English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) - Module II

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MODULE 
 
 English Language Teaching Principles 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 
 
 
Distance Education 
Universidade Pedagógica 
Rua Comandante Augusto Cardoso n˚ 135 
 
Copyright 
This Module cannot be printed for commercial purposes. In case of photocopying, reference should be 
made to Universidade Pedagógica and to the Authors of the module. 
Universidade Pedagógica 
 
Rua Comandante Augusto Cardoso, nº 135 
Telefone: 21-320860/2 
Telefone: 21 – 306720 
Fax: +258 21-322113 
 
Acknowledgements 
 
To COMMONWEALTH of LEARNING (COL) for providing the Template used for the productions 
designing the modules 
To Instituto Nacional de Educação a Distância (INED) for the support and guidance provided 
To Magnificent Rector, Dean of Faculty, Heads of Department for support provided during whole 
process. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Technical Assistance 
 
Author: Romão Beatus Paulo 
Instructional Designing: António Franque 
Language Review: Sarita Monjane Henriksen 
Graphic Designing: Fátima A. Nhantumbo 
Edition: Anilda Ibrahimo Khan 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Contents 
About this MODULE 1 
How this MODULE is structured ..................................................................................... 1 
Course overview 3 
Welcome to English Language Teaching principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) - Module 
II........................................................................................................................................ 3 
English Language Teaching principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) - Module II(—is this 
course for you?.................................................................................................................. 3 
Course outcomes............................................................................................................... 4 
Timeframe......................................................................................................................... 5 
Study skills........................................................................................................................ 5 
Need help? ........................................................................................................................ 6 
Assignments...................................................................................................................... 7 
Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 7 
Getting around this MODULE 8 
Margin icons ..................................................................................................................... 8 
Unit 1 9 
English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) Module II ................. 9 
Introduction ............................................................................................................. 9 
Lesson 1: Planning a Lesson ................................................................................. 12 
Lesson 2: Planning a Writing Lesson.................................................................... 16 
Lesson 3: Stages of the Lesson.............................................................................. 19 
Lesson 4: Lesson Plan Format/Model ................................................................... 25 
Unit Summary................................................................................................................. 31 
Assignment ..................................................................................................................... 32 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 34 
Unit 2 38 
Teaching Pronunciation .................................................................................................. 38 
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 38 
Lesson 1: Pronunciation ........................................................................................ 40 
Lesson 2: Practising Sound and some Minimal Pairs ........................................... 44 
 
 
ii Contents 
Unit summary ................................................................................................................. 50 
Assignment ..................................................................................................................... 50 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 51 
Unit 3 54 
Pair Work and Group Work............................................................................................ 54 
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 54 
Lesson 1: Pair and Group work............................................................................ 56 
Lesson 2: Type of Pair and Group Work ............................................................. 60 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 62 
Lesson 3: Organizing Pair and Group Work ......................................................... 66 
Unit summary ................................................................................................................. 69 
Assignment ..................................................................................................................... 70 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 71 
Unit 4 72 
Correcting Errors ............................................................................................................ 72 
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 72 
Lesson 1: Errors Correction .................................................................................. 74 
Lesson 2: Differente Ways of Correcting Student´s Errors .................................. 77 
Unit summary ................................................................................................................. 80 
Assignment ..................................................................................................................... 81 
Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 81 
 
 
 1 
 
About this MODULE 
 Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II has been produced by 
Universidade Pedagógica. All MODULE produced by Universidade 
Pedagógica are structured in the same way, as outlined below. 
How this MODULE is structured 
The course overview 
The course overview gives you a general introduction to the course. 
Information contained in the course overview will help you determine: 
If the course is suitable for you. 
What you will already need to know. 
What you can expect from the course. 
How much time you will need to invest to complete the course. 
The overview also provides guidance on: 
Study skills. 
Where to get help. 
Course assignments and assessments. 
Activity icons. 
Units. 
We strongly recommend that you read the overview carefully before 
starting your study. 
 
 
The course content 
 
 
About this MODULE English Language Teaching Principles Practice 
(ELT/PP year II) Module II 
 
 2 
 
The course is broken down into units. Each unit comprises: 
An introduction to the unit content. 
Unit outcomes. 
New terminology. 
Core content of the unit with a variety of learning activities. 
A unit summary. 
Assignments and/or assessments, as applicable. 
 
Resources 
For those interested in learning more on this subject, we provide youwith 
a list of additional resources at the end of this MODULE; these may be 
books, articles or web sites. 
Your comments 
After completing we would appreciate it if you would take a few 
moments to give us your feedback on any aspect of this course. Your 
feedback might include comments on: 
Course content and structure. 
Course reading materials and resources. 
Course assignments. 
Course assessments. 
Course duration. 
Course support (assigned tutors, technical help, etc.) 
Your constructive feedback will help us to improve and enhance this 
course. 
 
 
 3 
 
Course overview 
Welcome to Practice (ELT/PP 
year II) – Module II 
 
Welcome to the ELT/PP. We hope that you will enjoy this module 
and develop your knowledge and skills on issues related to it, via 
distance learning. Congratulations on your choice and decision to 
commit yourself, over the next few months, to serious study and 
putting into practice your newly learning experience, skills and 
attitudes towards English Language Teaching. 
We hope that this module - ELT/PP Year II Module II (ELT/PP II) 
- will help you to develop the professionalism that your work 
requires you to have and also that it will increase your appetite for 
further study in the field of ELT/PP Year III. 
 
(Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module 
II—is this course for you? 
This course is intended for people who have some experience in teaching 
and who are pursuing studies or teaching in the field of ELT. It is also 
intended for all those, somehow involved in teaching or prospective 
teachers or facilitators. For example, you may be a tutor at a learning 
centre and so on. In this course you will develop practical skills in 
teaching English as a Foreign Language. The course is especially 
designed to meet the needs of the teachers who: 
Teach large classes without resources needed to accomplish their task. 
Those teachers placed in the field without any training in the field of 
English Language Teaching. Teachers, who want to enhance their 
knowledge, improve their practices and skills in order to update the 
 
 
Course overview English Language Teaching Principles Practice 
(ELT/PP year II) Module II 
 
 4 
 
techniques and methods and get new insights into English Language 
Teaching. 
This course is structured in modules and the sequence of each unit can be 
used independently. The course is designed to be used actively by you 
working in the field. 
Course outcomes 
Upon completion of Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II you will be 
able to: 
 
Outcomes 
• List objectives and language content of the lesson you teach. 
• Write objectives of the lesson plan. Be familiar with same 
stages and samples of the lesson plan. 
• Be familiar with same stages and samples of the lesson plan. 
• Plan the lesson plan with appropriate stages 
• Establish the importance of teaching pronunciation. 
• Distinguish strong and weak syllables. 
• Make corrections of your students’ errors. 
 Apply techniques and methods to help your students learn the 
English Language. 
 
Timeframe 
 
How long? 
ELT/PP Year II Module II (ELT/PP II) is a year course. 
We advise you to spend at least 2 hours a day to read each lesson. 
We recommend two 2 hours on self study. 
 
