Last Updated: August 6 2008 Welcome Message from Our Director

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www.teachinternational.com Last Updated: August 6 2008 Welcome Message from our Director

‘Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.’ Chinese Proverb

Welcome to Teach International’s TESOL In-Class Course! We are pleased you have chosen us to guide you through this exciting, life-changing journey! All of us at Teach International feel that the experience of teaching English overseas is one of the richest and most rewarding a person can have.

With such a change, however, comes the need for careful research, preparation and information. Let us help you! Your trainers have a wealth of experience in everything that is related to the TESOL industry. Use them! Ask lots of questions, participate as much as you can and read this manual thoroughly… you will find it a valuable resource during the course, and later on in your teaching career.

Remember! The more you put in, the more you will get out of it. Give us your best, and we guarantee you an unforgettable educational experience. Good luck!

Adam Morehouse Director

TEACH INTERNATIONAL TESOL IN-CLASS COURSE OUTLINE ...... 8 SECTION 1...... 11 UNIT 1 – TEACHING ENGLISH OVERSEAS...... 13

WHY TEACH OVERSEAS ? ...... 15 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT ESOL TEACHER ...... 20 TIPS FOR SUCCESS IN THE ESL CLASSROOM ...... 21 UNIT 2 – ENGLISH – AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ...... 29

WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF LEARNING ENGLISH ?...... 31 ENGLISH 'WORLD LANGUAGE ' FORECAST ...... 35 ENGLISH – THE GLOBAL PICTURE ...... 36 ENGLISH IS (MOSTLY ) A FOREIGN LANGUAGE ! ...... 37 HUMOROUS ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS *...... 38 ENGLISH IS A CRAZY LANGUAGE *...... 39 THEORIES , APPROACHES AND TECHNIQUES ...... 44 THE COMMUNICATIVE ESOL CLASSROOM ...... 47 LESSON PLAN MODEL ...... 49 FURTHER RESOURCES ...... 50 UNIT 3 – SCHOOLS AND STUDENTS...... 51

TYPES OF SCHOOLS ...... 54 TYPES OF STUDENTS ...... 58 FURTHER RESOURCES ...... 61 UNIT 4 – LEVELS ...... 63

WHO IS IN CHARGE OF LEVELLING STUDENTS ? ...... 65 WHAT LEVELS ARE THERE ? ...... 65 WHAT DO THE LEVELS MEAN ? ...... 66 WHAT IS TAUGHT AT EACH LEVEL ? ...... 67 FURTHER RESOURCES ...... 69 UNIT 5 – GROUP DYNAMICS...... 71

THE USE OF GROUPS IN THE CLASSROOM ...... 73 STAGES OF GROUP DYNAMICS ...... 74 FURTHER QUESTIONS ...... 75 FURTHER RESOURCES ...... 75 UNIT 6 – LESSON PLANNING AND SYLLABUS ...... 77

LESSON PLAN MODEL FOR ADULTS ...... 80 LESSON PLAN MODEL FOR CHILDREN ...... 81 LESSON PLANNING PROCESS ...... 82 HOW TO MAKE A GREAT LESSON ...... 83 THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT – POINTS TO CONSIDER ...... 86 COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE : ...... 86 CREATING AND TEACHING A SYLLABUS ...... 89 SITUATIONS , FUNCTIONS AND VOCABULARY FOR LESSON PLANNING ...... 92

INTRODUCTION ...... 99 FORM AND FUNCTION TABLE ...... 100 FORM AND FUNCTION : GRAMMAR POINTS ...... 101 TEACHING GRAMMAR ...... 106 BOARD -WORK ...... 109 PRACTISING GRAMMAR ...... 110 RE-ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITIES ...... 112 FURTHER RESOURCES ...... 124 TEACHING IDIOMS AND SLANG ...... 125 FURTHER RESOURCES ...... 128 UNIT 8 – PRONUNCIATION ...... 129

INTRODUCTION ...... 131 TEACHING PRONUNCIATION ...... 134 PRONUNCIATION EXERCISES ...... 136 PRONUNCIATION ACTIVITIES ...... 138 STRESS – THE EMPHASIS IN PRONUNCIATION ...... 142 DEFINITIONS ...... 146 PHONEMES OF AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH ...... 147 PRONUNCIATION LESSON ...... 150 FURTHER RESOURCES ...... 164 UNIT 9 – ACTIVITIES ...... 165

CHOOSING AN ACTIVITY ...... 167 WHY USE ACTIVITIES ? ...... 168 TYPES OF ACTIVITIES ...... 168 GAMES IN THE CLASSROOM ...... 168 THE IMPORTANCE OF DIALOGUE ...... 169 OTHER ACTIVITIES FOR THE CLASSROOM ...... 174 MANY MORE ACTIVITIES !...... 174 HOW TO USE FLASHCARDS ...... 187 VOCABULARY LESSON ...... 196 FURTHER RESOURCES ...... 199 UNIT 10 – MUSIC AND VIDEO...... 201

USING MUSIC IN YOUR ESL CLASSROOM ...... 203 WHY SHOULD I USE MUSIC ?...... 203 HOW DO I CHOOSE THE RIGHT MUSIC ? ...... 203 HOW CAN I USE MUSIC IN MY ADULT ESOL CLASSROOM ? ...... 204 HOW CAN I USE MUSIC IN MY CHILDREN ’S ESOL CLASSROOM ? ...... 207 SONG IDEAS – CHILDREN ...... 209 SONG IDEAS – ADULTS ...... 209 USING VIDEO /DVD IN YOUR CLASSROOM ...... 224 WHY SHOULD I USE VIDEO /DVD? ...... 224 WHAT SHOULD I CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING VIDEO ?...... 224 HOW CAN I USE VIDEO /DVD IN MY ADULT AND TEENAGE ESOL CLASSROOM ? ...... 226 HOW CAN I USE VIDEO /DVD IN MY CHILDREN ’S ESOL CLASSROOM ? ...... 229 FURTHER RESOURCES ...... 230

WHY TEACH LISTENING COMPREHENSION ? ...... 233 WHEN SHOULD I WORK ON LISTENING COMPREHENSION ? ...... 233 CONSIDERATIONS ...... 234 ACTIVITIES ...... 234 SAMPLE LISTENING ACTIVITY ...... 236 FURTHER RESOURCES ...... 237 UNIT 12 – READING ...... 239

TEACHING READING ...... 241 WHY ? ...... 241 WHAT ? ...... 241 HOW ? ...... 241 READING LESSONS ...... 243 FURTHER RESOURCES ...... 284 UNIT 13 – WRITING AND SPELLING...... 285

TEACHING WRITING ...... 287 WHY ? ...... 287 WHAT ? ...... 287 HOW ? ...... 287 TEACHING SPELLING ...... 289 SOME SPELLING RULES ...... 289 SOME IDEAS FOR THE CLASSROOM ...... 290 BRITISH AND AMERICAN SPELLING ...... 291 FURTHER RESOURCES ...... 292 UNIT 14 – CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT ...... 293

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND BEHAVIOUR ESSENTIALS ...... 295 ACTIVITY : CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT SITUATIONS ...... 298 FURTHER RESOURCES ...... 299 UNIT 15 – ASSESSMENT ...... 301

METHODS FOR ASSESSING STUDENTS ...... 303 COMMON ERRORS ...... 308 WHAT IS ‘I NTERLANGUAGE ’?...... 309 PERSONAL EVALUTATION ...... 310 FURTHER RESOURCES ...... 312 UNIT 16 – PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ...... 313

CONTINUED EDUCATION ...... 315 WHERE CAN I BUY RESOURCES ? ...... 316 MORE RESOURCES ...... 316 FURTHER OPPORTUNITIES IN TESOL ...... 317

1. THE INTRODUCTION LETTER ...... 325 2. THE INTERNATIONAL RÉSUMÉ ...... 327 3. LETTERS OF REFERENCE ...... 329 4. PHOTOGRAPH ...... 330 5. SCANNED IMAGE OF PASSPORT ...... 330 TIPS FOR WRITING REJECTION E-MAILS ...... 331 TIPS FOR PHONE INTERVIEWS ...... 331 SAMPLE INTRODUCTION LETTERS AND RÉSUMÉS ...... 334 UNIT 18 – TESOL AND THE INTERNET ...... 341

WHAT WILL WE USE THE INTERNET FOR ?...... 343 WEBSITES TO GET YOU STARTED ...... 344 UNIT 19 – JOB SEARCH ...... 347

JOB SEARCH PROCESS ...... 349 PROACTIVE JOB SEARCHING ...... 351 CONTRACT OFFER CHECKLIST ...... 352 APPENDIX 1 ...... 353

STUDENT INTEREST QUESTIONNAIRE ...... 355 LESSON PLAN FOR ADULTS ...... 357 LESSON PLAN FOR CHILDREN ...... 358 GROUP OBSERVATION FORM ...... 359 APPENDIX 2 ...... 361

CULTURE SHOCK ...... 363 DOCUMENTS ...... 366 AUTHENTICATE YOUR TESOL QUALIFICATIONS BEFORE YOU TRAVEL ...... 367 FIRST THINGS FIRST - VISA REQUIREMENTS ...... 371 MONEY ISSUES ...... 372 HEALTH ...... 373 RESOURCES ...... 374 CONTINUED EDUCATION ...... 375 FINAL TIPS ...... 375 THE ESSENTIALS ...... 376 CHECKLIST FOR YOUR RÉSUMÉ AND INTRODUCTION LETTER ...... 378 INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING YOUR LETTER OF INTRODUCTION AND RÉSUMÉ ...... 379 PRACTICE TEACHING INFORMATION ...... 381 TEACH INTERNATIONAL ’S JOB GUARANTEE ...... 382 APPENDIX 3 ...... 383

INTRODUCTION ...... 385 ONLINE COURSES ...... 386 A FEW POINTS ABOUT THE ONLINE COURSES ...... 392 WHAT ELSE CAN YOU FIND? ...... 392 CONTACTING T.I. GRADUATES WORKING OVERSEAS ...... 396 GLOSSARY OF COMMON TERMS AND ACRONYMS IN THE TESOL INDUSTRY ...... 397

Weeknights

Wednesday Introduction to Teach International/ Trainers Icebreakers Unit 1, p. 26 6 – 10pm Interests and Motivations Unit 1, p. 27 Classroom Objectives Unit 2, p. 47

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Regional Profile: Latin America Classroom Tools Unit 2, p. 48-49

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Student Practice Session Groups in the Classroom Unit 5, p. 73 Homework and Time Reminders

Thursday Warm-up/ Review Job Search & Professional Documents Unit 17 and 18 6 – 10pm BREAK

Teaching Grammar Communicatively Unit 7, p. 98 Pre-Intermediate Sample Lesson

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Student Practice Session

Friday Warm-up Applying for Jobs Unit 18 6 – 10pm Advanced Sample Lesson

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Teaching Pronunciation Unit 8, p. 130

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Using Music in the Classroom Unit 10, p. 202 Reminders

Weekend

Saturday Activities in the Classroom Unit 9, p. 166

9am – 6pm BREAK

TESOL Handbook Quiz Beginner Sample Lesson

LUNCH

Regional Profile: Asia Students Levels Unit 4, p. 63

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Classroom Management Unit 14, p. 295 Assignment Outline Planning Session Appendix 1, pp. 357, 358

Sunday Lesson Presentations Feedback Session 9am – 6pm LUNCH

Regional Profile: Middle East / Africa Using Video in the Classroom Unit 10 Preparation for Living and Working Abroad Appendix 2, p. 366-375

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Regional Profile: Europe Further Education Course Essentials Appendix 2, p. 376-377 Course Review Graduation Ceremony and Photo

‘The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.’ William Arthur Ward

Section 1

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

In this unit:

Why Teach Overseas?

Characteristics of a Great TESOL Teacher

Tips for Success in the ESOL Classroom

‘When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.’ Clifton Fadiman (1904 - )

Why Teach Overseas?

The most obvious reason might be the chance to travel and have new experiences. Many of us just want a change. Perhaps we have wished to be somewhere exciting and exotic whilst staring out of the office window on a bleak winter’s morning? Teaching and travelling offers the opportunity to escape a humdrum life and to rejuvenate our vision of life for ourselves. This dream is entirely possible if approached with careful planning. Many have done it and are doing it. You can too!

A new cultural environment can stimulate new professional ideas and revitalise teaching or other vocational outcomes. When immersed in a totally new environment, surrounded by a new language and making connections with people from a different cultural background, it is a wonderful opportunity to experiment, try new approaches, and completely turn our lives around – personally and professionally.

As well as these reasons, there are other motivations for travelling and teaching, including the opportunities to make new and lasting friendships, to experience different cultures, to try new cuisines. How successful we are at fulfilling these desires is greatly dependent on the individual’s motivation. If you really want to do it, there is nothing stopping you!

Teaching overseas provides another important opportunity – that of personal growth. All new experiences bring about a degree of personal change and a broadening of our outlook on life. Furthermore, through the overseas teaching experience we can find surprising qualities and skills we did not previously recognise within ourselves: qualities like strength, endurance, patience, kindness and generosity; skills like cross-cultural communicative ability, new teaching skills, learning a new language, negotiation, and so on. In many cases, people who have had this experience state that they really feel they have ‘found themselves’.

Of course, sometimes there is the potential for frustration and unpleasant experiences when travelling, but when individuals are truly motivated and prepare carefully, researching the culture they are to live and work in, such challenges can be met with confidence and calmness, offering again the opportunity to grow as an individual.

Food For Thought

Teaching overseas has many wonderful advantages. However, there can be difficulties if you are not well-prepared.

It is unwise to set unrealistic goals of what you hope to achieve. It is unwise to go to another country feeling that your own country and culture are superior, or that you are there to show the superiority of what you know and how you do things. It is therefore much better to go overseas without any specific expectations, to take things as they come and be prepared to work through the unexpected.

Sometimes, people may choose to go overseas, using teaching English as their vehicle, in order to escape from personal problems. Be warned that sometimes such problems can be magnified in an unfamiliar environment where one’s usual support systems can not be accessed. The new environment can cause such stresses to become even more intense, at least in the beginning, and new challenges are always likely to increase stress further. So, please consider that such a motivation may not be in the best interests of a successful and happy experience teaching overseas.

Teach International © 2004-2008 15 Perhaps the most testing factor in the new environment is that of unpredictability. Most people are used to their own habitual behaviours and ways of making their lives comfortable. It is important to be mindful of our reactions in situations where such factors are beyond our control and we have not learned yet how to adjust to our new environment. Being flexible and adaptable, then, are important characteristics to develop when travelling. Living and working in a new culture will obviously be unpredictable and challenging. It is the nature of travelling and also an often-experienced reality when teaching English to speakers of other languages.

In times of frustration and irritation, usually caused by unpredictable events, teaching overseas often requires a great deal of patience with situations and/or people. In an environment where we are the foreigners, we must have tolerance and patience in infinite measure. Those who do not possess these traits or who are not prepared to develop them, would be advised to think twice before putting themselves into such a situation.

Remember too, that most Australasian teachers are used to some kind of professional, educational federation to give them support and direction at times when negotiations of any sort have to take place, whether over working conditions, professional decisions or money. The overseas teacher often does not have this luxury and so must be his or her own spokesperson in such negotiations, with the result that it is important to have the knowledge, confidence and skills to look after your own interests. The typical overseas teacher, whoever his or her employer might be, would be more rightly called an educational contractor. This means that everything he or she does, from the time to be spent in the classroom to remuneration and benefits and even renewal terms, is governed by the terms of the individual contract which is signed by the teacher and the school at the time of hiring.

Finally, in this food for thought section, be careful not to overestimate the amount of money you can make teaching overseas. Although you will usually live quite comfortably, in respect to most countries, very few teachers are lucky enough to get rich teaching overseas (this mainly depends on qualifications and experience). It is important to have enough money to more than cover initial expenses. Most that travel and teach spend a lot of their finances on touring and shopping while they are away and come home with little profit!

What Skills Does an Overseas Teacher Need?

Teaching overseas provides great rewards but can also be difficult – it can be extremely rewarding and at the same time, in some circumstances, quite frustrating. Below, some of the important skills required of any person considering teaching abroad are suggested. How many of them do you possess?

1. Tolerance for ambiguity 9. Sense of humour 2. Patience 10. Warmth in human relationships 3. Open-mindedness 11. Motivation 4. Being non-judgemental 12. Self-reliance 5. Empathy 13. Self-awareness 6. Communicativeness 14. Tolerance 7. Flexibility/adaptability 15. Perceptiveness 8. Curiosity 16. Ability to fail

Recommendations from Peers

The following comments were made verbatim by teachers who have taught abroad and give a good indication of the qualities and skills needed:

1. Be flexible – expect little to be right and remember that as cultural norms are different, so are the ways in which experiences and behaviours are viewed.

2. Be prepared for the fact that you will inevitably find some of the comforts of home missing, and that you will be homesick at times as some aspects of the job are frustrating. Teach International © 2004-2008 16 3. Learn how to enjoy a simpler life. Turn off the TV and discover how to cope with only the resources that you can take in a suitcase.

4. Be aware of the expectations and assumptions that you come with. These colour your perceptions and in turn affect your reactions and behaviours.

5. Make as many friends as possible. People are usually extremely warm once you get beyond the formalities. Friendship is one of the greatest rewards of the whole overseas teaching experience.

6. Be quick to observe how people live and do things and develop a sensitive method of inquiry into why and how things are done in the way that they are; but be slow to make value judgements about them.

7. Be sceptical of the sense of exoticism that will surround you. The world is only round – do not pose as an ‘expert’ nor try to become one.

8. Be patient. Someone advised me to avoid arrogance. I didn't understand at first, but it turned out to be the best advice I ever got.

9. Be prepared to explain cultural differences. We can interpret our society to others in a way that their own teachers, even those who have studied there, cannot.

10. Stay as long as possible (certainly more than one year, if you can); it takes a while to learn the ropes and build trust!

What is Culture? and What is Cross-Cultural Experience?

‘Culture is the learned, shared, patterns of beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviours characteristic of a society.’ (Ember and Ember, 1988)*

‘Culture imposes a set of lenses for seeing the world…(and) affects the way in which individuals select, interpret, process and use information.’ (Triandis, 1994:2)*

‘Every cultural experience begins with the feeling of being lost.’ (Edward Hall: The Silent Language)*

‘It is like chickens talking to ducks.’ (Cantonese saying)*

*[From ‘Introduction to Cultural Diversity’, (2003). Equity Training and Development Program, Brisbane: Equity Section, QUT.]

1. Styles of dress 2. Ways of greeting people 3. Beliefs about hospitality 4. Importance of time 5. Paintings 6. Values 7. Literature 8. Beliefs about child-raising 9. Attitudes about personal space/privacy 10. Beliefs about the responsibilities of children and teens 11. Gestures to show you understand what has been told to you 12. Holiday customs 13. Music 14. Dancing 15. Celebrations 16. Concept of fairness 17. Nature of friendship 18. Ideas about clothing 19. Foods 20. Greetings 21. Facial expressions and hand gestures 22. Concept of self 23. Work ethic 24. Religious beliefs 25. Religious rituals 26. Concept of beauty 27. Rules of polite behaviour 28. Attitude toward age 29. The role of the family 30. General world view

[From ‘Culture Matters.’ [Online], Available: http://www.peacecorps.gov/wwsculturematters/] [Accessed 1 Oct. 2003].

Making the Decision to Do It

So, are you now ready to commit yourself to change and adventure? Perhaps you are looking for a way to make the final decision as to whether to do it or not.

You could begin by looking at the real possibilities for teaching overseas. So try the following self-preparedness survey and see how you rate.

There are some fundamental questions to be answered in making the decision to start looking for a TESOL posting overseas:

Will I function well as a TESOL teacher overseas? Will I enjoy the experience of teaching? Will I enjoy the experience of living in another culture? Which country would I like to go to?

These questions can be divided into smaller ones, more easily addressed. Try answering them, and then the answers to the big questions may more easily be revealed. If you are totally honest with yourself, the more positive and optimistic your answers, the better you will cope overseas. You might like to have a close friend or family member answer them for you as well, to get a second opinion!

1. What emotional ties do I have at home? Can I leave them for a year or more?

2. What practical commitments do I have at home? Can they be satisfactorily dealt with by others in my absence?

3. How will I react to the culture of another country in which the customs and traditions will be quite different from those at home?

4. Will I feel cut off if I am not involved so much or able to take part in what goes on around me as I am used to at home?

5. How well will I cope with homesickness and loneliness?

6. How well will I re-adjust when I come back and résumé my life and career?

Doing the work overseas

7. How do I feel about leaving my present job? What will I especially miss about it? What about it am I happy to leave?

8. How easy is it for me to adapt my skills and teaching strategies to different requirements and school environments?

9. How well do I cope with frustration/failure in my work?

10. How important is being familiar and comfortable with the school environment to me?

Being in another culture

11. Which culture am I best prepared to live in? Do I want to test my boundaries by living in a completely different culture?

12. How will I react to being suddenly cut off from things that I enjoy doing?

13. How easy is it for me to establish new relationships with people?

14. Do I have any prejudices? How could they affect my attitude to others?

15. How important is my personal freedom to do what I want? Could I survive curtailment of this freedom? To what degree?

16. How much privacy do I need? Could I survive with very little?

17. How important are my material possessions? Could I do without the majority of them for a while if I had to?

General Decisions

18. How well do I know myself? How would others describe me?

19. What makes me special? Am I really a good teacher?

20. How willing am I to venture somewhat blindly into the unknown?

How many do you have?

open-mindedness

flexibility

creativity

adaptability

compassion

tolerance

self-evaluation

cultural curiosity

humour

common sense

respect and manners

communication skills

self-reliance

confidence

knowledge of subject matter

humility

self-motivation

intellectual risk-taking

cultural perceptiveness

ability to anticipate

preparedness

innovativeness

imagination

enthusiasm

patience

organisation skills

time management skills

role-modelling

body language

sensitivity to learning disabilities

sensitivity to individual personalities

professionalism

SMILES!

For the Teachers

Tip 1 – Get to know your students’ names

It has been stated many times how important it is to learn your students’ names as soon as possible. I cannot emphasise enough how helpful this is to the teacher. It helps with classroom management, building rapport by making students feel you care about them and it allows the teacher to begin to get to know the individual interests and motivations of students so that lesson planning is made easier and teaching effectiveness is enhanced. Knowing and using students’ names is the beginning of the development of mutual respect, which is so important in teaching and learning.

I always study the class list before I go into a new class. Then, I already have most of the names memorised and I can put faces to the names when I go in. Of course, mostly I remember the names by the position of the students in the class, so it is helpful to ask students to take the same positions for the first few lessons.

Tip 2 – Have your lessons well-prepared

Nothing generates respect from students more than an obviously well-prepared (and therefore confident) teacher. Especially when beginning your teaching career, it is extremely important to prepare lessons thoroughly and even to practise at home beforehand. It is also recommended that you have extra material on hand just in case your lesson goes more quickly than you expected (this often happens when you are nervous). I always have a folder of fun activities ready – crosswords, songs, etc.

Tip 3 – Decrease the Teacher Talk-Time

Most teachers dominate the talk time in their classrooms and feel that this is, in fact, their job. There is a move towards more student participation in all disciplines, but especially in ESOL; what you really want to achieve is Student Talk-Time (STT) . After all, you already speak English effectively, so it is not you that needs to practise. Make sure you limit the time you spend talking and maximise the time your student(s) spend talking. Talking is the one thing they can't do outside class. They can listen on their own, they can read and even write on their own. What percentage of STT should there be in a lesson? That's something you have to judge, depending on level, group or needs, etc. In general, you should do everything to maximise STT.

Tip 4 – Stress: the key to being understood

Stress in English – word stress, phrase stress, sentence stress – is one of the golden keys that can unlock the language for your students. Admittedly, this depends to an extent on a student's first language. For speakers of languages that do not use stress (Japanese and many other Asian languages, for example), simply realising that it exists can open the door to rapid progress – and not solely in pronunciation or oral comprehension. Spend some time developing your own understanding of stress and then introduce it to your students – they'll love you for it!

In the TESOL world we often refer to ourselves not as teachers, but rather as facilitators. In fact, we are almost incidental in the classroom. The only reason we are there is because our students need to LEARN English. That's what they're paying for. It's a strange situation. They're paying you for something that ultimately they have to do themselves. Perhaps they don't realise this, but you must. Adopt a different attitude, one of helping, advising, encouraging, one of drawing out from the student what is actually there already. Your students most likely already know a lot about English, they just need to activate that knowledge.

Tip 6 – Un-complicate your week

Language institutes are businesses which cater to the needs and schedules of their clients: the students. This means that English teachers of adults often teach a split shift; one lesson from 9:00 to 10:30 in the morning, and two or three more between 5:00 and 9:00 in the evening. It seems nice at first to have the whole day free, but split shifts can be exhausting. So, what can you do about it? Limit your availability. Be polite, but be firm. Of course you need to use a certain amount of judgement on this. Decide how many teaching hours you want to work a week. Then make yourself available for that number of hours with a few extra for flexibility, preparation, etc. For example, if you want to teach for 18 hours a week, and you want to teach 6 hours a day, tell the school that you are only available on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It'll be tough at first, but if you're a good teacher and appreciated by your school and students (and if you're appreciated by your students you will be appreciated by your school), the school will (unknowingly) plan to suit you rather than themselves. You'll find your chosen days filling up with hours and the rest of your week free (perhaps even for work in another school) rather than totally fragmented. This is the only way to do it. If you let a school think you're available all week and to suit them, you'll spend more time on the Tokyo subway or a Bangkok bus than actually earning. Be firm. Be polite. Be business-like.

Tip 7 – Try a little role reversal

Let's say you're an English teacher in China. You've been there a few months and you've picked up a few phrases in Mandarin. Maybe you don't particularly want to learn Mandarin, or maybe you believe you can learn enough to get by on your own. (That's the problem with being English speakers – there's no real motivation to learn another language). But it could be worthwhile to enrol in a language school and learn Mandarin – or at least start learning it. Why? Not to improve yourself as a Mandarin learner (though that would be a plus), but to improve yourself as an English teacher. Of course, it doesn't have to be Mandarin. It could be any language you don't speak. But learning a language at a language school, especially as a false beginner and with NO English spoken, turns the table and puts you in your students’ shoes – excuse my mixed metaphors. It's best if it's intensive or semi-intensive, and then you'll know what it's like to have your head bulging and echoing with strange sounds and your brain racing to keep up. You'll be able to constructively observe your teacher, too, and think about yourself and your own teaching techniques.

Don't tell your teacher that you're a teacher too. That may cramp their style or create an unrealistic situation. If it's too expensive, just do it for a short time. Four hours a day for one week is more than enough to give you an insight into what your students go through every day. You'll never be the same teacher again.

Here are the seven most helpful tips for your students to assist them with their English. If they get to use each of these strategies, they will learn to speak English more quickly.

Tip 1 – Learn about word stress

Word stress is the golden key for speaking and understanding English. Word stress is very important.

What is word stress?

Take three words: choreograph, choreographer and choreographic, for example. Do they sound the same when spoken? No! They sound different, because one syllable in each word is stressed (more strongly than the other syllables).

CHO reograph Chore Ography Choreo GRA phic

This happens in all words with 2 or more syllables: STU dent, Ja PAN , CHI na, be LOW , moti VA tion, IN teresting, ex PEN sive, de FENCE , ME xico, New ZEA land.

Tell your students to listen for the stress in individual words each time they listen to English. Also, encourage them to practise using word stress in their speech; then, they will instantly and automatically improve their pronunciation and comprehension. Tell them to listen for the stress in individual words each time they listen to native English speakers in songs, on the radio or in films. Their first step is to HEAR and recognise it. After that, they can USE it.

Tip 2 – Sentence stress

Sentence stress is also very important for students to learn to identify and practise when listening, speaking and trying to understand English. With sentence stress, some words in a sentence are stressed (spoken louder) and other words are weak (spoken softer). Moreover, when we sound the stress on different words in a sentence, it changes the meaning of the sentence. Look at the following example:

We heard he had gone home.

Do we say every word with the same stress or force? No! We sound the important words louder and the unimportant words softer in order to help give meaning to the sentence. What are the different meanings when we stress the words in capitals in the following sentence?

WE heard he had gone home.

We HEARD he had gone home.

We heard he had gone HOME.

Tip 3 – ‘Listen! Do you want to know a secret?’

Remembering these Beatles lyrics can remind students of how important it is for them to keep trying to listen and understand English, even if it is very difficult. Don’t give up – keep trying! They may sometimes say: ‘I don't listen to the English news on the radio because it's too fast for me and I can't understand it.’ But, if they keep trying, they will get a feel for the rhythm of the language, start picking up occasional words they know and over time, they will understand more and more.

How can you improve if you don't listen and practise?

When you were a baby, did you understand your own language? When you were three weeks old, or two months, or 1 year, did you understand everything? Of course not! You learnt to understand by listening. Think about it. You LEARNED to understand your own language by LISTENING, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. After that, you learned to speak. Then you learned to read. And then you learned to write. BUT LISTENING CAME FIRST!! Encourage your students to LISTEN.

Tip 4 – Find opportunities to use the language

Many schools have an English social club where students meet to practise their conversational English. Teachers usually attend to help out and to provide activities. Always look for as many opportunities as possible to practise speaking and listening. Listen to English language radio and television. Listen and watch DVDs of English language movies. Try to ‘shadow’ native English speakers on cassette tapes or the radio – record yourself and listen back. Shadowing is a great way to practise pronunciation too. Just copy the speaker by mimicking them just behind the pace.

Tip 5 – Improve your vocabulary with five words a day

Vocabulary is easy! How many days in a year are there? Three hundred and sixty-five, normally. If your student learns only five new words a day, they will learn 5 x 365 = 1,825 new words in a year. ONE THOUSAND, EIGHT HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE WORDS. That is a lot of new words. And we are not counting all the other words they will learn in other ways – reading, conversations, etc. Tell them to buy a notebook and write in five new words EACH day, EVERY day. Learn them! Make sure students also know how to use the words in a sentence and practise using the sentences in their conversations the next day. Your students will soon have an excellent vocabulary. Of course, it works much better if they form into groups each day and tell each other about the words they have learnt and give their sentences a try while you facilitate. Any activity you give importance to helps the students’ motivation.

Tip 6 – Thirty minutes a day is better than three and a half hours once a week

Thirty MINUTES of English study every day is better than three and a half HOURS once week! Study regularly. Study often.

LITTLE + OFTEN is better than a LOT + SOMETIMES.

It's easier, too. Your students can easily find thirty minutes each day. How? They can get up thirty minutes earlier. Or have a shorter lunch break. Fix a particular time every day – and keep to it!

Tip 7 – Revise! (The chorus of learning)

What part of a song do we most easily remember, even half a lifetime after we have heard it? The chorus – because it is repeated again and again in most songs. Likewise, if your students revise – review their work again and again, they will remember it and build a strong foundation for continued improvement.

Students need to be systematic about their revision, preferably using a study timetable or planner like the one on the next page. There are different versions of the study planner available which will help different kinds of students and schools. Just do a Google search under ‘study planner’.

Sunday

Saturday

Friday

Thursday

STUDY PLANNER STUDY PLANNER Wednesday

Tuesday

Monday 89 – am 9 am-10 10 11 am – 11 12 pm – 12 1 – pm 12 – pm 23 – pm 34 – pm 45 – pm 56 – pm 67 – pm 78 – pm 89 – pm 910 – pm

Find Someone Who…

… has a …eats …visited the …is wearing …has been to younger breakfast dentist this boxer shorts Paris brother everyday month

… reads the … has more … is allergic to …has been to …plays the newspaper than three cats the movies guitar every day children this month

… has more … has been to …has lived …does not than $20 in Euro Disney free! overseas drink alcohol their pocket or bag

… is a … has a … kissed …is afraid of …plays tennis vegetarian surname that somebody dogs ends in “T” today

…has met …has been to … loves …speaks a …prefers somebody Vietnam getting up second winter to famous early language summer

Name Interests Motivations

In this unit:

What are the Goals of Learning English?

Newspaper Article from the New Zealand Herald

English – The Global Picture

English is (mostly) a Foreign Language!

Humorous English Language Translations

English is a Crazy Language

Theories, Approaches and Techniques

The Communicative ESOL Classroom

Lesson Plan Model

Further Resources

‘If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.’ Doug Larson

What are the Goals of Learning English?

••• Purpose for learning English ••• English as a Global Language ••• Role of the Native Speaking Teacher

English is taught today in over 100 countries worldwide. That it is a highly valued and valuable commodity is indisputable. But why is this so? What is the purpose of learning English for the global student? Has it changed over the last several decades?

In the seventies and eighties, the assumption among EFL educators was that teaching English was an educationally based, politically neutral activity and for those who acquired it, the students, it was an unquestioned necessity and opportunity for advancement. English would lead to educational and economic empowerment. Quite simply, English opened doors. English was regarded as a highly symbolic property of the English-speaking world, particularly the United Kingdom and the United States. Native speakers of it took on the shaman, with special insights and superior knowledge. It was, above all, the vehicle for the expression of a rich and advanced culture, whose literary realm was thought to have universal value and meaning.

This picture has changed somewhat today, as we enter the 21 st century. English is now the language of globalisation, international communication, commerce and trade, media and pop culture, and no longer the property of an elite English speaking world culture; it is, in fact, a highly symbolic commodity often referred to as world English or International English. It is also, on the other hand, one of the many languages in the world battling it out for position and in more and more countries English language media and information are being dubbed and translated into local languages.

More recently, the historically elitist and cultural association with both Britain and the U.S. is more often than not seen as irrelevant to language teaching and the language.

Teach International © 2004-2008 31 Teachers no longer need to be experts on British or American culture. Many researchers have pointed to the fact that English is simply one of a number of languages that form the speech repertoire of many who learn English to maximise their chances of success in a multi-cultural and multi-lingual world (Bisong 1995). English is still promoted as a pragmatic tool that may assist with educational and economic advancement but is viewed in many areas of the world as something preferred to be acquired without any of the specific cultural trappings that go with it. Proficiency in English provides a much-needed tool in a global workplace that is rapidly changing and making increasing use of the English language.

Language is always an intensely political issue since it is bound up with identity and power. As a consequence of its lingua franca status, English often comes into conflict with local languages, like French and Inuktitut in Canada and Welsh in Wales. It works the other way, as well. People are often surprised at the overwhelming use of Spanish in airports such as Miami and Los Angeles. In a large number of countries around the world, children grow up speaking more than one language, so that English becomes their third or fourth means of communication.

In looking back to the seventies and eighties, we see the native speaking teacher holding a privileged status as ‘(an) owner of the language, guardians(s) of its standards, and arbiter(s) of acceptable pedagogical norms’ (Jenkins, 2000). Not so, today, Filipino English, Singapore English, South African English, and many other ‘Englishes’ are firmly established as a result of long years of colonial rule and more importantly, indigenisation.

From a professional point of view, then, there is nothing unique about New Zealand English, Canadian English, Sri Lankan or Zimbabwean English – all of them have specific words and phrases, their own grammatical mannerisms and pronunciation idiosyncrasies, although even generalising by country is not enough, for it fails to take into account regional differences.

Teach International © 2004-2008 32 We are faced then, with a situation where English varies between and within those countries where it is spoken widely. There is a ‘variety of varieties’ as it were, and this makes it difficult to describe ‘a singular English’. Further to this discussion, there is less pressure now amongst the ESL/EFL community to turn foreign language speakers of English into clones of native speakers, be they British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand or American. The extent to which a learner seeks to speak with a native-like accent is simply a personal goal and should stay as such. It is no longer the role of the teacher to try and eradicate the accent influences of the first language, nor to try to attain native-speaker status in the learner. The majority of EFL educators argue for this position and stress that allowing phonological remnants of the first language is acceptable and more attainable to many learners, (Jenkins, 2000).

Ethnocentrism has not just existed in the realm of accents but also in the area of content and curriculum. Many language theorists have written of the impact of English on the cultures it comes into contact with, seeing teaching English as a form of cultural imperialism (Pennycook, 1998). In this view, English and English teachers are seen as cultural promoters.

With the predominance of critical thinking as key influences in academia over the last decade, a second notion has come forward that suggests a hidden agenda of linguistic imperialism in the ESL/EFL field for the last several decades. This theory argues that education and English Language Teaching and Acquisition are not politically neutral; indeed, they are just the opposite – that to master the English language is to enhance the power and control of the elite. Further, teaching materials are seen to be message-laden as well, biased in their curriculum and presentation. Educators in immigrant and refugee programs have pointed out that old and irrelevant texts still being used do a disservice to their learners in that they reflect narrow, discriminating, and ethnocentric portraits of the population. It is therefore incumbent upon the teacher to critically examine textbooks and their underlying ideologies and to replace them with more representative texts. With the recognition that curricula and textbooks need regular scrutiny, attempts have been made to reshape the content of texts to more widely reflect diversity.

• English was a cultural enrichment. • it was the language of English speaking countries. • it gave the native-speaker privileged status. • it allowed teachers to be seen as cultural attaches. • it was taught through its literature. • both accent and fluency were targets of the learner.

