheet) – set clear
task – play recording or students read the text – feedback on the task (do not ask extra questions) –
Could they do the task? YES (conclude – lead to follow up activity) or NO - maybe they tell you that
they need to listen it again (play recording again)
Generel thing – more detailed – language focus (this scheme depends on the text)

Examples of tasks
 choose the correct picture
 draw a picture according the hearing
 pick up and show the correct picture
 walk/sit/move according to the isntruction
 follow instruction to make a model of something
 decide which person is saying which sentence
 take down the message, address and phone numbers
 do/choose something in response to what you hear
 take part in a conversation
Guidelines for listening skills
 Lenght of recording – max 2 minute
 play it more times
 let students discuss their answers together (in pairs)
 throw the students answer back to the class:“What do you think about Carol´s answer?“
 play a small piece of recording (a word, a phrase, a sentence) to make them sure
 not give them the correct answer but lead them to how they could find it
10 formative assessment strategies

1. Hand signals
Ask students to display a designated hand signal to indicate their understanding of a
specific concept, principal, or process: - I understand____________ and can explain it
(e.g., thumbs up). - I do not yet understand ____________ (e.g., thumbs down). - I’m not
completely sure about ____________ (e.g., wave hand).
2. Exit card
Exit cards are written student responses to questions posed at the end of a class or
learning activity or at the end of a day.
3. One word summary
Select (or invent) one word which best summarizes a topic.
4. Think-write-pair share
Students think individually, write their thinking, pair and discuss with partner, then share
with the class
5. Quiz
Quizzes assess students for factual information, concepts and discrete skill. There is
usually a single best answer. Some quiz examples are: Multiple choice, true/false, short
answer, matching, extended response.
6. Inside-outside circle
Inside and outside circles of students face each other. Within each pair of facing students,
students quiz each other with questions they have written. Outside circle moves to create
new pairss and repeat.
7. Semaphor
Students answer my questions by card (green – I fully understand, orange – I have some questions, red – I
have no idea)
8. 3-2-1
3 – things you found out, 2 – interesting things, 1 – question you still have
3 – key words, 2 – new ideas, 1 – thought to think about
3 – important facts, 2 – interesting ideas, 1 – insight about yourself as a learner
9. Directed paraphrasing
Students summarize in well-chosen (own) words a key idea presented during the class
period or the one just past.
10. Self-assessment
A process in which students collect information about their own learning, analyze what it
reveals about their progress toward the intended learning goals and plan the next steps in
their learning.
Assessment design
Should:
 be considered 5 key quesitons
o the purpose of the test, its objectives, the way in which the test´s purpose and
objectives are reflecteed in the test specifications, the ways in which the tasks in the
test are selected and separated, the kinds of grading (feedback) are expected
o questions: Is it a formative or summative test?, How will the test items be selected and
arranged?
 if the purpose of the test is primarly to inform one´s teaching, it should be a regular part
of teaching, not an unplanned add-on to instruction
 objectives should be clear and unambiguos, measurable,
 objectives should reflect the course objectives and what the course has covered,
 Test specifications should include a description of the test; the item types, tasks and skills
to be used; how the test will be scored, how tehe score will be reported
- could be brief or complex
consists of:
 Genereal description

 Prompt attributes (= a complete and detailed description of what students

will see in the test.
 Response attributes
a complete and detailed description of the way in which the student will
provide the answer, and what will constittute failure or success
 Sample item (= an ilustrative item or task that specification should generate
 Specific supplement (= a specification of any additional information needed
to construct test items
Designing test items
Descrete-point tests
 Multiple-choice tests, true x false, gap-filling items
 we should create a test which can not promote guessing, which can have an effect on
the score
 gap-filling - we should constract the test so that only a single word can be used to
complete the gap in a sentence

Integrative tests
 they require the learner to use several different skills at the same time
 Gap-fill (cloze) tests, dictation test

