ESL/EFL ONLINE LESSON DEVELOPMENT (BASED ON SKYENG PRACTICES AND TECHNIQUES)

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.


INTRODUCTION
The traditional offline ESL/EFL model classroom have successfully adapted into the online medium. Skyeng is one of fastest growing online English teaching companies in Eastern Europe. It has recently become the market leader having approximately 12 000 teachers and 120 000 students. Our 8 years' successful experience of teaching English online through the interactive educational Vimbox platform and mobile applications greatly depends on the quality and effectiveness of the lessons we develop. In this research we are focusing on exploring the lesson development algorithm and methodological approaches we apply and practise in Skyeng.
Firstly, it is worth mentioning that being different in tools, online education still relies on traditional offline teaching principles. In our online Skyeng school we intend to assist the learners and teachers in their education and professional development by means of: 1) an appropriate technological infrastructure (access to an interactive online platform); 2) communicative teaching methods and effective studying materials; 3) creating a stimulating environment for the whole online community of teachers and learners. At present English learning and teaching is gradually shifting to an online format and will probably become the preferred mode in a long-term perspective. As a result, the necessity of working out the most effective tools for this process is exactly what determines the topicality of the present research. The scientific novelty lies in an attempt to outline the algorithm of creating an effective ESL/EFL online "granulated" lesson. Under "granulated" lessons we suggest that each lesson should be developed and designed as a complete unit which can be taught either within the whole course or separately. The object of the research is an online ESL/EFL lesson. The subject matter of the study is the structure and content development of an online ESL/EFL lesson that would enhance the productivity of the studying process for the student.
The task of the present research is to point out and analyze the following aspects and stages of a productive student-centered ESL/EFL online lesson modelling: • effective structuring; • formulation of lesson aims; • content unit choice and material evaluation; • lesson management The following research methods have been used:

MATERIAL AND METHODS
• critical analysis of scientific sources and data; • experimental studying (through the educational Vimbox platform in Skyeng); • direct observation method; • interviewing. It is worth mentioning that all new courses in Skyeng go through an obligatory testing stage and analytical groups of methodologists and content producers collect feedback on each lesson and lesson stages from teachers and learners. As the number of students following the lessons on the New General English Intermediate course, for instance, varies from 400 to 800 students a month, it helps to collect gross and objective feedback on the quality and effectiveness of the lessons.

3.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION In this chapter we will outline the following online lesson development stages: formulating the aims; lesson structuring; choosing the materials; special methodological sections of an online lesson; lesson management components and techniques.
3.1. Defining the lesson structure and selecting the aims When we plan either an individual lesson or a lesson within the course framework, we first consider the aims and then the techniques and approaches we will use to achieve those aims. In many cases the lesson aims are viewed as mostly procedure aims [Scrivener, 2010]. Procedure aims state the activity or the procedure the student will do during the lesson, e.g., "The student will have read the text about advertising tricks" or "The student will practise comparatives". As the subject matter of a lesson is a certain teaching pointdevelopment of certain language skillsdescribing the planned procedures or activities is describing the tools to achieve the subject matter of the lesson, but the lesson aims are not the lesson "tools". We support the idea that the so-called achievement aims are more useful for the teacher when planning a lesson. To determine achievement aims, one has to analyze the learner's direct needs. Asking questions like "How will doing this activity or using this lesson material benefit the learner's English?" might help to formulate an achievement aim.
Examples of achievement aims may sound like: • The student will be able to talk about body positivity trend; • The student will know how to use comparatives; • The student will learn and use a wide range of words describing appearance. This approach helps to make the achievements of the student evident. When summarizing the lesson at the cool-down stage the student may formulate these aims in a form of personal lesson achievements (can-do statements).

Now I can:
• talk about body positivity trend; • use the comparatives; • use a wide range of new words describing appearance. The next aspect under discussion is structuring the lesson. The aims we choose shape the structure and determine the techniques we will use during an individual lesson itself. When we introduce a new grammar pattern in a grammar course or a general English course, we might choose one preferred approach: PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production) approach; Task-based approach (first giving the students a task to complete and later presenting language the students have identified as needed [ and then, as a result of monitoring them while they work, we offer correction, explanation and clarification and setting a similar to the original task in the end) [Scrivener, 2010].
Skills-oriented lessons (aimed at developing receptive and productive skills rather than grammar and vocabulary knowledge) will be structured differently and have their own structure. For example, for receptive skills we usually include pre-, while-and post-reading or listening activities. For productive skills we start with lead-in, comprehension tasks, post tasks activities and feedback. However, more often when designing a lesson for adults or adolescents we work on a topic-based lesson mode that develops several skills. Thus, the structure of a lesson should comprise all the necessary stages for each skill or a sub-skill development. Here is an example of a 50 minutes' online lesson algorithm designed within the course framework which fulfills the general requirements of the Intermediate level (GSE standard).
Lesson aims (from a teacher's point of view): • to enlarge the student's vocabulary on the topic of appearance and looks; • to present and practise the degrees of comparisons of adjectives and adverbs; • to develop the student's listening and speaking skills in the context of comparing people's looks and body positivity trend.

