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Match the items you could teach to the appropriate level.

Language for debating (Having

considered the evidence provided, Answer 1
it has come to my attention that in Proficiency
fact…)
Introductions (Hello, how are you? Answer 2
/ I’m fine, thank you) Beginner

The 3rd Condition

(It would have been quicker if Answer 3
we had taken a taxi to the park Upper-Intermediate
instead of walking).
The present perfect tense
Answer 4
(I have lived in London since I was
Pre-Intermediate
ten)
Feedback

Your answer is correct.

The correct answer is: Language for debating (Having considered the evidence
provided, it has come to my attention that in fact…) → Proficiency, Introductions (Hello,
how are you? / I’m fine, thank you) → Beginner, The 3rd Condition
(It would have been quicker if we had taken a taxi to the park instead of walking). →
Upper-Intermediate, The present perfect tense (I have lived in London since I was
ten) → Pre-Intermediate
8. Grouping Levels

To make life a little easier we can group these levels into three
broad categories: Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced.

Before you read on, spend a few minutes thinking about the differences in the lessons
you would teach each of the following levels.

 Beginners
 Intermediate
 Advanced

Beginners

Beginners are on a steep learning curve. This means that you can see progress within
each lesson, as vocabulary and grammar take root.

However, it is important to remember that students can find language learning difficult
and may have unrealistic expectations. This can mean that beginners give up quite
easily. It is important for you to plan and structure lessons to help keep students’
confidence and motivation high.

When you are planning a lesson for beginners:

 Ensure that they will leave the class having learnt at least one new thing –
whether this is an item of vocabulary, a new phrase or how to conjugate a verb.
 Include quick reviews and activities to help students see the progress they are
making.

Intermediate

Intermediate level students have already accumulated the knowledge that they need to
speak English. However, they need to learn to manipulate it to move onto the next level.

Learning at this level is less obvious than with beginners who can leave the classroom
able to point to specific things that they have learnt. Intermediate students can feel that
they have reached a plateau and are no longer progressing. As a result, more students
give up at this level than at any other.

A key element of your job at this level is to keep your students motivated and feeling like
they are continuing to learn.

When you are planning lessons for intermediate level students:

 Use a clear structure, showing what you will be teaching each week, month, term
and year. This will help students to see where they are going and reflect on how
far they have progressed.
 Set your students challenges: give them short tasks to see if they have learnt
enough to analyse and manipulate a piece of language.
Advanced

Advanced students are trying to get to the heart of the language. You need to help them
to explore the depths of meaning and the subtleties of the language, such as turns of
phrase, inflections in the voice, colloquial expressions and inference in what people say
and write.

The students have already developed the basic skills; your job is to show them how to
use them.

When you are planning a lesson for advanced students:

 Spend time exploring their interests. You can then build quite complex activities
around these areas. For example, you could set up a political debate, review a
specific piece of medical research, or discuss whether a player should move to a
new football team.
 Use sound recordings and film to introduce students to a range of different
accents and colloquial expressions.

9. Teaching Mixed Level Classes

To a certain extent, all classes are mixed levels – you are highly unlikely to find yourself
in front of a class where every student is at the same level.

However, students within a recognised range of ability are thought of as being at the
same level. For example, a beginner group would consist of students who all have
limited English ability. Some students may be able to count to ten and have a vocabulary
of 40-50 words, whilst others may literally speak no English. However, everyone in the
group is pretty much starting from the beginning.

In a class that is defined as mixed level, however, you will have students in the group
who are from completely different levels. For example, your class might be made up of
70% beginners and 30% intermediate.

There are several reasons why a school might have mixed level classes. It could be a
simple question of numbers. Small schools may not have enough students to form two
distinct groups – and hope that the differences are not too large for the teacher to
manage. Alternatively, you may be teaching in a secondary / high school where students
are grouped by age rather than ability.

You might also teach students who have ‘spiky profiles’. This means that students
have strengths in some skills but weaknesses in others, e.g. a student who lives in the
UK might have very good listening skills but not be able to write well in English.

Whatever the reason, it’s likely that at some stage you will face a mixed-level class. So
how can you deal with this? This calls for differentiated learning.

Let’s look at a few possible approaches you can build into your planning process.
Mix it up
First you need to identify the stronger and weaker students in the class. Once you have
done this, you can use different materials for different groups of students.

For example, you could have an elementary group working on a sheet that requires
knowledge of the Past Continuous whilst the beginner groups are working on a task
sheet about colours.

Same house - different floors

In some situations, you can use the same material with different levels of students,
providing that you adjust the outcomes to suit the level.

For example, you could create a task exploring what happened to students yesterday.
Lower level students would be expected to produce a sentence using a Simple Past
structure such as "I was in the cinema." At the same time, higher level students would be
required to produce sentences using the more complex Past Continuous structure, such
as "I was leaving the house when..." to meet the task target. Another option is asking
some students to complete all the questions and asking some students to do only half.
Differentiating by task means you do not have to prepare different materials for the same
class.

What are friends for?

A different way to approach the problem is to use students to help each other. Here, you
would set up tasks which enable the stronger students to help the weaker ones.

This works best in short bursts to avoid strong students feeling that they are being used
at the expense of their own development.

10. Class Size

There are three main sizes of class you are likely to teach:

 one-to-one
 small groups
 large groups

In your notes, write down the advantages and disadvantages of each class size. How
might you plan your lessons differently? When you’re ready, look at the answers below.

One to One

There are lots of advantages to teaching one-to-one including the following:

- it can be easy to develop a meaningful relationship with the student

- the learner’s needs can be met as every lesson is adapted to them, rather than to a
whole group of students

- the learner can ask lots of questions without it hindering the progress of others

However, one-to-one is often challenging work:

- the lessons can be mentally draining for both teacher and learner, especially if they are
longer than an hour

- the teacher may feel guilty or under pressure if the student is making slow progress

- the student might feel shy as there is nobody to hide behind

Of course, an individual lesson also means you only have one student to deal with. This
does make classroom management easier!

When you are planning one-to-one lessons:

 shape the lesson content directly around the individual student’s needs
 identify and focus on topics which are of interest to the student
 create more material than for group lessons, as you will cover it faster
 use activities that are suitable for one or two people only
 give the student 100% of your attention all the time

Small Classes

Small is a relative term. Depending on where in the world you go to teach, a small class
could vary from as few as three to as many as eight or ten.

Advantages include:

- learners can get to know each other well and therefore develop trust quickly. If they feel
comfortable around each other, they are more likely to speak with confidence

- learners can work in various interaction patterns of pairs, small groups and as a whole
class

- it is often easy for students to walk around the classroom or take part in ‘mingling
activities’

- it is easy for the teacher to get to know all the students on an individual level.

Potential disadvantages could be:

- dominant students can hijack the class

- students might not bond and could become very quiet – you might complain that they
“just don’t speak!”

- the group might have an ‘off day’

When you are planning lessons for small groups:

 make the most of having only a few students, planning activities that will allow
you to give more attention to individual students
 ensure you have additional material as you may cover more ground in the lesson
  take steps to stop an individual student dominating (e.g. by calling on students by
name or allocating passive and active roles for a task)

Large Classes

Large groups can be very challenging to manage – but also can be enormous fun to
teach. As above, size is relative. However, it’s not uncommon to encounter classes of
30-35 and you may even find yourself teaching a group of up to 50 students!

Led well, a large group can deliver an incredible energy and dynamic to language
learning. There is no shortage of different people for each member of the class to
practise their English with, and you can pretty much guarantee a broad range of views,
interests and learning styles. This means that it is both necessary and enjoyable to use
as many different approaches to learning as you can.

When planning a lesson for large groups:

• create activities that will allow you to give each student some individual support. This
may mean something as simple as asking the student a question or quickly checking
something they have written

• check frequently during the class to ensure that students can see and hear everything
that is going on

• use group / pair activities. For very large classes, you could even appoint group
leaders to manage activities / report back / take notes etc.

• make use of group worksheets, where students work together and complete the task
as a group. This will let you move around the groups, checking students have
understood the task and are completing it in the way you intended. Effectively, this
breaks one large class into several smaller ones

11. Learning Styles

The Different Learning Styles

Understanding how your students learn best will help you to plan effective lessons for
your class. A simple approach is to think about three core types of learning styles:

 Visual

Visual learners learn through seeing things. This can be pictures, charts, presentations
or demonstrations of how something is done. For example, a visual learner can see a
picture of an apple, be told it’s an apple and then remember this for the future.

 Auditory

Auditory learners learn through listening and speaking. They usually enjoy reading out
loud and listening to recordings of text. You can bring out the best in auditory learners by
including lots of listening, speaking and music activities in the classroom.
  Kinaesthetic

Kinaesthetic learners learn through doing. They bore easily if there is no physical
stimulus to maintain interest and will take notes in lessons just for the sake of moving
their hands. Doodling, jotting things in the margin, highlighting and drawing pictorial
representations are all part of this learning style.

Identifying Learning Styles

When you start working with a new class, it is useful to explore the different learning
styles. Before you read on, note down a few approaches you could take to find out the
learning styles in your class.

There are several approaches that you can take. For example, you could:

• Include short activities in your first lesson, based on different learning styles. Observe
how your students engage with each, and ask them to feed back

• Have a short discussion about learning styles with your students. You can give a few
examples to explain each. This is more likely to be appropriate with higher level students

• Carry out a short learner styles activity, such as a questionnaire, to identify the various
learning styles within your class. Make sure you note down the styles that you identify

What is your learning style?

It is also useful to identify your own learning style. This will have influenced your
experience of learning and it may also impact on how you instinctively approach lesson
planning.

Spend a few moments now thinking about the following questions:

 What learning style do you prefer?

 How do you think this impacted on your learning at school and as an adult?

To help you reflect further, complete the following brief questionnaire.

Learning style questionnaire

Read each question and choose one option that is most like you (a, b or c). Then click to
reveal what learner style it relates to. When you have revealed your learner style for each
question, count how many you scored for each learner style. This will tell you what type of
learner you are.

Question 1

a. I prefer lessons where we can discuss things.

b. I prefer lessons where there is something to look at or something to draw.

c. I prefer lessons where we can do something practical – or at least move around.

 1. Auditory
2. Visual
3. Kinaesthetic

Question 2
a. I often fiddle with things in class.

b. I often sing or hum to myself.

c. I enjoy taking notes in class.

1. Kinaesthetic
2. Auditory
3. Visual

Question 3

a. When learning a new skill, I just prefer to get on with it.

b. When learning a new skill, I prefer someone to explain to me how to do it.

c. When learning a new skill, I prefer to watch someone else show me how to do it.

1. Kinaesthetic
2. Auditory
3. Visual

Question 4

a. When the adverts come on the TV – I like to watch them.

b. When the adverts come on the TV – I get up and do something.

c. When the adverts come on the TV – I like to sing along with them.

1. Visual
2. Kinaesthetic
3. Auditory

When you are planning one-to-one lessons, you can shape your activities fully around
your student’s preferred learning style. However; in most classes, you will find that you
have students who fall into each category of learning style. This means that you need to
ensure your lesson has a range of activities for each. Whilst some students may engage
more with certain parts of the lesson, you can be confident that each has had some
teaching which has been directed towards their needs.
12. Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Aside from deciphering your learners' learning style, there's also the school of thought
around the theory of multiple intelligence.

In the 1980s, Howard Gardner proposed a model of multiple intelligence: intelligence

can be seen in 7 different ways, rather than a singular ability. This was increased to 8
intelligences in the 1990s.

Although we shouldn’t label learners to a specific intelligence, knowing the intelligences

to which they are most connected may help them to achieve their goals.

Below, we list the 8 intelligences along with their characteristics:

1. Logical-mathematical: Good with numbers, critical thinking, and reasoning.

2. Bodily-kinaesthetic: Good at physical activities such as dance, sport or crafts.
3. Interpersonal: Sensitive to others’ moods and feelings. Good team players.
4. Visual-spatial: Ability to visualise objects from different angles, face or scene
recognition, notice details, navigation.
5. Musical-rhythmic: Sensitivity to sounds and rhythms. Students may be able to
play instruments, sing or compose music.
6. Naturalistic: Ability to identify and distinguish between animals, plants, and rock
types.
7. Intrapersonal: Self-reflective capabilities.
8. Verbal-linguistic: Typically, good at writing, reading, story-telling and
memorising words.

Why not click on this link, and test which intelligence you
are: [Link]

13. Students' Background

The topics and types of materials that you use are likely to vary, depending on your
class. It is important to recognise:

 Why your students want (or need) to learn English, as this can impact on the
focus of your lessons
 The impact that your students’ native language (L1) may have on their learning

A good teacher will adapt activities and resources to reflect the needs and interests of
the class.

Reasons for learning English

Look at each of the group descriptions below and think about what their needs might be.
Example 1: A class of Adult students
You have a group of students who have been sent to study English by their company, a
hotel in the city of Lisbon, Portugal. The group includes receptionists, waiters, room
attendants and junior managers.

The hotel owners have received complaints that floor staff cannot understand hotel
clients, most of whom are British business people attending conferences in the city.

Click to reveal
Given their line of work and positions within the company, it is fair to assume that most
of your students will be dealing verbally with hotel clients. They are therefore likely to
benefit from lessons providing plenty of listening comprehension and speaking, such as
sample conversations, activities based around giving information and role plays. There is
plenty of material from the hotel and catering sector which you could adapt, such as
menus, timetables and check-in / check-out processes.
You may find some students require practice in form filling, to help with the check-in / out
processes. Generally, however, written English is likely to take a back seat, as the group
needs to focus on their immediate skill weaknesses and, of course, the reason why their
employer is paying for their training.

Example 2: A group of Sales agents

Your class is a group of sales agents. They have been sent by their company to your
school to improve communications in English before the start of a major online sales
push into the US market. The students will be responsible for answering email queries
from potential business affiliates in the USA.

Click to reveal
As the students will need to answer queries by email, you will need to focus on reading
and writing skills. You could consider developing activities that require the students to
“send” and “receive” emails across the classroom – perhaps even do this for real, if you
have the technology available!
As the campaign is aimed at the US market, it may also be required of you to look at the
differences between US and non-US spellings and vocabulary (analyse and analyze or
zip code and post code).
It would also be useful to cover US business culture. Americans are polite people but
may not seem so, as they can be direct. Sensitise your students to the culture and they
will have a much easier time of it.
Example 3: A group of twenty 15-year-olds
You have a group of 15-year old students who all need to pass their national school
exams next summer. All are learning English at school.

Click to reveal
These students will need their classes to cover all four skills (reading, writing, speaking
and listening) – although the balance may vary, depending on the requirements of the
country you are in.
Taking a class like this means constant readjustment and reassessment of the students’
needs throughout the year. Some will learn more quickly than others. Some will show
signs of being stronger in some areas than in others. This is a challenging but interesting
type of class to teach.

14. Impact of students' first language (L1)

L1 refers to a student’s first language – i.e. Spanish for Spanish people, Arabic for
students from Saudi Arabia. L2 is the second language that a student is learning (e.g. in
this course, the students’ L2 is English).

Many teachers (and schools) have an English-only policy in class. However, your
students may use their L1 from time to time - for example in fast translations. The key is
to ensure that all your activities are centred around encouraging students to listen,
speak, write and read in English.

However, there is another side to L1 that will affect your lessons, irrespective of any
rules you set about its use in the classroom. This is the impact that a student’s native
language has on their ability to produce English effectively. This can appear in all
aspects of language, from pronunciation to grammar and word order, to spelling.

Each language has a slightly different impact on learning English. For example, a
student whose native language doesn’t use the Roman alphabet is going to find reading
and writing English particularly challenging.

Equally, students whose first language doesn’t include certain sounds can find some
aspects of pronunciation extremely difficult. For example, Japanese learners might
substitute an /r/ sound for an /l/. In Spanish, there is no /z/ sound, so they use /s/
instead.

When you are planning your lessons, it is important to consider the difficulties that your
students may have. You can then create appropriate activities that address the specific
needs of your class.

It might seem like you have an awful lot to think about when you are just trying to plan a
single lesson. However, the important thing to remember at this stage is that
knowing who you will be teaching will help you decide how you should plan and deliver a
lesson.

To learn more about the impact of a student's L1 on language learning, we recommend

the book Learner English by Smith and Swan. You can also search online with a search
term such as 'common grammar issues for Turkish learners of English'.
15. Lesson Aims and Outcomes

What is a Lesson Aim?

Once you have established who you are going to teach, the next crucial question is:
what do you want your students to learn? In other words, what is the aim of your lesson?

Every lesson plan should have a clearly stated aim. This will determine the content and
activities that you include in a lesson. Lesson aims cover the introduction of a grammar
point, new vocabulary, practising skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening), using
functional language or practising pronunciation.

Writing Lesson Aims

You should try to make your aim as clear and specific as possible. This will help ensure
that you develop suitable content for the lesson and make it easier to see if the aim has
been achieved at the end.

For example, you might state a lesson aim as:

By the end of the lesson, students will be better able

to recognise and produce four new colours: blue,
green, black and grey, and practise them with the
colours learned in the last lesson: yellow,
red and orange.
Here, the specific target language for the lesson (four colours) is included in the aim so
that it will be easy to see if the aim is achieved in the lesson.

Target language means the language that you want to teach in that lesson and covers
both vocabulary (new words or phrases) and grammar points. Target language never
just means 'English in general'! - it means the specific language you are introducing in
that lesson.

Avoid writing teacher-centred aims, such as: In this

lesson, I will teach the present perfect.
Aims are for the students, not for you. A more student-centred and detailed aim
would say: By the end of the lesson, students will be better able to recognise and
produce questions and answers using the present perfect in the context of life
experiences. E.g. Have you ever been to Australia? Yes, I have.

Many lessons will have a secondary aim as well as the main aim. For example:
  Main aim: In this lesson students will be better able to recognise and produce
four new colours: blue, green, black and grey, and practise them with the colours
learned in the last lesson: yellow, red and orange.
 Secondary aim: They will also be better able to recognise and produce four new
words for classroom furniture and practise saying what colour these are.

In some cases, the lesson aims will be determined by the school’s course book or
syllabus (what you are required to cover within your teaching course or year). In other
situations, you will have more freedom to decide your own aims based on the knowledge
of the students.

Even if you are following a course book, you should still review the aim and decide
whether it is suitable for your class. For example, you may decide that the students are
able to go beyond the aims the course book indicates for a lesson and you might change
them accordingly.

Lesson Outcomes

If we think of lesson aims as what we want the learner

to achieve, lesson outcomes are how they are to
achieve it.
Let’s use the example aim above: By the end of the lesson, students will be better able
to recognise and produce questions and answers using the present perfect in the
context of life experiences. E.g. Have you ever been to Australia? Yes, I have.

We can think of a lesson outcome based on what the student will have done to meet
that aim, e.g. By the end of the lesson, students will have talked to everyone in the class
about their life experiences.

Here’s another example of lesson aims vs. outcomes for a low-level class.

Aim: By the end of the lesson, learners will be better able to recognise and produce 6
collocations connected to free-time activities (playing football, watching films, following
recipes, chatting online, reading books, going to the gym).

Outcome: By the end of the lesson, students will have interviewed their classmates in a
survey to find out the most popular free-time activity in the class.

Useful blog:

Writing Lesson Aims and Outcomes

16. Anticipating Problems

A key part of successful teaching is anticipating problems. If you think in advance about
how to deal with issues that might come up, then you are in a far better position to deal
with these if they do arise.
What kind of problems?

Problems can come in many shapes and sizes – it’s not just a matter of worrying how to
manage the class itself. For example:

 In the last few lessons, students have been using their phones too much in
class - not only for translating new vocabulary!

Suggested solutions:

- Writing students' names on the board with a tally of how many times you catch them.

- Confiscating phones at the start of the lesson.

- Having one activity in the lesson where students can use their phone to complete the
task.

Whatever you do, do not forget to include the

anticipated problems learners might have with
the target language (the language you want to teach
in the lesson). This could include problems
with understanding the meaning or form of a
grammar point or the pronunciation of a word
because of the students’ L1.
For example,

 You are introducing vegetables to elementary learners from Saudi Arabia.

In Arabic, there is no difference between the sounds /p/ and /b/ so students
cannot hear or produce the difference between words like peas and beans.

Suggested solution:

- Ask students to feel their vocal cords as they make the sounds. They should feel
vibrating when they make the /b/ sound but feel nothing when they make the /p/ sound.
Use gestures to indicate vibrations.

 You are introducing directions to beginner learners from China. In Chinese,

there is no /r/ sound, so this is often replaced with /l/ or /w/. Students might
struggle to pronounce turn right.

Suggested solution:

- Demonstrate the movement of the tongue with an exaggerated movement when

making the /r/ sound. Spend time practising the sound on its own by growling like an
angry dog and asking students to copy - this helps students achieve an /r/ sound before
moving on to pronouncing right and then turn right.
  You are teaching personality adjectives to Spanish learners. The Spanish
word sensible means sensitive in English. The words are false friends and
confuse the learners.

- In Spanish, the word for sensitive is sensible. Make a table for your learners on the
board.

ENGLISH SPANISH
sensible sensato
sensitive sensible

You might also want to consider problems students

might have with the tasks and activities you've
designed.

 Students might get overexcited in the practice task as they need to hit the
correct word written on the board with a fly swatter.

Suggested solutions:

- Organise the task so that only two students are out of their seat at any time.

- Stop the activity if it is getting out of hand and then go to back up activit

17. Syllabus Fit

When you are planning your lessons, rarely do you look at each lesson as a standalone
lesson. For example, in a language school in the UK, you might teach a class for 15
hours a week (3 one-hour lessons each morning).

These lessons could cover one unit of a textbook for example, with a test at the end of
the week. It is a good idea to plan the week’s lessons in advance to ensure you cover all
the material by Friday.

On the other hand, if you teach evening classes, which only take place twice a week,
you will look at completing a coursebook over a much longer period of time. In this
situation, it is also normal to share your classes with another teacher, so you will have to
communicate with them about the material you plan to cover over the following lessons
to ensure there is no overlap.

It is also important to include elements of review into your lessons, e.g. by starting each
lesson or each day of lessons with a review of what was learnt previously.

If you are formally observed in the future, you may be asked to provide a syllabus fit,
with criteria such as ‘Provide link(s) between this lesson and relevant aspects of
preceding and subsequent lessons, and if relevant, the course as a whole’. Here is an
example:
Learners in this group study English full time. These afternoon classes do not follow a
textbook and tend to focus more on communicative skills and group work, such as
projects or presentations. In the afternoon classes, I use a topic-based syllabus to revise
previously-learnt lexis, introduce more challenging lexis such as phrasal verbs and
practise fluency. This week, the topic is school days. I chose this topic as it allows the
learners to revise a variety of past tenses and may itself raise awareness of the idea of
regret or coincidence. It is also an engaging topic ideal for a mixed nationality group as
learners can understand about different cultures.

On Mondays, the lesson is based around a general revision of the topic - a review of any
lexis learners know as well as conversation questions. On Tuesdays, I introduce phrasal
verbs, expressions or idioms that are useful when talking about the topic (e.g.
bookworm, to ace an exam). On Wednesdays, I focus on broadening the learners’
grammar knowledge by introducing (for some) and revising (for others) different
structures. On Thursdays, learners build up to a fluency exercise, such as a role play or
presentation.

18. Summary and Further Reading

In this unit we have explored a range of factors that will impact on how you structure
your lesson:

 The practicalities of the lesson (when, where and for how long you will be
teaching)
 Who you will be teaching (students’ age, level and background, plus class size)
 The aims of your class
 Anticipated problems, plus suggested solutions

As we said at the start of this module, spending time thinking about these elements
gives you a great foundation for creating a well-structured and relevant lesson. The more
time you invest now, the easier it will be when you start your first teaching job.

Before moving on to the next unit, your unassessed task is to write the first page of a
lesson plan using the following information.

60-minute morning class starting at 8am with a group of 40 14-year-olds in China.

Students’ levels range from pre-intermediate to intermediate. They study English three
times a week in their public school. The lesson is vocabulary – the topic is school
subjects (e.g. history, geography etc.).

Use the following template to help you write your lesson plan. You can do this by hand
or electronically, by copying and pasting the table into a Word document.

Name of the Date Level of the class Length of lesson

Teacher

Lesson Type:
 Lesson Topic:

Lesson Aims: Lesson Outcomes:

By the end of the lesson, students will By the end of the lesson, students will have…
be better able to…

Anticipated difficulties: Suggested solutions:

in:
Methodology, Pedagogy, Teaching techniques

Lesson plan
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A lesson plan is a teacher. While there are many formats for a lesson plan, most lesson plans contain some
or all of these items, usually in this order:

 the title of the lesson

 the amount of time required to complete the lesson
 a list of required materials
 a list of objectives. These may be stated as behavioral objectives (what the student is expected to
be able to do upon completion of the lesson) or as knowledge objectives (what the student is
expected to know upon completion of the lesson).
 the set or lead-in to the lesson. This is designed to focus students on the skill or concept about to
be instructed. Common sets include showing pictures or models, asking leading questions,
or reviewing previously taught lessons.
 the instructional component. This describes the sequence of events which will take place as the
lesson is delivered. It includes the instructional input—what the teacher plans to do and say, and
guided practice—an opportunity for students to try new skills or express new ideas with the
modeling and guidance of the teacher.
 independent practice. This component allows students to practice the skill or extend the
knowledge on their own.
 the summary. This is an opportunity for the teacher to wrap up the discussion and for the students
to pose unanswered questions.
 evaluation. Some, but not all, lessons have an evaluative component where the teacher can check
for mastery of the instructed skills or concepts. This may take the form of a set of questions to be
answered or a set of instructions to be followed. The evaluation may be formative; that is to say,
used to guide subsequent learning, or summative; that is to say, used to determine a grade or
other achievement criterion.
 analysis. Often not part of a lesson plan, this component allows the teacher to reflect on the
lesson and answer questions such as what went well, what needs improving, and how students
reacted to the lesson.
 Continuity - the content/ideas/theme/rules etc. from previous day are reflected upon or reviewed
The exact format chosen for a lesson plan will be driven by school requirements and personal tastes of the
teacher, in that order. Unit plans follow much the same format, but are intended to cover an entire unit of
work, which may be delivered over several days or weeks.
In today's constructivist teaching style, the individual lesson plan is often inappropriate. Specific objectives
and timelines may be included in the unit plan, but lesson plans are more fluid as they cater to student
needs and learning styles. As students are asked to engage in problem or inquiry learning, rigid lesson
planning with title, behavioral objectives, and specific outcomes within certain time constraints often no
longer fit within modern effective pedagogy. Today, formal lesson plans are often required only of student
teachers, who must be demonstrably familiar with the components of a lesson, or teachers new to the field,
who have not yet internalized the flow of a lesson.

Units of work are also known as Schemes of work in the UK.

Teaching EFL to Children: The
Delight of Being Constantly
Challenged
When I started teaching in a small language school back in the
late 1980s, I always thought that teaching younger students was
very simple. Maybe this is the right time to apologize to them for
such a mistake. At that time, I thought that teaching was little
more than teaching colors and singing songs. As that time has
passed, I have now realized how difficult it is to get the students'
attention, to able to communicate, and to become an input
facilitator. Thus, now I admire kindergarten teachers for their
patience and unrecognized work. Today, I believe that many of
them have made the miracle of language learning possible with
their effort, extra hours, smiles, care, and many other positive
features of their teaching. Teachers of young students also need
to be motivated by the challenge of seeing their students
improve day by day. This Forum is dedicated to those who make
it possible for children to learn every day.

I enjoyed reading the thoughts of the instructors who contributed

to this column, as they evoked a number of memories. In this
column, you will find contributions from many different parts of
the world--from Iran to Argentina--and topics--from teaching the
first day of class to classroom tips from Slovenia. I hope the
reader will enjoy this Forum as much as I did preparing it.

If any reader want to express an opinion, please do not hesitate

to do so. We always look forward to new contributions.

Dr. Jesús García Laborda

Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain
<jgarcial@[Link]>

Motivating Young Learners: Ten Teaching Tips

Emma Heyderman
Lacunza – International House San Sebastian
San Sebastian, Spain
<[Link] [Link]>

An important difference between teaching EFL to adults and to

young learners is motivation. Very young children have an
intrinsic love for learning. Their pleasure is obvious when their
first words are understood or when they are able to get their
favourite toy after taking those first steps. However, as what
children are learning becomes less tangible and more abstract,
maintaining motivation, especially in the classroom, becomes
more of a problem. As teachers, we need to facilitate a learning
atmosphere that nurtures motivation. Classroom activities could
be intrinsically motivating because students are interested in the
subject, or extrinsically motivating because learners want to
please significant others (parents, teachers, etc.) by getting good
marks, for example, and they don't want to be punished for
misbehaving. With this in mind, here are ten of my teaching tips,
most of which are simply articulated common sense.

1. Show an interest in your learner's lives and tell them

about yours.
If you notice that one of your students has a new pair of trainers,
ask them where they bought them. This might even spark an
impromptu discussion on shopping preferences. Similarly, if you
notice a student is quieter than usual, take him or her aside and
ask why. Students are also interested in us, so tell them
something about yourself!

2. Find out what your learners are interested in.

If your class is interested in music, start a music project. Every
week, a different class member has to bring in their favourite
song with a worksheet for his or her peers to complete whilst
listening. The worksheet could simply be a copy of the lyrics with
the first word of each line removed. By asking the learners to
bring in the music and lyrics, not only are you encouraging
learner autonomy but also removing the onus on you to find
music that your students will like.

3. Use appropriate material and personalise wherever

possible.
Very good coursebooks have been written for young learners that
provide relevant topics, for example, sports, school, music,
famous people etc. However, if a topic is not going to interest
your class, you may need to adapt it. For example, instead of
asking a class if they have ever met a brain surgeon, ask them to
imagine they are going to meet a brain surgeon and think about
the questions they would like to ask.

4. Treat your learners like adults, don't patronise.

Drop the silly sing–song voice. By treating learners like adults,
you set the tone--I expect you to behave like adults, too.

5. Fun doesn't always mean games, videos, and songs (but

they can help).
Young learners like "fun" classes but what is fun? Fun doesn't
mean songs and games, but classes where the students are fully
engaged and take an active part. That doesn't rule out a song to
reward hard work, though.

6. Pace in a class can be maintained by varying the…

 Activity. Find the balance between too few and too many
activities. Consider the activity type. Sixty minutes of
"stirring" activities, such as board races and running
dictations, could overexcite the class and have a disastrous
effect. "Settling" activities, such as copying from the board
or listening to a cassette will calm a class down, but once
again too much could deaden the classroom atmosphere
completely.
 Student Focus. Make use of the classroom. Ask the students
to focus on the board, at a later point use flashcards on the
floor, and then the course book, etc.
 Interaction. Too much teacher interacting with the whole
class could lead to blank faces. Also use groupwork,
pairwork and individual work.

7. Take into account attention spans.

Research suggests that after an initial settling down period of
about 3 minutes, student attention is at a peak for the first 15-20
minutes of any class. Take advantage of this moment to present
new language. Use short "wake-up" activities to spark attention,
such as repeat this sentence after me-- "She sells sea shells on
the seashore"--or a quick round of "hangman."

