Learning to Teach Better

Another interesting session this week! This week was another lesson that made me question why we do the things we do: 1. Guessing words from context- This wasn't the first time I heard that guessing the meaning of words from context is ineffective. However, in textbooks and in our curriculum at our IEP, guessing words from context plays an integral role on what students should be able to do. The exercise that was presented during the class was an excellent example of how we can really incorrectly guess the meaning of the right word. It makes me realize what my students really do when we complete these exercises. In the end, I have to explain and describe what the word really means because the guesses have a tendency to be extremely off. 2. Don't grade the first draft- Before working at my current job, I never graded the first draft for the reasons outlined in the session. However, I started grading the first drafts in order to make myself appear to be "in line" and ...

Very insightful discussion this week- I'd never thought about the potential negative effects of asking students to guess words from the context. It's something I have done in the past and after this week's discussion, I will reconsider its effectiveness... It's also made me acknowledge the difficult students have when reading a text for the first time: they are thinking about pronunciation, comprehension & probably the fact that other class members are listening to them. Perhaps something to avoid in the future with lower level groups...

And I want to thank Phil from Malaysia who had shared a number of helpful websites during this session!

I love that Penny brought up about the use of L1. People here believe that using L1 in lessons is a taboo and those who are found using L1 could be simply labelled as incompetent. It is true after all that using L1 can also be a waste of time especially when it is incomprehensible. People suggest the use of simple English in second language classrooms to make input comprehensible yet often teachers are unsure of the level of simple English people are talking about. A brief explanation from Penny on the use of L1 has made me feel more confident with my teaching. Thank you Penny!

Week three provided more interesting insights about error correction and what is the most effective way to do it. Since working at my current IEP, I have really thought more critically about what I am doing in terms of error correction, especially in terms of writing, and whether what I am doing is more effective or not. In the past, I have tried various methods, including providing codes, highlighting, and letting students "figure out" how to correct it. In the end, I have found (and students have also told me) providing explicit feedback to be the most helpful and effective, and it's good to see that research shows this. I was also heartened to hear from Penny that Microsoft Word "track changes" can be considered good and helpful for students. I agree that it is beneficial for students to see the changes. What I wonder is how helpful track changes is for students to remember and take note of the changes; sometimes I wonder if students just click through the ch...

Whenever the text I’m dealing with permits, I like to use graphic organizers with my classes. From the feedback I’ve gotten from students, they tell me that they help them understand the text better and they are more successful in answering the reading comprehension questions that follow the texts. Graphic organizers can be easily found on the net. Depending on the text you’re dealing with, there graphic organizers such as cause -effect, problem -solution etc. My favourites are the K-W-L (what I know, what I want to learn and what I learned-this was mentioned on Sunday’s session) and the 3-2-1 Strategy. Ss write down 3 things they found out, 2 interesting things and 1 question that they still have. As far as writing is concerned, there are also graphic organizers which mostly help with the organization of their writing, such as persuasion maps, essay maps, story maps etc.

A couple of resources I mentioned in yesterday's session: Trello https://trello.com/ This can be used for writing projects, especially those where learners work on continuing or completing each others' stories. The teacher can see it being updated in real time. My students introduced me to it and I've used in in workshops and for collaborative tasks. draftback.com - http://draftback.com/ This enables you to 'playback' google documents - yours or anyone else's - to see the edits and revisions as they were made. It looks like a good tool if you want to see how your students develop their writing. https://trello.com/

Hi everyone, Although I haven't been able to participate in the sessions because I had to teach, I've enjoyed the sessions. I have a few questions: 1. Penny - you mentioned that it's a good idea to have students translate the text into their own language. I always thought that was a bad idea because then the student isn't thinking in English and is more in the "translation mode". Is there research to back this up? 2. Also I'm still thinking about the circle that you showed in your first lesson of how to use teaching time. What's your take on an English reading comprehension university level course that runs for 8 hours straight every week!! How intentional can the teaching be for so many hours?

Readers' Theatre Here's a great resource I stumbled across for Readers' Theatre: http://www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm In addition to a brief summary, it has free downloadables aimed at K-3 but may also be useful for some EFL contexts. For my 2nd year uni students in Japan, I let them choose their own stories to perform in groups of 3-5. They either chose excerpt from graded readers or movie scripts which were featured regularly (with plenty of L1 support) in the weekly, English student newspaper, The Japan Times ST (that our uni had a subscription to): http://st.japantimes.co.jp/ Although some students were initially reluctant, they could all find roles and most students had a lot of fun doing it. Like many new activities and tasks, however, it usually takes a couple of times before students (as well as the teacher) get into it so it's good to remember a former colleagues words, "I'll try anything twice!"

Error Correction (Sorry I forgot to post this earlier in the week) I started learning a new language a couple of years ago and it was really good to help me remember how learners feel, for example, with regards to error correction. There are times when after I'd been corrected that I still make the same mistake. Sometimes I'd forgotten but other times I knew I'd made a mistake. Having the teacher explain again what I did wrong and why in the latter case didn't help so much, and sometimes felt like a waste of time (which I politely and patiently smile through, admittedly with gritted teeth on occasion). So, it reminded me that it’s valuable to know, as a teacher, how to identify performance errors vs those due to a lack of language or developing knowledge/competence. Sometimes, it's just a matter of seeing how students react themselves, or noting if it's a one-off or recurring mistake.

