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The aim of learning a new language is to communicate, and sometimes our students relate English language as a school subject instead of thinking about English as a tool for communication. Thanks to that corner we can discuss real news in our classroom and show students that English is alive.

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Do you dare to learn English through music? Lyricstraining is a curious online platform that offers video clips of all kinds of songs, both modern and past, accompanied by subtitles to follow the lyrics

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LingoClip - Enjoy learning languages with music

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Discover a new and fun way to learn English and other languages by filling in the lyrics of your favorite songs.

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Duolingo allows you to improve and improve the vocabulary, and visualize the progress if you have a registered account, while progressing through different levels of difficulty.

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ABA English proposes the learning of 'the language of Shakespeare' through video clips and parts of films. We will see the actors speak in English, and then we will pronounce our own sentences. It has lots of exercises and tests to progressively improve, as well as a system for recording your voice, so you can evaluate what you know yourself.

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App para aprender inglés en iOS y Android | ABA English

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Descubre la app para aprender inglés más completa con vídeo lecciones de gramática y ejercicios de vocabulario y escritura para cualquier nivel. Descárgatela!

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Make your images come alive by putting notes, interactive links, another images and even YouTube videos on top of them.

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Screenshot-o-matic captures the screen of your PC in video, exporting the result directly to YouTube or saving it on your PC. It includes highlights of the movements and mouse buttons, as in professional programs. A curious feature that you will not find in many other free applications is to record simultaneously with the webcam. Thus, your reaction and explanations will be easier to follow than just with the voice.

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Draw Express is an App to create diagrams, conceptual maps, organization charts, diagrams, etc. It is very easy to use and stands out for its recognition of quick gestures that allows you to move forward and create what you want in a very intuitive way.

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With DrawExpress, you can draw diagrams and flowcharts in a simple and intuitive way. It's just as easy as using a pen and paper! Whether you work in software design, finance, business, law, or need it for school, DrawExpress is the ultimate solution to your diagramming needs.

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Saint Valentine's day is the international day of love, we can include this topic in our lessons to leave our daily routine behind.This lesson is designed to be used near the date of Valentine's Day (14 February) to talk about the topic of love and romance.

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Did you know that in the UK we spend about £503m on cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts for Valentine's Day? This lesson is designed to be used near the date of Valentine's Day (14 February) to talk about the topic of love and romance.

Students will brainstorm vocabulary related to the topic and then discuss some well-known quotes about love. They will speak about how people can find love and read about Valentine's traditions in the UK. Students will then create a character for themselves and take part in a speed dating role play, as well as deciding how important love is in our lives.
Aims:

To practise and develop vocabulary related to love and romance

To practise speaking and reading skills

To practise giving opinions

Age group: secondary and adult

Level: B1 / B2

Time: 60 minutes

Materials: Valentine's Day worksheet

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Did you know that in the UK we spend about £503m on cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts for Valentine's Day? This lesson is designed to be used near the date of Valentine's Day (14 February) to talk about the topic of love and romance.

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This lesson is all about creativity and innovation. Students start with a discussion which leads into a vocabulary task and reading activities. In addition, the lesson focuses on using the past simple and present perfect.

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This lesson is all about creativity and innovation. Students start with a discussion which leads into a vocabulary task and reading activities. The lesson focuses on using the past simple and present perfect.
Topic

Creativity and Innovation
Level
Time

60 - 90 minutes
Aims

To discuss what constitutes creativity and identify examples of innovation in Britain and internationally

To identify the meaning of vocabulary in the context of creativity and innovation

To practise the sub-skill of reading for gist

To identify the form of the present perfect tense and explore its use to link the past with the present with the word since

To distinguish between when to use the past simple tense (to refer to completed actions in the past) and when to use the present perfect tense (to connect the present with a past time)

Materials
Poster: download

By Caroline Wilkinson

The plans and worksheets are downloadable and in pdf format - right click on the attachment and save it on your computer.

Copyright - please read
All the materials on these pages are free for you to download and copy for educational use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place these materials on any other web site without written permission from the BBC and British Council. If you have any questions about the use of these materials please email us at: teachingenglish@britishcouncil.org

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This lesson is all about creativity and innovation. Students start with a discussion which leads into a vocabulary task and reading activities. The lesson focuses on using the past simple and present perfect.

