How to Design English Lessons

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How to Design English Lessons

• Mr. Yin Gang
• Nanjing Teaching and Research Office for
  Vocational Education

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How to Design English Lessons

• The lecture is designed to demonstrate how to
  approach the teaching of speaking, listening,
  reading and writing. By the end of the lecture,
  participants will thoroughly acquire some ideas
  of the following terms
• Lesson planning
• Analyzing students needs
• Authentic materials
• Teaching grammar
• Teaching vocabulary
• Teaching the language skills speaking,
  listening, reading and writing
• Some others

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Learning Teaching

• Learning teaching is a desire to move forward, to
  keep learning from what happens. It involves
  feedback from others and from ourselves about
  what happened. It involves reflection on what
  happened, together with an excitement about
  trying a slightly different option next time.
• Learning teaching is an aware and active use of
  the experiential learning cycle in ones own life
  and work.
• Learning teaching is a belief that creativity,
  understanding, experience and character continue
  growing through ones life.

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Dangers for teacher career

• Doing the same thing again and again
• Too many demands
• Getting tired
• Boredom
• Pressures
• Stress
• Burn out
• If Im safe, why take risks?

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How to Design English Lessons

• The act of teaching is essentially a constant
  processing of options. At every point in each
  lesson a teacher has a number of options
  available he/ she can decide to do something, or
  to do something else, or not to do anything at
  all. In order to become a better teacher it seems
  important to be aware of as many options as
  possible. This may enable you to generate your
  own rules and guidelines as to what works and
  what doesnt.( Scrivener 2002 )

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As a general rule

• Prepare thoroughly. But in class, teach the
  learnersnot the plan.

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The process of learning

• Doing something
• Recalling what happened
• Reflecting on that
• Drawing conclusions
• Using those conclusions to inform and prepare for
  future practical experience.

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Two assumptions

• People learn more by doing things themselves
  rather than by being told about them.
• Learners are intelligent, fully-functioning
  humans, not simply receptacles for passed-on
  knowledge.

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Three kinds of teacher

• Teacher A the explainer
• Teacher B the involver
• Teacher C the enabler

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Control Spectrum in Classroom Teaching Teacher
DO TO DO FOR DO
WITH ENABLE Master
All Knowing Expert/Coach
Facilitator/
Provider
Mentor Slave Passive
Recipient Learning Active
Self
Participant Starting
Learner Without Choice Controlled,
Dependent Independent Controlled
Passive Follower
Investigator/
Dependent
Knowledge Explorer Let me out! I'm
OK. It's OK. Joy in
Learning Student
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Four kinds of teacher

• A poor teacher tells.
• A good teacher explains.
• A wonderful teacher demonstrates.
• A great teacher inspires.

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What is an effective teacher?

• Really listens to his/her students
• Shows respect
• Gives clear , positive feedback
• Has a good sense of humor
• Is patient
• Knows his/her subject
• Inspires confidence
• Trusts people
• Emphasize with students problems
• Is well-organized
• Paces lessons well
• Does not complicate things unnecessarily
• Is enthusiastic and inspires enthusiasm
• Can be authoritative without being distant
• Is honest
• Is approachable.

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General areas have to be considered

• The learners.
• The aims.
• The teaching point.
• The teaching procedures .
• Materials.
• Classroom management.

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Some general areas have to be considered

• The learners. Will they enjoy doing the lesson?
  Will they benefit from it? (What do they like
  doing? What topics interest them?)

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Some general areas have to be considered

• The aims. What will the learners achieve? What
  are you hoping to achieve yourself? (What are the
  aims of the lesson? What are the aims of each
  activity?)

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Some general areas have to be considered

• The teaching point. What is the subject matter of
  the lessonthe skills or language areas that will
  be studied and the topics you will deal with.
  (What items of language will be studied or used
  in the lesson? What topics, contexts will be
  used? Am I confident about these teaching points?
  What preparation/ study do I need to do?)

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Some general areas have to be considered

• The teaching procedures . What activities will
  you use? What sequence will they come in? (What
  activities will help the learners achieve the
  lesson objectives? How will the activities link
  together to make a whole lesson? How long will
  each activity last?)

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Some general areas have to be considered

• Materials. What texts, tapes, pictures,
  exercises, role-cards, etc will you use? ( What
  materials will be used for each activity? What do
  I need to make photocopy, borrow? What page of
  the coursebook have we got to? What can be used
  for homework?)