8. Find out about school policy. Establish the class rules

with your learners and stick to them.
Go though the class rules on the first day and repeat this at
intervals throughout the school year. Let your learners know
what will happen if they "break" these rules and make sure you
impose the penalty if the rules are broken.

9. Praise and encourage (but where due).

Young learners like to know when they are doing well, so tell
them. However, praising a student who has done something
ridiculously easy is patronising. Be aware of how much attention
you give to those who deserve to be praised and those who
misbehave.

10. Avoid confronting and/or humiliating learners in front

of their peers.
In front of their peers, many troublemakers become braver. It's
much easier to confront your teacher in front of your friends. Ask
the "offender" to stay behind after class.

The First Day of English Class for Young Learners (and

Their Parents)

Shahin Vaezi
Iran University of Science and Technology
Tehran, Iran
sh_vaezi [Link]

I have been teaching to young learners age 6 to 13 for 16 years

now. In the beginning years, I didn't have much to share with
friends and colleagues. Now that I have more experience I would
like to state that the first session is very important. Over the
years, I have built up a repertoire of what I should say and do to
orient the course to the students and their parents. I am also
able to anticipate the types of encounters that will come about
and the types of questions that will be asked. Therefore, these
are some of the things I do in the first session.

It is important to note that what is introduced here in the form of

some guidelines for the first day of English class for young
learners and their parents is very culture- and context-bound to
the country in which I teach, Iran. Therefore, some modifications
will be natural in other contexts and situations.

I introduce myself using a title (Miss/Ms./Mr.). I usually don't like

to be called by my first name because it is not very usual in our
culture--although it has become popular. So you can ask your
students to call you by your first name if it's appropriate.

I try to learn my students' names starting with the first session.

It is important not to forget any of the students' names. There
will be names that are hard to recall. If there is enough time, I
will go around the class trying to relate faces to names. When I
have a large number of students, I make name cards on pieces of
cardboard and have them either hang them around their necks
or place them on their desks in the form of stand-up cards.

I ask my students to take out the books and materials they are to
use during the whole term. I introduce the books one by one by
holding them up and presenting their titles. For instance, for a
workbook I would say: " Look, this is your workbook," and have
them repeat the word "workbook" after hearing it a couple of
times. This activity goes on until all the books are introduced and
can be recognized by all the students. So, when I say, "Take out
your textbook," they know which book they will be working on.

I also have them write their names and last names on their
belongings, particularly their books and notebooks. If they are
literate in English (usually the older students ), I move around
the class to ensure they aren't making any mistakes and are
doing what they are told to do. In my students' native language
(Persian), writing is from right to left, and there is no
capitalization. This may even cause some novice writers to prefer
to write their name on the back cover of their books, especially
their notebooks. So I pay attention to how novice writers write.
But, if they are not writing-literate, I go around the class writing
their names in their books for them. In such a case, the number
of students, the time available, the gender of the students (boys
are usually harder to control in our society--most probably due to
culture-bound social characteristics attributed to boys) will be a
determining factor on how to go about this task.

If the class is large, I prepare nametags (stickers) that include

the first names and last names of the students beforehand .
Then, in class I help them stick the name stickers on their books.

I tell them how we do the roll call and that each student should
say "present" once s/he hears his/ her name. I ask the students to
say "absent" when a student I call is not present.
I introduce and/or review some classroom objects and classroom
language (clichés , set phrases, or sentences) that will make
classroom routines flow smoothly. Some usual classroom objects
are:

book, pen, ruler, board, notebook, eraser, pencil case, door, pen
sharpener, desk, window, chalk, marker

Some other useful terms are:

teacher, quiz, student, report card, homework

Classroom language may include some of the following:

Listen. Answer.

Repeat. Write.

Come to the board. Read.

Go to your seat. May I go out?

Be quiet. May I come in?

Stand up, please. Please sit down.

Depending on the maturity of the students, I explain the course

objectives and what I expect of them. They will be informed
about the following issues. (Note that some issues may not be
relevant in some contexts).

 how long each class and course may be

 what they will need to bring to class
 what they will need to do at home (on their own)
 what they should do when they are absent
 how they will be assessed/tested
 how to review for quizzes and tests
 how many quizzes or tests they will have to take and when

Another responsibility incumbent on teachers of young learners

is the interaction they have to have with the parents of their
students . Thus, although it may seem that parents are always in
the background, this is not the case. Parents are the ever-
existing, and sometimes invisible, sources of power and
inspiration that sometimes aid and sometimes hinder your
attempts. It is a good idea to meet with the parents of your
students at the beginning of the course, if not in the first session
(of course, this may not be possible for all teachers). It would
appropriate to recommend that your school, institute, or center
make an initial meeting with parents possible for you. In this
session, it is beneficial to inform parents about the following:

 what you expect your students to know now that they have
enrolled in class (entry behavior)
 what they are to gain from the course (exit behavior)
 what general perspective you will take in how you want to
teach or manage the class and course
 what type of materials and supplementary materials you
will be using
 how their children will be assessed, tested, or evaluated
 what they can do to help their children at home and what
they shouldn't do
 how to monitor their children's success or to be aware of
slow or no progress
 how you will report whether their children are progressing
or in need of special help

The ESOL Teaching Adventure in Elementary Grades

Ana Notario
Beaufort County School System, South Carolina, USA
<notary_ [Link]>

My journey to the United States rewarded me with one of the

most interesting experiences both in my professional and
personal life. I could have never imagined how much self
learning and experimentation through an array of
methodological methods I was about to encounter and practice
when I was hired as an ESOL "pull-out" teacher for a rural school
in South Carolina. Though I was provided with plenty of
curricular materials, I have always had a zeal for investigating
and practicing new ideas. My student population was varied
according to different and sometimes opposite parameters: from
students who knew no English to others performing at advanced
levels. This is in addition to the scheduling inconveniencies of a
pull-out program. All my colleagues were positive and
collaborative, but negotiation was a must when I needed to
adjust not only to time but to many different levels. Soon I
realized that grade level and age level were not necessarily
matched, so I had to design beginners' activities for children in
fourth and fifth grades, since they had little or no knowledge of
English. Very detailed tasks, easy directions, and scaffolding
related to these students' needs were to be handled carefully so
they didn't feel either overwhelmed or hurt in the learning
process.

When you introduce upper grade students to essential

vocabulary, picture dictionaries, and foreign language phonetics,
they might think, "This teacher, who I know can speak perfect
Spanish, is mean. Why is she speaking to me in a language that I
cannot understand?" Here is where the magic of communicative
methods and TPR techniques is put into action.

As I stated at the beginning of this article, self learning,

research, and mainstream teachers' observations were an
essential part of my developing ESOL backpack or collection of
materials that I kept in folders for the coming years. Technology
and ESOL Internet websites opened in front of me as incredible
and fruitful teaching sources. We all know how attractive and
acquisition-enhancing they are, especially for vocabulary
activities and phonetic drills with visual and kinesthetic learners;
most of my ESL students fell into either one of these learning
styles. ESL students need to "feel and see" what the instructor is
trying to convey so they can supplement their L2 level. This first
group of students are third graders now, and it is so rewarding
and exciting to see how they can manage themselves in their L2
with confidence and eagerness to learn more. Some of them are
now on the Honor Roll or have received a "Proficient in Science"
assessment on the PACT (the South Carolina state test held at
the end of each school year).

With lower grade students (Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and

first and second grades), I experimented what ESOL teachers
call "the sponge phenomenon." Children either born in the USA
or with an early exposure to English language (Pre-K or
Kindergarteners) tend to learn faster than the older students.
This factor is optimal to use in a natural learning approach, and
makes activities in the classroom setting very attractive for the
teacher. I used a lot of learning through playing and reciting. I
would highly recommend a curriculum that promotes rhymes,
sight reading, TPR, singing, and shared reading. The children
loved this, and so did I!

I also organized informative meetings for Latino parents, so they

could understand the developmental factors that may occur
when their children adopt the L2 as the dominant language.
Parental reading--also in Spanish--is very important in vocabulary
acquisition, especially at early stages, so the students are able to
build upon concepts and realia.

I am not in favor of rote memory techniques, so I always try to

use flashcards and posters. I understand that some students may
work better learning long paragraphs or units, but not in the
language learning process. (That was my personal experience as
an au pair in England when I had to learn the names of kitchen
utensils. Whenever I had to grab a ladle or open a cupboard and
say the name of what my landlady requested, that concept stuck
in my memory.)

I feel very fortunate to be given this wonderful opportunity to

work at these early stages of language learning and observe the
development of both social and academic language in children. I
hope many other teachers can share this feeling and continue to
discover the wonderful world of ESOL in elementary school in
another country.

My special thanks to all the staff at Lady's Island Elementary in

Beaufort County School District in South Carolina and to my
beloved group of ESL students.

A Few Tips from Slovenia: Effective Communication

Karmen Feher
Pionirski dom Language School
Ljubljana, Slovenia
<[Link] [Link]>

To learn to listen and speak first forms a part of the natural

language learning process for any child. Children like
communicating and should be encouraged to use the language
they are learning as much as possible. In class, this can be
achieved by creating situations through activities that enable
them to use their imagination and build up their confidence, and
outside it, by encouraging them to use English whenever they
can, also when speaking with their friends.
No doubt, particularly in the first years, developing
communicative ability should come before developing
grammatical accuracy. It is equally important, however, that
pupils' willingness to speak in a foreign language is not hindered
by (and when) taking tests. On the contrary, their first
experience of language testing should be an enjoyable one and
tests should, therefore, provide such activities that could be
viewed as games, so that children would not only learn from
them but also enjoy them.

Good examples of such tests are international tests for young

learners. They exist in several languages and have already been
taken by many pupils in various language and mainstream
schools. They are visually attractive and they sample relevant
and meaningful language use. Moreover, they promote effective
language learning and teaching and therefore represent a solid
stepping stone towards effective communication.

It Works in Practice: A Puppet, a Ball or a Bottle?

Tatjana Kociper-Štepec
Pionirski dom Language School
Ljubljana, Slovenia

What kind of communication skills can we develop with five- to

eight-year-old children? Most adults are sceptical about this idea,
despite a teacher's effort to prove how good children can be at
speaking. I once heard someone joke about it: "What do you talk
about? Science? Ha, ha!" I did not hesitate to ask him in return:
"What did you talk to your son about when he was six years old?"
At this age, pupils are supposed to be able to function in useful,
daily situations, responding to questions such as:

- What's your name?

- How old are you?
- How many people are in your family?
- How old is your sister? What's her name?
- What's your favourite colour?
- Have you got a pet? name? colour? favourite food?
- Are you hungry? What would you like to eat? etc.

And, how do we teach them? In my opinion, children learn best

through playing games. Games hold children's interest and
motivate them to speak. Here are three ways of challenging
young learners to start talking about themselve:

a. a puppet – Use a puppet to ask children simple questions.

Children's imaginations help them to communicate with puppets
easily.
b. a ball – Ask a question, throw a ball to a child, and he or she
catches it, he or she answers the question.
c. a bottle – Ask a question, spin a bottle, and when it stops, it
points to a child who answers the question.

An important element of teaching young learners is repetition. I

usually spend five minutes on speaking at the beginning of the
lesson. Before I start playing these games, I usually show them a
lot of pictures, photos, toys, etc. so that they are familiar with the
vocabulary before the game.

Example: When you talk about family, they should bring some
photos of their family to school and name the people in it. When
you talk about food, bring some fruit, for instance, and taste it.

Drawing Dictation

I have attended several IATEFL conferences, and the workshops

I choose are often a source of my creativity in the classroom. At
first, I am aware of the origin of some activity but eventually I
forget where it comes from and adapt it to suit my pupils' needs.
Below you will find one of these activities. The aim of this activity
is to teach the children how to speak about themselves. It is a
drawing dictation.
The teacher's instructions:

Draw:

- a circle. This is your head.

- two eyes. The eyes are open if you live in a town and closed if
you live in a village.
- a big nose if you have a brother, a small nose if you have a
sister, and a nose covered with freckles if you are an only child.
- a smiling mouth if you are 11 years old and a sad mouth if you
are older.
- short hair if you can speak more than one language and long
hair if you speak only one language.
- a t-shirt if you can ski (skate, roller-blade, ride a skateboard,
etc.) and a sweater if you can't.
- shorts if you live in a house and blue jeans if you live in a flat.
- yourself barefoot if you have a pet but wearing trainers if you
don't have a pet.

Now, look at the picture and tell me something about yourself.

Look at your partner's picture and tell me about his or her life.

Experiences from Argentina, Teaching English to Young

Learners: Successful Learning

Leonor Corradi
Argentina
<mlcm_prof [Link]>

Teaching children is one of the most rewarding experiences a

teacher can ever have. Why is this so? Young learners learn
naturally. The world is opened up to them, which they find
fascinating if they can make sense of it. This sense of
achievement results in them being highly motivated and open to
more learning. One of the key elements for this to take place is
the teachers' commitment to what they're doing, and a strong
belief that anybody can learn. We teachers should remember that
we are educators who educate children through English. This
means attending to the human being as a whole and not to the
cognitive aspect only. Educator Jerome Bruner says that teachers
should take the "three h's" into account: head-thinking, hand-
doing, and heart-feeling, and not just educate from the neck up.
For this to happen, we have to start where learners are; we
should be able to empathise with them, to see the world from
their perspective. It is only when we see the world "with our
children's eyes" that we can really help children make sense. It
may take longer, but it's worth it. This may sound difficult to
achieve because there are many constraints--the number of
students in a group, time constraints, a syllabus to cover--to
name but a few. However, it is feasible. I am working in a project
with primary school children in some state schools in the city of
Buenos Aires. Classes are large, with at least 30 children per
group. The children at these schools come from poor
backgrounds with very little access to what middle class people
enjoy. Learning English on a private basis, which is what most
middle class learners do, is impossible for them. There is also the
assumption, well established in society--and held by many
educators and administrators--that school is not the place to
learn English, unless the school is a private bilingual one, and
that these poor children cannot learn as well as others. Despite
all this, the results we are getting are amazing.

The project started in 2001 in six schools located in the outskirts

of the Buenos Aires. To this day, I remember the first time we
showed textbooks to children. Many were amazed, for it was the
first time they held a colourful book in their hands. Some even
said the pages felt like flowers, as they were glossy. We could not
but thank the opportunity we had to show these children and
society how much you can do if you are a true educator. We
organise our syllabi based on the belief that language is a means
to convey and understand meanings, and not a collection of
grammar and vocabulary areas. There is a grammatical syllabus
that we follow, but we make it a point that grammar is not the
starting point. There's also a syllabus for cross-curricular
objectives, which offer us the possibility to show language in a
different context. Children also see English as part of other
activities they do at school, and not as an isolated subject. There
is a third syllabus for language skills and one for educational
objectives such as development of autonomy, literacy,
organisation skills and thinking skills.

The syllabi are interwoven into one so that teachers should see
the process as a whole and not as a number of independent
activities to be carried out. There's another element in the
syllabus which helps in this respect, as it integrates English and
educational objectives naturally. This element is routines. There
are moments for routines in every lesson, which give us an
opportunity to use language meaningfully. This is not unplanned
or non-graded, incidental teaching. On the contrary, routines are
well planned and integrated into the syllabus. Routines help kids
see the organisation of every class, which saves time and helps
them become autonomous. They also provide a permanent
source of learning. With the youngest ones, typical routines
include songs and language related to the weather, the seasons,
the days of the week, and much more. As children grow older,
they are in charge of organising routines, asking questions to
complete the calendar, writing the date and the day planner. The
simple past tense is introduced in a natural way with first grade
children when they know their way around the calendar. We
start with something very simple like, "Today is Tuesday, what
about yesterday?" (with a gesture). Children say, "Monday," so
we show them they were right by saying, "Yes, yesterday was
Monday." Then we add a comment on the weather yesterday,
such as, "It was cold and rainy." Before the end of the year, we
play a game with children to see how much they remember about
the weather. For instance, we ask them, "What was the weather
like last Monday?" They answer our questions, and many start
producing sentences on their own without our prompting them
when we start our work on the calendar.

With second graders, as part of the routine, we include the

children's activities over the weekend. We first tell them where
we went and who we visited. They take over immediately. Then
we add what they played. They know exactly what they want to
say and they manage to say it. We then include ate, saw,
drank, and any other verb they may find necessary to talk about
their own lives. We also ask questions using the Simple Past
Tense and they answer "Yes" or "No." If a child tells us he/she
went to the cinema, we immediately ask. "Did you like the
film?" The child will say, "Yes" or "No" spontaneously. We also
ask Wh-questions related to what they're telling us. In the same
situation, we might ask, "When did you go?" The children
answer, "On Saturday." Some tend to say just "Saturday," and we
provide corrective feedback by saying, "Ah, on Saturday." Other
questions related to the situation can be: "What cinema did you
go to? Where did you go after the cinema?" Children find no
trouble in answering them. Of course, they would tend to say
only what the new information is, that is, "The
Odeon," or "Multiplex," which is what we would say in a natural
conversation. Only seldom do we use full answers in the flow of
conversation. By the time we have to focus the learners'
attention on the Simple Past Tense, they know it and use it
already, though they are unaware of the difference between
regular and irregular verbs. Some children may have already
started using didn't in negative utterances without knowing
that did is an auxiliary that carries tense and that therefore, the
main verb has to take the infinitive form. We never focus on
explaining how English works. We help learners become aware,
which is much more powerful for they come to conclusions
themselves. Our role is transformed from experts at giving
answers into experts at asking questions to guide learners in
their learning process.

The main purpose of our job is to educate children. Going beyond

English when we teach them is easier to achieve if you are a true
educator. Information can be obtained almost everywhere today.
A true educator goes beyond information. A true educator is the
person who will help children transform information into
knowledge by using the head, hands and heart.

How to Write Excellent Lesson Aims

NOVEMBER 14, 2016 ~ THEBESTTICHER

Lesson Aims/Stage Aims/Learning Objectives/Learning

Intentions: you’ve encountered them on every
CELTA/observation lesson plan you’ve had to write, and yet they
remain one of the hardest things to do well. It can be tempting to
try to overlook writing them completely – if you don’t have to
write them, then don’t.
Nowadays I routinely write lesson aims for the majority of the
classes I teach – through choice, not because I have to. Why
would I do such a thing? Well-written lesson aims can make a
huge difference to whether your students learn (and both you and
they know that learning is taking place) or not. In short, good
learning objectives can be the difference between a good lesson
and a bad one. So, how can you make sure your lesson aims fall
into the ‘good’ camp, rather than the ‘bad’ one?

One of the easiest ways to understand what ‘good’ aims look like
is by looking at an example – and also by seeing examples of
what not to do! So I’m going to put myself on the line here. These
lesson aims are real examples: some of my main aims for
observed lessons during my first year of teaching. Oh boy. I’m not
proud of them.
To be honest, these aims are pretty bad – and I’m amazed I even
passed the observation for the final one (complete with spelling
mistake). They’re vague, don’t focus on the right things, and
wouldn’t be very helpful if I’m trying to figure out if my students
have learned anything or not. So, let’s look at some of the
problems.

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Why are these aims quite so unhelpful?
Well, not all of them are aims, for a start. They tell us about
what tasks or activities the students will be doing, but not why
they will be doing them.
They talk about what the teacher will be doing, not what
the students will be doing.
They aren’t specific enough.
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There’s no allowance for differentiation.

There’s no way of telling if some of these aims have been
achieved. Students will ‘practise vocabulary’ – but do they
understand it? Can they produce it? Have they actually learned
anything?
So, we’ve seen ‘what not to do’. How do
we make these aims better?
Compare the lesson aims above with these aims below, which I
wrote for an observed lesson as part of the Young Learner
extension course I took this time last year.

They look a bit different, don’t they?

Let’s look at what these lesson aims do better:
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How can you improve your own lesson aims: so they look more
like the ones above, and less like the ones at the beginning of the
post? You could Google examples and then try to base all the
lesson aims you ever write on those models… but that’s time-
consuming and not tremendously practical.
What can you do on a day-to-day basis? This is far from my own
idea (today I’m just the messenger) but in order to write good
lesson aims, think of the acronym: ‘SMART’.

Specific
You see where my final lesson aims are far clearer than the ones
preceding them? That’s because they’re far more specific. If you
want your students to achieve your lesson aims, you’re going to
have to be clear about exactly what it is that you want them to
do. They’re going to learn new vocabulary? What vocab is
it? What are they going to be able to do with that vocab at
the end of the lesson that they can’t do at the beginning?

Measurable
You need to be able to tell if your students have achieved the aim
or not, and therefore it needs to have some kind of measurable
result. You can’t tell if your students have ‘learned vocabulary’
because you can’t see into their brains. However, you can tell if
they can recognise the words/produce them. A measurable aim is
something that you can say ‘Yes, my students did this’, ‘No, my
students didn’t do this’ – or something in the middle.

Achievable (by ALL the students)

This is where differentiation comes into play. Whatever you’re
going to do in the lesson needs to involve the right level of
challenge – and that isn’t just about not making it too difficult, but
also not making it too easy (don’t try to teach 25 new vocabulary
words to 6 year-olds, but equally don’t just teach them one new
word either). You might even include elements of differentiation
in your plan: Some students will…, most students will…, but the
main element of your aim should be achievable by all your
students.

Relevant
Is it linked with a topic/activity that students have already
studied? Is it something that they have expressed an interest in?
Is it a skill that they need (for example study skills, exam
technique or something they need to be able to do for work)? Is it
aligned with a coursebook or syllabus you are using? You don’t
need to necessarily write why your aims are relevant in your plan
– but it’s a good idea to know why you’re teaching them this
thing.

Time-framed
By the end of the lesson… at the end of the activity… over the
course of the term… when exactly do you want your students to
have achieved this aim by? A helpful way to start yourself off on
the right foot here is to begin your aims with ‘By the end of the
lesson, students will be able to…’
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I’d offer one tiny extra tip of my own: when writing lesson aims, I
always used to put them off as long as possible. Therefore I’d
write the whole plan… and then figure out the aims
afterwards. Decide what to do, and then figure out why
you’re doing it?! I hope the problem with that approach is fairly
obvious. Even if you hate writing them, even if the difference
between ‘good lesson aims’ and ‘bad lesson aims’ seems like
navigating a minefield, figure out your aims first, then decide
what activities will help your students to achieve them.

Lesson Planning: Anticipated Problems

If you're taking CELTA at our centre, you'll be asked to submit lesson plans for every lesson you
teach, and you'll be asked to anticipate a variety of problems and solutions related to classroom
management, developing skills (reading / listening / speaking / writing) and teaching language
systems (grammar / vocabulary / functions).

A lot of our trainees have been struggling with this - we often see things like 'students will think that
'concrete' means 'specific' because of L1 interference' as a problem related to classroom
management, whereas this is something we indicate in our language analysis.

I'm hoping that this activity will help clarify which problems should be indicated on the cover page of
a lesson plan (those related to classroom management and teaching skills), and which ones should
be part of language analysis (problems with teaching grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation)

Below you'll see a list of potential problems. Before you move on, decide which of these problems
are related to Classroom Management and which are related to Developing Skills (Reading /
Listening / Speaking / Writing):
1. language presentation / controlled practice / reading for detail might take too long
2. one of the students may become disruptive during the lesson
3. some of the students might be late which will result in problems with lesson stages and grouping
4. stronger students might dominate and want to answer / speak out at most stages of the lesson
5. student X and students Y don't work together well
6. students don't know how to check answers in pairs and will want to copy from each other
7. students might be of different levels (mixed ability / mixed level group)
8. students might be reluctant to write / talk about personal topics
9. students might be reluctant to write / talk about topics which aren't directly related to their
immediate needs / interest
10. students might be tired / sleepy
11. students might be unable to keep up with the group dynamics and lose track of what's going on
12. students might be unable to note down answers to all of the questions during listening for detail
13. students might be weaker than expected and therefore the reading / listening text will be too
difficult
14. students might get bored
15. students might get stuck with some new words while reading the text and therefore be unable to
find answers to detailed questions
16. students might lack ideas for speaking / writing
17. students might not have pens and / or paper
18. students might not understand my instructions
19. students might run out of ideas very fast at the stage of writing / speaking
20. students might want to read every word at the stage of gist reading
21. students might want to understand / memorize every word at the stage of gist listening and
therefore get lost
22. students will want to talk to the teacher rather than their partners
23. students won't like the topic / will be reluctant to talk about romance and relationship
24. technology (computer / projector) won't be working
25. there might be an even number of students (if you want students to work in groups of three)
26. there might be an odd number of students (if you're planning pair work)
And here's our cheat-sheet for you (answers are in white - please highlight the lines below to see the
answers):

Classroom management problems:

a) b) c) d) e) f) g) j) k) n) q) r) x) y) z)

Problems with teaching skills (reading / listening / speaking / writing):

h) i) l) m) o) p) s) t) u) v) w)

Hope this helps, and please remember to anticipate solutions - more in our next post!
Often when teachers are faced with large classes they begin to worry about how
they will teach. It’s tempting to simply let the classes become teacher fronted and
turn into lectures. If the entire course is like this it’s a bit of a shame, as opportunities
for students to practise and use the language are quite limited. In this respect, large
classes are viewed as problematic and in a negative light. However, this does not
need to be the case. Yes, large classes, especially those of 100+, are a challenge
but there are many positive aspects to such classes. For us, one of the biggest
plusses is the dynamic nature of such classes. With so many students there are lots
of opportunities to get people to work together, compare, discuss and benefit from
the variety of voices.

Of course, there are practical implications both in terms of arranging activities and
issues with things such as photocopying. So, here are a few tips on how to deal with
large classes including using reading texts. We go from the easiest to the more
challenging.

Choral drilling
With a large group, choral drilling can work quite well. In its most basic form, choral
drilling involves you giving an oral model of a word or phrase and the whole class
repeating it.

Choral drilling can be quite a lot of fun, and it can make some bits of language more
memorable. Just ask Li Yang, the founder of Crazy English – a method of learning
English in China. He has classes of over twenty thousand (20,000 that’s right!) and
uses choral drilling as part of his method – getting his students to shout phrases out
loud.

Use choral drilling to practise new words or phrases, especially phrases that will be
useful in a future communicative activity. You can also do choral drilling for dialogues
(first you say and they repeat, then you say one bit and they say the other, then they
do it in two large groups) before asking students to practice it in pairs together. See
 the sections on drills and dialogues in the Teaching with Minimal Resources section for
more ideas and material.

Note: if you feel uncomfortable always giving the model sentence then use a
listening exercise from a CD or tape if you have one.

Think, pair, share

This is a technique we learned from large university lectures in North America. Put
up on the board or project the words: THINK-PAIR-SHARE. Briefly explain the
meaning:

 Think individually about your answer to the question.

 Pair with the person next to you.

 Share your thoughts, in English.

Then ask your first question and point to the word THINK. Ask them to think quietly
about their answer. Then point to PAIR and let them turn to a partner. Then point to
SHARE and gesture for them to share their answers – in English.

Use this technique for short pairwork speaking activities (search the Speaking Skills
lessons section for material containing discussion questions) or for comprehension
tasks based on texts (use the Topical News lessons section).

Dictogloss
A wonderful technique that really lends itself well to large classes, especially when
there is limited movement because of layout issues. Pick a short text (perhaps a
paragraph from one of the Topical News lessons section). Ask your students to close
their notebooks and put down their pens. Explain that you will read a text and you
want them to listen carefully.

Read the text and then ask students to write down everything they can remember.
Put students in pairs or small groups and ask them to share ideas and try and
reconstruct the text. If you want you can read it out again, but make sure students
aren’t writing while you are dictating. You could also write up a series of questions on
the board (these could be the comprehension questions) and tell students that the
answers to the questions will help them reconstruct the text.

Using an anecdote
Choose one of the anecdotes from the Teacher Anecdotes section and tell your
students you are going to read out a short story that happened to someone. You
might want to take the opportunity to turn this into a prediction activity. You could
read out a few lines and then ask students to talk in pairs or small groups and predict
 what happened next. Then continue the story and watch a few of your students to
see who got it right – you’ll easily be able to tell from their reaction.

You could also turn it into a vocabulary prediction activity. Read a part of the story
and then stop. Ask students to write down the next word. Again, get them to
compare with a partner before continuing with the story. Both of these ideas give
students an extra reason to listen and will help them focus. Of course, as a follow-up
you could ask students to work in small groups and share their own anecdotes
around a certain topic.

Group leaders
With a class of 148 students, groupwork is going to be very difficult. However, we
have seen groupwork used in large classes. One thing that helps is asking groups to
assign a leader. So, in a class of 100 you might have twenty groups of 5 students.
The group leaders can:

 report back on a speaking activity

 collect written work and hand it back to the teacher (or exchange with another group and do
peer correction)

 be responsible for checking answers to an exercise (you prepare copies of the answers and
give a copy to each group leader once they have finished doing the exercise)

If you and your students get into using groups, you may want to experiment with the
following favourite techniques.

Jigsaw texts
Another technique is to take a longer text and make 30 copies. You could use the
material in the Reading Skills section. Cut the text into five sections (A-E). Put your
students into groups of five and give each student within a group one section of the
text. Each student reads their text and then summarises the content for the other
students.

Follow-up activities can include deciding on the correct order of the five sections and
the standard comprehension question that would normally be done for the whole
text. Of course, both these activities require the students within a group to work
together and help each other.

Running Dictation
This activity is a favourite of many teachers but requires a little extra thought with
large classes. After all, you can’t really have 74 students running backwards and
forwards! However, if you divide your class into groups of five or six, one student can
be the messenger and must read a text that is posted on the wall of the classroom.
They then run between the text and the other four or five students in their group.
These students listen to the ‘runner’ and write the text. Each time the ‘runner’ goes
back to the text to read the next piece the ‘scribes’ can compare what they have
written and help each other. This means in a class of 148 there are thirty runners.
This activity works best where the texts are no longer than a paragraph.

For more activities that you can use/adapt for large classes, see the section
on Teaching English with minimal resources. Good luck with it.

Unit 3: Structuring your Lesson

1. Introduction

In the previous unit, we explored how to write the first page of a lesson plan bearing in
mind the learners we are teaching and the context of the lesson.

This unit will explain two clear procedures for structuring your lesson plans and will
demonstrate practical ideas and examples to help you develop great activities. It is
designed to give you real materials that you can use as you start your teaching career.
 Structuring your lesson
 Teaching Techniques
 Ideas for warmers and coolers
 The PPP Method

2. Structuring a Lesson Plan

The purpose of a lesson plan is to give you a clear structure for your lesson. It should
provide you with the information that you need to ensure that your lesson can run
smoothly.

Before you read on, spend a few minutes thinking about what you might include in your
lesson plan.

Click to reveal
Your lesson plan needs to clearly set out the activities that you will be doing, divided into
logical stages.
For each stage, you must include the following information:
• What the stage is

• How long the stage will last

• The specific activities that you will be delivering

• The interaction pattern for that stage / activity (e.g. a teacher-led presentation, students
working in small groups, the students mingling as a class). Codes are often used in the
plan - S-S (student to student interaction), T-S (teacher-fronted presentation), Ss-
Ss (students working in groups, mingling). You can also use OCFB (open class
feedback) if students are sharing their answers or ideas as a whole class.

