CELTA Teacher Training Course
Day 1, 28/2/2011
General Advice



Script what you are going to say in the class room.
Grade your language to suit students’ level
Stage your instructions. Don’t give all instructions at once.
Throwing the ball activity (Ball Game)
* Preparation: make students stand in a circle before giving any instructions. Have a ball in your
hand. Explain that the purpose of this activity is to use a fun way to learn each others' names.
(1) Stage One Instructions: I'll say my name and then throw the ball any person in the group.
Then the person who gets the ball would say his/her name and then throw the ball to another
person.
Instruction Checking Questions:
Before I throw the ball what are you going to say?
Practice Example: teacher practices the instructions with one person, and that person
practices the instruction with the teacher
This is carried on until everyone gets the ball about two or three times.
(2) Stage Two Instructions: Now before I throw the ball I'll say the name of the person I'm
throwing the ball to. If I want to throw the ball to Amy, I say, 'Amy', then throw the ball to
Amy.
Instruction Checking Questions: Before I throw the ball what are you going to say?
Practice Example: teacher practices the instructions with one person, and that person
practices the instruction with the teacher
This is carried on until everyone gets the ball about two or three times.
(3) Stage Three Instructions: Now I'll give the ball to the one next to me, and everyone in the
group would say the name of that person.
Instruction Checking Questions: When someone gets the ball what are you going to say?
Practice Example: teacher practices the instructions with one person, and that person
practices the instruction with the teacher
This is carried on until everyone gets the ball two times.
Find Someone Who …
You have as many facts as there are people in a sheet of paper.
* Preparation: Leave students seated in their places. Explain that the purpose of this activity is to
learn some interesting facts about people in the group. To get to know each other.
(1) Stage One Instructions: While students are seated explain the process. You have some facts
in this sheet (chest the handout) and we need to know which facts are about which person.
To link the fact to the person. Try to ask for more details. Write on the board: find someone
who … comes from a big family. Make this into a question: do you come from a big family.
Yes. Oh, really. How many brothers and sisters do you have? The rule is: you can ask each
person three questions. If you find a fact that is true about that person, write the person's
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
name next to it. And try to learn more about that fact. And the person will ask you three
questions in their turn. After you finish with one person, you move on to another person.
You can come back to the same person, but after you meet someone else.
Warm-up example on question asking: Write on the board: find someone who .... likes
coffee. Then ask students how do you ask a question.
Practice Example: I’ll try this out with one person. Now I'll ask you three questions to find
out some facts about you, and then it will be your turn to ask me three questions.
Instruction Checking Questions: How many questions you can ask a person? And how
many questions the other person will ask you? If you find that the fact is true about that
person, what will you do? (Write the person's name down next to it and try to learn more
about that fact)
Handout. While students are seated, give them the hand-outs and give them two minutes to
have a look at them.
(Mingled activity) Class Arrangement: Now you need to stand up, have the handout in your
hand with a pen or pencil. Find a partner and ask him/her your questions. You have 5
minutes.
Instructor role: monitor and facilitate. [Monitor, Give time warning, Signal taking turns,
observe errors for linguistic feedback]
Time warning: Now you have 2 minutes... 30 seconds... Now time is up...
(Pair checking) Instructions: Now you go back to your original seats. With the person
sitting next to you, check your fact and try to fill in the gaps.
Instruction Checking Questions: What are you going to do with the partner next to you?
Now you have 3 minutes. [Monitor, Give time warning, Signal taking turns, observe errors
for linguistic feedback]
Time warning: Now you have 2 minutes... 30 seconds... Now time is up...
(Open Class Feedback): Now you go to the questions one by one and find out the answers
from the students.
(Linguistic Feedback): problems with language usage/grammar that you noticed in the
group. Explain. Explain question formation.
Find Someone Who … (Suggestion for my Teaching Practice)
(1) _________ plays tennis.
(2) _________ comes from a big family (has 4 brothers and sisters or more).
(3) _________ has lived in Dublin for 2 years or more.
(4) _________ likes Irish weather.
(5) _________ does not like pizza.
(6) _________ had toast and butter for breakfast today.
(7) _________ speaks 3 languages or more.
(8) _________ has visited 3 foreign countries or more.
(9) _________ can play music.
(10) _________ likes acting.
(11) _________ will spend the summer holiday in Spain.
(12) _________ wants to work as a teacher.
(13) _________ likes to drink green tea.
(14) _________ comes to International House Dublin by bicycle.
(15) _________ has a driving license.
(16) _________ enjoys loud music.
(17) _________ appeared on TV.
(18) _________ has an MP3 player.
(19) _________ likes history and maths.
(20) _________ will have to stay home and work this weekend.
Sticker Game
(1) Stage One Instructions
I will give each of you a sticker (chest sticker), and I’ll ask 8 questions. Then you need to
write the answer on the sticker. Make sure to fit all 8 answers on the sticker.
If I ask you ‘what is your favourite animal’
wait for answer from students ... ‘cat’
draw a box on the board and write cat in the middle to fill the whole space.
Ask students is this right? Wait for answer...
If no answer, give clues. Do you have one question or 8 questions...
Instructions two: there are two sides to the sticker. You need to write on the white side.
Instruction Checking Questions:
How many questions I’m going to ask?
What are you going to write on the sticker, the question or the answer?
Which side are you going to write on, the white side or the side with blue boxes?
(2) Stage One. Give out the stickers and start asking the questions:
* If you were an animal, which animal would you like to be? [Monitor, see if students have
finished writing]
* What is your favourite place? [Give clues: It can be a city, a building, a park]
* What is your favourite book?
* What meal can you cook?
* Who do you wish to have dinner with? [This can be a person who is living or dead]
* What is your favourite subject at school?
* What is the thing that annoys you most?
(3) Stage Two (pair checking) Instructions. Now you peel the sticker and stick it in your chest.
Divide students into pairs. Talk to your partner and ask him/her about their answer, and why
he likes this place or this meal. You have 3 minutes. [Monitor, Give time warning, Signal
taking turns, observe errors for linguistic feedback]
(4) Stage Three (group checking) Instruction. Now we are going to break into two groups.
ABABABAB. I want all the A’s to stand please and sit on this side. In you group discuss
what you learned about other people.
Instruction check questions: Are going to talk about yourself, or about your partner? your
cat
partner .. very good. You have 3 minutes. [Monitor, Give time warning, Signal taking turns,
observe errors for linguistic feedback]
Time warning. You have 1 minute ... 30 second ... OK. That’s good... Thank you.
(5) Stage Four (open class discussion). While students are seated in their groups. Ask them
about interesting things that they learned.
(6) Stage Five (Linguistic feedback). Ask students to go back to their original places. Then give
them linguistic feedback, if any.
Carousel /carə'sel/
(1) Stage One Instruction. Arrange the class in two circles inner circle and outer circle. Stand up
with your paper and pen, as you will need them in this activity. We’ll make two groups
ABABABAB. A’s come to this side please. This group will make a circle. Then turn around
so that you’re facing outside. Second group will make a circle around the first group.
(2) Stage Two Instructions. I’ll give you one question. You ask this question to your partner, that
is the person in front of you. Then you write something interesting. You have two minutes
fro asking the question, then 30 seconds to write. When I say ‘Turn’, the inner circle stand as
they are, the circle in the outside will move one step to the right.
Instruction Checking Questions:
* How many minutes you have for each question? ... 2 minutes.
* How much time do you have for writing? ... 30 seconds.
* When I say “Turn” what the circle in the inside going to do? ... stand as they are
* What the circle in the outside going to do? ... move one step
* To the right or to the left? ... to the right
Questions:
What does a good teacher do? [Monitor, Give time warning, Signal taking turns, observe
errors for linguistic feedback]
Did you succeed in learning a foreign language?
Where do you want to work after you finish this course?
Signal end of activity. OK. That’s good. Thank you. You can now go to your original places.
(3) Stage Three Questions. Now in pairs. Discuss with your partner what you learned about
other people.
Instruction Checking Questions: With your partner, are you going to talk about yourself? ...
no, you are going to talk about what you learned from other people.
Time Warning: you have 3 minutes.
(4) Stage Four (Open Class Discussion & Feedback)
(5) Stage Five (Linguistic Feedback)
Day 2, 1/3/2011
DVD Observation of Teaching Practice
Before you watch the video, try to guess the meaning of these words in pairs.
Word Definition Activity
(In short)
Give students a sheet with difficult words and ask them to read through and guess the meaning of
words. Split students into groups. Give each group some words in flash cards, and ask them to
guess the meaning of the words. Then tell them that the definitions of the words are stuck (with blue
tack) around the room and they have to go around and find the right definition. With students seated
with their groups, make an open class discussion of the meaning of words. In the end return
students to their original places.
Remember staging, instruction checking questions, example/demonstration, monitoring and time
warning.
Teaching Terminology
monitoring:
walking around, observing, guiding, kicking off
realia:
real objects used in the classroom for demonstration (real bannana to show what a bannana
looks like)
eliciting:
What do you call the things that you buy for a friend in their birthday? ... 'present'
What is the problem with the second verb?
flash card:
cards used in activities
checking instructions:
How long do you have to read this paragraph?
What is the first thing you need to do? ... 'fold the paper'
finger highlighting:
two syllables, 3 minutes, one word
concept checking questions:
gadgets. Are they neccessary? If we don't have them will we die?
pairwork:
work students do in pairs
groupwork:
work students do in groups
teacher-centred activity:
feedback, open-class discussions
student-centered activity:
writing, reading
open pairs:
An open pair is a pair of learners working together with the rest of the group observing.
Example
The learners are working on developing telephone conversations using prompts. The teacher
asks one pair to continue working while the rest of the group watches.
In the classroom
Open pair work can be a fast and effective way to highlight language learners might need
for an activity, and clarify that people understand what to do. It needs to be managed
sensitively, choosing confident learners to demonstrate, and dealing with errors through a
"hotsheet"; a record of errors in performance, which can be discussed later.
closed pairs:
All the learners work in pairs that do not monitor each other.
Choral drilling:
Asking the group to repeat words in a pronunciation activity.
individual drills:
Asking an individual to repeat words in a pronunciation activity.
modelling language:
highlighting language:
