SETTING OBJECTIVES.

If youre using a coursebook, then the syllabus of the book will

probably provide the core of your course objectives. But its unlikely
that youll find a coursebook which will exactly match the needs of
the group. Your job becomes one of evaluating, adapting and
supplementing what is already provided. Obviously, when choosing
the coursebook one of the things you need to take into consideration
is whether it is in general right for the students is it at the right
level, does it cover the language and skills which they need using
contexts and topics relevant to them? To do this you will need
information: at the beginning of the course a level test and needs
analysis questionnaire will help you find out about your students and
to see how well a particular coursebook meets their needs and where
youll need to omit or supplement. As the course progresses your
knowledge of them will increase and you may need to refine the
course objectives further. The type of questions you might be asking
yourself include: At this level Id expect them to know the present
continuous is used for future arrangements. But the level test shows
that a lot of them are still making mistakes. Does the coursebook
provide a revision activity fairly early on? ; Four out of the seven have
frequent contact with Americans while the other three need British
English. Does the coursebook include examples of both?; Most of
them have to write E-mails in English. Is this covered? My learners are
Finnish and have difficulty distinguishing between /k/ and /g/. Is there
work on this?
Lesson Objectives
Given the overall course objectives, you then need to plan each
individual lesson so as to ensure that they are gradually reached. This
doesnt of course mean just dividing the course objectives by the
number of lessons and ticking off the items as done after each
class. When setting objectives you need to consider :
What has gone before? Each lesson will need to balance the
recycling of previously taught material if this is not done items will
easily be forgotten with new items. For example, a beginner level
lesson focusing on the infinitive of purpose might start by recycling
place names (supermarket, garage, post office, library etc) in an
activity where students match flashcard pictures and words, go on to
incorporate these names with the present continuous (each student
has a flashcard they have to ask and answer Where are you going?
Im going to the supermarket.) In order to find the other person in the
class whos going to the same place, and only finally use the same
context to introduce the infinitive of purpose (Where are you going?

Im going to the supermarket to buy some milk / to the library to

change some books etc). The lesson has therefore included two
recycling objectives and one new item.
Assumed Knowledge. Recycling will involve you thinking about your
assumptions for the lesson. If you are recycling something as the
basis for introducing a new item, how sure are you that your students
will remember it and therefore how important is it as an objective?
There will be times when recycling is the main objective for the lesson
for example, if at intermediate level you decide to bring together all
the ways that learners have previously met of referring to future
events. At other times, you may be pretty sure that the students will
remember and be able to use the recycled items but only if you
include a focus activity before you attempt to combine them with
other material. In this case, they will probably form a secondary
objective of the lesson. And finally, you may be sure that the
students will be able to use the recycled item without any specific
prior focus. In this case the item is Assumed Knowledge. Keep in
mind, however, that if your assumption is wrong, it could destroy the
whole lesson. If in doubt, its always best to include an activity
focusing on just that item first.
What will come next? In some lessons you may wish to introduce
something because you know it will provide a useful basis for what is
coming later. For example, if you are teaching a course where the
present simple precedes the present continuous, you might decide to
insert a lesson on likes and dislikes (love/like/hate etc + V-ing) in the
middle because having the students meet the ing form in this
context, and learn the names of a variety of activities, will make it
easier to introduce the present continuous later.
How limited should the objectives be? They need to be limited
enough both to fit into the timescale of the lesson, and to avoid
creating overload for the students, but not so limited that the
students go away feeling that theyve not achieved much in the
lesson. Learning is like eating too much at one time produces
indigestion, but not enough causes dissatisfaction. If you are
introducing the present simple for instance, trying to deal with the
affirmative, negative and interrogative all in one lesson would almost
certainly create overload. But that doesnt mean that the affirmative
needs to be your only objective. It may well be introduced in the
context of a lexical area that needs to be taught first, providing
another objective for the lesson.
Variety. This last example focuses on another aspect of setting
objectives the need for variety. A lesson which focuses on one thing
and one thing only risks becoming boring. To go back to our eating

analogy, you may like chocolate gateau but you dont necessarily
want it for all three courses. This is a particular risk with specific types
of lesson lessons which focus entirely on phonology are, in my
experience, rarely successful (though there are exceptions to every
rule.) But in general, a mix of different types of objective usually
provides for a more balanced and enjoyable lesson.
Anticipated problems. When youre defining your objectives you
need to think not only about what you want to teach, but also the
problems which each item will create for your students and what you
need to do about it. For example, if your objective focuses on place
names: library, garage, railway station, pizzeria, etc the words would
create different problems depending on who you were teaching. If you
were teaching French, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese learners, one
problem you would have to face would be students presuming that
library meant bookshop, because of the existence of a false cognate
in their own language. If you were teaching Japanese learners, the
problem would be the /l/ and /r/ sounds which the words contain.
If you are following a training course, such as the CELTA or DELTA, you
will be asked to write out your lesson objectives as part of the lesson
plan you present before your teaching practice. Why is this
necessary? Firstly because your tutor needs to understand what is in
your mind, exactly what you are trying to do, in order to be able to
evaluate whether the lesson was appropriate for the students and
how well you succeed in doing what you wanted to. But even more
important, writing out your objectives (as with all the other sections of
the lesson plan) forces you to clarify your own ideas. If you have
difficulty formulating a clear and precise objective (and dont worry,
everyone does!), its often a sign that you havent really thought
through what you want to achieve in the lesson.
What are the different types of objective which may be included in the
lesson? Language system objectives (functional/structural, lexical,
phonological) and skills objectives:

Functional/Structural Objectives
Students will be able to talk about past events with a present result
using the present perfect simple
Students will be able to make polite requests for action using Would
you mind + V-ing
Lexical Objectives

Students will consolidate and extend their knowledge of lexis

associated with crime and the police: robbery, fraud, a trial, to be
tried , to be charged with to be sentenced etc

Students will understand the use of the prefix over- with adjectives
and verbs to mean too much: overweight, overtired, overcook,
oversleep etc.
Phonological Objectives

Students will be able to distinguish receptively and productively

between the phonemes /k/ and /g/
Students will be able to produce the rising then falling tones of
questions offering closed alternatives: Is he French or Spanish? Is her
name Louise or Luisa?
Skills Objectives

Students will consolidate their ability to infer unknown words from

context in a reading text.
Students will start to develop the ability to listen between the lines
to infer implicit but not explicitly stated information.
Students will consolidate their ability to use circumlocution strategies
to explain words which they dont know in English.
Students will be able to recognise and produce topic sentences for
paragraphs in a text discussing the advantages and disadvantages of
a particular thematic area.