Teachers and their profession, The roles of a teacher: Controller- tch is in charge of the class and of the activity. Controllers take roll, tell ss things, organize drills, read aloud, and in various ways exemplify the qualities of a teacher-fronted classroom. Organizer- one of the most important roles that tch have to perform is that of organizing ss to do various activities. This involves giving the ss information, telling them how they are going to do the activity, putting them into pairs or groups and closing things when it is time to stop. (engage-instruct(demonstrate)-initiate-organize feedback)- the role of organizer. Assessor-one of the things that ss expect from their tch is an indication of whether or not they are getting their English right. We should tell ss what we are looking for and what success looks like so that they can measure themselves against this. The fairness is also important. When ss are criticized or score poor grades and they then find that other ss have suffered less criticism for an equally good or bad performance, they tend to be extremely unhappy. When we act as assessors we must be always sensitive to ss possible reactions. Prompter- tch wants to help but don’t want to take charge, because we should encourage ss to think creatively rather than hang ss on our every word. Participant-tch participate with ss Resource-ss might ask how to say or write sth. Or 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 sth. This is where we can be one of the most important resources they have. Tutor- when ss are working on longer projects, such as pieces of writing or preparations for a talk or a debate, we can act as a tutor, working with individuals or small groups pointing them in directions they have not yet thought of taking. In such situations we are combining the roles of prompter and resource, acting as a tutor. Observer- when observing ss we should be careful not to be too instructive by hanging on their every word, by getting too close to them. We should avoid drawing attention to ourselves. Teacher should be able to switch between the various roles, use mime and gesture; be a language model; provide the comprehensible input
Language teaching methods and approaches: Approach- describes how people acquire their knowledge of the language and makes statements about the conditions which will promote successful language learning. Method-is the practical realization of an approach. Procedure-is an ordered sequence of techniques. Audio-lingual method- relied heavily on drills to form good habits in language learners. a variation of this method is PPP-presentation, practice, production. The communicative approach-this approach stressed the significance of language functions rather than focusing solely on grammar and vocabulary. A guiding principle was to train students to use these language forms appropriately in a variety of contexts and for variety of purposes. Students 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. Task-based learning- students are presented with a task they have to perform or a problem they have to solve. Only when the task is 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. Four methods: Community language learning-students sit in a circle. It is up to them to decide what they want to talk about. A counselor or a ‘knower’ stands outside the circle. The knower provides or corrects target language statement so that if, for instance, a student says something in their own language, the knower can then give them English equivalent for them to use. The silent way- teacher, rather than entering into conversation with the students, says as little as possible. Suggestopaedia-the teacher and students exist in a parent-children relationship where, to remove barriers to learning, students are given different names from their outside real ones. A suggestopaedic lesson has three main parts. There is an oral review section in which previously learnt material is used for discussion. This is followed by the presentation and discussion of new dialogue material. Finally, in the séance session students listen to relaxing music while the teacher the new dialogue material in a way which synchronizes with the taped music. Total physical response- if the children learn much of their language from speech directed at them in form of commands to perform actions, then adults will learn best in that way too. Humanistic teaching-students are encourage to make use of their own lives and feeling in the classroom. Some people claim that using students themselves as the topic may help them to absorb grammar. The lexical approach- exposure to language-students need constant exposure to language since this is a key component of language acquisition input-students need comprehensible input but this is not enough in itself unless there is some language study or some opportunity for noticing or consciousness-raising to help students remember language facts CLT-communicative activities and task- based teaching offer real learning benefits, though neither tasks nor communicative activities on their own are sufficient for a whole language programme. The affective variable-anxiety needs to be lowered for learning to take place Discovery- where culturally appropriate , students should encouraged to discover things for themselves, as this is likely to lead to better retention in the long run. Grammar and lexis- lexis is as important as grammar. Showing how words combine together and behave both semanticallly and gramatically is an important part of any language learning programme Approaches to teaching children: direct method, the total physical response, the whole language approach, the topic based approach, the task based approach.
