1. The practice of ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
by Jeremy Harmer
Subject: Practice II, Didactics of ELT.
Year: 2018
Teacher: Estela Braun
Teacher Assistants: Vanesa Cabral and María Luján Ramos
Members: Paola Nieto and Lucrecia Corral.
2. What is a teacher?
ACTORS: “We are always on the stage”
ORCHESTRAL: “because we direct conversation
and set the pace and tone”
GARDENERS: “because we plant the seeds and
then watch them grow”
3. ❏ “Teaching” means to give (someone)
knowledge or to instruct or train
(someone)
❏ “show somebody how
to do something” or
to “change somebody’s
ideas”
5. The roles of a teacher
Controller
❖ Take the roll
❖ Tell students things
❖ Organise drills
❖ Read aloud
❖ Exemplify the qualities of a teacher-
fronted classroom.
7. Assessor
★ Offering feedback on performance.
★ Handing out grades.
★ Saying whether students can pass to the
next level.
★ FAIRNESS: Being sensitive to the students’
reactions and make a bad grade more
acceptable.
8. Prompter
To “nudge” students forward
in a discreet and supportive way
when they lose the thread of what
is going on.
● Neither too adamant nor too
retiring.
9. Participant
➔ Join in activities
not as teachers, but as
as a participants.
➔ Students enjoy
having the teacher
with them.
➔ For the teacher, participating is more
enjoyable than acting as a resource.
10. Resource
❖ No teacher knows everything about the
language!
● To offer guidance.
● To direct students to a good dictionary.
● To be helpful and available but avoid
student’s over-reliance.
11. Tutor
★ A combination of the prompter and resource
roles
★ Stay briefly with each group or individual
★ Help every single student to
avoid feeling aggrieved
12. ★ Pupils will feel supported and helped
★ Class atmosphere will be enhanced
★ Don’t intrude either too much or too little
13. Observer
❏ Give group and individual feedback
❏ Take down notes about what they get wrong
and right
❏ Work, observe, listen
and watch simultaneously
❏ Create the best kind
of rapport
14. Which role?
➔ It depends on the context
➔ We should switch between the various roles
15. The teacher as performer
● A transmissive and teacher-centred behaviour
● Performance styles depend on the situation
ACTIVITY HOW TEACHERS SHOULD PERFORM
1) Team game energetically, encouragingly, clearly, fairly
2) Role-play clearly, encouragingly, retiringly, supportively
3) Teacher reading aloud commandingly, dramatically, interestingly
4) Whole-class listening efficiently, clearly, supportively
16. The teacher as teaching aid
We are useful when using:
➢ Mime and gesture
➢ Language models
➢ Providers of comprehensible
input
17. Mime and gesture
❖ Are used to convey meaning and atmosphere
❖ Exaggeration makes their
meaning explicit
❖ Do not have universal meanings
❖ Should be used with care
18. Language model
➢ Textbooks, reading materials, audio, videotapes
and teachers
➢ Reading aloud→ motivation,
enjoyment,
imagination and mood
19. Provider of comprehensible input
★ Student-talking time vs teacher-talking time
★ Vital ingredient: exposure to any language
★ Teachers give comprehensible input
★ Reading materials, listenings
also provide comprehensible input