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This lesson plan for teachers of teenagers and adults at upper intermediate level explores the theme of St. Patrick's Day. Students will build their knowledge of this day and develop reading and speaking skills.

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The aim of this lesson is to give students practice in reading an article about St. Patrick's Day for specific information and then the opportunity to talk about the customs and traditions of their own country's national day.
The plan is based around a text from the British Council LearnEnglish Central website at: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/magazine/saint-patricks-day

The webpage also has a variety of online interactive activities.
We have also included the text for students and teachers without Internet access in class.
Topic
Saint Patrick's Day
Level
Upper Intermediate
Time
60-90 mins
Aims:

To give practice in reading an article about St.Patrick's Day for specific information

To talk about the customs and traditions of their own country's national day

Materials
Lesson plan: guide for teacher on procedure.

Worksheets: exercises which can be printed out for use in class. The worksheet contains:

Comprehension questions

Complete text

For more information about this topic you can visit these British Council and BBC sites:

Alastair Bassett, Senior Teacher, Trainer, British Council Prague

The plans and worksheets are downloadable and in pdf format.

All the materials on these pages are free for you to download and copy for educational use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place these materials on any other web site without written permission from the BBC and British Council. If you have any questions about the use of these materials please email us at: teachingenglish@britishcouncil.org

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The aim of this lesson is to give students practice in reading an article about St. Patrick's Day for specific information and then the opportunity to talk about the customs and traditions of their own country's national day.The plan is based around a text from the British Council LearnEnglish Central website at: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/magazine/saint-patricks-day The webpage also has a variety of online interactive activities.We have also included the text for students and teachers without Internet access in class.

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The New York Times gives us a special corner to teach our students English through real news.

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Teach and learn with The Times: Resources for bringing the world into your classroom

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Tips to improve English communication in ourclassroom.

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Tips to improve English communication in ourclassroom.

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The Internet TESL Journal James R. Welker
jwelker [at] gol.com
Mie Prefectural Board of Education, Mie, Japan

Introduction

In Japan, since sometime in the 1980s, the Ministry of Education (Monbusho)--recognizing that students who have studied English six years still can't speak it--has been revising curricula, revamping textbooks, and trying to redo the whole of English education at the secondary and even primary level. Thanks to the nine-year-old Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme, next year well over 4,000 assistant language teachers (ALTs) will visit English classrooms. All this to improve students' English communicative ability.

The best textbooks, teaching materials, syllabi, and even regular visits from a native speaker will ultimately fail, however, if the ordinary classroom English teachers do not model and use English communicatively in their classrooms. As the primary exposure students have to living English, the regular English teachers are the most important people in the English education of their students.

In my two years spent as an ALT in six Japanese junior high schools, I have worked in class with almost twenty different junior high school Japanese teachers of English (JTEs). Like many other ALTs, I have realized that the best thing I can do to help my students is to help their teachers teach English more communicatively. Thus I created this little guide. Using simple practices such as these can make a great difference in students' (and teachers') linguistic competence.

Easy Ways To Use More English In Class

Always Use English When Opening and Closing The Class

It's not very important that elementary students learn exactly what Let's begin means in the their native language. They will understand the basic idea if you use it at the beginning of every class. If you also use begin to tell the students to start writing an examination or other activity, the meaning will be further clarified for many students. (Later if you more formally introduce the word begin, the students will already know concrete examples of its usage.) The same holds true for expressions like That's all for today.

If, on the other hand, the class begins--as do most Japanese classes--with a traditional L1 greeting like onegaishimasu and ends with arigatou gozaimashita, this reinforces the idea that the students already have--that the primary communication in the class is done in their native language. An art museum wouldn't put a Rembrandt painting in a polka-dot frame by Seurrat. Likewise, English classes shouldn't be framed in Japanese.

Teach Your Students "Classroom English"

Teach the students classroom expressions appropriate for their level; for example, I don't know, I don't understand, Once again please, Just a minute, What's ~ in L1 (English)?, etc.

Be sure they understand how to say and use the expressions you expect them to know. You could make a poster with expressions in English, and post it where all students can see it. Alternatively, give the students a small handout with the expressions you would like them to use and have them paste it in the back of their notebooks for easy reference. (In my experience, posters have tended to be more effective.) On either the handout or poster you may want to include translations, but be sure to remove them as soon as the students seem to have a reasonable command of the expressions.