I wrestled with Use of L1 for many years before I finally figured out the truth (for me!) Funnily, I quoted Penny in the first line of a paper I wrote for my MA in TEFL/TESL a number of years ago., well before I ever had the immense pleasure of meeting her. My theory: Use of L1 depends COMPLETELY on the CONTEXT and the LEVEL of the students. My policy: I use as much English as possible with my students. AND I use as much Japanese as necessary with my students. My Essay Follow the link https://www.dropbox.com/preview/herder/herder%20writing/herder%20wrote/SDH%20Essays/Herder%20Module%202%20Essay%2078.pdf?role=personal

Using L1 Just this week I went to a seminar for English teachers. And what was I told about using L1? Never ever use it! Fortunately, I can disagree with it now without feeling like I am doing something revolutionary. I have always believed that L1 is a great tool for clarifying the meaning. Explanations, visuals, etc. are great and I love and use them, but then just a second to translate and check that everybody knows what this new word is. Recently, I have tried using a bit of “comparative linguistics” in my classroom. I am trying to draw my students’ attention to the differences and similarities in L1 and English grammar. And it is not only form, but also function that we are talking about. And just yesterday while dealing with the Passive Voice, I could at last see the student get what all the fuss is about and how her L1 deals with this function. I always say that as it is an English class, everybody speaks English, but it doesn’t matter there is no place for L1. Though I would be...

As usual Penny’s presentation is great food for thought, so it takes some time to process. I have always felt that correcting is better than not correcting. Something about the lack of feedback doesn’t sit well with me both as a teacher and as a learner. I believe that production without feedback is like shouting into the void – a bit upsetting and not really useful. As for types of correction, recast has seemed to me a bit too superficial, so I generally ask for clarification (and I also think it is quite a natural way of correcting) and use metalinguistic feedback. Truth be told, it was nice to be proven right :) But these are the ways I use when I decide to interrupt the student during fluent speech. If I opt out, then I take notes both of errors and good language (so when my students see me writing down something, they don’t think they are doing something wrong). At the end of the activity I start (and finish) with some positive feedback and then I invite the student to correct the...

With my one-to-one classes I design a so-called ‚self-error correction plan‘, where we work on getting rid of fossilised mistakes and bad habits step by step. Together with my student we define the mistakes that are the weakest points and difficult to get rid of and we create a chart on the wall/flipchart in their office/ word document in their laptops. The chart includes typical wrong sentences and expressions on the left with examples and collocations of correct usage on the right. We try to focus on a particular mistake for a certain period, one month or two and we keep coming back to the mistake if they appear. The principle is to focus on one type of a mistake and keep drilling. Then we move on to another one, etc. It’s a long-term project but seems to be working. The fact that students see wrong and right options on the wall ideally fosters the learning process. The students appreciate the feeling that they have a good chance to manage their mistakes, the sense of achievement is...

The session on error correction and use of L1 was so spot-on, full of good points and smart tips. I did find the survey findings on students‘ views on error correction interesting, they showed the effective ways to approach students. I feel that teachers’ judgement and intuition proved right when reflecting students‘ preferences. I’d like to share a few ideas and raise some questions as well. ERROR CORRECTION I absolutely agree that as teachers we have to bear in mind that error correction is not a one-off thing, it works partially and gradually. So patience and techniques are our tools. To deal with a range of learner types you need to try different techniques and see which works most. Combining tips suggested in our session works. Error correction developed as a habit or routine in class creates the atmosphere of security and support. Once students know when, why and how they are corrected, they tend to cooperate and are more open to deal with their weak points. It's such a sensi...

What I took away from last Sunday's meeting was a reminder that we as teachers are the ones who judge what is and isn't appropriate when it comes to our classrooms. While rules or other teachers may try to influence us in one way or another, we need to think critically about what we are doing and make the best possible choice for the students and situation. What works in one activity won't work in another. What is impossible at one school may be commonplace elsewhere. What is important is to be aware of the range of possibilities and carefully choose what fits our (and our students) needs best.

After our visit to the Ontario Legislature the follow up activity was to write a letter to a friend describing the trip and giving their impressions of the Parliament. I'm looking for letter format, paragraph format, flow, etc. This group mostly copied information from the pre teaching activities - and from the brochures they picked up! No matter. Reviewed vocabulary and information. We did discuss if copying from the brochures was plagiarism - and also if our friends really wanted all that information...I'm really big on displaying learner work...make sure everyone gets something up...if not this time,then next time...if they don't give work to me I don't hound them..it is a non credit course..

Week Three over so fast...all the sessions have had an impact on my teaching. I am more deliberate, and more aware of use of time, notice things - like I can get a bit lazy about planning -especially listening and speaking activities. ...I have included more speaking activities (conversation as the students like to call it). They are happy. But I also noticed that there are things that I do that are found in the tips...and that is very validating. I raised the question of PEDs (Personal Electronic Dictionaries) use in the chat and Penny asked me to repeat it here. I think I mentioned that I do not allow my students to use their cell phones in class. The first reason is selfish. It drives me crazy. I'm sure they are texting, looking at Instagram....not listening to me. I also do not let them use their phones IN CLASS DURING BREAK ( and I do not use mine!) And that's just because I think it is not good manners. I tell them my daughter met me for lunch. I took out my phone. ...

