All ESL teachers, regardless of their training, experience, or competency, need a carefully designed lesson plan to help their students meet learning goals, both on a daily and long-term basis. Having a lesson plan is like having a complete and clear visualization of how a learning session will take place and how students can understand and retain the concepts of the lesson. Extensive research indicates that previewing success in athletic competitions, as well as in business endeavors, is a concrete step in the process of achieving it. The same goes for commitments in the classroom. Without a lesson plan, this visualization process is fuzzy at best, and the learning outcomes that will be generated will be far from ideal.
That said, it’s hard to overstate the importance of lesson plans in ESL/EFL education. ESL educators simply need to visualize daily lessons in advance and build the most appropriate teaching strategies into a comprehensive lesson plan. Otherwise, going to class without proper preparation will most likely be detrimental to both teachers and their students. Unprepared teachers will become mediocre at work and will be seen as unprofessional by their peers, superiors, and students. On the other hand, students with inadequately prepared language teachers will enjoy less than optimal knowledge and, in general, have low-quality learning and appreciation of lesson concepts, compared to students with highly competent and prepared educators. .
Given the substantial resources that students and education providers pool into the learning session, an unprofessionally managed class is a terrible waste of time, money, and effort. Furthermore, students and teachers under this scenario generally have very little motivation to improve. Having a lesson plan and using it effectively as a guide for daily teaching will reflect your professionalism and reliability. He also stands as a good role model for his students, who will come to appreciate the value of coming to class prepared and prepared to achieve lesson objectives.
Lesson Plan 101
If you are new to teaching, a lesson plan is basically a step-by-step guide to how the teacher intends to present a lesson and the ways students are expected to learn and appreciate the various concepts in the lesson. A great lesson plan is one that another educator can easily and effectively use instead. This means that the ideal lesson plan is clear and comprehensive. Details and elements of lesson plans vary, depending on the specific format required by the school or organization. However, common components of a good lesson plan include the following:
1. Lesson Title
2. The period of time (in minutes, hours, days or weeks) needed to complete the lesson
3. Class details (class or section name, age, skill level, etc.)
4. The objectives of the lesson
5. Instructional Approach(s) to be used (this section describes the sequence of learning events as well as the techniques the teacher will use to help students achieve the objectives of the lesson)
6. Teaching materials (such as a film, image gallery, music video, etc.)
7. Summary and conclusions derived from the lesson
8. Methods for practicing lesson concepts
9. Evaluation and test methods to be used
10. Contingency Plans or Items (This section describes subsidiary topics or additional techniques and materials that can be used to strengthen the learning gains generated during the session or productively fill excess time. Fun and engagement, sit-down work, dialogues, and other activities are ideal for this section)
Unless the learning institution requires a specific lesson plan format, most ESL professionals tailor their lesson plans according to the teaching philosophies or techniques they believe in or are most comfortable with. In general, though, great ESL lesson plans have common features that you should integrate into your own teaching strategies:
· Ideal lesson plans have a concise summary that fits on a single page. The detailed plan itself can, and often does, exceed this number, but the idea is to allow anyone a quick overview of the lesson.
· Great lesson plans are organized in a way that is easy and enjoyable to follow.
· Lesson plans should be strongly aligned with the learning needs and competencies of your target audience.
Each individual lesson plan must adhere to a continuum of lesson concepts and must not only fit into the curriculum but also reflect the overall vision of the topic.
ESL lesson plans should establish platforms for students to apply language learning to real-world situations.
In ESL education, lesson plans are crucial even in purely conversation classes. To establish an environment that fosters high-quality learning and attracts non-native speakers to express themselves widely, proper preparation is of paramount importance. Having a haphazardly designed plan is also inexcusable.
Types of ESL Lesson Plans
There are literally dozens of types of lesson plans depending on the teaching philosophy followed by an educator or specific mandate from learning institutions. In ESL and EFL education, the most common lesson plans are based on three main instructional approaches:
A. PPP (Presentation, Practice and Production)
B. TTT (Test, Teach, and Test)
C. TBA (Task Based Approach)
Presentation, Practice and Production. PPP is a recommended lesson focus for many ESL/EFL educators and is commonly taught at institutions that provide TESOL and TEFL certifications. Most English language educators believe that PPP is the foundational approach from which other approaches have evolved.
