PREPARING AN ENGLISH CLASS

Rodríguez Tienda Claudia (CV)
tyenda@uaslp.mx
Robles Anaya Esther Alicia (CV)
eagra3 @ gmail.com
Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí

RESUMEN
Todos los profesionales en el mundo deberían aprender inglés, para estar actualizados en cada disciplina de conocimiento. Por esto, el Idioma Ingles ha sido incluido en muchos programas escolares. Una de las tareas del maestro de inglés es desarrollar una clase eficiente, y así, lograr alcanzar los objetivos, centrados en el aprendizaje del estudiante de una lengua extranjera. Es necesario que el maestro de inglés se vuelva habilidoso cuando planee la clase. Mediante este artículo queremos enfatizar algunos puntos esenciales para facilitar la tarea diaria del maestro en la planeación de una clase exitosa.

ABSTRACT

Professionals in the world should learn English to be updated about all those new aspects in every single discipline of knowledge. That is why this language has been included in many scholar programs. One of the tasks of an English teacher is to develop an effective class, thus to accomplish the main aims centered on student’s learning of a foreign language. It is necessary the English teacher turns into a skillful one when planning a lesson. Through this article, we want to highlight some essential points to facilitate the teacher’s daily work on planning a successful class.

KEY WORDS: Lesson plan- plan de una clase, class profile-antecedentes del grupo, meaningful context-contexto significativo, students' background-antecedentes de los alumnos, feedback- retro-alimentación, productive skills-habilidades de producción, educator (facilitator, teacher)-maestro, English as a foreign language (EFL)-inglés como lengua extranjera.

Generally talking, one of the activities that every educator has (perhaps the most important one) is to plan and prepare classes, and it initiates with a reflecting process. J. Harmer says in his book “The practice of English Language teaching” (1991) that “the best teachers are those who think carefully about what they are going to do in their classes and how they are going to organize the teaching and learning”. Planning guarantees the class will get a balanced combination of distinct resources, subjects and interaction patterns. It also cultivates an individual teaching personality (Woodward 202:25).
This task involves several aspects to be considered, before than educator’s individual ideas. As it is mentioned before, everything starts with a thinking process; we would call it the pre-planning stage. In this point, it is arranged what elements will be run into the lesson and what the students will achieve by the end of it. That is to say, the necessary means to accomplish such aim, the starting of the whole progression (Harmer, Jeremy; “How to teach English”; Longman 2001)….
Given that, there are diverse manners to plan classes, they might progress from a very formal format “chart 1” to an informal “post it” note one. The nature of the format chosen would correspond to each educator’s individualism and preferences. It is essential to mention there is neither a strict recipe to observe in each class, nor even on each course or subject to be taught, hence each class is unique (Robertson, C.; Acklam, R.; “Action plan for teachers”; BBC world service, 2000) and all decisions related to the subject will fully depend on the students’ needs, teacher’s personality and ability.
A trait, which is also part of the pre-planning stage, is a class profile to match with the learning process. As choices are not based merely on the educator’s goals and plans, but on the students’ needs and preferences, it is necessary to have a well-defined description about who the students are. It should be as meticulous as possible, including a needs analysis, which will provide information about learners’ necessities, lacks and a learner’s profiles. Centered on this information, the general objectives should be detailed enough to anticipate what the learners will have accomplished by the end of the class, and which competences they would have gotten (Harmer, Jeremy; “The practice of English Language teaching” (1991); CUP. Scrivener, Jim; “Classroom Management Techniques” (2012);CUP).
The syllabus, established by the official program, would match the context to be developed in convenience with the grammar focus, and the skills; through all these the students will acquire enough knowledge to get those specific objectives previously planned, which will be shaped in each activity throughout classes. As an activity is seen as part of a process, its objective will have facilitated the general aim gotten by the end of the class (Harmer, J; “How to teach English”; Longman 2001) at the time they accomplish the competences expected beforehand.
In order to plan a lesson, it is mandatory the educator takes into consideration the frequency, time, text, class size, students’ level, ages, gender, likes, dislikes, needs analysis, learning style, previous knowledge, background, and techniques to motivate which becomes part of a class profile. Likewise, it will be included a general objective for the whole plan, as well as a specific one for each activity (Harmer, Jeremy;” The practice of English Language teaching” (1991); CUP, 2001).
Once, the general and the specific objectives have been established, the selection of a proper context should be made to formulate the presentation of the new focus. Sometimes the textbooks suggest a particular context to be followed, however very often they are not good enough for our students’ level, needs, and backgrounds. Therefore, the facilitator should complement, separate and/or omit the diverse settings, following a different context line, which moves each class into a meaningful experience, leading students throughout new areas of knowledge needed to develop the target language to a common goal. This is the momentum, when the mastery of an English educator, as a foreign language (EFL) one acts his/her role by organizing, monitoring, predicting, solving, facilitating, helping the process of teaching, and assisting to change the learner’s academic paradigm.
Additionally, as planning is a crucial function of a plan, one of the significant purposes of shaping a class is to predict aims, possible problems and how to solve them, to reinforce the students’ abilities and skills in concordance with the entire group across a variety of activities, dynamics and techniques. These elements are carefully chosen and handled in a class, though; all of them are taken for granted, once we have known the students and established a good rapport (Harmer, Jeremy; “How to teach English”; Longman 2001).
Among other things, the textbooks, the topics and supporting material become tools which teachers would manage to make up what to do or not in a class. For those educators who have been teaching for a time their experience would lead them to decide what we have mentioned previously. For those new educators, it is advisable to note down the outcomes, they have gotten, and if the activities planned worked or not, and a manner those actions could be improved. These notes will confirm and help the educators to gain experience. Furthermore, being part of an educators’ party would be always helpful because over this kind of gatherings, there is a useful interchange of experiences.
All together and due to the fact that each student retains and process differently with a different rhythm, the activities will be selected or designed to give the chance to every learner to have an input, process and produce the information given.
Each activity would include a feedback, in order to students can review and analyze their production; also, the teacher can notice if the aim was gotten or not and how to facilitate the aim. A feedback can be done on different ways, in individuals, pairs, or group feedback when students share and compare their answers, or as soon as the educator provides the right replies to students.
The focus presentation is rather decisive in a class, the way it is done will determine the student’s interest in the entire lesson, the vocabulary presentation, the method of mingling the activities set by the textbook and/or those designed by the educator to give extra practice or stimulate the productive skills (speaking and writing), all these must be sensibly organized to guarantee the success of the class.

