TEFL for Dummies

Paul Bress, UK

Paul Bress is freelance and works for Trinity College London, the University of Leicester, UK, as well as in International Study Programmes and the London Tests of English. E-mail: paulbress@talktalk.net, www.bemycoach.co.uk

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The current TEFL scene
Selecting
Contextualising
Saying
Helping to say
Personalising
Liberating
Conclusion

The current TEFL scene

As the pace of our lives becomes faster and faster, these changes are mirrored in the world of work. Organisations strive to keep ahead of other rivals by implementing procedures designed to improve the quality of the goods/services they produce. And TEFL is clearly not immune to such changes. In particular, globalisation and computerisation have had a massive effect on our industry.

Although we need to embrace change in order to survive, change can bring with it bewildering feelings on the part of employees. In TEFL, both new and seasoned teachers may feel perplexed by the sheer range of a) types of learners, b) teaching models, and c) teaching resources. The result is that some of the basic tenets of TEFL are forgotten.

I want now to look at some of these central tenets. As I do this, I'll try to explain the likely effects of implementing procedures associated with the tenets - and the negative effects of failing to.

Selecting

Before you teach each class, you need to decide what you want the learners to be able to do, in English, by the end of the lesson. You need to ask yourself: "What is the most useful communicative task the learners need to perform?" By asking (and answering) this question, you'll be selecting appropriate target language - and thus appealing to the learners' interests. But if you don't, you won't - and you might have an unmotivated class on your hands.

Contextualising

When we acquire language as babies/toddlers we are lucky enough to have massive exposure to L1. We have a lot of time to hypothesise about what language might mean (and a lot of time to test our hypotheses). That's why it's imperative in the L2 classroom to spend as much time as you can setting up the context for the target language. By doing this, you'll be giving learners a fighting chance to learn what it means. If you rush the contextualisation process, the learners will probably not understand the nuances of the target language and will, therefore, not feel confident using it.

Saying

At some point you need to give a clear model of the target language. By this, I mean a 'real-time' model, i.e. try to ensure it sounds like authentic English. Also, make sure the model stays the same. Give learners lots of time to listen to the model. Eventually the learners will realise what the correct English is, what it means, and how it sounds. If you don't present the model in this way, many learners will become confused about what language is actually being taught.

Helping to say

Having given the model, you need to get learners to repeat it. This involves listening on your part. What they say may be ungrammatical or incomprehensible. If so, you can elicit self- or peer- correction. Alternatively, you can break down the target language into its constituent parts, so that it's easier to say. It's also important to remember that learners need lots of practice, so it's a good idea to ask each learner to say the target language, in their own time, as many times as they want to. By doing this, you'll greatly be increasing their confidence. But if you don't do this, learners may not feel ready to experiment with making new sentences with the target language.

Personalising

Up to now, the learners have been saying exactly the same thing. But now they need to use the target language to say something true about themselves. So you can ask individual students questions, and get them to practise asking each other questions (both in front of class and in pairs). Again, this stage may take longer than you think - because learners need to feel the new language really becoming part of them. Yet if you fail to personalise the target language, the learners will probably feel robbed of an opportunity - and they may even bear you ill will.

Liberating

So far you have directed the course of the lesson. But now you can delegate. You can ask pairs/groups to imagine their own situation (in which they may use the target language). They can either write/enact a role play or simply conduct a role play without a script. You can also ask a pair/group to enact the role play in front of class. This can increase confidence. However, if you fail to allow learners to create their own situations, they are far less likely to be able to use the target language in the real world - and they will feel less confident (as learners) too. Please note that the above procedure refers to teaching spoken English. But if you are teaching written English, you don't need to make huge changes. You need to present a written model and encourage production of the target language in the same way. You will need, though, to walk around the room to see what the learners are writing!

Conclusion

In conclusion, of course it would be disastrous to turn our backs on change. But, at the same time, it's imperative that we don't lose sight of the central tenets of TEFL. Admittedly, implementing the procedures above will change as society progresses (for example, learners' communicative needs may change, and the context in which you introduce language need to reflect changes in society) - but the tenets stay the same, and it's important that we don't forget this.

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