feedback stages:
Stop the Bus (Vocabulary Drilling Game)
(In short)
Split class into two groups. Each group will have one person sitting with his/her back to the board.
Teacher will write a word on the board. Each group will try to explain to the person the word
without saying the actual word. The team who guesses it first would “say stop the bus” and the team
would win a point. Then each team will swap places.
Remember staging, instruction checking questions, example/demonstration, monitoring and time
warning.
Giving Instructions
1) Starting – make it clear when you are starting to give instructions. Remember – “eyes on
you.” Don’t forget your body language – it counts.
2) Topic – making sure students know the theme of the lesson segment helps to activate their
“top-down knowledge” of the world, i.e. what they already know about the topic in their
language.
3) Interaction – make it clear which interaction pattern is being used:
a. S – student work alone
b. PW – pairwork
c. GW – groupwork
d. OC – open class (teacher addressing / eliciting from / asking whole class)
If there are changes of interaction during the activity make sure that the changes are as
smooth as possible and use gestures where appropriate.
[Avoid cliques /kli:k/. Prevent students from always working with the same people.
Remember also that it is important to vary the interaction pattern]
4) Task – make it clear, keep it simple and logical – again, use gestures where possible.
5) Staging – give one instruction at a time, and don’t give handouts at the same time as you’re
speaking. If possible, give them afterwards – otherwise the students will be looking at the
paper and not listening to you. (You can chest [keep in front of your chest] the handout
while explaining the activity, and give the handout later.) If you have to give two
instructions at once, pause between them to make them clear.
6) Check understanding – ask different students questions to check what they are supposed to
be doing. Avoid the question “What are we doing?” but choose tricky aspects of the
instructions and ask directed questions, e.g. “Where do you write the answer?”, “How many
questions should you ask your partner”, “Does one person speak or both people in this
activity?”, etc. Ask the people you think haven’t understood (without seeming to pick on
them).
7) Example/Demonstration – demonstrate how the activity works with another student to
check understanding further. It’s often useful to do the first question of an exercise together
as a class and then let students get on with the rest.
8) Time limit – giving students time limit provides security and focus. If appropriate, give a
time limit warning, e.g. “two minutes left!”. There is room for flexibility but try to stick to
the time limit given.
9) Signal to start – students may need training to wait for this, but there’s little point in them
starting (possibly the wrong thing) while you’re still explaining or demonstrating.
10) Monitoring – check they’re doing the activity right. This gives you the chance to explain to
weaker students who, despite all the above, haven’t understood.
Remember – Negotiating the meaning of instructions is one of the best ways of learning.
Aspects of Classroom managements
Interaction patterns
Boardwork
Physical factors
Rapport
Monitoring
Instructions
Classroom Management
1) Rapport
What is Rapport and how do you build/maintain it? Consider:
◦
The teacher's physical position – distance from the students, central
positioning, sitting or standing, movement (teacher pacing up and down is distracting
for most students)
◦
Eye Contact – maintaining even eye contact (looking at one or a few
students only comes across as favourtism)
◦
Use of students' names – remembering names, nominating students, and,
when you do, saying their name at the end of the question rather than the beginning.
◦
The teacher's personal involvement – showing interest in what students say
as well as how they say it, active listening, showing interest with facial expressions
and body language, responding to what they say in a natural way.
◦
Use of praise and encouragement – graded praise (i.e. Not saying
“excellent” when the contribution was “good”), giving enough praise for good work
done (i.e. Saying “exactly” or “yes, very good”, rather than “OK”)
◦
Body language and facial expressions – open, smiling, friendly, show
interest, enthusiasm, humour.
◦
Classroom atmosphere – relaxed, trusting, supportive.
◦
Level of student involvement – not more than 30% teacher talking time,
allowing students enough thinking time to prepare ideas alone or in pairs.
◦
Spread the attention – avoiding favouritism, actively involving shy and
weaker students rather than “flying with the fastest”.
◦
Cliques – preventing students from always working with the same people.
◦
Allowing students to express their personality – what might you want/not
want to contribute to a class discussion? How would you feel if your teacher never
asked you about your life/opinions?
2) Monitoring
What should you bear in mind when monitoring individual, pair and groupwork? Consider
◦
Teacher's position – trying not to loom over them, but crouching to their
level, and walking behind them.
◦
Eye contact – trying not to hijack the conversation but being there if students
need help, making sure students are on task and communicating (kick-starting the
conversation if necessary and then leaving students to get on with it)
◦
Making notes for feedback – noting down good/bad points for language
feedback later.
3) Boardwork
What should you think about when writing on the board? Consider the following:
◦
Upper/lower case – When writing on the board, write in lower case and only
capitalise when you normally would in English. So, if you're writing a list of words
on the board (e.g. Car, lorry, bus, taxi), don't capitalise the first letter (e.g. Car, lorry,
But, Taxi) because this isn't how you would usually see the words written.
◦
Colour coding – When writing new words, sentences or questions on the
board, use the dark colours, i.e. Black or blue. Use red and green to highlight, e.g.
part of speech, phonemic symbols, syllables, intonation, etc.
◦
Size – Don't write in huge/tiny letters on the board. Try to write using a
reasonable size and test the “readability” by writing something and standing at the
back of the classroom to see if yuor writing is easy to read.
◦
Board plan – Plan your boardwork before teaching the lesson. Make a board
plan. Write (in the relevant colours) what you're going to put on the board and where.
In the board below: Titles are blue, sentences and words are black, pronunciation is
green, grammar notes are read
Present Perfect Simple
Present Perfect Continuous
/d/
I've watched three films today.
have/has + past participle
/bin/
I've been watching films all day
have/has + been + past participle
Emphasis on result
Emphasis on activity
Vocabulary Corner
lazy (adj)
spectacular (adj)
to suggest sth. to
sbd.
Now
4) Physical Factors
How do physical factors influence a class? Consider:
◦
Positions of students and teacher – horseshoe or rows? With Tables or
without? Teacher standing, sitting or kneeling (variety is good), how near is the
teacher to the students?
◦
Voice projection – making sure volume is sufficient to hear comfortably and
not speaking too fast, making sure students can hear each other.
◦
Temperature, space, air, light, noise
◦
Equipment – using the board, tapes, CDs, OHPs, visuals, videos, DVDs, etc.
Bad Instruction Example
“Now we are going to split into 3 groups of 4 people. “Here is one group and here is another group.
No, there is not enough people. We are going to split into two groups of five then. You have
questions from the five questions in the handout. Teacher gives the handout while talking. Then you
need to choose two questions to discuss with your group.
“Off you go..”
… and don’t forget to use the opinion expressions we have been learning at the start of the lesson.
Correction:
What’s wrong with this example, how it can be done in a better way.
1) State the purpose of the activity at the start. Now the purpose of this activity is to use he
opinion expression that we have learned.
2) Count before you split into groups to avoid confusion. Now we are going to split into two
groups of five.
3) Don’t give the handouts and talk at the same time. Chest the handout and give the
instructions. This sheet has five questions. You need to choose only two questions to discuss
with your group.
4) ICQ (Instruction Checking Questions):
How many questions do you need to choose?
What expressions will you use?
How long do you have to finish this activity?
5) Now give the handout and give them time to read it.
6) Monitor and make sure that people are following your instructions correctly. Pay attention
for people who can be nominated in the open class checking. Pay attention for good and bad
language usage for linguistic feedback.
7) Give time warning.
8) Open class discussion.
9) Linguistic feedback.
Day 2, 3/3/2011
First Basque Language Vocabulary Lesson
Teacher enters the class and speaks in Basque only. Only a few manageable words and phrases
(nothing complicated) said slowly and clearly. Teacher uses gesture effectively and effortlessly to
explain instructions and meanings.
Introduction Activity
(Teacher does not write anything on the board)
Kaixo!
Nira itsina Carmel da.
Nira itsina …. da.
(with the voice tone and gesture teacher indicates to student to repeat after her)
Nira itisina … da.
Nira itsina …. da.
(Teacher stands up and indicates with her hands for students to stand up)
(Mingled Activity)
Teacher indicates to students to move around and introduce themselves to other students. Sake
hands and say.
Kaixo! Nira itsina … da.
Kaixo! Nira itsina … da.
Kaixo! Nira itsina … da.
Aswondo! Aswondo! = well done
Teacher indicates to students to go back to their places.
Numbers Activity
Teacher takes out large flash cards of numbers from her bag.
Teacher places number 1 on the floor facing students and says baat, and waits for students to repeat
after her. Then she asks some individuals to say the number ‘baat’. Then she does the same for the
following numbers. And each time she adds a new number she revises the previous numbers.
1 baat
2 bee
3 eero
4 law
5 bast
(Pair checking Activity)
Teacher divides class into pairs using gesture. And shows them how to do the activity. You raise one
finger and wait for your partner to say the number. Then you raise any number of fingers from 1 to
5. Then you change turns.
Objects Activity
Teacher takes a bottle of water from her bag and says ‘oor’. She waits for students to repeat after
her. Then she asks some individuals by name to say the word. Then she does the same for the
following objects. And each time she adds a new object she revises the previous objects.
oor = water
sagar = apple
larankha = orange
tomati = tomato
undo = mushroom
Teacher says ‘oor baat’, then she takes out another apple and says ‘bee sagar’. She waits for
students to repeat after her. Then she asks some individuals by name to say the expression. Then she
does the same for the following objects. And each time she adds a new object she revises the
previous objects.
oor baat
bee sagar
eero larankha
law tomati
bast undo
Transaction Activity
Teacher leaves all objects on the table. She shows one Euro and says ‘Euro baat’. She gives the euro
to a students and hints to him to buy something from the table.
The student says ‘oor baat’. The teacher says ‘Euro baat’. The student gives the teacher the money
and the teacher gives the object and says ‘Eskerrik asko’ which means ‘thank you’. Another
students would say, ‘bee larankh’ and the teacher does the same with him/her, with everything
costing one euro. Teacher does the activity until everyone gets something.
Writing down Activity
Teacher writes down the correct spelling for every word on the board.
1 bat
2 bi
3 hiro
4 lau
5 bost
(without writing the English words, but pointing to the objects)
water = ur
apple = sagar
orange = laranja
tomato = tomate
mushroom = onddo
nire izena Carmel da
Teacher goes out and waves her hand and says ‘Agur’ which students guess to be ‘goodbye’ and say
‘Agur’ to her.
(Pairwork)
In pairs discuss these questions
Foreign Language Lesson: Reflection on Techniques

How did the teacher make the target language interesting?

