Cognetive theory: A multi-disiplinary issue, concerned with the study of the human mind from a comprehensive point of view. Hence it takes into account past and present implications.
1/ The first trend that brought some developments in cognetive theory was Anthropology which is concerned with the findings of ancient societies; their scripts, monuments, tools...etc.
2/ The second trend that had an influence in cognetive theory was Linguistics which focused on the analysis and interpretation of languages (Old grammars, Structuralism, Transformationalism...etc) which considered language as a product of a devine power and recently as an innate quality of humans used for communication.
3/ The third trend that contributed in the evolution of cognetive theory was psychology because it described the human individual behaviour according to (Stimulus-Response-Reward Principle) and added gestalt (Pattern) explanation of individual series of actions. This in return, led to further explorations of the human mind that we now call cognetive theory.
4/ The fourth trend was computer sciences which invented technological machines for the purpose of storing information and reckon quickly. The growth of electronic industry and the developments in nano-technology provided modern machines which rely on electronic impulses to feed information, process and store data in an artificial memory called the hard disk.
5/ Neurosciences explored the human drain and attempted how it works. Neurology can now easily describe the brain through lateralisation (left and right himospheres), lobes (frontal, parrental, temporal, occipital), and visual and inferotemporal cortex. The human brain is said to function according to impluses (chemical/electric) sent by the senses to particular parts of the brain which use neurones to process and store information in short term and long term memory.

Short-term memory
Short-term memory is called short because of the two main reasons. one is the time taken (memory span approximatly0.7 seconds) and the limited number of items a person can focus his attention on. What happens in short-term memory can have a number of explanation by different psychologists. from the 1990s onward short-term memory came to be called Active Dynamic Working Memory specially Greene.J 1987 considered that short-term memory is the area of mental processing of information. It is the place where items of information are activated either by retrieving previous information or perceiving new information through our senses. It is a very dynamic activity which works on old and new information simultaneously. Greene 1987 says: "Active working memory is a shift from short-term memory" being a work space in which new inputs can be recieved and information from long term memory can be retrieved. Working memory is necessary for cognetive functions which depend on an interaction between old and new information. The emphasis of working memory research on active pricessing replaced the traditional concept of short-term memory as a passive store of to-be-remembered ietms, which had to be continiously rehearsed if they were not to be forgotten. We can then add that both short term and long term memory make us able to learn and process information. However this activity maybe affected by "the number of items the human being is able to consider simultaneously"; "the state of consciousness or awareness of the problems we are working on"; it contains only a subset of all the vast ammount of passive knowledge available to us. Fantana 1995 considers that short and long term memory are interdependent and states that: "Psychological devision is purely for pedagogical reasons". (Gardner 1991, the frames of mind). Gardner suggests intellegences:
1/ Interpersonal intellegence: The ability to understand intention, desires, motivations of people.
2/ The spactial intellegence: The ability to feel space, colour, shape, form, size, it is the ability to graphically represent spetial ideas.
3/ Logical mathimatical intellegence: The ability to use numbers effectively and consequently adaprt their properties to various reasoning contexts.
4/ Verbal and linguistic intellegence: the capacity to use language in speaking or writting it is also the manupilation of syntax, semantics and pragmatics of the language.
5/ Bodily kinaesthetic intellegence: The ability to use one's body to express ideas and feelings or to solve problems.
6/ Interpersonal intellegence: The ability to understand one's strength, weakness, mood and intention.
7/ Musical intellegence: The ability to sense rythm, pitch and melody.
8/ Naturalist intellegence: The ability to distinguish flora and fauna, clouds and rocks and make best use of them.

Learning and information processing
Both incidental and intentional learning are the result of willingness and motivation. External stimuly and environment contribute to make changes in addition to insights.A series or continious changes:
1/ Attention: Attention starts when the senses are activated (sight, hearning) in order to perceive the new items.
2/ Perceiving: Perception is the activation of the sensory memory (emidiate memory) that makes a relationship between the senses and the interpretaion of visual and auditory items.
3/ Identification: At the level of identification qualities are attributed to the new items.
4/ Recognetion: Thsi stage of learning is also the imidiate activation of -already identified information- activation of knowledge in dynamic working memory.
5/ Storage: Storage requires the ability of understanding a new item and classify it in the long term memory. Understand consequently relies on attributing symantic qualities to the new items so that they can be reused.
6/ Retrieval: The ability of the mind to find a previous knowledge up into the present moment. It requires locating that information within a network of semantic relations (meaning relations).
7/ Rehearsal: Keep learning effective because it provides many occasions for repetition, application and practice of using the same items. The acquired knowledge becomes part of the tactical, strategic behaviour of the individual.
ATTENTION-PERCEPTION-UNDERSTANDING-STORAGE-RETRIEVAL-REHEARSAL
Bottom-up, top-down and schematic processing, the cognetive acts of understanding, storage, retrieval and rehearsal are not performed at random; they are organised in a process that makes the individual use them easily and imidiatly. Many scholars in psychology of learning tried to explain this organisation by providing models of information processing.
1/ Bottom-up processing: This model explains information processing and learning by the accumulation of language and knowledge elements from the bottom-up to reach a linguistic competence; this ammount of knowledge. Provides the learner with accuracy (grammatical correctness) and a wide language repertoire (diction). Most structuralist scholars and psychologists consider it as a synthetic learning process through which the leaner assembles the elements he acquires to build-up his own knowledge of language.
2/ Top-down processing: This model explains information processing through investment of language and knowledge elements in a wholistic, analytic way by considering every instance of learning as a global picture, identifying the elements to be learned and store them in mind to be reused appropriatly in any other new learning situation. This process favours the development of linguistic performance. Although the two models represent a dichotomy, most scholars, consider them nowadays as complimentary. The individual learner uses usually an intermidiate model which combains both top-down and bottom-up processing.
3/ Schematic processing: The term schema/schemata in used to define and explain a frame of meaning representation in the networks of symantic memory. A schema is stereotypic representation of knowledge in one's mind which opens up to digest (process) new elements of meaning. And hence the schema may share elements of meaning that is why most schemas overlap.

Learning process and affective factors
1/ Motivation: The enternal drive characterised by the willingness, desire, determination, curiousity, explanation, self-esteem, incentives and knowledge of results. Given these varied characteristics scholars identify motivation as integrative/instrumental:
A- Integrative motivation: Is the desire of the learner to learn the language and at the same time integrate someaspects of the cultural community features. Some learners learn or acquire a language because they like its poetry, music, arts..., and hence integrate that community cultural features by adding-up clothing, food, ways of like.
B- Instrumental motivation: Is characterised by knowledge of results and purpose; many people nowadays learn or acquire a foreign or second language because they want to reach an objective, or achieve a result at the end of the learning process. In addition to what the learner has now, she/he may want to improve his social status, find a job, travel abroad, settle somewhere in a foreign country, fulfil higher education requirements, or just do some kind of business with a foreign partner.
The term integrative and instrumental seen relevant to acquisition and learning of languages but do not fit to explain all human behaviour. other scholars preferto use the terms intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as characteristics of learning styles and personality. Intrinsic is, the, considered as a high internal drive and desire for learning. However, extrinsic motivation is considered as a high reliability on and correlation with incentives, reward, and knowledge of results.
