Aims and objectives

I. Definition of aims
An aim (objectif gnral) is a purpose, an intention. It should be defined in such a way that it
answers the following question: What skill(s) does the teacher want the students to
acquire?.
Aims refer to competence (i.e.. what the teacher wants the students to learn); they are latent,
cognitive.

II. Definition of objectives

According to Robert F. Mager An objective is a description of the performance you want
learners to exhibit before you consider them competent. An objective describes an intended
result of instruction rather than the process itself.
The characteristics of a useful objective are:
1. Performance (what the learner is able to do)
2. Conditions (important conditions under which the performance is expected to occur)
3. Criterion (the quality or level of performance that will be considered acceptable).
Objectives deal with what students will be able to do as a result of the competence they acquire.
They are expressed in verbs of action and are formulated as followed: By the end of the lesson
the pupils will be able to..."

III. Example of an aim and objective for writing

Aim: To teach pupils how to write a business letter.
Objective: By the end of the lesson the pupils will be able to write a 100-word letter of
complaint in 30 minutes without any mistake and without any document.

References
1. Ur, Penny (1996). A course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

2. Harmer, Jeremy (1991). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow: Longman.
3. Bygate, Martin(1987). Speaking. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4. Keith Johnson & Keith Morrow [editors] (1981). Communication in the Classroom. Harlow:
Longman.

Examples of pre-reading activities

Pre-reading activities help students prepare for the reading activity by activating the relevant
schemata, and motivating them to read. Pre-reading activities can also help learners anticipate
the topic, vocabulary and possibly important grammar structures in the texts. Here are some
activities for you to think about.

DISCUSSION. Create a discussion about the topic. Teacher prepares 4 sentences

expressing opinions about the topic, then sticks them in 4 corners of the classroom.
Students go and stand near the opinion they disagree with the most. (People usually want
to explain why they disagree with something.) They decide in their groups what to say to
the class about the topic during a quick whole class discussion.
IVE LEARNED THAT Ask students (in advance) to bring in some objects related to
the topic of the up-coming reading and some texts off the Internet about the topic.
Students explain why they chose these objects/texts and give one example of a fact that
they learned from this extra reading.

IM LISTENING TO YOU: Ask students to work in pairs. Challenge them to talk in

English (and only English) for 1 minute about a topic. Student A talks first. Student B
listens actively; e.g. nodding, making appropriate eye contact, saying uh-huh, mmmm,
etc. Feedback: Did the speaker feel listened to? Repeat with a new topic, students change
roles. Final feedback: teacher highlights the active nature of listening.

QUOTATIONS: Find a quotation about the topic try http://www.quotationspage.com.

Students discuss the quotation. What does it mean? Do they agree with it? Why/Why not?

GUESSING FROM WORDS: Before students look at the text they are going to read,
the teacher writes 5 or 6 words from the text on the board and asks the students to guess
the topic.

GUESSING FROM PICTURES: The teacher finds 3 pictures or objects which are
connected to the story and ask the students to guess how they are connected. Students
read the text to check.

GUESSING FROM SENTENCES: The teacher dictates 3 sentences from the passage.
Students write them down and check with a friend. The sentences go on the board if
necessary as a final check. Then the teacher asks how these sentences might be
connected. What is the text about? Students predict then read the text quickly to check
their predictions.

HOW MANY WORDS DO YOU KNOW? The teacher prepares the board by writing
the letters of the alphabet in 3 or 4 columns. The students form two lines standing behind
each other (so in a class of 30, there will be 15 and 15.) You can use half of the class if
you prefer but do tell the students that the other half of the class will do this activity the
next day. Use 2 colored markers so you know which team wrote what. The first student at
the front of each team gets the board marker. The teacher gives a topic to the class. The 2
students move to the board and write one word related to the topic on the board next to
the letter it begins with, then pass the marker/chalk to the next students in their team and
go to the back of the queue. The 2 teams compete to write as many words as possible on
the board in 3 minutes. The team with the largest number of appropriate and correctly
spelled answers wins!