TEMA 3

To manage classrooms we have to organise the classroom space, organise classroom time, consider
the way we appear, how we use our voice and talk to students (it's a key factor)... We have to know
what role plays the mother tongue in lessons. In a successful classroom management we know how
to deal with difficulties.

Physical presence is important, it's not just appearance but the way we move and stand. We must
know how to respond to what happens in class (being aware of what's going on).
Teachers have their own personality, but they need to know how close they should be to students
because some of them can be uncomfortable.

Deciding how close you are to them or how teachers sit or stand is a matter of appropriacy. All the
positions teachers take make strong statements about the kind of person they are. We have to
consider that so we can behave in an appropriate way to the students and to create the relationship
we want with them.

Movement is something to care since you can bore your students or exhaust them depending on
your motion in the class. How much we move around will depend on personal style, where we feel
more comfortable for the management.

We must have awareness about what students do and the way they feel and we have to be flexible
and conscious enough to respond what's going on.

Our voice is our most important instrument, it has a crucial impact on classes. There are three issues
with it: teachers need to be audible (no need to shout, voice projection is more important), to vary
the quality of their voices and the volume (depending on the situation), and taking care of their
voices breathing properly or avoiding shouting (something to take into account when planning
work).

They way teachers talk and interact with students is a crucial skill that doesn't demand technical
expertise. Teachers are required to empathise.

When parents talk to their children they use more exaggerated tones of voice and less complex
grammatical structures than when they talk to adults. Teachers student relationship is not the same
but they also simplify their language to increase understatement chances. When a listener shows
signs of incomprehension teachers are able to adjust their language use. Teachers need to be aware
of three things: to consider the kind of language students understand, to know what they want to say
and the manner in which they will speak.

The issue of how to talk to students is crucial when it comes to giving instructions. There are two
general rules: before giving them, teachers must ask themselves what's the important information
and what must the students know to complete their activities. When teachers give instructions, it's
important for them to check the students have understood

There's a debate about the amount of time teachers should spend talking in class. Classes are
criticised because of too much TTT (Teacher Talking Time) and not enough STT (Student Talking
Time).
Overuse of TTT is inappropriate, students have less chance to practise their speakig. A good teacher
maximises STT and minimises TTT.
Good TTT may have beneficial qualities as students get an opportunity to hear a language above
their own. We should also consider TTQ (Teacher Talking Quality), it's not appropriate when
teachers go on and on using language especially not useful. Best lessons are the ones where STT is
maximised, good teachers use own common sense and experience to get the balance right.A
All learners of English have their mother tongue (L1). We need to ask whether it's good for them to
use it when the main objetct is to learn an L2. At beginner levels students translate everything to
ther L1. An English-language classroom should have and English environment where L2 is used the
more the better.

When teachers and students share the same L1 they can ask them to repeat the instructions of an
activity in the L1. We can ask them to translate wotds, sentences into their L1 and then ask them to
do it in the L2 without looking at the original. Using the students L1 may help them to see
connections and differences between the L1 and the L2.
However the use of L1 can become more problematic when there are students with a variety of
them.

When a class starts teachers need to gain students' attention, we'll tell them what we'll be doing.
Teachers have to make clear when an activity finishes or it's about to begin. To gain attention some
teachers clap their hands, some raise their hand and another ones speak quietly,

When a lesson is about to end we can privide them some kind of closure but sometimes teachers
find themselves in the middle when the bell goes.

The different arrangements of chairs and tables indicate different approaches. We are going to look
at the advantages and disadvantages of various seating arrangements: With orderly rows, teachers
have a clear view of all the students and they can work with the whole class (watching a DVD or a
PowerPoint, language practice). We have to keep everyone involved in what we're doing and move
around to see all of the students. In classes between 40 and 200 students orderly rows are the best or
only solution; Circles and horseshoes are preferred in smaller classes. In classes arranged in a circle
there is a great feeling of equalty (The Round Table) but in horseshoe shape the teacher is often
located in a commanding position. But there are advantages since all the students can see each other
and the classroom is a more intimate place where students can share feelings and information; with
separate tables, students sit in small groups at individual tables (easier for the teacher to work at one
table while the others do their own work) and it's useful in mixed-ability classes. It's also
appropriate in collaborative writing or listening to an exercise. It has its problems as students maybe
don't want to sit with the same colleagues and teaching it's harder because they're diffuse and
separated.

