Esa Tefl

  The next example is going to be that of a boomerang lesson and remember the structure is like this. So, again, we're going to start with an engage phase and for our engage, the students are just going to have a discussion about jobs. What happens at interviews and so on and so forth. So, during that engage phase, what we'd hope to do is to elicit some useful language about jobs and interviews and the types of questions that are being asked. Then, we're going to move immediately into an activate activity and this is going to involve a role-play. So, we'll break the students into pairs. One will be an interviewer, the other will be an interviewee and they'll generate the language that that role-play will produce. What the teacher can do whilst that is taking place is to go around...  [Read more]

  Now an example of a straight arrow ESA lesson for our engage phase. What we're going to do is to show the students a video of animals and they are going to say what they like about those animals and try to create a list of some more. So, remember what we're trying to do here is to get the students talking and thinking in English. We're using a typical engage activity, which is to create a list and we try to make sure that all the students have been involved in some way in creating those lists. Moving on to the study phase, the first part is going to be the board work and the teacher is going to try to elicit from the students what each of those animals can and can't do. Typically, what the students will say is just single words, so "run," "jump," "fly," etc. What we would then...  [Read more]

  A final example is going to be an example of a patchwork ESA lesson and remember we said the form of this particular lesson will start with and engage always and will finish with and activate and there'll be some variation of E, S and A within the brackets here. So we're going to generate our patchwork ESA lesson as follows. Starting with the engage, the students are going to look at holiday photos and talk about what they like and don't like from what they see. From that, we're going to move directly into an activate phase and what the students are going to do is to make comments about holiday brochures and try to act out a role-play between the travel agent and a customer. Again, as this is taking place, the teacher will be moving around and looking for gaps in knowledge in...  [Read more]

  This particular methodology is known as a straight arrow ESA lesson. If every single lesson that we undertook with our students was a straight arrow ESA lesson then it is quite possible that the students would be able to predict what is going to come up next and whilst this is good for the lower level students, then it could potentially become a little bit boring for our higher level students. So what Harmer did in his ideas about ESA, was to generate two other types of ESA lesson that we can use to try and generate a little bit more interest. So, the other two types of ESA lesson that we can follow: The first is known as a boomerang lesson and the second is known as a patchwork lesson and what we're going to do is to have a look at those other types of ESA lesson in a little bit...  [Read more]

  This video is part of our ESA Methodology series. The ESA methodology consists of three stages. In this series, we look at the individual purposes of each stage and typical activities for each stage. This second video introduces the study phase of ESA. The purpose of this phase is to cover the actual teaching of the lesson and to check the understanding of that material.The second stage or phase of the lesson is known as the study phase and really the purpose of this phase is to cover the actual teaching of the lesson and to check understanding of that material. Typically in an ESA lesson, the study phase will have two parts. The first phase of the study is to cover the actual teaching component in what's known as the board work and what we try to do in the board work phase is to...  [Read more]

  Our final methodology is accredited to Jeremy Harmer and it's known by the letters ESA. Around 1998, Jeremy Harmer produced a book called "How to teach English" and basically what Harmer did, is a background to this book is to do what we have done today and to work through all of the different methodologies that have come about over the last 300 years. He highlighted for each of those methodologies what was good about it, what was positive and what didn't appear to work and then put all of the positive things into a melting pot and came out with this methodology, which he called ESA. It's a three-stage methodology, where each of the letters represents a particular phase of the lesson. The first one being called the engage phase, the second the study phase and the final one the...  [Read more]

  So, let's have a look at a typical receptive skills lesson. The main focus of this lesson is going to be reading, although there will be some listening involved as well and it?s going to be a patchwork ESA lesson. As a patchwork lesson, it will start off with an engage and this engage what we're going to do is to play an extract about Elvis Presley and it's going to be an Elvis Presley song and we can ask the students if they know who it is and if they know anything about him can help generate the interest in this. We can also ask them what they'd like to know about it. What we can then do is just to introduce them to the text but they're going to read the detail later on but just at this stage we'll do a quick skimming or scanning exercise to find some information from that...  [Read more]

  This presentation is going to focus on the ESA methodology of teaching. In our teaching methodologies section, we briefly had a look at what ESA was about, but in this presentation, we're going to look in greater detail about that particular methodology. This particular methodology is accredited to Jeremy Harmer from his "Practice of English language Teaching" book. It's a three-stage methodology and what we're going to do is to look at the purpose of each one of these stages and some typical activities that take place during those stages. So, the first stage is known as the engage and its sole purpose, as the name implies, is to get the students talking and thinking in English. There is no reason whatsoever, when these students come to your class, that they should have said a...  [Read more]

  And so on to the final phase of the ESA lesson, which is called the activate phase. What we have done so far, if you remember, is to engage the students, to get them talking and thinking in English, where possible we've elicited the teaching point from the students and covered any gaps in knowledge to make sure that the teaching point has been fully covered and then we've checked understanding of that teaching point by asking targeted and specific questions. Usually the types of activities that we've done for the study phase will involve using a single word in order to answer those questions correctly this, however, is not how language is actually used. When we use language, we always use it in some form of context. So the purpose of the activate activity is to put that teaching...  [Read more]

