FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

MSc. Vo Nhat Sinh

METHODOLOGY 2
 COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
(CLOS)

1. Design steps to teach Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking

lessons

2. Apply the methods of in different lessons

3. Distinguish different types of English classes

4. Understand a number of ways the teacher can deal with errors.

COURSE BOOK

Scrivener J. (2011).
Learning
Teaching. (3rd ed.)
Macmillan Education
 CONTENTS

Chapter 12: Focusing on language

Chapter 13: Teaching different classes
Chapter 9: Productive Skills: Speaking and Writing
Chapter 10: Receptive Skills: Listening and Reading
 COURSE ASSESSMENT
Assessment
Tests Content Percentage
methods
Progress tests Paper-based Chapter 12, 13 (LT)

Progress tests Paper-based Chapter 9, 10 (TH) 20%

Progress test Written test Lesson plan design (TH)

Teaching
Midterm test  Teaching demonstration 30%
practice

Final test Written test  Lesson plan design 50%

Total 100%
GROUP FORMATION – 4 STUDENTS/GROUP
SKILLS ASSIGNMENT
TEACHING DIFFERENT CHAPTER 13
CLASSES
Different kinds of English classes
1. ESP (English for specific purposes)
2. Business English Examples ???
3. EAP (English for Academic
purposes)
4. Exam classes
5. Young learners
6. Teenage classes
7. CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning)
8. National curriculum/public school classes
1. ESP (English for Specific
Purposes)
 Specific Purposes ???
Those specific purposes are often jobs:
 English for hotel receptionists,
 English for pharmaceutical salesmen,
 English for call centre operators,
 English for architects or many others.
Need to have knowledge about those
jobs???
English Topic
ESP often means 'Go on teaching all the normal English
you already teach in all the ways you know how to do
already, but use lexis, examples, topics and contexts
that are, as far as possible, relevant to the students and
practise relevant specific skills'.

If you don't have the appropriate texts / recordings / etc.

to hand, then it may be possible to get your students to
provide them by giving them feedback and support on their
language.
Needs Analysis
 Take the client’s needs and goals, rather than teach
‘general English’
 A Needs Analysis is an essential starting point
• What the client uses English for
•What their expectations are
•What they need
•What they want
•What they don’t have
Needs Analysis
Needs Analysis
Needs Analysis
 Digging deeper
1. Start with the general job eg. So, you are a hotel receptionist.
2. Focus onto one specific task eg. Tell me one specific task that you need
to use English for.
3. Explore wide-ranging details of that task eg. when the learner answers
that eg. I welcome people when they arrive at the hotel, ask further questions
that uncover more and more wide-ranging information eg. What does the
hotel counter look like? What's the first thing that happens? What kind of
questions do your customers ask?
4. Dig deeper Each time you get an answer, moving slowly from the
general situation to details and difficulties. Eg. How do you say that to
the guest? What do they reply? What problems do you typically have
with what they say?
2. BUSINESS ENGLISH
 In- In-
service company
courses courses
Pre-
experience
courses

BUSINESS ENGLISH COURSES

 Pre-experience courses
 Many students take a Business English course while still at
school or college, before they begin work. These courses are
often based around generic business skills, language and texts.
 A basic Business English course: writing letters and
emails; writing reports; reading reports and business-related
articles; negotiating; telephoning and conference calls;
talking about facts, figures, graphs, diagrams, etc;
participating in meetings and video conferences; making
presentations………
 In-service courses
 If English lessons are taken when participants are already in
work, a course has the possibility of becoming much more tightly
focused onto real and immediate needs.
 If the course has people from different employers, jobs
or departments, a generic course is the most suitable.
 Look for ways that allow your participants to make use
of current examples and stories from their daily work in
class:
•Presentations
•Diagrams and models
•Diaries and blogs
•Role play
 In-company courses
 Many company training managers organise courses within
the workplace itself, bringing the teacher to the students.
 A key starting point for the teacher about to begin work on
such a course is to liaise with the training manager and find out
what policies the company has to encourage or require
attendance.
 Whether or not you use a course book, much of an in-
company course tends to become spontaneous, responsive
teaching.
 One-on-one Business English lessons – Hints

