Thessaloniki
Linda Ruas
April 2017
Teaching English: An introduction to language, planning
and classroom management
1. How to start: basic principles. After the experience of learning another
language from scratch, we’ll discuss and analyse basic principles of
teaching a language.
2. Easy lesson-planning. Experience and discuss different simple ways to
plan lessons, then practise planning more.
3. Using stories + help learners start to read and write. Using a simple
approach, help learners develop literacy with Language Experience
Approach.
4. Classroom management: discussion and practical experience of giving
instructions, organising classes so different level learners all learn,
reviewing and building on learning in a long-term plan and error
correction.
5. Open: needs / questions / 1-1 discussions
• Follow-up: online materials, opportunity for 1-1 mentoring
Game to start with:
Food/drink
eg. coffee
Something in this room
chair
Something you can wear
cap
How we work in class:
Competition
vs
collaboration
About me………….
Linda Ruas
[email protected]
• Teacher trainer / teacher in London (+ Brazil + Japan +
Sao Tome e Principe + Calais refugee camp)
• IATEFL Global Issues SIG Joint Coordinator
• New Internationalist Easier English wiki (eewiki.newint.org)
• 2 daughters (both at university)
• 4 step-grandchildren
Basic principles of teaching:
engage
What else?
Put these in order of importance:
a) repetition
b) minimal, simple
teacher talk
c) review and build
d) sensitivity
e) study skills
f) maximise student
talking
g) differentiation
i) relevance
j) meaningful learning in
context
k) error correction
Lesson in Portuguese
What do you expect to learn
in 30-40 mins?
How do you expect to learn?
Brasil
para comer
para tomar
no restaurante
Discuss in groups:
Feelings: embarrassed,
exposed, relaxed, bored,
interested, frustrated?
Language: too much /not
enough? what? Any L1
use?
Meaning: how was
meaning conveyed? How
much did you
understand?
Instructions: effective?
How? Language?
Approach: what was order
of writing, listening,
speaking, reading? Why?
Practice: Enough / too
much? What sort?
Correction /: Enough / too
much? Enough
encouragement and
praise?
Application: what can you
learn from this about
teaching beginners?
Now discuss, in pairs:
• Feelings: how did you
and others feel during
the lesson?
• Target language: what?
how were MFP covered?
• Teaching and learning:
involvement, resources,
approach
What were the:
• Aims
• Objectives
• Stages
• Assessment
opportunities / learning
checks
• Differentiation strategies
10 principles for teaching English – what, why and
how - match the paragraph to the column
(laminated cards):
Teaching principle: What :
Why:
How:
1/ Maximise student talking
a) Low level learners probably won’t understand verbal explanation anyway
b) It can be useful for learners to simply listen to the teacher explaining (this
exposes them to language, can help them listen better, allow them an important
‘silent period’ to try to make sense of sounds and words etc.), but it’s probably
more useful to get the learners talking as much as possible instead
c) Get them talking as soon as possible with simple pair or group tasks eg. one
points at a picture, the other says the word; one asks for the thing in the picture,
the other picks it up
2/ Easy lesson-planning. Experience
and discuss different simple ways to
plan lessons, then practise planning
more.
Easy??? – lesson planning??
What? (language, skills, tasks, materials????)
How? (PPP? ESA? TTT??)
Why? (do we need to know???)
A/ Discuss, or think about these questions:
i) What's a useful, effective lesson structure for adult
groups? Why?
ii) What's a useful, effective lesson structure for children’s
groups? Why?
iii) What are useful, effective lesson structure for beginner
groups and for intermediate / more advanced groups? Are
they different? Why?
iv) Which lesson topics / areas of language would be good
to tackle with each structure?
1) Words > phrases > task:
a) Words – we start each lesson with 10+ simple words – we show a picture
to elicit / show the meaning of the words and repeat each word a few times,
then review
b) Phrases – then we learn some useful phrases – we show a picture context
to see the meaning of the phrases and repeat, and build up a dialogue with
picture prompts, repeating regularly
c) (optional) Grammar focus - if the learners are ready for this, we then look
at some of the grammar patterns – we look at tables to see how the language
works
d) Task – we then use the language in a task where the students, in pairs can
practise the new language in a real-life situation. If relevant/if the learners are
ready for this, the teacher can show some language errors they made and see
the learners can correct them.
