Methodology Of Teaching

Steps of the methodology
The methodology in Conversa is based on the use of the four skills in everyday class. Classes are divided in two sections:
Class A: Oral class. Students will develop speaking and listening skills.
Class B. Written class. It will be the complement of the class with the practice of writing and reading skills.
There are eight steps in the methodology. Icebreaker, feedback, warm up, vocabulary, presentation and drills are part of class A. Consolidation and application are part of class B.
Ice-breaker
Some definitions of Ice-Breakers are:

a) Something done or said to relax an unduly formal atmosphere or situation.
b) A beginning; a start.

Breaking the ice among students will help the teacher to get students’ confidence. We can have different kindsof ice breakers. For example; for beginners, introductions are the most effective activities (they can be applied in the target language). However, for more advanced students the ice breakers can continue being useful, especially for Monday classes in order to make students come back to an English environment after a weekend of Spanish.

Some examples of Ice-breaker activities can be:

a)Greetings
b) Asking for present, past or future activities about students’ personal life.
c) Applying any game, specially an energizer to motivate students.

It is possible to apply ice-breakers every day, but we need to remember that they must be short and all students should be involved in this activity. Besides, in every activity students must have an a goal to reach.
Feed back
This will be ashort review about the previous class, no longer than ten minutes and always avoiding questions like “do you remember…?” or asking the students for examples (“Tell me an example using …”). Specially, because if we ask this kind of questions students will probably not remember.
The Teacher will create a proper context to force the students to remember that information. Conversa method includesnatural activities to make students think by themselves. For example if a teacher is trying to make students remember present progressive, he can do the following:

Teacher: Javier, Where is your mother now?
Javier: At home.
Teacher: Please, give a complete answer.
Javier: She is at home.
Teacher And, What is she doing?
Javier: She is washing the dishes.
Some important characteristicsof the feed back are:
1. They must be short.
2. They must be presented in a natural form.
3. Students are the ones who have to remember the things by themselves (the teacher will be only a guide).
4. The use of the board to “explain” the information is the worst a teacher can do.
5. All students must be involved in the class (in this way it is very important to know how to use the pairwork activities -dynamics- in order to save time.
6. They can be given in class every day to review grammar, vocabulary or an idea.

Warm up
Students must be involved in the class little by little. A warm up must be short and should be a follow up of known elements of the language which will help students ease into what is to follow. It means that a warm up must include a known point related tothe new one to be introduced in order to make easy the transition and to get students involved. It can be about the grammar presentation and/or the topic presentation. In a literal translation “warm” means heat. For example a swimmer has to run around the pool before getting into the water. In the same way, students have to be ready before receiving the new information (PRESENTATION).
There isan effective way to prepare warm ups for grammar points. First of all, teachers must know what will be presented as a grammar point. After that, they will look for the function of the language.
For example:
New Grammar Point: Function
1. There is / there are Expresses existence
2. Can Expresses ability
3. Going to Expresses future plans
Using the function of the grammar, the teacher can...