Before
choosing the right language learning and teaching techniques, we should be
crystal clear about our goals for the learning taking place in and outside the
classroom.
Typically,
we do not “waste” our time with such matters, since our textbooks or lesson
plans already do this for us. However, most of our students have their
individual goals in learning the respective language, and, having in mind the
online competition which allows for tailoring the learning process to an
individual’s needs, we need to strive for individualization as much as
possible. One easy way is to have students complete a preformatted goal sheet.
Even in bigger groups, while you cannot adapt your teaching to every student’s
individual goals, you can still use the student’s goal sheet to
·
Individualize
your message when addressing the respective student in the classroom;
·
Choose
topics for discussion and group activities that are featured in your group
members’ goal sheets;
·
Help
each student in setting up a learning routine at home, based on their individual
goals and preferences.
What
should we be doing in the classroom?
Before
deciding upon this question, we need to familiarize ourselves with some basic
concepts
The 80-20 rule
The
80-20 rule, or the Pareto Principle, states that 80% of our effort in certain activities
will yield only 20% of results, whereas 20% of our effort directed towards
other activities will yield 80% of results.
This
principle has passed the test of time in management practice and productivity
studies. Whether it is always this exact proportion, or whether it is 70/30 or
95/5 is irrelevant. What is undeniable is that some activities lead to
disproportionally more results, whereas others not.
Let
us look at a typical language lesson. Let us consider the very first lesson
with a new group. What will we engage in during that 90 or 120 minutes? Most
probably,
·
Some
students will come late, because they are not accustomed to estimate correctly
the way to your school, they may not find your school, and you may have to wait
until the group is complete, so you have not to repeat your initial explanations.
·
You
will make welcome remarks, present yourself.
·
There
will be a presentation round so that students can get to know each other.
·
You
will present the textbook and materials, the course rules and how best to
prepare for the exam.
·
As
an icebreaker, you will start by showing a funny video, sing a song or play a
game, maybe even in small groups
·
Then,
with maybe 50% or less time left, students will open their textbooks on page 1
and start the “real” lesson.
Below,
you will get ideas and templates for what to do to reduce that 50%, but the
issue is: it is not just in the first lesson. In every lesson, there is a
certain percentage of time wasted unproductively for coordinating, disciplining,
checking and explaining, that could be used for your students training speech
production.
It
is an immutable economic law that if you use one resource in one production
process, you cannot use it, in parallel, for another. Our resource is time.
Every minute engaged in one activity is one minute less for another. Therefore,
we need to prioritize, which activities will have the greatest impact.
Everything
else should be
·
Eliminated
completely
·
Reduced
to minimum chunks of lesson time
·
Banned
from the classroom and be given as home assignments
·
Addressed
by ways of quality management
Later
on, I will give you some more detailed examples of these four solutions. Here
just some hints. Many teachers think they need to keep students “interested”
and “engaged” by introducing all kinds of “games” into the classroom. My
experience, as an ardent supporter of such games initially: the more productive
your lesson becomes, the less the need to play the entertainer. It will even
become counterproductive and students themselves, comparing between productive
experience and just entertainment will ask you to eliminate most games.
Certain
grammar topics are only marginally useful, so make sure that discussions on
academic topics (Why did it happen that tag questions appeared in English? Why
is this or that verb irregular and the other not? Etc.) do not eat up most of
your time. Remember, in the beginning, students accustomed to a comfort zone of
sitting laid back and having the teacher explain everything will try everything
to keep you in lectern mode (and themselves in a passive safe space).
Instead
of explaining most grammar topic in class, you give it as a home assignment,
and having a system of accountability partners in place, most students will
have figured out everything without you before the next lesson.
Now
that, hopefully, we are on the same page, we agree on the following.
·
Lesson
time is our most precious resource, as we cannot control the amount of time and
effort spent at home.
·
We
cannot rely solely on the textbook and on the “situation” in each group, but we
need to carefully plan which parts of the lesson we will use for what activity.
Now
the controversial part. And here our opinions may differ radically.
I
consider the language teaching process a production process. Combining labor (your students and you), production goods (textbooks,
dictionaries, apps, projectors, notebooks, pen, etc.), technological knowhow (learning and teaching techniques, as well as
related-skills in goal-setting, time management, etc.) and time, the capacity for speech
production is created.
Your
task is to put these factors of production to their best use, better than your
competitors do, and to avoid wasting resources.
If you want
be notified about the upcoming book or more articles and materials on the
psychology and quality management of language teaching, please subscribe to my mailing list.
If you want
to read more about quality management in language teaching, please check out
the other articles on this blog. If you have not read it yet, I recommend those
on student feedback
questionnaires and on how to standardize
your teaching.
Stay tuned!
Gerhard
About the
GO Method
The GO Method applies research
in psychology as well as principles of quality management to the language
teaching process. It conforms to key elements of the ISO 9001 standard, while
being more specific on teaching-related issues. Customers get access to easily
adaptable document templates.
About me
Psychologist and polyglot from
Hamburg /Germany (*1979). Married with children. MA in psychology from the
University of Hamburg. More than 15 years of experience as a university
lecturer in psychology as well as a consultant for UNICEF, Terre des Hommes,
IOM, the EU and private companies. Coordinator of the GO Method network, with
representatives in more than 90 countries worldwide.
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