Teach English in Xinwei Zhen - Meizhou Shi

This unit covers theories, methods and techniques in ESL teaching. The most common methods are: grammar-translation, audio-lingualism, presentation, practice and production, task-based learning, communicated language teaching, community language learning, the silent way, suggestopaedia, and the lexical approach. There is no clear answer as to which is best and which is used depends on your personality, the culture of the students and their needs. What is important overall is that the students are exposed to the language as much as possible, they receive input from the teacher, anxiety and stress is kept minimal and the students are encouraged to discover the language for themselves. An effective method for this is called 'ESA'- Engage, Study and Activate. Elicitation is an extremely useful component of the ESA process and is the strategies used by teachers to get learners to respond. Techniques include elicit responses from pictures or symbols, gap filling and lists. Engage is the sequence in the lesson where the teacher will try to arouse the students' interest and get them involved. Study is the part where the students will focus on the language and how it is constructed. Activate is the stage where students will use the language they know, wherein typical activities include role playing, debates and games. Lessons can be a straight arrow approach (ESA), boomerang (EASA), or patchwork (EAASAESA). A variety of ideas for activities for each stage are outlined in this unit. The unit also provides correction techniques as well as the difference between mistakes and errors. Self and student correction, given the right conditions are preferred to teach-student correction. The unit also provides a key to correcting writing in an effective way.