Communicative language teaching (CLT) approach motivates students to use the

target language as much as possible and provide them with purposeful and meaningful
real-life contexts to learn and grow. I am going to describe another framework that I have
used for an one hour and thirty minute lesson in my beginning level in-person classroom.
This framework works closely with CLT, but provides a more guided environment, where
students do not either have too much time to speak freely or speak not enough in the
classroom
The following lesson plan focuses on “Personal Information”:
Icebreaker/ Warm-up (10 minutes): Group participation. I ask students to think
of three to five vocabulary related to “Personal Information”. It can be first name, last
name, city, zip code, telephone number and others, and write them on the board. I then go
over each to explain, pronounce, and connect to students’ prior knowledge.
Presentation (20 minutes): Whole class participation. I ask students to listen to a
very short dialogue between an office worker and students who try to register for classes.
Then, I provide a handout with the script of the dialogue and ask students to repeat the
dialogue with me aloud to practice pronunciation.
Guided Practice (30 minutes): Peer-Peer participation. I ask students to practice
the same dialogue with their peers and they can add on extra information if they want.
After 12-15 minutes, I ask students to close their handout and volunteer to perform the
scripted dialogue. Then, I play the audio again allowing students to re-listen and gain
more confidence in volunteering to perform.
Free Practice (20 minutes): Group participation. I provide an information gap
activity or a Jigsaw activity to each group of students. I instruct and model the acidity
clearly. Then, I ask students to freely work on the activity with their peers using what
they have learned from presentation and guided practice. They can even act out to make
by using real world contexts to practice.
Assessment/Evaluation (10 minutes): I go over any problems that I’ve observed
with students in their free practice activity. This involves incorrect phrases, pronunciation
difficulties, and other aspects.
This framework works extremely well with shorter-time teaching in-person level
beginning level ESL classes. For shorter-time classes, this has shown positive results
because many adult learners learn more effectively when they are in a routine
environment equipped with a framework. This is possible to me as an instructor because I
have witnessed many of my students feel more comfortable speaking in front of their
peers and teacher. Being comfortable and feeling that they belong are my top priorities
because that is how I know that I successfully incorporate the principles of diversity,
inclusion, equity, accessibility, and anti-racism in my classroom.