Learning teaching, J. Scrivener

J.Scrivener: Learning TeachingA PP presentation created by Linguaprof

The effective teacher…really listens to his students;shows respect;gives clear, positive feedback;has a good sense of humour;

is patient;knows his subject;inspires confidence;trusts people;

Empathizes with students’ problems;Is well-organized;Paces lessons well;Does not complicate things unnecessarily

Is enthusiastic and inspires enthusiasm;Can be authoritative without being distant;Is honest;Is approachable.

Write a brief statement outlining your ownassessment of yourself as a teacher (or future teacher). Which kind of teacher do you feel you most resemble?

Wich would you most like to be?Wich of the factors that help effective learning do you think are already present in you?Wich are not?Wich would you like to work on?

Write two or more options for each of the following situations:A student says I don’t want to do this exercise.You expected an activity to take five minutes. It has taken twenty so far and the students still seem to be very involved. There is something else you would like to do before the lesson ends in ten minutes.

The next activity involves students working in groups of five. At the moment all the desks (which take two people) are facing forward in rows. They are movable, but it takes a few minutes of chaos to do it.The students are working in groups of three. Two groups have finished the task you set them and are now sitting looking bored. The other groups still seem to have a long way to go before they finish.

Here are a few possible options:You could say Fine.You could say loudly Do it!You could ask why the student doesn’t want to do it.

You could offer an alternative exercise or activity.

You could say Choose something you’d like to do.

You could explain the point of the exercise.

You could ask other stidnts for their opinion.What is the aim of this activity?What is the objective of the whole lesson?Is what we are doing useful?What is hindering the effectiveness of what we are doing?

What have I planned to do?What would be the best thing to do now?Is it time for a change of mood or pace?Are we using time efficiently?

How do the students feel?How do I feel?What are the possible outcomes of my doing something?

Maximizing student interaction in class: some ideasRemember the characteristics suggested by Carl Rogers for creating an effective learning environment. Be as honestly yourself as you can be. Respect the learners. Work on seeing things from their perspective as well as your own.Encourage a friendly, relaxed learning environment. If there is a trusting , positive, supportive rapport amongst the learners and teacher, then there is a much better chance of useful interaction happening.

Ask questions rather than giving explanations.

When you want students to discuss something ask ‘open’ questions (eg where, what, who, why, how, when questions that require a longer answer) rather than ‘closed’ questions (eg verb-subject questions that require nothing more than yes or no). For example, instead of ‘Is noise pollution a bad thing?’ (answer = yes or no) you could ask ‘What do you think about noise pollution?’ Allow time for students to listen, think, process their answer and speak.Really listen to what they say. Let what they say really affect what you do next. Work on listening to the person, and the meaning, as well as to the language and the mistakes.Allow thinking time without talking over it. Allow silence.

Increase opportunities for STT (Student Talking Time).

Use gestures to replace unnecessary teacher talk.

Allow students to finish their own sentences

Make use of pair an small groups to maximize opportunities for students to speak.

If possible, arrange seating so that students can all see each other and talk to each other (ie circles, squares and horseshoes rather than parallel rows). Remember that the teacher doesn’t always need to be at the front of the class. Try out seating arrangements that allow the whole class to be the focus (eg teacher takes one seat in the circle).

Encourage interaction between students rather than only between student and teacher and teacher and student. Get students to ask questions, give explanations, etc to each other rather than always to you. Use gestures and facial expressions to encourage them to speak and listen to each other.Encourage co-operation rather than competition. In many activities (probably not in a test or exam) you may to encourage students to copy ideas from others, or ‘cheat’. Although ,uch of our own educational experience may suggest that this kind of co-operation is to be discouraged, it seems to me to be useful and positive – we learn from ohters and from working through our own mistakes. If this is true, then it means that the teacher can concentrate more on the process of learning than simply on a plunge towards the ‘right answers’. The result of a learning exercise becomes less important than the getting there.

Allow students to become more responsible for their own progress. Put them in situations where they need to make decisions for themselves.

If a student is speaking to quietly for you to hear, walk further away, rather than closer to them! (This sounds illogical – but if you can’t hear them, then it’s likely that the other students can’t either. Encourage the quiet speaker to speak louder so that the others can hear.) Language skillsThere are four skills: listening, reading, writing.Listening and reading are called ‘receptive skills’(the reader or listener receives information butdoes not produce it); speaking and writing, onthe other hand, are the ‘productive skills’.

Every activity is likely to involve some work onBoth language systems and skills, though, usually, the objective is directed more to one area thanthe other. In the following, classify each activityas ‘ mainly skills’ or ‘mainly systems’. Thendecide which skills or which language systemsare being worked on.

