Ask Linda! How To Pronounce: "Anastrophe"
In this episode, Linda takes on the pronunciation of the word "anastrophe". Enjoy the episode! Linda is a German/American ITTT alumna, teaching English in South Korea. Be sure to like and share this video if you find it helpful. Are you ready to live and teach abroad? Click here and get started today: https://www.teflcourse.net/?cu=YTDESCRIPTION
Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next.
As for methodology, the two most commonly followed methods are ?Presentation, Practice, Production? (PPP) and/or ?Engage, Study, Activate? (ESA.
Advocates of each teaching camp often think that the method they know is the only way to teach properly? but to an impartial observer, the two methods are actually quite simila.
What your students really need is for you to take a relatively flexible approach to how you teach, and if you do this, you will see there are benefits of both method.
In fact, you can use a bit of both methods in every lesso.
These methods and my explanations here are primarily for teaching speaking skills, though the methods can be adapted to teaching reading, writing and listening skills as wel.
In future posts, I?ll also address how to teach non-speaking skills individuall.
Let?s start with PP.
?PPP? Means Presentation, Practice, and Production ?Presentation? is where the target language, the language to be taught to the students, is ?presented? to the student.
In this stage the teacher elicits language from the students with cues, to see what they already know (often you?ll find some of the students know a lot of? even all?of the target vocabulary.
If no one knows any of the words for this topic, then the teacher will provide some vocabulary, but usually a good portion of the target phrases can be obtained from the student.
Now, why do we do this? Eliciting and cueing the students makes the topic (and your class) more relevant to the student.
After all, they gave you the material they are going to practice and lear.
That?s relevant to them and when things feel relevant, students are more motivate.
(Yet another topic for another post!) The teacher will put that lesson?s target language up on the marker boar.
This might take different structures, perhaps as grammar, in charts or written in dialog.
The presentation stage of a lesson features more ?teacher talk? than the other stages of the lesso.
Teachers probably should budget as much as 20-40% of the total lesson time for this stag.
That said, less teacher talk?in any part of the lesson?is bette.
Our goal is to have the students talk, not the teache.
You already have plenty of practice speaking and they don?.
So don?t hog the lesson ? that?s the classic symptom of a poor language teache.
Next comes the ?Practice? stage of the lesso.
The students practice the target language in one to three activitie.
These progress from very structured?providing little possibility for error?to less-structured as the students master the materia.
These practice activities should include as much ?student talk? as possible and not focus on written activities, although written activities can sometimes provide a structure for the verbal practice.
Practice activities should have the ?student talk time? range from 60-80% of the tim.
Teacher talk time should be as minimal as possibl.
The practice portion of the total lesson may take 30-50% of the total lesson tim.
The third stage, ?Production?, is when students take the target language and use it in conversations they ideally create and structur.
They now can talk about themselves or their daily lives or situations using the language they have just learne.
The production stage of the lesson involves ?student talk? as much as 90% of the time ? and this component of the lesson can/should take as much as 20-30% of the total lesson tim.
As you can see, the general structure of a PPP lesson is flexibl.
An important feature is the progression from controlled and structured speech to less-controlled and more freely used and created speec.
Another important feature of PPP, and other methods, is the reduction of teacher talk time and the corresponding increase in student talk time as you move through the lesso.
As mentioned earlier, one of the most common errors untrained teachers make is that they talk too muc.
Let your students do the talking and watch how quickly they lear.
?ESA? ? means Engage, Study, and Activate The stages of ESA are roughly equivalent to PPP, though ESA is slightly different in that it is designed to allow movement back and forth between the stage.
However, each stage is similar to the PPP stages in the same orde.
Proponents of the ESA method stress its flexibility compared to PP.
The ESA method a uses more elicitation and stresses more ?Engagement? of students in the early stages of the lesso.
Both elicitation (drawing language from the students by use of questions, prompts and cueing) and Engagement are important in raising student motivation, but both tactics can just as easily, and should, be used in the Presentation stage of PP.
ESA is superior method to PPP when both are looked at from a rigid point of vie.
But, EFL is not rigid and you should not adhere to any one viewpoint or metho.
PPP is often an easier method for teacher-trainees to get a handle o.
1: Study and learn one method well ? branch out to other methods as you increase your experience and skill leve.
2: Don?t get hung up on terminology or married to any one metho.
ENGAGE Aim: Introducing the topic of socializin.
Talking about personal experience.
Time: 5 minutes ? Interactive pattern: T-S; S Introduce the students to the topic of socializing and ask the students if they have found it easy or difficult to start a conversation with a stranger in Englis.
Allow the students to talk about their experiences, if an.
Then, tell the students that in this lesson they will review different ways of starting a conversatio.
STUDY Aim: To present different ways of starting a conversatio.
Identify appropriatenes.
Time: 20 minutes ? Interactive pattern: S-S; Group work Step 1: Pair students up and get them to brainstorm different ways of starting a conversation when meeting someone at a party or social even.
Write the following headings on the board and have them categorize their answer.
Give at least one example for each categor.
Introducing yourself for the first time: How do you d.
I?m Sherry Thoma.
Nice to meet yo.
Checking if you know someone: You?re Susan?s husband, aren?t you? Offering something to drink/eat: Can I get you something to drink? Comments on the party/social event: Isn?t it lovely music? Step 2: Elicit their answers and add more examples if necessar.
Write them on the board and discuss them with the class as a whol.
(Note: You may need to review question tags structure and their appropriate intonatio.
) Example: Introducing yourself for the first time formally or semi-informally How do you d.
I?m Sherry Thoma.
Nice to meet yo.
Hell.
I?m Pa.
My name is John, by the wa.
H.
I am Dusti.
I?m a friend of Lilly?.
Checking if you know someone: You?re Susan?s husband, aren?t you? Your name is Aaron, isn?t it? I think I?ve seen you somewhere befor.
I think we?ve met at John?s party last yea.
Haven?t we met before? Aren?t you a friend of Vilma?s? Offering something to drink/eat: Can I get you something to drink? Would you like one of these cup cakes? Do you want a coke? Comments on the party/social event: Isn?t it lovely music? It?s a fantastic party, isn?t it? I loved the documentary they showe.
Great job! Step 3: Hand out the following list of conversation openings and have the students give their opinion on what is acceptable or inappropriate when meeting people for the first time in a formal or semi-informal situatio.
Have them discuss why they are not appropriat.
.
Hi, babe! You look great! My name is Mark, by the wa.
.
Pleased to meet yo.
My name is Alex McDonal.
.
H.
I like your shoe.
Where did you buy them? .
Who are you? .
Hell.
What?s your name? .
Your jacket is gorgeou.
How much did you pay? .
Hi! What?s up? (Note: It is not polite to use very direct or intrusive conversation openings as well as asking a stranger how much he earns or paid for somethin.
) ACTIVATE Aim: To develop the students? speaking skills by role-playing and discussio.
Time: 25 minutes ? Interactive pattern: S-S; Group work Step 1: Role-play Give each student a card with personal informatio.
Choose names and details of famous people and who are still aliv.
Students go around the class, pretending they are at a cocktail party and making conversation with at least 3 other peopl.
Tell them they have to use some of the phrases discussed in the Study Phase of this lesson, and that they have to make sure that the conversation flows and does not stop at the first few exchange.
It may take the direction they wan.
Step 2: Discussion Students discuss the following questions in pairs or mini groups: .
How do you greet your elders in your country? .
How do you greet people of your own age? .
Are there any questions/topics that should be avoided when you meet someone for the first time? Are there any questions/topics that you should not forget to mention when you meet an acquaintance?
Advocates of each teaching camp often think that the method they know is the only way to teach properly? but to an impartial observer, the two methods are actually quite simila.
What your students really need is for you to take a relatively flexible approach to how you teach, and if you do this, you will see there are benefits of both method.
In fact, you can use a bit of both methods in every lesso.
These methods and my explanations here are primarily for teaching speaking skills, though the methods can be adapted to teaching reading, writing and listening skills as wel.
In future posts, I?ll also address how to teach non-speaking skills individuall.
Let?s start with PP.
?PPP? Means Presentation, Practice, and Production ?Presentation? is where the target language, the language to be taught to the students, is ?presented? to the student.
In this stage the teacher elicits language from the students with cues, to see what they already know (often you?ll find some of the students know a lot of? even all?of the target vocabulary.
If no one knows any of the words for this topic, then the teacher will provide some vocabulary, but usually a good portion of the target phrases can be obtained from the student.
Now, why do we do this? Eliciting and cueing the students makes the topic (and your class) more relevant to the student.
After all, they gave you the material they are going to practice and lear.
That?s relevant to them and when things feel relevant, students are more motivate.
(Yet another topic for another post!) The teacher will put that lesson?s target language up on the marker boar.
This might take different structures, perhaps as grammar, in charts or written in dialog.
The presentation stage of a lesson features more ?teacher talk? than the other stages of the lesso.
Teachers probably should budget as much as 20-40% of the total lesson time for this stag.
That said, less teacher talk?in any part of the lesson?is bette.
Our goal is to have the students talk, not the teache.
You already have plenty of practice speaking and they don?.
So don?t hog the lesson ? that?s the classic symptom of a poor language teache.
Next comes the ?Practice? stage of the lesso.
The students practice the target language in one to three activitie.
These progress from very structured?providing little possibility for error?to less-structured as the students master the materia.
These practice activities should include as much ?student talk? as possible and not focus on written activities, although written activities can sometimes provide a structure for the verbal practice.
Practice activities should have the ?student talk time? range from 60-80% of the tim.
Teacher talk time should be as minimal as possibl.
The practice portion of the total lesson may take 30-50% of the total lesson tim.
The third stage, ?Production?, is when students take the target language and use it in conversations they ideally create and structur.
