The Practice of English Language Teaching 4 th Edition by Jeremy Harmer (units 4, 5, 6, 21) – for Analuz and Lucas, 2023

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CHAPTER 1
Approaches, methods, procedures and techniques
This chapter looks at how theory has been realized in methodological practice. Within the general
area of methodology, people talk about approaches, methods, techniques, procedures and models,
all of which go into the practice of English teaching. These terms, though somewhat vague, are
definable:

• Approach: people use the term approach to refer to theories about the nature of language and
language learning which are the source of the way things are done in the classroom and which
provide the reasons for doing them. An approach describes how language is used and how its
constituent parts interlock - it offers a model of language competence. An approach describes how
people acquire their knowledge of the language and makes statements about the conditions which
will promote successful language learning.

• Method: a method is the practical realization of an approach. The originators of a method have
arrived at decisions about types of activities, roles of teachers and learners, the kinds of material
which will be helpful and some model of syllabus organization. Methods include various procedures
and techniques as part of their standard fare. When methods have fixed procedures, informed by a
clearly articulated approach, they are easy to describe. However, if a method takes procedures and
techniques from a wide range of sources, it is more difficult to continue describing it as a 'method'.

• Procedure: a procedure is an ordered sequence of techniques. For example, a popular dictation

procedure starts when students are put in small groups. Each group then sends one representative
to the front of the class to read (and remember) the first line of a poem which has been placed on a
desk there. Each student then goes back to their respective group and dictates that line. Each group
then sends a second student up to read the second line. The procedure continues until one group
has written the whole poem A procedure is a sequence which can be described in terms such as
First you do this, then you do that.... Smaller than a method, it is bigger than a technique.

• Technique: a common technique when using video or film material is called silent viewing. This is
where the teacher plays the video with no sound. Silent viewing is a single activity rather than a
sequence, and as such is a technique rather than a whole procedure. Likewise the finger technique
is used by some teachers; they hold up their hands and allocate a word to each of their five fingers,
e.g. He is not playing tennis and then by bringing the is and the not fingers together, show how the
verb is contracted into isn't. Another technique is to tell all the students in a group to murmur a new
word or phrase to themselves for a few seconds just to get their tongues round it.

What the interested teacher needs to do when confronted with a new method, for example, is to see
if and/or how it incorporates theories of language and learning. What procedures does it
incorporate? Are they appropriate and effective for the classroom situation that teacher works with?
In the case of techniques and activities, two questions seem worth asking: Are they satisfying for
both students and teachers? and Do they actually achieve what they set out to achieve?
Popular methodology includes ideas at all the various levels we have discussed, and it is these
methods, procedures and approaches which influence the current state of English language
teaching.

Grammar-translation, Direct method and Audiolingualism

Many of the seeds which have grown into present-day methodology were sown in debates between
more and less formal attitudes to language, and crucially, the place of the students' first language in
the classroom. Before the nineteenth century many formal language learners were scholars who
studied rules of grammar and consulted lists of foreign words in dictionaries. But basically, moves
were made to bring foreign-language learning into school curriculums, and so something more was
needed.
This gave rise to the Grammar-translation method. Typically, Grammar-translation methods did
exactly what they said. Students were given explanations of individual points of grammar, and then
they were given sentences which exemplified these points. These sentences had to be translated
from the target language (L2) back to the students' first language (L1) and vice versa. A number of
features of the Grammar-translation method are worth commenting on. In the first place, language
was treated at the level of the sentence only, with little study, certainly at the early stages, of longer
texts. Secondly, there was little if any consideration of the spoken language. And thirdly, accuracy
was considered to be a necessity.

The Direct method, which arrived at the end of the nineteenth century, was the product of a reform
movement which was reacting to the restrictions of Grammar-translation. Translation was abandoned
in favour of the teacher and the students speaking together, relating the grammatical forms they were
studying to objects and pictures, etc. in order to establish their meaning. The sentence was still the
main object of interest, and accuracy was all important. Crucially (because of the influence this has
had for many years since), it was considered vitally important that only the target language should be
used in the classroom. This may have been a reaction to incessant translation, which created a
powerful prejudice in learners and for many decades L2-only methods were promoted all over the
world.

When behaviourist learning became popular in the 1920s and 30s, the Direct method morphed into
the Audiolingual method. Using stimulus-response-reinforcement model, it attempted, through a
continuous process of such reinforcement, to engender good habits in language learners.
Audiolingualism relied heavily on drills to form those habits; substitution was built into these drills so
that, in small steps, the student was constantly learning and, moreover, was shielded from the
possibility of making mistakes by the design of the drill. The following example shows a typical
Audiolingual drill:
TEACHER: There's a cup on the table... repeat
STUDENTS: There's a cup on the table. TEACHER: Spoon.
STUDENTS: There's a spoon on the table. TEACHER: Book.
STUDENTS: There's a book on the table. TEACHER: On the chair.
STUDENTS: There's a book on the chair.
The purpose was habit-formation through constant repetition of correct utterances, encouraged and
supported by positive reinforcement.

Presentation, Practice and Production

A variation on Audiolingualism is the procedure most often referred to as PPP, which stands for
Presentation, Practice and Production. This grew out of structural-situational teaching whose
main departure from Audiolingualism was to place the language in clear situational contexts.

In this procedure the teacher introduces a situation which contextualizes the language to be taught.
The language, too, is then presented. The students now practice the language using accurate
reproduction techniques such as choral repetition (where the students repeat a word, phrase or
sentence all together with the teacher 'conducting'), individual repetition (where individual students
repeat a word, phrase or sentence at the teacher's urging), and cue-response drills (where the
teacher gives a cue such as cinema, nominates a student by name or by looking or pointing, and the
student makes the desired
response, e.g. Would you like to come to the cinema?). Cue-response drills have similarities with the
classic kind of Audiolingual drill we saw above, but because they are contextualized by the situation
that has been presented, they carry more meaning than a simple substitution drill. Later, the
students, using the new language, make sentences of their own, and this is referred to as
production. The following elementary level example demonstrates the PPP procedure:

• Presentation: the teacher shows the students the following picture and asks them whether the
people in it are at work or on holiday to elicit the fact that they are on holiday.
 The teacher points to the teenage boy and
attempts to elicit the sentence He's listening
to music by saying Can anybody tell me...
Jared...? or asking the question What's Jared
doing ... anybody? The teacher then models
the sentence (He's listening to music) before
isolating the grammar she wants to focus on
(he's), distorting it (he's... he is... he is),
putting it back together again (he's... he's)
and then giving the model in a natural way once more (Listen ... He's listening to music... he's
listening to music). She may accompany this demonstration of form rules by using some physical
means such as bringing two hands (for he and is) together to show how the contraction works, or by
using the finger technique.

