I am a 66-year-old retired teacher of English who wishes to share some of the key ideas on communicative teaching of languages with you. I taught English in a teacher training school in Finland over 40 years, 30 years of it as an IB coordinator.
One of my colleagues fell in love and spent all weekends in another town. On her way back home by train she had little time to prepare lessons for Mondays so she developed her own way of using ‘work stations’ in her lessons. And, to her surprise, with great success.
‘Work stations’ (or Station work) is just another special type of group work. One of my absolute favourites among lesson types. I have been using it for decades a couple times a month at least. It works well with all kinds of students and is a particularly good way:
to have a different but effective, fast-pacing kind of lesson
to change a teacher-oriented lesson into a student-oriented one
to differentiate teaching by offering choices for the students
to enhance social skills in the groups and let the students help each other
to practise for a future exam
The example above implies that ‘station work’ does not need to be a burden for the teacher. It may well be based on the exercises in the workbook. We only have to organize the lesson so that we do the very same things in the groups that we would do in a teacher-oriented lesson.
Central pedagogical ideas
A new motivation point after the transition to a new table.
Everyone proceeds at their own pace.
Students help each other (the social emphatic aspect).
Teaching others is a great way to learn yourself (the internalization aspect).
The teacher can be mobile or work in a particular group .
Essential practical advice on organizing work stations
The students are forced to be active and co-operate.
Usually 4 -5 groups, 4 – 6 students in each group
The desks are organized as in the photo below
Time in each group depends on the length of the lesson
First 5 min for organizing the groups, at the end 5 min for wrap up
Group members are randomly selected, mixed-ability groups but one student is appointed group leader
Each group has two sets of the same instructions on the numbered desk (this way everyone can see the written instructions)
There are more exercises than there is time for (and the students know it), extra tasks are available and marked with *
There is one extra task for all groups (for example: Ask each other the words of a particular chapter)
Two sets of correct answers (if there are any) are placed in an envelope on the desk.
Announce the change of groups 2 min beforehand, and let the students check the answers. Moving to the next table takes 30 seconds.
Usually the 1st group takes a bit longer and the last one is shorter.
Look at the two examples below. By all means, do not hesitate to make your own version. The 1st time may seen troublesome but once you get a hang of the things to remember you will realize this is one of the best lessons types ever. I hope to be able to add a video on a ‘work stations’ lesson at some point.
Types of tasks in each group
1 Listening to a recording of the chapter. In the corner of the room or with headphones on. Reading the text or part of it aloud. (See my recommendations on the structure of ordinary lessons.)
2 Questions on the text + answers, or explain the chapter content in own words, or tell a story related to the chapter.
3 Various vocabulary exercises, orally and/or written ones.
4 Practise the latest grammar point orally and /or in writing.
5 Let the students choose whatever woorkbook exercises they fancy.
An illustration how ‘station work’ can be used when we practise for an exam just before the exam itself.
Use the same types of tasks as you intend to use in the exam itself.
1 A couple of dictation sentences (read by you or a student) A short reading task: done alone and checked together with justifications for the correct answers.
2 and 4 Tasks testing recently taught grammar points, preferrably three difficulty levels (See my recommendations on ‘differentiation’ under heading ‘Grammar’
3 Crossword or any other vocab task, preferrably three difficulty levels 5 Practise orally the kind of questions you wish your students to be able to answer in the exam or have oral ideas for a written essay for more advanced students .
Students really enjoy ‘station work’ lessons since they can co-operate in a relaxed atmosphere and time passes quickly away and they have options on what to focus on.
In the previous article I suggested some alternative ways of making questions about a text. I also gave an example how to use differentiation in ‘question – answer technique’ so that the ambitious CLT principles are applied at least among some of the students.
UNDERLINING WORDS AND PHRASES IN THE TEXT
In the ‘old’ days I used a technique ‘Find me another way of saying’ to hammer in phrases like this:
T: Look at the text and find me another way of saying:”two weeks”.
S: “A fortnight”
T: “And then another ways of saying: “I did not have enough money in my wallet.”
S: “I was short of funds on me.”
This process is very slow and could be replaced by giving the students a ready-made list of para-phrases s that would be worth remembering. These stage I have relaced the whole thing in two ways: 1) The students underline anything they find worth underlining or I give a list like in example 3 below and the students say sentences where they use the phrases.
Now we have a look at some alternative ways to enhance talking in class and check understanding of a text. For the sake of motivation it is advisable to replace ‘question -answers’ with something else every now and then.
In short, the examples below demonstrate a way how to combine reading comprehension with speaking freely on the basis of the chapter.
TRUE – FALSE -tasks
The best thing about ‘True – False’ exercises is that it makes the students think and even better if they have to justify their choice in groups orally: argue convincingly why their choice is correct.
Here are some variations for ‘True – False’ -tasks
Make all statements false, one word makes it false
Make all statements false, part of the statement is wrong
More statements are false than true and the students have to identify the false ones and justify why they are false
Add a third choice ‘Not mentioned’, this choice is really demanding, both for the students and for the writer of the statements, this version can actually be considered to be ‘Multiple-choice’
MULTIPLE CHOICE EXERCISES
‘Multiple choice’ is an excellent way to check if a text has been understood properly. It is a very common exam task which gives reliable information of the students’ reading (and listening) skills.
If time allows, just like in ‘True – False’ tasks we can
give students individual time to make their choices and
then let them discuss the choices in pairs or groups; in English of course
This process will teach them a lot and they will learn from each other.
The discussion with others is in fact more important than the correct answers.
USING MIND MAPS
Sample 1
From CLT point of view mind maps are excellent because they give hints to the students what to talk about but offer no ready-made sentences to be used. The mind map above is a real communicative task for advanced students after they have studied a chapter with similar content.