2/ Affect:The affective factors and anxiety: The affective state of the learner proved its importance in the acquisition/learning process according to many scholars. The most important study in this field was the affective filter hypothesis/theory proposed by Krashen, S.D. 1982 "Principles and practice in 2nd language acquisition" Krashen hypothesis in this theory that if the learner is exposed to an ammount of input of material (the context of language and knowledge) that she/he learns in good affective atmosphere, anxiety will be reduced and consequently his in-take will increase; this in-take will represent the ammount of output that the learner will be able to use. However, if the affective atmosphere is affected by frustration, fear of failure and punishment, the affective filter will increase anxiety and reduce classroom atmosphere, and types of activities undertaken by the learner is obvious through language games, information transfer activities and classroom interaction.

Learning styles and strategies
Cognetive, affective, psychological traits which are indecators of how learners perceive, interact with and respond to learning environment.
Brown considers five lerning styles:
1/ Field Dependent/Independent (wholist/serialist) : Field indepedent learners have a tendency to perceive a particular ietm, concentrate on it, analyse its variables in comparison to other items inorder to create a whole environment of knowledge. In real language learning situations appropriate communicative reactions require pragmatics field independent styles. Field dependent learners have a tendency to understand learning as a whole picture and use a general configuration of a problem or an event which they comprehensively percieve all together as a whole system, they break down that whole picture into parts.
2/ Left/Right Brain dominance:
Left brain dominance learners use alot of neurological activities in the left hymosphere. They have a tendency to remember names, respond to verbal langauge, read analytically, prefer to talk and write and solve logical problems. They also tend to think logically, make objective judgments,rely on language to think and remember and control their feelings. They are generally said to be intellectual. However right brain dominance learners use a lot of neurological activities in the right hymosphere they have a tendency to remember faces, respond to demonstration, visual and symbolic instructions, read synthetically and prefer to draw and manupilate objects, solve problems intutively. They tend to think intutively and make subjective judgments. They rely on images to think and remember but have more freedom of feelings. They are said to be intutive and artist.
3/ Visual/Auditory Styles: As a learning style symbolic or verbal language is important to broden one's knowledge. Although they are considered distinct in the left/right brain dominance they are still prefered tendencies for learners. Some learners prefer to read, study charts, learning maps and other graphically represented information. However other learners prefer listening to lectures. Brown 2000 p 121 distinguishes the prominance of visual or auditory styles according to cultural background and educational background.
4/ Introvert/Extrovert: Introvert/extrovert styles of learning are much more relatedto the psychological mood and temper of the learner they represent personality tendencies of being reflected or impulsives. While and introvert reflective learner tends to be slow at learning,taking risks wisely and making calculated decisions, an extrovert impulsive learner tends to be quick at learning, taking a lot of risks, making gambling guesses, leading to learning by trail and error. The reflective learner has got intrinsic qualities of motivation and less metacognetive strategies.
5/ Tolerance/Intolerance of Ambiguity: Tolerant/Intolerant style is a condition of personality actors, educational and cultural attitudes towards differences. A learner who tolerates ambiguity can distinguish easily and accept differences in the foreign language speech habbits, speech co-articulations, symantic variation and syntactic relations. He is much mre tolerant of conflicting cultural issues of his own culture with the target language culture. A learner who does not tolerate ambiguity would face difficulties to cope with speech varaition, mainly syntactic organisations in the foreign language, a misinterpretation of cultural topics of the target language.
Strategies: Learning strategies are specific ways, or tactful learning actions undertaken by the learners. They may desire from styles, however they represent what every individual does while learning. The extent of their use varies from one person to another. Their study explains individual differences among a learning population. Consequently teachers should vary their teaching techniques and activities so that the learner have opportunities to use their own strategies.
Direct strategies:
They are called direct (Oxford 19901) because they are derived from the sencory and cognetive abilities of the mind.
Oxford (ebid) draws three sub categories of direct strategies.
Memory strategies:
They are actions or operations of perception (visula, verbal) which help the learner link the new items with the old ones as a process of understanding, storage, retrieval and rehearsal.
Cognitive strategies:
They are elaborate, complex, and pragmatic mental operations that the mind undertakes in order to improve one’s knowledge, communicate with the external world, and interpret/ defend opinions and arguments.
Compensation strategies:
Whenever the learner faces difficulties of finding solutions to understanding or communication problems, he would try to compensate for that problem/failure; the learner may use the mother tongue, rely on others for help or use other alternatives to overcome the difficulties.
Indirect strategies:
Are not directly related to the mind as they represent one’s organisation of thinking, affect and social relations.
Metacognetive strategies: Metacognetive is generally known as an awareness of one’s potentials, abilities, skills and knowledge, and a regulation, organisation, and correction of one’s abilities.
“We can’t correct something without evaluating it”
These strategies are also called “high order skills” (higher that cognetion) because they guide the learner to improve his/her language skills or any other skills.
Affective strategies:
They are related to personal feelings, mood and temper which may affect one’s potentials for learning. Anxiety represents here a negative factor for learning; it has been distinguished as a major variable by (Krashen 1982) and consequently teachers are adviced to lower it. Individual learners can lower their anxiety, on their own, by: meditation, music, humour…
Social strategies: As every individual learner is a member of a social group, he undertakes social relations with members of that group; let it be the familly, a class, a sport’s team, a crew or any other professional communities. Learners who have and use social strategies generally develop good public relations.

Here’s how to « Bloom-ise » your lessons
Use these key words to bloomise your lessons, no matter what subject you teach. Ask questions and provide verbal and written instructions that contain these thought-provoking language power words.
Knowledge: Who, What, Where, When, Which, How many, Name, Identify, Remember.
Comprehension: Describe, explain, in your own words, compare, contrast.
Application: Solve, what else, name of other, instead of, choose, apply, what is, sort, list.
Analysis: Why, how, describe, give reasons, identify, analyze.
Synthesis: Create, develop, devise, suppose, predict, what if, think of, invent.
Evaluate: Decide, judge, discuss, choose, recommend, give opinion, which do you prefer, explain why.
Taxonomy of Thinking Levels
Thinking Levels Cue words : Instructions
KNOWLEDGE
Recall
Remembering previously learned material Observe Memorize Repeat
Recall Label/Name Recount
Cluster Sort List
Outline/Format stated Record Define
Match
COMPREHENSION
Translate
Grasping the meaning of material Recognize Locate Identify
Restate Paraphrase Tell
Describe Report Express
Explain Review Cite
Document/Support Summarize Precise/Abstract
APPLICATION
Generalize : Using learned material in new and concrete situations Select Use Manipulate
Sequence Organize Imitate/Show
Demonstrate Frame How to
Apply Dramatize Illustrate
Test/Solve Imagine/Information known
ANALYSIS : Breaking down material into its component parts so that it may be more easily understood Examine Classify/Distinguish Differentiate
Outline/No format given Map Relate to
Characterize Compare/Contrast Research
Analyze Conclude (draw conclusions)
Question
SYNTHESIS : Compose putting material together to form a new whole Propose Plan Compose
Formulate Design Construct
Imitate Imagine/Speculate Create/Invent
EVALUATION : Judging the value of material for a given purpose Compare Prioritize/Rank Judge/Value
Decide Rate/Assess Evaluate
Criticize Argue Justify
Convince Persuade Predict

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2.0 Semantico-grammatical categories:
2.1.0 Time
In many, though not all, languages it is scracely possible to produce a sentence without being involved in expressing time concepts. This is because tense systems tend to require choices based on time. We commonly indicate time by relating an event to the moment of utterance. In this sense, time might be considered partly a deictic category. However for convenience both deictic and non-deictic aspects of time are considered together here.
