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?”
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. |