• The material that you will need to deliver the activities

Some teachers also like to include additional information in their plans, for example:

• Why you are doing the activity

• Potential problems related to each stage of the lesson

• How the actual lesson went (useful for reflecting on and learning from your lessons)

Layout of your plan

Most lesson plans set out the information in a table, with a separate row dedicated to
each stage of the lesson. You may need to use a lesson plan layout provided by your
school.

Otherwise, as we said in the last unit, the layout that you use is not particularly important
if the information is clear. Here is one option:

Stage Stage Aim Time Interaction Teacher’s Students

Name Pattern procedure will…

Example: Example: Example: Example: Example: Example:

Warmer To engage 10 T-S Show pictures Students

the minutes (teacher to of 3 different will
learners in students) sports – identify the
the lesson, football lesson topic
to activate (team), tennis
the (one vs one), Learners
learner’s S-S marathon will use
prior (student to running their
knowledge student in a (individual) previous
of the topic pair)* knowledge
Ask students to make
to discuss the links to the
advantages topic
and
disadvantages
of each type of
sport
*it's commonplace to use abbreviations in this column

Setting out the lesson plan in this way will help you to check that:

 You have organised the material into a logical structure that students will be able
to follow easily
 You are using a range of different types of activities, reflecting the different
learner styles of your class and a range of interaction patterns to keep students
motivated (see codes above)
 You know exactly what materials and resources you will need to have prepared

You will find an example lesson plan at the end of this unit.

3. Teaching Techniques

In addition to the teaching methodologies we looked at in unit 1, there are also several
teaching techniques that you can use to introduce your target language to a class. Here
is an overview of the main teaching techniques:

Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP)

PPP is a relatively simple and logical way of structuring your lessons. You can combine
it with other teaching techniques to produce a full lesson adjusted to your specific
students’ needs. We will look at this in more detail later in the unit. PPP is the strategy
used most often in coursebooks and is preferred by teachers with limited experience.

As the name suggests, a PPP lesson has three key stages:

1. Presentation: the teacher presents an item of language in a clear context to

convey its meaning and students learn the meaning, form and pronunciation of
the new language
2. Practice: the lesson moves onto a controlled stage, in which students practise
only the new language
3. Production: during the final stage, students carry out activities designed to
practise the new language using all the English they already know

It does, however, have some limitations and is certainly not the only way to structure a
lesson.

Test, Teach, Test

In a Test, Teach, Test lesson, you first ask your students to complete a task without any
help.

Whilst the students are carrying out this activity, you monitor the class and identify your
students’ language needs. (Test)

You then present the target language, based on the needs you have identified. (Teach)
Finally, the lesson ends with a repeat of the initial activity (or a similar activity), which
students should now be able to complete successfully. (Test)

This is particularly useful for learners of intermediate level or above who might have
learnt the lesson content before. The teacher can see where students are still struggling.

Task Based Learning

Task Based Learning uses tasks as the basic units for planning and teaching. Instead of
being taught predefined language items, students are given problems to solve.
Language is then provided in response to their needs.

For example, you could give your students a train timetable and ask them to find out the
fastest way from Point A to Point B. To complete the task, they must work with other
students. You, as the teacher, provide individual support with language during the task
plus group feedback at the end. This means that the language the students learn is
determined by what happens during the task.

It is worth noting that, in practice, Task Based Learning is usually applied in a modified
form. For example, the teacher may provide a model of someone doing the task followed
by tasks that help them develop useful language or strategies.

This image taken from a useful blog, explains how a TBL lesson is organised.

Text Based Learning

Text Based Learning is based on learning a language using a single text, usually a book.

However, this doesn’t mean that your students simply read a text. You need to be
creative: bring the text to life with activities, vocabulary and structures linked to the topic.
It is also important to involve your students in the choice of the text, as they need to be
sufficiently interested in it to keep learning.

Guided Discovery

As with the teaching methods, you are likely to draw on several different techniques to
create lessons that are suitable for the class and topic you are teaching. For example, in
a PPP lesson, you might present your target language through Guided
Discovery. Follow the link for more information on this teaching technique.

Advantages and Challenges

Think again about PPP, Task Based Learning, Text Based Learning, Guided Discovery
and Test, Teach, Test. There are advantages and challenges to using each of the above
techniques. Spend a few minutes considering what some of these might be.

Click to reveal
Techniqu Advantages Challenges
e

PPP  Simple and logical way of  Lessons are usually

structuring lessons structured around specific
 Enables you to use a range areas of language. This
of different activities to leaves less opportunity for
meet your students’ needs students to freely explore
 Helps students to know what vocabulary
stage they have reached in  There can be a fair amount
an individual lesson of teacher-led time in a
 Helps build students’ lesson. However, this can be
confidence, as learning is in overcome by incorporating a
controlled stages range of interactive-type
activities into your lessons

Task  Very interactive / engaging  Lessons need to be prepared

Based for students and managed well, to ensure
Learning  Students gain confidence they stay on track
from trying to find new  Students can lose motivation
language if they don’t have the
 Vocabulary is learnt in a language that they need to
more natural way, in carry out the task
response to need successfully
 Language is not limited to a  Learning is unsystematic.
predetermined set Students can miss out on
important pieces of
vocabulary / language,
simply because they do not
arise in the task

Text  Consistent and frequent use  Students can get bored with
Based of vocabulary using the same text in every
Learning  Real language is being used lesson
in a real context – it’s not  Vocabulary can be limited
graded or selected and restrictive

Guided  Encourages independence  Students can lose motivation

Discovery  Can increase motivation, as if they can’t identify the
students become confident language points
in their abilities  The focus on “discovery” can
 Makes learning more lead to students talking in
memorable their native language
 Can be a good interactive  Lessons need to be well-
task, if the discovery is planned to ensure that
carried out in groups students can learn the
 intended points

Test,  Students' immediate  You need to be very flexible

Teach, language needs are to respond to a range of
Test identified and addressed possible needs
 Students can easily see the  Students can become
progress that they have frustrated and/or bored at
made during the lesson, by not completing the initial
comparing the outcomes of task
the first test to the one they  Students can lose motivation
complete at the end of the when they can’t complete
lesson the initial task
 Can be particularly useful for
addressing specific language
problems at intermediate
level or above
 Can be useful to identify
individual objectives in
mixed level classes

As you move forward in your teaching career it is worth spending time experimenting
with different approaches, to build up your understanding of what works for you. You can
then incorporate appropriate methods and techniques into your plan for a specific
lesson.

4. Defining Stages for Your Plan

As we have just seen, there are a wide range of methods and techniques that you can
use to underpin your lesson plan. As you become more confident as a teacher, you will
find that you draw on several approaches to ensure your lesson is as appropriate as
possible for the topic and students.

As a new teacher however, it is useful to have a clear structure to get you started. One
good option is to use the PPP model as the basis of your plan. To recap:

1. Presentation: the teacher presents an item of language in a clear context to

convey its meaning and students learn the meaning, form and pronunciation of
the new language
2. Practice: the lesson moves onto a controlled stage, in which students practise
only the new language
3. Production: during the final stage, students carry out activities designed to
practise the new language using all of the English they already know

These elements form the heart of a PPP lesson, with introductory and ending activities
added in to give the lesson a clear shape. A PPP lesson could therefore have the
following stages. Note: don't mess with the order of the stages or the lesson won't work!
 Stage What does this involve?

Optional introduction to Welcome the class; set out the aims and briefly outline the content
the lesson of the lesson.

Warmer One or two activities to get the class engaged and in the right frame
of mind for the lesson. This is usually a quick review of previously-
learnt vocabulary and a lead-in to the topic of the lesson.

Presentation Explanation of the new language / topic being covered in the

lesson. The teacher introduces the meaning and form of the
language and models pronunciation.

Practice (sometimes Activities giving the students a chance to practise the topic in a
called controlled controlled way e.g. worksheet tasks, conversation questions using
practice) the new language.

Production (sometimes Activities giving the students a chance to explore the topic in a
called freer practice) freer way, e.g. roleplays, discussions, writing tasks.

Summary & review Bring the class back together to review the outcomes of the
activities and summarise the learning points.

Cooler & next steps A quick activity to end the class on a positive note, plus any
reminders about the next class / homework.
Remember that for each stage, your plan should show:

 What the stage is

 The reason for doing the stage
 How long the stage will last
 The interaction for that stage / activity
 What the teachers and students will be doing during that stage
 The resources that you will need to deliver the activities

5. Warmers and Coolers

Introduction

Warmers and coolers are short activities that are used at the beginning and end of a
lesson. They should be:

 Relevant to the lesson

 Quick (no more than five-ten minutes, maximum)
 Topical
 Fun
Ideas for your warmers or coolers include games, conversation questions or pictures as
a discussion prompt. However, do make sure that your activity is quick and has a clear
focus and structure.

Your lesson plan should set out the specific warmer / cooler that you have chosen.

Warmers

Warmers set the scene at the start of a lesson and should be relevant. They “warm up”
the class. This means that a warmer will generally either focus on language learnt in the
previous lesson and/or introduce the topic of the current lesson. A good warmer will:

 Engage students’ interest

 Raise the energy levels in the room
 Involve all the students
 Get students thinking in English

Warmers can also be a productive use of time whilst you are waiting for latecomers to
arrive – and also can be a good ice-breaker if you have new students in the class.

In addition, some teachers like to use warmers as an unobtrusive way of assessing

individual student’s weaknesses and strengths.

Coolers

Coolers are activities used at the end of a lesson to recap on learning and help draw the
lesson to an end. They “cool down” the class at the end of the lesson.

A good cooler will:

 Sum up your lesson

 Provide a final reminder of the new language that students have learnt
 Calm down over-excited students, if a lesson has become over-heated
 Ensure students leave on a positive note

Warmer and Cooler Ideas

Here are some ideas of warm up activities for lower levels.

Rate your day

Ask students to rate their day on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 = bad and 10 = fabulous.

Next find out the class average, and then ask students to work in pairs / small groups to
discuss what makes for a “10” day (or a “1”, “2”, “3” … day).

Bizarre photos
Ask your students to bring in some strange pictures of animals or people to the class.

Cut each picture in half, mix them up and then put them face down on the desk. Next,
ask each student to pick up a piece and then find a partner with the matching half. Once
they have done this, ask each pair to make up a brief story about their picture.
Telling a story
Put a picture up on the board.

Divide the class into pairs or small groups and tell each group they have three minutes
to make up a short story about the picture.

Once the time is up, ask each group to tell the story to the rest of the class (or to another
group, depending on numbers).

Pictionary
Before the class, create a set of cards with different words or phrases on each.

During the lesson, divide the class into groups. Students should take it in turns to pick a
card, and then draw or describe the word to the rest of their group. The other students
need to guess what the word is.

Noughts and crosses

Draw a noughts and crosses grid on the board and write a vocabulary word in each box.

Divide the students into two teams. In turn, each student must pick a word and either
use it correctly in a sentence or define it. If the team is correct, they can put their team’s
name in the appropriate box. The first team to connect three squares in a row (or get the
most squares) is the winning team.

Higher Level Activities

Proverbs
Write a well-known English proverb on the board.

Ask students to think of circumstances or stories which might illustrate the truth of the
proverb.

Some examples you could use:

 It’s no use crying over spilt milk

 Absence makes the heart grow fonder
 The more you have, the more you want
 Let sleeping dogs lie
 Don’t put the cart before the horse

Liar game
Tell your students four things about yourself. Of these statements, three should be true
and one a lie.

Your students then can ask you questions about the statements in order to guess which
the lie is.

Dice activity
Write on the board, “Tell me a _____ story”

1. Funny
 2. Happy
3. Love
4. Frightening
5. Sad
6. Recent

Ask students to take it in turns to roll the dice and tell an appropriate story. The number
of the dice dictates what type of story they should tell (e.g. if a student rolls a three, then
they should tell a love story).

Encourage students to use their imagination and remember that the story does not have
to be true!

Question mixer
Ask students to write down questions on individual pieces of paper. These can either be
about themselves or related to a chosen topic.

Gather up the pieces of paper, mix them up and then redistribute them to the students.

Students should walk around the classroom and ask each other the questions that they
have been given.

Chain story
Write five to eight words on the board.

Divide students into pairs or small groups. Tell each group to make up a story using as
many of the words as possible within a time limit.

Once the time is up, ask students to read out their stories.

More Ideas

There are literally hundreds of great ideas for warmers and coolers. One of the joys of
teaching is coming up with your own activities and building on those of others.

Here are a few more ideas to get you started.

Remember, you do need to consider the age and language level of your class before
selecting a warmer / cooler. Most activities can be amended to match a range of ages
and skill levels.

Find someone who …

This activity takes a little preparation but it’s worth it. Choose the language point you
want to practise. Here, let’s use present perfect. On a worksheet, prepare a list of
activities, e.g. go to the USA, eat fish and chips, ride a horse.

Ask students to mingle and ask each other questions formed from the activities – Have
you been to the USA? Have you eaten fish and chips? etc. They should always ask for
extra information.
Whilst the activity is going on, try to monitor the use of English and note any areas to
focus on in the review section – for example, correcting past participles.

There are a huge range of uses. For example, you could also use this activity to practise
present simple (Find someone who has a pet – Do you have a pet?) or future forms
(Find someone who is going to go to the cinema this weekend – Are you going to go to
the cinema this weekend?).

Charades / mime
Ask a student / group of students to mime an action to the group (e.g. what they did last
night, their favourite movie). The rest of the class must then try to guess what it is.

This is very easy to adapt for a range of levels and age groups. It can be a fun way to
get your class enjoying language and interested in the lesson.

Try to ensure that the topics you choose will elicit vocabulary / language relevant to the
lesson you are about to teach (or taught in the last lesson).

Picture dictations
Put your students into pairs. Tell student A to describe a picture / scene and student B to
draw the picture being described. Students should then compare the original picture with
the final drawing.

This is a simple activity that can be easily adapted to a range of language levels – but
remember, it’s not an art class so don’t expect any artistic masterpieces!

Word association games

There are a huge number of word games that can be used effectively and quickly in the
classroom.

For example, you can ask students to find related words, or words starting with the final
letter of the word before, or even lexical sets such as furniture or animals.

Activities can be done in small groups or around the class as a whole – the world really
is your oyster with activities like this.

20 Questions
Nominate one person in the class to think of a person, place or animal. The rest of the
group then has 20 questions to work out who or what they are.

You can use multiple variations of this. The most common is to allow only yes /
no questions (where only yes / no answers are possible) – but you can vary this to meet
the needs of your students and the lesson.

Odd word out

Give the students groups of words, such as an orange, a tomato, a strawberry, then ask
them to identify the odd one out. If their language level is appropriate, also ask them to
explain why. You can then ask students to make up their own sets.

Keep the pace high and choose words or topics that are relevant to your class and their
level.
Word prediction
Tell students the topic and title of a film or article and ask them to guess what words
might appear. Note down their responses on the board.

Next, watch or read the material and tell students to shout out when they find words that
they have guessed correctly.

Lists
Divide students into small groups and tell them to choose one person to be the scribe.
With a time-limit of two minutes, ask students to come up with as many words as they
can relating to a given topic. Once the time is up, ask all groups to count their words.
The group with the longest list of correct words wins. This can become a speaking
activity by then asking students to rank the words. For example, if students write a list of
different jobs, they can then rank them by importance in society.

Buzz in
Write some vocabulary on the board.

Divide the class into small groups. Tell the students that you will read out words from the
board and they need to buzz in if they can give you the definition.

You can also do this activity in reverse by providing the definitions and students giving
you the word.

Show and tell

Ask one student a week to bring in something and talk about it for three - five minutes.
The other students can ask questions about the object.

6. The PPP Method

Presentation

When presenting any language, both lexis (vocabulary) or grammar, we use the
acronym MFP.

First, we present the Meaning of the new vocabulary or grammar point,

e.g. bewildered means confused or puzzled – we might show a confused face.

Then we introduce the Form. With vocabulary, this is how a word is set out or spelt, but
with grammar, this is how the language is structured, e.g. the second conditional – If I
won the lottery, I’d buy a car. The form is if + past simple, ...would + infinitive.

The final part is Pronunciation. The teacher models the correct pronunciation of the word
or phrase, highlighting any particular language points, and asks the students to repeat
the language so the teacher can check everyone is pronouncing it correctly.

Presenting Meaning

Imagine you are teaching a lesson on different illnesses (e.g. headache, cough,
nosebleed). Before you read on, spend a few minutes thinking about different ways in
which you could present the meaning of the illnesses you want to teach.
 Click to reveal
Here are a few techniques that you can use.

Use visual aids

You can use a range of materials to help illustrate your points such as pictures and short
clips of film. This is particularly useful to introduce vocabulary. For example, to introduce
different illnesses, you could show photos of people suffering from a headache,
nosebleed, cough etc.

The most obvious visual aid that you have is your board. You can use it to:

 Write down key points / vocabulary. Seeing the language in its written form can
help students grasp the points you are putting across
 Put up or draw pictures to help convey the meaning of what you are teaching.

The key to good board-work is to develop your own board format and be consistent.
Students will become used to the way your board is laid out and will be able to use it as
a point of reference during the course of the lesson. There will be more information
about using the board in the following unit.

This short film shows a teacher using her board to help students understand how new
words are pronounced. Note also the interaction between the teacher and her class.

Use yourself
If you are in an environment where it is difficult to show pictures, use your own acting
skills to demonstrate the language you are taking. Not only will this save time, it might
give the students a good laugh.

Mime a headache, cough loudly and use red ink in a tissue to surprise your students
with a nosebleed.

Use your students

Involving students directly in the presentation helps to keep them engaged.

One approach you can use is elicitation. Elicitation simply means getting your students
to produce language / answers, rather than you telling them everything. Used well, it can
keep lessons moving at a lively pace, whilst increasing student talk time and reinforcing
learning.

Elicitation can be done in many ways but often takes the form of short quick-fire
questions. Some teachers also like to use extra materials such as pictures, props,
movement, and / or facial expressions to add meaning to the question and so facilitate
rapid accurate responses from students.

Following an example of presenting illnesses, you might mime headache and then ask
students ‘what else?’ Even if they don’t know the words in English, they can show you
their ideas through mime and you can give them the language they need.

To help understand how eliciting works, watch these two short films of TEFL teachers
using the technique.
When you're ready, take this elicitation quiz.

Elicitation

Wednesday, 29
July 2020, 1:44 PM

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Time taken 7 mins 38 secs

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Look at these points about elicitation. One is false. Based on what we have covered, can
you identify which one?
Select one:

Select one:

Stop students the moment they mispronounce any word. Other students might pick up
bad habits unless you enforce correct pronunciation from the word go.

Praise students every time they get it right. This builds confidence and keeps the activity
moving along at a quick-fire pace.

Don’t attempt to elicit information students don’t have (for example, asking students
what colour your living room is if they’ve never seen it).

If students can’t get the right answer, then cut the elicitation short and tell them.

Prepare your elicitation well in advance and make sure you know exactly what
information you require students to demonstrate knowledge of. If you are looking for
colours and a student makes a basic error in word order, don’t focus on this error. Make
a mental note to come back to it at a later time and keep the focus on the colours.

Keep it short and quick.

Feedback

Your answer is correct.

The correct answer is: If students can’t get the right answer, then cut the elicitation short
and tell them.
Keep explanations simple

Whatever approach you decide to take, do remember to keep your explanations simple.

Most new teachers tend to talk too much and use colloquial phrases. However, short
and simple explanations are likely to be far more effective.

 Think about the level of your students and grade your language appropriately; try
to avoid using words that are out of their vocabulary range.
 Be conscious of the slang and colloquial expressions that you use in everyday
speech. Don’t use them if the students are unfamiliar with them.
 If you can’t avoid using a complex word, due to the context of the lesson, be
aware that it may cause confusion, so have a clear and simple explanation ready.

Presenting Form

In general, when introducing the form of the language, this means giving the written form
of the word on the whiteboard or on worksheets. This should be presented clearly. Bear
in mind who your learners are; spend more time on this with those who are learning to
use the English alphabet correctly.

When you are introducing a grammatical structure, give an example and the structure
written as a formula. Write this clearly on the whiteboard and ensure your learners write
it down.

Presenting Pronunciation

When presenting new pronunciation, give a good model to your students and allow them
plenty of opportunity to listen and repeat. Below are some ways of practising
pronunciation with your learners.

Chorusing
Chorusing is simply the repetition of words and expressions. You, as the teacher, first
say a new word or phrase. Your students then repeat it back to you.

It is important at two levels:

1. It gives students a clear model of how a word is pronounced or stressed

2. It helps students memorise new vocabulary
You can use chorusing with the whole class or ask individual students to repeat a word
back to you in turn.

CIC

When we speak English, we do not say each word in a sentence in isolation. Instead,
words get run together. CIC stands for Chorus, Isolate and Confirm. It is a method of
chorusing entire sentence structures to help students produce sentences more fluently.

1. Chorus the entire sentence once

2. Go back through the sentencing chorusing individual sounds, rather than
individual words, until you have built it back up into a complete sentence
3. Chorus the entire sentence again

You should notice a marked improvement the second time the sentence is chorused.

For example:

 He says he’s got a headache

 Headache
 got a headache
 He’s got a headache
 He says he’s got a headache

Drilling

In drilling activities, the teacher and students repeatedly go through a process, until the
students can use the taught language perfectly.

For example, you might teach the question, “What’s your favourite …?” and use a variety
of pre-taught vocabulary for the noun, such as “fruit”, “animal”, “country”, or “TV show”.
In drilling you repeatedly ask the question, and elicit responses from the students, until
they have fully got the structure.

Have a look at the following videos. They both show the teacher drilling different new
language, either chorally or individually. The first is with adult learners, the second with
young learners.

When we analyse language, we use the phonemic script to help us understand how to
say the word. There's a lot more information on this (and pronunciation teaching in
general) in unit 6. However, it's useful to know how to find the phonemic script.

The fastest way to find the phonemic script for a word is by using an online learner’s
dictionary, e.g. [Link] or [Link]/en/
english-phonetic-transcription-converter

You can then copy and paste the phonemic script from the definition. Look at the
example below of the word stereotype: /ˈsteriətaɪp/

7. Controlled Practice
The next stage of your plan should set out how your students will practise the language
that you have presented to them.

As the name suggests, controlled practice is an activity that is controlled in some way by
the teacher. It usually involves the teacher setting a task for students that uses clearly
defined language and targets.

In controlled practice activities, students:

 Have clear, easy to follow instructions

 Do not need to produce new or unknown language or worry about new / different
vocabulary
 Have a safe environment in which to practise the language, where students aren’t
worried about making mistakes

This means that students focus on achieving the goals of the exercise without struggling
to find exactly the right word or structure.

Before you read on, spend a few minutes thinking about activities that you could use for
controlled practice.

Click to reveal
Worksheets

Controlled practice does not need to be oral. When you are planning a lesson, it is useful
to bring in different approaches, to reflect the range of learning styles in your class.

Worksheets can be a good alternative for controlled practice, allowing you to focus on
specific pieces of language. For example, you could develop a worksheet with a gap fill
exercise. This could set out a paragraph, sentence or set of phrases with gaps in the text
relating to the language that you have taught. Students need to correctly fill in the gaps.
If you want to make the task easier, you can provide a set of options and ask the
students to pick the correct word.

Checking Games

Ensure your learners understand the meaning, form and pronunciation through checking
games. For example, write all the new language randomly across the whiteboard. Put
students into 2 teams and nominate a person from each team to come to the board.
Give each a fly swatter. Read out a definition. The first to slap the correct word wins a
point for their team.

Reordering tasks

Write a sentence using the target language on large paper and chop it up word-by-word.
Ask learners to rearrange the words to create a good sentence. For example, if you have
presented the second conditional, ask students to rearrange:

classic / would / I / million / If / I / a / a / buy / car / won / pounds

You can make worksheets with reordering tasks quickly, using an online ‘sentence
scramble generator’.

8. Production

The next stage you should set out in your plan is the production stage. This is also
known as freer practice. This is where the stabilisers come off. Of course, you will still be
there, but the aim of this stage is to let your students explore their language skills and to
practise a more natural form of communication.

This is the most important part of the lesson, which will usually take up about 20-30% of
the time. Once you have started your students off on an activity, you need to take a
backseat. It can be easy to talk too much, but your role at this stage is to facilitate and
monitor: students should be talking for about 90%. After all, they need the practice, not
you!

Before you read on, spend a few minutes thinking of production activities that you might
use in a lesson.

Click to reveal
Here are some techniques that you can use.

Roleplays

Roleplays are a great way to get students talking freely. Briefly describe a situation,
allocate characters to students, and then get them to act it out. For example, students
might become patients and doctors, who discuss their symptoms and possible
treatments.

Debates

Debates are an excellent productive activity for higher levels.

For example, write a provocative statement up on the board (e.g. women are better
drivers than men) and then divide the class into groups to debate it. Alternatively, you
can base a debate around a scenario. For example, tell students that they are Prime
Minister of the UK and need to create four new laws. The group can debate which laws
they would bring in.

Quizzes / games

Games are always a good way to get students interacting more freely.

For example, create a simple board game with dice. Tell students to roll the dice in turn
and move around the board. Students then answer a question or talk about a topic
related to the square that they land on. If you do not have time to produce a board game
a simpler version is to just use the dice. In this scenario, each number relates to a topic /
question. Another alternative is to use playing cards, with questions relating to each card
(perhaps also with a joker in the pack, that requires students to carry out a short task).
Ranking

Another option for the production stage is to give students a ranking activity.

For example, divide students into small groups and ask them to discuss a question such
as “what would you buy if you won the lottery?” You can then ask them to give reasons
for their choices and rank the order of their hypothetical purchases. Another option is
they choose ten items that they would take to a desert island and rank them in order of
importance.

Planning a task

Asking students to plan a task is a useful way of relating the lesson to activities that they
may carry out in real life.

For example, tell your students that their goal is to “plan a picnic together for next
weekend”. Students will need to use their language skills to create meaningful
discussions about where they could go and what they should eat.

Writing

Not all activities have to be oral – writing is also a productive activity. Whilst it is usually
good to keep writing activities in class short, you could ask the class to compose an
email to find out about a holiday or apply for a job. You could even ask them to email it
to you, so that you can review their work.

As you can see, there are a lot of possible activities. However, whichever you choose,
do remember to give students the time they need to prepare and effectively produce the
language – and remember that some may be daunted by the prospect of playing an
active role whilst thinking in another language.

Finally, always bear in mind that the point of this stage is to encourage students to use
the English you know they have, so resist the temptation to interrupt students and
complete their sentences.

9. Ending the Lesson

Once you have completed the production stage, your lesson will almost be complete.

However, it is important to set out, on your plan, how you will end the class. This should
include:

 A brief review of any points that have come out of the practice stage. For
example, if you noted any common errors then this is a great time to go through
them as a group
 A recap of the language that you have covered to ensure it is correctly embedded
in students’ memories
 A clear summary of any actions you want students to take – for example
homework that they need to complete
You can then use a suitable cooler to round off the lesson and send students away on a
positive note.

Now that you've looked at each stage of a PPP lesson, take a look at this quiz.

Check your knowledge with this quiz

You can find an example lesson plan here.

Started on Wednesday, 29 July 2020, 2:07 PM

State Finished

Completed on Wednesday, 29 July 2020, 2:19 PM

Time taken 12 mins 13 secs

Grade 2 out of 8 (25%)

Feedback Try again by looking over your notes.

Question 1
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Mark 2 out of 8

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Question text

Match the description to the stages to make a complete PPP lesson. The aim of the
lesson is expressing past habits with ‘used to’ + infinitive.
For example, When I was younger, I used to watch cartoons.
Learners choose an
activity they enjoyed as
children then walk round
the class asking if other Answer 1
Production
people used to do the
same thing. For
example, Did you use to
watch cartoons?
Teacher asks, “Did he
play football in the past?” Answer 2
(Yes) “Does he play Presentation – pronunciation
football now?” (No).

The learners use the

target language to talk
about how their lives are
different now they live in Answer 3
London and compare Controlled practice (spoken)
their country’s cultures to
the UK.

Teacher says ‘used to’ +

infinitive can be used to
talk about things we Answer 4
regularly did in the past, Presentation - form
but don’t do now.

The students answer

conversation questions
about their childhood to Answer 5
introduce them to the Warmer – building context
topic.

The teacher asks some

individuals how many
people share their
thoughts on living in Answer 6
London and corrects Production
some errors if they are
made.

The teacher writes the

model sentence on the
board. When I was
younger, he used to play Answer 7
football. Draws a box Check meaning of used to
round ‘used to’ and
writes ‘infinitive' over
play.

The teacher repeats the Answer 8

model sentence with Presentation – pronunciation
natural linking, stress and
intonation. The class
repeats.

Feedback

Your answer is partially correct.

You have correctly selected 2.
The correct answer is:
Learners choose an activity they enjoyed as children then walk round the class asking if
other people used to do the same thing. For example, Did you use to watch cartoons? →
Controlled practice (spoken),
Teacher asks, “Did he play football in the past?” (Yes) “Does he play football now?”
(No). → Check meaning of used to,
The learners use the target language to talk about how their lives are different now they
live in London and compare their country’s cultures to the UK. → Production,
Teacher says ‘used to’ + infinitive can be used to talk about things we regularly did in the
past, but don’t do now. → Presentation - meaning,
The students answer conversation questions about their childhood to introduce them to
the topic. → Warmer – building context,
The teacher asks some individuals how many people share their thoughts on living in
London and corrects some errors if they are made. → Cooler and review,
The teacher writes the model sentence on the board. When I was younger, he used to
play football. Draws a box round ‘used to’ and writes ‘infinitive' over play. → Presentation
- form,
The teacher repeats the model sentence with natural linking, stress and intonation. The
class repeats. → Presentation – pronunciation
10. Writing a Rationale

When you write lesson plans for observations in your school, a key part is providing a
rationale for your lesson. You need to explain your choices for your structure (e.g. why
PPP or TTT?) and your choices for the tasks in the context of your students - their level,
ages and needs.

Think of it like this: the lesson plan provides the procedure - it explains who is
doing what, when they are doing it, and how they should do it. Your rationale is why.
Why did you make that choice? Why did you include drilling or a worksheet or a
roleplay?

As part of your assessment in this course, you need to provide a rationale for your
lesson plan procedure. There are 4 main things to consider:

1. Why was the lesson structured this way?

 Why did you choose a PPP structure? What’s the benefit of this lesson plan
structure? (e.g. it gives students more freedom as the lesson progresses)

2. How does each activity contribute towards the aims and how it will be
achieved?

 Look at each stage of the lesson in turn and discuss why you included it.
E.g. In the presentation stage, students will look at pictures to establish the meanings of
the words quickly and efficiently before learning its pronunciation. Then, through drilling
the word chorally and individually, I can ensure each learner is able to pronounce the
word correctly before moving on. This will also help them to memorise the word.

