Lecture 1

INTRODUCTION TO ELT. BASIC NOTIONS.

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

“If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don't bother trying to teach
them.
Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.” 
 Richard Buckminster Fuller

1. Methodology (from Greek methodos – спосіб, шлях дослідження або

пізнання, logos – поняття, вчення) is a branch of pedagogy which deals with
peculiarities of teaching a certain subject. The methodology is a system of principles
and ways of organization and construction of theoretical and practical activity as well
as teaching about this system. Methodology of foreign language teaching is a science
that studies aims, content, means, principles, techniques and methods of a system of
instruction and education on the material of a foreign language.
Language teaching has undergone an amazing change in the last decades: from
teacher-centred classrooms to individualized learning, from grammar-translation
method to communicative approach and from the chalkboard to the Internet, we have
come a long way.
Language education includes the teaching and learning of a language. It is more
commonly used with regard to foreign/second/new language teaching (FLT, SLT,
NLT). English language teaching (ELT) or teaching English as a foreign/second/new
language (TEFL, TESL ,TENL) is a branch of methodological science which studies
why we study/teach English or other foreign/new languages, in other words, what
aims and objectives are stated; what we actually study/teach in the educational
process or what the content of the course is. ELT course and methodological science
can help a practical teacher to decide with the help of what to teach, what teaching
aids and materials are the most effective and relevant to the teacher‘s aims and, last
but not least, how to teach, what approaches, methods, principles and techniques
will be the most successful in the language classroom for achieving necessary results.
FLT is closely related to other sciences such as pedagogy, psychology,
physiology, linguistics and some others. The methodology of TEFL seems to embody
such basic categories on which there is general agreement among those who have
studied the subject: approach, method, technique, aim, content, principle, and means
of instruction.
Approach is a theory about the nature of language and language learning. An
approach describes how language is used. It also describes how people acquire their
knowledge of the language. An approach makes statements about the conditions
which will promote successful language learning. Method is a practical realization of
an approach. Method describes types of activities, roles of teacher and learners, kinds
of materials, models of syllabus organization. Method includes various procedures
and techniques. Procedure is an ordered sequence of techniques. For example: first,
you do this, then you do that… The procedure is smaller than a method but bigger
than a technique. Technique is a variety of exercises, activities, devices used in the
language classroom for realizing lesson objectives. E.g.: finger technique (teacher
holds up his hands and allocates a word to each of his five fingers); or technique of
silent viewing (teacher plays the video with no sound). The choice of techniques is of
great importance for effective teaching. When organizing the teacher thinks of the
techniques which are more suitable for learners needs: age, the progress in language
learning (the stage of learning), their intellectual development, the conditions under
which they learn.
Aim is a direction or guidance to establish a course or procedure to be followed.
The teacher should formulate long-term goals and short-term objectives. What
changes he can bring about in his pupils at the end of the week, month, year, course,
and each particular lesson. Practical aims cover habits and skills which pupils acquire
in using a foreign language. A habit is an automatic response to specific situations,
acquired normally as a result of repetition and learning.
Practical aims. Students should acquire a language as a means of
communication and be able to use it while listening, reading, speaking, writing. This
is reflected in the syllabus in accordance with the stages of instruction.
