Teach English in Yinshan Zhen - Tai'an Shi

Jeremy Harmer in his book How to Teach English detailed the ESA method of teaching English. Using ESA is important because it keeps the teacher organized and students interested, motivated, and eager to learn. ESA really clicked with me because it can be used to teach anything. It isn’t limited to teaching English as a foreign language. I understand the logical progression of phases in teaching English using the ESA method. First the teacher needs to remember that all ESA activities need to be performed in English, not the students’ native language. The first step of ESA is Engage. Here the teacher warms up the students and gets them ready to participate in the day’s lesson. Mistakes are not corrected in this phase. Engage activities should get the students’ attention and start them thinking and speaking in English. Engaging students can include showing real objects, pictures, miming, TV schedules, movie posters, playing songs, or asking questions. The warming activity topic could be something they are already familiar with or something that might interest them. It could also include playing a game such as “getting to know you” to establish rapport in the class. The engaging activity can be performed with the class as a group or in pairs. It would be more difficult for a one-to-one student to do an Engaging activity with only the teacher to communicate with. After engaging, the teacher would implement the Study phase of ESA. The teacher would start with elicitation and teach students new vocabulary or grammar topics or language structure. An example of the Study part of the lesson would be to write vocabulary words of the day’s lesson on the board and discuss them. The next Study step would be to then practice pronouncing the words in a vocal drill or working in pairs to make sentences. If the learning concept is something like English tenses, a study activity could be cutting sentences apart and working in teams to put the two sentence sections together correctlyly. Using worksheets, crosswords, and gap-fills would also be part of the Study phase. This phase is where mistakes can tactfully be corrected through review of student answers. The last phase of ESA always is Activate, even though it can also be inserted in the middle of some teaching lesson plans. In this phase, students creatively put into action the concepts they have learned to create something. The Activate step is where the teacher can judge what the students have learned. Fluency is the goal in this phase. It would be beneficial to do the Activate activity in pairs or groups, or with the entire class together. Pairing slow learners with fast learners would enable students who don’t know as much to learn from those who know more, and then slower learners also aren’t singled out. Examples of Activate steps include sharing with the class a poem or story using vocabulary from the lesson, making a poster advertisement for a product, designing a unique animal, or role-playing a job interview. Advanced learners could have a debate. Another reason ESA is a great teaching tool is because there are different versions that teachers can use. Engaging is always done first and Activation is always done very last, but there is flexibility in between. The Straight Arrow Lesson is where the teacher follows the ESA phases in normal order of Engage, Study, and Activate. This can sometimes become boring, however. The Boomerang Lesson begins with Engage, but this can be followed by Activate, then a Study activity, and lastly an Activate 2 activity. This offers the teacher greater flexibility and is for a higher level of English learner. The Patchwork method offers the greatest flexibility by starting with an Engage activity which can be followed with one or more Activate activities, then Study or even Engage activities inserted throughout the lesson. Patchwork always ends with Activate. A sample Straight Arrow ESA lesson plan would look like the following: Lesson Objective: At the end of the lesson, students will be able to talk and write about fruits. Engage: The teacher will bring in real fruit or pictures of fruit such as bananas, oranges, pears, or apples. Teacher could cup up the fruit and have students taste it. Students should say what fruit they see and tell why they like it or why not. Study: Students should tell the names of different fruit, and teacher writes them on the board. Students practice vocal drill saying the names of the fruit. Then students fill in a crossword of fruit names. Activate: Students work in groups to create a “super fruit.” They make up a list of unique characteristics of the new fruit and draw a picture of it. The project is presented to the class. The ESA method of teaching English is a very important tool for teachers. Following the ESA method gives structure for teachers to follow while engaging students to learn in a fun and productive way. ESA offers flexibility for the teacher to design a lesson in any way that is best for the students, as long as it begins with engaging them and ends with activating them. The ESA method of lesson planning is the most useful concept I learned from the TEFL course. As a certified teacher, I have been planning lessons for years. But the usual process of lesson planning always seemed a little too abstract and awkward for me. However, the ESA method seems more direct and logical. I plan to use some form of it in all my future teaching endeavors.