THE BASICS OF TEACHING ENGLISH


Use of English and use of mother tongue
We should try to use English as much as possible with our students. When teaching
students at intermediate level and above, all teaching can be done in English. There
should really be no need to use the students’ mother tongue at these levels. Grammar
explanations and definitions of words can be given in English. Explanations for
activities and instructions can also be given in English.
At lower levels, you might find yourself using the students’ mother tongue more often.
Nevertheless, try to use English as much as possible. As your students progress, you
will find that you’ll use English for instructions more and more frequently. When you
are presenting new language, try to illustrate the language through the use of pictures
and/or mime. This is preferable to translating. Techniques for presenting language can
be found in Chapter 3.
You might want to dedicate one of your first lessons with a class to the study of
classroom language. By classroom language I mean phrases such as: open your
books, turn to page 10, work with a partner, etc, etc. You can write the language on the
board, demonstrate it through mime or show pictures of people opening their books,
working with a partner etc. It’s important to practise the pronunciation of these phrases
and to revise them regularly. In a subsequent lesson, you can give the phrases to
students with the words jumbled up (for example: 10 to page turn); and ask them to reorder
the words and match them to pictures. Finally, you can write the phrases on
large pieces of card and display them in your classroom so that they are constantly
visible.
You might occasionally decide to use the students’ mother tongue (if you speak it, of
course). A time when this is advisable is when your students just haven’t grasped what
you are saying in English. If you need to deal with something quickly, it is generally
quicker in the students’ mother tongue (if you speak their language). For example, it
could take a very long time to explain the word “soul” using only English and the
students might misunderstand if their culture doesn’t have a similar concept. You might
also need to give some information about an open day or a special event at school and
you think it will be done more quickly in their language.
Using the blackboard, whiteboard
You will need to learn how to write on a board. This is not as easy as it appears.
Getting a line straight and writing at a size that can be seen takes practice. Practise in
an empty classroom one day. While you’re there practise writing on the board side on
(i.e. positioned in such a way that your back is not to the class). This will be very useful
especially if you intend to teach children. You’ll be able to keep an eye on what’s
happening whilst writing.
You will also need to think about what you write on the board. Remember that
whatever goes on the board generally finds its way into students’ notes. If you want
them to retain something, be it homework exercises or a new grammar explanation,
write it on the board. You will need to get the balance right: you need to write just
enough for it to make sense to students when they come back to look at it and not
write so much that your students spend all their time in class copying. When you first
start teaching, you could note on your lesson plan which elements you intend to write
on the board.
Some teachers divide their board into sections: one section for grammar, one for
vocabulary, one for pronunciation, one for homework, etc. Decide whether this sort of
organisation would work for you and whether you would like to use it.
You can also think about whether you will write things on the board during class or
write them up before class and mask them in some way: this is easy enough when
using a flipchart (an easel with pages that you can turn over). With a traditional board,
you can cover your writing with paper and reveal it at the appropriate moment.
Who talks in class?
Obviously the teacher talks in class. Our roles include explaining language points,
giving instructions for what to do, asking questions, etc, etc. The students also need to
speak; learning a language involves speaking the language. My question here really is:
who speaks most in class? When setting up an activity, explaining what to do for
homework, the teacher will do a lot of the speaking. However, in other activities, the
goal is to get students speaking and using English as much as possible. This involves
the teacher being silent, listening to what the students say and setting up tasks that
give students opportunities to express themselves.
The issue about who speaks is also known as: student-talking time (STT) and teacher
talking-time (TTT). We should aim for our students to be talking more than we do and if
possible 80% STT to 20% TTT. I know this is not easy when you’re a new teacher; our
tendency at the beginning is to speak a lot. This could be due to nerves or a desire to
do something to help things go well. However, with time, we speak less because we
get more confident and because we learn techniques for getting the students to do all
the speaking. At the end of a lesson (or in the middle of it) think about who is doing
most of the speaking. If the answer is the teacher, think about ways to redress the
balance in future lessons. Some techniques you can use to get students speaking
more are: pair work, group work and eliciting. These are all explained below. You’ll find
activities throughout this book that are focused on getting students to speak.
