ELT-17 Language Improvement For English Teachers
ELT-17Language Improvementfor English TeachersMilestones in ELT
Milestones in ELTThe British Council was established in 1934, and one of our mainaims has always been to promote the wider knowledge of the Englishlanguage. Over the last 75 years, we have issued many importantpublications that have set the agenda for ELT professionals, oftenin partnership with other organisations and institutions.As part of its 75th anniversary celebrations, we are re-launching aselection of those publications online. Many of the messages and ideasare just as relevant today as they were when first published. We believethey are also useful historical sources through which colleagues cansee how our profession has developed over the years.Language Improvement for English TeachersThis book was produced following the Hornby workshop on languageimprovement for teachers in Senegal in 2009. The book was designedto be suitable for teachers at various levels of language proficiency. It istask-based, and can be used as a self-access or training course manual.The 10 chapters include ‘Using English effectively in the classroom’;‘Managing the classroom’; ‘Adapting materials’; and ‘Helping teacherswith change’.
Language improvement for English teachers:a methodology and training bookThis book is the result of a Hornby School on LanguageImprovement for Teachers that took place in Senegal from16 to 20 March 2009.The purpose of the book is to help facilitate training focussingon helping teachers improve their language. The book canbe used: by trainers as a manual for a training course by trainers as part of an in-service programme by teachers as a self-study bookThe book can be either used as a whole course or certainsessions used when appropriate.3
CONTENTSChapter 1. Introduction: Getting started and reflection . 6-17Chapter 2. Learning and teaching a language . 18-33Chapter 3. Using English effectively in the classroom . 34-47Chapter 4. Teaching speaking . 48-55Chapter 5. Managing the classroom . 56-65Chapter 6. Resources for teachers’ ownlanguage development . 66-81Chapter 7. Adapting materials . 82-89Chapter 8. Helping teachers with change . 90-103Chapter 9. Action planning . 104-109Chapter 10. Conclusion . 110-113References and further reading . 114-115Senegal Hornby Schoolon Language Improvement for Teachers . 116-1174
AuthorsAdrian TennantNigussie NegashWe would like to thank all the participants on the course for their contributionsto this book. Special thanks for collecting and collating the contributions to:Babou CasseIbrahima BaRokhaya Samb5
Chapter 1An introduction: Gettingstarted and reflection.In this chapter we will:give a brief description of the approach to the trainingtalk about ways of starting the trainingtalk about the importance of reflection and suggest howrefection can be done.6
An approach to trainingA key feature of any training course is the approach taken. On this course weused a collaborative approach viewing the participants as experts in their owncontexts and tried to create an atmosphere in which sharing, thinking andexploring were the cornerstones of each session.The two trainers worked as facilitators using a variety of activities toaccommodate different learning styles. Input was given with the aim ofgenerating discussions and giving an overall direction to the course. We usedindividual work, pairwork, small groupwork and whole group discussions tofacilitate the sharing of ideas.Because of time constraints not all participants were able to give individualcontributions on all points raised. However, this is a fairly traditional approachto the idea of sharing and giving feedback. On this course we used a variety oftechniques such as buzz groups (people moving around to see what othergroups had produced and then discussing the ideas).Getting startedA. Sharing expectations, worries and questions.Learning is a journey – a journey from one place to another. When people goon a journey they almost always bring some baggage with them. On a journeyof learning this includes their previous experiences whether as learners or asteachers; their expectations of the training and often questions, worries orconcerns about the training. Therefore, it is very useful at the start to find outwhat this baggage is.7
Task 1Draw a suitcase on a piece of paper. Divide the suitcase into 4 parts. In the first part write about your experience that you think is relevantto the training. In the second part write about your expectations of the training. In the third part write any questions, worries or concerns you mighthave about the training. Leave the fourth part of the suitcase empty. You will come back tothis at the end of the training.8
