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Teacher Training Pack

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Teacher Training Pack

CONTENTS

1.Teacher Training Packs (HOW TO...)

2.Teacher's Development Chapter

3.Internet Lesson Plans

Teacher Training

Packs

stage 2

experiential task

25–30 minutes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … activate vocabulary detailed plan 1

how to …activate vocabulary

detailed plan

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

stage procedure

stage 1

warmer

10–15 minutes

Photocopy and distribute worksheet for stage 1 and ask the trainees,working individually, to match the two parts of each extract.

They should check their answers in pairs, and then go on to discuss,briefly, the implications of any of the statements that particularly interestthem. Allow time for an open class sharing of opinions.

Note: in the interests of time, this task could be set as a pre-sessionalactivity, with a brief check and discussion in class before moving to stage 2.

Copy and cut up worksheet for stage 2, so that there is one set of wordcards per group of (roughly) four trainees – there are 15 words per set. Ifthe cards are mounted onto card, they will be more easily manipulated aswell as more durable.

Write the following Maori* words on the board, or onto an overheadtransparency, along with their English equivalents:

kereru = pigeonmakimaki = monkeyhipi = sheepkaka = parrottuna = eelkiwi = kiwikuri = dogruru = owlmako = sharkwheke = octopuspoaka = pigtohora = whale

Ask the trainees first to repeat the words as you read them from the list.(Note: the pronunciation closely follows the spelling, with vowelspronounced more or less as they would be in Italian, Spanish, orJapanese. The wh- in wheke is pronounced as an f. The stress is on thefirst syllable in every case.)

Now ask the trainees, working individually and silently, to try to learn asmany of the words as they can in five minutes. Then, with your hand ora piece of card, cover the English equivalents of individual words, in arandom order, and see if trainees can tell you what its Maori equivalentmeans.

Then do the same in reverse, i.e. cover individual Maori words inrandom order, until satisfied that most of the class can recall most of thewords.

Then, one by one, erase the English words, checking each time that theclass knows what its Maori equivalent means. Do the same with the Maoriwords, until the board is clear. At this point, you might ask them howwell they think they have learned the words, and what kinds of memorytechniques they used to help them learn the words (e.g. similarity withthe English equivalent, word associations e.g. hipi – hippie, etc.).

Now, divide the class into groups of four. Hand out the sets of word cardsyou have prepared in advance, one set per group.

Ask the trainees to work together, and to do the following tasks one byone, checking in open class the results of each task in turn as the groupscomplete them. (First point out that they learned twelve words but thatthere are fifteen in the set of word cards.)

1 Eliminate the three words that weren’t included at the learning stage.

2 Put the remaining words in the order that they were originallypresented on the board.

3 Match any pairs that rhyme.

4 Group the twelve words into three sets of four words each, so thateach word in the set has something in common.

5 Decide which could be the odd-one-out in each set of four – and why.

6 Choose one member of each set of four that the group agrees wouldmake a good pet – and why.

7 Choose one set of four and rank the four according to the probableresults of a race i.e. Who would win, come second, etc.?

8 Then, individual members of the group take turns to either draw orimitate the sound or gait of one of the items, while the others try toguess which one it is – using its Maori name.

9 Finally, each group member chooses one of the 12 words and writes a true / false sentence (in English, but using the relevant Maori), which he or she then reads out to the group, who decide if itis true or false.

When students are doing these tasks, and when they are reporting theresults to the whole class, they should be encouraged to use the Maoriwords rather than their English equivalents, embedding them in Englishsentences. If at any stage a group cannot remember the Maori word, theteacher can be asked to supply it – but this should be done by giving thefirst letter, then the second, and so on, until someone in the groupsuccessfully recalls the word.

* Maori is a Polynesian language, spoken by the indigenous inhabitantsof New Zealand. If some or all trainees are already familiar with Maori,you should adapt this activity, using a language that is unfamiliar to thegroup.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … activate vocabulary detailed plan 2

Ask the trainees, working in the same groups (or, if more convenient, inpairs), to recall, as far as they can remember, the sequence of activitiesthey have just done in groups.

Then distribute worksheet for stage 3. Ask trainees:

a to classify the different task-types according to these categories:• ordering / ranking• matching• selecting• sorting• guessing

b to rate each activity in terms of the amount of ‘cognitive depth’involved (using the categories high, medium, low)

c to decide if the focus of the task is primarily on form or on meaning

d to decide if the task process involves word recognition only, orproduction

Allow time for an open class discussion afterwards.

Distribute copies of natural English intermediate student’s book.

Divide the class into pairs or small groups. Ask each group to look at adifferent wordbooster section (see, for example, pages 16, 25, 39, 48,63, etc.). Ask them to study the sequence of activities and to identify how‘deeper processing’ tasks are built into the sequence in order to supportvocabulary learning. Specifically, look for those features that werementioned in the matching task (stage 1), i.e.:

• manipulation

• drawing connections to other words

• personalization

• recalling items for productive use

• meeting or using the word in new contexts

Ask them also to think of activities (such as those they experienced instage 2) that could be incorporated into the sequence in order to optimizelearning even further.

If there’s time, reorganize the groups so that each new group contains atleast one member from each of the original groups, and ask trainees toshare their ideas.

Spokespeople from each group can then report to the class on theirfindings.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … activate vocabulary detailed plan 3

stage 3

post-task reflection

15–20 minutes

stage 4

application task

15 minutes

how to …activate vocabulary

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … activate vocabulary session overview

outline plan

stage timing interaction

1 warmer – matching task 10–15 minutes individuals; pairs; open class report

2 experiential task 25–30 minutes open class; groups of 3-4

3 post-task reflection 15–20 minutes pairs; open class

4 extension activity 20–25 minutes pairs / small groups; open class report

www.oup.com/elt/teacher/naturalenglish

aim to develop and apply criteria which can be used to evaluate material designed to activate vocabulary

trainees will …

• review some of the principles underlying theactivation of vocabulary

• experience a sequence of tasks designed to activatevocabulary

• analyse activity sequences from the point of viewof vocabulary learning principles

materials

• natural English intermediate student’s book

• photocopies of worksheets for stages 1 and 3, andword cards for stage 2

• natural English intermediate teacher’s bookpp.136–142

session overview

by Scott Thornbury

stage 1 warmer

The answers to the matching task are: 1–C; 2–E; 3–B; 4–A; 5–D.

Here are the extracts in full:

1 ‘The human lexicon is believed to be a network of associations, aweb-like structure of interconnected links … When students areasked to manipulate words, relate them to other words and totheir own experiences, and then to justify their choices, theseword associations are reinforced.’ Sökmen, A.J., in Schmitt, N. and McCarthy, M. (Eds.), Vocabulary:Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy (1997) pp.241–242.Reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press.

2 ‘The act of successfully recalling an item increases the chance thatthe item will be remembered … It appears that the retrieval routeto that item is in some way strengthened by being successfullyused.’ Baddeley, A., Human Memory: Theory and Practice (Revised edition)(1997) p.112. Reproduced by permission of Psychology Press.

3 ‘The more one manipulates, thinks about, and uses mentalinformation, the more likely it is that one will retain thatinformation. In the case of vocabulary, the more one engageswith a word (deeper processing), the more likely the word will beremembered for later use.’ Schmitt, N., Vocabulary in Language Teaching (2000) p.120.Reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press.

4 ‘When words are met in reading and listening or used in speakingand writing, the generativeness of the context will influencelearning. That is, if the words occur in new sentence contexts inthe reading text, learning will be helped. Similarly, having to usethe word to say new things will add to learning.’ Nation, I.S.P., Learning Vocabulary in Another Language (2001) p.80Reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press.

5 ‘A learner’s active/productive vocabulary is always smaller thanhis or her passive/receptive vocabulary. That is, learners might beable to recognize a given lexical item when it is presented to themor they may be able to infer its meaning, but this is not at all thesame thing as recalling items for use.’ Carter, R., Vocabulary: Applied Linguistic Perspectives (Second Edition)(1998) p.213. Reproduced by permission of Routledge.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … activate vocabulary trainer’s notes 1

how to …activate vocabulary

trainer’s notes

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

The implications of these statements that should be highlighted in theopen class discussion include:

• The importance of activities that require learners to retrieve wordsfrom memory.

• The importance of ‘deeper processing’ tasks – that is, tasks that requirelearners to make decisions about words involving increasing degreesof ‘cognitive depth’, such as manipulating them, relating them towords they know, and personalizing them. The more and the ‘deeper’the decisions, the more likely it is that the words will be learned.

• The importance of activities that require learners to produce words(rather than simply recognize them) if the words are going to becomepart of their active vocabulary.

• The importance of meeting (and re-meeting) and using words in newcontexts.

stage 2 experiential task

It is important that all learners are involved in this activity sequence, sothat they can experience at first hand the problems related to vocabularylearning in a second language, as well as appreciating the benefits ofhaving to make many different decisions about a set of pre-taught words.

It may be interesting to test memory of these words in a subsequentsession, e.g. by providing the English translations and seeing if traineescan correctly supply the Maori equivalent.

The three words that were not included at the introduction stage are:moko (lizard), ika (fish), and kiore (rat).

Rhyming pairs are: kaka and poaka, ruru and kereru.

It is expected that the words will be classified accordingly:

• kereru, kaka, kiwi, ruru (birds)• makimaki, hipi, kuri, poaka (land mammals)• tuna, mako, wheke, tohora (fish and other animals living in water)

The odd-one-out task can be answered in any number of ways – theimportant thing is that a reason is given for the choice. Possible answersmight be kiwi (it’s flightless); makimaki (it’s not a farm or domesticanimal); tohora (it’s a mammal).

stage 3 post-task reflection

The table should be completed accordingly (see next page), althoughopinions may differ with regard to the amount of cognitive depthinvolved in some of the activities. Note that the first three activities canbe done without reference to the meaning of the words – that is, themental processes involve simply recognizing and ordering the forms ofthe words, or matching forms that rhyme. All the subsequent activitiesrequire learners to know the meanings of the words if they are to be able

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … activate vocabulary trainer’s notes 2

to do the task.

Note also that all the activities, apart from the last two, start with theforms (written on cards), and the learners have either to recognize theseforms, ignoring their meaning, or to recognize the forms and match themwith a meaning – in either case, they are recognition activities. (Of course,in negotiating the task outcome with their colleagues, and in reportingthe task outcome to the class, they will produce many of the targetedwords, but this is a (healthy) by-product of working co-operatively, and isnot intrinsic to the successful performance of the task. It would be quitedifferent if learners were working individually, and with no report stage.The need to constantly recycle the targeted words in group work is one ofthe advantages of this kind of organization.)

The final two activities (guessing the words, and writing true / falsesentences) are production activities, however. The true / false activity startswith a meaning (represented by a drawing, mime, or sound effect) andthe learner has to produce the relevant form. In the sentence-writing task,learners first produce the selected item in a mini-context. Of course, whenthey read the sentence aloud to their colleagues, the focus becomesrecognition again.

activity activity type: cognitive depth: focus on form recognitionordering / ranking, high, medium, or meaning? or production?matching, selecting, low?sorting, or guessing?

eliminate 3 words selecting low form recognition

original order ordering medium form recognition

rhyming pairs matching low form recognition

3 categories sorting high meaning recognition

odd-one-out selecting high meaning recognition

a good pet? selecting medium meaning recognition

race results? ranking medium / high meaning recognition

guess the word guessing low meaning production

true / false (sentence writing) medium / high meaning production

Finally, it should be clear from the chart that the sequencing of the tasksis not arbitrary, but that there is a deliberate progression from form-focused to meaning-focused tasks, from recognition to production tasks,and in general, from tasks involving low processing demands to tasksinvolving relatively high processing demands.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … activate vocabulary trainer’s notes 3

stage 4 extension activity

Trainees should note that the wordbooster task sequences alwaysinvolve at least two stages, and hence two sets of decisions to bemade about the same words. These decisions may involvemanipulating the words in some way, such as exercises that focusfirst on the form of words and then require learners to put them intomeaningful contexts, such as in the sequence prefixes (p.109). Or theymay involve the formation of word association networks, such asthe use of ‘spidergrams’ (see p.84, phrases with go and get).

Trainees should note the high number of production andpersonalization tasks included in the wordbooster sections.Examples of production tasks, in which previously met items arerecalled for productive use, include the second exercise in hotel rooms(p.25) and the third exercise in likes and dislikes (p.39). Personalizationtasks include the second exercise in jobs (p.16), parts 2 and 3 of peoplein your life (p.84), and the second task in shopping (p.140).

Word manipulations activities – such as the ranking, selecting,matching and sorting type of activities discussed in stage 3 – could beinserted at strategic points in these task sequences in order toprovide further decision-making opportunities, thereby adding extralayers of ‘cognitive depth’.

As a follow-up (or a pre-session) reading task, you might want torefer trainees to the teacher development chapter ‘how to … activatevocabulary’ on pp.136–142 of the natural English intermediateteacher’s book.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … activate vocabulary trainer’s notes 4

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … activate vocabulary worksheet for stage 1

worksheet for stage 1

how to …activate vocabulary

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Try to match the first half (1–5) and second half (A–E) of each extract. They are all on the subject of learningvocabulary.

Then, think about the implications of any or all of these statements in terms of teaching vocabulary. Be prepared toshare your ideas with the rest of the class.

1 ‘The human lexicon is believed to be a network A ‘That is, if the words occur in new sentence contexts inof associations, a web-like structure of the reading text, learning will be helped. Similarly,interconnected links.’ having to use the word to say new things will add

to learning.’Nation, I.S.P. (2001)

2 ‘The act of successfully recalling an item B ‘In the case of vocabulary, the more one engages withincreases the chance that the item will be a word (deeper processing), the more likely the wordremembered.’ will be remembered for later use.’

Schmitt, N. (2000)

3 ‘The more one manipulates, thinks about, and C ‘When students are asked to manipulate words, relate uses mental information, the more likely it is them to other words and to their own experiences, andthat one will retain that information.’ then to justify their choices, these word associations

are reinforced.’Sökmen, A.J. (1997)

4 ‘When words are met in reading and listening D ‘That is, learners might be able to recognize a givenor used in speaking and writing, the lexical item when it is presented to them or they may begenerativeness of the context will influence able to infer its meaning, but this is not at all the samelearning.’ thing as recalling items for use.’

Carter, R. (1998)

5 ‘A learner’s active/productive vocabulary is E ‘It appears that the retrieval route to that item is in somealways smaller than his or her passive/receptive way strengthened by being successfully used.vocabulary.’ Baddeley, A. (1997)

References:

Baddeley, A., Human Memory: Theory and Practice (Revised edition) (1997) p.112.Reproduced by permission of Psychology Press.

Carter, R., Vocabulary: Applied Linguistic Perspectives (Second Edition) (1998) p.213.Reproduced by permission of Routledge.

Nation, I.S.P., Learning Vocabulary in Another Language (2001) p.80 Reproduced bypermission of Cambridge University Press.

Schmitt, N., Vocabulary in Language Teaching (2000) p.120. Reproduced bypermission of Cambridge University Press.

Sökmen, A.J., in Schmitt, N. and McCarthy, M. (Eds.), Vocabulary: Description,Acquisition and Pedagogy (1997) pp.241–242. Reproduced by permission ofCambridge University Press.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … activate vocabulary worksheet for stage 2

worksheet for stage 2

how to…activate vocabulary

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

kereru

moko

hipi

makimaki

tuna

poaka

wheke

mako

ikakaka

ruru

kuri

kiwi

kiore

tohora

Think back on the activities you have just done, and complete this table as best you can.

activity activity type: cognitive depth: focus on form recognitionordering / ranking, high, medium, or meaning? or production?matching, selecting, low?sorting, or guessing?

eliminate 3 words

original order

rhyming pairs

3 categories

odd-one-out

a good pet?

race results?

guess the word

true / false (sentence writing)

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … activate vocabulary worksheet for stage 3

worksheet for stage 3

how to…activate vocabulary

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

stage 2

evaluation and adaptation task

10–15 minutes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … communicate with low level learners detailed plan 1

how to …communicate with low level learners

detailed plan

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

stage procedure

stage 1

warmer

5–10 minutes

Make photocopies of worksheet for stage 1 (choose either A or B,depending on the language level of the group: A is more advanced).Make one copy for each group of four or five trainees. Cut up each copyto make ten word cards, and shuffle the cards. Organize the class intogroups. Place a pack of word cards face down in the middle of eachgroup. Explain the rules of the game: group members take turns to take acard from the top of the pile, taking care not to reveal it. Without sayingthe word itself, they then have to explain or define the word on the cardby any means they can think of, so that the rest of the group membersguess it correctly. The card is then placed at the bottom of the pack. Thenext player then takes the top card, and the process is repeated, until allthe words have been guessed. The first group to guess all the words is thewinner. In the event that the group is unable to guess a word, that wordcard should be put aside, and the game resumed. When all the otherwords have been guessed, the group can reattempt to guess the wordsthat caused difficulty.

After the game is over, discuss with the group the different strategies thatwere used to convey the meanings of the words, e.g. the use ofsynonyms, definitions, examples, gesture, drawings, etc. Elicit opinionsas to why this game is relevant to the topic of teacher–learnercommunication.

Ask the trainees to single out those techniques that are especiallyrelevant to the teaching of low level learners.

Hand out worksheet for stage 2. Ask trainees, working in pairs or smallgroups, first to critically evaluate the teacher’s use of language in each case.Point out that the learners involved are at elementary level.

They should then suggest ways of improving the teacher’s use of language.

Check the task in open class.

Hand out worksheet for stage 3. Point out that this is a transcript ofauthentic teacher–learner interaction. Go through the list of differentmove types, checking understanding of each type. Ask the trainees,working in pairs or small groups, to identify examples of each move typein the transcript.

Check this task in open class.

Then ask trainees, working in their groups, to discuss the relativeeffectiveness of the different move types. Which – do they think –facilitate learning, and which might not? Why?

Conduct open class discussion on this issue.

Organize trainees into groups of four or five and distribute materials tomake a poster (coloured pens and card or overhead transparencies). Askthem to summarize the session so far in the form of ‘teaching tips’, i.e.advice for teachers under the heading: How to communicate with low levellearners. (Alternatively, and to make the task more general, use theheading How to communicate with learners.) When each group has come upwith five to six pieces of advice, they should then take turns to presenttheir tips to the rest of the class.

Allow time for some discussion of shared principles that emerge from thistask.

Choose some tasks from natural English elementary student’s book.For example:

• page 12 speaking it’s your turn! exercises 1–3

• page 25 grammar exercise 3, and speaking it’s your turn! exercises1 and 2

• page 31 vocabulary exercises 1–4

• pages 32 and 33 read on exercises 2, 3 and 4

• page 38 vocabulary time phrases with prepositions exercises 1 and 2

• page 44 speaking it’s your turn! exercises 1 and 2

• page 48 grammar past simple: was / were exercises 5 and 6

• page 73 writing exercises 1 and 2 (see also page 124)

Assign one task per trainee in each group of four to six trainees. Traineestake turns to play the role of the teacher, while the others in the grouptake the role of (elementary) students. (The ‘students’ will need copies ofthe coursebook, and for some tasks the ‘teacher’ will need to play therecording. If this is awkward, the ‘teacher’ can read the transcript aloud).The job of each ‘teacher’ is to set up the coursebook task in such a waythat it is intelligible and efficient. Afterwards, the groups can discussthose instructions that they considered effective, and suggestimprovements for the ones that were not.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … communicate with low level learners detailed plan 2

stage 3

analysis and evaluation task

15–20 minutes

stage 4

summarizing task

15–20 minutes

stage 5

extension activity

20–25 minutes

how to …communicate with low level learners

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … communicate with low level learners session overview

outline plan

stage timing interaction

1 warmer 5–10 mins groups

2 evaluation and adaptation task 10–15 mins pairs or small groups; open class discussion

3 analysis and evaluation task 15–20 mins pairs / small groups; open class report

4 summarizing task 15–20 mins pairs / small groups; report to open class

5 extension activity 20–25 mins small groups; report

www.oup.com/elt/teacher/naturalenglish

aim to explore ways that teacher–learner interaction can be made more effective

trainees will …

• identify ways of making teacher talk clear andefficient

• evaluate different teacher–learner interaction‘moves’

• practise giving clear instructions

materials

• photocopies of the worksheets for stages 1, 2 and 3

• materials for poster or OHP display, for stage 4

• natural English elementary student’s book

• natural English elementary teacher’s bookpp.160–166

session overview

by Scott Thornbury

stage 1 warmer

The purpose of this activity is to invite trainees to think about ways ofconveying meaning quickly and economically, as well as to demonstratea fun classroom vocabulary activity. (The activity can be used to recyclevocabulary that learners have previously studied). Effective teachers areable to communicate using minimal means, and one particularly usefulskill is to be able to provide clear examples (rather than simplyexplanations or definitions) of whatever is the focus of instruction. The ability to improvise is also clearly useful, since teachers can neverfully anticipate the vocabulary that is likely to come up in a lesson.Techniques that are particularly suitable for conveying meaning to lowlevel learners include the use of mime and gesture, and the giving ofexamples. Where explanations and definitions are used, they will need to be carefully graded in order to be comprehensible, but withoutdescending to ‘baby talk’.

stage 2 evaluation and adaptation task

This activity is designed to draw attention to some of the more negativefeatures of teacher talk, paving the way for an exploration (in the nextstage) of ways in which teacher–student interaction can positivelycontribute to learning. Points that should be developed include thefollowing:

Extract 1:

This is clearly rather wordy and disorganized: the instructions are notdelivered in a logical order, and so there are a number of false startsand examples of backtracking. Also, the use of the modal verb might(who might be speaking?) is likely to confuse learners, especially at lowlevels, where a more direct question (Who is speaking?) would be moretransparent. Finally, by checking learners’ understanding by simplyasking Do you understand? the teacher is leaving a lot up to chance:learners might think they understand, or they might be loath to admitthat they don’t understand. Either way, there are more effective waysof checking understanding – one, of course, being to start the tape andmonitor the learners’ response.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … communicate with low level learners trainer’s notes 1

how to …communicate with low level learners

trainer’s notes

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Extract 2:

By contrast with the previous extract, the teacher has opted for apared down, simplified register, which comes close to baby talk attimes (and may even be recognized as such by learners, who may findit condescending). It is therefore unlikely to be a satisfactory model ofnatural English, for all its apparent intelligibility. But it is also,arguably, less than fully intelligible. By stripping language of much ofits redundancy and repetition, the teacher may be making theinstructions harder to process, not easier, since every word carries ahigh informational load. It is like listening to the spoken equivalent ofa telegram. And again, the teacher’s method of checkingunderstanding leaves a lot to be desired!

Extract 3:

This extract is a fairly typical example of an ‘eliciting’ sequence,where the teacher is using a questioning routine in order to arrive at aspecific (probably pre-selected) teaching point – in this case, perhaps, itis the word embarrassed. This involves asking a number of displayquestions, i.e. questions that are intended to provide opportunities forlearners to display their knowledge, and which are not intended to fillgaps in the teacher’s own knowledge – as real questions are intendedto do. All the teacher’s questions, apart from the last (Have you ever beenembarrassed?) are display questions. Display questions in themselvesare not ‘bad’, but if learners are exposed only to such questions, thequality of the classroom talk may be rather impoverished: there maybe fewer opportunities for learner initiative and genuinecommunication, with a consequent reduction in learners’ interest andmotivation. This may also reduce the chances of unplanned learningopportunities occurring. The teacher’s preference for display questionsis not helped by the fact that he (or she) sometimes answers his (orher) own questions, as in: What has the security guard found? He’s foundsome things she hasn’t paid for, hasn’t he? This suggests that the teacher isallowing very little response time (also called wait time) after hisquestions (let’s assume he’s a man). Unsurprisingly, not giving learnerstime to answer questions reduces the chances that they will answer.The teacher compounds the problem by ignoring the one student whocomes up with the right answer: Security. Finally, the teacher tends torespond to anything the learners say with the all-purpose Good. Thisform of feedback on learners’ contributions is of little use as feedback ifit is applied indiscriminately. The teacher even goes so far as to sayGood to two contradictory answers (Yes and No) suggesting that he isnot really interested in the learners’ answers, even when asking anostensibly real question.

Failure to ask real questions, to allow response time, to listen to thelearners, and to engage with their responses, means that teacherssometimes teach almost as if their learners were not really there. It isnot surprising that the learners answer both yes and no to the questionHave you ever been embarrassed? since it is unlikely that a clear idea ofthe meaning of embarrassed will have emerged from this rapid-firequestioning technique.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … communicate with low level learners trainer’s notes 2

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … communicate with low level learners trainer’s notes 3

stage 3 analysis and evaluation task

Examples of the different move types include the following:

echo many examples, as in turns 5, 17, 23, 30, 33

interruption turn 14, apparently

ignoring turn 39, possibly

display question turns 1, 3, 21, 31

real question turns 6, 9, 12, 15, 24, 36

feedback on no examples, unless OK counts as feedback on content (e.g.content turn 8). On the other hand OK may simply signal

acknowledgement of participation, rather than a responseto the content, as such.

feedback on form none, apart from some reformulation (see next category),and the explanation in turn 27

reformulation turns 11, 20

extension turn 12

asking for turn 26clarification

explanation turn 27

modelling turns 40, 41, 43

checking turn 21 (also, many instances of OK? could be considered understanding comprehension checks, as in turn 40)

The main points to establish in the discussion on the merits or otherwise ofthe different moves are the following:

• in general, research suggests that the way that teachers interact withlearners can have an important effect on learning

• one way that teacher interaction supports learning is through what iscalled scaffolding, which is when the teacher’s responses to students’contributions provide a secure but temporary structure within which theycan communicate their meanings

• scaffolding occurs when, for example, a teacher extends or reformulates alearner’s utterance, which in turn may involve asking for clarification

• another way that the teacher’s interventions support learning is throughunplanned teaching episodes that occur in response to something thelearners have said

• these teaching episodes typically include some form of explanation,modelling, and checking of understanding

• scaffolding sequences and teaching episodes are more likely to occur whenthe learners are answering real questions rather than display questions, andwhere learners are receiving, not only feedback on form (e.g. errorcorrection), but feedback on content, i.e. feedback on the communicativecontent of their utterances

• teacher interventions that probably do not facilitate learning are when theteacher simply echoes the learners, or worse, interrupts or ignores them

• in sum, teacher–learner talk is probably most supportive of learning when itreflects the natural to-and-fro of real conversation, but when opportunitiesto make a teaching point are exploited as and when they occur

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … communicate with low level learners trainer’s notes 4

stage 4 summarizing task

Some teaching tips that might be expected to come up include thefollowing:

• make your instructions clear, and sequence them logically

• use gestures to support what you are saying

• give clear examples rather than complicated explanations

• don’t revert to ‘baby talk’

• don’t check understanding by always asking Do you understand?

• ask real questions as much as possible

• respond to what the learners say, not just the way that they say it

• allow learners plenty of time to respond

• don’t ignore or interrupt learners

• avoid echoing learner utterances

• try not to answer your own questions

• ask for clarification if you don’t understand

• think of ways of extending or adding to what the learner has just said

• reformulate learner utterances if they are not accurate

• take advantage of any teaching opportunities that arise

stage 5 extension activity

Issues that may arise in doing this activity include the following:

• ‘process language’: i.e. learners’ familiarity with the language ofinstructions, such as match, order, take turns, etc. Giving a cleardemonstration of what is required is essential until learners are‘trained’ to recognize these terms.

• staging: if an activity has more than one stage, it is usually best to givethe instructions for one stage at a time, rather than overloadinglearners.

• organisation: for pair and group work, it is generally better to give theinstructions for the activity before organising the class into theirgroupings, so that you can be sure that you have their attention.

• monitoring: it is obviously important to check that learners haveunderstood the instructions by quickly monitoring each individual,pair, or group, as they begin the task.

As a follow-up (or a pre-session) reading task, you might want to refertrainees to the teacher development chapter ‘how to … communicatewith low level learners’ on p.160 of the natural English elementaryteacher’s book.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … communicate with low level learners worksheet for stage 1

worksheet for stage 1

how to …communicate with low level learners

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

worksheet A

mumps dodgy

gherkin sprawl

fluffy stowaway

incubate ransack

touchy pester

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … communicate with low level learners worksheet for stage 1

worksheet for stage 1

how to…communicate with low level learners

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

worksheet B

tasty tremble

raw burst

daisy consist

fizzy password

oppress furious

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … communicate with low level learners worksheet for stage 2

worksheet for stage 2

how to…communicate with low level learners

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

What’s wrong with these (invented) extracts of teacher talk, directed at aclass of elementary students? Can you improve them?

1

Teacher OK, what we’re going to do now is we’re going to do a listening,well first, before we do, I’d like you to look at the pictures in thebook, if you could just open the book to page 56, and look atthe pictures, and we’re going to listen to the tape, and whileyou’re listening you have to imagine who might be speaking, sofor example, for the first conversation, there are three littleconversations, well not conversations really, more a monologue,three monologues, and, you are going to listen to each person inturn and think who might it be, according to what they say, doyou understand? Good. OK, number 1, are you ready?

2

Teacher Ok, I give you this [holds up worksheet]. You look. Manyanimals. Pig. Cow. I play tape. You listen. You read. You tick.Cow, pig, horse. Which one? OK? No write. Just tick. Comprende?

3

Teacher Who’s this? [holds up picture]Student 1 Woman.Teacher It’s a woman. Good. Where is she?Student 1 Shopping.Teacher She’s in a shop. Good. She’s shopping. And who’s this?Student 1 Policeman.Student 2 Security.Teacher No, it’s not a policeman. Not exactly. Who is it? Who is it?

Anybody? Listen, it’s a security guard. Repeat. [Security guard].What has he found in the lady’s bag? What has the security guardfound? He’s found some things she hasn’t paid for, hasn’t he?

Student 2 Thief.Teacher So how does the woman feel?Student 2 Shame.Teacher How does she feel? She feels embarrassed, doesn’t she? Repeat,

embarrassed. Everybody.Students Embarrassed.Teacher Embarrassed. Good. Have you ever been embarrassed?Student 1 No.Student 3 Yes.Teacher Good. […]

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … communicate with low level learners worksheet for stage 3

worksheet for stage 3

how to…communicate with low level learners

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Here are some common teacher moves (i.e. ways that teachers interactwith learners). Check you understand the meaning of each one.

• echo (teacher repeats student utterance) • interruption (by the teacher of a student)• ignoring (of a student by the teacher)• display question (a question that the teacher knows the answer to, the

purpose being for learners to display their knowledge)• real question (asking for real information)• feedback on content (i.e. responding to what the learner says, not simply

how they say it)• feedback on form (e.g. correction)• reformulation (also called recasting: rephrasing a learner’s utterance more

accurately)• extension (extending a learner’s contribution)• asking for clarification (of a student’s utterance)• explanation (of a language issue that arises spontaneously)• modelling (providing a model)• checking understanding (e.g. of an explanation or instruction)

Now, identify examples of these move types in this extract of(authentic) teacher–learner interaction.

Teacher What do you see here? Eguskiñe.Student Two … two doctors, er …Teacher Where are they? In a hospital? What are they doing Joseba?Student An operation.Teacher An operation, OK.

Has anybody ever had an … has been in hospital? Have you everbeen in a hospital for some reason or other? Not at the doctor’s,at the hospital? Nobody? But you’ve been at the doctor’s?

Student Yes.Teacher OK.

Er … Arkaitz when you went to the doctor’s the last time, whatwas it? Why? Why did you go to the doctor’s?

Student Er … the last time because I have er … hurt in my leg.Teacher You had a pain in your leg?

How did it happen?Student Because, er … I was playing football. I …Teacher OK. Had a pain in your leg.

Other … reasons you’ve been to the doctor’s? Mikel?

123456

789

101112131415

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … communicate with low level learners worksheet for stage 3

worksheet for stage 3 continued

Transcript 1A Fluency and accuracy / Integrating skills, fromLooking at Language Classrooms, Cambridge University Press, 1997,p. 111 (Photocopiable)

Student Er … because I had a cold.Teacher You had a cold. OK.

Javi?Student Because I had a flu.Teacher Flu. You had the flu.

When, er … flu is a typical illness. Summerillness, winter illness?

Student Winter.Teacher Winter. OK.

Other … reasons you’ve gone to the doctor’s?Student Because I had a stains in my … skin.Teacher You mean like spots? Or …

OK. A stain, you have a stain on your shirt,like ketchup falls on your shirt, you try towash it, you get a stain. But on your skin youhave spots. OK? Spots. Er … other reasons?

Student Headaches.Teacher Headaches. OK, headaches.

More? Mmmmm … A toothache. Well,toothache you don’t go to the doctor, you goto the …?

Class Dentist.Teacher Dentist.

More? A stomach ache. If you eat too much, andyou’re not feeling well, like …? Indigestion.Indigestion. Other illnesses. Your family. If it’s not you?Fathers, mothers, uncles, grandmothers? Sometimes in winter teachers get this a lot[feels throat]. They talk so much.

Student Paperas. [= Measles]Teacher Mmmm … It hurts. It hurts a lot. You talk a

lot and it hurts. Nobody knows? A sore throat. OK? You get a sore … throat.You get a sore throat. When you eat, whenyou swallow, it hurts a lot. Headache.

Class Headache.Teacher Stomach ache. Class Stomach ache ... [etc.]

161718192021

222324252627

28293031

32333435

36

37

3839

40

41424344

stage 2

evaluation task

15–20 minutes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … do informal testing detailed plan 1

how to …do informal testing

detailed plan

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

stage procedure

stage 1

warmer

10 minutes

Hand out worksheet for stage 1 (or draw the grid on the board and asktrainees to copy it).

Ask trainees, working first individually for a few minutes and then insmall groups, to contrast formal and informal testing by making notes inthe relevant sections of the grid. (It may be a good idea to do the first oneor two sections of the grid in open class, to make sure that trainees arecomfortable with the notion of formal vs. informal testing.)

Point out that these notes need not be exhaustive, and that it is thepurpose of the session to answer the how? question in more detail.

Allow time for some open class discussion, with groups feeding back ontheir opinions. (At this point trainees could be referred to sections 1 and2 of the teacher development chapter How to … do informal testing onpp.148–149 of the natural English upper-intermediate teacher’s book.)

An alternative way of using worksheet for stage 1 might be to set theteacher development chapter How to … do informal testing as a pre-sessionreading task. Filling in the table at the start of the session would then bea way of informally testing their understanding of the main issues raisedin the chapter.

For further reading on informal testing, see this article on the OUPTeachers’ Club website: www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/teaching/articles/development/testing

Establish the following situation:

As the teacher of a class of upper-intermediate students, you have justintroduced the uses of so…that and such…that to add emphasis (see p.160of the natural English upper-intermediate student’s book). You want totest – informally – your students’ grasp of these forms and their uses.

Distribute worksheet for stage 2 and ask the trainees, working in pairsor small groups, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each test, andto make notes in the accompanying table. It may be useful to establishsome criteria in advance of the task (e.g. practicality, validity, reliability,spin-off – see trainer’s notes, stage 2 for further details). Alternatively,see if these emerge in the open class reporting and discussion of the task.

stage 3

analysis task

15–20 minutes

Note: if you wish to provide a written summary of the main points, youcould photocopy the table in trainer’s notes, stage 2.

Distribute worksheet for stage 3.

Trainees, working in pairs or small groups, should decide what the testanswers (on the worksheet) indicate with regard to:

a the state of the learner’s understanding of the rulesb the design of the tests

They should then decide, still in their groups, what steps they would taketo help the learner (if this seems to be the problem) and / or improve thetest (if this seems to be the problem).

Allow time for groups to report back in an open class discussion. In thelight of their findings, they may want to amend the table they completedin stage 2.

Establish the following situation:

You have just presented a lexical set of verbs connected to the topic of‘taking exams’, for example cheat, fail, take, prepare, sit, pass, retake, etc.(see, for example, natural English upper-intermediate student’s book,p.61). Devise two or three informal tests of this vocabulary.

(If time is at a premium, it is not necessary to design the whole test – justenough to demonstrate what the complete test will be like.)

The trainees should work in pairs or small groups for this task. Point outthat they can use or adapt the test formats they evaluated in stage 2,unless they would like to think of alternative formats.

When they have had enough time to design their tests, then either (a)they should form new groups consisting of members from each of theinitial groups, and explain their tests to each other, or (b) a spokespersonfrom each group should present the tests to the entire class.

If an overhead projector is available, plus blank transparencies and pens,the groups can – during the design phase – write their tests straight ontothe transparency for subsequent display to the whole class.

Allow time (either at the re-grouping stage, or in open class) to discussways in which the tests could be improved or adjusted.

An alternative way of doing this stage might be to give each group adifferent vocabulary area. Possible topics might be:

• a set of phrasal verbs based on a theme (e.g. work) or a lexical verb(e.g. get)

• a set of sporting collocations (see natural English upper-intermediate student’s book, p.12)

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … do informal testing detailed plan 2

stage 4

design task

15 minutes

• a set of adjectives to describe character: (see natural English upper-intermediate student’s book, p.129)

• a set of words related to a theme (e.g. sleep – see natural Englishupper-intermediate student’s book, p.137)

Or the choice of the vocabulary focus can be changed to suit the teachingneeds of the group.

Divide the class into pairs or groups of three.

Assign each group a different unit of the natural English upper-intermediate workbook. Point out that, while the workbook is aimed atpractice, most of its exercises are suitable for informal testing as well.

Remind the trainees of the criteria underlying useful informal testformats (see trainer’s notes, stage 2), particularly ease of setting up(e.g. the exercise can be dictated or written on the board), and beneficialspin-off in terms of follow-up.

Ask each group to identify the different exercise types in their unit thatwould make good test formats. (You could choose one or two as anexample to do in open class first.) Some of these exercise types willoverlap with test formats evaluated in stage 2 above (e.g. text gap-fill),but others will be different.

Ask them also to look at ways different test formats could be linked into ashort sequence.

Ask a spokesperson from each group to report to the class on the testformats they have identified, paying special attention to those notpreviously covered in the session.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … do informal testing detailed plan 3

stage 5

extension activity

20–25 minutes

how to …do informal testing

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … do informal testing session overview

outline plan

stage timing interaction

1 warmer 10 minutes groups of 3–5

2 evaluation task 15–20 minutes pairs / small groups; open class report

3 analysis task 15–20 minutes pairs / small groups; open class report

4 design task 15 minutes pairs / small groups; report or demonstration to open class

5 extension activity 20–25 minutes pairs / small groups; open class report

www.oup.com/elt/teacher/naturalenglish

aim to familiarize trainees with the evaluation and design of informal test tasks

trainees will …

• briefly review the principles underlying informaltesting

• evaluate some informal tests and their results

• design some informal tests for vocabulary teaching

• expand their repertoire of informal test types

materials

• natural English upper-intermediate workbook

• photocopies of worksheets for stages 1, 2, and 3

• natural English upper-intermediate teacher’sbook pp.148–153

session overview

by Scott Thornbury

stage 1 warmer

The following points may come up, or could be introduced at the discussion stage:

formal testing informal testing

why? • to measure progress at strategic points • to provide feedback on progress for studentsin the course (formative testing) and therefore boost student motivation

• to measure achievement at end of • to provide feedback to the teacher on students’course (summative testing) learning, effectiveness of teaching programme,

• university entrance materials, etc.• for future job applications • to encourage regular review / revision

who for? • teacher, students, stakeholders • mainly for students, but also for the teacher(e.g. parents, current employers)

• potential future employers, educationalinstitutions (e.g. universities)

when and • apart from regular classroom teaching • integrated into regular classroom teachinghow often? • before the course (e.g. placement) • constantly throughout the course, and usually

• at regular points during the course, with without advance warningadvance warning • at the beginning of the lesson (to review last

• at the end of the course, with advance lesson)warning • at the end of the lesson (to review present lesson)

• throughout the lesson, as an on-going check ofunderstanding

who by? • by the teacher • by the teacher• by an institution • by students themselves• by an external examining body

how? • a wide range of test types can be used, • a wide range of test types can be used, includingbut ideally these should have been trialled simple observation of student performanceto ensure validity and reliability • no trialling

• the tests are marked, scored, and a record is • practicality and spin-off are more importantkept of the score criteria than validity or reliability

• tests may be marked but scores do not have to berecorded, except as part of the student’s own portfolio

how to …do informal testing

trainer’s notes

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … do informal testing trainer’s notes 1

stage 2 evaluation task

Possible criteria by which the tests could be assessed might be:

• practicality: How easy is the test to design, set up, and mark?

• validity: Does the test test what you want to test?

• reliability: Will the test provide reliable information about the stateof the learners’ knowledge, or will it be rather hit-and-miss?

• spin-off: Can the test be used as a basis for follow-up review /teaching?

Note that these criteria are typically used when assessing formal tests, butare equally valid in any discussion of informal testing. However, ininformal testing, the relative importance of these factors will be different– practicality and spin-off will probably be more important than validityor reliability.

The test evaluation task may elicit the following comments:

test type strengths weaknesses

1 sentence • easy to set up • (in its present form) doesn’t compelcompletion • semi-controlled, but room for individual students to make a choice between so and

creativity, including personalization and such, since these are already given,• spin-off in the form of students reading along with their adjective and / or noun

commenting on, and / or correcting complementation each other’s sentences

2 sentence • easy to set up • fairly mechanical – as above, doesn’t transformation • tests understanding of the formal compel students to choose

difference between so and such • no room for creativity• good preparation for formal exams

3 grammaticality • easy to set up • tests understanding but not productiontest • good way of testing intuitive • possible danger of reinforcing errors

understanding• could use students’ own sentences

(e.g. from other tests / exercises) for greater memorability

• could add competitive element byallowing teams to ‘bet’ on whether thesentences are correct or not (= ‘grammar auction’)

• spin-off in the form of studentscomparing corrections

4 elicitation • easy to set up • depends on understanding of the • tests ability to produce correct forms situation, which may not always be easy

with appropriate meaning, with • not truly elicitation if the forms areminimal prompting provided (as in this instance) – would be

• (in this instance) tests ability to more revealing if students simply had todiscriminate between the two forms make sentences based on the situations,

• students could prepare and give the unpromptedsame kind of test to each other • more than one correct answer may be

possible – less of a problem in informaltesting

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … do informal testing trainer’s notes 2

5 personalization • very easy to set up • many correct answers are possible – less• tests ability to produce the form of a problem in informal testing• creative use of language • not always clear what student intended• allows weaker students to demonstrate to mean, therefore not wholly reliable test

understanding by writing simplersentences; conversely allows strongerstudents chance to ‘show off’

• leads easily to conversation based onthe sentences

6 gap-fill; • familiar test type • requires photocopying (in this instance)text completion • sentences in context (the whole text) • more than one correct answer might make

• easy to mark scoring difficult (less of a problem in• students can compare and explain their informal tests)

choices • minimally productive• good preparation for formal exams • learners don’t really need to process the

whole text in order to fill the gaps (inthis instance)

stage 3 analysis task

Points that might be suggested by the learners’ errors, plus possibleremedies, include:

test 1

The student doesn’t seem to have grasped the fact that so qualifiesadjectives on their own and that it is not interchangeable with such(which qualifies noun phrases).

Also, the test rubric (that is to say, the test instructions), in omitting to askfor a following that-clause, has produced minimal responses which don’tprovide much evidence of the learner’s ability to apply these formscreatively and appropriately.

To remedy the situation, a review / re-presentation of the differencebetween so and such may be needed. The test rubric could be improved bygiving learners more explicit prompts:

1 It was so hot that …2 It was such a difficult … that …

test 2

These answers suggest that the student can’t yet differentiate between soand such (in which case, a re-presentation may be necessary). This mayalso partly be the fault of the test rubric, which may suggest that theforms are interchangeable. The rubric could be improved by the additionof an example of the transformation required.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … do informal testing trainer’s notes 3

test 3

The student’s answers suggest some awareness of the difference betweenso and such, and the failure to include a (such a hot day) may simply be aslip, or a weakness in his / her command of the article system in English.The evidence of more examples would be needed to confirm thishypothesis.

test 4

The student has interpreted the task somewhat too literally, incorporatingredundant material from the mini-situation into the answer. An examplemight have helped avoid this. Nevertheless, the student has demonstrateda good grasp of the rule.

test 5

Neither of these sentences suggest an understanding of the rule(s). In thefirst, the student seems to have confused so … that with the purposeconjunction so that, while the second sentence is virtually unintelligibleand it may be necessary to elicit a translation before being able to correctit. A complete re-presentation of the rules may be needed here, alongwith – perhaps – a contrast with other uses of so.

test 6

The student seems to have misunderstood the context in item 1, and it isnot clear whether this indicates unfamiliarity with such: more test itemswould be needed to make sure. The fact that the student used very ratherthan so in item 2 suggests little or no awareness of the use of so, since thisis an obligatory context for it. It may be the case that the student hassimply misinterpreted the purpose of the task, not realizing that it is a testof so and such. This could be obviated by making the rubric explicit (‘Fillthese gaps with either so or such.’). However, this would ‘give the gameaway’, and may be less revealing in terms of assessing the learner’s abilityto produce these forms unprompted.

stage 4 design task

It is important that trainees should be able to present and criticize theirtests using the criteria already established in the preceding two tasks(practicality, validity, reliability, spin-off).

If time allows, trainees could design test tasks for other vocabulary areas.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … do informal testing trainer’s notes 4

stage 5 extension activity

Practice exercise types in the natural English upper-intermediateworkbook that could be used as informal test rubrics include thefollowing:• sentence gap-fills, with prompts (in this case, the prompts are in the

preceding think back! feature) (e.g. p.6 ex.5)• sentence gap-fills, multiple choice (e.g. p.17 ex.3)• sentence gap-fills, closed choice (e.g. p.17 ex.2)• text gap-fills, with prompts (e.g. p.29 ex.3)• text gap fills, multiple choice (e.g. p.6 ex.6)• text gap-fills, closed choice (e.g. p.36 ex.3)• text gap-fills, open choice (e.g. p.52 ex.1)• sentence insertions (e.g. p.68 ex.8)• sentence transformations (e.g. p.5 ex.2)• sentence expansions (e.g. p.14 ex.7)• sentence combination (e.g. p.21 exs.7–8)• word ordering (e.g. p.5 ex.3)• sentence ordering e.g. along a cline (e.g. p.8 ex.9)• matching – words and definitions (e.g. p.12)• matching – sentence halves (e.g. p.8 ex.10)• matching – sentence pairs (e.g. p.14 ex.8)• matching – sentences and pictures (e.g. p.10 ex.2)• elicitation (e.g. p.11 ex.4)• word completion (e.g. p.44 ex.8)

Note that many of these exercise types – especially those at the word andsentence level – can be presented on the board or via dictation, which is anadvantage in terms of their practicality.

Possible ways of sequencing two or more exercise types include:

sequence 1

• Dictate a series of words – students then have to order the words intosentences (word ordering).

• The sentences are then transformed into questions (sentencetransformation).

• Students then ask each other the questions and report the answers tothe class.

sequence 2

• Write incomplete sentences on the board: students complete them(sentence gap-fill or expansion).

• Students then order the sentences into a dialogue (sentence ordering).

• Students practise reading the dialogue aloud in pairs, and could thenwrite a similar dialogue.

sequence 3

• Write up the first letter of each word, and read out definitions: studentscomplete the words (word completion).

• Students use the completed words to fill the gaps in a text (text gap-fill).

• Students write a ‘personalized’ text, using the gap-filled text as a model,and could include their own gaps for other students to complete.

As a follow-up (or a pre-session) reading task, you might want to refertrainees to the teacher development chapter ‘how to … do informal testing’on pp.148–153 of the natural English upper-intermediate teacher’s book.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … do informal testing trainer’s notes 5

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … do informal testing worksheet for stage 1

worksheet for stage 1

how to …do informal testing

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

formal testing informal testing

why?

who for?

when andhow often?

who by?

how?

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these informal tests ofso/such, and complete the table on the next page.

test 1

The teacher writes the following sentence starterson the board, and asks learners to complete them:

1 It was so hot …

2 It was such a difficult …3 etc. [four more items]

test 2

The teacher writes the following sentences on theboard, and asks learners to rewrite them using theword in brackets:

1 It was such a boring film I went to sleep. (so)2 The food was so spicy I couldn’t eat it. (such)3 etc. [four more items]

test 3

The teacher dictates the following sentences, andasks the learners (a) to decide if they aregrammatically correct or not, and (b) if not, tocorrect them.

1 It was such hot we went to the beach.

2 She was so tired she went to bed.

3 etc. [eight more items, five of which areincorrect]

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … do informal testing worksheet for stage 2

worksheet for stage 2

how to …do informal testing

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

test 4

The teacher reads the following mini-situationsaloud, and learners write two sentences for eachsituation – one with so … that and the other with such… that.

1 The bus was old – very old. In fact, because of this,it broke down three times.

2 The party was fun. In fact, because of this, I stayedto the end.

3 The bed was very, very uncomfortable. This meantI couldn’t sleep.

test 5

The teacher asks learners, working individually, towrite three true sentences about themselves, theirfamily or friends, their town, or their studies, using so… that, and three using such … that.

test 6

The teacher hands out photocopies of the followingtext, and asks learners to complete the gaps:

Last summer I went to Edinburgh for my holidays. Ihad (1) ____ a good time that I would like to go back.I stayed in a youth hostel for two nights, but it was (2)____ noisy I moved to a hotel. etc. [four more items]

test type strengths weaknesses

1 sentence completion

2 sentencetransformation

3 grammaticalitytest

4 elicitation

5 personalization

6 gap-filltext completion

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … do informal testing worksheet for stage 2

worksheet for stage 2 continued

how to…do informal testing

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Here are some answers students gave to the test questions in worksheet for stage 2.

What do these answers tell you about the students’ grasp of the rule(s)? What do they tell you about the design of the tests? What steps would you take to remedy the situation?

test 1

1 It was so hot day.2 It was such a difficult exam.

test 2

1 It was so boring film I went to sleep.2 The food was such spicy I couldn’t eat it.

test 3

1 Incorrect. It was such hot day we went to the beach.2 Correct.

test 4

1 The bus was so old that in fact because of this it broke down three times.It was such an old bus that in fact because of this it broke downthree times.

test 5

1 My father studied law so that he work as a lawyer.2 I have such a hard work that I didn’t do before.

test 6

Last summer I went to Edinburgh for my holidays. I had (1) not agood time that I would like to go back. I stayed in a youth hostel fortwo nights, but it was (2) very noisy I moved to a hotel …

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … do informal testing worksheet for stage 3

worksheet for stage 3

how to…do informal testing

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

stage 2

analysis task (1)

15 minutes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … introduce new language detailed plan 1

how to …introduce new language

detailed plan

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

stage procedure

stage 1

warmer (optional)

10–15 minutes

Photocopy and distribute worksheet for stage 1 (or dictate thestatements on the worksheet).

Divide the class into pairs or small groups, and ask them to discuss thestatements. Point out that there are no ‘right answers’, and that people’sexperience and situation will differ. Set a time limit of ten minutes. (Notethat this is a warmer, so it is not necessary to discuss the questions atgreat length. To save time, you could allot specific items to specificgroups, or you could ask each group to choose two or three questionsthat they would like to discuss.)

Ask individuals from each group to briefly report on their discussion, and(optionally) allow this to develop into an open class discussion.

An alternative approach could be to postpone the report and discussionstage until later in the session (e.g. at the end of stage 4), after firstallowing groups to amend or expand their opinions in the light of whathas happened in the workshop.

Note: if time is at a premium, this warmer could be omitted.

Hand out worksheet for stage 2, and ask the trainees to read (silently)the task and the three ‘mini-lessons’. In pairs or small groups they thenanalyse the lessons according to:

• the sequencing of rules and examples

• whether the rule is explicit or implicit

• the amount of teacher guidance

Alternatively, the teacher could ‘demonstrate’ the three lessons, usingthe trainees as ‘guinea pig’ students. In this case, it is important that the‘teacher’ follows the ‘script’ of the lesson closely, allowing the ‘students’to intervene only when asked a question or when directed to repeat. Inlesson 1, the ‘teacher’ can use the board to write up the examples initalics.

When the groups have completed the task, lead an open class discussion,asking individuals to report on their findings. At this stage, ask thetrainees which of the three lessons they either prefer, or feel is mostappropriate for their specific teaching situation. Elicit reasons for oragainst favouring one lesson over the others.

stage 3

analysis task (2)

10–20 minutes

Summarize on the board the advantages and disadvantages of eachapproach.

Distribute worksheet for stage 3 and let the trainees read theintroduction. Or, alternatively, in advance of handing out the worksheet,give a brief resumé of the principles underlying a guided-discoveryapproach.

Ask the trainees to read, silently, the lesson transcript.

Draw attention to the teacher’s turns that are marked with an arrow ( )and ask the trainees, working in pairs, to decide which of the seven kindsof intervention (listed on the worksheet) each teacher turn represents.Point out that there is more than one example of some categories, andthat, moreover, some categories (such as asking leading questions) mayoverlap with others. You could start off by doing the first one with themas an example.

Allow time for open class feedback and discussion on this task.

An alternative approach to using this material – and one which isperhaps more consistent with the principles of ‘guided discovery’ –would be to hand out the lesson transcript without the list of the sevenways the teacher supports discovery learning, and to ask the trainees,working together, to work out the purpose of each of the highlighted ( )interventions. They then would be discovering the different interventiontypes themselves. This would require of the trainer the same guiding roleas the teacher in the transcript – asking leading questions, drawingattention to features of the data, giving feedback, summarizing, etc.

Divide the group into groups of three or four, and assign one of thefollowing grammar structures to each group (either the same structurefor all groups – to save time – or, more interestingly, different structuresfor each group).

Ask trainees to design a ‘guided-discovery’ lesson for their structure, i.e.one that (a) follows the examples-to-rule sequence, (b) requires learners towork out the rule, and (c) includes an explicit statement of the rule.

• to have sth done (e.g. I’ve had the kitchen painted.)

• to be getting used to sth (e.g. I’m getting used to the heat.)

• must have done (for past deduction, e.g. I must have left it on the train.)

• already + past perfect (e.g. The film had already started.)

• second conditional (If I had a car, I would drive you.)

Ask them also to consider the questions (sometimes called conceptquestions) that the teacher would need to ask in order to guide learners toan understanding of the rules of form and of meaning for their specificstructures.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … introduce new language detailed plan 2

stage 4

application task

30 minutes

Note: For trainees who have little or no experience teaching thesestructures, it may be a good idea to have them do some preparation inadvance of the lesson by, for example, asking them to consult a referencegrammar in order to familiarize themselves with the forms and conceptsof the structure and / or think of one or two ways of presenting thestructure.

Monitor the group work and, when most groups seem to be ready, ask aspokesperson from each group to summarize the group’s ‘lesson’. Oreven better, ask the groups to choose a ‘teacher’ who will teach the restof the class the lesson that the group has devised. If these ‘mini-lessons’can be audio-taped or videoed, they could provide useful data foranalysis using the criteria outlined in stage 3.

Briefly discuss the lessons, drawing special attention to those featureswhich are consistent with a guided-discovery approach.

At this stage, and now that trainees have been exposed to examples ofguided-discovery learning, it might be appropriate to return to thequestions in worksheet for stage 1, which could be reviewed in thelight of their own ‘discoveries’.

Divide the trainees into four groups. Assign one of these grammarsections from natural English intermediate student’s book to eachgroup:

• present perfect and past simple (pp.14–15)• sentences with if, when, and unless (p.71)• first and second conditional (pp.107–108)• past perfect simple (pp.136–137)

If the groups are large, sub-divide them into pairs.

Ask each group to read through the material, and to identify where andhow guidance is provided, using these categories (as listed in worksheetfor stage 3):

1 problem-framing: setting a problem-solving task for the learners2 providing data: giving sufficient examples to help the learners solve

the problem3 focusing attention: drawing learners’ attention to key features of

the data4 asking leading questions: using questions to guide the learners to a

solution5 making connections: referring to, and building on, what the

learners already know6 giving feedback: providing messages on the state of the learners’

theory-building7 recapping / summarizing

They could also be asked to think about the teacher’s role when usingthese materials. i.e. How could the teacher supplement the guidanceprovided in the book?

Re-group the trainees so that the new groups consist of members of eachof the four original groups. They should then ‘talk through’ the materialthey have been looking at, identifying the kind of guidance that isprovided, and mentioning the guidance the teacher could also provide.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … introduce new language detailed plan 3

stage 5

extension activity

20–25 minutes

how to …introduce new language

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … introduce new language session overview

outline plan

stage timing interaction

1 warmer (optional) 10–15 minutes groups of 3–5

2 analysis task (1) 15 minutes pairs / small groups; open class report

3 analysis task (2) 10–20 minutes pairs / small groups; open class report

4 application task* 30 minutes pairs / small groups; report or demonstration to open class

5 extension activity* 20–25 minutes pairs / small groups; open class report

* With an inexperienced group of trainees, you may wish to reverse the order of stages 4 and 5.

www.oup.com/elt/teacher/naturalenglish

aim to introduce trainees to a ‘guided discovery’ approach to the introduction of new language, withspecific reference to grammar

trainees will …

• share opinions about how grammar is best taughtand learned

• distinguish between deductive and inductive modesof grammar presentation, and (in the inductivemode) between guided and unguided discovery

• apply principles of guided discovery to differentgrammar teaching objectives

• explore the teacher’s role in providing guidance

• examine how course materials provide guidancewhen introducing new language

materials

• natural English intermediate student’s book

• photocopies of worksheets for stages 1, 2, and 3

• natural English intermediate teacher’s bookpp.143–149

session overview

by Scott Thornbury

stage 1 warmer

These are some of the issues that may come up during the discussion:

1 I generally start a grammar lesson with a clear statement of therule.

Starting with a clear statement of the rule is a defining feature of a deductiveapproach to teaching, that is, going from rules to examples. This contrastswith an inductive approach, in which the learner is first presented withsome examples, from which the rule is ‘induced’ – that is to say, the learnerworks out the rule from the examples.

(Note that the terms deduction and induction can cause a great deal ofconfusion, and it may be easier to substitute the terms rule-driven anddiscovery learning, respectively.)

Starting with an explicit statement of the rule is characteristic of thegrammar-translation method of teaching languages, but also of manypopular student’s grammars. At this stage, any discussion of the pros andcons of such an approach can be held over until the next activity (stage 2),but it may be worth underscoring the point that there is no one ‘right’ wayof teaching grammar.

2 I avoid using grammar terminology in class, if at all possible.

This stance is no doubt justified when teaching very young learners.However, for older learners, especially adults, it is almost impossible toavoid using grammar terms – such as verb, tense, adjective, infinitive, etc. –unless the teacher is using a purely experiential approach to teaching (e.g.learning entirely through simply using language to perform tasks).

At the same time, many learners will be demotivated by lessons thatinclude a great deal of technical and unfamiliar grammar terminology. So,sensitivity to the learners’ age, learning style, and learning needs willdetermine the degree to which the teacher uses metalanguage (the languagethat is used to talk about language).

3 I prefer to use examples from the students’ own lives andexperiences to introduce new language.

Such an attitude is founded in humanistic learning theory, which attributessuccessful learning to affective (emotional) factors just as much as cognitive(intellectual) ones.

Apart from anything else, learning that is personalized is more likely to bememorable than learning that is not. Formerly, the personalization stagewas generally incorporated towards the end of a teaching sequence – as aform of practice. But the idea that the presentation of grammar can becontextualized in material provided by the learners is relatively innovative.It requires of the teacher considerable improvisatory skills, however, andtherefore is not perhaps a viable option for inexperienced teachers.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … introduce new language trainer’s notes 1

how to …introduce new language

trainer’s notes

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

4 Students should be led to discover the rules of grammar forthemselves.

This view contrasts with the deductive approach, outlined in the response tostatement 1 above, and is premised on an inductive learning model, i.e. onein which learners are exposed to linguistic data (examples) and fromwhich they work out the patterns and regularities we call grammar.

In the rest of this module we will refer to such an approach as a discoveryone. It is analogous to the way the rules of one’s mother tongue arediscovered, that is, through direct experience and unconscious extractionof the rules. The difference between first and second language acquisitionis that in the latter case, the extraction of the rules is largely a consciousprocess, involving a degree of cognitive effort and attention. Simplytrusting learners to take responsibility for discovering the grammarthemselves is obviously risky, as many may simply not make the consciouseffort. This is where the teacher’s guiding role – and the guiding role ofteaching materials – is crucial. This session will be looking at the way suchguidance can be optimized.

5 Some grammar rules are easy to explain, but there are othersthat it’s best to let the learners pick up themselves.

This situation – familiar to most experienced teachers – is now generallyaccepted among researchers as well. Tense formation in English isrelatively easy to explain, but the subtle ways in which the present perfectis used to express present relevance are elusive and may best be acquiredthrough exposure and practice.

There is a further point that needs to be made, however, and that is thatsome rules are seldom if ever picked up without explanation. Correctadverb placement in sentences like I liked the concert very much or She is oftenlate can go unnoticed unless the rules are explicitly presented.

6 It’s best if the grammar comes out of other activities, such asspeaking or reading.

This view is a basic principle of such approaches as task-based learning andwhole language learning, that is that you learn best by doing. The teacher’srole, then, is to set up activities in which learners are using the languagefor real-life communicative purposes – as in a discussion, role-play, orletter-writing task, for example. The language needs that emerge from thisactivity are dealt with during the activity or immediately after it. In thisway the grammar syllabus is not pre-selected but is derived from – andresponds to – the learners’ immediate needs and problems. It is thereforearguably more relevant and memorable.

But, as we saw in the comments on statement 4, there is the risk that thelearners will not attend to questions of grammar without teacherintervention. And, like the personalized approach to teaching referred toin statement 3, it requires of teachers considerable skill at improvisinglessons out of whatever the learners come up with.

stage 2 analysis task (1)

The three lessons can be characterized accordingly:

sequence rule guidance

lesson 1 rule example explicit high

lesson 2 example rule explicit high

lesson 3 examples only implicit low

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … introduce new language trainer’s notes 2

lesson 1

This is a typical deductive presentation, in which the rule is explicitly statedat the outset, examples are given, and then further examples areprovided by the learners as evidence of their having understood the ruleexplanation. The teacher’s guidance is total, with little or no learnerinvolvement until the practice stage. (Although this need not be the case:the teacher could have involved the learners sooner by attempting toelicit the rule, by asking, for example, Who knows how the present perfectcontinuous is formed? When do we use it?, etc.)

lesson 2

This is a typical inductive presentation, in which an example is given andfrom which the rule is ‘discovered’ and then made explicit. A secondexample is given before learners go on to manipulate the rule in practiceactivities. The teacher’s guidance – through the use of a sequence ofleading questions – is high. This is an example of learning by guideddiscovery.

lesson 3

This is an example of a presentation in which examples of the target formare given in context, but where the rule is not made explicit. It is assumedthat rule discovery will take place without the necessity of making theprocess explicit, and therefore there is little or no guidance from theteacher, who simply tells the story and orchestrates the learners’responses. Learners are expected to demonstrate their awareness of therule in their responses. If they can do so, they have shown evidence ofdiscovery learning in its unguided form.

The advantages and disadvantages of these three approaches aredisplayed in the following table:

advantages disadvantages

lesson 1 • gets straight to the point – • can involve complicated explanations(rule-driven) learners are in no doubt as to and metalanguage

the teacher’s intention • can demotivate learners who are• respects certain learner types, ‘afraid’ of grammar

who prefer explicit and up- • is not very involving – doesn’t requirefront attention to grammar learners to make a lot of mental effort,

and hence may not be very memorable

lesson 2 • involves and challenges learners • may frustrate learners who want clear(guided discovery) and requires investment of mental explanations from the outset

effort, resulting in effective learning • may take up valuable time• suits learners who are good at • may exclude learners who are not good

discerning patterns at discerning patterns• starting with examples, rather than

rules, may be more engaging, especiallyif examples are personalized

lesson 3 • reflects natural processes of language • may put too much responsibility(unguided discovery) acquisition on learners

• exposes learners to examples in • no way of really knowing if the correctcontext rule has been ‘discovered’

• learners are practising language at • may be an inefficient use of timethe same time as learning it • will frustrate grammar-oriented learners

• doesn’t degenerate into long question-and-answer sequences about grammar

• encourages learner autonomy; discourages teacher-dependence

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … introduce new language trainer’s notes 3

stage 3 analysis task (2)

The lesson transcript represents a more detailed look at a guided-discoverysequence (as in lesson 2 above).

This time the examples are presented as isolated sentences that relate tothe teacher’s own life, and are contrasted with sentences that havedifferent (past only and present only) time references.

The purpose of personalizing the data, and of turning it into a kind of game(‘guess which sentences are true or false’) is to engage the learners whilealso encouraging them to think about the meaning of the sentences, aprerequisite for their making sense of the rule.

Notice that the examples each include a time adverbial (now, before that, atpresent) in order to help the learners make sense of the sentences even inadvance of their fully understanding the time reference of the presentperfect continuous.

The teacher’s interventions in the discovery process could be categorizedaccordingly:

1 providing data2 problem-framing3 asking leading questions (or focusing attention)4 focusing attention5 problem-framing6 giving feedback7 asking leading questions8 asking leading questions9 giving feedback

10 making connections (or asking leading questions)11 making connections (or asking leading questions)12 recapping / summarizing

stage 4 application task

It is important that the group work demonstrates an understanding of thebasic sequence of a guided discovery lesson (i.e. from examples to rule)and of the need for guidance, in the form of some kind of problem-framing and question-asking. It may also be worth commenting on theclarity of the examples the trainees choose. For example:

• Will the examples be easily understood by learners?

• Do they include vocabulary that needs to be explained or pre-taught?

• Are the examples contextualized – for example, within a mini-situation as in stage 2, lesson 2?

• Do the examples provide a typical, and natural, context for thetargeted language structure?

• Are there sufficient examples for learners to work out the rule?

In the light of a class discussion of these factors, it might be useful to setsome more grammar items for extra practice at devising guided-discoverypresentations. Possible items are:• third conditional (e.g. If I’d walked, I would have been late.)• would you mind … -ing (as in Would you mind opening the door?)• too + adjective + to-infinitive (as in It’s too hot to play tennis.) • should + have + past participle (as in You should’ve practised harder.)

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … introduce new language trainer’s notes 4

stage 5 extension activity

The following points could be noted, with reference to the specificgrammar sections:

• present perfect and past simple (pp.14–15)

The illustration provides the data in the form of speech bubbles. In exercise1, question 1 is an attention-focusing question, followed by a question thatmakes connections with previous knowledge (What tense are they?). Questions2 and 3 are leading questions. Question 4 is a problem-framing question, as isquestion 5. Question 6 focuses attention on adverbs, and frames a problem.The instruction to go to the language reference could be construed as away of summarizing.

• sentences with if, when, and unless (p.71)

The text (Hannah’s choice) provides the data. Questions a, b, and c in exercise1 each focus attention on the tense (and probably make connections withprevious knowledge), and ask leading questions. Questions d and e bothframe problems. The instruction to go to the language reference could beconstrued as a way of summarizing.

• first and second conditional (pp.107–108)

The data is provided in the form of sentences extracted from the previouslistening activity. Attention is focused by the use of underlining, as well as bythe leading questions 1 and 2 in exercise 1. Questions 3, 4, and 5 are leadingquestions. Again, the direction to the language reference section offers thepossibility of summarizing.

• past perfect simple (pp.136–137)

The data is provided in the form of sentences that are derived from the storyin the listening section. The problem is framed by asking learners to choosebetween two sentence endings (exercise 1). Exercise 2 consists of twoleading questions. A summarizing comment is offered in the languagereference.

Note that some of the possible guidance interventions, as seen in stage 3,are not included in the coursebook material, either because they dependon the learners’ responses (i.e. giving feedback), and therefore cannot be‘scripted into’ coursebook material, or because they are somehow alreadyimplied. For example, no explicit problem is framed in the section on thefirst and second conditional, but by presenting the two forms inconjunction, the implication is that they will be contrasted. The implied‘problem’ is ‘What is the difference?’

There is therefore room for the teacher to both manage and supplementthe guidance offered in the materials, particularly in order to give feedbackto the learners’ responses to the questions, to frame problems (e.g. Whoknows what the difference is?), and to elicit or give a summarizing statement.Guided discovery materials like these are perfectly suitable for self-studybut it is important to emphasize that such materials work even better whenreinforced with appropriate teacher interventions.

As a follow-up (or a pre-session) reading task, you might want to refertrainees to the teacher development chapter ‘how to … introduce newlanguage’ on pp.143–149 of the natural English intermediate teacher’sbook.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … introduce new language trainer’s notes 5

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … introduce new language worksheet for stage 1

worksheet for stage 1

how to …introduce new language

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Read these statements by teachers and decide whether you agree or disagree, and why. Compare youropinions with those of your colleagues.

1 I generally start a grammar lesson with aclear statement of the rule.

3 I prefer to use examples from thestudents’ own lives and experiences tointroduce new language.

5 Some grammar rules are easy to explain,but there are others that it’s best to letthe learners pick up themselves.

2 I avoid using grammar terminology inclass, if at all possible.

4 Students should be led to discover therules of grammar for themselves.

6 It’s best if the grammar comes out ofother activities, such as speaking orreading.

Study these three ‘lessons’. What differences do you notice in terms of:

• the sequencing of rules and examples?

• whether the rule is explicit or implicit?

• the amount of teacher guidance?

lesson 1

Teacher:

‘To form the present perfect continuous, use the auxiliary verb haveplus the past participle of the verb to be (been) plus the presentparticiple, for example …’

Teacher writes on board:

I have been working.Has Jeff been watching TV?They haven’t been listening.

‘You use the present perfect continuous to talk about activities thatstarted in the past and continue to the present (or very recent past),especially when you want to focus on the process itself, or itsduration, for example …’

Teacher writes on board:

We have been living here since we got married.How long have you been studying Chinese?Why is your hair wet? I’ve been swimming.

‘Now, make sentences using the present perfect continuous for thesesituations …

Jeff started watching TV at five o’clock. He has just switched the TVoff. It is now nine o’clock.

I first came to live in this town five years ago. I’m still living here.

Our company was set up over 100 years ago. We manufacturedbicycles then, and we are still manufacturing them.’

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … introduce new language worksheet for stage 2

worksheet for stage 2

how to …introduce new language

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

lesson 2

Teacher:

‘Dawn is standing outside the cinema. She is waiting for her friend. Dawnarrived at eight o’clock. It’s now ten past eight. She has been waiting forten minutes.

When did she start waiting? (Learners: ‘Eight o’clock.’)

Is she still waiting?(Learners: ‘Yes.’)

How do you express the idea of waiting that started in the past and is stillcontinuing?(Learners: ‘She has been waiting.’)

How is this tense formed?(Learners: ‘Have plus been plus -ing.’)

This tense is called the present perfect continuous.

Here is another situation:

It is now nine o’clock and Jeff is watching TV. He started watching TV atfive o’clock. He has been watching TV for four hours.

Use the present perfect continuous to make a sentence for thesesituations:

I first came to live in this town five years ago. I’m still living here.

Our company was set up over 100 years ago. We manufactured bicyclesthen, and we are still manufacturing them.’

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to… introduce new language worksheet for stage 2

worksheet for stage 2 continued

how to…introduce new language

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

lesson 3

Teacher:

‘Once upon a time, Goldilocks visited the Bears’ house. There was nobodyhome. She ate some of Baby Bear’s porridge. She smoked one of FatherBear’s cigars. She drank some of Mother Bear’s coffee, and she rodeMother Bear’s motorbike. She played with Buddy Bear’s toys, and sheplayed Buddy Bear’s guitar. She read some of Missy Bear’s magazines, andshe used Missy Bear’s computer.

What did she do with Buddy Bear’s guitar? (Learners: ‘She played Buddy Bear’s guitar.’)

What did she do with Mother Bear’s motorbike? (Learners: ‘She rode Mother Bear’s motorbike.’)

What did Goldilocks do with Missy Bear’s computer?(Learners: ‘She used her computer.’)etc.

Well, finally, she felt tired so she went upstairs to sleep. When the Bearscame home, Baby Bear said, ‘Who’s been eating my porridge?’ Repeat. (Learners: ‘Who’s been eating my porridge?’)

Mother Bear said, ‘Who’s been drinking my coffee?’ Repeat. (Learners: ‘Who’s been drinking my coffee?’)

Father Bear said, ‘Who’s been smoking my cigars?’ Repeat. (Learners: ‘Who’s been smoking my cigars?’)

What did Missy Bear say about her magazines? (Learners: ‘Who’s been reading my magazines?’)

And her computer? (Learners: ‘Who’s been using my computer?’)

What did Buddy Bear say about his toys? (Learners: ‘Who’s been playing with my toys?’)

And his guitar? (Learners: ‘Who’s been playing my guitar?’)

What did Mother Bear say about her motorbike? (Learners: ‘Who’s been riding my motorbike?’) etc.

Now tell the story to your classmate.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … introduce new language worksheet for stage 2

worksheet for stage 2 continued

how to…introduce new language

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

In a guided-discovery approach, the teacher guides and supports the learning process, by:

1 problem-framing: setting a problem-solving task for the learners

2 providing data: giving sufficient examples to help the learners solve the problem

3 focusing attention: drawing learners’ attention to key features of the data

4 asking leading questions: using questions to guide the learners to a solution

5 making connections: referring to, and building on, what the learners already know

6 giving feedback: providing messages on the state of the learners’ theory-building

7 recapping / summarizing

Look at this transcript of the presentation stage of a lesson. Try to identify the purpose of each of the teacherinterventions that are marked with an arrow – choose from the above list.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … introduce new language worksheet for stage 3

worksheet for stage 3

how to…introduce new language

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

T (1) Now, I’m going to dictate somesentences, and I want you to write themdown. Are you ready?

Number one: I have been teaching for twelve years now. [pause] Number two: Before that I was a student teacher. [pause] Number three: I have been living in KL for a year now. [pause] Number four: Last year I was living in George Town. [pause] Number five: At present I am living in a friend’s apartment.[pause]

I’m going to repeat the sentences and then Iwant you to check in pairs and see if you bothhave the same …

T OK. All those sentences are about me, butsome are true and some are false. Can youguess which is which? I’ll give you a clue.Only one of them is false. Yes, Mahmood …?

T … OK. Well done, Mahmood. So you guessedit correctly. Last year I was living in KotaBahuru, not George Town.

(2) Now let’s look at those sentences again.Can you divide them into sentences aboutnow and sentences about the finished past …?

T … That’s right. So we have two sentences

about the finished past. And three sentences about now.

(3) How do you know they are about now?

S1 ‘Now’.

S2 ‘At present’.

T Good. ‘I have been teaching for twelve yearsnow. I have been living in KL for a year now. At present I am living in a friend’s apartment.’OK.

(4) Now let’s look at these last twosentences: ‘I have been living in KL. I am living in a friend’s apartment’.

(5) Can you see a difference?

S3 have been

T have been living, and …

S4 am living

T So what’s the difference?

S5 have been living is finished.

T (6) Is it? Are you sure?

‘I have been living in KL for a year now.’ Is that finished?

T (7) When did I start living in KL?

S3 One year ago.

T Good. ‘I have been living in KL for a year now.’And am I still living here?

Ss Yes.

T Obviously! ‘For a year now.’ I started livinghere a year ago and I am still living here. ‘Ihave been living in KL for a year now’. Fromthe past to the present.

So, what about ‘I am living in a friend’sapartment’. Do we know when it started?

Ss No.

T (8) Are we talking about the past only, orthe present only, or from the past to thepresent?

S1 The present only.

T (9) Exactly.

But ‘I have been living in KL for a year’?

S1 Present, and past.

T Good. From the past to the present.

(10) Do you remember what we call this tense: I am living …?

S6 Present continuous.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … introduce new language worksheet for stage 3

worksheet for stage 3 continued

how to…introduce new language

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

T Good. So what do we call this one, have beenliving, do you think? [pause] Have been … whatis that?

S4 Present perfect.

T Good. (11) So have been living?

S6 Present continuous perfect.

T Not quite. Try again. The other way round …

S6 Present perfect continuous.

T Excellent.

(12) And so we use the present perfectcontinuous as a way of connecting the past tothe present …

stage 2

experiential learning task

20 minutes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … use the learners as a resource detailed plan 1

how to …use the learners as a resource

detailed plan

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

stage procedure

stage 1

warmer

10–15 minutes

Ask the trainees each to write, on a slip of paper, the name of an item offood or drink that they really enjoyed during some defined time frame,e.g. the last 24 or 48 hours. Collect the slips of paper and shuffle them.Take out one at random and read it aloud, for example: vegetarian curry.Ask the person who wrote that item to identify him - or herself, and thenask a few questions about the item in question, such as Where did youhave it? Who cooked it? What was in it? What did you have with it? Why was itso good? Ask some questions of a more general nature, such as Are you avegetarian? How often do you eat curry? Have you ever been to India? etc. Invite other people in the class to ask further questions. Then do thesame with another of the slips of paper. And, if time allows, a thirdor fourth.

Next, elicit back from the class the items of food or drink that have beenthe focus of the activity so far. Write these on the board, in the order thatthey were dealt with in class. Ask the class, working in pairs or smallgroups, to quickly ‘re-construct’ the stories associated with each of theseitems. They should do this orally, although you could point out that –with a ‘real’ class of language students – the reconstruction could takethe form of a written text.

Tell the group that they are going to experience a classroom activity as ifthey were themselves language learners. Point out that, while they areengaged in the activity, they should also mentally note how they react tothe experience, since their reactions will inform the discussion that follows.

Write the following table on the board:

None of usOne of usTwo of usThree of usAll of us

has

havebeen to…done…seen…met…etc.

Divide the class into groups of three or four, and ask them to produce asmany true sentences about their group as they can within a time limit(e.g. five minutes) using the patterns displayed in the table. Give anexample, e.g. Three of us have seen a comet. Forewarn them that onemember of each group will take the role of spokesperson to report onsome of the more interesting sentences that are generated.

During the report stage, get individuals to expand on the experiencesthat they mention, by asking questions such as:

Which of you has seen a comet?When was this?Where were you?What was it like?How did you feel?

Write a short summary of one or two of these exchanges on to the board.For example:

Diego has seen a comet.He saw it five years ago.He was with friends at the beach when he saw it.He felt a bit disappointed because it wasn’t very big.

Marina has seen a comet too.She saw it through a telescope.This happened when …

Ask the trainees to identify the tenses of each sentence, and to explainthe shift from present perfect into past simple.

In their groups, they can then generate more sequences of this type,using as a starting point the information they gathered in the initialbrainstorm. Ask one or two individuals to read aloud the ‘texts’ thattheir group has produced.

Write the following discussion points on the board (or dictate them):

• List the different stages of the ‘lesson’.

• What was the primary language focus?

• Where did the ‘data’ for the language focus come from?

• What are the advantages of such an approach to language study?

• What problems might arise?

• How could you deal with these problems?

Divide the group into pairs or small groups to discuss these points, andthen ask individuals to report back on their discussion, focussingprincipally on the last three points. Summarize the pros and cons of thisapproach in the form of two lists on the board.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … use the learners as a resource detailed plan 2

stage 3

discussion of principles

10–15 minutes

Divide the class into groups of three or four, and assign one of thefollowing activity types and language focuses to each group.

activity typelanguage focus

personal anecdoteexpressions of ability/inability, e.g. could / couldn’t; was / wasn’t able to

class surveywould for hypothetical situations

discussioncomparative and superlative adjective forms

role playlanguage of obligation, such as should, have to

Ask trainees first to think of an output task for their assigned activity typethat would generate the targeted language area.

Then ask trainees to apply the ‘output into input’ principle to the designof a lesson sequence for their activity. In other words, ask them howthey could create a lesson that uses the language that the learnersproduce as a source for language study. They should pay particularattention to how they set up the activity so that it is optimally productiveyet sufficiently controlled so the targeted language area has a highprobability of occurring. They should also consider how they would‘capture’ and support this language, and how they would engineer thatlanguage focus. They could also consider how they would deal withlanguage issues that emerge that are incidental to the main languagefocus.

Monitor the group work. If any groups finish the task while other groupsare still working, ask them to look at another of the four activity types.When most groups seem to be ready, ask a spokesperson from eachgroup to summarize the group’s ‘lesson’. Even better, ask the groups tochoose a ‘teacher’ who will teach the rest of the class the lesson that thegroup has devised.

Briefly discuss the lessons, drawing special attention to those featureswhich are consistent with the ‘output into input’ principle, referring backto the two lists on the board (see stage 3) where relevant.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … use the learners as a resource detailed plan 3

stage 4

application task

20 minutes

Ask trainees to look at the extended speaking tasks on pp.32–33 of thenatural English pre-intermediate student’s book, and draw theirattention to tasks 5 and 6:

5 Draw a map of your local area. Put at least six crosses (X) to showimportant places: school, workplace, shops, swimming pool, etc. Don’twrite the names of the places.

6 Work with a partner. Ask them all about the places on their map.Remember to ask follow-up questions.

Ask trainees to anticipate the sort of language that this task mightproduce at this level, with regard to both vocabulary and grammar. Askthem to think of any possible problems learners might have.

Handout worksheet for task 5. Explain that this is a transcript of twolearners - an elementary student from Poland (Anna) and a pre-intermediate Korean student (Sangwook) – doing task 6 above.

Divide the class into groups. Ask them to imagine they are teaching theclass in which Anna and Sangwook are students. Ask them how theymight exploit this transcript (either all of it or selected parts of it) in orderto provide some kind of language focus for the class. Give them a few minutes to discuss this and then elicit on to the boardthose items in the text that each group thinks could be exploitable. Fromthis list, each group chooses – or is assigned – one specific area (so as toavoid groups repeating the same focus) and decides how they wouldstructure and implement a language focus.

Allow groups plenty of discussion time and then select spokespeoplefrom each group to briefly summarise their group’s discussion.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … use the learners as a resource detailed plan 4

stage 5

extension activity

20–25 minutes

how to …use the learners as a resource

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … use the learners as a resource session overview

outline plan

stage timing interaction

1 warmer 10–15 mins whole class

2 experiential learning task 20 mins whole class; individuals; then pairs or small groups

3 discussion of principles 10–15 mins pairs / small groups; open class report

4 application task 20 mins pairs / small groups; report / demonstration to open class

5 extension activity 20–25 mins pairs / small groups; report

www.oup.com/elt/teacher/naturalenglish

aim to explore ways whereby learner ‘output’ can be used as a source of language study (‘input’), withspecial reference to lower levels

trainees will …

• experience a task where learner output is firstgenerated and then used as a focus for languagestudy

• discuss the principles underlying such an approach

• apply these principles to the design of differentlesson sequences

materials

• photocopies of the worksheet for stage 5

• natural English pre-intermediate student’s book

• natural English pre-intermediate teacher’s bookpp.164–170

session overview

by Scott Thornbury

stage 1 warmer

Point out that the activity is a very simple, and non-threatening, way ofeliciting learner-generated ‘output’. Tell the group that, in this trainingsession, they will be considering ways of turning such output into input –that is, material for language focus and study.

You might also ask them to think of other topics that could be used as afocus for the activity, e.g. a piece of music they recently heard that theyliked, or a film that they have recently seen, or an item of news thatinterested them. They could also consider the typical questions that suchtopics would generate, and use these to evaluate the relative ease ordifficulty of different topics. For example, for low level learners food is arelatively easy topic to talk about, while opinions about a film, or theirreactions to a piece of news, might be more difficult.

stage 2 experiential learning task

(Thank you to Mario Rinvolucri for this activity.)

stage 3 discussion of principles

The following points should be made during this discussion:

List the different stages of the ‘lesson’.

These could be described as:

1 production task.2 report on task.3 language focus.4 controlled practice.

Note that the sequence is a task-based one, in that the task is the startingpoint of the sequence, and the language focus is derived from the task,rather than determining the task.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … use the learners as a resource trainer’s notes 1

how to …use the learners as a resource

trainer’s notes

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

What was the primary language focus?

The present perfect to talk about past experiences in general, and thecontrast with the past simple when the focus shifts to talking aboutspecific experiences.

Where did the ‘data’ for the language focus come from?

As mentioned above, the data came from the students’ own productions.They were not pre-established, although the design of the task and theteacher’s interventions helped shape and narrow the language area thatbecame the focus of the lesson.

What are the advantages of such an approach to language study?

The fact that the language that is the focus of the grammar lesson isactually generated by the students, and is about the students, is likely toheighten their interest and make the lesson both more relevant andmore memorable.

What problems might arise?

Because it is not absolutely predictable what the students will come upwith, the teacher has to do a certain amount of ‘thinking on her feet’,and this may be intimidating to teachers without a lot of experience, orteachers who are uncertain as to their ability to make decisions aboutlanguage on the spot. (It is worth emphasising, however, that this is askill that most experienced teachers recognise as being an essentialcomponent of their expertise, allowing them to deal with language issuesas they arise.) Also, the language generated by students is likely toinclude vocabulary items that may be unfamiliar to other students, orthey may simply be unable to express themselves clearly because of lackof key vocabulary.

How could you deal with these problems?

The element of unpredictability can be controlled to a large extent byproviding brakes on the learners’ creativity. This can be done by limitingthe language choices (e.g. by stipulating a specific structure, as in theexample lesson) and / or by providing a tight rubric (or task framework)within which learners have to work. Again, the example lesson providesjust such a rubric. So, although learners are given the freedom togenerate as many sentences as they can that are true about their group,this freedom is quite tightly constrained. Even within these constraints,certain language problems might arise that had not been anticipated. Inwhich case, the teacher has the option of noting these down, and usingthem as the basis for a future lesson.

As for the vocabulary problems that might surface, some of these can beaddressed at the group work stage, by careful monitoring of the groupwork and providing vocabulary help while learners are in the business ofcreating their sentences and rehearsing their report back stage. Providinglearners with dictionaries to consult may also help, although this mayslow up the sentence-generation stage if learners become too reliant onthem.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … use the learners as a resource trainer’s notes 2

The pros and cons of this approach could be summarised thus:

stage 4 application task

Here are some possible tasks that meet the prescriptions (but this doesnot exhaust the possibilities by any means), plus some ways in which thetargeted language areas could be ‘captured’:

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … use the learners as a resource trainer’s notes 3

pros

• language ‘emerges’ from learners, thereby respecting theirlevel, creativity, autonomy, etc. as opposed to approachesin which learners simply parrot language that has beenpresented to them, whether they are ready for it or not;

• the learners’ own sentences are likely to be more relevant,and therefore the language points derived from them morememorable;

• because the focus is on production and creativity from theoutset, all learners are challenged, including those whoalready ‘know’ the target language.

cons

• difficult to predict exactly what language will emerge, andtherefore such an approach requires the ability to ‘think onone’s feet’.

• not everything that a learner comes up with will be ofinterest to other learners;

• difficult to ‘capture’ learner language, without recourse torecording and transcribing – hence usable ‘data’ for alanguage focus is not always available.

activity type

personal anecdote

class survey

language focus

expressions ofability/inability, e.g.could / couldn’t;was / wasn’t able to

would for hypotheticalsituations

capturing the language

Individuals report to the class and theteacher writes key sentencescontaining targeted language onboard; ask learners to tell their storiesto a partner, and then to write downtheir partner’s story; using as many ofthe targeted structures as possible;record learners doing the task andtranscribe key sections containingtargeted language.

Learner collate results of survey andwrite sentences based on what theyfound out – these could be written onto transparencies and projected on tothe board; individuals report findingsto class, and teacher writes keysentences on board.

task

Learners relate how they learned askill, e.g. swimming, riding a bike,juggling, carpentry, learning alanguage, etc.Learners tell the story of either amajor frustration they once faced, ora major achievement.

Learners devise and ask questionsusing the pattern Would you ever…?or What would you do if…? in orderto find out how brave, selfless,resourceful, etc the otherstudents are.

The actual implementation of the language focus will depend onwhether the data has been collected on to the board (or overheadtransparency), on to tape, and transcribed, or exists in students’compositions. Ideally, there should be more than one example of thetargeted items, so that the way the item is structured can be clearlydisplayed, e.g. in the form of a substitution table, e.g.

You have to have a copy of your passport.should pay $100.

provide three photos.have an offer of work.phone for an appointmentetc.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … use the learners as a resource trainer’s notes 4

activity type

discussion

role play

language focus

comparative andsuperlative adjectiveform

language of obligation,such as should, have to

capturing the language

Ask groups to write short summaries oftheir discussion; collect these for lateranalysis; a spokesperson from each groupreports the discussion and the teacherwrites key sentences on board;one group re-performs their discussionin front of the class, and the teacherstops them at strategic moments tofocus on occurrences (or non-occurences) of the targeted language.Elicit sentences using pattern on toboard, and organize them so as todisplay the pattern clearly, e.g. in theform of a substitution table.

Ask individual pairs to perform theirrole play, and stop them at strategicpoints to reformulate what they havejust said, but using the targetlanguage. Audio or video record selected pairs,and re-play, stopping at appropriatepoints, to reformulate (as above).Ask learners to repeat their role plays,after drawing attention to thetargeted language features, andrecord them. Prepare a transcript forlater study.

task

Learners compare two things of akind, selected from a list on theboard, or on a pack of cards thatthey work through, e.g. two cities orholiday destinations in theircountry, two department stores,restaurants, hotels, universities,parks, etc in their town; two local TVchannels; etc.Learners in groups have to generateas many sentences as possible in atime limit that follow this format:X is adjective + -er / more adjectivethan Y, because….

In pairs learners improvise asituation involving dealing withbureaucracy, for example: applyingfor a work permit, getting a driverslicence, etc. Learners first script then rehearseand perform role plays. At thewriting stage, they could beencouraged to incorporateobligation language.

stage 5 extension activity

There are many features of the transcript that would be worth highlighting,and these can be separated into three groups:

• achievements (i.e. what they succeeded in doing)

• errors of commission (i.e. mistakes that were made)

• errors of omission (i.e. what was not said, but could or should have been)

Of the achievements, these are notable:

• S’s successful use of a range of follow-up questions, as in Do you like flowers?Have you got a bunch of flowers?

• B’s (almost) well-formed and appropriate use of the present perfect: Haveyou gotten a bunch of flowers?

• A’s replies which often include at least two pieces of information: Yes, I likeflowers, I love roses; yes, in Poland. Four months ago, when I finished studies.

• A’s use of communication strategies, that is ways of getting around acommunication problem, because of lack of linguistic knowledge, e.g. byasking for repetition (could you repeat?) or by giving a definition orparaphrase for an unknown word: near the school is building but I don’t knowhow name… it’s not children, no school, but small children (kindergarten).

Of the errors of commission, these might be appropriate to focus on:

• article mistakes, such as A’s use of zero article with countable nouns: this isbus stop; this is pub (but note: this is a school, suggesting some familiaritywith the rule).

• some of the more complex question forms, such as What the pub like? andHow much is cost a beer?

• over-generalization of the third person s, as in I goes two times a week.

Errors of omission:

• despite A’s brave attempt at the present perfect, in this context the passivewould have been more appropriate, along with the adverb ever: Have youever been given a bunch of flowers? (Although this is a fairly ambitiousstructure for this level.)

• more use, on the part of A, of ‘backchannel devices’ – this is, ways thatlisteners respond to speakers to show interest, would make theconversation sound more natural and less forced, e.g. Really? Do you? etc.

One way of focusing on these areas might be to make a tape - with a colleague– of a ‘reformulated’ version of the conversation, with the errors corrected, orwith the omissions rectified. The students listen to, and / or read the transcriptof, the original conversation, and then listen to the reformulated version tosee if they can spot any differences. At some stage they should be given thetranscript of the reformulated version in order to confirm their findings.

As a follow-up (or a pre-session) reading task, you might want to refertrainees to the teacher development chapter ‘how to … use the learners as aresource’ on p.164 of the natural English pre-intermediate teacher’s book.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … use the learners as a resource trainer’s notes 5

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … use the learners as a resource worksheet for stage 5

worksheet for stage 5

how to …use the learners as a resource

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

S What’s that?A This is a shop, this very near my house.S What kind of shop?A This is a florist… a shop with flowers.S Do you like flowers?A Yes, I like flowers, I love roses (laughter).S Have you been, have you got, gotten, a bonch of flowers?A Could you repeat?S Have you gotten?A Carton?S Got … have you got a bunch of flowers …A Oh, yes, in Poland. Four months ago, when I finished studies.S Yeah. What’s that?A This is bus stop. Sorry.S What’s this?A This is pub. S How often do you go to pub?A In Poland, I goes two times a week, (a week) with my friend.S Boyfriend?A In Poland, yes.S In London?A In London no.S What the pub like? What can you do in the pub?A In the pub, we listen to music, and bands, (yes?) this is big pub. We

drink sometimes, beer sometimes.S How much is cost a beer?A Beer – £2?S Yeah?A No, no, in Poland, in England 50p.S Oh, very cheap!A But in big country, in capital beer is very expensive. Sometimes,

£1.50, sometimes £2.S What is that?A This is a school.S School? Your school?A Primary school. Near the school is building but I don’t know how

name … it’s not children, no school, but small children.S Ah! kindergarten.A Yes kindergarten.

Think about how you would exploit this transcript in order to providelanguage focus for a class.

how to …develop lexis at higher levels

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … develop lexis at higher levels detailed plan 1

detailed plan

stage 1

warmer

10–15 minutes

Play the following game with the trainees, having divided them intogroups of between three and five participants each.

Prepare in advance around 10 word cards (there should be at least twiceas many word cards as there are groups). On each word card is writtenan adjective and a noun, plus a number, for example ‘nice view x 3’.

Here are some more ideas for the word cards:

• bad weather x 3• good news x 4• dark forest x 3• small piece x 3• big car x 3• beautiful day x 3• boring film x 2• cold wind x 3• shy person x 3

Write a number, from 1–10, on the back of each word card. Place theword cards face down on a table or on the floor in the centre of theroom. Ask each group to number a sheet of paper 1–10, from top tobottom.

Before playing, explain that the game aims to extend learners’vocabulary range, especially in their choice of adjectives. To demonstrate,write The weather was hot. on the board, and elicit – or provide – analternative for hot, such as boiling. (Note that, for the purposes of thegame, extreme adjectives are acceptable.)

The game starts by one member of each group coming and taking one ofthe word cards, and returning with it to their group. The group then hasto brainstorm as many synonyms of the adjective on the card as indicatedby the number. For example, if they take a card with ‘nice view x 3’, theyhave to think of three synonyms of nice which could be used to describe aview (lovely, pleasant, charming, delightful, etc.).

They should write their ideas down on their sheet of paper, next to thenumber that corresponds to the number on the word card. They thenreturn the word card to the centre of the room, pick another one, andrepeat the brainstorming process.

stage procedure

stage 3

analysis task

10 minutes

stage 4

exploitation task

20 minutes

The game finishes when the first group to have completed all ten cardsshouts ‘Finished!’. The teacher then asks a member of each group to readout their answers for each item. Groups get one point for each word thatthe teacher considers a correct synonym.

For the purposes of this session, and if time is short, it is not necessary forthe trainees to actually finish the game – the important thing is that theyexperience the activity.

When the trainees have played the game, ask them to evaluate it interms of its usefulness for higher level learners (upper-intermediate andadvanced). What abilities does it test? What problems might arise insetting it up and playing it?

Refer trainees to worksheet for stage 2 (the student text).

Ask them first to read it individually, and note its strengths andweaknesses with regard to lexis.

They can then compare impressions in pairs / small groups. If you feelthat the trainees need explicit guidance on this task, you could remindthem of the game they have just played, and suggest that vocabulary rangemay be one criteria, while accuracy might be another.

Elicit open class feedback on this task, and discuss what aspects ofvocabulary learning this student’s teacher might want to focus on.

Hand out worksheet for stage 3 (the English-speaker text).

Ask trainees, working in pairs / small groups, to identify words andchunks that upper-intermediate learners (such as the student who wrotethe text in worksheet for stage 2) might not know but might finduseful.

Allow time for open class feedback and discussion.

Working in the same pairs / small groups, trainees now design asequence of two or three classroom tasks (based around the text inworksheet for stage 3) that direct attention to, and practise, the lexicalfeatures identified in stage 3.

For ideas, refer trainees to the section text search activities on pp.163–164 ofthe natural English upper-intermediate teacher’s book.

Allow time for open class reporting, or, alternatively, have the groupsprepare a short worksheet on an overhead transparency – these can thenbe projected and compared. (Alternatively, the worksheets could beprepared on paper, photocopied, and distributed to all the trainees.)

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … develop lexis at higher levels detailed plan 2

stage 2

diagnostic task

15 minutes

Ask trainees to look at the text (Single white female) on p.95 of the naturalEnglish upper-intermediate student’s book.

Important: ask them not to look at the ‘natural English’ box, ‘linkingevents in a sequence’, to the left of the text, at this stage.

They should first read the text individually, and then, in pairs or smallgroups, identify lexical features that could usefully be highlighted forlearners at this level (in the same way as they did in stage 3, above).They should then discuss how the features they have identified could behighlighted and practised in follow-up tasks.

After that, they can compare their ideas with those on pp.95–96 of thenatural English intermediate student’s book.

Finally, if time allows, group ‘leaders’ can report their group’s ideas backto the class.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … develop lexis at higher levels detailed plan 3

stage 5

extension activity

15 minutes

how to …develop lexis at higher levels

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … develop lexis at higher levels session overview

outline plan

stage timing interaction

1 warmer 10–15 minutes groups of 3–5

2 diagnostic task 15 minutes individual; pairs / small groups; open class check

3 analysis task 10 minutes pairs / small groups; open class check

4 exploitation task 20 minutes pairs / small groups; open class report

5 extension activity 15 minutes individuals; pairs / small groups; open class report

www.oup.com/elt/teacher/naturalenglish

aim to review the use of texts as a means of extending productive lexical knowledge in higher levellearners

trainees will …

• evaluate a learner text from the point of view ofits lexis

• identify exploitable features of a native speakertext, also from a lexical viewpoint

• devise classroom activities which aim to highlightthese features

• identify exploitable features of a coursebook text

materials

• natural English upper-intermediate student’sbook, pp.95–96

• natural English upper-intermediate teacher’sbook, pages pp.160–164

• photocopies of worksheets for stages 2 and 3

• word cards for stage 1

• blank overhead transparencies and pens for stage4 (optional)

session overview

by Scott Thornbury

how to …develop lexis at higher levels

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

stage 1 warmer

In the interests of time, set a time limit, or limit the number of wordcards. The important thing is that trainees experience the activity fromthe point of view of learners.

In the discussion the following points should be made:

The game is aimed at encouraging learners to extend and vary theirexisting range of adjectives (but the game need not be restricted toadjectives, of course) by promoting the use of synonyms. One problemmight be deciding – on the spur of the moment – which words areacceptable synonyms and which are not, and which synonyms formacceptable collocates with the noun. For example, glad / pleased may besynonyms for happy, but they do not collocate with person.

Note that allowing learners access to dictionaries (preferably only one pergroup) would also be a legitimate variation, and would provide a meansof topping up learners’ existing word knowledge.

Alternatively, ‘priming’ the learners, by first reading a text in which manyextreme adjectives appeared, may also help prepare them for the game.

stage 2 diagnostic task

Some of the strengths of the learner’s vocabulary use include:

• generally accurate use of the words at his / her command – apart fromsome minor spelling errors

• good use of ‘travel’ verbs, such as set out, set off, pull into, get to

• good range of time expressions, such as years ago, all summer, the nextmorning, five hours later, etc.

Some of the weaknesses include:

• limited range of evaluative language, especially colourful adjectivessuch as awful, appalling, freezing, etc. and their associated modifiers,such as quite, absolutely, really, etc.

• limited range of ‘commenting’ expressions – except for unfortunately –such as to make matters worse, to our horror, our hearts sank when, etc.

• occasional misuse of words, or unidiomatic collocations: tour (insteadof trip), it became windy (instead of it got windy), free for rent (instead ofavailable for rent), heat (instead of heating)

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … develop lexis at higher levels trainer’s notes 1

trainer’s notes

For further information on aspects of lexis that are particularly relevantto higher level learners, see the section 2 aspects of lexis on pp.160–163 ofthe natural English upper-intermediate teacher’s book.

stage 3 analysis task

Note that not all the words and chunks that are likely to be unfamiliarwill necessarily be useful to upper-intermediate students. They may be ofsuch low frequency (such as paddle, spines, wedged, hobble) or so restrictedto certain registers (for example oodles, suckers, schlepped, yummy) that theyare not worth anything but passing comment.

Particularly useful for the writer of the text in worksheet for stage 2,however, would be the following:

• evaluative adjectives fairly uneventful, totally untrue, seemingly endless, hot and sweaty, inviting, (or adjectival chunks) amazing, stunning, awesome

• commenting expressions and having said that, luckily, to top it off, disaster struck when …, there was no choice cohesive ties but to …, needless to say

• verbs and chunks associated with head over to, be reached by, set about, drop off, get to, put up with, end uptravel

• time expressions for writing travel the following day, once we arrived, after a half-hour (boat) ride, by the time we narrative arrived, on the last day

• other useful words or chunks loads of, that settled it, great fun, it took us about …, each way, take one look atsomething, ten times worse

Note that many of these useful chunks consist of known words, but notones that learners would naturally assemble on their own, or evennecessarily recognize as new vocabulary, e.g. totally untrue, having saidthat, there was no choice but to …

stage 4 exploitation task

Exercise types designed to draw attention to lexical features of the textcould include the following text search activities:

• find a word / phrase in the text that means …

• circle / underline all the words / phrases which relate to …

• circle / underline all the connecting / comment / time expressions …

Exercise types designed to practise / activate these lexical featuresinclude:

• complete gaps in the text from memory

• rewrite / improve a text to include some or all of the highlightedfeatures – for example, rewriting the worksheet for stage 2 text toincorporate features of the worksheet for stage 3 text

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … develop lexis at higher levels trainer’s notes 2

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … develop lexis at higher levels trainer’s notes 3

• reassemble cut-up text, where the clues to the correct order arecontained in cohesive ties

• write a new text to include some or all of the highlighted features

stage 5 extension activity

As suggested by the ‘natural English’ box, the text on p.95 of the naturalEnglish upper-intermediate student’s book contains some usefulexpressions for structuring (disaster) narratives:

Initially …, Unfortunately …, Gradually …, … things took a turn for the worse…, Things went from bad to worse …, It was the last straw …, But eventually …

There are also a number of other useful areas:

• chunks to do with relationships get on really well, quite a nice person, going out with, bumped into …

• time expressions, especially vague ones … as the weeks passed …, … another night …, … one day …, … afteralmost a year of this …

• speech event verbs confronted, denied, threatened, claimed

• collocations do up a flat, spread a rumour, shout abuse at, lose confidence

These lexical strands could be extracted and classified using the kinds oftasks suggested in stage 4, above:

• find a word / phrase in the text that means …

• circle / underline all the words / phrases which relate to …

• circle / underline all the connecting / comment / time expressions …

The natural English upper-intermediate student’s book ideas focus onidentifying and matching the sequencing devices (p.95), which is areceptive activity, and on incorporating these and other expressions fromthe text into a story (p.96), which is a productive activity.

An intermediate step might involve asking students to write a summaryof, or orally retell, the story, to include some of the vocabulary they hadpreviously extracted and classified.

The holyday I’m going to tell about has taken place years ago.We had decided that it had to be cheap. So we planed twoweeks in tent. We all loved camping and the weather seemed tobe lovely when we planed the tour in May. Unfortunately theweather changed in June. It became windy, rainy and very cold.We wouldn’t believe that it could go on all summer. Friday eveningwe packed the car ready to set out the next morning. But whenwe woke up the weather was still bad and it was the same thenext morning. Then we decided to rent a cottage, a caravan orsomething like that but all seems to be occupied. Only onecaravan by the North Sea was free. We set off the next dayone hour late due to our clock radio and headed to the ferry.When we pull into the ferry port the ferry had just left.

Five hours later we got to the camping ground. We were happyuntil we saw the caravan. A very old one and we understand whyit was free for rent. Nothing worked, the heat was off, theskylight leaking, and the beds to short and we weren’t able tolock the door. After one cold night we were on the way to anice hotel with a very warm swimming pool.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … develop lexis at higher levels worksheet for stage 2

worksheet for stage 2

how to …develop lexis at higher levels

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Read this text, written by an upper-intermediate learner, and identify itsstrengths and weaknesses, with regard to vocabulary.

