TESOL 120 HOURS COURSE

Module 1: Teaching and learning

Learning a new language can be difficult, so teaching a new language inherently comes with
great obstacles. To effectively teach English to someone new to the language, you must
understand many things, including the basics of the English language, how speakers acquire
a new language, and how to motivate students to succeed when they are struggling. In this
module, we will discuss the basics of how to get started, including taking a hard look at how
to access the motivations of new students, how to use their previous language and cultural
background to your advantage, and how to get them started on the path to English fluency.

Our expert authors hail from countries all around the world, which means that they might be
writing in American English, British English, Australian English, or other variations of our
shared language. Please keep in mind that there might be spelling variations in our courses.

1.1 Motivation

1.2 Understanding cultural backgrounds

1.3 The importance of a first language

1.4 Getting started

1.1 Motivation

Teaching any subject involves knowing how motivation affects a student. Without proper
motivation, it will be difficult for students to accept what they are learning and commit to the
process. Since learning a new language can be one of the hardest academic endeavors
there is, it is even more important that you, the teacher, understand the motivation behind
your students' commitment to learning, and use it to your advantage. We will discuss
motivation by first breaking it down into its two smaller parts: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic
motivation.

1.1.1 Intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation is the best stepping stone to success, but you can't teach it. Intrinsic
motivation characterizes someone who is compelled to do something for internal
rewards. This type of motivation is powerful because extrinsic rewards can be fleeting or
disappointing, but an internal drive to succeed will almost always motivate an individual.
While you cannot teach someone to be intrinsically motivated, you can help your students
access intrinsic motivation they may not know they already possess, or that they may
have lost for the moment. If you know your students are intrinsically motivated, you can
help them succeed. Here are some tips to access and use your students’ intrinsic
motivation:

 Get to the root of what is driving the individual. While they may only acknowledge an
extrinsic motivation for learning English, you may be able to help them tie that to a
grander internal drive. For example, if students come to you wanting to learn English
because they are moving to an English-speaking country and it will be helpful to
 know the language, the superficial part of their reasoning points toward extrinsic
motivation. However, this extrinsic motivator points to something internal: the desire
to fit in and not feel like an outsider.
 Understand the basis for most forms of intrinsic motivation. William Glasser, an
American psychiatrist, published a theory in 1998 proposing that humans have
essential needs that dictate our emotional health. These needs are the need to
belong or connect, the need for power or competence, the need for freedom, and the
need to have fun. Having these needs in mind could help you when designing your
lessons. Which of these needs is this lesson satisfying? This is a way to get away
from the punishment and reward system that is meant to access an individual’s
extrinsic motivation.
 Be aware that intrinsic motivation cannot be forced, and does not abide by the classic
reward and punishment system that many people follow. For example, if someone is
not reacting to your lessons, it is not going to be helpful to intentionally make them
feel that they don’t belong. For intrinsic motivation to succeed, the individual needs
to feel like he or she is in control of the situation, so try to access your students’
internal drive but don’t force them.

1.1.2 Extrinsic motivation

While extrinsic motivation is not nearly as strong as intrinsic motivation, it is much easier, as
the teacher, for you to control. Extrinsic motivation refers to the external force compelling an
individual to do something for a reward. Because of their ease of use in teaching, extrinsic
motivators are often the basis for educational programs. The most common extrinsic
motivator the assignment of grades. Teachers can simply reward good behavior and punish
bad behavior by assigning
grades accordingly. (Behavior here refers to whatever the student is expected to do). A
student who hands in their project, follows directions, and effectively addresses the purpose
of the project is rewarded with an A, whereas a student who does not is punished with an F.

Why it works

Even though as stated previously, the drive initiated by extrinsic motivation pales in
comparison to intrinsic motivation, that doesn't mean you cannot find success with extrinsic
motivation. These motivators access an individual’s desire to find success even if someone
else defines that success. Here are some examples of extrinsic motivators that work in the
classroom:

 Grades: This is the most obvious extrinsic motivator. Individuals want to be successful
and they feel better when they receive a high score as opposed to a low score. If you
teach in a high school setting, grades can mean the difference as to whether or not the
student gets into college (or a good college), so grades can be a good motivator for
students. Even when there is no next level, however, many students will be motivated
to succeed by grades.
 Competition: Many individuals have an innate desire to be winners, and putting your
students in competition with each other can be a good way to motivate them to
succeed, especially if the ongoing results are available to all students. This approach
often used by teachers of younger students with such things as performance charts,
where teachers give students who do well some sort of visible reward, such as a gold
star. Conversely, teachers can punish negative behaviors by posting the name of the
 student in question on the board as someone who is not behaving. This can sometimes
help motivate students to succeed because they would like to do better than their
classmates.
 Extra rewards and punishments: Besides grades, some teachers will offer extra
incentive to succeed, perhaps in the form of prizes. A teacher might, for example, make
an agreement with a student that if he or she improves, then he or she can go on the
class trip. Conversely, punishments such as detentions or phone calls home can be a
consequence that motivates a student.

1.1.3 Which type of motivation is better?

While intrinsic motivation is stronger than extrinsic motivation, it is not very immediate and
therefore can lose effect in the short-term. Extrinsic motivation can be very helpful in the
short term, but is often only temporary. For that reason, the best type of motivation is a
combination of the two. Even students with intrinsic motivation sometimes need to be
motivated by extrinsic rewards and punishments to keep them on track. Here are some
examples of how you can use both intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation to help your
students:

 We’ll start with an example we have previously used: an individual would like to learn
English because she is moving to an English-speaking country. Whether she realizes
it, this can be an example of intrinsic motivation and her need to fit in and be successful.
You can help her access this by asking her to write down the reasons why she thinks
it would be helpful to learn English, and then look deeply into those reasons. While this
desire can be a strong motivator, you may find that this student begins slacking off
during your lessons. She may be having trouble seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Using extrinsic motivators, such as grades or rewards, can help her over the hurdle
and get back on track. The lasting motivation that will drive her to succeed is the need
to fit in, but the temporary motivation of grades or a reward will help her succeed when
she is having trouble seeing the finish line.
 A man comes to you and tells you he wants to learn English so he can get a promotion
and make more money in his corporate career. While money and prestige are both
extrinsic motivators, the need for approval and competence is intrinsic. This is an
individual who is driven by the desire to succeed, so extrinsic motivators will be very
effective on him. If he wants to use this as a way of advancing his career, then he will
likely want to learn English while attaining the highest grades or scores possible so he
can flaunt his success. This is the extrinsic carrot that you can use to help him succeed.
 A woman feels stuck in a job that is stifling and wants to pursue a career that requires
her to know English and comes to you for help. This individual is intrinsically motivated
by her need for control and freedom. She is less likely to be motivated by outside
influences and more likely to be motivated by a less overbearing and prescribed
teaching style. However, she may still require some extrinsic motivators to continue
striving for success, so you may need to let her frame her own definition of success
and then grade her on the framework she created. This will give her the freedom she
wants while still holding her personally accountable for her actions.
1.2 Understanding cultural backgrounds

One of the first steps you need to take as an educator is to take their cultural background
into account. Instead of trying to present you all the potential cultural backgrounds your
students bring to the table (which could be an entire course in itself), we are instead going
to focus on why it is important to consider your students’ backgrounds and why it can be
useful to adjust your instruction to better address the varying backgrounds of your students

1.2.1 Why is it important to understand your students’ cultural backgrounds?

Language is directly related to culture because language is fluid and changes over time as
the culture of a region changes. This is why such languages like Italian and French can both
originate from Latin but still be fundamentally different. Latin was taken to these regions,
and it developed as the culture of the regions developed, taking two very different paths in
Italian and French. So, as much as it is important to teach cultural elements as you teach
English, it is important to take into account the importance of an individual’s cultural origins.
These cultural backgrounds can not only affect the way they learn a new language, but also
the way they learn in general. Here are some ways that an individual’s cultural background
can affect their learning of a new language:

 A student’s environment can have an enormous effect on the way they learn. Studies
have shown that language acquisition is considerably affected by an individual’s
background, and while learning a new language isn’t the same as learning your first
language, environment can still be important in an individual learning a second
language. A student who comes from a home that values education comes from a
home that nurtures what he or she is learning. A student who comes from a home
that values life experience over formal education might have more difficulty with
traditional lessons.
 Students from various cultural backgrounds will react to different styles of teaching
in different ways. Some of your students may be coming from a background of very
strict, teacher-led instruction. Others may be coming from a background of more free,
student-led instruction. While both styles have merit, you will find yourself needing
to use differentiation to properly reach both of these students. You can determine
how to best meet the needs of your students by simply asking them through an
informal conversation or a standard pre-test. Let your students tell you how they
learn best, and adjust your teaching to appeal to their needs.
 An individual’s cultural background can affect the way they think, which can affect
the student’s performance in your classroom. Taking your students’ cultural
backgrounds into account when you are designing and implementing your instruction
will help you account for the potential different ways that your students think.

1.3 The importance of a first language

More important than understanding your students’ cultural background is understanding how
their first language will affect the speed and ease with which they learn English as a new
language. While a student’s cultural background can affect the way they learn, a student’s
native language can affect the way they view language to begin with. What are some of the
obstacles students face when trying to learn English as a second language?
1.3.1 Language barriers

Every language has its own rules, and while many languages share similarities that make
new language acquisition simpler, some students will be trying to transition to a new set of
rules and language structure. Here are some examples of how language is structured
differently:

 Some languages have been created based on symbols or pictures that represent
ideas rather than words made of letters. The transition to English from languages
that follow such a structure can be very difficult.
 Some languages are read from right to left rather than left to right, which is how
English is read. This does not necessarily affect a student’s ability to gain proficiency
in speaking the language, but it certainly presents a hurdle for students trying to learn
to read English.
 Many languages require a different sentence structure than English does. One of the
most common examples is when languages place adjectives differently in a sentence
than they are in English. In English someone might say “go get the blue car.” That
same sentence in some languages would translate back to English as “go get the
car blue.” This can make fluency difficult.
 Many students will be confused by the way verbs are conjugated in English. Many
languages have set rules that apply to the conjugation of most verbs, while English
can seem like a free-for-all at times.

1.3.2 How can we use our students’ native languages to our advantage?

While a new language like English will cerainly present obstacles for your students to
overcome, there are ways you can take those obstacles and turn them into advantages. If
your students are coming to class already understanding a language other than English,
why not use that to help them learn better? Here are some ways that teachers can use a
student’s native language to help them learn a new language:

 It is important that you understand cognates, and how to use them. A cognate is a
word, or root word, used in different languages and has a similar etymological
background. In other words, you can provide a link for your students between their
native language and English. These cognates can be little pockets of comfort for
your students as they tread into the unknown territory of a new language.
 Developing further on the above point, emphasize breaking words down to their roots
as you are teaching them. This helps students have a better understanding of the
patterns of the English language, which will help them succeed more quickly. This
makes it easier for students to link the two languages through cognates, but also
makes it easier for students to make connections between new words they are
learning.
 Using different texts is a good way to help students ease into the new language.
Providing a translated version of the text may change the structure, connotation, and
intent, but it will give the student a frame of reference for when they get stuck.
Translated texts can be a crutch for new language learners, but if they are used
properly, they can work as a guide to help students feel more comfortable with a new
language.
 Try asking questions in the student’s native language, but ask them to answer in
English. Or switch it around and ask them questions in English that they need to
 answer in their native language. This may be more work for you, depending on the
diversity of your classroom, but it can help students ease into understanding English.
 Use your students’ native language to help scaffold and model in English. This can
be as simple as having your students write in their native language and then showing
them how it would look in English. You could then ask them to do the same thing
following your model. Unfortunately, this may require you to be fluent in many of
languages, but you can work through it with the student if you don’t speak their native
language.
 Have your students help each other. Even if the students do not speak the same
native language, they are going through the same process and can bond in their
desire to learn English and help each other learn.

1.4 Getting started

It is no mystery that teaching students a new language is a difficult task, but it can be infinitely
rewarding. So, how do you actually get started on your career? The first step, of course, you
have already taken, which is to seek training. Let’s take a look at some other important
aspects of successfully helping your students.

1.4.1 Ensuring your success

Here are some basic tips to ensure that you are successful and able to help your students
learn English as a second language:

 Make sure you are well versed in the structure and makeup of the English language.
We will discuss many things you need to know, but it couldn’t hurt to supplement this
course with further study of the language. The English language is incredibly
complex and full of rules that are not necessarily logical, so it will always help you to
study up.
 While we will give you many tools to become an effective teacher of English as a
second language, it is important you continually seek out research and professional
journal articles to keep up with the current educational trends. We are constantly
discovering how we attain language and how we learn, so teaching English as a
second language is a lifelong educational commitment.
 Make sure you understand how learners acquire new knowledge. As we have
discussed earlier in this module, that does not just refer to language acquisition, but
to knowledge acquisition as a whole. Learn everything you need to know about
differentiation (which we will discuss at length in a future module) to give your
students the best chance to succeed in learning their new language.
 Be prepared to be patient. If you do not come from a teaching background, you may
not be aware the patience it takes to help someone learn something new. If you do
come from a teaching background, then understand this may be the most difficult
thing to teach someone, and you will need to be even more patient than you may
have expected.
 Continually use your experiences to build strategies and concepts that work for your
students. All the training in the world will help you, but the true answers to your
questions of “how?” will come from experience. Make sure you don’t forget any of
the lessons you learn along the way.
1.4.2 Understanding the basics

There is a basic framework you will need to follow to be successful in helping students learn
a new language. While we will discuss most of these concepts in detail in future modules,
here is an overview to help you get started on your path to success:

 Linguistics:

Helping your students understand the basics of linguistics will help ensure that they
understand the basics of how the English language is structured, how we break down
and diagram the components of a sentence, and how we communicate in English.
This concept will give students a structure on which to build their true understanding
of the language.

 Reading:

Reading is one of the first skills you will develop with your students. It is typically
where most teachers of English as a second language begin, because having words
in front of the student can make them feel more comfortable when trying to decipher
them. Students can learn to see words and sound them out with the guidance of the
word in front of them.

 Writing:

The next step is usually to work on your student’s skills in writing in English. They
will have the guidance of the words in front of them as they do when they learn to
read, but it requires them to take the next step because they will be the ones
producing the words. This is a great time for students to work on the linguistic
principles they already studied, and practice sentence structure, syntax, and other
basic concepts of English.

 Speaking:

Speaking can be the most difficult part of learning a new language. Having to sound
the words out loud can add an extra level of anxiety because everyone in the class will
hear the student if they make a mistake. Creating a classroom of respect and support
can go a long way to assuage your students’ anxiety. If the student feels comfortable
enough that they are not afraid to make mistakes in front of the class, they will be more
willing to take risks.

 Listening:

While listening is arguably a more difficult skill than speaking concerning a new
language, students often feel more comfortable with it because they are not required
to put themselves out there as much. However, listening is the next step after the
students begin learning to speak the language. If a student can listen to something in
English, comprehend it, and respond properly, they are exhibiting a complex
understanding of the language, and is usually doing it without a visual reference
(besides body language).
Module 2: Linguistics

Linguistics is the study of language and its structure, and is an invaluable tool for individuals
who are trying to learn a new language. As we begin to think about how we are going to help
our students read, write, speak, and listen to a new language, we need to prepare to give
them the basics in structure that will help them understand the overall structure of the English
language. In this module, we will discuss all of the major aspects of linguistics, including
phonology, lexicology, morphology, syntax, phonetics, and semantics. By studying these
concepts yourself, you will be better prepared to help your students learn them in the future.

2.1 Phonology

2.2 Morphology

2.3 Lexicology

2.4 Syntax

2.5 Semantics

2.1 Phonology

Phonology is the study of the sound and structure of a language. Essentially, phonology
concerns itself with the mental representation of a sound, so understanding phonology
means that you understand how to break down a word into its smaller sounds and pronounce
it. This can help students tremendously in learning English for the first time because it gives
them a great tool for breaking down new words and pronouncing words that they have not
necessarily seen before. Let’s take a look at some of the basic concepts within phonology.

2.1.1 Basics of phonology

You can’t study phonology without discussing phonetics, but for the purposes of this course,
phonology is more important. Phonology deals with how we mentally break down the
pronunciation of words, while phonetics deals with producing the sounds; therefore,
phonology is more relevant for people who are learning a new language, not learning spoken
language for the first time.

In phonology, words are broken down into smaller units that represent sounds to make it
easier for new learners to understand how to pronounce new words. If students understand
the common sound units in the English language, they will be able to sound out most words,
making language acquisition much more comfortable. Here is a breakdown of some of those
units of sound:

Phonemes: A phoneme is a unit of sound that when replaced changes the sound of a word
in a particular language. English is a complicated language for people to learn because even
though there are twenty-six letters, there are forty-four phonemes. These phonemes
represent all iterations of sounds that a letter can make. For example, a “c” can sound like
a “k” or an “s,” depending on its position in a word. If an individual understands phonemes,
he or she will understand all the different sounds in the English language. Phonemes are
broken down into two categories: vowels and consonants.
Vowels: A vowel is an open sound that is spoken without blockage from the lips or tongue.
Vowels can be difficult because they are very versatile and shift and change a lot depending
on the word in which they appear. Vowels are typically broken down into the following
categories:

 Single vowels
 Short vowels
 Schwa
 Long vowels
 Diphthongs

Consonants: Consonants are sounds that are spoken with obstruction from the lips, teeth,
or tongue. Just like vowels, they can be complicated to understand because there are so
many variations of similar sounds. Consonants can be broken down into the following
categories:

 Voiced consonants
 Unvoiced consonants

Minimal pair: Two words that differ in meaning because they contain one phoneme that is
different are called minimal pairs. Minimal pairs are often words that rhyme or at least form
a near rhyme.

Phone: A phone is the smallest unit of sound and refers to the way in which an individual
pronounces a sound. It can therefore exist in more than one language. This is different from
a phoneme, which refers specifically to the sound that is assigned to a letter or group of
letters in a given language. For this reason, phones can be universal to all languages, while
phonemes are specific to individual languages.

Accents: When a syllable or sound within a word is given more attention than the others.
This changes the way an individual pronounces a word.

 Stress accent, dynamic accent, or stress: When an accented syllable is given a

change in pitch and volume, it is referred by any of these three names.
 Pitch accent: When the accented syllable is differentiated through a change in only
the pitch which it is pronounced.
 Quantitative accent: When the accented syllable is differentiated through only a
lengthening of the syllable.

Intonations: A change in the pitch of a word or syllable that does not change the meaning
of the word or syllable but rather indicates any of a number of different situations, including:

 Revealing the feelings of the speaker.

 Identifying the phrase as a question or distinguishing between different types of
questions.
 Giving importance to a word or phrase in the statement or question.
2.2 Morphology

Morphology is very closely related to phonology in that it is concerned with the structure of
language. Specifically, however, morphology deals with the structure of language
morphemes, phonemes, and other linguistic units. The English language relies heavily on
morphology, especially regarding English language acquisition. Understanding the
morphological relationship between two words can help an individual recognize a similar
morphological relationship between two different words, which helps them better understand
new words and phrases. For example, if an individual can recognize the morphological
relationship between the words “heart” and “monitor” in the phrase “heart monitor,” then he
or she can use that to understand other complex nouns. Using this knowledge, an English
language learner can take an educated guess to determine what the phrase “hall monitor”
means.

2.2.1 Basics of morphology

To truly understand morphology, one must fully understand morphemes, which are the basis
of the area of study. While phonemes refer to the sounds that make up the structure of
words, morphemes are the physical structural units in a word.

Morphemes: Morphemes are sometimes referred to as the smallest linguistic unit that
carries meaning. While phonemes are smaller, they essentially build towards pronunciation
rather than meaning. Breaking a word into its morphemes allows an individual to separate
and (better understand) the root words, prefixes, and suffixes. Here is an example:

In the sentence, “Send these schematics down to the marketers.” the word, “marketers”
has 3 morphemes.

Morpheme 1: Market. The root of the word that carries the major meaning of the word. This
word could stand alone and make sense if it needed to (though not in the sentence we
plucked it from). This morpheme is called the free lexical morpheme.

Morpheme 2: -er. This is the suffix that is added to the word, carrying with it the inherent
meaning of “one who does something.” Understanding the suffix allows a student to
understand that a marketer is one who markets. This morpheme is called the bound lexical
morpheme.

Morpheme 3: -s. This letter is added so that the amount is clear and that the word fits in the
sentence grammatically with the intended meaning. The sentence would still make sense
without this morpheme, but it would change the meaning. This morpheme is called the bound
grammatical morpheme.