Was there too little / just enough / too much new language?

How did the teacher keep you involved? Was there pair and group work?

Did you have a chance to use the target language?

How much time did you have to think about and process the language?

Did you have a chance to recap and revise the target language?

Did you feel under pressure to be accurate with the language?

Overall, what would need to be changed in the lesson to suit your own learning
preferences?
Lesson Plan and Procedures
Teacher practices a vocabulary lesson and then gives us her lesson plan and procedure.
Name:
Class Level:
Date:
Lesson number:
Length:
minutes
Lesson Type (tick as appropriate):
Speaking
Writing
Reading
Listening
Functions
Grammar
Vocabulary
Pronunciation
X
Main Aim(s):
To enable ss to understand and be able to use 4 verbs connected to WAYS OF
WALKING in the context of an incident on the street in San Sebastian.
Subsidiary Aim(s):
To practice listening to specific information.
Evidence: How will I know if my aims have been achieved?
My aims will have been achieved if the ss can use the target language accurately in
the controlled and freer practice stages.
Personal Aims (I, as a teacher, will be working on improving / trying out …)
Ensuring my boardwork is presentable.
Using a variety of concept checking questions.
Materials (including source):
Pictures of San Sebastian.
Teacher’s own freer practice – Discussion Qs
International House Dublin Teacher Training
Lesson Plan Procedure (Vocabulary Lesson)
Time
Stage and Aim
Lead-in
3–4
mins

Generate
interest in the topic of the story
Procedure
Have you ever witnessed an ‘altercation’,
an exciting, strange or dramatic incident
on the street? Discuss in pairs for 2 mins
Interaction
PW
Brief open class feedback
5–6
mins
Set context (through listening
task)

Enable ss to
hear the target language in
context

Give ss
practice in listening for specific
information
Ask ss to look at the pictures and guess
which place it is (San Sebastian)
PW
Tell ss I’m going to tell them about
something that happened to me in San
Sebastian. Tell them to listen carefully
because they will have to tell each other
the story afterwards.
Tell story about men outside bookies
7–8
mins
Ask students to retell the story to each
other in pars
Open class feedback to the story – elicit
Focus on Language:
the 4 target verbs (in the sentences) from
Clarification of meaning

Enable
the context and write up on the
students to understand the
whiteboard
meaning of the target language - I was sprongling around the backstreets
of Budapest.
- A man was fritting up and down
outside a bookies.
- The anxious man thropped backwards
and then thropped off down the street.
OC
Tutor ’s Comments
Stage and Aim
Time
3 mins
Clarification of Form
2 mins
Pronunciation Focus

Enable ss to
use the target language in
sentences accurately

Enable ss to
say the words accurately and
deal with specific
pronunciation problems
2 mins
6–7
mins
Controlled Practice

Ensure that ss
understand the target language
and can use it accurately
Freer Practice

Enable ss to
use target language in a more
authentic way
Procedure
Interaction
Highlight aspects of form:
sprongle (regular)
frit (double t in past simple)
sprat (irregular – sprot, sprotten)
throp (double p in past simple)
Model and drill (choral and individual)
target language
OC
Act out the verbs and ss write down the
infinitive and past simple of them
S
OC
PW
Feedbak in pairs
Feedback open class
Ss get Qs to ask and answer in groups of
three
OC
GW
Feedback open class some answers and
check accuracy of TL use
OC
Tutor ’s Comments
Questions on Ways of Walking
1) When you’re in a new place, do you like sprongling around the streets?
2) When was the last time you sprongled?
3) When you get anxious do you frit up and down? If not, what do you do instead?
4) Do you sprat? Do any of your friends sprat? Do you sprat in particular situations? Which
one?
5) When was the last time you thropped? Why? Did you fall over as well? Did you hurt
yourself?
Day 4, 7/3/2011
Matching Game
You have a group of cards. You place them on the table facing downwards. You turn two cards and
if they match you keep them. If not you put them back in the same place. It is a memory game as
well. You take turns with your partner. The one who wins is the one with the most cards.
Draw on the table
Subject Pronoun
He
Instruction Checking Questions.
Do you put the cards on the table facing up or down?
How many cards do you pick up?
If the cards are matching what do you do?
If the cards are not matching what do you do?
Cards
Present Perfect
Possessive Adjective
Object Pronoun
3rd Person Singular
Ellipsis
Relative Clause
Question tag
Subject pronoun
Past perfect
I’ve taken your camera.
our
him
overtakes
Nice day?
the book that I lent you
You’re Swiss, aren’t you?
we
I’d already seen it.
Grammar Activity
Setting the context: Teacher shows ss a picture of a woman with two children and asks ss to
describe the picture (OC). She tells ss that the picture is of her friend, Clodagh, from primary
school.
PW: Teacher asks ss to talk in pairs about their friends from childhood. 2 mins
OC: Teacher asks ss to talk about their partner’s experience. 2 mins.
Teacher writes on the board.
I used to play computer games with Clodagh.
I didn’t use to like fish.
PW: Teacher asks ss to discuss with their partner the meaning of the two sentences.
OC: Teacher asks for ss’ feedback.
Teacher asks which sentence describes action and which describes state.
PW: Answer the question with your partner.
OC: Teacher solicits answer.
PW: Talk to your partner about the things that you used to / didn’t use to do when you were young.
OC: Teacher solicits feedback.
Teacher draws timeline on the board.
Action
now
______________________________________|_______
x x x x x x x x x x x ..
Teacher adds grammar (in red) and pronunciation (in green) to the sentence on the board.
/ju:ztә/
I used to play computer games with Clodagh.
Subject + used to + infinitive
/ju:ztә/
I didn’t use to like fish.
Subject + didn’t used to + infinitive
Reading Activity
Teacher changes pairs: Listen to your number 12121212. Where are ones hands up. Where are two?
Hands up. Ones sit in this side and two sit in this side.
Teacher shows ss some pictures of whales.
PW: Teacher asks ss to talk to their partners about whale and what they know about them.
OC: Teacher solicits feedback.
Teacher write ‘whale’ in a bubble on the board and asks us for information about whales
Can get beached
migrate
Live in pods
Whales
big
They sing
Hunted for their blubber
mammals
Teacher divides the board and gives a corner for vocabulary
Vocabulary
/sizәl/
to sizzle
(v)
sludge
(n)(uncountable)
vegetation
(n)(uncountable)
To explain the verb sizzle, teachers tells students a story about her house mate when she was
preparing her dinner. She had sausages sizzling in the pan.
She asks student what it means to sizzle. What things can sizzle. Can people sizzle.
To teach the word sludge, teacher shows a picture of a puddle on the side of the road and discusses
it with ss.
To teach the word vegetation, teacher shows a picture of dense wood from Brazil, and says that she
received this picture from a friend and discusses this picture with ss.
Reading for Gist
After the vocabulary analysis, teacher chests the handout and says that we need to read this sheet to
decide how whales view humans. Do whale have positive, negative, or neutral view towards
humans.
Teacher gives 2 mins.
Teacher gives the handout.
handout
A Whale’s Eye View
A mother whale and a father whale were swimming along the coast with their son when they found
a school of people lying on the beach.
“What’s that?” asked the son whale, who had never seen people, or even one person before, one his
own.
“People, son,” said the father whale. “you see them all up and down this coast at this time of year.
They never lie on the sand without covering themselves with oil, and they boil themselves until
they burn completely.”
“But they’re such little things,” said the son whale. “I bet I could swallow one whole and keep it
unharmed in my stomach.”
His mother said she would not want her stomach full of anything that had been boiled in oil and had
sand all over it. And, she added, “It would be very unhealthy because they are usually filled with
smoke and hot dogs.”
“What do people do on the beach?” asked the son whale.
“They sit there and stare at the ocean,” the father whale said. “And they eat hot dogs.”
The mother whale said that in the ocean they also splashed around in such a clumsy manner that the
fish had to get out of their way.
The father whale drew their attention to several people who had moved away from the beach and
were getting into a metal box on wheels. When they were all inside the metal box, it began to move
along the beach, throwing up a great cloud of sand.
“What are they doing now?” asked the son whale.
“Making pollution,” said the father whale. “People make almost all the pollution in the world, and
they use those little moving boxes to do it.”
He showed his son the dark gases which came out of the box.
“And inside the box,” he said, “they are also preparing rubbish.”
“They seem to be useless,” said the son whale. “Why did the Great Whale create people anyway?”
“Son, said the father whale, “no creature in the Great Whale’s universe exists without a purpose. If
the Great Whale created people, it was for a good reason.”
At that moment, six beer cans flew out of the box, followed by a bag containing a half-eaten hot
dog, and an empty plastic body-oil container.
“Maybe that’s the reason the Great Whale created people,” said the son whale. “To make rubbish.”
“The world doesn’t need rubbish,” said the father whale.
“Now, now,” said the mother whale, who always became uneasy whenever her husband had a fight
with their son, “we must take the world as it is and learn to be at peace with it.”
“Sometime,” said the father whale, “I think the Great Whale is not aware of what he’s doing.”
“Your father has always been very sensitive about rubbish,” the mother whale explained, “ever
since accidentally dived into 800 tons of rubbish that had been dumped into the sea. He smelled
disgusting for weeks.”
“This news stirred the son whale so much that he spouted, and the people on the shore saw it and
cried, “Whales!” Then somebody threw a beer bottle at them. The whales made for the deep,
distant water. Later that night, as they drifted off in the Gulf Stream admiring the stars, a large ship
passed by and spilled oil over them. However, they remained at peace with the world as it was and
afterward dreamed of the unfortunate people far behind them making rubbish throughout the sweet
summer night.
Time warning.
(PW) in pairs, discuss with your partner whether whales have a positive, negative, or neutral view
towards humans.
(OC) Teacher solicits feedback.
Reading for specific information
Teacher chests a sheet and says that the sheet has five question about the topic and that we need to
read the passage again to find the answer. Teacher gives 3 mins
Teacher gives the handout.
handout
A Whale’s Eye View
Read the text again and answer these questions
1. When the father whale says ‘That’s people son,’ he goes on to explain what the people are doing.
What are the people doing?
2. Why does the mother say that having people in her stomach would be unhealthy?
3. Do the whales think humans are good swimmers?
4. Why is the father whale so sensitive about garbage?
5. What happened to the family of whales later and how did they respond to it?
Time warning.
(PW) in pairs, check your answer with your partner.
(OC) Teacher checks answers with the whole class.
Teacher rearranges the pairs.
Can I ask you to stand up please, with your paper, pens and all your stuff.
I want you to stand according to your date of birth, January will be first on the left, December will
be last on the right. If two people are born in the same month check the day with you partner to
decide the order.
ICQs. So if I’m born in November where shall I stand. Around here, right!
The 5 Stages of a Receptive Skills (Reading/Listening) Lesson
(1) Lead-in
Grab their attention using visuals
Pictures of whales, discussion of whales (PW -> OC)
Set the context. We are going to read about whales and their view of us.
(2) Vocabulary Analysis
Pre-teach vocabulary.
Teach the meaning, form and pronunciation (MFP) of some difficult words in the text.
Limit the number of words to teach to a maximum of five. You don’t need to teach all new
words. Give them space to guess and predict from context.
(3) Reading for Gist
Give them a small task to concentrate on “How do whales view humans? Do they have
positive, negative or neutral view of humans?”
Set the task before the reading.
Students work in this sequence (Individual -> PW -> OC)
(4) Reading for specific information
Give them a sheet of some question to try to answer from the text. Or ask them to look for
specific information.
Students work in this sequence (Individual -> PW -> OC)
Important: Set the task before they read or listen, so that they have a clear purpose.
(5) Follow-up
The follow-up discussion can be speaking or writing activity (usually speaking).
It is a discussion related to the theme of the text.
For example after the whales text, ss can be asked to discuss wildlife, protecting the
environment, or things that people do on the beach.
Listening Activity
Subject: Listening Difficulties
Lead-in
(OC) Why is listening difficult for learners?
- speed
- you can’t go back and read
- accent
- vocab = slang
- background noise
- acoustics
- absence of facial expressions/gestures/body language (paralinguistic clues)
Listening for Gist
Count the number of problems learners have in listening.
||||||
Answer is 6 (OC)
Listening for Specific Information
List the difficulties
1) word boundaries – connected speech
2) students try to understand every word
3) absence of paralinguistic clues
4) ellipses and redundancies
5) students panic because they cannot control or interrupt
6) lack of purpose: general or specific understanding
Handout
Stages and Aims of Receptive Skills Lessons (Reading and Listening)
Stages
Steps
Aims
(1)Lead-in
 to get ss interested in the topic and prepare them
for the text
Set context of the text
 to help ss tune into what they’re going to listen
to/read
(2) Pre-Teach
 to enable ss to have sufficient vocabulary to do
Vocabulary
the tasks you set
 to prevent ss blocking on key vocabulary central
to the topic
(3) Gist Task
Set initial task
 To give ss a reason to listen/read at a gist level
students do initial task
(gist)
Students check answers
in pairs (teacher
monitors)
(4) Specific Task
Open class feedback
Set specific task
students do initial task
(gist)
Students check answers
in pairs (teacher
monitors)
Open class feedback
(5) Follow-up
Activity