Now, in contrast, we see:

• English as a practical tool. • English as a world commodity. • learning programs not linked to cultural imperialism. • learning programs more centred on national values. • first language accents more accepted. • comprehension and communication as targets.

A third of people on the planet will be learning English in the next decade, says a report.

Researcher David Graddol says two billion people will be learning English as it becomes a truly "world language". This growth will see French declining internationally, while German is set to expand, particularly in Asia.

But the UK Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, has warned against the "arrogance" of English speakers who fail to learn other languages.

Learning in English

The Future of English report, launched in Edinburgh at a British Council conference on international education, has used computer modelling to forecast the onset of a "wave" of English-learning around the world.

In the year 2000, the British Council says there were about a billion English learners - but a decade later, this report says, the numbers will have doubled.

The research has looked at the global population of young people in education - including 120 million children in Chinese primary schools - and how many countries are embedding English-language learning within their school systems.

The linguistic forecast points to a surge in English learning, which could peak in 2010.

'Pernicious'

Speaking earlier at the same conference, Mr Clarke argued that the UK needed to improve language skills - and conceded that the country was still lagging behind in learning languages.

"To be quite candid, I'm the first to acknowledge there is an immense amount to do," said Mr Clarke. "Not least to contest the arrogance that says English is the world language and we don't have to worry about it - which I think is dangerous and pernicious."

The report's author agrees that English speakers should not be complacent because they can speak this increasingly widely-used language.

He says Chinese, Arabic and Spanish are also going to be key international languages.

"The fact that the world is learning English is not particularly good news for native speakers who cannot also speak another language. The world is rapidly becoming multi-lingual and English is only one of the languages people in other countries are learning," said Mr Graddol.

He also says that language learning numbers will decline as English becomes a "basic skill" - learnt by primary-age children, rather than something that older children or adults might want to acquire later.

Mr Graddol also warns there could be a backlash against the global spread of English and a reassertion of national languages.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4080401.stm [Accessed: May 2006]

English – The Global Picture

Web Content by Language Web Users by First Language

English 68.4 % Japanese 5.9% German 5.8% Chinese 3.9% French 3.0% Spanish 2.4% Russian 1.9% Italian 1.6% Portuguese 1.4% Korean 1.3% Other 4.6% Total Web pages: 313 B

Source : Vilaweb.com, as quoted by www.emarketer.com

World’s Top Ten Languages

Number of speakers Language Family Principal locations (estimated in millions) Chinese Sino-Tibetan China 885

North America, Great Indo-European (Germanic English Britain, Australia, South 450 group) Africa, New Zealand

Indo-European (Indo- Hindi-Urdu India, Pakistan 333 Iranian group)

Indo-European (Romance Spanish South America, Spain 266 group)

Indo-European (Romance Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Portuguese 175 group) Mozambique

Indo-European (Indo- Bengali Bangladesh, India 162 Iranian group)

Indo-European (Slavic Russian Former Soviet Union 153 group)

Arabic Afro-Asiatic North Africa, Middle East 150

Japanese Altaic Japan 126

French Indo-European (Romance France, Canada, Belgium, 122 group) Switzerland, Black Africa

*[Source: [Online] www.glreach.com/globstats ] [Accessed: 25 th Feb. 2002]

Where did the English vocabulary come from?

How many words do you think there are in the English language? They cannot be counted exactly as new words are constantly being added, but there are probably at least 600,000. In fact, English contains more words than any other language.

Where did all these words come from? About eighty percent of the words in present-day English are borrowed from other languages. Boulevard and garage , for example, came from French while violin and balcony are on loan from Italian. We borrowed bungalow from Hindi, mattress from Arabic, canyon and mustang from Spanish, moccasin and skunk from North American Native languages, and kayak from the Inuit.

Many of these adopted words have fascinating stories to tell. A good example would be the word sabotage . During the 1800s, workers in factories were often forced to work long hours. To get a rest, French workers occasionally threw their sabots, or wooden shoes, into the machinery to stop production. As a result, sabotage came to mean ‘to deliberately destroy or damage something’.

You can learn more about how words came into English in a dictionary of word origins.* Some that you might find interesting to research are bonfire , curfew , volcano , panic , sandwich and canary .

The following passage is an example that the majority of our words are not actually of English origin at all, but from other languages:

You’re a savant in French, a genius in Latin, a philosopher in Greek. You are what you eat. Taste goulash and you’re Hungarian, shish kebab and you’re Armenian, chocolate and you speak the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs. Use okra to make gumbo and you’re speaking Ibo and Tshiluba of Nigeria and the Congo, respectively. Wash it down with cola and it’s the Temne language of Sierra Leone You are what you wear. In a cashmere sweater, it’s the Kashmiri language of India and Pakistan. In a parka , you’re using the Nenets’ language of Siberia. Take it off to reveal a bikini , and it’s Marshallese, spoken in the South Pacific.

Other examples:

Jaguar from Guaraní – Paraguay Hurricane from Taino (Caribbean indigenous people) Java & Batik from Javanese Gung ho from Mandarin (means joined workers) Catamaran, curry, patchouli from Tamil Mango from Malayalam (one of India’s largest languages) Ginger from Pali (the written language of Buddhist scriptures) Algebra, elixir, alchemy, cotton from Arabic jasmine, monsoon, hashish, coffee

*[Internet sources for the above: http://www.krysstal.com/borrow.html#a / http://www.word-detective.com/] [Accessed: July 2004]

Japanese hotel : It is forbidden to steal towels please. If you are not person to do such thing. Please do not read notes. You are invited to take advantage of chambermaid. Please do not bath inside the tub.

Belgrade elevator : To move the cabin push button for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number for wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order.

Moscow cemetery, across from an Orthodox monastery : You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and Soviet composers, artists and writer are buried daily except Thursday.

Roman doctor's office : Specialist in women and other diseases.

Swiss Restaurant menu : Our wines leave nothing to hope for.

Bangkok dry cleaners : Drop you trousers here for best results.

Rhodes tailor shop : Order you summers suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation.

Germany's Black Forest : It is strictly forbidden on our camping site that people of different sex, for instance men and women, live together in the tent unless they are married to each other for that purpose.

Buddhist temple, Bangkok : It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a man.

Zurich hotel : Because of the unpropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby should be used for this purpose.

Hong Kong dentist : Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists.

Roman laundry : Leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time.

Czech Tourist Agency : Take one of our horse-driven city tours, we guarantee no miscarriages.

Thailand notice for donkey riders : Would you like to ride on you own ass?

Detour sign in Kyushu, Japan : Stop. Drive sideways

Copenhagen airline office : We take you bags and send them in all directions.

Norwegian cocktail loung e: Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.

Budapest zoo : Please do not feed animals: if you have any suitable food, please give to the guard on duty.

Japanese booklet : If you want just condition of warm in your room, please control yourself.

On a Polish menu : Salad a firm's own make; limpid red beet soup with cheesy dumplings in the form of a finger.

Acapulco : The manager has personally passed all the water served here.

*Web sources for the above: [http://www.seoulsearching.com/language/mistranslations.html] [http://techsupt.winbatch.com/webcgi/webbatch.exe?techsupt/nffunsupt.web+English~Language~Absurdities+Slo gans.txt] [http://www.erdoboy.com/stuslips.htm] [All accessed: July 2004)

Let's face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger, neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweet breads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a Guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

How is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, two geese. So one moose, two meese?

Doesn't it seem crazy to you that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?

Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars come out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.

*From ‘English is a Crazy Language’, Chapter 1 of: ‘Crazy English : The Ultimate Joy Ride Through Our Language’ (Pocket Books, 1989) by Richard Lederer.

[Available online: http://pw1.netcom.com/~rlederer/index.htm ] [Accessed: July 2004]

The English Language

For those of you who enjoy the English language... enjoy! If you ever feel stupid, then just read on. If you've learnt to speak fluent English, you must be a genius! This little treatise on the lovely language we share is only for the brave. Peruse at your leisure, English lovers.

Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:

1. The bandage was wound around the wound . 2. The farm was used to produce produce . 3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse . 4. We must polish the Polish furniture. 5. He could lead if he would get the lead out. 6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert . 7. Since there is no time like the present , he thought it was time to present the present . 8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. 9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. 10. I did not object to the object . 11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid . 12. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row . 13. They were too close to the door to close it. 14. The buck does funny things when the does are present. 15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. 16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow. 17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail. 18. After a number of injections my jaw got number . 19. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear. 20. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. 21. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

P.S. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"?

[Source: http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjh9u/english.html - Accessed July 20 th 2004]

As a native speaker of English, you don’t even think about these things! It is only when you start analysing your own language that you realise how hard it actually is.

As a native teacher, you can help your students! You know EXACTLY what the words above mean in the context. Students need that too: to learn new words in context.

Which one should we teach?

British Canadian American

angry/cross angry/upset mad anywhere anywhere anyplace autumn autumn/fall fall barrister lawyer attorney beeper, pager pager beeper bill (restaurant) bill check biscuit cookie cookie block of flats apartment block apartment building bonnet hood hood boot (of car) trunk (of car) trunk (of automobile) car car automobile caravan trailer trailer chemist pharmacy drug store chest of drawers chest of drawers/dresser bureau chips French fries/chips French fries chocolate bar chocolate bar candy bar the cinema movies the movies clothes peg clothes peg/pin clothespin coffin coffin casket condom condom rubber crisps potato chips potato chips crossroads intersection intersection cupboard cupboard closet cutlery cutlery silverware diversion diversion, detour detour drawing-pin thumbtack thumbtack driving licence driver’s license driver’s licence dummy (for babies) pacifier/soother pacifier dustbin garbage can, trash can trashcan, garbage can dustman garbage man garbage collector engine engine motor estate agent real estate agent realtor film movie movie flat apartment apartment flat tyre flat tire flat flyover overpass overpass galoshes (Wellingtons) galoshes/rain boots toe rubbers gear-lever gearshift gearshift Girl Guide girl guide girl scout Ground floor ground floor, main floor first floor handbag handbag purse holiday holiday/vacation vacation jam jam jelly jeans jeans blue jeans jug jug pitcher lift elevator elevator lorry truck truck luggage luggage baggage main road main thoroughfare highway, freeway maize corn corn maths math math mobile (phone) cellular phone cellular motorbike motorbike, motorcycle motorcycle

British Canadian American

motorway highway, thoroughfare freeway, expressway motorway freeway freeway napkin serviette, table napkin napkin nappy diaper diaper naughts and crosses tic-tack-toe tic-tack-toe pavement sidewalk, pavement sidewalk petrol gas, gasoline gas, gasoline The Plough Big Dipper Big Dipper pocket money pocket money allowance post mail, post mail postbox mailbox, post-box mailbox postcode postal code zip code postman mailman, letter carrier mailman pub bar, pub bar public toilet bathroom rest room puncture flat flat railway railway railroad return (ticket) return roundtrip reverse charge collect call call collect ring road ring road beltway road surface road surface, asphalt pavement roundabout roundabout traffic circle rubber eraser eraser rubbish garbage, trash, refuse garbage, trash rubbish-bin garbage can, trash can garbage can, trash can saloon (car) sedan (car) sedan (automobile) shop shop, store store single (ticket) one-way (ticket) one-way solicitor lawyer attorney somewhere somewhere someplace spanner wrench wrench spirits spirits hard liquor suspenders suspenders garters sweets candy, sweets candy tap (indoors) tap (indoors) faucet tap (outdoors) tap (outdoors) spigot taxi taxi cab tea-towel dish-towel dish-towel telly/TV/television TV TV third-party insurance third-party insurance liability insurance timetable schedule schedule tin tin can can toll motorway toll highway turnpike torch flashlight flashlight trousers trousers pants tube (train) subway, metro subway underground (train) subway, metro subway underpants shorts shorts van truck truck

Karen Bond (2003) [Online]. Available: http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/britishcanadianamericanvocab.html [Accessed 19 th July, 2004].

See Unit 13 – ‘Writing and Spelling‘ for more.

When teaching overseas, you are likely to find yourself taking over classes from teachers from different parts of the English-speaking world, such as Canada, America, Britain (including England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland), New Zealand and Australia. This can make it difficult for students, because English conversation teachers naturally speak and teach the slang, idioms, and usage that are common to their own country.

However, it is still important to speak naturally and teach your own everyday English usage. After all, we are trying to give our students access to understanding and using English in a variety of practical situations and they will naturally come across many of the different Englishes from around the world at various times in their lives.

Formal, grammatically correct English is the same in every English-speaking country and can be found in any textbook. What is not so easily available to them are the colloquialisms of native speakers of the diverse varieties of English. Be a diplomat, and try to convince your students that it is to their advantage to study with teachers who have different accents and a different set of slang expressions. Several teachers later, the students will have become accustomed to a variety of accents from around the world.

So You Think French Is Hard?

I take it you already know of tough and bough and cough and dough Others may stumble but not you, on hiccough, thorough, tough and through Well done! And now you wish perhaps to learn of less familiar traps? Beware of heard, a dreadful word that looks like beard and sounds like bird And dead - it's said like bed, not bead - for goodness' sake don't call it deed. Watch out for meat and great and threat, (they rhyme with suite and straight and debt) a moth is not a moth in mother, nor both in bother, broth in brother And here is not a match for there nor dear and fear for bear and pear And then there's dose and rose and lose, just look them up - goose and choose and cork and work and card and ward and front and font, and word and sword, and do and go, and wart and cart - come come! I've hardly made a start! A dreadful language? Man alive! I mastered it when I was five!

Author unknown [Online] Available: http://www.astro.umd.edu/~dcr/DCR/English1 [Accessed 19 th July, 2004].

The Best Way to Teach a Language

Throughout the last several decades we have witnessed much change and innovation in language teaching, so much so that we have seen the rise and fall of the Structural Approach, Audiolingualism, the Natural Approach, and the Communicative Approach. We have been introduced to teaching methods like Total Physical Response, Counselling Learning and Integration. All of these approaches are responses to research and new understandings of language and how language learning takes place.

Although former methodologies contained valid elements, most were typically ‘bottom down’. Teachers were taught a specific method, accepted it in good faith, and judiciously applied it in the classroom. Good teaching was regarded as correct use of the method and its prescribed techniques. Accordingly, learners were regarded as passive recipients of the method, who, to be good students, should submit themselves to the regime of exercises and activities.

Current approaches, including the Communicative Approach, lean toward language learning as a process, with the focus on the process itself, rather than ascribing a central role to a restricted methodology as the means to the end. As language teachers in the last few decades moved away from narrowly focused methods and the search for a singular perfect method began, attention shifted to how teachers could develop and explore their own teaching through reflection and collaboration. In 2003, while the Communicative Approach is still the most popular and successful method of teaching language, it has become a hybrid creature, having adopted bits and pieces of former pedagogical approaches into its own.

The Communicative Approach remains one of the most successful approaches to language learning to date. Because it refers to a diverse and rather general set of characteristics, it may be interpreted in many different ways and used to support a variety of approaches in the classroom. The fundamental principles of the Communicative Method are the following:

The goal of language learning is communicative competence

Learners learn a language by using it to communicate

Authentic and meaningful communication should be the goal of classroom activities

Fluency and accuracy are both important elements of communication

Communication involves the integration of all four skills

Learning is a gradual and uneven process

Other contemporary teaching approaches such as Content-Based Instruction, Cooperative Language Learning (CLL) and Task-Based Instruction are all applications of and derivatives of the Communicative Method that have been incorporated into the palette of language learning approaches today.

Classrooms and Resources

The last three decades have also seen many changes in a typical language classroom. Learning is no longer confined to the physical confines of the classroom – it can take place in any number of locations in the public sphere, in the home, and/or using multiple forms of technology, not the least of which is the computer and the Internet. Language labs now support multi-media and online learning. Technology has helped facilitate the shift from teacher-centred learning to learner-centred learning.

In the past we saw:

Methodology seen as the key to successful language learning

Bottom-up approaches to teaching

Narrow prescribed methods

Teaching and learning restricted to one classroom

Teacher as primary source of information

Teaching largely paper and book-based

Communicative approaches

Top-down approaches to teaching

Reflective and exploratory methods to teaching

Widespread use of multi-media

Video and computers as commonly used teaching tools

Learning occurs outside as well as inside the classroom

Classrooms are connected to one another and the world

Internet as teaching and learning resource

Software as an integral part of curriculum

Focus on education as business

Influences from the Corporate Sector

Since the beginning of the nineties, language teaching has been influenced by concepts and practices from the corporate and business world. Unlike the past, teachers are no longer viewed as skilled instruments of a particular teaching method, but as creators of their own individual teaching methods, as classroom researchers, and curriculum and materials developers. Schools are viewed as having similar characteristics to other kinds of business institutions in terms of organisational processes. Teaching is now embedded within the organisational and administrative context of a new educational model, and as such, has taken on a new role. In order to manage schools efficiently and productively it is important to understand the nature of organisational activities that occur in schools and how they can be effectively and productively managed (Visscher, 1999).

This management view of education has introduced practices from the business and corporate world with an emphasis on efficiency, targets and standards, staff development, learning outcomes, quality assurance, strategic planning, performance appraisal and best practices. In some private language schools and in-company services, we have seen this shift away from a focus on pedagogical process to a focus on organisational systems and their place within language programs (Richards, 2001).

Classroom Objectives

1. 80/20

2. Student-Centred

3. Teacher as Facilitator

4. Monolingual Classroom

5. Language in Context

6. Meaningful and Relevant Language

Classroom Tools

1. Lesson Plan

2. Positive Learning Environment

3. Model the language

4. Board-work

5. Demonstrate don’t explain

6. Repetition

7. Elicitation

8. Dealing with errors

Warm-Up

Make it fun and positive! This will set the mood for the rest of your class! Make it easy: the idea is to help your students get into English-speaking mode. Use songs, games, cocktail activities, bingo, charades, or any other fun activity.

Review

Think about how ALL students can be actively involved and speaking. It may be helpful to review something which is relevant to today’s lesson. No choral drills! You’ve already taught them this language. This section may be combined with the warm-up. Both should be FUN!

Target Language (Drill-work)

Introduce the new language using drill-work. Remember: Use several clear examples. Regular forms only. Referring to board-work will help both you and your students. Give the correct form and be consistent. Use props, pictures, visuals, realia.

Activities (Controlled → Semi-controlled → Free)

Think about: age appropriacy level appropriacy using both controlled and freer activities 80/20? ‘Fun-Factor!’ reinforcement of the target language props, pictures, visuals, realia how to demonstrate the activities

Homework

Write it up on the board, along with an example, or give students a handout. Make sure they know exactly what to do. You may have to demonstrate. Take it up next lesson!

Print Resources

English as a Global Language – David Crystal, Cambridge University Press.

English and the Discourses of Colonialism (Politics of Language) – Pennycook, A. 1998. Routledge.

Language Choice and Cultural Imperialism – A Nigerian Perspective – Joseph Bisong, ELT Journal, 49(2)

The Phonology of English as an International Language – Jenkins, J. 2000. Oxford University Press.

Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching – Jack C. Richards, Theodore Rodgers, Cambridge University Press, 2001.

In this unit:

Types of Schools

Types of Students

Further Resources

‘Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it.’ Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919)

In this unit we take a look, first, at the industry: what types of employers are there? What are some of the pros and cons of each type. Then we look at the type of student, or customer, that you will likely encounter within the different schools.

In this unit we have a look at the type of employer English teachers are able to work for. We will look at seven situations: franchise language schools, small private language schools, in- company classes, government or private primary/secondary schools, universities/colleges, international schools and private tuition.

Language schools (franchise and small private) specialise in teaching English but may also teach other languages and subjects, such as French or mathematics. They are not part of the national school system but supportive to it.

Franchise Language Schools

• chain schools, sometimes nationwide, sometimes international • examples: Peppy Kids (Japan), ILA (Vietnam), Berlitz (International), Wall Street (International), etc. • offer several types of English classes to serve a wide population of students with varying motivations. • sometimes teach all ages from primary kids classes to senior adults; sometimes only children or adults.

Advantages Disadvantages

Good choice for the novice teacher!

The working environment and expectations can widely vary from school to school, even within the same company.

Small Private Language Schools

• Wide range in size, student body, curricula availability and resources • Often family-run

Advantages Disadvantages

Again, this can vary greatly from school to school.

• Language schools (both franchise and small private) often have contracts with companies whereby they supply English teachers to teach their staff on-site.

• The teacher is therefore an employee of or under a contract with the language school, not the company.

• This type of work is usually paid at an hourly rate, and lessons are between one and three hours.

Advantages Disadvantages

Government or Private Primary/Secondary Schools

• In some parts of the world these jobs are open only to people who are certified to teach in the school system in their own country (i.e. You need a Bachelor of Education). In other parts, the need is so great, and schools are desperate for native teachers to place in their classrooms. These jobs are not often possible to get until you are actually in that country and have some experience teaching ESOL. Your director might actually send you to a primary school or high school one morning a week to fulfil a contract he/she signed with them.

• The school often provides a local teacher to be in the classroom with you – this can help with discipline, but often teacher also acts as a translator, which takes away the ‘immersion’ experience.

Advantages Disadvantages

• In many countries, university and college students take English lessons either as part of their course or voluntarily.

• As with primary and secondary schools, the qualifications required of English teachers vary from country to country. In some, teachers need a Bachelor of Education and experience, and in others, any degree or even high school plus a TESOL certificate are sufficient.

Advantages Disadvantages

International Schools

••• They provide education (in English) in all subjects (ie. History, Science, Maths, etc) to children of ex-pats. Usually middle to upper class families.

••• Sometimes students speak English as a Second Language; most do not.

••• Teachers must have teachers’ certification to teach in Australia/New Zealand.

Advantages Disadvantages

• This is common practice around the world; however, there are some considerations:

• The school that hired you is your first priority! Do not steal students! Respect your director and your contract, and if you teach outside of your job, do not become ‘the competition!’

• Private lessons still need to be structured. Don’t settle for just ‘chat’ time – plan your lessons well so your students are not simply maintaining their English but learning new forms and vocabulary.

• 80/20 student-talk/teacher-talk ratio is difficult one-on-one. Consider teaching two or three at a time to help with talk time.

• As far as accepting private students goes, find out what is acceptable by your director and by the government in the place where you go. Other teachers will quickly fill you in on what’s done.

Advantages Disadvantages

Introduction

You can potentially teach to a wide range of students: various levels, age groups and backgrounds. It is important to understand what is entailed in teaching the different student types, so that you choose the teaching position you think you will be most suited for. This table shows you the variety of ESOL students and the classroom situations that you may be teaching in. Obviously, there will be different methods of teaching dependant upon level and age.

Levels Age Groups Demography (eg.)

Primary: JK to grade 3 ages 4-8 Business people Beginner

Specific Professional Groups Elementary Junior: grades 4-6 ages 9-11 Special interest groups Pre-Intermediate Senior Elementary: grades 7- ages 12-13 Conversation groups Intermediate 8 Emigrating groups Upper- Intermediate: grades 9-11 ages 14-16 Public/private school students Intermediate Senior: grades 12-13 ages 17-18 University students Advanced

Adult ages 18+

Students of General English

This is probably the most common type of student or class you will encounter. Most students who study English at a language school, especially children, young teenagers and adults (for non-work-related reasons), do so to achieve a general competence of the language.

A grammar-based syllabus is generally used – again, they don’t study grammar per se, but follow a program or plan that is organised by grammatical structures.

Students of ESP (English for Specific Purposes)

The demand for English knowledge in all areas of technology and commerce over the past 50 years has created a niche English market of students who want to learn English for very practical and specific reasons. ESP courses have been created to meet this demand. ESP courses can be very generic or very specific, depending upon the needs of the learners. For example, people who are doctors or nurses in their own country may do an English for Medical Purposes course to enable them to work in a hospital in an English speaking country. An example of a more specific ESP course (this is a real course!) is English for Korean Aerobics Instructors, which focuses on understanding a manual to pass an international exam. Other examples of ESP courses may be English for Golfers, English for Scuba Divers and English for Chefs.

Teach International © 2004-2008 58 To be a good ESP teacher, you must not only have experience in TESOL, but also have some specialist knowledge in a particular field. Your background knowledge is what the students desire to learn. You can think of this type of teaching position as one in which your students tell you what they need English for, and you give them the language that they need. All of the course content will be based around the learners’ reasons for learning. If you find yourself teaching ESP without any training in the content area, you should try and contact a specialist in the target area or purchase a book to give you an overview, so you have some knowledge of what the field involves.

Within the realm of ESP, there is also Business English . Business English is extremely popular in many countries. You will work in-company, teaching 1 to 3-hour English lessons to the staff members. In these situations, you will normally be given a curriculum to work from and will generally be paid hourly. Your students may be highly motivated, urged to learn with the propsect of a salary rise or promotion. Other students might be quite unmotivated, as they are being forced to take the lessons by their boss, and can’t see the benefits of taking your class.

It is extremely likely that at some stage during your career as a TESOL teacher, you will be asked to take Conversation Class , or English Corner. These classes are usually informal, and are designed to provide an opportunity for students to talk to you and each other in English. Choose topics that you and your students will both be familiar with – they love to learn about Western pop culture! You could talk about the English used in movies, songs, television programs and sport.

Students of EAP (English for Academic Purposes)

Students in EAP classes usually have an upper-intermediate to advanced level of English. EAP programs are becoming increasingly common as more students decide to enter university abroad. EAP courses are designed typically to prepare non-native English speakers for academic study in an English speaking country. The primary focus during these courses is study skills, such as listening to lectures and note-taking, presenting seminars, writing assignments and writing references. These courses may also include preparation and strategies for taking external exams such as the IELTS and TOEFL. The scores from these tests are used by tertiary institutions to admit overseas students into study.

These courses are very useful in giving overseas students a solid foundation in English. Many students in these courses may already possess the relevant study skills to an advanced level in their own langauge. They simply need your help in transferring these skills into English, and for use in a different academic environment, where there are different conventions to the ones they may be familiar with in their own country. In Western higher education, for example, it is expected that students are autonomous learners, whereas in other cultures, students learn what the teacher tells them. Teaching this different study culture will be comprised in EAP courses.

There will also be some people in EAP courses who have never practised study skills in their own language. These learners will need training in all aspects of studying, including time management, critical thinking and avoiding plagiarism. Obviously a needs assessment early in the course can identify which learners need help in which areas, so that you are able to instruct them in the best way possible.

There are special considerations when planning a children’s English lesson. It will be important for you to strike a balance between managing the class and maintaining it as a fun and open learning environment. Along with immense amounts of patience, a children’s teacher must bring to the classroom bucket-loads of encouragement and pool-loads of energy!

Even though young children are like sponges in absorbing new concepts, they still don’t have the cognitive capacity to retain this information. Repetition is the key to ensuring that children remember what you have taught them. Make sure that you teach and review the lessons in new and interesting ways so that they are less likely to forget.

It is also very important that your learners don’t become discouraged. Challenge your children, but don’t make the work too difficult, as this may lead to a loss of confidence, which in turn can cause them to give up trying and become bored very easily. Always provide continual support and encouragement – a little bit of praise goes a long way for a child.

Children have lower attention spans than most adults, and it is important to keep them always busy and entertained, with a variety of interesting activities. Think of as many ways that you can to expose your class to English so that it stimulates all their senses. Make your classroom a sensory delight – play English songs with repetitive choruses and actions, hang pictures and vocabulary on the walls, show your students an educational video, provide children’s story books to read and play physical games that are relevant yet stimulating. This will convince your children that English can be fun and rewarding.

For more, take the ‘Teaching English to Children’ elective online.

Print Resources

International Hotel English. Adamson, D. (1989). Hemel Hampstead: Prentice Hall.

The Language of Medicine in English . Bloom, G. (1982). London: Prentice Hall.

Oxford English for Computing . Boecker, K. and Brown, P.C. (1993). Oxford: OUP.

The Learning Strategies Handbook. Chamot, A., Barnhardt, S., Beard El-Dinary, P., Robbins, J. (1999). White Plains, NJ: Longman.

A Vacation English Workbook . Gleeson, M. (1996). Australia: OZ ESL Books

English for Specific Purposes . Hutchinson, T & A. Waters. (1989). Cambridge: CUP.

English for Academic Purposes . Jordan, R. R. (1997) Cambridge: CUP

ESP in Perspective . McDonough, J. London and Glasgow: Collins ELT.

English for Professional Employment . Nunan, D & Burton, J. (1990) Sydney: NCELTR.

At your service for the travel and tourist industry. Stott, T. & Buckingham. (1995). Oxford: OUP.

Journals

Using authentic materials and virtual reality in the Business English classroom. Baker, N. (1995). EA Journal. Vol. 13, No.1

Individual pursuits: preparing students for tertiary study through EAP programs. Bowyer, L. (1994). In R. Khoo (Ed.) The Practice of LSP: Perspective, Programmes, and Projects . Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre.

IELTS in context: Issues on EAP for overseas students. Deakin, G. (1997). EA Journal , Vol. 15 (2).

Web Resources

Using English for Academic Purposes – http://www.uefap.co.uk/ [Accessed: August 2006] English for Academic Purposes – http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/eap/ [Accessed: August 2006] English for Specific Purposes – http://www.rong-chang.com/esp.htm [Accessed: August 2006] English for Specific Purposes World – http://esp-world.7p.com [Accessed: August 2006] Business English Exercises – http://www.better-english.com/exerciselist.html [Accessed: August 2006] Beginning English Basics – http://esl.about.com/blbeginner.htm [Accessed: August 2006] Practice materials from beginners to advanced – http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/literacy.html [Accessed: August 2006]

In this unit:

Who is in charge of levelling students?

What levels are there?

What do the levels mean?

What is taught at each level?

Further Resources

‘Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.’ Baltasar Gracian

Unlike the schools most of us are accustomed to, where classes are made up of students of the same age, language schools categorise their students using skill levels. That means you might well have a fifty-five year old marketing manager, a twenty-two year old surfer and a thirteen year-old high school student all in the same class!

However placing students accurately is a key to maintaining a happy and fluid school, as students placed in the wrong level may lose confidence if the material is too difficult or lose interest if it is too easy. It is also vital for the teachers as some of the greatest challenges TESOL teachers face come from mixed-level classes.

Who is in charge of levelling students?

Generally, this is done by the school. The director or head teacher may be in charge of this or someone else at the school. First-time teachers are not given such a responsibility!

The school will give each student a placement test when they enrol to ensure that they are placed correctly. Schools can use a variety of placement tests, possibly even their own, and teachers will be trained in using them.

In the future, when you become an experienced ESL teacher, you may take over this job. Language teachers develop ‘level’ ears. This means that with experience comes the ability of being able to determine a student’s level (approximately!) simply by listening to them.

See the list resources at the end of the unit for online level tests.

What levels are there?

The most common levels are:

Beginner, Upper Beginner/Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate and Advanced.

Schools may change the names to avoid any negative connotations (i.e. embarrassment at being a beginner) that result from the terminology. You may end up teaching levels that are bird names or colours or countries!

Each school will adapt levels to suit their numbers and students. If, for example, there are more intermediate students than beginners, then the school might put the students into a lower level than usual so as to maintain the students’ desire to progress. On the other hand, if there are more beginners, then some students might advance quickly to make up numbers in more proficient classes.

Schools will have a stock of textbooks for each level, possibly even a number of different books, in the event that a student fails to progress during the duration of a text.

Beginner

Comprehension is limited to key words and common phrases.

Speech is restricted to basic vocabulary and pronunciation is poor. Can be difficult to understand.

May recognise and be able to copy words but possibly with no understanding of their meaning.

Upper Beginner / Elementary

Understanding is assisted with visual aids, gestures and a slow pace of speech. May repeat questions and phrases instead of responding to them.

Broken speech using personal details can be expected. Lexicon is still minimal, making elaboration extremely difficult.

High frequency words can be written in basic sentence structures.

Pre-Intermediate

At this stage the students’ listening skills have developed more than their speech. An ability to recognise key words assists communication.

Inadequate vocabulary still limits conversation to fragmented sentences and phrases within certain topics. Tenses begin to be used more.

Despite syntactical errors and poor spelling, writing has developed to the point of writing messages and filling out forms.

Intermediate

Students will ask for explanations when they are confused and be able to respond to questions at a quicker pace of speech.

Despite being limited to a high frequency vocabulary, tenses are being utilised correctly and meaning is being communicated successfully.

Meaning, although hidden at times, can also be gleaned from extended writing tasks such as letters.

Upper Intermediate

Within a recognisable context the student can operate successfully, despite continued minor misunderstandings.

Hesitations are fewer, especially when dealing with familiar subjects, and despite a lack of sequential speech, fragmented conversations can continue for some time along a consistent line of topic.

Longer passages of writing, discursive or otherwise, can be completed with greater cohesion. Errors are more complex, with clauses, for example.

The greater part of conversation is understood and concentration can be maintained for substantial periods of time over a broad range of subjects.

The student has the confidence and ability to change and initiate topics, keeping the flow of the conversation going, although still not completely fluent.

The organisation and structure of writing carries expression clearly. Mistakes are still evident but not enough to impede understanding.

What is taught at each level?

This gives you a broad idea of what is covered at each level. However, this is not standardised. There may be some variations depending on the school and the curriculum being followed.

Beginner

(includes absolute zero beginners) • verb 'to be' • present simple affirmative, negative and interrogative • nouns – e.g. colours, body parts, family, clothes. • there is, there are • possessive ‘s • adjectives • adverbs of frequency

Elementary

• can • past of verb 'to be' • past simple affirmative, negative and affirmative • present continuous (all forms) • going to and present continuous for future • comparatives and superlatives • some, any • adverbs of frequency and manner

Pre-Intermediate

• past continuous (all forms) • present perfect simple (all forms) • articles • zero and first conditional • should, may, might (formal and informal) • 'will' future • must and have to, don't have to • quantifiers • 'have' and 'have got' • question tags

• present perfect continuous • second conditional • passive in present and past • past perfect • make, let, allow • used to, be used to • phrasal verbs • gerund or infinitive • relative clauses

Upper intermediate

• third and mixed conditional • reported speech • reported questions • be used to doing • UK and USA English • future continuous

Advanced

• "the ___ the ____" comparatives • modals of deduction • negotiating skills, problem-solving, decision-making • connectors • defining and non-defining relative clauses

How do students change levels?

This is something that your school will explain to you when you start. There may be an exam that the class takes at the end of the month (or every second month, or at the end of the semester or year); the students might progress upon completion of a course-book; some schools have a system where the student must complete a certain amount of hours at that level before moving up; it may even be left up to your discretion as the teacher.

The nature of the industry is such that quite often ‘the customer is always right’ and if a student is determined to move up a level, even if they are not ready to do so, the school will probably allow it. Always check with your superiors if you are unsure about student placements. It is very unusual to ever move a student down a level (without the student requesting it themselves) because of the embarrassment it may cause.

Teaching to absolute beginners or lower level learners can bring some unusual challenges. Unlike more advanced learners, beginners are unable to speak English, as they don’t yet have enough (or any!) of the vocabulary, syntax or grammar required to do so. Don’t force beginners to speak until they are ready to. Provide suitable input, and soon enough, they will have something to say, and will actually know how to say it!

With regards to grammar, it is very important for beginners to know some basic English grammar , so that they are better able to understand what they hear and to formulate sentences of their own. Don’t explicitly teach grammar in every lesson, but certainly provide a basic grounding.

You should also provide simple texts for your beginners to read , as this presents new vocabulary to them in a way that is easy to follow and to learn and study. Of course, any reading materials will have to be at an appropriate level. This might mean forgoing a great authentic text, replacing it for an inauthentic text designed specifically for your students’ level. Adapt authentic materials if you can, but always consider the difficulty. You don’t want to frustrate your learners by giving them material they can’t understand.

The course-book that you use must also be pitched correctly and used in a creative and systematic way. If it is used in this way, it helps beginners to remember, to prepare and to review.

When you talk to your students, make sure you speak slowly, clearly (but not unnaturally) and in language that they will understand . Always demonstrate and vary the way you encourage interaction. The good teacher-talk that you use is providing your learners with the essential input that they require to develop the vocabulary, syntax and structure they require to speak themselves.

Also, remember when teaching adult beginners that they are intelligent people; don’t talk down to them just because they can’t understand English. Put yourself in their shoes, and think about how you would feel learning their language from scratch!

Further Resources

Web Resources

Levels Brief descriptions on ESL levels - http://www.nwtc.edu/ESL/Levels.htm [Accessed: August 2006] Level descriptions - http://www.englishschool.org.uk/levels.htm [Accessed: August 2006] Level descriptions by language skills - http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/languagelearning/otherresources/actflproficiencyguidelines/c ontents.htm [Accessed: August 2006]

Level Testing Various tests for different levels - http://www.uefap.co.uk/test/default.htm [Accessed: August 2006] Example of a placement test - http://www.reward-net.co.uk/placement/page1.asp?no=1 [Accessed: August 2006] Library of articles on ESL topics - http://www.cal.org/resources/publications.html [Accessed: August 2006] Example of a placement test - http://www.alpha.at/EK/test.php [Accessed: August 2006]

In this unit:

The Use of Groups in the Classroom

Stages of Group Dynamics

Further Questions

Further Resources

‘It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been looking for evidence which could support this.’ Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

The Use of Groups in the Classroom

To facilitate a productive ‘communicative-based’ classroom the TESOL teacher must ensure the students are not only communicating in English but also communicating with each other in English. Hence, as a facilitator, the teacher’s responsibility includes the creation of an environment where the students feel comfortable and confident talking with their peers. This is achieved with the use of groups.

