Investeşte în oameni !

Proiect cofinanţat din Fondul Social European prin Programul Operaţional Sectorial pentru Dezvoltarea
Resurselor Umane 2007 – 2013
Axa prioritară 1: „Educaţia şi formarea profesională în sprijinul creşterii economice şi dezvoltării societăţii bazate pe
cunoaştere”
Domeniul major de intervenţie: 1.3 „Dezvoltarea resurselor umane din educaţie şi formare”
Titlul proiectului: „Calitate, inovare, comunicare în sistemul de formare continuă a didacticienilor din învăţământul
superior”
Cod Contract: POSDRU/87/1.3/S/63709
Beneficiar: Ministerul Educaţiei Nationale

Ghid de bune practici

DIDACTICA LIMBII ENGLEZE

Autor:

Raluca Petruș
Această lucrare a fost elaborată în cadrul Proiectului „Calitate, inovare, comunicare în sistemul de formare
continuă a didacticienilor din învăţământul superior”, proiect cofinanţat din Fondul Social European.

Conținutul acestui material nu reprezintă în mod necesar poziția oficială a Uniunii Europene.

Nicio parte a acestei lucrări nu poate fi reprodusă fără acordul scris al Ministerului Educației Naționale.

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 Table of Contents

1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 4
2. Getting started ............................................................................................................................ 7
3. Describing learners .................................................................................................................. 11
4. Teacher roles ............................................................................................................................ 18
5. Teaching methods .................................................................................................................... 22
6. Lesson planning. Using textbooks........................................................................................... 31
7. Classroom management .......................................................................................................... 42
8. Teaching grammar ................................................................................................................... 50
9. Teaching vocabulary ................................................................................................................ 54
10. Teaching receptive skills. Listening skills .............................................................................. 60
11. Teaching receptive skills. Reading skills ................................................................................ 66
12. Teaching productive skills. Speaking skills ........................................................................... 70
13. Teaching productive skills. Writing skills.............................................................................. 75
14. Assessment ................................................................................................................................ 84
15. Culture and language............................................................................................................... 90
16. Glossary..................................................................................................................................... 94
17. Useful websites and literature ............................................................................................... 102
18. Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 103

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 1. Introduction
Details about the course

The didactics of teaching English as a foreign language is an optional course that is offered by the
Faculty of Psychology and Sciences of Education (through its Teacher Training Department) to
students who are enrolled at the Faculty of Letters in Cluj-Napoca in a three-year pre-service
teacher training program. This program intends to acquaint students with various theories of
learning and teaching a foreign language. Moreover, it aims to help students develop their capacity
of being creative, reflective and self-reflective professionals. By attending this course students
would acquire strong subject-matter knowledge, classroom management skills, and the ability to
teach learners belonging to different age groups.

Living in a globalized world brings new perspectives on the intricate relationship between language
and culture. Therefore, this course also targets the development of intercultural skills. The current
requirements of the EU concerning the teaching and learning of foreign languages place an
emphasis on the development of the intercultural speaker who according to Byram (2008, 75) is
aware of cultural similarities and differences, and is able to act as mediator between two or more
cultures, two or more sets of beliefs, values and behaviours. A great number of documents and
recommendations (Key Competences for Lifelong Learning-European Reference Framework1, the
White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue2, The Aims of Language Teaching and Learning3, and The
European Profile for Language Teacher Education4) imply that language should not be taught
independently of culture in the foreign language classroom. Both teachers and learners should strive
to acquire the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary in order to become an intercultural speaker.

Course duration: The course has a duration of 14 weeks (one semester). Students have to attend 4
hours every week - two hours of lecture and two hours of practical activities and discussions. The
course targets both English major and English minor groups from two different specializations:
philology and modern applied languages.
Credits: the course offers five credits (ECTS)

1
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/publ/pdf/ll-learning/keycomp_en.pdf
2
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/intercultural/source/white%20paper_final_revised_en.pdf
3
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/ListDocs_Geneva2010.asp#P58_2278
4
http://ec.europa.eu/languages/documents/profil-broch_en.pdf

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Evaluation: written exam and formative evaluation (presentations, projects, assignments, etc.)
Teaching resources: hand- outs, PowerPoint presentations, video-projector, laptop.

Course objectives:
The course aims to familiarize future teachers of English with the theoretical and practical
implications that emerge from teaching a foreign language.

Specific objectives:
 students will be able to use various methods, strategies, techniques in order to teach specific
skills, vocabulary items and grammar points
 students will be able to analyse the elements that intervene in the process of teaching and
learning
 students will be able to create lesson plans and analyze different classroom management
scenarios
 students will be able to adapt various teaching resources to different knowledge levels and
diverse learning strategies
 students would be able to evaluate coursebooks and the appropriateness of other teaching
resources (authentic resources).

The academic skills targeted by the course refer to:

 developing critical thinking
 learning autonomy and time management skills
 improving communicative skills
 tackling different genres and understanding various language registers
 providing arguments using connectors
 analysing a multimodal resource.

The course intends to develop several transversal competences such as: learning to learn and
lifelong learning skills, social competence, digital literacy, intercultural competence, and
interpersonal skills.

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Sections within each chapter

1. Takeaways
The takeaways section is intended to sum up the main ideas that have been presented during
the seminar. This section reminds students which are the items of information that they need
to keep in mind.

2. Assignments
The assignments section provides students with additional exercises and tasks that are
related to the topic of the seminar that has been taught.

3. Quotations
The quotations section seeks to engage students with the topic that has been presented
during the seminar. This activity provides two minutes of refection since the quotation sums
up or is related to topic of the seminar.

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 2. Getting started

When people meet each other for the first time they tend to form opinions based on appearance,
body language, clothing or demeanor. This is why it is important to make a good impression. The
first minutes of encounter are decisive. The learner might decide on the spot whether it is worth
coming to the course or not. This is the reason why the first meeting between the teacher and his/her
students is of paramount importance.

The first meeting takes the shape of an introductory course. The teacher presents the objectives of
the course, the topics that are going to be approached, his/her expectations, and his/her evaluation
strategy. For some students this is the most important stage. Therefore, the teacher can turn this into
his/her advantage. The first course might represent for the teacher a good opportunity to remember
students that sometimes the journey (i.e. writing assignments, creating projects, delivering
presentations, being involved in team-teaching activities etc.) is more important than the outcome.
This first meeting with the students gives the teacher valuable data for further understanding
students’ needs, their expectations and interest towards the teaching profession. Therefore, a needs
analysis should be integrated into the ‘’Getting started’’ stage. This can take the shape of a dialogue
or of a questionnaire. The students could be asked the following questions:

Questions Answers
Why are you taking this course?
Do you want to become a teacher of English?
What is your learning background?
What other languages are you able to speak?
What teaching methodology appeals to you?
What sort of teaching techniques bore you?
What are your interests? In what way do you want these
to be reflected in the course you are taking?
What teaching styles are you used to?
How do you learn? Which is your learning style?
Which are your types of intelligence?

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The second stage of the meeting focuses on offering students the possibility to know each other
better. They belong to different specializations and therefore they might not know each other. It is
beneficial both for the teacher and for the students to have a friendly atmosphere in the classroom.
This can be attained if the group is willing to cooperate. Still, sometimes people tend to be quite
reluctant to cooperating with ‘strangers’. In this case the teacher can put in practice different
activities that provide students with the opportunity to bond and establish a classroom community.
There are presented below some examples that target both beginner levels and more advanced
levels. Pre-service students need to be able to work with various age groups.

The first activity – for young learners

Students work individually for this activity. They are told that they have to think of fruits,
vegetables, animals, food, colours, movies, adjectives that they like. The rule of the game I that
these items of information have to begin with the first letter of their first name. After 3-4 minutes
they share the information with the whole class and those whose names begin with the same letter
can sit together for the next activity. Likewise, the teacher can get familiarized with the students’
names.

The second activity – for beginner or pre-intermediate level

Students are going to work in pairs for the next activity (4-5 minutes). They are given some papers
containing different questions:
 What objects do you always carry with you?
 What is your greatest fear?
 What personality trait do you most dislike in other people?
 What do you most like about yourself?
 What was the toughest challenge you have ever faced?
 What are your interests?
 What is your favourite smell?
 What is your favourite motto?

Students have to ask each other these questions and then remember the answers. The teacher is
going to ask some questions during the feedback session and the students have to remember as
many details as they can about their colleagues.

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The third activity – for intermediate and upperintermediate level
Students are going to work alone for this activity. They are asked to present a place/a monument
that is worth seeing in their home town. Likewise, one could also do a little bit of research and plan
his/her holidays. The activity would probably take 20 minutes. This activity is suitable if students
who participate in the course come from different towns.

The fourth activity – for advanced level

Students work in two large groups for this activity. The name of the activity is True or False. Each
student has to think of two stories/ events: one should be true and the other should be false. Then
each student from every group tells the two stories. The other group has to guess which of the two
stories is true and which is false. This activity is engaging because it is very competitive. Students
are going to enjoy this activity and this is why it may take up to 20 – 30 minutes until everyone
shares his/her experiences. Students put in practice their acting/presentation skills during this
activity.

Takeaways:
 make the effort to know your students’ interests, needs and names

 establish and maintain a rapport with your students

 allow students the opportunity to get to know each other

 create a positive learning environment

 be culturally sensitive

 provide detailed information regarding the way in which formative and summative
evaluation are going to take place

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 Assignments:

1. Design a needs analysis questionnaire for your learners. Choose different age
groups.
2. Think of other activities that are suitable for the first meeting with one’s
students. Take into consideration different age groups.
3. Find another quote that could better characterize your feelings after this first
seminar.

Today’s quote
‘’A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’’ Confucius

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 3. Describing learners

Learner characteristics. There are some characteristics that are thought to

contribute to successful language learning: motivation, aptitude, personality,
intelligence and learning style (Lightbrown and Spada 1993, 35). Jeremy
Harmer (2007, 82-84) identifies some general characteristics concerning the
way in which young learners, teenagers and adults tend to learn a foreign
language:
Young children (6 -10 years old)
 They respond to meaning even if they do not understand individual words
 They often learn indirectly rather than directly
 Their understanding comes not just from explanations, but also from what they see and hear
and, crucially, have a chance to touch and interact with.
 They generally display an enthusiasm for learning and a curiosity about the world around them
 They have need for individual attention and approval from the teacher
 They have a limited attention span
Teenagers
 They understand the need for learning
 They need to feel good about themselves and valued
 They need peer approval and are extremely vulnerable to the negative judgements of their own
age group
Adult learners
 They can engage with abstract thought
 They have a whole range of life experiences to draw on
 They have expectations about the learning process, and they already have their own set of
patterns of learning.
 Adults tend, on the whole, to be more disciplined than other age groups. They come into the
classrooms with a rich range of experiences which allow teachers to use a wide range of
activities with them.

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In view of these characteristics a teacher should think twice of how and what to teach to his/her
learners. In addition, every teacher should be aware that individuals have different needs,
competences and skills. Teaching should be learner-centered.

Activity 1: Identify other learner characteristics. Think of the advantages and disadvantages that
might appear when you work with different age groups and you want to perform the following
activities:
a) listen to a conversation
b) organize a debate about environmental issues
c) read a newspaper article
d) listen to a song
e) write a few lines about your holiday.

What are learning styles, learning strategies and learning skills?

Adey et. al (1999, 2) provides some definitions even though these terms are not used with consistent
meaning in the literature.
A learning style – is a deep-rooted preference an individual has for a particular type of learning. A
crucial feature of learning styles is that they operate across all activities and subject areas.

Learning skills – are single actions which can be learned and may be specific to a particular task.
These skills can be taught. Repetition, highlighting and underlining are examples of learning skills.

Learning strategies – may consist of a number of skills used together. They are thought to be
teachable. (e.g. skimming section headings)

The connections between these three concepts are presented in the image no. 1 below.

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 Learning Learning
strategies styles

Learning
skills

Image no 1. Learning strategies, learning styles, learning skills

Human beings have an ‘’in-built‘’ preference for a particular type of learning. An individual’s
preferred learning style is determined partially by nature and partially by nurture (Parkinson 2004,
104). The most accepted scale is that of Wholist-Analyst. According to this scale learners have the
following caracteristics:
 Wholists like to see the ‘’big-picture’’ of what has to be learned and not details

 Analysts prefer the details

 Verbalisers find it easy to extract meaning from texts, they prefer words and like to
communicate (in written or spoken form)

 Imagers prefer to learn from diagrams, tables, mind-maps that present concise items of
information.

Still, in practice, learners are able to learn from a mixture of types of input.

Activity 2: Students have to think of their learning styles, learning strategies and learning skills.
Afterwards they share these items of information with the teacher. Students are going to be asked to
what extent they expect that these characteristics would influence their teaching style. This activity
might take up to 10 minutes.

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A good language learner
Learners have different learning skills and different learning strategies. Some prefer visual aids,
while others prefer to listen to new items of information. One has to keep in mind the fact that
individuals are unique and that no classroom is like another. Therefore, it is advisable to present
new language in a variety of ways so that all learning styles are included and catered for.

Activity 3: Lightbrown and Spada (1993, 34) provide some examples of good language learners.
Imagine that you are a teacher. Think which characteristics seem to you most likely to be associated
with success in foreign language acquisition? Grade your preferences according to the following
scale from 1 to 5 where 1 - is very important and 5 - is not at all important.

A good learner
Is a willing and accurate guesser 1-2-3-4-5
Tries to get a message across even if specific language knowledge is lacking 1-2-3-4-5
Is willing to make mistakes 1-2-3-4-5
Practices as often as possible 1-2-3-4-5
Enjoys grammar exercises 1-2-3-4-5
Has a good self-image and lots of confidence 1-2-3-4-5
Has an above – average IQ 1-2-3-4-5
Begins learning in childhood 1-2-3-4-5
Has good academic skills 1-2-3-4-5

Activity 4: The table below intends to check the would-be teachers’ opinions regarding poor and
good language behaviour. Students should complete the missing spaces and think of other
examples.

Poor language behaviour Good language behaviour

Learners take information for granted ?
? Learners tell the teacher what they don’t
understand
Learners are not able to make links and use ?
knowledge acquired previously

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? ?
? ?
? ?

Multiple intelligence theory

The Multiple Intelligence theory designed by Howard Gardner (1983 – Frames of Mind) assigns
different roles to learning styles and intelligence. This theory emphasizes the fact that intelligence
should no longer be measured by using IQ tests because these tend to focus only on linguistic and
mathematical intelligence. People have different intelligences but some are more visible than the
others or have been practiced more. This theory changes to a great extent the way in which teaching
activities are organized and put in practice. The classroom becomes a space in which students
discover their abilities and preferences for a certain activity. This approach might pose some
problems since the teacher also needs to address the classroom as a whole. The solution resides in
‘diversity’, namely making use of activities that focus on various types of intelligence. A teacher
who pays attention to his/her students would know what type of intelligence each student has.