3. What will happen if one or more of your activities do not go to plan?

 You can put this in its own section or include an alternative for some of the
stages in point 2 above. For example, if students struggle to think of anything to
say in the group discussion, we will brainstorm some ideas on the board first, in
order to give them some inspiration.

4. Other activities that I considered using… Maybe you wanted to include a game,
but you thought it might not be age-appropriate. Or maybe you wanted to include 2
worksheets but thought this might be too much independent work, so you will set one for
homework instead.

A reminder of these points is included on the template lesson plan when you get to the
first assessment in unit 5.

12. End of Unit Test 3

You have now completed the third unit of this course!

You’ve looked at how to structure a lesson and studied different teaching techniques,
such as the PPP. You’ve also learnt about warmers and coolers.

Before you move on to unit 4, you need to complete the Unit 3 test. It is designed to
check that you have understood the points we have covered before you move on.

Look back at your notes if you need to.

This test does not count towards your assessment so you can repeat the test as often as you
need but you need to achieve a minimum of 75% to move on to the next unit.

Check the grey box to the left of the question for the number of marks available for each
question - sometimes you need to choose more than one answer!
End of Unit 3 Test
 Started on Thursday, 30 July 2020, 1:13 PM

State Finished

Completed on Thursday, 30 July 2020, 1:19 PM

Time taken 5 mins 55 secs

Grade 15 out of 19 (79%)

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Question text

Match the following teaching techniques to the given definitions.

Students work in groups
to achieve an aim or Answer 1
solve a problem. Guided discovery
Language teaching is
reactive.
A logically structured
lesson type where a
language item is Answer 2
introduced and then Present, Practice, Production
built on throughout the
lesson until the final
production stage.
Students complete an
activity. The teacher
monitors the progress
Answer 3
and then present the
Test, Teach, Test
language based on the
learners’ needs. The
initial activity is
repeated.
A method of introducing
new language by
Answer 4
helping students to
Guided discovery
discover the rules to
unlock the language
themselves.
Students read a text
extensively throughout Answer 5
the lesson and learn new Text Based Learning
language from the
context.
Question 2
Correct

Mark 5 out of 5

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Question text

Put the following stages of a PPP lesson in the correct order.

 Warmer
1. Answer 1

Presentation
2. Answer 2

Controlled Practice
3. Answer 3

Production
4. Answer 4

Review and Cooler

5. Answer 5

Question 3
Partially correct

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Question text

Identify each of these stages from the activity (Controlled Practice, Production, Warmer,
Presentation, Review and Cooler)

Bring the class back together to review

the outcomes of the activities and
summarise the learning points. A quick Answer 1
Cooler
activity to end the class on a positive
note, plus any reminders about the next
class / homework.
Activities giving the students a chance Answer 2
to explore the topic in a freer way, e.g. Practice
role plays, discussions, writing tasks.
Activities giving the students a chance
Answer 3
to practise the new language e.g.
worksheet tasks, conversation questions Production
using the new language.
One or two activities to get the class Answer 4
engaged and in the right frame of mind Warmer
for the lesson. This is usually a quick
review of previously-learnt vocabulary
and a lead-in to the topic of the lesson.
Explanation of the new language / topic
being covered in the lesson. The teacher Answer 5
introduces the meaning and form of the Presentation
language and model’s pronunciation.
Question 4
Correct

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Question text

It is important to present the Meaning, Form and Pronunciation when presenting new target
language.

Select one:

True

False

Question 5
Correct

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Question text

Warmers and coolers are only for fun and don’t need to be relevant to the lesson topic.

Select one:

True
 False

Question 6
Incorrect

Mark 0 out of 1

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Question text

A roleplay or debate would be a good controlled practice activity.

Select one:

True

False

Question 7
Correct

Mark 1 out of 1

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Question text

The aim of production activities is to let your students explore their language skills and to
practise a more natural form of communication.

Select one:

True

False

Finish review
Unit 4 - Making it Work in the Classroom

1. Introduction

In units 2 and 3, you learnt how to develop a well-planned lesson with great content. In
this unit, we will look at how to make your lesson go as smoothly as possible. There are
two main sections.

Firstly, we will explore how to create a good teaching environment, through the set-up of
the room as well as through building a good rapport with praise and gestures.

We will then move on to looking at helping your students to become more motivated,
techniques to ensure your learners are on track and testing your learners' progress. We will
finish by looking at problems we might face in the classroom and suggesting solutions.

Before you start, spend a few minutes thinking about challenges you might face in the
following situations: a group of 12 Chinese 6-year-olds, a group of 10 multilingual adults,
a group of 28 14-year-olds in Spain.

Now try to think of practical steps you could take to address each of these challenges.
Throughout the unit, add to your list.

2. Creating a Good Teaching Environment

Setting up your Classroom

The physical learning environment really makes a difference to how well a class
engages and interacts. Before you read on, spend a few minutes making a list of points
that could help you to provide a comfortable, secure and effective environment. Then
check below.

Click to reveal

 Size of room
 Lighting
 Heating and ventilation
 Seating arrangement
 Access to technology
 Appropriate resources such as stationery
 Decoration or style of the room

You may not have full control over some aspects. For example, your school is likely to
determine the size of room and number of students in the class. However, even the most
modest of schools will normally have movable tables and chairs. You can also use your
own material and/or students’ work to transform bland, grey walls into an interesting and
stimulating learning environment.

Here are some approaches that you can take to creating a good learning environment.

Classroom Layout
Selecting an appropriate layout is a simple way to help make your lesson work
effectively. A good layout for your classroom will be:

 Functional: allowing you to easily move around the room and speak to individual
students
 Stimulating: encouraging students to engage in the activities and interact with
each other

There are a number of different types of layouts that can work well in the classroom:

 Horseshoe
 Circle
 Rows
 Groups or islands

Seating arrangement quiz

Before you read on, can you think of possible advantages / disadvantages of using each
of these 4 layouts?

Layout Advantages Disadvantages

 Horseshoe Teacher is approximately the same Limits movement around
distance from each student the classroom

Students can see each other, which Needs a lot of space

helps with interaction

Circle Suggests equality as the teacher Some students will not

looks like another member of the be able to see the board
group
Can require a lot of space
Can empower students to actively
join in discussion

Rows Teacher can have eye contact with Hard for students to
all students address each other

Everyone can see the board

Discourages bad behaviour

Groups or Teacher can move around the room Not suitable for whole
islands and monitor discussion easily class teaching

Stronger students can

dominate a group

Choosing a Layout

It is useful to experiment with different layouts, so you can find out what works.
Remember that you can also consider a layout in which students stand, rather than sit
and that, depending on the classroom, you can change the layout throughout the lesson.

Spend a few minutes thinking about what type of layout might work best for each of the
following types of activities.

 Whole class discussion

 Small group work
 Pair work
 Opposing teams
 Roleplay
 Student led activity

Activity Layout Why does this work?

 Whole class Horseshoe Students can interact more naturally
discussion as they can see each other.

It also helps avoid individual students

dominating from the front of the
class.

Small group Islands (small groups of Students collaborate effectively, as

work desks) they feel part of a team and can also
work with neighbouring groups, if
required.

Pair work Double seats set out in Enables students to work in pairs
rows. easily.

The teacher can also monitor from

the front of the class, or by moving
up and down the rows.

Opposing Space for each team in a Students get excited at having their
teams different corner of the room own corner to defend against the
enemy team.

This is great for getting students to

participate wholeheartedly in the
task.

Roleplay Students face each other in Having students opposite (rather

rows than next to) each other helps them
to focus on their part of the task.

Student-led Circle with teacher sitting Helps students make eye contact
activity amongst the students and interact together easily.

The teacher is on an equal level with

students, encouraging them to lead
the class themselves.

Remember that you can change the seating arrangements between (or even during)
lessons. This can help ensure that the students get to work with a range of different
people.

Physical Environment

Heating, lighting, ventilation and the room itself all impact on a lesson. You may not have
full control over these aspects. However, you can usually make some alterations to
ensure that the environment is as conducive to learning as possible.
Here are a few tips.

 Make sure your room is bright: poor lighting can lead to drowsiness and a quiet,
passive atmosphere
 Use natural lighting, where possible. However, if this does not make the room
bright enough, make sure the lights are on before your students arrive
 Be aware of how lighting can impact board visibility: check that it is clearly visible
from all parts of the classroom
 Keep the classroom cool and ventilated: this prevents the students from
becoming drowsy
 Make posters and/or put students’ work on the walls to make the room more
attractive – and help develop your students’ confidence
 Place maps around the room. These can brighten up the classroom and be a
valuable point of reference

Preparing your Resources

The final aspect of setting up your classroom is preparing the materials that you will use
during the lesson.

Before your lesson starts, make sure that you check that all your resources are easily
accessible and working properly. It can really disrupt a lesson (and reflects poorly on
you) to find out half way through a lesson that you can’t play the film clip you need as
you’ve forgotten the plug or write on the board as your pens have run out.

Here is a quick checklist of points to check before your class arrives:

 Make sure all your pens work. It’s a good idea to have several differently
coloured pens plus spares, in case one runs out.
 Bring extra pens and paper to give out to students who have forgotten their own.
 Check you have all the materials that you need for your lesson – including your
own notes. It is helpful to set these out in advance, so you can easily find what
you need during the lesson.
 Check you have all the equipment that you need and that it (plus any plugs /
sockets) is working. You may need to book some equipment in advance.
 Set up equipment so that it is ready, at the correct place and with a suitable
volume.
 Ensure that audiovisual equipment and the board are in a suitable position for all
students to see them easily.

Now your classroom is set up, you are ready to welcome in your class.

3. Build Good Relationships with your Students

Developing a positive, professional relationship with students will stand you in good
stead in the classroom. Before you read on, write down some ideas for developing good
relationships with your students.

Here are some of our suggestions.

Get to know your students:

  Spend time learning students’ names and other key facts about them (e.g. jobs,
interests, motivations)
 Encourage students to get to know each other
 Use warmers and coolers as opportunities for you and your class to find out
about each other’s interests

Speak to each student:

 Greet your students individually as they arrive for the start of a lesson
 Use students’ names during class
 Check that your students are happy with the class – and get their suggestions
about how to improve the lessons

Understand the wider picture:

 Recognise that events, such as tests and excursions, can impact on attendance
 Be aware of what else is happening within the school environment, such as
counselling
 Identify any concerns about attendance and find out if there is a reason behind
this

Create a friendly atmosphere in the school:

 Be polite and courteous when you deal with students

 Say hello and goodbye to all students as they are coming and going

There are times when we encounter a student with poor social skills, learning difficulties,
consistent lateness or just a challenging personality! In cases like these, be professional
and patient. Your first step should be to talk to the student. However, always remember
that you do not have to try to resolve every problem by yourself. Ask your colleagues for
help and speak to the school’s Director if you need support.

Communicate Clearly

It may sound obvious – but ensuring your students are focused on the task in hand and
understand a point you are trying to explain is important. Students will quickly lose
interest if they can’t follow what you are teaching them.

There are different ways that you can ensure your students get the message you are
trying to convey. Here are a few examples – as you will see, many of these involve non-
verbal communication.

Attention Signals

Students may not understand every word you say, and so will rely on physical cues to
understand instructions and expectations.
Your facial expressions and body language can convey many messages and you can
use this as a way of backing up points you are making orally. Students will soon come to
recognise key signals and understand the instruction you are giving. Signals are an
excellent time-saving device and a great subtext to your spoken language.

Common instructions for attention signals include:

 repeat
 stop
 be quiet
 stand up / sit down
 write it
 come
 go

Gestures

Gestures differ from attention signals in the sense that they are designed to add
meaning or humour to your spoken word, rather than directly convey an instruction.

Make a note of five different gestures or expressions you could use to help communicate
in the classroom.

Your Position in the Classroom

Where you are in the classroom is another cue that the students use to understand what
is expected of them. You can use your position to show that a specific activity is about to
start.

For example, you could stand at the board when you are going to present a new piece of
language or sit at the table if a writing activity is about to start.

Furthermore, you can use your position as a classroom management technique, e.g. if
two students are talking, you could sit in between them and wait for everyone’s
undivided attention before continuing the activity.

Using your position in a positive way will help you to manage the class and to develop a
good rapport with the students.

Grading your Language

This is a term which is used to describe the English you use depending on the level you
are teaching. If you are teaching a class of advanced adults, you might find that you can
speak normally, with no changes to speed of speech or the type of language you use.

However, this will not be the case with an elementary group. You will need to speak
slowly, with lots of pauses for your students to catch up with what you’re saying. You will
also need to use simple vocabulary, especially for instructions, if you want your students
to be able to complete the task. Don’t be afraid to wait for an answer either. It might take
a while for students to comprehend you, then longer still to think of the right response in
their heads.
Remember to give alternatives to your language if you are met with blank stares.
E.g. Did you manage to finish your homework? might become Were you able to finish
your homework? or even Did you finish your homework?

Importantly, don’t be tempted to use incorrect English so that it’s easier for your
students to understand you. If you do that, you are giving your students a bad
model to copy.

Encourage Student Participation

It is a good idea to involve students in the lesson as much as you can. This helps
maintain your students’ interest and will usually increase their learning.

As a rule of thumb, you should aim for a ratio of 80% student talk to 20% teacher talk
within a lesson.

Before you read on, spend a few minutes thinking of practical ways in which you could
encourage student participation.

Here are a few of our ideas.

Click to reveal

 Welcome all late students and help them to catch up with the rest of the class –
having a warmer at the start of your lessons can help ensure that latecomers
don’t disrupt the focus of the class too much.
 Keep your class full of variety by using a range of different activities.
 Elicit the answer from your class before you explain anything: you will find that
students can often work out a correct answer for themselves.
 Get your students out of their chairs and moving around the classroom.
 Change pairs / groups frequently, to give students an opportunity to work with
new partners.
 Involve students in using the board.
 Make feedback a positive thing. Use praise and affirmation as well as correction.
 Pair quiet students with someone who will encourage them to talk.
 Circulate throughout the class - don’t always stand at the front.

Involve New Students

It can feel like a challenge if a new student starts mid-way through a term. However, it is
important to involve the new student in the class from the start.

Before you read on, note down a few ideas to help integrate a new student into the
class.

Here are a few of our ideas.

Click to reveal

 Welcome the student into the class.

  Think about options which can help the new student to get to know the rest of the
class.
For example, ask each student to introduce themselves briefly or tell the class to
ask the new student a few questions about him / herself.
 During the first lesson, try to have the new student work with as many partners as
possible.
 Provide the learner with a lesson buddy, who can help them to get settled.
 Arrange a short meeting with the new student after two or three days. This will
give you both an opportunity to get to know each other, as well as check that the
student is settling in.

Positive Reinforcement

Students need lots of positive feedback. They can question whether they have
understood your directions and may need encouragement to begin activities. Similarly,
as activities progress, students need to know that their efforts are being noticed. Positive
reinforcement helps students to feel more confident that they are going in the right
direction. In turn, this confidence means that they are less likely to disrupt the class.

Before you read on, note down a few ideas for positive reinforcement.

Here are some approaches you can use:

 Smile often.
 Look directly at students.
 Give praise to each of the students by name as you look at their work.
 Point out a specific item that has been especially well done and compliment them
on it.
 When checking a student’s work, first comment on an item that has been done
well, and then correct the errors.

Unfortunately, there is no magic wand to ensure 100% perfect behaviour in the

classroom. However, a positive learning environment, coupled with a solid lesson plan,
gives you a great chance of making your lesson work effectively.

4. Classroom Management

Creating a positive atmosphere, from the appearance of the classroom to encouraging

student participation, will go a long way to ensuring your lesson goes smoothly. This is
where classroom management comes in.

Classroom management basically covers everything about being in a classroom with

your students, apart from the actual teaching. Its purpose is to create a positive
environment, in which your students feel comfortable and secure, and you feel calm and
relaxed.
In this section we will look at a variety of these techniques. However, it is worth spending
time exploring this topic in as much detail as you can before you start teaching.

After all, being a calm, relaxed teacher who is in control of the class will help you to stay
sane and your students to enjoy their lessons!

Be Prepared

The more you prepare, the more likely it is that your lesson will go smoothly.

As a minimum:

 Make sure you have a clear lesson plan, plus a couple of back-up activities
 Preview all the material as part of your planning process to ensure it is
appropriate, prepare for possible vocabulary and comprehension difficulties, and
be ready to answer predictable questions clearly and concisely
 Use the ten minutes before your class arrives to set up the classroom: set up all
equipment and check it works and write the lesson objectives on the board

Set Classroom Rules

Setting classroom rules may sound off-putting. However, agreeing behaviour such as
turning up on time, listening courteously to classmates and avoiding chatter whilst you
are explaining a point can really help a lesson to run more smoothly.

The rules that you set will depend on the school and class as well as your own teaching
style. Regardless of the rules that you set, it is essential that your students know that
everyone is expected to follow them – including the teacher.

Agreeing Rules

Classroom rules should be agreed during the first lesson, so that you are setting
expectations and boundaries from the start.

One option is to hand out a copy of the rules and get students to sign it like a contract.

A more positive technique is to get students to brainstorm their own classroom rules,
with a few suggestions on key areas from you, if needed. This approach helps students
to engage with the rules, which means they are more likely to remember and follow
them.

You might also find it useful to frame the rules as part of a wider topic exploring
expectations for the lessons. This will enable you to directly link the rules to achieving
the outcomes that your students want.

Once you have agreed on the rules, it is useful to display a copy in the classroom. This
provides a physical reminder to the students. It also gives you something concrete to
point at should students fail to follow the agreed rules.

Applying Rules
It is important to have consequences for following / failing to follow the agreed rules.
Many teachers fall into the trap of focusing on negative behaviour. Generally, however, it
is far better to focus on the positive side – recognising and rewarding students when
they behave well.

A reward can be something as simple as a thumbs up sign, a word of praise, a sticker or

the chance to display work around the classroom. If you do need to address poor
behaviour, it is usually better to focus on something directly related to the event – for
example, if the class will not stop talking, you might decide that there won’t be time to
include a favourite song at the end of the lesson.

Adult classes tend not to have too many problems. The students are often paying for
lessons out of their own pockets and want to make the most of them! If you do come
across a difficult adult student, having a quiet word at the end of the lesson usually
works. There may well be a justification for their behaviour - it could be a matter of
health, money or employment trouble, and they may just need some time and
understanding to work it through.

In addition, many schools will already have a well-established set of rules and
regulations that you can tap into. This means that support will be available as and when
you need it.

Thinking back to the scenarios at the start of the unit (a group of 12 Chinese 6-year-olds,
a group of 10 multi-lingual adults, a group of 28 14-year-olds in Spain), what rules, if
any, would you set for you and your learners?

More Problems and Suggested Solutions

Setting expectations from the outset should help to prevent problems from arising.
However, you should always be prepared for some students to test the boundaries.

Here are a few problems you might encounter, along with suggested solutions.

Problems Solutions

Late students  Use warmers at the start of the lesson to minimise

disruption to the class.
 Welcome latecomers briefly as they arrive and help
them to catch up.
 If lateness is a recurring problem, consult the
student and/or your DoS or office staff.

Students not  Remember your students are (usually) paying

completing customers. Work with them to agree an amount of
homework homework that you will set / they will complete.
 Make sure that your students understand what their
 homework is.
 Give students an option of completing a specified
minimum level of homework, if they can’t prepare
everything.
 Plan alternative activities for situations where
students haven’t completed homework. For
example, if you had asked students to read a text,
you could assign portions of the reading to different
groups and then ask them to cross-report the
information.
 Give unprepared students a less active role in
activities.

Students with  Stay professional and patient.

specific difficulties,  If you feel comfortable to do so, talk to the student
such as poor social and find out if anything external is impacting on their
skills, learning behaviour.
difficulties or a  Talk to your Director of Studies or other member of
challenging staff and ask for support.
personality

Before you move on, think of a few other problems that you might face in the classroom,
and possible ways that you might deal with these. We have put down a couple of
possible problems, to get you started. There isn’t any definitive right or wrong answer –
it’s more a matter of thinking through what might work for you. Remember, the more time
you spend preparing now, the easier it will be to find a solution if the problem does arise.

Problems Solutions

Student cheating

Students who won’t speak

There may be times when you feel problems in your class become too difficult to deal
with. In all cases where you feel uncomfortable in the class, contact a senior teacher,
Director of Studies or member of management. It might be the case that you think the
student’s behaviour is challenging for reasons beyond your control. If you are unsure,
escalate your concerns to a member of management. There is more information on
safeguarding, bullying and maintaining the general well-being of our students in unit 8.

5. Top Tips to Make it Work

Top Tips

 Ensure your classroom is both functional and stimulating. Practise walking

around, to check that you can easily reach every student. Consider involving your
students in designing the room set-up.
 The ten minutes before class starts is preparation and organisation time. Take
this time to set up your classroom, equipment and to write your objectives on the
board.
 Review all your materials before the lesson to prepare for possible vocabulary
and comprehension difficulties.


Keep instructions short and simple, the pace of the lesson brisk and vary how
students work together (e.g. pairs, group work) to add spice to the class.

 Plan to involve students in everything: eliciting vocabulary, modelling, chorusing,

correcting, using the board, etc.
 Choose different students to answer questions, ensuring everybody gets a turn.
 Check with your Director of Studies what rules are already in place and then work
collaboratively with your students to establish specific rules for your class. Make
sure you then apply the rules fairly, appropriately and consistently.
 Use computers as a tool to support an activity, not a replacement for teaching a
class. Ensure you introduce and demonstrate any activity in the same way as you
would with any other new resource. Remember not all your students may be
familiar with computers / new media.
 Set some clear rules before accessing online sites with your students – you want
them to be looking at the activity, not Facebook!
 Make sure that students can only access appropriate material online. It can be
useful to have computers set up ready in the room you will be using, to reduce
the chance of them accidentally stumbling on something else. Also, consider
blocking inappropriate sites.

6. Helping Students Learn

Working out your Students’ Motivation

Motivation is key to learning. To be a successful teacher, you need to identify what will
motivate your students to learn English and then create lessons that will enable them to
achieve their aims.

There are two main types of motivation:

1. Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation comes from factors that are outside of an individual and are usually
driven by rewards. For example, a student may be motivated by a desire to gain certain
grades, a promotion or financial gains.

For extrinsically motivated people, the satisfaction is in the reward – which could be as a
simple as a well done. This means that they may work on something even if they are not
particularly enjoying it if the reward remains in sight.

2. Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation comes from inside the individual. Learning a skill or achieving a task
for its own sake is likely to be more important that gaining an external reward.

This means that intrinsically motivated people want to work on things that they are
interested in and/or things they want to discover or achieve.

Each student you teach is an individual. This means that their background, goals and
motivations will be different. However, you will find that most of your students will lean
more towards one or other of these types of motivations. Having said that, there is
usually a degree of crossover: extrinsically motivated people enjoy praise and rewards,
and intrinsically motivated people like tasks that interest them.

Activity

Before you read on, spend a few minutes making a list of different motivations that
students might have for learning English.

Here is a list of some common motivations for learning English.

Extrinsic motivations Intrinsic motivations

I want to pass exams I like the challenge of learning a new

language
I need to learn English to get a new job
It’s a nice hobby
My boss told me I had to learn English
I like listening to English language songs
It’s part of my university course and movies

My parents force me to learn I want to travel overseas

I need to be able to use the Internet to It’s a good way to make new friends (in
shop the class/with my English skills)

Occasionally you will come across a student who does not appear to have any
motivation to learn English. However, if you work hard enough and dig deep enough,
you can usually find something that will inspire and motivate everyone.
Once you understand what motivates your students, it is far easier to plan topics and
activities that are likely to engage and interest them.

Motivation Techniques

Here are a few approaches you can use to help develop a happy and motivated class.

(i) Listen to your students

Take time out to find out what they are trying to communicate; give them enough time to
find the appropriate language; involve other students or dictionaries if needed, to help a
student express what they want to say.

(ii) Involve the whole class equally

Be aware of the level of attention you give to each student. You may find that you are
focusing on students who are dynamic and friendly, or those who are more likely to give
a correct answer. To avoid this, ask different class members for answers, mix up groups,
and try to put students of similar levels in pairs.

(iii) Balance your lessons

Make sure you have a good range of materials in each lesson – don’t make everything
really challenging or too easy. Use a variety of different types of activities and teaching
resources to keep your students’ interest.

(iv) Find out about your students’ interests

Use earlier lessons to find out information about your students’ interests (e.g. What are
their hobbies? How do they spend their free time? Do they have a family?). Once you
know what they like, use this to build lessons that they will really enjoy. For example, if
your class is interested in cooking, you could turn a lesson on food into a TV cookery
programme.

(v) Praise your students

Praising your students when they get things right goes a very long way to making your
students feel motivated to keep proving themselves.

(vi) Include competitive activities

Set up short challenges in your class - students often work harder when they are trying
to beat another team.

(vii) Offer appropriate rewards

Age has a big impact on motivation – what motivates an adult might turn a teenager into
a grump. However, small, age-appropriate rewards (e.g. a sticker, a chance to play a
favourite game, five minutes to play on the Internet) can help to focus a class.
7. Using the board

As we saw when we looked at the Presentation stage, boards can be a useful visual aid
in the classroom.

In fact, boards can be used for a wide range of purposes – from setting out the class
aims, to putting up pictures to help explain a topic, to interactive games. When you are
planning your lesson, do think about using your board to support the activities.

Nowadays, most schools have whiteboards. If you are lucky, you may even be in a
school with interactive boards linked up to a PC. However, in some areas you may still
find that you are faced with chalk boards.

It can be helpful to use your board consistently – for example, divide your board into
different sections for your lesson objectives, new vocabulary and errors.

Rather than complain about the resources (or lack of) you have, be prepared for different
types of boards – and use whatever you have to the full!

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Question text

Decide whether the following statements about using a whiteboard are true or false.
Plan how you will use your board. Keep Answer 1
part of it for new vocabulary that may True
arise.
Put the day/date on the board in the
Answer 2
format of e.g. Thurs/1/5/[Link] saves False
space for more important writing.
Write quickly and clean as soon as
Answer 3
you’ve finished a sentence. This will False
teach students to write quickly too.
Use one colour only. More than this can Answer 4
distract students. False

Keep writing as small as possible. You

Answer 5
don’t have enough space for generously False
sized writing.
Feedback

Your answer is correct.

These simple rules should help ensure you use your board effectively:
 Your writing should be clear and legible. If you haven’t used a
board before take time to practise before you take your first
class.
 Write several sentences one after the other in different sizes.
Then go to the back of the classroom and see which you can
read easily. Choose the size that will be easy to read but not
take up your entire board in two lines. You can be certain
everyone will see letters eight inches high but you will spend
half your time rubbing out what you’ve written.
 Organise your board to suit the lesson you are teaching.
Some teachers use a column system and divide the board so
that one column is set aside for new vocabulary, another for
pronunciation, and so on.
 Place the day, date, and month in one top corner- written in
full. Many students are highly organised and like to have their
notes filed according to the date of the lesson. This not only
facilitates these students but provides on-going reinforcement
of the English names for days and months, and the way
dates are written. These vary from culture to culture and can
lead to great confusion. One story tells of a company that lost
a lot of money because they thought they had until the 1st of
March 2002 to complete an order. The client actually wanted
the order by the 2nd of March 2001. 02/03/01 depends on
whether you read it left to right or right to left!
 When writing on the board ensure all the students can see
what is being written as you write. Hold the pen shoulder
height or higher and away from your body.
 Use different colour pens or fonts to highlight grammar,
pronunciation, spelling points etc…
  Wipe off any writing that students won’t need later in the
lesson but wait until they have copied what is necessary for
their notes.
 Plan what you will write as part of your lesson plan. This will
avoid overcrowding and clutter of your workspace and allow
students to refer easily to what has been written should they
need a reminder later in the lesson. Keeping a column aside
is useful as you cannot always predict what students may
need you to write. You may have a lesson planned with the
names of six animals, but your students may ask you for
several more that do not form part of the lesson. The ‘non-
lesson’ names can go in the separate column, to avoid
confusion.

The correct answer is: Plan how you will use your board. Keep part of it for new
vocabulary that may arise. → True, Put the day/date on the board in the format of e.g.
Thurs/1/5/[Link] saves space for more important writing. → False, Write quickly and
clean as soon as you’ve finished a sentence. This will teach students to write quickly
too. → False, Use one colour only. More than this can distract students. → False, Keep
writing as small as possible. You don’t have enough space for generously sized
writing. → False

Some Rules for Whiteboards

These simple rules should help ensure you use your board effectively

 Your writing should be clear and legible. If you haven’t used a board before, take
time to practise before you take your first class.
 Write several sentences one after the other in different sizes. Then go to the back
of the classroom and see which you can read easily. Choose the size that will be
easy to read but not take up your entire board in two lines. You can be certain
everyone will see letters eight inches high but you will spend half your time
rubbing out what you’ve written.
 Organise your board to suit the lesson you are teaching. Some teachers use a
column system and divide the board so that one column is set aside for new
vocabulary, another for pronunciation, and so on.
 Place the day, date, and month in one top corner - written in full. Many students
are highly organised and like to have their notes filed according to the date of the
lesson. This not only facilitates these students but provides on-going
reinforcement of the English names for days and months, and the way dates are
written. These vary from culture to culture and can lead to great confusion. One
story tells of a company that lost a lot of money because they thought they had
until the 1st of March 2002 to complete an order. The client actually wanted the
 order by the 2nd of March 2001. 02/03/01 depends on whether you read it left to
right or right to left!
 When writing on the board, ensure all the students can see what is being written
as you write. Hold the pen shoulder height or higher and away from your body.
 Use different colour pens to highlight grammar, pronunciation, spelling points etc.
 Wipe off any writing that students won’t need later in the lesson but wait until they
have copied what is necessary for their notes.
 Plan what you will write as part of your lesson plan. This will avoid overcrowding
and clutter of your workspace and allow students to refer easily to what has been
written should they need a reminder later in the lesson. Keeping a column aside
is useful as you cannot always predict what students may need you to write. You
may have a lesson planned with the names of six animals, but your students may
ask you for several more that do not form part of the lesson. The ‘non-lesson’
names can go in the separate column, to avoid confusion.

Interactive whiteboards offer a world of possibilities to language learning and there are a
variety of types, from the more ‘basic’ board linked to a PC for the teacher to use, to
situations where students and teachers have connectivity to the board.

Interactive boards can allow you to show a range of online materials quickly and easily
to the whole class and access prepared activities from your own PC or laptop. Whilst
these are a great resource and can work wonders in expanding the range of what you
can do in the classroom, do remember to always have a reason related to the lesson
plan for whatever you do. It can be tempting to use technology for technology’s sake –
but it’s of little use unless it’s related to what you are trying to teach.

Most schools that do have interactive set ups in the classroom will be more than happy
to train you in how to use it etc. – and there are more and more online resources to help
and guide you in this, such as

 Interactive whiteboard blogs

 Using technology with low tech learners

You can find examples of whiteboards by searching #eltwhiteboard on Twitter.