Semi-communicative mind map would have additional key words like ‘classical, pop, rock, instrumental; guitar, piano, organ, flute, saxophone; painting, theatre, films, sculpture, poetry’ etc. to get the discussion going more smoothly. The best groups would probably realize how music is used in films to arouse feelings and that song lyrics are often poems.
A mechanical version of the mind map would have both words and guiding questions on the screen. Very often I have the mechanical version visible for everybody and tell the students to ignore my guiding if they feel like it. I call it invisible differentiation since the others do not actually know how much you use the guidance given.
SAMPLE 2
Source: Weilin+Göös, Course 2 Finland
In reality it does not matter how much the students consult the original text. We allow them to do it if they need the support. The main thing is that differentiation takes place unnoticed at the level of their choice.
SAMPLE 3
Source: Weilin+Göös, Course 2 Finland
In nearly all cases where we wish the students to discuss matters in groups it is advisable to have some ideas, pictures or lists or words/phrases that stirs imagination sufficiently. It is only natutal that some students work at a mechanical level and the best ones fully communicatively. Differentiation in action without any stigma on anyone.
USING PLOT PICTURES
Source: SIIE 7 WSOY, Finland
This is an example of how to replace questions made by the teacher with students explaining about the chapter. The topis is hobbies but in my opinion the CLT trick is not to ask the students to memorize and reproduce the content of the chapter, which is what the weakest students do by looking at the text since they are not at the level of making sentences of their own yet.
The trick is to ask the students to make up stories of their own on the basis of the pictures. And the ideas can be completely imaginary and different from the chapter content.
Once the students are allowed to produce stories of their own they really seem to enjoy the freedom and become very motivated to talk in class.
USING PICTURES TO ENHANCE SPEAKING
See my article on ‘Lexical approach to learning languages’. This picture, for example is linked with teaching grammar orally.
It is essential to realize that all language skills are interlinked and variety in classes can be reached by combining the skills.
Source: SIIE 7, WSOY Finland
USING PHOTOS RELATED TO THE CHAPTER STUDIED
Assuming the textbook chapter was about New York and Manhattan, the student make up a story of their own on the basis of these pictures.
ADDITIONAL TYPES OF ORAL EXERCISES
Now we have finally reached the last part of our text-based lesson: oral exercises which can be the ones in the study books or modified versions of them or any exercises that the teacher has found in other sources.
The types of tasks below are the juicy bits of our lessons. They bring joy and excitement into the class and are related to real life situations.
Having done with a chapter of two in the textbook these exercises hammer in orally what we were trying to learn. They work even with weak students if we provide them with supportive materials. And you can link them to any of the language skill areas we have in mind.
These exercises can be linked to
some new or old grammatical point, such as ‘explaining a process using the present passive voice’, ‘looking at photos and doing comparisons’ or interviewing others (Have you ever …? Has your mum often …?
a pre-task for the next lesson, such as ‘Find someone who’ -game where the answer is Yes or No and a certain grammatical point is repeated in a variety of ways
functions of language, such as ‘asking for directions’, ‘requesting politely’ or ‘giving a speech’
real-life situations, such as ‘at a hotel’, ‘at the airport’, ‘at a restaurant’ or ‘at the doctor’s’
a role play, such as ‘reporter – film star’, ‘politicians making a decision’ or ‘travel guide – tourists’
co-operative learning, an elaborative group work where the students move on to another group teaching others what they learnt in the previous group
work stations – technique, group work where the students move from one table to another and each table has a different task for them
task-based and inquiry-based learning, both are student-centered approaches where to focus is directed to finding information or answers to a problematic question, students use the foreign language in a natural way and it does not feel like a language lesson at all
These oral exercise types will be dealt with in other articles.
Logical order of precedures and control are needed at schools, too.
The teacher is the boss in a class. The students take as much power as they are given! If you do not take the command in class, the students will!
This article is an introduction to this topic and I will start by introducing
10 basic principles on class management and control for new teachers and those who wish to reconsider their ways in class
some ideas to bear in mind when the teacher is starting with a new group and planning the very first lesson with them
Because of its large scope I am going to deal with ‘Class management and Control’ in 7 additional articles under the following headings. There will be some repetition of the key ideas to tie the contents of the articles together and make it a more coherent unity.
Class management and control
Qualities of good and bad teachers
Class control, how to succeed and fail
How to avoid being too tolerant or too strict
Gordon’s principles, a wise teacher
Gordon’s method, a sample dialogue
I- and YOU-messages
Active listening, I-messages and win-win solutions
Many teachers are afraid of applying CLT principles and student-centred methods because they are afraid of losing control in class.
I sympathize with this feeling since I have experienced it too. My advice is to try out the changes gradually and always tell the students what you are trying to do and why. Besides you can always go back to your old systems. I never did, neither did my colleagues.
10 principles for class management and control, a summary on teacher measures
The teacher
is the Queen or the King of the class; group control requires authority
takes the power for him-/herself from the very beginning; otherwise the students will take the power in the class
has clear rules for behaviour, explains the rationale behind them and makes sure the rules are followed
is on the students’ side, helping them in all situations
treats everybody the same way, no matter how good they are as students; the measure of students is not in the grades
is fair in making decisions and when marking papers
makes sure nobody is teased or bullied at school and the working environment is peaceful and safe
gives interesting captivating lessons with a good sense of humour
creates an atmosphere of mutual respect and patience
is interested in students as individuals and helps them to find new ways of learning
Many teachers are facing an authority problem with their pupils or students thinking that they are not supposed to give commands to their students. This is a misconception and problems follow. The truth is that the students take as much power as they are given. It is the teacher or students who run the show in the class and every responsible teacher has to realize that they are the Queens or Kings in the class. It is scary for some teachers at first but the other option is a teacher with burn-out and lowered self-esteem. If the teacher is scared of the students, they sense it and take advantage of it.
