HOW TO MANAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING

1.1 Students need to learn how to learn

         Many students study a foreign language have very strange ideas of what will help them to improve. Most teachers have met students who think that by filling vocabulary books they will be able to speak better English; many students present with a text will actually want to through word-by- word and will not see the point of, for example, reading for gist, or scanning for particular information.

         One of tasks of the language teacher is to help the students to study more efficiently and more enjoyable. A small but important part of the teaching time should be spent making students aware of why certain things will help them, and why other will not. The more students understand about the process of learning of foreign language, the more they will be able to take responsibility for their own learning. 

1.2 Teaching tips

         • Using task

         Teacher have been using task for hundreds of years. Frequently, in the past the task was the piece of translation often from a literary source. More recently tasks have included projects for producing, posters, brochures, pamphlets, oral presentation, radio plays, videos, websites and dramatic performances.

         The characteristic of all these tasks is that rather than concentrating on one particular structure, function or vocabulary group, these tasks exploit a wider range of language. In many case, students may also be using a range o different of communicative language skills.

         • What make ‘tasks based learning’ different?

         The traditional way that teacher have used tasks is as a follow-up to a series of structure\function or vocabulary based lessons. Tasks have been ‘extension’ activities as part of a graded and structured course.

         In task-based learning, the tasks are central to the learning activity. Originally developed by N Prabhup in Bangladore, southern India, it is based in the belief that students may learn more effectively when their minds are focused on the task, rather than on the language they are using.

         In the model of task-based learning described by Jane Willis, the traditional PPP (presentation, practice, production) lesson is reversed. The students start with the task. When they have completed it, the teacher draws attention on the language used, making corrections and adjustments to the students performance. In A framework for Task-Based Learning, Jane Willis presents a three stage process:

            • Pre-task- Introduction to the topic and task.

            • Task cycle-Task planning and report.

            • Language focus- Analysis and practice.

         •Does it work?

         Task-based learning can be very effective at intermediate levels and beyond, but many teachers question its usefulness at lower levels. The methodology requires a change in the traditional teacher’s role. The teacher does not introduce and ‘present’ language or interfere (‘help’) during the task cycle. The teacher is an observer during the task phase and become a language informant only during the ‘language focus’ stage.

         All teachers:

·  Are involved with content. At whatever level and however defined, they teach a curriculum of knowledge and understanding, skills and competences, attitudes, values and beliefs;

·  Are responsible for learners, whether called children, pupils or students - teachers do not operate in isolation;

·  Are managers of learning and, at least for the compulsory years of schooling, the learning they manage takes place mainly in classrooms.

The teacher is the manager of the classroom as a learning environment for pupils and, as such, is responsible for all that goes on within it. The teacher's job is clearly defined as being responsible for managing the classroom, so that all the learners will absorb as much as possible in the time available. This sounds very straightforward but, as any teacher knows, there is much more to it than that!

This guidance is broken down into sections, so that you can select those topics that you want to examine in detail or skip the ones with which you are already familiar.

1.3 Assessment of Knowledge Acquisition

         At the beginning of this section we quoted the statement? Teaching without learning is just talk? The way we assess whether learning is in fact taking place is some sort of "testing". In the best of all possible worlds, testing should result in a realistic measurement of both teaching and learning.  However, the current educational environment tends to skew measurement with the weight being placed on the learner side of the equation.

         Before addressing the different types of assessment, it is instructive to delineate assessment's purposes. The state that the purpose of assessment are:

1.      To assist student learning.

2.      To identify student's strengths and weaknesses.

3.      To assess the effectiveness of a particular instructional strategy.

4.      To assess and improve the effectiveness of curriculum programs.

5.      To assess and improve teaching effectiveness.

6.      To provide data that assist in decision making

7.      To communicate with and involve parents.

         Please note that students are mentioned only twice. Five of the seven purposes of assessment are related to the system of education that supports student learning. As a whole, this description of the purpose of assessment is another base from which to approach learner-centered principles in education as developed by Dr. Barbara McCombs and others.

While in principle there is general agreement in the education community that the focus of the education system is the academic development of individual students, actually applying learner-center principles is difficult if not impossible within the current model of education. How, for example, do you develop and execute individualized learning plans for thirty students in a classroom? The simple answer is that, in the absence of new technologies and methodologies to improve both teaching and learning, you cannot. While many other tools are required to support a learner-centered education environment, dramatically improved assessment methods are the keystone.  Sections 1.5 through 1.7 describe the three domains of assessment

            Understanding claims that Authentic Assessment accomplishes the following goals:

·         Requires students to develop responses rather than select from predetermined options.

·         Elicits higher order thinking in addition to basic skills.

·         Directly evaluates holistic projects

·         Synthesizes with classroom instruction.

·         Use samples of student work (portfolios) collected over an extended time period.

·         Stems from clear criteria made known to students.

·         Allows for the possibility of multiple human judgments. Relates more closely to

·         Classroom learning Teaches students to evaluate their own work?

Gardner-Medwin ( 2006) states that CBA provides several distinct advantages over current assessment methods, including:

·         Encouraging students to think more carefully about questions in objective tests.

·         Improving student involvement and interest in the process of self-assessment.

·         Helping students identify uncertainties and misconceptions in their understanding.

·         Mitigating the effects of guessing on standardized tests, improving test reliability.

·         Facilitating the setting of questions for students with a large range of abilities.

·         Providing immediate feedback of results for teachers and learners.

·         Helping students who lack self-confidence, or are overly confident.

·         Facilitating remediation.

         ●Knowledge Acquisition

1.      Present standards-based content to know

a.       Computer generated multi-media presentation in all subject areas.

b.      Repetitive practice in all subject areas.

c.       Consistent high quality.

2.      Assess certainty in answers

a.       Most easily implemented in fill-in-the-blank, matching, multiple-choice and true/false.

b.      Possible to implement with other test types.

3.      Measure actionable mastery

a.       Possible for all of the above by measuring and recording answer latency.

b.      More subtle measures of performance may be developed, e.g. relating time spent reading a section of material to formative assessment results thereby deriving overall reading traits like speed and comprehension.

         ● General Purposes of Testing

1.      To assist student learning.

a.       Provide immediate feedback in real time

b.      Provide graphic representation of progress

c.       Record question level granularity

d.      Make it fun

2.      To identify students? Strengths and weaknesses.

a.       Subject level granularity will clearly reveal level of success and failure

3.      To assess the effectiveness of a particular instructional strategy.

a.       Question level granularity will reveal teaching effectiveness

b.      Agglomeration of class data will discriminate individual or systemic failures                

4.      To assess and improve the effectiveness of curriculum programs.

a.       Question level granularity will reveal teaching effectiveness

b.      Agglomeration of class data will discriminate individual or systemic failures

5.      To assess and improve teaching effectiveness.

a.       Granularity will reveal instructional quality

b.      Granularity will reveal teacher preparation

6.      To provide data that assist in decision making

a.       Provide classroom management with intricate detail

7.      To communicate with and involve parents.

a.       Graphic presentations will aid in communicating with parents

b.      Details based on small-scale evaluations will help parents understand the unique characteristic of their child

c.       Progress measurement will aid in earlier intervention when there is a problem Summative / Authentic Assessment

1. Requires students to develop responses rather than select from predetermined options

a.       It is possible to merge content presentation with assessment

b.      It is also possible to offer multiple presentation and assessment options.

