TKT Unit 3

Section 1 : Learners & Learning - Motivation

1. What is motivation?
2. Influences on motivation
3. How can we motivate learners?

TKT Examination practice:   Motivation

1. What is motivation?

What do you understand by the verb to motivate?  The Oxford Wordpower Dictionary defines
it as “to make somebody want to do something, especially something that involves hard work
and effort.” Most teachers and students would agree that learning English certainly involves
hard work and effort!

2. Influences on motivation

When we speak about motivation, we can think of long-term motivation (that is, why a
student decides to go to English classes sometimes for months or even years) or motivation
just for the duration of a lesson or even one activity.

Which of the influences on motivation below do you think apply to your learners?

    the usefulness of knowing the language (e.g. for finding a job, for getting a good
mark in an examination)
    an awareness of their goals (i.e. they know what they want to achieve with English)
    interest in the target culture
    self-confidence (i.e. feeling that they can be successful)
    personalisation (i.e. the feeling that the course is relevant to their lives)
    learner autonomy/independence (i.e. feeling that they are in control of their own
learning) 
    personal enjoyment

It can be seen in the above that some influences on motivation come from outside the student,
such as the need for English for a job. This is called external or extrinsic motivation. Other
influences come from inside the student, such as learning a language because of an interest in
the target culture. This is called internal or intrinsic motivation. Students often have a
mixture of both, and there is no evidence that one kind of motivation results in more
successful language learners than the other.

3. How can we motivate learners?

Motivation is important because it affects how seriously students work and can also affect the
class atmosphere.  Therefore, one of the most important qualities of a teacher is the ability to
motivate the learners.
If someone asked you to write a guide for new teachers giving them advice about how they
can motivate their students, what would you write? See if you can list at least seven
recommendations.

Now look at the suggestions given below. Are they the same as yours? If not, do you agree
with them?

Suggestions for motivating learners

1. Be motivated as a teacher yourself i.e. set a personal example. Show that you enjoy
teaching and your subject yourself.
2. Create a relaxed atmosphere in the classroom. Try to prevent anxiety in yourself or
your learners.
3. Develop a good relationship with the learners. Get to know them.
4. Increase learners’ self-confidence about the language. Give praise.

Make tasks achievable for the learners.

5. Promote learner autonomy. Make students able to work on their own.

6. Make the course and the language as relevant to the learners’ lives as possible (i.e.
personalise where possible).
7. Increase learners’ awareness of their goals (i.e. what they want to achieve).
8. Increase learners’ awareness of the target culture.
9. Most important of all: don’t be boring! Make your lessons, materials and activities
interesting. Include variety and teach at the right pace.

Reflection

Now look at these classroom activities. Which of the suggestions that we just looked at do
you think they aim at?

1. Taking an English-speaking visitor into the classroom.

2. Giving students a test which is quite easy for most of them.
3. Always getting students to use new language to talk about themselves.
4. Including functional lessons about social situations.
5. Teaching lexis for football so students can follow television and newspaper reports.
6. Asking learners which song they would like to listen to on Friday.
7. Teaching with enthusiasm and interest.
8. Making an activity into a race because your learners enjoy competitions.
9. Taking reading passages from internet versions of newspapers which show what is
happening in English speaking countries at the moment. 
10. Ask learners what they would like to do in their lives with English (for example,
examinations or a job).
11. Spend a little time in informal conversation with your students.

Review & Reflection - Motivation

For the TKT Test it is important that you know the following terms:
motivation        to motivate     to demotivate     unmotivated    a goal
intrinsic motivation      extrinsic motivation   usefulness   the target culture
self-confidence     personalisation    learner autonomy

 Reflection

1. Do you try to find out what long term motivation your students have?
If so, how do you do this? (Ask them informally, give them questionnaires, etc.)
What are the results? 
If not, why not?
2. Look again at the recommendations for motivating students in this section.
Which of them have you done 
a) recently?
b) at any time?
3. Think of a lesson you gave which really motivated your learners.
What was it exactly that so engaged them?

Section 2 : Learners & Learning - Exposure

1.  Ways of learning

2. Practical applications to teaching

TKT Examination practice task: Exposure and focus on form

1. Ways of learning

Read the following passage on ways of learning and decide

1. How many ways of learning are described in the passage?

2. What are these ways of learning?
3. In which of the ways mentioned in the passage did you learn your language(s)?
4. Which way do you think is best for you?

Languages can be learned in different ways, for example by hearing the language a lot,
perhaps in the country where it is spoken, so that the learner has a lot of exposure to the
language. The learner may then pick up the language, without much, if any, formal study.
This is acquisition of language and is the main way children learn their first language.
Learners in this situation often have a silent period in which they listen and think about
language for some time before producing any language themselves.
Another way of learning is by interaction with other people

(perhaps work colleagues or a landlady). In this case the learner has to be clear to other
people and the listener(s) will show him either directly or indirectly whether he has been
understood. If not, the learner will have to try again, using other language, until he
communicates successfully.

A third way is by formal study of the patterns in language, usually in a school. This is
sometimes called focus on form. Learners need to identify and practise using the
grammatical structures and lexis.

Answers

1. Three ways of learning are described in the passage.

2. They are:

              a)  exposure to language in which learners hear or read the language without
consciously trying to remember it but manage to learn some anyway. This is sometimes also
called language acquisition.  People acquire language without trying. The phrasal verb to
pick up language is a less formal way of saying to acquire.

              b) interaction in which people learn by trying to communicate with others

              c) focus on form, which is studying and analysing grammar. This is when the
student is consciously trying to learn the language.

A distinction is often made between children acquiring their own language and adults
learning a second language.

Nowadays it is generally agreed that the best way for successful language learning to take
place is for learners to have a combination of exposure, interaction and focus on form.

2. Practical applications to teaching

If it is better for learners to have a combination of exposure, interaction and focus on form,
how can we as teachers give this to them? Consider the following questions:

1. How can learners get exposure to English so that they can pick up language if they
are studying in their home country?
2. How can learners have interaction in English if they are studying in their home
country?
 3. How exactly can teachers provide a focus on form, to draw students’ attention  to
patterns in the language?
4. How much time should be spent in class on exposure, interaction and focus on
form? (For example, equal amounts of time? More time on interaction?)
5. Do you think learners should be allowed to have a silent period?  Do you plan to give
your learners a silent period when you teach them new language?

Answers

1. In class: lots of reading and listening, particularly longer passages (with content that is
challenging but achievable), and hearing their teacher speaking.
Outside class: reading - graded readers from school if available, or a class ‘library’ of
newspaper articles stuck on card covered in plastic, or authentic texts from the internet
or tourist newspapers; listening to music, BBC World service, films, etc.

 Pair work, group work, communicative activities, and co-operative games (especially
information gap-type activities); an English-only class room; email contact with other
learners or internet pen-friends, etc.

2. Draw students’ attention to patterns by providing grammatical tabulations, e.g.

I am
He/She/It is __ing
We/You/They are

3.

Refer to course book ‘grammar box’ sections or appendices. At higher levels,

grammatical terms (e.g. ‘past participle’, ‘adverbial phrase’) can help many learners
(especially in allowing them to make better use of English-English dictionaries and
English grammar books).
4. Young learners do not have the intellectual capacity to study grammar by focussing on
form so they will benefit from exposure and perhaps interaction with their teacher in
English.  For adult learners, it may also depend on level. Low levels might need a bit
more focus on form, to give them initial language to use, but they will also need a lot
of exposure through reading and listening. There is no straightforward answer but all
students need lots of interaction.
5. Nowadays, learners are generally accustomed, in class, to repeating language out loud
early on in a presentation and might think it strange if they not given the opportunity
to say it. When it comes to freer use, in follow up practise, it may depend on the
students. Some students are keen to say new language as soon as possible.
6. Although we, as teachers, tend to fill our lessons with activites, it is beneficial to give
students some time to digest what they have learnt and a silent period can be very
useful for learners to reflect. 