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Some general areas have to be considered

• Classroom management. What will you say? How will
  the seating be arranged? How much time will each
  stage take? etc. (How will the chairs be
  arranged? What instructions will I give? What
  happens if they dont understand my instructions?
  How long is the whole lesson?)

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Activity types

• By contentseg. Listening activity, writing
  activity, teaching vocabulary
• By procedural sequence eg. lead-in activity
  pre/ while/ post reading activity presentation
  activity/ practice activity
• By role-relationshiplearner-centered activity /
  teacher-centered activity
• By theoretical constructs meaning focused vs.
  form-focused activity functional vs. social
  interaction activity reception (input) vs.
  productive (output) activity

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Procedural sequence

• Generally, we have top-down sequence (for
  meaning-focused class) and bottom-up sequence
  (for form-focused class)
• More specifically, for top-down approach (eg.
  teaching reading ), the sequence usually used
  is Pre-reading While-reading Post-reading
• For bottom-up approach, (eg. teaching present
  continues tense), PPP sequence is often used
  Presentation Practice Production

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A Formal Plan

• A formal lesson plan often contains two parts
• an outline of the procedure of the lesson (ie a
  description of the activities, their order and
  predicted timing)
• background information (ie aims for the lesson,
  target language, material used, predicted
  problems, etc)

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Information for Needs Analysis

• 1. Participant Learners age, sex, nationality,
  mother tongue, command of the target language,
  other languages.
• 2. Purpose Domain The purpose for which the
  target language is needed.

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Information for Needs Analysis

• 3. Setting The environment where the target
  language will be used.
• 4. Interaction The people with whom the learner
  interact.

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Information for Needs Analysis

• 5. Instrumentality The medium the mode, and the
  channel.
• 6. Dialect The variety / dialect.
• 7. Target level The degree of mastery the
  learner will need to attain.

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Information for Needs Analysis

• 8. Communicative event The productive and
  receptive skills needed to be mastered.
• 9. Communicative key The interpersonal attitudes
  and tones needed to be mastered.

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Authentic Materials

• Question What are authentic materials?
• Nunan(198954) says that authentic materials
  are those which have not been specially produced
  for the language teaching. Some examples are

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Advantages of Authentic Materials

• meaningful-associated with the real world
• culture knowledge
• practical can be used in real life
• believable

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Advantages of Authentic Materials

• motivating
• context
• interesting
• challenging

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Advantages of Authentic Materials

• proficiency( true measure)
• bridge between the classroom and the real world
• relevant
• prepare for post classroom experience

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Disadvantages of Authentic Materials

• too much jargon / complex language
• limit of genre type
• underlying meanings
• too formal / informal
• too much time for teachers preparation

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Disadvantages of Authentic Materials

• not written for learners
• no relevant experience
• culture balanced / not balance
• logistics
• personal taste
• students dislike

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Survival of the fittest
--- Darwin
WTO G20
No Crying ! No Running Nose !
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Teaching speaking

• fluency
• (focusing on the message and meaning)
• accuracy
• (focusing on the actual language forms
  used---- grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc)

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Teaching speaking

• mechanical ( where the focus is largely on
  repetition of some kind.)
• meaningful ( where the learner has opportunities
  to repeat the language, but also thinks about the
  meaning and makes choices accordingly.)

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Teaching listening

• Three guidelines
• Grade the task rather than the material
• Task firstthen text or tape
• Process rather than product!!!

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Ideas for listening tasks

• Keep the recording short---- not more than two
  minutes or so.
• Play the tape a sufficient number of times.
• Let the students discuss their answers together
  (perhaps in pairs).

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Ideas for listening tasks

• Dont immediately acknowledge correct answers
  with words or facial expressions---- throw the
  answers back to the class What do you think of
  Xs answerdo you agree?
• Dont be led by one strong student. Have they all
  got it?

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Ideas for listening tasks

• Aim to get the students to agree together without
  your help. Until they agree, play the tape again
  whenever they need to hear it, to confirm or
  refute their ideas.
• Play little bits of the tape( a word a phrase a
  sentence) again and again until its clear.

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Ideas for listening tasks

• Give help if they are completely stuck.
• Dont cheat them by changing your requirements
  halfway.
• Dont let them lose heart.