Some types of intelligence are stated below:

 Verbal/linguistic intelligence: the ability to use language in creative ways, enjoy
communicating
 Logical/mathematical intelligence: the ability for rational, analytic thinking, see patterns easily
 Visual intelligence: the ability to form mental models and use mental imagery, learn through
seeing and observing
 Kinaesthetic intelligence: the ability to express oneself through body movement, can be restless
if required to sit still for long periods, are good at sport
 Musical intelligence: musical and rhythmic ability, enjoys listening and playing to music
 Naturalist intelligence: the ability to discriminate among living things as well as a sensitivity to
other features of the natural world
 Interpersonal intelligence: the ability to understand other people’s feelings and wishes, the
ability to relate to others, like to be integrated in groups
 Intrapersonal intelligence: the ability to understand oneself, the person values personal growth
and development, are metacognitive learners

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Activity 5: Students think of jobs that are suitable for each type of intelligence.
Activity 6: Students have to think in pairs of language learning activities that would combine two or
three types of intelligence. They have to choose a group age and indicate the time needed in order to
accomplish the activity. They also have to think of the skills that are promoted by each activity and
the resources that they intend to use.

Learner autonomy
Learners should get accustomed to take responsibility of their own learning. Nowadays, modern
didactics places a huge responsibility on the students’ shoulders. The concept of autonomy moves
the focus from teaching to learning. This means that students should be more aware of the learning
process. They should be able to evaluate themselves and their development, to plan ahead and to
establish their own learning strategy. Autonomy can be accomplished through reflection. Students
need to understand that learning a foreign language should also continue in informal and non-formal
settings. An intuitive teacher should be able to vary the quantity of his/her control. Scrivener (2013,
52-54) identifies three possible approaches: high control, low control and no control. Each one of
these influences the teacher-student interaction patterns.

Activity 7: Advise the following learners on how to continue their language learning outside the
classroom (adapted from Thornbury & Watkins 2007, 12).

I’d like to read novels in My friend told me that if

English but I don’t know I want to learn English I
where to start. I’m an should watch many
intermediate student. movies without subtitles.
Tania (13) But I don’t understand
anything. What should I
do? Sandra (18)

I want to travel to England

this summer. I don’t speak How can I use the
English fluently. I have just Internet to learn
1 month to become a better English? Azir (21)
speaker. What could I do?
Bjorn (45)

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Activity 8: In the table below there are presented some DO’s and DON’Ts of teaching foreign
languages from the perspective of the Multiple Intelligences theory. Complete the table with other
examples by suggesting what the teacher should do and shouldn’t do.
SHOULD DO SHOULDN’T DO
provide a range of different activities use the same approach
offer choices as regards materials use the course book all the time
help learners identify and work with their expect learners to work at the same pace
intelligence
teach specific strategies to improve learning assume everyone learns in the same way that
you do
? ?
? ?
? ?

Takeaways
 learners are individuals with different needs and competences
 learners have various intelligences that have to be catered for
 keywords for teaching: diversity and flexibility
 encourage learner autonomy

Assignments
1: Read the hand-out (Lighthouse and Spada 2003, 35-38) about the
influence of motivation, personality, intelligence, and learning styles in the
context of foreign language learning. Identify details that can
sustain/contradict the generalizations offered by Jeremy Harmer as regards
the different age levels.
2: Students are given a hand-out containing a Multiple Intelligence quiz. This test would give
students a perspective on their preferred type of intelligence. Students have to state their
opinions about the results of the test.
3: Find another quote that could better characterize this second course.

Today’s quote
There are no difficult students – just students who don’t want to do it
your way. (Anonymous)
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 4. Teacher roles

Some teachers perceive themselves as being actors, orchestral conductors or

policemen when they perform teaching activities in their classrooms. A teacher
could have different styles of leadership: autocratic (controls the classroom in
every detail), democratic (allows the students to take part in the decision-making
process but then add some extra effort to organize the classroom), laissez-faire style (establishes
few rules and may be inconsistent when enforcing them, may not address undesirable student
behaviour) and indifferent (the teacher is not very involved in the classroom).

Activity 1: Which are the benefits and drawback of each of these leadership styles?
Activity 2: Which leadership style do you think you are going to exhibit?

The roles of a teacher depend on the activities that are taking place in the classroom. Jeremy
Harmer (2007, 25) identifies several teacher roles:
 controller - is a teacher who is in charge with the class; It is a teacher fronted-classroom where
the teachers transmit the information and the students are mere receivers. Still, it is good to be a
controller when you give explanations for an exercise, when you make announcements or you
organize a task.

 prompter - is a teacher who shows support and helps the students, but without taking charge of
or controlling the task.

 resource - when students are writing a task or prepare for a presentation it is awkward for the
teacher to intervene as a participant. So he/she acts as a resource in case students encounter
some problems and they need help.

 tutor - being a tutor means a combination of a prompter and a resource; it implies a closer
relationship than that of a controller; if the students are working on a project and are divided in
smaller groups, you go at each group and offer support if needed and advise them what to do
next.

 assessor - when the teacher evaluates or provides feedback.

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There can be identified several other roles:

 counsellor – giving learners advice on difficulties they may have outside of their language class

 diagnostician – evaluating learners’ needs and difficulties

 participant - sometimes teachers want to take part in discussions to liven things up or because
the students want this.

 facilitator – developing learner autonomy, enabling learners to fulfill their potential

 reflector – thinking about his/her own performance. Reflecting on learners’ progress

Activity 3: Provide an example of another role and define the teacher’s responsibilities in this
particular case.
Activity 4: Identify some teacher characteristics that would apply to the following examples:
a) a teacher who teaches at primary level
b) a teacher who teaches students with special needs
c) a teacher who ’’teaches’’ in a virtual classroom.

Student-Teacher rapport
What kind of rapport/relation should we have with our students?
First of all the teacher needs to make sure that the classroom provides a positive, enjoyable
atmosphere and that the relationship between the teacher and his/her students is both friendly and
respectful. The student-teacher rapport should be characterized by respect. When teachers enter a
classroom they act and feel differently. Some of them feel more creative and energetic. Others are
too much preoccupied with obeying rules and sticking to the lesson plan. No matter the situation,
students need see in front of them a good teacher and a successful professional.

Activity 5: ‘’Is it OK to be friends with a students?’’ Students have to provide answers to this
question. Then they have compare their answers with the solutions provided by Scrivener (2013,
42) who identifies three categories: students are workers, students are students and students are
people.

It is easy to lose confidence in one’s teacher and there are some reasons that might lead to that:

19
a) not recognising your students: when you know a person's name you also know some things about
that person
b) not listening to your students
c) not respecting your students: be respectful, not be too critical when it is not the case, don't make
your students feel embarrassed.
d) not be even-handed: be correct, treat all students equally, don't like one student more than
another.
e) bring private matters into classroom
These perspectives are not just prerequisites for establishing a good rapport with your students, but
also a mark of professionalism in a teacher.

Activity 6: Provide other examples that might hinder the student-teacher rapport.
Activity 7: What makes an effective teacher? There are presented below some characteristics. Grade
these characteristics in order of your preference: 1 (the best) – 5 (not so important).

Is able to anticipate students’ misconceptions 1 -2 -3- 4- 5

Establishes good control in the first day of school 1 -2 -3- 4- 5
Establishes good classroom management techniques 1 -2 -3- 4- 5
Cooperates with colleagues 1 -2 -3- 4- 5
Attends professional meetings 1 -2 -3- 4- 5
Is flexible 1 -2 -3- 4- 5
Is able to adapt instruction to the students’ needs. 1 -2 -3- 4- 5
Has good pronunciation skills 1 -2 -3- 4- 5
Is positive and confident 1 -2 -3- 4- 5
Is knowledgeable in his/her domain of activity 1 -2 -3- 4- 5

Activity 8: Identify other characteristics that can be integrated into these two categories:

 the teacher as a professional

 the teacher as a human being

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Classroom rules

First day of school

The first day of school might set the tone for the whole semester. Appropriate behaviour during
learning activities fosters a positive and meaningful classroom environment. Therefore, the first
meeting with the learners should focus on creating some classroom rules which would lead to
establishing some working routines. Students are going to feel involved and part of the decision-
making process if they establish together with the teacher a set of rules.

Activity 9: Students are going to watch two videos depicting two teachers in their first day of
school. The activity takes between 10 and 15 minutes. After watching the videos students express
their opinions related to the teachers’ teaching styles.
1. Tough love: first day of school
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/establishing-classroom-ground-rules
2. Setting Expectations on the First Day of School
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/setting-classroom-expectations

Takeaways:
 the teacher can perform various roles in the classroom
 student-teacher rapport should be characterized by respect
 learnership styles can influence teacher-student rapport
 classroom rules vs. routines

Assignments:
1: Students have to think of classroom rules that are appropriate for different
age groups. They are going to present their suggestions during the next
seminar.
2: Find another quote that could better characterize the topic of this course.

Today’s quote
There are always three speeches for every one you actually gave: the
one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you
gave.’’ Dave Carnegie

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 5. Teaching methods

Teachers make use of methods, procedures and techniques in order to deliver

meaningful teaching sequences. Some characteristics that help students
understand better the differences between these concepts are presented below:

APPROACH  theory about the nature of language learning

 it describes how people acquire their knowledge of the language,
which conditions will promote successful learning
 the approach gives the overall wisdom, it provides direction, and
sets expectations to the entire spectrum of the teaching process
METHOD  the practical realization of an approach
 includes various procedures and techniques
 is an organized, orderly, systematic, and well-planned procedure
aimed at facilitating and enhancing students’ learning.
 is employed to achieve certain specific aims of instruction.
PROCEDURE  an ordered sequence of techniques
 a sequence that can be described in terms of: first you do this, then
you do that…
 smaller than a method, bigger than a technique
 encompasses the personal style of the teacher in carrying out
specific steps of the teaching process. through technique, teachers
enable to develop, create and implement, using her distinctive way,
the procedures (method) of teaching.
TECHNIQUE  a single activity, for example silent viewing, finger technique in
order to visualize parts of speech
 encompasses the personal style of the teacher in carrying out
specific steps of the teaching process.

Image no. 2 presents the relationship between these elements. The approach comprises all the
elements.

22
 TECHNIQUE

PROCEDURE

METHOD

APPROACH

Image no. 2 Approach, method, procedure, technique

Methodologies in foreign language teaching

Diane Larsen-Freeman (2000, 11 - 158) presents the characteristics of several teaching methods.
 The Grammar-Translation Method

Principles:
 the primary skills to be developed are reading and writing. Little attention is given to
speaking and listening, and almost none to pronunciation.
 students should be conscious of the grammatical rules of the target language
 whenever possible, verb conjugations and other grammatical paradigms should be
committed to memory
 an important goal is for students to be able to translate each language into the other. If

23
 students can translate from one language into another, they care considered successful
language learners.
 literary language is superior to spoken language.
 the teacher is the authority in the classroom.
 learning is facilitated through attention to similarities between the target language and
the native language
 deductive application of an explicit grammar rule is a useful pedagogical technique.

 The Direct Method

Principles:
 the native language should not be used in the classroom
 realia should be used to help students understand the meaning
 students should learn to think in the target language as soon as possible
 vocabulary is acquired more naturally if students use it in full sentences rather than
memorize word lists
 the purpose of language learning is communication
 self-correction facilitate language learning
 writing is an important skill
 grammar should be taught inductively.

 The Audio – Lingual Method

Principles:
 the native language and the target language have separate linguistic systems.

 students should learn to respond to both verbal and nonverbal stimuli.

 positive reinforcement helps the students to develops correct habits

 the purpose of language learning is to learn how to use the language to communicate

 it is important to prevent learners from making errors. When errors do occur, they
should be immediately corrected by the teacher.

 the major objective of language teaching should be for students to acquire the
structural patterns; students will learn vocabulary afterward

24
  The Silent Way

Principles:
 meaning is made clear by focusing on students’ perceptions, not through translation
 students can learn from one another; the teacher’s silence encourages group cooperation
 errors are important and necessary to learning.
 the elements of language are introduces logically, expanding upon what students already
know
 students should engage in a great deal of meaningful practice without repetition
 students need to learn to listen to themselves
 the skills of speaking, reading and writing reinforce one another

 Desuggestopedia

Principles:
 one way that the meaning is made clear is through native language translation
 assuming a new identity enhances students’ feelings of security and allows them to be
more open
 learning is facilitated in a cheerful environment
 students can learn from what is present in the environment
 music and environment reinforce the linguistic material; it is desirable that students
achieve a state of ‘’infantilization‘’ so that they will be more open to learning
 in an atmosphere of play, the conscious attention of the learner does not focus on
linguistic forms, but rather on using the language
 learning can be fun

 The Community Language Learning

Principles:
 language is for communication
 the students should be sensitive to students’ level of confidence and give them just
what they need to be successful
 teachers and students are whole persons; sharing about their learning experiences
allows learners to get to know one another and build community.

25
  the students’ native language is used to make the meaning clear and build a bridge
from the known to the unknown.
 students need quiet reflection time in order to learn
 the teacher encourages student initiative and independence, but does not let students
flounder in uncomfortable silences
 the teacher should work in an unthreatening way with what the teacher has produced

 Total Physical Response

Principles:
 meaning in the target language can often be conveyed through actions
 students can learn through observation actions as well as by performing the actions
themselves
 it is very important that students feel successful
 students should not be made to memorize fixed routines.
 correction should be carried out in an unobtrusive manner
 spoken language should be emphasized over written language
 students will begin to speak when they are ready

 The Communicative Language Teaching

Principles:
 whenever possible, ‘’authentic language’’ should be introduced
 the emphasis is on the process of communication rather than just mastery of language
forms
 errors are tolerated and seen as a natural outcome of the development of
communication skills
 one of the teacher’s major responsibilities is to establish situation likely to promote
communication
 communicative interaction encourages cooperative relationships among students
 the social context of the of the communicative event is essential in giving meaning to
the utterances
 the grammar and vocabulary that the students learn follow from the function,
situational context, and roles of the interlocutors.

26
  Task-Based Learning/Context Based Learning

Principles:
 the subject matter content is used for language teaching purposes
 teaching should build on students’ previous experience
 learners work with meaningful cognitively demanding language and content within the
context of authentic material and tasks
 communicative competence involves more than using language conversationally. It
also includes the ability to read, discuss, ad write about content from other fields.
 vocabulary is easier to acquire when there are contextual clues to help convey meaning
 language is learned most effectively when it is used a medium to convey informational
content of interest to the students.

Each of these methods provides a different perspective on how to teach a foreign language, the role
played by the learner and the activities that have to be performed by the teacher. There is no golden
rule that favours one method. Generally speaking, a teacher’s style is an eclectic one unless the
school imposes any other rules. Therefore, these methods can be used complementarily. But how
does a teacher decide which method is the best? First of all, the method should match up with the
teacher’s fundamental views about teaching. Secondly, the teacher should try to be objective and
analyse his own teaching style, preferences and the values according to which he/she guides his/her
teaching. Thirdly, it is also a matter of experience.