Read this extract from a letter written by an English-speaker, and identifywords and chunks that upper-intermediate learners (such as the student whowrote the text in worksheet for stage 2) might not know but might finduseful.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … develop lexis at higher levels worksheet for stage 3

worksheet for stage 3

how to …develop lexis at higher levels

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

The following day we headed over to the travel agent, where we caught thevan up to Krabi. The trip took about four hours and was fairly uneventful –although we did have three seats to ourselves because the travel agent hadconvinced us we would need the spare one for our bags. Totally untrue:there was oodles of room, of course. We are such suckers! But, having saidthat, it was much more comfortable that way.Krabi has loads of beaches nearby, most of which can only be reached byboat. Once we arrived we booked a place to stay on one of the beaches, HatTon Sai, and set about finding a boat to take us there. After a half-hour boatride we were dropped off at East Rai Leh, where we had to walk along thebeach and around the headland (luckily it was low tide) to get to Ton Sai. Wethen schlepped up a seemingly endless road to our huts. Well, by the time wearrived there we were hot and sweaty and not liking Ton Sai very much. Totop it off, the beach didn’t look at all inviting at low tide as it was covered inrocks. We decided we would just put up with the two days we had bookedthere and then hightail it back to Krabi.But it’s amazing what a shower, some yummy fried rice, and a stunningsunset will do. And when we saw how beautiful the beach was at high tide andhow awesome the limestone cliffs are, well, that settled it. We ended upstaying on Ton Sai for three nights and hiring a sea kayak on the last day,which was great fun. We paddled out across the Andaman to a beach on PodaIsland (it took us about one and a half hours each way and was wet work!).Disaster struck when I stepped on something in the sea (a plant I think) andsome of its spines wedged themselves in my foot. There was no choice but tohobble up to the restaurant and ask for help. The woman there took one lookat it, then sat me down and rubbed lemon on the foot and banged away at itwith an (empty) bottle of Singh Beer. Needless to say, it’s ten times worsenow …

how to …teach listening

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … teach listening detailed plan 1

detailed plan

stage 1

warmer

10–15 minutes

stage 2

ordering task

10 minutes

Dictate, or write on the board, the following statements (or a selection ofthem):

1 Listening is more difficult than reading. Why?

2 Listening to cassettes is more difficult than listening to real people.

3 If students don’t understand, play the tape as many times asnecessary.

4 To understand a listening text, you need to understand every word.

5 It’s a good idea to give students the tapescript before they listen.

6 It’s a good idea to give students a task before they listen.

7 Listening to the teacher talking is good listening practice.

8 You can’t teach listening, you can only test it.

Divide the class into pairs or small groups, and ask them to discuss thestatements. Set a time limit of ten minutes.

Note that this is a warmer, so it is not necessary to discuss the questionsat great length. To save time, you could allocate specific questions tospecific groups, or you could ask each group to choose two or threequestions that they would like to discuss.

Ask individuals from each group to briefly report on their discussion, and(optionally) allow this to develop into an open class discussion.

An alternative approach could be to postpone the report and discussionstage until the end of the session, after first allowing groups to amend orexpand their opinions in the light of what has happened in theworkshop.

Organize the trainees into pairs or groups of three, and hand outworksheet for stage 2.

Explain the task – which is to put the stages of the listening lesson in alogical order. The trainees should be prepared to justify their order.

Point out that there may be more than one possible order.Note also that few listening lessons would include all these stages, e.g. itmay not be necessary to pre-teach vocabulary if it is assumed thevocabulary will be familiar to the learners.

stage procedure

stage 3

comparison task

5 minutes

stage 5

planning task

20-25 minutes

stage 4

matching task

10 minutes

It will be easier – and more fun – if you cut the worksheet up and pasteeach stage onto a separate card, making sure that each pair or group hasa full set of cards. The trainees can then order the cards by manipulatingthem physically.

When most groups have completed the task, lead an open classdiscussion, asking individuals to report on the order their group hasdecided on, noting differences, but at this stage reserving comment untilthe next activity.

Ask trainees to look at the activities on p.136 of the natural Englishintermediate student’s book (unit 12, listening).

Working in pairs or small groups, they should note the order of theactivities, and match each of them to the stages in worksheet for stage 2.Point out that not all stages in their worksheet are represented in thestudent’s book material.

Check this task in open class.

Hand out worksheet for stage 4, which lists seven principlesunderlying the teaching of listening.

Ask the trainees, in pairs or small groups, to match each principle inworksheet for stage 4 to each stage in worksheet for stage 2. (Again,this will be easier if the principles have been cut and pasted ontoindividual cards.)

Check this task in open class. By this stage, trainees should be able todemonstrate an understanding of the principles behind the choice andsequencing of activities in a coursebook-based listening lesson.

Organize the trainees into pairs or small groups, and ask them to readtapescript 12.4 on p.42 of the natural English intermediate listeningbooklet.

Set them the task of planning the stages of a listening lesson around thistext, using the listening lesson sequence from the ordering task instage 2, above. Note, again, that it is not necessary to include all sevenstages.

If time allows, ask individuals from different groups to outline their plan– or, better, teach their lesson to the rest of the class.

To vary the task, you could set different tapescripts to different groups.Among other tapescripts that would be useful for this exercise are 2.2(either anecdote), 5.4, 5.5, and 10.3 (Story 1).

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … teach listening detailed plan 2

Ask the trainees to read 5 Teacher talk (including try it out live listening) onp.153 of the natural English intermediate teacher’s book.

Ask them to plan – individually or in pairs / small groups – a ‘livelistening’ lesson, following the listening lesson sequence discussed earlierin the session.

Individuals can then demonstrate their live listening sequence to the restof the class.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … teach listening detailed plan 3

stage 6

extension activity

25 minutes

how to …teach listening

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … teach listening session overview

outline plan

stage timing interaction

1 warmer – discussion 10–15 minutes pairs / small groups; open class discussion

2 ordering task 10 minutes pairs / small groups; open class discussion

3 comparison task 5 minutes pairs / small groups; open class check

4 matching task 10 minutes pairs / small groups; open class check

5 planning task 20–25 minutes pairs / small groups; followed by open class report /demonstration

6 extension activity 25 minutes individual, or pairs / small groups; open class demonstration

www.oup.com/elt/teacher/naturalenglish

aim to familiarize trainees with the principles underlying the selection and sequencing of listening tasksto emphasize the importance of teaching listening, as opposed to merely testing it

trainees will …

• discuss statements about the learning andteaching of listening

• sequence the stages of a listening lesson

• plan a lesson based on a listening text

materials

• natural English intermediate student’s book,p.136

• tapescript 12.4 from natural Englishintermediate listening booklet, pp.42–43

• natural English intermediate teacher’s book,p.150 and pp.152–153

• photocopies of worksheets for stages 2 and 4

session overview

by Scott Thornbury

stage 1 warmer

Some points that may come up, or that you may like to introduce:

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … teach listening trainer’s notes 1

how to …teach listening

trainer’s notes

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

All things being equal, this is generally true, simply because a listeningtext happens in ‘real time’ and processing has to be rapid and immediate.Readers, on the other hand, can focus on difficulties in their own time,re-reading all or part of the text if necessary.

For further discussion of this issue, see the section 1 Why is listeningdifficult? on p.150 of the natural English intermediate teacher’s book.

Again, this is generally true, because the listener lacks important contextualclues, including the expressions and gestures of the speakers. Moreover, thelistener cannot interrupt, or ask the speakers for clarification, whenlistening to a recorded text. Also, technical problems, including classroomacoustics, can make cassettes difficult to process. However, cassettes havethe advantage that they permit repeated listenings of the same text.

Repetition may help, but there could be other problems:

• it may be that they have no understanding of the general situation

• they may not be tuned in sufficiently (see the section tune in to the voicesand context on p.152 of the natural English intermediate teacher’s book)

• there may be key words that need to be pre-taught

• there may not be a clear task to help them focus their listening

In other words, repetition without a preparatory stage or without makingsome adjustment to the task, may be a waste of time.

Understanding is both multi-layered and subjective. In other words, youmay understand the thread (or gist) of the text, based on clues from thecontext and the text, but without being able to recall, or evenunderstand, the details. Often, these details may be irrelevant. In thiscase, understanding every word is unnecessary.

On the other hand, the details may be critical – as in following streetdirections – where knowing the difference between at, after, before, etc.may be essential if a satisfactory level of understanding is to be achieved.Conversely, even if you understand all the words of a text, but haveinsufficient background knowledge of the topic, you may feel you stillhave not fully understood the text.

1 ‘Listening is more difficult thanreading. Why?’

2 ‘Listening to cassettes is moredifficult than listening to realpeople.’

3 ‘If students don’t understand, playthe tape as many times asnecessary.’

4 ‘To understand a listening text,you need to understand everyword.’

5 ‘It’s a good idea to give studentsthe tapescript before they listen.’

6 ‘It’s a good idea to give students atask before they listen.’

7 ‘Listening to the teacher talking isgood listening practice.’

8 ‘You can’t teach listening, you canonly test it.’

The tapescript is certainly useful in helping learners orient themselves tothe listening text, and to relate the spoken signal with the written word,but if they always get the tapescript in advance of listening, they will nothave had much preparation for real-world listening, where no suchsupport is available.

On the other hand, letting the learners see the tapescript towards the endof a sequence of listening tasks helps both to confirm their hypotheses asto what they have heard and to fill in the remaining gaps in theirunderstanding. It is also a useful medium for focusing on features of thelanguage.

This is generally true, since a task helps motivate students by providing areason for listening. Tasks also help focus students’ attention on thegeneral (such as the gist) rather than the specific (such as trying toidentify, and hold in short-term memory, the meaning of every word).

As a rule, tasks are sequenced from the very extensive (e.g. What is shetalking about? Why? And with whom?) to the fairly intensive (e.g. What timedid she say she would be free to have a meeting?), and from meaning-focusedtasks to form-focused ones (e.g. How exactly does she say she is busy? Howmany examples of ‘could’ do you hear?).

Given the problems of listening to ‘disembodied’ recorded texts (seepoint 2, above), and given the intrinsic interest created by the presence ofa ‘real’ speaker, the teacher is an excellent source of listening texts.

Moreover, the teacher is able to monitor the level of understanding,make adjustments, and respond to questions and requests for repetition.The disadvantage is that students may get used to listening to just onevoice, one accent, and one speaking style.

Traditional classroom listening activities seem more focused on testinglistening – as in dictations, multiple-choice question tasks, etc. – asopposed to developing the skill of listening through teacher mediation.

The rest of this session will look at ways the skill of listening can betaught, rather than simply tested.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … teach listening trainer’s notes 2

stage 2 ordering task

A logical order for the stages might be the following:

D Generate interest in the topic – by, for example, asking the class abouttheir experience, feelings, or knowledge of the topic.

G Pre-teach key vocabulary – for example, by writing each key word onthe board and attempting to elicit a definition, example, synonym, ortranslation.

F Set gist task e.g. Who is talking to whom, about what, and why?

C Play short section of recorded extract, and check task.

A Set intensive listening task – e.g. asking about specific details. Playcomplete extract and check task, re-playing sections if necessary.

E Students read tapescript and listen at the same time.

B Language focus e.g. focus on features of grammar or vocabulary thatoccur in the recording, by doing gap-fill exercise.

Note that the principles underlying this sequence include the following:

• Understanding is enhanced if learners are oriented towards the topicand are familiar with key vocabulary.

• Understanding is best developed in stages, going from the global to thespecific.

• Language-focused activities work best when the learners have firstencountered the language in a meaningful context.

stage 3 comparison task

The lead-in activity matches stage D above (generating interest).The tune-in activity matches stages F and C above.The listen carefully activity matches stage A above (intensive listening).The reference to the listening booklet matches stage E above.The grammar section matches stage B above.

Note that there is no stage G (pre-teaching of vocabulary) in thisparticular coursebook extract. The authors felt that it wasn’t necessary forthe successful completion of the task.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … teach listening trainer’s notes 3

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … teach listening trainer’s notes 4

Generate interest in the topic – by, for example, askingthe class about their experience, feelings, orknowledge of the topic.

Activating background knowledge about the topichelps make sense of the text.

Pre-teach key vocabulary – for example, by writingeach key word on the board and attempting to elicit adefinition, example, synonym, or translation.

It helps reduce the difficulty of listening if learners arefamiliar with the most important words in the text.

Set gist task – e.g. Who is talking to whom, about what, andwhy?

A very general initial task helps discourage learnersfrom trying to listen to every word.

Play short section of recorded extract, and check task. It helps if learners can ‘tune in’ to the recorded extractso as to get used to the voice(s), speed, and so on.

Set intensive listening task – e.g. asking about specificdetails. Play complete extract and check task, re-playing sections if necessary.

Listening intensively for detail is best done afterlearners have gained an overall grasp of the gist.

Students read tapescript and listen at the same time. It is both satisfying and instructive to match what youhave heard to the written word.

Language focus – e.g. focus on features of grammar orvocabulary that occur in the recording, by doing gap-fill exercise.

It is useful to exploit the text to teach languagefeatures, but this is best done after the learners havegained a good understanding of the text.

stage 4 matching task

The stages and principles are matched as follows:

D–4, G–2, F–3, C–7, A–6, E–1, B–5

The following table shows how the stages and principles correspond. Itmay be useful to photocopy this table to serve as a record for yourtrainees.

stage principle

generating interest

pre-teaching vocabulary

tuning in

gist task

detailed listening

language focus

Ask learners if they have ever lost their house keys, and / or been lockedout. Alternatively, ask if anyone has lost a (mobile) telephone connectionat a critical moment.

If key vocabulary (keys, locked out, mobile phone) has come up in theinterest-generating task (above), pre-teaching will hardly be necessary. Itmay be worth teaching the battery went dead and letter box, however, asthese are crucial to the understanding of the story.

Play the extract as far as the battery went dead, and ask learners to predictwhat might have happened next.

An example gist task could be:

1 What was the first problem? (She left her keys at home.)

2 What was the second problem? (The battery went dead.)

3 What was the third problem? (The taxi driver posted the keys throughthe letter box.)

This could take the form of true / false questions, or (for the resourceful)a sequence of pictures to put in order. The important point to note is thatthe story is quite condensed and unusual, and learners will have somedifficulty ‘unpacking’ exactly what happened. It will be important,therefore, that the detailed listening task helps this unpacking process asmuch as possible.

It may be necessary to ask some why questions, to ensure maximumcomprehension. For example, Why did the daughter order a taxi? Why didn’tthe woman wait for the taxi to arrive? Why did the taxi driver put the keys in theletter box?

Possible points to focus on include:

• features of spoken narrative, such as the linkers so anyway, and then,all of a sudden, and so (see exercise 12.4 on p.43 of the naturalEnglish intermediate listening booklet, as an example of an activityfocusing on these points)

• ‘back-channel’ devices (yeah, oh no, hmm, oh!, oh dear)

• the use of direct speech in narrative

• the use of the past perfect with verbs like realized or conjunctions likemeanwhile

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … teach listening trainer’s notes 5

stage 5 planning task

There is no one way of planning a sequence based on this text (tapescript12.4), but the following ideas may be worth mentioning:

stage 6 extension activity

Trainees should have some freedom to choose their own text, but it mayhelp to narrow their choice to personal anecdotes, of the type used intapescript 12.4.

It is important to stress that the anecdote should not be scripted and readaloud, but told in as natural a way as possible. A scripted text that is readaloud will inevitably lack features of natural, spoken English, such ascertain intonational features, repetitions and false starts, pause-fillers(erm …), and confirmation checks (ok?). The absence of these features canmake a text quite dense and difficult to process – compare listening to anews broadcast with listening to an interview.

In order to provide both gist and detailed listening tasks, the anecdotecould either be re-told, or it could be recorded during the first telling andthen played again.

For further suggestions, see try it out live listening on p.153 of the naturalEnglish intermediate teacher’s book.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … teach listening trainer’s notes 6

Put the following stages of a listening activity into a logicalorder – there is more than one possibility.

Be prepared to justify your choice.

A Set intensive listening task – e.g. asking about specific details. Playcomplete extract and check task, re-playing sections if necessary.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … teach listening worksheet for stage 2

worksheet for stage 2

how to …teach listening

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

B Language focus e.g. focus on features of grammar or vocabulary thatoccur in the recording, by doing gap-fill exercise.

C Play short section of recorded extract, and check task.

D Generate interest in the topic – by, for example, asking the class abouttheir experience, feelings, or knowledge of the topic.

E Students read tapescript and listen at the same time.

F Set gist task – e.g. Who is talking to whom, about what, and why?

G Pre-teach key vocabulary – for example, by writing each key word onthe board and attempting to elicit a definition, example, synonym, ortranslation.

Here are seven principles underlying the teaching of listening.Can you match each principle to a stage in worksheet forstage 2?

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … teach listening worksheet for stage 4

worksheet for stage 4

how to …teach listening

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

1 It is both satisfying and instructive to match what you have heard tothe written word.

2 It helps reduce the difficulty of listening if learners are familiar withthe most important words in the text.

3 A very general initial task helps discourage learners from trying tolisten to every word.

4 Activating background knowledge about the topic helps make sense ofthe text.

5 It is useful to exploit the text to teach language features, but this isbest done after the learners have gained a good understanding of thetext.

6 Listening intensively for detail is best done after learners have gainedan overall grasp of the gist.

7 It helps if learners can ‘tune in’ to the recorded extract so as to getused to the voice(s), speed and so on.

stage 2

ranking task

15–20 minutes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … motivate higher level learners detailed plan 1

how to …motivate higher level learners

detailed plan

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

stage procedure

stage 1

warmer

5–10 minutes

Copy and distribute the two learner statements on worksheet forstage 1.

Ask the trainees, in pairs or small groups, to comment on each learner’smotivation. For example:

• How motivated are / were they to learn English?

• What has motivated or demotivated them?

• Are they representative of many higher level learners? Why? / Whynot?

• Which learner’s experience is closest to your own experience oflearning another language?

Spokespersons from each group can then report to the class.

Write the following motivational factors onto individual cards, enoughfor one set of cards per group:

• the teacher’s method

• favourable attitude to target language culture and speakers

• immediate opportunities to use the language

• classroom group dynamic

• experience of achievement and success in class

• classroom materials / books

• tests and examinations

• personality and style of teacher

• rewards and punishments, such as marking schemes

• having a specific long-term goal, e.g. vocational / academic

Divide the class into pairs or small groups, and ask them to organize thecards according to the ‘motivational power’ of each factor for beginnersand intermediate learners. They should group the factors into at least threebands, for example very motivating / fairly motivating / not very motivating.Point out that there is no ‘right answer’ but that they should base theirdecisions on their own experience as learners and / or on theirexperience as teachers.

stage 3

brainstorming task

25 minutes

Having done that, ask them to rearrange the factors with specificreference to higher level learners (upper-intermediate and advanced),taking into account the specific motivational problems of higher levellearners.

Allow time for a class discussion, and for each group to report on – andjustify – their selections, and to explain the changes they have made inthe two rankings (i.e. beginners / intermediate compared to upper-intermediate / advanced).

Copy and hand out worksheet for stage 3. Explain that this consists often ‘commandments’ regarding motivation that two researchers drew upon the basis of extensive classroom research.

Ask the trainees to brainstorm ways that teachers can, or do, realize theseobjectives. Set each group a different ‘starting point’ in the list. Forexample, if there are five groups, group A starts with commandment 1,group B with 3, and so on. When they have exhausted onecommandment, they can move on to the next, and then the next, etc.,but they needn’t feel obliged to work through all ten. Remind them thatthe focus is on higher level students (although, of course, some ideas willbe relevant to all levels).

Open this activity into a plenary discussion, where groups pool their bestideas. These could be written up on the board and copied by the traineesas a record of the session.

Ask the trainees, working in pairs, to review the ten ‘commandments’(worksheet for stage 3) and quickly separate the commandments intotwo groups: those which apply only to the teacher (i.e. 1, 2, and 4), andthose which could apply to teaching materials (i.e. the rest).

Now, ask the trainees, working in pairs or small groups, to study a unit ofthe natural English upper-intermediate student’s book – each groupcould look at a different unit. If time is short, restrict the scope of the taskto one or two double-page spreads, instead of complete units. Possible spreads include pp. 28–29, 30–31, 40–41, 42–43, 86–87, 88–89, or144–145.

The task is to identify features of the coursebook material that haveobvious motivational ‘power’. In doing this task, trainees should refer tothe ten ‘commandments’ (but ignore 1, 2, and 4, as they relate only tothe teacher, and not to the teaching materials), and also to thesuggestions generated in the stage 3 brainstorming task.For example, one way that learner autonomy is promoted (seecommandment 7) is through the use of test yourself! sections (e.g. on p. 43of the natural English upper-intermediate student’s book).

A spokesperson from each group can then briefly summarize to the classtheir ideas.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … motivate higher level learners detailed plan 2

stage 4

application task

15 minutes

On p.154 of the teacher development chapters in the natural Englishupper-intermediate teacher’s book (1 Problems of motivating higher levellearners), the authors identify one problem facing teachers of higherlevels as being their disparate needs and wants:

‘… a few find it difficult to sustain motivation if the lesson is notperceived as directly relevant to their needs.’

Ask the trainees, working in small groups, to produce a shortquestionnaire designed to identify the needs and wants of the learners ina specific upper-intermediate or advanced class (or in an ‘imaginary’ classat these levels, but one that is typical to their shared teaching context).

(At this point, you could refer trainees to the section consulting yourlearners on p.157 of the natural English upper-intermediate teacher’sbook).

Then discuss how this questionnaire could be used in class – and how acompromise could be negotiated, in the event of the needs and wantsbeing diverse.

If possible, encourage trainees to use the questionnaire with one of theirown classes, and to report on the results.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … motivate higher level learners detailed plan 3

stage 5

extension activity

20–25 minutes

how to …motivate higher level learners

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … motivate higher level learners session overview

outline plan

stage timing interaction

1 warmer 5–10 minutes pairs / small groups; open class report

2 ranking task 15–20 minutes pairs / small groups; open class discussion

3 brainstorming task 25 minutes small groups; open class discussion

4 application task 15 minutes pairs; open class summary

5 extension activity 20–25 minutes pairs / small groups; open class discussion

www.oup.com/elt/teacher/naturalenglish

aim to identify factors affecting motivation, particularly at higher levels to relate these factors to classroom practices, including the selection and use of materials

trainees will …

• discuss and rank factors influencing motivation

• brainstorm practical implications relating to thesefactors

• apply these practices to coursebook materials

materials

• natural English upper-intermediate student’sbook

• natural English upper-intermediate teacher’sbook, p.154 and p.157

• photocopies of worksheets for stages 1 and 3

• a set of ten cards per group, on which the trainershould write the factors listed in stage 2 of thedetailed plan

session overview

by Scott Thornbury

stage 1 warmer

These are some of the points that might be raised:

Both students are fairly representative of higher level learners, but havedifferent needs and learning styles.

Carlos has experienced the ‘intermediate plateau’ syndrome, wherebyperceptible progress seems to slow to a halt, in the absence, particularly, ofopportunities to put the language to communicative use. He also has noapparent motive for learning English. Hence the attraction of the formalexamination class, which provides both a sense of purpose and, throughregular feedback in the form of marks, a tangible sense of progress.

Sylvia is a much more motivated learner – in the sense that she has aclear objective for learning English. Her learning style, too, showsevidence of more self-direction and autonomy, as she takes advantage ofopportunities to further her English learning outside the classroom. Shehas also a clear idea of what she needs in terms of fluency versusaccuracy, favouring the former in the light of her long-term goals. For thisreason the ‘artificial’ motivation provided by a formal examination classseems irrelevant to her.

It is not unusual, of course, to find both types of student co-existing inthe same class, and this presents a real challenge to the teacher: how doyou provide Carlos with his accuracy-focused work without frustratingSylvia’s desire for fluency? Sylvia herself suggests one approach: fluencywork, but with lots of correction and feedback.

stage 2 ranking task

Motivation is a very personal thing, and there’s no one commondenominator that is applicable in all cases. Nevertheless, research suggeststhe following:

the teacher’s method On its own, probably not hugely significant – but if the method runsagainst the learner’s expectations or preferred learning style, it is likely tocreate resistance and be demotivating.

On the other hand, if the method helps make lessons interesting, relevant,enjoyable, and involving, then it will probably have a positive influenceon motivation. Learners at higher levels may be more concerned that the

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … motivate higher level learners trainer’s notes 1

how to …motivate higher level learners

trainer’s notes

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

method addresses their specific needs, e.g. that it directly targetsexamination preparation, or that it doesn’t recycle, repetitively, areas ofthe language that they feel have been addressed already.A method that allows them no say in determining the content or theprocess of instruction is likely to be more demotivating than one thatdoes allow them some choice.

favourable attitude to target language This seems to be an important factor – although in the case of English as culture and speakers a foreign (or international) language, the notion of an L1 culture (e.g.

the UK or the USA) is probably less influential than the role of English inproviding access to global subcultures, such as business, technology, popmusic, the internet, etc.

At higher levels, learners may have become better disposed to the L1culture simply through having easier access to it, linguistically speaking,especially if they have already made friends with English-speakers, but itis unlikely that this will be generally the case.

immediate opportunities to use the This is generally thought to be very important, and, conversely, language the further the learners are (in both time and space) from opportunities

to use the language, the more demotivated they are likely to be.Depending on the degree of contact they have had, higher level learnersmay feel even more frustrated than lower level ones by lack ofopportunities for use, especially since they may now feel that they havethe requisite skills to handle such opportunities.

classroom group dynamic This is extremely important – more people drop out of adult educationclasses, for example, because they don’t get on with their group than forany other reason. In the absence of any other motivational factor, learnerswill keep coming to class because they get on with their classmates. Thisfactor would seem to be as important at higher levels as it is at lower levels.

experience of achievement and success Another highly important factor, along with what is called ‘expectancy in class of success’ – if you think you will succeed, you will feel more motivated.

Conversely, a climate of consistent failure is extremely demotivating. Ifthey have had few opportunities to put their language skills to the test,higher level learners may feel that this experience of success has beenendlessly deferred, and hence will feel demotivated.

classroom materials / books Probably not a significant factor, compared to ‘people-related’ factors,such as the other students and the teacher. However, higher levellearners who are fed the same ‘diet’ of coursebook grammar, year in,year out, are likely to feel frustrated, while materials that are fresh andinnovative are likely to help maintain their interest.

tests and examinations At higher levels, where the sense of progress is slowed, and whereintrinsic motivation may be low, external exams, such as CambridgeFCE, provide a form of extrinsic motivation, which may be quiteeffective. However, regular testing needs to be balanced against the needfor ‘expectancy of success’ (see above).

personality and style of teacher Like the classroom dynamic factor, the teacher factor is very important.A good teacher, who projects an optimistic view of her students’capacities, can make up for the lack of any clearly defined goals ormotives for language learning. She can also help construct a positivegroup dynamic, as well as choosing methods and materials that thestudents will find relevant and enjoyable. This applies as much at higherlevels as at lower, although one expects that higher level learners will beless ‘teacher-dependent’ than lower level ones.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … motivate higher level learners trainer’s notes 2

rewards and punishments A ‘carrot and stick’ approach may work in the short term, but is muchless effective than other factors in the long term. Rewards andpunishments induce a dependency culture which works against thedevelopment of positive self-images and autonomy.

having a specific long-term goal The desire to achieve a goal is important, but if the goal is very remote,then it may lack motivational power. Just as important as the product oflearning is the process, and having a positive attitude to the process cancompensate for not having a clearly defined long-term objective.In other words, and especially at lower levels, if short-term motivation ismaintained because lessons are challenging, yet not too difficult, andenjoyable but not frivolous, that may be all that is necessary. On theother hand, higher level learners may have a more clearly defined notionof what their goals are (e.g. academic study) since these goals may nowbe more achievable. If these goals are ignored in class, they may lead to afalling-off in motivation.

stage 3 brainstorming task

Possible approaches and techniques related to each of the ten‘commandments’ might include the following (bearing in mind that insome teaching situations not all these ideas may be feasible):

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … motivate higher level learners trainer’s notes 3

• Arrive punctually, and greet students warmly.

• Inject energy into what you do, even if it is simply being veryattentive to what is happening in the class.

• Use materials and develop topics that you yourself are interested in,and make your own interest obvious.

• Talk about your own language learning experiences – both whatmotivated and de-motivated you.

• Seat the learners so they can see and hear one another.

• Sit down, yourself, whenever possible.

• Monitor group and pair work helpfully and unobtrusively.

• Decorate the walls, and change the decoration regularly; involve thestudents in this, too.

• Play quiet background music during group work stages.

• Be sensitive to signs of obvious discomfort or tension.

• Ensure full attention before setting new tasks.

• Demonstrate tasks.

• Include all necessary details in your instructions, for example: thegrouping (pairs / small groups, individual), the time they have, theskills involved (e.g. speaking or writing), and the outcome (what thetask is leading up to).

• Write instructions on the board, if necessary.

1 Set a personal example with yourown behaviour.

2 Create a pleasant, relaxedatmosphere in the classroom.

3 Present the tasks properly.

• Use the learners’ names.

• Ask them questions that show a curiosity in them as people.

• Really listen to them – to what they are saying, not just how.

• Allow them to ask you personal questions, too.

• Avoid overgrading your language – at higher levels, this shouldn’t benecessary, and may be interpreted as being condescending.

• Chat with them before and after the lesson and during breaks.

• Set up regular tutorials in order to give them undivided attention.

• Be sensitive to individual personalities when correcting errors.

• Give credit for any achievement, whether accuracy or fluency.

• Provided support before and during activities.

• Set tasks that are challenging but are within the learners’ presentcompetence.

• Find out what the learners are interested in and let these interestsguide your choice of materials and topics.

• Vary the activities and the way you sequence them.

• Be prepared to cut activities short if they seem to be boring.

• Invite guests to the class to talk to the learners and answer questions.

• Allow learners choice in such things as topics, materials, activities,even areas of the syllabus.

• Encourage learners to bring their own English-language materials toclass – e.g. songs, business correspondence, texts found on theInternet, etc.

• Encourage them to continue their learning outside the classroom, forexample by watching English language films, reading literature, usingthe Internet, etc.

• Demonstrate the self-instructional potential of a good learner’sdictionary and grammar book by, for example, setting homeworktasks using these resources.

• Use the learners’ own narratives (written or spoken) as a basis forlanguage work, rather than always using coursebook texts.

• Ask the learners to rewrite the sentences in grammar exercises so thatthey are true for them.

• Exploit the topics in the coursebook for their relevance to learners’own lives.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … motivate higher level learners trainer’s notes 4

4 Develop a good relationship withthe learners.

5 Increase the learners’ linguisticself-confidence.

6 Make the language classesinteresting.

7 Promote learner autonomy.

8 Personalize the learning process.

• Make the goals of the syllabus explicit – draw attention to the syllabusas laid out in the contents pages of the coursebook.

• Provide constructive feedback on tasks.

• Ask learners to monitor their own progress (for example, in naturalEnglish, by using the test yourself! boxes at the end of each unit).

• Discuss the learners’ needs and objectives in one-to-one tutorials, andjointly set realistic targets.

• Exploit texts for what they suggest about the L2 culture.

• Exploit opportunities to discuss differences between the L1 and L2cultures.

• Use authentic materials – for example from newspapers, websites, etc.

• Use ‘literary’ texts, of various types, in the classroom.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … motivate higher level learners trainer’s notes 5

9 Increase the learners’ goal-orientedness.

10 Familiarize learners with the targetlanguage culture.

stage 4 application task

Features of the coursebook that might be mentioned:

• general layout and design, use of colour, graphics, artwork, andphotographs

• humour

• personalized activities

• use of pair and group work, especially where personalized – effectivein building a good classroom dynamic

• instruments for monitoring progress (e.g. the tick when you know this …and test yourself! boxes)

• choice and variety of topics

• authentic (or authentic-looking) texts

• clear signposting and instructions

• clear sense of progression through the material, including a sense ofbuilding up to a significant and realizable objective

stage 5 extension activity

Note that needs analysis-type questionnaires are easier to answer iflearners are given choices (a list of topics, for example) with the option ofadding their own, rather than simply being asked, ‘What are youinterested in?’.

You could suggest to the trainees some very general areas to focus on,such as skills, topics, ways of organizing the class (pairs, groups, plenary), etc.It is important to discuss one or two ways of reaching a consensus – e.g.through a class vote, drawing up an agreed short list of topics, etc.

I have been learning English since five years now. At first it was very

interesting and I was having a lot of progress. I was amazing how

many words I have learned. The classes were funny and the teacher

was very vivid and active. Then, after maybe two years, I started get

bored from the classes. Always we were repeating the same grammar

and always I am forget the words I have been learned. I thought: I

will never be able to speak a fluent English. For that I decided to take

the First Certificate examination. (The true is that my teacher

suggested that.) Now I am more interesting in the classes, because

we have a lot of effort to do for preparing for the exam. I look

forward every lesson to get my marks from my teacher about my

writing homework. In my opinion that is the best way for improve my

English, seeing that I haven’t got the opportunities for meet and talk

with any English people.

I started studying English two years ago. My other foreign language is Russian,which I have studied since many years. English was more important for mebecause I have the chance to work in an import-export business, and I must tolearn it more quickly. Actually I am having intensive course in a language school.I have been also reading English books and magazine in my free time and chatwith English friends on Internet. I make exercises of grammar also in my home.The best classes for me are when we speak and practise with the language andnot always doing grammar exercises, that, as I have said, I can do in my home.That is why I am not interested to do the examination classes, which are boringfor me, because I need English quickly and fluently. I like best when we speak andthe teacher correct the mistakes and teach us new words and expressions.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … motivate higher level learners worksheet for stage 1

worksheet for stage 1

how to …motivate higher level learners

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Carlos

Sylvia

Ten commandments for motivating language learners:1 Set a personal example with your own behaviour.

2 Create a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere in the classroom.

3 Present the tasks properly.

4 Develop a good relationship with the learners.

5 Increase the learner’s linguistic self-confidence.

6 Make the language classes interesting.

7 Promote learner autonomy.

8 Personalise the learning process.

9 Increase the learners’ goal-orientedness.

10 Familiarise learners with the target language culture.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … motivate higher level learners worksheet for stage 3

worksheet for stage 3

how to …motivate higher level learners

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Dörnyei, Z., and Csizér, K. ‘Ten commandments for motivating language learners: results of an empiricalstudy’, Language Teaching Research, 1 September 1998, Vol. 2, No. 3. Reproduced by permission ofArnold Publishers.

stage 2

classification and sequencing task

20–25 minutes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … practise grammar detailed plan 1

how to …practise grammar

detailed plan

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

stage procedure

stage 1

warmer

10–15 minutes

Hand out worksheet for stage 1 and ask trainees to reflect on theirown language learning experiences. Give them two or three minutes tothink silently about the statements, and then ask them to share theiropinions in pairs or small groups. Allow time for a class discussion ofsome of the issues that have come up. Note that there is unlikely to be acomplete consensus on these issues: this is a reflection of differentlearning styles and contexts.

Write She used to live in Italy on the board. Establish the concept of used to(finished past habit) and the grammatical form (probably best describedas a ‘semi-modal’). Ask the group to imagine they have just introducedthis form to a class of pre-intermediate learners, and that now they wantto provide practice opportunities.

Hand out worksheet for stage 2. Ask the trainees to work in pairs orsmall groups and to read through the different practice activities and todo the following:

• classify each activity – according to whatever criteria they wish;

• rate the activities – again, according to their own criteria;

• choose the activities they rate highly and sequence them into a logicalorder.

If you think it would help to give an example first, copy and distributeitem 2 from stage 2 of the trainer’s notes. The trainees should thendecide which exercise on the worksheet the notes are referring to. Thiswill now provide them with a model to work from.

When most groups are ready, ask a spokesperson from each group toreport on their group’s discussion. In order to avoid this becomingprolonged and repetitive, you could allocate one exercise on theworksheet to each pair/group. The group’s findings could then bepresented to the class using an overhead projector, if available.

If there is a reasonable consensus in the group as to a preferred sequenceof practice activities, plot this sequence on to the board, as a summary ofthis stage. If there are two or three preferred sequences, these could bewritten up in adjacent columns. Encourage the proponents of any onesequence to convince the rest of the group as to the merits of theirsequence.

You could even call for a vote at the end, as a way of rounding off thisstage. At the same time, you should emphasize that there is seldom ifever ‘one way’ of conducting a lesson and that each lesson sequence islikely to have merits in different contexts.

Ask trainees, on the basis of this task, to work in pairs or small groups todraw up a short list of principles that should underpin (a) the choice and(b) the staging (i.e. sequencing) of practice activities. Ask them to thinkof ways of completing these two sentence starters:

• Grammar practice activities should (be/have/include, etc.)….

• Grammar practice activities should be staged so as to….

Alternatively, this could be done in the form of a list, or of a ‘mind map’ –with ‘grammar practice’ occupying the central node, from which extendtwo ‘arms’, one labelled ‘choice’ and the other ‘staging’.

Provide an example, e.g.

‘Grammar practice activities should include attention to pronunciation atsome point’.

Trainees work in small groups of three or four. Assign different groups agrammatical item, preferably one that relates to their own immediateteaching context, or, if not, a grammar item that typically occurs in a pre-intermediate syllabus. Here are some examples from natural Englishpre-intermediate:

• present perfect

• past simple

• countable vs uncountable nouns

• comparatives

• superlatives

• had to

• first conditional

• second conditional

Ask them to devise a sequence of at least three practice activities thatmight usefully follow on from a presentation. Make it clear that theydon’t have to devise the presentation itself, only the practice activities.These should be sufficiently detailed to be ‘ready to teach’ – i.e. not just‘substitution drill’, but the actual prompts for such a drill. (One memberof each group should be given the job of writing down the group’s ideas.)They should also sequence the activities they have devised in a logicalorder.

You could narrow the focus of this task by asking them to devise practiceactivities that are meaningful, or that have a communicative element, orthat test understanding of the grammar item (as in grammarinterpretation tasks).

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … practise grammar detailed plan 2

stage 3

discussion of principles

10–15 minutes

stage 4

application task

20 minutes

Allow time for groups to exchange ideas, e.g. groups could display theirfinished practice activities on the training room walls, or they could writethem directly on to overhead projector transparencies which could thenbe displayed.

Refer trainees to natural English pre-intermediate student’s book.Direct their attention to the grammar practice activities and ask them a)to classify the activities in terms of the criteria outlined in Task 3 above(Discussion of principles) and b) to devise at least one way of following up– or extending – the practice activity, so as to maximize its practicepotential. One way – for example – might be to extend a speakingactivity into a writing activity, or to follow a non-personalised task with apersonalised one.

For example, trainees could look at the following exercises. (Assign eachset of four exercises to different groups):

unit 1, p. 13, grammar, exercise 6unit 3, p. 27, grammar, exercise 6unit 4, p. 36, it’s your turn! exercises 1–3unit 3 review, p. 42, grammar

unit 5, p. 47, grammar, exercise 3unit 5, p. 48, grammar, exercises 3 and 4unit 6, p. 56, it’s your turn! 1–3unit 5 review, p. 62, grammar, 1 and 2

unit 6 review, p. 63, grammar, 1 and 2unit 8, p. 76, it’s your turn! 1 and 2unit 8 review, p. 83, grammarunit 10, p. 94, grammar, 3 and 4

unit 9 review, p. 100, grammar, 1 and 2unit 10 review, p. 101, grammar, 1 and 2unit 11 review, p. 120, grammar, 1 and 2unit 13 review, p. 138, grammar, 1 to 4

Allow time at the end of the session for groups to exchange their ‘bestideas’.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … practise grammar detailed plan 3

stage 5

extension activity

20–25 minutes

how to …practise grammar

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … practise grammar session overview

outline plan

stage timing interaction

1 warmer 10–15 mins whole class

2 classification and sequencing 20–25 mins whole class; individuals; then pairs or small groups

3 discussion of principles 10–15 mins pairs / small groups; open class report

4 application task 20 mins pairs / small groups; report / demonstration to open class

5 extension activity 20–25 mins pairs / small groups; report

www.oup.com/elt/teacher/naturalenglish

aim to extend the range of techniques for practising grammar items

trainees will …

• classify, rate and sequence a number of grammarpractice tasks

• derive from this some principles for designingpractice tasks

• apply the principles to the design of a sequence ofpractice tasks

materials

• photocopies of the worksheets for stages 1 and 2

• natural English pre-intermediate student’s book

• natural English pre-intermediate teacher’s bookpp. 151–156

session overview

by Scott Thornbury

stage 1 warmer

The following issues are likely to come up:

1 ‘Learning grammar is a waste of time if you don’t practise it.’

This is a fairly uncontroversial statement and it’s unlikely that many willdisagree. Of course, it largely hinges on the meaning of ‘practise’, which,if taken in the broadest sense, meaning ‘put to practical use’, makes thesentence demonstrably true. If, on the other hand ‘practise’ is taken tomean ‘engage in controlled practice activities, such as drills’, it is moreopen to debate. There is a general feeling, especially among theorists inthe communicative tradition, that such practice may be in itselfinsufficient for the development of communicative competence.

2 ‘Practice means repetition: if you don’t repeat things you’ll neverlearn them.’

All practice involves an element of repetition to some extent, but theform such repetition takes can vary from the very mechanical, as inrepetition drills, to the more creative, such as when learners rehearse arole play several times before performing it. Generally speaking, mindless‘parroting’ of grammatical structures has a fairly limited pay-off, even interms of short-term memorising. For real learning to take place, a newitem needs to be ‘accommodated’ into existing knowledge, and to do thisit needs to be subjected to conscious mental processes, as when a newstructure is compared and contrasted with a known structure, or when agrammatical feature of the L2 is compared with the same feature in thelearner’s L1. But repetition of classroom tasks such as dialogues and roleplays does seem to contribute to the automatization of linguisticknowledge.

3 ‘The only practice that counts is putting the grammar tocommunicative use in real-life situations.’

This statement tends to contrast with the previous one, in that itprioritises authentic use over the more artificial classroom activitiestraditionally associated with language learning. In this sense, itrepresents the basic premise of the communicative approach, especiallyin its ‘strong’ form: that you learn a language by using it. However, mosttheorists nowadays grant a role for form-focused, even fairly mechanical,practice activities, arguing that these may in fact act as a preventative tothe premature ‘fossilising’ of the learner’s internal grammar. There is ageneral feeling that the two kinds of practice – the more formal alongside

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … practise grammar trainer’s notes 1

how to …practise grammar

trainer’s notes

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

the more communicative – are necessary, but less agreement as to howto achieve the best balance.

4 ‘If you practise with other learners, you’ll pick up their mistakes.’

Some learners (and even some teachers) use this as an argument againstpair or group work, but research suggests that ‘error contamination’rarely occurs, especially where learners also have opportunities tointeract with speakers, such as their teachers, who are more proficientthan they are. The advantages of doing pair and group work, such asmaximising practice time, seem to far outweigh any possible risks ofcontamination.

5 ‘The teacher can only do so much. Good learners make their ownopportunities for practice.’

It is true one of the characteristics of successful learners is their capacityto seek out opportunities to put the language to practical use, and todevise their own ways for rehearsing and memorising newly learnedlanguage. But there is still a lot that teachers can do both to motivate andto train all their learners into good habits of practice. One simple way isto provide a varied ‘diet’ of practice activities, in the hope that learnerswith different learning styles will find something to meet their needs.This training session aims to increase the options available for practiceactivity types.

stage 2 classification and sequencing task

The different tasks could be classified like this:

1 This is a receptive – as opposed to a productive – practice task: itrequires learners to understand the targeted structure rather than toproduce it. It is meaningful, in the sense that the learners cannot dothe exercise without understanding both the meaning of the text, andthe meaning of the questions, which in turn depend on the learner’sunderstanding of the targeted structure. Notice that the targetstructure (used to) is not used in the texts themselves, but is implied.This means that – to do the exercise – the learners have to interpret thetext in the light of the questions, finding matches between theconcept of used to and the content of the texts. For this reason, thiskind of activity is sometimes called a grammar interpretation task. It isgood for testing understanding, and for raising awareness as to theuse of the target item, but, being wholly receptive, it is limited aspreparation for productive use.

2 This is a written practice task, and it is productive, in that the learnershave to produce sentences containing the targeted structure. It ismeaningful in that – theoretically at least – learners need tounderstand the prompt sentence in order to transform it using thetarget structure. (The exercise type is called a sentence transformationexercise.) However, it would be just possible to do the exercise withoutattending to the meaning of the prompt sentence, a fact whichweakens its effectiveness as a meaningful practice activity.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … practise grammar trainer’s notes 2

3 This is a classic drill-type exercise, which is both spoken andproductive. It starts as a pure imitation drill, but then becomes asubstitution drill when prompts are supplied. It is only notionallymeaningful, however, in that it would be quite possible to supply thecorrect responses without understanding the prompts. It is therefore arather mechanical practice activity, although there may be somepositive spin-off in the form of pronunciation practice.

4 This is a productive, spoken practice activity, and one which is alsocommunicative, in that it requires learners to attend to each others’responses. Since learners are asked to devise their own questions, italso has a creative element, and hence occupies a position at the freerend of the cline from controlled to free practice activities. But there isstill an element of control, in that the learners’ creativity isconstrained by the need to use the target structure, and it still fallswithin the category of practice activity in that it requires repeated useof the target structure. One problem may be in monitoring thelearners’ output, especially with a large class, which might limit itsusefulness as practice.

5 This is a personalised form of practice that is productive, both writtenand oral, and meaningful. It also has a communicative element, inthat learners have to listen to each other’s sentences in order to guesswhich are true or false. But it is still classifiable as practice since it hasa specific language focus, and it is inherently repetitive. Also, becauselearners are writing their sentences, there is the possibility that theywill pay greater attention to formal accuracy than had they simplyspoken them. The exercise also has the potential to be developed intoa freer speaking activity, in which learners talk about the topics theyhave volunteered. This kind of activity is therefore potentially veryuseful, the only problem being learners’ failure to come up withsufficient sentences to make the activity very productive.

6 This is written practice, minimally productive (learners only have towrite used to) but – unlike some gap-fills – requires that they payattention to the context in order to make the correct choice. It istherefore a good test of their understanding of the target grammaritem, much in the same way as exercise 1 above. As practice, though,it is limited, since it is almost wholly receptive.

7 This is a receptive practice exercise with a narrow pronunciationfocus, and only minimally meaningful – learners don’t really have tounderstand the sentences in order to do the exercise. It might be mademore meaningful if they had to write the sentences down, as well.And more productive if they had to read the sentences aloud to oneanother, or even write further sentences of their own to ‘test’ theirclassmates.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … practise grammar trainer’s notes 3

In terms of a possible sequence, the following has a logic consistent withthe principles that are outlined in the following activity, but it is by nomeans the only sequence possible. Trainees may also choose to omitcertain activities on the grounds that they overlap (e.g. either of activities1 or 6) or that they are too mechanical (e.g. activity 7):

• activity 2 (written; productive; high form focus; low meaning focus)

• activity 1 (written; receptive; high form focus and high meaningfocus)

• activity 6 (written; minimally productive; high form focus and highmeaning focus)

• activity 7 (spoken; recognition; high form focus; low meaning focus)

• activity 3 (spoken; productive; high form focus; low meaning focus)

• activity 5 (written and spoken; productive; high form focus; highmeaning focus; interactive)

• activity 4 (spoken; productive; high form focus; high meaning focus;interactive)

stage 3 discussion of principles

These are some of the principles that should be highlighted:

• Grammar practice activities should:

– include a focus on the grammatical form of the item at some point – this includes such formal features as inflections, wordorder, agreement, etc.

– include a focus on the pronunciation of the item;

– be meaningful – i.e. the focus on form should not always be at theexpense of a focus on meaning;

– be contextualized – at some point;

– be varied – in order to sustain interest;

– provide volume of practice – i.e. maximum practice opportunitiesfor the time available;

– be challenging, but at the same time achievable;

– be interactive and communicative at some point;

– be creative and / or personalized – at some point.

• Grammar practice activities should be staged so as to:

– progress from reception (understanding) to production

– progress from a form-focus to a meaning-focus

– progress from decontextualized examples to contextualized ones

– progress from teacher-student to student-student interactions

– progress from highly controlled to less controlled, and thence tofreedom and creativity

(There is also a case for moving from written activities to spoken ones,although there is less consensus on this.)

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … practise grammar trainer’s notes 4

stage 4 application task

There will be many different possibilities for activity types for this task.The important thing is that trainees can classify and sequence themaccording to the criteria outlined in the previous task.

stage 5 extension activity

All of the exercises have a strong meaning focus; many of them requirepersonalisation and / or interaction. Some are receptive although themajority are productive, and most involve speaking. While all theexercises are self-standing, a natural follow-on for many might be anoral or written report stage, in which learners report on the results of theactivity. This is especially appropriate for the survey and milling-typeactivities, e.g. unit 5 review, p. 62 grammar, 1 and 2, unit 8 p. 76, it’s yourturn! 1 and 2, and unit 8 review, p. 83, grammar. Other ways of followingon might include a personalisation stage, e.g. unit 3, p. 27, grammar,exercise 6 or unit 6 review, p. 63, grammar, 1 and 2.

As a follow-up (or a pre-session) reading task, you might want to refertrainees to the teacher development chapter ‘how to … practicegrammar’ on p.151 of the natural English pre-intermediate teacher’sbook.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … practise grammar trainer’s notes 5

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … practise grammar worksheet for stage 1

worksheet for stage 1

how to …practise grammar

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

In the light of your own experience learning a second or other language, doyou agree or disagree with these statements?

1 ‘Learning grammar is a waste of time if you don’t practise it’.

2 ‘Practice means repetition: if you don’t repeat things you’ll never learnthem.’

3 ‘The only practice that counts is putting the grammar to communicativeuse in real-life situations.’

4 ‘If you practise with other learners, you’ll pick up their mistakes.’

5 ‘The teacher can only do so much. Good learners make their ownopportunities for practice.’

• Classify these practice activities.• Rate them according to whatever criteria you feel are relevant.• Choose the ones you like and order them so that they make a

logical teaching sequence.

‘She used to live in Italy.’

1 The teacher hands out a worksheet with this exercise:

Read these two texts and answer the questions.

Jenny lived in Italy for two years and then she moved to France. Sheworked as an English teacher in Italy, and she does the same inFrance. She was married to an Italian, but now she is divorced. Sheplays tennis a lot, and she writes poetry.

Jamie has lived in Italy for five years now. Before that he lived inFrance. He worked as an English teacher in France. Now he’s awriter. He wrote poetry when he was young but now he writes travelbooks. His wife is a cook. In his free time Jamie goes sailing. Heplayed tennis in his youth, but now he says he’s too fat.

1 Who used to live in Italy?2 Who lives in Italy?3 Who used to live in France?4 Who lives in France?5 Who used to be an English teacher?

etc.

2 The teacher hands out a worksheet with the following exercise:

Re-write these sentences using used to:

For example: Jill lived in Italy but not any more.Jill used to live in Italy.

1 Jack smoked, but now he doesn’t.2 Tim taught English, but not any more.3 Martha was a vegetarian, but now she isn’t, etc.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to … practise grammar worksheet for stage 2

worksheet for stage 2

how to …practise grammar

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

3 The teacher says She used to live in Italy, and the class repeats it inchorus. Then individuals repeat it. Then the teacher says She used tosmoke, and the process is repeated. Then the teacher gives short prompts,such as ride a motorbike, like rock and roll, be a vegetarian, etc., andindividuals adapt the sentence accordingly.

4 The teacher writes Find someone who … on the board, and gives anexample: Find someone who used to have long hair. Working in pairs, thelearners make four more examples of their own. They then use theseexamples to conduct a class survey, by standing up and asking as manyother learners as possible the questions: Did you use to have long hair?They then collate and report their findings: Arturo and Isabel used to havelong hair, etc.

5 Learners write at least six sentences about themselves using used to. Fourof the sentences should be true; two should be false. In small groups,they take turns to read their sentences aloud. The others listen and try toguess which sentences are true and which are false.

6 The teacher hands out a worksheet with the following exercise:

Complete with used to or nothing:

I _____ live in Italy. I teach English in Rome. I _____ live in France,where I worked for a travel company. I didn’t _____ like Rome, but now I_____ like it a lot. I _____ have a lot of friends there now, etc.

7 The teacher plays a recording of the following sentences and learnershave to say whether they hear the word used pronounced as /ju:st/ or as/ju:zd/:

1 She used to live in Italy.2 They used a knife to open the door.3 Salt can be used to remove stains.4 Where did you use to work?5 Milk used to cost 50p.6 Pigeons were used to carry letters.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2005 how to… practise grammar worksheet for stage 2

worksheet for stage 2 continued

how to…practise grammar

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

stage 2

definition task

10–15 minutes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … help low level learners with pronunciation detailed plan 1

how to …help low level learners with pronunciation

detailed plan

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

stage procedure

stage 1

warmer

5–10 minutes

Cut worksheets A and B for stage 1 into individual cards, one card pertrainee, so that there are matching cards from both sets A and Bdistributed among the trainees. If there are more than 24 trainees,photocopy the worksheet and make as many extra cards as are required.Hand out the cards, asking trainees to keep them ‘secret’. Explain thatthey must memorize the sentence on the cards, stand up and minglewith other trainees, saying the sentence until they find someone whosesentence matches theirs. Only then can they show one another theircards, to confirm that they are the same. They can then continuemingling, in case there is a third or fourth person with the samesentence.

In order to dramatize the activity, you can explain that they are spies atan annual convention of spies, looking for a fellow spy by exchangingpasswords (the sentence on the card).

If you wanted to make the activity more challenging, tell the traineesthat they have to work the sentence into a conversation, in such a waythat it occurs naturally. Only by taking part in the conversation will theybe able to find out who their ‘secret contact’ is.

Briefly discuss with the group the purpose of this activity (e.g. whataspects of pronunciation does it target?), and what difficulties low levellearners might encounter doing it.

Hand out worksheet for stage 2. Ask trainees, working in pairs or smallgroups, first to work out what the terms that are written in phonemicscript say, and then to match the terms with their definitions.

Check the task in open class. Check any phonemic symbols that may causeproblems. Clarify any problems with terminology. Ask trainees to suggestwhich of these areas of pronunciation might be most problematic for lowlevel learners, giving reasons.

Note: for groups that are unfamiliar with phonemic symbols, see naturalEnglish intermediate teacher’s book chapter ‘how to … teach phonemicscript’ (pp. 168–171), for ideas on how to introduce and use these symbols.

Hand out worksheet for stage 3. Ask the trainees, working in pairs orsmall groups, to identify what aspect of pronunciation teaching each onetargets (by referring to their list from stage 2).

Solicit open class feedback.

Write the following list of grammar and vocabulary items on the board,or hand out worksheet for stage 4. Point out that the items are alltypical lower level syllabus items. Ask the trainees, working in groups of3 or 4, to predict the kinds of pronunciation problems that learners mighthave with each of these areas.

1 present continuous statements, e.g. Rafael is playing tennis.2 present simple questions, e.g. Where does she live? What do you do?3 clothing vocabulary, e.g. shirt, shorts, suit, shoes, jacket, coat, scarf, etc.4 ordinal numbers, i.e. first, second, third, fourth, etc.5 regular past tense verbs, e.g. walked, finished, started, lived, etc.6 polite requests with Can you…? e.g. Can you turn the music down,

please?

They should then think of techniques or strategies for dealing with thedifficulties. They can discuss this in their groups. (You can refer them toworksheet 3 for teaching ideas).

Note: to save time, distribute the six areas to different groups, e.g. twoper group.

Reorganize the trainees into new groups so that each new group containsat least one member of each of the original groups. They can thendescribe to one another the ideas that they came up with.

Choose a page or double spread from the natural English elementarystudent’s book that includes some listening and / or speaking activities.For example, pages 19–20, 25, 35–36, 39 and 42, 59–60. Different groupscould be given different extracts to look at.

Ask trainees to study the material, individually, before forming smallgroups. In their groups, they should discuss where additionalpronunciation work could usefully be incorporated into a sequence ofclassroom activities based on the material. For example, could anyrecordings be used to focus on a feature of spoken English? (Remindtrainees that the transcripts of the recordings may be found at the back ofthe natural English elementary student’s book).

Regroup the trainees (as in stage 4) so that they can report on their ideasto other trainees. Alternatively, conduct an open-class report backsession.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … help low level learners with pronunciation detailed plan 2

stage 3

identifying activity types

10–15 minutes

stage 4

application task

20–25 minutes

stage 5

extension activity

20–25 minutes

how to …help low level learners with pronunciation

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … help low level learners with pronunciation session overview

outline plan

stage timing interaction

1 warmer 5–10 mins mingling

2 definition task 10–15 mins pairs or small groups; open class discussion

3 identifying activity types 10–15 mins pairs / small groups; open class report

4 application task 20–25 mins small groups; reconstituted groups

5 extension activity 20–25 mins small groups; report

www.oup.com/elt/teacher/naturalenglish

aim to identify a range of techniques for dealing with features of pronunciation teaching for low levellearners

trainees will …

• define different aspects of pronunciation andmatch these with different exercise types

• devise approaches to dealing with pronunciationproblems associated with low level syllabus items

• identify opportunities for a focus on pronunciationin the use of coursebook material

materials

• photocopies of the worksheets for stages 1–4

• natural English elementary student’s book

• natural English elementary teacher’s bookpp.174–180

session overview

by Scott Thornbury

stage 1 warmer

The purpose of the warmer is to demonstrate an interactivepronunciation activity that works at the level of whole sentences, ratherthan simply at the level of individual sounds or words. In a sense, there isa communicative element to the activity, since students have to interactand to both speak and listen. However, it is obviously rather contrivedand unnatural. (Trainees could be asked to think of ways of making thesituation more ‘authentic’. One way is to use names of people that areonly minimally different, such as Bert Whicker and Bart Vicker, etc., andto assign learners each with one of these names. Then call the class‘register’ to see who answers ‘present’). It may in fact be the case that it isdifficult, if not impossible, to devise a truly communicative activitywhose success depends entirely on pronunciation. This fact is itselfsignificant, since it suggests that incorrect pronunciation on its own maynot be a cause of communicative breakdown, but that, in combinationwith other factors, it may contribute.

The feature of pronunciation that is targeted in this activity is principallythe area called ‘sounds in connected speech’, e.g. the way that sounds areclipped (elided) or merged (assimilated), especially final consonants (wonvs want, fourteen vs forty); the way that the placement of pauses betweenwords (juncture) contributes to intelligibility (four T-shirts vs forty shirts);as well as how differences in word stress affect meaning (FORty vsfourTEEN). Another feature also involved is the ‘minimal pair’ contrastbetween the vowel sounds in shorts and shirts.

stage 2 definition task

The answers to the task are:

1 (vowel phonemes) – H;

2 (consonant phonemes) – E;

3 (intonation) – B;

4 (rhythm) – F;

5 (word stress) – A;

6 (sentence stress) – G;

7 (sounds in connected speech) – D;

8 (sound–spelling) – C.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … help low level learners with pronunciation trainer’s notes 1

how to …help low level learners with pronunciation

trainer’s notes

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

In passing, check any of the phonemic symbols that may have causedtrainees problems in deciphering the words, and draw attention to thefrequency of occurrence of the unstressed weak vowel /@/ (called schwa),as in /kQns@n@nt/ and /k@nekt@d/, for example.

Areas that may cause problems for low level learners might be:

• the mismatch between the pronunciation of words and their spelling(sound–spelling), including the different ways of spelling particularphonemes, e.g. /u;/ as in too, blue, through, new, June;

• difficulty in distinguishing and producing the full range of Englishphonemes, particularly the vowel sounds, e.g. the difference betweencot, caught, cut, cat and cart;

• difficulty in interpreting connected speech, such as when sounds are‘swallowed’ because they are not stressed or they run together, as in‘wotcha gonna do?’

• difficulty in assigning correct stress in words, since there seems to belittle regularity in this area, e.g. necessary, important, comfortable,husband (often pronounced neCESSary, IMportant, comFORTable,husBAND, respectively).

stage 3 identifying activity types

The main focus of each activity is:

1 word stress: specifically in polysyllabic words, where stress varies fromword to word, although the general tendency is to place it on theantepenultimate (third-to-last) syllable, as in carpenter and journalist.The least frequent position is the last syllable, where only a fewsuffixes, such as –eer, –ee, –ine, –ette, and –esque attract the main stress.

2 sound–spelling relationships: in this case, the different ways of realisingthe /I;/ sound, as in meat, key, and ski, for example, as well as thespellings that sometimes realize this sound, and sometimes don’t (asea in meat, great, and bread).

3 sounds in connected speech: particularly the weak forms of words (suchas to and for) which are difficult to pick up, as well as contractions(they’ve), and liaisons (would you = /wUdZ@/).

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … help low level learners with pronunciation trainer’s notes 2

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … help low level learners with pronunciation trainer’s notes 3

4 consonant phonemes: specifically the two bilabial plosives /p/ and /b/. Thisexercise is the classic ‘minimal pair’ exercise type, where learners have todistinguish between two words that are only minimally differentiated. Forspeakers of some languages (such as Arabic), where the distinctionbetween /p/ and /b/ does not exist, this exercise would be useful ear-training.

5 sentence stress: specifically the use of what is sometimes called nuclear stress(i.e. the main stress in an utterance) to identify the new information, incontrast to the given information. So, in item 1, the correct answer is (a)Jack. What’s YOUR name?, since name is given, but what is new is the focuson the addressee, i.e. your.

6 vowel phonemes: specifically the two (possibly confusable) sounds /&/ and/eI/, as in Jan and Dave, respectively. Sentences with a high frequency of aparticular sound offer a useful way of practising the sound, even thoughthey are rather contrived. The same exercise also can be used to focus onsound–spelling relationships.

7 intonation: specifically the use of different pitch spans (e.g. narrow vsbroad) and keys (e.g. high vs low) to signal involvement (high vs low). Thisis sometimes called the attitudinal function of intonation, as opposed tointonation’s grammatical function, such as when intonation is used todistinguish between questions and statements, and its discoursal function,such as when intonation is used to identify new information as opposed toknown information.

8 rhythm: this is popularly known as a jazz chant, and is useful as a means ofpractising the rhythms of connected speech, including the use of weakforms, such as a, to, and the. Note that the chant consists of several examplesof formulaic language (also known as chunks), and their repeatedoccurrence in the chant may act as an aid to learning.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … help low level learners with pronunciation trainer’s notes 4

stage 4 application task

These are some possible difficulties that low level learners will encounterwith each of these areas, and activities that might target those problems:

possible difficulties activities

1 Rhythm – learners have a tendency to stress Focus on rhythm: drills (i.e. repetition ofpresent continuous auxiliary verbs, rather than contract them, sentences containing the structure, performedstatements or use weak forms: ‘Rafael IS playing tennis’; at a natural pace); jazz chants. Focus on /N/:

consonant sounds: the /N/ sound at the end minimal pairs contrast, e.g. sin / thin / win vsof the present participle (playing, going, etc) sing / thing / wing.may cause problems for some learners.

2 Rhythm, particularly the use of the weak Focus on rhythm: as above; also, asking learnerspresent simple forms of do and does. Assimilation also to identify main stress in sentences like Whatquestions occurs with do you /dZu;/ and don’t you do you do? Where do you live? etc. They can

/d@UntSu;/. also be asked to identify weak forms.

3 Vowel phonemes, particularly the difference Focus on vowel sounds: minimal pairs exercises;clothing vocabulary between /3;/ and /O;/, as in shirts / shorts, sentences with a high frequency of specific

but also the wide range of other vowels, and sounds, for repetition. Focus on word stress:their different spellings (e.g. suit, shoes). categorizing according to stress.Word stress may also cause problems in compound nouns, such as overcoat, pullover,and swim suit.

4 The main problem is the /T/ sound, at the end Focus on the /T/ sound: demonstration (tongueordinal numbers of regular ordinals (fourth, tenth, etc), between teeth); repetition in isolation and in

especially for learners whose first language words; minimal pairs exercises, e.g. contrastdoes not include this sound. Also problematic thing / sing, moth / moss, etc.might be consonant clusters, as when /T/

follows another consonant, as in eighth,twelfth, although, in reality, even native speakers elide (i.e. drop) the first consonant of the cluster.

5 The different pronunciations of the –ed Focus on /t/, /d/ and /Id/ endings:regular past tense suffix, i.e. /t/, /d/ and /Id/, as in walked, discrimination practice, e.g. listen andverbs lived, and started, respectively. This is less a categorize; prediction, e.g. which verbs take

problem, though, than the insertion of an which endings? ‘Tongue twisters’, i.e.extra vowel (and hence the addition of a sentences with a particular sound prominent,syllable) in words like walked (/wO;kId/) such as I walked to work, and worked a bit,which can create problems of intelligibility. and talked to the boss, and picked up the kids,

and cooked dinner.

6 Intonation might be a problem, since a Focus on rising intonation: listen to contrastivepolite requests with rising intonation is usually associated with requests, rising and falling, and identifyCan you …? requests, but learners may be disposed to use difference in attitude. Practise making

a falling one. Also, the weak form of can requests for different situations, ranging from (/k@n/) may cause problems both in informal / friendly, to formal / distant.production and understanding.

stage 5 extension activity

Possible focuses for additional pronunciation work might be:

• pages 19–20: weak form of can in ‘lead-in’, which in turn contributesto the rhythm of the requests; intonation contour of requests;sentence stress in this / these questions, and linking between finalconsonant sounds and initial vowel sounds in the ‘listen to this: tunein’ sentences, followed by underlining of more examples of linking intapescript 2.10.

• page 25: focus on present simple questions, including the weak formsof do, and the liaison of do and you; sentence stress, e.g. use thetapescript to predict the main stress in the questions, and then listento check; contrast work and walk.

• pages 35–36: sound / spelling relationships in the vocabulary, e.g. –ersuffix pronounced as /@/ (mother, father, sister, another, together, etc);linking: ‘auntnuncle’, ‘brothernsister’; use of intonation to breakutterances into tone groups, especially in a list, and use of fallingintonation to signal end of ‘list’: I’ve got two brothers | and a sister. Thereis a good example in tapescript 4.6: I’ve got a twin sister, Carole, and I’vegot another sister Susie, she’s 25, and then there’s my brother, Michael. He’smarried, he’s actually 34, and he’s got two children, Lucy and Mark. Oneapproach might be to play the tape, stopping after each phrase, to asklearners ‘Has she finished yet?’ Learners can then practise thecomplete utterance using appropriate pausing and intonation.

• pages 39 and 42: focus on vowel (and consonant) sounds in thecontext of the ‘food’ vocabulary, especially consonant clusters andfinal consonants (a problem for speakers of many Asian languages, forexample), as in breakfast, bread, toast, cornflakes, cake, and sandwich.Word stress in polysyllabic words: comfortable, expensive, excellent,sandwiches, strawberry, etc.

• pages 59–60: contractions and weak forms, especially in sentences with pronouns (What’s he like?), e.g. use tape 7.6: play each lineindividually and ask learners to count the number of words in eachone (contractions count as two words; ignore hesitation devices suchas er). Stress in questions: What was she LIKE? When did you last SEE her?E.g. use tapescript 7.8 to predict the stress in each question, and thenlisten to check. Also, liaison: ‘Whadishe’ teach? ‘Whendizhoo’ last ...?

As a follow-up (or a pre-session) reading task, you might want to refertrainees to the teacher development chapter ‘how to … help low levelstudents with pronunciation’ on p.174 of the natural Englishelementary teacher’s book.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … help low level learners with pronunciation trainer’s notes 5

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … help low level learners with pronunciation worksheet for stage 1

worksheet for stage 1

how to …help low level learners with pronunciation

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

worksheet A

I want four T-shirts.

I won fourteen shirts.

I won fourteen shorts.

I won forty shirts.

I want forty shirts.

I want forty shorts.

I want fourteen shirts.

I won forty shorts.

I went for T-shirts.

I won four T-shirts.

I want fourteen shorts.

I want four teachers.

worksheet B

I want four T-shirts.

I won fourteen shirts.

I won fourteen shorts.

I won forty shirts.

I want forty shirts.

I want forty shorts.

I want fourteen shirts.

I won forty shorts.

I went for T-shirts.

I won four T-shirts.

I want fourteen shorts.

I want four teachers.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … help low level learners with pronunciation worksheet for stage 2

worksheet for stage 2

how to…help low level learners with pronunciation

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

1 Can you decipher these terms?

1 /vaU@l f@UnI;mz/

2 /kQns@n@nt f@UnI;mz/

3 /Int@neIS@n/

4 /rID@m/

5 /w3;d stres/

6 /sent@ns stres/

7 /saUndz In k@nekt@d spI;tS/

8 /saUnd - spelIN/

2 Match the above terms with their definition below:

A giving prominence to a particular syllable in a word

B the meaningful use of changes in pitch

C the relationship between the spoken and written forms of words

D the effect on individual sounds of the process of speech production

E meaningful sounds that are produced by obstructing the air flow insome way

F the occurrence of prominent words or syllables at regular intervals

G giving prominence to a particular word in a sentence

H meaningful sounds that are produced by shaping the unobstructed airflow with the tongue and lips

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … help low level learners with pronunciation worksheet for stage 3

worksheet for stage 3

how to…help low level learners with pronunciation

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Here are some typical classroom activities for working on pronunciation.What area of pronunciation teaching does each one target?

1 Listen to these words and put them into three groups:

Ooo oOo ooO

Now, ask your classmate questions about the words:

What’s a mechanic?~ A mechanic is a person who repairs cars.

Tapescript:mechanic accountant engineer carpenterarchitect employee professor technicianeditor assistant journalist reporter

2 Read these pairs of sentences. Do they rhyme?a I don’t like fish and I don’t like meat.

But a bowl of salad is really great.b I’d like to invite you to my place for tea.

Just ring on the bell and I’ll throw down the key.c In summer she swims and in winter she skis.

And she wins every race whenever she tries. d I’m going to the shops – what do we need?

A pound of butter and a loaf of bread.

Now, listen to the recording and check.

3 Listen to the sentences and count the words in each sentence.(Contractions, such as don’t, count as one word).

Tapescript:a I have to do my homework tonight.b What would you like to eat?c They’ve been married for four years.d I think it’s going to rain.

4 Listen to these words. Tick the one that you hear:a bear pearb bark parkc cab capd bin pine stable staple

Now, practise saying the words.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … help low level learners with pronunciation worksheet for stage 3

worksheet for stage 3 continued

5 Read these sentences and choose the best response:

1 Hello. What’s your name?a Jack. What’s YOUR name?b Jack. What’s your NAME?

2 What do you do?a I’m a student. What do you DO?b I’m a student. What do YOU do?

3 Is this your first time in London?a No, I’ve been to LONDON before.b No, I’ve been to London BEFORE.

Now, listen to the recording and check your answers.

6 Listen to these sentences and then practise saying them:a Jan has a black hand bag.b Dave made a cake at Jane’s place.c Can Dad carry the back pack?d The train was late so we ate at eight.

7 Say ‘Hi!’ for each of these situations:a You meet your classmate at the beginning of the lesson. You saw each

other yesterday.b You meet a good friend in the street, who you haven’t seen for six months.c You are shopping and you want to attract the attention of the shop

assistant.d You meet a friend who borrowed one of your favourite CDs, and then

lost it.e By chance, you meet a colleague from work at the cinema at the

weekend.

8 Listen to the chant and repeat each line.

A funny thing happened. What happened?A funny thing happened to Lee.It’s funny how funny things happen.The same thing happened to me.

An awful thing happened. What happened?An awful thing happened to Kim.It’s awful how awful things happen.The same thing happened to Jim.

Now, in pairs, take turns reading each line.

Make new verses using these words:scary … Mac … Jackcreepy … Jan … Anncrazy … Bill … Jill

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2006 how to … help low level learners with pronunciation worksheet for stage 4

worksheet for stage 4

how to…help low level learners with pronunciation

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

1 Here are some syllabus items that are commonly taught to beginners andelementary learners. Can you predict any difficulties with pronunciationthat learners might encounter with each of them?

1 present continuous statements, e.g. Rafael is playing tennis.

2 present simple questions, e.g. Where does she live? What do you do?

3 clothing vocabulary, e.g. shirt, shorts, suit, shoes, jacket, coat, scarf, etc.

4 ordinal numbers, i.e. first, second, third, fourth, etc.

5 regular past tense verbs, e.g. walked, finished, started, lived, etc.

6 polite requests with Can you…?,e.g. Can you turn the music down, please?

2 Suggest strategies or techniques that the teacher could adopt in order to deal with these difficulties. (Look back at worksheet for stage 3for ideas).

how to …do free speaking

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … do free speaking detailed plan 1

detailed plan

stage 1

warmer

10–15 minutes

stage 2

simulation task

5 minutes

Hand out worksheet for stage 1 and ask the trainees, working in smallgroups, to decide what advice they would give each teacher. They shouldthen report back to the class.

Alternatively, cut up the ‘teacher statements’ and give one each to eightof the trainees in the session. Ask each of these trainees to read theirstatement aloud. After each statement, solicit opinions from the group asto what advice they would give this particular ‘teacher’. (If there arefewer than eight participants, limit the number of statements youdistribute.)

Explain to the trainees that they are going to take the role of students inorder to do a free speaking activity. The activity is called ‘Obsessions’ andinvolves having a conversation with two or more other people, duringwhich each speaker tries to turn the conversation towards theirparticular obsession.

Below is a list of possible obsessions. Each of these should be writtenonto a card – as many cards as there are trainees. It doesn’t matter ifsome of the obsessions are repeated, so long as within each group theobsessions are all different.

Divide the class into groups of three or four. Hand out the cards – one toeach person – and ask them to keep their obsessions secret for the timebeing.

At a given signal from you, they can start their conversations (the activityworks best if the ‘students’ are standing up, as if at a social function).

keeping fit

your baby

football

buying a flat

the royal family

a TV game show

astrology

the Oscars

putting on weight

a holiday you have just had

the cost of living

your neighbours

cars

the Internet

your pet dog / cat / turtle, etc.

your job

stage procedure

stage 3

post-activity discussion

10 minutes

stage 4

evaluation task

20 minutes

Allow about five minutes, i.e. sufficient time to experience the activity,but not to over-prolong it at the expense of the discussion task thatfollows.

Generate an open class discussion about the previous activity.Alternatively, first put the trainees into small groups, before opening outto a broader discussion.

Use some or all of these questions as a basis for the discussion (you coulddictate them, or write them on the board if you wish):

• Was the activity language-rich?

For example, did you say a lot?

Was there a variety of language used?

Would students be able to produce a lot of language, do you think?

• How much involvement did it generate?

Did everyone contribute more or less equally, and was everyoneengaged in the activity even if they were not always speaking?

• Was there a clear outcome to the activity – did it have a pre-established goal?

• Was the activity challenging, but without being too difficult?

Were you ‘pushed’ to work hard?

• To do the task, did you have sufficient support? Would it have helped(if you were a student) to have had some preparation time orlanguage input?

The above questions highlight some of the criteria for assessing a freespeaking activity. Summarize the criteria on the board under thefollowing headings, as they come up in discussion:

Is the speaking activity …

• language-rich?

• involving?

• goal-oriented?

• challenging?

• supported?

Hand out copies of worksheet for stage 4, and direct attention to thefive generic free speaking activities – a role play, a guessing game, aproblem solving activity, a narrative, and a presentation.

The object of the task is to characterize each activity in terms of thecriteria discussed in stage 3.

Organize the trainees into small groups, and to each group assign one ortwo activities, which they should evaluate, filling in the relevant row(s)of the grid in worksheet for stage 4.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … do free speaking detailed plan 2

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … do free speaking detailed plan 3

stage 5

adaptation task

20 minutes

stage 6

extension activity

20 minutes

It may be a good idea to demonstrate the task by reference to the‘Obsessions’ activity first, before the trainees break into smaller groups.

At the end, group ‘leaders’ report their opinions to the class, and justifythem. Allow time for discussion, especially where group opinions differ.

The groups will now work on ways of improving the activities so thatthey meet all or most of the criteria they have been applying.

To do this, assign one activity to each group – preferably an activity thatthe group found to be deficient in at least one way. (Alternatively, groupscould be allowed to choose the activity they wish to adapt.)

Use the example of ‘Obsessions’ to demonstrate the task. For example,with regard to the criterion Is the activity supported?, ‘Obsessions’ was notsupported, in that there was no prior teaching of useful turn-takingstrategies, such as the use of conversational routines like That remindsme …, Speaking of which …, Funny you should mention that …, etc.These routines could have been pre-taught, and written on the board soas to be available during the activity. Another form of support might havebeen to demonstrate the activity with one other student first, or to haveallowed time for students to consult dictionaries in search of usefulvocabulary related to their assigned topic.

Allow time for group ‘leaders’ to report on the way their group hasrestructured the activity. Alternatively, redistribute the members of eachgroup so that new groups are formed, consisting of one member of eachof the original groups, so that they can exchange their ideas.

Divide the class into pairs or small groups and direct attention to thePairwork pages in the natural English intermediate student’s book,pp.144–148.Ask trainees to look at any one of the following role play cards:

• two (pp.144 and 146)

• five (pp.144 and 148)

• ten (pp.145 and 147)

• twelve (pp.145 and 147)

Trainees should draw up a staged sequence of activities that wouldprepare learners for the selected role play. Emphasize the need forsupport-providing tasks, and clear outcomes.

Note: You could refer trainees to the section 3 How can you help to makeactivities successful? (especially the sub-section c build in time for thinking,planning, and rehearsal) on pp.164–165 of the natural Englishintermediate teacher’s book.

After the trainees have drawn up their staged sequence of activities, theythen compare their sequence with the actual sequence in the naturalEnglish intermediate student’s book. The relevant sequences can be

found on the following pages of the natural English intermediatestudent’s book:

• role play two – see pp.30–31

• role play five – see pp.64–65

• role play ten – see pp.120–121

• role play twelve – see pp.140–141

The trainees should be prepared to comment, in an open class discussion,on both the similarities and differences between their sequences andthose in the coursebook.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … do free speaking detailed plan 4

how to …do free speaking

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … do free speaking session overview

outline plan

stage timing interaction

1 warmer – discussion 10–15 minutes pairs / small groups; open class discussion

2 simulation task 5 minutes small groups

3 post-activity discussion 10 minutes open class discussion

4 evaluation task 20 minutes pairs / small groups; open class discussion

5 adaptation task 20 minutes pairs / small groups; open class check

6 extension activity 20 minutes pairs / small groups; open class commentary

www.oup.com/elt/teacher/naturalenglish

aim to investigate and apply criteria for assessing free speaking activities

trainees will …

• experience a speaking activity

• derive criteria for assessing such activities

• apply these criteria to a range of speaking activities

• adapt speaking activities to meet these criteria

materials

• natural English intermediate student’s book

• natural English intermediate teacher’s book,pp.164–165

• photocopies of worksheets for stages 1 and 4

• cards – for stage 2 ‘Obsessions’ activity

session overview

by Scott Thornbury

how to …do free speaking

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

stage 1 warmer

These are some issues that might come up in the discussion, or that youcould introduce into it:

The general rule is to avoid correction where this would either inhibitlearners or break the flow of the activity. Instead, take notes of errorsthat come up, and then provide feedback after the activity. However,sometimes it is more memorable and more helpful if you provide on-the-spot correction, so long as this can be done unobtrusively.

Sometimes learners simply have to get things off their chest, but it isimportant to emphasize the value of trying to restrict their use of theirmother tongue in free speaking activities.

Conspicuous teacher monitoring of pair and group work may help.Asking learners to repeat the activity, but this time in English only, isanother possibility. Sometimes the fact that they are speaking in theirmother tongue may indicate that they haven’t had sufficient support – inthe form of language preparation, for example, or of planning time.

Assigning each group member a specific role or task may help. Forexample, one member could be given the task of having to summarizethe group’s discussion.

Keeping the size of groups small – even as few as two – may also be agood idea, until learners gain the confidence to participate in largergroups. Organizing the groups so that the most forthcoming students areall in the same group may sometimes help.

Unless the class is very big, an open class discussion, in which you candraw out the less forthcoming students, may work better than closedgroup work.

This may be due to lack of sufficient planning and / or rehearsal time:give learners time to prepare what they might want to say by, forexample, brainstorming topic-related vocabulary in advance or listingpoints they want to make. Repeating a pair-work speaking task, but withanother student, often produces richer output.

If the activity finishes abruptly, it may have something to do with thetask design: is there an element of conflict built into the task that willrequire negotiation?

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … do free speaking trainer’s notes 1

trainer’s notes

1 ‘I never know whether to correctthe students when they makemistakes in free speakingactivities.’

2 ‘Discussion topics should beinteresting but if it’s toointeresting they start speaking intheir mother tongue – I don’t knowhow to control it!’

3 ‘Whenever I put the students intogroups to talk, it ends up that it’sjust one or two students doing allthe talking, and the others are justlistening.’

4 ‘I try to do free speakingactivities, but at intermediatelevel the students quickly run outof things to say.’

Running out of steam may also be due to the fact that the task has noclear outcome, or because the learners don’t find the topic relevant ormotivating.

Setting the ‘audience’ some task, such as to think of five questions theywould like to ask the speaker, may help. Also, if they know in advancethat they may be asked to make a short summary (either spoken orwritten) of what the speaker said, they may be more motivated to payattention. The speakers could also help make the listeners’ task easier, by,for example, providing a brief outline in advance of what they plan to say.

It may help if you let the students choose the topics, for example from alist. Alternatively, ask everyone to come to the lesson prepared to talkabout something they have read, or seen, or that has happened to them,and make this the first activity of every lesson.

Also, be alert to occasions when interesting topics arise naturally in thelesson, and use these to generate a discussion, even if it means(temporarily) abandoning your planned lesson.

This is hardly surprising since, in free speaking activities, it is verydifficult to allocate attention to both the demands of the task and tolanguage-related issues, especially to language that learners have onlyrecently encountered. Putting key expressions on the board, so that theydo not have to be retrieved from memory, may help. You can rub theseoff progressively as students start to incorporate them. You could alsoallocate points or some other ‘reward’, each time a recently taught itemis used, although this may have a negative affect on fluency.

As was pointed out above, allocating attention to form in fluency-oriented tasks is difficult, given the demands of real-time speaking andlistening. Moreover, making mistakes is an inevitable part of languageacquisition, and evidence suggests that few, if any, of the mistakes thatoccur in pair or group work activities become entrenched, or transfer toother learners.

Take note of the more serious errors (e.g. those that impedecommunication), and allow a few minutes at the end of the activity toprovide feedback. But, for many students, the experience ofcommunicating in English may be sufficiently motivating to justify doingfluency activities, irrespective of the errors that they make.

No commentary.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … do free speaking trainer’s notes 2

stage 2 simulation task

5 ‘I think it’s important for thestudents to do presentations tothe rest of the class, but the otherstudents never listen.’

6 ‘I give the class topics to discuss,but they never have any opinionsabout them.’

7 ‘I usually do free speaking afterpresenting and practising somegrammar, but the students neveruse the grammar in the speakingactivity!’

8 ‘The students like doing freespeaking activities, but they makeso many mistakes that I don’tthink it’s a good idea.’

• Was the activity language-rich? For example, did you say a lot?Was there a variety of languageused? Would students be able toproduce a lot of language, do youthink?

• How involving was it? Dideveryone contribute more or lessequally, and was everyone engagedin the activity even if they werenot always speaking?

• Was there a clear outcome to theactivity – did it have a pre-established goal?

• Was the activity challenging –without being too difficult? Wereyou ‘pushed’ to work hard?

• To do the task, did you havesufficient support? Would it havehelped (if you were a student) tohave had some preparation time orlanguage input?

Apart from the choice of topic, there are no overt constraints on thelanguage students might use. In other words they can say anything theylike, so long as it is relevant to their topic. Of course, ideally they shouldalso try to make their contributions at least minimally relevant to theother speakers’ contributions.

It may be the case that (as in real-life conversations!) some speakersdominate at the expense of others. The important thing, though, is thatthe activity should require a high degree of engagement – i.e. throughlistening – even if the turn-taking is not evenly distributed.

The only goal was that participants try to introduce their topic as often aspossible. Speaking as much as possible thus becomes the goal. This couldperhaps be formalized, e.g. with the addition of ‘observers’ who countthe number of times each topic is introduced, but this might detract fromthe enjoyment of the activity.

Further task demands could be built in, such as the goal of being the onlyone who is speaking when the ‘whistle’ goes – at the end of ten minutes,for example. Or the speaker who ‘wins’ could be the one who succeedsin getting the other speakers to talk about his or her ‘obsession’ too.

Even for proficient speakers, this activity is quite difficult, since itrequires rapid ‘online’ processing and a degree of ingenuity in order towrest the topic away from other speakers. For learners, these difficultiesshould not be underestimated.

Given the degree of challenge just mentioned, some form of preparationand language support for learners would be essential – for example byproviding them with some useful turn-taking and topic initiatingexpressions, such as That reminds me…, or giving them the chance toconsult a dictionary in advance in order to gather vocabulary about theirassigned topic.

(Note that, in natural English, the ‘natural English’ boxes and theextended speaking ‘learn for later’ boxes help to prepare the students forthe end-of-unit extended speaking activity by feeding in these kinds oftransactional items.)

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … do free speaking trainer’s notes 3

stage 3 post-activity discussion

The following points could be made about the ‘Obsessions’ activity:

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … do free speaking trainer’s notes 4

stage 4 evaluation task

The following points should come up:

1role play

2guessing game

3narrative

4problemsolving

5presentation

language-rich? involving? goal-oriented? challenging? supported?

Potentially, e.g. language ofopinion, modality.

Not necessarily –students could sitback and let othersdo the work.

Yes – to decide thebest holiday, and toreport and justifythe decision‘publicly’.

Reading the textadds an extraelement ofchallenge, as doesreporting the groupdecision.

No supportprovided.

Potentially, but only if moreinvolving and goal-directed.

Everyone presents,but there is noincentive to listenor to interact.

No explicit goal or outcome.

It’s alwayschallenging tospeak ‘publicly’,even withpreparation.

Unsupported, although there isconsiderablepreparation time.

Potentially, yes, butneeds clearer goalsto stimulateoutput.

They each taketurns, but, withouta clear goal, somestudents might notsay much; also,there is noincentive to listen.

No explicit purposeor outcome.

If the goals weremore clearlydefined, yes.

Not at all.

Somewhatrestricted, (e.g. to Yes and No forone participant),although a lot ofvocabulary could be generated.Telling the ‘history’of the object haspotential, though.

Students have to listen to eachother, and, if theytake turns, getequal involvementopportunities.

Yes – the guessinggame has a cleargoal, but theredoesn’t seem anypoint to the‘informationquestions’.

For lower levellearners this couldbe challenging,even frustrating,given the need forpossibly obscurevocabulary.

Some questionsprovided, but novocabulary support– and nodemonstration.

Potentially, butonly if the taskbecomes moreinvolving and goal-oriented.

Insufficiently: there is no clearrole for eitherparent, forexample.

The outcome is notclearly defined, andthe role play mayfinish rapidly.

Potentially, if othercriteria are met.

Only student C’s needs aresupported, and even then,minimally.

1role play

Provide conflicting roles forparents, e.g. A always supports C;B always refuses C’s requests.

Set as a goal that some decisionmust be reached which satisfies allparties.

Provide language support for A andB; allow As, Bs, and Cs fromdifferent groups to work together,initially, to plan.

2guessing game

Set goal of recounting to class thehistory of partner’s object.

Provide more examples ofquestions, plus vocabulary input. Also, the teacher coulddemonstrate the activity herself.

3narrative

Assign a task for listeners e.g.establish that students’ storiesmay be true or false: listeners haveto decided if the story is true ornot by asking questions.

Set a communicative goal – e.g.speakers don’t say which adjectivethey have chosen (embarrassing,funny, etc.) – they tell their storyand others have to guess theadjective.

Students could listen to a model narrative (the teacher’s, for example), features of whichcould then be highlighted.

4problem solving

Each learner could argue the casefor a different destination, or theycould role-play the differentcharacters.

Provide language of makingsuggestions; listen to recording ofproficient speakers doing the sametask.

5presentation

Listeners could be asked to preparequestions while listening.

One goal could be to try andpersuade the rest of the class totake up this pastime, or have somekind of vote.

Listening, with transcript, to aproficient speaker doing a similartask, followed by highlighting ofuseful presentation language.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … do free speaking trainer’s notes 5

ways of making it ways of making it ways of providingmore involving more goal-oriented more support

stage 5 adaptation task

The weaknesses of all five tasks tend to be in the area of involvement, goal-orientation, and support. Improvements in these areas would enrich the language output and increase the degree of challenge. Suggestions for ways the tasks could be improved include the following:

stage 6 extension activity

The idea here is not to produce a lesson sequence that exactly reflects thecoursebook sequence, but simply to appreciate the decision-makingprocesses that underlie the design of effective speaking tasks. In otherwords, there is no one correct ‘answer’ to this task. But, by working‘backwards’ from the final task, and planning a range of support stages,trainees should be in a better position not only to use coursebookmaterial effectively, but also to design their own speaking activities.

how to …do free speaking

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … do free speaking worksheet for stage 1

worksheet for stage …

Read these teacher statements. What advice would you giveeach teacher?

worksheet for stage 1

1 ‘I never know whether to correct thestudents when they make mistakes infree speaking activities.’

2 ‘Discussion topics should be interestingbut if it’s too interesting they startspeaking in their mother tongue – I don’t know how to control it!’

3 ‘Whenever I put the students intogroups to talk, it ends up that it’s justone or two students doing all thetalking, and the others are just listening.’

4 ‘I try to do free speaking activities, but at intermediate level the studentsquickly run out of things to say.’

5 ‘I think it’s important for the studentsto do presentations to the rest of theclass, but the other students neverlisten.’

6 ‘I give the class topics to discuss, but they never have any opinions about them.’

7 ‘I usually do free speaking afterpresenting and practising somegrammar, but the students never usethe grammar in the speaking activity!’

8 ‘The students like doing free speaking activities, but they make so many mistakes that I don’t think it’s a good idea.’

how to …do free speaking

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … do free speaking worksheet for stage 4

worksheet for stage …worksheet for stage 4

activity 1 role play

Teacher: ‘OK, students A and B: you are the parents of student C.Student C: you are the teenage son / daughter of A and B. You have a bigfavour you want to ask them – for example to get a tattoo, to leaveschool or home, to buy a motorbike, or to invite your girlfriend orboyfriend to move in. Think of what your favour is, and then go and askyour parents’ permission. Here are some useful expressions you coulduse …’

Teacher writes on board:

There’s something I wanted to ask you …This may come as a shock, but …Remember how I said I’d like to …?

‘OK, into groups of three. You have about ten minutes.’

activity 2 guessing game

Teacher: ‘In pairs, take turns to think of something you have in the roomwith you – something that you are wearing or carrying in your bag orwallet. Your partner has to guess what it is by asking ‘yes / no’ questions,for example Is it made of plastic? Can you write with it?. When you haveguessed, you can ask some information questions about the object, likeWhere did you get it? How long have you had it? and so on …’

Evaluate the speaking activities below according to the following criteria (and use the table that follows to record your group’s evaluation of the activities):

• How language-rich is it? For example, would it generate a lot of talk, of a wide variety, among lots oflearners, over an extended period of time?

• How involving is it? Does it allow equal opportunity to contribute, as well as opportunities for speakersto interact with one another?

• How goal-oriented is it? Does it have a clear outcome? Would students know why they were doing theactivity, and where it was leading?

• How much challenge is there? Will learners be pushed to the limits of their language ability?

• How much support is there? Given the challenge, how much preparation and help would the students need, inthe form of pre-teaching, planning time, rehearsal time, etc.?

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … do free speaking worksheet for stage 4

worksheet for stage 4 continued

activity 3 narrative

Teacher: ‘In groups of three or four, take turns to tell each other a storyabout yourself, beginning with one of these expressions …’

Teacher writes on board:

The most embarrassing

The funniest

The weirdest

The most wonderful

The most frustrating

The most unexpected

activity 4 problem solving

Teacher: ‘Read this extract from a letter, and in groups decide what thebest holiday for this family would be. Be prepared to report yourdecision, and your reasons, to the rest of the class.’

that has ever happened to me was…

thing

We’re taking our holidays in August this year but we can’t decide

where to go. Mum wants a relaxing holiday – sun and beach – but Dad

doesn’t want to go anywhere on the Mediterranean because it’s so

crowded in summer, and anyway, he gets bored on the beach. James

and his fiancée Janice are happy anywhere, so long as they can go

shopping, although Janice has developed a fear of flying, which

complicates things. Emma is seventeen now so she wants

somewhere with masses of nightlife. Ben’s into adventure sports. I

prefer museums and sightseeing myself. And we all want to go

somewhere new – which means it can’t be France, Spain, Greece, or

Tunisia. So you can see the problem. Maybe we should stay here in

Birmingham!

activity 5 presentation

Teacher: ‘For next lesson, I want you each to prepare a short talk – aboutfive minutes – about a hobby or pastime you enjoy. You can make notes,but I don’t want you to just read your notes aloud. You can also bringpictures, or photos, or real objects, if you like.’

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2003 how to … do free speaking worksheet for stage 4

worksheet for stage 4 continued

Use the table below to record your group’s evaluation of the five speaking tasks.

1role play

2guessing game

3narrative

4problemsolving

5presentation

language-rich? involving? goal-oriented? challenging? supported?

stage 2

reading and ranking task

15–20 minutes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … teach reading detailed plan 1

how to …teach reading

detailed plan

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

stage procedure

stage 1

warmer

5–10 minutes

Write the following sentence-starter on the board and, after giving anexample, ask the trainees – working individually and then comparing inpairs – to think of a way (or ways) of completing it:

Understanding a text is a process of …

Solicit some completed sentences from individuals and ask the class ifthey agree or disagree, giving reasons.

Initiate a brief discussion as to why understanding texts that are used inclass is important.

Photocopy and distribute the four texts on worksheet for stage 2. Askthe trainees to read the texts silently, and decide which – from the pointof view of an upper-intermediate learner – would be the most difficult tounderstand, and which the least difficult. They could also rank the tworemaining texts in order of difficulty, so as to produce a ranking frommost to least difficult for all four texts.

Note: Less experienced teachers may find this task quite challenging, andmight struggle to come up with more than one or two reasons for textsbeing ‘difficult’. In this case, you could either (a) go through the first text(Dear Belinda …) in open class, or (b) supply them with lists of ‘top-down’and ‘bottom-up’ factors (see below), either before they start the task orpart of the way through it. They could then simply match the listedfactors to the texts.

In pairs / small groups, they compare their responses, giving reasons, andthen report to the whole group.

Note: Because of local distractions, it is often difficult to focus on a text bysilently reading it in class (a fact which in itself has interesting teachingimplications). If possible, it would be a good idea to hand out the texts –and the task – in advance of the session, and use stage 2 as anopportunity for (a) feedback on the task and (b) open class discussion.

Summarize the factors that affect the degree of difficulty of a text bywriting on the board (or making a handout of) the following points:

stage 3

brainstorming task

10–15 minutes

Factors that influence text difficulty

‘Top-down’ factors

• topic familiarity, including background knowledge

• context familiarity

• cognitive complexity, e.g. density of information

• visual support – pictures, diagrams, etc.

• text length

• layout and signposting

• organization of text

• internal cohesion, e.g. linking of sentences

‘Bottom-up’ factors

• sentence length and complexity

• grammatical familiarity

• lexical familiarity and idiomaticity

Organize the class into small groups and set them the following task:

Brainstorm ways to overcome text difficulties in order to help learnersunderstand a text. Refer to the list of ‘Factors that affect text difficulty’(see stage 2). For example, if a text is very long, you can segment it anddeal with one segment at a time.

Allow time for open class feedback. Summarize by handing outworksheet for stage 3 and going through the points it makes in openclass.

In the same small groups, the trainees should now apply the principlesoutlined in worksheet for stage 3 to texts 1–4 in worksheet for stage 2.

That is, they should brainstorm ways that the teacher could help toreduce the difficulty of each text, and thereby make it easier tounderstand. These should be divided into ways the teacher intervenes:

• at the text stage – e.g. adapting or simplifying the text

• at the task design stage – e.g. pre-teaching vocabulary

Allow time afterwards for open class discussion of ideas. If time is short,specific groups can be assigned specific texts.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … teach reading detailed plan 2

stage 4

application task

10–15 minutes

Divide the class into small groups, and assign each group one of these readon texts from the natural English upper-intermediate student’s book:

Disco with Dad … why not? p.35Excuse me, is it day or night? pp.62–63Training / Understanding the territory p.71Single white female p.95Let’s make marriage more attractive p.107

Ask the groups to:

a identify any features of the text that might be difficult for learners atthis level, and classify these features (e.g. lexical, grammatical, etc.);plus, think of how they could reduce the difficulty (you could referthem back to the list of ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ factors mentionedin stage 2).

b identify any language that they would pre-teach.

c identify any visual and / or lay-out features that they could exploit toaid understanding. How would they exploit them?

d identify any existing tasks designed to activate backgroundknowledge. What other tasks could they add?

Allow time for groups to report to the class. Or, alternatively, re-groupthe class so that each new group includes members of all the originalgroups; each trainee then takes turns to report his or her original group’sideas.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … teach reading detailed plan 3

stage 5

extension activity

20–25 minutes

how to …teach reading

A heading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … teach reading session overview

outline plan

stage timing interaction

1 warmer 5–10 minutes individuals; pairs; open class

2 reading and ranking task 15–20 minutes individuals; pairs / small groups; open class report

3 brainstorming task 10–15 minutes small groups; open class report

4 application task 10–15 minutes pairs / small groups; open class report

5 extension activity 20–25 minutes pairs / small groups; report

www.oup.com/elt/teacher/naturalenglish

aim to raise awareness as to what makes texts difficultto develop procedures for helping learners understand difficult texts

trainees will …

• read a selection of texts and rate them for difficulty

• develop and apply criteria for assessing textdifficulty

• develop and apply procedures for reducing textdifficulty

• apply these criteria to coursebook texts

materials

• natural English upper-intermediate student’sbook

• photocopies of worksheets for stages 2 and 3

• natural English upper-intermediate teacher’sbook pp.167–173

session overview

by Scott Thornbury

stage 1 warmer

The trainees may suggest sentence completions such as:

Understanding a text is a process of…

… getting the main ideas.… getting the intended message. … recognizing individual words.… having your questions answered.… activating background knowledge.… remembering the key details.etc.

Take this opportunity to point out that there are at least three theories asto how text understanding occurs:

1 the ‘bottom-up’ theory: the reader ‘decodes’ the smallest units(letters, then words, then phrases, then sentences), building up acumulative understanding from the bottom up.

2 the ‘top-down’ theory: readers bring their own knowledge,experience of other texts, expectations, questions, etc., to the text, andtry to match the text to this knowledge base, paying attention to thenew or unexpected.

3 the interactive theory: the reader uses both ‘top-down’ and‘bottom-up’ processes when constructing an understanding of thetext, moving from one level to another when difficulties at either levelare encountered. For example, if a word is unfamiliar, the readermight call on his or her knowledge of the context to make sense of it;if a concept is strange or difficult, the reader might unpack themeanings of individual words, one by one, to make sense of thedifficulty.

(For more on the skills involved in reading, trainees can be directed topp.167–168 of the natural English upper-intermediate teacher’s book,especially section 2: Key skills in reading.)

Reasons why understanding a text is important include:

• Understanding is a prerequisite for post-reading language study:focusing on grammar or vocabulary in the text is going to be lesseffective if learners have only a hazy idea of what the text is about.

• Understanding a text – in the sense of having no more mentalquestions about it left unanswered – is very satisfying, and can behugely motivating.

• By the same token, not understanding a text, especially if everyoneelse seems to, can be hugely demotivating.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … teach reading trainer’s notes 1

how to …teach reading

trainer’s notes

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

• Some theorists argue that comprehension is a necessary – evensufficient – condition for language acquisition.

stage 2 reading and ranking task

All four texts present degrees of difficulty, and the relative degree ofdifficulty will depend to a large extent on the individual learner, so thereis no one ‘right’ answer to this task. The important thing is that thetrainees use the exercise to develop criteria that can be used to assess textdifficulty, and to calibrate this accordingly, in relation to the choice andadaptation of texts and in the design of reading tasks.

The kinds of difficulty specific to each text include the following:

text 1

The text-type will be familiar to most learners, and their expectation thatthe text will recount a personal problem will be quickly confirmed.

The linguistic load is not high – most of the vocabulary will be familiar tolearners, or can easily be worked out from context, e.g. devastated, out ofthe blue, jumped at the chance. Grammatically the text is not beyond thereach of upper-intermediate learners, nor are the sentences unduly longor complex.

There are some explicit sentence linkers (to make things worse, but, at last)which help the reader to follow the argument.

The main problem is in the density of information, compounded by theuse of pronouns (he, she, him, her) in lieu of nouns or proper names, sothat it is not always easy to know who is being referred to – and hence itis difficult to build a clear picture of the network of relationships. This ismade more confusing – potentially – by the fact that the writer refers tothe same person as her husband and my son-in-law. This kind of difficultycan be labelled ‘cognitive complexity’.

text 2

Again, the text-type is familiar, and the headline helps orient the readerto the content, providing a condensed version of the text.

The development of the story follows a conventional sequence fornewspaper stories, with the chronological sequence of events reversed sothat the rescue precedes the initial accident. Learners already familiarwith this kind of text should not be surprised or confused by this, andthere are grammatical uses (admittedly subtle) to indicate relative time,e.g. the use of the past perfect had only been able to survive, had searched fordays….

The vocabulary may present some difficulties, although the meaning ofthe word pooch in the headline can easily be worked out by reading on inthe text, as can the synonym canine, used for variety later on. Other keywords that may impede a full understanding of the text are well, trapped,licking, condensation, and possibly vet.

The main difficulty, however, may be in the length and complexity of thesentences – a feature of newspaper text. The fourth sentence, forexample, consists of six clauses. This complexity may also becompounded by long noun phrase subjects, so that the main verb is in

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … teach reading trainer’s notes 2

danger of getting lost, as in A dog who survived two months trapped down awell has become….

So, a combination of lexical unfamiliarity and syntactic complexitycontribute to the difficulty of this text.

text 3

The text-type will be familiar to most learners, although they may not befamiliar with certain conventions, e.g. ‘BTW’ for ‘by the way’.

Most of the vocabulary and grammar will be familiar to upper-intermediate learners, apart from some idiomatic language such as lot (=family, group, etc.), a thorough going over, hang out, as well as the figurativeravishing, but these are all fairly easily deducible from context.

There is some ellipsis (words left out), as in glad you made it safely and hopethis weather lasts, which may be distracting.

The use (twice) of subordinate clauses starting with being, to give areason, may be difficult for some learners.

However, the real difficulty of the text resides in the reader’s lack ofshared knowledge with the writer. The text makes many references topeople and places, as well as events, that the intended reader (Trish) isclearly familiar with: the family, the flat, the hotel, the station, the farm, etc. Itis difficult to construct a clear picture of what the text is really aboutwithout knowing where these places are and who the people are. Thereare also apparent references to a preceding e-mail (glad you made itsafely…very hot here too), without access to which the reader is leftguessing. We can call this source of difficulty ‘context (un)familiarity’,which, along with ‘topic familiarity’, constitute the backgroundknowledge that is essential to help make sense of texts from a ‘top-down’perspective.

text 4

Although this text deals with a subject that many learners may not befamiliar with (hence they will have nil or low ‘topic familiarity’), thelayout and organization of the text is very clear (title, separation intobullet-points) and – most importantly – the text is supported by adiagram. This serves to illustrate the process, as well as individual wordsin the text (such as roof), and compensates for any inherent textualdifficulties.

These textual difficulties include rare or technical vocabulary (e.g.pumped, panels, trickling, booster), as well as quite complex sentencestructures, including complex noun phrases (e.g. cold water tricklingthrough) and the use of the passive. On the plus side, the text is short – athird of the length of text 1, for example.

In short, a ‘comprehensibility ranking’ of the four texts, from most toleast comprehensible, might be: text 4, text 2, text 1, and text 3. But, aspointed out earlier, this is going to depend to a large degree on theindividual learner.

