Warm greetings to our e-letter readers!

Previously, I have contributed articles for students of English, but recognizing the need for continuing English teacher education in Taiwan, decided to write this series of articles; the many attachments of which were designed for a Teacher Training course at NSYSU for the Foreign Languages and Literature Department.

　　For a new English teacher, there is nothing scarier than walking into a room full of new students to teach a language that is by nature of one's own culture, “alien”.
English in Taiwan is (or should be) taught as EFL because it is not a language that is second nature to the average student, and although it can be heard in various social settings: company-, community-, entertainment- and school-based, it is not a language of local commerce or communication for the general population.

　　This means that the local teacher of English has to make a special effort to bring English (mainly Western, and in Taiwan, interpreted as North American) life, language and customs into the classroom and make it come alive! This is a daunting task, and involves certain gymnastics on the part of the teacher.
For example, it is not enough to solely rely on your textbook(s) to “teach” the fundamentals of English grammar and the like…a language must be brought to life, to be seen to be useful, to have a purpose, beyond the classroom environment. This refers to the process of teaching.

　　The first problem that a new teacher will face is that the majority of the English textbooks used in Taiwan are essentially based on an outmoded style of teaching viz. the grammarian approach, which was widely used in the 1950's. Such a system and textbooks teach students ABOUT English and its grammar, as it is read and written.
New approaches today of course include the modern communicative style, where students are taught how to use English functionally in real communication exercises – made as real as possible given the artificiality of the classroom environment.

　　 Many schools now host bilingual departments, or have oral communication classes (with and without foreign teacher talents), and the results are evident – young Taiwanese everywhere are learning to speak English with confidence, and are not afraid to approach a foreigner to initiate a conversation.
Taiwan needs this, if the country is to become a financial or multinational hub for Asia, as is the stated intention of our government.

So how do you, the teacher, get to this point?

　　A number of material resources are required: textbooks, story book readers, Realia, supplementary flashcards, vocabulary testing lists, reading corners, extension cards for brighter students, multimedia resources for listening and conversational practice, audio labs, posters, split information activities for partner work, theme extension worksheets for whole class practice, homework assignments etc…

　　For a suggested list of activities and themes, check out this list I used when consulting and setting up a teacher resource bank for the foreign teachers of St. Dominic High School Bilingual Department. Teaching-ResourceBank-Activities&Themes.pdf.

　　Check out this link Teaching-ResourceBank-References.pdf for a recommended book list, but be aware that all the best resources in the world, do not successful teaching, nor a successful teacher make.

　　Despite the wide variety of resource materials available however, many dedicated teachers do not have access to an adequate budget, and may be faced with having to spend their own money, or designing their own resources to bridge this gap.

　　However, in the modern language classroom, a communicative approach should be used, which means that teachers do in fact have access to other resources, which are equally as or more valuable than prepared textbooks supplied by the school: examples include local newspapers, student reports, photographs, monthly student magazines, pictures cut out from fashion magazines and the like, clothing items, empty food packets – the list is endless. For a list of possible resources in the communicative classroom, click on this link ThingsToMake&Do.pdf, and this link Teaching-ResourcesUsedInTheCommunicativeApproach.pdf, and this one Teaching-TeachingAides.pdf.

　　In the modern language classroom, there are other aspects of teaching and learning that are more important than the resources (content); these are the teaching way (process), the teacher herself, classroom management and discipline techniques, and the maturation process. Developmental psychology and stages of moral development will not be dealt with in this article

　　By process, we mean the way in which you teach, the techniques by which you introduce new language, allow familiarity with the vocabulary, set practice examples for students, and give opportunities for students to produce and use real language themselves. If you do not have good “process”, then the best textbook and related materials in the world may fail to motivate students; the atmosphere may fall flat; the class itself may be a disaster, or remain uninspiring and boring.

　　How you organize and sequence your teaching materials in a lesson plan; how you organize the students to work individually or together in pairs, small groups or as a whole class; determines whether your primary teaching role is as a “lecturer” or a “facilitator”.

　　A teacher as facilitator pays attention to giving her lessons structure, and developing a “formula” that works for her. Things that the professional teacher should know about planning a lesson include guidelines here LessonPlanning-Preknowledge.pdf.