Review & Reflection - Motivation

For the TKT Test it is important that you know the following terms:

 acquisition          exposure        interaction

 to pick up a language     focus on form     a silent period

 Reflection

1. For one week, make a note of approximately how much of your lessons you spend on
exposure, interaction and focus on form. Do you think that is about the right proportion?

2. See if you can identify students in your class students who respond best to each way of
learning.

Section 3 : Learners & Learning - The Role of Error

A) Terminology Related to Errors 

B) Possible Sources of Error

     1. Developmental reasons

     2. L1 interference

     3. Direct translation

     4. Poor teaching

          i)   Old-fashioned materials

          ii)   Inaccurate information

          iii)  Misleading Examples

          iv)  Poor models of pronunciation

          v)   Insufficient practice

          vi)  Lack of correction

     5. Students’ attitudes to error.

  C) Different Attitudes to error in Teaching

           Grammar Translation

           The Audio-Lingual Approach

           The Natural Approach

           Total Physical Response

           The Communicative Approach

TKT Examination practice: The role of error

No doubt all teachers have had the experience that no matter how carefully they prepare and
plan their lessons, no matter how carefully they teach, the students still make errors. Why is
that? Whose fault is it? Is it anybody’s fault?

We will consider these and other questions related to theoretical aspects of errors in this
section. We will look at practical considerations about what to do about errors in class in a
later section (in Module 3).

A) Terminology Related to Errors 

Look at the terms in the box, which are all connected to errors in some way.  How many of
them do you know?  Can you predict what the others might mean?

a  slip                an error               a developmental error                   overgeneralisation       

interlanguage           L1 interference              a fossilised error                a global/crucial error

a local/incidental error                  a false friend                to process language

A slip occurs as a result of tiredness, haste, worry or other temporary circumstances. The
learner knows immediately it is wrong and may spontaneously correct himself. Native
speakers can make slips too.

An error is when students try to say something beyond their current level of language
processing. Often learners cannot correct themselves. Native speakers sometimes make errors
too. For example, some people in the north of England often say You was instead of You were.

A developmental error is caused because the learner is still unconsciously organising

language and has not got it straight yet. An example might be an elementary student saying I
didn’t went instead of I didn’t go. The student has learned two elements of past simple (didn’t
= past of don’t; went = past of go) but is not yet clear about what goes where. Developmental
errors are a natural part of the learning process and should be expected.

Overgeneralisation is when the learner has learnt a rule and applies it to an example where it
does not work. For example, the student has learned that the past of a verb can be formed by
adding  ‘ed’ but then adds ‘ed’ to  buy  to give I buyed.  An example of overgeneralisation in
lexis would be when the student has learned a teacher and a player. He rightly concludes that
if we take the verb and add ‘er’ we get the person. The problem is when the student applies
the same rule to the verb cook when they talk about their mother and say My mother is a good
cooker! Overgeneralisation is one kind of developmental error.
Interlanguage is the learner’s ‘own version’ of the language that grows and develops as they
learn. Language experts think interlanguage is an essential and unavoidable stage in
language learning.  Developmental errors are, in a way, the result of interlanguage.

L1 Interference (first language interference) is used to refer to learners using sounds, lexis or
grammar patterns from their own language (L1) in the language they are learning (L2).

For example, I am here since six months is a direct translation from French.

A fossilised error is one which the student has made for a long time and is extremely difficult
to get rid of. If a student has got to intermediate level and still does not say the third person ‘s’
in the present tense, it can be very difficult for him to change. Students may or may not be
aware of their fossilised errors.

A global/crucial error is an error which causes a problem with communication and therefore
causes confusion. An example would be saying he instead of she or using present tense (I live
in London) instead of past (I lived in London) when there is no other indication of time. Errors
of lexis (that is, choosing the wrong word) are far more likely to be crucial errors than errors
of grammar. For example, I want buying a watch is clear even though the student has used the
–ing form after want instead of a to infinitive if the student means they want one of these:

However, if the student chooses the wrong word and says I want buying a clock, he will have
a problem in a shop as he will be shown one of these:

Errors of pronunciation can also be crucial. For example We are looking for a /tʃɪp/(chip)
restaurant when a/tʃiːp/ (cheap) restaurant was intended!

A local/incidental error is an error which does not cause a problem with communication. For
example, missing off third person ‘s’ (e.g. He work very hard) does not usually cause a
problem with understanding. Sometimes errors can be quite major but still remain incidental.
Yesterday I go cinema contains an error of tense, omission of an article and omission of a
preposition but is still very clear as to meaning. In fact, errors in grammar are generally
incidental errors; crucial errors are much more frequently caused by faulty lexis or
pronunciation.

A false friend is a word which is similar in the student’s L1 to an English word but in fact
means something different. For example, embarazada in Spanish looks like ‘embarrassed’ in
English but in fact means ‘pregnant’. French students confuse ‘bookshop’ and ‘library’
because the French word librarie means a bookshop. It is a common, but predictable, source
of errors for learners of English who speak European languages.

To process language refers to the way in which the brain works on language, consciously or
unconsciously, in order to learn or understand it.

B) Possible Source of Errors

Now that we have some terminology to talk about errors, we can consider in more detail the
answer to one of our original questions: Why do students make errors? Here are 6 reasons.

1. Developmental reasons

 They are trying to express something above his/her level (e.g. an Elementary learner
trying to express a regret that requires the third conditional).
 They haven’t had sufficient time to process and practise using relatively new
language.
 They’ve learned the basics of a rule but aren’t fully aware of when to apply it.

2. L1 interference

 They are having trouble with a sound or pair of sounds that don’t exist, or are
interchangeable, in their first language.
 There is a structure or lexical item in English that doesn’t exist in their language (e.g.
Spanish and Chinese have only one word for both lend and borrow).
 There is a structure or lexical item in their language that doesn’t exist in English (e.g.
Japanese has more than one word for the English word die - distinguishing how plants
die and how animals die).
 There is a structure or lexical item that is quite similar in both languages, but despite
some similarities, it has a different meaning/use or has different restrictions.

3. Direct translation

 This is an extreme case of L1 interference, often resulting from either of the last two
points mentioned above.  An example of a grammar mistake by a German speaker is I
have done it yesterday (German has a verb form that parallels the form of the Present
Perfect in English, but which is used for completed actions in the past).  An example
of a lexical mistake by a Spanish speaker is I go swimming all the days (when every
day was intended).

4. Students’ attitudes to error

  Some learners aim to speak English as near perfectly as they can manage but others
are not worried about being accurate. As long as they are understood, they do not
worry if they make errors.

5. The nature of English

 The nature of English itself doesn’t help.  English is a very idiomatic language (much
of it does not follow rules) and there is a great deal to memorise. In addition, English
has a very rich vocabulary, perhaps because of the variety of influences on it in the
past (the Anglo Saxons, the Vikings, the French, as well as Greek and Latin) so there
are just a lot of words to learn. It is also a subtle language with small differences in
meanings between words. It is not surprising that learners get confused!

6. Poor teaching

 Finally, and unfortunately, students are sometimes misled either by their textbook or
their teacher.  There are many possible reasons for this:

a)    Old-fashioned materials.

Exposure to traditional grammar “rules” which are technically “correct” but are not observed
in modern English (particularly modern spoken English). A perfect example is the “rule” that
the object relative pronoun is whom, leading to students producing sentences like Whom did
you see? that sounds very pedantic and old-fashioned.

b)    Inaccurate information.

A common example here is the use of will. Many students claim to have been informed that
will is “the future tense” and always use it to refer to the future, but it is actually only one of
the future forms and cannot be used to refer to personal plans or arrangements. Thus, I will
meet my friend this evening is an error because it refers to a personal arrangement. The correct
form is I’m meeting my friend this evening.

c)    Misleading Examples.

