Overview: Module 4

So, now that you know the different approaches to lesson planning, it's time to go about
actually creating your plan!

There are a number of factors to consider when planning, and a variety of materials,
resources and aids you can use to make the best lesson possible for your students.

In this module we’re going to look at lesson aims, components of a lesson plan,
planning an individual lesson and how to choose assessment tasks, course books,
reference materials, supplementary resources and teaching aids.

Much of what is covered corresponds to what is examined in part of the Teacher

Knowledge Test (the TKT); a qualification teachers can take to show their knowledge of
language and EFL teaching.

Unit 1: Lesson Aims

Every lesson must have some sort of purpose or end goal, otherwise what’s the point?!
This doesn’t necessarily mean that every lesson will have the final aim of learners
understanding a particular grammar point though. The goal could be anything from
developing listening skills to practising language for some kind of ‘real-life’ situation like
booking a hotel.

Although it may seem quite formal to ‘identify the aim’ of every lesson, it really can
help you concentrate on delivering a successful lesson as well as naturally leading you
to materials which will best fulfill this aim.

However, aims aren’t all necessarily direct learning objectives. They could be aims for
yourself, for example, limiting your Teacher Talk Time as much as possible, or even
aims focused on a particular student to make sure they’re keeping up. As well as overall
aims, therefore, you will also have a number of secondary or personal goals.

Look at the following table taken from The Teacher Knowledge Test Course focusing on
different types of aims:

1. Subsidiary Aims
2. Main Aim
3. Personal Aims

Main Aim Subsidiary Aims Personal Aims

To practise making Grammar: to revise modal auxiliary
polite requests in the verbs.
To improve my
context of making Functional example: Could/Would
organisation of
holiday arrangements. you…?
the whiteboard.
Example: Vocabulary: to consolidate lexis for
To give
‘Could you give me travel, accommodation.
clearer examples.
some information about Phonology: to focus on intonation.
hotels?’ Speaking: to give controlled practice

In order to fulfil your lesson objectives, you will have to work out a procedure to do so.
For example, if your aim is to ‘consolidate vocabulary for travel’, the procedure could be
‘give students a crossword of travel/transport vocabulary’.

Match the teacher’s instructions with the aims at each stage

Drag and drop the answers below into the spaces above.
G. to provide an opportunity for self-correction
A. to develop learners’ awareness of intonation patterns
B. to give learners less controlled oral practice
E. to develop learners’ skill in listening for detail
C. to encourage learners to recycle known vocabulary items
F. to give learners practice in listening for gist
D. to provide an opportunity for peer assessment
1. What words can you think of which are connected with the weather? With your
partner make a list of as many as you can.
2. Look at the first line of the dialogue in your books. Will the man’s voice go up or
down?
3. You’re going to hear three conversations and then tell me what the people are talking
about.
4. Now I’m going to play the conversation again. Put the picture into the correct order.
5. Practise the dialogue with your partner, using the prompts on the board.
6. Get together with another pair and listen to their dialogue. Make a note of any
features of connected speech they could improve.
7. Practise your dialogue again and make any changes you think will improve it.
Unit 2: Components of a lesson
plan
Identifying aims is obviously a key component of any lesson plan but there are also
several other aspects to consider. Some of these will be essential to every lesson plan
but others may not always be necessary to include.

Essential components:

 Information about the learners (level and number)

 Main aim
 Stage aims
 Procedures
 Materials used

Optional components:

 Timings
 Anticipated problems & potential solutions
 Subsidiary & personal aims
 Homework
 Extra teaching aids
 Reserve tasks
 Assumed knowledge
 Interaction

These components correspond to the types of questions we ask ourselves when

planning a lesson. For example, when detailing our assumed knowledge about the
students we need to ask ourselves ‘what do they already know how to do in relation to
this lesson? Will this be new to them or a consolidation of previous work?’

Lesson components
Components Questions to ask yourself

Information about Who are the students? What level are they? How many are there in
the learners the class?

Materials used What course book/materials do I need?

Is there anything else I need to bring with me to the lesson i.e

Extra teaching aids
overhead projector?

Main aim What is the overall lesson objective?

Assumed knowledge What do the students already know in relation to the topic/lesson?
Subsidiary aims What are some of the other lesson goals?

Personal aims In what ways can I develop or improve upon my own teaching?

Procedures What are the activities for each stage?

Will the students be working in pairs? Groups? Will they feedback to

Interaction
the teacher or will the teacher present to the class?

Stage aims What’s the goal of each stage in the lesson?

Timing How long will each stage take?

Anticipated
What might go wrong? What might the students find difficult?
problems

Potential solutions How can I deal with any problems?

Reserve tasks What will I do if students complete tasks ahead of schedule?

Homework What extra work will the students need to do at home?

Summary of lesson components

Rather than thinking of a lesson plan as a formal procedure, you can instead think of it
as answering a series of questions like the ones in the Lesson components section.

Try to use colours and diagrams even, whatever makes it clear to you.

The idea is that it works like a ‘road map’ (Scrivener) guiding you through the stages of
the lesson and ensuring that you meet all your objectives successfully!

Unit 3: Planning a lesson

When planning a lesson, therefore, we should think about a number of things.

After deciding on the lesson objectives, we must consider how to accomplish

them.

Depending on the type of lesson aim (understanding a new grammar point, developing
reading skills etc.) the structure of your plan will change dramatically.

Perhaps you will choose the PPP approach to present the past simple, or, for a listening
skills lesson, you may prefer to follow the TTT method.
Once the format of the lesson has been chosen, the individual components need putting
together. What are the desired learning outcomes? Are the students already a little bit
familiar with the topic? Is there anything I want to work on personally during this class?