• Practice: The teacher gets the students to repeat the sentence He's listening to music in chorus.
She may then nominate certain students to repeat the sentence individually, and she corrects any
mistakes she hears. Now she goes back and models more sentences from the picture ( Usha's
reading a book Mrs Andrade is writing an email etc.), getting choral and individual repetition where
she thinks this is necessary. Now she is in a position to conduct a slightly freer kind of drill than the
Audiolingual one:
TEACHER: Can anyone tell me? Usha?.
STUDENT: She's reading a book.
TEACHER:. Good. Yes, Sergio
In this cue-response drill the teacher gives the cue (Usha) before nominating a student (Sergio) who
will give the response (She's reading a book). By cueing before nominating she keeps everyone
alert. She will avoid nominating students in a predictable order for the same reason. Usually the
teacher puts the students in pairs to practice the sentences a bit more before listening to a few
examples just to check that the learning has been effective.

• Production: the end point of the PPP cycle is production, what some trainers have called
“immediate creativity”. Here the students are asked to use the new language (in this case the
present continuous) in sentences of their own. For example, the teacher may get the students to
think about what their friends and family are doing at this moment. They must now come up with
sentences such as My mother's working at the hospital 1 think, My brother’s lying on the beach. I’m
sure. He's on holiday.

PPP and alternatives to PPP

The PPP procedure, which was offered to teacher trainees as a significant teaching procedure from
the middle of the 1960s onwards, came under attack in the 1990s. It was clearly teacher-centred. It
also seems to assume that students learn in “straight lines” - that is, starting from no knowledge,
through highly restricted sentence-based utterances and on to immediate production. Yet human
learning probably isn't like that; it’s more random. Michael Lewis suggested that PPP was
inadequate because it reflected neither the nature of language nor the nature of learning (1993),
and Jim Scrivener even wrote that it was “fundamentally disabling, not enabling” (1994).

In response to these criticisms many people have offered variations on PPP and alternatives to it.
As long ago as 1982 Keith Johnson suggested the “deep-end strategy” as an alternative (Johnson
1982), where by encouraging the students into immediate production (throwing
them in at the deep end), you turn the procedure on its head. The teacher can
now see if and where students are having problems during this production
phase and return to either presentation or practice as and when necessary
after the production phase is over. A few years later, Donn Byrne suggested
much the same thing (Byrne 1986), joining the three phases in a circle.
Teachers and students can decide at which stage to enter the procedure.
Engage, Study and Activate
A different group of teaching sequence elements is ESA: Engage, Study and Activate. ESA allows
for three basic lesson procedures:

• Straight arrows
In the first one, the sequence is ESA, much like PPP. The teacher engages students by
presenting a picture or a situation, or by drawing them in by some other means. At the
study stage of the procedure, the meaning and form of the language are explained. The
teacher then models the language and the students repeat and practice it. Finally, they
activate the new language by using it in sentences of their own.

• Boomerang
This procedure, on the other hand, follows a more task-based or deep-end approach.
Here the order is EAS; the teacher gets the students engaged before asking them to
do something like a written task, a communication game or a role-play. Based on what
happens there, the students will then, after the activity has finished, study some
aspect of language which they lacked or which they used incorrectly.

• Patchwork
These lessons, which are different from the previous, may follow a
variety of sequences. For example, engaged students are encouraged
to activate their knowledge before studying one and then another
language element, and then returning to more activating tasks, after
which the teacher re-engages them before doing some more study.

What the Engage/Study/Activate trilogy has tried to capture is the fact that PPP is just “a tool
used by teachers for one of their many possible purposes” (Swan 2005b: 380, my italics).
In other words, PPP is extremely useful in a focus-on-forms lesson, especially at lower levels, but is
irrelevant in a skills lesson, where focus-on-form may occur as a result of something students hear
or read. It is useful, perhaps, in teaching grammar points such as the use of can and can't, but has
little place when students are analyzing their own language use after doing a communicative task.

Four methods
Four methods, developed in the 1970s and 1980s, are often considered together. While,
individually, they are rarely used exclusively in “mainstream teaching”, their influence is still felt
today.

• In the classic form of Community Language Learning, a 'knower' stands outside a circle of
students and helps the students say what they want to say by translating, suggesting or amending
the students' utterances. The students' utterances may then be recorded so that they can be
analyzed at a later date. Students, with the teacher's help, reflect on how they felt about the
activities.

• Suggestopaedia was developedby Georgi Lozanov and is concerned above all with the physical
environment in which the learning takes place. Students need to be comfortable and relaxed so that
their affective filter is lowered. Students take on different names and exist in a child-parent
relationship with the teacher. Traumatic topics are avoided, and at one stage of a three-part
procedure, the teacher reads a previously-studied dialogue to the accompaniment of music
(preferably Baroque). During this phase there are also 'several minutes of solemn silence' (Lozanov
1978) and the students leave the room silently.

• A typical Total Physical Response (TPR) lesson might involve the teacher telling students to
'pick up the triangle from the table and give it to me' or 'walk quickly to the door and hit it' (Asher
1977). When the students can all respond to commands correctly, one of them can then start giving
instructions to other classmates. James Asher believed that since children learn a lot of their
language from commands directed at them, second-language learners can benefit from this, too.
Crucially, in TPR students don't have to give instructions themselves until they are ready.

• The Silent Way One of the most notable features of this, is the behavior of the teacher who,
rather than entering into conversation with the students, says as little as possible. This is because
the founder of the method, Caleb Gattegno, believed that learning is best facilitated if the learner
discovers and creates language rather than just remembering and repeating what has been taught.
The learner should be in the driving seat, in other words, not the teacher. In the Silent Way, the
teacher frequently points to different sounds on a phonemic chart, modeling them before indicating
that students should say the sounds. The teacher is then silent, indicating only by gesture or action
when individual students should speak (they keep trying to work out whether they are saying the
sound correctly) and then showing when sounds and words are said correctly by moving on to the
next item. Because of the teacher's silent non-involvement, it is up to the students – under the
controlling but indirect influence of the teacher - to solve problems and learn the language.

Some of the procedures employed in these four methods may strike us as being outside the
mainstream of classroom practice, or even somewhat eccentric. Nevertheless, in their own ways,
they contain truths about successful language learning:
Community Language Learning, for example, reminds us that teachers are in classrooms to
facilitate learning and to help students with what they want to say. Suggestopaedia's insistence on
lowering the affective filter reminds us how important affect is in language learning. Nor is there any
doubt about the appropriacy of getting students to move around in lessons, as in TPR. For students
with a more kinesthetic inclination, this will be especially useful.
The real problem when attempting to define CLT is that it is like an extended family of different
approaches, and as is the case with most families, not all members live harmoniously together all of
the time. There are disagreements, if not outright wars, from time to time. However, no one is willing
to assert that they do not belong to the family' (Nunan 2004).

It is of common agreement that if students are involved in meaning-focused communicative tasks,

then 'language learning will take care of itself), and that plentiful exposure to language in use and
plenty of opportunities to use it are vitally important for a student's development of knowledge and
skill. Activities in CLT typically involve students in real or realistic communication.

