Information Gap Activity

  Once we're satisfied that all the students have been engaged and that they've been given the opportunity to say something, we can move on to our study phase. Here, it may be necessary or useful to actually pre-teach some gaps in knowledge that have been shown from the engage phase and those gaps in knowledge may include actual grammar structures or indeed useful vocabulary and it's very important that, before we move on to doing any forms of activity, we check their understanding of this material. So, we need to do some study exercises. It's also very useful if you leave this information up on the board through all that study period. Those study activities can just be the normal types of gap fills or matching activities and, as always, we need to demonstrate those activities,...  [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]

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]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Teaching Ideas 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. Whilst this might be good for the lower level students, it could potentially become a little bit boring for our higher level students. Harmer considered this and his response was to generate two other types of ESA lesson that we can use to try and generate a little bit more interest. The first of these is known as a boomerang lesson and the second is known as a patchwork lesson. First let us recap the structure of a Straight arrow ESA lesson. This takes each of the three phases in turn, so a...  [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]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching a real class, first, we need to mention the rapport between teachers and students. What makes a good teacher and a good learner are tend to be “student-centered” class than “teacher-centered”, which means teachers’ talking time is less than students’. Being a good teacher will always remind and encourage learners about their learning motivations and interests. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Crystal D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Before teaching a class, we need to plan a class and what you expect students to achieve by the end of the class. In a lesson plan, we need a learning objective what do you...  [Read more]

  So, having elicited this particular structure, what I'm now able to do is to move on to the actual study activities. Typically, they will be in the form of worksheets to check that the students actually understand this information. So, I might prepare three activities. They may not do them all but, for example, I could prepare these three study activities. So, the first one is going to be a fairly straightforward matching activity, where perhaps they match the subject to its correct verb "to be" in that part of the sentence. The second one is going to be a gap fill. For example, I might use this verb here and ask them to complete a sentence using that verb, so that I can check that any spelling changes that take place are correct and the final one is going to be an unscramble,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas For this Summative Task, I will be discussing the topic of teaching productive skills in the classroom. As opposed to receptive skills learned previously (reading and listening), productive skills focus on speaking and writing. Regarding writing, this function of language education is often the most neglected in the TEFL world, due firstly, to the fact that teachers and students don't want to monopolize class time with quiet individually driven work. Writing skills are mostly practiced in the form of homework which can often be neglected and completed without necessary focus and effort. Concerning speaking, this function requires a higher deal of language fluency as well as an understanding of the accent and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teachers who want to have good performance in class should have good lesson planning. Teachers should answer these questions before preparing lesson planning: what am I teaching? Whom am I teaching? How will I teach? And how will I know if the students understand? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Phuong T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Writing a lesson plan is very important for all teachers. A lesson plan helps the teacher to keep on target during the lesson. Writing lesson plans following each topic will create the connection of course. Teachers and students will not confuse when teaching and learning. Also Read: What are...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The most helpful teaching strategy that I learned about in this course was ESA lesson planning. An ESA lesson is one that includes three distinct stages: Engage, Study, and Activate. A successful lesson should include all three components, beginning with an engaging stage and concluding with an activated stage. I plan to use this framework for my own lesson planning because it is flexible, yet has enough structure to establish students’ expectations for how they will learn during every class period. I especially like the distinction between study and activate because it helps me understand the role of different types of activities in a lesson. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rachel S....  [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 A motivated student is a student who is eager to learn, and that means they are much more likely to absorb and retain what they are being taught than if they were disengaged or disinterested. This is why it is so important for teachers to foster motivation in the classroom and engage their students to be open to learning before the start of each lesson. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lindsay G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. There are many different techniques teachers can use to get their students in a learning mindset. Some common and effective approaches are mental warm-ups like word games, vocal activities like singing,...  [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 Education is one of the most important bricks at the foundation of every society and high-quality education can only be achieved with the help of well-prepared teachers who care about the learning of their students. A teacher should not only master and constantly be up to date with the changes in the field of the subject he/she is teaching but also be able to convey his/her message in such a way that the students understand and enjoy. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Catalina T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Depending on the stage of the lesson and the type of activity, lessons can be more student-centered or more...  [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]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Teaching Ideas In this blog post, we will consider some important educational background theoretical and practical knowledge. The planning of a lesson for speaking skills (one of the two productive skills) requires us to look first at the ideas of accuracy versus fluency. We will start by defining our terms. 1) Speaking accuracy relates to the correct usage of grammar and vocabulary. 2) Speaking fluency relates to our ability to continue speaking without any interruption, such as thinking what the next word should be. If we consider language learning in general and an ESA style lesson in particular, then within the whole lesson fluency and accuracy are equally important. With an ESA lesson however...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Grammar is a very important piece of learning English. Students need grammar as it gives them a handle on the language, helps them to become reflective of the language and to build fluency. The goal of a grammar lesson is to present the grammar, help the students comprehend the main points and to move into practice, which starts as controlled practice and passes to free practice. The goal for the students is to develop fluency through the grammar structure, presenting the grammar in a meaningful context. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Natalja S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. It is important to set up the grammar and the...  [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]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Computers are becoming more and more common in the classroom. While they should not be relied upon as the main or sole source of teaching, they can be very helpful for students and teachers in the classroom. One of the complaints about Computer-aided language learning (CALL) is that computers can be costly and it requires many of them to teach, but that does not have to be the case. In fact, computers can be cost-effective in that almost all other teaching equipment and their features can be used on one or a few computers. Part I of this essay will discuss the advantages CALL has over other forms of technology. Part II will discuss the useful activities and applications of CALL in the classroom. This post was...  [Read more]