When these more general considerations have been addressed, you can get down to
planning each individual procedure as a step-by-step guide to lead you through the
lesson. Analysing the aims of each stage will ensure that the activities are appropriate
to the learners’ level and work to fulfill the main objective. You also need to see whether
the stages follow a logical order and if they flow well into one another.

Anticipating potential problems at each stage and having back-ups prepared if

necessary will help to reduce any anxiety you may be feeling as a new teacher.

Timing can be important too, your lesson may run over or be too short and if you think
about these possibilities ahead of time and what to do in each eventuality you won’t be
caught off-guard. Formal lesson planning such as this is usually a requirement for
teacher training courses to help you understand how to prepare a lesson and to analyse
how well you’ve grasped the key concepts.

However, in the real world you may not always do such detailed written preparation.
You may even see some teachers write their plan as a numbered list on a scrap of
paper, but this isn’t to say that they haven’t thought about the elements listed above, it
may just come as second nature to them to incorporate the necessary factors.

Lesson procedures
Compare the ‘procedure’ sections of two different lesson plans:

Time Procedure Stage Aim

1. Give students pictures of two towns and To introduce the target

10 mins
ask them to describe the contrasts. language

2. Read article describing differences to give students a context for

10 mins
between the two the TL in use

3. Elicit forms from text used for To ensure students understand

5 mins
comparison the meaning of the TL

4. Students work out rules for using To check students'

7 mins
comparatives understanding of the TL

5. Gap-fill exercise using correct form of To give students controlled

10 mins
comparative adjectives practice of the TL

6. Speaking activity contrasting new To encourage freer use of

15 mins
pictures (in pairs) the TL
 Procedure Stage Aim
Time

1. Ask students some lead-in questions about To introduce and generate interest
10 mins
topic in the topic

To focus on useful language in

7 mins 2. Pre-teach essential vocabulary
preparation for the task

3. Students read quickly for gist and feedback

To develop students’ ability to
5 mins answers to some general questions (what is
skim/scan for essential information
the text about?...)

To develop understanding of how

7 mins 4. Students match headings to the paragraphs
the text fits together as a whole

5. T/F detailed comprehension activity. Check To encourage students to read for

10 mins
with a partner detail

6.Split students into As and Bs, give each a To give freer practice of
15 mins different follow-up text to read and then consolidating information they’ve
summarise orally to their partner read in spoken form

Lesson Planning Plus

In Modules 3 and 4, you have studied lesson planning. This study will have given you a
solid foundation for lesson planning and the various approaches to it.

However, we have had many requests from students who want to learn more about
lesson planning.

Here is a summary of their key points:

 They feel that lesson planning is the most important teacher skill of all. (They’re
right, of course.)
 They feel that they need a lesson planning route which they can follow from start
to finish, for every single lesson.
 They would like to have a lesson-planning template that they can use for every
single lessonplan during their TEFL career.

This is a big ask, as they say. But we couldn’t ignore this. It’s our role to help our
students whenever we can.

Remember this: You have learned enough so far to ensure you can plan a good
lesson.

You decide!
Unit 4: Choosing assessment
tasks
Assessment is a necessary part of any course which helps you understand your
students’ strengths and weaknesses, their progress and even their receptiveness to
learning.

Formal assessment

Some types of formal assessment are:

 Proficiency test (assesses overall language ability)

 Progress test (assesses how well the students have understood a unit or section
of a course)
 End-of-course test (assesses learning at the end of the programme)
 External examinations, such as IELTS Cambridge ESOL exams etc. (a form of
proficiency test which gives students a certificate of language ability)

Formal assessments need to include a variety of tasks so that all of the four language
skills are covered and because each kind of activity has its own pros and cons.

There is also the need to assess both passive and active language knowledge
(understanding and being able to produce).

A good test should be fair, appropriate and not too difficult to mark. Single-focus tasks
such as True/False/Don’t know and matching exercises are easy to mark because the
answers are either correct or incorrect.

Extended activities such as interview or writing tasks are best for assessing productive
skills but are slightly trickier to mark because they are subjective.

Match the following activity types below with their purpose shown in the table:

a. summary writing
b. sentence transformation
c. cloze test
d. re-ordering jumbled sentences

Activi
Example Purpose
ty
 Complete the sentence so
To test knowledge of
that it means exactly the
grammatical
same:
1 structures and
'My brother lent me a pen'
relationships
'I borrowed a pen
between language
from my brother'
To test grammatical
to want go Do the you park to?
2 knowledge,
Do you want to go to the park?
cohesion and collocation.
Test reading
Read the novel extract and comprehension,
3 write a synopsis for a writing ability and a range
young audience of
language knowledge
To test knowledge of
Using a text with blanked out words, complete using
grammar
only one word in each
4 and lexis as well as
space. The missing words may or may not be
reading
provided in a word bank.
comprehension

Assessment
However, assessment needn’t always be in the form of a test or formal examination.

Informal assessment is equally as important and can come in the form of homework
tasks or class activities. Formal assessment doesn’t always reflect your students’ true
language abilities – perhaps they are nervous or misread instructions – but informal
assessments can often provide a better overview of students’ all-round skills. They also
help you to understand how successful your teaching has been and plan future lessons
with the students’ constant development in mind.

Informal assessment really can be any activity done in class or at home for which you
keep a note of marks/progress but without giving students an actual grade. You could
also ask your students to build up a portfolio which provides continuous assessment and
allows them to evaluate their own work. This lets you track the ongoing progress of your
students regularly so that you are able to adapt your teaching according to their needs.

