Teach English in Lutou Zhen - Xiangyang Shi — Xiangfan

“Engage-Study-Activate” also known as ESA - is an effective teaching model designed by Jeremy Harmer. This methodology means, that for the best involvement of students in a learning process, the conditions of lesson should be flexible and clearly divided for different activities. As the name of model are told, it consist of three special components. “Engage” phase is a sequence, where teacher try to give an interest of a new topic by implication of different games related to the lesson. Such beginning gives the “warm” for the next phase of lesson. “Study” phase is focused on construction of the language that revealed through elicitation and drilling. It means, that activities focused on language from practice up to examination. The main point here is covering language topics by exercising and checking to make sure students understanding and reinforce the material that was given. “Activate” is a stage is working as a conclusion of the lesson. With a special activities such as role-play or communication games students are encouraged to focus on a fluency, speaking freely without any restrictions or accuracy. All of these three elements make any lesson well-balanced for a any students activity. However, different theme may change balance of ESA-lesson, some topic may be more directed only to one phase. Some activities should be more in focus. That’s why some phases could be doubled or changed their order. “Straight Arrow” lesson is an example of lesson for beginners, following standard structure of ESA with a simple objective - achieving ability to talk or write anything about discussed topic. It suits for many lessons, however in a case of predicted mistakes “Boomerang” lesson, that not only change ESA phases, but change the order or even double some stages. For example, with an “Engage - Activate - -Study - Activate” form of lesson teacher have more possibilities to determine issues that student have and provide “Activate” task twice - returning to the related activity after some help to define special needs of students. In both cases the lesson is straightforward, but some lessons need a “Patchwork”, many mini-sequences, that build a lot of practice. At the end of such lesson, student must be able to use fluently any language-given skills. With a structure that juggle with each of 3 technique, like “E-A-A-S-A-E-S-A” teacher are able to provide the best balance between study and entertainment. For the best effectiveness this model is the most flexible. So, What does the flexibility mean? In this case it means the combination of teacher’s effective management and ability to fit in the audience. During whole lesson some elements may stretched because of positive reasons, like students are enjoy the activity so much it may last a little longer, or if teacher see that learned material wasn’t fully understand. That’s where ESA model is fully shine. In other words, If this model at each step teacher is able change the task for a more appropriate and suitable. There are many factors of teaching process from size of group up to ethnic diversity, so it is very important to make parts of learning more dynamic. And it’s very visible if me imagine typical ESA lesson. Let’s model our own “Straight Arrow” lesson. Our students are monolingual group with a different level of knowledge. The topic of the lesson will be “Travel”, vocabulary-based lesson To check their capabilities teacher will begin “Engage” phase with a “warmer”: in our case, teacher discuss with students what places do they visit. Depends on answers teacher will receive a feedback and estimate strong and weak sides of class. On that point group or pair exercises is the most preferable way for “Study” phase. At first - elicit meaning of new “Travel” vocabulary, spelling, pronounce and drill new topic. After try to play Hangman, divide group into two and play with students. If they win fast, than teacher may switch to the next task. If they don’t play successfully - maybe it’s preferable to drill words in a group a little more. And yet, do not stretch to much time and try to explain more details. Finish this phase by fill-gaps exercise divide group by individuals and check it with a students. “Activity” phase for vocabulary-type lessons story-building is the best choice. Let the students make a story about their future travels with a new vocabulary. Even here, in a chance of failed or made with a many errors exercise - “Study” phase may be repeated and drilled more, with more analysis and after with a better accomplished task. However, there is a possibility that some tasks will not be done due to lack of time, and they will go to hometask. Here the structure is changed on a go to “Patchwork” lesson, with an accent on repeating undigested material. To summarize and conclude, this “lesson” confirm the idea of flexibility of ESA technique: the tempo of lesson, any activity may changed, stretched, repeated or even cancelled. Depends on students involvement, understanding of the topic - the content and saturation is dynamic. Such dynamism may lesson uninterruptible, or, better say, fluent. It is a big achievement and bigger advantage of “Engage-Study-Activate” teaching model.