2.      Elicits higher-order thinking in addition to basic skills

a.       Simulations can be created that stimulate both deductive and inductive reasoning.

b.      Connecting subject areas for a more elaborate and enriched understanding, e.g. how developments in timekeeping devices,

3.      Directly evaluates holistic projects

4.      Synthesizes with classroom instruction

a.       Tools can be created to accomplish this integration

5.      Uses samples of student work (portfolios) collected over an extended time period

a.       Student data of an objective nature can be store easily and can be used to form both a quantitative and qualitative map

6.      Stems from clear criteria made known to students

a.       Based on empirically derived data individual learning plans can be created and modified as needed.

b.      Progress against those plans can be accessed in real time

7.      Allows for the possibility of multiple human judgments

a.       Clever assessments can be created that test judgment

8.      Relates more closely to classroom learning Teaches students to evaluate their own work

a.       Certainty assessment require the student to self-assess

Curriculum Design

1. Analysis of patterns revealed by associating assessment data with lesson plans, learning/teaching materials, teaching methodologies, etc. coupled with Internet

2.      Enabled pooling of data creates opportunities to identify effective education elements.

a.       Proven lesson plans, i.e. those associated with high assessment results, could be accessed and used by teachers as a whole or in parts.

b.      Diagnostic data could be used to form? Student types? Lesson plans and curricula could then be associated as effective with certain student types.

3.      Data-enabled curriculum design; assessment and standards integration via technology would allow for more complex approaches to subjects while still meeting education standards.

a.       Integrated, multi-subject designs.

                          I.      Theory-to-application, e.g. geometry/trigonometry and applications in navigation, construction, engineering.

                          II.      Connections designs, e.g. how a watch, sextant and GPS receiver can be the basis for exploring history, physics, geography, mathematics, etc.

b.      Bounded self-study designs.

c.       Collaborative designs.

1.4 Teaching strategies to support pupils with learning difficulties

Select relevant content for the lessons	Pupils should be able to see the relevance of what they do in school. You might consider this in the resources you select and by drawing on pupils’ everyday experiences.
Make learning experiential and emotional.	Draw on the pupils’ senses and emotions. Provide ‘first hand’ experiences. Ask them to share opinions. Listen to and value their responses. Provide resources that require pupils to relate to other people and places – for example, ‘How do you think he feels…?’
Give pupils a concrete reminder of their learning	Use visual images that can remain on classroom walls as a reminder of what has been learned.
Use storyboards or sequence boards	These can be used in most areas of the curriculum as concrete support to learning.
Give out information in manageable ‘chunks’	Be careful not to overload some pupils with too many instructions or details.
Use prompt sheets to reinforce what pupils need to do and the sequence in which they do it	Some pupils have difficulty remembering a series of oral instructions. Clear oral instructions should be given, but support these with sheets that remind the pupils of the order and sequence of what they have to do.
Use a ‘buddy’ system to allow pupils to support each other	Pupils are less likely to be frightened of making mistakes if they are working in pairs.
Make posters of key issues	Start by providing the key issues drawn from the text for the pupils. However, remember that it is important that they develop the skills for themselves. Pupils need to learn how to distinguish relevant from irrelevant information.
Create a learning environment where pupils can learn from different work areas in the room	This will be dependent on the pupils’ age and the facilities in the classroom.
Introduce competition 1.5 Everyday approaches to behaviour management	This need not be pupil against pupil – it can be against the clock or themselves.

         Use these as a checklist. Try those strategies that you have not used previously.

Allow pupils some control	In this way, pupils will take responsibility for their own learning. Try giving them choices – for example, the order in which work is tackled, who they work with or the resources they might use.
Allow pupils to make      mistakes	Pupils do not make mistakes to annoy you. If they don’t complete the task correctly, it may be your explanation that was unclear. Try taking the blame for their mistake – for example, ‘I didn’t explain that very well – could I have another try?’ If pupils are in a secure learning environment, they won’t be worried about making mistakes.
Don’t over-react.	Try not to respond to minor issues – for example, a pupil who is talking to the person behind them might say when challenged, ‘I was just borrowing a rubber’. Rather than embarking on a dispute about whether this is true or not, it is better to respond in a low-key manner – for example, ‘You may have been borrowing a rubber but now I would like you to get on with your work’.
Show pupils respect and  you are more likely to receive it	Model the behaviors you expect of the pupils. Be polite, don’t lose your temper, apologies if it is in order, and be honest when something upsets you. If a pupil misbehaves, concentrate on the actions rather than the person. Never ask why they did what they did because they often don’t know. Ask, ‘What do you think you did that upset me?’ ‘What could (you, I, we) do to stop you doing that again?’
Keep trusting them	Most pupils want to be liked and want to be part of the group. Understanding that some pupils choose to misbehave is important and therefore you need to ask why they are acting as they are. Small gestures from the teacher can affect the behavior of some children – for example, receiving a smile, being spoken to or being praised. Pupils need to be given chances to improve their behavior.

1.5 Dealing with conflict

·         What do I do if conflict arises in the classroom?

         The desired outcomes are to:

·         Minimize disruption to the lesson

·         maintain your authority

·         remain calm

·         maintain the pupil's self-esteem

·         maintain a positive pupil-teacher relationship

Causes of escalation of conflict	To de-escalate conflict
Increase in exposed emotion.	Stay calm.
Pupil feels threatened.	Avoid threats. Don't stand over the pupil.
Conflict with teacher is viewed as a contest.	Focus on offence and not the offender.
Teacher issues unrealistic ultimatum.	Introduce humour.
Pupil feels 'cornered' and has no room for manoeuvre.	Give pupil a choice.
Pupil has an audience and cannot be seen to back down.	Separate pupil and audience.

·         How do I deal with extreme problems?

         Draw on the established system in the school to summon help.

·         Lower your voice. Do not confront.

·         Sit down if possible.

·         Do not touch the pupil.

·         Listen to the pupil and try to show empathy.

·         Suggest a simple and immediate next step. Offer two options.

·         Deal with the issue at a later time when the pupil is calmer and there is no audience.

·         What do I say to the pupil in a one-to-one situation?

·         Ask the pupil to describe the behaviors that upset you.

·         Show empathy and concern about the behaviors.

·         Talk about the incident and establish what the problem is.

·         Tell the pupil you want to help and ask what they think you could do.

·         Determine how the pupil can improve the behaviors.

·         Agree actions that may be appropriate - for example, if the pupil feels under pressure or stressed they can give a non-verbal gesture that alerts you. You can then take action by moving the pupil.

·         Write out the agreement, if appropriate.

·         Behaviors management

             This area of the site looks at the issue of behaviors and behavior management in the light of recent research, and considers a variety of approaches and strategies. It offers practical advice in the management of pupils with emotional or behavioral problems in the classroom and considers how to maximize their learning. It examines recent approaches to the inception of a ‘positive behavior’ curriculum and offers an example of a school policy to promote positive behaviors. Bullying is also considered, along with anti-bullying tactics.

Two government websites which you will find particularly useful are:

·         Behaviors and attendance: improving behavior and attendance for all

             The programmer aims to improve pupil behaviors and attendance, supporting practitioners through developing a consistent approach building on the best current practice.

·         Improving behaviors in schools: positive behavior equals success

             Here you will find information on the Department’s policies to promote inclusion and learning through positive behaviors. The site contains information on behavior, bullying and Learning Support Units (in-school centre which work with pupils with behavioral difficulties).

·         Managing difficult situations

             It is important to realize that some disruption in the classroom is part of normal school life. Remember, most pupils want to learn and, given a positive learning environment, they will be motivated to do so.

Pupils want to learn when:	Danger signs and times
They see the point of what they are learning.	Pupils don't understand what they are doing or why.
They feel secure, stimulated and challenged.	Tasks are too hard, too easy or lack challenge.
They are engaged in activities that develop their knowledge, understanding and skills.	When the pupils are not engaged in the lesson.
They are learning in their preferred learning styles.	Activities last too long; pupils work continuously outside their preferred learning styles.
Their interest is captured by using a range of stimuli.	Lessons are too predictable and humdrum.
They are given the opportunity to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do through reviews and summaries as the lesson progresses.	Lessons lack variety of tasks; pupils' progress through the lesson is not monitored.
The learning environment is well managed by the teacher.	The structure of the lesson is not planned; transitions are not timed and therefore not well managed.
The teacher has high expectations and pupils try to meet them.	Pupils are not aware of what is expected of them; there is no individual support.