Educational aims. Learning a second language is of great educational value.
Since language is connected with thinking, through foreign language study students
develop their intellect. Students have to memorize words, sentence patterns, idioms,
structures; thus they develop their voluntary and involuntary memory. Through
learning a foreign language students understand how words express thoughts, how
the language functions; thus they come to a better understanding of their native
language. Teaching a foreign language contributes to the linguistic education of the
students; they extend their knowledge of phonic, graphic, structural and semantic
aspects of language through contrastive analysis of language phenomena. Learning a
second language also develops students’ imagination and willpower.
Cultural aims. Learning a foreign language students read books, magazines,
watch films, study such materials as maps, photos, menus, pictures, posters. In this
way, they get acquainted with the life, customs and traditions of people whose
language they study.
Practical, educational and cultural aims are related and form a unity.
The content of FLT or “what to teach” is laid down in the syllabus. The content
of FLT includes three components:
Psychological – it answers the question “what to teach” in psychological
terminology – habits and skills. The syllabus determines the following 4 skills the
students should acquire while learning a foreign language: speaking, reading, writing,
listening.
Linguistic – it includes language material such as sentence- patterns, utterance-
patterns, pattern- dialogues, texts, topics It also includes linguistic material, such as
phonology, grammar and vocabulary., which is carefully selected. A great deal of
work has been done in compiling the minimum vocabulary and minimum grammar.
Methodological – students should be taught how to learn a foreign language. For
example, how to memorize words and keep them in memory, how to perform drill
exercises in a most effective way, how to perform creative exercises.
Principles of FLT. The methodology of FLT is based on the fundamental
principles of didactics:
1. Scientific approach implies the careful determination of what and how to teach
to achieve the aims set by the syllabus. Since the leading role belongs to the practical
aim, one of the main methodological principles is the principle of the practical or
communicative approach. It means pupils should be involved in oral and written
communications throughout the whole course of learning the FL. Pupils are taught an
FL as a means of communication.
2. The next principle is closely connected with the selection of the material and
its arrangement to provide accessibility for language learning on the part of the
pupils.
3. The principle of durability implies the ability of a pupil to keep in his memory
linguistic and language material. The durability is ensured by the vivid presentation
of the material, by constant revision of drill, by the use of the material for
communicative needs, by systematic control.
4. The principle of the conscious approach to language learning implies
comprehension of a linguistic phenomenon of language material by the pupil. Pupils
are supposed to understand both the form and the content of the material and to be
aware of how they should treat the material while performing various examples.
5. The principle of activity. In teaching an FL it is necessary to stimulate pupils’
activity by involving them in the act of communication in the target language, either
in its oral (listening, speaking) or written (reading, writing) form.
6. The principle of visualization. It may be defined as a specially organized
demonstration of linguistic material and language behaviour characteristic of the
target language with the purpose of helping the pupil in understanding, assimilating
and utilizing this in connection with the task set. Visualization implies an extensive
use of audio-visual aids throughout the whole course of FLT.
7. The principle of individualization. The teacher should assess the progress of
each learner and find a way how to manage the classroom activity so that the slowest
learners are not depressed by being left behind and the fastest and most able learners
are not frustrated by being held back.

