This course introduces learners to the role of a teacher in helping to motivate and properly engage learners. It begins with a metaphor: language is cake, meaning that language must be presented well in order to be enjoyed (we will actually perform a skit to show this meaning clearly). This module will demonstrate how a teacher can encourage a student and increase motivation by paying attention to techniques such as improving teacher talk, scaffolding language, and the use of body language to make meaning clear. All of these skills, while gained over the course of a lifetime as a language teacher, must be considered primary goals from the very beginning. And all of these skills help a teacher recognize that presentation skills make a difference to learners not only in motivating them, but in allowing them to understand the concepts presented.
- Video: Welcome Video
- Reading: Welcome Guide to the Teach English Now! MOOC
- Practice Quiz: Welcome Guide
- Video: Video 1: Language is Cake
- Peer Review: Language is Cake
- Video: Video 2: Language is Cake: Technique and Content
- Reading: Why Intrinsic Motivation Matters
- Practice Quiz: Checkpoint 1
- Video: Video 3: Making Meaning Clear
- Video: Video 4: Teacher Talk
- Video: Video 5: Scaffolding
- Practice Quiz: Checkpoint 2
- Video: Video 6: Summary and Essential Question
- Video: Teacher Talk Example (Advanced)
- Reading: The Input Hypothesis
- Reading: Optimal Input is Comprehensible
