ITTT 007

Unit 7
Teaching new language

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International TEFL and TESOL Training
Where the world is your classroom
Unit 7
Teaching new language
Vocabulary, grammar
and functions
Whatever the level of the class, and however the
teacher arranges the study phase of the lesson, there
are four things that students need to do with new
language; be exposed to it, understand its meaning,
understand how it's constructed and be able to
practise and produce it.

Grammar is often said to be the tree trunk and

branches of a language while vocabulary and
functions are the leaves that add beauty and variety.
Certainly one does not appear so attractive and
appealing without the others and one in isolation isn't
truly effective. Therefore we have to ensure that
students are introduced to new language in a
balanced and manageable way.

Some lessons that we teach may include new

grammar, vocabulary and functions. More often than
not lessons will introduce, or be specifically focused
on, just one area.

We can easily apply our ESA methods to introduce new

language. Lessons that are specifically targeted to
grammar or vocabulary commonly use the 'straight
arrow' ESA approach, whereas functions-based lessons are more commonly approached with 'boomerang' or
'patchwork' ESA structures. This is certainly not a rule that has to, or even should, be followed. An effective teacher will
think about which structure is most appropriate to the class and to the language that will be introduced.

After you have digested the information in this unit, complete the worksheet.

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Unit 7
Teaching new language
Teaching Vocabulary Vocabulary is very important to the students, especially at the early stages when students are
motivated to learn the basic words they need to get by in the language.

As a rule, a learner's receptive (words the student knows but doesn't use) vocabulary is much
larger than his or her productive (words the student knows and uses) vocabulary; the
students can usually understand many more words than they can actively use.

How easy or difficult a vocabulary item is will largely depend on a number of factors:

n Similarity to students' own language

n Similarity to English words already known
n Spelling and pronunciation
n Appropriacy

Selecting Vocabulary Whilst there is a general consensus about which grammatical

structures should be taught at which levels the same is not true of
vocabulary. One of the biggest problems of vocabulary teaching is
how to select which words to teach. Although the teacher is
generally guided by the course and teacher's book, the following
criteria can be used:

n Appropriacy to the students

n Appropriacy to the task
n Frequency and coverage – how often are the students likely to
use/come across the language and can it be applied to different
situations (The Cobuild English Dictionary gives some very helpful
frequency information.)
n Teachability – for example, beginner students need very clear and
visual language

What do students need to n Meaning – what it means

know about a vocabulary item? n Use – how/when it is appropriate to use
n Word grammar – where it belongs
n Interaction – how it interacts and affects other words
n Spelling – how it is written
n Pronunciation – how it is spoken

Techniques for
vocabulary teaching

Engage The following methods can all be used to help

engage the students and to elicit/explain meaning

n Realia
n Mime and action
n Pictures
n Contrast
n Discussion
n Discovery

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Unit 7
Teaching new language
Study Study activities can include:

n Gap-fill exercises
n Word searches
n Crosswords
n Matching exercises
n Example sentences
n Pronunciation exercises such as drilling
n Study from texts and dialogues

Activate The activate stage of a vocabulary lesson may

include such activities as:

n Open class, small group or pair discussion

n Role-play
n Simulation
n Story building
n Material production task (poster,
advertisement, etc.)
n Debate

Typical ESA vocabulary lesson A typical 'straight arrow' structured ESA vocabulary (for household
furniture vocabulary) lesson for lower level students with the
learning objective – “At the end of the lesson students will be able to
use vocabulary associated with houses, rooms and furniture” might
look something like this:

Engage Open class activity where students share

information about where they live, type of house
they live in, rooms they have. Maybe students can
be asked in the lesson before to bring pictures or
draw a floor plan to show other students. If this is
likely to create any social discomfort, the teacher
can bring a picture of his/her house, or houses in
general, for discussion.

Study Teacher shows a small text, or plays dialogue, of

someone describing their house. Checks
pronunciation, spelling, meaning, etc with some
of the study activities mentioned above.

Activate Teacher tells small groups or pairs of students that

they can design their perfect house, complete with
furnishings, money no object. Later students
present their 'dream' house to the class and the
class has a discussion on pros and cons of each
house before voting on which house they would
like to live in.
Please note that this isn't the right way to approach it. It is just one
way. There are many other ways of achieving the same end. A
patchwork structured approach can be seen in unit 3.

