This document discusses the relationship between methodology and lesson planning for language teachers. It defines methodology as the systematic process of teaching a second language, involving analysis of teaching techniques and learner needs. Lesson planning is considered an important part of methodology, as it allows teachers to implement different methods and achieve learning goals. While planning takes time, it is especially useful for novice teachers facing unexpected challenges. The document advocates planning as a guide rather than a rigid sequence, to allow flexibility for students' spontaneous ideas.

1. “Argumentative Essay”
By: Tania Contreras Novoa.
Katherine Jofre Novoa.
Teacher: Maria Gabriela Sanhueza Jara.
Date: August, 26 Th

2. What should teachers know about methodology and planning lessons? These
terms encompass plenty of different meanings and are closely related to each
other. The origin of methodology comes from the prior of the twentieth century and
the most famous methodologist was Johann Comenius, who introduced a new
approach in order to teach a second language (Celce-Murcia, 2001). Needless to
say, the concept of methodology has been considered very important in the
process of teaching and learning a foreign language because it connects
pedagogical theories to the context of education. For instance, the Ministry of
Education requires all teachers to plan a lesson in order to improve learning results
and to help students to be English language users. Besides, it is true that planning
a lesson is relevant for all teachers, because it is the guide that each educator
should have in order to achieve the learning goal. Nevertheless, some teachers
have not considered that planning has an important role on methodology and for
that reason they tend to teach without a previous organization of the lesson. Thus,
this essay presents what methodology is from different author’s point of view.
First of all, as a definition of methodology we acknowledge that it is a science
which includes a number of steps and involves teaching and learning. It includes
the role of the teacher and student in order to build an effective method. However
why is this definition a valid one? According to Celce-Murcia (2001) methodology is
defined as a systematic procedure which explains how to teach a second
language. It is an essential factor for many educational programs, because of its
implication with numerous pedagogical practices. Besides, Tamura (2006)
recognizes that methodology involves an analysis of what teachers have done in
the class in order to improve the process of teaching English and it has to take into
consideration problems that second or foreign language learners have at the
moment of using the language. Hence, the conception of methodology provides the
teacher the tools to teach proficiently and depends on the context, because it
implicates knowing about how and what to teach (Tamura, 2006).
Regarding this, planning is associated to methodology because when teachers
plan they put into practice the best of each method in order to achieve students’
significant learning (Jensen, 2001). A lesson plan has been considered as a
building, because it involves to create and to organize materials in order to have
successful results. In the same way as methodology, it is necessary to take into
account the context. In addition, a lesson plan is an important activity for teachers
to do because it is a helpful resource which demonstrates that the teacher has
spent time preparing the class (Harmer, 2001). This instrument provides an
opportunity to reflect about how students respond to activities in class and it can be
essential for teachers to control the studying process. As a result, it is important for
all teachers to prepare a lesson plan, due to the fact that it includes the intention of

3. teaching and it reflects a number of decisions that the teacher has been doing
according to the circumstances in which the lesson takes place and on educator’s
experience (Harmer, 2007).
Furthermore, planning is very important because it contributes to have
successful results in the teaching learning process. As Harmer (2007) says,
teachers need to have a clear aim, because they are the ones in charge of helping
the students to acquire the knowledge they should have and to do this they need to
use different strategies in order to help the students to reach their goals. Besides, a
lesson plan gives the teacher a more professional feature, because it means that
the teacher has dedicated some time to prepare the class. In addition to this,
planning is important because teachers need to scaffold and their lessons have to
follow a sequence, it means that each new lesson has to be based on the previous
one. Notwithstanding, there is a special case in which is very important for the
teacher to plan the lesson. It is the case of novice teachers, because they do not
have enough experience to solve unexpected problems without a lesson plan.
According to Harmer (2007) when teachers overestimate the amount of time the
activities might take and because of teacher’s lack of experience they do not have
a clear idea of what to do. In this case a lesson plan would be very useful, because
if teachers have a lesson plan they might have extra activities to use in such cases.
Moreover, many teachers claim that planning a lesson is very time-consuming.
There is a risk for teachers who prefer to plan as a series of instructions without
chance for any change. From many teachers’ view planning has to be followed as
a sequence of actions. Most of the time, lesson plans cannot be done as teachers
have premeditated, for these reasons it is necessary for teachers to be flexible and
let magic moments occur. It means that teachers should appreciate situations in
which students propose an idea in which all pupils can learn. It is useful for
educators to not waste magic moments just because they have not considered it in
the lesson plan (Harmer, 2007). It is also true that planning lessons come from a
core curriculum that does not take into account student´s characteristics.
Therefore, most students are not really motivated and it is clearly expressed
because they do not want to study and obviously they will not devote much time on
studying a second language which does not engage them. It is considered
impossible to plan in advance what students will learn in the future, because to
fulfill the curriculum probably many teachers will miss useful spontaneous
moments that come along the way (Pilkington, 2011). Therefore, teachers should
plan their lessons as a guide to lead their teaching and to have an idea of what
they are going to do in each lesson in order to achieve their learning goals, instead
of using it as a rigid plan that must be follow, because teachers should be flexible
and should let the students to come out with new unexpected ideas.

4. Taking everything into account, there is no doubt about the interrelation
between planning and methodology, because having enough knowledge about
methodology provides the tools to build an effective and varied lesson plan. It is
very hard to be focused on just one definition of methodology, because there are
many of them. Up to now there has been presented a new definition of what
methodology is based on different authors. It is also true that is very important for
teachers to have knowledge about methodology, because they as experts do not
just teach they also must know about how and what to teach (Tamura, 2006).
Moreover, teachers who know about methodology also have the ability to attend
different learning styles. On the other hand, reasons for and against planning have
been presented. It is true that planning is very time-consuming, but is also true that
it is important because when teachers plan their lessons thinking of an aim and
they point their lessons in order to reach the aim. Notwithstanding, there are
experienced teachers who do not need to plan their lessons, because they have
the activities and the plans fixed on their minds. It means that if something
unexpected happens they do not need to look at their plans to solve the problem or
to put another activity into practice, because they know exactly what to do in such
cases. Thus, planning as a part of methodology helps novice teachers at the
moment of teaching, due to the fact that both concepts involve teaching and
learning.

5. References
Celce-Murcia, M. (2001). Teaching Methodology. In M. Celce-Murcia, Teaching
English as a second or fereign language (pp. 3-11). Heinle and Heinle.
Harmer, J. (2001). Planning lessons. In J. Harmer, The practice of English
language teaching (pp. 310-320). England: Pearson Education.
Harmer, J. (2007). How to plan lessons. In J. Harmer, How to teach English (pp.
156-165). Pearson Longman.
Jensen, L. (2001). Planning lessons. In M. C. Murcia, Teaching English as a
second or foreign language. Los Angeles: University of California.
Pilkington, C. (2011, May 21). Why lesson plans don't work? Retrieved August 24,
2014, from http://christinapilkington.com/2011/05/21/why-lesson-plans-dont-work/
Tamura, E. (2006). Concepts on the Methodology of Teaching English. The
Economic Journal of Takasaki City University of Economics, vol.48. Retrieved
from: http://.www1.tcue.ac.jp/home1/k-gakkai/ronsyuu/ronsyuukeisai/48
3/tamura.pdf