Seoul National University
Intensive English Practicum Teacher Training Program
Developing Teaching Techniques for Lesson Stages
Here is a list of a number of activities (what we might do in a lesson) and some teaching techniques/strategies (why we might do it) that
were discussed in groups last week. Of course, techniques and strategies can be used in various lesson stages and can be adapted to suit a
number of different lesson objectives.
Lesson
Stage
Opening a
Lesson
Warmers
(Anticipatory
Set)
Potential Activities (What we might do)
Techniques/Strategies (Why we might do it)
Take attendance, collect homework, give
commands, discuss assignments, etc.
 Lets students know the lesson is beginning and it's time to sit
down and pay attention
Review what was done in the previous lesson,
conduct a quiz to review and consolidate
information.
 Checks understanding / acquisition of previous lesson material.
Helps consolidate previously-learned concepts and provide
another opportunity for retrieval (needed for acquisition)
Tell an anecdote, discuss weekend activities, talk
about the weather, discuss current events, etc.
 Helps make a more personal connection to students which fosters
an open environment more conducive to communication
Stretch, sing, play a quick interactive game, etc.
 Generates interest and activates the mind, body, and/or voice and
prepares students for a communicative lesson
Describe something (a simple problem, a wellknown issue, a popular fairy tale, etc); tell a joke
or interesting story and elicit what students know
or think about it.
 Activates students' background knowledge which encourages
them to participate because they can contribute something that
they already know. This essentially 'warms' them to the lesson
you have planned.
Utilize mind maps, brainstorming, Venn diagrams,
creating lists, putting words into categories, warmup slips, nonsense quiz, etc.
 Same as above as well as generating interest, engagement,
practicing schema-building, guessing / predicting, and
connecting old information to new information
John F. Haggerty, IEPTTP, Seoul National University
1
Seoul National University
Intensive English Practicum Teacher Training Program
Direct
Instruction
Play short video clips (with or without sound),
show a cartoon, show an interesting image, realia,
etc.
 Same as above as well as providing real-life content,
encouraging creative thinking, and incorporating visual input
Having students guess or predict the theme of
lesson or the lesson objectives
 Generates interest, creative thinking, and anticipating future
information based on available information
Have students make sentences with words
previously learned that are also linked to activities
to follow
 Consolidates and provides an opportunity for student to apply
previously-learned information
Play an educational game – eye contact game,
flashcards, Scrabble (word search), hangman,
Cryptomania, Jeopardy, riddles, anagrams,
problem-solving activity, etc. that is linguistically
or thematically linked to future activities
 Generate interest and promotes problem-solving, schemabuilding, time-intensive recall, etc. Can also provide a routinized
activity that is easily used once the game is understood. The
content for this game should be connected to the lesson
objectives in some way in order to properly be called a warmer.
Praising and encouraging student responses
whether correct or incorrect – this occurs
throughout the lesson.
 Creates a safe environment for students to take risks while
attempting to communicate in the L2. This reduces the affective
filter and increases students' willingness to communicate.
Explain lesson objectives in terms of what
students will be able to do (SWBAT)
 Provides students with a rationale/purpose for paying attention
and participating in lesson activities.
Drilling new target language to improve
pronunciation and memory.
 Gives students needed practice to develop their accuracy which
improves confidence in the L2.
Present target language using PPT, flashcards,
handouts, dialogues, whiteboard, textbook, etc.
 Provides a structured and contextualized method for student
intake of new language forms – necessary for acquisition.
Teach new target language and/or skills as simply
as possible utilizing a variety of auditory, visual,
and kinesthetic channels (including modeling)
 Provides learners a way to understand new language through
greater contextualization and helps prepare them to complete
lesson activities more successfully
John F. Haggerty, IEPTTP, Seoul National University
2
Seoul National University
Intensive English Practicum Teacher Training Program
Guided
Practice
Use visual aids (e.g. a timeline, a Venn diagram,
categories, pictures, video clips) to present new
information to students
 Maximizes schema-building and contextualizes new information
through visual aids.
Present new target language using an inductive
approach (with scaffolding). For example, writing
sentences on the board and have students notice
the target language themselves as much as
possible. Then teach the TL using a deductive
approach.
 Provides an opportunity for students to notice new vocabulary or
grammatical patterns on their own (or with the assistance of
more capable others). This can help promote scaffolding
(Vygotsky's ZPD) and encourage more autonomous learning.
Use concept-checking questions to follow-up
direct instruction and assess understanding (this
occurs throughout the lesson whenever needed)
 This helps to assess the success of the direct instruction and how
much the students truly understand. Without this check, the
activities that follow may not work well.
Have students put sentences (at the sentential or
paragraph level for writing) or spoken utterances
(for dialogues) in the correct order.
 Provides an opportunity for students to connect previouslylearned information to new information through re-construction
of discourse. Assists in the development of natural discourse.
Have students (individually, in pairs, or in groups)
figure out the answers to teacher-made questions
 Provides a specific purpose for reading or listening and develops
important academic skills that will be needed in the future.
Have students read or listen to lesson content to
develop a particular skill (e.g. skimming /
scanning), reading for a purpose (e.g., gist/specific
information), or comparing and contrasting (e.g.,
what was heard vs. what was read)
 Same as above as well as providing an opportunity to practice a
variety of skills with the same lesson content. This reinforces
understanding of the content from a variety of perspectives and
helps students develop specialized skills for these purposes.
