Idea — Thirty-one days of productive skills: accuracy and fluency, controlled and freer practice, discussion tasks, feedback slots, process and product writing, cohesion, register, and staging. Example — Quick-fire: What is an information-gap task? (D188)…
Idea — Real language use rarely isolates a skill. A well-designed lesson threads reading, listening, speaking, and writing through one topic — each skill feeds the next naturally. Example — Read an article → discuss…
Idea — Common errors: correcting during fluency tasks; no model before freer practice; open prompts with no outcome; giving the answer before learners self-correct; no feedback slot. Example — A teacher who corrects every speaking…
Idea — Writing lesson order: lead-in → model text analysis → planning → first draft → peer or teacher feedback → redraft → self-edit. Each stage is teachable. Do not skip to ‘just write.’ Example…
Idea — Speaking lesson order: lead-in → model the task → analyse language → controlled practice → freer practice → feedback slot. The model shows what done well looks like. Example — Skip the model…
Idea — Do not teach every pronunciation point — teach the ones that affect intelligibility. Word stress, sentence stress, and key sounds cause most misunderstandings. Example — Stress shift changes meaning: ‘REcord’ (noun) vs ‘re-CORD’…
Idea — Monologue tasks build extended turn-taking: describing, narrating, presenting. Dialogue tasks build interaction: initiating, responding, clarifying, negotiating. Both are real speaking sub-skills. Example — Monologue: present your hometown to a new colleague (two minutes).…
Idea — Dictogloss: the teacher reads a short text at natural speed. Learners take notes, then reconstruct it in groups. They produce their own version — not a transcription. Learning happens in the gap. Example…
Idea — Direct correction gives learners the answer; an error code (WW = wrong word; T = tense; Sp = spelling) asks them to find and fix it. Codes are slower but build independence. Example…
Idea — Emails and messages are among the most frequent writing tasks learners face outside class. Teach them as genres with conventions: subject line, greeting, purpose, action, close. Example — Formal request email: subject line…