·         Pupils who disrupt lessons may demonstrate a range of characteristics:

·         have difficulty working in pairs or groups because they have relationship problems

·         give up easily because tolerance levels are low

·         are unable to remain on task because of poor concentration spans

·         have never learned 'good' working habits

·         their education lacks continuity because of truancy

·         lack personal organization so often poor at timekeeping

·         'mutter' and 'chatter' to others

·         have a limited grasp of basic skills

·         are under functioning, for example gifted or exceptionally able who are bored because they are not being challenged

·         answer back if they have an audience

·         present their work poorly

·         are defensive and insecure

·         can be aggressive, verbally and physically

·         The ABC approach to managing behaviour

      The ABC approach to managing behaviour is based on the premise that by focusing purely on the behaviour, you are unlikely to alter or reduce its frequency. Negative attention tends to reinforce difficult, challenging or unacceptable behaviour. The ABCs are:
A - Antecedents
B - Behaviour
C - Consequences

·         Antecedents

             These refer to the contextual and causal factors of behaviour, such as:

·         The school in relation to its culture and ethos; behaviour;

·         There may be in-child factors: specific medical, psychological or neurological conditions that need to be addressed;

·         Teacher and adult behaviour - how is this presented and expressed?

·         The classroom - is it a place that has a positive and purposeful atmosphere, where pupils and teachers feel valued and work together in a supportive and safe environment?

·         A pupil's background is a powerful setting factor for

·         The curriculum should be clearly matched and differentiated - there should be planned continuity and appropriate progression;

·         The style of communication, body language and the language used are significant and powerful factors in setting a positive and purposeful climate in the classroom;

·         The rights, rules, routines and responsibilities clearly visible and understood (often referred to as the 4 Rs).

Provides a framework for success

Builds confidence

Both supportive and corrective

Reduces conflict and tension

Fair and reasonable

Most pupils are responsive to the 4 Rs of behaviour management in terms of:

Understanding the rights of others to learn;

Seeing the need for rules;

Accepting and conforming to class routines;

Exercising, appropriate, responsibility for their behaviour.

·         Behaviour

·         How is challenging, unacceptable or difficult behaviour expressed?

·         Where does it fit on the continuum of need in relation to personal, verbal, non-verbal and work-skills levels?

·         What is the goal of that behaviour: attention seeking, demonstrating power, seeking power, or is it escape by withdrawal?

·         Consequences

         There will be consequences to inappropriate behaviour, which may result in extreme and difficult situations, or the consequences may be fairly minor. Consequences follow for both teachers and pupils. Think about:

·         How will you as the teacher influence those consequences?

·         Will there be a desired and successful outcome to your actions?

            The underlying approach of this model is to address the antecedents - the setting factors. The emphasis is on the belief that by addressing the antecedents to behaviour you are focusing on the contextual issues and these can be approached through effective classroom management.

·         What could be the antecedents and consequences of these behaviours?

·         What approach and action would you take All teachers:

·         Are involved with content. At whatever level and however defined, they teach a curriculum of knowledge and understanding, skills and competences, attitudes, values and beliefs;

·      are responsible for learners, whether called children, pupils or students - teachers do not operate in isolation;

·         are managers of learning and, at least for the compulsory years of schooling, the learning they manage takes place mainly in classrooms.

The teacher is the manager of the classroom as a learning environment for pupils and, as such, is responsible for all that goes on within it. The teacher's job is clearly defined as being responsible for managing the classroom, so that all the learners will absorb as much as possible in the time available. This sounds very straightforward but, as any teacher knows, there is much more to it than that!

This guidance is broken down into sections, so that you can select those topics that you want to examine in detail or skip the ones with which you are already familiar.

1. 6 Classroom management

   2.6.1 Definition of classroom management

         The ways in which student behaviour, movement and interaction during a lesson are organised and controlled by the teacher to enable teaching to take place most effectively (Richards 1990).

  

   1.6.2 Definition of discipline

         To maintain order and to keep the group on task and moving ahead, not to spot and punish those students who are misbehaving.

Prevention is better than cure. Important to keep the primary activities flowing smoothly,
Best teachers anticipate when misbehaviours are likely to occur and intervene early to prevent them. Most effective interventions are subtle, brief, and almost private. Therefore they do not interfere with classroom activities.

   1.6.3 Corrective Strategies

         Against

·  1) Doesn’t work - reduces behaviour perhaps

·  2) Ethics - humiliation

·  3) Teachers are condoning violence. The child might imitate the adults example.

·  4) Emotional side effects - Fear of school. Hostility and rage. Child feels undesirable and this lowers self-esteem

·  5) Prevents the teacher from inter-acting with the child in a more effective humane way

·  6) The goals of education can be met by non aggressive means

·  7) Effective punishment needs to be accurately timed. It's duration, intensity and specificity need the to be finely balanced. Environmental and cognitive factors need to be taken into account.

·         To make the student-centred approach work, teachers need to:

1.      Create a climate of trust in the classroom to encourage curiosity and the desire to learn. Teachers must believe that children are basically trustworthy.

2.      Involve the children in making decisions about their education. A group consensus should be reached through collaboration and compromise. Voting should not be used (Why?).

3.      Help build the child's self-esteem. Teachers should value their students and care for them.

4.      Understand their students’ reactions, thoughts and feelings from the inside. Student's need to be understood rather than evaluated and judged.

5.      Teachers should be open and honest with their students.

·         Teachers should know!

1. Make sure students understand rules and reasons for them.

2. First violation - warning, discuss alternative behaviours and clarify consequences of repeated infractions.

3. Find the underlying causes of misbehaviour.

4. Should discuss misbehaviour of student with him in private.

5. Do not address the inappropriate behaviour in a way that would lead to public humiliation (e.g. sarcasm and ridicule).

6. Teachers should apologise for mistakes.

7. Respond to the behaviour of the student in an appropriate way. Do not resort to drastic measures in addressing a small transgression of the schools code of conduct.

8. Extra class work, tests and other school related activities should never be used as a addressing inappropriate behaviour.

·         Five areas to be considered when drawing up rules

1.      Students' safety

2.      Students' respect and care for others

3.      Property in the classroom

4.      Students' efforts at learning

5.      Obedience to the teachers 

·         Guidelines for making a complaint.

         Preparation

1.      What is the worst possible thing that could go wrong if a complaint is made? Pluck up courage. What will happen if the complaint is not made?

2.      Complain directly to the person who is infringing on your rights.

3.      Write out what you are going to say. Practice with a friend.

4.      Make the complaint as soon as possible. Make sure your feelings are under control before doing so.

·         Making the complaint

1.      Use the "I" statement. For example, "I am disappointed in your not attending my lesson. I would like to work out some way to prevent this happening again".

2.      Do not ask "Why?". They will only rationalise their reasons, and this will prevent them taking on board what you have to say. For example "Why are you not paying attention in class?". Can you think up some excuses, that the student could provide?

3.      Do not compare the student with somebody else. For example "I wish you were as well behaved as your sister". The student will become defensive.

4.      Give the student a chance to correct their behaviour first. For example "Are you aware that there is a queue, and you need to wait over there?"

5.      Make just one complaint, avoid "furthermore....".

6.      Do not be sarcastic, as this detracts from the message, and also damage the relationship you have with the student.

·         Following the complaint

1.      Thank the student for listening and giving up their time. If they have agreed to change their behaviour, then thank them for that.

2.      Listen to any complaint the student has in turn.

3.      Offer any help that can be given to resolve the conflict.

4.      Schedule another meeting for a later date if this is felt necessary.

1.7 Tips on class control and management

·         Psychology for Teachers

1.              Interest the class

2.              Avoid personal mannerisms (e.g. speech, dress or gestures)

3.              Be fair

4.              Be humorous

5.              Avoid unnecessary threats - any threats must be carried out, so wild threats may result in the students calling the teacher's bluff.

6.              Be punctual - set a good example, avoid a riot, and don't forget to let them leave on time.

7.              Avoid anger - teachers might regret their actions, students might deliberately provoke another outburst

8.              Avoid over-familiarity - it is better for a teacher to start off formally and then to loosen off as she gets to know the students

9.              Offer opportunities for responsibility - this demonstrates the teacher's confidence in a child, and allows the child to feel partially responsible for what happens in the classroom.