Language learners: young children- respond to meaning even if they don’t understand individual words. often learn indirectly rather than directly- take in information from all sides, learning from everything around them rather than only focusing on the precise topic. understanding comes not just from explanation, but also from what they see and hear, and have a chance to touch and interact with. display an enthusiasm for learning and a curiosity. need for individual attention and approval. keen to talk about themselves, and respond well to learning that uses themselves and their own lives as main topics in the classroom. limited attention span, get bored, losing interest after ten minutes. Teenagers- must be encouraged to respond to texts and situations with their own thoughts and experience, rather than just by answering questions and doing abstract learning activities. We must give them tasks which they are able to do, rather than risk humiliating them. Teenagers , if they are engaged, have a great capacity to learn, a great potential for creativity, and a passionate commitment to things which interest them. Adult learners- they can engage with abstract thought. have expectations about the learning process, and may already have their own set patterns of learning. Adult tend, to be more disciplined than teenagers, and they are often prepared to struggle on despite boredom. 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 to get out of it. 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. They can be critical of teaching methods. 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.
Descriptions of students: Convergers- solitary,prefer to avoid groups, independent and confident in their own abilities analytic and can impose their own structures on learning, they tend to be cool and pragmatic. Conformists- prefer to emphasise learning about language over learning to use it. dependent on those in authority and are happy to work in non-communicative classrooms doing what they are told. A classroom of conformists is one which prefers to see well- organized teachers. Concrete learners- similar to conformists but they also enjoy the social aspects of learning and like to learn from direct experience. They are interested in language use and language as communication rather than language as a system. They enjoy games and groupwork in class. Communicative learners- language use orientated. comfortable out of class and show a degree of confidence and a willingness to take risks which their colleagues may lack. They are much more interested in social interaction with other speakers of the language than they are with analysis of how the language works. They are perfectly happy to operate without the guidance of a teacher.
Motivation: Goals and goal setting- Long term goals include the mastery of English, the passing of an exam etc. Short term goals, might be the learning of small amount of new language, the successful writing of an essay etc. Teachers need to recognize that long term goals are vitally important but that they can often seem too far away. When English seems to be more difficult then the student had anticipated, the long term goals can appear and disappear at random. Short term goals are by their nature much closer to the students day to day reality. If the teacher can help students in the achievement of short term goals, this will have a significant effect on their motivation. Learning environment-when students walk into an attractive classroom at the beginning of a course, it may help to get their motivation for the process going. When they come to unattractive place motivation may not be initiated in this way. The important is the emotional atmosphere teachers are able to create and sustain. That is why they have to be careful about how they respond to students. Interesting classes- if students are to continue to be motivated they clearly need to be interested both in the subject they are studying and in the activities and topics they are presented with. We need to provide them with a variety of subjects and exercises to keep them engaged. The choice of material to take into class will be crucial too, but even more important than this will be the ways in which it is used in the lesson.

The nature of a lesson 4 main planning elements: Activities-it is vital to consider what ss will be doing in the classroom, we have to consider the way they will be grouped, whether they are to move around the class etc. We should centre round what kind of activity would be best for a particular group of ss at a particular point in a lesson. The best lessons offer a variety of activities within a class period. Skills- we need to make a decision about which language skills we wish our ss to develop Language-what to introduce and have the ss learn, practice, use Content-lesson planners have to select content which has a good chance of provoking interest and involvement. Even where the choice of subject and content is to some extent dependent on a coursebook, we can still judge when and if to use the coursebook’s topics or whether to replace them with something else.