Group dynamics is the study of the way groups evolve and work together to achieve a common result. The percentage of class time students spend in groups is high; therefore, the teacher must be aware of the challenges and stages that the groups will go through. Without this awareness, the energy and efficiency of the class may be reduced.

Obviously ‘student-to-student’ communication is an important reason why groups are utilised in the ESOL Classroom. However, group-work will also assist:

learner responsibility,

the encouragement of peer support,

student exposure to a diversity of speakers,

listening comprehension,

to increase the student talk time ratio (80/20),

in keeping students engaged.

“From the individual's point of view, there is the added incentive that through belonging to a group each can participate in achievements well beyond his/her own individual potential. Less idealistically, the group provides an environment where the individual's self-perceived level of responsibility and authority is enhanced, in an environment where accountability is shared: thus providing a perfect motivator through enhanced self-esteem coupled with low stress.” (Gerard M. Blair) [Source: http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art0.html?http://oldeee.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art0.html - Accessed: July 20 th 2004]

Stages of Group Dynamics Forming

Storming

Norming

Performing

As an ESOL teacher, the challenge lies in being able to control the movement of the groups through the four stages without reducing the students’ sense of achievement and/ or level of confidence in using English to communicate. In addition it is essential the teacher creates not only a variety of group sizes but also varies whom the students work with.

What other group-forming techniques can you think of?

Thinking of 80/20, which group size is most productive?

Does the teacher or do the students create the groups?

What happens in the ‘Storming’ stage?

Why are groups important in the ESOL Classroom?

Will your students always work with the same people? If not, why not?

Further Resources

The Initial Stage of Group Development - http://www.gmu.edu/student/csl/initial.html [Accessed: July 2004] Group Dynamics Resource Page - http://www.richmond.edu/~dforsyth/gd/ [Accessed: July 2004]

Small Group Dynamics in the Classroom - http://www.uc.edu/learningcommunities/small_group_dynamic.htm [Accessed: July 2004]

In this unit:

Lesson Plan Model for Adults

Lesson Plan Model for Children

Lesson Planning Process

How to make a great lesson

The Learning Environment – points to consider

Communicative Competence

Creating and Teaching a Syllabus

Situations, Functions and Vocabulary for Lesson Planning

‘The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty, not knowing what comes next.’ Ursula K LeGuin

In this unit we look at the most effective ways of planning a lesson, including many helpful tips for the first-time teacher. We also look at curriculum and syllabus for TESOL.

The following units (7-13) go in depth into each section of the lesson plan, as well as how to target the different language skills. Therefore, look at this unit as the framework from which to build on.

Warm-Up

Review

Target Language (Drill-work)

Activities (Controlled → Semi-controlled → Free)

Homework

Warm Up/ Review

Target Language A

Activity A

Target Language B

Activity A + B

Target Language C

Activity A+ B+ C

Homework

Although lessons follow the order shown (w-up, review, target language, activities and homework), when sitting down to plan we want to make it as efficient as possible. So we will plan the sections, in a different order.

Let’s look at the process of planning a lesson.

1. Plan the Target Language Section.

This comes first when planning, as it contains the focus of your lesson. This is where you teach the new language. What you do in all other sections will depend on what you do in this one.

What is the target language? What are you teaching your students this lesson? eg. for simple past, an example of the target language is: ‘What did Anna do yesterday?’ ‘Yesterday Anna play ed her guitar.’

If you are teaching new vocabulary (eg. ‘on, behind, between’), four to ten words is appropriate.

Write down some age and level-appropriate examples. Can you use props? Visuals? Realia?

Check that the target language is clear, consistent, and use regular forms (unless you are teaching the irregular forms as your target language!)

Your examples should make it clear to your students when and why they should use this new language.

Think about how you will drill the target language? What will you say?

Write up your board work. Make it readable, neat, and interesting to look at. Use capital letters only where appropriate!

2. Plan the Activities

Look at the list of points on the previous page. Above all, make sure your students are producing the target language, i.e. speaking! This is the main purpose of this section: to reinforce the target language you have taught above.

Refer to the activities unit for ideas, or make up your own. Lots of familiar games can be adapted for use in the classroom.

Try to include activities that:

accommodate different styles of learners (auditory, visual, tactile and kinaesthetic learners; active and quiet learners; right and left-brained learners; group and individual learners).

focus on speaking and listening, but may include reading and/or writing.

get the students practising the target language.

allow students to be creative.

allow students to work alone and with different people.

relate to the real world.

allow you to check understanding part-way through so that you and the students know what still has to be worked on. This is known as ‘formative evaluation’.

allow you to check understanding at the end of the lesson to ensure that the lesson has been learnt (eg. through a take-up of the activity). This is known as 'evaluation’.

3. Plan the Review

The review is essentially an activity. It should be interesting and fun, and get all students involved! Don’t use repetition drills – your students know this language already.

You may find it useful to review some vocabulary or a grammar point which will help your students in today’s lesson eg. if your simple past example is ‘What did Anna do yesterday?’ – ‘Yesterday Anna surfed at the beach’, you might like to review ‘surf’, and any other verbs you’re using.

Somewhere in this section, allow your students the possibility to ask any questions they may have about material learnt thus far.

4. Plan the Warm-up

Make it fun. Get the students speaking. Set a positive mood in the classroom. The warm-up may have something to do with the target language about to be taught, or it may not. It can be anything! But remember it also has to be age and level-appropriate. Do not introduce new language here.

5. Homework

Give your students an example of what they have to do. Write a model answer up on the board, or give them a clear handout. Plan enough time for your students to ask any questions they may have, either about the homework itself or about the day’s lesson. The homework should get your students using the target language.

Reflecting on your lesson

At the end of each day, review your teaching performance. The results you achieved will be fresh in your mind.

- What worked? - What didn’t work? How could it be fixed? - Was the lesson varied enough? Did it use different styles of activities? - Did you have fun? If you did, then most likely your students did too!

Revise your lesson plan if you need to.

How to make a great lesson

- be prepared - arrive on time - speak clearly and reasonably slowly - use body language and gestures

Teach International © 2004-2008 83 - use props, visuals, board work, realia, other resources - make the lesson interesting - make the lesson relevant to your students’ lives - use authentic materials - use humour, but be professional - use lots of encouragement and sincere praise - use different approaches from lesson to lesson - use different styles of activities to appeal to visual, auditory, tactile, and kinaesthetic learners - use English only - keep an eye on the time and pace the lesson - give your students a time limit before you begin an activity (you don’t have to stick to it!) - keep to rules and routines. Manage your class effectively and positively. - discipline with consistency and fairness to all students - if an activity isn’t working, give it up! Move on, revise it, try again in another lesson. - if you don’t know the answer to a question, admit it - if you’ve made a mistake, admit it - show your human side! - don’t always correct every mistake a student makes. Use echo correction. - have several means of eliciting responses - make sure your activities get the students practising the new language - have extra activities handy - monitor during activities. Try to get around to everyone. - encourage creativity and risk-taking with the language - be sensitive and alert to your students’ needs - self-evaluate each lesson - try to chat with other teachers daily about your lesson, or lesson planning in general - during the lesson: SMILE! Have fun! - be aware - make sure your lessons display continuity - take initiative and be creative

These last three points merit a bit of elaboration. They are crucial for teachers. Let’s look at them in more detail.

1. Be aware

Listen very carefully to what your students are saying, both in words and in body language! EFL students will try to communicate with you in all sorts of ways, not just with words. Listen to the words because they will give you knowledge about where your students are at with regard to the English language. ‘Listen’ to body language and all other signs too because they will tell you how your students are feeling. You will then be able to respond to their needs, using whatever means of communication you think most effective. Teach International © 2004-2008 84 Teaching necessarily entails counselling, whether in grammar or in life. Listen, be open to problems, and respond professionally and with assurance.

2. Make sure your lessons display continuity

Your students need to realise that there is logic and structure to their learning. Make sure that this is evident. If you don’t have a syllabus to work from, you might like to follow along the structure of the contents page of a textbook. Once you’ve planned a series of lessons, you’ll know what’s involved, and it will be easier the next time. Most schools will provide a structure or a text to follow. Use it – it provides continuity for you and your students.

3. Take initiative and be creative

Some things in EFL teaching have a bad name as being boring: grammar, reading and writing come high on the list. But this is only the case if the teacher makes it boring! You can disguise the fact that you’re teaching grammar, or use creative and upbeat activities to practise reading or writing.

Don’t be bashful when demonstrating new vocabulary. Be dramatic, be silly, have fun! Students will remember your demonstration and the vocabulary too! Don’t be the type of teacher who follows a textbook along, page by page. Every single lesson should be active, motivating, useful and creative.

Which skills should I focus on in my lessons?

Learning a language is a process which involves four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing.

All four skills should be used in the EFL classroom, but the focus should be on speaking and listening, especially with beginners. Your classroom will often be the only place where your students have the chance to practise these skills. Reading and writing can more easily be done outside of the classroom.

When planning your lesson, try to incorporate a lot of speaking and listening, to get your students improving those two skills during class.

What about my very first class?

Try not to be nervous! Your first lesson with a class sets the scene for all other classes. Here are some tips:

Meet the other staff at the school, if you haven’t already done so.

Speak CLEARLY and SLOWLY.

Introduce yourself and tell your students where you come from. If you have a beginner class, start with ‘Hello, my name is…’. Use the tools and techniques of the communicative EFL classroom to proceed from here.

Listen closely to your students throughout the lesson, so you can judge what to work on in future lessons.

Be friendly, but confident and firm in your management of the classroom right from day one.

Be patient and enthusiastic.

Be yourself.

It takes time to build strong and successful student-teacher relationships. Don’t be disappointed if you didn’t get a sense of this in your first lesson. It will come. If things didn’t go according to plan, don’t worry! Be grateful, in fact: the bigger the mistake, the bigger the learning experience. You’ll know what to do differently next time!

The Learning Environment – points to consider

• Try to make your students responsible for their own learning. Make them independent; get them thinking. Use pair work and group work often – they will help each other.

• Don’t expect that students will know something just because you’ve taught it.

• By the same token, don’t expect that students will only know what you’ve taught them.

• Cover what is most relevant or interesting for your students first. This will engage them.

• Set realistic goals for your students and work towards them.

• Create opportunities for students to talk, but don’t force them to.

• Set your students up for success. Build their confidence. Arrange activities so they know what to do and they will be able to do it.

• Don’t stick to one activity for too long. Notice if you are moving too slowly or too quickly for your students. Encourage them to ask questions if they don’t understand.

• Build a circular curriculum, so that the same topic is covered more than once. This gives your students a chance to thoroughly assimilate the language.

• Remember that grammar and vocabulary are only tools for meeting a goal (being able to communicate in English!) – they are not goals in themselves.

• Remember that there are lots of paths in the mazy garden of language learning! There is no simple or standard progression from learning ‘Hello’ through to speaking fluently. Be flexible in your approach and encourage your students to convey meaning in any way possible. If they communicate, even if they’ve made errors along the way, they’ve achieved their aim! This is great!

Communicative Competence: When your student wishes you ‘Good morning!’ at 8pm…

Language learning is not just about putting words together correctly. This is where ‘Communicative Competence’ becomes important. If an EFL learner knows when to speak, when not to, what to talk about and with whom, and when, and where, and in what manner, then they are communicatively competent. This is, of course, a very important thing to possess! It’s not only about having a grasp of the language itself (eg. correct use of grammar), but more about the understanding of the social and cultural elements which come with using the language. When you teach English, then, you shouldn’t just be teaching the language itself, but also how, when, where, etc. to use it, within a context of the English- speaking world.

Communicative competence comprises four aspects. As a teacher of EFL, you need to address all the following aspects of language in your classes:

Linguistic

Communicative Strategic Competence Discourse

Sociolinguistic

Linguistic Competence: an understanding and correct use of grammar and syntax.

Sociolinguistic Competence : the correct use of language in social settings. Only when language is taught in a social context is it meaningful to students. ‘Good morning! How do you do?’ is not meaningful at 7:30pm in an informal classroom.

Competence in Discourse : being able to sustain a conversation. This in turn, of course, depends on things like knowing connectors and other useful linking words (eg. ‘Having said that,…’). The teacher can help students with this competency by not teaching isolated sentences, but putting them in a context. Dialogues, stories, descriptions and oral conversation are all important in the classroom in order to develop competency in discourse.

Strategic Competence : the ability to overcome communication breakdown. The teacher must demonstrate to the students how to act when they don’t understand, eg. how to ask for clarification or repetition. These techniques of dealing with communication breakdown are referred to as strategies.

[Source: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/kurazumi/peon/ccmodel.html , Accessed: 20/7/04]

Communicative Competency and Lesson Planning

Above all, your materials and activities need to be meaningful to your students. Why are the students learning English? What are their needs? How can I make my materials meaningful for the students?

If the language is ‘real’ for your students, relating to their world and lives, they will pick it up quickly, as well as how and when to use it. Use ‘authentic speech’ (natural spoken language in the context of everyday situations) as much as you can in the classroom.

1. Choose a situation , a context, for your lesson. Select one which your students are familiar with and which is relevant to their needs. Here are some suggestions:

bank office party interview

doctor’s practice restaurant post office

buying food in a café catching the train

zoo in the house street

department store on the telephone

lost and found at the hospital

meeting an old friend school

2. Think about the functions : that is, the speech act which students are likely to have to use in the chosen situation, such as:

seeking information expressing hope

expressing surprise giving advice

expressing disappointment expressing preference

complimenting asking permission

expressing like or dislike thanking

granting permission expressing wish or desire

requesting expressing fear or anger

3. Consider the sociolinguistic aspects of your situation and function. How does language work in this social setting? Will the language be formal or informal? Are there social niceties or norms?

4. Now, consider the grammar . In this way, grammar will always be taught within a real and meaningful context. It should never be taught in isolation.

Teach International © 2004-2008 88 5. Keep in mind the four aspects of competence . If you are teaching, for example, how to express dislike, you should also integrate sociolinguistic competence – when and how to express dislike, including acceptable and unacceptable ways to do so) – and strategies (ways to overcome potential communication breakdown).

Remember that the above lists of situations and functions are only a fraction of all the possibilities. Don’t feel restricted to these! Be creative and listen to your students’ needs and motivations.

Some functions are more difficult than others in terms of grammar. Remember your students’ level and choose a function and new vocabulary accordingly.

Example of a Lesson Planning Process addressing Communicative Competence:

(Intermediate Level, General English)

Situation: In the street

Language Function: Seeking information Sociolinguistic aspects: formal, concise dialogue

Grammar: Embedded questions (Could you tell me where…is?)

Vocabulary: jeweller’s, police station, laundromat, ferry stop

Creating and Teaching a Syllabus

Most language schools will provide you with some sort of framework for your students: either a course-book (in the field of ESL/EFL, known as ‘curriculum’: the line of books you follow) to work from, or lesson plans, or a schedule of grammar or themes to cover in each lesson. The extent of the schedule will, of course, depend on the number of lessons your students have.

Look at what you are supposed to teach, and try to get an overall idea of where your students should be at the end of their course of lessons. Set long-term goals , and work backwards. Each month, each week, each unit, each lesson, should accomplish something, even if it is just the smallest component of your larger goal. In fact, it is a good idea to break everything down into small digestable pieces. In this way, material becomes easier to teach and also to learn. This breaking things down into small components is called task analysis.

In general, there are three types of course outline, or syllabus:

1. A grammar-based syllabus takes grammar points as the means by which a course is structured: one lesson introduces past simple, another, past continuous, and so on. This does NOT mean that grammar is the focus of the lessons, or is taught in isolation! It is simply a means of structuring the syllabus.

2. A theme-based syllabus takes not grammar points, but themes (situations), as the structural basis: one lesson deals with ‘In the Playground’, another with ‘Catching the bus’, and so on. Within each, a grammar point is addressed, just like in a grammar- based syllabus.

3. A needs-based syllabus takes specific needs of the students as the means of structuring the course. This is common, for example, with Business English students, where a general textbook or even a business text may not address those needs. Thus, for a banking manager, one lesson might be negotiating a contract; the next, stock market jargon. It all depends on the student. Within this category are included courses with limited time (between 4 and 12 weeks), such as sporting teams, emigrating families, etc.

For Business English in particular, in order to create a needs-based syllabus, it is important that you know exactly what functions and vocabulary are relevant to your students’ jobs. If the language school has not already done so, conduct a needs analysis . One way of doing this is to ask students to tick those functions on a list which they use most at work. Then incorporate these into your syllabus, addressing one function or theme per lesson. Not only does this ensure that students are being taught English that they will use, but it also involves them in the design of their own course. It is encouraging responsibility for learning. Your syllabus can then be typed and put up in the classroom, or given to students as a handout. Although it is not concrete, having this syllabus will aid your planning immensely.

The following website takes you through the process of composing and conducting a needs anaylsis: http://www.onestopenglish.com/business_esp/needs_analysis.htm [Accessed: July 2004]

Whichever type of syllabus you’re working from, pace the lessons. It is essential to keep an eye on the progression of the lessons, not only within each class, but also overall. Be flexible! Often the class will move more quickly or more slowly than you had expected. Within any one lesson, try to have one or two extra activities planned which relate to the target language of that lesson. If you don’t use them, you can always do so as a review in your next class! If, on the other hand, your class is moving through your syllabus more slowly than expected, then revise your plan after each lesson. Select the most important things for your students, and work them into the time you have left.

An Example of a Grammar-based (Business or General) Syllabus [http://esl.about.com/library/beginner/blabsolute_intro.htm Accessed: 20 July 04]

Here is an example of a real syllabus for beginners. It starts, as do most, with introductions and other basics of the language. The true grammar-based structure begins at unit five.

1. Give Name and Personal Information Name, telephone number, address 2. Greetings – Introductions Basic small talk including 'How are you' 3. Numbers 1 - 100 Pronunciation, counting skills, telephone numbers 4. Alphabet Spelling Skills 5. This, that, here, there Recognising the connection between 'this, here' as opposed to 'that, there' 6. Present of the verb 'to be' Conjugation of the verb, question and negative forms for all subjects 7. Basic descriptive adjectives Ability to describe objects simply

Teach International © 2004-2008 90 8. Basic prepositions use in, at, to, on, etc. 9. There is, There are Difference between singular and plural, question and negative form 10. Some, any, much, many When to use some and any in the positive, negative and question forms. Questions using much and many 11. Question Words The use of 'wh-' question words as well as 'how much' and 'how many' 12. Adverbs of Frequency The use of adverbs of frequency such as: always, often, sometimes, never 13. Subject Pronouns I, You, He, She, It, We, You, They 14. Possessive Adjectives My, Your, His, Her, (Its), Our, Your, Their 15. a, an, the Basic rules for usage of definite and indefinite articles 16. Jobs Names of the most common jobs 17. Telling the Time How to tell the time 18. Time Expressions Using 'in the morning', 'in the afternoon', 'in the evening', 'at night', and 'at' with time 19. Everyday Objects Well-rounded basic vocabulary 20. Present Simple Expressing routines and habitual actions

An Example of a Theme – and Function – based Business Syllabus

It’s important to realise that the three types of syllabus are not mutually exclusive. Some course structures can incorporate elements of two, or even of all three, to good effect.

The following are titles of units from a real curriculum called ‘Conversational English for Business’ [http://faculty.web.waseda.ac.jp/wboletta/bizeng/main.html, Accessed: 20 July 2004].

Some are functions and some are situations. Which is which? Add any others of your own.

meeting people small talk restaurants

appointments and invitations time

finding out information asking for directions

speech and presentation holidays and celebrations

the weather parties and social events

what if? discussion and negotiation travel

the shape of conversation

Here’s a great example of a function-based business syllabus: http://www.dyned.com/dyned/eng/voafibss.html [Accessed: 15/07/04]

…and the contents page of a situation (theme) based syllabus: http://www.geocities.com/~newfields/eie/1.htm [Accessed: 15/07/04]

Situations, Functions and Vocabulary for Lesson Planning

To help you in planning a lesson, here are a few common situations along with functions and vocabulary which might be used in each. Again, choose situations which are relevant to your students. Some of the following will be meaningful for children, not adults, others for business people, not tourists.

Remember that both the question and answer form should be taught wherever possible. When teaching ‘I live in …’, also teach ‘Where do you live?’ and ‘Do you live in … ?’

1. Meeting People

Function Vocabulary Grammar Resources Activities greetings good morning, -clock cocktail party – good evening, etc. introducting yourself introducing My name is … -name cards -pictures of songs (eg. good providing and asking nationalities I am … people morning, good for personal numbers I live in … -map of the morning) information cities I come world from … -pictures of Who is it? (I am houses thinking of a person…) requesting to be given classroom objects May I … -classroom something (pen, chair, book) objects bingo please, thank you arranging to meet days of the week, Shall we… -calendar time -clock today, tomorrow -diary describing people clothing (trousers, adjectives -pictures of earrings) people body parts (eyes, hands)

Function Vocabulary Grammar Resources Activities commanding tidy (your room) imperatives household -role play brush (your teeth) realia parent-child close, open, clock (bedtime) -Simon Says knock, walk, go -Hokey Pokey

describing the rooms of the prepositions of -information home house (bedroom, place (on, near, -plan of house gap bathroom) between) -realia (plug, -I See (I Spy) objects in each candle) -match the room -doll’s house object to the (wardrobe, sink) -magazines, room catalogues -field trip to a home describing the comparative -What am I? family and superlative -photographs family members adjectives -family tree -cocktail activity (aunt, niece) (older than, (Find someone pets (dog, bird) naughtier than) who…) -constructing a family tree from oral information

3. The Office

Function Vocabulary Grammar Resources Activities negotiating salary, contract, Perhaps … -(toy) telephone -information deadline, terms I’d rather … sample contract gap and conditions What about … - diary -back-to-back dialogue - role play cancelling an to regret, to be May I (speak - diary appointment sorry, engagement to) ... -(toy) telephone -information Could we … gap -back-to-back -role play

Function Vocabulary Grammar Resources Activities buying box, jar, packet, May I have … -boxes, jars, etc -role play quantities bottle, tube, slice, I’d like … -supermarket -concentration loaf, bag catalogues -puppet show -toy fruit and -setting up a names of foods Could you tell vegetables model store asking for (eggs, potatoes) me … -shopping bag assistance sections of store -play money (fruit and -plan of store vegetables, dairy) -food flashcards aisle

quantities (cup, imperatives -measuring -making a instructing to litre, teaspoon) cups recipe cook (recipes) names of food (oil, -realia (food) tomatoes, garlic) -students’ recipes

5. The Doctor’s

Function Vocabulary Grammar Resources Activities describing body parts I ate…; I fell -pictures of -role play accidents (stomach, toe, ear) (past simple) people -songs (Heads, -bandage, toy shoulders, stethoscope, knees, toes) complaining eat, fall, bump, tear It has been cotton, etc -puppet plays, (a muscle), break hurting…(past dramatisations (a bone) continuous) giving advice smoke, drink, go You should … -‘ailment’ cards -drawing cards bungeejumping! You mustn’t … from a hat to medicine, tablet, give advice mils, dissolve -role plays

Remember that this is just a list to give you an idea of what’s possible when planning a lesson. Don’t be confined by it!

Function Vocabulary Grammar Resources Activities

The most important thing to remember when planning a lesson is that it must engage your students’ interest. If it does, the more effectively they will learn, and the more they will want to come back to English!

In this unit:

Introduction

Form and Function Table

Form and Function: Grammar Points

Teaching Grammar

Board-work

Practising Grammar

Re-enforcement Activities

Further Resources

Teaching Idioms and Slang

Further Resources

‘Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: you find the present tense, but the past perfect!’ Owens Lee Pomeroy

Introduction

So, what is grammar?

Penny Ur defines ‘grammar’ as “the way a language manipulates and combines words (or bits of words) in order to form longer units of meaning.” Furthermore, she says: “There is a set of rules which govern how units of meaning may be constructed in any language: we may say that a learner who ‘knows grammar’ is one who can master and can apply these rules to express him or herself in what would be considered acceptable language forms.” (Penny Ur, ‘Grammar Practice Activities’, Cambridge University Press, 1988, Sixteenth Edition 2002)

In this unit, we look at the difference between ‘form’ and ‘function’, how to teach grammar effectively and then practise it, and finally, we provide some activities that re-enforce particular grammar structures.

At the end of the unit, there is a list of grammar resources we consider extremely useful for the first-time teacher (or anyone interested in honing their grammar skills ☺)

What if I don’t know any grammar?!

Most TESOL teachers don’t know any grammar when they start teaching. We learn it naturally, we use it naturally. We strongly recommend you to get a good grammar reference book (see recommended resources at the end of this unit). This way, you can stay one step ahead of your students. Don’t feel embarrassed if they ask you something about grammar that you don’t know! Tell them you are not really sure and you will look it up and get back to them (and do it!). You will only teach one, maybe two, new grammar structures per lesson, so make sure you know it or them really well. Once you teach a certain form a couple of times, well, you’ve learnt it! Always remember: you are the EXPERT in English, even if you think you don’t know a lot of grammar.

We also recommend you print or save to disk, the Teach International online grammar course. That will give you the basics of English grammar and you can always refer to it.

FORM FUNCTION

Notes:

The following is a chart containing 15 grammar points. There is a brief description of the form and the function. However, keep in mind that each grammar point may have more than one function. For example, the past continuous has seven functions! Once you start teaching, you will get to know these very well. In this chart, we have only outlined one function, sometimes two, but not more.

The online grammar course will go into these points in more depth.

Form Function Examples Information Q & A Yes/No Q & A

1. They refer to things, ‘to have’ a cat, seven Q: How many pets does Q: Does she have any Countable Nouns with people, places that can be cherries, two flowers, an he have ? pens? ‘have’ counted . Express orange, one orange, etc. A+: He has two pets. A+: Yes, he does . quantity and ownership. A-: He doesn’t have any A-: No, he doesn’t . pets.

2. They refer to things that ‘to have’ some wine, a Q: How much flour does Q: Does she have any Uncountable Nouns with cannot be counted cup of coffee, a little she have ? water? ‘have’ (substances, qualities, sugar, a lot of salt, etc. A+: She has a lot of flour. A+: Yes she does . feelings). Express quantity A-: She doesn’t have A-: No she doesn’t . and ownership. any flour.

3. Used to compare two bigger, smaller, longer, Q: Which is bigg er ? Q: Is Y slow er than Z? Comparative Adjectives things. shorter AND more A+: The elephant is A+: Yes, it is . expensive, more curious, bigg er than the ant. A-: No, it isn’t . etc. A-: The ant isn’t bigg er than the elephant.

4. Used to compare more the biggest, the smartest, Q: Which is the fast est ? Q: Is Australia the bigg est ? Superlative Adjectives than two things. AND the most expensive, A+: The jaguar is the A+: Yes, it is . the most impressive, etc. fast est . A-: No, it isn’t . A-: The jaguar isn’t the fast est .

Form Function Examples Information Q & A Yes/No Q & A

5. This type of preposition is in, on, under, in front, Q: Where is the laptop? Q: Is the pen on the Prepositions of Position used to show location or behind, beside, next to, A+: The laptop is in the desk? position. between, etc bag. A+: Yes, it is . A-: The laptop isn’t in the A-: No, it isn’t . bag.

6. Used to describe how quickly, slowly, loudly, Q: How is he driving? Q: Is she singing loudly ? Adverbs of Manner something is happening. quietly, sweetly, violently, A+: He is driving slowly . A+: Yes, she is . etc. A-: He isn’t driving A-: No, she isn’t . slowly .

7. Used to describe how often, usually, never, Q: How often does she Q: Does he always come Adverbs of Frequency often something seldom, always, once a go on holiday? late to work? happens. week, rarely, yearly, etc A+: She always goes on A+: Yes, he does . holiday. A-: No, he doesn’t . A-: She doesn’t always go on holiday.

Form Function Examples Information Q & A Yes/No Q & A

8. To express habitual I drink coffee every Q: What does he do Q: Does she read the Present Simple Tense actions; to state facts or morning. Water boils at every morning? paper every morning? truths; to talk about 100 degrees Celsius. Our A+: He cleans his teeth A+: Yes, she does . timetables or schedules. flight leaves at 10am. every morning. A-: No, she doesn’t . A-: He doesn’t clean his teeth every morning.

9. Used to describe what is I am eating. She is Q: What is he doi ng ? Q: Is she cooki ng ? Present Continuous happening now or around studying. They are A+: He is read ing . A+: Yes, she is . Tense now. running. A-: He isn’t read ing . A-: No, she isn’t .

10. Used to report past They played tennis. Q: What did Tom do Q: Did Mary watch a Past Simple Tense events (completed I watched television. She yesterday? movie yesterday? events). walked to work. A+: Yesterday, Tom A+: Yes, she did . worked. A-: No, she didn’t . A-: Yesterday, Tom didn’t work .

11. Used to describe an Yesterday at 8am we Q: What was Neil do ing Q: Was Vicki watch ing Past Continuous Tense activity in progress in were driving to work. at 8pm last night? movies last Sunday at the past. Last year we were A+: He was eating dinner 4pm? studying German. at 8pm last night. A+: Yes she was . A-: He wasn’t eating A-: No she wasn’t . dinner at 8pm last night.

Form Function Examples Information Q & A Yes/No Q & A

12. To express things that We have been to Russia. Q: Where has he Q: Has she ever eaten Present Perfect Tense have or haven’t happened They have worked for EF travell ed to? dog? in past life experience, for 2 years. A+: He has travell ed A+: Yes, she has . and may continue to through Asia and Europe. A-: No, she hasn’t . happen in the future. A-: He hasn’t travell ed to Asia or Europe.

13. Used to express definite Next year, we are going to Q: What is Jason going Q: Is Shelley going to Future Simple Tense plans in the future buy a house. Tonight I am to do next year? visit India next year? with ‘going to’ going to eat lasagne. A+: Jason is going to A+: Yes, she is . travel next year. A-: No, she isn’t . A-: Jason isn’t going to travel next yr.

14. Used to express I will call him. Q: What will he do ? Q: Will she pick up some Future Simple Tense spontaneous decisions They will catch the next A+: He will catch the milk? with ‘will’ bus. next train. A+: Yes, she will . A-: He will not (won’t) A-: No, she won’t . catch the next train.

15. Used to express a If it snows tomorrow, I will Q: What will he do if he Q: Will she go to Bali if First Conditional possible result in the go skiing. gets the promotion? she gets time off? future If he fails his exam, he A+: He will move to A+: Yes, she will . won’t go to university. Melbourne if he gets the A-: No, she won’t . promotion. A-: He will not (won’t) move to Melbourne if he gets the promotion.

1. Countable Nouns 2. Uncountable Nouns 3. Comparative 4. Superlative Adjectives 5. Prepositions of A: Jane! Let’s study for our Adjectives Position geography exam. B: OK! A: How many rivers does Italy have? B: It has 37 rivers. A: Does Spain have any lakes? B: Yes, it does. It has 3 lakes. A: Does France have any volcanoes? B: No, it doesn’t. France doesn’t have any volcanoes.

6.Adverbs of Manner 7. Adverbs of Frequency 8. Present Simple 9. Present Continuous 10. Past Simple

11. Past Continuous 12. Present Perfect 13. Future - ‘will’ 14. Future - ‘going to’ 15. First Conditional

It is obvious that in order for a person to master a language, they need to know the rules of grammar, whether explicitly or implicitly. We can’t just decide to put words together wherever we choose! In order to make sense, we must communicate using grammatically correct, or at least intelligible, language.

From the moment we are born, we start learning the grammar rules of our own language in a natural way. So, by the time we are young children, we have mastered the rules of grammar. With years, schooling and experience, we develop more vocabulary, we learn to use language in different social and cultural settings, and we learn about many different topics.

This type of ‘natural learning’, although ideal (we all speak our first language very well!) is not possible for the majority of people when it comes to a second language. Students attend language lessons, study, do homework, and expect to learn the language in a reasonable amount of time. It is impossible to immerse our students in English 24/7… which is why ‘natural learning’ is not an option.

To teach grammar, we must do it in an almost systematic way, with a good deal of organisation, and with some amount of repetition and focus on the form and function of the grammar point. This is why we use repetition drills: we need students to be presented with the language, to repeat it so as to become familiar and comfortable with the form (within some sort of context) and to practise it in a meaningful way, that is, to use it functionally.

When we present new language to our students, we are asking them to do a number of things: to recognise it, usually in all its forms (reading, listening), to produce it in all its forms (written, spoken), and to understand its meaning, as well as produce meaningful language.

It is common for teachers, or course-books, to focus on only one or a couple of the above. For example, they focus on students getting the form right (For example: Present Continuous, I am running. ), but devote no energy to the function; therefore, students seldom know when to use it, although they know how to form it. And vice versa: too much focus on the function, but not enough focus on the form means that although students know when to use it, they make serious form mistakes, which translate into poor or unintelligible language.

The idea of the initial teaching or presentation of grammar is to get students to perceive the new structure and take it into their short-term memory (ibid). To do this, some degree of repetition and consistency is necessary. Let’s have a look at the different drills we can use:

Repetition Drills

We teach new grammar structures in the ‘Target Language’ section of the lesson, i.e. after we have done a warm-up and a review.

There are two basic drills called ‘choral’ drills and ‘chain’ drills:

Choral drills are those where the teacher presents the language, and the students repeat immediately after, all together. Choral drills provide students with a secure setting for producing language FOR THE FIRST TIME. This can be a scary thing, so letting students say it in unison allows them to become comfortable with the target language.

Teacher : China is larger than Japan. Everybody together… Students : China is larger than Japan. Teacher : Which country is larger, China or Japan? Students : China is larger than Japan. Do a few chorals, until you feel students are comfortable, and then move on to chain drills.

Chain drills are those where the teacher asks individual students, and the question is also incorporated. (Sometimes teachers choose to choral the question as well.)

Following the same example, immediately after some chorals:

Teacher : Great! Now, Ben. Which country is larger, China or Japan? Ben : China is larger than Japan. Teacher : Good! Ben, ask Jill ‘Which country is larger, China or Japan?‘ Ben : Jill, which country is larger, China or Japan? Jill : China is larger than Japan.

And so on…

These drills, although not terribly exciting, allow students to practise the form (comparative adjectives) in a controlled fashion and in some sort of context. The language is not yet being used to ‘do’ things, but they need this first introduction and controlled use of the new structure. Later on, with activities, they get the chance to use the language much more functionally.

Dialogue for Drill Work

Dialogues are also widely used to present the ‘target language’. Dialogues are usually more ‘real world’ and help students see a clearer context in which to use the new language.

Remember the PURPOSE of each section: in the ‘target language’ section, you are presenting NEW language. So, if you choose to use a dialogue, rather than a few different questions and answers, you need to drill it as well, because you are using it to INTRODUCE new language. You can do this in a similar manner to the above, although with subtle differences.

For example:

At the Laundromat

Pat : Uh-oh! Julie : What’s the matter? Pat : It’s snowing, and it’s very cold! Julie : Are you wearing a scarf? Pat : No, I’m not. Julie : Well, you’re wearing a coat. Pat : But I’m not wearing boots! Julie : OK. Let’s take a taxi. Pat : Thanks, Julie.

[Source : ‘New Interchange. Intro’ Student’s Book. Jack C. Richards. Cambridge University Press.2000]

This dialogue, taken from a very popular course-book, if used to present new language (in this case, the present continuous tense) needs to be drilled. Usually the teacher would do:

2. Divide the class into ‘A’ and ‘B’ (or in the case above, ‘Pat’ and ‘Julie’) and choral each line with the corresponding half.

3. Split them into pairs and let them practise the dialogue together, changing roles after they finish. Make sure you facilitate thoroughly during their work.

Here’s another example with the same tense:

In a Park Word Bank

A: Hey! What are you doing ? B: I am playing soccer. watching TV A: Is Bob playing soccer with you? shopping B: No, he isn’t playing soccer. eating dinner A: What is he doing ? B: He is working .

Here, the teacher has used both question forms, the negative form, the first, second and third person singular and they have added a word bank, so students can replace the action with a couple of different ones, but still using the present continuous. Again, this dialogue would be used for drilling the target language.

Teaching Tips

Whether you are using questions and answers or a dialogue to present the target language, the following tips will help you do it effectively:

Teach both question forms and both answer forms (if applicable). For example: for the simple past, ‘What did you do yesterday’ ‘I played baseball’ AND ‘Did you play baseball yesterday?‘ ‘Yes, I did/ No, I didn’t’

Always teach the negative form as well as the affirmative form.

Make sure the function is clear. For example, if you are teaching the present simple to express scientific facts, make sure your examples are a reflection of this (‘The Earth revolves around the sun.’ and, ‘Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.’)

ALWAYS have the target structure/language visible on the board for everyone to see. Highlight the target structures. Use the board! Refer to it, guide students by using the board and clear body language. And always have your board-work ready before starting the lesson.

Have as many visuals as you can. They not only engage students in the lesson, but they also help them understand. Use timelines and calendars to show timeframes, and remember that mathematical symbols are universal (percentages, equal and not equal, etc.)

Always teach the regular forms first! Don’t teach irregular forms the first time you introduce a new form! (For example, for the simple past, teach visited, watched, laughed instead of drank, ate, did)

Once you have taught the regular form, you can move on to the irregular forms. Teach them in the same way you did the regular forms. Let students know they are irregular.

It is common to teach the contraction together with the full form. For example, ‘I will = I’ll; I am = I’m’; etc.

When doing ‘chains’, keep them random! It’ll help keep students on their toes and paying attention.

Keep the new language consistent. Don’t change the question structure around! Students need to be able to see a clear pattern.

Use ‘key words’ where appropriate, that is, words that help students understand the meaning of the structure (like ‘yesterday’ for the past).

Maintain a good pace throughout the target language section, but make sure your students get plenty of opportunities to listen to and produce the target language. On average, this section of your lesson should be between 20 and 40 per cent of the total time (although YOU will know best what your students need!)

Board-work

The Perfect Board

Teaching grammar communicatively asks pertinent questions about the more conventional uses of the board in class.

If the grammar form is to be contextualised to have students relating to its function then the board should represent this as well. However writing up lists of the negative, affirmative and interrogative forms etc. doesn’t really achieve that objective. So what are we to do? One idea is to create ‘The Perfect Board’ . As always, create a dialogue to allow your students the opportunity to communicate authentically within a situation. Within that dialogue, implement the necessary aspects of the grammar form so that students use it naturally.

Let’s look at an example;

Form : Present Continuous Verbs Function : To express action in the moment.

In a Park Word Bank (5)

A: Hey! What are you doing ? (1) B: I am playing soccer. (2) watching TV A: Is Bob playing soccer with you? (3) shopping B: No, he isn’t playing soccer. (4) eating dinner A: What is he doing ? B: He is working .

Key

(1) Interrogative (What are you doing?) (2) Affirmative (I am playing soccer) (3) Subject-Verb Change (‘I am’, ‘you are’ and ‘Bob is’) (4) Negative (He isn’t playing soccer) (5) Word Bank (Other examples of target language students could exchange into the dialogue.)

Teach International © 2004-2008 109 By using this board-work, students are communicating accurately, naturally and being exposed to different forms of the verb and target language within a situational dialogue.

‘The Perfect Board’ is most successful when dealing with verb tenses; however, it can certainly be adapted to other grammar forms to afford students the opportunity to expand their language usage.

Pre-teaching by using grammar exercises for the lesson’s targets or reinforcing through homework are also important elements of running a situational class with board-work like this.

Some Board Tips

1. Try to avoid writing in red or green ink; red may hold negative cultural connotations and ‘green cannot be seen’.

2. Try to avoid writing in capital letters unless at the start of the sentence or with proper nouns. Most students have learnt their English through textbooks in lower case print.

3. Try to always double check your work to avoid punctuation or spelling errors. Students will write what they see.

4. Try to ensure your board-work is big enough, clear enough and legible enough for all students to read. Check with the class before beginning.

5. Try to always remain aware of your position in the class so that you are never blocking the students’ access to the board.

Practising Grammar

After the initial presentation of grammatical structures, we move on to practice. Our aim is for students to transfer that which is stored in their short-term memory, into long-term memory. We want students to use the language learnt actively, and ultimately, spontaneously. Once students are comfortable with the form and have an idea of the function, it is time to let them practise in situations that are more real than the drill work and that have a purpose.

There are three general levels of activities: controlled, semi-controlled and free. This ‘level’ refers to how much structure and language we offer students to complete the activity.

Controlled Activities: We offer a lot of stucture and a lot of language, so that students know exactly what to do and find it relatively easy to navigate through. The purpose of these is to “help make the rules of form clearer and to ensure that they are learnt more thoroughly.” (ibid)

Semi-controlled Activities: We still offer quite a bit of structure, but take away a little, so students rely more on their recall of the grammar and vocabulary.

Free: We offer very little structure and rely heavily on the students’ ability to recall and use structures functionally.

Name your activities. A funny, wacky or intriguing name helps engage students. Be creative with this: the sky is the limit!

Ensure students understand what is expected of them. Demonstrate, demonstrate, demonstrate! As you demonstrate, provide clear, simple verbal instructions.

Give students time limits. This makes the activity more challenging and helps keep the pace. You can also give it a competitive element (‘the group that collects the most X wins!’)

Always start with controlled activities and move on to freer ones, not the other way around! Higher levels don’t need many controlled activities. Conversely, lower levels can’t handle free activities.

Turn dry, course-book exercises into interactive and interesting activities. This doesn’t mean the course-book is bad! Not at all. It is simply impossible for authors of course- books to personalise them… that is YOUR job as a teacher. Let’s look again at the dialogue from the section above:

Let’s say you chose a few other questions and answers to target the present continuous, and then, you decide to use this dialogue to reinforce (i.e. as an activity. Again, remember the purpose of the section). Asking students to read the dialogue in pairs is not a very interesting activity (it seems like doing drill-work again!); interest levels rise if, for example, you ask them to use their own names (after all, who is Pat?!) and, after they are comfortable with the structure, ask them to re-create the scene in different weather scenarios. They can practise different items of clothing, weather terms and, of course, the present continuous (the focus of the activity). You could ask them to create wacky situations; they always cause a laugh (wearing a bikini in winter, for instance). Also, get them to work with different people, not just the same partner over and over. Turn it into a cocktail activity!

Use rotating pairs. Pair activities are great because they increase student talk-time considerably. To make them more interesting and interactive, give pairs a time limit, and then ask them to rotate, so that every student has a new partner.

Remember to monitor while your students are working. They may get stuck and need a nudge.

Keep any activities you create! In your career, however long or short, you will teach the same grammar points over and over. Be organised! Build a filing system arranged by grammar points. Eventually, your planning time will be much less.

Next, we provide activities that reinforce specific grammar points. You can use these in your classroom and they can all be adapted to suit different needs.

As you look at each one, try and determine whether they are controlled, semi-controlled or free.

They are:

Cocktail Activity: ‘What’s the best book you have ever read?’ Verb search: Simple Present Verbs Bingo Activity: ‘Find a person who is…..’ Cocktail Activity: Are you…? / Do you…? Conditional Pairs Hypothetical Situations What should I do? How often do you …? Next winter I will … Reported Speech Present Perfect

For more information on Activities, see Unit 9.

Ask as many questions of as many people as you can.

Follow the model: ‘What’s the best (1) you have ever (2) ?

Example: Q: ‘What’s the best ( book ) you have ever ( read )?’ A: The best book I have ever read is ‘The Catcher in the Rye’.

1 2 Name Answer

food (eat)

book (read)

drink (have)

country (visit)

movie (see)

car (drive)

job (have)

CD (hear)

experience (have)

cartoon (see)

radio station (listen to)

quote (hear)

costume (wear)

advice (give)

restaurant (dine at)

Note for the teacher:

Grammar Focus: Present Perfect Tense for life experience. Low-Intermediate to Intermediate level.

F I N D H O B E Z L K V E W U P O L K T P L C A E K I U V A I P G E S N I O K L P E V B M B J P D S O Y R E S V C S W E A E Y U J M D S I P L N M L H Y E G K P O L M N I Y G T G T F D E N B Y W O R K T R E W Q D J N G B F E L O J B V R J U P L I N V R I T E D P V V P O E B O F E C Q B N O I K L C V C T O I T W A T C H W V M P F N S P B I E D J Y L O V D B E C L I A Y K U R O D R R U I O C S N R X K U S H A I D P F E T J J P L A Y T Z J Y C B B R U S H A G H U O C A J Y A E T V V X G I L F M H T J O E C H U A A R B C Z F U M G E B R R L W Z T I S T Q N S R D T N G D V E J U Q V G O D H W M P E L A S Y F C W Y O N N S L O V E J O Y K L D Q H X Q R I P M Q P D G W U E I W A L K B S S T A L K E L F F E Y T O B J F H R E D S G O L R K G D T G R W Q T P F R R G D J P P F J H S L A U G H E M D

Note for the Teacher: Grammar Focus: Simple Present verbs. (find, have, visit, sleep, work, drink, watch, brush, dream, play, eat, run, walk, talk, laugh, love) Procedure: Ask students to find as many verbs in the simple present as they can. Give them a time limit. They can do it in pairs, or as homework.

‘Find a person who is…..’

Example: Question: ‘Are you swimming?’ Answer: ‘Yes, I am swimming .’ OR ‘No, I am not swimming .’ swimming running flying jumping

skiing skipping walking crying

rowing cycling tying washing

writing lifting juggling listening

Note for the teacher: Grammar Focus: Present Continuous Tense. Beginner to Upper-Beginner level. Preparation: Before the activity starts, each student is given an action on a piece of paper (for ex. ‘I am walking.’). In a cocktail fashion, students ask as many other students as they can, questions like in the example above. When they find a match, they write the student’s name in the corresponding box. Keep it going until someone yells ‘Bingo!’.

Ask one question of each person in the class ‘Do you…? Yes I do. No I don’t.’ ‘Are you…? Yes I am. No I’m not.’

DO YOU… YES NO (write name) (write name) … like baseball? … speak English? … have a dog? … like cats? … play tennis? … speak Spanish? … have a bicycle? … eat Japanese food? … like karaoke? … like pizza? … like spiders? … have any brothers? … go shopping on the weekends? … eat spaghetti? … like studying? … play the guitar? … like basketball? … swim well?

ARE YOU… YES NO (write name) (write name) … Japanese? … hot? … hungry? … 14 years old? … a girl? … Australian? … wearing a skirt? … a good swimmer? … happy? … a student? … tired? … going to the supermarket today? … in the library? … sad? … at school? … a good singer? … a teacher? … tall?

Note for the teacher: Grammar Focus: Yes/No questions with the verbs ‘to do’ and ‘to be’. To differentiate between the uses of the two verbs. Beginner to Upper-Beginner level.

Pair Activity

Instructions: In pairs, Student A and Student B place cards face down. Student A picks up a card, reads it and completes the sentence using “ will ”. Student B reads and completes the same sentence with their own idea. Then, they move on to the next card.

Example: If my car doesn’t start …I will take a taxi!

If I go to my boyfriend’s/ girlfriend’s house … If we don’t study … If I forget my keys at home … If they win the rugby game … If I go to Mexico … If I don’t wash the dishes … If there is a war … If the restaurant is full … If we go to bed early … If he smokes cigarettes … If my car is stolen … If my car doesn’t start … If I speak English very well … If he breaks my TV … If it snows tomorrow … If we eat chips everyday … If the library is closed … If the weather is nice this afternoon … If I don’t find a job … If I ask your friend to go dancing with me … If it doesn’t rain … If we go to Paris … If the school trip is cancelled … If we watch that movie … If my mother visits me tonight … If you are not careful … If they don’t practise … If he is very sleepy … If the phone rings … If you buy a new computer … If you come to an interview late … If we get a new dog … If it’s very cold outside … If her bags are too heavy … If we are late for dinner …

Note for the Teacher: Grammar Focus: First Conditional. Low-Intermediate to Intermediate level. Preparation: Write each of the half-sentences above on a card and put all the cards in an envelope (or make your own!) You need one set for each pair of students.

Pairs or small groups

Instructions: Students in the pair or group place cards face down. First student picks up a card and asks the other student/s the question written on the card. They answer using their own ideas. Each student takes a turn asking the question, until the cards are finished.

If you could change one thing about someone else, who and what would you change? If you were President/ Prime Minister how would you change your country? If you could bring one person back to life, who would that be? If you could live forever, would you choose to do so? If you could be a famous person, who would you want to be? If you could learn one more skill, what would that be? If you could create a perfect world, what kind would it be? If you could create the perfect mate for yourself, what kind of person would that be? If you could live in any period (past, present, future), when would you want to live? If you had three wishes, what would you ask for? If you had to decide between wealth or happiness, which would you choose? If you were rich, how would your life be different? If you could be any age, what age would you be? Why? If you could be doing anything you choose right now, what would you want to do? If you could have anything in the world you wanted, what would you ask for?

Note for the Teacher: Grammar Focus: Second Conditional. Upper-Intermediate level. Preparation: Write each of the questions above on a card (or write your own using the same structure!) and put all the cards in an envelope. You need one set for each group or pair.

Pairs or small groups

Instructions: Students in the group place cards face down. First student picks up a card and reads the problem. The other student/s offer advice using:

‘You should …’ ‘She should …’ etc.

Take it in turns offering each other advice.

I feel very sick, but I don’t have a doctor. What should I do? I didn’t have time to eat breakfast this morning. Now I’m in class, and my stomach is growling. What should I do? I have a headache. What should I do? I did my homework, but my dog chewed it up. I don’t think the teacher will believe me. What should I do? My friend wants me to go to a party, but I’m very tired and I don’t know the other guests. Should I go? My car always breaks down on the highway. What should I do? I left my books on the bus. What should I do? There is some money left on a table after everyone leaves class. What should I do? I want a pet, but I don’t know what kind to get. What kind of pet do you recommend? I ruined my sister’s favourite shirt by getting ink on it. Should I tell her? Your car runs out of gas at 2.00 am. And you have no money with you. What should you do? I lost a library book. What should I do? I forgot my boyfriend/girlfriend’s birthday, and now he/she is outside my door! What should I do? My sister told me she just had a fight with her husband and asked me for advice. What should I tell her? My boyfriend/ girlfriend is going to make dinner for me, and he/she is an awful cook! What should I say? I have a toothache what should I do? I feel sick, but we are about to take a test. What should I do? It’s very cold today. What should I wear? My boyfriend/ girlfriend just broke up with me. What should I do? If I arrive at class 30 minutes late, should I go in? I just won a lot of money in Las Vegas! How should I spend my money? You are having lunch with an old friend from school when your jealous boyfriend/girlfriend walks in. What should you do? (Role-play) I didn’t pass my test today. What should I do? I just met my sister’s new boyfriend. He is very impolite, and I don’t like him. What should I say to her?

Note for the Teacher: Grammar Focus: Modal ‘Should’ + Infinitive. To ask for and give advice. Intermediate level. Preparation: Write each of the situations above on cards and put all the cards in an envelope. You need one set for each group or pair. Of course, you can create your own situations.

Pairs or small groups

Instructions: In pairs or groups, students place cards facing down. Each student picks up a card. Student A makes a sentence using his/her word.

For example: A: ‘I always drink coffee in the morning.’

Student B repeats Student A’s sentence and adds his/her own.

‘Maria always drinks coffee in the morning. I sometimes eat pasta.’

Every student takes a turn and then picks another card and does the same.

ALWAYS SOMETIMES NEVER

SELDOM OFTEN ALMOST ALWAYS

ALMOST NEVER RARELY USUALLY

Note for the Teacher: Grammar Focus: Adverbs of frequency (always, sometimes, never). Lower-Intermediate level.

Preparation: Cut up as many sets of the words above as groups you have. Give each group one set.

Pairs or small groups

Instructions: Students place cards facing down. One student takes a card and makes a sentence using the word on it. They have to use ‘will’

For example: ‘Next week I will go to Beijing.’

The next student repeats the sentence and adds his or her own.

For example: ‘Next week Maria will go to Beijing. Next winter I will learn to ski.’

Repeat until everyone in the group has had a turn. Then do it with the remaining cards.

NEXT SUMMER NEXT NEXT WINTER WEEKEND

NEXT WEEK NEXT YEAR IN FIVE YEARS

NEXT IN TWO HOURS IN 20 YEARS SEPTEMBER

Note for the teacher: Grammar Focus: Simple Future with ‘Will’ for spontaneous decisions. Upper-beginner to Low-Intermediate level. Preparation: Same as for activity on the previous page. Variation: The same cards can be used to reinforce the Simple Future with ‘going to’, but the function would be to talk about future plans.

Groups of 3

Instructions: Student A, Student B and Student C place cards face down. Student A reads one card.

For example: Card reads ‘I ate dinner at 10.00pm.’

Student B reports to Student C using indirect speech like this: ‘She said that she ate dinner at 10.00pm’ Student C listens then reads another card. Student A Reports…etc. (If you are a pair, Student A is also Student C)

“I am going to take a “I was angry yesterday.” “Is that your sister?” bath now.”

“I have to work tonight.” “Do you have an extra “Read chapter 6 for pencil?” homework.”

“I’ve already read this “I might go out tonight.” “Put that back!” book.”

“You should drive more “I may be late.” “I ate dinner at carefully.” 11.00pm.”

“I have already seen that “What’s your name?” “Do you have a movie.” boy/girlfriend?”

“I’m watching the news.” “Do you have any “I have a headache.” money.”

“I must go now.” “Can I have those “Are you still studying?” chips?”

Note for the Teacher: Grammar Focus: Reported Speech. Upper-Intermediate level. Preparation: Cut up the cards above and put them in an envelope. You will need as many envelopes as groups you have. Could you write your own?

Pair Activity

Instructions: In pairs, Student A and Student B place cards facing down. Student A picks up a card and makes up a question using the present perfect. Student B answers the question.

For example: the card says: ‘Write a letter’:

Student A: ‘ Have you written a letter lately?’ Student B: ‘No, I haven’t. I haven’t written a letter for 3 months (since January)’ OR ‘No. I have never written a letter’ OR ‘Yes I have. I wrote a letter last night!’

Take it in turns.

Forget your Swim in a Write a letter Feel hungry Eat sushi phone river number

Win some Lose your Do your Money See a movie Ride a bike keys homework

Sing a song Speak French Drive a car Give money Draw a to your picture teacher

Ride a bike Wear a suit Sleep on the Read a book Have a child sofa

Note for the Teacher: Grammar Focus: Present perfect. Intermediate Preparation: Same as activity on the previous page.

Grammar Reference Books

Grammar in Use Intermediate Level – Raymond Murphy

Practical English Usage – Michael Swan

Essential English Grammar and Usage – Chambers English

The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language – Rodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum

Grammar Practice Activity Books

Fun with Grammar – Communicative Activities – Suzanne W. Woodward, Prentice Hall 200+ communicative activities to reinforce grammar teaching, with guidelines.

Clear Grammar – Activities for Spoken and Written Communication – Keith S. Folse, University of Michigan Press. Combines English grammar with activities that you can use in the classroom.

Primary Grammar Box – Grammar Games and Activities for Younger Learners - Caroline Nixon, Cambridge University Press. Photocopiable resource book features games and activities for the primary classroom.

Grammar Games – Mario Rinvolucri, Cambridge University Press. Something of a classic in the ESL field. Rinvolucri teaches grammar implicitly and successfully.

More Grammar Games – Mario Rinvolucri, Cambridge University Press. Follow up to the above book - equally useful in the class.

Grammar Practice Activities – Penny Ur, Cambridge University Press Ur here provides 100s of activities to help students improve their speaking and grammar.

Communicative Grammar Practice: Activities for Intermediate Students – Leo Jones, Cambridge University Press. Works on student accuracy in written output and contains a lot of communicative activities.

Web Resources

Grammar Station - http://www.grammarstation.com [Accessed: July 2004]

English Club - http://www.englishclub.com [Accessed: July 2004]

English Page - http://www.englishpage.com/ [Accessed: July 2004]

Activities for ESL Students - http://a4esl.org [Accessed: July 2004]

About – Grammar Reference - http://esl.about.com/blgrammar.htm [Accessed: July 2004]

Should we teach idioms and slang in class?

Should we or shouldn’t we? The scope of opinion on the matter indicates that the debate lies not only inside the classroom but well beyond. Are idioms and slang debasing our language, eroding its pure structure?

The two terms need to be clarified first:

Idioms are phrases commonly understood to have a different meanings to their literal ones, e.g. to bend over backwards

Slang is non-standard vocabulary of a particular (sub) culture.

Language is constantly evolving, incorporating the changes that accompany evolutions elsewhere, like in technology for example, and so our lexicon adapts. However, spoken English is markedly more flexible than the written form and consequently changes more rapidly. This is what causes panic in some people; that we are losing control of our language and that it is developing too quickly over too wide a span.

Different countries, different races, different subcultures, all help to create an incredibly diverse language. Teens, rappers, surfers, business professionals, athletes produce their own specialised forms of the language to some extent. [Source: http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa030299.htm] [Accessed: July 2004]

One reason why this is happening is that the version of the language we have been taught to see as ‘correct’ is packed-full of ‘illogicalities’ and confusing exceptions. It is a natural evolution, displaying our intelligence and ingenuity to change what we don’t understand.

If students aren’t included in the progress, they remain outsiders and therefore short- changed. We don’t need to openly promote slang usage but we do bear a responsibility to acquaint students with it.

What should we teach?

What is taught depends on who is being taught. The type of language presented to teens will be dissimilar to that used in a class of businessmen.

There is a huge selection of resources to search for appropriate material. The links at the end of the unit will give you access to a good range.

If you are unsure about the content, always check with your superiors as the school may have set policies. This is also applicable if students ask specific questions about the meaning of slang phrases they have heard.

Teach language that you know and use; that is why you are hired. Students are always keen to learn expressions from your country because you are aware of the exact situations when they are spoken. Such knowledge can’t be learnt from books.

1. Television and Movies – select a short clip of a programme or a movie that contains the target language you wish to teach. Pre-teach the slang before playing the segment. Students can then guess the meaning, before matching the phrases to their definitions prepared on cards. The video should be played a few more times to reinforce the context before students use the language in free speaking activities. Support with homework and tasks in later classes.

2. Music – similar to the above activity.

3. Dialogues – Students read a dialogue with a maximum of 12 slang phrases used. They then guess the meaning and use a concentration activity of matching phrase and definition to strengthen their comprehension. Students are then asked to choose a few examples and build a new dialogue around them.

4. Themes – choose a theme which has contributed a number of idioms and match them to a context your students will relate to. For example in a business class, sport idioms can be used with great success:

To pitch an idea

In a different league

Smooth sailing

To be a heavy/lightweight

Tackle a problem

Sink or swim

Other themes could be: health, money, animals and colours to name a few.

The most important thing when it comes to slang is that students are aware of when to use it appropriately.

Activity

The following page contains an activity to practise idioms; it is designed as a warm-up, but may be extended and used in other sections of the lesson. Courtesy of www.english-to-go.com

This warmer about idioms encourages discussion and should also be a lot of fun!

Level: Upper-Intermediate and above

Language Aims: Learning idioms and discussing and sharing ideas.

Time: 10-15 minutes

Preparation: Take list of idioms below to class.

Procedure:

1. Hand out idioms or write them on the board.

2. Ask your class to work out the meanings of these idioms. Encourage them to be imaginative and to avoid using a dictionary. Get them to work out the meanings individually.

3. Place students in pairs to compare their answers and choose the one that they both think is right for each idiom.

4. Then put the students in bigger groups – groups of four if possible – and tell them that two of the ten idioms are not real idioms, they are made-up phrases with no idiomatic meaning! Ask the groups to work out which are the false idioms and agree on the meanings of the true idioms.

5. At the end get them to use their dictionaries to find out the answers. (Note: 'a flowering heart' and 'cut your head' are not idioms.)

Idioms:

a bleeding heart bury your head in the sand

eat your heart out come to a head

a heart of gold cut your head

a flowering heart have your head in the clouds

cross my heart off the top of your head

© 1997-2004. English-To-Go Limited. All rights reserved. English-To-Go, english-to-go.com , Instant Lessons, Weekly Warmer, Anna Grammar and Max Vocab are the registered trade marks of English- To-Go Limited. Other trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners and are used with permission. Printed in this manual with permission.

Web Resources

Idioms - http://www.goenglish.com/Index.asp [Accessed: July 2004]

Slang Dictionary - http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wrader/slang/ [Accessed: July 2004]

Australian Idiom and Slang -http://cooperfamily.ourfamily.com/idiom.htm [Accessed: July 2004]

Developed by an ESL teacher - http://www.aussieslang.com/about.asp [Accessed: July 2004]

New Zealand Slang - http://www.spraakservice.net/slangportal/newzealand.htm [Accessed: August 2006]

ESL: Idioms and Slang - http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Idioms_and_Slang/ [Accessed: July 2004]

Vocabulary Power - http://www.edumatic.qc.ca/English/activities/vocabularypower.htm [Accessed: July 2004]

In this unit:

Introduction

Teaching Pronunciation

Pronunciation Exercises

Pronunciation Activities

Stress – The Emphasis in Pronunciation

Definitions

Phonemes of Australian English

Pronunciation Lesson

Further Resources

‘The golden rule when reading the menu is, if you cannot pronounce it, you cannot afford it.’ Frank Muir (1920-1998)

Introduction

Why should we teach pronunciation to our students? Is it important?

When we meet a person from a foreign country, their accent is often the first thing we notice about them. We may not realise that they only use certain grammar forms, or that they only use basic vocabulary, but we notice their pronunciation right from the first sentence. In fact, a person may speak only a very basic level of English – but we don’t realise it if he or she has good pronunciation. Further than that, it makes communication so much easier. We benefit from their good pronunciation.

Also your students, though, will benefit if they are able to pronounce English well. Their self- esteem will be higher and they will be more confident in using the language. This, of course, benefits them in all areas of English language learning, and even beyond!

Learning pronunciation of any language is difficult, and English especially so. Just to give you an idea of the sort of frustration your students might feel from time to time, try reading the following poem aloud. It was composed by a Dutchman with the aim of reducing the heavy accents of NATO’s multi-national staff, at its headquarters near Paris. One Frenchman retorted that he’d rather spend six months in hard labour than read six lines.

The Chaos

Dearest creature in creation, Study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy. Tear in eye, your dress will tear. So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word, Sword and sward, retain and Britain. (Mind the latter, how it's written) Now I surely will not plague you With such words as plaque and ague. But be careful how you speak: Say break and steak, but bleak and streak; Cloven, oven, how and low, Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery, Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore, Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, Exiles, similes, and reviles; Scholar, vicar, and cigar, Solar, mica, war and far; One, anemone, Balmoral, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel Gertrude, German, wind and mind, Scene, Melpomene, mankind. Billet does not rhyme with ballet, Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Teach International © 2004-2008 131 Blood and flood are not like food. Nor is mould like should and would. Viscous, viscount, load and broad, Toward, to forward, to reward. And your pronunciation's OK When you correctly say croquet. Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous clamour, And enamour, rhyme with hammer. River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, Doll and roll and some and home.

Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Neither does devour with clangour. Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant, Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger, And then singer, ginger, linger, Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge, Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very, Nor does fury sound like bury. Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath. Though the difference seems little, We say actual but victual. Refer does not rhyme with deafer. Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Mint, pint, senate and sedate; Dull, bull, and George ate late. Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven. We say hallowed, but allowed, People, leopard, towed, but vowed. Mark the difference, moreover, Between mover, cover, clover; Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Chalice, but police and lice; Camel, constable, unstable, Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal, Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Senator, spectator, mayor Tour, but our succour, four.

Gas, alas, and Arkansas. Sea, idea, Korea, area, Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean. Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Teach International © 2004-2008 132 Compare alien with Italian. Dandelion and battalion. Sally with ally, yea, ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key. Say aver, but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver. Heron, granary, canary. Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface. Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass. Large, but target, gin, give, verging, Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging. Ear, but earn and wear and tear Do not rhyme with here but ere. Seven is right, but so is even, Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen, Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk, Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation - think of Psyche! Is a paling stout and spikey? Won't it make you lose your wits, Writing greats and saying grits? It's a dark abyss or tunnel: Strewn with stone, stowed, solace, gunwale, Islington and Isle of Wight, Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough -- Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough? Hiccough has the sound of cup. My advice is to give up!!!

Dr. Gerald Nolst Trenite (1870-1946).

[Source: http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/handouts/toughstuff.html Accessed: July 25 2004]

So You Think French Is Hard?

I take it you already know a moth is not a moth in mother, of tough and bough and cough and dough nor both in bother, broth in brother Others may stumble but not you, And here is not a match for there on hiccough, thorough, tough and through nor dear and fear for bear and pear Well done! And then there's dose and rose and lose, And now you wish perhaps just look them up - goose and choose to learn of less familiar traps? and cork and work and card and ward Beware of heard, a dreadful word and front and font, and word and sword, that looks like beard and sounds like bird and do and go, and wart and cart - And dead - it's said like bed, not bead - come come! I've hardly made a start! for goodness' sake don't call it deed. A dreadful language? Man alive! Watch out for meat and great and threat, I mastered it when I was five! (they rhyme with suite and straight and debt)

Author unknown [Online] Available: http://www.astro.umd.edu/~dcr/DCR/English1 [Accessed 19 th July, 2004].

The poem on the previous pages gives you an idea of how tricky English can be to pronounce. It takes a lot of patience on your students’ behalf, as well as yours! Don’t be too hard on your students, or expect too much too soon. Depending on the native languages of your students, you will find that there are certain sounds which are very difficult for them. Just as some native English speakers are not able to roll ‘r’s, some learners of English will have trouble with sounds in our language – ‘th’, for example, or ‘w’.

A sound is only meaningful for your students to learn if it is in the context of an English word. Therefore, we often teach pronunciation together with vocabulary. Spelling rules and new vocabulary are often introduced in pronunciation lessons. Do you remember learning about long and short vowel sounds in primary school? Adding an ‘e’ onto the end of a one-syllable word lengthens the vowel sound. The words below are examples of ‘ minimal pairs ’, which are two words with only one differing sound.

Short vowel sound Long vowel sound mat mate pet Pete bit bite hop hope cut cute

Teaching tips for minimal pairs

1. Identify the target sounds eg: ‘ a’ as in ‘mat’ and ‘ ay ’ as in ‘mate’ 2. Demonstrate and model the sounds. 3. Students repeat the sounds after the teacher in choral drills . 4. Check understanding of the vocabulary to be practised with gestures, demonstrations, mime and/or putting the word in a sentence, so that the vocabulary is in context. 5. Teacher models words from the lists, first vertically and then horizontally, and the students repeat. For example: a) mat, pet, bit, hop, cut b) mate, Pete, bite, hope, cute c) mat/mate, pet/Pete, bit/bite, hop/hope, cut/cute 6. Sound recognition practice: teacher calls out one of the pairs, and students have to say whether it is from the ‘short vowel’ list, or the ‘long vowel’ list. For example: a) teacher: ‘Pete!’ students: ‘Long!’ 7. Sound recognition test: teacher reads out a sentence and the students circle the words they hear from the two lists. This further tests whether the students can hear the difference between the two target sounds.

Your students’ spelling and pronunciation can be improved remarkably by teaching the basics of English phonology (the study of language sounds). When reading simple texts is a problem for your students, identifying the rules for long and short vowels can be very beneficial. /i/ /i:/

ship sheep sit seat live leave chick cheek hill heel fill feel chip cheap itch each

In English, there are voiced , and unvoiced sounds. Voiced sounds require air to be pushed through the voice box, whereas unvoiced sounds do not. To distinguish the difference, teachers can demonstrate by either holding their hands to their throats to feel the vibrations for a voiced sound, or, hold up a piece of paper to their lips. When saying a voiced sound, the paper will move; for an unvoiced sound, it will not.

The table of phonemes towards the end of this unit lists voiced and unvoiced sounds in English.

When teaching pronunciation, something that often needs to be practised is the use of the ‘s’ in third person singular (present tense) and in regular plural nouns.

There are three ways to pronounce the above-mentioned ‘s’:

/s/ /z/ /iz/ drinks drives dresses writes lives watches hats rugs judges

‘S’ is a voiceless sound; touch your side teeth with the sides of your tongue, put your tongue forward and do not use your voice box.

‘Z’ and ‘ iz ’ are voiced sounds; make the sound as described above for ‘s’ but use your voice box.

Similarly, the past simple ‘-ed’ is pronounced in three ways.

/t/ /d/ /id/ watched lived planted liked hugged landed worked begged wanted

The pronunciation of the past simple ‘ed’ changes according to the letters that precede it. Generally speaking, the following rules apply.

1. When the verb ends in a ‘hard sound’ such as /ch/, /tch/, /k/, /f/, /sh/, /s/, the ‘ed’ is pronounced / t/. To pronounce the / t/ sound, place the front of your tongue behind your top teeth. Push air forward in your mouth. Then move your tongue away, releasing the air.

2. When the verb ends in a ‘soft sound’ such as /v/, /b/, /j/, /n/, /l/, /y/, the ‘ed’ is pronounced /d/. To pronounce the / d/ sound, use the same method as for /t/, except use your voice box.

3. When the verb ends in t or d, the ‘ed’ is pronounced ‘/ id /’. /id / is a stopped or almost swallowed sound, as the tongue comes up to touch the roof of the mouth behind the front teeth and stops the flow of air. The /id/ sound has an added vowel, and therefore an added syllable, because these verbs already end in ‘d’ or ‘t’.

Making students aware of these rules and applications definitely gives them the advantage of being able to learn by imitation as well as by applying logic and reason. Hence, adult learners actually have an advantage over children in the language learning process here.

Teach International © 2004-2008 135 A discussion on the shape of the mouth and positioning of the lips and tongue could also be included in a pronunciation class, depending on the age, level and type of student.

Diagrams are also very useful tools when teaching pronunciation, not least because they cater for different learning styles: the linguistic descriptions of the diagrams are ideal for the theoretically inclined student, while the graphics appeal to visual learners. The following two websites include illustrations of the mouth positioning for different English sounds: http://www.soundsofenglish.org/index.html [Accessed: July 2004] http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/Materials/ndakota/soup/ [Accessed: July 2004]

Pronunciation Exercises

The following exercises will help your students with the physical aspect of creating the sound they want. Model it yourself and use diagrams to help you if you like.

1. Using your Teeth

‘TH’ To make the ‘th’ sound like in ‘with’, ‘south’, ‘thin’, or ‘thank’ place your tongue out between your teeth. Bite on your tongue just a little bit. Do not move your tongue. Now say th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-

‘T’ Close your teeth. Put your tongue behind your teeth. Touch your teeth with your tongue. Say ‘t’. Say ‘too-tee-too-tee-too-tee’.

‘S’ Close your teeth. Put your tongue behind your teeth. Do not touch your teeth. Say the ‘s’ sound. Say ‘sa-soo-sa-soo’. Only your lips will move. sa-soo-sa-soo-sa-soo-sa-soo so-soon-so-soon-so-soon-so-soon so-sad-so-sad-so-sad-so-sad Sarah was sad to see you go so soon.

Try the following, which uses all three sounds (‘TH’, ‘T’ and ‘S’): think-thin-think-thin-think-thin-think-thin-think-thin think-sink-think-sink-think-sink-think-sink-think-sink thin-tin-thin-tin-thin-tin-thin-tin-thin-tin-thin-tin I think my drink is in the sink. I think my tin is thin.

2. Using your Lips

‘OO’ to ‘EE’, creating a ‘W’ sound Push your lips out to say ‘OO’ and then smile as widely as possible for ‘EE’.

1. oo-ee-oo-ee-oo-ee-oo-ee oo-eel-oo-eel-oo-eel-oo-eel we-wheel-we-wheel-we-wheel We will wait a week for a wheel.

This one also uses the ‘T’ and ‘S’ sounds from point 1:

3. too-tee-too-tee-too-tee-too-tee too-tees-too-tees-too-tees-too-tees too-stew-too-stew-too-stew-too-stew He eats two bowls of stew for lunch.

3. Using your Tongue and Lips

‘SH’ Push your lips out. Place your teeth together. Put your tongue at the top of your mouth. Do not touch any part of the mouth with the tongue. Now blow air out and say "sh". shoe-she-shoe-she-shoe-she-shoe she-shell-she-shell-she-shell-she-shell she sells sea shells - she sells sea shells Did she say fish and ships or fish and chips?

4. Using your Jaw Let your jaw drop. Say aw, saw, law, jaw

‘AW’ 1. taw-taw-taw-taw-taw-taw-taw-taw taw-tall-taw-tall-taw-tall-taw-tall tall-wall-tall-wall-tall-wall-tall-wall In October the leaves will fall.

2. er-aw-er-aw-er-aw-er-aw her-aw-her-aw-her-aw her-lawn-her-lawn-her-lawn-her-lawn Her green lawn makes me yawn.

Pronunciation shouldn’t be boring or frustrating for your students! There are many fun activities you can do where correct pronunciation is the focus. Here are three (over the following pages).

1. Tongue Twisters

Tongue Twisters are great for teaching pronunciation, as they focus on only one sound, or the distinction between similar sounds. The next couple of pages have just a small selection. If your students are having trouble with other sounds, see if you can find a tongue twister for them – or make one up yourself! Get your students practising these in pairs, slowly at first. Accurately producing the sounds is what’s important here, not speed. (They will love it if you try too, and can’t do it!)

2. Pronunciation Fishing

You may know this game as ‘Battleship’. Students play in pairs, joining the sounds listed horizontally and vertically to indicate a white square (and hopefully finding their partner’s ‘fish’ on it!). Their pronunciation must be exact for the game to work! In this way, the game focuses on accuracy of pronunciation.

3. ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

If your students know that two words rhyme, that will help them with pronunciation of one or the other. Poems are therefore a good teaching tool in the classroom. An obvious way to use this poem in class is to read it aloud (or get a student to do it), and the students have to find the right rhyming word! There are many other creative things you could do with it – can you think of some?

Tongue Twisters

‘B’ Bob boxed big blue berries on the new bleached beach blanket. Barbara buys black bananas by the bunch.

‘CH’ How many chucks could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood. Chester challenged Charlie to a chess match. Their chips at the fish and chips shop are cheap. Chet chose cheese, chicken and chips for lunch. The chimp chased the cat up the cherry tree. Which watch chain did Charlie choose? Cheryl's chilly cheap chip shop sells Cheryl's cheap chips. The cat catchers can't catch caught cats.

‘F’ Fred found four floppy fish.

‘F’ and ‘P’ I’m not a pheasant plucker, I’m the pheasant plucker’s son, and I’m only plucking pheasants, ‘till the pheasant plucker comes.

‘G’ Three gray geese in a green field grazing.

‘J’

Teach International © 2004-2008 138 Janice juggled two jugs and a jar. George jiggled orange juice in a jar. Jack jumped over Jenny in the gym. John joined Joan in juggling jars. Joe James bought some jelly and some jam and juice. Jackie's jumping jovially 'round Jakarta. Jack the jailbird jacked a jeep. A gentle judge judges justly. Our Joe wants to know if your Joe will lend our Joe your Joe's banjo. If your Joe won't lend our Joe your Joe's banjo our Joe won't lend your Joe our Joe's banjo when our Joe has a banjo!

‘L’ Linda-Lou Lambert loves lemon lollipops lip gloss.

‘P’ At present you can’t marry a peasant however pleasant the peasant may be.

‘R’ Running reindeer romp ‘round red wreaths.

‘S’ and ‘SH’ Silly Sally sings songs sweetly while sitting on the steamy sidewalk when the sizzling summer sun is shining. The sweetest girl I ever saw, Sally sat sipping cider through a straw. Six sick snakes slither towards the sea. She sells sea shells down by the seashore. She says she shall sew a shirt. We shall see the sunshine soon. The sun shines on the fish shop. She shuts the shop shutters so the shopping shoppers can’t shop. Selfish Sally is selling shellfish. Sarah shifted the snow with a shovel. Sue said she should show him the same shoes. Is this your sister's sixth zither, sir?

‘TH’ A tree toad loved a she-toad that lived up in a tree. She was a three-toed tree toad, but a two-toed tree toad was he. Tie twine to three tree twigs. I can think of six thin things and six thick things, can you? There are thirty thousand feathers on that thrush's throat. Three sick thrushes sang thirty songs. They were thrilled with the threaded beads. Do breath tests test the breath? Tom threw Tim three thumbtacks. A thin little boy picked six thick thistles. I thought a thought. But the thought I thought wasn't the thought I thought I thought. Theophiles Thistle, the successful thistle-sifter, in sifting a sieve full of un-sifted thistles, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb.

Pronunciation Fishing

sh h b t p d f w

ore

are

sh h b t p d f w

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house. Not a creature was stirring , not even a ______. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be ______. The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugarplums danced through their ______.

And Mama in her ‘ kerchief and I in my cap Had just settled down for a long winter’s ______. When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter , I sprang from my bed to see what was the ______. Tore open the shutter and threw up the sash .

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects ______. When what to my wondering eyes should appear But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny ______. With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment, it must be Saint Nick.

More rapid than eagles, his reindeer they came, and he whistled and shouted, and called them by ______. “Now Dasher! Now Dancer! Now Prancer and Vixen! On Comet! On Cupid! On Donner and Blitzen! To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall Now dash away, dash away, dash away ______!

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the ______, So up to the housetop, the reindeer they flew With the sleigh full of toys, and Saint Nicholas ______.

[Source: http://www.night.net/christmas/Twas-night01.html Accessed: July 26 2004]

Stress comes in two forms; one can be a physical and/or mental state, and the other relates to language. It is a very important part of pronunciation, as we wouldn’t want to be putting the wrong emPHAsis on the incorrect sylLAble!

In some languages, e.g. Japanese, people say each syllable with equal force or emphasis. However, in English and some other languages we put a big emphasis (stress) on some syllables and little or no emphasis on other syllables or words. This can be problematic for speakers of other languages trying to understand when English is spoken quickly and fluently. However, for native speakers of English it is not a challenge - in fact, stress actually helps native speakers understand each other, which is why it is so important.

Word Stress

Word stress is your magic key to understanding spoken English. To understand word stress, it helps to understand syllables. Every word is made up of syllables (ie word parts). Each word has one, two, three or more syllables.

Word Number of Syllables sink sink 1 blue blue 1 line line 1 lion li-on 2 orange o-range 2 picture pic-ture 2 expensive ex-pen-sive 3 interesting in-ter-est-ing 4 realistic re-a-lis-tic 4 understandable un-der-stand-a-ble 5

Notice that every syllable always contains at least one vowel ( a, e, i, o, or u) NB exception: words like ‘rhythm’, ‘mystical’ etc

What is word stress?

In English, we do not say each syllable with the same force (emphasis) or strength. In a single word, we emphasise ONE syllable. We say one syllable very loudly (exaggerated, strongly, importantly) and all the other syllables with medium stress or little stress, hence more quietly.

Let's look at 3 words: ‘music’, ‘musician’, and ‘musicality’. Do they sound the same when spoken? No. The reason is we accentuate (stress) ONE syllable in each word. It is not always the same syllable so the shape of each word is different.

Word Shape Total Syllables Stressed syllable

MU SIC 2 1 MU SI CIAN 3 2 MUSI CA LITY 5 3

Teach International © 2004-2008 142 This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables: eg STU dent, be LOW , PO land, Vi ET nam, conver SA tion, IN teresting, im POR tant, re QUIRE , et CET era, et CET era, et CET era. The syllables that are not stressed are ’weak' or ’small' or ’quiet'. Native and fluent speakers of English listen for the STRESSED syllables, not the weak syllables. If your students understand and use word stress, they will instantly improve their pronunciation as well as their comprehension.

Encourage your students to listen for the strong stress in individual words each time they listen to English – both in class and, for example, on the radio, TV or in films. The first step is to hear and recognise it. After that, they can use it in real life!

There are two very important rules about word stress, which will help your students:

• One word, one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. So if you hear two stresses, you have heard two words, not one word).

• The stress is always on a vowel or vowel sound.

Word Stress Rules

1 Stress on first syllable

Rule Example Most 2-syllable nouns ENGland, BUTter, ROger Most 2-syllable adjectives WAYward, CLEver, HELPless

2 Stress on last syllable

Rule Example Most 2-syllable verbs to beGIN, to atTACK, to conSULT

3 Stress on the syllable preceding certain suffixes (ie word endings)

Rule Example Words ending in –tion, -sion, -ic, -ity, organiSAtion, hisTOric, aBILity -ical, -ian, -ial, -graphy, -logy eLECtrical, seisMOgraphy,

4 Compound words (words with two parts)

Rule Example For compound nouns, the stress is on the first part LIGHTbulb, GREENhouse For compound adjectives, the stress is on the second part good-LOOKing, old-FAshioned For compound verbs, the stress is on the second part To underSTAND, to overLOOK

Sentence stress is the ‘music’ of spoken English. As with word stress, sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, especially when it is spoken quickly. Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or ’beat'.

You remember that word stress is the accentuation/emphasis on one syllable within a word. Sentence stress is the accentuation/emphasis on certain words within a sentence.

In most English sentences, some words are strongly stressed while some have weak or no stress. • The stressed words are the words that convey the meaning or sense. They are called content words. If you remove them, the sentence will hold no meaning. • The unstressed words are small words that are necessary for the correct grammar of the sentence. They are called structure words.

Imagine that you receive a message by SMS:

TELL TEACHER MISSED BUS

This sentence is obviously not complete. It is not a ’grammatically correct' sentence but you probably understand it or at least get the gist: we should let the teacher know somebody’s missed their bus. We can add a few words:

TELL the TEACHER I’ve MISSED the BUS

The new words do not really add any further information but they do make the message more grammatically correct. We can add even more words to make one complete, grammatically correct sentence. The information is the same:

Would you TELL the TEACHER that I’ve MISSED the BUS?

In our sentence, the four key words (tell, teacher, missed, bus) are accentuated or stressed . They are the content words.

Content words

Words carrying the meaning Example main verbs TELL, MISS, EAT, GIVE, EMPLOY nouns TEACHER, BUS, MUSIC, MARY adjectives RED, LUCKY, INTERESTING adverbs STRANGELY, LOUDLY, NEVER and negative auxiliaries DON'T, AREN'T, CAN'T

Structure words

Words for correct grammar Example pronouns he, we, they prepositions on, at, into articles a, an, the conjunctions and, but, because auxiliary verbs do, be, have, can, must and ’to be' main verbs is, are, was

Why is this important for pronunciation? It is important because it adds ’music' to the language. It is the rhythm of the English language. It changes the speed at which we speak (and listen to) the language. The time between each stressed word is the same.

Teach International © 2004-2008 144 In our example sentence ‘Would you TELL the TEACHer that I’ve MISSED the BUS?’, there is one syllable between TELL and TEACH and three syllables between TEACH- and MISSED. However, the time between TELL and TEACH and between TEACH- and MISSED is the same. We maintain a constant beat on the stressed words. To do this, we say ‘the’ more slowly, and the ‘-er that I’ve’ more quickly. We change the speed of the small structure words so that the rhythm of the key content words stays the same.

Example of Sentence Stress

If you shift the stress of words in a sentence, you often alter its meaning. Sometimes we stress structure words, instead of content words, for this reason.

If you are unsure that changing the way you say something can change the meaning, this example should convince you. Your students will enjoy practising with this sentence and should be able to create their own multi-tuned sentences. Read the following sentences aloud and emphasise the words in bold to change the meaning of the sentence.

I didn’t buy you ten red roses (Someone else did)

I didn’t buy you ten red roses (Disputatious denial)

I didn’t buy you ten red roses (I picked them, stole them, did something else with them)

I didn’t buy you ten red roses (I bought them for someone else)

I didn’t buy you ten red roses (I bought you one)

I didn’t buy you ten red roses (I bought you white ones)

I didn’t buy you ten red roses (I bought you carnations)

Personal Questions Jazz Chant

Where were you born? I’d rather not say. Where are you from? I’d rather not say. How tall are you? How old are you? How much do you weigh? I’d rather not say. How much rent do you pay? I’d rather not say. How much do you make? I’d rather not say. Why aren’t you married? I’d rather not say. Why don’t you have children? I’d rather not say. Where were you last night? Why weren’t you home? Did you stay out late? Did you come home alone? Did you have a good time? Did you see a good play? Did you go to a concert? I’d rather not say.

[Source: Graham, Carolyn, Jazz Chants , Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991]

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. This study may focus on the sounds, words , and grammar of specific languages, the relationships between languages, or the universal characteristics of all languages. It may also include analysis of the sociological and psychological aspects of communication.

Languages may be described and analysed from several points of view. They may be studied as they existed at a specific time; an example might be Parisian French in the 1980s. This is called a synchronic approach. In contrast, a diachronic or historical approach considers changes in a language over an extended time period. The study of the development of Latin into the modern Roman languages is an example of diachronic linguistics. Linguistics in the 20 th and 21 st centuries incorporates studies from both the diachronic and synchronic points of view; 19 th century language studies tended to focus on a diachronic approach.

Linguistic studies may also be theoretical or applied. Theoretical linguistics is concerned with building language models or theories to describe languages or to explain their structures. Applied linguistics , on the other hand, uses the findings of scientific language study in language teaching, dictionary preparation, or speech therapy. One area that has proved fruitful for applied linguistics in the late 20 th century is computerised machine translation and automatic speech recognition.

There are many different ways to examine and describe individual languages and changes in languages. Nevertheless, each approach usually takes into account a language's sounds (phonetics and phonology), sound sequences (morphology, or the makeup of words), and relations amongst words in a sentence (syntax). Most analysis also treats vocabulary (lexis) and the meaning (semantics) of a language.

Phonemes Morphemes Syntax Semantics (sounds) (i.e. words) (sentences) (meaning)

Phonology is the study and identification of the meaningful sounds ( phonemes ) of a language; how the phonemes function in language and the relationships among the different phonemes. Phonetics , in contrast, is the study of all speech sounds and the ways in which they are produced.

Morphology is the way in which words are constructed. It is concerned with the units, called morphemes , that carry meaning in a language. These may be word roots (as in the English ‘cran-‘, in ‘cranberry’) or individual words (in English, ‘bird’, ‘ask’, ‘charm’); word endings (as in the English ‘-s’ for plural: ‘birds’, ‘-ed’ for past tense: ‘asked’, ‘-ing’ for present participle: ‘charming’); prefixes and suffixes (English ‘pre-‘, as in ‘preadmission’, or ‘-ness’, as in ‘openness’); and even internal alterations indicating such grammatical categories as tense (English ‘sing – sang’), number (English ‘mouse – mice’), or case.

Syntax refers to the grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence. For example, English word order is most commonly subject-verb-object. ‘John ate a sandwich’. The order ‘Ate a John sandwich’ is not meaningful English syntax.

The function of language is, of course, to communicate. Semantics is the study of how language conveys meaning.

[Source: http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/units/ling210-901/transcription/broad_transcription/broad_transcription.html Accessed: July 25 2004]

Phonemic symbols seem daunting at first glance, but in fact they are not difficult to learn, and have many uses in the EFL classroom. Have a look at this short article (‘An Introduction to the Phonemic Chart’) for some great ideas on how to use the chart to improve your students’ pronunciation: [http://www.developingteachers.com/phonology/sounds_intro.htm] [Accessed: July 2004]

Consonants

The voiceless (or unvoiced) consonants are on the left and the voiced consonants are on the right in each of the tables below.

1. Oral stops (or plosives) /p/ pat /b/ bat /t/ tin /d/ din

/k/ cap // go

2. Affricates

/t ʃ/ or /t ʃ/ choose /d / or /d / judge

3. Fricatives /f/ fan /v/ van /θ/ think /ð/ these /s/ so /z/ zoo

/ʃ/ she // beige /h/ he

4. Nasals (or nasal stops) /m/ my /n/ no /ŋ/ sing

5. Approximants /w/ we /j/ you /l/ leaf /r/ run

Note: /w/ and /j/ are also called semi-vowels, because they are very similar acoustically to vowels.

1. Monophthongs Long vowels Short vowels /i / heed // hid

/e / hair /e/ head /æ/ had

/ / hard // mud

/o / hoard, saw // pod

/ʉ / who'd /ʊ/ hood

/ / heard /ə/ the (spoken quickly)

2. Diphthongs

/æ / say /əʉ/ so

/ɑe/ high /æ / how

/ / toy /ə/ here

/ʊə/ cure

[Source:http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/units/ling210-901/transcription/broad_transcription/broad_transcription.html Accessed: July 25 2004]

If your students are having trouble with a particular vowel sound, the following sentences may be useful to practise. Remember to model the sentence yourself first!

// Is a l ittle l ipst ick perm issible for w omen in Eg yptian v illages?

/i / The tr ee s s ee m a ver y d ee p gr ee n this s ea son. /e/ Fr ed was s ent to b ed at tw enty to s even. /æ/ Th at m an h ad a b ad h abit of cr amming his h ats and j ackets into a b ag.

/ / It's r ather h ar d to l au gh when your f ast c ar c an't p ass a l ar ge f ar m c ar t.

// My br other j umped but st umbled into a m uddy p uddle.

// Fr ogs squ at on r otten l ogs in f oggy b ogs.

/o / The au thor's sm all d au ghter was b or n on Au gust the f our th.

/ʊ/ Loo k at the c oo k p utting s ugar in the p udding.

/ʉ / Wh o'd ch oo se the j ui ce of st ew ed fr ui t such as pr unes?

/ / It's abs ur d for a w or ker to b ur n his d ir ty w or k sh ir t. /ə/ One of th e p olicem en told th em there w as a ph otogr aph er at th e corn er .

/æ / The w ai ter g ave the l ady the ei ght st ale c akes.

/ɑe/ A br igh t wh ite l igh t is sh ining h igh in the sk y.

/ / I'm ann oy ed that the p oi sonous oy sters have sp oi lt my enj oy ment.

/æ / This t ow n has a th ou sand h ou ses with a m ou se in every h ou se.

/əʉ/ I h ope J oa n w on't g o h ome al one.

/ə/ The engin eer 's g ear is n ear h ere on the p ier .

/e / Sarah has f ai rer h air than M ary.

On the next 14 pages there is a full pronunciation lesson. Look at how pronunciation is worked in context and how other language is also being reinforced. Resources are provided at the end of the lesson plan.

Lesson length: 60 mins

TOPIC: Sound /I:/ and Food/Shopping Items

TARGET LEARNERS: Greek/Hebrew/Czech/Polish speakers who have difficulty with the sound /i:/ Note: Lesson can be varied for learners who have difficulties with other sounds eg Japanese speakers with the sounds /l/ and /r/

RESOURCES/MATERIALS Whiteboard & whiteboard markers OHP/OHT’s & OHT markers Communication games Bag of food items Blindfold Laminated flash cards Worksheets/handouts Menus Shopping lists Hand held mirrors Rewards eg. chocolates/lollies

OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. reproduce the phoneme /i:/ and pronounce it properly in key words. 2. order effectively in a restaurant simulation. 3. ask for items in shops. 4. ask and say how much supermarket items cost.

METHODOLOGIES:

Communicative approach, whole class, group and pair-work, role-plays, communication games, teacher-directed, brainstorming, revision and reinforcement, extension work.

Activity 1: ‘What’s in the bag?’

Teacher asks students to select food items from the bag using the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and feel . Reward is given to students who guess correctly. All items in the bag relate to food and contain the sound /i:/ i.e. ‘ee’ as in ‘tea’, ‘coffee’, ‘leaves’, ‘beans’ etc. The teacher places corresponding flash cards (see worksheet ‘Flashcards’ after lesson plan) on the whiteboard to act as visual reinforcement and correct spelling and sound identification. Teacher introduces topic and clearly identifies objectives by explaining lesson plan and direction.

2. Body (45 minutes)

Activity 2: Making the sound /i:/ (whole class, pair-work) (5mins)

Students are introduced to the picture (OHT – see ‘OHT /i/’ picture after lesson plan) of how to make the sound /i:/ and practise as a whole class and in pairs by looking at each other. Students also use hand held mirrors to ‘see’ their mouth shape in producing this sound.

[OHT image taken from ‘Pronunciation Pairs’ Ann Baker, Sharon Goldstein. Cambridge University Press, 1990]

Activity 3: ‘In a restaurant’ (group-work/ role-plays/ dialogue) (10 mins)

Key words are practised from scripted dialogue. Students practise in groups.

Dialogue:

Peter: What are you having to eat, Lee? Lee: I’ll have a roast beef sandwich. And some tea. Peter: Steve? Would you like a cheese sandwich or a roast beef sandwich? Steve: A cheese sandwich. I don’t eat meat. Waitress: Yes? Peter: We’d like one roast beef sandwich and two cheese sandwiches. Waitress: And would you like coffee or tea? Peter: Three teas, please. Steve: Make that two teas. Coffee for me, please. Waitress: (writing down the order) One roast beef sandwich … two cheese sandwiches … two teas … one coffee.

[Dialogue taken from ‘Pronunciation Pairs’ Ann Baker, Sharon Goldstein. Cambridge University Press, 1990]

After they practise the scripted dialogue, give each group a menu (see ‘Menu’ worksheet at the end of lesson plan) and get them to practise the same or similar dialogue using the items from the menu.

[Menu adapted from ‘Pronunciation Pairs’ Ann Baker, Sharon Goldstein. Cambridge University Press, 1990]

Activity 4: ‘Shopping lists’ (group-work communication game) (15 mins)

Cut up the worksheet ‘Shopping Items’ (see end of lesson plan) and give each student a few items (use all the cards). Cut up the worksheet ‘Shopping Lists’ (see end of lesson plan) and give one list to each student (if you have more students, cut up as many items and shopping lists as necessary). In a cocktail fashion, students need to acquire the items on their list. They walk around using:

A: ‘Have you got (tomatoes)? B: No, I don’t, sorry.

And move on until they have found all the items on their list.

[Activity and worksheets adapted from ‘Elementary Communication Games’ by Jill Hadfield, 1984, Addison Wesley Pub Co]

Activity 5: ‘Shopping around’ (group-work communication game) (15 mins)

Put students in groups of four. Cut up one each of the worksheets ‘Shopping around (Supermarket prices)’ and ‘Shopping around (Shopping lists)’ (see end of lesson plan) for each group, so that each student has a price list and a shopping list.

Students need to decide where to buy the different items. They must ask the price of each item on their list from the different supermarkets, compare it with their price list and decide which is the cheapest. Then they add up how much they spent and write it next to the item on their list.

At the end of the game, they add totals and determine who spent the most and who spent the least on shopping.

[Activity and worksheets adapted from ‘Elementary Communication Games’ by Jill Hadfield, 1984, Addison Wesley Pub Co]

3. Conclusion (10 mins)

Students will be asked to recap on what they have learnt this lesson through teacher questioning:

1. What was today’s topic? 2. What were the objectives? 3. Reinforce the pronunciation of the sound /i:/ as in Activity 1 and 2 4. Test students’ knowledge of key words, phrases, sentences needed to communicate in a restaurant and for shopping.

Follow up activities for future lessons:

1. ‘Having dinner with friends’ 2. ‘Class luncheon’

COFFEE

TEA

CHEE SE

LEA VES

SEE DS

LOLLY

MEA T

BEA NS

PEA S

Menu Menu Today’s Specials Today’s Specials

SOUP: SOUP: Bean Soup or Pea Soup Bean Soup or Pea Soup

MEAT: MEAT: Roast Beef or Veal Roast Beef or Veal

VEGETABLE: VEGETABLE: Beans or Peas or Beets Beans or Peas or Beets

DESSERT: DESSERT: Cheesecake or Ice Cream or Peaches Cheesecake or Ice Cream or Peaches

Coffee or Tea Coffee or Tea

Menu Menu Today’s Specials Today’s Specials

SOUP: SOUP: Bean Soup or Pea Soup Bean Soup or Pea Soup

MEAT: MEAT: Roast Beef or Veal Roast Beef or Veal

VEGETABLE: VEGETABLE: Beans or Peas or Beets Beans or Peas or Beets

DESSERT: DESSERT: Cheesecake or Ice Cream or Peaches Cheesecake or Ice Cream or Peaches

Coffee or Tea Coffee or Tea

Menu Menu Today’s Specials Today’s Specials

SOUP: SOUP: Bean Soup or Pea Soup Bean Soup or Pea Soup

MEAT: MEAT: Roast Beef or Veal Roast Beef or Veal

VEGETABLE: VEGETABLE: Beans or Peas or Beets Beans or Peas or Beets

DESSERT: DESSERT: Cheesecake or Ice Cream or Peaches Cheesecake or Ice Cream or Peaches

Coffee or Tea Coffee or Tea

1 loaf of bread 1 joint of beef 2 kg potatoes 1 box of chocolates 6 eggs ½ kg of onions 1 carton of milk 1 cauliflower 2 lemons 1 lettuce 2 jars of cherry jam 2 packets of peas 1 packet of tea 2 kg of carrots bottle of shampoo 1 packet of potato chips 1 packet of rice ½ kg of cheese 1 punnet of strawberries 1 large steak 1 chicken 2 ice crcreameameameam 300 gr of peanuts 1 packet of coffee 1 tube of toothpaste 1 slice of pie 1 pizza 1 packet of butter 2 tubs of yoghurt 2 packets of biscuits 10 lollies 1 kg of apples 1 packet of spaghetti ½ kg of mushrooms 1 bar of chocolate 5 oranges

Coles IGA

Price List Price List

$ 3.05per kg Peaches $ 2.50 per kg Peaches $ 3.09 per kg Green beans $ 3.45 per kg Green beans $ 0.650 each Oranges $ 0.50 each Oranges $ 6.30 per kg Cherries $ 6.00 per kg Cherries $ 2.00 per punnet Strawberries $ 3.00 per punnet Strawberries $ 2.10 each Cauliflower $ 2.40 each Cauliflower

$ 10.99 per kg Beef $ 11.50 per kg Beef $ 12.40 per kg Lean pork $ 13.49 per kg Lean pork $ 17.00 per kg Veal $ 15.55 per kg Veal $ 7.50 each Chicken $ 8.30 each Chicken

$ 1.09 per tin Peas $ 0.99 per tin Peas $ 4.49 per jar Coffee $ 4.70 per jar Coffee $ 3.30 per box Tea $ 3.85 per box Tea

$ 2.60 per 500gr Margarine $ 2.00 per 500gr Margarine $ 6.50 per kg Cheese $ 7.50 per kg Cheese

$ 5.09 per packet Aspirin $ 3.99 per packet Aspirin $ 0.99 per box Tissues $ 1.99 per box Tissues $ 3.00 each Teen magazine $ 3.20 each Teen magazine Fresh Choice Bin Inn

Price List Price List

Peaches $ 2.70 per kg Peaches $ 1.99 per kg Green beans $ 3.65 per kg Green beans $ 3.05 per kg Oranges $ 0.30 each Oranges $ 0.45 each Cherries $ 5.50 per kg Cherries $ 5.99 per kg Strawberries $ 3.40 per punnet Strawberries $ 2.80 per punnet Cauliflower $ 2.80 each Cauliflower $ 2.75 each

Beef $ 12.50 per kg Beef $ 11.95 per kg Lean pork $ 13.99 per kg Lean pork $ 12.60 per kg Veal $ 15.00 per kg Veal $ 14.95 per kg Chicken $ 8.00 each Chicken $ 9.20 each

Peas $ 0.79 per tin Peas $ 0.89 per tin Coffee $ 4.99 per jar Coffee $ 5.19 per jar Tea $ 3.95 per box Tea $ 3.69 per box

Margarine $ 2.20 per 500gr Margarine $ 2.50 per 500gr Cheese $ 7.00 per kg Cheese $ 6.99 per kg

Aspirin $ 3.69 per packet Aspirin $ 4.0 per packet Tissues $ 2.29 per box Tissues $ 2.10 per box Teen magazine $ 3.00 each Teen magazine $ 2.90 each

Sally Tom

1 kg Beef 2 chickens

3 oranges 1/2 of cherries

2 boxes of tissues 1 packet of aspirin

4 tins of peas 1 jar of coffee

500 gr margarine 1 cauliflower

Julia Robert 1 kg of lean pork 1 kg of veal

1 kg of green beans 1 kg peaches

1 box of tea 2 tins of peas ½ 1 teen magazine 1/2 kg of cheese 2 cauliflowers 1 punnet of strawberries

Print Resources

Sound Foundations – Adrian Underhill (Longman) A teacher awareness book that takes a systematic approach & has lots of practical ideas.

Speaking Clearly – Rogerson & Gilbert (CUP) More for the learner & very well built up in simple & clear stages.

Pronunciation in Use – Hancock ISBN 0521006570 for a set with cds, and 0521006562 for cassettes.

Introducing English Pronunciation-a Teacher’s Guide to Tree or Three? And Ship or Sheep ? – Ann Baker (CUP)

In Tempo – an English Pronunication Course – Halina Zawadzki

Understanding English Pronunciation – Susan Boyer

Web Resources

The following sites include great activities and tips for teaching pronunciation:

English Pronunciation - http://evaeaston.com/pr/links.html [Accessed: July 2004]

Articles and Resources on Pronunciation - http://esl.about.com/od/pronunciationlessonplans/index.htm [Accessed: July 2004]

Pronunciation and Conversation Skills - http://esl.about.com/od/speakingenglish/index.htm [Accessed: July 2004]

Pronunciation Lesson Plans - http://www.eslflow.com/pronunciationlessonplans.html [Accessed: July 2004]

Some techniques for pronunciation - http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Dalton-Pronunciation.html [Accessed: July 2004]

CD Rom

Teaching Pronunciation: A Guide for Teachers of English as a Second Language is available from Language Australia in Melbourne ($A27.50) Ph. 03 99264779. Fax 03 9926 4780. E-mail: [email protected].

In this unit:

Choosing an Activity

Why Use Activities?

Types of Activities

Games in the Classroom

The Importance of Dialogue

Other Activities for the Classroom

Many More Activities!

How to Use Flashcards

Vocabulary Lesson

Further Resources

‘Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.’ George Lois

Choosing an Activity

When choosing an activity for your classroom, remember the following points:

1. Focus – the activity you choose MUST reinforce your target language/ grammar form/ pronunciation feature/ function and/or situational language.

2. Choose – remember the distinction between age and level. When planning an activity, ensure that the language used is not above the ability level of your students. In addition, make sure your props and visual aids are age appropriate. Content should be relevant and meaningful to your students.

3. Place – consider the importance of the placement of an activity within a learning sequence. Activities can be utilised to create or harness energy within the classroom, they can break up a lesson, raise flagging attention / energy levels, and add variety. You must also consider how long an activity should run to be of use to your students.

4. Practice – you must practise your activity outside the classroom and organise your props and visual aids.

5. Demonstrate – be sure you can effectively demonstrate your activity. Too much explanation is too confusing especially for lower levels.

6. Facilitate – the objective of an activity is student speech production. As a teacher your job is to facilitate the activity, making it as student-centred as possible. Remember that the use of groups and pairs increases student talk-time, and activities are an ideal opportunity to utilise this.

Above all… remember your activities should be fun and engaging for your students!

Activities stimulate students, they are fun and they reinforce learnt structures.

All activities serve a purpose. They are not just random events in the ESOL classroom. Activities should always be adapted to suit a particular group of students, to match their level, age and interests. Some activities are better suited to certain purposes, but all can be used with variations to suit your particular focus.

Most activities, games, songs, and word-play ideas have an anonymous source. There are very few truly original ideas. However, whenever the source is known, it should be credited. Otherwise, create, use, re-use, and adapt whatever you can remember or whatever you have available! Usually, other teachers are more than willing to share ideas and resources, so don't hesitate to ask for help. There are many books based purely on activities, and also many websites where ideas are shared. These are provided at the end of the unit.

Types of Activities

Activities should be language-oriented to allow students to exchange information and to practise skills, to reinforce grammar, to create a relaxed learning environment and to let students have fun.

Some examples of activities with a language orientation are:

information gap, (activities in which one student must converse with another to complete an exercise or to fill in missing information)

jigsaw puzzles

word problems

guessing games

muddled information

differing yet similar pictures

problem-solving real-life situations

opinion gap, (an advanced form of information gap, which becomes message-oriented in order to argue, persuade or debate a particular issue)

Games in the Classroom

Children love games and so do adults. Practising the target language by incorporating it into a classroom game is a fantastic way of making learning more enjoyable and dynamic. The emphasis here is of course on learning. The purpose of games should always be to practise English. Be conscious of your purpose when choosing or adapting games to use in your ESOL classroom. Initially some adult classes can be hesitant or even sceptical about the value of ‘playing games’ during a lesson but tend to respond well when they realise that the inclusion of a game has served a learning purpose.

Teach International © 2004-2008 168 Be aware that not every class will respond to the same game in the same way. Your major success story in one class might be an absolute flop in another. Test the games on your students and if the activity doesn’t work, adapt it. Make notes on your lesson plan and try it a different way next time.

Naming the games we use is important because it helps your students (and you) to remember the activity. You will undoubtedly find that each class has its own favourite game, which is requested week after week. If it helps your students to maintain their enthusiasm, and incorporates the target language, great! You will develop a stock of games that you love and know to be successful in your classrooms, but try to vary the games you use as much as possible. Incorporate different activities, vary the group sizes and always endeavour to keep the classroom surprising and interesting for both you and your students.

Games can be very competitive and a lot of students will respond well to the added element of competition and performance in our language classrooms. We avoid the notion of ‘loser’ in our ESOL classroom but this doesn’t have to negate the idea of ‘winner’. (When your students are practising their English communication skills and having fun at the same time, we are all winners!)

Increase the energy of your classroom by cheering from the sidelines and encouraging students to do the same in support of their team. All participants can be rewarded with verbal praise, point systems or with physical rewards such as merit stickers. Each teacher will approach rewards differently. Some teachers dislike giving physical rewards because of the difficulty in ensuring that every class member has received one, especially with large class sizes.

Your attention and energy should be focused on the game while it is being played because otherwise students might feel awkward or uninterested as a result of your apparent disinterest. On that note though, don’t involve yourself in a game to make up numbers. Your job is to facilitate and play an active listening role during the activity, noting any consistencies in errors and keeping track of time, etc.

Be conscious of your time restraints when incorporating a game into your lesson plan. You can speed up activities by giving students time limits for each section and forcing them to move on, or by using devices such as egg timers or kitchen timers to signal when the activity is over. If a game is allowed to drag on unnecessarily, students will become disengaged and the activity loses purpose.

Incorporating strong visual aids into our classroom games and activities helps to engage students further and to reinforce the new language being practised. Flash cards are useful for clear communication of ideas and are commonly used in TESOL. Students become familiar with a word through sight recognition and association with an image.

The Importance of Dialogue

‘I speak in your tongue, but it is in my language that I understand you.’ Edouard Glissant (cited in Kramsch 2001, p203)

When communicating, people bring their own ways of seeing and understanding to every situation. These culturally-learned sets of ideas, expectations and worldviews influence the way the speaker interprets, acts and reacts to the world. These worldviews are influenced by the native language and culture of the speaker.

For ESL/EFL speakers, becoming familiar with how and when to use the language is a facet apart from grammatical structure and must be learned in order to become an effective communicator in English. Teach International © 2004-2008 169 Often, the language appropriate for a situation in a student’s own tongue will not exist in English or might be applied differently. For example, in what kind of situations could you use the English expressions ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘Excuse me?’ Does it seem that they are used interchangeably at times? Consider the way language is adapted to formal or informal situations, or depending on to whom we are speaking.

The differences in the way we use the English language are subtle and important. We must consistently and conscientiously endeavour to make the language we teach our students real and context-based. The incorporation of interesting and challenging dialogue in our classrooms helps us to achieve these aims.

Dialogues present the target language in a realistic context and open up the classroom to meaningful exchanges between students. This helps to create a more personal, dynamic atmosphere and incorporates the social aspects of communication, giving depth and meaning to the language used.

The incorporation of dialogue in the ESOL classroom can be approached in a number of ways. Endeavour to incorporate discussions, conversations, speeches, role-plays and audio tape recordings into your lesson plans. Word and sentence stress, intonation and rhythm come into their own, when given a real-life context and this helps to make the language memorable for students.

Discussions

Discussions are commonly used in TESOL to provide an opportunity for students to pool ideas and practise communication simultaneously, stimulating thought, interest and providing challenges for students.

Choose a topic for discussion that is relevant to your current lessons and interesting/ appropriate/ controversial enough for your class. Ensure discussion activities have been clearly demonstrated so that students understand what they are to discuss and why. Often the take up of the activity will promote even more discussion when inevitably, students put forward differing viewpoints…great!

Job Interview

This is a ranking exercise where students decide in groups what are the most important things to consider when interviewing a prospective employee. Get students to make up their own questions and interview each other as an extension of the exercise.

[Adapted from http://www.bogglesworld.com (Accessed: July, 2004)]

A New Drug

Students are given a fact sheet on a new drug that is illegal. In groups, they must decide if it should be made legal. Give reasons. (The drug is actually alcohol, but don’t reveal that until the take up).

[Adapted from http://www.bogglesworld.com (Accessed: July2004)]

Conversation has been described as ‘the most fundamental form of communication’ (Celce- Murcia 2001, p108) but ‘few students report having either the opportunity or the confidence to engage in unplanned conversations with native speakers’ (Celce-Murcia 2001, p108). It is common to encounter ESL/EFL students who are competent readers and writers of English but who dread face-to-face communication.

This situation is often the result of students studying under teaching philosophies where the importance of communication is under-emphasised or ignored.

How can we help our students to become confident English speakers?

Try to expose your students to a variety of different accents through different native speakers by inviting guest speakers into the classroom (get your director’s OK first). Visiting friends/ family and other expatriate teachers in your community are often willing to take up the challenge.

Making an Appointment (Great for practising Telephone English)

Receptionist: Thank you for calling Smile’s Dental Clinic. Meena speaking. How can I help you?

Alex: Hello Meena, it’s Alex Lonsdale calling. How are you today?

Receptionist: I’m fine thank you Mr Lonsdale. How are you?

Alex: Well actually, I have a sore tooth. I was hoping Dr Morris would have time to see me.

Receptionist: I’m sorry, he’s fully booked this week. I can put you down for 9am next Monday. How does that sound?

Alex: That would be great. Thank you.

Receptionist: No problem Mr Lonsdale. Thanks for calling.

Alex: See you next Monday then. Goodbye.

[Adapted from http://www.englishclub.com (Accessed: July 2004)]

Speeches

Speech activities can be impromptu or planned and assist students with a range of communication skills. Public speaking is a valuable skill in any language and will help to increase students’ awareness of their presentation, pronunciation, audibility, intonation and stress.

