Teaching English Across Age Levels Course Instructor: Mgr. Andrea Billkov, PhD. abillikova@ukf.

sk (consultation by appointment, room 234) Course Description The course is designed to introduce humanistic ways and techniques of teaching English as a foreign language across different age levels. The course is designed to those trainees who wish to teach in the future and who like to learn by doing. The course is divided into five blocks dealing with 1. Current status and roles of teachers and learners, 2. Application of humanistic approach in EFL classroom, 3. Teaching across age levels, 4. Welcome to English classroom, 5. Teaching aids and course books. The course requires hard work since it involves a lot of active involvement, observation, reflecting, planning, collecting and preparing materials. Course Objectives After taking the course, successful teacher trainees will be able to: 1. participate in pair, group and all class discussions, 2. express their own opinions, provide arguments, suggest solutions for problems, 3. do mini surveys (interviews, questionnaires) with in-service teachers and Internet survey, 4. observe lessons and provide feedback, comments and summary 5. identify the objectives of activities experienced at our sessions, describe their procedure, provide feedback and suggest possible modifications 6. design learner-oriented lessons with and without a textbook 7. evaluate drama as an approach in language teaching 8. distinguish needs, wants and lacks of learners across different age levels 9. select course books appropriate for their learners and evaluate them according to criteria 10. work in teams, socialize in class, accept each other and respect their learners as human beings Recommended Study Sources
1. Ed.Bacova, Philips: AS IF. Drama Based Lesson Plans for English Language Teaching. BC. 2000. 2. Charlyn Wessels: Drama. OUP. 2001. 3. Maley, Duff: Drama Techniques in Language Learning.CUP. 1996. 4. Dougill: Drama Activities for Language Learning. Macmillan. 1991. 5. Phillips: Drama with Children. OUP. 2000. 6. Neelands, Goode: Structuring Drama Work. CUP. 2000. 7. Scott W. A., Ytreberg L.H.: Teaching English to Children. Lon gman. 1994. 8. Whiteson, V.: New Ways of Using Drama and Literature in Language Teaching. 1996. 9. Wright, A.: Creating Stories with Children. Resource Books for Teachers.Oxford University Press, 1997. 10. Retter, C., Valls, N.: Bonanza (77 language games for young learners). Longman. 1993. 11. Hutchinson, T. and Waters, A. English for Specific Purposes .CUP. 1997. 12. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)

Course Outline: TOPIC Introduction to the course. Getting to know each other.

CONTENT Name activities, trust activities, creating rapport in EFL classroom. Taking a record of activities, setting learner-oriented objectives. Acquisition vs. learning. Roles of language learners and teachers in EFL classroom. Facilitative roles vs. controlling roles. The status of teachers in the past, nowadays and in the future. Background to language teaching methods and techniques. Humanistic principles (J. A. Komensk, A. Maslow, Rogers, M. Zelina) The potential of drama techniques in EFL classroom. Specifying differences between learners in various age, their needs, wants and lacks Influential variables and factors when learning a FL.

Learning/ acquiring in formal & informal setting. Qualities of good language teachers and language learners. Traditional language learning and teaching vs. Humanistic language learning and teaching. Applying humanistic approach in EFL classroom. Teaching across age levels needs, wants and lacks of very young learners, young learners, adolescents, ESP learners School documents, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages Teaching very young learners and young learners. Teaching teenage learners

ACTIVITIES name activities and trust activities reflecting on own learning process activity file (record of activities) brainstorming expressing beliefs setting personal objectives creating poster poster presentation problem solving drama techniques indirect observation 1, (observation sheet and reflection) creating posters and short presentations Internet survey and interviewing in-service teachers (summary)

Learning through senses. TPR. Songs and art in EFL classroom. Using video. Testing. Assessment. Preparing maturita learners for their exams.

Teaching adults (ESP)

Needs Analysis. Course design. Needs analysis.