Communicative competence encompasses the knowledge of how to use

language in the real world, without which the rules of grammar would be useless. It
can be described as including grammar competence (knowledge of grammar rules,
lexis and phonetics), pragmatic competence (knowledge of how to express a
message), strategic competence (knowledge of how to express a message in a variety
of circumstances), socio-cultural competence (knowledge of social etiquette, national
mindset, values, etc.) Communicative competence breaks down into two components
of knowledge: knowledge of language and knowledge of how to achieve the goal of
communication.
Competence is not the same as ability. In order to be able to communicate,
people need psychophysiological mechanisms, i. e. communicative skills.
Teaching the language is integral to teaching culture as a set of beliefs, values
and norms shared by community members, serving their identity with this social
group. Co-teaching of language and culture is implemented through content-based
and context-based language instruction. Content-based teaching of culture focuses on
culture-related information, while context-based instruction emphasizes real-world
situations where people need to behave in a culturally appropriate way. Content-based
teaching is knowledge-oriented. Context-based instruction is skill-oriented.
Following the idea of communicative competence priority, it’s worth mentioning
the importance of improving the skills of the 21st-century learner in ELT. Among
them: flexibility; initiative; collaborating; critical thinking; citizenship (social skills);
productivity; communicating; information literacy; leadership; creative thinking
(imagination); media literacy; technology literacy. Language education not only
contributes to students’ career and college readiness, it also helps develop the
individual as language learners take on a new and more invigorating view of the
world. Such ambitious goals can be achieved by the teacher through organizing
communicative activities applying specific techniques particularly focused on
learners’ needs.
Communicative techniques. A technique is a way for the teacher to organize a
learner activity. The purpose of communicative techniques is to teach
communication. Communicative techniques can develop in learners productive,
receptive and interactive skills that are necessary for effective communication.
Activities with listening and reading aim at developing learners’ skills of receiving
information. Activities with speaking and writing develop learners’ skills of
producing information. Both can be learner interactive and thus promote
communication. Some activities are more associated with reading and listening
(receptive skills), while others are more often used with speaking and writing
(productive skills).
As with any speech activity, a communicative activity must be purposeful. The
teacher should create a communicative purpose motivating learners to fulfil a stated
communicative task. That will create a desire to communicate, without which
communication will fail. Free, communicative activity focuses on content, first and
foremost, not on form, as the priority is given to fluency of speech, its appropriacy to
the situation, but not to grammatical accuracy. Students are free to express
themselves, thus a variety of languages is used. Such kinds of activities encourage
students to communicate without teacher intervention or material control as in real
life. In communicative classes, a wide variety of activities such as role-plays,
interviews, discussions, information gap activities, language games, language
learning simulations, problem-solving tasks, quizzes, and surveys are used.
 The information gap is organized to promote speaking activities. An information
gap is a situation in which a participant or a group possesses information that others
do not have, while others command information that the first party is missing. E. g. a
student in a pair with another student might have the train timetable for odd numbers,
while her partner might have the train timetable for even numbers. Their task is to use
communication for finding out complete information on how the train runs. An
information gap can take the format of an opinion gap when the participants differ in
their opinions. The gap is filled in the course of active communication. Any activity
with an information gap can be turned into a communicative game if there are rules to
name the winner. The information gap is a frequent technique used in order to
organize a communicative game. E. g. you have new neighbours. They can tell you
about themselves only what is given on their role cards. Try to guess their
professions. Direct questions about professions are excluded.
Reading and speaking can be boosted by a matching activity, in which the
participants are to match pictures and texts, pictures and pictures, texts (both oral and
written) by using questions.
Jigsaw reading activity is organized most often with the texts that are meant for
reading or listening (“jigsaw” reading/listening). A text is divided into several parts.
Every participant has access to only one part of the text. They ask each other
questions and provide information to pool the parts of the text together and to know
the contents of the whole text. Another variant is jigsaw listening when each
participant or a small group listens to only some information as part of the whole.
These pieces can be brought together only in the course of active communication
efforts.
Another activity for reading is sequencing. The task consists in asking the
learners to restore the logical order between parts of the text. It can produce an
‘opinion gap’ and boost communication.
Productive skills of speaking and writing are developed in simulations. A
simulation means that an episode of the real world is reproduced in the classroom
environment in the form of a role-play, discussion (problem-solving), piece of writing
or project work.
An important aspect of communicative teaching is classroom interaction. This
form of communication develops between the learners and the teacher. Learners’
interaction is organized in pairs, small groups, moving circles, parallel lines of pairs,
etc. Classroom interaction promotes a communicative classroom atmosphere and
successful communicative teaching.
Communicative teaching is often organized in the three-phase framework:
pre-activity, while-activity and post-activity. Pre-activity is organized to arouse
interest in the learners towards the main task, to motivate performance, to activate in
learners their prior knowledge and to prepare them for the language that may be
necessary to perform the main task. While-activity is organized as oral or written
communication and is based on engaging the learners in the communicative tasks.
Post-activity is a reflection on the ideas and language that was produced during the
main activity. This phase also includes additional language drills and integration with
other skills.
The focus of communicative activities is usually on developing language skills
and functions in authentic contexts. The role of a teacher in a communicative
classroom is to facilitate language learning in meaningful ways.

Lecture 2

PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES IN ELT.

LEARNING STYLES

“The job of an educator is to teach students to see vitality in themselves” 

Joseph Campbell

When the students are learning English as a foreign language, they are
undergoing the hard process of language acquisition. Their internal feelings can
certainly affect how they progress and this lesson gives you an overview of those
factors in learning. To define affective factors let’s consider the following: Alice
recently moved to the US with her parents. She misses her life back home and feels
lost at her new school. In short, Alice goes through a lot of feelings of anxiety and
homesickness every day. Her emotions affect her school progress.
Affective factors are the set of emotions and attitudes people have about
themselves or the surrounding environment. In second language acquisition, these
factors play an important role. There are a few affective factors that impact the
learning of a second language. The impact can be positive or negative, which directly
depends on the emotion or attitude the student has.
Inhibition. Students who have high levels of inhibition often choose not to
participate. Inhibition is the mechanism a person uses to protect themselves from
exposure to others. Inhibited students usually feel vulnerable or even less capable
than their peers. Thus, inhibition has a negative impact on performance but not
necessarily on learning. For instance, due to the fact that Alice would prefer to be
back home, she feels vulnerable. While her peers participate in class, she remains
silent. Alice’s refusal to participate means she is not practicing speaking and
pronunciation skills, but she still learns from what her peers say because she listens to
them and the teacher.
Attitudes. A positive attitude towards anyone or anything that has to do with
learning can have a positive effect on second language acquisition. Attitude includes
the way a student feels about the teacher, classmates, classroom, school, and even
learning materials. For example, Alice likes her English language teacher, which can
positively influence her learning. However, Alice hates reading textbooks in her
lessons. She finds the material too complicated and boring. This, in turn, negatively
affects Alice's reading skills. Sometimes, students dislike learning materials because
of the topic, the voice, and even the physical appearance.
 Levels of Anxiety. Feelings of anxiety are obviously uncomfortable and our
students in the process of second language acquisition can feel anxiety due to diverse
factors, such as social pressure to academically perform school tests or assignments.
For example, Alice often feels unhappy because her father made it clear she must
learn English to succeed in school. So, Alice's inhibition and negative attitude
towards learning material in English are affecting her academic performance.
Self-Esteem is the self-confidence level and self-respect a person has and it can
influence learning. For instance, Alice does not have any confidence that her
speaking abilities in English are good. On top of this lack of confidence, Alice
compares her low grades to others' in the class, which affects her self-esteem. This
whole scenario puts Alice academically behind her classmates.
Negative affective factors negatively influence second language acquisition, it’s
crucial to talk about what teachers can do. Affective factors may be as important for
successful language learning, if not more so, than the ability to learn. Teachers can
reduce negative factors and develop positive ones by doing activities to build a
positive group dynamic, by including students in deciding aspects of the course and
choosing activities that are motivating for the age and interests of the learners.
Affective factors are closely connected to motivation. It is one of the affective
variables that can influence language learning, a powerful tool for the teacher to
improve the process of teaching in the first place. Learning must be motivated – the
teacher should think over the motives which might make learners learn. They should
have a necessity to speak and not only a desire to receive a good mark. The teacher
should ensure conditions in which a learner will have a desire to say something in a
foreign language, to express his thoughts and feelings. There are two kinds of
motivation:
Extrinsic motivation: refers to motivation that comes from outside an individual.
The motivating factors are external, or outside, such as rewards. These rewards
provide satisfaction and pleasure. The pleasure they anticipate from some external
reward can continue to be a motivator even when the task to be done holds little or no
interest. The possibility of a reward will be enough to keep the learner motivated in
order for him or her to put forth the effort to do well on a task.
Intrinsic motivation: refers to motivation that comes from inside an individual
rather than from any external or outside reward. The motivation comes from the
pleasure one gets from the task itself or from the sense of satisfaction in completing
or even working on a task. Learners who are intrinsically motivated want to learn for
the sake of learning. This doesn’t mean, however, that a person will not seek rewards.
It just means that if the assignment does not interest them, the possibility of a reward