Sorry for being late this week. Between cooking and eating Thanksgiving and then some follow up dinners, plus my son being out of school for half the week, it's been hard to find free time! But I did watch the video yesterday and I'm honestly not sure I have much to say. I agree very strongly with many of the things said about L1. A few years ago while teaching in an IEP with very strong English-only rules, I ended up stumbling on some research on L1 use. I found it quite persuasive that allowing students to speak L1 can be very beneficial for all the reasons Penny said. I can also add that letting students use L1 can be good for their well-being and for building community. I've seen research that suggests it’s very demotivating to force students to never use their L1, especially if they are in school all day long, and especially where the English Only rules are enforced even in free time, like in the halls or the lunch room. If they can't speak their language and be f...

I've taught a lot of students that want every written error corrected, but they don't seem to actually look at the corrections. What I've started implementing is error logs. I correct their errors and use an error code to indicate the type of error. The error codes are fairly detailed i.e. perfect tense error, present tense error, preposition. When students get their essays back, they keep a record of the different types of errors they make. In subsequent essays, they add any new error types and keep a running count of how many errors they made of a particular type. They can also add any example sentences that help them see their error. Before students revise their essay, I ask them to go back, look at that error logs, and focus on their most frequent errors. I find it definitely helps them focus on their weaknesses and improve.

Error correction is an interesting topic because teachers have to make instant decisions about whether and how to correct an error or mistake. Should we correct immediately? Should we use delayed correction? Should we ignore the mistake (this can sometimes be a valid decision). For my writing classes, I use a variety of error correction methods. If we are speaking about a topic that we'll later write about, I won't correct speech as much as I would in, say, a listening and speaking class. But I will get learners to brainstorm and plan in-class, and will monitor closely as they go through this process. Again. sometimes I choose to intervene, sometimes I will wait (if a student is deep in thought it might not help to interrupt them to point out a misused be verb in their first draft). When I do receive the 'final' piece of work I will read it thoroughly before making any marks. For some essays and paragraphs I use a colour coding system to help the learner figure out wh...

In some ways the idea of perfect understanding from week 1 and the use of L1 in the classroom go hand in hand. The use of L1 is one area where I was most vulnerable just starting out. I had a tendency to want the students to perfectly understand instructions. Being new to a language barrier environment myself, as a newly arrived limited Japanese speaking person, I was constantly asking the pair teacher to translate the instructions. Fortunately for me a co-worker (with whom I still work) showed me a better way. The point from the lecture that struck me the most was: "if it saves time that can then be used for activity in English" Yes, I would rather the students spend 15 minutes using the grammar point than trying to overcome a large comprehension barrier. As an assistant language teacher in Japan, I have worked with teachers across the L1 spectrum. I will say that the best, most responsive students/classes were with teachers who limited use of L1. In my experience in...

Error correction - fossilised errors Thanks for a great lecture. Lots to think about and digest. I wondered what people think about the correction of fossilised errors. If the student persistently makes the same error, after many months, or even years, is there a case for deciding not to correct those errors? I'm not sure how I feel about it. I guess if it's not obstructing meaning, then I let it go after a while. What do you think?

Hi, I would like to thank you Penny for your enlightening tips. I want to share with you my experience with error correction: 1- I was facing a hard time with the way my students pronounce certain words. I was using recast to correct them. for instance, they mispronounce, child, children, pupils... I started using different techniques. Yesterday, I used elicitation and metalinguistic feedback. So, I noticed the difference and it was fruitful. it's only the begining and I will diversify the techniques for better learning. 2- I'm a novice teacher. I was anxious when correcting mistakes. When I correct them every time they did the mistake, they seemed to be bored. So, I decided not to correct every single mistake. then, I felt guilty and I thought I was not doing a good job. But now I decide to correct their mistakes. However, In speaking, I will not correct every mistake because it will affect their fluency. 3- I support the TIP number 3. I correct the mistakes of my students...

Hello again! One of the finest lectures so far, thank you Penny for pointing some things out! I am personally struggling with no-L1 system because of the reputation all-English teachers have in Serbia. In my previous school, you were considered uneducated or methodologically weak if you couldn't/didn't explain everything in English only, regardless of the level. I once had a group of seniors and there was no way that they could listen to English only from the start. The reason for this is rooted in our traditional educational system which encouraged grammar-translation method, extensive use of Serbian, and people who couldn't converse in English after years of classes but could successfully make a difference between Present Perfect and Past Simple on paper. For them, English-only system was difficult and unnecessary. For younger generations, the situation is different, but there are still those who dislike things like eliciting ('Why should we guess, you tell us and don...

Hi all , As ever , much obliged to Dr. Penny's innovative sense and sincere efforts to make Teaching better. I can see that she fantastically draws a unique balance between what teachers should correct , and what they should let Ss correct.. considering saving the class time , getting Ss closer together , and making the feedback effectively profound. Is it so Dr. Penny Ur ?

Penny, I thank you so muuuch for your ideas. I have just followed your teaching method, and the whole class was so amazed. This morning, I gave them a sort of group competition. Each group took the turn to answer the questions. If they succeeded they got points. I asked them to say the list of words I showed in my power point slide. Of course, before they did that, I had switched the slide so that the students no longer read them. I asked them to mention the words in five to ten seconds. All of the students were thrilled when they got their turn to answer the question. Also, I asked the group to make up present perfect sentences based on certain responses. I asked," What would you say if someone else gave you the following responses: congratulations, oh no, it is relieved, etc. At last, I challenged them to memorize phrases little by little. Finally, they had to memorize the whole. Come here at once. Who? Me? Yes, you. Come here at once... Once again, thanks Penny. I have attached...

