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Teach English in Lujiacun Zhen - Yangquan Shi

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Joshua Keatley - TEFL Summative Task Teaching English Grammar to Elementary School Students in the Czech Republic Introduction This autumn I shall have the pleasure of teaching English to children between the ages of six and eleven in Brno, a city in the southeastern Czech Republic. Because English grammar presents special difficulties for Czech speakers, I would like to focus on one common beginner-level problem and suggest how it can be effectively solved. In this short essay, I shall attempt to make use of some important pedagogical themes I found in my TEFL training course: teaching a new language, methodology, and lesson planning. This paper is laid out in three steps. First, I describe a specific problem I expect to encounter. Second, I consider possible teaching strategies for overcoming it. Third, I offer a model lesson in which the problem can be effectively addressed. Step 1: Problems in Teaching English Grammar While ESL teachers do not have to master Czech from the inside in order to teach English successfully, there are a few features of this west Slavic language they should know. Czech is a synthetic language, grouping words together rather than breaking them apart. It also has a complex grammar and a flexible word order. This raises the following difficulty: because their L1 uses various case endings instead of articles, Czech beginner students will need to learn how to recognize and correctly place the determining English articles the, a, and an. Step 2: Possible Strategies for Teaching Articles Teaching articles is a grammatical point, and should come fairly early in the course of a term of English studies. It presupposes some knowledge of vocabulary and perhaps the basic use of the, a, and an. But the task at hand is to help students learn how to recognize and use these articles in a correct way. The first goal is to make sure that students are able to accurately pronounce the soft form of the sound th, which only rarely appears in Czech. The next goal is to be able to identify the forms of the articles. Since there are only three, this should not be too difficult, but the colloquial substitution of some for a and a hundred instead of one hundred. But the third goal has to do with correct usage, notably the difference between definite and indefinite articles, on the one hand, and when a is used instead of an, on the other. With these learner goals in mind, what are some possible teaching strategies to implement? One way can be to draw on prior vocabulary knowledge in order to elicit remembered words and then point out where an article appears. For example, if the students know ten vocabulary words related to the topic “my family,” the teacher can highlight “John is the son of Robert,” or “Robert has a son, John” beforehand on large vocabulary pictures with a colored pen. Since this lesson will focus on learning a new point rather than practicing, it will probably take the standard Engage-Study-Activate pattern. This means that in the study period of the lesson, the students could do several different activities. They could receive a word-fill worksheet. They could also receive a list of single nouns beside which they have to put the right article: for example, “an umbrella,” “a train,” “the postbox.” One way that is very helpful in teaching articles is the consonant-vowel sound rule, meaning that generally, when there is a vowel sound, one uses an, and when a consonant, a. Because the intended lesson is geared towards elementary-aged students, it may be helpful to have prepared materials that engage their interest at an age-appropriate level. For the Activate stage of the lesson, the students can begin to practice producing articles in the right context. One way they can practice this language point is by playing a flashcard game that has two decks of cards, one for nouns and one for articles. The students can pair up or work in groups. If they draw the right noun and article, they get a point. If not, they pair up with another person. The game continues until all the cards are matched (TeachThis 2019). Step 3: A Model Lesson Language Point: Definite and Indefinite Articles Learner Objective: To identify the correct use of the articles the, a, and an in English phrases. Time Length: 1 Hour. Number of Students: 11 Age: 7 to 9 Level: Beginner Teaching Aids: Large “My Family” vocabulary pictures with highlighted articles, word-fill worksheets, and article flashcard game. Anticipated Problems: Pronunciation of "th," distinction between a and an, student-specific problems. Procedure: ESA Format Phase Engage: elicit prior vocabulary words for reinforcement and as a way to introduce new material (5 minutes). Point out the form, meaning, use, and patterns of articles (10 minutes). Use single nouns to illustrate and explain the new language point (5-7 minutes). Total time: 20-22 minutes Study: Work on pronouncing the, a, and an in a choral drill three times (3 minutes). Students work in pairs with distributed word-fill worksheet. Helping students where needed (15 minutes). Ask for brief feedback and correct any major errors (5 minutes). Total time: 18-20 minutes Activate: Before distributing flash-card game, have students divide into pairs and explain the rules. Hand out the cards to the students, refereeing only where necessary. Total Time: 15-20 minutes. Works Consulted “Articles - ESL Activities, Games and Worksheets.” www.teach-this.com. Accessed 12 July 2019.


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