Information collection & exchange

 Acknowledgments 
The authors would like to thank JoAnn Crandall of the Center for Applied Linguistics, and John Guevin and 
David Wolfe of the Peace Corps, for their valuable editorial comments. We would also like to thank Frank 
Harrison of the Center for Applied Linguistics for his help with the figures and diagrams. Finally, thanks are 
due to Peace Corps Volunteers who shared their experiences with us, helping to make this a manual which 
will show the way to future Volunteers. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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About this manual 
TEFL/TESL: Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language is for Volunteers who are currently 
teaching or who are about to teach English. It is a practical guide for the classroom teacher. 
The manual describes procedures and offers sample exercises and activities for: 
• a wide range of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills 
• whole-class, small-group, and individual participation 
• classroom testing and preparing students for national examinations 
It covers a great variety of teaching situations: 
• primary and secondary schools and college 
• the office or workplace 
• school and work settings which have limited facilities for instruction and those which provide ample 
support 
• any geographical or cultural setting where Peace Corps Volunteers may be found 
You may already have training in the teaching of English, or your specialty may be in another technical area. 
Regardless of whether you are an old hand or a newcomer, this manual was written for you. Clear directions 
are given for presenting the sample exercises. Possible problems are anticipated. Where different 
approaches and techniques of teaching are discussed, the reasons for using them are explained. In short, 
both experienced and novice teachers will be able to use the manual with confidence. 
When using the manual, you should keep one important point in mind. Because many different teaching 
situations are represented, you will find procedures and materials to meet the needs of every Volunteer. If 
you can lift an exercise from the manual and use it unchanged tomorrow morning with your students, well 
and good. On the other hand, you should not expect to use every procedure and exercise exactly as it is 
presented in the manual. Some suggestions will seem wrong for your class. But don't just discard those 
which appear unsuitable. It is often possible to change a technique or an activity so that it will work for you. 
So rather than look at the suggestions only in the forms presented in the manual, get into the habit of looking 
for ways to adapt the suggestions for your own purposes. 
You will probably turn to this manual because you need the answers to one or more questions. What better 
way then to explain how to use the manual than by trying to anticipate some of your questions? 
Your first question may be How do I find out how much English my students know? 
Chapter One begins with several possible answers to this question. It shows you how to go on a fact-
finding mission to discover not only what your students know, but also how much more they need to 
know. 
Next you may ask How can I teach a class of 50 students which meets only two times a week? 
The second part of Chapter One deals with these two problems and others, such as not enough 
textbooks, poorly motivated students, and the need to follow a prescribed syllabus. It also considers the 
special problems of teaching English to your co-workers or to their families. 

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There are a number of approaches to the teaching of languages. You may find this variety more confusing 
than helpful, and you may wonder How can I sort out all these methods of language teaching? How can