1. The Structure of a Language
Lesson
Recognizable speech event given its
structure: 2 kinds of participants,
recognizable activities: teaching and
learning, reaching a conclusion.1

2. Teachers structure their lessons
effectively:
1. Begin a lesson with a short review (prerequisite
learning).
2. Provide a short statement of goals.
3. Present new material in small steps, with student
practice for each step.
4. Give clear and detailed instructions and explanations.
5. Provide a high level of active practice for all students.
6. Ask a large number of questions to elicit or check
students’understanding.
7. Guide/monitor students during practice.
8. Provide systematic feedback and corrections.

3. STRUCTURING:
• This refers to how lessons are organized into
sequences (Research by Wong-Fillmore, 1985).
• OPENING: How a lesson begins.
• SEQUENCING: How a lesson is divided into
segments and how the segments relate to each
other.
• PACING: How a sense of movement is achieved
within a lesson.
• CLOSURE: How a lesson is brough to an end.

4. OPENINGS:They will depend on
the PURPOSE of the lesson.
 Describe the goals of a  State the activity
lesson. students will do is
 State the TOPIC/SKILLS something they will
 Point our links with enjoy.
previous lessons.  Do something to engage
 REVIEW learning from students’interest and
previous lessons motivation
 Describe the
relationship between
this lesson/activities and
a forthcoming test.

5. SEQUENCING
It will reflect a particular school of
methodology.Situational Language
Teaching(Richards&Rodgers, 1986):
1. Presentation.
2. Controlled practice.
3. Free Practice.
4. Checking.
5. Further practice.

6. Communicative Language
Teaching (Littlewood,1986)
1. Pre-communicative activities: Accuracy-
based activities with a focus on
presentation of structures, functions and
vocabulary.
2. Communicative activities: Fluency-based
activities which focus on information
sharing and information exchange.

7. PACING
• Decisions teachers make as regards how much
time to allocate to each part of the lesson, as we
monitor students’engagement in learning tasks.
 Avoid over-lengthy explanations.
 Use a variety of activities.
 Select activities of an appropriate level of
difficulty.
 Set a time limit, but respect students’ progress
with the activities through monitoring.

8. CLOSURE: bringing a lesson to an
end effectively.
 Sumarizing what has  Praising students for
been covered in the what they have
lesson. accomplished during
 Reviewing key points. the lesson.
 Relating the lesson to
the course or lesson
goals.
 Pointing out links with
forthcoming lessons.