to allow ss to try and answer the gist questions
individually
 to allow ss to check their answers in a ‘safe’
environment
 to allow the teacher monitor and see how they
did
 to check answers and see where problems lie
 To give ss a reason to listen/read more
intensively
 to allow ss to try and answer the specific
questions individually
 to allow ss to check their answers in a ‘safe’
environment
 to allow the teacher monitor and see how they
did
 to check answers and see where problems lie
 to allow ss to correct their own errors by
referring them to parts of the reading/listening
text again
To exploit the topic of the text for a productive sill
(i.e. speaking or writing) or exploit the text for
language
Receptive Skills Questions
Individually -> PW -> OC
Are the following things advisable or not when doing a receptive skills lesson?
1. The students read the text out loud. (no. this is pronunciation drill)
2. The teacher corrects and drills the answers to the comprehension task. (no)
3. The teacher pre-teaches all the vocabulary in the text which students probably won’t
understand. (no. limit to 5 essential words)
4. The teacher says, “Ask me any words you don’t know.”. (no)
5. The students predict what the text will be about e.g. by discussing pictures and then
read/listen to check. (yes)
6. The students listen or read as many times as they want. (no)
7. The teacher provides a more general, easier task first followed by a more detailed task
second. (yes)
8. The teacher gives students the task before they read/listen. (yes)
9. The teacher says, “Just read/listen to get the general idea.” (no)
10. The teacher pauses the recording when students are doing a very intensive task, for example,
writing down numbers and addresses from the tape. (yes, because it’s not a test on how fast
they can write)
11. The teacher gives students a little time to read the task before they listen. (yes)
12. The teacher refers students back to parts of the tape/reading text in order to get students to
correct their mistakes.
Day 5, 8/3/2011
Review main concepts (PW -> OC)
Instructions (Some points in giving instructions)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Eye contact
Graded language (script your instructions)
Not too many instructions at the same time (staging)
Don’t give the handout while talking
Use example/demonstration
Use Instruction Checking Questions
Monitory (why it is important)
-
for linguistic feedback
for highlighting language
make sure everyone is on task
cocktail monitoring with PW
how close: enough to hear but not to distract. From the back or while sitting
Don’t interrupt the flow.
Interaction Types
-
PW
GW
OC
SC
TC
Types of Feedback
-
Content
Linguistic
Stages of Situational Presentation (setting the context for receptive skills lesson)
-
Lead-in (set the context)
Give a story (presentation of language)
Language clarification (meaning, form and pronunciation)
Controlled practice. Think of things you used to do
Individually -> PW -> OC
Freer practice
Use timeline for tenses only
I was watching TV when the phone rang.
Concept Checking Questions with tenses
-
When did the story happen? – in the past
What happened first? – watching the TV
What happened next? – the phone rang
Did I carry on watching the TV? – no
-
Why? – to answer the phone
Concept Checking Questions with vocabulary
She crept along the corridor.
concept of ‘creep’
Key concepts (for the teacher)
walking slowly
walking quietly
to avoid attention
to avoid being seen/heard
Concept Checking Questions (for ss)
Did she move fast or slow?
Did she make noise?
Did she want to be seen/heard?
Did she run?
Did she want people to notice her
(to personalize)
When did you last creep? Why?
Types of Concept Checking Questions
He crept along the corridor.
He crept along the
corridor.
Display Questions
Referential (real)
(Teacher knows the answer)
(Teacher doesn’t know the
answer)
Closed
Open
Did he walk or run?
Did he walk quietly?
Did he want people to
hear him?
When was the last
time you crept?
Why do people
creep?
Can you show me
how you creep?
Look at the following concept checking questions for ‘burglar/to burgle’ and decide what kind of
questions they are.
1. Has someone ever burgled your house? What happened? R
2. What’s the difference between burgle and steal? O
3. What do burglars usually take? O
4. What do people usually do after someone burgles their house? O
5. What might burglar wear? O
6. Do they have permission to enter your house? C
7. Are there many burglaries where you live? R
Handout
Checking Meaning – Concept Questions
When you plan to clarify language, you need to plan to convey the meaning and then check that
students understand the meaning. A very important technique is asking concept checking questions.
1. Choose an example of the target language from your context.
2. Break down the meaning of the target language (word/structures)
3. Turn those aspects of meaning into questions, which, if answered correctly, how
understanding of the target language.
For example: Your TL is personality adjectives, including “shy”. The context is a description of
your friends. One of them is Sarah, who’s a shy person.
Meaning:
 It’s not easy for Sarah to talk to people.
 She doesn’t feel comfortable when she talks to new people.
 Maybe she wants to talk to new people but can’t.
 She’s not a bad person and she’s not unfriendly.
To check understanding of all aspects of the meaning, the teacher asks the questions:
 Is it easy for Sarah to talk to people? (no)
 Does she feel OK when she talks to new people? (no)
 Do you think she wants to talk to new people? (maybe)
 Is she a bad person? Is she unfriendly? (no)
These closed display questions pin down the meaning. The teacher then asks follow-up questions to
consolidate and personalize, e.g.
 Do you know anyone who is shy? In which situations are they the most shy?
 Are you ever shy? In which situations?
Good concept checking questions…
 shouldn’t simply re-use the target language, e.g. Do you have to do your homework? doesn’t
check ss understand the meaning of “have to”.
 shouldn’t be the same as eliciting, i.e. the answer to the questions shouldn’t be target language.
 should be graded so that the language in the questions is simpler than the target language.
 should initially relate to the context of the target language.
 should check the target language rather than something else in the sentence.
 should cover all areas of concept checking and potential confusion.
 should focus on the meaning of idioms and phrasal verbs rather than breaking them down into
individual components.
 shouldn’t be a guessing game.
 should be limited in number (usually 2 or 3 is enough)
 should have clear answers which you need to plan, unless they are the referential questions (e.g.
personalized concept checking questions)
Day 6, 7/3/2011
Observe teacher teach real students
Names of students
Leandro
Evona
Adriane
Fredrico
Veri
Maita
Adolph
Edgar
Miguel
Carmen
Julia
Day 7, 14/3/2011
Text-Based Presentation Lesson Framework
The purpose of this lesson is to explain a grammar point (the difference between Present Perfect
and Past Simple). Other purposes of text-based presentation lessons could be to teach a number of
vocabulary items related to a certain subject or theme. The text that the teacher chose to highlight
the target language is talking about university application, so the theme goes in this direction.
(1) Lead-in
(1.1) Warm-up
GW: In two groups, talk about university application and requirements in your country.
Teacher was keen to put me (from Egypt) in one group and Lucas (from Poland) in a
different group.
OC: Discuss answers. Ask individuals to talk about what they found out about other people.
(1.2) Set the Context
PW: Teacher lays a large piece of paper with large font on the floor in front of the whole
class. The paper contains a university application question:
In order for the admissions staff of our university to
get to know you, the applicant, better, we ask that you answer
the following question :
Are there any significant experiences you have had, or
accomplishments you have realised, that have helped
to define you as a person ?
Teacher asks ss in pairs to discuss this question.
OC: Teacher solicits feedback from ss.
(2) Pre-teach Vocabulary
Set the vocabulary context. Tell ss that in a moment they will read a student’s answer the
university application question, but first we need to look at some words.
(1)
moulinex. Eliciting. (meaning) Teacher shows ss a picture of a food
processor and asks ss what’s in the picture. Ss answer blender, food processor …
Teacher asks what’s the brand, and tells us that sometimes people use names of
brands instead. Then teacher writes moulinex on the board. (form) teacher asks what
type of word this is. then she writes (n) next to it on the board. (pronunciation)
teacher says moulinex and says ‘every one’ (choral drilling) then she picks up a
couple of people to say the word.
(2)
spelling bee. Eliciting. (meaning) You know, in the US there is a
competition between students to spell words. Do you know what this competition is
called? (form) what type of word? (noun). (pronunciation). Choral drilling, individual
drilling.
(3)
stucco. (meaning). Teacher show a picture of stucco. Do you know that this
is? (form) what type of word is this? (noun) Is it countable or uncountable?
(uncountable). (pronunciation) CD, ID. (freer practice). Did you see any stucco
before? Where?
(4)
frolic. Concept Checking. (meaning) If you go to a mountain you can see a
group of lambs frolic up and down. Where can you see children frolic?
(form)(pronunciation)
(3) Gist Task
Interaction pattern change. Teacher divides class into 3 groups of 3, 3 and 2 people.
Chest handout. Teacher says in this sheet there is an answer by a student to the application
question you’ve seen earlier. Read it alone and find three interesting achievements. ICQ:
How many achievements do you need to find?
Handout.
I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice.
I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks,
making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate
ethnic slurs for Kenyan refugees, I write award-winning operas, and
manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days
in a row. I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone
playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed,
and I cook thirty Minute Brownies in twenty minutes.
I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an
Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once
defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a
ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I had
United, I am the subject of numerous documentaries.
outlaw in Peru.
single-handedly
horde of
trials with Manchester
When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my garden.
I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair
electrical appliances free of charge. I am an abstract artist, a
concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon
over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire.
I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have appeared on
Through the Keyhole and won the gold plaque. Last summer I
toured Eastern Europe with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration.
I run the 100m in 9.65 secs. My deft floral arrangements have earned
me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me. I can hurl
tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I
once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one
day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening.
I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have
performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week;
when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada,
I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized
a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.
I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid.
On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami.
Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down.
I have made extraordinary four course meals using only some
vegetables and a Breville Toaster.
I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in Madrid,
cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and chess competitions at
the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart
surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.
But I have not yet gone to this University.
GW: Check with your group.
OC: Feedbak
(4) Language Clarification
MEANING: Explaining the meaning of the grammatical structure (tenses)
Teacher picks up three sentences from the text that highlight the target language (Past
Simple and Present Perfect) and writes down 4 questions.
Instruction, chesting the handout.
Interaction pattern: SS -> PW -> OC
Handout
a) Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down.
b) I have played Hamlet.
c) I have spoken with Elvis.
In pairs, discuss these questions:
(i)
When did he discover the meaning of life?
(ii) When did he play Hamlet/speak to Elvis?
(iii) Is it important when he played Hamlet or spoke to Elvis?
(iv) What’s the difference between saying, ‘I have played Hamlet’ and ‘I
played Hamlet’?
FORM: Explain the form of the grammatical structure.
Teacher asks ss to unfold the sheet.
Interaction pattern: SS -> PW -> OC
Handout
In pairs, discuss these questions:
(i)
PAST SIMPLE
discover/forget – which one is regular/irregular? What’s the form of
each?
(ii) PAST PERFECT
Form ______/______ + ________________
PRONUNCAITION.
Teacher asks ss “What do you think ss might need help with?”
Interaction pattern: SS -> PW -> OC
Controlled Practice
Instruction, chesting the handout. Write the correct form.
Handout
Have you ever …
… (be) sky diving?
… (find) money in the street?
… (break) a mirror or a window?
… (see) an eclipse?
… (be) on TV or the radio?
… (stay) up to watch a sunrise?
… (be) to New York?
… (meet) a famous person?
… (have) your wallet stolen?
… (win) money in the lottery?
… (do) graffiti?
… (be) mugged?
Interaction pattern: SS -> PW -> OC
Freer Practice
Interaction pattern: Mingled Activity -> OC
Teacher gives each student a card. Each card has one question. Each student should move
around in the room and ask people in the room. If the answer is yes, you ask for more
details. What tense do you use when you ask for details? Right, past simple. Ss need to
remember the most interesting answer to tell the class later.
Card Questions
Have
Have
Have
Have
Have
Have
Have
Have
you
you
you
you
you
you
you
you
ever
ever
ever
ever
ever
ever
ever
ever
been sky diving?
seen an eclipse?
stayed up to watch a sunrise?
been to New York?
met a famous person?
had your wallet stolen?
won money in the lottery?
been mugged?
Handout
A Text-Based Presentation Lesson Framework
Planning
Choose/write/record a text through which to introduce the new language. Make sure there aren’t
distractions such as new and complicated grammar or vocabulary.
Lesson
1) Conduct the beginning of a normal reading/listening lesson
 Lead-in
 Pre-teach key vocab (max 3 words)
 set a gist task, read/listen, check in pairs, feedback.
2) Clarification Stage
 pick out, or get ss to pick out an example of the new language. If appropriate, get ss to come
up with more than one example, e.g. ways of expressing likes and dislikes.
 clarify meaning
 check meaning
 clarify form
 drill pronunciation
 address appropriacy issues (if necessary)
3) Practice target language
 pre-teach any relevant vocabulary relating to the activity (which wasn’t in the original text)
 set task
 ss prepare for task if necessary
 do task (s/pw/gw)
 feedback with correction slot if appropriate
Advantages of Text-Based Presentation






