Transcript
J.Scrivener: Learning Teaching
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Three kinds of teacherSubject matter Methodology People
Explainer
Involver
Enabler
The effective teacher…
• really listens to his students;
• shows respect;
• gives clear, positive feedback;
• has a good sense of humour;
• is patient;
• knows his subject;
• inspires confidence;
• trusts people;
• Empathizes with students’ problems;
• Is well-organized;
• Paces lessons well;
• Does not complicate things unnecessarily
• Is enthusiastic and inspires enthusiasm;
• Can be authoritative without being distant;
• Is honest;
• Is approachable.
Write a brief statement outlining your own
assessment of yourself as a teacher (or future
teacher).
• Which kind of teacher do you feel you most
resemble?
• Wich would you most like to be?
• Wich of the factors that help effective learning
do you think are already present in you?
• Wich are not?
• Wich would you like to work on?
Write two or more options for each of the following situations:
a. A student says I don’t want to do this exercise.
b. You expected an activity to take five minutes.
It has taken twenty so far and the students still
seem to be very involved. There is something
else you would like to do before the lesson
ends in ten minutes.
c. The next activity involves students working in groups of
five. At the moment all the desks (which take two
people) are facing forward in rows. They are movable,
but it takes a few minutes of chaos to do it.
d. The students are working in groups of three. Two
groups have finished the task you set them and are
now sitting looking bored. The other groups still seem
to have a long way to go before they finish.
Here are a few possible options:
• You could say Fine.
• You could say loudly Do it!
• You could ask why the student doesn’t want to do it.
• You could offer an alternative exercise or
activity.
• You could say Choose something you’d like to
do.
• You could explain the point of the exercise.
• You could ask other stidnts for their opinion.
• What is the aim of this activity?
• What is the objective of the whole lesson?
• Is what we are doing useful?
• What is hindering the effectiveness of what
we are doing?
• What have I planned to do?
• What would be the best thing to do now?
• Is it time for a change of mood or pace?
• Are we using time efficiently?
• How do the students feel?
• How do I feel?
• What are the possible outcomes of my doing
something?
Teacher decisions and actions
Teacher attitudes and intentions
Teacher beliefs and values
Teacher decisions and actions
Teacher attitudes and intentions
Teacher beliefs and values
Maximizing student interaction in class: some ideas
• Remember the characteristics suggested by Carl Rogers for creating an effective learning environment. Be as honestly yourself as you can be. Respect the learners. Work on seeing things from their perspective as well as your own.
• Encourage a friendly, relaxed learning environment. If there is a trusting , positive, supportive rapport amongst the learners and teacher, then there is a much better chance of useful interaction happening.
• Ask questions rather than giving explanations.
• When you want students to discuss something ask ‘open’
questions (eg where, what, who, why, how, when
questions that require a longer answer) rather than
‘closed’ questions (eg verb-subject questions that require
nothing more than yes or no). For example, instead of ‘Is
noise pollution a bad thing?’ (answer = yes or no) you
could ask ‘What do you think about noise pollution?’
• Allow time for students to listen, think, process
their answer and speak.
• Really listen to what they say. Let what they
say really affect what you do next. Work on
listening to the person, and the meaning, as
well as to the language and the mistakes.
• Allow thinking time without talking over it.
Allow silence.
• Increase opportunities for STT (Student Talking Time).
• Use gestures to replace unnecessary teacher talk.
• Allow students to finish their own sentences
• Make use of pair an small groups to maximize
opportunities for students to speak.
• If possible, arrange seating so that students can
all see each other and talk to each other (ie
circles, squares and horseshoes rather than
parallel rows).
• Remember that the teacher doesn’t always need
to be at the front of the class. Try out seating
arrangements that allow the whole class to be
the focus (eg teacher takes one seat in the circle).
• Encourage interaction between students rather
than only between student and teacher and
teacher and student. Get students to ask
questions, give explanations, etc to each other
rather than always to you. Use gestures and
facial expressions to encourage them to speak
and listen to each other.
• Encourage co-operation rather than competition.
In many activities (probably not in a test or exam)
you may to encourage students to copy ideas from
others, or ‘cheat’. Although ,uch of our own
educational experience may suggest that this kind
of co-operation is to be discouraged, it seems to
me to be useful and positive – we learn from ohters
and from working through our own mistakes.
• If this is true, then it means that the teacher
can concentrate more on the process of
learning than simply on a plunge towards the
‘right answers’. The result of a learning
exercise becomes less important than the
getting there.
