TEFL Lesson Plans For Dummies

Michelle M. Maxom

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781118764244
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

Instant English lessons – learn in a flash!

TEFL Lesson Plans For Dummies is a ready-made course manual for TEFL teachers. With fully fleshed-out lessons, activities, tools, games, and resources, this book contains what is essentially an instant TEFL course. Use the ready-made materials directly in the classroom, or follow along with the detailed planning models and frameworks to grow your skills while designing your own lesson plans more effectively. The book includes access to online materials you can print for use in class, and the lessons can be used with or without the aid of technology in the classroom. You'll find expert advice on teaching all age levels and class sizes, including ideas for taking the lessons out into the world.

Many EFL/ESL teachers have little or no experience, and may have only been in the profession for a limited time. TEFL Lesson Plans For Dummies saves the day with materials, ideas, and activities that can be implemented quickly and easily, making lessons more productive and fun. From quick exercises to larger-scale plans, this book contains hundreds of ways to help your students become more proficient English speakers.

• Implement expertly-designed planning models with step-by-step advice
• Teach lessons designed for students of all ages and classes of all sizes
• Integrate technology when it's available, or do without it when it's not
• Move your lessons outside of the classroom for deeper immersion

Whether you're taking a TEFL training course, about to head out on your first job, or a veteran of the field, this book provides you with the tools you will need to get things moving in class. If you're looking to cut down on planning time without sacrificing student engagement, TEFL Lesson Plans For Dummies is the classroom-ready resource you need.

Part I

Methodology in the Madness

Visit www.dummies.com/extras/tefllessonplans for free online lesson plan ideas and outlines.

In this part …

• Come to grips with the nitty-gritty of TEFL teaching, including an overview of what we’ve learned about English teaching down the years.
• Find out how to adapt recent advances and theories in TEFL to your work.
• Get the right fit between your lessons and the syllabus.
• Work out the anatomy of a great lesson plan.
• Put together a TEFL toolbox of worksheets, props and board activities.

Chapter 1

Grasping The Basics Of TEFL Teaching

In This Chapter

Demystifying language terms

Looking at the English courses on offer

Knowing the lingo for lesson planning

Understanding jargon in the staffroom

The Teaching English as Foreign Language (TEFL) industry has been in full flow for many years now. In this chapter, I give you an overview of workplace jargon, and various points that may be taken for granted in language schools but are still unclear for many new teachers. The chapter aims to help you understand the job of a modern-day teacher of English as a foreign language, which sets you up to dive into the lesson plans I provide in the later sections of the book.

Understanding TEFL Language Terminology

Understanding how sentences are put together is essential. Words have different classifications, and defining how these work in English provides the rules and patterns that help students learn. You, as the teacher, must know the terminology for describing language appropriately.

For a more detailed description of TEFL grammar, please refer to Teaching English as a Foreign Language For Dummies (Wiley, 2009).

Verbs and tenses

At primary school, pupils often learn that verbs are the ‘doing words’. They tend to describe both actions and a state of being. For example, look at the following sentences in which the verbs are in italic:

I went to the shop to buy a newspaper. I was happy to find that the price had been reduced.

Notice the verbs in their most basic form: ‘to buy’ and ‘to find’. This is called the infinitive and it means that the verb hasn’t been changed in at all. Take off the word ‘to’ and you can find the infinitive form in a dictionary.

On the other hand, ‘went’, ‘was’ and ‘had been reduced’ have been transformed into particular tenses. Often, extra verbs are added to the main one to create a tense. These extra parts are called auxiliary verbs (for example, ‘have seen’). When ‘ing’ is tacked on to the end of a verb it is called a gerund (for example ‘listening’).

Table 1-1 shows you the names of the various tenses. So, for example, ‘I have taught’ is called a present perfect sentence.

Nouns and pronouns

You use nouns and pronouns to indicate a place, person, an animal, or a thing. They can also represent more abstract ideas. In the following sentence the nouns are in bold:

I use a diary to write down my thoughts.

As you can see, nouns can be singular or plural. Nouns you can make plural are called countable nouns, but others are uncountable so they use words like ‘some’ or ‘a little’ instead of a specific number to define the quantity.

