English Teaching Explore

Abstract： Sometimes I always think how to make the lesson better and how to make my students more successful. Without losing much students’free time， we should hold 40 minutes in each class. So it is important for an English teacher to give a quality lesson every day. I really think that we must pay much attention to six things while we are teaching. They are clear aims， teacher language， variety， Ss center， monitoring and time management.

Key Words ： English teacher， explore， teaching methods，As an English teacher， it is important for us to give a quality lesson every day. However， how do teachers give a good lesson？ I did realize some important factors which affect the lessons we have. To have a good lesson， we must pay attention to at least six things： clear aims， teacher language， variety， Ss-centred， monitoring and time management. I’d like to briefly tell a little bit of my thoughts of teaching in six aspects.

I. Clear aims

I.1. When we prepare a lesson， the first thing， which is also the most important thing is that we must set a clear aim and make a good plan. As before， I did always set aims before the lessons， but I didn’t consider and care what Ss would learn in this lesson， I just set aims according to the course book and tell Ss what they should do and remember. Actually， aims are what we want Ss to be able to do at the end of a lesson； they may focus on a language system （pronunciation， vocabulary and grammar） or developing a language skill （listening， reading， speaking and writing）. A clear aim should contain main aim， subsidiary aim and personal aim. Main aim should differ from the subsidiary aim， that is to say， if main aim focus on language skill， the subsidiary aim should focus on language system. Moreover， there must be a context in an aim， and most of us forget to set a context. e.g. By the end of the lesson， Ss will be better able to use the relative pronouns more accurately. It is too general， we should write it more specific： set a context and add “in spoken or written form”.

I.2. As for the teaching plan， we should ask ourselves two questions： What do Ss already know and what problems will Ss meet when we teach the target language （TL） and give them tasks？ We should try to anticipate any language problems that Ss may have and think carefully to come up with good solutions to solve the problems in the class. e.g. There was a lesson of mine， I just thought of two anticipated problems with TL （Pronunciation problems with [θ]and number writing problem， e.g. firstfrist） and one for task （some Ss may be nervous when they are listening）， the task was too general and I should write them more specific and the numbers should be more than four， because I should consider every possible problems in my lesson， and when it happens I can deal with it. I remembered one of my workmates did a good job in her anticipated language problems， e.g. ①Pronunciation problems with /s/， /z/， /e/. ② Pronunciation problems with “15”50”. ③ Students may miss “s” after sock， pant， and short. Solutions： ① Drill endings and listen to examples or Echo to correct. ② Drill endings and listen to examples or echo to correct. ③ Echo to correct” sock or socks”.

I.3. There are also stage aims when we plan our lesson. Each stage aim should focus on what T wants Ss to do， and they must be clear and logical which are strongly linked to the lesson aims. Above all， the last stage aim should be the main aim of the lesson. e.g. The last stage aim is to give Ss the opportunities to demonstrate they could accurately use the TL in spoken form which can effectively support my lesson aim. To assess a lesson， we can check if the T achieves his/her main aim.

（Add one teaching plan.）

II. Teaching language

It is important for teachers to use appropriate language， which should best suit the Ss and the situation in the classroom. It can help teachers provide Ss opportunities with learning and motivate Ss.

II.1.Instructions. T should give clear and concise instructions which can manage

activities smoothly from one stage to another. To make instructions effective， T should get Ss’ attention first and sequence them carefully. e.g. I tried to make instructions clear and concise： ① Look at my mouth， guess and read. ② One hold the word cards， others guess. ③ These two lines stand up and change your seats. ④ Four students come here， make sentences. My workmate， before she asked Ss to make a conversation in pairs， she demonstrated the conversation with a student to help Ss understand what they should do in this activity. There’s no need to repeat instructions several times， which is a waste of time. Besides， do not give instructions during Ss’ task， otherwise， you’ll interrupt Ss. e.g. My workmate， Celine， while she was having reading class， she stopped Ss’ task to explain instructions at the last part. Obviously， few students paid attention to her， which was be instead of discussing and confusing. To check if students understand what she said before the task， she should ask CCQ.（Find the examples to CCQ.）

II.2.Teaching is not telling. So when preparing a lesson， teacher should think carefully how to elicit Ss rather than giving answers to them. T can use visual， auditory and kinaesthetic ways to elicit the topic or language. e.g. ① In Ashley’s lesson， she prepared some word cards disordered， and leaded students discuss them first. Then， they went to stage to put them in right order. ② In Judy’s lesson， she used some pictures （tiger cub， a lion climbing up a ladder， lion cab） and body language to elicit the TL： ride bike， climb the ladder， jump. ③ In Celine’s lesson， she made a survey about the outlooks students like. e.g. If students like to have curly hair， they would seat near the window. Others like the short hair who seat in the middle. The others prefer long straight hair who seat near the wall. Besides this task， she also encouraged anyone to come to the blackboard and elicited others describe what he/she look like. ④ In one of my lessons， I did a demonstrate with students by asking what they are going to do on vacation and what he/she is going to do on vacation one by one. Students answered my question and each one should repeated the answers from the last one or two persons. After doing the example， students came to the stage and perform the target language we just showed， which called snowball game.

II.3. Prompting. T should give Ss a clue to help Ss when they think of ideas or to remember a word or a phrase. e.g. ① In my lesson， I asked students watch a short movie first and prompted them to think about a Q： What kind of animals did you see？② In Kelly’s 2nd TP， she asked one question： When you meet some difficulties， you’ll have … and gave Ss a clue： p to prompt Ss think of the word “problem”.