Performance-baseed assessment

Language Assessment Principles should include

1. Practicality (= the doability of a test)
 clear instructions
 completed in a reasonable amount of time
2. Reability (= the test consistently yields the same results in a given population)
 the test components are simple and clearly understood
 student – related reliability (illness, Affect etc.)
3. Validity
 content-realted v., criterion-related v., construc-related v., face-validity
4. Authenticity (=how well did the characteristics of a task correlate to the target language;
how likely will the language task actually be performed in the real word
 contains language that is natural
 includes linguistic in context, not isolated
 includes tasks that real-world taks
5. Washback (= is achieved by providing feedback to the test takers and test developers)
 helps teacher to become a better teacher
 helps students learn from the tests
 provides feedback for students and teachers
Test techniques
= means of eliciting behaviour from candidates that wiil tell us about their language abilities

Techniques …
 are as economical of time and effort as possible
 will have a beneficial backwash effect, where this is relevant
 will elicit behaviour which can be reliably scored
 will elicit behaviour which is a reliable and valid indicator of the ability in which we are
interested

1. Multiple choice items

 + - scoring can be perfectly reliable
 + allows testing of receptive skills without requiring the test taker to produce written
or spoken language
 + it is possible to include more items (students just has to make a mark on the paper)
 - poor indicator of abillity to use something (grammatical structure etc.)
 - students could quess (the test should have at least four options to reduce effect of
guessing)
 - it may not be possible to find three or four plausible
 - cheating may be facilitated

2. YES/NO, TRUE/FALSE items

 multiple choice with only two options
 - has 50% of choosing the correct answer
 test should require a reason for student´s choice

3. Short-answer items
 common in listening and reading tests
 - responses may také longer – so reduce the possible number of items
 - scoring may také longer
 - students have to produce language in order to respond
 + cheating is more difficult
 + technique does not need distractors (maybe potential alternative responses)

4. Gap filling items

 for reading or listening – missing words could be found in the text
 advantages as short-answers
Varieties of cloze procedure
 Selected deletion cloze
o students are invited to try to complete the gaps
 Controversational cloze

 Mini-cloze items

o we can cover just the structures and vocabulary that we want to, and include
whatever features of spoken language are relevant for our purpose
 The C-test

Dictation

Testing grammar
 it is important for the text of the item to be written in grammatically correct and
natural language
 Gap filling (should have just one correct
response)
(it could have more than one)
two correct responses should have the same
meaning (in the context)
  Paraphrase (require the student to write a sentence equivalent in meaning to one that
is given)
o i. g. – testing present perfect with for.
It is six years since I last saw him. x I ………………… six years.
 Completion (can be used to test a variety of structures
 Multiple choice

Testing vocabulary
 recognise synonyms
Choose the alternative (a,b,c or d) which is closest in meaning.
(glean a- gather, b-shine, c-welcome, d-clean)
 recognise definitons