Later, if a student uses an L1 equivalent for an English expression you have already taught, remind her or him--in English--what they should be saying. The more the students communicate with you and with each other in English the more comfortable they will become with it.

Try To Use Only One Or Two Expressions For The Same Activity

By limiting the number of classroom expressions the teacher uses, the students will learn the expressions faster. For example, in an elementary class you could use Open your books to page ~, even if the students' books are already open. Later, you can introduce the expression Turn to page ~. Some students will only understand ...page ~ anyway, so both expressions will have the same meaning to them. Other students, however, will figure out the two meanings without being explicitly taught.

For those teachers who work with an ALT (or a student teacher), consider making a list of expressions you use in class to give to these people. It's very frustrating to come into class when students don't understand a very simple expression, and after class you are told the students understand Please repeat this sentence, but not Please read this sentence aloud. When working with an ALT, this kind of list will help avoid situations where translation is necessary.

Always Have The Students Write Their Name Using The Roman Alphabet

This applies, of course, to speakers of languages which do not use a version of the Roman alphabet. As soon as the students learn to write the letters, insist that they use them to write their names. Remember this is English class. Getting used to how your own name looks and sounds in a foreign language is a part of personalizing your knowledge of the language. Besides, allowing students to use their native writing system for their names only reinforces the idea that the primary communicative language in English class is their native one.

This applies for other students' names too. When the students are doing an activity that involves writing other students' names, they should be in English. At the elementary level, students will probably have to help each other write their names.

If students can't remember how to spell their names, ask them or help them to write their names in Roman letters on the front of their English notebook so they can always refer to it. For beginning students, if you do not have the time to spend 20 or 30 minutes to allow the students to learn how to write their names in class, give them a card with their name on it. They can use the card to copy their name on their papers and books until they have memorized it.

Use Handouts For Written English Communication

Use English for very simple instructions such as Please write ~, Answer the following questions, English only, please, etc. Read the instructions to the students and explain the instructions by modeling what you what them to do (e.g., pretend to write answers as you read the questions aloud, or interview a student and pretend to write down what she or he says).

Students have been filling in worksheets for years, so very few instructions are necessary anyway. And, as always, the slower students can see what the other students are doing if they don't understand, and you can help them individually or ask other students to help them. If absolutely necessary, a minimum of L1 instructions on the handout are probably better than orally explaining the directions in L1.

Even for beginners, however, don't use L1 for easy words like name, class, date, etc. Again, you can show the students what you want them to write in these places by writing an example on the board.

Teach Grammar In English Too

For teachers who have never taught grammar in English, nor seen it done (this applies to a large number of JTEs), it may seem like an impossible task. But it can be done--easily. I do it. I have taught some of the teachers I work with how, and they have all been able to do it. This method can be adapted for just about any grammar point and just about any level of English.

Start with what the students know. For example, if you are teaching present progressive ( be doing), you can start by reviewing the present tense. Show the students a few sentences like

She plays soccer every week.

He cooks spaghetti every Tuesday.

Make sure the students understand these sentences. Then change every week or every Tuesday to now, plays to is playing, and cooks to is cooking.

Give the students a few more sentences in present tense. After changing every week into now, ask a couple of students what to put in place of the verb in present tense.

Similarly, to demonstrate how to make questions in present progressive, you can add a question mark to the end of a sentence and change its pattern to the question form. (I usually write + ? = and then write the question form; + not = is also self-explanatory.) Give the students a few more examples and then ask them to make the changes for themselves. Once you have taught them the question and negative patterns, they will be able to do simple interview games or Q & A with the teacher to practice what they have learned--all in English.

At the elementary level, pictures will make it a little easier for the students to understand and help you avoid the temptation to translate vocabulary.

At the same time, teachers who primarily use English for instruction need to allow for students who aren't as fast at understanding these kind of ideas even when explained in L1. This doesn't necessarily mean spending the last part of every class re-explaining everything in L1, however. Due to the nature of the Japanese English entrance examinations, translation is still a necessary part of English classes here, at least in junior and senior high schools. Take advantage of this by asking students--in English--to translate sentences in the new grammar pattern into L1. At this point you may have at least a few students who can explain the grammar point itself in L1. When the students do the translations and explain the grammar in L1, not only does it help the slower students understand, but it encourages the students to try to come up with the answers by themselves and not to rely on the teacher as much.