 
 5 
 
Study skills 
 
As an adult learner your approach to learning will be different to that 
from your school days: you will choose what you want to study, you will 
have professional and/or personal motivation for doing so and you will 
most likely be fitting your study activities around other professional or 
domestic responsibilities. 
Essentially you will be taking control of your learning environment. As a 
consequence, you will need to consider performance issues related to 
time management, goal setting, stress management, etc. Perhaps you will 
also need to reacquaint yourself in areas such as essay planning, coping 
with exams and using the web as a learning resource. 
Your most significant considerations will be time and space i.e. the time 
you dedicate to your learning and the environment in which you engage 
in that learning. 
We recommend that you take time now—before starting your self-
study—to familiarize yourself with these issues. There are a number of 
excellent resources on the web. A few suggested links are: 
http://www.how-to-study.com/ 
The “How to study” web site is dedicated to study skills resources. 
You will find links to study preparation (a list of nine essentials for a 
good study place), taking notes, strategies for reading text books, 
using reference sources, test anxiety. 
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html 
This is the web site of the Virginia Tech, Division of Student Affairs. 
You will find links to time scheduling (including a “where does time 
go?” link), a study skill checklist, basic concentration techniques, 
control of the study environment, note taking, how to read essays for 
analysis, memory skills (“remembering”). 
 
http://www.howtostudy.org/resources.php 
Another “How to study” web site with useful links to time 
management, efficient reading, questioning/listening/observing skills, 
getting the most out of doing (“hands-on” learning), memory building, 
tips for staying motivated, developing a learning plan. 
The above links are our suggestions to start you on your way. At the time 
of writing these web links were active. If you want to look for more go to 
www.google.com and type “self-study basics”, “self-study tips”, “self-
study skills” or similar. 
 
 
 
Course overview English Language Teaching Principles Practice 
(ELT/PP year II) Module II 
 
 6 
 
Need help? 
 
Help 
In case of difficulties, please contact the following: 
In Maputo: 
Universidade Pedagógica - Centro de Educação Aberta e à Distância 
(CEAD) 
Faculty of Languages: English Department 
Rua: Comandante Augusto Cardoso no. 135 Maputo 
Telephone: 21 420860-2 or 21 306720 
Monday to Friday: 8:00 to 12:00 
Email: f:linguas@yahoo.com.br 
In the provinces: 
In each province there is a resource centre available and a local Provincial 
English Advisor to help you. 
For any assistance related to academic issues the Provincial English 
Advisor will be able to help you and do not hesitate to contact her or him. 
Assignments 
 
Assignments 
There are no assignments in this module. After unit 1 and 2 you will have 
to write the first test and after unit 3 and 4 you will write the second test. 
At the end of the academic year you will write an exam. Between the 
tests your teacher might decide to give you a group or individual work, 
which will count for your final assessment. So if you are given any task 
take it serious and try to do it well. 
 
 
 7 
 
All tests are written after completing the two units of each module. And 
between the tests you might be given a task which will count for your 
final assessment. They should be submitted to your local 
tutor/teacher/facilitator. 
You will be informed of when you have to write the test at a local level. 
 
Assessments 
 
Assessments 
There are 2 tests after completing units 1 and 2. The second test is written 
after completing units 3 and 4. At the end of the academic year you will 
write an exam. Between the tests you might be given any task which will 
count for your final assessment. 
All tests, group work or tasks are teacher’s marked work. 
The local tutor or Provincial coordinator will inform you when you have 
to write the tests, individual/ group work or any other task that you have 
to do. 
The normal length of the tests at UP is about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Your 
local tutor or teacher will inform you about the deadlines for submission 
of any individual/group work. 
 
 
Getting around this MODULE English Language Teaching Principles 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) Module II 
 
 8 
 
Getting around this MODULE 
Margin icons 
While working through this MODULE youwill notice the frequent use of 
margin icons. These icons serve to “signpost” a particular piece of text, a 
new task or change in activity; they have been included to help you to 
find your way around this MODULE. 
A complete icon set is shown below. We suggest that you familiarize 
yourself with the icons and their meaning before starting your study. 
 
 
 
 
 
Activity Assessment Assignment Case study 
 
Discussion Group activity Help Note it! 
 
 
 
Outcomes Reading Reflection Study skills 
 
 
Summary Terminology Time Tip 
 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
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Unit 1 
English Language Teaching 
Principles Practice (ELT/PP year 
II) Module II 
Introduction 
This unit shows how individual techniques and activities fit into the 
lesson as a whole. We assume that you are already familiar with basic 
techniques for presentation, practice and using texts. Is it true? Yes, it 
seems that you are able to draft your lesson plan as well as to incorporate 
a number of techniques in presenting vocabulary, presenting structures 
and practising structures from the previous modules and units. The use of 
this unit depends on the type of textbook that you are using, and 
especially on your notes that accompany your textbook. It means that if 
your notes are clear and detailed, then the focus of this unit will be based 
on knowing what it contains and using it effectively. 
Upon completion of this unit you will be able: 
 
Outcomes 
 List or set the objectives and language content of the lesson you 
teach. 
 Distinguish the various stages of the lesson and explain the 
relationship between them. 
 Give examples on how to make a sample lesson plan. 
 
 
 
Unit 1 English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) 
Module II 
 
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Backwash effect: The effect that the nature of the final examination 
has on the teaching and learning during the course. 
An examination which focuses on tests of 
grammatical knowledge is likely to lead to the 
teaching and learning of grammatical knowledge 
in courses preparing candidates for the 
examination, whereas a communicative 
examination is likely to encourage communicative 
approaches and activities in the classroom. 
Cognitive 
approaches: 
Approaches to language teaching which involve 
learners thinking about the language and working 
out rules from the example of instances. 
 
Coherence: 
The linking together of consecutives utterances in 
accordance with the function of the utterances. 
Thus an invitation followed by an acceptance or a 
generalisation followed by an example would be 
coherent whereas a factual enquiry followed by an 
anecdote would not be coherent. For example: 
A: Would you like to go and see my mother? 
B: Yes, I would love to. Thanks. (Coherent) 
A: Could you tell me which wharf the boat to 
Inhaca leaves from, please? 
B: I went to Matola last week to see my friend. 
(Not coherent.) 
Cohesion: The logical linking of consecutives or related 
utterances. For example: 
(1) 
My brother is always tired in the evenings. He 
goes to work six in the morning and doesn’t get 
home till nine. 
(2) 
I agree that Amade Chababe is an experienced 
player. He played for Matchedje and then 
Desportivo and in both teams he won the 
championships. However, I don’t think the club 
should pay all that money for him. 
 
Terminology 
Contracted forms: Verb forms which are shortened in formal speech, 
for example: 
I’ve she’s they’d 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
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Contrastive 
analysis: 
Comparing two different languages to discover in 
what ways they are the same, similar and different 
in order to predict likely learner errors to explain 
discovered errors. 
Controlled 
exercises: 
A practice exercise in which learners are told 
exactly what to do and how to do it. It is hoped 
that nearly all the learners will get nearly all the 
exercises right and will therefore develop correct 
habits and gain useful knowledge about the 
language. Ellis and Tomlinson (1990:14-15, 203-
206) 
Correction: The amendment of particular instances of language 
use, which are considered faulty. For example: 
Pedro his albums are many (X) 
Pedro has a lot of albums (√ ) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unit 1 English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) 
Module II 
 
 12 
 
Lesson 1: Planning a Lesson 
 
Introduction 
 
How did you find the terminology above? Did it help you to be aware and 
gain more insights? For sure it gave you, as a teacher, some more 
vocabulary. In the next part, you will reflect on a number of aspects 
involved in planning a lesson. 
 
At the end of this lesson you will be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 Establish the main things that you need to know before going into 
class to teach the lesson. 
 Write objectives of the lesson plan. 
 
 
How long? 
It is advisable to spend two hours on this lesson. 
 
Think about this: 
Imagine yourself planning a lesson. What would you do? 
When you plan a lesson, it is always important to state what the 
general objective of the lesson is. A lesson may focus on: 
- A particular topic – so the objective of the lesson may be to 
learn the names of colours or to practise language for asking 
for information. 
- A particular structure – so that the objective of the lesson 
may be to describe actions using the present continuous 
tense or to practise going to for talking about future plans. 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 13 
 
- A skill – so the objective of the lesson may be to understand 
instructions for using a machine or to express opinions. 
Is there anything new that you did not know? If that is the case, 
then go back and read the above notes again. That will help you 
mastering the new content. 
Now to make sure that you understood the explanation above, let’s 
try the following task. 
 
