Teach English in Chengguan Zhen - Xining Shi

The Engage, Study and Activate methodology, also known as ESA method, is one of the most popular strategies in teaching English. This method put great emphasis on flexibility, making the students learn language effectively. For the teachers to successfully plan a lesson using an ESA model, they must be knowledgeable about its elements and how it is presented. There are three phases in ESA methodology. The first phase is called the “Engage” phase wherein the teacher gets the attention of the learners so that they would be involved emotionally. This will likely result to better performance and behaviour of the students during the lesson. An important aspect of the Engage phase is to let students think and speak in English as much as they can. Some examples of Engage phase activities include introduction prompts, fizz-buzz, alphabet relay, memory games, and use of anagrams. Such ideas can be preferably utilized to lead into the language content for the lesson, though not necessarily required. The next phase in ESA methodology is the “Study” phase. In this stage, the main focus is on the language content itself and how it is formed. The teacher may include either new information or revision of information from the past lesson at this phase. Different strategies can be used to introduce the information which focus on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation or spelling. Some ideas in Study phase include elicitation, language drills, word searches, gap-fills and analysis of language construction. The last phase in ESA methodology is the “Activate” phase which refers to the practice of the language that has been known during the Study phase. The Activate phase will help the students to bring about their classroom experience into real-life situations. Through various exercises and activities, the students are directed to use English as form of communication with regards to the topic they learned. Such activities may include role-plays, debates, surveys and story building. There are different ways how ESA method can be presented in a lesson which include the straight arrow ESA method, the boomerang ESA method and the patchwork ESA method. It is important for teachers to keep in mind that whatever ESA methods they use, it should always begin with an engage phase and end with an activate phase. The straight arrow ESA method is presented with using the three ESA sequences, which always starts with engage phase, followed by study phase and ends with activate phase. If the language content to be taught is more complex, other methods on the other hand can be utilized. Boomerang ESA method for instance, is a great way to present the lesson which helps the teacher to assess the needs of the students prior to getting started with study phase. This ESA method is patterned starting with engage stage, followed by first activate phase, then by study phase and finishes with second activate phase. Lastly, the patchwork ESA method offers a lot of flexibility for teachers as this involve various numbers of engage, study or activate phases as long as the lesson always starts with an engage phase and ends with an activate phase. An example of sequence for this method is: engage 1 – activate 1 – activate 2 – study – 1 – activate 3 – engage 2 – study 2 – activate 4. In conclusion, as ESA method is widely used in teaching English, a teacher must be well-informed about the details in each phase of this method. In addition to this, a sound ESA method presentation in a lesson, which ca be straight arrow, boomerang or patchwork sequences, should be determined appropriately based on the learners’ needs and language level to ensure that the teaching is effective and successful.