Resource centre - Theory and issues - Three Mistakes
Larry Lynch explores three areas of teaching practice which, he argues, are essential if students are to succeed.
Are you guilty of any of these erroneous practices in ELT or language teaching?
Any one of them can easily derail the students' efforts in language acquisition
and learning or cause them grave problems. So, review these areas, make any
needed adjustments to your teaching practice. Don't you be a stumbling block to
your learners' progress.
1. Don't adapt materials to the learning style and characteristics of
the students.
Unfortunately, the learning style most reflected in the classroom is that of the
teacher. It is paramount that concepts and material be presented in a way most
suitable for the learners. Jack C. Richards, principal author of the widely
popular Interchange textbook series said, "Student learning styles may be an
important factor in the success of teaching and may not necessarily reflect
those that teachers recommend." Why? Because teachers use their own preferences
in the class room, not necessarily those of the students. Do an analysis of your
class group’s learning characteristics, then apply the results to your teaching.
2. Follow the course book.
A course book is usually not intended to be a "bible", but all too often
teachers follow it "religiously". They do nothing else, nor include outside
materials in their teaching. If you read the teacher's notes that typically
accompany an English or language text, you'll most likely note that the course
book is intended to be a guide for teaching with supplementary materials widely
used to expand, deepen or reinforce presented materials and themes. Use the
course book sequence as a guide. Freely supplement its exercises and course
materials with your own creations or at the very least with materials adapted
from other sources. As mentioned in point number one, plan your lessons and
materials to meet the needs, learning styles and characteristics of your
learners.
3. Don't encourage and promote language practice outside the classroom.
With an alarming number of schools and institutes decreasing student to teacher
classroom contact hours per week it is essential for learners to receive
additional practice and input. There are requirements of as little as four hours
per week or even less in many publicly or government-funded educational centers.
Can a student really learn a language in only 45 hours? Or put it this way, is
it reasonable to expect mastery of any sort in a language after six or seven
days in a foreign country where that language is spoken? Spread that contact
intensity over a six-month period; does that make language learning and
acquisition better or worse? Now, throw in the learners using their first
language half of each day of language learning and you have a situation degraded
to a nearly impossible state.
Finally, factor in class and semester breaks of several weeks per year and it's
certainly no wonder Jorge, Chen Shen or Efrosini can't hold even a basic
conversation after studying English (or another foreign language) under these
conditions for two, three or even more years. Encouragement and promotion of
foreign language practice outside the class room is absolutely vital to the
success of the learners.
So again, don't you be a stumbling block to your learners' progress. If you are
guilty of any of these erroneous practices in ELT or language teaching, make any
needed adjustments to your teaching practice ASAP. Then watch your learners
grow, improve and practice their new language like never before. Please feel
free to contact me with your questions, comments or requests.
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Another factor to take into
account is the number of SS in the classroom. It's not easy organizing a
stand-up oral activity in a class of 30 kids. Thanks for the advice.
Many teachers don't do
that. They follow the books, do every single task in it, have boring lessons.
Classroom has to be a safe place, fun for students, they then come there eager
to see something new first, then eager to learn & to produce. Some of my
students attend private schools additionally, we create projects including
e-mail exchanges with their English speaking peers, they go to other countries &
of course practise the language every possible time. I always make them search
the web for additional materials & a discussion follows after that. Four days a
week are not enough time to practise English of course. (Secondary School -
Bulgaria, Vratsa).
What do you think of
students who depend completely on their teacher and don't want to work but
listen to the teacher and wait for him or her to do every thing for them even
exercises? What learning style are they? Thanks.
This article was quite good
for foreign teachers that teach English. My students love games when I use them
in class, but I have limited resources I wish I could have more game resources
to share with them. Where can I get them? Regarding the course book I use it a
lot, and also, I would like to get additional material, but where? I promote the
use of English outside the classroom, but my colleagues don't like the idea and
my students told me "We are not in class now", but I keep speaking and trying to
convince others of the importance of using English all time they talk to me.
Thanks for the tips they were great for me.
Some of us newbees need a
roadmap. If these are the "no-nos" then could Prof. Lynch spell out and write an
article about what a proactive approach to a 20 hour work week might look like,
especially around what a foreign teacher can arrange for outside school hour
teaching. Perhaps he could add, for me, what one organises for a successful
English Corner program. Not many students turn up to mine so I guess I'm doing
something wrong. Thanks.
I believe this is something
any dedicated teacher learns through experience. However, the article is very
good for teachers with no or little experience to learn from the mistakes of
others and not one's own.
The school where I used to
work organised a conversation club, which was 'chaired' by a teacher (paid!),
but took place outside the school - usually in a cafe or a bar after the school
day had finished. There were core regulars who attended and they encouraged
other students to go along. In this environment, students felt much more free to
express themselves as they did not feel they were being assessed. Some just went
along to 'listen' but eventually joined in. This could be done whatever country
you are in.