  So let's have a look now what might take place in a typical writing lesson and, again, we're going to use the format of a straight arrow ESA lesson. Our first stage is to the go to the engage stage and, if we think back to what we said before, what we need to do is try to generate interest. So, an example here could be we show a picture first of all taken from a newspaper or magazine and then we can ask the students some questions. From looking at the picture we can ask them if they can tell us what is actually happening now as shown by the picture. Then, we can generate a bit more interest by asking them to give us ideas about what they thought was happening before this picture took place and what happened after. So, here we're just trying to build up the idea of a sequence of...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas When using the ESA methodology, there are a number of lesson formats available. In the third of this series we look at a Patchwork lesson. What does a Patchwork lesson look like and for what level of student is it most appropriate? Lesson aim: For the students to be able to discuss holidays using vocabulary and conducting a role-play. Student Level: Intermediate (Due to the complexity of Patchwork lessons they should only be used for Intermediate level and above) We start by reminding ourselves of the form of a Patchwork ESA lesson. We start with an engage as always and we will finish with an activate and there will be some combination of E, S and A within the brackets. Starting...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas In this blog post, we will take a look at a typical example of a boomerang lesson. First we will recap the structure E  A1  S  A2 Here the students are just going to have a discussion about jobs, what happens at interviews and so on and so forth. During that engage phase what we would hope to do is to elicit some useful language about, jobs, interviews and the types of questions that are being asked in interviews. Some of this information can be put on the board. We do no teaching in this phase, we do not correct any mistakes either, just let the students talk freely. Next, we're going to move immediately into an activate...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Coming into this, course I had a basic understanding of how a teacher prepares for and teaches a class. I had always thought it was easy for a teacher to teach; teacher walks in, teaches and goes home but I didn't know how much work would have to be put into a lesson to make the best out of it, and this is where I learned the best thing during my TEFL/TESOL course. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jason F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The best thing that I learned was understanding how to do an ESA lesson. I never knew beforehand that there was a way to breakdown a lesson and get as much out of it as possible. Knowing...  [Read more]

  In this TEFL review, Fatih in Istanbul, Turkey tells us how he took the ITTT 120-hour online TEFL course after teaching English for three years. As with many of our graduates with prior teaching experience, Fatih found that the course helped to improve his teaching skills. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. The unit gave me an idea of what one needs to bear in mind when selecting the kind of vocabulary you want to teach to students. It was...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas In this blog post, we will look at an actual example of an ESA straight arrow lesson plan. We will include examples of the activities used and their purpose. You can adapt this plan to a variety of other uses and levels. Straight arrow ESA Lesson Plan Class level: Elementary Number of students: 8 Lesson aim: After the lesson the students should be able to look at an animal and make sentences to say what it “can and can’t” do. Sample sentences when looking at the picture of an elephant. It can walk. It can’t fly. Show the students a video of animals and they are going to say what they like about those animals and try to create a list of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The Engage, Study, Active (ESA) method is a combination of different methods. It was created by Jeremy Harmer when he wrote the book called “How to Teach English” in 1998. In this book, he gives an overview of the different methodologies such as Task-Based Learning, Community Language Learning, and Suggestopedia. He then describes a new methodology: ESA. This method has three main parts that are utilized in different ways to create three distinct ESA lessons discussed below. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kelly H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The first part is the Engage Phase. This phase is used to warm students up....  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Upon completing the teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) for business English (BE), the best things I’ve learned would have to be the section that covered ESA (engage, study, activate), including boomerang and patchwork lessons, and how the engage, study, activate methodology is the core of a great teaching syllabus. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kinsey K. The best thing I’ve learned from my TESOL business English course would have to be “Engage, Study, Activate” within the business English environment. I have seen ESA in the previous 120-hour TEFL course and my 50-hour TEFL young learner course, however, I had not seen it applied in a way to be used for the business...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas The acronym ESA stands for Engage, Study and Activate. The ESA methodology of teaching English as a foreign language is one of the most progressive and productive methods. It draws its strengths from the other teaching methods that were used before it. The ESA method incorporates the good aspects and advantages of the old teaching methods thereby making it a powerful method. Some of the earlier teaching methods from which the ESA teaching methodology drew its strength are the task-based learning, the communicative language teaching, the community language learning, the silent way, the suggestopedia, and the lexical approach. The ESA method has therefore managed to take the positive aspects from the other teaching...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas When using the ESA methodology, there are a number of lesson formats available. In the third of this series we look at a Patchwork lesson. What does a Patchwork lesson look like and for what level of student is it most appropriate? Najwa Sabih Destinations Alumni Experiences Are you interested in teaching English in Turkey? Read this blog post written by an ITTT course graduate about her experience teaching English in Turkey. Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas When using the ESA...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As we all know, students will be eager to learn and be more active during the class if they are properly motivated and interested in the lesson. There is no better way to motivate and engage students to learn a new lesson than the ESA method. ESA method is very useful for students as well as for teachers. With ESA method teacher can present a lesson to the class in a variety of interesting ways. ESA method has 3 stages: Engage, Study and Activate. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Darko R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Engage is the first stage and in this stage, the teacher can use different kinds of methods to inspire and...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas ESA is a common methodology that teachers use when teaching students another language. It is also a large part of your TEFL certification course. By using the layout of the ESA method to plan your lessons, they will be more structured, organized and effective. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Casandra L. ESA stands for engage, study, and activate. By using ESA, it gives teacher's the flexibility to conduct a classroom in an organized and productive way. ESA is extremely important when it comes to teaching, because it keeps the students interested, motivated, and eager to learn more. That is why all teachers, especially new ones, should learn the ESA method when teaching students a new language. The first...  [Read more]