has very clear (real world) language in a natural context
can be very up-to-date if authentic texts are used
adds variety to the structure of the lessons
there’s a good level of student involvement
creates a good balance to the lesson – authentic context + skills practice + language input
and practice
ss do the work and teacher manages a lot of it
Disadvantages of Text-Based Presentation



texts need careful selection/creation – for language, interest and relevance
it’s possible that other new grammar and vocabulary distract ss from the target language – ss
have to understand the text before they can focus on the language
it takes time and sometimes means that language practice is compromised
Story Writing Activity
GW: The idea is that you can create your own text for text-based presentation if you cannot find an
appropriate authentic text. In two groups teacher asks each group to write a story together. Each
one of them should write the text of the story.
Group one: Write a story where you can integrate 7 vocabulary items related to wedding.
Group two: write a story where you can use Past Continuous and Past Simple
Group one story:
The stag night was a nightmare. When I woke up I couldn’t find the rings. After a short search I
found them down the back of the couch. The bride and bridegroom had a row and wanted to cancel
the wedding. As a best man, I met the bride and persuaded her to go ahead. I told her it would be a
shame to waste the wedding cake and presents and the dress. In the end we had a lovely wedding
party.
Group two story:
As I was walking down the street, I heard a young lady crying. Somebody was trying to mug her. I
went to the lady and shouted to the mugger who ran away. As I was phoning the police the mugger
came back with a group of people. We ran away before they attack us.
GW: Swap 2 people from each group and give them a chance to read the story of the other group.
Phonology Lesson
Lesson Aim
The target of the lesson is to allow students understand and use phonemic transcription.
Evidence. My target will be achieved if ss can use the phonemic transcription accurately in
the freer and controlled practice.
Lead-in
Red and blue game
Ask student to choose two colors (say red and blue). The reds will sit on chairs in front of
the board. The blues will stand behind the reds. There are 4 pieces of paper (containing
conversation) stuck on the board.
Instructions: The blues will go to the board, read one sentence, go to his/her red partner and
tell them the sentence. The reds will write down the sentences. When you come to the
middle line of the sheet, the reds and blues will swap places.
ICQs. Who is going to read? blues
Who is going to write? red
When you come to the middle line, what will happen?
Sheet:
Helen: Hello Ellen.
Ellen: Hi Helen.
Helen: Did you hear what happened to Henry Higgins yesterday?
Ellen: What happened?
_____________________________
Helen: He fell of the horse and was taken to hospital.
Ellen: I hope it’s not anything serious.
Helen: He broke his arm and was in terrible pain.
Ellen: I hope he gets well soon.
Explain monophthongs
Dominos game
PW:
Give a number of cards to each pair of students and ask them to connect them like dominos.
Demonstration: Do one example
cat
father
ɑ:
æ
weed
bird
ɛ:
ɪ
Explain diphthongs
Two exercises: s -> PW -> OC
1) Write the phonemic symbol next to the word. Students can look on the table on the board.
eight /ei/
hair
hello
house
here
high
fly
phone
cow
enjoy
beer
noise
way
there
2) Circle the correct phonemic transcription
a. why
1. /wei/
2. /wai/
3. /wie/
b. pay
c. coin
d. beard
e. their
f. house
g. coat
h. wait
i. now
Explain consonants
Freer Practice
PW: Write one word in phonemic transcription and ask your partner to read it.
Controlled practice
8 flash cards are glued to the wall with blue tack. The card contain questions written in
phonemic transcription. Read the question and write the answer.
The questions are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
What is 3 squared?
What is the capital of Australia?
Who wrote the Da Venci Code?
Where is the sea of tranquility?
What is the highest mountain in Europe?
Who are the stars in Titanic?
Give an example of the first conditional.
Who invented the radio?
PW: Check your answer with your partner
OC: Seek feedback from whole class
Handout
PRONUNCIATION AND THE USE OF THE PHONEMIC CHART
1) Why should I use the phonemic chart with students in the class?