 recognise appropriate word for context

(context, rather than a definiton or a synonym, can be used to test knowledge of a
lexical item.
The strong wind __________ the man´s efforts to put up the tent.
a. disabled, b. hampered, c. deranged, d. regaled.
 testing production ability
 Pictures (named the pictures)
 Definitions (this may work for a range of lexical items)
o A _____________ is a person who looks after out teeth.
o _______________ is frozen water.
o __________ is the second month of the year.
 gap filling
o more alternative word (possibilities) - help – by giving the first letter of the word
(possibly more) and even an indication of the number of letters.
DO
 gramm. correct
 assess only the tested
 focus on the frequentl used
 give examples
 include scoring
 include distractors
 clear instruction
 give (word in) context
 adapt to their level
DO Not
  use unknown language
Integrated test – e. g. write 5 sentence about yourself in past tence¨
Discrete item test – complete the form of verb (past tence etc.)
Writing
General form has 3 parts
 setting writing tasks that are properly representative of the population of tasks that we
should expect the students to be able to perform
 the samples of writing can and will be scored validly and reliably
 the task should elicit valid samples of writing (which truly represent the student´s
ability
Representative tasks
 specify all possible content
o specification:
 operations
 types of text
 addressees
 lenght of text
 topics
 dialect and style
 (place for time)
 Include a representative sample of the specified content
Content validit – the ideal test would be one which required candidates to perform all the relevant
potential writing tasks
People will simply be better at some tasks than others
Examples of tasks:
Elicit a valid sample of writing ability
 Set as many separate tasks as is feasible
this requirement is closely related to the need to include a representative sample of the
specified content
 Test only writing ability, and nothing else
- students has opportunity to be creative, imaginative or even intelligent – but for the
sake of validity, we should not set tasks which measure these abilities
o tasks – 1) write the conversatin you have with a friend about the holiday you
plan to have together
2) you spend a year abroad. While you are there, you are asked to talk to a
group of young people about life in your country. Write down what you would
say to them;
3) „Envy is the sin which most harms the sinner“. Discuss.;
4) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of being born into a wealthy
family.
Instruction should not be too long. Students should understood them. We should use picture for
better understanding.
A series of pictures can be used to elicit a narrative. (task – Look at these pictures and then tell the
story. Begin, „Something very exciting happened to my mother yesterday“.
 Restrict candidates
Ensure valid and reliable scoring
 set tasks which can be reliably scored
 set as many tasks as possible (the more scores for each candidate, the more reliable
shoould bet he total score
 restrict candidates (the greater the restrictions imposed on the candidates, the more
directly comparable will bet he performances of different candidates
 give no choice of tasks (making the candidates perform all tasks
 ensure long enough samples
the pieces have to be long enough for organisation to reveal student´s organisational
ability in writing
 create appropriate scales for scoring
 holistic scoring (involves the assignment of a single score to a piece of writing on the
basis of an overal impression of it (jedna známka za všechny)
advantage – being very rapid
experienced scorers can judge a one-page piece of writing in just a couple of minutes
or even less
 Analytic scoring
= method of scoring which require a separate score for each of a number of aspects of
a task are said to be analytic.
Advantage of AS
 disposes of the problem of uneven development of subskillls in individuals
 scores are compelled to consider aspects of performance which they might otherwise
ignore
 scorer has to give a number of scores will tend to make the scoring more reliable
Disadvantage of AS
 scoring will take longer than with the holistic method (even with practise)
 concentration on the different aspects may divert attention frim the overal effect of the
piece of writing
Feedback
Non-writing specific
 incomplete performance of the task in terms of: 1) topic: not all parts addressed, very
superficial treatment; 2) operations called for (e.g. compare and contrast); pointless
repetition
Writing specific
 missuse of quotation marks, inappropriate underlining
 capitalization, style conventions, handwriting
 failure to split overlong sentences
 inappropriate use of sentence fragments
Speaking
Representative tasks
 specify all possible content
o specification:
 operations (expressing, directing, describing, eliciting, narration,
reporting)
 types of text
 addressees
 topics ( which are familiar and interesting to the candidates)
 dialect (standard british english), accent ( standard american) and style
(formal and informal)
Skills
1. Informational
Candidates should be able to:
 provide personal information, give instruction, express need, elicit help, elaborate an
idea, speculate, complain, analyse, make excuses, summarise, make suggestions, give
explanations, present an argument, describe sequence of events (narrate), seek
permission, apologise, justify opinion, paraphrase
2. Interactional skills
 express purpose, egreement, disagreement, indicate uncerainty and understanding,
 elicit opinions, informations
 correct themselves or others, repair breakdowns in interaction
 modify statements or comments, recognise other speakers´s purpose
3. Skills in managing interactions
 initiate interaction, change the topic of an interaction, give turns to other speakers
 end an in., come to a discussion
 take their turn in an in.
 share the responsibility for the development of an in.
Types of texts:
 presentation (monologue)
 discussion, conversation
 service encounter, interview
The accurate measurement of oral ability is not easy – it takes considerable time and effort, including
training, to obtain valid and reliable results.
Include a representative sample of the specified content when setting tasks
 the test should have 2 sections
speakers are quite likely to express opinions, likes and dislikes, preferences, reasons,
justifications.
 o 1) candidate talks with a teacher from their own institution
(elicit describing, explaining and justifying)
o 2) they talk with a fellow student, and after some time the teacher joins in their
discussion
(elicit exchanging opinions and justifying)