• Rapport: take time to find out about each other

• Needs: spend time on discovering needs. Go back to discuss
and re-look at them every few lessons
• Plan from lesson to lesson: create the course from lesson to
lesson rather than entirely in advance
• Study what is live and relevant
• Plan beginnings, not whole lessons
• Take your lead from the participant
• Cooperative work: work with your students
3. EAP (English for Academic
Purposes)
EAP courses
•Focus on the language and skills that students will need on a
future course, typically a higher education course.
•Tend to be more general programs aiming to raise the
learners to a point where they are capable of getting the most
out of their coming course of study.
•The more focused it is on the specific needs of the students,
the more successful and relevant it is likely to be.
Work is done on elements such as:
•Listening to and understanding lectures
•Note-taking
•Effective reading and researching
•Using references, avoiding plagiarism
•Raising awareness of formal styles of language used in
academic writing
•Essay writing
•Giving presentations
4. EXAM CLASSES
National Language Tests International Language Tests
•MOET’s English Certificate •IELTS
•VSTEP •TOELF
•PTE
•TOEIC
•APTIS
•CAMBRIDGE KET, PET, FCE, CAE, CPE
What should an examination preparation course include?
 An examination preparation course
should probably include
•language work that is likely to be relevant to that needed in the
exam
•tasks and activities to raise general language awareness,
abilities and skills
•specific practice on exam techniques (multiple choice questions,
writing essays, etc.)
•work on study skills (use of dictionaries & grammar books, etc.)
 COMMON PROBLEMS
 too much time is spent on exam technique and not enough
on the other areas.
 Teachers often feel pressure from students to do exam
practice work right from the start of a course, as if writing out
countless mock tests will markedly improve their English. Clearly,
students need to be very familiar with the form the exam takes,
but doing practice tests alone will not in itself help the students
learn very much and can easily lead to ‘burnout'.
 A BALANCED APPROACH

General Typical
language work language Complete
& study skills problems ‘mock’ tests

Work on exam technique would be introduced gradually

and increasingly through the course.
 Activities ?

 It is often a good idea for exam preparation

courses to be even more systematic than usual
about what has been studied and to take care that
items, once met, are recycled effectively.
 a few ideas to make practice of exam
techniques a little more interesting.
POSTERS
•To help learners remember
new language
•Typical posters might be on
phrasal verbs, tense
problems, articles, etc.
LEXIS BOX / FILE
•Good way of recording lexis
•To review what
learners have learned a
day
•To exploit in future lessons
•For students to look through
 Other ideas
•Students do exercises in pairs or small groups.
•Students mark each other's tests.
•'Blitz' it': do an exercise at great speed then reconsider/reanalyze their
answers at the usual time allowance.
•A 'teacherless' lesson: let students discuss and work through an exam
paper together on the board.
•Students assign exercises/tests in a particular style for each other.
•Students take some written information -> transform it into an exam-
oriented exercise and do it.
•Teachers do exercises including mistakes and students correct it.
5. YOUNG LEARNERS
 Young learners
 Young learners seem to be getting younger and younger:
primary learners, nursery learners (2-5 yrs)
 These changes are based on the belief that the younger you start,
the more chance you have of making the learning successful.
 A stronger reason for teaching English to younger learners may
simply be that starting early will give them many more years at school
in which to develop and improve their language skills. By the time
they reach higher levels in secondary many will be very competent
users.
 Characteristics of young learners
•Keen •Want to have fun
•Noisy •Have a great sense of humour
•Chatterboxes •Love attention
•Want to learn new things •Can’t concentrate for a long time
•Like to experiment •Hard to calm down
•Curious •Want to use language, not to
•Easily excited study it
 Young learners
Very young learners Middle and higher primary
(pre-school and lower primary)
At this age the children will not •a course book that has traditional
have reading and writing units on different topics and works on
skills in their first language, so an explicit grammar & vocabulary
text- based work may be focus.
unsuitable.
•students are expected to pass tests
that check on their ability to
recognise, name and manipulate
specific language items.
 Activities? Very young learners
(pre-school and lower primary)
•tell stories (pictures, gestures, facial expressions, mime, puppets & toys);
•sing songs and nursery rhymes — especially action songs with participation
from the children
•get children to act out stories and songs following teacher's model
•do practical tasks (painting, colouring, making things, looking after pets and
plants) but with instructions and help in English;
•help children learn basic skills (recognising alphabetic letters and associating
them with objects or picture, counting coconuts);
•run simple games using limited vocab (musical games, walking around games);
•give listen and do tasks (draw a cat, make a noise like a cat, touch your nose).
 Middle and higher primary
1. Find exciting and motivating tasks and activities: active, physical,
dressing-up, moving-walking-hands-on tasks.
2. Don't just talk. Use pictures, models, short videos, board drawing, toys.
3. Don't worry too much about the children's accurate production. Aim
initially for listening and understanding.
4. Think very carefully about whether you really need to do some (or any)
actual input or explanation about grammar and vocabulary. Might it be
enough to integrate all language work into the tasks so that children can
understand and use the language without further analysis?
 Middle and higher primary