This does not mean strict military commanding but the students have to respect the work the teacher has put on the lesson in advance at home. Everything we do in class has to have a purpose, a goal and no time should be waisted on unnecessary hassle. It is perfectly ok to be jealous of time and use it wisely.
The students are dying to know who you are, what your values and principles are but still, be careful not to tell too much. Likewise you need to know about the students’ lives, hobbies and gradually about their worries. This is vital for a healthy teacher-student relationship which is the key to class management based on MUTUAL RESPECT.
Still, don’t try to be your students’ buddy. Some inexperienced teachers may think that being nice is the only thing needed. Wrong. It may easily lead to a situation where some students take advantage of that cozy atmosphere. You are the boss and things run your way. I fell in that trap with one class in the 1980s and learnt my lesson.
Every time we are dealing with a class, any size of class, the teacher has to organize the learning process logically and individual wishes can be taken into account. All this requires a lot of pre-planning and becomes easier only with a lot of experience. There is no room for chaos: the teacher gives instructions, all the students begin with the same task or choose one of the options, work alone, in pairs or groups and the teacher observes that the work gets done. As simple as that.
The teacher is supposed to observe the class all the time helping individuals, pairs or groups when needed. Learn more about differentiation.Learn more about Gordon’s method. In my other articles.
The importance of the first lesson
First impressions count. You are measured within the first five minutes.
You are walking along the school corridor full of noisy students. You are having your first lesson ever with a group of 30 students. “How am I going to cope with the situations”, you think. If you have not thought it out already, you have made your first serious mistake. Always go to lessons fully prepared.
Think carefully in advance what you are going to say to the students and do with them. Practise by saying all the things aloud at home.
Check the classroom and the equipment beforehand and learn how to use them. Find a way to make the classroom a bit cozier.
Greet them at the door personally and establish proper warm eye-contact. A firm handshake * will confirm your silent message: “Welcome to my class, I am the boss.” (* if it is customery in your culture)
Age groups 5 -15: at the beginning of a lesson make them stand and be quiet before they sit down. It means the lesson is about to start, peacefully.
Explain about yourself, your life and move on to your class rules, explain why you have them. As few rules as possible but as many as you feel are needed.
Ask each student to tell you their names and hobbies and write them down.Pulling the hobby-string to establish a more personal relationship with the students is one of my favourite things at school: Hi Janet. How’s your street dancing? Performing for us soon? / Hi, Mark. Scored any goals lately? / Good morning, Susan. I have a new song for us. Could you help me with it today? / Jim, can you come and help me with this programme. Your math teacher said you are the wizard in the class. The message is clear: The teacher cares about ME, not only about my skills in English.
Don’t ask them anything too personal or intimate since they probably are shy to tell about their family and background. Privacy issues can be very delicate.
Finally, explain about your philosophy and methods of teaching English (or whatever you subject is) and why you are using them. Encourage the students to give you feedback at the end of each course.
Be as tall as New York skyscrapers in your class. Proud and persistent about the things you do in your class.
We are all different and learn words in a different way. That is why we need to let our students experiment and find their own style or strategy of learning words. Here the term ‘strategy’ simply means a certain way or approach to enhance learning new words.
Miniature N.Y. Brooklyn Bridge in a Bangkok mall. I am a very visual learner and therefore I love to use photos and pictures in my teaching
It is sometimes argued that new words should be learnt in a sentence/context first and I agree. Still, I believe they should be practiced in isolation as well since there are many things to learn about every word. In the approach I recommend below most of the learning takes place at sentence/utterance level:
The other articles under Vocabulary heading are
Knowing a word, What does it really mean?
Identify 22 strategies to learn new words
Getting students to design vocab tasks, Points 1-10
Getting students to design vocab tasks, Points 11-22
A summary of my philosophy on learning new words
At home: in advance before the new lesson: New words are preferably first encountered in the sentences of new texts/chapters at home (as part of homework).
At home: The students automatically try to guess/figure out the meanings of the new words. If they fail, they consult the workbook word lists or a dictionary. An excellent learning situation because a lot of thought is involved in the silent mental process.
At home: If the student doubts he/she will not remember the words, I advise them to write the translation on top of the textbook line or in their notebooks. Still, occasionally we learn new words without knowing the exact meaning because the words are constantly repeated in a context.
At school the words are repeated after the teacher to learn how they are pronounced and at the same time the meanings of the words are revised.
The use of words is practised orally in pairs, preferrably by making sentences or even stories of one’s own using as many of these new words as possible.
The chapter is listened to, read aloud and reading comprehension checked in many ways, all of it at sentence level.
Invisible differentiation(the students choose freely from options what to do, no stigma attached on tasks) is involved all the time and the final stage for the best students is to produce ideas of their own making use of the new words under the topic in question. Even the weakest students learn new words in a relaxed atmosphere answering questions on the text in pairs.
We all learn new words differently depending on our style and personal characteristics. That is why we teachers need to offer our students a set of options / strategies and then they can start using the strategies that appeal to them.
There is so much more we can do to learn new words than doing exercises in the workbook.
22 strategies to learn new words
Which ones have you already been teaching? Which one have you never thought about? Choose the 5 best ways YOU learn new words best!
I hope to be able to add some videos on these strategies later on.
Link the new word with a picture or photo.
Link the new word to your mother tongue.
Write the unknown words of the chapter on a paper and make up a mindmap or a story.
Associate the new word with another (funny) word, story or setting. Explain to your pair how the association works for you.
Record a word list on your phone ( word in mother tongue – 1 sec pause– English word). Listen to it many times. (The favourite of my wife!)
Make word lists (mother tongue – English), cover up the other side and say the words aloud or write them down before checking. (My favourite if followed by oral practice)
Make or have a look at a word list (mother tongue – English). Then make an exam for yourself or others.
Say or write a sentence where you use the new word.
Tell a story in your group where you use the new words. (Humour is the best medicine!)
Make two-sided word cards and use them in a game.