Activity 1 
Now, read the list below written by one of the teachers while planning 
his/her lesson. The task given to the students was to practise ask and 
answer the question using the table. After that they ask each other 
questions. 
When do you 
 
When does your uncle 
get up 
eat breakfast 
go to school 
go to bed 
sleep 
in the morning? 
in the afternoon? 
in the evening? 
at night? 
When do you clean your teeth? 
When do you meet your friends? 
When do you learn E-makhuwa? 
 
 
Reflection 
What do you think would be the objectives of the lesson? It might be 
difficult to answer the question but you can check from the notes the 
following aspects: in the above notes, the teacher was asking questions 
using the present simple. But we can not assume that the notes above 
refer only to the present simple and this is because you need to ask 
yourself the following: 
 
Do the notes give enough information? It is important for you to decide 
 
 
Unit 1 English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) 
Module II 
 
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on your own, in other words, use the notes to plan your own lesson and 
then compare your lesson plan with these notes. 
Hopefully the notes above helped you to clarify some of the aspects that 
were not clear to you. 
Now read the notes below written by three different teachers and then 
decide which teacher has the clearest idea of the objectives of the 
lesson plan. Then compare their comments and write down your own 
comments and see where they can fit within the three comments made. 
 
Reading 
Teacher A: 
We are doing lesson 10. The focus is on questions and answers practice 
using a substitution table. 
Teacher B: 
We are going to practise present simple questions with when… and time 
expressions. 
Teacher C: 
We’re going to practise asking and answering questions using the present 
simple so that students learn to talk about everyday activities and when 
they do them. 
 Now,if you were to teach that lesson, which notes would you consider as 
adequate and why do you think that way? Below are the comments made 
about the three teachers. 
 
 
Commenting on the notes of teachers A, B and C it could be said 
that: 
Teacher A is not thinking of the objectives of the lesson at all – he or she 
seems to see it just as “a lesson in the book” that has to be taught. 
Teacher B has thought about what language is being taught in the lesson. 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
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Teacher C has the clearest idea of the objectives of the lesson. She or he 
is thinking not only what language she or he will teach, but also what the 
students will learn to do in the lesson. 
It is important to set up objectives of the lesson. When you set up 
objectives, it is like having a map to direct you where to go. Objectives 
allows us to see if the intended target of the lesson has been achieved and 
help us to redefine and change strategy for the next lesson to come. And 
also important to know is that the objectives should always be defined 
using action verbs. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unit 1 English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) 
Module II 
 
 16 
 
Lesson 2: Planning a Writing Lesson 
 
Introduction 
You may have written so many lesson plans and their objectives. Could 
you explain what are the criteria on the basis of which you write 
objectives of a lesson? 
At the end of this lesson you will be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 Discuss some skills involved in a lesson plan. 
 Design your lesson plan 
 Identify structures, forms and functions involved in a lesson plan. 
 
 
How long? 
It is advisable to spend two hours on this lesson 
 
In this part of the lesson, you are invited to think of a lesson you have 
taught recently or a suitable lesson in your textbook and on the related 
objectives. Can you tell us what you learnt in that lesson? 
When you plan your lesson, it is important for you to know exactly, for 
instance, what level of language you want your learners to learn. Most 
lessons introduce either new vocabulary or new structure, or both. Then 
bear in mind these points: 
• New vocabulary: not all new words in a lesson are equally 
important. As part of the preparation for the lesson, you 
should decide which words need to be practised, and which 
only need to be briefly mentioned. 
• Structures: if a new structure is introduced in the lesson, it 
will need to be presented carefully and practised in the 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
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lesson, also considering what was introduced in earlier 
lessons. 
 
Activity 1 
Refer back to the exercise/activity above. What new words were 
introduced in that lesson of yours? 
 Which were the most important? 
 What new structures were there? 
 What other structures were practised? 
It depends on the lesson that you introduced that day. But maybe your 
lesson that day was focused on: 
 
 
Tip 
Grammar 
The preposition after abstract nouns, 
Future continuous, 
Punctuation of direct speech, 
Reading 
Newspaper articles, 
Scientific book extract, 
Literature, 
Listening 
Interview: a fire-fighter talks about domestic fires, 
A family history, 
Opinions about various household gadgets, 
So far, how do you find the explanation? Does it go along with your 
previous knowledge and techniques already acquired? 
Then, let’s now see other elements that are involved in planning a lesson, 
such as structure, vocabulary, reading, writing and listening. Remember 
that these are some of the elements, so you can find more when we give 
 
 
Unit 1 English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) 
Module II 
 
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you further reading which is very important to do it on your own time. 
The other element is skills. You need to know and be aware of what skills 
will be developed in the lesson. Is it speaking, reading, listening or 
writing? You already know that, speaking and writing are productive 
skills because they require producing language while listening and 
reading are receptive skills – they require reception of language and not 
production. If possible the lesson should include practise of more than 
one skill, that is, it should be integrated – this will increase the variety 
and interest of the lesson. 
You are again invited to refer back to any exercise that you did with your 
students and tell us: 
• What skills were developed in it? 
• Which skill was practised most? 
You might have said that 
Grammar: 
We saw definite articles with place names, passive construction, and 
inversion after negative adverbs. 
Writing: 
Informal letter: a reply to an invitation, report: a holiday, summary of the 
story and many other elements of skills. 
To sum up, you may engage your students in reading, speaking, listening 
and writing skills in the same lesson without noticing and why? The 
reason is because when you were planning your lesson you planned it for 
one or two skills, but when you go to teach you might have realized that 
there is more than one skill involved. And that is a natural process. For 
example, you cannot speak without listening and vice-versa. So, when 
you plan your lesson bear in mind that there is a lot of process in mind of 
the students than only listening to your lesson. And you, as a teacher, 
need to take that into account. 
 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 19 
 
Lesson 3: Stages of the Lesson 
 
Introduction 
A lesson plan can be divided into a number of stages such as warm-up, 
elicitation or brainstorm, presentation, practise, production and so on. 
In this lesson you will see some of the stages involved in lesson plan. 
You may be already familiar with some steps therefore they will not be a 
surprise for you. 
At the end of this lesson you will be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 Write the stages involved in a lesson plan. 
 Focus on the main stages of the lesson. 
 
 
How long? 
It is advisable two spend 2 hours on this lesson. 
 
 
 
Reflection 
As a teacher, you have written a number of lesson plans to be taught. Can 
you explain how many stages were you able to divide your lessons into? 
The natural response to that question will be “it depends on the type of 
lessons that I wanted to teach that time”. And that is a fair reply to that 
question. 
Yes, we would stamp on your response and add more to say that, any 
lesson we teach naturally divides into different stages of activities: For 
example, at one stage in the lesson, the class may be listening to a 
dialogue, at another stage, the teacher may be explaining or pre-teaching 
vocabulary and writing them on the board; at another stage students may 
 
 
Unit 1 English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) 
Module II 
 
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be doing some oral practice. It is much easier to plan the details of a 
lesson if we think in terms of separate stages rather than trying to think of 
the lesson as a whole. 
List down the stages that are involved in a lesson plan. Try to list as many 
as possible. Focus on the main stages of activity and not on particular 
activities or techniques, for example, asking questions on a text. 
……………………………………………………………………………
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Then, in which stages were you able to list them? 
Read our comments and see if our comments match. 
 
