Teach English in Hudong Zhen - Shanwei Shi

This lesson covered first different styles of language teaching which have been used over the course of history, including Grammar-Translation, Audio-Lingualism, Presentation-Practice-Production, Tasked-Based Learning, Communicative Language Teaching, Community Language Learning, The Silent Way, Suggestopaedia, and the Lexical Approach. Each of these has strengths and drawbacks, and have lead to the ESA Engage-Study-Activate approach. The ESA approach focuses on balance, an emphasis on the student over the teacher in the classroom, and a focus on encouraging all students to participate in using language. The most straight forward version, the \"Straight-Arrow\" E-S-A lesson, first has an Engage phase to warm up students to using English and get them interested in the lesson. This is followed by the Study phase, in which new concepts are introduced and practiced in a controlled manner, and is the phase in which corrections are made and accuracy is focused on. In the final stage, Activate, students are encouraged to combine the newly learned concepts with what they already know in a creative manner, focusing on fluency and usage. The ESA structure can and should be mixed up in patterns like the \"Boomerang\" E-A-S-A (or any other structure, so long as it begins with an 'E' and ends with an 'A') in order to prevent lessons from becoming predictable and boring. The lesson atmosphere should always be positive, so corrections should be encouraging and the teacher should avoid making the student feel like making mistakes is a bad thing. A main goal is to focus on getting students to elicit language on their own.