The summarizing points to be put on the board (see detailed plan stage 2 ‘top-down’ / ‘bottom-up’ factors) are not an exhaustive list offactors that make texts difficult (‘text-type familiarity’, for example, is notincluded). However, they should be sufficient for trainees to predict textdifficulty, as well as making a clear distinction between backgroundknowledge (knowledge of topic, context, etc.) and linguistic knowledge(grammar and lexis).

It is important to stress that learners’ inability to understand a text mayhave little or nothing to do with their understanding of the grammar andthe vocabulary of the text, but may derive from insufficient backgroundknowledge of, or interest in, the topic.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … teach reading trainer’s notes 3

stage 3 brainstorming task

It is not expected that trainees will come up with all – or even many – of theways that teachers can compensate for text difficulty, but the exercise ofattempting to brainstorm a few will prepare them for worksheet for stage 3.

Point out that many of the traditional things that teachers do when selectingtexts for classroom use, or in advance of using a text, are motivated by theneed to make the reading task easier for the learner – for example,simplifying a text in some way, or pre-teaching vocabulary.

It may also be worth pointing out that there is often value in increasing thedifficulty of a text, in order to challenge learners to draw on, and extend,their ‘text-attack’ strategies. For example, by choosing texts on subjectsabout which the learners know absolutely nothing, they are forced to makesense of the text using bottom-up processes (e.g. focusing on grammar andvocabulary), rather than depending solely on what they already know aboutthe topic. Likewise, depriving learners of key contextual information (such aswho is writing to whom, about what, and why) compels them to read‘between the lines’ in order to fill in these gaps in their knowledge. Theamount of difficulty a teacher wants to incorporate into a reading task willdepend, therefore, on their objectives.

stage 4 application task

Ways in which these texts can be made more comprehensible might include the following:

adapting the text designing the task

text 1 • give the different characters names, and • draw a family tree on the board, and briefly outline thereplace many of the pronoun references with relationships their names • as a while-reading task, ask learners to make a family tree

showing how the characters are related

text 2 • substitute dog for pooch and canine • pre-teach pooch, well, trapped• reduce complexity of sentences – break them • ask learners to use dictionaries to ‘unpack’ the meaning

into shorter sentences of the headline• learners predict the story from the headline (and possibly

key words) and read to see if their predictions are correct• learners put events in chronological order while they read

text 3 • supply ‘Trish’s’ email (to which this one is the • provide a short summary of the situationreply) as well • learners add people’s names to a map, to show where

• provide extra information in the text to explain each person isthe references to shared knowledge e.g. ‘the • learners identify all the references to shared informationfarmhouse that some friends of ours rent in a (mainly the names and the noun phrases with the definitenearby village’ article the) and make guesses as to who or what they are

• learners rewrite the e-mail, as if to a person who didn’tshare knowledge of the people or places

text 4 • shorten or divide up sentences, and simplify • learners study the diagram in advance of reading, andsome of the syntax, e.g. The water trickles try to predict the way the solar panels workthrough. The sun heats it. • pre-teach key words to describe the process e.g. heat,

flow, boost, etc. • learners label the diagram with key words, or with short

phrases describing key stages

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … teach reading trainer’s notes 4

stage 5 extension activity

Points that may come up in the discussion could include:

a features that may cause difficulty

These are mainly linguistic – vocabulary and sentence complexity – dueto the fact that the texts are authentic (or slightly adapted authentic)texts. For example, in the read on text Disco with Dad…why not? there are anumber of idiomatic expressions, such as how come, dropping their kids off,let their hair down, it would be round the whole school, and keep an eye on things(these are all quite easily understood by reference to the context). Andthe first sentence is quite complex, containing five clauses: It’s generallyunderstood / that most teenagers wouldn’t be seen dead / socializing with theirparents, / so how come the latest idea of a fun night out involves / whole familiesgoing clubbing together? The texts are also considerably longer than thetexts looked at in stage 2.

b pre-teaching of language

Pre-teaching of all the difficult vocabulary is probably counter-productive, taking away valuable reading time. It might be more effectiveto spend time on pre-reading knowledge-activation type tasks and thenallow plenty of time for silent, individual reading followed by pair orsmall group collaboration on sorting out difficulties. This may or may notinclude dictionary work.

The teacher could then ask if there are any parts of the text that causedparticular difficulty, and then read these aloud, giving appropriatephrasing, before checking understanding with comprehension questions.

With a monolingual class, a last resort might be to translate theproblematic sections. It is important that most learners have a fairlycomplete understanding of the text before leaving it – anything less willbe frustrating and demotivating.

c visual and / or layout features

• authentic layout and design – reflects the original text-type, and helpsactivate the right sort of predictions as to, for example, the style of thetext

• supporting visuals, many of which give an indication as to the topic• the use of titles, headlines, and sub-headings, as a means of orienting

readers to the argument, story, etc., and guiding them through it

d existing tasks designed to activate background knowledge

• pre-reading tasks that activate background knowledge of the topic, e.g.Who would you most like to share a flat with? Why? in advance of readingthe text about flat sharing

• pre-reading tasks that help readers predict the content andorganization of the text, e.g. Read these statements and complete thecolumns… (p.106); Put these paragraph topics in a logical order…(p.62)

• a pre-amble, explaining what the text is about: e.g. You’re going to readabout a woman who participated in a scientific experiment…

other features

• a glossary that includes some key unfamiliar vocabulary and alsoencourages learners to work out meaning from context.

As a follow-up (or a pre-session) reading task, you might want to refertrainees to the teacher development chapter ‘how to … teach reading’ onpp.167–173 of the natural English upper intermediate teacher’s book.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … teach reading trainer’s notes 5

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … teach reading worksheet for stage 2

worksheet for stage 2

how to …teach reading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Read these four texts and rank them in order of difficulty, from the point of view of an upper-intermediatelearner of English. What criteria did you use?

1

Dear Belinda, My daughter left her husband 3 years ago because she was bored and felt she didn’tlove him any more. He was devastated and to make things worse she made nosecret of the fact she had started going out with his best friend. She regretted it afew weeks later but she had hurt him so badly he didn’t want her back. She’s had avery difficult 3 years trying to find someone else and her 2 children (ages 7 and 9)have had a hard time as well. At last she has found someone who seems a niceenough young man and they have been making plans for the future. But out of theblue my son-in-law has said he wants to try again and this has left her in a terribledilemma. He has just finished a year-long relationship and says he doesn’t wantanyone except my daughter. My daughter has this new young man who she says sheloves but until recently she would have jumped at the chance to get back togetherwith her husband. What should she do?

2

Pooch survives two months down wellA dog who survived two months trapped down a well has become a star in hisDanish home town.Flossy the sheepdog survived inside the unused dry well for 68 days withoutfood until she was finally discovered and lifted out by fire services.A local vet said the canine had only been able to survive by licking condensationoff the well walls.Flossy’s owners Birgitte Pontoppidan and Hans Ibsen, from Gilleleje, said theyhad searched for days after she went missing but gave up, believing she wasdead.The pooch is now being pampered with warm baths and meals of chicken andsalmon.

3

Hi Trish, glad you made it safely – hope Paris is as much fun. Very hot heretoo. All of the family are now gathered here except Doey’s lot, who arrivetomorrow. We spent a night in the hotel in advance of Chris and familymoving in – P’s ma and pa being already installed in the flat. It was OK, if abit noisy, being right on the station. Doey and co will stay at the farm, whichhas been given a thorough going over. Anyway, so far so good. Hope thisweather lasts – the sea is ravishing, and everyone is happy to hang out atthe beach.

I’m attaching Stephen’s review – it’s a longer version than the Times articleand it appeared in Cuisine or some such magazine.

Lots of love and to Kate, and to Lib and Emile when you see them.

BTW, Kate left a top under the bed – shall I post it on?

S.

4

How a solar heater worksCold water is pumped

from the source and passesthrough the solar panels.

The solar panels are madeof black metal or plastic –this attracts the sun’s heat.

Cold water tricklingthrough is heated by the sun.

Hot water is then divertedby a pipe to a tank, where itis stored.

The water can be keptwarm, until it is needed, byan electric booster in thestorage tank.

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to… teach reading worksheet for stage 2

worksheet for stage 2 continued

how to…teach reading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Channelsfor water

Plastic orglass sheet

Cold waterfrom source

Black or metalplastic plate

Roof

Frame

Hot water tostorage tank

ways of reducing difficulty and aiding understanding:

difficulty factors text choice / adaptation task design

topic familiarity • choose texts about topics that learners • provide background information about theare familiar with topic of the text

• read a number of texts about the same • ask learners to brainstorm all they know abouttopic, in order to build topic familiarity the topic

• allow learners to provide texts related • use headlines, pictures, etc., that accompanyto topics that interest them the text in order to ‘trigger’ background

knowledge

context familiarity • provide the associated context, if • fill in details of the context of the text – whereavailable (e.g. preceding letters, e-mails) it’s from, who for, why, etc.

• provide a summary e.g. ‘the story so far’ • ask learners to skim the text in order to workout what kind of text it is, who it was writtenfor, why, etc.

cognitive complexity • choose texts that are not densely • read small sections of the text at a timepacked with information and discuss

• rewrite texts to make the references • set a task that helps organize the content, e.g.explicit (e.g. by changing pronouns extracting the main information onto a gridto nouns) • ask learners to identify referents of pronouns,

e.g. Who is ‘he’ in line 12?

visual support • provide accompanying photos, • learners study pictures, etc., in advance ofdiagrams, etc. reading the text

• ask learners to choose the picture / diagramthat goes with the text

length • choose short texts • break the reading task into segments – one• cut unnecessary detail (but with care!) piece of the text at a time

• allow plenty of time – and silence! – to readthe text

• skim-read the text for gist, before moreconcentrated reading

• get students to read the text in advance ofthe lesson

layout and • provide headings, sub-headings • supply title / headline and / or sub-headings insignposting • separate dense texts into paragraphs advance of reading, to give a summary of the text

• retain original layout features, e.g. as • learners choose title and / or paragraph headingsa letter from a list

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … teach reading worksheet for stage 3

worksheet for stage 3

how to …teach reading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

difficulty factors text choice / adaptation task design

organization of text • choose texts that have conventional • tell learners what kind of text it is (e.g. funnyorganization story) and learners then predict text organization

• reorganize the text to make it more • ask learners to identify the purpose of eachlogical, if necessary segment (e.g. paragraph) of the text

• learners order a sequence of pictures or statementsas they read

• learners compare two or more similar texts,identifying similarities and differences inorganization

• read the text aloud to learners, using pausing andintonation to separate text into meaningful units

internal cohesion • insert linkers • ask learners to identify linkers in the text• use common linkers (and, so, but) • learners draw boxes and arrows to connect

rather than infrequent ones pronouns, articles, etc., to their referents• make explicit any vague referents • set true-false questions that focus on the logical

(e.g. pronouns) by using names instead connections in the text (e.g. cause – effect;addition – contrast)

sentence length • simplify and shorten sentences • ask learners to identify the subject and verb of eachand complexity sentence

• learners ‘unpack’ long, complex sentences intoshort, simple ones

• read the text aloud to learners, using pausing andintonation to separate sentences into meaningfulunits

grammatical • choose texts with familiar grammar • pre-teach key grammar structuresfamiliarity • rewrite (e.g. from past tense into • encourage learners to use lexical clues and

present; reported speech into direct, background knowledge to overcome problemsetc.) of grammar

lexical familiarity • choose texts with familiar vocabulary • pre-teach key vocabulary and idiomaticity • rewrite, changing unfamiliar, • encourage learners to guess unfamiliar words from

low-frequency vocabulary to familiar, context – teach strategies to do this, e.g. identifyhigh-frequency vocabulary part of speech

• provide a glossary (e.g. translation, • allow selective dictionary use (e.g. choose 5definition) of unfamiliar words words you want to look up)

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … teach reading worksheet for stage 3

worksheet for stage 3 continued

how to…teach reading

naturalEnglishteacher developmentby Scott Thornbury

Teacher's Development

Chapter

how to … use the board

how to … use the board

1 What can go wrong?2 Principles of good boardwork3 How can the board be used?4 Students’ use of the board5 The overhead projector (OHP)

1 What can go wrong?Ask a group of teachers to name one area of their teaching theyaren’t very proud of, and it’s almost a certainty that ‘poorboardwork’ will appear on the list. Is that because principles ofgood boardwork are a low priority on some teacher trainingcourses? Is it because good boardwork is a difficult skill tomaster? Is it that we know what we should be doing but haveforgotten? Or are we just too lazy to bother? And does it matteranyway?

think!1

Do you think it’s true that teachers’ boardwork is generallypoor? Is yours?If you answer ‘yes’ to either of these questions, what do youthink the reasons are? And does it matter?Think about these questions before you read on.

think!2

What do you think of this board? Write down at least threethings about it (good or bad), then read on.

Poor boardwork and board awareness can let our teachingdown in a number of ways.

an empty boardIf we make little use of the board, our students will either try towrite down what we say and get much of it wrong; or theywon’t write things down at all, in which case they may havelittle record of what has taken place in the lesson. The board inthink!2 isn’t empty, but it is under-exploited.

a cluttered boardIf you usually write on the board a great deal, aren’t in thehabit of rubbing things off, and haven’t given prior thought towhat the board should look like, the result could be a clutteredand confused board. Once again, this may be reflected in thenotes your students make, which may be equally confused.

a shapeless boardAs the lesson unfolds, the board should tell us somethingabout the content and focus of the different stages. Do you havea clear idea about the content or focus of the lesson shown bythe board on the left?

poor handwritingStudents need to be able to read your handwriting. If it isillegible, they are likely to copy words down incorrectly. Someteachers think that capitalization makes handwriting clearer,but it really should be avoided, as students won’t realize whencapitalization is necessary: for example, with days of the weekand months.

cleaning the boardIt’s important not to clean the board before students have had achance to write things down. On the other hand, you need toprioritize your boardwork, otherwise it will become cluttered.If it’s important, leave it there; if not, rub it off.

obscuring the boardDon’t stand in front of the board if you want students to see itand write things down.

timingAs a general rule, try not to spend too long writing on theboard, especially with your back turned to the class: studentsget restless and the lesson loses momentum. If you need towrite a lot (and don’t have access to an OHP, which is better forextensive notes), make sure your students have something todo while you’re writing, or engage them in your writingprocess. For example, stand back at certain points and ask themto predict the next word you are going to write; or ask themhow certain words and phrases are pronounced as you arewriting. Whatever happens, you should allow plenty of timefor students to copy things down from the board. It is easy tounderestimate the time they need.

I’ve got a headacheI’ve got toothache

seldoma shy boy

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2 Principles of good boardworkPresenting new language using the board rather than from abook or handouts has several advantages. The students arelooking at you or each other, and they do not have their headsburied in books or paper. This usually creates a more livelyclassroom atmosphere and helps to build rapport among thegroup. When the students are looking at you, it is also easier toassess whether they understand what you are saying. In otherwords, you will get more signals telling you whether you needto repeat or elaborate on something.

These advantages, however, will be largely nullified byinadequate, illegible, or confused boardwork. And goodboardwork starts with planning. If you are going to presentnew language from the board, it needs to be clear. This meansgiving careful consideration to the information you are going toinclude, how it’s going to unfold during the presentation, andwhat you want the board to look like when you finish. Onemethod is to map out the different stages of your boardwork onpaper beforehand. It may sound like over-zealous lessonplanning, but for an important area of grammar this could bethe crucial part of your lesson plan. For inexperienced teachers,it is certainly worthwhile as well as a useful discipline. (Seethe example of a grammar presentation using the board in thenext section.) To be fully effective, other aspects of board usealso need some thought.

think!3

During the lesson itself, most teachers have their ownboardwork habits. As you read through the followingsuggestions, tick the ones you do regularly, and put an asterisk*next to any that you think would be a good idea.

– If the previous teacher hasn’t cleaned the board, do it at thebeginning of the lesson.

– Ask a student to tell you the day and the date, then write itin the top right-hand (or left-hand) corner of the board. Forlow levels, this is useful language revision in a meaningfulcontext, and if students do the same in their notebooks theyhave a chronological record of the lessons. This may helpthem to retrieve information at a later date.

– In the other top corner of the board, you could write a verybrief description of the lesson so that the students knowwhat they are going to do. Adult learners in particular oftenappreciate this, and in some schools / colleges, it is standardprocedure. Here is an example:

– Use the centre of your board for the most important inputin the lesson.

– You may have certain vocabulary planned, but there arealways new words and phrases that arise during the courseof the lesson. If you section off a column down the right-hand side of the board and use it only for this purpose, itwon’t clutter up the rest of your board or get in the way ofplanned boardwork.

Students will have a clear record of vocabulary that hasarisen, and they will be more aware of the additionalvocabulary they are learning. One of the dangers ofincidental vocabulary that is scattered all over the board isthat it may be quickly rubbed off and forgotten. If you put itall on the board in one place, and keep a record of ityourself, you can return to it in future lessons and revise it.One very simple activity is to ask learners if they canremember any of the incidental vocabulary from their lastlesson (point to your right-hand column). If not, how manywords or phrases can they find by looking in their notes?

– It is useful to have two coloured board pens or pieces ofchalk. Colours can be used for phonemic transcriptions and / or marking stress on words. Don’t overuse them,however, as multi-coloured boards can be off-putting anddifficult to read.

– Regular homework is not feasible for every student or everygroup, but we believe it is very valuable. Leave enoughclassroom time to explain it clearly, and put any keyinformation on the board, e.g. page numbers, exercisenumbers, time to complete it, when you want it completedby, whether you want it handed in, etc. If possible, try touse the same part of the board for this each lesson, thenstudents are more likely to notice it.

– Monitor your students while they are copying from theboard. Even the most diligent students occasionally writethings down incorrectly, and if you go round and checkwhat they are writing, it gives them a chance to ask you ifthere is anything they don’t understand.

• health vocabulary• grammar practice – past tenses• read a text and discuss it

Monday 23rd July

swim – swam

message

sit – satWe sat near the front.

Do you wnat to leave a message?

It’s up to you = you decide.

/id3/

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Ask students which tense we use for things that happen often,usually, normally, every day, and which tense we use forsomething happening now. Add the answers (which are conceptreminders) to the board. You can also draw a timeline for eachexample, showing repeated actions / an action happening atthe moment of speaking.

Give students time to ask questions, and time to copy what youhave written.

Finally, you can ask students to add two true sentences aftereach example, for instance, beginning I / My brother / The studentnext to me / My wife with a sentence ending of their choice (e.g. Iusually go to bed at eleven o’clock. My sister is working at the moment.)Monitor this writing too. Elicit several of these sentences, andwrite them under your own examples. Alternatively, you canthen add another pair of examples for students to complete, e.g.

She usually _______ dinner alone, but today she ____________ with friends.

For revising grammar, you could have a spray diagram on theboard. This is a different approach, and learners with strongvisual memories often find them helpful. Put your grammarfocus in the centre of the diagram, and then draw brancheswith headings. The example below for have got would besuitable for elementary revision, and includes forms and uses.Make sure that the writing on the spray diagram is horizontalso that students can read it and add to it. Provide the skeletonof the diagram, with some parts missing, and ask students tocomplete it in pairs. At the end, go over it on the board so thatthe students have an accurate copy.

3 How can the board be used?The board is probably the most widely available teaching aid.Many teachers do not have computers, OHPs, or videos, butyou can usually rely on a classroom having a board. It is also anextremely versatile teaching aid: it can be used to present newlanguage and / or prompts for practice; it is often essential forcorrection; it’s a notice board for important information; itprovides a record of the lesson; and most importantly, it is aforum for interaction and discussion between the teacher andlearners. We will now look at some of these uses in more detail.

presenting grammarIn a traditional oral-situational presentation, the board is usedfor recording and analyzing model sentences only after conceptand pronunciation have been fully dealt with. Issues of formneed to be highlighted on the board, and these can be built upwith the students.

However, there are other ways of using the board forpresenting grammar. One common approach is the use ofcontrasting sentences to highlight the difference betweentenses: in this case the present simple and present continuousat elementary / pre-intermediate level. We are assuming thatstudents are familiar with both forms, but have not looked atthem contrastively. Once you have chosen your examples(these are from elementary student’s book unit twelve),write the sentence beginnings on the board, allowing plenty ofspace around the examples to add more information later. Inthis instance, the sentence endings (at one o’clock every day and atthe moment) are on cards, so you can ask students to match thecorrect beginnings and endings.

Underline the tenses, and ask students the name of each one.You can add this terminology to the board using a differentcoloured pen or chalk. Ask students how to form the presentcontinuous (am / is / are + -ing).

My brother lives in a village.

Who does he live with? He doesn’t live with us.V V

My parents have lunch

My parents are having lunch

at one o’clock every day.

at the moment.

My parents have lunch

My parents are having lunch

at one o’clock every day.

at the moment.

present simple

present continuous

My parents have lunch

My parents are having lunch

at one o’clock every day.

at the moment.

present simple

present continuous

usually, often, normally

MON TUES WED THURS

now, at the moment of speaking

NOWlunch

HAVE GOT

PositiveI’ve got a car.YOu .He/She .We/They .

NegativeI haven’t got any money.He/She .We .

Talk about familiesI’ve got four sisters.Have you got any ? ?

Talk about thingsI’ve got a laptop but I haven’t .Our teacher but .

Ask the timeHave , please?Yes, it’s .

QuestionsHave you got a bike? he/she ? they ?

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vocabularyIt’s not uncommon for new vocabulary to occupy quite a lot ofthe board. Some of this will be planned vocabulary, but just asmuch may be incidental vocabulary that arises during thelesson. For this reason, it’s important to be disciplined aboutthe lexis you put on the board. While you cannot strictlycontrol what your students will take away with them from thelesson, it is a reasonable assumption that they will take morenotice of vocabulary you write on the board, and less notice ofan item that is quickly paraphrased then dismissed. There aresome students who want the teacher to write down every newitem of vocabulary. This can be time consuming and the lessonflow may be greatly disturbed if you stop to write everything.

Having decided something is worth putting on the board, youoften need to show how the word is pronounced, including thestress for longer words. Many items will need an example in atypical context, especially if you want to highlight informationregarding collocation or syntax (in this example, smile is oftenaccompanied by the preposition at).

At low levels in particular, vocabulary teaching will involve alot of visual material. If you are good at drawing, this is a greatasset which you should utilize as much as possible. If you arenot, but are still keen to try, you are taking more of a risk. Somestudents find feeble attempts at drawing very amusing, othersview ‘stick’ drawings as rather patronizing. The solution is toknow your audience, but the safe option is to use visualsprepared by your school, or compile your own bank of material(photos or other people’s drawings) which you put on theboard, e.g. with ‘Blu-tack’(a blue, sticky material used to attachpaper to walls). See section 4 ‘Students’ use of the board’ forways of exploiting visual material on the board.

The board is also useful for word families which you can oftenelicit from the learners.

pronunciationLearners need oral models to help with pronunciation, but youcan use the board to provide visual support in several ways:

– writing phonemic symbols for specific sounds ortranscriptions of whole words, using a different colour, ifpossible, to distinguish phonemics from the orthographicform

– highlighting word stress. Dictionaries usually do this with avertical dash before the stressed syllable [bI"fO;], but boxesor circles over the stressed syllable are easier for learners tosee and copy. If you wish, you can add smaller boxes orcircles over unstressed syllables:

– drawing arrows above sentences to indicate intonationpatterns:

– showing linking between words:

– indicating silent letters:

If you have the necessary talent, you could also draw diagramsof the mouth on the board to show the shape of the lips or theposition of the tongue needed to form particular sounds.

Here is an activity to revise pronunciation using the board.

try it out word stress gameWhile the class is occupied, choose 20 or 25 words with wordstress problems for your learners. Write them randomly all overthe board.Divide the class into three groups and give each group adifferent coloured board pen. One member from each group hasto come to the board and mark the stress on any word theychoose. They cannot get help from other members of theirgroup. They then return to their group, hand the pen to thenext member, who does the same. They should do this as quicklyas possible to score more points. The game continues until thestress has been marked on all the items.The teacher then goes through the pronunciation of the wordsand the group with the most correct answers is the winner.

smile /sma l/ vThe receptionist smiled at me this morning.

VERBmeanexplaindefinepronounce

NOUNmeaningexplanationdefinition... ... ...

son suit

/v/

/su:t/

remember Japan

What time does it leave?V

V

Really?

pick it up father and son

com[b] [k]nife

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correctionDuring a student-centred speaking activity, teachers sometimesneed to provide on-the-spot help or correction, but oftenchoose not to interrupt learners too much when they aretalking. Instead, they note down examples of student languageuse for feedback afterwards. (For this you can use the feedbackchecklist on p.15 of this teacher’s book.) The board is the idealplace to conduct feedback: the whole class is brought togetherafter the pair or groupwork around a focal point.

The feedback is quite likely to contain new vocabulary, butalso some examples of student error. One strategy is to start bywriting these errors on the board. Some teachers dislike this onthe grounds that it may be reinforcing the error, but we feel it isjustified as long as the students are first given the opportunityto correct it themselves, and the teacher (or a student) crossesout the mistake and writes in the correction very clearly.

We would agree that it is not a good idea just to correct the errororally and leave it uncorrected on the board. One also has to besensitive with this type of correction. Some learners are veryembarrassed if their mistakes are made public to the wholegroup. Make sure you know your students well before puttingerrors on the board, and make it clear to the class that they area collection of everybody’s mistakes.

gamesIn classroom team games, you will need your board to keep thescores, but there are a number of useful games based aroundthe board: ‘noughts and crosses’ is very popular and anenjoyable way to revise grammar, vocabulary, orpronunciation. A variation on this is ‘Blockbusters’. This is alarger grid, which means that there are more questions, andtherefore more practice. Copy the grid below onto the board (orif possible, copy it onto an overhead transparency.)

Divide the class into two teams. You will either need to prepareplenty of revision questions in advance (either grammar,vocabulary, or natural English phrases), or you could set theclass the task of devising questions themselves. If you do this,give each half of the class a different set of units from thecoursebook as the basis for their revision questions. Then givethem examples of the types of questions they can prepare, suchas:

What’s the opposite of …?

What’s another word for …?

What’s the past tense of …?

What’s the answer to this question: ‘How was yourweekend?’?

In the game, team A will proceed across the board from left toright; team B proceeds from top to bottom. To start, team Achooses a numbered square (e.g. number 15). Team B asks oneof their questions, and if team A gets it right, you put a letter Ain square 15. B cannot pass through that square. Then team Bchooses a square (say, number 13) and answers their question.This continues until one team has reached the other side andwon the game.

4 students’ use of the board

think!4

Do you encourage your learners to write or draw on the board inyour classes? If so, when, and how much?Do your learners ever use the board themselves spontaneouslyand unprompted by you? If so, when and how?

Who does the board belong to? Most teachers would agree thatits purpose is to serve their learners, and yet some may feel thatthe board is really their domain. In fact, the board might bestbe described as ‘public property’. Learners should have freeaccess to it in the same way that we can also encourage them tohave some control over the tape recorder. They can use theboard in two ways. Firstly, to respond to input from theteacher: you ask them to label something on the board, or writeup an answer. Secondly, they may need to take the initiativeand write something on the board for themselves:

– to clarify a problem (two homophones, for instance)

– to make an announcement, e.g. write the time, date, andvenue for a class social event

– as part of a student presentation

Encouraging students to feel that they have free access to theboard can help to foster a co-operative atmosphere, one inwhich problems and solutions are aired and shared.

Nevertheless, there are problems with asking learners to writeon the board. It’s a professional requirement that you makesure that your writing is legible, but it can be difficult to dealwith unclear student handwriting: it needs tactful handling,and you need to check that other learners can read / understandwhat a student has written. In addition, you don’t wantstudents to spend a long time writing on the board or the paceof your lesson will suffer.

She go to the library every day.goes

25

15

10

20

6

17

1

22

16

24

13

23

7

3

18

9

2

14

8

11

4

12

21

5

19

TEAM B

TEAM A

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Finally, you may have some learners in your class with literacyproblems in the mother tongue, or dyslexia. These issuesrequire sensitive handling, and you should only ask suchstudents to write publicly if you feel they have a good chance ofdoing it well (for example, they have written the answer onpaper already and you have checked it). They will, of course,need extra support and time to read what is written and copy itdown. (See Linda Taylor’s article on dyslexic learners in followup.)

Here are some simple ways in which you can encouragelearners to be involved in the board work when focussing onvocabulary (the examples below all focus on clothesvocabulary from elementary student's book, unit 12wordbooster p.98). These are just example activities, and weare not suggesting you do all of them. It goes without sayingthat you need to allow time with some of the followingactivities for students to copy at the end.

visualsUse ‘Blu-Tack’ or board magnets to fix pictures of clothes itemsto the board in a vertical column (or two columns), leavingspace to add the written form alongside later. In pairs, studentsdiscuss which ones they know. Elicit the answers from theclass, then ask different students to come up and label the onesthey know. Check the spelling as a group, and encourage themto ask you how to spell any remaining words.

drawingWrite the vocabulary items on the board; ask students to comeand draw any items they know next to the words. Provideplenty of pens so that several can work at once, and make sureas many students as possible have a chance to draw. Clothesitems are not very difficult to draw. Correct anymisunderstandings and practise the pronunciation of thewords. Then rub out the written words. In pairs, students lookat the pictures and try to remember the words.

categorizingMake flashcards, writing the vocabulary items on differentcards. Draw a table on the board with the following headings:MEN, WOMEN, and BOTH. Distribute the flashcards and askstudents to stick their word(s) under the appropriate heading;tell them they can ask each other if they aren’t sure. When theyhave finished, tell the class to look at the board: is everythingin the right place? Alternatively, use these headings: ABOVETHE WAIST and BELOW THE WAIST; or WARM WEATHER,COLD WEATHER, and EITHER.

pronunciationPrepare flashcards containing individual phonemic soundsrelating to the vocabulary you have taught. (For clothes items,diphthongs are a good focus: /aI/ in tie, /@U/ in coat, /aU/ introusers, /eI/ in trainers, etc., but you could include some vowelsounds too: /@/ in trousers / jumper, /u:/ in shoes / boots / suit, etc.)Put all the picture cards on the board, distribute the soundcards, and ask students to stick them next to a word with theirsound. Then ask students in pairs to look at the board and seeif everything is correct. They will probably pronounce thewords together to check, so some natural ‘drilling’ will behappening in this activity. Feedback on any errors at the end.

brainstormingPut students into small groups, with a section of the boardeach, and a pen per group. Give them two minutes to write upany clothes items they know. (They may not know many, butbetween them they will come up with at least a few.) At theend, ask them to sit down and look at all the lists. They can askabout any items which were not on their own list. You couldalso use this as a revision activity.

try it out grammar brainstormDivide your class into groups of three or four. If your class issmall and you have a large board, they can all use differentparts of the board for this activity. With a larger class, somegroups can use part of the board, and provide others with largesheets of paper pinned to the wall or noticeboard. Depending on the structure you want students to practise,choose three or four different topics: for instance, to revisethere is / isn’t / are / aren’t, you might have:

– What is there / isn’t there in the classroom?– What is there / isn’t there in the building?– What is there / isn’t there in the street outside?– What is there / isn’t there in the town?

Put each question in a different part of the board. Each groupstands next to a question, with a board pen; they have twominutes in their group to write as many true sentences aspossible about their question. (e.g. There’s a large board; Thereare about twenty chairs; There aren’t any pictures on the wall.)Tell students to stop, and move on to the next question. Theyread what has been written already, and add as many othersentences as possible in two minutes. Make sure a differentstudent does the writing.Move on again, until students are back at their originalquestion. They read and decide whether the sentences area) true and b) accurate. They should make any necessarycorrections.At the end, go over all the sentences, dealing with anyproblems. This activity can generate a lot of oral and written practice, andit can easily be adapted to practise other structures.

exercise answersIf your students are working in small groups on revisionactivities or a number of exercises, you can ask them to puttheir answers on the board. This is particularly useful whenyou have pairs or groups who have finished early: it gives themsomething to do while the rest of the class is finishing. Lettingstudents collaborate on answers that they write up is also lessthreatening than asking one student alone to write theanswers. At the appropriate moment, bring the class togetherand ask them if they agree with the answers on the board.Clear up any errors as you go through them.

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For students, writing on transparencies may be easier and morepractical than writing on the board. With a picture story, forinstance, you could give each pair of students an OHT. Theywrite a different part of the story onto their OHT, then at theend they put their transparency on the OHP for the rest of theclass to read.

If you would like to demonstrate your dexterity, you could usethe OHP and the board together. Project some illustrations ontothe board using the OHP, then ask students to come and write adescription of each one underneath on the board.

You don’t need to use OHPs that often to feel comfortable withthem, but they require a bit of practice. You have to make sureyour writing is large enough for all the students to be able toread it clearly, and at the same time you need to be aware ofhow much information an OHT can accommodate. It is easy tomake the mistake of trying to write too much onto onetransparency, with the result that it’s cramped and difficult toread. Generally, it is more effective to restrict the informationon each OHT, and use more than one if necessary. Finally, youmust remember not to remove your OHTs before the studentshave finished reading or copying down the information.

conclusionIn this chapter we have looked at:

– features of poor boardwork

– principles of good boardwork and its contribution toeffective learning

– different ways the teacher can use the board

– different ways the students can use the board

– effective ways that an OHP can complement boardwork

We suggested at the beginning of the chapter that teachers wereoften prepared to admit that their boardwork was less thanperfect. Our suspicion is that boards are such a mundane andubiquitous piece of equipment, that we easily overlook them orfail to appreciate their value; they’re not that exciting whencompared with some other teaching aids. However, if theywere all removed from our classrooms, we would very quicklyrealize their significance and the extent to which we all rely onthem. We hope this chapter has served as a small reminder ofthat.

follow upDobbs J 2001 Using the Board in the Language Classroom Cambridge

University PressByrne K Board Organising in English Teaching Professional (issue 22)Fletcher M DIY Picasso in English Teaching Professional (issue 17)Mugglestone P 1981 Planning and Using the Blackboard Macmillan ELT Lindstromberg S Chalkboards vs computers in the language classroom

Humanising Language Teaching at www.hltmag.co.uk March 2002Taylor L Learning from Dyslexia in English Teaching Professional

(issue 17)

student surveysIf your learners are carrying out a class survey as a speakingactivity (for example, on reading / study habits, free time activities,likes and dislikes), it can be satisfying if the results are compiledon the board in a table. While students are working, draw atable on the board so that they can fill in their information atthe end. This is easiest to manage if learners simply have to tickboxes or write numbers of people rather than full sentences.

Want to know more? Read Chalkboards vs computers in the language classroomby Seth Lindstromberg in follow up

5 The overhead projector (OHP)Not everyone has access to an overhead projector, and thosethat do may not always see them as a blessing: some are heavyand cumbersome to move around, and OHP pens seem todisappear into thin air. Having got it into the classroom (fewschools are lucky enough to have one in every room), you thenhave to position it in the classroom in such a way that youwon’t be blocking your students’ view, and you have to get itinto focus. In fact, most of these potential problems are easilyovercome, and while OHPs lack the versatility of a board (youcan’t get as much information on a transparency) they do havecertain advantages over a board. First and foremost, you canprepare your overhead transparencies (OHTs) in advance. Thissaves you a lot of class time, and it can look more professional.For one thing, it gives you a chance to produce good qualitydrawings; and if you can’t draw, you can copy illustrations ontoyour OHT. You can also photocopy typed / word processedmaterial onto an OHT, which is quite an asset for teachers withpoor handwriting. In this computer age, that probably appliesto an increasing number of us.

OHPs are very suitable for language presentations such as theone we demonstrated earlier contrasting the present simpleand continuous. You can start with your transparency and addto it gradually, or overlay other transparencies which haveadditional information.

OHPs provide a very quick way of doing feedback on exercises,or after a speaking activity.

try it out error correctionHave an OHT next to you during your next lesson. Keep a record(discreetly, if possible) of learners’ mistakes during the lessonon the OHT. Ten minutes before the end, put the OHT of all themistakes on the projector with a piece of paper over the errors.Reveal the errors one by one, and either encourage students tocome and make corrections on the OHT itself or directly on theboard where the errors are projected. As always, when providingclass error correction, reiterate that they are class (notindividual) errors.

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1 Introduction2 Classroom training3 Self-access 4 Homework

1 IntroductionWe need our students to become independent learners with thecapacity to continue learning effectively outside the classroom.And we need them to do this for one very simple reason: thereisn’t enough time inside the classroom for them to learn (andbe able to use) everything they need to know. Some learnersare fortunate in having the necessary mix of skills,determination, and motivation that enable them to carry onlearning without the assistance of a teacher, but others are moredependent. It may be that they lack the skills, the discipline, orperhaps the inclination, but in one way or another, there arethose that find it difficult to make the leap from classroomstudent to autonomous learner. That is why we need toconsider how to use time inside the classroom to develop theattitude and skills which will benefit learners outside theclassroom.

Here are some areas where teachers can help learners to becomemore independent:

– training students to keep accurate records of what has beenstudied in class

– developing learners’ dictionary skills

– helping learners to use grammar and vocabulary practicebooks effectively

– developing effective learning strategies (e.g. for handlingspoken and written text)

– encouraging learners to use a self-access centre (or study athome)

– providing purposeful homework

think!1

Think about the list above with reference to the students youteach. Which areas do you think they need to work on tobecome more effective independent learners?

We have already talked about the development of learningstrategies for reading and listening elsewhere, so the focus ofthis chapter will be on the other areas.

Want to know more? Go to upper-intermediate teacher’s book, how to … teach reading p.167 and intermediate teacher’s book, howto … teach listening p.150

2 Classroom trainingClassroom training towards learner autonomy starts with basicclassroom procedures such as the use of pair / group work, andstudents testing or correcting themselves / each other. Withthese activities, learners begin to realize that you are not theonly source of knowledge in the classroom; they can learn bythemselves and from each other in many ways. Other teachingtechniques (encouraging learners to deduce meaning fromcontext, and guiding students to understand language rulesinstead of just explaining them) also indirectly encouragelearners to take an active and more autonomous approach totheir learning.

With more overt or direct learner training, there are potentialdangers that we need to guard against. The first of these is‘preaching to the converted’. Don’t waste time in the classroomtrying to develop skills that your learners already possess.Some low-level learners are quite capable of using a dictionary,for example, and many advanced learners have reached thatlevel by having developed / acquired a range of successfullearning strategies. So if you are planning to spend classroomtime on accurate and effective record keeping, start by lookingat your students’ notebooks to see how well they organize theirwork, and then decide what the most appropriate help wouldbe. In addition, learners shouldn’t feel they are using valuableclassroom time simply to be told about learning. Their reasonfor being there is to learn the language, so you need to ensurethat time spent on learner training involves student interactionand / or some language input as well.

record keepingThe information that students write down in their notebooks isa record of what they have learnt. They may have a course bookand a number of handouts that you have given them, but theirnotebook is a personalized account of their learning andrepresents a significant personal investment. If it is clear,systematic, and fairly comprehensive, it will help the learnerduring the course but benefit them even more in time to come.Information in the notebook can be retrieved at a later date; ifit’s not there, it may be forgotten.

Some learners are naturally very organized and systematic, butwe can probably help the majority with just a bit of time and afew basic classroom procedures.

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think!2

Look at these samples from two students’ notebooks. Which oneis better, and why? How might the better one be improved?

Some students don’t bother to write down new vocabulary intheir notebooks, while others (such as the first one above)write things down but in a rather haphazard way. As thislexical set relates to verb prefixes, the student could haveorganized it in a more systematic way. He has included a lot ofuseful translation, but the forms are mixed up (infinitives andpast tenses), there is no information about pronunciation orcollocation (e.g. retake an exam), and no contextualized sentenceexamples. Some words have even been copied incorrectly.

The second student has not used translation at all, preferringinstead to use English to explain the meaning of new items,e.g. a lack of something = not enough, and in one case, a sentenceexample. He has also included opposites, collocation (get on / off… train, bus), and a phonemic transcription to remind himabout the pronunciation of one of the words. He doesn’tspecifically include the grammar of the items, e.g. (v) or (n), butby the way he has written the items down, he clearly has anawareness of grammar, e.g. using a full infinitive and theindefinite article. The sample would be improved with morecontextualized examples, e.g. due (to), and we think that bothsamples would benefit from headings for ease of reference, i.e.verb prefixes for the first sample, and at the airport for most of thesecond sample.

How the learner chooses to show the meaning of a new word orphrase (translation, explanation in L1 or L2, or just a sentenceexample) will depend on the item itself and the preferences ofthe individual learner. There is no right answer, although a lotof translation is to be expected, especially at low levels. Aslearners become more proficient, we would hope to see anincreasing use of L2 as a way of explaining some new wordsand phrases. For example:

filthy (adj) very very dirtyMy car is absolutely filthy – I must wash it.

This is a straightforward example to show learners that theydon’t always need to rely on the mother tongue. For otheritems, admittedly, learners will have to use L1, either with adirect translation or explanation / definition.

It isn’t always essential to include information about grammarand pronunciation. Student notebooks are personalizedrecords, not dictionaries. What they write down about a newitem should be their decision, although there will be timeswhen you need to highlight issues that they may not be awareof, e.g. the fact that advice is uncountable, or do you fancy (adrink)? is informal. Effective records do need time, though.Writing in a second language is more time-consuming than inthe mother tongue, so you will need to create spaces in yourlessons for learners to write things down. It is very easy tomisjudge this aspect of lesson planning and execution.

While learners are writing things down, this is an opportunityfor you to move round and see what their notebooks look like.You may be surprised to discover how often students areunable to copy down the correct spelling of a word from theboard, although unclear handwriting by the teacher may play apart in this as well. Also, don’t be in a hurry to removeimportant information from the board, and remember thatmany students will copy information straight from the boardregardless of how it is organized, so chaotic board work will bereflected in their notes. For important language input, it isworth giving some thought to how you want it to appear on theboard. If you are relatively inexperienced, you could write itout on paper first to see how it looks.

Want to know more? Go to how to … use the board p.146

We recommend that students leave a generous amount of spacebetween information in their notebooks. This will give a lesscluttered feel to the notes and make information easier toretrieve at a later date. As their knowledge increases, they canreturn to earlier entries in their notebooks and add furtherinformation, e.g. an additional meaning of the item, or perhapsother words that commonly collocate with it.

You can suggest that students divide their notebooks intosections, with pages allocated to different topics, e.g. food, work,education; and further pages devoted to linguistic categories, e.g.present perfect, simple past, phrasal verbs or adjective + preposition, etc.In fact, learners can organize the book in any way they like,provided it is a system that works for them.

There are some students who write notes diligently but neverrevisit them. This is a great shame, as much of the value ofeffective record keeping lies in the ease of retrieval it allows ata later date. You can get learners into the habit of doing thiswith short classroom activities. Put students in pairs, then askquestions about vocabulary from previous lessons which youthink they may not remember. See who can answer thequestions by referring to their notes, and how long it takesthem. This type of activity illustrates the value of recycling, andwill demonstrate to learners whether their record keeping issufficiently comprehensive.

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try it out vocabulary notebooksAs a classroom speaking activity, you could put learners in smallgroups, ask them to exchange notebooks and spend five minuteslooking at them. Then, give them time to discuss thenotebooks. Do they like the way other people have organizedtheir notes? Do they do anything differently, such as usingdrawings or grids or spray diagrams? People learn in differentways, and students often discover through this activity thatthere are different but equally valid ways of organizing theirwork. Sometimes they may pick up interesting ideas from otherstudents, which they go on to use themselves. This activity hasthe added benefit of recycling language from previous lessons.

Finally, record keeping need not be something that students doon their own. On longer courses (exam courses are ideal forthis), we have used a class vocabulary box. For this, you needto provide a flip top box which contains a large number ofcards (you can start with 100), and alphabetical dividers.

In each lesson, one student (a different one each time) isresponsible for writing down new vocabulary on the cards: theword or phrase on one side of the card, and on the reverse side,an explanation (perhaps a translation in a monolingual class),part of speech, relevant grammar information, phonemic scriptwhere necessary, and an example sentence. The card is thenfiled alphabetically.

The vocabulary box makes students take responsibility fortheir learning, and they enjoy using it. Before a lesson starts,they can test themselves or each other. You can use the cards atany time for quick vocabulary revision with the whole class, orfor pair testing.

dictionaries

think!3

Which of the following do you do with elementary learners?– discourage them from using dictionaries in class– ask learners to use their own dictionaries– advise learners on a good bilingual dictionary (with a

monolingual class)– advise learners on a good monolingual dictionary to

use / buy– show learners how to use dictionaries

Whatever your attitude to dictionary use, there are likely to besome learners who bring a bilingual dictionary to class(printed or electronic). Their dictionary is their safeguard, andas long as they are not using it to check every new word, this isperfectly reasonable. You obviously want to avoid a situationwhere students no longer listen to your explanations and revertautomatically to their dictionary instead; but in a multilingualclass where there may be no recourse to their mother tongue,learners may feel they have to check certain words in thedictionary if your explanation still leaves them puzzled (andthis happens to the best of teachers). Similarly, for productiveskills work, bilingual dictionaries can provide the studentswith the means to express an idea which they may nototherwise have the language to express. We wouldn’t discouragelearners from using dictionaries in class, but you need to have aclear policy on when learners should use them.

Initially, you may need to advise learners on the best dictionaryfor them to use. At elementary level, students usually turn to

how to … develop learner independence

bilingual dictionaries: they are familiar and the definitions areimmediately accessible. If you are working in a monolingualteaching situation, you are in a good position to advise learnerson the best bilingual dictionaries to buy. (They varyconsiderably in quality and accuracy.) At a certain stage in theirlearning, especially in a multilingual situation, you canencourage more monolingual dictionary use. This can startwhen the learners are still elementary or pre-intermediate,especially for exploiting phonemic symbols or visuals, but wethink intermediate level is the time when monolingualdictionary use starts to become more practical and effective.(See follow up for suggestions.) It’s also worth rememberingthat learners need different dictionaries at different stages intheir language learning and for different purposes.

dictionary trainingIf you are beginning to use monolingual dictionaries with yourstudents, you will probably need to familiarize them withdictionary features. This is best done little and often over aperiod of time. To motivate students in the first place, adictionary quiz is an enjoyable introduction; you could make ita competition between groups.

think!4

Look at the exercise try it out. Which dictionary features arebeing highlighted in sentences 1–8?

try it out four true, four falseThis activity and worksheet is adapted from Dictionaries, by JonWright. (see follow up) It is suitable for intermediate learners,and takes 30–40 minutes. Students practise dictionary skills andbecome familiar with a range of information in dictionaries.

1 Give students a copy of the ‘four true, four false’worksheet (see below) or write a similar one of your own.Students complete it in pairs, using a dictionary.

2 Check the answers, and ask students how they found theactivity. Was it difficult?

3 (for advanced levels) Tell pairs to make a similarworksheet using one double-page of the dictionary, andinclude at least one question about: spelling, meaning,pronunciation, and grammar. Monitor pair work.

4 Pairs swap worksheets with other pairs and answer them.

FOUR TRUE, FOUR FALSE1 Deer and sheep have no plural form.2 Fast-faster-fastest are comparative and superlative forms,

with fastly as the adverb.3 Scissors and biro have different stress patterns.4 People can be over the moon. 5 You can meet a friend in midnight.6 Loft and basement mean the same.7 An escalator will take you to another floor in a building.8 Comb has a silent letter.

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A common mistake learners make when checking the meaningof a new word is to read the first definition and assume it is thecorrect one for their particular context. For example, a learnercomes across a new word, odd, in this sentence:

There was an odd number of people in the group, so …

The first dictionary definition in the Oxford Elementary Dictionaryis given as ‘strange or unusual’. If the learner doesn’t look anyfurther, they will assume that the meaning ‘strange / unusual’either refers to the people (which is feasible) or the number(which is in itself a little odd). The second definition is asfollows:

To encourage learners to scan several definitions of a headworduntil they find the appropriate one, you can give them somesentences with a new item highlighted:

She was worn out after the journey.

I had a light breakfast.

This wine is very dry.

Ask students to look in their dictionaries and find the correctdefinition for the underlined word. In the Oxford Student’sDictionary, they will need to read several definitions for each ofthese words to find the appropriate one. You can then ask themto check which other meanings of the words they alreadyknow. It’s important to remind students that they often needsentence examples to illustrate meanings fully, and theexamples will probably help the learners to remember theitem.

Want to know more? Go to upper-intermediate teacher’s book, how to… use dictionaries with learners p.174

phonemic scriptThere are several reasons for teaching phonemic script tolearners, not least that it can help them to develop anawareness of the sound system of English, both receptively andproductively. In terms of learner autonomy, knowing phonemicscript means immediate access to the pronunciation of any itemin their dictionary. Students don’t need their teacher to tellthem how every word is pronounced; they can find out forthemselves. In the long term, the rewards can be significant.

As with dictionary skills, we would suggest introducingphonemic script gradually and making the activities short andachievable. (This is the approach we have taken in naturalEnglish, either incidentally during language focus activities, orin discrete slots in the ‘Help with pronunciation’ sections.)When you feel your learners are ready to start using amonolingual dictionary suitable for their level (or a bilingualdictionary with phonemic transcriptions), you can highlightthe benefits of knowing phonemic script with the simpleactivity which follows.

Give students a worksheet with the table on the right above.Five words are in the wrong place, and they have five minutesin pairs to discuss where the misplaced words should go andcheck their answers in a dictionary. They have to aim for 100%accuracy in the exercise – nothing less will do! You can produce

your own exercise using items your learners often find difficultto pronounce.

the letter ‘o’Think about the pronunciation of the letter ‘o’ in the words inthe table. Five words are in the wrong place. Put them in theright place. Use your dictionary to check.

/V/ /@U/ /O:/ /Q/ /@/

mother hotel forty holiday today

stomach hostel more borrow customer

wonderful mobile November short second

forget home passport often computer

money going corner blonde Monday

Want to know more? Go to intermediate teacher’s book how to … teach phonemic script p.168

grammar and vocabulary practice booksMany learners are keen to buy a grammar or vocabularypractice book for further study at home. This is certainly worthencouraging, but you may need to advise learners what isavailable, and recommend a suitable one with an answer key.The best way to encourage supplementary practice is to setmaterial from a grammar or vocabulary book for homework. If it is successful, you can then recommend the book forself-study. Some attention to terminology will be helpfulthough, and The Good Grammar Book and English Vocabulary in Use(see follow up) teach relevant terminology or provide aglossary of terminology for learners. The Good Grammar Bookalso has a ‘test yourself’ section which is very useful forself-study.

If students are using a practice book alone, working their waysystematically through the book may not be the best approach.Eventually it is likely to become monotonous andde-motivating for most learners, and some sections simplywon’t be relevant. We feel it is better to suggest that studentseither focus on areas they have found difficult, or do practiceexercises to consolidate language studied in class. Encouragethem to check their answers in the key at home, and allowsome class time to help them with any queries they have. Ifthey are prepared to work hard out of class, then they deservethe encouragement and support.

Coursebooks are generally accompanied by a workbook whichis largely intended for self-study. No coursebook designed forclassroom use can hope to achieve everything, given the spaceconstraints on the page, and the time constraints of the course.Workbooks, therefore, are valuable in that they provideadditional practice and consolidation of language studied inclass. Workbooks for adult courses generally have an answerkey at the back, which also encourages learner independence.

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3 Self-access

in schoolStudy facilities in schools come under a variety of titles: self-access centre, self-study centre, listening centre, library, etc.They also come in many shapes and sizes. Some are verygenerously equipped, with computers, videos, cassetterecorders / CD players, reference books, readers, languageexercises, and so on; others may just have a cassette recorder forlistening to tapes and a small selection of books. Some schoolshave nothing at all.

If you are fortunate enough to have a self-access centre (SAC),you should certainly do everything you can to ensure yourlearners derive the maximum benefit from it. Take them to theSAC yourself (don’t just tell them about it), show them how touse the different resources, and then give them some time toexplore the facility. One of the great assets of an SAC is thatstudents can personalize their learning, using resources andmaterials that match their needs and interests, whether it iswatching videos / DVDs, doing computer-based languageexercises, or just reading as widely as possible. While they areexploring the resources, this gives you an opportunity to talk toand advise different learners on the appropriate level of booksor cassettes for them, or whatever it is they want to do.

After a thorough induction to the SAC, follow it up by givingthe class a homework task that involves using the resources inthe centre. Here is one idea:

try it out self-access centresThis will get learners started, and the choice of activity allowsfor different learners‘ needs and interests. The classroomfeedback is really a chance for you to see how well they havedone, and how best to encourage them to continue using theresources.Ask learners to do one of the following:

1 Choose a song they like, listen to it and transcribe it,then rub out some of the words. Bring the gapped versionto the next lesson. (You will need to photocopy it for theother students.) The class listens to the song andcompletes the words.

OR2 Choose a book (a reader), read the first chapter, and be

prepared to tell one or two other students about the storyso far.

OR3 Choose two language exercises based on some recent

grammar they have studied. Write their answers on aseparate piece of paper and check them using the answerkey. Bring the exercises to class and give them to anotherpair to complete. (The student then checks the answersgiven by the pair.)

Most important of all with an SAC is that you keep up themomentum and don’t forget about it after the initialencouragement. Monitor your students’ personal use of thefacility and talk to them about things they have done. It isprobably too much to expect everyone to make effective use ofthe SAC, but with frequent reminders and encouragement youmay be able to influence the majority. Even if the numbersusing it are limited, the benefits for those that do may beconsiderable.

Many schools now have Internet access for students, and if so,you may be interested in how best to exploit it with yourlearners. You can find a range of interesting ideas on the OUPTeachers’ Club website at this address:

www.oup.com/elt/teacher/naturalenglish

Click on ‘Internet lesson plans’ and you will find ready-to-useInternet-based lesson plans with Teacher’s notes andworksheets, on topics such as improving listening / speaking /reading / writing skills, using news websites, producingweblogs, developing students’ vocabulary on the Internet, etc.

at homeIf your school does not have a self-access centre, you need tofind out what resources the learners have at home and whatmay be available to them in their local town. An increasingnumber of learners will have computers with Internet access,and one very simple thing you can do is to direct them to thenatural English students’ website where there is a wide rangeof activities to supplement the coursebook at the followingaddress:

www.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

In many parts of the world, satellite television channels inEnglish are available, and students can easily find news, sport,and music channels which may interest them. Films in Englishare sometimes shown on television or at the cinema, and withL1 subtitles they can be accessible even to low levels. If youscan the TV listings and local papers regularly, you can alertyour students to any suitable films that are being shown. Youmight even arrange a class trip to the cinema. Most DVDs comewith a choice of languages, including English, as well assubtitles in English; the combination of an English soundtrackand English subtitles is an excellent way of supportingindependent viewing.

You can now buy English language newspapers in most places,usually within 24 hours of publication. If you buy a paper inthe learners’ L1 and find an interesting international story (orbetter still a local story that may make its way into Englishlanguage newspapers), photocopy it and ask them to buy anewspaper in English the next day. Learners can read the storyin their mother tongue so they are familiar with it, then readthe same story in the English language newspaper. In classthey can talk about the story, or you could use it to focus on aparticular area of lexis. Whatever you do, you have givenlearners an idea and a procedure which they can follow forthemselves with different stories, especially ones that will beof particular interest to them (e.g. the report of a Europeanfootball match between a team from Britain and a team fromtheir country).

If resources in English outside the classroom are very limited,you can still ask learners to do something in their ownlanguage, e.g. read part of a newspaper or watch a particularTV programme, which they then discuss in class in English.

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In her book Homework (see follow up), Lesley Painter sets outthe following goals that she wants homework to achieve:

1 Students should feel homework tasks are useful.

2 Tasks should be interesting and varied.

3 Work should include not only written tasks, but tasksfocusing on all skills.

4 Individual students’ needs should be met, which meansvarying homework tasks for different students.

5 Students’ attitudes to homework should be improved, forexample, by allowing them to contribute ideas by designingtheir own tasks.

6 Language should be liberated from the classroom.

It’s a challenging manifesto, but if we can achieve half of thesethings, learners may approach homework in a completelydifferent light. Here is one idea we have adapted from LesleyPainter’s book, which shows that more interesting homeworktasks don’t necessarily involve extra work on the teacher’s part.

try it out word reviewPhotocopy a blank word square grid, e.g. 100 squares made up of10 x 10. Assign individual students or pairs a different area ofvocabulary that you have studied recently, e.g. food vocabularyfor one pair, irregular past tenses for another pair, and so on.Each pair then has to write ten words (or more) from theirlexical area into their square; the words can be vertical orhorizontal (or diagonal if you want to make it morechallenging). When they have done that, they have to completeall the empty squares with random letters. When they come backto class, they give their square to another pair, who have to findthe target words.

One of the key concepts above is variety, so it may be helpful toconsider the different types of homework we can set. Here aresome of them.

consolidationWritten exercises to consolidate grammar and vocabularystudied in class are probably the most common form ofhomework. There is nothing wrong with this and learners willgenerally consider such exercises useful. The important thing toremember is not to rely too heavily on this one type ofhomework, and when you choose exercises, look for interestand variety (and check first to make sure they are suitable).

preparationStudents can use homework to prepare for the next lesson,e.g. reading a text or writing questions to ask a classmate.However, if the success of the lesson depends on every studentsuccessfully completing the homework, there is a risk of thelesson becoming derailed. With this type of homework,therefore, you should have a ‘plan B’, i.e. a way in which thelesson can still be successful without every student doing thehomework. This isn’t being defeatist, just pragmatic. In the caseof learners preparing questions, you can put a student whohasn’t done the homework with two who have. Reading a text,in our experience, is not always successful as a homework task:some read and study the text; others read it but forget thecontent by the time of the next lesson; a few don’t bother. It is usually more successful if you can provide a concrete task forthe text, e.g. blank out half a dozen carefully selected words and ask students to read the text and decide what the missingwords are.

how to … develop learner independence

4 Homework

think!5

When did you last set your students homework? Was it to finish off class work because you had run out of time?Did it link to the previous lesson, or was it preparation for afuture lesson? Was there an incentive for the students to do it? Do you write personal comments on your students’ homework? Do you ever forget to give it back? Think about these questions before you read on.

For many adult learners, an English course is something theyhave to squeeze into their own limited free time. Fitting inlessons is hard enough, so incorporating time for homework aswell may be out of the question. For other learners, homeworkmay be feasible but it still has to compete with otherextra-curricular activities, and may be low down their list ofpriorities. They may also have memories of homework fromschooldays which may not have been a pleasurable experience.

Part of the reason for any reluctance to do homework may notbe the work itself, but the use we make of it. Looking back onour own experience, we realize that we have often failed togive it the attention it deserves. Without careful planning, it isso easy to use homework to complete an unfinished classworkexercise, or do an exercise that we didn’t do in class because itwasn’t very interesting (but would be fine for homework). Inother words, it is very easy to treat homework as a dustbin, oras Michael Thompson says, ‘a receptacle for the unwanted andunloved’ (see follow up). Even when the homework has beencarefully chosen, you can find yourself in the position of havingto rush through an explanation of what you want the studentsto do because you’ve come to the end of the lesson. Without thenecessary time to explain the aim of the homework, studentsmay not appreciate its value.

All of this is a shame because homework can have an importantpart to play in language learning. Apart from the obvious onethat it can be used to practise and consolidate work that goeson in the classroom, it also forms a bridge between lessons,which is especially important for students only studying a fewhours a week. If they complete homework tasks, they continuelearning outside the classroom and they keep English tickingover in their minds. And the more they do it, the moreindependent they become, and the more likely they are to carryon learning. How do we successfully tap into this potential?

With an adult class, the first step is to consult the learners onthe feasibility of homework, and the amount of time that can bedevoted to it. Most students recognize the potential benefits ofhomework, and if they are personally involved in negotiatingthe amount of homework they do, they are more likely torespect it. This may mean that students do different amounts ofhomework, in which case you can set a minimum amount foreveryone to do, with optional activities for those who havemore time.

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writingGuided or free writing is a common homework task as mostteachers and students look upon writing as a solitaryoccupation which is best done outside class, although itneedn’t be. Writing also comes at the end of many coursebooklessons and may be given for homework if the teacher runs outof time. Writing is a very demanding skill and some learnersfind it particularly difficult to know how or where to start. Wethink these homework activities are sometimes more successfulif you can make a start in class, perhaps with students workingtogether, and then ask learners to carry on and finish the task athome. Another suggestion is that you do the homework as welland give it to your students to mark. This would not be veryappropriate for grammar exercises, but for a piece of writingsuch as a description of a holiday, it would be very suitable. Weknow of one teacher who did this with a class that weregenerally reluctant to do homework, and it proved remarkablysuccessful.

try it out e-mail accountI set up a special e-mail account (not my personal one) andasked students to write me an e-mail on Sunday evening,outlining what they’d done during the weekend. I only repliedwith one or two lines, but students enjoyed the sense that theywere getting some individual attention, and really appreciatedthe fact that I was giving up my own time to do it. It workedvery well.Julia, London.

personal interestsHomework is a great opportunity for students to personalizetheir learning and follow up their own particular interests. Youcan start this off in class by asking students to think about thesubjects that interest them, e.g. music, politics, etc., as well asthe language learning activities they enjoy doing, e.g. listeningto tapes, doing language exercises, writing stories, and so on.(Lesley Painter includes a photocopiable questionnaire youcould use for this purpose.) Ask students to commit themselvesto something specific they are going to do for homework, andtell you what it is. In the next lesson, put students in smallgroups to talk about what they did. Sometimes this will resultin them recommending activities to each other. You could alsoask them to write a short summary of what they did. Be veryencouraging, whatever they manage to do.

speaking buddies With some classes, you may be able to extend their speakingpractice outside class by setting paired speaking activities.Students can do these either on the phone, or in a coffee barbefore the next lesson. Encourage them to pair up with anotherstudent they enjoy working with, and set some simplespeaking tasks. For example, play a game such as ‘TwentyQuestions’, or talk for ten minutes about their families, or talkabout TV programmes they like. Alternatively, ask each pair toprepare something to talk about in class over the comingweeks: perhaps they can write a set of questions for the class todiscuss, or prepare a short talk together. They may simply wantto do their homework together and compare answers. Again,remember to follow up in class any speaking homework thatyou set.

It is worth remembering that nothing is more discouraging forlearners than to do homework which the teacher forgets to goover or acknowledge. If you teach a lot of different classes,keep a record of any homework you set to remind you. It iseasy to neglect homework feedback with the demands of thesyllabus and the constraints on classroom time, but we dothink it is important to include time for feedback in your lessonplanning.

conclusionIn this chapter, we have looked at:

– ways of encouraging learners to keep clear and accuraterecords of what they have learnt

– guidance on dictionary training, and the use of grammarand vocabulary self-study guides

– how to promote self-access, both in school and at home

– the importance of homework, and the different types ofhomework you can give

Not every learner wants to be independent, and some simplydo not have the time to devote to English outside theclassroom. Nevertheless, the guidance and encouragement youprovide in these areas of developing learner autonomy canhave substantial benefits for many learners.

follow upgeneralPainter L 2003 Homework (Resource Books for Teachers) OUPThompson M Time Well Spent in English Teaching Professional (issue 31)Wright J 1998 Dictionaries (Resource Books for Teachers) OUPgrammar practiceSwan M and Walter C 2001 The Good Grammar Book (with answers)

OUPMurphy R 2002 English Grammar in Use: A Self-study Reference and

Practice Book for Elementary Students of English CUPvocabulary practiceMcCarthy M and O’Dell F 1999 English Vocabulary in Use:

Elementary CUPdictionariesOxford Essential DictionaryOxford Photo DictionaryOxford Student’s DictionaryOxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishMacmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners

answer keythink!4 p.155

Sentences 1, 4, 7, and 8 are true.Dictionaries include a great deal of information about grammar,as can be seen in sentences 1 (nouns which don’t change formfrom singular to plural), 2 (comparative and superlative formsand adverbs), and 5 (the correct preposition for this phrase is at).Clearly sentences 4, 6, and 7 focus on word meaning.Sentences 3 and 8 focus on pronunciation: 3 on stress marking/"sIz@z/, /"baIr@U/, and the silent letter in comb is apparentfrom the phonemic transcription /k@Um/.

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how to … communicate with low-level learners

how to … communicate with low-level learners

1 Use of the mother tongue2 Classroom language in English3 Purposeful teacher talk

1 Use of the mother tongue

think!1

What was your experience of learning a foreign language whenyou were at school? Did the teachers use your mother tongue(MT) all or most of the time? What about you now? What’s your policy on the use of themother tongue with low-level learners?

Anyone learning a foreign language forty years ago probablyhad a teacher who used the mother tongue for instructionalmost all the time, employing the grammar translationmethod. This was certainly the case for most pupils in Britishschools, and in some schools in Britain and around the world,it is still true. Up to the 1970s, grammar translation was theprevailing method, although some teachers experimented withdirect method and audio-lingual approaches, both of whichdiscouraged the use of the MT. By the 1970s, more teacherswere starting to use the audio-lingual method, based largely onbehaviourist models of learning. This involved studentslistening to models and then repeating them, chorally andindividually. Any explanations in either the mother tongue orL2 were largely frowned upon. In the 1980s and 1990s,teachers following the communicative approach tended tooperate largely in L2, but with an increasingly flexible attitudeto use of the MT. Of course, in some teaching situations, use ofthe mother tongue is not feasible, e.g. in a multilingualclassroom where English is the lingua franca, or in classroomswhere the teacher doesn’t speak the students’ own language.However, for many teachers around the world who speak thestudents’ mother tongue and work in a monolingualenvironment, the use of the MT is an important issue whichcontinues to arouse strong feelings. Let’s look briefly at some ofthe advantages and disadvantages in a monolingual setting.

advantages of using the mother tongue (for teachers and learners)– It is quicker and easier for the teacher to give instructions

and explain new language in the students’ mother tongue.

– There is less likelihood of students’ misunderstanding aninstruction or explanation in their MT.

– It is reassuring for (some) students to be in a classroomsurrounded by their mother tongue.

– Students can ask questions easily in their mother tongue,e.g. seeking a refinement to an explanation the teacher hasjust given, or perhaps asking a question to satisfy theircuriosity or thirst for knowledge. If learners have to do thisin English, they may feel more inhibited and remain silent

rather than risk speaking in English. This could have a verynegative effect on both their motivation and progress.

– Students may have more energy to devote to understandinga rule or explanation if they are not also trying tounderstand what is being said to them in English.

– The teacher can focus on similarities and differencesbetween English and the learners’ mother tongue; this canbe very fruitful, especially in anticipating or highlightingpotential errors. Here is one idea you could try to encourageyour learners to make positive use of the mother tongue.

try it out peer translationDivide the class into small groups and give each group a specificlanguage point you want them to test on other groups, e.g. theuse of different frequency adverbs with the present simple. Thegroup then writes four to six sentences which include the targetlanguage, e.g. I often go out on Saturday evening; I hardly everhave breakfast with my parents. Check their sentences arecorrect, then on a separate sheet of paper get each group totranslate their sentences into their mother tongue. Again, checkto make sure they are correct. Groups then exchange their MTsentences and translate them back into English. Finally, theyreturn their sentences to the group who wrote them forcorrection.This idea comes from Sheelagh Deller. See follow up.

disadvantages of using the mother tongue– If the teacher consistently uses the mother tongue, students

will inevitably do the same. This will produce a classroom inwhich teacher and students are talking a lot about Englishbut not talking very much in English.

– If classes are largely conducted in the mother tongue, manylearners will remain inhibited about speaking in English.

– Students will be deprived of valuable L2 listening practice.This is particularly important in situations where thestudents may hear little or no English outside the classroom.

– Students are also deprived of the opportunity to pick up arange of useful words and phrases that teachers commonlyuse in classroom instructions and explanations (in English),e.g. first of all, let’s have a look at, the main difference is that …, etc. As these types of phrases are repeated time andagain, students often learn them with little conscious effort,and this can contribute significantly to the amount theylearn in the classroom (see section 3 on teacher talk).

– In mother tongue classrooms, some students may not feelthey are participating in an ‘English’ experience, and thiscould have a negative effect on their motivation.

classroom policyIt is reasonable to suppose that teachers will want theirstudents to use English as much as possible, and as we haveindicated above, this is only likely to happen in the classroom ifthe teacher uses English themselves as much as possible. At the

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– Do you feel the use of the mother tongue is justifiable inmost cases? Could they be doing more in English?

This research may help you to clarify your policy on the use ofthe MT, and may also give you clear examples to show yourlearners how they could be making more use of the English theyalready have.

Bear in mind that if your students are using their mothertongue, it may not be through any laziness on their part, orunwillingness to speak English. Have you given them anactivity which they are not capable of doing with their currentlevel of English? On a more positive note, students can becomeso engaged in an activity that they revert to their mother tonguesimply out of their desire to express themselves, and weshouldn’t reprimand learners for such enthusiasm.

2 Classroom language in English

some guidelinesWhether you use the learners’ mother tongue or not, you stillneed to communicate in English some of the time, and thispresents a challenge with low-level learners, even forexperienced teachers. How can you communicate naturally, yetin a way that they will be able to follow? And how can youavoid speaking ‘pidgin’ English? Here are some guidelines:

– Try to say things once, but clearly. If you say the same thingin several different ways, learners may think you are sayingdifferent things. And if you repeat yourself a lot, you’reprobably wasting valuable time.

– Try not to speak unnaturally slowly. If you do, you maysound as if you’re addressing children. Having said that,you will probably need to slow your speech a little.

– You can help learners by keeping the speed natural, butpausing briefly at appropriate points to let them take inwhat you’ve said.

– Use your voice to highlight key words when you’respeaking. This will involve making them slightly louder andlonger, and may also include very small pauses around thekey words.

– Avoid letting your voice fall away completely at the end ofsentences. Low-level learners tend to think that everythingyou say is important, and they may worry that they havemissed something.

same time, there are occasions in a monolingual classroomwhen the mother tongue can be used to good effect. For thoseteachers who speak the students’ mother tongue, therefore, itmay be a case of establishing a clear policy with low-levelclasses as to when and why it is sensible or expedient for theteacher and students to use the MT.

For the teacher it may be:– to explain something about their teaching methodology

which learners might not understand with their currentlevel of English, e.g. why they think it is beneficial forstudents to work in pairs or small groups; or why they wantthem to first read a text without using their dictionaries.

– to explain the rules of a game or clarify a particularlanguage point. (This may be reinforcing an explanationalready given in English.)

– to provide an MT equivalent which would be difficult andtime-consuming to explain in English.

– to make comparisons between the MT and English whichare of particular importance. (Again, this may be acombination of English and the mother tongue.)

For the student it may be:– to repair a breakdown in communication during a pairwork

activity, thereby ensuring that the activity can continuelargely in English.

– to ask the teacher a question (e.g. seeking advice on thebest dictionary to buy) or explain a reason for something(e.g. why they cannot come to the next lesson), which isbeyond their current ability in English.

In the early stages of learning, it is perfectly natural forstudents who share the same mother tongue to feelembarrassed about talking to each other in English, and manywill switch back to their L1 periodically rather than struggle inEnglish. To outlaw any use of the mother tongue in thissituation would seem, at best, very harsh. Teachers may bemore successful if they adopt a tolerant attitude towards themother tongue in the early stages of learning, while at the sametime prompting and encouraging the use of English whereverpossible. It is crucial, though, that the policy on MT use ismade clear and that it is reached with agreement on both sides.Adult students are more likely to support a policy which theyhave helped to shape.

If you are not sure where the boundary between MT and L2should be in your particular teaching situation (many factorssuch as age, class size, and your students’ learning backgroundwill influence this), you could try this bit of classroom research.

try it out classroom researchOver the next two or three lessons, note down when (and why)your students use their mother tongue in the classroom. If oneof your colleagues is free, they may be willing to come to yourclass, monitor the students, and collect the data. Afterwards,you can analyze the results.

– Is the mother tongue being used by most of the students,or just a few?

– Are students using the mother tongue in the samesituations? For example, is it to ask you questions, or is itmainly between themselves in student-centred speakingactivities?

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– Try to pronounce ‘naturally’: in other words, keep innatural features of connected speech. Use contractions andweak forms, link your speech naturally, and avoiddistorting your pronunciation in order to make it easier foryour learners. If you modify your pronunciationunreasonably, learners will be less able to understandnatural spoken English when they hear it from others.

– Use gestures, demonstrations, pictures, and diagrams toenliven your speech and make it more comprehensible.

– With low-level monolingual classes, you could give theinstructions twice (first in English, then in the MT) andrepeat this method until they are sufficiently accustomed tothe English instructions and the MT is no longer necessary.A variant of this might be to ask learners to translate backthe teacher’s English instructions; just ask, Now what do youhave to do?

language gradingIf you are not very experienced with teaching lower levels, youmay need to monitor the language you use when givinginstructions. For example, complete the gaps, write your answers inthe blanks, and fill in the answers all express the same idea, butusing different permutations with elementary learners can beconfusing. Try and keep to one instruction to start with, andthen gradually introduce different forms, checking thatstudents understand. In this way, you will be expanding yourlearners’ receptive vocabulary in a very natural way.

You also need to decide which items of vocabulary will beeasier for your learners to understand. This may depend ontheir mother tongue, but for most learners, find out is harderthan ask, likely is harder than probably, and make up your mind ismore convoluted than decide. The ‘harder’ items areundoubtedly natural and extremely useful, but they can beintroduced over time. With regard to structures, try to talk tolearners in ‘the here and now’ rather than using hypotheticallanguage, and where possible, avoid indirect speech. Forexample, rather than:

Imagine someone stopped you in the street and wanted to know ifthere was a post office nearby. What would you say?

you could say:

You’re in the street. A man asks you for the post office. What do yousay?

think!2

Look at these examples of classroom language which mightconfuse low-level learners. How could you make each oneclearer? exampleRight, could you all get up, please, and go round and have a chatwith lots of different people about their families.Say: Get up, please (with a gesture to show them to stand up).Ask three people about their family. Demonstrate the activitybefore giving these instructions: ask a student about his / herfamily, and get a student to ask you about your family. Thisshould ensure that the activity will be clear before they begin.

1 OK, I want you all to note that down.2 Can anyone tell me what ‘forget’ means?3 Can anyone tell me where you’d be likely to see a

wardrobe?

4 OK, Ahmed, do you think you could ask Sami to go to thecinema with you tonight?

5 When you’ve finished reading the dialogue with yourpartner, swap so you each have a go at the different parts.

6 Don’t let your partner see what’s in your picture.

go to answer key p.166

Classroom discourse invariably includes a large number ofphrases that learners hear or read (and sometimes use) againand again. Some of these are comprehensible from the context,or don’t require explanation because you are demonstratingwhat to do. However, you need to check that studentsunderstand some of these phrases, especially at lower levelswith learners who are not familiar with your teachingmethodology.

Here are some examples of classroom language for instructionsthat learners often need to understand. As you read, decidewhich of the phrases you use most. Do you express these ideaswith different language? Can you add to each category?

– getting startedOpen your books at / turn to page 7; look at / do exercise 5;compare your answers with your partner; read the article on page23, etc.

– exercise rubricsCircle / underline / cross out / tick the right answer, etc., completethe grid / table / form / sentence / phrase / gaps, etc.

– focus on new wordsWhat does X mean? What’s another word for …? Is it the same as…? How do you say …? How do you spell / pronounce / write …?

– checking instructionsDo you have to write? (no) How many questions do you have toask? (six)

– class organizationWork with your partner / in pairs / groups of four; find a newpartner; move your chairs; sit facing your partner; don’t start yet;change roles; get up and talk to different people, etc.

– winding downCan you stop, now, please? Finish the exercise for homework; that’sit for today, etc.

Want to know more? Go to pre-intermediate teacher’s book, how to ...do pair and group work p.146

terminologyHow much terminology do you use with your learners atlanguage clarification stages? How much should you use?There is no simple answer to this, and to a large extent it willdepend on your teaching context. In some teaching situations,learners will be familiar with some grammar terminology(e.g. noun, verb, subject, object, etc.), and they would expect itto be used in class; indeed, they might be rather shocked if itweren’t. In other situations, learners will find the use ofterminology baffling and intimidating, so you may have toavoid it even if you have a personal preference for using it. Thegreatest difficulty can be in multilingual classrooms wherelearners not only have different degrees of knowledge, but alsodifferent expectations about the use of terminology. In general,it seems sensible to avoid overloading learners with too muchterminology, but to introduce new terms as and when you feel

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they will benefit from them. In the long term, we believe thatthe use of certain terminology can save you time and, of course,will help students to make better use of dictionaries andgrammar books.

think!3

Which of these items of terminology would be useful for yourlearners to know as they proceed through an elementary course?contraction negative plural syllablecollocation verb subject / object nounadjective uncountable noun subjunctive prepositionmodal verb pronoun present perfectdefinite / indefinite article

go to answer key p.166

try it out classroom languageWhen a teacher gives instructions, there is a genuine reason forlearners to listen: they need to be able to follow theinstructions in order to achieve the task. Here is a simple wayyou can focus on the language you use and teach useful chunksof language in the process.Think about an activity you are going to use with your learners,and plan your instructions for it carefully. A suitable activity forthis purpose would be a vocabulary revision game. For example,write ten vocabulary items on a poster for A students, and tenitems on a different poster for B students. You’ll put the Aposter on the board first, and the B poster later.Set up the activity in the normal way, but use the simpleinstructions you have planned. Record yourself while you’redoing this, without making it too obvious. For example:

Find a partner.Move your chairs, and sit opposite each other.Student A: look at the board.Student B: don’t look at the board.Student A: there are ten words on the board.Explain the words, but don’t say them.Student B: listen and guess the words.When you finish, change places.Student B: you now explain your words.

When students have finished the revision activity, ask them ifthey remember your instructions. Give them the first instructionabove, and see if they can remember any of the others in pairs.As they have just done the activity, they will have understoodwhat you said, but may not be able to recall the instructions.Give them prompts (e.g. the first one or two words of eachinstruction) and see if they can reproduce the instructions. Atthe end, you can play them the instructions you recorded tocheck their answers. They won’t recall the instructions exactly,but if they get the gist, they have done well.

a real example Finally, let’s look at an example of some real instructions froma lesson with a pre-intermediate, multinational class. Theteacher (David) recorded the lesson because he wanted to see

just how clear and effective his instructions were. He thenwrote a commentary on the extract, which we have included.

The aim of the lesson was to give students speaking practicethrough a role play. Before this extract, he had established thecontext carefully using board drawings and characters, andorganized the learners into groups for the activity. By this stage,they had a clear idea of what to do in the role play, and therewas some language on cards on the board (including someconditional sentences) which they might need to use. InDavid’s own words, the students were ‘raring to go’ at thispoint.

Teacher OK. Listen to me for two minutes. Max, Ali, wait aminute and then you can speak. OK. Now I’m going to give youmaybe ten or fifteen minutes to practise the situations. This isyou (indicating board drawings). OK? Now, you’re actors today.You are actors. OK? So here we have ... Ahmed is very scared,(general laughter) and they’re not laughing (indicating two othersin Ahmed’s group). Don’t laugh. Don’t laugh, Hedvika – you’rereally angry. OK. She’s very angry. OK? And look at Joe (movingto another group). Look at Joe. How do they feel? (indicatingother members of Joe’s group.)

Student 1 Unhappy.

T A little bit unhappy, yes. And over here, what are we talkingabout?

S2 Travelling.

T Travelling. Where do you want to go travelling?

S2 Disneyland.

T Disneyland. Where do you want to go? (indicating anotherstudent)

S3 Paris.

T Paris. OK, now, listen. You are actors. Actors. So I want you topractise the situation once. And then talk about it. Mmm,(indicating speaking) … that was good, that was OK. Next timeyou should be angrier, or you should, … I don’t know ...something. Talk about it. Practise again: da, da, da, da, da(indicating speaking with hands). Talk about it. Practise again:da, da, da, da, da, da. And at the end, when you’ve got itperfect, you can come here and act (general nervous laughter).OK, so you can use these if you like (starts taking the cards withconditional sentences off the board). So I’ll give you these. If youwant, you can use these. If I can get them off the board. You canuse these to help you (handing them out). OK, so beginpreparing now. Don’t look at this too much (indicating cards justhanded out). OK, so you can use them, but speaking, practising.Ten minutes!

commentary[this has been abridged]

The aim of the teacher talk in this extract is to give instructions for astudent activity. The students actually went on to carry out the activitywith no problems, but whether or not this was a result of this particularpassage of instruction is debatable. In fact, I think this passage couldhave been reduced to a few lines with the same end result. I believethis unnecessary length stems from two psychological factors on mypart: a) an almost manic desire to make sure that everything isabsolutely 100% clear; and b) not giving the students enough credit(especially at the lower levels) to be able to understand things whichare succinct and to the point and not repeated time after time. In fact,this passage is a real eye-opener for me, and makes me wonder howmuch class time I waste with superfluous and long–winded instructions.Not only that, how do the students feel about this? Frustrated?Humiliated? Grateful?

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I then go on to another area of instruction. I think this is useful forstudents and makes it clear that something new is coming.

– as empty checking of concepts and instructions. A student willalmost never call out, ‘No, I don’t understand’ in response tothese.

– to keep things moving along at a steady pace.

David is an excellent and very successful teacher. He is veryself-critical here (perhaps too much so), but he learnt a greatdeal from recording his teacher talk. We are extremely gratefulto him for giving us permission to use these extracts.

try it out record yourselfTry recording yourself a few times when you are teaching a class.You don’t need to tell the students what you are doing; this isjust for your benefit. If you are reasonably near the taperecorder, it will pick up your voice enough to listen back afterthe lesson and evaluate it.Take a couple of short extracts where you are talking and thestudents are responding.

– Do you think your language is graded to their level?– Does your delivery sound natural? (vocabulary, grammar,

pronunciation)– Do you talk unnecessarily, or are your instructions

succinct?– Do you repeat what the students say, or repeat yourself?– Do you think the students understand?– Do you give them time to think and respond?– What do you think is the best feature of your talk? – Is there an area you would like to improve?

You don’t need to write anything down. Over the next fewlessons, try to work on the area you were least satisfied with.

3 Purposeful teacher talkWe imagine many teachers can recall lessons on teacher trainingcourses in which they were reprimanded by their trainer for toomuch TTT (teacher talking time) and not enough STT (studenttalking time). It is a common criticism that teachers sometimestalk at the expense of their learners and deny them adequatetime to practise what they have studied. In many cases thecriticism is probably quite valid: long-winded instructions andgrammar explanations can be counter-productive.

However, the pendulum has shifted in recent years and morehas been written about the positive role of teacher talking timein student learning – or ‘QTTT’ (Quality teacher talking time) asa colleague of ours calls it. This is most acute at lower levelswhen learners struggle to understand the majority of spokenEnglish they are exposed to outside the classroom. Here, theexperience of the teacher has a vital role to play. They willknow how to grade their language to the learners’ current level,and they can use body language, gestures, and classroom aids tosupport what they are saying. They can also judge whether thestudents have understood, and if not, react accordingly, eitherby repeating what they have said or reformulating in simplerEnglish. These are just some of the advantages the teacher hasover the use of audio tapes in the classroom. And, of course, thestudents can interrupt the teacher if they haven’t understoodand ask for clarification. With an audio recording they can ask

how to … communicate with low-level learners

language gradingI think the language I use in this passage is pitched at about the rightlevel. The grammar of my talk does not seem to be simplified, but mypronunciation is definitely graded towards the level. Not only am Ispeaking more slowly than I usually do, but I am omitting weak formsand replacing them with full forms, which makes the speech sound quiteunnatural.

densityThe final passage in the extract is simply too dense. At no time do Ipause to check understanding. With hindsight, I would have put thefollowing on the board: 1) Practise the role play, 2) Talk about yourpractice, 3) Practise again, 4) Talk about it again, 5) Act in front of theclass. This would have made the explanation much clearer and easier tofollow.

repetitionAt certain stages, I begin to sound like a parrot!

Don’t laugh, Hedviga. Don’t laugh ... You’re really angry ... She’s really angry ... You are actors today ... You are actors ...

The question is, what effect does this have on the students? It can’t bevery good for their listening skills. I wouldn’t want them to become‘repetition dependent’! In many cases, the input they receive from theirteacher may be the only input. If so, it should be as natural as possible.

questionsThe students know the answers to the questions I ask, but they arechecking questions (making sure that the students have understood theinstructions) and are thus justifiable.

echoingIn this extract, the ‘echoing’ effect is glaringly obvious. My copyingwhat the students say serves no purpose – the students had pronouncedthe words correctly and produced the correct response, so there was nocorrection or reformulation.

Student 1 Unhappy.

T A little bit unhappy, yes. And over here, what are we talking about?

S2 Travelling.

T Travelling. Where do you want to go travelling?

S2 Disneyland.

T Disneyland. Where do you want to go? (indicating another student)

S3 Paris.

T Paris.

This is the area of my teacher talk that I find the hardest to work on. Idon’t even hear myself doing it, and this makes it difficult to cut out.

OK / OK?This word appears eleven times in a short space of time, and sincelistening to this tape of my class, I’ve become acutely aware of howmuch I use it when teaching. On closer examination, I use it indifferent ways:

– as a discourse marker; to mark the beginnings and ends of ideas.For example:

S3 Paris.

T Paris. OK, now, listen.

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If you prepare the task yourself, you could start by getting thestudents to ask you the questions about a teacher youremember from your past. The students will almost certainly beinterested in your replies, and if that interest takes thembeyond the rubric they were given so that they ask furtherfollow-up questions, give special praise. This will bemotivating and demonstrate to the whole class just how theactivity can be fully exploited. The lesson notes in the first partof this teacher’s book suggest a number of places where youcan do this.

The same would be true for anecdotes: students are more likelyto be interested in a true story told by someone they know,e.g. their teacher, than by a stranger talking to them through acassette recorder or CD player. For this reason, we often suggestthat you supplement audio recordings of anecdotes with one ofyour own. You could tell your own story before students listento the recording (if it is not dissimilar, it will then make therecording easier to understand), or you might conclude theactivity with your own anecdote.

listen and ‘do’A popular classroom listening activity is where learners aregiven instructions and have to carry them out (often called TPR:Total Physical Response). This could be a recording in whichstudents have to carry out physical exercises. For example:

Stand up.

Take three steps forward.

Stop.

Put your hands on your head.

Lift your left leg.

etc.

The advantage of the teacher giving the instructions (ratherthan a recording) is that they can see how well the students arecarrying out the instructions and adjust accordingly by makingthem easier or more difficult.

A drawing dictation is another example of this. Tell thestudents to take out a plain piece of paper, then start thedictation. For example:

Draw a river across the middle of the page – quite a big river.

Now draw a small boat somewhere on the river – anywhere you like.

To the north of the river, on the right-hand side of the page, there’s acastle.

To the left of the castle, there’s a small lake, just a little way from theriver.

Around the lake there are two small houses.

To the south of the river, on the left-hand side, there are two or threehills.

etc.

While you are giving the instructions, move round the classand monitor the drawings. Then tell students to compare theirdrawings with a partner’s and note down any differencesbetween them, like this:

My lake is bigger than Alicia’s. Our houses are on different sides of thelake, etc.

their teacher to repeat the cassette / CD, but they won’t havethe benefit of possibly hearing the message again in simplerEnglish.

The teacher then is the main source of comprehensible input forlearners, and as such it is worth considering the different kindsof teacher talk in the classroom, and how it can be usedproductively. (Unfortunately, there is unproductive teacher talkas well.)

Want to know more? Go to pre-intermediate teacher’s book, how to …help learners understand natural speech p. 175

social talkThe beginning of a lesson, when students are drifting intoclass, is a real opportunity for you to chat with your students.Apart from the obvious greetings, you can ask them about theirday / weekend / week (depending on the time between each ofyour lessons), and let them ask you questions too. This is ‘real’communication, and some of the most valuable speaking andlistening practice learners can have. It also helps you to get toknow your students and establish a good rapport with them.The end of the lesson is a further opportunity to enquire abouttheir plans for the evening / weekend, and possibly talk aboutevents in your local town.

Social talk of this kind doesn’t have to be confined to thebeginning or end of a lesson. A brief diversion often serves as anatural and useful break between other classroom activities,especially if they have been quite intensive and without muchspeaking or listening involved. You may be able to takeadvantage of the learning opportunities that arise in the ‘chat’.Don’t interrupt while students are talking, but make a mentalnote of lexical or structural problems and come back to themlater.

However, as a general rule don’t let the chat go on too long,otherwise students may feel you are wasting time.

teacher modelsBefore students engage in a pair or group activity, it is oftenuseful and sometimes necessary to demonstrate the activityyourself. This not only helps them to see what is required inthe activity, but also provides valuable listening practice forwhich they are likely to be very motivated, as they are going todo the same activity themselves afterwards. For example:

from elementary student’s book, unit seven p.60

speaking it’s your turn!1 Think! Think about a teacher you had in the past.

What was your teacher’s name?

What did he / she teach?

How old were you?

What was he / she like?

What do you remember about him / her?

When did you last see him / her?

2 Ask three people about their teacher. How manypeople liked their teacher?

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live listening‘Live listening’ would include the purposeful teacher talkactivities we have suggested in this section, in which learnerscan listen and stop you, ask questions, react, etc. But you canalso invite English speakers into your classroom which canhelp to motivate your learners, provide another voice, andbring variety. In her excellent article in English TeachingProfessional, Jacqueline McEwan (see follow up) describes howshe has encouraged English-speaking, non-teaching friendsand family members to assist her lessons in a variety of ways.For instance, knowing that her mother was coming to visit herwhile she was working in Spain, she asked her elementaryclass to prepare some questions for her mother, then interviewher. Another group in Bolivia listened to a friend of herstalking about some differences between the US and the UK. Athird group were very motivated to listen to an American friendtalking about the street language teenagers use in the UnitedStates. Even in quite remote places, there may be Englishspeakers who would be willing to visit your class; it is often afascinating experience for the visitor too. Careful preparation isneeded both with the lesson and the students, but it can bevery rewarding for learners to be able to understand andinteract with a new speaker of English.

conclusionIn this chapter we have looked at:

– the advantages and disadvantages of using the MT in theclassroom

– the need for a clear classroom policy on use of the MT

– some practical guidelines for giving instructions in English

– a piece of classroom research a teacher carried out intoteacher talk

– reasons why teacher talk is important, with purposefulexamples

The use of teacher talk (including, in some cases, use of themother tongue) is a very personal subject. The best advice wecan give is to do what David did: record yourself talking tostudents in the classroom and then try to evaluate yourperformance honestly. This is probably one of the mostvaluable learning experiences you can have.

follow upHarmer J 2001 The Practice of English Language Teaching (third

edition) LongmanWajnryb R 1992 Classroom Observation Tasks Cambridge University

PressNunan D 1991 Language Teaching Methodology Prentice Hall

International (Chapter 10 Focus on the Teacher: ClassroomManagement and Teacher-Student Interaction)

Deller S 2003 The Language of the Learner in English TeachingProfessional (issue 26)

Winn-Smith B 2001 Classroom Language in English TeachingProfessional (issue 18)

McEwan J Be my Guest! in English Teaching Professional (issue 26)

answer keythink!2 p.162

1 Note down is harder to understand than write down. A simplerinstruction would be Please write that in your books,accompanied by a mime of handwriting if this is the first timeyou have given this instruction.

2 Ask a direct question: What does ‘forget’ mean? or better, askWhat’s the opposite of ‘forget’? to make things easier.

3 Again, ask the concept check question directly: Where do yousee / find a wardrobe? or ask a more focussed question, e.g. Doyou find a wardrobe in a kitchen or a bedroom?

4 Ahmed, ask Sami to go to the cinema with you tonight.5 When you finish the dialogue, change + gesture with your hands

to indicate pairs swapping.6 It isn’t easy to make this instruction much simpler, therefore

you have to accompany the instruction with a mime, or use apair at the front of the class, and show how one studentmustn’t show their picture to the other.

think!3 p.163The terminology you use will obviously depend on teachingcontext. Where there are particular grammar problem areas forlearners (e.g. the definite article for learners whose MT doesn’thave articles) you will probably focus on this area a great deal,and so the label would be a useful shortcut in correction.Most of the terminology in the think! box is used in naturalEnglish elementary at appropriate stages. However, we don’tfeel that it is worth teaching collocation, modal verb, orsubjunctive at this stage; and subject / object, or pronounmight be more suitable for language groups who are familiarwith this terminology in their MT. (For instance, in ourexperience, Italian learners are often familiar with grammarterminology because of their learning background.)

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how to … select, organize, and presentvocabulary at lower levels

1 Selecting vocabulary2 Organizing vocabulary3 Presenting vocabulary

1 Selecting vocabularyFor many teachers, the vocabulary taught in the classroom willbe largely determined by the coursebook they are using orother materials chosen by the institution where they areworking. Even so, teachers will have to spend time onincidental vocabulary as it arises in classroom activities, andalmost inevitably they will take vocabulary material into theclassroom to supplement and extend the vocabulary selectedby others. On some courses, especially shorter courses, teacherscan often choose their own coursebook, or use their discretionabout which parts of the coursebook they use. In other words,directly or indirectly, all teachers make some decisions aboutthe vocabulary they teach and / or the amount of time andemphasis they wish to place on different lexis. And if they havethe opportunity to influence the choice of coursebook in theirparticular school or college, they should have a view about therelevance and value of the vocabulary in the coursebooksavailable to them.

So, what are the principal criteria influencing lexical selection?

think!1

Before you read the next section, look at this list of lexicalitems. Which ones might you teach to an elementary group oflearners? Think about your reasons for teaching them, or notteaching them. Then read on.

passport eyebrow guess the meaning interest ratebloke leave character stand upforty although bill key

usefulnessIf students need to use a word or phrase, then it’s useful. In theclassroom we can make informed decisions about thevocabulary that’s useful, starting with words and phrases thatform part of everyday classroom interaction between teachersand students, and between students themselves, e.g. pen,page (27), look at the board, can I use / borrow …, how do you spellthat? and so on. For this reason alone, guess the meaning and standup from the list above would both be useful items to teach.

It is less easy to decide what vocabulary students will needoutside the classroom, but most learners (and especially thoseat lower levels) will want to be able to engage in everydayconversation about their lives: their home, school / college /work, relationships, social life, interests, and so on. Therefore,a verb such as go out (e.g. Do you want to go out this evening?) islikely to be more useful for general English students than a very

specific topic-related verb such as excavate. In our experience,most learners also want to be able to manage basic serviceencounters in shops, hotels, restaurants, and railway stations.This provides a solid reason to teach a word such as bill (or checkin American English), as anyone who travels in an English-speaking country (or another country where English iscommonly the lingua franca between people who speak adifferent L1) is likely to need the word in a hotel or restaurant.

This example raises another important issue: are studentslearning English principally to communicate with nativespeakers of English? (If so, is it to communicate with Britishpeople, Americans, Australians, South Africans, or whoever?)The truth is that in many cases, people want to use English as aLingua Franca (ELF) with other non-native speakers ofEnglish. How does this impact on the English we teach? Somewould say that these learners don’t need the kind of informallanguage that appears most frequently only between twonative speakers of English.

think!2

Do you think the word bloke is a useful word for elementarystudents to learn? Is it only useful for learners studying in theUK? Or would learners in their own country also benefit fromlearning it? Why / Why not?Think about these questions before you read on.

Although the word bloke is quite high frequency, it is one ofthose informal words which does not transfer easily into anelementary learner’s interlanguage, as the rest of their Englishdoes not exhibit the same informality. In other words, it canstand out as sounding a bit strange. The meaning is also morethan adequately covered by the equally common and moreglobally familiar word guy. Does this mean we shouldn’t teachit? For learners studying in Britain, it is certainly a useful wordto know receptively, if not productively, and it seems perfectlyreasonable to us to teach the word to students if it comes up inclass. Whether you would select the item for low-level learnersin the majority of teaching contexts is more questionable.

In a general English class, your learners may not have anyspecific needs, or may not be able to identify any. However,with a fairly homogeneous group sharing the same specificneeds, e.g. English for business, it is vital that you find out asmuch as possible about the situations in which they are goingto use their English in order to determine the most usefullanguage to teach. And for this type of group, a relativelylow-frequency word such as interest rate may be extremelyuseful. It is unlikely, however, to be a high priority for studentsin a low-level general English class.

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frequency It is logical that frequency will be an important factor inselecting lexis, with high-frequency items being generallymore important than low-frequency items. Since thedevelopment of computer corpora (large databases of spokenand written text), we now have much more accurate anddetailed information about the relative frequency of words andthe linguistic contexts in which they most typically occur.Some of that information is now widely available indictionaries for learners of English, so teachers can make moreinformed decisions about lexical selection than was the caseten years ago. A good example of this from the think!1 box iskey. Instinct and common sense may tell us that the noun key islikely to be a high-frequency item (it is), but what about key,meaning very important, as an adjective? In fact, it is also ahigh-frequency item. This doesn’t mean we have to teach theadjective to low-level learners – frequency is not the onlydetermining factor – but with this new information we may bemore inclined now to introduce this meaning of key at a fairlylow level.

Unfortunately, dictionaries based on computer corpora don’ttell us everything we would like to know about frequency.They tell us that leave (another word in our list above) is a veryhigh-frequency word, and presumably a word we shouldteach, but what meanings of leave should we teach?

1 The train leaves in five minutes. (= depart)

2 She wants to leave her husband. (= separate from)

3 He’s decided to leave his job. (= quit)

4 You can leave your bag here. (= put for a period of time)

5 She left her homework on the bus. (= forgot)

Dictionaries usually (but not always) list different meanings ofa word in order of frequency, so we can generally assume thatthose listed at the beginning of an entry are the most common.On that basis, leave meaning depart is more frequent than leavewith the meaning forget. But how much more frequent is onemeaning over the other? Dictionaries don’t tell us that. Neitherdo they give us information about the frequency of phrasalverbs or idioms. So, if frequency were our only criterion forselection, we wouldn’t know whether to teach take up (startdoing an activity) before give up (= stop doing an activity), orthat’s a shame before that’s a pity. Going back to the earlierexample, we think there is good reason to teach most if not allof the above meanings of leave at an early stage: several are veryclosely related (leave one’s partner and leave one’s job both involvepermanent separation), and we suspect all of them are highfrequency. We would certainly consider them all useful.

Reliable information about word frequency is extremely usefulto syllabus designers and language teachers, but it is unwise toaccept this information uncritically or follow it slavishly; thereare other factors to consider.

teachabilityIt may seem like a poor excuse to decide against teaching aword on the grounds that it is too difficult to teach, but that isexactly what we may have to do some of the time withlow-level learners. Words that we can draw (e.g. circle), point to(e.g. door), or demonstrate (e.g. kick or sneeze) are easier to teachthan most items requiring a definition or explanation. Abstractwords are especially difficult with low-level learners. In ourearlier list, character falls into this category, as do verbs such aspretend and behave. Should we ignore them? Sometimes we mayhave to, but we cannot totally protect learners from ‘difficult’

vocabulary. On some occasions, we have to be prepared tospend time on a word, and also recognize that our firstexplanation may not be adequate; but with further exposure tothe word in different contexts, learners will gradually form anunderstanding. Of course, the most obvious way round thisproblem is translation. There may be a straightforwardone-to-one equivalent, but even if there isn’t, an explanationusing the mother tongue is likely to be more successful thanone using L2. It is difficult to argue against using translationsin situations like this, provided it isn’t the only access thatlearners have to the meanings of new words.

learnabilitySome lexical items will be similar in form and meaning towords in the learners’ mother tongue. From our list, passport isone obvious example, and for many learners the same might betrue of hotel, telephone, taxi, restaurant, and tourist, although theremay be differences in pronunciation. It makes sense tointroduce as many of these cognates as possible at low levels,as it is a quick and easy way to increase learners’ vocabularies.In terms of motivation, it is also encouraging to discover thatsome things are the same in a foreign language.

expediency We may decide to teach some words that, on their own, are lowfrequency, but form part of high-frequency sets of words. Thus,Saturday and Sunday, and forty and fifty, are relatively infrequent(i.e. not in the top 2,000 words) but they belong to frequentlyoccurring sets (i.e. days of the week and numbers). Studentsare unlikely to need every number from 1–100, but we cansafely forecast that they will need some of them, and so there isa case for teaching not just frequent words, but frequently-occurring sets of words. Similarly, if you are using a picture toteach ten or fifteen parts of the body, it is very easy to addanother five simply because they are there and form part of theset, and students may want to know them anyway. This is howwords such as eyebrow often get taught at an early stage when,in actual fact, they are probably not that useful.

Likewise, words that are unfamiliar to learners will often comeup in the texts they are reading or listening to in the classroom,and we may have to deal with them, even if they don’t fulfil theother criteria mentioned above, such as usefulness orfrequency. However, while expediency is the reason for quite alot of incidental vocabulary teaching, it should not be a majordetermining factor in the vocabulary we select for teachingpurposes.

2 Organizing vocabularyIt is important to remember that the vocabulary we set out toteach our students is not necessarily the vocabulary they willlearn. In fact, no two learners usually acquire the samevocabulary from a particular lesson. One learner mayremember the word zip, having seen it in a text; another willforget it but remember get upset from a story told by the teacher;yet another will recall catch a cold from the lesson, but have nomemory of either zip or get upset. The learners’ take-up of newvocabulary may sometimes appear rather random andhaphazard, but we still believe it makes sense for us toorganize vocabulary for teaching purposes:

– presenting vocabulary in meaningful groups means you arecovering vocabulary in a systematic way

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– organized vocabulary teaching will help students to keeporganized records of their learning, and this may assist laterretrieval

– organized vocabulary teaching also means you know whatyou’ve taught, which in turn means you can revise and testthat vocabulary

Vocabulary can be organized in many different ways, but in theclassroom there are probably three major organizing principles(which may overlap):

– items related by topic or theme (e.g. health, weather,education)

– semantically related items (e.g. synonyms, opposites)

– linguistically related items (e.g. link words, phrasal verbs,noun suffixes, word families)

Let’s look at these in more detail.

items related by topic or themeIn any language course, grouping items by topic is one of themost common organizing principles, mainly because units incoursebooks are often topic-led. Texts (both written andspoken), grammar, speaking, and writing activities can all bewoven around a topic, and the lexis within that topic thenbecomes the main thrust of the vocabulary input for the unit.But topics can vary considerably in scale. For example, if youbrainstorm the topic of daily routines (commonly taught inelementary coursebooks), you’ll probably come up with ten ortwenty key phrases (get up / get dressed / have breakfast / go to work,etc.). Compare that with the topic of food, and you’ll find itquite difficult to limit the number of items; just look at thenumber of vegetables alone in the Oxford Photo Dictionary. Thiscan present real problems when you’re teaching. How do youdecide which food vocabulary, clothes vocabulary, orrelationships vocabulary to teach? You have to makejudgements based on the criteria mentioned in the first part ofthe chapter (usefulness, frequency, teachability, etc.), andinevitably you will find that once you are in the class, yourlearners will ask you for some of the very items youeliminated!

Topic vocabulary is often needed to support the practice ofgrammar or functional input. For example, activity verbs aretaught and then practised with like + -ing; weather vocabularyoften accompanies be going to; drinks vocabulary is used topractise offering and accepting hospitality.

think!3

Which grammatical structures or functional language might youteach alongside these vocabulary topic groupings at elementarylevel?

friends and family sports / games countries / nationalitiesentertainment animals physical appearance

go to answer key p.173

semantically related itemsSemantic groupings include items which are related to eachother by meaning, and for teaching purposes the mostimportant are probably synonyms, and antonyms (opposites).Synonyms are rarely, if ever, wholly synonymous. The

how to … select, organize, and present vocabulary at lower levels

similarity in meaning between two items usually has to bequalified in one or more of the following ways:

– difference in style, e.g. purchase is more formal than buy

– different collocates, e.g. you can describe people as shy, butanimals as timid

– different coverage (breadth of meaning), e.g. boring is moregeneral in meaning than dreary

– different grammar, e.g. say (intransitive) but tell (transitive)

– similar in one context but not another, e.g. you can talkabout having a wonderful or delicious meal, and you can seea wonderful film, but you don’t usually talk about seeing adelicious film.