Look at these sample sentences used to teach the structure wish + past simple in the context
of a young man who is unhappy:  Tom wishes he had a job.  He wishes he had some money. 
He wishes he had a car.  He wishes he had a house.
At first glance it seems fine, but the problem is that all the examples use the verb had.  This
may lead the students to assuming the structure is wish + had (as opposed to wish + past
simple), and results in errors such as He wishes he had happy.

d)    Poor models of pronunciation.

Some students have not heard sufficient good models of pronunciation and have therefore not
learned to make all the phonemes of English.

e)    Insufficient practice.

Learners need a great deal of practice before they can use language confidently and
accurately. It may be that teachers have stopped providing practice as soon as the students can
do the language at all (this is known as teaching to bare mastery). This is possibly due to an
over-ambitious syllabus, or due to too much emphasis on focus on form and not enough
emphasis on interaction and use.
f)     Lack of correction.
Learners may not know that they are making errors. Sometimes teachers do not notice errors,
or are too shy to correct students, or do not have effective techniques for correcting.
Alternatively, students may be self-taught and not have had anyone to correct them.

C) Different Attitudes to Error in Teaching

Here are some different attitudes towards errors, from different periods in time leading up to
now.  The first view is the oldest view, from before the 1900s, and the last view is the view
held by proponents of the most common modern approach, “The Communicative Approach”.

1. Errors are a weakness on the part of the student.

2. The teacher can predict what errors the students will make by looking at the students’
L1. The teacher can then minimise the errors the student will make. However, if
students do make an error, they must be corrected immediately. There is zero tolerance
of errors.
3. Errors show that students are experimenting with language. Errors are a healthy part of
language learning.
4. There is a tolerant attitude to errors. They are corrected, but in a relaxed, good-
humoured way.
5. Accuracy is one aim but successful communication is more important. Errors are a
natural part of learning. The teacher should not intervene to correct errors while
students are in the middle of communicating.

We can see from this historical overview of error that errors are now regarded as a natural part
of the learning process. Students will make errors but it is nothing to worry about. In other
words, when students make errors, it is not necessarily anybody’s fault.

Review & Reflection - Motivation

For the TKT Test it is important that you know the following terms:

an error     a  slip       a developmental error     overgeneralisation   

interlanguage     L1     L2       interference         a fossilised error   

a global/crucial error    a local/incidental error     a false friend    

to process language

 Reflection

1. While you are teaching, take notes of the students’ mistakes.  Afterwards, for each one
consider which of the following it relates to:

 slips            
 developmental errors            
 overgeneralisation              
 L1 interference       
 fossilised errors               
  global/crucial errors         
 local/incidental error              
 false friends     

2. Discuss your attitude to error with some colleagues or other teachers.  Are there any
differences?  What are the reasons for these?

Section 4 : Learners & Learning - L1 and L2 Learning

Section 4:  Learners & Learning – L1 and L2 Learning

  a)  Differences between learning a first and a second language

   b)  Practical implications

TKT Examination task - L1 and L2 learning

Section 4:  Learners & Learning – L1 and L2 Learning

Of course, everyone learns their first language without even thinking about it. However, many
people find it very difficult to learn a second language. The two processes must therefore have
significant differences. Is there anything we can learn from learning a first language that
might help learners with their second?

 a)  Differences between learning a first and a second language

                                                  

What differences can you think of between the way a child learns its first language (L1) and
the ways adults, or older children, learn a second language (L2)? Think about the learners’
age, ways of learning and context (situation) that they are learning in.

Answers

 Children pick up the language purely through exposure and experimenting with the
language.  Adults rarely have access to that much exposure, and practice is usually in
the form of controlled classroom-based activities.
 Parents simplify their speech to children.  Teachers also often do this with students. 
That said, children also have a lot of natural language around them too, whereas
adults often do not.
 Children interact with family and friends.  Adults interact with their classmates and
the teacher.
  Children are highly motivated because they want and need to communicate.  Adults
have greatly varying amounts and reasons for motivation.
 Children do nothing but listen for months before speaking.  Given time many adults
benefit from doing the same, but more often than not this is not an option - adults need
to use the language immediately (e.g. at work).
 Children talk about things in their immediate surroundings.  Adults talk about
anything and everything.
 At first children have very little world knowledge.  Adults have a vast amount of
world knowledge (although sometimes world knowledge is different, depending on
culture).
 Adults are capable of abstract thought and can think about and analyse lexis and
grammar, etc.  Children cannot.
 Children are almost never corrected if mistakes are to do with the form or accuracy,
and are only corrected if there is a mistake in meaning/concept.  Teachers generally
correct adult learners a lot.
 Parents constantly praise their children.  Teachers vary greatly in the amount of praise
given, often giving more attention to errors than on good language use.
 Children get a lot of individual attention from their parents.  A few adults learners get
this in one-to-one classes, but the majority learn in large classes and teacher attention
is divided amongst all the students.

b)  Practical implications

There is some evidence that after a certain age, perhaps around age 11 or 12, it is not possible
to learn a language entirely in the same way as children do before that. However, given as we
have seen that L1 learning has a greater guarantee of success than L2 learning, perhaps we, as
teachers, should try to incorporate any features of L1 learning which might help.

What positive aspects of L1 learning might it be possible to replicate for learners of L2?

Think of some ideas of your own and then compare with the ideas below.

1. L1 learners are exposed to a rich variety of language. We can encourage L2 learners

to use English outside class time as much as possible to increase their exposure to it.
They could listen to English songs or radio programmes, read books or magazines,
visit websites or make English-speaking friends.
2. L1 learners want and need to communicate, that is, they are motivated. We should do
all we can to motivate our L2 learners and create a need for them to communicate.
3. If having a silent period suits an L2 learner’s style, perhaps we should allow them to
have it.
4. In class we should try to praise L2 learners and give them as much individual
attention as possible.
5. We should provide opportunities for L2 learners to experiment and play with the
language, and not just do controlled practice tasks.

Review & Reflection - L1 and L2 Learning

For the TKT Test it is important that you know the following terms:

L1 (first language)                L2 (a second, or additional, language)

to pick up a language       a silent period

exposure                          interaction

 Reflection

1. Consider the 5 ‘practical implications’.  For each one, decide which of the following is true
for you, and consider your rationale for each:

 I do this with my learners.

 I don’t usually do this, but I plan to do it more from now on.
 I would like to do this, but I can’t.
 I don’t want to do this with my learners.

Section 5 : Learners & Learning - Learner Characteristics

Section 5:  Learners & Learning – Learner Characteristics

a) Learning styles

     Task: Learning styles

b) Learning strategies

     Task: Learning strategies

c) Maturity

    Task: Maturity

d) Good language learners

     Task: Good language learners

e) Practical considerations related to individual learners

       i)  General

       ii) Learner training

TKT Examination practice:  Individual differences

Section 5:  Learners & Learning – Learner Characteristics

We have seen that learners can be differently motivated but there are other differences
between individuals too. In this section we will look at different learning styles, different
learning strategies, differences between learners at different ages and features of “good”
language learners.
 a) Learning styles 

Match the learning styles to the correct description:

LEARNING  STYLE DEFINITION

1. visual   learns best by interacting with other people

   

2. auditory learns best by working alone

   

3. kinaesthetic /ˌkɪn ə ˈset ɪk/ learns best by seeing

   

4. group learns best by studying rules

   

5. individual learns best when given time to think about

choices
 
 
6. reflective
learns best by working with other students
 
 
7. impulsive
learns best by hearing
 
 
8. analytic
learns best when able to respond
  immediately

9. social        

learns best when able to move around

Answers

You should have found:

1. A visual learner learns best by seeing.

2. An auditory learner learns best by hearing.
3. A kinaesthetic learner learns best when able to move around.
4. A group learner learns best by working with other students.
5. An individual learner learns best by working alone.
 6. A reflective learner learns best when given time to think about choices. 
7. An impulsive learner learns best when able to respond immediately.
8. An analytic learner learns best by studying rules.
9. A social learner learns best by interacting with other people.