 
Reading 
Presentation: You present new words or structures, give examples and 
write them on the board and so on. Your maintask at this stage is to serve 
as a kind of a facilitator. You know the language, you select the new 
material to be learned and you present this in such a way that the meaning 
of the new language is as clear and memorable as possible. 
In this stage, you do the all talking – you provide input (the language that 
students need to hear and learn), while the learner listens and 
understands. Any production on the part of the learners is incidental, 
designed simply to introduce the new language into the memory store. 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 21 
 
Practice: Students practise using new words or structures in a controlled 
way, for example, making sentences from prompts, asking and answering 
questions, giving sentences based on a picture. You need to know that 
practise can be oral or written. 
The practise stage follows presentation. One of the assumptions of 
practice, therefore if that learners already know the forms that are the 
target of the practice but needs to gain control over them. 
The purpose of this stage is to activate the new knowledge (schemata is a 
knowledge we have about a certain topic, event, fact in our mind and that 
when we hear or listen something we try to relate to what we already 
know.) to the point where it can be used automatically and correctly in 
normal communication. For this reason the learner is required to engage 
in extensive production of utterances containing the new structure. In 
contrast to the presentation stage, emphasis is placed on the learner 
participation, and the teacher needs a new role in order to accommodate 
this activity. Your role at this stage is to monitor the student language. 
You do the minimum of talking yourself. You are skilful conductor of an 
orchestra, giving each performer a chance to participate and monitoring 
the performance to see it is satisfactory. 
Thus, practice is something that learners have to do in order to make the 
transition from knowing a feature to using it in real – life communication. 
A clear analogy exists with learning to play the piano: before the learner 
attempts to play a whole piece, he/she practises scales and short phrases. 
Helping learners to achieve control over their knowledge requires 
different kinds of practice. A common distinction found in most training 
manuals is that between controlled and free practice. 
Controlled practice takes the form of drills which requires the 
mechanical production of specific linguistic forms. 
Free practice involves engaging in simulated communication which has 
been set up to provide opportunities for the use of those forms that have 
been presented and practised in a controlled manner. Controlled and free 
 
 
Unit 1 English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) 
Module II 
 
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practices are best viewed as a pole of a continuum. The continuum 
reflects the degree of focus required by the learner. In controlled practice 
the learner is required to focus more or less exclusively on the correct 
production of the target features. In free practice the learner is 
concentrated with the meaning rather than with form. In between the two 
poles are the other kinds of practice, for example, guided, meaningful or 
contextualised practice. 
It is possible to produce a fairly tight definition of controlled practice, as 
follows: 
 
Controlled practice 
 Takes place when the learner has already internalised the specific 
feature which is the learning target; 
 Involves production on the part of the learner; 
 Involves the isolation of a specific linguistic feature; 
 Requires the learner to carry out a mechanical operation that 
leads to correct production of the target feature; 
 Involves the provision of teacher feedback regarding the 
accuracy of the learner’s production of the target feature; 
 Provides learner with the opportunity to repeat incorrect 
productions correctly. 
As you can see, the list can be endless, but it is important to be 
explicit. 
Free practice is not easy to define. The problem lies in establishing 
clear criteria for distinguishing “free practice” from “communicative 
use.” One possible criterion is the purpose of the performance. It is 
argued and quiet convincingly that when the learner is concerned 
with leaning, the L2, she or he might engage in free practice, but 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 23 
 
when the learner is concerned with conveying a real message, she or 
he might engage in communicative use. 
Reading 
Students read a text and answer questions or do a simple task, for 
example, complete a table. You need to know that a reading lesson 
can be subdivided into sub-stages which are: 
Reading; 
While-reading; 
Post reading and 
Teacher directs feedback session. 
Listening 
Listening can be done through a tape-recorder, radio, audio-visuals 
and the one that teacher reads and the students listen. This can be 
based on a dialogue while students listen and then answer questions. 
Listening lesson also can be divided into sub-stages which are: 
Listening; 
While-listening; 
Post-listening and 
Teacher directs feedback session. 
Feedback session consists of the review of the language, structure, 
reading or listening done earlier on in the lesson in order to refresh 
students’ memories, or as a preparation for new item to be presented. 
Remember that, a single lesson would not, of course, normally 
include all these stages. 
The stages are not in fixed order. Usually you present new language, 
then move to practice, then get the learners to use language more 
 
 
Unit 1 English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) 
Module II 
 
 24 
 
freely. But you may, for example, present a structure, practice it 
quickly, then present and practice something else before going on to a 
final production activity – each stage could occur several times in a 
single lesson. 
 
You have to be aware that the stages overlap. For example, reading a 
text might be a part of presentation or it might be quite separate 
activity as designed above in the sub-stages. Answering questions on 
a text is part of reading but also provides the learner with oral 
practice. Remember, when we are talking about stages of a lesson, we 
are thinking of the main focus of the activity. 
Production: Students use language they have learnt to express 
themselves more freely, for example, to talk or write about their own 
lives and interests, to express opinions, to imagine themselves in different 
situation. Like practice, production can be oral or written. 
 
 
Tip 
The traditional model/format of the lesson plan is PPP. That is 
Presentation, Production and Practice stages. This model is still in use 
nowadays, and because of the technology available, we provide you with 
the different ways that you can use to plan your lesson. Now, it is up to 
you to decide the one that fit your necessity. But we would suggest that 
you go far beyond the traditional PPP. Don’t you think so? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 25 
 
Lesson 4: Lesson Plan Format/Model 
 
Introduction 
Lesson number four is intended to show you different formats used when 
you plan your lesson. The idea is to provide you with different 
formats/models of a lesson plan so that you do not become narrow 
minded. You should be broad minded and that’s why, we provide you 
with as many examples as possible, so that you can be able to decide 
which one to follow. Then let’s see objectives first. 
At the end of this lesson you will be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 Familiarise yourself with a number of lesson plan formats/models 
 Design your own lesson plan 
 Use appropriate lesson plan 
 
 
How long? 
It is advisable to spend two hours on this lesson. 
 
We hope that you are coping well with our examples and whenever you 
find it difficultany of the explanation, you need to read it again and use 
your time to interact with other colleagues that we are sure will be able to 
help you. We are living in a global village, so take that chance to clarify a 
number of aspects that are not clear to you by talking to your colleagues. 
The below formats/models of lesson plan are samples and there are so 
many formats/models that you can see and find. Here you will see just 
some examples of formats/models of lesson plan and you might use them 
in your lesson or when you plan your lesson. 
 
 
 
Unit 1 English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) 
Module II 
 
 26 
 
Lesson plan format/model 1 
In this plan format/model normally you find: 
Name of the school 
Teacher 
Material 
Unit 
Topic 
Duration of the lesson 
 
Objectives: (insert objectives from scheme of work that is, derived from 
the syllabus objectives for each unit.) The objectives state what students 
should be able to do by the end of the lesson in terms of language, 
functions, forms, skills, vocabulary and content. 
 
In each lesson plan, you can have a variation of stages and it all depends 
on the way you want to organise your lesson plan. These stages can be 
divided into steps of the lesson. That is, stages can be broken into steps. 
Read this variation of the lesson plan. 
Stages 
1. Warm up: (state time allowed and activities that teacher and 
students will do during the warm up stage. Warm-up is a phase 
where you prepare students to get started for the lesson. This can 
be done through some song, game, questions, story telling, and 
revision of the previous lesson. 
2. Presentation: (state time allowed and activities that you and 
students will do during this stage and sub-stages). Here you 
introduce the content that can be new grammar, vocabulary, 
pronunciation, etc. You should focus on what you want to teach 
that day. For example, the difference between forms, for example 
tenses and functions or express opinions/points of view. 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 27 
 
2.1 Elicitation: You invite students to answer voluntarily the 
question that you put forward. The questions are intended to 
guide your students towards the discovery of main points to 
be learnt. 
2.2 Explanation: You explain the content, concepts, activities, 
focus topic, drills on new learnt issues. 
3. Practice: (state time allowed and activities that you and students 
will do during this stage and or sub-stages). You ask students to 
work out on activities to practice content, language forms, for 
example, grammar points, vocabulary – old and new, 
pronunciation), that you presented on the previous stage. This can 
be controlled or free practice. 
3.1 Controlled practice: You guide and control the kind of 
expected responses. 
3.2 Free practice: You let the students perform tasks that 
reinforce knowledge or language acquired earlier. You can 
achieve this through improvisation, communicative 
activities, presentation, writing, homework, portfolios and so 
on. 
Observations: 
In this space you can write any comment so that the next lesson 
can be improved. 
…………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………….……………………
…………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………… 
 
Lesson plan format/model 2 
 
 
Unit 1 English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) 
Module II 
 
 28 
 
This is another lesson plan format/model where you find: 
Name of the school 
Teacher 
Material 
Unit 
Topic 
Duration of the lesson 
 
Objectives: (insert objectives from scheme of work that is, derived from 
the syllabus objectives for each unit.) The objectives state what students 
should be able to do by the end of the lesson in terms of language, 
functions, forms, skills, vocabulary and content. 
 