listening process - Extensive listening-a tch encourages ss to choose for themselves what they listen to and to do so for pleasure and general language improvement. usually take place outside the classroom, in the students home, car etc. In order to encourage extensive listening we can have students perform a number of tasks. They can record their responses to what they have heard in a personal journal, or fill in report which we have prepared asking them to list the topic, and summarize the contents of a tape. The purpose of this or any other tasks is to give students more and more reasons to listen. If they can share their information with colleagues they will feel they have contributed to the progress of the whole group. The motivational power of such feelings should not be underestimated. Intensive listening- using taped materials; Advantages: it gives an opportunity to meet a range of different characters, especially where real people are talking; Disadvantages: problems with acoustics; everyone has to listen at the same speed; having a group of people sit around listening to a tape recorder is not a natural occupation Intensive listening: live listening- a popular way is live listening where the teacher talks to the students. Live listening can take the following forms: Reading aloud- the teacher reads aloud to a class. This allows them to hear a clear spoken version of written text. Story telling- at any stage of the story, the students can be asked to predict what is coming next, or be asked to describe people in the story or pass comment on it in some other way. Interviews-live interview, where students themselves dream up the questions. In such situations, students really listen for answers they themselves have asked for, rather than adopting other people’s questions. Conversations- role playing Intensive listening: the roles of the teacher Organizer- we need to tell students exactly what their listening purpose is, and give them clear instructions about how to achieve it. Offering tasks that are achievable and texts that are comprehensible. Machine operator- trying the material out before taking it into the class so that we don’t waste time. We should take decisions about where we can stop to extract for particular questions and exercises. Feedback organizer- checking the answers after the recording. We may start by having them compare their answers in pairs and then ask for answers from the class in general or from pairs in particular Prompter- when students have listened to a type or disk for comprehension purposes we can have them listen to it again for them to notice a variety of language and spoken feature. Listening lesson sequences-most listening sequences involve a mixture of language skills. Students listen for a gist on first hearing before moving on to different task skills; at other times they may listen for specific information. In general we should aim to use listening material for as many purposes as possible- both for practicing a variety of skills and as a source material for other activities.
Classroom speaking activities: Acting from a script- ss act out scenes / dialogues they have written. we need to be careful not to choose the shyest person, create the supportive atmosphere in the class. Communication games; Discussion- one of the reasons that discussion fails is that students don’t want to give their opinion in front of the whole class. The buzz group is one way in which a teacher can avoid it. It means that students have a chance for quick discussions in small groups before any of them are asked to speak in public. Prepared talks- a student makes a presentation on a topic of their own choice. Questionnaires- when pre-planned, they ensure that both questioner and respondent have something to say to each other. Simulation and role-play
Pronunciation teaching not only makes ss aware of different sounds and sound features, but can also improve their speaking. Concentrating on sounds, showing where they are made in the mouth, making ss aware of where words should be stressed- all these things give ss extra information about spoken English and help them achieve the goal of improved comprehension and intelligibility. Two particular problem occur in pronunciation teaching and learning: What students can hear- some ss have great difficulty hearing pronunciation features or problems with different sounds. In the first place we can show ss how sounds are made through demonstration, diagrams, and explanation. The intonation problem- give ss opportunities to recognize such moods and intentions either on tape or through the way we ourselves model them. We can then get ss to imitate the way these moods are articulated. teaching receptive and productive skills: Teaching receptive skills – receptive skills are the ways in which people extract meaning from the discourse they see or hear. Top – down and bottom up- in top- down processing the reader or listener gets a general view of the reading or listening passage absorbing the overall picture. In bottom- up processing the reader or listener focuses on individual words and phrases, and achieves understanding by stringing these detailed elements together to build up a whole. The teaching and learning of receptive skills presents a number of problems- connected with- language, topic, tasks, expectations students have of reading and listening Language: Pre-teaching vocabulary, Extensive reading and listening (extensive-students are on their own/with help), Authenticity (natural