1 THE CONTENT OF TEACHING

The content of teaching should generally be selected in respect to the age, the
perceived level and the goals of the learner. In most cases, it is provided by educational or
school authorities, but it often has to be adapted by the teacher who has immediate contact
with the learners and, thus, the best insight into their achievements, progress and motivation.

1.1 Syllabus

Simply defined, the syllabus represents the selection and ordering of the language items
that should be taught. Different types of syllabuses have been used in different approaches to
language teaching. In the Reading Approach, the recommended syllabus was generally text-
based, while in the Situational Approach, the basic units of the syllabus were the language
structures and vocabulary needed in particular situations. The Humanistic Approach was the
first one to suggest a learner-oriented syllabus which should be built during the language
course according to the goals of the learners.
Most approaches, however, have used a structural syllabus which is organised around
sequenced grammatical items as the basic units for teaching and therefore aimed at developing
linguistic competence. The main idea underlying this type of syllabus is that learning and
practising grammar is a good preparation for further communication. The Communicative
Approach, on the other hand, advocates the design of a new syllabus type, the notional-
functional one, organised around notions (meanings such as age, time location, etc.) and
functions (greetings, requests and other social transactions) while grammar structures should
be taught just as a means to fulfill certain functions. This type of syllabus is aimed at achieving
communicative performance.
 The structural syllabus is often regarded as being opposed to the notional-functional
one, which was, for some time, seen as more advantageous. The truth is that both types have
their advantages and disadvantages. The structural syllabus is considered efficient in providing
detailed knowledge of the language, but the knowledge itself is sometimes not sufficient if the
learners fail to integrate it and use it successfully in practical situations. The notional-functional
syllabus, on the other hand, may be focused too much on providing performance units in purely
communicative activities to the extent that learners fail to acquire the underlying system of
rules they could later rely on to extend their repertoire when necessary.
Although these two perspectives on the language subjects are commonly represented
as being in opposition, they are really complementary, each compensating for the limitations of
the other (Widdowson 1990: 132). The syllabus is generally designed according to educational
policy, but since it is realised by pedagogical methodology, it does not have to be interpreted in
line with its intentions. Therefore, using a structural syllabus may also lead to developing
communicative competence if the limitations of the syllabus are overcome by an appropriate
teaching methodology. Sometimes, a teacher may find out that the syllabus fails to meet the
learners’ goals or that realising its content may be too ambitious for a particular learner group.
In such cases, it is wise to adapt the content of teaching and methods employed to the specific
needs and goals of the learners.
Recently, a document called The Common European Framework (CEF), published by The
Council of Europe, has had a lot of influence over syllabus design in Europe. It describes the
content of a language course and defines the levels achieved, which is very important since,
once acquired, these levels of language competence can be understood and recognised in all
other countries that accept the common policy of language teaching and testing.
The Council of Europe categorises learners as follows:
 C2 - Mastery (Nearly native speaker level)
 C1 - Operational proficiency (Advanced)
 B2 - Vantage (Upper-Intermediate)
 B1 - Threshold (Intermediate)
 A2 - Waystage (Pre-Intermediate)
  A1 - Breakthrough (Beginner/Elementary)
Although somewhat broadly defined, this concept of levels can be quite valuable in
syllabus and test design as well as in course planning. Such standards offer more reliable
guidelines for teaching both to teachers and to educational authorities.

1.1.1 Content Ordering

The content and the ordering of teaching units should be selected so as to contribute
best to the development of foreign language acquisition and the process of learning itself. The
criteria for syllabus design can be different depending on the educational policy and the goals
set, but in traditional school environments, a few principles are generally respected in syllabus
design:
 The content ordering of a syllabus should match the natural process of learning. There
have been a number of studies trying to find out if there is a ‘natural order’ of language
acquisition that takes place regardless of the learning environment (Ellis 1985) and the
results showed that the order of acquisition is, in most cases, the same. Efficient
teaching should respect this natural process and the ordering of language units to be
taught should, therefore, conform to the sequences that are typical in natural language
acquisition. Corder (1979) points out that efficient language teaching must work with,
rather than against natural processes in order to facilitate achievement. This ‘natural’
sequence of language units in a syllabus should not, however, be absolute, i.e. once the
item is learnt, the learners should not be expected to be instantly ready to use it
practically in different contexts. To improve learners’ competence and their application
of the learnt items, the units of the syllabus should be arranged cyclically, thus
occasionally revised and extended as the teaching process develops.
Other common criteria for syllabus design are mainly based on well-known pedagogical
principles:
  Units in teaching should be arranged from simpler ones to more complex ones. The
simplicity of language items is not always easy to determine, but a number of studies
have investigated the level of difficulty learners are faced with when dealing with
certain language items and these findings generally correlate with the observations
made by experienced teachers. The simplicity or complexity can be defined on the basis
of the phonological, morphological or structural properties of particular language units.
Simpler ones are considered to be acquired more easily and should, thus, precede the
complex ones in teaching.
 Teaching should develop from what is already known to what is yet to be learnt. When
students can rely on concepts they are already familiar with, to go on with learning new
ones, they feel more confident and less anxious about the learning process. Moreover,
foreign language acquisition is a process in which, like in many other learning situations,
knowledge already acquired is constantly being extended and ’built upon’ by linking
new pieces of information to already existing ones.
 Teaching should develop from more frequently to less frequently used items. This
principle is quite practically oriented and useful in preparation for further
communication. Language items (both grammatical and lexical) that are highly frequent
in real communication should be given more attention, reflecting reality in the
classroom environment. The selection of vocabulary items in different coursebooks is a
good example of the application of this principle (books for children, adults or ESP
books). Although the content ordering of the syllabus should be carefully designed to
respect all the relevant criteria, it may still be inappropriate for a particular learner
group due to a number of reasons. In such cases, instead of following the ‘prescribed’
content order too strictly, it is wiser to disregard the guidelines given and adapt the
content of teaching to meet the needs of the learners.

1.2 Work Plan

 A work plan is done by teachers and consists of day-to-day decisions on how to interpret
the syllabus into a series of lessons. In most state schools, teachers are expected to present
their work plans based on the syllabus prior to the beginning of the course.
Work plans are very important in foreign language teaching as well as in any other type
of teaching. While designing the plan, a teacher makes the outline of a course and has time to
develop ideas and prepare the resource materials well in advance. If absent from a class or
sharing classes with a colleague, a teacher provides clear and useful guidelines of what work
was planned for a particular lesson.
Making a work plan should be done in accordance with the school syllabus and a
coursebook and usually involves selecting the items to be covered and arranging them within
the period available. A work plan can be more or less detailed ̶ it can just give general items or
topics to be done or, additionally, a range of specific activities. It is very important that a work
plan includes various topics and various activities (and not only grammar and vocabulary). Work
on language skills and language systems should be balanced and appropriately included.
Attention should be paid to linking between work done on different days (revision, homework
check, etc.).
In practice, however, most work plans consist of a unit title and an additional remark
referring to the type of the lesson (presentation or practice) since many teachers are not really
keen on making official work plans (but make short-term ones for their own use). Admittedly, in
some cases, teachers rightly complain about the usefulness of work plans. When starting to
teach a new generation of students and having to plan more than 100 lessons in advance,
teachers can hardly predict the development of the course, how successfully their new students
will be achieving the goals and the problems they may face. Respecting the planned content of
each lesson, in some cases, may prove rather inefficient. However, work plans are generally
quite useful because they make the process of teaching better organised and well-thought
through in advance. Some adaptations, if necessary, can be introduced during the course, but
the basic ideas of what should be done during one school year generally remain unchanged.
1.3 Resource Materials

The importance of resource materials is strongly emphasised in modern teaching and a

lot of attention has been given to extending the variety and raising the quality of resource
materials in the last few decades.
One of the most widely used resource materials is the coursebook which, together with
a board and a chalk, used to be the only tool in traditional teaching. Fortunately, current
teaching practice is considerably different and a whole range of resource materials is used in
contemporary foreign language teaching. Apart from authentic and adapted texts, newspaper
extracts, additional exercises and games provided in teachers’ resource books, a variety of
other visual and audio materials are generally used to provide adequate input, to get students
more engaged and make learning more interesting and enjoyable.
Most coursebooks nowadays are designed with accompanying tapes, CDs or DVDs which
provide useful recordings with authentic speech and short films where, apart from listening to
native speakers, students often learn a great deal about the foreign culture. Computer CDs with
word or grammar games are efficiently used with young learners to make learning fun.
Even if schools cannot afford such resource materials and the equipment that is
necessary, there are other, cheaper, materials that can be successfully used to make learning
easier and more interesting. Posters, postcards and decorations support so-called peripheral
learning, provide some useful information about the foreign culture and, at the same time,
make the learning environment more pleasant and comfortable. Arts and crafts tools and even
small toys can be used with young children to raise their interest and engagement in classroom
activities.
The choice whether to use basic or additional resource materials depends largely on the
age and needs of the learners. Modern teaching should be supported by well-chosen and
adequate visual and audio materials that satisfy different learning styles and generally raise
motivation.
When selecting resource materials, teachers have two options: to choose authentic
ones, or to rely on those adapted for particular levels of knowledge. Authentic materials are
natural, such as extracts from TV or radio broadcasts, books, newspapers or magazines, notices
on posters, and the like. Adapted materials are specially designed for learners and provide clear
examples of language items in context. Such materials are often simplified and graded, and
usually rich in the specific language item. These are usually adapted tape-recordings,
coursebooks, graded readers and exercises designed for specific learner needs.
After a long era of artificially designed coursebooks with unnatural texts, authentic
materials were welcomed for some time as the only appropriate resource for successful foreign
language teaching. However, in the beginning stages of learning, such materials are not likely to
be very suitable. Respecting Krashen’s reasonable hypothesis that the adequate input, essential
for effective language acquisition, should be one level above the learner’s competence, it is
rightly assumed that authentic materials can be too difficult and quite incomprehensible to
elementary or pre-intermediate students and thus not the ‘adequate input’ that is required.
Such groups of students would benefit much more if exposed to well-selected, adapted and
comprehensible resource materials which can be excellently designed and motivating, until
they reach the level of competence that enables them to get more from authentic input.