Have Confidence In Your Own Ability

This is essential. The students need a model of a confident ESL speaker to inspire confidence in themselves. Though communicating in English for an hour at a time is difficult for many teachers, the practice you get in class will make it increasingly easy and more habitual.

Some teachers have told me that their English isn't good enough to conduct class in English. They say they are afraid to make mistakes in front of the students. They shouldn't be. First of all the level of spoken English you need to use is only a little above what you are teaching. Besides, language learning should be about communication, not perfection. Don't worry that the students will hear and copy your mistakes. Most third-year Japanese junior high school students still struggle with grammar they learned in their first year. They probably aren't going to remember a mistake you make occasionally. Relax and enjoy yourself.

Correct But Don't Criticize Your Students

If you want your students to experiment, guess, and practice, you should encourage these behaviors. Let the students know you are pleased that they are trying--even if what they say is incorrect. When they make a mistake, praise them for answering and then ask them to try again, tell them the correct answer, or ask another student for the answer.

The one way to guarantee that the students will never say a word in English is to make them afraid to make a mistake. It's easy to get frustrated by a student who can't respond correctly to a simple question they've studied. But if your students see you quickly and often become displeased with them, they will be more nervous about speaking English and increasingly more likely to make a mistake. Or they will stop talking altogether.

Finally, Challenge Your Students and Yourself!

See if you can get through a whole class using only English. If you can't, try getting through half the class, or even just fifteen minutes in English. How about one English only class each week...and then two, three...the rest of the term?

Implementing These Ideas:

The suggestions above may be simple and easy, but remember that they aren't a quick fix. If you want them to work, you need to commit yourself to English communication in your classroom, not to the strategies themselves.

I have given an earlier draft of this paper to all of the teachers I work with, so I have been able to see how some teachers have implemented these ideas.

Let's consider how several teachers introduced the classroom English suggestion. A teacher of first-year junior high school students I work with made handouts of classroom expressions, and the students pasted them in their notebooks. She taught her students how to use the expressions and has consistently encouraged her students to use them. And the students do use the expressions a lot of the time.

On the other hand, one teacher I work with liked the idea about making posters so she made posters with a few classroom English expressions and taught the students a how to pronounce them. She didn't teach the students appropriate use of the expressions and, though the posters remained up on the wall--at least when I was at that school, the she never asked the students to actually use the expressions. So, naturally, the students didn't. A third teacher gave the students handouts with some classroom expressions and the students pasted the handouts in their notebooks--never to look at them again.

In the later instances, the students' failure to use classroom English was a result of the teachers' failure to follow through and reinforce the use of classroom English. Students aren't likely to use English just because you ask them to. If you don't insist that students speak English in class, don't be surprised when they don't.

Getting the students to use a few English expressions in class or write their names in the Roman alphabet provides one kind of challenge. When the teacher switches to speaking mostly or all in English, a different kind of challenge presents itself.

I've watched teachers become immediately frustrated because the students resisted being taught in English. When the students loudly complained that they couldn't understand, these teachers promptly switched back to speaking Japanese and gave up on the method. The teachers weren't prepared for resistance. That was a mistake.

For teachers and students who are, like many I've worked with and taught, accustomed to English classes conducted primarily in L1, introducing the above methods can be a radical change. In many cases ESL students have had everything explained to them in their native language for several years. Of course some students will resist this kind of teaching at first. They are accustomed to understanding everything the teacher says. When suddenly they are struggling to understand anything, they may not like it. The teachers I saw become so easily frustrated could have, instead of lapsing into Japanese, said in a soothing tone, "It's okay. It's okay" and then proceeded to use a few more examples. They could have asked--in English--for a student to explain the point in Japanese. Another student could have provided a simple L1 explanation, while showing the frustrated students that it is possible to understand and that they shouldn't give up.

Whether you make these kinds of changes gradually or almost all at once, it has been my experience that the students will learn to accept and finally enjoy the new style. You will too.

Conclusion

A thousand meetings, the best textbooks, creative teaching materials, even native speakers visiting the classroom aren't going to "give" ESL students English communicative ability. Only by using English communicatively with their teacher and classmates will students develop the ability to speak English. If, for example, you decide to teach some grammar points in English and not in L1, it might be more difficult for your students (and you), but they will probably remember the ideas better. This is because they actually have to listen and think about what you are saying. Thus, not only will their (and your) communicative ability improve, but so will their test scores.

