A guide to Teaching English

THANKS
 
The author would like to thank the following people for their help in the production of 
this book:
Josef Essberger
Ann Harrison 
Maggie James
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Copyright © Lucy Pollard 2008 All Rights Reserved
This e-book may not be reproduced in part or in full without the express written permission of the author.

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INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................2 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR........................................................................................................... 2 
THANKS................................................................................................................................... 2 
CHAPTER 1: THE BASICS OF TEACHING ENGLISH ..................................................................6 
1.1 Use of English and use of mother tongue ................................................................................6 
1.2 Using the blackboard, whiteboard ...........................................................................................6 
1.3 Who talks in class?...................................................................................................................7 
1.4 Eliciting....................................................................................................................................8 
1.5 Pair work and group work........................................................................................................8 
1.6 How to organise group and pair work......................................................................................9 
1.7 What does the teacher do during pair and group work?...........................................................9 
1.8 Some disadvantages of group and pair work and what to do about it......................................10 
1.9 What to do in your first lesson? ...............................................................................................10 
1.10 Giving instructions...................................................................................................................11 
1.11 How to seat students ................................................................................................................12 
1.12 Levels .......................................................................................................................................12 
1.13 Essential elements for students to learn ...................................................................................13 
1.14 Free and controlled language practice .....................................................................................14 
1.15 Activities that provide controlled and freer language practice ................................................15 
1.16 Accuracy and fluency...............................................................................................................16 
1.17 Using a course book.................................................................................................................17 
1.18 Choosing a course book ...........................................................................................................17 
1.19 Roles of the teacher..................................................................................................................18 
CHAPTER 2: APPROACHES TO THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH..............................................19 
2.1 Grammar translation method ...................................................................................................19 
2.2 Audio-lingual method ..............................................................................................................19 
2.3 Communicative approach ........................................................................................................20 
2.4 PPP ...........................................................................................................................................22 
2.5 Task-based learning .................................................................................................................22 
2.6 ESA ..........................................................................................................................................23 
2.7 Humanistic ...............................................................................................................................24 
2.8 Lexical approach ......................................................................................................................24 
2.9 A final word on teaching methods ...........................................................................................24 
CHAPTER 3: PRESENTING AND PRACTISING LANGUAGE...................................................25 
3.1 Stage 1: Pre-checking knowledge ............................................................................................25 
3.2 Stage 2: Presentation................................................................................................................27 
3.2.1 Explanation ..............................................................................................................................27 
3.2.2 Demonstration..........................................................................................................................28 
3.2.3 Illustration ................................................................................................................................28 
3.2.4 Discovery / deducing meanings ...............................................................................................28 
3.3 Stage 3: Check students’ understanding ..................................................................................30 
3.4 Stage 4: Practising language points .........................................................................................30 
3.5 Stage 5: Revision .....................................................................................................................31 
3.6 A final word on presenting and practising language................................................................31 
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Copyright © Lucy Pollard 2008 All Rights Reserved
This e-book may not be reproduced in part or in full without the express written permission of the author.