That is why role-play and simulation have become very popular in CLT. In order for these activities
to be truly communicative, it was suggested from the very beginning, students should have a desire
to communicate something. They should have a purpose for communicating. They should be
focused on the content of what they are saying or writing rather than on a particular language form.
They should use a variety of language rather than just one language structure. The teacher will not
intervene to stop the activity and the material will not dictate what specific language forms the
students use either. In other words, such activities should attempt to replicate real communication.

Task-based learning (TBL)

Task-based learning focuses on meaningful tasks as central to the learning process. If students
are focused on the completion of a task, they are just as likely to learn language as they are if they
are focusing on language forms. Instead of a language structure or function to be learnt, students
are presented with a task they have to perform or a problem they have to solve. For example, in an
early example of TBL, after a class performs some pre-task activities which involve questions and
vocabulary checking (e.g. What is this? It's a timetable. What does 'arrival' mean?), they ask and
answer questions to solve a problem, such as finding train timetable information, e.g. When does the
Brindavan express leave Madras/arrive in Bangalore? (Prahbu 1987). Although the present simple
may frequently be used in such an activity, the
focus of the lesson is the task, not the structure. Students are given a task to perform and only when
the task has been completed does the teacher discuss the language that was used, making
corrections and adjustments which the students' performance of the task has shown to be desirable.
This is similar to the Boomerang procedure.
In the Pre-task stage, the teacher explores the topic with the class and may
highlight useful words and phrases, helping students to understand the task
instructions. The students may hear a recording of other people doing the
same task. During the Task cycle stage, the students perform the task in
pairs or small groups while the teacher monitors from a distance. The
students then plan how they will tell the rest of the class what they did and
how it went, and then they report on the task and compare notes.

The Lexical approach

The Lexical approach, discussed by Dave Willis (Willis 1990) and popularized by Michael Lewis
(1993,1997), is based on the assertion that “language consists not of traditional grammar and
vocabulary but often of multi-word prefabricated chunks” (Lewis 1997). These are word
combinations such as collocations, idioms, fixed and semi-fixed phrases which form such an
important part of the language. Adult language users have literally thousands of these chunks at
their disposal, such as How are you?, See you later. You must be joking, I’ll give it my best shot,
Changing the subject slightly..., might as well,... if it'll help.
Lewis proposes that fluency is the result of acquisition of a large store of these fixed and semi-fixed
pre-fabricated items which are 'available as the foundation for any linguistic novelty or creativity'
(1997).
This highlighting of an area of language that was, perhaps, previously undervalued, has played a
valuable role in provoking debate about what students should study.

More Methods

Project Based Learning:

https://youtu.be/hrBjKEu5EtE?list=PLlGqKyAN51d9BFE4mg4PzqWg7bXRtX8Wa

Collaborative Learning:
https://youtu.be/TIIpXkkkFhA?list=PLlGqKyAN51d9BFE4mg4PzqWg7bXRtX8Wa

Montessori Method (only for children):

https://youtu.be/7N6bQes9y7I?list=PLlGqKyAN51d9BFE4mg4PzqWg7bXRtX8Wa
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CHAPTER 2
Age

The age of our students is a major factor in our decisions about how and what to teach. People of
different ages have different needs, competences and cognitive skills; we might expect children of
primary age to acquire much of a foreign language through play, for example, whereas for adults we
can reasonably expect a greater use of abstract thought.
One of the most common beliefs about age and language learning is that young children learn
faster and more effectively than any other age group as when children move to a new country and
appear to pick up a new language with remarkable ease. However, as we shall see, this is not
always true of children in that situation, and the story of child language facility may be a myth.

It is certainly true that children who learn a new language early have a facility with the pronunciation
which is sometimes denied older learners. Lynne Cameron suggests that children 'reproduce the
accent of their teachers with deadly accuracy' (2003).
Apart from pronunciation ability, however, it appears that older children (from about the age of 12)
'seem to be far better learners than younger ones in most aspects of acquisition, pronunciation
excluded' (Yu, 2006).

The relative superiority of older children as language learners (especially in formal educational
settings) may have something to do with their increased cognitive abilities, which allow them to
benefit from more abstract approaches to language teaching. It may also have something to do with
the way younger children are taught. Lynne Cameron suggests that teachers of young learners
need to be especially alert and adaptive in their response to tasks and have to be able to adjust
activities on the spot. It is not being suggested that young children cannot acquire second
languages successfully. As we have already said, many of them achieve significant competence,
especially in bilingual situations.

Nor is it true that older learners are necessarily ineffective language learners. Research has shown
that they 'can reach high levels of proficiency in their second language'. They may have greater
difficulty in approximating native speaker pronunciation than children do. In what follows comments
here about young children, teenagers and adults can only be generalizations.

Young children

9-to-10-year-old students learn differently from older children, adolescents and adults in the
following ways:

 They respond to meaning even if they do not understand individual words.

 They often learn indirectly rather than directly - that is they take in information from all sides,
learning from everything around them rather than only focusing on the precise topic they are
being taught.
 Their understanding comes not just from explanation, but also from what they see and hear
and, crucially, have a chance to touch and interact with
 They find abstract concepts such as grammar rules difficult to grasp.
 They generally display an enthusiasm for learning and a curiosity about the world around
them.
 They have a need for individual attention and approval from the teacher
 They are keen to talk about themselves and respond well to learning that uses themselves
and their own lives as main topics in the classroom.
 They have a limited attention span; unless activities are extremely engaging, they can get
easily bored, losing interest after ten minutes or so.
But however we describe the way children develop (and though there are significant differences
between, say, a 4 year old and a 9 year old), we can make some recommendations about younger
learners in general, that is children up to about 10-11.

In the first place, good teachers at this level need to provide a rich diet of learning experiences
which encourage their students to get information from a variety of sources. They need to work with
their students individually and in groups, developing good and affective relationships.
They need to plan a range of activities for a given time period, and be flexible
enough to move on to the next exercise when they see their students getting bored.
Teachers of young learners need to spend time understanding how their students
think and operate. They need to be able to pick up on their students' current interests
so that they can use them to motivate the children. And they need good oral skills in
English since speaking and listening are the skills which will be used most of all at
this age. The teacher's pronunciation really matters here, too, precisely because, as
we have said, children imitate it so well.

All of this reminds us that once a decision has been taken to teach English to
younger learners, there is a need for highly skilled and dedicated teaching. This may
well be the most difficult (but rewarding) age to teach. We can also draw some
conclusions about what a classroom for young children should look like and what
might be going on in it. First of all, we will want the classroom to be bright and
colorful, with windows the children can see out of, and with enough room for
different activities. We might expect the students to be working in groups in
different parts of the classroom, changing their activity every ten min or so.
Because children love discovering things, and because they respond well to
being asked to use their imagination, they may well be involved in puzzle-like
activities, in making things, in drawing things, in games, in physical movement or in songs so we are
not talking about classrooms where children spend all their time sitting still in rows or talking only to
the teacher.

Adolescents
It is strange that, despite their relative success as language learners, adolescents are often seen as
problem students. Yet with their greater ability for abstract thought and their passionate commitment
to what they are doing once they are engaged, adolescents may well be the most exciting students
of all. Most of them understand the need for learning and, with the right goals, can be responsible
enough to do what is asked of them.

