Teach English in Ming'An Zhen - Bayannao'er Shi — Bayan Nur

Teaching a language could be a difficult task for teachers who have just entered the world of education where individuals continuously strive to find the best teaching methodology that meets all their needs and requirements. Although all methods and techniques have advantages and disadvantages, there are only a few that can be the most suitable when teaching a foreign language. It is necessary to mention that not many decades ago, the repetitive grammar-translation methods were considered the only approach to learn another language. However, nowadays such methods are somewhat obsolete, and others have been studied and developed instead. For instance, the Engage Study and Activate (ESA) methodology has been applied in many classrooms, therefore, this article will try to reveal why ESA can be a good method to teach English. ESA is a method of sequencing activities during the lessons and it was first proposed by Jeremy Harmer in his book “How to Teach English” as an alternative to the PPP model. ESA consists of three phases: engage, study, and activate, which can be used as many times as required; nevertheless, teachers should always start with the engage phase and conclude with the activate one. Thus, in the first phase, educators must arouse the pupils’ attention and involve them emotionally. In other words, students start getting ready to participate in the lesson wherein instructors should utilize activities that will allow students could engage their emotions such as games, music, stories, pictures, among others (ITTT, 2018). After getting students interested in the lesson, teachers might choose to go on to the study phase which will have activities focusing on the English language and its grammar. Educators will begin teaching new vocabulary, pronunciation, how sentences should be formed and more. Some of the activities to mention here are crosswords, gap-fill exercises, word searches, and drilling (ITTT, 2018). Moreover, this is the appropriate stage for teachers to correct the mistakes that students could make. Then, the teacher talking time is likely to be high so that this phase should be as concise as possible not only because teachers want the students to develop their speaking skills, but a lot of talking could lead to loss of attention and reduced learning. Consequently, the activate stage was designed to promote communication and to use and practice the language learned in the previous phase. This last stage will include activities such as discussions, role-plays, story building, debates, etc. (ITTT, 2018). And its objective is to allow pupils to use their knowledge of the language in these specific situations. Lastly, answering the question presented above, it could be said that YES! ESA is a good methodology to teach English. To respond to this question, the three phases were analyzed where it was understood that in order to learn, students first need to be motivated and get involved before the studying process. Furthermore, teachers should interrupt or correct students only during the study phase because once students have moved on to the activate phase, they will need to be able to express themselves and externalize what was learned. Learners should always conclude with this phase since the idea is to let students take their lesson experience into real-life situations. Equally important, this methodology has been used among English teachers as it has proved to be effective thanks to the emphasized use of communicative skills. Thereby, although the ESA method could be replaced in the future, it is undeniable to say that both teachers and students have been enormously benefited from it. References International TEFL and TESOL Training. (2018). ESA Methodology- What Is It and Why Should You Use It in the Classroom? Retrieved from https://www.teflcourse.net/blog/esa-methodology-what-is-it-and-why-should-you-use-it-in-the-classroom-ittt-tefl-blog/.