Comprehension Check Questions

Comprehension checking is achieved with effective questioning.  We might want to check students' comprehension of either concepts or instructions.  For this, we can't just ask, do you understand?  We need to ask specific questions that check understanding.

Error Correction

Here's an excellent video illustrating some error correction techniques.  Very useful for beginning instructors or experienced ones who desire a refresher...

Student Management vs Student Engagement

Effective classroom management is critical to a successful in-class learning experience.  But, is it enough?  We plan and structure our classes to allow for smooth transition between stages of a lesson and to assist students in achieving the overall goal of the lesson.  But if students are not engaged in class content, how well will they retain what has been covered?

Student engagement is critical in a modern learning environment in which students already have a wide variety of entertaining content at their finger tips.  If our lessons successfully engage students, then they will learn.

So, what is student engagement?  edglossary.com defines it as "the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education."  Of course, this level of engagement is going to vary from learner to learner and will be different at certain times of the day or week.  Engagement is very much an individual thing...

But, what can we do to increase engagement?  There are 4 things I try to do in any class to raise levels of engagement in the class.  1) Allow for individual differences. 2) Teach for mastery. 3) Allow for originality and expression. 4) Promote autonomy.

1) Individual Differences - All of learners are different.  They are individuals.  They have different needs and characteristics.  Not only do we need to understand our learners on an individual level, but we need to provide for differences in the ways that students learn.  By promoting open communication and discussion with learners we can learn more about them.  In addition, a basic needs analysis at the start of the semester can help us to paint a better picture.  Then, by planning class activities that allow for different ways of learning (learning styles, interaction patterns) we can accommodate individuals.

2) Teach for Mastery - It is critical for motivation that learners experience success.  We need to make sure we praise often and create learning opportunities that allow students to be successful.  Of course, this becomes more difficult in multilevel classrooms.  In such situations, we should offer differentiated instruction that grants a range of learning opportunities to learners at different levels.  Everyone likes to experience success and be praised for it!

3) Allow for originality and expression - This basically means moving the focus away from you, the teacher.  For our learners to produce language, practice, and work on fluency, they need to speak up and out.  In an environment in which we feel our opinions and ideas are valued, we will be much more likely to do so.  Once again, by promoting open communication, learners will more readily express themselves and further develop their confidence and skills in speaking.

4) Promote Autonomy - If learners only study/acquire language in the classroom, it will be very difficult for them to improve.  Language acquisition must take place in the real world (outside the classroom).  This is more likely to happen if learners have both the desire and knowledge to take control of their own learning.  Hopefully, if the classroom provides for the first three items on this list, the desire to learn more will be there.  Then, it comes down to the teacher to educate learners on the strategies and resources they can use to learn in their own time (songs, videos, books, websites, etc.).  If learners are able to learn on their own, they will more readily meet their individual learning needs.

All in all, an engaged classroom is not just a better place for students to learn and acquire language, it's also a FUN place for a teacher to work.  And all of us are more engaged when we are having fun.

If you'd like to read more, here's a link to a story on facultyfocus.com

Teaching Different Styles of Learners

Different learning styles create different opportunities for learning success.  If we accommodate for different learning styles, we not only increase engagement with learners, but we also increase the amount of variety in our lessons.  Here are some great links to resources on different activities for different styles of learning:

ESL Learning Styles: 9 Ways to Teach Tactile-Kinesthetic Learners

Let's Get Physical - Warmers Involving Movement

How to Teach English For Different Learning Styles

6 Different Types of ESL Learners and How to Teach Them

More Warmers, Ice-Breakers & Lead-Ins

Find the link here:
LINK

For more great ideas, visit: http://teflgeek.net/

7 Teaching Ideas

BusyTeacher.org has some great lists of different teaching activities and ideas.  These are easy, creative, and require little preparation.

Link HERE

Fruits and Vegetables - A Warmer / Icebreaker

Here is a link to aFruits and Vegetables warmer I've often used with new groups...

Listen to the News

News & Headlines Listening Tasks

News can be a great way to bring authentic listening into the classroom.  Some great places to find News to use in the classroom are:

VOA - Voice of America

BBC - BBC Learning English

BBC - News Headlines

Krashen’s (1981) theory of Comprehensible Input offers that for language learning to occur, sufficient input (at a level that can be understood) must be received by the learner.  Nation & Newton (2009) extend this idea specifically to listening via his approaches for Meaning-Focused Listening.  The acronym “MINUS” can be used to test the conditions for meaningful listening.

M – Meaningful: Is the input a piece of meaningful communication?

I – Interesting: Does the input contain information that will prove interesting to the learner?    

N – New Items: What learnable language, ideas, skills or text types (LIST) will learners meet through the listening experience?

U – Understanding: Can the learners understand the input? How is understanding assisted (e.g. controlling the level of difficulty, scaffolded learning)?

S – Stress-free: How is stress and anxiety controlled?

Nation & Newton (2009) 

Two methods of in-class listening are proposed below.  These methods meet MINUS requirements.

KWL (Know / Want to Know / Learned)

KWL is a reading (input) comprehension established by Ogle (1986) that seeks to aid understanding.  Firstly, prior knowledge is activated.  Then, students highlight set goals for comprehension (identifying what they would like to know more about).  Finally, students identify what they have learned.

Find the File HERE

Information Transfer – News Grid

Information Transfer (IT) tasks have been identified (Palmer, 1982) as an effective method for gauging comprehension as they force learners to change the form of the input they hear (or read).  A second advantage of IT tasks is that they can be much easier to create than sets of comprehension questions.

Find the File HERE

Krashen, S. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Ogle, D.M. (1986). "K-W-L: A teaching model that develops active reading of expository text." Reading Teacher, 39, 564-570. K-W-L Reading Method.

Nation, I.S.P. and Newton, J. (2009) Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking. New York: Routledge. 205 pages. ISBN 978-0-415-98970-1

Palmer, D. M. (1982). Information Transfer for Listening and Reading. English Teaching Forum 20, (1), 29–33. 

The Big Board

In any language class, the presentation stage of a lesson is key to effectively illustrating to learners important language features.  There are many ways to do this:

• PowerPoint
• Graphics

But my personal favorite is the trusty (and dusty) blackboard.

However, for something that is often the focal point of a lesson, we can sometimes find ourselves not giving sufficient planning to it.  What follows is a few key guidelines I use for developing my boards:

• N - Neat: Make sure your board is not overly cluttered
• I - Informative: The board should hold the relevant information
• C - Color: Effective use of color can clarify and interest
• E - Easy to Understand: Learners should be able to quickly comprehend the board

Here is a sample board I used for a recent lesson on the present perfect.

Now, once the board is set for class, we can use it for the presentation stage of our lesson.  However, simply ending there and erasing might be a waste.  I like to have my learners interact with the board and add either examples of the target language or what what they perceive to be relevant information.  In this way, learners engage with the board and become involved in the presentation stage of the lesson.