Thu, 20 Aug 2020

A Sample Lesson Plan for a Pre-Intermediate EFL Classroom

This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Medine A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.

Duration: 60 minutes
Class Level: Pre-Intermediate
Expected Number of Students: 10
Language point: Consolidation of the progressive verbs to practice the present continuous tense usages.
Teaching aids: Computer, a slide projector, video, flashcards, board, and pens, exercise sheets.
Learner objectives: Learning the structures of the grammar point, training four skills in the form of a present continuous tense, and to produce it accurately when describing temporary actions that are happening at the time of speaking.
Personal aims: To improve my instructions by demonstrating various interesting methods, rather than using mere verbal instructions.

Anticipated problems for students:

Difficulty understanding the rules on changing verbs that have endings. Confusion with some special verbs, such as like, feel, smell, etc. which are not normally used in the present continuous tense. Solutions: More examples, demonstrations, and practices.

Also Read: The Ways Reading Influences Language Acquisition

Anticipated problems for the teacher:

Difficulty getting students to participate actively. Solutions: More interesting and fun activities for each phase.

Phase Procedure Timing Interaction

Phase 1

Warm-up: Greet the class and talk about some 3 mins T-S Engage simple facts such as weather, to establish 10 mins good rapport with the class.
Give students a brief review from the previous. 3 mins T-S class last lesson was about animals, verbs, and usage of the modal verb “Can/Can’t”.
Show pictures of animals and ask students questions such as “What is it? What can/can't this animal do? “
Play a video of “Animals’ World” in which a lot of 4 mins T-S animals are moving around. i.e. a bird is flying, a fish is swimming, a lion is chasing a deer, a monkey is climbing, a cat is sleeping, a dog is barking, etc.
After 30 seconds, pause the video and ask students questions based on the video i.e. “What is going on there?”, ”What are the animals doing at that moment?”, “What is a Monkey doing?” etc.
Show some examples in the classroom, such as, “what is Lily doing?, What is the teacher doing?”

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Phase 2

Study: Use some questions and answers from the engage 3 mins T-S 35 mins phase, additionally ask yes-no questions about the video focusing on eliciting a negative response.
Teach the negative and question forms, write up a few examples with different subjects on the board. Ask students to identify the differences between them in meaning and spelling. For example: “Is the lion sleeping in the video? – No. The lion is not sleeping,It is chasing the deer.” “Is the bird flying?" "yes, it is.“ “Is the dog chasing a cat?”, “Is a cat drinking milk” etc.
Highlight contracted form of a present continuous tense, 3 mins T-S out that ‘ing’ must be added to the present continuous auxiliary verb ‘be’.
Note that the auxiliary verb ‘be’ changes in accordance with the person of the subject, but the main verb within (eating, dancing, watching, playing, etc.) remains the same.
Use a present continuous timeline to illustrate the 5 mins S-S fact that the present continuous is used to express what is happening around the present moment in time.
Additionally, explain the form of the auxiliary verb “be” in the same context and let students practice these structures verbally by altering different questions to each other. (in pairs) i.e. What is your friend doing at the moment? etc.
Get student input on “V+ing and be”.
Point out the time expressions used in the present 2 mins T-S continuous tense. i.e. now, right now, at the moment, etc.
Give students a few sentences with the structure of 5 mins T-S “be going to V” and ask students to guess the meaning of this expression. B. Explain the usage of “be going to V” and give more examples.
Put a few reference verbs on the board and invite students to make sentences by using the verbs.
Mention that in oral English, present continuous 5 mins T-S tense can also be used to express planned activity in the future. Give examples.

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Show students video clips in which present continuous tense is used to express planned future events.
List out some stative verbs that are easily confused by 5 mins T-S students. Point out that stative verbs which are not used in present continuous tense are non-progressive and they often describe states that last for some time.
Give students a list of common verbs that can be both stative and dynamic. i.e.: be, have, think, taste, etc. Give some example sentences about different usage of these verbs i.e.: think (stative): I think that coffee, think (dynamic): What are you thinking about now? It is great. I'm thinking about my next holiday.
Use mime and drill for pronunciation. Check comprehension by asking the students to mime.
Hand out an exercise sheet with "Fill in the blanks" 5 mins S-S activity on it to practice the use of the present continuous with be + V-ing form with stative/dynamic verbs. (in pairs) Example sentences: My mom and my grandmother ____(cook) in the kitchen. My Grandpa ____ (watch) TV; My Grandmother ____ (taste)the soup at the moment; My father____ (be) in his bedroom and he ____(work) on a new project right now etc.
Feedback from above activity 2 mins T-S

Also Read: How to Organize and Manage Your ESL Classroom

Phase 3

Activate: Divide students into two groups. Each group will be 15 mins S-S 15 mins given flashcards with pictures of actions, such as throw, bounce, bite, drop, climb, etc.
One student from each group must act out the flashcards while his/her team tries to guess the action by using present continuous tense. i.e. ‘You are bouncing a ball’ or ‘You are climbing a mountain.’ etc.
Emphasize that students should produce a complete structure of the present continuous tense rather than merely shouting out single verbs. The student acting is not allowed to speak. Teammates can help each other and work together to come up with the answer. If they get it right, the team gets a point, but if they get it wrong, the other team can try to steal that point.

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A Sample Lesson Plan for a Pre-Intermediate EFL Classroom

Anticipated problems for students:

Anticipated problems for the teacher: