Teach English in Nanwang Zhen - Zibo Shi

The Engage – Study – Activate model is very helpful for teachers when considering the challenges that learners of English as a foreign language, and indeed any foreign language student, will face. First, the Engage portion of the exercise can address the nerves, tension, and confusion that often accompany the use of foreign languages and creates a positive and exciting atmosphere. The Engage portion can also provide valuable context that will help students throughout the lesson. Second, the Study and Activate phases can be used to resolve the tension between developing accuracy and developing fluency that makes foreign language learning and teaching especially difficult. By focusing on accuracy in the Study phase and fluency in the Activate phase, teachers can keep accuracy and fluency distinct and develop each individually, while not prioritizing one over the other. In a foreign language environment, whether it is a classroom or “real life,” it is invariably confusing, distressing, and disorienting to be deprived of the language with which one naturally thinks and operates in the world. On top of the basic disorientation that accompanies foreign language environments, classrooms can often be intensely competitive spaces, and students may have important career or professional prospects riding on their success within the English language classroom. A good teacher must be aware of the tension, anxiety, and confusion that will inevitably be present in English language classrooms. If they are left unaddressed, these problems can make the classroom so tense or uncomfortable that students stay silent and fail to engage with the course material. One of the central ideas of the “Engage – Study – Activate” model is to address these problems by creating an attitude of excitement and interest around foreign language learning. By using games, music, wordplay, pictures, stories, or even a relaxed conversation, the teacher can remind students that language learning does not have to be stressful, and that students can engage with the target language no matter what their level of ability. By creating a fun and relaxed environment, the teacher does not only get his or her students thinking in English and interested in the lesson, but also addresses some of the central background issues that can present challenges to learners and teachers alike. The structure of the next two phases of the ESA model, which are divided into “Study” and “Activate,” can address the tension between accuracy and fluency that presents a key problem in language learning. Learning the “four skills”—listening, speaking, reading, and writing—of a foreign language requires a balance between two types of engagement with the foreign language. On the one hand, the foreign language student must learn precise grammar structures and vocabulary words and be able to recognize when these words and grammatical structures have been employed correctly. One must be able to identify mistakes, correct errors, and follow specific rules and patterns of usage. On the other hand, the foreign language student must be able to produce acceptable language output, whether in written or spoken form, that is easily comprehensible and appropriate to the language learner’s situation. In order to produce the language with facility and comfort, the foreign language user cannot be too overly concerned with whether every grammatical and vocabulary choice he or she makes is correct. The tension between these two forms of engagement with foreign languages can be understood as the tension between “accuracy” and “fluency.” In the ESA model, the division between “Study” and “Activate” provides a clear way to address this issue. The Study phase within the ESA model provides space for the introduction of new material, structured repetition and drilling, and exercises in which students test their knowledge of new material and review it, either individually or as a class. This is the time to prioritize accuracy – interrupting the flow of the lesson to correct mistakes or focus on a certain point is encouraged during this phase. And it should be noted that, although this period focuses on introducing new material, the student interest generated during the Engage phase can be maintained throughout. For example, the Study phase prioritizes the elicitation of language that the students already know. Such elicitation maintains student engagement. After the Study phase, students should shift into the Activate phase, where the language is no longer produced purely “for the language’s sake,” but is used to achieve a goal or produce a certain outcome—for example, a story, a presentation, a game where students have to collect information, or another form of “task-based learning” in which the target language, including newly introduced material, must be applied to solve a task or a problem at hand. In this stage, the students are thinking creatively and are trying to use the language in order to achieve some end. The goal in the Activate stage is fluency. Although the teacher should pay attention to errors that can be covered in a future Study phase, the most important thing during this stage is that the students are engaged in using the language creatively and are gaining in comfort and fluency. By employing the Engage – Study – Activate model, teachers can address two serious problems that impede linguistic learning. First, the Engage period can get the students thinking in the target language in a way that reduces stress and confusion and promotes a fun and welcome classroom atmosphere. Second, the division of the remainder of the lesson into a Study phase and an Activate phase provides space to focus on accuracy and fluency separately, so that both of these skills are developed with as little interference as possible.