Starting in English Language Teaching (ELT)

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There are many ways to peel a banana, and they all work. However, some ways are more effective than others, and some have scientific evidence to say they are better.

The CELTA course teaches the Present, Practice and Produce (PPP) form of lesson planning. However, this had no Educational-Psychological grounding to this being effective. What has evidence in being effective is the Test, Teach, Test (TTT). Also see this sample: Blyth(2008)

1. Test. This is short and simple, nothing too demanding. This is to allow students to access their 'prior knowledge' and get their heads into gear for the topic or language target. It also allows you to assess what they already know, so you can make things a bit more difficult, or easier... so you're being responsive to their needs. This, in part, is making things student-centered.

2. Teach. This is to 'fill in the gaps' in their knowledge. You see that they can't do past tense, you teach it to them. You see they can't do 'negotiation', you give them simple dialogues to practice. I also make clear what the Teaching Point, or Language Target is for the day at this stage. And then give them some controlled, 'scaffolded' practice.

3. Test. More freed up practice, where they test themselves and you assess if they've successfully acquired the required Teaching Point or Language Target. This is usually the 'main event' or the fun part of the lesson. This is where students socially interact in an authentic-like environment. Roleplays, or conversations are best at this stage. See here for other ideas or to post a question.

This is the over all skeleton. But that's not where I stop in my plan. Below is an example of what I would do.

Movies and WH Questions

1. Warm up (Test). Find Someone who... (topic on movies)

2. Books (Teach). Look in your books on page X. Here we are doing 'Movies' and 'Wh' questions. Can you fill in the blanks on this part of the page. Work in pairs and help each other. (Teacher moves around the room helping and answering student's questions. The answers are always elicited from the students and written on the board)

3. Movie names. Especially in Taiwan, where the Mandarin language movie names bear no resemblance to the English titles, students always face difficulty in talking about new movies with foreigners. A work around? Get them to practice describing the movie in terms of who's in it, and what the story is about. They can do guess the movie games in pairs.

A: Ok, this is a movie with Tom Cruise. He flies very fast planes for the navy. He learns to be the best pilot. It was very famous in the 1980's.

B: Oh! I know that... it's Top Gun?

A: Yeah!

Of course it helps if you had a translation handout that student B could use, but not always necessary. Here, they are practicing a skill of 'negotiation'. You don't tell them that, but at least they are learning how not to crumble into a heap as soon as they don't know a vocabulary item. They explain their way round it. That's what we (native speakers) naturally do. Also, the underlined parts can be substituted with names and descriptions for other movies.

4. Practice Q&A. Class survey (teacher made handout). Teacher checks vocabulary first. Then question pronunciation (Wh questions, the voice goes down on the end). Students walk around the room asking each other questions using 'Wh' questions and FUQs. (for FUQs, see here) Whilst students are walking around and talking, the teacher checks on their grammar, pronunciation, and any common language errors. I usually list these on the whiteboard, half way through the activity I stop the class and elicit the correct grammar, and make them write these down; that way they have a record of the teacher doing their job.

5. Sit down Discussion. A bit more serious, and questions are about students' own opinions, and their own information. This is a lot more social, and is more 'normal' and 'authentic' language use. This is meant to resemble how you and your friends might sit and discuss things around the teachers' room, or in a cafe or somewhere. I always aim for creating socially appropriate and authentic-like situations, so students can feel as though they are building friendships and learning to maintain them, just as they would in the real world. This is Social Approach, and my secret to my success and popularity as a teacher.

6. Warm down. A fun game of some sort, ALWAYS relating to the vocabulary, language or something. The aim of this is so students leave the classroom feeling happy and relaxed, and at times, they continue the conversation long after the lesson has finished. >> One such activity is 'Mountains and Sea', I got this from my CELTA course years ago. Two even groups, one discusses why they like 'Action movies', and the other discusses why they like 'Romance Movies'. Then after a couple of minutes they change into pairs, so they must convince one person from the other team to change their views. At the end, say, "if you like action movies stand on this side of the classroom, and if you like romance movies, stand on this side." This is a guaranteed success, so I only do it once in a while.

Discuss this, ask for advice, and more on the forums...

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Advice: Always move from what they know, to what they don't know. Also, from easy to a little difficult (never difficult)