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I must admit, that TEFL/TESOL course was very effective for me as a teacher and I have learnt so many things through the course. However, the most impressive thing was ESA teaching method. For as long as people have been teaching and learning language, there has been a debate about which methods or techniques produce the best results. Some learners of English who have an opportunity to live an English speaking environment while studying have a enormous advantage. In any case, you should just realize that English around us. Even if you can’t create native language environment in the classroom, you can try to imitate as it as is practical, just use different language methodologies or ESA teaching method. In fact there are some different teaching methods, which teacher can use in the classroom, such as: grammar-translation method, the audio-lingualism method or the suggestopaedia. But which method is the best? Unfortunately, there is no crystal clear answer, everything depends upon your individual circumstances. In reality, each method has advantages and disadvantages, but in fact students need to be motivated, be exposed to the language and have the opportunity to use it. In my opinion, Jeremy Harmer invented an effective method - Engage, Study, Activate - the ESA method. ESA is a treasure for trainee and new teachers. This method gives the teacher a great opportunity of flexibility in the classroom. All ESA lessons should comprise of three components, one of them Engage. This is a sequence in the lesson where the teacher will try to get students involved in the lesson. Engage component is very important in the lesson, if students are interested, they will find a lesson more fun and stimulating, it can give them power and motivation to learn. The Engage phase should be considered as a “warmer” of the lesson, because teacher should use different activities and materials to engage students, include games, music, interesting pictures, some stories etc. Students should try to think and speak in English as much as possible, before the Study phase. Teacher shouldn’t really “teach” in the Engage phase, students can relax and enjoy. In the Study phase, students should focus on the construction of the language. Teacher should prepare exercises, worksheets is a good choice, to check students’ understanding and to reinforce the material. These should start relatively easy in nature and become progressively harder. The Active phase is my favorite phase in ESA lesson. Here students feel themselves free and communicatively as possible. The focus should be on fluency than accuracy, it helps students to practice language as much as they can. Teacher should use some Activate activities, for example, role-plays activities, debates, dialogues between students and teacher. Jeremy Harmer noticed, that all three phases need to be included, but it doesn’t mean that all of them should be in the same order. Instead we can vary the order as much as we want. We can even multiple phases per lesson, which give us the huge flexibility. That’s why Jeremy Harmer created different kind of ESA lesson. A “Strait Arrow” ESA lesson is where the teacher takes all phases in order. For me, this ESA lesson is classic. I suppose, a “Strait Arrow” ESA lessons are better for lower level students and children. A “Boomerang” ESA lesson gives more possibilities not only for teacher, but also for students. You can vary all phases together and multiple them all. That should be useful for high level students, which focused on language practice and fluency. I guess, a “Patchwork” ESA lesson is the best option from all categories. This method is nice balance between all phases, teacher can use them all as much as possible. Students need to have a high level of language, such as upper-intermediate or advance. This is enormous opportunity for teacher to show creativity and experience for students. However, all examples of ESA lessons are wonderful, I’m sure all teachers can find their own style of teaching. In conclusion, I’ve learnt a lot from TEFL/TESOL course. I would like to thank everyone who made this course, that’s wonderful work. In fact, I will recommend the course to all my colleagues.
