Can Tho University

School of Foreign Languages

Overview
of English Language Teaching
Teaching English Language Skills

Compiled by Ngô Thị Trang Thảo

September 2022

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 Teaching pronunciation
What is pronunciation?

(Murphy, 2003)

Background to the teaching of pronunciation

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3
 (Murphy, 2003)

Principles for teaching pronunciation

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 (Murphy, 2003)

Pronunciation sequences
- Working with sounds
- Working with stress
- Working with intonation and stress
- Sounds and spelling
- Connected speech and fluency
(Harmer, 2015)

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Task: Examine the lesson ‘Language - Pronunciation’ of Unit 1, Tieng Anh 10, Global
Success, 2022. Design a 10-minute lesson plan.

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 Teaching vocabulary
What is vocabulary?

(Ur, 1996)
What needs to be taught?

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8
(Ur, 1996)

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Task: Match each category with its description and example.

Categories Description Example

Pronunciation 1. A change of form a. [buk]
Spelling 2. A meaning of a word in b. b-o-o-k
the real world (definitions
in a dictionary)
Grammar 3. A meaning of a word c. dog: a kind of animal
showing/ evoking
positive or negative
feelings (maybe not in a
dictionary)
Collocation 4. A particular combination d. dog → a positive connotation of
of words friendship and loyalty with British
people; → a negative connotation
of dirt and inferiority with Arabic
people
Denotation 5. Appropriate words to use e. dog, lion, mouse - animal
in a certain context
Connotation 6. Components forming f. intelligent: bright, clever, smart
words
Appropriateness/ 7. What a word looks like g. lion: sư tử
Formality
Synonyms 8. What a word sounds like h. rich - poor
Antonyms 9. Words as specific i. think – thought (irregular past
examples of a general form of a verb); mouse – mice
concept (irregular plural form of a noun)
Hyponyms 10.Words/ expressions in the j. to cry: to weep (formal)
learners’ mother tongue
Translation 11.Words with the opposite k. to throw a ball; to toss a coin
meaning
Word formation 12.Words with the same/ l. untranslatable: un + translate +
nearly the same meaning able

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Background to teaching vocabulary

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(Nation, 2003)

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Task: Classify these teaching techniques into the four learning strands in a language
course given below.
Learning strands
Learning Deliberate Learning from Fluency
Teaching vocabulary from learning meaning-focused development
techniques meaning-focused output
input
Intensive reading
Learning word
parts
Speed reading
Listening stories
Listening to
morning talks
Reading easy
graded readers
Extensive reading
Prepared writing
Strategy training
Communication
activities with
written input
(Adapted from Nation, 2003)

Principles of teaching vocabulary

1. Identify vocabulary students need or involve students in identifying some of the
words to be studied.
2. Focus on the vocabulary in the most appropriate way based on the four most
important vocabulary learning:
- using word parts
- guessing from context
- using word cards
- using dictionaries
3. Teach words with collocations and emphasize the connections among words.
4. Introduce word families.
5. Promote usage of the words by multiplying meaningful encounters and different text
types.
6. Give attention to the high frequency words to across the four language skills.
7. Focus on teaching vocabulary explicitly as well as implicitly.
8. Provide students opportunities for incidental learning of vocabulary.
9. Review vocabulary frequently.
10.Encourage students to reflect on and take responsibility for learning.
(Nation, 2003; MAE904 Students, n.d.)

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Techniques for presenting new words

1. Showing the meaning of words visually

Using picture: This can be done in two ways:
- By drawing a picture on the board;
- By showing a picture prepared before the lesson (a drawing or photograph).
Most concrete words can be presented in this way.
Using realia: This is the way of using real objects to show the meaning of words. We can
use anything that is already in the classroom: furniture, clothes, parts of the body, or
anything that can be brought into the classroom: other items of clothing (hats, ties,
handkerchiefs), food, or small objects from the home (soap, cups, keys, etc.). When
presenting vocabulary with real objects, the teachers simply points at them and says,
‘Look – this is/ these are…’.
Using mime: This is the way of using actions and facial expressions to show the meaning
of words. Most action verbs (sit, stand, open, write, etc.) and some adjectives showing
feelings and status (happy, worried, sick, etc.) can be taught using mime.
In general, for suitable vocabulary, showing the meaning of words visually is a very
effective method: it is direct, it is interesting, and it makes an impression on the class.
However, not all words can be presented in this way. Vocabulary should only be presented
visually if it can be done quickly, easily, and clearly.

