Evaluation and reflection are useful for four reasons:
· They consolidate the material that was presented earlier in the lesson
· They provide an opportunity for learners to raise questions of usage and style, to have some sense of achievement
· It helps the teacher to monitor individual student comprehension and learning
· It provides closure to the lesson
Expansion
Expansion activities allow learners to apply the knowledge they have gained in the classroom to situations outside it. Expansion activities include out-of-class observation assignments, in which the teacher asks learners to find examples of something or to use a strategy and then report back.
Effective teachers try to organize EL successfully.
They should know:
1. How the classroom space is organized (if they want to move around the class or move the chairs into different seating patterns; different seating arrangements in class:
Orderly rows - when learners sit in straight rows, the teacher can see all of them and all the learners can see the teacher. It is easy for lecturing, for keeping discipline, for teacher walking up and down to make more personal contact with learners, for asking individual learners.
Circles and horseshoes - In smaller classes, many teachers prefer circles or horseshoes. In a horseshoe the teacher is at the open end. In a circle, the teacher’s position is near the board. It is less dominating. There is a feeling of equality - all the learners can see each other.
Separate tables. It is more informal pattern of seating arrangement. Learners are seated in small groups at individual table. In such classrooms the teacher walks around and checks the learners’ work, helps or explains something. However, this arrangement is not without problems. First, learners don’t always like sitting with the same group-mates. Secondly, it makes ‘whole-class’ teaching more difficult: in one pair, one learner may dominate while the other stay silent. In difficult classes, pair work may make learners be more disruptive, especially in a class where learners are at Starter or Elementary level, they can use their first language.
Other class arrangements:
2. Whatever the seating arrangements in the classroom are, learners can be organized in different ways: they can work as a whole class (the advantages of the whole class work – clarity, dramatic potential and teacher control), in groups, in pairs (both pair work and group work give the learners chances for greater independence because they are working together without the teacher controlling every move. Decisions are made in cooperation, responsibilities are shared. Also it gives the teacher the opportunity to work with individual learners. While groups A and C are doing one task, the teacher can spend some time with group B who need special attention) or individually (solo work) - it allows learners to work at their own speed, gives time to think. Learners can relax and think over their own individual needs and progress.
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3. How to organize classroom time (when to start or finish an activity)
4. How to appear to the students (dress and appearance, how to move and stand, gestures and how to use voice)
5. What kind of instruction to give (simple and logical and check if the they have understood)
6. What order of things to do
7. A lot about the subject which is taught
8. What equipment is available and how to use it (overhead projector, computer, etc.)
9. What materials are available for children and teacher (students expect to know how the materials work)
10. How to create lesson stages (vary activities and topics over a period of time and find out about new ways of doing things)
- Every lesson should begin with a greeting in the foreign language and a brief talk between the teacher and the learners. Through this conversation the lesson may be motivated.
- Teacher should use a foreign language for all classroom activities; the teacher manages the class activities by giving directions in the foreign language.
- Teacher should stimulates learners’ participation by asking questions, praises and encourages learners from time to time, and he may also criticize the behavior of a learner or a class if necessary.
· Teacher should use a variety of activities at every lesson, including pronunciation drill, oral activities, reading, and writing. The success of activity is measured by attention, enthusiasm, and involvement of the learners.
· The lesson should be conducted at a high speed when oral drill exercises are performed. Learners should not stand up to say a word, a phrase, or a sentence.
· The lesson should provide a certain sequence in learners’ assimilating language material and developing habits and skills from perception, comprehension, and memorizing, through the usage in a similar situation following a model, to the usage of the material received in new situations that require thinking of the learner.
· The lesson should provide time, for the activity of every learner in the class. They must be active participants and not the teacher. The teacher often talks more than all the learners.
· The lesson should provide conditions for learners to learn. A certain amount of time should be devoted to solowork as opposed to activities involving the class as a whole. During solowork learners learn for themselves.
· The work done during the lesson should prepare learners for their independent work at home.
· The lesson should be well equipped with teaching aids and teaching materials which allow the teacher to create natural situations for developing pupils’ hearing and speaking skills in a foreign language.
