Introduction

Many people have undertaken some training in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). Perhaps you did a distance learning course, or maybe you did a CELTA a while back and you’re now ready to pack that suitcase and head abroad for your first teaching job. Or maybe you have teaching experience but need a bit of inspiration to try something different in the classroom. This book is for anyone wondering, ‘How do I put a great TEFL lesson together?’

The book offers a choice: You can turn to one of my lessons and teach it yourself, straight off the page; or you can read through my ideas and then put your own spin on them, creating some sparkling lessons of your own. Either way, your students will benefit from a great deal of variety and fun, fast-paced activities, which will certainly motivate them to greater success.

About This Book

This book is for teachers who want an injection of new ideas. By reading the whole book through, you’ll increase your repertoire of activities for all kinds of classes. Then again, you might keep it in your library for help with emergency cover lessons or spicing up a course you teach regularly. I’ve organised the book to make it easy for you to identify and prepare for many tricky teaching scenarios.

This book is also for teachers who are interested in moving with the times. After taking on many roles in my TEFL career, I decided to return to the classroom on a daily basis two years ago. To my delight, I found that advances in technology are continuing to enrich this field and provide teachers with fantastic educational tools. But, at the same time, English is taught the world over, sometimes in very basic conditions. So whether you have vast resources at your fingertips or barely any, in this book I show you ways to engage your students’ minds.

Who is this book not for? Anyone who needs a single resource to teach an entire course. Course books are far better for that purpose. Also, although I have included scores of complete lesson plans, this doesn’t mean that you can teach from this book without preparing. You need to understand the entire lesson plan before you start teaching it, and have your materials and classroom layout ready. This is vital in order for you to feel relaxed and comfortable enough to pass on your enjoyment of the lesson to your students. Of course, you may need to adapt some parts of the lesson too.

I don’t believe that a set prescription exists for teaching English effectively. No doubt, I’ve left out some fantastic methodologies, approaches and activities. This doesn’t mean that I’ve vetoed them in any way. I simply draw on my own experiences in this book and, like all good teachers, I’m still learning myself.

Here are some suggestions for how to use the plans in the book:

• I suggest the timing for each activity and try to give you enough variety within each lesson to keep it lively and diverse. However, do give the students more time for the activities they really seem to enjoy. On the other hand, you can shorten slightly an informative activity that doesn’t seem to suit your class. Be adaptable.
• Most teachers are employed by a school or similar educational establishment. In this case, be sure to get the agreement of your course leader or academic manager before trying something previously unheard of there, or likely to cause controversy.
• Remember that cultures and teaching situations vary considerably. So, you must ensure that your lesson plan is suitable for your particular learners.

Finally, a note on photocopying. TEFL Lesson Plans For Dummies isn’t a photocopiable resource, but you’ll find online resources you can print on the books’ own website (http://www.dummies.com/extras/tefllessonplansuk).

Conventions Used in This Book

I use various conventions in the book to make the text user friendly:

• I use the words student and learner interchangeably.
• I refer to the teacher as T and student(s) as St(s) in the lesson plans.
• For brevity, I refer to lesson aims and not objectives. However, in some teaching situations you may include both.
• English refers to whatever is normal in most English-speaking countries, though I draw on UK examples most of the time.
• Chapters alternate between using male and female pronouns in the interest of balance.

Although beginner teachers are taught to divide their lessons into quite specific stages – such as presentation, practice and production or engage, study, activate – I don’t label the lessons in this way because each lesson follows a slightly different sequence, while covering all the stages. Though a lesson must have a variety of logical stages, what you call them and how you order them is by no means written in stone.

Finally, within this book, you may noticee that some Web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these Web pages, simply key in the Web address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy – just click the Web address to be taken directly to the Web page.

Foolish Assumptions

This book helps people who have a basic knowledge of what TEFL involves but who lack experience, confidence or ideas when it comes to real live teaching. In writing, I have assumed that you, the reader

• Are a native speaker or proficient in speaking English
• Have an initial TEFL qualification or are undertaking one
• Understand references to English grammar and pronunciation (enough to be able to source further information rather than pull your hair out in surrender)
• Are concerned with your students’ engagement in and enjoyment of your lessons
• Are open to using a wider range of methodology and resources in your lesson plans than those you’ve learnt and tried so far
• Are agreeable to teaching a range of classes in different situations

Icons Used in This Book

Throughout the book you’ll see little pictures in the margins. Each kind of icon is designed to draw your attention to a different way.

When you see this icon you get detail that illustrates how you apply the point previously mentioned in a lesson.

This icon highlights helpful ideas for everything from websites to check out to ways to make your lessons run more smoothly.

Beware! This icon alerts you to common mistakes that newer teachers make and pointers that help you avoid problems.

The text beside this icon is well worth remembering.

This icon introduces an activity that I recommend you put into practise in class.

These micons indicate the participants in the activity and the nature of their participation. T stands for teacher, St for Student and Sts for Students, plural. So T-St indicates an activity led by the teacher with a single student, St-St an activity between two students, and so on.

Beyond the Book

In addition to the material in the print or e-book you’re reading right now, this product also comes with some access-anywhere goodies on the Web. Check out the free Cheat Sheet at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/tefllessonplansuk for helpful tips and pointers for putting together great lessons.

You can also find ideas and outlines for more than twenty additional lesson plans online at www.dummies.com/extras/tefllessonplansuk.

Where to Go from Here

If you aren’t teaching at the moment, I recommend you begin with Part I. This helps you get an overview of planning styles and choose one that suits you as a starting point. Teachers who are working on a steady course at the moment may read the whole section on low-level students (Part I), low intermediate (Part II) or higher levels (Part III) according to their students’ current proficiency. In this way you’re with some lesson plans and ideas you can slot into the course at the appropriate time. I offer lessons that can span more than one level in Part IV.

You may also approach the chapters by topic area. Some teachers feel that they have a lack in one particular area, regardless of the level of course they’re teaching. In this case, notice that in Parts II–V the same general themes appear in each part.

If you feel that you don’t get students off to good start at the beginning of a course, read Chapters 4, 10, 16 and 22 on first day lessons. This should help to put a spring in your step so you begin the course with confidence and enthusiasm. The students themselves are often too timid to show their true language skills at first. The activities I present mix the classroom dynamics so that the students work in pairs, groups and as a class. In this way they get to know each other more quickly and are likely to find at least one learning situation they feel more relaxed in.

Go to Chapters 5, 11, 17 and 23 for back to basics lessons that feature lessons you do without much technology or many specialised teacher resources. I show you how to work with everyday items or a very basic classroom.

Turn to Chapters 6,...