Student achievement aims:
• to talk about body positivity trend and how it helps people accept their bodies; • to learn new words on the topic of appearance; • to learn how to compare things with the help of comparatives and superlatives. Lesson structure: 1. Warm up and lead-in. Reading and discussing an Instagram post of a girl who is describing her fear of becoming older. Focus on leading into the topic and engaging the student. 2. Pre-watching. Discussing some statements from the video which the student will watch later: agreeing or disagreeing. Focus on pre-listening discussion to make the listening activity on the next step easier for the student. 3. Listening for gist. Watching a short video of a series of interviews from different people answering the questions of what they would like to change about themselves. Comprehension checkexercise on multiple choice. Focus on developing the student's listening for gist skills. Post-listening discussion of the statements from the video using the words and collocations from the video which are highlighted for the student and given in a separate section. Focus on the development of the student's speaking fluency skills. 4. Listening for gist and detail. Listening to the interview with a person who promotes a body positivity trend on her social media account. Comprehension checkanswering the questions on the interview. Focus on developing the student's listening for gist and detail skills.

Grammar revision (comparatives and superlatives of adjectives).
Test-teach-test approach: 1) completing a grammar exercise on controlled practice where a student may select the right option; 2) clarifying the rules and points which the student had difficulties with on the previous stepgrammar card with the rules and a teacher using a guided discovery technique to engage the student into the process of grammar analysis; 3) an exercise on target grammar-controlled practice (the exercise comprises adjectives describing appearance); 4) 2 exercises on semi-controlled practice (comparing the celebrities on the list; completing the ideas on the body positivity trend using the comparative and superlatives) 6. Freer practice of the target grammar and overall discussion on the topic.
Discussing 2 portraits of the same woman painted from her friends' description and her own description. The student is provided with a set of guiding questions. Focus on freer practice of the target grammar and developing the student's fluency speaking skills. 7. Cool-down and summarizing. The above has outlined the structure of what we call a "granulated" lesson regarded as a complete unit within the whole New General English Intermediate course framework. It is a topic-based lesson having some different aims, thus it should be structured in a way that will provide all the necessary stages for developing the learner's skills and sub-skills claimed.

