Teacher Discussion Forums

Is it just me, or is the primary...perhaps ONLY realistic goal of an ORAL -only ESL teacher with GIANT class sizes, simply to get "many" to practice USING English and comprehend some of it?

reading people's posts, I'm starting to believe I've been overly worrying myself about my upcoming first forray into this. I thought's there'd be a lot of you know, text-book grammer preparation, tie in specific lesson plan activities to parts of speech etc.....

Or is it really about finding interesting topics that could engage them in "Chatting" about stuff... with the "hook" of teaching some forms IN THE PROCESS, not AS THE PROCESS separately ?

Ahhhhhh......

it's not just you.

There are many people in many places working day to day, class to class, just trying to survive. Some are just trying to engage the students, get some students to talk, hope they learn something, and rinse and repeat.

There are many possible reasons for this, lack of training, no continuity, lack of longevity, low expectations of administration ...

BUT, that's not the case everywhere and with everyone by any means.

I use a speaking first curriculum and what might seem like an oral only classroom. However, I build lesson to lesson, teach phonics and reading skills. I later (1-4 years) take them to the book to explain what they can say. I apply grammar to speech, not use grammar to teach.

However, that takes a lot of forward thinking and planning. It's a slow road to great progress, requiring a few years to really see the progress. It also takes a lot of work, time and effort. Most teachers aren't in it for that long and the lack of communication from teacher to teacher is too poor at times to handle the turn over effectively.

So, while your argument is an unfortunate reality in some places, I think we should really be trying to go the other way.

I thought there'd be a lot of you know:
text-book grammar preparation - YES!
tie in specific lesson plan activities to parts of speech - YES!
finding interesting topics that could engage them in "Chatting" about stuff... - YES!

and more!

There is a podcast you can listen to about a speaking first curriculum over at www.eslteachertalk.com

But, some of the main points are to:
set long term and short term goals for your students
work slowly building all the skills they will need for transition to a textbook
build your teaching resources slowly, planning what you will need and making them as you go

I hope that helps,
Mark
www.mes-english.com