Antonyms are also a useful way of organizing vocabulary,particularly when teaching adjectives, e.g. light / dark, clean / dirty. It is also a very common organizing principle whenwe want to introduce prefixes, e.g. friendly / unfriendly, honest / dishonest, etc. Reversing an action is a different kind ofoppositeness, but one which we often exploit to teach a varietyof verbs, e.g. planes take off / land; we can put on / take offa jacket; we get on / get off a bus, etc.

linguistically related itemsA further grouping is one in which the focus is on lexicalgrammar. This may be at word level, in terms of wordformation:

– prefixes, e.g. un + adj; in + adj

– suffixes, e.g. -tion, -ness

– compound nouns, e.g. credit card, post office

or the syntactic features of items:

– adjective + preposition, e.g. interested in, tired of

– verb patterns, e.g. decide / want + to do, enjoy + -ing

– link words, e.g. so, because

– phrasal verbs, e.g. put sth on, wake up

– uncountable nouns, e.g. homework, information

It is undoubtedly useful to focus on specific problem areas suchas these, but the disadvantage is that it can be very difficult toprovide natural and communicative practice of items withinthese categories: they have simply been selected because theyshare a linguistic feature. A further difficulty with suchgroupings can be one of level. For instance, in order to create asubstantial set of items to focus on separable / inseparablephrasal verbs for low-level learners, it is not easy to find itemswhich are useful productively and which will also lead tocommunicative practice. In this case, it is better to deal withuseful phrasal verbs (e.g. grow up, stay in, turn on / off) as theyarise, and leave the linguistic focus until students are more ableto deal with it.

Inevitably, there are many important lexical items that do notform part of a convenient set for teaching purposes. We havetried to overcome this problem by introducing natural Englishboxes which enable us to focus on one or two items at any onetime. Have a look at the box on the following page.

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from elementary student’s book, unit eight p.64

A further issue is that vocabulary is often organized within asingle word class, e.g. all nouns, all adjectives, or all phrasalverbs. There is a logic to this, but the downside is that it can berestricting, particularly in terms of providing communicativepractice. For instance, if you only teach items of clothing

(i.e. all nouns), it is a challenge to think of ways to practisethis, beyond identifying what people in the class are wearing,or what they wore yesterday. If you widen the range of itemsyou teach and include verbs and / or adjectives / phrases (witha corresponding reduction in the number of nouns), you havemore scope for practice: shopping dialogues, discussing whatto buy, questionnaires on clothes shopping and spendinghabits, talking about how clothes suit / don’t suit / fit / don’t fit,etc.

Once you consider putting vocabulary to communicative use,you start to realize that aside from needing single words items,you also need the words they collocate with, as well as phrases.Word spray diagrams can often give you this more rounded andbalanced set of items within a topic, and they can beparticularly useful for revision purposes. Below is an examplefocussing on sightseeing.

These diagrams can be fun to use, and they provide a veryuseful vocabulary record for learners. In the classroom, youcould give them a skeleton copy of the diagram with somevocabulary items missing for students to complete, or provide alist of vocabulary items for students to put in the correctcategories. They can work in pairs to share their knowledgeand use bilingual dictionaries to help them. Alternatively, youcould put category headings on the board and then build upthe diagram by eliciting relevant vocabulary and teaching somenew items as you proceed.

try it out word spray diagramsDevise your own word spray diagram called In a café to includea range of suitable vocabulary for elementary level, and try toincorporate single words and phrases. You could includevocabulary from units one and five of natural Englishelementary.When you’ve finished, compare your diagram with the one in theanswer key on p.173.

8.2

Which way’s the station?It’s that way.

Thanks.

4 natural English Listen. Do you hear the wordsin (brackets)?

natural Englishway /weI/

Way = road or directionright /raIt/ = ✓ wrong /rQN/ = ✗

Excuse me, is this the (right) way to the bus station?

Yes, it is.

Excuse me, which way’s the town centre?

(It’s) that way.Can we get to the park along here?

No, (sorry), that’s the wrong way.

5 pronunciation Listen again and repeat. Copy theintonation.

6 Think of five places near your school. Ask yourpartner, like this:

SIGHTSEEINGIN THE CITY

What happens?get losttake the bus / train / a taxihave a good / great / terrible timetake photosspend money

QuestionsExcuse me, where’s …? which way is …? how far’s …? how much is it to get in? what time does it open/close?

Places can beboring / interestingcrowded / quietcheap / expensivefuntouristycosmopolitan

Places to gomarket tourist shopart gallerymuseummonumentcastlepalacechurch / cathedral / mosque / temple

You might need …a guidebooka town plana transport mapa guide

key word: PLACEIt’s a nice place to visit.A good place to eat / have a drink.An interesting place to stay.

placeplace

place

placeplace

place

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When you are working from texts, you have to deal with lexisin this way: taking in items from different, although oftenrelated, topic areas. However, in discrete vocabulary teachingslots, it is sensible to balance your approach and sometimesfocus on larger lexical sets, especially those which are likely tobe of most relevance to your learners. Otherwise, vocabularyteaching may become too fragmentary, and learners may nothave a very clear grasp of what they are learning.

3 Presenting vocabulary

visual techniquesAs low-level learners are operating with limited languageresources, it is a huge advantage if you can convey the meaningof a word or phrase visually. This involves one of the followingtechniques:

– drawing a picture or a diagram

– showing a picture / photo of the item

– using realia, i.e. showing the object itself

– illustrating the item through mime and gesture

think!5

Look at these lexical items. Which technique(s) above wouldyou use to teach each one?

socks smile orange hardly eversoap key bridge leatherrise peanuts whisper foggy

Dictionaries often contain very useful visuals. Not only do theyhave pictures of groups of items, e.g. buildings, fruit andvegetables, kitchen equipment, etc., but they sometimes includetheme pictures which have been drawn to serve a number ofpurposes. So, a street scene might allow you to focus on typesof vehicle, different shops, features of roads, verbs ofmovement, even prepositions.

Unfortunately, visual aids can only teach a restricted number ofitems, and if we rely on them too much (because it’s easy), ourlearners may get a distorted lexicon. To return to an earlierexample, a picture is a quick and easy way to teach parts of thebody, but if we end up teaching toenail, thigh, elbow, andforehead, we may not be providing low-level learners with themost useful and important vocabulary. If students really wantto know these words, ask them to find out for homework.

verbal techniquesFor many important high-frequency items, you can only showthe meaning through other words. The most important of theseare:

– definitions / explanations

– synonyms and opposites

– contextualized sentence examples

– example situations (guiding the learner to the meaning)

vocabulary sets in textsWithin authentic texts, you will find topic-related vocabularyrunning all the way through the text, but you rarely find aconvenient lexical set at the right level for teaching purposes.More commonly, there will be a number of smaller sub-sets.The items may not be in the same word class, they aren’talways obvious, and they may not be of the same order offrequency. For example, you might find no-carb diets, brown ricefuels the central nervous system, lose weight, and an exercise plan in thesame authentic text. Some of these items are accessible tolow-level learners and very useful, but others are lowerfrequency and less of a teaching priority.

think!4

Read the text below. Find two lexical sets, and list the itemsincluded in each one.

go to answer key p.173

How far do we walk in

a day?We asked people to measure the distancethey covered every day. The results weresurprising.

THE TEACHERTotal mileage = 6.7 miles (14,541 steps).Elli Sioufi, 34, is a language teacher at DulwichCollege. She is single and lives in Camberwell.

‘I was up at 7 a.m. and, because I live in a studioflat, I didn’t walk around much before leaving forwork by car. The college is a large campus. It takesa brisk, five-minute walk to get from one end tothe other, and most of the buildings are multi-storeyed with only staircases for access. Bymorning break time, I was surprised to see that Ihad already walked 1.3 miles, simply by movingfrom lesson to lesson and making a few trips tothe photocopier. Having to cover for a colleaguemeant that I had to cross the school three times –the round trip each time was 0.6 miles. By the endof the afternoon (I had been coaching cricket andwalking to and from the classrooms) the total was6.2 miles. I drove to do some private tuition andthen went home. Pottering around, I managed todo another 0.5 in my flat. In some ways I wasn’tsurprised at the total distance, because I feel thatI’m walking a lot at work – but I wouldn’t haveguessed at more than, say, three miles.’

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Definitions / explanations work very well for some items,but a difficulty arises when you end up explaining an itemusing words of comparable difficulty, e.g. using become aware ofto explain the verb realize. Learners are unlikely to know either,and this can be a drawback when low-level learners try to usea monolingual dictionary.

think!6

Some of these words are relatively easy to define, others aremore difficult. Which are the relatively easy ones? Why are theothers difficult to explain to elementary or pre-intermediatelearners?

sofa reliable hungrychef equipment excellentunemployed valuable grow up

go to answer key p.173

We have already talked about synonyms and opposites whichcan be used to graft on new vocabulary to existing knowledge.For example, two items that are usually acquired very early arehappy and beautiful; to these we can easily add sad, unhappy, andugly, or even delighted (= very happy) and gorgeous (= verybeautiful). In this case we are exploiting both the use ofopposites and ‘partial’ synonymy.

With some items of vocabulary, two or three contextualizedsentence examples are the best way to introduce the meaning.Link words such as so and although are often presented in thisway. Here are some examples for one meaning of still:

I bought my car in 2001, and I still have it.

My grandfather is seventy, but he still plays tennis.

I’m at university, but my brother is still at school.

Learners not only have different examples to reinforce themeaning, but the sentences also illustrate the syntactic featuresof an item; here, it is the position of still in the sentence.

Using a situation to illustrate the meaning of a word can betime-consuming, but is sometimes necessary. It can provide thestudents with a clear, realistic, and memorable context for newvocabulary, and can have additional benefits. Here is anexample. Can you guess the word being taught at the end?

The teacher tells the class a story … I went to Greece last year. I hadto go by plane and I absolutely hate flying. So, when the plane was in theair, I was really … how did I feel? (elicits ‘frightened’ from thestudents). Yeah, I was frightened. Then the plane started to land(motioning movement to indicate landing). The landing is theworst bit. I was terrified – very frightened. But, finally the wheels hit theground – we landed – and the plane slowed down and stopped(accompanies the narrative with ‘phew’ and drops theshoulders). I was so ____________.

The teacher then provides the target word, and checks that thestudents understand it (e.g. asks for a translation or anothersituation where people feel relieved). Then the students practiseit and the teacher writes it on the board, and so on. Apart fromusing the situation to teach the target item, the teacher hasprovided some useful listening practice, and in the course ofthe narrative, used another word which may be new, i.e.terrified. After highlighting the target word (relieved), the teachercould ask students if they remember the word she used to sayshe was ‘very frightened’, and focus on that. In other words,the situation can be exploited to teach several new words.

Later, she could repeat the scenario, incorporating the two newitems for consolidation / revision, only this time elaborating onthe journey to introduce other new items: she was so terrified,petrified in fact, that her hands were shaking (add mime toillustrate) and when the plane changed direction suddenly, shescreamed (illustrate by screaming – students always love this).

When we use situations like this for teaching purposes, we aretapping into our learners’ knowledge of the world, using eithera situation they are all familiar with, or at least one they will beable to identify with (you don’t need experience of flying to bewell aware of the common fear of flying). This will help toguide students to the meaning of the item(s), and also make thepresentation more meaningful if they can see how the lexis fitsinto their own lives.

Here is an example that utilizes our learners’ familiarity withcommon everyday habits:

1 With a partner, put the phrases in a logical order(more than one is possible). Complete column one.

from elementary student’s book, unit four p.31

Some situations involve predictable stimuli-response patterns(often referred to as ‘adjacency pairs’). For example:

A How are you? A Can I borrow this?

B Fine, thanks. B Yes, of course.

Whatever technique you use, it is important to provide furthersentence examples, and better still if your learners can add oneor two examples of their own.

HOLLYorder? when?

e.g. 7.30

have lunch

watch TV

get up 1

read the paper

have dinner

leave home

go to bed

get to school /university/work

have breakfast

get home

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conclusionIn this chapter we have looked at:

– the main criteria for selecting vocabulary at lower levels

– some of the principle ways of organizing vocabulary forteaching purposes

– different visual and verbal techniques for presentingvocabulary

In the language classroom, vocabulary is everywhere, and thereis a danger not just of overloading our learners, but of spendingtoo long on vocabulary that is not very useful. For this reason,we need to exercise care and judgement in selecting thevocabulary that will be most useful for our learners, organize itin a way that will assist the learning process, and present it inways which are most suited to the items we are teaching.

follow upThornbury S 2002 How to Teach Vocabulary LongmanMcCarthy M 1990 Vocabulary Oxford University PressGairns R and Redman S 1986 Working With Words Cambridge

University Press

answer keythink!3 p.169

possible answers:friends / family: have gotsports / games: like + ing / have you ever…?countries / nationalities: be / come from / be fromentertainment: inviting and responding would you like to …? /

Yes, I’d love to.animals: comparatives and superlativesphysical appearance: have got / be; what’s he / she like?

think!4 p.171There are possibly four to choose from:

getting around: I didn’t walk around much; leaving for work bycar; a brisk five-minute walk, I had walked; moving from lessonto lesson; making a few trips to …; cross the school; roundtrip; walk to and from …; drove to ...; went home; potteringaround; managed to do another 0.5; I’m walking a lot.

the school building(s): college, campus, buldings,multi-storeyed, staircases for access, school, classrooms

work related vocabulary (would also include the schoolbuilding vocabulary): morning break time, lesson, cover for acolleague, coaching cricket, do some private tuition

time-related vocabulary: 7.00 a.m., a five-minute walk, bymorning break time, by the end of the afternoon

think!5 p.171draw a picture: key, bridge, smile (oranges are not easy to

distinguish from other fruits unless you can show the pittedtexture)

draw a diagram: rise (e.g. a sales graph), hardly ever (a clineshowing other frequency adverbs)

picture / photo: socks, orange, soap, peanuts, bridge, leather, foggyrealia: socks, key, leather (e.g your shoes / bag), soap, orangemime / gesture: smile, whisper, rise

think!6 p.172We think these items are quite easy to explain:– sofa (large comfortable chair for two or more people)– chef (a chef is the person who cooks in a restaurant)– unemployed (if you are unemployed, you haven’t got a job)– hungry (if you are hungry, you want to eat)– excellent (very, very good)– grow up (when people grow up they get older and bigger)

IN A CAFÉ

hot(a cup of ...)tea with lemon / milkblack / white coffeehot chocolate

hotsteak / fish / chicken and chipstomato soupetc.

colda ham sandwichvanilla ice-creamapple tartetc.

cold(a glass / bottle of ...)orange / fruit juicediet cokemineral water

alcoholicred / white winebeerwhisky, etc.

what’s it like?clean / dirtyexpensive / cheap(un)comfortablethe service is quick/slow / friendly / terrible

peoplewaiter / waitresscustomer

DRINKS

FOOD

the customer says ...Can I have (the menu /a coffee), please?Can I have another / some more ... / the bill, please?Yes, please. / No, thanks.What kind of (soup) have you got?I’ll have (a ham sandwich), please.That’s all, thanks.

the waiter says ...Would you like (large or small)?What would you like?Anything else?Yes, of course.

We think the other three are more difficult:– reliable (usually involves providing one or two different

contexts and examples; these need to be carefully chosen incase it is confused with punctual)

– equipment (it needs at least two examples to show themeaning, and sometimes the examples of equipment may notbe known either)

– valuable (easily confused with expensive, and difficult toexplain without using the word worth which students may notknow)

try it out p170

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174 how to … help low-level learners with pronunciation

1 Pronunciation and intelligibility2 Approaches to teaching pronunciation3 Teaching phonemic symbols4 Classroom teaching ideas

1 Pronunciation and intelligibility

think!1

In the classroom, do you aim for quite a high standard ofpronunciation with (most of) your learners, or do you feel youare quite relaxed and tolerant of fairly poor pronunciation? Canyou explain the attitude you have? If you are a non-nativeteacher, how confident do you feel helping your students withpronunciation?Think about these questions before you read on.

A few learners may want, and indeed strive for near perfectpronunciation when they speak English, i.e. to be indistinguish-able from native speakers. For these learners we should do asmuch as possible to help them realize that goal. The majority oflearners though, would probably settle for something lessdemanding. They want listeners to be able to recognize andunderstand what they say, but have no great desire to try andpass themselves off as native speakers. And why should they?People who want to speak British, American, or AustralianEnglish don’t necessarily want to sound British, American, orAustralian. Their mother tongue accent is an integral part oftheir identity, and they may wish to keep it just as much aspeople from different parts of any country want to retain theirown regional accents. Other learners, fully aware of theirlanguage learning limitations, may also recognize that it issimply not within their grasp to sound like a native speaker,even if they wanted to.

Intelligibility is increasingly seen as a valid and reasonableaim in pronunciation teaching. But intelligible to whom? Somemight say that L2 learners should be intelligible to nativespeakers. However, we cannot assume that interaction betweenpeople speaking English to each other involves a nativespeaker. On the contrary, according to Jennifer Jenkins, for thefirst time in the history of the English Language, secondlanguage speakers outnumber those for whom it is the mothertongue (see follow up). Therefore, if your students’ aim is to beintelligible to other non-native speakers, this will (or at leastmay) affect how you approach the teaching of pronunciation.For example, the pronunciation of the letters ‘th’ is difficult formany learners, e.g. pronouncing ‘th’ as /z/ when it should be/D/, or /s/ when it should be /T/, but you might be prepared tocompromise on accuracy if it doesn’t interfere with the speaker’sintelligibility.

Where you draw the line, however, is not easy. A person’sintelligibility is only as good as their listener. Some people mayunderstand a person speaking English when others cannot:

– many experienced teachers of English are so used todifferent foreign accents that they can sometimesunderstand English that would mystify many other nativespeakers

– some people are also more accommodating and makegreater allowances

– some learners whose languages are similar, e.g. Spanish,Italian, and Portuguese, understand each other speakingEnglish more easily than they would understand Japaneselearners speaking English

– even the majority may gradually adjust to an L2 speaker’saccent, however strong, over a period of time

Another issue here is that people (both native and non-nativespeakers) make judgements about the way others speak, soeven if we understand what someone says, we can still reactquite negatively if we feel they speak the language poorly. Thismay be a foolish response, but it’s not difficult to understand.And there seems to be a particular prejudice when poorpronunciation is involved. There is perhaps a distinctionbetween ‘intelligibility’ and what Joanne Kenworthy calls‘comfortable intelligibility’ (see follow up), i.e. an accent thatis both intelligible and that has no intrusive, distracting, oreven irritating features. We suspect that many learners wouldlike to achieve this.

Ultimately teachers have to use their own judgement in theclassroom. We probably need to find out first what our learners’goals and expectations are, and then try to ensure that the timeand effort we spend on pronunciation corresponds with whatour learners also want and expect. This is not easy, no matterhow experienced the teacher. On the one hand, teachers maysee a need for improvement which the learners don’t share. Onthe other hand, some teachers, especially non-native teachers,lack confidence about their own pronunciation to feel justifiedin correcting others. Our own feeling is that non-native teachersstill have the means and the knowledge to help learners withpronunciation, and there are plenty of published materials tosupport them. The position we have adopted in naturalEnglish is to highlight and practise most of the sounds, plusfeatures of word stress, sentence stress, and intonation, so that:

– learners are aware of them

– they at least have an opportunity to practise them and getthem right

– they can see the part that features of pronunciation play inthe listening skill and their understanding of spoken English

Equally, we would adopt a pragmatic and, we hope, tolerantattitude towards the learners’ performance in classroomactivities.

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think!2

Whenever you are providing a common pattern and not a rule, youneed to have a good range of examples to illustrate the pattern,but also one or two exceptions so that learners do not go awaythinking it is a rule.How quickly can you think of exceptions to the three patternsabove?

go to answer key p.180

With monolingual groups, discrete slots will be useful and insome cases necessary to deal with specific MT problems.

think!3

If you teach monolingual groups, do your students share anyspecific pronunciation problems which need to be highlightedand analyzed in discrete pronunciation slots? For example, somelearners sound bored or uninterested because of insufficientvoice range and flat intonation. Japanese learners also find itdifficult to hear the difference between /r/ and /l/, and havedifficulty producing these sounds.

In our experience, students expect to devote time topronunciation, and usually enjoy it. Pronunciation activities canbe used to warm up or wind down a lesson, and they are a goodway to unite mixed ability classes. During the lesson, they can beslotted in between other activities to provide variety and a changeof pace. This is especially valuable if you teach in the eveningsand your lessons are an hour and a half or two hours (or more).

integrated pronunciationDespite the value of discrete slots to highlight important featuresof pronunciation, we have to remember that pronunciation playsa crucial part in everything we say and listen to. Therefore, weneed to maintain it throughout our teaching: highlightingpronunciation during input sessions of new grammar andvocabulary; focussing on it during controlled practice of grammarand vocabulary; integrating pronunciation awareness as a keypart of developing the listening skill, (e.g. contractions, elision,and catenation in connected speech).

Want to know more? Go to pre-intermediate teacher’s book, how to …help learners understand natural speech p.174

ad hoc pronunciationYou may not want to interrupt the flow of an activity too much tofocus on pronunciation, but tackling a problem when it arises is anopportunity that may be too good to miss. Being constantly awareof these opportunities is also important for our teaching. We knowfrom personal experience that when you are trying to cope with allthe demands of classroom teaching, it is very easy to focus onpronunciation in short bursts, then forget about it for the greaterpart of the lesson. We need to try and keep it at the forefront of ourminds, not least because on-the-spot teaching and correction canbe very memorable and successful for learners. One way ofreminding yourself is to make sure that you have a ‘pronunciation’heading in your notebook when you are monitoring learnersduring speaking activities. If, at the end of these activities, younotice that your pronunciation section is often bare, it may indicatethat pronunciation easily drops down your list of priorities (unlessyour students’ pronunciation is flawless or there are reasons whypronunciation is not a priority with this class).

2 Approaches to teaching pronunciationWe can approach the teaching of pronunciation in differentways:

– discrete pronunciation slots in the lesson ranging from tenminutes to half an hour

– a shorter focus on pronunciation as an integrated part of thelesson, e.g. practising the contracted form I’ll when teachinga meaning of will

– on an ad hoc basis when the opportunity arises for someuseful teaching / correction

We should incorporate all three of these approaches into ourteaching.

discrete pronunciation slotsWe would advocate teaching learners the most important soundsthrough phonemic symbols (see section 3). Our preferencewould be to introduce them in short teaching segments (e.g. tenminutes) in the first few weeks of a course, and recycle them ona regular basis in future lessons. Similarly, we think thatteachers need to devote some concentrated time early in a courseto features of stress. Students shouldn’t be over-burdened withterminology, but there is a strong case for teaching ‘syllable’ and‘main stress’, with appropriate symbols to indicate stressed andunstressed syllables, e.g. boxes or circles. Again, you can thenuse these stress boxes / circles in future lessons on all new itemsof vocabulary with two syllables or more. We prefer boxes orcircles because they are easy for learners to see, but mostdictionaries mark word stress in a different way and learnersneed to be aware of this. The most common practice is the use ofa superscript mark for primary stress, with a similar symbolbelow the line for secondary stress.

Learners need to know these things in order to make the bestuse of their dictionaries. In the classroom (particularly withlow levels) we feel it is sufficient just to mark the primarystress on new words.

You might want to use discrete slots to focus on rules of wordstress. Unfortunately there aren’t very many of these, althoughlearners may find it helpful to be aware of the followingtendencies in English:

– the tendency, in two-syllable words, for the main stress tofall on the first syllable

– the tendency to stress the first word in compound nouns,e.g. credit card, tin opener

– the tendency not to stress prefixes and suffixes in English,e.g. unhappy, happiness (stressing the prefix is a commonproblem for German speakers of English)

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3 Teaching phonemic symbols

Why teach themIn order to use phonemic symbols in the classroom, teachershave to know them and feel comfortable using them. This is thefirst hurdle to overcome, and teachers who weren’t taught touse phonemic symbols during their training sometimes find itdifficult to summon up the necessary willpower when they arequalified practitioners. Some teachers may be familiar withphonemic symbols but still prefer not to use them in class onthe grounds that students already have enough to worry aboutwithout the additional burden of learning a new script. Thereis also a feeling that learning phonemic symbols is a ratheracademic pursuit that some students will find intimidating.

In view of these reservations, teachers should consider factorssuch as the age of their students, their learning background,their needs, and the length of the course, before spendingclassroom time on teaching the symbols. However, in the longterm and with most groups, we feel the time spent isworthwhile for a number of reasons.

– Unlike many languages, sound-spelling relationships inEnglish are far from straightforward and learners cannot befully confident about the pronunciation of a word just fromseeing it written down. Using phonemic symbols, you canrepresent the sound of a word unambiguously in writtenform, given a little practice.

– A knowledge of phonemic symbols means that learners candiscover the pronunciation of a word from a dictionarywithout even hearing it. Moreover, they can do this forthemselves without anyone else’s help; they areindependent learners.

– Learners can make good use of this knowledge in their ownrecord keeping. We wouldn’t expect them necessarily towrite whole words in phonemic symbols, but they coulduse symbols to remind them of a difficult sound in a word.For example, a typical error with building is to pronounce itphonetically, i.e. /bwildin/. If a student writes /bIl/ above theword in their notebook, it will be a useful reminder of thepronunciation problem with that particular item. Somelearners use symbols from their L1 alphabet as a memoryaid. This can be useful, but it won’t enable them to makeuse of phonemic transcriptions in dictionaries.

– From the teacher’s point of view, it can be helpful with thecorrection of sound errors, especially for learners who can’thear the difference between two similar sounds from anoral modal (e.g. this /DIs/ and thin /TIn/). Seeing the twosounds represented by different symbols can at least helpthe learner to locate the precise nature of the problem.

– Phonemic script is useful not just at word level, but also forshowing pronunciation of connected speech: weak forms inphrases, elision, catenation, and so on.

What are you doing? /wQtSj@/ How do you say it? /dZ@/I can do it later. /k@n/ I can’t believe it. /kA:n/

– Finally, we believe that most students are aware thatpronunciation is a significant hurdle when trying to masteranother language. They are usually prepared to accept thatit requires considerable practice, and some students mayalready be familiar with many of the symbols, having learntthem at school or used dictionaries frequently.

think!4

Which sounds in these words do you think would causeproblems for your elementary students? Write the sound(s) inphonemic script above the word.

/"kemIst/example /k/ chemist

piece steak Russia radio village statueplace factory cousin joke April foreign

go to answer key p.180

how to teach with themIf you aren’t familiar with phonemic symbols yourself, an easyway to learn them is actually to teach them (a few sounds at atime) to your classes. If you are unsure about the transcriptionof a sound, you can check it in a learner’s dictionary. We thinkyou will be surprised how quickly phonemic script becomes anindispensable part of your professional toolkit.

Here are a few guidelines for teaching phonemic symbols tolearners:

– Avoid overloading them with too many symbols at once: itis tiring and potentially confusing to learn more than ahandful of new symbols in a single session. Concentrate ontwo or three sounds at a time, give plenty of receptivepractice before expecting students to produce the targetsounds, and then revise them in subsequent lessons.

– Aim to teach ‘little and often’. It can work very well as awarm-up or in the last ten minutes of a lesson, particularlywhen students have been concentrating on reading orstudying ‘heads down’, doing a test, etc.

– Students don’t need to learn all the phonemic symbolsactively – especially if the sounds are similar to those intheir mother tongue. There’s little point in setting out toteach sounds ‘for the sake of it’, so decide what thepriorities are for your learners, and concentrate on those.The symbols that may require more attention are usuallythe vowels because there are more of them in English thanin most languages, and they don’t all look the way thesounds are spelt, unlike most of the consonants.

– Keep the focus and the activities simple andstraightforward, and try to avoid teaching new vocabularyat the same time as new phonemic symbols, otherwisestudents will be pre-occupied with the meaning of wordsand forget about practising the sounds.

– Think carefully before you introduce it to learners whohave literacy problems or dyslexia, or who are not familiarwith Roman script at all. You could easily confuse them bydealing with two writing systems at once, and we wouldnot recommend this.

If you are not familiar with the sound problems of the learnersyou teach, listen carefully to them in class, and record themspeaking so that you can listen in your own time to identifytheir problems. You will find a number of books that provide aguide for specific L1 transfer problems: see Hancock (2003),Kenworthy (1987), and Kelly (2000) in follow up.

Want to know more? Go to intermediate teacher’s book, how to …teach phonemic script p.168

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4 Classroom teaching ideas

sounds

general techniquesYou can demonstrate sounds in the following ways:

– Show students what is happening to the shape of your lipsand the openness of your jaw when making vowel soundsand diphthongs, and add a simple explanation to say whatis happening. Demonstrate smiling (lips stretched for /i:/),expressing surprise (lip rounding for /u:/), and disgust (/3:/).

– Use diagrams of the mouth to show the positions of theorgans of speech (see Hancock 2003)

– Students can use mirrors to see if their mouth shape is thesame as yours when forming a sound; and a sheet of paperor a lighted match held in front of the mouth will movewhen unvoiced plosives /p/, /t/, /tS/ are produced, but not forthe voiced equivalents /b/, /d/, and /dZ/.

– Get students to repeat the problem sound in a chain, forexample /tSu:/ ‘choo-choo-choo-choo’, and /dZU/ ‘ju-ju-ju-ju’.

– Try breaking sounds down, e.g. /@U/. Tell students to make/@/ first, then /U/. Say both sounds apart and gradually bringthem together to make /@U/.

Want to know more? Go to Sounds Foundation by Adrian Underhill p.122

– If students find it hard to distinguish voiced and unvoicedpairs, e.g. /p/ and /b/, tell them to put their fingers on theirvoice box to try to make the vocal chords vibrate for /b/.

activity types

tick the word you hearThis is a useful starting point if learners are unable to hear thedifference between two similar sounds. They listen to wordscontaining minimal pairs (words which differ in one phoneme,e.g. sing / sink), and tick the one they hear. For example:

live / leave sit / seat fit / feet hit / heat ship / sheep

This type of exercise can be more meaningful if the sounds areembedded in a context where a failure to hear the correct onecould lead to a breakdown in communication:

He doesn’t want to live / leave here.

Can you fill / feel it?

Is that a ship / sheep?

etc.

sortingOnce students know a few phonemic symbols, you can reviseknown vocabulary and practise the sounds. In the activity atthe bottom of the page, students focus on three sounds whichare quite similar. The sounds are isolated and then heard andpractised in phrases. Students then have to match thevocabulary items in the box with the correct meaning. Forexample, fish, chips, and sausages are all food you cook, butlearners must also sort them by sound. To do this, they have tosay the items and agree on the answers with their partner.Sorting is a very common procedure for checkingpronunciation of sounds, and can be done using visuals orword cards.

odd one outIn this activity, students have to identify one underlined orspecified sound which is different from others in a group. Thiscan be a useful way of tackling sound / spelling problems.

from pre-intermediate listening booklet 11.8 p.37

from elementary student’s book, unit eight p.69

Circle the words that don’t include the sound /V/.

exampleLondon Rome Dublin

1 Thursday Sunday Monday2 brother aunt uncle3 son cousin daughter4 above out under5 cut shut put6 onion mushroom carrot

pronunciation sounds /S/, /tS/, and /dZ/1 Listen and repeat the sounds

and phrases. /S/ a Polish dictionary/tS/ a French picture/dZ/ the German language

2 Work with a partner. Say the words in the box, and putthem in the correct columns.

dangerous teacher orange bridge sausages

China church station Russia fish

chips journalist cheap Belgium sugar

chef sure chocolate

/S/ /tS/ /dZ/

nationalities Polish French German

food you cook

sweet things you eat

things in a town

countries

jobs

adjectives

3 Listen and check.

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178 how to … help low-level learners with pronunciation

same or different?In a variation on ‘odd one out’, students work in pairs to decideif the underlined sounds in the phrase are the same or different.(Answers are given in brackets.)

Are the underlined sounds the same or different?

example Thursday the third – the sameFebruary the eighth – different

1 Wednesday the second (s)2 Monday the fourth (d)3 Friday the ninth (s)4 Saturday the eighth (d)5 Friday the fifth (d)6 April the eighth (s)7 October the fourth (d)8 July the ninth (s)9 August the fourth(s)

10 November the eleventh (s)

running dictation Make a list of minimal pairs which your learners find difficultto distinguish. Here are some examples for differentnationalities:

live / leave work / walk want / won’t hat / heart

soap / soup three / tree air / hair would / good

fry / fly pack / back wash / watch they / they’re

Write one of the words ineach pair in phonemic scripton a small piece of paper.

Write in normal sizedhandwriting; you don’t wantstudents to be able to readthe ‘words’ from where they are sitting. Stick the pieces ofpaper on the walls around the room. Pair students up, and tellthem to write numbers 1–12 on a sheet of paper. Student A ineach pair gets up and reads one of the pieces of paper, goesback to their partner and says the word. B writes it down inRoman script. Student A mustn’t try to spell the word for B,and mustn’t look at what B has written. Then Student B goes toa different sound and returns to dictate it to A. At the end, elicitall the answers onto the board, asking students to spell outtheir answers. Pairs then look at any errors they made anddecide where the problem lay. Was it the ‘dictator’ or the‘dictatee’ who made the mistake?

try it out sound mazesYou will find more examples of sound mazes like the one belowin English Pronunciation in Use by Mark Hancock (see followup). You could also produce mazes like this one to focus on aparticular problem your learners have with sounds, or evengrammar (e.g. pass only on squares with irregular verbs) orvocabulary (e.g. pass only on squares relating to a particulartopic). This can work well for output practice if students do itwith a partner, so that they are saying the words together asthey move from square to square.

Find a way from Start to Finish. You may pass a square only ifthe word in it has the sound /i:/.

stressWe have talked about having discrete slots on word stress aswell as integrating word stress as a regular part of vocabularyteaching. The following activities contain ideas for bothapproaches.

word stress revisionAs a quick check when students are working on something else(e.g. reading a text), rub out the stress boxes / circles fromvocabulary on the board, then get students to come up to theboard and put them in again.

categorizing stress patternsFor a more extended focus on word stress, select a number ofdifferent word stress patterns; the number will depend on howdifficult you wish to make the activity or how long you wantthe activity to take. Then ask learners to put a selection of wordsinto the correct column according to the main stress. As you cansee in this exercise, learners have already listened to examplesof the different patterns.

from elementary student’s book, unit two p.21

1 /li:v/ 2 /w :k/3

leave

dream

east

beach

seat

head

earth

dead

bread

break

please

bear

health

cream

tea

peace

team

wear

reach

jeans

death

search

early

dreamt

teach

steak

heat

leaf

beat

sweat

meat

cheat

peak

meant

bean

clean

START

FINISH

pronunciation word stress1 Listen and repeat the words in the table. The

stress is underlined.

0o o0 0oo o0o oo0

listen repeat Italy remember engineer

2 Write these words in the table above.

complete computer understand answer

English practise pronounce Japanese

expensive interesting difficult question

3 Listen and repeat the sentences.

1 Can you complete the sentence?2 Listen and repeat.3 Remember to practise your English. 4 It’s difficult to pronounce ‘interesting’.5 I don’t understand the question.6 How do you spell ‘Japanese’?

2.13

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It is valid to take words out of context in order to highlight aspecific feature (in this case word stress), but a morechallenging and meaningful activity for the learners is beingable to reproduce these same words when they are embeddedin a typical context, as in exercise 3 here.

A variation on this exercise is for the learners themselves tofind words that will fit particular stress patterns. With somestress patterns, e.g. oo0 or ooo0o, this can be very challenging,so the exercise type is suitable for any level.

correct my mistakesYou can do short word stress activities with the whole group.For example, read out sentences in which at least one word isincorrectly stressed; the students have to correct you.Alternatively, make it into a game. Divide the class into smallteams, then dictate ten or twelve words with stress patternsthat students often find difficult. They have to write down thewords, then in their team decide where the main stress falls oneach one. With a pre-intermediate class, suitable words mightbe:

interesting comfortable Japan necessary

computer vegetable opposite variety

photographer salary advertisement receptionist

word buildingWord building tables are a useful way to increase learners’vocabulary, and to revise items by focussing on stressdifferences, e.g. telephone / telephonist. Students can work inpairs to complete the table and mark the stress on all thewords. Go over the words at the end and provide controlledpractice. (Students can test each other.)

subject job

politics politician

economics

maths

history

science

architecture

music

snapThe common card game ‘snap’ can be adapted for a number oflinguistic purposes in the classroom, and word stress is one ofthem. This game is obviously very suitable for youngerlearners, but adults can also enjoy the game, and it may be afun way to finish a lesson on a Friday afternoon or at the end ofa long evening lesson. See the following try it out activity.

try it out word stress snapChoose about thirty words which pose word stress difficulties,and write them on a sheet of paper. Make photocopies of them,then cut them up to create a number of sets of ‘cards’. If youlook after your cards (laminate them if possible), you can addmore each time you play the game and end up with a very largenumber.Divide the class into groups of three or four. Provide each groupwith a set of cards and get one group member to deal out thecards (face down) to the other members of the group.One student puts down a card face up, and the other students inthe group compete against each other to cover the word withanother word with the same stress pattern, and shout ‘snap’when they do it. So, if one student puts down remember (o0o),another student could cover it correctly with important orexpensive, but not understand (oo0). The student who putsdown a correct word first keeps the two cards in a separate pile,then starts the next round of the game. The winner is theperson with the most cards in their separate pile.

intonationMany learners will freely admit that they find learningprepositions difficult; for teachers, it’s often the same withteaching intonation. It is, to say the least, a complex area, andwe have often found ourselves in staffrooms where a group ofteachers is unable to agree on whether a tone is rising orfalling. And if teachers cannot agree on what they have heard,what chance do learners have?

Rather than try to analyze different tones, it may be easier tolook at the impact of the intonation pattern on meaning andmood in interpersonal exchanges. Is this person asking aquestion or just seeking confirmation? Does that person soundexcited? suspicious? interested? bored? We can illustrate suchdifferences in very short dialogues. For example, record thefollowing dialogue in three ways according to the recordinginstruction:

A Would you like to go out now?

B OK (fairly disinterested) OR

B OK (slightly unsure, i.e. What did you have in mind?) OR

B OK (really enthusiastic)

The single word response ‘OK’ will have a different tone ineach case, but it is the mood which learners are most likely topick up. Play the recording and ask them if ‘B’ sounds happy /bored / unsure, etc. After they have identified the correct mood,play the recording again. This time, can learners capture andcopy the mood? Then put them in threes. Two students practisethe dialogue (B can respond in any way they wish), and thethird person in the group has to identify the mood each time.While the groups are working, move round and monitor. If youneed to correct, you can do so not by asking for a greater fallingor rising tone, but by asking for more enthusiasm, uncertainty,etc.

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conclusionIn this chapter we have looked at:

– some of the issues surrounding ‘intelligibility’ as a suitablepronunciation goal

– different approaches to pronunciation: as discrete slots;integrated with other language and skills; on-the-spotpronunciation teaching as it arises

– the advantages and disadvantages of teaching phonemicsymbols

– guidelines to assist with teaching phonemic symbols

– ideas and activities for the teaching of sounds, stress, andintonation

The maxim ‘little and often’ probably applies to pronunciationteaching better than anything else. Almost everyoneacknowledges its importance but it is easily sidelined when ithas to compete with other language input and skillsdevelopment.

follow upbackground readingHarmer J (2001) The Practice of English Language Teaching Longman

(chapters 2 and 13)Kenworthy J (1987) Teaching English Pronunciation LongmanKelly G (2000) How to Teach Pronunciation LongmanJenkins J (2001) The Phonology of English as an International

Language Oxford University PressUnderhill A (1994) Sounds Foundation Macmillan ELTclassroom activitiesHancock M (2003) English Pronunciation in Use Cambridge University

PressHancock M (1995) Pronunciation Games Cambridge University PressHaycraft B (1994-5) English Aloud 1 and 2 HeinemannO’Donnell J and Fletcher C (1989) Sounds English Longman

answer keythink!2 p.175

1 There are many exceptions to the first pattern, e.g. a report,upset, but a very high proportion of content words in Englishare either monosyllabic or stressed on the first syllable(approximately 85%).

2 pedestrian crossing, mother tongue3 We may stress a prefix for emphasis:

A Were you happy about that?B No, we were very unhappy.Suffixes are sometimes stressed if they have been borrowedfrom other languages, e.g. engineer / domineer; maisonette /kitchenette.

think!4 p.176Here are some common problems; they may be different for thenationality / ies you work with:/I:/ /eI/ /V/ /eI/ /v/ /IdZ/ /tS/ /eI/ /tri/

piece; steak; Russia; radio; village; statue; place; factory;/V/ /dZ/ /eI/ /@n/cousin; joke; April; foreign

This approach of asking learners to respond to a mood andcopy it is a procedure we have used quite a lot. Here are twoexamples:

from elementary student’s book, unit six, p.51

from elementary student’s book, unit fourteen, p.113

When learners practise dialogues and responses like these, itsometimes helps to ask them to exaggerate their answers. Youmay think this will make them sound unnatural, but there iswider voice range in English than some other languages, andthese learners need to be encouraged to stretch their voicerange in order to sound more interested and involved in whatthey are saying.

Want to know more? Go towww.oup.com/elt/teachersclub/articles/pronunciation_games

2 natural English Match a to d with 1 to 4.

natural EnglishHow was ...? /haUw@z/

How was your weekend?It was (1) lovely. How was yours? a fine

It was (2) terrible. b great

It was (3) nice. c really bad

(4) A bit boring. d not very interesting

3 pronunciation Listen and copy the intonation.Then practise the conversations with threepeople.

6.5

4 natural English pronunciation Listen andpractise – copy the intonation.

natural Englishreacting to surprising information

That’s incredible! That’s amazing!That’s ridiculous! That’s just stupid!

5 Look at the pictures. What do you think of eachrecord? Use the phrases in the natural English box. Tell a partner.

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146 how to … do pair and group work

how to … do pair and group work

1 Why do pair and group work?2 Individuals, pairs, groups, or whole class? 3 What can learners do in pairs and groups?4 Class management5 Troubleshooting

1 Why do pair and group work?When people join a language class, they expect to spend someof their time working individually on tasks set by the teacher:completing grammar and vocabulary exercises, answeringcomprehension questions, writing down information from theboard, etc. And they will expect to spend much of their timelistening to and working with the teacher as she explains newlanguage, asks questions, checks answers, elicits opinions, andso on. This is generally how learners expect to use their time,and many will be less prepared for classrooms in which theyare asked to work with a partner or in small groups, where theteacher may not be listening to them some of the time.

think!1

Do you use pair and group work in your classes? If so, why? Ifnot, why not? If you don’t use pair and group work, write downthree reasons why it might help. Then read on.

We know some teachers are reluctant to let their students workin pairs and groups, and this seems most apparent whenteachers have to manage very large classes (anything from 20 to100 students). With these numbers, there is no denying that theteacher cannot monitor all the pairs / groups effectively in anysingle activity, and there is the danger that certain studentsmight wander off the subject, revert to the L1 in the case ofmonolingual classes, or just not do the activity at all. These arecauses for concern, and if the teacher starts to feel that they areno longer in control of the students or the lesson, they mayconsider pair and group work too risky.

We can sympathise with teachers who feel like this, but westill believe that pair and group work has so much to offer in

almost every teaching situation we are aware of. Here is a list ofsome of the key benefits:

advantages – Pair and group work maximises the opportunities for

students to engage in oral practice and communicate. Inlarge classes where opportunities for oral practice might bevery restricted, this is even more important.

– It helps students to realize that they can work independentlyof the teacher, and they can learn from other students andhelp each other.

– It usually creates a good atmosphere in class and helps tobuild rapport among class members. For some learners,going to a language class is a social activity, and throughpair and group work, they will get to know each otherbetter and feel more positive towards the class.

– It varies the focus of attention in the classroom and createsa change in pace.

– Close monitoring of pair and group work provides theteacher with important knowledge and information aboutthe students and how they are performing. This may bevaluable for future lesson planning and can also help theteacher to build a rapport with their students.

– It allows students to gain confidence by checking answersand rehearsing things to say before speaking more publiclyin open class.

– It frees up the teacher to work with one or two pairs whomay need extra attention.

2 Individuals, pairs, small groups, orwhole class?

If the teacher remains the only focus of attention and allclassroom activities are directed through them, there is thedanger of lessons becoming rather monotonous. As we havealready said, pair and group work changes that focus and cangive lessons both variety and a change of pace. It is equally truethat too much pair and group work will create its ownmonotony. Worse still, if endless pair work without a clearpurpose is also accompanied by an absence of effective feedback,some learners may feel that classroom time is being spent, andperhaps wasted, on activities that they could be doingthemselves in the coffee bar. It is, therefore, essential thatteachers have a clear reason for putting students in pairs andgroups, and back this up with careful monitoring and feedback.

Pair and group work has a place, but there are times when thelesson is most effective when the teacher is working togetherwith the whole class. This type of interaction provides sharedexperiences which help to create a sense of belonging. As wesaid earlier, it is also the type of classroom experience that mostlearners expect, so they may find it comforting and reassuring.

Working individually also has its advantages. It allows theteacher the opportunity to help individual students withoutdisrupting a working pair, and to some extent, it allows

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students to work at their own pace and in their own way. Thiswill be particularly valuable if your lessons are quite long.Listening to the teacher and talking to other students are bothdemanding activities which require a lot of concentration, andsome students will certainly benefit from the opportunity to sitback and work alone.

think!1

If you were a language student, which activities below wouldyou prefer to do:

a individually?b with a partner?c in a small group of three or four?d with the whole class?Why?

Activity 1You have studied some language for asking for / givingdirections. You are now going to practise asking for / givingdirections based on a street map.Activity 2A matching activity. You have ten new vocabulary items on theleft hand side to match with their definitions on the right.Activity 3You have just listened to and studied the beginning of aninformal telephone conversation (about 8 lines) between twofriends. You are now going to practise a similar conversation.Activity 4 You have filled in a questionnaire giving opinions about theeducation system in your country. You are now going to find outif other students have different answers.

Activity 1This seems ideal for pair work. Most conversations of this typewould be on a one-to-one basis, and in the classroom thiswould be very easy to set up. Students will also get theintensive practice they need in pairs, and even more so if it isdone as a class mingle in which they work in different pairs.

Activity 2We think this activity is best done individually. Matchingexercises require concentration. Students have to juggle thedifferent words and definitions at their disposal, and they alsoneed to focus on the written word and work with the layout.Speaking to someone at the same time could be distracting andfrustrating. However, they often like the opportunity tocompare ideas with a partner when they have completed theexercise. This gives them a chance to satisfy their curiosity, totalk through any problems in a non-threatening context (i.e.not in full view of the class), and of course, to use the targetlanguage. They can then work with a partner to practise thepronunciation of the words – learners often give this a muchhigher priority than teachers – and test each other.

Activity 3For this activity, it is difficult to imagine anything other thanworking with a partner. A dialogue practised on your own isn’tmuch fun, and with a partner you will have a sense of realconversation, which you can repeat until you are satisfied. Youwill also be able to listen to your partner and perhaps learnfrom them or be able to help them.

Activity 4This would be very suitable for small groups because there ismore likely to be disagreement among three or four peoplethan there will be with just two, so the discussion willprobably be longer, more varied, and more animated. Doingthe activity as a whole class would have the disadvantage thatsome learners may say very little or nothing at all (classdiscussions are often dominated by a few confident learners).However, we would like the opportunity after the small groupdiscussion to find out what others think, so working with thewhole class may be the most rewarding way to conclude theactivity.

To sum up, pair work, as we have suggested above, isextremely useful for short activities which focus on specificlanguage, and it has the advantage of being very easy to set upas learners don’t have to stand up, move furniture, etc. Smallgroup work provides a different kind of interaction, and it isimportant for learners to practise their English in such groups,as well as on a one-to-one basis with a partner. Group workoffers a different kind of challenge. It may be harder in that theconversation will move faster and be more unpredictable, andin a chatty group, individuals may need to raise their voice orinterrupt in order to have their say. On the other hand,participants do have the option of taking a back seat at times.

3 What can learners do in pairs andgroups?

Here is a small selection of activities which benefit from beingdone in pairs.

comparing answersTo practise specific language items, learners usually work aloneon a gap fill, matching or sentence completion exercise. However,if they compare their answers in pairs before class feedback,they have the chance to check and amend their answers andhelp each other where necessary. Pair work here also providesan opportunity for some oral / pronunciation practice, andallows time for you to monitor and help individuals.

peer teaching / testingYou can set up a simple peer teaching exercise as follows.

– Divide the class in half: A students and B students.– Give each group different sentences with errors to correct

(i.e. A’s and B’s sentences are not the same). Here is anexample of A’s sentences from the pre-intermediate student’sbook, unit two:

student A Correct the errors in these sentences. Check your answers.

1 We eat a lot of spaghettis.

2 These pasta are really nice.

3 Do you eat many bread?

4 I don’t like coffees.

5 How much sugar are there?

Read out the incorrect sentences to your partner. They have to correct them.

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student B PATIENT/CLIENT It’s FIVE minutes before your appointment. You’ve got a problem. Ring the receptionist.

Think! What are you going to say?

– say your name, and who your appointment is with

– explain the problem, e.g. you’re in a meeting, or yourcar has broken down

– say sorry

– try to make another appointment for this morning

Now phone the receptionist. He/She will speak first.

from pre-intermediate student’s book, unit ten review p.149.

planning and rehearsingLearners can work in pairs to plan, rehearse or write out shortconversations, incorporating language they have recentlystudied. A good example of this is the extended speakingactivity in student’s book, unit four shown below.

invent a conversation4 With a partner, look at all the pictures. Do you

understand the story? If not, ask your partner.

5 Invent the conversation with your partner. Write itdown.

6 Practise it until you can say it without looking.

act out your conversation7 Work with another pair. Act out your conversations.

Are they the same or different?

from pre-intermediate student’s book, extended speaking activity p.41

In our experience, the process of negotiating the correct /appropriate language in the dialogue involves a great deal ofgenuine communication which goes beyond the simple contentof the dialogue.

predictingIn pairs, learners make predictions about what they are goingto read or hear, based on some information you have giventhem. For example, they are going to read an article about aterrible train journey from London to Paris. They think of fiveproblems that might have occurred, compare with another pair,then tell the class. These predictions can be written on theboard and provide a very useful initial reading task: were theproblems mentioned in the article? In this instance, everyone isgetting an opportunity to contribute, and learners who are lessable to predict may be getting some support from those whocan. Here is another example from the pre-intermediatestudent’s book.

student B Correct the errors in these sentences. Check your answers.

1 Can I have a toast?

2 Would you like some biscuit?

3 We don’t need much olives.

4 Cheese are good for you.

5 I don’t eat many butter.

Read out the incorrect sentences to your partner. They have to correct them.

– A students work in pairs on their sentences, and B studentswork in pairs on their sentences (p.142).

– Give each group a photocopy of the correct answers to checktheir sentences.

– A students then find a B partner. They read out their incorrectsentences for their new partner to correct orally.

from pre-intermediate student’s book, unit two pairwork pp.148 and 142

This technique provides a simple twist on a fairly standardexercise, i.e. the students become the teacher when they workwith a new partner. Doing the activity orally at this stage alsoprovides a greater challenge. You can use this technique withmany standard controlled practice activities.

information gapIn an information gap activity, learners are supplied withdifferent information and need to communicate in pairs inorder to complete the activity. The information gap can be real,e.g. Students A and B have to find out certain facts about eachother’s family, or it can be created artificially for the purpose oflanguage practice, e.g. this role play from the student’s book,unit ten review, in which a patient (Student B) has to cancelan appointment with the receptionist (Student A) at a doctor’ssurgery. They each have a role card with different informationon it, which introduces an element of unpredictability andrealism into a commonplace situation.

student A RECEPTIONISTIt’s FIVE minutes before your patient / client’sappointment. They’re going to ring you.Think! What are you going to say?

– greetings– listen and respond– explain that you are full this morning– suggest other times / days

You answer the phone.

from pre-intermediate student’s book, unit ten review p.101.

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listening challenge4 Stephen’s got a car for the first time. With a partner,

think of four ways his life is now different.

5 Listen. Were your ideas correct? Does Stephen talk about any other differences?

from pre-intermediate student’s book p.86

Here are four activity types which are more suited to groupwork at lower levels:

brainstormingGroup work is very useful for brainstorming as you get a greaterdiversity of ideas. For instance, if you want students to producesome written guidelines on how to practise English outside theclassroom, you can give them some discussion prompts first.

try it out1 You are going to write an advice sheet on how to practise

English outside the classroom. Think about the followingareas and make notes in the table.

How to improve

Grammar

Vocabulary

Pronunciation

Listening

Speaking

Reading

Writing

2 Now talk in small groups and share ideas. 3 In groups, write your advice sheet. Put it on the wall for

other groups to read and comment.

Allow them a couple of minutes to think on their own, beforeputting them in groups to pool ideas. In that way, they willcome to the group work with something to contribute, and thediscussion will flow more freely. Students can then begin toorganize their ideas together, and start to write a joint advicesheet.

discussionDiscussion activities are usually more successful in smallgroups. There is likely to be a greater diversity of opinionsamong three or four people (than just two), and therefore theprobability of a more interesting and animated conversation.Sometimes a discussion may begin in pairs then develop intogroups. For instance, in the pyramid discussion below:

• learners first discuss a topic in pairs, e.g. Everybody should goto university, and agree on their views

• then they re-form as a group of four to discuss theirconclusions. The group must also reach a consensus

• then they re-form into a group of eight, and so on.

There is one important consideration with any group workactivity which invites students to pool information, generateideas, or give opinions. In our experience, learners benefitconsiderably from having time to think and plan their ideas,and even to rehearse ways of expressing them on their own,before group work. The group activity itself then takes off morequickly because people have something to say and aren’tstruggling with both language and content simultaneously.

gamesA number of games are designed for three or more players, e.g.Grammar Monopoly, but even games that can be played inpairs, e.g. Twenty Questions, are often more interesting insmall groups. Most games become more competitive with alarger number of participants, but the main advantage is thatgames usually generate more noise, fun and excitement whenthree or more people are involved.

minglingHere’s a less structured activity which involves groups or pairs:

speaking it’s your turn!1 Think! Think about your own plans. Write down five

things you are going to do, might do, or would liketo do this week / weekend.

2 Find someone in the class with at least two similarplans.

from pre-intermediate student’s book, unit eight p.76

Mingling allows learners to communicate with many differentpeople, sometimes with students they rarely talk to, and oftenmeans an opportunity to practise specific language items manytimes over without seeming repetitive. It is also worth pointingout that this fairly simple activity has an outcome: they arecomparing information in order to find others with similarplans. The principle of setting concrete aims and outcomes is animportant one in pair and group work.

9.3

Have you got any plansfor this weekend?

Yes, I’m going to …

What are yougoing to do this

weekend?

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try it out starting a lessonMy learners come to class on two evenings a week, after work,and they don’t have much exposure to English outside theclassroom. When they arrive, they need a little time to tune into English, and pair and group work is the ideal way ofproviding this. I generally have a few minutes at the beginningof every lesson where they have to use English in a relaxed andunthreatening way. Sometimes, I ask them to compare theirhomework answers with a partner, or play a quick vocabularyrevision game in small groups using words on cards, or perhapstalk to their partner about what they did the evening before.These few minutes can also be a useful way of absorbinglatecomers. I always monitor during this time, taking theopportunity to make contact with individuals, assess what theyare saying, and decide what feedback to give. I find it creates apleasant atmosphere and purposeful start, and my learners seemto like it. Marianne, Lyon

4 Class managementClass management of pair and group work involves:

– setting up: organizing the pairs / groups and giving theminstructions

– monitoring: listening to the pairs / groups during theactivity and guiding / giving support / making notes

– winding down: bringing the activity to a close andproviding feedback.

Let’s look at these in turn.

setting up If your learners are not used to working independently in pairsor groups, it is worth spending time to explain how suchactivities can help them (look back at section 1 of this chapter).

1 knowing your aimFirstly, an activity should have a learning aim. In some cases,this will be linguistic, e.g. learners have intensive oral practiceof specific language; in others it will be communicative, e.g.learners develop their fluency in a freer, more extended activity.Where students are exchanging information, pooling ideas orgiving opinions, it is more motivating for them if the activityhas an outcome which is not simply linguistic. For example, inunit five of the pre-intermediate student’s book, learners readan article full of advice for students taking exams. Afterworking on general comprehension of the text, students do thefollowing tasks.

4 Think! Choose the three most important pieces ofadvice, and one or two you don’t think are important.

5 Compare in groups. Agree on the three most importantpieces of advice. Do you have any other advice?

from pre-intermediate student’s book p.50

For exercise 5 students must reach agreement on the threemost important ones. In other words, they have to reach anoutcome in which there is consensus. It is very important tomake the aim explicit at the start of the activity so that studentswill know what they have to achieve by the end.

think!2

Can you think of a concrete outcome for these speaking activities?a In small groups, learners tell each other what their family

eats in a typical day.b In small groups, learners compare their opinions on a

questionnaire about public transport in their town. c In groups, students talk about how much housework they

do.

go to answer key p.152

2 physical organisationFrom a class management point of view, it is easier in pair workif learners work with the person next to them, and as they haveoften chosen who they want to sit with, this is likely to be acomfortable arrangement for most of them. You will need to bealert to pairings which might indicate problems. For example:

– if you are teaching employees from a single company, it maynot be desirable to pair up a junior employee with their boss

– with multinational classes, there may be a reason forkeeping certain nationalities apart

– in some classes there may be female students who areuncomfortable with certain male students, and vice versa.

Some unlikely pairs may be a great success. Instinctively youmay not think it wise to mix older and younger class members,but we have had teenagers who not only behave in a moreadult way working with older students, they also feel moresecure and less inhibited in this situation.

Initially, let students build their confidence with a limitedrange of partners. Monitor closely and praise students who areworking well together. Keep a mental check of those who workwell together and those who don’t. Gradually move the pairsaround and monitor the different dynamics. You need to acceptthat it is rare to have all the pairs performing equally well, butit is important to ensure that you don’t have an under-performing pair together all the time. As a general rule, wedon’t organize different pairs all the time (it’s disruptive and tootime-consuming), but we like to vary the pairs some of the time:

– to allow students to do the same activity again but with anew partner

– to see how learners perform with different partners

– to rearrange pairs where the ‘chemistry’ doesn’t work

– to share around a problematic learner

– to provide variety

There are several simple time-saving ways to change pairsaround: work with the student on your left or right; work withthe student in front of you / behind you. If students are sittingin a horseshoe arrangement, move one student on the end tothe other end of the horseshoe. If you have an odd number ofstudents in the class, there will always be one group of three.This doesn’t matter as long as it’s not the same three all the time.

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In group work, you may group learners who are sitting neareach other for minimum disruption. Friendship groups mayalso work well together provided they don’t form cliques andturn the class into separate factions. If you find a group isn’tworking well together, bear it in mind for the next groupactivity and change the groups around. Here are two simpleideas for rearranging groups.

– If you have say, 15 students, and you want five groups ofthree randomly organized, go round the class giving eachperson a letter: A, B, C, D or E. Then tell all the As to sittogether, and so on.

– You can do the same thing with fifteen pieces of colouredcard: red, green, blue, etc. Let students take a colour, thentell them to sit with others with the same colour.

Group size can be a crucial factor in the success of an activity.We tend to keep groups to three or four because larger groupscan intimidate less confident learners and they allow feweropportunities for everyone to speak. From the learner’s point ofview it can also be difficult to see and hear everyone when thegroup is quite big, especially if you have a noisy class.

It is interesting to experiment with the composition of thegroups; you may need to try a number of options before gettingthe right mix.

3 clear instructionsIf your learners have never worked in pairs or groups before,choose activities which are easy to set up, and if necessary, givethe instructions in the students’ mother tongue. Graduallymove towards instructions in English, which will providelistening practice with a real purpose, and students willacquire some very useful language (first of all, listen to each other,when you’ve finished, go on to the next one, etc.).

If you’re worried about giving instructions, here are a few tips:

– Tell the class the end result of the activity in one sentence,e.g. ‘You’re going to tell a partner the story of a film youlike very much.’ (See knowing your aim above)

– Give instructions in the students’ mother tongue first if youhave a particularly weak class. For lower levels, start withsimple activities with simple instructions and graduallymove on to more complicated ones.

– Give the instructions on a ‘need to know’ basis. Explain thefirst stage they have to do, let them do it, and then give thenext instructions as required; otherwise students can getoverwhelmed and you run the risk of losing their attention.

– Use demonstration or examples to check learners understandyour instructions, especially with lower levels. For instance,if the activity asks learners to think of five things to do in apark, ask the whole class to come up with one or two ideasonly as an example, then put them in pairs to think of fivemore. This is essential with a large class, where you maynot be able to monitor all the pairs effectively once theactivity is underway.

– Give the students a time limit for the activity as this willallow them to manage their own time.

– As a final check, as soon as learners have started working inpairs or groups, spend a minute quickly going round to seeif they are doing the right thing. Don’t interfere at this stage,but if more than one pair or group hasn’t understood theinstructions, it may be quicker to call the class’s attentionand clarify what to do; otherwise just deal quickly with anyproblem of understanding with the relevant pair / group.

monitoringWhen you have checked the learners are doing the activitycorrectly, you can monitor more generally and respond toindividual problems or queries, without getting too involved.You should sit where you can hear most of the group, or moveround quietly. While you monitor, make notes for feedback atthe end; include examples of good language use or performanceas well as important errors. At this stage you should also bepaying careful attention to the dynamics of the different pairs /groups. With a large class you must obviously try to ensure thatyou monitor more or less equally, so if you were unable tolisten to a particular pair or group last time, make sure youlisten to them this time. The type of monitoring you do willdepend on the activity.

Want to know more? Go to intermediate teacher’s book, how to …monitor and give feedback p.156

winding downPair and group work is most successful when students areengaged, focused, and learning from the activity – and when ittakes ‘the right amount of time’ from their point of view.However, pairs and groups can’t all work at the same pace;some will finish earlier than others, so be prepared for this. Youcan often provide something simple for them to do while theothers are finishing. For example, if they have been asked tothink of four reasons for doing something, you could ask themto think of two more. With certain oral activities it may berelevant to ask learners who finish early to write down some oftheir ideas (try to find time to go back and look at what theyhave written). They might also benefit from listening to theother pairs / groups who are still working.

A common problem is letting activities go on for too long. Youdon’t want to lose the momentum of a good activity byallowing animated talk to slow down to a whisper before youstop the activity. Don’t intervene when the whole class isclearly still engaged in the activity, but be prepared to finish ata point when most pairs / groups are reaching the end, anddon’t expect everyone to finish. If you’ve given a time limit atthe start, try to keep to it but allow some flexibility. If you haveover- or under-estimated time, don’t worry; just observe howstudents are working and adjust accordingly. A one-minute ortwo-minute warning before you stop can be very useful forlearners and often livens up the pace.

It is important to bring the class together after pair and groupactivities. At this point, you can ask pairs / groups to reportback on what they discussed, and you can also give your ownfeedback on the ideas discussed and the language they used(both good language use and errors).

Want to know more? Go to intermediate teacher’s book,how to … monitor and give feedback p.156

5 TroubleshootingDifferent teaching situations throw up different problems.These are some of the most common ones we have encounteredwith relevance to pair and group work activities.

PROBLEM: My students either don’t want to speak in English or are too embarassed to speak in English.

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welcome the opportunity to stand up and stretch their legs. Theadvantage of this is that learners can work in pairs or groupswithout having to move chairs or desks.

If pair and group work in your classroom creates a lot of noise,it suggests that your learners are involved in what they aredoing! However, you need to be sensitive to your neighbours.Make sure you keep an open channel of communication withother teachers to prevent it becoming a problem between you,and obviously avoid noisy activities if a test or reading activityis going on next door. You can also ask your students to speak abit more quietly if noise levels are becoming excessive.

conclusionIn this chapter we have discussed:

– the reasons for including pair and group work, along withindividual and whole class activities

– a selection of classroom activities that are suited to pair andgroup work

– class management procedures which help to make pair andgroup work successful

– troubleshooting common problems

If you have been suspicious of pair and group work in the past,we hope this chapter will have encouraged you to try it out. If,on the other hand, pair and group work is something you useregularly, we hope the chapter will have helped you to reflecton your current practice and encourage further experimentation.

follow upHarmer J 2001 The Practice of English Language Teaching (third

edition) LongmanHadfield J 1998 Classroom Dynamics Oxford University PressMalamah-Thomas A 1987 Classroom Interaction Oxford University PressNolasco R and L Nolasco 1987 Conversation Oxford University PressSeligson P 1999 Two heads are better than one English Teaching

Professional 11

answer key think!2 p.150 possible outcomesa Find the family who eats the most meat / fish / vegetables, etc.,

or the family with the healthiest diet, or the family which is mostsimilar to your family, or find four similarities and differences.

b In each group, decide on the single most important issue, thencompare with the other groups, or decide on two importantchanges you would like to make to public transport. Alternatively,each group could write a short summary of the majority opinionsfor other groups to read and discuss.

c Each group must agree on who does the most or least housework.

With a few exceptions, we have not encountered students whodon’t want to speak in English. However, we are familiar withstudents who feel embarrassed about speaking English,especially with learners they feel are better than they are, orlearners who share the same mother tongue. We think it isworth pointing out that talking quietly to a ‘supportive’ partneris probably the easiest and least threatening way to startspeaking in English; and the more you do it, the easier it gets.Start with simple controlled activities, and aim from the outsetto develop among your learners a positive and supportiveattitude. Try to match less confident learners with people whowon’t overwhelm them, and give lots of praise when they dospeak in English – whether it is accurate or not! Be very firmwith any student who laughs at someone else’s English.

With monolingual classes you will have to be very pragmatic.Some students will find it hard to relinquish their firstlanguage, so try to be tolerant with these students whilecoaxing them to use English more and more. It will beparticularly important with this type of student that the activityis clearly achievable, and some students may find it easier ifthey are not working with a close friend or someone who isclearly better than they are. Again, give lots of praise whenthey use English. You can introduce fun penalties and prizes tofurther encourage the use of English in class e.g. for certainstages of the lesson like a fluency activity, if the students usetheir mother tongue, they get a black mark. The student withthe most number of black marks has to buy the teacher tea inthe break.

There is also the positive contribution that the use of themother tongue can have. Students may sometimes revert to theL1 as a necessary tool to repair or clarify a particular message,thereby allowing the activity to continue, largely in English.Finally, it’s worth bearing in mind that some English and somemother tongue is far better than no English at all.

Mistakes are not a disease, but an important part of thelearning process. Everyone makes mistakes, and practice is thebest way to reduce them. By pointing out successful languageuse in feedback, e.g. correct use of some recently taughtgrammar or a very useful phrase, you will help to makelearners more aware of the positive influence of other learners.

This can certainly inhibit group work, but students can do pairwork activities sitting where they are, and no furniture has tobe moved. For variety, you could ask learners to sit in adifferent place at the beginning of each lesson, so that over aperiod of lessons or weeks they will work with a range ofstudents. You could also think about doing activities standingup. As learners are seated for most of the lesson, many

PROBLEM: My students say they don’t want to dopair and group work because they will start copyingother learners’ mistakes.

PROBLEM: My classroom isn’t big enough forstudents to move around, and the furniture is veryinflexible.

PROBLEM: If I put students in pairs, they talk in their first language all the time.

PROBLEM: When my class are working in pairs or groups, the teachers next door complain aboutthe noise.

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1 What is ‘good’ practice?2 Bringing controlled practice to life3 Staging practice activities4 The role of the teacher

1 What is ‘good’ practice?Does practice make perfect in language learning? No, notalways. There are times when repeated practice seems to havelittle or no effect on some learners’ ability to use new languageaccurately or fluently. Equally, there are occasions whenrecently encountered language passes into productive use withno specific practice or intervention on the teacher’s part.However, for most learners, most of the time, practice isessential, but to make the best use of limited classroom time,we also have to give careful consideration to the quality andappropriateness of the practice we provide.

The following list is not exhaustive, but it outlines some of theimportant features that good practice should contain. Bearingin mind that learners need different types of practice atdifferent stages in their learning, we would not expect manypractice activities to fulfil all of the criteria below: the essentialingredients will depend on the stage of learning your studentshave reached.

practise what we teach

think!1

What is the purpose of this exercise?Complete the sentences with the correct form of the presentperfect.

1 I ____ (work) here for three years and I really like the job.2 She ____ (not see) her brothers since last May.3 He ____ (not take) any exams for six months now.

etc.

This exercise requires students to think about the constructionof the present perfect, but is not asking them to consider whythe tense is used. In other words, the exercise tests form but notmeaning. This is perfectly valid provided the teacher does notbelieve that meaning is being tested or practised. In verycontrolled exercises, it is easy to ensure that learners are at leastfocusing on the form and / or the meaning of the targetlanguage. As understanding deepens and performanceimproves, practice needs to expand accordingly, with morelanguage choice and more learner freedom. For example, weusually test the past continuous initially at sentence level,contrasting it with the past simple, before moving on to apractice phase where we might ask our students to use thestructure in some kind of narrative. At this point it is notuncommon for learners to manage to construct a logical andlargely accurate story without using the past continuous at all.This could be for two possible reasons:

– our failure to devise a suitable vehicle for use of the pastcontinuous.

– the learners are not yet able to incorporate the structureproductively when they have so many other languagedecisions to make.

In future you may also decide that the narrative needs morestructure and the learners need more guidance to encourage useof the target language. We can’t expect all practice activities tobe successful, but we need to be aware of what we want anactivity to practise, and we need to be able to recognize, whenthe activity has been completed, whether it has achieved thataim.

quantity vs. qualityWe should try to ensure that practice provides learners withmany opportunities to use the target grammar. Volume of practicecan help learners to produce the language more rapidly. This iseasier with some structures than others. It is relativelystraightforward to find realistic contexts for quantity practiceof, say, the present simple (e.g. talking about daily routines) orpast simple (e.g. talking about what you did last weekend). Toachieve the same with the past perfect simple or continuous isnot so easy, as these forms are less likely to occur both naturallyand frequently within a single passage or conversation.Moreover, there is no guarantee either that repeated practicewill lead to improved performance, especially if the practice isdecontextualised and fairly mechanical. Repeated practice maybecome counter-productive and encourage learners to use thetargeted item more often than is appropriate. Learners whohave had lots of practice with the past perfect, for example,often over-apply it in story-telling tasks. Sometimes there hasto be a trade-off between quantity and quality, in which casequality should prevail.

challenging but achievableIf practice activities are consistently too difficult, learners willfind them demotivating, and this is likely to have an adverseeffect on their learning. But if they are too easy, they will soonbecome boring. Practice should aim to be sufficientlychallenging to maintain interest, but always achievable so thatit is confidence building. It’s a difficult balance to get rightbecause as students become more proficient, the level ofchallenge needs to rise accordingly. It is probably wiser to erron the side of being too easy in the initial practice, but learnersneed to be stretched as they become more confident andproficient.

learner scope Most teachers have to contend with the reality of mixed abilityclasses. Even when students all start at roughly the same level,it isn’t long before several different levels emerge. Practiceactivities that are achievable for weaker students may be easyfor stronger learners, and vice versa. One way to combat thisproblem is by providing grammar practice that allows learnersto tackle an activity at different levels of complexity. For example,here are two forms of practice for comparative adjectives:

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1 a series of sentences in which learners have to choosebetween the two forms, e.g. I arrived later/ more late than theothers.

2 In pairs, students make sentences comparing other peoplein the class using comparative adjectives.

The first task is for recognition, and has a simple right / wronganswer in each case, so if weaker learners are able to do itsuccessfully, it is unlikely to provide sufficient challenge forstronger learners. The second activity requires student output /production, and with its potential for many different answers,it allows students to produce responses whose relative lengthor complexity matches their ability. A strong student may writethat Paulo’s English is more accurate than mine or Dino wears smarterclothes than me. But a weaker student will also have completedthe task successfully if they are able to say Paulo’s taller thanJunko or Marek’s older than Edith.

Allowing learners opportunities for individual creativity maynot be a priority just after presenting some new grammar, but itshould figure prominently as practice develops and learnerdifferences start to emerge more clearly.

interestPractice activities have a linguistic aim which learners shouldrecognize and appreciate. However, if the aim remains purelylinguistic and students are put through a series of similaractivities, their attention may begin to wane, and learning maybe less effective. To sustain interest and engagement – andprobably facilitate more effective learning – it helps to have acommunicative aim as well.

think!2

If learners are expanding prompts into questions to practisequestion forms, which of these prompts will produce the moregenerative question?

a What time / lesson start this morning?b Where / you go for your last holiday?

The first question will produce an answer that everyone in theclass already knows, so why should anyone want to ask it? Thesecond question will not only have answers that others don’tknow, it may also generate a different answer from everystudent in the class and lead on very naturally to morequestions with a genuine communicative purpose:

Where did you stay?

Who did you go with?

Did you have a good time?

etc.

Having an exercise with a communicative aim doesn’t meansuddenly throwing learners into a lengthy activity: it simplymeans finding appropriate prompts to stimulate the learners toproduce relevant language.

varietyProviding variety of practice is important for two reasons:

– students need different forms of practice at different stages.At the beginning, practice will have a more obviouslinguistic aim, its focus will be restricted, and it shouldn’t betoo challenging. As practice progresses, students needactivities with more language choice and more scope forcreativity.

– too many activities of the same type will eventually becomeboring. If, for example, you are providing a sequence ofthree practice activities, try to ensure that at least tworequire student output, and at least one has an additionalcommunicative aim such as exchanging personalinformation or solving a problem. Try to make all of themdifferent in some way: oral vs. written practice, individualvs. group practice, paper-based and paperless practice, etc.

2 Bringing controlled practice to life In this section we are going to look at some of the mostcommon exercise types which are used to test / practiselanguage, and focus on ways in which controlled exercises canbe made more interesting and often transformed into freer andmore expansive forms of practice.

think!3

Look at the exercises below. 1 Do these exercise types provide volume of practice?2 Do they allow for learner creativity?3 Do they have a linguistic and a communicative aim?4 Are they interesting for students to do?

1 Fill the gaps with the correct form of the verb.e.g. 1 I ________ (be) in this class since last year.

2 Transform the sentences from active to passive.e.g. 1 They make these cars in Wales.

These cars ________________.

3 Correct the errors.e.g. 1 The ticket office gave me all the informations.

4 Match the sentence halves.e.g. 1 I spoke a the doctor about my problem.

2 I told b to the doctor about my problem.

5 Put the words in order.e.g. 1 he/ late/ class/ for/ is/ always

While these exercises may vary in focus and the degree ofstudent output, they are all similar in that they are controlledtests. They all have a single right answer, restrict learnercreativity and offer limited or no language choice. Oneconsequence of this is that learners are unlikely to get manyanswers wrong, thereby making them achievable and good forconfidence building. There is no denying some students havean immense appetite for exercises like these which are quick todo, relatively easy and provide them with positive feedback.Sentence level exercises are also relatively straightforward forteachers to construct. It would be easy to write ten examples foreach exercise, and they can also be given for homework. Inother words, these exercises have value, but as they currentlystand, it is limited value. The aim in each one is purelylinguistic, the scope for learner output is very restricted, andthe level of interest is limited. They need to be followed up bymore expansive forms of practice in which the new languagecan be personalized and placed in a more meaningful context.

On the next page are some ideas for providing more generativeand meaningful practice from controlled exercises.

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think!5

As you read the descriptions below of different activities, thinkabout the exercise types. Which do you do often? Which do yourlearners find useful and / or enjoyable? Are there any you don’tdo? If so, why?

gap fillGap fill exercises can sometimes be transformed into a type ofinformation gap, which is more interactive, and can then beused for personalized practice. Here is an example designed topractise question forms. The class is divided into two halves, Aand B. Each half is given the same exercise, but different wordsare blanked out in A and B copies. For example:

from pre intermediate student’s book, unit one p.8 and p.140

how to … practise grammar 155

Also suitable for:

‘information gap’ conditional questions, e.g.

A What (do) if you saw somebody stealing food in amarket?

B What would you do if you (see) somebody stealingfood in a market?

‘information gap’ zero article statements, e.g.

A is more important than money.

B Health is more important than .

For the zero conditional example above, students may usedifferent abstract nouns which could lead to someinteresting discussion.

discrimination exercise This type of recognition exercise is simple and quick forlearners to do, but it can be extended for student output if thetarget sentences are presented in a real-life context which canlead to discussion. In the activity below, the examples are set inthe context of the classroom. Although the linguistic choice islimited, there may be some disagreement, which will providean interactive element. Reading the sentences to a partnerprovides controlled oral practice. You can also ask learners tomake up similar sentences about the class or school / place ofstudy which they pass to another pair to answer. This providesfurther learner output, and is a very useful way for the teacherto monitor the students’ ability to use the structure.

3 Underline the true answers for your class.

1 We can/ can’t smoke in the classroom.2 We have to /don’t have to speak English most of

the time in class.3 We can/ can’t use dictionaries in class.4 We have to /don’t have to sit in the same place

every lesson.5 We have to /don’t have to do homework three

times a week.6 We can/ can’t speak in our own language in class.7 We can/ can’t bring drinks into the classroom.8 We have to /don’t have to do a test every month.

from pre-intermediate student’s book, unit five p.47

also suitable for: -ed / -ing adjectives, e.g.

1 Do you think learning English is interested / interesting?

2 Do you feel embarrassed / embarrassing if you make mistakes inEnglish?

true / false statementsStatements containing the target structure which students haveto change or discuss are another useful form of personalizedpractice. For instance, you can provide sentences for students tomake true for themselves, like this:

never

I often work late in the evenings.

usually

I never go to bed before midnight.

etc.

student Aexample

’s your best friend’s name?

1 When you first meet him /her?

2 ’s he/she like?

3 How often you see him /her?

4 old is he/she?

5 What he/she do?

6 do you get on well?

7 Where he/she live?

8 does he/she live with?

9 What you do together?

10 Has he/she any children?

WhatI’m just curious!

student Bexample What your best friend’s name?

1 did you first meet him /her?

2 What he/she like?

3 do you see him /her?

4 How old he/she?

5 does he/she do?

6 Why you get on well?

7 does he/she live?

8 Who he/she live with?

9 do you do together?

10 he/she got any children?

’s

A students work together to complete their gaps, as do Bstudents. A’s then find a B partner and have to read theirquestions aloud. Only by interacting with each other in thisway can each pair find out if they have filled the gaps correctly.This part of the exercise focuses on accuracy in question forms.

In the next stage, the students can use the questions tointerview their teacher and / or other students about their bestfriend. The exercise now has a communicative purpose (to findout about their partner’s best friend), with scope for learners tospeak at length if they so wish and also think up morequestions to ask. If students find the activity motivating, theywill become more concerned with communicating a messagethan monitoring how it is constructed.

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The activity above can be done orally in pairs, or students canwrite the answers alone then compare. Alternatively, they cantry to guess which statements are true for their partner.

In the activity below, students work in small groups and haveto find out whether the statements in the questionnaire are truefor their group. In order to do this, there will be a high volumeof practice as students will need to use the target structurerepeatedly, (i.e. the present continuous for future). The activityprovides quite controlled practice of question forms and shortanswers and high frequency collocations, but it does requirelearners to really listen to each other and process the answers.

Like all drills, it tests form and pronunciation rather thanmeaning, and there is no scope for creativity or personalisation,but the exercise can be fun. By handing over control to thelearners it is also more flexible than a classic teacher-led drill. Ifyou feel your learners have a good grasp of the forms, youcould do this drill with pairs racing each other to find the finalsentence (it’s very difficult to do this activity without saying allthe sentences). If your learners are less confident, they can workin pairs and proceed at their own pace without being rushed. Itis important to plan your prompts carefully for the students,however, to ensure that they produce natural, logical sentences.

also suitable for: most forms of tense practice.

mimeA type of practice activity with a visual element is miming. Inthe activity below, students in pairs are given sentences tomime for another pair or for the class.

Work in small groups. Ask questions to find the answers tothe questionnaire. Write T (true) or F (false).example A Are you working late tomorrow?

B No, I’m not. C Yes, I am.

IN OUR GROUP ... TRUE OR FALSE?– somebody is working late tomorrow.

– everybody is coming to the next lesson.

– nobody is staying at home tomorrow evening.

– somebody is going on holiday next month.

– everybody is going home after the lesson.

– somebody is doing some sport this weekend.

– everybody is going shopping this weekend.

– nobody is getting married this year.

– somebody is moving house this year.

– nobody is taking an exam this year.

from pre intermediate student’s book, review eight p.83

also suitable for: other tenses; modals of obligation or ability

substitution drillsIn classic substitution drilling, the teacher provides a sentence,e.g. I’ve had three coffees today and then a prompt, e.g. she. The classrepeats the sentence incorporating the new word and anynecessary changes, i.e. She’s had three coffees today. The teachercontinues to give prompts and the class provide appropriatesentences. Here is a variation on the teacher-led drill which in-creases the practice each student gets because they do it in pairs.

4 With a partner, take turns to change the sentencebelow, using the words given. Don’t write anything.

I never used to go out on Sundays.

1 we We never used to go out on Sundays.

2 Mondays We never used to go out on Mondays.

3 they 7 stay at home

4 Friday nights 8 never

5 always 9 go to parties

6 she 10 my brother and I

5 Write down the last sentence. Compare withanother pair.

A pairs Act out these sentences for B pairs. You can’tspeak – you have to mime. Practise your actions foreach sentence.

1 I was having my lunch when somebody phoned me.2 I was driving to work when the police stopped me.3 When I was taking a photo, somebody stole my bag.4 I was having a shower when I heard the fire alarm.5 I was waiting for a bus when somebody asked me

the time.

B pairs You have to act out these sentences for A pairs.You can’t speak – you have to mime. Practise youractions for each sentence.

1 I was watching TV when somebody broke thewindow.

2 I was changing some money at the bank when Imet an old friend.

3 I was working on my computer when the phonerang.

4 When I was running for the bus, a dog ran afterme and bit me.

5 When I was sitting in the garden somebody threwa ball at me.

from pre-intermediate student’s book, unit seven pairwork p.141‘B pairs’ sentences p.142

Firstly, the pairs rehearse their mimes. During this stage, theywill use a range of language, not just the target language, whilenegotiating how best to do the mimes. They then find a B pairand act out a sentence. The B pair have to say what happened /was happening: in other words, produce an accurate pastcontinuous / past simple sentence. They may have to makesome guesses (especially if the mimes are rather ambiguous),which will add to the volume of practice. The activity provideschallenge and is game-like, everyone is engaged and thisresults in some lively interaction with a physical element in theclassroom. Pairs can make up their own sentences to mime, orinvent sentences for other students to mime; this will furtherdemonstrate their awareness of the concepts.from pre intermediate student’s book, unit twelve p.114

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also suitable for: too + adjective / not + adjective + enough e.g.

the soup’s too salty; the trousers aren’t long enough.

Separable phrasal verbs, e.g. she picked the book up; he threw thepaper away.

try it out ten things This is an adaptable framework relying entirely on the learners’experience, which provides high volume controlled practice.

1 Ask students in pairs to write down ten things you do ina restaurant, e.g. You sit at a table / ask for the menu. (Doan example together first.) Set a time limit of say, threeminutes, but if they need more time, let them have it.Monitor, help and correct where necessary. Students canuse dictionaries, but if so, they may need more time.

2 Tell students to find a new partner. They take turns to say asentence, e.g. You order from the menu. If a student saysa sentence which their partner hasn’t got, they get a point.

3 At the end, students read out the sentences which weredifferent from their partner’s.

This example practises the present simple, but it also providesconsiderable practice in noun + verb collocations, as do thecontexts below. You can therefore feed in or correct these.Here are some more structures for pair practice: ten things … you can do at a wedding / on a beach / in a park

you have to do when you’re organizing a partyyou should do to improve your English

Here are some structures for students to prepare alone beforecomparing with a partner:ten things … you’ve done this week / this month

you’re going to do at the weekendyou’d like to do before you get oldyou used to do when you were youngeryou would do if money wasn’t a problem

Tina, Bath

3 Staging practice activitiesStaging the practice so that the length and complexity of theactivities proceed at the appropriate pace for your learners isquite a challenge. If we are too cautious and restrict learnerswholly to a diet of controlled gap fills or drills, they will neverget a chance to use the language for a real communicativepurpose. Consequently they may remain obsessed withcorrectness and never achieve any real fluency. At the otherextreme, if we ask students to launch straight into a freepractice activity before they have had a chance to grasp theforms and concepts, they are likely to feel frustrated by theirown inaccuracy.

It makes sense, therefore, to stage students’ learning so thatpractice activities which immediately follow newly presentedgrammar do not demand too much attention to form andmeaning at the same time. There is no blueprint for stagingpractice, but as a general rule:

– recognition (e.g. underlining or matching) precedesproduction

– practice in isolation before in combination (e.g. practise

present perfect first before contrasting it with past simple)

– control before freedom and creativity.

Let’s look at a staged set of activities designed to help learnersuse will for spontaneous decisions and offers. We are assumingthat learners have already studied the meaning, form, andpronunciation of will (see natural English pre-intermediatestudent book, unit four p.36, grammar exercises 1-3.) The firstform of practice below (exercise 4 in the student’s book) isvery controlled: learners only have two choices so they are freeto concentrate on the difference in concept between will and thepresent simple (learners often make the mistake of using thepresent simple instead of will here).

from pre-intermediate student’s book, unit four p.36

The next activity in the sequence, exercise 5 below, requiresmore output by the students: they have to produce the correctform I’ll …, and they also have to create logical and coherentresponses to the stimuli they are given.

4 Complete the sentences with ’ll or nothing (-).

1 A I think you need to contact her.

B Yes, you’re right. I e-mail her now.

2 A Do you meet her a lot?

B Yes, I see her every day.

3 A Does she reply to all the letters she receives?

B Yes, but I type them.

4 A The boss is busy.

B OK, I phone her later.

5 Complete the dialogues. Use I’ll.

Look, it’s

going to rain.

OK, . What would you

like to drink?

Er, .

1 2

I need to get

to the station

quickly.

Fine,

. I can’t do my

homework.

Don’t worry,

.

3 4

from pre-intermediate student’s book, unit four p.36

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* At the back of the student’s book, there is a bank of practice exercisesalongside the language reference. These provide additional controlledpractice for the teacher to use with their class where necessary, saybefore the ‘it’s your turn’ in this case. You can use the exercises withsome of the students but not others, if you wish; they are simply thereto be used at your discretion.

4 The role of the teacher

think!6

What kind of things do you do while your students are doinggrammar practice activities? Think for a few moments, then readon.

In grammar practice activities, the main role of the teacher is toprovide help and support. With activities directed by theteacher from the front of the class, this may mean correctingerrors, but also giving learners time to think before theyanswer. If students are rushed into giving an answer, they aremore likely to make mistakes and lose confidence. If someone isstruggling to respond at this point, you can help by giving ahint or possibly starting off the correct sentence. However,when students are working in pairs or small groups, it issensible to move round quietly and be available to help onlywhere necessary. When they are working individually on awriting activity, you can see from their answers which studentswill benefit from your help.

monitoring and correctionHow you provide help while monitoring grammar practiceactivities will depend largely on the aim of the activity and thestudents themselves. If the focus of the activity is accuracy – youwant learners to select the correct meaning and / or produce thecorrect form – then they will need clear feedback. After all,opportunities to have mistakes corrected in a risk-freeenvironment is one of the benefits of classroom practice. Hereare two common correction techniques:

1 reformulate with the correct version. For example, if a studentsays, ‘ If I would go’, you can repeat quietly, ‘If I WENT’. Thisquick form of correction won’t disrupt the activity and makesgood sense if you judge the student will immediately recognizeboth the error and the correct version without any need forfurther explanation.

2 guided self correction. Repeat the error, but with a look onyour face and / or an intonation pattern which clearly indicatesto the student that a mistake has been made. By stressing theerror, e.g. ‘I GO yesterday’, you can also highlight where themistake has been made. In this case, there is clearly aninvitation for the learner to correct the error themselves, andagain this seems sensible if you are confident the student willbe able to do so. Many learners find self-correction moresatisfying than being corrected by others, and it may also have amore positive long term effect on their learning. However, it canbe useful to call on other learners to help with the correctanswer if the student is unable to find it him / herself.

Learners need to know when they are getting somethingwrong, but they also need to know when they are getting itright. This doesn’t mean constantly stopping an activity in orderto give praise, but a quiet ‘good’ or positive gesture, e.g. athumbs up or nod of approval as you walk by, will let learners

158 how to … practise grammar

The dialogues are quite restricted but they are designed to elicitverbs which frequently co-occur with will with this meaning,e.g. I’ll help you, I’ll take my umbrella, I’ll have a coffee, etc. Byproducing the responses, it will help learners to memorizeuseful lexical chunks. This activity is still controlled, but thereis more choice for the learner in terms of lexis, and when theycompare their sentences with a partner, they may discover thatthey have different but equally valid responses. In question 3,for example (I need to get to the station), learners might come upwith different responses: Fine, I’ll take you / I’ll give you a lift / I’llcall a taxi. In other words, they can learn from each others’responses.

Finally, at the end of the lesson, learners have the opportunityto use will in another context where it would arise naturally inoffers and spontaneous decisions*. The simple role play andguided dialogue in ‘it’s your turn!’ below illustrates to thestudents how the language point can be used. The item has tobe used in real time, and as part of a communicative activitywith a specified outcome: buying and selling possessions. Theother language around the target item should be within thelearners’ grasp, and the activity should be achievable.Practising first with a partner in exercise 2 gives students achance to rehearse the conversation – time to think andrehearse is an opportunity for monitoring and attention toaccuracy – and by the time they get to the mingling activity inexercise 3, it is hoped that their use of will is now becoming alittle more automatic. They may even feel they can take morerisks in their conversations.

from pre-intermediate student’s book, unit four p.36

It is important to stress that the sequence given above is just anexample. Good staging depends entirely on your on-goingevaluation of your learners’ grasp of the target language. Somegroups will need to spend more time on a particular type ofpractice, and inevitably, students in the same class will needdifferent amounts of practice; this is when practice allowingindividual scope for different levels of complexity becomes apriority.

speaking it’s your turn!1 You’re going to sell three of your things (your book,

your pen, etc.). Choose three things and decide aprice for each one.

examples my jacket – €80 my pencil – 30 cents

2 Try to sell your things to a partner. They should tryto get a discount.

example A How much is your jacket?B It’s €80.A €80! That’s expensive. I’ll give you €50.B No, but you can have it for €70.A No thanks, I’ll leave it. / OK, I’ll take it.

3 Move around the class. Try to buy things at a discount.

4 Tell the class what you bought. Who got the best price?

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how to … practise grammar 159

know that they are doing well. Such positive signs from theteacher are essential for student motivation; we all like praise.

With all grammar practice activities, whether accuracy-based orfluency-based, the way you respond to students will dependpartly on them. Some learners respond well to correction;others less so. Some learners expect you to correct them; othersare quietly pleased if you adopt a more tolerant approach toerror. Some learners respond particularly well to praise; othersmight find it rather meaningless if it happens too often. Thisdoesn’t mean ignoring errors or giving praise for the sake of it,but using your experience and judgement to determine howbest to help individual learners.

Want to know more about monitoring and correction? Go tointermediate teacher’s book, how to … monitor and give feedbackpp. 156–161.

conclusionIn this chapter we have

– selected criteria for features of ‘good’ practice

– looked at common exercise types for grammar practice withsome suggestions for making this practice more interestingand expansive

– included an example to show how practice can be staged

– concluded with a brief look at the role of the teacher duringgrammar practice activities.

In particular, we hope this chapter will encourage you to thinkabout ways you can adapt and extend exercises with purelylinguistic aims and turn them into more expansive andcommunicative activities.

follow upThornbury S 1999 How to teach Grammar LongmanUr P 1996 A Course in Language Teaching Module 6 Cambridge

University PressUr P 1988 Grammar Practice Activities Cambridge University PressHarmer J 2001 The Practice of English Language Teaching part 5

LongmanSwan M and Walter C 2001 The Good Grammar Book Oxford University

Press

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how to … motivate low level learners to write

160 how to … motivate low level learners to write

1 Why is motivation a problem with writing?2 Product and process3 Integrating classroom writing4 Motivation through feedback

1 Why is motivation a problem withwriting?

think!1

How would you feel if you had to write a magazine article, say,on the problems your learners have with writing?

We think most people would be, initially at least, daunted bythe prospect of having to write an article for a magazine, evenin their mother tongue. Writing is an acquired skill, and wehave all, at some time in our lives, struggled with thedifficulties of writing an extended piece of prose whichsomeone might evaluate or criticise. To start with, there is thedread of the blank page and all those questions in our heads:

– Who exactly am I writing it for?

– How explicit do I need to be? i.e. Are the readers informedor not informed?

– Have I got any ideas? If so, how do I organize them?

– How do I express my ideas? i.e. What about my grammar,vocabulary, and style?

– How do I link my ideas together in logical, coherent prose?

It should be said that there are some people who relish thischallenge and are very good at it; but for most of us it isexceptionally hard work and takes a lot of time to do well.Little surprise then if our learners find writing difficult, andespecially in a second language where the written form ofmany words seems different from the spoken form, and wherethe conventions of style and layout in different genres are oftenso different from their own language.

In addition to the inherent difficulty of writing, there are otherfears possibly induced by the classroom environment itself.Learners may receive praise or criticism for their efforts whenthey speak, but such comments from the teacher happenquickly in real time, and are usually soon forgotten. Writing,however, has permanence, and most learners believe, rightly orwrongly, that written tasks are set by teachers for the solepurpose of close inspection and evaluation – a view that isendorsed when they get their work back with a mark or grade.Of course, this may encourage the few learners who are good atit, but the prospect of such a task rarely motivates the majority.

We also have to recognize that most learners (and teachers) ongeneral English courses don’t necessarily view writing as apriority. Learners see the classroom fundamentally as the placeto learn new vocabulary and grammar, and improve theirspeaking and listening. They feel that if writing is to play any

part in the course, the logical place for it is homework. We haveheard this opinion voiced by many learners over the years, andit reflects a widely held view that writing is, essentially, asolitary occupation; something you do, and need to do, on yourown.

There may be other reasons why learners are not motivated towrite, but there are at least three issues that need to beaddressed in our approach to writing if we are going to make ita more enjoyable experience for the majority of learners:

– Does it need to be so difficult?

– Does it need to be judged?

– Does it need to be a solitary occupation?

One of the major debates in recent years has been the productversus process approach to writing. This debate also hasrelevance to the issues mentioned above, so we will consider itbriefly now. We will also be considering these questions indifferent parts of the chapter.

2 Process and product The product approach aims to get the learner to produce anoriginal text based on a model text: the focus is on the productof writing. These texts are often designed to highlight particularfeatures of written language, and they provide a framework forthe learners’ own writing with specific language they may needto use. Here is an example of a teaching sequence following thisapproach.

1 Learners read a letter of complaint (e.g. from a passenger toan airline about poor service). Comprehension is checked.

2 The text is analysed for specific features. These might includea focus on the layout of the letter, greetings and formulaicexpressions, ways of linking clauses, the organisation of ideas,formality of style, etc. Learners focus on one or two featuresor more.

3 They then work on specific exercises to practise subskills. Forexample, they are given jumbled sentences from another letterof complaint to put in order (to help with the organisation ofcontent); they practise linking clauses through sentencecompletion; they are given a similar letter which containserrors in layout to correct; and so on.

4 Learners use the framework of the letter (e.g. address layout,greetings, reason for writing, description of the problems,language used, etc.) to help them produce a parallel piece ofwriting, perhaps about poor service in a hotel or at a restaurant.

The process approach, as its name indicates, focuses on theprocess of writing itself, and attempts to reflect the way goodwriters go about writing. Their starting point is not a modeltext but a communicative purpose, and they certainly don’tachieve the end result at the first draft. Here is an outline of theprocess one might go through when producing a piece ofwriting:

– In a pre-writing phase, time is spent brainstorming ideasand making notes.

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how to … motivate low level learners to write 161

benefits of a product approach – Many learners find it safe and reassuring. They are not

expected to be creative or imaginative, although for somethis may be frustrating.

– Some learners at this level still have problems with basicissues such as letter formation and spelling – thereforecopying or modifying model texts slightly is a very usefulexercise / learning technique.

– Learners get a validated framework and accurate writingsample which they can refer back to later.

– For certain types of writing activity such as business letters,models are necessary. Many discoursal features of writingare culture specific, so learners are unlikely to arrive atcorrect text types by guesswork.

– Model texts provide a vehicle for presenting languageexponents which may be relevant and useful for the task.Many learners expect this kind of lesson framework andfind it reassuring.

benefits of a process approach – The collaborative element of process writing can go a long

way towards removing some of the fears of writing, andmake it a less solitary activity.

– Collaboration also provides a considerable amount ofspeaking practice with a real communicative purpose,which can be motivating and enjoyable.

– The approach hands control and responsibility to thelearner, enabling them to develop a personal approach.

– It can reduce anxiety for learners who may feel they will bejudged on their first efforts. With a process approach, thefirst draft is only the first step. In addition, the teacher’s roleis to facilitate more than to judge.

– Self-expression is encouraged, which is also good formotivation.

It is important to bear in mind your learners’ previous learningexperience and attitudes to collaborative writing. For some,process writing will be very liberating and enjoyable; othersmay prefer to write alone and require time and space to do so.With thoughtful class management, however, there is no reasonwhy one or two individuals shouldn’t work alone while otherswork together. A further consideration is that process writingtakes up a lot of time and it might be advisable to spread it overdifferent lessons.

There is nothing to stop you from using elements of bothprocess and product approaches in a writing activity. Forinstance, you could start with a model letter, but still includecollaborative drafting and redrafting of the learners’ own letter.Alternatively, you could start with brainstorming ideas andinitial writing, and introduce a model later for them to use fortheir own editing or future reference.

3 Integrating classroom writingHere are a few suggestions for ways of including writing, usingaspects of both product and process approaches, as an integralpart of the lesson. We hope they will make writing a moreenjoyable and motivating experience for learners who areusually reluctant to pick up their pens.

– The writer then needs to consider the reader in order toclarify the main focus of the writing and their attitude to it.At this point, they will select and organize their ideas.

– They should now be in a position to produce a first draft.

– This needs to be reviewed and checked that ideas arecoming across clearly and in a well-balanced way.

– This first draft stage is followed by further revision and re-writing.

– Other people may also be involved in reading andcommenting on the later drafts, leading to further revisionsas a result of their comments.

In other words, writing evolves over a considerable period oftime; there are no quick fixes.

When a process approach is adopted in the classroom, learnerswork collaboratively in pairs and groups at different stages ofthe writing. Here is an example of a process writing activity,based on one from Writing 3 by Andrew Littlejohn. Learnersimagine they are looking into a room through a window, andthey write a description of what they see.

1 Learners are given pictures of different rooms around theworld.

2 They brainstorm vocabulary to describe rooms under differentheadings, e.g. size and shape, light, overall impression. Theycompare with other learners.

3 They look at different pictures of windows and try to imaginethe room behind one of them. They make notes about theroom, the objects in it, the person in the room and whatthey are doing, the sounds and smells in the room.

4 They write a first draft of their description using their notes.They can ask other learners or the teacher for help duringthis stage.

5 They exchange papers with another student. They read theirpartner’s text and write questions to prompt moreinformation, e.g. Tell me more about the old lady. What doesshe look like?

6 Learners give their papers back and try to include answers tothe questions in their description (in other words, theyredraft their text).

7 Learners read out their finished texts; the class have to guesswhich window they were looking through.

There is a final stage in which learners read each others’work and suggest improvements, e.g. improving thevocabulary range, the flow of the text, linguistic accuracy.

from Writing 3 by Andrew Littlejohn (see follow up)

Each approach, both product and process, has certainadvantages, and we feel there is no reason why teachers shouldnot incorporate ideas from both approaches at different times,or for different purposes. Primarily, you need to consider yourlearners and what will suit them best.

think!2

As you read the benefits of each approach listed below, thinkabout a particular group you are teaching. Which points seemmost relevant to them? Can you add any more benefits?

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162 how to … motivate low level learners to write

collaborationThe inherent difficulty of extended writing i.e. the pressure to‘put it all together’ is one very good reason for collaboration.Two heads (or even three or four) are often better than one, so iflearners can work together on a writing task, they can helpeach other with the content, the organisation of the content,and the drafting and editing of the content. The anxiety ofworking alone is removed, the fear of failure is greatly reduced(working together tends to diminish feelings of individualfailure), and the chances of completing the task successfully arelikely to increase. And as we have already said, collaborationinvolves speaking with a real communicative purpose. Here isa simple example from the pre-intermediate student’s book:

you could put learners in groups of three to work together onthe ideas and organisation of the ideas, then allow individualsto write their draft alone, while others work in pairs. They canjoin together again to read, discuss and edit their work, thenperhaps separate once more to produce their second draft. Aswith any unfamiliar procedure, it is wise to start with smalltasks, say in pairs, and build up gradually to largercollaborative activities with a variety of pairings andgroupings.

multi-skills approach Some learners want to do writing activities; others don’t. Youcan reduce and possibly resolve this conflict by includingwriting as part of a multi-skills activity, i.e. learners may beprepared to do some writing if they can see that it is part of alarger activity involving other skills such as speaking, readingor listening.

In this example from part of the extended speaking activity inunit six of the pre-intermediate student’s book p.60, learnerswork in pairs to produce a weather forecast. They have alreadystudied the use of will for prediction, vocabulary connectedwith weather and geographical regions, adverbs, andcomparative adjectives. The writing task also encourageslearners to use so to link statements with consequences.

– First they listen to a weather forecast with a comprehensiontask.

– Then they draw a map of their country, divide it into two orthree main regions, and decide what the weather will belike tonight and tomorrow, using weather symbols (whichthey have been shown).

– Following the discussion, they write the forecast together,and each person has to read and memorize certain parts of it.

– Finally, they present their weather forecast orally to the restof the class.

Here is part of a weather forecast produced by two pre-intermediate Italian learners.

Good evening and now the weather

forecast.

Tonight there will be a lot of snow

coming in the north, so tomarrow it

will be a good day to ski. In the

morning more clouds are to be

expected.

In the middle it will be cloudy, and a

bit foggy. Temperatures perhaps 15-

20 degrees near the coast. So drive

carefully!

In the south, no sign of clouds, it will

be sunny, and warmer than yesterday

– over 20 degrees – so it will be a nice

day to go to the seaside.

The seas will be calm in all parts of

Italy.

Good night.

from natural English pre-intermediate research data

During this multi-skills activity learners have had listeningpractice and a discussion, produced a more formal oralpresentation, and they have used recently presented grammarand vocabulary. As a result, they are unlikely to feel this is justa writing activity. At the same time, the written component is

from pre-intermediate student’s book, unit ten p.94

At this stage the learners don’t know why they are writingdown these things down, so there is no particular motivation tolink them together. Then, they read a dream story:

1 With a partner, on a piece of paper write:

– an activity– a place– the name of a famous person– an object– a question

watching TVmy houseJennifer Lopeza clock on the wallHow much is it?

In my dream, I was watching The Simpsons on TVat home. The doorbell rang, and it was JenniferLopez. I was really surprised! She came into thehouse, sat down and watched it with me. Thenshe saw an old clock on the wall. She said, ‘I want that! How much is it?’ I said, ‘You can’t have it. It’s my father’s. Go away and leave me alone!’ And then I woke up.

from pre-intermediate student’s book, unit ten p.94

Learners pick out certain features of the language (e.g. the useof the past continuous and really + adjective), and then swapprompts (from exercise 1) with another pair. Each pair thenwrites a dream story based on the prompts they were given.Finally, the pairs read each other their dream stories, and saywhat they think of them.

As pointed out earlier, collaborative writing does not appeal toeveryone and is sensitive to different learner styles. If you havelearners in your class who still prefer to write on their own,

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how to … motivate low level learners to write 163

writing a noticeIn real life, we may display things we have written for apurpose: to inform, to advertise, to elicit a response, etc. In thefollowing activity, learners read shop window noticesadvertising a room to rent, or notices written by people lookingfor a room. They focus on the vocabulary used and completenotices using appropriate vocabulary. In the final stage, theyproduce written texts themselves. Here writing is used as partof a problem-solving activity: matching landlords with tenants.

a Draft two notices.1 You are looking for an English-speaking person to rent a

room in your house or flat. 2 You are looking for a room, house or flat to share in an

English-speaking country. b Exchange your notices with a partner. Compare your ideas

and suggest any changes or improvements to each other’snotices.

c Rewrite your notices for display on a noticeboard.d Read other people’s notices.

