Second edition

See Unif 13 for mote infomuiUon on learning styles and other learner chamclciistics.





Think about these teachers' comments. Which do you agree with and why?

1. 
   My classes are only 45 minutes long, and it takes time to arrange students into different groupings for different activities. I think it's a waste of time.
   
2. 
   When my students work in pairs and groups, the classroom becomes a noisy place. Other teachers comment on it in the staffroom. It makes me feel as if I'm not doing a good job.
   
3. 
   I teach groups of business people and they prefer working on their own. I'm not sure if I should include other learner groupings or not.
   

207

1. 
   Try out some learner groupings that you haven't tried before and write up the results in your Teacher Portfolio.
   
2. 
   You will find some useful information on grouping young learners in Chapters 7 and 8 of Children Learning English by Jayne Moon, Macmillan 2000,
   
3. 
   For more information on practical aspects of grouping learners and on interaction patterns, look at Module i 6 of A Course in Language Teaching by Penny Ur, Cambridge University Press 1996.
   

TKT practice task 31 (See page 245 for answers)
For questions 1 -7, match the teaching strategies with the problems with group or pairwork listed A, В and C.
You will need to use some of the options more than once. ^{* 1}


Problems with group or pairwork


A Some students dominate.
В Some students always finish first and get bored. C Some students use too much L1.


Teaching strategies


1 Plan short extension activities and have them ready to hand out to students.

2. 
   Plan learner groupings carefully before the lesson so that all learners can take part.
   
3. 
   Make sure students know the key expressions to use in the activities.
   
4. 
   Demonstrate activities to provide students with models of language they need.
   
5. 
   Make sure that activities are differentiated so that some students are challenged more.
   
6. 
   Be ready to change learner groupings if some students are stopping others from taking pari.
   
7. 
   Make one student in each group responsible for monitoring language use.
   

’ ^:^jt'52:^;:€ofrectln^;g-learners

■ How do we correct learners?
We correct learners sometimes when they have made a mistake and we want to show them that something is wrong. There is a range of correction strategies and techniques we can use to indicate (show) that there is a mistake, and the ones we choose depend on a number of different factors, for example the aim of the activity, the age of the learners and the language level of the learners.


m Key concepts
What strategics and techn iques can we use fo r correcting i earn ers ■' oral and Written mis takes, and when do we use them?
Oral correction

1.