is not enough to maintain their motivation to put any effort into the project.
To fully comprehend the nature of learners’ motivation it might be helpful to
consider the ideas that lie behind Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It proves simple
truth: before expecting students to reach their potential, teachers need to meet
students at their current levels. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a popular motivation
theory that is widely referred to in educational circles.  In this theory, Abraham
Maslow suggested that before individuals meet their full potential, they need to
satisfy a series of needs. At times it can be confusing to apply theory into the
practical realities of a classroom. Still, some of the strategies could be applied: to
support students' physiological needs – ensure that all students have access to water
in their rooms; to support students' safety needs – continuously equip students
and monitor the climate of our classroom to decrease bullying; to support students'
love and belonging needs – make sitting arrangements and put students in groups
where they feel supported; to support students' esteem needs – provide affirmative,
concrete, and transparent feedback so that students know their specific strengths and
can articulate when they've used them to succeed in the classrooms. In theory, when
supported in all of those stages, students can perform at their fullest potential, which
is the self-actualization stage.
Considering all the aspects above, the teacher-domination in the classroom in
the modern view of CLT is denied and the learner is proclaimed to be the subject and
the centre of the educational process, such learner-centred instruction leads to
greater individualization, encouraging students to perform with the target language;
increasing personal sense of relevance and achievement. Thus, the teacher shares
his/her role and responsibility with learners facilitating studying, and plays a variety
of roles. The character of teacher-student interaction, activities proposed, special
organisation of the environment and, as a result, teacher roles reveal the peculiarities
of the classroom
● Manager - the teacher gives instructions for students to get into groups
● Facilitator - the teacher provides material and guidance to enable students to
work on their own.
● Model - the teacher asks students to repeat a sentence after her for
pronunciation practice.
● Monitor - the teacher goes around listening to pairs practising a dialogue.
● Counsellor - the teacher advises students how best to approach a task
● Informant - the teacher explains when we use the present perfect for recently
completed actions.
● Social worker - the teacher stays behind after class and discusses one of the
student's personal problems which is affecting his/her work.
● Friend - the teacher chats with students over coffee or arranges a cinema visit
with a class.
In the communicative language, the classroom teacher can also be an equal
participant. The teacher’s participation does not only improve the atmosphere in the
class but also gives the students a perfect chance to practise English with someone
who speaks it better than they. The roles of tutorial, adviser or guide are applied
when students are involved in self-study or project work and they are appropriate
mostly at intermediate and advanced levels.
The teacher is the head manager of the educational process. It is obvious that
classroom management skills are important since they help to ensure the success of
the teacher and of the activities used at the lesson. Gestures, facial expressions,
teacher‘s manner, position in the classroom, eye contact with students are those
teacher's management skills that can serve as perfect tools for conveying the meaning
of language, reinforcing instructions, cutting down on the number of verbal
explanations. They help the teacher get across what he/she wants to say. Teacher‘s
verbal skills – classroom language, praise and criticism in evaluating learner's work –
can hardly be overestimated as he/she serves as a model in using the target language
and an expert in assessing students‘ work.
To perform the roles effectively the teacher should improve his/her ‘hard’ and
‘soft’ skills which are considered to be crucial in the current management areas.
Hard skills are defined as the skills required for a role that are not interpersonal.
They are specific, teachable and quantifiable abilities. For the teacher, hard skills
might include: a certificate or qualification (perhaps a Bachelor of Education);
knowledge of the content taught (either through education or prior experience in the
field); sound language and literacy; basic computer and word processing skills; skills
acquired through professional development.
Soft skills are a group of personal qualities, attitude and social graces that
differentiate employees. Research has shown that soft skills have just as much impact
on job performance as hard skills, making them a huge priority on an employer’s list.
People with soft skills might display the following characteristics:
● time management (task prioritisation and ability to multi-task);
