Learn English @EASE

Teachers talk in the classroom when they give instructions, provide feedback, ask questions to elicit information and when they give explanations. Students on the other hand talk when they answer questions, prepare for a speaking task, perform a speaking task, asking questions and of course when side-talking to friends. In an initial teacher training course, like the CELTA, one of the first action points many trainees may be asked to address is their teacher talking time. We are advised to reduce the amount and complexity of our talking time and let students do most of the talking in class. Here I would like to add another dimension to think about when considering our TTT. What is to be considered effective TTT and what is to be considered as tangents? If students do most of the speaking, although mostly off the topic of the lesson, while the teacher is only listening and making notes, would that be a successful class? Successful classes are those in which lesson goals are well-a...

One of the basic principles of learner-centred language teaching is to guide the learners through a discovery of knowledge rather than imparting knowledge by the teacher. This principle manifests in everything the teacher does in the classroom. When the teacher is providing feedback on exercises, s/he would, at the very least, provide the learners with a source in which they can check their answers. When correcting students’ language, the teacher may, for instance, ask a series of questions to lead the students to discovering the correction themselves. In an eliciting activity, the teacher is equipped with a set of triggering prompts, including questions, that s/he can use to help students figure out the missing piece of information. Vocabulary work in the classroom cannot be over-emphasised. Right at the heart of learner-centred methodology is learner training in which students are given opportunities to use and access various language resources themselves. Dictionaries are withou...

Most of us teachers care very much about our grammatical, phonological and lexical knowledge. When preparing a lesson, we make sure we 'know' all the lexical items the lesson covers and that we review the grammatical points to be taught. Knowledge of subject matter is indeed essential, but alone it can only make you no better than an 'explainer'. Explanations are so everywhere these days that nobody needs a teacher who is only an ‘explainer’. Luckily, we teachers can still make a living out of teaching because we not only know how to ‘explain’, but because we also know how to ‘involve’ learners in the process of learning a language. A very important teaching skill is knowing how to involve students in the lesson with the hope that by the end of the lesson they would be able to do something with the language they have been involved in using throughout the lesson. An ‘involver’ teacher is one who is learner-centred; one who cares about what students get from the le...