Teach English in Dailiji Zhen - Tongliao Shi

No matter what kind of teaching method or type of courses are adopted, the three elements of teaching should include input, study and application, but their order should be flexible. These three elements are not the only step that runs through a class and can be adopted at different stages of the course, that is to say, the three elements can be reused in the same class, which are , as well known, ESA teaching method. Firstly, I want to brief you ESA model of language teaching. ESA model of language teaching which was put forward by Harmer refers to the three elements of engage, study And activate. In the process of Engage, the teacher tried to arouse students’ interest and engage their emotions. This can be presented through many different ways, such as showing a picture, a dramatic story or having a conversation. The only aim is to arouse students’ interest, curiosity and attention. The next phase is Study. A series of activities in this process should focus on language and how it is constructed. The focus of study should include pronunciation of one particular sound, techniques an author uses to create special emotion, an examination of a verb tense, spoken style and so on. Lastly, Activate phase encourages students to use language as vocally as they can. Students do not focus on language construction or practice particular language patterns, but use their full language knowledge in the selected situation or task. In the first place, the model is more student-centered. Engage phase allows student to discuss or have a brainstorm through some certain situation given by teacher. Study phase makes students do much practice to acquire the knowledge that is taught in the class. Activate phase encourages students to use language. The one point I want to mention is that students need not focus on grammar and teacher should point out students’ error after their talk. In addition, interest and curiosity guides students to master knowledge. As a saying goes the interest is the best teacher, the Engage phase of the model is to discover students’ interest and arouse their curiosity. Thus, students have a stronger desire to learn. They also have a clear aim to study. And they also know what they want to gain in the process of study. That is very important. Last, the model is aimed to arouse the enthusiasm of study. It can be embodied in the Activate phase. When it comes to language learning, speaking is an essential part of learning. So teacher can organize role-play activities to apply language knowledge. Students should make conversations with using language knowledge. At the same time, role-play activity is filled with enjoyment. So students can not only master language knowledge, but also enjoy the class. Thirdly, I would like to share my opinion on how ESA model work in further illustration. I will take this as my example: In a class, a teacher will give a lesson about festivals. If we plan this class according to the ESA model, we can design the class like the following pattern. Engage: Students and teacher discuss festivals. What is your favorite festival? How can you speak them in English? What do you usually do in festivals. Study: A teacher will teach students how to pronounce festivals in English, introduce some language pattern and show some phrases about festivals. Then, students should some practice to master today’s language knowledge. Activate: Activate: Some time later, students role-play another situation to talk about festivals, bringing in the knowledge they gained in the study phase. If the class goes on like this, I believe students can enjoy it and learn a lot of knowledge. It is themselves who study knowledge. Fourthly, Hammer mentioned that the three elements need to be presented does not mean they always have to take place in the same sequence. The teachers’ responsibility is to vary content of lessons and sequences so as to meet the need of different classes. Usually, we can teach language in ESA model like this: Engage, Study, Activate. But we can change the sequence according to the lesson that a teacher will give. For example, we can change the sequence like this “Engage, Activate, Study, Activate ”I still take a lesson about festivals for example: Engage: Students and teacher discuss festivals. What is your favorite festival? How can you speak them in English? What do you usually do in festivals. Activate: The teacher describes a festival using today’s language knowledge. Then, the teacher gives a certain situation which students are going to role-play to introduce a festival. Students plan questions they are going to ask and the kind of answers they might want to give (not focusing on language construction and so on, but treating it as a real-life task. They then role-play the conversation. While they are doing this, the teacher should make a note of language mistakes they make and difficulties they have instead of interrupting them.) Study: When the role-plays are over, the teacher works with students on the grammar and vocabulary which caused the trouble during the role-play. A teacher will teach students how to pronounce festivals in English, introduce some language pattern and show some phrases about festivals. Then, they can do some practice to have a good master of it. The above two cases represent how to plan a class in the ESA model of language teaching. Through them, I just want to clarify everything is not dead and we should change them in the basis of original principles. Certainly, the kind of change should bring benefit to our teaching. In conclusion, ESA model of language teaching bring us a lot of benefit. Certainly, there are others models of language teaching. Different teachers have different teaching styles. Every teacher should pursue one of teaching models which suits him well. Then, according to a certain class, we can apply them .But sometimes we can make some change to apply it better. References: Subject Teaching and Curriculum Design