Point of time
Although the importance and exact significance of time indicators varies according to culture, they are obviously and important part of the speaker's repertoire. The prominance given to expressions of time in language courses is a fair sign of this. Grammatically, points of time are usually expressed through adverbials:
e.g now, then
on Monday the 23rd of April 1957
at twenty-five past eight
yesterday, today, tomorrow
this/yesterday/to-morrow morning
this/last/next month
It is interesting to note how many time expressions are deictic.
That is to say, it is not possible to know the exact time referred to without knowing either the linguistic or the situational (temporal) context. While this is evident with expressions like now, then, this morning, it is not so apparent with on Monday January 1st. yet in the context I shall have a new car…, this can only mean next January, that is the first January after the moment of utterance. In response to the question when did you last see him?, it would refer to January 1st previous to the moment of utterance. Even quite narrowly specified points of time can take the moment of utterance as their point of utterance.
Time expressions are commonly taught as almost fixed phrases with limited productivity. However, points of time can equally be indicated through time clauses and through embedded sentences.
It must be finished when I come back
It must be finished by six o'clock
It must be finished by the time I leave
In these particular examples the time indicates the termination of an event, but it could equally mark its inception or the limits of its duration. The potential for embedding sentences in such time expressions offers a vast range of communicative potential, but, equally an adequate competence exists even where a speaker has not mastered this kind of grammatical feature. It is likely that in a pedagogic ordering the embedded constructions would be deferred until later stages of learning.
2.1.2 Duration
The need to express periods of time may not be as essential as the need to express points of time, but languages nonetheless possess a range of resources which can be exploited for this purpose. A period of time may be denoted by explicit statement of its duration or by reference to its inception or termination. In English at least these distinctions are made by use of prepositional phrases:
e.g. for five years
until six o'clock
since Monday
from Monday
Lexical constructions are also possible including some which in a different context may refer to points of time:
e.g. all the day
the whole day
this week
last year
A comparable range of clausal constructions is available in English, introduced by such conjunctions as while, when, since and until. Expressions of points of time can be embedded to indicate the beginning or end of periods:
e.g. she stayed at work until just before the clock struck seven
It is not unusual for languages to have the means of categorising events as punctual or durative by grammatical devices. The progressive (be+ -ing) form in English is sometimes described as a durative, although the present itself is only occasionally punctual. The system of English requires the speaker to mark an event (verb) as durative or non-durative. A language like French expresses duration throught periphrasis and the tense system possesses forms which are not marked as either durative or non-durative:
e.g. je lis
je suis en train de lire
2.1.3 Time relations
One of the major tasks that faces anyone learning a European language is acquiring the formal systems through which time relations are expressed. Events are placed in time by being related to the moment of speech and to time axes that have been established by other events. A characteristic of European language is that these relations are expressed principally through verb forms (tenses), but this is not universally the case and there are many languages where verb forms are invariable and time relations are expressed by other devices.
In a notional approach we take a logical devision of time as the strating-point. Such a devision would need to go beyond a simple three-term system of past, present and future, since each of these may be oriented. A system like the following, therefore, would be capable of handling more subtle time distinctions.













We may consider that the revolution in the study of the language started from the introduction of the concept of DEEP STRUCTURE which was determined by CHOMSKY 1965 “Aspects of the Theory of Syntax”. This idea explains that the concepts of grammar are universal, common to all human beings; however they are different when they are expressed at the surface structure that is why Chomsky’s theory came to be called GENERATIVE. It means that every human being who has a conceptual framework of grammar is able to generate or create an infinite number of grammatical sentences.
The concept of time used to be structurally explained according to tenses and adverbs however according to these categories (of Wilkins) time is divided into sub-concepts: Point of time (a date, a moment, a period, a day, a month, a year).Duration of a particular action or event through time (continuous action) a period of time is determined by two particular moments or points of time the Beginning and the End of the action. Time relations which serve to distinguish the different tenses and their relationships by fixing a point of time; either in the present, the past or the future helps the human beings build tense relations with reference to the fixed point of time.
Time can be expressed in many categories and that is why we have a variety of tenses relative to culture and language. Frequency of the action through time explains how many times an action happens it is generally expressed in adverb or adverbial phrase. Another type of sub-time relations is the Sequence of actions or events. Other scholars like Trimble 1985 “EST discourse approach” call this category time order which expresses chronological order, natural order, numerical order, and order determined by the speaker or writer.
Quality is a concept which is a set of characteristics, features, attributes to a particular element in acquisition we need to perceive every element by identifying and recognising its qualities which maybe sub-divided into further subcategories like shape, size, colour, age, substance, smell ...etc which are generally expressed by adjectives.
Quantity is also a concept which helps us perceive the world around us according to amounts that we can divide and count and other amounts that we cannot divide and count. Words which express the unity of human beings, animals, substance or matter which cannot be precisely counted are said to be uncountable. However our perception of things that we can divide and count would lead us to use new words and mathematical operations to divide and count establishing tools of measurement.
Science knowledge is a matter of culture: Science fiction.
Space is a very complex and large concept, which helps us understand our physical environment. Its representation in our mind helps us also to remember the absence of a given space that we had already seen and imagine fictitious and virtual spaces. The concept of space helps us determine the location of a place (where we live or other places), the direction to other places, (to school, North, East or West depending where we are), the distance between place (time and duration of a journey from one place to another).
Motion and speed through space develops as an experience of measuring distance and velocity (the speed between two objects in motion); children develop this concept gradually.
Meaning relation and relational meaning: (Abu Hamid Elgazzali).
The conceptual framework is very dynamic in the human brain. It helps us determine who did what, to whom, when and where and with what results and benefits. This complex framework is deeply rooted in all humans’ minds, but it’s syntactically represented at the surface structure by different terms, combinations and sequences. Hence, categories of relational meaning can be the agent of an action which can be also the instrument of the action. The effect of the action is distinguished in direct and indirect objects, beneficiary (who takes advantage from the action) or the instruments which carry the action. This network of conceptual cognitive meanings is not exhaustive (not finished, unlimited) and cannot be generalised because it is culture and language specific.
Epistemology (the way we organise ideas together to make a line of thought): is the field which explains the order and relationships of ideas to create a piece of discourse in speech and writing. Coherence of the ideas is basically realised by the logical relations between the subjects, attributes and predicates and reference to persons, objects, time, place, gender, number... At the surface structure these are categorised as nouns, adjectives, adverbs of time and place, prepositions, verbs, pronouns and auxiliaries...
Modality: at surface level of language modality is divided into a set of modal verbs (will, must, shall, should, may, could). However, at the conceptual level modality is divided into scales of certainty and degrees of committement. The scales of certainty vary according to objectivity and possibility. Objectivity is a distinction between what is and what is not (confirmation, affirmation, negation). Possibility represents all the scales that vary between Yes and No; they are degrees of (certainty, probability, possibility, uncertainty).