In the class:
In writing - performance stays but topic could be different – (2 topics) – review of movie or book
(student´s choice)
Speaking
Různé typy úkolu – ve velkém obsahu. Zahrnuje krátký popis, na který reagujeme. Úkol by měl být
specifický, aby žák věděl, co má dělat. U speaking – musíme mít stejné podmínky stejná kritéria pro
všechny studenty.
Common characteristics – they are productive skills, criteria, give time to think.
Vocabulary, grammar, organization of the text.
Komunikativní kompetence (lingvistická – výslovnost, gramatika a slovíčka, diskurzní schopnost
vytvářet větší celky - věty, schopnost reagovat když nevíme, sociolingvistickou).
Holistic scoring
 suitable for younger students or students of lower of level
 = allows the scorer to go through the writing in general without scoring any specific
language items
 + faster scoring
 - scorers must be experienced to do this method effectively
Testing reading
- the challenge for the language tester is to set tasks which will not only cause the
candidate to exercise reading (listening) skills, but will also result in behaviour that
will demonstrate the success use of those skills
- accomplished readers are skilled in adapting the way they read according tu purpose
and text (to get the gist of something, looking for a specific information etc.)
- expeditious reading operations
students should not have enough time to read the full contents of a passage
o skimming
 establish quickly the structure of a text
 obtain main ideas adn discourse topic quickly and efficiently
 decide the relevance of a text to their needs
o search reading
 can quickly find information on a predetermined topic
o scanning
 can quickly find – specific words or phrases, figures, percentages,
specific items in an index, specific names in a bibliography or a set of
references
- careful reading operations
o identify pronominal reference or discourse markers, explicitly/implicitly stated
main ideas, addressee or audience for the text, what kind of text is involved
o interpret complex sentences, topic sentences
o outline logical organisation of a text, the development of an argument
o recognise writer´s intention, the attitudes and emotions of the writer
o distinguish hypothesis from fact, fact from rumour or hearsay, fact from
opinion
o Make inference (odvozovat)
 infer the meaning of an unknown word from context
 make propositional informational inferences, answering questions
beginning with who, when, what.
 make pragmatic inference
- Texts
o types
 text books, handouts, articles, leaflets, letters, forms, diary, maps or
plans, adverisements, postcards, novels (extracts)
o forms
 description, exposition (výklad), argumentations, instruction, narration
 graphic features includes – tables, charts, diagrams, cartoons
o topics
o style – formal, informal
o intended readership
o length, readability
 o range of grammar – may be a list of structures, or a reference to those to be
found in a course book or a grammar of the language
- authenticity of the text depends on items what we are intented to measure
- speed could be expressed in words per minute
different speed for careful and expeditious reading
- Criteria level of performance
o there is no need to specify criterial levels of performance before tests are
constructed
o use the test tasks themselves to define the level
- setting the tasks
o selecting texts
 successful choice of texts depend ultimately on experience, judgement
 appropriate lenght – 2 000 words or more, detailed reading – a few
senences
 include as many pasages as possible in a test (giving a good number of
fresh starts to students)
 in order to test search reading – passage which contain plenty of
discrete pieces of information
 choose texts that will interest candidates but which will not over excite
or disturb them
o writing items
o possible techniques
 multiple choice – choose the picture that the following sentence
describes: ………
 short answer – the best short answer questions are those with a unique
correct response – What does the word „it“ (line 26) refer to?, In which
city do the people described in the „urban villagers“ live?
 Gap filling
 information transfer – description of word and according to it student
have to connect with picture
o language for items and responses
is not meant to cause students any difficulties of comprehension
o practical advice on item writing
 do not write items for which the correct response can be found without
understanding the text (unless that is an ability that we are testing) or
they could answer from general knowledge
 present items in order in which the answers can be found in the text
 make the items independent of each other
o scoring
 errors of grammar, spelling or punctuation should not be penalised
 to test productive skill at the same time simply makes the measurement
of reading ability less valid
Classroom

Listening
 importantance of backround knowledge (who, where, why etc.)
 do not use text for reading, authentic texts
 tell students about style, topic etc.
 techniques are the same as in the reading + transcript (numbers, spell the name)
 answers could be in Czech
 scoring – the same as reading

Rozdíly oproti didaktice

 nejsou, jelikož hodnocení by mělo odrážet hodnocení (práce) v hodině
 testy by měly být na všechny 4 dovednosti – nezahrnovat jen dvě
 Terminology
1. “I” aspect
2. Accuracy
text free of grammatical errors
3. Activate schemata
concept that revolves around accessing the individual learner’s prior knowledge of the
information being learned
4. Authentic exposure