In the above example, we discussed some classifications for morphemes. Let’s look closer
at these.

Free lexical morpheme: This term is used to describe a morpheme that can exist on its
own and make sense. In the previous example, the free lexical morpheme was “market.”
Alone, “market” is a word. Conversely, “er” is not a word that can exist on its own and still
make sense. While in this case the free lexical morpheme was the root word, it does not
have to be. The word “classroom” is composed of two free lexical morphemes—“class” and
“room.”

Bound lexical morpheme: This term is used to describe a morpheme that is bound to
another morpheme lexically and cannot make sense without it. This term often refers to
prefixes and suffixes that are added to words to adjust their meaning. These morphemes
cannot function alone and serve to simply modify the meaning of the free lexical morpheme
to which they are attached.

Bound grammatical morpheme: This term is used to describe a morpheme that is bound
to another morpheme and serves the purpose of helping its word fit into a sentence
grammatically. In the following example, notice the importance of the bound grammatical
morpheme (we will use “s” in the same way we used it in the previous example). In the
phrase, “John threw two balls to Mike,” the “s” in the word “balls” is the bound grammatical
morpheme. The sentence would not make grammatical sense without it, as it would read
“John threw two ball at Mike.”

Free grammatical morpheme: While we did not clearly identify this in the previous
examples, free grammatical morpheme is a term used to describe morphemes that are not
bound to other morphemes but are there to serve a grammatical purpose. Usually, these
words are articles, conjunctions, and prepositions. In the sentence above, “John threw the
ball at Mike,” “at” is a free grammatical morpheme.

Understanding these basic concepts can help a new language learner get a sense of how a
language is structured and help them be able to make connections and learn new words
and phrases more easily.

2.3 Lexicology

Lexicology is the study of words and therefore includes elements of many other aspects of
linguistics that we will discuss in this module. When we study words in lexicology, we look
closely at how words are formed, what makes them different from other words, uniform rules
that affect usage and/or conjugation, and the different connotations and meanings of
synonyms. All of these ideas will help your students move from understanding the sounds
that make up the English language to understanding the words that make up the English
language. Here is an overview of some of the basic principles of lexicology and its
associated vocabulary:

2.3.1 Basics of lexicology

To understand lexicology, it is important to break it down into its smaller parts to look at how
each works to create the overall study of lexicology. A clear understanding of lexicology and
its basic principles and terminology will help you and your students find more success by
easing their understanding of words and their function within a sentence.

Lexeme: A lexeme is a lexicological unit of linguistics, which, for the most part, refers to a
root word. The lexeme is the part of a word (even if that is the whole word) that imparts the
most meaning, with conjugation or prefixes and suffixes added to adjust the meaning. In
other words, the word “snow” is a lexeme, and all iterations of that word, such as “snows,”
“snowed”, or “snowing,” all share this same lexeme. By breaking down words to their roots,
students can better break down new words, connect to a word’s etymology, or even find a
cognate they can relate to.

Lexical items: Whereas a lexeme is the root of a word, a lexical item is the entirety of a
word or phrase that imparts meaning. In our previous example, we mentioned that “snows,”
“snowed,” and “snowing” all have the same lexeme, which is “snow.” In that example, all of
those words are different lexical items. A lexical item can also be a combination of words,
such as “class work,” or a phrase, such as “in the way.” Essentially, lexical items are the
units in a sentence that have separate meaning.

Word forms: The term “word forms” encompasses all the iterations of a similar lexeme. In
other words, some word forms of the lexeme “go” are “goes,” “went,” and “will go.” This term
is used to describe the different conjugations of a verb, the different tenses of a word, or the
different forms of a word based on amount.

Another important idea that would be helpful to know is that lexicology also encompasses
lexical structure, which deals with the structure of words and their parts. Let’s take a closer
look at lexical structure:

Lexical structure: Lexical structure refers to the internal structure of lexemes as well as the
structure of the lexicon of a language. The “lexicon” is just a fancy term for all of the words
in a group.

 Paradigms: Differences in meaning that rely on the substitution of words. In other

words, if you look closely at a phrase, such as “Bill ran to his truck,” making a
paradigmatic change would require a substitution. This would result in a different
phrase, for example, “Bill ran to his wife” or “Frank ran to his truck.” These changes
completely change the meaning of the sentence because different subjects and
objects can be substituted.
 Syntagms: These are differences that result from the positioning of words in a
phrase. In other words, to make a syntagmatic change in a sentence, you would
change the order of the words to adjust the meaning of the sentence. For example,
if the sentence “Johnny threw the ball to Mary” is changed to “Mary threw the ball to
Johnny,” then the difference is syntagmatic.
 Co-text: We will discuss semantic ideas in detail later in the module, but this term is
relevant to both aspects of linguistics. The co-text of a word is the linguistic context,
which means that it is the linguistic meaning of a word or the meaning that a word
inherently carries with it.
 Context: Context is another semantic term but also a concept that even laymen
know. The context of a word is the words and sentences around it that give it
meaning. Whereas co-text covers the various meanings that can be attributed to a
word, the context refers to the specific meaning of the word that is intended based
on the surrounding words and sentences.

2.4 Syntax

Now that we have learned about how sounds and words are created, it is time to discuss
how sentences are formed. Syntax is the set of rules that govern the grammatical
construction of sentences in a language. For English, these rules are fairly complicated, but
let’s take a close look at some of the basic ideas behind English grammar and syntax.
2.4.1 Basics of syntax

To understand syntax, we have to look more closely at all of the parts that make up a
sentence. The first step is to understand how sentences are classified:

Clausal sentence (simple sentence): A clausal sentence is a simple sentence that

contains only one clause or one complete proposition (subject and predicate). For example,
the sentence “Gloria is going to the store” contains only one clause, which includes a subject
(“Gloria), a verb (“is going”), and an object (“the store”).

Compound sentence: A compound sentence is a sentence that consists of more than one
clause (known in this case as coordinating clauses because they work together to complete
an idea). For example, the sentence “Maryann went to the mall and got a new shirt” is a
compound sentence containing the clauses “Maryann went to the mall” and “got a new shirt.”
In the second clause, the subject (“Maryann) is implicit.

What about the words that make up these clauses? The English language has innumerable
rules for how words should be structured and organized within a sentence. The first
categories you need to know to understand these rules, though, are the parts of speech.

 Noun: A noun is word that describes a person, place, thing, or idea.

 Verb: A verb describes an action or a state of being.
 Adjective: An adjective is a word that modifies a noun.
 Adverb: An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
 Preposition: A preposition is a word that describes the relationship between a
verb and its object.
 Pronoun: A pronoun is a more general word that takes the place of a specific
noun.
 Conjunction: A conjunction is a word that links two coordinating clauses together.

Now that we know the parts of speech, we can begin diagramming sentences. Here is an
example of a sentence with all of the parts of speech labeled:

Lei quickly ran down the dark street to find and catch his dog.

Lei Noun
quickly Adverb
ran Verb
down Preposition
the Adjective (article)
dark Adjective
street Noun
to Preposition
find Verb
and Conjunction
catch Verb
his Pronoun
dog Noun
While it would be impossible for us to cover every single syntactical rule in the English
language, here are a few more that are directly relevant to your students who are learning
English for the first time:

 Every sentence needs at least a subject and a predicate. The subject of the
sentence is the noun that is acting or being. The predicate is the phrase that consists
of the verb and the object (not every sentence needs an explicit object).
 The verb and the subject of the sentence need to agree, meaning that if you are
using a plural noun, you need to use the plural form of a verb.
 For the most part, the best way to frame a sentence is in active rather than passive
voice. This means that the sentence “Sammy threw the ball to Jane” is more
grammatically sound than if it were passive and written “The ball was thrown to Jane
by Sammy.”
 Verb tense needs to agree throughout a piece of writing or spoken language. If the
first verb you use is in past tense, then all subsequent verbs with the same intention
should be past tense.

2.5 Semantics

We have successfully worked our way up to understanding how sentences are structured,
and now it is time to discuss words again, but this time we will look at the connotative and
complex meanings that they carry. Semantics is a branch of linguistics that involves the
study of words and their meanings.

2.5.1 Theories of semantics

Typically, the concept of semantics is divided into three theories of semantics: formal
semantics, lexical semantics, and conceptual semantics. Each of these types of semantics
delves into the true meanings of words and will help your students understand the intricacies
of the English language.

Formal semantics: Formal semantics is a very mathematical theory that strives to

understand the meaning of words by forming exact mathematical principles and ideals that
speakers and writers can use. People who subscribe to the formal semantics theory look for
the relationship between how language forms and the world in which it forms to try to
understand how people create meaningful discourse.

Lexical semantics: Lexical semantics is a theory that the meaning of a word is understood
by looking at its context. In this way, sentences can be broken down into semantic
constituents or words and phrases that carry meaning and context. This theory promotes
the analysis of how words and phrases play off each other to build meaning.

Conceptual semantics: Conceptual semantics is a theory that highlights the importance of

the internal structure of words. Theorists believe that the best way to understand the
meaning of a word in a sentence is to look at the word itself, its internal structure, and how
it combines different, smaller elements.
2.5.1 Extending word meaning

Truly understanding the English language means understanding the complexities of the
language that allow speakers of the language to build different layers of meaning in their
speech. Understanding these complexities takes a strong grasp of semantics and the ability
to analyze context. When we talk about word meaning, we can generally break it down into
two categories:

Denotation: Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word. You can easily find the
denotation for a word in the dictionary. With synonyms, the denotation is similar or the same.

Connotation: Connotation refers to the implied meaning that the word often has because
the word is used to describe something beyond what the denotation states. Take a look at
two synonyms, such as “skinny” and “thin.” If you use these two words to describe a person,
their denotations are pretty much the same, but the connotation behind “skinny” is more
negative than the connotation behind “thin.” Thin implies someone who is at a healthy
weight, while skinny implies that the person is frail or weak. It takes true understanding of a
language to get such small, but important complexities of meaning.

Because of the complexity of language, speakers and writers can build meaning that is
implicit rather than explicit and sometimes difficult to decipher even for the most fluent
English speaker.

Literal language: Literal language is when a speaker or writer directly describes what they
mean.

Figurative language: When the writer builds meaning that goes beyond the literal meaning.
Here are some examples of figurative language:

 Metaphors
 Similes
 Personification
 Irony
 Symbolism

2.5.3 More semantic terminology

Beyond what we already described are important terms within the study of semantics you
should be aware of.

 Synonymy: This word literally translates to “sameness of meaning” and is the root of
the word “synonym.” As we displayed in our discussion of connotation, however, while
two words can be synonyms, they do not necessarily mean the same thing. If two words
meant exactly the same thing, then one would be extraneous. Synonyms are necessary
because they represent the detail and specificity of the English language.
 Hyponymy: This term literally translates to “inclusion of meaning” and essentially
refers to words that belong in groups. A fork is a hyponym of silverware because it is a
member of the silverware group.
  Antonymy: This term literally translates to “oppositeness of meaning,” which means
that antonyms are meant to be opposites. It is very difficult to find an exact antonym for
most words, however, so words are often paired up because they’re close to being
antonyms, much like how synonyms have similar but not exact meanings.
 Incompatibility: This term literally translates to “mutual exclusiveness within the
same subordinate category,” which means that it refers to two members of a group
that are different entities. For example, cats and dogs are both animals, so they
would fit under the purview of this term.
 Homonymy: This is a term that refers to when two words sound the same even
though they have different meanings. These can be especially confusing to new
language learners because they require a strong idea of context to identify. A good
example of a group of homonyms is “there,” “their,” and “they’re.”
 Polysemy: This term refers to when a word has more than one meaning. This is
different from a homonym because the spelling of the word does not change
depending on the meaning. For example, the word “close” can refer to two items that
are in near proximity to each other, or it can refer to something being shut.

Module 3: Reading

Reading is extremely important in learning a new language and requires a lot of effort from
new English language learners. To be able to read fluently, students need to be able to
recognize sounds and patterns, comprehend the words they read, and understand how the
words work together in a sentence to convey meaning. In this module, we will break down
reading into smaller parts so that you can help your students successfully find proficiency in
the skill. In doing so, we will cover how to work on beginning reading skills, how to transition
into more difficult decoding, and how new readers can gain meaning from what they are
reading. The ultimate goal is to help your students understand the language so that they can
not only read and understand words in English but also understand how they work together
to convey true meaning.

3.1 Developing reading skills

3.2 Auditory and visual discrimination

3.3 Forming associations

3.4 Decoding

3.5 Reading for purpose

3.1 Developing reading skills

Imagine that teaching a student to read in a new language is like building a house. You
cannot start off by building the attic; you have to work your way up from the bottom. As we
discuss how to help students develop reading skills, we will start with the basics, move on
to lower-level reading skills, such as comprehension, and eventually discuss such higher-
level reading skills as identifying purpose and intent.
3.1.1 Beginning to read

As you begin to approach reading with your students, it is important to remember that all of
them may be coming from different backgrounds and therefore may need different levels of
instruction. For students whose original language does not share the English alphabet, that
is where you need to start. For students from all native languages that share an alphabet
with English, though, it is important that you go over the way words are sounded out because
even if the students are familiar with the English alphabet, the sounds of this new language
will likely be unique and somewhat foreign.

Phonemic awareness: We discussed phonemes in detail in the previous module when we

reviewed linguistics, but it is important to also mention phonemic awareness here because
it is such an important part of the reading process. To help your students improve their
phonemic awareness, you will expect your students to be able identify, understand, and
manipulate phonemes. Helping your students gain phonemic awareness will give them the
ability to break down and learn new words by themselves.

 Phonemes are unique to each language, so your students may have difficulty
adjusting to learning new ones. They will likely need help understanding the
structure of new phonemes and understanding how to sound them out.

 Your students may naturally think of the phonemes in their native language, which
could be in direct contrast with English phonemes. If you are aware of phonemes in
your students’ native languages, you can use this to your advantage. Otherwise, it
may be a good idea to try to train them to avoid this kind of thinking.

 Making the process of improving phonemic awareness more fun and active is an
effective way to increase engagement and understanding. Try activities that turn
phonemic awareness into a game or require your students to get up, move around,
and be active.

3.1.2 Beginning to read

Phonics: The concept behind phonics is that students can begin to see and understand
patterns in how phonemes relate to each other. Once they recognize these patterns,
students can more easily sound out words that are foreign to them. This can also help them
understand meaning when they begin to see patterns in root words, prefixes, and suffixes.
English is notorious for straying away from patterns, however, so while phonics can be a
helpful tool, it certainly has its shortcomings.

Learning the alphabet: Some of your students may not need to learn the alphabet because
the English alphabet is the same as their native language’s alphabet. However, if your
students do need to learn the alphabet because it is very different from how their native
language is structured, you cannot skip this step. This makes learning the alphabet difficult
if you have a heterogeneous group of students. You can combat this obstacle by
differentiating your instruction, which requires more preparation but provides more
individualized instruction for your students. We will discuss differentiation in more detail in a
later module.
Letter/sound correlation: We will discuss this in more detail later in the module, but whether
or not your students are familiar with the alphabet, learning the correlation between letters
(graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) is extremely important because sounds are unique to
a language. Many of these sounds and combinations of sounds will be difficult for your
students to get used to, so make sure you practice a lot.

Concepts of print: Some of the concepts of print we discuss here will be relevant to students
who come from different backgrounds, but some of these concepts will only be relevant to
students who are learning to read for the first time. It is possible to have a student who knows
a native language but has never learned to read. Your task is a little more difficult in these
cases because this adds another layer to what you need to accomplish.

 The English language is read from left to right.

 The English language is read from top to bottom.
 Letters and words convey messages.
 When you get to the end of a line (on the right), you need to return to the beginning
of the next line (on the left).
 The illustrations in a book correspond to the words written there.

Decoding: We will discuss decoding in much more detail in a future section, so we will
only briefly touch on it here. Once your students have built up their phonemic awareness,
their knowledge of the alphabet, and their letter/sound correlation, decoding helps them
put everything together to pronounce new words.

3.1.3 Advanced reading skills

Once your students have built up confidence with the basics of reading, your next step is to
help them develop proficiency in more advanced reading skills.

Summarizing: Summarizing is an extremely important skill because it helps your students

bridge the gap between understanding the words they are reading and understanding the
meaning that those words are trying to convey. The skill of summarizing requires students
to understand enough of what they have read to explain what the text is about in their own
words. To help your students learn how to do this, you may want to layer your summary
instruction, having them read text in English but allowing them to summarize it in their native
language. Eventually, though, you should move on to having the students summarize in
English. Scaffolding your instruction like this will definitely help your students ease into true
understanding of English texts.

Finding the main idea, important facts, and supporting details: While summarizing
usually requires a student to understand the main idea of a text, it is still important to discuss
this separately. Once students have summarized the text, you can ask questions that get to
the main idea, for example, “What is the point that the writer is trying to make?” Such
questions allow students to move from summarizing the entire text to pinpointing what is
important. The next step can be to ask follow-up questions, such as “How do you know that
is the point the writer is trying to make?” That requires a strong understanding of not only
the overall meaning of the words in a text but also how the different ideas in a text relate to
one another.
Sequencing: Sequencing asks students to take a step beyond summarizing the text.
Whereas summarizing the text concerns itself with simply understanding what happened,
sequencing requires students to label, categorize, and compartmentalize what happens in
the text. Students look at textual features to try to identify the important aspects of the text,
for example, the setting, the sequence of events, and the larger context of the text,
identifying how all of the parts of the text fit within the whole.

Relating background knowledge: It is always helpful when working with students who are
trying to learn a new language that you relate what they are learning to their background
knowledge. There are a couple of different ways that you can do this. As we mentioned
earlier, you can use cognates and your students’ native phonemes to help them understand
English root words and sounds. Another way is to help your students connect thematically
to the text, asking them to try to relate what is going on in the text to personal experiences
they have had. While this won’t necessarily directly help them learn the language, it will help
them make a stronger connection with it and therefore make it more accessible.

3.1.4 Advanced reading skills

Making inferences: Once your students begin improving in their ability to understand
English text, the next step is to help them improve their ability to make inferences. Making
inferences means reading between the lines and accessing meaning that is not explicitly
stated. For example, if a man were to walk into the room, closing an umbrella, you would
infer that it was raining outside. No one specifically told you that it was raining, but you were
able to use context clues to draw that conclusion. Once students are more comfortable
understanding what they read, working on their inferential thinking will help them learn how
to see the meaning in a text that is not explicitly stated.

Drawing conclusions: This idea goes hand-in-hand with inferential thinking. To be able to
accurately draw a conclusion, a student needs to be able to understand the literal meaning
of a text and how that literal meaning can lead to a conclusion.

Comparing and contrasting: Comparing and contrasting is the next step along the line of
textual analysis. To compare and contrast two texts, a reader needs to understand the
purpose of the text as well as the strategies that a writer uses to convey meaning. This skill
can be extremely useful, as it easily lends itself to having students identify which text is more
effective.

Distinguishing between fact and opinion: As part of the evaluative process of reading,
distinguishing between what is fact and what is opinion can be an incredibly nuanced task.
It requires your students to really understand what the text is saying to evaluate whether the
text is based on opinion or fact. This can be difficult, especially when the text is opinionated,
with a speaker who presents his or her opinions as fact.

Self-questioning: As your students get more comfortable with reading texts on their own,
it is time to get them into the habit of reading actively. People tend to think of reading as a
passive activity because it is done quietly, but to really understand a text, you need to
constantly question what is going on. Having your students use annotations to express their
self-questioning will help them get into the habit of asking questions as they read. This is
also helpful because they can go back to text they have previously read and easily point out
the important information.
Problem solving: While problem solving is a cognitive skill, asking our students to solve
problems in English can be complicated even for students who are natural problem solvers.
Problem solving requires true comprehension, understanding beyond the explicit, and the
ability to think critically while working with a foreign language.

3.2 Auditory and visual discrimination

Both auditory and visual discrimination refer to our ability to perceive and distinguish
between different elements. The best way to understand these two concepts is by looking
at each one individually.

3.2.1 Auditory discrimination

Auditory discrimination refers to our brain’s ability to organize and categorize sounds,
thereby allowing us to make meaning of what we hear. While auditory refers to sounds and
reading is typically done silently, the ability to distinguish between different sounds
(phonemes) can affect our ability to sound out and identify vocabulary. The inability to
effectively access one’s auditory discrimination can impair someone’s reading
tremendously, especially when students are asked to read out loud. If someone has trouble
with auditory discrimination, they will have trouble:

 Understanding phonemes and how they are different. This is especially true with
phonemes that are similar, as we can see in the words “forty” and “fourteen.” The
subtle changes in the structure of these words may be difficult for someone who
has poor auditory discrimination to perceive.