　　This lesson plan LessonPlanning-basic.pdf can be used for almost any vocabulary and language function at cram school or elementary school levels and up, and the more formalized and well-known IRDP lesson plan sequence here LessonPlanning--IRDP.pdf is also very useful for introducing classes of vocabulary objects. Both these lesson plans are internationally standardized teaching sequences.

　　Organizing students to work together is a step that many new teachers are reluctant to take, as they fear losing control of their class. To avoid this, you need to establish some ground rules first.

　　A simple classroom code of “rules and behavior” is important, particularly at lower levels, and the professional teacher should also understand principles of Class Management and Discipline.

　　Issues related to the process of teaching and the dynamics of the teacher will be explored in our second article, to be published next quarter.

　　The third and fourth articles will look in more detail at teacher dynamics and classroom management and discipline techniques.

　 　As a teacher, I am faced with the question: How can I create a lesson which will interest and intrigue the students without spending too much time on preparation? A user-friendly, diverse text book can often be one solution to this problem.

　　I have used several ESL reading textbooks whilst teaching the 1st and 3rd grade Junior College students as well as the 3rd grade Four-Year-College night school students in Wenzao. However, a book that really stood out was Interactions II Reading [(2007)Hartmann, P. & Kirn, E. McGraw Hill Publishers], as it gave me lots of inspiration and food for thought while planning my lessons, as if I was enrolled in another CELTA course.

　　Clear organisation is the main reason I found Interactions II Reading superior to other books, because I didn't need to worry that students would not be able to absorb huge chunks of information in only one class. Instead, the clearly separated chapter structure facilitated the learning process as well as successfully alternating between applying the top-down and bottom-up methodologies to the lessons.

　　Personally, I believe that students' understanding of important vocabulary items is the key to whether or not they will be able to comprehend an article. Hence, the Previewing Vocabulary in the book section proved to be quite useful as it provided the students with a chance to see potentially problematic lexis items before trying to read the text. This was complemented by the textbook's accompanying Audio CD which offered students a chance to re-familiarise themselves with the correct pronunciation of words they already knew, as well as giving them a taste of the new words. However, there is still room for the creators of the textbook to further improve their Previewing Vocabulary sections. Specifically, in addition to the book's pre-reading activities for helping students familiarize themselves with new vocabulary items, the creators could include extra tasks designed to allow them to actually understand the meanings of the new lexis (rather than just becoming familiar with their sounds). For example, activities where students have to match the words to their definitions, followed by cloze test style sentences which would further cement their understanding of the new lexis items.

　　The two questions most frequently asked by students in my reading classes are ‘How can I improve my reading skills?' and ‘How can I read fast but still understand the article?'. The answer I normally give is that they should learn to utilise different strategies while reading. Thus, I found the blue boxes entitled Strategy interspersed in each chapter of Interactions II Reading very useful, as they promoted and, for the most part, clearly explained the use of various reading strategies such as Skimming for the Topic & Main Idea (Chapter 1, p12), Recognizing Cause and Effect (Chapter 4, p79), Getting Meaning from Context (Chapter 2, p25). I always recommend to my students that they make notes about every strategy they learn, so that these notes will become their own secret weapon in learning English. Not only did I find these strategy sections were beneficial to my students, but also that they could be adapted into task sheets. An example of this is the task below which I adapted from a Strategy section in Chapter 6 of the textbook (p124):

　　Certainly, teacher demonstration and explanation is required for the outline task to be understood by the students and further development is still possible, for example, the activity could be made into an oral pair work task – such as students comparing their answers – thus helping to promote student to student interaction.

　　My idea of a reading class is a lesson consisting of three stages: pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading. Although, every stage is connected, they still have their own distinct purposes, for example, the final stage, post reading, should offer the students more freedom for self-expression and thought. In this stage, a teacher's workload can be heavier due to attempting to design effective tasks which facilitate self-expression, but are still related to the main theme of the text. Thus, for me, the Teacher's Manual for Interactions II Reading proved to be a useful resource package. Explicit, organised and well-linked instructions advise teachers how to expand each lesson as well as how to apply multimedia resources to the lessons.

　　I personally found this textbook - Interactions II Reading worthy of recommendation. However, if you want to know exactly what benefits Interactions II Reading contains and how it will work for your classes, then you'll have to explore it yourself!