II.4. CCQs. After presenting TL and giving instructions， T can use some CCQs to check Ss’ learning and understanding. e.g. In Violet’s lesson， she asked some CCQs for task： ① What is your work？ ② What will I give you？ ③ What will you make？

In my lesson， I always use some CCQs for vocabulary： e.g. ① Can you babysit your mother？ ② Can you camp in a house or a mountain？ ③ Have you went hiking before？ ④ You should seat in the hallway when the class begins.

II.5. Conveying the meaning of new language. T can use some realias， pictures， body language or set a context to help Ss understand the meanings of the TL. e.g. ① Some pictures of healthy food （apples， pears， fish， strawberry， vegetable， banana…） and junk food （chocolate， cola， French fries， meat， hamburger… ） to teach healthy diet. ② Some pictures （grass， leaf， leaves， bamboo） to convey their meanings. Then， did some body language to convey the meanings of phrases： climb the tree， swing， and reach high. ③ Make a video about gift giving with students before class to show the target language： “What should I get her for her birthday？ Why don’t you get her a scarf？ What about…？ How about…？” It is helpful for students to know how to make a context to ask for some advice.

III. Variety

Different people have different learning styles， so when preparing a lesson， T should plan varieties of activities and interaction patterns to appeal to the Ss （visual， auditory， kinaesthetic， group， individual） and get all the Ss motivated and involved in the class. e.g. ① Design a good board plan with colorful pictures and word cards and also have varieties of activities： chant， passing game， missing game， group work， individual work， which can support aim effectively and get all the Ss involved to keep them busy. ② Play a short video to elicit grammatical structures： What are they doing？/ What is she/ he doing？ They are doing…/ She/ He is doing…③After teacher elicited the topic， healthy diet. Then you could ask Ss to work in groups of 4 and discuss “What food do you like？”（Brain storm）. At the same time， you move around and give immediate help and monitor. ④Ask Ss to work in pairs and give each student a piece of paper with different people on it to ask them to find the differences （information gap） by speaking using TL （ curly， straight， long， thin， of medium build， heavy， short， of medium height， tall）. ⑤ Ask Ss to do a role play and perform it using TL in front of the class， which make have a strong ending.

Besides， T should select appropriate materials which can effectively support the aims. e.g. Designe a good board plan and use varieties of materials （ the sound of different things， some pictures to present TL， realia to elicit some word e.g. “glove” elicit “warm” or a big “wheel” to practise speaking TL） which can effectively support the teaching aim. Sometimes， the tasks and exercises are not suitable for Ss’ level， T should adapt or supplement them to meet Ss’ needs. e.g. For some listening lessons， it is too challenge for students to fill in the chart. T could change the chart into a passage with some blanks to make the task less challenge.

IV. Student-centred

Ss can learn by doing， speaking， thinking and experiencing. So T should change the traditional way of teaching （teacher-centred） into Ss-centred to make Ss be at the centre of the activities and have the chance to work together and think for themselves. However， how can teachers make their lessons more Ss-centred？ Firstly， give every opportunity to Ss by reducing TTT（teacher talking time）and prompting STT （students talking time） to make Ss think and speak rather than just tell them directly. Secondly， design variety of activities to get Ss motivated and involved. e.g. ① Low TTT is necessary. Because high TTT （some wordy instructions， explaining the meaning of the TL， some useless questions， giving feedback and correction directly， miss some opportunities for STT） which prevent Ss thinking and speaking. ② T could design varieties of activities and interactive patterns （ guessing game， discussion， pair work， group work， individual work， chore drill， role play） to motivate and involve all the Ss to learn and enjoy the lesson.

V. Monitoring

During the lesson， T should monitor carefully and give immediate monitor.

V.1. Stop Chinese by using eye contact， standing close to the student， giving them choices and reminding them to speak English only in the class. e.g. Elicit Ss to speak English at the beginning of the lesson， during the discussion and peer checking by sticking a warning card on the student.

V.2. Correction. During the lesson， Ss may make mistakes when giving their questions. T can correct the mistakes by echoing， asking for peer help， finger correction and giving them choices. e.g. ① Use fingers to help Ss remember the sentence： She is a nurse. ② Correct Ss’ mistakes by giving them choices （I or my？） and pointing to the phrase to support self-correction： have breakfast.

When the activities focus on accuracy， T should correct every mistake Ss make. However， in some activities fluency is more important than accuracy， T can choose to ignore Ss’ mistakes and make sure Ss have generally used the new language well.

V.3.Make sure every student is listening. Before giving instructions and Ss’ answers， T should get Ss’ attention first by asking questions and giving other Ss extra tasks to keep them busy. e.g. ① Before giving the instructions， T could ask some questions （How many fingers？/ What color is …？） to get Ss’ attention. ② At the end of one speaking lesson， when one student reads his/her story， T make the competition to have others to guess the topic of each story to keep them busy.

V.4.Make sure every student is on task. During some activities， some Ss may

finish their task early and be relaxed， T can ask them to help other Ss to keep them busy. e.g. In Alice’s 4th TP， when some Ss finished their exercise1 early， she asked them to help other Ss.

Besides， there are also some other important factors： teacher presence and good rapport with Ss， giving constructive feedback and appropriate praise， making a strong beginning and ending， etc. All in all， T should do a good preparation before the lesson， manage well during the lesson and give a feedback after the lesson to improve herself/ himself， and avoid the same mistakes next time.

參考文獻

[1] The TKT（teaching knowledge test） course. Mary Spratt， Alan Pulverness， Melanie Williams

[2]Learning Teaching （a guidebook for English language teachers）. Jim Scrivener