My experienceMy expectationsMy questions and concernsHere are a couple of examples:ExperienceI have been teaching for 19years. 13 years in the first cycleand 6 in the second.I went to the UK in 1993 for asummer school onCommunicative languageteaching.Last year I was appointed as apedagogical advisor in my country.Questions and concernsIt’s difficult for me to do my job atthe moment as the teachers are onstrike, but I would like to be morein touch with them throughworkshops.ExpectationsTo enrich my experiences as faras teaching methodology isconcerned and to acquire somemore ideas that can be appliedwhen training teachers, a fieldin which I have recently beenworking.To be completed at the end of the course.ExperienceI graduated from a teachertraining school in 1990 and thentaught English for 13 years.In 2003 I was appointed as ateacher trainer.Questions and concernsMy worry is that the ideas wewill get on this course won’t fitthe Senegalese schoolenvironment and realities.ExpectationsI want to have more input aboutin-service training and aboutnew approaches to teachertraining.I also want to exchangeexperiences with colleaguescoming from other countries.To be completed at the end of thecourse.9
As you can see, the main concerns were to do with the context in which thetrainers are working. However, the second person is specifically worried aboutthe suitability of the course content for their context. Knowing about theexpectations and concerns f the participants right from the start of the course,and showing them that their views are being taken into consideration will, in alllikelihood, lead to a more successful course. For more about this see chapter 8.B. Getting to know youIf you are running a course it is also useful to try to get to know a little bit abouteach other.Note: If you are using this book for self-study move on to section C of thischapter.You could start by introducing yourself, but do this as an activity rather than justtalking about yourself. For example:Meet your trainersYou will hear 10 sentences about your trainers. Four sentences are about onetrainer and four about the other trainer. Can you decide which sentences areabout which trainer? Discuss your ideas with a partner.Example sentencesCan speak good French.He likes swimming.When he was young he was a shepherd.etc10
Another possible activity is:What about you? Write four sentences about you. 3 should be true and 1 false. Now stand up, walk around and take turns telling each otheryour 4 sentences. Listen to the sentences and decide which one is false.C. Setting out some ground rulesWhenever you are conducting a workshop or training course it is useful to setout some ground rules at the start. This then helps you with various aspectssuch as starting on time, participating in activities etc. Rather than the trainerimposing rules on the participants it is probably more effective to get theparticipants to come up with some ground rules and then to negotiate theserules so that you have some kind of agreement.Here is one activity which allows you to explicitly talk about the rules ofinteraction between the trainer and trainees and between the trainees.Task 2Work in groups.Discuss and write down some important rules that you think should guide thetrainer and trainees from the start to end of the workshop or training course.11
Did you include anything on punctuality? Participating in discussions?If the trainer feels there could be other important things to include he/she canraise and include them with the agreement of the participants. These are thenmounted on the wall for all to see.During the training period if the rules are broken, the participants can easilyremind each other of the ground rules that were agreed on at the start.Establishing ground rules or norms from the start minimises conflicts that couldarise during the training due to unexpressed expectations of either the trainersand/or participants.D. Warmers and energisersThese help you to break monotony and enhance energy in the trainingsessions.You have to get the trainees out of their seats to wake them up. Here are acouple of examples of energisers you can try with your group.Pass the ball1. You can use two balls for this game. If you can’t find balls just cruncha flipchart paper into a ball.2. Ask the participants to stand up in two lines of equal length, facingeach other.3. Give one ball to the first person in each line of the group.4. Explain that it is a race to pass the ball down the line. However thereare some rules:5. They can’t hold the ball with their hands.6. The ball can’t touch the floor.12
7. Have the race.8. The group that passes the ball to as many persons in the group orthe last person in their line will win.Do what I say, not what I do!1. Tell them you are going to do an instruction game.2. You ask every one to go to free space in the room.3. Tell them, while watching your move, tell them to do what you saynot what you do.4. You say for example ‘touch your knees’, while touching your head.5. The ones who do what you do but not what you say are thrown outof the circle.6. Do this a few times, and you will have fun and some body movement.For more examples, you can search the internet by writing in warmers and/orenergisers.Reflection diaries and reflection slotsLearning is a process. Not only is it easy to forget things but learning also takestime. Quite often something we learn one day takes us two or three days (oreven longer) to fully understand.One way of helping the learning process is to take time to look back and reflecton what we have done and what we have learnt. A good way to do this is todiscuss things with our colleagues, but another way is for us to keep reflectiondiaries.13
