TEFL J1P2
Chapter 6, planning lessons and courses
1. planning:
Planning your lesson increases the number of your options and in doing so,
increases your chances of a successful lesson. Planning is imagining the lesson
before it happens, it involves prediction. Anticipation. Sequencing, organizing and
simplifying. A written plan is evidence that you have done that thinking. It can
also serve as a useful in-lesson reminder to you of your pre-lesson thoughts. But:
prepare thoroughly, but in class, reach the learners, not the plan!
There are a number of general things to think about when planning:
- Atmosphere
Can you visualize the characteristic atmosphere and look of the lesson?
Can you imagine what the experience of the lesson will feel like for any
one specific student
- The learners
How will the lesson engage the learners, will they enjoy doing the lessen,
will they benefit?
- The aims
What will the learners achieve? What are you hoping to achieve yourself
- The teaching point
What is the subject matter of the lesson, the skills or language areas that
will be studied and the topics you deal with
- That task and teaching procedures
What are the things that the learners will do? What are the activities you
use? What sequence will they come in?
- The challenge
What in the lesson will challenge the learners?
- Materials
What texts, recordings, pictures, exercises, role cards etc will you use?
- Classroom management
What will you say. How will the seating be arranges? How much will each
stage take?
2 most important things when planning:
- What is my procedure
- What are the aims of the lesson
2. how do people learn languages?
A student’s progress when learning a new item:
1. Ignorance the learner doesn’t
know anything about the item
2. exposure the learner hears or reads
examples of the item, but doesn’t
notice it
3. noticing the learner begins to realize
that ` there is a feature he doesn’t
understand
4. understanding the learner starts to look more closely and
tries to work put the meaning
,5. practice the learner tries to use the item in his own speech or writing
6. active use the learner integrates the item fully into his own language and
uses it
Exposure The distinction between authentic and restricted is whether the
exposure comes from a text that is realistic – or reasonably like a normal natural
text. Or if it is from a text that is recognizable simplified or perhaps including an
unnaturally high number of examples of a specific target item
Authentic exposure: exposure to language when it is being used fairly naturally
- Reading magazines, books, articles, product labels etc.
- Listening to small talk and listening to recordings etc.
- Watching English films of television channels
- Living in a place where the language is used
- Hearing incidental language used in class
- Reading pieces of language on notices, posters, etc around the classroom
Restricted exposure: exposure to texts specifically designed to be accessible to
learners, and probably to draw attention to specific language points
The text will often
- Be specially designed for learners, providing clear examples of target
language
- Be simplified through use of graded language
- Have unusually high quantities of specific target language items
The learners may
- Listen to you say a sentence that exemplify the language point you are
aiming to work on
- Read or listen to course book text designed to present features of certain
language items
- Read examples of particular features of language in a Grammar book.
Stephen Krashen had hypothesized a distinction between acquisition (language
that we pick up subconsciously when we are engaged in communicating and
understanding messages) and learning (language we consciously study and learn
about, for example in classroom). He suggest that acquisition is the significant
process here, and that language we learn is only of any use to us in monitoring
and checking our communication.
Output: we can make a similar distinction between output that is simplified or
controlled, maybe because of a teacher instruction or by the nature of a
particular task than makes the load on the learners less demanding (restricted
output) and freer or more natural interaction which might have many stresses
and pressures (authentic output)
Authentic output: speaking or writing the full range of language learners have at
the disposal
- Discussions - Small talk in a - Negotiations
- Meetings café - Chatting in class
- Writing postcard
-
- Restricted output: peaking or writing that requires learners to use less than
the full quantity of language they know. Learners get a chance to practice
, using language in ways that are controlled or deliberately simplified. Less
demanding
- Drills - Respect what I say
- Written gap-fill exercises - Simple games based on simple
- Grammar practice activities sentences
-
- Noticing is seeing or having one’s attention drawn to the meaning, form
or use of language items
- When a learner is reading a text he stops and thinks ‘ive seen that
structure before, I wonder where its ending
- In class, a teacher says ‘look at line three, is that verb in the past of
present?’
-
- 4 formal lesson planning
-
- Why do we make lesson plans
- Training in planning-thinking - A chance for your teacher to
- Evidence for our teachers understand your thinking
-
- Formal plans often divide into three distinct sections
1. Background information about the class, teacher, the materials and the
aims of the lesson
2. Language analysis of items that will be worked on in class
3. A detailed chronological stage-by-stage description of the intended
procedure for the lesson
-
- In most formal lesson plans, the following are required
- A clear statement of appropriate aims for the whole lesson
- A clear list of stages in the lesson, with a description of activities, aims and
estimated timing
- (and a list of specific target language items)
-
- Writing a lesson-plan procedure: once you have written the background
information, the other essential part of a plan is a statement of the
intended procedure of the lesson. This is often done as a list of separate
stages, with indications of what you will do, what students will do, how
long you expect it to last, what kind of interaction there will e, what the
aims of the stage are etc.
