The development of organizational skills through micro-teaching

The most commonly practised form of micro-teaching in teacher training is based on the Stanford model of the early 1960s. However, the general educational skills focused on in the Stanford model are not necessarily the most important ones for language teachers. What skills are practised will depend to a large extent on the teacher trainer's view of what constitutes good teaching, and this is largely a subjective matter. It is also difficult to see how micro-teaching can give much help with the development of skills that are only observable in a real situation, particularly if trainees are teaching a ‘microclass’ of other trainees. However, one major area which is particularly well suited to microteaching for trainee language teachers is that of organizational skills and the giving of instructions. The authors describe how they have used micro-teaching to practise some of these skills.