It is designed with information that was given to students previously, or with new information that they receive in an unconsciously, this means that the students acquire the new information in a natural way, without direct teachers’ participation. It can be a game, a handout, a set of questions, a competence motion, or any activity designed to recycle the knowledge the learner already have  about grammar, and vocabulary.

Preparing an English class, due to the specific characteristics, the subject itself involves educators to use many types of resources like: videos, music, books, magazines, newspapers, other textbooks, flashcards, posters, web pages, handouts designed by teachers, CD’s, computer, internet, graphics, and games, among others. This vast advantage allows educators to organize something fun not only for students but also for themselves.
However, the circumstance of being able to use all these kinds of materials offers the educator, the freedom to select whatever he/she reflects is the best, in concordance to the students predilections and necessities. This is the reason why it is very important to take into account the students’ learning styles, current affairs, their needs, and the precise phase to develop the four skills in each student.
Matching the teacher’s skill with the planning of an English class increases the possibility to achieve a successful instruction-learning process. When the teacher comes to the classroom with a lesson plan, the student will perceive the harmony, organization, responsibility, interest, educator’s attitude in favor to the student’s learning, therefore, the learners will feel motivated and confident about the knowledge they are acquiring to process and learn a foreign language.
 Being an English teacher is not a trouble-free task. It means, having an integral culture, dealing with a large variety of social, emotional, cognitive and learning styles, and cultural backgrounds differences. Hence, an English educator should be aware of an extensive domain of erudition. Conversely, we do believe it is a pretty challenging and rewarding vocation which makes an educator a better complete person.
LESSON PLAN

Bibliography

1. Ur, Penny; “A course in language teaching”: Practice and Theory; CUP; 1999.
2. Woodward, Tessa; “Planning lessons and courses”; CUP; 2009.
3. Barthram, Jamie; Rees, Gareth; “Monitoring Bathing Watering A Practical Guide To The Design And Implementations Assessments and  Monitoring Program”; E&FN SPON; WHO; US EPA; CEC; 2000.
4. Robertson, C.; Acklam, R.; “Action plan for teachers”; BBC world service; 2000.
5. Harmer, Jeremy; “The practice of English Language teaching” (1991); CUP, 2001.
6. Scrivener, Jim; “Learning Teaching”
7. Woodward, Tessa; Planning lessons and courses; CUP; 2009.
8. Robertson, C.; Acklam, R.; “Action plan for teachers”; BBC world service, 2000
9.  Harmer, Jeremy; “How to teach English”; Longman 2001