INSTITUTO SUPERIOR DE CIÊNCIAS DE EDUCAÇÃO

ISCED – UÍGE
DEPARTAMENTO DE LETRAS MODERNAS
=SECÇÃO DE ENSINO DE LÍNGUA INGLESA=

ENGLISH TEACHING
METHODOLOGY GROUP
WORK
Theme: Comments on the following aspects:
- School
- Teachers;
- Students;
- Materials.

Group nº:
2st Year

Provided by professor:
_________________________
Diyangi Nkama

Uíge/2022
 INDEX
INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………….…1

SCHOOL…………………………………………………………………….…………..2

STUDENTS………………………………………………………………...................2-3

TEACHERS……………………………………………………………………………...4

Materials and resources………………………………………………………………….5

Classroom equipment………………………………………………..…………………..6
MATERIALS……………………………………………………………………….…7-8

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………...…..9

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………10

Attendance list………………………………………………………………………….11
 INTRODUCTION

In this work we focus on the aspects related to school, teachers, and materials and we
realize that private Language schools tend to be better than some government schools
and Public sector in Angola is the huge Numbers of students and school.

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 1. SCHOOL
Private language schools
Private language schools tend to be better equipped than some government schools
(though this is not always the case). They will frequently have smaller class sizes, and,
crucially, the students in them may well have chosen to come and study. This will affect
their motivation at the beginning of the process.

Public sector
In Angola, a huge number of students learn English in secondary classrooms, most of
them have not chosen to do this themselves, but learn because English is on the
curriculum.

On the other hand, in the most developed countries, schools itself they may have the
advantage of the latest classroom equipment and information technology (IT), or they
may, as in many parts of the world, be sitting in rows in classrooms with a blackboard
and no other teaching aid.
2. STUDENTS
It is sometimes tempting to see all students as being more or less the same. Yet there are
marked differences, not only in terms of their age and level, but also in terms of
different individual abilities, knowledge and preferences. We will examine some of
these differences in this section.
2.1 Age
Learners are often described as children, young learners, adolescents, young adults or
adults. Within education, the term children is generally used for learners between the
ages of about 2 to about 14. Students are generally described as young learners between
the ages of about 5 to 9, and very young learners are usually between 2 and 5. At what
ages it is safe to call students adolescents is often uncertain, since the onset of
adolescence is bound up with physical and emotional changes rather than chronological
age. However, this term tends to refer to students from the ages of about 12 to 17,
whereas young adults are generally thought to be between 16 and 20.
We will look at three ages: children, adolescents and adults. However, we need to
remember that there is a large degree of individual variation in the ways in which
different children develop. The descriptions that follow, therefore, must be seen as
generalizations only.

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2.2 Children
We know that children don’t just focus on what is being taught, but also learn all sorts
of other things at the same time, taking information from whatever is going on around
them. We know that seeing, hearing and touching are just as important for
understanding as the teacher’s explanation. We are conscious, too, that the abstraction
of, say, grammar rules, will be less effective the younger the students are. But we also
know that children respond well to individual attention from the teacher and are usually
pleased to receive teacher approval.
Children usually respond well to activities that focus on their lives and experiences. But
a child’s attention span - their willingness to stay rooted in one activity - is often fairly
short.

2.3 Student level

Teachers of English generally make three basic distinctions to categorise the language
knowledge of their students: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Broadly speaking,
beginners are those who don’t know any English and advanced students are those whose
level of English is competent, allowing them to read unsimplified factual and fictional
texts and communicate fluently Between these two extremes, intermediate suggests a
basic competence in speaking and writing and an ability to comprehend fairly
straightforward listening and reading. However, as we shall see, these are rough and
ready labels whose exact meaning can vary from institution to institution.

Other descriptive terms are also used in an attempt to be more specific about
exactlywhat kind of beginner, intermediate or advanced students we are talking about. A
distinction is made between beginners (students who start a beginners’ course having
heard virtually no English) and false beginners to reflect the fact that the latter can’t
really use any English but actually know quite a lot which can be quickly activated;
they’re not real beginners.

Elementary students are no longer beginners and are able to communicate in a basic
way. They can string some sentences together, construct a simple story, or take part in
simple spoken interactions.

Pre-intermediate students have not yet achieved intermediate competence, which

involves greater fluency and general comprehension of some general authentic English.

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However, they have come across most of the basic structures and lexis of the language.

Upper-intermediate students, on the other hand, have the competence of intermediate

students plus an extended knowledge of grammatical construction and skill use.
However, they may not have achieved the accuracy or depth of knowledge which their
advancedcolleagues have acquired, and as a result are less able to operate at different
levels of subtlety.