These degrees of certainty may also vary according to personal opinions when the individual expresses his notions of conviction, assumption, doubts and disbelief. This scale of personal modality gets more engagement when the person expresses his/her intentions or obligations.
Value judgement and Argumentation: communicating concepts to others: activating meaning in mind is prior to any language expres​sion(ideas before words). Every idea we want to express is valued/judged/estimated before it is expressed. The quality of the idea we want to express is primarily appreciated as an assessment of evidence, condition, cause, effect which the person would approve, disapprove or conciliate. The purpose of expressing these concepts is to convince, persuade other people of our value judgement. Persuasion leads to suggesting, advising, ordering, predicting and warning.
Arguments: argumentation in the most complex conceptual stage because it requires the use of all the concepts discussed so far (relational meaning, value judgment, persuasion). Building an argument is based on determining a position (your stance or value judgment), supporting your position with arguments or details (logical patterns of causality and result, condition and prediction, or natural order of time patterns and space patterns).









Cognitive Development of the child and Language Acquisition
The bubbling stage is universal because all humans use their lips to block and release air or let it escape through the nose. Hence, the sounds “B” and “M” are produced first in comparison to other bilabials, labiodentals, dentals and alveolar, later on children develop other fricatives, velars sounds and affricates.
The acquisition of vocabulary with the combination of syllables helps the child to perceive and name all items around him. This specific function of identification and recognition takes two dimensions; either the words are used for abstractions of feelings, mood or ideas, or these words are used for generalisations of the specific features to other similar items.
Example1: the word bread maybe used for specification or abstraction; the specification is directly referring to food, while the abstraction is referring to hunger.
Example2: the word dog may specifically refer to that domestic animal as it may also refer to a generalised concept of animals with four legs and a tail (generalisation of a scheme).
Semantic markers and meaning relations are characterised by the attribution of semantic relations to particular words. The most elementary semantic feature is the role of the word which may act as an agent, an action or an object.
Example1: the word Dad may mean dad has come in/arrived.
Example2: the word bottle may mean I want to drink.
Example3: Mom mom mom! Would mean give me some sweets.
Building semantic relations between words requires the use of semantic markers (definite, indefinite, direct, indirect, tense, transitivity ...). Children use correctly or incorrectly until they develop an internalised competence for correctness. This competence becomes obvious not by stating rules but by correcting the others when making mistakes.
The second stage is the two-words utterance one characteristic feature of the two-word utterance is the Pivot grammar where the child would use a limited number of pivot single words in these utterances there is always a central word considered as a pivot (the number of pivot words is limited and increases slowly over time) around which the child would add many other words (with less frequency) to create more meaning relations. The regularity and the frequency of words added to the pivot are unpredictable.
Language production characteristics beyond the pivot grammar children have a tendency to produce
A Telegraphic Speech consisting of different word classes without cohesive markers. This speech implies various meaning interpretations depending on context and word order.
Word order is the order of words in a given utterance is generally known as SVO (subject, verb, and object) but this is not to be generalised to all languages (in Arabic it’s not the case verb, subject, and object) which may have other conventions. Hence, according to the exposure of children to their native language, they develop the appropriate, socially accepted word order. Mastering this syntactic order with the use of cohesive markers occurs during the pre-operational stage where the child tests his intuitive/symbolic meaning against social conventions of language: he rehearses syntactic structures intuitively through the commonly known egocentric speech
Egocentric speech it’s called egocentric because it is a language addressed to oneself. The ego representing a state of consciousness becomes the centre of the speech behaviour. It seems that children tell stories to themselves even in the absence of other people around them. Creating scenarios, imagining communicative contexts with others or answering questions when they are not asked. This self-direction, self-correction, ands self-esteem helps the child develop an internalised system of grammatical correctness and social appropriateness.

Equipment and Teaching Aids
The Board
Definition of a Teaching Aid
A teaching aid is any piece of equipment that can be used to help the students learn. Examples of teaching aids include : the blackboard, a tape recorder, a CD player, computers or a language laboratory.
The Board
The most fundamental teaching aid and the most versatile piece of equipment is the board whether this is of the more traditional chalk-dust variety or the withboard, written on with marker pens. Interestingly, boards provide a motivating focal point during whole-class grouping.
2.1 Uses of the Board
We can use boards for a variety of different purposes, including :
Giving instructions : teachers often use boards to reinforce oral instuctions. For example, just writing up the page number and the exercise on the board in a large class saves a lot of repetition.
Note pad : teachers frequently write things up on the board as these come up during the lesson. They might be words that they want students to remember, phrases which students have not understood or seen before, or topics and phrases which they have elicited from students when trying to build up a composition plan, for instance.
Explanation aid : boards can be used fopr explanation too, where, for example, we show the relationship between an affirmative sentence and a question by drawing connecting arrows. We can show where words go in a sentence by indicating the best positions diagrammatically, or we can write up phonemic symbols (or fraw diagrams of the mouth) to show how a word or a sound is pronounced.
Picture frame : boards can be used for drawing pictures of course, the only limitation concerns our (artistic ability). But we do not have to be genuis at drawing to use pictures and drawings with our students. In fact, the worse the drawing are .. the more fun they are ! Try to master basic stick men and faces with expressions, especially if your students are younger learners.
Drawing pictures on the blackboard is an essential skill for explaining texts and stories to our students. Pr(actise story-telling with basic pictures on the board. Remember you can ask your students out to the board to draw too – this is a fun activity at whatever level. You can create picture stories with your students and use these for further oral or written work.
Other visuals which are useful to draw are large-scale pictures such as maps, a plan of a town, a plan of a house/school/new buidling etc.
Displaying : you can use the large surface of your board to display all sorts of items – posters, pictures and charts. Use large pictures for class oral work but have students come out to the board to point to or talk about various items. Magazine pictures can be used for a variety of oral activities.
Try to encourage students to come out to the board to choose, select, order or describe pictures. All of these will make your classroom more interactive and avoid too much teacher talking time.
You can display other items such as authentic materials – e.g. maps, adverts, photos, as well as learners’ own work.
Playing games : a number of games can be played using just the board. With noughts and crosses, for example, teachers can draw nine box frames and write different words or categories in each box. Teams have to make sentences or questions with the words, square to draw their winning straight line.
A popular spelling game involves two team who start off with the same word. Each team had half the board. They have to fill up their side with as many words as possible, but each new word has to start with the last letter of the word before. At the end of a given period of time the team with the biggest number of correct words is the winner.
2.2 Board Basics
Your students should have a clear, uninterrupted view of the board. Becareful that you do not block learners sitting at the sides of the room. When you write something on the board move away quickly so that students can see what you have written.
Especially with classes of young learners you need to develop the ability to write on the board with eyes in the back of your head. Do not turn your back on the class for too long. This tends to de demotivating and may cause the class to become restless. Good teachers have the ability to write on the board while still keeping a sharp eye on their students, and it would be better to invilve the students with the board as much as possible, either getting to tell us what to write or using them to do the writing themselves.
Write clearly on the board and make sure that you have written words/text big enough for everyone to see from the back of the class. With chalk and blackboard make sure that you wash the board often so that writing stays clear. With a withboard make sure that the pen you are using is in a colour that everyone can rea – black or blue are best.