If students are speaking, they are actively involved in what is going on in the
classroom. They are using and re-using language that they have studied. Of course,
when the teacher is speaking, the students are getting valuable listening practice with
a native speaker. You might occasionally decide to tell your students a story of what
you did at the weekend, something that happened to you, etc. This type of activity will
give students exposure to natural pronunciation but it shouldn’t be overused.
Eliciting
This is another handy tool for a teacher’s toolkit. When you are presenting language
you should try to get the explanations from your students (elicit) rather than giving all
the explanations yourself. Practise asking questions that will draw responses out of
students rather than always giving the explanations yourself. An advantage of using
this method is that you find out how much students know before you start teaching. If
you are aware of students’ knowledge, you’ll know how much time needs to be spent
on the language point.
You can show students a picture of a sitting room and ask them what the various
objects are to elicit vocabulary around the topic of furniture.
You can give two or three adjectives and their comparative and superlative forms and
ask students to provide the comparative and superlative forms of other adjectives:
Cold colder coldest
Beautiful more beautiful most beautiful
Students provide the comparative and superlative of: comfortable, small, etc.
Pair work and group work
These will be essential tools as a teacher.
Pair work involves students working together in pairs; so, in a group of 18 students,
you’d have 9 pairs working independently. Group work involves students working
together in groups of 3, 4, 5 etc.
You can ask students to work in pairs or groups to complete a course book exercise, to
produce a piece of writing, to prepare what they will present to the class, to carry out a
speaking activity or to check their answers to homework. In fact the possibilities are
endless.
There are many advantages to having your students working in groups or in pairs:
First of all, it provides variety. It gives a different focus by taking the attention away
from the teacher;
When working in pairs or groups, students go at the speed that suits them. When
working as a whole class, the pace is set by the teacher or by other students.
Working at their own pace, students can spend more time on points that cause them
difficulties and less time on points that they find easy. Thus using time more
efficiently;
Students are more actively involved in their work: no snoozing at the back of the
classroom!;
Students can share their knowledge, explain things to each other; this is an
advantage over having students work individually;
It increases STT whilst reducing TTT;
Students learn to work autonomously; they learn to do things without the teacher.
This will help them in their learning outside the classroom. Of course, the teacher is
on hand if required;
Every student has the opportunity to contribute; this is almost impossible when
conducting teacher-led activities. Consider a 20-minute speaking activity. If you
choose to perform it as a whole-class activity with a group of 20 students, each
student will speak for an average of 1 minute. If your students do the same activity
in pairs for 20 minutes, each student gets the chance to speak for 10 minutes. Much
more efficient use of time!
How to organise group and pair work
At the beginning, it’s probably easiest if you just ask the students to work with whoever
is sitting next to them. You can go around the class saying, “you two work together”,
“you two work together” etc. Have students work with their neighbours for a few
lessons. This allows students to get used to pair work and group work; it might be
completely new to them. Always working with the same person will provide a
comforting routine until they are used to this way of working. If they work with a familiar
person, it will be easier for them.
You can start grouping students differently when they are used to that way of working.
In fact, it’s advisable to change the make-up of groups to help avoid over-familiarity. By
working with others, students can discover other ways of working and speaking.
Dividing students in different ways helps you to separate the noisy students and also to
see which students work well together. It also contributes to a sense of cooperation in
the classroom.
If you have a group of students of mixed-level, you might ask all the strong students to
work together which allows them to do a more challenging task whilst the students who
are not so strong do a less challenging task. Alternatively, you could put stronger
students to work with weaker students, which allows strong students to explain difficult
points to the weaker ones.
If the class are discussing a gender-related topic, it might be interesting to ask all
females to work together and all males to work together. Alternatively, you could mix
males and females. The same might be applied to age-related topics, city and suburb
dwellers, etc. Think about how you would like groups to be formed before going into
class.
Always remember that if you are asking students to move to form a group (rather than
just asking them to work with their closest neighbours), it will take a few minutes to
organise. You will need to factor this into your lesson plan.
What does the teacher do during pair and group work?
You can quite simply let students get on with the task. However, this doesn’t mean
ignoring them and letting the task disintegrate.
You allow them to work at their pace and in a way that suits them.
You offer help when necessary.
You answer students’ questions.
