Teach English in Huoxing Nongchang - Maoming Shi

In this unit, I learned about various theories, methods, and techniques used to teach the English language. It seems that the different methodologies that have appeared over the past centuries are based on individual educators? observations and beliefs of what methods applied are most effective in producing English-speaking learners. All methods appear to have a ?do? type of activity to practice English, and have thus influenced current TEFL practice of combing methods to produce a lesson that incorporates three basic phases: engage, study, and activate (ESA). These three phases may occur more than once in a lesson, however, the lesson as a whole should always begin with an engage phase and end with an activate phase. In the engage phase, teachers arouse student interest to engage in a warm up to practice past and potentially new English terms in a fun manner. In this phase, the teacher quietly observes for any errors or mistakes and provides encouragement and praise for positive observations. In the study phase, students practice the new language skills in more depth with provided feedback from the teacher on observations of errors or mistakes, as well as positive praise and encouragement. In the activate stage, students put all their learning together in a summative activity or project of to display their understanding of what they have learned. In all phases, it is well to provide positive feedback and encourage students to use of English, keeping teacher talk to a minimum when possible, though it all depends on the activity provided. Most feedback of errors and mistakes are generally more appropriate during the study phase, when students are learning new concepts. While the ESA method provides a structure of a lesson, it is important to provide various activities to keep the learning content interesting, rather than predictable, for the students.