Familiarisation with the phonemic symbols means that students can become more
independent language learners. They can go away and look up pronunciation in the
dictionary without needing the teacher to model it for them.
When covering language in the class, students are able to note the pronunciation for
reference later (either in the lesson or at home).
It benefits visual learners who often like to see sounds represented visually as well as
hearing them.
2) Do I have to teach my students all the symbols?


It makes sense to start off looking at sounds that are problematic for a particular group of
students, e.g. /b/ and /v/ for Spanish speakers, /v/ and /w/ for German speakers. It’s not a
good idea to teach the whole chart to a class in one lesson – it’s better to introduce it
gradually as needs dictate.
If you’re dealing with a tricky word, you can write the word in symbols above the word on
the board (in a different colour) or just the problematic part of the word.
After a while students start recognising sounds that come up a lot (i.e. the ones they need to
work on)
3) Do I have to speak with ‘Received Pronunciation’ English in order to use the chart?

Definitely not! The chart should be used to interpret the way that you speak English. It’s
unnatural to change the way that you speak. Although in certain dialects it’s useful for
students to know what is dialect and what is commonly said by the majority of speakers.
4) Will students expect me to know and use the chart?

It’s reasonable to expect teachers to have a decent working knowledge of the chart as a tool
for clarification of vocabulary. You can ‘sell’ the idea to students by pointing out that it adds
another dimension to independent dictionary use.
TP1 Feedback





Don’t use connected writing on the board
Sit down more
Voice was too loud for the small number of students
Be careful with correct language modelling
Be natural with pronunciation drilling
Day 10, 21/3/2011
Focus on Vocabulary
When do we need to teach vocabulary?
1.
2.
3.
In pre-teach for receptive skills lessons (max 5)
In vocabulary lesson (max 7)
Before tasks if they include a difficult word.
What is the word activity (GW -> OC)
Words are written on cards with letters in random order, for example ‘register’ is written as
‘rgeesrit’
Each group is given 9 cards, one person holds the card and the other try to guess the word. The
group that finishes first says ‘stop the bus’
The 9 words connected to vocabulary are:
register (formal or informal)
spelling
form
example
connotation (positive or negative)
synonyms
pronunciation
collocation
meaning
Decide if this clarification of meaning is student-centred or teacher centred.
1.
Write words on the board (TC)
2.
Elicit with realia/picture/anecdote (TC)
3.
Contextualize the target language in reading text. Discuss
meaning in pairs.
4.
Put all words on the board, students match to pics/definitions (SC)
5.
Test-teach-test (SC)
6.
Categorize: inside/outside (SC)
7.
Words on cards (SC)
handout
Ways of Teaching Vocabulary
Teacher-centred
Visual aids, e.g. pictures, diagrams, realia
Mime
Eliciting from a situation/story
Using synonyms and antonyms
Eliciting headword from examples of types, e.g.
hammer, screwdriver – tools
Labelling a cline (e.g. freezing cold, warm, hot,
boiling)
Giving examples
Building word families, e.g. fright, frighten,
frightened
Building lexical sets, e.g. car, train, plane
Student-centred
Matching words to pictures/labelling diagrams
Gapfill with/without list of words
Matching opposites
Brainstorming meaning in pairs or groups
Matching words to definitions
Deducing meaning from context (in a reading or
listening text)
Giving examples
Explaining differences between similar words
Sorting words into know/not sure/don’t know
categories
Some other considerations with planning a vocabulary lesson:
 When selecting vocabulary, you need to consider the following criteria:
o Frequency of use
o Range – how many contexts can it be used in?
o Usefulness to learners’ needs
o Whether it is for active or passive use
 Learners need to be actively involved in learning new vocabulary.
 Memory of new words can be reinforced if it is used in a personally relevant way.
 Learners need to record vocabulary in a meaningful context – they need to write a
definition, not just a translation of the word. They also need to learn and note new words in
phrases (with dependent prepositions and collocations) not in isolation.
 Learners need to revisit a word at least seven times before they can remember it completely.
<<You need to vary technique and make process as learner centred as possible>>
Eliciting vocabulary activity
Teacher explains that she is going to ask us to guess 10 words and mark the first letter of each word.
What teacher does
Word
Initial letter
shows a picture of a volcano
volcano
V
Draws a picture of an octopus
octopus
O
mimes sitting on her toes
crouching
C
synonyms: what is a word like arrogant
A
conceited
mimes: putting her hand under below/beneath
B
the table
realia: shows an umbrella
umbrella
U
anecdote: tells us about her
leaking
L
friend whose neighbour
upstairs leaves the tap open and
so the ceiling is …
Examples: What is ‘Brave
Action films
A
Heart’, ‘Gladiator’
cline: teacher draws a scale on rarely
R
the table with ‘always’ on top
and ‘never’ on bottom and puts
a mark near to ‘never’
antonym: what is the opposite
young
Y
of old
Quiz for training teachers:
How best to teach these vocabulary items
embarrassed
reluctant
butcher
wardrobe
a tiny bit
over/under
upset
to limp
a juggler
mean/generous
baggy/loose
pencil/elbow
avocado
wrinkled
fur coat
moustache/beard
prawn
anecdote
visual
mime
mime
synonyms
realia
visual
draw
See language analysis sheet
Handout
Stages and Aims for a Vocabulary Lesson
Stage
Lead-in
Set Context
Focus on Meaning
Focus on Form
Focus on Pronunciation
Controlled Practice
Freer Practice
Aim
To generate interest in the context/topic related
to the target vocabulary.
To enable ss to hear/see the language in context
To convey and check ss’ understanding of the
target language
To highlight form issues
To model and drill the target language so that ss
can confidently use it when speaking.
To give ss practice in the target language and to
focus on accuracy
To give ss practice in the target language in a
wider, more authentic context and to focus on
fluency
handout
Checklist for Teaching Vocabulary
2)
3)