Shirin Sophy TEFL Information Alumni Experiences In today's cosmopolitan world, the noticeable necessity of mastery over foreign languages apart from one's native language is motivating manifold people to consider improving this particular ability which results in an increasing demand for language learning courses and services. Among the major purposes of language learning, communication and language production are definitely much more measurable and outstanding, specifically through productive skills, including writing and speaking. In terms of pedagogy, the following is a suggested procedure that can be taken into account while teaching productive skills after the engagement phase is applied and learners are ready to start...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When we start to learn new things as children, we tend to do that with the help of games. That is why in many classrooms of young learners, we find games to be a highly popular medium amongst educators. It is a way of absorbing and processing a piece of information in a fun and educational way. But when we grow up, we somehow forget the necessity of games in the classroom. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Anna B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When it comes to learning a second language, children immerse themselves in the learning task much easier and quicker. Adults, on the other hand, find it challenging to absorb the task...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Traditionally, education in the classroom has largely employed a teacher-centred approach. Focus is on the teacher who talks, rather than on the students, who exclusively listen and are discouraged from collaboration. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Christie T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In recent years, however, more emphasis has been given to student-centred education: instructors share classroom talk time with learners, allowing them to communicate with their teacher and each other. By minimizing teacher domination and increasing student speaking time, students have a chance to direct their learning and build their...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teachers of ESL will often find themselves in charge of a class with students at different levels of proficiency. When this happens, the teacher needs to know ways to adapt and manage the class and activities in a way that benefits all the students. The stronger students could become bored if the teacher caters to the weaker ones, and, reversely, the weaker students could become demotivated and feel forgotten and left behind when they cannot keep up with the advanced students. So how can a teacher make sure all the students get what they need from the class? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Leigh K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Abstraction is in essence, the formation of broader, and more difficult and subjective systems from inputs. It is a concept that can be applied to the four language skills: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. As an idea becomes more abstract and subjective, it requires more information and becomes more difficult to answer. Some of the easiest and least abstract pieces of language are simple Yes/No statements and questions. “Do you like ice-cream?” “Yes, I do.” “No, I don’t.” A more difficult question might be, “Who likes ice-cream?” More difficult still would be, “Why do you like ice-cream?” A simple, but by no means an exhaustive list of abstraction moving from simple to difficult...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The above is a topic that I want to particularly used to teaching reading to young learners. There are some points given below, they are. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Angeline J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Children's songs and nursery rhymes aren't just a lot of fun—the rhyme and rhythm help kids to hear the sounds and syllables in words, which helps them learn to read. A good way to build phonemic awareness (one of the most important skills in learning to read) is to clap rhythmically together and recite songs in unison. This playful and bonding activity is a fantastic way for kids to implicitly develop the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The most widely used language throughout the world is English. Some countries use English as an official language. English is a major subject In China. Most of the Chinese students start to learn English from primary school or middle school. In recent years, more and more students start to learn English from kindergarten. They put a lot of time and effort into learning English. The majority of Chinese students learn English for over 10 years. But there is a strange situation. They still can’t speak English fluently, even though some simple English conversations. But they can get high scores in the exam. Why is it? Because Chinese students are too stupid? Or not hard-working? No!!! The biggest cause is that...  [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 Alumni Experiences Reflective teaching is not a contemporary science however, to find evidence of when this science began it would be an impossible task, like accessing the Vatican library. One could presume the first person which taught another something resourceful dedicated some time to reflect on its delivery and considered observing research, and planning. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Stephen A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Generally, reflective teaching is the process of self-observation and self-evaluation i.e. looking at what you do in the classroom, thinking about why you do it, and thinking about if it works. The aim is to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Kindergarten students are at the "Beginner" phase of learning English. Therefore, you must treat the students and the learning experience in a fun and appropriate manner. Being kind, friendly, and entertaining is vital for young learners and your rapport as a teacher. Building a good rapport is essential to truly provide the best English course and helping the Kindergarteners progress throughout the semester. Since the students are so young and open to learning, talking only easy, simple words are beneficial to them at the moment. Do not go into further detail in the time being. They are beginners and need to learn the absolute basics before going into further detail about grammar. Your role as a teacher will be...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When entering the realm of teaching, lesson planning is a very beneficial skill to have. Lesson planning is done in many different ways; many educators create their format over the years that cater to their teaching styles. However, the typical lesson planning methodologies include ESA (Engage, Study, Activate) and PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production). For this task, we will be diving into the ESA methodology. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gabrielle R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The first stage of the ESA format is ‘Engage’. In this stage of the lesson, the focus should be on getting your students as interested...  [Read more]