Very useful insights on the use of L1 in the classroom this week. I like using translation exercises sometimes for students for the very reason Penny cited: to raise awareness. The difference between languages is something I find fascinating and students often share this interest. Before the session, I viewed L1 use as a little 'negative', but sometimes it is necessary with my students and, as it's for learning, means it is not always a bad thing. In conclusion, there is a place for L1 if it's used constructively! Thank you, Penny!

Could yesterday's session turn this shy student into a promising speaker ! Dr. Penny , Dear all , How do you find that ? https://www.facebook.com/groups/956820644384875/permalink/1554179254649008/ https://m.facebook.com/groups/133683270319717?view=permalink&id=549951702026203

There are two points I would like to make a comment on. The first is about correcting mistakes. We often hear that the best / most natural (I know Penny's reservations about "authenticity") way of learning a language is the way it is acquired in L1. But during the thousands of hours of meaningful, contextual input, there is also an immense amount of correction taking place, as anyone could testify who has ever listened to the "motherese" going on between a 3-year-old and their mum on the tram... The second comment concerns translation. I think that, especially for languages that are close to English, for example, Spanish, it would be a shame not to point out the similarities: "This is my house" - "Esta es mi casa." Obviously, as soon as we insert an adjective, the word order does not correspond to each other (is "to each other" a tautology or just redundancy, Penny?) any more, but that is not a reason why we should not alert student...

Hello! where can I find the slides about the 1st session? thank you in advance!

A student who volunteers to do this activity has their eyes covered. I remove things item by item from my handbag and let the student feel and guess what the items are. The student practically does a "think aloud" (which can be recorded for reflection on accuracy) and asks questions and/or guesses the nature of the object. The rest of the students, who can see the item, answer the questions and cheer him/her on. Time is set (2 min should be OK). Similar items may require more detailed questions (ID cards and bus passes are the same size and material). Since I have everything under the sun in my handbag (except for a dead German soldier, as we say in Hungarian), this activity can be quite engaging (wouldn't you love to know what your teacher has in her bag?). For the purposes of teacher training (to demonstrate think aloud techniques), I've done this activity with more complicated items, like my granny's ancient, manual walnut grinder (taken to pieces, to make it m...

Thanks Penny for sharing an interesting topic: error correction. Allow me to share with you what my students and I have done with the error correction practices in our essay writing class. 1. I have encouraged my students to do peer-review as a part of writing cycle before submitting their final drafts. We did that using Google doc. I see this peer-review activities worth doing at least based on the following considerations: a. Learn how to read carefully, with attention to the details of a piece of writing (whether their own or another writer’s); b. Learn how to strengthen their writing by taking into account the responses of actual and anticipated readers; c.Learn how to formulate and communicate constructive feedback on a peer’s work; d. Learn how to gather and respond to feedback on their own work. 2. Before the peer-review session, I taught some techniques of correcting their peer's to them: make the errors explicit so that the writers knew about what and how to improve the e...

Making students ask more questions I heard this story the other day and I thought it could be turned into a fun (higher order thinking skills) activity: an international company that was selling washing liquid in the Middle East had the following images on the box: dirty shirt + washing liquid poured on the shirt + clean shirt. The washing liquid was a disaster in all countries of the region except Turkey. What could have been the reason? Give it a couple of days if you know the answer, just so that we don't spoil it for the others :-) In similar activities, students have to ask Yes / No questions from the teacher. It's like 20 questions, but the aim is to figure out the explanation for a puzzling situation.

Hi everyone! I'm joining late. I'm from Seattle but have been living in Hungary for 10 years. I teach grades 1 - 3 part-time and write curriculum part-time. I'm excited to be a part of this class and am mostly interested to learn more about research that drives best practices.

If a computer can replace a teacher it should. If a teacher can replace a computer - they should... hmmm And hmm...thinking about second session. To give honest feedback - of course it was lovely, of course ideas stayed with me all week. But to be honest it felt more like a teacher centred lesson - With the interactive pen and paper activity Session one was sooo engaging...and MAYBE that explains the drop in online engagement..or just we need time to absorb, out into practice, and asynchronous feature is very seductive...can comment later... Along with the tips I am "observing" this as a "demonstration"of online teaching and learning...a field still in its infancy. Joining class now for session 3!

DICE One activity I found extremely effective is using dice for drilling particular target language or useful phrases, it’s in In Company Intermediate course book for training the language of meetings (checking understanding). I modify this game for any language I intend to drill and it’s great fun both for group and individuals. You actually make the students say the key phrases over and over again. The principle is to identify 6 key phrases and allocate one number to each phrase. Then students throw the dice and have to say the phrase (which is gap-filled on board). Of course, you could use 2 dice and 12 phrases if there’s more language to drill.

