Teach English in Duoshi Zhen - Wuwei Shi

The unit covers the different methods of teaching English as a foreign language as well as highlighting ESA as the preferred method used for TEFL or TESL teaching. Grammar Translation method as the names suggests uses the method of translating from a learners native language to the learner?s target language. The problem with this method is that the learner will learn about the language rather than the language itself. Another problem is when the native language and target language do not share grammar structure similarities and this be difficult to translate. Audio Lingualism or the Army method relies heavily on repetitive drills which would involve the students repeating the teacher. This method is still used mainly for lower level students who are needing to acquire vocabulary and improve their pronunciation. PPP - Presentation Practice Production is a teaching method that is divided into 3 stages that is Presentation, Practice and Production. During the Presentation stage, the teacher would present new grammar information to the class. Next the teacher would initiate the practice stage where students will be given the opportunity to practice the new material with the teacher?s guidance. Finally the production stage is where the students would be encouraged to demonstrate their knowledge of the new acquired grammar with less teacher influence. The PPP teaching method is definitely one the methods that has influenced the ESA teaching method the most. The 3 stages of the PPP method closely resemble the Engage, Study and Activate stages of the ESA teaching method. The differences between these methods is that PPP method?s approach is more teacher centered and lacks the flexibility of ESA. Task Based Learning is centered on the activity rather than the language. Students are given an activity to complete using English. On completion on the activity the teacher can then assist if need be. The CLT ? Communicative Language Teaching method tends to focus more on interaction as students are encouraged to use the language in more real life scenarios using role play. The CLL ? Communicative Language Learning requires the students to be in a group to encourage learning. The students will sit in a circle and decide what to talk about. The teacher remains outside the circle but will help the group should they require assistance. I feel that both CLT and CLL teaching methods are influences to the ESA teaching method as the ESA teaching method emphasizes student led grammar discovery. The Suggestopaedia teaching method is a teaching method that focuses on the comfort of the students and in creating a stress free environment. It is believed that the more relaxed a student is the easier it is for the student to learn. The silent way teaching methods is a method as the title suggests where the teacher says as little as possible. This method uses the coloured rods commonly called Cuisinaire rods where each rod would represent different sounds or grammar points. The Lexical approach teaching approach focuses on words and phrases as fluency is more important than the grammar or the accuracy. I feel this approach closely resembles the ESA teaching concept in the Engage, Study and Activate stages. The ESA method comprises of 3 stages namely, Engage, Study and Activate. Elicitation is one of the main features of the ESA method, it is one of the strategies used to involve the students in the learning process. A teacher can ask a thought provoking question or use flash cards, games, real objects to engage the students into speaking, thinking and discovering English. The engage phase is the warm up phase. Its purpose is to get the learners engaged into thinking and talking in English before moving onto the next stage. The study phase is where more focus will be on language usage and how it is constructed. Students will be able to practice and Activate phase is where students are encouraged to use the language they know. The purpose is of this phase is to enhance fluency in the language, accuracy is not stressed here but observations can be made for the next lesson. A lesson using ESA teaching methods must include all the phases. One of the great points of ESA is that the phases do not have to go in order and that we can vary the order to allow for a more flexible way of teaching. This is a great advantage to both teacher and student as it keeps the lesson fresh. A straight arrow lesson plan is where the stages of the ESA are taught in their respective order. Engage ? Study ? Activate. A boomerang lesson plan is a bit more varied. A sequence example is Engage-Activate 1-Study-Activate2. This plan more suited to higher level students. A patchwork lesson plan is a more flexible and provides a nice balance between the study and activate phases. This lesson can have more variances between the initial Engage and final Activate phases. One example is Engage-Activate-Activate-Study-Activate-Engage-Study-Activate.