Classroom Teaching Techniques: part 1

Lecture # 9

Review of the last lecture

• Despite the enormous variety of published material and teaching aids at the disposal of language teachers;

• There are a number of factors which can severely restrict their freedom of choice of techniques and materials for a particular lesson.

• In general terms, these stem from the physical teaching situations, the nature of the students, the influences of an organization in determining a syllabus and the way in which people are understood to learn language.

• Time ; Frequency of Lessons ; The time of day ;The number of students

Availability of aids

• The teacher

• The students and motivation

Classroom Teaching Techniques

We will talk about the following four teaching techniques in this and the next lecture.•Information-gap activities for oral/aural practice

•Discourse Chains

•Structuring Conversations

•Role plays

Information-gap activities for oral practice

• Communication is a two way process

• An Info Gap activity takes place between students, not between a student and a teacher, though a teacher can certainly demonstrate the activity. The two students will be asking each other questions to which they don’t know the answer; these questions are called referential questions. The goal of the activity is for the students to discover certain information, whether about the other person or related to specific activity.

• What A says helps to shape B’s reply, which in turn influences A’s answer and so on.

Referential questions

• Referential questions are questions you ask someone because you don't know the answer. In an ELT classroom, this can mean questions teachers ask learners and learners ask each other. Referential questions can be compared to display questions, for which the answer is already clear and teachers ask just to see if the learners know the answer, or for language manipulation.

• ExampleThe teacher asks a learner ‘What did you do at the weekend?', or a learner asks another ‘Why are you so sad?'

• In the classroomExtended activities in which learners can practice production of referential questions include quizzes (setting and answering questions), interviews, discussion of work in the class, and posting questions on general knowledge forums.

Information-gap activities for oral practice

Why are Info Gap activities useful?•Info Gap activities are useful because they are very meaningful; all students are involved in the process equally and they are all moving towards a specific purpose.

•Each student has the task of finding out certain information, and therefore must find a way in which to ask for this information. Motivation is usually quite high in these activities.

•These activities help move the students from working in a more structured environment into a more communicative environment; they are hopefully using lots of the target language, and in the process discovering where they have gaps. Knowing where these gaps are gives them a direction in which to improve.

Important points for information gap activities

• There are number important points to bear in mind when using information gap activities.

• Careful preparation:

Students cannot be expected to do this type of activity without very careful preparatory work.

Information gap exercises can be devised to give tightly controlled or freer practice of exponents of one or more functions.

The exponents first need to be presented or revised and the students are given sufficient controlled practice; this lays the necessary foundations

for the information-gap activity that is to follow.

Important points for information gap activities

• Pre-teaching VocabularyWhen students are working in closed pairs, they should be allowed to get

on with the task in hand without unnecessary interruptions.

If the teacher is aware that some of the vocabulary needed for the activity is likely to be unfamiliar to all or some of the students then it should be taught beforehand.

This ensures the flow of the activity in not interrupted.

Important points for information gap activities

• Clear instructionsStudents who are not used to doing pair work of this type need training in

the mechanics of the activity.

Instructions need to be crystal clear to ensure that all students know what to do. In monolingual class, the instructions might well be given in the mother tongue.

• Demonstrations: It is wise, especially with a class that is unfamiliar with this type of activity,

to demonstrate a part of it to the whole class.

The teacher can play A and a good student B, and the first part of the task can be worked through.

Important points for information gap activities

Mixed ability•Mixed ability as used in ELT usually refers to the differences that exist in a group in terms of different levels of language proficiency. This might be a result of simply the amount of time they have spent learning, their different language learning abilities or learning style preferences. Almost all groups are mixed ability. Example A teacher has a large intermediate group of mixed ability teenage learners - some learners are actually pre-intermediate, a minority are intermediate, and a small number should be in an upper-intermediate level.•In the classroom

Teachers need to have a range of strategies for managing mixed ability classes. Extension tasks for fast finishers, differing levels of difficulty on tasks that work towards common aims, and putting learners of different levels together for some activities, and apart for others are all possible strategies.

Important points for information gap activities

Mixed ability:

•In a mixed ability class, better students are encouraged to help the less competent ones.

•This particularly applies to pair work.

•The teacher needs, however, to be sensitive to the students wishes and not dictatorially impose unpopular pairings which will be counter-productive.

Important points for information gap activities

Use of the mother tongueIn a monolingual classes, it is natural for the students to break into their own language, either during an activity or more especially when they have finished an activity before other students.

The teacher’s role:After carefully setting up the activity, the teacher should first quickly check the each pair is in fact doing the activity in the way intended, and then circulate again, listening to samples of the oral work of as many pairs as possible.

An Example

Discourse Chains

• What they are?

Ali greets→→ Zia

Zia asks Ali for introduction

Ali replies…..and ask Zia for the same.

InvitationsA B

Catch attention→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→Reply

B invite A to his home tonight……………

A refuses politely ; give reasons

B invites A to a party on Saturday; A accepts gladly

Discourse Chains

• When to use them?Discourse chains provide an excellent means of practicing language within

a controlled situational framework, while giving students a considerable degree of choices as to which exponents to use.

Here are some of the purposes:

• To provide freer work after more controlled forms of practice have taken place and to lead in to even freer activities.

• To bring together for revision purposes items previously taught separately.

• To revise the language of a particular situations;

• To diagnose students language needs.

• To provide a framework for dialogue writing

• To provide practice in appropriate language use;

Discourse Chains

How to use them?There is no one fixed way of using discourse chains, but a fairly standard one which meets the purposes of points are as follows;

--Establish the situational context of the discourse chains.

---Present the discourse chains on the blackboard or OHP or multimedia

---Choose two students on opposite sides of the class, allot each of them the role of one of the speakers in the chain, and then ask them to go through their parts. This provides examples for whole class for what to do.

------Either divide the class into closed pairs and ask them to practice the dialogue simultaneously

Summary of lecture # 9

We talked about the following teaching techniques in this lecture.•Information-gap activities for oral/aural practice

Info Gap activities are useful because they are very meaningful; all students are involved in the process equally and they are all moving towards a specific purpose.

Important points are pre-teaching of vocabulary, clear instructions, demonstrations, mixed ability, use of the mother tongue, the teacher’ role etc.

Discourse Chains:When to use them?

How to use them?