Teaching English in English

Introduction

In this series of sequences from a classroom you see a teacher operating entirely in English. This is a highly desirable situation because it exposes the pupils to a maximum amount of English and it shows them that it is not "dangerous" to use English as a means of communication, in fact it is a normal thing to do!.In the case of this particular teacher she uses English in a natural and informal manner.Using English as much as possible is also expected of the teacher according to L 97. Although an "ideal teacher" never makes a mistake, it does not, in fact, matter if the teacher does make mistakes because this also demonstrates to the pupils that making mistakes is normal (even educated native speakers make them after all!)

Because it is informal, her approach may seem unstructured at first, but if you examine her language in more detail you will hear that she deliberately uses language for a variety of purposes such as introducing a subject or activity, giving instructions about an activity, informal chatting about a task which the pupils are busy with, discussing pictures with pupils, summing up an activity, expanding the subject area and vocabulary around a topic, challenging the pupils to give reasons for choices and creating spoken text.

The video sequences are as follows. If you click on the name of the sequence you will be linked to the page where the printed materials and the actual video sequence appear.

List of video sequences:

1. Putting you in the picture, background to the class

2. Introducing and setting up an activity

3. Having a discussion and challenging pupils

4. The question of reading aloud in class

5. Going through pupils' answers and expanding vocabulary

6. Using pictures to stimulate discussion

7. Teaching grammar

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Written by NM and KH, last edited 4 November 2003