 Learning to read. As we have already discussed, many of the early reading

strategies rely heavily on a student’s ability to understand and distinguish between
different sounds. This can add an extra hurdle for a new English language learner.

 Sometimes, struggles with auditory discrimination can affect students’ ability to

focus on what they are reading because they have difficulty blocking out
background noise.

Just because someone suffers from an auditory discrimination disorder, however, does not
mean they cannot learn a new language. Such a disorder simply provides a surmountable
obstacle on the path to success.

3.2.2 Visual discrimination

Visual discrimination refers to an individual’s ability to distinguish between letters, shapes,

numbers, and objects. While both are important, visual discrimination is much more
impactful on an individual’s ability to read than auditory discrimination. Auditory
discrimination affects an individual’s ability to sound out words, but visual discrimination
affects an individual’s ability to recognize which letters he or she is seeing. While it can be
difficult to identify when a student has a visual discrimination deficiency because it can mask
itself as just typical difficulties that students might have reading a new language, here are
some signs that you can look for:
  The student has trouble identifying letters and learning the alphabet. The difficulty will
be in recognizing the letters rather than being unable to remember what they are called.
 Difficulty telling the difference between similar letters (e.g., b and d), similar numbers
(e.g., 6 and 9), and/or similar shapes (e.g., circles and ovals).
 Difficulty differentiating between words that have similar beginnings or endings.

Visual discrimination issues, just like auditory discrimination issues, can be overcome, but
reading is much more difficult for people with visual discrimination disorders. Here are some
potential classroom exercises that you can use to help students who struggle with visual
discrimination disorders or deficiencies.

 Using visuals that are bright and colorful to help students work on distinguishing
between clear shapes and colors.
 Using digital tools such as a laptop or tablet that can help make working on visual
discrimination fun for the students.
 Make learning about visual discrimination fun by using games or puzzles that require
the student to differentiate shapes or letters.

3.3 Forming associations

Very early on in the process of learning to read, students need to learn to form associations
between sounds (phonemes) and letters/words. This process is paramount to a student
understanding how English speakers turn sounds into words and how English words convey
meaning. Regardless of the age of your students or their native language, you will need to
help them learn typical English letter/sound associations. Here are the basic principles
behind teaching a student how to form strong letter/sound associations:

 Assessment: Every student is different, and you don’t want to assume that all of
your students are in the same place. Some students are coming to the English
language with a native language that shares many of the same sounds, while
others could be coming from a native language that uses none of the same sounds
as English. By properly and consistently assessing the letter/word association
abilities of your students, you can tailor your lesson planning to directly target
deficiencies and differentiate your instruction to address all skill levels.

 Sequential and systematic instruction: While pedagogy often dictates that you
let students guide their own learning, a skill like this needs to be taught
systematically and sequentially. In many ways, basic skills like these work best with
old-school instruction, which means you teach a concept, assess for that concept,
teach another concept, assess for both concepts, and continue with this process.
Continually build on the skills and knowledge that your students are attaining, and
keep returning to the basics to make sure they don’t forget them.

 Teach explicitly: Sometimes, it can be cool to lead a student to meaning without

the student really knowing where the lessons are going. When teaching
letter/sound associations, though, it is important to be explicit about your teaching.
That means you are clear with your students about what you are teaching them,
what they are learning, and why they are learning it. The more you get the student
to accept the process, the more success you will have.
  Do not focus just on reading: Learning letter/sound associations is not just a
reading skill; it is multisensory. Therefore, you should treat your instruction of the
skill as a multisensory skill. Use whatever resources you have available to help
students make the necessary associations. Use flashcards, pictures, digital games,
and any other modes of learning you can think of to get the job done. In this way,
you will help your students in more than just their reading.

3.4 Decoding

Once you have helped your students form strong associations between letters and sounds,
the next step is to work on decoding, which refers to displaying those associations by rapidly
turning the written word into speech. This is an essential part of language and is most easily
displayed when your students read aloud.

3.4.1 Common questions about decoding

Why is decoding important?

Decoding is important because it is the basis for most reading comprehension skills. An
inability to decode words leads to an inability to identify and understand vocabulary, a
difficulty building fluency, and difficulty with overall reading comprehension.

How can you tell if a student is struggling with decoding?

Students who are having trouble decoding often believe they are stuck or that reading is
something they just don’t do well. Here are some of the symptoms to look out for to identify
students who are struggling with decoding:

 The student feels stuck when they need to read a lot of words because they cannot
focus enough on any one word. This is common and manifests in students who can
decode single words when they are presented but have difficulty decoding those
same words if there are too many words at once or the words are coming at them
in quick succession.

 Students spend so much energy trying to decode the words they are reading and
say them properly that they are not comprehending what they read. In these cases,
students might not seem to be struggling too much when they are reading (though
they would not show complete fluency), but they would not have much of an idea
what they read when questioned.

 The student complains that he or she simply “does not know” how to sound out
words. This is usually a sign of frustration at the energy it is taking for them to
decode the words that are being presented to them.

 The student can identify letters and sounds and even the relationship between the
two but struggles putting them all together in a short amount of time.

Remember that these observations can reflect anything from a student struggling a little with
a new skill to a student having a learning disability that is inhibiting their ability to decode
words.
3.4.2 Common questions about decoding

How do I teach decoding to my students?

Here are some simple ways that you can help your students improve their decoding skills:

 When you are teaching a sound, use visuals to prompt the students to reinforce
their knowledge of sounds, and ask the students to say the sound out loud as
practice. This will help the students improve the speed at which they can decode
and also stimulate more of their senses as they learn, making it more memorable
and effective.
 Use phonics to drill the students and give them more and more practice with
sounding out phonemes and building to sounding out words.
 Use relevant reading and writing assignments that relate to what you are teaching.
If you are teaching the students a particular sound, find a written piece that really
highlights that sound so that the students can practice it in a practical manner.
 Don’t be afraid to use methods that will ask students to use their hands. Using
manipulatives is a great way to help students learn on a higher level and ensure
that the information you are teaching makes its way to the students’ long-term
memory.
 Try grouping your student homogeneously so that you can address specific
problems or struggles in pockets of students and make your job a little easier. This
leads to more individualized instruction and ensures that all of your students are
growing and not that the children who understand the material are constantly
waiting around for the others to catch up.

3.5 Reading for purpose

Now that your students have learned and mastered the basics of reading, it is time to move
towards higher-level thinking, which means reading for purpose. Up until this point, the
purpose for reading was comprehension, but there is so much more to being a strong reader.
Strong readers do not just understand the literal meaning of what they are reading; they also
understand the implicit meaning of what they read. Let’s take a look at some simple
strategies that will help your students read with purpose more effectively.

 Teach your students to be reflective about their own reading. Reading is an active
skill, not just a passive occurrence. If a child loves playing basketball, he cannot
expect to just sit on the court and let basketball happen; he needs to try. The same
principle applies to reading. Encourage your students to be aware of their reading,
what works for them, what helps them, and then to have the follow-through to do
what they need to do to read more effectively.

 Make sure that your students understand the purpose for which they are reading
something. If you take a passage completely out of context, it is not going to make
much sense, so give your students some context whenever you give them
something to read. Ask them to look for something specific, give them guiding
questions, or even just let them know why the piece is relevant to the curriculum.

 Invite the students in on the process of setting a purpose. Encourage them to

question the text and really delve into it to get meaning. Then encourage them to
 identify their own purpose (with proper guidance, of course). When students have a
role in the planning process, they tend to be more invested in lessons.

 Model active reading for your students. So many teachers like to tell their students
to annotate a piece but don’t like to show them what that means. A good way to do
this is to take the first section of whatever you are going to have them read and go
over it as a class. As you go, show them how you would annotate the piece, what
kinds of questions you would ask, and when you would underline or highlight
words, phrases, or sentences. This will help them visualize what they are supposed
to do.

If you are able to take a student who does not know English from sounding out letters to
reading actively and fluently, you’ll know you have been successful.

Module 4: Writing

Whereas reading serves as the basis for students understanding a new language, writing
gives them the opportunity to explore the new language. Now that your students are able to
comprehend the English language as they read it, it is time to put them in charge of using
that language to convey their meaning. Learning to write in a new language can be very
challenging because you need to have the same base of knowledge as you would for
reading to comprehend the words, and you also have to be able to create those words to
represent your thoughts and ideas. In this module, we will discuss the basics of writing in
English, including how to craft a sentence, how to make words work together, and how to
explore the language through writing.

4.1 Sentence structure

4.2 Grammar

4.3 Informative and explanatory writing

4.4 Persuasive writing

4.1 Sentence structure

In your studies of reading and comprehension, your students have developed some basic
skills in understanding the language as they come across it. Now that they have a basic
understanding of English sounds and words, it is time to help them learn how to put those
sounds and words together to create sentences that convey meaning. We will start at the
beginning and look at how sentences are structured in the English language.

4.1.1 Basic sentence patterns

There are five basic patterns for sentence structure in English, and they differ in the
elements that are present within the sentence. Any two sentences, however, no matter how
different they are, contain two things: a subject and a verb. For a sentence to work, there
needs to be a person or thing that is doing or being something (subject) and an action or
state of being that they are committing or portraying (verb). Here are the five basic sentence
patterns that your students will encounter in the English language:
Subject-verb (S-V): This is the simplest sentence pattern in the English language, only
containing the information that needsto be there. Here are a few examples of sentences that
follow the subject-verb pattern:

o Mark ran.
o Maria slept.
o The dog plays.
o Jimmy fell.

Subject-verb-object (S-V-O): Sentences that follow this pattern are very similar to S-V
sentences except that an object has been added to the sentence. In an English sentence,
the object is what is being acted upon by the subject. In other words, the noun (subject) is
acting (verb) upon another noun (object). Here are a few examples of sentences that follow
the subject-verb-object pattern:

o Mark ran to the store

o Maria slept in bed.
o The dog plays outside.
o Jimmy fell to the floor.

4.1.2 Basic sentence patterns

Subject-verb-adjective (S-V-Adj): This sentence pattern is similar to S-V-O except that the
object is not a noun; it is an adjective. Since an object must be a noun or an entity that is
being acted upon, when the verb acts as a state of being to set up a description of the
subject, you get an S-V-Adj sentence. Here are a few examples of sentences that follow the
subject-verb-adjective pattern:

o Mark is hungry.
o Maria was tired.
o The dog looks playful.
o Jimmy seems clumsy.

Subject-verb-adverb (S-V-Adv): To the untrained eye, this sentence pattern is the same
as the previous one, S-V-Adj. The difference between that pattern and this pattern, however,
is that while that structure saw the object turning into an adjective, this one sees it turning
into an adverb. In other words, the verb no longer acts as a state of being to set up a
description of the subject, but rather the words following the verb act as modifiers to the
verb. Here are a few examples of sentences that follow the subject-verb-adverb pattern:

o Mark ran quickly.

o Maria slept peacefully.
o The dog plays loudly.
o Jimmy fell disastrously.

Subject-verb-noun (S-V-N): As you already know, the object of a pattern has to be a noun.
Just because there is a noun following the verb, however, does not mean that it is the object
of the sentence. In this sentence structure, the noun is not the object because, as with S-V-
Adj, the words following the verb describe the subject. Here are a few examples of sentences
that follow the subject-verb pattern:
 o Mark is the store owner.
o Maria is a doctor.
o The dog was a corgi.
o Jimmy became a lawyer.

4.1.3 Clauses

Looking at the examples in the previous section, you may wonder what happens when
sentences get more complex. That can certainly complicate things, but at its core a sentence
still follows one of the previous patterns (or two of them if it is a complex sentence).
Understanding the typical sentence patterns is helpful, but your students also need to
understand the basic structures that dictate sentences in English. To understand these basic
sentence structures, though, we need to first discuss clauses.

Clause: A clause is one of the basic units in English grammar and is a group of words that
contains a subject and a verb. Every sentence has at least one clause in it (because the
requirements for a sentence and a clause are the same). A clause, however, does not
necessarily complete a thought and therefore work alone as a sentence. There are two types
of clauses, and understanding both of them is important for students who are learning to
write in English for the first time.

 Dependent clause (subordinating clause): This is exactly what it sounds like: a

clause (or group of words containing a subject and a verb) that is dependent on other
clauses. In other words, a dependent clause would not work alone as a sentence
because it needs another clause for it to make sense. An example of a dependent
clause is “because the world is ending.” The only thing that makes this clause
dependent is the word “because,” which adds the implication of cause and effect to the
sentence. We see the cause, but we need the effect to complete the sentence.
 Independent clause: An independent clause is a clause (group of words containing a
subject and a verb) that can exist by itself and be a complete thought and therefore
a complete sentence. Every sentence contains an independent clause, and all simple
sentences are made up of one independent clause. An example of an independent
clause is “They went down to the bomb shelter.” The absence of a subordinating word
(“because” in the dependent clause) makes this sentence work as a complete thought.
 If we combine the two clauses, one dependent and one independent, in the previous
example, we get a complex sentence, which looks like this: “Because the world is
ending, they went down to the bomb shelter.” This is a complete sentence, with a
dependent clause (“Because the world is ending”) marked by a subordinating word
(“Because”) presenting a cause and an independent clause (“they went down to the
bomb shelter”) completing the thought with the effect.

4.1.4 Basic sentence structure

With dependent and independent clauses under our belts, we can turn our attention back to
sentence structure and look closely at how these clauses can work together to create and
convey meaning.
  Simple sentence: A simple sentence contains one independent clause that stands
alone as a complete thought. This is the most basic type of sentence and creates
the structure for more complex sentences. Here is an example of a sentence that
follows the simple sentence structure:
Bobby drove his car to the store.
 Compound sentence: A compound sentence is a sentence that contains two or
more independent clauses. These clauses could stand alone if they needed to but
have been combined because they are related to each other. Here is an example of
a sentence that follows the compound sentence structure:
Bobby drove his car, and Mark read the directions.
 Complex sentence: A complex sentence includes an independent clause and one
or more dependent clauses. This means that within the sentence are subject-verb
pairs that would not be able to stand alone as a complete thought. Here is an
example of a sentence that follows the complex sentence structure:
Bobby drove his car to the store to buy gum.
In this example, we have borrowed the simple sentence and added a dependent
clause “to buy gum.” The subject (“Bobby”) is implied by the independent clause, and
this dependent clause cannot stand alone and make sense.
 Compound-complex sentence: A compound-complex sentence includes at least
two independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses, essentially combining
the elements of a compound sentence with the elements of a complex sentence.
Here is an example of a sentence that follows the compound-complex sentence
structure:
Bobby drove his car, and Mark read the directions when they went to the store.

4.2 Grammar

Understanding sentence structure is a key aspect of grammar, but there are many other
grammatical rules that are important for your students to know and understand. As you may
already know, grammar is the set of rules for the English language. While we do not have
the time to discuss every grammar rule in this section, we will cover the basics and make
sure that your students have a good basis of knowledge from which to work, and that they
understand how to create sentences that are grammatically correct and convey the meaning
they are intending. We have already discussed the parts of speech in a previous module,
but now we will look at those parts of speech in more detail and discuss some of the rules
regarding how to use them.

4.2.1 Nouns (1 of 3)

As we discussed in an earlier module, a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea. Here are
some different types of nouns:

 Proper nouns: The names of specific places, people, or things.

 Common nouns: General or colloquial names.
 Concrete nouns: People, places, or things that are tangible.
 Abstract nouns: Ideas that are intangible.

Nouns can be tricky because the term encompasses many different types of words. When
using nouns, one of the grammatical rules you need to look out for most is whether or not
you should pluralize a noun and how to do so.
When is a noun pluralized?

Not every noun has a plural form because it does not always make sense for there to be
more than one of something. Count nouns refer to nouns that can be counted, such as “cup,”
“table,” and “monkey.” These nouns represent a specific object that there can be more than
one of. Non-count nouns are nouns that cannot be counted because they already represent
a group of objects or a type of object. For example, “water” is a non-count noun because
you cannot look at the ocean and count the water.

4.2.2 Nouns (2 of 3)

How do I pluralize a noun?

The rules for pluralizing a noun are fairly simple, but since there are many nouns that do not
fit into any of these rules, the task of pluralizing can be taxing. Here is a basic rundown of
the general rules:

 Most nouns are made plural simply by adding an “s.”

o Cup: Cups
o Egg: Eggs
o Joke: Jokes
o Mask: Masks
 Nouns ending in “ch,” “x,” “s,” require the addition of “es” at the end.
o Bench: Benches
o Box: Boxes
o Class: Classes
 Nouns ending in “f” or “fe” require you to change the “f” or “fe” to a “v,” and add an
“es.”
o Calf: Calves
o Half: Halves
o Knife: Knives
 Some nouns do not follow any rules for pluralizing, and your students will simply have
to learn them.
o Child: Children
o Mouse: Mice
o Woman: Women
 Some count nouns are the same whether they are singular or plural.
o Moose: Moose
o Deer: Deer
o Species: Species

4.2.3 Nouns (3 of 3)

Possessive nouns: Because nouns represent people, places, things, and ideas, they
sometimes need to be possessive to show that the person, place, thing, or idea owns or is
in possession of something. Possession is usually marked by an apostrophe (’) and follows
these rules:
  You can make most nouns possessive simply by adding an apostrophe and then an
“s” at the end of the word.
o Mark: Mark’s
o Dog: dog’s
o Boy – boy’s

 When you come across a plural noun that ends in “s” or a noun that already ends in
“s,” you can make it possessive by simply adding an apostrophe.
o Boys: boys’
o Class: class’
o Dogs: dogs’

 If you have one item, but you would like to express that two different people or things
own it, you would add an apostrophe and an “s” after the last person’s name.
o Bill and Frank’s new house
o Boxer and Spot’s toy
o Sally and Ann’s car.

 If the objects owned by two different people are separate things, then you should
add an apostrophe and an “s” at the end of each name.
o Bobby’s and Mary’s wedding rings are gold.
o Jill’s and Samantha’s jobs are difficult.
o Jean’s and Yancy’s tables are both oak.

4.2.4 Pronouns and antecedents

Pronouns are important in writing because they take the place of a noun to make the writing
less repetitive and choppy. To illustrate this idea, take a look at an example of a written
excerpt that does not use pronouns:

Mike grabbed Mike’s shirt and went to go find Mike’s mom to tell Mike’s mom that Mike’s
mom needed to leave right away because Mike and Mike’s mom were in danger.

Now, let’s use pronouns:

Mike grabbed his shirt and went to go find his mom to tell her that they needed to leave right
away because they were in danger.

Clearly, the second example sounds much better and gets the point across without reusing
the original nouns.

The major point that your students need to understand about pronouns besides the different
types that exist (which we will discuss in this section) is that every pronoun needs
an antecedent or a noun that it is taking the place of. The only exception is indefinite
pronouns, which replace vague nouns, such as “all” or “some.”

Look again at the second example above, which contains pronouns. Each of those pronouns
has an antecedent, which you can see in the first example. Let’s rewrite the second example,
but this time we will include the antecedent to each pronoun in parentheses:
Mike grabbed his (Mike’s) shirt and went to go find his (Mike’s) mom to tell her (Mike’s mom)
that they (Mike and Mike’s mom) needed to leave right away because they (Mike and Mike’s
mom) were in danger.

When a pronoun does not have a clear antecedent, the writing becomes very confusing,
and it should distinguish who is doing what. Here is an example of a sentence with unclear
antecedents. Note how difficult it is to understand who the sentence is truly talking about:

Mark, John, and Billy went to the mall because he needed a new shirt. When they arrived,
he ran to the clothing store, and he ran after him, trying to keep up, while he hung back and
headed to the food court.

Because the antecedents are unclear, you could not tell me which boy went to the store,
which boy chased after him, and which boy went to the food court.

4.2.5 Types of pronouns

People often have trouble understanding the different types of pronouns, so your students
may have trouble with it as well. Let’s look at the nine different types of pronouns:

Personal: A personal pronoun is a pronoun that refers to a person. This is the most common
type of pronoun, and for it to work in a sentence, it needs to have a clear antecedent that it
agrees with (male nouns need male pronouns). Examples: “I,” “he,” “she,” “me.”

Possessive: Possessive pronouns are personal pronouns that convey ownership. These
pronouns not only need an antecedent but also need to be followed by a noun (the thing
that is possessed by the pronoun). Examples: “my carrots,” “his book,” “their time.”

Indefinite: Indefinite pronouns can be a little complicated because they take the place of
nouns that are not exactly clear. In other words, these pronouns will not have a clear
antecedent. It is important to note, however, that if these types of pronouns are used to show
possession, they are actually adjectives. Examples: “Everybody wants to go to the mall,”
“Somebody took my juice.”

Reflexive: Reflexive pronouns usually occur at the end of a sentence or clause and reflect
back to the subject of the sentence. Examples: “I am going to get a soda for myself,” “What
do you have to say for yourselves?”

Reciprocal: A reciprocal is exactly like a reflexive pronoun except that they refer to two
subjects doing something to or for each other. The only two reciprocal pronouns in the
English language are “each other” and “one another.” Examples: “John and Tim are in the
library quizzing each other,” “Maria and Jenny are helping one another with laundry.”

Intensive: Intensive pronouns are exactly the same as reflexive pronouns except they can
be removed from a sentence without changing the meaning or rendering the sentence
incomplete. Examples: “He is going to do the work himself.”

Interrogative: Interrogative pronouns are pronouns that are used in a question. Examples:
“Who took the candy?,” “Which door is it?”
Relative: A relative pronoun is a pronoun that connects a phrase or a clause to a pronoun
or a noun. Examples: “I am going to get whoever stole my bag,” “I am going to
take whichever door leads to the bathroom.”

Demonstrative: Demonstrative pronouns take the place of specific nouns and are typically
used when the speaker or narrator is talking about a specific object. Examples: “This is the
Captain’s wine,” “That candy belongs to her.”

4.2.6 Verbs

Along with nouns, verbs are part of the two most important parts of a sentence, so it is
important that your students know how to use them and the rules that govern English verbs.
Verbs are extremely complicated because there are so many different little rules governing
how verbs are used, but they can be generally broken down into three categories: transitive,
intransitive, and linking. We will look at each of these types to help your students have a
sense of how verbs work.

Transitive verbs: A transitive verb is a verb that exists in a sentence with an object. The
subject of the sentence is doing something to something else.

Brian hit the ball and ran to first.

Both “hit” and “ran” are transitive in this sentence because they have objects. In the first
clause, it is clear that the ball (object) has been hit (transitive verb). In the second clause, it
is clear that first base (object) is being run to (transitive verb).

Intransitive verbs: An intransitive verb is a verb that does not take an object and rather
describes an action or state of being that is not acting upon something else.

Because the food was not free, she left.

While she is leaving whatever place she is in, the object does not need to be expressed
because the intransitive verb “left” is enough to describe the action.

Linking verbs: These verbs link the subject to the rest of the sentence when the verb is not
describing something being acted upon.

These avocados seem like they have not ripened yet.

4.4 Informative and explanatory writing

Now that your students have a decent handle on sentence structure and grammar, it is time
to learn how to write to convey meaning. In the next two sections, we will explore the most
common types of writing they will come across in their lives. First, we will start with
informative and explanatory writing, an extremely helpful tool for individuals in a number of
different professions.

Informative and explanatory writing involves researching or analyzing a topic that is already
generally accepted to be true. Unlike persuasive writing, there is no argument but rather an
exploration of why or how something is what it is. This is why informative and explanatory is
the most common type of writing that your students will find in their careers; more careers
are focused on explaining and exploring the nature of things rather than creating an
argument. To illustrate this point, here is a brief list of the different applications for informative
and explanatory writing:

Definition: In this type of writing, your students will have to define a topic and explain it in
detail. Potential practical application: Your student works in an office, and the sales team is
going to try to land a new client that works with industrial refrigeration parts. The boss asks
your student to provide a report on industrial refrigeration parts so that the sales team is
prepared when they pitch the client.

Breaking something parts: In this type of writing, your student will have a topic that is
generally understood but needs to be understood in more detail. To do this, he or she can
break it into parts and/or types to make it more palatable for the reader. Potential practical
application: Your student works for a team that is in charge of creating new programs and
projects for their company. The project team comes up with an idea they need to pitch to
their boss. Your student is tasked with writing a breakdown of the project, e.g., detailing what
each department will be responsible for, how much it will cost, and how much revenue it will
generate.

Describing behavior or function: In this type of writing, your student will have to explore
how something behaves and/or functions. Potential practical application: Your student works
for a zoo that is going to receive a new animal in three weeks that they have never
accommodated before. Your student is asked to write a report on how the animal behaves
and what kind of accommodations it will need.

Explaining why: In this type of writing, your student will have to explore why a generally
held opinion or fact is true. Potential practical application: Your student works for a museum
that is about to have an exhibit on dinosaurs. Your student is tasked with writing a report for
why dinosaurs became extinct so that the museum can inform its guests.

4.5 Persuasive writing

While persuasive writing is generally less utilized in most careers than informative and
explanatory writing, it is still an extremely important genre that can help your students in
many different aspects of their life. From trying to convince your boss that you deserve a
raise to trying to convince your colleagues that a new idea will work, persuasive writing can
be very powerful. Unlike informative and explanatory writing, persuasive writing explores a
topic or an idea that is not already widely accepted and creates an argument for why it
should be. Rather than discuss the different types of persuasive writing, we will focus this
section on how to craft an argument by focusing on the most important aspects of an
argument.

Thesis: While experts will argue on where a thesis is most effective in a persuasive
argument, they will all agree that a thesis is important. A thesis statement is a short (one or
two sentences) summary of the writer’s position and serves as the main idea for the piece
of writing. A strong thesis statement provides the writing with a focus and gives the writer a
frame of reference for the rest of his or her argument.
Organization: An argument needs to be carefully organized to be as effective as possible.
This means that the writer needs to constantly think about the thesis and how the argument
is connecting back to it. Proper organization helps the argument flow and eases the reader
through the writer’s ideas.

Support: An argument is not complete without strong support. Whether the support comes
in the form of direct textual evidence, facts, or the opinions of respected professionals, it
gives the reader a reason to believe your claims. The support serves as an assurance to
your reader that you are not coming up with this argument off the top of your head, but rather
that there is evidence to support what you are trying to convince the audience to believe.

Elaboration and Analysis: Your argument needs to explore the topic and why the support
you have provided is worthwhile and relates back to the thesis. Without proper elaboration
and analysis, your support will simply hang there limply and not be effective in convincing
your audience.

Conclusion: Your conclusion should come with a summation of the rest of the argument to
solidify your ideas in the readers’ heads as well as a call to action or a last attempt to
convince the audience to understand and/or believe your argument.

If your students can master these basic components of a strong argument, they will find it
much easier to be convincing whenever they are trying to persuade.
 TESOL 120 HOURS COURSE PART B

Module 5: Speaking

Reading and writing are extremely important in learning a language, but the real test is
speaking, where students will have to use everything they have learned up to this point to
quickly process information and speak in a language that is not native to them. In this
module, we will go into more detail about sounds and how they are formed in the English
language. We will also talk about how you can best help your students become fluent
speakers of English through reading out loud, responding to questions, and eventually
speaking about their own ideas. Once your students are able to master speaking the
language, they will be well on their way to achieving English fluency.

5.1 Sounding out words

5.2 Reading out loud

5.3 Responding to questions

5.4 Presenting new ideas

5.1 Sounding out words

Although we already discussed sounds in the module on reading, we will focus more
attention on helping your students actually sound out words. We will start with a specific
overview of phonetics.

5.1.1 Phonetic symbols

As you know, phonetics is the study of sounds and human speech. What we did not discuss
earlier, is that phonetics has its own language made up of the most common phonemes in
the English language. While your students do not need to know these phonetic symbols to
be able to read or speak, it can be helpful when trying to teach how to pronounce English
words. Here is the basic rundown of phonetic symbols:

Consonants:

Symbol Examples

p pen, copy, happen

b back, baby, job

t tea, tight, button

d day, ladder, odd

k key, clock, school

g get, giggle, ghost

tʃ church, match, nature

dʒ judge, age, soldier

f fat, coffee, rough, photo

v view, heavy, move

θ thing, author, path

s soon, cease, sister

Symbol Examples

z zero, music, roses, buzz

ʃ ship, sure, national

ʒ pleasure, vision

h hot, whole, ahead

m more, hammer, sum

n nice, now, funny, sun

ŋ ring, anger, thanks, sung

L light, valley, feel

R right, wrong, sorry, arrange

j yet, use, beauty, few

w wet, one, when, queen

ʔ department, football
Vowels and diphthongs:

Symbol Example
ɪ kit, bid, hymn, minute
e dress, bed, head, many
æ trap, bad
ɒ lot, odd, wash
ʌ strut, mud, love, blood
ʊ foot, good, put
iː fleece, sea, machine
eɪ face, day, break
aɪ price, high, try
ɔɪ choice, boy
uː goose, two, blue, group
əʊ goat, show, no
aʊ mouth, now
ɪə near, here, weary
eə square, fair, various
ɑː start, father
ɔː thought, law, north, war
ʊə poor, jury, cure
ɜː nurse, stir, learn, refer
ə about, common, standard
i happy, radiate, glorious
u you, influence, situation
ṇ suddenly, cotton
ḷ middle, metal
ˑ Stress mark

5.1.3 Articulatory phonetics

When your students understand the important phonetic symbols of the English language,
determining how to sound out new words will be much easier. What will also help them learn
how to sound out words is understanding how to make those sounds. Articulatory phonetics
is the study of how sounds are created, and a working understanding of the ideas outlined
in articulatory phonetics can really help your students understand the English language.

Understanding the anatomy of speech

So many different parts of your mouth and throat are involved in the production of speech
that it can be overwhelming to try to trace sound. Let’s make it a little less overwhelming by
looking at each body part that contributes to speech.

 Alveolar ridge: The gums just behind the upper teeth.

  Palate: The hard palate, or the roof of the mouth within the sphere of your teeth.
 Velum: The soft palate, or the roof of your mouth as it extends past the teeth, ending
at the uvula.
 Uvula: The appendage that dangles in the back of your mouth before your mouth turns
into your throat.
 Pharynx: The back of your throat, behind the uvula.
 Epiglottis: A flap of flesh that rests below your pharynx, at the top of your throat.
 Trachea: The windpipe, which is covered by the epiglottis.

All of these parts of your mouth and throat, including your tongue, lips, and teeth, work
together to modulate the sound waves that emanate from your throat. Without these parts,
we would only be able to make a one-toned indistinguishable noise rather than complex and
recognizable speech.

How do we make sounds?

Essentially, the sounds that we make are just puffs of air traveling through our throats and
out of our mouths. The sounds that these puffs of air make depend upon all the parts listed
above and how they block or change the air as it passes through. To illustrate this process,
think about the sound that would be made if you blew air through a tube. Now think of the
sounds you can make if you blow air through a flute, which blocks and moves the air in
specific ways. This is pretty much how your voice works.

Making consonant sounds

The difference between consonants and vowels is that consonants are made when there is
much more obstruction to the air as it is passing through your mouth, whereas your mouth
generally remains open when pronouncing vowels. Consonant pronunciation can generally
be broken down into the following categories:

 Stops: This is when you completely block the flow of air from your throat by closing
your mouth at some point during the pronunciation of the sound (p, t, k, b, d, and g).
 Nasals: In a nasal sound, you close your mouth just as you would with a stop, but the
back of your velum lowers, which allows air to flow up through your nose and out of
your nostrils (m, n, ŋ).
 Fricatives: In this sound, you only close your mouth part way so air is forced through
a narrow passage and makes a hissing sound (F, θ, v, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h).
 Affricates: A combination of stop and fricative sounds that are made in a similar way
(tS, dZ).
 Approximants: This sound is like a fricative except that it involves less obstruction.
Sometimes, you will make these sounds by touching the tip of your tongue to the
alveolar ridge, lowering it as you release the air (l, r, j, w)
 There are also voiced consonants, which refer to consonant sounds that are
accompanied by vibrations in your throat as the air passes through.

Place of articulation

Consonant sounds can also be classified based on where in the vocal tract air gets
obstructed, which is known as the place of articulation. Here are the different terms for
where consonant sounds are articulated:
  Bilabials: When you close or constrict your lips.
 Labiodentals: When your upper teeth and lower lip meet as you speak.
 Dentals: When you press the tip of your tongue to your upper teeth as you speak.
 Alveolars: When you press the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth as you
speak.
 Post-alveolars: postalveolar consonants are produced by touching the tip of your
tongue to the back of your alveolar ridge. ? t? ? and d? are postalveolar.
 Palatals: When the body of your tongue touches your palate as you speak.
 Velars: When the body of your tongue touches your velum as you speak.
 Glottals: When you constrict your glottis as you speak.

Making vowel sounds

While vowel sounds still rely on opening and closing the mouth, we block the airflow from
our throat significantly less when pronouncing them. Many people have difficulty explaining
the difference between a vowel and a consonant, so learning how each of them differs in
pronunciation can be helpful. Generally, different vowel sounds are made by different mouth
shapes and positions of the tongue.

5.2 Reading out loud

Reading out loud is not just a great way for your students to improve their spoken fluency; it
is also a great way to improve their overall comprehension. Let’s start off by looking at the
benefits of reading out loud.

5.2.1 Why read aloud?

Increased retention: Anytime that you can access more than one sense, you are more
likely to retain the information you are consuming. This is why the most memorable lessons
from school were the ones where you did an activity that required you to get out of your seat
and move around. Adding that extra wrinkle made it more memorable. When we read out
loud, we are not only reading, but we are also listening to what we read.

Increased focus: When you read to yourself, it is easy for your mind to wander and get
distracted by external forces. Reading out loud creates an atmosphere of reading and
requires you to focus on every word. That does not mean that your mind cannot wander, so
you still need to keep yourself honest, but it definitely cuts down on being distracted.

Self-correction: It is much easier to hear yourself pronouncing a word wrong when you say
it out loud. When you read a word silently, you don’t need to be able to pronounce it to
identify it. Reading out loud definitely helps you improve your speaking fluency because it
ensures that you know how to pronounce the words you are reading (or that you learn). Self-
correction is also important. If you are aware enough of the rules of English pronunciation
to realize when you have made a mistake and fix it, you are operating at a high level of
understanding.

Learn and practice intonation: As you read out loud, you can begin practicing intonation,
stressing the right syllables and delivering the lines the way they were meant to be delivered.
This is another indication of a deep understanding of the intricacies of the language, since
intonation is only implied and not explicitly detailed in a piece of writing.
5.2.2 Strategies for reading out loud in the classroom

There are a number of different ways that you can have your students read aloud to practice
their proficiency with the language. Some of these strategies ask students to read in front of
the class, some ask the student to read in front of a partner, and others ask the student to
read out loud only for himself or herself. Each strategy has its merits and drawbacks, but
reading out loud in any form will help your students improve their overall fluency in English.

Round robin reading: With this strategy, you make a game out of reading out loud, and
students take turns reading a certain amount of text. This is a great way to get your students
comfortable with reading out loud, but it can be difficult to motivate struggling students to
read because of the stigma of reading in front of a group. This is also a great strategy for
getting everyone involved in reading together, but it can hinder students who are stronger
readers and have to wait for struggling readers to catch up.

Popcorn reading: Each student reads a certain amount of text out loud and then yells
“popcorn” and picks a new student to read. This can be a good way to make sure everyone
reads because the students are going to be better at keeping track of who has read and who
hasn’t than you would be, and it frees you up to monitor and/or provide individual attention
to struggling students.

Combat reading: This is similar to popcorn reading except the goal of the students is to
catch someone who is not paying attention. This can add a layer of fun to the activity, but
be careful presenting reading as a punishment. That is not the best way to nurture lifelong
readers.

Pick a name reading: This is the same as popcorn except instead of giving the students
the power to select the next reader you leave it to chance by using some variation of a hat
filled with everyone’s name.

Touch and go reading: The teacher is in control and touches a student on the shoulder
when they want the student to read.

Choral reading: The entire class, along with the teacher, read out loud together. This
strategy serves a number of different purposes. First, it helps take the stigma away from
struggling readers. Second, it gives you the opportunity to model correct pronunciations for
the students that is not combative or anxiety inducing. Third, all students are engaged at the
same time, which is a lofty goal for any teacher.

Partner up: Have your students pair up and share the reading, each taking turns reading a
certain amount of text out loud. This is a little more difficult for you to manage and monitor
than the whole class reading, but it can help students get a chance to read out loud in a less
stressful situation.

Heterogeneous pairing: This is the same as the previous strategy except that you
intentionally partner struggling readers with readers who are excelling. The idea is that the
excelling student can help the struggling reader bridge the gap. Critics note that this strategy
does not really help the strong student very much, as slowing down to adjust for their
partners might work against them.
Teacher modeling: The teacher reads aloud to the class to model pronunciation and
fluency. This can be an effective strategy because it helps the students see how the piece
should be read as they follow along, but make sure you are closely monitoring for
engagement, as it is a type of lesson where it is easy for students to be inattentive.

Echoing: This is similar to the previous strategy except the students echo back whatever
the teacher reads, trying to match the pronunciation, inflection, and emotion. This can be a
great way to model for students while still holding them accountable in the classroom.

Reading buddy: Students prepare individually, each with a unique text, and then read their
piece to a buddy, trying their best to read it with no mistakes. Peers can offer critiques and
suggestions, and you can monitor many students at once.

Tape recorder: Students read into a tape recorder and play it back to themselves as they
follow along with the text. There are many different things you can do with this, such as
having the students try to get the perfect recording and then turn it in or have the students
swap recordings with a partner. This is a great way for your students to get an idea of what
they sound like, where they are struggling, and where they are excelling. This is also a great
way to help students get used to self-correcting.

5.3 Responding to questions

As with many topics within this course, responding to questions is not compartmentalized
to speaking, meaning it is something that can help students gain fluency in a number of
different ways, not just one. There are a couple of different ways that we can look at this
topic, and each one works on a different skill that will help build your students’ English
fluency.

5.3.1 Question and response

Here are the different ways that you can question your students and expect them to respond:

Read a question and write a response: This is one of the more typical ways that teachers
assess a student’s reading because it is easy to assess after the fact and requires each
student to do his or her own work. This strategy helps your students work on reading and
writing skills but does very little to build their speaking skills.

Listen to a question and write a response: This strategy is more rare because it requires
every student to work at the same pace, which is not always feasible in a classroom. We will
talk about such strategies in the next module when we discuss listening in much more detail.
Just like the previous strategy, this strategy does not do much to help students learn to
speak English more fluently.

Read a question and answer verbally: This strategy helps students improve both their
reading and speaking ability. It is a great strategy to use when students are just starting off
trying to speak English on their own because the question is written in front of them and
always available for reference. This is a great first step towards speaking English without
any visual cues.
Listen to a question and answer verbally: This is the ultimate test of a student’s fluency.
Not only do they have to comprehend the question as they hear it (something we will discuss
in the next module on listening), but they also have to be able to formulate a cogent response
in English. If your students are able to accomplish this task, then they are well on their way
to English fluency.

5.3.2 Question-answer relationship

One of the best ways that you can help your students respond to questions verbally is by
helping them understand how to find the answers they need. This is a great skill to have no
matter what language you speak, but it is definitely something that can help a student who
is struggling with a new language. According to the question-answer relationship model,
there are four levels of questions, each with different expectations for where students should
draw their responses.

1. Understanding: The answer to the question being asked is right there in the text for
the student to find. These types of questions represent a lower level of thinking but are
great for getting practice in answering orally in English. The question requires the
student to look at the text for an answer, but the answer is fairly easy, and the student
can focus on how he or she is going to provide an answer in English.
2. Think, search, and find: These types of questions require a higher level of thinking
because they require students to make inferences and understand the subtext of the
piece they are reading. This is a great next step for the student who is starting to get
the hang of understanding questions and is ready for a greater challenge. With these
types of questions, the student needs to balance the higher-level comprehension skills
he or she has been developing with his or her ability to verbalize a response in English.
3. Connection: These types of questions require the student to think beyond what is in
the text and make a connection with the piece. This can be more difficult for English
language learners because they cannot rely on repeating what they see in the text.
Rather, they have to synthesize what they read and create an answer that is relevant
to the piece but use their own words. Students are not only showing high
comprehension skills but also high critical thinking skills, all while making sure to
verbalize their response in a language with which they are not yet comfortable.
4. Creating new knowledge: These types of questions require the student to go
completely beyond the text and synthesize something else. These questions are
related to the text, but you can answer them without having to read it. This is a great
way to get your students creating new meaning and making use of everything they
have learned so far.

5.4 Presenting new ideas

The ultimate showcase of student improvement in spoken English is to present new ideas
of their own in this new language. As students build towards fluency, using texts and
responding to teacher questions are all great ways to develop their skills, but the true test
comes when they step away from source material and use what they have learned to present
new ideas. While the job of presenting these new ideas is ultimately up to them, you can
encourage and support them on their way to success.
Continue building vocabulary: There will never be a time when any student is done
learning words, and the best way to help your students present their own unique ideas is by
giving them the vocabulary toolbox they need to express those new ideas.