1.3.1 The Coursebook

The coursebook is the most widely used and basic resource material in classroom
teaching. The content of the course-book should be compatible with the content of a particular
syllabus and, in some cases, the coursebook is especially designed to enable full realisation of
the syllabus through the appropriate selection and ordering of teaching units. If there is no
specially published coursebook, a suitable one is usually selected and approved by educational
authorities according to how efficiently it covers the syllabus content.
Having a coursebook is an enormous advantage in foreign language teaching. Firstly,
most coursebooks are written by experienced methodologists who have tested their ideas
practically, so teachers (especially less experienced ones) can rely on the well-organised
selection of appropriate and versatile language input, such as dialogues, texts, grammar and
vocabulary exercises, illustrations, suggestions for speaking practice, etc. Using a coursebook is,
thus, energy-saving since it provides ready-made material suitable for specific learner goals.
Secondly, the selection and ordering of language items are generally well done in coursebooks
owing to the experience of their authors, which facilitates the design of yearly work plans as
well as the realisation of the syllabus. Finally, most coursebooks are published with
accompanying teacher’s books that give useful ideas and detailed instructions on how to teach
and use the material offered. This makes the preparation of the teacher even easier.
Modern coursebooks are designed in line with contemporary trends in foreign language
teaching and aimed at developing all language skills, unlike traditional ones, but in spite of their
high quality and versatile content, a coursebook itself is not the only key to success in language
learning. What is more important is how the material is used and what methodology is
employed, since the teacher has immediate contact with the students, getting feedback and
observing the difficulties they face.
Syllabuses, work plans and coursebooks are valuable aids in well-organised foreign
language learning, but teachers should feel free to adapt the content and the methodology of
their teaching when it is necessary to meet the needs of their learners.

1.4 Lesson Planning

Preparation for a lesson is essential in a teacher’s job. Students at teacher training

courses and novice teachers usually prepare very detailed plans for their lessons while
experienced teachers may write just a few notes and examine the basic and additional
materials to be used. Both, however, spend some time thinking, predicting feedback,
sequencing, organising, and simplifying the content, with a view to making the learning process
easier to their students.
When planning a lesson, the teacher should have a very clear idea of what their goals
are and what the students are expected to achieve. The syllabus and the work plan give useful
guidelines, but the material selected for a particular lesson should be studied carefully in order
to be used in the best and most effective way. Neither the syllabus nor the text book can
determine the content of a particular lesson since it depends on the learners’ previous
knowledge and achievements as well as on a number of other conditions. It is, therefore,
difficult to say what a good class should be like. A primarily speaking lesson will be different
from a basically grammar lesson. A class with young children will differ greatly from a class with
adult learners. However, what all these types of classes should consist of is a beginning, middle
and end.
The beginning of a lesson is usually a sort of a warm-up activity aimed at getting
students’ attention and leading them into the topic in a natural and, hopefully, relaxing or
entertaining way. A warm-up can be a short game, an anecdote, a song or a question triggering
discussion, etc.
The end of a lesson is usually some sort of revision, such as a comprehension check, a
brief summary or giving homework related to what was done in the class.
The middle part of a lesson depends largely on the topic and the teaching methodology
employed. A very popular lesson-shape consists of three sequenced components –
presentation, practice and production. The first step in this kind of lesson is the presentation of
a language item through a suitable text or recording, aided by explanations from the teacher.
Then, the learners practise the presented language item in appropriate ways through different
sorts of exercises. Lastly, learners try to use the language items productively. This common
lesson-shape is useful in many situations, especially when working with low-level classes, but it
should not be the only concept used in lesson planning.
Sometimes, the whole lesson can be devoted to practising through a variety of activities
and sometimes this traditional sequencing can be altered and the class may, for example, begin
with speaking practice that leads to teacher’s explanations (presentation).
Whatever content or sequencing is chosen for a particular lesson, it should be done with
respect to a very important general principle: variety in lesson planning is essential. Each lesson
itself, as well as a series of lessons over a period of time, should involve various activities that
alternate between working individually and working in pairs or groups, teacher-centred or
learner-centred activities, developing productive and developing receptive skills, working on
accuracy and working on fluency or performing both demanding and relaxing tasks. Such a
variety of differently-oriented and differently designed activities suits the needs of different
learning styles students have and lays emphasis on all language skills, thus resulting in efficient
and well-balanced acquisition.
The most useful activities commonly used in the classroom, according to relevant
research, are: working in small groups, role plays, language games, reading topical articles, oral
presentations given by students, cloze exercises, using video materials, repetition drills and free
writing (Nunan 1988).
Apart from selecting appropriate and versatile activities, a good lesson plan should focus
on adequate sequencing. It should also predict how long each of the activities will take and
what problems may arise during the lesson as well as how these problems should be solved.
No matter how well-planned the lesson may be, there might be some constraints to its
realisation and unexpected situations a teacher has to deal with. In such cases, a teacher should
be prepared to respond to the learners and adapt what was planned even to the extent of
throwing the plan away if necessary, since it is more important that the teaching is in line with
the current situation in the class than with the previously designed lesson plan.

Further reading:
Ellis, R., (1985): Understanding Second Language Acquisition
Scrivener, J., (2005): Learning Teaching
Widdowson, H.G., (1990): Aspects of Language Teaching
2 TEACHING GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY

Before discussing some important aspects of teaching grammar and vocabulary, it is

useful to go back to language teaching theories of the 20 th century and the role of formal
instruction in the classroom setting. Important factors in foreign language learning are the
language environment and the type of learning associated with it.
Classroom language learning and language learning in the target language environment
(under ‘natural’ conditions) are sometimes contrasted in literature, but they actually present
two ends of a continuum. Natural language learning or ‘acquisition’, according to Krashen’s
distinction, is the process in which the learner is surrounded by native speakers, exposed to the
foreign language and given constant ‘input’ in a natural way which may be acquired
subconsciously, without a deliberate analysis of the language form and controlled practice. On
the other hand, this type of language acquisition is rarely so ‘pure’ and even the language
acquisition in the target language community is often aided by explanations and suggestions
from friends and relatives or by instructions and definitions found in books and dictionaries, all
of them being some sort of ‘formal instruction’. Classroom language learning is undoubtedly an
artificial setting, where formal instruction plays a significant role and where learning (conscious
data processing and retention) is supposed to take place instead of acquisition. However, this
setting is not necessarily devoid of some sort of input and if authentic language is sufficiently
presented to the learners, acquisition may take place. It is, therefore, often a mixture of both
acquisition and learning.
Natural language acquisition frequently results in better fluency and communication
skills, but classroom language learning can lead to a more balanced development of all
language skills. However, the order of acquisition, as the relevant studies 1 show, is not
significantly affected by the setting. Natural settings cannot be adapted to meet the needs of a
learner, but classroom teaching can be conducted in different ways and aimed at different goals
depending on what the teaching goals are and who the learners are. A few models of teaching
will be presented as an example.
One of the factors that is believed to influence some aspects of foreign language
acquisition is certainly the way a foreign language is taught to students. The section that deals
with teaching approaches and teaching methods reveals great differences in theoretical
principles and the corresponding practical techniques that have marked the rapid development
and progress in applied linguistics.
Different points of view have been expressed in a number of theories, just a few of
which are chosen to be presented here.
 The non-interface position – As pointed out earlier, Krashen claims that teaching
grammar gives little effect because the presentation of formal rules has two functions
only: it satisfies learners’ curiosity and enables the ‘monitor’ to function (Krashen 1981).
According to Krashen, the key to successful language acquisition and fluent production
is the exposure to adequate input, while formal instruction helps learners to ‘monitor’
(control and correct) the language they have already acquired. A sequenced structural
syllabus, thus, fails to meet the necessary conditions for efficient learning and the
effective pedagogical programme should involve the comprehensible classroom input, a
lot of communicative activities and the sufficient quantity of input (extensive reading is
thus very important as a good source of authentic input).
 The interface position – Contrary to Krashen’s hypotheses, Sharwood-Smith believes
that formal instruction contributes significantly to foreign language acquisition and that
teaching grammar improves communicative ability (Sharwood-Smith 1981). If the
cognitive development of the students allows it, grammar forms should be explained so
that the students can practice them in the classroom and outside it until they start using