They now can talk about themselves or their daily lives or situations using the language they have just learne.
The production stage of the lesson involves ?student talk? as much as 90% of the time ? and this component of the lesson can/should take as much as 20-30% of the total lesson tim.
As you can see, the general structure of a PPP lesson is flexibl.
An important feature is the progression from controlled and structured speech to less-controlled and more freely used and created speec.
Another important feature of PPP, and other methods, is the reduction of teacher talk time and the corresponding increase in student talk time as you move through the lesso.
As mentioned earlier, one of the most common errors untrained teachers make is that they talk too muc.
Let your students do the talking and watch how quickly they lear.
?ESA? ? means Engage, Study, and Activate The stages of ESA are roughly equivalent to PPP, though ESA is slightly different in that it is designed to allow movement back and forth between the stage.
However, each stage is similar to the PPP stages in the same orde.
Proponents of the ESA method stress its flexibility compared to PP.
The ESA method a uses more elicitation and stresses more ?Engagement? of students in the early stages of the lesso.
Both elicitation (drawing language from the students by use of questions, prompts and cueing) and Engagement are important in raising student motivation, but both tactics can just as easily, and should, be used in the Presentation stage of PP.
ESA is superior method to PPP when both are looked at from a rigid point of vie.
But, EFL is not rigid and you should not adhere to any one viewpoint or metho.
PPP is often an easier method for teacher-trainees to get a handle o.
1: Study and learn one method well ? branch out to other methods as you increase your experience and skill leve.
2: Don?t get hung up on terminology or married to any one metho.
ENGAGE Aim: Introducing the topic of socializin.
Talking about personal experience.
Time: 5 minutes ? Interactive pattern: T-S; S Introduce the students to the topic of socializing and ask the students if they have found it easy or difficult to start a conversation with a stranger in Englis.
Allow the students to talk about their experiences, if an.
Then, tell the students that in this lesson they will review different ways of starting a conversatio.
STUDY Aim: To present different ways of starting a conversatio.
Identify appropriatenes.
Time: 20 minutes ? Interactive pattern: S-S; Group work Step 1: Pair students up and get them to brainstorm different ways of starting a conversation when meeting someone at a party or social even.
Write the following headings on the board and have them categorize their answer.
Give at least one example for each categor.
Introducing yourself for the first time: How do you d.
I?m Sherry Thoma.
Nice to meet yo.
Checking if you know someone: You?re Susan?s husband, aren?t you? Offering something to drink/eat: Can I get you something to drink? Comments on the party/social event: Isn?t it lovely music? Step 2: Elicit their answers and add more examples if necessar.
Write them on the board and discuss them with the class as a whol.
(Note: You may need to review question tags structure and their appropriate intonatio.
) Example: Introducing yourself for the first time formally or semi-informally How do you d.
I?m Sherry Thoma.
Nice to meet yo.
Hell.
I?m Pa.
My name is John, by the wa.
H.
I am Dusti.
I?m a friend of Lilly?.
Checking if you know someone: You?re Susan?s husband, aren?t you? Your name is Aaron, isn?t it? I think I?ve seen you somewhere befor.
I think we?ve met at John?s party last yea.
Haven?t we met before? Aren?t you a friend of Vilma?s? Offering something to drink/eat: Can I get you something to drink? Would you like one of these cup cakes? Do you want a coke? Comments on the party/social event: Isn?t it lovely music? It?s a fantastic party, isn?t it? I loved the documentary they showe.
Great job! Step 3: Hand out the following list of conversation openings and have the students give their opinion on what is acceptable or inappropriate when meeting people for the first time in a formal or semi-informal situatio.
Have them discuss why they are not appropriat.
.
Hi, babe! You look great! My name is Mark, by the wa.
.
Pleased to meet yo.
My name is Alex McDonal.
.
H.
I like your shoe.
Where did you buy them? .
Who are you? .
Hell.
What?s your name? .
Your jacket is gorgeou.
How much did you pay? .
Hi! What?s up? (Note: It is not polite to use very direct or intrusive conversation openings as well as asking a stranger how much he earns or paid for somethin.
) ACTIVATE Aim: To develop the students? speaking skills by role-playing and discussio.
Time: 25 minutes ? Interactive pattern: S-S; Group work Step 1: Role-play Give each student a card with personal informatio.
Choose names and details of famous people and who are still aliv.
Students go around the class, pretending they are at a cocktail party and making conversation with at least 3 other peopl.
Tell them they have to use some of the phrases discussed in the Study Phase of this lesson, and that they have to make sure that the conversation flows and does not stop at the first few exchange.
It may take the direction they wan.
Step 2: Discussion Students discuss the following questions in pairs or mini groups: .
How do you greet your elders in your country? .
How do you greet people of your own age? .
Are there any questions/topics that should be avoided when you meet someone for the first time? Are there any questions/topics that you should not forget to mention when you meet an acquaintance?