Both performance-based assessment and portfolio assessment can be used to

measure progress and ensure objectives are met and can be monitored by
teacher observation and student self-assessment.
Unit 5: Course books and
reference materials
When choosing a course book for your class (if the school hasn’t already assigned one)
there are a number of factors to consider.

You need to think about who your students are and what they need. So, what should
you consider?

The basics such as age group and level are obvious, but it’s also important to think
about why that particular class are studying English. Is it for work? As a hobby? Are they
children being sent for extra lessons by their parents? And if so is this because they
struggle with English or because they want to get ahead? Are they planning to travel or
move to an English-speaking country? All of the above will influence what type of course
book you choose – it’s not just a ‘one-size-fits-all’ thing.

Another element to consider is whether your students will be taking a test at the end of
the course or not. Course books which prepare students for the IELTS exam are very
different to those aimed at students taking the FCE, for example. Or is there simply an
internal test to see if they can move up to the next level. Are all of the students taking
the exam or just a handful?

If the course does aim to get students ready for a particular exam then the
likelihood is that a general English course book will not be sufficient, you
need material which helps students not only get up to the right level for the
exam but one which also trains them in the techniques required for that
particular test.

Match up the classes with the most suitable course books

However, even once you have chosen an appropriate course book, it’s still good to
consult other reference materials. You may be unsure of a particular language point or
the best way to go about teaching it and there are many ways you can get help. Some
examples of reference materials are:

 Grammar books
 Teacher’s books
 Articles in EFL teaching magazines
 Dictionaries (bilingual, monolingual, learners’ dictionaries, thesauruses…)
 Phonemic charts
 Colleagues…

Books and Articles

Grammar books

Many teachers who are new to EFL teaching are quite unsure about grammar. You will
know whether your students’ language is correct or not instinctively but may not know
why. You may also be hesitant about teaching all the nitty gritty rules and exceptions.
Although we’ve done an overview of some key grammar points and how to teach them
in Module 2, it’s still important to increase your grammar knowledge if you still don’t
know exactly what it’s all about.

You may actually want to start with a grammar book intended for non-native speakers
of English because the grammar contained in these kinds of books is much more
simplified such as Murphy’s “Grammar in Use”. It also gives you a good idea of what
exactly your students need to know at each level.

When teaching the present continuous to a pre-intermediate group, for example, there’s
no point going into detail about the fact that we can also use the present continuous for
future arrangements – it will probably just confuse them. These kinds of books can
equally help ease you in to a more thorough grammar knowledge without being
overwhelming.
Once you’re a bit more experienced, however, and are teaching higher levels, you may
need to consult grammar books intended for EFL teachers though.

These contain detailed explanations and will enable you to really understand the
nuances in English grammar that students at advanced level really need to know.

If you’re a visual learner you might want to try newer grammar books which have
corresponding interactive activities online, or ones which contain exercises to put
yourself in your students’ shoes!

Teacher’s books

Teacher’s books are available with any course book but some are better than others.
The idea is that they provide suggestions as to the best way to use the material in the
course book. Some give a detailed, step-by-step guide for the teacher while others just
give correct answers and ideas for extension activities.

Depending on how confident you are in your own ability to plan a lesson independently
will therefore also affect which course book and matching teacher’s book you will
choose.

Lots of newer teacher’s books contain supplementary worksheets, end of unit tests,
progress tests or extra photocopiable activities too. They can even give detailed
explanations about the answers given and procedures to follow if students have
difficulty with a particular exercise. For most they are a valuable resource!

EFL articles for teachers

Many articles in EFL magazines can shed light on learners’ difficulties with language.
Often this is due to interference from the students’ mother tongue because many don’t
understand why it’s not possible just to ‘translate’ everything they would say in their
own language into English.

Unfortunately, that is not how it works because different languages have developed
over thousands of years and certain tenses or vocabulary don’t necessarily match up
from one language to another. When teaching overseas to students who all have the
same mother tongue, it will become easier to spot the difficulties those leaners face, but
if teaching to a mixed class of Mexicans and Chinese, for example, those groups of
learners may have different problems and you may want to read up on how to get the
best from them. (see learner English)

Keeping up with research into new approaches to EFL teaching can also help liven up
your lessons and keep students engaged.

You may want to try out a new planning method or a more informal way of presenting a
grammar point, or just gain some new ideas. A couple of popular ones are English
Teaching Professional, Modern English Teacher and Asian EFL Journal.

Dictionaries
Bilingual dictionaries provide individual words translated to and from English into
another language. They can be very useful for quickly checking a word the student
doesn’t know but in certain contexts can lead to mistranslation.

This is because many words have several meanings and these aren’t always listed,
especially in a pocket dictionary.

A student may not understand the word ‘bow’ (as in bow and arrow), look it up in a
bilingual dictionary and find a translation in their own language which corresponds to
‘taking a bow’.

We also don’t really get much information about the word itself, for example if it’s a
verb with an irregular past form or how to use it correctly in a sentence.

That’s why it’s usually best to refer students to a monolingual English dictionary (what
most of us would think of as a ‘normal’ dictionary).

These contain the words, their meaning and examples all in English so students can
really get to grips with how to use the word properly.

They can also be great as a reference material for you to ensure you give clear
definitions of words and useful examples.

Learner dictionaries are similar to monolingual dictionaries but are probably even more
valuable as they provide definitions appropriate to different levels.

They can also give detailed information about collocations, whether the word should be
used in formal or informal situations and even notes which warn students about
common mistakes associated with its usage.