1 Choose the room, house or flat which appeals to youmost.

2 Choose the best person / people for your room.Theresa Clementson, Brighton, UK.

Here are two examples of ‘writing for a real audience’ from thenatural English pre-intermediate skills resource book:

writing an invitationGetting learners to send messages to each other is a fun andauthentic way to set up genuine communication within theclassroom. Giving the exchange a real communicative outcomewill help to motivate learners and lend the activityauthenticity. In the lesson below, learners analyse invitationsin e-mail, letter and text message form for relevant features ofstyle and language function. They then get together in an ‘ideasgeneration’ phase i.e. deciding on the purpose or outcome ofthe message before choosing a suitable medium.

an important part of the task: it is a genuine activity sinceweather forecasters have to script presentations carefully inorder to include so much factual information within strict timeconstraints. As the writing forms the basis of the presentationto the rest of the class, we have also found that learners take itseriously and want to get it right.

Other examples that include writing as part of a multi-skillsactivity are:

– producing a TV or radio advertisement (write the text forthe ad)

– producing a news story (write up the final story)

– producing a front page for a newspaper (edit other people’sreports)

– designing a language school or holiday complex (produce areport)

– discussing a topical issue (write a discursive essay)

– interviewing a partner about a topic (write it up for a classmagazine).

writing for a real audience Consider the following teaching sequence:

creating a profileLearners read profiles of two different people (overseaslearners at English universities), who are interviewed abouttheir current situation and future plans. In pairs, they analyseeach profile, then roleplay the two original interviews, taking itin turns to be interviewer and interviewee. They are now veryfamiliar with the profiles and are able to use them as aframework to complete sentences about their own situationand future plans.

The next step logically might be for each student to expand thesentences into a full profile of themselves. But it isn’t. It is this:

a You are going to interview a classmate in order to write aprofile for your school website. Write five questions to ask yourclassmate about their experience and plans for the future.

b Work in pairs. Compare your ideas and check your questionstogether.

c Sit with the person you are going to interview. Ask yourquestions and make notes of your partner’s answers. Quotesomething your partner says for the profile, e.g. I miss seeingmy friends every day.

Theresa Clementson, Brighton, UK.

Learners follow up the interview by writing the first draft ofthe profile of their partner. Then they check and edit theirwork, and show it to their partner. Together they check that theinformation is correct in both profiles and discuss possibleimprovements, before producing the final version of the profilefor the school website or class magazine.

Writing about a partner rather than oneself introduces a newdimension: it means that each student is now producing a pieceof writing for an interested reader (their partner), who will bemotivated to ensure that the comments expressed in theinterview have been accurately recorded. Imagine someone iswriting a profile of you for a teacher’s magazine. Wouldn’t youread it with genuine interest and want to correct anyinaccuracies? The other motivating factor here is that the finalproduct is going to be displayed, in this case on a class websiteor in a class magazine; another reason to want to do well.

5 generating ideasa Work in pairs. You have something to celebrate.

Decide what you are celebrating and what you want todo, e.g. give a party, go out for dinner, etc.

b Decide the time, place, and any other details.

a You are going to invite a classmate to your celebration.Decide whether to write a letter, e-mail, or text message.

b Write your invitation and ‘send’ it to your classmate.

Writing task

from natural English pre-intermediate skills resource book p.6

writing a film reviewIn this lesson, learners work up to writing a film review, whichtheir classmates will read. This turns what could be a rather‘flat’ ending to a lesson i.e. finishing writing the review, into agenuine writing task with a real-life outcome. On the basis of

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– I then put them in small groups to show each other theirphotos and ask questions. This produced a lot of genuineinteraction. In pairs, learners told each other their storieswhile I monitored.

– We then went to the language laboratory, and learnersrecorded their own stories. (If you do not have access to alab or listening centre, learners can record their stories oncassette recorders in class or even at home.)They listenedto their recording and wrote down what they had said,correcting and changing the story as they went.

– Then, working with their original partner, they edited andcorrected each other’s stories.

After the lesson:– I collected the stories, suggested further corrections, then

learners typed up a final draft and put them on a walldisplay with a photocopy of their childhood photo.

They were motivated throughout, keen to read each other’sstories, and the final results were excellent. Jackie, Paris

diary writingOne final type of writing that has been used very successfullyby several of our colleagues is diary writing. Traditionally,diary entries are a very personal form of writing and not usuallyintended for anyone except the diarist. Sometimes, however,learners find it very satisfying to keep a diary in English, whichthey only show to their teacher. The idea may be attractivebecause it provides the student with a channel ofcommunication to the teacher and a way of getting feedbackfrom them. Possibly, it may just be the novelty of it that isappealing. From our experience, teachers who use diary writingusually lay down certain guidelines for the learners, the mostimportant being that this is not writing for evaluation: teachersread the diary entries and may respond by writing themselves,but they make very few language corrections. The principlebehind diary writing is that learners can express themselvesfreely without fear of correction, and that they get into the habitof writing regularly. It should never be made compulsory – itonly appeals to a minority in most classes – and learners canchoose to disclose their entries or keep them private.

This is a type of writing that will take place largely outside theclassroom, but to introduce it, you will need to allocate a littleclassroom time to it. Ask learners to get a small notebook, andstart off with five minutes of diary writing in lessons over aweek or two. Another option is for learners to start an e-maildiary which they send to their teacher, who respondsaccordingly.

4 Motivation through feedback During the writing process, you will be helping learners withbrainstorming and planning, and making suggestions.Afterwards they need to spend time looking through their workagain, improving the grammar, use of vocabulary, spelling,linking, and so on. You might suggest a particular focus fortheir final editing, whether this is done alone or in pairs. At theend though, many learners will want some validation orappreciation of what they have done – your encouragement willbe essential if you want to motivate learners to carry on writing– as well as supportive advice for improvements. But how muchcorrection should you give? Understandably, learners want to

164 how to … motivate low level learners to write

reading each other’s reviews, learners are asked for a genuineresponse to the details and opinions given.

The lesson begins with a discussion to generate ideas and someinput from a sample review:

Learners then focus on the way opinions are expressed in thereview, and how different aspects of the film are described e.g.It’s set in …, It is directed by … . They also work on ways ofconnecting the ideas into longer sentences before doing thewriting task below:

from natural English pre-intermediate skills resource book p.50

A number of writing tasks can be made more interesting andenjoyable if learners are writing to and for other learners, andexchanging correspondence, including e-mails. These could be:

– invitations and replies regarding social arrangements

– a set of instructions for someone else to carry out in class

– notices and messages for a classroom noticeboard

– descriptions of people and things for other members of classto guess

– a series of classroom rules for others to add to and amend

– the beginning of a story which others continue.

Some of the ideas above can be brought to life by providinglearners with materials to write on (card, coloured paper), andby using word processing which helps greatly with editing,downloading visuals from the Internet for wall displays, etc.

The try it out idea below involves different elements from thissection.

try it out images of childhood I wanted learners to write a personal anecdote (an event fromtheir childhood) as the culmination of some work on narrating. Before the lesson:

– I asked them to bring to class a photo of themselves whenthey were young, and think of an event that happenedduring their childhood. They could check any newvocabulary in a dictionary and rehearse the episode inEnglish before the lesson.

In the lesson:– I showed them a photo of myself as a child.– I told them a true story about the day I fell and broke my

front teeth. – At the end, I asked them firstly how the story made them

feel and secondly about the structure of the story: scene-setting, the lead-up to the event, the event itself, whathappened next, the consequence.

a Write a review of a film you have seen recently foryour class magazine.

b Read other people’s reviews.

1 Do you agree with their review? (if you’ve seen the film)

2 Would you like to see the film? (if you haven’t seen it)

Writing task

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how to … motivate low level learners to write 165

have their mistakes corrected in order to improve, and theirconfidence in you may be undermined if they discover that youhave overlooked some of their errors. At the same time, thesight of homework covered in red pen can be verydiscouraging, and there is a danger of learners becoming moreinterested in discrete errors of spelling, grammar or sentenceconstruction than whether the text has the intended effect onthe reader and fulfils the task. The key is to achieve the rightbalance of encouragement and guidance on global writingskills while attending to specific language issues.

writing samples for evaluation Let’s look at two pieces of written work produced by Spanishlearners after trialling the extended speaking activity innatural English pre-intermediate, unit nine, ‘From home tohome’, p.90. In the speaking activity, learners interviewed eachother about their previous homes and the home they currentlylive in. As a follow-up activity, their task was to write about‘My home history’ i.e. about their previous and current homes(in other words, to write a personal account of what they hadalready spent time planning and discussing). For triallingpurposes, this assignment was given without any pre-teachingof grammar or vocabulary.

think!3

Read both assignments. Which student do you think fulfils theabove more effectively, and why?Student A AngelMy home historyI was born in and old house in Barcelona. It was built in theforties of the 19cth Century. It had 8 rooms and one big patio. Itdidn’t have running water or central heating. in the winter I hadever cold but I remember when I played in the patio in thesummer, also I remember I had ever different animals (dogs,cats, chickens, pigeons, guinea pigs, fishes, rabbits, ducks.) It took 10 or 15 minutes to school and 5 minutes for Underground.Every day in the afternoon, when I finished de homework I playedin a square near my house with other children. I lived in this house since I was born until I had 15 years old. ThenI lived in other house for 3 years, and then other, and other …

Student B CarlosMy home historyI have lived in two different places. When I was young, I lived inmy first house. My first house was big, the house was in a village,the village was between the mountains and the sea. In the housethere were three bedrooms, two bathrooms there was a kitchenand a big living room. Outside the house, there were two parkinspaces, one swimming pool and a garden, in the garden therewere some flowers and plants. Living in this house was fantasticbecause it was quiet and everyday the weather was hot. When I was eleven years old I moved to the city. My fatherbought a flat in the centre. Today I live there. The flat iscomfortable. There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms, thereis a small kitchen one beautiful living room and one storeroom.The flat is in a good place because all day is sunny. in thebuilding there are a lot of neighbours and a few are rude.

from natural English pre-intermediate research data go to answer key p.166

It is important to consider the overall effect on the reader of alearner’s piece of writing, and it is crucial to give themfeedback on this – in the form of a general comment, forexample, at the end of the piece of writing. In the case ofStudent A, more time to plan his assignment, talk to anotherstudent or the teacher about his plans and get feedback fromthem on his ideas might have helped him to focus the contentof the writing more accurately before he wrote the draft. Whengiving learners feedback on task achievement, you could writesome encouraging comments at the end of their work, andeither write questions to help them think about content ormake suggestions yourself. This might be used for a redraftingof the assignment or simply as a guide for future work, andmight also incorporate feedback on more specific errors, whichwe will now discuss.

correction schemesWhen it comes to a more detailed look at the learners’ writing,you have a number of choices at your disposal. You can:

– write in the correct form above the error.

– underline errors, without indicating what type of error hasbeen made, and ask learners to try to correct them.

– highlight the type of error the learner has made using acorrection code. If you use a code, you will need to checkthat learners understand it.

Here is a code with an activity which checks understanding ofthe code and provides practice in improving a text:

Read a student’s first draft. Use the correction code torewrite the text. Then compare your text with your partner’s. wwAnd when he Tsee the Spprize he knew he Pcouldnt buy ^ring. It cost £1,500 pounds. The man couldn’t WFstops thinking aboutthe ring. He knew Spwood love it WOhis wife.correction codeWW wrong wordT wrong tenseSp wrong spellingP wrong punctuation^ something is missing— you don’t need this wordWF wrong formWO wrong word order

think!4

For what reasons might you use (or not use) each of the ways ofcorrecting suggested above?

go to answer key p.166

Using a code might suggest that you need to correct everything,which could certainly deflate low level learners in particular. Itis important to look at learners’ writing in context. What wasthe aim of the task you set them? Was it to develop a particularaspect of the writing skill, such as using an appropriate style,or organizing ideas? Was it to provide freer practice ofparticular language? Or was it simply to write personally andcreatively? Whatever you decide, the feedback needs to matchthe task set. When you return learners’ work, tell them how

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166 how to … motivate low level learners to write

you have corrected it. If you have just corrected selectively, thatis to say the errors you consider to be most important, explainwhat you have done, and why. Trisha Hedge (1988) suggestshanding learners a marking policy document, which explainshow the teacher will help them during and after the writingprocess. If you do a lot of writing activities with your learners,you could consider writing a policy document of your own.

Giving learners feedback on their written work is a perfectopportunity to focus on their individual needs. Let’s considerthis issue for the two learners above.

think!5

Look at Angel and Carlos’s writing again on p.165. How could they improve it? Choose two areas for each student.

go to answer key p.166

conclusionIn this chapter, we have discussed:

– the reasons why many learners are not very motivated towrite in English

– product- and process-oriented approaches to writing, andthe benefits of both

– ways of motivating low level learners to write, throughcollaborative writing activities, a multi-skills approach andby providing a real reader or readers

– how to approach the correction of written work

We hope the combination of collaborative writing tasks withsupportive teaching frameworks and feedback will help tomake writing more engaging, interactive and less daunting forlearners. If you would like to devote more time to helping yourpre-intermediate learners develop their writing skills, thenatural English pre-intermediate reading and writing skillsresource book provides a comprehensive range of stimulatingactivities.

follow upLittlejohn A 1993 Writing 1, 2, 3 and 4 Cambridge Skills for fluency

Cambridge University Press (the activity described on p.00 is fromunit 3, ‘Through a window’)

Hedge T 1988 Writing Resource Books for Teachers (p.151) OUPNunan D 1991 Language Teaching Methodology Chapter 5 Prentice Hall

International (UK) LtdWhite R and Arndt V 1991 Process Writing LongmanHadfield C and Hadfield J 1990 Writing Games NelsonHaines S Difficult, lonely and boring in English Teaching Professional

October 1998 Issue 9

answer keythink!3 p.165Student A’s work answers the task at the beginning and starts well inthe first few lines – you get a good sense of the type of building hewas brought up in. However, he quickly digresses into anecdotaldetail about his pets and the playground. He links the old house tothe later houses very well, but then abandons the task. Writing isdemanding for a learner at his level, and he may be satisfied that hehas done enough and produced a piece of personal writing.

Student B fulfils the task more effectively. He writes about bothhomes, describing the interior and exterior, and introduces thesecond home very well, explaining how they came to move. The ideasare logically organized. He briefly mentions his attitude to bothhomes, though this account is a little more impersonal than studentA’s text, and possibly less engaging.think!4 p.165Writing in the corrected form throughout as a matter of policy woulddeny learners the opportunity to try to correct their mistakes, andit’s quite possible that they would glance at the feedback, put it in afolder and not think about it again. However, if an error involveslanguage which is beyond the learner’s competence, or they need aparticular expression which they are very unlikely to know or be ableto find, then supplying the correct form is sensible. For instance, inAngel’s text, in the forties of the 19cth Century could be corrected toin the 1840s.Underlining errors provides a little guidance, and is more of achallenge than using a correction code. You might do this if youthink the learner is capable of identifying the type of error (e.g.putting ‘see’ instead of ‘saw’ in the correction exercise text from theexample.) You are more likely to use a correction code if you feelthat learners are able to correct the error, or can find out how tocorrect it, with the help of dictionaries or grammar books, forexample. This approach provides guidance without telling learnersthe answer, so in theory they will have to put some effort intomaking improvements. For example, in Carlos’s text, a link markbetween his short sentences I lived in my first house.

˘My first house

was big.There is a warning with correction codes, however: keep them simple.Too many abbreviations and symbols can be confusing. think!5 p.166As we said in the previous think! task, we think that Angel needs tobrainstorm and select ideas which are more suited to the task, andthis might also help him to pace himself so that he can writesuccinctly about his previous homes and have the stamina tocontinue to write about his current one. In addition, a languagepoint which recurs is the use of have in place of be in lexical chunkssuch as I had ever cold (I was cold); I had 15 years old (I was 15).Alternatively, you could focus on ever which he uses meaning always;or other for another. To extend his grammatical range, you mightwant to introduce used to do for reminiscences.Carlos writes very carefully with good attention to accuracy, but hewould benefit from some work on sentence linking – there are toomany short sentences which can be neatly combined, and this wouldmake his writing more sophisticated, e.g. When I was young, I livedin a big house in a village between the mountains and the sea. It hadthree bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a big living room. Healso needs help with punctuation.

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how to … use the learners as a resource 167

how to … use the learners as a resource

1 Putting the learners centre stage2 Turning student output into lesson input3 What can we learn from learner output? 4 Correction and reformulation

1 Putting the learners centre stageIn our constant search for teaching materials – whether it belistening or reading texts, videos, visual materials, languageexercises, computer games or a role play – we are in danger ofoverlooking the most important and generative resource in theclassroom: the students themselves. Of course, different typesof material are needed to provide variety, and sometimes thematerial you have selected is the most natural and obvious wayto learn or practise particular language exponents. However, itis the learners’ personalities, knowledge and experience whichmake a class what it is; and their contribution to the lessonsand to each others’ learning, although difficult to measure, isabsolutely crucial.

advantages of learner-generated outputMuch learner-generated output will involve personalization,i.e. people talking about themselves and giving their opinions.Most learners are happy to do this, within reason. This may bebecause:

– their personal information is at their fingertips, so they don’tneed to consume vast amounts of material and memorizethe information before they have something to say.

– personalized activities provide opportunities for learners toshare experiences with others and find similarities anddifferences in their lives and outlook, which can help therapport between learners (and the teacher) and add to theinterest of the class.

People need to know about each other to make connections, so‘getting to know you’ activities are not just about language use,but about developing relationships. Strange as it may seem, itis quite easy to make the classroom an unreal place. A friend ofours attending a language course in German was quite frustratedto find that after learning vocabulary to describe different jobs,the class were given role cards with false names and jobs inorder to practise asking and answering questions about thejobs. He never found out what people in his class really did fora living, and didn’t know how to say his own real job.

Putting the learners centre stage values their input and can helpthem to talk about what is of most interest to them. It alsomakes lessons more memorable, alive and fresh. The addedbonus for the teacher is that learner-generated output doesn’tinvolve producing a lot of material, although it does requirethought and preparation.

risksLearner-generated activities in the classroom are not withoutrisks for you or the students.

For students:

– Personalized material may be sensitive. We can sometimesanticipate this problem, e.g. in the pre-intermediatestudent’s book, unit four, students learn phrases to talkabout clothes size, e.g. What size do you take? This language isclearly essential if you are buying clothes, but it becameobvious that to provide practice of this language, we wouldhave to be careful with the garments we asked learners totalk about; shoes were the safest option we could find.

– Controversial topics can cause offence. One measure wecan take is to make it clear that learners do not have to talkabout something if they don’t want to. You might teachthem useful ways to express this: ‘I’d rather not talk aboutthat / I’d rather not say’.

– Talking about themselves in class may not be somethingthey expect to do. In this case, introduce personalizedactivities very gradually, starting with simple informationthat anyone would be prepared to reveal about themselves,e.g. TV viewing habits, things they would take to a desertisland. Be guided by their response, and make your aims clear.

For teachers:

– What students produce can be quite unpredictable, and youmay have to deal with language or content issues whichyou didn’t expect. ‘Thinking on your feet’ is not easy,particularly for inexperienced teachers.

– Anticipating how long learner-generated activities will takeis more difficult, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.

think!1

Have you touched on any sensitive subjects in your lessonsrecently? How did you handle the situation? Think about alearner-generated activity you have done. How did you / thestudents cope with it?

finding out about your learnersWith a new class, you will need to find out what interests themand what they are happy to talk about. You can start this off byrevealing things about yourself. If you are prepared to give alead, it will encourage students to do the same, and it can alsohelp to develop class rapport.

think!2

Think back to the last lesson you taught. How much did youfind out about your learners as individuals? How much did youreveal about yourself?

Topics in course books are usually ‘safe’, and should havegeneral appeal. At pre-intermediate level, most learners cantalk about their home and family life, their work / studies, theirsocial lives, eating, etc. You will want to know what elseinterests them, and the easiest way to do this is to give out a listof topics and ask students to tick the ones which interest themmost. You can include issues relevant to the local environment,

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and allow a blank space for learners to add their own topics.Learners can compare ideas in groups, and then feed back toyou. Bear in mind that considerable linguistic skills andknowledge are required to discuss certain topics. While somelively debate might occur on a topical issue, it can also flounderas students struggle to express themselves, and some learnersfind topical discussion difficult. Nevertheless, everyone hassomething to say about themselves, which can help you togenerate a great deal of productive talk at lower levels.

try it out topic questionnaireLook at the topics in the map of natural English pre-intermediate student’s book.Make a list of other topics you think might interest your class,and leave a space for them to add their own topics. Give it toyour class to discuss. Do the results surprise you?

2 Turning student output into lesson inputStudent output can be the basis for different types ofinteraction in a classroom, involving different degrees ofcontrol or freedom, and for varying lengths of time. It can beused as a way of presenting, practising, or revising language(grammar, vocabulary, lexical phrases, etc.), and as a means ofproviding longer classroom segments: in fluency activitieslearners may be talking about themselves for quite longperiods without the restraints of target language.

Below, you will find some simple teaching frameworks whichyou can adapt for different linguistic purposes and use indifferent ways: as short, warmer-type activities, or moreextended speaking activities. Some of the activity typesdescribed in this section are based on activities from naturalEnglish pre-intermediate student’s book. We believe these areall suitable for pre-intermediate level, but there is no reasonwhy you should not use them at higher levels, and some can beadapted for elementary learners. The emphasis throughout ison learner-generated rather than teacher-generated language,and on making the learner (rather than the material) the centralresource in the classroom.

can I ask you some questions?

Consider the following sequence:1 Alone, learners write down five questions to ask classmates on

a given topic e.g. their family. 2 They show their questions to a partner who makes any

necessary corrections. They add any different questions fromtheir partner’s list to their own list. Meanwhile, you monitorand suggest corrections.

3 They think about their answers to all the questions. This givesthem time to plan what they are going to say and think aboutany language they might need.

4 As a rehearsal stage, they ask and answer the questions withtheir partner. You monitor and give feedback to the class (thismight include a little correction, or encouraging them to talkat greater length, or asking follow-up questions to producemore natural conversation).

5 Students do the activity as a class mingle, speaking to at leastthree or four new partners, and have to find the person whosefamily is most similar to theirs. You monitor then providefeedback.

Your focus in this activity will obviously depend on your aims,which might be to produce accurate question forms, to work oncertain tenses, practise specific lexis, etc. However, on thewhole the topic is likely to dictate the language focus. Forinstance, if they are asking and answering about their home,they will need to use a range of tenses (Where do you live? Howlong have you been there? Why did you move there? How long are youplanning to stay?)

proxy questionsIn this activity, learners have to guess or invent answers toquestions on behalf of another learner. Show learners how thisworks by demonstrating it yourself first with two students.

1 Students work in threes, A, B, and C. Each student preparesfive or six questions, perhaps on a given topic such as theirjobs (assuming they all work). They can compare questionsand correct them as in the previous activity.

2 Student A now asks student B the questions. B has to answerthe questions as if they were student C. If they don’t know allthe answers (and they probably won’t), they should inventthem. Meanwhile C listens and notes any answers which aren’ttrue. Then students swap, and B asks C about A, etc. Duringthis activity, you can monitor and note down points forfeedback at the end.

3 Tell students that they should now go over the answers givenand tell each other which were true and correct anyinaccuracies in the information. They could also decide whichstudent was the best at guessing or inventing.

This is another activity where the language focus is up to youand will depend on the topic. Students could ask questionsabout each other’s education (which could involve past tensesand passive forms), future plans, likes and dislikes, etc.

making listsLists are a useful way of providing practice in particularlanguage areas, based on personal experiences or knowledge ofthe world. You can exploit list-making as a warmer, or togenerate examples of a language point. Here is an example:

1 In pairs, students write down ten things old people and youngpeople in their country do at the weekends. You monitor andsuggest corrections where necessary. (The list will obviouslycontain vocabulary to do with leisure activities, familyroutines, etc.)

2 They compare with another pair and decide on the top fiveactivities.

3 You can feed in appropriate language here. For instance:X is very common / popular ….Young people tend to ….Older people generally ….

4 Students produce a short presentation, using their ideas fromthe list and the language taught. Lists are a very useful way topractise specific grammar areas. For example:– We think parents / children / teenagers, etc) should always …

/ should never … – When we were young, we used to … / we never used to …– In tomorrow’s lesson, we might …– Places where you can hide money (for prepositions) – Reasons why your town is better than anywhere else (for

comparatives or superlatives)

168 how to … use the learners as a resource

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how to … use the learners as a resource 169

draw itIt is important to impress upon learners that they do not needto be good at drawing to do this type of activity (indeed, theymight feel more comfortable if your own drawing isn’t terriblygood when you show them what to do). Look at the followingexample from an extended speaking activity in the pre-intermediate student’s book:

1 Put a sketch map of the area where you live on the board.Keep it very simple, putting crosses to indicate where certainplaces are, but don’t label them. The places should includeyour home and any shops, parks or other amenities nearby.

2 Tell students this is your local area, point out your home, andencourage them to ask you about the other places. Try todevelop what you say about the places: for example, if youlive near a restaurant, tell them what kind of food it serves,whether it’s popular / expensive / good, how often you gothere, etc.

3 If appropriate, go back and focus on any specific usefullanguage you / they used.

4 Students now draw their own sketch maps, marking six to eightplaces without labelling them. Give them time to rehearsewhat they are going to say. Help with vocabulary as required.

5 In pairs, students talk and ask about each map in turn. You can adapt this activity by getting students to draw a familytree, a sketch of their flat, or a room in their home, or to drawfive things which are important to them.

from extended speaking pre-intermediate student’s book,unit three pp.32 and 33.

creative planning In this activity type, students have to produce creative planse.g. to organize an event. Here are a few ideas:

– students in pairs create a profile of a hotel, using prompts,e.g. the hotel location, its name, the price range, the typesof rooms, the services provided, restaurants and bars, etc.Once they have produced them, the information can beused as the basis for a role play: potential customersrequesting information about the hotel.

– in a similar way, students in pairs design a café menu toinclude hot meals, cold meals, snacks and drinks, andpossibly facilities or entertainments. Again, these can beused for role plays.

– pairs plan their ideal classroom or office (particularly if theyare a business English group). They then present their ideasto other pairs.

– pairs plan a class night out at a place of their choosing anddecide on the necessary arrangements (see pre-intermediate student’s book, unit eight pp.80 and 81.)

Planning activities certainly require support frameworks to getthe best out of them (guidelines, question prompts: see pre-intermediate student’s book, unit eight pp.80 and 81 for anexample), but you can make the content relevant to the learnersand the learning context. For example, a menu produced in thelearners’ own environment is not going to run into culturaldifferences, which might be the case if they use a menu in aBritish course book.

location, location, locationThis is a useful framework for focusing on a range of student-generated language in a specific context. The focus might befunctional exponents, vocabulary or grammatical structures.

1 Choose a location and write it on the board, e.g. a shoe shop.In pairs, students write down the following:three questions a customer e.g. Have you got thesemight ask shoes in a bigger size?three things a customer e.g. (I’m afraid) they’remight say too tight.three things the assistant e.g. Are you paying in cash?might askthree things the assistant e.g. I’m sorry, we’ve onlymight say got them in brown.

Check students know what to do by eliciting a samplequestion / statement for each category before they worktogether. Monitor the pair work. Don’t correct what they write,but provide help if students ask for it.

2 Pairs compare what they wrote with other pairs; together,they correct errors.

3 Bring the class together. Students write up the questions andstatements on the board under the different headings. Thecombined language examples should be quite comprehensive.At this point, be prepared to feed in any language you think isneeded, or make corrections. Students should make a record ofthis as their personal phrasebook.

4 Students do mini-role plays in the situation, using thelanguage. Monitor and give feedback.

Once students have grasped the idea of this, you can use thislesson framework on a regular basis, changing the context: arailway station, doctor’s surgery, hotel reception, etc. You canask learners which contexts / locations they would like toconcentrate on.

talk about itFor the activity below, provide a range of topics yourself, or asklearners to suggest them. For most learners at lower levels,descriptive topics are more straightforward: describe yourfamily / favourite film / perfect day. At first, students may beworried about talking for a minute, but if you start with simpletopics, they should have plenty to say and you can build up thelength of time they speak.

1 Write ten suitable topics randomly on the board. Ask students(working alone) to think of two or three they can talk aboutfor one minute. Give them time to think what to say aboutone of them.

2 Students work in groups of three. Student A tells B and Cwhich topic they have chosen; A talks about their topic forone minute (B or C can time them). While listening, B and Cthink of questions to ask A at the end. After a minute, B andC ask A their questions.

3 Student B now talks about the topic they have chosen. Asbefore, A and C listen and think of questions to ask.

During the activity, monitor and make notes for feedback at theend. You can ask students to assess which topics were easy todiscuss, and why: this will help you to select topics in thefuture.

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170 how to … use the learners as a resource

try it out personal sentencesWith this activity, you, the teacher, are the starting point andhave control over the language you introduce, but it thenproceeds to a stage where learners generate personalisedexamples.

1 Dictate five sentences about yourself to the class, e.g.I’ve been teaching English for ages.I started working in (Spain) when I was 30.I passed my driving test a long time ago.This time next week, I’ll be in New York.I once worked as a dentist’s receptionist.Students compare them in pairs; let them check what theywrote by writing the sentences on the board.

2 Tell students that one sentence is not true. In pairs, theydecide which one, and why. They tell the class; eventuallyyou reveal which one isn’t true.

3 Focus on specific language you want to teach or revise. Inthe examples above, the underlined time expressions andassociated tenses are the focus, but you could adapt thisfor different language areas at different levels. Checkunderstanding, and drill for pronunciation if you thinkthis will be helpful.

4 Working alone, students write sentences aboutthemselves, choosing from the given structures. Theirsentences can be true or false. Monitor and help / correctwhere necessary.

5 Students read their sentences aloud in small groups. Thegroup decides if they are true or false and discusses thetrue sentences, reporting back on interesting findings.Scott Thornbury, Barcelona, Spain.

3 What can we learn from learner output?For each level of natural English, our starting point has been awide range of extended speaking activities which we havetrialled with multilingual groups studying in Britain andmonolingual groups overseas. The main aim of this triallinghas been to help us to identify the language syllabus thatseemed most relevant to each level, but it has also beenfascinating to observe and analyse so much different learnerinteraction and output. This section provides a few samplesfrom that data with observations about possible implicationsfor classroom practice.

task performanceThe transcript below is of a conversation between two pre-intermediate learners. The stated aim of the activity was to findout how similar or different their families were. They had aframework of questions to help them, but they were free toexplore any of the similarities and differences, and take theconversation in whichever direction they wished.

think!3

Read through the transcript. Do you think the activity wassuccessful? If so, why? If not, why not?

Conversation 1A: Do you live with your family or your parents?B: Yes I live.A: Have you got any brothers or sisters?

B: No I haven’t.A: Do you spends a lot of time with your family?B: Yes, a lot.A: Have you got a lot of relatives?B: Yes, a lot.A: Do you see them a lot?B: Yes, quite often.A: When do you see them?B: Weekends …at weekends...Saturday and Sunday.A: Every week.B: Yes.A: What is your family like?B: We are close family, all time.A: Together.B: Yes …and you live with your parents?A: Yes, live with my parents.B: And have you got any brother or sisters?A: Yes, I have two brothers and two sisters.B: What are their names?A: My brother is Mohamed and Ali, and my sister is Fatima

and Leila.B: Do they live with you?A: Yes, my brother and sister.B: Do you spend a lot of time with your family?A: Yes, I spend a lot of time with my family.B: Have you got lots of relatives?A: Yes, I have a lot of relatives.B: And do you see them a lot?A: Yes.B: When?A: I see them in my grandfather house.B: Thank you. What’s your family like?A: Close family.

from natural English pre-intermediate research data

The conversation is clear, coherent and largely accurate, andthey have fulfilled the task in that they now have informationfrom which they can draw some conclusions about thesimilarities and differences between their families. But has itbeen an engaging and rewarding interaction for the twostudents? Compare it with part of a transcript of two differentlearners doing the same activity.

Conversation 2A: Do you live with your parents?S: No, I live with my friend.A: But in your country?S: Yes, in Korea. I met him military service.A: How old are you when you meet your friend?S: My friend? 21, 21 years.A: Have you got any brothers and sisters?S: Yes, I have got one brothers, one brother.A: Only one brother.S: Yes, my older brother.A: How old is he?S: 25 years.A: 25 years. He is married?S: No. Why?

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A: No, because 25 years…S: Usually Korean man usually married 28 or 29 or 30.A: What does he do?S: My brother work in military service.A: How long?S: 26 month. I work for 28 month because I was navy.A: What is he name?S: My brother’s name is Kwang Min.A: And do you spend a lot of time with your family?S: No, because I live in London, my parents live in Korea.A: But in Korea, do you spend a lot of time with your family?S: When I was high school student, I spent a lot of time with

my parents, but after I was university student I only sleptin my home, my room. My house is a hotel. After I went tomilitary service, I can’t, I couldn’t go to my home, only Istay on holiday.

A: On holiday. And how often do you call your family?S: I call yesterday, I call my parents. Sometimes I call four

weeks.A: When you are in Korea how often you call them?S: Never, because my parents call me, so I didn’t have to call

them.A: And do you write letters?S: Yes.

from natural English pre-intermediate research data

These students in conversation 2 were from a different class,and one of the students, a young Polish woman called Anna,was in an elementary class, but their conversation lasted muchlonger than conversation 1; too long, in fact, to include it allhere. From this extract though, it is clear they are engaged inthe task, they are listening to each other, and fully prepared tomove beyond the initial framework of the activity and takerisks with the language in order to get the information theywant. As a result of this there are more errors, but they areinvolved in real communication.

In contrast, the first couple seem more interested in monitoringthe accuracy of their language. They are reluctant to follow uptheir initial questions – perhaps for fear of making mistakes, orperhaps they aren’t sufficiently interested in their partner’sanswers. Either way, it is essentially a language exercise forthem. It fulfils a purpose, but a limited one. The students areconsolidating language they already know and, for the mostpart, using it accurately, but they are not using the activity toexperiment with new language, and they are certainly notpushing themselves even close to the limit of their ability.

think!4

Look back again at the transcript for conversation 1. Can youthink of any reasons why the activity wasn’t successful? Thenread on.

From this short extract it is impossible to know exactly whythe activity with the first pair was less successful than it mighthave been. There are at least three potential reasons:

– the two learners don’t work particularly well together

– they have not found the activity sufficiently motivating and/ or they believe it is essentially a linguistic task rather thana communicative one.

– they have not been shown how to make the most of alearner-centred activity.

The first problem is an issue of class management. If the activityhas worked well with other pairs, the teacher may decide tokeep these two students apart for a period of time and monitorhow well they work with other partners. For the secondproblem, if the activity failed to inspire others in the class, thenit may be a question of material: the topic may not be verysuitable for this particular group. On the other hand, it may notbe the topic itself. If other students approached the activity inthe same ‘safety first’ way as our first two learners, they mayhave thought the activity was too easy – lack of challenge can bea reason for poor motivation. For the third problem, as oursecond pair demonstrated, a learner-centred activity can be aschallenging as you choose to make it. What our first pair mayrequire is more guidance on how to extract the maximumbenefit from an activity. You can do this by:

– demonstrating how the activity can be expanded. Youinterview a willing student, then go back over theconversation and elicit some of the follow-up questionsused to keep the conversation going. Students can practisethese until they can produce them automatically.

– encouraging students to take risks in classroom activities.Learners should realise that the classroom is one placewhere language can be repaired when it goes wrong; and ifthey don’t experiment, they won’t find out what they canand can’t do. Teachers can’t work miracles, but if we cangive our learners the courage and confidence they need topush back the boundaries of their current competence, theywill improve; and they will see that improvement.

4 Correction and reformulation When learners have contributed freely in an activity andgenerated a lot of language, the next issue is: what do you dowith this output? We believe that learners can benefit a greatdeal from teacher feedback at the end of an activity, and mostlearners perceive this feedback to be extremely relevant anduseful. But what form should the feedback take?

Traditionally, feedback has largely consisted of correction ofgrammar, and to a lesser extent, of vocabulary mistakes. Thisseems to be an almost instinctive reaction. When we listen tolearners, of whatever level, it seems that grammar errors areinvariably the ones that register first and stand out. But while itis important to correct errors, it is equally important to considerimprovements in their language based on things they didn’tsay, but perhaps should have said.

The following transcript is of three adult learners studying inBarcelona, and it is part of the trialling of an extendedspeaking activity in unit three of the student’s book abouttransport problems in their town. Please note that for triallingpurposes, there was no pre-teaching of any language relevant tothe activity.

A: No, the area is fresh because I live near Collserola and inten minutes I on foot I arrive to the … [unclear], yes.

B: I live from to five minutes walking on the Carreteras de lasAguas. I live down the hospital Vall d’Hebron.

A: Yes I know. But you are on the other hand of the Carreterasde las Aguas. I start at San Pedro Mártir and you at …[unclear]. And you, Julio – what is the situation of thetransport of your area?

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172 how to … use the learners as a resource

J: Yes, in my area there are some buses to Barcelona or thetrain station but the problem is the traffic. Every morningthere are many, many traffic. It’s a problem because I needabout one hour to arrive of my work.

A: Do you use to your car?J: No I don’t use my car because I prefer you use the bus or

train because I arrive to Barcelona more … more relaxedabout to arrive by car.

B: In my area the traffic jam is only a problem where the busare place.

A: Yes, I don’t have problem with traffic.

from natural English pre-intermediate research data

Listening to these students in ‘real time’, certain commongrammar errors and mistakes with prepositions leap out at you– many traffic and arrive of, for example. But when wetranscribed and analysed the conversation (and others like it),we noticed more and more that the characteristics of theconversation which made it sound most unnatural were thelearners’ inability to manipulate common formulaic language:

– the facility in English to form a compound adjective usingnumbers and a time period , e.g. a ten-minute walk to …(instead of: in ten minutes I on foot arrive to …). The exactnumbers and time periods are variable, but the pattern isfrequent and predictable, as are many of the nouns whichcollocate with these compound adjectives, e.g. a five-minutewalk, a ten-minute drive, a fifteen-minute wait, a two-hour delay,etc.

– the most common and natural way of describing the timerequired to get from A to B, i.e. It takes (me) an hour to get towork (instead of: I need about one hour to arrive of my work).

– the most obvious way of asking someone to tell you moreabout someone or something, i.e. What’s transport like inyour area? (instead of: what is the situation of the transport ofyour area?)

It has to be said that reformulations of this sort are far easier tomake when you are working from a transcript. If you are ableto record your learners, even occasionally, we would certainlyrecommend it. Transcribing the recordings would be a verytime-consuming occupation for you, but that is where you canmake use of your learners. Ask them to transcribe a small partof their conversation, and having done so, see if they cancorrect or improve what they have said. Even if you can’t repeatthe procedure very often, you might be surprised at how muchmileage you can obtain from one short, recorded conversation.

We are aware this is not a luxury available to everyone, and inmost situations teachers have to monitor and make notes whileconversations take place in ‘real time’. In these conditions it iseasier to spot errors than it is to recognize the need for longerlexical chunks in place of a phrase of their own which,however stilted or unnatural it may sound, doesn’t necessarilycontain any grammatical mistakes. But if you can do this justonce or twice, it can broaden the scope of feedback and shift theemphasis away from error, which can have the effect of makinglearners overly concerned with accuracy, and focus insteadmore on reformulation and improvement.

task repetitionOne of the extended speaking activities we trialled for thepre-intermediate student’s book, unit seven p.70, was anarrative which students have to construct from a series ofpictures. One group who did this consisted of two youngJapanese women, Natsuko and Tomomi, and a young

Taiwanese student who called himself Jeremy. We knew thiswould be very challenging for them with no pre-teaching otherthan a few items of vocabulary (bark, brick, bite, and smash), sowe let them work together as a group and help each other. Thiswas their first attempt.

think!5

Read through the transcript below. What do you think theteacher should focus on after this first attempt? Then read on.

J: They went to the park by car and he go with his dog and hetake lunch box and I have sandwich and hamburgers.

T: Champagne …J: Champagne, sandwich and very peaceful, but later many

people will come, will came, … many people came here andone people played football and the dog is barking there …

N: They were fed up … a man listening to music …J: And a child shout very loudly, shout very loud … theyare fed up and they decide to go home.T: They went to car park … they looked to a man, hold abrick …J: They see … they saw one people hold a brick and theywill smash his car’s window and they feel very scared …and the dog barked … and the man very scared.

N: The man screamed, shouted … Tom, maybe he wassurprised and his dog bite, bit this guy.

J: The man fight with … the man with the brick … and thisman didn’t stole, didn’t steal anything.

T: This man couldn’t run away … and the woman call thepolice and the police will come, will came and arrest them.

from natural English pre-intermediate research data

After this first attempt the teacher talked to the students aboutthe story and ways in which they could improve it. He talkedabout the need to keep the story in the past tense – they wereaware of making mistakes with the past simple – but alsofocused on two features of narrative which they couldincorporate, even with their level of English. One of these wasthe need to ‘set the scene’ of the narrative, and the second wasthe dramatic use of direct speech, which can sometimes helplower level learners to get round a potentially difficultexplanation. After some further guidance from the teacher, thegroup were keen to have another go … and then another go.After the second attempt the teacher provided more guidance.This was their third attempt.

T: It was a nice sunny day so Tom and Victoria decided to goto picnic in the countryside. They went to picnic by car withtheir dogs, his name is Jim. They had lunchbox andchampagne, sandwiches and hamburgers.

N: They found a nice place near the lake … very peaceful.J: Felt relaxed, but later one family come and the man was

playing football, the girl singing, the dog was barking andthe man listen loud music.

T: They were fed up. They decided to go home. They went to thecar park, er ... a man hold a brick and smashed the window.

J: The man will … the dog bit the man and the man shouted …T: Tom shouted, “That’s my car. What are you doing?”N: Tom and this man had … fighting, had a fight, then Jim bit

the man and they couldn’t go, run away, and the womancalled the police, and the police came and arrest, arrestedthem.

from natural English pre-intermediate research data

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All three students worked extremely hard throughout theteaching sequence and what was interesting was theirwillingness, in fact their eagerness, to repeat the task severaltimes. Admittedly this was a small group, so the students weregetting a lot of individual attention, but it seemed to us thattheir enthusiasm was largely because they could see they wereimproving.

We know from our own experience and through conversationswith other teachers that we are often reluctant to ask studentsto repeat activities too many times for fear that they will getbored. This does happen sometimes, but we mayunderestimate the satisfaction learners get from repeating atask – provided there is guidance and support each time toincrease the likelihood of an improved performance.

To summarize the main points in this section:

– When initiating student-centred activities, don’t assumeyour learners will automatically know how to make themost of them. Give them support and guidance.

– Try to nurture a classroom culture which is tolerant of errorand encourages students to experiment and pushthemselves to the limit of their ability.

– In feedback, provide correction of error, but also thinkabout ways to reformulate and improve awkward orunnatural English.

– Make sure feedback is on-going, and don’t be afraid to givelearners the opportunity to repeat tasks and see theirimprovement.

These observations will be fairly familiar to experiencedteachers, but we found in the trialling that, perhaps by virtue oftheir familiarity, some of the most obvious classroomprocedures were the ones which were easiest to overlook.

conclusionIn this chapter we have concentrated on the learner as theprimary classroom resource, and suggested:

– a series of frameworks for classroom activities which usethe knowledge and experience of the learners in the class

– a number of observations on how to utilize that learneroutput

Teaching is a demanding profession and course books serve animportant function. At the very least, they can take the pressureoff busy teachers by providing professional, ready-madematerial; for less experienced teachers, they provide anecessary structure and can serve as a teacher developmenttool. One should not overlook the fact that many studentsexpect to use course books and can learn from them. At thesame time, teachers shouldn’t become slaves to the coursebook. We would recommend that they put the course bookaside some of the time and create some space for learners, freeof materials and technology.

follow-upCampbell C and Kryszewska H 1992 Learner-based teaching Oxford

University PressSheelagh Deller 1990 Lessons from the Learner Pilgrims / LongmanThornbury S and Conte N Materials-free teaching in English Teaching

Professional Issue 26 January 2003Griff Griffiths and Kathy Keohane 2000 Personalizing Language Learning

Cambridge University Press

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how to … help learners understandnatural speech

1 Choosing listening material for the classroom2 Using recorded material3 Understanding connected speech

1 Choosing listening material for theclassroom

Most classroom listening comprises two main sources: theteacher and other learners, and audio / video recordings andDVDs. Listening to you and other learners is probably the mostgenuine and motivating listening practice that learners canhave, but it is the exposure to other types of listening materialthat is the focus of this chapter – recorded listening materialthat you choose and take in to the classroom.

Broadly speaking, this material can be divided into four types:

1 unscripted ‘real world’ English, e.g. a TV chat showinterview, or perhaps a conversation you recorded at thehome of some English-speaking friends

2 scripted ‘real world’ English, e.g. a TV news broadcast, or aradio play

3 unscripted recordings produced for the language classroom

4 scripted recordings produced for the language classroom

From this list, there are clearly two important factors:

– ‘real world’ English vs. English produced for the classroom

– unscripted vs. scripted English.

If our aim is to help learners understand English in the realworld, then some would argue our priority should be exposureto real-world spoken English. Admittedly, learners willstruggle with it at first, but we can compensate for the difficultyof the texts by making the tasks very simple, while at the sametime developing the skills needed to deal with the mainfeatures of natural spoken English.

Most teachers would probably agree that real-world listeningpractice sounds good in theory, but their experience tells themthat the majority of learners, and especially lower levellearners, can become frustrated and demotivated by theirinability to cope with the demands of such material. Our ownexperience has been that lower level learners can cope withcertain songs or short TV extracts, but you have to be highlyselective, and it isn’t very easy to find appropriate material. It’strue we can simplify the comprehension tasks we provide, butwill the majority of learners be satisfied when they know theyhave not understood most of the recording? Worse stillperhaps, if there is a very significant gap between the recordedmaterial and the learners’ current listening ability, there maynot be sufficient understanding for learners to construct anymeaningful interpretation of the text. In other words, they areso far out of their depth that they cannot use the text to build ontheir existing listening skills.

This is where listening material produced for the classroom,and specifically scripted listening material, has an advantage.

– It will be tailored to the level of the learners in terms oflexical difficulty and syntactic complexity.

– It can be written to include language you may want toteach.

– If it is well-scripted material it can approximate to naturalspoken language, especially in routine and largelypredictable conversation exchanges, e.g. some telephonecalls and many short service encounters in shops,restaurants or hotels.

But even predictable conversations may not incorporate someof the features of natural spoken English you find in unscriptedexchanges.

think!1

Here is an unscripted recording of a common service encounter– asking for and giving directions in a hotel reception. Theguest is American, the receptionist is British. Can you find anyfeatures in the conversation which would be unlikely if theconversation had been scripted? Think and then read on.

Guest I’m staying in room 101. Rec Right.G I need to get to Big Sound Studios.R Oh, that’s very near.G Oh, OK.R Erm, it’s about a five-minute walk, erm, if you, if you want to walk. All

you need to do is go to the end of the road here G end of the road, OKR when you get to the stationG yeahR you need to turn left G turn leftR and then the studios are just there, again, on the left, I mean, it’s really

not far.G I don’t need to take a cab.R Oh, no, not at all.

from pre-intermediate listening booklet, tapescript 3.5 p.12

When conversations are scripted, the writer often includeshesitation devices such as erm, which are commonly found innatural speech, but in the unscripted conversation above,notice also the following:

– apparently needless repetition, e.g. if you, if you

– rather clumsy expression, e.g. ‘you need to turn left and thenthe studios are just there, again, on the left.’

– the fact that the guest asks for help not with a request (e.g.Could you tell me how to get to Big Sound Studios?), but with astatement (I need to get to Big Sound Studios), which thereceptionist immediately recognises as a request.

– the indecisiveness of the receptionist. She knows she can’ttell the guest what to do (it’s a five-minute walk, erm if you, if

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how to … help learners understand natural speech 175

you want to walk), but clearly thinks walking is the bestoption by stressing its proximity (oh that’s very near … all youneed to do is … I mean, it’s really not far).

– the fact that the guest interrupts and echoes thereceptionist’s instructions throughout.

We doubt these elements would have found their way into ascripted classroom dialogue that practises giving directions.Spontaneous spoken English is quite simply different fromscripted language. It is messy, repetitive, often digresses, andusually looks very inelegant when written down. If learnersare to cope with it, can we justify a diet of recorded listeningmaterial that distorts this reality and limits their exposure to it?

An approach we have used widely in natural English is to have ahigh percentage of spontaneous unscripted spoken text, butwith compromises which make the texts more accessible tolearners at different levels. We have done this by:

– using native speakers or very competent users of thelanguage who naturally speak quite clearly and not tooquickly

– giving these speakers guidelines about the content andlength of text

– recording much more material than is necessary so that wecan select what is most appropriate

– making use of recording technology to edit small sections ofthe text where necessary (e.g. cutting a difficult andunnecessary phrase or sentence)

– keeping the listening passages quite short to reduce thedanger of overload.

Want to know more about controlling the level of a listeningpassage? Go to natural English intermediate teachers book,how to … teach listening, p.151

These measures rob texts of some of their authenticity – wemight best describe the results as semi-authentic – but they canproduce a text which retains almost all the features of naturalspoken English yet remains achievable for lower level learners.

2 Using recorded materialMost of the listening material we take into the languageclassroom will be audio recordings which provide exposure toa range of voices and genres, e.g. casual conversation,interviews, service encounters, announcements, discussion,etc. They have the advantage that they can be replayed by theteacher to identify and address listening problems (more of thislater), and they are a change of focus from listening to theteacher or other learners.

At the same time, there are drawbacks with audio recordings:

– they deny the listener important visual clues which areoften present in real life listening, e.g. the speaker’s bodylanguage

– they don’t allow the listener the opportunity to interactwith the speaker, e.g. to ask for repetition, seekclarification, and so on

– listening to a recording is usually less interesting andmotivating than being in the presence of the speaker

– poor equipment or acoustics can undermine theeffectiveness of using audio material.

think!2

Can you think of any other advantages or drawbacks of usingaudio recordings?

go to answer key p.180.

using prediction Audio materials on their own rarely give the listener anyinformation about context, and they don’t provide any visualclues. This makes it all the more important that there is a pre-listening phase with audio material in which learners gather asmuch information about the context as they would in a real lifesituation. For example, in unit five of the pre-intermediatestudent’s book, the listening text is about how to use a studycentre. First, the learners see the picture of a study centre belowand describe what’s in it (essential visual clues).

vocabulary study centre1 Look at the picture for a minute. Then shut your

book and tell a partner what you can remember.

example There’s a computer in the room.

They are then told about the listening (essential scene-setting)and have an opportunity to predict the kinds of things theywill hear described before they listen.

listen to this tune in

1 These students are studying Italian. Their teacher isgoing to explain how to use the study centre. Whatdo you think she will say? Tell your partner.

example You can use the photocopier.

2 Listen. Which part of the study centre doesshe talk about first?5.4

from pre-intermediate student’s book, unit five p.46

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176 how to … help learners understand natural speech

As a classroom activity, prediction has several virtues.

think!3

Can you think of two or three good reasons for asking learnersto predict the content of a listening text? Note them down,then read on and compare your ideas.

– By asking learners to predict, we are encouraging them toactivate their knowledge of the context. From this, theymay go on to predict the content of the listening quiteaccurately. Successful prediction can contributesignificantly to successful listening.

– Prediction is a skill we all use in our first language, but isoften overlooked by learners when they are listening in asecond language.

– Learners want to find out if their predictions are accurate,so the activity has served to motivate them for the listeningpassage.

– Prediction is best done as a cooperative activity in whichlearners discuss their predictions with a partner or in smallgroups. It becomes an interactive activity – speaking with areal communicative purpose – and the discussion may helpthem to refine their initial predictions and become moreaccurate.

Want to know more about pre-listening activities?Go to intermediate teacher’s book, how to … teach listeningpp.151 and 152.

tuning inEven with a well-focused pre-listening phase, it can come as ashock to learners when they are pitched straight into an audiorecording of unfamiliar voices. To ease this process, we haveincluded a ‘tune in’ phase (as with other levels of the course)in which the learners have an opportunity to listen to a shortsection of the recording to adjust to the voice or voices beforethey listen to the whole passage. For example:

too late. The teacher can also replay this section as many timesas necessary, without giving away the rest of the conversationand spoiling it. The prediction activity afterwards (exercise 2),then prepares the ground for the next part of the recording.

grading tasksWith lower level learners it is important that the successfulcompletion of a listening comprehension task doesn’t dependtoo much on other skills. If learners struggle with acomprehension task, you need to know that the problem isrelated to their listening ability, and not their ability to read orwrite. So, if the task involves writing, keep it to a minimum.Here are some possible exercise types that reduce the need towrite:

– circle the correct answer, from a choice of two or three

– put ticks or crosses in a box

– write T (true) or F (false) next to short statements

– choose the correct picture, from a choice of several

– put pictures in the correct order (commonly used to checkunderstanding of a narrative)

– read a summary, then listen and underline any parts thatare incorrect.

Many tasks involve reading, e.g. correcting mistakes in asummary. In this case, make sure you give learners sufficienttime to read the summary before they listen and check that theyunderstand it, e.g. deal with unknown lexis. If writing isrequired, perhaps with comprehension questions, orcompleting a table or grid, make it clear to learners that theyonly need to write short answers, not complete sentences.

If you sense that a particular passage will be at the very limit ofyour learners’ listening ability, you can compensate by makingthe comprehension task easier. For example, unit four of thepre-intermediate student’s book has an unscripted narrativeabout a shopping experience, which would be quite difficultfor pre- intermediate learners without a supportive framework.After the initial tune-in activity, learners have the followingtasks:

tune in1 Jon met Nadia at a party last week. He

decides to phone her. Listen to the beginning of the conversation. Tick ✓ the phrases you hear.

2 What do you think Jon’s going to say next? Tell theclass.

8.7

�� Hi, Nadia. �� It’s Jon.�� Hello, Nadia. �� This is Jon.

�� I’m fine, how about you? �� It was really great to see you.�� I’m OK, how about you? �� It was really nice to see you.

listen carefully2 Read the sentences from Jim’s story. With your

partner, write a possible word or phrase in each gap.

1 First he tried on a beautiful blue suit, but .

2 Then he tried on a grey suit, but .

3 The shop assistant was very and broughtJim .

4 Jim spent trying them on, and finally hedecided .

3 Listen. Were you right?

listening challenge4 Listen. Is the end of the story about:

the suit? the manager? the shop assistant?4.6

from pre-intermediate student’s book, unit eight p.78

The comprehension task allows the teacher to find out if thelearners understand Jon and Nadia’s initial greetings. If theydon’t, the teacher is perhaps getting advance warning that the passage may prove difficult for the learners and mightrequire more preparation. What might have been a veryunrewarding listening experience can be rectified before it is

from pre-intermediate student’s book, unit four p.38

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how to … help learners understand natural speech 177

Write the words on the board with gaps:

___ _________ long__ _____ ____ ____ ____ people ___ the south

Replay that extract as often as necessary so that learners canbegin to identify more words and construct the meaning of thesentence. They may not get absolutely everything, but it shouldhelp them to decode the message and become more aware offeatures of connected speech (see section 3 below).

As the focus is on developing the listening skill, it would bepointless for learners to read the tapescript while listening tothe recording for the first time. However, after listening severaltimes, let them listen with the tapescript. This procedure canhelp learners to identify not only where they had a problembut also why they had a problem. Let’s look at some of theseproblems in more detail.

3 Understanding connected speech There are many reasons why learners fail to understand parts ofa spoken text, but one of the most common causes is illustratedby a scenario that many of you will be familiar with. Yourlearners have just listened to a passage of spoken text, and theyfind it more difficult than you anticipated. You play it again andstill your learners are puzzled. Finally, you let them listen withthe tapescript. This time the text is greeted with an assortmentof groans: what the tapescript illustrates is that the text, or thevast majority of it, contains lexis the learners all know andunderstand in written form. However, as soon as these familiarwords become part of a piece of connected speech, spoken atnatural speed, they are not intelligible.

These problems will be identified as soon as learners areexposed to unscripted passages spoken at normal speed, butremedial training to develop this part of the listening skill canbe undertaken successfully, and more economically, usingshort passages of scripted material. To be useful, the passagesneed to be long enough to contain chunks of language that willbe uttered without a pause, e.g. a short sentence of at least sixor eight words; and spoken at natural speed.

When learners learn a word, they may know how it ispronounced in isolation, but fail to recognize the same word inspoken English, e.g. correct /k@"rekt/ in rapid speech is pronounced/krekt/. In connected speech, problems occur because of:

• contractions, e.g. I’ll /aIl/ instead of I will /aI wIl/

• weak forms, e.g. /k@n/ of can in weak form instead of /k&n/ ofcan in strong form

The way a word sounds can also be modified by the words thatsurround it. For example:

• elision (sounds are omitted), e.g. round the corner /raUn D@kO:n@/ omitting the ‘d’ in round

• assimilation (sounds change), e.g. /n/ becoming /m/ in tenpeople /tem pI;pl/

• catenation (linking the sounds of a word to the next word),e.g. pick

˘it˘up

In this case, the sentence beginnings actually provide thelistener with the framework of the story, thus making it easierto follow; and the prediction activity should help the learnersto narrow down the most likely endings.

testing vs. teachingA common complaint with comprehension tasks – it could belevelled at all the tasks above – is that they ‘test’ listeningrather than teach it. It’s a criticism that is hard to deny, but alsohard to avoid. In order to assess and improve our learners’listening ability, we need to know which parts of a text theyunderstand and which parts they don’t. Comprehension tasksgive us at least some of that feedback, but they often don’tanswer the more important question: If learners haven’tunderstood part of a text, why haven’t they understood? Withtheir knowledge and experience, teachers can sometimes makean informed guess, but not always. Asking the learnersthemselves is the most sensible option and certainly worthinvestigating. The drawback here is that learners can’t alwaysexplain why they haven’t understood something - and doing iton a regular basis may not be feasible with time constraintsand a large class.

Here are several simple procedures you can use alongside acomprehension task to gain more information about thelistening process and why your learners may be finding the textdifficult.

– Monitor the learners discretely as they are doing tasks toassess their progress. This information can be the basis forthe decision to replay the recording a second or third time.

– If you notice while monitoring that learners have differentanswers to certain parts of a task, put these answers on theboard without saying which is correct. Play the passage, orthe relevant part of it, again. Learners will be motivated tolisten again – those with the correct answer can’t be surewithout listening a second time – and those who got itwrong first time round may be able to correct their mistake.If they can do this, they may also be able to explain whythey were wrong the first time. This procedure is likely totell them more about listening than simply being given thecorrect answers.

– Ask learners in pairs or small groups to compare and discusstheir answers to the task before you give any correctanswers. If you listen to these discussions carefully, you willsometimes uncover the reason for a breakdown inunderstanding. At the same time, the learners are allengaged in a worthwhile discussion in which they may gaininsights from each other about the passage.

– If most learners are having problems with a particularsegment or sentence, ask them to listen again and notedown any words they can hear. Elicit these onto the board,with gaps for missing words. For example, if learners wereunable to understand the sentence underlined below, theymight hear long, people, and the south.

L Well, now, people say that er, in the north it’s muchfriendlier, and I think that probably is true. It takeslonger to get to know people in the south, perhaps.

E Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that.

natural English pre-intermediate listening booklet 6.2 p.20

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178 how to … help learners understand natural speech

think!4

Answer the questions in the chart. weak forms1 Write the underlined words in phonemic script.We can go for coffee later. We were younger than the rest ofthem .contractions2 What sound changes occur when the verbs are contracted?I will not do it We would have gone (two possibilities)elision 3 Write the underlined words in phonemic script. Which two

phonemic sounds disappear in these consonant clusters?roast roast beef must mustn’t forgetdropped she dropped the bookcold cold waterassimilation4 Write the underlined words in phonemic script.ten ten peoplegood good book do what do you think?would What would you like?catenation (linking) 5 Pronounce the phrases. Where do sounds link between words?put

˘it˘on it’s out of order

her uncle her mother and father

go to answer key p.180

You can produce your own exercises to focus on these features ofconnected speech to suit your learners. Here are some ideas.

contractions and weak forms

1 count the wordsA simple exercise you can try is to write a few short sentencescontaining contractions and weak forms suitable for your class.Tell learners they will hear a sentence, and with a partner, theyshould count the number of words. Make it clear whether youintend contractions, e.g. can’t, to represent one word or two for thepurpose of the exercise. Learners often enjoy the game-likeelement in this exercise.

2 mini dictationsThese can also be extremely useful if your learners have problemsidentifying words in weak form or when sounds are omitted. Forexample you could record or read aloud sentences like the onesbelow in which the pronouns are pronounced naturally.

Could you ask her /@/ to give him /i;m/ a ring?

Did you tell them /D@m/ the phone number?

Has he /I;/ given them /D@m/ his address?

Whether learners misspell lexical items such as address is really ofsecondary importance as the aim here is to help them withdecoding connected speech. Learners can compare answers,write them on the board, and you can use the sentences to dealremedially with any problems they had.

Want to know more? Read Dictation, Davis and Rinvolucri CUP

3 using the tapescript Once you have used a recording for comprehension purposes,think about using the tapescript to focus on problems withperception. Below is a short semi-scripted dialogue in which anumber of common weak forms are shown in bold. Learnerslisten to the recording again and focus on the schwa /@/. You willneed to pause the recording if you are doing this in class, andreplay the first line a couple of times to enable them to hear theweak form. Another way of using this type of activity is to givelearners the dialogue with the first few weak forms in bold, thenplay the recording and ask them to identify the remaining four. Ifyour learners are familiar with phonemic script, you could writethe weak and strong forms of the words in bold on the board inphonemic script, and ask them to listen and say which form theyhear. Once they have identified them successfully, move on topractice, isolating and checking learners’ pronunciation of theweak forms before they practise the whole dialogue.

a Look at the words in bold in tapescript 3.2. These words arenot stressed. Listen and notice the schwa /@/.

b Practise saying the dialogue. Remember to use the schwa /@/. A Have you ever lived abroad?B Yeah, I have.A Where was that?B South America – I worked in Rio for a while.A And how long were you there?B About nine months – it was about ten years ago now.A Really? Did you like it?B Yeah, I loved it – it was fascinating. Completely different

from Europe.

from pre-intermediate listening booklet, tapescript 3.2 p.11

elision and assimilationLearners’ problems with elision and assimilation are to somedegree caused by interference from the written form; you canuse this as a teaching tool. Here, you are aiming to showlearners that what is written is not always pronounced.

1 using the tapescriptAsk learners to look at the sentences below (from the naturalEnglish box in unit thirteen, p.126). They have already dealtwith the meaning of the questions, so you can use therecording again to highlight the elision of ‘t’ in What does …?

a When t is followed by a consonant, we often don’t pronouncethe t. Look at these examples from 13.3:What’s /wQs/ she like?What does /"wQd@z/ she look like?What does /"wQd@z/ she like doing?

b Listen again and repeat.

c Practise saying these sentences. You don’t need to pronouncethe underlined t.What did you do last weekend?What do you think of his latest film?What does your best friend do?What did you have for the first course?What do most people think of the president? I saw him last Friday.It’s the longest day.

from pre-intermediate listening booklet tapescript 13.3 p.41

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how to … help learners understand natural speech 179

5.4 intensive listeningCover tapescript 5.4. Listen again and complete the gaps.

Now, you can borrow most of the books here, and take

_________ ________, but you can’t take the dictionaries

home. If you want to use the dictionaries, you have to use

________ _________. Remember that. Now, you have to write

your name in the book _______ __________ _________

– you write your name, the name of the book you want to

________ _________, and the date you’re _________

_________ _________, OK?

from pre-intermediate listening booklet, tapescript 5.4 p.16

try it out rhymesRhymes are fun and a useful medium for highlighting andpractising features of connected speech. Learners can learn andrecite them (they are something that we tend to memorize inour own language, so this is quite a natural activity). You canfocus on specific points. Here is a very nice example from EnglishPronunciation in Use:Show where you can join a word ending with a consonantsound to a word starting with a vowel sound using thissymbol: ˘ (There are eight in total). Then listen and practisesaying the poem.There was an

˘old man called Greg,

Who tried to break open an egg.He kicked it around,But fell on the ground, And found that he’d broken a leg.You could also use simple song lyrics in this way, particularlythose popular with your learners.

from English Pronunciation in Use by Mark Hancock p.85

ConclusionIn this chapter we have looked at:

– the differences between scripted and unscripted audiomaterial

– the advantages and disadvantages of using audio recordings

– approaches and techniques for pre-listening and while-listening stages

– the problems learners experience decoding connectedspeech, and some activities to help them

Helping learners to understand spoken English is a difficulttask for teachers, largely because the listening process is notvisible or easily accessible. We hope that the approaches andideas in this chapter will have given you some practical andconcrete strategies to use with your learners.

2 gap fill dictationsSound omissions and changes are very challenging for learnersto decode, but a few combinations are very common and usefulto focus on at low levels. For this, you can use a gap filldictation.

First, dictate the following natural segments. They won’t makeany sense, but they should intrigue learners. Let them writethem in any way they like.

/"getSu;/ /"mI;tSu;/ /"wUdZ@/ /"S@wI;/ /"kUdZ@/ /dZu;/

Give them these gap fill sentences, and dictate the sentencescontaining the natural segments above. Learners can work witha partner. 1 What like to do this evening?2 Where go in the evenings?3 Shall I at the cinema?4 Can I something to drink?5 When meet?6 Excuse me, pass me that paper?At the end, focus on the sounds of these segments in connectedspeech, and be sure to let learners know that this isn’t lazy orincorrect speech; it’s just natural.

catenation

1 noticingScripted and unscripted listening material can usually beexploited to encourage learners to notice linking betweenwords. The following activity is based on an unscripted textwhich learners have already listened to with an accompanyingcomprehension task. They are shown graphically how soundsare linked, and listen to the model at the same time.

Listen to 7.1. Notice how Tyler links the phrases below.

a few years˘ago

right˘in front

˘of us.

the pilot ran˘over

she looked˘at me and she said, ‘yes.’

we got˘out

˘of the helicopter

we sat˘in the field

˘and finished

˘our picnic

When a word ends in a consonant sound, and the next wordbegins with a vowel sound, we often link them in this way.Listen again and practise saying the phrases.

from pre-intermediate listening booklet, tapescript 7.1 p.23

You can also isolate a short section of a text and ask learners toindicate where the linking will occur. Practice will help toreinforce the idea that linking is a common feature of spokenEnglish.

2 intensive listening activitiesAs a more challenging task, use a text which might incorporatevarious features of connected speech and you can do intensivelistening activities, such as the one below. This text includesexamples of weak forms and linking which learners have toactively listen for to fill the gaps. They can check with thetapescript. (Answers: them /D@m/ home, them /D@m/ here, at/@t/ the /D@/ desk, take

˘out, taking it

˘out)

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180 how to … help learners understand natural speech

follow upField J 2003 Promoting perception: lexical segmentation in L2 listening

in ELTJ vol. 57/4Field J 1998 The changing face of listening in English Teaching

Professional (6 Jan)Kelly G 2000 How to teach pronunciation Longmont Hancock M 2003 English Pronunciation in Use Cambridge University

PressWhite G 1998 Listening Oxford University Press

answer keythink!2 p.175Advantages• They are readily available and relatively cheap.• They can be used to provide a consistent pronunciation model,

and some non-native teachers like to have the support of anative-speaker model for their learners.

• They can be a source of cultural information.• They allow learners to listen to a dialogue: two people

interacting.Disadvantages• Finding your place on the cassette can be fiddly and irritating,

especially when you need to rewind and play a section again.(This is less of a problem with CDs.)

• Usually, everyone has to listen at the same pace; learners havelittle control, unless they are studying in a listening centre orlanguage laboratory.

• Audio recordings often come with a tapescript; sometimes learnersread them in advance or while listening.

think!4 p.178 1 can, /k@n/, for /f@/, were /w@/, than /D@n/, of /@v/, them /D@m/

Modal verbs can, could, shall, should, would, and will all haveweak forms, as do forms of the auxiliary verbs be, do and have.For a full list of weak forms, see John Field (2002).

2 full form: will not /wIl nQt/, contracted form: won’t /w@Unt/;full form: we would have gone /wI; wUd h&v gQn/; weak forms: we’d have gone /wI;d @v gQn/ we would’ve gone /wI;wUd@v gQn/.

3 roast beef /r@Us bI;f/mustn’t forget /mVsn f@get/dropped the book /drQp D@ bUk/cold water /k@Ul wO;t@/

The ‘t’ and ‘d’ sounds disappear4 ten people /tem pI;pl/, good book /gUb bUk/ do you /DZU;/,

would you /WwUdZu;/5 out

˘of

˘order her

˘uncle her mother

˘and father

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how to … activate vocabulary © Oxford University Press

how to … activate vocabulary

1 What do we mean by ‘vocabulary’?2 Why does vocabulary need to be activated?3 ‘Exercise’ versus ‘activity’4 Activity types

1 What do we mean by ‘vocabulary’?In natural English, vocabulary development is prominent in anumber of places. For instance:

– glossaries highlight key lexical items in all of the writtenand spoken texts

– lexis is the basis of the five or six natural English boxes in eachunit

– there is a separate section in each unit for vocabularybuilding called wordbooster

– there are additional exercises and activities devoted tovocabulary development in each unit.

Vocabulary is often grouped in different ways for teachingpurposes.

topic areasIndividual words have been organized within a particular topicarea and sometimes linguistically as well. For example:

– adjectives describing transport and journeys, e.g. safe,dangerous, frustrating, unreliable

– music vocabulary, e.g. group, orchestra, conductor, lead singer,solo artist.

collocationsEven with individual words, further practice activities usuallyillustrate how the selected items often collocate in a widersense; they may not be adjacent pairs but they often co-occur incertain contexts, e.g. Simon Rattle was the conductor of theBirmingham Symphony Orchestra; buses are unreliable in bigtowns, and this can be very frustrating.

lexical collocationsMost of the time though, the focus is on adjacent collocationand longer lexical phrases, reflecting the now widely-heldview that much of our language consists not of individualwords combining uniquely in each utterance we make, but ofcombinations of smaller or larger chunks of language whichrecur frequently and fairly predictably. Typical lexicalcollocations include:

– verb + noun, e.g. join a club, do a degree

– adjective + noun, e.g. great fun, loud music

– adverb + adjective, e.g. happily married, incredibly easy.

grammatical collocationsThere are also combinations often described as grammaticalcollocations:

– verb or adjective + preposition, e.g. depend on, interested in

– preposition + noun, e.g. for a while, in my twenties / thirties

– verb + particle, e.g. pick sth / sb up, get on with sb

– noun + noun and compound nouns, e.g. televisionprogramme, bus stop, swimming pool.

lexical phrasesLexical phrases – sometimes whole sentences – can be fairlyfixed, e.g. never mind, that’s a pity; or they can allow significantvariation, e.g. to a great / large / limited / lesser / some extent. Phrasescan also be idiomatic, i.e. they are difficult to understand fromthe constituent parts, e.g. break the ice; for the time being; or theycan be fairly transparent, e.g. at first, the whole thing. It is just asimportant for learners to ‘notice’ and practise this second groupof fairly transparent phrases. The same concept may beexpressed in a different way in the learner’s first language, buteven if it is expressed in the same way, the learner still needs toknow this is the case by having it pointed out.

These are examples of phrases included in the intermediatelevel of natural English.

Never mind.That’s a shame.Nice to meet you.Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?Does it take long to get there?That sounds (great / awful / interesting).(It / That) doesn’t (really) appeal to me.There’s something wrong with the (TV / cooker / phone).I’m thinking of (going to Australia / doing French).The most important thing is to (stay calm / keep warm).I don’t know much about (architecture / cookery / hypnotism).(Swimming, riding,) and that sort of thing / and things like that.I’m not too keen on (tennis / rock music / prawns).Shall we go on to (the next one / number 3)?

think!1

Look at the phrases in bold below. Write down two or three ofthe most likely words that could go in each gap. Do you thinkthese phrases are suitable for intermediate level, or not?

1 We had a ______ time in Paris.2 It was terrible – the whole thing was a ________.3 They had no ________ but to wait for the next bus.4 The course was a waste of _________ .5 I didn’t need to worry about money any more, which was a

________ off my mind.6 It could be a ‘p’ but it’s hard to _______ .

go to answer key p.142

how to … activate vocabulary© Oxford University Press

colligationIf collocation describes the lexical company that a word keeps,then colligation describes the grammatical company a wordkeeps. For example, the verb to bear (as in bear a child) is almostalways used in the passive, e.g. I was born in Paris, so it wouldn’tmake sense to present it in any other way. Some of the lexicalphrases in the book are presented so as to exhibit theircolligational features. In the list of phrases on p.136, I’m thinkingof -ing is presented as a phrase in the continuous form becausethat is the most frequent way it is used, and keen appears first ina negative construction because that is also how it is commonlyused.

2 Why does vocabulary need to beactivated?

In the past, we tended to assume that practice of new lexis wasnot only desirable but essential for successful acquisition totake place. More recently, that assumption has beenquestioned, partly on the grounds that production puts learnersunder pressure. While they are busy retrieving and articulatingitems from memory in order to communicate a range ofdifferent meanings – and all within real time – this mayactually inhibit or interfere with successful acquisition.

There is a degree of stress involved in productive practice, andwe should certainly be aware of how much we can or shouldexpect from our learners when they are experimenting withnew language. This is particularly the case when the timebetween language input and learner output is quite short.Productive practice, however, can take many forms, fromcontrolled exercises to freer activities. It is part of the teacher’sexpertise to graduate the different forms of practice so thatlearners are not confronted with activities that are frustrating orunduly stressful. Productive practice should be challenging,but above all, it should be achievable. We wouldn’t (andindeed cannot) claim that productive practice necessarily leadsto acquisition, but we do believe it can perform a very positiverole in the classroom.

think!2

Think of at least three arguments in favour of productivepractice of vocabulary, then read on.

1 For many learners the classroom is the only place wherethey receive feedback on their ability to pronouncephrases in isolation, and within utterances, to anacceptable standard. Over time, productive practice shouldpromote fluency, and improve learners’ pronunciation. Itdoesn’t matter how much language a learner has acquiredif they are incomprehensible to listeners.

2 Pronouncing (and repeating) a word or phrase and fixingthe sound and stress pattern in our heads is one of theways in which we store words in the memory and are ableto retrieve them when needed.

3 When we create opportunities for learners to use and re-use new language, we are compensating for the lack ofexposure that many learners suffer from when they arelearning English for a few hours a week in their owncountries. These learners won’t meet new vocabulary four,five, or six times by chance – or however many times it isfelt that people need to meet a word before acquisition is

most likely to take place – so productive practice may beimportant in helping to retain new items.

4 Productive practice doesn’t just mean repeating ten ortwenty words or phrases. It is an opportunity for learnersto use and recycle a much wider range of language, someof which will have been quite recently encountered andwon’t have been fully acquired. Freer productive practiceis, therefore, giving learners an opportunity to consolidateand acquire much more than just a narrow band of targetlanguage.

5 Most learners want to use and experiment with newlanguage. With an engaging activity in a supportiveclassroom, learners can get enormous satisfaction fromsuccessfully sustaining conversation in English. Whilenobody should be forced to speak, for most learners it ismotivating and builds confidence – two key ingredients,in our view, for successful language learning.

6 Last but not least, productive practice has ‘face validity’.Learners expect it and may feel disappointed or even cheatedif they don’t have opportunities to practise new language.

3 ‘Exercise’ versus ‘activity’

think!3

You are going to read about the distinction between vocabulary‘exercises’ and vocabulary ‘activities’. Look at this extract fromnatural English. How are exercises 1 and 2 different?

1 Complete the sentences with these words. Comparewith a partner.

a sale/the sales refund (n) /"ri;fVnd/ receipt /rI"si;t/exchange overcharge deposit /dI"pQzIt/

bargain /"bA;gIn/

1 Do you normally keep the for things youbuy? If so, why?

2 Do you often buy things in ? What is thebest you’ve ever found?

3 If you go back to a shop because you aren’t satisfiedwith something you bought, is it generally easy to

it for something else?

4 Is it common for shop assistants to people by mistake?

5 If you take something back, are there shops where itis difficult to get a ? Have you ever askedfor one? What happened?

6 When you buy something, do you ever have to pay a ?

2 Ask and answer the questions in groups.

from student’s book unit twelve p.140

how to … activate vocabulary

Exercises to test and practise vocabulary are very familiar to allteachers. Use the material in any coursebook or supplementarybook, and you won’t be able to complete a single languagelesson without coming across one or more of the exercise typesbelow. As you read, tick ✓ the ones you use most often. Canyou explain why you use some types more often than others?

gap fill sentences or dialogues

matching exercises, e.g. words and definitions, sentencehalves, stimulus and response, etc.

jumbled words in phrases, e.g. 1 time / nice / a / have!2 get / soon / better / I / you / hope

substituting words of similar meaning, e.g. phrasal verbs:1 She recovered from the illness very quickly.2 He returned the goods to the manufacturer.

choose the correct word / phrase from a selection of two,three, or four possibilities

identify / label pictures or parts of things

complete tables, e.g. word building tables, collocationalgrids, etc.

complete word spray diagrams, e.g.

oral drills / dialogue practice for pronunciation practiceand repetition of forms

transformations, e.g. She doesn’t like Bach very much. = She’s not very _______________ .

games, e.g. one learner defines words / phrases for theirpartner to guess.

vocabulary exercisesVocabulary exercises tend to be very controlled, testing themeaning and / or form of items. They usually have a specificanswer which is ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’, and they often performthe function of reinforcement. But exercises can offer furtherbenefits:

– they can provide useful written records, (spray diagrams,visuals, and tables can be attractive storage systems)

– they sometimes involve other language and skills, e.g.transformations help develop the ability to paraphrase, anessential communication strategy

– they allow learners time to assimilate new forms andmeanings without the external pressure of trying tocommunicate ideas.

With the exception of games, they all have one thing incommon: they can all be done alone, as self-study activities. Inclass, teachers may and often do bring exercises to life byencouraging learners to work on them co-operatively in pairsor groups, or work individually before comparing anddiscussing their answers. Getting learners to talk about theitems is a valuable activity, but getting them to use the items incommunication is a different matter.

vocabulary activitiesLet’s compare this with vocabulary activities. These can becontrolled or less controlled, but the difference is that activitieshave a communicative goal as well as a linguistic goal, and forthis reason they require learners to interact with each other;giving opinions, sharing experiences, exchanging information.The onus is on the learner to be ‘creative’, but this need not beon a big scale, nor should it be frightening. The results will bemore unpredictable, and perhaps less amenable to ‘correct’ or‘incorrect’ answers.

merging exercise and activityYou will, of course, find examples in which exercise andactivity merge. For instance, if you ask learners to completesentences, there will be an element of creativity but withinquite controlled limits, e.g. asking learners to complete thesentences below in their own words, using hopefully,surprisingly, or fortunately.

1 I’m going to spend six months in Germany;

2 I didn’t have any money with me;

3 My uncle usually forgets my birthday;

4 It’s a difficult situation, but

from student’s book unit six p.73

Our feeling is that learners generally need both exercises andactivities, and the weakness of some vocabulary materials inthe past is that they have tended to concentrate on the former atthe expense of the latter. If you only have exercises, theaccumulative effect may be that vocabulary is taught for its ownsake with no language use in mind, and learning then becomesrather one-dimensional. With a little thought, however, it ispossible to see the potential for both an exercise and aninteractive activity from the same basic material. (See think!3

p.137.)

think!4

How might you transform these sentences into both an exerciseand an activity for intermediate level learners?

cinema habits1 If I’m watching an English film, I don’t like to see the

subtitles; I prefer films which are dubbed.2 When I go to the cinema, I tend to ring and book in

advance.3 It’s very common for the audience to clap at the end of a

film in my country.4 I always read the film reviews before I decide to go and

see a film.5 My favourite films are thrillers and romantic comedies; I’m

not very keen on westerns.6 I prefer to sit in the back row at the cinema.

go to answer key p.142

go abroad /@"brO;d/

© Oxford University Press

how to … activate vocabulary

4 Activity typesThere are a number of ways in which you can encouragelearners to activate words and phrases, but among the mostcommon are: personalization, using visuals, sorting andranking activities, and creative activities / role play.

In practice, some of these activities overlap. Let’s look at eachone in turn.

a personalizationPersonalization involves learners talking about their lives,their backgrounds, their personal experiences, and theiropinions. Most learners are happy to talk about themselves,and this is the most accessible store of information they have.You obviously have to be careful about certain topics in somelearning contexts, however, and you should always make itclear that your learners should only disclose what they want,and no more.

1 You can use sets of questions (often containing topic-related or linguistically-related vocabulary) which enablelearners to personalize in pairs or small groups. Theshopping activity opposite (unit five, p.63) is one example,and you will find another in unit five, (see vocabularyexercise 4, p.61) where the words or phrases in bold can bepre-taught or checked first, before learners discuss thequestions and give personalized answers.

2 Questionnaires are a valuable source of vocabulary practice.The example extract below starts at exercise level aslearners focus on the linguistic aim, i.e. choosing the correctverb to match the syntactic1 pattern, before they move on todiscuss what they themselves would do in each situation.

3 Learners can talk about things happening around themand in the learning environment. For example, they canuse have (got) sth on (= be wearing sth) to describe theirclassmates’ appearance, or give two true and two falsestatements for others to verify.

4 They can give opinions about sentences which containlexis you want them to activate. In the example below, afterlooking at the meaning of the vocabulary items in thesestatements about politicians, they have to agree or disagreewith them.

They’re hard-working and caring /"ke@=rIN/.

They’re mostly honest /"QnIst/ and tell the truth.

I think they’re all liars /"laI@z/ – and they’re corrupt/k@"rVpt/ too.

They often make promises they don’t keep.

from student’s book unit ten p.118

5 Learners can amend sentences (containing targetvocabulary) so that they are true of themselves. Look atthis example where learners fill the gapped sentences withan appropriate verb and then personalize them.

questionnaire1 You sent a present to your 14-year-old cousin, andshe hasn’t phoned or written to thank you. The next timeyou see her, two weeks later, she doesn’t even mentionthe present.

Would you:

a her you’re upset?

b to introduce the subject of the present intothe conversation?

c to say nothing?

d your own idea

2 Your 16-year-old brother tells you he’s going to do a bungee-jump, without telling your parents.

Would you:

a that it’s dangerous?

b him not to do it?

c him that you will tell your parents?

d your own idea

decide trytell

warn explain

advise

shopping1 Fill the gaps with a form of the verbs from the box.

Sometimes two verbs are possible.

pack do wait orderattract stand push in goserve put get

1 I get angry if shop assistants talk to each other whilethey’re customers.

2 When I shopping for clothes, I always take a friend with me.

3 I don’t always the shopping; I take it in turns with the people I live with.

4 When people are queueing in a shop, it’s notacceptable for others to .

5 In some shops you can wait for ages trying tosomeone’s attention.

6 With some shops, you can goods over thephone and they deliver them.

7 In supermarkets, shop assistants help you your goods into carrier bags.

8 You have to in a queue for about fifteenminutes in some shops.

2 In groups, make the sentences true for you in yourcountry.

from wordbooster, student’s book unit five p.63

from student’s book unit seven p.82

syntactic1 go to glossary p.142 for numbered items

© Oxford University Press

how to … activate vocabulary

6 Learners can talk about people they know using wordsand phrases they have studied. They can develop theirdiscourse2 around the questions and give more informationabout the people. For example:

1 Read the questionnaire. Notice the phrases in bold.Mark the stress on the words in italics.

2 Write the name of someone you know next to eachquestion, if possible.

3 In small groups, say more about the people youthought of in exercise 2.

from student’s book unit one p.16

b using visualsVisuals are an indispensable aid for dealing with meaning atexercise level and can be used for controlled or free practice.They are common in coursebooks.

controlled practiceWhere learners are asked to describe what they see in a picture,they will be practising target language in a controlled way, asin the exercise below.

from student’s book unit five p.61

freer practiceWhen they are giving a reaction or interpreting pictures, forinstance, then they are using visual materials as an ‘activity’.For example, the exercise above continues in the followingway:

If you provide two paintings and ask learners to say whichthey like / dislike / prefer / are not very keen on, etc. there willbe different views, and there will be interaction and reaction. Ifyou give them a set of pictures of things happening in the streetand ask them to comment on whether they don’t mind / areannoyed / irritated by them, etc. you also have differences ofopinion which will stimulate discussion as well as vocabularyuse.

free and controlled practiceAt a more factual level, you can find pictures which are similarbut different. Put learners in pairs and give each one a picture.Together – and without looking at each other’s picture – theyhave to find the differences between their pictures. This has anelement of both exercise and activity: on the one hand, it maybe an opportunity to practise language in quite a controlledway. On the other, learners will be reacting, agreeing,clarifying, and possibly contradicting each other.

c sorting and ranking activitiesSorting and ranking activities also provide opportunities forpersonalized practice. Putting lexical phrases in a logicalchronological order (as in the activity below) is a useful initialtest of understanding, and the chunks can be memorized andpractised orally. However, they need to be put to use. If you asklearners to think about someone they know (perhaps a familymember) who did some or all of these things, they can adaptthe phrases to describe the chain of events in that person’s life.As with the activities above, what makes something interactivein class is a difference in either opinion, information, orexperience. This provides the incentive for learners to listen toeach other.

from student’s book unit six p.73

Do you know anyone who …

1 … is training to be a doctor or a nurse?

2 … works freelance?

3 … is looking for a job?

4 … works for a multinational company?

5 … is retired?

6 … is unemployed?

7 … works in the computer industry?

8 … runs their own business?

9 … has recently given up their job?

10 … has a job which involves a lot of travelling?

1 Look at the pictures for 30 seconds, then shut yourbook. Tell your partner what everyone’s wearing.

examples There’s a man wearing a suit.There’s a woman wearing jewellery.

suit /su;t/ shorts evening dresstracksuit /"tr&ksu;t/ jewellery /"dZu;@lri/ sandalstrainers /"treIn@z/ T-shirttie /taI/ top

2 Say who looks:

casually dressed smartly dressed scruffy [ /"skrVfi/

trendy elegant

1 Put the stages in a logical order. Compare with apartner.

you look after the baby

you find a job in the computer industry

you carry on working for a few months

you settle down and decide to start a family

you have a baby

you go back to work

you take six months off work

you get married

1

© Oxford University Press

how to … activate vocabulary

think!5

1 Imagine you are going to use the activity below with anintermediate group. Which items would you need to check firstfor meaning and/or pronunciation?

A good friend is moving abroad and gives you his personalpossessions (see below). What would you do with them, andwhy? a give the thing(s) away to friends / relatives, b throwthem away, c sell them, or d keep them for yourself. Put a, b,c, or d.

photo albums of his family and friends (including you)a collection of CDs including classical, jazz, rock, and popa portable TVa fairly new full-length leather coata pair of brand new walking boots, size 43a large collection of paperback novelsa set of 12 encyclopaedias dating from the 1920sa pile of old comicsa large, antique wardrobe

2 Try doing this sorting exercise yourself. Be sure to thinkabout your reasons. When you’ve finished, put yourself in one ofyour learner’s shoes, someone of a different age, sex, andbackground. What do you think their answers would be, andwould their reasons be the same as yours?

go to answer key p.142

d creative activities / role playThere are many simple ways of getting learners to usevocabulary creatively. It can happen at sentence level in quite acontrolled form, and may draw on personal experience. In theactivity below, learners have to match the sentence halves(based on the context of what one might wear to a restaurant).Then they think up their own examples for a different context.

Learners can work in pairs to invent stories using words andphrases from a lexical set they have just studied, or they canintegrate them into short dialogues, or even role plays (see tryit out below).

try it out vocabulary role playI’ve devised a set of role cards based around different topicareas which I use to teach and activate vocabulary. Learners domost of the work themselves and they are very active andinvolved.

1 I write the role cards (see two examples below), in whichI incorporate about half a dozen key words and phrases oneach card. I sometimes highlight these in bold.

2 I give one role card to each pair. They use dictionaries tocheck the meaning and pronunciation of new items; theyhave to understand the items well enough to explain themto others and I make that clear to them. I monitor thisstage carefully and check with pairs that they understandthe items. They learn the information on their cards.

3 Pairs then split up and find a new partner. They have totell them about their holiday, using the new vocabularyand explaining it where necessary, The listener has toreact appropriately with interest and sympathy, andpossibly ask questions. The listener then talks about theirholiday.

4 At the end, we have a round up. Which holidays wouldthey personally enjoy, and why? And then we produce awritten record of the vocabulary from all the role cards.

My learners find it a very enjoyable and challenging way tolearn and use new items.David Scott, Sydney, New South Wales.

Role card 1

You’ve just come back from 6 weeks of trekking in theHimalayas.You had an absolutely fabulous time.Thepeople were extremely welcoming, the food was reallydelicious and the accommodation was basic butcomfortable.And of course, you got a lot of exercise.You now feel very fit and you would recommend thisholiday to anyone.

Role card 2

You’ve just come back from a holiday which was anabsolute nightmare. Five weeks crossing the SimpsonDesert in Australia on a smelly camel.You never want tosee one again.The scenery was really monotonous andthe food you were given by the guides was absolutelyrevolting.What’s more, you got bitten by some nastyinsects because no one told you to bring insectrepellent.The camping equipment provided by theguides was inadequate and the tents were cramped anduncomfortable. Never again.

natural Englishit depends …

1 It depends who a I’m having dinner with this 2 It depends what kind of person.3 It depends why b I’m meeting.4 It depends how well c the weather.5 It depends if /whether d restaurant I’m going to.6 It depends on e I know the person.

f I’m going there straight fromwork or not.

NOT It depends who am I meeting.

Say the complete sentences.

3 You’re going to a wedding and you need to buysomething to wear. With a partner, think of fivesentences beginning It depends …

from student’s book unit five p.61

© Oxford University Press

how to … activate vocabulary

follow upLewis M 1997 Implementing the Lexical Approach LTP (chapters 6

and 7)Lewis M ed 2000 Teaching Collocation LTP (chapters 8 and 9)McCarthy M 1990 Vocabulary Oxford University PressGairns R and Redman S 1986 Working With Words Cambridge University

Press

conclusionIn this chapter, we have looked at:

– what we mean by ‘vocabulary’

– ways vocabulary can be grouped for teaching purposes

– the advantages and disadvantages of ‘exercises’ comparedwith ‘activities’

– a variety of ways in which learners can activate vocabulary.

Most of the example activities can be found in the student’sbook, but these ideas can be adapted for use with materialswhich you have devised yourself. Next time you use avocabulary ‘exercise’ with your learners, consider whether youcan transform it into an activity and use it for productivepractice.

answer keythink!1 p.136 possible answer 1 great, good, terrible, etc.2 disaster, nightmare, mess3 choice, alternative, option4 time, money, effort5 weight, load6 tell, say, judgeThe phrases in 1, 2, 4, and 6 are all included in the intermediatelevel of natural English. We feel that sentence 3 is syntacticallydifficult for intermediate learners and would sound odd alongside therest of their language output. Sentence 5 is both informal andidiomatic, and not, we feel, a priority at this level.

think!4 p.138 possible answer If you highlight and preteach the key vocabulary items to do withcinema going, e.g. subtitles, dubbed, book in advance, etc. or removethem and create a gap fill, you can turn this into an exercise wherelearners focus on the vocabulary.If you ask learners to adapt the sentences to make them true forthem, and to give their reasons, they will have ideas to communicateto others about the sentences. These steps will produce acommunicative vocabulary activity. This is one possible answer; youmay have thought of others.

think!5 p.1411 Unknown items at this level might be:

get rid of, portable, leather, pile / set / collection of … , brandnew, paperback, comics, wardrobe.Pronunciation difficulties might include:album, encyclopaedia, antique, wardrobe.You may also want to point out the phrase keep things foryourself, which may be transparent in meaning but would not be aphrase learners would normally produce themselves.

2 If you suspect that different learners will react differently tothese questions, you have the basis for a good communicativeactivity.

glossary

syntactic the adjectival form of syntax, meaning the way words andphrases are put together to form sentences.

discourse the use of language in speech or writing in order to producemeaning

© Oxford University Press

how to … introduce new language © Oxford University Press

how to … introduce new language

1 Criteria for introducing language successfully2 Ways of introducing new language

a using visualsb using textsc using examplesd test-teach-test

3 Dealing with ‘transparent’ language

1 Criteria for introducing languagesuccessfully

Part of a teacher’s role is to draw learners’ attention to languageareas, principally grammar and lexis, which are new or partlyunfamiliar to them. Traditionally called ‘presentation’, this issometimes now referred to as ‘consciousness raising’, i.e.bringing to conscious awareness features of the language thatlearners may have encountered but not noticed. Whateverapproach is used, we need to remind ourselves that thelanguage we select and decide to focus on is not necessarilywhat our students will learn (although they may learn otherthings). Nevertheless, in selecting and introducing newlanguage, our aim remains the same: to choose an approachthat will create the most favourable conditions for effectivelearning to take place. How can we do this?

We feel there are four criteria which will aid effective learning:

– introduce language economically and clearly

– make the language focus clear

– make the language focus memorable

– use approaches that are appropriate for the group.

Let’s look at these in turn.

introduce language economically and clearlyPerhaps the single most important criterion for success is beingeconomical. If you are introducing new language andconducting your class exclusively, or even largely in English,learners at intermediate level will find this demanding andtiring, and consequently their attention span will be limited.So, keep it brief, and where possible, keep it simple.

Unfortunately, brevity is often in conflict with clarity and truth.If you rush through a language focus in order to save time, yourlearners may be left confused; and if you distil informationdown too much, it may be over-simplified and not sufficientlyaccurate. Obviously there is a balance that needs to be struckhere, and this is a key issue you have to consider, not just at theplanning stage, but throughout the lesson as new languagearises incidentally from other activities.

think!1

A teacher has decided to focus on the meaning and use of thesedegree adverbs: fairly, quite, pretty, rather. Do you think theseexplanations have achieved the right balance of truth andclarity for intermediate level? Are any explanations tooinaccurate or too detailed for this level?

1 Fairly means more or less the same as quite. If somethingis fairly good then it is quite good. They mean thatsomething isn’t very good but it is better than OK. Quite isthe more common of the two words.

2 Quite sometimes mean fairly, but it can also meancompletely or absolutely. So, you can say that a questionis quite difficult or fairly difficult to answer, but you canalso say that an answer is quite wrong, which means it iscompletely and totally wrong. You can’t say that ananswer is fairly wrong.

3 Pretty means the same as very. If a film is prettyinteresting then it is very interesting.

4 Rather is also similar in meaning to quite and fairly, butnot always used in the same way. When we use rather, wesometimes show surprise – something is better than wethought. For example: The food at the hotel was rathergood. = I am a bit surprised perhaps because it’s often notvery good.

go to answer key p.149

If you are conscious of the fact that you sometimes struggle topreserve this balance, one way round the dilemma is to divideup your input into smaller more manageable chunks. A policyof ‘little and often’ is actually one we have generally adopted innatural English; if learners need a particular use of the presentperfect to achieve a specific communicative goal, we maydecide to focus on that use without feeling bound to examineall the other uses of the present perfect at the same time orwithin the same unit (as books sometimes do if they are drivenby a pre-selected grammar syllabus). In his excellent book,How to Teach Grammar, Scott Thornbury also points out thatbeing economical enables the teacher to fulfil another criterionfor successful learning to take place, which is:

The rule of use: teach grammar in order to facilitate the learners’comprehension and production of real language, rather than as an end initself. Always provide opportunities for learners to put the grammar tosome communicative use.

Want to know more? Read How to Teach Grammar by Scott Thornbury (p.153).

go to follow up p.149

make the language focus clearThis is a maxim that is easy to say but more difficult to achieve.How do we know if something is clear? Usually it is quite easyto see after the damage is done and confusion reigns, but howdo we pre-empt this? One way is to try and learn from ourmistakes. If something hasn’t worked, go back over it againand try to identify where and why it might have gone wrong.This can be painful, but it happens to all of us. We don’t expect

our students to learn the language effectively without makingmistakes, so why should we imagine that we can teach thelanguage effectively without occasionally making mistakes?So, try to look upon it as part of the learning process in gettingsomething right. If you are brave enough, you can show thelesson to another teacher you trust for their opinion.

make the language focus memorableIf you want learners to remember something, make it asmemorable for your learners as possible. ‘Chalk and talk’ maybe enough for some learners some of the time, but you are morelikely to be successful if you can engage learners’ interests.That means:

– using your special knowledge of the group to contextualizelanguage within relevant and motivating topics andsituations

– sometimes adapting the topics and situations in thecoursebook you are using

– making as much use of the learners as you can; exploitpersonalities within the group when creating contexts orgiving examples (in a sensitive manner), especially if theycan be humorous; use actual samples of language from thelearners where relevant

– choosing texts and contexts that are in the news orcontemporary and relevant to the group.

However satisfactory your coursebook may be in general terms,this is where you can build in a layer of interest and motivationbeyond anything a book can provide.

use approaches that are appropriate for the groupWhatever approach you use, it has to be appropriate for yourgroup of learners. Age, level, culture, and learning backgroundare all factors that will influence your choice of approach,although it is important to retain an open mind and not simplyassume that one or other approach won’t work. A pop songmay not seem the most appropriate vehicle to present newlanguage to a group of middle-aged businesspeople, but it mayjust turn an ordinary lesson into something quite different andspecial. It is important, therefore, to try out differentapproaches with your learners and monitor how well they arereceived. Ask the learners themselves what they have liked orenjoyed. Some teachers may think this is putting their head onthe block, but if you are teaching adult learners and consultthem in this way, they are unlikely to react negatively to you asa teacher, even if they do respond with a clear preference forone approach you have used over another.

2 Ways of introducing new language

a using visualsIt is obvious that with learners at beginner or elementary level,pictures, realia, diagrams, etc. are immensely useful because:

– they are often the most economical way of dealing with themeaning of new vocabulary items and structures

– if they are clear, they will also free you from the need forsometimes lengthy explanation or concept checking

– they often serve as useful prompts for practice

– they are appealing to most learners, and can make languagemore memorable.

1 Match 1 to 3 with a to c in the natural English box.Where does each pair of phrases go on the line?

natural Englishemotional reactions

1 I can’t stand it. a It annoys /@"nOIz/ me a bit.2 I find it slightly b It doesn’t bother /"bQD@/ me.irritating. /"IrIteItIN/ c It drives me mad.

3 I don’t mind (it).I hate it I love it

With learners of intermediate level onwards, pictures can beparticularly useful diagnostically. If you ask small groups tolabel the items / furniture in a picture of an office, you and theywill quickly be able to identify what they already know andwhat they have yet to learn, and they may be able to help eachother with unknown items. Realia such as timelines1 and clines2

can provide a framework for checking understanding as well asa written record of meaning, as you will see in this example.

from student’s book unit nine p.105

think!2

Which items might you introduce on these clines forintermediate level learners?

1 baby pensioner

2 boiling freezing

3 it’s definitely true it definitely isn’t true

go to answer key p.149

Visuals are very versatile: they provide a focus when you areworking with the whole class from the board or OHP, but areequally valuable to prompt and encourage learner interactionin pair or group work. They often play an important role inestablishing context, which directly or indirectly may clarifymeaning. An example in natural English is where learnershave to talk about some pictures of people meeting for the firsttime, and then match appropriate conversation openers withthe pictures.

go to student's book unit one p.13

timelines1 go to glossary p.149 for numbered items

how to … introduce new language © Oxford University Press

how to … introduce new language

try it out family photosI use a selection of photos of my family going back about sixtyyears, but you could use a contemporary selection only. I findthese sets of photos incredibly useful for teaching or practisinga range of grammatical structures and vocabulary at differentlevels. Learners are often fascinated by the photos (particularlythe old ones) and some classes have brought in their own setsof family photos.

Among other things, I’ve used them for:– physical descriptions (appearance, clothes, etc.)– describing people’s lives (X works for / has worked for /

has been studying …, etc.)– comparing (comparatives, modifiers, superlatives)– narrating (X used to … was doing X before Y, etc.)– deducing (X could be Y’s mother, must have been …)– relative clauses (That’s the uncle who got married three

times / whose wife was a night club singer)One class produced a wall display of their photos which weused often in language practice and speaking activities.Liz, Hungary

b using textsTexts can be written or spoken, and either scripted, authentic,or semi-authentic, i.e. guided or adapted. All texts are apotential source for language work. It may be that the languageyou focus on is in the text itself, e.g. asking learners to find allthe words and phrases relating to money in a news text. Inother cases, you may be asking learners to identify or noticecertain language features, and this may involve some analysisand probably language use. These language features may begrammatical structures, individual words, or lexical phrases.You will find a focus throughout natural English on features ofspoken English in listening texts, and often in reading textstoo, as the articles selected for this level are often in an informalstyle and include spoken or informal written features.

Alternatively, the target language may not be in the text itself,but be prompted by the content of the text, e.g. a text aboutsomeone’s very bad morning leading up to an importantinterview: he forgot to set the alarm, didn’t have a clean shirt,didn’t have time to shave, got on the wrong train, arrived anhour late for the interview, etc. From this context, the teachercan first give examples of what the person should or shouldn’thave done, then move on to elicit further examples from thegroup.

Texts are popular for language focus, and reading texts inparticular can be ‘adult’ in approach. Long texts, however, canbe time-consuming, and it is important that learners are notweighed down by the text itself; if they don’t grasp the gist ofthe text, they will probably be in no mood to focus on languagein it! Written texts have an advantage over recordings in thatlearners have time to focus on and absorb the written word,and for many learners, reading in English is easier thanlistening. If they are to focus on language in recordings, atapescript is essential. You will find the tapescripts andaccompanying exercises in the listening booklet will enableyour learners to focus on spoken English features more easily.

focusing on languageLet’s look at a couple of specific ways of focusing on languagein spoken and written texts.

In this first example, learners have already listened to therecording and been through the different stages to aid theirunderstanding. Look at this extract from the listeningbooklet. Learners are asked to find out about collocation, form,and pronunciation, then compare with the natural English box(see below) which provides a written record of what they havenoticed. They then practise the language.

a Look at the tapescript. Find the words advantage anddisadvantage(s).

b How are they pronounced?

c What preposition often follows these words?

d Which words come before advantage and disadvantage(s)?

from listening booklet exercise 6.3 p.21.

from student’s book unit six p.75

In this second example, learners read three short letters andreplies from a spoof problem page. There is a comprehensioncheck, a brief vocabulary focus, and an opportunity to react tothe text in groups. Learners then move on to a focus on rulesabout adjectives and adverbs: they can infer the rules, using theexamples following each rule, and complete the gaps in therules. They look back at the text to identify the use ofunderlined phrases containing adjectives and adverbs. Finally,they select the correct form in personal questions, and go on touse the forms in production.

natural Englishtalking about advantages anddisadvantages

The main advantage of working in the family business is …Another advantage is …The disadvantage of my situation is …

With a partner, use the phrases to talk about theadvantages and disadvantages of working for a very big/very small company.

1 Read the rules. Fill in the gaps with the wordsadjectives or adverbs.

adjectives and adverbs1 We often use to modify nouns, e.g. a casual

shirt, a big house.

2 We often use to modify verbs, e.g. he walkedcasually, listen carefully, he speaks fast (fast can be anadjective or adverb).

3 We modify certain verbs (e.g. be, seem, look, sound,feel, become, get) with , e.g. that looksinteresting, he seemed angry.

© Oxford University Press

how to … introduce new language

speakers talking about similar periods in their lives, and theycomplete these sentences (see the sample (underlined) answers):

Having first checked their answers, they then answer thefollowing questions which are designed to help them to inferthe difference in use between the past simple and used to + verb.

from student’s book unit three p.41

An opportunity to put the grammar to communicative use isprovided towards the end of the lesson.

A contrastive approach like the one above can be veryeconomical, but if you are trying to clarify a rule without theuse of contrast, you should have a good range of examples sothat learners can discern a clear pattern of use leading to aparticular rule, as in the example below.

3.71 Listen to some people talking about art.

Complete the sentences.

1 When I was at primary school,

and then draw pictures to go with them.

2 When I was a child, painting lessons at

school, but I never liked going round art galleries.