10.          Focus attention - teachers should focus their requests on specific students. This will get the rest of the class looking at the pupil concerned, and hushed silence should follow. General requests can be ineffective.

11.          Avoid humiliating children - they will want to re-establish their loss of face by disrupting even more. If the teacher is sarcastic, then he can not complain if the child is sarcastic back.

12.          Be Alert - good eyesight, move around, insist children remain in their places

13.          Use positive language - "Look in your book", rather than "Do not turn round". Positive statements tell children what they should do. Negative statements do not tell students what they should do, but might suggest, to others, behaviour they may not have thought of.

14.          Be confident - students will pick up on a lack of confidence, and feel that the teacher is used to not being obeyed.

15.          Be well-organised - stopping the lesson to fix the overhead, will give an opportunity to the students to play

16.          Show that one likes children - if the teacher shows a real concern for their student's education and welfare, then it is unlikely that they would want to make life hell for her.

   1.7.1 Strategies

what rule I broke

what I can do to make it better

signatures of student and teacher

·         Strategies fore solving conflicts

            Each child has a turn to say, without interruptions and whilst maintaining eye

contact:

1.      What the other has done to upset them

2.      How they feel about it

3.      What they would like to happen in the future

         No instructions or arguments are allowed. They take turns until all have finished. The adult acts as a referee only. If they take too long, the adult can make a judgement, and take action. Older pupils add:

1.      Why did you do it?

2.      Shake hands and apologise

·         A child could be asked to fill in a form.

name etc.
what I did	what rule I broke
why I did it	what I can do to make it better
teachers comments	signatures of student and teacher

   2.7.2 Teachers could be asked to fill in a form

classroom behaviours questionnaire-frequency per day 0) never 1) less than once 2) at least once 3) several times 4) many times

task avoidance e.g. day dreaming, chatting, disputing instructions

interrupting teacher e.g. showing off, clowning, lateness

defiance of authority e.g. refusing, swearing at teacher, answering back

hindering other children working e.g. squabbling, interrupting peers, chatting

verbal hostility towards Peers e.g. swearing at Peers, being unkind, teasing

physical hostility towards peers e.g. poking, hitting, tripping, fighting, stealing

inconsiderate interpersonal behaviour e.g. running, pushing, showing, noisy

inconsiderate use of property/equipment/environment

over reaction to normal situations e.g. destroys own work, sulks, storms out of room

any other behaviour not covered above

·         Effectiveness starts early

         In the first three weeks of the year the most effective classroom managers:

1.      Achieved more workable systems of rules

2.      were better in touch with their students' needs

3.      Gave clearer directions and instructions (Emmer, Evertson and Anderson, 1980)

In junior high schools during the first three weeks there was less emphasis on the teaching of rules and procedures. These teachers became effective by:

1.      Communicating clearly what they expected of their students

2.      Checking up on whether students did what was expected

3.      Providing information to help correct deviant behaviour

4.      Giving students’ responsibility for getting their own work done  

·         Too much un-wanted behaviour

The following behaviouristic techniques can be used:

1.      extinction-ignoring the attention seeking behaviour

2.      Strengthening compatible behaviour-e.g. asking the child before he blurts out the answer or when he puts his hand up

3.      punishment-as a last resort

·         Strategies for correcting too little wanted behaviour

   1. Modelling

2. Reinforcing

3. Shaping successive approximations

         4. Contracting-agreeing with the child what he must do for a period of time in order to receive some rewards.

·         How should teachers use their physical presence in class?

         As we saw from the comment about a teacher’s clothes, the teacher’s physical presence play in a large part n his or her management of classroom environment. And it is not just appearance either. The way teachers moved, how her or she stands, how physical demonstrative he or she is- all these play their part in the effective management of a class.

         All teachers, like all people, have their own physical characteristics and habits, and they will take these into classroom with them. But they are a number of issues to consider which are not just idiosyncratic and which have a direct bearing on the students’ perception of us.

       . Proximity

         Teacher should consider how close they want to be to the students they are working with. Some of the students resent it if the other hand, distance is a sign of coldness. Teachers should be conscious of their proximity and, in assessing their students’ reactions to what is happen in the classroom, they should take this into account.

       . Appropriacy

         Deciding how closely you should work with students is a matter of appropriacy. So is the general way in which teachers sit or stand In the classrooms. Many teachers created an extremely friendly atmosphere by crouching down when they work with students in pairs. In this way, they are at the same level as their seated students. However, some students find this informality worrying. Some teachers are even happy to seat on the floor, and in certain situations this maybe appropriate. But in others it may well lead to a situation where students are put off concentrating.

         The entire position teacher take – sitting on the edge of tables, standing behind a lectern, standing on a raised dais etc – make strong statements about the kind of person the teachers is. It is important, therefore, to consider what kind of effect such physical behaviour has so that we can behave in a way which is appropriate to the students we have and the relationship we wish to create with them if we want to manage a class effectively, such a relationship as crucial.

         . Movement

         Some teachers tend to spend most of their class time in one place-at the front of the class, for example, or to the side, or in the middle. Other spends a great deal of time walking from side to side, or striding up and down the aisles between the chairs. Although this, again, is to some extent a matter of personal preference, it is worth remembering that motionless teachers can bore students, whilst teachers who are constantly in motion can turn their students into tennis- match spectators, their heads moving from side to side until they become exhausted.

         Most successful teacher move around the classroom to some extent, that way they can retain their students interest (if they are leading an activity) or work more closely with smaller groups (when they go to help a pare or groups).

         How much the a teacher moves around in the classroom, then depend on his or her personal style, where she or he feels most comfortable for the management of the class, how she or he feels it is the easiest to manage the classroom effectively, and whether or not she or he wants to work with smaller groups.

       . Contact

         Much of what we have said is about the issue of contact. How can teachers make contact with students? How close should that contact be?

         In order to manage a class successfully, the teachers has to be aware of what students doing and, where possible, how they are feeling. This means watching and listening just as carefully as teaching.  It means bring able to move around the class, getting the level of proximity right. It means making ice contact with students (provided that this is not culturally inappropriately.

         It is almost impossible to help students to learn a language in a classroom seating without making contact with them. The exact nature of this contact will vary from teacher to teacher and from class to class.

         The teacher’s physical approach and personality in the class is one aspect of class management to consider. Another is one of the teacher’s chief tools: the voice.     

·         How should teachers use their voice in class?

         Perhaps the teacher’s most important instrument is the voice. How we speak and what our voice sounds like have a crucial impact on classes. When considering the use of the voice in the management of teaching there are three issues to think about.

          .Audibility

         Clearly, teachers need to be audibility. They must be sure that the students at the back of the class can hear them just as well as those at the front. But audibility cannot be divorced from voice quality: a rasping shout is always unpleasant.

         Teachers do not have to shout to be audible. In fact, in most classrooms, there is a danger of the teacher’s voice being too loud. Good teacher try to get this balance between audibility and volume just right.

          . Variety

          It is important for teachers to vary the quality of their voice-and the volume they speak at – depending on the type of lesson and the type of activities. So the kind of voice you use to give instruction or introduce a new activity will be different from the voice which is most appropriate for conversation or an informal exchange of view or information.

         In one particular situation, teachers often use very loud voices, and that is when they want students to be quiet or stop doing something. But it is worth pointing out that is speaking quietly is often just as effective a way of getting the students’ attention since, when they realize that you are talking, they will want to stop and listen in case you are say something important or interesting. However, for teachers who almost never raise their voices, the occasional shouted interjection may have an extremely dramatic effect, and this can something be beneficial.

          . Conservation

         Like opera singers, teachers have to take great care of their voices. It is important that they breathe correctly from the diaphragm so that they don’t strain their larynxes. It is important that they very their voice throughout a day, avoiding shouting wherever possible, so that they can conserve their vocal energy. Conserving the voice is one thing teachers will want to take into account when planning a day’s or a week’s work.

  1.8 How should teachers mark the stages of a lesson?    

         If as we said, the teacher needs to provide variety, then clearly he or she will have to include different stages in his or her lessons.