2. Showing the meaning of word in context

Using examples, situations, or explanations is another way of showing what words mean.
Most abstract words (love, happiness, imagine, quality, impossible, etc.) can be taught
effectively in context. There are some points to consider when using these techniques:
- It is not necessary to give a complicated explanation; the meaning can be shown
by simple sentences. This can be done by making statements using the word we
are presenting (e.g. ‘Houses are buildings. This school is also a building.’) or by
imaging an example (e.g. ‘I have a brother. He is very lazy. He gets up late, and
then he does nothing all day.’).
- A good example should clearly show the meaning of the word to someone who
does not know it, so it is not enough to say ‘My brother is lazy.’ It does not show
what ‘lazy’ means. We need to add, e.g. ‘He gets up late, and then he does
nothing all day.’

3. Using synonyms and/or antonyms

This is a quick way to show the meaning of a word. However, this technique should be
used only when the synonyms/ anonyms of the new word are already known to students.
4. Translation

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Showing the meaning of a new word by translating it into the students’ mother tongue may
be preferred by some teachers because it is quicker and so much easier. It is also a useful
technique in itself – it is often the simplest and clearest way of presenting new vocabulary.
However, if we only give a direct translation, students cannot see how the word is used in
an English sentence. Thus, it is often more helpful if we use this technique along with
other techniques, for example, giving examples, explanations, and so on. In this way,
instead of telling students what the word means, we can give examples or explanations and
then ask them to give a translation to check that they have understood.

5. Combining different techniques

Very often, we combine different techniques (e.g. using pictures, mime, examples,
translations, etc.) to show what a word means. The most obvious advantage of this way is
that each technique can reinforce and support one another, thus making the presentation
clearer and more effective.
Note:
1. When presenting a new word, the teacher often repeats it a few times before asking
students to repeat it (e.g. ‘Look. This is a watch. A watch. A watch. Can you say
it?’). This is to make sure students hear well how the word sounds.
2. When presenting a new word, the teacher often asks questions using the word (e.g.
for the word ‘market’: Does your mother goes to the market everyday? What does
she buy? Do you live near the market? What do they sell there?). This is to make
sure students understand the word, and give them more examples of how the word is
used and a chance to practice other language. The questions using the new word
should be simple and require only short answers.
3. We do not need to spend the same amount of time and care on presenting all new
vocabulary; some vocabulary will be more important to students than others. In
general, we can distinguish two types of vocabulary:
- words which students will need to understand and also use themselves. We call
this active vocabulary. In teaching active vocabulary, it is usually worth
spending time giving examples and asking questions, so that students can really
see how the word is used.
- words which we want students to understand (e.g. when reading a text or
listening a task), but which they will not need to use themselves. We call this
passive vocabulary. To save time, it is often best to present it quite quickly, with
a simple sentence. If it appears as part of a test or dialogue, we can often leave
students to guess the word from the context.
Students often should understand for more words than they can produce, so we should not
try to treat all new words as active vocabulary.
(Doff, 1988)

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Task: Examine the lesson ‘Language - Vocabulary’ of Unit 1, Tieng Anh 10, Global
Success, 2022. Design a 10-minute lesson plan.

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Techniques for checking vocabulary

1. Ordering

2. Rub out and remember

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3. Networks

4. Bingo

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5. Word storm

6. Slap the board

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7. Guess the picture
Teaching aim: To get a lot of students to practice saying the new words in a meaningful
way

8. Matching

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9. Noughts and crosses
Teaching aim: To get students to put new vocabulary into a sentence

10. What and where

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11. Word square

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12. Jumbled words

(Nguyen et al., 2003)

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 Teaching grammar

What is grammar?