It is perfectly true that there are times when things don't seem to go very well. Adolescence is bound
up, after all, with a pronounced search for identity and a need for self-esteem; adolescents need to
feel good about themselves and valued, they often have an strong need for peer approval, too
since they are extremely vulnerable to the negative judgments of their own age group. Our job,
therefore, must be to provoke student engagement with material which is relevant and involving. At
the same time, we need to do what we can to bolster our students' self-esteem, and always be
conscious of their need for identity.

Language teaching far more closely to the students' everyday interests through; in particular, the
use of 'humanistic' teaching, material has to be designed at the students' level, with topics which
they can react to. They must be encouraged to respond to texts and situations with their own
thoughts and experiences, rather than just by answering questions and doing abstract learning
activities.
Adult learners
Adult language learners are notable for a number of special characteristics:
 They can engage with abstract thought. We do not have to rely exclusively on games
and songs - though these may be appropriate for some students.
 They have a whole range of life experiences to draw on.
 They have expectations about the learning process, and they already have their own
set patterns of learning.
 Adults tend to be more disciplined than other age groups and they are often prepared
to struggle on despite boredom.
 They come into class with a rich range of experiences which allow teachers to use a
wide range of activities with them.

Unlike young children and teenagers, they often have a clear understanding of why they are
learning and what they want with it. That’s why many adults are able to sustain a level of motivation
by holding on to a distant goal in a way that teenagers find more difficult. However, they have a
number of characteristics which can sometimes make learning and teaching problematic:

 They can be critical of teaching methods. Their previous learning experiences may
have predisposed them to one particular methodological style which makes them
uncomfortable with unfamiliar teaching patterns.
 They may be hostile to certain teaching and learning activities which replicate the
teaching they received earlier in their educational careers.
 They may have experienced failure or criticism at school which makes them
anxious and under-confident about learning a language.
 Many older adults worry that their intellectual powers may be diminishing with age.
They are concerned to keep their creative powers alive.

Good teachers of adults take all of these factors into account. They are aware that their
students will often be prepared to stick with an activity for longer than younger learners. As well
as involving their more indirect learning through reading, listening and communicative
speaking and writing. They encourage their students to use their own life experience in the
learning process, too.
As teachers of adults we can diminish the fear of failure by offering activities which are achievable
and by paying special attention to the level of challenge presented by exercises. We need to listen
to students' concerns, too, and, in many cases, modify what we do to suit their learning tastes.

Learner differences
The moment we realize that a class is composed of
individuals, we have to start thinking about how to
respond to these students individually so that while
we may frequently teach the group as a whole, we
will also, in different ways, pay attention to the
different individual needs and behavior profiles.

The methodologist Tony Wright described four

different learner styles within a group (1987). The
enthusiast looks to the teacher as a point of
reference and is concerned with the goals of the
learning group. The oracular also focuses on the
teacher but is more oriented towards the
satisfaction of personal goals. The participator tends to concentrate on group goals and group
solidarity, whereas the rebel while referring to the learning group for his or her point of reference is
mainly concerned with the satisfaction of his or her own goals.
Keith Willing, working with adult students in Australia, suggested four learner categories:

Individual variations
If some people are better at some things than others - better at analyzing, for example - this would
indicate that there are differences in the ways individual brains work. It also suggests that people
respond differently to the same stimuli.
How might such variation determine the ways in which individual students learn most readily?
How might it affect the ways in which we teach?

Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NLP

According to practitioners of NLP, we use a number of primary representational systems' to
experience the world. These systems are described in the acronym 'VAKOG' which stands for
Visual (we look and see), Auditory (we hear and listen), Kinesthetic (we feel externally, internally or
through movement), Olfactory (we smell things) and Gustatory (we taste things)

Most people, while using all these systems to experience the world, nevertheless have one
'preferred primary system'. Some people are particularly stimulated by music when their preferred
primary system is auditory, whereas others, whose primary preferred system is visual, respond most
powerfully to images. The VAKOG formulation, while somewhat problematic in the distinctions it
attempts to make, offers a framework to analyse different student responses to stimuli and
environments.

MI theory
Ml stands for Multiple Intelligences, a concept
introduced by the psychologist Howard Gardner. He
suggested that we do not possess a single intelligence,
but a range of 'intelligences': Musical/rhythmical,
Verbal/linguistic, Visual/spatial, Bodily/kinesthetic,
Logical/ mathematical, Intrapersonal and Interpersonal.
All people have all of these intelligences, but in each
person one (or more) of them is more pronounced.
This allowed him to predict that a typical occupation for
people with strength in logical/mathematical
intelligence is that of the scientist, whereas a typical
end state for people with strengths in visual/spatial
intelligence might well be that of the navigator. The
athlete might be the typical end state for people who
are strong in bodily/kinesthetic intelligence, and so on.
Gardner has since added an eighth intelligence which he calls Naturalistic intelligence to account for
the ability to recognize and classify patterns in nature.
Goleman has added a ninth emotional
intelligence' which includes the ability to
empathize, control impulse and self-motivate.
If we accept that different intelligences
predominate in different people, it suggests
that the same learning task may not be
appropriate for all of our students. While
people with a strong logical/mathematical
intelligence might respond well to a complex
grammar explanation, a different student might
need the comfort of diagrams and physical
demonstration because their strength is in the
visual/spatial area. Other students who have a
strong interpersonal intelligence may require a
more interactive climate if their learning is to be
effective.

Armed with this information, teachers can see

whether they have given their class a variety of
activities to help the various types of learner
described here.

Although we cannot teach directly to each

individual student in our class all of the time,
we can ensure that we sometimes give
opportunities for visualization, for students to
work on their own, for sharing and comparing
and for physical movement. By keeping our
eye on different individuals, we can direct them
to learning activities which are best suited to
their own proclivities.

WATCH: https://youtu.be/EzDrymvpt1w?list=PLlGqKyAN51d9BFE4mg4PzqWg7bXRtX8Wa

What to do about individual differences

Faced with the different descriptions of learner types and styles which have been listed here, it may
seem that the teacher's task is overwhelmingly complex. We want to satisfy the many different
students in front of us, teaching to their individual strengths with activities designed to produce the
best results

for each of them, yet we also want to address our teaching to the group as a whole. Our task as
teachers will be greatly helped if we can establish who the different students in our classes are and
recognize how they are different.
We can do this through observation or, as in the following two examples, through more formal
devices. For example, we
might ask students what their
learning preferences are in
questionnaires with items
(perhaps in the students' first
language) such as the
following.
Or we might try to find out which preferred sensory system our students respond to. Revell and
Norman suggest the activity shown here:

Get students to do a test so that they can come up with a personal Multiple Intelligences (MI)
profile which they can then share with the teacher. The students are led through a series of
questions, as a result of which the software produces an MI profile for each individual student.

