Pros and Cons

Having listened to the students and teachers talking about coursebooks, it is clear
that they have different views of coursebooks and use them to varying extents. Of
course, how much you use your coursebook depends on your students and it
depends on which coursebook your course has been assigned. It is very common
for teachers to have a preference for a particular book.

Overall, it can be said that coursebooks are useful for the following reasons:

 they have been designed to be graded appropriately for the students’ level
 they provide students with a variety of topics, skills and language work
 they offer a logical structure for the course to follow. For example, the skills
work becomes increasingly challenging to reflect the students’ progress and
revision activities are often built in, so the students are constantly recycling
the language they have covered in previous chapters
 the students expect to use the coursebook and value the logical structure it
gives the course
 they are a valuable reference resource for students and enable them to look
ahead and/or revise
 the teacher’s book often suggests ways to adapt activities to supplement the
coursebook
 the workbook can provide ready-to-go homework tasks
 they save the teacher valuable planning time.
but they can also have the following drawbacks:

 the coursebooks are written for students at that level but they cannot know
the needs of your particular students
 they can be unsuitable for particular learners in terms of topics, for example,
dating and relationships can be inappropriate topics for discussion in certain
cultures
 they can be too grammar-based if they follow a grammar syllabus
 they can date quickly if they use authentic materials, for example, articles
about celebrities or technology
 they can be too focused on certain parts of the world which may not be
relevant or interesting to students
 the students can become bored by the structure and/or layout of
coursebooks.

I would tell students to pair up and discuss if they think laughing can have positive effects on
our bodies and how. I would get feedback from them and write their answers on the board.
Then I'd show the picture and ask why the people there are laughing. Finally, I'd ask them what
they think a "laugh club" could be about and what people do in a meeting of the club - telling
jokes, watching comedies-their ideas would be brainstormed on the board and then they
would read the text to check their answers.

Task 9: Lesson Plan

Below is Fan’s lesson plan. Complete the plan by choosing the correct name for
each stage.

Time &
Stage & Stage Aim Procedure (Teacher/Student Ac
Interaction

Students look at the photo on p

5 mins
and guess what the people are
To get students interested in the topic and the text
Pairs
Monitor
Whole Feedback ideas onto the board
class
5 mins Students read the article and m
To practise reading for general information
Individual topics to paragraphs
Students check answers in pairs
Pairs Monitor
Whole class feedback
Whole
class
20 mins Students do worksheet in pairs
To see how much students know about adjectives and
Pairs Monitor
prepositions and check understanding of MFPAof Whole class feedback
adjectives and prepositions Whole Check meaning of adjectives
class Check preposition after each
adjective. Ask students what th
is (be + adjective + preposition
object)
Check word stress for each adje
Drill chorally and individually

10 mins Students do exercise 8a and b

To allow students to create their own sentences using
Individual Monitor
adjective + prepositions & Pairs Whole class feedback. Ask stud
to report back on what they lea
Whole about partner’s friends/family
class
5 mins Put 3-4 errors students made d
To round up the lesson and check common errors 8b on the board
Pairs Students in pairs correct the err
 Whole Correct mistakes together on th
class board

Lesson aims: To enable students to develop their reading skills by reading a text on
laughter clubs for general and detailed information.

Materials /
Time & Procedure (Teacher/Student Activity)
aids: Face to Interaction
Face
Intermediate
pages 8 & 9

Stage & 5 mins Students look at the photo on page 9 and

Stage Aim guess what the people are doing.
Pairs Teacher monitors.
Whole class Feedback student ideas onto the board.

Lead-in 5 mins Students read the text quickly to see if their

ideas were correct.
Individual Students check answers in pairs.
Pairs Teacher monitors.
Whole class Whole class feedback.

To get 10 mins Students read the text again and complete

students Individual sentences in exercise 6d.
interested in Pairs Students check answers in pairs.
Whole class Teacher monitors.
the topic
and the text Whole class feedback.

10 mins Students discuss exercise 6e in groups.

Would they go to a club like the one in the
Groups text?
Teacher monitors & notes down student
errors.

5 mins 5 mins Students discuss with the class what their

groups decided.
Whole class Nominate 1 spokesperson from every group.

5 mins Board 6-7 errors from the speaking activity.

Students in pairs correct the errors.
Pairs Feedback together on the board.
Whole class
End Notes

It is important to remember the following points from the unit:

 Coursebook materials can be exploited in a number of ways. When

presented with the same materials, teachers may decide to plan very
different lessons. For example, a text can be used to focus on either skills
or language. However, you should make principled decisions and be
aware of the reasons for your decisions and articulate these in your plan.
 It is a good idea to vary your approach and experiment. Your students
will quickly get bored if all your lessons follow the same formula. They also
need a balance of skills and language practice. Try to think of
your learners’ needs and interests and create lessons from their
perspective, not yours.

Procedure Stage and stage a

Lead-in – to engage
Show photo of Oliver and ask: What can you see in this photo? (Oliver and
bank in background). students in the topic
Say: ‘Today’s topic is a boy and a bank’ and ask students to predict what the lesson.
story will be about.
Students work in pairs to discuss their ideas.
Nominate 3 or 4 students for their responses and write on the board. Feedback – to enable
students to share ide
the
rest of the class.
Ask students to read quickly, not worrying about new language and check Gist task – to help stu
which of their stories is closest to the true one.
focus on a general
Give students a time limit to read.
understanding of the
Ask students to check with partners to see if they agree and share reasons. Peer check – to boost
students’ confidence
encourage peer learn
Check students’ answers and ask students if their predictions were correct. Feedback – to check
students have unders
the text
and for students to co
and/or justify their an
Hand out parts of the story on strips of cards for the students to order. Students Reading for detail - fo
work in groups of 3 to put the story in order. students to develop
Set time limit.
Monitor and note any problem areas to focus on in feedback, prompt early reading for detailed
finishers to retell the story without the text. information skills.
 Show the correct order of the story on the interactive whiteboard and focus on Feedback – to check
any problem areas, referring students back to the text to clarify. students have unders
the text
and for students to co
and/or justify their an
Ask students their opinion on the story: Do you think Oliver was a good boy? Follow up speaking ta
If you were Oliver, what would you have done? Puts students in new groups allow students to resp
of three and allow five minutes.
Monitor to check students are on task and note errors and gaps in their to the text, give their
language for next stage. opinion and practise
speaking skills.
Ask students’ opinions. Feedback – to enable
students to share ide
the
rest of the class.
Correct common errors students produced and give useful language that Language feedback –
students needed during speaking.
clarify any common
errors and give stude
language they lack.

Now listen to two trainees matching the stages to the procedure and check your answers.

Writing Aims

So before you write your main aim you need to be clear whether the main focus of
the lesson is skills(reading, listening, speaking or writing) or language (grammar,
lexis or phonology). The main aim of the lesson we saw was skills, in this case,
reading.

Remember to be specific in your main aims. Thus for a listening lesson include
what type of text they will listen to, for example, a short TV documentary about
animals in captivity. Make sure you include what listening skill(s) they will develop,
such as listening for gist or inferring the speaker’s attitude. Similarly, if it is a lexis
lesson, include examples of the lexis students will see and specify the context, for
instance, a lexical set to do with leisure activities (go climbing, play computer
games). If your main aim is grammar, include the structure, the use of the
structure you are teaching and the context. For example, to enable students to
extend their understanding and use of definite, indefinite and zero articles for
identifying specific and general information in the context of a text about animals in
captivity. For example, ‘the environment’, ‘tigers’.

It is important to write the aims as student outcomes. The main aim needs to
written in terms of what the students will be able to do by the end of the lesson,
not just describing the activities that the students will do in the lesson.

Finally, lesson aims are written from the students’ point of view, not the
teacher’s, because the lesson is designed for your learners and to meet their needs.
Therefore, your main aim has to begin with the students, for example, to enable
the students to …, or to give students the opportunity to ….

Checklist

Here is a useful checklist to refer back to when you are writing your main aims.

Main aim checklist

Have you written your aims from the students’ point of view?

If it is a skills lesson, have you said which skill students are practising
e.g. reading for gist?

If it is a language lesson, have you given an example of the language you

are teaching?

Have you included the context?

Have you written your aim in terms of a student outcome?

Subsidiary Aims

As you write your main aims, you will find that the students will be developing more
than one skill or that the learners will be doing a mixture of skills and language,
that is to say that your lesson often has more than one aim. Therefore, your lesson
will have a main aim and at least one subsidiary (sub) aim or secondary aim.
For example, in the lesson previously examined, students not only developed their
reading skills but also developed their speaking skills as well when they shared
their opinions and discussed their reactions to the text. Therefore, the teacher
would write the lesson aims as follows:

Main aim: To enable students to develop their reading skills for gist and detailed
understanding in the context of reading a newspaper article about a boy and a
bank.