● excellent communication skills (being both a good listener and speaker);
● strong work ethic (including motivation and determination);
● teamwork (ability to perform in groups through cooperation and
leadership);
● emotional intelligence (understanding and management of emotion);
● leadership (self-confidence, ability to perform the task and inspire others);
● graciousness (acceptance of constructive criticism and team support);
● management style (flexibility and adaptability and ability to work under
pressure);
● positivity and enthusiasm (important for future success).
Throughout a teaching career, the key to success is mastering and finding a
balance between both soft skills and hard skills. One of the keys to achieving both
hard and soft skills as a trainer is through professional development! 
2. Learning Styles – ‘All Students Are Created Equally (and Differently)’.
When dealing with psychological issues in ELT it’s also important to differentiate
between different ways of learning. The term “learning styles” speaks to the
understanding that every student learns differently. Technically, an individual’s
learning style refers to the preferential way in which the student absorbs, processes,
comprehends and retains information. This notion of individualized learning styles
has gained widespread recognition in education theory and classroom management
strategy. Individual learning styles depend on cognitive, emotional and environmental
factors, as well as one’s prior experience. In other words: everyone’s different. It is
important for educators to understand the differences in their students’ learning styles
so that they can implement best practice strategies into their daily activities,
curriculum and assessments.
Language learning style can be influenced by many factors. You can probably
remember going through school and noticing that certain types of instruction and or
activities helped you understand topics more easily than others. This could be
attributed to many different things however you may have noticed that when your
teacher used a lot of examples, and visuals you were able to understand better. Maybe
when a teacher gave you a project that required a hands-on approach you were able to
figure the activity out without any direct explanation. You could be a visual learner or
someone who needs to learn by experiencing it. This is your preferred learning style.
This also applies to when you are learning a language. Learning styles are also
closely attached to learning strategies because a particular learning style learner will
use specific learning strategies more than others because they fit their learning style
better.
Visual learners relate most effectively to written information, notes, diagrams
and pictures. Typically they will be unhappy with a presentation where they are
unable to take detailed notes – to an extent, the information does not exist for a visual
learner unless it has been seen written down. This is why some visual learners take
notes even when they have printed course notes on the desk in front of them. Visual
learners will tend to be most effective in written communication, symbol
manipulation, etc. They should use charts, maps, filmstrips, notes, and flashcards;
practice visualizing or picturing words / concepts in their heads; write down
everything for frequent and quick visual reference. Visual learners make up around
65% of the population.
Auditory learners relate most effectively to the spoken word. They will tend to
listen to a lecture, and then take notes afterwards, or rely on printed notes. Often
information written down will have little meaning until it has been heard – it may
help auditory learners to read written information aloud. Auditory learners may be
sophisticated speakers, and may specialize effectively in subjects like law or politics.
Recorded lectures may help fill in the gaps in the student’s notes. Auditory learners
should sit in front of the classroom where they can hear well. They should do reading
assignments out loud, or recite summaries of written materials. Auditory learners
make up about 30% of the population.
Kinaesthetic learners learn effectively through touch, movement and space.
They learn skills by imitation and practice; often work slowly because the
information is normally not presented in a style that suits their learning methods.
Such learners may also benefit from typing notes, and/or acting out (role-playing)
different situations. For example, they might pretend they are different parts of the
sentence and actually move about the classroom when studying sentence structure.
Kinaesthetic learners make up about 5% of the population.
Identifying the students as visual, auditory or kinesthetic learners, and aligning
the curriculum with these learning styles, will prove to be beneficial for the entire
classroom. Allowing students to access information in terms they are comfortable
with will increase their academic confidence. By understanding what kind of learner
the students are, the teacher can gain a better perspective on how to implement these
learning styles into your lesson plans and study techniques.