And so, as a result of getting information about individuals, we will be in a position to try to organize
activities which provide maximal advantage to the many different people in the class, offering
activities which favor, at different times, students with different learning styles. It is then up to us to
keep a record of what works and what doesn't, either formally or informally. We can also ask our
students (either face to face, or, more effectively, through written feedback) how they respond to
these activities.

The following comments, from a multinational group of adult students in Britain, were written in
response to a lesson in which they were asked to write an imaginary film scene based on a
particular piece of music:
Apart from demonstrating how individuals respond differently to the same activity, these comments
help us decide whether to use a similar kind of activity again, whether to amend it or whether to
abandon it.
Such feedback helps us build a picture of the best kinds of activity for the mix of individuals in a
class, as well as respond to our students appropriately.

This does not mean that everyone will be happy all the time. On the contrary, it suggests that some
lessons will be more useful for some students than for others. But if we are aware of this and act
accordingly, then there is a good chance that most of the class will be engaged with the learning
process most of the time.

LANGUAGE LEVELS
Students are generally described in three levels, beginner, intermediate and advanced, and these
categories are further qualified by talking about real beginners and false beginners. Between
beginner and intermediate we often class students as elementary. The intermediate level itself is
often sub-divided into lower intermediate and upper intermediate and even mid-intermediate.

These terms are used somewhat indiscriminately, so that what one school calls intermediate is
sometimes thought of as nearer elementary by others, and someone else might describe a student
as advanced despite the fact that in another institution he or she would be classed as upper
intermediate (often depending on different views about what students at certain levels are capable
of doing).
 Advanced

Upper-Intermediate

Pre- Intermediate

Mid- Intermediate

Lower Intermediate

Elementary

Real Beginner False Beginner

In recent years, the Council of Europe and the Association of Language Testers in Europe
(ALTE) have been working to define language competency levels for learners of a number of
different languages.

The result of these efforts is the Common European Framework (a document setting out in detail
what students 'can do' at various levels and a series of ALTE levels ranging from A1 (roughly
equivalent equivalent to elementary level) to C2 (very advanced). This chart shows the different
levels in sequence:
CommonEuropean Framework of Reference for Languages
A1 A2 B1
Basic User Basic User Independent User
I can understand familiar I can understand phrases and I can understand the main points
words and very basic the higher frecuency vocabulary of clear standard speech on
phrases concerning related to areas of most familiar matters regularly
myself, my family and immediate personal relevance encountered in work, school,
Listening

immediate concrete (eg, very basic personal and leisure, etc. I can understand the
surroundings when family information, main point of many radio or TV
people speak slowly and shopping,local area, programmes on current affairs or
Understanding

clearly employment, studies). I can topics of personal or professional

catch the main point in short, interest, studies and free time
clear, simple messages and when the delivery is relatively
announcements slow and clear
I can understand familiar I can read very short, simple I can understand texts that
names, words and very texts. I can find specific, consist mainly of high frequency
simple sentences on predictable information in everyday or job related language.
Reading

notices and posters or in simple everyday material such I can understand the description
catalogues as advertisements, of events, feelings and wishes in
prospectuses, menus and personal letters.
timetables and I can understand
short, simple personal letters
I can interact in a simple I can communicate in simple I can deal with most situations
way provided the other and routine tasks requiring a likely to arise whilst travelling in
person is prepared to simple and direct exchange of an area where the language is
repeat or rephrase things information on familiar topics spoken. I can enter unprepared
Interaction

at a slower rate of speech and activities. I can handle very into conversations on topics that
and help me formulate short social exchanges, even are familiar, of personal interest
what I’m trying to say. I though I can’t usually or pertinent to everyday life
can ask and answer understand enough to keep the (family, hobbies, work, studies,
simple questions in areas conversation going myself travel and current events)
Speaking

of immediate need or on
very familiar topics
I can use simple phrases I can use a series of phrases and I can connect phrases in a simple
and sentences to describe sentences to describe in simple way in order to describe
where I live and people I terms my family and other experiences and events, my
Production

know people, living conditions, my dreams, hopes and ambitions. I

educational background and my can briefly give reasons and
present or most recent explanations for opinions and
job/studies or activities plans. I can narrate a story or
relate the plot of a book or film
and describe my reactions.
I can write short, simple I can write short, simple notes I can write a simple connected
postcards, for example and messages. I can write a very text on topics which are familiar
sending holiday greetings. simple personal letter, for or of personal interest. I can write
Writing

I can fill in forms with example thanking someone for personal letters describing
personal details, for something. experiences and impressions.
example entering my
name, nationality and
address on a hotel
registration form.
 B2 C1 C2
Independent User Proficient User Proficient User
I can understand extended I can understand phrases I have no difficulty in
speech and lectures and and the higher extended understanding any kind of
follow even complex lines of speech even when it is not spoken language, whether live
Listening

argument provided the topic is clearly structured and when of broadcast, even when
reasonably familiar. I can relationships are only delivered at some fast native
understand most TV news and implied and not signalled speed, provided I have some
Understanding

current affair programmes. I explicitly. I can understand time to get familiar with the
can understand the majority TV programmes and films accent.
of films in standard dialect. without too much effort.
I can read articles and reports I can understand long and I can read with ease virtually all
concerned with contemporary complex factual and literary forms of the written language,
problems in which the writers texts, appreciating including abstract, structurally
Reading

adopt particular attitudes or distinctions of styles. I can or linguistically complex texts

viewpoints. I can understand understand specialized such as manuals, speacialised
contemporary literary prose. articles and longer technical articles and literary works.
instructions, even when they
do not relate to my field
I can interact with a degree of I can express myself fluently I can take part effortlessly in
fluency and spontaneity that and spontaneously without any conversation or discussion
makes regular interaction with much obvious searching for and have a good familiaruty
native speakers quite possible. expressions. I can use with isiomatic expressions and
Interaction

I can take an active part in laguage flexibly and colloquialisms. I can express
discussion in familiar contexts, effectively for social and myself fluently and convey finer
accounting for and sustaining professional purposes. I can shades of meaning precisely. If I
my views formulate ideas and opinions do have a problem I can
with precision and relate my backtrack an restructure around
Speaking

contribution skillfully to the difficulty so smoothly that

those of other speakers other people are hardly aware
of it.
I can present clear, detailes I can present clear, detailed I can clear, smoothly-flowing
descriptions on awide range descriptions of complex description or argument in a
Production

of subjects related to my field subjects integrating sub- style appropriate to the context
of interest. I can explain a themes, developing and with an effective logical
viewpoint on a topican issue particular points and structure which helps the
giving the advantages and rounding off with listener to notice and
disadvantages of various appropriate conclusion. remember significant points.
options.
I can write clear, detailed text I can express myself in clear, I can write clear, smoothly-
on a wide range of subjects well-structured text, flowing text in an appropriate
related to my interests. I can expressing points of view at style. I can write complex
write essay or report, passing some length. I can write letters, reports or articles which
Writing

on information or giving about complex subjects in a presenta case with an effective

reasons on support of or letter, an essay or report, logical structure which helps the
against a particular point of underlining what I consider reader to notice and remember
view. I can write letters to be the salient issues. I can significant points. I can write
highlighting the personal select a style appropriate to summaries and reviews of
significance of events and the reader in mind. professional or literary works.
experiences
Methodology
Some techniques and exercises that are suitable for beginners look less appropriate for students at
higher levels, and some assumptions about advanced students' abilities are less successful when
transposed, without thought, to students at lower levels.