Sub aim: To enable students to develop their speaking skills in the context of a
newspaper article about a boy and a bank.

Anticipating Problems

When planning a lesson, a teacher needs to predict what problems might arise in
the lesson to ensure the lesson is as effective as possible. For each of these
problems the teacher needs to have a solution ready before the lesson. There are
two types of problems. Firstly, these could be practical or classroom
management problems, for example, the teacher may have planned pair work
activity, but there might be an odd number of students in the class.

As well as classroom management problems, the teacher needs to consider what

students might find difficult with the target language they want to introduce to the
students. These problems can be problems with the meaning, form,
pronunciation or appropriacy of the language. If a teacher anticipates such
problems in advance, they can be dealt with more efficiently and effectively in the
lesson and this helps achieve the aim of the lesson.

Reference List 1

Here is a useful list to refer to when you are writing your lesson plans so that you
know what to include in each section of the plan. It has been divided into three
sections according to which sheet of the lesson plan it belongs. Copy this into your
work folder for your reference.

Front sheet

Main aims: This is the most important part of your lesson plan. This is what the
students will be able to do (or do better) by the end of the lesson. Express your
main aims in terms of student outcomes not teacher or student actions. For
example:
To enable the students to write a formal letter of complaint in the context of poor
service on an airline.
To enable students to develop their fluency speaking skills in the context of
discussing feelings and opinions about food.
To enable students to develop their listening for detail skills by listening to a news
broadcast.
To enable the students to understand and use ‘used to’ for past habits in the
context of childhood e.g. I used to spend the weekend with my family.
To enable students to better understand and use verb/noun collocations for daily
routines, e.g. brush your teeth, have a coffee.
To give students an opportunity to extend their understanding and use of
expressions to do with shopping exchanges, e.g. Can I try it on? Here you are. How
much is it?

Sub aims: These are the subsidiary aims of the lesson. They are also written from
the point of view of the students and will detail what other skills or language will be
developed in the lesson. Jacqueline’s subsidiary aims for the mid-intermediate
reading lesson you watched at the beginning of this unit were: To enable students
to practise their fluency speaking skills by exchanging opinions and reactions to the
newspaper article and To enable students to extend their lexical range in the
context of discussing their reactions to the newspaper story.

Personal aims: These are aims that relate to you developing as a teacher. These
are included to help improve your teaching skills and they are part of your
professional development as a teacher. These might include aims such as, to
maintain a good pace or to give clearer instructions. Look at the action points you
receive in feedback from your tutor on your lessons in Teaching Practice for
guidance as to what to include.

Assumptions: These are what you assume the students already know or have
already experienced. Think about what you already know about the students. For
example, I assume that the students will be interested in the topic because they
enjoy real life stories or I assume the students have seen the past simple before
because last week they used it to talk about events in the past.

Materials: These are all the resources you will be using in the lesson. These
include electronic materials (on a memory stick or a computer) as well as books or
handouts which you will give to the students. Remember one of the Cambridge
CELTA requirements is that ALL your materials be referenced to credit the author
and the publisher. This is for copyright reasons and the page/exercise numbers
must be included if using materials from books. For example, English Unlimited
Elementary, Rea, Tilbury, Clementson & Hendra (Cambridge 2010) pp10 Ex2 & 3,
Cambridge.

Anticipated problems and solutions: These are vital to ensure your lesson is
effective for students and runs smoothly. Here you need to think about what
problems students might have during the lesson, such as issues with the materials
or classroom management. For each problem you need to provide an appropriate
solution.

Reference List 2

Procedure sheet

Stage and stage aims: These are the parts of the lesson (stages) and why the
students will benefit from these (stage aims). For example, when students are
checking the answers to an exercise together the stage is Peer check and the
reason they are doing it, i.e. the stage aim, is to compare answers, build confidence
and encourage peer teaching.

Procedure: This is what the students and teacher will be doing in the class. For
example, Ss work in groups of 3 to put the story in order or T monitors and notes
any problem areas to focus on in feedback. You can also include the answers to the
exercises here and your instructions.
Interaction: You must include the interaction pattern for each activity in your
lesson plan. Different patterns include: individual (S), pairwork (S← →S), groups
(Ss← →Ss), whole class (T→Ss or T← →Ss). Make sure you have a variety of
patterns throughout your lesson to make sure learners are engaged and actively
involved; if you just have T→Ss the students will be too passive and you will not
know how much they have understood.

Timing: Make sure you include estimated timings for each stage of the lesson, for
example, language feedback – 5 mins. Try not to break down stages into too many
one or two minute stages, otherwise it will be difficult to keep track of time in class.
An exception is peer check which may only last a couple of minutes but as this
stage is crucial it needs to be separated from feedback with the whole class.

Reference List 3

Language Analysis sheet

Language Analysis: The language analysis shows that you have researched the
area of grammar or lexis that you will cover in the lesson. As you saw on the
template you need to analyse the following areas on your language analysis sheet.
Use the questions to help remember what to include for each section.

 The MEANING of the language – what does it mean in this context? What is
the function of this language?
 The FORM of the language – how is the structure formed? Can the word
order be changed? What parts of the form do not change? What type of
word is it?
 The PRONUNCIATION of the language – how does it sound? Where is the
word/sentence stress? Are there any weak forms or contractions? Are there
any difficult sounds?
 The APPROPRIACY of the language – is it formal or informal? Is it used more
in writing or speaking? Does it carry any positive or negative connotations?
 Anticipated problems students will have with the meaning, form and
pronunciation of the language and how you will tackle these.

NB: The starting point of language analysis is considering how the target language
is used in the context and how it is used by expert users. Then check the language
analysis in the coursebook and the teacher’s book before looking at
grammar/language analysis reference books because it will be graded for students
and should be analysed in the context of the lesson.

Task 3: Learner Language

Look at the following incorrect student utterances and decide what the students did
not fully understand about the language items in bold. Write your answers on the
notepad.

Incorrect student utterances

 A. Yesterday I have bought this new shirt. What do you think of it?
B. (to bank manager) Do you fancy lending me £5000?
C. I drove when the phone rang.
D. My arm hurts (pointing to hand).
E. My sister is really sensible – she easily gets upset.
F. Doesn’t Keith look pretty with a moustache?

Notepad

A. The student thinks that this form of the verb (present perfect simple) can be
used in this context, perhaps because of L1 interference.
B. This phrase is too informal given that the speaker is talking to a bank
manager and is making a significant request. This is a problem of
appropriacy.
C. Here the student has not understood that this form of the verb (past simple)
cannot be used to describe a longer, interrupted action in the past. As it
stands the student is saying that when the phone rang, they started driving.
D. The student thinks there is only one word for this part of the body (over-
generalisation or L1 interference). For example, in Russian, the word is
used for both arm and hand.
E. The student has confused sensible with sensitive, probably because of L1
interference.
F. As in example 2, this word is inappropriate. The concept of ‘prettiness’ is not
normally associated with moustaches (connotation).

Other Techniques for Checking Understanding

Apart from timelines teachers can also use a variety of ways to check students’
understanding of the language. Below are six different ways of checking. As you
read them, think about which ones you have used and/or observed on the course
so far.

1. Clines are visual scales that show the difference in degrees of meaning.
Students can be asked to position the following words on the scale to
illustrate the meaning of the adjectives:
 2. Personalisation is when students use the target language to talk about
their lives. This can help to show that a student has understood the concept.
For example:
Did you use to smoke at school, Ahmed?

3. Non verbal responses, where students do something in response to the

language, can show you that your students have understood a concept:
OK, can you cross your arms?

4. Asking students to provide examples/synonyms/opposites can also

check understanding:

T: Give me an example of a tool. St: Hammer, pliers

T: What’s another word for furious? St: Very, very angry

T: What’s the opposite of cheap? St: Expensive

5. Paraphrase/explanation by the student

Be careful with this one…not ‘what does compass mean?’ but ‘what’s a
compass used for?’ The second question is less demanding of the student
and more useful for the other students in the class.

6. Extension is when you get a student to extend a sentence to demonstrate

understanding of the concept:

He used to smoke … T: but … St: now he doesn’t.

T: although St: he knew it was bad for his health

Devising Effective Concept Questions

One common technique is to ask concept questions. These are short, simple
questions that help guide the students to understand the meaning of the target
language as fully as possible and allow teachers to check students have understood
the target language.