5. Automatic Processing
capable of occurring without the need for attention, and the awareness of the initiation
or operation of the process
6. Bottom up processing
reading by understanding the meanings of all words of a text
– the reader (listener) focuses on such things as individual words, phrases or cohesive
devices and achives understanding by stringing these detailed elements together to build
up whole
building up the messages from the individual small pieces
7. CEFR
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching,
assessment. Describing the standards by which different levels of language proficiency
are defined in EUProvides a common bases for education in Europe
8. Classroom management
involves desicions (what is done in the classroom) and actions (about whether to do
these actions, when to do them, how to do them etc.) concerning organization of the
classroom and activitites
= refers to ways in which you arrange both the physical and the social dimensions of the
class in order to provide a supportive environment for teaching and learning
9. CLIL
= content and language integrated learning

10. Closed tasks

have one correct answer, can be completed quickly, asses one specific pioce of
knowledge or skill, provide limited information about student thinking or opportunity
for students to demonstrate higher levels of understanding
11. Competent English speaker
either citizen of the US, Canada, UK etc. or you have an obtained one of the English
language tests (e. g. Cambridge C1 Advanced)
12. Comprehensible input
is language input that can be understood by listeners despite them not understanding all
the words and structures in it. Trying to understand language slightly above their level
encourages learners to use natural learning strategies such as guessing words from
context and inferring meaning.
13. Consciousness rising
part of the process a learner can go through with new language. They first become
 aware or conscious of the new language, then recognise and distinguish it, then produce
it
14. Controlled practice
is a stage in a lesson where learners practise new language in a limited form
15. Deductive approach
learners are given an explanation of the target structure and, typically, examples are
provided to illustrate its form, meaning and use
16. Developmental errors
Errors which are a necessary step in the acquisition process.
17. Differentiated instructions
effective teaching that involves providing all students within their diverse classroom
community of learners a range of different avenues for understanding new information
18. Drill
is a simple exercise, usually of grammar, focuses on repeated production of correct
sentences. (vocabulary – word) goof for automatise things.
19. Eliciting
Eliciting involves drawing language from the Ss rather than giving it to them.
20. English Profile
offers detailed information about particular levels of CEFR distinguishing differences
between adjacent levels. It describes the “real language” produced by learners and its
approach is rather descriptive than prescriptive
21. Explicit vs. Implicit Learning
implicit - learning of complex information in an incidental manner,
without awareness of what has been learned, It has been claimed that implicit learning
differs from explicit learning by the absence of consciously accessible knowledge
explicit - refers to the learner's conscious and deliberate attempt to master some material
or solve a problem
22. Extensive listening/reading
involves learners reading texts for enjoyment and to develop general reading skills.
take place when students are on their own
23. Feedback
someone tells you how well or badly you are doing, and how you could improve
24. False beginner
Someone who has studied the language before, but appears to have forgotten most of
all. Progress can be fast as the “lost” language may return quickly.
25. Flexible tasks
26. Fluency
refers to the ability to produce continuous speech without causing comprehension
difficulties or a breakdown of commuication
27. Fossilization
refers to the persistence of errors in a learner´s speech, despite progress in other areas of
language development
28. Free practice
is a stage in a lesson where learners produce language using the target content freely
29. Gist task
is the general meanng or purpose of a text (written or spoken) – reading a text for a gist
is known as skimming.
30. Guided discovery
teacher helps the learner to tell himself – I hand out a list of 20 senstence, I ask students
to work together, duscuss and find out what the “rules” are.
creating activities that allow learners to generate their own discoveries and explanations
31. Heterogeneous task vs homogenous task
homo - group of tasks that are processed in a similar way and take approximately the
same amount of time
hetero - group of tasks that have no clear logical relation and may execute in various
amounts of time
32. High frequency words