Task 3After each workshop or day of training spend ten or fifteen minutes thinkingabout what you have done today and what you have learnt.Now write down your thoughts and feelings as a diary or journal.Your diary will be private – it is for your own use.Here are some examples from this course:16-03-2009The way we started was interesting because we could discoverinteresting things about the people we were going to workwith in a very relaxing way. I will probably use this at thebeginning of the school year.The next thing we did was deciding what we would change ifwe could.It was funny when I said the size of class and the person I wasworking with agreed on that. When we got up to numbers Irealised that his class was 3 times bigger than mine. I felt solucky!!!! Then later on somebody mentioned classes of 200students and I thought “this is wow!”. Now I see class size ina different perspective.We went through learning a language means and themethod. It was quite a surprise to me to see that teacher andnot students do most of thelearning.14
Day 1My day with the group at Saly was rather exciting and verytiring. However, I learnt a lot or rather discovered lots ofstrategies I used to use (unconsciously most of the time).I am shy!! by nature, or is it because I do not just jump intopeople at first time. Yet I have met friends, people with whomI may stay in contact and work out something.17-03-09I was eager to go downstairs this morning to deal withteaching speaking, which I think is the biggest handicap Ihave in my professional life.The first thing we did was reflecting on yesterday session andshare our reflection with our neighbour. It is a good activitybecause it keeps you updated. It was funny to see many peoplereading their notes instead of their diary, this probablybecause they hadn’t done the “Hotelwork”. I’m going to askmy trainees and my colleagues to keep a diary.Day 3We did our usual feedback and then started an interestingday of work. It was about how people learn, how can teachersdevelop their own language and classroom management.I really like the point about how people learn andparticularly the fact that people don’t have the same way oflearning, the fact that teachers have to be aware of these andtry to be more flexible than possible with all type of learners is15
of big importance. Because usually when a student acts in anunusual way he is most of the time sent out and thisdiminishes his motivation.Even if you are working alone it is useful to keep a reflection diary. Try and keepit regularly and read through it as well so that it helps remind you of what youhave done.At the start of the next workshop (or next day on a course) it is useful to devoteabout thirty minutes to reflecting on what was done before. To begin with youcan ask the participants to read through their reflection diaries and check whatthey have written. You can then put them in pairs or small groups and give thema task to do.Here are a few ideas of what you could focus on in the reflection task:-Tell your partner about something new or useful that you learnt in any of thesessions yesterday afternoon.Why did you choose to talk about this?Look at your Reflection Diary.Work with a partner. Tell them about something from yesterday that you wantto use with your teachers. Talk about:Why?How you’ll use it?What resources you will need?16
Tell your partner about a new idea from the workshop that you cannot try inyour classroom. Explain why you think the idea wouldn’t work in youreducational context.Talk to a partner about something you didn’t understand from the session.See if they can help you understand it.After you have given the participants about ten or fifteen minutes to discuss thetask in pairs you can open out the discussion to the whole group and see ifanyone would like to share things with everyone else. It’s important that peoplechoose whether or not to share and that nobody is forced to say something ifthey do not want to.Good luck!17
Chapter 2Learning andteaching a languageIn this chapter we will:talk about what language is and what it means to learn alanguagetalk about how people learn and the language learningprocessgive a few examples of the way we can teach and learndifferent elements of a language18
What does learning a language mean?In this section, we explore what language means and the process andsignificance of learning a foreign language or a second language.A. What is language?Task 1Work on your own. Write a definition of what language is.Now compare your definition with a partne.? Are your definitions similar? Doyou agree with your partner’s definition? Why (not)?We often talk of language as a system. It is not an abstract code, but a systemthat enables us to communicate meaning. We need to master this system inorder to be able to use the language effectively for communication.B. What does mastery of a language mean?When we talk about mastering a language, what exactly do we mean? It isprobably important here to define in more detail the elements that go to makeup a language system.Task 2What are the different elements of language? Write down all the differentelements that you need to learn when you are studying a language.19