The teacher writes a grammar exercise on the board which learners copy and then do.Learners read a newspaper article and then discuss the story with ach other.Learners underline all past simple verb forms in a newspaper article.

d. Learners chat with their teacher about the weekende. Learners write an imaginary postcard to a friend, which the teacher then corrects.f. Learners write a postcard to a friend, which is posted uncorrected.

g. The teacher uses pictures to teach ten words connected with TV.h. The teacher says What tenses do these people use? Learners then listen to a taped conversation.i. The teacher says Where are these people? Learners then listen to a taped conversation.

Restricted use activities. These are activities where the language available to the learners is in some way restricted – as, for example, when the learners are doing an exercise on one verb tense or reading a coursebook text specifically designed to include six examples of a particular language item.

Authentic use activities. This is the opposite of restricted use, there being no restriction on the language – for example, in a free discussion or in reading an English newspaper.

3. Clarification and focus. This is the part of a lesson where learners become clearerabout a language item and come to understand its meaning, form and use better, for example thtough teacher explanation or guided discovery.

Here is a short random list of some other activities often used in EFL classrooms (out of thousands of possible activities) : Learners do a grammar exercise individually then compare answers with each other;Learners listen to a taped conversation in order to answer some questions;

Learners write a formal letter;Learners discuss and write some questions in order to make a questionnaire;Learners read a newspaper article to prepare for a discussion;

Learners play a vocabulary game;Learners repeat sentences their teacher is saying;Learners roleplay a shop scene.

ConclusionsCoursebooks are written:To give less experienced teachers support and guidance and the control of a wellorganized syllabus;

To give more experienced teachers material to work from.Using a coursebook as a resource:Select You don’t need to do everything . Choose what is appropriate for you and your students.Reject If it’s not appropiate – leave it out.

Teach remember that the book is no substitute for your own teaching. The book is a resource to help and inform your work; it doesn’t do the teaching for you. What you bring to it is the human element – you know and work with your students; they know you.

ExploitYou don’t need to plod step by step through page after page. Find interesting ways to adapt or exploit the material. Devise variations on activities that give your students the practice that they need. For example, try doing things in a different order. Give different instructions to the ones printed on the page.

SupplementUse teacher’s ‘recipe’ books, magazine pictures and articles, your own ideas, board games, real objects, projects, tape and video recordings, etc.

How many separate activities will there be?Where will I stand or sit?What do learners need?What skills will learners be working on?

What are some of the things that could cause difficulties or go wrong?

How am I going to deal with mistakes?Is there going to be variety of activity in the lesson?

How do the lesson objectives fit in with longer-term goals?

On a day-to-day basis, teachers have a variety of reasons for their selection of lesson content: It’s the language features in the next coursebookunit.The main class teacher asked me to do it.I understand this bit of grammar myself!

I think it will be usefull for them.This is appropiate for their level.A student has asked me about it.I always teach this item at this point in thecourse.

I don’t want to work on the language item thebook has next.I’ve noticed that the students seem to need thisstructure.I like teaching this language item.

We negotiated and agreed that we would studythis one.I think they might enjoy my lesson about this.They have problems with this.I’m following a syllabus.

Repeating sentences that the teacher says ;Doing oral grammar drills;Reading aloud from the coursebook;Giving a prepared speech;Acting out a scripted conversation

f. Giving instructions so that someone can use a new machine;g. Improvising a conversation so that it includes lots of examples of a new grammar structure;h. One learner describes a picture in the textbook while the other students look at it.

To summarize the teacher’s arguments:There are times in class when a focus on accuracy (and therefore a greater use of instant correction) is appropriate.

There are other times when the focus is on fluency. At these times instant correction is less appropriate and could interfere with the aims of the activity.

The teacher needs to be clear about whether her main aim is accuracy or fluency, and adapt her role in class appropriately. The role of vocabulary in the classroom: five initial conclusions:Vocabulary is very important and needs to be dealt with systematically in its own right; it is not simply an add-on to grammar or skills lessons.

Our job does not finish as soon as a learner has first met some new vocabulary; we need to help them practice, learn, store, recall and use the item.Training in the use of English-English dictionaries provides learners with a vital tool for self-study.

We need to distinguish between vocabulary for ‘productive’ use and for ‘receptive’ recognition and adapt our classroom work appropriately.

We need to deal not only with single word lexical items, but also with longer, multiword items.Errors and correctionWhich of these two sentences do you mostagree with?Student errors are evidence that learning has not taken place.Student errors are evidence that learning is taking place.

Learning teaching, J. Scrivener

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