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In this lesson I learned about myriad theories and methodologies for teaching English. Teaching methods covered in the lesson include: grammar-translation; audio-lingualism; presentation, practice, production (PPP); task-based learning; communicative language teaching, community language learning; suggestopaedia; and the lexical approach. All of these strategies have pros and cons (some are no longer as in vogue, such as the grammar-translation method), and can be variously drawn upon when teaching depending on the goals of the lessons, the language level of the students, and the desired level of teacher involvement. The lesson promoted the use of the Engage, Study, Activate (ESA) technique. These three stages of a lesson are most simply put together in the "straight arrow" approach, where first you engage students with an activity, then you study the material through exercises, worksheets, etc., and you close by allowing students to fully deploy all their knowledge of the language, newly-acquired or otherwise. ESA lessons might also be structured in a "boomerang" (engage, activate round 1, study, activate round 2) or "patchwork" styles (moving around the segments as you see fit). The lesson emphasized that elicitation, or the asking of thought-provoking questions, was a key part of successful learning in the ESA method. There were many suggestions for activities to use in each segment of an ESA lesson, which I will not list here exhaustively. I found the "information search" idea for the engage segment to be a fun suggestion, and also liked the idea of creating role plays to activate language learning. I will be teaching already high-level language speakers, so I think debates might also be a suitable part of an activate segment in an ESA lesson plan. The lesson also covered feedback. I learned that it can a delicate matter, and should only be given during the study phase of an ESA lesson. In addition, it's best for a teacher to see if the student can self-correct or learn from another student before directly intervening. It's important, when giving feedback, to be sensitive to the student's feelings, and also to identify whether the student is simply making a mistake, or whether there is a more deeply-ingrained error. Finally, the lesson provided some helpful suggestions for codes and shorthand to use when giving feedback on written work.