Provide a low-anxiety environment: Your student will be taking a risk by sharing new
ideas in a language they are not completely fluent in, so try to take as much of the anxiety
out of the situation as you can. Give them the space to work through what they are going to
say and then be encouraging when they are ready to go.

Give them time to practice: It might be helpful to bring back the reading strategy that we
discussed earlier and give them a recorder to record themselves and check their own
progress. Once students have progressed and are improving, it is important to give them
some control over the process and take responsibility for their performance.

Provide honest but encouraging feedback: Even outside of TESOL, simply saying “good
job” is no longer enough to encourage a student. Be specific, be honest, but be encouraging.
If certain students are struggling with something, let them know, but also tell them know how
it can be fixed and what needs to be done to get it better. Students appreciate honesty as
long as it is presented to them in a way that does not immediately make them shut down
and not want to try.

Listen to the student: The worst thing you can do after your student has done all that work
to present a new idea to you is not listen when they present their ideas. Of course, you would
never visibly ignore the students as they present, but it can be easy to lose focus on exactly
what the students are saying. When the presentation is over, be specific as to what you liked
about the student’s idea. Show the student that you care and that you are proud of him and
her. Even if the student struggled, just getting up and taking the risk was a big leap, so leave
the critique until some time has passed.

Module 6: Listening

Listening is extremely important in learning a language because most of your students are
learning the language to be able to verbally communicate. Helping your students speak in
English is great, but that will not help them in a conversation unless they can understand
what others are saying. Throughout your class, you will be easing your students into the
language by speaking slowly and giving them the chance to decode what you are trying to
say. Once they go out into the world, they will have to comprehend what people are saying
no matter how quickly they speak. In this module, we will discuss many of the strategies that
your students will need to become conversationally fluent in English, including how to
decode sounds, how to break down speech, and how to summarize ideas that others are
presenting to them.

6.1 Repeating what you hear or transcribing

6.2 Paraphrase what you hear

6.3 Conversational English

6.4 Using what you hear to present new ideas

6.1 Repeating what you hear or transcribing

Asking your students to transcribe speech is a great way to get them used to understanding
what people are saying. It is also a great way for you to monitor how well they actually
understand speech as opposed to how much they tell you they understand. It is one thing
to be able to get a general idea of what someone is saying to you; it is another thing entirely
to be able to transcribe the speech word for word. In this section, we will focus on two
different types of transcription, both of which will help your students better understand the
language.

6.1.1 Phonetic transcription

Phonetic transcription is a technique whereby an individual breaks down speech into sounds
and phonemes, and transcribes the speech in phonetic symbols, using the symbols that we
discussed in the previous module. We will not repeat the symbols, so feel free to go back
and review them. Instead, we will focus on what phonetic transcription looks like and how it
will benefit your students.

What does phonetic transcription look like?

Phonetic transcription can be a great way for your students to learn to decode sounds from
speech, but it is not a practical activity for them once they have mastered the language. It is
extremely helpful but can take time. Take a look at the following excerpt and what it would
look like in phonetic transcription:

Original text: Sometimes, phonetic transcription can be complicated, but once you get the
hang of it, it is actually quite easy. It will also help students get the hang of recognizing
sounds, which will make conversational English much easier.

6.1.2 Phonetic transcription

Now that you have seen what phonetic transcription can look like, let’s take a look at the
different types of phonetic transcription. Some will be helpful to your students and some will
not.

Systematic vs. impressionistic transcription

As an expert in phonetic symbols, if you were to listen to speech in another language, you
would generally be able to chart it out based on English phonetic symbols. Obviously, this
is not the best way to handle this since phonetic symbols are going to be different in every
language, but you are going to use the knowledge you have. A phonetics expert would
instead use a more universal group of phonetic symbols to transcribe the speech. This is
called impressionistic transcription because although this is still not perfect the
transcriber is charting out the sounds as best as he or she can without knowing the
language. Later, experts can take this impressionistic transcription and revise and modify it
to more accurately represent the speech. It would be much more difficult if the speech were
charted out using more specific English phonetic symbols.

Once experts are able to analyze the speech and get a sense for the sounds of the particular
language they are listening to, they are able to revise the transcription into a much more
accurate transcription. This is called a systematic transcription or a transcription that more
accurately reflects the phonetic structure of the language it is breaking down.

As you may have already determined, a systematic transcription is more helpful for your
students, although it could be helpful to have them use their native language to analyze the
sounds in an English recording. However, you are more typically going to ask them to create
phonetic transcriptions that more accurately reflect the phonetic structure of the English
language to ensure they are learning.

6.1.3 Phonetic transcription

Simple vs. comparative transcription

Phonetic symbols, though explicitly stated, can be left up to some interpretation. Experts will
sometimes do what is called a simple transcription, which makes the phonetic translation
as easy to read as possible without worrying too much about everything being perfect. This
kind of shorthand is sometimes appreciated by experts since they often have to go through
massive amounts of text. While this may not be the best type to start your students with
because they may not be ready for such shorthand, it can be helpful once they become good
at transcribing. You should only allow them to take shortcuts once they are doing it to save
time, not to make the text easier to transcribe.

Comparative transcription is relevant when the sounds for different languages match, and
you are able to use a more vague phoneme to refer to the different versions of the phoneme
in different languages. This type of transcription is not very helpful for your students.

Phonemic vs. allophonic transcription

Everything we have been discussing so far in this section has referred to phonemic
transcription, which refers to any transcription where you break down sounds into
phonemes. The other option you have with your transcription is to do an allophonic
transcription, which means breaking down the speech into allophones. If you remember
from previous modules, allophones are a phonic rather than phonemic way of breaking down
words.

6.1.4 Word-for-word transcription

When you would like to have your students practice with words rather than just sounds, you
should work with them on word transcriptions, which are exactly what they sound like.
Students listen to a person speaking (or a recording) and transcribe the speech as it is
spoken. Let’s go through the steps you should have your students take to transcribe speech.

1. Select or provide a text that already has a transcription. There is no way to assess your
students unless you have an answer key. You can either hold onto the correct
transcription yourself to assess them or give it to them so that they can check their work
and self-correct. When they are working towards mastery, it is probably better to give
them the transcription, and when you are ready to assess their mastery, it is probably
better to assess them yourself.
 2. Have the students listen to the speech once. If you are delivering the speech, read
it through once, instructing them not to write anything yet but only to listen. If the
students have a recording, instruct them to listen to it in their own once through
before they do anything.
3. Have your students transcribe the speech line by line. It would be more helpful if they
have a recording of the speech so that they are able to go back and listen again
when they need to. However, you may want to simply speak the text when your
students have progressed to the point where they are strong enough to handle it.
Here are some tips that might help them:
o If you have the opportunity, use a digital recording so that it is easier for the
students to go back and forth and keep track of their progress.
o Have the students write their transcriptions by hand to have a closer
connection to the words they are writing. Also, handwriting the transcriptions
means they will not have access to grammar and spelling software that will
help them along the way but ultimately hurt their learning.
o Allow the students to use a dictionary whenever they need to. Not only will
this provide a reference piece to help them, but it will also give the students
practice looking up words in a dictionary.
o Do not limit the number of times your students can rewind or listen to parts of
the recording again. Even native English speakers would have trouble
transcribing a piece word for word without listening to it more than once.
o Encourage your students to transcribe the piece word for word, but then look
through their transcription to fix errors in grammar and usage even when
those errors were made by the original speaker. This will give the students
practice transcribing the piece and also give them the opportunity to practice
their revision skills and access their knowledge of grammar.

6.1.4 Word-for-word transcription

1. Have your students carefully check their answers (as we said before, they may be
at the point where you can assess them instead) against the correct transcription.
Have your students look at where they struggled and where they excelled, and try
to determine their strengths and weaknesses so that they can use the activity as a
learning experience.
2. Transcriptions are not something you can do every day since they are pretty
exhaustive, but you should try to do them every so often until your students have
demonstrated proficiency. Also make sure that you are using it as a learning
experience and have your students continually reflect on their performance to
make sure that it is worthwhile.

How is transcribing text helpful?

As we have already discussed, transcribing text can be extremely helpful to your students
for the following reasons:

 It helps students work on mastering the sounds of English. Students need to be able
to get used to understanding English only from sound, and this is a direct way to give
them practice with that.
  It gives students practice writing the language, and if you ask them to fix any errors in
their own transcription and the original text, they have the opportunity to display their
knowledge of grammar and practice revising it.
 Because this activity is meticulous, it forces students to really delve into the text and
pay attention to every detail rather than just summarizing what is being said.
 This directly prepares students for conversational English, although it takes out the part
where they respond. This is the first step towards being able to hold a cogent
conversation in English.
 This is a great way to give students the opportunity to work independently. They are
able to take the time to struggle with the language without fear of peer ridicule.
Completing this activity will also give them a sense of accomplishment that they
probably would not get from a more teacher-directed activity.

6.2 Paraphrase what you hear

People tend to think that paraphrasing someone is easier than quoting them directly, but
that just isn’t true. To effectively paraphrase, you need to understand what the person has
said enough to put their words into your own words. That is why this is a great skill for your
students to practice; it will test their ability to listen to someone speak, process the words,
and then rewrite them in their own words. In many ways, this task is much more difficult than
transcription. Since paraphrasing is such a difficult skill for your students to master, let’s take
a closer look at how you can help them develop their skills.

6.2.1 Teaching students to paraphrase

There are many different ways that you can teach your students to paraphrase more
effectively, and it is definitely an important skill to practice with them.

1. Start out slowly and informally. Have your students pair up (or get into small groups)
and practice paraphrasing. You can even have them start in their native language if
you want to practice the process. Give the students a simple question, such as “What
did you do this weekend?” Have the students interview each other and then try to
paraphrase what their partner tells them. This helps them work on both speaking and
listening skills.
2. Do it with them. When you are starting to teach the skill and process of paraphrasing,
model the activity by participating in it with them. Start by asking a student a question
and then paraphrasing his or her answer for the class. Then do the same thing, but
ask the class to help you paraphrase. By initiating the process together, you will
make your students feel more comfortable, and you will show them how it should be
done.
3. As you are modeling the process with the students, help them understand how to
paraphrase better by introducing four strategies they can use:
o Reword: The student replaces words with synonyms whenever he or she can.
o Rearrange: The student rearranges a sentence so that it sounds different but
conveys the same message. You will have to model this for them directly.
o Accept: Let the students know they will not be able to change every word (nor
should they), so they need to learn to make decisions on what needs to be
changed and what should stay the same.
o Recheck: Have the students read over the paraphrased version they have
written and evaluate it based on how accurate it is to the original message. If
 you have the students working together, have the student who delivered the
speech check the student who paraphrased for accuracy. You can also use
this as an assessment tool and evaluate it yourself.

6.2.2 Teaching students to paraphrase

1. Now that your students are getting a little more comfortable with paraphrasing, give
them text to work with. You can still have them in pairs, but this time have one student
read the text to the other (once again, also practicing reading and speaking skills),
and have the other student paraphrase. Keep the texts simple enough so that the
focus of the activity is on paraphrasing skills.
2. As the students seem to really get the hang of paraphrasing, ask them to do it in front
of the class. Bring a pair up to the front to showcase the activity the class has already
been working on. Let students in the audience critique the performances. Remember
that this step will only really work once the students are comfortable with the process.
3. If you really want to extend the assignment and challenge your students, take the
next step by giving them more and more complex texts. Even once they start to
master the language, this is a good skill to practice.

Paraphrasing is a great skill to practice even if there is no listening component. Students

can also learn a lot by reading a text silently and paraphrasing it. Remember that anything
that helps your students gain fluency in the English language is worth doing.

6.2.3 How paraphrasing helps students

We have already hinted at all the ways paraphrasing can help your students master the
English language, but we should take some time to explicitly review the benefits of this
activity.

 When you use oral text for this activity, it helps your students improve their ability to
listen to and comprehend English. As we stated before, they need to be able to
recognize the sounds they are hearing, identify the meaning of what they are hearing,
and then turn that information into something new. Students need to be able to not only
translate the language but also what is actually being said to re-create it.
 This activity also works on other skills even if they are not the focus. When you have
your students read a text to each other, you also practice all of the skills involved in
reading out loud, including decoding, pronunciation, and reading comprehension.
 Learning how to paraphrase naturally will help your students when they begin
developing their conversational English. As they become more comfortable with the
language, they will need to be able to take in what people are saying, process it, and
respond appropriately. While this activity does not require the students to respond
appropriately, it definitely helps them with the rest of the conversation.
 If you choose to have your students paraphrase with written text, then it does not really
help them practice their listening skills, but it certainly would help them improve their
reading skills.
 Paraphrasing text helps students make connections with their own knowledge. This
happens in a few different ways:
 o Students make connections to their native language or cognates that helps
them understand and relay the information that is given to them.
o Students connect to what is being said on a personal level and are able to
paraphrase the speech because they feel personally invested in it.
o The activity takes on a much more interesting and less monotonous feel
because you are no longer asking the students to simply echo back what they
have heard; you are asking them to comprehend and create something of
their own with it.

6.3 Conversational English

The next step from having your students listen to someone speak and paraphrase their
words is to have them respond to the speech with an appropriate reaction. Whereas
paraphrasing requires your students to be able to take someone else’s speech and put it
into their own words, conversational English requires them to quickly comprehend what
someone says, decide how to respond, and then determine how to respond in English. The
immediacy of a conversation makes this one of the true tests of your students’ fluency and
what they have learned thus far. To ensure that your students are prepared for
conversational English, make sure they understand each of the following concepts (some
we have already discussed):

 Verb conjugation: To effectively communicate during a conversation, your students

will need to know the basics of verb conjugation, especially when it refers to tense.
The difference between “I ran to the store” and “I run to the store” may only be a
difference of one letter, but it significantly changes the sentence. Students do not
have to be experts at this yet, but they should understand the basics so that they can
participate in a conversation without confusion.
 Using pronouns properly: Pronoun use is very important in conversational usage,
as it is a typical (and grammatically correct) way to take shortcuts to meaning. It is
important that you help your students by stressing to them the importance of clear
antecedents as well as proper pronoun usage.
 How conversational English varies from formal English: Your students may be
fluent in formal English, but if you haven’t discussed such words as “gonna” with
them, they might find themselves very confused in a conversation. Few people speak
with perfect English or even scrutinize spoken English the same way that they
scrutinize written English. While you don’t need to teach your students all the slang
that they might hear, it would be helpful if you could give them some information on
the slang words that have been generally accepted in oral English.
 Understanding English idioms: While these cultural sayings will not pop up in
every conversation that your students have in English, you should try to give them
some instruction in some of the idioms that are most commonly used. Since idioms
are so cultural, we will leave it to you to decide which are the most relevant in your
region or country.
 How English differs from their language: This will require individualized
instruction, but it will be worth it. Try to provide extra practice and instruction with
your students to help them understand some of the specific differences in grammar
and structure between English and their native language. Students who speak
Spanish, for example, will have to get used to the fact that the adjective typically
comes before the noun in English. With specialized instructions in these nuances,
you can help your students be prepared for things that are most likely to trip them up
during a conversation.
6.4 Using what you hear to present new ideas

The next important step to take with your students is to help them learn and/or practice how
to take what they are hearing and use it to present new ideas. While conversational English
is great because it requires your students to reply to speakers with appropriate and cogent
responses, it is time for them to start presenting ideas of their own. In this section, we will
discuss where this will come in handy as well as how to help them practice this skill.

 In a school or business setting, it will be very helpful for students to be able to

synthesize what they hear in English and generate new knowledge from it. This is
extremely relevant since most of your students are likely learning English so that
they can attend an English-speaking school or get/maintain a job where speaking
English will help them advance. In a classroom, students will have to be prepared to
listen to English lectures and then do something to synthesize the knowledge they
have learned. In business, workers will have to be prepared to listen to what their
boss is telling them and then create something that fits the requirements. You can
help them practice this skill by giving them more assignments and projects that mimic
ones they would see in an English-speaking classroom or workplace.
 This skill will definitely improve their conversational English. Keeping this skill in
mind, students will be able to carry on a conversation that is give and take rather
than simply answering and responding to questions that are asked of them. You can
help your students practice this by extending your lessons in conversational English
to account for this need.
 If a student is creating something completely new, such as an invention, an
innovation, or an idea, then it would be very difficult for them to express their ideas
if they only have the ability to respond to questions in English. Students need the
tools to extend the mastery of the English language and speak about things they
have not heard anyone else say. This takes a great understanding of the basic
framework of the language, which you have hopefully provided.
 Students need to be prepared to speak “off-the-cuff,” without a language safety net.
To truly demonstrate fluency and mastery of the English language, they need to be
able to improvise with the language and understand it much the same way that they
understand their native language. With the right amount of commitment from both
you and your students, you will be able to get them to this point. It will just take
patience, preparation, and follow-through.

Module 7: Pedagogy

Pedagogy refers to the art and science of teaching and any of the methods that teachers
use to teach their students. Pedagogy is truly both an art and a science because there are
infinite strategies you can learn to use to help your students, but there is also artistry involved
in how you implement those strategies. Since you may not be in the classroom yet, we will
focus on the science side of teaching and let you discover the artistry as you begin working
with your students. In this module, we will discuss the best ways to impart information to
your students and how to learn from your experiences and continue improving throughout
your career as an educator.

7.1 Exposition

7.2 Modelling
7.3 Know where you are going

7.4 Constructive criticism

7.1 Exposition

Pedagogy is such a complex topic that it could be its own course, so as we discuss the
theories that inform a teacher’s planning, implementation, and assessment, keep in mind
that we are giving an overview rather than a comprehensive study. Here are some of the
most well-known theories of education.

Considering that education in some form or another has existed since the dawn of man, it is
surprising to know there are so many different theories regarding the best way to provide
education for students. While many of these can work together to inspire teachers in their
planning and instruction, some of them directly contradict each other and have led to
debates within the profession. Here, we will cover a few of those theories and discuss how
they can inform your teaching.

7.1.1 Bloom’s taxonomy

Benjamin Bloom studied learning and concluded that learning activities could be categorized
into six segments based on the level of thinking they require. He framed his theory into the
shape of a triangle with the lowest-level thinking at the bottom. He did this because even
though the lower-level thinking activities require less thinking, they provide the base for
higher-level thinking. He believed (as many do) that it is very hard to extend your learning
on a topic if you do not understand the topic itself. We will discuss each category in reverse
order, starting with what Bloom labeled as the lowest level of thinking.

1. Remember: At the base of this triangle, representing the lowest level of thinking, is
any activity that requires a student to recall facts and basic concepts. These types
of activities are extremely important in a student’s learning, since it is hard to take
the next step without first knowing the basic facts. Activities that require students to
remember include defining words, memorizing facts, listing things, and repeating
information.
2. Understand: At the next level of thinking, teachers ask students to comprehend
what they are memorizing and repeating. For students to explore content in any way,
they need to be able to comprehend what they are studying. Activities that require
students to explain ideas or concepts include classifying, describing, discussing, and
explaining information.
3. Apply: Once students understand the information they are learning, they can take
the next step and apply what they have learned to new situations. This displays a
higher level of thinking because the student needs to understand the concept enough
to apply it to something different. For example, a student may be able to
recite Romeo & Juliet, which shows they can remember. They may comprehend the
play enough to explain it, which shows they can understand. Now, if they can take
that comprehension of the play and use it to understand Othello, they are applying
their knowledge. Activities that require students to apply their knowledge include
implementing plans, solving problems, and demonstrating knowledge.
4. Analyze: True analysis of a concept requires a student to have accomplished all of
the levels of thinking that come before it. To truly delve into a topic and analyze more
 than what is explicitly stated, a student needs to understand it completely. When
students analyze, they draw connections between ideas and explore connotative and
deep meaning. Activities that require students to analyze include differentiating
information, organizing information, comparing and contrasting, and experimenting.
5. Evaluate: Simply the act of evaluating something does not necessarily require much
thinking; we are constantly judging things we may know nothing about. To make an
accurate judgment about something, however, you need to understand it completely.
If you ask your students if Americans were justified in fighting against the British in
the American Revolution, they will need to understand how the war began, why each
side fought, and then make a determination about the colonies’ justification. Activities
that require students to justify a stand or decision include appraisals, arguments,
judgments, and critiques.
6. Create: According to Bloom, the highest level of thinking is when you ask your
students to synthesize what they have learned and create something new. The idea
behind his emphasis on this skill is that students need to be able to understand
something completely and have high skills to be able to now create something of
their own that is related. Activities that require students to synthesize their knowledge
include designing, assembling, constructing, and writing (something original).