Stages Sub-stages Teacher’s 
activities 
Students’ 
activities 
Time 
Warm-up 
 
Presentation 
Elicitation 
 
Explanation 
 
 
Practice 
Controlled 
Practice 
Free 
Practice 
 
 
Observations 
 
As it was said at the beginning of this lesson, you should be broad 
minded and these different formats/models of a lesson plan will help you 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 29 
 
to achieve that objective. So, remember to use the formats/models that 
match with your needs. 
Lesson plan format/model 3 
You have below another lesson plan format/model where you find: 
Name of the school 
Teacher 
Material 
Unit 
Topic 
Duration of the lesson 
 
Objectives: (insert objectives from scheme of work that is, derived from 
the syllabus objectives for each unit.) The objectives state what students 
should be able to do by the end of the lesson in terms of language, 
functions, forms, skills, vocabulary and content. 
Time Stages Activities Activities 
Minutes Stages Teacher Students 
…minutes 
 
1. Warm-up 
• Revision 
• Home-work 
correction 
• Song 
• Story 
• Games 
• … 
 
 
Time Stages Activities Activities 
 
 
Unit 1 English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) 
Module II 
 
 30 
 
Minutes Stages Teacher Students 
 
…minutes 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
…minutes 
 
 
 
 
 
…minutes 
 
 
…minutes 
2. Presentation 
Teacher 
provides new 
information 
(language) 
• Teacher 
elicits new 
language 
through 
visual aids, 
realia (are 
real objects 
that you 
bring into a 
classroom.) 
• Explanation 
3. Controlled 
Practice 
• Choral 
repetition 
• Individual 
repetition/w
ork 
• Pair work 
4. Less controlled 
practice 
• Group work 
• Pair work 
5. Production 
• Summary 
• Composition 
• Role plays 
• Dialogues 
 
The idea is to let you have these different formats/models at your disposal 
and you can use any one of them. The readings suggested below are 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 31 
 
useful and they will help you improve more on your own. So, do not 
waste your time, whenever it is possible go to the library or find one of 
these books and read it. 
 
 
Further Reading 
- Doff, A. 1988. Teach English, A Training Course for Teachers, 
Cambridge: CUP. Chapter 8: Planning a lesson, pages 34 – 37. 
- Ellis, R. 1991. Second Language Acquisition and Pedagogy. UK: 
Multilingual Matters. Chapter 5: The Role of Practise in Classroom 
Learning, pages 101-122. 
- Harmer, J. 1983. The Practise of English Language Teaching, UK: 
Longman. Chapter 11: Planning 
- Hubbard, J. et al 1983. A Training Course for TEFL, Oxford: OUP. 
Chapter 5: Planning and Preparation, pages 155 – 182 – 206. 
- Matthews, A. et al (ed.) 1985. At The Chalkface, Edward Arnold, 
pages 5 -18 
 
Unit Summary 
 
Summary 
In this unit you learned the techniques that can be used in a lesson plan. 
The various stages that are involved in planning and how to make a 
simple lesson plan. Then, you learned different models/formats of the 
lesson plan. You saw that in the traditional model of teaching the 
common model/format is PPP, which means presentation, practice and 
production. But also you learned that there are many other 
formats/models that you can use to prepare your lesson such as starting 
with: Warm-up, presentation, elicitation, explanation, practice, controlled 
practice and free practice. Any of those lesson plan formats/models are 
useful so it is up to you to decide which one to use. 
 
 
 
Unit 1 English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) 
Module II 
 
 32 
 
Assignment 
 
 
 Assignment 
The following notes were written by two teachers describing the lessons 
they gave. Match the description with the lesson stages in the box. See 
example below. 
Teacher 1 
Activity 1 
First, we talked a bit about deserts, and what’s like to travel across a 
desert. Then we read a text about an explorer who’s crossed everydesert 
in the world, and the students answered questions on it. In the text there 
were several examples of the present perfect tense. I wrote some of these 
on the board, and I gave a few more examples orally. Then we did a 
grammar exercise in the textbook. After that, I asked students to make up 
their own questions using “have you ever…?” to ask each other. 
 
1. Introduction 
First, we talked about deserts, and what’s like to travel across a 
desert. 
2. Reading 
Then we read a text about an explorer who’s crossed every desert in 
the world, and the students answered questions on it. 
3. Presentation 
In the text there were several examples of the present perfect tense. 
4. Practice 
I wrote some of these on board, and I gave a few more examples 
orally. 
 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 33 
 
 
5. Production 
Then, we did grammar exercises in the textbook. After that I asked 
students to make up their own questions using “have you ever…” 
 
Now, read the second description below (teacher 2), and write the five 
stages in the box provided below. 
Teacher 2 
Activity 2 
First we reviewed words for clothes, which the students had learnt last 
week, and then I taught them adjectives to describe materials (cotton, 
woollen, leather etc.), and wrote them on the board. Then we looked at 
some pictures of the people in the textbook, and they made sentences 
about them (“she’s wearing a green cotton dress”). Then I asked them to 
write a few sentences about themselves, beginning “last weekend I was 
wearing…” After that we read a text in the book about clothes people 
wear in different countries.” 
1. ……………………………..
2. ……………………………. 
3. ……………………………. 
4. ……………………………. 
5. ……………………………..
 
You need to know the objectives of the lesson, as well as students and as 
a whole the purpose of each stage. So it is important for you to introduce 
each stage of the lesson. Look at the description on the second teacher 
again and discuss: 
 
 
Unit 1 English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) 
Module II 
 
 34 
 
 
1. What you could say to introduce the lesson, to make the 
objectives clear to the class? 
2. What you could say to introduce each new stage of the lesson? 
 
Feedback 
Teacher 2. 
1. You can introduce the whole lesson by giving the following 
explanation: Today, we’re going to talk about clothes. We’re going to 
say what clothes people are wearing. 
 Then you’re going to write about your own clothes. 
And if there’s time, we will read something about clothes as well. 
Introduction/Review: 
1. Do you remember last week’s lesson? We learnt some words for 
clothes. Can you remember them? 
Presentation: 
1. Now, let’s learn some new words. Here are some clothes. 
What are they made of…? 
2. Let’s practise talking about clothes. Look the picture on page … 
3. Now, I want you to write about yourselves, about your own clothes. 
What were you wearing last weekend? 
Do you remember? 
 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 35 
 
 
Oral Practice: 
1. Now, we are going to read about other countries. First, look – here are 
three countries (writing on board.) 
Where are they? 
Production: 
Students practice some sentences and then they read aloud. 
Writing stages for teacher 2 (activity 2 )might look like this: 
1. Review 
2. Presentation 
3. Oral Practice 
4. Written production 
5. Reading 
 
Possible comments: Writing a lesson plan helps you. Going into the 
class without a lesson plan is the same as going to the supermarket 
without a list of items that you want to buy. So, one is likely to forget 
some of the items that he or she would like to buy. A lesson plan helps 
you to decide exactly what you will do and how you will do it. You can 
look at the lesson plan again after the lesson, and use it to evaluate what 
happened. (Did you do what you planned to do? was each stage 
successful?)You can keep the lesson plan and use it again next year. In 
that case remember to adapt it to the real conditions of your new students. 
Remember that there is no one single way to write a lesson plan, although 
a good lesson plan should give a clear picture of what you intend to do in 
the class. 
 