(Nunan, 2003)

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Grammar and methods

In the last century, the architects of language teaching methods have been preoccupied
with two basic design decisions concerning grammar:
• Should the method adhere to a grammar syllabus?
• Should the rules of grammar be made explicit?
The various ways they answered these questions help distinguish the different methods
from each other. What follows is a potted history of methods in the light of their approach
to these issues.
- Grammar-translation
- Direct method
- Audiolingualism
- Natural approach
- Communicative language teaching
- Task-based learning

At the risk of over-simplifying matters, the following chart indicates the relative
importance these methods attach to the teaching of grammar:

(Thornbury, 1999)

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Principles for teaching grammar

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Action

(Nunan, 2003)

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How to present grammar
- Teaching grammar from rules (deductive approach)
- Teaching grammar from examples (inductive learning)
- Teaching grammar through texts (text-based approach to grammar)
(Thornbury, 1999)

How to practice grammar

Accuracy
Characteristics of activities:

Fluency
Characteristics of activities:

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Restructuring
Characteristics of activities:

Few practice tasks, whether their objective is accuracy, fluency, or restructuring, are likely
to meet all of the criteria listed above. On the other hand, some tasks may incorporate
features that suit them to more than one objective, e.g. both fluency and accuracy. Not all
learners will respond in the same way to the same activity: differences in ability, learning
style and motivation will affect the degree to which they engage with the task. This
suggests that teachers need to be familiar with a fairly wide repertoire of practice
activities. It also suggests that time spent in presenting new language should not be at the
expense of time that could be spent on providing a useful variety of practice activities.

(Thornbury, 1999)

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How to integrate grammar
The PPP model

(Harmer, 2015)
Sample lesson

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(Thornbury, 1999)

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An alternative model: A TTT model (Task-based learning)

This model adopts a fluency-to-accuracy sequence. The learning cycle begins with the
meanings that the learners want to convey. They try to express these meaning using their
available resources. They are then given guidance as to how to do this better. This
guidance may include explicit grammar instruction. Through successive stages of trial,
error, and feedback, the learner’s output is fine-tuned for accuracy.
Sample lesson

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To sum up, then, a presentation (PPP) approach is based on the premise that there is
something that the learners don’t know and it attempts to fill these holes in their
knowledge. A task-based approach, on the other hand, starts from the assumption that
there is something that the learners can do and it attempts to empower them with the
means to do this more effectively.
(Thornbury, 1999)

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Integrating grammar into a skill-based lesson
Sample lesson (A tell and record lesson)

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Discussion
In essence, this is a PPP lesson, with the targeted language presented by the means of a
text – or, in fact, two texts (Steps 1 and 3) – followed by a short practice stage (Step 6)
and a production stage (Step 7).
Nevertheless, the lesson is so rich in skills work that it hardly seems like a grammar lesson
at all. It is much more like a task-based lesson, the task being to tell and compare travel
stories. And yet the grammar is fed in and recycled consistently throughout, and is made
sufficiently ‘problematic’ (Step 4) that the students cannot fail to notice it. By using his
own story, the teacher virtually guarantees a high level of engagement on the part of the
students; this is enhanced by his telling it rather than simply reading it aloud; in this way,
he is able both to monitor student understanding more directly and to make on-line
adjustments where understanding seems to have faltered. Moreover, by recording it, he has
the text available for later language-focused work (Step 2).
Because this lesson involved a contrast between two similar structures, the teacher has
used two texts, but this is an added extra to a lesson format that can be reduced to this
basis formula:

In this model, Text 1 is the teacher’s text, and Text 2 is the student’s. The language that is
taught is taken from the first text and reintegrated into the second.
In the case of the sample lesson, any number of features of narrative could have been
chosen to focus on – for example, the use of sequencing devices such as then, eventually,
meanwhile etc. As it happened, the teacher, working from a grammar-based syllabus that
prescribes what he is to teach, used the narrative as a vehicle for introducing so and such.

(Thornbury, 1999)

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Task: Examine the lesson ‘Language - Grammar’ of Unit 1, Tieng Anh 10, Global
Success, 2022. Design a 20-minute lesson plan.

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 Teaching listening

What is listening?

Action What have you listened to today? Write at least eight things. Try to think of
different types of things you have listened to.

