Teaching English for the first time: planning a lesson

(See my earlier blog post on teaching English for the first time in Japan. It has some more general tips.)

So... you're a brand-new teacher. You're given a textbook with a grammar point for the day, and you have no teaching experience, and you're going to teach a 50-minute conversation class.

Here's an idea for how you could teach a lesson. For the sake of a concrete example, let's imagine we are teaching 'present continuous' (I am going, he is eating).

1. Warm-up: give students a few minutes to chat - maybe give them a random conversation topic - or some kind of vocabulary game.

[In this case, I might get them to talk about hobbies or give them a vocab game to think up different verbs. It will be useful for the lesson to come.]

2. Introduce the language of the class: this could take the form of setting up a situation and getting students to comment on it (see this previous post), reading a small article, looking at a dialogue, etc.

[In the case of present continuous, I'd try doing a simple activity, like miming reading. I'd ask students, 'what am I doing?' and get them to answer me. If they can't give me a correct sentence, I'd provide it ('you are reading') and get them to repeat it.

Then I'd do another gesture, like eating, and get them all to say what I'm doing. Repeat a couple more times. I'd write the sentence on the board ('you are __ing').

Get them to practise the exercise with each other (eg, one person acts a gesture, the other guesses).

I'd put up words like 'I' and 'he' and ask them to give me the sentence (I AM _ing, he IS _ing'), get them to repeat, write it on the board. If the class is not having too much trouble with the material thus presented, also cover questions (at least, 'what are you doing?', 'what is he doing?' etc)

Drill key sentences (get students to repeat them, correct their intonation etc).]

3. Get more exposure to the language point using material from the textbook.

[For example, try a listening activity, or practise reading a dialogue together.]

4. Practise the language point a bit more actively, but still in a controlled way. For example, use a questionnaire or survey.

[I might put students in pairs to do a worksheet with pictures of people doing different things. Students ask each other what the people on their sheet are doing.]

5. Practise the language in freer conversation. Set up a situation where students can have a more natural conversation, or roleplay practise.

[I might have students pretend to call each other on the phone, and ask each other what they (and their family) are doing... it might be nice to have students practise a varient of what they did in the listening activity or dialogue. Another thing I like to do for present continuous is, if possible, take the students into a public area and get them to, in pairs and while speaking, make a list of things they see people doing.]

This is not a perfect lesson, nor is it one-size-fits-all. A lot of Japanese English conversation schools use a lesson structure a little like this. It's a bit formulaic, and you'll need to inject some personality into it to make it interesting, but it can work quite well. If you have absolutely no idea where to start, you could use this 'formula' as a basis for planning your own lesson. Then after the lesson, think about what went well and what didn't. If you taught it again, what would you change?

Sometimes, instead of grammar, you'll be teaching 'functional language' - for example, general English for 'ordering at a restaurant' or 'disagreeing with someone'. In this case, you can follow the same steps, but one nice idea - so long as you haven't got real beginners - is getting students to practise roleplaying at the start of the lesson - eg, 'here are your menus, try ordering from them' - so you can see what they do and don't know. Then you can get some ideas from them for language, and put them on the board, as well as teaching them new expressions and ideas. This is also nice for helping students feel like they learned something, and could do something new at the end of the lesson that they couldn't do at the beginning.

Lesson order

Whatever you decide to do, if you are a new teacher, I would recommend a 'safe' general lesson order of:
1. introducing language point
2. drilling (students repeat examples of the language)
3. controlled practice
4. free practice

'Controlled' practice refers to speaking practice where you are kind of 'forced' to use the language point in a fairly structured way. For example, a questionnaire or textbook exercise where students must ask and answer questions, using the language point. 'Free' practice' is where students talk, or do a roleplay or conversation, where they can use the language point where appropriate.

The difference here is that in controlled practice, students don't need to think very creatively, or come up with their own ideas - they are focusing on making the sentences correctly and being accurate. Then in the freer practice, improving fluency, using the language appropriately in conversation, and thinking of your own ideas is important.

It's important, though, to give students a good amount of time to use the language, not just study how to make sentences.

Thinking about the language

Another thing I would recommend is, if you are a new teacher, take a few minutes to think about the language point you're going to teach. This doesn't come easily at first, but with time...

If you are at a Japanese-style English conversation school, you've likely got a textbook with clearly defined units and language points, which students study at home before coming to class; the teacher is not expected to spend much time 'teaching' grammar or language. Still, questions may come up and it's good to know what you will and won't cover. Also, if you give each language point some consideration, you will build up your understanding of English and how different pieces of language work, which will really enrich your teaching.

As an example, with present continuous, think about:

-How is it formed? (I am _ing, he/she/it IS __ing, you/they/we ARE _ing)

-What are some uses of this language? Are we going to cover all of them in class? (For example, 'I am eating dinner now, please call me later' is talking about an action happening right now. 'I am working hard these days' is talking about a recent activity, but you are not necessarily doing it at this moment. 'I am going out tonight' is a future activity.)

Unless you have a higher level class, or you are doing a review of something the students should already know, I'd recommend focusing on one main use per class. Then you can design activities practising that use a lot, so students can really understand it and use it.

-Are there any pitfalls with this language? (Yes; we generally don't use present continuous for 'state' verbs, that is, verbs that show a state rather than an activity. Examples are be, know, love. We don't usually say 'I am knowing him' or 'he is being a doctor'. There are exceptions, but better to cover in a more advanced class.)

I have one more post on the theme of teaching English: see my next post.