Lesson content, materials and methodological sections
The next stage of the online lesson development algorithm is selecting the materials.
The decision on what your lesson aims are will determine the way in which you work with the material. The same piece of material can be used in many ways, in different activities, with different aims. The benefits of a coursebook package are that it usually includes a student's book and a teacher's book providing the teacher with all the necessary guidance. Often there is also a workbook or an activity book with extra practice material. But teachers often base their selection of teaching materials on "needs analysis" (a study of learner's level, language needs and difficulties, interests and personal aims). Usually it may necessitate adapting the coursebook materials to match the student's profile or using the supplementary materials. The latter being a typical approach when designing an online lesson.
By contrast to a set printed coursebook we focus on creating a flexible individual 50minute online lesson. We tend to structure the lesson using one or two content units (a text, a video, an interview etc.) and build a set of activities based on this content unit. But how do we choose a content unit which enables a teacher to take the best advantage of it?
The criteria for assessing the learning materials are different. Brian Tomlinson listed some theories: • Learners only learn what they really need or want to learn. • Learners often seem to gain more enjoyment and learning from activities which stimulate them to use the target language to say something they really want to say. • Learning materials have to help the learner to connect the learning experience in the classroom to their own life outside the course. • Learning materials have to stimulate emotional engagement and promote visualisation. • Learners think, say and learn more if they are given an experience or text to respond to than if they are just asked for their views, opinions and interests [Tomlinson, 2003]. (The latter being the cornerstone of an online lesson design in our practice). We claim to design student-centered lessons, with the student talking most of the lesson time and being fully engaged into learning activities. What we encourage them first of all is to speak. To facilitate the process of student's involvement and speaking feedback from them we provide them with the relevant materials to respond to, speculate and argue about. It is one of the necessary features of the studying materials Brian Tomlinson has listed (see above). Thus, the exposure to one or two content units (materials: texts, interviews, posts, videos, presentations or any other discourse form) is a key component of structuring a lesson accompanied with visual aids and pictures. How do we evaluate the materials which can/cannot be used for the lesson? We rely on the following criteria for measuring the value of the lesson materials: • achievability of tasks (in terms of time planning and student's engagement); • flexibility of the materials; • comprehensibility of content units; • appeal of the materials; • motivating and emotionally engaging power of the materials; • achievement of the lesson aims; • effectiveness in facilitating short-term learning. So when an individual lesson is designed it goes through a testing stage for the methodologists to collect the feedback and alter it if the KPI statistics on any of the above mentioned criteria seems to be rather low.
We have mentioned above the advantages of coursebook packages. In case of using supplementary or authentic materials and content there is another challenge for a lesson writer. How do we provide 1) good guidance for teachers who will use the online lesson materials and 2) enough additional practice for the students who will work on it within a level course? In our practice we support the lesson materials with special methodological sections. On every step of a lesson there is a section for a teacher which is not visible to a student with detailed notes on how to organize the activities of the step. The following examples from a lesson illustrate this technique.
Teacher's notes Stage aim: to provide listening activity and post-listening discussion on the relevant ideas.
Exercise 1: • Discuss the statements and ask the student to explain their answers. Exercise 2: • Ask the student to watch for the first time and say what they learned from the video and what they liked most. Then ask them to watch for the second time and follow the instruction of the exercise. • If the student feels interested and inspired, ask the questions from the You can also discuss section. Teacher's notes Stage aim: to organize the listening for details activity. Exercise 1: • Let the student look through questions 1-5 before the second listening.
• When the student answers the question after they have listened for the second time, ask them to give a detailed answer. Such instructions serve as a Teacher's book in the coursebook package. They let the teacher focus on the necessary steps from their side and facilitate the learning process making it more productive for the student.
There are other methodological features we include in the lesson structure to guide and help the teacher through the lesson, so-called You can say and You can also discuss sections. You can say sections are aimed at the teachers to make connections between different stages and activities of the lesson, to start or to summarize the lesson. They are not visible to the student, so it makes the teacher sound and look natural. Though we have to be careful with using these sections as they influence the balance of TTT (teacher talking time) and STT (student talking time Another content feature we widely use in our lessons is You can also discuss section. The main aim of this section is to provide the student with additional speaking activities. Since we work with various learners who differ in their learning styles, working tempo and levels of skills, such sections give opportunities to: • organize the necessary language production stage (freer practice) on any step of a lesson when the teacher is pressed for time and the student cannot complete all the activities within 50 minutes; • provide enough speaking activity for the student; • engage the student into the topic and motivate them to connect the topic under discussion with their own life experience or views. Let us look through the You can also discuss section example in the lesson we have described above.
You can also discuss • Are you pressured to feel/look perfect by social media?
• Do you have any friends who feel positive about the way they look, though they have some imperfections? • Do you tend to compare yourself with those who have so-called "perfect" body?
How? • What body positivity ideas do you find the most useful or up-to-date ones?
• Do you agree with the idea that in a world of social media we are pressured to feel perfect on a daily basis? Does body positivity help change it? Organizing questions in a proper order is really essential for the efficiency of the learning process in general and productivity of the speaking activity itself. We assume that the questions should be ordered according to Bloom's taxonomy. Bloom's Taxonomy was created by Benjamin Bloom in 1956, published as a kind of classification of learning outcomes and objectives that have, in the more than half-century since, been used for everything from framing digital tasks and evaluating apps to writing questions and assessments [Bloom, 1956].
The original sequence of cognitive levels in Bloom's taxonomy included Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analysing, Synthesizing, and Evaluation. The framework was revised in 2001 by Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl, the most significant change being the addition of 'Creation' as the highest-level of Bloom's Taxonomy [Anderson, Krathwohl, 2001]. Like other taxonomies, Bloom's is hierarchical, meaning that learning at the higher levels is dependent on having attained prerequisite knowledge and skills at lower levels. This framework can be used to create assessments, evaluate the complexity of assignments, simplify an activity to help personalize learning, plan project-based learning, and what is our main implementation is to frame a group discussion. The hierarchy of learning objectives and instructions can be designed in the way presented below: 1.
Inventing: propose, create, design, produce etc. Let us look at how this taxonomy works in the example of the You can also discuss section questions taken from the lesson: You can also discuss • Are you pressured to feel/look perfect by social media? (rememberinga yes/no question which only necessitates a short answer from the student) • Do you have any friends who feel positive about the way they look, though they have some imperfections? (understandingthe student compares his experience with the experiences of the people around) • Do you tend to compare yourself with those who have so-called "perfect" bodies? How? (applying -the student has to illustrate the influence of "perfect body" image influence) • What body positivity ideas do you find the most useful or up-to-date? (analyzing and categorizing) • Do you agree with the idea that in a world of social media we are pressured to feel perfect on a daily basis? Does body positivity help change it? (evaluating) The last stage of inventing is practically realized in the homework task to record a list of tips for a person who is conscious of her getting old (based on the post from a social media page).
We have illustrated how this taxonomy is applied to concoct a series of questions for additional discussion. But we strongly recommend applying it when designing any discussion step in the lesson: during the post-listening/reading discussion or freer vocabulary practice.
Some other methodological sections that we include into the online lesson are: Additional information section, Student's notes, textareas etc. For instance, Additional information section usually contains the definitions of blocking vocabulary on the prelistening or pre-reading stage of the lesson or some extra information on the relevant topic.
Summarizing on the methodological sections and tips we have described, it is important to emphasize that the combination of all these sections makes the lesson flexible for a teacher. They may make some sections visible for the student or hide them if necessary, combine or change different stages of the lesson depending on the student's pace or working style, their engagement into the topic or the necessity of additional training of some certain skills.

