The Achieve Languages Approach

Break the code!

1) Demonstration of a communicative activity:

Write on the board the following: an important year, number and date to you. For example:
2001 was the year I met my wife. I’ve been working in ELT for 11 years. My daughter was born
on Sep. 2nd, 2012.

Tell them that they can ask you 10 personal questions in order to find out why these 3 pieces
of information are written on the board. Tell them that questions involving time won’t be
answered.

Having done the questions, they will get together in pairs and try to guess the relation
between your answers and the information written on the board.

Get feedback from everybody and check who guessed it right.

Highlight that as a follow-up activity in a real lesson, students would in pairs do the same
activity but with information that is relevant to them but, due to time restraints, it won’t be
done in the training.

2) Reflections about the activity:

Ask them to get together in pairs and discuss whether it was a good task for an English lesson
and to come up with at least 4 adjectives about it.

Check whether the adjectives they come up with are somehow related to the golden rules
from the next slide.

ACHIEVE LANGUAGES’ APPROACH – THE CRISPY WAY

A summary of our golden rules

 Communication

 Relevance

 Interaction

 Support

 Personal use

Show our golden rules, one by one, elicit the principles behind them and also their personal
views about each of them. Check whether these rules were applied in the demo activity.

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The Achieve Languages Approach

Communication: maximize STT by making every single activity a communicative one.

Relevance: when the context of a lesson is well set, students notice its relevance and the need
to learn and use what is being taught. Setting the context of each lesson is a must.

Interaction: for them to produce spoken English they must interact with their peers. They also
learn new things while interacting with one another.

Support: the teacher’s job is to provide students with the support they need in order to be
able to produce what is being taught. Keep TTT (teacher talking time) to a minimum and do
not spoon feed your students. Instead, elicit things from them, deliver activities that generate
conversation/interaction and encourage them to correct their own mistakes. In order to
provide them with the right support, your lessons (even your instructions) must be very well
planned.

Personal use: by making personal use of a new language item, students notice its relevance
and, thus, tend to learn it for good.

REQUIREMENTS FOR LEARNING

• Contact with new language items must be done in context

• Mediation - “to influence sth and / or make it possible for it to happen”

• Interaction

• Students must be provided with opportunities to put new language into practice

• Students must be provided with the right amount of practice using different kinds of
activities

• Personalized tasks help students relate language their learn with their own reality

So, how does effective learning take place? We believe that there are some common
assumptions related to requirements for learning. Here are some requirements that are in line
with our approach. Another aspect is that they don’t have to happen altogether, at the same
time, always.

 Context helps students understand language and see its function

 Mediation must be the strongest characteristic of the work of a teacher in the
classroom. It is about creating conditions for the students to do what THEY have to do.
A teacher helps, guides, leads the way. Students work, do, perform.
 Interaction is a way to have students putting new language into practice in a more
relaxed way. They learn from each other. Classes become more dynamic and fun.
 New language must be put into practice right away. The teacher has to be attentive
and use all the opportunities to have the students practicing.
 There must be enough practice. Also, it must be varied, not mechanical.

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The Achieve Languages Approach

At a certain moment it is important to align practice with the students’ personal interests.
They need to use the new language to talk about themselves, to see that the language studied
is useful for them.

The Teacher’s Role

• Pay attention to students’ personal interests and needs

• Be willing to help

• Act as a mediator

• Take advantage of all opportunities to promote STT

• Promote varied practice in the classroom

• Cheer students up

A teacher must be aware of the students’ interests in order to plan suitable and relevant
classes

A teacher must be ready to help, be patient, be sympathetic.

As a mediator, a teacher needs to allow students to work, think, reflect, make mistakes, help
each other, use their background knowledge, be the stars in the classroom.

STT (student talking time) must be maximized by all means as it is during their English lessons
that most students have the chance to practice spoken English. So it is the teacher’s job to
make every single activity (listening, reading, grammar, etc) as communicative as possible.

Variety is the spice of life. Don’t let your lessons become predictable and boring. Engage your
students by bringing different types of activities. The more you vary the better it is, so make
use of different teaching techniques and interaction patterns.

Set a warm and cheerful atmosphere. Learning an additional language may not be that simple
and comfortable, so having a stress free ambience is a must.

ACHIEVE LANGUAGES’ APPROACH

• The main goal of our work in the classroom is to enable our students to…
communicate!

• Communication must be grounded on needs and interests of our students, therefore it

must be… relevant!

• Students must have chances to …interact!

• To make progress and achieve their goals, students must be… supported!

• Content learned and practiced needs to be…personalized!

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The Achieve Languages Approach

Communication is the central point of our goals. This reflects what most of people want when
they look for an English school

Relevance must be present to the process of enabling students to communicate. They need to
have opportunities to transfer the learning contexts and examples from the book to situations
they can relate to.

Interaction is a must in this process. Students working together feel more relaxed, and above
all, learn from each other. Besides, interaction is a requirement for communication, there must
be at least 2 parts for it to take place.

For learning to take place students need to be supported, mainly low level students. A teacher,
as a mediator, must provide them with the support they need to perform tasks and to think
about the language and the process of learning as well.

Personalization is a very effective way to give the students a sense of achievement. When a
student is able to internalize content, put it into practice, and then make use of it to talk about
her / himself, the perception of growth and learning is high and rewarding.