1
Studies investigating the order of acquisition were carried out by Dulay and Burt, Larsen-Freeman, Krashen,
Shapira, Butterworth and Hutch, Cook and other linguists. For more information, see Eliis (1985: 54-64).
 them subconsciously in fluent speech. Teaching grammar (or ‘conscious-raising’, as
Sharwood- Smith calls it) can be very useful if appropriate teaching methods and
adequate techniques are employed regarding learners’ goals and abilities. Most of the
problems in classroom learning are not the result of grammar teaching itself, but of the
wrong type of teaching.
 The variability position – Bialystock claims that instruction must consider the specific
goals of the learner and make an attempt to provide the appropriate form of knowledge
to achieve these goals (Bialystock 1982). If a foreign language is needed for
communicative purposes, to be used mostly in informal discourse, not much language
analysis is necessary in teaching, although instruction itself would not hinder acquisition
and may even indirectly support it. On the other hand, if a foreign language is to be used
in discourse that requires careful, conscious planning, then a style that is both automatic
and analysed should be developed by formal instruction.
All three positions presented focus on the model of teaching and the role of formal
instruction in a classroom setting. Each of them offers quite a different point of view, none of
which has been found wrong. On the contrary – all three positions have been tested in
empirical research and their hypotheses at least partly confirmed. This may be a bit surprising,
since the role of formal teaching in classroom learning presents an important issue in ELT
methodology and has often been discussed in an attempt to find the best solution.
However, it turns out, that with or without formal instruction, language acquisition can
be achieved and that instead of assessing which of the hypotheses offered is the best, it is wiser
to look for the valuable concepts in each of them and adopt those that satisfy the needs and
goals of particular learner groups and learning environments. No matter which one the teacher
personally tends to prefer, much of his teaching in the classroom setting is focused on teaching
grammar and vocabulary.
2.1 Teaching Grammar

To be able to speak a language and to say what they mean, students must have some
grammatical knowledge. In some teaching approaches, teaching grammar used to be the basis
of the language course and it was sometimes done through endless rule memorisation and
conjugation of verbs. Trends shifted and the emphasis was later moved from grammar to
communication.
The role of grammar teaching was often disputed and considered inefficient in foreign
language acquisition. In the Communicative Approach, the main goal of language learning is
communication and there is a strong emphasis on communicative activities, but the linguistic
competence of students is also recognised as part of communicative competence. The role of
grammar has, consequently, been redefined and teaching grammar nowadays means enabling
language students to use linguistic forms accurately, meaningfully and appropriately (Larsen-
Freeman 1991: 280).
Employing adequate teaching methods and techniques makes the learning of grammar
more efficient and more enjoyable than it used to be. One of the first decisions a teacher has to
make when planning a grammar lesson is which approach to choose – a deductive or an
inductive one. Teaching deductively means presenting the rule first and then continuing with
exercises and communication. This approach is more teacher-centred. Teaching inductively, on
the other hand, involves guided activities and practice through which students discover the
rules by themselves and this is why it is more learner-oriented. One or the other of these types
of grammar teaching was usually strongly favoured in different approaches to language
teaching (in the Grammar- Translation Approach, for example, the deductive one was
employed, while in the Direct Approach, the inductive one was thought to be better).
Nowadays, however, most methodologists agree that both approaches to grammar teaching
have their advantages and that both should be used depending on the age of learners, their
cognitive styles, the knowledge they have and the language item they should work on.
 As far as the inductive approach is concerned, the teacher has another decision to make
– whether to state the rule or not to give it explicitly at all. A great number of learners like to
hear the rule and feel that they benefit and get more confidence from this kind of formal
instruction. When working with children, however, due to their incomplete cognitive
development and inability to comprehend abstractions, grammar rules should not be given
explicitly.
Contemporary trends in language teaching emphasise the importance of teaching
grammar for communication, which means that the form, meaning and appropriate use of
grammar items should be interrelated in teaching as they are in real communication. It doesn’t
mean that all the three components of a grammar item will be worked on during one class, but
it is important to realise how important they all are and to give them all adequate attention
during the teaching process.
Grammar items are usually sequenced in teaching as they are in a syllabus and they are
often ‘recycled’, which means revised and extended from time to time. This ordering enables
focusing on different dimensions at different times. The ultimate goal of teaching grammar is to
enable students to speak correctly and this is why teaching meaning and usage as well as
employing communicative activities in practising grammar are essentially important.
Teaching a grammar unit typically involves the presentation, practice and production
(use) of the grammar item. This doesn’t mean that the lesson shape has to conform to this
sequence, nor that all the three stages have to be performed during one class. Regardless of
their ordering and the time devoted to them, they are all present in most grammar teaching.

2.1.1 Presentation

Presentation is the stage at which the students are introduced to the form, meaning and
use of a new piece of language. A good presentation should, above all, be very clear and easy to
understand. This is often achieved by simple, logical and systematic explanations and examples.
The presentation should also be efficient and productive, enabling students to make new
sentences themselves and to prepare them to use the items taught. Teachers should try to
prepare presentations that are interesting and, thus, engage and motivate their students.
There are different ways to present a grammar item – by using dialogues, texts or
recordings that contain the new language item, by using drawings and illustrations featuring
situations where the language item can be used appropriately etc. This is often followed by the
teacher’s help in the form of:
 modelling – giving a clear example of the language item orally (with normal speed,
stress and intonation)
 isolation – giving special emphasis to the parts students should focus on
 writing on the board – (which should be clear and involve underlining the critical points)
 drawing time lines – which illustrate the representation of a tense and aspect
 explanations – which can be done more or less overtly, with or without the use of
technical words depending on the age and the level of knowledge of the students (e.g.
saying: You don’t start the sentence with ‘often’, or –Adverbs of frequency are generally
placed after the first auxiliary or in front of the lexical verb in Simple Tenses)
Although the foreign language should be used in the classroom as much as possible,
sometimes explanations in the mother tongue can help when grammar is being taught since
some students may fail to understand instructions in a foreign language well.
If a language item is presented inductively, there are other options that allow students
to discover new grammar for themselves. Unlike the previously described techniques in which
the teacher gives examples or asks the students to focus on the examples selected, discovery
techniques are those where students are given examples of language through a text, dialogue,
recording and similar, and asked to find the rules themselves. As the students try to discover
the rules, they have to concentrate, fully use their cognitive capacities and, thus, engage in the
activity. This technique can be time-consuming, but it produces excellent results since it
requires their full attention and logical thinking, not just understanding and memorisation. The
most common techniques used in inductive grammar learning are:
 previewing – being exposed to grammar items in a text or recording and absorbing the
new language before the presentation
  text study – concentrating on new language used in a text and recognising its properties
 problem-solving ̶ taking part in solving grammar problems like discovering different
meanings of a language unit, identifying errors, etc.

2.1.2 Practice

Practice activities are the most important part in learning grammar, since understanding
the rules and memorising them do not result in correct speaking unless students have the
opportunity to try these rules out by themselves.
When practising grammar, the focus is on language accuracy and teachers should
correct students’ errors and enable them to learn how to use the items studied correctly and
make progress.
There are different techniques used for practising grammar depending on the
methodology employed. The most common technique in traditional grammar teaching was
using drills. This type of exercise was later severely criticised as being mechanical and linked to
rote learning, but most methodologists agree that, in some cases, this technique can still be
efficiently applied, although the techniques should generally be aimed at preparing students to
use grammar items in real situations and, thus, more communicatively oriented. However, most
teachers rely on a number of techniques that are present in most course-book activities and
commonly used in the classroom:
 Drills – Although not very creative and mainly mechanical ways of getting students to
demonstrate and practise their linguistic abilities, drills can be a very quick and efficient
way of practising a new item and correcting students. Students are usually expected to
produce questions, give answers, transform one language form into another or
substitute one language item with an appropriate one. Drills are generally focused on
learning the form and should not be used for too long since these are not the most
attractive exercises that can be offered to students.
 Written practice – Probably the most common technique used for practising grammar
since such exercises can be done either in the classroom or at home. Some of these
 exercises are practically written drills and these should be used to a limited extent and
when the focus is on mastering the form. Different substitution drills, transformations
and question-answer exercises can be used at the beginning stages of learning a
grammar item. However, there is a great variety of other written exercises that are
more focused on meaning and on integrating the new item into the already built
knowledge of the foreign language. Students are often asked to match two halves of
sentences, to finish or produce sentences, to rearrange the word order, to fill in the
gaps with the appropriate language item, and similar.
 Games – A very efficient and entertaining way of practising grammar. They are designed
to make students learn while at the same time having fun or competing. Different types
of quizzes and questionnaires, competitions, memory games or board games can be
designed to require or enable the use of a particular grammar item.
 Interaction activities – Students work in pairs or small groups and practise grammar
through solving problems or exchanging information. There is always a purpose to this
communication and an appropriate context for using the grammar item studied, so
these activities reflect real-life situations and prepare students for uncontrolled, natural
communication.
Practising grammar is a very important stage in the process of learning and students
should have enough time and opportunity to master the language item. Since it is extremely
important to keep them interested and engaged at the same time, these practice activities
should be carefully chosen, varied and increasingly oriented to communicative purposes.