Conversely, your students won't attempt to communicate in English if you are unwilling to do so yourself. You aren't just teaching spelling, vocabulary, and grammar in class, you are indirectly teaching your students the value of communicating in English. If you don't show your students by using English that you think it's important, they won't think it is. If students are taught primarily in their native language, they may learn how to read English, they may learn how to write English, they may learn how to translate English, but they aren't very likely to learn how to speak English.

Appendix I: Classroom English for Teachers

For non-native speaker English teachers who are worried about using non-grammatical or non-idiomatic expressions while teaching, here's a list of classroom expressions based on American English. You probably already use some or many of them. And, of course, there are countless more you could use that aren't listed here.

These expressions are not for the students to study per se. But, in context and with appropriate gestures from the teacher, the students should roughly understand the meaning and be able to respond. If you must translate any of these expressions because gestures didn't clarify the meaning, only translate them the first few times you use them. Words in parentheses ( ) are optional. When words are separated by a slash / , choose only one.

Greetings:

Hello.

Good morning (class/everyone).

Good afternoon (class/everyone).

That's all for today.

Goodbye.

See you tomorrow/next week/Friday.

Directions:

Stand up.

Sit down./Be seated.

Open your (text)books/notebooks (to page ~/chapter ~/section ~).

Turn to page ~.

Look at page/part/number ~.

Close your books/notebooks.

Take out your pen/pencil/notebook/textbook/homework/~.

Put your pen/papers/books/everything/~ away/in your desks/in your bags.

Pass your notebooks/tests/papers/homework to the front/to me.

Here is/are your tests/your homework/your notebooks/~.

Take one (handout/test/copy/~).

Come to the blackboard/front.

Translate this into English/L1.

Write the answer on the chalkboard/in your notebooks.

Listen carefully.

Read page ~ (aloud).

Repeat after me./Repeat ~./Again.

Practice (~).

Check your/your partner's answers.

( Please can be used with the above expressions.)

Transitions:

Questions:

Who knows (the answer)?

Who knows (~)?

Who understands?

Who can tell me (~) ?

Who will volunteer (to ~)?/Who will do it?

Who has a question (about ~)?

What's ~ in English?/What does it/~ mean in English?

What's ~ in L1?/What does it/~ mean in L1.

What's the answer?

Do you understand?

Do you know (~)?

Do you have any questions?

Can you tell me (~)?

Will you volunteer (to ~)?/Will you do it?

Who's absent today?

Disciplinary Expressions:

Be quiet./Stop talking./No talking.

Calm down.

Stop that./Stop it.

Don't do that.

Put that/~ away.

Listen (to me)..

Look (at me).

( Please can be used with the above expressions--but if the teacher is very angry or frustrated she or he probably wouldn't use it.)

What are you doing?

Are you listening?

Are you paying attention?

Appendix ll: Classroom English For Students

Lists of expressions like these seem to be circulating everywhere for good reason. Students need to learn these kinds of expressions if they are to communicate in English in class. Naturally teachers should help them with pronunciation, meaning, and usage. Especially at the elementary level it may be useful to provide the meanings in L1 or ask the students to write them in. Teachers may want to suggest that the students paste the list inside the front cover of their notebooks so they can refer to it easily during class. As with Appendix I, there are many other good expressions which aren't listed here.

Excuse me?

(Are you speaking to) me?

I didn't hear you.

Again, please.

More slowly, please.

Just a minute, please.

Ms. ~/Mr. ~.

I'm thinking.

I don't understand. (Huh?)

I don't know.

How do you say this word?

What does ~ mean?

What's ~ in English?

What's ~ in L1?

I think ~.

One more please.

That's easy/difficult/strange.

Please help me.

The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. II, No. 7, July 1996
http://iteslj.org/ http://iteslj.org/Articles/Welker-Communication.html

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Welker - Easy English Communication at the Secondary Level (TESL/TEFL)

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The Internet TESL Journal James R. Welkerjwelker [at] gol.comMie Prefectural Board of Education, Mie, Japan In Japan, since sometime in the 1980s, the Ministry of Education (Monbusho)--recognizing that students who have studied English six years still can't speak it--has been revising curricula, revamping textbooks, and trying to redo the whole of English education at the secondary and even primary level.