3 When I left school, course at

university, but I didn’t finish it.

4 I remember when I was younger,

all the time. My mum really loved that.

5 When I was in my early twenties,

for six months.

I worked in a museum

my family

I drew pictures of

I started a History of Art

I used to enjoy

we used to write stories

3 Answer the questions.

1 Two of the speakers say used to in their sentences.What do they mean?

2 Look at the other sentences. When is it possibleto say used to + verb in place of the past simple?

3 How do you pronounce used in sentences 1 and 2?Practise saying the sentences.

1 Circle the -ing forms in these sentences. What kindof word comes before -ing?

1 One advantage of speaking English is that ithelps you get a job.

2 You should never give up your job before findinganother one.

3 You should borrow money from friends or familyinstead of going to the bank.

4 We often use to modify past participles,e.g. well made, badly written.

5 We use before certain , e.g. terribly cold, incredibly stupid.

2 In A /B pairs, A read out an underlined phrase inthe article in read on, and B match it with a rule inthe box. Swap roles after five phrases.

example ‘unbelievably lazy ’ = rule 5from student’s book unit five p.60

try it out dictoglossDictogloss (or grammar dictation) is a very useful way ofhighlighting language forms either for revision or introducingstructures. You need a short text (not more than six lines) innatural English, containing at least a couple of examples of thetarget language, e.g. past perfect, passive forms, have sth done.Explain the procedure to the class before you begin.

1 Introduce the topic to stimulate interest, perhaps throughdiscussion.

2 Read the text at natural speed with slight pauses, so thatlearners can get the gist. (You could use a recording.)

3 Re-read / replay the text. This time the learners can notedown key words.

4 In small groups, learners write out the text using theirnotes. The text does not need to be identical, but mustconvey the same ideas, and should aim to be accurate.Monitor, but don’t correct at this stage.

5 Together, learners call out suggestions and decide on oneversion for the teacher to write up, or learners fromdifferent groups take turns to write on the whiteboard.

6 Give them copies of the original text (or write it on theboard). It is important that they identify any differencesand decide together if their version is correct. During thisstage, you will need to focus on any problems arising withthe target language in the text.

Want to know more? Read Grammar Dictation by Ruth Wajnryb fora more detailed description of this approach and a wide range oftexts.

go to follow up p.149

c using examplesTeachers in the past often used to present their learners with arule and then ask them to apply it (known as the grammar-translation approach). A more common practice nowadays is toproceed in the opposite direction: present examples oflanguage use and then ask the learners to infer the rule (orrules) for themselves. A common example of this, usuallyreferred to as ‘guided discovery’, is utilizing the learners’knowledge of one concept in order to help them to work outthe rules of use of a new (or less familiar) concept that is closelyrelated in meaning. For example, in how to … talk about yourpast in unit three, learners work in pairs and tell each otherabout periods in their life based around a series of sentencestems such as, When I was younger … or, When I left school … or,When I first got married … . After this, they listen to some native

© Oxford University Press

from student’s book unit six p.75

The main advantage of a guided discovery approach such asthose above is that learners are not spoon-fed a rule; they haveto work it out for themselves. This means they are involved inthe learning process – active participants and not casualbystanders – and they have to expend more mental effort anddo more mental processing. This extra effort and involvementshould make the learning experience more meaningful to them,and more memorable. When learners are doing this together,there is the added benefit of a speaking activity with a realcommunicative aim and a high degree of motivation. Adultsusually like this approach, because it treats them as intelligenthuman beings and makes use of their adult analyticcapabilities; for younger learners it may be less appropriate.

There are, however, potential drawbacks. If the rule inquestion is particularly ‘messy’, e.g. trying to differentiatesome of the many different ways of expressing the future inEnglish, or if the examples have been stripped of too much oftheir surrounding context, learners may end up with a verypartial and inaccurate rule, or they may be confused andfrustrated. It pays, therefore, to provide as much of the contextas you possibly can, and, of course, to choose your examplescarefully.

think!3

How could you finish each of these sentences to illustrate thedifference in concept between a and b in each case?

1 Show the difference in meaning between the past simpleand used to + verb.a I used to go to the cinema b I went to the cinema

2 Show a difference between present perfect simple andcontinuous.a I’ve painted the room and b I’ve been painting the room and

3 Show the difference between these connectors.a I worked hard at school, although b I worked hard at school whereas

go to answer key p.149

d test-teach-testAlthough the title of this chapter is how to … introduce newlanguage, it is increasingly the case from intermediate levelonwards, that it is difficult to make assumptions about whatlearners will or won’t know. And a glance at any series ofcoursebooks will immediately illustrate that a significantpercentage of the language introduced at intermediate level is,in fact, a refining and development of structures alreadyintroduced at pre-intermediate level; and at upper intermediate

level a very high percentage of language under the spotlighthas already been introduced at intermediate level.

using a diagnostic approachWhen this happens, you can make more use of a diagnosticapproach, i.e. find out how much learners know first, and takethat as the starting point for further development andconsolidation. Psychologically, it also makes good sense to givelearners an opportunity to demonstrate what they actuallyknow and understand first. For some, there are few things moreirritating than to have to sit through a lengthy presentation oflanguage they already know (or think they know). Sometimes,of course, initial testing may demonstrate that the learnersdon’t, in fact, have a very firm grasp of the target language youassumed they might know. If this is the case, you willobviously have to retrace your steps and proceed more slowlyin the ‘teach’ part of the cycle, but you can do so in theknowledge that your learners should now realize why there isa need to examine or revisit this particular area of language.

At intermediate level, test-teach-test is often a suitable way toapproach the present perfect simple. In the example below, anassumption has been made that learners will be familiar withthe form and name of the target structure, having almostcertainly encountered it at pre-intermediate level. The ‘test’ isto find out how well they can distinguish it from the pastsimple in certain contexts.

4 You shouldn’t set up a business without doing amanagement course first.

5 You should apply for jobs immediately afterleaving school or university.

6 The disadvantage of working in only onecompany is that you don’t get enough variety of experience.

We’ve met before, haven’t we? Yes, we have, but I can’t

remember when.

Yes, you were at the college party,

weren’t you?

Have you ever bought anything on the Internet?

Yes, I’ve just ordered some books, actually.

Yes, I booked a flight when I went to Egypt.

2

3

a

a

b

b

Have you been to an Internet café before? Yes, I’ve been to several.

Yes, I started coming here a few weeks ago.

1

a

b

how to … introduce new language© Oxford University Press

how to … introduce new language

from student’s book unit one p.15

Once learners have either confirmed their understanding ornewly arrived at a working hypothesis of the rule, they need anopportunity to test it out (in this instance we have used acorrection exercise), followed by an opportunity to put it tomore communicative use, as below.

from student’s book unit one p.15

3 Dealing with ‘transparent’ languageWhen we search for language that will help our learners toexpress themselves more effectively, we usually assume we arelooking for new and unfamiliar language. But this is notalways the case. With some examples of collocation and lexicalphrases, learners will be familiar with the individual wordsand be able to make sense of the whole, but would not expressthemselves using these phrases unless they had been pointedout. For example, an intermediate learner might wellunderstand that I had a good time at the party means I enjoyed theparty; but it is much more likely that they would use the latter.Have a good / great / bad / awful time is not usually part of theirproductive repertoire, and it deserves to be.

The transparency of this language means that you willprobably not need to devote much time to checking that it isunderstood. The extent to which this is the case will, of course,depend on the learners’ mother tongue. Once it has beenhighlighted, learners need the opportunity to use it. For thisreason, you will find that short practice activities are generallyprovided, as in this example.

from student’s book unit three p.40

think!4

Look at the underlined phrases and structures.a Which would need to be checked in terms of meaning

with your intermediate learners because the meaning isnot obvious or easily guessable?

b Which would your learners understand because they aretransparent, but probably not use?

1 When I got there at 7.30, Richard had left.2 I find it very difficult to speak English on the phone.3 I spend a lot of time sitting in traffic jams.4 I don’t know very much about politics.5 Could you give me a hand with my suitcase?6 I was busy this afternoon – I had my hair done and then I

went shopping.

go to answer key p.149

1 Look at the speech bubbles on p.147 and answerthese questions.

1 Underline the verbs in the questions. What tenseare they?

2 Is the man asking about experiences happeningbefore now?

3 Is he asking when things happened?

4 Look at the woman’s answers. All the a answersare in the present perfect. Why?

5 All the b answers are in the past simple. Why?

6 Circle the words before, ever, and just. Whichword means:

– at any time in your life?

– at a time before this particular occasion /on a previous occasion?

– recently / a short time ago?

2 With a partner, ask questions 1 to 3 but give yourown answers.

1 Complete the sentences about yourself.

2 Work in groups of three. Use the prompts inexercise 1 to talk about yourselves. Ask and answerquestions to find out more.

think of …somewhere interesting you’ve been

I’ve .

someone interesting you’ve met

I’ve .

something unusual you’ve eatenI’ve .

something you’ve just done in your work/studies

I’ve just .

something you’d like to do

I’ve always wanted .

a sport you’ve never done

I’ve never .

natural Englishtalking about memories

I can remember -ing very clearly.

I can just remember -ing .

= I can remember, but only a little

I can’t remember -ing at all.

Listen and complete the sentences. Practise sayingthem.

2 Look at the pictures. Can you remember learningto do these things? Tell a partner, using phrases inthe natural English box.

to tie my shoelaceslearn

to ride a bikelearn

to swimlearn

© Oxford University Press

how to … introduce new language

conclusionIn this chapter, we have discussed:

– the various criteria for introducing new languagesuccessfully

– four ways of introducing new language: using visuals; usingspoken and written texts to focus on language or to prompttarget language; using examples in a ‘guided discovery’approach; and using a diagnostic approach (test-teach-test)to find out what your learners know before introducingnew language

– the importance of focusing on ‘transparent’ language at thislevel, i.e. common phrases which learners will probablyunderstand but not use correctly.

Examples can be found throughout the student’s book in thenatural English boxes.

answer keythink!1 p.143

1 There are shades of difference between the meanings of fairlyand quite, but we feel it is simpler and clearer not to worryabout the difference at this level, and accuracy is not seriouslycompromised.

2 This is truthful but we doubt it is necessary for the learners atthis stage. Truthfulness here could interfere with clarity,simplicity, and understanding.

3 This explanation is over-simplified (pretty is not synonymouswith very even though it can mean that), and it also omits thefact that pretty is largely used in spoken English.

4 There are various nuances of meaning connected with rather.This explanation doesn’t go into detail on this, but it does afair job, in our view, of explaining the general meaning butalso with some sense of the slightly different shade of meaningit often conveys. It isn’t complete, but neither is it inaccurate.

think!2 p.144 possible answers1 toddler; child; teenager / adolescent; adult2 hot; warm; lukewarm; cool; cold3 it’s probably true / it’s likely to be true; it could / might / may

be true; it’s unlikely to be true / probably isn’t true

think!3 p.147 possible answers1a … every week, but I don’t go very often now.1b … twice last week.2a … put the furniture back.2b … I think it’ll look nice when it’s finished.3a … I didn’t do very well in my exams.3b … my brother was incredibly lazy.

think!4 p.1481 (a) With very little context here, learners might think had left

means the same as left. We feel this concept would certainlyneed checking, unless your learners have an obviously parallelstructure in their language.

2 (b) We think many learners will understand this, but not use it.Indeed, in our data, we found they were much more likely tosay For me (it) is very difficult … . It’s worth pointing out thismore natural construction.

3 (b) Again, this is transparent for most learners, but manywould say I pass time … or avoid this construction altogether.

4 (b) The meaning is transparent here, but again, this is notalways how intermediate learners would express the idea. Inour data, learners often said I know (a) little about … .

5 (a) In some languages, there is a similar idiom. However, it ispossible with some language groups that the meaning could beunclear and would need checking.

6 (a) For most intermediate learners, this structure is nottransparent. They are often unaware that it is a kind of passivestructure suggesting a service to be paid for. Learners canconfuse it with active and perfect tenses. It would certainlyneed checking.

glossary

timelines a diagrammatic way to illustrate tenses, using a line(see p.95)

clines a diagrammatic way to illustrate a progression from one endof a spectrum to the other (see p.95)

follow upThornbury S 1999 How to Teach Grammar Longman (worth reading in

its entirety)Carter R, Hughes R, and McCarthy M 2000 Exploring Grammar in Context

Cambridge University PressBatstone R 1994 Grammar Oxford University PressWajnryb R 1990 Grammar Dictation Oxford University PressHarmer J 2001 The Practice of English Language Teaching Part 5

Longman

© Oxford University Press

how to … teach listening © Oxford University Press

how to … teach listening

1 Why is listening difficult?2 Features of natural spoken English3 What type of listening do learners need?4 Developing the listening skill5 Teacher talk6 Frequently asked questions

1 Why is listening difficult?There are certain global problems that can arise in almost anysituation where learners are trying to understand what is beingsaid to them.

– The speaker is talking too fast and the listener doesn’t havetime to process the incoming information. After one or twosentences, the listener is floundering.

– The listener is struggling with the speaker’s pronunciation –words are all strung together, the accent is unfamiliar, thedelivery is unclear, etc.

– The speaker uses language unknown to the listener and thiscauses a breakdown in communication. The listener is nolonger concentrating on the message but thinking, ‘Whatdid that mean?’

In addition to these general problems, there are other morespecific ones.

think!1

Imagine you are living in a foreign country, learning thelanguage. Assume you are intermediate level. Which of thefollowing would you find difficult, and why?

1 On a packed train, three people sitting behind you arechatting; you’re trying to understand them.

2 You’re listening to the words of a pop song.3 You’ve just started a course at a language school. The

director is giving all the students a ten-minute welcomingspeech.

4 Your teacher announces your class is going to have alistening test, hands out the test paper and turns on thetape recorder.

5 You’re sitting with your landlady watching TV. It’s aprogramme about medieval literature which she needs towatch for her degree course.

6 You ask your landlady why there is a transport striketomorrow, and she explains it to you. The reasons aren’tsimple.

go to answer key p.155

the classroom contextA further factor in terms of difficulty for learners is that createdby the classroom context (e.g. situation four above). Apart from

teacher talk and the occasional use of video, most listening isprobably provided by audio cassettes. While these often doprovide interesting and valuable listening material, there areobvious drawbacks:

– absence of body language

– lack of visual context, i.e. learners can’t see where thespeaking is taking place

– lack of opportunity to interact with the speaker by askingthem to repeat or slow down

– poor sound quality or acoustics.

Finally, it can be harder to motivate learners to listen todisembodied voices. However, cassettes are the easiest way toprovide a variety of listening material with a range of differentvoices. In section 4, you’ll find ways of overcoming thedifficulties mentioned.

2 Features of natural spoken EnglishWhen you listen to natural spoken language, whether it isEnglish or any other language, there are many features whichdistinguish it from most forms of written language. Firstly,conversation is very rarely planned; it doesn’t always progressin a clear linear way, as scripted language does. Other speakersin conversation will take it in different directions from thosethe original speaker intended, and there will be frequentdigressions. We also tend to repeat ourselves and use morelanguage than is necessary to convey our ideas. This is not asign of an uneducated or poor speaker, simply a reflection ofthe way people communicate.

think!2

Can you think of other characteristics of natural, informalspeech? Note them down, then compare with the list below.

features of natural speech– discourse is usually unplanned, with frequent digressions– repetition and redundancy (saying more than is necessary

to convey a message)– loosely structured or unfinished sentences– false starts (begin a sentence, abandon it, and start again)– ellipsis (words are omitted, but the meaning is clear, e.g.

Ever been there?) – speaking over one another when there are two or more

people involved – hesitation– use of lubricators and fillers, e.g. well, you know, let me see– reliance on a small number of simple discourse markers1,

e.g. and, so, but– more informal lexis– less emphasis on grammatical accuracy– pronunciation is less ‘clear’ with differences from

phonemic representations in dictionaries

discourse markers1 go to glossary p.155 for numbered items

how to … teach listening

think!3

Look at this extract from a listening passage in the student’sbook. Which features from think!2 can you identify?

S: Sophie; B: BrianS We’ve met before, haven’t we?B Yes, I’m really sorry, I don’t remember your name.S Sophie.B Sophie. That’s right, yeah.S And you’re Brian, aren’t you?B Yep, yep, yep, yeah.S Yeah, yeah. We did the, er, we did that other course last

year …B That’s right, yeah. (Yeah.) It was about this time of year

too, (yeah) actually, wasn’t it, yeah.S And I seem to remember you’d just had a kid, hadn’t you?B Yes, that’s right, yeah, yeah, little girl.S Little girl. How is she?B She’s very well. (hmm) Yes, yes, growing really quickly …

from welcome unit p.6, listening booklet tapescript 0.1 p.2

go to answer key p.155

3 What type of listening do learners need?Is it better to build our learners’ confidence by playingexamples of carefully graded and scripted English? Or shouldwe expose them to the type of authentic English you have justlooked at, which they would have to get used to in the realworld? If our aim is to prepare learners to function effectivelyin an English-speaking environment, it is hard to justify a strictdiet of carefully scripted English which bears littleresemblance to natural, spontaneous speech. This doesn’tmean, however, that we throw our learners in at the deep end,and allow them to become demoralized as they try to cope withauthentic English.

select appropriate listening materialsWe need to provide our learners with listening which is largelyauthentic, but selected and graded so that comprehension isachievable. These are some of the ways in which we can do this.

– Choose speakers with a naturally slow and distinct delivery,as they are easier to follow. Slight differences in accent arenot significant and add to the exposure that learners get.

– One voice is easier to follow than two (and two than three).

– In terms of content, straightforward information, storiestold in chronological order, and predictable conversations,e.g. at a ticket office, make comprehension easier in theearly stages of learning.

– Choose topics which are familiar and relevant to thelearners’ environment. This makes listening easier.

– Being able to see the speaker(s) and their body languagehelps considerably. This is a disadvantage of audio cassetteswhether you are listening to scripted or unscriptedrecordings. (See Teacher talk p.153.)

– Keep recordings short, or play longer recordings in extracts.

Want to know more? Read Teaching the Spoken Language Brown G and

Yule G. go to follow up p.155

So, if we choose listening passages carefully, and adjustcomprehension tasks accordingly, we can prepare learners forreal-life listening with much more confidence. Far from beingdiscouraging, it is immensely satisfying for learners to be ableto feel they can take on a piece of ‘real’ listening and getsomething out of it.

However, this doesn’t exclude a role for scripted material,which can be used to provide a focus on new language, as amodel for guided practice, and to highlight particular featuresof pronunciation.

select a variety of listening materialsAbove all, learners need variety as their listening abilitydevelops. In selecting listening materials, bear these points inmind. Learners need to:

– be prepared for language spoken in a range of locations andsituations

– listen to dialogue as well as monologue

– have short sound bites and gradually develop their ability tofollow longer extracts

– cope with casual conversation along with more animateddiscussion

– be able to follow people of different ages with differentaccents, and so on.

think!4

Which of these listening materials would be most relevant toyour learners, and why?

– a recording of the day’s news– the pop song Wonderful tonight, by Eric Clapton– information about the volume of shipping in The English

Channel– extract from an interview with a Hollywood actor– a very short ghost story– an interview with someone who collects antiques– an amusing anecdote about a teacher the learners know– a phone conversation in which someone is buying an

airline ticket

4 Developing the listening skill

working at macro levelIn most situations in the real world, we don’t listen withoutsome idea of what we are listening to, so it is unrealistic, andcertainly unhelpful, simply to turn on a tape recorder and telllearners to listen to a conversation and answer questions on itat the end. You can prepare your learners for listening invarious ways.

– Set the scene by telling them who is involved and broadlywhat the listening is about, e.g. You are going to hear ahusband and wife discussing their holiday plans. A picture couldperform a similar function.

© Oxford University Press

tune in1 You’re going to listen to Colin on the phone

to a friend, Diana. Listen to the beginning ofthe conversation.

1 Did Colin expect Diana to ring?

2 Does he sound pleased?

how to … teach listening

– You can ask the learners to discuss the topic beforelistening, e.g. learners tell each other how quickly they docertain everyday things (have lunch, have a shower orbath, etc.), before listening to native speakers describinghow quickly they do the same, or similar activities (seeunit nine p.107; listening booklet, tapescript 9.2 p.32).

– Learners can predict the content of what they are going tohear, e.g. learners listen to a conversation in whichsomeone arrives late. Learners have to think of threereasons why people are often late, then listen to find out ifthey guessed correctly (see unit ten p.121; listeningbooklet, tapescript 10.7 p.38). You can also ask learners topredict the attitudes or opinions of people they are going tolisten to if you first provide some background informationabout them.

– You can pre-teach key vocabulary. This not only helps byreducing the burden of unknown lexis, but will probablygive learners a fair idea of the topic of the listening. Wewouldn’t recommend doing this on a large scale though, aslearners have to get used to coping with unknown lexis.Words and phrases which may well be new to intermediatelearners and could be pre-taught, are highlighted in thelesson plans.

– You can preset questions, or let learners preset their ownquestions – assuming, of course, they know the topic of thelistening.

Whichever of these you choose, the aim is broadly similar:

a to provide a framework for learners to make sense of thelistening

b to give as much help as is necessary (but not more thanthat) to ensure the listening will be comprehensible

c to create a reason / motivation for listening.

tune in to the voices and contextIn section 1, we looked at some of the problems involved inlistening to an audio cassette which are not a problem in face-to-face conversation, e.g. the lack of visual clues to assistunderstanding. Moreover, most listening materials contain astrange set of voices which do require some adjustment (aprocess John Field describes as ‘normalisation’) beforeattempting a challenging comprehension task. Thesedifficulties have perhaps been underestimated in teachingmaterials, and that is why we have included tune in as a stepin many of our recordings. This is a short extract, usually fromthe beginning of a recording, which learners listen to beforethey hear the main extract and before doing the comprehensiontask. The aim is to help learners to tune into / adjust to thespeakers’ voices and the context. For example:

from student's book unit eight p.94,

listening booklet tapescript 8.3 p.28

Here, the context is established before listening through somepictures and a description in the instructions. Learners areeased into the listening by a fairly undemanding task whichfocuses on the voices. In addition, they only hear a very shortextract (about ten seconds), just enough to acclimatize to thevoices and context.

keep tasks focusedWhen learners are listening, it is unfair and unrealistic toexpect them to be reading eight, ten, or twelve questions at thesame time, or writing quite lengthy notes on what they arelistening to, or trying to absorb a lot of information which theywill then be expected to regurgitate immediately afterlistening. To keep the focus clearly on the development of thelistening skill, it is, therefore, important to keep the taskrelatively simple and avoid too much reliance on other skills.

– If there are questions, restrict the number and keep themshort.

– If there is a table or grid to fill in, make sure very littlewriting is involved.

– If you are asking learners to recode the information, keep totwo or three main points.

With a listening passage in which an opinion is expressed, thesimplest and arguably the most realistic task is to ask learnersto react. Do they agree or disagree with the opinions theyheard?

set realistic tasksOne of the points made earlier about natural listening is that itcontains a fair amount of repetition and redundancy. Thismeans that listeners can usually allow their attention to drop atcertain points in the listening without necessarily losing any ofthe key information. This fact should be borne in mind whenwe are setting tasks. If a task tests comprehension of everyphrase or sentence in a passage, it probably means the passageitself is fairly unnatural, or we are pushing our learners into alistening habit which is artificial and unhelpful. Different typesof listening material call for different levels of attention – in thecase of announcements, attention may need to be constant andintensive – but for most situations, we need to developpositive, confidence-building listening habits which willpromote a sense that learners can get something out of naturalEnglish without understanding every word or phrase.

give the listeners controlAs with many things in life, confidence often has a lot to dowith feeling in control; and for many learners this is definitelynot something they feel with most classroom listening. You cancounteract this by handing over control of the tape recorder tothe learners. Give one of them the power to stop the tape if theyor others don’t understand, or tell learners to raise their hand orcall out if they want you to stop and replay a section of the tape.This is, after all, a course of action that is often open to us in thereal world – we can sometimes interrupt people and ask themto slow down, repeat something, etc. – but more importantlyperhaps, it may be a necessary stage in the learners’development before they can feel they are fully independentlisteners.

working at micro levelUnderstanding spoken language at a micro level is moreto do with features of pronunciation (sounds, stress2, and

8.3

© Oxford University Press

how to … teach listening

intonation3), recognizing words and phrases within a stream ofspeech, and recognizing cohesive devices which link utterances4,e.g. anyway, actually, soon after that, and indicate the direction ofthe discourse.

dealing with pronunciationPronunciation is often treated in two ways. Firstly, you candeal with it in specific, tailor-made pronunciation activities,e.g. minimal pairs5 exercises, phonemic script6 focuses, indicatingstress patterns in word families, intonation on wh- questions,etc. Secondly, listening extracts themselves can be used to focuson pronunciation features. In natural English, the main sourcefor micro-level understanding is the listening booklet, whereyou will find discrete pronunciation activities on individualsounds, word and sentence stress, and intonation.

You will also find that we have used the unscripted recordingsas a source for noticing specific features of pronunciation innatural speech. For instance, question a below focuses on theweak form of are.

a Look at Diana’s questions which have been underlined.How does she pronounce are? Listen again.Practise saying the questions.

b Look at Diana’s responses. She responds to Colin’s newswith surprise and excitement. Circle the phrases she uses, asin the examples.Practise saying the phrases.

from listening booklet p.29

Tapescripts of unscripted English allow you to focus onfeatures of natural English, whether these are pronunciation,lexis, discourse markers, etc. For too long they have beenburied at the back of coursebooks, and are often under-exploited. In question b above, the focus is on naturalresponses which might otherwise go unnoticed, e.g. Wow! Thatsounds exciting! Hey, that’s great!

You can use scripted listening material to introduce newlanguage and, at the same time, work on your learners’ abilityto recognize the presence (or absence) of words within a streamof speech. Here is an example from a natural English box.

from student's book unit nine p.110

All these discrete exercises focusing on pronunciation and newlanguage contribute to learners’ listening competence, but needto be accompanied by the development of the macro listeningskills discussed earlier.

5 Teacher talkSome of the most valuable and meaningful listening practiceyour learners will get is through listening to you. There areseveral reasons for this.

– Most of the time, there is a real purpose to the listening;learners need to listen to you in order to be able to answera question, carry out an instruction, understand anexplanation, etc.

– There is also a high degree of motivation because they willprobably be more interested in listening to something, e.g. astory told by you (someone they know), than by a strangeron a tape recorder.

– It is very realistic listening practice, as your presence notonly gives learners important visual clues, but also theopportunity to interrupt and ask for repetition, clarification,and so on. This will often be the case in real-life listeningsituations, and it is vital that learners gain practice in askingthe kind of questions they will need to check understandingor appeal for help.

Teacher talk is particularly useful when introducing the topicof a lesson or to provide a speaking model for learners tofollow.

try it out live listeningThink of something that happened to you or someone you knowwhich links in with the theme / topics you are teaching, e.g. inunit two, you could tell learners about a brilliant or disastrousholiday you had. If possible, make it an anecdote that wouldgenerate ideas for learners to produce their own. It should takeabout 60 to 90 seconds to tell.

– Practise the story in your head. Make notes if you like, butdon’t write a script to read aloud; it will be less natural.

– Plan how you’ll get the learners to tune in to the story(could you use photos? souvenirs? travel brochures?postcards?).

– Decide if you need to pre-teach one or two key items.– Decide on a listening task for learners.– Arrange the seating in the classroom in a horseshoe

around you, if possible, to make the atmosphere informal. – Tell the learners they can stop you to ask questions about

your experience or if they don’t understand. – You can record the story as you are telling it so that you

and the learners can refer back to it if necessary.– Do feedback7 at the end on the task you set. – Then give learners a framework and time to think of their

own anecdote to tell others in small groups.

Want to know more? Try activity 1.5 in Listening White G

go to follow up p.155

natural Englishuse of take

How long would it take (you) to do that exercise?It would take (me) about half an hour.

Does it take (you) long to get there?No, not very long.

Listen. Do you hear the words in brackets? Practise the phrases.

© Oxford University Press

how to … teach listening

6 Frequently asked questions

In natural English, recordings are broken down into shortextracts of about twenty seconds to a minute and a half. Youshould be able to replay recordings or parts of them severaltimes if necessary. There are two main reasons for replaying asection:

– The learners want to hear it again. Give them theopportunity to tell you.

– You have good reasons for replaying it: you have evidencethat the learners haven’t understood it (even when theythink they have); you want to focus on a phrase orutterance for language practice; you want to give them thechance to listen and follow the tapescript, etc.

Most importantly though, you need to be aware when they aresaturated. Very short sections of a recording for intensivelanguage focus can easily be replayed several times, butlearners will become exhausted and possibly bored if you playa long recording too many times.

Fine. This should happen sometimes, otherwise there is nochallenge for the learners. However, when you find there is abig gap between what you expect the learners to understandand what they actually understand, alarm bells ring for anyteacher, no matter how experienced they are. This situation canarise the first time you play the recording. If the learners can’tunderstand the gist, you may need to allow more time fortuning in. Simplify the initial task. You could:

– change the initial task slightly to make it easier

– give learners a little more information about the context,then replay it

– let them read the first few lines of tapescript to tune in.

Once you move on to more intensive listening comprehension,you may sense that the problem is unknown language. In thiscase, you could teach one or two relevant phrases, then replaythe recording.

It’s vital to clarify that the learners don’t need to try tounderstand every word. Make it clear that much of the timeyou’re helping them to understand the gist of what they hear(as they do in L1), but that sometimes they need to focus onparticular phrases, especially where they cause acommunication problem.

If the language is known to them, but they are unable todecipher it in natural connected speech, they will need todevelop this ability. Look at the way one teacher tackled it intry it out, opposite. Do you do this with your learners?

try it out helping learners decipher speechLearners listened to recording 8.3 and did the tune in andlisten carefully activities. I then wanted them to pick out theutterance, Are you going to do any travelling while you’re there?from the recording to focus on the language in it later.

1 I replayed the question, asking them to listen for anywords they understood. This was to give a positive feel tothe task. They compared with a partner. I asked them toshout the words out, and wrote the ones they knew on theboard, leaving spaces for missing words.

Are you going – – – travelling – – – there?2 I played it again and they compared with their partner. I

encouraged them to guess and then listen again. 3 The class then called out the missing words and I wrote

them up. The only problem was while. I got them toguess, and they came up with when, which was good.

4 They listened again, and talked about why it was hard(weak forms, contractions, the phrase do any travelling).

5 They practised saying it as on the recording – to helpthem with fluency and to make the connected speechmore memorable.

I usually only do this once in a listening activity.Janet, London

go to listening booklet tapescript 8.3 p.28

We have suggested a stage in the listening section where it isappropriate to look at the tapescript (this is usually at the endof the listening challenge). If the learners usually look andlisten right from the start, however they will find it verydifficult to become self-reliant as listeners, and you won’tknow how much they have understood of the recording.

Learners do find it very satisfying to listen and follow thetapescript. It can often fill in missing pieces of the jigsaw forthem, and each learner may get something different from theactivity. One thing you can do is to focus on a short extractonly; perhaps a few exchanges of dialogue which they canlisten to with the tapescript, then practise with a partner.

Tapescripts are a great resource for self study. You can trainlearners to skim the tapescript for particular types of language(as you’ll see in the listening booklet exercises). If learnershave access to the student's CD, they can listen and follow,repeat, and practise ‘shadow reading’, i.e. listen and read alongwith the speaker.

conclusionIn this chapter, we have looked at:

– the reasons why listening can be difficult, both inside andoutside the classroom

– the features of natural spoken English which distinguish itfrom most written language, and which learners at thislevel often find challenging

How often should I play the recording?

What if they don’t understand it?

When should I use the tapescript?

© Oxford University Press

how to … teach listening

minimal pairs two different phonemes in which the sounds are veryclose or are difficult to distinguish for many learners, e.g. ship /I/sheep /i;/

phonemic script a system of symbols devised to represent eachsingle unit of sound in the pronunciation of spoken English;usually represented in dictionaries following a word entry, e.g.book /bUk/

feedback information given to learners following an activity abouttheir performance

follow up White G 1998 Listening Oxford University Press Ur P 1984 Teaching Listening Comprehension Cambridge University Press Anderson A and Lynch T 1988 Listening Oxford University Press Field J 1998 The Changing Face of Listening in English Teaching

Professional (6 Jan )Brown G and Yule G 1983 Teaching the Spoken Language Cambridge

University Press

– criteria for selecting appropriate materials which shouldhelp build learners’ confidence

– ways of developing the listening skill at a macro level, e.g.giving learners the opportunity to ‘tune in’ to the context,and setting realistic, focused tasks; and at a micro level, i.e.dealing with discrete language items, such as pronunciationor new lexis

– the importance of teacher talk in the classroom.

If you have never used ‘teacher talk’ activities before with yourlearners, do experiment with them. You should find them veryrewarding for both you and your learners.

answer keythink!1 p.150 suggested answers

1 Background noise and the fact that you can’t see the speakers’body language and mouths make understanding extremelydifficult. Eavesdropping is difficult even in L1 in thesecircumstances, and native speakers take time to tune in: thetopic and cultural references may be unfamiliar, people may betalking over each other, using completely natural and ungradedlanguage, private jokes, etc. Perhaps the most difficult contextof all of them.

2 Although motivating, song lyrics can be difficult to followwhere sounds are distorted, and language may be non-standard.

3 Some of the content of the speech will be predictable, whichhelps comprehension, and there is visual support. However, youmay find it hard to concentrate for ten minutes.

4 Most learners will feel varying degrees of nervousness in thissituation, which can inhibit their ability to understand. Youmay feel exposed and worry about the teacher’s disapproval ofyour performance; this may affect your self-esteem.

5 This may well be a topic outside of your experience or interest,and is likely to include a high level of specialized vocabulary.There will be cultural references which may be hard to follow.

6 The explanation may be difficult to follow for cultural reasons,or specific language items may be unfamiliar. (However, youhave the opportunity to interact with your landlady when youdon’t understand, which will be more motivating and less tiringthan listening to a speech.)

think!3 p.151– repetition, e.g. yeah, yep– informal lexis, e.g. kid– hesitation, e.g. er …– false start, e.g. we did the, er, we did that other course …– fillers, e.g. in this text yeah, yeah, and that’s right are partly

used as fillers– overlap, a limited amount with yeah and hmm– pronunciation, e.g. lots of contractions– ellipsis, e.g. the omission of the pronoun and auxiliary verb

(she’s) in Yes, yes, growing really quickly; ... yeah, little girl.

glossary

discourse markers words or phrases which hold phrases andsentences together in speech or writing, e.g. and, so, in otherwords, What’s more, etc.

stress the position within a word, phrase, or sentence on which theemphasis is placed in speech

intonation tone of voice expressing meaning and attitudeutterances the act of expressing something in words

© Oxford University Press

how to … monitor and give feedback

how to … monitor and give feedback

1 What is monitoring, correction, and feedback? Why is itnecessary?

2 Why do learners make errors?3 What sort of errors do learners make?4 When is feedback and correction appropriate?5 Ways of monitoring6 Ways of giving feedback

1 What is monitoring, correction, andfeedback? Why is it necessary?

Monitoring is concerned with observing learners when theyare engaged in pair or group work activities, and feedback isproviding learners with information on their performance.Feedback consists of error correction and praise for whatlearners have achieved (linguistically and communicatively). Itcan also be a platform for further new language input arisingout of the activity.

Monitoring and feedback should also take place duringindividual writing tasks, but this chapter is devotedspecifically to spoken English.

why monitor?Teachers need to monitor for various reasons. Here are two:

– You need to check that learners understand the activity /task and are fully engaged in it.

– You need to notice how learners are performing in order toprovide the most useful feedback.

think!1

Think of three more reasons why you should monitor. Then readthe list. Tick ✓ the ones you thought of, and put an asterisk *by any that are new.

You need to be aware of how learners are interacting witheach other. Noticing good or bad group dynamics is clearlyrelevant to future activities.You need to know when an activity has run its course andshould be brought to an end.You need to be available to deal with learners’ queriesabout language or the activity.Learners expect you to monitor. They see it as animportant part of your responsibility, and if they senseyou aren’t listening to them or that you aren’t interestedin what they have to say, this could have an adverseeffect on their motivation or their relationship with you.With monolingual groups in particular, you need to checkthat learners aren’t using their own languageunnecessarily.

why give feedback?Feedback has been associated largely with error correction, butthat is only one reason for its use. Equally important is theopportunity it gives the teacher to praise learners for effectivelanguage use, and discuss how well they achieved theircommunicative goals and contributed on a personal level. Insome cases, it will lead into a new cycle of language inputarising out of the activity. This input can be some of the mostuseful and memorable language you teach, and many learnersview feedback as one of the most crucial parts of their learningexperience.

2 Why do learners make errors?Some writers distinguish between performance mistakes andcompetence errors. Mistakes are ‘slips’ made due tocarelessness, tiredness, or inattention: the learner knows whathe / she should have said, and is capable of correcting themistake, e.g. I haven’t made my homework … no, sorry, I haven’t donemy homework. Errors, however, occur because the learner hasnot yet learnt the rule which helps them to produce the correctform, e.g. I picked up it. Alternatively, he or she is applying thewrong rule, e.g. She spoke to me friendlily, or doesn’t yet know aspecific item, e.g. The stone smashed the car’s front window, wherethe speaker means windscreen.

In practice, there is clearly a degree of overlap between thetwo. From experience, the teacher will often know whetherlearners are capable of correcting themselves or not, as long asthey are familiar with the learners’ mother tongue andbackground.

Although errors in the past were considered something to beavoided, it is now widely recognized that they are an essentialpart of progress, and that ‘getting it wrong’ is often a step alongthe road to ‘getting it right’.

the causes of errorAs you read the causes of error below, think of examples fromyour own teaching and language learning experience.

– L1 transfer: learners ‘translate’ from their mother tongue.

– False friends are a classic example: librairie (French) lookslike library, but means bookshop.

– Collocations and phrases may come across inaccurately: Idid it by my own; he lost the bus and had to walk.

– Grammatical structures may not transfer directly: I want thatyou go rather than I want you to go. In addition, forms in onelanguage may not convey the same meaning in English: Seha cortado el pelo (Spanish); He’s cut himself his hair should beHe’s had his hair cut.

– All aspects of pronunciation are problematic, e.g. misplacedstress on vocabulary items; inaccurate phoneme transfer;non-standard rhythm and intonation.

– Negative transfer: this can also occur from other languagesthe learner knows, e.g. a Swiss person whose first language

© Oxford University Press

how to … monitor and give feedback

is German, but also speaks French could experienceinterference from both languages when learning English.

– Overgeneralization: learners try to use a rule which doesn’tapply, e.g. adding -ed to an irregular verb form (she taked mybook); or adding -s to make a plural (womans).

– Errors induced by teaching or teaching materials: asteachers we all have to provide simplified rules orexplanations, and occasionally, learners will makeassumptions based on these which turn out to be incorrect.For instance, if you tell your class that weak is the oppositeof strong, learners may assume that if they can say a strongaccent they can also say a weak accent. Such errors are tosome extent inevitable.

– The desire to communicate overrides accuracy: whenlearners become more concerned with conveying theirmessage, many will be less able to monitor the accuracy oftheir language, or will produce non-standard / incorrectforms through communication strategies. This is somethingwhich can be viewed positively as long as it isn’t overused,e.g. using circumlocution to express an unknown word (Ineed a thing for open this wine bottle: a corkscrew) or using amore general word if they don’t know a specific term (tableinstead of desk, ticket for fare, etc.). In such cases, you canpraise your learners for their communicative skill, but alsouse the opportunity to teach them the item they didn’tknow.

3 What sort of errors do learners make?Here are some categories of error in spoken English:

– grammar morphology (e.g. tenses, plurals, etc.) and syntax(e.g. word order, verb patterns, etc.)

– lexis: words and phrases

– style / appropriateness

– discourse organization: the way text is connected

– pronunciation: sounds, stress, rhythm, intonation.

think!2

The extracts below are taken from recordings of intermediatelearners made during the piloting of role plays or extendedspeaking activities in the student’s book. Match thehighlighted errors in bold with the categories above. Each errormay involve more than one category. (Not all errors in theextract are highlighted.)

1 A telephones B, whom he doesn’t know, to invite her to givea talk at the weekend English course.

A Hello?B Hello. Miss Anna Sinclair (1)?A Yes.B This is Franco (2) and I am a student of Oxford Academy.

I’d like to ask you if you could participate to (3) aconference we are going to organize for the school and allof us students.

A Oh, that sounds very interesting, but I don’t know. I haveto check in my agenda (4). When is (5)?

B Well, actually, we have two weekend of conferences. Imean there will be two conferences: one on Saturdayafternoon and one on Sunday afternoon.

A Do you know the time?

B Each will be one and a half hours more or less. It dependson you because if you need more time we can (6). We areplanning now the situation. Let me you inform (7) aboutthe topic.

from unit four (extended speaking) p.55

2 Roberta (Italian) is telling Ceyhan (Turkish) about her hometown; their teacher is listening.

R My town is a very little town near the sea, there isn’tunderground station, but there is the bus, or the taxi, thetaxi are (8) not very cheap, but the bus are (9) cheap, theticket (10), you can buy ticket (11) in the machine near thebus station (12).

Teacher Do you mean the bus station or the bus stop?R No, no … at the bus stop, every stop …C How much are tickets?R In pounds 50 pence, bus ticket for one travel (13). The bus

ticket is very cheap. For call in public call box is necessary(14) the coin or card, you can buy phone card in the postoffice or where tobacco, … or post office or tobacco shop …

from unit eight (extended speaking) p.101

go to answer key p.161

4 When is feedback and correctionappropriate?

It is clearly not sensible to interrupt learners continuously withpraise or correction, so the timing of feedback is important.Praise is often the most suitable starting point for feedback atthe end of an activity. With error correction, you often havethree choices:

– correct it on the spot

– correct it at the end of the activity

– do nothing if it is not a high priority.

If you decide to correct, the timing will be influenced by thesefactors:

– Is correction appropriate at this stage in the lesson? Iflearners are engaged in a free exchange of opinions, it maybe less inhibiting to wait until the end of the activity.During a more controlled or accuracy-based task, correctionmay seem less obtrusive.

– Is it a serious error in the sense that it has caused abreakdown in communication? If so, correction may benecessary for the activity to continue effectively. Can youdeal with it quickly and effectively, or will it take a lot oftime? If the latter, then you should wait till later.

– Is it relevant to one learner or the whole group? If it is onlyrelevant to one person, it may be better to talk to themwhen they are working individually, so that you don’twaste other people’s time.

– Who made the mistake? Some learners want correction andfeedback more than others, and some respond to correctionmore positively than others. In theory, you may feel youshould treat all learners the same, but in practice this is notalways practical or desirable. It is important to be equallyfair and responsive to all your learners, but that doesn’tnecessarily mean dealing with them all in the same way.

© Oxford University Press

make time for feedbackIt is important to build a feedback stage into your lesson after afreer speaking activity, and leave sufficient time for it. We’vemade the mistake ourselves of coming out of class and saying,the learners talked so much, I didn’t have time to do feedback. There isno doubt that many learners expect to complete the cycle oflearning with feedback, and it can turn a good speakingactivity into a valuable learning experience. On occasion it maybe appropriate or necessary to give feedback in the next lesson,or before doing a similar activity – so keep your notes even ifyou run out of time – but bear in mind that it will have moreimpact when it directly follows the activity.

think!3

Your intermediate class are working in small groups on a freerspeaking activity, and you overhear the following exchanges.Would you:

– definitely correct / intervene on the spot?– leave it for now, but come back to it later?– do nothing?

1 A I think it’s not important telephone every day, becauseyou have nothing to say.

B Yes, but your parents like to listen to your voice and toknow everything is OK.

2 A If you want to travel by bus every day, it’s a good ideato buy a … um … a … .

3 A I don’t know the name, but when terrorists take oneperson and ask the family for money, I think the familymust never pay this money.

B And if the terrorist kill this person?A I know it’s terrible, but …

4 A What do people wear to the theatre?B Well, they mustn’t wear smart clothes.A Really? In my country it’s the opposite; you have to

wear smart clothes.B No, I mean you can wear what you want.

go to answer key p.161

5 Ways of monitoring

class managementWhen you monitor a student-centred activity, you need to be asunobtrusive as possible.

– If you walk round the room and stand directly in front of apair or group of learners, they will soon direct theircomments at you and start asking you questions. Standingbehind learners is more sensible, as it allows you to hearwhat is being said without becoming the centre of attentionand without having eye contact with learners. Yourpresence may even go unnoticed.

– Standing up makes you very visible, so we wouldrecommend sitting down at least part of the time. If theclassroom layout allows it, you can position your chairwhere you are able to see and hear something from anumber of pairs / groups in the room, then you can moveelsewhere to monitor other groups (with a large class).

– Try not to attach yourself too closely to one group, or youmay not realize that the rest of the class have finished theactivity and are now doing nothing. Sitting in or near thecentre of the room (where you can see and hear mostthings) minimizes this problem, and enables you to homein on a specific pair or group at a strategic moment and pickup the most relevant and useful contributions fromdifferent learners in the class. In practice, of course, it maybe quite impossible to hear everything that is said,especially if the activity has been successful and generated alot of noise. The important thing, however, in terms ofclassroom management, is that the group feel you havemonitored fairly and closely.

making notesWhat do you actually do while you are monitoring? Obviously,you need to be available to help if necessary. For the rest of thetime, many teachers like to jot things down for later feedback.We find it helpful to do this by dividing the page into differentsections. First you need a section for praise, e.g. noting downeffective use of language and/or effective communicationstrategies. Then a section devoted to errors, which can befurther sub-divided into ‘grammar’, ‘vocabulary’, and‘pronunciation’. You could also consider one further section forerrors causing a breakdown in communication. In this teacher'sbook in each extended speaking lesson plan, you'll find afeedback checklist which you can photocopy and use formaking notes.

There are several advantages to organizing your comments inthis way.

– You can see at a glance whether you are paying equalattention to positive and corrective feedback.

– With errors, you will notice whether your comments tendto pick up one type of mistake rather than another. And ifthat is the case, is it because your learners are more proneto one type of error than another, or is it a reflection of youas a teacher being more conscious of and sensitive to certaintypes of error? We have found this technique helps us notto become too narrowly focused; one area that can getneglected at this stage is pronunciation.

– Feedback is more systematic. If you jot things downrandomly, you are more likely to feed them back randomly.Writing them down in clear categories tends to avoid this;you can provide lexical feedback in one chunk andpronunciation feedback in another.

– Where one category seems to have the most useful andrelevant points, it makes sense to restrict your comments tothe one area. Learners may find this more memorable.

In certain activities, e.g. presentations, you may want to makeindividual notes for each learner. You can then either givepersonalized feedback, or even, if appropriate, give eachlearner a copy of your notes to look at and discuss with youlater. This may be useful if you are short of time, and learnersusually appreciate the personal attention.

Keeping your monitoring notes will provide a ‘real’ on-goingrecord of how your learners are performing in freer spokenEnglish activities. It’s not a complete record but is arguably oneof the most useful ways to make informal assessments of theirprogress.

how to … monitor and give feedback © Oxford University Press

how to … monitor and give feedback

using a tape or video recorderIf these resources are available, you can use them to introducesome variety into monitoring. Some learners are nervous thefirst time they are recorded, especially using video, but theysoon get used to it and most enjoy being able to see and/orlisten to themselves. It certainly makes an activity moreexhilarating and potentially more memorable. Short recordingscan be played back on the spot, but longer recordings do needto be watched and/or listened to after the lesson, so you canmake notes on the learners’ performance and select shortinteresting extracts to play back. (Don’t abuse this luxury byplaying back over-long sections.) You need to remember thatthis can be a sensitive area, so make sure before you playsomething back that there is nothing which might potentiallyembarrass any of the learners in the class. With video, ask themfirst if they are happy for it to be shown.

try it outPeer monitoring and feedback is another variation to try withyour class, but you should only consider it when they know eachother reasonably well. It hands control to the learners andinvolves them fully in making the activity more effective.

1 Look at the two role cards on p.144 and p.148.2 Divide the class into threes. Student C in each group is

going to monitor the activity, using the role card below.3 When the role play has finished, A and B should say how

they felt it went; student C should then give theirfeedback. Monitor the groups to see how effectively thisis working.

4 Change roles: either A or B should take student C’s role.Repeat the procedure twice.

Learners often need to do this type of feedback two or threetimes before they can do it effectively. Repeating the same roleplay with different roles does mean that learners have a chanceto improve.Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work very well the first time.To train learners how to do it, you could play the whole group arecording of a pair from a different class doing a similar type ofrole play, and give them questions to guide them.

student C

You are going to listen to the phone conversation roleplay. Afterwards you will talk to students A and B abouthow it went.While listening to the conversation, thinkabout the following:

– Does each person express their ideas clearly ingeneral?

– Are there any problems or areas of confusion? If so,what?

– Is there any way the conversation can be made better?How?

from student’s book pairwork p.144 and p.148

think!4

Look at the extract from our data of learners doing the extendedspeaking activity in unit ten. (Learners were not pre-taught anylanguage.)

a What would you praise?b Can you see one or two particular areas you would

correct?c Is there one particular language point you would teach?

D: Question 2 – Women are much better liars than men –definitely.

A: Agree.C: No doubt.B: I disagree. I’m a girl but I’m not good for a liar.A: But think in general, all woman tell lies.C: But the mans tell lies too.A: But the woman are better telling lies.C: It’s true in your case?A: I tell white lies. It depends of …C: The basic situation to this point is when the woman or

man are … unfaithful. This is the best situation. I thinkthe woman is very good ... because in this situation thewoman don’t feel guilty about ... in general the man feelmore guilty.

A: No, I’m disagree with you.B: I think when woman make a liar they didn’t feel nervous

or embarrasses or face become red. If men become liar,they feel nervous.

A: OK …(They later go on to discuss the next topic.)C: Number three – When men and women suffer from the

same illness, men take twice as long off work. Three is OK.A: I’m agree with this.B: I disagree.D: Why?B: Because I reckon that one man and one woman both got

ill … the woman take the medicine and lie down on thebed, but the man don’t care about that. Maybe they goout they go to their job. I think the man is … I thinkwoman take longer.

D: I disagree.A: We are completely disagree with you.C: I reckon that the man in general are more hungry for

attention. You know like a kid. When the man is ill, it is agood opportunity to look for attention.

D: When a man get illness, they act like children.B: I think it depend on the personality.

from student's book unit ten (extended speaking) p.122

go to answer key p.161

© Oxford University Press

© Oxford University Presshow to … monitor and give feedback

6 Ways of giving feedbackOnce you have collected and selected your data, you’ll need togive feedback. It is a good idea to vary the way you give it sothat learners stay interested. Making it game-like orcompetitive introduces an element of fun.

think!5

Read the possible procedures below. Put a tick ✓ for the onesyou use, an asterisk * for those you would like to try, and across ✗ if you don’t think they are suitable for your learners.

Give learners a minute to think. What were they pleasedabout in the speaking activity they just did? Is there anysingle area they could have done better? Then theycompare in their groups, or tell you.Start by giving the class some positive feedback on whatthe learners achieved, communicatively or linguistically.Praise particular things they said that were stimulating,interesting, risk-taking, or funny. If you then move on tocorrection, you will have created a positive climate inwhich to approach it.Use your board. Write up a mixture of correct andincorrect language that you noted down (up to about tenshort examples). Ask learners either individually or inpairs to identify the ones which are right, and correct therest. Go over them as a class together. Be sure to allowplenty of time for this important stage. Some teachersdeal with the errors anonymously; others ask learners ifthey can identify their own errors, and then give them achance to correct themselves before anyone else does.Experiment to see which approach works best with yourgroups.You can also use an OHT for the language feedback. If youprefer, provide learners with a photocopied handout towork from. This might mean delaying feedback to thefollowing lesson though, which could be less motivating.On the other hand, it may mean that the speaking activityfinishes on a ‘high’, and they are able to look at thelanguage afresh in the next lesson.If your learners have taped themselves, you could listento the recordings, then select short, useful extracts fromthem for feedback. You could also transcribe shortpassages for them to look at (or ask them to do it). Thereis no denying, however, that this can be very time-consuming on your part, and might be most useful forone-to-one teaching or very small groups only.

try it out gamblers anonymousI’ve done this with classes where there is no taboo orrestriction on the concept of gambling, but it wouldn’t besuitable in every teaching context.To make a language feedback exercise more fun, divide theclass into small groups, and tell them they are going to beton whether they have got each sentence right. (If yourexercise has a mix of correct / incorrect sentences, thenobviously they have to identify the correct ones and changethe others.)Each group starts with 100 points, and they bet each time ona sentence. They can bet 10, 20, or 30 points. If they arecorrect, they add the number of points to the total, but ifthey lose, they deduct the points they have bet. If you want

to make it more demanding, tell them that if they’re wrong,they lose twice the number of points they have bet.I’ve also used this with potentially quite dull gap-fillexercises to liven them up – and it certainly does. It worksfor me with all ages.Gil, Rio de Janeiro

try it out self-correctionIf you have facilities for learners to record themselves, e.g. alanguage laboratory or study centre, you can try this self-correction activity. It is surprisingly motivating!

1 For homework, learners should think up a story / anecdote(about two to three minutes) guided by a model you givethem, e.g. something that happened in childhood, at aparty or wedding. They shouldn’t write it down.

2 In class (or a language laboratory), learners record theirstory on a tape individually. (This can be done with apartner listening.)

3 They listen to their recording and make a quickevaluation: what went well? what might they improve? (Ifthey are really unhappy with the recording, they can do itonce more.)

4 They listen again and write a transcript of what they said.As they write, they can make any changes to improve it interms of accuracy, expression, or organization. They canalso change it from a spoken text into a written one, i.e.omit spoken phrases such as anyway, the thing was, etc.They can also ask you for help.

5 When they are satisfied, they give it to you. Hand it backin the next lesson with positive comments and any furthercorrections.

6 They memorize their final version and tell it to anotherlearner.

Francesca, Italy

conclusionIn this chapter, we have discussed:

– the importance of monitoring spoken English and givingfeedback

– why learners make errors

– common causes and categories of error

– ways of monitoring student activities and recording yourfindings

– when and how to correct

– ways of conducting class feedback, including recording yourlearners, and peer monitoring and feedback.

You can select ideas which will suit your class, but we hopeyou will also try some new ideas to introduce variety and makefeedback an important and memorable learning experience.Your learners will welcome some correction, but rememberhow important praise is to them.

how to … monitor and give feedback © Oxford University Press

answer keythink!2 p.157

1 style: normally we say Miss Sinclair or Anna Sinclair. It wouldalso be more likely, but not essential, to say Is that MissSinclair? Perhaps a further style error.

2 style: he needs to give his full name, e.g. My name is … ; youwouldn’t normally use this is to a stranger.

3 lexical: wrong preposition, and it would be rather formal. Morecommon is take part in or give a talk at.

4 lexical: it should be diary.5 syntax: it should be When is it?6 a discourse problem: the speaker is trying to use ellipsis and it

doesn’t work. It should be if you need more time, we canprovide it.

7 style (too formal) and error of syntax: the word order is wrong.8 and 9 morphology : the nouns should be plural.

10 and 11 morphology: these should be plural nouns too.12 lexical: the speaker means bus stop.13 lexical: it should be journey not travel.14 syntax: the word order is wrong. It could be a lexical error as

well. You need would be more natural.

think!3 p.158 possible answers1 We wouldn’t correct important to telephone on the spot;

learners are engaged and communicating. Afterwards, however,there is a useful point to make about adjectives commonlyfollowed by a full infinitive: important / useful / happy /necessary to do… .

2 In this situation the learner is struggling to find the rightword. If their group can’t supply it, we would intervene andgive the word travel card, particularly if they will need theword again in the activity.

3 Here we would note that it would be useful to teach the itemstake sb hostage and demand a ransom afterwards. The learnersunderstand each other and there is no communicationbreakdown at this stage. We wouldn’t correct the minor errors,e.g. the speaker has either omitted a plural form on terrorist orthird person -s on kill.

4 There is a communication breakdown here: speaker B is clearlyconfusing mustn’t and don’t have to. In this case, you couldintervene and correct on the spot. You should monitor for thiserror amongst other groups as it may be a common error, andyou would therefore need to deal with it at the end in classfeedback.

think!4 p.159a We would praise the general communication in this activity.

Learners are expressing ideas quite clearly (and in placestaking risks), responding naturally to each other, and reallylistening to each other. There is good use of expressions, e.g.act like children, hungry for attention, tell white lies.

b A consistent error throughout is that learners don’t seem toknow how to use zero article + plural noun for things ingeneral, e.g. men are … women tend to be …, so you haveerrors like I think woman take longer / when the man is ill / ingeneral the man feel more guilty. This is something that ideallycould be anticipated and pre-taught.They also misuse the verb agree, e.g. I’m agree / I’m disagree:this is almost certainly L1 translation.

c A point we would teach in feedback is use of (tell a) lie / (bea) liar: I’m not a very good liar / I’m not very good at tellinglies. (Errors include make a liar / become liar / better tellinglies.)You could also feed in other ways of making generalizations:Generally … Men tend to ... .

follow upThornbury S 1999 How to Teach Grammar Pearson Education Ltd

(chapter 7)Swan M and Smith B eds 2001 Learner English Cambridge University

PressNolasco R and Nolasco L 1987 Conversation Oxford University Press

(chapter 5: Feedback)Bartram B and Walton R 1991 Correction: A Positive Approach to

Language Mistakes LTP PublicationsTanner R and Green C 1998 Tasks for Teacher Education Pearson

Education (unit 12: We all make mistakes)Ur P 1996 A Course in Language Teaching Cambridge University Press

(module 17: Giving feedback)

1 Types of free speaking activity2 What is a good speaking activity?3 How can you help to make activities successful?4 Role play issues

1 Types of free speaking activityFree speaking activities may be designed with an underlyinglinguistic aim, but their first priority is to promote fluencythrough an activity in which learners have to achieve acommunicative goal. There are many different types of freespeaking activity; here is a selection of the most common. Asyou read, try to think of an example of each one from your ownteaching experience.

planning and creating activities An example is the extended speaking activity in unit two,where learners have to decide on the location, size, andfacilities of a holiday complex. Another activity with a creativeend product might be planning and producing anadvertisement or a radio news report.

go to student’s book unit two pp.30–31

problem-solving activitiesA common form of these are case studies, e.g. learners readabout the different choices facing a person who has recentlybeen made redundant, or the choices facing a working couplewho have just had a baby, as in unit six. Their task is to evaluatethe different courses of action suggested, and decide on the bestone. A shorter activity might involve two learners with busydiaries who are trying to find a time when they can meet.

go to student’s book unit six pp.78–79

describing activities (people, places, events)Learners may have to describe their home town to someonewho has never been there, or describe their best friend andwhy they like them. In unit eleven, learners describe a picture.The description might be part of another more extendedactivity, for example, a role play in a police station wheresomeone has to describe something that was stolen from them.

go to student’s book unit eleven pp.130–131

narratingTypical activities include learners telling the story of a book orfilm, or recalling an anecdote about something that happenedto them or someone they know. Learners can also create theirown storylines from ideas and pictures, for example in uniteleven, learners develop ideas about a man’s life from photos.

go to student’s book unit eleven p.133

discussionThis takes many forms, but often involves learners in preparingthe pros and cons of a particular statement, e.g. Does televisionhave a positive influence on children’s education?Questionnaires are also commonly used to promote discussion,as in the questionnaire on men and women in unit ten.

go to student’s book unit ten p.122

role playMany classroom role plays are concerned with serviceencounters, e.g. buying something in a shop, complaining in ahotel, phoning a school or college for information, etc. Moreelaborate role plays might be job interviews, celebrityinterviews, or business meetings.

go to student’s book (unit twelve) pairwork p.145 and 147

presentationsThese sometimes form part of an activity, e.g. after a planningactivity, each group has to present their results to the rest of theclass, as in the extended speaking activity in unit two. Or itcan be the principal part of an activity, e.g. learners have toprepare a five-minute talk on a topic they have researched.

go to student’s book unit two p.31

gamesGuessing games are very common, e.g. 20 Questions, as areboard games, e.g. conversation topics set out in a grid.

Many activities fall into more than one category, e.g. aproblem-solving activity will involve group discussion; a roleplay may include description, etc.

think!1

Look at these free speaking activities. Which category orcategories above would you put them in?

a Using pictures and information, learners (in small groups)choose members of a new band, and decide on their imageand musical style. They then tell the rest of the class whatthey have decided and why.

b Learners interview a partner for a voluntary job, and arethen interviewed themselves for a different job. At theend, the pairs evaluate the two interviews.

c Learners read a case study about a man who borrowedmoney from his best friend and didn’t pay him back. Theydiscuss who was responsible and how the problems couldhave been avoided.

go to answer key p.167

how to … do free speaking

how to … do free speaking © Oxford University Press

expose learners to a wide range of activitiesDifferent activities make different demands on the learners, soit is vital that the class is exposed to a wide range of activitytypes for all-round language and skills development. Whateveryour students’ reasons for learning English, most adults willrecognize the need to be able to cope in a range of situations,and to accomplish various communicative tasks, e.g. exchangeinformation, give simple instructions, sequence chronologicalevents, make comparisons between things, marshal thoughtsand opinions, etc.

Variety is also important in order to take into account thedifferent personalities and interests within the group. Somelearners really enjoy discussion of social issues; others havelittle to say. Some learners find role play stimulating and fun;others feel uncomfortable unless the territory is very familiar(in general it should be). You will need to weigh up these likesand dislikes so that speaking activities go as far as possibletowards meeting the needs and preferences of the group as awhole.

2 What is a good speaking activity?

think!2

Think of a free speaking activity that is generally successfulwith your learners. (It could be something you have done withdifferent groups, and possibly at different levels.) Now read thesection below. Which of the features mentioned does youractivity contain?

For a speaking activity to be consistently successful withdifferent groups of learners, it should contain certain features:

– Learners need to be interested in the content / topic of theactivity and feel they have something to contribute to it. Itdoesn’t have to be a subject for which they have a burningpassion, but it does need to be one they can all relate to,and is not too abstract or removed from their experience.

– The group needs to feel comfortable about what they haveto do and to see the aims of the activity as both relevant andappropriate. Learners have a more positive attitude towardsactivities when they are clear about what they are doingand why.

– The activity benefits from having a very clear goal oroutcome – for example, reaching a consensus decision orproducing a document co-operatively.

– The activity should be challenging but achievable. Iflearners lack the necessary language to do an activity, it willbe frustrating for them; if they are not linguisticallychallenged, it may be enjoyable but not truly satisfying. Tobe successful, therefore, the activity itself should belanguage rich. It should place demands on the learners thatwill push them to the limits of their language ability, andwon’t allow them to fall back on a very narrow use ofstructure and expression. In other words, a successfulactivity encourages learners to use new language andexperiment.

– The activity itself should be designed so that everyone hasan equal opportunity to contribute. That is not to say thateveryone will (or even should) participate to the samedegree. In any classroom you will have a range of

personalities; some will be naturally more extrovert andlikely to contribute more than others. The topic will alsoinfluence how much each person has to say. The crucialpoint is to minimize the possibility of it becomingdominated by one or two people in the group. In practice,this isn’t easy, and it may be the teacher who can influencethis more than the activity itself, either by the way they setup the activity in the first place, or in the way they manageit once it is underway. Every teacher comes across theoccasional learner who is extremely shy, and in that case, aminimal contribution, perhaps with a sympathetic partner,may be the most you can hope to achieve.

think!3

This extract comes from recordings made during the piloting ofthe extended speaking activity in unit six. Three learners haveread the case study and had time to think individually about theadvantages and disadvantages of the second solution.

a Do you feel the learners are comfortable with the topicand the activity seems relevant?

b Would you say this is a language-rich activity for theselearners, and that they are communicating effectively?

c Do the participants contribute more or less equally? Ifnot, do you think it is a problem?

A OK, number 2. I think that is a good idea. He can be athome and, er, he can do some DIY ... I think he can this dobetter than his wife.

B But when they have a baby the living cost will be more, soI’m not sure the salary is enough for each.

A Oh, but his wife have a good job in the city.

B Yes, but maybe it’s not enough.

C It is not answer that Rowena could go back to her job afterchildren born.

A Why not?

C Same, same job. I think … she have a problem to get thesame job.

A No, but I think the insurance in the UK is very good formothers … she can take a holiday for the birth.

C But after that?

A Yes, and afterwards she can go back to the job. InSwitzerland it’s different, we haven’t any insurance forthat.

B Hmm … but the child is just baby so she need mother.

A I think for the wife it could be a very good point to workand to do anything in the business. She’s maybe happywith, with her job and she will, er, do a career.

B I agree with you the point, but how about the baby?

C If her salary is enough for his family, Rowena should goback to her job and he, Andrew should take care of thebaby and he should look for, look for his job using oneyear. One or two years …

A Oh, after one or two years?

2 Rowena could go back to work after the baby is bornand be the main breadwinner. Andrew could stay athome and look after the baby.

© Oxford University Press how to … do free speaking

how to … do free speaking

C Yeah, long thinking time. It’s good timing for the baby.

A For a new orientation, for, for looking for a new job.

C Yes, I think if the salary is enough for their family. Heshould spend a lot time to decide his job.

A They move probably the problem because they wouldhave a second baby and I don’t know what then.(laughter)

NB These learners have had no language input for thisactivity; this recording was made in the research stage of thecourse, before the units were written.

from student's book unit six pp.78–79

go to answer key p.167

3 How can you help to make activitiessuccessful?

In free speaking activities you are handing over much of thecontrol to your learners, and no matter how hard you haveworked at facilitating the activity, there will be times when itdoesn’t work out in the way you planned, or the class simplyisn’t ‘in the mood’. Nevertheless, there are various things youcan do as a teacher to influence a speaking activity and increasethe likelihood of it being successful.

a prepare learners by giving them the necessary language

b set the activity up clearly

c build in time for thinking, planning, and rehearsal

d manage the activity effectively once it is underway

Let’s look at these in turn.

a prepare learners by giving them the necessarylanguage

In natural English, learners will have studied much of thelanguage they need for the role plays and extended speakingactivities earlier in the unit. They are also given theopportunity to look back at the language they have alreadystudied before beginning the speaking activity. However,when you are devising your own speaking activities, it will beyour job to decide what language the learners will need inorder to do the activity successfully. With some activities, youwill find it easy to anticipate useful language that you can pre-teach; in others, it may be unpredictable. In this case, there aretwo useful strategies you can use.

– The first is to anticipate and pre-teach the language youthink might be useful and/or necessary for the task.However, when you do the activity, monitor it carefully andtake notes. (If the facilities are available, you could recordyour learners doing the activity in small groups.) At the endyou will need to give feedback, and you may well find youare introducing relevant new language arising out of theactivity that you hadn’t anticipated. This is a very usefulsource of data for you, and if you keep a record of it withthe material you used, you will know what to pre-teachnext time you do the same activity.

– Secondly, you could use the try it out idea opposite.

try it out a practice runDo a ‘practice run’ of the activity with another teacher. It ismuch better if you can record it, then you will be able toanalyze the language used and will therefore be in a betterposition to select language which is clearly useful for theactivity. But remember the significant gap between yourEnglish, and your learners’ English, and only select languagewhich is relevant to their level.

Alternatively, if you are doing the same activity with severallevels, do it with the higher level group first, and note downuseful language as an achievable target for lower level groups.

b set the activity up clearlyDo a warmer or some kind of preparation activity at thebeginning of the class. Many groups only meet up once ortwice a week, so don’t expect your learners to arrive in classand go straight into an extended speaking activity; it may betwo or three days, or even a week since they last spoke inEnglish. Start with one or two activities to get them operatingin English, and to get them in the mood.

Group size and the composition of the group can be a veryimportant factor in the success of an activity. Consider exactlyhow you will divide the class in order to achieve the best groupdynamics and to avoid one member of a group dominating toomuch. It sometimes helps to put the most dominant learnerstogether in one group.

At the beginning of the activity, tell the learners what they’regoing to do. In the early stages of a course, you may also needor want to explain why you are asking them to do something.Decide exactly what and how much you need to tell them ateach stage. This is a difficult balance: explaining everythingbefore they start could be an information overload and may notmean very much; say too little, and your learners may feel theyare operating in the dark.

c build in time for thinking, planning, andrehearsal

think!4

Imagine you are living in another country and learning thelanguage. You’re at about intermediate level. Look at these twosituations. Which of the things below would you do in eachsituation?

1 Your teacher tells you that tomorrow you have to give ashort talk (about five minutes) to the rest of the classabout public transport in your country.

2 At your accommodation you have a number of problems,including a faulty shower and a horrible smell in acupboard in your room. You also want to delay payingyour accommodation fees for a few days until your moneyarrives from home. You are going to talk to your landlordor landlady about these things.

– do it completely unplanned and unrehearsed– plan what to say and in what order– write some notes– check vocabulary you don’t know in a dictionary– ask a friend / native speaker / teacher for words and

phrases

© Oxford University Press

how to … do free speaking

– practise in your head– rehearse what you’re going to say with a friend / native

speaker / teacher– record what you’re going to say onto a tape and then

listen to it– other?

Thinking and planning time is now much more widelyrecognized as a useful language learning strategy both for theclassroom and the real world. During the piloting of theextended speaking activities, our data showed that learnersdid benefit considerably from planning and rehearsal time. Asa result, we included the Think! instruction at relevant points inthe units, and staged the role plays and extended speakingactivities to include a number of preparation activities. We havefound that these help to reduce some of the following problemsthat all teachers will have experienced at some point in theirteaching:

– learners feeling inhibited about speaking in English

– learners having nothing to say in discussion activities

– learners experiencing frustration at not being able toexpress ideas satisfactorily, and quite often, resorting to themother tongue.

Thinking time helps learners to feel more in control of whatthey have to do – crucial for the psychological well-being ofmost adults – and this in turn builds confidence. It won’t solveall your problems, but it is one way of making a challengingtask more achievable. Conversely, of course, if you want tomake an activity more difficult or challenging, you can do it bylimiting the thinking time!

preparing for activitiesLearners can prepare for activities in a number of ways.

– They can think up ideas and consider reasons, examples, orjustifications for what they plan to say. This allows them toextend their interactions considerably and frees them torespond more spontaneously.

– They can think about how to express the more complexideas, and if necessary find the words or phrases they don’tknow (by using a dictionary, other learners, or the teacher).

– They can brainstorm or prepare ideas with a partner.

– In a role play, they can talk through the role they are goingto play with a learner who will play the same role. They candiscuss / prepare what they are going to say.

– They can rehearse more challenging activities with apartner before doing a more public performance to a group,e.g. recounting an anecdote.

How much preparation time learners need for an activity willclearly depend on the nature of the task. For example, if youwant them to think about how they would react in a number ofeveryday situations, they may only need a minute. However,the planning and rehearsal which is necessary in order to makea success of an extended speaking activity (like those innatural English) will take more time. Clearly, only part of thatpreparation will be silent thinking time.

A final point about devising your own speaking activities isthat learners usually benefit from having a clear framework orstructure to help their preparation. You will find these

throughout natural English in it’s your turn! and in all theextended speaking activities.

go to student’s book unit seven p.87

d manage the activity effectively once it isunder way

It is obviously important to check that learners are doing theactivity appropriately. Move briefly round all the pairs / groupsto check this is happening, before embarking on more detailedmonitoring and data collection. If you realize that the majorityof the class have not fully understood the instructions and sothe activity is not proceeding correctly, it is better to stop theactivity as soon as possible and clarify the instructions to thewhole class rather than trying to explain it to each group inturn. An important issue for you is how you manage their time;allow too little time for an activity and learners may becomefrustrated, allow too much time and the lesson losesmomentum. If you give groups a time limit and regular timechecks, it can help them to use their time effectively, and theywill know when to wind down. If a pair or group finishesearly, you will need to have a short activity up your sleeve tokeep them busy, or ask them to listen to other groups. At theend, round up the activity with feedback.

Want to know more? Go to how to … monitor and give feedbackpp.156–161.

monitoring the use of L1For teachers with monolingual groups, the use of the mothertongue is obviously a concern in free speaking activities. Is anyuse of the mother tongue justifiable, or is it better to impose aveto on its use? And if it is justifiable, how much use isacceptable?

Your approach with your learners may be either consultative orauthoritative, depending on the context.

– Many teachers find it works to have a rational discussionwith their groups about when use of the mother tongue isacceptable, and then agree certain ‘ground rules’.

– Other teachers may record learners doing activities so thatlearners can see for themselves how much they are usingL1, and whether this is reasonable. Learners are sometimesquite surprised to see how much they do in the mothertongue that they could easily do in English.

Want to know more? Go to Mark Hancock’s article for a suggested procedure.

go to follow up p.167

– Some teachers appoint ‘monitors’ to listen in to pair andgroup activities to police the use of English. This procedurecan be employed in a more subtle way by sometimesincluding a learner in each group who is an observer with amonitoring task – not so much connected with the accurateuse of English as with the degree to which thecommunicative goals were achieved. The effect of having alistener tends to add to a sense of ‘performance’ and canencourage more consistent use of English.

Want to know more? Go to how to … monitor and give feedback(try it out) p.159.

© Oxford University Press

how to … do free speaking

4 Role play issuesIn natural English, you will find a number of 'serviceencounter' role plays, both in the how to … lessons and in theextended speaking activities. For this reason we feel it isworth considering some of the issues specific to this kind ofactivity.

There are a number of good reasons for including serviceencounter role plays (in shops, hotels, railway stations, etc.).

– Role plays of this type often create a need for specificfunctional exponents and lexis which might not otherwisebe covered in other speaking activities, e.g. buying clothesin a shop or asking for information at a railway station.

– When they go well, they are usually very popular with bothlearners and teachers.

– From the teacher’s point of view, they provide varietythrough a different activity type.

– For learners, they are practising language in a context theyrecognize as relevant and familiar.

This last point is worth emphasizing. One of the dangers of roleplay is that learners think they are being placed in a situationwhere they have to pretend to be someone else and start acting.In truth this is rarely the case. In most role plays, learners areeffectively being themselves in common ‘service encounter’situations, e.g. in a shop, railway station, tourist informationoffice, etc. Even if they are taking the part of the shop assistant,receptionist, etc. these are still roles which are familiar to themand should not be difficult to handle.

problems with role play activitiesAs soon as role plays become more removed from the learners’own experience, there is the danger that less confidentmembers within the group may feel uncomfortable or at a losswhat to say. You just have to use your own judgement here.You know your class better than anyone, so you are in the bestposition to select or create roles which will bring out their fullpotential, and reject activities which learners may findthreatening.

Ironically, the familiarity of many role play situations can betheir downfall. It is very easy to assume that everyone willknow what to do and what to say, and so to assume thatplanning and preparation time is not necessary to the sameextent. This is not the case, as you will see in the example rolecards below.

One final practical difficulty with role play, particularly withservice encounters, is that they can be unbalanced with oneparticipant having more to say than the other. This results in aproblem of class management; the person with more to say inthe role play probably needs more time to prepare than theirpartner. How do you cater for this in the planning time?

designing an effective role playYou can combat most of these problems by the way the roleplay is devised and staged.

think!5

Look at the role cards below. How long do you think thisactivity would last with an intermediate group? Why? Whatproblems might arise during the role play?

A You need a doctor’s appointment. Ring the receptionist,explain what your problem is, which doctor you wouldlike to see, and arrange a day and time to see them.

B You are a doctor’s receptionist.Your job is to fix upappointments for patients.You answer the phone.

Unless your learners are unusually imaginative, this exchangeprobably won’t last long at all. There is nothing verychallenging here, little unpredictability, and not even much inthe way of information exchange. Student A will need a coupleof minutes to think about what the problem is and whichdoctor they want to see, while there is very little for thereceptionist to think about. This illustrates the classmanagement problem mentioned above. With so littleinformation on the role cards, you also run the risk that one inthe pair may start to create a more imaginative scenario whichtheir partner is not aware of, and this can end up inmisunderstandings and confusion. In execution, the role playis also likely to be dominated by one person, i.e. the patient.

Now look at these role cards.

A You want to make a doctor’s appointment for today ortomorrow.

(What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you wait any longer?)

You can’t go this afternoon, however.You’ve got anotherappointment at 3.15.

(You decide what it is).

You want to see Dr. Brown (a 40 year-old femaledoctor).

(Why do you want to see her in particular?)

You know there is also Dr Elliott, an older male doctor,and there is also a new doctor, but you don’t knowanything about them.

B You’re a receptionist at a doctors’ surgery which is verybusy at the moment.

(Why is it so busy? Why do you only have a few freeappointments? You decide.)

People ring you to make appointments with differentdoctors:Dr Brown – female, 40 years old (busy for the next twodays)Dr Elliot – male, early sixties (free tomorrow at 10.00)Dr Caswell – female, young (free this afternoon at 3.00)

There is a problem with transport / the roads aroundthe surgery at the moment.

(What is it? You’ll need to warn the patients.)

© Oxford University Press

how to … do free speaking

These role cards differ from the first set in a number of ways.

– Both participants have some information in common. Thisshared knowledge gives the context a solid foundationaround which they can negotiate.

– Both participants have a sufficient amount of informationto absorb and exchange; at the very least, this shouldensure the activity lasts a certain amount of time.

– Both participants have roughly the same amount ofinformation to process; this avoids the problem of unequalpreparation time.

– Both participants have to think up a certain amount ofinformation for themselves. This helps to personalize theactivity for the learners, and introduces an element ofunpredictability into the situation. Neither knows exactlywhat to expect, and this immediately raises the level ofchallenge.

For the teacher, there is the added bonus that different pairsmay have different solutions; something you can exploit infeedback. For extra support, learners with the same role cardcould prepare their part together before they do the role playwith a new partner.

exploiting role playIn natural English you will often find that there are two sets ofrole cards for an activity. This allows learners to play differentroles and practise different language. If you encourage learnersto talk about how their first role play went, they can learn fromit and improve on it in the second role play. If you are doing arole play where the roles are unequal, you can always asklearners to swap roles.

As the teacher, you can exploit the fact that different pairs in aclass will perform the same role play in different ways. If onepair finishes early, you can tell them to listen to another pair tosee how the ‘conflict’ was resolved in their case. Alternatively,at the end you can put pairs into fours, and each pair does theirversion of the role play for the other pair. You can then ask theclass whether the situation was resolved in the same way byeach pair.

conclusionIn this chapter we have discussed:

– a variety of free speaking activities, and the importance ofexposing learners to a wide range of activity types

– the criteria for devising a good free speaking activity

– the ways in which you can help make a success of theseactivities, by, for example, preparing learners appropriatelyand giving them sufficient thinking and planning time

– issues and problems specific to role plays, particularlyservice encounter role plays, and how to solve or avoidthese problems when you devise role plays for yourlearners.

Free speaking activities form an integral part of the learners’classroom experience at this level; but to be successful, theywill require just as much planning and preparation on yourpart as any other skill or part of the syllabus.

answer keythink!1 p.156

a planning and creating; presentationb role play; discussionc problem solving; discussion

think!3 p.158 suggested answersa We feel the learners have plenty to say; they have had a

stimulus which works and they have come up with a number ofrelevant points in discussion. They seem to be relating well tothe topic.

b They are using quite a wide range of language for this level.They are communicating well; they are listening andresponding to each other, and are not just concerned withtheir own contribution.

c A has more turns than C, and C has more turns than B.However, we don’t feel that one learner is excessivelydominant. (A is a Swiss man, B is a Japanese woman, and C isa Japanese man.)

follow upParrott M 1993 Tasks for Language Teachers Cambridge University Press

(discussion tasks 20–21)Nolasco R & Nolasco L 1987 Conversation Oxford University PressPorter Ladousse G 1987 Role Play Oxford University PressHancock M 2000 Roleplaying Roleplaying in English Teaching

Professional (issue 15)Nettle M 1997 Making the Most of Roleplay in English Teaching

Professional (issue 2)

© Oxford University Press

how to … teach phonemic script © Oxford University Press

how to … teach phonemic script

1 Why teach phonemic script?2 The phonemic chart3 How can I approach the phonemic chart in class?4 Phoneme activities

1 Why teach phonemic script?

think!1

Do you ever teach phonemic script to your learners?If yes, cover box B. Read box A, then think of two or threereasons why teachers don’t do it.If no, cover box A. Read box B, then think of two or threereasons why teachers do it.

A why I teach phonemic script

• Sound-spelling relationships are difficult in English;phonemic script is a useful guide.

• Learners can work on pronunciationindependently through dictionaries.

• Learners can keep a written record of thepronunciation of new words.

• It’s a useful tool to highlight differences betweensounds e.g. /I/ and /i;/.

• It’s very useful for correction.

B why I don’t teach phonemic script

• I don’t feel very confident about what thesymbols mean.

• It’s too time-consuming for learners.

• Learners have enough to worry about withoutlearning a new script.

• Pronunciation is best learnt through oral models– they’re less confusing.

• The way I pronounce the phonemic symbols isdifferent from the dictionary.

In natural English, we have included phonemic transcriptionsof many new or difficult vocabulary items as we feel theadvantages of learning the script greatly outweigh thedisadvantages. Some teachers may lack confidence when theystart using phonemic symbols, but they are not as daunting asthey may at first appear, and it takes surprisingly little time tolearn and feel confident using them, especially as the phonemicsymbols for many consonant sounds are the same as theirorthographic form. If you introduce phonemics to your learners‘little and often’, you will learn them yourself, and you mayeven be surprised to discover how much fun they can be. Many

speakers of English, whether native speakers with regionalvariations or non-native speakers, may pronounce thephonemic symbols slightly differently from the standardpronunciation. If this is the case for you, you need to be awareof any differences, but you should only point them out to yourlearners if it creates any kind of conflict with the material youare using.

think!2

Write the words below in the correct columns, according to thesound of the underlined syllables. Would people learning thelanguage of the country where you teach have similar problemswith sounds and spelling?

toe threw truth cup thoughblood throw enough sew loseboot honey through courage know

/@U/ /u;/ /V/

go to answer key p.171

2 The phonemic chartThe phonemic chart on the back cover of the listening bookletwas designed by Adrian Underhill. You’ll notice that it isdivided into three main sections:

a b

c

Section a contains vowel sounds, b contains diphthongs, i.e.compound vowel sounds, and c has consonants andapproximants, /r/, /w/, and /j/. (The sounds /w/ and /j/ aresometimes called semi-vowels.)

a the vowelsThe organization of the vowels demonstrates three differentfactors involved in producing the sounds:

– whether the lips are stretched or rounded

– whether the jaw is closed or open

– the position of the tongue.

© Oxford University Press

Try saying the sounds on the top line in order from /I;/ to /u;/.Notice the position of your tongue, and how your lips go froma stretched position to a rounded one. Then say the first threevertical sounds, i.e. /I;/ to /ae/. Put your hand under your chin,and feel your jaw gradually opening. Your tongue shouldremain more or less in the same position.

b the diphthongsThe diphthongs are organized into three groups based on thesecond sound in each case.

c the consonantsThe consonants in the two top rows are organized in voicelessand voiced pairs, e.g. /p/ (voiceless) / /b/ (voiced). The consonantsto the left of the row are produced at the front of the mouth, e.g./p/ and /b/ (they are both produced by closing the lips). As yougo along the row, the production of the sounds takes placefurther back in the mouth, until /k/ and /g/, at the end of therow, which are produced right at the back of the mouth (‘velar’sounds). The bottom line contains the nasal sounds /m/, /n/, and/N/, the consonants /h/ and /l/, and the approximants /r/, /w/, and/j/.

Want to know more? Read Sound Foundations by Adrian Underhill

go to follow up p.171

3 How can I approach the phonemic chartin class?

First of all, you need to show your learners how a knowledgeof phonemic symbols can help them. You could explain this tothem, but the best way is probably through illustration. Writethese words on the board:

turn heard skirt colonelAsk learners how to pronounce them. They may (or may not)give you a fair approximation for the first three, but they willalmost certainly mispronounce colonel. You can then write aphonemic transcription of the first three, highlighting thecommon /3;/ sound in each one, and invite learners to find thecorrect pronunciation of colonel using dictionaries, i.e. /"k3:nl/.They will quickly see that phonemic symbols in the dictionarygive them instant access to the correct pronunciation of words;and you can point out that they can do this independently of ateacher, in their own time. If they then write down the wordsand phonemic transcriptions, they have an accurate writtenrecord of the pronunciation – in case they forget.

how to teach the symbolsSome teachers like to teach all the symbols in one go, but wefeel it is more practical and less daunting to organize thesymbols into small groups, and introduce them in five- to ten-minute slots – often as a break from other activities – over aseries of lessons. For teaching purposes, it is sensible to dividethem into pairs or groups of sounds that are close together andoften a source of confusion. You can start with some of thesound-spelling relationships that are classic problems, e.g.pronouncing the letter o as /Q/ (as it is in many otherlanguages), when in English, the pronunciation may be /V/ asin some, or /@U/ as in don’t.

how to group the soundsHere is one way of grouping the sounds over a series of lessons,although the groupings and order are very much up to you, andmay depend on the nationality you are teaching.

schwaThe schwa /@/ is the most common sound in English as it oftenrepresents the letters a, o, and e in unstressed syllables.

vowels/I/ (bit) and /i;/ (beat)

/Q/ (not) and /@u/ (know) and /aU/ (now)

/V/ (run) and /U/ (put ) and /u;/ (blue)

/&/ (hat) and /A;/ (arm) and /O;/ (fall)

/eI/ (wait) and /aI/ (white)

/I@/ (ear) and /ea/ (hair) and /U@/ (pure)

/e/ (bed) and /3;/ (burn ) and /OI/ (boil)

consonants/D/ (this) and /T/ (think)

/s/ (see) and /S/ (sure) and /z/ (lose) and /Z/ (measure)

/dZ/ (due) and /tS/ (chew)

There are other consonant sounds that may be problematic forcertain nationalities, e.g. /d/ and /D/ for Spanish speakers, /f/and /h/ for Japanese speakers, or /p/ and /b/ for Arabic speakers.

how to introduce the soundsTo introduce these groups of sounds, it helps if you have a largecopy of the chart on the wall. If you don’t have one, write therelevant sounds on the board. Here are some simple techniquesto get started.

– Point to two sounds, e.g. /I/ and /i;/, and model them forlearners to repeat.

– Point to a sound e.g. /e/, and elicit it from the class.

– Point to a sound and model it ‘silently’, showing theposition of your lips and jaw, e.g. /O;/ or /a;/. Then elicit itfrom the learners.

– Once you have established a sound, elicit simple wordscontaining the sounds, e.g. /3;/ bird, turn.

– Tap out on the chart a simple word using ‘easy’ consonantphonemes for learners to say, e.g. point to /b/ + /I/ + /t/ = bit;/i;/ + /t/ = eat.

– As you teach new sounds, also revise familiar ones.

i; I U u;e @ 3; O;& V A; Q

I@ eIU@ OI @Ue@ aI aU

/@/ /I/ /U/

how to … teach phonemic script

how to … teach phonemic script

how to help learners see progressOne approach which can help to give learners a sense ofprogress is for them to make a blank copy of the phonemicchart on the back of the listening booklet. Each time they learna new symbol, they write it in the correct square on their chart,until finally they have a completed copy. Using your wallchart,you can do quick revision activities during the lesson. Forexample, point to different symbols and ask learners to giveyou the sound, or a word containing that sound. You can asklearners to take the role of teacher, and come out and do thesame, praising or correcting where necessary. Alternatively, tapout some words you taught recently and see if learners canremember them, e.g. /r/ + /aU/ = row.

4 Phoneme activities

spot the schwaTeach the schwa symbol /@/ and sound. Then choose aparagraph from a simple text, or part of a dialogue, e.g. theBretécher cartoon in unit 1, and ask learners in pairs to circle allthe instances of /@/. Go over the text or play the dialogue withpauses to check their answers. Learners then practise readingin pairs.

which sound?Give learners a group of words (or a set of flashcards) to sortinto groups, according to the pronunciation of the underlinedsound, e.g.

/e/ or /eI/ ?

break breakfast bread steak

famous many paid said

odd one outGive learners a handout with groups of four words. Each groupcontains the same letter or combination of letters, e.g. house,loud, courage, around. Ask learners to identify the odd one out ineach group (in terms of pronunciation), and provide the twophonemic symbols, i.e. courage /V/ is the odd one out; the othersare all pronounced /aU/. They could go on and construct theirown groups of words for other learners to work on.

how many letters? how many sounds?This is a useful way to distinguish silent letters, e.g. cupboard,and to deal with consonant clusters, e.g. although.

word how many how many what sound(s)?letters? sounds?

cupboard 2 1 /b/

answer

architect

although

language

weight

furniture

five thingsGive learners two sounds, e.g. /I/ and /i;/ and put them intopairs. They have to think of five things to eat or drink with eachsound, e.g. fish, /I/ cheese /i;/. You can adapt it to different soundsand different topics – as long as you can find the answersyourself!

phonemic quizWhen learners have covered a number of phonemic symbols,you can do this as a warmer. On a handout, write five suitablegeneral knowledge questions in phonemic script, e.g.

1 /wen wQz D@ la;st @lImpIk geImz/ (When was the last OlympicGames?)

2 /hu: wVn D@ w3;ld kVp in tu; TaUz@nd @nd tu;/ (Who won theWorld Cup in two thousand and two?)

In pairs, learners have to read them, then write the answers (inRoman script) as quickly as possible.

try it out phonemic bingo1 Give each learner a copy of the table below. Alone, they

circle one word in each box in pencil (so that they canrub it out later).

2 You then read out one of the two words in the first box.Tick the word you say. If a learner has circled the wordyou said, they put a tick next to it.

3 Read one word from the next box, and so on to the lastbox. Then go back and repeat the procedure, reading theother words. When a learner has ticked all the words theycircled, they shout ‘bingo!’

4 Now check the learner’s answers against the ones you readout. If there is a mistake, continue the game with the restof the class till you get a winner. You can then asklearners to write out the words in Roman script.

5 Put learners in small groups of four or five. They can playthe game, with one learner in the group as the teacher.

You can adapt this game to include typical pronunciationproblems for learners in your teaching environment.

wO;k w3;k SIp Si;p p&k pA;k

ri;d red kVp k&p fju; vju;

weIt waIt su;p s@Up wQtS wQS

b&k b&g pA;T pA;s wUd gUd

dictionary raceGive learners a list of ten words they regularly mispronounce.(This will vary from country to country, but the ones suggestedare very common to many nationalities.) Tell learners to workin pairs. They look up the phonemic transcriptions indictionaries and say the words to each other to make sure theycan pronounce them correctly. The first pair to finish should saythe words to the class. If they are confident with the words andsymbols, you could suggest they record only the phonemictranscriptions of the words in their notebooks to testthemselves on the correct pronunciation at a later date.

comfortable headache dangerous interesting oranges

vegetable women science mountain usually

© Oxford University Press

how to … teach phonemic script

homophonesGive learners the words in phonemic script below, and askthem to find two different spellings for each one, usingdictionaries if necessary.

example /blu;/ blue blew

/@laUd/ (aloud, allowed); /weIt/ (wait, weight); /tu;/ (too, two);/De@/ (there, their); /weI/ (way, weigh); /weist/ (waste, waist);/flu;/ (flew, flu); /wi;k/ (weak, week).

homonymsGive learners the words below, and they use dictionaries tofind out the two ways the words are pronounced, and whateach one means.

row tear lead wind wound

conclusionIn this chapter, we have looked at:

– the reasons why teachers may or may not teach phonemicscript

– ways of organizing and introducing the phonemic chart

– a range of discrete phoneme activities which makeexcellent warmers, revision activities, or can be introducedat different points in a lesson to provide a change of focus orpace.

If you have never used the phonemic script with your classesbefore, this chapter gives you a basic introduction, and wehope that you will experiment with it.

answer keythink!2 p.168

/@U/ – toe, though, throw, sew, know/u;/ – threw, truth, lose, boot, through/V/ – cup, blood, enough, honey, courage

follow upbackground readingUnderhill A 1994 Sound Foundations HeinemannKenworthy J 1987 Teaching English Pronunciation LongmanRoach P 1983 English Phonemics and Phonology Cambridge University

PressNewton C 1999 Phonemic script: the pros and cons in English Teaching

Professional (issue 12)classroom activitiesHancock M 1995 Pronunciation Games Cambridge University PressHewings M 1993 Pronunciation Tasks Cambridge University PressHaycraft B 1993–4 English Aloud 1 and 2 HeinemannFletcher C 1989 Sounds English Longman

© Oxford University Press

how to … do informal testing © Oxford University Press

how to … do informal testing

1 What is informal testing? Why do it?2 Who tests?3 Testing language informally:

– translation– concept questions– timelines and clines– written exercises– defining and paraphrasing

4 Testing oral interaction informally

1 What is informal testing? Why do it?There is a difference between formal and informal tests.

With a formal test:

– learners generally know the test is going to happen, so theycan revise for it

– learners do it alone without external help, althoughdictionaries may be allowed in certain circumstances

– it is not marked by learners themselves, but by the teacheror other authority

– it has a mark or grade which usually carries some significance,e.g. to determine whether a student can enter a class or moveup to the next class.

Formal tests are usually carried out at the end of a period ofstudy, e.g. each term or year, and possibly at the end of eachweek or unit of the coursebook. But they don’t have to becarried out formally. The same test can be done with no priornotice, by learners working individually or in pairs, markingtheir own answers, and with no particular status attached tothe mark or grade. A formal test has now become an informaltest.

Furthermore, there are many other ways in which you as theteacher are engaged in informal testing. Here are just a handfulof examples:

– concept questions to check understanding of a languagepoint (see p.150)

– comprehension questions to check understanding of aspoken or written text

– oral drills to test language forms and check pronunciation

– gap-fill exercises (and the like) to test grammar and lexis

– even controlled speaking exercises allow informal testing oflanguage forms, concepts, and use.

the teacherIn other words, informal testing is taking place at manydifferent stages in every lesson as part of the most commoneveryday classroom procedures. From your point of view, itprovides continuous insights as to what the students haveunderstood and learned, and this knowledge is essential inhelping you to decide whether you can or should move on tothe next stage in the lesson. And if the testing identifies a

problem, you know you need a solution: you can retrace yoursteps and repeat a procedure; perhaps look at the problem in adifferent and possibly more effective way; or make a note ofsomething that will need to be recycled and revised at a laterdate. This can be shown diagrammatically, e.g.

language input > check / test understanding > move on > possible recycling > test understanding> remedial teaching > test understanding > move on

Informal testing also gives you feedback on your own teaching.You shouldn’t assume that if certain learners haven’tunderstood something, it’s your fault (any more than youshould assume that if they have learnt something it is becauseof you). However, if you become aware that the majority of theclass is having difficulty with a new concept, this informationhelps you to rethink your teaching approach.

the learnerInformal testing enables learners to check if they haveunderstood something, and it helps them to see the progressthey are making, which is obviously vital for their motivation.For certain learners, formal or informal testing may be neededto provide external motivation where internal motivation islacking, while for others, it can serve as a useful reminder thatlanguage studied is not the same thing as language learnt.Successful language learning does demand recycling andrevision, and informal classroom testing is a vital part of thatprocess.

A glance back at the examples of test types opposite alsoillustrates the important role that informal testing plays infostering communication. All the techniques mentioned set upinteraction of some sort, either between teacher and learner, orbetween learners themselves.

think!1

Carry out a quick piece of informal testing on yourself. Coverthe section above, and note down:

– three ways in which formal and informal tests are different– three examples of informal testing in the classroom– two reasons why teachers and learners need informal

testing.Has this informal test given you any useful feedback?

2 Who tests?Traditionally, the teacher is viewed as the authority figure inthe class who tests learners either formally or informally. Youare usually in the best position to assess whether the group as awhole, as well as individuals in the class, have all understoodnew concepts and can manipulate forms; and you have both theteaching techniques and the language skills to do this informaltesting most efficiently. Nevertheless, learners are sometimesvery aware of each others’ difficulties, and in many situationsthey can effectively test each other informally. Equally they cantest themselves.

how to … do informal testing© Oxford University Press

One learner in each pair (the ‘tester’) uses the exercise to testtheir partner, so has the answers which the ‘testee’ cannot see.Learners can then swap and repeat the exercise. They cantherefore support each other, give clues, feedback, andcorrection.

If you are in favour of the use of the mother tongue in class,there is no reason why learners in a monolingual contextshouldn’t test each other using translation (see p.150).

try it out sentence transformations1 Divide your class into two groups: A and B. Give all the As a

set of six sentence transformations to do, such as:Did you enjoy yourselves last night?Did you have ______________?I last saw Jimmy in 1998.I haven’t _______________.

(You will find examples of these in grammar practice books, anda similar type of exercise with key words in First Certificate,Paper 3.)Give Bs a different set of transformations to do.2 When they have finished, go over the answers with each

group separately, or give each group a photocopy of theanswers (but don’t go over all the answers as a class).

3 Form A and B pairs. A should read their first sentence, withthe beginning of the transformation to their partner, who hasto do the transformation orally without looking at A’s paper.If B says something different from the correct answer, Ashould write it down. Do all of A’s sentences, then swap, andB reads their sentences for A to transform.

4 At the end, the pairs look at any differences in their answerstogether to decide whether they are possible answers.

5 Have a plenary to clear up any differences. Sometimes morethan one transformation is possible.

Students find the oral exercise very challenging, and the activityis a useful way to revise the use of grammatical structures andvocabulary.

learners testing themselvesThere are many ways in natural English in which learners cantest themselves in and out of class. Here are some examples:

– In the glossary activities accompanying texts, learners haveto make guesses about unknown words in context. Theycan then use a dictionary to check, which encourages themto use a productive learning strategy built upon self-testing.

– In their own time, learners can test themselves on grammar.For example, they can study a section of grammar in thelanguage reference then cover the left-hand side of thepage and do the grammar exercise on the right (cover &check exercises). They can repeat these exercises severaltimes.

– The teacher’s book includes a wordlist for each unit. Youcan photocopy this for learners to test themselves on keyvocabulary in the unit.

– At the end of each unit, there is a section called testyourself! This is an opportunity for learners to testthemselves on some of the key language in the unit.(Equally, you could administer and mark this which wouldmake it a formal test.)

learners testing each otherYou will find a number of test your partner activitiesthroughout the student’s book, as in this example, wherelearners have to decide whether the verbs are followed by -ingform or infinitive.

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit one p.11.

There are several benefits when learners test each other in pairs:

– more student-student interaction is created

– learners are in a position to check what they have learnt ina less stressful and less exposed context

– it leaves you free to monitor the pairs and assess how wellthe target language is being used

– it allows you to help individuals in areas where less peercorrection takes place, e.g. pronunciation.

Activities where learners have to match definitions orillustrations with vocabulary items lend themselves to a peertesting stage, once the correct meanings have been established(see the example activity from the student’s book below).

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit eight p.92.

5 Put these verbs /phrases in the correct place in thetable.

keep give up be willing to get used toused to practise finish mindtry be prepared to remember regretstart look forward to take up tend

– That’s right.

– Practise doing.

– Practise.

test your partner

1 Match phrases 1 to 6 with responses a to f with asimilar meaning. Put the i symbol next to the twomost informal phrases.

1 Did you get very angry?

2 Did you get your own back?

3 Did you quarrel /"kWwQr@l/ with your sister?

4 Did you shout abuse /@"bju;s/?

5 Did you control your temper?

6 Did you find it irritating?

a Yes, I swore /swO;/ at him.

b Yes, I completely lost my temper.

c Yes, it got on my nerves.

d Yes, I got my revenge /rI"venZ/.

e Yes, we had a big row /raU/.

f Yes, I managed to keep calm.

how to … do informal testing

The workbook with answer keys can obviously be used as aself-testing device. If you set exercises for homework, learnerscan check their own answers, and then rather than spendingclass time going over them, learners can take the opportunity toask about the examples they found difficult.

3 Testing language informallyWhen introducing or revising new language, teachers draw ona range of techniques for checking learning, some of which arelisted below. The ones you choose to use will obviouslydepend on several factors. Which is the simplest way to checkthis particular item? Which techniques work best with yourclass? Which are feasible with your class? Translation, forinstance, is unlikely in a multilingual context.

You may have other ways of testing informally too. It is worthnoting that many of these techniques can both teach and test,depending on when and how they are used. Timelines, forexample, can be used to explain a concept, or to test one.

translationImagine this scene: you are teaching a class of Spanish speakersand the phrase I could eat a horse! comes up in a lesson. Theteacher explains that this is an idiom which means I’m veryhungry, and the meaning is not literal; it is an exaggeration. Sheasks the class for a translation. One says, Tengo un hambre de lobo(i.e. hunger of a wolf – an equivalent idiom) and the others nodin agreement and note it down.

Here, you have a piece of language, explained in English thentested through the mother tongue. It is a quick, time-savingtechnique, and you are satisfied that everyone has grasped themeaning accurately.

It is obvious that all language learners automatically search forequivalents. For low level learners this is appropriate andunderstandable, but as learners become more proficient theyare less reliant on translation even though they may still find itreassuring to find an equivalent in their mother tongue.

The use of L1 for checking understanding is certainly useful ifapplied in moderation. Carried to extremes, though, it can havedrawbacks.

– Where translation is the only means of testing, learners aremissing the opportunity to process language throughEnglish itself.

– Constant use of translation into the mother tongue maylead to a classroom in which very little at all happens inEnglish, which is clearly not desirable.

– Learners can develop an obsession with finding one-to-oneequivalents, which can be frustrating.

– In multilingual classrooms, the use of the mother tonguecan set up tensions, especially if you have a dominantgroup of one nationality who shout translations across theroom, making other learners feel excluded.

Translation as a means of informal testing has been out offavour for some time, but used wisely it is a very effective tool.

think!2

How often do you ask learners to translate words, phrases, orsentences as a way of checking their understanding? At whichlevels do you use it? Do you think you will use it more, less, orabout the same in the future?

concept questionsOne way of checking understanding without resorting to thelearners’ mother tongue is by using ‘concept questions’. Thesefocus on the meaning of grammatical structures or vocabularyitems. They are used alongside specific examples, and well-chosen questions are an effective way of assessing whetherlearners have grasped a concept. Look at this example of manageto, taken from a reading text a teacher is using with her class:The box was heavy, but Josh managed to carry it upstairs.

The teacher wants to check if learners are able to deduce themeaning of manage to, so she writes the sentence on the boardand underlines managed to. She then asks:

T: Was it easy to carry the box?Ss: No.T: But did he do it?Ss: Yes.T: So what does manage to mean?S1: Something is difficult to do, but you do it.T: Yes, you are successful.

The questions are in this case part of the technique for checkingunderstanding, but could equally be used at different stages ofa lesson, e.g. to revise vocabulary or grammar.

In order to design such questions you need to define preciselyor paraphrase the meaning of the target item using simplelanguage. From this breakdown, you create questions. Here isan example:

I wish I’d gone to the wedding. = I didn’t go to the wedding, andnow I’m sorry about it.

T: Did the person go to the wedding?Ss: No.T: Are they sorry now about that?Ss: Yes.

Learners don’t always get the answers right, of course, which isa signal for you to go back and clarify the meaning of the item.These questioning techniques are particularly useful inmultilingual teaching contexts, but they are often used inmonolingual contexts too, as a way of maintaining a high levelof English use in the class and challenging learners to thinkabout meaning. They do require some careful thought,however. Here are some guidelines.

– Dictionaries and grammar books are invaluable forclarifying concept before you plan your questions.

– It is important to avoid using the language item you aretesting in the questions themselves. For instance, if you aretesting the concept of the present perfect continuous inShe’s been working there for years, don’t ask Has she beenworking there for a long time? Instead, you might ask, Did shestart working there recently?

– Keep the language in the questions simpler than thelanguage you are testing. For example, if you are testingmight with intermediate learners in She might accept the job,avoid using Is she likely to accept the job? as likely will probablybe unknown.

© Oxford University Press

1 Read this short story and answer the questionsbelow.

how to … do informal testing

– Aim to cover all aspects of the concept, e.g. a gadget = anobject you use + it’s small + it makes life easier + it isn’treally necessary.

Learners are sometimes puzzled by concept questions, as theycan appear simplistic and slightly quirky. But most learnersadapt to them, and they are a safer indicator of understandingthan Do you all understand? Good!

think!3

Do you think these questions check the concept of theunderlined items effectively? If not, how could they beimproved?

