student-led lessons in the esl/esol/tefl classroom - the challenges

Student-centred learning has become much more of a standard approach over the last couple of decades: 

Student-centred learning (SCL) is an approach to education, which aims at overcoming some of the problems inherent to more traditional forms of education by focusing on the learner and their needs, rather than being centred around the teacher's input.

There are problems with this, however...

One issue is that students and teachers prefer different activities when learning English...

Another is that perhaps the teacher needs to challenge the learners - through critical pedagogy.

And there is the issue of using digital technology in a student-centred classroom - and what sort of control and freedom should be allowed.

A point to consider is whether 'student-centred' should not actually be a matter of 'student-led'.

Looking at the conventional classroom, we should look at what student-led learning looks like in a real classroom:

We talk a lot about giving students ownership of their learning — about letting them explore, wonder, lead. It’s a beautiful idea. But if you’re teaching in a traditional school with pacing guides, curriculum maps, and assessment deadlines, you might find yourself asking, “But how?”

Here's a TED Talk on Education Reimagined: Student-led Learning:

Dr. Catlin Tucker addresses the urgent need to reimagine education and create more effective, equitable, and student-led learning environments. It’s time to transform classrooms into collaborative spaces where educators work alongside students, creating a more sustainable and fulfilling teaching and learning experience for everyone...

Fundamentally, though, it's about fostering student agency:

Student-led learning is more than "letting students do what they want." It's a sophisticated instructional framework and key component of personalized learning models, built on three essential pillars:

Voice: Students have a say in how they learn and demonstrate their knowledge. For example, they can choose to create a podcast instead of writing a traditional essay to demonstrate their understanding of a historical event.

Choice: Students have meaningful options in their learning, such as selecting a research topic within a theme or choosing which problems to solve. This student choice creates ownership and motivation that can't be replicated with predetermined learning.

Ownership: When students have voice and choice, they develop a sense of responsibility and ownership over their education. This leads to greater intrinsic motivation and deeper engagement.

This approach evolves traditional teaching models rather than replacing them. The goal isn't to eliminate teacher guidance but to recalibrate the balance, transforming students from passive recipients to active participants in knowledge construction. Teachers remain essential, but their role shifts from being the sole information source to facilitators structuring the learning environment, providing feedback, and guiding student discovery through student-led learning approaches.

Looking at the ESL/ESOL/TEFL classroom, there is the very well-established The Silent Way: A Student-Led Approach to Language Learning - as considered again recently:

The Silent Way is one of the most unconventional teaching methods in the ESL world. Instead of the teacher explaining, correcting, and dominating the conversation, the students are the ones doing the work—speaking, testing, problem-solving, and figuring things out for themselves. It’s a method that flips the script in the most literal way.

Here is a look by the E L Gazette at when “student-led” tasks quietly break down, in an excellent piece by Mark Frohnsdorff - with the first section here:

What often goes unexamined is why tasks that look pedagogically sound on paper can become teacher-dependent almost immediately, and what that tells us about how lesson design really works.

Teacher-led vs teacher-dependent

Part of the problem lies in a distinction we don’t always make clearly.

A teacher-led lesson is an instructional choice. The teacher controls pacing, structure, and input, often deliberately. This can be highly effective, particularly when learners need models, shared reference points, or access to language they cannot yet generate independently.

Teacher-dependence, by contrast, is not a teaching style. It is something that emerges during a task.

A task becomes teacher-dependent when learners cannot proceed without repeated intervention, even though it was designed to be learner-led. The teacher ends up supplying the thinking learners were meant to do themselves. Authority shifts back to the teacher, not by design, but by necessity.

This distinction matters because the issue is not who is talking, but who is able to think.

A lesson can be teacher-led without being teacher-dependent. A task intended to encourage autonomy can become teacher-dependent very quickly if learners lack the resources required to engage with it.

When that happens early and repeatedly, it is usually a signal worth paying attention to.

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readability in the esl/esol/tefl classroom

When it comes to how easy/difficult a text is to read, we call that readability - and according to Wikipedia:

In natural language, the readability of text depends on its content (the complexity of its vocabulary and syntax) and its presentation (such as typographic aspects that affect legibility, like font size, line height, character spacing, and line length).

Higher readability in a text eases reading effort and speed for the general population of readers. For those who do not have high reading comprehension, readability is necessary for understanding and applying a given text. Techniques to simplify readability are essential to communicate a set of information to the intended audience.