• Allow students to become more responsible for their
own progress. Put them in situations where they need
to make decisions for themselves.
• If a student is speaking to quietly for you to hear, walk
further away, rather than closer to them! (This sounds
illogical – but if you can’t hear them, then it’s likely that
the other students can’t either. Encourage the quiet
speaker to speak louder so that the others can hear.)
Language skillsThere are four skills: listening, reading, writing.Listening and reading are called ‘receptive skills’(the reader or listener receives information butdoes not produce it); speaking and writing, onthe other hand, are the ‘productive skills’.
Every activity is likely to involve some work on
Both language systems and skills, though, usually,
the objective is directed more to one area than
the other. In the following, classify each activity
as ‘ mainly skills’ or ‘mainly systems’. Then
decide which skills or which language systems
are being worked on.
a. The teacher writes a grammar exercise on
the board which learners copy and then do.
b. Learners read a newspaper article and then
discuss the story with ach other.
c. Learners underline all past simple verb forms
in a newspaper article.
d. Learners chat with their teacher about the
weekend
e. Learners write an imaginary postcard to a
friend, which the teacher then corrects.
f. Learners write a postcard to a friend, which
is posted uncorrected.
g. The teacher uses pictures to teach ten words
connected with TV.
h. The teacher says What tenses do these people
use? Learners then listen to a taped
conversation.
i. The teacher says Where are these people?
Learners then listen to a taped conversation.
1. Restricted use activities. These are activities
where the language available to the learners
is in some way restricted – as, for example,
when the learners are doing an exercise on
one verb tense or reading a coursebook text
specifically designed to include six examples
of a particular language item.
2. Authentic use activities. This is the opposite
of restricted use, there being no restriction
on the language – for example, in a free
discussion or in reading an English
newspaper.
3. Clarification and focus. This is the part of a
lesson where learners become clearerabout a
language item and come to understand its
meaning, form and use better, for example
thtough teacher explanation or guided
discovery.
Here is a short random list of some other activities often used
in EFL classrooms (out of thousands of possible activities) :
• Learners do a grammar exercise individually
then compare answers with each other;
• Learners listen to a taped conversation in
order to answer some questions;
• Learners write a formal letter;
• Learners discuss and write some questions in
order to make a questionnaire;
• Learners read a newspaper article to prepare
for a discussion;
• Learners play a vocabulary game;
• Learners repeat sentences their teacher is
saying;
• Learners roleplay a shop scene.
Activity Lead in
Set up
Run
Close
Post activity
LESSON TYPE NATURE OF LINKBETWEEN ACTIVITIES
SOME OUTCOMESOF EFFECTIVE USE
SOME OUTCOMES OF INEPT OR LAZY USE
Logical line Straight line Clearly visible progress Limited response to individual need
Programmed growth Focuses towards an aim
Atomistic; hard to see the overview
Topicumbrella
Topic Variety Tenuous links to boring topics
Framework for learning Easily becomes rag-bag
Jungle path Evolutionary Person-centered Muddled
Responsive to immediate needs
Aimless
Powerful personal insights
An escape from planning and preparationEasily becomes rag-bag
Rag-bag None Variety Going nowhere
Surprise Students wait for teacher’s next surprise
Entertainment
Conclusions
Coursebooks are written:
• To give less experienced teachers support and
guidance and the control of a wellorganized
syllabus;
• To give more experienced teachers material to
work from.
Using a coursebook as a resource:
• Select
You don’t need to do everything . Choose what
is appropriate for you and your students.
• Reject
If it’s not appropiate – leave it out.
• Teach
remember that the book is no substitute for
your own teaching. The book is a resource to
help and inform your work; it doesn’t do the
teaching for you. What you bring to it is the
human element – you know and work with your
students; they know you.
• Exploit
You don’t need to plod step by step through page after
page. Find interesting ways to adapt or exploit the
material. Devise variations on activities that give your
students the practice that they need. For example, try
doing things in a different order. Give different
instructions to the ones printed on the page.
• Supplement
Use teacher’s ‘recipe’ books, magazine pictures
and articles, your own ideas, board games,
real objects, projects, tape and video
recordings, etc.
• How many separate activities will there be?
• Where will I stand or sit?
• What do learners need?
• What skills will learners be working on?
• How will I control timing?
• What are some of the things that could cause
difficulties or go wrong?
• How am I going to deal with mistakes?