Activity 1: Students work in groups of 5. Each group receives a hand-out that depicts only one
teaching method. They have to skim the text for about 5 minute and try to answer the following
questions within each group:
 What are the goals of this teaching method?
 What is the role of the teacher?
 What is the role of the students?
 What are the characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
 What is the role of the native language?
 How is evaluation accomplished
One student from each group is going to present the findings to the whole class.

27
Activity 2: Each group already formed is going to compete against each other. Students are going to
watch on youtube various videos that depict different teaching methods. They have to match the
teaching methods with the correct video. This activity would probably take up to 15 minutes.
Students have the chance to see how each method is put in practice. The videos can be taken from
the internet.

Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism

Learning is a very complex process and we might never understand it completely. However, there
are aspects of learning, such as the cognitive, social and emotional dimensions that are well
established.

Behaviorism
According to the learning theories propounded by the behaviorists learning is a mechanical process
of associating the stimulus with response, which produces a new behavior. Such behavior is
strengthened by the reinforcement. Main proponents of this theory were J.B.Watson and I.Pavlov.
Behaviourists view the learner as a passive person who responds to the stimuli. Learning is
therefore defined as a change in the behaviour of the learner5.

Cognitivism
Cognitivism refers to the study of the mind and how it obtains, processes, and stores information.
This theory was a response to behaviourism. It was argued that not all learning occurs through
shaping and changing of behaviours. In this theory, learners are active participants in their learning,
and the mind functions like a computer processor. Information comes in as input, the mind
processes the information for the time being, and the information is stored away to be retrieved
later. Learning is shaped by acquired learning strategies and prior knowledge and attitudes, called
schemas. The cognitive view of learning is teacher-centred, and information must be presented in an
organized manner in order to achieve the most efficient learning6.

5
http://ci484-learning-technologies.wikispaces.com/Behaviorism,+Cognitivism,+Constructivism+%26+Connectivism
6
http://ci484-learning-technologies.wikispaces.com/Behaviorism,+Cognitivism,+Constructivism+%26+Connectivism

28
Constructivism – individual perspectives on learning
Constructivism is, along with Behaviourism and Cognitivism, one of the three main categories of
learning theory. Constructivism has already been integrated in the education system in Romania.
The constructivist view perceives learning as an outcome of the interactions between already
acquired knowledge and new experiences. There are some characteristics identified by Driver and
Bell (1986:453 in Parkinson 2004, 90-91):
 Learning outcomes depend not only on the learning environment but also on the knowledge of
the learner

 Learning involves the construction of meanings. Meaning constructed by students from what
they see or hear may not be those intended. Construction of meaning is influenced to a large
extent by our existing knowledge.

 The construction of meaning is a continuous and active process.

 Meanings, one constructed, are evaluated and can be accepted or rejected.

 Learners have the final responsibility for their learning.

 There are patterns in the types of meanings students construct due to shared experiences with
the physical world and through natural language.

Takeaways:

 teachers make use of methods, procedures and techniques in order to deliver

meaningful teaching sequences

 a teaching technique should be in accordance with a lesson’s objectives

 every classroom is unique so you may not be able to apply a golden rule

Assignments:
1: Students have to complete the table below and provide information for the
behaviourist, cognitivist and constructivist theory. They are given hand-outs/
bibliography in order to be able to solve the exercise.

29
Questions Behaviorism Cognitivism Constructivism
How does learning Black box - observable Structured, Social, meaning
occur? behavior main focus computational created by each learner
(personal)
What factors
influence learning?
What is the role of
memory?
How does transfer
occur?
What types of
learning are best
explained by this
theory?

2: Find another quote that could better characterize the topic of this course.

Today’s quote
Those who can, do; those who can't, teach. (Anonymous)

30
 6. Lesson planning. Using textbooks

A lesson plan is a set of notes that helps the teacher to answer to fundamental
questions:
 WHAT to teach

 HOW to teach

Planning questions
Even if more experienced teachers do not always write down their lesson plans they still have in
mind the needs of the target group. Planning a lesson begins with asking yourself questions about
your learners:
 who are the students?

 what do they want to do

 how long with the course take

 what teaching resources would I need?

 what might go wrong?

 how to integrate the lesson in the larger unit?

Activity 1: Do you think that lesson planning plays an important role in the teaching process? Think
of possible advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages Disadvantages

31
Activity 2: In what ways can a lesson plan help the teacher?
 Before the lesson?

 During the lesson?

 After the lesson?

Activity 3: Lesson Planning Videos. Students watch the following videos taken from
(www.teachingchannel.org) for about 12 minutes. They have to pay attention and identify the
elements that are usually included in a lesson plan.
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/lesson-planning?fd=1
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/lesson-pace-structure?fd=1
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/freedom-within-form?fd=1

AIMS

APPROACH,
METHOD, OBJECTIVES
TECHNIQUE

LESSON
PLAN

EQUIPMENT STAGES AND

TIMING

MATERIALS,
RESOURCES

Image no. 3 The content of a lesson plan

32
Activity 3 follow – up: What elements could you include in a lesson plan? Provide some examples.
Students have to complete the table below by making use of the details presented in the videos.
Afterwards, the teacher provides additional elements in order to offer students a broader perspective
on the elements that can be included in a lesson plan.

The contents of a lesson plan:

 The aims: the broader goals of the lesson, what it is reaching towards)
 The objectives: the specific, measurable outcomes of the lesson – the particular skills
or knowledge students should have acquired by its conclusion
 The number of attendees, description of the students (level, age, abilities, etc.)
 The learners’ previous knowledge (which may or may not be the same for all) and
how this will be activated at the start of the lesson
 Methods, techniques
 Procedures, patterns of interaction (T»S, S»SSS)
 The time required for each teaching and learning sequence
 Required resources
 Anticipated problems
 Catering for the different needs (cultural differences, learning styles, special needs) of
the individuals
 Homework

Activity 4: Students work in groups of 3 students for the next activity that would last for about 10
minutes. Each group is given a course book. Students have to choose a lesson unit and think of
possible aims and objectives related to the lesson. A lesson plan template (adapted from Bretan,
Petruș 2013, 66) and an observation sheet (adapted from Bretan, Petruș 2013, 30) are given to the
students.

33
 LESSON PLAN

Title of the lesson……………………Textbook……………………………… Grade ………

AIM(S) of LESSON
The main aim(s) of this lesson will be
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

STUDENTS' PROBLEMS
I anticipate that the following may cause problems
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

TEACHING TECHNIQUES
Note down anything which you feel you need to be particularly aware of during the lesson.
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

AIDS / MATERIALS
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

34
Lesson stages Activities - students and teacher Reasons for activities Materials Timing

35
Follow-up activity: As homework, students have to fill in all the details of the lesson plan template.
They are going to perform together with the other members of the group a micro-teaching activity.
that they would present during the next seminar.
All the students receive an observation sheet. This document provides students with the opportunity
to reflect, observe and analyse the way in which their colleagues have performed the micro-
teaching activity.

LESSON OBSERVATION
Teacher (the student)………………………..… Observer (the student) …………...……
Title of the lesson ………………...…….…………
Grade ………………………………………..……... Level …………………

Stages/ Procedures / Activities Alternatives /

Timing Focus on the teacher and the learners Rationale

36
Areas Comments
CLEARNESS OF AIM
 Was there one? Was it realistic for the students?
 Was it achieved fully/partially?
 What is missing?
LESSON PLAN / PROGRESSION OF LESSON
 How effective was each stage?
 Did the lesson progress fluidly and logically?
 Did the teacher use a variety of activities?
 Were the activities set up and clearly organized?
USE OF MATERIALS/AIDS
 Were the materials authentic, appropriate, suitable, and relevant?
 What type of materials did the teacher use? (visual, audio etc.)
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
 Did the teacher reorganize the seating when group work or pair
work was involved?
 Did the teacher change position appropriately with action?
 Was the teacher’s voice clearly audible at all times?
 Did the teacher maintain good eye contact?
 Did the teacher obscure/not obscure the board?
 Were the instructions clearly expressed?
 Did the teacher check that the pupils had understood the
instructions?
 Was the teacher aware of pupils learning difficulties and did
she/he respond in a supportive way?
VARIETY OF INTERACTION
 How many different types of interaction took place?
 Was there sufficient variety in the lesson?
 Was there any time when you felt the interaction was
inappropriate? If so, when and why? What would you replace it
with?

37
 ERROR CORRECTION
 Note the types of mistakes (vocabulary, grammar,
pronunciation)
 How was the correction achieved? (student guided to self-
correction, student to student correction, teacher to student
correction)
 Note when the teacher corrected (on the spot, delayed)
 Did the teacher correct too much?
USING THE BOARD
 Was the board visible to all?
 Did it appear disorganized?
 Was the new language highlighted effectively?
 Was the board work complete? (no unfinished sentences)
 Was the board overused or underused?
 Was the information on the board relevant for the lesson?
TEACHER TALKING TIME
 Did the teacher speak too quickly or too slowly?
 In which activities was student talking time more than teacher
talking time?
 Overall, who did the most talking?

Using textbooks
Nowadays teachers can choose from a variety of textbooks and publishers. One have to pay
attention to several details before choosing the most suitable textbook. Teachers need to conduct a
textbook assessment. Jeremy Harmer (2007, 154) provides some examples of possible areas of
consideration.
Price and availability How much does the textbook cost? Will students
have to buy any extra material? Are all components
(textbook, workbook, audio, etc.) available? How
much does the whole package cost?
Add-ons and extras Apart from a workbook, what other extras are
offered with the course? Are there Internet sites
with extra material (exercises, texts, etc.)? What
else does the publisher offer to support the course?

38
Layout and design Is the book attractive? Is its design appropriate for
the students and for the teacher? Does the design of
the book make it easy to follow?
Instructions Are the instructions clear and unambiguous? Are
they written in a language that the students will
understand? Can the course book be used by
students working on their own, or do they need a
teacher?
Methodology What kind of teaching and learning does the
textbook promote? Is there a good balance between
study and practice?
Syllabus Is the syllabus appropriate for the students? Does it
cover the language areas (grammar, vocabulary,
functions, pronunciation, etc.) that we would
expect? Do we and our students like the sequencing
of language and topics, etc.?
Language skills Does the textbook have the appropriate balance of
skills? Are there possibilities for both study and
activation in the skills areas? Are the skills
activities likely to engage students?
Topics Does the book contain a variety of topics? Are the
topics likely to engage students?
Cultural appropriacy Is the material appropriate for the cultural situation
that the students are in? Are the activities
appropriate for the learning culture? is the textbook
unprejudiced in the way it deals with different
customs, ethnicities, races and sexes?
Teacher’s guide Does the textbook have an accompanying teacher’s
guide? Is it easy to use? Does it explain things
clearly? Does it offer alternatives to the textbook
activities?

39
Adding, adapting and replacing
Because some textbooks do not take into consideration the areas mentioned above, the teacher has
to adapt the teaching resources for a specific learning environment (different learning strategies,
learning skills, needs, degree of motivation, etc.)
The solution to this problem might reside in:
 adding: supplementing existing materials and providing other materials
 deleting: removing parts or sections of existing materials
 simplifying: make a text more accessible to learners
 reordering: sequencing an activity in a different way so they it makes more pedagogic
sense
 replacing: substituting parts or sections of existing materials with different other teaching
materials

Activity 5: Think of advantages and disadvantages of using course books.

Advantages Disadvantages

Takeaways:
 lesson planning represents a useful tool for the teacher

 the teacher should evaluate the textbook before using it in the classroom

 the activities from a lesson unit can be adapted, reordered, replaced or simplified

40
Assignments:

1: Choose a lesson from a course book. Assess it and decide what parts of a
lesson would you replace, adapt, delete, simplify, or re-order. Provide
arguments that sustain your choices.
2: Find another quote that could better characterize the topic of this course or
modify it so that it is in accordance with your own point of view.

Today’s quote
Plans are nothing; planning is everything. (Dwight Eisenhower)

41
 7. Classroom management

A well-managed class is one in which time is well used and in which there are
fewer distractions resulting from poor discipline or a poorly structured lesson.
There are rare the situations in which teachers can claim that they have
established discipline in their classroom and that maintaining it is an easy
task. In order to establish what kind of behaviour is the key to a good learning
environment the teacher needs to invest considerable time, patience and make use of his/her
planning skills. New knowledge about how people learn has enriched the understanding of creating
successful learning conditions. Learning environments represent an expanded view of teaching and
learning that encompasses the social context and recognizes the complexity of instruction.
Classroom management comprises various areas that are listed in the image below:

Image no. 4 Classroom management

Activity 1: Students watch the following videos for about 15 minutes. They have to pay attention to
all the elements that are comprised in the concept of classroom management. Afterwards, they have
to compare every teacher’s classroom management strategy.

42
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/caring-and-control-create-a-safe-positive-classroom?fd=1
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/classroom-management-during-centers?fd=1
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-adhd-students?fd=1
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/new-teacher-classroom-management?fd=1

Different seating arrangements

 the teachers should be aware of the fact that environment influences the way the students learn;
this is why the teacher should pay attention to details such as: light, acoustics, layout of tables,
furniture, displaying charts etc.
 use your whole classroom as your teaching space
 setting can be seen in immediate classroom terms, referring to the size, location, furniture and
resources of the room in which the class is located:
 orderly rows> perfect for the teacher to explain for e.g. a point of grammar, a Power
Point presentation, but not suitable for group work. This is a teacher-centred classroom.
 horse-shoe/circle> appropriate for smaller groups (fewer than 20 students.) The teacher's
position is less dominating. There is a feeling of equality, where eye-contact, sharing
feelings and talking is far greater than when sitting in rows.
 nests/separate tables> The teacher walks around checking the students' work and helping
out if it is the case. Group work is easy to arrange. Appropriate for classes with different
levels of abilities.

Different student groupings

Varying the way students work will keep things lively and fresh for them and will make the
experience of learning more enjoyable. The teacher should involve in the teaching sequence all the
students and not let one or two students monopolize the lesson. If the teacher wants to increase STT
(Student Talking Time) then he/she have to get them work into pairs or groups. However "getting
into pairs" is not the answer in every situation: like all other types of classroom activity, pair and
group work have to be focused, meaningful and well set-up.

Activity 2: Students work in pairs for this activity. They have to identify some advantages and
disadvantages of grouping students or of working with the whole class. Give examples of activities
that are suitable for each type of classroom organization.

43
 Benefits Challenges
individual work(solo work)
pair work
group work
whole class

Activity 3: What kind of activities can be put in practice having the following seating
arrangements? (adapted from Scrivener 2013, 8).