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Ideas for listening tasks

• Grade the tasknot the tape.
• ( Dont worry too much about what student
  level the recording is suitable forbut do make
  sure your task is set for the right level.)

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Ideas for reading tasks

• Put these illustrations of the text in the
  correct order.
• Put these cut-up paragraphs back in the correct
  order.
• Find words in the text that mean the same as the
  words in this list.

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Ideas for reading tasks

• Read the text and find the mistakes in this
  illustration( or draw your own illustration).
• Read the text and make a list of particular items
  ( eg jobs that need doing the authors
  proposals advantages and disadvantages, etc).

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Ideas for reading tasks

• Give a headline to each section of the article(
  or match given headlines with the sections).
• Find appropriate places in the text to reinsert
  some sentences that have previously been
  separated from the text.

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Ideas for reading tasks

• Write a reply.
• Look at the title and the illustrations( but not
  the text). Predict which of the following list of
  words you will find in the text.
• Solve the problem.

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Ideas for reading tasks

• Discuss (or write) the missing last paragraph of
  the text.
• Discuss interpretations of, reactions to,
  feelings about the text.
• Make notes under the following headings

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Ideas for reading tasks

• Before you read this text, make notes about what
  you already know about the subject.
• Act out the dialogue, story, episode, etc.
• Put this list of events in the correct order.

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Ideas for writing tasks

• Write real letterseg to Members of Parliament,
  to prisoners, to manufacturing companies, to fan
  clubs, to local newspapers, to other schools,
  etc. Send them. Get replies. Write back.
• Publish your own newsletter, magazine, handout,
  etc.

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Ideas for writing tasks

• Advertise ( ideas, school events, products, etc)
  around the school, around town send in your ads
  to local papers, etc.
• Write questionnaires and then use them out in the
  street ( maybe in English or in the learners own
  language) . Write up the results. Publish them!

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Ideas for writing tasks

• Instant poetry. You could do this as a simple
  dictation. For example, read out the following
  instructions allowing time to think and write
  between each other

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Ideas for writing tasks

• Computer word-processing. Make use of any
  high-tech equipment you have to produce
  professional-looking documents, texts, etc.
• Students prepare the teachers materialeg tell
  them what the next unit of the book is and get
  them to study it in order to prepare better and
  more interesting material.

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Ideas for writing tasks

• Postman. Allow ten or fifteen minutes for
  students and teacher to write short ( one or two
  sentence) notes to each other across class. When
  each note is finished the writers deliver them by
  hand. Reply to ones you receive. Keep writing,
  faster and faster. An exercise in fluent ( rather
  than accurate) writing.

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Learning teaching and try to be

• A communicator
• A learner
• A solver
• A citizen
• A worker
• A thinker
• (controller/ organizer/ prompter/ participant/
  resource provider/ assessor )

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Ideas for moving forward

• Read new ideas in magazines (books ) and try them
  out
• Write an article for a magazine (most articles in
  magazines for language teachers are by teachers
  like you )
• Start a local teachers newsletter
• Try a bold parabola
• Go to a conference or a seminar
• Learn about a completely different approach

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Ideas for moving forward

• Join (or start ) a teacher development group
• Discuss what you are doing with other teachers
• Make an agreement with a colleague to observe
  each others lessons
• Find a way to get involved in some in-service
  teacher training
• Become a director of studies or a headteacher!
• Start your own school!
• Specialize (eg computers, business, self-access
  centers, video, music, exam, etc)
• Write a book

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Language

• Language is the way we express our very being. It
  is the way we come to terms with the world. It is
  the way we make our understanding of life
  concrete. It is the way we make contact with
  other human beings.
• Learning Teaching is about our own personal
  search for our own answers, rather than merely a
  re-enacting of other peoples solutions. In
  looking for ways to move forward as a teacher,
  you will also find ways to grow as a person.

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The World Is Flat --Thomas L. Friedman

• Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up.
• It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it
• will be killed.
• Every morning in Africa a lion wakes up.
• It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle
• or it will starve.
• It doesnt matter whether youre a lion or a
• gazelle when the sun comes up, youd
• better be running.
• And indeed we should.

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Learning Teaching Enjoy Teaching

• Good luck. And I hope you enjoy it all.
• Mr. Yin Gang
• Nanjing Teaching and Research Office for
  Vocational Education