ENGLISH METHODOLOGY

Mihaela Tănase Dogaru

Spring semester 2018

“What makes a good teacher?” –questionnaire answers (Jeremy Harmer)

1. They should make their lessons interesting so you don’t fall asleep in them.
2. A teacher must love her job. If she really enjoys it that’ll make the lessons more interesting.
3. I like the teacher who has his own personality and doesn’t hide it from the students.
4. I like a teacher who has lots of knowledge, not only of his subject.
5. A good teacher is an entertainer and I mean that in a positive sense, not a negative sense.
6. It’s important that you can talk to the teacher when you have problems and you don’t get along
with the subject.
7. He should be able to correct people without offending them.
8. A good teacher is someone who knows our names.
9. A good teacher is a teacher who is interested in what he’s doing – I mean he takes the time to
prepare lesson plans.

Factors affecting the learning atmosphere- The effective teacher:

1. Really listens to his students
2. Shows respect
3. Gives clear, positive feedback
4. Has a good sense of humour
5. Is patient
6. Knows his subject
7. Inspires confidence
8. Trusts people
9. Empathises with students’ problems
10. Is well-organised
11. Paces lessons well
12. Does not complicate things unnecessarily
13. Is enthusiastic and inspires enthusiasm
14. Can be authoritative without being distant
15. Is honest
16. Is approachable.

Teacher A – the explainer, who relies mainly on explaining or lecturing as a way of conveying
information to the students. The students are listening, perhaps occasionally answering questions and
making notes, but are not personally involved or challenged.
Teacher B – the involver, who tries to involve the students actively while still retaining clear control
over the classroom.
Teacher C – the enabler, who is confident enough to share control with the learners. This kind of
teacher sees himself as someone whose job is to create the conditions that enable students to learn for
themselves.

Factors affecting the learning atmosphere negatively:

1. TTT (Teacher Talking Time) – the more the teacher talks – the less opportunity to speak there is
for learners.
2. Echo – does not leave any room for language practice to the learner.
3. Helpful sentence completion –
4. Complicated and unclear instructions
5. Not checking understanding of the instructions
6. Asking “Do you understand?”
7. Fear of genuine feedback
8. Insufficient authority / over-politeness
9. Paying attention only to the fastest/brightest students
10. Lack of confidence in self, learners, material, activity
11. Hearing language problems but not the message

Some general areas to consider when planning a lesson:

1. The learners – their age, level, cultural background and individual characteristics. In order to see
if the students will really benefit or enjoy the lesson, a teacher has to consider all these aspects.
2. The aims – what will the learners achieve? Most trainers expect the aims to be quite specific.
‘Writing’ is too general an aim and it does say much about the way in which the teacher has
actually prepared the lesson. On the other hand, ‘to train students to use appropriate paragraph
construction’ describes exactly what the teacher intends.
3. The teaching point – what is the subject matter of the lesson – the skills or language areas that
will be studied and the topics you will deal with? For instance, a lesson may have as teaching
point the teaching of the modal verb ‘would’ for invitations and at the same time the teaching
point may cover a range of different skill: reading, speaking, etc.
4. The teaching procedures – what activities will you use? What sequence will they come in? Who
does what first? How and when should students be put in pairs or groups? When does the teacher
give instructions? What are those instructions?
5. Materials – what texts, tapes, pictures, exercises, role-cards, etc will you use?
6. Classroom management – how much will each stage take (timing)? How will the seats be
arranged?

frequent problems encountered in the classroom:

1. What if students are of different levels?

2. What if the class is very big?

3. What if students keep using their own language?

4. What if students are uncooperative?

5. What if the students don’t want to talk?

6. What if some students-in-groups finish before everybody else