Teach English

Adrian Doff

Cambridge University Press 2004

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Introduction

• This book is a training course for teachers of English as a foreign language.
• It can be used on refresher courses or on in-service/ pre-service courses.
• It contains practical instructions
• It handles a wide array of teaching situations

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Contents

• Presenting Vocabulary;
• Asking Questions;
• Presenting Structures;
• Using the Board;
• Using a Reading Text;
• Using Visual Aids;
• Planning a Lesson;
• Teaching Basic Reading;
• Teaching Pronunciation;
• Teaching Handwriting;
• Pairwork and Groupwork;
• Writing Activities;

• Eliciting;
• Teaching Basic Reading
• Reading Activities;
• Correcting Errors;
• Listening Activities;
• Communicative Activities;
• Using English in Class;
• Role play;
• Using Worksheets;
• Classroom Tests;
• Planning a Week’s Teaching;
• Self-Evaluation

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Pair and Group activities

Pair or group activities have three stages:

1. Introduction to the activity
2. The activity itself: teachers work independently in pairs or in groups
3. A round-up stage where the pairs or groups share their answers or conclusions.

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Lesson preparation

• It is the final activity in each unit. Teachers plan a lesson incorporating ideas and techniques that have been introduced in the training session.
• The preparation can be done under the trainer’s guidance or in the teacher’s own time, in pairs or in groups. The Workbok provides detailed instruction for ‘Lesson Preparation’.
• Teachers should try out their preparation soon after the training session in their classes.
• They can also practice peer teaching or write detailed lesson plans

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Self-Evaluation Sheets

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These sheets aim to:

• Develop teachers’ own self-awareness, so that they can improve their own teaching independently.
• Encourage teachers to think of their lessons from the learners’ point of view, and shift the focus of attention from teaching to learning.

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These sheets can be used in several ways:

• Teachers complete the sheet privately after they have tried new ideas or techniques
• The sheet can be used for informal discussion sessions organized by groups of teachers in case they are attending the same training program.
• It can be completed by both teacher and supervisor observing the lesson, and then used for discussion and comment.
• It can be used by as an observation sheet by other teachers in the case of peer teaching

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Adapting the Course

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• Examples, vocabulary and situation can be replaced by equivalent ones from the teachers’ own textbook.
• Where necessary, situations can be adapted to make them locally relevant
• Where texts are intended as examples for use in class, they can be substituted by equivalent texts from the teachers’ own textbook.

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English Teaching methodology

• The book does not preach one single method or approach, but draws on what is of value both in traditional and in more recent approaches.
• The book also follows the recent trend in methodology and shifts the the emphasis from the teacher to the learner. Teachers are asked to experience and evaluate techniques from the learner’s point of view.
• Although the subject of the book is teaching English, the course aims to make teachers more aware of their role as helpers in the learning process.

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1. Presenting Vocabulary

Vocabulary can be presented in different ways:

• pictures, visuals, gestures, drawings, and facial expression
• Giving an example, using the word in context. This works well with abstract words.
• Translating the word into the students’ mother tongue
• A combination of different techniques. For example, the word ‘smile’.

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Which words to present?

• Active vocabulary: words that students need to understand and also use themselves.
• Passive vocabulary: words we want the students to understand, but which they will not need to use themselves.

It is worth emphasizing that students should understand far more words than they can produce, so we should not treat all new words as active vocabulary.

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2.Asking Questions

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Why do teachers ask questions?

• To check that students understand.
• To give the students practice
• To find out what students really think or know.

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Types of Questions

• There are different types of questions:
• Yes/no questions used mainly to check comprehension
• “Or” question, sometimes called alternative questions and the reply is usually a word or phrase. From the question itself.
• Wh- questions, also called information questions and the natural answer is usually short.

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Questioning Strategies

• The teacher asks the question and simply lets students call out the answer,
• He asks the question and pauses to give the whole class a chance to think of the answer,
• He may first choose a student, and then asks him a question,
• He may ask a question and let students raise their hands if they think they know the answer.

