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This unit teaches about the theories, methods, and techniques in teaching. There have been many different methods created and practiced since the 17th century. Some of them are: Grammar translation, Suggestopaedia, Audio-lingualism, The silent way, The lexical approach, and some more. But these methods don't cover all the needs for students in learning English as a second language; the need for students to be motivated while learning, their need to be exposed to the language, and their need to use the language made Jeremy Harmer come up with a new method that is based on the positive features of some of the methods mentioned before. It is called the ESA methodology. This methodology consists of three stages, which are the engage phase, the study phase, and the activate phase. This method makes use of the technique of elicitation in order to get the students to speak during all three ESA stages. The ESA order lesson (straight arrow ESA lesson) is very successful with lower levels, but when following the ESA order in every lesson, the lessons might became predictable to the students, so there were two additional types of the ESA lesson created, the Boomerang ESA lesson and the Patchwork ESA lesson. They consist on varying the ESA order as follow: Boomerang - Engage, Activate 1, Study, Activate 2 and Patchwork - Engage, ( any of the three stages in between ), Activate. Teachers just have to make sure to start all the lessons with the engage phase and end with the activate phase. This unit also teaches about making corrections in the ESA stages. Teachers should avoid correcting students during the engage and the activate stages and leave corrections until the study stage. However, if it is necessary to make corrections during any of the activate stages, teachers need to wait until the students are finished with the activity. In conclusion, when teaching English, teachers need to have in mind that students need to be exposed to the language as much as possible, reduce stressors in the learning environment, students don't need too much information from the teacher, and make students think to help them learn the language by themselves when possible. All of these components can be met by implementing any of the ESA methodology lessons.