Learn words in groups (linked with a topic, nouns, adjectives etc.). Write them down in a grid or an excel file.
Use word formation technique. One word leads to a family of words.
Find synonyms or opposites for the word.
Make a gap exercise of the lyrics of a song.
Consult a dictionary (online or hard copy).
By doing various exercises (crossword puzzles, gap filling, hidden grid odd one out, etc.)
Guess the meaning of new words on the basis of the context.
Make use of free computer vocab exercises provided by publishers.
Give a definition of a word and your pair has to guess which it is (e.g. it is an adjective which means the same as ‘adequate’ – well ‘enough’ or ‘sufficient’)
Your say a word and your pair has to give a definition for it or explain it in another way (a vaccination – well, it is a shot given with a needle so that you do not get a disease)
Make use of the free vocab learning computer programmes in the internet.
When reading extra English materials such as magazines or books, take out your notebook and write down new words and phrases that you find interesting and useful.
Let the students do a lot of vocab exercises orally. And – open up the vocab learning strategies, teach them how to write exercises of their own for themselves and others. Use free computer programmes. LEARNING BY DOING – WORKS HERE AS WELL!
Students learning new words by designing exercises
As you can see above many of the exercise types can be done orally and if the students move from word level to making sentences or stories of their own, we are beautifully applying CLT and differentiation principles. Instead of asking your students to do ready-made vocab exercises you can also teach them how to design vocab exercises for others.
As a result you, the teacher, do not have to come up with all the exercises if you notice workbook exercises do not work well. Start by going through the list of strategies little by little in your lessons and let the students then make the written exercises.
I don’t have the time, you say! Yes, you do. Leave out some of the workbook exercises and do these ones instead. The students enjoy these ones more than the workbook exercises. Or ask them to write the exercises at home and exchange them with each other in lessons. If you take copies of these student-produced exercises, you can use them in work stations, for example. Especially if you are rehearsing for an exam. It is simply a matter of organization.
There is no need to check all the tasks made by the students since learning takes place when they are writing the task. If there are problems, others will point them out. You, the teacher, just move about and offer help if needed. If needed, you can always take copies of the tasks or show them on the screen.
Students subconsciously learn the words they are working onwhile talking or writing vocab exercises. Why? Since they need to think a lot and make reasonable decisions.
Still, even if they never make any exercises themselves, knowledge of the vocab learning strategies will help them a lot.
The next article deals with what is meant by knowing a word and some other basic ideas on vocab learning
Then you will have a chance to practise identifying the strategies in real vocab exercises in my 3rd article.
In the following two articles I will demonstrate what you need to take into account when you make you students write vocabulary tasks themselves. (See the links above)
Co-operative learning is the most demanding form of group work for a language teacher to organize. It means first having an inquiry based group work followed by mixing the groups. The project requires a lot of pre-planning.
Trust me. When you have done it once, it is ok. Just a little more planning and organizing. Besides you do not need to go through all three stages and may well cut the lesson after Stage 2. It all depends on the abilities of the class and the time available.
Due to the complicated nature of this method I will be using 11 photos taken from a power point lesson plan to demonstrate the whole process.
The final communicative purpose is to present a plan in order to establish a zoo in the students’ home community.
Co- op learningDividing the students into groups can be easily done with the system above. Cut the grid into pieces and the students randomly pick one of them when entering the class.
Stage 3 means going back to the home group to explain the others if you learnt anything new during the presentations in Letter groups.
There are many ways to proceed in Stage 3: the most demanding one is to start working on the final plans for the zoo animal section that was the topic for Home group. The next lesson would then mean presenting, discussing and evaluating the plans.
Stage 4, giving feedback on the project itself, the work of oneself and others can take place right after Stage 3 or at the end of the next lesson.
Co-operative teaching is an excellent way to move on from ordinary group work to something that resembles a real-life problem and is fascinating in many other ways too, learning of English being a natural by-product.
My name is Raimo Junnikkala and my articles mostly deal with communicative language teaching (CLT). I want to help language teachers who wish to modernize their teaching and apply CLT principles more efficiently.
I am a recently retired teacher of English who also ran the IB Section of Turku Teacher Training School for nearly 30 years. I have worked as a teacher trainer for 42 years in Finland and recently in Oman as well.
Depending on the feedback I will get on my articles I am considering having them in Podcasts as well to elaborate the ideas. These articles are actually a story of how I gradually came to realize how one can learn all aspects of a foreign languageif the teacher knows what to do. There are lots of acticles on CLT in the internet but my ideas are directly linked to the work in class. Teachers need practical advice more than theory.
When I started my career I hated the idea of my students spending more than 10 years without learning to master English, without learning to speak and communicate in English. As a result I decided I would not let it happen to my students. Still, it took me many years to learn the tricks of the trade.
I used to hate my lessons but I at first did not have a clue how to change them. Not until I learnt to apply CLT in full.
to mirror the changes I have gone through in language teaching in 40 years, and I also discuss the reasons for the changes I have made in my career
Turku Teacher Training SchoolLunch hall2nd floor staircase
I was inspired by two things to write these articles:
In my IB years I learnt that far too many students, especially in Central Europe and the Middle East, do not learn to speak and use English properly. With 42 years of experience I know how it can be done.
Working in Oman as a language teaching expert a few years ago I realized it is practical tips on how to apply CLT principles that the teachers need. I will keep theory to minimum.
At present I am living in Sauvo, southern Finland, close to the sea with my wife. My four children and their five grand children are living on their own in Oulu and Turku. My favourite hobbies include going on singing gigs with a dance band, playing icehockey with my friends, renovating my house and picking up blueberries in July.
MOTTO: Learning starts when the teacher stops talking.
Don’t worry! This argument is a bit provocative but there is a lot of truth in it. It took me a couple of years before I really understood what Rogers meant by this argument. These articles are about the application of this and other CLT principles.