Some also provide synonyms (words which mean the same) and antonyms (words
which mean the opposite) just like a thesaurus.

Thesauruses are particularly useful for when you teach more advanced students
because they can help to expand the learners’ vocabulary. Sometimes giving synonyms
to help your class understand a new vocabulary item is more effective than a definition.
For example, it’s very difficult to explain the word ‘furthermore’.

You could say “furthermore is an adverb used to introduce a fresh consideration in an

argument” (Oxford English Dictionary), or you could simply list a number of synonyms
such as ‘additionally’, ‘moreover’ etc. to get across the meaning.

One of best approaches however, is to give students example sentences or

within the context of a text. For example “English is an international
language. Furthermore, it is now considered essential for a successful
career”.
Phonemic Chart
A phonemic chart shows the different sounds which make up the English language using
the phonetic alphabet. These are very useful for helping your students with correct
pronunciation of English words.

There are many words in English which are spelt differently but sound the same, e.g.
‘meet’ and ‘meat’. Here both the ‘ee’ and ‘ea’ spellings correspond to the phonetic
alphabet letter ‘i:’. But in other words ‘ea’ can be pronounced ‘ɜ:’ as in ‘earn’. There are
also plenty of words with similar spellings which are pronounced entirely differently e.g.
‘though’ and ‘enough’. This phonemic chart from the British Council is interactive and
allows you to hear the sound by clicking on it, whilst this one from the course book
series New English File makes each letter of the phonetic alphabet into a picture which
can be especially useful for young learners:

Colleagues

Don’t forget that more experienced EFL teachers can often be the best source of
reference material. Chances are that they’ve taught the same level or same language
before and can give you some good advice. They may have even encountered certain
difficulties that they can warn you about or give suggestions on how to overcome them.
Every teacher has their own methods though, so don’t worry if what they advise doesn’t
suit you, but any guidance can at least make you consider your own planning more
carefully.

Unit 6: Supplementary tasks &

materials
Supplementary materials can be anything from extra worksheets to DVDs, basically
anything we can use in addition to the course book.

As mentioned in the previous unit, some course books come with supplementary
materials in the teacher’s book which complement each lesson, but you may also wish
to use other sources to add a bit of variety. It’s all too easy just to follow the course
book exactly, but this can be quite unimaginative and may not always suit your
students’ needs.

You may also have a mixed ability class, so providing learners with slightly different
activities linked to the same language/theme/skill can make sure you provide the right
material for different students.

They can also be useful as back-ups for students who complete the assigned tasks more
quickly than others.

Can you think of any other reasons for using supplementary materials?

All of the following are examples of supplementary materials:

 DVDs
 Games
 Graded ‘readers’ (literature with limited vocabulary according to the learner’s
level)
 Language practice books
 Skills practice books
 Songs
 Teacher’s books
 Video clips
 Web resources

Most schools have lots of supplementary materials already available for you, usually in
the form of language or skills practice books.
Have a look at these before you start the course and familiarise yourself with what you
could potentially use.

It’s often the case that you trawl the web for hours looking for some particular material
that you could have found on the shelf next to you.

Yet it’s undeniable that the Internet has transformed the availability of resources for EFL
teachers so it’s good to make use of them! For some websites you may have to
subscribe in order to download a particular item but many are free.

Plus, you don’t always have to use specific EFL teaching material; many authentic
resources such as video clips or newspaper articles are great to add a realistic element
to your teaching.

Choosing materials

Sometimes there are activities which look great but may be inappropriate for your class
(this could be because of the content or the level). It’s tempting to try to adapt the
material to your lesson, which is possible, but don’t try and force it too much – if it’s not
going to fulfil your lesson objectives and complement your plan then it’s probably not
worth it.

Some activities, as well as authentic resources, don’t contain information on how best
to use them so make sure you’re comfortable incorporating the extra material into your
lesson in a suitable way.

Others may need your learners to have studied certain language/a particular topic
beforehand which yours may not have done. Be aware of anything you need to pre-
teach.

Try to incorporate a variety of extra material into your course to make your
lessons more fun and interesting, just make sure they are suitable, tailored to
your students’ needs and don’t get carried away trying to find a youtube
video to introduce every lesson!

Unit 7: Teaching Aids

Teaching aids are the equipment and tools we use in the classroom. They can be used
to illustrate a point, reinforce a skill, relieve anxiety or boredom or help learners
memorise information. There are many different teaching aids available to us as EFL
teachers and these include, but are not limited to,

 CD players
 DVD players
 Puppets
 Interactive white boards
 Boards
 Computers
 Visual aids such as flash cards
  Games
 ‘Real-life’ materials such as menus
 Language laboratories where students can listen and record themselves speaking

There are many different ways to use all of the teaching aids available to you but you
must think about the best ones to fulfil your specific objectives and suit your students.
For example, using puppets is a fantastic resource for teaching children but may seem
patronising to an adult class of business English learners – unless used ironically
perhaps!

Try to prepare any aids in advance and always check to make sure equipment works
before the lesson; there’s nothing worse than planning a listening skills lesson only to
find that the CD player is faulty.

Board

The board is an essential part of any classroom which allows you to write grammatical
structures and explanations as well as elicited vocabulary in a place that all students
can see easily. You can also build up ideas into diagrams as they crop up and for team
competitions (most students secretly love being given the opportunity to write on the
board, even adults!). Try to use different colours to highlight rules or parts of speech
and it can be an idea to divide the board into different sections e.g. a space for
grammar rules and model sentences and one for vocabulary.