Introducing hesitation markers such as ‘um’, ‘eh’, ‘well’, ‘sort of’, and ‘like’ as speaking strategies will ensure students become familiar with common usages of the language. (Well, before you object, hesitation markers are commonly used by native English speakers to fill otherwise awkward silences and act as a tool to prevent others from speaking over us when we may not have finished yet!).

Teach International © 2004-2008 171 For planned speeches, give your students a topic, outline time restrictions and allow time to prepare. For presentations, allocating a timekeeper, note-taker and a results-reporter will ensure that every group member has a specific responsibility during the activity, increasing student interest and involvement. Incorporating impromptu speeches into your lesson plan will benefit your students in similar ways and encourages students to use the language creatively, drawing from what they know.

Activity Ideas

Customs/Traditions of my country The Importance of Education for All GM Foods vs Non GM Foods Suggested Amendments to Laws Why Holidays are Important What Would Happen If….? Explain the Difference Between… I Love My Country Because…

Role-Plays

Role-playing is a valuable tool that is used to further extend students’ communication skills and to encourage teamwork, creativity and confidence. When acting in character, people are often surprised to discover that they are more confident speaking in front of others. This is due to the belief that the character or persona in front of the group is not their own, not their true self. Of course, the opposite is true, every utterance from that student will be a reflection of them; drawing from their range of ideas, thoughts, belief systems and experiences.

Consider the advantages of applying these techniques to your ESOL classroom to help your students step outside of themselves and increase their confidence in speaking.

Choose texts that incorporate cultural idiosyncrasies, commonly encountered scenarios and relevant, engaging subject matter. Utilise props and realia to further enhance the experience and increase student comprehension. (Think coins, bus/tram/train tickets, costumes, funny glasses, hats and scarves!) Script the role-play according to the level, allow time to rehearse and prepare for the fun when students get up to perform.

The Parking Fine

You park your car in a metered car park and go to the bank. You arrive back at your car to find that a parking inspector is writing you a parking fine because your meter has just expired. By your watch, you are only 1 minute late.

What is the best way to treat a parking inspector? What kind of language do you use when speaking to a parking inspector? Is bribery a good way to deal with this situation? Have you ever experienced this situation?

In pairs, perform a 2-minute role-play to show how you would act in this situation.

[Idea adapted from Celce-Murcia, M. & Hilles, S. 1988 pp70-71]

Plays and Skits

Using drama in the form of plays or skits is a very effective method for expressing and teaching the English language. Skits and role-plays are fun to organise, participate in and watch. This method requires active student interaction and conversation.

Some Ideas:

Remember that as an ESOL teacher you should be incorporating the use of drama into your classroom everyday! Think about how much meaning is conveyed in an expression or a gesture.

Remember also that role-play goes hand in hand with the concept of situationalising, that is, providing the optimum situation for your students to practise the target language. If your students are learning countable and uncountable nouns, turn your classroom into a supermarket and your students into shopkeepers and customers. If they are studying the past continuous tense, turn the classroom into a police station with detectives conducting interviews of suspects, (‘Where were you at 8pm last night?’) The possibilities are endless!

If you are studying a particular topic, have students create their own dialogues related to the theme and have them perform their skits in groups to the rest of the class. Promote creativity, animation, and emotion.

Have students recreate their favourite scenes from movies, take on the roles of the characters, and change the endings!

Almost anything that is related to Theatresports can be used as an activity in the ESOL classroom; you just have to ensure that students are speaking as they act. These activities also often make use of the Total Physical Response method. (See the following websites for ideas).

www.humanpingpongball.com [Accessed: July 2004] www.creativedrama.com [Accessed: July 2004] www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/drama810/apg.htm [Accessed: July 2004]

Audio Tape Recording

Introducing other native English speakers’ accents and pronunciation via audio tapes/CDs provides valuable exposure to different speakers, which we as one teacher cannot offer. A lot of current ESL/EFL resources include cassettes or CDs, which feature the voices of men and women from a range of different English speaking countries. This exposure is especially valuable if you consider that more people speak English as a second language than a first, and your students are likely to encounter all sorts of different accents outside the bubble which is your classroom.

Using audio recording tools in the classroom can provide valuable feedback for your students (‘Do I REALLY sound like that?!’) and is especially helpful for focusing on pronunciation, word and sentence stress, pace of speech and intonation. Over time, these recordings can be motivational, reflecting students’ progression in spoken English.

Listening Exercises

Ask one of your friends/colleagues to speak on a cassette recording and base listening exercises on the cassette rather than on your own voice.

Conversation/interview assignments are one way of encouraging students to actively seek out a native speaker and record the conversation/ interview with that person. The conversation/ interview needn’t be long but what is important is that the interaction with that native speaker has taken place. Transcripts of the conversation can often be used for future lessons.

For more on Listening Comprehension, refer to Unit 11 – Listening

Other Activities for the Classroom

Board Games

Boggle – form words with die Scrabble – form words to score points Up words – form words with pieces that stack Pictionary – choose a word then draw a picture to help others guess that word Guess Who – uncover the identity of your opponent by asking yes/no questions

Old Favourites

I Spy/I see – objects in the room Teacher Says (Who’s Simon anyway?) – body parts Bingo – many possible variations, modelled in the course Musical Chairs – adapt to increase 80/20 – ‘Colour Basket’ modelled in the course. What’s The Time Mr Wolf? – telling time Scavenger Hunts – use a runner and a writer to increase 80/20

Worksheets

Crosswords Find-a-Word Word Searches Surveys/Questionnaires

Writing

Daily/Weekly Journal writing

Many More Activities!

1. What Begins With B?

Pair or group students and assign a different letter to each group. Allocate a writer. Working together, students are to brainstorm as many things as they can see in the room/think of that begin with that letter. Give time limits and rotate the letters between groups. During the take up groups read out their answers and compare results.

[Adapted from Claire, 1998, p113]

This is an interactive science activity for learning the language of directions. Learn how to make a simple floating compass and discuss the outcomes.

Materials: Magnet, needle, paper clip, cork, bowl of water, globe or world map. First magnetise the needle by rubbing it on the magnet. Demonstrate how the needle becomes magnetised by touching it on the paper clip. Now the needle is a magnet. Push the needle lengthways through the cork and place the cork in the bowl of water (be sure that the bowl of water isn’t on a metal table or near any large iron or steel objects). Turn the cork and watch where the needle points (to the window, the whiteboard, etc) when it stops turning. Turn the cork again. Notice how it always points in the same direction. This is north/south/east/west. Show directions on the globe/world map. Extend the activity further- Who uses a compass? (Sailors, hikers, explorers).

[Adapted from Claire, 1998, p211]

3. Map Skills

This is a good follow-up activity for ‘Making a Compass’. Learn geography, directions, prepositions of position, etc, by piecing together puzzles.

Photocopy world maps/maps of students’ country and cut along borders/state lines to make puzzles.

Refer to your own copy and talk about different regions and their relationship to each other eg. Let’s look at South America. Chile is long and skinny and is in the east.

In groups, students assemble the puzzles and assist each other with no time limits. (Facilitate to ensure that students are practising the language and not just assembling the puzzles).

Take up could include extra information on regions (mountainous, dry, tropical, etc).

[Adapted from Claire, 1998, p217]

4. Shopping Basket

A memory game which uses repetition to reinforce target language.

Students sit in a circle. Demonstrate the activity by starting with the line, ‘I went to the supermarket and I bought…an orange.’ The next person repeats the first line and adds one of their own, eg. ‘I went to the supermarket and I bought an orange, and some toilet paper…’ and so on.

5. Name Game

Similar to ‘Shopping List’, this game is also helpful for remembering students’ names, as modelled in the Teach International in-class course.

Students think of an adjective that begins with the same first letter of their name. For example, ‘Ambitious Amy’. Demonstrate the activity by starting with your own adjective + name, the next student must first repeat the last person’s and then add their own.

Adapt the game to incorporate likes/dislikes, favourite colours/foods etc. Eg. My name’s Ali and I like blue.

The aim of the game is for students to uncover a hidden identity by asking yes or no questions only, as modelled in the course.

Students sit in a circle and write a celebrity or well-known character on a piece of paper without showing anyone else. Students tape the paper to the back of the person beside them. Students can read the pieces of paper on everyone’s back but their own. Students uncover who they are by asking yes/no questions of other students such as ‘Am I a woman? Am I a movie star?’ Students circulate around the room asking different people and moving on until they uncover their identity.

7. What Am I?

An adaptation of ‘Who Am I?’ this game is good for practising the language of professions.

Prepare stickers with a profession on each or alternatively, get students to write the professions themselves. Put the stickers in a box, get students to pull out a profession and stick it onto the forehead of another student. Students uncover their profession by asking yes or no questions only.

‘Do I wear a uniform? Do I work in a hospital? Do I have a dangerous job?’

Professions: Architect, Astronaut, Bus Driver, Cleaner, Gardner, Lawyer, Mechanic, Musician, Nurse, Policeperson, Teacher.

8. What Am I Thinking Of?

Think of something which falls under a heading such as animal/ fruit/ vegetable/ country/ profession, etc. Students work in pairs/mingle and try to work out what the other is thinking of by asking yes/no questions.

9. Short Personal Story, e.g. My visit to ...... (city)

This is an organised conversation-based method that stimulates students to converse about an event. It may be a past, present or future event. The students are instructed to summarise an event (chosen by the teacher) that has occurred over a period of time. The result is a short verbal summary (approximately 30 seconds to one-minute long) which is then presented to the class. Students in the class may also ask questions of the presenter. (The teacher may also request that the students write their short stories and hand them in for correction).

Language is utilised as students verbally share a short personal story with the class, listen to other students' responses and questions, give answers and write a short story.

The objective is for students to use their English skills to summarise events in the past, present and future in a logical manner.

Whole class or small groups

Steps: 1. Ideally, have students suggest short story discussion topics for use in the class. These topics should be relevant and interesting to the students. Alternatively, select a topic which is

2. To clarify the method you want the students to use, first give them an example (verbally and/or in written form on the board) of a short story.

3. Instruct the students to: a) Verbally tell their short story to the class, or b) Prepare a written short story, or c) Prepare a written short story and explain it to the class.

4. A few examples of short personal story topics:

Past: a concert / festival I attended a history of my city, province, country, etc. a sporting event that I attended/ participated in growing up in my family my first long-distance train, bus or airplane journey past holidays school days/ years the events of this week

Present: the members of my family the occupations of my family members events that occur in my neighbourhood, school or workplace a book I am reading a typical visit to a tourist attraction in my city

Future: what I am planning to do tomorrow, next month, next year my next family vacation where will I be in five years? my world predictions for next year the future of my country my prediction for an upcoming sporting event

5. Follow-up activities: a. Group discussion of interesting points from various stories b. Extract and list the new and / or complex vocabulary c. Define the words d. Use stories for a compare/contrast group discussion e. Students hand in their written work for grammar correction.

10. Interview Worksheets

This is an organised conversation-based method focusing on stimulating the students to converse about things (nouns), instead of doing an event summary as in a short story.

Language is acquired through verbal dictation of the students' lists, listening to other students’ responses, and by writing a list of items relevant to the topic.

The objectives are to develop practical usage of the English language, to prepare word lists derived from a topic and to motivate speaking and listening practice.

1. Prepare a worksheet (questionnaire) using a common theme for each interview worksheet. (for example, sports, family, clothing, etc.). Provide one column for students’ names. Use themes that are relevant to the students' lives and easy to understand. Here are some interview topic ideas and categories that you can use in class. (*Always take into account whether these personal questions will be acceptable to your particular group of students).

(Food). Name/favourite food/favourite recipe/favourite ingredients/least favourite foods/menu plan. (Sports). Name/favourite sport/favourite athlete/past sports played/national sport/favourite sporting moment. (Clothing). Name/dress/national dress/school clothes/special occasions/craziest clothes ever worn. (Leisure). Name/lfavourite season/preferred climate/dream holiday spot/favourite leisure activities (Family). Name/family size/brothers/sisters/parents/aunts/uncles/cousins/grandparents. (Friends). Name/best friend/newest friend/oldest friend/most important thing for a friend to do is? (Transport). Name/transportation owned/public/school/work/dream vehicle. Further categories which you can develop on your own include: Music, calendars, holidays, jobs, industry, culture, words of wisdom, books, movies and hobbies.

2. Give each student a worksheet.

3. Demonstrate the procedure (one-to-one interview process), by using yourself as a model for filling in the categories on the worksheet for clarification of the activity.

4. Instruct the students to actively interview some or all of the students in the class, collecting data and recording it on the worksheets.

5. Set a time limit (depends on the number of students and the number of categories per worksheet).

6. Take-up exercises: Have the students discuss the results. Form small groups or pairs where students can relate information gained from their interview(s) to other students. Initiate a discussion by asking groups a question such as: ‘Looking at the information you have collected, is there anything unusual (new, interesting, funny, sad, in common, etc.) that you would like to discuss?’

7.Follow-up: Tell your students not to throw anything out! From the information collected, you will have a wealth of material for future discussion-based lessons. (You have also gained some information on your students which you can use to ‘personalise’ future lessons). This may be used to create many different group activities and future lessons just by adding some personal thought and creativity! For example, from this information you can develop a memory game where the students describe one another. Further develop this into a game show, where students receive points for correctly answering questions that you have developed and that are relevant to the student interview questionnaires.

11. Newspaper Articles

Newspaper article exercises are creative methods that a teacher can utilise to promote a greater understanding of the English language. Newspaper articles are interesting, up-to- date and can be very relevant to your students, giving them a purpose for reading. Exercises can incorporate many different language learning techniques, and also add some variety to the teacher's lesson plan.

Some Ideas:

If English language newspapers are available in your area, have students choose a short article per week to bring in, read to a partner or small group and discuss.

Look at particular facets of language within the articles, eg. Use of idioms, style of writing, level of formality, use of phrasal verbs, etc.

Create class newspapers in groups, where students take on roles as reporters. (This would of course be an activity that is a culmination of studying different types of newspaper writing).

Blank out the words in cartoon strips, photocopy them and have students create their own dialogues for the cartoon characters.

Use the newspaper as a grammar review. Choose (or write) an article and have the students underline all the (eg. adverbs) in the piece.

Use a newspaper article as the basis for a debate.

Use articles to practise techniques such as reading for gist, skimming and searching, reading in detail, and gaining meaning from context.

Advice:

Always choose topics that will interest your particular group of students. It’s your job to find out what these interests are! Make sure you choose suitable material. Be sensitive to political and cultural issues in certain parts of the world. A very useful text for Upper Intermediate and Advanced classes is ‘Morning Edition, Mastering Reading and Language Skills with the Newspaper’ Hughes, R., Tiersky, E. 1997.

12. Make a Word from a Word

Students are challenged to break down one long word into smaller words, using each letter once. They practise spelling and enhance their vocabulary. Language is acquired through generating new vocabulary through reading and writing.

The objectives are vocabulary building, word recognition and understanding how to use the letters of the alphabet. This is a good warm-up activity.

Three to four students. All levels. (Specify that students cannot use dictionaries at Intermediate level and above).

Steps:

1. Write one long word on the board, and pronounce it for the students. Clarify its meaning, (there’s a new word your students have learnt to begin with).

2. Assemble the students in groups of three to four.

3. Demonstrate the objective (to make as many new words as possible from the original word by rearranging or deleting the letters) by pretending to make new words from a long word yourself first, eliciting possible answers from students.

5. Have a competition to see which group can come up with the greatest number of correctly- spelt words.

13. Dictionary Dilemma

One way to learn a new word while reading is by challenging the students to determine the meaning of the word through the context in which it is used.

Language is acquired through generating vocabulary, conversation and active listening.

The objective is to understand new words by using context clues and to become familiar with and use the dictionary on a regular basis.

Three to four students per team. (Use nouns only for lower levels, branch out to include verbs, adjectives and adverbs at higher levels).

Steps:

1. Students are in teams of three or four, each with an opposing team. Each team is given two new words (different words for each team) that they are unlikely to know. These words are also pronounced quietly for team members to hear. 2. Teams then look up one of their new words in the dictionary, write down the part of speech, the meaning of the word, (for simplicity, the first dictionary meaning is the one chosen), and write a sample sentence using the new word. 3. The team then creates two FALSE meanings for their new word, written in a style similar to that used in the dictionary. 4. The team then repeats the process for their second word. 5. When ready, a member of each group will read their first word aloud to the other team. They will state the part of speech and read the two false and one true meaning, in any order, and give an example sentence. 6. The opposing team must hold a discussion and vote on which meaning is the correct one. Teacher keeps score. The opposing team then reads one of their new words and the game continues. 7. List the new words on the board with their correct meanings. Make sure all students have a record of the new words

Tips:

Students can be very creative and have a lot of fun with this activity. You can use this actvity over a period of time to collect words under a theme, (eg. transport, movies, etc.) Throw in a quiz now and then to test students’ knowledge of the new words they have learnt through this activity.

14. Hot Seat

This activity can be used as a review for any type of vocabulary. It could, for example, be used to review the words learnt in the activity above.

Language is practised through speaking and listening.

The objective is to facilitate communication with a purpose.

Whole class divided into 2 teams. All levels.

1. Invite a student from each team to the front of the class. 2. Seat the two students next to each other, facing the class, backs facing the whiteboard. 3. The teacher writes a word on the whiteboard that has recently been learnt in class. 4. On a ‘go’ signal, the teams will shout out clues and the students at the board compete to see who can guess the correct word first. 5. Once the word is guessed correctly, the teacher scores a point for that team and the students change over to a new pair.

15. Build a Story

Language acquisition is enhanced by progressively developing oral or written stories.

Language is acquired through communication and participation.

The objective is to develop listening, speaking and writing skills.

Six to ten students per group.

Steps:

1. Six to ten students per group. 2. The teacher starts a story with one sentence. eg. It was a dark and stormy night.. 3. The first student then adds one sentence to the teacher's statement. This idea is to build a story. 4. Follow the same procedure around the circle. 5. The last student finishes the story. 6. Groups compare stories.

Variations:

Make an alphabet shopping list. Students are again in small group circles. Teacher begins by modelling, ‘Yesterday I went shopping and I bought some apples’ (takes the place of the second student in the circle to demonstrate). ‘Yesterday I went shopping and I bought some apples and bananas’ … Students continue on with imaginary items using each letter of the alphabet in sequence. (Great for testing memory and for practising countable and uncountable nouns).

Students are standing in small group circles and have to add one word on at a time to make a complete sentence. Eg. The teacher could start by offering ‘The …’ The circle that has the longest, most grammatically correct sentence at the end wins!

Students have to add on one letter each to spell a word. Each small circle (team) starts when the teacher gives the first letter and puts their hands up when they have finished a word. The team with the LONGEST correctly spelt word is the winner.

16. Barrier Activities

These activities focus primarily on encouraging the students to communicate clearly and descriptively with other students in the class.

Language is practised through generating vocabulary, questioning, listening carefully and interpreting ideas. Essentially these activities work like information gap activities but the information given is in the form of a picture that one student has to describe to another.

Pair activities, sitting back-to-back.

Steps:

1. Position the students in pairs so that they are back- to-back. 2. Ask one student to describe a person, place or thing to her/his partner (eg. their bedroom). OR give one student a simple drawing to describe to their partner. (Depending on the level, the other student may have the same drawing, with parts missing… see the similarity to an information gap?) 3. The goal of this activity is for the speaker to portray the topic in descriptive detail so that the partner is able to get a clear mental picture of the speaker's illustration and to be able to draw it as their partner is speaking. The student drawing is encouraged to ask specific questions. 4. Emphasise the use of physically descriptive vocabulary. Sometimes it helps to go over directional language such as ‘bottom-left-hand-corner’, ‘on the right-hand-side’, etc. first). 5. Swap roles. 6. Students share their drawings with each other and discuss the outcomes.

17. Questioning Activities

Questioning is a universally proven activation technique used in teaching. Incorporating questioning activities into your lesson plan is an excellent way to stimulate conversation in the classroom. Also, different question forms can be difficult for students to produce … the more practice, the better! Make sure you place parameters on the types of questions that may be asked, of course.

Language is acquired through listening and speaking.

The objectives are to recognise questions and to be able to ask and respond to questions.

Group size varies depending on activity.

Some ideas:

The students question the teacher. The teacher questions the students. The students question the students (in an interview situation or a role-play). Students can each do a class presentation and the other students can ask questions when it is finished.

18. Questioning games such as:

‘A Question with Question’ . (Suitable for upper-intermediate students). Students work in pairs in a ‘Round Robin’ competition. Each pair must have a competition to hold a conversation composed of only questions. The first student to make a statement or not come up with a question loses. Pairs are changed constantly, with winners playing winners and losers playing losers in a face-off. (Remember that if students are ‘out’ and sit down, they are losing an opportunity to practise English. Keep all students involved as much as possible). A sample conversation might go something like this:

A: Where are you going? B: Are you asking me? A: Can you hear me? B: Why do you ask? A: Are you making fun of me? B: Are you joking?!

‘Questions Around a Statement’ . Each student is given, or comes up with, a questionable statement. Students take turns to ask each other questions about their statement, while the student answering tries to sound as convincing as possible. Encourage your students to be creative and to have fun, but make sure you monitor for use of the correct question forms. Remember, activities are designed around practising a target language.

eg. A’s statement is “THE MOON IS MADE OF CHEESE.”

Student: What kind of cheese? A: Blue cheese. Student: Hard cheese or soft cheese? A: Soft cheese. Student: What about the stars? A: Oh, they are just crumbs of cheese.

Jeopardy. Students are put into teams and, taking turns, choose a category. They are given the answer to a question within that category.Teams have to work together to come up with the correct question for each answer. This game can be made really enjoyable by having students bet on their answers with fake money or compete with a points system. Also very useful as a review activity.

19. Card Activities

As you will have already discovered on the course, many activities in the classroom involve using cards in pair or group activities.

Cards can be used as prompts containing pictures, words or entire sentences. Students can sequence, discuss, match, complete, alter and use this information in an almost limitless number of ways.

Tips for making your own cards

Make cards in a worksheet form on paper first, then photocopy onto coloured card if possible. If you are using sets of similar-coloured cards, mark each set of cards on the back with a number or symbol so that they don’t get mixed up when you collect them. If possible, and if you are going to re-use these materials, laminate your cards. Writing on your cards should be clear and large enough to read easily.

Some well-known activities using cards

Memory

Complete the sentence

Charades

Teach International © 2004-2008 183 Taboo. This team game involves students getting their team mates to guess a forbidden word. It is a type of verbal charades, and is absolutely fantastic to use in the ESOL classroom. Students have to make their team say the title word without saying any of the other words listed. A card might say, APPLE, with the words ‘fruit’, ‘eat’, ‘juicy’, ‘pie’, ‘teacher’ underneath. Students have to give their team clues like, ‘It’s something healthy to have at lunchtime…’, etc. No gestures or spelling of the word is allowed. Teams start with 5 points each and gain a point for every word guessed within a minute and lose a point for each ‘forbidden’ word that is said. You can make cards suited to your particular class and design cards around a particular topic or unit of work. Be creative!

Verbal Mazes. Students (in groups of 3) are given a pack of numbered cards containing instructions. They start at card number 1 and are given some kind of choice to make. Depending on their choice, they are directed to choose card ‘X’ or card ‘Y’ next. They move on through the cards and reach a successful or not-so-successful conclusion depending on their choices. A very good activity to stimulate all kinds of discussion and to involve students in reaching a consensus. Many course-books have these kinds of prepared activities to use or you could create your own. They are useful for practising language related to decision-making, such as modal verbs (like ‘could’, ‘should’, ‘might’, ‘can’t’), conditionals and future forms.

Packs of cards containing simple discussion topics, (eg. What are you going to do this evening?) or moral dilemmas, (eg. Would you want to know the precise date of your death?), or categories, (eg.Name 5 things that are yellow.) for use in pairs.

Matching . Pairs, opposites, different verb forms, verbs and phrasal verbs, synonyms, proper English and slang forms, prefixes and adjectives, etc. etc. etc.

‘What do you do when …?’ Write the following sentences (or your own) on cards and let them go in pairs. Intermediate .

- What do you do when you have a headache? When I have a headache I… - What do you do when you are hungry? - What do you do when you feel lonely? - What do you like to do when you have free time? - What do you do when you have a headache? - What do you do when you are lost a the city? - What do you when you are bored? - What do you cook when you are in a hurry? - Who do you call when you are sick? - What do you watch on TV when you have time? - Where do you go when you need more shampoo? - Where do you go when you need new clothes? - What do you do when you are thirsty? - How do you feel when you are on a vacation? - Where do you go when you need groceries? - What do you do when you are homesick? - How do you feel when you are late for school? - Where do you go when you want to borrow some books? - Where do you go when you need a haircut? - What do you eat when you go out for dinner? - What do you do when you are angry? - Where do you go when you want to be alone? - How do you feel when you can’t sleep well? - What do you do when you are tired? What do you when you have a hangover?

Role-play with cards. Write the following situations on cards, and ask them to role-play. Upper-intermediate to advanced.

- You just bought an item at one store, and now you have gone up the street and you see it on sale for much less money in another store. Return the item you bought to the higher priced store.

- You are at the airport. When your bags come off the ramp at the baggage claim, they are badly damaged. Go to the luggage office and ask for a claim form so that you can get your bags repaired free of charge.

- Your landlord just called and told you he is raising the rent again; this is the third time in six months. Talk to your landlord about this.

- You bought a new car but you have had several problems with it. Tell the dealer you want your money back.

- You ordered something from a mail order catalogue. When you received the item you found that it did not fit the description of the item in the catalogue. Go to the Better Business Bureau and complain.

- Your neighbours are having a big party. It is two o’clock in the morning. Go next door and complain about the noise.

- Your neighbours are always leaving a lot of garbage in the street near your house. Complain about this.

- You are waiting for a parking spot when someone who hasn’t seen you takes it. Get that person to move and give you the space.

- You buy some milk at the grocery store. When you get home you find that the milk is sour. Take it right back to the supermarket.

- You just received your telephone bill. There are several calls listed that were made to a country you have never heard of before. Bring your bill into the telephone company and tell them.

- You bought an item that was marked ‘Final Sale’. When you brought the item home, you found it did not work. Bring it back to the store.

- You are at a concert and the quality of the sound is poor. Complain about it.

- You have fleas in your apartment. Ask the apartment manager to get you an exterminator. You feel that the manager should pay for this service.

- Your neighbour has a very noisy dog. It barks day and night whenever she lets it out into the backyard. Complain to her about this.

- You are at a movie theatre watching a movie. A woman in your row is holding a screaming baby. Ask her to leave the theatre so that you can enjoy the movie.

- A friend of yours is always upset and is calling you up late at night. Ask her to stop.

- You are at a barbecue. The hamburger you were given is a little too rare for your taste. Ask the cook to put it back on the grill.

- Complain to the store manager of a new store that the sales people were rude to you.

- Your friend always embarrasses you when you go to a restaurant because he/she talks much too loudly. Talk to your friend about this.

- Your next door neighbour is always sun-bathing in the nude. You can see him from your yard. Complain to him about this.

- You buy a gold chain from a very expensive shop. After wearing it for several months, it turns your neck green. Take it back to the store.

- You have just bought some groceries at a supermarket. When you look at your change you realise you have overpaid. Tell the cashier.

- Someone is smoking at the back of the bus. Complain to the driver.

- Complain to the manager of your apartment building that there is too much noise at night and you can’t sleep.

- Your friend is always complaining to you about something. It’s always one thing or another. Tell him/her that you have enough problems of your own and do not want to hear his/her complaints any more.

- You bought a pair of shoes at the department store. You cut the string tying the pair together in order to see if they fit comfortably. When you try to return the shoes to the store, the sales people will not take them because the string has been cut. Discuss this with the manager of the store.

- You left your children with a babysitter. When you returned home you found the babysitter asleep and your children crying. Talk to your babysitter about this.

- You bought an article of clothing. You washed it once and it has shrunk. Take it back to the shop.

- The person sitting next to you in the library has a cold and is constantly coughing and sneezing. The library is very crowded. Tell the librarian to ask the person to leave.

- You have just moved into your house and find that there are several broken windows. Tell your landlady about this.

- You took your VCR into a shop to be repaired. After two weeks you are informed that it is repaired. When you take it home you find out it is still not working properly. Take it back to the repair shop.

- You are paying for your child to take swimming lessons. When you arrive at the pool, you see the lifeguard has his/her back to the pool. Complain to the swimming instructor and insist on appropriate supervision.

- You are in a store that you frequent often. All of a sudden, something from the top shelf falls and hits you on the shoulder. The store clerks are not busy, but they ignore what happened and don’t offer you any assistance. Demand to speak to the manager.

- You are in a movie theatre and the person in front of you is wearing a very large hat. Ask the person to take it off.

- You are at a gas station and you need to use the rest room. When you go in, you find that it is filthy and there are no paper supplies. Complain to the station attendant.

Need more … the next 8 pages tell you how to use flashcards with your students!

Need to get more student talk time in your classes? Struggling with large class sizes? Need to spice up your teaching? Looking for new ways to review past lessons?

Use FLASHCARDS!

Flashcards are: Fun – for your students and for you! Re-usable – Put the effort into making good cards and you can use them again and again! Effective – You can use flashcards to introduce your target language, to reinforce it, to drill it, and even to test it! Adaptable – Use the same cards for several different lessons! Portable – lighter than books and easy to take to your classes (or overseas!)

Now… forget your image of flashcards as you remember back in kindergarten!

1. Flashcards are NOT only for beginners

Hey, maybe your only image of flashcards is the alphabet ones: A – apple, B – boy, etc. Well there are many more ways to use flashcards and here are a few! Some examples of flashcards over the next few pages will make the following clearer to you:

Pictures of objects, people, weather, occupations, etc. to practise vocabulary Phrases, questions or words to initiate dialogues Pictures of an entire activity setting (eg. park, gym, classroom) to elicit vocabulary, different verb tenses, descriptive language, etc.

2. Flashcards are NOT only to be held by the teacher at the front of the room

The problem with using flashcards only to hold up in front of the class is that the whole class is involved in the same activity at once and individual talk-time is limited. It may be useful when initially teaching vocabulary or doing a very fast choral drill or review. But how do you get the students to practise-practise-practise with the flashcards and get lots of speaking time in?

Make small ones! Make copies for your students! Give them handouts with 12-15 small flashcards on a page, and they can cut them up and keep them in an envelope. Have them work in pairs. Or, instead of giving each pair a copy, you can give each pair a few cards and after 30 seconds, call out ‘switch!’.

3. You don’t need different flashcards for each lesson you teach!

Flashcards should be adaptable. You can teach different target language with the same cards.

But I can’t draw! First of all, your students don’t expect professional artwork. Even stick people or cartoonish drawing can suffice, and if your students have a good laugh at your expense when they see your drawings, that’s great! Secondly, there are lots of flashcards you can find online for free (see the web links further on). Thirdly, a great source of pictures is magazines and catalogues! Be resourceful. ‘I can’t draw’ is no excuse! And finally, there are many flashcards that don’t need pictures at all! Check out the examples on the next few pages to get some ideas and to get your creative juices flowing.

Here are some examples of beautiful, free, full-colour flashcards from www.1-language.com . Of course when you’re teaching the animal names, these are very useful. But how else could you use these? The next step would be removing the word and eliciting the correct words. Make sure your students speak in sentences! ‘It’s a monkey.’ ‘It’s a frog.’ Later, you can get them to use the words in other sentences and expand into dialogues. ‘I have a monkey . Do you have a monkey ?’ or ‘I’d like to have a pet frog . Would you like to have a pet frog ?’ etc. You can also make doubles of the cards and start ‘Go-Fish’ games in small groups.

Here is an example of flashcards for a higher-level class. Perhaps you have taught your students how to complain in English:

“Excuse me, I have a problem with…” “Yes, but you said…” “I’d like to speak to your manager.” “I understand, but…”

You can give each pair of students about five cards like this to practise their new target language in different dilemmas.

Flashcards can be adapted for different levels too:

These unique flashcards are also available for free and in full-colour from www.bogglesworld.com . When teaching occupations you can use the full card. ‘A mail carrier is a person who delivers mail.’ What happens when you show only the top part of the card? ‘Who is a person who delivers mail?’ or when you show only the bottom half and ask, ‘What does a mechanic do?’ You can make games; you can mix and match parts of the cards. Be creative! You don’t want your students just to read cards. You want to use the cards to elicit and encourage more English from your students, not just provide it.

Some helpful hints:

If you are creating cards on your computer, consider printing directly onto thicker paper (cardstock).

You can easily store your flashcards in envelopes or Ziploc bags. Laminate your most valuable flashcards if you can.

Coloured paper or writing add to the visual appeal of your cards. Your students will appreciate the effort.

You can find different sizes, shapes and versions of products in your home or neighbourhood and take pictures of them to make cards. What a great way to practise comparatives and superlatives. For example, look at these two computers: ‘Which computer is bigger?’ ‘Which one is lighter?’ ‘Which one is more expensive?’ Try to get your students asking and answering each other , not just answering your questions.

You can make flashcards with photos from magazines or flyers. These photos of food are cut out from a supermarket’s weekly discount flyer and pasted onto cards.

Pictures of food are great for practising countable and uncountable nouns.

‘I have some broccoli. Would you like some broccoli?‘

‘I have some cheese. Would you like some cheese?’

‘I have some tomatoes. Would you like a tomato?

I have some grapes. Would you like a grape?’

These cards below are simply made of photos taken of objects around the house. Find some objects that you think are useful for your students’ vocabulary learning. Place them on a few pieces of white paper on a well-lit table, and take pictures of them. Can you think of a few different dialogues you can practise with your students using these cards?

You can draw simple pictures to get your students talking. The pictures shown here can be used for a back-to-back exercise. One partner has a copy of the picture and describes it to his/her partner, who can’t see it, and tries to draw a replica.

A good way to practise ‘There is/are’ and descriptive language!

See how easy it is to make cards for your students? To practise the past continuous tense, make a set like this for each pair, and have them ask each other ‘What were you doing…?’.

Can you think of similar cards you can make to practise other verb tenses? Can your students help you make them?

Recommended websites to find flashcards

1-language http://www.1-language.com/eslflashcards/ Lots of great flashcards for food, animals and children’s things, with a promise of more coming. [Accessed: August 2006]

ESL-images http://www.esl-images.com/lesson-plans.asp You have to pay for membership on this site but they offer some great sample flashcards for free! [Accessed: August 2006]

Boggles World http://bogglesworldesl.com/cards.htm Beautiful, unique colour flashcards ready to print. [Accessed: August 2006] abcteach http://www.abcteach.com/directory/basics/flashcards/ Hundreds of useful flashcards with words – not an ESOL site but it’s still very useful for TESOL teachers! [Accessed: August 2006]

On the next two pages are some ideas for warm-up conversation starters that you can use with pairs. Make a table and cut out the cells to make individual flashcards. Glue them onto some coloured, stiffer paper and bam! – you’ve got a set of useful cards you can use again and again.

Another suggestion: Give each student a copy of the following page(s). Ask them to have the cards cut up and in an envelope for next class. Use these as ‘small-talk’ warmers in pairs. Make sure they are always with new partners!

What time did you get up What did you do last Which city is bigger: today? night? Sydney or Tokyo?

Do you like sushi? Have you ever been to Where do you live? Mexico?

What do you like to do in How many brothers and What do you do? your free time? sisters do you have?

Do you like What’s your favourite What kind of music do sports? food? you like?

Do you like cooking? Does your father like How do you get to cooking? school?

How long have you How many languages do studied English? What did you eat today? you speak?

Do you have any Have you ever ridden a What time is it? children? horse?

What is the teacher Do you like doing English What did you do last wearing? homework? weekend?

What do you do when Have you ever studied a What did you do today? you feel sad? musical instrument?

How many times have If you got sick at school, Can you recommend a you driven this week? what would you do? restaurant for me?

What are you going to do What is the most difficult What is your favourite this weekend? part of learning English? activity in the summer?

What’s the funniest When is the last time you Where do you think you movie you have ever went to the movies? will be living in 2 years? seen?

Would you rather be a How old were you when great writer or a great Where did you grow up? you started school? singer?

What did you eat for What’s your favourite TV What is your dream job? dinner yesterday? show?

What is the difference Have you ever met Who is your favourite between a city and a anybody famous? movie star? Why? town?

What’s the best way to How far do you live from Would you like to live in learn English? the nearest library? Jamaica?

The following mini-lesson comes from www.english-to-go.com . It focuses on vocabulary- building and will create quite a bit of interest among your students.

"Chocolate"

Part One: Introduction

The name seems to fit the commodity - the word " chocolate " sounds firm, brittle, with the "crack" of breaking chocolate before melting into the "l" sound.

While thinking about the word's ancestry, it's necessary to recall that most of the world now thinks of chocolate always being combined with sugar and made into a confection.

This was not always so. Unknown outside America until the mid 16th century, the flavour of the cacao bean infused in hot water was rather bitter, which was how Spanish explorers first encountered it and subsequently took the beans to Spain.

Variations developed there - adding cinnamon or vanilla, sometimes sweetening and sometimes not. The popularity of this hot drink spread widely throughout Europe. Adding condensed milk and firming fats did not begin until the 19th century, when solid confectionery chocolate as we know it now, was developed.