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• This strategy encourages bright students and makes the class seem to be successful because students are volunteering answers.
• If it is the only strategy used, it allows the class to be dominated by the best students while weaker and shy students tend to be excluded.
• It also makes it easy for students to avoid answering questions.
• it is a good strategy to use for difficult questions that only some students will be able to answer.

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3. Blackboard Use

• Presenting new words
• Showing spelling
• Giving a model for handwriting
• Writing prompts for practice
• Drawing a picture
• Presenting structures
• Drawing tables, diagrams
• Eliciting

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Writing on the Board

• Write clearly
• Write in a straight line
• Stand in a way that does not hide the board
• Talk as you write.
• The most important item should be written in the centre.
• Key vocabulary should be written down the side of the board.
• Drawing should be simple (stick figures)
• Draw quickly to keep the interest of the class.

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4.Using a Reading Text

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The purpose defines the way a text is used:

• To develop reading comprehension skills?
• To present new words and structures?
• To practice language?

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Silent Reading

• Students need to develop the skill of reading silently as this is the case in the real world.
• In silent reading, students concentrate on the text and think about meaning.
• Students read at their own speed, and if they donot understand a sentence, they can always go back and read it again.

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Reading Aloud

• Reading a text aloud while students are following in their books means that they are compelled to follow the speed of the teacher.
• Can be useful at the earliest stages of reading
• Is not a very useful technique because only one student is reading at a time;
• Students’ attention is focused on pronunciation.
• It is not only unnatural, but also time-consuming

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Activities before Reading

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• Presenting new vocabulary. Only the words which make it very difficult to understand the text need to be presented.
• Introducing the text (theme).
• Guiding questions: give the students a reason to read the text and to lead them towards the main points of the texts.

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Checking Comprehension

• Short-answer questions to break down the meaning of the text
• Teacher asks his/ her own questions and leaves the questions in the textbook to be answered in pairs or as homework.

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Follow-up Activities

• Texts can be used as a basis for language practice
• Discussion questions
• Reproducing the text
• Role-playing
• Gap-filling

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5.Practising Structures

The presentation of a structure is followed by different ways of practising it:

• Repetition
• Substitution
• Single-word prompts
• Picture prompts
• Free substitution

• A single lesson would not of course include all these stages.
• The stages are in no fixed order; some of them overlap.
• Students practise in meaningful situations
• They say real things about themselves

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6. Using Visual Aids

• Visual aids include: the teacher, the board, real objects, flashcards, charts, flannel boards, magnet board, slides, film strips, colored rods etc…
• They focus attention on meaning, making the language used in class more real and alive
• They keep the students’ attention, making the class more interesting
• They can be used at any stage of the lesson

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Flashcards

Flashcards can be used for a multitude of purposes:

• To present a new word
• To imagine a situation
• To use a particular structure

When we use a picture, students see what meaning to express but have to find the words themselves. This focuses their attention on meaning and prevents the activity from being completely mechanical.

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7. Planning a Lesson

Four main things a teacher needs to know before going into the class to teach a lesson:

• The aim of the lesson
• What new language the lesson contains.
• The main stages of the lesson (the different activities)
• What to do at each stage

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���������The Stages of a Lesson:�

• Presentation
• Practice
• Production
• Reading
• Listening
• Review

The students need to know the aim of the lesson as a whole and the purpose of each stage.

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Writing a Lesson Plan

• Helps the teacher to decide exactly what he will do and how he will do it.
• Boosts the teacher’s self confidence.
• Allows the teacher to look at it after the lesson and use it to evaluate what happened
• It can be kept and used later.

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8. Writing Activities

A/Controlled writing

Activities:

• Gap-filling exercises: Students listen then write out the complete sentence.
• Re-ordering words to write the sentences correctly.
• Substitution: Students write a true sentence about themselves
• Correcting the facts: Students rewrite the sentences so that they match the picture.