This is especially true in speaking tasks. It is quite feasible to ask advanced

students to get into pairs or groups to discuss a topic of some kind without
structuring the activity in any way. But when asking elementary students to
have a discussion in pairs or groups, we need to be far more rigorous in
telling them exactly what they should do, and we will probably help them with
some of the language they might want to use.

Another important point is instructions, they

should not only be explained, but accompanied by a demonstration so
that everyone is absolutely clear about the task, whereas at higher
levels this may not be so necessary and might even seem strange.

At lower levels we may well want to have students repeat sentences

and phrases chorally and we may organize controlled cue-response drills. This is because students
sometimes have difficulty getting some of the sounds (and stress and intonation) of English; choral
repetition and drills can help them get over this and,
furthermore, allow them to practice in an enjoyable and stress-
free way. Advanced students, however, might feel rather
surprised to be asked to practice like this.

In general, we will give students more support when they are at

beginner or intermediate levels than we need to do when they are more advanced. This does not
mean that we will not approach more advanced tasks with care or be precise about what we are
asking students to do. But at higher levels we may well be entitled to expect that students will be
more resourceful and, as a result, have less need for us to explain everything in such a careful and
supportive way.

Language, task and topic

Students acquire language partly as a result of the comprehensible input they receive which means,
we will have to adjust the language we use to the level of the students we are teaching.

Experienced teachers are very good at tuning their language to the level they are dealing with.
Such tuning involves, at beginner and elementary levels, using words and phrases that are as clear
as possible, avoiding some of the more difficult idioms the language contains. At lower levels we will
do our best not to confuse our students by offering them too many different accents or varieties of
English. We will also take special care at to moderate the speed we speak at and to make our
instructions especially clear.

Suiting our language to the level of the students extends to what we ask them to read, listen to,
write and speak about. There are tasks that students can do with authentic English - that is English
not specially moderated for use by language students - but in general, we will want to get students
to read and listen to things that they have a chance of understanding. Of course, it depends on how
much we want them to get from a text, but we always need to bear in mind the demotivating effect
of a text which students find depressingly impenetrable.

The same is true for the topics, what we get students to write and speak about. If we ask students
to express a complex opinion and they do not have the language to do it, the result will be an
unhappy one for both students and teacher. If we try to force students to write a complex letter when
they are clearly unable to do such a thing, everyone will feel let down. We will discuss the concept
of trying to ensure achievement below.
 How do you feel
about this? Did you enjoy
How can I help all the activities
you? today?

Who is your
favorite
teacher? Find a new
friend

What music do
you like listening
What’s up at
to in your free
school this
time?
week?

CHAPTER 3
What is teaching?
It is often helpful to use metaphors to describe what teachers do. Sometimes, for example, teachers
say they are like actors because they feel as if they are always on the stage. Others talk of
themselves as orchestral conductors because they direct conversation and set the pace and tone.
Yet others feel like gardeners because they plant the seeds and then watch them grow. The range
of images - these and others - that teachers use about themselves indicates the range of views that
they have about their profession.
Many trainers are fond of quoting from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. 'If the teacher is indeed wise
he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your
own mind' (Gibran 1991). Is teaching about the 'transmission' of knowledge from teacher to student,
or is it about creating conditions in which, somehow, students learn for themselves? To put it
another way, if you were to walk into a classroom, where would you expect to see the teacher -
standing at the front controlling affairs, or moving around the classroom quietly helping the students
only when needed?

When teachers and groups first meet each other, Dornyei and Murphey suggest, students expect
leadership and direction. This gives them a clear focus and makes them feel secure at the same
time. But as groups develop their group identity, teachers will want to relax their grip and foster
more democratic class practices where students are involved in the process of decision making and
direction-finding.

Two things need to be said about this view of the teacher's craft. In the first place, being
democratic and letting students participate in decision-making takes more effort and organization
than controlling the class from the front. Furthermore, the promotion of learner autonomy (where
students not only learn on their own, but also take responsibility for that learning), is only one view
of the teaching-learning relationship, and is very culturally biased. In some situations both teachers
and learners may feel more comfortable with a more autocratic leadership style, and while this
might not suit the preferences of some, it is highly attractive to others.
Whether or not we are more autocratic or democratic as teachers, we are called upon to play many
different roles in a language learning classroom. Our ability to carry these out effectively will depend
to a large extent on the rapport we establish with our students, and on our own level of knowledge
and skill.

In the classroom
'Students can pick up much from the way their teacher walks into the room at the start of that first
lesson,' writes Rose Senior (Senior 2006). The way we dress, the stance we adopt and our attitude
to the class make an immediate impression on students.

In this sense we need to make some kind of distinction between who we are, and who we are as
teachers. This does not mean that we should somehow be dishonest about who we are when we
face students. There will always be a need to be 'congruent' (Rogers 1961), that is being honest to
oneself and appropriately honest with our students.

But it does mean thinking about presenting a professional face to the students which they find both
interesting and effective? When we walk into the classroom, we want them to see someone who
looks like a teacher whatever else they look like. This does not mean conforming to some kind of
teacher stereotype, but rather finding, each in our own way, a persona that we adopt when we cross
the classroom threshold. The point is that we should be able to adopt a variety of roles within the
classroom which facilitate learning. Some of these roles come naturally to most teachers, while
others have to be thought about more carefully.

The roles of a teacher

Many commentators use the term facilitator to describe a particular kind of teacher, one who is
democratic rather than autocratic, and one who fosters learner autonomy through the use of group
work and pair work and by acting as more of a resource than a transmitter of knowledge. However,
it makes more sense to describe different teacher roles in more detail and say what they are useful
for:

• Controller: When teachers act as controllers, they are in charge of the class and of the activity
taking place and are often 'leading from the front'. Controllers take the register, tell students
things, organize drills, read aloud and in various other ways exemplify the qualities of a teacher-
fronted classroom.
Teachers who view their job as the transmission of knowledge from themselves to their students
are usually very comfortable with the image of themselves as controllers. Like those teachers
from our past who had a gift for such a kind of instruction and who inspired us though their
knowledge and their charisma. However, not all teachers possess this ability to inspire and
transmission teaching has less obvious advantages. For a start, it denies students access to their
own experiential learning by focusing everything on the teacher; in the second place, it cuts down
on opportunities for students to speak because when the class is acting as a whole group, fewer
individuals have a chance to say anything at all; and in the third place, over-reliance on
transmission teaching can result in a lack of variety in activities and classroom atmosphere.

