Polykastro
Linda Ruas April 2017
Warmer /
energiser:
‘Spoken letters’
Training last Sunday in Thessaloniki:
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
Resources:
https://eewiki.newint.org/index.php/For_volunteer_teachers_of_refugees
• 3 x different types of simple ways to structure lessons / learning, with 4 or 5
examples of each
• 4 x starter curriculum for beginner, pre-intermediate, intermediate and
upper intermediate levels, with functions, grammar, patterns (to help the
teacher) and sample tasks (for class)
• book + websites for teachers to work on language awareness and
background grammar knowledge
• teaching ideas: Language Experience Approach (for literacy), with low
resources, using stories etc
1) Wednesday evening 6 – 10:
a) TPR (Total Physical Response) – demonstration in Portuguese and discussion /
application
b) Easy lesson planning – continuation – plan lessons in small groups
c) ‘Grammar tennis’ / moving lines to test grammar knowledge
d) Making our teaching more learner-centred: how to make learners more independent
2) Thursday morning 10 – 2:
a) Review basic principles of effective teaching of language
b) Curriculum development –groups add more grammar / functions / tasks to base
suggestions
c) Ranking / noughts and crosses / Language Experience Approach for literacy
d) Using Reflect ESOL eg. tree diagrams for problems and solutions / river diagrams for
processes / ‘chapati-diagrams’
e) Developing teachers’ awareness of language: using timelines to show instead of
explain
‘Easy lesson planning’
•Look at all the 3 x lesson formats (next 3
slides) and the examples of simple
formats for planning lessons.
•How can you make the lessons as
learner-centred as possible?
•Chose a format and make notes on a
similar lesson you could use in class.
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.
3) Test > teach > test / (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)i/ Teacher write up all the words learners didn’t know / needed /
used with errors in pronunciation or usage – focus on, repeat, check
meaning
b)ii/ 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.
c) 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
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
Total Physical Response
• A method developed in the 1970s to help children learn other languages as
they learnt their own. It can be very enjoyable for both groups of children and
adults as they are physically engaged, which can help memory.
• The teacher gives a series of commands, while doing the action herself eg.
stand up, walk, stop, turn, point to the window, point to the floor, pick up the
pen, sit on the table. Learners simply follow the commands, and when they are
ready, the teacher can stop doing the actions herself, choose students to follow
commands individually, get learners to repeat the language as they do the
action, and finally, give commands themselves.
• More information: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/total-physicalresponse-tpr
• What can / can’t you use it for? How would it suit your students?
Basic Principles of teaching after the TPR
demonstration in Portuguese:
Put these in order of importance:
f) maximise student
a) repetition
talking
b) minimal, simple
g) differentiation
teacher talk
i)
relevance
c) review and build
j) meaningful learning in
d) sensitivity
context
e) study skills
k) error correction
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
Building a curriculum: long-term planning:
review / build on what they know / 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?
5/ Add items to each section in pairs
Reflect ESOL – participatory approach, based
on Paulo Freire and very suitable for learners
suffering from trauma
Reflect ESOL tools
learners, in groups, draw a large tree (with roots and branches) on a large
sheet of paper. You (or they) then decide on a topic/problem eg. crime, good
health, or racism, and they then have to discuss and decide on causes
(which they write on the roots of their tree) and effects (which they write on
the branches of their tree) of this topic. Groups can then look at the other
groups' trees and discuss, and the teacher can feed in and/or guide learners
to correct language.
- see: http://www.reflect-action.org/reflectesol for more Reflect ESOL tools
eg. the river, the body and the 'chapatti-diagram'
Other teaching ideas:
• Ranking
• Noughts and crosses
• Grammar tennis
• Lines – move along and change partners
• Onion rings
• Language Experience Approach for teaching literacy with
contextualised, personalised language:
https://eewiki.newint.org/index.php/Teaching_Basic_Lite
racy
1) What is
grammar?
2) How can you show it instead of explain it?
3) Do you / learners need to know the technical
terms?
Show the difference between:
a) I’ve read that book c) She’d seen him before
and
b) I read that book
(past simple!)
he crossed the road
and
d) She saw him when he
crossed the road
More differences to show (with no words):
1/ He stopped to buy some bread.
He stopped buying bread.
2/ She’s been working here for 10
years.
She’s worked here for 10 years.
3/ I used to listen to my grandfather
telling stories.
I would listen to my grandfather
telling stories.
4/ I’ll have finished the book by
Monday.
I’ll finish the book by Monday.
5/ He’ll win the election.
He’s going to win the election.
6/ I live here.
I’m living here.
How to develop teachers’ awareness of
language?
What's an adverb? What's reported speech or a relative clause? What's the
difference between the present perfect simple and present perfect continuous? If
you're teaching English, you need to try to stay a few steps ahead of your learners,
so try working through this book by Chris Sowton: '50 steps to improving your
grammar' Media:50 steps to improving your grammar.pdf
What are the 12 tenses and when are they used?:
https://www.easypacelearning.com/all-lessons/grammar/1198-12-verb-tensestable-learning-english-grammar-tenses
Quizzes to help learn the tenses:
https://www.englishclub.com/esl-quizzes/grammar-5-tenses-2.htm
An article on using time lines to 'show' the tenses:
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/timelines