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Lesson planing is a topic that I find interesting especially because it is practical knowledge that I can use in my teaching career. The ESA methodologies that the TEFL course is based around seems efficient to teach English as a foreigner language. There are 3 types of ESA plans. The first one, called straight arrow, is composed of 3 stages: Engage, Study and Activate. The first stage, Engage, is considered as a ‘warm-up’ to activate the schema of the students, get them interested in the topic and set an English environment. Here, the teacher can show students pictures or real objects and ask them questions to involve them in the lesson and make them think and speak in English., The next phase,Study, is for the students to focus more on the language and its construction. Usually, this phase starts with an elicitation section where the teacher gives general language information (structure, meaning…). Then the teacher presents the language point and finishes with exercises to check the students understanding. The teacher can give the students worksheets like gap fills, crosswords, finding words, etc. The last phase, Activate, is aimed to encourage students to use all the language they know. This stage is to help the students to speak as freely and fluently as possible. Here, the focus is not accuracy but fluency. The teacher can choose from a range of different activities such as role plays, debates or story building. It is important at the end of this phase to give the students feedback in order to encourage self-awareness and improvement. The straight arrow ESA lesson plan should always respect the order of the 3 stages: Engage, Study and Activate. The second type of an ESA lesson plan is called Boomerang. The teacher still uses the ESA model but will add an Activate phase after the Engage phase. Boomerang lesson plans are particularly useful for higher levels. The third type of ESA lesson plan, Patchwork ESA lesson plan, incorporates a lot of mini sequences into the classic Straight Arrow ESA lesson plan and provides more flexibility in the lesson. Here, the lesson can have as many phases (Engage, Study, Activate) as needed as long as it starts with an Engage phase and finishes with an Activate phase. Like Boomerang ESA lesson plans, Patchwork lesson plans are recommended for higher levels. Also, they should be for classes that last more than 1 hour. The ESA methodologies mentioned above allow the teacher to have a balanced lesson, involve the students and cover all of the language skills. However, it is very important for the teacher to be more creative and complement the lesson with other materials. For high levels, the teacher can provide authentic materials (an article, the lyrics from song,..). Those materials are more motivating for students and help them to gain confidence when they understand them. For lower levels it is better for the teacher to create their own materials suitable to the level of the class. Those materials could include flashcards, drawings or crosswords. The teacher can also choose to use a course book but must be aware of the disadvantages of using it. Students can quickly get bored and the teacher must cover all the needs of the students which may not be covered by the book. More over, the teacher needs to have dynamic, creative and fun lessons to arouse students interest which is almost impossible when exclusively using a course book. Creating the right lesson plan in advance and providing suitable materials are the keys for a successful lesson!