-
- 5. lesson aims
-
- Teachers who have been through a training process that requires them to
do exercises that involve writing down aims before their lessons may be
much more aware of what they are doing something in class. They are
probably able to make more informed decisions between options, choosing
the ones that are most likely to lead to an useful result.
-
- Achievement aims:
- By the end of the lesson, the learners will be better able to find specific
Information in tourist information leaflets
- By the end of the lesson, the learners will have had practice in completing
timed exercises on reading comprehension in preparation for their exam
next week.
-
, - A piece of material can be used in many ways, in different activities, with
quite different aims. Your decision as to what your aim is will determine the
way in which you work with the material. With a piece of text, for example.
If your aim is to improve students’ ability to read fast, then you might set a
time limit to force them to read quickly, or you might turn it into a team
fame where quick answers win points. But if your aim is to focus on the use
of a particular tense, you might want to allow time to discuss the problem,
to use the board to draw timelines etc.
-
- Chapter 10 – receptive skills: listening and reading
-
- Approaches to listening: even if someone knows all the grammar and
lexis of a language, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be able to
understand a single word when it is spoken. Amongst other things, it may
seem to them that:
- People speak to fast to follow
- They can’t tell where words start and stop
- People pronounce words they just don’t recognize
- They can’t work out details of what is being sais
- They can’t get even a general sense of the message
- They can’t pick out those parts that are most important for them to
understand
- It is important to tell students that it is not necessary to understand every
word in order to understand the information you might need from a
recording. This will help them to worry less.
- Get a general overview of the main story or message of a conversation
- Catch specific details such as names, numbers, addresses etc.
-
- When you give the students a printed text with listening tasks you are a lot
more sensible, and it is less threatening but the problem now is that the
students don’t actually need to listen or all. Giving out the text turns it into
a reading exercise.
-
- Very important
- The activity must really demand listening
- It mustn’t be simply a memory test
- Task should be realistic or useful in some way
- It shouldn’t be threatening
- It should help students work around difficulties to achieve specific results
-
- Give students the questions before the recording is played, you will give
them the opportunity to listen with a clear aim in mind. By giving the
learners a clear purpose in listening, you turn the exercise from a memory
test into a listening task.
- 3. redesigning a listening procedure
-
- Simple plan:
1. Set questions 3. Check if the answers are found
2. Play recording 4. If not, play recording again
5.
6. Some ideas
- Students must decide whether the conversation is between two friends,
two colleagues or two people who don’t know each other
Chapter 6, planning lessons and courses
1. planning:
Planning your lesson increases the number of your options and in doing so,
increases your chances of a successful lesson. Planning is imagining the lesson
before it happens, it involves prediction. Anticipation. Sequencing, organizing and
simplifying. A written plan is evidence that you have done that thinking. It can
also serve as a useful in-lesson reminder to you of your pre-lesson thoughts. But:
prepare thoroughly, but in class, reach the learners, not the plan!
There are a number of general things to think about when planning:
- Atmosphere
Can you visualize the characteristic atmosphere and look of the lesson?
Can you imagine what the experience of the lesson will feel like for any
one specific student
- The learners
How will the lesson engage the learners, will they enjoy doing the lessen,
will they benefit?
- The aims
What will the learners achieve? What are you hoping to achieve yourself
- The teaching point
What is the subject matter of the lesson, the skills or language areas that
will be studied and the topics you deal with
- That task and teaching procedures
What are the things that the learners will do? What are the activities you
use? What sequence will they come in?
- The challenge
What in the lesson will challenge the learners?
- Materials
What texts, recordings, pictures, exercises, role cards etc will you use?
- Classroom management
What will you say. How will the seating be arranges? How much will each
stage take?
2 most important things when planning:
- What is my procedure
- What are the aims of the lesson
2. how do people learn languages?
A student’s progress when learning a new item:
1. Ignorance the learner doesn’t
know anything about the item
2. exposure the learner hears or reads
examples of the item, but doesn’t
notice it
3. noticing the learner begins to realize
that ` there is a feature he doesn’t
understand
4. understanding the learner starts to look more closely and
tries to work put the meaning
,5. practice the learner tries to use the item in his own speech or writing
6. active use the learner integrates the item fully into his own language and
uses it
Exposure The distinction between authentic and restricted is whether the
exposure comes from a text that is realistic – or reasonably like a normal natural
text. Or if it is from a text that is recognizable simplified or perhaps including an
unnaturally high number of examples of a specific target item
Authentic exposure: exposure to language when it is being used fairly naturally
- Reading magazines, books, articles, product labels etc.
- Listening to small talk and listening to recordings etc.
- Watching English films of television channels
- Living in a place where the language is used
- Hearing incidental language used in class
- Reading pieces of language on notices, posters, etc around the classroom
Restricted exposure: exposure to texts specifically designed to be accessible to
learners, and probably to draw attention to specific language points
The text will often
- Be specially designed for learners, providing clear examples of target
language
- Be simplified through use of graded language
- Have unusually high quantities of specific target language items
The learners may
- Listen to you say a sentence that exemplify the language point you are
aiming to work on
- Read or listen to course book text designed to present features of certain
language items
- Read examples of particular features of language in a Grammar book.