(Helgesen, 2003)

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Background to the teaching of listening
- Govin’s series method
- Direct method
- Audiolingual method
- Communicative language teaching

Principles for teaching listening

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 Action 1. Go back to your list on page 32. Choose one example of something you
listened to. Imagine that you were using a recording of that in a classroom
listening lesson. Give five ways that learners could include the ideas on
Rost’s list of strategies of successful listeners.
2. Think of your own experience as a language learner. What listening
strategies have you used? List them. Which have been effective? Which
haven’t?
(Helgesen, 2003)
Types of listening activities

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 (Ur, 1996)
Stages of a listening lesson
Pre-listening stage

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While-listening stage

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Post-listening stage

(Division of English Language Teaching Methodology, n.d.)

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Task: Examine the lesson ‘Listening’ of Unit 1, Tieng Anh 10, Global Success, 2022.
Design a 45-minute lesson plan.

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 Teaching Reading

What is reading?

(Anderson, 2003)

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Types of reading

(Division of English Language Teaching Methodology, n.d.)

Background to the teaching of reading

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 (Anderson, 2003)

Principles of teaching reading

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 (Harmer, 1998)

(adapted from Anderson, 2003)

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Stages of a reading lesson

(Division of English Language Teaching Methodology, n.d.)

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Reading activities
Pre-reading stage
Activities to activate background knowledge
- Brainstorming
- Discussions
- Quizzes
- Words and pictures
- …
Activities to predict the content of the reading
- Predicted based on the title
- Predicted based on vocabulary
- Predicted based on the pictures
- Predicted based on true/ false statements
- Network
- …
Activities to pre-teach the key language points
- Categorizing
- Connecting words
- Using the context of the text
- Matching
- …
While-reading stage
- Ordering statements/ events/…
- Answering multiple questions
- Filling gaps
- Matching
- Finding the heading for each paragraph
- Answering true/ false statements
- Answering comprehension questions
- …
Post-reading stage
- Identifying differences
- Debating/ discussing
- Summarizing (speaking/ writing)
- Retelling the story
- Making a conversation (relating to the reading text/ using the vocabulary in the
reading text)
- …

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Task: Examine the lesson ‘Reading’ of Unit 1, Tieng Anh 10, Global Success, 2022.
Design a 45-minute lesson plan.

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 Teaching Speaking

What is speaking?

(Bailey. 2003)

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Background to teaching speaking

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Action

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Action

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Action

(Bailey, 2003)
Principles for teaching speaking

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 (Bailey, 2003)

Speaking activities types

Harmer (2015) wrote that teachers need to design a variety of activities in order to encourage
students to talk in the target language in class. Teachers have to plan the speaking lessons with
appropriate activities based on who the students are, how enthusiastic they are about speaking,
what kind of speaking they need to practice, which context they are in, and why they have to
communicate in English. There are a number of widely-used categories of speaking activity.

Acting from scripts. Students act out scenes from plays and/or their coursebooks, and dialogues
they have written themselves.

Playscripts or plays (Harmer, ibid.; Ur, 2009): Students work on plays or playscripts and
performs them. Teachers need to help them to go through the scripts and compose if they want.
Then they pay attention to appropriate stress, intonation, and speed and decide on adverbs
(anxiously, quietly, passionately, etc.) to describe how their lines real meaning. The students
think about and say their lines repeatedly before they give their final performances. The
production of a class play is most appropriate for the end of a course or a school year (Ur, ibid.).

Dialogues (Harmer, ibid.; Hussain, 2017; Ur, ibid.): Students act out or perform coursebook
dialogues or their own ones in their own ways, in different moods, in different role-
relationships,… They can exaggerate intonation and gesture to make the activity more enjoyable.
Teachers need to support students with the language knowledge like pronunciation, give them
time to prepare and learn the scripts of dialogues, and create a friendly and cooperative
atmosphere in the class so that everyone feels comfortable. This type of activity is a good way to
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encourage students to practice talking in the target language without hesitation and within a wide
variety of contexts.

Communication games (Harmer, ibid.). The aim for these activities is to promote students to
talk as fluently as possible. Harmer divided games into two particular categories.

Information-gap games: Many games depend on an information gap, and usually students are
supposed to be working in pairs. One student has the information that other partner does not have,
and they have to share their information. Information gap activities serve many purposes such as
solving a problem or collecting information. Also, each partner plays an important role because
the task cannot be completed if the partners do not provide the information the others need. These
activities are effective because everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target
language. This type of games is assigned students to solve a puzzle, draw a picture (describe and
draw), put things in the right order (describe and arrange), find similarities and differences between
pictures, and so on.

