Page 30 - ELG2307 Jul Issue 485

RESOURCES .

Overt Teaching:

What is it & how can it

help your students?

hat would you say your approach on a real-life conversation that
to teaching is? Do you believe learners in this context would
in pre-teaching language at the expect to carry out outside the
W beginning of a lesson? Do you classroom and gives an example
prefer students uncover grammar rules by of when this conversation might
analysing examples in a text, or to present take place.
the rules and then practise them? Maybe you With a real-life objective
subscribe to the lexical approach to teaching in place, the Overt Teacher is
and prefer to deal with lexical chunks. Mark ready to engage their learners in
and David would probably consider themselves a discussion around the lesson
principled eclectics, meaning they pull from objectives. For example, they
various methodologies and approaches as best might ask some of the following
suits their lesson and their student needs. questions (graded depending on
Whatever their approach to a lesson, both age and level):
consider themselves to be Overt Teachers. • How will this lesson objective
Overt Teaching was born from the belief that help you in your life outside
learners should know what they’re learning, the classroom?
why they’re learning it, and are involved in • How will this lesson objective
discussions of that learning. It is rare in life help you to achieve your
that we choose to learn something for the sake learning goal?
of learning. We tend to have a clear reason and
this reason drives our engagement. We don’t The benefit of this discussion is
spend hours learning to drive out of interest; that learners begin the lesson
we do so because we want to be able to drive. clear in the knowledge of the
In the same vein, we might learn a language personal relevance of this lesson.
to improve job prospects, to help us to pass The teacher can manage any
an exam, to get a visa, or maybe to be able learners who believe the lesson is not personally Teaching: Putting learners at the centre of
to converse comfortably with our parents-in- relevant and help them to understand its their learning discussion” explores the above
law. Whatever a learner’s goal, knowing how relevance, or adapt sections of the lesson to in more detail, providing practical ideas for
a lesson will help them to achieve it can only increase its relevance. writing effective aims and objectives, creating
add to engagement, and this means involving The Overt Teacher goes even further in their success criteria, setting up self-reflection, and
students in the overt discussion of learning discussion, and includes the aims of the lesson; enabling effective peer-feedback.
from the outset of the lesson. for example, the learning stages that will help
In general, a teacher will know what they the students to achieve the lesson objective.
want to achieve in their lesson and they may They might ask the following questions: David Byrne has worked
inform their students of this objective at the • Which of today’s aims will be most in EFL for over a decade
beginning of the lesson. The Overt Teacher, challenging for you? and in that time has taught
however, goes a little further. They want their • Which of today’s aims are you most all the ages, levels and
learners’ input on this objective so they ensure confident in? exams he could find. He’s
that it is written in student-friendly language worked in Ireland, England,
and that it mirrors their students’ real lives. From the very beginning of the lesson, the Spain and South Korea, but the majority of
Take the two objectives from an English for Overt Teacher is accepting that their students his career has been spent in the UK where he
Work lesson below as an example: have different strengths and weaknesses. This currently works for EC English.
1. By the end of the lesson, you will be discussion becomes a thread throughout the
better able to use the present perfect for lesson. Because the teacher is informed, they Mark Heffernan has
experience. can encourage their learners to focus their taught English for over
2. By the end of the lesson, you will be better efforts on the aims they have identified as 18 years. From the very
able to describe your career (e.g., in a job being challenging; they can use more confident beginning, he shared lesson
interview). learners as models or pair up weaker and ideas and started to run
stronger students accordingly. When it comes
CPD sessions. He spent
In the former, it is not immediately clear to to the final feedback stages of the lesson, the many years focusing on exam teaching before
learners how this lesson will benefit them in teacher can ensure that their students are
their lives outside the classroom. Experience is receiving the personalized feedback they need. moving to Queen Mary University of London
quite a broad area and the focus is on language If you’re interested in being more overt in in 2016, where he teaches EAP and is a
over function. The latter, however, focuses your teaching, Mark and David’s book “Overt module convenor.
30 July 2023