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Dictation

Advantages:

• An intensive activity which makes the students concentrate
• The teacher can keep good control of the class.
• It develops listening as well as writing.

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Disadvantages:

• Time-consuming
• It develops spelling more than writing
• It is unrealistic. Listening is word by word and at an unnaturally slow speed.

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Guided Writing

This can be done in two ways:

• By giving the students a short text as model. For example, A Student’s Day and the students will write about their day.
• By doing oral preparation for the writing: the students make suggestions and the teacher builds an outline or a list of key expressions on the board. The ideas come from the students themselves, and it does not require specially prepared texts.

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Correcting Written Work

• Correcting work orally in class is a good idea for a large class.
• Correcting work immediately in class means the teacher can draw students’ attention to problems while they are still fresh in their minds.
• Getting students to correct either their own or each other’s work takes time in the lesson; but it gives students useful practice in reading through what they have written and in noticing mistakes. It is also a good way of keeping the class involved.
• Correcting in class works best with fairly controlled writing activities, where there are not too many possible answers

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9. Correcting Errors

• Teachers are afraid of their students making errors and so they feel they must make sure everything the students say is correct
• Making errors is a natural and unavoidable part of the process of language learning.
• Students’ errors are a very useful way of showing what they have and have not learnt.

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• Most teachers would agree that we need to correct some errors, to help students learn the correct form of the language. But this does not mean that we have to correct students all the time.
• As far as possible, teachers encourage the students, focusing on what they have got right, not on what they have got wrong.
• Teachers should praise students for correct answers so that they feel they’re making progress

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• Teachers should praise students for correct answers so that they feel they’re making progress
• Teachers should avoid humiliating students.
• Errors should be corrected quickly so as not to hold up the lesson.
• In written work, the teacher could correct only the errors that seem most important, or only errors of a certain kind.

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10. Listening Activities

• We cannot develop listening skills unless we develop speaking skills.
• Later, the ability to understand spoken language may become very important (listening to the radio, understanding foreign visitors, etc.)
• To develop this ability, learners need plenty of practice in listening to English spoken to them at normal speed.
• Listening to spoken English, especially for learners with little or no exposure to the language, is an important way of acquiring it.

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Types of Listening in Real Life

• Casual listening: Sometimes we listen with no particular purpose as when listening to the radio while doing homework.
• Focused listening: At other times, we listen for a particular purpose, to find out information we need to know. (listening to a piece of important news on the radio, listening to instructions) Here we listen much more closely and for particular information.

In class, it’s this type of listening that we are usually concerned with.

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Helping Students to listen

• Introduce the topic and give one or two guiding questions
• Play the cassette once without stopping, and discuss the guiding questions
• Play the cassette again focusing on important points.
• Replay particular parts to make sure the students pick up certain phrases.
• Divide the listening text into parts
• Ask student to follow the text in their books while listening to it on tape.

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Getting Students to Predict

• An important part of the listening skill is being able to predict what the speaker is going to say next.
• Asking the students to guess what will happen next helps them develop their listening skills and a way of keeping the class actively involved in listening.
• This is specially useful in telling stories to the class;

a natural part of listening to an interesting story is to wonder what will happen next.

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11. Communicative Activities

• In real life, we communicate because we have communicative needs. Although this is not the only reason why people communicate, very often, we talk in order to tell people things they do not know, or to find things out from other people.
• Classroom communication is effective when there is a real need for it. We can do this by hiding the information, either from all the students or from one student.

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• Guessing games: The students ask questions they want to ask, not ones that the teacher wants them to ask. It is a good idea for the teacher to stand aside and let the student take over the activity.
• Information gap: Two students are given different information. One student has the information and the other student has to find out by asking questions.
• Exchanging personal information: students tell each other about their own lives, interests, experiences.

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Thank you

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