STEP 1: Analyse the context and the target language

As was mentioned in previous units, it is crucial to introduce language within a

context in order to make the meaning of the target language easier and clearer for
learners. Before you check students’ understanding of this language, you will need
to think carefully about what an item of language means in that context. Before
referring to any dictionaries, grammar books or coursebooks, the first step is to
think about how this language has been used and what the key elements of
meaning are.
For example, remember in Dealing with language when you looked at the language
from the bank story, the father said:

'There was the big safe, right in front of us. I wish I'd taken a picture of it. There
were no alarms going off or anything.

Look at the part which is in bold. In order to work out the key elements of
meaning, think about:

 When do people usually use the phrase ‘I wish’?

 Is the father talking about the past, present or future?
 Did this event take place?
 How does the father feel now?

STEP 2: Define the meaning as simply as possible

 'There was the big safe, right in front of us. I wish I'd taken a picture of it.
There were no alarms going off or anything’.
 Write at least two or three simple sentences which cover each key element
of the meaning.

e.g.

The father is talking about what happened last weekend.

The father did not take a picture.

The father thinks it was a good idea to take a picture.

The father is not happy about not taking a picture.

The father wants to change the past.

STEP 3: Turn these sentences into questions and provide short

answers

'There was the big safe, right in front of us. I wish I'd taken a picture of
it. There were no alarms going off or anything’.

e.g.

When is the father talking about? Last weekend

Did the father take a picture? No

Did he think it was a good idea to take a picture? Yes

Is the father happy now? No

Does the father want to change the past? Yes

As can be seen, concept questions need to be clear and precise. Concept
questions are meant to help guide students to understanding the full
meaning of the language as well as checking their understanding.
Remember if students cannot answer the concept questions then this
shows that they have not understood and the teacher will need to go back
and convey meaning again.

These questions need to be formulated at the planning stage and included

in your lesson plan. It is very difficult to invent concept questions ‘on the
spot’, which is why it is advisable to plan them well in advance.

Task 6: Problems

Look at the following examples of concept questions. Why are they not
effective? Write your answers on the notepad.

Concept questions

 Do you understand what ‘were waiting’ means?

 What does ‘were waiting’ mean, Kumiko?
 Well, you all seem to have got the hang of ‘past continuous’ so let’s
move on, shall we?
 You all know when we use ‘past continuous’, don’t you?

a.Learners may say they understand (perhaps in an effort to please the

teacher) but the teacher will not have any evidence for this. It is a brave
student who will say ‘Actually I don’t understand what you’re trying to
teach me so will you start again, please?’

BThis is asking too much of the learner. The teacher is expecting Kumiko to
give a clear and precise definition of a complex language item and so she is
being asked to come up with a grammar book definition on the spot.

C.This question presumes too much and does not check anything, and does
not really encourage the learners to respond.

D.As in C, the teacher is assuming too much and most learners will
probably pretend they have understood rather than stop the teacher’s flow.

Rules for Devising Concept Questions

When you are preparing for your language analysis for your next language lesson, follow the
for devising concept questions:

1. Make sure you know what the target language really means in its context and follow t
you saw on the screen Concept Questions.
2. Avoid using the target language in the concept questions. If the target language is ne
the concept questions doesn’t always check students’ understanding. So, if your targe
 ‘I’ve been to Spain’, asking ‘Have I been to Spain’ means the students can guess ‘yes
understanding this use of the Present Perfect.
3. Keep concept questions as simple as possible so they are easy to answer:
 Grade your language
 Ask yes/no questions, wh-questions or questions which offer two options.
 Ask a useful rounding off question where appropriate, for example: Did Jan fin
tickets? Yes, Was it easy to find cheap tickets? No, How do we know? Because
4. Make sure you have enough concept questions so that there can be no ambiguity, but
three is typical.
5. Make sure your concept questions do not focus on irrelevant items in the example sen
the target language and not another part of the sentence.
6. Make sure each question focuses on one element of meaning.

End Notes-unit 8

It is important to remember the following points from the unit:

 Teachers can use a range of strategies to help their students

understand new language. It is important to decide how you are
going to help students with meaning at the planning stage by
choosing an appropriate strategy for each language item.
 It is necessary to convey meaning before checking that students
have understood. This can be done with pictures, a situation or a
text. Establishing a clear context will aid students’ understanding
of any new language.
 There are many different ways of checking meaning: diagrams,
such as clines and timelines, personalisation, non-verbal responses,
examples, synonyms and opposites, paraphrase/explanation, and
extension. It is important to select techniques which are appropriate
to the specific language items you plan to teach.
 A very good way to check meaning is to ask concept questions.
These short, simple questions help to pinpoint meaning and allow
teachers to check students have understood the target language. In
order to write effective concept questions it is first necessary to
analyse the context and the target language, then define the
meaning as simply as possible with two or three sentences, and
finally turn these sentences into questions.
 Finally, try not to let these techniques stop you observing your
students carefully. Look at them and monitor their reactions. Ensure
that you do not ‘over check’ e.g. if you are teaching the word ‘apple’
and you have an apple to show the students, you probably do not
then need too much further concept checking. The more you
observe your students and get to know their level, the better you
will be able to gauge how thorough you need to be at the concept
checking stage.

Clearly Defined Problems

Anticipated problems

 should be written from the students’ perspective

 should focus on specific areas of meaning, form, and pronunciation
of the target language. It is not useful to write: ‘Students might
have problems with the pronunciation of the past continuous’, for
example
 should cover all areas of meaning, form, pronunciation and, where
necessary, appropriacy
 should cover all four areas separately
 should address the target language, not other parts of the example
sentence(s).

‘Chilly’

First, look at the item chilly and analyse it in terms of MFPA:

 What does it mean?

 What type of word is it, e.g, adverb, adjective, verb etc?
 Where is ‘chilly’ typically placed in a sentence?
 What sounds in the word ‘chilly’ might be difficult for students?
 Which part of the word is stressed?
 Is it formal, informal or neutral?

Here are the answers that the three trainees came up with.

 It means cold, but not as strong as cold.

 It is an adjective.
 It is common to find it used like It is chilly today, i.e. with the verb
‘be’.
 It is pronounced with a . Students may have problems
with the sound in .
 The first part of the word is stressed.
 It is slightly informal.

Looking for Problems

When you are considering problems students might have with the language area you are tea
to do some research.

Remember that before consulting a dictionary or reference book, think carefully about how y
language in the lesson you are teaching. The dictionary will provide you with all possible mea
word but it is important to focus on what it means in the context of a lesson.

When you do need to find out more about the language, here are some books to help you:

The grammar reference book you bought for the course i.e.

 Swan, M (2002). Practical English Usage, Oxford University Press.

 Swan, M, Walter, C (1997). How English Works: A Grammar Practice Book, Oxford Un
 Parrott, M (2000). Grammar for English Language Teachers, Cambridge University Pre
  Leech et al. (1991) An A-Z of English Grammar and Usage, Pearson Longman.

NB All of these grammar reference books will cover the same areas so you need only refer to
texts.

For lexis:

 A learner dictionary e.g. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Cambridge Ad

Learner’s Dictionary, Collins Cobuild Dictionary or Advanced Learner’s English Dictiona

If you are interested in finding out about which problems are common to particular language

 Swan, M, & Smith, B (2001) Learner English: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference and O
Problems,Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers.

End Notes – unit 9

It is important to remember the following points from the unit:

 Learners have problems with language for a number of reasons.

This can be due to ‘interference’ from their first language, over-
generalising from rules they have already seen, and the complexity
of the language itself.
 During the planning stage, the target language should be broken
down into meaning, form, pronunciation and appropriacy. It is
important to consider problems students may have with each aspect
separately. Anticipated problems should be clearly defined, written
from the students’ point of view, and address only the target
language, not other parts of the sentence.
 It is a good idea to do some research when anticipating problems
with language by using a dictionary or a grammar reference book.
However, make sure that you select information carefully as these
reference books usually provide all possible meanings of a language
item.
 When analysing problems with MFPA it is useful to consider the
following: difficulties with meaning, what type of word it is, where
the word is placed in a sentence, which sounds might be difficult for
students, which part of the word is stressed and whether it is
formal, informal or neutral.
 Each solution should be appropriate to the problem. This could
involve referring back to the context, using planned concept
questions, using colours on the board to highlight form, eliciting the
correct version from students, using the phonemic script to help
with difficult sounds, and drilling sentences.

Drilling Tips

Below are eight tips to remember when drilling.

