Universidad Catlica de la Santsima Concepcin

Facultad de Educacin
Pedagoga Media en Ingls

Argumentative Essay
Methodology and Lesson Plans

Authors: Diego Garrido Rubilar

Carolina Rebolledo
Subject: English Methodology as a Foreign Language
Teacher: Roxana Correa Prez

Most of teachers aim is to make their students to understand and apply what was
taught in a proper way, but it is also known that there are many factors involved to make it
succeed. Through this essay, two main aspects of teaching will be considered, in order to
explain the reasons of why they are useful at the moment to be applied in the lessons of a
new language. These are lesson plan and the concept of methodology. According to
Garrido and Rebolledo (2014) based on the explanations of several authors that were
considered and will be mentioned through this study, methodology is defined as the
analysis of methods and rules which concerns the way of putting into practice previous
knowledge, teaching a language and its frequent analysis. This involves a constant
analysis of aspects such as: ways of teaching, how to deal with students issues and
classroom management skills. On the other hand, a lesson planning is the preparation
that enables a teacher to know the parameters of what is needed to be included within that
lesson, and to achieve the overall aim of the coursework. In other words, it is considered
very useful for teachers who do not have the enough experience to do their lessons in a
formal way and spontaneously as some experienced teachers do. Furthermore, it would
help to keep in mind the main aim of methodology of the language teaching.
First of all, and to support our previous definition of methodology, Tamura (2006)
considers that methodology helps to facilitate teachers to work proficiently and it demands
of a constant analysis of their work, in order to develop aspects that could improve the
teaching of the language (in this case English). The teaching of this language also brings
some issues in the sense that English is different than students mother tongue, and there
are questions related to this issue, which are what to teach?, What are the aims of
teaching? and How to teach?. All these questions work as a help to reach the intended
goal with our students. Another concept of methodology that inspires ours comes from
Scrivener (2005), who explains that methodology has to do with the way of teaching, how
the ways of teaching help the students to learn which considers techniques, ways of
relating with students, the activities we choose, etc.
In addition, lesson planning has its advantages and well planned lessons might help
teachers and students to reach the goal. According to Jensen (2001), a lesson is an
extremely useful tool that serves as a combination guide, resource and historical

document reflecting our teaching philosophy, student population, textbooks, and most
importantly, our goal for our students. All teachers should have to adhere to a curriculum
and that curriculum dictates what needs to be taught within which time period. A lesson
plan helps to remind the teacher the sequence of the activities, which would be considered
useful because according to Harmer (2007), everything could happen during a lesson and
sometimes very interesting comments and opinions which were not planned could take
place, but then the class should keep going in the order that was planned in the beginning.
In fact, lesson planning also allows the teacher to visualize (and, therefore, better prepare
for) every step of the teaching process. This visualization and management of sudden
situations typically increases the teachers success and flexibility to cope unforeseen
events. On the other hand, it could be possible that a novice teacher without planning
his/her lesson properly could experience a lack of activities, because their lessons were
shorter than the expected. Initially it would be useful for them to plan every single step of
the lessons before they get into the classroom.
Furthermore, a lesson plan should incorporate ways to teach, which are adaptable
to different skill levels and backgrounds of children being taught. Through planning
teachers could be aware of the techniques they use and the abilities they are going to
develop, because in the English language there are four main skills (speaking, listening,
reading and writing) and the way to learn them do not work in the same way. A rigid lesson
plan assumes that all students learn at the same rate though this is not the way the
teaching and learning world is. According to this, the observer of the class should be able
at the end to judge what the teacher intends and how well she/he did it. Once the teacher
understands how to adapt their teaching skills within the framework of a lesson plan, they
will also be able to give the students a better learning experience, using flexibility within
the solid framework of the curriculum rather than adhering to the same ineffective teaching
methods. One of the principles exposed by Jensen(2001) explains that lesson plans
should not follow the same pattern day after day. These patterns are divided in a macro
level, which involve content, skills and time spent for those skills and micro level, and the
micro level, which involve the amount of variety in the amount of activities depending on
the difficulties of the lessons. A good lesson plan should be flexible in order to cover those
aspects, to make our students to participate actively, feeling confident with the language
and the teacher and his/her teaching, because this is the way to avoid predictability. As
Harmer(2007) argues, if the phenomenon of predictability happens, students might feel

less motivated, because they will know exactly what the teacher is going to do or what to
expect from the entire class.
To contrast the previous ideas and to see things from a different perspective, we
know that not everything can be perfect and even in terms of education there are a lot of
variation according to different situations and context of teaching. Planning lessons
mentioned before have their weakness too. It does not always happen, but it all depends
on how teachers plan and what are the aims of teachers and schools. According to Ray
(2013), planning a class that starts with formative tests and that is not looking for why
students do not know something or do not learn, is not very useful. Most of the planning
teachers do is based on what the curriculum needs and how this can benefit schools to
have more students with better grades. However, that is not what teachers need to do to
standardize students. It is a manner of asking themselves what can I do to help my
students to learn in a better way. Planning is a helpful tool to guide a class, but teachers
should not take this as something structured. Even though, the school asks teachers to
teach a specific unit or subject, they must be able to check the main weakness of students
and plan their lessons according to that. Also, schools should give teachers the necessary
time for planning a lesson and giving the necessary importance. Having enough time for
planning can make the difference between a good class and an unsuccessful one.
Teachers should be aware of the kind of methodology their own class needs rather than
what kind of students the school wants to have. It is not about forming the same kind of
students, it is about developing each student potential and to help the ones who have
difficulties in the subject that is being taught.
To conclude the several ideas that have been mentioned before, we can assume
that methodology and planning a lesson are highly connected each other and it is
important to know how to develop them to have a successful class. Methodology as we
explained before is an analysis that we put into practice and to put into practice we need
the lesson plans to guide ourselves. It is not only to have an idea of how class should be, it
is also to learn from your own class and to be prepared for every situation. Teachers must
use lesson planning as a guide and not as instruction. They must be aware of every
situation that happens in a classroom and although it should follow what the plan say, also
give sometimes spontaneous moments so that way students will not feel as a structured
class. As a result, teachers will be able to assist in a better way different concerns in class.
As future teachers, we do not have to forget how to connect the good use of methodology

and lesson plan and also do not forget the real meaning of these concepts and the correct
use of them. It should be the tool of a good teaching and a good learning inside a
classroom. We must be aware of every detail in a classroom and try to focus in our
students so that way we mix in our lesson plans what we need to teach, how we need to
teach it and to whom we are going to teach. Teach and learn are unpredictable things, but
we should be able to try our best to make an easygoing task.

REFERENCES

Garrido D. and Carolina R. (2014). English Methodology as a Foreign Language

(Class).
Harmer,J. (2007). How to teach English. Pearson Education Limited. p.156-157
Jensen, L. (2001). Planning Lessons. In Celce-Murcia (ed). Teaching English as a
Second or Foreign Lanuage.403-409. 2001.
Ray, M. (2013). If Instruction Matters So Much, Why Dont Teachers Get Time to
Plan

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http://mathforum.org/blogs/max/if-instruction-matters-so-much-why-dont-teachers-gettime-to-plan-it/
Scrivener,J.(2005). Learning Teaching: A guidebook for English language
teachers. Macmillan Heinemann.
Tamura, E.T.(2006). Concepts on The Methodology of Teaching English. The
Economic Journal of Takasaki City University of Economics. vol.48 No.3. p.169.