 
Unit 1 English Language Teaching Principles Practice (ELT/PP year II) 
Module II 
 
 36 
 
The plan in the teacher’s workbook is intended as an example of how a 
lesson can include some of the features discussed in this unit, but not 
necessarily as the best and only way to write a lesson plan. 
Below is another feedback for activity 2 of the same lesson plan focussed 
from a different point of view. You need to read it and then decide which 
one can be appropriate for your students. 
This is a lesson plan that the teacher made for her or his class 
The teacher’s notes only gave the basic information, so he or she added 
several ideas of his or her own. 
 
Lesson nº 01 
Objectives: To practise talking about clothes, materials and colours. 
New vocabulary: adjectives – woollen, learned and paid. 
Structures: Present continuous… is wearing… (revision) 
1. Review: Teacher shows pictures of clothes. Students give 
words such as coat, hat, shirt, trousers, and so on. 
2. Presentation: Teacher shows objects made of wool, leather, 
plastic, etc. Presents new adjectives and write them on the 
board. 
3. Practise: Teacher tells the students to turn on their books on 
page… and they make sentences. For example, she’s wearing 
a green cotton dress. 
Pair-work: A: What’s she wearing? 
 B: She’s wearing a green cotton dress. 
3. Writing: teacher writes on board. “Last week I was 
wearing…” Students write sentences about themselves. 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 37 
 
Teacher collects about ten student’s sentences and reads them out. 
Others guess who was wearing that kind of clothes last week. 
4. Reading: Teacher writes on board: Peru, Kenya and Malaysia. 
Teacher asks where these countries are. What’s the climate like? 
What kinds of clothes do people wear in those countries mentioned 
above? 
Students read text on page … silently and find answers to guiding 
questions. 
Observation about the lesson plan 
Let’s talk a little bit about the value of writing lesson plan. You 
should know that the lesson plan is not written just for the benefit 
of the inspector or head teacher; its main purpose should be to help 
you and whenever it is possible adapt it to your own classroom. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unit 2 Teaching Pronunciation 
 38 
 
Unit 2 
Teaching Pronunciation 
Introduction 
This unit assumes that you are familiar with the basic sound system of 
English (although not necessarily with features of stress and intonation), 
and you can pronounce English adequately. We assume that the teaching 
of pronunciation is not an optional luxury to be left to advanced level. In 
other words, pronunciation should be an integral part of an English 
teaching programme from the early stages, just as the teaching of 
structures and vocabulary. However, the basic question is: What do we 
start with? 
Upon completion of this unit you will be able to: 
 
 
Outcomes 
 Be aware of your students’ pronunciation difficulties. 
 Show a range of simple techniques for helping your students to 
improve their pronunciation of individual sounds. 
 Be more aware of importance of stress and intonation in spoken 
English. 
 Show ways of focussing on stress and intonation in class... 
 
 
 
 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 39 
 
Aspiration: In English, initial voiceless plosives (p/t/k/) are 
aspirated. Aspiration as much as voicing 
distinguishes these sounds from /d/d/g/. 
Dialogue frame: A skeleton dialogue with slots in it where new 
words or phrases may be inserted. In its most 
controlled form, the dialogue frame is an extended 
four-or-six line substitutiondrill. 
Distractors: The incorrect choices in multiple choice test item. 
Eclectic approach: An approach which adopts any techniques or 
procedure, so as long as it can be shown that it 
results in successful learning. 
Lexical set: A group of words that have something in common, 
for example are related in meaning or belong to 
the same situation, subject matter etc. 
Lockstep: The traditional system of class management where 
the teacher is in control of every interaction and 
where only one interaction takes place at a time. 
Meaningful drill: A drill which cannot be performed correctly 
without an understanding of the meaning of what 
is said. 
 
Terminology 
Mechanical drill: A drill which requires students to produce correct 
examples of the language without needing to think 
about the meaning of the sentences. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unit 2 Teaching Pronunciation 
 40 
 
Lesson 1: Pronunciation 
 
Introduction 
We assume that you are familiar with the basic sound system of English 
and that you can pronounce English adequately. We will use Phonetic 
Symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet, so that you can use the 
Standard English to teach your students. Then let’s see objectives of this 
lesson. 
At the end of this lesson you will be able to: 
 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 Identify the pronunciation problems of your students. 
 List the International Phonetic Alphabet: Consonants and vowels. 
 
 
 
How long? 
It is advisable to spend two hours on this lesson. 
 
Let’s start with this simple exercise. We think that you do understand 
what we mean with the heading such as consonant, vowel and so on. 
 
Activity 1 
Now think about your students’ pronunciation. What do you think are the 
main problems? After identifying the problems fill in the table below. 
 
 
 
 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 41 
 
Consonant Vowels Stress Intonation 
 
 
 
 
 
Were you successful to identify the main problems that your students 
have and to note them down in under appropriate heading? 
 
Tip 
Students may have listed that it is difficult to distinguish the number three 
and the sound of tree. They also might have said that they cannot 
pronounce well the sound of think and the word sink. They might have 
said that they confuse the sound of high with thigh. These and other 
examples are clear way to tell you that you need to make an effort so that 
students can improve these aspects in pronunciation and this kind of task 
is a long term objective as long as they are learning English. 
Pronunciation problems will of course vary greatly from one speaker to 
another. Common problems are likely to occur: 
• Difficulty in pronouncing sounds which do not exist in your 
learner’s own language, for example, for many learners, the 
consonant /∂/ in “the” and the vowel /З:/ in “bird. 
• Confusion of similar sounds, for example, /i:/ and /i/, or /b/ and 
/p/. 
• Use of simple vowel instead of diphthongs, for example, /i:/ 
instead of /I∂/; 
• Difficulty in pronouncing consonant clusters, for example, 
/desks/, /fifө/; 
• Tendency to give all syllable equal stress, and “flat” intonation. 
 
Individual sounds 
 
 
Unit 2 Teaching Pronunciation 
 42 
 
 
There is no need to teach the sounds of English individually; students are 
able to “pick up” the sound system of the language by listening to you (or 
other voices on cassettes or broadcastings done in English). However, 
they may be particular sounds or sounds combinations which your 
learners may find it difficult (like those discussed in activity 1). In 
addition learners may make mistakes in pronunciation without being 
aware of it. In such circumstance, it is useful to focus on the sound or 
group of the sounds which is causing difficulty. 
 
Activity 2 
Imagine that you want to focus on a sound which students find difficult. 
Which of these steps are most important? Which are not necessary? Mark 
your answer in the space provided. You might want to tick in the 
appropriate box to mean the one you agree. 
Say the sound alone. 
Say the sound in a word. 
Writes words on the board. √ 
Explain how to make the sound. √ 
Get the students to repeat the sound in chorus. 
Get individual students to repeat the sound. √ 
Contrast it with other sounds. √ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 43 
 
There is no single correct answer to the question asked above, but try to 
reflect on the following aspects: 
 The basic steps are for the teacher to say the sound clearly in 
isolation so that students can focus on it and in one or two words; 
and for students to repeat the sound, in chorus or individually. 
 If students confuse two similar sounds, it is obviously useful to 
contrast them so that students can hear the difference clearly. 
 If the students have difficult in producing a particular sound 
(usually because it does not exist in their own language), it is 
often very useful to describe how it is pronounced, as long as this 
can be done in a way that students understand (using simple 
English or their own language) 
 You could for instance say: Writing the word on the board is not 
so important – the focus should be on pronunciation, not on 
spelling. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unit 2 Teaching Pronunciation 
 44 
 
Lesson 2: Practising Sound and some Minimal Pairs 
 
Introduction 
The next lesson will discuss the practising of sounds and talk briefly 
about minimal pairs, as well as look at what is stress and intonation and 
how you can practice with your students. 
At the end of this lesson you will be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 Debate what word stress means. 
 Explain what minimal pairs are. 
 Explain stressed and unstressed syllable. 
 
