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This unit explored the many methodologies used when teaching English to foreign language learners. These methodologies include: Grammar-Translation, Audio-Lingualism, The Silent Way, Suggestopaedia, Communicative Language Teaching, Task-Based Learning, Community Language Learning, The Lexical Approach, and PPP (Presentation, Practice, and Production). These methods vary in the amount of teacher talk versus student talk that is employed as well as having different focus goals for a class, while others focus on the environment that is created. No matter which methodology is utilized, there are some aspects all classes should strive to include. A low anxiety/stress environment is a must in order for students to feel uninhibited and like they can comfortably participate in the learning process. It has also shown that encouraging students to discover language for themselves is highly effective. It is not enough to rely solely on communicative tasks (even though they provide real learning possibilities), a class requires as much exposure to a language as possible and a certain amount of teacher input. An approach that allows students to be exposed to the new language, feel motivated to participate, and have the opportunity to use their acquired knowledge in the classroom is the ESA approach (engage, study, activate approach). To engage students, teachers should arouse the students' interest in the lesson and get them involved. During the study phase, the focus should be on the new language and how it is constructed. The activate stage is designed to allow students to use newly and previously acquired language to freely communicate, focusing on fluency rather than accuracy. There are a few different ways these class phases can be arranged but the lesson should always start with engaging the students and end with an activation activity. A teacher must be aware of what stages it is appropriate to correct students during as well as the presentation of said correction and the frequency with which correction is applied. Before directly correcting students, give them and their peers a chance to fix the problem themselves in order to foster analytical thinking about the language as this will lead to better retention of the material at hand. Teachers should also be aware of the difference between errors and mistakes and correct accordingly. Once writing is involved in the language learning experience, students should still be given a chance to self-correct based on the teacher's clearly explained coding system employed to mark students' materials. This unit has taught me many ideas for improving my own teaching style as well as ideas for varying my engage and study activities for increased lesson enjoyment on the students' parts. I have learned that my own approach to teaching is more outdated than I had hoped and through its teachings I plan to vary my elicitation methods and incorporate the ESA approach into my lesson planning routine.