Use

of my money to buy

bread at the supermarket.

Pronouns replace nouns so that sentences become less repetitive:

• Florence needs water and Florence gets the water from the kitchen.
• Florence needs water and she gets it from the kitchen.

Subjects and objects

The subject of a sentence is a noun, a pronoun or an entire phrase, and it tells you what the sentence is about. For example:

• Florence needs water.
• I went to the shop.
• Reading books is fun.

After the subject of a sentence there is generally a verb. Then, sometimes there is another noun or pronoun that receives the action and this is called the object. For example:

• I love it.
• She reads a book.
• They waved to the boys.

Prepositions

Prepositions introduce the object of a sentence. They include words such as ‘with’, ‘through, and ‘among’. For example:

• You should walk through the park.
• Mike lives with Jenna.

Adjectives

Adjectives give more information about nouns or pronouns. They may indicate size, colour, or quality. For example:

The enormous book lay on the fabulous desk.

Adverbs

Adverbs give more information about a verb, often showing how it is carried out:

The girl smiled sweetly and timidly as she stepped behind her sister.

Qualifiers

Qualifiers appear before adjectives and adverbs and show degree. For instance:

• That meal was rather nice.
• Gold is quite expensive.

Articles

Simply put, the articles in English are the indefinite articles ‘a’ or ‘an’, and the definite article ‘the’. These words come before nouns and are types of adjective. However, the indefinite articles show that something is general, while the definite article indicates something more specific. For example:

A man arrived and the nurse greeted him.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions, sometimes called linking words, join parts of a sentence together and they include ‘because’, ‘but’ and ‘although’. Note how they connect the words in this example:

I like plays and films, although I don’t enjoy operas much.

Recognising the Different Types of English Course

It isn’t enough to get a job a job teaching English. You really must know what kind of course it is and, in addition to its target age and level, how each course differs. Here’s a breakdown of the main English courses available:

• Academic English: For students who want to undertake a course of higher education in the English language. On a course of this nature students learn how to express concepts, ideas, and theories using formal, impersonal language. Students also practise essay writing, giving formal presentations, listening, and note-taking for lectures.
• Business English: Tends to cover the same grammatical structures as general English. However, the context for using the language is always a business meeting, a negotiation, a formal letter, or another function of day-to-day business life. These courses may be sponsored by a company for its employees.
• English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL): For students who are now living in an English-speaking country where they want to settle. Practical skills such as speaking to employees at government offices and banks or visiting healthcare professionals are included in the course material.
• English for Specific Purposes (ESP): A branch of teaching whereby you analyse exactly what the student needs to do in English and gear the whole course towards that outcome. For example, you may teach English for nurses, or English for the banking industry.
• Exam classes: When students plan to take a particular exam, the preparatory course is entirely focused on this outcome. So you show students how to tackle the exam questions, breaking them down so that they understand what the examiners are looking for. Students analyse past papers and do practice tests.
• General English: Teaches students everyday language and usually comprises reading, writing, speaking, and listening, which are the four main skills of language learning.
• One to one: This might also be called a private lesson, although it could be arranged in the teacher’s own time or as part of a job at a school. It basically means that there is one teacher and one student in the class, so you get to focus on the learner’s individual needs.
• Presessional and Insessional: These courses are for students who have received an offer of a place on a degree course. A presessional course is generally run by the university that’s offering the placement and is designed to acclimatise students to cultural differences and academic expectations. Successful completion of the course may be a requirement before the student can take up his place on the degree course. Then, insessional lessons are for international students who are already doing their degree course but require extra support in using academic English in order to succeed.

Determining the Common European Framework Levels

Most courses divide students into varying levels of proficiency. These days the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) descriptors are frequently used to specify a student’s level in a particular language. The framework is based on what the student should be able to do in that tongue when a particular level is reached. Table 1-2 breaks down the levels.

Table 1-2 Classifications of proficiency levels in language teac...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Part I: Methodology in the Madness
• Part II: Beginner and Elementary Classes
• Part III: Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate Classes
• Part IV: Upper Intermediate and Advanced Classes
• Part V: Mixed Classes
• Part VI: The Part of Tens
• About the Author
• Cheat Sheet
• End User License Agreement