You can let them know that time is closing in; e.g. “just five minutes to complete
what you’re doing”.
You monitor what is going on. Whilst monitoring, the teacher notes down
mistakes and examples of good work.
There are two ways of monitoring: walk around the class, hover over every pair or
group for a minute or so to listen to what they are doing. This allows you to focus
intensively on each group or pair. There is a disadvantage here, however: students
sometimes freeze up and look to the teacher for assistance, which defeats the purpose
of group and pair work. Personally, I prefer a different approach in a classroom where
the size permits. I arrange the groups or pairs in a horseshoe around the room and I sit
in the middle of that horseshoe. I then concentrate my attention on each pair or group
in turn without moving. You’d be amazed at how much you can hear. This approach
also means that you don’t have your back to some of the students.
After pair work or group work, ask students what they discussed, check answers, ask
them what decisions they came to, and so on (depending on the task you set). During
this stage you can also clear up any questions the students may have and review
errors and examples of good work.
Some disadvantages of group and pair work and what to do about it
Students might go off task; if they haven’t understood what is required of them they
might do something completely different. Explain carefully and check that they have
understood before forming groups.
Students might get noisy. Monitor carefully and say something immediately if it gets
too loud.
Students might use their own language. Make it clear from the start that you expect
students to use English, monitor carefully. Say something as soon as you hear
students using their own language. You might want to introduce a points system and
competition; students lose points for using their mother tongue, gain points for using
English. At the end of the day or week, add up points and display them for the class to
see.
What to do in your first lesson?
You should think about whether the students know each other or not. If they don’t
know each other, spend some time allowing them to get to know their classmates.
There are many ways to go about this and I suggest you put “getting to know you
activities” or “first day activities” into a search engine and choose one that suits you.
Check with a colleague whether the activity you find will go down well in the culture
you’re working in.
If they already know each other, you could spend a short time allowing the students to
get to know you. They could interview you. For this, they prepare questions together in
pairs and then ask you their questions. An activity where students get to know their
teacher isn’t suitable to all cultures; find out about this from more experienced
colleagues.
Try to avoid reading and writing in the first lesson. Listening to a recording is not a
good choice either; listening can be stressful and you need to be sure it will be pitched
at the right level. I suggest some language work (either grammar or vocabulary) which
should be kept quite light and a speaking activity to give you a chance to evaluate your
students’ abilities. If they have been together recently as a group, find out what the
students have been studying recently and work on something related to that or
something that builds on it.
For the first lesson with an unknown group, choose a neutral topic that will interest
most people or at least a topic that everybody can contribute to, e.g. holidays, work,
school, families.
Giving instructions
The success of various stages of your lesson will depend upon your ability to give clear
instructions. If the students understand your instructions, they will carry out the task as
you had planned. If instructions are misunderstood, students will not do the right thing.
If you realise in time, you can give your instructions again; but if you only notice this at
the end of the activity, some students will have done the wrong thing. In any case, in
order to use time efficiently, it is essential to give clear instructions and to check that
students have understood what is required of them before they start work.
When planning your lesson, think about what you will ask the students to do. Then
think about how you will say that to them in a way they understand. When you first
start teaching, you might want to write your instructions on your lesson plan, or on a
separate piece of paper, to help you when you are in class. Giving instructions will
soon become second nature to you and students will get used to your way of working
and your explanations and things will go more smoothly.
Before giving your instructions, make sure everybody is listening. Explain carefully and
precisely. Once you’ve done this, check that the students have understood. Don’t
assume anything. It’s not enough to say have you understood? Am I clear? The
majority of students will just say ‘yes’. A far better way is to ask students to explain
back to you what they will be doing. You can then move onto a demonstration of what
is required. You could do an example together as a whole class or ask a stronger
student to carry out the task with you.
Don’t give your instructions too far in advance of the task itself. Explain what is needed
immediately before students start the activity. If there’s a gap between the instructions
and the activity, students might forget what to do. For example, if your students will be
moving to work in groups, first ask them to move, and then give the instructions.
Finally, if you realise that the students are not on track, don’t hesitate; stop them and
go over your instructions again.
How to seat students
There are various ways of seating students and each serves a different purpose:
In a horseshoe or circle: this is good for whole class discussions and for creating a
cooperative environment. If the chairs have small moveable tables attached, this
configuration works well as students can move around easily to form pairs or groups.