Check what you write as you write. Many students have visual memories so we must becareful about accuracy of spelling and grammar, especially if we intend students to copy it down in their notebooks to learn.
Check with your students that they are ready for you to clean the board. If you are waiting for some students to finish copying or doing an exercise do not leave the others twiddling their thumbs. Ask them to make a personalised example or start the warm-up for the next exercise orally.
2.3. Organising the Board
If your board is messy and untidy then what your students write in their notebooks will be messy too.
It is a good idea to divide your board into sections. Have one part for use during the explanation of the lesson which can be cleaned off and reused. Use another part for important information which can stay ther for the whole lesson. For example, you could write up a list of the basic aims/activities for the lesson so that your students know what is coming. Tick items off as they are achieved during the class. At the end you can review the lesson aims for students to evaluate what they have leart.
Final Tips
Try to make your board as interactive as possible.
Ask students to come out to draw, write, present or even work. You could allow one group to work at the board when doing a group task.
Use your board as support for your voice – to give instructions, examples and feedback.
You can use board activities as an aid to discipline – settle a noisy class for example by giving a quick copying exercise or work game.
Your board is an organisational tool too. Use it as a memory store for things to do or keep you on track with a lesson. Remember the more organised you are on your board, the more organised your students will be too.
When the class is over, courteous teachers clean the board and lave it ready for their colleagues to use.

The Language Laboratory
What is a Language Laboratory
The language laboratory is an audio-visual installation used as an aid in modern language teaching. They can be found, amongst other places, in schools, universities and academies. Perhaps the first lab was at the University of Grenoble. In the 1950s up until the 1990s, they were tape based systems using reel to reel or (latterly) cassette. Current installations are generally multimedia PCs.
The modern language laboratory has between ten to twenty booths, each equiped with a tape deck, heaphones, microphone, and now computers. The technology is organised in such a way that students can work on their own, can be paired or grouped with other students, or can interact (through their headphones and microphones) on a one-to-one basis with the teacher. The teacher can broadcast the same taped or filmed material to each booth, or can have different students or groups of students work with different material. Students can interact with each other, and written texts can be sent to each computer.
Characteristics e lage ool/new buidling etc.
pictures such as maps, a plan of atownritten work.
nger learners.
3. of language labratories
Language labratories have three special charactersitics which mark them out from other learning resources and teaching aids :
2.1 Double track : the design of tapes and machiones means that students can listen to one track on their tapes and record on another. They can listen back not only to the original recording on the tape, but also to what they themselves said into the microphones which is attached to their headset.
2.2 Teacher access : apart from the the separate language booths, labratories also have console and/or computer terminal manned by a teacher who can not only listen in to individual students, but can also talk, with the use of microphones and headsets, with one student at a time. Modern systems allow teachers to join booths in pairs or groups, irrespective of their position in the laboratory, by selecting them oin the screen. This can be done on the same basis as we create pairs and groups ion classrooms, or by selecting the right command computer randomly.
2.3 Different modes : in computer-equipped labratories, students can all watch a video which the teacher is broadcasting to their individual monitors. An alternative is to have students working with the same material, but at their own individual speed. Thus teachers may broadcast an audiotape which records onto each individual tape at each booth. Each student now can work at his/her leisure. The teacher can also send the same text to each machine for students to read and/or manipulate according to their own needs. Finally, since teachers can group students machanically, each pair or group can be given different material to work with.
Advantages of the language laboratory
Language labratories have special advantages which make them a welcome addition to any school’s resources :
Comparing : the double track allows students to compare the way they say things with the correct pronounciation on a source tape. In this way they can monitor and get feedback on their own performance, even without the intervention of a teacher.
Privacy : students can talk to each other (through their microphones), record onto the tape, wind nad rewind tapes or types on computer keyboards without disturbong their colleagues. Since every student is cocooned by his/her headphones, he/she is guaranteed some privacy, and are free from the intrusion that the work of others would cause in a normal classroom setting.
Individual attention : when teachers want to speak to individual students in a laboratory, they can do that from the console. Unlike the situation in the classroom where this is difficult because it stops them from working with the rest of the class – who may resent such private conversation – in a laboratory all the other students are working away on their own. The attention that the teacher gives to one student does not distract the others.
Learner training : the language laboratory helps students to train some students to really listen to what they say and how they say. When they compare their pronounciation with the correct version on the tape, they begin to notice the differences, and this awareness, over a period of time, helps them to hear and pronounce English better. However, not all students find comparisons easy. Different students are better or worse at hearing sounds. It will be up to the teacher, from the console, to guide individual students who are are experiencing difficulties into noticing differences and similarities.
Learner motivation : a worry about learner autonomy in general is that some students are better at working on their own than others. The language laboratory (where teachers take the whole group into the laboratory) offers a good half-way house between teacher control and learner autonomy since, although students work at their own pace, they are more open to the guidance of the teacher.
Activities in Language Laboratories
Repetition : the simplest use of a double track laboratory is repetition. Students hear a work, phrase, or sentence on the tape. A space (indicated by a bleep or buzz signal) is left for them to repeat what they have heard, and the work, phrase, or sentence is then said again, so that they get instant feedback on whether they have spoken correctly.
Tape voice : information
Buzz signal : ... (Pause of 3 seconds)
Tape voice : information
Drills : based on Audio-lingual methodology, language laboratories have often been used for subsitution drills, using the same basic model as the repetition. The difference is that students have to work out what to say (based on a cue) before the tape voice then gives the correct response.
Tape voice : Do you watch television every night ?
Cue : Three nights.
Buzz signal : (pause)
Tape voice : No, I have not watched TV for three months.
Tape voice : Do you listen to the radio every day ?
Cue : Last Monday.
Buzz signal : (pause)
Tape voice : No, I have not listened to the radio since last Monday.
Speaking : language laboratories can give students the opportunity of speaking (apart from repetition and drilling) in a number of ways. They can record their own talks and speeches and then listen back to them and make adjustments in the same way as they draft and redraft written text in a process-writing approach. But the tape can also ask them a series of questions which encourages them to practise language which they have recently been focusing on as in the following example for beginners :
Tape voice : What is your last name ?
Buzz signal : (pause)
Tape voice : What is your first name ?
Buzz signal : (pause)
Tape voice : Where do you live ?
Buzz signal : (pause)
The teacher can also prepare a topic for students to discuss (in pairs) and ask them to record their discussion on the tape (in this case, one tape recorder with two headsets necessary – if not a monologue will do) and then when they have finished, the teacher may analyse their recordings and look for their strengths and weaknesses with respect to accuracy, fluency, interaction etc. (This exercise is usually a success with more advanced learners).
Parallel speaking : Adrian Underhill gives examples of parallel speaking, where students are encouraged to imitate the way the teachers says something and because of the double-track system, do so at the same time as the teacher is speaking.
From the console the teacher can record a story (first in separate, but late as a whole) onto all the individual stuent machines. At first, as the material recorded the students just listen. But then, once they have the recording of (all or part of) the story, they speak along with the teacher's taped voice, doing their best to imitate the teacher’s pronounciation and the speed at which he/she speaks. According to Underhill, the aim is to try and do the same as the teacher, not because the teacher is right but as an exercise in attention and noticing and to gain insight from experience. Later they record the material independently onto their machines, at later which point the teacher can listen in and give feedback where appropriate.
