How to teach English, Jeremy Harmer

In this class we were introduced to the book "How to teach English" of Jeremy Harmer, in chapter 4 " How to describe learning and teaching" we talk about different situations related to teaching English as a second/foreign language, different questions appeared, questions like:

1. What do we know about language learning?
2. What elements are necessary for successful language learning in classroom?
3. How do the three elements of ESA fit together in lesson sequences?
4. What teaching models have influenced current teaching practice?

1.- When children are repeatedly exposed to language will in normal circumstances learn it. They do this unconsciously. Even adults can learn a different language if they are in contact with it (like people who live abroad in a native English speaker country) with more or less good pronunciation, but they will learn it and speak it fluently at all. Despite of being exposed to the foreign language, there are adults that don't learn it, because they don't want it, some reasons are that maybe is to complex for them, or definitely don't have the opportunity to try it out.

However, the ones who can understand and produce the language learn, share similarities in learning experience. First they are exposed to the language which they more or less understand even if the can't produce the language spontaneously, and secondly they are MOTIVATED to learn the language in order to be able to communicate with others, and finally they have the opportunity to USE the language.

So maybe in the classrooms this can't be produced but as future teacher we must to be able to create a great learning atmosphere in order that our children can feel comfortable and unstressed.

2.- Engage: try to motivate students with different interesting activities involving their emotions, activities such as games, music, discussions, dramatic stories, amusing anecdotes, etc., and always get contact with your students opinions, this can make them feel that theirs opinions are being take into consideration.

Study: this type of activities re those when the students are asked to focus in or language and how it is constructed. Students can study in variety of different styles, but whatever the style Study means any stage at which the construction of language is the main focus.

Activate: this element describes exercises and activities which are designed to get the students using language as freely and "communicatively" as they can. Activate exercises offer students a chance to try out real language use with little or no restriction- a kind of rehearsal of real world.

3.- One type of teaching sequence takes students in:

• Straight line: Engage->Study -> Activate
• Boomerang: Engage-> Activate-> Study->Activate
• Patchwork: Engage->Activate->Activate->Study->Activate->Study->Engage->Activate

4.- Grammar translation, Audio-lingualism, Presentation Practice and Production, Task-Based Learning, Communicative Language Teaching,