Groups of 4 or 6 around a table, a number of such groups around the room: also good
for discussion but lends itself more to group work than whole class discussion. If the
classroom is small, it’s not easy for the teacher to go around and monitor. This
organisation works well for small children.
In rows with desks separated: good for tests and exams.
Before going into class, think about what you’ll be doing and which seating
arrangement will suit you best.
Levels
Levels can be broken up into:
beginner,
false beginner (a false beginner has probably studied some English previously but
will need revision of the basics, including the alphabet and numbers),
elementary,
pre-intermediate,
intermediate,
upper-intermediate,
advanced.
Course books are generally published with one book at each of the levels. Some
course book writers choose to focus on some of the levels and to omit others (e.g.
elementary and false beginner are often omitted). Different schools give different
names to the levels; a school might use numbers or letters rather than names.
You can generally expect an absolute beginner class to have students all at the same
level. However, as you move up the levels, differences become apparent. In an
advanced class, you might have a student who has lived in the UK and who has a very
good level of colloquial, spoken English alongside a university student who masters
grammar but not spoken English. In such cases, it will be necessary to provide work
that caters to all needs; for example, sometimes focusing on language work and at
other times on spoken English. It will be more important to create balance and do
activities that cater to different needs at higher levels. Generally speaking, at the lower
levels, students have very similar needs.
For a new teacher, the intermediate levels are the easiest to teach. If you have a
choice, request those levels when you first start teaching.
Essential elements for students to learn
These are the aspects of language that students need to learn and as such are the
things you’ll be concentrating on in class. They can be broken down into aspects of
language and language skills.
Aspects of language include grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, functions and levels
of formality. Let’s take a look at each of these:
Grammar includes tenses, formation of questions and negatives, prepositions,
pronouns. This is how many of us have studied languages at school. Before starting to
teach you should consult a good grammar book. Books by Michael Swan are excellent;
they’re very detailed and technical and you might find them difficult at the beginning. If
you prefer an easier option, you can look at Advanced Grammar in Use by Martin
Hewings; this book is intended for high level students but teachers can also learn a lot
from it.
Vocabulary: this is a basic building block of language learning. Students need to know
words, their meanings, how they are spelt and how they are pronounced. When
teaching vocabulary, make sure you explain the meaning as well as the spelling and
pronunciation.
Pronunciation: students need to know how to pronounce individual sounds as well as
combinations of sounds. As a teacher, you’ll focus on the sounds students find difficult.
This basically means the sounds that do not exist in the students’ mother tongue. For
example, the “th” sound is difficult for many learners because their language doesn’t
have that sound.
Functions are set phrases that we use in specific situations. Examples of functions are
the use of “how do you do” when you first meet somebody. “I’ll have the fish” when
ordering in a restaurant. Functions cannot be translated word for word into another
language and they usually only carry meaning in specific situations.
Levels of formality: students need to develop an awareness of and an ability to
produce language of varying degrees of formality. Certain situations and contexts call
for the use of formal language; e.g. a business letter, a discussion with one’s university
professor. In other situations, more informal language can be used; e.g. an event for
students; an e-mail exchange with a friend. As teachers, we need to raise students’
awareness of the varying degrees of formality and help them distinguish between them
as well as use them.
Apart from language itself, there are four language skills that students need to learn:
listening, reading, writing and speaking.
It may be that it is more important for your students to learn one particular skill. For
example, an intellectual property attorney might want to focus on reading documents
and speaking. Personal assistants might say that speaking and listening are important
skills for them to learn. The amount of time you spend on each skill can vary but they
should all be covered to some extent.
Skills can be broken down into written (reading and writing) and oral (speaking and
listening). Another, more common, way of classifying the skills is as productive skills
and receptive skills. The receptive skills are reading and listening: the students receive
and understand the input; the productive skills are speaking and writing because they
involve the students in producing language.
However, skills are not entirely separate. We rarely use one skill in isolation. When we
speak, we also listen to what others say to us; we read an e-mail and write a reply, we
might at the same time ask the person sitting next to us how to spell a certain word –
this action will involve listening and speaking. Exceptions might be a day at home
reading a favourite novel or watching a film. However, we often talk about what we
have read or watched, at a later date. A teacher will attempt to integrate the skills in
order to mimic the real world.