My second article under this heading is about my own history as a language learner and teacher. It will give you some perspective to how language teaching has changed over the last 50 years, and how and why I completely changed my ways of teaching English in 1986.
Returning an exam or any test at school should be a vital learning situation. Learning from mistakes is best if the students tell each other how they realized what they are doing wrong and what they need to do next.
This article is continuation to the previous article and I strongly recommend a student-centred way of returning the marked reading comprehension tests to the students. There are four reasons for doing it this way:
The student will learn how and why they missed the right answer. And they are given the time and a chance to voice their ideas in peace.
The students realize how the others solved the problems they faced while doing the test.
Many students close their ears when the teacher’s explanations go on and on.
The group leaders are finally rewarded for their social skills and it enhances their self-esteem.
My recommendations for the lesson
Divide the class into groups of 3 – 4 and make a good student responsible for the discussion in each group. However, warn these leaders not to lecture about the correct answers but give the answers only if the group cannot find them.
Neither should the leaders show the answer sheet to the others. If they do immature students will simply copy the answers and the whole learning situation is spoilt.
Giving the star students this task will enhance their social skills and they will not get bored and besides, we learn best when we teach others.
Give the students the handout with my tips on the strategies to be used in reading texts. The ones mentioned in the previous article. Let the groups discuss the ideas for a few minutes.
Return the exam papers to the students. Let the group members go through the exam quickly by just looking at their own exams. What went wrong and why? What was the logic like they followed? What did they succeed in? Which strategies would have been useful?
Now the group will go through the whole exam and the leader will make questions, ask for justifications and encourage the others to think aloud why they missed the point. This process of discussion is actually more important than giving the correct answers.
You may consider whether you are going to give the ‘correct’ answers to the group leaders just like they are below or a simplified version of them without the justification lines. A hard-working group may be rewarded with the answers after the whole lesson so that they can study the exam in peace and quiet at home.
If it is absolutely necessary, the discussion may take place in the mother tongue.It makes no sense to go through the answers in English if the proficiency level of the students is not high enough.
Finally answer any questions the students may still have and give feedback of the work of the groups. Praise the groups that worked well and speak in general terms of the problems you observed. The students will know if you are talking about their group.
The very last thing: Ask for feedback, the students’ opinion of the project, the lessons spent on the strategies. Useful or not? What their liked and disliked? What could be done differently and how?
School buses belonging to some schools in Nairobi
Suggested answers for the reading comprehension test
Making a Difference in Tanzania
Up to 113 million children worldwide do not have access to school books. What a waste it is that old school text books are binned or pulped. Books written in Arabic will, of course, be of no use in most of Africa but English is an official language in Tanzania, for example. Moreover, all secondary education is done in English there and children are taught following the old British O- and A-Level curricula. Due to the way syllabi in Tanzania mirror the old English system, second-hand course books are perfect to help bridge the gap between rich and poor nations.
Words to be guessed;access= a chance to get, to bin = throw to rubbish bin, to pulp = turn to paper, recycle, curricula/syllabi = official school plans
The title of the article suggests that a problem is being solved. It implies a change. The topic of the article, the main idea, is given in the very first sentence. The photograph has a white person in the middle which forebodes him as the person who solved the issue in this primitive-looking school. The predictions concerning the content of the article are connected to school life. The thesis statement,(main argument) is given at the end of the 1st paragraph.
1. In Tanzania there are 113 million children without school books. F, because 113 is a worldwide figure
2. In Tanzania all education starting from the first school years is done in English. F, English is used from secondary school onwards
3. The curricula in Tanzania follow the old English model to a great extent. T, British O- and A-level traditions are followed
In Tanzania educational resources are scarce but children have the will to learn. An organisation based in Liverpool is working hard to see that school text books and other equipment are collected and re-distributed. The Tanzanian Book Appeal would be nothing without the help and support of schools, many of which have been involved in fundraising activities as well as donating old books. John, one of the students involved in the project, says that before the fundraising he didn’t really know or even care about Tanzania. Now he understands that Tanzania is the fourth poorest country in the world, and that there may be up to 40 pupils sharing one text book.
Rare wordsto be ‘guessed’:resources= equipment and money, scare = seldom seen, redistribute = spread out again to people, donate = give out free
The topic sentence of paragraph 2 is the very first sentence. Why should someone take all the trouble? >>The children do not have enough books to learn new things. The rest of the text explains what has been done and why.
The 2nd paragraph title could be: School involvement
The last sentence wraps up the idea of the 1st sentence: Tanzania is really poor.
4. In Tanzania there is not a lot of money to organize teaching. T, Tanzania has scare resources = no funds = not much money
5. An organization in Liverpool gathers secondhand school books and forwards them to Tanzania. T, the organization is ‘Tanzanian Book Appeal’ and the students and schools only help them
The whole procedure is planned in detail and even the Tanzanian officials are involved. (This topic sentence is added here to make the text more coherent.) Once the books have been donated they are collected in a truck and taken to a holding warehouse – which was donated by a local business – sorted through and stored. They will be packed up and shipped off to Tanzania in a big container. The students who have worked on the project will then fly out to meet the books over there. The government in Tanzania have loaned government vehicles to sort out the distribution. The group of English students and teachers will then tour the schools in the Kagera region near Lake Victoria.
The original text has no topic sentence in Paragraph 3.
The whole text is a chronological account of the book handling procedure, explaining how the project was carried out.
Paragraph 3 could be titled as Practical actions taken.
If you get a feeling that the ending is missing you are right. The original text is much longer.
No hard words in this paragraph.