In a nutshell, PPP facilitates the (teacher-centered) presentation of new linguistic concepts, the practice (joint participation of teacher and students) of new linguistic concepts, and the (student-centered) production of new linguistic concepts. During the presentation phase, up to 80 percent of the period may be appropriate for a teacher-led lecture or explanation of lesson concepts. During this time, the teacher can discuss grammar, spelling, and common usage issues of the new linguistic concept. The teacher also poses concept appreciation tests to verify students’ understanding of the new concepts. When students clearly understand the new concepts, the teacher can move on to the next phase. Otherwise, a brief recapitulation of the topic should be made.
In the practice phase, the teacher encourages students to participate more through graded recitation of orchestrated conversation. Ideally, this phase should allow students to articulate 60 to 70 percent of the time, with the teacher taking a supporting role as facilitator. Written and verbal activities and exercises should be used, with different intensities according to the new concept of the language.
Lastly, students should be encouraged to master (90 percent participation) the production phase. The teacher only monitors the dynamics of the class and only gives feedback when the lesson is over. At this point, students should be sufficiently comfortable with the new language concepts that they can use them accurately and fluently to communicate.
Test, teach and test. TTT is a frequently used alternative to the PPP method, in which the production phase moves sequentially to the first part of the lesson. During the (first) testing phase that corresponds to the production phase in the PPP approach, students are more or less abruptly asked to communicatively produce a linguistic concept based on their existing knowledge and without any prior guidance from the teacher. The teacher will then assess the students’ level of proficiency in the particular language area, determine their needs, and proceed to the teaching phase (which corresponds to the presentation phase in the PPP approach) based on an overall assessment. The teaching phase allows educators to discuss problem areas and guide students towards the correct use of the linguistic concept.
The final stage of the TTT approach is the second test that aims to check how the students have absorbed the new inputs from the teacher. The logic of this sequence is that students learn new linguistic concepts better by differentiating their invalid uses (most likely to be committed during the first testing phase) from correct usage (most likely to be achieved). after the teacher introduced the concept of language during the teaching phase).
In general, the TTT approach is a good way for teachers to determine the specific needs of students in different language areas. With this knowledge, educators can optimize their teaching strategies to produce optimal learning outcomes. It is best used at intermediate and higher proficiency levels, as well as in classes where students have mixed language proficiency. However, a consistent feature of the TTT approach is that it has an element of randomness, as various unexpected needs of students may arise that are beyond the scope of the intended lesson. Despite this disruptive possibility, many educators are still adopting the TTT approach because it is very “inexpensive” and “focused” in the sense that there is no need to spend valuable time teaching areas of the language that students already know. they dominate
Task-based approach. TBA is a good alternative to the PPP approach or the TTT method. In TBA-structured classes, teachers do not predetermine the specifics of the language to be studied, but instead base their lesson strategies on how students complete a central task. Similar to the other two approaches, TBA follows a sequential progression: 1) a pre-task introduction to the teacher; 2) students’ completion of a core task involving a particular linguistic aspect; 3) report, analysis and feedback to be made by the teacher about how the students achieved the central task; and 4) practice sessions to hone students’ language skills.
Many educators defend the task-based approach because of several clear advantages. On the one hand, TBA allows students to use all their linguistic resources to complete a task and not just pre-selected language areas as in the case of PPP. Additionally, TBA uses real-life and natural linguistic contexts that are highly relevant to students. Therefore, the exploration and learning of the language arise directly from the real needs of the students and not as suggested in the textbooks. TBA is also based on the premise that a holistic exposure to the language, as opposed to the incremental exposures common to PPP, is a better way to learn a new language.
conclusion
Based on the wealth of material online, each approach has strong support from its respective proponents. It wouldn’t hurt to try each one depending on the learning environments of your classes. Remember, there is no written rule that restricts someone from modifying, combining, or optimizing any of the three approaches. At least in lesson plan design, flexibility is a more preferred option than dogmatic rigidity. The bottom line is to customize the lesson plan that will help everyone achieve their learning goals and provide the best value for their students.