Introduction - Secondary Level

1. INTRODUCTION
To begin with, before planning lessons for our secondary level course, we, as
teachers, should bear in mind the following:
Firstly, we have the responsibility of giving each student different opportunities to
learn the new language. To do so, we have to be able to create an appropriate learning
environment. In this sense, Scrivener states that there are skills which can be
developed by teachers. Some of them are:
• Fostering effective classroom interaction gives students the possibility to
interact with others to put the new language into practice.
• Giving instructions in English helps students familiarize with the new
language.
• Using a variety of techniques helps students learn the language in a
better way.
Another relevant point is that we, as teachers, should be prepared to promote diversity
and inclusion. It means that if we have a student with some special need such as
dyslexia and autism, among others, we have to implement specific techniques. In this
way, we can give all our students the same possibility to learn and experience the new
language.
Furthermore, we, as teachers, have to put emphasis on the importance of developing
students´ motivation as well as autonomy in ELT. In this regard, Steven Mc Donough
in the PDF file Motivative 1, claims that we, teachers, have the role to facilitate “the
development of the learners´ own motivational thinking.”[1] It means that we have
the responsibility to choose the appropriate material so as to catch students´ attention.
In this way, students will feel motivated to learn the new language in an enjoyable
way.
Richard Smith also states that we, as teachers, have to help our students become
autonomous learners. To do so, we have to provide students with different exercises
in which they have to implement decision-making. In this sense, we give students “the
power and right to learn for themselves”[2]
Another important point is that David Nunan mentions that the organic approach is a
new perspective which helps students understand language acquisition and its use.
Within this approach, there are different ways to teach the language such as teaching
“language in context, teaching language as a set of choice and providing opportunities
for learners to explore grammatical and discoursal relationships in authentic data”[3],

2. just to name a few. Taking all these different ways into account, we, teachers, have
the possibility to decide on the best alternative to teach the new language according
to students´ needs.
With respect to classroom dynamics, we should decide what kind of classroom
dynamics we want to implement in our classes. To do so, we should investigate how
students like to work in the classroom. In this respect, Scrivener mentions that we,
teachers, can choose from “whole class working together with you; whole class
moving around and mixing together as individual; small groups, pairs and individual
work”[4]. Moreover, he states that there are some useful ideas that maximize students´
interaction such as:
• Encouraging a friendly, relaxing classroom atmosphere;
• Giving students time to listen and think and understand the new topic;
• Arranging seating so that students can see their classmates and interact with
them in groups;
• Giving students interesting opportunities to practice the new language.
Another point is that we, teachers, must have clear aims in our lessons. Knowing this
helps us to predict what kinds of resources are suitable to implement in our class.
According to Scrivener, our lessons should be based on contexts and situations
relevant to students´ lives and should include activities that are highly meaningful and
interesting to students.
Last but not least, after finishing our lessons, it is important to evaluate our if we
succeeded in helping our students learn the new topic. According to Scrivener, it is
also important to evaluate teachers´ performance and what worked and didn´t work.
In this way, we, teachers, can plan our future lessons in a better way.
To conclude, we, as teachers, should take all the aspects mentioned above to achieve
successful classes.
[1] STEVEN MCDONOUGH (2007), “Motivation in ELT, Key Concepts in ELT, page: 370.
[2] RICHARD SMITH (2007), “Learner autonomy”, Key concepts in ELT, page:
[3] DAVID NUNAN (1998), “Teaching grammar in context”, page:102, 104 1nd 105”.
[4] SCRIVENER, JIM (2013)” Language Teaching”. Chapter 3, “Classroom management”, page: 58.