  It is crucial to model the language at normal speed so that students
hear a natural model. If teachers say the target language too
slowly, it often distorts the pronunciation.
 Teachers can break the words down to help students with difficult
pronunciation, especially when drilling a long phrase or sentence.
Getting students to start from the end of the phrase is
called backchaining and this often helps students remember the
language more effectively. When the teacher models this, it is
important to keep the stress in the same place. For example:

 It is useful to get students saying the language together, or doing

a choral drill, so that they have a chance to practise the language
before they say it on their own and this boosts their confidence.
 Give students more than one opportunity to experiment with the
pronunciation.
 It is important to check students’ pronunciation individually, so
include individual drilling by nominating particular students.
 Rather than always correcting the students ourselves, other
students can provide a good model. This encourages students to
listen to each other and reduces students’ dependence on the
teacher. We must also remember not to do too much individual
drilling with one particular student because it can damage their
confidence.
 We cannot expect students to pronounce the target language
perfectly but it is important to praise students for comprehensible
pronunciation.
 Teachers can also make drilling more student-centred by
encouraging students to initiate pronunciation practice and by
letting the students decide when they are satisfied with their own
pronunciation.

Below are a number of techniques Jayne uses in the lesson:

Eliciting from students - Jayne involves the students by asking them

questions about MFPA throughout. This is a much more effective technique
than simply telling students as it encourages student participation and
allows the teacher to check students’ understanding.

Checking understanding – Jayne asks the students for another way of

saying What’s the matter? so that she can check they have understood the
meaning of the phrase. Jayne also uses the pictures to prompt the students
to produce the target language and check that they have understood the
language.

Using colours on the board - By using different colours to highlight the

MFPA of the language students have a clear record of the target language.

Checking the pronunciation- Jayne asks students to identify where the

stress is in the dialogue which helps with their pronunciation and involves
the students in this stage. She highlights the stress by drawing a stress
box over the stressed syllable. Jayne also writes difficult phonemes in a
different colour, for example, /k/ under toothache.

Drilling - Jayne models and drills the phrases as they are written on the
board. She also uses the signal pronunciation so that students know to
listen and repeat. Jayne drills the language in whole phrases rather than
individual words. This helps to fix the language in their memory and to
encourage natural and comprehensible pronunciation.

Checking the form - Jayne asks students to identify the contractions to

check students have understood the form of the language. When she is
eliciting the language onto the board and they produce it incorrectly, Jayne
gives them two options to guide them to self-correct, for
example, stomachache or a stomachache? Jayne also encourages students
to spell the words for her so that they notice the connection between the
sound of the word and the spelling.

Asking the group and individuals - Jayne alternates between

nominating individual students and asking the whole class. This encourages
participation from all students and keeps them involved throughout.

Noticing patterns - Jayne encourages students to notice patterns in the

form of the language, for example, when to use an article.

Praising students - Jayne is very encouraging throughout and praises

students when they produce the language correctly. This helps to create a
positive learning environment and build rapport with the learners.

End Notes

 Coursebooks are a useful resource and can be exploited in a

number of ways. Therefore, it is important for teachers to learn how
to use, select from and adapt the coursebook to be able to best
meet their students’ needs.
 In terms of analysing language, many coursebooks
include language boxes. These can be adapted in several ways to
encourage students to work out meaning and form for themselves.
Getting students to explore language in groups and pairs makes
them more involved in the learning process. However, it is
sometimes necessary to extend the language analysis in
coursebooks to ensure that all aspects of MFPA are covered in
sufficient detail.
 Clarification of MFPA can be integrated into one stage of the
lesson, but meaning needs to be clarified first, before form,
pronunciation and appropriacy. Form should be highlighted clearly
on the board. Pronunciation can be clarified with finger highlighting
and a range of drilling techniques, such as backchaining and
choral and individual drilling. For appropriacy, students need to
understand whether language is formal, neutral or informal and
in which context it can be used.

Unit 15
Nahed says she finds long words difficult to pronounce; for example, she
identified environment as challenging. This is because it has a number of
syllables. Some words have only one syllable, such as dogor door, whereas
others may have two (ea-sy, wa-ter), three (com-pu-ter, te-le-phone) or
more (tech-no-lo-gy, cos-mo-po-li-tan). In words with more than one
syllable there is one strong stress and students often have trouble knowing
where to put the stress. For example, in environment, the strong stress is
on ‘vi’ as in en-vi-ron-ment. This area of pronunciation is called word
stress.

Other learners of English can make similar mistakes. For example, Spanish
speakers might say message with the stress on the ‘sage’ rather than on
the ‘me’. This is because in Spanish the word is mensaje and the stress
falls on the ‘sa’.

Another area that can be problematic for students is when word stress
changes depending on whether the word is a noun or a verb. For example
in Can you record that programme? the stress on the verb ‘record’ is on
‘cord’. But if we use the noun as in I need to make a record of your
progress the stress falls on the first syllable ‘re’.

Word stress is a very important area for students to focus on since it has a
great impact on whether or not they will be understood by proficient
speakers. Often learners can make a change to a sound
e.g. pronunshiation instead of pronunciation but the listener can still
understand the message. In contrast, wrong word stress e.g. pro-nun-ci-a-
tion rather than pro-nun-ci-a-tion can cause difficulty for the listener and,
as they may fail to recognize the word, lead to a breakdown in
communication.

In summary, it can be seen that in speech the words which will normally
carry the stress are the meaning or content words. In this way, it helps
guide the listener to what the key information in the message is. This is
often referred to as neutral sentence stress.

sinoff – the speaker was saying ‘that’s enough’

dada – the speaker was saying ‘John’d had areally busy day

Although the student knew these words, they were unable to recognise
them in connected speech. This suggests it is important for learners to be
aware of the features of connected speech and how sounds and words link
together as they are spoken.
You will probably have noticed that your voice rises and falls depending on
the information which is being given.

In A, the speaker is asking a wh-question so the intonation drops at the

end of the question. In the second question, which is a yes/no question,
the intonation follows a similar pattern but the change in pitch is much
wider. The fact that intonation changes depending on the grammar of the
sentence illustrates intonation as a grammatical function.

In B, the intonation varies according to the mood or attitude of the

speaker. In this case, intonation as an attitudinal function can be seen.
Not only does the intonation rise and fall but the changes in pitch are also
note-worthy.

In C, the intonation will rise and fall depending on which information the
speaker wishes to highlight. As was discussed earlier with sentence stress,
the new information is stressed for the listener. To make this clearer,
intonation is added to guide the listener.

When new information is being signaled, the intonation pattern is usually

falling, i.e.

In contrast, when the speaker is referring to given information, the

intonation pattern is a fall-rise,

i.e.

The anecdote therefore highlights intonation as discoursal function. This

will be explored further in Discourse.
 Method/ technique Aspect of pronunciation

Marking arrows on the Intonation

whiteboard

Recording students speaking Sounds, word stress, sentence stress, connected

speech and intonation

Drilling Sounds, word stress, sentence stress, connected

speech and intonation

Marking circles/ boxes on Word stress, sentence stress

the whiteboard

Use of the phonemic chart Sounds

You may wish to copy this and save it to your work folder.

End Notes – unit 15

Pronunciation is a key part of language and it is a part that students need and
enjoy developing. When you focus on pronunciation in class, remember the
following points:

 remember to make time for this in the classroom; not only will you be
helping students’ pronunciation but you will also be improving their listening
skills
 give students the opportunity to listen to proficient speakers using the
language and focus on how they sound and how their speech connects
 give students plenty of practice by drilling both chorally and individually
so that learners become more confident with their pronunciation
 encourage students to notice differences between how language is written
and how it is said and use your board to give learners a visual image of
sounds, stress and intonation and make pronunciation more memorable
 remember that each student is different and will have different areas to
work on so ensure there is a variety of activities in the classroom to cover
all aspects of pronunciation and cater for different learning preferences
 students value pronunciation work and often find it very enjoyable to
do in the classroom.
UNIT 11

Difficulties 2
It is clear that there are a number of common difficulties that arise with listening
outside the classroom:

1. Students cannot always listen at their own speed, in other words they
usually have to listen at the speed of the speaker. (Of course, students can
use strategies to deal with this, e.g. ask the speaker to speak more slowly).
2. The absence of non-verbal clues, for example, on the telephone where there
are no images or facial expressions, can make listening more challenging.
3. Unfamiliar accents can create problems for students’ understanding.
4. Aspects of pronunciation (e.g. weak forms and connected speech) can mean
students do not always recognise words/expressions they already know.
5. Background noises, such as other people talking or the television, can make
it difficult for students to concentrate when they are listening.
6. Unfamiliar lexis, such as colloquial phrases, make it difficult for students to
follow the stream of speech. Students cannot usually go back and listen
again to the parts they found difficult (e.g. they cannot go back and work
out the meaning of unknown lexis).

