How to Teach English 7 page

If she thinks students need more opportunity to practise this question- and-answer exchange, she can put them in pairs to make as many invitations and replies as they can. While they are doing this, she can go round listening and helping where necessary - or she can stand at the front of the class getting an idea of how it is going before stopping the pairs and hearing one or two of them with the whole class.

In very large classes, it may be useful to divide the class in half: one half is Sarah, the other half is Joe. The teacher can ‘conduct’ the halves so that they can practise questions and answers.

Example 3: comparatives (lower intermediate)

Once again, the teacher may want to have students repeat a sentence or two to give them a chance to try out the new language. She may also feel that the students need practice of the individual word forms - the new comparatives. She can get choral and individual repetition of the words ‘safer’, ‘more convenient’ etc. and then ask students to say the sentence ‘Trains are slower than planes’. She can then ensure quick practice by saying ‘faster’ to get students to say ‘Planes are faster than trains’, ‘cheap’ for ‘Trains are cheaper than planes’ etc.

To check that students have understood the meaning and the construction of comparative adjectives, she can ask them to make sentences comparing other things such as bicycles and cars using the adjectives from the lesson.

However, it is important to stress that with comparatives - as with any other language point - the amount of repetition (choral or individual) depends on how useful, enjoyable or comforting the students find it. The teacher could, for example, ask students to produce their own sentences straightaway and correct them appropriately so that they learn as they try the new language out.

Example 4: 'protection' (upper intermediate)

In the case of ‘protection’, it doesn’t seem sensible to have students repeating sentences individually or in chorus. In the first place, the sentence is likely to be very long and long choruses are notoriously difficult to get right. In the second place, students at this level should know basic
sentence construction and pronunciation anyway, so they are unlikely to need it. Lastly, students at this level may feel that repeating sentences in chorus (for example) is too unsophisticated for them.

A much better kind of practice is to ask them to make their own sentences using the word correctly. This often works best if they write sentences, since in this way they are given time to work things out. When they read back what they have written, the teacher can tell them if they are using the word correctly and appropriately.

Repetition does still have a use at this level despite what we have said. Students may still have problems pronouncing words - or working out how words should be pronounced just by looking at them. A quick chorus of environmental’ or effective’ can sometimes help to ensure that students start using these new’ words correctly.

Grammatical considerations matter too: Japanese students frequently have trouble with article usage, Germans have to get used to positioning the verb correctly, Arabic students have to deal with a completely different written system etc.

Interference from the students’ own language is not the only reason for making mistakes. There is a category which a number of people call ‘developmental’ errors. These are the result of conscious or subconscious processing which frequently overgeneralises a rule, as, for example, when a student, having learnt to say things like ‘I have to go’, then starts saying ‘I muat to go’, not realising that the use of‘to’ is not permitted with ‘must’.

Some mistakes are deep-seated and need constant attention (ask experienced teachers about the third-person singular of the present simple!). While these are examples of‘errors’, others seem to be more like ‘slips’ made while students are simultaneously processing information and they are therefore easier to correct quickly.

Whatever the reason for ‘getting it wrong’, it is vital for the teacher to realise that all students make mistakes as a natural and useful way of learning. By working out when and why things have gone wrong, they learn more about the language they are studying.

one student may be quite wrong for another one.

In general, the teacher’s job is to point out when something has gone wrong - and see if the student can correct herself or himself. Maybe what they said or wrote was just a slip and they are able to put it right straightaway.

Sometimes, however, students can’t put mistakes right on their own, so we have to help them. We can do this by asking if one of their colleagues can help out or by explaining the problem ourselves.

If we get other students in the class to help out, we have to make sure that the student who made the mistake in the first place isn’t going to be humiliated by this (‘How come they all know the answer? I must be stupid!’). Sometimes, students like that prefer gentle correction from the teacher. On the other hand, in the right kind of atmosphere students enjoy helping each other - and being helped in return.

The following example shows students being corrected during the practice phase of the Study session on comparatives.

monica: Trains are safer planes.

teacher: Safer planes? (with surprised questioning intonation)

monica: Oh ... Trains are safer than planes.

teacher: Good, Monica. Now, 'comfortable'... Simon?

simon: Trains more comfortable. Planes are.

teacher: Hmm. Can you help Simon, Bruno?

bruno: Er... Trains are more comfortable than planes.

teacher: Thank you. Simon?

simon: Trains are more comfortable than planes.

teacher: That's right, Simon. Great. What about 'fast', Matilde?

matilde: Trains faster planes.

teacher: Trains are faster?

matilde: Trains faster planes? I don't know.

teacher: OK. Look. Trains go at a hundred miles an hour, planes go at

500 miles an hour, so planes are faster than trains. Yes? matilde: Planes are faster than trains.

teacher: Well done, Matilde.