         When he or she arrives in the classroom, the teacher needs to start the lesson off. Where possible and appropriate he or she needs to tell the students what they will be doing or, in the different kind of lesson, needs to discuss with them what they are hoping to achieve.

         Teachers do not always explain exactly what they are going to do, however since they some time want to maintain an element of surprise. But even in such cases, a clear start to the lesson is necessary just as a play often starts with the rise of the curtain or a visit to the doctor starts when he or she asks you, ‘Now then, what seem to be the problem?’ Or ‘How can I help you?’

         When an activity has finished and\or another one is about to start, it helps if teachers make this clear through the way they behave and the things they say. It helps students if they are made clearly aware of the end of something and the beginning of what is coming next. Frequently, teachers need to re-focus the students’ attention, or point it in new direction.

         In order for such changes of direction to be, the teachers first need to get the students’ attention. This can sometime be difficult, especially when teachers try to draw a speaking activity to a conclusion, or students’ attention. Some speak loudly, saying thing like, Thank you……. Now can I have your attention please? Or ‘OK ….thanks……let’s all face the front shall we?’ another method is for the teacher to raise his or her hand. When individual students see this, they raise their hand briefly in reply to indicate that they are now going to be quiet and wait for the next stage.

         Finally, when an activity or a lesson has finished, it helps if the teachers is able to provide some kind of closure-a summary of what has happened, sometime, teachers find themselves In the middle of something when he bell goes, and a sense of incompleteness. It is much better to round the lesson off successfully.

·         What is the best seating arrangement for a class?

         In many classrooms around the world students’ site in orderly rows, sometime their chairs have little wooden palettes on one of the arms as surfaces to write on. Sometime, the students will have desks in front of them. It is not unknown to find the chairs bolted to the floor. At the front of such classroom, frequently on a raise platform (so that all the students can see them) stand the teachers. In contrast, there are other institutions where you can find students sitting in a large cycle around the walls of the classroom. Or you will see small groups of them working in different parts of the room. Sometime they are arranged in a horseshoe shape around the teacher. Sometime it is not immediately obvious who the teacher is.

Different seating arrangements                                            

·         Separate tables

·         Circle

·         Solowork

·         Horseshoe

·         Orderly rows

         Clearly we are seeing a number of different approaches in the different arrangement of chairs and tables and this raise number of questions. Are schools which use a variety of seating plans of progressive or merely modish, for example? Is there something intrinsically superior about rigid seating arrangement – or are such classrooms the product of traditional orthodoxy? Is one kind of seating arrangement better than another? What are the advantages of each? The following discusses these various arrangements.

Orderly rows

         When the students sit in rows in classroom, there are obvious advantages. It means that the teacher has a clear view of all the students and the students can all see the teacher –in whose direction they are facing. It make lecturing easy, enabling the teacher to maintain eye contact with the people he or she is talking to. It also make discipline easier since it is more difficult to be disruptive when you are sitting in a row. If there are aisles in the classroom, the teachers can easily walk up and down making more personal contact with individual students and watching what they are doing.

         Orderly rows imply teachers working with the whole class. Some activities are especially suited to the kind of organization: explaining a grammar point, watching a video, using the board, demonstrating text organization on an overhead transparency which shows a paragraph, for example. It is also useful when students are involved in certain kinds of language practice. If all the students are focused on a task, the whole class gets the same messages.

         When teachers are working with the whole class sitting in orderly rows, it is vitally important to make sure that they remain in contact with the students and they keep every one involved. So, if they are asking question to the class, they must remember to ask students at the back, the quiet one perhaps, rather than just the one nearest them. They must move round so that they can see all the students to gauge their reactions to what’s going on.

         One trick that the teachers use is to keep their students guessing. Especially where teachers need to ask individual students questions, it is important that they should not do so in order, student after student, line by line. That way, the procedure becomes very tedious and the students know when they are going to be asked again. It is must better to ask students from all parts of the room in apparently random order. It keep every one their toes!

         In any classroom of the world, teachers are faced with classes of anywhere between 40 and 200 students at a time. In such circumstances, orderly rows may well be the best or only solution.

         Circles and horseshoes

         In smaller classes, many teachers and students prefer circles or horseshoes. In a horseshoe, the teachers will probably be at the open end of the arrangement since that may well be where the board, overhead projector and\ or tape recorder are situated. In a circle, the teacher’s position-where the board is situated –is less dominating.

         Classes which are arrange in a circle make quite a strong statement about what the teacher and the students believe in. the round table in the legends about king Arthur was designed by him specially so that there would not be arguments about who was more important than who-and that included the king himself when the were in a meeting. So it is in classroom. With all the people in the room sitting in a circle, there is afar greater feeling of equality than when the teacher stays out at the front. This may not be quite so true of the horseshoe shape where the teacher is often located in the central position, but even here the teacher has a much greater opportunity to get close to the students.

If, therefore, teachers believe in lowering the barriers between themselves and their students, this kind of seating arrangement will help. There are other advantages too, chief among which is the fact that all the students can see each other, in an ‘orderly row’ classroom you have to turn round – this is away from the teacher – if you want to make eye contact with some one behind you. In a circle or a horseshoe, no such disruption is necessary. The classroom is thus a more intimate place and the potential for students to share feelings and information through talking, eye contact or expressive body movements (eyebrow- raising, shoulder-shrugging etc.) is far greater.

          Separate tables

         Even circles and horseshoes seem rather formal compared to classes where students are seated in small groups at individual tables. In such classroom, you might see the teacher walking around checking the students’ work and helping out if they are having difficulties- prompting the students at this table, or explaining something to the students at the table in the corner.

         When students are sitting in small groups at individual tables, the atmosphere in the class is much less hierarchical than in other arrangements. It is much easier for the teacher to work at one table while the other gets on with their own work. It feels less like teacher and students and more like responsible adults getting on with the business of learning.

         However, this arrangement is not without its own problems. In the first place, students may not always want to be with the same colleagues: indeed, their preferences may change over time. Secondly it makes whole-class’ teaching more difficult, since the students are more diffuse and separated.

         The way students sit, says a lot about the style of the teachers or the institution where the lessons take place. Many teachers would like to rearrange their classes so that they are not always faced with rows of bored faces. Even where this is physically impossible – in terms of furniture, for example- there are thing they can do to achieve this as we shall see in the next section. 

1.9 What different students grouping can teachers use?

         Whatever the seating arrangements in a classroom, students can be organized in different ways: they can work as a whole class, in groups, in pairs, or individually.

         . Whole class

 as we have seen, there are many occasions when a teacher working with the class as a whole is the best type of classroom organization. However, this does not always mean the class sitting in orderly rows; whatever the seating arrangement, the teacher can have the students focus on him or her and task in hand.

          Groupwork and pairwork

these have become increasingly popular in language teaching since they are seen to have many advantages. Groupwork is a cooperative activity: five students, perhaps, discussing a topic, doing a roll- play or solving problem. In group, students tend to participate more equally, and they are also more able to experiment and use the language than they are in a whole- class arrangement.

         Pairwork has many of the same advantages. It is mathematically attractive if nothing else; the moment students get into pairs and start working on a problem or talking about something, many more of them will be doing the activities than if the teacher was working with the whole class, where only one student talk at a time.

         Both pairwork and groupwork give the students chances for greater independence. Because they are working together without teacher controlling every move, they take some of their own learning decisions, they decide what language to use to complete a certain task, and they can work without the pressure of the whole class listening to what they are doing. Decisions are cooperatively arrived at responsibilities are shared.

         The other great advantages of groupwork and pairwork (but especially groupwork)is that they give the teachers the opportunity to work with individual students. While group A and C are doing one task, the teacher can spend some time with group B who need special attention.

Neither groupwork nor pairwork are without their problems. As with ‘separate table’ seating, students may not like the people they are grouped or paired with. In any one group or pair, one student may dominate while the others stay silent. In difficult classes, groupwork may encourage students to be more disruptive than they would be in a whole- class setting, and, especially in a class where the students share the same first language, they may revert to their first language, rather than English, teacher is not working with them.