In recent years, the Council of Europe and the Association of Language Testers of
Europe (ALTE) have been working to define language competency levels for learners
of a number of different languages. The result of this is the Common European
Framework (a document setting out in detail what students ‘can do’ at various levels)
and a series of ALTE levels ranging from Al (roughly equivalent to the elementary
level) to C2 (very advanced). The following diagram shows the different levels in
sequence:

3. TEACHERS
3.1 Academic-background
Apart from the ability to create and foster good teacher-student rapport and the
possession of skills necessary for organising successful lessons, teachers need to know a
lot about the subject they are teaching (the English language). They will need to know
what equipment is available in their school and how to use it. They need to know what
materials are available for teachers and students. They should also do their best to keep
abreast of new developments in teaching approaches and techniques by consulting a
range of print material, online resources, and by attending, where possible, development
sessions and teacher seminars.

 The language system

Language teachers need to know how the language works. This means having a
knowledge of the grammar system and understanding the lexical system: how words

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change their shape depending on their grammatical function, and how they group
together into phrases. They need to be aware of pronunciation features such as sounds,
stress and intonation.

Students have a right to expect that teachers of the English language can explain
straightforward grammar concepts, including how and when they are used. They expect
their teachers to know the difference between the colloquial language that people use in
informal conversation and the more formal language required in more formal settings.

They also expect teachers to be able to demonstrate and help them to pronounce words
correctly and with appropriate intonation.

When students have doubts about the language, they frequently ask their teachers
toexplain things. They ask ‘What’s the difference between ... and ...?’ or ‘Why can’t we
say ...?’ Sometimes the answer is clear and easy to explain. But at other times the issue
is one of great complexity and even the most experienced teacher will have difficulty
giving an instant answer. In other words, our knowledge of the language system may
not be adequate for certain kinds of on-the-spot questions about subtleties. Moreover,
sometimes the question is not especially relevant - it is a distraction from what is going
on in the lesson.

In such situations, teachers need to be able to say things like ‘That’s a very interesting
question. I think the answer is X, but I will check to make sure and I will bring you a
more complete answer tomorrow’ or ‘That’s a very interesting question. I don’t want to
answer it now because we are doing something else. But you can find the answer
yourself if you go to this book. We’ll discuss it tomorrow’. Students will realise that
these answers are perfectly appropriate when the teacher does indeed return for the next
lesson with the information that they have promised. This will demonstrate the teacher’s
knowledge of the language and reference materials. But if, on the other hand, we forget
to find the information and never mention the question again, students will gradually
start to think we just don’t know enough about the language to find what we are looking
for - or that we just don’t care.

 Materials and resources

When students ask the kind of complicated questions mentioned above, good teachers
know where to find the answers. We need, in other words, to know about books and
websites where such technical information is available. However, this is quite a
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challenge in today’s world, where the sheer number of coursebook titles released every
year can sometimes seem overwhelming, and where there are quite a significant number
of grammar books and monolingual learners’ dictionaries (MLDs) to choose from -
to say nothing of the multitude of useful websites on the Internet. No one expects
teachers to be all-knowing in this respect: what colleagues and students can expect,
however, is that teachers know where to find at least one good reference grammar at the
appropriate level, or a good MLD, or candirect them to a library or a website where they
can find these things.

If teachers are using a coursebook, students expect them, of course, to know how the
materials work. Their confidence will be greatly enhanced if they can see that the
teacher has looked at the material they are using before the lesson, and has worked out a
way of dealing with it.

 Classroom equipment
Over the last few decades the growth in different types of classroom equipment has
been incredible. Once upon a time we only had pens, board and chalk to work with. But
then along came the tape recorder, the language laboratory, video machines, the
overhead projector, computers, data projectors and interactive whiteboards.

Some teachers are more comfortable with these various pieces of educational
technology than others. This will always be the case. There is no reason why everyone
should be equally proficient at everything. However, students will expect that teachers
should know how to use the equipment that they have elected to use. Learning how to
use various types of equipment is a major part of modern teacher training.

However, we should do everything in our power to avoid being overzealous about the
equipment itself. It is only worth using if it can do things that other equipment or
routines cannot. The essentials of good teaching - i.e. rapport, professionalism, using
good activities - will always be more important than the actual means of delivery. What
has changed recently, though, is that students can do things they were unable to do
before thanks to technical innovation. Thus modern podcasts (downloadable listening
which can be played on individual MP3 players) give students many more listening
opportunities than ever before. They can also write their own blogs (Internet diaries)
and put them on the web. They can burn CDs with examples of their work and the
materials used in class to take home when a course has finished. They can search for a

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wide range of language and information resources in a way that would have been
impossible a few years ago.

