THE TEACHING OF

LANGUAGE SKILLS
ng Hip Giang
Secondary Education Dept.
MOET

The Stages of Presenting

and Practicing Language
1. find out how much students already
know about the language point;
eliciting;
2. presentation; demonstration;
3. check if students have understood
the presentation;
4. practice (controlled and/or free).

Ways to Present
Language Items

Explanation
Demonstration
Illustration
Discovery / deducing meanings
You can follow the procedure in the
book, adapt it, supplement it or omit
part(s) as necessary.

Steps to activity

Present activities step-by-step:

Model the conversation dialogue.

Highlight all the conversation strategies
you want the students to learn.
Ask students to do one practice first
with you or with a partner.
Have students practice on their own.

Use of English and Use of

Mother Tongue

Use English as much as possible with

your students!
When presenting new language, try
to illustrate the language through the
use of pictures and/or mime.
Build a set of classroom language
and put it in practice.

Get Students Involved

Eliciting
When presenting language, get the
explanations from students!
How?
Practice asking questions that draw
responses out of students
Advantage: know how good students are!

Get Students Involved

Pair work and group work

More variety
Time used more efficiently
Peer learning
STT increased whilst reducing TTT
Ss learn to do things without teacher

Get Students Involved

create an enjoyable and exciting learning

environment
use topics and materials that the students find
interesting
connect classroom topics to students' personal
lives
develop good, supportive relationships with
students
make students aware of their potential and goals
make second language culture more
approachable

How to organize pair and

group work?

Start with what you feel comfortable

Give students roles and
responsibilities
Add variety as students become more
confident to avoid over-familiarity.
Take time loss into lesson planning

What to do during pair

and group work?

allow students to work at their pace and in a

way that suits them.
offer help when necessary.
answer students questions.
let students know that time is closing in; e.g.
just five minutes to complete what youre
doing.
monitor what is going on. Whilst monitoring,
note down mistakes and examples of good
work.

What to do during pair and

group work?

Give a lot of encouragement, verbal

or nonverbal encouragement.
Create an open, warm, and nonthreatening classroom atmosphere.
Build exercises from easy to more
difficult to make students comfortable
using new words or forms.

Some disadvantages of
group and pair work and
what to do

Students might go off task => Explain

carefully and check that they have
understood before forming groups
Students might get noisy. Monitor carefully
and say something immediately if it gets
too loud.
Students might use their own language.
Make it clear from the start that you
expect students to use English

How to Encourage
Speaking

setting controlled speaking tasks and moving

gradually towards freer speaking tasks;
setting tasks that are at the right level for the
students or at a level lower than their receptive
skills;
setting tasks that are easily achievable and
gradually moving towards more challenging tasks;
praising students efforts;
using error correction sensitively;
creating an atmosphere where students dont
laugh at other peoples efforts.

Types of Tasks that

Encourage Speaking

Information gap
Discussions: reaching a consensus
Discussions: moral dilemma
Debates
Role play
Problem solving

Speaking and Listening

supporting different learning
strategies

asking a teacher or other native speakers

for repetition, explanation, or examples
repeating language from a CD or video
taking part in and listening to conversations
working with other students to solve a
problem
recording one's own speech; then correcting
pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary
taking notes

Reading, Vocabulary, and

Writing activities supporting
different learning strategies

previewing, skimming, or scanning the

material before studying or reading
guessing meaning of unknown words from
context
reading aloud
repeating new vocabulary aloud or silently
using images to remember new vocabulary
using reference materials to check spelling,
pronunciation, or meaning
free writing (diary, journal)

Roles of teachers

Facilitators, Managers, and Resources

explain the activity in simple language
model the activity so learners understand
what to do
check for understanding before beginning
provide preparation time for each group
monitor the activity closely
join each group once the students get
comfortable working in groups

THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN

DESIGNING AN ACTIVITY

Is this item worth spending time on?

How will I present this material?
What should I test?
Will this activity be interesting enough for
my learners?
Do I have enough time to do this activity?
Will this activity be too noisy?
Do the learners know how to do this kind of
activity or will I have to explain it to them?

THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN

DESIGNING AN ACTIVITY

Will this activity create a lot of marking for

me to do?
Is this material too difficult for my learners?
Is there something new for my learners to
learn in this activity?
Will everyone in the class be able to cope
with this activity?
Will this be a good activity for my learners?
Are my learners doing enough reading?
Is it good to get learners to memorize words
and phrases?

THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN

DESIGNING AN ACTIVITY

Should I do the same activity again?

Should my learners be doing homework?
What activities will I get the learners to do
today?
Shall I get the learners to do this activity
individually or in pairs or groups?
Should I pre-teach these items before the
learners meet them in the reading passage?

THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN

DESIGNING AN ACTIVITY

Shall I write this on the blackboard?

Should I have a pre-reading
discussion or should I get the
learners to talk about the text after
the reading?
Have I got a good balance of
activities in this lesson?

THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN

DESIGNING AN ACTIVITY
WHEN THE ACTIVITY IS OVER:
Is this activity going well?
Are all the learners participating in the activity?
Are some learners doing more work than
others?
Have the learners learnt anything from this
activity?
Should I give the learners a test to encourage
them to keep on learning?

Questions and
Comments
THANK YOU!