Although not every lesson should follow exactly the same pattern, lessons need to have a clear structure and sense of progression. Students should feel that activities are connected and that the lesson is moving towards a specific learning objective.

A useful general structure is:

Welcome & Warm-up → Lead-in → Teaching/Input → Practice → Production → Feedback → Lesson Close

The length and importance of each stage will vary depending on the age, level and objective of the lesson.

1. Welcome and Warm-up

The first few minutes are important for establishing the atmosphere and getting students into English mode.

A warm-up should normally be short, engaging and accessible. It can recycle previously learned language, activate vocabulary or simply encourage students to start communicating in English.

Whenever possible, use this stage to review previous learning rather than introducing an unrelated game simply to entertain students.

2. Lead-in

Before introducing new language, a topic, a reading or a listening activity, activate what students already know.

This can be done through:

• a question or short discussion;

• an image;

• a prediction activity;

• brainstorming;

• realia;

• a short challenge or game;

• a connection with students’ own experiences.

The aim is to create context and activate prior knowledge, making the new content easier to understand and more meaningful.

3. Teaching / Input

When new language or skills need to be introduced, explanations should be clear, focused and appropriate to the students’ level.

Avoid long teacher explanations when students could discover or understand something through examples, context or guided questions.

When teaching language, consider three essential elements:

Meaning → Form → Pronunciation

Students need to understand what the language means, how it is constructed and how it sounds before they can be expected to use it successfully.

4. Practice

Students then need opportunities to work with the language or skill.

Practice will often move from more controlled to less controlled activities.

For example:

Choose the correct answer → Complete sentences → Create your own sentences → Use the language in conversation.

This gradual progression provides support before students are expected to use the language more independently.

Whenever appropriate, include short periods of individual work. Students need opportunities to think and produce answers themselves before relying on the teacher or stronger classmates.

5. Production

Whenever possible, students should have an opportunity to use what they have learned for a meaningful purpose.

This could involve:

• speaking in pairs;

• solving a problem;

• role-playing;

• answering personalised questions;

• writing;

• describing or comparing;

• completing an information-gap activity;

• carrying out an exam-style task.

At this stage, the teacher should generally become less dominant. Students should be doing most of the work.

6. Feedback and Correction

Activities should not simply finish when students have completed the exercise.

Teachers need to check understanding, correct relevant errors and help students recognise why an answer is correct or incorrect.

Feedback can be teacher-led, but it can also involve:

self-correction → pair-checking → whole-class feedback.

The method chosen will depend on the activity and the objective.

7. Lesson Close

Avoid allowing the lesson simply to end because time has run out.

Whenever possible, reserve a few minutes to bring the session to a clear conclusion.

Ask questions such as:

What have we learned today?
What new language can you remember?
What can you do now that you couldn’t do at the beginning of the lesson?

This can also be done through a quick challenge, retrieval activity or exit question.

Keep the lesson moving

Good lesson structure is also about pace and transitions.

Long periods in which students are simply listening to the teacher, waiting for materials or watching other students complete an activity can quickly reduce attention.

Activities should therefore have a clear purpose and transitions should be prepared in advance.

However, dynamism does not mean constantly changing activities. Students also need periods of concentration, individual work and sustained practice.

The objective is not to keep students permanently entertained. It is to maintain purpose, variety, appropriate challenge and active participation throughout the lesson.

Remember

There is no single structure that works for every lesson.

A grammar lesson, a speaking lesson, an exam-practice session and a lesson with five-year-olds should not look identical.

The structure should always serve the learning objective, rather than the learning objective being forced into a predetermined structure.