8. Giving Instructions

Before your students can start an activity, they need to know what to do. Surprisingly,
giving instructions is not always as simple as it sounds; many students will nod along
when they don’t really understand what you are telling them – and then struggle once
the activity starts.

Look at the following scenarios and decide which set of instructions would be easier to
understand.

Scenario 1

The teacher introduces the activity as follows:

“Right then. What we’re going to do is to put you in pairs. Half the class will be an A and
the other half will be a B. Both of you will be given a role card that will contain all the
information that you’ll need. So, to clarify, half of you will be As and half of you will be
Bs. I’m going to tell you who you’ll be working with, alright?

So, we’re going to do a role play where one of you is a tourist and the other student will
be a tour guide, then we’re going to practise all the vocabulary and grammar that we’ve
learnt this week. Right then.

So, you’re in pairs. If you wouldn’t mind, could you all sit in two lines parallel to each
other? The one on the right is the tourist and the one on the left is the tour guide.

You’re on a coach, and the tour guide is going to point out what you can see out of the
window. The tourist should ask as many questions as they can. Next, we’re going to
swap and take turns. OK then. So, get yourselves into the two rows and off we go. Let’s
start.”

Scenario 2

 Before class, the teacher sets out the classroom chairs in two rows.
 The teacher tells each student, by name, where to sit.
 The teacher appoints each row as Student A or B and tells them their role.
(“Student A, you are the tour guide. B, you are the tourist.”)
 The teacher says: “Look” and gestures to the board, which has pictures of
tourists on a coach travelling through a city.
 The teacher elicits the names of what students can see, pointing to each (e.g.
coach, tourist, tourist guide) and writes the words next to the pictures.
 The teacher holds up clear role cards stating “A: TOURIST - listen to the tour,
show interest and ask questions” and “B: TOUR GUIDE - give a tour of the city”.
 The teacher says: “speak” (gesturing to his/her mouth), “ten minutes” (holding up
ten fingers).
 The teacher checks the students understanding of the task by asking Instruction
Checking Questions (ICQs):
 Who is student A?
 What are you doing?
 Who is student B?
 What are you doing?
 How much time do you have?

Hopefully you recognized that scenario 2 was better for the students. Before you read
on, spend a few minutes noting down why this approach to giving instructions was
better.

Click to reveal
Here are some practical approaches that will help you to give good instructions.

 Plan your instructions in advance.

 Set up the classroom before your students arrive.
 Keep your instructions clear and concise: use short simple sentences in clear
language using the present tense (e.g. “please stand up” rather than “can
everyone please rise from their seats?”).
  Where possible, show your students an example of what you want them to do.
 Don’t overload students with instructions (e.g. keep information about next steps
until the end of the task).
 Set time limits for tasks. This helps keep students motivated, as they know the
task will only run for a set period and helps reassure them that they won’t run out
of language.
 Check your students have understood your instructions, by using ICQs or asking
them to demonstrate the activity.
 Be consistent – use the same phrasing in every lesson so students get used to
the instructions you use (you might find that students begin to finish your
instructions for you…)

9. Asking Questions

Asking Good Questions

Asking good quality questions is a key skill for teachers to develop. There are different
types of questions, which we use for different purposes, in the classroom.

Display questions: these are questions to which the teacher already knows the
answer and is there to check the student’s knowledge or understanding.

Examples: What’s the opposite of hot? What colour is your shirt?

Referential questions: these require the learner to give longer answers, including
opinions, explanations or further information.

Examples: Have you ever been abroad? If you won a lot of money, what would you do?

Whereas display questions are closed questions – the answer is narrowly-defined,

referential questions are open-ended – they require a longer, broader answer.

Lower-level students might answer far more display questions than higher-level
students.

Concept Checking Questions

After introducing new language, it is important to check that your students have correctly
understood the meaning of your new language.

CCQs stands for Concept Checking Questions. These are questions that you use to
check your students’ understanding. This is more effective than simply asking do you
understand? – as it avoids the possibility that students will say yes even if they haven’t
really grasped the concept. We can use concept checking questions after we introduce
vocabulary or grammar points.

For example, you have introduced the sentence You should have told me! in the context
of a disappointed mother with an embarrassed teenager. CCQs could be did I tell you?
(no) Is it too late now? (yes) Am I happy or angry? (angry) Was it your job to tell me?
(yes).
Or if you introduce the word bewildered, you can ask what’s another word?
(confused) or what’s the opposite? (clear) When did you last feel like this? (student's
answer).

CCQs do require some planning however to ensure that they are appropriate, so make
sure you build them into your lesson preparations. There is more information on CCQs in
the following unit.

10. Grouping the Class

A good lesson will have a variety of activities and allow your students to work with
different people – whether individually, in pairs or in groups.

Different interaction patterns enable you to support your students’ learning in different
ways. Before you read on, spend a few minutes thinking about why you might ask your
students to work individually, in pairs or in groups.

Here are some advantages for each, plus a few pitfalls to watch out for.

Click to reveal
Individual work

Asking students to work solo on a task can:

 Enable you to respond to individual student’s needs (e.g. pace of learning, ability)
 Increase an individual’s confidence - some students relish the opportunity to
show how well they can perform by themselves
 Be less stressful for students as they don’t have to perform in front of the whole
class
 Appeal to quieter learners

On the downside however, individual work obviously restricts opportunities for student-
to-student interaction and developing group rapport.

Pair work

Working in pairs:

 Increases student talking time and student-to-student interaction

 Enables you to monitor effectively
 Is usually easier to set up than group work
 Can be less stressful for students than group work, as they only have one person
to interact with
 Allows you to organise the class to help address specific issues (e.g. match
stronger students with weaker ones or keep students of the same ability together)

When doing pair work, ensure that students do not always work with the same partners.
Also, be aware that some pairings may not work (e.g. one partner is too dominant).
A variation that you can try is ‘open’ pairs, where students talk to each other across the
classroom. This can be a useful chance for other students to hear and for you to monitor
the students’ accuracy and fluency.

Group work

Group work ranges from small groups of three up to the whole class working together.
Group work is:

 Great for student talking time and interaction

 Useful for creating a sense of team or competition

It is important to plan how you will select the groups, otherwise you can find dominant
students do all the talking. If you have the whole class working together, it can be easier
for you to control from the front.

Thursday, 6 August
2020, 1:43 PM

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Question text
Read the following statements and decide if each is true or false when monitoring
activities.
Join in as many discussions as possible. Answer 1
False

Identify any areas of language that Answer 2

students are struggling with. True

Help as much as you can. Answer 3

False

Ignore mistakes. Answer 4

False

Discretely observe the students to ensure

they are carrying out the activity Answer 5
correctly. True

Feedback

Your answer is correct.

The correct answer is:
Join in as many discussions as possible. → False,
Identify any areas of language that students are struggling with. → True,
Help as much as you can. → False,
Ignore mistakes. → False,
Discretely observe the students to ensure they are carrying out the activity correctly. →
True

11. Monitoring Activities

Ok, the task has been set and the students have begun. Can you pop out for a quick
coffee? NO!

Effective monitoring during an activity is an essential part of your role as a teacher. It

requires careful listening to what students are saying and a keen eye as you check
students are on task. You might notice as you start to monitor a task that several
students are lost or doing the wrong thing. Here, you might stop the class, give the
instructions again (and check with ICQs).

Take a notepad and split a page into two columns labelled Good Examples and Error
correction. As you listen to your learners talking together, write down any examples of
excellent English which you can share with the class and student errors, which you can
talk about at the end of the task.

12. Error Correction Techniques

As a teacher, it is important to encourage your students to focus on accuracy. However,
don’t over-correct and be careful not to pick on one individual too much. Involve the
class by getting other students to help or do it as a class feedback session, paying
attention to errors made by several people in the class.

Error and mistake can be used interchangeably to explain that a learner has used the
wrong word / grammatical structure or pronunciation because he doesn’t know it, has
forgotten the correct language or has learnt something incorrectly. If a student continues
to produce incorrect language, this may be a sign that the language has
become fossilised. This can be hard, but not impossible, to undo.

A slip describes when a student does something incorrectly but does know the correct
English; here, it’s a totally subconscious mistake, which the student will usually self-
correct.

Where possible, try to elicit the correction first so students are engaging in the language.
Sometimes, though, it may be more sensible to repeat the mistake correctly. This can be
useful when you don’t want to lose the focus of the lesson, but you also don’t want to let
the mistake go.

Here are some correction techniques and activities you can use in the classroom.

Facial Expression

A facial expression showing doubt (a frown, raised eyebrow or a wobbling hand).

Saying the type of error

For example, tense? or word order? combined with a frown. This draws the student’s
attention to where the error is.

Pronunciation Mistakes

You can show how the shape of the mouth should look to elicit a correction to a sound.
For example, you might show pursed lips for the ‘shh’ sound.

Use your Hands

Use your fingers as prompts. For example, you might hold up one finger for one missing
word. Don’t tell the students what the word is, but silently draw the word from them. This
can also be used when there are too many words used in a sentence.

Echo Correction

In echo correction, you repeat the error but add a rising, questioning intonation, perhaps
combined with a raised eyebrow, to make sure your students understand you are
highlighting a mistake.

Use a Device

You could use a device (a buzzer or bell) or make a sound to indicate a mistake.
Whispers

A less intrusive way to encourage correction is to whisper the correct form to the
students from behind as they speak. It might take a while to get the feel of doing this well
but it’s worth the effort. It’s far more discreet and far less of an interruption than the
head-on approach.

Variable Correction

Conduct one class where corrections are very strict and consistent and then offer hardly
any correction in the next week’s class. Alternatively, ask students how often, how
strictly, and in what areas of speech they would like correction. Some may want to be
pushed the whole time, while others want less pressure.

Student Checklists

Tell students to make a list of all the points they want to stop getting wrong. Students
can then use this as a personal checklist to monitor their own mistakes.

Class Correction

Write a selection of errors that have been made on the board, then brainstorm
improvements with the class. Let students correct the errors wherever possible. Only tell
them the correct version as a last resort. Also, be careful not to single out students who
make frequent errors.

Traffic Light Cards

Have students select a correction card for the day as they walk into class. A green card
means stop and correct me every time I make a mistake. A yellow card means stop and
correct me sometimes. A red card means just let me go ahead and speak English. Don’t
correct me. This lets the teacher know how much correction each student would like for
that day. E.g. a student is tired so chooses to show red and the teacher does not correct
mistakes, or a student has an English test coming up and wants to be perfect, so
chooses green. This helps students to take control of their learning.

Using Correction for Activities

As a teacher, you can use your students’ mistakes and errors to underpin activities. It
can be particularly useful if you want to focus on common and repeated errors your
students are making. Here is a selection of activities you can try.

Error Race

Write a selection of mistakes/errors from a previous activity on the board. Tell students
to work in pairs to see who can correct them fastest. Alternatively, you could put them in
teams, and get them to race up to the board to correct items in turn.

Right or Wrong
Identify errors from homework or a previous activity. Correct some of these and then
leave the others. Then dictate each sentence in turn and tell the students to write them
down. Next students need to work in pairs, or individually, to mark whether each
sentence is right or wrong. You can also offer an additional bonus point if they can
correct sentences that are wrong.

Error Poker

This is an extension of the previous activity. Give your students some (pretend!) money
to play with. In groups or pairs, tell students to decide which sentences are correct and
how much money they want to spend to buy them. You then carry out an auction for
each sentence. A sentence goes to the highest bidder. The winners are the ones who
have bought the most correct sentences.

Correction Board

Write mistakes on the board and ask the class to correct them. Students can work
together as a class, in groups or in pairs. It needs very little set-up and is a quick way to
focus on just a few errors / mistakes.

Editing

Hand out or read a prepared text containing typical student mistakes. Ask the students
to either circle the errors or note down when they hear them.

Circling or noting down the points gives all students the chance to consider the mistakes
to feed back. However, if you need to inject pace, competition and excitement into the
lesson, try getting students to shout out when they hear an error.

Finger Correction

Using your fingers, you can devise little gestures to help students out with identifying the
error and suggest ways to fix the error. This takes a bit of practice but is a very effective
and quick way to correct spoken errors in class.

Written Correction

The basic approach for correcting written work is the same as with oral work. Don’t
overcorrect, try to put the errors back to the students and see if they can correct
themselves, and help with some clues.

You can write key errors from written work on the board and ask students to work in
pairs to correct them. In unit 9, there is a lot more information about using ‘error codes’
when correcting students’ written work.
 Thursday, 6 August
2020, 1:56 PM

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Question text

Give students a set of error codes at the beginning of a semester and get them to copy it
into their writing books.
Select one:

Select one:

a. Bad idea

b. Good idea
Feedback

Your answer is incorrect.

The correct answer is: Good idea

Question 2
Correct

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Question text

Tell students in advance that you want them to focus on one aspect of speaking/writing
(e.g. grammar, spelling, vocabulary) and that you will only correct that.
Select one:

Select one:

a. Good idea

b. Bad idea
Feedback

Your answer is correct.

The correct answer is: Good idea

Question 3
Correct

Mark 1 out of 1
 Flag question

Question text

Tell the student the work is terrible and refuse to mark it until they do it again.
Select one:

Select one:

a. Bad idea

b. Good idea
Feedback

Your answer is correct.

The correct answer is: Bad idea

Question 4
Correct

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Encourage students to see correction as part of the learning process.

Select one:

Select one:

a. Good idea

b. Bad idea
Feedback

Your answer is correct.

The correct answer is: Good idea
Question 5
Correct

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Question text

Find positives in each piece of work, as well as areas to correct.

Select one:

Select one:

a. Bad idea

b. Good idea
Feedback

Your answer is correct.

The correct answer is: Good idea

Question 6
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Train your students to self-correct.

Select one:

Select one:

a. Bad idea

b. Good idea
Feedback
Your answer is correct.
The correct answer is: Good idea

Question 7
Correct

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Question text

Ask students to explain their errors to the class and promise never to let it happen again.
Select one:
Select one:

a. Good idea

b. Bad idea
Feedback

Your answer is correct.

The correct answer is: Bad idea

13. Giving Feedback

Giving useful feedback is an essential part of how you support a class to learn. It allows
the students to know that their individual development is being monitored and
encourages them to keep moving forward.

As you can see, constructive feedback both gives students the tools to improve and the
motivation to continue in areas where they are progressing well.

Giving Feedback Quiz

As teachers, we should give feedback on:

 Language
 Content
 Progress
 Effort
 Behaviour
 Achievement

Try a feedback quiz here!

Approaches to giving feedback

Feedback, whether written or oral, should be balanced and useful. However, it is not just
the content of the feedback that is important. The way we give feedback matters too.
Here are some ideas that you can bring into your lessons.

Focus on the positive

 Praise an achievement before moving onto an area that needs work.

 Always focus on how a student can improve, rather than simply what they have
done wrong.

Keep it simple

 Concentrate on one or two specific aspects to avoid confusing a student with too
much information.
 Avoid interrupting students to correct every single mistake. This can undermine
students’ confidence and inhibits fluency. You can note mistakes and give
feedback at the end of an activity.
 Do interrupt if a student has clearly misunderstood a key word / phrase that
impacts on the overall activity.

Use a range of approaches to feedback

 Use a gesture or a facial expression to show students that they have made a
mistake. For example, you could raise an eyebrow to show surprise. This can be
less off-putting than an interruption by you.
 Repeat the sentence up to the mistake and hold the last word (he went to
theee…?) and then allow the student to finish.
 Repeat part of the sentence that shows tense. For example, if the student says, "I
go to the party last night” you could respond with, “go” pause “last night?”.

Ask for feedback

 Ask your students for feedback too. It will help you to grow as a teacher and will
show your students that feedback is something to be welcomed and valued.

Different approaches to feedback

Feedback does not always have to be from you to an individual student. Here are
another couple of approaches that you can consider:

Asking students to assess each other

Peer feedback can be an interesting way of engaging a whole class in an activity where
they might otherwise be passive listeners. It can also help them to reflect on their own
work and reassure them that other people make mistakes too. For example, if one
student is giving a presentation, you could ask the class to note down points on structure
or fluidity of speech.

Group feedback

It can be useful to give brief feedback to the full class at the end of a lesson. This can
help the class to reflect on the progress that they have made and think about what might
be covered next. You may pick out a couple (or more) students who have done
particularly well. However, the focus will be on the group.

For example, you might say something along the lines of: “you did really well today as a
group. I can see that you’re able to use conditionals well. Jose, your sentences were
very imaginative, and I loved your use of the new vocabulary, great work. Sara, great
fluency today! However, we all need to work on our pronunciation of ‘than’. We’ll do
some more work on this in the next lesson”.

Overall, remember that your feedback should always be:

 Tailored to the individual/group

 Fair
 Focused
 Constructive

14. Testing

The thought of a test can sometimes put fear into even the most confident of teachers.
Despite this, EFL teachers often spend quite a lot of time testing students. There are two
main types of assessment:

Formative assessment can take place throughout a course to improve the quality
of future learning – how successfully have students learnt up to that point or where
students need review or help. Formative assessment might include a progress test at the
end of each unit of a coursebook. In this course, the formative assessment takes the
form of an end of unit test.

Summative assessment, in comparison, evaluates how successful learning was at

the end of a course. This can include achievement tests (e.g. a final end of course exam
or piece of coursework) or proficiency tests, which establish the learner’s overall level.
These are usually external exams done by large examining bodies, such as Cambridge
English.

Tests to Support Learning

As we have just seen, we can use tests to support learning. However, it is very important
to consider:
  What we should test
 When we should test
 How we should test

What should we test?

Make a list of things that you can test.

Click to reveal
Here are a few elements that we might test:

 Specific items / language taught

 The four skills – reading, writing, listening and speaking
 Accuracy
 Communicative skills (fluency)
 Structures / functions / vocabulary / pronunciation

When should we test?

Now, make a list of when you should test.

Click to reveal
When you test will usually depend on the purpose and type of test that you have set.
However, you could test:

 At the start of the course

 At regular intervals during the course
 At the end of the course

How do we test?

This is the critical question. Think about tests that you have done. What do you think
makes a good test?

Before you read on, note down a few ideas of what you think would make a good test.

Click to reveal
Principles of Testing

A good test will test what you have been taught. It should be fair and have a reliable
marking system. If a student fails a test, they should be able to see it was because of
their own errors and not the fault of the test.

To achieve this, each test you set must be:

 Valid: you test what you say you are going to test
 Sufficient: the test covers the points you need to check
 Current: the test focuses on topics you have covered recently
 Reliable: you have clearly defined procedures for the test
  Flexible: you conduct the test in the most appropriate way for the students being
tested (e.g. a day when most students should be there)
 Fair: you have controls in place to ensure that all students are treated the same
(e.g. no-one gets hints in advance, everyone has the same papers, everyone can
hear the CD / see the board)

A good test should also have a positive impact on your students and help motivate them
to learn. You should never try to catch out students or set a test on material that you
have not covered in class. On the other hand, you should not set a test that is far too
easy, just to ensure that your students pass. A good test will be set at a level that allows
students to demonstrate what they know and have learned.

Types of Tests

Before you read on, spend a few minutes thinking about different types of tests that you
could use in your lesson.

Click to reveal
Here are some common activities that you can use for tests.

Type What is this? Points to consider

Multiple choice Students are provided with a  Easy to mark consistently

questions set of answers, but only one is  Students can guess
correct correct answers
 Very time-consuming to
Students are required to pick think up options for the
the correct answer answers
 Students may not be able
to demonstrate their
productive abilities

Gap fill Students are provided with a  Easy to write

piece of text that has  Good way to test
words/phrases missing students’ vocabulary or
language knowledge
 Need to decide if
different answers can be
An added element is to have allowed – although this
every nth (e.g. 5th) word blanked can be overcome by
out listing the missing words
 If using random (nth)
approach, the randomness
can lead to interesting
In either scenario, students are responses – or make it too
required to fill in the gaps difficult to complete
 Transformation Students are given a sentence  Need to ensure that there
and asked to change it in some are appropriate options
way (e.g. make it into its for the sentence you
opposite; change one word but choose
keep the same sense; rewrite  Can be a good way of
the sentence but keep the testing students’
meaning). understanding

Sentence re- Students are required to put a  Useful for checking

ordering selection of words into the knowledge of grammar
right order and sentence formation
 Can be easy to develop
using online generators

Regardless of when or what you are testing, do remember to make the test as reliable
and valid as possible.

Good tests can benefit everyone, bad tests will not!

Key Global English Tests

At some stage in your career you are likely to teach exam classes, classes that are
specifically designed for students who are working towards an exam. These classes will
generally have a very clear structure and focus, making them relatively straightforward to
teach.

Even at the early stages of your English teaching career it’s useful to be familiar with the
core language test and the levels they are aimed at, as well as their structures. Here is a
brief overview of the main tests.

TEST Description / Level Structure

Starters, Movers A range of simple tests for Young Listening – 20-25 minutes
and Flyers Learners allowing a sense of
progress and achievement Reading / Writing – 20-40
minutes

Speaking – 3-9 minutes

Key English Test Aimed at Elementary adults Listening – 30 minutes

(KET) (although there is a younger
students’ version) Reading / Writing – 70 minutes

Speaking – 10 minutes

Preliminary Aimed at Lower Intermediate Listening – 30 minutes

English Test adults (with a younger students’
(PET) version)
Reading / Writing – 90 minutes

Speaking – 12 minutes

First Certificate Aimed at Upper Intermediate Listening – 40 minutes

in English (FCE) adults (with a younger students’
version) Reading – 60 minutes

Writing – 80 minutes

Use of English – 45 minutes

Speaking – 14 minutes

Certificate of Aimed at Upper Intermediate / Listening – 40 minutes

Advanced Advanced adults
English (CAE) Reading – 75 minutes

Writing – 90 minutes

Use of English – 60 minutes

Speaking – 15 minutes

Certificate in Aimed at very advanced adults Listening – 40 minutes

Proficiency in
English (CPE) Reading – 90 minutes

Writing – 120 minutes

Use of English – 90 minutes

Speaking – 19 minutes

IELTS Often used for access into Listening – 40 minutes

universities in English speaking
countries and for jobs in multi- Reading – 60 minutes
national businesses.
Writing – 60 minutes

Speaking – 14 minutes

TOEFL A US-based language assessment Listening – 60-90 minutes

programme frequently used for
entrance to US universities and Reading – 60-80 minutes
businesses
 Writing – 50 minutes

Speaking – 20 minutes

TOEIC US-based test used in a similar Listening / Reading – 120

fashion to TOEFL minutes

Writing – 60 minutes

Speaking – 20 minutes

Study Skills

When you are teaching an exam class, it is important that your focus on the test does
not have a negative impact on your students’ overall learning.

Some teachers do the opposite and ignore the test completely. Theoretically, if you
enable your students to develop strong English skills then they should be able to perform
well in an appropriate test.

However, we cannot hide from the fact that familiarity with test conditions, as well as the
structure and process of the test, is likely to help a student do as well as they can.

There are a few techniques you can use to help students focus on study for tests /
exams, without putting a hold on learning.

Practise Specific Test Types

You should spend time researching the format of the tests that your students will be
taking.

You can then use this knowledge to build similar types of activities into your lessons.
These can be integrated into the lesson, rather than explicitly highlighted as a sample
test.

Work on Exam Skills

Include sessions on basic exam and revision techniques in your class. For example,
remind the students to stay calm, read questions thoroughly and not spend too long on
any one question. You can also help your class create revision timetables.

Use Past Papers

You can generally access past or sample papers for most major tests. You can use
these in your classes to help your students familiarise themselves with the way the test
is structured and give them confidence. They can also be useful to help identify any
areas of weakness that you can then address.
Some final thoughts on testing …

Love them or hate them, tests are likely to be a part of your working life. Even if you are
teaching the most relaxed of classes, both you and your students are going to want to
know how things are progressing.

Remember:

 Testing occurs throughout teaching: even eliciting a sentence in English from

your students is a type of test.
 Make sure all tests you set are valid and reliable.
 Use pre-determined criteria to judge spoken English, to help you be as objective
as possible.
 Vary the types of test you use.

15. Helping your students learn outside the classroom

Your students may need additional support to aid their learning. Developing a bank of
study skills will help students to learn more effectively.

Using a dictionary

Using an online dictionary: in the modern world, students might turn to Google Translate
as the fastest way to unlock unknown language. Even worse, students might use Google
Translate’s camera function. Here you can take a photo of a page of text and the app will
translate it into English for you. This shouldn’t be encouraged for obvious reasons!
Introduce your students to a good online dictionary or dictionary app instead.

[Link] is a very good example. It provides a

definition, example sentences, common collocation (words which naturally go together)
and pronunciation (with audio).

Recording Vocabulary

It will depend on the student and their study skills as to how they record vocabulary.
Some will use spider diagrams, some will use lists by topic, some will organise
alphabetically, some will just write it down per lesson. Some will not write it down at all!

Here is a list of things they should be recording each time they learn a new word or
phrase:

Meaning, form (spelling), pronunciation, word class (e.g. noun, verb, adjective),
collocation (e.g. breakfast (have breakfast), an example sentence.

Compliment - a remark that expresses praise or admiration of somebody,

/ˈkɒmplɪmənt/, noun, give / pay a compliment, return a compliment, receive
a compliment, He returned her compliment by saying how well she looked.

Homework
A contentious topic: setting homework might be received differently depending on the
country and culture in which you are teaching. A class of teenagers might be more likely
to complete their homework every week, as they are in the habit of doing homework
every day anyway. Adult learners in General English or Business English classes may
not have enough time to do homework in time for every lesson, especially longer pieces
of writing. It might be a good idea to set a choice of homework, including things that
adults can do ‘on the go’ such as listening to a podcast during their commute.

For lower-level learners, they might like News in Slow English, a website where the
news is read in a slower style than usual. Students can read the script later and answer
questions about grammar and vocabulary.

16. Dealing with Problems

Put in plain terms – just about anything can happen in the classroom. Quite apart from
any issues to do with your language teaching, you might find problems with behaviour,
motivation, classroom layout, lack of light, energy levels … the list is endless – and
obviously any problems you encounter can impact on your students’ learning.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a magic wand that you can wave to make problems disappear.
However, the more you prepare for potential problems in advance, the easier you will
find it if they do arise. We have outlined some of the common problems you might come
across below.

Firstly, new teachers often have a fear of being asked a question to which they don’t
know the answer. In fact, almost every teacher is likely to be asked a question that they
can’t answer at some point in their career – whether it is to do with the school
administration or the finer points of grammar.

The fact that you don’t know a specific piece of information is usually less important than
how you deal with the situation. It is always best to be honest and, if you don’t know, tell
your student you will find out. Do this during the lesson (e.g. during a reading) or before
the next lesson. Whatever you do, don’t make the answer up! Be wary of asking the
other students in the class – this might undermine your position, although often students
have the answers you’re looking for!

Here are three more problems that you may come across as a TEFL teacher. Have a
read and then make a list of some possible solutions to these problems, before clicking
to reveal our suggestions at the bottom of the page. Who knows, maybe these ideas will
end up being life savers for you during your teaching career.

Problem 1: Lack of learner motivation

Students skip class and when they do show up it seems to be due to fear of failure more
than anything else. They lack any semblance of attention during class, chatting with
classmates, doodling in their notebooks or (gasp!) in their textbooks.

Problem 2: Insufficient time, resources and materials

What can you do when charged with teaching English in only one or two hours per
week? Add this lack of time to a decided lack of materials and virtually zero other
resources in many third-world classrooms and you have a critical teaching / learning
situation indeed.

Problem 3: Over-crowded English classes

The number of learners in a classroom can range from one, for those who teach
individual private learners; to 15 or 20 learners in a typical classroom; to up to
multitudes of 35 or 40 or even 50 or more learners packed into a language learning
situation.
Click to reveal
1. Ways of addressing lack of student motivation

 Use activities matched to the personalities, learning styles and characteristics of

the learners as often as practically possible.
 Ensure you have set up as positive a learning environment as possible.
 Make sure students are aware of the goals.
 Find out your students’ goals and the topics they want to learn and try to
incorporate them into the curriculum.
 Encourage your students to find out their learning style and use this to help learn
English.
 Introduce activities that will help to increase your students’ self-confidence.

2. Ways of addressing insufficient time, resources and materials

 Use your imagination!

 Ask students to use something in the class (pens, pencils, desks, rulers) in a non-
traditional, unusual or inventive way. For example, use different sizes of pencils
to teach the comparative form, or match pens, pencils, and rulers of the same
colour to teach colours.
 Bring in realia, this means actual objects that students can see, touch, and hear
in the classroom.
 Use local materials like leaves, mud, bamboo, or coal from burnt firewood for
colouring.
 Ask students to bring in recyclables, such as empty plastics bottles or aluminium
cans for class projects.
 Use the talents of your learners to create teaching aids. For example, have them
draw charts and pictures.
 Recycle newspapers and magazines. For example, your students could cut out
letters of the alphabet or words to make their own sentences. They can then
create a story by gluing together these sentences, along with cut-out pictures
from the publications.
 Make flash cards from used cartons or sheets of regular paper.

3. Ways of addressing over-crowded lessons

 Use choral, small group and pair work to help lessen the load on both you and
the large group of learners.
 Identify a few of the more advanced learners to help with group work elements.
 Adopt a task-based approach to teaching. Divide the class into groups and give
each group a different task on the same topic.
17. Multilingual and Monolingual Classrooms

Does a monolingual class mean...

1. the class is boring and monotonous.

2. your students all speak different languages.
3. all your students have the same native language or, in teaching speak, the same
L1.

Click to reveal
All your students have the same native language or speak the same L1!

During your teaching career, you are likely to come across both monolingual and
multilingual classes. Each comes with its own set of challenges as well as advantages.
Being aware of these in advance will help you prepare for the lessons.

Before you read on, spend a few minutes thinking about the differences between each
type of class.

 Monolingual classes (usually abroad)

 Multilingual classes (usually in English-speaking countries)

Click to reveal

Monolingual classes (usually abroad) Multilingual classes (usually in English-

speaking countries)
  The students have the same  There is a lot of opportunity to practise
pronunciation and language problems. English outside the classroom.
This means that you should be able to  In the classroom, there are a variety of
build corrective measures into your cultures. This can create interest,
lessons. making classes motivating and
 The students have a lot in common stimulating.
(topics, needs, attitudes, cultural  The only common language is English.
knowledge and preferences) which can Therefore, there are not usually
make for good themes in class. problems with students speaking in
 Courses are usually non-continuous their L1.
enrolment (closed groups), so all  There is often a range of levels within
students should start at the same point. a class. This can mean that students
 Often there is a similar rate of can help each other more.
progress.  There is often a wide range of needs
 Classes are generally long term. This within one class.
helps you to develop trust / bonds with  Classes can have continuous
the students, but it can cause enrolment. This means that students
motivational problems. may come and go all the time. This can
 Students have similar expectations of help with motivation but also can
how teachers should teach and how cause instability and planning
learners should learn. problems.

Now spend some time thinking of ideas for activities you could use for monolingual and
multilingual classes. If you get stuck, look back to Sections 1 and 2 for some ideas.