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CHAPTER 4: SPEAKING.................................................................................................................33 
4.1 Language..................................................................................................................................33 
4.2 Preparation ...............................................................................................................................34 
4.3 Reason for speaking .................................................................................................................34 
4.4 
Types of speaking activities ........................................................................................ 34 
4.4.1 Information gap........................................................................................................................34 
4.4.2 Discussions: reaching a consensus...........................................................................................35 
4.4.3 Discussions: moral dilemma ....................................................................................................35 
4.4.4 Discussions involving opinions ...............................................................................................35 
4.4.5 Debates.....................................................................................................................................36 
4.4.6 Spontaneous conversations ......................................................................................................36 
4.4.7 Role play ..................................................................................................................................36 
Tips and advice for role plays: ...........................................................................................................36 
4.4.8 Problem solving: reorganising the zoo.....................................................................................37 
4.4.9 Discussion about jobs (based on an activity in Discussions A-Z Intermediate)......................37 
4.4.10 Discussions based on pictures .................................................................................................37 
4.4.11 Topic prompts .........................................................................................................................38 
4.5 A final word on speaking activities..........................................................................................38 
CHAPTER 5: LISTENING................................................................................................................39 
5.1 Listening for gist ......................................................................................................................39 
5.2 Extensive listening ...................................................................................................................40 
5.3 Listening for specific information............................................................................................40 
5.4 Listening for detailed information ...........................................................................................40 
5.5 Predicting .................................................................................................................................40 
5.6 A template for a listening activity lesson.................................................................................41 
5.7 A final word on listening activities ..........................................................................................43 
CHAPTER 6: READING...................................................................................................................44 
6.1 Reading skills and sub-skills....................................................................................................44 
6.1.1 Reading for gist........................................................................................................................44 
6.1.2 Reading to extract detailed information...................................................................................45 
6.1.3 Reading to extract specific information ...................................................................................45 
6.1.4 Predicting .................................................................................................................................45 
6.1.5 Extensive reading.....................................................................................................................46 
6.2 Template for a reading skills lesson.........................................................................................46 
6.3 A final word on reading activities............................................................................................48 
CHAPTER 7: WRITING ...................................................................................................................49 
7.1 Language..................................................................................................................................49 
7.2 Time for preparation ................................................................................................................49 
7.3 Reason for writing....................................................................................................................49 
7.4 Creating interest in the topic and activating students’ knowledge...........................................50 
7.5 Coherence and cohesion...........................................................................................................50 
7.6 Publication ...............................................................................................................................50 
7.7 Approaches to teaching writing: process writing.....................................................................51 
7.8 Approaches to teaching writing: the genre approach to writing ..............................................53 
7.9 Shorter writing activities..........................................................................................................53 
7.10 Using computers ......................................................................................................................54 
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Copyright © Lucy Pollard 2008 All Rights Reserved
This e-book may not be reproduced in part or in full without the express written permission of the author.

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7.11 Penpals .....................................................................................................................................54 
CHAPTER 8: PLANNING A LESSON ............................................................................................55 
8.1 Recent work .............................................................................................................................55 
8.2 Language work.........................................................................................................................56 
8.3 Skills work ...............................................................................................................................56 
8.4 Level of the students ................................................................................................................56 
8.5 Overall aims of students...........................................................................................................56 
8.6 Aims of the lesson....................................................................................................................56 
8.7 Stages .......................................................................................................................................57 
8.8 Timing......................................................................................................................................57 
8.9 Variety......................................................................................................................................57 
8.10 Interest......................................................................................................................................57 
8.11 Interaction ................................................................................................................................58 
8.12 Level of motivation..................................................................................................................58 
8.13 Problems and solutions ............................................................................................................58 
8.14 Materials and equipment required............................................................................................58 
8.15 Homework................................................................................................................................58 
8.16 Extra activities..........................................................................................................................58 
8.17 A final word about lesson plans...............................................................................................59 
CHAPTER 9: ERROR CORRECTION.............................................................................................60 
9.1 Correcting mistakes in oral work .............................................................................................61 
9.1.1 What to correct.........................................................................................................................61 
9.1.2 How much to correct................................................................................................................61 
9.1.3 When to correct........................................................................................................................62 
9.1.4 Who corrects ............................................................................................................................62 
9.1.5 How to correct..........................................................................................................................62 
9.2 Correcting mistakes in written work........................................................................................63 
9.2.1 How much to correct................................................................................................................63 
9.2.2 How to correct..........................................................................................................................64 
9.3 A final word on error correction ..............................................................................................64 
CHAPTER 10: PRONUNCIATION..................................................................................................65 
10.1 Individual sounds .....................................................................................................................66 
10.2 Word stress...............................................................................................................................67 
10.3 Sentence stress .........................................................................................................................68 
10.4 Intonation .................................................................................................................................69 
10.5 Connected speech.....................................................................................................................69 
10.6 A final word on pronunciation .................................................................................................70 
REFERENCES 71 
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Copyright © Lucy Pollard 2008 All Rights Reserved
This e-book may not be reproduced in part or in full without the express written permission of the author.

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