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Unit 20 discussed trouble shooting common problematic situations. The first lesson for a teacher is a golden opportunity to establish rapport. This lesson should be used to get to know your students, let the students get to know the teacher, and to let the students get familiar with one another. Good ways to accomplish this is questionnaires and creating a question chain. A question chain is similar to 'pass the ball'. Another important task to complete on the day of the first lesson is a needs assessment and determining the language levels of the students. It's important top have 'warmers' prepared to engage the students at the start of class. A class with different levels can be challenging. A couple ways you can work with this is dividing the class in two groups by language level and use different materials. You can also use the same materials for both groups, but assign different tasks. The disadvantage to large classes is that there is less individual time with the students. Good techniques to use in large classes is worksheets, group leaders, and choral repetition. Allowing the use of the students L1 depends on the type of group you are teaching. In the school environment, English should be used all the time in class. The teacher can remind the students the importance of speaking in English, encourage the use of English, and only respond in English. For the occasional reluctant student, the teacher can use pair work and role-play to make the students more comfortable. Listening texts can be difficult for students. It's important to play the listening texts several times. Sometimes a teacher will have one or two students finish early. To keep them busy until most of the class is also finish, it's good to have extra activities on hand like word searches.