         Apart from groupwork and pairwork, the other alternative to whole- class teaching is solowork.

          Solowork

this can have many advantages: it allows students to work at their own speed, allows them thinking time, allows them in a short, to be individuals. It often provides welcome relief from the group-centered nature of much language teaching. For the time that solowork takes place, students can relax their public faces and go back to considering their own individual needs and progress.

How much teachers use groupwork, pairwork or solowork depends to a large extent on teacher style and students preferences. Do the students actually enjoy pairwork? What do they get out of it? Do the advantages of Groupwork- cooperation, involvement, autonomy – out weigh the advantages of whole class- group- clarity, dramatic potential control? Do the students work conscientiously during solowork sessions?

Good teachers are able to use different class grouping for different activities. While they do this, they will monitor which is more successful and for what, so that they can always seek to be more affective.

1.10 How can teachers evaluate the success or failure of their lesson?

         All teachers, whether at the start of their careers or after some years of teaching, need to be able to try out new activities and techniques. It is important to be open to such new ideas and take them into the classroom.

         But such experimentation will be of little use unless we can then evaluate these activities. Were they successful? Did the students enjoy them? Did they learn anything from them? How could the activities changed to make them more effective next time?

One way of getting feedback is to ask students simple questions such as did you like that exercise? Did you find it useful? And see what they say. But not all students will discuss topics like this openly in class. It maybe better to ask them to write their answers down and hand them in.

Another way of getting reaction to new techniques is to invite a colleague into the classroom and ask him or her to observe what happens and make suggestion afterwards. The class should also be videoed.

         In general, it is a good idea to get students’ reaction to lessons and their aspirations about them, clearly stated. Many teachers encourage students to say what they feel about the lessons and how they think the course is going. The simplest way to do this is to ask students once every fortnight for example, to write down two things they want more of and two things they want less of. The answer you get may prove a fruitful place to start a discussion, and you will then be able to modify want happens in class, if you think it appropriate, in the light of your students’ feeling. Such modifications will greatly enhance the teachers’ ability to manage the class.

         Good teacher managers also need to assess how el their students are progressing. This can be done through a variety of measures including homework assignments, speaking activities where the student scores the participation of each students, and frequent small progress tests. Good teachers keep a record of their students’ achievements so that they are always aware of how they are getting on. Only if teachers keep such kind of progress records can they begin to see when teaching and learning has or has not been successful.

   Conclusion:

           In this chapter we have

         ● discussed the teacher’s physical presence saying that we should pay attention to our proximity to the students, think about how much we move around the class and consider the appropriacy of our behaviour in general.

         ● said the teacher need to make contact with their students, especially eye contact.

         ● discussed the fact that teachers need to be clearly audible without shouting in a disagreeable way and stressed the need for variety in the way teachers use their voices. Different activities call for different voices, and the varied use of the voice makes for more interesting classes.

         ● mention that it is more important for teachers to conserve their voice, perhaps their important instruments.

         ● emphasized that teachers need to make stages and change of activities clearly sp that students know what is going on. We said that successful teachers knew how to start classes and also how to close them so that there was a feeling of completeness.

         ● looked at different ways of arranging a class physically, from orderly rows to separate tables.

         ● discussed the uses of ‘orderly row’ classroom and said that teachers need to keep in tough with what’s going on and involve all the students in such a situation.

         ● suggested that circles, horseshoes, and, especially, separate tables make a class less regimented and teacher- dominated, whilst recognizing that rows have their uses and that the other arrangement are no without disadvantages.

         Looked at the way teachers group students: whole class, groupwork, pairwork, and solowork.

         We have stressed the advantages of groupwork and pairwork and looked at times when solowork come as a great relief to students. Whole-class teaching is extremely beneficial in certain circumstances too.

         Said that teachers need to try out new techniques and that crucially they need to evaluate them too. In particular, they need to be able to find out whether the students found them useful and\or enjoyable. We show ways of doing this.

·          Finished by suggesting that teachers can use a variety of means to keep track of their

students’ progress-an important part of class management.

   1.11 How to describe learning and teaching

·  What do we know about language learning?

         Outside the context of any classroom, all children who are repeatedly exposed to a language will in normal circumstances learn it. They do this unconsciously-rather than as a form of study.

Most adults can learn a language without studying it, providing they are in the right kind of contact with it. Though they may have more trouble with pronunciation and grammar than younger learners, they may still be able to communicate fluently.

         However, not all adults who come into contact with a foreign language learn it. They might not want to. Perhaps the language they come into contact with is, in their view, just too complex for them, perhaps they don’t hear or see enough of it or have sufficient opportunities to try it out.

         Children and adults who do acquire language successfully outside the classroom seem to share certain similarities in their language experiences. First of all, they are usually exposed to language which they more or less understand even if they can not produce the same language spontaneously themselves. Secondly, they are motivated to learn the language in order to be able to communicate. And finally, they have opportunities to use the language they are learning, thus giving themselves chances to flex their linguistic muscles-and check their own progress and abilities.

Babies and children get endless exposure to their first coupled with emotional support. Adults living a foreign country get continual exposure to the language at various different levels and can get help from the surround language speakers.

         All these features of natural language acquisition can be difficult to replicate in the classroom, but there are elements which we should try to imitate. 

          What elements are necessary for successful language learning in classroom?

         Classroom students don’t usually the same kind of exposure or encouragement as those who- at whatever age- are picking up’ the language. But that does not mean they cannot learn language if the right conditions apply. Like language learners outside schools, they will need to be motivated, be exposed to language, and given chances to use it. We can therefore say what elements need to be present in a language classroom to help students learn effectively. We will call this element ‘ESA’, three elements which will be present in all –or almost all- classes. They are

         Engage

         This is the point in the teaching sequence where teachers try to arouse the students’ interest, thus their emotions.

         Most people can remember lesson at school which were uninvolving and where they ‘switched off’ from what was being taught them. Frequently, this was because they were bored because they were not emotionally engaged with what was going on. Such lessons can be contrasted with lesson where they were amused stimulated or challenged. It seems quite clear that lessons involved not only more ‘fun’, but also better learning.

Activities and materials which frequently engage students include: game (depending on age and type) music, discussions (when handled challengingly), stimulating pictures, dramatic stories, amusing anecdotes etc. but even where such activities and material are not used teachers will want to ensure that their students engage with the topic, exercise or language they are going to be dealing with. They will ask students what they think of a topic before asking them to read about it, for example. They will look at the picture of a person and be asked to guess what their occupation is before they listen to that person on tape will have been stimulated by the fact that teacher (who normally dresses very formally and always stays in the same place in class) suddenly arrives in class dressed casually and moves around the room with unaccustomed ease and so on.

When students are engaged, they learn better than when they are party or wholly disengaged!       

         Study

         Study activities are those where the students are asked to focus in on language (or information) and how it is constructed. They range from the study and practice of a single sound to investigation of how a writer achieves a particular effect in along text; from an examination and practice of a verb tense to the study of a transcript of informal speech to discuss spoken style.

Students can study in a variety of different style: the teachers can explain grammar, they can study language evidence to discover grammar for themselves, they can work in group studying a reading text or vocabulary. But whatever the style, study means any stage at which the construction of language is the main focus.

         Some typical areas for study might be the study and practice of the vowel sound in ‘ship’ and ‘sheep’ (e.g. ‘chip, cheap, dip, deep, bit, beat’ etc.), the study and practice of the third person singular of the present simple (He sleep, She laughs, It works’ etc), the study and practice of inviting patterns (‘Would you like to come to the cinema\ to a concert? etc.), the study and practice of the way we use pronoun in written discourse (e.g. ‘A man entered a house in Brixton. He was tall with an unusual hat. It was multicoloured …etc.) the study and practice of paragraph organization (topic sentence, development, conclusion) or of the rules ‘make’ and ‘do’.

Successful language learning in a classroom depends on a judicious blend of subconscious language acquisition (through listening and reading, for example) and the kind of study activities we have looked at here.