1 I’ve just broken my laptop.Did I break the laptop?A long time ago, or a short time ago?Is the laptop still broken?

2 They reluctantly agreed to help me.Did they agree to help me?Did they agree immediately?

3 He was supposed to meet Mary at six o’clock.Did he arrange to meet Mary at six o’clock?Did he meet her at six o’clock?

4 The answer he gave was ambiguous.Was his answer clear?

go to answer key p.153

timelines and clinesTimelines are most commonly used to illustrate or consolidateconcepts of time and aspect. For example, this simple timelineshows the difference between for and since when used with thepresent perfect:

A B NOW

not been to the cinema

MARCH AUGUST

A: I haven’t been to the cinema since March.B: I haven’t been to the cinema for six months.

Some learners find this kind of diagram very helpful andmemorable; others find them less effective. If your class are notfamiliar with timelines, you will need to deal with the first oneor two carefully, pointing out how time, events, and durationare represented.

Timelines can also be used to test meaning rather than justillustrate it. Here is an example from the student’s book.

➝➝

A horrible thing happened to me earlier this yearwhen I was living in New York. I’d been working fora TV company for six months and I then went awayon holiday for two weeks. When I got back, they’dgiven my job to someone else, so I moved back toLos Angeles. What a nightmare!

1 Underline the examples of the past continuous,past perfect simple, and past perfect continuous.How are they formed?

2 Match the three underlined phrases with the twodotted lines and the cross x on the timelinebelow.

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit five, p.59

think!4

Draw timelines to illustrate the underlined language items.1 Don’t ring me at 8.00: I’ll be having dinner.2 We used to go to Spain every year for our holidays.3 I haven’t played the guitar for ten years.

go to answer key p.153

Clines are associated more with vocabulary teaching and, liketimelines, can be used both to illustrate and test variousconcepts. Clines are effective for series of items that share acertain feature in their core meaning but differ in terms ofdegree, for example:

Put the following words in the correct place on the cline below. gale; breeze; hurricane; wind

weak strongAs a testing device, clines have the added benefits of beingsimple and easy to use, and versatile, e.g. you can involvelearners physically if you prepare written flashcards of theitems, draw a cline on the board and ask them to come up andput the words in the appropriate place.

think!5

Look at these groups of items. Which ones lend themselves toinformal testing using clines?

1 love, hate, like, loathe, can’t stand, don’t mind, quite like,not keen on

2 love, like, worship, idolize, admire, fancy, respect3 freezing, lukewarm, cold, hot, warm, tepid, boiling4 shout, mumble, shriek, whisper, scream, mutter

go to answer key p.153

© Oxford University Press

how to … do informal testing

defining and paraphrasingThe ability to define and paraphrase concepts in English isbeyond the reach of most lower level learners, but it is a veryuseful testing tool at higher levels because it generates a lot oflanguage use and helps to develop an important language skill.

If you want to use this form of testing, you should make surefirst that the target items can be defined or paraphrased clearlyand succinctly, and second, that they can be explained withoutrequiring language of comparable complexity.

think!6

How would you define or paraphrase these words and phrases?Which items would upper-intermediate learners find difficult todefine or explain (because they require language that thelearners may not know)?

uniform (n) dreadful kidnap sb get soaked pridedeserve spoil sth throw sth away

go to answer key p.153

written exercisesThere is a wide range of written exercise types for practisingand testing language items. Exercises which test understandinginclude: matching, sorting, true / false, and multiple choice.Exercises which practise and test language productivelyinclude: gap-fill, sentence completion, stimuli / response, andtransformation.

The advantage of one exercise type over another depends onwhat you are testing and what you hope to achieve. Sentencecompletion exercises are usually more open-ended than gap-fill exercises, so have the potential advantage of being moregenerative, allowing more creativity, and possibly provokingmore discussion. On the other hand, gap-fill exercises canusually be constructed in such a way that they only allow onecorrect answer, so they have the advantage of being morefocused and perhaps more appropriate if the items you want totest are very specific. Last but not least, they are usually veryquick and easy for either the learner or the teacher to mark.

try it out writing grammar sheetsI did this with a First Certificate class who were motivated tostudy grammar.After one lesson where we looked at conditional forms, I askedstudents, for homework, to write a personal grammar sheet onthe language we had just studied. They could look at thelanguage reference and any other grammar books they liked.They had to put together a grammar summary as they saw itusing their own example sentences.The next day in class, students compared with each other, andany problems or differences were discussed as a class. They gavethem in for correction and comments, and then I returned them.We went on to do other grammar summaries like this. Theyfound that producing their own summaries and examples wasmore memorable and gave them the motivation to explore thearea more thoroughly. Some of their results were excellent.Ruth, Zurich.

4 Testing oral interaction informally

Want to know more? Go to intermediate teacher’s book, how to … teach listening, p.150.

Speaking is difficult to evaluate because you have to assessyour learners’ performance in real time, and without theopportunity for much reflection. Even in formal testingsituations where examination boards have established clearwritten criteria for evaluation, testing is still quite subjective,depending as it does on how the examiner chooses to interpretthe criteria. One person’s idea of fluency may be anotherperson’s ‘occasional hesitation’, and teachers’ perceptions ofaccuracy can vary considerably.

For most learners, though, the ability to use English effectivelyin oral communication is precisely why they come to class, andit is therefore important that we try to give our learners someconfirmation of their progress. Here are some guidelines.

a Before you do any speaking activity in class, whether quitecontrolled or free, be clear in your own mind what you wantor expect learners to be able to achieve. For example:

– using target language appropriately

– achieving an appropriate amount of interaction with otherlearners

– achieving an appropriate level of fluency, e.g. speed andnaturalness for their level

– achieving an appropriate level of accuracy for their level

– keeping going for a reasonable amount of time

– speaking intelligibly, e.g. pronouncing clearly withoutimposing a strain on the listener, and so on.

b Try to limit the focus of your attention in any one activity,even if the learners are trying to do several things at once.Don’t try to cover all the criteria above. Pick one or two fromthe selection above, bearing in mind whether the activity iscontrolled or freer. If you select one or two criteria each timeyour learners do a speaking activity, over a period of timeyou will cover a range of criteria.

c If learners are trying to use language which has onlyrecently been studied, don’t expect too much of them, unlessthe activity is very controlled or limited in its scope.

d At the same time, try to notice whether learners are beginningto use language that they have encountered relatively recently;something perhaps that they couldn‘t use well a few weeksago, but they are now using more fluently.

e Remember that the yardstick for measuring their progress ishow they perform an activity now compared with similaractivities one week, or month, or term ago.

Focusing in this way can help you in several ways. Firstly, youcan use the criteria you decided on as the basis for yourfeedback to your learners on either an individual or a groupbasis. Secondly, the information you gather will help you todecide how best to proceed with the class: what remediallanguage work will you need to do? Are there any particularcommunication skills that learners need to practise more?

© Oxford University Press

how to … do informal testing

repeating activitiesOne final way of testing learners’ progress in oral interaction isby comparing ‘like with like’; in other words, after a suitablelapse of time, repeat a freer classroom activity, perhapsadapting it slightly for motivation and interest. Then decidewhether your learners can now perform the task more fluentlyand effectively. Here is an activity from the student’s bookwhich would be suitable for repetition. On the secondoccasion, you could use the same task, or you could adapt thetopics if you wish. Your focus in feedback the second timeshould probably be wider, or focus on any areas that wereweak the first time.

from upper-intermediate student’s book unit two p.24.

conclusionIn this chapter we have looked at:

– what informal testing is and why and when we do it in theclassroom

– ways in which learners can test each other and themselveseffectively

– a range of techniques for testing understanding at differentstages in a lesson

– guidelines and ideas for ‘testing’ speaking activities in class.

We have looked at materials which lend themselves to specifictesting techniques, such as ‘test your partner’, and we havediscussed techniques which can be used for several differentpurposes, e.g. timelines, clines, concept questions, and paraphraseare all useful both for explaining and testing language. The nexttime you use a technique for input, perhaps think about how youcould also use it for recycling or informal testing at a later date.

it’s your turn!1 Think! Remember a situation where you did

something and then realized you shouldn’t havedone it. (Or something you didn’t do, and shouldhave done.) Use these prompts to help you.

a holidaya journeya relationshipsomething you spent money onyour own topic

examplea beach holiday in spring: ‘I should have waiteduntil later in the year.’

2 Move round the class, tell your story and listen toother people’s. Has anybody had a similarexperience to you?

answer keythink!3 p.1511 These questions are effective.2 These questions don’t go far enough. You also need to ask Were

they happy / willing to help? (No).3 These questions are effective.4 This question doesn’t go far enough. The teacher also needs to

ask Did his answer have different meanings?

think!4 p.151Don’t ring me at 8.00: I’ll be having dinner.

NOW

|8.00

dinner

We used to go to Spain every year for our holidays.NOW

X X X XSpain Spain Spain Spain

stopped

I haven’t played the guitar for ten years.

NOW

not played guitar

1993 2003last playedthe guitar

think!5 p.1521 and 3 can be tested on a cline, as they represent degrees of likingand hating or temperature. The items in 2 and 4 differ in meaning aswell as degree, so are too complex to include on one cline.

think!6 p.153The first four are suitable for learners to define / paraphrase:uniform = special clothes people wear at work, e.g. in the policeforce or at schooldreadful = terriblekidnap sb = take someone as a prisoner and demand money forreturning themget soaked = get very wetWe think the last four are hard for upper-intermediate learners todefine: it is difficult to explain pride and deserve; to explain spoil sthand throw sth away you need to use words of comparable difficulty,e.g. ruin and get rid of. Throw sth away is best demonstrated, and theother three are best illustrated through situations and contexts.

follow upUr P 1996 A Course in Language Teaching Cambridge University Press

(module 2, practice activities, and module 3, tests: Types of testelicitation techniques)

Thornbury S 1999 How to Teach Grammar LongmanParrott M 1993 Tasks for Language Teachers Cambridge University Press

(chapter 5: Teachers’ use of the learners’ first language)Aitken R 1994 Teaching Tenses Nelson (very useful on timelines)

➝➝

© Oxford University Press

how to … motivate higher level learners

1 Problems of motivating higher level learners2 Helping learners to see their progress3 Materials, activities, and approaches4 The role of the learner5 The language syllabus

1 Problems of motivating higher levellearners

think!1

Motivation can suffer at any time, but can you think of at leasttwo reasons why many learners experience a dip in motivationas they reach upper-intermediate level? Note them down andthen read on.

The early stages of learning can be an anxious time in someways, but most learners have the satisfaction of being able tosee their progress from one week to the next. It may be theability to use the past tense to talk about past experience, or tounderstand a dialogue in natural spoken English, or to makesense of a restaurant menu that was previously incomprehensible.Such obvious signs of progress are very rewarding andextremely motivating. As learners pass through theintermediate level, their situation changes.

– Progress is not evident in the same way. The giant strides ofthe early stages are replaced by steps which seem to becomeever smaller, until they are hardly visible at all. The learnerhas now reached a kind of ‘plateau’. Progress may still betaking place, but the learners’ inability to see it can have avery detrimental effect on their motivation.

– Complacency can also become a problem at this level. Somelearners are strongly motivated by their rapid progress anddesire to overcome problems in the early stages of learning,but by upper-intermediate level, they are able to expressmost of their everyday needs, and their urgency and desirebegin to evaporate. As motivation flags, progress slowsdown, with the result that motivation drops even more.They are caught in a downward spiral.

– Some learners at this level suffer from classroom fatigue.They have now worked their way through various levelsand coursebooks, and classroom procedures have becomeroutine: the lessons are predictable, the activities are allfamiliar, the faces are the same. Even the syllabus looksrepetitive. In fact, it isn’t, but much of the grammar atupper-intermediate level includes headings that are alreadyfamiliar to any learner who has used an intermediatecoursebook: present perfect, past perfect, conditionals,passives, reported speech, and so on. What’s new?

– Finally, there is the issue of needs and wants. At lowerlevels, there is usually a shared belief among learners thatthey need to cover the basic grammar of the language, learncommon high frequency lexis, and devote time to the

unfamiliar sounds of a new language so that they are atleast intelligible to those around them. Once these basicneeds have been met, however, groups may become moredisparate. Some will still be driven by a desire to study thegrammar, while others may wish to concentrate only onimproving their spoken fluency. Some learners want morewriting, and often specific kinds of writing, while for othersit is irrelevant. Faced with these different needs and wants,most teachers accept there has to be a degree ofcompromise. Most learners accept it too, but a few find itdifficult to sustain motivation if the lesson is not perceivedas directly relevant to their needs.

We must stress that dips in motivation do not affect all learners,and neither do they affect all groups. For some learners, theirintrinsic motivation carries them through; and for others,motivation can be sustained by external examinations such asCambridge First Certificate. In any case, for many of thoseaffected, the loss of motivation is both temporary andreversible. It is important, however, that we are prepared for itwhen it happens, and have measures to combat it. The rest ofthe chapter looks at a few of these strategies.

2 Helping learners to see their progressAlthough many learners reach a kind of ‘plateau’ where theyfeel they aren’t making progress, this is not necessarily thecase. Sometimes, it is simply that progress is less obvious andmore subtle; it is best described perhaps as horizontal ratherthan vertical. Learners continue to expand their vocabulary,they continue to develop different skills such as reading andwriting, and they usually make incremental improvements inboth accuracy and fluency. But much of this is hard to see andmeasure, and doesn’t replace the thrill of suddenly being ableto say something that was previously impossible, orunderstand something that was previously incomprehensible.

feedbackIf progress is not so readily apparent at this level, one of yourroles must be to make it apparent; and one way of doing this isthrough continuous and constructive feedback. At the end ofany significant pair or group work activity, tell learners whatthey have done well, but also what they could improve on nexttime. This might be their use of language (grammar,vocabulary, and pronunciation), how well they participated,how clearly they expressed their ideas, how well theyinteracted with and involved each other in the activity, etc.Very often feedback is seen as being identical with correction,i.e. telling people what they got wrong. However, most peopleare motivated by positive feedback, and if it is important forlearners to see their progress, then it is clearly important forthem to be aware of what they are doing right. In addition, ifyou begin with positive feedback, you create a climate inwhich constructive correction can be more readily accepted.

It is worth remembering that some activities deserve to berepeated, following feedback. It may not be appropriate to do itagain immediately – there is the fatigue and familiarity factor to

how to … motivate higher level learners © Oxford University Press

how to … motivate higher level learners

take into account – but many groups appreciate the opportunityto try an activity again, possibly in a slightly different form,and some will become aware they are improving second timearound.

tutorialsOne potential drawback with class feedback is that much of itmay be in response to the contribution of the more vocalminority during activities. To balance this, you could try toorganize individual tutorials with everyone in the class, attimes in the lesson when the rest of the group are workingindividually or in pairs. Start with the learners who may getless of your attention in a normal lesson (in other words theless confident or less extrovert learners), and try to plan atimetable in which you can see each member of the group overa specific time period. Less extrovert learners will then have asmuch of your time as others, and on a one-to-one level may feelmore confident in talking to you about their progress. Analternative to individual tutorials is to organize tutorials withpairs or groups of three. However you organize them, youshould tell learners in advance, giving them time to thinkabout issues they want to discuss.

Tutorials have other potential advantages:

– they can help you to meet the learners’ needs moreeffectively

– they can give learners a stronger belief that you areinterested in them and their progress

– they can give you an opportunity to explain what you aredoing and why, and to answer their questions

– they can help to develop rapport

– they can help you to identify problems at an early stage, e.g.class dynamics, student dissatisfaction

– they give you feedback on your teaching.

On the debit side:

– they are very time-consuming

– they can be difficult to organize

– some learners are not used to this kind of one-to-onetutorial and may find it threatening

– you may hear things you don’t want to hear

– you may set up expectations which are difficult to meet

– what you learn may give you more work!

try it out preparing for tutorialsIf you are considering tutorials, it is a good idea to prepare aquestionnaire for the learners to complete. This will force themto think about the tutorial in advance, and gives you a startingpoint for the conversation. The one below is designed as a pairwork activity prior to a tutorial, but it could be doneindividually.The course so farWith a partner, try to remember:

• the grammar points we’ve looked at• the vocabulary areas we’ve looked at• some different kinds of speaking activities we’ve done

Now individually, think of:• something you enjoyed• something you learned from another student• something you didn’t enjoy

Tell your partner.What about you? Have you …

• done enough English homework?• used English as much as possible out of class?• participated enough in class?• tried to use what you’ve learned?

Look forward …• What would you like to do more of in class?• What language areas do you need to practise more?• How can you help yourself more?• Any questions or worries?

Maggie Baigent, Bologna, Italy

try it out learner diariesAsk learners to buy a little notebook. In it, they write a fewthoughts on a regular basis. This could be at the end of eachlesson, or each week, depending on how often their classes are.They should write personally to you, and they can writewhatever they like:

• about their progress in English• any queries they have about English• how they feel in the class• what they like / don’t like doing in class• what they are doing outside class to improve their

English.They don’t need to write at great length, and you should notcorrect their English unless they specifically ask you to. Collectin these diaries regularly (take a few at a time, so that youdon’t have to respond to the whole class at once) and write inresponse to their comments and queries. These diaries can giveyou a great deal of insight and can enable you to helpindividuals where possible.

self-assessmentLearners can benefit a great deal from class feedback andindividual tutorials, but they also need to develop the ability tosee progress for themselves. We have tried to nurture this innatural English by getting learners to reflect on their ownperformance at the end of the extended speaking activities,e.g.

test yourself!How well do you think you did the extendedspeaking? Mark the line.

0 10

Many learners will be unfamiliar with this form of self-assessment, especially on something as subjective as freespeaking, but we hope that it will have a positive effect onprogress. The exact nature of the scoring system is largelyirrelevant; the important point is that it is clear and concrete, solearners have a system by which they can compare oneperformance with another.

© Oxford University Press

how to … motivate higher level learners

3 Materials, activities, and approaches

interest and varietyEvery teacher wants to feel that the materials and activities theyuse with their learners are going to be appropriate, engaging,and productive, but this is particularly true with higher levellearners who through years of study may have become jadedwith the same activities. There is certainly a challenge for youas a teacher: firstly, to capture your learners’ interest andsecondly, to keep their interest. Clearly, it is necessary to have

– variety of activity type

– variety of focus (from pair and group work to individualwork, to class discussion, use of video, reading, etc.)

– variety of pace.

At a broader level, learners (and teachers) need variety bothwithin the coursebook and beyond it. For instance, if you areexploiting your student’s book in different ways, adapting itwhere necessary to your class’s needs, using the suggestionsfrom ideas plus in the teacher’s book and creating your ownways of using the material, you can make your lessons morevaried. Just as important, however, is to include lessons orparts of lessons where the coursebook is not used, and whereyou work from your learners’ expressed interests and requests(more of this later, in the section on topics and tasks on p.157).You can provide variety and tailor the lessons to your class bymaking use of supplementary materials, topical authentic textsfrom newspapers, TV and radio, and of course, your ownmaterials. Let us now look at ways of exploiting such texts.

think! 2

1 Read this summary of a text you are going to use with higherlevel learners. Can you think of three pre-reading and threepost-reading activities which would be suitable for use with thistext? Note them down, then read on.Cupid GamesThe text is about a TV documentary series in which singlepeople who are looking for a partner are found potential ‘blinddates’ by family members or groups of friends. In one episode,Danny Kingsley, 39-year-old divorced father of two, agrees tolet his father and eldest son choose a potential partner for him,and two of his friends also choose him a date. He goes on dateswith each new partner and then gives his verdict on theirchoices.2 Now look at these suggested pre-reading and post-readingactivities.Which do you think would best suit the text? Why?Which would best suit your higher level learners? Why?Which way(s) would you not normally use, but would beprepared to try?Possible pre-reading activities

– a song related to the theme, e.g. All by myself– a short video extract, e.g. Blind Date, a programme where

people find a new partner. If there is a similar programmewhere you teach, you could use it with the sound turneddown, and ask learners to imagine what the participantsare saying.

– a vocabulary brainstorm on relationships, e.g. a blinddate, have sth in common

– a short questionnaire about blind dates

Possible post-reading activities– personalization, e.g. learners work in small groups and

discuss the following: Which family members and friendswould you nominate to find you a new partner?What kind of person would your family or friends choosefor you?Who would choose the best partner, do you think?

– discussion, e.g. about arranged marriages or datingagencies

– role play, e.g. meeting someone on a blind date

a diagnostic approachGiven that higher level learners have different gaps in theirknowledge, and that some learners feel that they have ‘seen itall before’, one strategy you can use is a diagnostic approach:learners complete an exercise or perform a task, and youobserve how well they do it. What are they handling well?What are they making mistakes with? In response, youconcentrate only on the language or skills that proved difficult,rather than assuming that everything is unknown. Thisapproach can also help learners to see the difference betweenwhat they already know and what they still need to learn. Hereare a few examples.

– Learners do a communication activity such as a role play (ajob interview, for instance) with no pre-teaching. Theteacher monitors and takes notes, or the role plays can betape-recorded or video-recorded and analysed. The teacherthen decides what needs to be learnt: vocabulary, greetingand welcoming interviewees, asking questions, takingturns, etc. He / she then teaches or revises the relevantareas in class, and learners do a parallel role play to see howthey have progressed.

– Learners are given a short diagnostic test on a languagepoint they have not fully grasped, e.g. used to do versus beused to doing. Gap-fills, spot the errors, complete thesentences, or sentence transformations can be used. As inthe example above, the teacher goes over the exercise andtakes the opportunity to teach or explain only the pointswhich proved difficult for the class, rather than assumingthat nothing is known.

– Dictogloss / grammar dictation (see intermediate teacher’sbook, p.146). A short text such as the advertisement inupper-intermediate student’s book unit three p.37 wouldbe suitable. As learners compare their version of the textwith the original and perhaps find new language, orlanguage used in unexpected ways, they are able to noticegaps in their knowledge.

– Learner explanations, e.g. learners are asked to explain thedifference between pairs of items which differ in terms ofstructure, meaning, style, or pronunciation. This informsthe teacher of any gaps in their knowledge, which can befilled in by other learners, or by you if necessary. At thislevel, learners have a wider range of language and are moreproficient at defining, explaining, or paraphrasing. This notonly sets learners a challenge, but values their contributionsto the class. This strategy is particularly useful in thiscontext where learners within each class have differentgaps in their knowledge.

© Oxford University Press

how to … motivate higher level learners

topicsLearners who have been studying English for years and havecovered many of the basic topics such as holidays, work, health,etc. in their coursebooks may well feel reluctant to revisit theseareas. It is therefore important at this level to find new topics or tofind new angles on familiar topics. Above all, we recommend thatyou consult your learners on the topics they would like to explore.

think!3

You want to find out which topics your class are interested in.How could you do this? How could you use this information?

go to answer key p.159

Beyond the coursebook, you also have available to you a rangeof topical issues from the real world, which can be accessed vianewspapers, the Internet, TV and radio, e.g. the World Service.Even if you cannot obtain a wide range of English languagepapers or programmes in monolingual contexts, there is newson the Internet, and cable TV is widespread. Even material inthe learners’ mother tongue can be used as a springboard.

tasks– With language tasks, length and complexity can play a part

in motivating higher level learners: extended speakingactivities, discussions, role plays, and simulations all allowlearners the time and opportunity to become absorbed inthe activity and have a longer period of practice in English.

– Tasks often work well at this level when they are open-ended and provide the opportunity for learners to takethings in their own direction. As a result, different groupswill have different outcomes, and they will be moremotivated to hear about each others’ results. In our data forthe Nasty Neighbours extended speaking activity, forinstance, groups produced widely differing scenarios sincethey had chosen different characters from the photos,different locations, and different disputes. They were all veryinterested and often amused to hear each others’ stories.

go to upper-intermediate student’s book, p.100

– Finally, there is one way in which you can affect the degreeof difficulty in activities: time pressure. If you give learnerstime to plan and rehearse an activity, it will be easier forthem than if they have to do it in a spontaneous andunrehearsed fashion. To increase the level of challenge, givethem less time to prepare.

learning through EnglishLearners at this level are often very motivated in class whenthey are learning facts and skills through the medium of asecond language, for instance, reading or listening texts whichgive them facts or insights. Equally, peer presentations wherelearners talk about their jobs, hobbies, or anything else ofinterest may provide relevant and interesting input, andEnglish simply becomes a channel for this. Our experience isthat higher level learners are motivated to develop skills suchas how to give a good presentation or how to conduct a successfulinterview, which can have benefits beyond the classroom.

This is an issue that you may wish to think about when youchoose your own texts for classroom use: will the content tellyour learners something new that will be interesting for them?

4 The role of the learner

consulting your learnersThe extent to which teachers consult their learners on whatthey want or need to learn, and how they want to learn it,varies enormously. At higher levels, however, many teachersfind that their learners have more divergent needs and they alsohave the ability to express them. Consequently, consultationtends to be more widespread. Learners may want more say inthe choice of topics, but they may also wish to make clear thetypes of activities they prefer and how they want to spend theclassroom time. This information can be gathered throughinformal discussion, individual or group questionnaires, andindividual tutorials, as mentioned above. The information youreceive will enable you to make adjustments to your timetableand your use of your coursebook; supplementing, rejecting, oradapting material where appropriate. You may decide todedicate specific, regular class time to ’requests’, eitherparticular language points or skills in which learners expressan interest. Indeed, if the language points are not toocomplicated, you could ask learners to research them, and‘present’ them to the class. This may make the language pointsmore memorable and provide a different focus.

project workMany teachers like to involve upper-intermediate learners inproject work; this can be extremely motivating when the focusof the project is well-chosen, and can encourage learners to usea range of skills. Producing a class website, a newsletter, or avideo can be an excellent way to involve everyone, and becausethese activities have a clear outcome or product, they give asense of achievement, not to mention something to show totheir peers or family.

Want to know more? Read Project Work, Diana Fried-Booth (OUP).

English outside the classroomIn addition to learner involvement within the class, there isenormous potential at this level for learners to continue usingEnglish beyond the classroom. Training in the use ofmonolingual dictionaries in class time will enable andhopefully encourage learners to use dictionaries when theyneed them outside. They can also make use of the constantlygrowing sources of entertainment and information on TV andthe Internet as well as in books, newspapers, and magazines.

try it outMy upper-intermediate class meets three times a week. At thebeginning of the year, we had a lesson where we brainstormedthe different sources of English outside class: films, TV, satelliteTV, Internet websites, music, newspapers and magazines, etc.Learners then agreed that once a month, a lesson or part of alesson would become a ‘recommendations swapshop’. Eachlearner would briefly talk about something they had done inEnglish that they would recommend to the group – an English-speaking film, a website, or whatever. Sometimes this is done asa mingling activity, and sometimes as a group discussion.Learners make a note of other people’s recommendations tofollow up themselves.Hedda, Belgium

© Oxford University Press

how to … motivate higher level learners

5 The language syllabusAt the upper-intermediate level, learners will meet some newgrammar, e.g. the future continuous and/or the future perfect,or possibly the past conditional and/or mixed conditionals. Tosome extent though, ‘new’ grammar does taper off at this level,and much of the syllabus consists of consolidating and refininglearners’ knowledge and use of grammar introduced at pre-intermediate and intermediate levels. This often results in amore global approach: past simple, past continuous, and pastperfect are brought together under the heading ‘narrative’tenses; passives are analysed across a wide range of tenseforms; different ways of expressing the future are contrasted,and so on. As language choice increases, so does the level ofchallenge, but for some learners, the fact that the names remainlargely the same gives them a sense that they’ve seen it all anddone it all before.

improving accuracyYou may need to counteract this perception by pointing outexactly why you are bringing together different language formsin this way. Choosing the correct structure where many formsare available is a true test of language accuracy, and this is oneof the major challenges at this level. Many can now speakreasonably fluently, but producing accurate English in realtime is hard. This was evident throughout our research data, asthe two extracts below show. Both are taken from recordings oflearners doing the extended speaking activity in unit elevenpp.134 to 135, and both show that the learners were able tointeract quite freely and fluently in English and express quitecomplex ideas. If there is a weakness, it is that their level offluency is not yet matched by a comparable degree of accuracy,and indeed, that their accuracy is erratic. They can get astructure right in one utterance, and then get it wrong in thenext. There are a lot of errors which the learners could easilycorrect for themselves if they were monitoring their speechmore carefully.

think!4

Look at the extracts below. Can you find two examples of:1 incorrect forms of past modals2 the wrong modal verb being used3 past participles not being used4 the wrong lexical item5 lack of direct object

Learners read and then discuss a case study about two friends,one of whom borrows money from the other for his wedding,and then can’t pay him back.extract 1

A For me the first problem maybe was that Jeff shouldn’thave borrow to Christopher so much money, because maybehe knows that he couldn’t return the money, and maybe thesituation it’s normal, because they are friends but he has tothink about if he couldn’t returned the money.

B Yeah, but I think he shouldn’t have promised what he willpay the next month, because both of them known what he’snot very well with money.

C The problem is not that. I think that the problem is Jeff,no Christopher shouldn’t have acted like that, he’s hisfriend, and he knows that anyway he’s gonna get themoney back.

A Sorry? Anyway …?C He’s gonna get the money anyway, so longer time maybe or

he might have …B No, but for the moment … he promised what I pay you

back in a month.C If he has like problems, or economic problems or he has

just buy a new house or something, he can pay now.A Yes, but are you sure that this money will be return?C I don’t know.

extract 2A What was the first problem and who was responsible?B For me it was Jeff because he want to marry without

money, and maybe the wedding reception …A The problem was he wanted to do a wedding reception very

expensive.C He couldn’t afford it.A And if you know you can’t pay after, you have not to

organize.D Personally I think …C Would you be able to say ‘no’?A No, I couldn’t.C You know that it’s a mistake?D I don’t know, I don’t think so, not mistake, personally,

sometimes people would like to have big ceremony forwedding.

C Yes, but if you can’t afford it, you just can’t do it, because…

D But Christopher at the time think that …C He could pay, yes.D Yes.A But it wasn’t a sure thing, he wasn’t sure of it. If he wasn’t

sure of financial condition, he would have think of it.D But I think that Jeff have no responsible because Jeff

believe can repay, pay back to Christopher at the time.

from natural English upper-intermediate research data

go to answer key p.159

We believe that most learners at this level want feedback onaccuracy, and have now reached a level where they are morecapable of assimilating rules of use. At lower levels, there is somuch to worry about that learners should be happy just tonegotiate their way towards achieving a communicative aim,without feeling that it has to be accomplished without makinga single mistake. It’s not dissimilar to driving. For a learnerdriver, getting from A to B without mishap is the first priority;worrying about how smooth the gear changes are comes later.So too with language learning. It is only when learners arealready reasonably fluent that they are in a position to refinetheir knowledge and skills to incorporate more subtle aspectsof the language with greater accuracy.

expanding lexisAnother major area of challenge at this level is lexis

1. Here the

scope is endless, so it is an aspect of language developmentwhich should be very motivating. Higher level learners shouldbe trying to expand both their receptive and productivevocabulary. Receptive vocabulary needs to be increased inorder for learners to cope with the demands of longer, moreauthentic spoken and written texts. Productively, this is the

lexis1 go to glossary for numbered items p.159

© Oxford University Press

how to … motivate higher level learners

level at which learners should aim to become less reliant on avery small range of basic words and phrases, and startexpanding their knowledge of more specific items. Rather thanrelying on good to describe a meal, a play, a moment, acompanion, an idea, or a cook, they will communicate moreeffectively by choosing the appropriate adjective: a deliciousmeal, a thrilling play, a suitable moment, a delightful companion, abrilliant idea, or a skilful cook. And of course, an important areafor development is the number and length of lexical phrasesthey can use. Here is an example from the student’s book.

from upper-intermediate student’s book, p.53

Want to know more about vocabulary issues? Go to how to …develop lexis at higher levels p.160.

conclusionIn this chapter, we have looked at:

– some reasons why higher level learners often experiencedips in motivation

– some strategies to combat this, e.g. giving constructivefeedback, organizing one-to-one or pair tutorials, andencouraging self-assessment, which all help learners to seetheir own progress

– ways in which you can gain and keep the interest of higherlevel learners, e.g. choosing materials with a high degree ofinterest and variety, using a diagnostic approach, involvinglearners in the choice of topics and tasks, and givinglearners the opportunity to learn new facts and skills whichmay be useful outside the classroom

– aspects of language that learners generally need to improveon at this level, e.g. improving accuracy and expandinglexis.

answer keythink!3 p.157How could you find out which topics your group are interested in?In small groups, learners could brainstorm topics which interestthem, perhaps given a framework of hobbies, entertainment, work,social / political issues. Alternatively, you could give learners a listof topics (based on coursebook topics perhaps) and ask them to rankthem in order of interest.

How could you use this information?You may then decide to allocate time on a regular basis to thesetopics if they are not in your coursebook. Set up discussions basedon questions generated by the learners themselves, bring in reading /listening texts for discussion, use the topics as the basis of learnerpresentations: short five-minute talks leading to group discussion.

think!4 p.158 possible answers1 shouldn’t have borrowed; would have think it (should be

thought, but the meaning is also wrong – see 2).2 He has to think about it should be He should have thought

about it; you have not to organize should be you shouldn’torganize it; would have think of it should be should havethought about it;

3 borrow, return, buy, think4 borrow should be lend: Jeff shouldn’t have lent Christopher the

money; economic problems should be financial problems;financial conditions should be financial situation; have noresponsible should be is irresponsible.

5 think about it, organize it.

glossary

lexis1 / vocabulary We use these terms interchangeably to mean the

words or phrases of a language, rather than its grammar.Traditionally, however, vocabulary has been largely viewed asconsisting of individual words.

follow upHarmer J 2001 The Practice of English Language Teaching Longman

(chapter 3 section C on motivation)Williams M Motivation in Language Learning in English Teaching

Professional (October 1999)Littlejohn A Motivation: Where does it come from? Where does it go?

in English Teaching Professional (April 2001)Lewis M 2000 Teaching Collocation LTP (Lewis emphasizes the

importance of lexical phrases or pre-fabricated chunks, and alsodiscusses accuracy and fluency with regard to level, pp.173–5)

2.4natural Englishmaking and responding to requests

These requests can be used in spoken or informalwritten English.

requestsI was wondering if you could ?

Do you think you could (possibly) ?

Is there any chance you could ?

responsesSure, .I’ll see what .

I’m afraid I can’t – .

Listen and fill the gaps. Practise the requests andresponses with a partner.

© Oxford University Press

how to … develop lexis at higher levels © Oxford University Press

1 Introduction2 Aspects of lexis

– modifying, extending, and commenting– teaching chunks– link words and phrases– awareness of style

3 Using spoken and written text4 Anticipating useful lexis5 Self-study

1 IntroductionBeginners need vocabulary, intermediate learners needvocabulary, advanced learners need vocabulary. In fact,whatever level a learner is at, vocabulary expansion is viewedas a high priority, and is often essential for progress to a higherlevel. But while the need for lexis remains constant, the type oflexis required may change. In order to survive andcommunicate basic messages, most low level learners needquite a lot of nouns, a range of common verbs, and a smallstock of fixed1

and semi-fixed expressions2which they can

produce automatically, e.g.

How are you? I think so. What does that mean?Never mind. Let’s go. No, that’s all.

Learning common collocations (a bad cold, black coffee, go touniversity, get a job) is also essential right from beginner level.

Want to know more about collocation and lexical phrases? Go to intermediate teacher’s book, how to … activate vocabulary p.136.

Once learners are able to meet their basic needs with ease anda reasonable degree of accuracy, they can start to concernthemselves more with other areas of vocabulary.

2 Aspects of lexisBy upper-intermediate level, learners should aim for more subtlenuances of meaning, they should be linking their thoughtstogether more clearly and cohesively, using the appropriatestyle when they speak or write, and, it goes with out saying,building up a more comprehensive bank of collocations andexpressions. Let’s consider these in more detail.

modifying, extending, and commentingAs learners progress, one important way in which they developis attaining greater fluency, and this in turn gives them thecapacity to express themselves in more complex ways, and atgreater length. One way you can assist them is to introducelexis which builds on what they know and will enable them to(1) modify, (2) extend, and (3) comment on what they aresaying.

1 The example below takes expressions that intermediatelearners already know and use (I’m (not) sure, I don’t reallyknow), but slots in modifiers common in spoken English(pretty and too), as well as adding extensions (to be honest),and offering alternatives (I haven’t a clue), so that learnerscan express the same ideas more precisely, with a widerrange of language – and sound more natural.

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit two p.28

2 This second example below takes learners beyond theubiquitous I agree / I don’t agree, and provides them withvaried and natural ways of both agreeing with andchallenging other people’s opinions; in other words, itextends their range of expression.

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit three p.38

3 The final example on p.161 introduces phrases that learnerscan use to comment on and express their attitude to theinformation they are communicating.

how to … develop lexis at higher levels

fixed expressions1 go to glossary for numbered items p.166

2.4natural Englishsaying how sure you are

I’m (pretty) sure (about that).I don’t really know, to be honest.I’m not (too) sure (about that).I haven’t a clue. [

Listen and write the questions you hear. Practise the questions and answers with a

natural Englishagreeing with and challengingopinions

‘I think we should have more men than women on the island.’

agreeing challengingYes, that makes sense. Why do you say that?

that seems sensible. I can’t see the point of that.I think you’re right. I don’t see why.

Practise saying the phrases to yourself.

how to … develop lexis at higher levels

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit five p.60.

In our experience, learners find this quite challenging even atupper-intermediate level. This natural English box forms part ofan activity where learners have to describe a driving incidentaround a given framework, and have the opportunity toincorporate one or two expressions of expectation or surprise.The previous two natural English boxes also have associatedpractice activities.

think!1

Think of suitable language for upper-intermediate learners toextend or modify these sentences. The … indicates where youcan put the additional language.

1 (angrily) Where … have you been?2 (interrupting) … Can I speak to you?3 (accusing sb) That was … stupid … .4 It was … a … relief to get back home.

In these sentences, replace the underlined phrases with suitablealternatives for upper-intermediate level.

5 Can I speak to you?6 If I were you, I’d take the job.7 People came from every country.8 Can you watch my bags for one minute?

go to answer key p.166

teaching chunksAlmost all the examples so far in this chapter show vocabularybeing taught not through individual words, but as part of fixedexpressions, e.g. to be honest or semi-fixed expressions, e.g. to mysurprise / amazement. Presenting phrases will be an importantpart of vocabulary teaching at any level. At higher levelsthough, learners can obviously cope with longer chunks oflanguage, and they can explore new meanings and patterns offamiliar language. For example, upper-intermediate learnerswill all know the verb tell, but how many know and use it withthe meaning recognize, in the patterns given in the natural Englishbox opposite?

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit ten p.116.

One potential difficulty with teaching ‘chunks’, for bothteachers and learners, is that many consist of words that,individually, are all familiar to learners at this level, e.g.the other dayfor some reasonI’d find it hard to do thatit’s up to youI didn’t mean tohave a go

From a learning point of view, this should make such phrasesrelatively easy to master (there are no new forms to remember),but the danger is that learners will not recognize them as ‘new’vocabulary, or indeed, as vocabulary at all. This is a particularproblem with written text: the vocabulary items that learnersusually focus on are the individual words they don’t recognize,and some of these will probably be low frequency items oflittle long term value. You may find, therefore, that you willhave to take much of the responsibility for highlighting usefulphrases and lexical patterns, i.e. pointing them out in a text,checking that learners understand them, writing them on theboard, asking learners to repeat them and use them in othercontexts. If you are working with a monolingual group, it maybe enlightening to show your learners that they would beunlikely to put together many of these phrases accurately bytranslating from their first language. In other words, these arephrases that need to be learned as lexical items, just as learnersrecognize they need to learn collar, collapse, or conceited.

© Oxford University Press

natural Englishexpectation and surprise

Use these words and phrases for something that wasexpected to happen:

She passed her test, as you might expect.He kept going and inevitably /In"evIt@bli/ he ran out of petrol.

Use these phrases for something that was notexpected:

He ran across the road and, to my surprise/amazement, hethrew flowers at me.It was almost dark but, for some reason, he didn’t have hislights on.

6 Look at the phrases in the natural English box andcomplete the first example with a phrase from thetext.

natural Englishexpressions with tell (recognize)

a silk scarf and an acrylic one.I can’t tell one type of beer from another.Can you tell what someone’s nationality is, just by looking at them?Can you tell the difference between one type of mineral water and another?

In A/B pairs, ask / say something about:

A – decaffeinated coffee and ordinary coffee– someone lying or telling the truth– different brands of fruit juice– a crocodile and an alligator

B – different brands of pasta– someone’s job and their appearance– real leather and fake leather– good wine and cheap wine

how to … develop lexis at higher levels

think!2

Read the joke. Underline three individual words and three lexicalchunks which upper-intermediate learners may not know andmay find generally useful.

Two moose hunters from Texas are flown to a lake in Alaskain the middle of nowhere. They manage to kill a large mooseeach. When the plane returns to pick them up, the pilotlooks at them and says, ‘This little plane won’t lift all of us,the equipment and both those animals. You’ll have to leaveone behind. We’ll never make it over the trees to take off.’‘That’s baloney,’ says one of the hunters.‘Yeah, you’re just a coward. Last year we came out and killedtwo moose, and the pilot wasn’t afraid to take off!’The pilot gets angry and says, ‘Right! If he did it, then I cando it. I can fly as well as anyone!’They load up and start to take off. The plane almost makesit, but doesn’t manage to clear the trees at the end of thelake. It turns upside down, scattering the baggage, mooseand passengers all over the place.Still alive, the pilot looks up and says, ‘Where are we?’One of the hunters puts his head up, looks around and says,‘I’d say … about 100 metres further than last year!’

go to answer key p.166

link words and phrasesAt intermediate level and below, learners produce quite shortutterances which don’t usually require a wide range of linkingdevices. Even when link words are required, learners rarelyhave the knowledge or processing capacity to work out how touse them in real time. This becomes an issue at a higher levelwhen learner output is longer and more complex. Effectivelinking not only adds sophistication, it also helps learners tosound more natural and encourages the production of longer,more coherent chunks of language.

Traditionally, clause combination has often been left until thislevel, with the result that teachers may spend considerableamounts of time teaching adverbs of concession, e.g. however, inspite of, or addition, e.g. moreover, furthermore, and so on.

Want to know more? Go to Practical English Usage by Michael Swan pp.151 to 158.

If there has been a weakness here, it has been the concentrationon discourse markers

3which characterize written English, with

far less attention paid to those used predominantly in spokenEnglish. Both are likely to be important at this level, and iflearners can recognize a wide range of linking devices fromspoken and written English, this will help them to anticipatewhat is going to come up in the next part of the discourse

4. In

other words, there is a significant receptive pay-off for learners,in addition to their obvious value to learners as part of theirproductive vocabulary. Here is one exercise for you to do,which you could also use or adapt for your own learners.

think!3

How do you think these sentences might continue? What do thelink words in bold suggest?

1 We left the door key under the plant just in case______________________.

2 The lights were all blazing away even though________________________.

3 I don’t like his current girlfriend much. Mind you,_____________________.

4 I’m not going to the wedding – it’s too far away. Besides,_________________.

5 I asked my teenage son to tidy his room last night andpredictably, ___________.

6 I’ve lent him money twice before – the trouble is,______________________.

go to answer key p.166

There are also sequences of linkers which are used whenstructuring speech or writing, and these can often be appliedquite generatively. A simple example is this sequence:

First of all (I couldn’t find the car keys) …then to make matters worse (there were road works all the way)but worst of all, (by the time I got there the party was over).

Such frameworks can be used by learners to connect ideastogether and speak at greater length. Here is an example fromthe natural English box on p.87.

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit seven p.87.

awareness of styleAs learners become more proficient, an awareness of differentlevels of formality takes on greater significance. Even if most ofa learner’s language is reasonably fluent and accurate, errors ofstyle can create misunderstandings without the learner beingaware of it. Moreover, listeners do not always make allowancesfor errors of style and assume that someone with a good level ofEnglish ‘should know better’. We once witnessed a proficient,(and polite) young male tourist receive a very frosty look froman older, female bank cashier after the following exchange tookplace when the tourist was changing money.

cashier: How would you like the cash? (five-pound notes, etc.)tourist: I don’t mind, love.

The tourist had probably heard this term of endearment fromother shop assistants (it is quite common in British English),and assumed that by using it himself he might sound similarlywarm and friendly; sadly not the case.

natural Englishlinking reasons together

There are several reasons why I’d like the job/ I’d be good at the job.First of all, I’ve had experience in dealing with the public.Secondly, I’m very patient.And another thing is that I’m very fond of travelling.

2 Compare your ideas with your partner.

© Oxford University Press

how to … develop lexis at higher levels

spoken and written EnglishOne important stylistic contrast in British English is betweenthe various forms of the written and spoken language. If youare using a written text in class, you can point out to learnershow similar ideas might be expressed in spoken English. Thisnot only helps to develop their awareness of different styles,but also provides an opportunity to teach useful vocabulary, asin this example, where the learners have already encounteredthe formal verbs in a written text.

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit five p.63.

You can also ask learners to ‘translate’ some of the more formalparts of a text to make it more informal. Notices and warningsare a useful context here. You could ask learners how someonewould express the ideas in informal spoken English.

examplesmoking prohibited = You can’t smoke here.

1 no vacancies (= The hotel is full.)2 please tender exact fare and state destination (= Please give

the exact money (to the driver) and say where you aregoing.)

3 no exit (= You can’t get out here.)4 cyclists dismount here (= You have to get off your bike

here.)5 do not exceed the stated dose (= You mustn’t take more

medicine than it says on the packet.)

It is useful to point out to learners the information on style indictionaries, as this will enable them to check new items forstyle and note it down as they learn them. You can give yourclass a set of lexical items covering a range of styles, e.g. formal,informal, neutral. Here is an example:

1 Put the words and phrases under the correct heading,according to style. Use a dictionary to check youranswers.inherit (money) bequeath sth to sb be rolling (inmoney)be hard up remuneration be well-offpurchase pricey invest

more formal neutral more informal

go to answer key p.166

3 Using spoken and written textFor many teachers, the most obvious source of new lexis is text.This is particularly true at higher levels when learners canhandle longer authentic texts, and these often provide a richsource of input. This new lexis has the virtue of beingcontextualized, and there should be a high degree ofmotivation on the learners’ part to understand lexis that formspart of an interesting text (less so perhaps if the text is dull).

learner choiceIn addition to any lexis you choose to highlight for yourlearners, it is a good idea to give them some time to explore thetext for themselves. Learners have different needs and interests,and by this level will also have different vocabularies; wordsand phrases familiar to some learners will be new to others.Restrict learners to checking a limited number of items in class,e.g. two to four, and set a time limit in order to focus theirattention. Move round the class giving assistance where necessary.

using tapescriptsTexts are often assumed to be written. However, you should bespending just as much time – in some cases more – on spokentext, otherwise your learners will be getting a very unbalancedlexical diet. Understanding new lexis while you listen isneither practical nor indeed possible in many instances, butafter exploiting a spoken text for the development of differentlistening skills, you can make very good use of the tapescript.We have done this extensively in natural English, as somelexical features are more common in spoken English. Here is anexample of working from a tapescript, after the learners havelistened to the passage several times and completedcomprehension tasks.

a Circle all the examples of so, anyway, and so anyway.Why are they used? Check with the natural English box on p.59of the student’s book.

b Find phrases in the tapescript which mean:

1 he spent the night2 he couldn’t get the car to go3 to his surprise4 I imagine he was very angry5 he had no alternative6 as you can imagine

from upper-intermediate listening booklet p.19.

text search activitiesThere are many different kinds of text search activity that youcan do with written and spoken texts to help learners withlexis. Here are a few examples:

– Find a word / phrase in the text which means the same as… (Wait a minute! / What’s the matter? / It’s easy to find)

– Circle all the words and phrases in the text which relate to… (money / friendship / sleep, etc.)

– Complete these common phrases, then compare with thephrases in the tapescript.(I’d had a very late ______; I ______ asleep straightaway; I sleptlike a ______; I forgot to set the ______)

– Circle all the examples of anyway / so anyway, i.e. a spokenor written connector in the text. What do they mean, andwhen are they used?

natural Englishspoken v. written English

We tend to use phrasal verbs and idioms more inspoken English. In written English, there’s often amore formal equivalent.

more formal more informalYour telephone has Our phone’s beenbeen disconnected. .

They abolished the They old system. the old system.

The boy was reprimanded Joe was by the teacher. by the teacher.

Fill the gaps with these phrasal verbs.

got rid of told off cut off

© Oxford University Press

how to … develop lexis at higher levels

– Transform these sentences. The meaning must stay thesame. Then check in the text to find the transformations,e.g.It will have a big effect on people’s lives.It will make _________________________________________.(a big difference to people’s lives)We’ll give you the information you need.We’ll tell you _________________________________________.(whatever you need to know)

– Find examples of … e.g. phrases which show that someoneis listening with interest; phrases which show that thelistener is surprised / doesn’t believe the speaker, etc.

4 Anticipating new lexisTexts are not the only vehicle for a focus on lexis; an alternativeapproach is to plan speaking activities for the lesson which youthink will be of interest to your learners, then anticipate someof the vocabulary that you think will be relevant and useful forthe activity, and present it beforehand. If you aren’t sure whatthis language might be, you could do a ‘practice run’ yourselfwith another teacher, if possible record it, then make a note ofthe vocabulary you used.

Want to know more? Go to intermediate teacher’s book, how to …do free speaking (try it out) p.164.

Using this approach, learners will have an immediateopportunity to practise, consolidate, and recycle the newvocabulary. Here is an example of this type of pro-activevocabulary work in wordbooster unit five.

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit five, p.61.

The activity is very controlled, so using the target languageshould not be difficult. At the same time, new language ispersonalized and learners have an opportunity for creativeoutput by sharing each other’s knowledge and experience.

think!4

You are planning to do the activity below in which learners willneed to express their willingness (or not) to do these things.What phrases might you pre-teach them?

2 Think! Which of these would you be prepared todo in your free time? Put a tick ✓ , a cross ✗ , or‘maybe’.

– Help a child who has problems with reading.

– Take an elderly person’s dog for a walk two or threetimes a week.

– Give up a weekend to clear waste land which willbe used for a children’s playground.

– Take a small group of teenagers camping for aweekend.

– Babysit three small noisy children regularly for aneighbour.

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit seven p.82

go to answer key p.166

1 Fill the gaps with an appropriate verb. Sometimes morethan one is possible.

cheat fail take get through doprepare sit come up turn up bluffgo on retake pass take place make a mess of

2 With a partner, ask and answer the questions.

the written exam5 Do you have to a written exam as well as a

practical one?

6 Is there a specific book you have to use to forthe written exam? Do you think that’s a good idea?

7 What kinds of questions are likely to in theexam? Do you think the questions are sensible?

8 If you manage to the written, can youto the practical straight afterwards? Or does

the practical exam come first?

9 Is it possible to your way through it if youdon’t know the answers?

the driving testin your country

the practical test1 Where does the practical test usually ?

2 If you for the test a few minutes’ late, are youstill allowed to it?

3 If (unfortunately) you the test, how long doyou have to wait before you can it? Do youthink that’s about right?

4 Do people ever in the test?

© Oxford University Press

how to … develop lexis at higher levels

5 Self-studyAs learners become more proficient, they should find it easierto improve their English and expand their vocabulary outsideclass. For example, they can

– read books and magazines written in English

– make effective use of ELT monolingual dictionaries

– listen to cassettes and CDs in English

– listen to the lyrics of songs recorded in English

– watch films in English or follow films with English subtitles

– watch one or more of the increasing number of TV channelsin English that are available around the world, e.g. CNN

– use the Internet (reading websites and using opportunitiesto chat on-line

– join English-speaking clubs in many cities around the world.

In theory, these sources are available to everyone, but for lowerlevel learners it is very difficult to benefit from input that is along way above their own level. Upper-intermediate learnersshould have the knowledge and confidence to be able to takeadvantage of these sources, but to do this successfully – in somecases, to do it at all – they will probably need encouragement,and some learners will also need training, which starts in class.

using dictionariesWe have discussed the importance and value of making use ofdictionaries in another chapter, and you will also find regularactivities in wordbooster in the student’s book, which isdesigned to teach learners about dictionary features and givethem practice in using them. It is also important for learners tokeep effective records of the new vocabulary they encounter,otherwise many of these items will be forgotten very quickly.

Want to know more? Go to how to … use dictionaries with learners p.174.

keeping vocabulary recordsThere is no single correct way to keep vocabulary records:ultimately, the best system is the one the learner feelscomfortable with and is willing to maintain. If possiblethough, we think it will help learners to incorporate some ofthe following suggestions:

– Keep records in a book that is easy to carry around (andhave more than one book).

– Divide the book into sections so that the lexis is organizedand learners can easily retrieve items they need, e.g. havepages for specific topics, or for verbs followed by a particularpreposition, and so on. In some cases, it will be valuable toenter items in more than one place.

– Make a note of the key information about items: the item,the part of speech, the pronunciation, the meaning (inEnglish, or in the mother tongue), and an example showinghow the word is typically used. You will need todemonstrate to learners how to do this.

get away with sth (v) do sth wrong, but not be caught orpunishedPeople drive above the speed limit and most get away with it.

flood (v/n) /fl d/ inundar, inundaciónThe floods in the south have made thousands homeless.

v

– Remember that lexis consists of phrases as well asindividual words, and in both cases always include the newitems in typical examples alongside other words that oftencombine with them.

examplesaware She isn’t even aware of the problem.get on sb’s nerves That noise is really getting on mynerves.

– Try to make the book look interesting, e.g. use pictures ordiagrams so that pages are more eye-catching and itemsstand out.

Without being too dogmatic, you can obviously look at therecords your learners are keeping and give advice where youfeel it is appropriate. You can also get learners to look at eachothers’ notes for ideas.

learning outside classTo encourage your learners to carry on learning outside class,you can use or adapt this simple activity.

try it out learn a word / phrase and teach itI did this on a regular basis with higher level students I taughtduring a vocabulary option class.Between each lesson (they had one every day for a month), Iasked each student to find one new word or phrase (from abook, TV, Internet, or wherever). The only conditions were thatit had to be, in their view, useful and relevant, and they had tobe able to explain it and give clear examples of its use. At thestart of the lesson they would then mingle and explain theiritem and learn others. I set a time limit to focus the learners,but I was also flexible with this if the group was clearlyengaged in the activity and useful lexical items were beingcirculated.At first, one or two students forgot to do it, and several otherschose words or phrases that weren’t very useful. However,within a week of persevering with this, students rarely forgot,and the quality of the lexis they introduced improved as timewent on. They were motivated to learn other people’s items aswell as teach their own, and it also provided them with a lot ofgenuine interaction and practice in explaining andparaphrasing.I kept a record of all the items brought to class and gave thestudents short revision tests on the lexis (usually orally) everyfew days.Stuart, London.

Again, in theory, you can do this with any level, but it doeswork more effectively with higher level learners who have theability to explain and paraphrase quite effectively; with lowerlevels it can become frustrating if they don’t have the languageto explain new items satisfactorily.

© Oxford University Press

how to … develop lexis at higher levels

conclusionIn this chapter we have looked at

– how we can help upper-intermediate learners to expressthemselves in more complex ways, and at greater lengthusing natural English expressions, chunks, and link wordsand phrases

– the importance of style at this level, and differencesbetween written and spoken English

– the use of spoken and written text as a major source of newlexis, e.g. exploiting spoken texts by doing text searchactivities using the tapescript

– a pro-active approach to vocabulary work which involvesplanning speaking activities and anticipating the vocabularywhich will be necessary to accomplish the activity

– ways of training upper-intermediate learners to expandtheir vocabulary outside the classroom, by for instance,improving dictionary use and record keeping.

answer keythink!1 p.1611 on earth; the hell (informal, and may be offensive)2 Sorry to bother you.3 really / very / incredibly; of you4 such; great / huge5 have a word with you6 in your shoes, in your position7 all over the world8 keep an eye on

think!2 p.162individual words: hunter, coward, scatterLearners will probably seize on moose and baloney, although neitheris very useful beyond this text.chunks: in the middle of nowhere = somewhere remote; leave sthbehind, (learners would probably say leave sth); make it = succeed inreaching a place (or one’s goal); (turn) upside down (there is noother way to express this idea as clearly as this phrase); all over theplace = everywhere

think!3 p.1621 (just) in case signals the possibility of an event happening, so it

could finish like this: the children arrived home before us.2 even though suggests that the rest of the clause will be in

contrast or against what one might expect, e.g. nobody was athome.

3 Mind you indicates you are going to say something which is theopposite of what you have just said, e.g. she’s better than the lastone.

4 Besides signals an addition of an extra fact or reason in this case,e.g. I’ve got too much work to do at the moment.

5 predictably indicates the speaker’s attitude, i.e. true to character,he hasn’t tidied it yet.

6 the trouble is warns the listener that a negative point will follow,e.g. he never pays it back, or I’m a bit short of money myself at themoment.

1 p.163more formal bequeath, remuneration, purchaseneutral inherit, be well-off, investmore informal be rolling in money, be hard up, pricey

think!4 p.164This language is from a natural English box in upper-intermediatestudent’s book, unit seven p.82.I’d be willing / prepared to do that.I wouldn’t mind doing that.I’d be (a bit) reluctant to do that.I’d find it (a bit) hard to do that.

glossary

a fixed expression1 An expression in which the individual words

combine with a special meaning and these words cannot bechanged, e.g. never mind not never care; the tip of the iceberg notthe top of the iceberg or the top of an iceberg; a red herring not areddish herring.

a semi-fixed expression2 An expression which allows a limited

degree of change, e.g. it’s up to you / him / her, have a nice day /swim / meal.

discourse markers3 Words and expressions which in different ways

show how the discourse develops and is constructed, e.g. As I wassaying, relates to something that was said before; however, signalsand emphasizes a contrast; by the way …, indicates a change ofsubject.

discourse4 Pieces of language which are longer than a sentence.

follow upSwan M 1995 (second edition) Practical English Usage Oxford

University PressLewis M 1997 Implementing the Lexical Approach LTPLewis M 2000 Teaching Collocation LTPMcCarthy M 1990 Vocabulary Oxford University Press

© Oxford University Press

how to … teach reading

1 How do we read?2 Key skills in reading3 Exploiting a text4 Choosing your own texts5 Extensive reading

1 How do we read?Reading can be divided into two categories: reading that takesplace inside the classroom, and reading that happens outsidethe classroom. With the former, texts are usually (but notexclusively) chosen by you, the teacher, and they normallyhave specific learning goals, which might be one or more of thefollowing:

– to develop specific reading skills

– to teach language contained in the text

– to act as a springboard for other skills activities.

Given the limited amount of classroom time available, textswill necessarily be kept quite short, and the reading will beboth concentrated and intensive. In contrast, reading outsideclass will probably include some longer texts which can beread in a more leisurely way, and often just for pleasure withno accompanying task. This is sometimes referred to asextensive reading.

We will consider how you can influence your learners’extensive reading in the final section (see p.172), but much ofthis chapter will be devoted to the exploitation of texts and thedevelopment of reading skills inside the classroom.

2 Key skills in readingThe ability to read efficiently involves the application ofvarious skills, and knowing when it is appropriate to use eachone. In this section, we look at

– background knowledge

– prediction

– skimming and scanning

– contextual guesswork

– interpreting a text.

In section 3, Exploiting a text (see p.169), you will find relatedpractical teaching ideas.

background knowledgeLanguage learners often suppose the only difficulty in readinga second language is in getting to grips with a new language.In fact, understanding a text often entails more than justunderstanding the language. Familiarity with the text type, e.g.newspaper articles, advertisements, business letters, novels,e-mails, etc. plus the topic of the text itself, and sometimes thewriter’s culture and way of life, are all factors that cansignificantly influence our understanding of what we read.

think!1

Irrespective of language, what might make the following Britishtexts easier or more difficult to understand?

– a newspaper article about a forthcoming referendum– a report on the first day’s play of the latest test match– a joke in a magazine– some examples of teenage text messages– a summary of last week’s episodes of a soap opera– a poem

go to answer key p.173

activating schemataThe different knowledge that we bring to a text is calledschemata1, and it is vital that learners activate the relevantschemata when they approach a text, and don’t become sopreoccupied with language that they overlook this importantelement. It is equally true, of course, that if learners don’tpossess the relevant schemata, they are likely to encounter fargreater difficulty with the text. That is something you need tobe aware of when selecting or exploiting texts in class. Forexample, a referendum might be a concept that requires carefulexplanation for learners from some cultures before they canmake any sense of a text on the subject. For Swiss learners,however, referenda are a very familiar part of their culture, sothe text will be more transparent.

predictionIf learners are able to use their background knowledge torecognize the text type and topic, they may be able to go on andpredict much of the content of the text. As they read, theirguesses will prove to be either right or wrong. If a person cando this regularly – particularly where their predictions aremostly confirmed – they not only read faster and moreefficiently, but also get positive feedback from their reading,which in turn, encourages them to read more. If the reader isnot able to predict or doesn’t try to do so, reading will beslower and more difficult. As a result the reader may becomedemotivated and read less. In practical terms, this means:

– encourage prediction with your learners, regardless ofnationality

– guide their predictions so that they are more likely to beaccurate

– recognize that some cultures will find this particularlydifficult, and will therefore need more cultural /background information before they read.

There are practical suggestions for prediction on p.169.

If a text contradicts our expectations, that is also significant andwill probably influence the way we read the text. For one thingit means the content is surprising and possibly moreinteresting, but it may also signal key information that thereader needs to process more carefully and attentively.

schemata1 go to glossary for numbered items p.173

how to … teach reading© Oxford University Press

how to … teach reading

think!2

Read this opening to a text. What would you expect to comenext?

DIETING UNDER STRESSBy ROS CRUM

This diet is designed to help you cope with the stress thatbuilds up during the day.

BREAKFASTHalf a grapefruit, 1 slice wholemeal toast, 3 oz. skimmedmilk.

Your knowledge of food and dieting will obviously influenceyour predictions here, but most of you will probably haveanticipated information about a fairly frugal lunch, possiblycontaining fish, pulses, vegetables, and /or salad. In fact, thenext line is as follows:

LUNCH4 oz. steamed chicken, 1 portion of spinach, 1 cup ofherbal tea, 1 chocolate biscuit.

Did you predict the chocolate biscuit? Why not? How has thisnow changed your perception of what text type this may be,and what might come next? Think about it for a minute or two,then compare your ideas with the rest of the text in the answerkey.

go to answer key p.173

skimming and scanningSometimes we want or need to read a text very quickly in orderto get a general idea of what it is about (the gist of the text), butwithout worrying too much about the finer details. This isknown as skimming, and it is an important skill as it helps usto become faster and more efficient readers. We may decideafter skimming the text that it warrants a second reading to getmore detailed information; otherwise we can move on withoutspending unnecessary time on it.

A different skill involves reading through a text in order to findvery specific information. In this case, the reader ignores muchof the information simply because it isn’t relevant to theirreason for reading the text in the first place. This is known asscanning, and it would be the normal way we approachreading a bus or rail timetable; searching for information aboutthe specific bus or train we want to catch.

With some texts, we need to use both of these readingstrategies. For example, you might read this chapter quickly toget the gist of it, then come back to it later and scan it for aspecific piece of information or reader activity that you vaguelyremember from your first reading.

contextual guessworkEven native speakers of a language come across words andphrases in their reading that they don’t recognize orunderstand. In such circumstances, they can:

1 look up the meaning in a dictionary

2 guess the meaning for themselves using the context andpossibly the form of the word itself

3 ignore the item and read on in the hope or belief that itsmeaning isn’t crucial to an understanding of the text.

The same options are open to second language learners, themain difference being that it will happen much more

frequently for the vast majority of learners, and using thedictionary each time would become extremely time-consuming. It is therefore necessary for learners to makegreater use of the second and third options: guess the generalmeaning from the context, or ignore the item and move on. Thislatter option is not necessarily a sign of laziness: ignoring aword or phrase may be the sensible decision if the item doesnot seem to be obviously useful or of great relevance to anunderstanding of the text.

think!3

In this text, we have changed a few of the words to nonsensewords. Can you guess what they might mean, and are theyimportant to an understanding of the text?

(Peter is in his fourth year of teaching at a boys’ grammarschool.)Teaching had never been Peter’s first choice of brindol: hewanted to join the Air Force, then discovered he wasdarband. But on this hot budder, trying to persuade 4D ofthe beauty of Shakespeare, the classroom was the lastplace he wanted to be, and Edwards and Jones at the backwere not helping matters. He’d already told them off forpargling in their seats and now one of them was …

go to answer key p.173

interpreting a textIn order to understand certain texts, the reader has to gobeyond the literal meaning and interpret what the writer issaying. Read this short text and answer the questions.

(From an infant News Book; the saga starts two weeks beforethe birthday.)14 days to go: It is my birthday. I hope to get a horse.12 days to go: Mummy says she likes horses too.8 days to go: I can’t wait to get a horse for my birthday.3 days to go: Daddy says horses cost a lot of money.2 days to go: I will call it Prince if it is a boy.Birthday: I got a hamster for my birthday. It is called Goldy.The day after: Mummy is scared of Goldy. Daddy helps me tohold it. I think Mummy would have liked a horse better.

Questions1 Does the child think she will get a horse for her birthday?2 Does the mother think the child is going to get a horse?3 Does the father intend to buy the child a horse?4 Is it true the mother would have liked the child to have a

horse?

With the probable exception of number 1, one cannot answerthese questions with any certainty. Yet, we would be surprisedif your answers were not 1 yes, 2 no, 3 no, and 4 no. These arenot the answers the child would give, but we interpret thestory told from the child’s point of view, and we do this byactivating our background knowledge of a child’s innocenceand also the relationship between parents and their youngchildren. The child wants a horse and the mother is happy to goalong with this fantasy in the certain knowledge that it won’tactually happen. The father has no intention of buying a horsebut tries to let the child down gently by mentioning the cost.The child clearly does not want to hear this. It turns out the

© Oxford University Press

mother doesn’t even like the hamster, so we are inclined to takethe view that she was probably against the child being givenany kind of animal for a present. In other words we interpretthe whole story and fill in all the gaps left by the child’sperception of the situation.

In this and many other texts, it is our background knowledgeor shared schemata that enables us to interpret the text.Without this knowledge a text may be quite impenetrable, andfor learners from a completely different culture, this is one ofthe biggest hurdles to overcome.

3 Exploiting a textFrom a practical point of view, there are a number of things youcan ask learners to do

– before reading

– while reading

– and after reading a text.

Let’s examine each one in turn.

pre-reading activitiesmotivating learners to readYou will have certain aims in mind in any activity you use ordevise which leads learners into a text, but the emphasis willoften vary, depending on the learning context and the learnersthemselves. Primarily, though, you need to motivate learners toread and arouse interest in the content or the writer. This mayseem obvious, but most texts used in class are not selected bythe learners themselves and therefore they may not be textsthey would normally choose to read; you have to provide themwith a reason for reading. This may be particularly relevantwhere learners want to concentrate on listening and speaking,and are less keen to devote class time to reading.

activating schemataActivities which stimulate interest in a text will also helplearners to activate schemata (see p.167), and enable you to seewhether they have sufficient background knowledge to tacklethe text successfully. If, for instance, your text assumes learnersare familiar with a TV game show such as Blind date or Whowants to be a millionaire?, then find out what they know at thisstage. Ask them in pairs to brainstorm what they know aboutthe games. Elicit their ideas, and then feed in any extrainformation which may be necessary for them to read the textsuccessfully.

setting appropriate reading tasksMany learners approach reading texts with a view that allwords in it are important, and that they will only have athorough understanding of the text if they have read it word-for-word. This is clearly something that you want todiscourage. If you use tasks which focus learners on the gist ofthe text, or ask them to find the most interesting information(and set a time limit), this will go some way towardsdiscouraging word-for-word reading. A positive outcome,where learners achieve the task successfully, will be good fortheir confidence.

Here are some specific ways you can help to motivate learners,familiarize them with the content, and set appropriate readingtasks. (An interesting task can sometimes compensate for a lessthan exciting text.)

think!4

As you read the ideas, annotate the list like this:✓ the ones you use✓✓ the ones you’d like to use✗ the ones you don’t use / wouldn’t use

■■ Use the headlines, titles, captions, headings, and photos orillustrations which accompany a text to encourageprediction before learners read. These can also be used toelicit what learners already know about the topic and canbe a useful way to diagnose what background informationyou need to tell them in advance.

■■ Write a number of key words or phrases from the text onthe board, and see if learners can guess what the text isabout. For instance, the words below come from the text inthe student’s book on p.120. Learners could look at thevocabulary in pairs and try to piece the story togetherbefore they read.

Jean Humphries mid-forties facelift glamoroushusband horrified daughter’s educationconfidence better mother

■■ Tell learners the topic of the text, and lift out key sentencesfrom it. Learners have to say how the sentences might end,then read to check their ideas, as in the example below.

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit six p.71

■■ Learners read the first sentence or paragraph of the text,then predict how it might continue, e.g. you could showlearners this opening paragraph from the text on p.83 andask them what the rest of the text is likely to be about.

It was the end of my first term teaching English at LanzhouUniversity in China and I was looking forward to a winterbreak in Shanghai where it was warmer. Three days beforedeparture, however, I spent a bad night alternately shiveringand sweating, and finally I called a doctor. He diagnosedpneumonia, so that put an end to my travel plans, and insteadI spent just over a week in a small three-bed ward in theuniversity hospital.

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit seven p.83

1 Foreign correspondents are given training beforethey go to trouble spots. Read these extracts. How doyou think they finish?

1 You learn basic and advanced first aid, how to treatgunshot wounds and burns, and how to prepare forextreme .

2 There’s nothing optional about the training – if youhaven’t done the course, you .

3 I’ve reported a lot from trouble spots around the worldand the one thing I’ve learnt is that getting out can bemore difficult than .

4 When reporting somewhere for the first time, it’s oftenworth contacting the aid agencies, religious communities,and any other .

2 Read the article and check your answers.

how to … teach reading© Oxford University Press

1 Read the article and complete the glossary.

2 How would Alli answer the questions in lead-inexercise 4?

1 You’re going to read about a woman whoparticipated in a month-long scientific experiment.Put these paragraph topics in a logical order.Compare with a partner.

a the conditions she lived in for a month

b the purpose of the experiment

c the after-effects of the experiment

d how scientists created the conditions for theexperiment

e her feelings during the experiment

2 Read the article and complete the glossary. Was yourorder of paragraphs the same?

questions about it. With a suitable text, this can be moremotivating than setting the questions yourself.

This final activity is quite an attractive one, and can work verywell, though it has potential drawbacks. Supposing the textdoes not answer the learners’ questions? Won’t they find thisfrustrating and disappointing? If one or two questions remainunanswered, that is largely predictable, and shouldn’t be acause for concern. If the majority of their questions remainunanswered, however, then there is a problem somewherewhich you need to identify. Perhaps the text does not lend itselfto this type of task, or possibly the learners need the topic to bemore clearly defined. It may be that the learners (or certainlearners) are not very good at predicting. In this case, you havediscovered one reason why texts may be difficult for them. Infuture, they will need more information before reading, andprobably more practice with this kind of task.

In all of the activities above you have a number of issues toconsider.

– Firstly, have you set a clear task, and are you certainlearners know what to do?

– Secondly, are you going to set a time limit to encouragespeed reading, and if so, how long should it be? It pays to bea little flexible if everyone is taking longer than the timeyou set. If you don’t set a time limit, you will need to beprepared for learners finishing at different times. It helps tohave a short activity up your sleeve for faster readers whichwill not interfere with the activities you are planning to donext. They could compare their answers in pairs, forinstance.

– Thirdly, are you going to clarify the reading aims for yourlearners? In other words, are you going to explain why youare asking them to predict content or work to a time limit,for instance?

– Finally, you need to have a clear policy on vocabulary pre-teaching. If you pre-teach all the vocabulary learners areunlikely to know in an authentic text, you may well changethe aim of the lesson from developing a sub-skill of readingto vocabulary learning. It is also probable that learners willbecome too focused on this new vocabulary when theyread the text, which could prevent them from reading thetext naturally to understand the key information. At theother extreme, if you explain nothing, they may be unableto understand the gist.

So, what should you pre-teach? As a general rule:

– only explain items that are essential to achieving the taskset (other items can wait until later).

– try not to make this more than three to four items. (If manymore items than this are needed to understand the gist, itmay indicate that the task is too detailed, or the text is verydifficult.)

activities to do while readingLearners clearly need to concentrate while they are reading,which is a very active process despite the term ‘receptive skill’.

If you have pre-set a task such as true / false questions,transferring information to a grid, reading to confirm predictions,etc. learners have both the task and the reading to juggle atonce. Some teachers ask learners to read a text and underlineevery word they don’t know. It would depend on the text andthe number of unknown items, of course, but this seems to us arisky approach. Firstly, the focus of reading once again

Most learners will probably say that it will describe the periodspent in hospital. You can then ask them in pairs to predictwhat specific aspects she will describe. They are quite likely tomake some accurate predictions, but some surprises will occurwhen they read the text, especially if they know little aboutChinese hospitals. (This is in fact what makes the textinteresting.)

■■ Learners are given brief notes on the content of eachparagraph in a text, and have to put them in a logical order.They then read to see if their order is correct, as in theexample below.

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit five p.62

■■ Make use of personalization by asking learners to discussissues to do with the topic before they read. This mightinclude discussion questions or answering questionnaires.In the example below from unit twelve, learners are goingto read a text about someone who became a contestant on aquiz show (Who wants to be a millionaire?). First, learnersanswer the questions about themselves, then read the textand answer the same questions about the contestant, Alli.

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit twelve p.138

■■ Give learners the topic and some pre-set questions. In pairs,they have to imagine possible answers before they read. Itcan be very satisfying to make a clever guess!

■■ Tell learners the topic of the text, e.g. a woman on holidaywho loses her passport, and ask them to produce their own

4 Think! Prepare to answer these questions.

1 Would you like to be a contestant on this show?Why /why not?

2 How might you prepare for the quiz?

3 Who would you phone for help on one question?

4 How would you feel during the show, and at theend?

5 If you won, how might it change your life?

5 Compare your ideas with a partner.

how to … teach reading © Oxford University Press

them regardless of their likely value to learners. A betterstrategy would be to encourage learners to select and prioritizea limited number of items per text. Jeremy Harmer has anexcellent suggestion for this below.

try it out meaning consensusWe can get students to work together to search for and findword meanings.

– Individual students write down three to five words fromthe text that they want to know.

– They compare with another student and come up with anew joint list of only five words. This means they willprobably have to discuss which words to leave out.

– Two pairs join to make new groups of four and once againthey pool their lists and end up with only five words.

– Finally, students can look for meanings of their words indictionaries and / or the teacher can answer questionsabout the words which groups have decided on.

This process works for two reasons. Firstly, students may be ableto explain some words which other students did not know.Secondly, by the time they get to the meanings, the studentsreally do want to know them, because the intervening processhas encouraged them to invest some time in the search.‘Understanding every word’ has been changed into a co-operative learning task in its own right.

from Jeremy Harmer The Practice of English Language Teaching(see follow up)

contextual guessworkContextual guesswork is another common post-readingactivity. An important point about developing this skill is thatyou don’t ask learners to guess the meaning of words that aresimply not guessable from context. You have two main ways ofencouraging learners to focus on contextual guesswork:

– you highlight words or phrases in the text, and ask learnersto define or explain them

– you provide definitions or explanations yourself, and asklearners to find words or phrases in the text to match them.

In the student’s book, we have included contextual guessworkon a regular basis in the text glossaries. We have tended to usethe second of these approaches and focused on a limitednumber of items at a time. Here is an example in whichlearners have to find three vocabulary items in the text, andthen add two more new words or phrases of their own choice:

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit twelve p.139

glos

sary

stretch your mind make the fullest use of your mind

appeal to sb interest or attract sb

(para 1) i learn / study for a test / exam

(para 4) take a risk

pay off (your) debts pay money you owe people

(para 5) money you borrow to buy ahouse

your own new words

(para )

(para )

how to … teach reading

becomes specific vocabulary rather than reading the text formeaning. Secondly, how do you deal with all the items theyhave underlined, especially as learners will have selecteddifferent items? You may find the next half-hour uncomfortablydevoted to on-the-spot definitions and explanations.

It is important not to distract learners by writing on the board,for example, or asking questions while they are reading. Usethe time instead to observe how they are reading.

– Are learners following the text slowly word-for-word withtheir finger? If so, you can try some speed readingtechniques using the overhead projector or posters, andrevealing sentences for a short time only.

– Is anyone using their dictionary to check every word theydon’t know? You may need to discourage this approach ifthey are to become more efficient readers.

There are certain purposeful activities learners can do whilereading. One of them is to react to the text as they read, puttingticks, crosses, or question marks for points they agree / disagreewith or aren’t sure about (as you did in the previous section),or putting comments in the margin.

If you can reinforce the idea of pre-reading tasks which helpwith reading skills, you will be helping learners to read moreeffectively.

post-reading activitiesAfter learners have completed the pre-set tasks, you may wantto exploit the text more fully. Further reading tasks, languageexploitation, and extending to other skills are all possibilities,and the way you follow up the text will depend on what yourlearners need to do most, and what the text is most suitable for.Further reading activities will include those which developparticular sub-skills, e.g. reading for detailed comprehension,interpreting meaning, guessing vocabulary from context, etc.Most coursebooks also take the opportunity to exploit newlanguage in texts, both grammar and vocabulary. This is anexample from a reading text in the student’s book on p.95.Learners go on to use the linking phrases in a narrative of theirown.

natural Englishlinking events in a sequence

When you want to link a series of bad events in a storyto show how a situation got worse and worse, you canuse these phrases:

At first …As time went by (however) …The situation deteriorated (when) …Things got much worse (when) …Eventually, things came to a head (when) …

Find words/phrases in the text with same meaning asthe phrases above.

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit eight p.95

A major pitfall with text work is what might be called ‘thevocabulary graveyard’: a protracted stage where learners gothrough all the unknown words in the text after which theseitems are often ignored or forgotten. Valuable time is spent on

© Oxford University Press

a range of text typesIf you are responsible for selecting the majority of texts used inclass, you should also consider the text types that are mostrelevant to your class. Where there is no reason to concentrateon one or two specific text types, it is sensible to try to include arange in order to broaden learners’ reading skills and providevariety.

think!5

How many of these sources do you use regularly ✓✓ oroccasionally ✓ ? Do you think there are any text types you couldor should use more often?

■■ articles from newspapers■■ song lyrics■■ articles from magazines■■ formal letters; informal letters and e-mails■■ questionnaires■■ brochures and leaflets■■ Internet websites■■ advertisements■■ extracts from literature■■ cartoons and jokes■■ forms (application forms, etc.)■■ signs and notices■■ maps, timetables, etc.■■ instruction manuals

5 Extensive reading

think!6

Which of these do you think are true of learners who do a lot ofextensive reading, i.e. reading for pleasure in their own time?

– The more they read, the better they become at reading.– Learners develop a wider vocabulary and can use more

varied sentence constructions.– They are better at writing, and more confident at speaking.– Candidates for public exams such as TOEFL, FCE, and CPE

who read outside class do better in these exams thanthose who don’t.

In fact, all the statements are widely accepted by teachersintuitively, but have also been backed up by research.

Want to know more? Read The Secret of Reading by Prowse (see follow up).

The issue for the teacher is more to do with motivating learnersto read in their own time, and on their own terms. One pointworth making to learners is that the quality of what they read isnot as important as they may think. Gossip magazines andcartoon books may not seem very ‘virtuous’ reading material,but learners may well find them more accessible and motivatingthan a worthy novel. Nor do texts need to be long: browsingmagazines, dipping into books and reading in short burstsregularly is a positive approach. The important thing is thatthey read what they find stimulating, and if they choose a textor a graded reader which they don’t enjoy, they should stopreading it and find something they do like.

Well-chosen texts will also act as a springboard for other skillssuch as speaking and writing. If a text is particularlyprovocative, it would be sensible to let learners discuss it soonafter reading, before they become too involved in languagestudy. Texts can lend themselves to discussion or role play (seeMillionaire hopefuls – go for it! p.139, for an example).Writing can be a natural development too: reading an e-mailand writing a response, writing to the letters page about anewspaper article, completing a consumer questionnaire, andso on.

4 Choosing your own textsIf you are lucky enough to have the freedom and the resourcesto use your own texts in class, how do you choose them?

choosing appropriate textsIdeally, a text should interest everyone and should be the rightlevel, in other words challenging but comprehensible. Itshould be of manageable length: anything much over 500words will be quite time-consuming, so it has to beparticularly interesting. The issues of level and length raise thequestion of whether you should be looking for authentic texts,adapted authentic texts, or simplified texts written specificallyfor foreign learners. At upper-intermediate level – indeed atmost levels – we believe you should be working largely withauthentic sources (texts written by native speakers for nativespeakers), but these have to be carefully chosen so that they arecomprehensible and not demotivating.

adapting textsThere may also be valid reasons for adapting texts forclassroom use. If the learners are likely to become pre-occupiedwith trying to understand a lot of difficult items, you could dosome judicious paraphrasing to include more useful lexis, andrestrict the number of items that will be of very limited value.Texts in the real world will almost always have lexical itemsthat will be unknown to learners, so we would not recommendremoving low frequency items completely.

With regard to length, you can often shorten texts by removingwhole paragraphs from the body of the text without losing anyof its essential information or internal coherence. Newspaperand magazine texts in particular are often full of repetition. Theimportant point is that it should still read like a natural text.You can show it to another teacher and ask them what theythink. If they are not immediately aware that it has beendoctored in some way, it probably still reads as an authentictext – or a good approximation of one.

jigsaw readingA different option is to keep the text in its entirety but divide itinto sections to reduce the reading time for each individuallearner. For example, A reads the first part, B reads the secondpart, and then they tell each other what they have read. Sometexts lend themselves to this, particularly those which offer aseries of arguments for and against a proposition, or those inwhich the chronological order of events is important. (For anexample of jigsaw reading, look at the main text in unit one,p.10.) You can also consider recording part of the text and usingit as a listening passage. This is often suitable for short storiesand narratives.

how to … teach reading © Oxford University Press

how to… teach reading

how you can helpThe teacher’s role is therefore to encourage reading outsideclass, and this will mean suggesting sources available to thelearners. Help them by suggesting readers, magazines, orpapers in English, or where to find websites suited to theirinterests. If available, a class set of readers appropriate for thelearners’ level and cultural background can be a useful start.Begin by getting learners to look at the front cover picture andtitle, predict the content, and have a look at any illustrations.They can then read the summary on the back cover to see iftheir assumptions were accurate. Read the first few paragraphsaloud to involve them in the story, then ask them to say whatmight happen next, before they start reading themselves, andcarry on in their own time. Another approach is to use a‘library’ of readers: see the suggestion below.

try it out reader boxesIn our school, we put together for each level a box of suitableand varied graded readers (for a class of 15, we put 20 to 24books in). We included thrillers, adventure stories, adaptedwell-known classics, factual books, etc. A few have cassetteswhich students can borrow from the library and listen to at thesame time – in fact, these are incredibly popular.I take a box into class and display the books, explaining thatthey can borrow a book to read in their own time. I show thema few of the books in particular, tell them a little about eachone, and then say what kinds of books are in the collection.This is to whet their appetite. They then come and pick a bookeach – occasionally there is an unseemly rush for them! Certainstudents need a bit of help and advice so I talk to them andmake suggestions. If a student doesn’t want to do it, I let it go.We agree a time limit (in my context, a week is long enough,but I’d leave longer overseas). The following week, studentsbring their books back and tell each other about them in smallgroups, saying too what they liked / didn’t like. They canrecommend books to each other and then they all borrowanother book, and so on.If a book is unpopular, we change it. I don’t do comprehensiontasks – I just want them to enjoy reading.Rachel, London

If you would like to try this idea, but work in a school withoutthese resources, you can encourage each learner to buy adifferent reader so that they can swap them within the class.

conclusionIn this chapter, we have looked at

– the different ways we read, i.e. intensive and extensive

– the various skills we need in order to read efficiently, i.e.activating schemata, prediction, skimming and scanning,contextual guesswork, and interpreting a text

– practical activities for exploiting a text, including a widerange of appropriate pre-reading activities, designed tomotivate learners to read, activities to do while reading, andpost-reading activities to further exploit the text, e.g.contextual guesswork, or using the text as a springboard forspeaking or writing activities

– issues to consider when choosing your own texts for a class,e.g. what kind of texts to choose, how to adapt texts, andthe importance of using a range of text types

– encouraging learners to read outside the classroom.

answer keythink!1 p.167Even speakers of the same language will have different degrees ofdifficulty with these texts. Texts about a referendum (politics), a testmatch (cricket), and a TV soap opera will be easier for those with aknowledge of the subject matter. The text messages and the poemwill both contain stylistic features which may be easier for those whoare familiar with these text types. Understanding the joke mayrequire a familiarity with a sense of humour that is peculiarly British.think!2 p.168

DIETING UNDER STRESSMID-AFTERNOON SNACKRest of the chocolate biscuit packet, 2 pints of chocolate ice cream.DINNER2 loaves of garlic bread with cheese, 1 large pizza, 4 large whiskymacs, 3 Mars bars or packets of crisps.LATE EVENING SNACKEntire Black Forest Gateau.RULES1 If you eat something and no one sees you eat it, it has no

calories.2 If you drink a Diet Coke with a Mars bar, the calories of the Mars

bar are cancelled out by the Diet Coke.3 Food used for medicinal purposes such as hot chocolate, brandy,

toast, Sara Lee cheesecake, don’t count.4 Movie-related foods do not have additional calories because they

are part of the entire entertainment package, and not part ofone’s personal fuel – such as milk shakes, buttered popcorn,Murray Mints and Mars bars.

5 Broken biscuits contain no calories; breaking causes calorieleakage.

6 Foods of the same colour have the same number of calories e.g.spinach and pistachio ice cream, or mushrooms and whitechocolate.

REMEMBER: STRESSED backwards spells DESSERTS

think!3 p.168Brindol and budder are both guessable from the context and the co-text (the words around them). Brindol must be career / professionand budder must be a period during the day, morning or afternoon.Darband and pargling are not so guessable, although darband isobviously something negative that prevented him from joining theAir Force and could well be a physical condition. (In fact, the answeris colour blind, but it could be epileptic / diabetic, etc.) Pargling isobviously an undesirable action, because they got told off, and isprobably to do with sitting. (In fact, they were slouching, but itcould have been wriggling.) None of the nonsense words is crucial toa general understanding of the text, but darband and pargling areimportant for a detailed understanding.

glossary

schema (s) schemata (pl)1: our existing knowledge of the world that

we bring to a text, e.g. the type of text, the subject matter, thetypical language that is used, language patterns, etc.

follow upNuttall C 1996 Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language Macmillan

HeinemannHarmer J 2001 The Practice of English Language Teaching Longman

(chapters 14 and 15)Prowse P October 1999 The Secret of Reading in English Teaching

Professional (issue 13)Prowse P January 2000 Open Your Books in English Teaching

Professional (issue 14)

© Oxford University Press

how to … use dictionaries with learners © Oxford University Press

how to … use dictionaries with learners

1 Why use dictionaries?2 Corpora3 Which dictionary?4 Dictionary training in the classroom5 Classroom management

1 Why use dictionaries?Although a dictionary is usually the first book (often the onlybook) that people think of buying when they start learning aforeign language, it is possibly the most underused and widelyabused of all learning resources. Part of the problem is thatdictionaries are a special kind of reference source, and normallyrequire some learner training before they can be usedeffectively. Learners who don’t receive this training may fail tomake the best use of their dictionary, or worse still, become sodisenchanted with it as their frustration grows, that they stopusing it altogether. Some learners also assume that anydictionary will do, and once they have one, they assume therewill be no need to buy another. (See section 3 Whichdictionary?)

In fact, dictionaries have a great deal to offer, and never more sothan in the last ten years. The development of computer-basedcorpora1, begun around 1980 and growing continuously, hasenabled dictionary makers to build up vast amounts ofinformation about the way native speakers actually use alanguage (see the next section on Corpora). The currentgeneration of dictionaries now has much more useful andreliable information to offer the user than was the case twentyyears ago, ten years ago, or even five years ago. They are gettingbetter all the time.

Dictionaries are also an easy learning tool to tap into.

– Learners invariably respect and trust the information theycontain.

– Most learners like having dictionaries around, and thiswillingness to use them can be nurtured in all sorts ofpositive ways.

– Good ELT dictionaries are available in every part of theworld; and given the amount of information they containand the years of research that goes into every new edition,they offer tremendous value for money.

Finally, and perhaps most important of all is that learners whoare trained to use dictionaries effectively can continue to makeprogress in their learning beyond the classroom. This isparticularly important for learners who only attend formallessons for perhaps one or two hours a week.

2 CorporaIn the past, successive generations of dictionaries were largelybased on the ones that preceded them, and the data they werebased on was mostly written text plus a limited amount of

corpora1 go to glossary for numbered words or phrases p.180

largely anecdotal evidence from spoken English. All thatchanged in the 1980s, due to the ability of computers to handlevast amounts of information, which can be analysed anddisplayed in all sorts of ways. Now, all major ELT dictionariesare developed from a large corpus2 of spoken and written text,including British and American English. Among these are: TheOxford Corpus Collection, The Longman Corpus Network, TheCOBUILD Bank of English, The Cambridge Language Survey,and the British National Corpus.

These corpora are growing all the time. For example, when thefirst edition of the Collins COBUILD Learner’s Dictionary waspublished in 1987, it was based on a written corpus of 20million words (considered very large at the time). Eight yearslater, a new edition of the dictionary was published, but basedon a corpus of written and spoken English exceeding 200million words. Admittedly spoken English still represents arelatively low percentage of the overall data (five to ten percentis typical), although 10 to 20 million words of spoken Englishis still a lot of data.

These corpora have provided dictionaries with much more data,and much more reliable data. We now have accurate informationabout the frequency of words in current usage and the frequencyof individual meanings of words; and several dictionaries arepassing on some of this information to users. Collins COBUILDincludes five frequency bands covering the most common 15,000words. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE)signposts the 3,000 most frequent words used in both spokenand written English, using the symbols S1, S2, and S3 forspoken, and W1, W2, and W3 for written. 1 = 1,000 mostfrequently used words; 2 = 2,000 most frequently used words; 3= 3,000 most frequently used words. In the first example below,S1 indicates that the word is among the 1,000 most frequentlyused words in spoken English.

■■S1 anyway /"enIweI/ adv [sentence adverb] 1 used to say that■■W2 someone does something or something happens in spite of a

problem: He said that he didn’t know much about computers butthat he’d try and help us anyway.

■■S1 might /maIt/ modal verb negative short form mightn’t ■■W2 1 if something might happen or might be true, there is a

possibility that it may happen or be true but you are not certain:Who knows – England might win the next World Cup!

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

might /maIt/ ◆◆◆◆◆

Might is a modal verb. It is used with the base form of a verb.

■■1 You use might to indicate that something will possibly MODAL

happen or be true in the future, but you cannot be vagueness certain. ❏ There’s a report today that smoking might be = maybanned totally in most buildings. The two countries might go to war. I might well regret it later. He said he mightnot be back until tonight.

Collins Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners

◆◆◆◆◆ This means that this word is within the 680 most common words.

how to … use dictionaries with learners

think!1

Look at these words. Which Longman frequency band of spokenand/or written English do you think each one belongs to?

example■■S ■■W3 permit(permit is not common in spoken English; we use let or allow)■■S ■■W particularly ■■S ■■W chat ■■S ■■W key (n)■■S ■■W key (adj) ■■S ■■W however ■■S ■■W thereby

go to answer key p.180

Corpora also give us vital information about the contexts inwhich you are most likely to meet a word, and the way inwhich they are often used with other words, i.e. collocation.Look at this entry for restless.

restless /"restl@s/ adj. 1 unable to stay still or be happy where you are,because you are bored or need a change: The audience was becomingrestless. ◊ After five years in the job, he was beginning to feel restless.2 without real rest or sleep: a restless night restlessly adv: Hemoved restlessly from one foot to another.

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

This tells us that audiences, jobs, and sleep are among the mostcommon contexts for restless, and that the adjective commonlycollocates with the verb feel, and the noun night.

3 Which dictionary?

bilingual dictionariesIn the early stages of learning, many students rely on pocket-sized bilingual dictionaries: they are quick and easy to use, andlearners find it reassuring to have the support of their firstlanguage. As these dictionaries operate through one-to-oneequivalents, there is obviously simplification and somedistortion, but it is still a sensible option for certain basicvocabulary at a time when learners need all the support theycan get. In any case, at beginner and elementary levels,monolingual dictionaries are probably far too daunting for allbut the most ambitious or determined learners. However, it isimportant that learners don’t stop there. They should consideradding a more substantial bilingual dictionary as their levelimproves; one that does more than offer single wordtranslations of a lexical item without reference to its differentmeanings and contexts.

monolingual learner’s dictionariesBy the time they reach intermediate level, learners should beable to benefit from one of the monolingual learner‘sdictionaries, written specifically for that level. (See follow upat the end of this chapter for recommended titles.) They notonly provide more detailed information than many bilingualdictionaries, they also reduce the reliance on translation andimmerse the learner more fully in the target language.

At upper-intermediate level, learners can start making effectiveuse of the larger monolingual learner’s dictionaries on offer(see follow up). The defining vocabulary3 is still simplified ascompared with dictionaries written for native speakers, and aseach new generation of dictionaries emerge, there are more andmore features to help and motivate users: full colour in someplaces; study pages; usage notes; charts and tables; help withvocabulary development; frequency information, and so on.

specialist dictionariesDictionary support doesn’t stop there either. A range ofspecialist dictionaries can help learners with specific topics,e.g. business English, or specific areas of the language, e.g.phrasal verbs and idioms. A different type of dictionary thatorganizes lexis semantically and topically (under the titlesActivator, Wordfinder, or Word Routes) can help learners in adifferent way to expand their productive vocabulary andbecome more accurate (see follow up).

try it out choosing a dictionaryThis is something you could try yourself as a teacher, and alsosuggest to your learners if they ask for advice on whichdictionary is best for them.Choose five or six words you already know; make sure they aredifferent types of word, e.g. to control, a courgette,embarrassed, never mind, to pick sb / sth up. Look them up indifferent dictionaries (no more than three). Which have theclearest definitions, the most examples, the most helpfulinformation about word grammar, the best use of illustration,etc. for you?

4 Dictionary training in the classroomThe think! tasks in this section are designed for teachers, butmany of them can be adapted and used with learners fordictionary training in the classroom.

There are different skills involved in dictionary use. Whenlooking up a word, dictionary users have to learn how to

1 find the word or phrase they are looking for.

2 select the correct meaning (if there is more than one).

3 understand the explanation and additional information.

4 use dictionaries productively, e.g. noticing and extendingtheir knowledge of common collocations that accompany aparticular item.

Let’s look at these in turn.

finding wordsFor the majority of learners used to Roman script, finding aword in a dictionary won’t cause any problems, with thepossible exception of words beginning with a letter thatdoesn’t exist in the mother tongue, such as w in Spanish. Forlearners who use a different script, however, finding a wordmay be a challenge, and you will probably need to help themwith this skill. Games against the clock in which learners haveto organize a list of vocabulary items in alphabetical order canhelp learners to focus on initial letters, and then they will needto practise the same skill using dictionaries.

finding phrasesA problem common to most learners arises when trying to finda phrase in the dictionary. (Indeed, some learners are not awarethat dictionaries include the meaning of phrases.) First of all,can learners recognize that the item they don’t know is part of aphrase? This can happen if they encounter a phrasal verb inwhich the particle is separated from the base verb, e.g.

He couldn’t make the sign out in the darkness.They called the meeting off.

© Oxford University Press

use your dictionaryIt isn’t always easy to find the meaning of a phrase in adictionary. Start with the first content word (noun, verb,or adjective).

If you wanted to check the meaning of ‘out of the blue’ inthe sentence He turned up on my doorstep out of the blue,you would first look at the entry for blue.

But if you wanted to check ‘a bolt from the blue’ in thesentence It arrived like a bolt from the blue, you shouldlook under bolt.

1 Underline the words in each sentence which form a setphrase.examplesIf you fail the test, it’ll be your own fault.With a bit of luck, he’ll pass the exam.

1 I have no sympathy for those two boys: they’re selfishand stupid.

2 He’s 19 years old, but his mother still treats him like achild.

3 Several children were injured but we don’t know who’sto blame.

4 I think he was wrong to buy the flat in the first place.5 I don’t see the point of trying to help them if they

don’t want it.6 Put yourself in her shoes – what would you have

done?7 Well, to cut a long story short, I asked her to marry

me and she said yes.8 He’s in a bad mood today – don’t take any notice of him.

2 In the phrases in exercise 1, which word would you lookup in a dictionary to find the phrase? Circle it. Use adictionary to check the meaning of any new phrases.

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit eleven p.131

how to … use dictionaries with learners

Secondly, learners need to know where to find the entry for aphrase. Which part of the phrase should they look up? With theidiom, break the ice, will you find the definition at break or ice?Dictionaries vary on their policy. The activity below from thestudent’s book, unit eleven wordbooster, helps learners tofind out about this aspect of dictionary use.

blue noun 1 [C,U] the colour that is blue. 2 blues [pl] a sad, slow, style of music that came fromthe southern US: a blues singer – (see also RHYTHM

AND BLUES) 3 the blues [pl] (informal) feelings ofsadness: Don’t be surprised if you get the blues for awhile after your baby is born. 4 out of the blue(informal) unexpectedly: A phone call from Janeright out of the blue. (see also A BOLT FROM THE BLUE

/ OUT OF THE BLUE ➯ BOLT3)

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

You can devise similar activities to use with your learners. Youwill need to consult the introduction of your particulardictionary to find out how phrases are entered. With mostdictionaries, some items will be cross-referenced, e.g. on the tipof my tongue may be explained at tip but cross-referenced attongue; kick the bucket may be explained at kick but cross-referenced at bucket.

finding the right meaningWhen they meet a new word or phrase, many learners look upthe item and immediately assume they have found what theyare looking for. However, a lexical item often has severaldifferent meanings, so learners need to get into the habit ofscanning the different meanings to find the one they arelooking for in this particular context. It is also not unusual forlearners to look up a particular word form, only to discoverseveral lines into the explanation that they are in the wrongword class4, e.g. they are looking under the entry for book as anoun, when in fact, they want the entry for book as a verb.

Almost all dictionaries number the different meanings of anitem, but some help you find them more quickly by using keywords next to the target item. These are called guide words inCambridge International Dictionary of English (CIDE), and shortcuts inOxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (OALD), and they give anapproximate indication of each individual meaning. Forexample:

mug CONTAINER /mVg/ n [C] a container with a handle on oneside used esp. for hot drinks such as tea or coffee. It is usually biggerthan a cup and used without a SAUCER. • The shop sells coffee potsand mugs with bright designs. • I made myself a large mug of cocoa(= enough to fill a mug) and went to bed. • (esp. Am) A beer mug is aheavy glass with a handle and usually with patterns cut into its side,out of which you drink beer.

mug STUPID PERSON /mVg/ n [C] esp. Br infml a person who isstupid and easily deceived. • He’s such a mug, he believes everythingshe tells him. • If you describe an activity as a mug’s game, you meanthat it will not bring money or satisfaction to the person who does it:‘‘Working in an office is a mug’s game,’’ she said.

mug FACE /mVg/ n [C] infml someone’s face • I don’t want to seeyour ugly mug around here again. • (slang) A mug shot is aphotograph taken by the police of a person who has been charged witha crime: A poster with mug shots of wanted men was on the wall.

Cambridge International Dictionary of English

bite /baIt/ verb, nounverb (bit /bIt/, bit·ten /"bItn/)

USE TEETH 1 ~ (into/through/off sth) to use your teeth to cut into orthrough sth: [VN] She was bitten by the family dog. ◊ Stop biting yournails! ◊ [V] She bit into a ripe juicy pear. ◊ Does your dog bite? ◊(spoken) Come here! I won’t bite! (= you don’t need to be afraid) ◊ Hebit off a large chunk of bread / He bit a large chunk of bread off.

OF INSECT/SNAKE 2 to wound sb by making a small hole or markin their skin: [VN] We were badly bitten by mosquitoes. ◊ [V] MostEuropean spiders don’t bite.

OF FISH 3 [V] if a fish bites, it takes food from the hook of aFISHING LINE and may get caught

HAVE EFFECT 4 [V] to have an unpleasant effect: The recession isbeginning to bite.

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

© Oxford University Press

how to … use dictionaries with learners

dictionary organizationIt is important to remember that dictionaries vary in the waythey organize the different meanings of a word. Somedictionaries order the meanings strictly in terms of frequency(the most common meanings coming first); other dictionariesmay balance the frequency of a particular meaning with whatthey consider to be the core meaning of an item, and put thatfirst. For example, if you look up see in LDOCE, the first meaninggiven is understand, realize, e.g. I can see that you’re not very happywith the situation. OALD, however, gives the ability to see with one’seyes as the first meaning of see.

think!2

Look at these words and definitions. Which definition would youexpect to come first in a dictionary if the meanings were listedin order of frequency?

1 bonnet a. a hat tied on with ribbonsb. the metal lid over the front of a car

2 breakdown a. the failure of a system or relationshipb. when a car or piece of machinery stops

working3 settle a. to put an end to an argument or

disagreementb. to make yourself or someone else

comfortable in a new position, or putsomething carefully in a particularposition

4 pound (noun) a. a unit of moneyb. a unit of weight

Does the dictionary you use list meanings in order of frequency?

go to answer key p.180

try it outI’ve used this technique as a way of revising vocabulary fromprevious lessons.

1 I demonstrate this activity first by writing a word on theboard, e.g. interrupt, and asking students in pairs to writedown a dictionary definition for the word. We then hearand discuss each pair’s definition, and compare with adictionary.

2 I give each pair two words (to be revised) on a slip ofpaper. They have to write a ‘dictionary definition’ (thiscan include synonyms, paraphrases, descriptions, etc.)They can’t consult a dictionary at this stage.

3 Each pair takes turns to read their definition to the class,without saying the word. The class have to guess what itwas.

4 Students then look at dictionaries to compare theirdefinition with the dictionary definitions, and decidewhich they like best.

This activity is popular with my students, because it requiresboth accuracy and attention to meaning, and they enjoy thechallenge. They also get the opportunity to practiseparaphrasing and defining.Christiane, Paris.

understanding the explanation and additionalinformation

pronunciationYou can enable your learners to become more self-sufficient byteaching them phonemic script and relating it to dictionarywork.

Want to know more about introducing phonemic script to learners? Go tointermediate teacher’s book, how to … teach phonemic script p.168.

You can ask learners to look at new words (perhaps from awordbooster section or in a text) and check how they arepronounced with a partner, then in a dictionary if in doubt. Iflearners do this on a regular basis, they become very familiarwith phonemic script and the dictionary becomes an importantself-access tool which they are not afraid to use.

Learners also need to understand how stress is marked in thedictionary they are using. In most cases, words are given inphonemic script with a stress mark before the stressed syllable,although Collins COBUILD underlines the stressed syllable.

po.ta.to p@"teIt@U||-toU/ (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English)

po.tato /p@"teIt@U; AmE -toU/ (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)

potato /p@teItoU/ (Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners)

Stress on compound nouns is shown like this:

potato chip /.".. ./ (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English)

po.tato ""crisp (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)potato crisp (Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners)

grammarDictionaries provide a considerable amount of informationabout the grammar of lexical items, largely in the form ofsymbols and abbreviations. There are too many to teach yourlearners in one go, but certain abbreviations are essential, andas long as learners know where the key to the symbols is, theycan check for themselves.

think!3

These symbols are from a range of ELT dictionaries. What dothey mean? Which ones should your upper-intermediate learnersknow?

n adj adv poss pl Upp prep sth det phr v V-ERG

go to answer key p.180

lexical informationDictionaries obviously define and explain words, and in recentyears, ELT dictionaries have become increasingly responsive tolearners’ difficulties with overlapping meaning, and providefeature boxes explaining the difference between easily-confused words. This is, of course, an excellent resource for anyteacher at the planning stage. A clear understanding of thedifference between attractive, beautiful, handsome, and good-lookingwill help you to deal with these items confidently in yourlesson, and you only need to check in the Study Notes in LDOCEto get help. The OALD has a similar feature, called Which word?