 
How long? 
It is advisable to spend two hours on this lesson. 
 
First of all let us look what we mean by sentence stress. 
In normal English sentence with certain words are stressed and 
certain words are unstressed. 
Normally we stress content words – the words that are essential for 
conveying message. These are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs 
(most) and demonstratives. 
Unstressed are words or the grammatical forms or structure words 
that result in a correct grammatical utterance even though these 
words are not essential to the communication of a message. For 
example, in the following sentence: 
'Janet has 'gone to the 'baker’s. 
Which words do you think are content and stressed? Clearly, 
Janet, gone baker’s are the content words and are therefore stressed. 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 45 
 
 
Tip 
Content words are those words that carry the meaning of the sentence and 
are called stressed words. 
Practising sounds 
 
 
Activity 1 
Now, look at exercises below and choose the sound that your students 
find it difficult. 
 
Minimal pairs 
1 2 
Will well 
Say the number: 1 or 2. Repeat as many times as possible and try to 
do the same exercise with your students. Write the words on the 
board and while you are reading, ask your students to say which 
number you are reading. 
Can you now explain what minimal pairs are? Minimal pairs can be 
defined as pairs of words which only differ in one feature, as for 
example, sing, song; park, bark; loose, lose, ship, sheep. Minimal 
pairs can be used to focus on differences vowel or consonant sounds. 
Stress and intonation 
Stress 
Most words with two or more syllables have one stressed or strong 
syllable and two or more unstressed or weak syllables. Often the 
vowel in the unstressed syllable is pronounced as /∂/ or /i/. We call 
these reduced vowels. 
More examples are: 
 Asia, apart: the “a” is pronounced as /∂/ 
 
 
Unit 2 Teaching Pronunciation 
 46 
 
 Between, wanted: the “e” is pronounced as /i/ 
 In “able”, “table”: the “a” is pronounced as /ei/ invegetable, 
syllable, it is reduced to /∂/ 
In connected speech, when we say sentences rather than single words, 
many more vowels become reduced because complete words are 
unstressed. For examples: 
I ate bread and cheese. 
Look at us. 
English is a stressed timed language. This means that the length of time 
between stressed syllables is always about the same, and if there are 
several unstressed syllables they must be said more quickly. For example: 
 He wrote a letter. 
 He wrote a long letter. 
 He wrote a very long letter. 
In each sentence, the unstressed syllables (“a”, “a long”. “a very 
long”) took about the same amount of time as to say “ a very long” 
had to be said quickly. 
 
Activity 2 
1. Look at the words and phrases below and mark the stressed syllables 
and reduced vowel. 
Mark them like this: disappointed for stressed. 
Mark the like this: disappointed for unstressed. 
Disappointed a kilo of sugar 
Attractive give me an orange 
Trousers I’d like some coffee 
Suppose he was late again 
Perfect we can leave as soon as you are ready 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 47 
 
2. How could you show the stress pattern of a sentence in your 
classroom and explain: 
Using your voice? 
Using gestures? 
Using the blackboard? 
1. Suggested answer: 
Disappointed a kilo of sugar 
Attractive give me an orange 
Trousers I’d like some coffee 
Suppose he was late again 
Perfect we can leave as soon as you are ready 
2. Possible suggestions: 
Using your own voice: 
You need to say the sentence, exaggerating difference between 
stressed and unstressed syllables. 
Using gestures: 
You can use arms like a conductor of an orchestra, using a strong 
gesture for the stressed syllables. 
Using the blackboard: 
Writing dots and dashes: for example, a kilo of sugar =.-..-. 
You can underline the stressed syllables. a kilo of sugar. 
You can write the stressed syllables in heavier letters. 
Intonation 
 
 
Unit 2 Teaching Pronunciation 
 48 
 
Intonation is the music of a language – the way the voice goes up and 
down as we speak. Intonation is very important in expressing 
meaning, and specially in showing our feelings or emotions, for 
example, surprise, anger, disbelief, and gratitude. 
However, intonation patterns are quite complex and it is better for 
students to acquire them naturally rather than try to learn them 
consciously. 
For teaching oral English at a fairly low level, teachers need to be 
aware of the two basic intonation patterns: 
 Rising tone: used in asking Yes/No questions, and to express 
surprise, disbelief, and so on. The voice rises sharply on the 
stressed syllable. For example, really, is your friend? 
In really the voice raises sharply because it is a stressed syllable as 
well as the word friend. 
 Falling tone: used for normal statements. Commands and for WH 
– questions. WH – questions are the questions that start with WH 
– such as Where, who, whom, When, Why, What and so on - the 
voice rises slightly earlier in the sentences, and then falls on the 
key word being stressed. For example, 
 A ticket to London, please. What’s YOUR name? 
In the sentence above, voice rises slightly earlier in the word ticket 
and London and then falls. The same is happening with the sentence 
what’s your name. The voice rises in your and the sharply falls in 
name. 
 Back-chaining technique for intonation 
The reason to start at the end rather than the beginning is that it is the 
last stressed syllable that determines the intonation pattern of the 
whole sentence. So by repeating the end of the sentence, the correct 
intonation is preserved. For example: 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 49 
 
Use gestures and show the stress and intonation as a part of repetition 
drill. 
You: Listen. How long have you been living here? How long have 
you been living here? de – DA – de – de –de – DA – de – de. How 
long have you been living here? 
ii. Students repeat, starting from the end. 
You: Living here. Living here. Everybody. 
Students: Living here. 
You: Been living here. 
Students: Been living here. 
You: Have you been living here. 
Students: Have you been living here. 
You: How long have you been living here? 
Students: How long have you been living here? 
You: Ask groups of students to repeat the whole sentence, then 
individual students. 
You: Gesture to indicate a group. 
Group: How long have been living here? and so on. 
Finally, you can use also arm and hand as conductor of an orchestra 
to illustrate stress. 
Further reading is written here to help you to be broad minded about the 
topic. So, whenever you find time try to find one of the listed books and 
read them. 
 
 
 
 
Unit 2 Teaching Pronunciation 
 50 
 
 
Further Reading 
- Doff, A. 1988. Teach English, A Training Course For Teachers, 
Cambridge: CUP. Chapter 10: pages 44 – 49. 
- Haycraft, B. 1971. The Teaching of Pronunciation, UK: Longman 
- Hubbard, J. et al. 1983. A Training Course for TEFL, Oxford: 
OUP. Chapter 7: The Teaching of Pronunciation. 
- Roach, P. 1983. English Phonetics and Phonology, Cambridge: 
CUP. A Complete basic course providing practice in pronunciation. 
 
Unit summary 
 
Summary 
In this unit you learned the techniques for the teaching of pronunciation. 
You have seen that pronunciation should be an integral part of an English 
teaching programme from the early stages just as the teaching of other 
skills such as speaking, listening, reading and writing. The early we 
expose our students to a sample of spoken language the better they can 
cope of the pronunciation problems. Remember that students are able to 
pick up the sound of the language by listening to you or any other audio-
visual materials that are available. 
 