The five situations in the previous task show two different processes which you use
when you are listening. These processes contribute directly to the comprehension of
the listening text.

In the first situation, when the listener is listening to a friend and her break up,
they use top-down processing where they use their own background knowledge to
predict content and language. This helps them to predict and interpret what they
hear. For example, the listener knows her friend, the ex partner and knows their
history so they will use this background information to help understand what their
friend is saying. In the airport and in the phone conversation, bottom-up processing
is used. This is where the listener uses their knowledge of grammar, lexis and
pronunciation to interpret the message. For example, when the listener hears the
stream of speech: hesafriendofmine, they will use their knowledge of these three
systems to break it down into constituents and assign meaning to the clause.

It is important to note that when you listen, you usually use top-down and bottom-
up processes at the same time without even realising it. In the crowded restaurant,
for example, the listener will be using bottom-up processes by focusing on the
individual words they manage to hear (Berlin, so expensive, wonderful, have you
ever) and then using their own knowledge, or top-down processing, they will get an
overall idea of the conversation. By using both these processes the listener will
conclude their friends have just come back from a holiday in Berlin, which they
thought was wonderful, if a little expensive, and they are asking if the listener has
ever visited Berlin.

Similarly, when listening to the audio guide, after a while the listener will use their
knowledge of the museum and the history of the exhibition to maintain a general
understanding of the guide (mainly top-down), but when an interesting anecdote
begins the listener will focus on the individual words to build up the whole message
(mainly bottom-up).
Listening Sub-Skills

The five situations clearly show that the way we listen depends on the type of text
we are listening to and the reason we are listening. This is similar to what happens
when we read. The purpose for reading or listening influences the sub-skills we
employ. Some of the sub-skills used in listening are as follows:

 listening for a general understanding of the text

 listening for specific information in the text
 listening for a detailed understanding of the text.

In order to help students develop their listening sub-skills, coursebook material and
teachers can do different things. It was established earlier that outside class people
use both bottom-up and top-down sub-skills when they listen to something. In
class, when students are listening to something (e.g. a CD or computer sound file),
normal contextual clues to help with top-down processing can be absent. Therefore,
coursebooks include additional stages in listening lessons to replace these. This
often takes the form of a prediction task, where students predict what they are
going to listen to, based either on their background knowledge and/or on
information provided from the listening text. The aim of this is to activate students’
top-down processing.

Stage Aims

Lead in 1. To engage students in the topic of the lesson and activate

students’ top down processing
Initial easy task 2. To listen for a general understanding of the text or to
listen for specific information

Peer check 3. To build students’ confidence before open class feedback

Feedback 4. To enable students to see to what extent they have
understood the text
More detailed task 5. To listen for a more detailed understanding of the text.
Peer check 6. To build students’ confidence before open class feedback
Feedback 7. To enable students to see to what extent they have
understood the text
Follow-up productive skills task 8. To develop students’ speaking or writing skills
Feedback 9. To get feedback on the content of the task
Language feedback 10. To enable students to notice gaps between their own
developing knowledge of the language and English itself

End Notes – unit 11

It is important to remember the following points from the unit:

 Learners face many difficulties when listening to English, for example the
speed of the speaker, unfamiliar accents, and aspects of pronunciation.
However, there are a number of strategies which teachers can use to help
their learners become more effective listeners.
 The way we listen depends on the type of text we are listening to and the
reason we are listening. This means that a variety of processes and sub-
skills are used by the listener. Top-down processing is when the listener
uses their own background knowledge to predict content and language,
and bottom-up processing is when they use their knowledge of grammar,
lexis and pronunciation to interpret the message. As we process information,
both top-down and bottom-up, we employ a variety of sub-skills.
 The structure of a listening lesson is very similar to a reading lesson as they
are both receptive skills. As in a reading lesson, it is important to engage
students in the topic before they listen by asking them to think or talk about
the topic. This pre-listening activity helps to activate students’ top-down
processing so that they can predict content and language.
 The initial listening task should be easy and should help learners to get a
general understanding of the text, or to listen for specific
information in the text. A clear task gives them a purpose to listen, which
replicates real life. The second task should encourage students to listen for
a more detailed understanding of the text.
 Learners should be given the opportunity to respond to the text and they
can do this in a follow-up activity. This needs to be related to the text and
it can be a speaking or writing task. It is often necessary for teachers to
design their own post-listening activity so that it suits their group of
learners.

Unit 12

Commentary

Lexical set of people and relationships

girlfriend, penpal, husband, daughter
Lexical set related to penpals
have a penpal, exchange letters, lose touch with someone, write to one another
Lexical set related to love and relationships
girlfriend, get together with someone, get jealous, love someone, be with someone
Adjectives to describe people’s personality
loyal, intelligent, jealous, interesting, charming
Adjectives to describe people’s physical appearance
tall, dark, handsome, sporty, good-looking
Collocations with get
get involved in, get older, get together with someone, get nearer, get jealous, get
stressed out about something, get worse
Verb + noun collocations
have a penpal, exchange letters, go to university, have got a (very good) job, play
ice hockey, stop for a visit, meet someone
Adjective + noun collocations
early teens, a special place, a successful journalist, a good job, the ideal husband,
the famous penpal, first thought
Adverb + adjective collocations
very good, not particularly handsome, extremely intelligent
Semi-fixed expressions
as I said before, it can’t get any worse
Fixed expressions (including idioms)
have a special place in someone’s heart, tall, dark and handsome, be over the
moon, believe it or not

Commentary

Possible ways of checking meaning of lexical set:

 Students match adjectives to definitions, e.g. jealous – someone who is

unhappy and angry because someone has something or someone they want,
or because they think that what they love might be taken away from them
 Students match pictures to lexis, e.g. jealous – picture of angry jealous
person
 Teacher uses concept questions, e.g. Does he love his girlfriend? (Yes) Does
he like Eddie? (No) Why not? (Worried his girlfriend may fall in love with
Eddie) Is he angry? (Yes) Is this a good feeling? (No)

Possible ways of checking form

 Students identify/teacher elicits parts of speech, e.g. jealous- What is this?

(An adjective)

Possible ways of checking pronunciation

 Students identify word stress, e.g. jealous

 Teacher highlights difficult phonemes, e.g. /ˈdʒel.əs/
 Teacher models and drills

Possible ways of checking meaning of collocations:

 Students match beginning and end of collocations, e.g. have- a penpal, go-
to university
 Teacher uses concept questions e.g. have a penpal- Do you write to this
person? (Yes) Why? (To make friends/practise foreign language) Do you see
this person a lot? (No) Why not? (Often live in different country)

Possible ways of checking form

 Students identify/teacher elicits parts of speech, e.g. have a penpal- What is

this? (A verb + noun)
 Students identify/teacher elicits which collocations use a
preposition/particle, e.g. go to university, have a penpal

Possible ways of checking pronunciation

 Students identify word stress, e.g. have a penpal, go to university

 Teacher highlights difficult phonemes, e.g.
university or
 Teacher models and drills
  Students identify linking sounds e.g.

Possible ways of checking meaning of get collocations:

 Students use collocations to rewrite sentences with same meaning, e.g. I

become very nervous when I have exams- I become very nervous get
stressed out about when I have exams. The papers always talk about how
the economy is becoming really bad- The papers always talk about how the
economy is becoming really bad getting worse
 Teacher uses concept questions e.g. get stressed out about something – Is
he feeling relaxed? (No) Why not? (because he is worried about Eddie’s
visit)

Possible ways of checking form

 Students identify/teacher elicits different types of collocation, e.g. get older-

What is this? (get + comparative adjective) get stressed out about
something (get + adjective)

Possible ways of checking pronunciation

 Students identify word stress, e.g. get stressed out, get older
 Teacher models and drills
 Students identify linking sounds e.g.

Possible ways of checking meaning of semi-fixed expressions:

 Students finish gaps with possible words e.g. it can’t get any
_____________
 Teacher asks concept questions, e.g. it can’t get any worse – Is the situation
good or bad? (Bad) a little bad or very bad? (Very bad) Is he happy about
the situation (No)

Possible ways of checking form

 Students identify/teacher elicits which part of expression can change, e.g. it

can’t get any better/worse

Possible ways of checking pronunciation

 Students identify word stress, e.g. it can’t get any worse

 Teacher models and drills
 Students identify linking sounds e.g.

