2. Students’ needs
This article reports the results of
a survey designed to discover
students’ views of good and bad
language teaching
3. Survey
40 students of intermediate to advanced
level
Context: large mixed-ability class
Little access to expensive equipment
4. Survey
The survey took the form of:
Interviews
Written assignments
Students were asked to :
recall their favourite and least favourite teachers
say why they thought some teachers were more
successful tan others
5. Students’ answers
The Good Language Teacher
Friendly
Gave good notes
She got close to students
Played games
She was forceful but not strict
She made sure everyone
understood
She told jokes
She was very experienced
The Bad Language Teacher
Very strict and rigid
She was fixed in a chair
Gave a lot of tests
Distant
Sarcastic and ironic
Shouted when we made
mistakes
Started the lesson immediately
Didn’t smile
8. “Incentive value” theory in ELT
• We, as future teachers, have the responsability of representing teaching as
a challenging intellectual enterprise
Adherence to a formulae = enemy of incentive
Teaching without a link to the theory = self – defeating apprentices
• No recipe for success. We have to create our own magic trick but avoid
overusing them
Possibility to generate new techniques and ideas
9. Teacher development
Some ways of improving one’s knowledge of ELT and thereby
increasing one’s confidence as a teacher include:
Subscribing to ELT magazines and journals.
Joining profesional organizations and attending conferences.
Forming local teachers’ groups to meet and discuss common
problems.
Inviting fellow teachers to contribute lectures and workshops.
Publishing an ELT newsletter on a local or national scale.
Joining a special-interest group
Arranging ELT book exhibitions
10. Authority, errormania and testomania
The diverse roles of a succesful teacher are collapsed by an overwhelmed teacher of a
large mixed-ability class into :
TESTER and JUDGE
Testing approach based on:
dispensing of marks
the detection and penalisation of error
Both testing ans teaching are essential in language learning, but it is vital to distinguish
between them and make use of them wisely.
Insecurity and anxiety will increase
11. Outer circle = roles of the teacher
Teachers fulfill many other roles outside the professional and
pedagogic circle :
*Model for the students
*Manager
*Facilitator of learning
* Social worker, among others.
Importance of the teaching
adapting a variety of roles inside
the classroom
Not the ones found in a traditional
classroom
• Controller of activities
• Presenter of information
• Assesor of correctness or errror
13. Classroom management: some ways of
making a lesson fall apart
The teacher
Doesn’t use their
names
Doesn’t check or
cross check
Ignores time
Ignores space
Doesn’t look at students
Doesn’t use the board
Doesn’t look at students
Doesn’t use the board
Doesn’t look at
students
Doesn’t use the
board
14. The Names. Why are they important?
Use students’ names when eliciting
and checking.
Using names makes for better
rapport with students, and involves
them directly and rapidly.
15. Time, friend or enemy?
Time is very important and it can become
catastprophic if we ignore it.
In a mixed-ability class time is particularly
significant because good learners sometimes
differ not so much in knowledge but in the pace
at which they apply that knowledge.
Time has an important cohesive role.
16. Ten ways of taking time into account!
1: Don’t plan to do too much in
a lesson. Have an extra like a
joke or an anecdote before
cramming the lesson with
elaborate activities.
17. 2:Tell students at the start of
the lesson roughly what you
intend to do and how long
it’s going to take
19. 4: Warn the class one or two
minutes before an activity is
due to finish
20. 5: Use the last few minutes to
check that learning has taken
place and to summarise what
the lesson has been all about.
21. 6.Allow students time to copy
important information from the
board before you rub it all off,
particularly at the end of the
lesson.
22. 7.Give ‘slower’ students time to
answer your questions or present
the results of a task before
moving on to another student.
23. 8. Don’t wait too long for a
student to answer, as this slows
the lesson down, and it may be
difficult to pick up momentum
again.
24. 9: If you forget your watch,
borrow one from the
students.
25. 10: Vary the timing of relaxed
and intensive activity to build up
a sense of rhythm in the lesson,
to give it shape.
26. Cross-checking
This involves checking a response given by one
student with that of other students in different
part of the classroom
This is useful where a ‘good’ student stops
listening when a ‘less able’ student is speaking.
Points in the lesson when this is likely to happen:
27. *Answering comprehension questions.
*Suggesting words to fill blanks in a text
*Reporting results of pair or group work
*Asking the teacher to explain a point of grammar or
vocabulary
*Asking the teacher to clarify instructions in a task
*Discussing a topic arising from a reading text.
28. Checking: The power of the Written Word
This has a number of advantages in the mixed-ability class:
It encourages reluctant learners to complete the task (the end-product is a
record of work done or not done)
It discourages them from using only the mother tong as they learn to
expect a feedback phase in English.
It gives the teacher something to discuss with early finishers if their
answers have been written down.
When answers are written checking and cross-checking
29. Eye contact or Star gazing?
Eye contact is one such detail of teacher style that
may have surprisingly significant effects.
Try looking at the class as you are speaking, allowing
your gaze to travel gently round the class, without
staring inhibitingly at any one student.
Look at the student who is speaking, occasionally
letting your eyes rest on another student before
coming back to the speaking student.
30. The Magic Board
Use the board to record gramar, vocabulary, and content and point
students’ attention to this information when the lesson seems to be going
off the rails.
Use the board as one way of ensuring that instructins are clear.
Write example sentences of the target structure on the board and remind
students before the task and during it that they should be using these
structures.
Use the board to write points made by all students as a discreet way of
emphasising the value of their contribution.
At the end of the lesson, make sure students have copied into their
notebooks any useful information from the board.