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Improving the intereaction between teachers and students

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Improving the intereaction between teachers and students

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The Internet TESL Journal Jonathan Snell
j_snell [at] yahoo.com
Toyo Women's College (Tokyo, Japan)

A common problem for EFL teachers is dealing with a passive class, where students are unresponsive and avoid interaction with the teacher. This is especially true when a teacher seeks interaction in a teacher-class dialog, such as asking questions to the class as a whole, expecting at least one student to respond. This can be a frustrating experience for both parties. Obviously, there will be times when no student can answer a teacher's question, but often students do not answer even if they understand the question, know the answer, and are able to produce the answer. Furthermore, students can often be very reluctant to give feedback or ask the teacher a question in front of the class. This action research project attempted to explore this problem and sought to create a more interactive teacher-class interchange in one class of Japanese adult English learners.

Action Research Defined

Action research is concerned with trying to improving one specific point in a teacher's technique in a particular classroom using empirical measurement. Richards, Platt & Platt (1992) have defined it as:

Teacher-initiated classroom research which seeks to increase the teacher's understanding of classroom teaching and learning and to bring about improvements in classroom practices. Action research typically involves small-scale investigate projects in the teacher's own classroomŠ

This usually includes having an observer collect data, and together with the teacher develop a plan to bring about the desired change, act on the plan, and then observe the effects of the plan in the classroom.

Class Description

The class observed was a group of twenty-three sophomores majoring in Japanese at a small private Tokyo women's college. The teacher was an American male with several years teaching experience at Japanese universities. The goal of this required class is to teach the students basic English conversation, reading, listening and writing skills. Their English ability level ranged from upper beginner to intermediate. During the observation period, the students appeared motivated and attentive, and they seemed to be enjoying the class.

Problem Identification

The students, as a class, didn't respond voluntarily to the instructor's questions and did not participate in class discussions. Students also never asked the teacher questions outside one-on-one situations. Thus the teacher received little oral feedback. According to the teacher:

Most of the class members sit looking straight ahead using minimal facial expressions, gestures and verbal utterances. What I want is for the students to be more demonstrative and more overtly communicative in their feedback. I want these behaviors: I want the students to ask questions, make comments and to respond with nods and shakes of the head, with sounds of agreement or sounds of understanding. Also, I want them to be both reactive and proactive.

Preliminary Investigation

I observed the teacher's class in the fourth week of the semester. In the first 45 minutes, the class went through an intermediate level taped dialogue. The students first listened to the tape with their books closed, then again with the books opened. Next, they did a dictation exercise consisting of 25 short sentences based on the dialogue. The teacher then talked about the sociolinguistic and grammar points of the exercise and went on to probe for comprehension:

T: Any questions? Do you understand everything?

Ss: Š(no one responds)

T: Okay, how many people were speaking?

Ss: Š(no response)

T: How many people were speaking?

Ss: Š(no response)

T: There were two. Two people. Were they friends or strangers?

Ss: Š(no response)Š

The teacher asked a few other questions which also drew no response or reaction from the students. The students then had to answer some questions about the conversation in their book. Most of the students seemed to have little trouble doing this, and if there were any questions, they readily asked the student sitting next to them.

The second half of the class was devoted to pair work using the phrases and vocabulary from the taped dialogue in role play. The students seemed to enjoy this, and most tried to create their own dialogues. The teacher circulated the room checking on the progress of each pair. The class atmosphere was markedly different from the first half of the class, with chatter and occasional laughter filling the air. The students answered most of the teacher's questions with alacrity, and some even asked their own questions.

Hypothesis

Because the students seemed to generally understand the teacher's questions, it was felt that there was something else that kept the students from responding voluntarily in the class-teacher dialogues. Since most Japanese students are taught to listen and not to question a teacher in class, Japanese students have little or no experience in in-class interaction with the teacher, such as questioning or commenting or giving feedback. Students are usually taught to be quiet and respectfully listen to the teacher.

By teaching the students that class interaction with the English teacher is not only acceptable, but normal, useful and beneficial, it was believed that the students would become more interactive with the teacher in teacher-class interaction.