Overhead projector

An overhead projector can be really useful for showing a worksheet to the class rather
than holding up a book or piece of paper and pointing to the sections you want them to
work on. If you prepare a completed handout with the correct answers written this can
also be a quick way of going through an exercise or piece of homework. If you want
students to only focus on one specific exercise, you can even cover up sections and
gradually uncover them as the lesson progresses. Aside from this, the overhead
projector also provides a great resource for groups to present their work to the class.

CD and DVD player

Obviously CD players are essential for any listening exercise where students listen to a
dialogue and complete comprehension tasks. They can also be used to model
pronunciation though and even to listen for pleasure as a ‘Friday afternoon’ activity.
DVD players add a visual element and can therefore really help those learners with
visual memories. You can also do a variety of activities such as pausing the DVD and
predicting what happens next, watching without sound and getting the students to
guess what’s being said and even for playing a recording of the students themselves in
action.

Computer

Computers can be really useful for accessing the web and the various resources
available online. There are millions of interactive EFL exercises out there and so you can
easily find extra practice to add to any lesson, getting the students involved by asking
them to click on the correct answers themselves. The students can also join English
language forums and find an English-speaking penfriend to e-mail or chat with. You can
set projects for your students too, either at home or if you have a few computers
available in class. And you don’t necessarily need an Internet connection; it can be as
simple as typing a group story or making a poster.

Language Laboratory

Many schools have a language laboratory or self-access area where there are books,
computers, CDs etc. for students to use and where they can study by themselves. This
encourages autonomous learning and allows learners to choose the activities they want
to do. Language labs have listening and recording equipment that students can use to
practise speaking and pronunciation and assess their own performance by listening
back, promoting self-evaluation. You can also get them to record speaking tasks done in
class or for homework so that you can monitor their performance and give individual
feedback.

Flash cards

Flashcards can be used to present vocabulary along with a matching image so that
students are better able to remember it. They can also be useful for drilling
pronunciation or even grammatical structures. The idea is that they are ‘flashed’ up
quickly to elicit a quick response. For learning new vocabulary, the word is usually
displayed with the picture but you can then erase the word and only show the picture
(or have the word written on the back) to test what the students know.
Real-life materials
When teaching abroad it’s always a good idea to take some authentic material with you
from home. This could be newspaper articles, menus, maps, tourist information about
your home town or even bus/train timetables. These are known as ‘realia’ and can make
the learning experience much more authentic and memorable for our students. It
doesn’t necessarily need to be things from your home though, when teaching food
vocabulary you could take in different fruits and vegetables to stimulate all the
students’ senses and add an element of fun to the lesson. Realia can even be used to
tell a story, as part of a game or to form a dialogue.

Puppets

Using puppets also provides a concrete visual aid which can help students understand
and remember what you are teaching. They’re great for presenting dialogues to young
learners, arousing interest and encouraging student involvement because they engage
the learner on a number of different levels. Denise Özdeniz suggests that puppets allow
children to see ‘another’ native English speaker in the classroom and naturally begin to
copy dialogues and imitate conversations that you and the puppet ‘model’.

You can buy or make puppets quite easily and also get students to make their own as
part of a speaking task. This is great for shy students or ones who are embarrassed
speaking English because it provides them with a safe space in which to talk. The
puppet is also a ‘mid-way’ point between students and the teacher so they feel less
anxiety when practising dialogues with the puppet. Search online for ways to make
simple puppets for the EFL classroom and you may see fantastic results!

These are just some examples of teaching aids you can make use of, some more
modern whilst others are old favourites. Of course all have their own pros and cons and
you can experiment to see which work best for different lessons and students.
Remember, though, that you are an aid too – facial expressions, gestures, body
language, acting and mime can all bring different elements to your lessons to elicit,
clarify and create context!

Unit 8: Self-made supplementary

materials and teaching aids
Our key focus in this section will be to consider two particular situations:

 where you are teaching with minimal resources and cannot depend on pre-made
supplementary materials being readily available
 where you find that the coursebook, if you have one, lacks the types of materials
you wish to have

In these situations, you must resolve this yourself and make them.

Your supplementary materials are worksheets and other materials you can make and
use in addition to the classroom text, if there is one. They include skills development
materials, grammar, vocabulary and phonology practice materials, collections of
communicative activities and the like.

Of course, supplementary materials may also come from authentic sources. Examples
of these authentic materials are newspaper and magasine articles, pictures, and videos.

You can use your supplementary materials to:

 overcome the lack of materials when you are teaching with minimal resources
 replace unsuitable material in the classroom text, if there is one
 fill gaps in the classroom text, if there is one
 provide appropriate material for learners' particular needs and interests
 give learners extra language or skills practice
 add variety to your teaching

Making your own supplementary materials may seem daunting at first but it’s not if you
know what to do. Teacher-made materials can be very effective, assuming that they are
relevant and personalised and answer the needs of the learners in a way no other
materials can.

They offer some very important benefits.

Designing your own materials
1. Benefits of designing your own materials

1. Making them fit the context

Several criticisms of commercially made materials continue to be voiced, particularly in

relation to context. Here are the main criticisms:

 The coursebook and accompanying materials produced for the global EFL
market, including the EYL (English for Young Learners) market, are too generic.
 They are not geared to specific groups of learners.
 They are not geared to any specific educational or cultural context.
 They contain functions and speech outputs based on situations that the majority
of foreign language learners will never be in.
 They are Anglo-centric in their construction and production and therefore do not
reflect any local varieties of English.

Thus, many teachers find it much, much better to make their own materials to make
them fit their own specific educational and cultural context.