Welcome to English Language Classroom 1 Welcome to English Language Classroom 2 Welcome to English Language Classroom 3 Teaching aids and course books 1 Teaching aids and course books 2

Classroom techniques. Using the voice potential. Using the blackboard/whiteboard. Putting learners into pairs, groups. Needs, wants and lacks of novice teachers and mentors. Dealing with learners with learning disorders (specifically ADHD). Selecting a course book Using English course book efficiently in EFL classroom.

indirect observation 2 (observation sheet and reflection) practical activities, teaching tips and recommendations bring your activity file with at least 15 activities (follow the system introduced at out first session) cooperative learning designing own needs analysis and providing conclusions and summary indirect observation 3 (observation sheet and reflection) interviewing guest teachers (novice teachers, mentor teachers) summary and reflection hosting the specialist summary and reflection setting criteria course book evaluation writing a lesson plan using the textbook writing a lesson plan

Teaching aids and course books 3

Market offer. The latest teaching and learning trends

without a course book hosting publishers CUP, Macmillan and Enigma. summary and reflection

ASSESSMENT 1. ATTENDANCE and PARTICIPATION

Three or more missed sessions - automatic fail! Students who have signed up for the course are expected to participate and experience activities by doing them. Therefore, the course is recommended for trainees who are serious with their class participation and regular class attendance.

2. PORTFOLIO containing: ACTIVITY FILE (35%) OBSERVATION FILE (30%) MISCELLEANOUS (reflections, summaries, findings, interview questions, questionnaires, teaching aids, posters (35%)

ACTIVITY FILE
Students are expected to take a brief record of 20 activities experienced during our sessions (name of activity, length, class arrangement, objectives, process, teaching aids) and their reflection on these activities. Reflection should be something like an internal written monologue about our sessions expressing feelings, ideas and opinions. Name of the activity/length/MNGM T Iam Angry Andrea T: 5-10 All class act. (Ss stand in a circle) Technique Objectives Procedure Teaching Aids

Linguistic objectives: For example: Successful learners will be able to: - Produce... - Use... - Compare... - Name.... - Contrast... - Write about... - Discuss... Other objectives: -compare cultures... -share with each other... -accept each other...

1.Ss stand in circle picture of the blackboard 2. Introduce yourself (designed...), cards, (Im a hungry Hana) flashcards, etc. 3.Each student says his/her name + adj beginning with the same letter as their name+they use mime to express the meaning of the adj 4.Next S introduces himself+ repeats all the previous sentences

Your comments: (I liked....I am not sure about.....I would ask these questions...I would improve/modify...)

OBSERVATION FILE
As an indirect observer of lessons taught at Fatransk School you are expected to read through the observation handouts before the class and fill them out correctly during your observing. If you have questions, please ask the teacher trainer BEFORE you are to observe, but NOT during. Your observations should be honest evaluations of what you observed. There is no point in saying everything was perfect, great, interesting; it rarely is. With this in mind, you are to be constructive with your criticism

and comments. The point of observing is for YOU and the TEACHER to learn. Please make this happen. At the end of the course, you are required to hand-in an Observation File including 3 completed observation sheets and reflections. You can choose 5 observation sheets from the list below depending on what you want to observe. No
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

OBSERVATION TASK
* from VADEMECUM PDG PRAXE * Class Management * Teacher Talk * Presentation of new language * Error Correction * Lesson analysis (LP required) * AIDS: The Blackboard and the Learners. * Using L1 in the classroom

SOURCE Handout provided by A.Billkov Handout provided by A.Billkov Handout provided by A.Billkov Handout provided by A.Billkov Handout provided by A.Billkov Handout provided by A.Billkov Handout provided by A. Billkov Handout provided by A. Billkov

MISCELLEANOUS (reflections, summaries, findings, interview questions, questionnaires, teaching aids, posters (35%)
1. Poster Make a poster to be related one of the topics: 1. The Status of teachers in the past, nowadays and in the future. OR 2. The Status of learners in the past, nowadays and in the future. Prepare it in the way to be presented in the class (presentation time: 5- 10 minutes) 2. Internet survey and/or interviewing in-service teachers (summary) Prepare 5 questions to interview an in-service English teacher teaching either to very young learners, young learners, teenage learners or adults. Find out what advantages and disadvantages there are when teaching certain age level. Ask about their teaching tips, strategies and techniques they use. Summarize your findings and be ready to present them in the class. Using the Internet, find out which ISCED is being followed by the teacher you interviewed and provide its summary. 3. Needs analysis Design a needs analysis for potential adult learners who wish to learn English and have similar/same jobs. Find out what their needs, wants and lacks are. Keep variety of open and closed questions. Summarize your findings and suggest what kind of English you would teach them and why. 4. Hosting novice teachers, mentors, specialists and publishers Prepare 3 questions in advance. Summarize the findings in your paper (1 question-summary in one paragraph). 5. Course book evaluation Choose any course book you wish to evaluate. Follow the pre-set criteria and write its evaluation. Summarize your findings. 6. Lesson plan Design a 45-minute learner-oriented lesson plan without using a course book. Prepare handouts (if needed), teaching aids and include them in your portfolio.