Lesson planning

Lesson planning

1. different levels

   • beginners
     • complete beginners are very rare - "false beginners"
     • start with clean sheet
     • lots of enthusiasm
     • no previously learned bad habits
     • often homogenous group
     • easily discouraged
     • little experience to draw from
     • make incorrect assumptions
     • may disappear from class
     • not always able to express true needs
   • intermediate
     • most common
     • have a basis to build apon
     • can express attitude towards teacher and course
     • maybe stuck on "plateau"
     • can be "know it alls"
     • confuse familiarity with structures and lexis with mastery
     • bring learning habits to class
     • broad category
   • Advance
     • cope with wide range of activities
     • may feel they have nothing to learn
     • able to fully express abstract ideas and move in concrete domain
     • can be a problem with mixed levels
     • may not accept language presentation
     • may require streaming and individual attention

2. classes

   • Monolingual
     • all share the same mother tongue
     • teacher can speak L1
     • can discourage use of L2
     • errors and mistakes will be fairly similar
     • errors can be reinforced - especially pronunciation
   • Multilingual
     • travel to learn english
     • join companies that use english
     • communication will be in English
     • scope for communicative actives and to share cultural information
     • teacher might have less opportunity to focus on particular nationalities pronunciation or other problem areas
   • one on one
     • often learning Business English
     • particular requirements
     • intensive short course to fit into their schedule
     • most rewarding/highest paid

3. EFL

   • learn L2 initially to survive
   • then to integrate more fully into host community

4. ESP

   • English for special Purposes
   • medical/ technical

5. groupwork

   • essential in most lessons
   • increase talking time for learners
   • gives genuine reason to use L2
   • provides valuable practise
   • teacher can asses and plan for future lessons
   • organising
     • different nationalities together
     • strong with weak
     • teacher must know personalities of learners
     • choose randomly
     • pair for sake of harmony
     • "share" difficult learner
     • grammar pairings
   • promote need for communication