Image no. 5 . Seating arrangements

44
Different techniques of creating pairs and groups
 Turn to your partner/left, right/in front or backwards.
 Name lottery: pass out small scraps of paper to half the class. Have each student write his/her
name on the paper. Collect the papers and tell the other half of the class to choose a partner.
 Numbers circle: Ask students to number off themselves. Write a circle on the board using the
numbers. Draw lines randomly between two numbers. Each students goes to his partner
indicated by the arrows.
 Streaming/differentiation: students should be paired according to their abilities; we have two
choices: to pair weaker and stronger students, to pair students who have the same level of
knowledge (weaker students might lose their motivation because there is no competition in that
group)

Teacher talking time vs. Student talking time

Teacher talking time is crucial for organizing the classroom and for the process of language
acquisition (language input in the target language). Still, it should represent only 30 % of the talking
time within the classroom. In order to increase student talking time the teacher could design pair
work/ group work activities. It is advisable to stop talking or interrupting students when they are
already engaged in the activity and manage to work alone (it is better not to interrupt students
unnecessarily and to avid dominating discussions).

The teacher in the classroom / using the voice

Teachers should always know their abilities (strong and weak points) and the way they react in
different situations. There are three main ways of showing your students what you want - your
voice, your eyes (eye contact, suggest encouragement) and your hands (avoid unnecessary language
when you could use your hands to point out something or when you have already established some
routines). It is useful an analyse from time to time one’s verbal and non-verbal behaviour (a
solution could be video recordings). Use pauses to punctuate what you want to say and vary your
voice. Likewise, it is going to be easier for your students to follow you.

Using mother tongue vs. using the target language

At beginner levels students are going to translate into their L1(mother tongue) the activities they
perform during the course. This is a natural process of learning a foreign language. When teachers

45
and students share the same L1 it would be inapropriate not to consider L1’s potential value (when
giving instructions to beginners, when explaining or comparing grammar structures etc.). Even if L1
can be used as an enabling tool, English should predominate in an English lesson.

Activity 4: Students read an excerpt from Scrivener (2013, 69-70) who identifies various reasons ro
use the learners’ mother tongue. They have to state their opinions after reading the resource.

Organizing the teaching sequence / creating lesson stages

 plan varied lessons with transitions from one task to another
 communicate your teaching goals and state the aims of the activities
 keep your students busy: make sure at all times that everyone has something to do
 don't be afraid of silence: keep a balance between activity and quiet moment of reflection.

Activity 5: Students watch two videos related to handling gender issues and bullying. Afterwards, a
debate is organized in order to make a comparison between the education system in the USA and in
Romania. This activity should last approximately 15 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rund911QX_M&feature=related
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/change-attitudes-toward-bullying-be-an-ally?fd=1

Activity 6: Students look at the comic strips below and express their opinions (source
www.cartoonstock.com). This activity should last approximately 7 minutes.

46
 Image no. 6. Comic strips

What if ….
Would-be teachers need to become accustomed to different classroom situations. A series of
scenarios are presented below:
a) students are at different levels. What to do with early finishers?
A classroom that is comprised of students who have different language levels and different abilities
represents a challenge for the teacher. In this case the teacher can tackle the problem from different

47
perspectives. Thus the teacher could use different resources, engage students in different activities,
use the early finishers as resources or ignore the problem. The teacher should always include in
every lesson a plan for early finishers. These activities should not involve the teacher since he/she is
willing to help the other students. Examples of activities for early finishers: a puzzle, silent reading,
colouring images, riddles and other critical thinking activities.

b) the class is very big?

Classes are comprised of many learners in our country. The keywords that should characterize a
teacher in this case should be: flexibility and creativity. It is quite difficult for a teacher to make
contact with all his/her learners in this learning environment. But there are some solutions to this
problem. Harmer (2007, 178) suggests the use of worksheets, pairing and grouping students, the use
of chorus reaction, the use of group leaders, and the use humour.

c) students are uncooperative

Learning is not always perceived as an interesting activity. Students might like to chat and not pay
attention to the teacher, might not be willing to cooperate with their peers, and might refuse to
perform certain activities. The teacher should remember in such situations that learners do not
necessarily disregard the teacher. They just don’t want to pay attention and want a short break. In
this case, the teacher should deal with the behaviour, and not with the students, should try to use
different means of communication (non-verbal ones, paralinguistic cues) and should go forward
with the teaching (changing maybe the activity).

d) what is students always interrupt you?

In such a case it is advisable to set up a consistent strategy for responding to the student's questions.
If the question is obviously inappropriate you should ignore it. If the questions seem appropriate,
praise the student and answer the question. If the question may or may not be appropriate, answer it
in a neutral voice. If the question is obviously inappropriate, do not give the student any attention.
This lack of attention empowers the teacher since he/she is able likewise to withdraw the conflict.
The second step could refer to building a positive relationship with the student. Likewise, the
learner should be involved in activities that require responsibility, in other words: keep the learner
busy.

48
e) you have problems with your nonverbal language?
A teacher can improve his/her body language or paralinguistic cues in many ways. A lot of
resources (books, audio-video resources) tackle this topic. The first step concerns the identification
of the problem. In this respect, the teacher could ask a colleague to observe him/her or ask someone
else to record one of his/her lessons. Teachers should become more aware of the signals they send.
They should not leave room for any interpretation or misunderstanding.

Takeaways:
 the teacher should always be concerned with increasing student talking time
 the use of L1 in the language classroom has both advantages and disadvantages
 the teacher should group students according to the requirements of the activities and
the targeted skills

Assignments:

1: Identify some benefits and potential drawbacks to using pair work and group
work in a language classroom. What kinds of activities are suitable for pair
work and group work? Provide some examples.
2: Find another quote that could better characterize the topic of this course.

Todays’s quote
"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!" (Audrey
Hepburn)

49
 8. Teaching grammar

Why teach grammar? The place of grammar in teaching foreign languages has
always been controversial, much debated and sometimes the least understood
aspect of language teaching. Few teachers remain indifferent to grammar and
many become obsessed by it. In this respect we have to find a balance and
understand the purpose of grammar, when we have to teach it, what methods
to use and how to test it.

The case for grammar:

 Grammar offers the learner the means for potentially limitless linguistic creativity: e.g. a
traveller’s phrase book (one needs to learn some rules to enable the person to generate new
sentences)

 The fine-tuning argument: e.g. Me Tarzan, you Jane phrase

 The learners’ argument: learning is more efficient, systematic, grammar comprises a finite set
of rules

The case against grammar:

 Learning by doing, experiential learning (be exposed to different contexts that resemble real
conditions)

 One learns one’s mother tongue without learning grammar

 Learn the language by using chunks of language

When teaching grammar the teacher has to take into consideration:

 the learners' needs, their previous experience,

 the learners’ age, level, multilingual/monolingual

 available materials,

 the educational context (schools, private tutoring)

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Teaching grammar
Grammar can be taught deductively (presentation of rules examples exercises) or inductively
(example exercises rules)

Activity 1: Students have to identify some advantages and disadvantages of using the inductive and
the deductive teaching method. Details such as the age and the learners’ language level should be
taken into consideration.

Approach Advantages Disadvantages

The deductive approach

The inductive approach

How to teach grammar

The teacher should consider the following areas:

 CONTEXT: grammar has to be taught in context. If we separate it from the context where it
has been produced, then we are certainly making a mistake since sometimes the choice of one
grammatical form over another is always determined by the meaning the speaker or the writer
wishes to convey
 USE: teach grammar in order to facilitate the learners' comprehension and production of real
language, rather than an end in itself. Provide opportunities for learners to put that grammar
structure into practice. Our students might get only good marks when they have a grammar test,
but when it comes to produce a free speech and use grammar they fail.
 ECONOMY: be economical in presentation and allow more time for practice
 RELEVANCE: identify what the students already know, draw parallels with mother tongue and
exploit knowledge. Teach only the grammar that students have problems with
 APPROPRIACY: interpret the student's needs, interests, learning styles

Activity 2. Students have to complete the following table.

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 How to teach grammar?
Do’s Don’ts

Activity 3: Students work in pairs and receive hand-outs containing different lessons from various
coursebooks. They have to work in pairs and identify the way in which grammar is taught. This
activity lasts for approximately 10 minutes.

How to deal with grammar errors

 Lexical errors

 Grammar errors

 Discourse errors

 Pronunciation errors

 Positive transfer vs. negative transfer from mother tongue

 Errors vs. mistakes (the teacher could use grammar errors in order to teach grammar)

Responding to errors/mistakes

Activity 3: Students have to think of various ways of correcting the following sentence:

‘’Give her an advice’’.

There are presented below some correction strategies:

 No (a definite feedback)
 The teacher simply repairs the student's utterance (maybe just to keep the flow of conversation)
 No article (the teacher indicates the mistake)
 No. Anyone? (the teacher allows the other learners to correct the sentence)
 Give her...? (the teacher replays, repeats the utterance up to the point where the mistake was
made, isolating thus the error and the possible correct answer)
 Give her an advice? (intonation)
 Just one? (using gestures)

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 The teacher says nothing in order not to interrupt the student (postpones the feedback and may
write the correct answer on the board).

Takeaways:
 there are two methods of teaching grammar
 language learners make mistakes; these represent an inevitable and useful stage in
learning a foreign language
 the teacher can deal with grammar mistakes and errors in different ways

Assignments:
1: You want to teach your students the difference between countable and
uncountable nouns. You are going to use the inductive method. Describe this
method in a few words. How would you teach that grammar item for your
group of beginner learners?
2: You want to teach your students comparative and superlative adjectives. You are going to teach
this grammar rule by using the deductive method. Describe this method in a few words. How would
you teach this for your group of pre-intermediate learners?
3: Find another quote that could better characterize the topic of this course.

Today’s quote
“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing
you will make one.” (Elbert Hubbard)

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 9. Teaching vocabulary
Vocabulary is associated with learning words or phrases. It is an essential
component for successful communication. Grammar plays an important role
in the context of foreign language acquisition but lack of knowledge about
vocabulary may result in complete failure when sending a message.
Vocabulary represents an important element within language because the
main channel of expressing meaning, besides non-verbal language and
paralinguistic cues, is through words. Still, learning vocabulary is more complex than it might
appear at first sight. Learners should get accustomed to the way in which words are used in specific
contexts (connotation, collocation, idioms, polysemy, written/spoken form, etc.). Vocabulary can
be acquired through indirect exposure to words (in formal and informal settings, extensive reading)
and through explicit instruction in specific words and word-learning strategies.

What to know about teaching vocabulary

 vocabulary must be actively taught in meaningful contexts
 vocabulary should be recycled throughout the lesson giving thus students the possibility to
multiple exposures
 vocabulary should be tailored to the students' needs, goals and age
 students need to use vocabulary in both receptive and productive activities
 if students meet vocabulary in new/emotionally coloured settings they are more likely to notice
it and remember it (teachers should avoid presenting and reviewing vocabulary in the same few
ways)
 vocabulary can be taught through visual techniques: pictures, realia, mime, mind maps,
gestures, etc.
 vocabulary can be taught through verbal techniques: giving definitions, providing explanations,
translation, analogy, demonstration, etc.
 students are more likely to remember vocabulary if they are involved in activities that are
appealing to their interests (games, songs, communicative activities, literature, authentic
teaching resources, etc.)
 focus on spelling, on the form and the meaning of the word, on the written and spoken form

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 vocabulary activities should help students acquire different learning techniques and strategies
that they could use to continue learning outside the classroom
 students should be accustomed to grasp the meaning of a word out of a context

How many new items of vocabulary to present?

This depends:
 on the learners’ level
 on how many words they can learn
 on the learner's familiarity with the new words
 the difficulty of pronunciation
 how easy is to explain the words
 of items are learned for production (in speaking or writing) or just for recognition (listening,
reading)
How to illustrate / explain meaning?
 by presenting concrete objects: realia, pictures, mime.
 reliance on real objects, illustration or demonstration is limited
 through examples, sentences, synonyms, antonyms, full definitions
 accustom students to work with dictionaries.
 translation: still, in some cases there are no equivalents

Games
It would be wrong to suggest that vocabulary learning has to be all work and no play.
Types of activities:
 matching synonyms
 fill in the blanks / complete the sentences
 multiple choices
 create categories, mind-maps, etc.
 homonyms
 which word in this pair is slang
 which word has a positive commutation
 Guessing word meaning from context
 crossword puzzles

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 write an advertisement. Imagine that you want to sell an object. Give as many details as
possible.
 imagine that you take part in an auction. (e.g. I want to sell my piano. It is approx. 7 years old,
all keys and pedals work, in excellent condition, rarely used. Make me an offer.)
 Bingo! Each learner receives 2 or 3 words. Someone has the list containing all the words and in
a random order begins to read the words until someone wins.
 tudents have to write as many words as they know about the following categories: fruits/ means
of transport/ clothes/ animals/ sports.
 students have to create mind maps by using some keywords taken from the lesson

Pre-teaching vocabulary
There are a number of reasons for and against pre-teaching vocabulary. It is to a certain degree a
matter of choice and a combination between the learners’ level and learning skills. Pre-teaching
enables comprehension of specific words, but the mind subconsciously begins to make associations
between the words, so that students are able to predict the content of the text they are going to
tackle. The disadvantage might be lack of time and the students’ lack of motivation for taking part
in this activity. Pre-teaching should not be perceived as a way of explaining all the words in a text
that students are unlikely to know. First of all, the teacher should ask him/herself if students actually
need to know the word, if they could guess it from the given context or if they could use the word
productively within this lesson. If the answers to these questions are affirmative, then pre-teaching
should take place.

Ideas for pre-teaching vocabulary

Allow students the possibility to express their opinions about the new items of vocabulary. Some
students might know the words and so they can be used as resources in the classroom. Secondly,
students could make predictions about the text, starting from those words. This could increase the
students’ interest for the text. Thirdly, the teacher could take out some sentences which contain the
words he/she wants to pre-teach and puts them up on the board introducing some gaps. Students
have to decide which words go in which gaps.
Fourthly, if it is age appropriate, the teacher could match the vocabulary he/she wants to pre-teach
with pictures.

56
Activity 1: Think of ways to teach these groups of words. Provide one or two techniques for each
group.
Group 1: red, orrange, violet, green (preschool level)
Group 2: tornado, thunderstorm, hurricane (intermediate level)

Activity 2: Try to teach the following words: watch (noun), to flatter and stereotype. Answer to the
questions below:
a) How will you convey the meaning of the words?
b) How will you make both the written and spoken forms clear?
c) How will you check that the words have been understood?

Activity 3: Students receive the following text (source: http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/rrr.html).

They have to use this text in order to enhance learners’ speaking and reading skills. Students have to
provide answers to the following questions: Will you pre-teach any vocabulary items? How are you
going to do that? This activity could last for about 15 minutes.
’’A large percentage of UK household’s still do not recycle enough and throw everything that they
consider ‘rubbish’ into their ordinary bin. Much of this waste can be recycled and should be
disposed of separately to general household waste. Let us take an example. Recycled paper
produces 73% less air pollution than if it was made from raw materials; 12.5 million tonnes of paper
and cardboard are used annually in the UK; the average person in the UK gets through 38kg of
newspapers per year; it takes 24 trees to make 1 ton of newspaper. ’’

Activity 4: Students watch a video related to teaching vocabulary. They have to answer the
following questions:

Why is setting a time limit essential to this activity?