Of course, there are times when acting as a controller makes sense, for example when giving
explanations, organizing question and answer work, lecturing, making announcements or bringing
a class to order. Indeed, such leadership may have a highly beneficial effect on a group,
especially in the early stages. In many educational contexts it is the most common teacher role,
and many teachers fail to go beyond it since controlling is the role they are used to and are most
comfortable with.
.
• Prompter: Sometimes, when they are involved in a role-play activity for example, students lose
the thread of what is going on, or they are 'lost for words'. They may not be quite sure how to
proceed. What should teachers do in these circumstances? Hold back and let them work things
out for themselves or, instead, 'nudge' them forward in a discreet and supportive way? If we opt
for the latter, we are adopting some kind of a 'prompting' role.
In such situations we want to help but we don't want, at that stage, to take charge. This is
because we are keen to encourage the students to think creatively rather than have them hang on
our every word. Thus it is that we will occasionally offer words or phrases, suggest that the
students say something (e.g. Well ask him why he says that) or suggest what could come next in a
paragraph a student is writing, for example. Often we have to prompt students in monolingual
groups to speak English rather than use their mother tongue.

When we prompt, we need to do it sensitively and encouragingly but, above all, with discretion. If
we are too adamant, we risk taking initiative away from the student. If, on the other hand, we are
too retiring, we may not supply the right amount of encouragement.

• Participant: The traditional picture of teachers during student discussions, role-plays or group
decision-making activities, is of people who 'stand back' from the activity, letting the learners get
on with it and only intervening later to offer feedback and/or correct mistakes. However, there are
also times when we might want to join in an activity not (only) as a teacher, but also as a
participant in our own right.
There are good reasons why we might want to take part in a discussion, for example. It means
that we can liven things up from the inside instead of always having to prompt or organize from
outside the group. When it goes well, students enjoy having the teacher with them, and for the
teacher, participating is often more enjoyable than acting as a resource.

The danger when teachers act as participants, of course, is that they can easily dominate the
proceedings. This is hardly surprising since teachers usually have more English at their disposal
than their students do. But it is also due to the fact that even in the most egalitarian classroom,
the teacher is still frequently perceived of as 'the authority' and tends to be listened to with greater
attention than other students.

• Resource: In some activities it is inappropriate for us to take on any of the roles we have
suggested so far. Suppose that the students are involved in a piece of group writing, or that they
are preparing for a presentation they are to make to the class. In such situations, having the
teacher take part, or try to control them, or even turn up to prompt them might be entirely
unwelcome. However, the students may still have need of their teacher as a resource. They might
need to ask how to say or write something or ask what a word or phrase means. They might want
to know information in the middle of an activity about that activity or they might want information
about where to look for something - a book or a website, for example. This is where we can be
one of the most important resources they have.

Two things need to be said about this teacher role. Firstly, no teacher knows everything about the
language! Questions like What's the difference between X and Y? or Why can't I say Z? are always
difficult to deal with because most of us do not carry complex information of this kind in our heads.
What we should be able to offer, however, is guidance as to where students can go to look for
that information. We could go further, however, and say that one of our really important jobs is to
encourage students to use resource material for themselves, and to become more independent in
their learning generally. Thus, instead of answering every question about what a word or phrase
means, we can instead direct students to a go to a good dictionary.
Alternatively, we need to have the courage to say I don t know the answer to that right now, but
I’ll tell you tomorrow. This means, of course, that we will have to give them the information the
next day otherwise they may begin to lose confidence in us.

When we are acting as a resource, we will want to be helpful and available, but at the same time
we have to resist the urge to spoon-feed our students so that they become over-reliant on us.
• Tutor: When students are working on longer projects, such as process writing or preparation for
a talk or a debate, we can work with individuals or small groups, pointing them in directions they
have not yet thought of taking. It is difficult to be a tutor in a very large group since the term
implies a closer relationship than that of a controller or organizer. However, when students are
working in small groups or in pairs, we can go round the class and, staying briefly with a particular
group or individual, offer the sort of general guidance we are describing.

It is essential for us to act as tutors from time to time, however difficult this may be, since in this
more personal contact, the learners have a real chance to feel supported and helped.

The role that we take on is dependent, as we have seen, on what it is we wish the students
to achieve. There are times when we will need to act as a prompter where, on other
occasions, it would be more appropriate to act as a resource. A lot will depend on the group
we are teaching since our leadership style may well depend on the particular students we are
working with; whereas some students might be more comfortable with using the teacher as a
resource and a tutor, others may hunger for us to adopt a more controlling role.

What we can say, with certainty, is that we need to be able to switch between the various
roles we have described here, judging when it is appropriate to use one or other of them.
And then, when we have made that decision, however consciously or subconsciously it is
done, we need to be aware of how we carry out that role, how we perform.

Organising students and activities

One of the most important tasks that teachers have to perform is that of organizing students to do
various activities. This often involves giving the students information, telling them how they are
going to do the activity, organizing them and finally closing things down when it is time to stop.

 The first thing we need to do when organizing something is to get students involved, engaged
and ready. In most cases, this means making it clear that something 'new' is going to happen and
that the activity will be enjoyable, interesting or beneficial. At this point teachers will often say
something like Now we're going to do this because ... and will offer a rationale for the activity
students are to be asked to perform. Thus, instead of just doing something because the teacher
says so, they are prepared, hopefully with some enthusiasm, for an activity whose purpose they
understand.

 Once the students are ready for the activity, we will want to give any necessary instructions,
saying what students should do first, what they should do next, etc. Here it is important to get the
level of the language right and try to present instructions in a logical order and in as unconfusing a
way as possible. It is frequently a good idea to get students to give the instructions back, in
English or in their own language, as a check on whether they have understood them. An
important tool in instruction is for the teacher to organize a demonstration of what is to happen. If
students are going to use a chart or table to ask other students questions and record their
answers, for example, getting a student up to the front to demonstrate the activity with you may
be worth any number of complex instructions. Demonstration is almost always appropriate and
will almost always ensure that students have a better grasp of what they are supposed to do than
instructions can on their own.

 Then it is time for us to start or initiate the activity. Here students need to know how much
time they have and exactly when they should start.

 Finally, we stop the activity when the students have finished or when it is time to do so. It is
vital to organize some kind of feedback, whether this is merely a Did you enjoy that? or whether
it is a more detailed type of discussion of what has taken place. When organizing feedback, we
need to do what we say we are going to do whether this concerns the prompt return of homework
or our responses at the end of an oral activity.
Students will judge us by the way we fulfill the criteria we offer them. We can summarize the role
of organizer as follows:

The teacher as performer

When, in a piece of informal research, I asked a number of teachers Are you a different person in
the classroom than you are out of the classroom?, the responses I got all suggested that the
teachers thought of themselves as more energetic, humorous and creative in class. Frequently, too,
they described themselves as 'actors' (Harmer 1995).

Knowing that different teachers act differently and that teachers vary their behavior, depending on
what they’re doing, gives us insights into classroom behavior. Thus, for an activity where the
students are involved in a team game, we will want to behave energetically (because a game needs
excitement and energy), encouragingly (if students need a nudge to have a go), clearly (because
we don't want the game to fail through misunderstanding) and fairly (because students care about
this in a competition situation).

