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Teach English in Geermunongkenyouxian Gongsi - Haixi Mengguzu Zangzu Zizhizhou

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Geermunongkenyouxian Gongsi? Are you interested in teaching English in Haixi Mengguzu Zangzu Zizhizhou? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.

Although there are many teaching models for structuring lesson plans, the ESA format created by Jeremy Harmer works as an effective teaching model in EFL classrooms. The “Engage, Study, Activate” format assists in providing a strong and consistent lesson structure, as well as encouraging students to discover and explore language in an interesting and motivating way. The engage phase of the lesson involves eliciting the class to begin thinking and speaking in English. It is a method used to get the class to respond. For an ESL or EFL class, it is important for teachers to remember that this is a warm-up for the class and is not meant to be a corrective phase. Topic conversations, pictures and drawings, and questions are a great way to get the class speaking. The study phase is a focus for vocabulary, language points, and writing tasks for the class. This is where the teacher acts as model and manager of the classroom in order to demonstrate correct pronunciation, form, and spelling for new vocabulary and grammar. It is best to use worksheets and groupwork in this phase by employing visual aids in crosswords, gap-fills, unscramble puzzles, and word searches. The study phase uses receptive skills for the reading and writing. The activate phase of the lesson is essentially the application phase of the lesson. Students take what they have learned from the study phase and apply it to a new task in which they utilize their skills to complete a presentation to the rest of the class for review. The activate phase uses students’ productive skills in listening and speaking. Appropriate activities include communication games, role-play, and story-telling. Students are encouraged and use language as freely and creatively as possible. ESA follows three simple formats for lesson plans. These three techniques include; Straight-arrow, Boomerang, and Patchwork. Teachers can easily use these formats to structure their lesson plans. The straight arrow is the most simple and functional for beginner teachers, and classes. Following true to form, it first engages students, followed by a study task, and finishes with the activate phase. The Boomerang format follows an E, A, S, A format where the lesson plan always begins with “engage” and ends in “activate”. Patchwork is similar to the boomerang technique but allows for more phases in the plan (i.e. E1, S1, E2, A1, S2, S3, A2). Boomerang and Patchwork lessons are best utilized for class levels of intermediate and higher. These formats provide clear and defined structure to a lesson plan, allowing teachers to utilize several forms while still maintaining a degree of creativity for the class. It also allows for the teacher to assess, at each phase, how the class is doing and where problems may be occurring. And by using the ESA format, there are balanced levels of teacher and student talk times to create a comfortable and safe environment for students to learn and practice. The study phase allows for students to learn from the teacher new language points and vocabulary, while the activate phase encourages the constant use and discovery of language. Clearly, the ESA lesson format is an effective methodology in giving students motivation, encouragement and exposure to language. It also provides an effective and flexible lesson plan for teachers. The expanse of activities, games, and opportunities offered by this flexible methodology make lesson plan possibilities endless. Having these options available allows for the teacher to really nail down a specified lesson for each class, giving individual attention to students, and keeping students interested and engaged by the use of broad topics, games, and activities. And by maintaining the order of “engage, study, activate”, language can be fun to learn by helping students be successful in achieving their language goals.


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