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Unit 7
Teaching new language
Introducing Which new language structures we introduce are largely determined by the level of the class
grammatical structures and the course syllabus we are using. However, in all cases, the students will need to know
what the language means, how it is used, what the grammatical form is and how it is
said/written.

n Meaning – what the language means

n Use – how/when it is used
n Forms and Patterns – formation and patterns of the language
n Spoken and written form – any differences in forms. For example in written form 'I am going
to…..' often becomes 'I'm gonna…..' in spoken form.

Techniques for presenting and

practising language structures

Engage n Discussion
n Scenario building
n Prompting
n Question and answer
n Using pictures, drawings, real objects, mime, etc.

Study n Intonation and pronunciation patterns

n Looking at the language in context through texts
and dialogues
n Choral and individual repetition (drilling)
n Gap fills
n Information gaps
n Sentence word order activities (unscramble
jumbled sentences, etc.)
n Sentence building

Activate n Communication games

n Role-play
n Story building
n Discussion/debate

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Unit 7
Teaching new language
Typical ESA grammar lesson A typical ESA patchwork grammar lesson for mid level students with
the learning objective – “At the end of the lesson students will be
able to talk/write about films and books using the past simple
tense.”:

Engage Students discuss favourite books/films, what they

liked about them, etc. If teacher has told them in
advance, they can bring copies in.

Activate In pairs students write brief synopsis of a book or

film they have seen.

Study From the synopsis, analyze the usage of the past

simple tense. Further study activities to reinforce
meaning, formation and pronunciation.

Activate In groups students write short story from picture

prompts.

Study Group passes story to another group who check for

correct usage of past tense. Any errors
discussed/analyzed in class.

Activate Chain story communication game. One student

starts the story, the next continues, and so on.

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Unit 7
Teaching new language
Teaching language As well as vocabulary and grammar, language also consists of functions. Language functions
functions include areas such as inviting, refusing, agreeing and disagreeing, suggesting, etc. Teaching
language functions also includes the appropriacy (or appropriateness) of the language in
terms of the kind of language they use – formal, informal, tentative, technical etc.

Language function lessons will stress the need for activation of language and is perhaps
most effectively used with the boomerang and patchwork type ESA lessons that we saw in
unit 3. Certainly role-plays are very useful here.

Typical ESA function lesson A typical function (inviting in this case) ESA boomerang type lesson
could be:

Engage Students talk in open class about their favourite

leisure activities, why they like them, how often they
do them etc. Teacher uses prompts to get students
opinions on certain other activities.

Activate Students walk around class inviting peers to join

them in their favourite activities until they have
found at least two students who would like to do so.

Study Teacher and students listen to invitation dialogue on

tape. Compare to the language they used and
analyze ways of inviting formally/informally and
accepting/rejecting such invitations appropriately.
Some pronunciation and other study exercises used
to reinforce.

Activate Using new language students role-play in pairs. One

wants a date with the other and invites. The other
isn't keen on the date so makes excuses. The
winner is the student who doesn't run out of
invitations or rejections!

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Unit 7
Teaching new language

Task sheet
Check your knowledge before attempting the unit test.

Please note that this task sheet is solely for checking

that you have understood the course unit content. You
do not need to submit this task sheet – just use it to
check you have understood the major points.

Task 1 – What criteria do we need to consider when selecting vocabulary?

Task 2 – What does a student need to know about a vocabulary item? Give examples to clarify your ideas.

Task 3 – List 20 vocabulary items that relate to food:

Task 4 – What do students need to know about grammatical structures? Give examples to clarify your ideas.

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Unit 7
Teaching new language

Task 5 – Plan a straight line ESA lesson for a language level of your choice, to cover vocabulary connected with the topic of
food:

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Unit 7
Teaching new language

Task 6 – Plan a boomerang ESA lesson, for a language level of your choice, for the present continuous tense:

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Unit 7
Teaching new language

Task 7 – Plan a patchwork ESA lesson for the function of checking into a hotel. Be sure that the function is appropriate for
the language level you choose:

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