language) Topic and genre: choose the right topic, activate schemata, vary topics and genres, A key feature in the successful teaching of receptive skills concerns the choice of comprehension tasks: Testing and teaching- the best kinds of tasks are those which raise ss expectations, help them tease meanings, and provoke an examination of the reading or listening passage. By having ss perform activities such as looking up information on the internet, filling in forms on the basis of a listening tape, or solving reading puzzles, we are helping them become better readers and listeners. Appropriate challenge- when asking ss to read and listen we want to avoid texts and tasks that are either far too easy or far too difficult. As with many other language tasks we want to get the level of challenge right, to make the tasks difficult but achievable. The teaching of productive skills is closely bound up with receptive skill work. The two feed off each other in a number of ways: the circle of input and output, texts as models, texts as stimuli, Reception as part of production, production enables reception
teaching reading One should start with the global understanding: study a layout-title, pictures; making hypothesis; predictions; second reading for more detail; Use of authentic texts; Reading comprehension activities should not be separated from other language skills; Two people reading the same text may have different conclusions; Reading activities should be flexible and varied; The aim of the activity should be clearly stated; Reading: Extensive- refers to the large amount of reading; giving our opinion, Intensive- reading much more slowly but with a lot of attention and understanding; shorter texts
teaching writing In the teaching of writing we can focus on the product of that writing or on the writing process itself. When concentrating on the product we are only interested in the aim of a task and in the needed product. Those who advocate a process approach to writing, however, pay attention to the various stages that any piece of writing goes through. Factors on which the writing process depends: reader, purpose, content, situation; Stages of the writing process: Drafting, Structuring –ordering information, Reviewing- checking context/editing, Focusing, Generating ideas and evaluation; Stages in teaching writing: Familiarization- ( studying written texts, analyzing texts, ordering texts, matching texts, inserting missing sentences); Controlled writing (parallel writing, completing text, gap filling, sentence combining, from scratch to narration); Free writing
teaching grammar Aspects of grammar: grammar knowledge and competence; Ways of grammar teaching: PPP model (presentation, practice , production), Deductive way (teacher explains the grammar rules and gives examples), Inductive way (grammar is not presented directly, learners anylyse texts, sentences; discover the rules by themselves, the rule comes up at the end of discovering), Paradigmatic (repetition of patterns), Syntagmatic (the starting point is authentic text, explaining everything what is in the text), Features of effective language practice: validity, pre –learning exercises, amount of practice, success- orientation, heterogeneity (vary activities), teachers assistance, interest, progression; Principles of conducting grammar practice activities: Give activities a topic; Activities must have a clear aim, instructions; Grammar should enable learners to use the structure repeatedly in natural situations; Grammar activities should be short, varied, and done with speed otherwise they will become boring; The more activities refer to learners life and experience the greater the chances to master the structure; Creativity; Teacher must make it clear whether activities concentrate on accuracy- correcting all mistakes of fluency- communication.
Language learning techniques
demonstration- we can demonstrate the language forms which we want ss to study by offering them a situation which shows the language in action. The language can be used in a text which clearly shows what it means; we can also use picture or various items of realia to demonstrate meanings; explanation; discovery- ss can be encouraged to understand new language forms either by discovering them from themselves in a text, or by looking at grammatical evidence in order to work out grammar rule; Accurate reproduction we ask ss to repeat words, phrases, or sentences in a controlled way, correcting them when they get things wrong and showing approval when they use the form correctly; Immediate creativity- it is the production phase of the traditional PPP model. When ss show an understanding of the meaning, use, and construction of the language form we are focusing on, we can ask them to create their own sentences using the language form; Check questions- we can use check questions to see if ss have understood meaning and use.
Teaching vocabulary: Techniques for vocabulary presentation: Visual- we don’t explain, we show it, demonstrate without using words, facial expressions, gestures, time saving, useful with children; Verbal- we use explanation, synonyms, antonyms, definitions, guessing from the context; Visual- verbal-pictures with explanation, mnemonic combinations; Vocabulary learning strategies:Discovering meaning- amylase part of speech, roots, affixes, pictures; use a dictionary, ask a teacher/ classmates; Consolidating- social- study and practice in a group; memory- find synonyms; cognitive- notebook ; metacognitive-testing ourselves