• Is there going to be variety of activity in the lesson?
• How do the lesson objectives fit in with longer-term
goals?
• What do they know already?
PLANNING
LEARNERS:What do they like
doing?What topics
interest them
AIMS:What are the aims
of the lesson?What are the aims of each activity?TEACHING POINT:
What items of language will be
studied or used in the lesson?
What topics, contexts will be
used?Am I confident
about these teaching points?
What preparation/study do I need to do?
TEACHING PROCEDURES:What activities
will help the learners achieve
the lesson objectives?
How will the activities link
together to make a whole lesson?
How long will each activity last?
MATERIAL:What materials will be used for each activity?
What do I need to make, photocopy,
borrow?What page of the coursebook have
we got to?What can be used
for homework?
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT:
How will the chairs be
arranged?What instructions
will I give?What happens if
they don’t understand my instructions?
How long is the whole lesson?
On a day-to-day basis, teachers have a variety of
reasons for their selection of lesson content:
It’s the language features in the next coursebook
unit.
The main class teacher asked me to do it.
I understand this bit of grammar myself!
I think it will be usefull for them.
This is appropiate for their level.
A student has asked me about it.
I always teach this item at this point in thecourse.
I don’t want to work on the language item the
book has next.
I’ve noticed that the students seem to need this
structure.
I like teaching this language item.
We negotiated and agreed that we would study
this one.
I think they might enjoy my lesson about this.
They have problems with this.
I’m following a syllabus.
a. Repeating sentences that the teacher says ;
b. Doing oral grammar drills;
c. Reading aloud from the coursebook;
d. Giving a prepared speech;
e. Acting out a scripted conversation
f. Giving instructions so that someone can use a
new machine;
g. Improvising a conversation so that it includes
lots of examples of a new grammar structure;
h. One learner describes a picture in the textbook
while the other students look at it.
To summarize the teacher’s arguments:
• There are times in class when a focus on accuracy (and
therefore a greater use of instant correction) is appropriate.
• There are other times when the focus is on fluency. At these
times instant correction is less appropriate and could
interfere with the aims of the activity.
• The teacher needs to be clear about whether her main aim is
accuracy or fluency, and adapt her role in class appropriately.
The role of vocabulary in the classroom: five initial conclusions:
• Vocabulary is very important and needs to be dealt
with systematically in its own right; it is not simply
an add-on to grammar or skills lessons.
• Our job does not finish as soon as a learner has first
met some new vocabulary; we need to help them
practice, learn, store, recall and use the item.
• Training in the use of English-English dictionaries
provides learners with a vital tool for self-study.
• We need to distinguish between vocabulary for
‘productive’ use and for ‘receptive’ recognition
and adapt our classroom work appropriately.
• We need to deal not only with single word lexical
items, but also with longer, multiword items.
Errors and correction
Which of these two sentences do you most
agree with?
• Student errors are evidence that learning has
not taken place.
• Student errors are evidence that learning is
taking place.
To summarize, our aims when correcting might include:
• Building confidence;• Raising awareness;• Acknowledging achievement and progress;As well as
• Helping students to become more accurate in
their use of language.
Match the errors in the following list with their descriptions:Errors 1. He like this school.2. Where you did go yesterday ?3. The secretary is in the office.4. Give me one butterbread!5. I eat shocolate every day.6. After three years they made a divorce.7. I am here since Tuesday.8. I’m going to heat you
Descriptionsa. Pronunciation (/I/vs/i/)b. Pronunciation(/f/ vs/tf/)c. Pronunciation (word stress)d. Grammar (wrong tense)e. Vocabulary (incorrect collocation)f. Grammar (verb-noun agreement)g. Grammar (word order)h. Vocabulary (incorrect word and rude!)
1. The activity must really demand listening.
2. It mustn’t be simply a memory test.
3. Tasks should be realistic or useful in some
way.
4. The activity must actively help them to
improve their listening.
5. It shouldn’t be threatening.
6. Help students work around difficulties to
achieve specific results.
Writing work in the classroom falls on a continuum from copying to free writing
2 3 4
1 copying 2 doing exercises 3 guided writing 4 free writing
• orthography: poor formation of letters; no lower case
letters;
• Punctuation: wrong use of full stops; no other
punctuation;
• Spelling: many mistakes in moving from sound to spelling;
• Layout: no attempt to lay text out;
• Language: student does not have enough control of basic
vocabulary or grammar.
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