2.1.3 Production

Production is the last stage in learning a grammar item. After having enough practice,
students can be expected to use their knowledge in moderately controlled or uncontrolled
speech or writing.
Activities that are used in this stage should always be communicative. These can be
group discussions, role-plays, purposeful writing and other activities designed to engage
students and to make them feel they are preparing for natural communication, while at the
same time trying to use the knowledge acquired in a non-threatening classroom environment.
It is important to point out that the selection of activities for grammar practice and
production should generally respect not only the educational goals, but the personal interest of
the learners as well. If students can relate language items to their experience and interests
outside the classroom, they are more likely to participate and master them successfully. A
grammar class can then become truly interesting and engaging in spite of the widespread
prejudice that practicing grammar is generally boring.

2.2 Teaching Vocabulary

Vocabulary typically refers to single words (e.g. book, table) but this term is often used
interchangeably with the term lexis that refers not only to single words, but to common
patterns of words ‘going together’ (collocations, like breaking news) or so-called word-chunks
that are used as fixed phrases.
The importance and usefulness of lexical items are easily recognised by most learners
who can communicate, even at the beginning stages of learning, by using appropriate lexis and
who get their message across in spite of their limited knowledge of grammar.
Although lexical items are the first to be learnt, the process of learning them seems
never-ending later since English is considered to have the richest vocabulary of all the living
languages and learners often come across unknown words even at advanced levels of learning.
What makes learners initially enthusiastic and satisfied is the fact that the items learnt at the
beginning stages are often immediately useful and very frequent in everyday spoken language.
As the learning process goes on, many new words are accumulated and not all of them are used
so frequently. Some items may gradually be forgotten and some others may become part of our
receptive (or passive) lexis (we understand them, but don’t use them).
Learning lexis is, therefore, a long and difficult process which should be simplified by
well-planned teaching. Traditionally, the teaching of vocabulary above elementary levels was
mostly incidental, limited to presenting new items as they appeared in reading texts. This
indirect teaching of vocabulary was based on the assumption that vocabulary expansion will
happen through the practice of other language skills, which has been proved insufficient to
ensure vocabulary expansion.
Nowadays it is widely accepted that vocabulary teaching should be part of the syllabus,
and taught on a well-planned and regular basis. Firstly, vocabulary teaching, like grammar
teaching, should be done systematically and the new items practised thoroughly and secondly,
students should be encouraged and taught how to use English-English dictionaries and how to
memorise lexical items.
A very important principle in modern teaching is that lexis should be worked on in
appropriate contexts. This is why it is usually linked to reading and listening tasks. When
students are expected to memorise lists of isolated words, they fail to realise how these words
function in a sentence, what sort of discourse they fit in and how they can be combined with
other words.
Apart from teaching words in an appropriate context, in some cases, it is quite effective
to teach collocations or words followed by commonly used prepositions. For example, when
explaining the word borrow to students, some teachers often provide additional information
and explain that borrow and lend have the same lexical equivalent in Serbian (contrasting
confusing pairs of words should generally be left for later stages when the learners have
mastered both). Paradoxically most students remember what these two words have in
common, but forget which one is appropriate in a certain context. It is, therefore, better to
teach these words separately with the common prepositions (borrow from/ lend to) to help
students remember their meaning and appropriate use.
 It is important to note that, unlike teaching grammar, where the presentation of a
complex unit can be relatively long, explaining new lexis usually takes less time since the
number of new lexical items per lesson should be limited, otherwise most students would fail
to memorise them.
When related to reading or listening tasks, lexis can be worked on before, after or
during the listening/reading activity.

2.2.1 Presentation

Presenting new lexical items before the activity is usually done in order to enable the
students to understand the text or the listening material better. In such cases, new words and
phrases can be presented through a short story told by the teacher, a game or a picture
(matching the words to pictures or definitions) or through brainstorming activities in which
students think of words related to the topic and extend their knowledge with the help of the
teacher.
Dealing with unknown words during reading or listening activities is usually done by a
brief translation or explanation so that the students can understand crucial parts of the text.
More detailed work often follows the listening/reading activity. Students are usually
required to find synonyms, guess the meanings and definitions of unknown words, provide
antonyms and appropriate examples or to group words according to similarities in meaning.
The teacher has a very important role in the presentation of new words since the
meaning and the use of a new item have to be clear to students. Although time-saving,
translation should be used as little as possible, but not avoided at all costs. There are numerous
efficient techniques that can be successfully used to get meaning across:
 miming (particularly useful and entertaining when working with children)
 explaining the meaning in the foreign language (using types of definitions
that are simple enough to be understood by all the students)
 giving examples that clarify the meaning (using the word in a typical and
illustrative context)
  giving synonyms (well-known to the learners)
 drawing
 pointing to objects and pictures, etc.

2.2.2 Practice

After the presentation of new lexis, students can hardly be expected to use all the new
items immediately. They need time to remember them and opportunities to practise using
them. Most coursebooks contain appropriate exercises dealing with lexical items and they
usually involve:
 matching lexical items to pictures
 matching lexical items to others (e.g. collocations, synonyms, sets of related
words, etc.)
 using prefixes and suffixes to build new lexical items from given words
 filling in gaps
 filling in crosswords, drawings, diagrams
 doing memory games
Most exercises are composed and can be sequenced quite similarly to ones aimed at
practising grammar. Modern coursebooks and vocabulary practice books offer exercises that
are well-designed and can be used either in the classroom or at home. They are generally
aimed at familiarising students with the English lexis and preparing them for further
‘productive’ activities.
Since successful practice and production are strongly linked to affective factors, raising
students’ motivation is crucially important in good teaching. Additional resource materials and
activities in the classroom should thus be chosen in line with students’ personal interests and
experience to make vocabulary practice more relevant and more successful.
2.2.3 Production

It is important to distinguish between two types of production as far as lexical items are
concerned. When teaching new words and phrases during the class, the teacher should expect
the students to understand the meaning, to try to use the lexical item in the appropriate
exercises and to be able to use it (at lower levels – to pronounce it and later – to use it in a
sentence or appropriate context). It would be too ambitious to expect low-level students to use
this lexical item immediately in discussions, role-plays or written tasks because learning new
items involve storing them first in our short-term memory, and afterwards in our long-term
memory2. Retention in the short-term memory is not effective if the number of chunks of
information exceeds eight, which suggests that in a given class we should not aim at teaching
more than this number. However, our long-term memory can hold any amount of
information. Word frequency is another factor that affects storage, as the most frequently used
items are easier to retrieve. We can use this information to attempt to facilitate the learning
process, by grouping items of vocabulary in semantic fields, such as topics (e.g. types of fruit)
and by providing learners with adequate memorisation techniques and opportunities to revise.
Since input is essential in foreign language acquisition, recently learnt lexical items (as well as
grammar ones) should increasingly be used in class discussions and other activities (initially by
the teacher) to enable the students to hear and start using them more frequently and, thus, to
adopt them as part of their active lexis. It is only then that the learners can produce new words
spontaneously in a wide range of communicative activities that require the ‘natural’ use of
lexis.

Further reading:
Doff, A., (1988): Teach English – A Training Course for Teachers
Harmer 2001 Harmer, J., (2007a): The Practice of English Language Teaching
Krashen, S.D., (1981): Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning

2
We do not control this process consciously.
 Lewis, M., Hill, J, (1985): Practical Techniques for Language Teaching
Scrivener, J., (2005): Learning Teaching

3 TEACHING SKILLS

One of the main goals of teaching should be developing learners’ language skills as
knowledge of grammar and vocabulary is often not enough to enable successful
communication. If learners have not practised listening, speaking, reading and writing in a
foreign language, they can have difficulties understanding different varieties of the language or
trying to speak or write themselves in spite of the rules and vocabulary acquired.
Teaching all four language skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing should start as
early as possible. However, when working with young learners, teaching reading and writing
should generally be delayed for some time since young children need time to develop literacy in
their mother tongue first and then in a foreign language.
Language skills are often divided into receptive (listening and reading) and productive
(speaking and writing) skills.
3.1 Teaching Listening

People who have learnt a foreign language without the necessary practice in listening
skills know how difficult it can be to understand authentic speech once they are exposed to it in
real-life situations. Most learners complain that foreigners speak too fast, that they fail to
recognise words they know because of the difference in pronunciation, or that they have
problems understanding someone in a telephone conversation (without the supporting
paralinguistic features) or in situations where there is a lot of background noise. Most of these
problems are considerably lessened if learners are given enough listening practice in the
classroom which prepares them well for further communication activities outside the
classroom. Fortunately, this important role of listening skills is adequately emphasised in
modern approaches to foreign language teaching and most course-books often contain
exercises of this type from the very beginning.
An important dilemma related to listening skills is what sort of material should be used
in teaching. Authentic materials are often favoured in modern concepts of teaching, but some
methodologists argue that these are not the most useful for low-level classes. Authentic
materials have undisputed advantages since students are exposed to the natural use of a
foreign language as they would be in real communication. On the other hand, low-level
students can understand very little and the question is how much they can benefit if these are
the only materials used. Therefore, it seems reasonable to use available adapted materials that
are adequately graded with such groups of students and to introduce authentic materials
increasingly as the students make progress. However, some authentic materials can be used
even with low-level students from time to time, but the tasks set should be simpler. Even
beginners, for example, can listen to a TV/radio weather forecast for Europe if the task they are
given is to remember the names of the countries mentioned.
It is important to note that listening can be extensive or intensive. The former is the kind
of listening usually done outside the classroom and for pleasure. Students often decide
themselves to listen to longer ‘pieces’, by watching films, radio and TV broadcasts and similar.
Intensive listening, however, is much shorter, more focused and done in the classroom for
specific purposes.
Another important distinction often made in the analysis of listening practice is the one
between top-down and bottom-up processing. In top-down processing, a listener gets a general
view of the situation and then, if necessary, focuses on particular details. In bottom-up
processing, the focus on individual words or phrases and their stringing aids understanding the
whole. Both types of listening are important and subconsciously used in communication and
they should both be practised in the classroom.