Hi everyone, session 2 was great. Penny, your input is inspiring and spot-on. Sorry I couldn’t participate and enjoy it life but going through the slides makes me think and evaluate how to approach my students again and again. I’d like to share the following ideas regarding the points made about speaking: 1. The problems Shyness,being introverted, inability to express themselves, fears of losing face and making mistakes are extremely sensitive issues to handle. My business students find it difficult to be challenged with tasks where their background work knowledge , skills and experience are vast but they are thrown off balance by realising that they lack foreign language needed to express themselves properly. 2. Level appropriate I explain to my students when they can tell the level is appropriate for them, I show them that some expressions are familiar to them, some of them can be guessed and some of them are totally new for them. This usually puts them in a more comfortable positio...

hi, to make my students talk, I sometimes encourage them to do role-plays. they have to write the dialogue and perform it. I find this helpful to encourage them talking. Even, the students who are not fluent or shy, they have an opportunity to SHINE. then, as a teacher, I say positive feedback to encourage them and boost their confidence when talking.

SPEAKING IN ONE-TO-ONE SETTING Each tip presented by Penny is great food for thought, but I would like to focus on just a few which resonate the most with me. As I believe there are a few differences in approaching speaking in one-to-one classes, here I am sharing my experience and thoughts with you. 1. Don’t do Speaking with new students Actually, I do the complete opposite. At the very beginning of the first class I intentionally put my new student on the spot and ask them to tell me about themselves in English. I’m not trying to be cruel here. It is just a truly effective way for me to evaluate their speaking proficiency. If the student can speak, they will – that’s an opportunity for them to shine. If they can’t or are reluctant, then I scaffold by, for instance, speaking about myself (modelling) or asking simple questions requiring one-word answers. This usually gives them a sense of success and also shows them my teaching philosophy: if you want to learn to speak English, you hav...

I like to coordinate lessons with other teachers at my school, which has led to using books as sources of debate material. I take whatever book my students are reading that and either a) ask them to generate topics that could be controversial, or b) make a list of questions that would prompt the same sort of discussion. It has worked really well the last few years. Last year, they read Frankenstein which generated topics ranging from "Who is responsible for the deaths in the book?" to "Do scientists have the right to create life?" It is really though-provoking and the students get really into it (especially for Japanese students). The writing teacher then asked to use the ideas we generated in debate to write an essay.

A little late to the game, but I have to say I am thinking of giving jazz chants another go after that video. Of course I know there is a rhythm to English, but I always found it a little to cheezy for high school students. Seeing Carolyn Graham take regular conversations and make the chant appear in music was really cool. Even high school students could appreciate music being made out of thin air and enjoy playing around with words and music. I also like the idea of getting students to discuss things without commanding them to "talk." I teach debate, so we often start discussing general topics with the aim of turning them into full-fledged debates.

Before I watched the recording I looked at the slides first, and at one slide I had this rush of emotions because I was thinking, I wish I had done this course when I first started out teaching.. Again, I am so grateful to be on this course! I'd like to reflect first on the tip on giving a pep talk especially to beginners or students with low self-confidence and so on. I've been giving a similar talk but I think it hasn't been that well-rounded. Will definitely improve on that! And also on not asking a 'new' class to do speaking activities in the first meeting. Secondly, I really love the practical tips! I can now imagine what I can do with the example exercises and adjust them to my current classes. I have one question, though. Most of the students I teach usually have trouble making up the content when I ask them to fill in the gaps of model sentences, as if they're afraid of making mistakes, but it's not even about the language. I suspect it's because...

I would like to share two five-minute pairwork speaking activities, as follows: #1 Video class on “The Immigrant” by Charles Chaplin 1 The teacher pre teaches vocabulary a little 2 one std sees the film while he tells what´s going on to his partner who sits with his back to the movie screen and only listens to his partner´s comments 3 They switch roles. #2 A problem solving task Stds are supposed to figure out the best way to move an extra fragile and large glass screen. The book provided the answer. Thank you.

One technique I developed to encourage Ss' talking, specially the weak , was to ask some analytical questions about the characters they acted. Here is an example of "Oliver Twist " After dramatization ,I had this conversation with 2 students : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ALgDzFdiWOLWyngXMI6wWXWv5ty_6Zpl/view?usp=drivesdk https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ALgDzFdiWOLWyngXMI6wWXWv5ty_6Zpl/view?usp=drivesdk

Hi all , One more impressive week with really innovative trainers. I was touched with the ideas of facilitating the speaking activities , and adapting different rhythms of our presentations. I agree we should vary our techniques , and do the best to meaningfully involve all our learners in free or controlled speaking tasks. For me : One technique I adopted was getting some weak students who liked painting to draw the characters of a set novel. With practice, they liked speaking about these characters , and developed a positive attitude towards the novel. They liked discussion much better , however, they tended to answer all novel questions in the form of characterization !!! Warm regards...

Now the thanksgiving stuffing has been made, I can respond properly to Week 2 session! Another excellent hour full of practical tips which I am now trying to apply to my current context. Tip 1 for exampIe I feel, seems obvious now on reflection and yet I, or my colleagues, normally like to find out the abilities of a new student from Day 1. I think we forget sometimes that it may take a while for some students to feel confortable and willing to speak. We often push them too early and expect them participate immediately. More confident students will do so, thus we probably need to adapt this tip accordingly. I realised early on that a new Syrian student was having trouble expressing himself in the first few lessons and I felt a bit helpless for a good few weeks. Now there has been some sort of transformation (maybe or maybe not due to an extra weekly private lesson he has recently started having with me) and he talks all the time! It really did take me by surprise. I really enjoyed lear...