How can this activity be used as both a pre-teaching and review activity?
What are the learning benefits of allowing students to be mobile?
Video:
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/making-vocabulary-lesson-interactive?fd=1

This activity could last for about 12 minutes.

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Activity 5: Students work in pairs for this activity. They have to explain to their classmates the
content of the picture they have received. They can provide explainations only by making use of
their senses: what they ‘’feel, taste, and smell’’ in the picture. Their classmates have to guess the
content of the picture. The activity could last for about 15 minutes (source: Google images).
In a teaching context this activity is suitable for pre-intermediate and intermediate levels.

Image no. 7. Interpreting pictures

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Takeaways:
 vocabulary is an important element within language because it represents the main
channel for expressing meaning

 there are various elements that have to be considered when teaching vocabulary

 students can acquire new elements of vocabulary by reading authentic documents

Assignments:

1: Design an activity that aims either to introduce new items of vocabulary or

to evaluate vocabulary that has already been taught. Provide details about the
students’ level, time needed, teaching technique etc.
2: Find another quote that could better characterize the topic of this course

Today’s quote
“I hear—I forget, I see—I learn, I do—I understand.” (Gennady V. Oster)

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 10. Teaching receptive skills. Listening skills

Listening is a skill which seems to develop easily for mother-tongue listening,

but requires considerable effort when performing it in a foreign language.
Whilst hearing can be thought of as a passive condition, listening is always an
active process.
A distinction can be drawn between intensive and extensive listening.
Intensive listening activities take place in the classroom and refer to the use of CDs, videos,
listening to the radio etc. Extensive listening refers to listening to activities that can be performed
outside the classroom, in informal settings, usually for pleasure (Harmer 2007, 134).

Activity 1: Students have to provide examples of extensive and intensive listening activities. One
student is going to create a mind map using the students’ feedback.

What are the benefits and challenges of teaching listening skills?

Benefits
 students listen to other ways of
speaking, besides their teacher's
voice
 listening activities provide a
significant language input and a
variety of situations and voices
 it can be a good starting point for
another activity
 it brings a change in the classroom
routine
Challenges
 poor acoustics
 not anyone can follow the recording
(lack of control over the speed at
which the speaker talks)
 it might be difficult for students to
take notes since they cannot grasp
the meaning
 students cannot interact with the
speakers, they cannot negotiate
meaning
 students might lose their interest if
the listening activity does not
motivate them enough
 inability to concentrate
 the lack of visual reinforcement

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Activity 2: How difficult is it for second language learners to be involved in the listening activities
presented below? Take into consideration different age groups.
 listening to live conversations
 listening to announcements at airports, railway stations, news, weather forecast
 watching the news - where the visual aid represents a support for understanding meaning
 watching a live performance or a play
 listening on the telephone, to radio
 following instructions - e.g. sports

Methods of encouraging extensive listening

 tell students to ask their classmates what kind of listening activities they have performed lately
 give students home tasks that involve their listening skills
 bring music in your classroom. Tell students to bring their favourite songs.

Listening principles
Jeremy Harmer (2007, 135-136) identifies six listening principles that should be used by teachers as
guidelines:
 Principle 1: Encourage students to listen as often and as much as possible

 Principle 2: Help students prepare to listen

 Principle 3: Once may not be enough

 Principle 4: Encourage students to respond to the content of a listening, not just to the language

 Principles 5: Different listening stages demand different listening skills

 Principle 6: Good teachers exploit listening texts to the full

Learners have to acquire some listening sub-skills when performing listening activities (Lewis and
Hill 2002, 62):
 ability to follow the general trend of what is said
 ability to understand specific details
 ability to check specific piece of pre-knowledge against what is said
 ability to understand the speaker’s intention
 ability to understand the speaker’s attitude

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Listening activities
 Jigsaw listening (students have to assemble different parts of a story)
 Message-taking ( students listen to a telephone conversation)
 news and radio programmes, music
 poetry, stories, monologues

Activity 3: Students have to think of listening tasks that are suitable for the following resources.
They take into consideration different age groups. This activity would last for about 6 minutes.
a pop song
a weather forecast
a news broadcast
an anecdote
an academic presentation

Preparing a listening activity

Before a listening activity occurs, students have to be ''tuned in'' so that they know what to expect to
hear and understand what previous knowledge they have to use in order to grasp the meaning of the
text.

The pre-listening stages

 the teacher should pay great attention to the text that has been chosen, should check its
appropriateness for the students' level of understanding
 the teacher should consider if the text will fill in the available time
 the teacher can provide some visual aids if it is necessary
 the teacher gives background information, brings into discussion a topic/situation
 the students read something relevant, look at pictures.

The while-listening stages

When listening in our native language we always make predictions about the text we are listening
to, we interpret the meaning of an utterance and not of a single word. In order to accustom learners
to develop these listening skills, the teachers have to engage them in activities that provide
possibilities to predict and interpret.

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 are the activities students are asked to perform during the time when they are listening to
something.
 purpose: to verify if students have understood the meaning.

The post-listening stage

 activities that are done after the listening sequence is completed.
 for many years the multiple choice questions and open questions were the most common post-
listening activities.
 attention should be limited to the points which were significant in achieving the aim of
completing the task and those which the students want to know more about.
 having identified a particular point for attention the teacher can take the opportunity to expand
on it a little and give a mini lesson and also make connections with thing learned in other
contexts.
 written work, essays, role-play, interpreting, problem-solving and decision-making activities (a
newspaper article, aunt agony columns)
 summarizing the text that has been listened to

Recorded material or ‘‘live’’ presentation

Live listening is a genuine activity in which the teacher or other visitors play the role of the audio
resource. Namely, the teacher uses himself/herself as a teaching resource. Live listening encourages
face-to-face communication and students benefit from observing paralinguistic cues. Students
watch for 7 minutes Jeremy Harmer’s (2007) video on live-listening.

Activity 4: Students have to fill in the missing information in the table below.
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Live  the speaker can be seen and the listeners ?
presentations observe all the non-verbal clues to decipher
the message
 a speaker present in the classroom is almost
always easier to hear than a recorded voice
 there is no need to organize equip
 the teacher can pause, stop is learners don't
understand

63
Recorded  a much wider variety of listening ?
material experiences can be brought in the class
 the recording can be replayed
 not being able to see the speaker, the
students will concentrate on what they hear
 students might work alone, or in pairs, in
their own pace.
 ''real'' English, if the teacher hasn't English
as mother tongue.

Activity 5: Students are given some topics for discussion. They are given individual hand-outs that
contain details about a particular topic. If necessary, students could also search on the Internet for
more details. Students have to prepare a live-listening teaching sequence. The activity would last for
approximately 15 minutes.

E.g. a) People live their life by chance, b) Everything happens for a reason and c) The environment
faces great challenges in the 21st century.
Students have to think of the aim of each live-listening sequence. The main aim is to improve
listening skills, but there can be also be targeted other sub-skills or the development of vocabulary
and grammar structures.

Authentic and non-authentic resources

On the one hand, non-authentic resources might be perceived as artificial and not so interesting. On
the other hand, authentic resources are genuine, but sometimes quite challenging for students.
Non-authentic resources: graded for a certain language level
Authentic resources: natural conversation, real speech, not specially designed for foreign
learners/graded

Activity 6: Students have to think of some advantages and disadvantages of using authentic/non-
authentic resources in class. They have to consider different age groups.

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 advantages disadvantages
Authentic resources

Non-authentic resources

Activity 7: Students watch a video related to teaching listening skills. They have to answer the
following questions:
How does the game promote listening skills?
What does the Tootie-Ta tell you about students' ability to follow directions?
What other advantages are there to using games such as the Tootie-Ta?
Video: https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/kindergarten-teaching-tip

Takeaways:
 the teacher should encourage students to engage in both extensive and intensive
listening activities
 the teacher can use both authentic and non-authentic teaching resources, depending on
the learners’ language level, learners’ needs and interests

Assignments:
1: Take a lesson unit from a course book. What kind of listening activities can
you find? Are these appropriate for the topic of the lesson?
2: Find another quote that could better characterize the topic of this course.

Today’s quote
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the
intent to reply.” (Stephen R. Covey)

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 11. Teaching receptive skills. Reading skills
Traditionally, the purpose of reading in a language referred to gaining access
to literature written in that language. Nowadays, a shift towards
communicative competence has taken place. Therefore reading resources
have diversified and include newspaper articles, texts about travel, culture,
gastronomy etc. Reading is an activity with a purpose. As in the case of
listening skills, reading has both an intensive and extensive side of it. A
person may read in order to gain information, to learn the foreign language or for enjoyment. A
special focus is placed on increasing students’ motivation for extensive reading. It is quite a
challenge for a teacher to encourage students to read in a world of technology and visual aids.

Reading is an essential part of language instruction at every level because it provides many
perspectives:
 on the foreign language: reading activities represent meaningful language input (grammar,
sentence structure, discourse)
 on the content: reading for content information in the language classroom gives students an
authentic purpose for reading.
 cultural knowledge: reading offers learners the chance to interact with different cultures and get
familiarized with various like styles. Reading, as a means of indirect interaction, enables the
intercultural contact.

How do we read?

 for gist/general understanding

 for scanning/skimming - read quickly

 for specific information

 for inference/ behind the words

How to encourage reading?

 read some excerpts/fragments to raise their interest
 stimulate students to exchange books between them, organize contests focused on questions
based on text read.

66
 tell them to keep some journals, and the best thoughts/stories will be published in a school
magazine
 create a cartoon/flip board were students can give marks to the books they have read
 play a game using quotations, students should guess the source
 learner create stories/sentences and their colleagues read them

Activity 1: Students have to work in groups and think of ways of encouraging reading. They have to
provide examples of activities for each language level.

Reading at primary level

Reading at primary level could be challenging. At this age, learners should develop phonic and
word recognition skills. They also have to improve their ability to decipher shapes and patterns.

Activity 2: Students work in pairs. They have to think of resources that are suitable for primary
level. They also have to present the challenges of teaching reading using those particular resources.

Reading strategies:
Pre-reading:
 brainstorm shared expectations related to the topic of the text, title, genre, plot/content;
 establish an interaction between the text and the reader.
 get the students to look at a picture related to the text/poem/book we are going to read
 ask students to make some predictions
 present students some words from the text and ask the students to give some predictions

While-reading: facilitates the understanding of the plot, the characters, vocabulary etc.
 get students choose synonyms for some words and suggest a title for each paragraph
 ask students to complete sentences to demonstrate comprehension
 give the students some jumbled sentences from the text and ask them to put these in order
 give students the possibility to express their opinion about the text/characters/plot
 tell students to find some synonyms/other meaning to some words
 get the students to match words with definitions

67
Post-reading: teachers should integrate reading activities into interesting class sequences using the
topic for further tasks and later activation.
 discuss what was interesting or new in the text
 summarizing the text, orally or in writing
 re-write a poem as a narrative text
 write another ending to the story

Criteria for selecting material

It is the teacher’s responsibility to choose appropriate reading resources that are in accordance with
the learners’ level, needs and interests.

Activity 3. Students have to consider which of the following criteria are the most important in
choosing texts in a second language classroom.
 should be a vehicle for teaching specific language structure and vocabulary
 should offer the opportunity to promote key reading strategies
 should present content which is familiar and of interest to the learners
 should be at the appropriate language level
 should be authentic, not specially written for pedagogic purposes
 should lead to a range of classroom activities

Activity 4: Students have to watch a small group lesson on comprehension and prediction. They
work individually and have to answer the following question: How do students benefit from
participating in a discussion in such a small group?
Video: https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-reading-comprehension

Activity 5: Students work in pairs. They have to think of a suitable task that involves reading these
advertisements (source: Google images).

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 Image no. 8. Newspaper advertisments

Takeaways:
 meaningful reading activities could provide learners with a valuable language input
and sociocultural competence
 the teacher should always take into consideration the criteria for selecting reading
resources

Assignments:
1: Students have to work in pairs. They have to search on the Internet various
examples of reading texts: recipes, menus, labels, signs, comic strips, etc. They
have to prepare a micro-teaching activity and use these resources.
2: Find another quote that could better characterize the topic of this course.

Today’s quotes
“We read to know we are not alone.” (C.S. Lewis)

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 12. Teaching productive skills. Speaking skills
The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency. Many
language learners regard speaking ability as the measure of knowing a
language. Still, the quality of communication depends on the speaker’s ability
to avoid confusion that might arise due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or
vocabulary. In addition, students should develop a sociolinguistic and
pragmatic competence that would allow them to be aware of the social and cultural rules that apply
in each communication situation. The learners engage in a limited number of speaking activities in
the classroom. There are many factors that lead to this situation: many activities engage the teacher
and thus students might be reluctant to speak, many lessons focus on acquiring knowledge of
grammar and vocabulary, the topics that are approached are artificial and do not motivate students
enough.

Speaking can perceived as having three directions:

1) SOCIAL SKILL: children become aware that they are part of a group, they begin to understand
some basic rules: who is the speaker, who is the listener, which patterns of communication are
appropriate
2) ENABLES COMMUNICATION: while speaking interlocutors begin to understand the meaning
of what they say
3) COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: language is used to express thoughts

Classification: speaking genres

a) transactional: one conveys information in order to get a job done
interpersonal: face-to-face communication, maintain good relations with your interlocutor
(Thornbury 2005a 13-14 in Harmer 2007, 343).
b) interactive: one is engaged in a conversation
non-interactive: when one leaves a message on the telephone machine for someone
c) planned: a classroom activity
unplanned: meeting an acquaintance in the street.

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How do we speak?
In order to resemble real-life interactions, learners have to get accustomed to making used of
discourse markers such as: back-channeling (hmm, aha), turn-taking (yes, well....but it may be
that....), mark an end, change a topic (anyway...), repairs, etc. In order to be proficient, learners have
to be acquainted, on a daily basis with different contexts and communicative styles in which the
English language is produced. They even have to be informed about the usefulness of small talk.
Gestures, paralanguage and nonverbal language provide a sense of smoothness in conversation,
since interlocutors have to take breaks for understanding the new information and to take turns in
order to speak. Thus “these small words are not meaningless or useless in language. They are
meaningful without carrying a heavy load of meaning”. (Andersson, Trudgill 1992, 105) Another
observation is made my Jack Richards (1990, 55) who claims that “non-native speakers who lack
the ability to use small talk and to exploit the interaction aspects of communication may find many
encounters awkward and may avoid talk where talk would be appropriate”. Small talk is not so
insignificant after all. It manages with success to keep the conversation afloat without transmitting
consistent information. Its purpose is to create a bond between interlocutors.

Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

 learners talk a lot
 participation is even
 motivation is high
 language has an acceptable level of accuracy

Problems that might arise in speaking activities

 inhibition
 nothing to say
 low or uneven participation
 use of L1

What can be done in order to stimulate students to speak?

 use group work/ pair work
 make a careful choice of topic and task to stimulate interest
 give some instructions or training in discussion/presentation skills

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 solving a problem (aunt agony), engage learners in a debate

A basic methodological model for teaching productive skills

Jeremy Harmer (2007, 275) suggests a model for teaching productive skills which contains:
 the lead-in stage (we engage the students with the topic)

 set the task (we explain exactly what students are going to do)

 monitor the task (the teacher goes round the class, listens to students and helps them if the
encounter difficulties)

 give task feedback (the teacher tells students how well they have managed)

Activity 1: Write down some criteria for having a good speaking class having in mind: the teacher,
the learners, the learning environment and the activities.

Activity 2: Imagine that you are a teacher. How could you organize your classes if your learners
deal with the following problems? (adapted from Thornbury & Watkins 2007, 59)

I remember a teacher asked me

in front of the whole class if it
was a good idea to increase
taxes to pay for more doctors. I
don’t know – I didn’t know
what to say – I don’t know in
Spanish
I don’t like roleplays much – I
hate saying things that I don’t
really believe – I prefer to talk
about real things.

I don’t really think I learn

much from discussion in class
– I can do that with my
friends anyway and the
teacher never corrects us
when we make mistakes.

Activity 3: Read the text below. Think of and describe a pre-speaking activity linked to this text.
Provide details about the students’ level and the time needed in order to perform the activity.

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’’Steps to reduce pollution
We all pollute the environment we live in, I do, and your dog does too. It’s very much in our
control to reduce this pollution. Go paperless, save environment. Sure you can’t stop advertisement
leaflets coming in to your mail box (shouldn’t there be an environmental law to ban this practice, or
at least, be made it mandatory to use recycled paper?) but, you can control the statements, updates
and notices which you get from your financial institutions. Select paperless as the mode of
communication. Mostly all of them support this. It’s high time that all govt. agencies implement this
too. Stop using bottled water. This may be very hard for many, I understand. If it’s not that hard for
you, start using re-usable materials and fill it up every time. ’’7

Activity 4: Students receive some pictures. They have to design a speaking activity that focuses on
each of these pictures (source: Google images). What kind of topic is appropriate for discussion/ for
organizing a debate? This activity would last for 7 minutes.

Image no. 9. Pictures that generate debates

Activity 5: Organizing a debate. Students watch the following video for 6 minutes.
Video: https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-economics-with-debating
They have to answer the following questions: How does Ms. Laudin encourage students to
understand both claims and counterclaims based on evidence? How could you incorporate debates
to enhance rigor and engagement in cthe foreign language classroom?

7
http://onecentatatime.com/25-everyday-techniques-to-save-environment

73
Activity 6: Students receive some pictures (source: Google images). They have to think of the items
of vocabulary they could pre-teach in order to prepare a speaking follow-up activity.

Image no. 10. Images for pre-teaching vocabulary

Takeaways:
 in order to be good teachers and presenters students need to develop their speaking
skills
 foreign language learning focuses on developing communicative skills

Assignments:
1: Students have to design speaking activities starting from questions such as:
"What would you do if you had a million dollars?
What would you do if you were president for a day?
They have to think what kind of transitional words /connectors (e.g. therefore,
moreover, thus, etc.) would they teach their learners.
2. Find another quote that could better characterize the topic of this course.

Today’s quote
“The first rule of my speaking is: listen!” (Larry King)

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 13. Teaching productive skills. Writing skills

People write in order to achieve communicative goals in social contexts.

Learning how to write has numerous advantages: to get accustomed to use the
acquired knowledge and to put it into practice, to achieve a structured flow of
ideas, to state personal opinions and to provide arguments, to be able to
express inner feelings and finally, to learn new structures and vocabulary.
Tricia Hedge (1992:7) identifies two more reasons: writing requires a lot of conscious effort from
students and thus both students and teachers can monitor this progress and find solutions to
problems and writing is much easier to revise due to its hard copy structure and it can be exploited
by teachers for learning or explaining new theory. Students tend to avoid writing activities because:
it is difficult to master English spelling; writing implies a good knowledge of grammar and of
different writing styles, lack of motivation, and a low level of self confidence in their abilities to
fulfil a written assignment.

No one argues the fact that writing is time consuming for the mere fact that one has to brainstorm
and organize ideas, think of how to plan the writing assignment, pay attention to vocabulary, word
order, spelling and many other requirements. Nevertheless, the value of writing should not be
neglected neither by teachers nor by students. If we want to be realistic we should tell our students
that almost all examinations that take place in school, whether they are formative or summative,
require written assignments. Thus, writing skills represent a valuable part in the learning process
and these should not be neglected. When producing a written text the learner makes use of
cognitive elements, of language elements (lexis and grammar) and socio-linguistic elements.

Necessary stages for fulfilling a written task

Students could be engaged in activities that focus on writing for pleasure (writing for writing) or
writing as a means of teaching (writing for learning). In a sequence of writing for pleasure the
learners' input is valuable since each one represents a starting point for their ideas and thoughts.
Being placed in the centre of this activity the learner becomes aware of his/her responsibilities and
he/she is given the possibility to express personal ideas. In the same time this self-disclosure
represents a significant feedback for the teacher who is able to identify some of the learners' needs
and skills. This central position offered to the learner is associated by Arthur Brookes and Peter

75
Grundy with the humanistic principle that always encourages ''thinking first of the learner and
secondly of what is to be learnt" (1991:9). When learners are considered resources they add to the
lesson a touch of their personality, experiences, knowledge but also their uncertainties, unanswered
questions and incomplete information. A teacher should welcome all of these since ''learning a
language represents a total experience" (Brookes, Grundy 1991:9) comprising the whole body and
mind and influencing thus our "self-image, sense of cultural belonging and lifestyle
generally"(Brookes, Grundy 1991:9).

The second stage is that when students get the chance to experience different writing styles in the
target language and at the same time they get familiarized with various types of audience. They
begin to spot the difference between formal and informal writing and become aware of various
written assignments: essays, poetry, recommendation letters, job advertisements or other types of
advertisements. At a first glance, writing can be perceived as an interesting activity, easy to
accomplish if one has just a few brilliant ideas to joggle with. At a second glance though, one
realizes that those ideas are scarce and not so valuable, that whole paragraphs have no link with
each other and nonetheless that there are too many rules referring to writing conventions. These
details indicate to a teacher that these moments of doubt and blankness are the most suitable for
presenting students some golden rules related to writing styles and various other writing
conventions.

Jeremy Harmer (2004: 11) states the status that writing has nowadays: the teaching of writing is
focused on the written product rather than on the writing process. By focusing on the written
product teachers tend to evaluate just that final product without taking into consideration the
students' effort and hard work involved in reaching that target. By evaluating the final product, the
emphasis is laid most often on the content of the project, on the grammar structures, vocabulary
used or spelling. Walking on this path we guide our students to reach a final product taking into
consideration the above items and we forget to present them the wonderful journey they could
discover along the process. I think that the motivation of writing tends to fade away when the
student receives a project that is marked with red, where just grammar rules play the vital part in
evaluating that project. Sometimes we do not even write for obtaining a final project but we write
just for the pleasure of doing so, for discovering our imagination, for putting into practice our
knowledge, but in ways that are meaningful for us. And these occasions should take place more

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often. The process approach generates another useful action, as Rose Senior (2010: 59) states:
"students take responsibility for the content and organization of their work, as well as for the clarity
and accuracy of the language". Thus students evaluate themselves and their work during the
assignment.

The third stage would be that when the teacher tries to find activities that are appealing to the
students' interest. "Students need opportunities to engage in writing as a holistic process of
composition. They need practice in writing whole pieces of communication, not just controlled
exercises in sentence structure, grammar or bits and pieces of paragraph development" (Hedge,
1992: 25). If we consider 9th graders then politics, environmental problems or cultural differences
might be considered as areas of interest. These provide the possibility to express personal ideas and
get involved in the activity.

Cultural heritage is valuable but sometimes, when writing in a foreign language for example, it can
act as a drawback because when being "called upon to write in another language we may see our
task as recording the ideas we originally expressed in our first language" (Brookes, Grundy 1991:
31). This is why if learners do not make an effort to begin and think in English when writing or
speaking they will begin to feel outsiders and "retain their separate identity and culture" (Brookes,
Grundy 1991: 37) and they will surely miss the richness offered by this cultural diversity. Cultural
differences have to be exploited and integrated in the learning process.

Tricia Hedge mentions some requirements for achieving an effective writing: " a high degree of
organization in the development of ideas and information, a high degree of accuracy so that there is
no ambiguity of meaning, the use of complex grammatical devices for focus and emphasis, a
careful choice of vocabulary, grammatical patterns and sentence structures to create style which is
appropriate to the subject matter and eventual readers.'' (1992: 5)

Creative writing activities

Whenever we have a creative writing assignment students divide their work into four steps:
planning, drafting, editing and the final version. Each of these steps can be repeated until the
intended objectives are reached. Due to this continuous movement and return to different stages,
Harmer (2004: 6) makes a distinction between a face-to-face conversation which is a work in

77
progress, since participants constantly exchange meaning and the written form which is a final
form, since written words cannot be taken back, expressed in other ways by the interlocutor. At this
stage students should understand the value of the written word and should bear in mind some
characteristics. But this scheme is not quite accurate because "although writing involves these
overall stages, the process of composition is not a linear one and the writer moves backwards and
forwards" (Hedge, 1992: 21) until the final product is reached. Teachers should make sure that
during this intricate process students keep their motivation active and that they don't feel
discouraged to fulfil another stage.

The planning stage could contain a mind map, a brainstorming session to activate the students'
motivation and flow of ideas. Cooperation should not be neglected at this stage, as wonderful ideas
can be designed if more students take part in the activity. Students should get an idea of what they
are going to write and to what kind of audience. Having answered to these questions and having
some guidelines the process of writing seems easier to achieve.

Drafting: once the ideas have been sampled learners can start to plan a draft and integrate all the
ideas/pieces of information they want to include. It is difficult to obtain a continuous flow of
thoughts and this is why every writer goes back to his/her first ideas, redrafts, and rewrites some
paragraphs until a draft is obtained.

Editing: at this stage learners have a body text that is analysed from different perspectives:
accuracy, clarity of ideas, vocabulary, place of paragraphs, accessibility to the reader, the teacher
proofreads the material.
Final version: the written assignment that represents the final product.

Writing is an exciting, challenging experience that permits students to indulge in fantasy, humour or
fiction while drawing on all their inner resources of imagination and self-expression. Written
language transcends time and space and that is why learning how to write becomes an important
experience.

Many teachers complain that their students don't like take part in writing activities. But are they
asking appropriate questions?

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One of the most effective ways to support children is by looking for questions as they work —
questions that encourage more thinking and, ultimately, writing. These strategies and the questions
will get you started.
• avoid yes/no questions, this helps students think more deeply about their work
• encourage kids to value work, this helps students monitor their behaviour. (If you're starting
to feel less like a teacher and more like a hall monitor during writing time, you might want to
consider changing how you respond to students who are having trouble staying on task. I used to
ask misbehaving students, "What are you supposed to be doing?" In return, I'd receive mumbled
excuses, a shuffling of papers, and, if I was lucky, a bit more work. By shifting my question to "Is
what you are doing important?," I saw an immediate change in students' responses. Instead of
making them feel ashamed or angry, I gave them a chance to explain their behaviour. As a result,
the responsibility for finding value in the work shifted to the students themselves.
• evaluate many pieces, this helps students see patterns in their work. (One of my most
common ruts is focusing only on single pieces of writing. The student pulls out a draft, reads it to
me, and I ask questions. When the same student shares all of her writing from the past couple of
weeks, it generates better questions and responses. With the student's work spread out on the desk, I
ask, "What do you notice about your writing over the past two weeks?" Sometimes students notice
they have explored only one topic, or they are starting to try poetry, or they simply haven't written
much. These observations are helpful to both of us, as individual writing styles, preferences, and
problems emerge.)
• writing conference questions that work
Getting kids to think of themselves as writers can be accomplished through careful questioning.
However, too often conferences concentrate solely on the work itself — even if that work isn't
worth revising. Here are some questions that lead students toward thinking about their overall
development.

The feedback provided by a teacher could either motivate or demotivate the student. Therefore
instead of asking a blunt question (e.g. Is that all you're going to write?, Why did you write this?,
Do you think this is your best work? etc.) one could ask questions that provide encouragement and
moral support (e.g. What are some other topics you might write about?, What did you do well in
this piece? etc.).

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In order to maintain alive the motivation for writing, the teacher should explain the students that the
focus is going to be placed on the process of writing and not on the product itself, the outcome. In
this way those who don't have imagination or are not so creative, can still take part in the
assignment.

When having writing tasks present your students some rules: linked to spelling, punctuation,
grammatical structures or even layout. Still, treating any piece of writing primarily as a source of
language error is ineffective.
• writing is far from being a simple matter of transcribing language into written symbols: it is
a thinking process in its own right
• it demands conscious intellectual effort, cognitive skills,
• writing is a form of problem-solving which involves such processes as generating ideas,
discovering a voice with which to write, planning, goal-setting, searching for language
in order to express exact meanings.

Writing can take various forms/genres

The teacher should present to his/her students the different forms writing my take: ads, poetry,
newspaper articles, formal letter; all of them have writing formats and a specific language that have
to be taken into consideration. Work in groups:

Activity 1: What instructions could you give to your students when you ask them to write: a) ads, b)
newspaper articles, c) offers and d) press releases?

Writing activities:
 instant writing: elicit from students 7 words and ask them to create provide the worst / catchy
beginning to a story.
 play a song: tell them to write what feelings they have while listening to it.
 give them some pictures and tell them to imagine the story behind the picture.
 form groups of seven students. Tell them that they are going to write a story starting with one
the following words: WHO / WHAT/ WHERE/ WITH WHOM / WHEN / WHY / HOW. Each
student chooses a word and writes a sentence. Afterwards he/she folds the paper so that the
message is unknown to the student who is going to write next.

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 the teacher gives students some words: monkey, night, spokesman, children, missing, six, and
escaped. Students have to work in pairs and create their own story. Afterwards they read the
real story from a newspaper.
 the students have to continue this story that has an open ending. They should include in the
story the following words: e.g. heavy, immediately, excited, speechless, bag.
‘’Mr. Thomson stood in front of the house. He looked nervous. He has waited for this moment
for a long time. He put his finger on the doorbell and...’’