Listening : listening of all kinds can be practised in the language laboratory. Activities such as note taking, dictation, finding differences between a written text and taped account of the same events, and answering conmprehension questions can all be performed successfully in the laboratory setting. Tapes can be accompanied by written worksheets and/or students can be asked questions on the tape which hey have recorded their answers to on the student track. In computer-equipped laboratories, questions and texts can be provided on the computer screen.
Reading : students can read texts and then record their answers on tape. In computer-equipped laboratories both text and answers can be supplied on the computer screen itself. The teacher can aslo have all students reading material from the same Internet website.
Writing and correcting writing : language laboratories allow teachers to give individual, private spoken feedback on students’ written work. In computer-equipped laboratories students can write at their individual machines and the teacher can then correct their work either orally or in writing since he/she can look at each student’s work from the console.























The Overhead Projector/Bits and Pieces
The Overhead projector
Mechanism
An overhead projector typically consists of a large box containing a very bright lamp and a fan to cool it. On top of the box is a large Fresnel lens that collimates the light. Above the box, typically on a long arm, is a mirror and lens that focuses and redirects the light forward instead of up.
Transparencies are placed on top of the lens for display. The light from the lamp travels through the transparency and into the mirror where it is shore forward onto a screen for display. The mirror allows both the presenter and the audience to see the image at the same time, the presenter looking down at the transparency as if writing, the audience looking forward at the screen. The height of the mirror can be adjusted, to both focus the image and to make the image larger or smaller depending on how close the projector is to the screen.
History
The first overhead projector was used for police identification work. It used a cellophane roll over a 9-inch stage allowing facial characteristics to be rolled across the stage. The U.S. Army in 1945 was the first to use it in quantity for training as World War II wound down. It began to be widely used in schools and businesses in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
A major manufacturer of overhead projectors in this early period was the company 3M. As the demand for projectors grew, Buhl Industries was founded in 1953, and became the leading US contributor for several optical refinements for the Aid to Education program stimulated overhead sales which remained high up to the late 1990s and into the 21st Century.
Use in Education
Overhead projectors (OHPs) are extremely useful pieces of equipment since they allow teachers to prepare visual or demonstration material. They require little technical knowledge, and they are usually easy to carry around. Therefore, it is not surprising they have been widely used.
Just about anything can go on overhead transparencies (PHTs): We can show whole texts or grammar exercises, pictures or diagrams, or student’s writing. Because they can be of a very high quality. Especially where teachers are unimpressed by their handwriting, the overhead transparency offers the possibility of attractive well-printed script.
One of the main advantages of the overhead projector is that we do not have to show everything on an OHT all at once. By covering some of the transparency with a piece of card or paper we can blank out what we do not want the students to see. So, for example, we might show the first two lines of a story to ask students what is going to happen next, before revealing the next two lines and then the next, gradually moving the paper or card downwards. We might have questions on one side of the transparency and answers on the other. We start the teaching sequence with the answers covered, and use the same ‘gradual revelation’ technique to maintain interest.
Because transparencies are, as their name suggests, transparent, they can be put on top of each other so that we gradually build up a complex picture, diagram, or text. This is done by putting down the first transparency, say of a room, and asking students what kind of a room it is and what happens there. Then a new transparency can be laid over that one with pictures of a person in that room who the students can speculate about, before we lay down another transparency on top of that with more people. A diagram can start with one simple feature and have extra elements added to it in the same way. We can put up a gapped text and have students say what they think goes in the blanks before putting a new transparency with some or all of the filled-in items on top of the gapped one.
Decline in Use
Overhead projectors were once a common fixture in most classrooms and business conference rooms, but today are obviously being replaced by document cameras, dedicated computer projection systems and interactive whiteboards. Such systems allow users to make animated, interactive presentations with movement and video, typically using software like Microsoft PowerPoint.
There are certain reasons for this gradual replacement. The primary reason is the deeply ingrained use of computing technology in modern society and the inability of overheads to easily support the features that modern users demand. While an overhead can display static images fairly well, it performs poorly at displaying moving images. The standards of users have also increased, so that a dim, fuzzy overhead projection that is too bright in the centre and too dim around the edges is no longer acceptable. The optical focus, linearity, brightness and clarity of an overhead generally cannot match that of a video projector primarily due to the plastic Fresnel lens, which can only approximate what would normally be an extremely large and heavy glass lens.
Bits and Pieces
Of course there is no limit to the various bits and pieces which we can bring into the classroom. It might be photographs of our family, letters we have received, or even a pet. Just as children in primary school are often asked to show and tell about objects they hold dear, so we can base lesson sequences on objects that we think our students might find interesting – though of course this has to be done with discretion and a large dose of common sense about what will be appropriate in terms of age and culture.
Realia
In education, realia are objects from real life used in classroom instruction by educators to improve students’ understanding of other cultures and real life situations. A teacher of a foreign language often employs realia to strengthen student’s association between words for everyday objects and the objects themselves.
Realia are also used to connect learners with the key focal point of a lesson by allowing tactile and multidimensional connection between learned material and the object of the lesson. Best utilized for simple objects lending themselves to classroom settings and ease of control with minimum risk of accident throughout the student object interaction.
Objects that are intrinsically interesting can provide a good starting-point for a variety of language work and communication activities. We can find an object with an obscure use and ask students to speculate what it is for (it might be/could be/probably is) and or design various explanations to account for it (it is used for-ing). The class could vote on the best idea. Where we bring in more than one object, especially where they are not obviously connected, students can speculate on what they have in common or they can invent stories and scenarios using the various objects. They can choose from a collection of objects which three they will put in a time capsule, or which would be most useful on a desert island, etc.
Some teachers use a soft ball to make learning more enjoyable. When they want a student to say something, ask a question, or give an answer, they throw a ball to the student who then has to give the answer. The student can then throw the ball to a classmate who, in his/her turn, produces the required response before throwing the ball to someone else. However, not all students find this appealing, and there is a limit of how often the ball can be thrown before students get fed up with it.
The only limitations on the objects which we bring to class are the size and the quantity of the objects themselves and the students’ tolerance, especially with adults who may think they are being treated childishly. As with so many other things, this is something we will have to assess on the basis of our students’ reactions.
Interestingly, technology has begun to impact the use of realia by adding the virtual realia option whereby three dimensional models can be displayed through projection or on computer screens allowing the learner to see detail otherwise difficult to acquire and to manipulate the object within the medium on which it is displayed. The option of zooming tool in technical environments where it may be difficult or impractical to examine an object in as much detail manually, such as the workings of living organs or machinery containing hazardous parts such as combustion engines.
Language Cards
Many teachers put a variety of cards and posters around the classroom. Such posters can have notes about language items on them, or be a collection of ways of apologizing or inviting, for example. Sometimes, with new groups, teachers get students to write about themselves on a card and put their photograph next to what they have written so that the class all know who everyone is. Students can also make presentation posters of projects they have worked on. In multinational classes, for example, many students enjoy providing short guides to their countries.
Cards are useful for matching activities, where students have to find another student in the class with a similar card or one that has the answer to the question on his or her card. They can be asked to place cards in the correct column for sounds, or with the correct lexical group on a board or on a poster. Students can each be given word card to hold in front of them and then be asked to move around until they form a line where all the cards together form a question or a sentence.