Note that learning styles are not necessarily age related. A learner of any age could have any
learning style. Further, learning styles are not mutually exclusive. A learner may have a
strong preference for one style but many learners have a combination.

b) Learning strategies

 Students also differ in the ways they choose to help themselves learn languages. These
different approaches are called learning strategies.

 Read the following learning strategies and decide: -

 Which have you used/do you use?

 Which would you like to try if you learn a language in the future?
 Which would you never do? Why not?

1. repeating new words in your head till you remember them

2. experimenting/taking risks by using just learnt language in conversation
3. guessing the meaning of unknown words
4. asking the teacher or someone else what they think about your use of language
5. deciding to use the foreign language as much as possible by talking to tourists
6. recording yourself speaking, then judging and correcting your pronunciation
7. asking a speaker to repeat what they have just said
8. deciding what area of vocabulary you need to learn and then learning it
9. thinking about how to remember all the new words you meet in each lesson and then
deciding to write each one on a separate card
10. paraphrasing (using other language to say what you want to say) or circumlocutions
(using a longer explanation of  a word or phrase you don’t know).

All of these learning strategies can be useful, though some will suit some learning styles
and some individuals more than others. There are no best strategies but teachers should
encourage students to think about how they learn and to try out different strategies. Learner
training sessions are time well spent.

The above learning strategies would all help the learner to become more independent.

c) Maturity

In your teaching career, how many different ages of learners have you taught? If you have
taught a range, what differences have you found between them? If you have taught only one
age group, what differences do you think there would be?

Children, teenagers and adults learn in different ways because they are at different stages of
maturity (physically, mentally and emotionally).

Here are some key differences worth considering.

  children teenagers adults
self-awareness Aren’t very aware of Very aware; often to the Aware of themselves
themselves or their point that they are self- and their actions.
actions. conscious.
 
behaviour Are rarely able to even Are able to think about Can usually control
think about their own and control their their own behaviour.
behaviour. behaviour at times.
 
energy levels Energy levels change Need opportunities for Able to keep still for
quickly; unable to movement, but usually longer periods of time.
remain seated for long. able to control
themselves.
attention span Can’t concentrate on Can concentrate on one Can concentrate on one
one activity or task for thing for a while. thing for some time.
very long.
cognitive skills Learn through Are beginning to use Can use analytical and
experience; are unable analytical and abstract abstract thinking to aid
to use analytical or thinking, but still learn their learning.
abstract thinking. mostly through
experience.
meaning Conscious attention is Mostly learn through Mostly learn through
versus form purely focused on meaning but starting to meaning but can
meaning. benefit from some focus improve learning with
on form. active attention to form.
risk taking Not afraid of taking Less willing to take Not very willing to take
risks or making risks, especially if risks; usually see
mistakes; don’t notice if worried about own mistakes as something
corrected. image. to be avoided.

d)  Good language learners

Rather than focus too much on distinctions between learners here, we will take a brief look at
the features of a good learner before exploring ways that teachers can help students to become
good learners.

What does not affect general language learning ability?

 No learning style is better than any other.  

 While it is sometimes commonly thought that children learn better than adults, in fact,
if adults keep studying and learning, there is no actual evidence that language learning
ability necessarily decreases with age.
 Being either intrinsically or externally motivated does not seem to affect success at
language learning.

So what characteristics do good learners have?  Research, a great deal of which was in the
1970s on American college students, indicated the following:
 Memory.  Good learners find it easier to remember things or have developed
strategies for remembering.

 Have a good ear.  Good learners can hear differences between sounds even if the
sounds are not in their own language.

 A good mimic.  Good learners can repeat sounds they hear even if the sounds are not
in their own language.

 Motivated.  Good learners are well motivated though. Perhaps teachers will be aware,
however, that motivation is not sufficient in itself; trying hard does not always
produce the success learners hope for (in any field).

 Independent.  Good learners realise that because of the enormity of the task if they
only do what they do in the class with their teacher they will make slow progress.
Good learners can direct and extend their own learning. In other words, they are
autonomous.  (Note: Learning independently does not necessarily indicate working
alone).

 Perseverance.  Good learners realise that language learning is  never easy and are
committed to the long time that will be necessary.

 Openness.  Good learners are open to different ways of doing things both in language
and culture. For example, many other languages do not have articles as English does.
This worries and inhibits poor language learners but good language learners just get on
with it and try to learn them. Good learners are also happy to learn different cultural
conventions. These are often related to functions, such as the intonation in polite
requests or how, and whether, to complain. A positive attitude towards the target
culture is also very helpful in this.

 Pattern perceivers.   Good learners notice patterns in the language. Poor ones don’t
and therefore can’t use language they hear as a template to build new language.

 Exposure.  Good learners find every opportunity to come into contact with the
language: books, magazines, films, radio, the internet, native speakers.

 Risk takers.  Good learners are willing to try new language in conversation and are
not afraid to appear  foolish if this goes wrong.

 Strategies.  Good learners can use both learning strategies (see section b above) and
communication strategies such as paraphrase or circumlocution.

 Self-aware.  Good learners have some idea of their own learning style and know
which strategies work for them.

 Organised.  Good learners also tend to have good study skills and keep well organised
notes and vocabulary records.
  Tolerance of ambiguity.  This means that they do not worry if they do not know
exactly what a piece of language means. They are happy to wait until they get further
information about the exact meaning. If they come across an unknown word in a text,
they read on and try to guess what it means from the context. They do not need an
exact translation of a word or phrase if they can understand the general meaning in a
context.

What can we, as teachers, do to help poor learners to be more like good learners? There
are some suggestions in the table below. Match the teaching strategies listed A – J to the
features of good learners below.

Teaching strategies to help students become

Good learners…. good learners 
1  have good memories A  Teach students to use dictionaries so   

       they can study better outside class.

2  have a good ear   B  Highlight grammar forms in tables on  

       the board.

3  are open to other cultures C  Do constant recycling and revision  

       slots.
4  are pattern perceivers D  Teach students to deduce meanings of 

       unknown words from context.

5  are independent learners E  Teach learners all or part of the phonemic chart.

 
6  are risk takers F  Provide information about life in target  

      language countries.

7  are motivated G  Teach students to keep good records of  

       lexis. Inspect what they write in their books.

8  use learning strategies H  Create a warm, supportive class    

       atmosphere.
9  have good study skills I   Ask students to reflect on their own learning
style and what might help them to learn.
 
10 have a tolerance of ambiguity J   Give interesting lessons.

e) Practical considerations related to individual differences

i) General
As we have seen, individuals can vary considerably in their maturity, their motivation, their
learning style and learning preferences, the learning strategies they use and their general
language learning ability - and this is not an exhaustive list of individual differences.  

Faced with all these differences between learners in the class, what is a teacher to do about it?
What can a teacher do about it?

Even if the class is very small, say five or six students, it will still be very difficult for the
teacher to cater to all their differences and if the class is large, say fifty students, it will
obviously be impossible. Perhaps the best thing the teacher can do is to be aware that these
differences exist, to observe their students closely, to vary teaching stylesas much as possible
and to encourage students to become aware of what might work for them.

 ii) Learner training

Most lesson time will probably be spent on language and skills, and many teachers have a
tight schedule to keep to, which is prescribed by their school. However, if a little time can be
spent on helping students to learn how to learn then their learning can be maximised. This is
called learner training.

What can the teacher do specifically to train their learners to learn better? Think of some ideas
of your own and then compare with these:

 encourage learners to keep clear, well-organised notes, particularly vocabulary records

 encourage learners to develop good study skills, including note-taking and time
management 
 show students how to work on their own outside class, to read widely and to use
monolingual dictionaries (that is, to become more autonomous learners)
 ask learners to reflect on their own learning styles and ideas suited to their style
specifically
 make students aware of different learning and communicative strategies

Some course books have specific materials on learner training. The Cutting Edge series
(Cunningham and Moor, Longman) has some excellent classroom materials for learner
training in the Teacher’s Resource books for all levels.

