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Introduction
 
Let's Teach English Introduction

The Let’s Teach English video series offers free online training for English language educators worldwide. It is based on the Women Teaching Women English text for adult, beginning level learners. Voice of America and the University of Oregon are partners on this project.
Quick Links
Teach
English
Intro Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3 Unit 4 Unit 5 Unit 6 Unit 7 Unit 8 Unit 9 Unit 10 Tools
Click to see the full PDF lesson - opens in a new window.
 
About

The course includes:

An introductory segment which summarizes the main topics of second language teaching and shows classroom examples of the topics.

Ten 5-minute video episodes based on the units of Women Teaching Women English. Each of these episodes provides a model of communicative language teaching through simulated language classroom interaction.

Updated digital downloads of the Women Teaching Women English student book, teacher’s manual, and audio files.
Introduction

A one minute video introducing the program.
Introduction


A more detailed introduction video. Scroll to read the video transcript.
Let's Teach English
Unit 1: Learning Strategies

In this lesson, the teacher presents a learning strategy. Before this class, the teacher introduced the unit and the students practiced saying the new words and wrote them on their family trees.
Unit 2: Listening and Cooperative Learning

In this lesson, the teacher prepares students to listen to a recording and respond. She uses the learning strategy focus. By asking a question before playing the recording, she helps students to listen for a purpose.
Unit 3: Speaking Skills and Pronunciation

In this lesson, the teacher helps students to overcome specific pronunciation problems. We join the class near the beginning of the unit, as they are talking about photos of different women. They have learned the new words in a previous class.
Unit 4: Reading Skills

In this lesson, we see the class working on a reading task. The homework for this class was for students to bring in pictures with examples of technology. They talk about them to prepare for the reading. Next, the teacher shows students how to make a graphic organizer to help them check their understanding of the reading.
Unit 5: Role Plays

In this lesson, the teacher sets up a marketplace to use in a shopping role-play. We join the class as the teacher is reviewing common phrases for shopping exchanges. Students separate into groups using a method that requires them to talk with each other.
Unit 6: Group Projects

In this lesson, the students are given a group project assignment and then present their work. They have two choices: open a restaurant or eat at a restaurant. Each member has a role to play. This helps guarantee that everyone contributes equally to group work.
Unit 7: Critical Thinking Skills

The focus of this lesson is teaching analytical thinking skills. The teacher leads the class through an exercise developed by Stella Ting-Toomey called “Describe, Interpret, Evaluate” (See-Think-Feel).
Unit 8: Visual Literacy

This lesson teaches students to work with a timeline graphic to show events in time order. They base the timeline on the hopes and dreams they remember from different periods of their lives. Creating timelines helps students develop visual literacy for academic charts and graphics.
Unit 9: English for Specific Purposes and Vocational Language

In this lesson, students work on an independent project. Each student researches a job and creates an interview dialog for someone trying to get that job. During class, the students practice their interview role-plays with one another. Then, they perform them with partners for other students in a small group.
Unit 10: Collaboration

In this lesson, students learn how to write a poem. They use a format the teacher calls a “persona poem.” Students ask each other questions. The answers to those questions become the poem. Students learn that not all poems have to rhyme.
Teacher Resources Examples of Classroom Management

In this final appearance of Let's Teach English, we present a collection of classroom management tools for teachers as well as the complete set of teacher and students texts.
 
Transcript

The following is the transcript of the introduction video at the top of the page.
 
Tra Mi: You have been watching the videos. Your assignment was to choose a teaching topic, explain it in your own words, and give an example of where you see it in the video course. Can you tell me what you chose?

Rebecca Sui: I chose Constructivism.

Linh Dan: Mine is about the Communicative Language Teaching Method.

Laila Azimi: I looked for some Learner-Centered Practices, such as teaching students how to use learning strategies.

Tra Mi: Very good. Since Let’s Teach English is built on the theory of Constructivism, why don’t you start?

Rebecca Sui: Sounds good to me!

