“A school is like an airport. If it is well-organized, logical and everyone knows what they are doing, it is bound to succeed. If not, a chaos will follow.” Raimo Junnikkala

At a modern airport everything is carefully thought out:

• 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 no place for democracy here because no concensus can be reached on what should be done at an airport
• 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 because of personal safety and the chance someone causes a delay of a flight, time must not be wasted

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 has to be justified reasons and a logical order in doing things in class. Therefore the ideas 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.

• Article 1 will deal with teaching beginners
• Article 2 will deal with pupils roughly at ages 11 – 15 and finally
• Article 3 with senior high school students at 16 onwards.

Most lessons are ordinary lessons based on the chapters of the students’ textbook and workbook. That is why a lot of things have to be accomplished in these lessons.

The basic idea is that the younger the pupils are, the more they need the teacher and his/her support. The final aim 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.

A few times in my 42 years of teaching English the students became completely independent and all I had to do was to organize the activities of the lesson 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.

Below you will find the basic components of a typical Finnish language lesson but the order has been mixed. Are they the components you have in your lessons? Do you wish to add or take something away? Which order of steps in your lesson would make sense?

I will discuss the matter in the next article.

• A. Doing exercises in class
• B. Studying the chapter at home in advance WHAT IS THE
• C. Reading the text aloud CORRECT
• D. Listening to the chapter recording ORDER?
• E. Working on new words aloud
• F. Checking if the content was understood
• G. Questions on the text
• H. Checking homework exercises

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