62 Part II: Putting Your Lesson Together
If there are several ways to use the new word or grammar point, don’t over-
load the students by trying to cover everything all at once. You can have a
‘Part 2’ lesson later on.
Use this analysis stage to explain and check your students’ understanding
before you move on to practising. Don’t take anything for granted. Ask lots of
questions so that the students can demonstrate that they get it (rather than
just saying they do). As this is the stage where you get to do more of the talk-
ing, make the time count.
Trialling the language
Following the presentation stage in which you introduce new language, you
need to set up an activity or task that requires the students to focus on it.
A good practice activity is one which:
✓ The students can do together without the teacher. You can step back
and make notes on any errors or teaching points that come up during
the activity.
✓ Makes the new language point vital to completing the task. This
ensures that the students concentrate on using it.
✓ Is communicative in whole or in part. This means that the students
should not work individually throughout the lesson. They need to inter-
act with each other. So, for example, even if the students are working
on a written exercise, they should be able to compare and discuss the
answers with other students in pairs or groups. This may happen while
they complete it, or afterwards.
✓ Is structured so that students must actually understand the new point
in order to use it properly. If the students are simply following a pattern
they may not put much thought into it and end up not being able to use
it later. Take a look at two examples in Figure 4-4.
The bad exercise is poor because the students only needs to work out that
they need to add ‘s’ to the verb. The next example requires more thought
because the learner has to work out which pronoun to use as well as how to
change the form of the verb.