You will find that students do not have a uniform level across all the skills and all the
elements of language. Students are inevitably stronger in some areas than in others.
Some students have a musical ear and can pronounce words and phrases well. Others
have a good grasp of grammar or vocabulary. Students are usually stronger in
receptive skills than in productive skills meaning that they can understand more than
they can produce. This is entirely understandable if you compare it to our competence
in our own language; for example we could watch a play by Shakespeare and
understand what is going on without being able to produce that type of language. We
can also read and understand (most of!) a legal document but we would have difficulty
writing one ourselves. It is our role to cater to the varying needs of students, wherever
possible.
Free and controlled language practice
Language can generally be practised in two ways: controlled or free practice.
In controlled practice, the teacher will choose a language structure that they want their
students to focus on. For example, you might want your students to use the present
perfect (have + past participle) to talk about experiences. You might organise an
activity whereby students ask and answer questions such as:
Student A: Have you ever been to Mexico?
Student B: Yes, I have.
Student A: Have you ever eaten snails?
Student B: Yes, I have.
Student A: Have you ever climbed a mountain?
Student B: No, I haven’t.
This type of activity involves students in a discussion but the language is very
controlled and is pre-determined by the teacher. Such activities are useful at lower
levels or where the objective is to get students producing language automatically
without having to think about it too much.
Whilst controlled language practice will help with automatic reactions, it does not
replicate real-world conversations. The example above is very false, it appears to be
an interrogation and there is no sharing of information. In real-life, student A might
reply: “so what did you think of Mexico? I might be going there on holiday myself”.
Teachers should try to incorporate activities that imitate real-life conversations in the
classroom as much as possible in order to prepare students for conversations in the
real world.
In free language practice, students use all and any language they know to express
themselves. An example of free language practice is a classroom debate on smoking
in public. Students give their opinions, others agree or disagree, and counter
arguments are put forward. There are no limits on the language that can be used,
except for staying polite! There is a greater emphasis on this type of activity at higher
levels. For more examples of free language practice, see Chapter 4, Speaking.
Alternatively, the teacher might create situations where certain language is likely to be
used. For example, when talking about holiday plans, future tenses will probably be
used; in an interview simulation, the present perfect (I’ve never worked in a shop
before) and simple past (I worked for the council from 2000 to 2004) will probably be
used. We can predict what might be used but the actual language output is very
unpredictable and can contain almost any language the students know. This is
sometimes known as freer practice. This type of task is useful to practise a language
structure that has been presented recently where it is unnecessary to engage the
students in controlled practice.
Activities that provide controlled and freer language practice
The Communication Games series by Jill Hadfield provides controlled and freer
language practice in fun situations.
Find somebody who... is a popular activity to provide controlled and freer practice of
language. Students are given a sheet with the following:
Find somebody who takes the bus to work
Find somebody who always eats a big breakfast
Find somebody who likes snakes
Find somebody who plays tennis
Find somebody who lives in the suburbs
Find somebody who reads an English newspaper
Students take their sheets, stand up and move around the classroom asking
classmates “do you take the bus to work?” “Do you always eat a big breakfast?” etc.
When they find a classmate who replies “yes”, they note the name of that person next
to the question. They continue until they have the name of a student for each question.
The teacher stops the activity at an appropriate point and asks students what they
have found out about their classmates. By repeating the questions, students are
engaging in controlled practice of the question form in a communicative setting.
Depending on how students treat the answers, they can also get freer language
practice; i.e. if they choose to ask further questions of their classmates and whether
the teacher encourages this approach.
Accuracy and fluency
Accuracy and fluency usually refer to oral language work but can refer to written work
too. I will describe the differences here in the context of activities to practise speaking.
Accuracy refers to correct use of language; this is often used just after presentation of
new language. The objective is to produce correct language rather than to
communicate ideas. When the focus is accuracy, the teacher usually deals with error
correction immediately; we will look at this in further detail in Chapter 9. Typical tasks
include: repetition, drills, controlled conversations, (these terms are explained in this
chapter and in Chapter 2). These tasks are useful when introducing and practising new
language.