There are websites devoted to this: What is readability? – Readable

And there are ways to test the readability of your website: Readability Test - WebFX Or any text: Free Readability Checker App | Check readability score of your text

But what about in the esl/esol/tefl classroom?

We can adapt authentic material for the language classroom: Adapting texts for use in the English language classroom – Nathan Hall

We can go a little deeper and get an overall difficulty score for our English content: Text Inspector: Analyse the Difficulty Level of English Texts

We can consider the students who have to work with the texts:  seminar-1-empathy-and-readability-2016.pdf

We can work on texts with a view to a particular test: Adapting Authentic Materials to Teach Listening and Reading IELTS Tests

And we can make use of ready-made texts which are made readable: Free Online Reading and Listening Resources for ESL Learners | Literacy Minnesota

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translanguaging

The idea and practice of translanguaging is basically the practice of using two languages in the same lesson, which differs from many previous methods of bilingual education that tried to separate languages by class, time, or day

So, What Is Translanguaging and How Is It Used in the Classroom?

In translanguaging, students are able to think in multiple languages simultaneously and use their home language as a vehicle to learn academic English.

A student could be reading an article about the solar system in English, but in their brain, they are also thinking and making connections in Spanish. They might annotate in Spanish or first write down reading comprehension responses in Spanish and then figure out how to provide the responses in English, said Marrero-Colon.

It’s all about encouraging students to access their full linguistic repertoires, said Emily Phillips Galloway, an assistant professor at the Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University.

From the perspective of the ESL/ESOL/EAL world, here's an answer to the question What is translanguaging?

Picture the scene: two students are sitting together, working intently on a handout. They have different first languages but some shared knowledge of the words and phrases of each other’s languages, so they are moving in and out of English to get their message across. Another two students are sitting together nearby. Both of them are Spanish speakers, but are very strong in English and often use it as their main language. At other times, as now, they blend Spanish and English together.

Are either of these examples of translanguaging? In both cases, yes. The young people are using resources from different languages together, with very little regard for what we might call the ‘boundaries’ of named languages such as ‘Spanish’ or ‘English’. They are using elements of each language together to communicate more effectively. This is translanguaging: it’s about using the all your language resources to communicate.

Finally, here's an academic piece looking at Translanguaging and emotionality of English as a second language (ESL) teachers:

Often there is a notable gap between expected emotions or ‘emotional rules’ in English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms and genuine emotions which results in ‘emotional labour’ for ESL teachers... The study revealed complex and conflicting teacher emotions around translanguaging including pride, comfort (related to feelings of safety), shame (related to linguistic inferiority complexes), guilt, and frustration.

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can you give me a lesson plan? ask ai!

Need a lesson plan?

For example:

"Can you give me a lesson plan for learner training for a b1 group of language learners?"

Ask ChatGPT:

ChatGPT

And ask Google Gemini:

Google Gemini

Here's a little more help:

Mastering ChatGPT for Lesson Planning - Toddle Learn

Eduaide.Ai: AI Created for Teachers

Free AI Tools for Teachers and Educators – Brisk Teaching

And there are always non-AI sources:

15 Sites With Free ESL Lesson Plans + How to Create Your Own!

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umami taste

The subject of 'tastes' can make for a good lesson or two - at all levels:

80 Taste English ESL worksheets pdf & doc

ESL Food and Taste Activity Sheet [Teens, A2-B1] - Twinkl

Amazing world of food: Lesson 4: Our sense of taste | Lesson | Onestopenglish

Tastes | Learning English | Cambridge English

There are more than the tastes of sweet, sour, salty and bitter:

Umami has been variously translated from Japanese as yummy, deliciousness or a pleasant savoury taste, and was coined in 1908 by a chemist at Tokyo University called Kikunae Ikeda. He had noticed this particular taste in asparagus, tomatoes, cheese and meat, but it was strongest in dashi – that rich stock made from kombu (kelp) which is widely used as a flavour base in Japanese cooking. So he homed in on kombu, eventually pinpointing glutamate, an amino acid, as the source of savoury wonder. He then learned how to produce it in industrial quantities and patented the notorious flavour enhancer MSG.

Umami: why the fifth taste is so important | Food | The Guardian

What is Umami? | Everything about umami | Umami | The Ajinomoto Group Global Website - Eat Well, Live Well.

And apparently there is another taste!

8 Things To Know About Kokumi, The 'Sixth Taste'

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it ain't what you say, it's the way that you say it: intonation and functional language

INTONATION AND FUNCTIONAL LANGUAGE

'It ain't what you say it's the way that you say it.'