6. The aid organization does not need the help of school children in its work. F, the organization needs the children in fund raising, with donations and even in Tanzania
7. In Tanzania there may be as many as 40 pupils in one classroom. F, the class size is not even mentioned and might even be bigger, 40 refers to the number of students who have to share a book
B Answer the multiple choice questions
8. What happens to the school books once they leave the donating schools?
a) They remain in an old lorry until a storage warehouse is found.
b) They are sent to Tanzania in small units with goods from local businesses.
c) The books that have been given away are taken into storage and sorted. OK, the books are sorted out before they are placed in a container inBritain
9. What happens to the books when they reach Tanzania?
a) A group of students from England will go and distribute the books in Tanzania.OK, they fly over but there are some teachers involved too
b) The school have to pay for the transportation of the books.
c) The British students travel on the trucks to the schools.
C 1 Why are British secondhand school books ideal for Tanzanian schools? (Give 2 reasons and answer in your own words in a full sentence or two.)
The language of secondary schools is English so they also need English books. The subjects and everything else is pretty much the way it is in Britain.
2 What do you think about the procedures of getting the books to schools after they have arrived in Tanzania? (Mention 2 opinions and why you think so.)
It shows that the project is taken seriously since even the school authorities and the government are involved. They want to secure the safe arrival of the books in their destinations so that they do not end up in the black market, for example.
Listening used to be considered a ‘passive’ skill for a long time, which is a completely false idea. To understand a foreign language when it is spoken one has to be active and master a lot of things.
Teachers used to consider listening a ‘passive’ skill for a long time since the listener was thought to do nothing actively. Now we, of course realize, that this idea was completely false and the listeners have to master a lot of things when they decode the original message trying to understand what was meant. In this article I will deal with …
Language-related skills in listening
How messages are decoded in our minds
Practical advice, tips and strategies on how listening skills can be improved
The other topics in this unit are
Listening
CLT-type listening tasks, free time listening
Listening, a historical view
Listening strategies in exams
N.B. See also ‘Model text-based lesson’ – listening
Even the language skill terminology has changed over the years: speaking and writing are now called ‘productive’ skills and listening and reading ‘receptive’ skills (instead of ‘active’ and ‘passive’ skills.)
Student-centred methods done the way I recommend in my article ‘The structure of a textbook-based lesson’ automatically lead to the development of listening skills thanks to the ample use of recordings and emphasis on oral activities as well as the versatile repetition of the vocabulary and content.
There are two layers in listening comprehension which operate simultaneously: the first one is related to language skills and the other one to decoding the message. The first one can be taught but the second one only indirectly.
Language-related listening skills
To understand spoken language the listener has to …
know the meaning and pronunciation of words and phrases; this is the most important thing since the combination of words and gestures often tells us what the essence of the message is
know grammatical rules (at least subconsciously) and how to use language in situations; knowing grammar is often vital but in simple situations we understand the message because of the words without any knowledge of grammar, (these first two items are known also as bottom-up strategy)
be able to take intonation into account; especially in everyday speech intonation reveals how the words are to be interpreted, sometimes intonation gives you a completely opposite meaning to the utterance (sarcasm)
get used to different accents of English; English is spoken in many different ways in the English-speaking world and depending on our needs we have to get used to them
Most of the language-related matters above can be taught but the message decoding takes place in the heads of the individual listeners and we have no direct access to the processes of minds. Nobody in this world can actually explain what happens in our brains when we interpret messages. Therefore decoding the messages can be taught only indirectly.See the 16 tips and strategies below.
Decoding spoken messages
By decoding we mean the mental process in the listener’s head when he/she tries to figure out what the message is.
The listener has to …
be able to make conclusions or inferences on the basis of what he/she hears
make use of general background knowledge about the situation and context (known also as top-down strategy)
know many ways of saying the same thing since the same idea and message can be expressed in very many ways
indicate to the speaker that he/she understood the message by responding to what was said
Listening comprehension is a vital skill and it is integrated with many other language skills. In lessons much of the listening practice takes place when students speak in groups. If speaking is neglected, listening suffers too.
Practical advice, tips and strategies on how listening skills can be improved
Listening does not develop unless we keep on practising it all the time at school. Encourage your students to listen to English sources in their free time. Listening is part of nearly every lesson when we connect with speaking. The internet is full of recorded English-speaking materials.
Make sure your students study the chapters in advance at home. When they understand the text, listening gets much easier. Reading the text aloud and talking about it improves understanding as well.
For beginners the teacher is the most important source of listening practice. Later on it is textbook recordings and authentic materials with various accents.
Some students prefer to close their eyes when listening to the text because it helps them to concentrate. Others need to look at the text or the exam bookletIall the time.
Group work done in English automatically means a lot of speaking and listening. One should not underestimate the importance of the oral practice between students.
Beginners need a lot of support from the teacher. It all starts in recognizing sounds and words and moving on to phrases and longer sentences and finally dialogues and whole texts.
In my junior high lessons we listen to the whole text first, check if we understand it and then listen to it again sentence by sentence and repeat the sentence after me or mimic the recording.
Reading texts aloud and in groups enhances listening skills as well. Our brains need every kind of listening practice that is possible.
Senior high chapters may be up to two pages long and my advice is to divide them at least in two parts. Senior high students listen to long texts in parts only once and read some part, usually about 20 lines anywhere in the text, without a model. The discussion between students that follows is to be seen as listening comprehension as well.
With your permission, some students might benefit from recording the listening and reading part of the lesson on their phone. Thus they would be able to practise listening at home too.
Having listened to the text the student have a good understanding of the text and they can move on to talk about the text.
Publishers recordings are mostly excellent in quality and they should be made use of in lessons. Listening to natives speakers in recordings as a model for speaking is a must.
Difficulties in listening may be due to a variety of reasons:lack of knowledge of words, grammar or pronunciation, untrained ears to recognize sounds or weak forms or the strategies in listening are poor. Listening skills will not improve until the problems are identified and a remedy found.
In pair and group work the students should be encouraged to ask the others to repeat what was said if they did not understand. “Sorry, it did not catch what you said. Can you repeat it please!” “Please, can you clarify what you said.” “I missed that. What did you say.” “I’m not quite sure what you mean.”