If the focus is fluency, the teacher allows students to express themselves freely without
interruption. The aim is to help students speak fluently and with ease. The teacher
does not correct immediately, the idea being that too much correction interferes with
the flow of conversation. In such situations, the teacher notes down errors and
comments on them after the activity. The role of the teacher in this type of activity is to
ease difficulties in communication and prompt where necessary.
Students need practice in both accuracy and fluency if they are to speak proficiently. At
low levels, there will be more focus on accuracy, simply because students don’t know
enough language for lengthy fluency work. At higher levels, the focus will be mainly,
but not entirely, on fluency.
Using a course book
You should look at any course book you are about to use with a critical eye. Check
over each unit to see whether it suits your students’ goals. If so, you can go ahead with
it. If not, you might want to choose a different book or stick with it and find other
material that covers the areas that are lacking. This can apply to whole units or parts of
them. There might be parts of the book that are too difficult or too easy for your
students; you might consider leaving those bits out or supplementing them. You might
also want to do things in a different order to how it appears in the course book. The
key is to think about your students. Remember you’re teaching students not teaching a
course book. It’s important to look at these aspects before you start using the book. It’s
more difficult to change a book when you’ve started using it.
Choosing a course book
If you are asked to choose a course book, here are some guidelines to help you
through. It is a list of questions; I suggest you go through the course book, answering
each of the questions.
Topics: do you think the topics will interest your students? Will students have
something to say about the subjects?
Aims of students: will the book cater to your students’ needs? First think about
your students’ reasons for learning; their aims might be to learn general English.
On the other hand, you might have a class who are studying because they have a
specific purpose in mind, e.g. participating in meetings in English. If so, check
whether the book will provide enough practice in such work.
Completeness: does the book provide enough explanation and practice of
language and skills? Is there enough practice of vocabulary, grammar, and
pronunciation? Is there enough skills work? Or will you need to supplement?
Remember, supplementing will take time.
Skills: how does the book deal with the four skills? Are they all dealt with
adequately? Does this correspond to the needs of your learners?
Approach: think about the approach to the activities and language – will it suit
your students and your own teaching style?
Syllabus: is the book pitched at the right level (e.g. not all intermediate books are
at the same level); check this carefully by looking at how language work is
presented. Does the book follow on from the students’ previous course book?
Additional materials: what extras accompany the course book? Is there a
teacher’s book, a workbook, a cassette or CD? What are these like? Can you get
hold of them easily? If not, can the book be used without them?
Availability: how easily can you get hold of multiple copies of a book? Even if it’s
the best course book on earth, it won’t help you if it can’t be delivered on time.
Flickability: this refers to the attractiveness of the book; flick through the book and
note whether it looks appealing or dry and boring. Obviously, not the most
important of the criteria!
Finally, you have to like the book.
Roles of the teacher
You will find yourself in various roles in the classroom. The most common are:
Giving instructions: obviously in the classroom, the teacher will tell students what
activities they are going to do and how they are going to do them.
Facilitating: this involves creating situations where students can use English. You will
do this through your choice of activities.
Setting up activities: similar to giving instructions. Giving instructions entails telling
students what they are going to do; setting up the activity involves organising students
into work groups, handing out worksheets, preparing a cassette or CD for a listening
activity.
Correcting: this is vital if your students are going to learn. If your students don’t know
they’ve made a mistake, they’ll continue making the same mistake.
Eliciting: this involves getting explanations from your students rather than always
providing them yourself.
Motivating: a teacher needs to keep his/her students motivated and engaged in the
work being done. You will do this through your own positive approach to activities and
students and careful choice of material, bearing in mind what interests your students.
Explaining language: look at where this comes, not top of the list. Whilst language
explanations are important, it is not your only job in the classroom; use your students
for language explanations and elicit rules from them, where possible.
The roles described above differ from traditional teaching styles where the teacher
explained everything and led all activities. Students who are used to traditional
teaching might feel uncomfortable when faced with a teacher taking on different roles.
You should be aware of this and be sensitive to their opinions. However, you should
continue teaching in a way that has been proved effective and maybe explain to
students why you are teaching in that way. A little knowledge will help reduce students’
resistance.

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