© Oxford University Press

collocation in dictionaries1 Look at the dictionary entries and answer the

questions.1 What nouns are used with latest? Think of two more.2 What kinds of things could you flick through?

entries from Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

how to … use dictionaries with learners

lat•est /"leItIst/■ adj. [only before noun] the most recent or newest: the latest

unemployment figures the latest craze / fashion / trend herlatest novel Have you heard the latest news?

%%flick ""through /%flIk "Tru;/ to turn the pagesof a book, etc. quickly and look at them withoutreading everything.

PHRV

think!4

Think for a minute about the difference in meaning betweenthese pairs of words.

ashamed and embarrassed; destroy and spoilCompare your ideas with the feature boxes below.

WHICH WORD? ●●?ashamed / embarrassed

You feel ashamed when you feel guilty because of something wrongthat you have deliberately done: You should be ashamed of treatingyour daughter like that. Do not use ashamed when you are talkingabout something that is not very serious or important: I am sorry thatI forgot to buy the milk. ◊ I am ashamed that I forgot to buy the milk.You feel embarrassed when you have made a mistake or donesomething stupid or feel awkward in front of other people: I wasembarrassed about forgetting his name.

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

USAGE NOTE: DESTROYWORD CHOICE: destroy, ruin, spoilDestroy means to damage something so badly that it no longer existsor cannot be repaired: Whole areas of the city were destroyed. | a drug todestroy cancer cells | Their traditional way of life has been destroyed.You ruin or (less strong) spoil something good or useful. It thenusually still exists, but no longer has its good qualities or features:Too much sugar can ruin your teeth. | You’ve completely spoiled my day.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

In addition to explaining the meaning of a word, dictionariesusually show you the context in which it most often occurs,and the other words which are most likely to appear with it(collocations).

Look at the feature below:

Words frequently used with ‘meaning’

adjectives actual, deep, hidden, intended, literal, real, symbolic,true

verbs catch, decipher, determine, discover, get, grasp,understand

Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners

Here is an activity you can use with learners, using the OALD,to alert them to this feature. You can adapt this exercise to anyother relevant items.

2 Use your own dictionary. What collocates with these inthe context of learning or reading?1 to dip into 4 to look up 2 by heart 5 the gist3 to skip

from upper-intermediate student’s book, unit one p.12

language variety and styleDictionaries will also indicate varieties of English, e.g. BritishEnglish, American English, Scottish English, etc. as well asstyles and registers, e.g. humorous, formal / informal, slang,taboo; medical, literary, poetic, etc.

in·effable /In"ef@bl/ adj. (rare, formal) too great or beautiful todescribe in words: ineffable joy

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

think!5

Which items in italics are:formal informal informal + disapproving?

1 They withheld the financial information.2 He’s just a wise guy.3 I was feeling quite jittery before the test.4 That new receptionist is a real know-all.5 I had a presentiment that something was going to

happen.6 I gave her £10 and then we were quits.

go to answer key p.180

This might be a good way of recycling vocabulary with yourlearners; they could discuss the style / register (and meaning, ifnecessary) of the words you have given them with a partner,then check in their dictionaries.

using dictionaries productivelyDictionaries contain such a wealth of information it is a shamethat the majority of learners use them only to look up themeaning of a word; this is just the tip of the iceberg. There aremany ways in which they can find out extra information whenlooking up new words, and also extend their vocabulary.

collocationAs we have shown, learners will find plenty of generativecollocations when they look up words.

word familiesSome dictionaries highlight these in a special feature, butlearners can always check derivatives when they checkvocabulary in the dictionary. To familiarize them with thisfeature, ask learners to look up two or three verbs and findseveral derivatives for each, e.g. success, successful (adj);succeed (v).

compoundsGive learners a word which forms the first part of manycompounds, e.g. shop or traffic, and ask them to see how manycompounds they can find in the dictionary.

© Oxford University Press

how to … use dictionaries with learners

illustrationsDictionaries are now very good at providing illustrated pagesof topic vocabulary, e.g. fruit and vegetables, clothes, etc. andlearners find these enjoyable to study. You could ask them tobrainstorm clothes, for example, and then ask them to build onthese using the illustrations in a monolingual dictionary.

synonyms and oppositesThese are given in certain dictionaries (Collins COBUILD isparticularly good at this), and it is useful for learners to recordthese as they study them, e.g. if they look up tidy, they can learnthe opposite untidy, and if they look up row /raU/ they willdiscover the synonym quarrel. Cross-referencing enablesstudents to learn more than one word, e.g. at locker roomlearners are asked to compare with changing room. You couldgive learners five sentences with a word underlined, whichthey have to look up in a dictionary and replace with anopposite, e.g. polite (rude / impolite), tactful (tactless), shallow (deep).

study pages / language portraitsSome dictionaries have whole pages devoted to aspects ofvocabulary and grammar. For example, you could ask learnersto look at the Study Page B10–11 (phrasal verbs) from OALD forhomework to consolidate any analysis you have done in class.

specialist dictionariesOxford Wordfinder, The Longman Activator, and Cambridge WordRoutes organize vocabulary by topic and context, and are auseful way to expand vocabulary.

try it out dictionary mimes1 Divide the class into small groups, each with a dictionary.

Decide as a class which two pages to concentrate on. Givethe group ten minutes to look through the words on thepages and think of suitable ways of miming as many aspossible of the headwords.

2 Groups take turns to mime the words they have chosen.The audience shout out the words they spot from themimes. It doesn’t matter if groups choose several of thesame words – this simply reinforces learning. The mimes,however, must be different.

Wright J English Teaching Professional (see follow up)

5 Classroom managementMaking dictionaries available in the classroom has significantbenefits for the teacher and learner.

– If the group is working individually or in pairs on a writtentext, learners can use their dictionaries as an authoritativesource, which frees up the teacher to spend more time withlearners needing individual help.

– Using dictionaries to check vocabulary in a text means thateach learner can focus on the items they don’t know, and tosome extent, work at their own pace.

– Dictionaries can be used to encourage interaction anddiscussion: for instance, learners can look up information intheir dictionaries and then compare their understandingwith other learners.

– It goes without saying that dictionary use provides some ofthe most motivating and realistic reading practice.

There are, however, practical considerations that you need tothink about.

– If you plan to ask your learners to use dictionaries to checkcertain items, you’ll need to look them up first to ensurethat the dictionaries provide the information you expect.

– You don’t want learners spending the whole lesson withtheir heads in a dictionary if it means they are not talking toother learners when they should, or not listening to youwhen they should. You will need to establish clearguidelines for times when learners can and cannot use theirdictionaries. For instance, at the beginning of a speakingactivity, make it clear that the activity is just speaking, andnot one where dictionaries should be used. Another casemight be where you ask learners to read a text without adictionary first, pointing out that this would slow themdown considerably, and reassuring them that they can usetheir dictionaries at a later stage.

– You may want to discourage higher level learners fromusing small, bilingual dictionaries. They are capable of usingthe more informative and appropriate monolingualdictionaries which are widely available. You may be able toencourage some learners to use CD ROM dictionarieswhich may provide oral models of headwords as well asgames and exercises.

– If you are in a situation where learners are using a range ofdictionaries in the classroom, you may find that theyprovide different or even contradictory information, whichcan be unsettling for learners. On the other hand, thesedifferences can provoke interaction and encourage moreprocessing of the information. You just need to be preparedfor this to happen and deal with it positively.

– To make effective use of dictionaries in a class, don’t thinkthat each learner has to have their own dictionary. Onedictionary between two (or even three) learners is fine, andit also means that learners aren’t working in completeisolation and can share their understanding of theinformation. If your school doesn’t have many resources,you can encourage learners to bring their dictionaries toclass.

conclusionIn this chapter we have looked at

– why you should encourage your learners to use dictionaries

– advances in dictionary production and what this means forteachers and learners

– appropriate dictionaries for different stages of learning

– how to train learners to use dictionaries effectively, forinstance, finding the word or phrase they are looking for;finding the correct meaning; understanding and makingproductive use of the wide range of information that isavailable

– the ways in which using dictionaries benefits the class as awhole, together with some practical considerations to thinkabout.

Learner training in the use of dictionaries can make good, shortactivities providing a change of focus at various stages in alesson. If you feel your class are not getting the most out oftheir dictionaries, you could try adapting some of the taskssuggested here and using those in the student’s book withyour learners as a way of raising awareness and encouragingmore dictionary use.

© Oxford University Press

how to … use dictionaries with learners

answer keythink!1 p.175particularly S1,W1chat S2key (n) S2, W3key (adj) S2 , W1however S2, W1thereby W3

think!2 p.177These answers are based on the Longman Dictionary of ContemporaryEnglish (LDOCE), which lists items in order of frequency.1 b is first; 2 a is first; 3 b is first; 4 b is first (which surprises us).For an interesting comparison, here are the results from the OxfordAdvanced Learner’s Dictionary (OALD), which does not list items inorder of frequency.1 a is first; 2 b is first; 3 a is first; 4 a is first.

think!3 p.177n: noun; adj: adjective; adv: adverb; poss: possessive; pl: plural; U:uncountable; pp: past participle; prep: preposition; sth: something;det: determiner; phr v: phrasal verb; V-ERG: ergative verb.We think most of these are necessary for intermediate and above,with the exception of poss, det, and V-ERG.

think!5 p.178These answers are based on OALD.1 formal 4 informal + disapproving2 informal + disapproving 5 formal3 informal 6 informal

glossary

corpus (s)2, corpora (pl)1 a body of linguistic data (either writtentext or a transcription of recorded speech) which is stored on acomputer and is available for different kinds of analysis, e.g. howoften a word occurs, what other words it collocates with

defining vocabulary3 the items used in dictionary definitionsword class4 part of speech, e.g. noun, verb, adjective, etc.

follow upWright J 1998 Dictionaries (Resource Books for Teachers) OUP. Highly

recommended.Wright J 1997 Using Dictionaries in Class: Resource or Reference? ETP

(issue 3 p.22)Ilson R (ed.) 1985 ELT Documents 120: Dictionaries, Lexicography and

Language Learning OUP

recommended dictionariesThese dictionaries have been produced specifically for intermediatelevel learners. Some have been available for many years and wewould recommend that learners always look for the latest edition.Oxford Wordpower Dictionary (OUP)Longman Active Study Dictionary (Longman)Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary (CUP)Collins COBUILD Learner’s Dictionary Intermediate

These dictionaries have been produced for upper-intermediate andadvanced level learners. Again, we would recommend learners lookfor the most recent edition.Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (OALD)Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE)Cambridge International Dictionary of English (CIDE)Collins COBUILD English Dictionary for Advanced LearnersMacmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners

These are specialist dictionaries which organize words into groupswith similar meaning and use.The Longman Essential Activator (intermediate to upper-intermediate)The Longman Language Activator (upper-intermediate to proficiency)Oxford Learner’s Wordfinder DictionaryCambridge Word Routes (these are translation dictionaries organizedby topic or concept; there are versions in French, Spanish, Catalan,Italian, and Greek.)

© Oxford University Press

Interenet Lesson Plans

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to make classroom resources

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet to makeclassroom resources

Internet sites developed by publishers and language teaching organizations offerready-made resources, such as interactive quizzes, puzzles, exam practice, andlanguage skills practice, which teachers can adapt to use in class. However,teachers who are experienced in putting together their own classroom materialscan use the Internet to create their own professional-looking resources for theclassroom, using text and pictures copied from websites.

As with any teaching and learning resources, it is better to invest time in creatingmaterials that can be used again and again, rather than materials that easilybecome outdated.

In this pack, you’ll find two ready-made lessons that show you how to use theInternet to make classroom resources.

introduction

overviewlevel intermediate and above

timing 60–75 minutes

aim to practise searching the Internet, and

locating and reviewing websites

students will …

– use a search engine to locate websites

– note down website details

– write brief descriptions of useful websites

preparationbefore the lesson

– Make a copy of worksheet 1 for each student.

– Make three copies of worksheet 2 for each student.

– Make a list of Internet search engine / directorywebsites (see below).

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– printer

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites

useful websites

www.google.co.ukInternet search engine website.

www.alltheweb.comInternet search engine website.

www.yahoo.comWeb directory website.

www.askjeeves.comInternet search engine website.

www.search.msn.comWeb directory website.

procedure– Hand out worksheet 1 to each student.

– Go through the questions on the worksheet.Students might like to try to guess some of theanswers before they start their search.

– Explain that students are going to use Internetsearch engines and directories to locate websitescontaining the information they need to answerquestions on the worksheet.

– Allocate different search engines / directories todifferent groups, so that not all of the students areusing the same search engine.

– Refer the students to the ‘keywords’ on theworksheets, and recap how to search for websites.Emphasize the need to note down website addressescarefully.

– When students have completed the activity, askthem to compare answers.

– Collate the websites that pairs / groups havecollected under suitable headings, such as ‘sports’,‘recipes’, ‘weather’, ‘music’, etc.

– Hand out three copies of worksheet 2 to eachstudent, and ask them to write brief descriptions ofthree of the websites they visited.

– Collect students’ work, and start a file of usefulwebsites that can be referred to and added to in thefuture by both students and teachers.

follow-up ideas– Encourage students to expand the website file by

using worksheet 2 to add interesting websites thatthey are familiar with, or that they come across,including those websites in the natural EnglishReading for Fun and websearch worksheet sections:www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/nehome/ne_afterclass/weblinks/

– Create a worksheet similar to worksheet 1, butbased on things that students want to find out.

– Create a weblog to record favourite websites andpublish the students’ own website reviews.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet to makeclassroom resources

creating a website resource file – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to make classroom resources

Use this worksheet to make notes.

Find a website that tells keywords (not case answer website addressyou … sensitive)

… the definition of ‘Internet’. online dictionary

… which playwright was born Stratford-upon-Avon + in Stratford-upon-Avon. playwright

… the main ingredients of recipe + Yorkshire pudding‘Yorkshire Pudding’.

… who wrote Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men + author

… the capital of Albania. capital + Albania

… where to find a picture of clipart + froga frog.

… the weather forecast for weather forecast + Cape TownCape Town in South Africa. + South Africa

… the phone number of the online telephone directory +main Oxford University Press UKUK office.

… who won the men’s singles tennis + Wimbledon + men’s at Wimbledon in 1997. finals + 1997

… the words to the song lyrics + Imagine + John Imagine by John Lennon. Lennon

… the name of the Australian Australia + Prime MinisterPrime Minister.

… the opening times for the museum + Louvre + visitor Louvre museum in Paris. information

useful websites

www.google.co.uk www.askjeeves.comwww.alltheweb.com www.search.msn.comwww.yahoo.com

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet to makeclassroom resources

creating a website resource file – worksheet 1

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to make classroom resources

Use this worksheet to make notes.

website address

brief description of content

alternative websites containing similar information

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet to makeclassroom resources

creating a website resource file – worksheet 2

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to make classroom resources

overviewlevel pre-intermediate and above

timing 60–75 minutes

aim to research festivals and create classroom

posters

students will …

– research a number of British festivals to complete afestival worksheet

– research one festival in depth and produce aninformation poster

– give a brief oral description of their chosen festival

preparationbefore the lesson

– Make a copy of the worksheet for each student.

– Prepare a list of festivals celebrated around theworld (see useful websites below).

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– printer (if possible, a colour printer)

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites– copying clipart from the Internet– copyright

useful websites

elt.britcoun.org.pl/f_season.htmBritish Studies website set up by the British Council;the website has information on, and links to, manydifferent festival-related websites.

www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religionsBBC website information about religious festivals.

www.indiaexpress.com/rangoli/deepavali.htmlIndian news website, which has information aboutIndian festivals.

www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/events/hogmanay/index.shtmlBBC Hogmanay website.

www.bonefire.org/guyBonfire Night website.

www.chinatown-online.co.uk/index2.htmlOfficial London Chinatown website.

www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/personnel/Festivals.docA list of festivals from around the world.

school.discovery.com/clipartThe Discovery Channel schools’ website, which has freeresources for teachers, including clipart.

www.google.co.ukGoogle bank of images; select ‘IMAGES’ from the menuand type a keyword / keywords.

procedure– Ask students to make a list of festivals that they

think or know are celebrated in Britain. Tell them tonote down any facts they know about how peoplecelebrate during these festivals.

– Hand out the worksheet, and ask students, workingin pairs, to use the notes they made earlier tocomplete the worksheet.

– Refer students to the list of useful websites on theworksheet and ask them to find the answers to allthe questions.

– Students should then use the Internet to research afestival and produce an information poster. Givestudents a list of festivals to choose from, andencourage them to word process their work and toadd clipart.

– Display the posters in the classroom, and askstudents to give a brief presentation.

follow-up ideas– Ask students to extend their research and to gather

enough information to give a five-minute classpresentation on their festival.

– Ask students to produce websearches, based ontheir extended research, which can be completed byfellow students or used with other classes as anintroduction to a similar lesson. See the naturalEnglish websearches: www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/nehome/ne_afterclass/weblinks/ forideas on what sort of questions to ask.

– Set up a festival file and add the posters for futureuse. Encourage other classes to add to the file.

– Produce a list of festivals that different studentscelebrate, and use Internet sites to send electronicgreetings cards on special days (this is particularlyappreciated by students who are studying awayfrom home, and who are more inclined to miss theirfriends and family on these days).

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet to makeclassroom resources

festivals – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to make classroom resources

Use this worksheet to make notes.

Festival When is it celebrated? What do people do? What special things do peopleeat and drink?

Easter

Hogmanay

Bonfire Night

Diwali

Chinese New Year

Christmas

useful websites

elt.britcoun.org.pl/f_season.htmBritish Studies website set up by the British Council; the website has information on, and links to, many different festival-related websites.

www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religionsBBC website containing information about religious festivals.

www.indiaexpress.com/rangoli/deepavali.htmlIndian news website, which has information about Indian festivals.

www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/events/hogmanay/index.shtmlBBC Hogmanay website.

www.bonefire.org/guyBonfire Night website.

www.chinatown-online.co.uk/index2.htmlOfficial London Chinatown website.

www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/personnel/Festivals.docA list of festivals from around the world, published on the Loughborough University website.

school.discovery.com/clipartThe Discovery Channel schools’ website, which has free resources for teachers, including clipart.

www.google.co.ukGoogle bank of images; select ‘IMAGES’ from the menu and type a keyword / keywords.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet to makeclassroom resources

festivals – worksheet

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to make classroom resources

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use conferencing to practise language skills

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use conferencing topractise language skills

Much has been written about the benefits of computer-mediated communication(CMC) for language students. For example, shy or quiet students are more likely totake part in an online discussion than to speak up in class. CMC also gives studentstime to think about what they are going to say, and is generally somethingstudents enjoy.

Internet conferencing tools enable students to take part in CMC and to exchangemessages with other members of their group via their computers. It is quite easy toset up and maintain an online conference group for students, and to use it to startdiscussion topics. Alternatively, students can start up their own discussions.Conferencing in this way is one way of avoiding the potential problems ofcommunicating on an open chatline, because membership of the group iscontrolled by the administrator (the person who sets up the group).

In this pack, you’ll find two ready-made lessons that show you how to useconferencing to practise language skills.

introduction

overviewlevel intermediate

timing 60 minutes

aim to familiarize students with computer

conferencing, and to practise writing

mini-biographies

students will …

– join an Internet conferencing group

– practise sending and reading messages

preparationbefore the lesson

– Visit an online conferencing website, and create anaccount by following the instructions carefully.

– Create a new conferencing topic, entitled‘Introductions’.

– Post a mini-autobiography, including a few unusualfacts.

technical checklist

– one computer for each student (if possible)

– also read:

tips for success – communicating via the Internet

useful websites

www.nicenet.orgNicenet Internet Classroom Assistant is designed forteachers to use with their students, and offers freeInternet conferencing.

www.tappedin.orgTapped In is an online resource for teachers, whichoffers free Internet conferencing and opportunities tolink up with other schools.

procedure– Direct students to the conferencing website, and

explain how to join up.

– Refer students the mini-autobiography, and askthem to read it and to practise adding comments.

– Tell students to write their own mini-autobiographies, including one or two unusual facts,and to post them to the conferencing group.

– Allocate each student two or three autobiographiesto read online.

– Ask students to respond to what they have read byposting a question or a comment for the author toread. Advise students to use the ‘send a personalmessage’ option for this.

follow-up ideas– Ask students to scan all of the autobiographies, in

order to find ideas for new conferencing topics, suchas ‘childhood memories’ or ‘hobbies’. They can usethese for futher conferencing.

– Set up a ‘learning English’ conferencing topic forstudents to discuss their course, and to ask forinformation and / or help.

– Post lesson notes so that students who have missedlessons can read through, ask questions, and catchup.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use conferencing topractise language skills

this is me! – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use conferencing to practise language skills

overviewlevel upper-intermediate / IELTS

timing 60 minutes for research and summarizing,

with an essay set as a homework

assignment

aim to familiarize students with computer

conferencing, and to practise writing

mini-biographies

students will …

– research ideas for a discursive essay

– summarize and present findings

– use collected findings of group to write a discursiveessay

preparationbefore the lesson

– Visit an online conferencing website, and create anaccount by following the instructions carefully.

– Set up a ‘smoking’ conferencing topic – this could bean IELTS-type essay title such as ‘Making cigarettesillegal would save money and lives. Discuss.’.

– Set up links to websites that contain informationabout smoking (see below).

technical checklist

– one computer for each student (if possible)

– also read:

tips for success – one computer for each student (if possible)– also read: tips for success – communicating via the

Internet

useful websites

ash.org/www.givingupsmoking.co.uk/www.pmusa.com/home.aspwww.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/09.18/26-tobacco.htmlwww.nicenet.orgNicenet Internet Classroom Assistant is designed forteachers to use with their students, and offers freeInternet conferencing.

www.tappedin.org Tapped In is an online resource for teachers, whichoffers free Internet conferencing and opportunities tolink up with other schools.

procedure– This lesson uses computer conferencing to

brainstorm ideas for a discursive essay whichstudents then go on to write. For the purposes ofthis lesson, use the Nicenet www.nicenet.org/ as ithas the conferencing, links, and document facilitiesrequired.

– Direct students to the conferencing website, andexplain how to join up.

– Ensure that all students are able to log on to theconferencing group.

– Explain that students are going to collect and makenotes about smoking, and discuss their findings.

– Allocate each pair of students a topic related tosmoking – these could include tobacco companies,tobacco tax, passive smoking, smoking whenpregnant, children smoking, anti-smokingcampaigns, anti-smoking laws, smoking relatedillnesses.

– Ask the students to research their topic and makenotes in pairs.

– Students then discuss the conferencing topic as agroup, putting forward the information they havecollected and supporting their opinions with details.

– Students write the essay as a homework task.

follow-up ideas– Conduct the discussion as a live group discussion on

a safe chatline e.g. www.tappedin.org/

– Check the homework and ask students to postrevised / corrected essays as documents so that otherstudents can read them.

– Use the students’ ‘smoking’ conferencing notes forlanguage work, for example to create a grammarauction.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use conferencing topractise language skills

essay planning – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use conferencing to practise language skills

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … evaluate websites

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … evaluate websites

The Internet is a huge resource for EFL teachers, and provides access to anenormous amount of authentic material that students can utilize both inside andoutside the classroom. However, as well as accessing Internet materials, teachersand students need to be able to make sense of the Internet in order to take fulladvantage of what is on offer.

Using the Internet effectively means being able to work with information that ispresented in different forms – non-linear text, audio, video, and pictures. Perhapseven more importantly, it also means remembering that anyone can publish justabout anything on the Internet. Teachers and students need to be able to evaluateinformation that appears on the Internet, in order to understand whether it isreliable in terms of content and whether it is suitable for teaching and learningpurposes.

In this pack, you’ll find two ready-made lessons that show you how to evaluatewebsites.

introduction

overviewlevel intermediate and above

timing 60 minutes

aim to familiarize students with online

language learning websites, and to

practise website evaluation

students will …

– create a set of criteria for evaluating online languagelearning resources

– evaluate an online language learning resource

– make a short presentation

preparationbefore the lesson

– Make two copies of the worksheet for each pair ofstudents.

– Prepare a list of language learning websites.

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– speakers for each computer, or headphones for eachstudent

– ‘Windows Media Player’ and / or ‘Real Player’ plug-ins – downloaded from the Internet, installed, andtested before the lesson

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites– downloading plug-ins

useful websites

www.oup.com/elt/global/products/studentsOxford University Press language practice resources forstudents.

www.learnenglish.org.ukBritish Council website for language learners.

www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/BBC website for learning English.

www.flo-joe.co.uk/Flo Joe exam practice website.

www.eslcafe.comDave Sperling’s ESL Internet cafe, one of the earliestEnglish learning websites.

a4esl.orgActivities for ESL Students, set up by the Internet TESLJournal for language practice.

www.esl-lab.comRandall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab for graded listeningactivities.

www.linguarama.com/ps/index.htmlLinguarama Business English practice.

www.bangkokpost.net/educationOnline English version of the Bangkok Post, which offersEnglish practice.

procedure– Establish whether students have any experience of

using online language practice resources, what sortof language practice exercises they did, and whetherthey found them useful or not.

– Brainstorm ideas for a good language learning site –these might include use of multimedia, exampractice, graded exercises, interactive exercises,feedback options, games, grammar information, andvocabulary exercises.

– Create a checklist based on students’ ideas.

– Hand out two copies of the worksheet to each pairof students.

– Give each pair of students two websites to evaluate,using the ideas on the class checklist to complete theworksheet.

– Ask students to present their findings to the rest ofthe class.

follow-up ideas– Use the completed worksheets to create a paper file

of language learning resources that can be kept inthe self-access centre. Encourage students to add tothe file.

– Set up a weblog with a list of language learningwebsites and reviews that can be updated andexpanded.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … evaluate websites

online language lessons – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … evaluate websites

Use this worksheet to make notes.

name of website

website address

who created the material? (teacher, student, materials writer)

appropriate student levels / age groups

presentation (include details of layout and additional features, such as multimedia)

content (include details of language practice exercises, exam practice, feedback)

positive points

negative points

Would you recommend this site? Give at least three reasons to support your answer.

useful websites

www.oup.com/elt/global/products/studentsOxford University Press language practiceresources for students.

www.learnenglish.org.ukBritish Council website for language learners.

www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/BBC website for learning English.

www.flo-joe.co.uk/Flo Joe exam practice website.

www.eslcafe.comDave Sperling’s ESL Internet cafe, one of theearliest English learning websites.

a4esl.orgActivities for ESL Students, set up by the Internet TESLJournal for language practice.

www.esl-lab.comRandall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab for graded listeningactivities.

www.linguarama.com/ps/index.htmlLinguarama Business English practice.

www.bangkokpost.net/educationOnline English version of the Bangkok Post, which offersEnglish practice.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … evaluate websites

online language lessons – worksheet

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … evaluate websites

overviewlevel intermediate and above

timing 60 minutes

aim to raise awareness of the importance of

website evaluation skills

students will …

– discuss why website evaluation is important

– evaluate a website according to a set of criteria

preparationbefore the lesson

– Prepare a list of well-designed websites – those givenin the useful websites section are all related tolearning with Information CommunicationsTechnology (ICT), but other websites from theseInternet lesson plans could be used instead.

– Make a copy of worksheets 1 and 2 for each student.

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– speakers for each computer, or headphones for eachstudent

– ‘Windows Media Player’ and / or ‘Real Player’ plug-ins – downloaded from the Internet, installed, andtested before the lesson

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites– downloading plug-ins

useful websites

www.oup.com/elt/gbOxford University Press ELT website.

www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtmlBBC Learning English website.

www.bbc.co.uk/webwiseBBC Webwise has online courses to improve ICT skills.

www.becta.org.ukBritish Educational Communications and TechnologyAgency (promotes the use of ICT in teaching / learning).

www.cilt.org.ukNational Centre for Languages, which promoteslanguage learning and teaching.

www.ngfl.gov.ukNational Grid for Learning, which provides ideas onhow to use ICT across the curriculum.

www.britishcouncil.org/english/index.htmBritish Council ELT website.

procedure– Hand out worksheet 1 to each student, and then ask

them to complete the Internet questionnaire and todiscuss their responses with a partner.

– Find out if students have any favourite websites,and ask them to explain why they like them. Elicitsome features of good websites (see worksheet 2).

– Hand out worksheet 2 to each student, and explainthat they are going to use it to evaluate a website.

– Ask students to discuss the website criteria incolumn 1 in pairs, and to use column 2 to notedown the reasons why each aspect is important (asan example, the first one has been completed).

– Give each pair two website addresses, and ask themto visit the websites and complete column 3.

– Refer students to the final question on theworksheet, and ask them to decide whether thewebsite would be useful for teachers and / orstudents, and why.

– In small groups, compare the websites that each pairof students evaluated.

– Ask students to evaluate one of their own favouritewebsites according to the criteria on the worksheet.

follow-up ideas– Ask students to create their own website evaluation

sheet, and then compare it with worksheet 2.

– Start up a file of website evaluations for teachersand students to consult – this could be an electronicfile stored on the classroom computer. If thecomputers are not networked, make up a paper fileor start a weblog to record website reviews.

– Encourage students to evaluate their favouritewebsites and to share their evaluations.

– Find examples of badly designed websites (thesewould include websites with multimedia featuresand / or links that do not work, information that isout of date, language mistakes, advertising bannersthat distract your attention, and so on), and askstudents to evaluate them.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … evaluate websites

website winners – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … evaluate websites

Use this worksheet to make notes.

how often do you … every day at least once a week at least once a month less than once a month

… use the Internet?

… use the Internet to …

– send e-mails?

– search for information?

– read the news?

– do English exercises?

– play games?

– listen to music?

– chat online?

– find the lyrics to songs?

– do your homework?

– listen to the radio?

– watch TV?

Do you have an e-mail account?If the answer is ‘yes’, what is your e-mail address?

Do you have your own website?If the answer is ‘yes’, what is your website address?What’s on your website?

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … evaluate websites

website winners – worksheet 1

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … evaluate websites

Use this worksheet to make notes.

website name:

website address:

website criteria Why is this important? comments about the website

The website loads quickly. You don’t want to waste time waiting for a website to load.

The website makes use of graphics, hyperlinks and multimedia (e.g. audio and video).

Everything on the website works (e.g. links, video, audio, interactive games, etc.).

The text size, colour, and font make thewebsite easy to read.

There is limited advertising, and no inappropriate or offensive advertising.

It is easy to find information / links on the page.

The information is reliable.

The information is up-to-date, or will not go out of date.

Details about the person / company who set up the website are available.

Do you think this is website would be useful for teachers and / or students? Give at least three reasons to support your answer:

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … evaluate websites

website winners – worksheet 2

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … evaluate websites

This glossary provides definitions of Internet-related terms used in the natural English Internetlesson plans.

For more information about Internet-related vocabulary, you may find it useful to consult anonline resource, such as BBC Webwise (www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/askbruce) or Netlingo (www.netlingo.com).

blogger Someone who sets up andtakes part in a weblog.

bookmarks A feature of the NetscapeNavigator browser, located on theInternet toolbar, which allows youto record and retrieve web pagesquickly without re-entering theweb address. (In Internet Explorerthis feature is called favorites).

broadband A high-speed way toaccess the Internet.

browser Internet browsers, such as Netscape Navigator and InternetExplorer, enable you to readinformation on the web bydisplaying it in web page format.

CALL Computer-assisted languagelearning.

chatroom A website that provides afacility for people to communicateonline and in real time (i.e. ‘live’),by typing messages onto thewebsite and responding tomessages that appear on-screen.

cookie Some websites copy smallsections of programming code ontoyour computer, which can identifyyou when you revisit the website.

CMC Computer Mediated CommunicationAny type of communication thattakes place via a computer, includinge-mail, weblogs, chatrooms, andvideo conferencing.

dial-up connection A connectionfrom your computer to yourInternet service provider (ISP) via astandard telephone line.

down If a website or ISP is ‘down’, itmeans that you cannot access it.This is usually temporary and as aresult of technical problems orwebsite maintenance.

download Copy a file from theInternet to your computer.

downloading Copying a file from theInternet to your computer.

e-mail electronic mail A system ofsending messages through electronicnetworks instead of on paper.

e-mail address The address forreceiving e-mail. The format isoften [email protected]. Theusername is your login name andhostname is the computer orInternet provider.

favorites See bookmarks

filtering tool A software programthat can be set to prevent certainmaterial, such as pornography, fromreaching your computer. An exampleis NetNanny www.netnanny.com, whichis aimed at keeping undesirablematerial away from children whenthey are using the Internet.

firewall A computer security systemthat protects internal networks,such as intranets, from viruses andfrom users not authorized to accessthem.

freeware Free software, includingplug-ins, that can be downloadedfrom the Internet.

GIF Graphics Interchange FormatA format used to display graphicson the Internet.

home page The first screen you see,or the top level of information, at awebsite.

HTML HyperText Markup LanguageA system used for creating webpagesso that they can be displayed byyour Internet browser.

hyperlink Text on a website which ismarked so that, while reading, youcan ‘jump’ to a different area of thewebpage or website, or even toanother website, making reading anon-linear experience.

hypertext A system of writing anddisplaying text so that it can belinked to other documents withhyperlinks.

ICT Information and CommunicationsTechnology, previously known as IT(Information Technology).

Internet A global network ofcomputer networks which allowsyou to access information andexchange messages around theworld.

Internet café / cybercafé A shopwhere you can order food anddrinks, as in a normal café, andaccess the Internet.

Intranet A network used within anorganization, and which is usuallyaccessed with a password and notavailable to people outside theorganization.

ISP Internet Service Provider A companythat provides access to the Internet.

JPEG / JPG Joint Photographic ExpertsGroup A format used to displaygraphics on the Internet.

keyword A word, or words, typedinto a search engine or webdirectory to begin a search.

link See hyperlink

multimedia A computer-basedmethod of presenting acombination of any or all of thefollowing: text, images, graphics,animation, audio or video,interactive features.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglishInternet lesson plans

glossary

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 Internet lesson plans glossary 1

netiquette Rules of behaviour thatyou should observe if you aretaking part in online interaction.For more information aboutnetiquette, look at Virginia Shea’sbook, available online on the Albionwebsite (www.albion.com).

offline Time when a computer isswitched on but is not connected tothe Internet.

online Time when a computer isswitched on and is connected to theInternet.

plug-in A software program that,once downloaded and installed onyour computer, runs withinanother program when needed,often to deal with audio or videofiles. See Real One Player or WindowsMedia Player

post Put up a message on an Internetdiscussion list, such as a weblog.

Real One Player Software that youcan download from the Internet(www.real.com) to enable you to playaudio and video files. See plug-ins

scroll Move the scroll bar, whichappears on the right-hand side ofthe page, up or down to see what ison a web page.

server A host computer on anetwork that holds information(e.g. websites) and responds torequests for information (e.g. linksto another web page).

search engine A program thatenables you to search for informationon the web by using keywords.Two examples of popular searchengines are Google www.google.comand Altavista www.altavista.com.

shareware Software, including plug-ins, that you can downloadfrom the Internet and try beforepurchasing.

sound player An application forplaying sound (audio) files.

soundcard A computer componentthat enables you to hear sound, fromcomputer speakers or headphones,or to input sound into yourcomputer through a microphone.

spam Unsolicited e-mail messagesthat are sent to a large number ofpeople to promote a product orservice. An electronic version ofjunk mail.

surf Browse / read information on theInternet by navigating from one webpage to another, following hyperlinks.

upload Copy a file from yourcomputer to a server / host system soit can be displayed on the Internet.

URL Uniform Resource Locator Theaddress of a resource on the Internetthat is part of the World Wide Web. AURL usually starts with http://www.and continues with the domainname for a website and the pagereference of a web page e.gwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish.

user Someone who is using theInternet.

username A name you use to log on to the Internet or to access amembers-only site.

video conference A real-timeconference between two or morepeople using computer networks,or the Internet, to transmit audioand video data.

virus A computer program, oftenspread through a network by e-mail, that can cause your computerto malfunction or crash. To avoidthis happening, you should becareful about opening e-mail fromunknown sources, and install avirus-scanning program, such asMcAfee www.mcafee.com.

Web See World Wide Web

web directory A tool you can use tosearch the web. However, unlikesearch engines, which use Internettechnology to sort information,web directories are manually createdand classified lists of websites.

weblink See hyperlink

weblog Originally online records andreviews of websites that bloggerscame across while surfing, weblogshave now evolved into onlinediaries, recording thoughts andideas that can be accessed andresponded to by other users.

web page An individual page of dataaccessible from the World Wide Web.

websearch (Sometimes calledwebquests) An information-gathering activity carried out bystudents using Internet resources(see www.oup.com/elt/teacher/naturalenglish).

website A collection of HTML files,graphic files, and any other filetypes that are held together andsupported by the World Wide Web(e.g. www.oup.com/elt).

website address See URL

Windows Media Player Softwarethat you can download from theInternet, (www.windowsmedia.com/download), to enable you to playaudio and video files. See plug-ins

World Wide Web A collection ofwebpages and websites which areconnected to the Internet.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglishInternet lesson plans

glossary continued

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 Internet lesson plans glossary 2

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop listening skills

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop listening skills

The Internet offers a wide range of listening practice for students. It is particularlyuseful for teachers working in a non-English speaking environment and whosestudents have limited access to English outside the classroom, because Internetusers can access a variety of material produced by native speakers. Anotheradvantage of the Internet is that the audio material that is available is often muchmore up-to-date than published material – for example, there is access to the latestnews, and many radio stations offer the possibility to listen to live broadcasts. Foran example, visit BBC Radio Two (www.bbc.co.uk/radio2).

As well as offering live broadcasts, there are opportunities to listen to recordedaudio clips on the Internet, which means that students can work at their own paceto repeat sections of a recording at will, and to read accompanying transcriptsbefore, after, or while they listen.

In this pack, you’ll find two ready-made lessons that show you how to use theInternet to develop listening skills.

introduction

overviewlevel intermediate

timing 75 minutes

aim to practise listening and note-taking

students will …

– use the BBC Video Nation website (www.bbc.co.uk/videonation) to listen to a selection of people talkingabout their education-related experiences

– make notes on what they hear

– submit their comments to the website

preparationbefore the lesson

– Make copies of the worksheet for each student.

technical checklist

– one computer for each student (if possible)

– speakers for each computer, or headphones for eachstudent

– Real Player’ plug-in – downloaded from the Internet,installed, and tested before the lesson

– also read:

tips for success – downloading plug-ins

procedure– Find out what students feel about exams, and how

taking exams affects their lives and the lives of thepeople around them (friends / flatmates / family).

– Explain that students are going to work individually.They will watch a video clip and listen to a numberof people talking about exams.

– Hand out a copy of the worksheet to each studentand ask them to read through the questions. Explainthat they have to complete the worksheet whilewatching and listening to the video clips.

– Direct students to the BBC Video Nation archive(www.bbc.co.uk/videonation/archive). Explain that thevideo clips on the worksheet are from two sections –‘Students’ and ‘School’ – so students need to visit bothsections.

– Ask students to work individually to complete theworksheet. Remind them that they can watch andlisten to the video clips as many times as necessary.

– Compare answers as a class.

– Put the students in pairs. Tell each pair to choose one ofthe video clips and to discuss their reactions to the clip.

– Ask the students to look back at the website and toread the section marked ‘Your thoughts about thisvideo’, where they can see what other people wrote inresponse to the video.

– Explain that the students are going to add theircomments to this section, using the box provided, andrefer them to the weblink ‘How to make sure yourcomments are approved’.

– Set a time limit for students to complete and submitthe written task.

follow-up ideas– Create parent / children roleplays, based on the

situations described in the video clips used in thislesson.

– Encourage students studying in the UK to takeadvantage of the opportunity to contribute theirown video by following the ‘Take Part’ link on thewebsite.

– Encourage students outside the UK to start up theirown Video Nation project, using similar themes.

– Select three or four video clips from the VideoNation archives and create similar listening exercisesto accompany them.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop listening skills

video nation – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop listening skills

Tick the correct box. Sometimes more than one option is possible.

Who … Val Fisher Simon Bird Dan Poulson Mike Michaels (‘A level results’) (‘My parents’) (‘Exams’) (‘A levels’)

… is going to take an exam soon?

… wasn’t a very good student?

… has a daughter in America?

… is fed up of taking exams?

… is anxious about their child’s exam results?

… wants to go to university?

… is worried about letting his parents down?

… thinks that coursework is better than exams?

… wants to open a letter?

… has a child who has gained good exam results?

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how to … use the Internet todevelop listening skills

video nation – worksheet

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop listening skills

overviewlevel intermediate and above

timing 75–90 minutes

aim to practise listening and asking questions

students will …

– listen to a song and complete the lyrics

– prepare for an interview with the singer

preparationbefore the lesson

– Visit a selection of websites that contain musicvideos (see below).

– Select one song from one website, and prepare andcopy a lyrics worksheet (e.g. a gap-fill) for eachstudent.

– Print out and copy the worksheet for each student.

technical checklist

– one computer for each student (if possible)

– speakers for each computer, or headphones for eachstudent

– ‘Windows Media Player’ or ‘Real Player’ plug-in –downloaded from the Internet, installed, and testedbefore the lesson

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites– downloading plug-ins– copyright

useful websites

www.bbc.co.uk/totpBBC Top of the Pops website, with music videosrecently released in the UK.

launch.yahoo.com/musicvideosLaunch, part of the Yahoo group, providing access to ahuge bank of music videos organized by genre.

www.mtv.comMTV online website, with access to recently releasedmusic videos.

www.lyricsdomain.comLyrics Domain, which has a large bank of song lyrics.

dir.yahoo.com/entertainment/music/lyrics/by_artistYahoo web directory, with links to many different lyricswebsites organized by artist.

procedure– Ask students to work in pairs or in small groups, and

to discuss what sort of music they enjoy listening to.

– Hand out the worksheet, and explain to studentsthat they will see a song being performed and thatthey will have to make notes about the performanceusing the worksheet.

– Direct students to the music video website and askthem to locate the relevant video.

– Tell students to watch the video and make notes.

– Ask students to compare their answers in pairs

– Hand out the lyrics worksheet and ask students tolisten to the video again and to complete the lyricsworksheet.

– Students should imagine that they are going tointerview the singer / group featured in the video.Ask students to draw up a list of questions that theythink would be interesting to ask, and then roleplaythe interview.

follow-up ideas– Students can locate artist fact files / fan websites to

find real answers to their interview questions.

– Ask students, in pairs, to put together a lyricsworksheet using music / artists they like.

– Ask students to write a review of a new song / newartist.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop listening skills

hit parade – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop listening skills

Use this worksheet to make notes.

title of song

performer

style of music

What happens in the video?

useful websites

www.bbc.co.uk/totpBBC Top of the Pops website, with music videos recently released in the UK.

launch.yahoo.com/musicvideosLaunch, part of the Yahoo group, providing access to a huge bank of music videos organized by genre.

www.mtv.comMTV online website, with access to recently released music videos.

www.lyricsdomain.comLyrics Domain, which has a large bank of song lyrics.

dir.yahoo.com/entertainment/music/lyrics/by_artistYahoo web directory, with links to many different lyrics websites organized by artist.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop listening skills

hit parade – worksheet

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop listening skills

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use news websites with Intermediate students

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use news websites withIntermediate students

For any teacher wishing to use news items with their class, the Internet providesaccess to literally hundreds of online news sources. In addition to news websites,such as BBC News Online (news.bbc.co.uk/), and news search engines, such asGoogle (news.google.co.uk), many newspapers now offer online versions, and anumber of TV and radio news programmes are now broadcast on the Internet.

Online newspapers are a mixture of newspapers produced in English-speakingcountries, for example The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk) and The Australian(www.theaustralian.com.au), and local English-language papers, for example TheBangkok Post (www.bangkokpost.co.th/), which is produced in Thailand, and theEnglish edition of the Greek newspaper Kathimerini (www.ekathimerini.com). Locallypublished online English-language newspapers are particularly useful for studentsstudying English in their own country, as they will be familiar with the newspaper’scontent.

An advantage of many online news websites is that they are updated continuously,providing access to up-to-date news from around the world. Furthermore,improvements in technology mean that, as well as being able to read the latestnews, students can use the Internet to watch and/or listen to news programmes,such as those made by the BBC (www.bbc.co.uk/radio).

In this pack, you’ll find two ready-made lessons that show you how to use newswebsites with Intermediate students.

introduction

overviewlevel intermediate and above

timing 90 minutes

aim to read and summarize news articles, and

to produce a radio / TV news broadcast

students will …

– read a news article in depth, and take notes

– use notes to create a summary of the original article

– work together to create and record a radio / TVnews broadcast

preparationbefore the lesson

– Make copies of worksheets 1 and 2 for each student.

– Choose a selection of news websites, one website foreach pair of students (see below).

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites– copyright

useful websites

news.bbc.co.ukBBC News website.

www.guardian.co.ukOnline version of The Guardian newspaper.

www.iht.comOnline version of The International Herald Tribunenewspaper.

www.ft.comOnline version of The Financial Times newspaper.

www.elgazette.comOnline version of The EL Gazette (English-languagejournal).

www.ipl.org/div/newsThe Internet Public Library, which contains details ofonline newspapers from around the world.

www.thebigproject.co.uk/news/ The Big Project, which has a list of UK news resources.

procedure– Hand out worksheet 1 and ask students to match

the news headlines to the relevant topics (the newsheadlines on the worksheet could be replaced withreal headlines selected by the teacher).

– Encourage students to think of other topics thatmight appear on a news website, such as: local,national and international news; show-businessgossip; education; travel; world affairs. Allocate onetopic to each pair of students.

– Hand out copies of worksheet 2 to each student andexplain that they are going to work in pairs. Directeach pair of students to a news website and ask themto find one story that falls within their topic.

– Tell students to read their chosen story carefully andto complete worksheet 2.

– Ask students to use the completed worksheet topractise retelling their story in pairs withoutreferring back to the full online version.

– Explain to the students that they are going to worktogether in groups to produce a TV / radio newsbroadcast based on the information they havecollected. They will need to choose an anchorperson and prepare interviews to accompany thestories.

– Give the students time to order the stories, preparetheir script, and rehearse their interviews beforerecording the news broadcast.

follow-up ideas– Students produce written summaries of their news

stories.

– If the news site selected has audio and / or video,students can listen to or watch their news stories andcompare their versions with the class news broadcast.

– Students research their news stories on differentnews websites and compare how the story is treated.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use news websites withIntermediate students

the news – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use news websites with Intermediate students

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use news websites withIntermediate students

the news – worksheet 1

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use news websites with Intermediate students

Company shares rise again

Box office success for new Johnny Depp movie

England win World CupLose weight and live longer

Breakthrough in research for cancer drug

Train strike causes chaos for commuters

Snow alert for Scotland

Election date set

a sport

b health

c news

d politics

e business

f weather

g science

h entertainment

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Match the headlines to the topics.

Use this worksheet to make notes.

headline

Where does the story take place?

When does it take place?

Who is involved?

What happened / is going to happen? (list the main facts in order)

key vocabulary

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use news websites withIntermediate students

the news – worksheet 2

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use news websites with Intermediate students

overviewlevel intermediate and above

timing 60–75 minutes

aim to compare how news is reported in

national and local online newspapers

students will …

– compare the content of two online newspapers

– summarize the main details of two headline stories

preparationbefore the lesson

– Make copies of worksheets 1 and 2 for each student.

– Choose a selection of online newspapers, one foreach pair of students (see below).

technical checklist

– one computer for per two to three students

– speakers for each computer, or headphones for eachstudent

– ‘Windows Media Player’ and / or ‘Real Player’ plug-ins – downloaded from the Internet, installed, andtested before the lesson

– also read:

tips for success – selecting and evaluating websites– downloading plug-ins

useful websites

www.ipl.org/div/newsThe Internet Public Library, which contains details ofonline newspapers from around the world.

www.thebigproject.co.uk/news/ The Big Project, which has a list of UK news resources.

procedure– Elicit what types of news resources are available on

the Internet, e.g. news search engines, newswebsites, online newspapers, online TV, and radionews broadcasts.

– Establish that students know the difference betweenlocal and national newspapers, and ask them to listthe sort of content they might expect to find ononline versions of each.

– Hand out a copy of worksheet 1 to each student, gothrough the items, and encourage students to try topredict the answers and to compare their predictionswith their partner.

– Refer students to the two newspaper websites, andask them to compare their predictions with what theonline newspapers actually contain.

– Hand out a copy of worksheet 2 to each student,and ask them, in pairs, to return to the twonewspaper websites and to use the worksheet tosummarize the main details of two headline stories.

follow-up ideas– Replace the Scarborough Evening News website with

the students’ local newspaper, if they are studying inan English-speaking country, or with an English-language version of a local newspaper in their owncountry.

– Divide the class into two groups and ask each groupto prepare a websearch for the other group tocomplete, based on one of the two news websitesused in the lesson plan. Visit the natural EnglishReading for Fun pages to find examples ofwebsearch worksheets: www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/nehome/ne_afterclass/weblinks/

– Many local news websites have contact details, andinvite letters and e-mails from readers. Ask studentsto put together a letter / e-mail in response to anarticle, or to investigate the possibility of submittingtheir own article to the editor for publication.

– Use stories from the local newspaper website toproduce and record a local radio / TV newsprogramme in class.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use news websites withIntermediate students

comparing online newspapers – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use news websites with Intermediate students

Which website do you think will have the following context? Write ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and give examples.

national newspaper local newspaperThe Guardian Scarborough Evening Newshttp://www.guardian.co.uk www.scarboroughtoday.co.uk

international news Yes – a lot of articles about politics

national news

sports news

entertainment information

business news

jobs

property for sale

weather

advertisements

horoscopes

video reports

pictures

sound

Can you find two more differences?

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use news websites withIntermediate students

comparing online newspapers – worksheet 1

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use news websites with Intermediate students

Use this worksheet to make notes.

national newspaper local newspaperThe Guardian Scarborough Evening Newshttp://www.guardian.co.uk www.scarboroughtoday.co.uk

headline

Who is the news story about?

When did it take place?

Where did it take place?

What happened?List the main points.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use news websites withIntermediate students

comparing online newspapers – worksheet 2

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use news websites with Intermediate students

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet for project work

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how to … use the Internet forproject work

The Internet is ideally suited to project work – it offers access to a huge amount ofinformation on just about any subject you can think of. There are opportunities totake learning out of the classroom and out of the course book, to research projects,and to publish work that can be accessed anywhere in the world.

For teachers working in non-English-speaking countries, the Internet isparticularly valuable because it provides access to a wealth of up-to-date Englishlanguage resources, such as online magazines and newspapers and English-speaking contacts that can be used to collect information for classroom projects.

In this pack, you’ll find two ready-made lessons that show you how to use theInternet for project work.

introduction

overviewlevel pre-intermediate and above

timing 60–75 minutes

aim to collect information about films and to

put together a film review magazine

students will …

– research their favourite and least favourite films

– produce reviews, which will then be put together tomake up a film review magazine

preparationbefore the lesson

– Make two copies of the worksheet for each student.

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– printer

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites– copying clipart from the Internet– copyright

useful websites

www.bbc.co.uk/filmsBBC film review website.

www.guardian.co.uk/filmsThe Guardian newspaper online film review section.

www.imdb.comThe Internet Movie Database, a comprehensivecollection of information about films.

www.allmovie.comThe All Movie Guide, a collection of information aboutfilms and the people who make them.

www.oscar.comThe official Oscar website, with reviews of all past andpresent Oscar nominations and winners.

www.britmovie.co.ukA website dedicated to British cinema.

procedure– Explain that students are going to prepare a film

review magazine – if possible, show examples of filmreview magazines or of newspaper film review pages.

– Find out how often students watch films, and whatsort of films they like / dislike, in order to elicit a rangeof genres and examples of films to match the genres.

– Ask them what sort of information they wouldexpect to find in a film review – encourage them tomake a list of questions that they expect a filmreview to answer.

– Hand out two copies of the worksheet to each student,so that they can compare their questions with thoseon the worksheet (there is space on the worksheet forstudents to add extra questions, if necessary).

– Refer students to the list of film websites on theworksheet. Explain that they are going to researchand make notes about their own favourite and leastfavourite films, using the list of film websites andthe worksheets.

– When the worksheets have been completed, thestudents should use their notes to produce briefreviews of their films. Each review should includethe student’s opinion of the film, together with theirrecommendation (e.g. a star rating).

– Encourage students to word process their reviewsand to add clipart / pictures.

– Print out and collect the reviews to create a classfilm review magazine.

follow-up ideas– Ask students to give a brief presentation of their film

review in class.

– Set up a film folder for other students to refer to / usein class / add to. If the institution has a networkedcomputer system that students can access easily,store the film reviews electronically in a folder, sothey can be printed out and / or used at a later date.

– Direct students to the Films websearch on thenatural English website: www.oup.com/pdf/elt/products/neup_websearches04.pdf

– When they have tried out the websearch, askstudents to make up websearches and answer sheetsaround the films they reviewed. Add these to thefilm folder for students to copy and use.

– Suggest that students submit their reviews to anInternet film review website, such as the BBC filmwebsite (www.bbc.co.uk/films).

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet forproject work

film critics – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet for project work

Use this worksheet to make notes.

question answer

What is the title of the film?

What sort of film is it?

Which film company made the film?

How much did the film cost to make?

When was the film released?

Has the film won any awards?

Who starred in the film?

When is the film set – in the past, the present, or the future?

Where is the film set?

What happens in the film?

add your own questions:

useful websites

www.bbc.co.uk/filmsBBC film review website.

www.guardian.co.uk/filmsThe Guardian newspaper online film review section.

www.imdb.comThe Internet Movie Database, a comprehensive collection of information about films.

www.allmovie.comThe All Movie Guide, a collection of information about films and the people who make them.

www.oscar.comThe official Oscar website, with reviews of all past and present Oscar nominations and winners.

www.britmovie.co.ukA website dedicated to British cinema.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet forproject work

film critics – worksheet

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet for project work

overviewlevel intermediate and above

timing 60–75 minutes

aim to use Internet resources to research and

plan a short holiday on a limited budget

students will …

– use the Internet to research travel, accommodation,and things to do and see in different cities

– complete a worksheet with details of proposedexpenditure on each day of the holiday

preparationbefore the lesson

– Locate and print out a maps of the United Kingdom(UK), showing Penzance, in the south-west ofEngland, and Edinburgh, in Scotland, for each pairor group (see www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/europe/united_kingdom_rel87.jpg).

– Make a copy of the worksheet for each student.

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– printer

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites

useful websites

www.yha.co.ukYouth Hostelling Association website, an organizationthat offers cheap accommodation.

www.gobycoach.comNational Express website, for coach travel information.

www.nationalrail.co.ukNational Rail website, for train travel information.

www.visitbath.co.ukOfficial Bath tourism website.

www.york-tourism.co.ukOfficial York tourism website.

www.edinburgh.orgOfficial Edinburgh tourism website.

www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/University of Texas library website, which has anextensive online collection of maps.

procedure– Brainstorm methods of travel, places to stay, and

what to do on holiday.

– Hand out maps of the UK. If students are studying inor have visited the UK, tell them to mark on themap the places they have visited. If not, tell them touse the map to locate towns and cities they haveheard of.

– Ask students to locate and highlight Penzance, Bath,York and Edinburgh on their maps. Explain thatthey are going to work in pairs / threes to plan afive-day touring holiday together, starting inPenzance and finishing in Edinburgh. On the way,they have to visit Bath and York.

– Hand out the list of travel and tourism websites, andexplain that students have to use the websites todecide how to travel, where to stay, where to eat,and what to visit each day.

– Hand out copies of the worksheet to each pair, andexplain that they have a budget of £500 for theweek. Explain that the budget has to be accountedfor, so they should use the worksheet to note downthe cost of accommodation, travel, meals, and anyentrance fees for museums, etc.

– Present completed itineraries to the class and voteon the most interesting or original trip.

follow-up ideas– Send electronic postcards from each city (many

tourism websites have free electronic postcards).

– Write up holidays in the form of a letter to a friend,or as an article for a student magazine.

– Link the project to an appropriate natural Englishwebsearch – e.g. complete the Train Journeyswebsearch (www.oup.com/pdf/elt/products/neint_websearches01.pdf) and plan a journey stopping offalong one of the routes.

– Plan a ‘round the world’ trip on a budget, stoppingoff at each of the countries represented in a mixednationality class.

– Ask students who are studying away from home tocompile information and tips about the places theyvisit. This can then be made available as a paper fileor, with the help of IT staff, on the institution’sIntranet / website. Encourage future students toupdate and add to this resource.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet forproject work

travelling north – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet for project work

Use this worksheet to make notes.

amount spent where reason amount remaining from £500

day 1

day 2

day 3

day 4

day 5

useful websites

www.yha.co.ukYouth Hostelling Association website, an organization that offers cheap accommodation.

www.gobycoach.comNational Express website, for coach travel information.

www.nationalrail.co.ukNational Rail website, for train travel information.

www.visitbath.co.ukOfficial Bath tourism website.

www.york-tourism.co.ukOfficial York tourism website.

www.edinburgh.orgOfficial Edinburgh tourism website.

www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/University of Texas library website, which has an extensive online collection of maps.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet forproject work

travelling north – worksheet

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet for project work

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop reading skills

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how to … use the Internet todevelop reading skills

In the past, language students, particularly those studying in a non-nativeenvironment, have been restricted in their choice of reading. Materials such asmagazines and newspapers were available but expensive – and often out of date.Furthermore, access to literature was difficult for anyone who did not happen tolive near an English library.

By contrast, the Internet offers a wealth of up-to-date reading material, which isincreasing each day, including research papers, electronic journals, news articles,short stories, and homepages. There are even complete books published on theInternet. So much material is now available on the Internet that it is sometimesdifficult to decide what to use with students and how to use it, so teachers need tobe able to locate and evaluate reading material efficiently.

In this pack, you’ll find two ready-made lessons that show you how to use theInternet to develop reading skills.

introduction

overviewlevel intermediate

timing 60–75 minutes

aim to research an author and a book

students will …

– read about a book and complete a worksheet

– create a reading diary

preparationbefore the lesson

– Prepare a list of book-related websites (or use theones listed below).

– Select a contemporary author for students toresearch.

– Make two copies of worksheet 1 for each student.

– Make one copy of the reading diary for each student.

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– speakers for each computer, or headphones for eachstudent

– ‘Windows Media Player’ and / or ‘Real Player’ plug-ins – downloaded from the Internet, installed, andtested before the lesson

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites– downloading plug-ins– copyright

useful websites

books.guardian.co.ukBooks section of The Guardian newspaper online.

www.bbc.co.uk/arts/booksBooks section of the BBC website.

www.amazon.co.uk/booksOnline bookshop with book reviews.

procedure– Ask the students to think about a book they have

read – if possible, one that most of the students arefamiliar with. Ask them to list as many facts aboutthe author and the story as they can – includeinformation about the characters, the genre, whereand when the story takes place, what happens, etc.

– Hand out a copy of worksheet 1 to each student,and tell them to separate the facts into biographicalinformation, characters in the story, and plot. Theyshould add their opinion of the book in the finalbox.

– Explain that students will work in pairs to use theInternet to research a contemporary author and abook by that author.

– Hand out a second copy of worksheet 1 to eachstudent. Tell the students the name of the authorand book they will research.

– Ask students to explore the websites, reading andlistening to articles, book excerpts, interviews, etc.,in order to collect the information they need.

– Ask the students to compare the information theyhave collected with another pair.

– Hand out copies of the reading diary (worksheet 2)and ask the students to complete it.

follow-up ideas– If the book has been made into a film, encourage

the students to visit the film website, and to find outinformation about the film and the cast.

– Encourage students to research an author and bookof their choice.

– Recommend that students keep a record of thereading that they do outside the classroom, usingthe reading diary (worksheet 2) as a model.

– Obtain a class set of the book that the studentsresearched to use during reading lessons.

– Encourage students to explore unit 7 of the naturalEnglish intermediate Reading for Fun weblinks:www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/nehome/ne_afterclass/weblinks/ to learn more about authors andbooks.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop reading skills

books – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop reading skills

Use this worksheet to make notes.

author

title

genre

characters (names and descriptions)

the story

my opinion

useful websites

books.guardian.co.ukBooks section of The Guardian newspaper online.

www.bbc.co.uk/arts/booksBooks section of the BBC website.

www.amazon.co.uk/booksOnline bookshop with book reviews.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop reading skills

books – worksheet 1

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop reading skills

Use this worksheet to make a reading diary.

website

date visited

what I read / listened to / watched

what I learned

useful vocabulary

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop reading skills

books – worksheet 2

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop reading skills

overviewlevel intermediate

timing 60–75 minutes

aim to practise reading online and to create a

reading activity for fellow students

students will …

– carry out a websearch on biographies

– develop their own websearch

preparationbefore the lesson

– Visit the intermediate natural English websearchpages: www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/nehome/ne_afterclass/weblinks/, and print outa copy of the unit 11 Biographies websearch foreach student.

– Print out a copy of the worksheet for each student.

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– printer

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites

useful websites

www.biography.comThe Biography Channel website.

amillionlives.comA Million Lives, a large collection of posthumousbiographies.

www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/ref15.00.00/Internet Public Library biographies section.

www.britain.tv/lifestyle_famousppl.shtmlThe famous Britons section of Britain TV.

www.factmonster.com/people.htmlFact Monster website, which has biographies of peoplefrom different countries around the world.

procedure– Establish that students understand the words

‘biography’ and ‘autobiography’.

– Ask students to name some famous people, and totell the rest of the class one thing about the personthey named.

– On the whiteboard, write the names of the fivepeople who appear in the natural Englishwebsearch (Prince William, Valentina Tereshkova,Cheb Mami, J.K. Rowling, and Kofi Annan). Askthe students if they know, or if they can guess,anything about any of these people, such as wherethey come from or why they are famous.

– Hand out the natural English websearch sheets, andask students to work in pairs to answer thequestions by visiting the five websites on the sheet.

– Check the students’ answers.

– Hand out copies of the ‘searching for answers’worksheet. Explain that students should work inpairs to choose a website to research a famousperson of their choice. Ask each pair to write fivequestions about the person they chose, based on theinformation they find on the website. They shouldenter the website address, the name of the person,and the questions on the worksheet.

– Tell students to exchange their worksheets withanother pair, so that they can complete each other’swebsearches.

– Encourage each pair to try out two or threewebsearches. Remind students to write theiranswers on a separate sheet of paper, so that thewebsearches can be reused.

follow-up ideas– Give students a list of websites, but post questions

around the classroom, so that the activity becomes acombination of websearch and running dictation.

– Ask students to carry out further research on one ofthe people from the websearch, or on someone theyadmire, and to produce a mini-biography.

– Encourage students to explore unit 11 of the naturalEnglish intermediate Reading for Fun weblinks:www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/nehome/ne_afterclass/weblinks/ in order to learn more aboutfamous people.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop reading skills

searching for answers – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop reading skills

Use this worksheet to make notes.

Visit this website

Read about

Answer the following questions about their life:

1

2

3

4

5

useful websites

www.biography.comThe Biography Channel website.

amillionlives.comA Million Lives, a large collection of posthumous biographies.

www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/ref15.00.00/Internet Public Library biographies section.

www.britain.tv/lifestyle_famousppl.shtmlThe famous Britons section of Britain TV.

www.factmonster.com/people.htmlFact Monster website, which has biographies of people from different countries around the world.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop reading skills

searching for answers – worksheet

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop reading skills

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop speaking skills

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop speaking skills

A number of language-teaching organizations are using the Internet to deliverlanguage lessons using audio and/or video conferencing. However, students do notneed to communicate across the Internet to develop their speaking and listeningskills. A classroom task, which involves using the Internet in pairs or small groups,can offer a very good opportunity for genuine communication in the targetlanguage, as students work together to complete their task.

In this pack, you’ll find two ready-made lessons that show you how to use theInternet to develop speaking skills.

introduction

overviewlevel intermediate

timing 2 sessions of 60–75 minutes – one session

to collect and organize information, and

the second to deliver a presentation

aim to practise the language of presentations

students will …

– research and make notes on a country

– prepare and deliver a presentation based on theirnotes

preparationbefore the lesson

– Make a copy of the worksheet for each student.

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites

useful websites

www.roughguides.comRough Guide website, providing country profiles fortravellers.

www.lonelyplanet.comLonely Planet website, providing country profiles fortravellers.

www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/United States government website, providing detailedcountry profiles.

www.britannica.comOnline version of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

procedure– Explain that students will use the Internet to

research a country that they have never visited andthat they know nothing about.

– Hand out a copy of the worksheet to each student.Explain that the students will need to visit morethan one website in order to collect all theinformation they need.

– Give each student a country to research – try toselect countries that are not near to or similar to thestudents’ own countries. Emphasize that studentsshould gather information in the form of notes, andthat they should not copy large chunks of text.

– Ask the students to organize their information into apresentation, which they will deliver to the rest ofthe class.

follow-up ideas– Record the student presentations on video, so that

the students can assess themselves.

– Ask the students to prepare similar presentationsabout their own countries.

– Students can create posters to display in theclassroom.

– Ask students to prepare a websearch based on acountry they have researched. See the naturalEnglish Reading for Fun websearches for examples:www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/nehome/ne_afterclass/weblinks/

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop speaking skills

country presentations – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop speaking skills

Use this worksheet to make notes.

country

facts– location

– population

– language

– currency

– major cities

– climate

culture– national dress

– food

– national holidays

– festivals

economy– agriculture

– industry

– imports & exports

useful websites

www.roughguides.comRough Guide website, providing country profiles for travellers.

www.lonelyplanet.comLonely Planet website, providing country profiles for travellers.

www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/United States government website, providing detailed country profiles.

www.britannica.comOnline version of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop speaking skills

country presentations – worksheet

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop speaking skills

overviewlevel intermediate and above

timing 60–75 minutes

aim to practise speaking about the past

students will …

– research local amenities, such as cinemas,restaurants, nightclubs, sports centres,supermarkets, bars, and cafes

– put together an alibi for themselves

– try to break the alibis of other students

preparationbefore the lesson

– Make a copy of the worksheet for each student.

– Prepare list of websites for local amenities, andmake a copy for each student (or use the onesbelow).

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites

useful websites

www.bournemouth.co.ukOfficial Bournemouth tourism website.

www.bournemouth-info.comBournemouth online information service.

www.thisisbournemouth.co.ukOnline version of the Daily Echo, the Bournemouthlocal newspaper.

www.uk-clubbing-directory.co.ukUK Clubbing Directory, a guide to nightclubs.

www.lollo.co.ukLollo restaurant guide.

Note: This lesson plan uses Bournemouth, a coastaltown in the south of England, but you could use thetown / city where you are teaching and researchappropriate websites.

procedure– Explain that a bank robbery was carried out on

Wednesday night in the centre of Bournemouth,and that the robbers escaped with £1 million. Tellthe students that the police suspect that at least twostudents from the class were involved in therobbery, and that they are going to ask for alibis foreach student covering the period from 6.00 p.m. tomidnight. Explain that none of the students can saywhat they were really doing on Wednesdayevening. Therefore, working with a partner, theyhave to invent a strong alibi for the police.

– Hand out copies of the worksheet and the list ofwebsites to each student. Students should decidewhere they spent Wednesday evening (they shouldmention a minimum of two places). Tell students toresearch amenities in Bournemouth, and to fill in thedetails of where they were at each particular time onthe worksheet, as well as what they were doing.

– Explain that the police are going to try to break eachalibi, so the students need to be very convincing. Forexample, if they say that they spent part of the eveningin a restaurant, they will have to say what they hadand what their partner had, how much it cost, if theyenjoyed it, if they left a tip for the waiter, etc.

– Allow students time to prepare their alibi andpractise in pairs before they face the police.

– Divide the class into two groups – police andsuspects – and pair each police officer with asuspect.

– Allow the police officers five minutes to try to breakthe alibis by asking questions about the suspect’sactivities.

– Then ask the police officers and suspects to swaproles, and to repeat the exercise using the secondsuspect’s alibi.

follow-up ideas– Turn the alibi notes on the worksheets into ‘police

statements’ or ‘police reports’.

– Ask students to write a press release about therobbery and about the successful arrest of suspects,detailing how their alibis were broken.

– Base the crime around the town where students arestudying, so that they are researching amenities thatare local to them, and which they might use (this isa particularly useful activity to help to familiarizestudents with a new town).

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop speaking skills

alibi – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop speaking skills

Use this worksheet to make notes.

time where / details

6.00 p.m. – 7.00 p.m.

7.00 p.m. – 8.00 p.m.

8.00 p.m. – 9.00 p.m.

9.00 p.m. – 10.00 p.m.

10.00 p.m. – 11.00 p.m.

11.00 p.m. – midnight

useful websites

www.bournemouth.co.ukOfficial Bournemouth tourism website.

www.bournemouth-info.comBournemouth Online information service.

www.thisisbournemouth.co.ukOnline version of the Daily Echo, the Bournemouth local newspaper.

www.uk-clubbing-directory.co.ukUK Clubbing Directory, a guide to nightclubs.

www.lollo.co.ukLollo restaurant guide.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop speaking skills

alibi – worksheet

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop speaking skills

topics1 teaching with computers

2 getting started

3 lesson preparation

4 downloading plug-ins

5 Internet searching

6 copying clipart from the Internet

7 copying text from the Internet

8 saving and adapting natural English Word resources

9 selecting and evaluating websites

10 communicating via the Internet

– e-mail and e-cards

– Internet conferencing and weblogs

11 publishing students’ work on the Internet

12 copyright

1 teaching with computers– Remember to keep the focus on language learning,

not on technology. Most students enjoy workingwith computers, so long as they remain focused andunderstand how activities can help them to developtheir language skills.

– Do not hand over responsibility for learning to theInternet. Set up activities carefully and make surethat students understand what they have to do. Tryto ensure that they have a ‘product’ to take away asa record of what they have done in the lesson, orencourage them to set up a learning diary to recordand reflect on lessons.

– Follow up class activities. Show interest in the workthat students produce, so that they feel that whatthey are doing is of importance. Try to find ways ofreturning to the work at a later date to develop orupdate it.

2 getting started– For anyone without much experience of using the

Internet, it is a good idea to try out a web-basedintroduction to the Internet, such as the BBC’s‘Becoming Web Wise’ (www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/learn),to become familiar with some of the terminologyand have an opportunity to practise. The samewebsite also has an ‘Absolute Beginner’s Guide’, foranyone who has no previous experience ofcomputers.

3 lesson preparation– Do not attempt a lesson without trying it out

beforehand, so that you can help your students.

– Make sure that you have the right equipment. For example, if you are going to do a listeninglesson, you will need a set of speakers for eachcomputer, or headphones for each student.

– Check that your computers have the necessarysoftware downloaded and installed before the lesson.For example, if you want to access an audio or videofile, you will need a plug-in, such as Real One Player.See downloading plug-ins

– Just before the lesson, check that you can access theInternet from your classroom computers, and thatany websites you want to use are available. Bear inmind that not all websites are accessible everywherein the world, so you might need to look foralternatives that are locally available.

– Websites can be down (not working) for variousreasons – they may just be temporarily offline, orthey may have moved to a different place on the web,in which case the name and website address will havechanged. Look for other websites that have the sameinformation, and keep a list of alternatives to hand.

– Think ahead and plan what to do if there are likely tobe problems accessing the Internet. One solution isto purchase specialist software such as WebWhacker(www.bluesquirrel.com/products/whee), which makes itpossible to download websites to a classroomcomputer so that students can work offline.

– If necessary, have an alternative lesson plan or printoff information from the Internet in advance.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 Internet lesson plans tips for success 1

Internet lesson planstips for success

4 downloading plug-ins– A plug-in is simply a software program that, once

downloaded and installed onto your computer, runswithin another program when needed, often to dealwith audio or video files. Examples of plug-ins thatyou might use for the natural English Internet lessonplans are Real One Player (www.real.com) or WindowsMedia Player (www.windowsmedia.com/download). Bothwebsites offer free versions of their software.

– Downloading software is straightforward and simplyinvolves following the instructions that appear onthe computer screen – click on ‘download’ andfollow the instructions. Once the software has beendownloaded, it needs to be installed, again byfollowing the instructions which appear when youclick on ‘install’.

5 Internet searching– Try out different Internet search engines, such as

Google (www.google.co.uk) or All the Web(www.alltheweb.com), and Internet directories, such as(www.askjeeves.com).

– Make searches more specific by selecting keywordscarefully. For example, in a search for the words tosongs by Madonna, typing ‘Madonna’ into a searchengine will bring up hundreds of thousands ofwebsites, many of which will not be relevant.Typing in ‘madonna + songs + lyrics’ will narrowdown the number of websites returned.

– Save interesting websites so that it is easy to findthem again. In Internet Explorer, save websites byclicking on the ‘Favorites’ button on the toolbar andthen selecting ‘Add to Favorites’. In Netscape Navigator,use the ‘Bookmarks’ button on the toolbar.

6 copying clipart from the Internet– To copy a picture from the Internet:

– place the mouse over the picture– right-click the mouse and select ‘Copy’ from the

drop-down menu that appears– open a new Word document – place the mouse on the document– right-click the mouse and select ‘Paste’ from the

drop-down menu– save the file as a Word document– Remember that pictures that appear on the Internet are

usually subject to copyright. See copyright

7 copying text from the Internet– To copy text from the Internet:

– place the mouse at the beginning of the section of textto be copied

– depress the left-click button on the mouse– holding the left-click button down, drag the mouse to the

bottom of the text to highlight the section to be copied – release the left-click button– move to the toolbar and select ‘Edit’– from the drop-down menu select ‘Copy’– open a new Word document – select ‘Edit’ from the toolbar– from the drop-down menu select ‘Paste’– Remember that text that appears on the Internet is

usually subject to copyright. See copyright

8 saving and adapting natural EnglishWord resources

– natural English Word resources can be saved onto acomputer, onto a CD-ROM RW, or onto a floppydisk. To save a natural English Word resource:

– move the mouse to the toolbar and click ‘File’– from the drop-down menu, click ‘Save as’– select where you want to save the file (computer,

CD-ROM RW, floppy) – give the file a name and click ‘Save’– make a note of the name and location of the file so that

it can be easily retrieved

– Once the file has been saved, use ‘cut and paste’ toreorder the texts and make up different activities. To cut and paste:

– place the mouse at the beginning of the section of textto be moved

– press the left-click button on the mouse down– holding the left-click button down, drag the mouse to

the end of the text to highlight the section to be moved – release the left-click button– move to the toolbar and click ‘Edit’, then select ‘Cut’

from the drop-down menu– click where the text is to appear – move to the toolbar and click ‘Edit’, then select ‘Paste’

from the drop-down menu and the text will appear in thenew position

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglishInternet lesson plans

tips for success continued

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 Internet lesson plans tips for success 2

9 selecting and evaluating websites– Before the lesson, select which websites are going to

be used so that, in the lesson, the students can focuson the language task and not waste time searching.

– Choose reputable websites. Do not just think aboutwebsite content in terms of information andlanguage level. It is also important to think whetherwebsites are appropriate – many websites arefinanced by advertising products, such as gambling,sex, alcohol, or finance, that may not be acceptable.

– Make sure that websites are easy to navigate – thatthey load quickly and are set out so that informationis easy to locate.

– Learn to identify the differences between good andbad websites. To help, try out the how to … evaluatewebsites lesson with some different websites.

– Create lessons that can be revised or updated to beused with other groups, rather than one-off lessons.This means choosing material that is not likely to goout of date quickly, and selecting websites that are notlikely to disappear or which can be easily substituted.Usually, the websites that more likely to disappearare personal homepages (identifiable because theyoften have the symbol ~ included in the address).

– When using current articles from news websites,look around the websites to see if there is an‘Archive’. If there is, it will be possible to access thesame article at a later date – however, bear in mindthat access to some archives is not free.

– Check which Internet ‘guards’ are in place at yourinstitution – some institutions will have installedfilter software to block certain types of websites. It is important, when preparing a lesson at home, to ensure that the websites selected can be accessedin the classroom.

10 communicating via the Internet– Electronic mail (e-mail) and weblogs are described

as asynchronous communication, which means thatthey do not take place in real time, and there is adelay between a message being sent to an emailaddress, or posted to a weblog, and it being read.

– Internet conferencing and chatroom conversationsare forms of synchronous communication, whichmeans that they are live. Messages are posted andresponded to immediately.

e-mail and e-cards

– In order to send and receive e-mails, students willneed to open an e-mail account. It is a good idea tocheck that all students have set up an e-mailaccount before trying to teach a lesson whichrequires them to use e-mail.

– There are a number of popular websites, such asYahoo (www.mail.yahoo.com), that offer free e-mail. Toset up an account:

– choose a site that offers free e-mail– follow instructions to register, entering information

where required– complete the registration– make a note of the e-mail address and password– follow instructions to send and open e-mails

– e-cards or e-postcards are popular ways to sendgreetings and short messages, and it is often possibleto add music to the cards. Try the BBC website(www.bbc.co.uk/e-cards) for television-related e-cards, or Bornfree (www.bornfree.org.uk) for e-cards featuringanimals. To send a card, follow the links andcomplete the relevant information boxes.

Note: Most websites offering free e-cards expect the userto supply their own e-mail address, which can lead tounwanted spam (electronic junk mail). Avoid this bychoosing reputable websites.

Internet conferencing and weblogs

– Setting up an Internet conference group or weblogfor a class of students is relatively straightforwardusing Internet-based software such as Nicenet’sInternet Classroom Assistant (www.nicenet.org) orBlogger (www.blogger.com). To set up a group:

– collect a list of student e-mails addresses– join an Internet conferencing or Blog website – follow instructions to set up a discussion topic (each

website will have slightly different instructions)– add the students’ names and e-mail addresses to the list

of discussion members– hand out the conference group password to each student

and direct them to the website so they can take part indiscussions

Note: Adding students to a weblog usually generates amessage to their e-mail address, inviting them to join. Therewill also be a link to the blog website, and instructionson how create a blog account, with a password. Whenstudents have created and signed in to their own account,they will have access to any weblogs they have beeninvited to join.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglishInternet lesson plans

tips for success continued

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 Internet lesson plans tips for success 3

11 publishing students’ work on theInternet

– One of the advantages of the Internet is that itprovides opportunities for students to publish theirwork to an audience outside the classroom.

– Create class webpages. There are a number ofwebsites, such as the National Grid for Learning(safety.ngfl.gov.uk/schools/pdf/d2.pdf), which advise onhow to set up a website and give information aboutsafety issues to consider. Do remember to getpermission from students before publishing theirwork on the Internet.

– Encourage students to take part in class weblogs andto set up their own weblogs using websites such asBBC Collective (www.bbc.co.uk/collective).

– Encourage students to submit their own work towebsites, including film review websites such as theBBC film review website (www.bbc.co.uk/films). Tosubmit a film review, follow the links to moviereviews.

Note: Avoid publishing personal information aboutstudents, such as photographs, names, addresses, andcontact details, on the Internet, and remind students,particularly younger students, of the potential dangersof giving away personal information.

12 copyright– Just as paper-based material is subject to copyright,

so is any information, whether text, graphics, sound,video, or animation, stored on the Internet. Mostwebsites have copyright notices on the web pages,and information about how the website contentmay be used. For more information, visit the What isCopyright website (www.whatiscopyright.org/).

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglishInternet lesson plans

tips for success continued

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 Internet lesson plans tips for success 4

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop vocabulary

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop vocabulary

The Internet is a rich source of vocabulary for any English language student,because there is information on just about every subject imaginable. Since most ofthe material is not graded for English learners, Internet-based reading andlistening activities continously expose students to new vocabulary. Internet-basedwriting and speaking activities give students the opportunity to use newvocabulary.

The Internet also provides access to specialist language learning websites, such asthe natural English website (www.oup.com/elt/global/products/naturalenglish). Manylanguage learning websites provide interactive vocabulary exercises that allowstudents to test their vocabulary, or offer downloadable vocabulary resources thatteachers can use in class.

In this pack, you’ll find two ready-made lessons that show you how to use theInternet to develop vocabulary.

introduction

overviewlevel intermediate and above

timing 75–90 minutes

aim to research job websites and write a letter

of application

students will …

– complete a wordsearch activity

– research jobs on the Internet

– write a letter of application

preparationbefore the lesson

– Make a copy of the worksheet for each student.

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– printer

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites

useful websites

www.jobcentreplus.gov.ukUK government-run Job Centre website with details ofjobs advertised throughout the UK.

www.reed.co.ukReed recruitment agency.

www.thisislondon.co.ukThis is London, the online version of the London EveningStandard newspaper – includes job vacancies section.

www.prospects.ac.ukJob vacancies and careers advice for graduates.

www.thebigproject.co.uk/news/A list of UK news resources, including online versionsof local and national newspapers.

procedure– Discuss what types of jobs interest the students and

why.

– Tell students to complete natural English jobwordsearch (www.oup.com/elt/global/products/naturalenglish/neint_wordsearch01), and check that theyknow the jobs that appear in the wordsearch.

– Hand out a copy of the worksheet to each studentand ask them, in pairs, to grade the jobs from 1–10for responsibility, training, and interest.

– Direct each pair of students to a job website. Askthem to find a job that interests them, and whichthey could do with their current qualifications andexperience (or which they would like to be able todo).

– Ask them to write a letter of application for theirchosen job, and to print out a copy.

follow-up ideas– Ask students to make up their own wordsearch /

crossword activities using online teachers’ resources:

puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/Discovery Channel School website, which has toolsfor making resources that can be printed out.

web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbakedDownloadable interactive resources software.

www.puzzle-maker.comPuzzle Maker website with tools for makingcrosswords and wordsearches.

– Print out copies of the natural English vocabularycalendar: www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/nehome/ and encourage students to use it torecord new vocabulary.

– Recycle job vocabulary through the game ofcharades, where students act out their jobs silentlyand the other students try to guess the job title.

– Try out job-related puzzles on the natural Englishwebsite: www.oup.com/elt/global/products/naturalenglish/ (intermediate units 1 and 6, upper-intermediate unit 7)

– Follow-up with work-related websearches:www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/nehome/ne_afterclass/weblinks/ (intermediate unit 6, upper-intermediate unit 7)

– Encourage students to explore the natural EnglishReading for Fun sections on the student’s website(www.oup.com/elt/global/products/naturalenglish). Forwork-related reading, see intermediate units 1 and 6,and upper-intermediate unit 7.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop vocabulary

job hunting – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop vocabulary

Use this worksheet to make notes.

job responsibility training interest

spy

judge

lawyer

mechanic

surgeon

nurse

composer

useful websites

www.jobcentreplus.gov.ukUK government-run Job Centre website with details of jobs advertised throughout the UK.

www.reed.co.ukReed recruitment agency.

www.thisislondon.co.ukThis is London, the online version of the London Evening Standard newspaper – includes job vacancies section.

www.prospects.ac.ukJob vacancies and careers advice for graduates.

www.thebigproject.co.uk/news/A list of UK news resources, including online versions of local and national newspapers.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop vocabulary

job hunting – worksheet

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop vocabulary

overviewlevel intermediate and above

timing 75 minutes

aim to practise vocabulary connected to

weddings and to research celebrity

weddings

students will …

– focus on wedding-related vocabulary

– use the Internet to research a celebrity wedding

preparationbefore the lesson

– Make a copy of the intermediate ‘word police’weddings vocabulary sheet for each student fromthe natural English teachers’ resource website:www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/nehome/ne_inclass

– Make a copy of the natural English vocabularycalendar for each student from the natural Englishteachers’ resource website: www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/nehome

– Make a copy of ‘weddings’ worksheet 1 for eachstudent.

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites

useful websites

www.google.co.ukInternet search engine.

www.lovetripper.comLove Tripper, an online magazine about weddings and allthings related to weddings; includes a celebritywedding database.

www.hellomagazine.comOnline version of Hello magazine, including celebritynews.

procedure– Hand out the ‘word police’ vocabulary sheet, and

ask students to complete it in pairs, usingdictionaries where necessary.

– Elicit examples of celebrity weddings.

– Hand out a copy of worksheet 1 to each student,and explain that students are going to work in pairsto use the Internet to research a celebrity wedding.Allocate two weddings to each pair of students.Examples might include the following:– Britney Spears and Jason Alexander– Madonna and Guy Ritchie– David Beckham and Posh Spice– Prince Charles and Lady Diana– Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones– Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes– Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt– Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas

– Refer students to the useful websites to collect theinformation they need for their worksheets.

– Ask the students to use the information they havecollected to write an article for a newspaper aboutone of the celebrity weddings they researched.

– Hand out copies of the vocabulary calendar to eachstudent, and ask them to record new vocabulary.Remind the students to keep their vocabularycalendars up-to-date. There is a new one for you toprint off every month on the natural Englishwebsite.

follow-up ideas– Ask students to plan a wedding for two famous

people of their choice, using worksheet 1 to helpthem.

– Ask students to draw up a list of twelve guests toinvite to a celebrity wedding (students can selectpeople from history or people who are alive today),and to organize a seating plan for the main table atthe reception, giving reasons for their choices (seeworksheet 2).

– Encourage students to explore the Reading for Funsection on the natural English student’s website(www.oup.com/elt/global/products/naturalenglish). Forwedding-related reading, see upper-intermediateunit 9.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop vocabulary

weddings – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop vocabulary

Use this worksheet to make notes.

names of bride and bridegroom

length of engagement

date of wedding

wedding venue

wedding dress designer

best man

bridesmaids

famous guests

reception venue

honeymoon (where, how long, etc.)

How long did the marriage last?

useful websites

www.google.co.ukInternet search engine.

www.lovetripper.comLove Tripper, an online magazine about weddings and all things related to weddings; includes a celebrity wedding database.

www.hellomagazine.comOnline version of Hello magazine, including celebrity news.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop vocabulary

weddings – worksheet 1

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop vocabulary

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop vocabulary

weddings – worksheet 2

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop vocabulary

Use this worksheet to make your seating plan.

bride groom

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use weblogs to motivate students

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use weblogs to motivatestudents

Weblogs are online diaries or journals created by individuals, and they arecontinuously updated. They are quite similar to the homepages that individualscreate to publish information about their lives or hobbies. One benefit of weblogsfor both teachers and students is that they are easy to set up and maintain.

Weblogs act as a record of an individual’s thoughts, and they are interactive in thatreaders can add their own comments to what has been written. A weblog can alsobe set up for a group of people. For example, a teacher could encourage studentsto start individual weblogs and to use them as learner diaries, perhaps restrictingaccess, so only the teacher and the student could read and add messages.Alternatively, the teacher might set up a group weblog for students to postmessages, and to share information and thoughts about homework tasks.

In this pack, you’ll find two ready-made lessons that show you how to useweblogs to motivate students.

introduction

overviewlevel intermediate and above

timing 60 minutes

aim to introduce students to, and familiarize

them with, a class weblog, and to practise

setting up weblogs

students will …

– join a teacher-led weblog

– take part in a weblog

– set up weblogs

preparationbefore the lesson

– Prepare a list of students’ e-mail addresses, andmake a copy for each student.

– Set up a weblog by visiting a weblog site (see usefulwebsites, below) and following the instructions fornew users.

– Add students to the list of weblog members.

– Ensure that students sign up to the weblog beforethe lesson.

– Post an introduction on the weblog, explaining theweblog’s purpose – this could be, for example, forthe teacher to post details of lessons, and forstudents to discuss and give feedback on the lessons,or it might be a homework weblog.

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– also read:

tips for success – communicating via the Internet

useful websites

www.blogger.comBlogger, a free blog website run by Google.

www.webcrimson.comWeb Crimson, a free blog website.

www.bloglines.comBlog Lines – a free blog website.

procedure– Establish whether students have any experience of

using weblogs, or if they have their own weblogaccount already set up. If not, briefly explain what aweblog is.

– Direct students to the weblog you set up before thelesson, and ask them to log in using their memberdetails and to read the introduction.

– Ask students to post suggestions about what theywould like to see included on the weblog, and topractise responding to other students’ comments.

– Encourage students to think of ideas for other classweblogs – such as developing reading or listening,homework discussion, etc.

– Refer students to a weblog website, and ask them towork in pairs to create a weblog.

– Hand out copies of students’ e-mail addresses, sothat students can add each other to the differentweblogs. (First, check that students are happy foryou to give out their e-mail addresses.)

– Ask students to post an introduction to their weblog,describing why they have set up the weblog.

– Tell students to visit the different weblogs and postcomments on as many as possible.

follow-up ideas– Keep the original class weblog up-to-date, posting

information about classes, homework reminders,etc., and ask each student to contribute to theweblog at least once a week.

– Suggest that students visit different weblogs to seewhat other people are writing about, and to findideas for setting up and developing their ownweblog, based on their own interests.

– Ask each student to set up an individual weblog tokeep a record of their learning.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use weblogs to motivatestudents

class weblogs – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use weblogs to motivate students

overviewlevel intermediate and above

timing 60 minutes

aim to set up a learner weblog

students will …

– set up their own weblog

– start an online learner diary

preparationbefore the lesson

– Prepare a list of students’ e-mail addresses, andmake copies.

– Set up a weblog by visiting a weblog site (see usefulwebsites, below) and following the instructions fornew users.

– Add students to the list of weblog members.

– Ensure that students sign up to the weblog beforethe lesson.

– Post an introduction on the weblog, explainingwhat a learner diary is.

technical checklist

– one computer per student, if possible

– also read:

tips for success – communicating via the Internet

useful websites

www.blogger.comBlogger, a free blog website run by Google.

www.webcrimson.comWeb Crimson, a free blog website.

www.bloglines.comBlog Lines – a free blog website.

procedure– Direct the students to the weblog, and tell them to

sign in and to read the introduction.

– Ask students to use the weblog to talk about learnerdiaries – encourage them to think about what sort ofinformation would be included, why wouldsomeone keep a learner diary, how useful is alearner diary, and so on. Students should post theircomments on the weblog, and should respond toeach other’s comments.

– Ask students to set up individual learner weblogsthat only they and the teacher can access (they willneed the teacher’s e-mail address).

– Tell each student to begin using their learner weblogby reflecting on various aspects of their course andprogress to date, and by considering how they mightmove forward.

– Explain to the students that you will respond totheir weblogs after the lesson, and remind studentsto return to their weblogs to read the responses.

follow-up ideas– Encourage students to add to their weblog, each day

or each week, by regularly visiting each student’sweblog and adding a comment.

– If students do not find time to add to their weblogsout of class, allocate 15 minutes at the end of alesson for them to access and update their weblogs.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use weblogs to motivatestudents

learner weblogs – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use weblogs to motivate students

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use Word resources with your students in class

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use Word resources withyour students in class

The natural English teachers’ website offers Word resources that teachers candownload and customize (www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/nehome/).

These resources are organized into units, and they include vocabulary lists, keyphrases, tapescripts, and texts taken from the natural English coursebooks.Because they can be downloaded in Word format, the resources can be saved andcustomized to suit the needs of different classes.

In this pack, you’ll find two ready-made lessons that show you how to use Wordresources with your students in class.

introduction

overviewlevel intermediate

timing 60 minutes

aim to reorder three texts and practise giving

advice

students will …

– sort out and reorder three jumbled texts

– discuss how to cope with an annoying problem

– write a letter giving advice to someone with a problem

preparationbefore the lesson

– Visit the natural English In Class resources section(www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/nehome/)

– Download intermediate unit 5 reading ‘BestBehaviour’, from the customizable reading texts,and save as a Word file.

– Jumble up the text by cutting and pasting, similar toworksheet 1, then print it out and copy it for eachstudent (alternatively, use worksheet 1).

– Make a copy of worksheet 2 for each student.

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites– saving and adapting natural English Word resources

procedure– Ask students to think of examples of annoying

things that their close friends or family do – such assnoring, leaving the toilet seat up, etc.

– Elicit different solutions to the students’ problems.

– Check that the students are familiar with theconcept of problem pages and agony aunts / uncles.

– Hand out the jumbled-up text and explain that itcontains three letters that were sent to an agonyaunt. Tell the students to work in pairs to reorderthe letters.

– Hand out worksheet 2, and tell students to readthrough the reordered letters again and to completethe worksheet.

– Ask students to discuss the problems and how theycould be solved.

– Tell students to choose one letter and to write areply of between 80–120 words.

– Arrange students in three groups, according towhich letter they replied to, and ask them tocompare their replies and vote for the best advice.Here are some examples:

follow-up ideas– Ask each student to invent a problem and to write a

letter to an agony aunt / uncle, asking for advice.Tell students to exchange their letters with anotherstudent and to write a reply, giving advice, to theletter they have been given.

– Use the Internet to find other examples of problemsto use with students and to provide them with moreopportunities to give advice. Here are someexamples:

www.problempages.co.ukProblem Pages is an online bank of problems andadvice.

www.itsnotyourfault.orgWebsite set up by the National Children’s Helplinecharity to help young people with family problems.

www.ukcosa.org.ukCouncil for International Education website, whichgives advice to students.

www.adviceguide.org.ukCitizens’ Advice Bureau website, which containsadvice on a variety of problems.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use Word resources withyour students in class

jumbled problems – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use Word resources with your students in class

During the school holidays my teenage son spends most of his mornings asleep

What can we do about this?

should not be woken up artificially by alarm clocks or people shouting at them.

in every way, but when we are out in public together, I always feel embarrassed

uncomfortable. We can’t afford a chauffeur or to travel in two separate cars.

He reacts angrily if anyone goes near his bedroom. What can I do?

My father, aged 65, used to be in the army. He’s a lovely man and extremely kind

unpleasant and we have awful arguments about the best route to take. When she

theory that people should wake up when their own body clock tells them to, and

because he speaks so loudly all the time and everyone stares at us. How can I

My wife and I have a terrible time in the car. When I am driving, she is incredibly

stop him shouting without hurting his feelings?

is at the wheel, she drives fast and dangerously and it is extremely

in bed. I think he’s unbelievably lazy, but he says it’s based on an American

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use Word resources withyour students in class

jumbled problems – worksheet 1

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use Word resources with your students in class

Use this worksheet to make notes.

letter 1 letter 2 letter 3

Who is complaining?

Who are they complaining about?

Why are they complaining?

Possible solutions (your ideas)

useful websites

www.problempages.co.ukProblem Pages is an online bank of problems and advice.

www.itsnotyourfault.orgWebsite set up by the National Children’s Helpline charity to help young people with family problems.

www.ukcosa.org.ukCouncil for International Education website, which gives advice to students.

www.adviceguide.org.ukCitizens’ Advice Bureau website, which contains advice on a variety of problems.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use Word resources withyour students in class

jumbled problems – worksheet 2

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use Word resources with your students in class

overviewlevel intermediate

timing 60–75 minutes

aim to practise listening for specific

information, and to practise using online

dictionaries

students will …

– listen to someone describing their favourite film,and do an a acompanying vocabulary exercise

– use an online dictionary to find out the differencesbetween words that may appear to be similar orwhich may be easily confused

preparationbefore the lesson

– Visit the natural English In Class resources section(www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/nehome/)

– Download intermediate tapescript 7.6 (story 1) fromthe Tapescripts section, and save as a Word file.

– Make a copy of worksheet 1 for each student (orcreate a new exercise using the tapescript).

– Note: for this lesson you will require a copy of thenatural English intermediate coursebook cassette.

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites– saving and adapting natural English Word resources

useful websites

www.freesearch.co.uk/dictionaryFreesearch online British dictionary.

www.m-w.com/home.htmMerriam-Webster website, containing an onlinedictionary and thesaurus.

www.oup.com/elt/global/products/oaldThe Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary website,which allows users to look up words online.

dictionary.reference.comLexico Publishing website which accesses a number ofleading dictionaries.

procedure– Ask students to discuss their favourite film with a

partner and to give a brief summary of the story.

– Hand out a copy of worksheet 1 to each student,and ask them to read through the script and tochoose the best word in each case. Sometimes morethan one answer is possible.

– Refer students to the list of dictionary websites. Askstudents, in pairs, to use the online dictionaries tocheck the differences between the words marked inbold.

– Play the cassette to the students, and tell them tolisten and underline the correct words.

– Encourage the students to practise saying the wordsand to listen to their partners saying them.

follow-up ideas– Use the same script to produce a gap-fill exercise by

removing all the words in bold.

– Use the Internet to find out more about the filmBrief Encounter.

www.carnforth-station.co.ukCarnforth railway station website; Carnforth wasused as a location for the film Brief Encounter and hasinformation about the shooting of the film.

www.bbc.co.uk/filmsBBC film review website.

www.imdb.comInternet Movie Database website, which has acomprehensive collection of information aboutfilms.

www.allmovie.comAll Movie Guide, a collection of information aboutfilms and the people who make them.

www.britmovie.co.ukWebsite dedicated to British cinema.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use Word resources withyour students in class

putting words into someone’s mouth – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use Word resources with your students in class

Choose the best option.

Well, my favourite film ever is about a 1 marriage / relationship / relative. Er, a man and a woman meet

in a railway 2 restaurant / carriage / station. (Oh, yeah) because she has something in her eye, and he’s

a 3 lawyer / railway official / doctor, so he comes forward and helps her to get this out of her eye, and

er, they 4 meet / bump into / encounter several times after that, and eventually realize that they are

falling in love with each other, but the 5 trouble / problem / dilemma is that they are both married to

other people. (Oh, no!) And er, then one 6 day / morning / evening she comes 7 home / house very late

from having 8 met / seen / watched this man and her children are both 9 ill / sickness / unhealthy so she

feels terribly 10 guilty / sad / upset about this. She thinks that somehow she’s 11 sensible / responsible

for her children being ill, because she’s been having a relationship with this man, (Oh!) and she 12 thinks / realizes / recognizes it’s going to have to stop ...

useful websites

www.freesearch.co.uk/dictionaryFreesearch online British dictionary.

www.m-w.com/home.htmMerriam-Webster website, containing an online dictionary and thesaurus.

www.oup.com/elt/global/products/oaldThe Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary website, which allows users to look up words online.

dictionary.reference.comLexico Publishing website which accesses a number of leading dictionaries.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use Word resources withyour students in class

putting words into someone’s mouth – worksheet

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use Word resources with your students in class

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop writing skills

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop writing skills

The Internet offers many opportunities for students to practise writing. E-mailprojects are popular and provide the chance for students to communicate witheach other or with their teacher. Producing a class webpage gives students achance to communicate something about themselves to the world outside theclassroom. There are also webpages that offer information about writing and exampractice for EFL students.

Another exciting aspect of the Internet is that it offers opportunities for ‘real’communication – that is, a chance for the student to move outside the classroomto practise writing. There are online questionnaires and forms to complete, ordiscussion boards to contribute to – and many websites invite users to send inquestions and comments.

In this pack, you’ll find two ready-made lessons that show you how to use theInternet to develop writing skills.

introduction

overviewlevel intermediate and above

timing 60 minutes to complete the worksheet

and write the e-mails, plus a follow-up

session to compare information that

students collect

aim to research and describe tourist

attractions, and to practise writing e-mails

requesting information

students will …

– research London sights

– contact museums, tourist information, and travelinformation offices via e-mail

– complete a tourist attraction worksheet

preparationbefore the lesson

– Ensure that all students have an e-mail address, andthat they know how to use e-mail.

– Make a copy of the worksheet for each student.

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– printer

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites– communicating via the Internet

useful websites

www.visitlondon.comOfficial London visitor website, with links to all majorattractions.

www.nhm.ac.ukNational History Museum website.

www.vam.ac.ukVictoria and Albert Museum.

www.royal.gov.uk/output/page554.aspOfficial British Monarchy website containing details ofRoyal residences.

www.nationalgallery.org.ukNational Gallery website.

www.madame-tussauds.co.ukMadame Tussaud’s waxwork museum website.

www.thebritishmuseum.ac.ukBritish Museum website.

www.westminster-abbey.orgWestminster Abbey website.

www.parliament.ukHouses of Parliament (House of Commons and Houseof Lords) website.

www.hrp.org.uk Historic Royal Palaces website (Tower of London,Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, and Kew).

procedure– Explain that students are going to work in pairs to

research two to three tourist attractions that wouldbe suitable for a group of 50 language students tovisit during a day-trip to London.

– Hand out one copy of the worksheet to eachstudent, and allocate two to three tourist attractionwebsites for each pair / group to research.

– Tell students to use the websites to find theinformation for sections a to d.

– Explain that, in order to find the information forsections e to g, the students have to locate thecontact details of the appropriate tourist attraction,and that they have to write an e-mail.

– Ask students to work in their pairs / groups toproduce each e-mail, and to print out a copy beforethey send it so they can be given feedback on theirwriting.

– In the follow-up lesson, ask students to completetheir worksheets with the information received inresponse to their e-mails, and then to comparetourist attractions and to vote on the three placesthey would like to visit.

follow-up ideas– Use a word-processor and the information collected

on the worksheet to produce a leaflet or poster toadvertise the tourist attraction.

– Adapt the lesson for different towns / countries.Ideally, students would be able to visit the placesthey have voted for and write reviews based ontheir visit.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop writing skills

day trip to London – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop writing skills

Use this worksheet to make notes.

a name of tourist attraction

b location

c opening / closing times

d things to do / see(list at least four things)

e special exhibitions /things of interest

f length of time needed to visit

g cost

h information for groups

useful websites

www.visitlondon.comOfficial London visitor website, with links to all major attractions.

www.nhm.ac.ukNational History Museum website.

www.vam.ac.ukVictoria and Albert Museum.

www.royal.gov.uk/output/page554.aspOfficial British Monarchy website containing details of Royal residences.

www.nationalgallery.org.ukNational Gallery website.

www.madame-tussauds.co.ukMadame Tussaud’s waxwork museum website.

www.thebritishmuseum.ac.ukBritish Museum website.

www.westminster-abbey.orgWestminster Abbey website.

www.parliament.ukHouses of Parliament (House of Commons and House of Lords) website.

www.hrp.org.uk Historic Royal Palaces website (Tower of London, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, and Kew).

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop writing skills

day trip to London – worksheet

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop writing skills

overviewlevel intermediate and above

timing 60–75 minutes

aim to practise writing postcards

students will …

– complete a websearch

– write a postcard

– talk about holidays

preparationbefore the lesson

– visit the natural English websearch pageswww.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/products/nehome/ne_afterclass/weblinks/, and print out one or more of thefollowing websearches:– upper-intermediate unit 2, Tourism and Holidays– intermediate unit 2, Travel and Holidays– intermediate unit 1, Train Journeys

– make a copy of the websearch(es) for each student

– make a copy of the worksheet for each student

technical checklist

– one computer per two to three students

– printer

– also read:

tips for success – searching– selecting and evaluating websites– communicating via the Internet

procedure– Hand out the natural English websearches, and tell

the students to use the websites given to locate theanswers to each question. Explain that to find theanswers they will have to read carefully and explorethe websites thoroughly.

– Check the websearch answers, and then ask eachstudent to choose the holiday or journey thatappeals to them most, and to return to that website.

– Tell students that they are in the middle of theirchosen holiday and that it is time to send a postcardhome.

– Hand out the worksheet, and tell students to usetheir holiday website to gather enough informationabout the holiday to write a postcard to their bestfriend, including the following information:– where they are– how long they have been there– what they have seen– what they have done– who they have met– the best thing about the holiday

– Put students into groups of four and tell them thatthey are now back home with a group of friendscomparing holidays. Explain that they have to telleach other about their holidays and ask questionsabout their friends’ holidays.

follow-up ideas– Ask students to use the Internet to find free virtual

postcards (e-cards) to send electronically to theteacher or to each other.

– Encourage students to write outside the classroomby visiting virtual postcard websites. Here are someexamples:

www.vnz.co.nzVirtual New Zealand website, which has NewZealand-related e-cards.

www.offbeatcards.comOffbeat Cards website, which has e-cards for manycities and countries around the world.

www.globosapiens.net/postcardsGLOBO sapiens website, which has a gallery ofpictures from around the world that can be turnedinto e-cards.

www.britainexpress.com/cards.htmlBritain Express website, including cards showingBritish castles and countryside.

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop writing skills

postcards – teacher’s notes

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop writing skills

naturalEnglishwww.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish

how to … use the Internet todevelop writing skills

postcards – worksheet

Photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2004 how to … use the Internet to develop writing skills

Use this worksheet to write your postcard.

1st