Not guilty, I get so bored
using the same material teaching that I am constantly buying new materials,
cutting articles out of newspapers and downloading the lyrics to songs.
Try using 'Fairytale of New York' by the Pogues for teaching slang and insults
to a good intermediate adult class. It goes down very well at the end of a long,
hard week of study. David Bowie's version of 'Amsterdam' gets French speaking
students going and they all know the French lyrics. I could go on and on...
I do feel that you are
touching on the basics and that most teachers, caring teachers, know this
already. However, there are many teachers who are overworked, underpaid and
without sufficient resources or support to take this advice seriously. Will the
professor please enter the real world! And as somebody else mentioned, what
about the attitude of the lazy student who wants everything both on a plate and
eaten for him/her. Please keep up the discourse, it's both interesting and
funny, in a sad sort of way.
Are there really teachers
who still make these mistakes? Come on... we live in such a modern age, full of
technology, it's so easy to find great material over the internet and make your
class fun and pleasant! Go for it!
Bores, I'd say :))
Do you want your students
to get a taste of the language right away? Try this: -ing forms (with usual "to
be" stuff) + simple modals. Then you move on with the rest... 90 hrs minimum.
And, of course, forget the course book.
What I see nowadays is:
teachers not interested in teaching and students not interested in the learning
process. I've been teaching for some years and what I hear from my students is
that they are interested in showing their parents what grade they get. I also
see my colleagues not interested in changing anything, but follow the
methodology the book offers. They go straight from beginning to the end of the
book. I go the other way: offer students a great variety of resources: internet
texts, games, thematic class(ex. today we are going to pretend we are in a
supermarket. I would say it is an exhausting process, but rewarding as well.
I think that the first two
mistakes are not happening in my school now because I am working in an
independent school and we have the right as teachers to develop and adapt
materials to the learning style and characteristics of our students, and this
leads to not following a specific course book. But concerning the third mistake,
I admit it, yes, we don't encourage and promote language practice outside the
classroom, but after reading the article I will work on that. Thanks.
This article is an oasis
for me as I struggle to teach English in the Caribbean, where students come to
the classroom with Creole English as their first language.
Teachers who are guilty of
following the textbook so strictly can simply be described as lazy. Not only
does it bore the students but eventually bores the teacher to death too! With
the material being presented in the same old format in each level, students know
what is coming next and how it'll be taught... they may as well take the
textbook home and do it on their own! Put yourself in THEIR shoes, would YOU
like to be taught another language in the same way you are teaching them? Could
you trudge through a Spanish textbook day in day out hoping that you won't get
bored? Think about your students for once as it may change the way you teach!
NOT GUILTY! Life is boring
without changes so why not change the way we teach and forget about rules for a
while! There are 3 ways to do things: do the right thing, do the wrong thing and
MINE!!
I think that this is a very
interesting article. Although I have done the ACELS course in Ireland for
graduates, I have never actually used my Diploma and have never taught, outside
of the three weeks training which I did. I did find that the teachers there were
very insistent on using the course materials all of the time, sticking to the
format of the text books, and half of the time I could not really follow these
very boring formatted texts. If I ever teach I will do my own thing.
Whilst I agree with the
basic criticisms of the 'textbook' approach in the article, I find it astounding
that many/any EFL teachers still adopt it. It is indeed the epitome of laziness,
and those that do it should consider a career change. I have never used a text
book universally, and nor do I feel the need to. As others have said: the
internet is there to be exploited, and if a teacher cannot compile enough
interesting material themselves, again a trip to the 'Jobcentre' is in order. In
their defence, I would suggest that the approach of CELTA training hardly
prepares new teachers to be independent in their thinking where this is
concerned. Schools' managements would also benefit from an attitude adjustment.
I really can't believe any
EFL teachers do the things covered in the article. Surely every teacher adapts
everything to suit his/her students, either from the point of view of level or
from the point of view of subject or needs.
As for course books, I would have thought that even in schools which produce
their own material and train teachers to use that material as 'THE course',
teachers would see if students have grasped a concept or not and would then try
other material. Is this not a part of basic assessment?
Don't all EFL teachers encourage students to think in English all the time at
work, whilst shopping, even at home?
Well-explained but it is
not a matter of the teacher to decide in many countries (e.g Saudi Arabia) where
teachers are not free to reorganize suggested plans in the teacher manual.