Last week made me think about the importance of WHY we are doing certain activities in the classroom. This week made me think more about HOW to set up certain activities in the classroom. Several speaking tips such as speaking tips #2 (providing a pep talk) and #3 (make the language easy) were good reminders of having our students feel that they can succeed in the task. If the students feel confident and know they can do it, they can be on their way to do it. In many ways, it's like being a coach and encouraging the students to reach their potential. Sometimes I feel the focus (and frustration) of teaching is for students to "produce, produce, produce". Instead, we need to set up activities that allow them to do so so they can improve and grow as learners.

Hi all, sorry to be a late addition to the discussion. I had a friend visiting from Canada and was off hosting and gallivanting around Japan a bit. I enjoyed session 2 (and found myself trying to type in replies) but don't regret the opportunity to enjoy a 50 year old Yamazaki whisky. But back to work! First off, I love the present perfect activity tied to elicit certain expressions.... definitely borrowing that one. Secondly, I sure wish I had attended this course 18 years ago. Some painful missteps as a young teacher could have been avoided by these lovely tips. As a teacher of young learners (now) I find that if I distract them by "disguising" the oral activity with an active game. Even with new students, I find it very successful to divide a class into two or three groups and play a version of musical chairs (slightly more chairs than half of the students), except that each round is an introductory question (how are you, age, birthday, etc). Standing students ...

Hi everyone, I love all the ideas that Penny has shared so far, and for this week 2 discussion, I’d like to focus on one particular idea of using pictures for students to say as many things as they can about them in a given time. Here I want to try to outline a possible modification of the activity: 1. Students are asked to take a picture of an activity they see outside the class using their cellphone or find a picture (of an activity) on the internet and save it on their gadget. 2. Students then edit the photo in such a way that it doesn’t show a full capture of the activity (making it mysterious), but they should still keep the original version of the photo. 3. Students are put in groups(of 3-5 students, ideally) and each member of the group takes turns showing the photo while others try to guess what’s in the picture by using Y/N questions. They can either limit the time or the number of the questions asked. At the end, whether their friends can or cannot guess the activity in the ...

I love the idea of not asking students to talk and instead giving them a task they can only complete by speaking to one another! I can see how saying the ‘talk’ as a command can seem daunting.

ANONYMOUSLY IDENTIFYING KIDS IN NEED Although the following blog is from a few years back, it's one that I wish to return to, remember, and incorporate into my future classes once I have more students again. In the meantime, here's a good place to share: "... Every Friday afternoon Chase’s teacher asks her students to take out a piece of paper and write down the names of four children with whom they’d like to sit the following week. The children know that these requests may or may not be honored. She also asks the students to nominate one student whom they believe has been an exceptional classroom citizen that week. All ballots are privately submitted to her. And every single Friday afternoon, after the students go home, Chase’s teacher takes out those slips of paper, places them in front of her and studies them. She looks for patterns. Who is not getting requested by anyone else? Who doesn’t even know who to request? Who never gets noticed enough to be nominated? Who had ...

This is a warmer activity I often use with new student groups and one-to-one classes at just about any level. I’ve adapted it over time and I think it works well for me. How does it work? Before the students come into the room I will draw a grid, usually with nine squares, on the whiteboard. Each square in the grid will contain information that can be interpreted generally, or relating to me specifically. The student’s task is to think of questions to match the ‘answers’ they can see on the board. It is possible to ask a ‘general’ question to match any of the answers, or a ‘personal’ one (all of the answers, in different ways, relate to me and my own life). Questions must make sense, and should match the ‘answers’ on the board in a logical way. What I mean is: let’s say I write “Teacher” in one of the squares. – If a student, trying to ‘win’ the square that contains this word, asks me “Are you a teacher?”, that question would be incorrect (as the answer to that question is “Yes” or “No...

Hi Everyone. I've been incredibly busy this week, so this is the first chance I've had to read everyone's comments and add my own reflections. I enjoyed last week's session and I'm looking forward to the next one! Last weekend (on Saturday) I went to a conference in Taipei. Stephen Krashen was speaking, and he highlighted a lot of rules and guidelines that are commonly used by language teachers but which, in his view, need to be reconsidered. They are: 1. If you don't understand, signal (often an agreed-upon signal is used) 2. If I am speaking too quickly, slow me down (with a signal or short utterance) 3. Don't repeat what I say. 4. Don't worry, I won't call on you. 5. When you speak in class, you won't have to use full sentences. 6. Don't worry if you can't easily retrieve words you think you know. 7. Don't worry about making mistakes 8. Look at my facial expressions and body language 9. You don't have to understand ev...

GETTING TEENS TO SPEAK - IDEAL SCHOOL (2nd Conditional focus) Here is a lesson which worked a treat this week. (I adapted a few of the ideas from a British Council conversation lesson plan.) 1. Write down any words they think of about school on the board then pick a few to discuss afterwards asking why they wrote that. 2. Have each student say a subject they currently have at school (it was a class of 9 and we managed to go around almost twice!) 3. In groups/pairs, get students to choose 6 subjects and put them in order of easiest (1) to hardest (6). Explain why and compare with others in the class. (1 - English - yay! French from the exchange student. 6 - Physics, Maths, Chemistry) 4. Now do the same again but this time ask them to order them most useful to least useful. (English came top again, also History and German which then fuelled a brief Swiss German vs. High German debate - a touchy subject here in German-speaking CH! Physics came last.) 5. Hand out and read 4 descriptions of...