Lecture 3

TEACHING DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS.

LEARNER AUTONOMY

“The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without a teacher.” 
Elbert Hubbard

1. The learner’s age is one of the major factors in the teacher’s decisions about how
and what to teach. People of different ages have different needs, competences and
cognitive skills. For example, we might expect children of primary age to acquire
foreign language through play, whereas for adults we expect greater use of abstract
thought. Here are some recommendations for dealing with specific age groups.
Depending on the approach, preschoolers (aged 4-6) can either be the cutest
young people to teach or a nightmarish group of unruly children. When teaching this
age group the teacher should:
● Use simple 1-2 word commands; be prepared to apply a firmer tone to the
voice when needed.
● Be animated and lively, be able to act silly in class.
● Use TPR activities whenever possible, since preschoolers tend to respond
extremely well to TPR (Total Physical Response) based activities whereby they
produce the language through physical actions. If you are teaching animals, have the
students do the actions and noises when teaching them feelings; have them perform
the emotion etc.
● Organize short, engaging games and activities. Keeping things moving all the
time will keep kids’ attention and save time dealing with bored students. When
planning the lessons, it is strongly recommended to start off by introducing simple
grammar points or vocabulary then run through a series of 5-10 minute games and
activities and always have backup plans. When you see students losing focus, move
on to the next activity.
● Change the environment: mix up classroom setting often to steer learners away
from boredom. Get them on their feet, swap the seating plan and sit them in a circle
on the floor.
● Use gimmicks – any object (E.g. a ball, a dice, a puppet or some pictures) that
the teacher might bring into class will feel like a completely new adventure to young
students.
● Reward them. Sweets obviously give young children an incentive to learn. A
high-five or pat on the back after a successful activity and at the end of class will
make them feel like they have achieved something, as will the opportunity to do some
colouring activities during the lesson.
Junior classes (aged 7-12) vary significantly depending on students’ maturity,
personalities and ability. Usually when the teacher develops a good overall structure
to the lessons and a decent repertoire of activities they can apply a fairly similar
approach to all of the lessons. Teaching this age group will be demanding in different
ways than teaching preschoolers. Their understanding comes not just from
explanation, but also from what they see and hear and have a chance to touch and
interact with. They find grammar rules difficult to grasp. They can get easily bored,
losing interest after ten minutes or so. Learners who are 10 and 11 years old like
games, puzzles and songs most, those who are 12 – like activities built around
dialogues, question-and-answer activities and matching exercises most. In order to
maintain a good learning environment, the teacher should aim to:
● Have a clear structure to the lessons trying to follow the 4 Ps (reparation –
presentation – practice – production) structure. Get administrative procedures and
tasks done first, then introduce grammar, vocabulary and focus the rest of the lesson
on practising and drilling the new language.
● Expose them to different cultures: at this age, students are more intellectually
capable than preschoolers and more eager to learn about the world than many
teenagers. Whether they like basketball, hamburgers, music or clothes, the teacher
should take some time to teach them about target culture and give them something
different to learn about in English than the grammar and vocabulary set for each
lesson.
● Classroom management: the teacher should put good systems in place for
dealing with badly behaved students and rewarding good learning. Juniors will
generally respond well to some form of the team points system. This way they will
largely discipline themselves.
● Cater for different learning styles: at this age, the students’ brains are
unknowingly adapting and developing towards a particular style of learning. The
teacher should be aware that students have unique ways of taking in information and
use a variety of techniques and activities to give everyone in the class the best chance
of learning.
● Take an interest in the students’ lives beyond the classroom: taking a few
seconds to ask a student about some aspect of their life outside the classroom will
make a big difference. They like to talk about themselves and if they think the teacher
cares about them they will be more inclined to care about learning.
● Be a positive role model: the teacher should try to set a good example in how to
interact with people and approach the work by showing kids that successful learning
can happen through having a good work ethic, being respectful to others and having
some fun with learning.
● Motivation: through positive re-enforcement and giving learners something
new every lesson will keep them enthused. Praise is very important. It is
recommended to be liberal with giving praise to all students – regardless of how
significant/insignificant whatever they did to earn it is.
Despite their relative success as language learners, teenagers (aged 13-17) are
often seen as problem students. Yet with their greater ability for abstract thought and
their passionate commitment to what they are doing once they are engaged,
adolescents may well be the most exciting students of all. Most of them understand
the need for learning and, with the right goals, can be responsible enough to do what
is asked of them. It is perfectly true that there are times when things don’t seem to go
very well. They search for identity and a need for self-esteem; teens need to feel
valued. They often have an acute need for peer approval, too. The teacher should do
everything possible to bolster students' self-esteem, and be conscious, always, of their
need for identity. So, the teacher must give them tasks that they are able to do, rather
than risk humiliating them. Here are some things English teachers can do to make life
easier and lessons more engaging:
