First lesson focus on learning aims

You will most likely want to focus on the learning aims (course objectives) after initial
introductions. This could be tied to a focus on student expectations and/or needs analysis. It
will provide a good opportunity to carry out tentative assessments of your students as this
focus involves a lot of discussion (student interaction) and different skills tasks can be
incorporated depending on the level, expectations and the ratio of new/existing students in
the class. Here are some possibilities:

1. Initiate a discussion on language learning. (E1 can look at these later in term.)

E / PI
Give students a set of questions such as:

How many languages do you speak? / Where and how did you learn them? What
can you do in these languages? E.g. Introduce myself, ask for personal information
(French), read a novel in German, ask for directions in Swahili etc. Could turn into
class a class survey where students devise questions on the topic and mingle to
get info, followed by the presentation of results.

I/UI+

Ask S’s to discuss what they can do in English such as give opinions/read
newspaper articles etc Could set up as a pyramid discussion or a class survey.
Results could be presented either orally or in the form of a written report.

2. To introduce idea of learning aims, students can be given everyday situations to

look at (appropriate to level) and asked what skills training/grammar/vocab they
would need in order to be able to function in the situations. Can they handle these
situations now? If not, what do they need to focus on?

Elementary

E.g. You have got a new job with a multinational company here in Cairo. It’s your
first day. You need to introduce yourself to your new colleagues, ask where
different departments are, complete a medical insurance form and then agree to go
for dinner with some of the staff.

Pre-Intermediate

E.g. You have arranged to meet an old friend for coffee at Cilantro. Your friend is
late so while you are waiting, you try to finish a magazine article you started
reading earlier about English summer schools in the UK because you are
interesting in going next summer. At the end of the article are contact details. Your
friend still hasn’t arrived so you start planning a letter/email to send off for further
information. Your friend finally arrives. He/she is Australian. You haven’t seen each
other for over a year and so you want to tell him/her about everything that has
happened in your life since then.

The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
 Intermediate

You boss has asked you to go to the airport to meet a potential client from the UK.
You are expected to pick him/her up, escort him/he to the Nile Sheraton hotel and
later collect him/her and bring them to your office. You have been asked to give the
visitor a tour of the office before presenting new products and services that the
client may be interested in. After the visit, you are expected to write an email to the
visitor thanking him/her for the visit and summarising your discussions.

3. Distribute learning aims for level. Invite S’s to evaluate themselves and check in
pairs/groups. Inform them that they should bring these learning aims to every
lesson as they will be using them a lot to help them evaluate their own
progress ( this will only be successful if a clear introduction and rationale has
been given).

Distribute band description for comparison.

4. How can S’s demonstrate that they can do what the description says? E.g. Do they
have postcards/letters/reports that they have written? Lists of books that they have
read? Recordings of interviews? Perhaps they could start collecting these to keep
in a folder to show future teachers/employers etc.

5. Choose a learning aim (spoken or written). Ask groups to discuss how this aim
should be evaluated. S’s work in pairs or groups. One S does task while the other
performs role of teacher, checking the timing etc.

6. Look at the course book and invite learners to scan through the set units to find
tasks that link to specific learning aims.
 What are we learning?
 Why are we learning it?
 How are we learning it?

7. Ask learners to make a list of activities they like best, which they consider most
effective and makes them work hard.

Then ask them to decide which of the listed activities they could do on their own.

8. Invite learners to discuss the learning aims together and decide on what needs to
be done to achieve them (easier for some levels than others).

14 9. Self-assessment using the CEF global scales. At higher levels, you could ask
15 groups to evaluate themselves against these scales and ask them to draw up
16 action plans either in class or for homework.

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