Listening requires a massive amount of practice and input. In ordinary lessons the listening takes place without pressure if the students have studied the chapter at home. Reading aloud hammers in the messages.
Listening comprehension exams are another matter and they deserve another article since there are many listening strategies that we can teach our students to reduce stress and get better results.
Luckily native speakers have a natural tendency to try to understand foreigners even if their language is awful and faulty.
I have already touched upon these matters in my article ‘Pre-task, Listening and clarifying content’. It is part of the unit where I discuss ‘The structure of a textbook-based lesson’.
The topics of the next three articles on listening are
I am using ‘At the airport’ as an example of a situation-based real-life TBL lesson.
For many students this may be the best English lesson ever, the only time in their lives someone gives them practical information on airports.
From the teacher’s point of view this example may seen complicated but when you have gone it through once with your students, you can repeat the stages for the rest of your career.
This lesson may be one of the most useful English lessons the students ever take.
The structure of an airport situation could run as follows: Time 2*40 min
First of all, at its best TBL tasks are an extension of a text or dialogue which was dealt with in the class. The textbook chapter offering new vocabulary and ideas serves as a pre-task for the actual TBL task.
If there is no suitable text available, the teacher can find one in other sources. Use Google to find both texts and even educational videos on what happens at the airports.
Watch Youtube videos on airport situations (what happens at each counter etc). The aim is to have a motivating relaxed atmosphere, with no fear to speak.
Next the students read aloud similar situations in written dialogues provided by the teacher. Memorizing useful phrases and vocabulary. The students can consult the dialogues all through the lesson if they want to.
We must start with the idea that many students have never flown and have very little knowledge of what happens at an airport. Many others have flown but paid little attention to the order of doing things, for example. They just followed their parents and that is it.
So, having now learnt some basic vocabulary we now make a random list of all the various places one needs to go through at an airport: customs, information desk, lounge, gate, security control, passport control, check-in desk, arrivals, departure, duty-free shop etc..
The students work in groups and put the places in the ‘correct’ order and justify their choices in their groups. Finally the teacher reveals the ‘correct order’ on the screen.
The students work in pairs telling each other what happens at an airport terminal. They are given a handout with key words.
The classroom is turned into an airport with desks in the right order and signs on the desks too. Half of the class goes into the corridor and they get ‘an electronic flight ticket’ and ‘passport’.
The other half remains in the classroom and they become ‘airport officials’ who work at different desks. They are given questions related to the desk but they can also ask questions of their own.
Low-achievers can use the prompt questions provided by the teacher: Why does the photo not look like you? What is the purpose of your visit? Where are you staying in Tokyo? etc.
All ‘passengers’ go through the airport until they arrive at their gate. Then the roles are switched and the same thing is done again. The officials turn to passengers and vice versa.
Finally the desks are put aside and ‘an airplane’ is created using the chairs and the students hear all the announcements typical of an airplane before the take-off and landing. The announcements are on the screen and the students have to explain them again using their own words mimicking the measures to be taken.
The very last thing is to go through the immigration desks and the customs (EU-citizens, non-EU citizens, red and green line)
Feedback session: The students get into groups for a while and then give feedback to the teacher on the lesson. The teacher gives general constructive feedback to the whole class. The teacher can ‘secretly’ pay attention to the level of fluency of the students while the roleplay is on but no official assessment should take place unless the students know about it. Self-assessment with clear criteria might be the best option.
Later on I hope to be able to attach a video on these stages to give a better ideas of what happens in practice. This is much more complex than arranging a situation ‘at a restaurant’ or a ‘walking tour in hometown’ but when you have done it once you can do the very same thing over and over again with the same materials
Most of our English or any language lessons are based on a textbook and a particular chapter in it. So, are we using those lessons wisely?
If students do not learn to communicate having attended these lessons for many years, then there is something wrong with the lessons and the procedures in the class.
This is the mystery I am trying to find an answer for!
In the articles under this topic I am going to recommend a specific logical order of dealing with any textbook chapters. This approach is based on student-centered CLT practices, and authentic materials are often utilized in the final products and class presentations.
Some linguistic researchers argue, “We should use authentic materials in lessons.” In principle I agree but not fully in practice.
I think authentic materials are at their best when a topic area in the textbook is covered and we have an inquiry-based or a task-based project coming up, for example. They are the kind of lessons that do not require much preparation on the teachers part since there are always plenty of sources available in the internet.
Let’s now focus on ordinary lessons based on textbook chapters.
The following articles are meant for those teachers who wish to apply Communicative Language Teaching, CLT, principles in ordinary lessons but do not quite know how to do it.
My goal is to suggest a specific order of doing things in a CLT class so that the students work in pairs or groups and the teacher mainly organizes the activities, facilitates learning.
However, if you go back to the main menu you will discover that at present there are about 80 additional articles on how to apply communicative language teaching (CLT) principles in teaching vocabulary, grammar, listening , speaking, writing and reading. And how to control classes and how to assess the students.
Some arguments on using textbooks
We should use authentic materials not ‘artificial’ texts. Yes, I agree in principle but not fully in practice. The truth is that we teachers simply do not have enough time to modify authentic texts to suit the needs of our pupils/students. I have tried it many times but working without textbooks is simply too troublesome. However, what I recommend are group projects with authentic texts after certain chapters/topics in the textbook. In these cases the students will be looking for information in authentic internet sources and occasionally library books.
Textbook chapters are boring. I don’t agree. At least here in Finland our textbooks and all materials related to them are of excellent quality and a lot of thought has been put in making them interesting and suitable for the age group.
Internet texts increase motivation. Yes, I agree. Encouraging students to search for information in English in the Internet is a great asset for us teachers. If it becomes a permanent habit, the students easily read much more texts this way than ever at school.