Stephen Krashen had hypothesized a distinction between acquisition (language
that we pick up subconsciously when we are engaged in communicating and
understanding messages) and learning (language we consciously study and learn
about, for example in classroom). He suggest that acquisition is the significant
process here, and that language we learn is only of any use to us in monitoring
and checking our communication.
Output: we can make a similar distinction between output that is simplified or
controlled, maybe because of a teacher instruction or by the nature of a
particular task than makes the load on the learners less demanding (restricted
output) and freer or more natural interaction which might have many stresses
and pressures (authentic output)
Authentic output: speaking or writing the full range of language learners have at
the disposal
- Discussions - Small talk in a - Negotiations
- Meetings café - Chatting in class
- Writing postcard
-
- Restricted output: peaking or writing that requires learners to use less than
the full quantity of language they know. Learners get a chance to practice
, using language in ways that are controlled or deliberately simplified. Less
demanding
- Drills - Respect what I say
- Written gap-fill exercises - Simple games based on simple
- Grammar practice activities sentences
-
- Noticing is seeing or having one’s attention drawn to the meaning, form
or use of language items
- When a learner is reading a text he stops and thinks ‘ive seen that
structure before, I wonder where its ending
- In class, a teacher says ‘look at line three, is that verb in the past of
present?’
-
- 4 formal lesson planning
-
- Why do we make lesson plans
- Training in planning-thinking - A chance for your teacher to
- Evidence for our teachers understand your thinking
-
- Formal plans often divide into three distinct sections
1. Background information about the class, teacher, the materials and the
aims of the lesson
2. Language analysis of items that will be worked on in class
3. A detailed chronological stage-by-stage description of the intended
procedure for the lesson
-
- In most formal lesson plans, the following are required
- A clear statement of appropriate aims for the whole lesson
- A clear list of stages in the lesson, with a description of activities, aims and
estimated timing
- (and a list of specific target language items)
-
- Writing a lesson-plan procedure: once you have written the background
information, the other essential part of a plan is a statement of the
intended procedure of the lesson. This is often done as a list of separate
stages, with indications of what you will do, what students will do, how
long you expect it to last, what kind of interaction there will e, what the
aims of the stage are etc.
-
- 5. lesson aims
-
- Teachers who have been through a training process that requires them to
do exercises that involve writing down aims before their lessons may be
much more aware of what they are doing something in class. They are
probably able to make more informed decisions between options, choosing
the ones that are most likely to lead to an useful result.
-
- Achievement aims:
- By the end of the lesson, the learners will be better able to find specific
Information in tourist information leaflets
- By the end of the lesson, the learners will have had practice in completing
timed exercises on reading comprehension in preparation for their exam
next week.
-
, - A piece of material can be used in many ways, in different activities, with
quite different aims. Your decision as to what your aim is will determine the
way in which you work with the material. With a piece of text, for example.
If your aim is to improve students’ ability to read fast, then you might set a
time limit to force them to read quickly, or you might turn it into a team
fame where quick answers win points. But if your aim is to focus on the use
of a particular tense, you might want to allow time to discuss the problem,
to use the board to draw timelines etc.
-
- Chapter 10 – receptive skills: listening and reading
-
- Approaches to listening: even if someone knows all the grammar and
lexis of a language, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be able to
understand a single word when it is spoken. Amongst other things, it may
seem to them that:
- People speak to fast to follow
- They can’t tell where words start and stop
- People pronounce words they just don’t recognize
- They can’t work out details of what is being sais
- They can’t get even a general sense of the message
- They can’t pick out those parts that are most important for them to
understand
- It is important to tell students that it is not necessary to understand every
word in order to understand the information you might need from a
recording. This will help them to worry less.
- Get a general overview of the main story or message of a conversation
- Catch specific details such as names, numbers, addresses etc.
-
- When you give the students a printed text with listening tasks you are a lot
more sensible, and it is less threatening but the problem now is that the
students don’t actually need to listen or all. Giving out the text turns it into
a reading exercise.
-
- Very important
- The activity must really demand listening
- It mustn’t be simply a memory test
- Task should be realistic or useful in some way
- It shouldn’t be threatening
- It should help students work around difficulties to achieve specific results
-
- Give students the questions before the recording is played, you will give
them the opportunity to listen with a clear aim in mind. By giving the
learners a clear purpose in listening, you turn the exercise from a memory
test into a listening task.
- 3. redesigning a listening procedure
-
- Simple plan:
1. Set questions 3. Check if the answers are found
2. Play recording 4. If not, play recording again
5.
6. Some ideas
- Students must decide whether the conversation is between two friends,
two colleagues or two people who don’t know each other
