Intermediate Adult TEFL Class—Giving Advice 9/16

            This class of approximately 15 Intermediate adult learners had seating arranged in a horseshoe shape conducive to interaction and where students could see one another. The teacher starts by asking if anyone has heard of a certain medicine he brought in and saying “I’m sick, do you have any advice for me?” which introduces the topic of giving advice. The students proceeded in giving answers such as “You need to get more rest”, “Take medicine”, etc. which was an opportunity for the teacher to assess their language skills. Setting up a context for the language was also a great, organic approach to the learning.

            Before listening to an audio, the teacher asks the students to see how many pieces of advice they could hear, which was great to get them to concentrate and listen with intention. They also had half of the room listen and see how they gave advice while the other half listen to the responses to suggestions. They checked with each other by comparing answers with the person next to them and then practiced the target language by finding someone from the other group to practice giving advice to. The other exercises they did involved forming three groups – relationship advice, job advice, and advice about education for their kids – to practice the sentence structures they learned: Why don’t you…”, “You should…” etc.  They had repeated practice with giving advice throughout the lesson, such as thinking up 2-3 areas of English they’d like to improve on and speaking to at least four people using the focus language. The students were instructed to speak to someone different the following time for further practice. Another technique used was getting the students to correct mistakes such as “Sometimes you can to read” and “You’ve got a lot of vocabulary” As these were intermediate students, it was effective in teaching them to self-correct. The teacher also clarified with students before fine-tuning certain phrases such as “comfortable zone” and “it wasn’t courteous” to “it wasn’t good manners” (to cough without covering). He clarified the difference between “Why don’t you…” and “ You should…”, by asking the students, to which they answered: “You should.. is stronger” and helped them gain a natural accent when speaking by teaching them to connect sounds in “Why don’t you” and “You could just try” by drawing curved lines and clapping out the syllables.

            I liked how the teacher was subtle in his approach when correcting and came across as informing them the right usage. He also used praise and gave feedback whenever appropriate. The atmosphere was relaxed and interactive and everyone got ample talk time. A DO for me was how the teacher ended the lesson by getting the students to give him advice for his cold again now that they have learned the new sentences. It is a final confirmation for the students that they have acquired new language skills and are reaching learning goals.