VOCABULARY BUILDING. Hi everyone, I found out about this fab resource for helping students build on their vocabulary. Just type in a word (ie. important) and it'll give you synonyms and examples from hundreds of sources so that they see how it can be used: https://skell.sketchengine.co.uk/run.cgi/skell https://skell.sketchengine.co.uk/run.cgi/skell

Jazz chants! I totally forgot about them. We had the Jazz Chants book in my very first staffroom. Such a great way to get students to think about the difference in stress between their languages and English. I searched through some old files and found this old favourite for my students in Madrid. That's tomorrow's class sorted! Thanks! Sally speaks Spanish, but not very well. When she tries to speak Spanish you really can't tell what language she's speaking or trying to speak. The first time I heard her, I thought it was Greek! Such fun! (from Jazz Chants by Carolyn Graham)

I learned a lot from this week's talk, not least of all, the classification of tasks at the end! More importantly, I really liked the tips on making the classroom a safe space, and I think it's a simple but radical idea to not start with speaking activities and to let shy students have their "quiet period" Many teachers I know who are considered the fun, kind, likable teachers kick their classes off with loud speaking heavy activities, and I always question that for more introverted students. It's definitely good to remember that students may need time to warm up. And also that the task should be at i-1 to let students practice successfully. I did have a question about making sure their speech is well-received. I certainly agree that we should make students feel that they are heard. I see that nodding and smiling, and echoing are all ways of doing that. But I wonder if providing more authentic feedback isn't better, where possible. If I am talking to a friend,...

Penny mentioned having students talk about what's happening in a picture. I love using odd pictures for that and I wanted to share one of my favorites. There's so much going on here that students always have something to talk about.

I really enjoyed Tip 7 in how simple yet effective is to make everyday exercises more interesting, engaging, and memorable. Tip 8 is another great one. By chance, I saw Carolyn Graham once at ETJ Tokyo EXPO (English Teachers in Japan) where I was volunteering on tech support and she needed help setting up and cueing some things. I'd been wondering how to reach learners who'd felt they'd grown out of singing songs in class, her jazz chants seemed just the ticket I was looking for! However, it was a while before I had an opportunity to use them in class, but when I tried some motivation chants with 1st year uni students, it went over really well and much better than expected. So, it became 'a keeper'! I'm getting better You're getting better We're getting better now Step by step Day by day I introduced it orally first as a whole class choral listen and repeat, line by line, then building up. Teams of 4-5 then had to work together to recall and write it dow...

Hello everyone! Does anyone have any tips of how to manage a very talkative class (age is late teenage years)? Thank you very much!

Another very interesting & useful session! Thank you, Penny! I have never heard of jazz chants being used to learn English before- I love this idea! I feel inspired to try it out in my own classroom.

I still remember Penny's suggestion: we have to make our classroom an enjoyable place for students to practice the language. In my grammar class (second-year college students), I sometimes integrate grammar with a speaking skill. Here, I am going to share with you what I have done in my grammar class. There is nothing new about this idea. However, I saw my students enjoyed it very much. A few days ago, I taught my students about how to make questions with present perfect and past tense. 1. I wrote some sentences on the whiteboard using present perfect and past tense. Have you ever + past participle ...? Wh- did you ......? 2. After practicing a few sentences, I divided my students into two groups A and B. 3. One person from group A became a volunteer; meanwhile, all members of group B asked her/him questions with present perfect and past tense. 4. However, the volunteer from group A had to say "yes" when answering the first question from group B. For example, - Have you e...

Hi, Steven, I can see only 4 posts for Week 2. Considering the upsurge of activity after the first webinar, this seems odd. Am I doing something wrong?

Hello again! For me, speaking tip 7 is the most important one - my students actually see all that grammar/vocabulary being put in use. I would wholeheartedly recommend (if not the course book itself, then at least the method) Face 2 Face, second edition. It is a course book mainly for adult learners. It relies heavily on speaking, while still paying respect to other skills. In these books, almost every activity has speaking as its base - I will give you some examples: I had a/the/ rice for lunch yesterday. Students have to choose the correct article and afterwards comment on whether this sentence is true or false in their case. They are expected to expand on their answer a bit (as much as they are able to, of course) - ''No, I didn't, but I had...'' -If you ___ (be) rich, what countries ___ (you visit)? Same task here, practicing II conditional. - what/on/do/Sundays/you/do/usually Make a question and answer it immediately. Most of my students enjoy it because the...

I just got the EFL magazine in my inbox and I think I spy an article from Elizabeth Bekes, if it's the same one on this course? :)

Hi! I've changed the order and content of the second two sessions of this course, in response to your postings. Next week we'll be looking at error correction and use of L1 in English teaching. In the last session, some selected issues in reading and writing. Hope that's OK with everyone!

How do you get them to talk when they can't speak (English)? I had high hopes for my first Film Club event, lovely handouts and all, three more facilitators lined up to help with the activities related to the screening of Pay It Forward (I know, but I won't go down that road). On the day, one of my facilitators lost her keys to the gate of her rented apartment and could not come AT ALL. In the auditorium, the regular bleeping of the alarm could not be turned off unless we were prepared to shut down the entire system across the whole campus. Halfway through the film two dozen students started a vigorous aerobics routine right outside the auditorium with a ghetto blaster on. But in the auditorium, they there were: 21 of them, out of 1241 non-English degree teacher trainees. The day before I went to do a test run and when I was not able to understand much of the first five minutes of the film I decided I would put the English subtitles on (in Ethiopia, I banned them for the first ...