It seems that a good time to make students aware of learner training is at the pre-intermediate
level, when students have done some learning but have not become set in their ways and still
have learning ahead.

Review & Reflection - Learner Differences

For the TKT Test it is important that you know the following terms:

learning style        learning strategy        visual         auditory        

kinaesthetic           group           individual             reflective     

impulsive             analytic              social          maturity     

attention span         perseverance        autonomous learner  

a pattern perceiver           a risk taker        tolerance of ambiguity     

learner training

 Reflection

1. Here are 2 approaches to finding out about students’ learning styles. Can you think of
any others?
1. Ask them, either directly or through questionnaires, what kinds of activities
they enjoy and why.
2. Observe them carefully noting how they respond to different kinds of
activities. 
2. Are you aware of any differences in learning styles between your learners?
For two weeks make a particular effort to notice.
3. Do you spend any lesson time on learner training? If so, what do you do? If not, try
some.

Section 6 : Learners & Learning - Learner Needs

Section 6:  Learners & Learning – Learner Needs

 1. What kinds of needs do learners have?

 2. Where do learner needs come from?

 3. Meeting different needs in class

Section 6:  Learners & Learning – Learner Needs

1. What kinds of needs do learners have?

It is reasonable to assume that students will have learning needs as otherwise they would not
be in the class! This need to learn is sometimes described as the learning gap, which is the
difference or gap between the learner’s current language ability and the level they need or
would like to reach.

Some adults may be learning for personal satisfaction or pleasure and for some young learners
the reason for learning may be as yet unclear or may be decided by their parents. However,
learners are generally studying with a goal in mind and most adult students know that they
need English for their work life or for further study. They therefore have professional needs.
We have already looked at learners’ reasons for learning in more detail in the previous section
on Motivation, so this will suffice here.

 As we saw in the previous section on learner styles, strategies and maturity, there will also be
individual differences between learners and these are called personal needs.
2. Where do learner needs come from?

Now that we have seen what kinds of needs learners have, we need to look at where these
needs come from. Look at the following table of learner needs and then do the following task.

Kind of needs Where the needs come from

Personal needs age

gender

cultural background

interests

educational background

motivation
Learning needs learning styles

past language learning experience

learning gap

learning goals

learner autonomy

availability of time
(Future) professional needs language requirements for employment, training or
education

Ideally, a school should investigate learners’ needs before devising a course for them but this
is not always practical for large classes and/or classes of students who register individually,
especially if the school operates a policy of continuous enrolment (say, new students joining
the class every Monday).

However, for a closed group of particular learners (for Example, a group of catering students)
or students requiring one-to-one tuition, the school should definitely conduct a needs
analysis. This is a questionnaire designed to discover which of the above needs the course
should try to meet.

Look at the courses described below and see how they vary in length, frequency, content and
teaching methods. See if you can decide what sort of learners they might be suitable for.

  

Kinds of courses
1. A six-month evening course focusing on speaking and listening for social and daily
survival skills.

2. A series of one-to-one lessons over eight weeks on business presentation skills.

3. A three-week summer course in the U.K. with English in the mornings and sport and trips
in the afternoons.

4. A year-long course on writing academic essays and reading academic books and articles.

5. A four-week intensive course on Examination strategies.

6. An in-company course on listening, speaking and functional language connected to dealing

with customers, two afternoons a week for six weeks.

Groups of learners

  Options
a a class of fourteen-year-olds
b trainee hotel managers
c managers in a company
d a group of adults wishing to visit London for tourism
e a class preparing for a university entrance Examination
students accepted at a British university for masters degrees but needing to
f
raise their level of English first

3. Meeting different needs in class

We have seen that different learners have different personal, learning and professional
needs but what can the teacher do about this in class, particularly in very large classes?

Teachers can cater to different needs in a class to an extent. In some cases it may be possible
to differentiate between learners by, for Example, taking in extra tasks for those who finish a
reading passage more quickly or get the early finishers to write their own questions about the
reading passage. Alternatively, some teachers provide a glossary of lexis for some learners not
others. A teacher may ask students to write between five and ten sentences, knowing that
some will only be able to manage five. Setting different homework for different learners can
get over the problem of Examination and non-Examination candidates in one class.

Some teaching institutions are quite prescriptive about what teachers have to cover but if the
teacher has any freedom in planning and in teaching, they can cater to particular needs in the
choices they make. Look at what teachers can do about students’ personal needs and
learning needs in the lists below and then do the following task.

Personal needs

The teacher can choose suitable:

a)    topics

b)    pace of lessons

c)    activities

d)    approach to teaching (e.g. activity based, topic based)

e)    treatment of individual learners

f)     interaction patterns

g)    types of feedback

Learning needs

The teacher can choose suitable:

h)    materials

i)     activities

j)     language and skills to work on

k)    level of language and skills

l)     learning strategies

m)   workload

Review & Reflection - Learner Differences

For the TKT Test it is important that you know the following terms:

personal needs         learning needs       professional needs      learning

gap                                                                 

Reflection

1. Choose two of your learners and make notes about what you think their learning, personal
and professional needs are.

2. Over the next two weeks of teaching, see how you meet the differing needs of the students
in your class. Are there any needs that you perceive in your students that you feel unable to
meet because of time or other constraints?

Section 7 : Teaching & Assessment - Presentation Techniques

Presenting language to students

     a)  Principles of presenting language

               i)        Meaning, form and pronunciation

               ii)       Teaching meaning in context

               iii)      Involving students in presentations  

b)    Using a Situational Presentation with visuals

c)    Other kinds of language presentations

d)    Inductive presentations

e)    Deductive presentations

Stages of a Presentation, Practice and Production lesson

Task-Based Learning

 TKT Examination practice task: Presentations

1) Presenting language to students

At some point we will need to introduce our students to language that they have not met
before, which is entirely new to them. In other words, we need to present new language to
them. If students have indeed never seen the language before, we will need to do a first
presentation.

However, as all teachers know, it will not be sufficient to present students with language only
once. As students progress, they need to revise and extend the language they have met before
and then we need to do review presentations.

On other occasions we may have noticed that a class are having a lot of difficulty with
language that they have met before but still cannot use. In this case we need to show them
again how it works so we need to do a remedial presentation (to put the language right). A
remedial presentation is therefore one kind of a review presentation.

Whether it is a first presentation or a review presentation there are several approaches we

can take.

Presentations

1. using a situational presentation with visuals

2. using a reading text or a listening text (an audio clip) 
3. a test-teach-test presentation
4. a guided discovery presentation
 a) Principles of presenting language

i) Meaning, form and pronunciation

Each of those approaches can be used to present different types of language: grammatical
structures, functions, style (and register) and lexis. Whichever kind of presentation is used,
students will need to know:

*   the meaning and use of the language

*   the form (how it is constructed)

*   the natural pronunciation of the language

So all these must be included in the presentation in some way.

ii) Teaching meaning in context

When teaching meaninholg, it is important that we show how the language works in a
context (that is, in some sort of situation), not in isolation.

If we want to teach past continuous, for example, we could show students a sentence: He was
washing his car.    This shows the form but on its own gives no guide to meaning, not even
whether it refers to the past, the present or the future.

However, if we put it into the context of talking about a family last Sunday morning at 11am
exactly, the sentence shows that we are talking about the past and that it describes a longer,
on-going action because washing a car takes longer than one minute. Students need to see that
past continuous does not describe a completed action (for which we would probably use He
washed his car).

A picture of a man washing a car would be even better.

iii) Involving students in presentations

Another principle of presentations is that students should be involved as much as possible -

this ensures they are engaged and motivated, and that their attention is focused.  One of the
best ways to involve the students is through the use of questions and prompts in order to elicit
rather than tell.

Imagine we have the picture mentioned above (of the man washing a car) and want to
establish the context of the family on Sunday at 11am.  Here are two ways this could be done:

Approach 1.