Possible ways of checking meaning of fixed expressions:

 Students unjumble expressions, e.g. dark, and handsome, tall

  Teacher asks concept questions, e.g. Is this describing his personality or
appearance? (Appearance) Is he attractive or ugly? (Attractive) Can we use
this for girls as well? (No) Can we use it for things? (No- just men)

Possible ways of checking form

 Students identify/teacher elicits which part of expression can change –

(None)
 Students identify/teacher elicits punctuation, e.g. What punctuation do we
need? One comma after tall

Possible ways of checking pronunciation

 Students identify word stress, e.g. tall, dark and handsome

 Teacher highlights difficult phonemes, e.g. handsome
 Teacher models and drills

 Students identify linking sounds e.g.

You may wish to copy this and save it to your work folder.

End Notes

It is important to remember the following points from the unit:

 Lexis is a broad term covering individual words and chunks of language. Different aspec
lexis include lexical sets, synonyms, antonyms, prefixes, suffixes, and word families.
 Chunks of language can be described as collocations, semi-fixed expressions and fixed
expressions, some of which are idioms.
 As with grammar, when teaching lexis, MFPA should be clarified in sufficient depth. The
same clarification techniques can be used to check meaning, for example, clines, persona
and concept checking questions. Appropriacy, form and pronunciation can be clarified in sim
too.

Aims

Practice activities which give students less choice over language and ideas are
sometimes referred to as controlled practice activities, while those which allow
for more choice over language and ideas are sometimes called freer
practice activities.

Generally speaking, activities where students have a limited choice over the ideas
and language can allow the students (and teacher) to check they understand the
meaning and form of the target language. Activity 3 in Task 2, in which
students have to correct the mistakes, is a good example of this. In activities where
there is a restricted choice over language, there is often only one correct answer.
This allows students to test themselves to see if they have understood what has
been taught, to answer the question: Have I got it right? This in turn can give
students initial confidence using the target language.
Again, generally speaking, practice activities where students have more choice over
the language and ideas allow students to communicate using the target
language. Activity 4 in Task 2, in which students have to tell each other about
their life plans, provides a good example of this. The focus is less on the accurate
use of the target language and more on using that language to communicate their
ideas. It also allows students to experiment using the new language and to use it
alongside the language they already know.

Because freer practice activities usually provide students with the opportunities to
communicate, the aim of this stage is sometimes written as a communicative aim.
While language aims focus on what language is being used, communicative aims
focus on the communicative purpose of using that language. Here are some
examples of communicative aims:

To enable students to discuss a problem (by using modal verbs of deduction e.g. He
can’t have left the party early because…)
To enable students to plan a party (by using future forms e.g. What are you going
to bring?)
To enable students to discuss their opinions about different topics (by using
functional language for giving opinions e.g. I completely disagree, I see your point
but…)

Finally, it is important to consider how different practice activities relate to different

students, their learning styles and personalities. Some students are less analytical,
more independent and extroverted and might see freer practice as an opportunity
to experiment with the new language and express themselves and different ideas.
In contrast, some students are more analytical, more dependent on the teacher and
more introverted and may prefer controlled practice, seeing freer practice as taking
communicative risks which they are not comfortable with.

Unit 13 – kinds of controlled practice exercises

a. Unjumbling: Unjumbling words or phrases into the correct order e.g. tennis
like I (I like tennis)
b. Gap-fill: Completing gapped sentences or a text with the correct grammar or
lexis
c. Sequencing: Putting words, phrases or sentences into a logical order
e.g. book a flight, arrive at the airport, go to check in etc
d. Matching: Matching halves together e.g. beginning and end of collocations,
phrases or sentences
e. Categorising: Categorising language into different groups e.g.
positive/negative, phrases which use take or have
f. Deleting: Crossing out the wrong alternative e.g. I
was absolutely/very freezing.
 Activity Description of practice activity

d. Roleplay 1. Pairs of students pretend to be a tourist officer in a

tourist office and a
tourist. The tourist asks questions to the officer about a
particular tourist
destination.

e. Telling 2. Students work in pairs or small groups and tell each

other stories about
anecdotes accidents they or people they know have had.

a. Discussion 3. Students work in pairs or groups and talk about a list of

questions about
different education systems around the world.

b. Pyramid 4. Students are given a list of modern inventions (e.g. TV,

radio and car).
discussion Individually, they decide which the three most important
inventions
for society are. They then share their ideas with a partner.
They have to
give their opinions and then agree on which three
inventions are the most
important. To do this they have to argue with and
persuade each other that
they are right. Afterwards, students are put in groups of
four, where
students repeat the same discussion, trying to agree on
the same three
inventions. This continues with bigger groups until the
whole class discusses
it together and tries to agree.

c. A real life task 5. Students are given the photos of an empty room. They
are told it will be
used as a classroom in a school. Students have to decide
how to organise
and decorate it.

Unit 14

Why Correct

As can been seen from the interviews, students often like to be corrected and see it
as a valuable part of the learning process. Indeed, this view is in line with what is
known about how people learn languages. A lot of research suggests that people
learn through trial and error. When students speak in English they are often
experimenting with the language they know, trying out ideas and attempting to
communicate. In this sense they are trying to make progress and mistakes can be
evidence of them trying out new language. Correction is a way of giving students
feedback on how effective they have been in using the new language and can thus
be viewed in positive terms. Feedback should focus on both successful language as
well as improving learner language. It can be seen as supporting students in their
attempts to extend what they can do in English, and acknowledging that they are
making progress.

This view also blurs the traditional distinction between correction and teaching. For
example, if a student is struggling to use a recently learnt grammar structure and
the teacher supplies the correct version, then it can be argued that the ‘correction’
is, in fact, part of the learning process and not a criticism of students.

Aims of monitoring the class

 To check if everyone is doing the task

 To provide useful language for the task
 To help students who are struggling
 To be available if students need help
 To observe what students are finding difficult in order to provide propper feedback
 To gauge what language areas they generally need help with in subsequent
lessons

Who Corrects

Correction can come from different sources.

Self-correction: The student might self-correct. Some students are more

concerned about accuracy when they speak. Some students are aware of what
language they are producing and correct themselves as they go along. Further, the
teacher can prompt self-correction in a variety of ways to encourage greater
accuracy from students. It can be satisfying and motivating for students if they can
correct themselves successfully.

Peer correction: The correction might be made by another student. When

students are communicating, some peer correction might happen as a result of
negotiating meaning.

Furthermore, the teacher can encourage and prompt peer correction to involve
other students in the learning process which means the correction can be useful to
all of the students, not just the student who made the error. For example, in
feedback:

Teacher: What do you think about number 1?

Student 1: Mount Everest is the most high mountain in the world.
Teacher: What do you think? (looks around the class) Do you agree?
Student 2: the highest?
Teacher: Yes, good. Why?...
The teacher corrects: The correction can come from the teacher. However, it is a
good idea to try and prompt self- or peer-correction first as this engages students
more and activates what they already know about the language. It also encourages
students to take responsibility for what they say themselves rather than always
expecting the teacher to correct the errors they make. This is also good training for
language use outside the classroom where there will not be a teacher correcting
their errors.

However, if the students are unable to self- or peer-correct then the teacher needs
to step in. At this point it is still important to involve students fully by guiding them
to the correction rather than giving it to them because it is more motivating and
memorable for students to correct their own mistakes. Finally, if the teacher feels
that the students will be unable to correct because it requires new language to do
so, then the teacher must correct.

Wherever the correction comes from, be it the student who made the error, their
peers or the teacher, it is important for the teacher to check the correction to
ensure the learner(s) have understood why correction was needed.

Correction techniques

1. Non-verbal means

2. Finger highlighting

3. Blanks on the board

4. Write what the student(s) said on the board

5. Give students options to choose from

6. Ask a question

7. Use terminology as a prompt

8. Use the phonemic chart

9. Repeat the sentence up to the error

10. Draw a time line

Categories of errors

 Gramar
 Lexis
 Pronunciation
 Appropriacy
 Reformulation

Reformulation: It is when a student says something which is correct but

simplified because they do not have enough language to express
themselves precisely: there is a gap in the learner’s lexis or grammar
which needs to be filled.

Scaffolding

When students speak in English they are often experimenting with the language
they know, trying out ideas and attempting to communicate. From this perspective,
correction can be seen as a way of supporting students in these efforts. One
approach to doing this is called ‘scaffolding’.

The term ‘scaffolding’ is used metaphorically to describe the way a teacher can
support a learner in constructing what they want to say. Here is an example:

Teacher: Kyoko, what did you do at the weekend?