33. Inductive approach

there are only examples aimed at helping learners work out for themselves the meaning
and use of the target form
34. Inflexible tasks
The task focuses on a specific language point (e.g., single grammar point) or a small set
of such points.
35. Information gap activity
one person knows something that the other does not, such gaps of information between
people give us a need and desire to communicate with each other.
36. Intelligibility
is a relevant concept for English language teachers to the extent that they aim to prepare
students to communicate successfully with users of various Englishes and in lingua
franca contexts.
37. Intensive listening/reading
careful and detailed reading/listening of sections of text in order to interpret the full
meaning or in detail with specific learning aims and tasks
often done with the help and intervetion of the teacher
38. Interlanguage
what is in student´s head and has not settled in yet, still developing.
39. Into - through – beyond stages
40. L1 interference
negative transfer = interference (= is the use of a native-language pattern or rule that
leads to an error or inappropriate form in the target language
41. Language Transfer
positive transfer (= the native language and English have the same formo r linguistic
feature)
negative transfer = interference (= is the use of a native-language pattern or rule that
leads to an error or inappropriate form in the target language
42. Learning Strategies
specific actions and behaviours that learners use to improve their skill in learning or
using second language
43. Lexis
44. Metalanguage
the language used to describe language items or used in class to give instructions, get
things done explained.
45. Mistake: error, slip, mistake
46. Mixed-ability classes
classes with students of different level of knowledge and abilities. such classrooms need
flexible approach.
47. Monitoring
teacher could monitor to check the machincs (understanding of instruction), monitoring
descreetly (T do not offers help, interfere – students know T here but T just watching
and listening), or students could call for help etc.
48. Open-ended tasks
are tasks to which there is not a single absolutely correct answer or where a variety of
answers are possible
49. Organization forms
whole class teaching – teacher-fronted and dominated teaching, all of the student
together
individual work - students work on their own
pair work
group work-increase student talking time, time-consuming (could be)
50. Overgeneralization
refers to extending the use of a form, by analogy, to an inappropriate context
51. Performance criteria
52. Presentation - Practice - Production (PPP)
is the dominant approach to teaching linguistic form explicitly
Presentation – clarifying language
Practice – controlled practice, dril
Production – free practice
53. Productive skills
speaking, writing
54. Pyramid discussion
indtroduction of the problem – individual thinks about the solution – then in pairs
discuss the solution and they have to agree on something – then in small groups – again
they have to agree on something etc.
55. Rapport with students
the quality of relationship within the classroom
56. Receptive skills
listening, reading
57. Restricted exposure
learners read/listen to the text and make general understanding about it
58. Scaffolding
Refers to the preparation for an activity provided by the teacher/materials because,
without it, learners might find the activity too difficult to do or any preparatory activity
done in the classroom (give uncomplete sentences, etc.)
59. Scanning
move eyes quickly over the text to locate a specific piece of information (name, address,
fact, price, number, date etc.) without reading the whole text
60. Second language acquisition
it is the process of learning any language after the first language
61. Sequencing
the order in which activities will be used, including opening and closing activities
62. Simplification
– the learners reduce complex rules to simpler ones
63. Skimming
read quickly to get the gist of passage (discover key topics, main ideas, basic structure
64. Student-talking time (STT)
is the time learners spend talking rather than the teacher
65. Success Orientation
opportunities to do it right, be successful
66. Talk-talk loop
teacher says something but there´s no response, so he/she says something else
we have to avoid it, we should give students space to create a question or commentary
and do not shut up questions after question when you see that noone response
67. Task Based activity
68. Task-Based learning
is an approach in which learning revolves around the completion of meaningful tasks. In
the TBL approach, the main focus is the authentic use of language for genuine
communication
69. Teacher-talking time (TTT)
is the time that teachers spend talking in class, rather than learners.
but allow to students the time and the quiet they need, do not feel the need to fill every
gap in a lesson
70. Top-down processing
the use of real-world knowledge to assist the understanding of the text
71. Topic Based activity
72. Total Physical Response
is a method of teaching language or vocabulary concepts by using physical movement
to react to verbal input.
73. Validity
the task should activate students in the language items or skills it is meant to teach or
practise
74. Washback
refers to the impact of testing on curriculum design, teaching practices, and learning
behaviours
75. Zone of Proximal Development
refers to the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she
can achieve with guidance and encouragement from a skilled partner.