Chapter 6: How to teach language

Chapter 6:How to teach languageHarmer, J.(1998). How to teach English. Longman 1.Language study consist of Whatever level of Ss & however language organized in ESA sequences 4 things Ss need to do with ‘new language’Be exposed to itUnderstand its meaningUnderstand its form (how it is constructed)Practice it 2. How to expose Ss to language?At any level, Ss opportunities: to see it to hear it before asking them to produce it a. Complete beginnersSs require language by hearing it first exposed to the spoken form firstE.g. The teacher holds up a pen, points to it and says ‘pen. look.pen. pen’  offering them a chance to hear the word Later, T holds up the pen & say ‘Listen. It’s a pen. It’s a pen.. It’s a pen. Later, still T starts asking ‘What is it?’ hearing what the question sounds likeSs need the reassurance of the written word b. ElementaryLetting Ss have a chance to hear a dialogue (playing the cassette player, or CD player)Showing Ss a written versionc. Low intermediateReading a text in which many examples of comparative adjectives used in a fairly realistic wayd. Upper intermediateSs read the printout from a computer in which many examples of ‘the word’ being usedThese examples are taken from a variety of sources (books, newspapers, ads.)3. How to help Ss to understand  meaning?Real objects, pictures and drawingsTeacher’s mime, gesture & expressionListing, synonym/antonym, timelines & explanation (structures)Check questions to make sure Ss understand concepts Harmer’s techniques (1991)VocabularyVisual aidsProviding rich contextGiving many examplesListing related words (synonym/antonym)Discovery techniquesNumeration (general  specific or vice versa) Harmer’s techniques (1991)Grammar structuresvisually (Teacher’s performance)through a situationdiscovery techniques/ problem-solving approachproviding rich contexts, situationsusing students’ context (family/friend)Inductive and deductive approach 4. How to help Ss to understand language form?Two basic and important ways:Giving a clear model and asking students to listen and repeat 2 or 3 timesWriting the word/ structure clearly on the board and getting students to tell you (the teacher) what to writeComplete beginners explaining the sound construction of the word writing the word on the board & indicating which syllable is stressed using voice & gesture to demonstrate intonation Elementary learners writing tables on the board making construction clear Lower intermediate learnersAsking Ss to discover the construction for themselves (using their own questions & procedure)Telling Ss if they’ve worked out rules correctlyUpper intermediate learnersEncouraging Ss to use dictionariesIndividual work or group work to answer T’s questions5. How to practice the language?Oral practiceWritten practiceOral practiceOral drill i) Four –phase drills (Q-A-Q-A) ii) Mixed question and answer drills (Teacher elicits questions) iii) talking about frequency of activities iv) Chain drillsInformation gap activities Games Personalization / localization Students use the language they have recently learned to talk about themselves Oral Interactions e.g. find someone who Likes/Dislikes Agree/Disagree QuestionnairesWritten practice1. Sentence writing: (a) The fill-in: writing a post card (b) What are they doing? describing what the people in the picture are doing. (c) Christmas: Students use personalization to write sentences using time clauses (when, while, after, before) 2. Parallel writing (a) hotels: looking at a hotel guide book, especially key symbols and writing hotel instructions (b) sentence - ordering task: (looking at someone’s picture and arranging given sentences about this person’s life into a correct order) 3. Cohesion combing sentences by using coordinators (and, but, or, so) or concession (although, in spite of) 4. Oral composition visual or aural stimulishowing Ss a series of pictures, mine a story, or playing them a tape with a series of soundsuseful for the teaching of narrative style and the use of various past tenses 5. Dictation6.Why Ss make mistake Two reasons why Ss make mistakes the interference of their mother tongue their natural language development 7.How to correct Ss’ mistakes Encouraging Ss to self-correct by themselves if possible Asking other Ss to help Choosing how to correct sensitively