Effective teachers are well-prepared. Teachers should:
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1. Define the role and place of the lesson in the curriculum
2. Define the connection of the lesson with last and the next ones
3. Choose the type (lessons of studying of a new training material, lessons of improving of knowledge, skills, generation and systematization lessons, the combined lessons, lessons of control and correction of knowledge, skills) and shape of the lesson. A good lesson needs to contain the blend of coherence and variety. A coherence means that learners should see the logical sequence of the lesson (preparation, presentation, practice, evaluation, expansion)
4. Define the peculiarities of the lesson in accordance with the knowledge, level, individual characteristics, interests of learners and class size
5. Think in advance of what he and the class are going to do in the lesson and what the learners are going to achieve in the lesson
6. Decide the aims and objectives of the lesson. Reorder the objectives according to their importance.
7. Choose the methodology of the lesson.
8. Prepare guiding questions.
9. Choose materials such as textbook, worksheets, visuals, games or DVDs to interest the learners and support the objectives of the lesson. Not be a slave to the textbook / workbook.
10. Define the order (sequence) of the activities, including opening and closing activities. Reorder activities / exercises in the ascending order (from the easiest to the most difficult). Look for alternative activities in case the learners might not comprehend the main activities. This is more practical with grammar (e.g. when teaching abstract rules).
11. Predict other problems learners may have in doing activities or with language
12. Count time to spend on different activities
13. Choose the ways to involve every learner to do all the classroom activities
14. Define different forms of work: as a whole class, individually, in pairs or groups
15. Think over homework
16. Write a lesson plan and read it in advance.
After visiting the teacher does the analysis of the lesson conducted by another teacher.
Doing the analysis the teacher has to note:
1. Date of the lesson
2. The number of the class group (how many learners there were)
3. Name of the subject
4. Full name of the teacher
5. Topic of the lesson
6. Lesson aims and objectives (what skills learners had to train during and at the end of the lesson)
7. Visiting purpose (controlling, training, etc.)
8. How studied material was repeated (warming-up, games, checking home work)
9. How the teacher prepared learners for perception of a new material (brainstorming, games, etc.)
10. What methods were used for studying a new material (demonstrative, audio-lingual, etc.)
11. If there was a connection between the new and earlier studied material
12. What kinds of exercises were used to practice the new material. If there was the connection with life
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13. If the equipment was used and how
14. What forms of learners’ work were in the lesson (individual, frontal, pair or group work) and if the differentiated approach was applied during the lesson
15. If the time was rationally used
16. If the marks were objectively put down
17. If the homework was set
18. If the educational purposes were realized and reflection was conducted
19. The type of the lesson and its structure. New ways of creation of a lesson
20. If the classroom was prepared in right way for realizing educational purposes
21. What atmosphere was in the classroom (optimistic, active, business, friendly)
22. The role of the teacher (professional qualities, abilities to use different methods of teaching English, personal qualities, teacher’s usage of voice, gestures, correctness of speech, abilities to contact with class)
23. How learners behaved during the lesson (initiative, active, afraid to speak, cooperation with the teacher and other learners)
24. The use of L1
25. Evaluation of the lesson (evaluation of educational and upbringing effectiveness of the lesson, brief characteristics of advantages and disadvantages of the lesson, proposals for strengthening and improving the positive qualities of the lesson and overcoming disadvantages, recommendations for teacher to study specialized literature, to visit lessons of other teachers, etc.)
Learning of foreign language begins in the second (first) class. The main aim of education is the developing of communicative skills and abilities in listening, reading and writing. The creation of favorable psychological climate and activeness at a lesson is very important. The teacher has to use various forms of encouragement and helping in the lessons.
For effective teaching is important:
1. To use toys, pictures, actions, games
2. To use computer programs and other multimedia materials
3. To use illustration support which help them how to speak, listen, read and write.
4. To use bricks or other construction material for teaching of structure of a speech sample.
After finishing primary school learners must have the following communicative abilities:
1. In speaking:
- To take elementary dialogical communication
- To create elementary statements about themselves and about world around
2. In listening:
- To understand and react to oral statements of partners in communication
- To understand requests and instructions of the teacher, the partners connected with game situations in the class;
- To understand the general contents of small and simple texts and to react verbally and mainly not verbally to their contents;
- To understand the short messages of mainly monological character constructed on a language material familiar to pupils.
3. In reading:
- To read aloud expressively;
- To read silently to understand the main contents
- To search necessary (interesting) information
4. In writing:
- To write letters
- To write a short congratulation
- To express a wish
- To write the personal letter
- To make and write down the plan to text;
- To do extracts of the text.
A lot number of parents try to begin the training of children to learn foreign language at early age. According the pedagogics and psychology the preschool age is the most favorable time for such study.
The majority of teachers and scientists think that the game is the main form of activity for children of preschool age. There are situational, sport, competitive, art and ritmo-musical games.
Basic principles of teaching English of preschoolers: