Chapter 4: Starting from the Beginning: Planning the Lesson 61
Assembling Presentation, Practice and Production
After you decide what you want to teach, you need to have a explain matters
to the class thoroughly and efficiently.
Introducing the point
If you chose language at the right level for your students, there’s a good
chance that they’ve heard it before. Or it may be that some students recog-
nise it, although you can’t rely on that fact. So first of all you need to find an
interesting way to bring this new language to their attention.
Usually EFL teachers prefer to make their students curious rather than to
simply state: ‘Today’s lesson is all about... ’ In the real world, people learn
language in context rather than through direct statements or recited rules. As
a child, your family probably never mentioned grammar, they just spoke. By
the same token, introducing language within a story of some kind, a conver-
sation or with the aid of a picture or object is very effective.
Analysing the point
After introducing the new language, perhaps by means of a story or picture
that creates a realistic context in an interesting way, you analyse it. You
explain whatever rules, patterns or information the students need to make
the language their own in this stage. For example, for a vocabulary lesson
teaching several fruits you begin with a picture of a market stall and move on
to highlight and name the pears, grapes and so on.
Make a connection between what students already know and the new
language – add a new building block to their language tower.
Use the board to set things out clearly so that the class can take notes.
Provide examples so that they have a guide as they complete the tasks later
in the lesson.