7.1.3 Behaviorism (1 of 2)

Behaviorist theory is an idea that hinges completely on motivation and how teachers can get
students to succeed in the classroom. While many thinkers contributed to the formation of
behaviorism, the ideas can be easily summed up by the famous experiment conducted by
Ivan Pavlov, who proved that a dog could be conditioned to respond to a specific stimulus
that does not inherently cause that response. He did this by essentially ringing a bell every
time before he gave a dog food to the point where the dog began to salivate in anticipation
of food. After some conditioning with this model, he removed the original stimulus and found
that the dog continued to salivate at the sound of the bell even when it was not followed by
food. The dog had now been conditioned to feel hungry whenever he heard the bell
according to Pavlov.

To understand the educational theory, we first need to clear up a few phrases that are often
misunderstood. Since behaviorism depends heavily on response to a stimulus, the following
phrases refer to the manipulation of stimuli by an outsider (in our case, the teacher):

Positive reinforcement: When an outsider rewards a desired behavior by providing a

desired stimulus. An example is giving a student a good grade for working hard on an
assignment.

Negative reinforcement: This is probably the most misunderstood term in behaviorism.

The word “negative” refers to removal, and the word “reinforcement” refers to a stimulus.
Therefore, negative reinforcement is when an outsider rewards a desired behavior by
removing an undesirable stimulus. An example would be rewarding a student for good
behavior by not yelling at him or her as you normally would.

Positive punishment: This is when an outsider presents the subject with an undesirable
stimulus as a consequence of doing something wrong or not doing something right. An
example would be giving a student an F for not doing his or her work.
Negative punishment: This is when an outsider removes a desired stimulus from the
subject as a consequence of doing something wrong or not doing something right. An
example would be telling a student that he or she can no longer sit with friends because he
or she is misbehaving.

Pavlov’s experiment displayed classic conditioning, which refers to conditioning

involuntary behavior (a dog does not choose when to salivate). B.F. Skinner extended this
idea, referring to his ideas as operant conditioning, which refers to conditioning voluntary
actions through reinforcement and punishment.

7.1.4 Behaviorism (2 of 2)

According to this theory:

 Learners are not really active in the learning process but rather passive participants
who are simply responding to stimuli.

 Learners begin as a blank page, and behavior is only shaped when stimuli provide
either positive or negative reinforcement.

 The more that a behavior is reinforced, whether negatively or positively, the more
likely the student is to repeat that behavior.

 In the same way, the more that a behavior is punished, whether negatively or
positively, the less likely the student is to repeat that behavior.

 In operant conditioning, B.F. Skinner tested the efficacy of different methods of

disbursements for reinforcement and punishments. In other words, how often do you
need to reinforce or punish behavior for it to have the most lasting effect on the
subject?

o Continuous reinforcement: This is when a subject is reinforced every time

he or she performs the desired behavior. Skinner found that this did not
motivate subjects. They did not work as hard, and when the reinforcement
was removed, they quickly stopped performing the desired behavior.
o Fixed ratio reinforcement: This is when the subject is reinforced after a
specific amount of times that he or she performs the desired behavior.
Skinner found that subjects worked harder with this method, and that they
were less likely to stop the desired behavior after the reinforcement was
removed. However, this still was not the most effective method.
o Fixed interval reinforcement: This is when a subject is reinforced after a
designated amount of time, provided the desired behavior has been perform
ed at least once during that time. Skinner found that the subjects worked
moderately hard and were about as likely to stop the behavior as the previous
model after the reinforcement was removed.
o Variable ratio reinforcement: This is when the subject is reinforced after a
random number of times performing the desired behavior. Skinner found that
this method made subjects work hard and take a long time to stop the
behavior after the reinforcement was removed.
 o Variable interval reinforcement: This is when the subject is reinforced after
a random amount of time has elapsed, provided that the subject has
performed the desired behavior at least once during that time. Skinner found
that this worked equally as well as the previous model, with subjects working
hard and taking a long time to stop the desired behavior after the
reinforcement was stopped.

7.1.5 Constructivism

Constructivism hinges on the idea that educators need to meet students wherever they are
(in terms of skills and knowledge) and help them build on previous knowledge. It is also a
theory that seeks to help students find their own way as they experience learning and come
to their own conclusions.

According to this theory:

 The teacher takes a backseat and monitors students as they take control of their
learning. A traditional classroom is teacher centered, but a constructivist classroom
is student centered.

 Students are actively involved in the lesson. Instead of passively accepting the work
given by the teacher and completing it to receive a grade, the student drives the
lesson and works towards a goal with the teacher’s guidance.

 The class feels less like dictatorship, which is run solely by one person, and more
like an environment that is run by the entire class.

 Teachers allow students to find their own answers rather than telling them what
answers to look for. Students are able to explore things in their own way and come
to their own conclusions instead of exploring things the way the teacher tells them to
and coming to the conclusions that the teacher wants them to come to.

 Teachers encourage students to be autonomous, which means they encourage

students to be independent and motivated by their own goals and interests.

Many modern classrooms are moving towards this model or at least towards a model that is
similar, following the next theory we will discuss.

7.1.6 Student-centered learning

While constructivism was student centered, there is a movement in modern education for a
broader embrace of student-centered learning, even if it is not technically considered
constructivist. Since the ideas of student-centered learning have already been covered in
constructivism and by the clarity of the title, we will focus this section on how theorists believe
student-centered learning benefits students.

 Research shows that student-centered learning works because a student’s potential

for learning relies heavily on what he or she already knows. This can affect what new
information is important to the student, how he or she processes new information,
and how he or she determines what is important. With student-centered learning,
 students are more free and able to work at their own pace, starting at their ability
level or base of knowledge.

 One of the most important parts of learning is reflection; having students look back
at what they learned, how they learned it, and where they need to go from here. A
less teacher-centered environment allows students more opportunities for this type
of reflection on learning.

 Students who are involved in student-centered learning have reportedly been more
motivated and satisfied by the school experience. This is because they are more
likely to feel satisfied with their work than if they were simply doing what the teacher
told them to do.

 Student-centered learning is more open to differentiation, which allows all students

with developmental, cognitive, or other differences to progress. A teacher leading
the class is much more likely to need all of his or her students to reach a specific
point at the end of the lesson. Students working independently can set their own
goals.

 One of the biggest obstacles that teachers have to face is the student who is not
engaged. Studies have shown that asking students to move around, control their
learning, and take responsibility for their development leads to more motivation and
progress than in traditional classrooms.

7.2 Modeling

One of the best ways to help students understand new knowledge or grasp difficult skills is
through modeling and scaffolding, which both involve the teacher showing students how
things are done. Too often in education, teachers assume that students already know
exactly what they need to do. More often than not, this is just not true. Students will always
benefit from watching the teacher model a skill or an activity. Students are easily influenced
and will often look to the teacher for how to act, what to do, and how to succeed. Here are
some different ways that you can model for your students:

 Model desired personal characteristics: It can be extremely beneficial to present

yourself as a role model for optimal behavior during a lesson. At any given time in
your classroom, you are asking students to be responsible, creative, diligent,
thoughtful, and respectful (to name a few). Students are much more likely to meet
these expectations if they see you meeting them as well.

 Model a task: Let’s say you want to teach active reading and annotation strategies
to your students. You can do one of two things. You could tell the students exactly
what they should do and let them do it, or you could show them what they should do
and help them work on it. Select a piece of reading and read it with the class,
annotating it in the same way that you expect your students to annotate. This way
there will be no confusion about what you are expecting from them.
  Model metacognitive thinking: When you are trying to help your students become
better thinkers and arrive at conclusions more efficiently and effectively, it can help
to show them how your thought process works. In math class, this works perfectly
because you can walk your students through the process of solving a problem. In
language classes, you could walk your students through how you would break down
a word for proper pronunciation and potential meaning.

 Let the students do the modeling: Assess your students’ strengths and
weaknesses, and give them opportunities throughout the year or course to model
their strengths to the class. Not only will you be reinforcing their success and
solidifying their mastery of the skill, but you will also be letting students learn from
other students.

In whatever way you choose to use modeling, you will make a significant impact on how well
your students understand the skill or knowledge that you are working on. Sometimes,
students just need to see how it is done and not just hear how it should be done to be
successful.

7.3 Know where you are going

Planning for instruction is not an aimless adventure where teachers decide what they are
going to do as they go; it takes a lot of forethought. To be effective as an educator, you will
have to understand what you are leading to on day one and categorically take steps to
prepare your students to reach your goal. To be an effective teacher, you absolutely have
to know where you are going, and if you want to have an impact on your students, you
should also let them know where you are going.

7.3.1 Planning for assessments

Backwards planning is an educational strategy that helps teachers make sure that
everything they do leads to student assessment. It is a pretty simple idea, though it is fairly
difficult to execute perfectly. Here are the steps you need to take if you would like to
implement backwards planning.

1. You first need to decide exactly what you are trying to do with the unit that you are
planning. At the end of the unit, what are you hoping that your students will be able
to do? These are your unit objectives and should be created with care because
everything you do during the unit will have to work towards these objectives. When
you are creating these objectives, focus on what the students will be able to do by
the end of the unit rather than the content you want to cover. Your ultimate goal is to
lead your students to success, not to get to a specific point in your curriculum.

2. Design an assessment that is in line with the objectives you have created. If your
objectives are an expression of what your students should be able to do by the end
of your unit, then your assessment needs to assess whether or not your students are
able to do these things. Think of it this way: if you bring your car to a mechanic’s
shop and they tell you they will fix your car, you will assess their success by whether
or not your car is fixed when they are done with it. If you say that your students will
be able to do A, B, and C by the end of your unit, you need to assess if they can do
it.
 3. Now that you have created objectives and designed an assessment, you need to
determine what your students will need to achieve your objectives. What skills do
they need to improve on? What knowledge do they need? What do they need to
practice? What steps do they need to take to get to the point where they can be
successful on the assessment and therefore fulfill your objectives?

4. Design a unit’s worth of lesson plans to target the specific skills, knowledge, and
areas that you have already identified as necessary for your students to find success.
The whole planning process is recursive. Make objectives, make a tool for assessing
whether or not students have reached the objectives, identify what the students need
to succeed on the assessment, and design instructions that target the students’
needs.

5. After you have taken your students through the unit and graded the assessment, it
is time for you to reflect on your teaching. Your objectives were to help your students
be able to do A, B, and C. Were you successful? Did enough students succeed that
you can move ahead without worrying about their progress? If students did not
succeed, what kept them from succeeding? How can you do things differently the
next time you implement the unit to ensure that your students are more successful?

6. There are two ways in which the previous reflection can inform your teaching. First,
redesign your unit so that it more effectively helps students achieve your objectives.
When you teach the unit next year, you should have more success. Second, what
skills did the students miss in this unit that they will need in the next unit? Their
performance in this unit should inform your planning of the next unit. If most of your
students did not get the skill you were planning for them to hone, then it should now
become one of your objectives for the next unit. You cannot just write them off and
hope for better results next year. You need to make up for it with these students and
then adjust your instruction so that it is more effective next year.

7.4 Constructive criticism

The whole process we discussed in the previous section does not have to fall only on your
shoulders as the teacher. Great teachers make students part of the process, asking them to
reflect on their own learning and identify what kept them from being successful. To do that,
they need to receive honest and specific feedback from you on their performance. Telling a
student “good job” isn’t going to help them improve at all. They don’t even know what they
did well when you say something like that. Honesty is important, but it is also important that
you are sensitive to the fact that excessive criticism could simply demotivate your students.
Here are some tips for providing your students with constructive criticism:

 First of all, you need to make sure that your expectations for student work are very
clear to them. If they properly understand what is expected, you can get a true picture
of what they are able to accomplish, and they don’t feel blindsided by your feedback.
If you have the opportunity, you may even want to provide your students with
examples to show them what a successful assessment looks like as opposed to an
unsuccessful assessment.

 When you are providing feedback, be specific. There is nothing more worthless than
vague, general feedback. You are already going to have to overcome the obstacle
 of students not paying attention to your feedback; if you provide meaningless
feedback, they are even less likely to focus on it. This is important when you are
giving feedback on what they did well as much as it is when you are providing
feedback on their weaknesses.

 Try to balance your positive and negative feedback. Never provide just negative
feedback; there is always something good that you can say. While a student will still
be pretty upset getting overwhelmingly negative feedback, it will definitely help that
you have provided a silver lining so that they see that their work was not worthless.

 Refer back to your instruction. If students are struggling with something you have not
taught in the unit, then it is something you will have to discuss with them; if it is
something that you have gone over, then you will probably have to go over it again.
When the students are struggling with something you haven’t taught, it may not be
fair for you to punish them for it, so instead provide them with encouraging feedback
that identifies the weakness and promises you’ll discuss as a class.

 Require your students to do some sort of reflection activity that forces them to read
or review the feedback you have provided. If they do not receive the feedback, what
is it accomplishing?

Module 8: Lesson planning

As a teacher, lesson planning is extremely important because it helps you understand where
you are going, and it makes it easy to show the administration that you are following the
curriculum.

For the latter reason, lesson plans have become more and more formal in recent years, and
it is now more important than ever before to understand what goes into a lesson plan as well
as how your lesson plans further your objectives.

To this end, this module will review all of the components of a strong lesson plan and how
you can prepare your lessons in a way that will be most effective and beneficial for your
students.

8.1 Standards and objectives

8.2 Following a curriculum

8.3 Varying instruction

8.4 Teaching strategies

8.5 Meaningful assessments

8.1 Standards and objectives

Every time you create a lesson plan you need to create an objective and make sure that it
is aligned with a standard. We will first take some time to discuss standards, since they
should be the basis for all of your lesson plans.

8.1.1 Standards

Standards are a set of skills that students need to have by the time they leave your
classroom. These standards are not set by the teacher but rather accessed by the teacher
for use in their lesson plans. Depending on where you are teaching your students, the skills
that the standards require them to meet are going to be different. For the sake of this module,
we will focus on the general idea of standards and how they should inform instruction. Let’s
first look at the general skills that standards usually focus on.

Reading literature: Reading literature standards cover all of the skills that are required to
effectively read a piece of literature, including poetry, short stories, novels, and plays. These
standards typically focus on literary analysis skills, since reading comprehension skills are
covered in the next standard.

Reading for information: Reading for information standards cover reading comprehension
skills that a student would need to read a piece of nonfiction, such as an article, a biography,
or an academic journal.

Writing: Writing standards cover all of the skills involved in writing, including narrative
writing, expository writing, persuasive writing, and informative writing. Many of the standards
within this category will likely focus on a student’s ability to make a claim, support his or her
claim, and explain himself or herself thoroughly.

Speaking and listening: Speaking and listening standards focus on all of the skills that
students will need to present new ideas and attain information from spoken sources. These
standards are especially important during student presentations, class discussions, and
Socratic seminars.

Language: Language standards focus on the skills that students will need to develop their
understanding of language. As a TESOL teacher, these standards will be extremely
important, but they are also relevant to mainstream classes. These standards focus on
diction, grammar, usage, and other aspects of understanding a lesson.

8.1.2 Objectives

Once you have a clear understanding of the standards that you need to hit within a unit, now
it is time to start thinking about the learning objectives you are going to create. Whereas
standards tell you what your students need to achieve by the end of a unit or the end of the
school year, lesson objectives detail where you want your students to be at the end of a
lesson.

It is your job as a teacher to make sure that the lesson objectives you have throughout a
unit work towards helping your students master the skills outlined in the standards. Here are
some tips for writing effective lesson objectives.
  The first question that you need to ask yourself is “What do I want my students to
be able to do by the end of the lesson?” These objectives should be focused on
skills rather than content and cover skills that the students are going to develop
through the unit.

 Once you have written lesson plans for your entire unit, you should review your
learning objectives to make sure they all build towards meeting the standards for
the unit.

 Lesson plans need to be clear and measurable. At the end of a lesson, you should
be able to look back on the lesson and identify how many of your students met the
objectives with accuracy.

Types of objectives

There are a few different types of objectives that you can frame your lesson plans around,
so let’s review each kind.

1. Cognitive objectives: Cognitive objectives refer to students enriching their

knowledge, demonstrating their knowledge, and practicing skills related to the
knowledge they are enriching. In cognitive objectives, students are expected to
comprehend, apply, and synthesize their knowledge.
2. Psychomotor objectives: Psychomotor objectives are less common in a
mainstream classroom, as they apply to dexterity and physical coordination. These
types of objectives are more common in early education and education for students
who struggle with coordination and dexterity (disabled students or students who have
suffered an injury).
3. Attitudinal objectives: These objectives are rare as lesson objectives and more
purposeful when used as classroom objectives. Attitudinal objectives require students
to behave in a certain way, which is more likely a concern for the classroom all year
rather than a concern for a specific lesson.

There are rules and guidelines that govern your creation of lesson objectives, and while they
vary depending on where you are teaching, we will cover some of the universal ideas.
Remember that lesson objectives are the backbone of your entire lesson.

 Learning objectives should be focused on observable activities: To identify

whether or not your students have achieved the objective you have set out for them,
the objective needs to be observable or something that you can measure through
observation. This idea will help you keep your objectives specific and attainable.

 Learning objectives should be focused on student activities: Many teachers

make the mistake of thinking that lesson objectives should focus on what they hope
to accomplish during the lesson. This puts the focus on teaching rather than learning
and does not really ensure that the students understand the material but instead
ensures that the teacher is delivering the material. Teaching may occur, but learning
may not. Your lesson objectives should always be about what the students are going
to accomplish.
  Learning objectives should be focused on student outcomes: Another mistake
that many teachers make is to create a learning objective that simply describes what
the students are going to do during the lesson. This is not the purpose of an objective
and only measures whether or not the students have complied with the teacher’s
directions. As a student, I can comply with everything my teacher asks without
reaching the true objective of improving a skill or extending knowledge. There should
be an outcome tied to each lesson objective.

Good lesson objectives:

 Students will be able to make a judgment about the strength of a speaker’s argument

 Students will be able to determine which text best portrays the culture of the 1930s

Bad lesson objectives:

 Students will be able to write an essay

 Students will be able to hear about World War II

8.2 Following a curriculum

Depending on where you end up teaching, you may have a say in the creation of the
curriculum, but it is more likely that you will not. Gone are the years where a curriculum was
just an amorphous general idea, and here to stay is a culture where most schools have an
extremely detailed and prescribed curriculum for each of their teachers to follow. To truly
understand how to follow a curriculum, we first need to look closely at the components
involved.

8.2.1 Curricular components

 Standards: As we discussed earlier in this module, all planning should start with the
standards that you want your students to be able to achieve during the curriculum.

 Essential questions: Whereas the standards are focused on what the students are
going to be able to achieve or work on during a unit, the essential question is the
thematic question that the students should be exploring throughout the unit. For
example, you may decide that you want your students to work on a standard that
focuses on using two informational texts to draw conclusions. You may want to
design a unit that covers World War II and ends with a discussion of the bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You can have an essential question that asks something
such as “Should there be rules in times of war?” Then your students could explore
two nonfiction texts to draw conclusions about America’s decision to drop atomic
bombs to inform their understanding of the essential question.

 Assessments: As we discussed before, the summative assessment for the unit

should assess how well the students fulfilled the standards and objectives of the unit.
However, a detailed curriculum will also include formative assessments that help
your students build skills and scaffold on their way to the summative assessment.
  Model lessons: A thorough curriculum will also provide you with exemplar lesson
plans that you can either use, modify, or look to for guidance on how you should be
framing your lessons.

 Exemplar texts: Your curriculum will likely also detail the texts that you can use for
each unit. These will be texts that are vetted to make sure they fit the unit thematically
and are within the appropriate reading level for the students in your class.

 Secondary material: Your curriculum should also offer secondary sources that fit
within your units. In an American English unit plan, there are typically suggestions of
art and music to go along with the literature that needs to be covered.

8.2.2 Teaching to the curriculum

Although many school systems have adopted standard curriculums that do not budge very
much, research shows that the best model for curriculum is a plan that is fluid. In this section,
we will discuss the way curriculum should be used and followed in the classroom, even if
many schools are not necessarily listening to the research.

The best way to use curriculum is in a cycle, where the plan is in the hand of the teacher (or
group of teachers) and within reach of their revisions. The ideal curriculum cycle hinges on
three parts:

1. Planning: The curriculum plan is initially created based on what the teachers and
administrators generally accept as the needs of the students. The units are designed
to address the skills that are layered in the standards while working thematically
through a focus. Everything from the “Curricular components” section above is
created, and the plan is distributed to, and reviewed by, the teaching staff.