As teachers, we need to do everything we can to keep abreast of technological change in

educational resources. But we should never let technology drive our decisions about
teaching and learning. We should, instead, decide what our learners want to achieve and
only then see what kind of techniques and technology will help them to do this.

 Keeping up-to-date

Teachers need to know how to use a variety of activities in the classroom, of course, but
they also need to be constantly finding out about new ways of doing things.

A good way of learning about new activities and techniques is to read the various
teachers’ magazines and journals that are available. There is now a wealth of
information about teaching on the Internet, too. Magazines, books and websites often
contain good descriptions of new activities and how to use them. We can also learn a lot
from attending seminars and teachers’ conferences, and listening to other teachers
describing new activities and the successes they have had with them.

Two things need to be said about the various ‘knowledges’ we have been describing. In
the first place, it is difficult for newly qualified teachers to keep everything in their
heads at the same time as they struggle with the demands of a new job. Nevertheless, as
they learn their craft, we would expect them to be hungry for as much knowledge in
these areas as possible since this will make them better teachers. Secondly, this kind of
knowledge is not static, hence the need to keep up-to-date. Things change almost daily.
New books, classroom equipment and computer software are being produced all the
time, just as teachers keep coming up with wonderful new ways of doing old things
(such as grammar presentation or discussion activities). Staying in touch with these
developments can seem daunting, of course, because of the pace of change, but it is
worth remembering how deadly it would be if things always stayed the same.

4. MATERIALS
4.1 Coursebook
 Options for coursebook use
When teachers open a page in their coursebook, they have to decide whether or not
they should use the lesson on that page with their class. Is the language at the right

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level? Is the topic/content suitable for the students? Are there the right kind of activities
in the book? Is the sequencing of the lesson logical?

With a good coursebook, there is a strong possibility that the language, content and
sequencing in the book will be appropriate, and that the topics and treatment of the
different language skills will be attractive. As a result the teacher will want to go ahead
and use what is in the book. If, however, teachers have the time or inclination to amend
parts of a coursebook (because the texts or activities don’t seem appropriate for a
particular group of students or a particular lesson, or because they want to tailor the
material to match their own particular style), they have to decide what to do next.

There are four alternatives to consider if we decide that part of a coursebook is not
appropriate. Firstly, we might simply decide to omit the lesson. That solves the problem
of inappropriacy and allows us and our students to get on with something else.

There’s nothing wrong with omitting lessons from coursebooks. Teachers do it all the
time, developing a kind of ‘pick and choose’ approach to what’s in front of them.
However,if they omit too many pages, the students may begin to wonder why they are
using the bookin the first place, especially if they have bought it themselves.

Another alternative is to replace the coursebook lesson with one of our own. This has
obvious advantages: our own material probably interests us more than the coursebook
and it may well be more appropriate for our students. If we cover the same language or
topic, the students can still use the book to revise that particular language/vocabulary.
But as with omitting pages, if too much of the coursebook is replaced, both students and
teacher may wonder if it is worth bothering with it at all.

The third option is to add to what is in the book. If the lesson is rather boring, too
controlled, or if it gives no chance for students to use what they are learning in a
personal kind of way, the teacher may want to add activities and exercises which extend
the students’engagement with the language or topic. We are using the coursebooks
strengths but marrying them with our own skills and perceptions of the class in front of
us.

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 Conclusion

After all the research made we can conclude that Private language schools tend to be
better equipped than some government schools, a huge number of students learn English
in secondary classrooms, most of them have not chosen to do this themselves, but learn
because English is on the curriculum.
We have discussed about the personality that teachers show to the students. We have
said this has to be in some way different (and more ‘teacher-like’) from our normal
selves.

We also said that among the skills teachers need to acquire are the ability to manage
classes, match tasks to different groups and circumstances, provide variety in lessons
and offer students clear learning outcomes. And discussed as well the knowledge that
teachers need to acquire, including knowledge of the language system, available
materials, resources and classroom equipment, and knowledge about the latest
developments in the field.

Talking about materials, creative coursebook use is one of a teacher’s main skills.
suggested that teachers should make decisions about which coursebook to use based on
analysis, piloting, consultation and the gathering of opinions from students and
colleagues - and that one way of doing this is to prepare a checklist of questions.

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 Bibliography

 Harmer J. How to teach English. Pearson Education Limited 2007, Second

Edition.
 Www.wikipedia.org

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 Attendance list

1. Andre Antonio Teca

2. Ana Abraao Jorge
3. Filipe Mafuani Jorge
4. Walombo Faustino Bunga Bambi
5. Zeca Bento Alberto

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