         Activate

         This element describes exercise and activities which are designed to get students using language as freely and ‘communication’ as they can. The objective for the students is not to focus on language construction and\or practise specific bite of language (grammar pattern, particular vocabulary items or functions) but for them to use all and any language which may be appropriate for a given situation or topic. Thus, Activate exercises offer students a chance to try out real language use with little or no restriction – a kind of rehearsal for the real world.

    Typical Activate exercise include role-plays (where students act out as realistically as possible, an exchange between a travel agent and a client, for example) advertisement designed (where the students write and then record a radio commercial, for example) debates and discussion, ‘Describe and Draw’ (where one students try to get another to draw a picture without that other students being able to see the original) and poem writing, writing I groups etc.

If students do not have a chance to Activate their knowledge in the safety of a classroom, they may find transferring language acquisition and study into language use in the real world far more problematical.

         These ESA elements need to be present in most lessons or teaching sequences. Whether the main focus of the lesson is a piece of grammar (in which case there will be opportunities for studying and Activation), or whether the focus is on reading (where there may be a lot of Activation of language knowledge in the processing of the text, but where, at some stage, the students will also study the construction of that text or the use of some language within it), students to be Engaged, if possible, so that they can get the maximum out of the learning experience. Most students will want to have studied some aspect of language, however small or of short duration, during a lesson period.

There are some exceptions to this, of course, notably in classes where an Activation exercise takes up a lot of time, for example, with a debate or a role-play or a piece of extended writing. In such cases, teachers may not want to interrupt the flow of Activation with a study stage. But they will want to use the exercise as a basis for previous or subsequent study of language aspects which are crucial to the activity. The same might be true of an extended study period where chances for Activation are few. But, in both these case, the only limitation is time. The missing elements will appear, only perhaps later.

         The majority of teaching and learning at lower levels in not made up of such long activities, however. Instead, it is far more likely that there will be more than one sequence or period.

To say that the three elements need to be present does not mean they always have to take place in the same order. The last thing we want to do is bore our students by constantly offering them the same predictable learning patterns. It is instead, our responsibility to vary the sequences and content of our lessons, and the different ESA patterns that we are now going to describe show how this can be done.

  

1.12 How do the three elements of ESA fit together in class sequences?

One type of teaching sequence takes students in a straight line: first the teachers gets the class interested and Engaged, then study something and they then try to Activate it by putting it into production. Here is an example of such a ‘Straight Arrows’ sequence designed for elementary-level students.

          Engage

Students and teachers look at a picture or video of modern robots. They say what the robots are doing. They say why they like or don’t like robots.

          Study: the teachers shows students (the picture of) a particular robot. Students are introduced to ‘can’ and ‘can’t’ (how they are pronounced and constructed) and say thing like ‘It can do mathematic’ and ‘It can’t play the piano’. The teachers tries to make sure the sentences are pronounced correctly and that the students use accurate grammar.

          Activate: students work in groups and design their own robot. They make a presentation to the class saying what their robot can and can’t do.

         We ca represent this kind of lesson in the following way.

          EAS

        

         ● Engage

         ● Study

         ● Activate

         ESA straight Arrows sequence

         Straight Arrows lessons sequence work very well for certain structures. The robot example above clearly shows how ‘can’ are constructed and how they are used. It gives students a chance to practise the language in a controlled way (during the study phase) and then gives them the chance to Activate the ‘new’ language in an enjoyable way.

         However, if we teach all our lessons like this, we may not be given our students’ own learning styles a fare chance. Such a procedure may work at lower levels for straightforward language, but it might not be so appropriate for more advanced with complex language.

Thus, while there is nothing wrong with going in a straight line-for the right students at the right level learning the right language – it is not always appropriate. Instead, there are other possibilities for the sequence of the ESA elements. Here, for example, is a Boomerang procedure.

         Engage

         Students and teachers discuss issue surrounding job interviews. What make a good interviewee? What short of thing does the interviewer want to find out? The students get interested in the discussion.

 Activate

         The teacher describes an interview situation which the students are going to act out in a role-play. The students plan the kind of question they are going to ask and the kind of answers they might want to give (not focusing on language construction etc. but treating it as a real-life task). They then role-play the interviews. While they are doing this, the teacher makes a note of English mistakes they make and difficulties they have. 

 Study

When the role-play are over, the teachers work with students on the grammar and vocabulary which course them trouble during the role-play they might compare their language with more correct usage and try to work out (discover) for themselves where they went wrong. They might do some controlled practice of the language. 

 Activate

         Some time later, students role-play another job interview, bringing in the knowledge the gained in the study phrase. 

The diagram for boomerang lessons represents this procedure in the following way.

                                                        

         In the sequence the teacher is answering the needs of the students. They are note taught language until and unless they have shown (in the Activate phase) that they have a need for it. In some ways, this makes much better sense because the connection between what students need to learn and what they are taught is more transparent. However, it places a greater burden on the teachers since he or she will have to be able to find good teaching material based on the (often unforeseen) problem thrown up at the Activate stage. It may also be more appropriate for students at intermediate and advanced levels since they have quite a lot of language available for them at the Activate stage.

         The two we’ve shown so far demonstrate two different approaches to language teaching. In straight arrows sequence the teacher knows what the students needs and takes them logically to the point where they can activate the knowledge which he or she helped them to acquire. For boomerang sequence, however the teachers select the task the students need to perform deciding what they need to study.

         Many lessons aren’t quite as clear-cut as this, however. Instead, they are a mixture of procedure and mini-procedure, a variety of episodes building up to a whole. Here is a example of this kind of ‘Patchwork’ lesson

   Engage

         Students look at a picture of sunbathers and respond to it by commenting on the people and the activity they are taking part in. Maybe they look at each other’s holiday photos etc. 

   Activate

         Students act out a dialogue between a doctor and a sunburn victim after a day at the beach.

   Activate

         Students look at the text describing different people and the effects the sun has their skin. They say how they feel about it.  

   Study

         The teachers does vocabulary work on word such as ‘pale, fair-skinned, freckles, tan’ etc., ensuring that the students understand the meaning, the hyphened compound nature of some of them, and that they are able to say them with the correct pronunciation in appropriate contexts.

   Activate

         Students describe themselves or people they know in the same kind of ways as the reading text.

   Study

         The teacher focuses the students’ attention on the relative clause construction used in the text (e.g. ‘I’m the type of person who always burns’, ‘I’m the type of person who burns easily). The use of the ‘who’ clause is discussed and students practise sentence saying thing like they’re the kind of people who enjoy movies’ etc.  

   Engage

         Teacher discusses advertisements with the students. What are they for? What different ways do they try to achieve their effect? What are the most effective ads the students can think of? Perhaps the teacher plays some radio commercials or put some striking visual ads on an overhead projector.

   Activate:

         The students write a radio commercial for a sunscreen. The teacher lets them record it using sound effects and music.

The patchwork diagram for this teaching sequence is shown on the text next page.

       Such classes are very common, especially at intermediate and advanced levels. Not only do they probably reflect the way we learn – rather chaotically, not always in a straight line-but they also provide an appealing balance between Study and Activation, between language and topic. They also give the students the kind of flexibility. 

                 

·  What teaching models have influence current teaching practice?

         For as long as people have been learning and teaching languages, there has been continual debate about how to describe the process and what the best ways of doing it are. Much current teaching practice is the direct result of such constructive argument.

         There have been some traditional language learning techniques that have been used for many years. In more current times, there have been five models teaching models which had a strong influence on classroom practice – and which teachers and trainers still refer to . They are grammar – translation, Audio-legalism, PPP, Task-Based Learning, and communicative Language teaching.

        

Grammar-translation

         There was probably the most commonly used way of learning languages for hundreds of years –and it is still practised in many situations. Practitioners think that, by analyzing the grammar and by finding equivalents between the students’ language and the language to be studied, the students will learn how the foreign language is constructed.