 The teacher holds up a picture of a man washing a car.

 The teacher says, “This man is Mr Jones.  It is Sunday, at 11am.  Sunday was two
days ago.  It was in the past.  Mr Jones washed his car over a period of time.  We can
say, Mr Jones was washing his car.”
Approach 2.

 The teacher quickly draws a picture of a family on the board, but the father is missing. 
In the background there is a calendar, with “Sunday, 14th” and a clock (11am). 
 While drawing this picture the teacher asks, as each picture goes up:
Is this a man or woman?  How old?  So is it a man or a boy?
Are they friends or family?
What time is it?  What day?  Is it now or in the past?
Who isn’t in the picture?  
 The teacher says, “This is the Jones family.  Mr Jones isn’t in the picture.  Why?” 
Students guess.
 Then the teacher holds up a picture of a man washing a car and asks, “Where was Mr
Jones?”  (If students need more of a prompt, “He was...”)

Clearly the students are much more involved in the second example.  Not only are they more
involved, but it also helps the teacher know whether the students really understand or not.

A third way to do this is by using gestures instead of questions for elicitation.  For example,
instead of asking, “What time is it?” the teacher could point at his/her wrist, to indicate “What
time is it?” and then point at the clock in the picture.  Ideally, a combination of questions,
gestures, and other prompts is best.

b) Using a Situational Presentation with visuals

A lesson using a Situational Presentation will often follow roughly the following procedures:

1. The teacher uses visuals (flashcards, photos, drawings on the board), gestures, and
questions to introduce the situation and characters.  Questions help check to ensure
that the students understand the situation.  The teacher talks as little as possible,
eliciting the ideas from the students as much as possible.
2. The teacher uses the situation/context to establish a concept in the students’ mind
(e.g. students should be thinking about the concept:  on Sunday, in the past, Mr Jones
cleaned the car and that at 11am Mr Jones was in the process of completing that
activity, which was an on-going action with a certain duration).  The teacher doesn’t
say this at any point, but uses checking questions that students are thinking about that
particular concept (e.g. “Did he do it in an instant or over a period of time?”)  The
teacher might also use a timeline.
3. The students produce the language, if they know it.  Otherwise the teacher produces it,
“Mr Jones was washing his car.”  The teacher then models and drills the pronunciation
several times with the whole class and then individual with several students around the
class.
4. The teacher goes back to the situation and, often with additional pictures, uses it to
elicit more examples (e.g. Mrs Jones was watching TV; the children were playing
games).
5. When the students are comfortable with the pronunciation and are producing it fairly
accurately, the teacher then elicits (referring back to the pictures) the sentences on to
the board.  The teacher elicits and highlights the patterns (in this case ‘was/were + V-
ing’).
 6. The class then goes on to do several spoken and/or written practise activities in which
they produce the language themselves.  This can be quite controlled at first, but should
finish off with a large amount of more natural, realistic communication.

Can you think of a situation you might use to present used to/didn’t use to for talking about
past habits?  Make sure it can lead to more than one example sentence, so you could use it the
same way the Jones situation was used above.

Suggested Answer

A man in prison, with pictures of water, bread, and playing cards (prison food, drink &
pastimes).  These are to be grouped under the time “now”.  The same man, but wearing a
business suit, with pictures of champagne, lobster, and a yacht (a rich man’s food, drink &
pastimes).  These are grouped under the time “2004 - 2009.”

The teacher can build up what ‘Don’ does now (e.g. He drinks water).  Then indicate the
pictures of the past to elicit what he did, regularly, in the past (e.g. He used to drink
champagne). 

Thinking of good, natural situations for different grammatical structures, functions and sets of
lexis, can be difficult for the teacher.  If done well, though, this approach ensures the focus is
on meaningful use and allows for a lot of drilling and repetition followed by lots of interactive
practice.

c) Other kinds of language presentations

A situational approach has a lot of advantages, but there are other, equally advantageous ways
to present new language.  Considering that most teachers teach from course books rather than
their own material, some of the following can be very effective:

1. using a reading text or a listening text (an audio clip) 

2. a test-teach-test presentation
3. a guided discovery presentation

Match the descriptions below to the type of presentation.

1. The teacher gives the students a short task or exercise.  The task checks to see how
well the students understand the meaning/use of the target language, how accurate
their pronunciation is, and whether they understand the rules for form/structure or
spelling.
Based on this, the teacher decides which aspects of meaning, pronunciation and form,
to clarify through further presentation and drilling.
After the presentation, the teacher gives the students some more exercises and practise
tasks
2. The students are given three very short texts (3 or 4 sentences per text), each one
containing one or two examples of the target language.
They are given questions or tasks that involve finding the examples in the texts, and
then focusing the students’ attention on the meaning/use and form/structure of the
target language.  By completing the tasks, the students should be able to work out the
use and the form of the target language by themselves.  Students may work alone or in
 pairs to do this.
Following that, the teacher may need to drill pronunciation for at least some examples,
and will need to include additional tasks that provides students with opportunities to
practise using the target language.
3. The teacher introduces the topic and some general themes running through the text. 
Then the students complete one or two tasks focusing on sub-skills (at least one task
practising getting the gist of the text).
After this, the teacher elicits an example sentence from the text.  Then checks
understanding of the meaning/use, and models and drills pronunciation.  The teacher
repeats this with two or three more examples of the target language, before writing the
examples on the board and drawing attention to the form/structure.
Students go on to complete various speaking or writing tasks that practise using the
language.

d) Inductive presentations

When students see examples of the language being used and/or in context first and then work
out how the words function largely for themselves, we call it inductive learning.

This is the kind of learning that we all do when we are growing up and working out how the
world functions.  It is also how students learn when they do lots and lots of practice. (In which
they see lots of examples, coming from both themselves and their peers.)

In true inductive learning students are never given any rules at all and this was fashionable in
language teaching in the 1970s (students just “picked up” the language from the context).
Most current course books, however, give a summary of rules of meaning and form at the end
of an inductive presentation.

e) Deductive presentations

An alternative to this is deductive learning in which the teacher gives students the rules first
and then the students use these rules to either make their own sentences or do other work on
the language (e.g. spot errors in sentences).

For example, the teacher says, or writes on the board, “The Present Perfect tense is used to
give an item of news when it is given for the first time and there is no time reference given.
The Past Simple is used to give further details. For example: A prisoner has escaped from
Parkhurst Prison. Police think he hid in a laundry van.”   Students then put the verbs into the
correct tense in some news stories.

All the examples we have given are of grammar presentations but vocabulary and functions
can also be presented through any of the 4 presentation methods, and vocabulary, functions,
and phonology can all be presented either inductively or deductively.

Also, all approaches could be for initial (first) or review (revision) presentations, though some
are better suited to one than the other.

g) The stages of a Presentation, Practice and Production lesson

The above focus on possible ways of presenting new language - of showing students what the
language means and is used for.   The final stages, which are just as important (and which
should actually take up more class time), for a presentation are traditionally:

 Practice, which allows students to get used to the new language by using it in a more
or less controlled way.
 Then production, when it is hoped that students will integrate the new language into
their general use of language.

For these reasons this type of lesson is known as a Presentation, Practice and Production
lesson, or PPP for short.

The presentation using pictures to establish a situation is an example of a classic PPP lesson,
but the inductive and deductive approaches, the use of guided discovery, and presenting the
language through a reading or listening text are all ways of moving from Presentation to
Practice to Production.   

It can be said that the Test-Teach-Test lesson is a bit different (in a way it starts off with
‘practice’), but when we look at it from a broader perspective, especially when the first ‘Test’
is more of a checking exercise than a practise task, the ‘Test-Teach’ is a presentation step, the
second ‘Test’ is the practice, and it is usually followed with a productive task.