Activity 2: Students have to consider the advantages and disadvantages of using comic strips in
order to improve writing skills. How can you put in practice a writing activity starting from the
image below? (source: Google images)

Image no. 11. Develop writing skills by using comic strips

Activity 3: Students have to choose from the following list those writing activities that are
appropriate for a group of intermediate students:
 writing a film script

 writing an ad

81
  writing a proposal letter

 writing a letter of intent

 writing a poem

Students have to provide arguments in order to sustain their choices.

Activity 4: Some magazines contain agony aunt columns. Students have to think in which way they
can transform these authentic resources into teaching resources. What could you teach by using the
following ‘agony aunt’ column?

Dear Anne,
I have been through two jobs in just one year. The first I quit because I did not receive the
money they had promised me. The other I was fired for data entry "errors" which actually
may have been made by lenders going back into the system changing numbers I had
endorsed. Problem is, with such short periods of work in addition to a termination, I feel
everything is working against me. And I don't know what answer to give when asked why I
left my last job. Please, please help with any answers you might have. I have been out of
work for 8 months now. Susan

Takeaways:
 people write in order to achieve communicative goals in social contexts

 "writing for learning" activities have other aims in comparison to "writing for writing"
activities

 the teacher should accustom his/her students to different writing registers

Assignments:
1. Students have to watch the following video for about five minutes.
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/high-school-writing-lesson-idea
They have to provide answer to the following questions:
 How does small group discussion prepare

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 students for their writing task?
 What role does reading aloud play in the revision process?
 How does this strategy make work more manageable and effective for
both teachers and students?
2. Find another quote that could better characterize the topic of this course.

Today’s quote:
“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in
retrospect.” (Anaïs Nin)

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 14. Assessment

A test or examination is an assessment intended to measure a learner’s

knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in a certain
domain. Test may take the form of an oral exam, a written one on a paper or
nowadays, on a computer.
The purpose of assessment in instruction is improvement. This improvement
concerns both the teacher and the learner. The teacher uses the feedback received from the learner
in order to assess how well he/she has taught the course and to what extent the explanations were
suitable for the learners. The teacher uses this information in order to better plan future lessons and
to adapt them to the students’ needs. The assessment offers the learners various answers which are
specified below:

A formal assessment of a learner’s language.

 An achievement test is used to see how well learners have learned the language and skills
taught in class.
 Achievement tests are often at the end of term or end of the year and test the main points of
what has been taught in that time.
 A diagnostic test is used to identify problems that learners have with language or skills. The
teacher diagnoses the language problems learners have. It can also be used to diagnose learner
strengths. It helps the teacher to plan what to teach, or what not to teach, in future.
 An objective test is marked without using the examiner’s opinion, e.g. true/false questions,
multiple-choice questions. There is a clear right answer.
 A placement test is often used at the beginning of a course in a language school in order to
identify a learner’s level of language and find the best class for them.
 A proficiency test is used to see how good learners are at using the target language. The
contents of a proficiency test are not chosen according to what has been taught, but according
to what is needed for a particular purpose, e.g. English for hotel receptionists, English for
studying at university, English for general communication. Cambridge ESOL First Certificate
in English (FCE) and IELTS are examples of proficiency tests.
 A progress test is used during a course in order to assess the learning up to a particular
point in the course.

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  A subjective test is marked using the examiner’s opinion about the quality of the answer.
The answer is not simply right or wrong, e.g. marking written stories, compositions,
interviews, conversations, story-telling.
 A summative test is used at the end of a course. The focus is on the mark or grade given
and feedback is not usually provided. (44-45, TKT glossary, UCLES 2011)

Informal assessment refers to unplanned comments and responses that the teacher might provide to
his/her learners: e.g. Good job! Well done!
The assessment can take the shape either of a formative evaluation (that takes place during every
lesson) and summative evaluation (that summarizes what the students has grasped and it takes place
at the end of the term/the end of the course)
The aims of formative testing are
 to give feedback
 to diagnose (grammar, vocab, skills)
 to check
 to provide a needs analysis
 to confirm
 to motivate
The aims of summative testing are
 to provide marks
 to rank order
 to reward achievement
 to measure progress:
 to act as a gatekeeper
 to select
 to exclude

Activity 1: Find the advantages and disadvantages of traditional and alternative assessment.
Traditional Assessment Alternative Assessment
One-shot, standardized exams Continuous long-term assessment
Focus on the “right” answer Open-ended, creative answers

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Summative Formative
Oriented to product Oriented to process
? ?
? ?

Tests:
 should be positive experiences

 should build a person’s confidence and become learning experiences

 should bring out the best in students

 shouldn’t be artificial

 shouldn’t provoke anxiety/fear

Good tests
Good tests are those that do the job they are designed to do and which convince the people taking
and marking them that they work (Harmer 2007, 167). There are several criteria for establishing the
quality of a test:
 validity

 reliability

 washback effect

 should increase student motivation

A test that is characterized by validly means that it does what it say it will (for example test reading
skills etc.). A reliable test is consistent and dependable. If a test is reliable, it is consistent, in other
words it will produce the same results over the years when set on the same level at about the same
stage of curriculum coverage.
The washback effect occurs when teachers see the form of the test their students are going to have
to take and then, as a result, start teaching for the test (Harmer 2007, 167).

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Types of tests
 discrete test items (one thing at a time)
 integrative test items (where students use a variety of language and skills)
 direct test items (students are asked to do a particular activity e.g. writing a report)
 indirect test items (testing grammar and lexis)
e.g. multiple choice, fill-in cloze, gap fill, transformation items,

Designing tests
When preparing tests teachers have to think thoroughly and be aware of what they want to test. The
teacher should also consider a broader perspective and understand in what ways are the parts of the
test interconnected.

Activity 2: Students receive the following text. They have to think of ways in which they could use
the text in order to design a test with different types of items (source Google images).

87
88
Takeaways:
 A test or examination is an assessment intended to measure a learner’s knowledge,
skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in a certain domain

 The purpose of assessment in instruction is improvement. This improvement concerns

both the teacher and the learner

Assignments:
1: Students watch the following video:
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/streamline-teaching-practices
They have to answer the following questions:
 How does use of the folders streamline practice and assessment?
 What elements of this procedure help to reinforce student ownership of
learning and motivate students to keep learning?
 In what other areas might you use individual folders to assess student
learning?
2. Find another quote that could better characterize the topic of this course.

Today’s quote
“The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away
from you.” (B.B. King)

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 15. Culture and language
The need for an intercultural approach in foreign language teaching is
sustained both by the global realities and the characteristics of the educational
context. The globalization process enables individuals to travel and interact
with different cultures. Likewise, language becomes a means of expressing a
cultural stand point since ‘’culture is communication and communication is
culture’’ (Hall 1981, 186). Culture is implicit when learning one’s mother-tongue and tends to be
expressed and learned in an explicit manner in a foreign language learning context i.e. when it
targets sociocultural knowledge (everyday living, living conditions, interpersonal relations, social
conventions8). Because the relationship with culture is a personal one, foreign language teaching
should reconsider the pedagogical implications of the intercultural perspective (Petruș, Bocoș 2013,
158). Teaching English from an intercultural perspective favours the development of an
intercultural communicative competence.

The Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) model proposed by Byram is comprised of

three components: knowledge, skills and attitudes that are complemented by the values one holds
because of one’s belonging to a number of social groups (Byram, Nichols, Stevens 2001, 5). The
ICC model consists of:
 knowledge of social groups and their products in one’s own and in the interlocutor’s country
and of the general processes of societal and individual interaction (Byram, Nichols, Stevens
2001, 6)
 skills that refer to being able to compare, interpret and relate to different cultural resources,
to manage to operate in real-time instances of communication and interaction (Byram,
Nichols, Stevens 2001, 6)
 attitudes of curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and
belief about one’s own, willingness to relativize one’s own values, beliefs and behaviours
(Byram, Nichols, Stevens 2001, 5)

The issue of identity in foreign language learning has been a popular topic in the literature. This has
been tackled from different perspectives, either by questioning the identity of the learner (e.g.

8
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/source/framework_en.pdf, p. 102-103

90
Lantolf 2000) or the teachers’ identity and willingness to deal with cultural matters (e.g. Sercu et al.
2005). Learning a foreign or a second language should not be synonymous with losing one’s
identity. The learner of a foreign language should maintain his/her own identity and should not
compare him/herself to the linguistic competence of a native speaker. A non-native speaker ‘’will
always depend on more variables than the native speakers’ actions are governed by’’ (Kecsekes,
Papp 2000, 118).

Byram (2008, 57) suggests that beginning with the 1980’s the native speaker model was no longer
considered to be the norm since it represented an unattainable and unrealistic goal. Therefore, in
1997 the term intercultural speaker was coined by Byram and Zarate (Byram 2008, 57) and this
shifted the ‘’in-between position’’ (Byram 2008, 59) of non-native speakers.

In the image below are indicated some characteristics of both speaker models: (Petruș, Bocoș 2013,
158):

Image no. 12. Speaker models

Activity 1: Students are given various excerpts containing different concepts they have to become
familiarized with: cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, non-native speaker, intercultural speaker
etc. Students read these resources. A debate is organized in order to brainstorm ideas about the

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 advantages and disadvatages of being a culturally sensitive teacher in the foreign language
classroom.

Activity 2: Students have to design a teaching activity that focuses on the following topic: sayings
and proverbs. Students have to choose 5 – 6 sayings and design a teaching activity that aims to
develop learners’ writing skills. Afterwards they reflect upon the following question: Do you think
that sayings and proverbs can generate tolerance and respect for the English culture? This activity
could last for about 15 minutes.

Activity 3: Diary page. Students have to provide an answer to the following question: Have you
ever suffered from culture shock in relation to the English culture? Provide an example. This
activity could last for about 10 minutes.

Activity 4: Design an activity that would focus on the development of the four skills (speaking,
writing, reading and listening) and that would take also into consideration the development of one
of the following perspectives:

 Cultural knowledge
The knowledge of the culture’s institutions, the Big C, as it’s described by Tomalin and Stempleski
in their 1995 book ‘Cultural Awareness’.
 Cultural values
The ‘psyche’ of the country, what people think is important, it includes things like family,
hospitality, patriotism, fairness etc.
 Cultural behaviour
The knowledge of daily routines and behaviour, the little c, as Tomalin and Stempleski describe it.
 Cultural skills
The development of intercultural sensitivity and awareness, using the English language as the
medium of interaction.

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Takeaways:
 language and culture cannot be taught separately

 both the teacher and the learner should develop a certain degree of intercultural
communicative competence

Assignment:

1. What kinds of attitudes, skills and knowledge do you think an intercultural

speaker should develop in a globalized world?

2. Find another quote that could better characterize the topic of this course.

Today’s quote
“The person who learns a language without learning culture risks
becoming a fluent fool” (Bennett, Bennett, & Allen)

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 16. Glossary
Would-be teachers are faced with a new scientific domain. Therefore, a
glossary is needed in order to explain to them the meaning of specialized
vocabulary. One of the the aims of this course is to familiarize students with
the theoretical concepts that concern the teaching English as a foreign
language. All these terms that are found in the glossary below can be regarded
as keywords that are tackled during every seminar and course. Students have to improve their
vocabulary and should try to include terms that belong to the field of didactics during their micro-
teaching activities or when solving different assignments.
A few concepts have been selected from TKT University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations,
UCLES 2011.
Accuracy
The use of correct forms of grammar, vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation. In an accuracy
activity, teachers and learners typically focus on using and producing language correctly.
Activate previous knowledge
To get learners to think about and to say what they know about a topic. Teachers activate learners’
previous knowledge when they are preparing learners to read or listen to a text. Research has
demonstrated that when learners’ previous knowledge is activated, reading and listening
comprehension is increased
Activity-based learning
A way of learning by doing activities. The rules of language used in the activity are looked at
either after the activity or not at all.
Adapt (material)
To change a text or other material, so that it is suitable to use with a particular class
Aids
Aids are the things that a teacher uses in a class, e.g. handouts, pictures, flashcards. When teachers
plan lessons they think about what aids they will need.
Aim
What the teacher wants to achieve in the lesson or in the course.
The main aim is the most important aim, e.g. the teacher’s main aim in a lesson could be to teach
the present perfect or develop listening skills.
A stage aim is the aim or purpose of a stage, step or short section of a lesson, e.g. to provide
controlled practice of the present perfect or to develop listening for gist.
A subsidiary aim is the secondary focus of the lesson, less important than the main aim. It could
be the language or skills learners must be able to use in order to achieve the main aim of the lesson
or a skill or language area which is practised while focusing on the main aim.
A personal aim is what the teacher would like to improve in his/her teaching, e.g. to reduce the
time I spend
writing on the whiteboard
Anticipate (language) problems
When teachers are planning a lesson, they think about what their learners might find difficult about

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the language or skills in the lesson so that they can help them learn more effectively at certain
points in the lesson. They may also think about how learners’ previous learning experience may
affect their learning in a specific lesson
Attention span
How long a learner is able to concentrate at any one time.
Authentic material
Written or spoken texts which a first language speaker might read or listen to. They may be taken
from newspapers, radio etc. The language in the texts is not adapted or made easier for learners or
the language learning process
Brainstorm
To think of ideas (usually quickly) about a topic (often noting these down). This is often done as
preparation before a writing or speaking activity.
Class, learner profile
A description of the learners and information related to their learning, including their age, ability,
strengths and weaknesses in language and skills.
Classroom management
The strategies used by a teacher to organise the classroom, the learning and the learners, such as
seating arrangements, different types of activities, teacher roles and interaction patterns.
Closed question
A question which leads to a yes/no answer or another very short response, e.g. Did you come to
school by bus? Yes.What did you have for breakfast? Toast. See open question.
Cloze test
A task-type in which learners read a text with missing words and try to work out what the missing
words are. The missing words are removed regularly from the text, e.g. every seventh word. A
cloze test is used for testing reading ability or general language use. It is different from a gap-fill
activity, which can focus on practising or testing a specific language point.
Clue
A piece of information that helps someone to find the answer to a problem, e.g. a teacher could
give the first letter of a word she is trying to elicit as a clue to learners to help them find the word.
Coherence, coherent
When ideas in a spoken or written text fit together clearly and smoothly, and so are logical and
make sense to the listener or reader.
Collocation, collocate
Words which are regularly used together. The relation between the words may be grammatical, for
example when certain verbs/adjectives collocate with particular prepositions, e.g. depend on, good
at or when a verb like make or do collocates with a noun, e.g. do the shopping, make a plan.
Collocations may also be lexical when two content words are regularly used together, e.g. We went
the wrong way NOT We went the incorrect way.
Communicative activity
A classroom activity in which learners need to talk or write to one another to complete the activity.
Communicative approaches
A way of teaching and practising language which is based on the principle that learning a language
successfully involves communication rather than just memorising a series of rules. Teachers try to
focus on meaningful communication, rather than focusing on accuracy and correcting mistakes.
Components (of a lesson plan)
The main parts of a lesson plan, e.g. aims, procedure, timing, aids, interaction patterns, anticipated
problems, assumptions, timetable fit, personal aims.