‘Hot seat’:

- The teacher has a list of vocabulary words prepared.

- The teacher brings a chair to the front of the classroom, split the class into two teams, and
have one student from the first team sit in the chair (the “hot seat”) facing the class.

- The teacher starts a timer (one minute) and write the first word on the board.

- The team must say things related to that word in order to elicit that word for their teammate
sitting in the hot seat.

- Once the student in the hot seat guesses the word correctly, the teacher writes another word.

- The class continues the game until time runs out.

- The team with the most correct guesses at the end is the winner.

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Television and radio games: These games often offer students great opportunities to practice
good fluency activities.

‘Twenty questions’:

- One member of the class or a team chooses an object, an occupation, or an action which
ever the teacher or the chairman decides.

- Members of the class or the team try to discover what it is by asking only yes/no questions.

- The team get points if they guess the answer in 20 questions or fewer.

‘Just a minute’: It is a long-running comedy contest on UK radio.

- Each participant has to speak for 60 seconds on a subject they are given by the chairperson
without hesitation, repetition or deviation.
- In the radio show, as in the classroom, ‘deviation’ consists of language mistakes as well as
wandering off the topic. If another contestant hears any of these, he or she interrupts, gets
a point and carries on with the subject.
- The person who is speaking at the end of 60 seconds gets two points.

‘Fishbowl’: Two students speak on any topic they like.

- At a pre-arranged signal, one of them has to reach into a fishbowl and take out one of the
many pieces of paper on which the students have previously written phrases, questions and
sentences.
- They have to incorporate whatever is on the paper into the conversation straightaway.
-

Other popular speaking games:

‘Describe the picture’:

- The teacher shows the entire class a picture with lots of little details

- The teacher takes the picture down and tells the students to describe what they saw to their
partner (in about 30 seconds).

- The teacher splits the class into two teams and divide the blackboard in two.

- The teacher chooses three students randomly from each team to come up to the blackboard.

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 - The teacher have them to write down as many things they saw in the picture in 30-60
seconds.

- Their teams can shout answers.

- The teacher asks the students to sit down and reveal the picture again.

- The team gets points for everything they got right.

- The team with the most right answers is the winner.

‘Musical chair game’:

- The teacher makes space so that the students can place their chairs in a circle with one chair
less than the total number of students.
- The game starts with the students circling around the chairs, singing the song they have just
learned.
- The teacher says ‘stop!’, and every student should quickly take a seat.
- One student left standing is the loser of this round and has to be out of the game.
- The teacher removes one chair and starts the game again.
- The teacher repeats until only one player is left and becomes the winner.
- As a punishment, the losers must talk about one assigned topic such as hobbies, favorite
videos on Youtube, important events in school life,… in about 30 seconds.

‘Chain game for story-telling’ (appropriate for small classes): This game not only improves
students' memory but also encourages them to be creative in storytelling.

- The teacher asks students to sit around in a circle.

- The teacher has one student say a sentence in a story form such as ‘Once there was a boy".
- The next student has to repeat that sentence and add something more to it like "Once there
was a boy whose name was John’.
- Students keep building up the story as well as remembering what the previous sentences
were.
- Students who forget a line will go out of the game.
- The student who remembers the most sentences wins the game.

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‘Crazy story’:

- The teacher asks students to write a word on a piece of paper and not to show anyone.
- The teacher says a sentence to start telling a story
- The teacher chooses a student to continue the story using his/her word.
- The student chooses the next student to continue the story.
• The last student must end the story.
• The students try to guess what words each student has written on his/her paper.
• The student who guesses the most words wins the game.

Discussion

Buzz groups (brainstorming) (Harmer, ibid.; Hussain, ibid.): Teachers might want students to
predict the content of a reading text, talk about their reactions to it, or discuss what should be
included in a news broadcast, have a quick conversation about the right kind of music for a
wedding or party,…

Debates (Harmer, ibid.; Riddell, 2001): Students argue about a controversial topic.