Part Two: Where did the word 'chocolate' come from?

Some scholars believe that in its place of origin the ancient name for chocolate was xocoatyl meaning "bitter water," originating from the Aztec language called Nahuatl.

But there is dispute about this - since the Nahuatl language appears not to contain that exact word. Chocolate historians Sophie and Michael Coe believe that Spanish conquerors living in America loved to drink chocolate but resisted the Spanish pronunciation of the Aztec word. Spoken in Spanish it had a "caca" sound at the beginning - reminiscent of the universal children's word for excrement, thus rather unwelcome in elegant society... especially when describing something brown.

Teach International © 2004-2008 196 To overcome this social disability, a sound from another American language - Mayan - drifted into use to make the original Nahuatl word somewhat more respectable-sounding. 'Choco,' (Mayan for 'hot') slid into use to replace the sound 'caca,' (Nahuatl for 'bitter').

The result was a hybrid of two languages - choco-latl which was socially acceptable when spoken in Spanish, and became the basis for one of the best-known international words.

Part Three: Words Words Words

There are lots of words connected with chocolate. Which ones do you recognize?

Nouns: (in no particular order) chocolate , milk chocolate , white chocolate , cocoa , chockie , choc-bar , chocoholic , cocoa butter , cocoa solids , hot chocolate , iced chocolate , chocolate éclair , devil's food cake , ganache , mocha , sacher torte , chocolatier ... (Remember: "chocolate" is uncountable, but "chocolates" - as in "a box of chocolates" - are countable.)

Adjectives: chocolaty or chocolatey , and the interesting chocolate-box - which means being overly sentimental or cutely pretty (for example a photo of a chocolate Labrador with large, sad eyes).

Part Four: Questions Questions Questions

Here are some general knowledge questions.

1. Which are the top three chocolate eating countries in the world (per capita)? Choose from these countries. a. The USA b. Norway c. Germany d. Brazil e. Switzerland f. Belgium g. The United Kingdom 2. What did the Aztecs add to their hot chocolate drink? a. sugar b. chilli c. vanilla 3. How many cups of hot chocolate a day did the Aztec emperor Montezuma drink? a. 5 b. 15 c. 50

Part Five: Did You Know?

Did you know that chocolate...

• contains 'phenyl ethylamine' (try pronouncing that quickly), a chemical which is produced by the brain when you fall in love? • contains iron? (Now you have a good excuse to eat it, you need to keep your strength up!) • contains vitamin B? (A stress relieving vitamin. Every busy teacher needs to manage stress, so eat up!) • is a vegetable? (Remember your mother told you to eat plenty of vegetables!)

For more on chocolate, including its health benefits, see the Instant Lessons Chocolate Help and A Slab of Health .

Word Puzzle: How many English words can you make using the word 'phenyl ethylamine'?

Regards, Max. Vocab.

The Answers: a. First Switzerland, and joint second Norway and the United Kingdom. b. Chilli pepper. c. 50. d. 1657

© 1997-2004. English To Go Limited. All rights reserved. English-To-Go, english-to-go.com , Instant Lessons, Weekly Warmer, Anna Grammar and Max Vocab are the registered trade marks of English To Go Limited. Other trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners and are used with permission. Printed in this manual with permission.

Speaking Activity Books

A Conversation Book I, English in Everyday Life – Tina Kasloff Carver, Prentice Hall This publication is ideal for getting low level students speaking with a variety of activities.

Keep Talking – Friederike Klippel, Cambridge University Press Loads of activities primarily aimed at getting students talking.

Discussions That Work : Task-Centered Fluency Practice – Penny Ur, Cambridge University Press This book is full of good ideas to get higher level students talking.

The Role Play Book – Lesley Painter, English Shop Online 30+ role plays in this book, which encourage communication.

Five Minute Activities – Penny Ur and Wright. Useful activities for the first and last five minutes. Good starting points for longer activities too.

Edutainment: How to Teach Language with Fun and Games – I.E. Hewitt Improve your students' language ability and brighten up even the dourest classroom.

ESL Reading and Spelling: Games, Puzzles, and Inventive Exercises – Imogen Forte. Make your lessons and your students' learning a bit ‘lighter’.

101 Word Games for ESL Students – G.P. McCallum. A book of games that focuses on improving students' vocabulary.

More Print Resources

TESOL Techniques and Procedures – Bowen, J.D, Madsen, H, Hilferty A. (1985) . USA: Newbury House Publishers.

Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language – Celce-Murcia, M. (2001) New York: Heinle and Heinle.

Tapestry Listening and Speaking #1. – Christie, S. (2000) Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publishers. 1 st Edition. NB. Book and cassette, also available - #2, #3, #4.

ESLTeacher’s Activities Kit . – Claire, E. (1988) New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Foley, B.H. (1994) Now Hear This! High Beginning Listening, Speaking and Pronunciation. Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publishers. 2 nd Edition.

Listen to Me! Beginning Listening, Speaking and Pronunciation. – Foley, B.H. (1993) Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publishers. 2 nd Edition

Context and Culture in Language Teaching. – Glissant, E. quoted in C. Kramsch (2001) New York: Oxford University Press, 5 th Edition.

The Practice of English Language Teaching. – Harmer, J. (1991) New York: Longman.

Advanced Idioms and Pronunciation in Context. – Kalkstein Fragiadakis, H. (1996) Thomson Learning. 1 st Edition.

Context and Culture in Language Teaching – Kramsch, C. (2001) New York: Oxford University Press, 5 th Edition.

Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition – Krashen, S.D. (1987) UK: Prentice Hall International Ltd.

nd Let’s Start Talking – Rooks, G.M. (1994) . Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publishers. 2 Edition.

Can’t Stop Talking: Discussion Problems for Advanced Beginners and Low Intermediates – Rooks, G.M. (1990) Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publishers.

The Non Stop Discussion Workbook: Problems for Intermediate and Advanced Students of English – Rooks, G.M. (1998) Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publishers. 2 nd Edition.

Drama in the Curriculum – Somers, J. (1994) London: Cassell Ltd.

Face to Face – Communication, Culture and Collaboration – Vogel Zanger, V. (1993) Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publishers. 2 nd Edition.

Verbal Strategies for Authentic Communication – Wall, A.P. (1998) Say it Naturally Level 1: Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publishers.

Web Resources

Boggle’s World ESL - http://bogglesworldesl.com/ [Accessed July 22, 2004]

English Club - http://www.englishclub.com [Accessed July 22, 2004]

The Internet TESL Journal - http://iteslj.org/ [Accessed July 22 2004]

Resources for English as a Second Language - http://www.usingenglish.com [Accessed July 22, 2004]

English Language Teaching Web - http://www.eltweb.com [Accessed July 22, 2004]

English Zone - http://www.english-zone.com [Accessed July 22, 2004]

ESL Flow - http://www.eslflow.com [Accessed July 22, 2004]

Non Stop English - http://www.nonstopenglish.com [Accessed July 22, 2004]

Unit 10 – Music and Video

In this unit:

Using Music in your ESOL classroom

Why should I use music?

How do I choose the right music?

How can I use music in my Adult ESOL/EFL classroom?

How can I use music in my Children’s ESOL classroom?

Song Ideas – Children

Song Ideas – Adults

Using Video/DVD in your Classroom

Why should I use video/DVD?

What should I consider when choosing video?

How can I use video/DVD in my adult and teenage ESOL classroom?

How can I use video/DVD in my children’s ESOL classroom?

Further Resources

‘Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.’ John Erskine (1879-1951)

Using Music in your ESOL classroom

Do you still remember all the words to the French song ‘Frère Jacques’? At Christmas time, do you sing along with Boney M in the shopping centres to ‘Feliz Navidad?’ Remember that pop song from the 80s – ‘Mr. Roboto, domo arigato’? If you can answer yes to any of those questions, you can understand how valuable music is for learning language. Music is fun, memorable and addictive – it’s a fantastic way for you to teach and practise English in your classroom.

Why should I use music?

To reinforce vocabulary or grammatical structures you have taught To build listening comprehension To introduce new and interesting topics To expand cultural knowledge To increase reading and writing skills It’s fun!

How do I choose the right music?

Develop ESOL ears ! Try to listen to music as a learner as well as a teacher.

Is it clear? More than anything, the lyrics must be clear and the words enunciated well. Also, make sure the music never drowns out the words.

Is it catchy? It doesn’t necessarily have to be a fast-paced rhythm, but make sure the song doesn’t drag on. Do you like ‘Hotel California’ by the Eagles? If you’ve ever used it in the classroom or sung it at karaoke, you know that it never ends! If songs are slow, they should be short. You’ll probably be listening to it a few times in one class.

Is the vocabulary and grammar at the right level? Your students should know at least 80 per cent of the vocabulary. Don’t make it a frustrating, unenjoyable experience by overwhelming your students with new words and structures.

Are the lyrics appropriate? Avoid profanity or expressions that are culturally or religiously inappropriate.

Is it a song genre your students will enjoy? Choose songs that they like, not just songs that you like. Choosing the classics (like the Beatles) is usually a safe bet. It’s also a good idea to use songs that you think they will likely hear again. Think reinforcement!

Always, always listen to songs before using them in the classroom. Double-check all the points above, and listen with your ESOL ears so you have no surprises when you use the song in your lesson.

Where can I find songs?

You can use your own CDs or music collection, you can borrow music from the school, your friends or even your students. Perhaps the school will let you build up a song library.

You can also download almost any song you choose from the Internet. To do this legally, you can go through sites that sell individual songs, the most popular of which are www.itunes.com and www.mp3.com . If you’re not comfortable with downloading music, burning CDs etc., stick to the more traditional ways mentioned above. Teach International © 2004-2008 203 Where can I find song lyrics?

Okay, you don’t have to sit and listen to a song five times and laboriously write out the words. That is so last millennium ! You’ll be able to find the lyrics for ANY commercial song online. There are a few ways to get the lyrics you need: 1. If you know the song title – go to www.google.com and type in the song name and the word ‘lyrics’. For example: “ Blue Suede Shoes Lyrics ”.

2. Alternately, you can go to one of the many excellent lyrics search engines on the Internet. Try www.lyrics.astraweb.com , www.thesonglyrics.com , or www.lyricsworld.com . You’ll soon find your favourite site for lyrics. [All accessed: July 2004]

3. If you only remember a few words of the song and not the title or artist – Go to www.google.com , and click on ‘advanced search’. Continue in the first section there. If you remember at least one phrase in the song, you should be able to find the song lyrics.

Keep in mind: Some songs have different versions of lyrics floating around! Avoid embarrassment or time-wasting in the classroom - make sure the lyrics you print out are the same as the ones in the song you play in the classroom!

How can I use music in my adult ESOL classroom?

Using music, like so many aspects of teaching, is about being resourceful and creative. There’s no limit to the ways you can bring music into your classroom. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Cloze exercises

This is the most common use of music in the ESOL classroom. ‘Cloze’ means you provide most of the lyrics but leave blanks for the students to fill in. See the worksheets on the following pages for some great cloze exercises you can use. Cloze exercises can be used in a variety of ways. Here’s one way:

1. Have the students turn their worksheets to the back (blank) right away.

2. Play the song and have them write down any words or expressions they hear and understand. Depending on the song, you may do this twice.

3. Have them turn their papers over again and look at the lyrics that are there. Play the song a couple of times while they listen and fill in the blanks.

4. Take up the activity, and have them share their answers. Explain vocabulary and expressions as needed, and discuss the song. Especially make sure they understand the words and structures that you planned to reinforce, that is, the vocabulary and the grammar.

5. Play the song again and have them join in and sing. Work on intonation, pronunciation and stress with them.

When your exercise is over, they should have the song in their heads, but wanting to hear it again. It is unfortunate if they leave thinking, ‘I never want to hear that song again’!

1. Give each student an empty Bingo worksheet (ideally 16 boxes of 4 X 4).

2. On the board, write down 16 target words from the song you are going to use. (Remember they should be words they have already learnt!)

3. Have them fill the 16 words into their Bingo cards in random order.

4. Play the song a few times.

5. The class can then cross out each word as they hear it. You can vary the difficulty. Let them fill in one line. Or the whole card. To make it even harder, tell them they have to write out the complete sentence that they hear before they can claim a word.

6. Be creative! There are so many ways to use ‘Bingo’ in the classroom.

Strip songs

No, this is not when you do some dirty dancing in the classroom! For strip songs, cut up the complete version of the lyrics into strips of one sentence each and have the students put them together as they listen to the music. Another version: You can do the same thing but hand out one or two strips to each student. When they hear their line, they have to come up and put it on the table at the front. See if the whole class can reconstruct the song.

Finding errors Add some mistakes to the complete lyrics and have the students spot them. You can replace words with others that sound similar (for instance, replace ‘chair’ with ‘share’), you can make spelling mistakes, you can put some words in twice, or take some words completely out. Try to focus on the target language.

Other ideas:

1. Have the students stand up each time they hear a certain expression or word in a song. Then they sit down when they hear it again. At the end of the class you may have half the students standing and half sitting!

2. After working with the song, follow up with group discussions on the topic or the situation of the song. Many songs tell a story!

3. Add a twist to make cloze exercises more challenging and fun: have two different versions (i.e. remove different words) so students can take it up with a partner.

4. Running dictation: Put students in pairs. One sits and writes, the other runs to where the song lyrics are posted on the wall, memorises a line and goes back to dictate it to their partner. You can have them switch after each line. When they are all done, play the song so they can fix some of their mistakes. You can jumble the sentences for the dictation too, and have them cut it up and reassemble it once they listen to the song.

5. Cut song lyrics into strips and give each student a strip. Play the song and have them stand in order according to the lyrics as they hear them. It can get complicated and fun if you give each student two or three lines!

6. Some cultures connect strongly with musical theatre. Bring some Broadway songs into your classroom!

Teach International © 2004-2008 205 7. Prepare about ten song clips. Give the students one key word to listen for in each clip. For example, with a clip from ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ (U2) ask them to listen for a day of the week. Or a clip from ‘Wonderful World’ (Louis Armstrong) and ask them to listen for a colour. (“trees of green, skies of blue”). Don’t give them the titles of the songs – that will often give it away!

8. Omit rhyming words and have students try to guess them.

9. Get your students (in groups) to write and perform their songs using familiar tunes. Or YOU make up songs to perfectly suit your language objectives!

10. For beginner classes, you can put the missing words at the bottom of the page.

11. Ask students for some of their favourite English songs. Decide if they are appropriate and work them into your lessons.

12. Try to use music from singers all over the world. There are some famous singers that sing in English as a second language (for example, Ricky Martin, Abba, Shakira).

13. You can number each of the blanks, lines or verses in your cloze exercises to make take-ups easier.

Music in the Adults’ ESOL Classroom - Helpful websites

Using Music in the Adult ESL/EFL Classroom http://www.cal.org/ncle/digests/music.htm [Accessed: July 2004] Interested in some of the research done into the use of music in the adult literacy classroom? This article from the Digest at the National Centre for ESL Literacy Education will intrigue you.

ESL Through Music http://www.forefrontpublishers.com/eslmusic/index.htm Interesting articles on language acquisition through music and an electronic ‘lesson swap’ meet where you can use and share musical ESOL lesson plan ideas! [Accessed: July 2004]

ESL-Lounge Songstop http://www.esl-lounge.com/songstop.shtml Some good ideas on how to use songs in the classroom, and lyrics and grammar connection ideas for dozens of songs. [Accessed: July 2004]

Conversation Questions about Music http://iteslj.org/questions/music.html [Accessed: July 2004] Get your students talking about music. Here are some excellent ideas to get the conversation moving.

Global Pop Charts http://www.lanet.lv/misc/charts/ Not sure what’s hip in the world of popular music these days? Check out the pop charts from around the world. [Accessed: July 2004]

Remember:

Songs should be chosen with a purpose and a plan. Don’t use music just as a filler or a lazy alternative.

For the gaps in your cloze exercises, don’t choose words that your students haven’t already learnt!

Always, always pre-listen to the music.

Always take up the work assignments, and allow the class to sing along with all the words in front of them.

Occasionally pull up some of the songs you’ve worked on in the past. The students will enjoy singing them again, and it’s another excellent way to reinforce the language learnt.

How can I use music in my Children’s ESOL classroom?

If you love kids and enjoy ESOL kids’ classrooms, then you will probably quite naturally bring children’s music into class. If you’re completely new to teaching kids, and are a bit overwhelmed and bewildered by it all, then you’ll find music to be a wonderful tool to help you reach your goals as a teacher. The beauty of using music with children is that they so seldom feel the reservations that we as adults do when it comes to singing. They love music, singing and dancing! Use this to your advantage. Leave your dignity at the door – if you can be expressive and silly, your students will respond in great ways.

Here are some ideas for using music in your kids’ classroom:

Songs, rhymes and chants – Think back to the songs you first learnt as a child. So many of these are appropriate for your English classroom, and easily adapted. Use familiar tunes and make your own words! Chants such as ‘Eeny Meeny Miny Mo’ are fun too!

Finger plays – Finger plays are usually chants or songs accompanied by movements of hands and fingers to emphasise key vocabulary. Remember ‘Three little blackbirds’ or ‘Round and round the garden’? See the helpful websites on the next for some good fingerplay ideas for your classroom.

Background music – If your primary students are colouring or doing a quiet activity in the classroom, you can play soft background English songs. If they hear the “colour song” or the “days of the week” song again and again, they’ll soon be subconsciously singing along.

Dance and movement – Children love to move – getting them up and out of their seats and giving them actions and fun rhythms to songs is another great tool to help them memorise the songs you are teaching. Songs like ‘I’m a little teapot’ or the ‘Eensy weensy spider’ depend on actions to make them fun and meaningful for children.

Daily routines – Start a classroom routine of singing the ‘Good morning’ song when students enter, or the ‘Clean up song’ when cleaning up the classroom. Don’t know these songs? Ask one of your co-teachers.

For the kids’ classroom – remember:

Choose songs carefully. Not all English children’s songs are appropriate – even though five-year old native English speakers sing kiddy songs, they are already fluent in English! Choose songs that use language your students will find useful.

At the same time, your students don’t need to understand the whole song. They will sing along and make up words or sing what they think they hear. They will eventually learn more and more. What fun to watch a student make the connection between the shape ‘diamond’ in his/her English book and the word ‘diamond’ in the song ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’!

Repetition is the key. Sing songs again and again. You’ll know quickly which songs are your students’ favourites. Be glad they want to sing them.

Be sure to use text from the songs in your everyday language so your students make the connections.

You can hold up big flashcards to prompt your students as they sing. Make some good, big colourful ones that you can use again and again!

Music in the Children’s ESOL Classroom – Helpful websites

Finger plays and action rhymes http://members.tripod.com/~ESL4Kids/fingerplays.html [Accessed: July 2004] Includes ten appropriate finger plays for the ESL/EFL classroom and teaching strategies.

ESL4Kids http://members.tripod.com/~ESL4Kids/songs.html [Accessed: July 2004] A list of some great kids’ songs with complete lyrics.

Musical Activities for Young Learners of EFL http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Cakir-MusicalActivities.html [Accessed: July 2004] From a University in Turkey, some great ideas for teaching kids and teens through music.

ESLkidstuff http://www.eslkidstuff.com/Song_Sheet_Menu.htm [Accessed: July 2004] A few useful kids’ songs, accompanied by beautiful printable colour flash cards!

Alice the camel Hokey pokey Rainbow song Ants go marching I love you, you love me Shoo fly Apples and bananas I’m a little teapot Six little ducks Baa baa black sheep If you’re happy and you know it The eensy weensy spider Do your ears hang low? It’s a small world The more we get together Down by the bay London bridge The wheels on the bus Farmer in the dell My bonnie lies over the ocean Three blind mice Happy birthday Oh mister sun Three little monkeys Heads and shoulders Old McDonald had a farm Twinkle, twinkle little star Hickory dickory dock Puff the magic dragon You are my sunshine

Song Ideas – Adults

Target Language Song title Artist Notes ‘What a…!’ Oh what a night! Frankie Vallie ‘Would’ Octopus Garden Ringo Starr Also lots of prepositions Adjectives Hand in my pocket Alanis Poor but … Morissette Broke but… Lost but… Comparatives/Superlatives My Love Petula Clark So cheesy but so good for this grammar point! Conditional 1 Moonshadow Cat Stevens Good addition of ‘ever’ (If I ever…) Conditional 1 San Francisco Scott McCranzy Conditional 2 Hero Enrique Iglesias Lots of use of ‘would’ in question form Conditional 2 If I had a million dollars Barenaked Fun, lots of repetition Ladies Conditional 2 Time in a bottle Jim Croce Conditional 2 Tears in Heaven Eric Clapton Conditional 2 If I had a hammer Pete Seeger Conditionals 1 and 2 Change Lisa Stansfield Also present perfect Future continuous Every breath you take The Police Great rhyming (‘I’ll be watching you’) Idioms of strength Back down Tom Petty Great idioms like ‘stand me up, back down, drag me down’, etc. Imperatives, Adjectives I can’t make you love me George Michael ‘Make’ somebody do something Modal ‘may’ She Elvis Costello Lots of use of ‘may’ Modals + perfect infinitives The day before you came ABBA (eg. might have done) Opposites Hello, Goodbye The Beatles Present Perfect I have seen it all Bjork She sings in ESL! Present Perfect tense I still haven’t found what I’m U2 looking for Simple past and present The girl from yesterday Eagles Simple past tense Because you loved me Celine Dion Simple past tense Seasons in the Sun Terry Jacks Simple Present Piano man Billy Joel Simple present tense She loves you The Beatles Good for students having trouble adding ‘s’ to third person singular Simple present tense I feel fine The Beatles Useful language: ‘She said so’ and ‘you know’ Simple present tense Can’t help falling in love with Elvis Presley ‘Can’t help ---ing’; also you imperatives Used to This used to be my playground Madonna Wish + could California girls The Beach Boys

I'm broke but I'm happy Teachers: I'm poor but I'm kind I'm short but I'm healthy, yeah I'm high but I'm grounded

I'm sane but I'm overwhelmed Have your students - I'm lost but I'm hopeful baby as a class or in pairs - What it all comes down to try to guess the words Is that everything's gonna be fine fine fine that go in the blanks I've got one hand in my pocket before listening to the And the other one is giving a high five song. I feel drunk but I'm sober

I'm young and I'm underpaid Spend some time I'm tired but I'm working, yeah teaching the I care but I'm restless expression “What it all I'm here but I'm really gone comes down to” before I'm wrong and I'm sorry baby you do this song! What it all comes down to

Is that everything's gonna be quite alright How many I've got one hand in my pocket descriptive And the other one is flicking a cigarette adjectives can And what it all comes down to your students find Is that I haven't got it all figured out just yet in this song? I've got one hand in my pocket And the other one is giving the peace sign I'm free but I'm focused I'm green but I'm wise I'm hard but I'm friendly baby I'm sad but I'm laughing I'm brave but I'm chickenshit I'm sick but I'm pretty baby And what it all boils down to Is that no one's really got it figured out just yet I've got one hand in my pocket And the other one is playing the piano And what it all comes down to my friends Is that everything's just fine fine fine I've got one hand in my pocket And the other one is hailing a taxi cab

I'm broke but I'm ______I'm poor but I'm ______I'm short but I'm ______, yeah I'm ______but I'm grounded I'm sane but I'm ______I'm ______but I'm hopeful baby What it all comes down to Is that everything's gonna be fine fine fine I've got one hand in my pocket And the other one is giving a ______I feel ______but I'm sober I'm ______and I'm underpaid I'm tired but I'm ______, yeah I ______but I'm restless I'm ______but I'm really gone I'm wrong and I'm ______baby What it all comes down to Is that everything's gonna be quite alright I've got one hand in my pocket And the other one is flicking a ______And what it all comes down to Is that I haven't got it all figured out ______I've got one hand in my pocket And the other one is giving the ______I'm ______but I'm focused I'm ______but I'm wise I'm hard but I'm ______baby I'm sad but I'm ______I'm ______but I'm chickenshit I'm sick but I'm ______baby And what it all boils down to Is that no one's really got it figured out just yet I've got one hand in my pocket And the other one is playing the ______And what it all comes down to my friends Is that everything's just fine fine fine I've got one hand in my pocket And the other one is hailing a ______cab

I've seen it all, I have seen the trees I've seen the willow leaves dancing in the breeze I've seen a friend killed by a friend And lives that were over before they were ______. I've seen what I was - I know what I'll be I've seen it all - there is no more to see!

You haven't seen elephants, kings or Peru! I'm happy to say I had better to do What about China? Have you seen the Great Wall? All walls are great, if the roof doesn't fall!

And the man you will marry? The home you will share? To be honest, I really don't care...

You've never been to Niagara Falls? I have seen water, its water, that's all... The Eiffel Tower, the Empire State? My pulse was as high on my very first date! Your grandson's hand as he plays with your hair? To be honest, I really don't care...

I've seen it all, I've seen the dark I've seen the brightness in one little spark. I've seen what I chose and I've seen what I need, Teachers:

And that is enough, to want more would be greed. This is a great song to reinforce the present I've seen what I was and I know what I'll be perfect tense.

I've seen it all - there is no more to see! Have you or students seen the movie “Dancing in the Dark”? It’s worth mentioning to them that the character who sings this You've seen it all and all you have seen song in the movie (played by Bjork) is almost You can always review on your own little screen blind when she sings this song.

The light and the dark, the big and the small Ask your students to ask each other what Just keep in mind - you need no more at all they have seen. Expand it to what they have done, eaten, etc. Where have they been? You've seen what you were and know what you'll be You've seen it all - there is no more to see!

-Bjorke

I've seen it all, I have seen the ______I've seen the willow leaves dancing in the ______I've seen a friend killed by a ______, And lives that were over before they were ______. I've seen what I was - I know what I'll ______I've seen it all - there is no ______to see!

You haven't seen elephants, kings or ______! I'm happy to say I had better to do What about ______? Have you seen the Great Wall? All walls are great, if the roof doesn't ______!

And the ______you will marry? The ______you will share? To be ______, I really don't care...

You've never been to ______? I have seen water, its ______, that's all... The ______Tower, the Empire State? My pulse was as high on my very first ______! Your grandson's hand as he plays with your ______? To be ______, I really don't care...

I've seen it all, I've seen the ______I've seen the brightness in one little ______. I've seen what I chose and I've seen what I ______, And that is enough, to want more would be ______. I've seen what I was and I know what I'll ______I've seen it all - there is no ______to see!

You've seen it all and all you have seen You can always ______on your own little screen The ______and the dark, the ______and the small Just keep in mind - you need no more at all You've seen what you were and know what you'll be You've seen it all - there is no ______to see!

-Bjork

Love me tender, love me sweet, never let me go

You have made my life ______and I ______so

Love me tender, love me true, all ______fulfil

For, my darlin', I love you and ______

Love me tender, love me long, take me ______

For it's there that I ______and we'll ______part

Love me tender, love me true, all ______fulfil

For, my darlin', I love you and ______

Love me tender, love me ______, tell me ______

I'll be yours ______all the ______till the ______

Love me tender, love me true, all ______fulfil

For, my darlin', I love you and ______

Love me tender, love me sweet, never let me go

You have made my life complete and I love you so

Love me tender, love me true, all my dreams fulfil

For, my darlin', I love you and I always will

Love me tender, love me long, take me to your heart

For it's there that I belong and we'll never part

Love me tender, love me true, all my dreams fulfil

For, my darlin', I love you and I always will

Love me tender, love me dear, tell me you are mine

I'll be yours through all the years till the end of time

Love me tender, love me true, all my dreams fulfil

For, my darlin', I love you and I always will

Would you ______if I asked you to ______? Would you ______and never ______? Would you ______if you saw me ______? And would you ______my soul, ______?

Would you tremble if I ______your ______? Would you laugh? Oh ______tell ______would you ______for the ______you loved? ______me in your ______, ______

______, ______

Would you swear that ______be mine? Or would you lie? Would you run and hide? Am I in ______? Have I ______my ______? I ______... You're ______

______

Oh, I just want to hold you I just want to hold you Am I in ______? Have I ______my ______? Well, I ______... You're ______

I can …

Would you dance if I asked you to dance? Would you run and never look back? Would you cry if you saw me crying? And would you save my soul, tonight?

Would you tremble if I touched your lips? Would you laugh? Oh please tell me this Now would you die for the one you loved? Hold me in your arms, tonight

I can be your hero, baby I can kiss away the pain I will stand by you forever You can take my breath away

Would you swear that you'll always be mine? Or would you lie? Would you run and hide? Am I in too deep? Have I lost my mind? I don't care... You're here tonight

I can be your hero, baby I can kiss away the pain I will stand by you forever You can take my breath away

Oh, I just want to hold you I just want to hold you Am I in too deep? Have I lost my mind? Well I don't care... You're here tonight

I can …

I'm sitting in the ______Got a ______for my destination. Make sentences using the following words: On a ______of one-night stands, • bound My ______and ______in hand • to long for And ev'ry ______is neatly ______• destination For a ______and a one-man ______Homeward bound I wish I was homeward bound

Home, where my thoughts ______Home, where my ______Home, where my ______lies ______

______day's an ______stream Of ______and ______And each town looks the same to me The ______and the ______And every ______I see ______me that I long to be Homeward bound Mmm, I wish I was homeward bound

Home, where my thoughts ______Home, where my ______Home, where my ______lies ______homeward bound ______Homeward means “toward home” To be bound somewhere means to be going in that direction. (ex. This train is Tokyo bound). ______I'll ______my ______again, I'll ______the ______and pretend. destination But all my ______come ______to me Your destination is the place where you are In shades of mediocrity, going. If you are the bus to New York City, then Like ______in harmony New York City is your destination. I need ______to ______me Homeward bound one-night stand I wish I was homeward bound A performance by a travelling musical or dramatic performer or group in one place on one night only. Home, where my thoughts ______Home, where my ______to long for something Home, where my ______lies ______This means to have a strong desire for ______something, usually something you cannot have ______mediocrity If something is mediocre , it is low quality, ordinary. Mediocrity is the noun form.

I'm sitting in the railway station, Make sentences using the following words: Got a ticket for my destination. • bound On a tour of one-night stands, • to long for My suitcase and guitar in hand. • destination And ev'ry stop is neatly planned For a poet and a one-man band.

Homeward bound, I wish I was homeward bound, Home, where my thoughts escaping, Home, where my music's playing, Home, where my love lies waiting Silently for me.

Ev'ry day's an endless stream Of cigarettes and magazines. And each town looks the same to me, The movies and the factories, And every stranger's face I see Reminds me that I long to be

Homeward bound, I wish I was homeward bound, Home, where my thoughts escaping, Home, where my music's playing, homeward bound Home, where my love lies waiting Homeward means “toward home” Silently for me. To be bound somewhere means to be going in that direction. (ex. This train is Tokyo bound). Tonight I'll sing my songs again, destination I'll play the game and pretend. Your destination is the place where you are But all my words come back to me going. If you are the bus to New York City, then In shades of mediocrity, New York City is your destination. Like emptiness in harmony I need someone to comfort me. one-night stand A performance by a travelling musical or Homeward bound, dramatic performer or group in one place on one I wish I was homeward bound, night only. Home, where my thoughts escaping, Home, where my music's playing, to long for something This means to have a strong desire for Home, where my love lies waiting something, usually something you cannot have Silently for me. Silently for me. mediocrity If something is mediocre , it is low quality, ordinary. Mediocrity is the noun form.

Louis Armstrong

I see ______of ______, Red ______too I see them bloom For ______and ______And I ______to ______”What a wonderful world” I see ______of ______And ______of ______The ______blessed ______, The ______sacred ______And I ______to ______”What a wonderful world” The ______of the ______So ______in the ______Are also on the ______Of ______going by I see friends shaking hands Saying “how do you do” They're really saying ”______” I hear ______crying, bloom – I watch them grow blessed – They'll learn much more Than I'll ever ______sacred –

And I ______to ______What a wonderful world Yes I ______to ______”What a wonderful world”

Louis Armstrong

I see trees of green, Red roses too I see them bloom For me and you And I think to myself ”What a wonderful world” I see skies of blue And clouds of white The bright blessed day, The dark sacred night And I think to myself ”What a wonderful world” The colours of the rainbow So pretty in the sky Are also on the faces Of people going by I see friends shaking hands Saying how do you do They're really saying ”I love you” I hear babies crying, I watch them grow bloom – They'll learn much more Than I'll ever know blessed – And I think to myself sacred – What a wonderful world Yes I think to myself ”What a wonderful world”

You come on like a dream, ______and cream Lips like ______You're ______, you're ______and you're ______You're all ribbons and curls, ooh, what a ______Eyes that sparkle and ______You're ______, you're ______and you're ______You're my ______, you're my ______We fell in love on the ______we met

You ______my hand, my heart went “pop” Ooh, when we ______I could not ______You walked out of my dreams and ______my arms Now you're my ______divine You're ______, you're ______and you're ______[break ] You're my ______, you're my ______We fell in love on the ______we met You ______my hand, my heart went “pop” Ooh, when we ______I could not ______You walked out of my dreams and ______my car Now you're my ______divine You're ______, you're ______and you're ______You're ______, you're ______and you're ______You're ______, ______and you're ______All ______, all ______, all ______, All ______, all ______, all ______,

You come on like a dream, peaches and cream Lips like strawberry wine You're sixteen, you're beautiful and you're mine You're all ribbons and curls, ooh, what a girl Eyes that sparkle and shine You're sixteen, you're beautiful and you're mine You're my baby, you're my pet We fell in love on the night we met

You touched my hand, my heart went “pop” Ooh, when we kissed I could not stop You walked out of my dreams and into my arms Now you're my angel divine You're sixteen, you're beautiful and you're mine

[break ]

You're my baby, you're my pet We fell in love on the night we met You touched my hand, my heart went “pop” Ooh, when we kissed I could not stop

You walked out of my dreams, and into my car Now you're my angel divine You're sixteen, you're beautiful, and you're mine You're sixteen, you’re beautiful, and you're mine You're sixteen, so beautiful, and you're mine All mine, all mine, all mine, all mine, all mine, all mine

Millions of people around the world LOVE movies and television. We go to the movies, we watch television at home everyday, we hire videos, we buy DVDs, we watch them over and over again…Why not use this wonderful (and so loved!) tool in the English classroom? Well, no reason! As long as your school has the necessary equipment, there is no excuse!

This is another way yet to make the language memorable. We all remember phrases from our favourite movies (‘That’s a little more information than I needed Vincent’), and often times they become part of popular culture; such is the influence of media and entertainment.

Why should I use video/DVD?

To reinforce vocabulary or grammatical structures you have taught. To teach slang and colloquialisms in context. To build listening comprehension. To generate interest by using a different medium. To cater to different learning styles (visual, auditory, etc.). To present authentic language (as opposed to ‘designed-for-ESOL’). To introduce new and interesting topics. To expand cultural knowledge. To increase reading and writing skills. To introduce variety. It’s fun!

What kind of material can I use?

So many! Here are some:

Films Film previews News reports Sitcoms Popular Australian or New Zealand shows Commercials Documentaries Travel shows Cooking shows Talk shows Children’s shows Current affairs shows ETC.

What should I consider when choosing video?

As with music, develop ESOL ears and eyes! I have spent many nights watching movies with friends, thinking ‘wow, that dialogue would be great for my beginner class!’

Length. This is vital! If you choose a movie, you do not play the WHOLE movie! That would take 90 minutes and it wouldn’t teach students anything. You need to use this as a tool for teaching, not solely for a bit of light fun. The fun is an added bonus. Usually, teachers choose a scene or more, no longer than 10 minutes. This is an approximate length. The higher the level, the longer the pieces they can handle and vice versa. So it can vary between one and fifteen minutes. This also depends on the length of the lesson, on whether you are using video for the whole lesson or just as a quick warm-up.

Clarity. This will obviously depend on the level, but you should usually choose material that is clear and that doesn’t contain (too much) bad language.

Teach International © 2004-2008 224 Interesting. Your adult students would love to watch a bit from ‘JFK’, while your teenagers might find it a complete bore and prefer something like ‘Legally Blonde’ or ’Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.

Level of vocabulary and grammar. This sounds like a difficult task; however, if you think about it, there are many scenes from movies and TV shows that use relatively beginner- like language. Think about scenes where people introduce themselves, or are just getting to know each other (‘I’m Monica. Nice to meet you. What do you do?’ Etc.) Your students don’t have to know ALL the words, as long as they know enough to follow the thread and understand the main ideas.

Always, always pre-screen videos/DVDs before using them in the classroom. Double-check all the points above, and listen and watch with your ESOL ears and eyes so you have no surprises when you use it in your lesson.

Where can I find videos/DVDs?

1. Be prepared! Be resourceful! Prepare some tapes before you go overseas. If you manage to record two five-hour tapes, you will have ten hours worth of material! The other teachers at your school will be so grateful. The best thing about this is that television in our country is in English! Include a little bit of everything: a couple of movies, a few popular shows, etc. (check the list above).

2. Your school may have some videos or DVDs as part of their resources. Why not offer to buy some more for them before you go? They can reimburse you for the expense and will be very appreciative. Find out what videotape system or DVD zone they use before buying anything.

