By Prof.

Aldo Rodrguez
Characteristics of an effective teacher
Explains things clearly, making difficult topics easy to understand by using examples to
make the concepts memorable.
Is well prepared and establishes the appropriate context.
Makes the objectives of the course and each class clear.
Has a very good command of the language and the methodology to teach it.
Helps students make connections with other subjects: a holistic view.
Is a proactive, energetic, motivated and vocational professional of education.
Promotes interaction, independent thought and critical thinking
Is good public speaker and aware of what motivates students
Is perceived as fair and has a lot of instructional ways of assessment.
Is approachable and caring.
Takes into account students emotions.

Adapted from: https://teachingcommons.Stanford.Edu/resources/teaching/planning-your-

approach/characteristics-effective-teachers
 Teachers can be effective by:

Having a very good command of the language: the

teacher keeps learning L2 and is aware of their weaknesses.

Giving clear explanations: knowing about grammar

and its approaches, skills and strategies and how to
teach them.

Being a motivated/motivating teacher: using

authentic or pseudo authentic material and activities,
thinking why students should do this or that activity.
Enjoying teaching.

Developing professionally: through peer-teaching,

class observation, self-learning, professional
development courses, etc.
 Approaches to grammar
Focused on language use where we learn a
second language by COMMUNICATING in
that language. For this reason it is said that
grammar is taught communicatively. (Celce-
Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999).
There is a shift from FLUENCY to
ACCURACY as the learner moves onto a
new level of proficiency. (Brown, 2010).
In class students learn grammar by using it
in communicative tasks and not just by
giving them, memorizing and repeating the
grammar rule. Students discover the use of
the structure while engaged in
communicative activities.
Focused on language form or analysis
where people learn to communicate by
LEARNING THE LEXICOGRAMMAR
(structures) (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-
Freeman, 1999).
The main objective is to know the grammar
structures and depart from there to produce
language.
In class students learn grammar by learning
the grammar rules, how to use certain
grammar, when and where. Students are
taught the rules explicitly and they then have
controlled practice to learn the grammatical
point.
 Which is which?
Situation: look at the two activities and think of the approach to teaching in
each case.

Read the following text and fill in the blanks with the correct form of the
verb in brackets

Yesterday, I ________________(watch) TV when suddenly I _________(hear) a

noise. Even though I ______(be) scared, I _______________(open) the door.
Luckily, it ______(be) my cat Pebbles, he ______(be) cold.

Read the following text and fill in the blanks with the words given.

Yesterday, I _______________ TV when suddenly I _________a noise. Even

though I ______ scared, I _________the door. Luckily, it ______my cat Pebbles,
he ______cold.

was watching opened- was was was heard -

Read the following text and fill in the blanks with the correct form of the
verb in brackets

Yesterday, I ________________(watch) TV when suddenly I _________(hear) a

noise. Even though I ______(be) scared, I _______________(open) the door.
Luckily, it ______(be) my cat Pebbles, he ______(be) cold.

If you pay attention to the instructions of the activity, the focus of the activity
is on form.
You do not need to know the meaning of the text, you need to determine
the tense and aspect you need to fill in the gap. Once you know this, you
can do the task.
You need to find the time reference to know whether the exercise is correct
or not.
This type of task is called exercise because it is mechanical and form-
focused.
The aim is accuracy.
This approach is associated with a behaviorist methodology and a
positivistic philosophy.
 Read the following text and fill in the blanks with the words given.

Yesterday, I _______________ TV when suddenly I _________a noise. Even

though I ______ scared, I _________the door. Luckily, it ______my cat Pebbles,
he ______cold.

was watching opened- was were - was was heard -

If you analyze the instructions, the students need to fill out the gaps with the
words given. In this case you are not paying attention to form but to
meaning and context.
As you can see, the words given are in the correct form the students need
to use it. For this reason the main purpose is communicative.
You need to understand the whole text to determine where each word
should be put.
Distractors can be used to avoid multiple errors because of a single
mistake.
The students are constructing the text, that is why this type of task is linked
to the constructivist paradigm.
It is not this particular case, but it may happen that more than one word
can collocate. And there can be more than one version of the text.
 A key element to be an effective teacher is to know

how to give INSTRUCTIONS

SHORT DEMONSTRATE OR
MODEL THE TASK
SIMPLE

DONT GIVE ALL

BREAK DOWN THE INSTRUCTIONS AT
INSTRUCTIONS INTO ONCE.
MANAGEABLE CHUNKS

CHECK INSTRUCTIONS:
MAKE INSTRUCTIONS LOGICAL ASK A STUDENT TO
AND COHERENT EXPLAIN, EVEN IN L1.

Adapted from: Harmer, J. (2012). Essential teacher knowledge. Harlow, England: Pearson
 Now lets focus on the task:
Reading, listening, writing, speaking, thinking?

After students understand the title and the

instructions they feel at ease and motivated
to perform the task.

They also serve as part of the scaffolding

we need to provide the students with.

They can be used as a transition when the

activities do not seem to be very
connected in terms of content.

Instructions are a departing point

for any type of activity
The use of pre-activities: Characteristics of the tasks: The use of post-activities:
You can use more than Communicative Again, students can
one task. Challenging (level + 1) connect the task to their
To activate schemata Authentic or pseudo own life.
To work with peoples authentic. Problem-based learning.
feelings. Students must know the Opportunity for
To connect students with how. reflection.
their experience and Purposeful Continue with the flow of
context. With proper scaffolding. the class.
To provide proper Appropriate for a multi- A natural transition from
scaffolding. level group. the activity to these
To set the context for the With an information gap, activities.
task and the unit. opportunity for feedback An opportunity to keep
To give the students and choice of language. on learning and growing.
useful language to Problem-based learning. Keep the communicative
promote ss approach.
achievement.
LANGUAGE SKILLS
These are the traditional
skills. In the past authors
talked about these skills as
passive and active. The
active ones are writing and
speaking because students
are doing something, are
performing something. The
passive ones are listening
and reading.
However, most authors
state that students are
actively working when they
read and listen.
Some authors include a
new skill.
 As theorists (Kizlik, 2013) have
included thinking as another
skill to develop, we have to
consider the following:

The development of critical

thinking as part of our philosophy
of teaching and frame of
reference.
How to turn mechanical activities
into thinking ones.
How to use problem-based
learning and project-based
learning more in my daily
classes.
How many opportunities for
reflection are given to students.
How often I promote lively
discussions in class
How much I value students
opinions

Adapted from: http://www.adprima.com/thinkskl.htm