This type of activities is often organized for high-level classes with much preparation for both
teachers and students. However, teachers can create it with a variety of forms as group work,
games like ‘balloon debate’, oral presentations, poster exhibitions,…

For example, students can become involved in agree/disagree discussions. In this type of
discussions, the teacher can form groups of students, preferably 4 or 5 in each group, and provide
controversial sentences like “people learn best when they read vs. people learn best when they
travel”. Then each group works on their topic for a given time period, and presents their opinions
to the class. It is essential that the speaking should be equally divided among group members. At
the end, the class decides on the winning group who defended the idea in the best way. This activity
fosters critical thinking and quick decision making, and students learn how to express and justify
themselves in polite ways while disagreeing with the others.

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(Unplanned) discussion (Harmer, ibid.; Riddell, ibid.)

Some discussions unprepared by the teacher can happen in the middle of lessons, but they can
provide some of the most enjoyable and productive speaking in language classes. More usually,
after a reading or listening lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons. The students may
aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion
groups.

Before the discussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the
teacher. In this way, the discussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not
spend their time chatting with each other about irrelevant things.

For efficient group discussions, it is always better not to form large groups because quiet students
may avoid contributing in large groups. The group members can be either assigned by the teacher
or the students may determine it by themselves, but groups should be rearranged in every discussion
activity so that students can work with various people and learn to be open to different ideas. Lastly,
in class or group discussions, whatever the aim is, the students should always be encouraged to ask
questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for clarification, and so on.

Reaching a consensus (Harmer, ibid.): This activity is designed to promote students’ discussion
by forcing them to reach a decision, often as a result of choosing between specific alternatives.

Prepared talks and presentations (Harmer, ibid.; Riddell, ibid.)

Students have time to prepare their talks, a chance to rehearse their presentations, an opportunity
to give and receive feedback to and from their classmates. Teachers must pay attention to the
process of student work, the criteria for assessment, and the task to involve students’ active
listening as well as active speaking during the oral presentations.

Surveys, questionnaires, and interviews (Harmer, ibid.; Hussain, ibid.; Riddell, ibid.)

Surveys and questionnaires are useful because, by being pre-planned, they ensure that both the
questioner and the respondent have something to say to each other. This can be designed to let
students go beyond their own classroom and interview other students or staff or people on the street.

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Questionnaires can be on any topic that is appropriate. The teacher can act as a resource, helping
them in the design process. The results obtained from questionnaires can then form the basis for
written work, discussions or prepared talks.

Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people. It is a good idea that the
teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what
path to follow, but students should prepare their own interview questions. Conducting interviews
with people gives students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also
outside and helps them becoming socialized. After interviews, each student can present his or her
study to the class. Moreover, students can interview each other and "introduce" his or her partner
to the class.

Role-play and simulation (Harmer, ibid.; Hussain, ibid.; Riddell, ibid.; Ur, ibid.)

As role-playing, students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social
roles. In role-play activities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are
and what they think or feel. Then learners play their roles and achieve the goal of a speaking
activity.

Simulations are very similar to role-plays, but what makes simulations different than role plays is
that they are more elaborate. In simulations, students can bring items to the class to create a
realistic environment. For instance, if a student is acting as a singer, she brings a microphone to
sing and so on.

Role plays and simulations have many advantages. First, since they are entertaining, they
motivate the students. Second, they increase the self-confidence of hesitant students, because in
role play and simulation activities, they will have a different role and do not have to speak for
themselves, which means they do not have to take the same responsibility.

Storytelling (Harmer, ibid.): Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from
somebody beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates. Story telling
fosters creative thinking. It also helps students express ideas in the format of beginning,
development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has to have. Students also
can tell riddles or jokes. For instance, at the very beginning of each class session, the teacher may
call a few students to tell short riddles or jokes as an opening. In this way, not only will the
teacher address students’ speaking ability, but also get the attention of the class.

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Stages of a speaking lesson

The three stages of a lesson with the objective of practicing speaking – pre, while, and post, allow
for a holistic approach to productive skills such as speaking (Emma, 2018).

The pre-speaking stage allows teachers time to prepare students for the final speaking task.
Seril (2014) presented, ‘Students’ experiences, observations, and interactions inside and outside
the classroom have an impact upon what they say and how they say it.’ The tasks/ activities at
this stage involve students’ sharing ideas for a topic, planning and organizing for speaking and
often include some kind of reading or listening with the purposes of

(1) choosing a speaking topic

(2) determining purpose, ‘What is my purpose for speaking?’

