This may involve some kind of silent student response, such as writing from dictation, but there is no initiative on the part of the student.
· Questioning
Questioning is a universally used activation technique in teaching. Teachers have to get students to engage with the language material actively through speech; so an effective questioning technique is one that elicits fairly prompt, motivated, relevant and full responses. If, on the other hand, teacher’s questions result in long silences, or are answered by only the strongest students, or obviously bore the class, or consistently elicit only very brief or unsuccessful answers, then there is probably something wrong.
· Criteria for effective questioning
1. Clarity: do the learners immediately grasp not only what the question means, but also what kind of an answer is required?
2. Learning value: does the question stimulate thinking and responses that will contribute to further learning of the target material? Or is it irrelevant, unhelpful or merely time-filling?
3. Interest: do learners find the question interesting, challenging, stimulating?
4. Availability: can most of the members of the class try to answer it? Or only the more advanced, confident, knowledgeable? (Note that the mere addition of a few seconds' wait-time before accepting a response can make the question available to a significantly larger number of learners.)
5. Extension: does the question invite and encourage extended and/or varied answers?
6. Teacher reaction: are the learners sure that their responses will be related to with respect, that they will not be put down or ridiculed if they say something inappropriate?
· Group work
In group work, learners perform a learning task through small-group interaction. It is a form of learner activation that is of particular value in the practice of oral fluency: learners in a class that is divided into five groups get five times as many opportunities to talk as in full-class organization. It also has other advantages: it fosters learner responsibility and independence, can improve motivation and contribute to a feeling of cooperation and warmth in the class. There is some research that indicates that the use of group work improves learning outcomes.
These potential advantages are not, however, always realized. Teachers fear they may lose control, that there may be too much noise, that their students may over-use their mother tongue, do the task badly or not at all: and their fears are often well founded. Some people - both learners and teachers - dislike a situation where the teacher cannot constantly monitor learner language.
The success of group work depends to some extent on the surrounding social climate, and on how habituated the class is to using it; and also, or course, on the selection of an interesting and stimulating task whose performance is within the ability of the group. But it also depends, more immediately, on effective and careful organization. Some guidelines on organizing group work may be divided into four sections: presentation, process, ending, feedback.
Note also that a class may not readily take to group work if it is used to be constantly teacher-directed. But this is something that can be learned through practice; do not give up if your first attempts at group work with a class are unsatisfactory.
· Group-work organization
1. Presentation
The instructions that are given at the beginning are crucial if the students do not understand exactly what they have to do there will be time-wasting, confusion, lack of effective practice possible loss of control. Select tasks that are simple enough to describe easily; and in monolingual classes you may find it cost-effective to explain some or all in the students’ mother tongue. It is advisable to give the instructions before giving out materials or dividing the class into groups, and a preliminary rehearsal or 'dry run' (упражнение (в чем-л.); репетиция, прогон) of a sample of the activity with the full class can help to clarify things. Note, however that if your students have already done similar activities you will be able to shorten the process, giving only brief guidelines, it is mainly the first time of doing something with a class that such care needs to be invested in instructing.
Try to foresee what language will be needed, and have a preliminary quick review of appropriate grammar or vocabulary. Finally before giving the sign to start tell the class what the arrangements are for stopping: if there is a time limit, or a set signal for stopping, say what it is; if the groups simply stop when they have finished, then tell them what they will have to do next. It is wise to have a 'reserve' task planned to occupy members of groups who finish earlier than expected.
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