PRESENTING AND PRACTICING LANGUAGE
The first stage is the presentation of an aspect of language in a context that students
are familiar with, much the same way that a swimming instructor would demonstrate
a stroke outside the pool to beginners.
The second stage is practice, where students will be given an activity that gives them
plenty of opportunities to practice the new aspect of language and become familiar
with it whilst receiving limited and appropriate assistance from the teacher. To
continue with the analogy, the swimming instructor allowing the children to rehearse
the stroke in the pool whilst being close enough to give any support required and
plenty of encouragement.
The final stage is production where the students will use the language in context, in
an activity set up by the teacher who will be giving minimal assistance, like the
swimming instructor allowing his young charges to take their first few tentative
strokes on their own.
At this stage you might well be asking, It’s all very well having a clear methodology for
how to teach but how do I know what to teach? The language that we call English today
has absorbed a great many influences over the last thousand years or so. It has
resulted in it becoming a language that can provide us with a sparklingly witty pop
culture reference from a Tarantino script, 4 simple words spoken by Dr. Martin Luther
King that continue to inspire us today, and something as simple and mundane as a
road traffic sign.
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