3.1.1 Guidelines for practising listening skills

Different kinds of listening practice can be done in the classroom and these usually
involve:
 Identifying the speakers (listening to a conversation between a few participants to
identify who the speakers may be)
 Listening for general understanding (e.g. listening to a radio broadcast and identifying
what the main topic is)
 Listening for specific information (e.g. listening to a weather forecast and finding out
what the weather will be like in South England)
 Listening for detailed information (e.g. listening to a potential employer giving direction
how to find the office for the interview in which every piece of information is important)
 Interpreting the conversation (being able to see beyond the literal meaning and identify
the relationship and the moods of the participants)
Whatever the listening task is, it should be carefully planned and prepared. Listening tasks
should be adequately challenging for students. If too easy or too difficult, they are not likely to
result in high motivation and good progress. The tasks should also be realistic or useful in some
way.
 Before listening, students should be given clear instructions. Simply playing the tape or
CD without giving instructions as to what the students are expected to focus on can be
extremely frustrating. It is, thus, necessary to define the task in advance and give students
questions, charts or drawings to look at before they listen. It is too ambitious to expect the
students to remember everything that was said. The tasks can demand listening for specific
information or interpreting the conversation, but it must be clear what students should
concentrate on because in natural communication we hardly ever listen to each and every word
people say and often focus on what we are interested in and on what we find important. When
necessary, some vocabulary can be pre-taught to enable better understanding.
The tasks students should complete during the listening activities commonly involve the
following:
 choosing the correct picture
 following instructions
 choosing the best answer from the ones offered
 deciding who is saying which sentence
 taking down messages, addresses, phone numbers, flight times etc.
 deciding what attitudes speakers have to the topic being discussed
 remembering the order of events and so on
The recorded material should not be too long. Two to five minutes is certainly enough for
a good listening practice. After the tasks are clearly set, the recording should be played for the
first time and comprehension checked. In most cases, it is necessary to play the recording a few
more times. Teachers should not be misguided by correct answers which can be immediately
given by the strongest students, since the point of the activity is not to get answers right as
quickly as possible, but to enable the whole group of students to practise. Weaker students
sometimes need more time, but considerable progress is made when such students manage to
identify and understand what they are supposed to, regardless of how many times the
recording has been played. When the majority of the group has completed the task
successfully, the listening activity can be finished or it can be followed by different classroom
activities that can be linked to it.
3.2 Teaching Reading

In traditional teaching, reading used to be the most emphasised language skill and a
crucial activity in the classroom. Language units used to be text-based and after being
presented to the learners, it was commonly required that all the students should read the text
aloud. Such teaching technique was aimed at practising pronunciation and teaching vocabulary,
but since it was overused and its main aims were limited, it failed to motivate students.
When teaching young learners in Serbia, practising reading skills is often delayed until
they acquire literacy in their mother tongue. The first steps in teaching reading are then aimed
at learning how to read English words since English orthography is significantly different from
Serbian. In this initial stage, adapted materials are preferred in classroom settings since they
present the best selection of graded language units that should be learnt.
Reading, as well as listening, is a receptive skill and some principles in developing these
skills are pretty much alike. Low-level students can hardly benefit from authentic resource
materials that are far more than one level beyond their knowledge and, consequently,
inappropriate input. Such materials can be used seldom and cautiously when simple and limited
activities are required. Otherwise, adapted materials better suit the educational purposes since
they offer the necessary ‘adequate input’, but they should be increasingly supplemented by
more authentic texts as progress is made.
Reading activities, like listening ones, can also be extensive and intensive. Extensive
reading is often done at home, for pleasure, but students should be advised on how to do it.
When starting to read more in a foreign language, most people usually have some problems –
they often come across unknown words and spend too much time looking them up in
dictionaries or sometimes they know all the words, but fail to integrate their meanings and
understand the whole. Students should therefore be taught the necessary techniques for
extensive reading to make it easier (not to look up every unknown word, but one that has
appeared for a few times and is already remembered or one that hinders the understanding of
the whole paragraph etc.) and they should be taught how to read more quickly and, thus, find
more pleasure in reading activities.
Intensive reading, on the other hand, is slower and more focused, and most often done
in the classroom. It usually involves work on both types of information processing distinguished
in listening practice. Top-down reading, similarly to top-down listening, is more often used in
real life and involves reading for a general view of the text (e.g. reading a newspaper article to
get the main idea of the story). Bottom-up reading is done by focusing on particular words or
phrases and, by linking them to one another, building up the whole picture. It can be quite
useful when reading texts that contain a great number of unknown words.
When intensive reading is done it is very important that the texts are well-balanced as
far as grammar and lexis are concerned. Students should be familiar with most grammar items
in the text if the focus of the reading activity is on cultural aspects or vocabulary (if the texts are
used as an introduction into grammar presentation, then the vocabulary should be well-known
to students, so that they can concentrate on the grammar).
Apart from silent reading, which is faster and more efficient with advanced students, at
lower levels, students are often expected to read the text aloud, so that they practise their
pronunciation and intonation. It is important that such practice is done after the students have
been exposed to a proper model (the recording of the text or the teacher’s reading) since most
students feel insecure when they have to read aloud new texts containing unknown words or
complicated names. Texts should generally contain a limited number of new words and phrases
students are supposed to learn and it should be fewer than 8 unknown words per 45 minute
class.
Another distinction important to make in reading techniques is the one between the
two types of fast reading learners should master: skim reading and scan reading.
Skim reading is fast reading done to identify the key topic and main idea of a text, (like
reading a letter of complaint to a travel agency and identifying the mood of the writer and the
main reasons for their dissatisfaction). Scan reading is done to find specific pieces of
information and details (finding out facts, numbers, names, addresses etc.)
 Although particular details are being looked for, scan reading is also a type of top-down
activity since scan reading requires quick processing of the whole text so that the key words can
be found and the necessary piece of information obtained. Both scan reading and skim reading
should be practised thoroughly in the classroom because these are the techniques people most
commonly employ in real life, when reading some texts for professional and educational
purposes or for their personal interests.

3.2.1 Practising reading in the classroom

Practising reading skills often develops through a few stages3:

 Introduction/lead-in – the first stage which involves getting the learners interested in
the topic, linking the topic to the learners’ personal experience, discussing the main
themes or concentrating on important language the learners will come across while
reading the text
 Pre-reading task – often involves predicting what the text will be about, considering its
title, subtitles or illustrations or reading questions about the text which should prepare
the students for what to focus on
 Reading task – can be done in different ways depending on the type of the text and the
goal of the teacher. Reading tasks can involve:
o skimming ̶ in order to check the predictions made before the reading activity, to
find out the general idea of the text or put the events in the right order
o scanning – in order to find a particular piece of information in the text
o focusing on the main meaning – in order to take part in a discussion, to make
summaries, or to use the main points in subsequent reading or speaking
activities
o focusing on meaning – in order to interpret finer points in the text, ambiguities,
word-plays etc.

3
The sequencing of reading activities is based on Scrivener 2005: 187
 o focusing on individual language items – in order to learn or practise grammar
and vocabulary
 Follow-on task – a closing activity usually involving discussions, writing tasks and role-
plays or linking the topic of the text to personal or common human experience
Specifically defined, reading tasks often require:
 putting the illustrations of the texts or the paragraphs in the correct order
 giving headlines to each section of the text or matching already given headlines with the
sections
 reinserting sentences previously taken from the text in the right place
 finding the words in the text that mean the same as the words from a given list
 doing multiple-choice and true/false exercises to check comprehension of the text and
so on

When reading is practised in the classroom, the teacher should make sure that
instructions are clear to all students in the group and that all of them are engaged in the
activity. Weaker students often feel embarrassed to admit they fail to understand parts of the
text, so the teacher should pay more attention and give more help to such students.
It is also important to point out that a reading activity may not involve all the stages
listed above, since it can be done as a lead-in activity that develops into discussion or writing
practice.