An ideal order in dealing with a text?
Most of our language lessons are based on a textbook and a particular chapter in it. Right? Does it matter what we do with the chapter and in which order? I think it does. And I even think it is the key to learning communicative language teaching, CLT, methology in class.
I am going to recommend a specific logical order of doing things resulting in student-centered methods, teaching and learning.
Below you will find the basic components/stages of a typical Finnish language lesson but the order of components has been mixed on purpose.
A. Underlining the text. Doing oral activities or written exercises in class
B. Studying the chapter at home in advance
C. Reading the text aloud
D. Listening to the chapter recording
E. Working orally on the new words of the chapter
F. Checking if the content was understood / clarifications
G. Questions on the text, or multiple choice, true-false, black hole tasks
H. Checking written and oral homework exercises
Are they the components you have in your lessons? Do you wish to add or take something away? Which order of steps would make sense in your lessons and appeal to you? Or does it matter at all? You can check my recommended order towards the end of this article.
A school is like an airport. If it is well-organized, logically designed and everyone knows what they are doing, it is bound to succeed. If not, a chaos will follow.
At a modern airport everything is carefully thought out. Read every ‘airport’ as ‘school’ and see if my parallel works.
people come on time to a particular area of the airport
they go through the sections in a particular order because it has been found logical and guarantees passenger safety
they also leave the airport following exactly the procedure set for them
there is concensus among the staff on what is done at an airport: safety and efficiency dictate the measures to be taken
airport experts decide what is and must be done in every section
the people who work at the airport have worked out the whole system but they can make changes if some new ideas seem to make sense
there is no place at an airport for messing around: personal safety must be secured and the chance someone causes confusion or a delay of a flight must be minimized
Language lessons are places for learning new things and skills, not just the new language. The discussion below opens up the issue: “Where do you place yourself in the axel of traditional and CLT approaches in language classess?”
A school that works like an efficient airport is a safe and enjoyable place to work for all parties.
It may seem odd that anyone should suggest a particular order for a chapter-based language lesson but what follows is based on an experience of many decades. In my opinion there have to be justified reasons and a logical order in doing things in class.
Therefore the ideas presented in the following articles might be worth trying or at least considering. On the other hand, objections and counter-arguments are always welcome. There is never one correct way of doing things.
One of the basic ideas is that the younger the pupils are, the more they need the teacher and his/her support. The amount of independent pair and group work increases year after year in junior high. The final aim in senior high is to have students who know how to study effectively alone, in pairs and groups and know how to develop and assess their learning in all skill areas.
Every now and then in my 42 years of teaching English my senior high students became admiringly independent and all I had to do was to organize the activities of the lessons in advance and open the door to the classroom for them. I was free to help any students who needed individual guidance and the class was clearly enjoying the work, mostly in pairs or groups.Reaching excellent results!
Then again, there were many groups were only some individuals reached independence – but still these very same CLT principles worked in class.
Oh, yes of course. You want to know my ‘correct’ order of doing things in class.
When I changed my style of teaching in 1986 I wanted to find ways how all the things below could be accomplished by the students themselves. My conclusion was that ‘opening the classroom door’ was the only thing the students could not do. Yes, I had the key. BUT At the same time I found the keys to the CLT style of teaching English.
1 Studying the chapter at home in advance
2 Checking written and oral homework exercises (in pairs or groups)
3 Working orally on the new words of the next chapter
4 Listening to the chapter on a CD, DVD, via the internet or read by the teacher
5 Checking if the content was understood, clarifications
6 Reading the text aloud (having understood what the text is all about)
7 Questions on the text, or multiple choice, true-false, black hole tasks
8 Underlining the text. Doing oral activities or written exercises in class
I will discuss the justifications for this order in the next articles. In addition at present there are more than 80 articles on how to apply CLT principles in teaching vocabulary, grammar, listening , speaking, writing and reading. And how to control classes and how to assess the students.
Summary on the ideas to be discussed in the next articles
T = Teacher, Sts = Students, numbers refer to stages 1-8 of the lesson above, the green colour indicates my favourites style
Teacher-centred lesson
Student-centred CLT lesson
1 T insists on the Sts translating the new chapter at home, no guidence how to do it. Or no ‘translation’ work is required at home.
1 T insists on the Sts translating the new chapter at home and teaches how to do it when he/she starts with a new class.
2 Homework is always checked the same way: T asks and Sts answer, one at a time and the others listen.
2 Homework is checked in many ways preferrably in pairs or groups, it is also a learning situation.
3 No attention is paid to the new words, T jumps straight to the new text.
3 The translation work at home is revised by working on the new vocab orally in pairs or groups.
4 The chapter is listened to in full.
4 Sts can even listen to the text via Internet at home and may ask for clarifications after school listening of the chapter.
5 T asks the Sts to translate the text, sentence by sentence, done by taking turns everyone together.
5 The class is divided into groups where some Sts skip translation altogether or lead the groups, others translate the whole text, the rest only parts of the text; So, differentiation steps in!
6 The text is read aloud after the teacher or another source, sentence by sentence.
6 Five ways of reading the text; beginners using breath groups, advanced students without a model alone or in groups.
7 T asks questions on the text and the Sts answer them one St at a time while the others are listening. Nothing else happens. Only mechanical repetition of the text. No real communicative action. No other ways to test comprehension.
7 T shows the questions on the screen and some Sts answer them to their pair, others skip the questions and tell the content in their own words, the rest talk about the topic of the chapter in general. SO, differentiation again! Many other ways to check comprehension.
8 The teacher tells what to underline in the text. Very few mechanical oral exercises, mechanical written tasks are favoured, checked with the T.
8 Most exercises are oral and done in pairs or groups, differentiation is made use of and the Sts are free to make their choices and underline whatever they want.
Sorry, not many things I like now even if I used them 40 years ago.
All these ideas are elaborated in my other articles.
