Chia Suan Chong, a CELTA trainer with IH London, teaches her CELTA trainees a language unfamiliar to them (either Chinese or Japanese) – around the subject of making a cup of tea. Following this, she asked the CELTA group what were their takeaways about teaching from this language learning experience. Here are their 11 maxims, which are the foundation of SLA (Second Language Acquisition) principles and the communicative approach.
A taster is below, but for all the detail and explanation read the full article in the IH Journal here.
1. Thou shalt allow lots of repetition.
Every time the teacher repeats a word is chance for the student to etch the word into their memory. Repeat, repeat, repeat!
2. Thou shalt not make students feel bad for not remembering. Instead make them feel relaxed.
The teacher is responsible for creating an enjoyable, friendly and relaxed atmosphere conducive to making mistakes and learning.
3. Thou shalt drill! drill! drill!
A ‘cream of the crop’ approach (where we select and pick the ‘cream’ or the best of each approach/methodology to suit the occasion and the student) is what we hope to encourage.
4. Thou shalt not overload students with too much information.
7-10 new vocabulary words are probably about all anybody can learn in one lesson.
5. Thou shalt teach lexis in chunks.
It’s the whole expression that matters.
6. Thou shalt train students to tolerate ambiguity.
It is extremely important that learners realise that there will be times when lots of words will be unknown and that is okay. We can still try to guess the meaning from context.
7. Thou shalt use visuals.
Using realia is motivating, and seeing objects (and even words written on the board) helps the brain process and remember them.
8. Thou shalt motivate the learners.
Who wants to sit in a class where the teacher doesn’t appear interested their subject. Teachers are not performers, but they do need motivate and engage their learners.
9. Thou shalt correct the students’ mistakes, albeit judiciously.
Students want to be corrected, so as long as you do it in a friendly, supportive and encouraging way, correction should be a feature of the language classroom.
10. Thou shalt set a context and present language in context.
Probably a cornerstone of the communicative approach to teaching, the context-based presentation creates a place in the brain for learners to ‘put’ their new language so they can remember and use it later.
11. Thou shalt encourage lots of student talking time and only quality teaching talking time.
It’s vital to practice language in the classroom, so get your students to talk – and keep your own talking to a minimum
We hope you found this interesting. For all the detail and explanation read the full article in the IH Journal here.