2. Making them fit the individual learners

Commercially produced generic materials cannot address the needs of all the unique
individual learners in classrooms. But you can by:

 creating or adapting materials to the individual needs and learning styles of

students
 creating or adapting materials that take into account the learners’ first language
and the learners’ culture and personal experiences
 creating or adapting materials at the right level for particular learners, to ensure
the materials present an appropriate challenge and degree of success
 changing the often-repetitive model and organisation in the coursebook to add
more variety within the classroom to meet developing needs (e.g. using
whatever is appropriate to meet the goal – topics, situations, functions etc.)

3. Making them fit today’s events

Commercially produced materials cannot keep up to date with local and international
events. World and country changes can happen rapidly and learning materials need to
keep up with changes and events that are of special interest to learners in their
situation.

Only teachers on the ground can make the materials relevant to today’s world.

4. Lack of finance
Many schools may not have the budget to supply modern resources for the TEFL
classroom. Instead of moaning and groaning, most teachers step up to the plate and
design their own materials as a matter of course. The school and your learners will be
very appreciative of this.

Guidelines for designing your own

materials
2. Guidelines for designing your own materials

Remember the words of the Cheshire Cat in ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

Alice: 'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

'I don't much care where —' said Alice.

'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

If you haven’t had much experience in designing materials, or none at all, it’s important
that you have a route to follow; otherwise, things may not turn out as planned and you
and your learners may miss out on learning opportunities.

Here are the practical points you need to consider when planning your
materials, whilst constructing your materials and when reviewing your
materials after completion.

Here’s what to do:

1. Meet your learners’ needs

Ensure your materials meet the learners’ needs in terms of their language skills, their
cultural and educational context and experiences, their learning preferences and their
interests. In addition, ensure you are aware of the culture-specific learning processes of
the learners in their situation.

For example, in some countries parents/carers and educational institutions want to see
less fun and more work, so you will need to take this into account.

Also, in some countries, there is often more emphasis given to rote learning, e.g.
parents/carers and institutions wanting to see you giving the young learners lists of
vocabulary to rote learn even though these may be learned out of context with the
classroom learning at that time.

Always ensure the materials link with what the learners already know; otherwise the
materials will not meet the intended objective without a whole lot of additional input.
Where you do feel that something must be included but is not linked to their knowledge
or experience, ensure you clarify the inclusion before they start working with the
materials.

2. Fit your materials with the syllabus and curriculum

Ensure the materials fit with the goals and objectives of the syllabus and curriculum, if
these are in place. Make sure you are au fait with the complete syllabus and curriculum.

3. Consider your skill base

Consider whether or not you have the skills to do a reasonably professional job.
Designing materials from scratch needs a bit experience to draw on, creativity,
competent artistic skills and a sound understanding of materials design and
construction.

Absorb all of this section and, when in situ, ask others for help where you need to. Do
not hold back on this.

That being said, it’s not that difficult. There are plenty internet sites that can guide you
in drawing.

4. Ensure you search for resources

Ensure you have the required resources. Don’t spend time on planning the creation or
adaptation of materials if you do not have the ready resources to enable you to do a
good job.

Some teachers will propound that it’s necessary to be able to access computers and the
internet, a good colour photocopier, a laminator, CD player etc. Well, we know teachers
who survived nicely for years in the heart of Africa without any of these in the school.

But they made friends inside and outside of the school and soon had access to some of
these tools. You’ll never get if you don’t ask. If you don’t have these, it’s not the end of
the world.

We mentioned access. Schools are busy places and often other teachers have planned
to use a particular resource. Ensure you plan well with the school administration so that
you can use the resource at a planned time. Book these well in advance.

5. Consider copyright

Ensure you consider copyright. Yes, you must-not just for your sake but also for the
sake of the Academy. Unless an artist, writer or producer clearly states that the material
can be freely used within your classroom, then you need to take care.

If you use copyrighted material without permission in your class, which then goes down
so well it is included in the school brochure or on the school website, this could cause a
problem for the school.
If, say, a writer or producer says you can use their material in class, that’s fine. If, say,
they say you need to ask permission to do so, then you should follow this up and seek
permission. If, say, a writer or producer says you cannot use the material, then steer
clear of it.

In general, an idea cannot be copyrighted, so you may see something that sparks your
interest and make up your own material based on that idea. However, the simple lifting
of photos and text as they were originally produced is not generally allowed.

Re pictures and images, there are numerous sites that offer these without any
copyright, but at a price, e.g. www.shutterstock.com

6. Work out your time

Ensure you have adequate time to see this through. Experienced teachers will share
one indisputable fact with you, based on their experiences: it always takes longer than
you think it will.

7. Stimulate interaction within cultural ‘rules’

Ensure you materials stimulate interaction and provide a communicative purpose.

There’s little point spending lots of time on the production of materials if those
materials are not going to stimulate interaction in the classroom. Such interaction
should be in line with the types of interaction they will come across in the outside world.

The materials don’t need to be complex. A simple information gap activity worksheet
will fit the bill nicely.

However, good spoken communication does not just rely on the words spoken.

There are other factors such as turn-taking (me then you then me then you), and
recognition of personal space (proxemics) that you need to take into account when
designing interactive activities for a communicative purpose.

8. Stretch your learners

Ensure your materials provide a necessary ‘stretch’. It’s critical that you produce
materials that stretch your learners’ knowledge, understanding and application skills.

This is necessary for ongoing development of the learners’ language competence.

To do this your materials should build on what they already know but should include
new items (e.g. new vocabulary or a new structure) which will stretch them to generate
new language, e.g. by guessing, predicting, hypothesising, noticing links etc.