For a long time language learning and teaching has been seen as teachinggrammar, lexis and pronunciation. Other elements of language have been givenless importance or totally ignored. For us language involves the followingelements: Grammar Lexis Pronunciation Skills Discourse GenreTask 3Can you give concrete examples of each of the elements mentioned above?Here are some ideas that the participants of the Hornby School in Senegalcame up with:Pronunciation- understanding the phonetics & stress- The natural music of the language- The way a word is articulated- Sounds (mentioned sound problems such as p/b)Grammar- Rules of the language- Structures of a language- Syntax20
Vocabulary- Lexis- WordsSkills- What we do with the language- Receiving and producingDiscourse- Text with sentences organisedGenre- Different types of language / text i.e. poetry, proseTask 4Can you rank the above elements according to their level of importance forEnglish language teachers in your country? 1 most important and 6 leastimportant.What are the reasons for the order?C. Communicative competenceTraditional linguists like Chomsky tried to make a distinction between language‘competence’ and ‘performance.’ Others like Halliday (1978) and Hymes (1971)have disagreed with Chomsky’s distinction as unnecessary and they explaincompetence as ‘the ability to use language in social context, to observesociolinguistic norms of appropriateness’ (Savignon 2002:1). However, thesetheories do not show what this would mean to a person learning a language inthe classroom, in the absence of a community using the target language as an21
L1. Savignon has come up with a definition that suits an SL/FL context, bystating it as the ability to ‘express, interpret and negotiate meaning’ irrespectiveof context.Task 5Discuss the following questions in the light of your teaching context.1. What does a communicative competence mean as a learning goalin your context?2. Do we have to teach teachers and students to speak like nativespeakers?3. How can you achieve communicative competence in your country?Here are some useful ideas generated by the participants from the HornbySchool in Senegal: Teaching students to be able to use the language socially andprofessionally to develop effective communication between students. We do not have to speak or expect our students to speak like natives.English is a universal language respectful of different cultures. Nowwe refer to ESOL (English to speakers of other languages) and wealso talk of “Englishes” We apply communicative competence to have fluent students andlearner-centredness.The comments above indicate how much our understanding of languageteaching has moved away from the traditional structural approach. However,what we find practised in classrooms may not match the views expressed.22
One very interesting point to consider in terms of communicative competenceis the ability to take the listener into account. There is an understanding thatspeakers often need to adjust their language to ‘accommodate’ the listener.One interesting observation is that native speakers are much poorer at doingthis than many non-native speakers. They continue to speak using complexgrammar and vocabulary, not adjusting their pronunciation and basicallyexpecting the listener to make all the effort in understanding.Understanding the language learning processA. Using metaphorsMetaphors can be used to describe our experience of learning a language.Here is an example:Learning a language is a journey through a jungle!23
This metaphor describes a particular viewpoint of what learning a languagemeans to one individual. Here are some more metaphors generated by theparticipants on the Hornby School in Senegal: Teaching a language is like having a bank account, if you don’tdeposit and draw money regularly, part of your sum will be useless(you need interaction) don’t
Language Improvement for English Teachers This book was produced following the Hornby workshop on language improvement for teachers in Senegal in 2009. The book was designed to be suitable for teachers at various levels of language proficiency. It is task-based, and can be used as a self-access or training course manual.
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ELT200 Series, ACK,Pointer Model 3000 ELT and Narco ELT’s.Current owners of Artex 2-frequency ELT can re-use the remote switch in the cockpit as well as the wiring harness from the cockpit to the ELT thus greatly reducing installation costs. Artex ME-406 Series ELT OUTLINE DRAWING (Dimensions shown in inches) SPECIFIC ATIONS:
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Welcome to the Popcorn ELT Readers series, a graded readers series for low-level learners of English. These free teacher’s notes will help you and your classes get the most from your Peanuts Popcorn ELT Reader. Level 1 Popcorn ELT Readers level 1 is for students who are beginning to read in English, based on a 200 headword list. There are no past tenses at this level. Snoopy and Charlie .
