St. Helens, Oregon TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

In this unit the basic principles of different methodologies to teach a second language (L2) are introduced, including some pros and cons for some of the methodologies. The methodologies covered in this unit are - Grammar-translation - Audio-lingualism - Presentation, practice and production (PPP) - Task-Based learning, - Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) - Community Language Learning (CLL) - The silent way - Suggestopaedia - The Lexical approach It was interesting to see how in the past my own teachers have used several different techniques and how I have used several aspects of these techniques as well. Which methodology is best depends on several factors such as the teacher’s personality and the students’ culture and needs. However, there are some very important conclusions that can be drawn about learning a L2: - Students need as much exposure to L2 as possible. Not all students of the English language can get the same amount of exposure to English (living in an English-speaking country, use English with friends or coworkers, only class once or twice a week). - Communicative tasks offer real learning opportunities but are not enough on their own - A certain amount of input of the teacher is needed. - Anxiety and stress lower the effectiveness of language learning. Students need to be relaxed and confident - Students should be encouraged to discover the language themselves. Thus, we need to find a way which makes sure all these important factors come into play and there is still flexibility for the teacher. One method that tries to do so is the Engage, Study and Activate (ESA) method by Jeremy Harmer. During each stage of the ESA method it is important to involve the students as much as possible. To do this we need to use elicitation = thought provoking questions. This technique will: - increase the students’ talk time and involve them in the discovering and understanding process of the language. - limits the teacher’s talk time. It also lets him/her know what the student already knows and still needs to learn. Some useful examples of elicitation techniques are real objects, flashcards, drawing, mime, fill in the gap, ask the questions, lists, follow-on questions, concept descriptions and to a lesser extend definitions. This last elicitation techniques could increase the teacher’s talk time too much if not careful. When using these elicitation techniques, we must keep the students’ culture, native language and English level in mind, remain positive even when we elicit ‘wrong’ information and use a variety of techniques to make sure the lesson doesn’t become predictable. I have used several of these techniques before (such as flashcards, drawing, gap-fill and follow-on questions), but not always in the right way. When using these techniques in the past I have been prone to use too much teacher-telling and I just provided much of the information instead of asking the students questions. In future I will focus on asking more questions to elicit answers instead of spoon-feeding answers and information. Every ESA lesson should include the following stages: Engage, Study and Activate. During some lesson we will focus more heavily on one stage than another. It is also possible to mix and add stages as long as the lessons begin with the Engage stage and end with the Activate stage. Three different orders of ESA lessons: 1. Straight Arrow (E > S > A), which works well in most situations, but is not suitable for complex language and might become predictable if we follow this order every lesson. 2. Boomerang (E > A > S > A), makes sure the teacher only provides new language to the student when they need it. It is suitable for higher level students but has the drawback that the teacher must try and predict what problems the students might have and prepare materials accordingly for the Study stage. 3. Patchwork (Example: E > A > A > S > A > E > S > A) offers great flexibility and a good balance between the Study and Activate stage. It is suitable for intermediate level students or higher and can only be used for classes of 1 hour or more. The Engage stage must interest and involve the students which will provide them with a better language learning environment. It is best if the language used in this stage links back to the language point of the rest of the lesson. However, this is not essential as we are not strictly teaching but just engaging the students. Even so, we must plan this stage as to make sure we have enough materials and can fully engage all the students (give every student an opportunity to speak English). We should not correct the students during this stage. If a mistake is repeatedly made, make note of it and deal with it in the next stage. During the Study stage a teacher offers the student controlled practice of the language to make sure they understood it and can use it in an accurate way. We first try and elicit information about the language point of the lesson, present more information about the language point, followed by drilling exercises where necessary for the right pronunciation (always 3x3). Next a variety of exercises to check the understanding and to reinforce the material (we should only monitor during this part, not interrupt). Finally, we go over the answers as a class. If a mistake is made, give other students the opportunity to correct the mistake. The Activate stage is meant to encourage students to use the language of that lesson as well as any other language they already know to improve fluency and accuracy without restriction. Give a clear demonstration to make sure students understand what they should do before handing out any materials. It is also important to make sure every student has a chance to participate Variety in both the lesson structure and the activities is key to keep students interested and create an optimal learning environment. Concerning feedback, praise is equally important to correcting. Always look for positive points. We differentiate between mistakes (slip of tongue or pen, student can self-correct or with help of student or teacher) and mistakes (more deeply engrained). Students can self-correct, which is preferable and can be prompted by the teacher if necessary, other students can help correct and as a last resort the teacher can help correct the mistake made (never immediately correct as you take the student’s chance to work out why it is not correct away from them). The teacher should correct mistakes concerning the language point of that lesson, if the mistake is regularly repeated (could become ingrained if not corrected) or if the mistake seriously impedes understanding. Personally, this is one of the units in the program that I had been looking forward to most as I was always unsure of how to best build up my lessons and keep my students engaged. I have always been a firm believer that if the student is not engaged in the class because of a lack of interest or motivation they will not benefit fully. Even though, it partly depends on the students themselves, as a teacher we must give them a reason to become more or stay motivated by offering interesting and varied lessons. This has been a very informative unit. Finally, the unit also introduced a lot of new activities for each stage and I will be using some of these activities during my next tutoring session.