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Convey meaning
To express or communicate meaning. Teachers focus on conveying meaning when they present
new language.
Correction code
A series of symbols a teacher may use to mark learners’ writing so that they can correct mistakes
by themselves, e.g. P = punctuation mistake, T = tense mistake.
Detail, read for detail, listen for detail
To listen to or read a text in order to understand most of what it says or particular details.
Differentiation, differentiate
To make or see a difference between people and things. In teaching, this can have a special
meaning relating to dealing with mixed ability learners in one class, e.g. the teacher can provide
different tasks, activities, texts or materials for different learners in the class according to their
ability.
A technique teachers use for encouraging learners to practise language. It involves guided
repetition or practice.
In a choral drill the teacher says a word or sentence and the learners repeat it together as a class.
In an individual drill the teacher says a word or sentence and one learner repeats it.
In a substitution drill the teacher provides a sentence and a different word or phrase which the
learner must use (or substitute) in exactly the same structure, e.g.
Teacher: I bought a book. Pen.
Learner: I bought a pen.
In a transformation drill the teacher says a word or a sentence and the learner answers by
changing the sentence into a new grammatical structure
Eclectic
An approach to language teaching in which the teacher uses techniques and activities taken from
different methods.
Elicit
When a teacher thinks that some learners will know a piece of language or other information, s/he
asks targeted questions or gives clues to get, or prompt learners to give the target language or
information rather than simply providing it to the class her/himself.
Error
A mistake that a learner makes when trying to say something above their level of language or
language processing.
A developmental error is an error made by a second language learner which could also be made
by a young person learning their mother tongue as part of their normal development, e.g. I goed
there last week (I went there last week).
A fossilised error is an error that has become a permanent feature of a learner’s language, the
error has become a habit. Fossilised errors cannot easily be corrected. When a learner makes a slip
they make a language mistake but they are able to correct themselves
Extensive listening/reading
Listening to or reading long pieces of text, such as stories or newspapers.
Extract
Part of a text which is removed from an original, longer text.
Facial expression
A person can show how they feel through their face, e.g. smiling, showing surprise.
Facilitator, facilitate
To make something possible. Teachers facilitate learning by planning and delivering lessons and

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maintaining discipline in the classroom.
Peer feedback
Feedback given to a learner by another learner in the class.
Filler
1. A short activity between the main stages of a lesson used for reasons such as time management
or to provide a change of pace etc.
2. A word or sound used between words or sentences in spoken English when someone is thinking
of what to say
Flashcard
A card with words, sentences or pictures on it. A teacher can use these to explain a situation, tell a
story, teach vocabulary etc.
Focus on form
Paying attention to the words/parts of words that make a language structure or to spelling or
pronunciation.
Form
The form of a grammatical structure is the way it is written or pronounced and the parts which
combine to make it, e.g. the present perfect (grammatical structure) is made up of have + past
participle (the form).
Gap-fill
An activity in which learners fill in spaces or gaps in sentences or texts. This is often used for
restricted practice or for focusing on a specific language point. This is different from a cloze test
which can focus on reading ability or general language use.
Gist, global understanding, listening/reading for gist, listening/reading for global
understanding
To read or listen to a text and understand the general meaning of it, without paying attention to
specific details
Grade (language)
To use language that is at the correct level for the learners and is not too easy or difficult
Graded reader
A book where the language has been made easier for learners. These are often books with stories
or novels where the language has been simplified
Group, class dynamics
The relationship between learners in the group or class.
Guidance, guide
Help given by a teacher with learning, or with doing a task.
Guided discovery
A way of teaching in which a teacher provides examples of the target language and then guides the
learners to work out the language rules for themselves.
Guided writing
A piece of writing that learners produce after the teacher has helped them to prepare for it by, for
example giving the learners a plan to follow, or ideas for the type of language to use.
Ice-breaker
An introductory activity that a teacher uses at the start of a new course so that learners can get to
know each other
Independent study
Studying without a teacher present or without the teacher monitoring and directing the learning
very closely, e.g. learners could carry out research on a topic using reference resources. This could

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be done at home or with minimum involvement of the teacher in class.
Infer attitude, feeling, mood
To decide how a writer or speaker feels about something from the way that they speak or write,
rather than from what they openly say.
Information-gap activity
A classroom activity in which learners work in pairs or groups. Learners are given a task, but they
are given different information and, to complete the task, they have to find out the missing
information from each other.
Integrated skills
An integrated skills lesson combines work on more than one language skill. For example reading
and then writing or listening and speaking.
Intensive listening/reading
One meaning of intensive listening/reading is reading or listening to focus on how language is
used in a text. This is how intensive listening/reading is used in TKT
Interaction patterns
The different ways learners and the teacher work together in class, e.g. learner to learner, in pairs
or groups or teacher to learner, in open class, in plenary. When teachers plan lessons, they think
about interaction patterns and write them on their plan.
Interference
Interference happens when the learner’s mother tongue affects performance in the target language,
especially in pronunciation, lexis or grammar. For example, a learner may make a grammatical
mistake because they apply the same grammatical pattern as they use in their mother tongue to
what they want to say in the target language, but the L1 grammatical pattern is not appropriate in
L2.
Interlanguage
Learners’ own version of the second language which they speak as they learn. Interlanguage is
constantly changing and developing as learners learn more of the second language.
Jigsaw listening/reading
A text is divided into two or more different parts. Learners listen to or read their part only, then
share their information with other learners so that in the end everyone knows all the information.
In this way, the text is made into an information-gap activity.
L1/L2
L1 is the learner’s mother tongue or first language; L2 is the learner’s second language. See
mother tongue, target language.
Language awareness
A learner’s understanding of the rules of how language works and his/her ability to notice
language
Lead-in, lead in
The activity or activities used to prepare learners to work on a text, topic or main task. A lead-in
often includes an introduction to the topic of the text or main task and possibly study of some new
key language required for the text or main task.
Learner autonomy noun, autonomous adjective, learner independence
When a learner can set his/her own aims and organise his/her own study, they are autonomous and
independent. Many activities in coursebooks help learners to be more independent by developing
learning strategies and focusing on learner training.
Learner-centred
When the learners are at the centre of the activities and have the chance to work together, make

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choices and think for themselves in a lesson.
Learner characteristics
The typical things about a learner or learners that influence their learning, e.g. age, L1, past
learning experience, learning style.
Learning resources
The materials or tools which help learners learn, e.g. books, computers, CDs etc.
Learning strategies
The techniques which learners consciously use to help them when learning or using language, e.g.
deducing the meaning of words from context; predicting content before reading
Learning style
The way in which an individual learner naturally prefers to learn something. There are many
learning styles. Three of them are below.
Auditory learner
A learner who remembers things more easily when they hear them spoken. This type of learner
may like the teacher to say a new word aloud and not just write it on the board.
Kinaesthetic learner
A learner who learns more easily by doing things physically. This type of learner may like to move
around or move objects while learning.
Visual learner
A learner who finds it easier to learn when they can see things written down or in a picture. This
type of learner may like the teacher to write a new word on the board and not just say it aloud.
Mixed ability, mixed level
The different levels of language or ability of learners studying in the same class
Monitor, self-monitor
1. To watch over learners in order to make sure that they are doing what they have been asked to
do, and help them if they are having problems.
2. To listen to/read the language you use to see if it is accurate and effective
One-to-one
A teaching situation which involves only one teacher and one learner.
Pairs
Closed pairs – When learners in the class do pairwork with the person sitting next to them but
not in front of the class.
Open pairs – In open pairs, one pair does a pairwork activity in front of the class. This
technique is useful for showing how to do an activity and/or for focusing on accuracy.
Prediction, predict
A technique or learning strategy learners can use to help with listening or reading. Learners think
about the topic before they read or listen. They try to imagine what the topic will be or what they
are going to read about or listen to, using clues like headlines or pictures accompanying the text or
their general knowledge about the text type or topic. This makes it easier for them to understand
what they read or hear
Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP)
A way of teaching new language in which the teacher presents the language, gets learners to
practise it in exercises or other controlled practice activities and then asks learners to use or
produce the same language in a communicative and less controlled way.
Pre-teach (vocabulary)
Before introducing a text to learners, the teacher can teach key vocabulary from the text which s/he
thinks the learners do not already know and which is necessary for them to understand the main

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points of a text.
Problem solving
Learners work in pairs or groups to find the solution to a problem. Problem-solving activities
usually help to develop oral fluency.
Procedure
The details of exactly what is going to happen in each stage of a lesson, e.g. learners practise the
language of complaints in a role-play in pairs.
Proficiency, proficient
Level of ability; to be very good at something because of training and practice, e.g. speaking
English
Prompt
To help learners think of ideas or to remember a word or phrase by giving them a part of it or by
giving another kind of clue. When a teacher suggests a word that the learner hasn’t remembered,
Rapport, build rapport
The relationship between the teacher and learners. Teachers try to build or create a good rapport or
relationship with their learners.
Realia
Real objects such as clothes, menus, timetables and leaflets that can be brought into the classroom
for a range of purposes.
Recycle
To focus on words or structures that have been taught before, for revision and more practice
Reflect on teaching, learning
To think about a lesson after teaching it or to think about learning in order to decide what worked,
what did not work and how to improve teaching/learning in the future.
Reflective (teachers)
Teachers who look back on the lessons they have taught and think about what worked and what
did not work in order to improve their teaching.
Role-play
A classroom activity in which learners are given roles to act out in a given situation, e.g. a job
interview role-play where one learner would be the interviewer and the other learner would be the
interviewee. Role-plays are usually done in pairs or groups.
Scaffolding
A term originally used to refer to teacher talk that supports pupils in carrying out activities and
helps them to solve problems. Examples include simplifying tasks by breaking them down into
smaller steps; keeping pupils focused on completing the task by reminding them of what the goal
is; showing other ways of doing tasks. Scaffolding also includes support strategies for writing and
speaking, examples of which are the use of substitution tables and language frames. Scaffolding
is temporary support which is gradually taken away so that learners can eventually work without it.
Scan
To read a text quickly to pick out specific information, e.g. finding a phone number in a phone
book
Seating arrangement, seating plan
The way the learners sit in the classroom, e.g. in rows, in a circle around the teacher, in groups
around different tables. A plan of where the learners should sit in the classroom.
Skim
To read a text quickly to get a general idea of what it is about.
Stirrer noun

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A lively activity teachers use to activate children in class. For example, a mingle or an action game
Subskill
Each of the four language skills can be divided into smaller subskills that are all part of the main
skill, e.g. identifying text organisation (reading); identifying word stress (listening).
Target language culture
The traditions and culture of the country whose language is being studied
Wait time
The time that teachers wait in order to give learners time to respond to questions rather than
expecting an immediate response.
(Source: TKT University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations, UCLES 2011)

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 17. Useful websites and literature
Would-be teachers should keep in mind the fact that they are not only
deliverers of information but also learners. Therefore, they should invest in
their professional development (Bretan, Petruș 2013, 89). Nowadays, teachers
can find various multimodal resources that they can use to add value to the
coursebooks they use.
We suggest below just a few digital resources and literature that might help would-be teachers to
further understand the didactics of the English language.

Literature:
Dörney Zoltan, (2001). Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge University
Press.
Harmer Jeremy, (2007). How To Teach English (with DVD). Pearson Longman.
Harmer Jeremy, (2012). Essential Teacher Knowledge Book and DVD Pack. Pearson United
Kingdom.
Larsen-Freeman Diane, (2008). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Second Edition.
Oxford University Press.
Scott Thornbury, Watkins Peter, (2007). The CELTA Course Trainee Book. Cambridge University
Press.
Scrivener Jim, (2011). Learning Teaching. The Essential Guide to English Language Teaching.
Third edition. Macmillan.
Spratt Mary, Pulverness Alan, Williams Melanie, (2011). The TKT Course Modules 1, 2 and 3.
Second Edition. Cambridge University Press.
Thornbury Scott, (2000). How to Teach Grammar. Pearson Education.
Ur Penny, Wright Andrew, (1992). Five-Minute Activities: A Resource Book of Short Activities.
Cambridge University Press.
Woodward Tessa, (2001). Planning Lessons and Courses: Designing Sequences of Work for the
Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press.
Web resources:
http://www.onestopenglish.com
http://www.cambridge.org/ro/elt/?site_locale=ro_RO
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos?categories=topics_class-culture

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 18. Bibliography
1. Adey P. et. al (1999). Learning styles and strategies. A review of research, King’s Collage
London School of Education.
2. Andersson L. G., Trudgill P., (1992). Bad language, England: Penguin Books
3. Bretan B., Petruș R. (2013). Pre-Service Teaching Practice Kit, Cluj-Napoca: Casa Cărții de
Știință
4. Brookes A., Grundy P., (1991). Writing for study purposes. A teacher's guide to developing
individual writing skills, USA: Cambridge University Press
5. Byram M., (2008). From Foreign Language Education to Education for Intercultural
Citizenship. Essays and Reflections. UK, USA, Canada: Multilingual Matters
6. Byram M., Nichols A., Stevens d., (2001). Developing Intercultural Competence in Practice.
UK, USA, Canada, Australia: Multilingual Matters Limited
7. Hall E., (1981). The Silent Language. New York: Anchor Books.
8. Harmer J., (2004) How to teach writing, England: Pearson Education Limited
9. Harmer J., (2007). How to teach English, new edition, England: Pearson Education Limited
10. Harmer J., (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching, fourth edition, England:
Pearson Education Limited
11. Hedge T., (1992). Writing, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press
12. Kecskes I., Papp T., (2000). Foreign Language and the Mother Tongue, Lawrence New Jersey:
Erlbaum Associates Inc.
13. Larsen-Freeman D., (2000). Techniques and principles in language Teaching, Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press
14. Lightbrown P., Spada N., (1993). How languages are Learned, Oxford, UK: Oxford University
Press
15. Parkinson John, (2004). Improving Secondary Science Teaching, London, USA, Canada:
Routledge
16. Petruș R., Bocoș. M. (2013). ‘’Teaching Culture and Language in an Integrated Way. A
Perspective on an Initial Teacher Training Program’’, p. 155-162 in Diversitate culturală și
Limbaje de Specialitate –mize și perspective, Sonia Munteanu, Bianca Bretan (ed.), Cluj-
Napoca: Casa Cărții de Știință.

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17. Richards J. (1990). “Communicative needs in foreign language learning”, in Rossner R.,
Bolitho R., Currents of Change in English Language Teaching, Oxford: Oxford University
Press
18. Scrivener J., (2013). Classroom Management Techniques, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press
19. Thornbury, S., Watkins, P. A. (2007). The CELTA course: Certificate in English language
teaching to adults : trainee book. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Web:
1. http://ci484-learning-
technologies.wikispaces.com/Behaviorism,+Cognitivism,+Constructivism+%26+Connectivism,
accessed on February 25, 2013
2. http://onecentatatime.com/25-everyday-techniques-to-save-environment, accessed on February
26, 2013

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