If, on the other hand, students are involved in a role-play, we should 'perform' clearly (because
students need to know exactly what the parameters of the role-play are), encouragingly (because
students may need prompting to get them going), but also retiringly (because, once the activity has
got going, we don't want to overwhelm the students' performance) and supportively (because
students may need help at various points). This figure shows how we might describe these and
other activities:

What seems to be clear is that while we certainly need to be aware of the roles and tasks we
described above, and while we need to be able to use each of these different roles, it is also vitally
important to consider how we actually behave during their performance.

Rapport
In order to work well with the different roles we have been describing - and if we wish to develop a
good learning environment in the classroom - we need to establish an appropriate relationship with
our students. We need to spend time making sure that teacher-student rapport is positive and
useful. Rapport means, in essence, the relationship that the students have with the teacher and vice
versa. Although it may be, in Jim Scrivener's words, 'notoriously difficult to define or quantify'
(Scrivener 2005), nevertheless we can recognize it when we see it: a class where there is a
positive, enjoyable and respectful relationship between teacher and students, and between the
students themselves.

In part, successful rapport derives from the students' perception of the teacher as a good leader and
a successful professional. If, when teachers come to the class, students can see that they are well-
organized and well-prepared (that is, they have thought about what they are going to do in the
lesson), they are likely to have confidence in their teacher. Such confidence is an essential
component in the successful relationship between students and their teachers.
However, rapport (and effective classroom management) also depends on the way that we interact
with students. We might be the most well-prepared teachers in our school, but if that interaction isn't
working well, our ability to help students to learn will be seriously compromised. Successful
interaction with students depends on four key characteristics:

• Recognizing students: Students want their teachers to know who they are. They would like their
teachers to know their names, of course, but they also appreciate it when teachers have some
understanding of their characters. There is no easy way of remembering
students' names, yet it is extremely important that we do so. We need,
therefore, to find ways of doing this that suit us best.
But knowing students' names also involves knowing about students. At any
age, they will be pleased when they realize that their teacher has
remembered things about them, and has some understanding of who they
are. Once again, this is extremely difficult in large classes, especially when
we have a number of different groups, but part of a teacher's skill is to persuade
students that we recognize them and who and what they are.

• Listening to students: Students respond very well to teachers who listen to them. Although there
are many calls on our time, nevertheless we need to make ourselves as available as we can to
listen to individual students' opinions and concerns, often outside the lessons themselves. But we
need to listen properly to students in lessons, too. And we need to show that we are interested in
what they have to say. We also need to listen to the students' comments on how they are getting
on, and which activities and techniques they respond well or badly to. If we just go on teaching the
same thing day after day without being aware of our students' reactions, it will become more and
more difficult to maintain the rapport that is so important for successful classes.
Finally, we should point out that listening is not just done with the ears! We need
to show that we are listening and paying attention to our students, and this will
mean making eye contact and generally looking interested. As Hongshen Zhang
points out, 'eyes talk'

• Respecting students: correcting students is always a delicate event. If we are too critical, we risk
demotivating them, yet if we are constantly praising them, we risk turning them into 'praise junkies',
who begin to need approval all the time.

The problem we face, however, is that while some students are happy to be corrected robustly,
others need more support and positive reinforcement. In other words, just as students have different
learning styles and intelligences, so, too, they have different preferences when it comes to being
corrected. But whichever method of correction we choose, and whoever
we are working with, students need to know that we are treating them with
respect, and not using mockery or sarcasm. Teachers who respect
students do their best; they are not negative about their learners and do
not react with anger or ridicule when students do unplanned things, but
instead use a respectful professionalism to solve the problem.

• Being even-handed: most teachers have some students that they warm to more than others. For
example, many teachers react well to those who take part, are cheerful and cooperative, who take
responsibility for their own learning, and do what is asked of them without complaint. Sometimes
teachers are less enthusiastic about those who are less forthcoming, and who find learner
autonomy, for example, more of a challenge.
As a teenage student once told me: “a good teacher should try to draw out the quiet ones and
control the more talkative ones… a good teacher is someone who asks the people who don’t always
put their hands up.” Sometimes students are reluctant to take part overtly because of other stronger
characters in the group. And these quiet students will only be negatively affected when they see far
more attention being paid to their more robust classmates.
 •
CHAPTER 4

Using plans in class

Planning a lesson is not the same as scripting a lesson. Lessons are not plays where students and
their teacher have to remember and reproduce words in a pre-ordained sequence. What we take
into the lesson is a proposal for action, rather than a lesson blueprint to be followed slavishly. And
once we put our proposal for action into action, all sorts of things might happen, quite a few of which
we might not have anticipated. Classrooms are dynamic environments and, a lesson is an
interactive event in which people react with each other and with the language. Although, especially
for teachers in training, it is a good idea to try to follow the plan that we have made.

• Magic moments: some of the most affecting moments in language lessons happen when
a conversation develops unexpectedly or when a topic produces a level of interest in our students
which we had not predicted. This is the moment when students suddenly really want to talk about
the topic, or when one of them says something that, even if it falls outside the plan, is so
extraordinary, challenging or amusing, that everyone, including ourselves, wants to discuss it or
follow it up.
When such magic moments come along, we have to make (often instant) decisions about what to
do. We could, of course, carry on with our planned lesson as if the moment had never occurred. Yet
that might not only waste a golden opportunity for real communication, but might also demonstrate
to the students that we are not really respecting them and listening to them in the ways we
suggested were so important for successful rapport. A better course is to recognize the magic
moment and see how it can be used, rather than denying it life because it does not fit into our plan.

• Sensible diversion: sometimes non-magical things happen which cause us to wonder what to do
next. For example, students might start trying to use some new grammar or vocabulary which we
had not planned to introduce. Yet this suddenly seems like an ideal moment to do some work on the
language which has arisen, and so we take a diversion and teach something we had not intended to
teach.

• Unforeseen problems: however well we plan, unforeseen problems often crop up. Some
students may find an activity that we thought interesting incredibly boring; an activity may take more
or less time than we anticipated. It is possible that something we thought would be fairly simple for
our students turns out to be very difficult (or vice versa). We may have planned an activity based on
the number of students we expected to turn up, only to find that some of them are absent.
Occasionally we find that students have already come across material or topics we take into class,
and our common sense tells us that it would be unwise to carry on. Sometimes the technology we
had relied on fails to work properly.
In any of the above scenarios it would be almost impossible to carry on with our plan as if nothing
had happened. If an activity finishes quickly, we have to find something else to fill the time. If
students cannot do what we are asking of them, we will have to modify what we ask them to do. If
some students (but not all) have already finished an activity, we cannot just leave those students to
get bored.

Using a plan means having a constant dialogue between what we intended to do and what is
actually happening.

How to Plan a Class

https://youtu.be/oO53ib3b1PM

Educational Coaching
https://youtu.be/FU4n_3-1hds

5 mistakes we must try to avoid

https://youtu.be/6sUcHQTY3wA?list=PLlGqKyAN51d9BFE4mg4PzqWg7bXRtX8Wa