Idea — Eliciting means drawing language from learners rather than presenting it. The teacher asks, waits, and lets learners arrive at the answer. Example — ‘This word is the opposite of generous. What do you…
Idea — Silence in a speaking task is not always a problem. It may signal thinking or genuine engagement. Diagnose before intervening. Example — A three-second pause before a complex question is processing time, not…
Idea — Pronunciation matters for intelligibility — can the listener understand? Not native-likeness, but enough accuracy to prevent communication breakdown. Example — A mispronounced vowel (‘ship’/’sheep’) may cause confusion; a non-native accent rarely does. Teach…
Idea — While learners speak, the teacher monitors: listening for errors, noting effective language, ensuring the task is working. Monitoring is not hovering. Example — Good monitoring means moving quietly, listening briefly, moving on —…
Idea — Feedback on speaking is either immediate (on-the-spot correction) or delayed (after the task). In freer tasks, delay is usually preferable — it protects fluency. Example — During a role-play, collect errors without interrupting.…
Idea — In an information-gap activity, two learners hold different information and must exchange it to complete the task. Neither can finish without the other. Example — Student A has a timetable with gaps; Student…
Idea — Role-play gives learners a persona and a situation, separating their language performance from their social identity. It reduces inhibition and produces target register. Example — ‘You are returning a faulty phone. Your partner…
Idea — A good discussion task has a genuine information or opinion gap — learners must talk because they don’t all hold the same answer. Example — ‘Is social media good or bad?’ has no…
Idea — Freer tasks give learners a communicative goal with minimal language constraint. Success means achieving the goal, not producing a specific target form. Example — ‘Plan a weekend trip with your partner. Budget: £50.’…
Idea — Controlled practice keeps language use tightly constrained — learners produce target forms with minimal creative choice. It builds form confidence before fluency work. Example — Substitution drills, prompt-and-response, and dialogue repetition with one…