Kyoko: Go club…mmm…nice…yeah
Teacher: Oh, you went to a club?
Kyoko: Went? Yes…ah…I went…to a club.
Teacher: And was it nice? Did you have a good time?
Kyoko: Good…yeah, I had?
Teacher: You had a good time.
Kyoko: I had…a good time. Yes.
Teacher: That sounds fun. What about you, Kuba? What did you do?
Kuba: Nothing special…stay home

As you can see, scaffolding involves repeating, questioning, extending and

reformulating what the student says to support them in saying what they want to
when they’re struggling. When a teacher scaffolds, it is crucial for the teacher to
keep the meaning of what the student is trying to say, not change it.

This is a useful approach to dealing with student output and teaching in general. It
can be done while you monitor pair and group work and in one-to-one lessons.
However, it should be used judiciously in open class, as it can be quite a long and
involved process and may not engage the whole class.

When to correct: when dealing with confidente students who are making erros in relation to
recently learned language.

Things to ask yourself before correcting students

1. Is the focus on language or message? a.

2. Will the correction affect the student’s motivation? f.

3. Is it useful for the whole class? e.

 4. Will it affect the main aim of the lesson? d.

5. Does the correction concern something the class has recently c.

learnt?

6. Is the correction above the level of the class?

It’s better if we praise students at the same time we correct them. To do so, we can use the
board and mix the good examples with the ones which need correction and ask them to
identify the mistakes and say why they are wrong.

You can also divide the board and show the good examples and the ones which need
correction.

End Notes

This unit has explored a broad range of issues involved in dealing with students’
spoken output. In the remainder of your teaching practice, try and remember these
key points:

 Monitoring and listening carefully to what students say is the starting

point for dealing with their output.
 Dealing with student output does not simply mean correcting their
errors. It is also important to challenge them by reformulating what they
say to improve their lexical range and grammatical complexity.
 Starting to correct students can initially be difficult. There is a lot to consider
when deciding whether to correct or not and how to do it. This will become
easier with practice and experience. The important thing is that you start
to correct and reformulate what your students say in teaching practice.

UNIT 16

What is Grammar?

Here is the full version, with the grammar highlighted in bold. Looking at this text
in more detail, it is clear that grammar includes many different language areas.

Introduction

Earlier units have explored how teachers analyse grammar and

lexis in texts and coursebooks and different ways of reformulating and
correcting student output. This
unit will focus on how to respond tolearners’ grammatical needs.

As the text in Task 2 shows, grammar can be viewed as ‘the glue that holds the
language together.’ Grammar refers to a range of structures, including:

 verb endings, e.g. –ed or –ing endings, 3rd person –s

 prefixes and suffixes or plurals e.g. reformulating, earlier, teachers
 auxiliary verbs, e.g. was, do and have
 articles, e.g. a, an and the
 dependent prepositions, e.g. at, to or of
 word order (syntax) e.g. Earlier units have explored, not Units earlier
explored have...

Below is a grammatical version of the newspaper article. How similar is it to your

version?

Like any five-year-old, Oliver Pettigrew found weekend shopping with mum and
dad a bit of a bore. So, when they stopped off at local bank to get some cash out of
the ATM, he wandered off and tried the bank's front door. The next thing they knew,
Oliver was inside, wandering around, having found the front door had been
left open for about 24 hours with no alarms to be heard.

Your version may be different from the original. This shows that there are different
ways of communicating the same message. This kind of task where the learners
rewrite a text by adding in grammar, known as agrammaticisation task, has a
number of advantages:

 it shows students the need for grammar

 it provides the learners with the incentive to think about their knowledge
and use of grammar and to experiment with what is correct or acceptable
 the teacher can see what kind of problems their students are having and
which areas of grammar they may need to work on in future lessons
 it works well for the kinds of classes where there is a disparity of level
because it does not focus on one particular aspect of grammar, e.g. past
simple –ed verb endings, so learners can focus on what they need
individually
 it gives the teacher the opportunity to check students’ awareness of the
MFPA of the language in the text. The teacher can ask targeted language
questions such as “Why do you think it should be the present perfect
simple in the first sentence?” or “Could I use the present simple instead
of will here?” “What difference would it make to the meaning?” Again, this
gives the students an incentive to think and talk about language and notice
what is and is not acceptable.

End Notes
It is important to remember the following points from the unit:

 Grammar can be viewed as the ‘the glue that holds the language
together’. In comparison to lexis, it carries relatively little meaning in itself.
 When teaching grammar it is necessary to clarify its meaning, form,
pronunciation and appropriacy. Equally, it is important to focus on the
grammar in a clear context and provide opportunities for the students
to practise the language in a meaningful and communicative way.
 Remember that when teaching grammar teachers can use the students as
a resource. After grammaring tasks, highlight correct and incorrect
examples the students have produced so that they can see what they can do
and what they still need to focus on. This makes learners see the relevance
of grammar because it relates to the language they produced.

UNIT 17

Addressing Difficulties

Jacqueline and Messeret mentioned a number of difficulties with speaking in

English. One of the main difficulties is a lack of language; lexis, grammar or
pronunciation. In order to address this, it is important for the teacher to plan
lessons which include a language focus so that students have enough language for
the speaking activity. For example, if the students need to improve their ability to
recommend a film to a friend, it would be useful for the teacher to provide a
language focus on film lexis (It is set in… The film stars…) or phrases to make
recommendations (It’s worth seeing… I wouldn’t recommend it because…),
depending on the students’ needs.

As Messeret mentioned having little planning time when speaking, it is a good idea
for teachers to provide a stage in the lesson in which students can prepare their
ideas and think about or ask for the language they need. In addition, focusing on
phrases that proficient speakers use to buy themselves thinking time, for
example, you know, I mean and erm can make a marked difference to students’
fluency and boosts their confidence. Messeret also felt that her lack of confidence
was affecting her speaking so she would benefit from a good deal of practice and
positive feedback on good language she produces.

Both learners said that understanding what people are saying often makes
communication difficult, therefore it is clear that the students also need to develop
their listening skills. It would also be useful for the teacher to provide listening
texts with a range of accents for the students to become more confident with other
accents.

False starts are somewhat different to the other features. They are
something which students need to be made aware of but do not need to be
taught. Learners can be reassured that the phenomenon even occurs for
proficient speakers of the language. In contrast, the other features can be
clarified and practised in class.
Sub-skills & Strategies

Many people refer to a number of sub-skills which are deployed in speaking. These
include:

 Taking turns in conversation

 Showing interest
 Asking for clarification
 Checking listeners are following
 Organising speech

In addition to these sub-skills, there are a number of strategies which speakers

employ to help them communicate more effectively. These include:

 Using fillers to buy the speaker thinking time

 Using vague language to buy the speaker thinking time or compensate for
lack of lexis

One approach to teaching speaking to students is to focus on these sub-skills and

strategies explicitly, in a similar way to clarifying and providing practice of grammar
or lexis.

An alternative way of planning a task-based lesson would be to focus on the model

before students do the real-life task. This means that the teacher has a clear
language focus stage planned before the lesson rather than having to respond to
what the students have said immediately. Although this helps the teacher in terms
of planning, the disadvantage is that the teacher is not responding directly to
particular students’ language needs.

A lesson which follows this structure would be ordered as follows:

A. The model: Students can listen to proficient speakers of the language doing
the task.
B. Language focus 1: Students can look at the transcript of proficient speakers
doing the task. The students or teacher can choose language from this to
focus on in class.
C. The students do the real-life task.
D. Language focus 2: This is a feedback stage to the task. It focuses on what
the students said during the task and the language areas they need help
with.
E. Students can do the same task again with different partners.

Problems Possible solutions

Students  Remind students to use English.

start talking
 in their own  Check students have enough English to achieve the speaking activity, where
language necessary give students the language they need.
instead of  Think carefully about groupings and pair students of different nationalities
English. (where possible) together.
 Set up a reward or punishment system to encourage students to use English

Some  Assign these students a role in the activity, e.g. the scribe for the group.
students are  Think carefully about groupings and pair quieter students with other quieter
very reluctant students so that they are not dominated by more vocal ones.
to talk or say
very little.

One group  Encourage students to extend what they have been talking about.
finishes  Set the group an additional task related to what they have been doing.
before the
other groups.

Students say  Explain to students the usefulness of the task and what skill(s) they will be
it is a waste developing.
of time.  Relate the task to the students’ own lives, e.g. This will be useful when you
to university/for the FCE exam.