Assignment 
 
Assignment 
Task 1: 
Look at these remarks. Which ones would normally have a rising 
intonation? 
Which would have a falling intonation? 
 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 51 
 
Use ↓ for falling tone and ↑ for rising tone. Or you can use gesture and 
body movement to show rising tone and falling tone. 
Dialogue A: 
A: I don’t want anything to eat. 
B: No. 
Dialogue B: 
A: Can I borrow some money? 
B: No. 
Dialogue C: 
A: Who’s that? 
B: It’s Jorge. 
Dialogue D: 
A: Is that Jorge? 
B: No, it isn’t. 
Task 2: 
How could you show intonation patterns in class? 
Feedback 
Task 1: 
Possible comments 
Dialogue A: 
A: I don’t want anything to eat.↓ 
B: No.↑ 
 
 
Unit 2 Teaching Pronunciation 
 52 
 
Dialogue B: 
A: Can I borrow some money?↑ 
B: No.↓ 
Dialogue C: 
A: Who’s that?↓ 
Task 1: 
Possible comments 
Dialogue A: 
A: I don’t want anything to eat.↓ 
B: No.↑ 
Dialogue B: 
A: Can I borrow some money?↑ 
B: No.↓ 
Dialogue C: 
A: Who’s that?↓ 
B: It’s Jorge↓ 
Dialogue D: 
A: Is that Jorge?↑ 
B: No, it isn’t.↓ 
Task 2 
There are two main techniques of showing intonation patterns in class. 
1. By drawing arrows on the blackboard (as in the example above.) 
By arm and hand movements, like the conductor of an orchestra. 
The easiest way for students to practise stress and intonation is by 
repetition. If the focus is on pronunciation, traditional repetition drills, 
which are often boring for students to do, can be made interesting and 
challenging; students are not only asked to repeat a sentence, but to repeat 
it using a particular stress and intonation pattern. For this to be effective, 
it is important for you to: 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 53 
 
• Give a good model of the sentence themselves; saying it at normal 
speed, making a cleardifference between stressed and unstressed 
syllables, and using natural intonation; 
• Indicate stress and intonation clearly, using gestures; 
• Make sure that students pay attention to stress and intonation hey 
they repeat the sentence. 
One way to help students use natural intonation is to practise saying the 
sentence in sections, starting with the end of the sentence and gradually 
working backwards to the beginning, for example, 
 living here/ been living here/ have you been living here/ How long have 
you been living here? 
This technique is known as back-chaining. 
The reason to start at the end rather than the beginning is that it is the last 
stressed syllable that determines the intonation pattern of the whole 
sentence. So by repeating the end of the sentence, the correct intonation is 
preserved. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unit 3 Pair Work and Group Work 
 54 
 
Unit 3 
Pair Work and Group Work 
Introduction 
 
This unit is concerned with ways of organising activities in the class 
rather than with teaching techniques. It will give you some examples of 
how to organise pair work and group work so that you can improve your 
teaching methods. 
Upon completion of this unit you will be able to: 
 
 
Outcomes 
 Discuss advantages of working in pair and group. 
 Organise pair and group work effectively. 
 Deal with initial problems that may arise. 
 Show how pair and group work can be used for various classroom 
activities. 
 
Pair work: Independent work by pairs of students working 
simultaneously on a task or practice activity. Often 
an extension of ordinary controlled practice or 
drilling, with more opportunity for students to talk, 
hence higher STT. 
STT: Student Talking Time, the amount of time in 
class spent by the student talking. 
 
Terminology 
Group work: Independent work carried out simultaneously 
by groups of three or more students on a task 
or tasks. 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 55 
 
Team teaching: Two or more teachers working together as a 
team to teach a class (or classes). 
Task oriented 
work: 
Activities where students are set a clear task to 
complete, as opposed to practice activity, 
where students go on practising until told to 
stop. 
Usage: Refer to examples of language that are correct 
grammatically and have meaning, but which 
have no communicative value; in other words 
there is no reason why these examples should 
be produced, except as examples of form and 
meaning. 
Use: The way in which a speaker uses a particular 
language form to communicate on a particular 
occasion. The use of form may be described in 
terms of its function or communicative 
purpose. 
Weak forms: The phenomenon of changed vowel values in 
pairs of certain common words when they are 
not stressed, for example, /wəz/ for was. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unit 3 Pair Work and Group Work 
 56 
 
Lesson 1: Pair and Group work 
 
Introduction 
This lesson is concerned with ways of organising activities in the class 
rather than techniques, particularly activities done in group or pair work. 
At the end of this lesson you will be able to: 
 
Lesson Outcomes 
 Organise pair and group work. 
 Use pair and group work to perform the activities. 
 Use a number of activities involving pair and group work. 
 
 
How long? 
It is advisable to spend two hours on this lesson. 
 
As you teach, you have used so many times pair and group work. Can 
you list some advantages of using them? Can you explain exactly what 
you do in the class? Yes, you might have said, students are able to speak, 
even the shy ones. Students have more time to interact with one another 
and many other examples that you are able to give. That’s wonderful. 
Now, let’s see some of the advantages of using pair and group work. 
When we have a task, we sometimes divide students into pairs. That is to 
say, students work with his or her partner, and all the pairs work at the 
same time (it is sometimes called simultaneously pair work). 
For group work, we divide again the class into small groups of four or 
five students in each group and all groups work at the same time. 
Is that what you thought about pair and group work? Then, well done you 
are doing well. Do not forget that pair and group work are not teaching 
methods but ways of organising the class. They can be used for many 
different kinds of activity, and are naturally more suitable for some 
activities than for others. 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 57 
 
 
Activity 1 
Read the following examples that show the use of pair work. The purpose 
of these exercises is to give you the experience of doing language practice 
on the use of pair work or group work. The first example given is used for 
controlled oral practice; it practises vocabulary and conditional structures. 
A: Work in pairs: Ask and answer questions. 
What happens if … 
a) You eat green mango? 
b) You eat too much food? 
c) You leave ice in the sun? 
d) You pour petrol into fire? 
e) You sit in the sun for too long? 
Now think of three more examples of questions like this. 
1. To practise this, ask the first two questions to the whole class, to 
show how the activity works. Your students may give more than one 
answer which is possible. For example, they might say, you will be 
sick/you get stomach ache for the first one. For the b), they might 
say, you will get sick/you will fat. 
2. After you have tried thus, you may ask your students to sit into pairs 
in order to ask and answer the other questions. 
3. When most pairs have finished, you need to go through the answer 
together. 
4. You ask some pairs to tell you the questions they might thought of 
themselves. Get other pairs to answer them. 
The next activity shows the use of pair in reading task. Tell your students 
to work together to try to understand the text. 
B: Work in pairs. 
 
 
Unit 3 Pair Work and Group Work 
 58 
 
Find words in the passage that mean: 
- The type of mosquito that carries malaria. 
- Something intended to prevent something. 
- A sensible action to avoid possible danger. 
- Young insects after leaving the egg. 
- A natural area of still water 
1. Read the text and find the answers. 
2. Insecticide literally means something to kill insects with. With 
your partner do you know what these words mean? Try to guess 
from the context what they mean. 
a) Suicide 
b) Homicide 
c) Pesticide 
Malaria 
Malaria is a common disease in Mozambique, as it is in many 
other tropical parts of the world. It is caused and spread by 
bites from a particular type of mosquito called “anopheles”. 
These mosquitoes are attracted to our bodies by the smell of 
sweat, and when they bite us they pass into our blood the small 
living thing that causes malaria. 
Fortunately modern science has produced a preventive, so we 
can protect ourselves from malaria by regularly taking tablets 
such as Chloroquine. 
Another sensible precaution is to spray insecticides in our 
houses and to have mosquito nets over the windows and doors 
or to use mosquito nets at night. 
Recently, large scale efforts have been made by the World 
 
Practice (ELT/PP year II) – Module II 
 
 59 
 
Health Organization (WHO) and other organisations to destroy 
larvae before they hatch. Female mosquitoes lay their eggs in 
pools and other standing water, so spraying these areas can 
wipe out whole colonies of malaria mosquitoes. 
We, as individuals, can do the same thing on a small scale by 
getting rid of old tins and pits near our homes that collect 
water, and by spraying any areas of standing water that remain. 
We must do all we can to prevent diseases, which cause 
misery, pain and at times, deaths. 
Written by a group of English teachers during workshops in 
2007 in Manica. 
You need to explain briefly what they have to do. You have to divide