Presenting new language

Presenting new language

When planning to present a new language item the teacher needs to be sure of the following points:
• How the language item is made - what the grammatical structure of the form is, how it is pronounced and written, how negatives and questions are formed if appropriate.

• Concept - what the form actually means.
• Context - when the form is actually used.

Once those points are clear for the planner, a way has to be thought of to pass on that knowledge to students. Only telling a class what something means and how it is used is not usually a good way for the students to learn.

Thankfully there is a wide range of interesting activities, techniques and materials for presenting new language. Most involve exposing the students to the language through written texts and dialogues. Most course books have these but here are a few more of the materials that are commonly used to introduce new language:

• Video tapes
• Audio tapes
• Newspapers
• Songs
• Pictures
• Realia
• Stories and anecdotes
Using different approaches to presentation in your teaching helps to create the variety that is so important to effective class
management.