Issues relating to L1

You may not speak the L1 of the students you are teaching. However, it is important to
be aware of challenges that can arise, because of their L1. A couple of these are:

False Friends

No, not that sort! In language teaching false friend means a word in the L1 that is similar
in appearance or sound to a word in the language being learned.

For example, the word “embarrassed” in English sounds like the Spanish word for
pregnant – embarazada. Well, you can imagine what confusion that might cause – not to
mention embarrassment!

Gender

English is gender neutral. However, some languages apply gender to objects, which
may impact on how your students respond.

For example, don’t be surprised if a student says, “she is a beautiful tree".

There is no real way around this – after all you can’t change either of the languages.
However, it is useful to be aware that such points may arise, not least so you don’t feel
too disconcerted if the whole class starts giggling when you say something innocently.

Ensuring students speak English in the classroom

Many schools have a policy that students can speak only English in the classroom or
even in the school building. Other schools take a more relaxed approach and leave it up
to the teacher to decide whether L1 is allowed.

Whatever the situation, it is up to you to create an environment that fosters and

encourages use of English. After all, there is not much point in giving your students a
task designed to practise their English, if they revert to L1 at the first opportunity. This is
far more likely in monolingual classes – after all L1 is their easiest form of
communication.

Here are a few ideas you can try.

 Agree with your students when (if at all) use of L1 is allowed and include this in
your classroom rules.
 Have three cards that represent three chances to use L1. When these have been
used up, students can only speak in English. This helps students to challenge
themselves more.
 If students keep using L1, try ignoring them until they use English.
 If you have your own classroom, create a miniature English-speaking country.
For example, put up photos of your hometown, family, sports, friends, buildings,
etc. This will help keep English to the fore in students’ minds.
 Keep going. Continue to encourage your students to follow whatever English-
speaking rules you have in place. You owe it to your students and it will help
them in the long run.

18. Overcoming Barriers to Discussion

Discussion and debate are useful tools in a classroom, particularly for higher level
students. However, cultural barriers may hinder some students from fully participating in
a western-style discussion.

Spend a few minutes thinking about some possible barriers to discussion, and how you
might overcome these.

Here are some approaches you can try.

Click to reveal
1. Arguments
Many students, particularly from Asia, tend to dislike open conflict. Discussion often
involves the exchange and development of varying opinions. An unwillingness to conflict
with another person’s opinion may severely limit the depth of a discussion.
A good approach is to remove the personal element of the discussion, by assigning roles
to students. Here are a couple of activities that you can try.

 Point / counter point

Write two opposing viewpoints relating to the topic on the board.

Divide the class into pairs and assign a viewpoint to each. Students must then defend
their assigned viewpoint.

 Devil’s advocate

Introduce the idea of a devil’s advocate - a person who disagrees (with a reason) or
challenges everything that their partner says. Assign one student in each group or pair
the role of devil’s advocate.

2. Student interaction
Some cultures tend to give their opinions in turn without responding to other student
opinions. This means that discussions will be stilted.

A couple of possible solutions are:

 Statement modification

Write an outrageous statement related to the topic on the board.

In small groups, students discuss the statement, then work together to modify it in a way
that they can all agree on.

 Boring object game

If students are having real problems with interacting, increase their awareness with this
game.

Divide the class into small groups and give one student in each group a boring object
such as a pen or coin. The student must then talk about the object for one minute, whilst
the other students remain quiet. Elicit students’ responses to the activity (e.g. how
difficult it was).

Next ask the whole group to talk freely about the object for one minute. Elicit students’
responses (hopefully - how easy it was, how much more they could talk about, etc).

Use this to emphasise the importance of two-way communication during discussions.

Tell your students that you will be checking how well they respond to each other’s
opinions and giving them feedback.

3. Equal participation
Your students may be part of a society/culture which is based on a hierarchical structure
(for example, relating to gender, age or class). This can impact on both the levels of
participation and the types of interactions that your students feel able to be involved with.

Possible solutions include:

  Don’t pair up students in a way that is likely to clash with their cultural values. For
example, avoid pairing young women with older men.
 Encourage quiet students to talk by asking them questions during discussions.
 Discuss the issue sensitively with your students with the aim of agreeing
some class rules that allow all students to participate equally.
 Give dominating students a role requiring them to ask for or respond to the
opinions of other class members during discussions.
 Use statement modification, devil’s advocate and point / counterpoint techniques
to help empower students to interact.

Top Tips

Before we finish this module, here are a few final tips.

 Use Instruction Checking Questions or ask students to demonstrate what they

think they are supposed to be doing, rather than asking do you understand?
 Show excitement and enthusiasm for your activities. If you are singing and
chanting, then sing and chant confidently.
 Help keep motivation high by varying activities and bringing in competitions.
 Be gentle and calm with students. Taking on this demeanour will assure the
students that everything is fine.
 Give lots of positive reinforcement.
 Refer to students by name as much as possible and react with interested
expressions.

Thursday, 6 August
2020, 2:59 PM
 State Finished

Completed on Thursday, 6 August 2020, 3:48 PM

Time taken 49 mins 43 secs

Grade 31 out of 33 (94%)

Feedback Congratulations - great work!

Question 1
Correct

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The desks in a classroom should:

Select one:

a. always be in straight rows

b. be set up depending on the room, the students and the tasks in the lesson

c. be changed continually to ensure that students don't get too used to one format

Question 2
Correct

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Classroom management is important because:

Select one:
a. effective classroom management allows the teacher to be more creative

b. it gives the teacher the opportunity to show who is in charge of the class

c. it allows the teacher to create the best possible learning environment for the students

Question 3
Correct

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Classroom management is:

Select one:

a. mainly concerned with organising where the tables and chairs should be

b. overrated and not too important in modern language teaching

c. a fundamental part of teaching, impacting on every second of every lesson

Question 4
Correct

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For the following questions, match the classroom management problems (1 - 4) with the
appropriate solutions (a - d):
1. Some of the students are working too slowly and not completing tasks
2. The two Japanese students in your class are continually talking to each other in
Japanese throughout the class and it’s negatively impacting their learning
3. Your class don’t seem interested in the activity you have asked them to do
4. Your class is being dominated by the two strongest students meaning the ‘weaker’
students are not getting to practice enough

Answer 1
Re-arrange who each student sits next to thinking carefully
2
about keeping those with the same L1 apart

Answer 2
Ask your students about the topics and activities that would
3
interest them

Make sure that you manage the activities you set to give each
Answer 3
member of the class a clear role and try to encourage all to
4
contribute by changing the way you seek answers in feedback
sessions
Ensure that you set clear time limits on activities and monitor Answer 4
each student's progress and ability carefully to ensure they 1
understand activities and the language you are teaching
Question 5
Correct

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Look at the following statements and decide if they refer

to extrinsic or intrinsic motivation.
“I want to learn English because I want to earn more money”

Select one:

a. Extrinsic

b. Intrinsic

Question 6
Correct

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 Flag question

Question text

Look at the following statements and decide if they refer

to extrinsic or intrinsic motivation.
“My parents are forcing me to go to English lessons after school”

Select one:

a. Extrinsic

b. Intrinsic

Question 7
Correct

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Look at the following statements and decide if they refer

to extrinsic or intrinsic motivation.
“I want to make new friends from different cultures”

Select one:

a. Intrinsic

b. Extrinsic

Question 8
Correct

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 Flag question

Question text

Look at the following statements and decide if they refer

to extrinsic or intrinsic motivation.
“I want to learn something new to challenge myself”

Select one:

a. Extrinsic

b. Intrinsic

Question 9
Correct

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Look at the following statements and decide if they refer

to extrinsic or intrinsic motivation.
“I need to pass an English exam to study in an English university”

Select one:

a. Extrinsic

b. Intrinsic

Question 10
Correct

Mark 1 out of 1
 Flag question

Question text

Look at the following statement and decide if it is true or false.

Having a variety of activities will help with classroom management.

Select one:

True

False

Question 11
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Question text

Concept checking questions should be short and simple.

Select one:

True

False

Question 12
Incorrect

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Question text

Concept checking questions should always use the target language.

Select one:

True

False

Question 13
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Concept checking questions shouldn’t use language that is more difficult than the target
language.

Select one:

True

False

Question 14
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Concept checking questions should be specific and unambiguous.

Select one:

True

False

Question 15
Correct

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Question text

Look at the following examples of target language and concept checking questions. For
each point, choose if you think the concept checking question is good or bad.
Target language: I’ve lived here for three years.
Concept question: Did I take up residence in my present abode three years prior to this
date?

Select one:

a. Bad concept checking question

b. Good concept checking question

Question 16
Correct

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Target language: A wardrobe.

Concept questions: Do you put clothes inside it? Is it big?

Select one:
a. Good concept checking questions

b. Bad concept checking questions

Question 17
Incorrect

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Target language: He managed to open the window.

Concept question: Did he manage to open the door?

Select one:

a. Good concept checking question

b. Bad concept checking question

Question 18
Correct

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Complete the following sentence:

The appropriate level of student to teacher talking time should be:

Select one:

a. 70 / 30

b. 50 / 50
c. 80 / 20

Question 19
Correct

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During a roleplay one of the students makes a mistake but the other students
understand what they mean. Do you...

Select one:

a. Get the student to repeat the correct structure in front of the class until they get it right

b. Make a note of the mistake and address it after the activity or in a future activity

c. Stop the conversation and make sure that the student gets the structure right before
continuing

Question 20
Correct

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A piece of written work is full of errors. You should...

Select one:

a. tell the student it's so awful they will need to re-write it for you straight away

b. highlight all the errors to the class and then work through each mistake one by one
c. focus on the most important errors and work with the student on these areas

Question 21
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When giving feedback you should...

Select one:

a. Ensure that you praise the effort as well as identifying and supporting areas of
weakness

b. Be careful not to praise too much – it may give your students the wrong idea of how
well they are progressing

c. Be tough – that's how students learn best

Question 22
Correct

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Students providing feedback and error correction to each other can be useful because...

Select one:

a. it's a great way for students to reinforce their own knowledge and practise the skills
they have learnt

b. it means the teacher doesn't need to do anything

c. it's important for students to be able to see how they are progressing compared to
other students

Question 23
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One student in the class is finding it difficult to pronounce some new vocabulary. You
should...

Select one:

a. Ask another member of the class to model the new word and then ask the first
student to try again

b. Ignore it, the student will pick it up eventually

c. Ask the student to stand up and keep saying the word until they get it right

Question 24
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Match the type of tests (below) to the descriptions.

Certificate of Advanced English (CAE) / Starters, Movers and Flyers / IELTS /
TOEFL

A range of simple tests for younger Answer 1

learners, allowing a sense of progress Starters, Movers and Flyers
and achievement.
A test often used for access into
universities in English speaking
countries and for jobs in multi-
national businesses. Any level of Answer 2
candidate can take the test and will IELTS
receive a grade from 1-9.

A US based language programme, Answer 3

frequently used for entrance into US TOEFL
universities and businesses.
An exam to prove a C1 Advanced
level in English, usually required for Answer 4
entry into educational institutions, Certificate of Advanced English (CAE)
business and government departments
around the world.
Question 25
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Match each sentence with the explanations below (a-c):

a) It’s important that your students understand what you want them to do before they
start the task, otherwise you will spend more time trying to re-start the activity and going
through instructions again - chaos can ensue.
b) Try to ensure to use language that your students understand when giving instructions
for an activity – remember, the instructions aren’t the aim of the lesson, the activity is!
Short, simple structures work best where possible.
c) If you overload your students with lengthy or irrelevant instructions it’s less likely that
the group will understand you and the activity won’t work as planned. You can always
include follow up instructions after the initial activity has been completed.

Answer 1
Think from your students' perspective when you are planning
B
and giving instructions.
Always try to check that your students have understood what
Answer 2
you have asked them to do and where possible use instruction
A
checking questions or even ask your students to demonstrate
the activity.
Answer 3
Keep the list of instructions short and to the point – don't
C
include unnecessary instructions or words.
Unit 5 - Teaching Vocabulary

Vocabulary is at the heart of TEFL. If students don’t know or understand the words that
are being used, they will be unable to communicate. In fact, it is believed that students
require a receptive vocabulary of approximately 3,000 high frequency words to be
independent users of the language.

You will usually find that your course book and/or course syllabus sets out the
vocabulary that you need to teach. This will provide you with a good foundation when
you are planning your lesson and deciding what materials to use.

This unit explores the different aspects of vocabulary in more detail and provides you
with some techniques for teaching vocabulary in the classroom.

You will also find a series of top tips, plus links to further reading.

By the end of this unit, you will have learnt about:

 The three different elements of vocabulary (meaning, form, pronunciation)

 Presenting vocabulary
 How to check students understand what you are teaching them
 Supporting students in remembering and producing vocabulary

As we saw in unit 3, when introducing new language, we present three different

elements:

Meaning

Form

Pronunciation

2. Meaning

Let’s start by exploring what you need to teach for each of these topics.

Meaning of Words

There are four categories of words that you will need to teach.

 Concrete words

These are the easiest to teach, as you have a specific object, animal or person to refer
to.

For example, if you are teaching the word table you can point to the table; or for dog,
you could show pictures of dogs (or even bring in a toy dog).
  Abstract words

Abstract words require a bit more thought to convey the meaning – and may call on your
acting skills.

For example, to teach the word happiness you might start by showing happy faces
(through film, pictures or your own expression), or for exaggerate you could show
actions or objects which are exaggerated, and then not exaggerated (e.g. walking, the
size of an object, a smile).

 Words with more than one meaning

Many words have more than one meaning. At beginner level, you are unlikely to teach
different meanings of words to your students. However, once you move up the levels, it
is important that students are aware of the different meanings. You will need to help
them to work out the meaning from the context.

 Generic terms

Some words can have a more general meaning than others. For example, the
word vehicle covers a wide range of vocabulary items, whereas car and bus are more
specific.

You will need to teach students both generic and specific words and help them
understand the difference between each.

Different Meanings

Before we move on, let’s spend a few more minutes thinking about one of these topics in
more detail - how we sometimes use the same word to convey more than one meaning.

Here are a couple of tasks to help you reflect on the range of meanings that students
might encounter.

Task 1: use of “see”

What do you think of when you are presented with the word see? For many people, the
obvious meaning relates to sight.

Now look at the following sentences. How many of them use the word see in this way?
How else might you express each of the sentences?

A. I see what you B. Is she seeing him? C. My dog will see off
 mean. the burglar!

D. See you later. E. I can’t see a thing in F. Life’s a see-saw.

this fog!

A. I understand what B. Is she dating him? C. My dog will chase

you mean. the burglar away!

D. Goodbye. E. I can’t see a thing in F. Life has its ups and

this fog! downs.

This is the only one that

uses “see” in the sense of
“sight”
Task 2

Write as many sentences as you can for each of the following words, using a different
meaning each time.

 Charge
 Set
 Point
 Run
 Make

Once you have finished, count how many meanings you have managed to convey
through those sentences.

It gives you a real idea of just how much thought you need to put into presenting new
words!

3. Form

Form

The form of a word is the way it is set out or structured.

You are more likely to use the form when you are teaching grammar. However, it can
impact on vocabulary too. There are two main aspects to consider.

 Position and use in a sentence

The meaning of a word changes depending on its position in a sentence and the way it
is used.
For example, the word cross could be used as an adjective (“he’s a cross man”) or as a
verb (“cross over the road”) or as a noun (“put a cross beside the item you want”). As
you can see, the meaning of the word varies, depending on its position and use within
each sentence

 Prefixes and suffixes

Adding a prefix (at the start of a word) or a suffix (at the end of a word) will alter the
meaning of a word.

For example, the word “employ” can be changed to “re-employ” by adding the prefix “re-”
or “employer” by adding the suffix “-er”. Within form, we can also think about spelling,
e.g. how the spelling can change between American and British English.

 Spelling

Teach the students how to spell the word by giving them a written
record. In subsequent lessons, you can have a spelling test/quiz.

4. Pronunciation

The way we say a word can help to show its meaning. Reflecting on how you say a word
can improve your ability to teach its correct meaning to a class.

There are two main ways in which pronunciation impacts on meaning:

Stress
The meaning of a word changes based on the part of it that is stressed. For example,
read the following sentences out loud and listen to how you stress the word “record”.

1. He has a large record collection.

2. Can you record this programme for me?

Did you notice how you changed the stress to convey a different meaning in each
sentence? In the first, where “record” is used as a noun, you stressed the “re” syllable. In
the second, where “record” is a verb, you stressed the “cord” syllable.

Sounds
A word can have different meanings based on the sounds we use to say it.

For example, read the following sentences out loud and listen to the different sounds you
use to say the word “minute”.

1. That is a really minute particle.

2. Can you wait a minute? I’m almost ready.

Did you notice how you used different sounds in each case, to convey the different
meanings of the word?
Phonology
There is a whole science built around phonology (i.e. how words sound), including a
phonetic alphabet. We will explore this more in unit 6, Teaching Pronunciation.

Pronunciation activity
Before you move on, spend a few minutes thinking about how pronunciation affects the
meaning of words.

Use the tasks below to help you with this.

Task 1

Say the following words twice, the first time as a noun, and the second as a verb.

Present

Research

Suspect

Object

In all cases, the noun is stressed on the first syllable and the verb is stressed on the
second syllable. This is true in all cases. Other examples include produce, contract,
convert, progress.

Task 2

Write a sentence containing two different meanings of the same word:

 Excuse
 Dove
 Wind
 Row

Excuse Excuse me while I think of an excuse.

Dove The dove dove towards the ground to catch the worm.

Wind Wind the handle if you can in this wind.

Row We had a nasty row during our row.

5. Structuring Your Lessons

Now that we have identified what you need to teach, let’s turn our attention to how you
can teach it. As we saw in unit 3, it is important for your lesson to have a good structure.
Using the structure that we explored in the last section, a vocabulary lesson could have
the following stages:
Introduction and warmer: use or adapt the examples in unit 3, Structuring your Lesson
- but ensure the topic of your warmer is linked to the topic of the vocabulary

Presentation stage:

 Present the new word using techniques such as mime, realia or through a text
(an anecdote, dialogue or written story), then check the meaning using CCQs
 Introduce any important points about the form of the word, e.g. possible prefixes,
the spelling
 Model and drill the pronunciation, presenting any important points

Practice stage:

 Activities to help students record and remember the word - usually independently
and usually using a worksheet

Production stage:

 Activities using the new vocabulary more freely – students can use all the English
they know so far in a communicative task

Review and cooler: draw on coolers that we set out in unit 3.

You can then reinforce learning by setting homework and reviewing the language in the
next lesson.

The approach you take to presenting vocabulary will vary, depending on the level of your
students.

Before you read on, spend a few minutes thinking of the ways you could present this
language to the appropriate levels: monkey, overwhelmed, try on, beige, once in a blue
moon, sunrise, a trim.

Presenting Vocabulary to Lower Levels

Lower levels of students do not yet have an extensive body of vocabulary that you can
build on to teach new words. This means that you are restricted in the activities you can
use.

However, there are still useful techniques for this level.

Realia

Realia are objects from everyday life that you can use in your lessons, such as showing
your students coins, cash, receipts and credit cards in a lesson about money.

They are particularly useful when teaching beginners, as you can simply show the object
to the class and then tell them the word for it.

Pictures and flashcards

Like realia, you can use flashcards or pictures of objects to get the meaning across and
to reinforce students learning later in the lesson. It is important to make sure that any
pictures or images you use are clear and unambiguous.

Contrast

You can teach a word by contrasting it with another.

For example, you could teach the word “boy” by pointing out boys in the class, and then
contrasting it with “girl” (point out all the girls).

Mime and gesture

Mime or gestures can be useful for lower level classes.

For example, you can easily mime words such as run, jump, skip, laugh, sad or happy without
too much risk of misinterpretation.

You can also encourage students to join in, which helps to reinforce the learning – although
you should judge this on the age and make-up of the class!

Enumeration

Enumeration can be helpful when you are teaching generic terms.

For example, to teach the word “animal” you might list out a set of different animals.

Explanatory examples

Explanatory examples involve teaching a word by giving examples of how it could be used.
They are useful for students who already know some English.

For example, you might want to teach your students the word “ice”. To do this, you would
start listing different examples about ice, such as “it’s very cold” (pause), “we put it in
drinks” (pause), “we make it in the freezer” (pause), “the north pole is made of this”. You
keep going until the students get the meaning.

Presenting Vocabulary to Higher Levels

With higher level students you have more flexibility when presenting vocabulary.

You can still use the techniques we looked at for the lower levels. However, you can also
bring in additional activities that build on your students’ existing vocabulary.

Here are additional techniques that you can use with higher level students.
Simple explanations
A higher-level class already has built up a reasonable level of vocabulary. This means
you can sometimes simply explain the new vocabulary, using language that they have
already learnt.

A common way to do this is through matching tasks; students apply what they know to
match the given vocabulary to the definitions. Have a look at the following lesson plan
from TEFL blogger, Tim: Travel Expressions for Advanced Learners.

Download the 'travel expressions definition match' and 'travelling expressions handout'
and try the activities yourself. You can then try your hand at designing a similar task.
Choose a page from a magazine or book and pick out the 10 words you need to teach
for a higher-level class to understand the page. Use an online dictionary to find accurate
definitions and write conversation questions which use your target language.

Discovery activities
Discovery techniques allow the students to “discover” new language. This involves the
students more than if you simply present the language to the class and adds variety to
your lesson.

For example, here is a simple activity using the discovery approach.

Figure 1 below shows a simple low-level use of discovery.

Use your dictionary. Label the boxes with the words below.

House / Water / Chairs / Grass / Man

A word of warning: you will have noticed that this activity requires students to use a
dictionary. This is fine in the context but it is important that students do not rely on
dictionaries in the classroom as this can inhibit learning.

An alternative approach is to use this activity as a refresher exercise. In this situation,

students will not be allowed to use a dictionary but instead could work in pairs to
complete the task.

Working out meaning from context

Working out meanings from context can be an excellent activity for many levels of
students. It provides a challenging and interesting way for students to discover new
vocabulary without using a dictionary.

Here are a few activities that you can use.

 Unknown words: Students read a text in pairs and underline all the unknown
words as they go. They then try to work out the meaning of each of the unknown
words, based on the rest of the text.
 Ignore and score: Students read a text and cross out any words they don’t
know. Without checking the meaning, ask them to answer comprehension
questions so that they can see the importance, or lack of importance, of those
words in the text.
  Vocabulary in context: Read out a sentence that includes one or more new
words of vocabulary. As a group, ask the students to try to guess the meaning
from the context of the sentence.
 Vocabulary pair check: Assign pairs and tell students to read alternate
paragraphs and / or sentences and quiz each other about difficult vocabulary
items

INCONVERSATION CLASSES , VOCABULARY CLASSES

Travelling: Expressions and Discussion

Posted on January 24, 2016

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This is a vocabulary and conversation activity for higher levels (high B2+)
on the subject of travelling. Download the student hand out and
powerpoint below:

Travelling Expressions – Hand out

Holiday Destinations – Powerpoint

Lower levels may require more help with the expressions, use this
definition matching sheet to help them:

Travel expressions definition match

Warmer

In pairs students discuss the following questions

1. What’s the best place you’ve ever visited?

2. How often do you travel?
3. Do you have any trips planned for the near future?
Travel Expressions

Give out the hand out and have students complete the first exercise:

Complete the sentences (1-14) with the expressions (a-n)

1. My friends always ________________________ they

hitchhike and couchsurf everywhere.
a. Get itchy feet
2. We had to get up _________________________ to catch b. Get the travel bug
the 4am sleeper train.
c. Culture vulture
3. My parents are real ________________________ they
love museums, ancient ruins and art galleries. d. Catch some rays

4. I’ll meet up with you guys later, I’m gonna chill by the pool e. Sit and watch the
and _________________________ for a bit. world go by

5. When I’m on holiday I like to f. Pack a lot

_________________________ I can’t stand getting up late or in/Have a full plate
lying around on the beach.
g. See how the
6. My uncle always ______________________ when he mood takes me
goes on holiday, 5-star hotels, private beaches, pool parties, you
name it.
h. Travel on a shoe
string
7. You have to _________________________ when you’re
travelling alone; there are a lot of dangerous people out there.
i. Live it up

8. When I went to India it was a real

j. A culture shock
_____________________ for the first few days, you get used to
it after a while though.
k. Feel right at
home
9. I always try to _____________________, people always
pack so much stuff they don’t need.
l. Watch your back
10. I _________________________ in Stockholm, the people
are so friendly and they all speak English! m. Travel light

11. I don’t like planning my holidays meticulously, I’d rather just n. At the crack of
_______________________. dawn

12. I’ve definitely ________________________, I’ve only been

home for a week and I’m already planning my next trip.
 13. There’s nothing I like more than to sip a coffee in a nice
Italian piazza and ___________________________________.

14. I’ve lived in Berlin for 6 months, I’m not sure how much
longer I’ll stay, I’m starting
to________________________________.

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REPORT THIS AD

Key

1. H
2. N
3. C
4. D
5. F
6. I (i)
7. L
8. J
9. M
10. K
11. G
12. B
13. E
14. A

Discussion

Students discuss the following questions in groups of 3.

1. Do you travel light? If so, how do you decide what to pack?

2. You have to watch your back when you’re travelling alone; there are
a lot of dangerous people out there. Do you agree?
3. Which place that you’ve visited was the biggest culture shock?
Where did you feel right at home? Why?
4. Do you normally travel on a shoestring or live it up? How can you
save money while travelling? Would you consider hitchhiking or
couchsurfing?
5. Have you got the travel bug? Have you got itchy feet? If so,
where’s next on the list?
6. Do you like to pack a lot in/have a full plate or see how the mood
takes you when you’re travelling?
7. What’s the perfect place to sit and watch the world go by for you?
 8. How important is it for you to catch some rays when you’re on
holiday?
9. How do you choose a holiday destination? Are you a culture
vulture?
10. Holiday Destinations Discussion
11. Project the powerpoint, tell students that they are going to
choose a holiday destination in their groups from a number of popular
places around the world.
12. Show them the second slide and have them copy down the
different expressions:

I’d like to go I wouldn’t like to go I wouldn’t mind

Not my cup of tea

I don’t see the appeal of…
Right up my street
It just doesn’t do it for me.
Why not?
My dream destination
Go on then, I’ll give it a go.
…isn’t really my thing
It’s on my list
I’ll try anything once!
… don’t/doesn’t really float my
… really floats my boat boat

… are a big no-no for me.

13. Then have students discuss the different holiday destinations in

groups and decide on one which the whole group would like to visit.
14. Follow up
15. Students could write a CAE/CPE style Proposal composition
about the process of deciding on a holiday destination for the group.
They could evaluate the different merits and drawbacks of three of
the destinations from the powerpoint and recommend one as the
destination for an end of year trip.
16. Alternatively they could write a review of a holiday to one of the
places.
 Friday, 21 August
2020, 11:27 AM
State Finished
Completed on Friday, 21 August 2020, 11:44 AM
Time taken 16 mins 35 secs
Grade 31 out of 41 (76%)
Feedback Fantastic work!
Question 1
Correct
Mark 11 out of 11

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Question text

The text below has been written to include some ‘made up / nonsense’ words. Read the
text and see if you can guess the meanings of the ‘made up / nonsense’ words using the
context of the sentences they are in to help you. Write down what you think the words
mean and when you have finished, complete the chart below the text.
Walking in Cornwall
There’s nothing that quite compares to a bracing winter walk. During 1muskma, the sea
might be more enticing, you can stop off for numerous ice creams en route and meander
in shorts and t-shirt as the sun warms your skin; but at the same time, it’s hot, clammy,
you’re often jostling for position on the busy coast path, and parking at the start of the
route can be somewhat problematic. No such problem today. We snare one of many
available free seaside spaces in New Polzeath, and our spot provides a great vantage
point for 2bizging a newspaper and watching the surfers in the water, before heading a
couple of steps away to the Doom Bar of the Atlantic Hotel for a pre-walk coffee.
Cornwall has a fantastic selection of walks which make the perfect setting for a winter
getaway. Why not stay for the weekend and relax in one of Cornwall’s holiday cottages
prior to your walk? Wrap up 3frumble before you head out into the cold.
This is one walk where you will be more than glad to have a woolly hat with you, to keep
your ears nice and toasty and to stop your hair blowing in your eyes and obscuring the
views. Also, as any conversation is stolen by the wind, it doesn’t matter if you can’t hear
anything anyway; it’s actually quite nice to be engrossed in your own world for a while.
After sitting inside and looking beach ward, it’s great to be heading away from Polzeath,
and taking the coast path to Pentireglaze Haven, where the soft sand underfoot is the
perfect place for a spot of beach rambling, though we find little aside from small
mussels, plenty of kelp, and a cottage nestled at the back of the beach, which we
enviably spy through the 4boolos of. Heading away from the beach to climb the hillside,
waving goodbye to our sleepy start point, we then return to beach level to discover a
small pebbly cove. Tempted as we might be to take the grassy turning to Pentire Farm,
we refrain in the knowledge that we will be passing through the farm on our return route.
Heading onwards and upwards, the increased puffing is worth it, the path levels out to
provide expansive seaward views which include the day mark of Stepper Point and the
lighthouse of Trevose Head in the distance. The deserted stretch of sand to the south of
Stepper Point is Harbour Cove, usually peopled with bodies during the
summer 5gamats. Looking inland, rolls of hay sit on the hillside, the lush green of the
fields contrasting the grey and somewhat uninviting ocean. Eyes down, we discover a
large hairy caterpillar in the undergrowth, and once we’ve seen one, a game of spot the
caterpillar ensues; they’re out in abundance today. We pass a National Trust sign that
points us up hill to the Tumuli – a prehistoric burial ground, where an abundance of
heather disguises what lies beneath.
Continuing on the blustery route to the rocky outcrop of Pentire Point, here barren
volcanic rock makes up the headland; look carefully and you’ll see gas bubbles in the
rocks that formed when the lava cooled rapidly in the ancient seas some 350 million
years ago. Newland Rock can be seen offshore, whilst Rumps Point is visible in
the 6fangwar, like a stegosaurus, sporadic triangular rocks rearing out of the grass
headland. As you head to explore Rumps, you will find area of shelter from the wind,
although you won’t want to stay too long in these quiet pockets as the views are far more
spectacular the further up that you climb.
On the unusually shaped double headland of the Rumps are the remains of an Iron-Age
cliff castle, where a massive triple rampart and ditch system protected an area of around
six acres at the tip of the headland. We explored the stone circles that sat within the
enclosure, trying to envisage those who had stood in the very spot from which we now
admired the views. If the hills could 7queek they’d have a lot to say; excavations in the
same area have unearthed pottery from the first century BC, indicating trade with the
Mediterranean area. The large offshore rock behind the eastern headland is The Mouls,
which is a breeding site for 8flutties, gannets and kittiwakes.
Once you’re looking to head on, I challenge you not to want to roll down the hills that you
have so recently puffed your way up. Carry on your circular route; following the stone
wall until you reach a junction and bear right to start your inward loop.
Heading towards Pentire Farm, a helpful information board reveals that the whole
peninsula is part of a working 9sulu which produces beef, corn and sheep, the latter of
which we’ve seen plenty of during our walk. Though there’s not a person around when
we pass through the farmyard, there are cream teas available here in season.
Descending to your start point, you’ll be able to appreciate the shelter, peace and quiet,
before a last uphill stretch towards the car. As we hungry walkers head towards
Trebetherick we pass Mowhay Café and Gallery where the atmosphere is warm and
welcoming – it’s like stepping into someone’s front room. We feast on what can only be
described as a delicious lunch before, quite frankly, wanting nothing more than to go
home and 10arfle ep in front of the fire – with that lovely feeling that only fresh air exertion
can bring on.
If you would like to visit this 11zikle and are looking for somewhere to stay nearby, why
not log on and search for Bellbaad in Cornwall. You will find a wide variety of either self-
catering cottages and farmhouses or bed and breakfasts to suit your needs.

Far away. fangw ar

1

A type of bird. flutties

2

It’s what you do when you communicate with someone. queek

3
A season of the year muskma
4

They are made of glass and you find them in house walls. boolos
5

A verb to describe what you do with books, newspapers etc. bizging

6

It’s what a hedgehog does if you go near. arfle ep

7

A part of a county or country. zikle

8

The opposite of cold. frumble

9

Where animals are kept and crops grown. sulu

10

There are twelve of them in the year. gamats

A 11
Feedback

Your answer is correct.

The correct answer is: Far away. → fangwar, A type of bird. → flutties, It’s what you do
when you communicate with someone. → queek, A season of the year →
muskma, They are made of glass and you find them in house walls. → boolos, A verb to
describe what you do with books, newspapers etc. → bizging, It’s what a hedgehog does
if you go near. → arfle ep, A part of a county or country. → zikle, The opposite of
cold. → frumble, Where animals are kept and crops grown. → sulu, There are twelve of
them in the year. → gamats

Question 2
Partially correct
Mark 7 out of 11

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Question text

And finally, complete the chart below using the ‘new’ words and their real English
meaning. Don’t worry if you can’t get them all. One is almost impossible to get right!
 summer
Answer

muskma

reading
Answer
bizging

w armly
Answer
frumble

w indow s
Answer
boolos

months
Answer
gamats

distance
Answer
fangwar

speak
Answer
queek

birds
Answer
fluties

farm
Answer
sulu

curl up
Answer
arfle ep

county zikle
Answer
 summer
Answer

muskma

Feedback

*Puffins - unless you know your sea birds this one was probably an impossible
one to get right. If you guessed it was some type of bird that’s good enough!
So, how did you do? Did you guess most of the words? Look again at the ones you
guessed correctly. How did you do it? What information was in the text that helped you?
Perhaps it was the contrast between winter and summer that helped you understand
‘muskma’. What else could ‘bizging’ mean in the context except ‘reading’?
You used your knowledge of the language and some plain common sense to work out
the most likely meaning for the unknown words. It can be challenging but is usually quite
a fun activity as you pit yourself against the text.
It’s a skill we all use when reading in our mother tongue. We look at the context and
work out a likely meaning. If we are really interested in learning the word we remember it
and ask a friend or colleague later, or maybe look up the dictionary.
Your students will do the same provided they are given the chance. They will engage
with the text and interact with the language in a very productive manner. Don’t be afraid
to push your students. Providing you have thought out your lesson plan you can feel
confident your students will enjoy the challenge – and you can always get your class to
work in pairs or small groups if you feel they will need a little more support in the activity.
At higher levels you may want to really pull the stops out and have students discover
missing vocabulary from a text.
Look at the following text. Words are blanked out with ‘X’s’. Students could be asked to
read it individually and then compare their ideas with a partner or in a group. The
discussion which ensues will provide a great deal of language practice for the students
and will be a valuable source of information to the teacher. The teacher can then better
understand the students’ word banks (what vocabulary a student knows) and their
abilities to discuss, persuade, disagree, and so on.
As a follow up you may discuss the topic itself thereby providing further opportunity for
recycling and production of the newly acquired/refreshed vocabulary.

Question 3
Partially correct
Mark 13 out of 19
 Flag question

Question text

Read the following text and complete the blank spaces with an appropriate word. Doing
this will provide you with a sense of the difficulty encountered by and the range of skills
students need to draw upon to carry out similar tasks in the classroom. You may also
get a sense of the frustration students sometimes feel if a text does not provide enough
context for them to establish meaning of unknown words or to guess words. Bear this in
mind when designing ‘gap fill’ type activities for your own students.
Just like other crimes, a burglary can be a totally random event. However, when it's
burgular
planned, there are certain things a Answer

will look for when staking out a possible break-in, and there are steps the Answer
homeow ne

can take to minimise this risk.

This is a good checklist before leaving your home empty or for beefing up your
protection against theft:
Study your house from the street, and look for any valuables that may be visible from the
chance
street. Don't give thieves a Answer

to show up.
Before leaving for any length of time, ensure that all windows and doors are Answer
shut

garage
, including the door to your Answer

. Many home invasion robberies come through garage doors and inner doors to the
houses. Doors should have deadbolt locks with a one-inch throw and reinforced strike
plate.
Place a piece of wood or metal in the track of any sliding doors to prevent Answer
lifting

.
darkness
Don't leave your house in Answer

when you're away, create a sense of activity by using timers on lights, radios and
televisions.
lights
Install low-voltage Answer

outdoors to keep your surrounding yard well lit. Install motion detectors in dark areas
along the sides and back of house to alert you of any intruders.
Suspend your newspaper delivery while you're away and ask your neighbour to collect
mail
your Answer

. You may even ask them to park in your driveway while you're away.
holiday
Never leave a message on your answering machine that says you're on Answer

.
Keep any shrubbery near your walkway or entrance trimmed; removing any
hiding
possible Answer

places. Think about planting cactus or rosebushes under windows that may be
neighbourhood
especially vulnerable. Advise your Answer

watch that you'll be away. Ensure your security system is activated when you leave.
Etch your name on all electronic equipment to serve as a deterrent as well as assisting
stolen
police in the recovery of your property. It's more difficult to sell Answer
 ow ner's
property that has the Answer

name on it. Make a video tape of your possessions and record the serial Answer
numbers

.
Identity
Get a safe, not just for your jewels, but for important paperwork as well. Answer

theft is a crime that's on the rise and you want to minimise any availability to your
personal records.
The more you can do to deter an intruder, the better your chances are that your home
Studies
will not be chosen as a target. Answer

break
have shown that if it takes a burglar more than four or five minutes to Answer

into a home, they'll move on. If you increase their vulnerability by adding a well-lit area
guard
or a Answer

dog, that minimises your risk again.

Feedback

Pause for thought: These questions will help you to think as you should when planning
a lesson. You should ask yourself these before and during the planning process. Think
about your answers as you will need to become familiar with this type of thinking as you
progress through the course. Note: there are not necessarily any right or wrong answers
to most of the questions below but once you’ve noted down your own thoughts we have
provided some answers to consider.
1. What do you notice about this text that you might need to tell
your students?
 2. If you were to use this text, what level would you choose to
use it at?
3. How long would you give your class to work out the meaning
of the missing words?
4. What topics do you think you could use for a follow–up
discussion?
5. Are there any cultural references which might confuse
students?
6. How many of the words did you guess? How did you guess
them? How many did you get wrong?
7. Why do you think you got some words wrong?
8. Was there any connection between the types of words
blanked out?
9. Was there sufficient context for you to guess the missing
words?
10. Did you feel frustrated at any stage?
11. What would you have done differently with this text?

Some thoughts and suggested answers regarding the above:

1. You may want to set the scene of the text first by talking
about crime, how to protect houses etc. You may then want
to introduce the text as a leaflet from the local police on how
to keep your house as safe as possible when you are on
holiday. This then allows your students to begin to think
clearly about what the text is about and activate the relevant
vocabulary they already have about this topic.
2. You could use this for a variety of levels – depending on how
you present the activity – but it would be more likely to be
used at an intermediate level.
3. You need to balance this carefully depending on your class
and how you know they work. Too much time to work on the
answers and people will become bored and restless, too little
time and your class won’t feel that they’ve had time to gain
any benefit from the activity. One of the best ways to judge
how your class is getting on with any activity is to constantly
monitor activity, walk around the class asking each person /
group quietly how they are doing, concept checking etc.
4. You could have a huge choice here ranging from crime levels
and prevention to how best to protect your house, the police
in different countries or even asking groups to write their own
advice sheets on a particular topic. The topics chosen really
depend on the level or your class and your understanding of
their interests.
5. There could be a range of cultural implications in the piece
ranging from crime levels and the way people live (i.e. larger
 cities, smaller villages, apartments, houses etc) to the way
words are spelt and the plants that are described. You should
always think about the context of who and where you are
teaching when looking at any text you are working with.
6. How did you do? You may have managed to get every word
but it’s more likely that you had different words for one or two
gaps. A great insight into how your students will think and
cope isn’t it?
7. There can be a range of reasons why someone would get
different words in the gaps – sometimes there are alternative
words that may work just as well, sometimes it might not be
totally clear from the text what word would work well. In doing
this task you have experienced what your students would be
feeling (but with a much higher vocabulary at your disposal!)
and it’s important to remember any challenges that you may
have faced.
8. What do you think? Often in setting a piece of work like this it
can be useful to have a connection between the words in the
gaps. They could be part of the same vocabulary group or
parts of speech (i.e. all adverbs / adjectives / verbs etc). If
there is a connection between the words, you could let your
students know this before the task, or for higher levels, ask
them to work out the connection.
9. When setting a gap-fill of this nature you should always try to
ensure that there is sufficient context for your students to be
able to complete the piece of work and you could always
make things a little easier by listing the words on the board
prior to the activity.
10. This activity very much depends on each individual and its
success in the classroom will depend on how well you set up
the activity and then monitor your students progress. When
doing any activity, don’t forget to keep walking around the
class and checking on progress, assisting your students
where necessary.
11. How you use a text is limited only by your imagination and
the level of your students – that’s one of the beauties of
teaching. Giving thought to each and every activity before
you conduct a class is one of the most important elements of
effective teaching.

7. Checking Understanding

Note: This page contains important information for your first assignment.

After you have introduced new vocabulary to your students, it is important to check that
they have understood it correctly. You can do this by asking concept checking
questions (CCQs); these are a useful way to check students have understood t
he meaning of the new language.

Before reading through the page, watch the below video which gives you an introduction
to CCQs:

Now you’ve watched the video, let’s look at another example of using CCQs to check
students' understanding of the vocabulary that they have just been taught.

CCQ Example: You are teaching the word “snow”.

Type of CCQ CCQ Class Response

Is it (A) or (B)? Is it hot or cold? It's cold
Is it (something incorrect)?
No
Is it blue?
Ok. What is it? Elicit correct
It's white
answer.
Yes/no + extra
Personalise response Do you like playing in it?
information

As you can see, the CCQs don't contain the target language. By asking a
question about the word, it will give you a much better idea of whether the class
understands rather than simply asking “do you understand?”.

Remember: It is important to plan your CCQs in advance, so make sure you include
them in your lesson plan.

CCQs Activity

Write three CCQs for each of the following words. Don’t worry too much about the level
of students when writing these. The important thing is that you grasp the idea and can
begin to create effective CCQs for yourself.

1. Shuffle (Verb) I watched the old man shuffle along the road.

2. Watch (Noun) I wear a watch every day.

3. Apartment (Noun) I live in an apartment in the city.

l
Here are a few examples. You don’t need to have matched our answers, as long as you
have got the general idea. As much as possible, try not to use the word itself in your
CCQs.

1) Shuffle

A. Is this a way of walking? (yes)

B. Is it quick or slow? (slow)

 C. Do you lift your feet when you do it? (no)

2) Watch

A. Why do you use it? (for the time)

B. Do you put a watch on the wall? (no)

C. Where do you usually wear it? (on your wrist)

3) Apartment

A. Is it a place you can sleep? (yes)

B. Is it a house? (no)

C. What’s another word for it? (flat)

8. Analysing Vocabulary

Note: This page contains important information for your first

assignment.
In your first assignment, you'll need to analyse the vocabulary that you'll be teaching.
You then need to present this in a table called a Language Analysis.

Have a look at our example below to see what a language analysis should look like:

9. Helping Students to Remember the Language

Before you read on, can you think of any approaches that your students could use to
effectively record words?

There are different approaches you can use:

1. Vocabulary notebook

A vocabulary notebook is an easy way for students to note down and keep track of the
words they have learnt.

Vocabulary notebooks can be organised in a variety of ways, such as by topic or by part

of speech. As well as writing the definition of a word and its pronunciation, you could
encourage students to write a short sentence using the word.

2. Word spider / memory map

A memory map is a more visual approach to setting out vocabulary and provides links
between related words.

For example, a word spider of “houses” might look like this.

As you can see this is a very clear way to organise vocabulary and it allows students to
add items later should they need to.

3. Word box

A word box is a box which has new vocabulary written on cards with pictures or
descriptions on the back. You can have class word boxes, or students can make their
own.

A class word box also can provide a useful basis for revising vocabulary. For example,
you can pull out several cards at the start of a class and use these for eliciting
vocabulary.

4. Word banks

Word banks are a variation on word boxes, with vocabulary grouped around particular
topics.

To create a word bank, tell your class to come up with as many words as they can
around a chosen topic. Next write these all down to create a word bank on that topic.
Then set up a corner of the classroom where you keep all the word banks. Students can
visit the word bank to review vocabulary they have learnt in previous lessons.

10. Producing Vocabulary

We saw in Planning a Lesson that the production or free practice stage is a key part of
your lesson.

In a vocabulary lesson, this means including activities to help your students to actively
use the new words you have taught. This is the most important part of learning
vocabulary: it helps to ensure students have not only remembered the word but
understand how to use it effectively and appropriately.

Before you read on, can you think of any approaches that you could use to help your
students produce vocabulary?

As we saw in Planning a Lesson you can be creative in this part of the class – from
heated debates to games. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

1. Use realia
The aim of the production stage is to get your students using vocabulary freely in
context. Shaping activities around realia can be a great way of bringing your lesson
alive. For example, give your students maps and tell them to ask for / give directions to
specific places.

2. Roleplay
Roleplay is a useful approach to producing vocabulary. You can set up a scenario
around pretty much any topic you teach. E.g. a family in a car on a long journey or old
friends bumping to each other in the supermarket. For lower-level learners, give them a
character to act as rather than giving them complete freedom.

3. Debates and discussions

Debates are a good approach for higher level students. The approach you take will
depend on your class, and the topic you are covering – from full-class, open debates, to
pair work where the student is told to argue for / against a point.

4. Presentations
Writing and giving presentations in groups is a great way to practise the new language.
Not only will it increase confidence, it is a fantastic opportunity for students to improve on
21st century skills they will need outside the classroom too.

Friday, 21 August
2020, 12:57 PM

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Completed on Friday, 21 August 2020, 1:05 PM

Time taken 7 mins 58 secs

Grade 10 out of 12 (83%)

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Question 1
Partially correct

Mark 10 out of 12

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Question text

Identify if each vocabulary activity is a practice or productive activity.

Practice
Gap fill worksheet Answer 1
 Productive
Answering comprehension questions from a text Answer 2

Productive
Debates or discussions Answer 3

Productive
Roleplays, e.g. waiter and customer Answer 4

Practice
Games e.g. Hangman, Pictionary Answer 5

Practice
Unscrambling the sentence Answer 6

Practice
Answering conversation questions Answer 7

Practice
Matching exercises, e.g. matching a word to a picture Answer 8

Productive
Writing an opinion essay Answer 9

Productive
Writing tasks e.g. writing a letter to a friend Answer 10

Productive
A whole class survey (asking every person questions) Answer 11

Practice
Word searches or crosswords Answer 12

Feedback

Your answer is partially correct.

You have correctly selected 10.

The correct answer is: Gap fill worksheet → Practice, Answering comprehension questions from a
text → Practice, Debates or discussions → Productive, Roleplays, e.g. waiter and customer →
Productive, Games e.g. Hangman, Pictionary → Practice, Unscrambling the sentence →
Practice, Answering conversation questions → Productive, Matching exercises, e.g. matching a word
to a picture → Practice, Writing an opinion essay → Productive, Writing tasks e.g. writing a letter to a
friend → Productive, A whole class survey (asking every person questions) → Productive, Word
searches or crosswords → Practice

11. Developing Activities

Before we look in more detail at pronunciation, spend some time thinking about how you
could develop suitable activities for a vocabulary lesson.

Use the tasks below as a starting point. Note that you can use the same text to develop
activities for both the controlled practice and production stages of a lesson.

Producing vocabulary activity

Look at the following piece of text. After reading it carefully, decide how you would use it
to teach / review food vocabulary for your class. Think about:
  Activities which would help your students to practise and produce new words
 Approaches you could take to help your students increase their knowledge of
food words.

It seems that we’re invited to a party or family get-together every other night in the
weeks before the holidays. Unfortunately, most of the dishes that are brought to those
events are not exactly healthy. We all tend to overindulge during the holiday season,
tempted by all the unhealthy treats around. But to be honest with you, I get tired of all
the rich and fattening food rather quickly and welcome a healthy fresh alternative.

This is your year to shine with that healthy dish the next time you are asked to bring
something to a holiday party. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

1. Veggies and Dip

Just cut up some fresh veggies. Good choices are celery, broccoli, cauliflower and
cucumber. Add some baby carrots and grape tomatoes. Serve it with a low-fat ranch dip
and you’re good to go.

2. Fruits and Dip

Serve some fruit that’s in season in bite size chunks with a side of low-fat vanilla yogurt.
Wash some strawberries, peel and cut up some apples, pears, cantaloupe and even
some fresh pineapple for a sweet treat that’s actually good for you.

3. Cheese and Crackers

Make a platter of several low-fat cheeses and get a box of whole-wheat crackers. To
make it even more fun, use some holiday cookie cutters and cut shapes out of the
cheese. Just arrange everything on a platter and take it to the party.

4. Bring A Salad

A salad of mixed greens with some other veggies mixed in always makes for a great
side dish and will go with any other foods that are served. Start with some basic mixed
greens, preferably dark greens. I like to mix baby spinach with some other dark greens.
Dice up some red and yellow peppers for colour and some slices of cucumber for
crunchy texture. Top it off with some grape tomatoes and you will have a colourful and
yummy salad. I like to bring several ready-made low-fat dressings from the grocery store
to serve with the salad.

Go ahead - give one of these ideas a try. You’ll be surprised how well received your
healthy dish will be. Plus, you’ll know there will be at least one dish at the party you can
fill up on that is actually good for you and your health.

Happy Holidays!

Here are a few ideas for activities that you could use.
Activity 1

Look at the letters below. Each one contains the name of a food, but the letters have
been mixed up. Can you arrange them so they make the names of food?

Evegigs

Failurecowl

Spear

Alpinepep

Tip: You could have pictures of the food displayed on the board or even some fruit and
vegetables in the class if you think this might help the students.

Activity 2

Find the missing words in the text below.

1. Veggies and Dip

Just cut up some fresh v……. Good choices are celery, broccoli, c…….. and cucumber.
Add some baby carrots and grape tomatoes. Serve it with a low fat ranch dip and you’re
good to go.

2. Fruits and Dip

Serve some fruit that’s in season in bite size chunks with a side of low fat vanilla yogurt.
Wash some strawberries, peel and cut up some apples, p….., cantaloupe and even
some fresh p………. for a sweet treat that’s actually good for you.

Tip: Note how the first letter of a word is given. This can help students guess what goes
where – particularly if you have lots of missing words.

Other Ideas

 Write eight more words that could fit in the text above. Use your dictionary if
necessary.
 Make a vocabulary card for your new words.
 Make a vocabulary spider for fruit and vegetables you like.
 Talk to your partner about food you don’t like.
 Write a recipe for your favourite dish with vegetables.

Adapting activities for different levels

It is useful to remember that you can adapt the same materials and activities for use with
different levels of students.

For example, think about different ways in which you can build an activity around “odd
one out”.
Here is one approach you could use.

Ideas for Lower Levels Ideas for Higher Levels

Give your class (or small groups) a set of Introduce ambiguity into the options and
three words related to the lesson’s topic. use this to lead into a debate.
Ask them to circle the one that they think
is the odd one out. For example: For example, you could ask which is the
odd one out of gold, silver and platinum?
Apple, Orange, Onion Student A might say “platinum” because it
is the most expensive whilst Student B
Green, Blue, Tennis might say gold because it is a different
colour.
Door, Window, Handle

Cheese, butter, chicken

Enabling the students to discuss their
Keep the options clear and options allows them to practise the new
straightforward. The task should be vocabulary in a way that requires real
enough to practise learning at this level. understanding.

12. Top Tips and Further Reading

 Give students lots of time to hear and practise the correct way to pronounce
words. Remember that some sounds may be unfamiliar to them as they don’t
appear in their first language.
 Model words effectively and realistically; don’t slow down your speech to the
point where it becomes unnatural.
 Remember to model the pronunciation of words if you are using written discovery
tasks to introduce vocabulary with your students.
 Use short phrases or a sentence to help students practise and remember the
meaning of new words.
 Think about combining techniques to help get your meaning across. For example,
you might show pictures of people / things that are hot (a hot fire, a blazing sun,
etc.). You could then combine this with a mime about being hot (e.g. taking off
your jumper).
 Write new words on the blackboard and mark syllable stresses to help students
remember how they are pronounced.
 Remember communication is key: don’t be too critical of slight mispronunciations
if the meaning is clear.
 Do not highlight an individual student’s challenges in front of the whole class.
Instead, use pair / small group work as an opportunity to gently correct students
on an individual level.
 Listen for common errors and use group activities to help address these.
 Set a limit for how often students can refer to their dictionary during a class. If a
student looks at their dictionary more times than permitted, it is confiscated.
 Keep student’s confidence high by praising good effort.
 Build short bursts of pronunciation work into your classes: the more they
practice, the better they will get!
Summary and Further Reading

Vocabulary is at the heart of communicating in English. Without words, your students will
not be able to progress.

In this module we have explored how to teach vocabulary. We have looked at:

 The three different elements of vocabulary: meaning, form, and pronunciation

 Presenting vocabulary using approaches such as discovery activities and working
out meaning from context
 Supporting students to practise and produce vocabulary, including ways of
recording vocabulary, such as word banks and word spiders
 Concept checking questions

Before you move on however, spend time looking at the following articles. These set out
some useful ideas for teaching vocabulary.

Teaching English Vocabulary

10 Fabulous Ways to Teach New Words
Did you know that a student needs to encounter a new word 10
to 16 times to effectively "learn" it according to recent
research?
Considering the number of new words students have to learn per
course, this means us teachers have our work cut out for us. We all
know that although it is important for students to use
correct grammar and structures, words are the main carriers of
meaning. This means that the more words students are able to
handle accurately, the better their chances of understanding
English and making themselves understood.
To effectively acquire new vocabulary, students must go through
four essential stages:

 first, they notice a new word with help;

 secondly, they recognize the word at first with help,
 then later on their own;
 and lastly, they are able to both recognize and produce the word.
It is essential that you, as the teacher, make use of activities that
target each of these stages; more often than not, we make the
mistake of merely introducing new vocabulary, and we don’t give
students the opportunity to put these new words to use.

Stage 1: Noticing and understanding new words

Introducing nouns, things, objects, animals, etc…
Visual elements work best with concrete nouns, but try to go
beyond flashcards and illustrations. Try to use real
objects whenever possible, or even sounds, smells, and tastes.
Appeal to all of your students’ senses!
Introducing adjectives
Opposites, like “big” and “small”, “long” and “short”, are usually
illustrated with pictures, but here’s another case where realia will
help you teach new adjectives; the use of real life objects is
wonderful for words like “soft” and “rough”, adjectives that may take
precious minutes of class time to explain. For more advanced
adjectives, like “stunning”, “gorgeous”, “spectacular”, “huge”, or
“immense”, bring in photos of famous sights from around the world
like the Louvre, Egyptian pyramids, the Eiffel Tower, etc…then use
these new adjectives to describe these places in ways that clearly
illustrate their meaning.
Introducing abstracts
There are things you simply cannot teach with a flashcard. What
works best in these cases are synonyms, definitions, substitutions,
or simply placing students within a given context. Consider this
simple example: To teach the difference between “early” and “late”,
remind students what time class begins, then state that those who
arrive before this time are “early” while those that arrive after this
time are “late”.

Stage 2: Recognizing new words

Bingo
Bingo is one of the most versatile games employed by ESL
teachers. For younger learners, make bingo cards with illustrations,
and call out each word. For those who can read, do the opposite,
make the cards with words, then draw the flashcards from a bag.
For teens or adult learners, you can make cards with the definition
and call out the words, or vice versa.
Matching
Another type of exercise with countless possibilities. Students
may be required to match opposites, synonyms, or a word with its
definition, as well as a picture to a word.

Fill in the blanks (with options)

Hand out a piece of written text (anything from a description, song, letter, to even a short
story) with blank spaces that must be filled in from a list of words. You can adapt this to longer texts,
and also have longer word lists.

Stage 3: Producing vocabulary

Descriptions
From a newspaper photo of a recent event to a personal account
of a recent trip, there are countless things students can describe
while putting new vocabulary to good use. This goes for both oral
and written descriptions. You may give them some guidance, like
indicating that they have to use at least five adjectives in their
description, or five words related to sports, weather, etc…to no
guidance at all.
Fill in the blanks (no options)
Supply students with a piece of written text with blank spaces
that have to be filled in with any word that fits. You may give them
indications for each space, like “noun”, “adjective” or “adverb”, if
they’re advanced students. You can then read several out loud to
compare the different words used to fill in each blank.

Mind maps or brainstorming

Tell students they need to think of words they can use to describe
the weather. Write “weather” at the center of a blackboard
or whiteboard and circle it. Write every word supplied by students
as “rays” that shoot out this circle. They should reply with previously
taught words, like “chilly”, “scorching”, or “mild”. You may even have
sub-circles shooting off to the side for winter, summer, etc…words.
This works great for vocabulary review lessons.
 GuesswhatI'mthinking
Students take turns describing something, like a place: “I’m
thinking of a place that is so huge it takes visitors hours to see all of
it. It has stunning works of art. It is a breathtaking building, very old,
but with a modern glass pyramid in the front.” Students choose to
be as obvious or as cryptic as they like. Even little ones can do this
with simple descriptions: “It's an animal. It has a very long neck and
big brown spots.” Or simply state a series of words: “Africa, black
and white, stripes”.
It’s better to teach vocabulary in context, in other words, teach
highly descriptive adjectives when the lesson is about travel.
Or clothes and accessories when you’re talking about shopping.
Never teach a list of words just because, or students won’t have a
chance to practice this new vocabulary.

On a final note, remember to cater to

different learning styles or multiple
intelligences.
Use songs and music, real life objects, or puzzles, but the more you
mix the better. Remember the difference between recognizing and
producing words: to practice recognition the words have to be
supplied by YOU; then students use them to fill in blanks or match
them. For students to effectively and accurately produce
vocabulary, they have to spontaneously recall the words.
Effective strategies for teaching vocabulary to young learners

How many words do you know in your native language? 20,000? 30,000? More?
According to The Economist, most adults score between 20,000 and 35,000 words on the
website [Link], and children as young as four already know 5,000 words –
quite impressive. The non-native children taking the same test scored, on average, about
4,500 words – a figure that they can increase by immersing themselves in the language.
So what type of words should we expect non-native young learners of English to know?

What constitutes a ‘word’?

The Global Scale of English (GSE) Vocabulary is a graded lexical inventory of general
English thatlearners should be able to understand at different levels of proficiency. The
entries in the GSE Vocabulary are word meanings, not lemmas (e.g. for the base word
“foot”, the singular form “foot” and its inflected plural form “feet” are two separate
entries) or word families. There are more than 37,000 word meanings, corresponding to
about 20,000 lemmas, 80,000 collocations and 7,000 phrases.

A four-step process was used to create the GSE Vocabulary inventory:

1. Three corpora were analysed to identify the most frequency words used by young L1
learners speakers.
2. The words were annotated according to the topic and subtopic they related to.
3. The words were rated by teachers for communicative usefulness.
4. The word meanings were aligned with the GSE and CEFR.

Teachers were asked to rate words by meaning using this scale:

1. Essential
2. Important
3. Useful
4. Nice to have
5. Extra
What does it mean to ‘know’ a word?
Studies have shown that vocabulary and grammar are intertwined, so knowing a word
involves knowing how it collocates or what ‘chunks’ it can occur in. Young learners learn
effectively when language is presented in chunks, so this approach is common in course
materials. To ‘know’ a word involves the following facets of a word:

1) Its cognate or semantic referent, i.e. its meaning.

2) The letters that make up the word, i.e. spelling and the visual ‘look’ of the word.

3) The sounds that make up the word, i.e. its pronunciation.

For example, for the word “nurse”, learners need to know it is a male or female health
professional, that it is spelled n-u-r-s-e and is pronounced /nɝːs/.

There is also the question of learners not knowing all the possible meanings of a word –
and this is common in the young learner classroom. For example, children are likely to
first learn “mouse” as an animal and then, at a later stage, learn that it is a computing
device. There is also the fact that young learners working at the edge of their
competence often produce neologisms that show learning even though they are not
correct forms. Consider the utterance “wind snake” for “flag”, which results from L1
transfer, or “tooth doctor” for “dentist”, which uses existing language to convey a
concept. Such utterances will benefit from the teacher teaching the correct forms.

What role does vocabulary play in language learning?

There has been much research into vocabulary acquisition, teaching and assessment, but
there is little agreement about which and how many words are needed to communicate
effectively at different proficiency levels. Vocabulary learning should not just be
quantitative, focusing on expanding the number of words a learner knows, but also
qualitative, focusing on how the words are used pragmatically. For example, “hair” is
plural in many languages, but it takes the singular uncountable verb form in English – so
students need to learn this so that they aren’t producing incorrect sentences such as:
“He has a curly hair.”

What strategies can be used to help young learners learn vocabulary effectively?
In order to help young learners learn vocabulary effectively, we need to employ a range
of strategies. First, we need to think why the young learner wants to know the words we
teach as they are much more likely to remember them if they need them or want to use
them. One way a teacher can do this is to get the learners to draw or write the words
they already know and then draw or write the L1 translation of words they want to know.
This can be followed by a spot of peer teaching where learners who know the second set
of words teach them to the learners who want to know them.

Another way to help young learners learn new words is to explore ways of recording
vocabulary. Show learners some examples of picture dictionaries, words with sentences
in English explaining what they mean and mind maps linking words and ideas. Discuss
why these strategies are helpful. Encourage the learners to use these strategies when
noting down new words.

If we want our young learners to be effective learners of vocabulary, we have to invest in

teaching them strategies that help them to remember the words and produce them when
they need them. Using the strategies above will help them develop their vocabulary and
increase the total number of words they know.
How can the GSE Vocabulary help teachers and young learners?
The GSE Vocabulary is designed to help teachers ascertain what vocabulary they should
be teaching their learners and when to expect them to understand the words. When it
comes to deciding what word meanings and chunks young learners should know at
primary and secondary level, most teachers are guided by the coursebooks they use or
by external exams their students are preparing to take. But teachers can use the GSE
Teacher Toolkit to search the data and compile a list of level-appropriate words to teach
their classes.

For example, a teacher using Big English may have to teaching parts of the body can
access the Teacher Toolkit, click on the ‘Vocabulary’ tab and choose the topic ‘body and
health’ and then select ‘Parts of the body and mind’.

V is for Vocabulary teaching

2062013

A teacher educator in Norway reports on how she has

used ideas from my book How to Teach Vocabulary (2002) on an in-service course for local primary and
lower secondary school teachers. Mona Flognfeldt writes: ‘I have shared with my students a lot of input
that I have learnt from you, and a lot of our students have put their new insights to immediate practical
use in their classrooms. … As a part of their course, these students have also learnt to make their own
blogs.’ These blogs have become the vehicles whereby they report on how they ‘have tried out various
activities and types of tasks in their attempts to help their students enhance their vocabulary in English’.

Reading the blogs I am struck by the way these teachers have implemented, in their own classes, a
reflective task cycle as part of their ongoing professional development. This has involved background
reading and discussion, classroom experimentation, reflection and – by means of the blogs – sharing with
their colleagues the insights that they have gained.

To give you a flavour, here is a sample of the kinds of activities these teachers tried. I have grouped
them according to five guiding principles of vocabulary acquisition. (Apologies in advance to those whose
blog posts I haven’t included, but readers who are interested can find them at the link below).
1. The Principle of Cognitive Depth: “The more one manipulates, thinks about, and uses mental
information, the more likely it is that one will retain that [Link] the case of vocabulary, the more
one engages with a word (deeper processing), the more likely the word will be remembered for later
use” (Schmitt 2000: 120).

I picked out 8 words from the text that I wanted my pupils to learn. Then I had my pupils identifying the
words in the text. Task 2 was a selecting task where the pupils had to underline the words that were
typical for India. They shared their work with a partner, explaining their choices. As task 3 they were
matching the words with an English description from a dictionary. They also found antonyms and
synonyms. Task 4 was a sorting activity where the pupils had to decide whether the words were nouns,
verbs, adjectives or adverbs. Finally, as a ranking and sequencing activity I had my pupils rank the words
according to preference, to decide how important they thought knowing each word was. They discussed
their ranking with a partner. (Mette B.)

2. The Principle of Retrieval: “The act of successfully

recalling an item increases the chance that the item will be remembered. It appears that the retrieval
route to that item is in some way strengthened by being successfully used” (Baddeley 1997: 112).

My Vocabulary activity was “Categories” … The students worked in groups of four or five. They were
handed out a piece of paper where five columns were drawn up. Each column was labelled with the
name of a lexical set: Food, transport, clothes, animals and sport. I called out a letter of the alphabet
(e.g. B!). The students wrote down as many words they knew began with the letter to a time of limit
which was around 2-3 minutes. The group with the most words won (I did not demand that the words
were spelled correctly. (Gunn)

There is also pictionary, where you divide the class into two groups, and one member of each team goes
to the SmartBoard. The teacher flashes them a card with a word, phrase or expression and the pupils
have one minute to make their team say the word on the basis of their drawing on the SmartBoard; no
other clues are allowed. (Vanessa)

3. The Principle of Associations: “The human lexicon is

believed to be a network of associations, a web-like structure of interconnected links. When students are
asked to manipulate words, relate them to other words and to their own experiences, and then to justify
their choices, these word associations are reinforced” (Sökmen 1997: 241-2).
Make true and false sentences about yourself using eight of these words.

I believe this is a good activity for deeper processing of words, because the learners have to relate to the
words and phrases personally. I have tried it out in class and found it a motivating activity both for me
and for my pupils. We all got to know each other better by sorting out the activities they liked more and
liked less. This was a concrete task, easy for them to relate to and to make up sentences from a given
pattern. The activity guessing what is false and true is fun and easy to understand. They have to use
what they already know about each other to decide whether the statements are true or false. (Anne
Katrine)

4. The Principle of Re-contextualization: “When words are met in reading and listening or used in
speaking and writing, the generativeness of the context will influence learning. That is, if the words occur
in new sentence contexts in the reading text, learning will be helped. Similarly, having to use the word to
say new things will add to learning” (Nation 2001: 80).

I showed them the list of words on the projector and introduced the task to them. Their first task was to
translate the words and write them in Norwegian. … When the pupils had finished this, they were asked
to use at least five words/expressions from each column to write a paragraph on US politics. The task
had to be finished before the lesson the week after. This sentence or text creation task required the
pupils to create the context for the given words and phrases. In addition to the meaning of the words,
the pupils also needed to think about word tense, grammatical behaviour and so on. (Sturla)

5. The Principle of Multiple Encounters: “Due to

the incremental nature of vocabulary acquisition, repeated exposures are necessary to consolidate a
new word in the learner’s mind” (Schmitt & Carter 2000: 4).

The class was supposed to work with reading comprehension, but before starting the reading, the pupils
were given a pre-reading task related to vocabulary in the text. … After a while, the teacher went
through the task with the class, asking for the matching words and the definitions. The teacher repeated
the answers to model the correct pronunciation.

Then the class was instructed to read the article and use the worksheet on vocabulary while reading and
after reading when they were asked to answer questions from the article. This way the vocabulary was
met several times. (Anette)

Finally, the last word goes to Mette B. ‘I have also had the pleasure of practising Thornbury’s ways of
putting words to work this year. What amazes me the most is how positive even the pupils with
elementary skills respond to these types of activities’.

Music to my ears!
Teaching teens in the EFL setting: Vocabulary

Vocabulary
In the EFL setting, the teenage learner, highly social yet easily distracted, must acquire a
large volume of vocabulary in very little time and with little opportunity to practice.
Lessons that provide enough exposure, practice, and recycling of vocabulary are hard to
create, and time is never adequate. A middle school schedule of two class hours per
week yields 72 class hours spread over a year. While a year of instruction may sound
substantial, 72 hours only add up to 3 days! What methodology, then, can increase
exposure, practice, and ‘stickiness’ (memorability) of vocabulary?
A purposeful methodology
1. Explicit presentation
The first step in learning a new word is understanding what it means. Though an
occasional quick translation into students’ first language is convenient and harmless,
using translation as the principal method of teaching vocabulary can lead to students’
paying more attention to the translation than to the actual English word being learned! A
captioned picture-dictionary style illustration, on the other hand, can clearly show the
meaning of a word. Captioned illustrations remain on the page of the student’s book for
later study, reference, and review. When accompanied by audio, captioned vocabulary
illustrations afford students a chance to read, listen to, and remember new words.

2. Repetition
After students have seen each new word and heard it pronounced, an essential step is
repeating the word to practice it. Imitating the speaker on the audio ensures that
students focus on the English words, helps them remember them, and builds accurate
pronunciation.
3. Immediate practice
We cannot expect students to master vocabulary without repeated intensive use and
recycling. In the following exercises, vocabulary is practiced and used, first in a
controlled contextualized exercise based on meaningful visual cues. Then a second
exercise permits students to personalize the vocabulary, giving it additional
memorability.

4. Integration and recycling

New vocabulary should not just be limited to vocabulary exercises. Grammar exercises,
listening activities, and reading texts can provide convenient opportunities to increase
the exposure and practice of vocabulary.
5. Social application
Because teens are very social, model conversations that show real social language in
interactions teens might really have in their own lives ensure memorability of new
vocabulary like nothing else.

6. Personalization
It’s important not to stop with mere practice of model conversations from a book. Guided
conversation practice offers learners an essential opportunity to use the new words in
their own conversations, bridging the gap between controlled practice and productive
use. Notepads and visual cues increase each student’s involvement, motivation, and
success.

Summary
In the reality of the EFL setting, with very few class hours, teen learners need many
opportunities to observe and practice new vocabulary. And because they are teens,
integrating vocabulary in relevant social conversations ensures the memorability and
mastery of new words.
5 low & no-prep vocabulary
revision ideas
Posted on October 2, 2017 by Gosia Kwiatkowska

Here are some ideas about revising

vocabulary that require little to no preparation. You can use them with any type
of lexical items, level of advancement and class size.
One of my resolutions for this year is to work harder on revising vocabulary with my
students. At the same time, I would like to spend as little time as possible preparing
these revisions. That is why I decided to compile a list of activities that are
guaranteed to help my learners and save me some time. Activities described below
aim at recycling and personalising vocabulary.

#1 Recognition / Production
This task requires the teacher to first come up with a story or an anecdote that will
contain any given number of the words or expressions they wish to revise.
The teacher tells/reads the story out loud. Students listen and are supposed to write
down a tick whenever they hear a word/expression from the previous lesson.
Next, see how many ticks the students have put down and inform them about the
correct number (5 to 7 works best).
Students get into small groups and compile the list of words from the story. Then,
write the words on the board or some other place that will be visible for the students
during the lesson. Discuss how the words were used in the story (context).
Finally, tell your students that they will be given extra points if they manage to use
the words from the story correctly during the lesson during speaking or writing
activities (that is why it is useful to keep the words on display throughout the class).
What I like about this activity is that it gives time for both passive recognition
and active usage. Some students jump at each opportunity to use the vocabulary
during the lesson but don’t always do it correctly (which creates a nice opportunity
for you to discuss how the word should be used again) others wait for their moment
to dazzle you with great timing and great language. One way or another, vocabulary
you wanted to review stays relevant to the next lesson without making students feel
like they are doing the same all over again.
#2 Recall – Categorise – Match
Students work in pairs or small groups.
On a piece of paper they write as many words from the previous class as they can
remember. Give them a time limit. (Recall)
Next, students need to arrange their vocabulary list into categories. Leave it up to
them to invent these categories but warn them they need to be able to logically
justify their choice. (Categorise)
Pairs / small groups get together to form bigger groups. Students compare their lists
and categories. Their task might be to
a) see how many words repeat between the lists
b) see how many categories repeat between the lists
c) look for synonyms/antonyms for the words from their list
d) choose one word they would like to borrow from another group and add to their
list
Every task above might be turned into some form of competition if you want to turn
it into a game.
My favourite thing about this activity is that it allows talking about the
vocabulary instead of merely recalling it. Creating categories might help students
memorise the words better. Doing it on their own adds a personal twist and
encouraged them to think about the collection of words from a different angle.

#3 Invent a title
Students work in pairs or on their own.
They choose/are assigned words/expressions you wish to revise.
Their task is to use the vocabulary to create a title for a book/film/TV series/song
they would want to read/watch etc.
Other alternatives include inventing names for different products, university courses,
streets etc.
Once they are ready, ask them to explain their choice of words and the idea behind
the title.
You might vote to choose the best title.
My favourite thing about this activity is that it allows creativity and
personalisation.

4 Invent an acrostic
Students work in pairs or individually.
They choose/are assigned a word from the revision set.
Their task is to use each letter of the word given as first letters of new words,
preferably somehow connected to the original word: words from the same lesson,
connected with a similar topic, synonyms, antonyms etc.
Students share their acrostics with the whole class.
Alternatively, instead of single words, they create whole sentences, still pertaining to
the original word.
My favourite thing about this activity is that it allows creativity and
activates students’ vocabulary. Also, there are no wrong answers here!

#5 Invent a chain of associations

I have written about this activity here and the credit goes to Magda Kania for
introducing me to this idea.
Students work individually or in pairs.
The teachers/ a student chooses two random words or expressions from the revision
set.
Put the words on two opposite sides the board and draw any given number of
squares between them.
Students need to invent a story that takes them from word A to word B in as many
steps as there are squares between the words.
To make it more competitive, you can add a time limit, award points for any word
from the previous class that students use in this task etc.
Students share their stories with each other afterwards.
I like this activity because it encourages creativity but works fine for students
who prefer safer scenarios as well.
12 IDEAS FOR REVIEWING VOCABULARY
I’ve kept a list of all the vocabulary that has come up in class during the last few weeks
of summer school. It’s a fair bit – about 200 words.

Here are some ideas for reviewing vocabulary in groups. For these tasks I didn’t use all
200 words, but about 60 or so. To prepare, give students the word list and get them to
cut all the words up so each one is on a different slip of paper. Get them to mix all the
words up and put them face up on the desk.

1) Do you remember…?

To start off, ask the students to separate the words into two lists – words they remember
and words they don’t. The task sounds simple, but it gets a lot of discussion going if they
are working in groups, as they will share definitions and remind each other of the
meanings.

2) Which topic?

Next, ask students to organise the words by topic. Don’t restrict them by giving
particular topics, let them decide how they want to categorise the words. Afterwards, get
students to rotate to another table, have a look at another teams words and see if they
have organised them in different ways.

3) Which word type?

Repeat the above, but get students to categorise the words by form (noun, verb,
adjective, etc). Again, let them decide the categories. Don’t worry if you’ve just got a
load of nouns to revise – you can encourage creativity – ‘words including a consonant
cluster’, ‘words from the first half of the alphabet’, etc. Make this competitive by adding
points for the most interesting categories and they’re bound to come up with something!

4) Which stress pattern?

Ask students to group words by their word stress patterns, giving them a few prompts on
the board if necessary. They could mark the stress pattern of their categories using
Cuisenaire rods.

When I did this the other day, I made the pronunciation stage a little more specific. I just
put one different stress pattern on each desk (using the rods), and asked students to find
any of their words which match that stress pattern.

Another categorisation task might be to organise the words by number of syllables.

Plenty of options I guess.

So that’s the meaning, form and pronunciation of the words reviewed. Time to have
some fun now!

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5) Including words in a sentence

Students take a word at random and try to include this in a sentence. I find using a dice
makes this simple activity more interesting. List numbers 1-6 on the board and give each
number a form or structure you have taught (1 = question tags, 2 = passive voice, etc).
Students select a word and roll the dice – their sentence must include both elements.

6) Lose your words

This is far more fun! Have all the words in pile in the middle of the desk. Students take
10 each. The object of the game is to get rid of all your words. You do this by including
the word in a conversation. Anyone on the table can talk, there is no set order, but you
can’t get rid of more than 2 words in a row. You must try to include the word in a
relevant way, not just shout it out. Your group can overrule you if your sentence is
completely disconnected.

An example of conversation from my last class

A: I watched a documentary last night on Tarsiers

B: er..so did I. It was very sad because one of the Tarsiers was overweight

C: Another one was like a skeleton, very thin!

Actually, I think I only play this game as the conversations make me laugh. The students
really enjoy it as well though!

7) Guess the word

The old ones are the best. One student takes a pile of words. They have one minute to
describe as many words as they can to the team, who guess what the words are. They
take turns describing the words, and tally up who got the most points at the end of a few
rounds.

8) Back to the board

That’s the same as the above really but on a whole class level.

9) Creating a performance

This is my favourite way to re-use some of the vocab, but it might not work for every
group. Imagine you have groups of 4 students. Follow these steps

 Students work in pairs

 Set the scene. I display this random picture on the board, and tell the students
that this man went missing last night. His wife was extremely worried as he was
gone all evening, but he’s just walked through the door. She asks him ‘where
have you been????’
 Students then select 8 words from the vocabulary pile at random
 They work together to write/tell the story of what happened to the man, and they
must include all the words (allow 5 mins). Each pair will end up with something
very random, e.g.

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‘The man went out to search for caterpillars to feed to his pet Tarsier. While he was
walking down the road, he was hit by a truck. He survived, and realised he
was immortal…. etc

 Students then tell their story to the other pair. The group as a whole decide which
story is the best
 OPTIONAL: Students select only one story to use, but must edit the story to
include two of the words from the other story that they’ve discarded
 Groups work together to produce a silent performance of their story to show the
rest of the class.
 Groups watch each performance, and guess the words which had to be included
in the story.
 Alternatively, you can just make it a spoken performance, your choice.

10) Typhoon review game

I got this ages ago, again from the [Link] forum (uploaded by Sweetpapo). There
are plenty of review game templates out there, but this one continues to serve me well.
It’s easy to make the questions on each slide, you can prepare a game in about 10
minutes.

Typhoon review game template courtesy of Sweetpapo

11) Spelling board races

I never thought this would be the case, but lately my students have gone mad for
spelling races. I put the students in two lines – the two people nearest the board have
pens. I say one of the review words, and they must spell this on the board. However,
each person can only write one letter, and then they pass the pens on to the next person
in the line who adds the next letter, and so on. The first team to spell the word wins.

12) Phonemic script practice

Students choose 10 words at random and practice writing these in phonemic script. Make
sure they don’t only choose one syllable words, include some longer words so they can
practice marking stress. You can also do phonemic script board races if students are
confident using it.

Why teaching word stress in

spoken English is important
Brita Haycraft, who shared her 'tricks and techniques for better spoken
English' at one of our seminars for teachers in the UK yesterday, tells us that
one often overlooked, but very important element to being understood in
English is stressing the right words in a sentence.

Why does it matter where we put stresses in a sentence?

Placido Domingo needs no subtitles when interviewed on the BBC, despite his
Spanish vowels and 'estrong eSpanish accent'. It's because his sentence stresses
are spot on.

But even advanced English language learners still often speak with equal stress on
each word: 'I will meet you downstairs.' or 'You must telephone me.'. This confuses
English listeners and can also sound a bit rude.

Sentence stress is common sense - so how do you teach it?

It would be so easy to put life into the students' sentences simply by reminding them
to stress the logical words, as they practise speaking. But course books seem to
ignore this speaking tool, which emphasises the most important words in each
context – the very backbone of conversation. Even when you talk to yourself, you
stress the words that matter.

If asked in class, however, students know at once which words are important in that
context, because it's common sense. All they have to do is to stress them.

Practice is the key to learning sentence stress

Why is this easy-to-use normal sentence stress not part of spoken classroom
practice? All students are able to stress perfectly, whatever their mother tongue. Ask
a Japanese person if he comes from India and he’ll certainly stress ‘Japan’ clearly.

Write the time 9.30 and ask 'Does the train leave at a quarter past, or half past?' and
your class will reply 'Half past', maybe stressing 'Half'. But asked again 'Is the train
leaving at a quarter past?', they may stress the wrong word 'No, at half PAST.' So
you go on asking 'A quarter past or half past?' until they answer with the appropriate
stress. They enjoy this combined drilling which teaches the language item and nags
them into saying it in context. Students could also underline the stresses in a
dialogue given as homework.

An inappropriate stress confuses an English ear. Would we ever catch the right train
if the station master announced the train times with random stress, e.g., 'The next
TRAIN at PLATFORM two WILL arrive at a QUARTER past ten.'?

Why are sentence stresses harder to hear in English?

You can certainly hear sentence stress in spoken Germanic and Latin languages,
but their unstressed a, o and u stay unchanged and are therefore easier to hear.
English often reduces its unstressed a, o, u to the neutral /ə/ sound (as heard in, for
example, 'future, method, pursue, ago, forget etc.), which means the meaning of the
sentence depends very much on the stressed words.
Obviously, our stresses have to be in place for us to compress the unstressed
words. And if we don’t compress unstressed structure words, we sound like robots
and the precise meaning gets blurred, while we also sound too insistent.

In the instruction 'You must knock on the door.', would you prefer to hear a quick
'You m-s...' or a clear 'You must... knock on the door.'?

But foreign learners think it careless to say 'It’s ...', 'I’ve...', so they opt for 'It is...', 'I
have...' to be polite. But this sounds too precise in normal English conversation. Mrs
Thatcher tended to spell out each word, thereby sounding like a school-marm in
parliament!

Even the Queen shortens unstressed verbs

English specialises in compressing unstressed auxiliary verbs. 'I would never have
caught it.' becomes 'I’d never’ve caught it.'. Even unstressed 'going to' is often
pronounced 'gonna' today, yet once it was not allowed on the BBC. But in a late '80s
recording of the Queen talking to President Reagan, she is heard to say 'gonna'
without blinking. This once-despised 'Americanism' is now often heard on the BBC,
even in serious programmes, if not on the news itself perhaps. Listen out for it during
weather forecasts.

So, if our stressed words determine how we say the intervening unstressed structure
words, why then do course books start with the single phonemes and go on to
'connected' speech? Sentence stress would be a far easier guide to speaking.
What's more, all English dialects use it.

The sooner foreign students get into the habit of stressing the relevant words, the
sooner they’ll be able to communicate with English speakers – which is, presumably,
their ultimate wish.

Grammar and vocabulary learning won’t be delayed by reminders of which words to

stress. They’ll thrive in each other’s company.

Fun with Word Stress!

by Aoife McLoughlin | posted in: Motivating Teenagers, Pronunciation, Uncategorized | 2
Do you squirm when you hear a student tell you they stayed in a lovely ‘OTel’ on
holidays? Do you respond with a look of shock-horror, causing automatic self-
correction? (if you’re lucky..) And if so , what then do you do with that magic
moment? Do you move on or do you elicit and mark syllables/stress on the board for
the other students who may just have the same problem?

Not all stress is bad for you!

In fact, WORD stress can be great fun….. so why do teachers the world over either
forget it exists or choose not to focus on it?

Adrian Underhill explains here why he refers to the teaching of pronunciation as ‘the
poor relation’ and how we as teachers can better embrace it.

If you want to have some competitive fun, here’s a great game I like to use as a
recap on target language. It can be used with learners of all ages and levels….and
you choose the lexical focus so it’s completely versatile!!

Fun with Word Stress!

1. Prepare 12 pages of coloured A4 paper with the target vocabulary of the week and
post them to the board. (You can also just write up the words in different colour
markers). Each sheet has a number in the top left hand corner.
2. Students get into teams of 3 students per team and choose a team name.

3. Explain the following to students:

Each team in turn will choose one page (e.g. Green, 5) without saying the word.
Once a group chooses their word, they now have 1 minute with their group to
decide:

A) how many syllables it has

B) where the stress is
C) how to pronounce the word
D) give another adjective that has the same stress pattern

While the team are discussing their answers, the other teams can be doing the same
as they might get a chance to steal the other teams points…

Example for ‘Green, 5’ – ‘Positive’

A) 3

B) POSitive (One student can come up for the team and mark the stress above the
word on the board)

C) One student pronounces the word

D) Negative (One student writes this on the board below the word)

Teams get one point for each correct answer and If they get all four correct, they get
5 points (one bonus point)

if the team cannot give an answer to one, they can throw it to one of the other
teams. If the chosen team answer correctly, they automatically steal those points.
This is a great activity for reviewing the week’s vocabulary and also gets students
thinking about pronunciation. I like to draw students attention to the pronunciation
of all new lexical items met during the week so they are not only meeting it from a
definitive point of view but pronunciation is also incorporated into its introduction
and practice. And it means why you play this game, they will already have met the
pronunciation and so there should be less guess work…

You can read our previous post, ‘Fun with Pronunciation Drills’ here.

If you try this game out, let me know how it goes!!

Nine ways to revise English
vocabulary using slips of paper
What can teachers do when classroom technology stops working? Cristina
Cabal, latest winner of the British Council's TeachingEnglish blog award for
her post on pronunciation, suggests nine activities for revising English
vocabulary using simple slips of paper.

Nowadays, it seems very simple to plan a lesson that makes use of the many tools
available online, especially as more and more of us have access to the Internet in
our classrooms. But while technology is increasingly part of our teaching, there are
times when it can cause problems and frustrations for teachers, such as when the
Wi-Fi stops working or the computer shuts down, leaving you with a one-hour lesson
to teach and no plan B up your sleeve.

One of the best ways to deal with this situation is to use slips of paper – a resource
available to every teacher in any given situation. The following activities have never
let me down.

Using slips of paper to revise vocabulary

1. For this activity, select the vocabulary you want to revise and write each word or
expression on individual slips of paper. When you're ready to begin, pick one of the
words and call out a definition, synonym, antonym, etc. The first student to guess the
word gets the slip of paper. The winner is the student who has the most slips at the
end of the activity. You might also want to write a point value on the back of the slip
of paper, of 'one', 'two' or 'three' based on the difficulty of the word or expression.

2. You might also want to revise pronunciation. This is a more challenging activity, as
students need to be familiar with phonetic symbols. Write the phonetic transcription
for the words that need to be revised on slips of paper, big enough for students to
see from a distance. Follow the procedure above, but show the cards rather than call
out a definition.

3. Give every student a slip of paper, each with a different word that needs to be
revised. Allow some time to make sure students know how to explain the meaning of
the word. This is an important step as you want the activity to be fluent and lively.
Have students, one by one, explain their words to the class as a whole. The first
student to guess correctly wins the slip of paper. You might want to be in the middle
to help the process along, and you should begin the activity with a demonstration.

4. This is a mingle activity. Give every student a slip of paper with different words
that need to be revised. (Alternatively, you can give students a blank piece of paper
and ask each of them to choose a word they think needs to be revised). Before the
activity begins, make sure they know how to explain their word. Have students stand
up and talk to the person next to them, explaining their words. Encourage them not
to use gestures or sounds to define their word. Once the students have guessed
their words, ask them to swap their slips of paper and move on to find a new partner.

5. Divide the class into two or three groups. Ask each group to give themselves a
team name. Write these names on the board to keep score of the points they
get. Place slips of paper with words to be revised face down on a table and ask
a student from one of the teams to take the 'hot seat'. This student then has one
minute to explain as many of the words to their team as possible without saying the
words or any part of them. After one minute, give the team a score for how many
words they guessed. Now get a student from the next team to take the hot seat and
continue through the paper slips in the same way. To make it more fun, you could
use a classroom timer.

Using slips of paper to practise vocabulary in writing

Every day, we give students new vocabulary, and although we encourage them to
revise it at home and do plenty of revision exercises in class, they still find it hard to
use when they speak and write. It is with this in mind that I have designed the
following activity.

6. On the walls of the class, stick slips of paper with the words you want students to
use. Write them big enough for the students to see from a distance. I would suggest
a minimum of 20, including verbs, phrasal verbs, idiomatic expressions, connectors,
etc.

Arrange students in pairs or in threes. Tell them they are going to write a short story
beginning with these words 'He turned around and promised himself never to come
back'. (Click on this story-starting generator for more sentence ideas).

Tell students they will need to include at least ten of the words displayed on the walls
of the class. Ask them to stand up and have a first look at the words with their teams,
discussing and mentally designing a first draft of the story. Tell students that at any
point during the activity they can discard words and choose new ones.

Give each group a sheet of differently coloured paper to write their stories,
underlining the target vocabulary they have used. Stories are then stuck on the walls
for the rest of the class to read and vote on the best one. Allow 30 minutes to write
the first draft and then another 15 minutes to complete the activity.

7. Although activities that involve translating sentences may seem old-fashioned, I

have found that these can work well, especially with older students. The
following translation exercise is a lot of fun in a monolingual class. Get students to
work in pairs. Give them blank slips of paper to write their sentences. On the board,
display the sentence you want them to translate. Allow about two minutes to write
the sentence. Encourage students to write their sentences large enough for you to
be able to have a quick read from a distance. When the time is up, ask students to
raise up the slips for you and the rest of the class to see. Correct translations will get
one point. Sentences with mistakes can be used later for pairs or groups to correct
and discuss, or for whole-class feedback.

Using slips of paper to practise new vocabulary in speaking activities

8. Here's an activity that could be used at the end of a topic-based lesson. Explain to
students that they are going to do a speaking activity, during which you will give
them each a slip of paper containing a secret word. Now, put students in pairs and
give them ten questions to talk about on various topics. Once they start speaking,
give each student the slip of paper containing their secret word. Students in pairs talk
about their first question. The aim of the game is to introduce the secret word at any
point in their conversation. Set a timer and tell students they have to try to use the
word in the given time (around three to four minutes). When the time's up, they will
need to guess what the other student's secret word is. Give a different slip of paper
for question number two or redistribute the secret words to different pairs. Continue
in this way with each new question.

9. Stick slips of paper on the classroom walls with words or expressions that need to
be revised – for example, on the topic of relationships. Ask students to work in pairs
and give them a photocopy with ten questions about the topic. Ask the pairs to stand
up next to a slip of paper. The aim of the exercise is to talk about the question and,
in doing so, include the word displayed on the wall. Students move clockwise to the
next word and do the same with question number two. Set about four minutes per
question.
Assignment 1
1. Vocabulary Lesson

Welcome to the first assignment for the 180-hour course.

This assignment will assess what you have learnt so far.

You must write a lesson plan with a rationale and suitable materials.

You must use the template we have provided.

All of the information for this is on the following page. There is a downloadable
assessment guide for you to read as well as a guidance page for uploading your
assignment and an upload link.

Please read all the information in this

section carefully including the final page
called ‘what happens next?’.
2. The Task

Please read all information on this page carefully.

Create a 60-minute vocabulary lesson. Choose one of the following topics.

Write a present, practice and production lesson to teach the 10 words within the topic.

Topics

Choose one topic from below. Teach the ten words within the topic.

Only teach the words in the context of the topic.

Topic 1 Places in a bus station, cinema, playground, city centre,

town library, museum, hotel, post office, restaurant,
supermarket

Topic 2 Jobs actor, doctor, driver, teacher, musician, shop

assistant, cleaner, nurse, farmer, mechanic

Topic 3 Hobbies and barbecue, beach, camera, tent, park, picnic,

 leisure festival, guitar, party, video game

The Students

You have a class of 15 adults at elementary level.

There are 10 men and 5 women, and they come from China.

Ages range from 18 – 38.

Your students have different motivations including studying in an English-speaking

country, improving their English to help their job prospects and travelling.

Instructions

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Reference any materials you use from outside sources. You must
include all the materials you use in the lesson, including flashcards,
worksheets, roleplay cards, etc.

If you say in the lesson plan that your students will use
materials, but you do not include them, your assignment
may be returned to you. All materials should go in the
materials section of the assignment template.

When it comes to referencing pictures, you can write, "All images taken from Google
images" in your bibliography.

Please note: the assignment is graded by a tutor against fifteen criteria. If

you do not meet one of the fifteen criteria, you will receive feedback to this
effect and will need to resubmit the work.

When you receive your feedback, your tutor will put a cross [x] next to the
criteria you have met. Only make changes to the criteria that you have not
met.

Before you begin, look back at the following units:

· Unit 2 – Initial Lesson Planning - this will help you with the first page of
the plan - the aims/outcomes, anticipated problems and solutions

· Unit 3 – Structuring your Lesson - this will help you with the PPP
structure, writing CCQs, using the phonemic script and writing a rationale

- As a reminder, you'll need to locate the phonemic script for the language
you are presenting - review how to do this at the bottom of this page.

· Unit 5 – Teaching Vocabulary - this will help you with relevant tasks
for presenting and practising vocabulary

Note: As we are a small in-house team, we are unable to review your work
before you submit it. When you submit it, you will be assigned a dedicated
tutor who will give you feedback on your assignment and help you to
improve it if you need to.

Click on the blue box below to download the template. You should only upload this
document. Read all the information on the template carefully.

If you are working on an Apple device that does not have Word we have included a PDF
which you should be able to edit instead.

Ensure you fill in each section, leaving nothing blank.

Follow the information in the course to help structure your lesson.

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