Focusing on language and management
The language we use for the lesson is also an indispensable part of the lesson development algorithm. It is the key factor of either increasing or decreasing the efficiency of the learning process. When considering what an appropriate usage of the lesson language is we will focus on formulating instructions, using eliciting techniques and managing the balance of a student's native language (L1) and English during the lesson.
We give instruction at different stages of a lesson and an online lesson is not an exception. The main difference is that using the visual interactive platform the student may see not only the materials but also the instructions. For many teachers such step as giving an instruction may turn out to be problematic. Some teachers tend to echo their instructions or explain many steps they are going to take with the student, making the student feel puzzled or making the student just guess what the teacher wants them to do. Unplanned and unstructured instructions are extremely confusing. We support the idea that a good and an effective instruction should be simple, one-step and formulated in an imperative form. The instructions which sound like: "Now we are going to watch a video about a body positivity trend and discuss some questions which are connected to the topic. You will explain to me the message of the author and we will speculate about it later during the lesson"is an example of a poor and ineffective instruction. The student may misunderstand what they should do as their first step and automatically ask clarifying questions. The improved version of an instruction for the same stage activity will be as follows: 1 Watch the video for the first time and say if the author supports a body positivity trend.
2 Look through the questions below. Watch the video for the second time and discuss the questions with your teacher.
It is also a good idea for a teacher not to announce the instructions themselves but to delegate reading to the student, which minimizes the teacher talking time during the lesson.
Good balance of teacher talking time (TTT) and student talking time (STT) is another key to creating and conducting an effective ESL/EFL lesson. The more the teacher talks, the less opportunity there is for the learner. In most cases teachers tend to increase their TTT when explaining either target vocabulary or target grammar. They believe that explaining the forms, meaning or usage of lexical and grammar patterns is the most effective way to make the student understand and start using them in their speech. Practically the students feel disengaged and bored when listening to long teacher's explanations. When designing a lesson structure and content we recommend implementing eliciting techniques.
Eliciting implies getting information FROM the learners rather than giving it TO them. Eliciting creates a learner-centred environment and is very thought-provoking for the students. It can be used for a wide range of language related notions such as eliciting vocabulary, grammar, synonyms, antonyms, background information, language forms and rules, general knowledge, opinions, feelings, contexts, meanings, memories, associations, ideas, situations, questions and answers. This technique is based on the principles that suggest the following: • students probably know more than we may give them credit for; • starting with what the students know is a productive way to begin new work and get the students engaged; • involving learners in a question-answer movement to discover the language phenomena is more effective than simply "giving lectures". For example, an easy way to elicit vocabulary is giving definitions, using synonyms or antonyms. It also minimizes usage of a native language during an ESL/EFL lesson. One of the most effective implementations of eliciting techniques is a guided discovery process. It is a good alternative to giving direct explanations. The learners take a more active role in their own progress.
In our lessons we widely apply a guided discovery technique, but there are some key concepts to follow in order to do it effectively. The first necessary point is to provide the student with good and comprehensible examples to illustrate a target grammar pattern. Then you follow with a series of concept checking questions that encourage the learners to notice the pattern and think about it. These questions should be structured and lead the learner to make conclusions. It is essential to make up yes/no or alternative questions. You can ask questions that focus on form, questions that focus on meaning, and finally ask to hypothesize rules. Let us look through an example of implementing a guided discovery technique in the context of a 20 minute grammar lesson (which can also be used in a self study format). The topic of the lesson is Modals for Speculation (Pre-Intermediate level GSE).
In the first stage we provide an exposure to target grammar patterns and provide the student with vivid and comprehensible examples.
Look • Does anyone know if there is a swimming pool? The backyard seems not big enough … but the swimming pool may be inside. • I don't like high-tech exterior, I prefer something more old-fashioned, ... but I really like the garage, it must be huge inside Next we continue with eliciting the forms and the meaning through a series of concept checking questions.
Match the sentences with their possible explanations.
The house may have smart technologies.
I am only making a guess. Probably, the house has smart technologies.
The house must be comfortable.
I am almost certain that the house is comfortable.
The rooms might be welllit.
Perhaps the rooms are well-lit.