3.3 Teaching Speaking

 Speaking is a productive skill and after the first stages, which usually involve repetition
and paraphrasing, it develops gradually and improves enormously as the learners extend their
linguistic and communicative repertoire. Until recently little was done on learners’ speaking
skills. It was generally assumed that speaking should evolve as learners make progress and have
enough opportunity to speak in and outside the classroom. Recently, however, this view has
changed and work on speaking skills is, consequently, better planned and more efficient.
When speaking practice is done, the focus is on fluency and not on accuracy, as it is when
the grammar is practised, and the teacher should be more tolerant of errors since a great
number of learners have difficulties when trying to use a foreign language productively even if
they know the necessary rules and the relevant vocabulary. Speaking involves the integration of
different types of knowledge learners have acquired, including knowledge of social and cultural
rules that might be important. Since this is truly a demanding activity, the support of the
teacher is extremely important.

3.3.1 Speaking activities in the classroom

In organising speaking practice, the teacher has much more freedom than in organising
other types of activities. This freedom, however, imposes a certain amount of responsibility.
There are a few important tasks the teacher should do in order to provide the conditions for a
successful speaking practice:
 Choosing the topic – Students are more likely to engage in the activity if the topic is
interesting, challenging and not too vague. The topic can be introduced after a short
article is read to the students or a recording played or it can be chosen in line with the
students’ interests.
 Organising the class – A speaking activity can be done as a whole class discussion, pair
work or group work and these should be varied. The teacher should take care that the
students are seated so that they can have eye-contact with other participants.
  Structuring talk ̶ The teacher should be ready to provide some cues if the response of
the students is weak. The conversation is more likely to develop if the topic or the
speaking task is well defined. Vague questions like ‘What do you think about…:’ are not
likely to stimulate a lively discussion. Students should have a clear idea what particular
aspect of the topic they should focus on. The teacher should make sure that all the
students get the chance to participate and should also take part in the discussion
himself in order to keep it interesting (e.g. by giving an opposite view, which should be
disputed). The teacher’s participation, however, should be reduced to the extent
necessary for structuring talk since this is primarily a learner-centred activity.
 Giving feed-back – Different types of useful feed-back can be given during and after the
activity: encouraging students, helping them to produce an utterance correctly, showing
interest by verbal and non-verbal signals, drawing attention to common errors and
asking for or giving correction after the activity is finished.
Planning a speaking activity is not as easy as it may seem to novice teachers and it
involves a lot more than just choosing a topic and expecting students to speak. The teacher
should get to know the material selected for the topic well and prepare cues. Before the
instructions are given and the speaking activity is started, it is useful to revise or extend the
vocabulary and phrases students might need in the conversation. The selected lexis can be
written on the board or printed on hand-outs so that the students can easily have a look at
them during the activity.
The teacher should be supervising during the whole activity to help students when
necessary and to remember or, even better, write down interesting utterances that can be
discussed when the activity is finished.

3.4 Teaching Writing

Writing is a productive skill. The attitude to the importance of writing skills has
significantly changed over the past few decades. Most people wrote very little in their everyday
lives twenty or thirty years ago, while nowadays, in the era of text messaging, e-mails and web
forums, there is hardly anyone who does not need writing for such purposes. Writing e-mails
and text messages requires knowledge of particular rules, abbreviations and lexis aimed at
quick and efficient message exchange, commonly used in this modern means of
communication. This sort of writing, however, differs largely from creative writing or academic
writing, which should be developed as the learners reach advanced levels.
Teaching writing, like teaching any other skill, should be directed to the communicative
purposes of the learners and should prepare them for using this skill both in e-mails and chat
forums and in their further education or business where a more refined and complex academic
style is still required.

3.4.1 Practising writing in the classroom

The development of writing skills is a slow and complex process. What makes it even
more difficult in the beginning stages of learning is the lack of correspondence between sounds
and their spelling in English. It normally takes considerable time until students are able to write
freely and creatively.
The initial stages are usually marked by a strong emphasis on accuracy. Writing practice
is usually sequenced, and the common stages are often the following4:
 Copying – Students copy words from a course-book or from the board to get used to
letter shapes and basic orthographic rules.
 Doing exercises – Students write words, phrases or sentences in controlled tasks, like
grammar exercises, in which there is no creativity and the focus is on accuracy.
 Guided writing – Students write texts in controlled tasks with great help and guidance
from the teacher, in the form of a given model, useful vocabulary and phrases or advice
and suggestions.

4
The sequencing of writing activities is based on Scrivener 2005:193
  Process writing – Students have more freedom in choosing the topic and planning their
written assignments, but they exchange their ideas and develop and organise them by
working with peers and getting help from the teacher.
 Creative writing ̶ Students are able to plan, organise and complete their written
assignments without the help of the teacher.
As can be seen above, the first more demanding step in developing creative writing is
the one usually referred to as ‘guided writing’ and it can be done even at lower stages of
learning since it usually involves some sort of paraphrasing, inserting the beginnings or ends of
sentences and paragraphs, finishing a short piece of writing or producing a similar one. Such
tasks do not require much creativity, but raise awareness of how the text should be organised,
how sentences are joined and ordered and how alternative language items can be used.
The next stage involves more work on how ideas should be expressed and developed in
a written text. Students learn how to sequence their ideas, what sort of language may be
appropriate for a particular writing style and how to enrich and vary the lexis used. This stage is
often quite difficult for students in Serbia since writing is generally less used in our educational
system than it is in most other countries, and owing to the lack of experience, students in
Serbia need much more practice to improve their writing skills.
What is essentially important in developing writing skills, apart from good guidance and
much practice, is reading (as a means of providing adequate input and a good model) as well as
the conscious analysis of selected pieces of writing at later stages of learning.
Finally, it is important to point out that whenever writing tasks are done, feedback
should be given, so that the students can see what their strengths and weaknesses in this area
are. Most teachers simply ‘correct’ written assignments, by putting symbols which show if a
grammar, lexical, structural or any other mistake was done, but better effects are achieved if
clearer feedback is given in the form of written comments that draw attention to the overall
performance of the task. The latter is, admittedly, time-consuming, but since writing tasks often
require a lot of energy from learners, this effort should be recognised and further ones
encouraged by proper feedback from the teacher.
 Further reading:
Doff, A., (1988): Teach English – A Training Course for Teachers
Harmer 2001 Harmer, J., (2007a): The Practice of English Language Teaching
Scrivener, J., (2005): Learning Teaching

4 LANGUAGE TESTING

A test is a method of measuring a person’s ability or knowledge in a given area. In

language teaching, it is, therefore, a method of measuring students’ language ability or
knowledge, in other words – their language competence. In classroom language learning,
different kinds of tests are often applied since this is the way that students’ achievements can
be assessed and graded objectively, and how their progress and problems in learning can be
identified.
In traditional teaching, tests were not used appropriately and students used to have
quite a negative attitude towards testing. Most misuses are well summarised by Shohamy
(1988):
 Tests were used as punishment (e.g. because no one did the homework).
 Tests were the exclusive instrument for grading.
 Tests did not reflect what was taught.
 Tests were returned with a lack of corrections or explanations.
 Students were not adequately trained to take tests, etc.
Fortunately, the situation has improved in the last few decades and a lot of attention has
been given to creating a more constructive view of language testing. Tests are used nowadays
to provide an opportunity for interaction between the teacher and the students (Shohamy
1988) and are intended to help students improve their skills. Modern tests are usually designed
to reflect what was taught and satisfy certain requirements.
Tests are, in most cases, composed by teachers, although standardised tests, devised by
language methodologists can be used for particular purposes.

4.1 A Good Test

Language testing should not be confusing or threatening to students and should be, at
the same time, useful to both students and teachers, giving a reliable and true picture of how
successfully language items have been acquired. In order to offer such an objective and
valuable insight into the progress students are making and into potential problems, a few
important criteria should be met and these are, in the first place, practicality, reliability and
validity:
 Practicality – A good test should be practical, which means that it should be composed
with respect to time constraints, financial limitations and ease of scoring and
interpretation. A language test that takes a student 5 hours to complete or a teacher 5
hours to correct is certainly not a practical one; nor is a test that requires the use of
technical devices that are not available. A practical test should be designed so that
students can do it in a relatively short time and the teachers can correct it efficiently. It
should be prepared and carried out with respect to the material resources available. In a
classroom setting, this usually means that tests should be done during class-time,
corrected in a few days at the latest and should be designed in line with the school
facilities (e.g. an internet-supported test cannot be done in schools that are not
adequately equipped).
 Reliability – A reliable test is one that gives similar results if given to the same or a
matched group of students on two different occasions. It means that if the same group
of students took the same tests within two days (with no instruction in between) or if
they were given a similar test, the results should be consistent. A few factors are crucial
in determining reliability: the types of items and the length of the total test. The longer
 the test is, the more reliable it should be. As for the content, the scope of variety for the
answers expected should be restricted. Apart from its content consistency, a reliable
test should also be consistent as far as scoring is concerned, which means that the
scoring should be objective enough to produce the same results even if corrected by
different scorers. If scoring is a matter of subjective assessment, the test is not
considered to be reliable.
 Validity – Validity refers to whether the test really measures what it is supposed to
measure. A valid test of speaking should, therefore, not be designed in a paper-and-pen
format containing items that measure grammar competence rather than speaking. Two
types of validity are crucially important in classroom testing: content validity and
construct validity. Content validity is achieved if a test adequately samples the content
or objectives. Content validity can be determined observationally if the achievement
being measured can be clearly defined. Practically, it means that a grammar test should
consist of items that clearly require the use of grammar knowledge and that measure
learners’ grammar ability. A concept often associated with content validity is – face
validity which is satisfied if the test looks as if it is measuring what it is supposed to
measure (e.g. a written assignment really looks as if it is measuring an ability to write
freely, whereas a ‘multiple choice’ test doesn’t). Construct validity refers to the degree
to which the test is a true reflection of what it means to know a language. Test
questions, for example, that require some sort of general or particular knowledge, can
be answered incorrectly owing to the lack of this particular knowledge and not owing to
an inability to use the foreign language. Such a test, thus, does not meet the criterion of
construct validity.
 Item analysis – This analysis should be done to determine the degree of item difficulty
and item discrimination. Item difficulty refers to the proportion of correct responses to a
test item. Tests aimed at differentiating between learners should contain items which
around 60-80% of the students answer correctly. Item discrimination, on the other
hand, refers to how well the test can help in separating the stronger students from the
 weaker ones. It is desirable that a test should have a higher discrimination level, which
means that it should be done better by stronger students.
All these criteria should be considered very important and should be met in order to
achieve a reliable and objective insight into the learners’ level of knowledge, their
achievements and their weaknesses, in other words – in order to achieve the goals a test is
primarily intended for.