5. Don't expect immediate (or even long-term) student use of English.

just keep using English yourself. When a child says something to you
in their language, reply in English.
6. Keep activities short. Plan for variety and frequent changes of
focus, working modes and pace.
7. Keep much of the focus on the children's life and things they
understand rather than abstract or hard-to-grasp concepts.
CAMBRIDGE ESOL EXAMS
Some popular ideas for young learners
classes
Some popular ideas for young learners
classes
Some popular ideas for young learners
classes
Some popular ideas for young learners
classes
Some popular ideas for young learners
classes
Some popular ideas for young learners
classes
Some popular ideas for young learners
classes
Some popular ideas for young learners
classes
6. TEENAGE CLASSES
Characteristics of teenagers ???
Teenage classes: Teenage classes:
advantageous aspects challenging features
• Strong enthusiasm for • Unsure about themselves
topics
• Very focused on • Strong emotions: rising and
specific things relevant falling
to • Get bored quickly
themselves • Motivation may be low if they
• Respond well to feel being forced to attend sth
work
Notes
• The more a learner feels that they have chosen what to do &
how to do and feels in control while working, the more they
will be likely to feel engaged and to achieve sth worthwhile
from it
Key techniques – Teachers should
• Have a will to listen and be flexible in response to
class expectations
• Follow the class as much as they lead them
• Share responsibility for key decisions on topics, work methods,
work rate, homework, tests, etc.
• Get usable feedback regularly regarding lessons and courses
 Some specific ideas
• Avoid anything that might be seen as childish to students.
• If whole-class work doesn't seem to work, avoid it when possible.
Instead, consider the possibility of group work, i.e. small sections of
the class that work independently on tasks that you assign to them.
• Experiment with a mixture of quiet, working-alone activities and
activities that require active participation. Find out which individuals
seem to respond better to these different kinds of work.
 Some specific ideas
• Avoid too many activities that put embarrassed students in
the spotlight.
• Select reading and listening materials from up-to-date sources
that are relevant for learners, e.g. current magazines, websites,
recently released films, and hit songs.
• You can also ask learners to bring in materials they want to work with.
• Dare to ask important questions such as, 'What could we do in English
lessons that would really be interesting for you?’
 Some specific ideas
• Consider project works
• Be truthful. Explain to learners why certain activities may (or may
not) be valuable. Let them agree if they want to do them or not.
• If discipline becomes a problem, as far as possible ask the learners
themselves to give advice as to what should be done. Where
possible, negotiate and agree on codes of behavior and penalties in
advance of problems boiling up.
7. CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning)
 CLIL (Content and Language Integrated
Learning)
There are two aims in CLIL: the learning of both the
subject and the language. The language is the means to
the end of learning the subject content.
The hope is that achievement in both subject and
language will be higher. The fear is that both may end up
worse.
8. LARGE CLASSES
 Difficulties of large classes ???
🢝Students can't move easily.
🢝You can't move easily.
🢝The seating arrangement seems to prevent a number of activities.
🢝There is limited eye contact from you to students.
🢝There is limited or no eye contact amongst students.
🢝You can't give attention equally to all students.
🢝Interaction tends to be restricted to those closest to the front.
Difficulties of large classes ???
🢝The seats at the back tend to attract people who want to do
something other than learn English.
🢝People 'hide' away.
🢝There is often a very wide range of levels.
🢝Discipline can be a problem.
🢝Lecturing seems to be the only workable lesson type.
THE END