  Rory Cripps describes his own experience as a TEFL/TESOL learner in Beijing, China. ITTT is a professional training organization dedicated to raising standards of teaching and professionalism in the EFL industry. ITTT is committed to: Providing a wide range of courses and services to cater to individual needs. We aim to help you choose the right course for you. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. This unit seems to be a drilling of the ESA...  [Read more]

  Before we move on to the planning of a lesson for speaking skills, something that we need to look at first is the idea of the accuracy versus the fluency of speaking. Accuracy relates to the correct usage of grammar and vocabulary, whereas fluency relates to our ability to continue speaking without any interruption. Now, ultimately within a whole ESA lesson or within language learning itself fluency and accuracy are equally important. Within an ESA lesson, however, depending upon which stage we're at in that lesson, then we're either focusing on accuracy or we're focusing on fluency. Remember in the ESA lesson, in the study phase, this is where we're looking at the target language where we're doing our language learning, so it's very important in this stage that we focus on the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As we all know, an ESA class means Engage, Study and Activate phase, which is widely used in most classes.in the class, we teachers pay attention to how to attract students, how to motivate students, how to make the point clear and easy to understand, and how to take the opportunity to use it. All of these are we need to make sure that play well in the classroom. therefore, the ESA class is an effective method to use in the class. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sweet Zh. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In the Engage stage, considered as a “warmer”, the main purpose is to arouse the students’ interest and get them...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences For the past two months, I've been locked in on my computer studying the TEFL course. It has been a great experience, and as a teacher, it has given men clarity on several things I didn't have clarity on before. As a person who is already teaching English in a private language school, I can say that the TEFL course has boosted my teaching skills and confidence. The course provided me with valuable tips on teacher conduct and how to get students involved in classes. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ngonidzashe M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The best thing I've learned from the course...  [Read more]

  http://www.teflcourse.net ITTT's online TEFL/TESOL courses are designed to help anyone thinking of teaching English overseas. On them you will learn teaching methodologies, important parts of English Grammar and ideas of how to teach this grammar to your students. This video looks at one idea for the future continuous tense. For this activity students are each given a planner filled with different activities on different dates. The planners are rigged so that there is only one day when the students are both free. They have to interview each other to find out which day they are both free. To find out more about how you can become qualified and suitably prepared for teaching English overseas click the link above. -~-~~-~~~-~~-~- Are you ready to Teach English Abroad?...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences ESA stands for Engage, Study, and Activate. It is an effective and logical method used to teach new Language (Jeremy Harmer). By using ESA, it gives teachers the flexibility to conduct a classroom in an organized and productive way. ESA is extremely important when it comes to teaching, in the sense that it keeps the students interested, motivated and eager to learn more. ESA is particularly appropriate for trainees and new teachers, hence the course is based around. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Evelyn S. This is the first phase/ stage that teachers should always start the lesson with. In the engage stage, the teacher tries to arouse the students' interest and gets them to involve in...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences “ESA” is a method commonly used in teaching English as a foreign language and stands for Engage, Study, and Activate. ESA is designed to allow movement back and forth between the stages and is popular for its flexibility. The elements - Engage, Study and Activate (ESA) - are necessary for successful language learning in classrooms and they need to be present in most lessons or teaching sequences. Students always need to be engaged, if possible, so that they can get the maximum out of the learning experience. Learners need to study some aspect of language, however small or of short duration, during a lesson period. The ‘Activate’ phase involves exercises and activities which are designed to get the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Over the course of this certification program, I learned an abundance of information and methodologies, but none as important as the ESA outline; the ESA methodology is, undoubtedly, the best thing I’ve learned from my TEFL course. The ESA procedure provides a myriad of benefits, engaging learners in a series of dynamic activities aimed to create a seamless and effective educational environment. Due to the adept and fluid nature of the ESA methodology, it is easily the most important tool taught to me throughout this program and something I foresee utilizing often in the near future. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Richard H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas My first exposure to learning a foreign language was back in the 1950s watching French lessons on the National Education Network, the predecessor of PBS. The only thing I can remember from the experience was the word Ecoute, listen, which I did little of. Latin classes in Junior High, followed by Spanish courses in High School and College did little to help me as an adult. The teaching methods used were both classical, grammar-translation and Audio- bilingualism, both tried and true relics of the past, and in some cases the present. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Richard G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In the course after...  [Read more]