Teaching English as a Foreign Language for Dummies (11 page)

Part II

Putting Your

Lesson Together

In this part . . .

Being able to structure and deliver a lesson effectively

and engagingly is what TEFL is all about. This part

gives you the inside track on how to do just that.

In the chapters in this part, I break the lesson down into

different stages (Presentation, Practice and Production),

so that you can see how to deliver a clear structure for

learning. I also provide advice on how long the stages

should last and who should be doing the talking, and how

to engage your students in learning.

This part teems with examples and suggestions for

classroom activities, whether you use a course book or

design your own materials. You can find out when and

how to correct the students’ mistakes and keep them in

check – and interested – during the lesson.

Chapter 4

Starting from the Beginning:

Planning the Lesson

In This Chapter

▶ Looking at student levels

▶ Teaching in the every day

▶ Suiting the lesson to the students

▶ Knowing where your lesson is going

▶ Planning your time and students’ time in a lesson

▶ Introducing new language and encouraging students to use it

▶ Drawing up your lesson plan

So you get the job and the students enrol on your course, ready to get started. But what on earth are you going to teach them and how are you going to put it together into a lesson? In this chapter, I tell you about the content and structure of an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) lesson.

Deciding What to Teach

When you select information to teach in your lessons, you need to think about what level the students are at and how well your lesson fits into what they already know and what they need to know.

Most courses have a basic syllabus that acts as a road map. An EFL
syllabus
lists the major areas of grammar, vocabulary and functions (what you can do with particular expressions) a course covers. Most EFL course books have a list within the first few pages. Even if you’re working from your own materials, it makes sense to set specific course goals including which words and grammar you definitely want to cover.

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Part II: Putting Your Lesson Together

However, when you begin teaching it can be quite difficult to know what students are likely to comprehend at each level and few EFL teachers follow the same students from beginner to advanced level.

So to give you a guide, the next sections offer a basic run down of what you may expect to teach students at the different levels. I include a list of grammar and vocabulary students should cover during the course, along with examples.

Unlike many other courses people enrol on, EFL courses can be for adults or children and include students with an incredibly wide range of interests and goals. However, their basic needs in learning are similar. For example, all students want to learn how to speak about the past, present and future in English.

Beginner

Beginner-level students aren’t necessarily children. Many people discover a need or desire to study English later in life. Students at beginner level can’t speak or write accurately in the present simple and present continuous tenses. Those who know some words in English but aren’t ready to join elementary level are called False Beginners. When there’s no distinct beginner’s class, beginner level is absorbed within the first 15–20 hours of an elementary course. This is a difficult level to teach as you have so few words to work with when explaining things but it’s also very rewarding because every new word marks significant progress for the class.

Grammar to cover includes:

✓

The subject pronouns: I, you, he, she and so on.

✓

Demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those.

✓

Question words: what, who, where and how.

✓

Possessive adjectives: my, your, his and hers.

✓

Singular and plural nouns.

✓

Expletives (not the naughty ones): there is, there are.

✓

The verb
to be
in positive, negative and question form: I am, I am not, am I?

Vocabulary to cover includes:

✓ The alphabet.

✓

Numbers 1 to 100.

✓

Jobs: doctor, teacher, taxi driver.

Chapter 4: Starting from the Beginning: Planning the Lesson
51

✓

Countries and nationalities: ‘He is from the UK. He’s British.’

✓

Basic food: fruit, vegetables, meat.

✓

Days of the week.

✓

Everyday objects: bag, pen, telephone.

✓

Immediate family: mother, son, husband.

✓

Rooms in the house: living room, bathroom, kitchen.

Elementary

At elementary level, students learn to use many more verbs instead of only
to
be
(I am, you are, it is). This is because with other verbs you have to use ‘
to
do
’ as an auxiliary verb, which is rather strange for them and quite different from other languages (Do you like apples? No, I don’t). At this level students learn to talk and ask about matters related to daily routines. They also begin to refer to past and future time.

Grammar to cover includes:

✓

Basic verbs in the present simple positive, negative and question forms: I live, I don’t live, do I live?

✓

Simple adverbs of frequency: usually, sometimes.

✓

Quantities: How much, how many? Some, any.

✓

Showing ability: using can/can’t.

✓

The past simple tense with
to be
: was/were.

✓

Future simple tense: I will go.

✓

Past simple tense with regular verbs: I looked, I listened.

Vocabulary to cover includes:

✓

Simple adjectives: opposites, colours.

✓

Language for telling the time: hat time is it? It’s half past three.

✓

Language for shopping: types of shops, asking for what you want.

✓

Asking for directions: straight ahead, turn left/right.

✓

Months and years.

✓

Weather: What’s the weather like? It’s raining.

✓

Comparative adjectives: bigger, nicer, and so on (superlatives wait until the next level).

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Part II: Putting Your Lesson Together

Pre-intermediate

At pre-intermediate level students learn to discuss their experiences and future plans. They learn vocabulary related to travelling. In addition they’re able to discuss leisure activities and explain their preferences.

Grammar to cover includes:

✓

Modal verbs: These give more meaning to the main verb in a sentence.