Play an audio/video clip or give out reading text
and give students a task to complete (e.g., cloze
test, dictation, categorizing, noticing specific
words, etc).
 Provides students a structured and scaffolded method for
practicing comprehension of lesson content.
John F. Haggerty, IEPTTP, Seoul National University
3
Seoul National University
Intensive English Practicum Teacher Training Program
Freer
Practice
Have students complete a table, chart, Venn
diagram, or a graphic organizer of some kind with
information extracted from lesson content
 Provides an opportunity for students to organize information
which assists schema-building. This can assist greatly in
student's ability to recall in the future.
Conduct a (limited) information-gap activity for
practice and reinforcement of what was learned in
direct instruction
 Allows students to exchange information with others within a
structured format. This helps to scaffold their linguistic and
communicative competence.
Conduct a controlled writing activity using an
explicit structure of some kind that the students
can follow (e.g., AABB poetry, formal letters, 5paragraph essay, etc).
 Allows students to practice writing in a semi-structured format
based on high-order L2 writing principles. This helps to scaffold
understanding of various L2 writing expectations (genres).
Monitor the activities being completed by students
as much as possible. Respond to issues that occur
during activities to ensure students remain on task.
 This is the primary way that teachers assure that their
instructions are understood and students know what to do. This
should happen during any student activity as much as possible.
Check understanding of TL through conceptcheck questions when wrapping up this stage and
moving on to the next stage.
 A variety of concept-check questions help students consolidate
information and make a transition to the next activity.
Conduct an information-gap, interview, roving
reporter, or a 'guess who' activity for students to
practice communicating in the L2
 This allows students to more freely exchange information with
their classmates and gives them a purpose to extend
communication whenever possible.
Have students create something (e.g., a role play,
a written dialogue, a poem, a mosaic story, a short
story, a character chart, etc)
 This promotes freer expression and creativity in the L2. It raises
the level of challenge for students which can increase its interest
for students who are ready for it.
Have students create questions based on a reading
or listening text for other students to answer
 This maximizes students' opportunity to apply their creativity in
the L2 and can encourage independent/autonomous learning.
John F. Haggerty, IEPTTP, Seoul National University
4
Seoul National University
Intensive English Practicum Teacher Training Program
Closing and
Assessment
Have students create an alternate ending for a
story and vote for the most original ending (or
compare endings to the actual ending).
 In addition to fostering creativity, this allows students to practice
extending discourse logically and coherently as well as
considering cause/effect relationships.
Have students compare and contrast information
from lesson content based on categories they
choose.
 Promotes a higher understanding of organization concepts and
the complex connections that exist between related ideas.
Hand out a picture (or a series of pictures) for
student to create their own stories or dialogues.
 Permits interpretation of visual input and the free expression or
connected ideas.
Allow students to write freely about a topic that
interests them and share this with a classmate
 Maximizes opportunities for target-like language production.
Conduct a debate about an issue that is of
importance to students.
 Gives opportunities for students to organize ideas, practice
formal speech, and develop more persuasive oral skills.
Facilitate a 'readers' theater' or 'literature circle' to
encourage more discussion about reading content.
 Develops cooperative and collaborative skills in the coconstruction of meaning.
Have students present the results of their activities
in from of the class.
 Develops formal presentation skills and allows teachers to assess
the success of their objectives and the progress being made by
students.
Use concept checking questions (yes/no, true
false, multi-option), short quizzes, interactive
games like Jeopardy, an 'exit slip', or any other
method intended to assess the success of lesson
objectives.
 This helps to consolidate the information that students have
learned and practiced. It provides an additional way for teachers
and students to assess the success of the lesson objectives. It also
helps teachers to determine what might need to be reviewed and
practiced in future lessons.
John F. Haggerty, IEPTTP, Seoul National University
5
Seoul National University
Intensive English Practicum Teacher Training Program
Conduct a teacher-led activity that allows students
to apply what they have learned in a different
context (e.g. students instruct the teacher how to
do something)
 This provides a more real-life way of concept checking that
allows students to see the utility of the target language in real-life
situations. This can help assess the ability of students to apply
newly-learned target language or skills.
Assign a homework assignment (task-based) or a
homework quiz in order to extend the lesson
objectives and further assess acquisition / uptake
of TL.
 This provides an opportunity for student to extend application of
newly-learned information and provides a further way for
teachers to assess lesson objectives and the progress of students.
Anticipate future lesson content.
 Provides a sense of course flow for students and encourages
teachers to consider how their lessons might be building
knowledge and skills for students.
Of course, this is only a brief list of potential activities that could be done in a communicative lesson – there is literally no limit to how
many activities that could be added. However, you should begin to realize that the rationales behind many of the activities are often the same
and there is quite a lot of overlap. The reality is that there will always be new communicative activities being created, but their value will
always be determined by how successful they are in getting students to participate in the class, and by doing so, improve their
communicative ability.
Keep looking for new activities, but always consider the rationale for using them before incorporating them into your lesson. If you have
established good rapport with your students, created a safe classroom environment that encourages open communication, and explicitly
connected the communicative activity to useful and meaningful lesson objectives and content, then you are far more likely to get students
speaking and writing in the TL and will have successfully delivered a communicative lesson.
So, let's get them communicating!
John F. Haggerty, IEPTTP, Seoul National University
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