Students can be organised in different ways: whole class, groups, in paris or individually. It's more
common and in many occasions it's the best to work with the whole class for presenting information
and for controlled practice. It can be dynamic, motivating and with a great sense of being part of a
team but it's less effective if we want to encourage individual contributions.Groupwork and
pairwork foster cooperative activity so students discuss a topic, they write a report... students tend
to participate more actively and they give the teacher opportunity to focus attention on particular
students. But groupwork or pairwork have their problems too: they may don't like the people
they've got to work with and it's common one student dominate the others while the others stay
silent In a class where students share the L1 they may revert to it when the teacher isn't working
with them. Solowork allows students to work at their own speed and to be individuals. It often
provides welcome relief and they can relax their public faces. One last grouping, class-to-class,
where we are able to join two classes. Higher-level students can feel motivated by helping nad
lower-level students engage with people whose language is better. They're good for surveys,
discussions and lectures and presentations.
How much we make groupwork, pairwork or solowork depends on our style and the king of
learning task involved. Good teachers are able to be flexible and they will know what kind of class
grouping is btter and more successful for each activity.

TEMA 4

Almost all children acquire a language without effort but in many part of the world they grow up
speaking two or more languages. If young children move to a country and go to school there they
seem to learn fast.

Language acquisition seems to be guaranteed for children up to the age of six. They also can forget
language easily (it's like they put on clothes) but this ease of acquisition becomes less noticeable as
they grow up. Acquisition here describes how people get language without conscious effort without
worrying about grammar or vocabulary. Just like when children start vocalising their mother
tongue, their sentences become more complex in the future.

For acquisition the children need to hear a lot of language, to simplify what they're going to hear or
avoiding technical vocabulary using just language wich fits the situation rough-tuning what they'll
hear. During childhood we get a great language exposure, children make language with their parents
and they try it out (children repeat words or phrases) because of their desire to communicate. They
will use the language they are acquiring in the future.
There are three features to be present in order for children to acquire a language: exposure to it,
motivation to communicate with it and opportunities to use it.

If children can acquire language subconsciously, maybe students could replicate child's experience.
Linguist Stephen Krashen says teahcers should concentrate on acquisition rather than learning and
provide the right kind of language exposure, namely comprehensible input. Language that has been
learnt isn't available because learner has to think much more about what they want to say. The
principal function of learnt language is to monitor what is coming from our acquired store to check
that it's OK. If we believe acquisition is superior to learning we'll spend all our time providing
comprehensible input but we won't ask the students to focush on how language works. But this
ability tends to deteriorate with age and teenagers and adults may want to think consciously about
how language works. Learners in foreign language classrooms are in a very different situation from
that of children of parents.
Mere exposure to comprehensible input is not enogh for older children/adults. They should have
their attention drawn to aspects of language so they notice these aspects and they'll recognise them
in the future (first stage in their knowing of the language).
In a rich classroom environment students have to be exposed to language and they need
opportunities to activate their language knowledge. We should offer them chances to study language
and the way it works. Acquisition and learning have their part to play in language getting for
students.

Current teaching practise is the result of the spontaneous and studial capacities. Abstract and
practical techniques have goin in and out fashin and have influenced what was and is included in
classrooms and teaching materials: In 1990, Lexical Approach and language chunks; in 1970 the
Silent Way or Community Language Learning (bilingual teachers help their students to translate
what they want to say frm their L1 to L2). Some trends have had -and continue to have- a
significant impact on how languages are taught today.

The Grammar-translation method introduces the idea of presenting students with short grammar
rules and word lists, and then translations exercises in which they use the rules. It was introduced in
a reform of the German secondary school and it has relevance today as learners translate in their
heads and they can learn a foreign language by comparing parts of it with parts of our own mother
tongue. But a total concentration on this can stop students from getting the kind of natural language
input that will help them acquire a language. (They are always looking at L1 equivalents and they
don't activate their language knowledge).