Sorry for joining a week late but very happy to be here now. The 1st week session looked excellent and it really helped to blow out some cobwebs, remind me of various things about teaching, and add new ideas. 1. Here's something I'd like to contribute on storytelling: DEEP IMPACT (SPLIT) STORYTELLING About 10 years ago, I first got introduced to split storytelling, basically telling part of a story at the beginning of a class then pausing on a cliffhanger to be returned to at the end of the class. Besides all the benefits of regular storytelling, it also helps to arouse curiosity and put students in a positive state for learning. It can also allow for greater engagement as students ponder and discuss what might happen next then share with each other. One of the most successful stories I've used was one that was split into 1-2 minute episodes and spread over a couple of classes. Since I was teaching a women's university class on research, discussion and debate in which w...

Write up your thoughts, criticisms, reflections, questions, additions etc. relating to the ‘Week 2 Discussion’ list.... And read other people’s!

STORYTELLING I have been a huge fan of storytelling for a long time (it sounds weird but I tells stories in English better than in any other language). I used to be reluctant to talk about my own experiences or tell anecdotes and jokes because of the pressure the idea of limited TTT put on me, but one of my colleagues said – and I completely agree with her – that when you are telling a story, you are providing students with valuable input besides other things. So, this week I told stories as usual, but I would like to share two cases with you. First was with a reluctant-to-ask-questions student. We read a story about a satnav failure and did some work with linkers. Then I decided to share my experience with satnav (a true and ridiculously funny story), but I tricked the student into asking questions by stopping and pretending to try to remember how things went. She was full of questions and enthusiasm, which later transformed into her telling me a great story about herself. (I sneaked ...

The first session was really interesting, suggested points made me think about how I approach my students and how they benefit from activities during the lesson.I have been teaching for many years and being reminded about the basic principles is always helpful. I work with adults and most of my courses are individual so I spent the week after the presentation thinking and evaluating how much my students learn and what added value they take from every lesson. Listening is usually quite challenging for many students, they struggle in many ways. What seems to be working with business adults is clear communication of goals of every activity. I explain the purpose, tell them about gist and detail listening tasks and they respond to justification well. Students feel they know what the expectations are form them as they are used to performance indicators at work. The theory behind communicated briefly makes their teacher a respected authority and students actually find how things are done fro...

Just reposting from the discussion section hopefully put together shorter with some tips. As per Penny’s advice I did the recall and share drill with my students with a series of words from the superlatives and comparative adjectives. I also added her advice of trying to teach different levels by having them choose three words from the list of words and making three personally true sentences about them or their friend. If they could do 3 sentences quickly then I had them take the adjective and change it into another that was not from the list. Similar tip from Penny that I have done before in other classes is to Dictate the instructions to the students and have them write them out before doing the exercise. This allows the ones who can do it easily to move onto the activity while letting me see who needs more help and make the instructions be a teaching tool at the same time. Video-taping classes is one of the best things teachers can do to help improve our teaching. I think that we...

I don't want to miss this inspiring group after the course ISA. I hope you all join "Inventive English Teachers " on Facebook , hoping that we meet again and again. I hope you keep sharing your brilliant experiences.

This is a discussion activity that can be used for many topics. This is around phrases from "O Canada" (national anthem) basically talking about values and citizenship rights and responsibilities. Part of Remembrance Day content. The prompts come from "A Grab Bag of Canada " by Elizabeth Ganong and Dan Ingram. Some of questions (on the little orange rectangles) are "What makes a country feel like home?", "How do people show they love their country?" What Canadian values need to be protected and how can we do this?" Six questions on six sheets of flip chart paper. Six groups of 2-3 students. Each group gets a paper. Five minutes to discuss the question and each student writes their opinion. Then the paper moves to a different group and they add their answers. ( Everyone gets a different coloured marker. Signing is optional. If the group runs out of time the students can add their contribution later...!Then we put them up as a display and t...

ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF PAIRING/GROUPING STUDENTS For the first few years, I used to pair students either by telling them to find a partner or make a group of 3 (which is what my teachers had done when I was kid). + learners self-select and may have a sense of autonomy - some kids may get left out or have trouble finding a partner/group. (I remember being THAT kid for a year or so - always the last to find someone) +/-Pairs/Groups may end up the same again and again which can result in very high functioning pairs/groups or create cliques. Later, I decided to 'count off students' then get them to count themselves off (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, ...) then find others with the same number. (This is another common technique teachers used when I was a student.) + learners get to work with different classmates and this builds a stronger community over time as well as exposes them to working with different types of people. Counting themselves off encourages them to pay attentio...

...I feel a bit guilty that I did not post before but I needed time to reflect, see whether anything from Sunday "stuck" with me, and I wanted to see what sort of things everyone posted. I kept getting notifications from Google+ so I read most posts -sometimes I replied. It was very illuminating, fun. Part of my brain was observing how an online community forms ( I have done online courses before but the posting was obligatory ( University) or part if a MOOC (FutureLearn) and not as authentic and natural as this is. My takeaways from Sunday were: 1. Use time more deliberately and constructively (less waffle Claudie; you really need to plan better, give students more useful activities to discover/practice. I think I do too much "teaching in the moment" ...storytelling is good but I need to monitor for balance..students can tell stories too.) 2. Hmm, then, think about whether to preteach vocabulary, or not, before a listening. Some course book listening texts h...