4.2 Types of Tests

Tests can have different functions. One and the same test can be used for diagnosis,
placement of learners, for insight into their progress or for experimental research. However,
the most important types of tests often used in state schools or private language schools can
have some particular qualities and precisely defined goals:
 Proficiency tests are intended for measuring general competence in a foreign language.
They are, thus, not supposed to be limited to a particular syllabus or a single skill. Such
tests usually consist of items on grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, oral
comprehension and writing, but sometimes, speaking is tested as well. Typical examples
of proficiency tests are TOEFL, FCE, CAE, CPE and similar comprehensive language tests.
 Diagnostic tests are composed to find out difficulties students have in learning, to
identify gaps in their knowledge and weaknesses in their language skills. Such tests can
be very useful in classroom setting when starting to work with a new group of students
because they enable the teacher to find out which areas of the foreign language should
be given more attention and how the work plan should be adapted.
 Placement tests are used to place a student in a particular level or class in a school.
They are usually designed as proficiency or diagnostic tests. Such tests include a
sampling of material to be covered in the syllabus. The areas usually tested are grammar
and vocabulary, but sometimes students’ receptive or, even, productive skills may be
assessed. Such tests provide an indication of what level or class is adequately
challenging, neither too easy, nor too difficult for a student.
  Achievement tests are most often done in classroom language teaching since these
tests measure the achievement of the students in relation to the syllabus. They contain
material that is quite similar to that covered within a recent period of time through
lessons and units presented and practised. Achievement tests should reflect progress
(Harmer 2001: 321), not weaknesses and they should, thus, reinforce learning. If
students’ answers are unexpectedly weak, this fact should be taken into consideration
in further lesson planning, but students should not be discouraged. Such test are usually
done at certain intervals (mid-term or end-term tests), but they can be done as often as
teachers feel students’ progress should be checked (when a unit or a selection of
teaching material has been completed).

4.3 Test Construction, Administration and Scoring

The first step in test composition is defining the objectives to be tested, after which test
items and procedures are developed.
Creating a number of items varying in the level of difficulty and procedures required for
their completion leads to more objective insight into the knowledge attained. The next step
involves the selection of items and their arrangement. A test should generally start with easier
items which encourage students and raise their confidence and it can be continued by
interspersing easy and difficult ones.
If a multiple choice test is being composed, it is important to have a greater number of
alternatives (four is recommended), so that the likelihood of getting the right answer just by
guessing is reduced. It is also important to pay attention that right answers are not always in
the same place and that there are no obvious regularities in their ordering which can help
students guess them.
When a test is being administered, a few conditions should be met. Firstly, the room in
which students are supposed to be doing the test should be comfortable enough, with enough
space and light and, hopefully, no outside noises. If a CD player is to be used during the test, it
should be previously checked, as should the CDs. Instructions on how to complete the test
should be absolutely clear and unambiguous, so that every student can understand them. If
read aloud, the instructions should be read slowly. Students should be told the time allowed for
completion, or preferably, the beginning and the end time of the test should be written on the
board. In modern language teaching, it is considered that students should be familiar with the
values of test items or test sections. Teachers should take care not to allow speaking or any
kind of misbehaviour during the test in order to enable all students to concentrate on the tasks.
When scoring the test, the easiest and the most objective procedures should be applied.
Objective scoring is quite easy to achieve when, for example, multiple choice tests are
employed. When an essay is done or speech tested, it is more difficult to achieve highly
objective scores, since the assessment of free writing or free communication depends largely
on subjective criteria regardless of the efforts made to improve their objectivity. The results of
the test should be announced to students as soon as possible. Apart from grading students on
the basis of their test results, teachers should use these results and analyse them since
students’ errors provide a valuable insight into the problems in their language learning and
areas of difficulty that should be given more attention in further teaching.

4.4 Test Techniques

There are a number of techniques that can be used in language testing, but the main
distinction is usually made between integrative and discrete point testing methods.

4.4.1 Integrative Tests

Integrative tests became very popular in the Communicative Approach to language

teaching. The main idea is the following ̶ since communicative competence is seen as an
overall, integrative knowledge of the language involving the interaction of all language skills,
grammar and lexis as well as discourse awareness, it cannot be broken into pieces and tested
partially. According to these principles, the communicative abilities of a learner should be
tested by integrative tests, such as a cloze test and a dictation.
A cloze test is usually a reading passage (150-300 words long) from which every nth
(between every 5th and every 10th) word has been deleted. Students are supposed to supply the
words that fit into these gaps. Since anything can be tested (a grammar form, a collocation,
etc.), successful completion requires a number of abilities on the part of the learner: good
reading comprehension, knowledge of grammar, vocabulary and discourse, logical
‘expectations’, etc. This is why this testing technique is thought to measure overall language
proficiency. On the other hand, there are some weaknesses in a cloze test as well – some words
can be easily supplied, but some items are truly more difficult.
Cloze tests can have different forms. Students can be expected to supply one exact word
or an acceptable word that can fit. The latter is less demanding and psychologically more
convenient. On the other hand, words for deletion can be chosen randomly (e.g. every 7 th
word) or selected to meet certain criteria (e.g. lexical items or past participle forms that appear
in the text) which makes this adapted form of a cloze test suitable for discrete point testing as
well (e.g. grammar tests and others).
Dictation was traditionally considered to be a technique used for identifying progress
and problems in writing. Recently, however, the complexity of this technique has been rightly
recognised. A short passage (100 to 200 words) is usually read to students a few times (in most
cases ̶ three times). The first reading is done at a normal speed, the second one is slower, to
give students time to write down what they hear, and the third one is usually done at a normal
speed again.
This kind of test requires careful listening, efficient short-term memory, good writing
abilities and knowledge of some rules that help students in reconstructing longer chunks. This is
why it is believed, and even confirmed in research, that dictations, along with cloze tests can be
successfully used in integrative testing.
Free writing and speaking, when part of a comprehensive test, are also integrative
testing procedures. They require knowledge of the appropriate vocabulary, general grammar
knowledge, the use of fixed phrases or collocations, an appropriate speaking/writing style and
similar. Testing writing as well as testing speaking can be designed similarly to practising these
skills, but in both cases, the assessment of students’ abilities is not likely to be as objective as it
is in most written tests.

4.4.2 Discrete Point Tests

Discrete point tests have a longer tradition and tend to be used more often in classroom
teaching than integrative tests.
These tests are designed on the assumption that language can be ‘broken’ into smaller
parts and that these components (language skills, grammar and vocabulary items, etc.) can be
tested separately, but when the results are joined – an overall picture of language competence
can be quite valid. Such tests are still largely used since they offer a number of different
techniques, appropriate for frequent achievement testing.
A major distinction in discrete point tests is made between the two techniques –
recognition and supply.
Recognition techniques usually require students to recognise, or to choose, the right
answer between two or more answers offered. The most common type of alternative choice
test is one requiring true or false answers, often used in testing receptive skills (reading
comprehension or listening comprehension). The disadvantage of this technique is that it
enables a 50% chance of guessing the right answer. A multiple choice test offers a correct
answer and three ‘distractors’ (wrong answers). This reduces the chances of guessing the right
answer to 25%. Since they are easy to mark, these tests are quite suitable for most test
objectives and often used in testing grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension and listening
comprehension. However, multiple choice tests have some weaknesses, too. If not ‘ready-
made’, they are quite difficult to compose, because it takes considerable time to create a
number of appropriate distractors.
Supply techniques require slower test completion and test scoring, but tend to be very
useful since they allow students to give their own answers and not just to choose between the
ones offered. At least, they reduce the chance of guessing the right answer to a minimum.
These tests can have different forms and they can require filling in the gaps with an appropriate
word or form, giving the right answer to the question, rearranging sentence order, producing a
sentence by using the words offered, transformations, paraphrasing, etc.
Different test techniques are often combined, so that a more objective assessment can
be obtained. When grammar or lexis is tested, multiple choice questions can be used along with
almost all the supply techniques listed above.
As for testing skills, the same techniques can be applied, as presented in the following
summary of Harmer’s work (Harmer 2001: 326):