         It is certainly true that the most language learners translate in their heads at the various stages anyway, and we can learn a lot about a foreign language by comparing part of it which part of our own. But a concentration on grammar- translation stops the students from getting the kind of natural language input that will help them acquire language knowledge, and it often fails to give them opportunities to activate their language knowledge. The danger with grammar- translation, in other words, is that it teaches people about the language and doesn’t really help them to learn the language itself.

          Audio-lingualism

         This is the name given to a language- teaching methodology based heavily on behaviourist theories of learning. These theories suggested that much learning is the result of habit formation through conditioning. As a result of this, audio-lingual classes concentrated on long repetition-drill stages, in teacher hoped that the students would acquire good language habits. By rewarding correct production during these repetition phases, students could be conditioned into learning the language.

         Audio-lingualism (and behaviourism) went out of fashion vecause commentators from all sides argued that language learning was far more subtle than just the formation of habits. For example, students are soon able to say thing they have never heard or practiced before because all humans have the power to be creative in language based on the underlying knowledge they have acquired- including rules of construction, and a knowledge of when a certain kind or form of language is appropriate. Methodologists were also concerned that in audio-lingualism students were not exposed to real or realistic language.

         However, it is interesting to note that drilling is still popular (in a far more limited way) during the study phase, especially for lo0w-level students.

PPP: this stands for PRESENTATION, PRACTICE and PRODUCTION and is similar to the straight arrows kind of lesson described above. In PPP classes or sequences, the teacher presents the context and situation for the language (e.g. describing a robot), and both explain and demonstrates the meaning and form of the new language (‘can’ and ‘can’t’) the students then practise making sentences with ‘can’ and ‘can’t’ before going on to the production stage in which they talk more freely about themselves (‘I can play the viola but I can’t play the drums’) or other people in the real world (e.g. ‘My girlfriend can speak Spanish’ etc.) As with straight arrows lessons, PPP is extremely effective for teaching simple language at lower levels. It becomes less appropriate when students already know a lot of language, and therefore don’t need the same kind of marked presentation.

         Task-based learning

         Here the emphasis is on the task rather than the language. For example, students might be encouraged to ask for information about train and bus timetables and to get the correct answers (that is the task). We give them the timetables and they then try and complete the task (after, perhaps, hearing someone else do it or asking for examples of the kind of language they might want to use).       When they have completed the task, we can then, if necessary-and only if necessary-give them a bit of language study to clear up some of the problems they encountered while completing the task. Alternatively, we might ask them to write part of a guidebook for their area. When they have completed the task (which will involve finding facts, planning content and writing the brochure etc), we can then read their effort and do some language\writing study to help them to do better next time.

         It will be noticed immediately that-based learning sequences fit very neatly into our boomerang lesson description, where language activation is the first goal and study comes later if and when appropriate.  

         COMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING:

          This was a radio departure from the PPP- type lesson which had tended to dominate language teaching. Communicative language teaching has two main stands: the first is that language is not just bits of grammar; it also involves language functions such as inviting, agreeing and disagreeing etc. which students should learn how to use. They also need to be aware of the need for appropriacy when talking and writing to people in terms of the kind of language they use (formal, informal, tentative, technical etc.)

         The second strand of communicative language teaching developed from the idea that if the students get e3nough exposure to language and opportunities for its use- and if they are motivated- then language learning will take care of itself. In other words, the focus of much communicative language teaching becomes what we have called activation, and study tended to be downplayed to some extent.

         Communicative language teaching has had a thoroughly beneficial effect since it reminded teachers that people learn language not so that they ‘know’ them, so that they can communicate. Giving students different kind of language, pointing them to aspects of style and appropriacy, and above all giving them opportunities to try out real language within the classroom humanized what had sometimes been too regimented. Above all, it stressed the need for activation and allowed us to consider boomerang – and patchwork- type lesson where before they tended to be less widely used.

         Debate still continue, of course, Recent theory and practice have included: the introduction of discovery activities (where students are asked to discover facts about language for themselves rather tan have the teacher or book tell them. The lexical approach in which it is argued that words and phrases are far building blocks for language than grammatical structure; classroom stages being given new names to help us describe teaching and learning in different ways; and the study of the different between spoken and writing language to suggest different activities and content on language course.

         Whichever way of describing language teaching prefer, the three elements described here- engage, study and activate- are the basic building blocks for successful language teaching and learning. By using them in different and varied sequences, teachers will be doing their best promote their students success.

          Conclusion

         In this chapter we have

            ● talk about the elements necessary to learn language in the ‘real’ world: exposure, motivation and use.

            ● describe the three elements necessary for successful teaching and learning in class: E(engage), S(study), A(activate).

            ● describe three different lesson sequences which contain the engage, study and activate elements. In straight arrows lessons the order is E-S-A but in boomerang lessons, teachers may move straight from an engage stage to an activate stage. Study can then be based on how well students performed (E-A-S). patchwork classes mix the three elements in various different sequences (e.g. E-A-A-S-A-S-E-A…..etc.).

            ● talked about the different models which people have to describe teaching such as PPP (Presentation, Practice and Production), task-based learning (which puts the task first and language study last) and communicative language teaching ( with its twin emphasis on appropriate language use and activation methodology).

            ● see how PPP is a form of straight arrows lesson, while task- based learning is more like boomerang or patchwork sequences. We point out that communicative language teaching was responsible for the modern emphasis on the activate stages of lessons.

            ● mentioned in passing, some of the issues which people are currently debating.

            ●point out that good teacher vary that ESA sequences the yuse with their students – to avoid monotony and a range of learning sequences. The three elements are always present, but in many different combinations.

 

1.13 How to improve teaching quality

         An announcement goes out to the faculty that from now on the university will operate as a total quality management campus. All academic, business, and service functions will be assessed regularly, and quality teams will plan ways to improve them. A campus quality director and a steering team are named, with the director reporting to the Provost. All university departments appoint quality coordinators, who attend a one-day workshop on quality management principles and return to their departments to facilitate faculty and/or staff meetings at which quality improvement is discussed.

         Many faculty members are irate. They argue that TQM was developed by and for industry to improve profits, industry and the university are totally different, and talking of students as "customers" is offensive and makes no sense. They make it clear that they will have nothing to do with this scheme and will view any attempt to compel them to participate as a violation of their academic freedom.

         What happens then is…practically nothing. Some changes are made in business and service departments, some curricula are revised, and a few instructors make changes in what they do in their classrooms but most go on teaching the way they have always taught. After two or three years the steering committee writes its final report declaring the program an unqualified success and disbands, and life goes on.

         Higher education discovered total quality management in the 1980s and quickly became enamored of it. Books like TQM for Professors and Students (Bateman and Roberts 1992) and Total Quality Management in Higher Education (Sherr and Teeter 1991) declared that TQM could serve as a paradigm for improving every aspect of collegiate functioning from fiscal administration to classroom instruction. Terms like "customer focus," "employee empowerment," "continuous assessment," and "Deming’s 14 principles" started appearing with regularity in education journals and in administrative pronouncements on campuses all over the country. Deming himself suggested the linkage between quality management principles and education, claiming that "…improvement of education, and the management of education, require application of the same principles that must be used for the improvement of any process, manufacturing or service" (Deming, 1994).

Some academic programs and many individual faculty members have tried applying quality principles in their work. Recent papers in engineering education describe quality-based models for classroom instruction (Jensen and Robinson 1995; Shuman et al. 1996; Stedinger 1996; Latzgo 1997; Karapetrovic and Rajamani 1998), curriculum reform and revision (Bellamy et al. 1994; Litwhiler and Kiemele 1994; Summers 1995; Houshmand et al. 1996; Shelnutt and Buch 1996), and department program planning and administration (Diller and Barnes 1994). Nevertheless, after more than a decade of such efforts, TQM has not established itself as the way many universities operate, especially in matters related to classroom instruction.

         Our concern in this paper is specifically with teaching, as opposed to academic or research program structure and administration. We first consider how an instructor can improve the quality of instruction in an individual course, and then the more difficult question of how an academic organization (a university, college, or academic department) can improve the quality of its instructional program. In both cases, we examine the potential contribution of quality management principles to teaching improvement programs in light of the cultural differences between industry and the university.