ESL/EFL online lesson development (based on Skyeng practices and techniques)

Abstract

The article presents an attempt to infer the key stages of creating an effective online English lesson based on corporate teaching practices and techniques of Skyeng online school. There have been revealed some important aspects that are to be taken into consideration when working out an online lesson structure and content. Having analyzed various theoretical courses on communicative language teaching methods and having combined them with the incorporated Skyeng practice in teaching English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language (ESL/EFL), we have come up with a certain algorithm which we advise to apply in lesson modelling: focusing on achievement aims rather than procedure aims, choosing the correct lesson structure, evaluating the studying materials and content, formulating methodological sections to aid the teachers. There have been presented some language management techniques currently used in Skyeng lessons, such as the correct formulation of the instructions, balancing teacher talking time and student talking time and the technique of a guided discovery. The practical application of Blooms’ taxonomy is illustrated in the example of additional speaking tasks and their correct development. There have been described such notions as: achievement aims, materials’ evaluation, TTT and STT balance, guided discovery, lesson content units, Blooms’ taxonomy, lesson structure. The article contains practical examples of how these notions are realised in the lessons developed in Skyeng online school. Though all the examples are shown in the paradigm of an online lesson, the same algorithm presented in the article is highly recommended when developing offline lessons which are traditionally held in a classroom. Thus, there has been made an attempt to work out a single algorithm for modelling effective online and offline ESL/EFL lessons.