 Listening:
o Identifying which of a number of objects (pictures on the test paper) is being
described
o Identifying which (out of two or three speakers) says what
o Identifying whether speakers are enthusiastic, encouraging, in disagreement or
amused
o Following directions on a map and identifying the correct house or place
o Completing charts with facts and figures from a listening text
 Reading:
o Multiple choice questions to test comprehension of a text
o Matching written descriptions with pictures of the items, or procedures they
describe
o Transferring written information to charts, graphs or maps
o Choosing the best summary of a paragraph or a whole text
o Matching jumbled headings with paragraphs
o Inserting sentences provided by the examiner in the correct place in the text
 Speaking
o An interviewer questioning a candidate about themselves
o ‘Information gap’ activities where a candidate has to find out information
 o ‘Decision-making’ activities (such as showing candidates ten photos of people
and asking them to put them in the order of the best and worst dressed)
o Using pictures for candidates to compare and contrast, whether they can both
see them or whether (as in many communication games) they must find
similarities and differences without being able to look at each other’s material
o Role-play activities where candidates perform tasks such as introducing
themselves or phoning a theatre to book tickets
 Writing:
o Writing compositions and stories
o ‘Transactional letters’ where candidates reply to a job advertisement, or pen a
complaint to a business based on information given in the exam paper
o Information leaflets about their school or place in their town
o A set of instructions for some common task
o A newspaper article about a recent event

Further reading:
Brown, H.D., (1993): Principles of Language Learning and Teaching
Harmer, J., (2001): The Practice of English Language Teaching
5 ERRORS

Up until the 1970s, errors learners made in the process of foreign language acquisition
were treated as a sign of failure in language learning. This attitude culminated during the era of
the Audio-Lingual Approach which insisted on ‘good habit formation’ and treated errors as
potential sources of forming bad language habits. Correct language production was seen as one
of the ultimate goals in language learning, but it was soon realised that such a goal was too
ambitious.
Much attention was later given to errors made in foreign language learning, to why they
occur and to how and when they should be corrected. This resulted in the development of a
new field of contrastive linguistics – error analysis as well as in the development of new
teaching techniques of error correction.

5.1 Error Analysis

All sorts of human learning involve making mistakes. Mistakes and errors are always
made in learning a mother tongue, so it is absolutely natural that they are present in learning a
foreign language as well. In ELT methodology, mistakes and errors are two technical terms with
quite different meanings. A mistake is a random guess or a ‘slip’, in other words ̶ a failure to
utilise a known language system correctly. All people make mistakes in both first and foreign
language production. Errors in a foreign language, on the other hand, are deviations from the
adult grammar of a native speaker and they reflect the language system the learner has built up
to that time (Brown 1993: 205).
Since the 1970s, when errors learners made were eventually regarded as inevitable part
of performance development, error analysis has become an important aspect of SLA/FLA
investigation. Pit Corder was among the first linguists to suggest that better understanding of
language learning would come from a more systematic investigation of learners’ errors (Corder
1967).
Both methodologists and teachers have since been increasingly aware of the fact that
language learning is a creative and developmental process of building up a new language
system that becomes gradually closer to the language used by native speakers through trial-
and-error and hypothesis testing. This developing language system or ‘interlanguage’ (Selinker
1972) as it is usually called, is an unstable system that has a structurally intermediate status
between the native language and the foreign language. Errors learners make in building up a
new language system are natural part of this development. Errors are, therefore, now
considered important since they offer a valuable insight into the development of foreign
language acquisition.
Moreover, it was assumed and subsequently confirmed that, regardless of their mother
tongue, most learners make similar types of errors at certain stages of learning and that there
might be a ‘natural route of development’ in foreign language acquisition. Error analysis
developed as a subfield of contrastive linguistics and deals with examining and classifying the
types and sources of errors made in language learning. This is very important in discovering the
regularities in foreign language acquisition and the problems learners have in this process. The
results of error analysis are nowadays successfully applied in syllabus, course and test design.
Although most teachers are not involved in error analysis for the sake of linguistic research,
even a less detailed analysis of their students’ errors in written tasks, discussions and tests can
tell them much about the development and problems in the process of foreign language
acquisition. This means that apart from correcting their students, teachers should try to find
out which errors most frequently occur and which language items need more attention in the
future.

5.2 Error Correction

 The results of error analysis are quite useful in teacher training, but what most teachers
have to do in their every-day jobs is to deal with the inevitable errors their students make and it
is not always easy. Although the occurrence of errors is natural in foreign language acquisition,
correcting them is also an important aspect of foreign language teaching since proper feedback
from the teacher is essential in improving the ‘interlanguage’ of the learners. Otherwise,
fossilization (the permanent incorporation of incorrect linguistic forms) would certainly take
place, leading to poor linguistic and, consequently, poor communicative competence.
What makes things difficult is that adequate feedback is not always only a matter of
linguistic factors, but psychological ones as well. The first dilemma most teachers have is
whether to correct their students every time they make an error or not. Another, very
important, one is whether to correct them immediately when they make an error, later when
the task is finished, at the end of the lesson or later during the course.
The answers to these questions depend very much on the aim of the task in the first
place, and the type of the lesson. If the focus of the task is on accuracy, errors should preferably
be corrected immediately as otherwise students may fail to realise that the language they
produce is not correct. However, if the focus of the task is on fluency (e.g. speaking practice,), a
prompt correction is more likely to hinder the flow of communication and it is better to work
on errors later when the task is finished. A brief and unobtrusive correction is, however, useful
even when fluency is being worked on if the amount and type of errors are likely to affect
communication seriously.
In most traditional teaching, correction was done exclusively by the teacher, who
immediately provided a correct language item after an incorrect one was observed.
Contemporary teaching methods suggest different treatment of errors depending on the type
of activity.
Written assignments and tests are generally corrected easily. Correcting tests usually
involves using graphic symbols to show if the items are correct or incorrect, or additionally,
writing a correct answer where an error was made. Correcting compositions and essays, on the
other hand, can be much more demanding. Most teachers usually correct errors (spelling,
tense, word order, etc.) by putting symbols at the places where an error was made in writing
and give brief comments on the whole assignment at the end (such as: well done, but you could
have organised it better; try not to use the same adjectives so often, etc.). Some teachers,
however, prefer to give more elaborate feedback consisting of comments related to almost
each sentence of the written assignment, which is certainly more helpful, but more time-
consuming as well.
As for activities done orally, error correction is often staged and involves:
 the indication that an error has been made
 the correction of that error
Indicating that an error has been made invites the learner or the peers to think about
the language item and do the correction, giving them a more active role in the process of
learning. The teacher can indicate that an error has been made in many different ways (and
these should be varied), for example by:
o saying that there is an error
o using facial expressions (frowning, raising eye-brows, etc.)
o using ‘finger’ techniques (like in the Silent Way) to show which word in the sentence is
wrong, or
o drawing circles on the board, marking the third one, for example, to show that the third
word in the sentence is wrong
o writing the sentence on the board, asking for analysis or correction
o repeating the sentence up to an error or echoing it with a changed intonation or stress,
etc.
After an error has been identified, it can be corrected by the student who made it, by
another student (if they work in pairs or groups), by somebody in the class or by the teacher
himself. Asking the whole group of students to correct an error made by an individual can be
more effective (faster), but it is not recommended as a common technique since some students
may feel quite embarrassed and inferior when corrected seemingly by the whole class.
As mentioned before, an error can be corrected immediately or later. If speaking is
being practised, a good idea is to write down the errors students make and give comments and
explanations later when the task is finished (preferably without pointing out who exactly made
a particular error). Interrupting students while they speak may make them feel more inhibited
and less willing to take risks and participate. Another option teachers have is to record the
speaking activity and analyse it together with the students later.
After the speaking activity, the teacher can even choose not to correct certain errors, for
example those that students make when they try to use the language items that have not been
practised yet, since they will be doing them later in the course.
On the other hand, certain activities, such as reading, answering the teacher’s
questions, practicing vocabulary or grammar orally and some other whole-class activities may
require immediate correction. The teacher can do it in a number of different ways, choosing to:
o indicate that an error has been made (in the ways already mentioned), expecting the
student to self-correct or asking some other student to help
o ask helpful questions leading the student to correct himself/herself
o repeat the phrase or sentence correctly to unobtrusively give a model of how the
language item should be used (e.g. the student says: I writed a letter yesterday, and
the teacher repeats almost the whole sentence, emphasising the verb write, used
correctly, but going on with communication: Oh, you wrote a letter yesterday. Nice.
Was it a letter to a friend?)
o say the correct word or phrase, expecting the student to repeat it (e.g. when a
student, reading a short extract pronounces a word in a wrong way, the teacher
immediately corrects and insists that the student repeats it correctly)
o stop the activity in order to provide a more elaborate explanation (in the case where
most students are likely not to have mastered this language item), etc.
To conclude, it is important to point out that correcting students’ errors, no matter
which way is chosen, should be unobtrusive and mild since, otherwise, it is quite likely to be
counterproductive, making students feel embarrassed and inhibited and, thus, unable to focus
on the language and to work on correction and improvement.

Further reading:
Scrivener, J., (2005): Learning Teaching