● Keep the ‘boring stuff’ quiet: when planning to teach something complicated
like Past Perfect tense, it’s much better not to write this on the board or make learners
take long notes on it. The teacher could start the lesson by giving situations and
explaining that in these cases we use a particular piece of language then do some
activities to practice it. If there is a particularly dry piece of reading to focus on, the
advice is to find ways to make it more interesting, make fun of the characters and
have learners rewrite a part of it to make it more fun.
● Be a team leader: rather than going into class and seeing oneself as an
authority figure, the teacher may try to imagine himself/herself as a team leader or
mentor amongst a group of colleagues. It’s recommended to show some empathy,
take an interest in their lives outside the class and at the same time guide them
through the tasks.
● Use grown-up gimmicks: teachers might try using ‘fake’ money – just
photocopy some foreign currency and take it into the class. If a student gets a correct
answer or goes the extra yard to try and improve their English, give out the money.
The teacher can even go a step further by getting students to bet against each other
about whether sentences are grammatically correct.
● Research learners’ interests by finding popular singers, movie stars, national
laughing stocks, etc. The teacher could use them as the subject of a sentence
accompanying a new piece of grammar, have learners write stories involving these
people, get them to analyse pictures of them etc.
● Get learners moving around: it is a good idea for the teacher to get students up
to brainstorm on the board or set ‘mingling’ activities that involve walking around
asking each other questions.
Teaching adult language learners represents a different relationship. They are
notable for a number of special characteristics: can engage with abstract thought;
have expectations about the learning process, and they already have their own set
patterns of learning; tend to be more disciplined than other age groups, and they are
often prepared to struggle on despite boredom; come into classrooms with a rich
range of experiences which allow teachers use a wide range of activities; often have a
clear understanding of why they are learning and what they want to get out of it. They
can be critical of teaching methods. Many adults are able to sustain a level of
motivation by holding on to a distant goal in a way that teenagers find more difficult.
However, the primary goal of their learning is to be able to communicate. In such
cases, the teacher might implement the so-called Teaching Unplugged. This term is
used for a teaching method and philosophy which has three primary aims: teaching
through conversation, taking out external input such as course book and technology
and letting the lesson content be driven by the students rather than being pre-planned
by the teacher. It suits best for adult learners. The main reason it’s become so popular
is that the main focus is one hundred per cent on the students’ actual language needs.
For example, the elementary student comes into class and says excitedly
‘See..friend..no see….fifteen years!’  Instead of saying ‘Oh, that’s nice! Now open
your book on page 27, we’re looking at the past simple’, the teacher constructs the
sentence on the board:  ‘I’ve just seen a friend I haven’t seen for fifteen years!’  The
teacher then encourages other questions if students take an interest. ‘How..
you…know?’ ‘Where…you..meet?’ ‘What..he ..do..fifteen years?’ The teacher now
has a board full of great questions and a topic that can then be used as the basis for
the class. 
Conclusions. No matter what age and ability level the learners are the teacher
should always try to promote learning through fun, accommodate different learning
styles, have clear classroom management systems in place and aim to be a positive
role model.
2. Learner Autonomy. One of the primary goals of the teacher is to develop
and improve learner autonomy regardless of the learner’s age, since it seems to be the
only way to ensure better outcomes of learning. Learner autonomy is the capacity to
take control of one’s own learning, largely because the construct of ‘control’ appears
to be more open to investigation than the constructs of ‘charge’ or ‘responsibility’. I
prefer to define autonomy as the capacity to take control of one’s own learning,
largely because the construct of ‘control’ appears to be more open to the investigation
than the constructs of ‘charge’ or ‘responsibility’.
A teacher who wants to train autonomous learners should know that it is not an
easy task to change students who are accustomed to the teacher-centered methods.
Autonomous learners should be active in the whole process of language learning and
take responsibility for their learning. Students won't be autonomous unless their ideas
of the process of learning, their attitude to learning and their behavioral patterns in an
educational environment change. The social learning environment should be
supportive, accepting and caring. In this environment, students are free to experiment
with new behaviors, attitudes and action theories. If autonomy in learning is limited
only to the classroom environments and students can't transfer this autonomy to
outside the classroom, the whole process of training autonomy in learners would be
useless. Collaboration is one of the fundamental conditions to promote autonomy.
The syllabus should be designed in such a way that there should be room for freedom
of choice for individuals and groups of learners since, in this environment, students
decide on the direction of the learning process. The development of autonomy in
language learning is governed by three basic pedagogical principles:
• learner involvement – engaging learners to share responsibility for the learning
process;
• learner reflection – helping learners to think critically when they plan, monitor
and evaluate their learning;
• appropriate target language use as the principal medium of language learning.
Conclusions. Autonomous learners tend to learn more efficiently and effectively
and to be more motivated. However, not all learners can do this, so they may need
guidance from the teacher, especially at a young age. With support, learners can
become more independent, confident and develop their language skills beyond the
classroom, which is important in adult years.