(3) determining audience, ‘Who is my intended audience?’

(4) determining format, ‘How can my ideas be presented?’

in order to encourage students to consider their personal goals for improving their speaking
abilities.

Riddell (2001) emphasized the role of the teacher in each stage. He/ She sets a clear aim, ‘why I
want my students to speak’, ‘why students speak in this part of the lesson/ unit’,… The teacher
can choose an activity (possibly from the course book) that is suitable for the students’ level and
interests, and that is appropriate in terms of the lesson fit and aims. Then the teacher has to plan
clear instructions with an example of the activity if possible, plan to manage the class, and
anticipate any possible problems he/ she and the students might have.

The while-speaking stage is the speaking task itself. It allows students to actually practice
speaking. Teachers need to create supportive and collaborative environments to help students
feel confident and scaffold them with language knowledge, speaking formats, equipment,…
depending upon the purpose of the speaking tasks/ activities (Seril, ibid.).

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Teacher’s roles in this stage are (Riddell, ibid.):

- monitor the class to ensure every student has understood, is speaking, is using mostly
English, and doesn’t have any problems
- observe the class and scaffold if necessary
- anticipate problems and be ready to deal with them if they occur
- help quiet, shy, unconfident students, guide them, but don’t put pressure on them
- …

The post-speaking stage allows students to get feedback on, reflect upon their
performance, set goals for improvement, and reach the conclusion of the task (Emma, ibid.;
Seril, ibid.). With the purposes of expressing personal responses, viewpoints, feedback,… in
various types of tasks/ activities such as conversations, discussions, questionnaire, interviews,…
In this stage, teachers also need to focus on some reflective assessment, which enhances students’
critical thinking via oral feedback, written feedback, or a combination of the two. For example,
one group could tell another group what they decided / discovered / discussed, and vice versa
(Riddell, ibid.). The tasks/ activities in the post stage creates opportunities for students to look
back their goals set at the beginning and set goals for their improvement of speaking skills.

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Task: Decide whether the activities are pre, while, or post speaking activities.

Activities Pre-speaking While-speaking Post-speaking

Playscripts/ Plays

Dialogues

Hot seat

20 questions

Just a minute

Fishbowl

Describe the picture

Musical chair game

Chain game for story-telling

Crazy story

Debates

Discussion

Reaching a consensus

Prepared talks & presentations

Surveys, questionnaires, &

interviews

Roleplays

Simulations

Story-telling

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Task: Examine the lesson ‘Speaking’ of Unit 1, Tieng Anh 10, Global Success, 2022.
Design a 45-minute lesson plan.

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 Teaching Writing

What is writing?

(Sokolik, 2003)

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Principles for teaching writing

Action

84
85
86
87
 (Sokolik, 2003)

Approaches to student writing

Process and product
In the teaching of writing, we can either focus on the product of that writing or on
the writing process itself. A consideration of written genre has a lot in common with a
product approach to writing, i.e. an approach which values the construction of the end
product as the main thing to be focused on (rather than the process of writing itself).

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(Harmer, 2015)

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Stages in a writing lesson
Pre-writing stage

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While-writing stage: From controlled writing, guided writing to free writing
Controlled writing involves students in very mechanical activities under the control of the
teacher to practice certain vocabulary and sentence structures.
Common activities
- Gap-fill sentences/ paragraphs
- Sequencing jumbled words
- Transformation writing
- Completing sentences
- Parallel sentences
- …
Guided writing activities are less mechanical than controlled writing ones, but students
still have to write under the teacher’s control to some extent.
Common activities
- Questions and answers
- Writing based on cued words
- Writing based on provided information
- …
Free writing allows students to express their ideas more freely.
Common activities
- Writing about pictures
- Writing in response to a situation
- Writing about a given topic
- …
Post-writing stage

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(Division of English Language Teaching Methodology, n.d.)

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Task: Examine the lesson ‘Listening’ of Unit 1, Tieng Anh 10, Global Success, 2022.
Design a 45-minute lesson plan.

References
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EFL Classroom Techniques and Practices – Study pack. Hanoi National University
(internal use)
Doff, A. (1988). Teach English: A Training Course for Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge
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Emma (2018). Teaching speaking. ELTCampus. Retrieved June 20, 2022 from
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