Cuisenaire Rods
These are blocks of wood of different lengths. Each length is a different colour. The rods are featureless, and are only differentiated by their size and colour. Simple they may be, but they are useful for a wide range of activities. For example, we can say that a particular rod is a pen or a telephone, a dog or a key so that by holding them up or putting them together a story can be told. All it takes is a little bit of imagination.
We can also assign a word or a phrase to each of, say five rods and the students then have to put them in the right order (e.g. I usually get up at six o’clock). By moving the usually rod around and showing where it can and cannot occur in the sentence, the students get a clear visual display of something they are attempting to fix in their minds.
Rods can be used to teach prepositions. Teachers can model with the rod sentences like: The red one is on top/beside/over/behind (etc) the green one. They can show rods in different relative positions and ask students to describe them. Students can then position the rods for other students to describe (in ever more complex arrangements).
Cuisenaire rods are also useful for demonstrating colours (of course), comparative, superlatives, and a wide range of other semantic and syntactic areas, particularly with people who respond well to visual activities.

Using Computers in the Foreign Language Classroom
“If you think of learning as a path, you can picture yourself walking besides her rather than either pushing or dragging or carrying her along” -Polly Berrien Berends
Quite apart from their use in language laboratories, computers used in education generally and in teaching foreign language and communications in particular, continue to increase at an extraordinary speed. As with any technological advance such as the language lab, video, and even the tape recorder, the proper place for the various riches which computers have to offer is still under discussion.
Using a computer for/as...
A computer is a handy tool for many school assignments. To that end, the following section focuses on some ways you can use a computer in your studies. Currently, the main uses of a computer in language teaching and/learning includes the following:
Reference Use
One of the chief uses of computers and connected technology is as a reference tool. There are already a number of popular encyclopaedias available on CD-Rom or on the INTERNET. The availability of all sorts of material means that we can send students to the computer to prepare their projects, following up references in course books or to find answers to some particular questions that are not of general interest. Many of the programs have visual and audio support that makes the research work very attractive. The greatest potential for the computer as a reference tool is, of course, the Internet, where by accessing directories and search engines (such as ‘Alta Vista’, ‘Google’, etc), users can look for information on just about any subject under the sun. However, as any regular surfers will attest, these searches often throw up a huge amount of irrelevant material so that simple search can become a protracted trawl through a number of useless websites (Harmer, 2001). P. Sweeney (2000) underlines that letting your students completely independent in their search activity is far more time consuming that he and his colleagues anticipated. It is the teacher’s one of the most important task to prepare the background by suggesting search methods and/or and narrowing the focus of the enquiry so that students do not waste a whole class period searching. We also need to keep an eye on a proceedings to avoid a situation in which students just surf the net, becoming distracted by what they find there, and thus lose sight of the original task (Harmer, 2001). However, if these drawbacks are taken into account, the Internet is an extraordinary resource which has changed the face of information gathering both in and outside the classroom.
Communicating Your Instructor with other Students
a. a. E-mail Exchange
With an Internet connection, you can easily communicate with anyone who has an e-mail address. You can send e-mail messages to your instructor or to other students. In fact, “getting students from different countries to write to one another has greatly increased both their English development and especially their motivation” (Harmer, 2001:148). You can also attach files to an e-mail message. For example, you can proactively e-mail an assignment to your instructor if you must miss a class. Your instructor may, in response, e-mail you what you’ve missed during your absence and tell you what homework you need to complete.
Importantly, students should be encouraged to write to their teacher. According to Harmer (2001), such types of messages are often written in a special speaking like informal style. There is less of an obligation for grammatical correctness or even correct spelling, but students can improve their fluency. So e-mailing with less of correctness and formality can be turned into an advantage, a motivation for writing and having a real unstressed communication.
Of particular interest is the fact that computer communication might become a teaching “channel” if students can send word-processed work to their teachers who can send feedback in the same way, in a short time.
a.b. Instant Messaging (IM)
Another way to communicate is by using Instant Messaging (IM). You set up a list of your buddies and their screen names. If one of these students is online when you are, you’ll be notified. You can then send text messages to each other by typing and sending the message. This can be helpful if you want to ask a classmate for clarification about an assignment. You can also use Instant Messaging to talk to and make new friends online (within your school and beyond school). Keep in mind that you can easily get distracted by messaging. If you are studying, keep the messaging to a minimum or log off so that you can focus on your work.
Teaching and Testing Programs
Language software packages, often supplied on CD-ROMS, offer students the chance to study conversations and texts, to do grammar and vocabulary exercises, and even to listen to texts and record their own voices.
Although some teachers have criticised computer-based programs of this kind being only dressed-up workbook exercises, it would be unwise to underestimate their usefulness for variety and motivation. As Harmer (2001:147) puts it:
Students who have been sitting behind their desks for hours might well find going over to a computer to ‘play’ with some language exercises a welcome relief.
A trend which will almost gather pace is the attachment of CD-ROM-based packages to accompany course books, full of extra input material and exercises. Some of these will be available too on the Internet. However, there are also websites where students can sign up for complete self-study courses, which include all regular features of a course book together with the possibility of sending work to a tutor who will monitor progress. In order to reduce evaluation time some tests may be posted and taken on computer and feedback/results are instantaneous.
The Word Processor
In an article published in 1987, Alison Piper suggested that the most educational use of the computer at that time was as a word processor, with students grouped around a screen drafting and redrafting collaboratively (Piper 1987).
Using a word processor program for any kind of written work provides many benefits, including the following:
You can easily compose as you think.
You can easily correct mistakes, either as you type (using the Backspace or Delete key) or when you review your work.
You can reorganise the contents of the writing. Sometimes, when you review your work, you find that one sentence or paragraph belongs before another. Or your conclusion may actually work better as an introduction. With a word processing program, you can easily add more information to a different location. You can also delete sentences, paragraphs, and words (to get rid of repetition or to correct mistakes) and copy passages (if you want to use them again in the same or another document).
You can make formatting changing to improve the appearance of the document. For example, in a research paper, you can make the section headings bold and bigger so that they stand out. You can emphasize new terms by italicizing them. You can create bulleted or numbered lists, add a border to a paragraph, change the page margins, create headers and footers, and more.
Check your spelling and grammar. You can use the spelling checkers to make sure your paper doesn’t include any typographic errors. Most words processing programs also enable you to check your grammar. Note, however, that neither these tools is foolproof. The spelling checker on flags.

The Teacher as an Aid
A teacher affects eternity; you can never tell where his influence stops
Henry Adams
Apart from the different roles we adopt in the classroom, and how these roles are performed, we are a kind of teaching aid ourselves, a piece of equipment in our own right. In particular, we are especially useful when using mime and gesture, as language models and providers of comprehensive input. Furthermore, we may be helpful when using movement, body language, eye contact, facial expressions, speech, student talk, and names.
Mimes and Gestures
One of the things that we are uniquely able to do on the spot is to use mime, gesture and expression to convey meaning and atmosphere. It is not difficult to pretend to be drinking, or to pull a sad face. The ability to demonstrate words like frightened or old is fairly easy for many teachers, just as shrugging shoulders can be used to indicate indifference.