With Monica, all the teacher had to do was point out that something was wrong (by echoing what she said with a questioning intonation) and she immediately corrected herself. Simon was not able to do this, so the teacher got Bruno to help him. When Matilde made a mistake, however, (and was not able to correct herself) the teacher judged that she would be unhappy to have correction from her peers so she helped her out herself.

When organising practice, then, teachers need to listen out for mistakes, identify the problem and put it right in the most efficient and tactful way. As we shall see in Chapters 8 and 9, correction is a different matter when dealing with writing and speaking activities.

Before leaving the subject of correcting, it is worth pointing out that it is just one response that teachers can make to student language production. It is just as important - perhaps more so - to praise students for their success as it is to correct them when they fail. Teachers can show
through the use of expression, encouraging words and noises (good’, well done’, ‘fantastic’, ‘mmm’ etc.) that students are doing really well.

Example 1: 'It's a pen' (complete beginners)

Example 2: invitations (elementary)

and asks ‘Are they friends?’ etc. to generate a (limited) discussion about their relationship.

The teacher tells students they are going to listen to a tape. She asks them what they think it’s about - based on the picture of Sarah and Joe. She tells them that all they have to do is say what Sarah wants and what Joe’s reply is (she tells them to listen right to the end for this).

The students listen to the tape more than once and then compare their answers in pairs before the teacher checks that they have understood that Sarah invites him to the cinema and Joe agrees - eventually.

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Study Study Activate

Activate

Engage Activate

Study Activate

Example 4: 'protection' (upper intermediate)

She then asks them to get into groups and discuss what concepts they would need to express if they were writing a radio advertisement about a new kind of sunscreen.

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• said that students need to be exposed to language (in order to study it). They need to understand its meaning, understand its construction and practise it.

• seen that students can be exposed to language by the teacher using it for them to listen to/see, by listening to tapes, by reading texts and by looking at computer printouts. In each case, the students are given chances to see or hear the language before they are asked to produce it themselves.

• looked at many ways of making sure that students understand the meaning of words and grammar. Teachers can show objects, pictures and drawings. They can use mime, gesture and expression. They can use check questions to make sure students understand concepts. They can use time lines for verb tenses (for example) or explain meaning by listing opposite meanings. They can get more advanced students to write dictionary definitions and then compare them with the real thing.

• discussed the many ways in which we can help students to understand the construction of words and sentences including: isolating the 'bits' and saying them, demonstrating stress and intonation through exaggerated vocal delivery and the use of arm gestures, showing how forms are contracted using hands and fingers, writing tables on the board which make constructions clear or asking directed questions which prompt students to 'discover' facts about construction for themselves.

• talked about how teachers can get students to practise the language they are studying including choral or individual repetition, using prompt words to get students to make new sentences, asking students to practise questions and answers in pairs or asking students to write their own sentences.

• asked why students make mistakes and said that two main reasons are interference from their own languages and errors caused by their natural language development. Making mistakes and errors is part of the process of language learning.

• suggested that an important part of a teacher's job is to correct students when and if they make mistakes. Ideally, students will be able to correct themselves but if they can't, the teacher may do it or ask other students to help. However, we have to choose how to correct very sensitively.

• demonstrated how the Study parts of our model fit into teaching and learning sequences.

Looking ahead • The next four chapters will look at what are often called 'the four skills' - reading, writing, speaking and listening - and will demonstrate the procedures we can use in each case.

• We will return to issues of language study in Chapter 11 on textbook use and Chapter 12 on lesson planning.

How to teach reading

Why teach reading?

What kind of reading should students do?

What reading skills should students acquire?

What are the principles behind the teaching of reading? What do reading sequences look like?

More reading suggestions

Why teach There are many reasons why getting students to read English texts is an

reading? important part of the teacher’s job. In the first place, many of them want

to be able to read texts in English either for their careers, for study purposes or simply for pleasure. Anything we can do to make reading easier for them must be a good idea.

Reading is useful for other purposes too: any exposure to English (provided students understand it more or less) is a good thing for language students. At the very least, some of the language sticks in their minds as part of the process of language acquisition, and, if the reading text is especially interesting and engaging, acquisition is likely to be even more successful.

Reading texts also provide good models for English writing. When we teach the skill of writing, we will need to show students models of what we are encouraging them to do.

Reading texts also provide opportunities to study language: vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, and the way we construct sentences, paragraphs and texts. Lastly, good reading texts can introduce interesting topics, stimulate discussion, excite imaginative responses and be the springboard for well-rounded, fascinating lessons.

However, if you give low-level students a copy of The Times or The Guardian (which are certainly authentic for native-speakers), they will probably not be able to understand them at all. There will be far too many words they have never seen before, the grammar will be (for them) convoluted and the style will finish them off.