2. Implementation: Members of the teaching staff design their own lesson plans to
work within the structure of each unit in the curriculum plan. They make sure that
their lesson objectives clearly address the skills outlined in the standards of the unit,
and each activity prepares the students for the summative assessment. Ideally,
teachers of the same curriculum have periodic time to meet.

3. Reflection: After implementation of the curriculum, teachers meet with each other
to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the plan. The teachers use data they
have collected from the formative and summative assessments and not just
anecdotal evidence to inform their discussions. Teachers share the different
strategies they used during each unit to try to identify if the struggles their students
had were because of their own unique instruction or were in line with the other
students who had different students.

4. Revision: This is the most important part that many schools are not giving their
teachers the freedom to use. Teachers use what they found in their reflection to
inform revisions to the curriculum. If the students had difficulties or skills they did not
attain, then the teachers rewrite unit plans to ensure these problems are addressed.
Without the revision process, the reflection process is not very effective. Next year
the teachers go through the same process and make sure their planning and
instruction are constantly improving.
8.3 Varying instruction

If there is one thing that educational theorists agree on nowadays it is that the best way to
reach the most students is by varying and differentiating your instruction. We will begin by
first discussing one of the basic ideas behind the efficacy of varied instruction, which is the
idea of multiple intelligences.

8.3.1 Gardner’s multiple intelligences

A Harvard professor named Howard Gardner penned the theory that there are multiple types
of intelligence, each valuable in its own way. If you accept this theory, which many do, this
means that the students in your class will all have specific strengths and weaknesses that
you can access through varied instruction. Here are Gardner’s multiple intelligences:

 Visual-spatial: People who are intelligent in this area are very good at
understanding their environment and reasoning spatially. They respond to any
activities that allow them to problem-solve, organize, or create with their hands.

 Bodily-kinesthetic: People who are intelligent in this area are very controlled with
their body and are prone to athletic and/or dexterous tasks. They respond to activities
that require them to move, act, and learn with their hands.

 Musical: People who are intelligent in this area are usually natural musicians who
understand sound and rhythm more than most. They respond to rhythmic activities
and anything that involves music or creating sound.

 Interpersonal: People who are intelligent in this area have an easy time connecting
with people and love to help others. They respond to anything that involves working
in a group, participating in a discussion, or any activities that require them to make
connections with the people around them.

 Intrapersonal: People who are intelligent in this area are very in tune with
themselves and are good at setting goals and keeping themselves on track to
accomplish them. They respond to much more independent and self-driven learning
because it allows them to take control of their own progress.

 Linguistic: People who are intelligent in this area are very good with words. They
understand the language and how to use it to their advantage. They respond to
activities that require them to read, use words creatively, and/or solve word puzzles.

 Logical-mathematical: People who are intelligent in this area are very good at
reasoning and calculating things. They respond to activities that require them to work
logically, reason things out, and solve puzzles.

8.3.2 How to differentiate

Here is where you find a point of contention in the educational community. Differentiation is
a buzzword that politicians and administrators love to throw around without actually helping
teachers understand what it is. Teachers often fear differentiation because they are afraid
of the amount of work that idea brings with it. Differentiation does not have to be scary
however. Here are some simple steps you can take to differentiate your instruction and
appeal to students of different abilities and learning types.

 Get to know your students: There is no way to vary instruction to better

accommodate your students if you do not first find out some information about them.
There are a few different ways that you can research your students’ learning styles.
The first way is to ask the students. This strategy works better with older students,
but it often yields the most honest results. The second way is by giving your students
benchmark assessments early on in the year. This strategy can give you a lot of
information, but it can also be skewed by such things as apathy, distractions, and
poor testing abilities. The third way you can find out information about your students
is through observing them during classroom activities. You may have guessed that
the best course of action is not one of these strategies alone but rather a combination
of all of them. As a teacher, you need to use everything at your disposal to better
understand what works best for your students.

 Be prepared with a toolkit of teaching strategies: Now that you have a good
understanding of each of your students and how they learn best, you need to be able
to access your vast repertoire of teaching strategies to facilitate your students’
needs. These teaching strategies should also be very diverse, covering a wide array
of teaching styles, including:

o Direct instruction: People like to discount this old-school, traditional method

of teaching, but it works in the classroom as long as it is not the only strategy
that you are using.

o Cooperative learning: Cooperative learning is a very trendy teaching style

because it allows students to take responsibility for their learning, and it is
conducive to a student-centered learning environment.

o Inquiry-based learning: According to many experts, this is one of the most

rigorous forms of teaching because it requires students to create their own
questions or hypotheses, research, experiment, or explore these questions
or hypotheses, and then draw conclusions based on their findings. The skills
involved in this process are very complex, and if you are able to help your
students get used to successfully going through this process, you will see
significant results.

o Information-processing strategies: These types of lessons ask students to

practice and deepen their core skills to become better writers, readers, and
thinkers. Students are getting the practice they need in the skills that are most
important.

 Identify which strategies will work best for your students: So you know what
your students need to succeed, and you have a toolkit full of teaching strategies.
Now it is time to put it together and match teaching strategies with your students’
needs.
  Vary your instruction: Here is the part where many teachers and administrators
slip up. People often think that varied or differentiated instruction means that you
always have your students doing group work and working independently.
Sometimes, direct, teacher-centered instruction is appropriate. The point of varied
and differentiated instruction is that you balance different types of instruction
throughout your curriculum. When it is appropriate, you use direct instruction, and
when it is appropriate, you use cooperative learning. The point is that you use all
types of instruction to appeal to every different kind of student and to make the most
impact you can.

 Assess and adjust: As we discussed when we covered following a curriculum, you

need to be able to assess your students, reflect on your teaching, and then adjust
your teaching strategies to better serve your students. Teaching is a growing
experience, and you need to constantly question and adjust your strategies to
become more effective.

8.4 Teaching strategies

Going through all the existing teaching strategies would take an entire course, so we are
instead going to focus on a few effective strategies that appeal to students with different
learning styles.

1. Jigsaw: A jigsaw is a great cooperative learning strategy because it gives students

the opportunity to take control of their learning, but it also is a natural scaffold. In a
jigsaw, you group your student to interact with new knowledge and give them a short
amount of time to focus on a specific topic. Each group has a different topic, so at
the end of this short period of time, you rearrange the groups, and students become
experts on their original topic. For example, you can split your class of twenty-five
students into five groups of five students each and have each group researching a
different European country. Then you can go to each group and give each member
a number from 1 to 5 and have the students rearrange based on those numbers.
Now you have five groups, each containing one student who has researched each
European country. Now the students teach each other.

2. Think-pair-share: This is a very versatile strategy because it can be used for a 5-

minute initiation or for a class-long activity. Put simply, you give your students
something to think about, then you ask them to get into pairs, and then you ask them
to share what they came up with. This can be done as formally or informally as you
would like, and it works with all different types of content.

3. Fishbowl: This is a modified Socratic seminar that asks students to participate in a

discussion and evaluate each other’s performance during the discussion.
Essentially, students are structured into two circles, one inside the other. Inside the
circle, students are given a topic, question, or idea to discuss. In the outer circle,
students are paying attention to the inner circle and evaluating the strength of their
discussion. The most effective fishbowls ask the students in the outer circle to focus
on specific parts of the discussion. Teachers can either ask each outer student to
focus on one inner student or ask each outer student to focus on one skill, idea, or
form of discussion.
 4. Testing a hypothesis: As we mentioned in the previous section, asking students to
pose hypotheses, test their hypotheses, and then draw conclusions is asking them
to access very high levels of thinking. This does not have to be a strategy that only
works in science classes. In an English class, you might ask students to read a
selection from an author and then create a hypothesis that guesses what another
piece by that author is going to focus on. This will require the students to understand
the piece at a high level and be able to use that understanding to make predictions
about a related text.

8.5 Meaningful assessments

We discussed assessments in the previous module, so we will not discuss them ad nauseam
here. To ensure that your assessments are authentic and meaningful, you need to make
sure that they align with the standards you are trying to meet and the objectives you have
set out for your students to help them reach those standards. To make an assessment truly
meaningful, though, it needs to be reflective of something that students might see in
whatever career they end up in, and your assessments should also give students many
different ways to display their knowledge. Here is an example of the different types of
assessments you can create:

 Writing: Your writing assessments do not have to be traditional essays (although do

not discount these classics). You can find many different ways to be creative with
your writing assignments. You can have your students create such things as
storybooks, poems, and journals.

 Performance: Having your students create a presentation, a performance, or

something that requires them to stand in front of the class and create something
informative and entertaining is a great way to find out how much your students know.
These types of activities are creative, entertaining, and really allow students to have
fun with their learning.

 Art: Students can also display their understanding of a concept by creating

something artistic. Whether you ask your students to create an illustration, draw or
build a diagram, or create a visual project, you should allow them to access their
creativity to display their understanding of the material.

 Teaching: Asking your students to teach material to a class is a great way to truly
judge whether or not they know it. As you know or will soon find out, you cannot
effectively teach something unless you understand it inside and out.

Module 9: Classroom management

Curriculum and lesson planning are extremely important in helping your students find
success, but you also need to be able to handle a classroom to make sure you can carry
out your plans. Classroom management is probably the biggest struggle for new teachers
who are still trying to determine their style and do not yet have the tricks that a veteran has.
In this module, our focus will be on making you feel like a veteran before you enter the
classroom so that you can implement your plans and help your students excel. No one has
perfect classroom management, but we will help you feel comfortable enough to control your
classroom the way you see fit.
9.1 Setting expectations

9.2 Respect

9.3 Accountability

9.4 Choosing your battles

9.5 Unique strategies

9.1 Setting expectations

Students need structure to be successful in school, but that does not mean you have to be
a disciplinarian who spends most of your time punishing students for small misbehaviors. It
just means that you need to be clear about your expectations for the class right from the
beginning and carry out those expectations throughout the rest of the year. We will start by
discussing some of the strategies you can use to set expectations for your class, and then
we will review some common expectations that teachers have found success with in their
class.

9.1.1 How to set expectations

 More than anything make sure that you address classroom expectations on the first
day to set the tone for the rest of the year. First impressions are important, and if you
begin the year allowing behavior that you do not want to allow for the rest of the year,
you are going to make things more difficult for yourself.
 One method for setting successful classroom expectations is to use the first day of
class to have the students work together to create those expectations. Have your
students get into small groups and discuss what they expect to get out of this class,
what they expect from you, and what they expect from themselves and the other
students. After five to ten minutes, bring the class together and create a list that you
all narrow down into the final set of classroom expectations. Bringing your students
in on the process gives them the opportunity to see the importance of these
expectations, stresses them, and gives students the feeling that they are in control.
Now, when they break a class rule, they are breaking the very rules they helped to
develop.

 You can also draw students into the activity by having them work together on a class
pledge or class promise. This would work very much the same way except the pledge
or promise is more personal and less quantifiable. If you would like, you can then
take the class pledge and synthesize it into a list of classroom expectations so that
you have both.

 You can also take a more traditional route and create the list of expectations on your
own. If you do this, just make sure they are already posted when the students walk
into the classroom and take some time to review them with the class. Students will
notice them if they are posted on your wall, but they won’t really remember them
unless they are explicitly reviewed.
9.1.2 Common expectations for classrooms

Even if you ask your students to come up with classroom expectations, you obviously want
to make sure they will be effective. As the students make suggestions and you generate the
list, find subtle ways to steer the list towards what you were looking for. By doing this, you
can ensure the expectations are clearer and that they encompass everything you think is
important. Here are some of the expectations you should definitely make sure are on your
list:

 Be respectful of others: This is probably the most classic and universal expectation
for you to set for your students. This is a great expectation because it encompasses
so many things. It refers to students being respectful to the teacher, to other students,
to the school, and to anyone who walks into the room. A respectful environment is
more conducive to learning because students feel more comfortable to take risks
and are less likely to fear ridicule.

 Routines: We are not going to outline your routines here because you will come up
with them on your own, but you should try to set a routine for your students. It will
save class time throughout the school year and make your lessons flow better and
engage the students more effectively. Here is an example of some routines you may
want to outline for your students:

o When the students come in, where do they get the daily paperwork? If you get
your students into the habit of looking in a specific spot every day when they
walk in the door for any worksheets or other paperwork, you will save the time
of having to hand them out and take advantage of time that you wouldn’t have
in the lesson anyway, i.e., the time they take walking to their seats.

o Is there a routine or set of rules for when students can leave to go to the
bathroom and if they need to tell you or not? This seems petty, but it can prevent
many interruptions from students not knowing if they can just leave or not.

o When you have class discussions, how do students participate? Do they raise
their hands and wait to be called upon? Do they just speak out and respect
each other enough to act civilly? Do you have a ball or other object that students
can hold when it is their time to talk? These types of routines really help students
understand how they should act and what behavior is not conducive to a
respectful classroom.

 Responsibility: All students need to display a modicum of responsibility for their

learning, but the responsibilities for which you hold your students accountable are
up to their age and your preference. Whatever you decide, though, you should be
clear and up front about the rules to ensure your students follow them right from the
start.
9.2 Respect

We briefly discussed respect in the previous section, but it is so important to the way you
will manage your classroom that it warrants its own section. Building an atmosphere that is
based on mutual respect will help you avoid most of the problems new teachers face. Let’s
first discuss how respect manifests in your classroom.

9.2.1 Why is respect important?

Respect is a fairly small word that represents a lot and can have many different
manifestations in the classroom. Respect in the classroom does not just mean that students
listen to the teacher; it is so much more than that. There are three types of respect you need
to facilitate in your classroom:

1. Respect for the teacher: This is the kind of respect people usually think about when
you talk about respect in the classroom. While this is only one of three types, it is still
extremely important. Part of discovering who you are as a teacher is discovering
your teaching style. Some teachers demand specific behavior in their classrooms
and hold students accountable for acting outside of these guidelines, while others
are more laid-back in their style. Neither will work, however, if the teacher has not
gained the respect of the students. If the environment is too strict and students do
not respect the teacher, they will lash out and be combative. If the environment is
too laid-back and loose and students do not respect the teacher, they will walk all
over him or her and not listen. Regardless of what your teaching style evolves into,
your classroom environment has to be predicated upon respect.

2. Respect for other students: Besides direct lecturing, almost every teaching
strategy requires students to interact with each other or take intellectual risks. If your
students do not show respect for each other in the classroom, these strategies will
not work. How can you expect a student to answer a question that he or she is not
sure of when the other students in the class feel justified in disrespecting and
ridiculing him or her? If you ever want to have class discussions, work in groups,
have your students present, or do anything that involves students speaking out loud
and taking a chance, you need to be able to rely on the class treating each other with
respect.
3. Respect for themselves: Just as much as you need your students to treat each
other with respect for students to feel comfortable taking risks, you need the students
to have respect for themselves. You do not have ultimate control over this, but you
can do everything you can to constantly encourage them to respect themselves. This
means being encouraging of students sharing and offering them positive
reinforcement for contributing to the class.

If you can find a way to facilitate all three types of respect, you will be able to accomplish so
much more with your students.

9.2.2 How to facilitate respect

Creating a classroom environment that has its foundations in mutual respect does not mean
that you can never have fun. If done properly, it will actually give you the opportunity to have
more fun in the classroom because you will know that your students can handle it and still
do their work and progress as students. Here are some tips on how to provide that safe and
enjoyable community classroom for your students:

 Your classroom needs to be built on mutual respect, so discuss respect on the first
day and stress it throughout the year. Let the students know that they have your
respect and that you in turn require them to show you respect. Students will have a
harder time being disrespectful to teachers who have shown them respect.

 This sounds obvious, but it needs to be said: follow your own rules and treat your
students with respect. Do not make them feel dumb for an answer that is wrong and
lead by example. If a student is off the mark with an answer or comment (in terms of
being correct, not in terms of being disrespectful), look for their train of thought and
give them credit for how they answered, while letting them down easy. Students will
look to you to model the behavior you are looking for from them, so be a good
classroom role model.

 Whenever you are doing an activity that will require students to step out of their comfort
zone, make mutual respect a spoken goal. If necessary, attach a grade to it. Students
need to be reminded constantly about how they should act, so when you especially
need them to show respect to each other, it is worth taking a few minutes to go over it.
If you are doing an activity that requires students to critique each other, model the
behavior first to show them what constructive criticism looks like.

 Handle disrespectful behavior severely. Even if you have a lenient classroom where
students feel freer to express themselves, make disrespect where you draw a line in
the sand. If you have discussed respect and the students are aware of how they
should act, treat disrespectful behavior seriously, and implement real and meaningful
consequences for disrespectful actions.

 Do not be afraid to bring parents and administrators into your plans for a respectful
classroom. Disrespectful behavior should be accompanied by both a punishment
and by contact home. Students will often make rash decisions and not worry about
the in-school consequences, but if your students know they will also face
consequences at home, they are much more likely to think about their actions.

9.3 Accountability

While most discussions of classroom management focus on managing classroom behavior,

accountability is an important aspect that you can control in many other areas of your class.
It is a pretty simple idea: set expectations for your students and then hold them to those
expectations. Why is it, then, that so many teachers have problems holding their students
accountable? Here are some possible reasons:

9.3.1 Why is accountability so hard?

Why is it hard for teachers to sometimes hold students accountable? If we all admit it is
important, why isn’t it just second nature?

 Holding students accountable requires a confrontation. While teachers know that

student behavior will be better if they hold the students accountable, that does not
 make putting their foot down any easier. While instinct tells you that the right thing to
do when a student acts inappropriately is to punish him or her accordingly, it can be
hard to actually do it because you know it will often end in an argument.

 When you are trying to build an atmosphere of mutual respect, it can be difficult to
know when you are overreacting and when you just aren’t being strict enough. If a
student clearly acts inappropriately, then it may be easy to punish him or her
immediately. What happens, though, when the student toes the line of inappropriate
behavior? At what point do you act, and at what point do you let it go? This can be a
very difficult decision.

 If you come down too hard on students, it could encourage more inappropriate
behavior rather than appropriate behavior. If students feel they are being punished
unfairly, they are more likely to act out in defiance.

 Some students are terrible at dealing with confrontation, and it can just be easier to
ignore their behavior. While this might be a good strategy with some students as long
as they are not being disrespectful and are doing their work, it could have a negative
effect on the class environment. Students do not like it when they are held to stricter
standards than their classmates, so if you make too many concessions, you end up
either making concessions for the entire class or upsetting the students who are
acting appropriately.

 Confrontations are stressful, and it is easier to just let something go or pretend you
didn’t see or hear it rather than make an issue of it.

 Every student has a different story, and when you know that one of your students is
going through a tough time or has a less than satisfactory home life, you feel
compassion towards him or her and want to cut him or her some slack.

 No one strives to be the mean teacher, and as much as you want to believe that you
don’t care what your students think about you, you will care.

9.3.2 How do you keep vigilant?

With all of these reasons to let things go, how do you remain vigilant? We all agree that the
right way to act is to punish inappropriate behavior with a reasonable teacher response, but
how do you make it easier, less stressful, and less disruptive? There is no easy answer, but
here is a strategy that might make things a little bit easier for you:

It’s not me; it’s you: Think about it. Most of the concerns listed in the previous section stem
from being the enforcer as the teacher. So, the best way to make things easier on you is to
remind the students that they are controlling their behavior. Instead of being the enforcer,
be upset that they have done this to themselves and will have to be punished. This shift in
attitude mentally shifts the confrontation and makes the student realize that their actions are
what are causing them problems. Of course, this only works if you have clear rules of
conduct for their behavior already in place.

 As much as you may feel bad when you are doling out punishments, remember that
you are doing nothing wrong and have done nothing wrong. You are not the one who
 misbehaved or acted inappropriately; they are. Put the burden back on the student,
and watch how many of them begin to check their own behavior.

 When a student gets in trouble, your attitude and behavior should reflect the following
ideas:

o The student is the person who chose to break a classroom rule.

o The student is the person who had the choice in this situation, not you.
o You are forced to punish the student because of the rules you all set at the
beginning of the year.
o This is going to help your students, so let go of your guilt

 When a student misbehaves, treat it like you are on their side and upset they will
now have to face a punishment. This makes the process seem like both of you are
experiencing the punishment, and you are beholden to the rules. The rules become
the enforcer, not the teacher. “Oh no, Billy. That’s the third time you had your
phone out, now you have to get detention.”

 Notice how this shift in attitude helps you keep your students accountable without
making you feel the guilt you usually would. You will see this is actually easier than
letting behaviors go and seeing your classroom slowly de-evolve and break down.

 Students will begin to take more responsibility for their actions. They will realize it is
their behavior, not the teacher, that is causing them to face punishments. This shift
will help you create the classroom environment you want without making you be
the bad person or the disciplinarian.

9.4 Choosing your battles

With everything that we have said about holding students accountable and creating a
classroom environment that is based on respect and having control over your classroom, it
is still important that you choose your battles. Your goal as a teacher is to help your students
find success, and that can’t happen if you are kicking your students out for every little
infraction. This is especially true in the case of a volatile student. This does not mean that
you should let him or her get away with anything that threatens the environment in your
classroom, just that you need to decide what behaviors are worth the fight and what
behaviors are not. Here are some things to consider when working with a child who is prone
to confrontation:

 What is causing this behavior? Many times the answer to this simple question will
tell you how you need to act. If the student just has a problem dealing with a
confrontation, then you can correct his or her behavior by quietly approaching it in a
way that does not make a scene. If the student needs to be able to speak to someone
when he or she is having a tough time, it might be smart to have a routine set up so
that he or she can go see a counselor or school psychologist when he or she feels
an outburst coming.
 With volatile students, try to focus your attention on prevention rather than reaction.
Get used to seeing the signs of a problem, and try to head them off before it gets to
the point where you have to impose a punishment or start a confrontation. Quietly
 approaching a student when he or she seems to be having a bad day shows that
you care and might compel the students to take control of their behavior.

 While students do not like it when someone gets different treatment than someone
else does, you need to remember that fair and equal are two different things. Just as
you need to differentiate your instruction to account for students who struggle with a
skill, you need to differentiate your management for students who have difficulty
behaving.

 Talk to the student. Ask what triggers outbursts and how you can best approach him
or her in a time of stress. Often, the student will know what will help. When he or she
does not, work together to try to come up with a set of rules and routines that hold
the student accountable while still giving him or her some breathing room.

 Enlist the help of other students, with the consent of the volatile student of course.
Does the student have a friend who can help calm him or her down in stressful
situations? If so, you can deflate tensions by giving the friend a signal to step in so
that you do not have to start a confrontation every time the volatile student acts out.
That being said, the friend is a student also, who does not deserve to bear all of the
weight of his or her friend. Use the friend as a resource rather than a crutch to bear
the weight of the disciplinary actions you should be imparting.

9.5 Unique strategies

While the best strategy for creating a positive classroom environment involves everything
we have discussed so far in this module, sometimes you need to employ fresh tactics to
encourage positive behavior. Here are some unique strategies that can help you take
confrontation out of classroom management.

 Countdown: There are many strategies like this, but essentially the countdown
involves having some sort of signal to the class that they need to calm down. If you
do this properly, you can get students to modify behavior without saying a word.
When they get out of hand, simply start the timer and let them regulate themselves.

 Commercial break: If you have a very loud or social group, you can set up a routine
where students are rewarded for positive and diligent behavior with a commercial
break or a period of time during which they can break from work to get up and walk
around and talk to friends socially. You will need to regulate the time for the
commercial break carefully and keep it short (two minutes is probably best since that
is the traditional length of commercial breaks).

 Buddy system: Pair up your students and hold them accountable for each other. If
one of the partners missed the directions, the other is there to explain it. If one of the
partners is acting up, the other is there to try to deflate the situation. Handle problems
with one of the students as problems with the pair to keep them linked in both reward
and punishment. This will not work, however, if one student is not compliant and
always causing the problems.
  Number your students: Of course you want your students to feel like individuals
and not just numbers on a sheet, but assigning each student a number can be
helpful. When you need them to act quickly, either getting into groups, presenting
ideas, or some other behavior, save time by calling out numbers. “We’re going to
have a debate; all the even numbers get on one side of the room, and the odd
numbers get on the other side.” This will cut down on a lot of the wasted time of
organizing students and will also promote compliance and classroom harmony.

 Tight schedule: Building up a tight routine can really help you encourage diligent
behavior. If you create a routine of bell work and exit slips, your students know they
need to begin working immediately as class begins, and they know they are
accountable for something before they leave. This may seem very simplistic, but it
sets up a class routine and promotes appropriate behavior. Students know they need
to do this every day and come in ready to work.

Module 10: Getting a TESOL job

You’ve learned everything you need to know, and now it is time to think about taking the
next step and getting a job in the TESOL field. Regardless of the training you have, getting
a job in any field can be difficult, so we will discuss how you can differentiate yourself from
others when you are seeking employment. In this module, we will discuss what you need to
start the process, how to build and write an effective resume, the best interview techniques,
and other skills you will need to display your value to potential employers. Everything we
have done so far has led up to this, so get ready to start marketing yourself to the kinds of
employers you would like to build a career with.

10.1 What do you need?

10.2 Building a resume

10.3 Interview techniques: what are they looking for?

10.4 Possible destinations

10.5 Preparing to join a different culture

10.1 What do you need?

There is much demand for qualified individuals to become teachers of English as a second
language, so the most important job we now have is to ensure that you can find your way to
the schools, companies, and organizations that are looking for someone like you. In this
section, we will look specifically at what you need to get a job in the TESOL field, helping
students who want to develop their proficiency in English.

College degree: Most schools and organizations will look for you to have at least a
Bachelor’s Degree to become a TESOL teacher. That does not mean you need a BS or BA
in TESOL, although there are majors that are more desirable than others. The majors that
employers like to see, for example, are English, Language Arts, TESOL, Education, and
Linguistics. Again, though, the demand for individuals is high in this field, so a BS or a BA in
a different major does not count you out.
Close study of TESOL: Courses like this one give you the background that you need to
look desirable to an employer. You may be required to get a specific certification, but many
employers are looking for a background in TESOL, which you now have.

Work experience: For many of you, this course is your first step towards becoming a
teacher or becoming a TESOL teacher, so you may not yet have work experience. However,
many organizations and schools welcome interns and volunteers at different levels of
commitment. Some of these organizations and schools offer a track towards full employment
from these volunteer or intern positions. Other organizations and schools are looking for
talented individuals to manage their volunteering staff, which could give you good
experience that you can segue into a career as a TESOL teacher. Showing that you are
passionate enough about your future career to work for free towards it will go a long way in
the eyes of a potential employer.

A strong resume: We will discuss how to build and write a resume in the next section.

A good interview: We will also discuss interview techniques in great detail in a later section.

10.2 Building a resume

In this section, we will discuss how to write a great resume, but we will first discuss what you
can do to build a great resume. This means looking at the activities, jobs, and interests that
will catch the eye of potential employers and getting experience in them. With that in mind,
let’s split this section up into two.

10.2.1 What looks good on your resume?

Before you even think about sending out your resume, you should think about what you
need to have on it to make it impressive and something that will help you stand out in a stack
of viable candidates. Let’s take a look at the kinds of experiences that employers are looking
for.

Education: This does not mean that you have to run out immediately and get a Master’s
Degree in TESOL, but rather that employers want to see that you have education that is
relevant to the job. As we mentioned in the previous section, most employers are looking for
candidates who have either a BA or BS. If you don’t have a college degree, your options
may be limited, though the windows of opportunity are not closed to you.

Employers ideally want you to have a BA or BS in a relevant field of study, though that is not
a deal breaker. If you have a degree in a related field, then that is great; if you don’t, that
just means you will have to make up for it in other parts of your resume. This course will look
great on your resume because it shows that you are committed to learning about TESOL,
and it shows you have educational experience in the direct field in which you are applying.

Some employers might require a further certification, which depending on the situation may
require you to take an extra test or a short supplemental course. Again, whatever you are
lacking in this section, you will just have to make up in a different section.

Work experience: Of course it would look great if you have already worked in TESOL and
have previously held a job in the field, but you are just starting out so that is highly unlikely.
If you have teaching experience, that looks great so that is something you will want to
highlight. If you don’t have either, that is all right. However, you should look into getting some
intern or volunteer experience before you start looking for a job.

You can send out applications while you are getting the experience, but it will look good if
you have direct experience in the field even if it is unpaid (in some cases, it will look better
if it is unpaid because it shows a great passion and commitment). As we discussed in the
previous section, some of these intern and volunteer opportunities could lead to part- or full-
time employment in the field, so look closely at the companies and schools that are offering
these volunteer experiences.

Related work experience: Even if you are not experienced at all in the TESOL field, this
section is where you should display any work experience that is even tangentially related.
Have you ever worked with children? Have you ever worked with non-English-speaking
people (worked helping them, not just worked alongside a non-English-speaking individual)?
Think about what it takes to be a TESOL teacher and if you have used any of the same skills
in a different job.

10.2.2 How do you make your resume look good?

So you have all of your experiences and skills set up. Now how do you present it in a resume
that represents you well and makes you look good to potential employers? There are some
specific things you can do to make your resume stand out.

Formatting: You will want your resume to be clear and easy to read. You want the employer
to be able to pinpoint any piece of information that he or she wants as quickly as possible.

 Use wide margins to take advantage of space, but that does not mean you should fill
every bit of space with wordiness.
 Use a bulleted list to make things short, sweet, and easy to read.
 Organize your experiences and skills into logical and clear sections that are marked
accordingly.
 Use bold and italic print sparingly but smartly to draw the reader’s eye to the
information that you really want to highlight.

Focus on accomplishments, not job descriptions: A potential employer does not need
the definition of your current or former job; they need to know what you accomplished at
those jobs that makes you a valuable asset to their company or school.

 Mention your job title, but then describe what you accomplished and what you worked
on at that job. Were you a manager? Great. That means you led a team of employees
to . . . The point is to let the employer know you did a lot in your previous jobs and
that what you did for your former employers you can do for your future employer.
 Constantly ask yourself why the employer needs to know that you did what you are
writing. If they do, highlight what they need to know. If they don’t, remove it.
 Make sure that the accomplishments that you write are yours and not just your team’s
or your company’s. The employer isn’t hiring your project team; they are looking to
hire you.
Be specific: Being able to explain your former job in a fancy way is helpful, but that will not
separate you from the field. Be specific about what you accomplished and give the employer
something quantitative to work with. How did your work specifically improve your former
workplace?

No mistakes: Read your resume over five times and have five friends read it too. This may
seem like overkill, but something as simple as a typo is enough for an employer to toss your
resume aside. This is especially true when you are applying for a job to teach English to
new English language learners. If you cannot create a 1–2 page document that is error free,
how can the employer expect you to be an effective English teacher?

10.2.3 Avoid these common resume mistakes

Even the best candidates make the mistake of submitting a below average resume and then
wonder why they don’t get a call back. Do your best to avoid these common resume
mistakes.

Being too vague: This may take a little more work, but you should be adjusting your resume
for each specific job you are applying to. Every job is different and has different
requirements, so why are you handing the same resume to every potential employer? You
should not be changing anything dramatically, but look closely at what the employer is
looking for and adjust your wording so it addresses their needs.

Focusing on jobs instead of experience: Telling the employer that you worked as <blank>
for <blank company> does not really tell them anything about who you are and what you are
bringing to the table. What was your focus at the job? What did you accomplish? Why were
you a great employee for your former employer? Find a way to highlight your strengths and
accomplishments.

Length: The old rule that your resume has to fit as a single side of a sheet of paper has
been thrown out the window. That does not mean, though, that you should turn in a
dissertation. Studies show that employers give each resume about twenty-five seconds of
attention, so you have to make sure that your resume is tight. It is acceptable, though, to
have a two- or three-page resume but only if you have a lot to show. Do not have a third
page on your resume just to tell the employer that your hobbies are sports and movies. Use
the space you need, be concise, but do not worry about fitting it onto one sheet of paper.

No focus: Most resumes include an objective or career summary. If your objective is

missing or vague, you may not get a second look. This could be a great spot to tailor your
resume specifically to each employer you’re contacting. Be specific and highlight what you
are looking for and what you want to accomplish.

Too busy: Make sure that everything on your resume is in a logical place and that your
resume does not appear too busy. If the employer can’t make sense of what you are saying,
they are going to move on to the next one.

Missing important information: Now is not the time to be humble. Feel free to act humbly
in your interview, but here you should be showing the employer everything that makes you
desirable. Then, when you interview, they will have all those accomplishments in front of
them as they ask you questions.
10.2.4 Final resume tips

Here are some extra tips for how to make your resume as strong as possible. Remember
that your resume is what gets your foot in the door before an employer has even met you;
make sure it is strong.

 Have a purpose in mind when writing your resume. Besides being organized and
categorized effectively, your resume should have a purpose and tell a story. The
more you know what that story is, the more a potential employer will see it.

 Pay attention to your diction. Look at the job listing and determine exactly what the
employer is looking for, and use keywords that will draw their attention. If you are
applying online, some employers will filter the resumes they receive using a
keyword search, so make sure yours ends up on the top of the list.

 Do not be afraid to discuss the future briefly in your resume. It can sometimes be
helpful for you to let the employer know what your career goals are (as long as they
are goals that show your loyalty to potential employers and how you want to build a
career out of this job).

 Use numbers and figures when possible. We discussed making your

accomplishments quantifiable earlier, so if you can provide a number that displays
your accomplishments, do it.

 It could be helpful to directly acknowledge any difficulties that the employer is

facing that you could solve. Do some research, but only use this if you find
something relevant. Do not just assume that the employer has a problem when
they may not.

 Whenever possible, use action verbs rather than “is” or “was.” This will highlight
your role in whatever accomplishment you are noting.

 Avoid pronouns even though you would typically use them. You are the implied
subject of every sentence because it is your resume. Instead of writing, “I excelled
in my undergraduate work, earning a 4.0,” write, “excelled in undergraduate work,
earning a 4.0.” It gets more to the point and doesn’t bog down the space.

10.3 Interview techniques: what are they looking for?

Once your stellar resume has gotten you an interview, it is time to really show the potential
employer what you are about. Up until now, you have just been words on a piece of paper,
and though you obviously impressed the employer enough to stand out, you still need to
come ready to impress.

10.3.1 Interview tips

 Do some research: We already suggested doing this when you were creating your
resume but look into the company or school again. Try to find out what exactly they
are looking for, what they are lacking, and what their mission is. These are all
pieces of information that will help you when you are planning for your interview.
 Dress to impress: Be sure your clothes are clean and pressed. Even if you would
not have to do so for the job, dress formally, and try to look proper. While it won’t
necessarily hurt you to look a little flashy, you might be better off going with classic
color combinations. You want to look stable, responsible, and prepared.

 Be prepared: Even though any good employer will have copies of your resume
and other materials on hand, bring extra copies in a folder of some sort. If you
know you are interviewing with a committee, bring enough to go around just in
case. If you know they are going to ask you about something specific, have an
example ready to go. There is no downside to being prepared, and in a best-case
scenario, the employer is impressed by your preparation.

 Be enthusiastic and optimistic: It is a job interview, so it is OK to be nervous, but

you should still be enthusiastic. You should be happy to be there and optimistic
about your future with the company or school. Confidence is always an attractive
quality, so remember that you have prepared for this and that you should let
yourself be confident.

 Do not be late: This should go without saying, but it is worth saying. Be early for
your appointment, and if you are travelling a route you are unfamiliar with or that
has the potential to be heavily trafficked, give yourself extra time.

 Pay attention to the person interviewing you: The interviewer will certainly be
listening to your answers, so listen to their questions carefully. Not only will this
ensure that you don’t seem uninterested, but it will also help you understand what
they are looking for. You can tell a lot about what an employer is looking for by the
questions he or she asks. Pay attention to the details and try to tailor your answers
to what they are trying to get at.

 Be specific: Many people come out of interviews happy with their performance
because they gave good answers to the questions they were asked. But, if you are
not specific, the employer might forget you by the time the next candidate walks in.
Answer with as much specificity as you can so that the interviewer remembers your
answers and can quantify your responses.

 Ask questions: Be smart about the questions you ask, though. Many interviewers
will end the interview by giving you the opportunity to ask questions. Ask questions
that show you are interested in the job and the company or school. Do not ask how
many vacation days you get.

 Be cognizant of your body language: The interviewer is going to be evaluating

everything about you, including your body language. Make sure you are projecting
confidence, passion, interest, and enthusiasm. Do not act overly comfortable, but
try to stay loose and appear that you belong there.

 Anticipate questions: Many interviewers have prescribed questions to avoid legal

issues, so searching the Internet for common interview questions and preparing
answers could really pay off. You may even find that you end up with the same
source that the interviewer used.
  Practice: Being prepared is important, but don’t be afraid to practice. If you have
someone who will help you out, ask him or her to run through scenarios (such as
an argumentative interviewer or an interviewer who is intentionally trying to cause
you anxiety to see how you react). It seems like a lot, but if this is the career you
want and the job you want, is there really such a thing as too much preparation?

 Follow up: Lastly, follow up with the interviewer after the interview. Do not ask if a
decision has been made yet; simply thank him or her for the opportunity to
interview for the position and say that you look forward to hearing from him or her.
Be pleasant and grateful, and you will make sure your name remains in their mind.

10.3.3 What not to do in an interview

Just as there are tips for how to act in an interview, here are some tips for how not to act in
an interview.

 Try not to ramble. While you want to answer the interviewer‘s questions to the best
of your ability, keep your answers to the point. You will show that you know what
you are talking about, that you are listening to what they ask, and that you know
how to get things done.

 Be friendly, but do not be too personal. It is all right to make a joke, but it has to be
a joke you would be willing to make to a stranger. The interviewer is not your
friend; he or she is likely your potential boss (or at least a boss), so act
appropriately.

 Try your best not to look disinterested. If an interviewer has a group of candidates
coming in to interview, why would he or she offer the job to someone who does not
seem to want it? Pay attention to your involuntary actions and your body language,
and make sure you are projecting enthusiasm.

 A common question that interviewers ask is why you are leaving your old job. Try
to avoid saying anything negative about your old employer or company. Even if you
frame it as a compliment to the interviewer or his or her company, it will still seem
that you are being disloyal, and no one wants a disloyal employee. Give a reason
that is steeped in positivity, such as you are looking to grow professionally.

 Although you want to appear confident, do not bulldoze the interviewer. It is all right
if you take control of the interview at times, but always let the interviewer know that
he or she is in charge, or else he or she may be put off. Who wants to work with
someone who is just going to drown them out?

 Have an opinion, a purpose, and a set of standards. You have to strike a balance
between confident and flexible. While no one wants to hire someone who is rigid
and arrogant, no one wants to hire someone who just goes along with whatever he
or she thinks the management wants.

 Avoid being a cliché. The biggest cliché is answering the classic “What is your
greatest weakness?” by turning it into a strength by saying something such as, “My
greatest weakness is that I work too hard.” Your interviewer is not an idiot, and this
 is not going to impress him or her. Give an honest answer, but also provide the
work you have done to improve on that weakness and how you handle your
weakness on a daily basis.

10.4 Possible destinations

While many of you are looking to teach English as a second language in your home country,
there are many opportunities for teachers who would like to travel, see the world, and learn
from different cultures. Here are some of the countries that are looking for the most help.

Europe

Spain, Portugal, Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Poland, The Czech Republic, Hungary,
Russia.

Asia

Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Indonesia, Mongolia, Turkey.

Latin America

Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Chile.

Middle East

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco.

10.5 Preparing to join a different culture

If you are deciding to use your TESOL talents to travel to another country and learn about
another culture, make sure that you are prepared for the culture you are about to immerse
yourself in. Research your destination and try to learn as much as you can about the culture
before you get there. If you do this, you can avoid offending anyone accidentally and ease
our way into the culture much more easily. Typically, you will likely experience this new
culture in the following stages:

Beginning stage: Prepare for your journey by doing research about the culture, and make
sure you are ready for your journey and your new environment.

Initial happiness: You are in a new place, and everything is unique and cool. You will
initially feel so happy to be in this new place and excited to help the people you meet there.
Even if you have a great experience, this initial euphoria wears off.

Frustration: Once the happiness begins to wane, you are likely to begin getting irritated
with your new home. The culture is different, and much of what you loved about your home
is rare or not available to you anymore.
Adjustment: You are beginning to get used to the new customs and culture of your new
home. You find yourself less and less irritated by the things around you and are starting to
feel comfortable with them.

Adaptation: Once you begin feeling comfortable with the culture, you will start to truly feel
a sense of biculturalism, where you identify and even like the new culture you are
experiencing. Everything that was once foreign and odd to you now feels comfortable and
normal.

Reentry: When you leave this foreign culture to return home, you may find that you go
through all of these stages all over again, albeit at a much quicker pace. You will probably
always cherish your experience with another culture, but be very happy to be home where
you are more comfortable.