1. Introductory activity
2. Establish the situation.
3. Ask questions to check if students understand the situation.
4. Elicit an example of the target language.
5. Ask (concept checking) questions to check if students understand the target language.
6. Choral drilling
7. Individual drilling
8. Controlled practice
9. Freer practice
10. Provide a written record of the target language for students to copy into their books.

h)   Task-Based Learning

Introduction

What does a secretary have to do at work?

She has to type letters, answer the telephone, make appointments and file documents.

These are some of her most typical tasks.  We can also teach students by asking them to do
tasks in English.

A lesson can be based around a task, for example, the main component of the lesson could
involve students suggesting a solution to a problem or writing advice for a visitor to their
country or choosing a picture to put on the front of a book. This is an alternative to a PPP
lesson and is known as task-based learning or TBL for short.
The principle is that the students do a task, usually in pairs or groups, as best they can using
all the language they know. There is often a preparatory stage first using a reading or a
listening so that students have some information to talk about, but the teacher only answers
questions on language as students work on the task and at the end. 

The task is usually divided into three parts.  Completing the task, then preparing a report on
the task, and finally, delivering that report.

Following this, the teacher comments on the ideas, language use (errors and good language
use), and provides new language that the students didn’t use but would have benefited from. 
The students may then go on to do further practice of the new language they have been given.

The course book Cutting Edge contains examples of task-based learning.

The philosophy of TBL is to create a need for language and opportunities to practise fluent
communication without the distraction of a specific language focus, then give students the
language they needed most (which can therefore be based more on the students’ actual needs
than on the teacher’s prediction of their needs). PPP is the reverse:  it gives students the
language first and then lets them use it. Some students (and teachers) prefer one, some the
other.        

Differences between PPP lessons and Task-Based Lessons

Which of these are features of PPP lessons and which are features of TBL? Which could
apply to both?

1. the lesson is teacher-centred

2. the lesson is student-centred
3. there is a lot of opportunity for students to make errors in language
4. the teacher structures the lesson so that the students do not make mistakes at first
5. the aim of the lesson is for students to complete a task
6. the aim of the lesson is for students to learn new language
7. students know why they need the new language
8. students use the language to communicate

 Answer

A TBL lesson is always student centred.  A PPP lesson through a situational presentation or
test-teach-test is usually highly teacher centred, but through reading/listening texts and
discovery tasks, it is often student centred.

In a TBL lesson there is a lot of opportunity for students to make errors.  A PPP lesson is
carefully structured to avoid errors - there is a lot of drilling and controlled practice to ensure
students do not make mistakes before they are given a chance to use the language more freely.

In a TBL lesson the aim is for students to complete a communicative task.  There is a lot of
focus on fluency and communicative ability and some focus on accuracy.  In a PPP lesson the
aim is to learn a new item of language.  There is a lot of focus on accuracy and some focus on
fluency.
In both types of lessons students should know why they need the new language (in a TBL
lesson, obviously, they know they need it for the task; in a PPP lesson they have a context or
text showing how and when it is used).  The same is true for using the language to
communicate.  In a TBL lesson they start communicating right at the beginning of the lesson,
and in a PPP lesson the last stage is a freer practice stage.  Although, teachers often report
timing issues with PPP lessons leading to very limited time on this last stage.

Review & Reflection - Presentations

For the TKT Test it is important that you know the following terms:

presentation      inductive   deductive  guided discovery    test-teach-test

a task     task-based learning      PPP a first/initial presentation

a review presentation  target language     to involve students

concept check question     to elicit  controlled practice       choral drilling

 individual drilling      context                                                        

 Reflection

1. Do you take an inductive (examples of language first) or deductive (rules first)

approach in your grammar presentations?
a) Do you approach lexis and functions lessons in the same way?
b) For inductive approaches, do you introduce the context through a reading/listening
text, a situation, a task     or guided discovery?
c) How does your course book approach language presentations?
2. Does your course book cover each of meaning and use, form, and pronunciation in
presentations?  If not, what steps do you take to cover anything the book has missed?
3. Do you usually tell students the grammar rules, or do you elicit them?
a) Are your students involved in presentations?
4. Try out an approach you haven’t tried, from the options presented in this Module, and
see how it works. 
a) It may be particularly worthwhile to try adapting the book to different approaches. 
For example, if the book has a presentation using a listening text, you could turn it
into a task-based lesson by asking the students to do a task that is similar to what the
speakers in the audio are doing; then the students can compare their language with the
language used on the tape afterwards.  Alternatively, you could pick out the target
language from the listening text, prepare some pictures and checking questions, and
use a situational presentation.
5. Try several different approaches with your students, and make note of which
approaches they: seem to enjoy the most; perform most accurately in; produce the
most communication in; remember language from more easily.

Section 8 : Teaching & Assessment - Practise Tasks

 1. What are practice activities?
2. Kinds of practice tasks
3. Reasons for practice tasks

TKT Examination practice task:  Practice activities

1. k) Freer practice. Another general term, this time for activities in which students choose
which language they use and the opportunity to use newly learned or reviewed target
language with other language that they know.

2. f) Controlled practice. This is a general term covering all activities where the students are
restricted in the language they can use to do the task. For example, they are told they may
only use prepositions or that they must use present perfect to ask questions.

3. e) Project work

4. g) Drills. These kinds of oral repetition are the most controlled kind of speaking practice
and are very important for pronunciation and memory.

5. a) An information gap. This is a very important part of communicative methodology and

almost all modern course books include this kind of practice.  Typically, students sit facing
each other and have to communicate by asking questions to get information they do not have
but which their partner does. For example, both students have a picture of people sitting in a
park, but 4 different people are missing from each picture.  Student A will have to ask
“Where is Julia sitting?” Student B will answer “On a rock, next to the waterfall,” and
student A draws Julia in the picture. It is then student B’s turn. At the end they should have
exactly the same picture.

6. c) Labelling 

7.  j) Jumbled sentence (e.g. Put the words in order, “going you are Where ?” )

8.  i) Multiple choice

9.  l) True or false tasks.

10. b) A survey. An example would be when students ask all their classmates what they
would do with the money if they won the lottery and take notes on the different replies.

11. d) A role play. A simple example of this would be when one student pretends to be a
waiter in a restaurant and another the customer. Published materials often include role cards,
which often supply extra details to help make the task more productive.   

12. h) A dictation. Dictation is essentially a listening activity but students also practise
spelling and to an extent grammar when they write. It is essential that students have
immediate feedback after dictations. Dictations are rather out of fashion in English language
teaching at the moment but they can have their place.

3. Reasons for practise tasks

Sometimes we want students to practise getting language right. This would certainly be
during the controlled practice stages of a lesson and particularly when students have just
learned new language. In this case we are focusing on accuracy.

At other times, however, we want students to practise using all the language they know and to
practise getting a message across. In this case we are focusing on communication.

However, it is possible for activities to develop both accuracy and communication. For
example, if students mingle (walk around the class) and ask questions to find out how many
people have been to different countries, the focus will be on accuracy because students are
practising asking present perfect questions Have you ever been to ______? etc. At the same
time they are communicating, because they are finding out information about other people
that they did not know before. Controlled practice can also be communicative and it is
important in communicative methodology that it should be communicative as often as
possible.

Look at the following activities and decide whether the aim is to develop accuracy or
communication or both. 

1   problem solving in pairs

2   repetition of phrases in a choral drill for pronunciation

3   memorising a conversation (learning it by heart)

4   a role play

5   discussion, giving opinions on a given topic

6   describing which order pictures go in to make a story

7   dictation

8   repeating new words after a tape or teacher model

9   a gap-fill activity

10 a survey

Answers

1 = Communication, because students need to understand what the other one says.

2 = Accuracy.

3 = Accuracy.

4 = This depends on how the role play is set up. There will be communication and   

      students may be given freedom in what they can say (e.g. the roles of shop 
      manager and customer with a complaint are given and the students choose  

      their own language), but a role play could aim to specifically practice present simple,     
      continuous and have got, so it can be both accuracy and communication if set up that way.

5 = Communication.

