Unit 3

WORKSHEET – UNIT 3

Task 1 – Based on your understanding of the unit, which four teaching methods do you think have most influenced current TEFL practice? Give a brief summary of each and give reason(s) for your choice.

1.     Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP) – Teachers present or introduce the new language first then the students practice using the language learned in a controlled manner. Afterwards, the students move on to the production stage wherein they can experiment with the language more freely.

2.     Task-based Learning – Students are given a task to accomplish or work on using the English language they already know. Emphasis is given on the task rather than the language. However, teachers can offer corrective feedback on the language if necessary.

3.     Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) – This method gives emphasis on using the language in real-life situations and actively using the language as a whole instead of just focusing on grammar and vocabulary. It also means that communicating or interacting should be both the means and goal of learning a language.

4.     Engage. Study, and Activate (ESA) – As the term suggests, this method starts with the teacher engaging the students or arousing the interest of the students so they will get involved with the lesson. Then in the study stage, the students are focused on the learning or construction of the language and in the activate stage, the students are encouraged to use the language they know in a non-restrictive way.

-          I believe that the above-mentioned methods have influenced current TEFL practices because the focus of second language teaching nowadays is more student-centered. Gone are the days when teachers used to rule the classrooms and students are expected to just listen to the teacher and speak up when asked to. All the methods above, with the exception of PPP, have lesser teacher talk time than most traditional forms of teaching. In addition, many ESL teacher training institutes are now advocating more student-centered activities and opportunities to practice with the language and lesser teacher-centered lessons.

Task 2 – State five ‘engage’, five ‘study’ and five ‘activate’ stage activities (also give the probable language level of the students):

Engage –

1.     Use of pictures or flashcards – Beginner to Advanced

2.     Shiritori or word linking – Elementary to Advanced

3.     Sentence prompts – Elementary to Advanced

4.     I Spy Game – Elementary to Low Intermediate

5.     Slow Pictionary – Elementary to Low Intermediate

Study –

1.     Tongue twisters – Elementary to Intermediate

2.     Hangman – beginner to Intermediate

3.     Word Search – beginner to Intermediate

4.     Passage Analysis – Intermediate to Advanced

5.     Grammar Auction – Low Intermediate to Advanced

Activate –

1. Role-play – Intermediate to Advanced
2. Debate – Intermediate to Advanced
3. Drawing – Beginner to Low Intermediate
4. Surveys – Low Intermediate to Advanced
5. Story building – Elementary to Advanced

Task 3 – Structure an ESA (straight arrow pattern) based lesson for an elementary level class in which the learners would learn the vocabulary of clothes and be able to use it when describing what people wear and are wearing:

Engage – Bring some clothes flashcards or fashion magazines to class. Show the students the flashcards one at a time and try to elicit the name of the clothing article shown in the picture. Extend the activity by asking the students to look around and see who amongst them is wearing the same clothing article depicted in the photo.

Study – Take the lead and talk about what you are wearing by saying “I am wearing a/an _____ and a/an _______” and write the sentence structure on the board. Then point to a student and ask “What is he/she wearing?”  Write the question on the board as well. Additionally, explain the correct answer forms “ He/She is wearing a/an ________ and a/an ________.” Students can then give their own examples or come up with sentences based on the examples given. Take note of mistakes/errors and give appropriate corrections after the students are done with the activity.

Activate – Have the students draw a member of their family or someone in class. Ask them to focus on the clothing. Let the students present their drawing to the class and have them talk about the person and what the person is wearing. If there are more than 8 people in class, divide the students into groups and have them do their presentations within their groups.

Task 4 – Structure an ESA (boomerang pattern) based lesson for a pre-intermediate class, teaching language commonly used for shopping, so that students can ask for, find the price for and purchase everyday food and clothing items:

Engage – Ask students if they like shopping, what they like to buy, where they usually shop, who they shop with, and how often they go shopping.

Activate 1- Have the students role-play a shopping scenario. Give them time to prepare before they start the presentations.  Take note of the mistakes and errors made by the students.

Study – Have a feedback session and see if the students are aware of any mistakes they have done. Ask for peer evaluation as well. Discuss and explain other errors that were not mentioned by the students. Correct sentence structures should be adequately covered at this stage,

Activate 2 – Conduct another role-play activity but have them work with different group members. Point out to the students that they have to use the correct structures this time and remember any errors discussed earlier.

Task 5 – How, what and when would you correct mistakes/errors made during the following stages:

Ideally, teacher correction should be avoided during the engage stage but if need be, corrections should be kept to a minimum.

Engage stage –

What- Words that are mispronounced

When- After everyone has spoken but if many of the students are making the same mistake, the teacher should point out the mistake after a student has finished speaking.

How- Self-correction or the teacher writes the mistakes/errors on the board

Study stage –

What- Spelling, Pronunciation, Lexis and Grammar

When- After an activity or task

How- Self-correction, student-student correction, teacher-correction

Activate stage -

What- Things that need to be corrected

When- After all the activities/tasks are done; feedback session

How- Student correction and teacher-correction

Task 6 – Create or find a short sample piece of writing that a student might produce containing at least five of the errors mentioned in the page 18 table, and annotate the text using the codes in the table.

(Here is an example of how a student may write “Fred went to London with Jenny last week” and how you should correct it:

Fred has gone(t) to l(p)ondon with ^ last week.)

he (p) has (a) very big ears, ^ signified(t) good luck according to ^ old China (na) saying.