Our aim
Our aim here has been to demonstrate the importance of planning and preparation and the considerations that
guide it. Teachers need to plan so that their teaching can be efficient and professional. The elements that need to
be considered when planing are summarised here:
Background
• Have clear aims - realistic and appropriate for your class.
• Know your subject - if it’s a grammar point, make sure you understand how that language is used
and formed - if it’s vocabulary, check pronunciation and spelling and so on.
• Know your students - base your materials and activities around the needs and character of your
group.
• Know your school - what room are you in? - this may influence what kind of activity you can do.
What materials and equipment can you use? What is the syllabus of the course? - and so on.
In class
• Involve the students in the process - try to give them as much time using the language as
possible. Personalise language work so they can use English for describing their own lives. Elicit
where possible, don’t ‘lecture’.
• Variety - keeps the students motivated and engaged.
• Engage, Study, Activate - three key planning considerations for effecti ve teaching and learning.
To demonstrate these principles in action, we took the example of a teaching sequence based around a language
point and planned a sequence as follows:
1. Warmer To engage and activate.
2. Lead-in To establish a context for the target language.
3. Language presentation To show the students a model of the target language and establish its concept.
4. Controlled practice To allow the students to become familiar with the concept and form of the target
language.
5. Freer practice To allow students to activate their English.
6. Feedback For reinforcement, consolidation and correction.
This is a basic model for teaching a grammar point. There are other elements to lessons which we haven’t
considered here such as homework and revision, for example, and there are, of course, many other kinds of lesson.
However, in this section we have highlighted the overall principles of planning which can be applied to most
lessons and teaching situations.
In this section of Action Plan for Teachers we’ll be looking more closely at putting planning theory into classroom practice.
We examine classroom methodology, the use of technology in English lessons and provide further ideas for practical
activities.
There is no single correct way to teach English. There are different theories as to how students learn, so there are different
ideas as to what can and should be done in the classroom. In this section you will find some basic ideas which are common
in modern communicative methodology. We consider the following areas:
• Use of the mother tongue
• Eliciting
• Board work
• Drilling
• Pronunciation
• Organising student practice
• Exploiting listening and reading texts
Our aim here has been to demonstrate the importance of planning and preparation and the considerations that
guide it. Teachers need to plan so that their teaching can be efficient and professional. The elements that need to
be considered when planing are summarised here:
Background
• Have clear aims - realistic and appropriate for your class.
• Know your subject - if it’s a grammar point, make sure you understand how that language is used
and formed - if it’s vocabulary, check pronunciation and spelling and so on.
• Know your students - base your materials and activities around the needs and character of your
group.
• Know your school - what room are you in? - this may influence what kind of activity you can do.
What materials and equipment can you use? What is the syllabus of the course? - and so on.
In class
• Involve the students in the process - try to give them as much time using the language as
possible. Personalise language work so they can use English for describing their own lives. Elicit
where possible, don’t ‘lecture’.
• Variety - keeps the students motivated and engaged.
• Engage, Study, Activate - three key planning considerations for effecti ve teaching and learning.
To demonstrate these principles in action, we took the example of a teaching sequence based around a language
point and planned a sequence as follows:
1. Warmer To engage and activate.
2. Lead-in To establish a context for the target language.
3. Language presentation To show the students a model of the target language and establish its concept.
4. Controlled practice To allow the students to become familiar with the concept and form of the target
language.
5. Freer practice To allow students to activate their English.
6. Feedback For reinforcement, consolidation and correction.
This is a basic model for teaching a grammar point. There are other elements to lessons which we haven’t
considered here such as homework and revision, for example, and there are, of course, many other kinds of lesson.
However, in this section we have highlighted the overall principles of planning which can be applied to most
lessons and teaching situations.
In this section of Action Plan for Teachers we’ll be looking more closely at putting planning theory into classroom practice.
We examine classroom methodology, the use of technology in English lessons and provide further ideas for practical
activities.
There is no single correct way to teach English. There are different theories as to how students learn, so there are different
ideas as to what can and should be done in the classroom. In this section you will find some basic ideas which are common
in modern communicative methodology. We consider the following areas:
• Use of the mother tongue
• Eliciting
• Board work
• Drilling
• Pronunciation
• Organising student practice
• Exploiting listening and reading texts
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