What problems could ss have with the meaning of the word?
What about problems with form? Consider:
part of speech (sometimes both a verb and a noun)
prefix/suffix
collocations
L1 interference
irregularities e.g. one fish (singular), two fish (plural)
countable/uncountable or both (e.g. coffee)
compounds – are they written as one word, e.g. weekend; two words with a hyphen, e.g.
heavy-set or two words, e.g. shoe shop.
 consider also homonyms, e.g. bank/bank; homophones, e.g. flower/flour; homographs, e.g.
windy/windy.
4)
What problems might ss have with pronunciation? Consider:
 sound vs spelling
 word stress
 L1 Interference
 changes in the plural, e.g. woman/women
 changes as a result of word type, e.g. record/record
5)
Appropriacy – is the word formal/colloquial/slang? (e.g. tired/knackered)
6)
Des the word have a negative/positive/neutral connotation? (e.g. slim/skinny)
7)
Is there a US/UK equivalent?
8)
Does the word have any synonyms/opposites?
9)
Could the word be easily confused with other words?
10)
Can you put the word in an example sentence?
11)
How are you going to convey the meaning of the word to ss?
12)
How are you going to check that the word has been understood?
Mingled activity
Give each student a card with different question, e.g.
Are you a friends person or family person?
Are you a beer person or wine person?
Are you a crisps person or cake person?
Learner Style
See ScannedDocs/HO3_Vocabulary&LearnerStyles.pdf
Facts that affect the learning process
The learner
 cultural background
 personality
 learner style
- visual
- auditory
- kinaesthetic
 previous learning
experience
 education
 age
 reason for learning
 motivation:
extrinsic/intrinsic
 sex
Learning Context
 group size
 time of the day
 length of the course
 L1 environment
 L2
Language
 L1 interference
 Alphabet
 sounds
Implications of learning styles on teaching
1.
Instructions not clear (A)
2.
Too much TTT (A)
3.
Lack of handouts (A)
4.
Insisting on silence (A)
5.
Writing everything on the board (V)
6.
Too much movement (K)
7.
Lack of variety (VAK)
28/3/2011
Activity for introduction
Tell us your name and something nice that you did last week.
Anticipated Problem
see ScannedDocs/HO4_AnticipatedProblem&ErrorCorrection.pdf
Anticipated problems
1.
2.
3.
4.
Blocking vocabulary
Students read word for word
Students take too long
Students not interested in the text
(Activity) Questions on a handout and discuss with your partner
When I was at school,
When my classmates made mistakes, I felt …………..
When I made mistakes, I felt ……………..
When the teacher corrected me, I felt, ……………..
The way I like a teacher to correct me is for them to ……………………
Types of student errors
1.
2.
3.
Failure in rule application
Tense concept
Vocabulary misuse
Why students make errors
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
habits: fossilization
bad teaching
slip
overgeneralization
culture awareness
careless
mishearing
new info
Error correction techniques: see handout.
Among the methods of error correction is ‘reformulation’ when a student says the wrong
pronunciation and you repeat the word with the correct pronunciation.
Ideas for clarification of meaning that are more student-centred
Idea 1
I traced the paw prints to my dog.
What do you think the underlined word means? Discuss in pairs.
Idea 2
Match the form to the meaning
1. I’m going to study.
2. It will be a great game.
3. They are taking me to the airport.
4. The train leaves at 6:00.
a. a timetable for future events
b. a future intention
c. an arrangement
d. a prediction based on opinion (no evidence)
Guided Discovery
see ScannedDocs/HO5_GuidedDiscovery.pdf
A guided discovery lesson plan is used with language lessons (grammar/vocabulary)
Advantages of guided discovery approach
1.
student-centred
2.
no lecture mode
3.
cuts down TTT
4.
more engaging
5.
students do everything
6.
students teach pair students
Summary of techniques for guided discovery
Which technique you use will depend on the language you are teaching.
 Match example sentences to explanations
 Odd one out: examples / rules
 Complete a table: e.g. spelling rules for comparatives.
 Timelines: label the parts of the timeline / match to example / match to explanations
 Match example sentences to visuals/diagrams
 Complete the rule (gapfil)
 Choose the correct rule (circle or tick)
 Cline – put language in order, e.g. adverbs of frequency (often, sometimes, rarely, never)
 Concept checking questions on handout
 Guiding questions
Remember that students need to be able to refer to contextualized examples in order to analyse the
language.
Controlled Practice
see ScannedDocs/HO6_ControlledPractice.pdf
-
The focus is on accuracy
The teacher is in control
There are clear answers for the questions, although there can be more than
one valid answer.
Activity: Pelmanism
Pelmanism: Matching card while they are facing down. Turn two cards and if they are not matching
put them back in their places facing down again. It relies on memory to find out where cards are.
Activity: Find the difference
See handout. Each partner takes a different picture and using description with your partner try to
find 7 differences. The pair that finishes first wins.
Activity: Disappearing dialogues
A: is a shop assistant
B: is a customer
The teacher acted the dialogue and we had to guess what each participant said. Then she wrote the
dialog on the board
A: Hello! Can I help you?
B: I’d like an ipod in a lovely red colour, please!
A: I’m sorry, we only have them in black or white.
B: OK, I’ll have the black one.
How much is that?
A: That’ll be EUR 300 please.
B: EUR 300! Are you kidding?
A: No.
B: I’ll leave it.
A: Bye
Divide class into two groups. One group says A and one group says B. Rub a line each time and let
them say the dialogue, until all the dialogue and they say it all from their heads.
Activity: Coffee pot
Think of a verb in your head and don’t say it to any one.
Students in the class will as you max 10 questions to help them guess the verb.
Example:
Do you coffee pot everyday?
Do you like coffee potting?
Where do you usually coffee pot?
Carmel: sing
Darren: descend
This activity can be used to practice question making and tenses.
Control the language in a controlled practice.
1.
Give example by answering the first question/ or demonstration if it is
a different activity
2.
3.
4.
Clear instructions
Make it suit their learning styles
Put an element of competition
Activity: Information Gap
A: The Titanic was built in Belfast.
B: The Titanic was built in ……….
Ask your partner some questions to try to find the missing information.
Authentic Text
See ScannedDocs/HO7_ReceptiveSkills&ProductiveSkills.pdf
Advantages and disadvantages of using authentic texts:
 cultural references not known to the group
 The text is interesting and relevant now.
 connects to the real world
 structures not introduced to students
 confidence in facing real world
 motivating
 gives information
 transfer skills
 independent
 teacher needs to grade the task not the language
Productive Skills
see above handout
Activity
Give one sentence to each student. Read your sentence and hide it. One topic for each pair. Put in
your sentence without your partner noticing. Try to guess your partner’s sentence.
My sentence: It’s all down to global warming.
Topic: Family.
Decide if focus is on accuracy or fluency
 Find someone who… (Acc)
 Practice a tongue twister. (Acc)
 Acting out a scripted dialogue. (Acc)
 Talking about how they felt about the lesson. (Fl)
 Talking about their weekend. (Fl)
 Answering teacher’s CCQs. (Acc)
 Giving a pre-prepared presentation. (Acc)
 Describing person who has inspired them. (Fl)
 In pairs, describe a picture to find 10 differences. (Acc)
 Role-playing a conversation with a stranger at a bus stop. (Fl)
Advantages of fluency activities:
 Students use all the language at their disposal.
 promotes creativity and experimentation
 pushes students and builds confidence
Why are fluency activity important?
- To cope with real-life situations.
Why do students sometimes not talk?
- shyness, not interested, not engaged, confidence, and culture
How can we make freer speaking activities more successful?
- making the topic personalized, choosing a topic that they are interested in, encouragement,
providing safe learning environment.
Activity: Speaking
Match-making
Give student 4 pictures of males and 4 pictures of females.
Give them a thinking time: tell them to think about the person they have in the picture, what age
they are, what they do, what their hobbies are, their personality, etc.
Let the people with female pictures sit in the inner circle facing outside.
Let the people with male pictures sit in the outer circle facing the inner circle.
Talk to your partner for 2 minutes and see if they are matching.
Outer circle moves one space to the right until they meet everyone in the inner circle.
At the end see which are the matching couples.
Test-teach-test Framework
see ScannedDocs/HO8_TestTeachTest.pdf




Writing
see ScannedDocs/HO9_Writing028.pdf
Audience
Purpose
Genre
Language (formal or informal)
 informal greetings: hi
 informal abbreviations: hol for holiday
 informal ellipsis: Hope you had a great time. All fine here.
 colloquial language: Ta
Formal invitation
 set layout/structure
 set phrases/expressions: … are delighted to invite … to join with them in the celebration of their
marriage
Stages in a writing lesson
1.
2.
Lead-in: guess the place in the postcards
Pre-teach: tasty
3.
Gist task: Read this postcard from Carmel to
her friend and decide if you like to go on holiday to this place and why.
4.
Genre analysis: a. content: topics (weather,
food, location, people), b. language: adjectives to describe the weather, food, location and
people), see handout
5.
Motivation to write: Visualization: close your
eyes and think of a place to go on holiday. Give them time to think. Think of the places you
visited, the food that you ate, the people that you met, etc.
6.
Writing task:
Audience: to Carmel.
Purpose: tell her about your holiday.
Genre: Postcard.
Tell them to write carefully as it will be read by other students.
10 minutes, active monitoring. Walk around behind students.
7.
Follow up task. Hang postcards with blue tac
around the room. Ask student to go around read the postcards and decide, next to your own
which place do you want to go on holiday.
8.
Feedback. Content feedback and linguistic
feedback.
Activity: snail race
 the pictures of snails stuck on the board
 divide class into three teams, one runner and the rest are sitters
 Each team chooses one snail.
 have 6 questions written on flash cards placed on the floor next to the teacher
The runner runs to get a question card and takes it back to the team. They discuss the answer.
The runner goes and tells the teacher the answer. If correct the snail moves one step on the
board. If wrong the runner puts it back and takes another card.
Sample questions are:
1 – used to express something already arranged in the future. – present continuous
2 – used to express something that happened in the past with connection to the future. present
perfect
3 – used to express something done/not done in the past which is wrong. should/shouldn’t have
done
a
Sam
Suzy
Sandy
b
c
d
e
f
Activity: matching cards
Pairwork
Cards are in two different colours: say read and green. Read contains the target language and green
contains an example
Relative pronouns
who, which
Passive
be + past participle
future perfect continuous
In 2020, more people will be learning English
Activity: Answer the questions
Divide into two groups. Give each group 7 cards with 7 questions. Each group has different
questions than the other group. Each person in the group write the question and the answers.
They discuss the answer together to make sure it is the right answer.
After they finish each group thinks of two more difficult question from their own.
After they finish, the first group is divided ABCD, and the second group is divided ABCD. The all
the As go together, Bs, together, etc.
In the new pairs each student will test the other student with his questions, if they don’t know the
answer they explain it to him.
Examples of questions:
1 – give adjectives of frequency
ever, never, always
2 – Give 2 verbs that are followed by to
want, try
3 – one example of comparative and superlative
better, best
4 – What are the articles in English?
a, an, the
5 – What are phrasal verbs made out of?
verb + adverb
6 – Give 2 verbs that are followed by –ing
start, stop
7 – What is the difference between past simple and past participle
---1 – What is the difference between must and have to
(intrinsic, extrinsic obligation)
2 – What is the negative of must
Business English
27/4/2011
see ScannedDocs/HO10_BusinessEnglish&Phonology.pdf
Types of courses
- General English to
business people in a
company.
- English for special
purposes (ESP), HR,
banking
- Mixed groups
- One-to-one
- Exam classes (IELTS),
or B.E.C. for business
English
Business
English
Students?
- variety of levels
- motivation: extrinsic or
intrinsic
- mature
- expectations are high:
they pay more
- specific needs
Course Content
- lots of speaking and
writing
- functional: using the
phone, pronunciation
- writing: emails, reports,
etc.
- cultural awareness
Needs Analysis Questionnaire: see handout
resource book: Market Leader Business English series
What are the implications for both the teacher and students of …
1. the company paying for the class?
attendance is usually quite good.
pressure on the teacher.
2. junior and senior members of staff being in the same class?
embarrassing
teacher should try to get it out
role play
3. having to fit classes in before work or during lunch break?
students are least active
teacher should bring different types of activities
4. adults telling you they don’t have time to do homework?
do revision instead of homework
5. teacher having to write a report on each student for the boss?
keep record of what is happening
6. the teacher feeling he/she doesn’t know enough business English?
find out what the student needs
Activity
Lead-in Question: What causes stress in corporate environment? (PW, OC)
- pressure for quality
- deadlines
- overtime
- high expectations
- tension between staff
What do they do to reduce pressure
Page 4 in the handout
Discuss options using sentences in these cards. Suzy first put the headline cards on the floor and
asked us to put the other cards under the appropriate category.
Asking for
Giving an
Giving no
Agreeing
Half-agreeing Disagreeing
opinion
opinion
opinion
Where do
To my mind, I don’t mind
I’d go along
To an extent
Come off it!
you stand on it’s like
either
with that.
you’re right.
this?
this…
The way I see
I’m with you I wouldn’t
it is this …
there.
quite go as
far as that.
Phonology
Activity
Loads of cards with phonetic symbols. In groups make as many words as you can.
Write down what you think I said.
I’ve got a potato clock | I got up at 8 O-clock
I sawr a new display | I saw a new display.
Ways of highlighting syllables
- on the board with dashes/dots
- finger highlighting
- tap it out
- clapping
- back chaining
Teaching Vocabulary
28/4/2011
see ScannedDocs/HO11Vocab&Tests011.pdf
Activity: hot seat/back to the board
On representative from each team sits with their back to the board facing their team. The teacher
writes a word/phrase on the board and the teams must explain it. The first person to get it wins a
point. Then they change to the next person.
Words used in the activity (These are the words related to teaching vocabulary)
antonyms
synonyms
homograph
homophone
homonomy
collocation
appropriacy
part of speech
idiom
prefix
suffix
uncountable
connotation
irregular
Activity: Word memory
Teacher says the words and asks students to write them down on a piece of paper.
water
life
rabbit
home
field
dog
apple
sheep
head
sky
chocablock
hill
cloud
horse
cow
foot
snow
flower
Teacher tells students that they have two minutes to remember the words.
Teacher tells students to take another piece of paper and try to write down as many words as they
can remember from the list.
Teacher asks student to explain what they did to memorize (group words together according to
theme, build a visual map, etc.)
Decide if whether true or false (Sentences are written on OHP):
1. Students remember words in the middle best.
False, ss remember word in the beginning or end better.
2. The brain tends to store information alphabetically.
False
3. Words which inspire a lot of emotion, e.g. shocking words, stay in memory better.
True
4. People learn better if they see words written down.
True
What implications do this have on teaching vocabulary
1. Most people are visual, let them see it.
2. Don't overload students with too many words.
3. Blocks of words.
4. Words in context.
Ways of recycling
Use of cline
put these words in the cline
weekend
cinema
chocolate
assignment
TP
grammar
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Then check with your partner see if you have similar order.
Students need to practice words 7 times before they stick to their memory.
Activities for recycling vocab
 hot seat (or back to board)
 matching
 gap fill
match the word to the shape
ambitious
irritating
stubborn
friendly
conservative
S
con
irr
am
st
fr
Activity: Lexical tennis
Get ss into 2 teams and explain the rules. They have to come up with collocations that go with e.g.
“miss”. They have 30 seconds to brainstorm collocations. Then they take it in turns to give a
different collocation – T writes them up on the board on the relevant half. Teams have a time limit
of 30 seconds to come up with another collocation. If they can't, the other team gets a point. And
then ss brainstorm something else for 30 seconds in teams and the game starts again.
We practised this in class with nouns that follow “take” and nouns that precede “strong”. The
teacher made it look like tennis as she moved her face from one side to the other waiting for an
answer.
Activity: Pictionary
The teacher shows representatives from each group a word. They return to their groups and draw
something to convey the meaning. The first team to say the word gets a point.
Activity: Blockbusters
Put OHT of Blockbusters on the OHP and get ss into 2 teams. Ask teams alternately questions on
idioms/words/phrasal verbs (or whatever is on the blockbuster grid) depending on which hexagon
the team ask for. One team works from top to bottom trying to establish a chain, and the other from
left to right. The hexagons usually have to be linked (so you can't dot around) but you can adapt this
rule if necessary.
Teaching Functional Language
4/5/2011
see ScannedDocs/HO12FunctionalLanguage&Drama_Music.pdf
Lead-in
Teacher gives out 8 cards, 4 contain sentences and 4 contain responses to the sentences.
Student try to find the correct sentence/response and the sit together with the new partner.
Example:
Card 1: Make sure you don't forget the board markers.
Card 2: It's OK. I've got them in my bag.
Follow-up: decide the function of each statement: warning, reminding, requesting, etc.
Function
Functional Exponent
1. Apology
I'm terribly sorry.
Sorry.
2. Asking for advice
Do you think it's aright to ...?
Is it a good idea to …?
Should I …?
3. Suggestion
Why don't we …?
Let's ….
Maybe we could ….
4. Complimenting
I think it was wonderful the way you …
I liked the way you …
5. Requesting
Would you mind …?
6 Offering
Would you like me to …?
Let me do that for you ….
Note that form and function don't usually match.
Activity: Giving advice to Carmel to pass her driving test:
•
•