9. Develop their ‘how to learn’ skills

Ensure your materials ‘push’ learners to develop language learning skills and strategies.
You need to teach your learners how to learn, e.g. understanding learning strategies
that can help them whenever they have difficulties in communicating.

Some examples of learning strategies are re-wording (trying their communicative piece
in a different way, saying it differently) and the use of good body language (facial
expressions, nodding etc.) which can help their communication move forward.

Also, through time, young learners can be taught how to self-evaluate their work.

10. Focus on form too

Ensure your materials focus on form as well as communicative function. In the modern
communicative classroom, the emphasis is often on independent and creative
expression with less emphasis on the form of the language.

Some teachers may take their learners through a lengthy period of learning without
focussing on any aspects of language form.

For inexperienced teachers, in particular, this may be because their TEFL course of
learning focussed entirely on communicating (at all costs) and little time, if any, on
ensuring that issues of form and structure etc. are addressed.

Or it could be the inexperienced teacher is unsure of some elements of form which

often come under the heading of grammar.

Nevertheless, you owe it to your learners to help them notice and understand the forms
of language so that they don’t just use speaking and writing to communicate but also
understand that knowing the form of the language will help them speak and write
correctly at the same time.

What this means is that you should also include exercises and activities that will
encourage learners to analyse the language and form and test their own hypotheses as
to how the English language works, depending on their level, of course.

11. Integrate all the language skills

A lot of language materials focus mainly on speaking and writing. And, in the TEFL
classroom you often see the same focus-speaking and writing. But listening and reading
are also important.

This phenomenon is peculiar, particularly with listening skills. When communicating,

your listeners will not only speak. In turn, they will listen. Listening is an important skill
and plays a critical part in the overall communication. But it is not focussed on to the
same extent as speaking is.

So, don’t fall into the speaking and writing trap. Create materials that give the learners
opportunities to integrate all the language skills.

12. Ensure authenticity

It is paramount that your learners are exposed to authentic materials. In essence,
authentic materials are materials which are unscripted and not developed specifically
for language learning purposes. They haven’t been fabricated for a language learning
purpose.

This applies not only to written texts (e.g. newspapers, magazines, original letters etc.)
but also to spoken and visual texts. Ensure the recording of the spoken voices is real
and not fabricated for a learning purpose. Ensure too that any video you use hasn’t
been performed for a language purpose.

If you record your own materials, ensure that they consist of people saying and doing
things in normal situations, unaffected by the microphone or camera and making no
effort to change their communication to suit a language purpose, so that your learners
have access to truly authentic language.

13. Link materials

Ensure your learning materials connect. If you lose sight of your objectives and the need
for steady progression in language learning to achieve goals, you may end up with a
pile of unconnected materials which may confuse your learners.

So, keep a close eye on coherence throughout your development process. Ensure one
piece links with another in steady progression towards the language learning goal.

14. Impress

Ensure you make a good impression. Ensure your materials look as good as they can,
with consistency in the layout.

In addition, ensure you don’t cause anxiety or confusion for the learner. For example,
when designing an information gap or cloze activity ensure there is adequate room for
the learners to write their answer.

Ensure they know whether the hatched lines in the gap represent the number of letters
or not. Ensure they know whether to write or print their answer.

Also, it’s always wise to consider whether or not you will be using these materials again.
If they are materials which will be used frequently, get them laminated (where possible)
so that they still look fresh when used again and again.

15. Ensure clear instructions

Following on from the example above, clear and precise instructions are critical. If you
need to start the exercise again because the instructions are weak or unclear, this
doesn’t look good and is unfair to your learners. It will be frustrating for you and them.

In addition, the language in instructions needs to be appropriate to their level and in

simple words. There are no prizes for you for using complex words.

Follow these guidelines and you won’t go wrong.

One of the most rewarding experiences in teaching is designing and
developing your own materials and reflecting later on how well they helped
you and your learners to achieve the language goal. Go for it!

Effective teacher-made materials

3. Effective teacher-made materials

Four effective forms of teacher-made materials/aids are worksheets, workcards,

flashcards and your own realia.

They can be used for oral practice in pairs or groups, or for listening, reading and
writing practice, with students working with other students or on their own.

Remember this: Many of the examples of worksheets on the internet are pretty boring
to look at. Usually, there is just a list of questions with spaces for the answer. Try and
make your materials a bit different and add in a picture or some colouring.

1. Your worksheets

 A worksheet is typically a Letter/A4 sized page (or two) of tasks.

 It is given out to individuals, pairs or groups, depending on the approach
required.
 Learners give their answers/responses on the worksheet.
 You circulate during the completion.
 You typically check the answers/responses with the whole class.
 Sometimes they are disposed of, sometimes the learners can keep them,
sometimes you’ll take them in to study progress, e.g. handwriting, or to include
them in the learners’ portfolios.
 Information gaps are See http://bogglesworldesl.com/information_gap.htm for
examples of a typical worksheet activity where learners work out missing and
different information that each have on their worksheet.

Here are three simple worksheets we have created for you, to demonstrate
that it doesn’t take long to construct them. We’ve used ready-made pictures
but you could just as easily draw or trace these, or ask some artistic teacher
or student to help you, if need be.

Example 1: Where is our butterfly?

Choose one word to fill the space: behind / above / below / beside
Example 2: Word game

(Note that we have scaffolded this activity, from easy to not so easy.)

I’ve made some small words from the letters in this big word:
What are they? Fill in the spaces.