Plan Intervention

Following the hypothesis, two steps were taken to implement a plan:

Outcome

In the eighth week of the semester, the class was observed again. A lesson similar to the one in the fourth week was presented. At the beginning, the instructor reminded the class of the "rules." After playing the taped dialogue twice, the teacher began talking about the dialogue, making grammar, usage and sociolinguistic points, interspersed with questions about the passage and the instructor's explanations. This went on for about twenty minutes and included general comprehension check questions such as 'do you understand?' and 'are you okay?' as well as specific questions about the dialogue.

Regarding general comprehension questions, most of the students did nod in response and a few answered 'yes' to these questions. And it was believed that they did, in fact, understand.

With the specific questions, however, something unexpected happened. When the teacher asked a question, he was usually greeted with poker-faced stares, as before. But when he moved closer, looked specifically at a student, or pair of students, and repeated the question, the students usually tried to answer. In general, I noted, the instructor was paying much more attention to the students, moving closer to them, and looking at specific students and trying to make a better connection with them. Instead of asking questions with the feeling that they really weren't going to be answered anyway, as before, the teacher made a greater effort to communicate the questions, and acted as if he expected to get responses.

Also, toward the end of the instructor's talk on the dialogue, two students, without prompting from the teacher, asked questions before the class. Although the questions were not related directly to the dialogue, the fact that the questions were asked before the entire class was considered a breakthrough.

Conclusion

There were some areas where the results of this action research were not as successful as hoped. For instance, the students needed to be prompted with eye contact and a repeated question from the teacher to answer a question, and when they did not understand something, they still did not interrupt the teacher with a question.

And yet some progress was definitely made, especially when the brief span between observations is considered. The students did interact with the teacher by nodding, some did answer the instructor's questions, and two, on their own initiation, even asked questions before the class. The unanticipated side effect of the teacher becoming more concerned with the interaction was a welcome surprise and contributed to the improvement. There seems to have been some success in instructing and reminding and then expecting the students to become more interactive with the teacher.

Reflection

This action research project forced both the teacher and the observer to remember that ESL teachers in Japan are not just teaching a language, but also a culture, and this includes instructing the sociolinguistics appropriate for the native English speaking classroom. Perhaps more importantly, they had to think about why the cultures are different, in this respect, and how to try and bridge that difference. This lead to questioning the conventional notion that Japanese students simply do not like the native English speaking classroom culture.

An additional reason for interest in the problem addressed here was the belief that this was a common problem in Japan. Teachers, especially native English speaking ones, often become frustrated with a lack of initial success in obtaining an interactive dialogue with the class. This often leads them to mistake a lack of familiarity with a lack of interest, and to teach within the students' culturally conditioned classroom expectations, instead of introducing the expectations commonly found in classrooms in English speaking counties. While intending to be more accommodating to students, they are failing to give students a useful sociolinguistic skill, which students would likely want and derive benefit. Some may think encouraging the use of this student-teacher interaction common in native English speaking counties is culturally arrogant. But if it is introduced in a sensitive and reasonable manner, it actually contributes to a more fulfilling English class. After all, most students don't study English just for linguistic competence. They will also want to develop sociolinguistic competence for communicating in different situations in English speaking countries, and this includes the classroom.

Reference

Helgesen, M. & Brown, S. (1994) Active listening: Building skills for understanding. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

Richards, J. C., Platt, J., & Platt, H. (1992) Dictionary of language teaching & applied linguistics (2nd ed.). Essex: Longman.

The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. V, No. 4, April 1999
http://iteslj.org/ http://iteslj.org/Articles/Snell-Interaction.html

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Improving Teacher-Student Interaction in the EFL Classroom: An Action Research Report

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The Internet TESL Journal Jonathan Snellj_snell [at] yahoo.comToyo Women's College (Tokyo, Japan) A common problem for EFL teachers is dealing with a passive class, where students are unresponsive and avoid interaction with the teacher. This is especially true when a teacher seeks interaction in a teacher-class dialog, such as asking questions to the class as a whole, expecting at least one student to respond.

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I consider that it is a fantastic app to leave daily routine behind and motivate our students. We will use songs which are well-known by our students

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Sometimes the information provided by text books is not clear or massive. Using this tool, we can summarize and organize the main ideas of the lesson or encourage our students to learn how to synthesise information.

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This lesson plan is perfect to develop different skills since we will work vocabulary, grammar, reading, speaking, listening while we learn how to be creative. To be creative is an essential ability for our students' future.