By the end of Unit 3 you will:have a better understanding of ways to engage learnershave increased awareness of questioning techniquesknow how to get the most out of visual aidsbe more aware of the importance of multi-sensory task types

Reflect: Thinking about communication in your classroom

Read again what Sarah says about how she feels during her lessons: Sometimes the teacher really listens to what I say, and she looks interested in what I say. That makes me feel good.

Reflect on communication in your own classroom. Write answers to these questions:

1 How much time do your learners spend participating actively during your lessons?2 How do you encourage your learners to ask questions?3 What do you do to make your learners feel listened to?

When young learners take part in communicative interaction during activities, they see their own progress and begin to feel that the language they are using belongs to them in other words, they are creating language. This encourages further creativity and motivation, two crucial factors in becoming more effective communicators.

To encourage learners participation we need to make sure certain aspects are part of the learning environment.

We have already established some factors which can help us create an environment where participation is a natural part of the learning process. However, when we are in a teaching situation with a group of primary learners, we are often so focused on the lesson that we lose opportunities to integrate learner involvement. Encouraging constant and repetitive involvement can be achieved by adapting how you approach the stages of your lessons.

For example, during a brainstorming activity, which would be better, A or B?

A The teacher elicits ideas about the topic from individuals and writes them on the board. Learners copy the information into their notebooks.B The teacher writes the topic on the board and puts learners in groups of three to brainstorm ideas. Groups write their ideas on the board.

Option B would be better. Putting the learners in groups allows more thinking time; it also provides weaker learners with opportunities to learn from others and therefore feel more confident when you ask them to contribute in open class.

Questioning is the heart of learning, teaching and participation. Teachers need to ask questions to assess learners knowledge and understanding, and to encourage thinking.

But learners need to be able to ask questions too for example, to get information about how to do a task or about difficult language. Teachers should encourage learners to ask questions of their own so genuine learning and understanding are integrated into the language classroom. This will result in participation becoming an active and organic process that takes learners along new roads of discovery.

The slide show talks about the need to consider learners different learning styles. There are three main learning styles:

Auditory learners have to hear most written information for it to mean something they remember things more easily when they hear them. They enjoy listening to what others have to say in discussions and listening to songs. They understand the meaning of language by interpreting the way someone says something their voice, pitch and speed.Visual learners find it easier to learn when they can see things written down or in a picture. They prefer to see their teacher because body language and facial expressions help them to understand the message. Visual displays like flash cards or videos help these learners as they often think in pictures. They usually take notes to help them absorb the information, and they like making lists.Kinaesthetic learners learn more easily by doing things physically. They need to move around and explore the world around them and find it hard to sit down for a long period they often become distracted if made to sit still for too long. They often like to move objects while learning and they enjoy drama.

Reflect: Thinking about your lesson planning Start by thinking about the way you plan your lessons. Write answers to these questions: 1 How do you divide up your lesson and decide which activities to use? 2 How do you provide support while your learners are working? 3 How many activities do you usually use?

Complete the text to check what you already know about the main qualities that make up a good lesson plan.The most important aspect of lesson planning is having clear learning objectives for your input and the learner task. When we plan our lessons, we need to include different types of activities to create variety and stimulate our learners. We also should choose topics that are relevant and interesting to our learners to help motivate them. The structure of a lesson is important too. We need to plan the stages so there is logic, cohesion and a natural flow. If we dont balance all of these elements, we will end up feeling frustrated and the learners wont experience positive learning opportunitiesWe can provide support for our learners by dividing our lessons into separate blocks or stages. This:

makes the learning process easier for learners to followallows us to manage our time better, so the learning objectives can be achievedIf learning objectives are clear in other words, we know what we want the children to go away with at the end of the lesson we can divide up the learning process and create a logical lesson plan.

One way to divide a lesson is to use the following three stages:

preparation stagemain task stagepost-task stageOn the next screen we will talk more about what each of these three stages involves, but first lets think about what we need to consider when planning any stage of a lesson.

Below are the key factors you need to think about when you are planning any stage of a lesson.Put the factors under the correct headings.

Stage (e.g. preparation, main task or post-task)When and what you are going to do

AimWhy you are doing it

ProcedureHow you are going to do it

InteractionWho will do it

TimingHow long you will dedicate to it

Now look at the principles of lesson planning that help us to create a logical development across a lesson.

Are the sentences true or false?1 Develop a single activity at a time. True

2 Build on what the learners know at each stage. True

3 Adjust the difficulty factor at each stage, e.g. keep a balance between language difficulty and task difficulty. True

4 Save time by teaching new language and new vocabulary at the same time. False

5 In general, move from receptive to productive listening to speaking; reading to writing. True

6 If the language the learners are dealing with is difficult, make the task more difficult. False

We have already discussed how we can help to make our lessons more manageable for our learners by dividing them up into logical stages. We can also scaffold the stages to make them more manageable. Scaffolding refers to using a step-by-step approach to provide more guidance and support for learners.

There are other demands on learners that we should take into consideration too:

short concentration spansthe pacing and timing of the taskvariety of learning styleshow much learners have to deal with at the same timeunderstanding of the language and vocabularylevel of interest in the topicworking cooperativelyWe are going to listen to John, a teacher, talking to a less experienced colleague about how he divides his lessons up into stages. He also talks about how he wants his lessons to take into account learners demands and help him achieve his objectives.

When you plan your next lesson, use the three-stage model (preparation, main task and post-task stages) to make it more manageable. Dont forget to plan how you will monitor your learners while they are doing the main task.While you are teaching your lesson, observe how your learners respond to each stage.Print the lesson plan template below. Use it to help you with your planning and to record your observations.

Start by thinking about how you integrate storytelling into your own teaching. Write answers to these questions:

1 Why do you use stories in your lessons?2 How do you choose which stories to use?3 How do you use stories?

There are many different kinds of stories you can use in your classroom. For example, you coulduse a traditional fairy tale,create your own story, or use one from your coursebook. Using a story from your learners' own culture has the advantage that your learners will already know the story, so it will be easier for them to understand.Our main aim in using stories is to provide a stimulating way to focus on language. Stories have the potential to capture children's imagination and interest, and motivate them to learn.The first step in using storytelling is to decide which story to use and how to evaluate the language learning opportunities the story provides.

Plan and carry out a lesson for your own class based on a story. Either use the story about Susan, Simon and Yutu below (you can print it out and take it into the classroom) or another story of your choice. You may want to watch the video on Screen 9.4 again and try some of Julias techniques. Use the questions below to help you to plan, tell and extend your story.

Planning1 Which vocabulary is vital for learners to understand the main message of the story?2 What visuals/realia can you use to help learners with this vocabulary?

Telling3 How can you encourage learner involvement?4 How can you stimulate learners interest? (e.g. use different voices, turn out the lights)

Extending5 How can you get the learners to make a wall display about the story?6 How can you encourage thinking skills?

The story of Susan, Simon and Yutu(below)This is a story which creates awareness of other people and the environment. The story uses the present simple but you could increase the difficulty level by adapting it to the past simple. You could also add in some more adverbs of frequency if you wanted to focus on that area of language.

Reflect: Reviewing your storytelling lesson

After your storytelling lesson, write answers to these questions:

1 How successful were your visuals/realia in clarifying the meanings of key words?2 How did your learners respond to being involved in the storytelling?3 How successful were your extension activities?