When it comes to teaching English as a Second language, I've noticed a trend. There seem to be roughly two types of teaching, which I'll call "Type A teaching" and "Type B teaching". In my opinion, the best teaching is composed of a mix of the two. Personally, I found that at the beginning of my career, I was more of a Type A teacher, and am gradually shifting to incorporate an equal amount of Type B. Anyway, let's get to a description of each type:
Type A teaching
Type A teaching generally involves providing students with worksheets, whole-class grammar drills, or "match the picture to the word" exercises. A lesson taught by a type A teacher usually consists of the teacher introducing the target language, followed by activity after activity. Students practice the grammar or vocabulary until they are able to produce it on demand when given some sort of prompt (i.e. they are shown a present-tense sentence, and can produce the past-tense version, either in writing or orally).
The disadvantage of Type A ESL lessons is that they don't provide any prompts or ideas for giving students opportunities to use the language naturally and spontaneously. Filling in blanks and systematically saying answers to written questions doesn't emulate natural conversation. A prompt or discussion question is needed that provokes the student to produce the language "on the fly". It is often to the dismay of teachers that students successfully answer all the fill-in-the-blanks correctly and perform drills accurately, yet revert to incorrect utterances when faced with spontaneous, real conversation. Here's an example:
Teacher: So, what's the past form of this sentence: "I go to the supermarket."
Student: I went to the supermarket.
Teacher: Nice job!
(after class)
Teacher: So, Xiaomei, what did you do yesterday?
Student: Yesterday I go to the mall with my friends.
Teacher: (feels like a failure)
The challenge lies in finding an appropriate prompt or discussion question that prods the student into using the language at a time during class when the teacher can monitor and correct. Another challenge lies in finding prompts that encourage the student to the use the target language. Sometimes discussion questions can allow students to answer them in detail while still avoiding the target language. They thus get no free practice, and the teacher has no opportunity to correct them.
Type B teaching
Type B teaching generally involves providing students with worksheets, whole-class grammar drills, or "match the picture to the word" exercises. A lesson taught by a type A teacher usually consists of the teacher introducing the target language, followed by activity after activity. Students practice the grammar or vocabulary until they are able to produce it on demand when given some sort of prompt (i.e. they are shown a present-tense sentence, and can produce the past-tense version, either in writing or orally).
The disadvantage of Type A ESL lessons is that they don't provide any prompts or ideas for giving students opportunities to use the language naturally and spontaneously. Filling in blanks and systematically saying answers to written questions doesn't emulate natural conversation. A prompt or discussion question is needed that provokes the student to produce the language "on the fly". It is often to the dismay of teachers that students successfully answer all the fill-in-the-blanks correctly and perform drills accurately, yet revert to incorrect utterances when faced with spontaneous, real conversation. Here's an example:
Teacher: So, what's the past form of this sentence: "I go to the supermarket."
Student: I went to the supermarket.
Teacher: Nice job!
(after class)
Teacher: So, Xiaomei, what did you do yesterday?
Student: Yesterday I go to the mall with my friends.
Teacher: (feels like a failure)
The challenge lies in finding an appropriate prompt or discussion question that prods the student into using the language at a time during class when the teacher can monitor and correct. Another challenge lies in finding prompts that encourage the student to the use the target language. Sometimes discussion questions can allow students to answer them in detail while still avoiding the target language. They thus get no free practice, and the teacher has no opportunity to correct them.
No comments:
Post a Comment