In focussing on 'getting the words right', both teachers and students often overlook the question of how intonation creates meaning.

Following on from a functional lesson ('telephoning') being observed, I'd like to consider how intonation interplays with functional language.

1) ADDING COLOUR: Once the notion of chunking has been firmly established, work on specific areas of intonation in connected speech:

(See: last chapters of 'Pronunciation Task's by Martin Hewings, CUP, for the basics)

Identifying stressed words/syllables:

dictionary work with 'schwa' for individual words prior to chunks unstressed forms of to/and/were - which are often the 'grammar words'! versus prominent words - which are normally the 'content' words rhythm in Whatdidhesay?/Yesofcourse/Whatdoyouearn?

Linking words together:

consonant+vowel - keepoffthegrass/putonyourclothes

assimilation, or some consonants changing nature - turnback!/Agoodpartybecomes = turmbackf/Agoopparty

vowel+vowel often needs /w/, /j/ or /r/ - Whoareyou?jTeaorcoffee?/Isthedooropen? elision, or the dropping of sounds - Canyouseehim/Ican'tunderstandher becomes Canyouseeim?/Icanunderstander

Students will be familiar with I'm/don't, but not that Areyoualright,mate? becomes ri'ma?

Mimicking the 'music' of the language:

Tonic words, or where there is a change in tone, normally indicate the prominent word -It'sontopofthebookcase or It'sontopofthebookcase

Rising tone can indicate what the listener already knows, whereas falling tone is 'news' - WhenareyougoingtoNewYork? (up = not sure) I'mflyingatteno'clock (down = I know)

Rising tone can also indicate that the speaker hasn't finished: the sound-scripted phone-call above would have rising tone at Canitakeamessaget and 'within' the phone­number

2) Students EXPERIMENT with intonation:

Students listen to clear and complete exponents and try them out themselves. PARROTING exactly what they hear - including pitch, pace, pauses, as above

Higher level students INTERPRET more varied exponents where intention and meaning are not clear. Content often contradicts use of voice:

Yes;. of course/I see. (When the speaker in fact doesn't agree)

Changing stress:

Idunno/Areyougonnago? becomes ldon'tknow/Areyougoingtogo

Whatdidyougetuptolastweek?/Wouldyoumindnotdoingthat,please?

Changing tone:

I'dliketo from down to up can show definite acceptance of an invitation to reservation

Wasitexpensive? from up to down can show curiosity to scolding

Really? from up-down to down-up

Work out with the students whether tone should be questioning or flatter

Changing function:

Trying to say a 'command' as a 'request' and vice-versa, whilst keeping the phraseology:

Iwaswonderingifyoucouldgivememycoat,please./Ablackcoffee.

Trying out different 'moods' to the same phrase, saying it weak/strong, pleading/demanding, authoritatively/patronisingly/sarcastically:

Canwegotothebeach?/Whydon'tyouloveme?

3) Start with the premise that most functional speech is made up of 'CHUNKS', that is, pieces of language which should be recognised as a single whole:

Could I have a cup of coffee?/I'll have the steak./Have you got any change?

Students should be given practice in saying these out loud - but as chunks: Repeating or reading these complete phrases as if they were one word.

Gaps in the wrong place would indicate hesitation:

CanlspeaktoJohn?/Wouldyoumindopeningthewindow?

Integrating set phrases into a complete conversation with correct pausing.

Speed does not equal fluency: it encourages students to blur chunks or stop mid-chunk. It'saboutnextWednesday. (pause.) I'msorrybutlcan'tmakeit (pause.) Canwemakeanotherdate? (pause.)

4) SOUND-SCRIPTING: Students take a ready-made audio script or a self-created conversation - then re-write it line by line. This can be done on a word-processor by pressing 'enter' at the end of each chunk to start a new line:

A: Hi.

Joehere. CanlspeaktoTim?

B: Sorry, He'snotin.

Canltakeamessage ordoyouwanttocallback?

A:Er

Canyoutakeamessage? 

ThisisJohn

Canhecallmebackon

01395

513

456?

It really does take off when students must ask themselves about both the appropriate phraseology to be adopted and the appropriate tone - depending on the role being played.

In other words, we are teaching our students to PLAY ROLES - to act out their lines convincingly - and 'with feeling'.

14th September 2008.

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Here's the same but as images to download and photocopy:

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teaching 'unplugged' twenty-five years on

Over the years, these pages have looked at 'teaching unplugged', the last time some six years ago:

Jay Doubleyou: the 'dogme' approach or 'teaching unplugged':

In fact, the idea started some twenty-five years ago:

Scott Thornbury came up with this approach in 2000, following on from an article he wrote questioning the reliance on coursebooks and other classroom staples.

