Coping with TEFL Lesson Planning

The key to being a great English teacher is planning. Delivering effective lessons requires teachers to first identify the objective of their lessons and then decide how to best attain that objective.

You should be familiar with a wide range of teaching methodologies and have plenty of ideas on activities for teaching vocabulary, grammar, receptive and productive skills. Now its time to put it all together!

The aim of most lessons should be to move from a high TTT (Teacher Talking Time) to a high STT (Student Talking Time). The first part of the lesson should involve the teacher explaining and introducing the topic, the middle should be focused on practicing the target language and finally students should be able to 'produce' the language.

Engaging your class early on and getting them communicating is a great way to focus on your chosen topic. At the beginning of each lesson you should get all of your students involved by attempting to elicit the relevant vocabulary. This will help you find out what your students already know and what you might need to work on. When introducing your target language be sure to clearly demonstrate what each of the new words means. Mime is great for demonstrating verbs to the class, whilst pictures or the blackboard can be used to explain more difficult concepts. Once you have introduced the language make sure the whole class can repeat the words back to you before you move on.

Any activities you attempt should be focused on getting the students to practice the target language amongst themselves. In general, the less you have to talk, the better your activity is going; you rarely have to say as much as you think. Make sure you frequently alternate between group and pair work. Group work is useful for building confidence as it is not so obvious when mistakes are made, whilst pair work is better for increasing the STT. During a game in which the students interact, insist on correct phrasing and pronunciation and do not allow students to talk in their mother tongue.

Variety is very important in the ESL classroom. Make sure students are practicing a range of skills across your lessons. For example, if you base a lesson on reading, make sure you intersperse it with some speaking activities or a written follow up. Students tend to become bored quickly so make sure you don't repeat the same activities too often. Try to change your visual aids regularly to provide stimulating new material for your classes, or if you have limited resources use role plays to introduce new concepts and discussion topics.

Be aware that no matter how well you plan your lesson things can go wrong. Don't be afraid to abandon an activity if things aren't going well. Try to adapt your ideas to the mood of the class. If they are uncommunicative, try some icebreaking and mingling activities to get them more relaxed.

Finally

• Make sure you write your first lesson plan down, with a break down of how long you expect each activity to be.
• Try to think about the possible problems that students will encounter when getting to grips with the new language and think of some solutions.
• Prepare your teaching aids well in advance of the lesson.

You won't need a detailed lesson plan for every lesson you teach, eventually it will all come naturally to you, but to get you started thorough lesson plans are invaluable.