6 = Communication because students are telling someone else which order the 

       pictures go in (i.e. conveying a message.)

7 = Accuracy.

8 = Accuracy.

9 = Accuracy.

10= Accuracy and communication. Students will be practising accurate questions    

       during their survey but will also be getting information from it.

Review & Reflection - Practice Activities

For the TKT Test it is important that you know the following terms:

an information gap      multiple choice     true/false statements      a survey   

a role play      a dictation       labelling     project work      drills       chants    

jumbled pictures/sentences     controlled practice        freer practice  

fluency practice      communication      functional exponents        prioritising      

a dictation

Reflection

1) For one week, note down how many different kinds of practice task you use with your
class(es).
Is there a variety?
Does your course book provide a good variety of practice tasks or is it always the same (for
example, gap-fills)?
How much extra practice do you have to find yourself?

2) How much of the practice that you do is focused on accuracy and how much on
communication?
Of course, some may be both. Try to decide on an approximate percentage for each.
Do you think this is the right balance for your students?

Section 9 : Teaching & Assessment - Assessment Tasks

Section 9: Teaching Assessment – Assessment Tasks

1. What is assessment?
2. Reasons for testing
3. Kinds of tests
4. Kinds of assessment tasks
5. General principles of testing

TKT Examination practice task: Testing and assessment

1. What is assessment?

Here is a possible answer:

        Assessment is when teachers find out how well students have learned something 

       by judging their performance with the language they have been taught. 

Teacher can assess informally by looking at students working on a language task and making
comments (giving feedback) on how well they do.  More formal assessment is carried out
by giving students examinations or tests, which give students a score or a grade.  A portfolio
is another way of assessing and evaluating students’ work.  This is a collection of different
examples of work done in and out of class over a period of time.

Continuous assessment, where everything a student does is assessed, is not normally used in
English language teaching for formal assessment, though a teacher may write a report on a
student’s progress, based on informal continuous assessment, when the student leaves.

Students can assess themselves (self assessment) or each other (peer assessment) by judging
how well they perform a language task based on a checklist of criteria.  This type of
assessment is usually informal, and it helps to make students more aware of their learning,
and take responsibility for it.  Self and peer assessment can help to make students more
autonomous, more in charge of their own learning.  Tests can be objective (i.e. where the
answer is a clear right or wrong, e.g. multiple choice or gap-fill) or subjective (i.e. where the
answer is not so clear, e.g. writing a composition and depends on the marker’s judgement).

2. Reasons for testing

Which of these reasons for testing (a-h) apply to students at your school or college, if you are
currently teaching?

a)  to give students a feeling of achievement or progress in their learning

b)  to give teachers as well as their students information about language needs in      

     order to know what to teach, learn or review

c)  to give students activities that help review or practise language studied

d)  to motivate students to learn or review in order to achieve well on the test
e)  to assess students for an end-of-semester or year grade

f)  to give students a structure to their course; for example, they may have a test and 

     the end of every unit of work

g)  to assess students for a reason not related to the teaching in progress, i.e. to find 

     out how suitable students are for a course, job, university selection etc.

h)  to give students feedback on their strengths and weaknesses in particular

     language areas

All of these are valid reasons for testing and it may be that all of them apply in a particular
teaching situation.

3. Kinds of tests

a) Unscramble the words correctly to identify the type of test described.This is not a graded
task.

1)    An _____________ test measures how well students have learned the items covered in a
whole course. (achievement)

      mehcntaeive

2)    A __________test measures how well students have learned part of a course. (progress)

     sropgrse

3)    A ____________test measures how good students’ linguistic abilities are, but not
referring to a course. (proficiency)

     oyfiepcrcin

4)    A _____________ test measures students’ language level when they join a school.  It is
used to decide which class to place a student in. (placement)

alntcmeep

5)    A _______________ test shows the strengths and weaknesses of a learner’s knowledge. 
It is often given at the beginning of a course to find out what students need to learn.
(diagnostic)

          gocinasdti

The answers are  

1. an achievement test
 2. a progress test
3. a proficiency test
4. a placement test
5. a diagnostic test

As we have seen, a progress test shows how much a learner has gained from a part of a
course. Do you know what this kind of interim testing is called?

It is formative assessment. Testing at the end of a course, on the other hand, is called
summative assessment.

4. Kinds of assessment tasks

Look at the Examples of different assessment tasks 1- 11 below and then :

                        i)  match the activities 1- 11 to the ones in the box a-k

                        ii) say what each activity is testing.

   a) observation          b) storytelling/picture composition        c) listen and draw

   d) filling in a self assessment sheet           e) a role play       f) a gap-fill    

   g) a cloze                 h) repetition drill                             i) project work    

   j) labelling                k) an interview

1)     Students keep notes and checklists about their progress and achievement.

2)     The students look at a series of pictures and tell the story.

3)     The teacher keeps a record of student problems with a grammar point and    

      discusses these with the students.         

4)     Students listen to a recording of directions and mark the route on a map.

5)     The students complete gaps with the correct form of the past simple verbs.

6)     The students take part in a speaking activity where they play a client and a    

      salesperson in a shop.

7)     This is a kind of a gap-fill but different kinds of words go in the gaps.  

      (Traditionally, every seventh word is a gap.)

8)     The students choose the right word and label a picture of furniture.

9)     The students answer some questions about themselves and their families orally

10)   The students repeat words after a recording.

11)   The students research and write about life in Australia.

Answers

1   d  Assessing students’ abilities to judge their own performance or progress

2   b  Tests vocabulary and grammar, pronunciation, fluency and accuracy

3   a  Assessing students’ weaknesses to see if remedial teaching is needed

4   c  Tests listening for specific information

5   f  Tests accuracy of the forms of irregular past simple verbs

6   e  Tests fluency and spoken interaction/communication skills as well as specific  

         vocabulary and/or functional exponents

7   g  Tests grammar and/or vocabulary

8   j  Tests vocabulary

9   k  Assesses spoken interaction/communication skills (fluency and accuracy) as   

    well as specific vocabulary/grammar and pronunciation

10  h Tests pronunciation

11  l  Tests reading, writing and speaking skills

5. General principles of testing

Look at these statements about assessment and testing and choose the correct option.

1)    Students can be positively or negatively affected by assessment.  It is important for tests
to have a good/bad influence on what and how teachers teach.

2)    Younger learners are more likely to achieve well in formal/informal assessments because
the way they learn best is by communicating and “doing”.

3)    Teachers need to make sure that what they test is what they have/haven’t taught.
4)    Students need/don’t need feedback on the things they got right or wrong in tests (their
strengths and weaknesses) to help learning.

5)    Assessment should/must help learning take place.

Answers

1) good   2) informal  3) have  4) need  5) should

Do you agree with them all? Do you think the testing done in your school follows these
principles?

1) Complete the gaps in the notes with a maximum of three words.

gap-fill
2) Look at the photos and write a story about them
picture composition
3) Match the two halves of the sentences a-f with 1-6
matching
4) Tell your group what you think you should take and why.
discussion
5) What are these household items called? Write the name of each object.
labelling

Review & Reflection - Practice Activities

For the TKT Test it is important that you know the following terms:

diagnostic test    placement test      progress test   

achievement test    proficiency test     a subjective test   

an objective test    a cloze test        multiple choice questions       

feedback      autonomy/autonomous    formative assessment                       

summative assessment        continuous assessment      

self assessment             peer assessment

Reflection

1. Think back to your life as a student, what kind of assessments and tests do you recall? 
Were they subjective or objective?  Did they help or hinder your learning?  Why? 
2. Does your school use placement tests? If so, do you get to see a copy of the results?
Do you think it is an effective test? Does it test skills or only grammar?
3. What other kinds of tests does your school use? What kinds of tasks do the tests
contain?
4. Do you encourage self assessment and peer assessment among your students? If so,
how effective is it? Do students like it? If you do not use these types of assessment,
why not?  Do you think your answers to these questions might be different if you
taught a different age group?