A balance has to be struck between real English on the one hand and the students’ capabilities and interests on the other. There is some authentic written material which beginner students can understand to some degree: menus, timetables, signs and basic instructions, for example, and, where appropriate, we can use these. But for longer prose, we may want to offer our students texts which, while being like English, are nevertheless written or adapted especially for their level. The important thing is that such texts are as much like real English as possible.

The topics and types of reading text are worth considering too. Should our students always read factual encyclopedia-type texts or should we expose them to novels and short stories? Should they only read timetables and menus or can we offer them business letters and newspaper articles?

A lot will depend on who the students are. If they are all business people, the teacher may well want to concentrate on business texts. If they are science students, reading scientific texts may be a priority. But if, as is often the case, they are a mixed group with differing interest and careers, a more varied diet is appropriate. Among the things the teacher might want them to read are magazine articles, letters, stories, menus, advertisements, reports, play extracts, recipes, instructions, poems, and reference material.

Students need to be able to skim a text - as if they were casting their eyes over its surface - to get a general idea of what it is about. Just as with scanning, if they try to gather all the details at this stage, they will get bogged down and may not be able to get the general idea because they are concentrating too hard on specifics.

Whether readers scan or skim depends on what kind of text they are reading and what they want to get out of it. They may scan a computer manual to find the one piece of information they need to use their machine, and they may skim a newspaper article to get a general idea of what’s been happening. But we would expect them to be less utilitarian with a literary work where reading for pleasure will be a slower, closer kind of activity.

Reading for detailed comprehension, whether looking for detailed information or language, must be seen by students as something very different from the reading skills mentioned above. When looking for details, we expect students to concentrate on the minutiae of what they are reading.

One of the teacher’s main functions when training students to read is not only to persuade them of the advantages of skimming and scanning, but also to make them see that the way they read is vitally important.

Principle 1: Reading is not a passive skill.

Principle 2: Students need to be engaged with what they are reading.

As with everything else in lessons, students who are not engaged with the reading text - not actively interested in what they are doing - are less likely to benefit from it. When they are really fired up by the topic or the task, they get much more from what is in front of them.

Principle 3: Students should be encouraged to respond to the content of a reading text,, not just to the language.

Of course, it is important to study reading texts for the way they use language, the number of paragraphs they contain and how many times they use relative clauses. But the meaning, the message of the text, is just as important and we must give students a chance to respond to that message in some way. It is especially important that they should be allowed to express their feelings about the topic - thus provoking personal engagement with it and the language.

Principle 4: Prediction is a major factor in reading.

When we read texts in our own language, we frequently have a good idea of the content before we actually read. Book covers give us a hint of what’s in the book, photographs and headlines hint at what articles are about and reports look like reports before we read a single word.

The moment we get this hint - the book cover, the headline, the word- processed page - our brain starts predicting what we are going to read. Expectations are set up and the active process of reading is ready to begin. Teachers should give students ‘hints’ so that they can predict what’s coming too. It will make them better and more engaged readers.

Principle 5: Match the task to the topic.

We could give students Hamlet’s famous soliloquy ‘To be or not to be’ and ask them to say how many times the infinitive is used. We could give them a restaurant menu and ask them to list the ingredients alphabetically. There might be reasons for both tasks, but, on the face of it, they look a bit silly. We will probably be more interested in what Hamlet means and what the menu foods actually are.

Once a decision has been taken about what reading text the students are going to read, we need to choose good reading tasks - the right kind of questions, engaging and useful puzzles etc. The most interesting text can be undermined by asking boring and inappropriate questions; the most commonplace passage can be made really exciting with imaginative and challenging tasks.

Principle 6: Good teachers exploit reading texts to the full.

Any reading text is full of sentences, words, ideas, descriptions etc. It doesn’t make sense just to get students to read it and then drop it to move on to something else. Good teachers integrate the reading text into interesting class sequences, using the topic for discussion and further tasks, using the language for Study and later Activation.

Example 1 (elementary)

In the first example for elementary students, the teacher has introduced the topic of attraction’. He asks the students what they find attractive in a person. With luck, the discussion of the topic should be enjoyable and amusing.

He then tells the students they have to fill in the following chart about what their partner thinks is important when he or she meets a new friend.

The students now have to list the qualities in order of importance for them as a whole class. The teacher then tells the class to read the text on the next page to see how their opinions are different from the men and women being described.

When the students have read the text, the teacher allows them to discuss their answers in pairs. This is to give them a chance to clear up any small comprehension problems before they talk in front of the class.

The students now have to complete the following task.

Read the first part of the article again. Use these words to answer the questions below.

eyes legs face smile figure teeth

Which do men think are most important?

Which do women think are the most important?

Do you agree?

Date: 2015-02-16; view: 1456