Mime and gesture work best when they are exaggerated since this makes their meaning explicit. However, gestures do not have necessarily universal meanings, and what might seem acceptable in one situation or place will not be appropriated in another. We need, therefore, to use them with care.
Importantly, arms and hands are a very expressive visual aid. They can be used to describe shapes, actions, movements etc, but remember to keep still while listening to a student. Otherwise the message sent to the student is that he is being longwinded or boring. In other words, habits such as fiddling with notes and books, playing with pens, key chains, or doodling with chalk on the black board can be both distracting and irritating for the student.
One gesture which is widely used, but which teachers should employ with care, is the act of pointing to students to ask them to participate in drill or give some other form of response. Though it is quick and efficient, especially when we are having trouble with our students’ names, it may seem aggressive and depressingly obvious to the students that, in having failed to learn their names, we are less than respectful to their identity.
Language Model
One way in which we can model dialogues is to put up two faces on the board and then stand in front if each of them when required to speak their lines. For such activities, we should make sure that we can be heard, and we should animate our performance with much enthusiasm as is appropriate for the conversation we are modelling.
Reading aloud is a skill which some teachers have tended to ignore. Yet the reading aloud of a particularly or interesting excerpt can be extremely motivating and enjoyable for a class, especially when students have been encouraged to predict what they are going to hear. Poems too, are very engaging for many students when teachers read them to the class.
Anyone who doubts the power of such activities only has to look at the reading circles in primary classes where learners group enthusiastically around the teacher to enjoy the experience of listening to a story. Story-telling and story/poem-reading can work with adults too, though the content and the way it is handled will be significantly different.
Reading passages aloud to students can capture imagination and mood like nothing else, but in order for this to work we need to ‘perform’ the reading in an interesting and committed way and, as with so many activities, we must be careful not to use this activity too frequently (Harmer, 2001).
Provider of Comprehensible-Input
An issue that confronts many teachers in classrooms is how much they themselves should talk, and what kind of talk this should be. On most training courses, a distinction is made between student-talking time (STT) and teacher-talking time (TTT). It is the concern to maximise the former that leads many teachers to use pair and group work; it has been assumed that on the whole we want to see more STT than TTT, since as trainers frequently point out to their student teachers, you don’t need the language practice; they do.
Advantageous for their students, especially since those teachers are unlikely to be permanently interesting. However, it is widely accepted that a vital ingredient in the learning of any language is exposure to it. The American linguist Stephen Krashen described the best kind of language that students could be expressed to as comprehensible input, that is language which students understand the meaning of, but which is nevertheless slightly above their own production level. For instance, if the learners’ stage ‘I’, then acquisition occurs when they are exposed to comprehensible input that constitutes ‘i+1’, provided they understand the language containing ‘i+1’.
Krashen (1982: 84) writes:
... Language acquisition ... happens in one way, when the acquirer understands input containing a structure that the acquirer is ‘due’ to acquire, a structure at his or her ‘i+1’.
Yet where can they go for such language input? In the world outside the classroom, English if they have access to it, will frequently appear incomprehensible, especially when they are at a low level. They need someone to provide language which has been roughly-tuned to be comprehensible to them, and there is someone right there in the classroom to give them just that.
As teachers we are ideally placed to provide comprehensible input since we know the students in front of us and can appropriately react to them in a way that a course book or a tape, for example, cannot. We know how to talk at just the right level so that even if our students do not understand every word we say, they do understand the meaning of what is being said. At such times the language gains, for the student, are significant.
However, we do need to be aware of how much ourselves are speaking. If talk all the time, however, ‘comprehensible’ our language is, the students are denied their own chance to practise production, or get exposure through other means (from reading or listening to tapes, for example). They may also become bored by listening to the teacher all the time.

Movement
Sitting behind a desk or standing on a dais creates a “distance” between the teacher and the students. Try to have an aisle and enough space between the rows so that you can easily reach those at the back. This way you can talk to individual students, allow the shy ones to ask questions quietly without the fear of embarrassment, as well as check their work and help them. Some movement on your side is essential, because it allows the students to focus on you. Remember that stepping forward to emphasize a point, small steps genuine interest in what he or she is saying.
Body Language
Your body should be in your control. Hold it in such a way that you look alert and awake. Avoid slumping and sagging. Just as too little movement is boring, too much movement can be a distraction.
When your posture is erect, it puts you in control of the situation and the students realise this. It also encourages the students, subconsciously, to become alert as well. You may notice the lazy ones sitting up and paying more attention to what is happening around them.
Eye Contact
Make an effort to keep eyes lively, aware and interested. Move them around to take in everything. Fix them on specific students, but not for so long that they become uncomfortable! Avoid focusing on the worst or bust students.
Knowing that the teacher demands eye contact keeps the students alert. It also gives the teacher a feedback on the impact of what he or she is saying. This is particularly important in large classes, where “distance” between the teacher and learner is greater, and individual attention is more difficult.
An effective teacher can control class behaviour to a great extent by the expression of his or her eyes.
Make sure that you make eye contact with each student, so that it seems you are talking to him or her individually.
Facial Expressions
There is nothing worse than a constant frown, which discourages students from asking questions, feeling free to discuss a problem or coming for help.
A smile can work wonders. It encourages the student to participate more actively and dispels the notion that the teacher is over critical.
Look interested while a student is speaking.
A smile, a grimace, a curl of the lips, raised eyebrows etc... at appropriate moments will and messages as needed.
Send positive vibes and cultivate a sympathetic and encouraging expression!
Speech
Have you even heard yourself speak? Do you know what your voice sounds like to others? A low monotone or a high-pitched voice can be difficult to understand or grating to the ears. Does the sound of your voice send students to sleep or running for earplugs?
Be critical of yourself. Try taping your voice – listen to yourself. Where are you slipping up?
Make your own personal checklist:
Are you speaking at the right volume?
Does the end of your sentence fall so low that students sitting at the back cannot hear?
Are you hemming and hawing too much?
Are you speaking too fast?
Student Talk
Break the monotony and give students plenty of time to talk! It will keep them alert.
Make small jokes, be friendly.
Names
Call students by their names. It sounds warmer and friendlier and lessens the distance between the teacher and learner.
Native-Speaker Teachers and Non-Native Speaker Teachers
For many years an opposition has been created between native-speaker teacher of English and non-native speaker teacher. However, the world is changing, and English is no longer owned by anybody in particular least of all the native speakers of the world who are in a minority which is becoming daily less significant at least in numerical terms.
Non-native speaker teachers differ from native-speaker teachers in the following way. Non-native speaker teachers have the advantage of having the same experience of learning English as their students are now having, and this gives them an instant understanding of what their students are going through. Native speaker teachers, on the other hand, often have the advantage of a linguistic confidence about their language in the classroom, which non-native speaker teachers sometimes lack indeed. It may be differences in linguistic confidence which account for some differences in teaching practices between the two groups.
As a recently as ten years ago it would have been impossible to find a single non-native speaker teacher working in a language school in, say, Britain or Australia. Yet, that is no longer the case. Progress may be slow in this respect, but there are signs of such progress. In the end, provided teachers can use the language, is it the quality of their teaching that counts not where they come from or how they learnt or acquired English.
Conclusion
The teacher is the best teaching aid. Be sure that you are using yourself to the full effect.
Most of us send up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember than for the rest of their lives.
Andy Rooney