Rebecca Sui: When I think of building or “constructing” something, I see a house or a school. To me, constructivism means my students are taking in new ideas and new words, and building their own understanding of the world around them. I found an example of this in Unit 4. First, the teacher prepares students to read a story by talking about the content. She has her students bring in pictures of technology that they know about. In this way, students start with things they already know about. Then they can connect that to the new information in the story. The teacher gets her students interested in the story by previewing the title and images.

Rebecca Sui: The students know about technology and the internet. But, they do not know that someone could learn from the internet without having an internet connection. They read a story and learn about a mobile library called SolarSPELL, where information from the internet could be stored. Finally, her students make a picture to explain the SolarSPELL library in their own words.

Rebecca Sui: I think this is a good example. They knew something to start with, but they had to construct or build on their knowledge. They read about the Solar SPELL and then they told about it in their own words. They learned some new words in English and they also learned about a new place, Vanuatu.

Tra Mi: Okay, great start on constructivism. Who wants to talk next?

Linh Dan: I do! I decided to talk about the Communicative Language Teaching method.

Linh Dan: In Unit 5, the students do role-plays in groups, and each group has different information. That way, their role plays are all different. This is a great example of a real world task and Communicative Language Teaching. Students use their own words to shop, sell, and bargain in the marketplace.

Video clip of shopping role play

Linh Dan: The students were in a real-world situation in this unit. They were using English in a meaningful way to do the task. They had a clear purpose for communicating. And, just as important, the activity was learner-centered because they had choices in the language and actions that they used.

Tra Mi: Thank you, Linh Dan! Now, for Layla’s presentation.

Laila Azimi: I want to tell you what I learned about Learner-Centered Teaching and Active Learning for students. In Unit 9, the students practice an interview for a job. They each choose the job that they want to get. Then, they practice the learning strategy of “predicting” in two ways. They predict what kinds of questions can occur in their interviews. And, during the role-play, the listening group predicts what questions might come next.

Laila Azimi: We saw one student’s interview for the job she chose. We know that every student chose a different job, did research about that job, and wrote her own interview questions.

Tra Mi: What was the teacher’s role in this?

Laila Azimi: The teacher’s job was to support the learners in their choices and research. She also gave them more control over their learning by teaching them to apply strategies. In this case, they predicted hard questions for the interview. They can use these strategies later in other real-world situations.

Tra Mi: Thank you, all, for sharing these important topics of language teaching:

Constructivism
Communicative Language Teaching
Learner-Centered Practices and Active Learning

Tra Mi: So, let’s start with the first unit!

Laila Azimi, Linh Dan, and Rebecca Sui: Yes, let’s teach English together!

© 2017 University of Oregon and Voice of America. This work is based on the Women Teaching Women English materials produced by the University of Oregon American English Institute under U.S. Department of State Federal Assistance Award S-LE200-10-GR-050, issued by the U.S. Embassy Beirut.
 
 
 
 
Grammar Tips
Can You Catch These Native Speaker Mistakes?
(Beginner - Listening)

An audio lesson to help with your understanding of common mistakes. The English is spoken at 75% of normal speed. Click here to visit the lesson page with the written script for this audio program.
Commonly Confused Words: Part One
(Beginner - Listening, reading)

A video lesson to help with your understanding of commonly confused words.
The English is spoken at 75% of normal speed.
Click here to visit the lesson page.
Commonly Confused Words: Part One
(Beginner - Listening)

An audio lesson to help with your understanding of commonly confused words. The English is spoken at 75% of normal speed. Click here to visit the lesson page with the written script for this audio program.
Commonly Confused Words: Part Two
(Beginner - Listening, reading)

A video lesson to help with your understanding of commonly confused words.
The English is spoken at 75% of normal speed.
Click here to visit the lesson page.
Commonly Confused Words: Part Two
(Beginner - Listening)

An audio lesson to help with your understanding of commonly confused words. The English is spoken at 75% of normal speed. Click here to visit the lesson page with the written script for this audio program.
 
Search Fun Easy English
 
 
 
 
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