What is the Dogme ELT approach or Teaching Unplugged? - English Lessons Brighton

Teaching Unplugged is the term used for a teaching method and philosophy which has three primary aims: teaching through conversation, taking out external input such as course book and technology and letting the lesson content be driven by the students rather than being pre-planned by the teacher. Based on the ‘Dogme ELT’ approach to teaching, its origins lie in an article written in 2001 by Scott Thornbury and Luke Meddings called ‘The roaring in the chimney’. They later wrote ‘Teaching Unplugged’, a comprehensive guide to this type of teaching and winner of the British Council ELTons award for Innovation in 2010.The ‘Teaching Unplugged’ or ‘Dogme ELT’ movement has a very strong following amongst teachers. In fact, Dogme ELT discussion list, which was originally set up in March 2000 by Scott Thornbury to help bring this style of teaching to the fore, has now been disbanded, not due to lack of interest but because he felt the support had become so strong the method was ready to stand alone.

The main reason it’s become so popular is that the main focus is one hundred per cent on the students’ actual language needs. Take for example the elementary student who comes into class and says excitedly ‘See..friend..no see….fifteen years!’ Instead of saying ‘Oh, that’s nice! Now open your book at page twenty seven, we’re looking at the past simple’, the teacher constructs the sentence on the board: ‘I’ve just seen a friend I haven’t seen for fifteen years!’ The beauty is that, even if this use of the present perfect doesn’t come up in your course until pre-intermediate, you’re confident that the student knows exactly what this means as it is her own sentence and you’re absolutely sure you’ve just taught her something new as she definitely couldn’t say it before. The teacher then encourages other questions if students take an interest. ‘How.. you…know?’ ‘Where…you..meet?’ ‘What..he ..do..fifteen years?’ ‘ He change?’ The teacher now has a board full of great questions and a topic which can then be used as the basis for the class.

Teaching Unplugged | TeachingEnglish | British Council

Here's the original piece:

USING THE RAW MATERIALS THORNBURY MEDDINGS 2001 - Google Search

With a different aspect on the whole approach given in 2012:

A dogme based approach from the learners’ perspective.

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non-linear lesson planning in the esl/esol/tefl classroom

How do we go about planning a lesson?

We can throw out questions and see how they progress:

Jay Doubleyou: socratic method pt 2

We can focus on 'getting something done':

Jay Doubleyou: task-based learning

We can find lots of ready-made lesson plans to guide us through 'what to do':

Jay Doubleyou: free english lessons with esolcourses.com

But we need something flexible enough to manage different levels/expectations/personalities:

Jay Doubleyou: mixed levels in the esl/esol/tefl classroom

Perhaps a non-linear approach would help:

When it comes to learning new skills... every type of student is different. Some people prefer linear learning, others non-linear learning. Some excel by listening to a teacher in the classroom and absorbing the information from A to Z, others thrive by a learning process that doesn’t necessarily follow a fixed, pre-programmed path but is dynamic, interactive, and intuitive. As we are propelled into the future of work, the need for agile and efficient learning strategies is rising. So when we look at linear vs non-linear learning, what is the most effective approach.

Linear vs Non-linear Learning and the Future of Work

Duncan Foord writing in the E T Professional looks at 'lesson planning right from the heart':

Lesson Planning From The Heart PDF | PDF

As a colleague points out:

Back in August as I was preparing to teach my first ever teacher training course, I stumbled upon an article called Lesson planning right from the heart by Duncan Foord (English Teaching Professional, 93, July 2014 – the article is available here if you’re a subscriber), and the idea suggested there struck a deep cord with me; we discussed the article with the trainees on the very first day of the course, and I think it sent a very important message and made a lot of difference to the outcome of the whole course.

In his article, Foord suggests planning the lesson in a way that reflects the approach outlined above, by stepping away from a ‘linear’ lesson plan (in which the task comes at the end and might easily get sacrificed for time reasons) and instead thinking of the plan as a heart (the task, which is the lesson aim) – supported by activities, all of which are valuable, and yet ‘droppable’:

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2014 take-aways – and a few resolutions | Olya Sergeeva's ELT blog

Here are some more ideas:

Using Linear and Non-linear Teaching Strategies to Meet the Multiple Learning Needs of Students  - Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

Is non-linear approach to teaching more effective than traditional coursebook approach? | TEFL Tips - YouTube

Non‐linearity and the observed lesson

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