Re. learning styles of the
students - while it is important to take them into consideration, let's not
forget learner training should also be part of effective language teaching. I
mean it's also a teacher's responsibility to lead the students to a better way
of learning a language. For example, the first thing many students do when
reading an English article would be checking every unknown word in a dictionary
- that's their learning style. But shouldn't the teacher guide them to becoming
a more efficient reader by following a different routine? For another example,
many students learn vocabulary by copying them in a notebook with translations
in their language. Again, that's their learning style. But shouldn't the teacher
introduce better ways of learning vocab, e.g. using context, collocation, etc?
Yeah, it's hard to believe
that some teachers don't do this, but (sadly!) it's true. Some of them just
don't bother - it takes time, creativity, you might lose control during the
lesson... so... what's the point? I do believe that learning a language should
be fun - not all the time, but most of it... So we need to adapt a lot -
especially if we teach teenagers, because they are really choosey and don't like
so many things... which makes our job more difficult... but challenging and
interesting at the same time. So get rid of all the boring stuff in the
coursebooks - use your own thing, be creative and take chances - you'll see that
it's worth it! And your students would be way happier for sure! :))
I think those ideas are
very good. In fact, I will try one and I would like to make a suggestion about
the other. I prefer designing my own activities outside the course book but
which relate to it. I find that my students are very interested in them. I
suggest giving the students a certain situation and asking them to record a
dialogue with their friend at home and then we listen to it in the following
period.
I really appreciate all of
those words Mr Lynch. You have said just what I need. But, I'd like to know more
sources of teaching English materials especially games because my students love
them. They're very active students, they learn and enjoy the class by doing
things.
This was a useful article,
and something I am only too aware of. As a totally new teacher, I'm building up
my own resources from scratch, which is quite a hit-and-miss affair. It is also
incredibly time-consuming, especially under the daily pressure of planning
lessons. My students are my 'guinea-pigs', and it's a very sharp learning curve
discovering what they enjoy and what they don't! I've suggested a 'conversation
club' in my college; the students are keen, but of course there is no funding
for this, so if I do it, it will be in my own time, and unpaid.
I was very interested in what Phil wrote about using song lyrics. I would love
to do this, but can't find anything suitable for Elementary (Entry 2) students.
(I'm obviously looking in the wrong places). Phil, you said you could 'go on and
on' - any suggestions for lower level students, that they have some hope of
understanding??
I always prefer providing
my students with a variety of activities. I never become the slave of prescribed
books. But what shall be done with the management who constantly asks for the
book to be finished?
Dear Mr. Larry M Lynch,
I'd like to thank you for being so helpful to English Language Teachers. I am
sure that the mistakes you have mentioned must have been realized by the
teachers and hope that they would avoid them in the future. This will certainly
help English Teachers improve their teaching skills and the students will also
benefit. Keep pointing out such mistakes please. Thank you
It's really helpful.
These types of articles
keep teachers judging themselves and keep them on track. Great Work.
Unfortunately I have come
across a few examples of people teaching who don't do anything but follow the
book. Part of it is lack of any kind of TEFL training - I think even the most
basic course should encourage thinking outside of the text book box. But, also
there are a number of schools that just do not encourage independent teacher
input. The teacher is not needed to prepare anything as it is done for them -
they are just told before class which pages they are expected to work from. The
one person I knew that preferred that kind of structure as they liked the
"security" that it gave them. Obviously this kind of school and teaching style
isn't for everyone and personally it is absolutely not for me. My very first
TEFL teaching job I was thrown right in at the deep end and given free range to
do whatever I wanted and needed with my class. I learned quickly and now that
I've had that freedom to lesson plan, I could never be restricted to following a
book exclusively.
I do think it's absolutely important and relevant to keep reminding ourselves of
what we do, how we do it etc.. even if it does seem old news to some people.
Once a teacher stops learning and trying to improve with new ideas or getting
rid of bad habits, they stop being an effective teacher.
This is a very interesting
article indeed but we have to look at the real world. Let's face it some
teachers still do not have access to the internet and they are underpaid and the
school does not provide them with extra material which means the teacher has to
pay for the extra material with his/her little money. And what about the
institutions which only see learning a new language as a business? They don't
care about extra material and extra activities, they just want you to finish the
book within a certain period of time which leaves you with little freedom to try
anything besides the coursebook. That is the reality for many language teachers.
This is a great debate. It
shows that most teachers do care about our students. In my case I'm very clear
about how to avoid the second and third mistakes, however the first one (Don't
adapt materials to the learning style and characteristics of the students) even
when I try, I feel I need more training and materials to reach a concrete
procedure in this process of working with learning styles, needs of students and
their characteristics. The assessment becomes the hardest part to match in this
level of individual needs. There should be a methodology to provide a coherent
process in the assessment for learning, beginning with diagnose, having a
placement test, moving through a training process and having a try to certify a
language level to move on again and improve not only language but autonomy. To
find a methodology to fit all learners is a difficult but necessary task. Any
suggestion is welcome. Thanks.
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