1. Clue: it eats mice C__

2. Clue: water comes from this T__

3. Clue: you can get this from the doctor P__L

4. Clue: make a noise with your hands C___

5. Clue: not early ___E

6. Clue: a fruit _E__

7. Clue: the cost of something P___E

8. Clue: part of a flower P____

Example 3: The Gruffalo

(Note that this worksheet is based on an excellent storybook for young

learners.)

Put these sentences in order from 1-8. I’ve done number 1 for you.
 __
Mouse: Here, by those rocks, and his favourite food is roasted Fox. _

__
Fox: A gruffalo? What’s a gruffalo? _

__
Mouse: It’s terribly kind of you, Fox, but No. I’m going to have lunch with a gruffalo. _

__
Fox: Where are you meeting him? _

Fox: Where are you going to, little brown mouse? Come and have lunch in my __
underground house? _

__
Mouse: He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws. _

Story teller: A mouse took a walk through the deep dark wood. A fox saw the mouse 1
and the mouse looked good.
__
Mouse: A gruffalo! Why didn’t you know? _

Workcards
2. Your workcards

 You would typically create these yourself for all kinds of tasks and situations.
 These are typically small laminated cards, about the size of an index card. You
would laminate them so they can be used repeatedly with different learners. But
if there’s no laminator, just keep them in plastic files.
 The learners complete their activity on a separate blank sheet or in their
notebooks, not on the workcard.
 They are typically for short tasks – individual, pair or group.
 Different learners may be working with different workcards at the same time.
 Depending on your choice you can colour them, and put little pictures on them.

They are excellent for:

 Recycling activities where, for example, some individuals need more practice
with some specific element
 Giving out to more able learners who have finished ahead of the others who are
still completing the whole class activity you set
 Giving the class a break from learning after they have all been working hard.
Quizzes, small puzzles and riddles can all be entered on these cards for these
relaxing moments.
The workcards are then handed back to you.

Here are some examples which should be self-explanatory:

1. These could be used for a discussion between pairs or groups, for a short written
piece, or for a student presentation to the whole class:

2. This type could be used for relaxation and perhaps a little prize could be given to the
winning group. You could encourage them to do some dictionary work for any difficult
words, where dictionaries are available. Remember this: Don’t use examples of animals
or things which don’t exist in their culture.
It is, of course, the Iberian Wolf. Depending on student levels, you could increase or
decrease the level of difficulty.

Some practical ideas for workcards

1. Stamps

Put different postage stamps on a card. Ask the pairs to identify what countries the
stamps are from. A word bank can be supplied. Higher performing students can be
asked to add the capital of the country, name of language spoken, etc.

2. Read and draw

Read and draw. You could write a description of a place, a person or an unusual animal
(e.g. an armadillo) on the workcard. The students have to draw a picture from the
description and compare their efforts.

Then you can let them see a real photo/picture of the place, person or animal. This can
be good fun. Some may go right off track as they have misunderstood an important part
of the instructions. Remember, though, that this is not a drawing task per se. It’s a
reading and comprehension activity.

3. Things in common

Give a list of 3-4 words. The students write what the words have in common. For
example, beginners could get dog, cat, bear: animals. Older learners could be
challenged with pint, silver, width. They may take some time to work out that no other
English words rhyme with these words.

4. Matching
You make up two lists, one of countries and the other of capitals. The students match
the country with its capital city.

5. Words that sound the same

You make up two lists of words that sound the same but have different meanings,
e.g. right, write. The students have to match the words that sound alike. This can also
be done with opposite words and words that rhyme.

Flashcards and Realia

3. Your flashcards

A flashcard is a laminated picture of, say, a house with the word house below it or on
the back of the picture that you can hold up for all to see.

You could make these Letter/A4 size. You could also make smaller versions so that, say,
each pair can have their own to look at. Gradually, through time, you’ll be able to miss
out the picture and just show the word.

It’s good to intersperse showing the word with also writing it on the board, to get their
minds thinking further that spoken words can be written down.

It’s a good idea to colour your flashcards from the start, if you can, e.g. nouns in pink,
adjectives in blue, verbs in green etc. You would typically start with nouns. Of course,
you won’t use the metalanguage with them. You would just call it a thing or animal etc.

When you move on to say, adjectives, you’d point out that this card is not in pink like
the other card (nouns) and this will help them a bit to understand categories and
differences through time.

With ‘showing’ activities like holding up flashcards, always plan to do some other
activity after this to consolidate the learning. For example, once they have learned
some simple words, they can practise in pairs, reading words to their partners.

Remember! Become familiar with what supplementary materials are available in your
school.

When you arrive, draw up a needs analysis checklist at the beginning of the course to
find out what you will want to add to the classroom text, if there is one, when you are
planning your lessons. Plan ahead!

4. Your realia

We’ve already mentioned realia in a previous section.

We mention it again to demonstrate that you should consider using your realia and not
just stuff that’s already in the classroom or in a teachers’ cupboard.
With a bit of good reflection, you can come up with your new and fresh idea.

For example, all you have to do is bring in 3 glasses and a jug from your apartment.
Then fill the jug with water.

This simple realia aid can be used for several activities:

 Vocabulary: degrees such as full, half-full, empty, half-empty

 Comparatives and superlatives: big, bigger, biggest amounts of water
 Colours: showing colours or different degrees of colour, e.g. pink, by adding some
cake colouring. To really capture their interest with this, take a few bottles of
baking/icing colouring with you in your suitcase. Put a hidden drop or two of a
different colour in the bottom of each glass, before the class begins.

Let it dry. They won’t notice this. Then, as if by magic, your blue, red and green colours
will appear as you pour in the water. They’ll think you are a magician!

 The concept of weight and the vocabulary arising from this