Audio-lingual method originated in army education in the 40s. It suggest that if we describe the
grammatical patterns of English, we can have students repeat them and learn them. The structures
were carefully graded so that students learnt the easy one first before moving onto more complex.
These theories suggested that much learning is the result of habit-formation, where performing the
correct response to a stimulus means that a reward is given. Constant repetition makes the response
automatic. Early language laboratory tapes used this procedure with students wearing headphones
and responding to prompts or cues. This method lost popularity because language learning was
more subtle than just formation of habits and students were not exposed to realistic language and
couldn't produce natural sounding language. However, 'drilling' is still considered a useful technique
to use, especially with low-level students.

Audio-lingualism have its modern equivalent, ofter referred to as PPP (Presentation, Practice and
Production) where the teacher presents the context and situation fot the language and both explains
and demonstrates the meaning and form of the new language.Then the students practise making
sentences before they go on to production stage in which they talk more freely about themselves.
Pronunciation can be taught using this procedure. The PPP method is widely used for teaching
simple language at lower levels but it's just one procedure among many.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was a 70s reaction with two main guiding principles: the
first is that language also involves language functions such as inviting, agreeing or disagreeing...
which students learn how to perform using language exponents. Students also need to know how to
talk to people when they write them in kind of the language they use (formal, informal, technical...).
The second is that if students get enough exposure and opportunities for language use then language
learning will take care of itself. It has a lot in common with the acquisition view of language
absorption but CLT focusses on students communicating real messages not just grammatically. CLT
has had a thoroughly beneficial effect since it reminded teachers people learn languages to
communicate with them.

Talk-Based Learning (TBL) is a natural extension of CLT. The emphasis is on the task: students get
informations about bus timetables, make a presentation on a certain topic. After it's completed they
can look at it and work on any imperfections, correct grammatical mistakes. A typical TBL
sequence starts with a pre-task (students are introduced to the topic and told what the task will be),
the the students plan the task, gathering language and information and later they produce the writing
or oral performance.. TBL has allowed teachers and students to concentrate on how we achive
things with language and how we use language for certain tasks.

Most of the teachers try nowadays to offer a judcious blend of many ideas and elements above.
Current language traching practice generally gives students the opportunity to think about how a
piece of grammar works while providing opportunities for language use in communicative activities
task-based procedures. It's a controlled practice where they get to use all they know. Choosing
between the best elements is the proper response to the competing claims of the various trends but
maybe since we can use bits and pieces from different theories and methods our lessons can then
become disorganised. A principled electicism avoids these risks, believing students need exposure,
motivation and opportunities for language use suggest that most teaching sequences need to have
certain characteristics or elements. These elements are Engage, Study and Activate (ESA).

We can remember lessons which were uninvolving and where we switched off from what was being
taught. Sometimes we were paying more attention but we weren't engaged emotionally.
Engagement is one vital ingredient for succesful learning. Some activities and materials that can
help are games, music, discussions... even without them teachers have to make sure their students
engage with the topic asking to make predictions or relate classroom materials to their own life.
This is so important because when students are engaged their involvement in the study is better and
their benefit will be greater.

Study activites are the ones the students are asked on the construction of something. They can range
froom the focus on and practie of a single sound to an investigation. In the PPP we want students to
think of the construction of the words' pronunciation but here students can study in a variety of
different ways, discovery activities ask them to do all the intelectual work (They can read a text
together and find words and phrases to concentrate for later study or they can spend time with the
teacher looking at the language they have used). There are examples of the study of language
construction. Typical language areas for study might be study and practise of the vowel sound in
'ship' and 'sheep', the study and practice of the third person singular of the present simple...

The activate activity is designed to get students using language as freely and communicatively as
they can. It's not like a study activity where they focus on the use of a structure, or use words from
a list. The objetivee is to get them to use all and any language appropriate for a give situation or
topic so they try out real language use. Personalisation provides a bridge between the stages and
activate exercises include role-plays, debates, discussions... Activation is not just about producing
language in speech and writing. When students read they are involved in language activation using
any language at their disposal to comprehend. It can be a prelude to study.

All three ESA elements need to be in most lessons. Students always need to get engaged and most
of them will appreciate opportunities to activate their language knowledge. The majority of teaching
and learning at lower levels is not made up of long activities it's more likely that there will be more
than one ESA sequence in a given lesson.

Elements of ESA don't have to occur in the same order, it depends on what we want to achieve. If
we are introducing a piece of grammar, we may study the language first before the students are
asked to use it. If we always do things in the same order, students will become bored.

One type of teaching sequence is 'straight arrows': The teacher get them engaged, they study
something and they try to activate by putting into production. Here is an examplewith 'can' and
'can't':

1. Engage: Students and teacher look at a picture of new generation robots and they say what
they like or they don't.
2. Study: The teacher shows students a particular robot and introduce them to 'can' and 'can't'
and makes sure of accurate grammar.
3. Activate: Students work in groups to design and say what their robot can o can't do.

Straight arrows lessons work well for certain structures but if we teach all our lessons like this we
are not giving our students own learning styles. This wouldn't be appropriate for more advanced
learners. For the right students at the right level there are other possibilities, for example, the
boomerang procedure:

1. Engage: Students and teacher discuss issues surrounding job interviews.

2. Activate: The teacher describees a situation with they are going to role-play. The students
plan the questions and answers. Then they role-play and the teacher makes a note of
language difficulties to work later.
3. Study: They work the grammar and vocabulary which caused trouble. The teacher may
explain the problems or refer students to grammar books.
 4. Activate: Some time later, students role-play again with the corrections to the language.

In this sequence the teacher is answering the needs of the students, this makes a better sense
because the connection between what students need to learn and they are taught is more transparent.
It's maybe more appropriate for students at intermediate or advanced levels since they have a lot of
language to use. Boomerangs sequences feel much more like TBL procedures, one specific type of
boomerang sequence is sometimes called test-teach where the students are first asked to use
language and then they are taught how to deal with things they made mistakes before trying the
testing part. Many lessons are a mixture of procedures and mini procedures, here is an example of
this kind of patchwork lesson:

1. Engage Activate: Students look at a picture of sunbathers and comment on the

people and the activity they are taking part in. They can act out a dialogue between a
sunburn victim and a doctor.
2. Activate: Students look at a text describing different people and the effects the sun has on
their skin. They say how they feel about the sun effect.
3. Study: The teacher does vocabulary work making sure that students know the meaning and
they know the pronunciation.
4. Activate: Students describe themselves or people they know.
5. Study: The teacher focuses the students' attention on the relative clause in the text. The use
of the 'who' clause is discussed and students practise sentences.
6. Engage: The teacher discuss ads with the students and the teacher play radio commercials.
7. Activate: The students write a radio commercial for a sunscreen, they can record it and use
effects and music.

Such classes are common at intermediate and advanced levels. They reflect the way we learn and
provide a balance between study and activation and between language and topic.

E.S.A. are the base for successful language teaching and learning. By using them in different ways
teachers are doing the best to promote students' success since language learning is reflected in
sequences such as straight arrows, boomerang and patchwork lessons.

We have to decide what we hope our students will achive by the end of a lesson. Balancing the three
ESA elements remind us of the need for student engagement. When the students try to use language
they get a chance for the kind of mental processing that makes learning an acquisition worhwhile.
Many teachers plan around a coursebook but even in that situation, it's important to manipulate the
activities in the book so that the three elements, engage, study, activateare evident in appropriate
sequences.

As far as I am concerned, teaching is something very important. We are people who deal with
different situations everyday and we must know how to deal with them. We have to be aware of the
problems in the class, organise classroom time, our appearance or movement can't distract the
people we are teaching, we have to control our voice so we don't shout our students or control the
mother tongue usage... We have a lot of responsibilities but that's part of our task. Teachers who
don't know about the problems of their students and don't help them aren't doing their job right.