Two examples are: can/can’t and must/mustn’t.
I can’t wait any more
because I must get to the shops.

✓

Possessive pronouns: mine, yours and so on.

✓

To be going to: This isn’t a tense but you use this structure to talk about plans.
I am going to study medicine at university.

✓

Present perfect tense: I’ve eaten.

✓

Past simple tense with irregular verbs: I ate, I thought.

✓

Past continuous tense: I was eating.

✓

Adverbs: slowly, well.

Vocabulary to cover includes:

✓

Types of films: comedy, western, thriller.

✓

Clothes: trousers, shirt, coat.

✓

Hobbies and interests: jogging, eating out, reading.

✓

Language for booking hotels and restaurants: Can I book a single room please?

✓

Landscape words: mountain, river, field.

✓

Parts of the body: shoulder, knee.

✓

Superlatives: the best, the most wonderful.

Intermediate

At this level students tend to lose their initial enthusiasm for learning English. They already know how to make sentences that refer to the past, present and future and they have a basic vocabulary for everyday situations.

However, at this level the language you teach adds sophistication and fluency, instead of basic communication. It becomes harder for students to measure their progress so you need to work hard at maintaining interest by using topics they really enjoy.

Chapter 4: Starting from the Beginning: Planning the Lesson
53

Grammar to cover includes:

✓

More modal verbs: (should, may, might). Too many modal verbs exist to teach at once so you teach a few at a time.

✓

Zero conditional: If it rains, I use my umbrella.

✓

First conditional: If it rains, I’ll use my umbrella.

✓

Second conditional: If it rained, I’d use my umbrella.

✓

Non-defining relative clauses: The man,
who I thought looked great,
was at the office.

✓

Gerunds and infinitives:
going
and
to go
.

✓

The verb
will
for spontaneous decisions: I’ll pay!

✓

Present perfect continuous tense: I have been singing, he has been dancing.

✓

Past perfect tense: They had seen it, you had not watched it.

Vocabulary to cover includes:

✓

Comparing and contrasting: both, neither, whereas.

✓

Polite forms: Would you mind? I’m afraid I can’t.

✓

Expressions for generalising: On the whole, in general.

✓

Stages of life: infancy, childhood.

✓

Reviewing films, books and so on: describing the plot, characters, strengths and weaknesses.

Upper-intermediate

At this level students can speak and write with reasonable fluency using a range of tenses and expressions for linking ideas. They can use appropriate language in a variety of situations demonstrating an understanding of formal and informal language.

Grammar to cover includes:

✓

To have something done: students are used to speaking about actions they do themselves. With this grammatical structure they can express the idea of paying or instructing other people to do things. For example,
I had my house painted.

✓

Third conditional: If I had known, I wouldn’t have done it.

✓

Reported speech: She said that she . . .

✓

Defining relative clauses: The man
who is standing over there
is nervous.

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Part II: Putting Your Lesson Together

✓

Modal verbs in the past: I could have come.

✓

Passive verb forms: The room was cleaned.

✓

The verb
to wish
: I wish I could go, you wish you were me (after
wish
you use a verb in one of the past tenses, so students have to learn this verb separately)

✓

To be used to/ to get used to:
I’m used to London now but I’m still getting
used to my new job.
Students easily confuse these two grammatical structures for familiar activities and activities that are becoming familiar .

✓

Past perfect continuous tense: I had been working.

✓

Future perfect: I will have written it.

Vocabulary to cover includes:

✓

Adjectives of personality: generous, manipulative.

✓

Medical problems: ache, bruise, sprain.

✓

Crime words: to arrest, fraud, mugging.

✓

Feelings: hurt, fascinated, relieved.

✓

Science and technology words: software, appliance.

✓

Media and communications words: broadcasting, the press.

Advanced

Students at this level are able to communicate with native speakers without much difficulty. They get the gist of most texts and conversations and have sufficient vocabulary to express themselves on a wide variety of topics. The grammar and vocabulary they use is similar to that of native speakers even when it’s not strictly necessary to be understood. Question tags, which I show in the following grammar list, provide a good example of this.

Grammar to cover includes:

✓

Prefixes and suffixes:
un
like, like
able.

✓

Compound nouns: tooth + paste = toothpaste.

✓

Ellipsis and substitutions (words you can leave out or replace with something else):
This one is bigger
.
One
represents another noun so it’s a substitution. Sometimes you leave words out completely because the meaning is clear. For example:
This one is bigger (than the other thing).

When I leave out the words in brackets it’s an example of ellipsis.

✓

Question tags: You like that,
don’t you
?

Chapter 4: Starting from the Beginning: Planning the Lesson
55

✓

Active and stative verbs (actions and conditions): She bought (active) a motorbike and also owns (stative) a car.

✓

Future perfect continuous tense: I will have been working.

✓

Detailed rules on phrasal verbs: Phrasal verbs consist of a verb and a preposition or two that together make a new meaning. For example:
to
get on with someone, to put up with something.

Vocabulary to cover includes:

✓

General idioms. An idiom is a phrase that has a meaning quite different from the individual words within it. For example, students may understand all the words: it + is + a + pain + in + the + neck. However they won’t get the point unless you explain what the whole expression means.