End Notes

A range of things have been looked at in this unit, including the sub-skills and
strategies of speaking as well as two different approaches to developing the skill.
Here are some key points to take away:

 There is a range of speaking activities which can be used in the classroom,

including role-plays, debates, discussions, problem solving activities,
anecdotes and presentations.
 Remember that speaking is not simply the oral production of grammar, lexis
and pronunciation. Speaking is usually spontaneous and interactive and, as
a result, the speaking skill has a range of unique sub-skills and strategies.
These sub-skills and strategies can be taught in class in much the same way
that grammar and lexis can be.
 There is also a more holistic approach to developing the skill, which is
centred around students doing a real-life task in class, and responding to
the language which emerges. These types of lesson have much in common
with ‘freer’ practice stages of language focus lessons in terms
of monitoring, correcting and reformulating.

UNIT 18
Your lesson plan is a guide to help you before and during your teaching. On the front
sheet of the plan there are main aims and subsidiary aims. It is important that these
aims are specific and include reference to the topic of the lesson, which might also
be the context of the target language. These aims should be written in terms
of student outcomes – that is to say what the students will be enabled to do by the
end of the lesson. There are also the anticipated problems that might occur with the
language you plan to teach as well as classroom management. The main section of
the plan will include the stage aims (which say ‘why’ you or the students are doing
something), the timing, interaction and the procedure itself (which says what you
and the students are doing).

STAGES OF LESSON PLANING EXERCISE

Stage 1

Teacher puts discussion questions on the board about memories of childhood.

Students discuss the questions in pairs.
Open class feedback. Teacher asks one or two students to share their ideas with
the class.

Stage 2

Students listen to the story of a childhood memory.

Before they do, the teacher sets the task: Was it a happy memory?
Teacher plays the recording.
Pairs check their answers.
Teacher monitors to see if students need to listen again.
Recording is played again if necessary.
Teacher elicits the correct answers.
Teacher asks if students liked the story and why.

Stage 3

Students listen to the story again.

Before they do, the teacher asks the students to note down examples of the
following verb forms they hear while listening: the past simple, past continuous and
past perfect.
Teacher plays the recording.
Pairs check their answers.
Teacher monitors to see if students need to listen again.
Recording is played again as necessary.
Teacher elicits the correct answers.

Stage 4

Teacher tells students to complete the guided discovery handout about the
narrative verb forms (the past simple, past continuous and past perfect) in the
story.
Pairs do the exercises on the handout concerning the meaning and form of the verb
forms in pairs.
Teacher monitors and helps as necessary.
Teacher conducts open class feedback, eliciting the answers onto the board.
 Teacher asks concept checking questions to check understanding of meaning.
Teacher elicits the form of the different structures onto the board.
The teacher wipes the board and tells students to turn their handouts over. Teacher
then models and drills example sentences of the verb forms chorally and
individually. Teacher corrects when necessary.
Afterwards, the teacher re-elicits the sentences that were drilled onto the board,
eliciting sentence stress and weak forms, and marking these on the board.

Stage 5

The teacher tells students that they are going to complete a written story about
childhood by completing the spaces with the correct verb form.
Students do the exercise individually.
Teacher monitors and helps as necessary.
Pairs check together.
Teacher elicits the answers onto the board.

Stage 6

The teacher tells students that they are going to tell their own stories from
childhood.
Students prepare their stories by thinking about the ideas, and then the language
they need to tell the story.
The teacher monitors and helps students as necessary.
Students tell each other their stories in groups.
The teacher monitors unobtrusively. Teacher helps students as necessary and notes
down some of the things students are saying.

Stage 7

The teacher asks students to share one or two of their stories.

The teacher writes examples of good language which students produced and
language which needs further work on the board.
Pairs discuss the language, discussing how to correct or reformulate the language
which needs more work.
The teacher praises students for the good language and elicits corrections and
reformulations for the rest.

To understand the logic of this order it is necessary to think about the rationale
behind each stage i.e. why the teacher and students are doing what they are doing
(these are the stage aims) and how these contribute to the main aim.

A main aim expresses what the students spend most of the time in the lesson being
enabled to do. In this case, this was understanding and using the past verb forms.
The main aim, as with all lesson aims, should be expressed from the students’ point
of view. It should also state what the lesson enables the students to do
communicatively, e.g., tell a story, write a letter or give opinions.

Stage aim Procedure

1. Lead in Teacher puts discussion questions on the board about memories of childhood.
To set context Students discuss the questions in pairs.
and engage Open class feedback. Teacher asks one or two students to share their ideas with the class.
students’
interest.

2. Listening 1 Students listen to the story of a childhood memory.

To develop Before they do, the teacher sets the task: Was it a happy memory?
students’ Teacher plays the recording.
ability to listen Pairs check their answers.
for gista Teacher monitors to see if students need to listen again.
general Recording is played again if necessary.
understanding. Teacher elicits the correct answers.
Teacher asks if students liked the story and why.

3. Listening 2 Students listen to the story again.

To develop Before they do, the teacher asks the students to note down examples of the following verb fo
students’ they hear while listening: the past simple, past continuous and past perfect.
ability to listen Teacher plays the recording.
for specific Pairs check their answers.
information. Teacher monitors to see if students need to listen again.
To focus Recording is played again as necessary.
students on Teacher elicits the correct answers.
the target
language.

4. Language Teacher tells students to complete the guided discovery handout about the narrative verb for
focus (the past simple, past continuous and past perfect) in the story.
To enable Pairs do the exercises on the handout concerning the meaning and form of the verb forms in
students to pairs.
understand the Teacher monitors and helps as necessary.
meaning, form Teacher conducts open class feedback, eliciting the answers onto the board.
and Teacher asks concept checking questions to check understanding of meaning.
pronunciation Teacher elicits the form of the different structures onto the board.
of the target The teacher wipes the board and tells students to turn their handouts over. Teacher then mo
language. and drills example sentences of the verb forms chorally and individually. Teacher corrects wh
necessary.
Afterwards, the teacher re-elicits the sentences that were drilled onto the board, eliciting sen
stress and weak forms, and marking these on the board.

5. Controlled The teacher tells students that they are going to complete a written story about childhood by
Practice completing the spaces with the correct verb form.
To give Students do the exercise individually.
students initial Teacher monitors and helps as necessary.
confidence Pairs check together.
using the Teacher elicits the answers onto the board.
target
language.
To allow
students and
teacher to
check students
have
understood the
target
language.
6. Freer The teacher tells students that they are going to tell their own stories from childhood.
Practice Students prepare their stories by thinking about the ideas, and then the language they need
To enable tell the story.
students to The teacher monitors and helps students as necessary.
use the past Students tell each other their stories in groups.
simple, past The teacher monitors unobtrusively. Teacher helps students as necessary and notes down so
continuous and of the things students are saying.
past perfect to
tell a story.

7. Feedback The teacher asks students to share one or two of their stories.
To give The teacher writes examples of good language which students produced and language which
students needs further work on the board.
feedback on Pairs discuss the language, discussing how to correct or reformulate the language which need
their ability to more work.
communicate. The teacher praises students for the good language and elicits corrections and reformulations
To give the rest.
students
feedback on
their language
use.

It is important to introduce language through context. Language is nearly always

surrounded by other language (its co-text). Further, outside class, language is
always used in real life situations (its context), and both these factors, co-text and
context, contribute to the meaning of language.

Notice that the first stage (context) is similar to the final stage (communication).
Both have language in communicative use. In the first stage, students can meet the
language in communicative use; in the final stage, the students can use the
language in order to communicate themselves.

Remember that the language focus stage involves the clarification of the meaning,
form, pronunciation (and appropriacy) of the target language – MFP(A). In the
lesson in the quiz, the teacher used a range of techniques to do this: for meaning,
they used concept questions; for form, they elicited the structure onto the board;
for pronunciation, the teacher modeled and drilled chorally and individually.

The controlled practice controlled practice stage here might best be described as a
bridge between the language focus and communication. It allows the students to
check they have understood the target language. If they have not, then the teacher
can step in and re-clarify whatever needs re-clarifying. It also gives students initial
confidence using the language with plenty of support.

It is important to state that these are only the basic stages of a lesson. A lead-in
stage has not been included, for example. Furthermore, there may be more than
one controlled practice activity and there may be more than one communicative
practice activity at the end. It depends on what is being clarified and the students’
needs.

Approaches 3
Here is a diagram which summarises the key stages of the lesson which has just
been examined. This is often referred to as Test-Teach-Test where the teacher tests
students’ knowledge of the language area, uses the language focus stage as an
opportunity to teach in response to students’ needs and a final teststage where the
teacher checks students’ knowledge of the language area again. It is important to
remember that the Test stages are not actual tests, rather they are an opportunity
for the teacher to diagnose where students need help.