Have you thought about using the same car? (neutral +)
v+ing

It might be a good idea to do the test in Navan. (neutral +)
infinitive
•
•
•

•
If I were you, I'd do a few pre-tests. (less formal)
infinitive
•

Make sure you only listen to your instructor. (a little more formal)
present
•

•
•
Practise, practise, practise. (informal)
imperative
•

•
•
You should do the test in Navan. (neutral)
infinitive
Note that intonation is rising and falling as marked
Accept
Reject
That's a good idea!
No way.
I'll give that a try.
You've got to be kidding!
That's a good advice!
I don't beleive/accept that.
OK
Reconstruction the lesson stages
1. Lead-in:
Carmel tells us that she's learning something and asks us to guess. Learning to drive
2. Set the context.
Giving advice to Carmel to pass her test
3. Clarification
No CCQs
No explanation of meaning
Explain form
Explain appropriacy
Explain and drill pronuncaition
4. Practice Activity
Mingling Activity: Think of a problem ask people to give advice. What is the best advice you got.
Example problems that we used:
Present for my 2 year-old son's birthday.
Going on a holiday with my parents for free or with friends and I'll pay
Going to meet my friend today after the course or at the weekend.
Exploiting Songs in the classroom
Teach students movements for the following words
together (folding hands)
waiting for a long time (tapping finger on the watch)
connected (fingers on ears and mouth as if talking on the phone)
disconnect (as if hanging up the phone done)
stop (hand spread)
fool (wiggling both hand on top of the head)
love (both hand on chest)
Listen to the song and make the movements.
@SONG: STOP!
--------------(written by Clarke/Bell)
---------------------------------We'll be together again
I've been waiting for a long time
We're gonna be we're gonna be
Together again
I've been connected
To the right line
We'll be together
And nobody never
Gonna disconnect us
Or ever separate us
Or say to us you've got to
Stop!
Stand there where you are
Before you go too far
Before you make a fool out of love
Stop!
Don't jump before you look
Get hung upon a hook
Before you make a fool out of love
We'll be together again
I've been waiting for a long time
We're gonna be we're gonna be
Together again
I've been connected
To the right line
We'll be together
And nobody never
Gonna disconnect us
Or ever separate us
Or say to us you've got to
Stop!
Stand there where you are
Before you go too far
Before you make a fool out of love
Stop!
Don't jump before you look
Get hung upon a hook
Before you make a fool out of love
We'll be together
And nobody never
Gonna disconnect us
Or ever separate us
Or say to us you've got to
Stop!
Stand there where you are
Before you go too far
Before you make a fool out of love
Stop!
Don't jump before you look
Get hung upon a hook
Before you make a fool out of love
What tense do think this song can be used for teaching?
Let students listen to “Tom's diner”
Present continuous
Learner Training
4/5/2011
Handout: HO13_LearnerTraining.pdf
Lead-in: What do you remember from the Basque language lesson?
Cutting Edge Teacher’s Book contains ideas for learner training for all levels.
Poster: Corrections Code:
/
= word not necessary
Sp
= spelling
T
= tense
WW = wrong word
Gr
= grammar
P
= punctuation
WO = word order
˄
= word missing
FF
= false friends
Exp = expression
Classroom interaction
Display Questions:
Where is the stress?
What type of word is this?
What does ____ mean?
Referential questions:
How was your weekend?
Do you use a map?
Are you cold?
Referential Questions are used 14% in classrooms and 76% outside classroom. Teachers are
encouraged you use referential questions more often.
Try to include more Referential Questions in the classroom. Referential Questions require a greater
depth of processing on part of learners, and help them up their level.
“The classroom is a unique social environment with its unique conventions”
Why learning science is different from learning a language?
Language is the teaching objective and the medium of instruction.
What does this mean for the teacher?
- Watch out for your language.
- Make sure Ss understand you.
- Extra learning opportunities.
- L + 1 means use a graded language that is a bit higher than your Ss, but not too much higher.
Definition of teacher talk
Unhelpful types of teacher talk
Poster: The Telephone Conversation
(English is a funny language)
- Mr Smith, please.
- Can you hold on? (picture of someone holding on the a phone wire like a rope)
- I’ll put you through (picture of the person holding the speaker and putting him through the
phone, physically)
- I’m afraid he’s tied up at the moment. (picture of the person tied up with a rope around all of
his body)
- Shall I ask him to give you a ring? (picture of someone holding a ring in his hand and offering
it to someone else)
Poster: Classroom Language
-
I’m sorry, could you explain that to me again?
What’s another way of saying ______?
What do you call this in English?
Could I leave the room for a minute, please?
How do you spell it?
What’s the opposite of ______?
Is the stress on the first of second syllable?
I’m sorry, I’m not quite sure what I have to do.
What does ______ mean?
How do you pronounce this word?
Teaching Lower and Upper Levels
16/5/2011
Handout: HO14_Teaching_beginner_and_advanced_learners.pdf
Texts that contain historical references or metaphors are difficult for learners at lower levels.
Beginners are less confident
When teaching beginners, you should encourage them, give them more time to respond.
When teaching beginners, you shouldn’t rush them with tasks.
To help teachers appreciate the difficulty of writing let them use activity in HO14_attached and
page 15 in HO14_Teaching_beginner_and_advanced_learners.pdf
Web site developed by IH Dublin
http://www.click4esol.com/
NALA free courses
http://www.nala.ie/
Teacher Development and Professionalism
19/5/2011
Teacher development seminars
www.acels.ie
Register there.
Schools should encourage peer observation for feedback (action points) and quality assurance (popins) 20 minutes.
Without it a person becomes stagnant, unemployable.
Taking feedback from Ss:
What they think of the teacher
book
facilities
admin
ELTJ Journals
Distance DELTA through IH London.
Ask the interviewer
- Timetable
- Is there a director of studies
- How much admin is involved
- Resources and facilities
- How often are tests and observations
- Dress code
- Size of class, and levels, ages, and courebooks.
- Full time, intensive, or part time
- Professional development: teacher seminars, training, etc.
- Money
Employer’s Questions
- Course books that you taught
- Experience
- How do you respond to pressure
- How do you teach the difference between Pres Con. and Pres. Simple
Role play
Interview for employment as a teacher in a language centre.
References:
Mary: mary@ihdublin.com
Carmel: ados@ihdublin.com
You can collect your portfolio before 19/11/2011