Idea — Discussion tasks vary in cognitive and linguistic difficulty. Match the demand to the level: A2 needs concrete familiar topics with scaffolding; C1 can handle abstract contested ideas without support. Example — A2: “What…
Idea — Role-plays succeed when learners know their character, situation, and goal before they begin. Context cards do this work. Correction happens after — never interrupt a role-play mid-scene. Example — Card: “You are a…
Idea — An information gap works only when each learner has information the other genuinely lacks — not when both could look at the same sheet. The communicative need must be real, not simulated. Example…
Idea — Drilling is repetition for pronunciation and automatisation. Move from choral (everyone together) to individual (one learner) to substitution (swap one element). Never drill before meaning is clear. Example — Choral: “She’s been working…
Idea — Freer practice gives learners a communicative goal and allows any language to reach it. The target structure may appear but is not forced — fluency and meaning come first. Example — After drilling…
Idea — Controlled practice limits what learners can say to focus attention on one language point. It is not natural language, but it reduces cognitive load while a new form is being automatised. Example —…
Idea — Fluency means communicating without excessive hesitation; accuracy means using language correctly. Teachers must choose which to prioritise in each task — correcting mid-flow kills fluency. Example — A discussion task aims for fluency:…
Idea — Productive skills — speaking and writing — require learners to generate language, not just receive it. They are demanding because accuracy, fluency, and appropriacy must align at the same moment. Example — A…
Idea — Month 6 covered the foundations of receptive-skills teaching: top-down and bottom-up processing, task sequencing, text types, and techniques from lead-ins to jigsaw listening. Example — The lesson sequence from Day 180 — lead-in…
Idea — A receptive-skills lesson follows: lead-in → pre-teach blocking vocabulary → gist task → detailed task → response or production. Each stage has a specific cognitive purpose — skip one and the sequence breaks.…