2) Words > reading > speaking/writing:
a) Vocabulary – pre-teach some of the more difficult words/phrases in the
reading to help with understanding eg. Showing pictures, laminated cards to
match word and simple definition
b) Pre-reading – learners predict content of text from heading, accompanying
visual(s), words you’ve just done, questions they’d like to find out about the
topic etc
c) Understanding the reading – set a simple overview task for a first quick read
(eg. Is it positive or negative? What’s the problem and the solution?), then a
task that requires more detailed reading (eg. What? When? Where? Why?
How?). Learners discuss each task in pairs after reading. Group feedback to
check and guide.
d) Set a speaking or writing task related to the reading for learners to do in
pairs or small groups
3) Test > teach > teach / Task-based learning:
a) Get learners to do a task eg. Pairs recommend what food is best to
grow in a small vegetable garden
b) Teacher write up all the words learners didn’t know / needed /
used with errors in pronunciation or usage – focus on, repeat, check
meaning
c) Teacher guide learners to phrases they can use to make
recommendations eg. ‘I think you should ...’ ‘If I were you, I’d ...’
Learners think of more examples, repeat, practise.
d) Different pairs from stage a) do a similar task, using all the
language they’ve worked on eg. Recommend to each other what
food is best to grow in a farm
C/ Now look at these sample easy-to-use
lesson plans:
1/ Lesson plans for beginners: word-phrase-task format:
• Media:6 lesson plans - word-phrase-task.pdf
2/ Lesson plans for intermediate learners: words-reading-speaking/writing format:
• Media:4 intermediate lesson plans - reading, vocabulary, speaking and writing.pdf
(texts and images from New Internationalist Easier English wiki)
3/ Lesson plans for learners of pre-intermediate level and above: TTT (Test - Teach - Test)
format:
• Media:5 simple TTT (TestTeachTest) lessons.pdf
In small groups, look at these suggested lessons:
• try out the lessons on each other
• think of other topics that could be done with the same lesson format
• plan another few lessons using the same format
3/ Help learners start to read and write. Using
a simple approach, help learners develop
literacy with Language Experience Approach.
• Simple to learn and use and develop over months.
• Suitable and effective with individual learners and small groups,
and flexible to allow for different types of learners in different
moods.
• Very few materials needed: paper to write text on, scissors.
• Personal, contextualised, values learner experience, motivating
and engaging, especially when you make the texts into a ‘book’.
Let’s start with
a story ….
• Picture dictation
• Positive Negatives
http://positivenegatives.org/c
omics/
• Hands Up Project:
https://handsupproject.org/
• Other ways of using stories?
• ‘My story’ (LEA – what are
the stages?)
Stages of Language Experience Approach:
1. With visuals, discuss learners’ likes and dislikes eg. food / drink
2. T writes a short text on a large sheet of paper, using what learners say about the
food, eg. ‘I like fish and potatoes. My sister cooks potatoes every day. Sometimes
she puts green vegetables with the potatoes. It’s great when we all eat together.’
3. ‘Read’ text again together/ individually several times.
4. Cut up text into sentences and individual words – learners re-order text.
5. Learners try to read again.
6. T focus on capital letters, full stop to divide sentences, similar spellings/patterns.
7. Learners copy out text.
8. Any of the stages can be repeated, reviewed, supported as many times as
necessary.
4/ Classroom management: discussion and practical
experience of giving instructions, organising classes
so different level learners all learn, reviewing and
building on learning in a long-term plan and error
correction.
01
02
03
04
Instructions
Differentiation
Long-term
planning:
reviewing and
recycling
Error
correction
Differentiation: what works best?
• Strong-weak pairs
• Strong-strong and weak-weak pairs
• Different tasks
• Same task - differing levels of support
• Same task – differing amounts
• Older learners together and younger learners
together
What’s important for:
Instructions
&
1
Be
selec
- tive
2
Use as
little
langua
ge as
possib
le
3
Check
under
standing
thoro
ughly
4
Show
don’t
explai
n
Error correction?
5
Locating
and
catego
rising
helps
6
Do a
few
together
first
7
Get
learner
s
actively
involve
d
8
Grade
and
focus
your
languag
e
Long-term planning:
review / build on / recycle
1/ What level(s) are the learners?
2/ What language should we do next?
3/ How can we recycle and review what
they’ve learnt?
4/ How can we give the course a feeling
of coherence?
Follow-up:
•Monday in person?
•1-1 email/Whatsapp support with planning
with experienced trainers/teachers (IATEFL
Global Issues SIG etc)?
•Materials and information used today:
https://eewiki.newint.org/index.php/For_vol
unteer_teachers_of_refugees