3. Take some of your own videos/DVDs or buy some. Today you can find affordable DVDs in many shops, both movies and television shows. Again, keep in mind different systems and zones.

Where can I find movie/TV scripts?

The Internet, where else?! Once you have chosen what you are going to use, it is extremely easy to find the script online:

1. Go to a search engine such as www.google.com and type in the title of the movie or TV show and the word ‘script’ or ‘script guide’.

2. Alternately, you can go to one of the many excellent script sites:

http://www.script-o-rama.com (movies and TV) [Accessed: July 2004] http://www.allmoviescripts.com (Movies) [Accessed: July 2004] http://simplyscripts.com/tv.html (TV) [Accessed: July 2004]

Teach International © 2004-2008 225 Keep in mind: Some sites are created by fans of the movies or shows in question, so may contain mistakes. Make sure the script you use is the same as the one in the piece you play in the classroom!

How can I use video/DVD in my adult and teenage ESOL classroom?

Using video/DVD is an excellent way to break the routine and show your creative and resourceful side. There’s no limit to the ways you can use it in the classroom.

Here is a general method:

1. Pre-viewing

Before you even hit ‘play’, do a pre-viewing activity. You can:

Ask them to guess what they are going to watch. In groups or pairs, they can write down as many ideas as they can think of in two minutes.

Same as above, but write some key words on the board and brainstorm as a class.

Ask them to discuss in groups how they feel about a particular situation or topic (related to the piece you will show). For example: If you are going to show a bit from ‘Forrest Gump’, you could ask them to discuss disabilities, or chocolates, or…. ping pong!

Offer the title of the movie or show it and ask who has seen it, what they thought, etc.

The first time you hit ‘play’ turn the volume completely down. Show them the whole piece or just the beginning (this is up to you) without the sound. Then, in groups or pairs, ask them to:

Brainstorm. What did they observe? What is the situation? What are the characters doing? What is their mood? Where are they? What is the relationship between the characters? When is the action taking place (time of day, period in history) Can they remember the weather, clothing, objects, number of characters, etc.

Predict. If you only showed them the first bit, they can predict what is going to happen next. Ask them to do this in detail and to decide on an ending. Later, they can confirm whether they were right. If you are using a commercial, can they tell what the product advertised is?

Role-Play. Students discuss what they would do if they were in the situation shown. Alternatively, have students create dialogues from the scenes they watched without the sound.

2. Viewing

General Viewing

Once they are somewhat familiar with the material, or at least the beginning, play the piece again with the sound on. Depending on its length, you may choose to play the whole bit at once or in chunks. Let them watch and listen first. Then give them a worksheet containing one or more of the following activities. Get them to work in groups or pairs.

Teach International © 2004-2008 226 Comprehension questions. Include a few ‘general idea’ questions. They can be open- ended (‘What was the tall man doing?’), Yes/No (‘Was the man tall?’), True or False statements (‘The man was tall’ T or F?), Multiple-Choice (‘The man was: a. tall b. short c. fat d. blonde’ ) and inference (when the answer is not implicit, but rather can be deducted from the situation or action). The last kind, though, might be too difficult at this stage. You need to decide whether your students have the ability.

Summarising. This is a common technique. Students watch and then, in their groups, summarise what they have seen. You can give them some guidelines, such as ‘discuss the action orally and then write a 6-line summary’, if you wish.

Strip lines. Again, this is not the dirty variety! Write a few ‘main idea’ sentences about the piece, cut them into strips and give a set to each group. When they finish watching, they have to put the sentences in the correct sequence.

Back-to-Back. In pairs back-to-back, one student faces the TV, (the watcher), and the other away from the TV, (the writer). Play a short chunk of the video (making sure it is an interesting scene). Stop the video and ask the ‘watchers’ to explain to their partner what they saw, in order, while the writer takes notes. Continue with another chunk of video and repeat the procedure. Have students change places and roles, without comparing notes yet! Play another two chunks of video for the new watcher and writer. Give students a couple of minutes to check their notes together. Either take the activity up as a class, (‘What did you see?) or play the entire piece again, with everyone watching, and have them check off the points they wrote down. As a bonus, have a list of questions (details) about the video, and have students compete in pairs to see how many they can answer correctly. (The success of this activity depends on careful preparation and choosing an appropriate section of video.)

Narration. Have them create their own narration for a scene, (eg. Think of the value of your students being able to practise the present continuous tense as they narrate a soccer game they are watching. He is running! He is shooting for the goal! )

Detailed Viewing

After the general viewing, go into some detail. You can work specifically on one section of the piece, or on the whole, depending on length and time available.

Cloze exercises. You’ve read about this in the music and listening section. This is a very common technique in TESOL. You could use the entire script and give each group a chunk with some blanks, so at the end the whole script would be complete (the effectiveness of this depends on the length of the script and the level of your students). Cloze exercises are great because you can target whatever language you need. For example, to reinforce simple past verbs, simply blank out all the verbs that are in the past.

Vocabulary building. Ask groups to jot down particular words or phrases when they hear them. Every group can listen for the same type of word or different (depending on ability and your focus). For example: verbs, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, nouns (all parts of speech), or slang and colloquial expressions, or items of clothing, office, home, or … well, just about anything! They can also jot down if they see (not just hear) one of these words, for example: ‘We heard ‘scarf’ and ‘gloves’ and we saw a coat, trousers and a skirt’.

Finding errors. Give each group a worksheet with some lines from the video, but add some mistakes. They need to listen and correct them.

Teach International © 2004-2008 227 Determine the function. In films or TV shows, the characters are always doing something, trying to achieve something, trying to avoid something, etc. These are all functions, and they use language to perform them. Make a list of the characters involved and ask students in groups or pairs to watch for the functions. For example: Throughout the piece, Jack apologised (to his girlfriend), requested permission to leave early (from his boss), arranged a meeting (with a colleague) and refused an invitation (to a party). These are all language functions.

Comprehension questions. Of course you can use the same questions detailed above, but make them a lot more specific. Perhaps a few detailed questions for each group on different parts of the video.

Other tips

To make cloze exercises more challenging and fun, have two different versions (i.e. remove different words) so students can take it up with a partner.

Cut lines from the script into strips and give one to each student. Play the bit and have them stand in order according to the lines as they hear/see them. It can get complicated and fun if you give each student two or three lines!

Help beginners by giving them plenty of structure and language; for example, in a cloze exercise, put the missing words at the bottom of the page.

Ask students for some of their favourite movies or shows in English. Decide if they are appropriate and, if you can get them, work them into your lessons. Perhaps they can bring in some of their DVDs? If the have subtitles, stick a strip of paper across the bottom of the screen to cover them.

Don’t be afraid to use films or shows with ESL/EFL speakers, such as Salma Hayek, Gerard Depardieu, Antonio Banderas, etc. It is good for them to be exposed to as many English speakers as possible.

3. Post-viewing

By now, your students have watched the material a few times. It’s time to get them to practise some of the language or functions learnt and to give the lesson closure.

Role-Play. Another popular technique in TESOL is role-play. They can follow the script and act out the scenes, or, do it without a script (again, depending on level and confidence).

Change the ending. In groups, students come up with a different ending to the story. This can be a written exercise, a prepared talk or a role-play.

Review. Students can write a review on the material. You could ask different groups to do it from a specific point of view, for example, one group write an outstanding review, another group a bad review, another group an indifferent review, etc.

Write a letter or e-mail. In groups, students write a letter of admiration, support, complaint, etc. to the director, main actor, producer, costume designer, etc.

Discussion and debates. Students discuss as a class or in groups the topics or issues they saw. They can agree or disagree. For example, if you have watched a bit from ‘You’ve got mail’ the class can discuss the use of e-mail and messenger, Internet relationships, etc.

Interviews. In pairs or groups, one student can be the reporter and the other/s the actors or director of the piece. Give them some guidance: brainstorm some questions with the class first, and then let them go.

Create an advertisement. If you used a commercial, ask them to create another ad for the same product, or another. If you used a movie or show, ask them to create an ad for it, or a tag line.

The above is a general method for working with video/DVD. Be inventive! Just like with activities in the classroom, you can adapt almost anything and incorporate it into your video/DVD activities.

Remember:

Like music, video/DVD should be chosen with a purpose and a plan. Don’t use it as a filler or a lazy alternative.

Always, always watch the piece first and prepare it.

Check your equipment before the class and make sure you know how to operate it. There is no bigger ‘pace-killer’ than fumbling around with the remote trying to find the ‘play’ button!

Always take up the work assignments and make sure everyone is following and understanding.

How can I use video/DVD in my children’s ESOL classroom?

As with music, children will enjoy the change provided by the moving image. There are many children’s programs and movies you can use with them: The Wiggles, High-Five, Sesame Street, Disney movies, Shrek and other animated films, and even certain cartoons.

Here are some tips:

Keep it short and sweet. One or two-minute bits are probably enough for young children, and up to 5 minutes for older kids. It is a good idea to watch a bit, do an activity, watch another bit, do another activity, and so on.

Work visually. With kids, even more than with adults, focus especially on the image over the language. Ask them to describe what they saw in terms of objects, characters, colours, shapes, etc. You can work on this while you are watching. Stand next to the screen, point at something and ask a question, or ask them to draw what they see, etc. Be quick with the ‘pause’ button.

Fingerplays. You can also use Fingerplays when working with video/DVD. See the music section for more on information.

Dance and movement. Again, just like with music, children love to move – get them up and out of their seats and give them actions to perform while or after they watch. Your little girls would love to play the role of ‘The Little Mermaid’ and your boys … um … Shrek?!

Dress up. Take it a step further and create costumes with your students. This will obviously depend on the resources you have, but be creative! Perhaps in the previous class you can ask them to bring some old fabric, crepe or other coloured paper, hats, toy jewellery and make-up, etc. What fun would it be to re-create ‘Finding Nemo’ in the classroom?! Teach International © 2004-2008 229

Remember:

Choose what you play carefully. Not all English children’s shows or films will fit the level. Even though five-year old native English speakers watch children’s movies, they are already fluent in English. Choose parts of shows and films that use language your students will be able to use.

At the same time, your students don’t need to understand the whole piece. They will watch and even make up words or say what they think they hear. They will eventually learn more and more.

Repetition is the key. Play the same bit again and again. Children love watching the same movie or cartoon over and over. Take advantage of this.

Start transferring text from the video/DVD into your everyday language so they make the connections.

You can make big flashcards with pictures and lines from the movie or show and put them around your classroom. In fact, they can make them with you!

Some good films to use in the classroom

Adults/ Older Teens Children/ Young Teens Forrest Gump Finding Nemo Father of the Bride Shrek I and II The Firm The Little Mermaid Casablanca The Goonies School of Rock Back to the Future Good Will Hunting Aladdin Dead Poet’s Society The Lion King Philadelphia Toy Story I and II Miss Congeniality Home Alone Legally Blonde The Princess Bride My Best Friend’s Wedding The Enchanted Crystal

Further Resources

Web Resources

Ideas for Using Movie Previews - http://www.eslpartyland.com/teachers/film/previews.htm [Accessed: July 2004]

Examples of how to use films in the classroom - http://www.eslpartyland.com/teachers/nov/film.htm [Accessed: July 2004]

In this unit:

Why teach listening comprehension?

When should I work on listening comprehension?

Considerations

Activities

Sample Listening Activity

Further Resources

‘Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.’ Plutarch (46 AD - 120 AD)

Why teach listening comprehension?

Listening comprehension is one of the four language skills. In fact, with our native language, listening is what we do first! From the moment we are born we listen to our parents and other people; then, after a couple of years, we start speaking, and then move on to reading and writing. With our students, we need to work on all four skills from scratch in a systematic way, always remembering that the focus of the communicative classroom is on speaking and listening. This is an important skill that is often overlooked.

What materials can I use?

ESOL course-books come with tapes or CDs. Sometimes they include the text in the book (dialogues, stories, etc.) so students can follow, although many times they don’t; they simply provide some exercises for students to complete while or after they listen. The teacher’s manual offers all the tape-scripts.

There are also supplementary listening materials especially designed for ESOL. These vary in range and levels, and are generally sold with a text book containing activities. Your school may have some of these resources, and/or you could offer to bring some with you.

There are other listening resources which are more authentic in that they are not especially designed for ESOL: audio-books! These are a great source of listening material. Some are books read by the author or a speaker and some are speeches, interviews, conferences, etc. which have been recorded and are available for sale.

Music is excellent for listening comprehension and a lot of fun. See Unit 10 – Music and Video for great ideas.

Students preparing for exams such as IELTS, TOEIC or TOEFL require specific guidance in the listening process. Specific course-books for these exams include tapes with practice activities and sample test exercises. These areas are considered in our online components (Teaching Business English / TOEIC and IELTS) and some ideas are also given in the following sections. Materials for these exams are usually supplied by the schools.

When should I work on listening comprehension?

Every lesson! Consider that, although you will have one or more of the materials described above, students have two other sources of listening: the teacher and their classmates. They listen to you, and to their classmates, every lesson.

Speaking and listening go hand-in-hand. It is highly unlikely for one to happen without the other. Specific listening practice (i.e. using the tape or CD) can be incorporated into any section of the lesson, as long as it fits the purpose of that section. Some teachers use the tape for the ‘target language’ section, modelling the language themselves and with the aid of the tape. You can work it into the review, to check comprehension from a previous lesson. And of course, you can use listening in your ‘activities’ section, as long as it is reinforcing the target language.

Teach International © 2004-2008 233 Another consideration is: what do your students need English for? The answer to this question will tell you how much emphasis you need to place on listening skills. I had a few students who needed English mostly to communicate on the phone with English speakers. They obviously needed sharp listening skills. Whereas others studying for different purposes may need more balance or more focus on other skills.

Considerations

1. To effectively improve listening comprehension it is not enough to merely play a tape and ask students ‘What did you understand?’ Although this is how WE learnt, we were exposed to the English language 24/7 for a few years. ESL/EFL students need to see results, so we need to work on this skill like we do the others: targeting and reinforcing the language.

2. Different types of listening. We listen differently for different reasons. The three main types are: listening for the main idea (when you just want the general meaning), listening for specific information (when you only need certain information) and listening ‘between the lines’ (when the exact words are not said, but you can still understand the meaning). Make sure your students practise all three and that they always have a reason to listen.

3. Length. When you work with the course-book’s listening tape/CD, the length is determined for you, although you can decide to play less if necessary. When you work with other materials, then you need to select an appropriate piece that is not too long. Listening to a speaker, who you can’t see, in another language, requires extreme concentration. Depending on the age and level, it is recommended to play anything between 20 seconds up to 3 or 4 minutes. This is a suggested length. If, for instance, your students are high level and are looking to attend university in English, then they need to practise their listening, concentration and note-taking skills, so longer pieces are appropriate.

4. Work from general to specific. Don’t expect students to understand everything straight away. Start with main ideas and work through to specific details. You’ll need to play the material a few times, and each time they should be able to understand a little more, and they should be guided by the activities provided. If they don’t, then your selection was too difficult for the level.

5. Course-book tapes specifically target the language being taught. Other materials, however, don’t. It is your job to focus on certain language: verb tenses, expressions, slang, certain functions, etc. Make sure they are learning new language or reinforcing language already learnt.

6. Pre-teach vocabulary. You may need to pre-teach some of the vocabulary in the text, especially when it is authentic material.

Activities

1. Activities with tapes/CDs

All these activities can be done in groups, pairs or individually.

Teach International © 2004-2008 234 Comprehension questions. Before they listen for the first time, give them some ‘main idea’ questions (a handout or write them on the board). They can be information questions (‘How many speakers are there?’, ‘Where are the speakers?’, ‘What is the topic of their conversation?’ etc.), Yes/No questions or True or False statements (‘Are they in a bar?’ or ‘The speakers are in a bar. T or F) or multiple-choice questions (‘The speakers are: a. in a bar b. at the bank c. at home d. at work’). Alternatively, these can be ‘specific information’ questions, given to students after they have listened once or twice.

Cloze tests. Give students part of or the whole text with some blanks. They need to listen and fill in the blanks with the correct words or phrases. Vary the difficulty according to the level.

Jumble. Write lines from the text in incorrect order on a worksheet. They need to listen and number the lines as they hear them.

Summary writing. They can listen for the main idea, write a summary and present it to the class.

Role-Play. Students can re-create the situation using role-play. You can also give them alternate situations that require the same language to create variety.

2. Activities without tapes/CDs

Back-to-Back. Back to back is an excellent listening exercise because students cannot see one another’s mouths, so they need to pay close attention. In pairs, give them a half- dialogue each with blanks to fill in for what the other speaker says. When they finish, they should each have the complete dialogue.

Back-to-Back Drawing. Similar to the activity above, one student has a picture, the other a blank piece of paper and a pen. The first student stands behind the second and describes the picture as accurately as possible, while the second student draws it. Make the pictures as simple or as complicated depending on the level.

Telephoning. Bring in toy telephones or use mobile phones (turned off!) and have students in pairs. Give them a task, such as arranging a meeting, cancelling an appointment, making a booking, buying tickets, leaving a message, etc. Again, students should not be able to see one another’s mouths.

Running Dictation. Students, in pairs, decide on a writer and a runner. The teacher at the front holds a number of cards, each with a sentence on it. The runners come to the front and read the first card, go back and dictate the sentence to their runner, only once, then go to read card number two, and so on until all cards are read. Take it up by asking the writers to read their results.

Guest Speakers. Bring in another teacher from your school (or an English-speaking friend) to give a talk to your students. Say it’s a Canadian teacher; they can talk to them about life in Canada, ice hockey, etc. Prep your students before-hand: brainstorm some questions they could ask and instruct them on how to take notes.

Tape Yourself. If you are short of resources, you can tape yourself and play it back to the students. Although you are not exposing them to a new speaker, you are making it challenging because they cannot rely on your expressions and body language.

Interviews. In pairs, ask students to decide on two celebrities they would like to interview. They take it in turns to play the role of the celebrity and the reporter. Take it up.

Sample Listening Activity

Weather Report – Spain

An area of low pressure is producing extensive cloud over Western and Southern Spain. Beginning on the West, Salamanca will experience double-digit temperatures with a few showers, later on clearing to sunny skies. A cold front is expected to approach the northwest corner of Spain by mid-morning. A developing high, south of Sevilla, will result in isolated showers persisting about the southern coasts due to the onshore southerly stream. Granada can expect a mostly sunny day with seasonable temperatures. In Córdoba, there is a slight chance of fog early in the day, becoming colder and ending with showers.

The capital will definitely experience the high-pressure system moving west off the Mediterranean, bringing increasing cloud cover and a shower or two. Moving north up the Costa Blanca, Valencia, surfers can look forward to clear skies and high winds. Barcelona residents are going to see a mix of sunny weather with afternoon thunderstorms and gale force winds which will probably disappear by the weekend. Severe thunderstorms in the Basque country are probable.

If we take a look at the long-term weekend watch, we can anticipate further seasonable temperatures throughout the nation. For those spending time outdoors, ensure you take proper sun precautions!

1. Tell students you will read a weather report for their country (Spain in this case). They will need a pen and paper. Ask them to listen and to write down all the weather and weather- related words they hear.

2. Read the weather report out loud, slowly and clearly, allowing students time to take note of the words.

3. When you are finished, put them in pairs and ask them to count how many words they got as a team, so if they both got the word, they count it, but if only one of them did, they don’t count it.

4. Take it up by asking each pair how many words they got, and the pair with the most reads their words out loud.

5. You may decide to read the text again at a quicker pace.

Level: Upper-intermediate Purpose: This is a good review activity (reviewing weather words) and an effective lead-in into words of prediction and probability (definitely, probably, possibly, etc.)

Print Resources

Assessing Listening – Gary Buck. Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Active Listening Series – Marc Helgesen and Steven Brown. Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Intermediate Listening Comprehension: understanding and recalling spoken English (College ESL) – Patricia Dunkel and Phyllis L. Lim Heinle and Heinle, 1993.

Web Resources

English Listening Skills - http://esl.about.com/od/englishlistening/index.htm [Accessed: July 2004]

Listen to English - http://eleaston.com/listen.html - [Accessed: July 2004]

Listening for English Language Learners - http://www.ohiou.edu/esl/english/listening.html - [Accessed: July 2004]

In this unit:

Teaching Reading

Why?

What?

How?

Reading Lessons

Further Resources

‘To read a writer is for me not merely to get an idea of what he says, but to go off with him and travel in his company.’ André Gide

Teaching Reading

Why?

We know that communicative teaching focuses on preparing students to fend for themselves in real life situations, affording them the skills to react appropriately in their new language; so why then should we consider teaching reading when it can hardly be classified as communicative?

Traditionally, students wish to practise reading to gain access to the wealth of literature around them; however, the communicative approach to language has given reading a new focus of importance. Texts are essentially language input; students soak up new vocabulary, grammatical structures and syntax (to name just a few) in valid contexts; they grow more and more aware of the culture surrounding them with every page of a newspaper or magazine they read. Reading can also reinforce, stimulate and expose problems. All of this adds up to a powerful argument to include reading within your classroom.

What?

With the colossal amount of literature available to us, reading resources will never be difficult to come by; however, we must remain vigilant as to what we utilise in our lessons.

Reading is an activity with a goal, whether it be the gathering of information, increasing knowledge or for pleasure, and as such the purpose guides the selection of text. For students to achieve the most out of the task they must find the material both authentic and relevant and consequently, as our goal is communicative competence, everyday material becomes appropriate.

Look around you – what do you see that might be genuine material for our students? Train timetables, newspapers, websites, the cooking instructions on a can of soup – all of these can be excellent resources.

Of course the consideration of who we are teaching also plays a part. Lower level students will find short, simple, prepared passages easier to process but you will find that more proficient students will thrive using the authentic language of ‘undoctored’ texts. The students’ motivations and interests will also influence what is used, for, as always, relevancy is the key to the focus of student participation.

Students preparing for exams such as IELTS or TOEIC will require specific guidance in the reading process. These areas are considered in our online components ( Teaching Business English / TOEIC and IELTS ) and some ideas are also given in the following section. Materials for these exams are usually supplied by the schools.

How?

Just as the material used should be authentic, the purpose and approach should be too. The focus of teaching reading within the communicative classroom tends to be on the process, i.e. the skills. We approach different texts with various techniques: we read e-mails, articles, novels, instructions in certain ways and our students should do the same.

Teach International © 2004-2008 241 For example, when we read a newspaper story in English we, as native speakers, do so using the ‘top-down’ method, that is, absorbing the overall meaning quickly. However, if we were reading it in a language we only had a basic knowledge of we would more than likely read it ‘bottom-up’, which is word by word. The students need to learn to vary their reading skills to suit different tasks.

Look at this list below and decide how you would read them; your students should read them as you do.

A TV guide

An article in National Geographic magazine

The opinion page in your local newspaper

The weather report in your local newspaper

A novel

A bus timetable

A fax at the office

An e-mail from your best friend

A recipe

A short story

Preparing the students for the task is as an important aspect of the activity as the reading itself. The activity’s goal should be clear and the text should be made approachable through a number of methods.

Previewing

1. Do the students need any more linguistic or background knowledge? If so, ensure that this is supplied.

2. Use the titles, section headings, photo captions of the text to allow the students the opportunity to get a sense of the content.

3. Construct a word-web or brainstorm ideas around what the text is discussing.

4. Pre-teach vocabulary:

a) Find your partner – choose some target vocabulary from the passage being used and distribute it among half of the students. The other half are given a card with either a definition of the language or what type of word it is (verb, noun, etc) and they have to find their match.

b) Word Search – draw up definitions of some target language and the students have to find it in the passage.

c) Information gaps / Cloze passages / Fill in the blanks – similar to above, the students have to complete the sentences using words from the text.

d) Visuals – use pictures, realia or photos and students have to find the appropriate word in the text.

Students use their background knowledge of the text content and type to make predictions about the subject matter, grammar and vocabulary. This can run like a race, depending on levels and type of material. The idea is to find key words and phrases.

Skimming

Skimming is reading a text rapidly to glean the main points. We often make use of this when deciding if something is interesting enough to spend the time reading it. Often teachers recommend students to skim-read a text before even looking at any questions on it. In this way it is similar to previewing, giving the students a broad idea of the contents.

Scanning

This is reading quickly to find specific information. Timetables, diagrams, websites may all require this technique. For exam purposes, the student is advised to use this having already read the questions, focusing on key words.

Evaluating

After each and every activity an evaluation should be undertaken to ensure that your goals have been met.

1. Comprehension Questions – if students were looking for specific information.

2. Opinion Questions – if students were forming an opinion.

3. Ordering Texts – placing parts of the text into the correct order.

4. Paraphrasing – students paraphrase the text in an explanation of its contents.

5. Authentic Evaluation – if students were taught instructions, for example, they could explain them to another student.

NB: Having students read aloud as an evaluation is probably of use only as a pronunciation assessment, as it is a difficult task to read and comprehend simultaneously for a non-native speaker.

Reading Lessons

The following pages contain five reading lessons. They are ready-to-go for use with your students! The first part is the lesson for the students and the second part is the key for the teacher.

Read them carefully and notice how, although we call them ‘reading lessons’, they include all skills. They have been printed in this manual with permission from www.english-to-go.com .

Enjoy!

Pre-Reading Activities

A: Discussion

1. Look at the picture below and answer the questions.

a. What is the name of this animal? b. Where does it live? c. What does it eat?

2. Today's article is about a German family who has a pet eel. Think about these questions.

a. Where does the family keep the eel? b. What do you think the family feeds the eel? c. Do you think an eel would be a good pet?

B: Vocabulary

Look at these words below. Use your dictionary to find their meanings. Then put them under the correct heading. The first one is done for you as an example.

German, to train, eel, bathtub, bucket, to wash, to catch, fishing trip, supper, fall in love with, to kill, to cook, to share, to move, part of the family

Adjective Noun Verb Phrase German

C: Predicting

What do you think today's article will be about? In groups discuss the questions below. The questions will help you to think about today's article.

Teach International © 2004-2008 244 1. What did the family train the eel to do? 2. What is the bathtub for? 3. What is the bucket used for? 4. Who is part of the family? 5. Who caught the eel? 6. Who went on the fishing trip? 7. Who fell in love with the eel? 8. Who moved house with the family?

Reading Activities

A: Main Idea

Read today's article quickly and circle the best answer below.

Today's article is about... a. an eel. b. a family that keeps an eel in a bathtub. c. a 1969 fishing trip.

Family Keeps Pet Eel in Bath--for 33 Years Berlin Tues Jan 7 (Reuters) - A His children fell in love with the eel, German family has kept an eel in and stopped (5) him from killing (1) its bathtub for the last 33 years and cooking (6) it. Since then (7) it and even trained (2) it to swim into has lived in the bath, shared (8) it a bucket when someone needs to with the children when (9) they wash. were small -- and has even moved house with the family, German "He's part of our family," said newspapers reported. Hannelore Richter of Bochum in western Germany. (3) Her husband Paul caught the eel on a fishing trip in 1969 and took (4) it home for supper. Article © 2003 Reuters Limited. Lesson © 2003 www.english-to-go.com

B: Sequencing

Look at the first sentence from today's article and put the lines into the correct order. Don't look at the article! (The first line is numbered for you.)

1. Here is the first sentence.

___ to swim into ___ an eel in ___ has kept ___ its bathtub for ___ and even trained it ___ a bucket when ___ someone needs to wash. _1_ A German family ___ the last 33 years

3. Here is the fourth sentence.

___ from killing and cooking it. ___ His children ___ the eel, and ___ stopped him ___ fell in love with

C: Reading for Detail

Look at the words in bold type from today's article and choose the best meaning.

A German family has kept an eel in (1) its His children fell in love with the eel, and bathtub for the last 33 years and even stopped (5) him from killing and cooking (6) trained (2) it to swim into a bucket when it. someone needs to wash. 5. him in this sentence means: 1. its in this sentence means: a. Paul Richter a. the German family's b. Hannelore Richter b. the eel's c. the Richter children c. the bathtub's 6. it in this sentence means: 2. it in this sentence means: a. the German family a. the German family b. the bathtub b. the eel c. the eel c. the bathtub

(3) Her husband Paul caught the eel on a Since then (7) it has lived in the bath, fishing trip in 1969 and took (4) it home for shared (8) it with the children when (9) they supper. were small

3. her in this sentence means: 7. it in this sentence means: a. the eel a. the German family b. Hannelore Richter b. the bathtub c. Paul Richter c. the eel

4. it in this sentence means: 8. it in this sentence means: a. the German family a. the German family b. the fishing trip b. the bathtub c. the eel c. the eel

9. they in this sentence means: a. eel b. Hannelore Richter c. the Richter children

Read the article again and answer the questions below.

1. What did the family train the eel to do? 2. Where is the bathtub used for? 3. What is the bucket used for? 4. Who is part of the family? 5. Who caught the eel? 6. Who went on the fishing trip? 7. Who fell in love with the eel? 8. Who moved house with the family?

Compare your answers here with the answers you gave in Pre-Reading Activity C.

Post-Reading Activities You may do one or more of these . A: Language

"A German family has kept an eel in its bathtub for the last 33 years."

The present perfect is used to express an action that began in the past and continues to the present. (The family began keeping the eel in the bath 33 years ago. The family is still keeping the eel in the bath.)

"Her husband Paul caught the eel on a fishing trip in 1969."

The past simple is used for actions that finished in the past.

""He 's part of our family," said Hannelore Richter."

The present simple is used here for something that is true for a long time.

Imagine you are Hannelore Richter and answer the questions below using the sentence prompts. Use the present perfect simple / past tense or simple present. Add any other words that are needed.

1. Where do you keep the eel? 2. How long have you kept him there? 3. Where did you get the eel? 4. Have you always lived in the same place with the eel? 5. When did the eel share a bath?

Sentence Prompts: 1. we / keep / in bathtub 2. we / keep / him there / 33 years 3. husband / catch him / fishing trip /1969 4. no / eel / move / house / with us 5. he / share / the bath / children / when / were small

B: Pair Crossword

Your teacher is going to divide the class into two groups and give you half of a crossword. You are going to explain these words to a partner from the other group. Think about how to explain the words on your crossword.

Teach International © 2004-2008 247 Now find a partner from the other group. One of you is Student A and the other is Student B. Work together and fill in the crossword. Ask and answer questions with your partner. Do not show the other person your words!

C: Gap Fill

Complete the paragraph with the words in the list below.

bathtub, eel, wash, fishing trip, supper, killing, cooking, German, bucket

A (1) ______family has kept a pet (2) ______in their (3) ______for 33 years. They trained it to swim into a (4) ______when somebody wants to (5) ______. Paul caught the eel on a (6) ______and brought it home for (7) ______. His children stopped him from (8) ______and (9) ______it. The eel shared the bath with the children and has even moved house with the family.

D: Information Exchange

Work in groups of four. You are going to have a conversation with other students. Your teacher will give you two cards: Card 1 has information about you and Card 2 has some questions you will ask other students and places for you to write their answers.

TEACHERS' NOTES AND ANSWER KEY

Pre-Reading Activities

A: Discussion - Answers

1. a. An eel. b. In fresh water lakes, rivers and streams. c. Small fish, water plants.

2. a. - c. Answers will vary.

B: Vocabulary - Notes

You may need to explain to students that a phrase is a group of two or more words that have meaning but don't form a complete sentence.

Discuss the headings with your students to ensure that they know what the categories are. Students use their dictionaries to check the meanings of the words and then sort them into the correct category.

B: Vocabulary - Answers

Adjectives: German Nouns: eel, bathtub, bucket, supper, Verbs: to train, to wash, to catch, to kill, to cook, to share, to move Phrases: part of our family, fishing trip, fall in love with

C: Predicting - Notes

Ask the students to work in pairs or small groups to discuss the questions. Don't give them any answers at this stage.

A: Main Idea - Answer

The best answer is: b. (The other answers are true but b. is the best answer.)

B: Sequencing - Answers

1. _7_ to swim into _3_ an eel in _2_ has kept _4_ its bathtub for _6_ and even trained it _8_ a bucket when _9_ someone needs to wash. _1_ A German family _5_ the last 33 years

2. _2_ Paul caught _1_ Her husband _4_ on a fishing trip _3_ the eel _5_ in 1969 and _7_ for supper. _6_ took it home

3. _5_ from killing and cooking it _1_ His children _3_ the eel, and _4_ stopped him _2_ fell in love with

C: Reading for Detail - Answers

1. a, 2. b, 3. b, 4. c, 5. a, 6. c, 7. c, 8. b, 9. c.

D: Questions - Notes

These questions are the same questions that were in Pre-Reading Activity B. This is a chance for the students to compare their predictions with what is in the article.

D: Questions - Answers

1. Swim into a bucket when someone needs to wash. 2. The eel lives in the bathtub. 3. The eel goes in this when someone needs to wash. 4. The eel. 5. Paul Richter. 6. Paul Richter. 7. The Richter children. 8. The eel.

Post-Reading Activities

A: Language - Notes

Students can refer to the article for help in knowing which tense to use.

1. We keep him in our bathtub. 2. We have kept him there for 33 years. 3. My husband caught him on a fishing trip in 1969. 4. No, the eel has moved house with us. 5. He shared the bath with our children when they were small.

B: Pair Crossword - Notes

This is an information exchange activity. One student has the answers the other student needs. It's up to the student seeking the answers to work out what the missing words are by asking questions and listening to their partner's definitions. Have one student fill in their crossword first and then have the students switch roles. Remind students that the words are in today's article.

You may like to teach them the language below for the crossword.

Examples: 'What is 2 down?' 'It's an animal that lives in Australia. It hops.' 'Kangaroo?' 'Yes.' 'What is 5 across?' 'It's an animal people often keep as a pet. It barks.' 'A dog?' 'Yes.

B: Pair Crossword - Text to be copied and given to students

Crossword for Student A

Crossword for Student B

1. German, 2. eel, 3. bathtub, 4. bucket, 5. wash, 6. fishing trip, 7. supper, 8. killing, 9. cooking.

D: Information Exchange - Notes

Make copies of Card 1 and give one to each student in a group of four (a student gets either A, B, C or D). Make sure students understand the information on their card.

Also make copies of Card 2, one for each student in the class and give them to students. They use the questions on Card 2 to find out about other students' pets and write the answers on the table. Students can sit facing their first partner in a group (i.e. Student A with Student B) and then change partners until they have talked to all three other students in their group.

D: Information Exchange - Cards to be copied and given to students

Card 1 Student A

You are at a party. You start talking about pets to the other guests at the party. Tell them about your pet and find out about their pets.

Use the information on this card to answer questions about your pet. Ask the other students in your group the questions on Card 2 to find out about their pets and write down their answers on Card 2 .

Information about you and your pet

Kind of pet: You have a dog. Pet's Name: Ajax. How long you have had your pet: 4 years. Where you got it from: A pet shop. What you have trained it to do: Catch a ball.

Card 1 Student B You are at a party. You start talking about pets to the other guests at the party. Tell them about your pet and find out about their pets.

Use the information on this card to answer questions about your pet. Ask the other students in your group the questions on Card 2 to find out about their pets and write down their answers on Card 2.

Information about you and your pet

Kind of pet: You have a parrot. Pet's Name: Pete. How long you have had your pet: 10 years. Where you got it from: From a friend. What you have trained it to do: Say hello and make kissing noises.

Card 1 Student C You are at a party. You start talking about pets to the other guests at the party. Tell them about your pet and find out about their pets.

Use the information on this card to answer questions about your pet. Ask the other students in your group the questions on Card 2 to find out about their pets and write down their answers on Card 2.

Information about you and your pet

Kind of pet: You have a goldfish. Pet's Name: Goldie. How long you have had your pet: 6 months. Where you got it from: From a pet shop. What you have trained it to do: Nothing.

Card 1 Student D You are at a party. You start talking about pets to the other guests at the party. Tell them about your pet and find out about their pets.

Use the information on this card to answer questions about your pet. Ask the other students in your group the questions on Card 2 to find out about their pets and write down their answers on Card 2.

Information about you and your pet

Kind of pet: You have a lamb. Pet's Name: Lollipop. How long you have had your pet: 3 months. Where you got it from: From a farmer. (The lamb's mother died.) What you have trained it to do: Come when you call its name.

Card 2 (for Students A - D)

Questions: What kind of pet do you have? What is your pet's name? How long have you had your pet? Where did you get it from? What have you trained it to do?

Table Write the answers on the table below.

Kind of Pet's How Where he/she got it Trained

pet Name long from to Student 1

Student 2

Student 3

Student 4

Expensive Weddings

Pre-Reading Activities

A: Wedding Gifts

Today's article is about weddings and wedding gifts. Wedding gifts are presents you give to a couple who are getting married.

1. Look at the pictures below and match the words with the pictures. honeymoon, bicycle, car, DVD player, banquet, apartment, household appliances, studio wedding photos, radio, furniture

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

2. Work in pairs and look at the pictures again. Which of them are wedding gifts? Do you think they are good wedding gifts? Put a tick beside the things you would like to be given.

Do you give similar things as wedding gifts in your country? Are there any other gifts which are usually given in your country that are not shown here? What are they?

B: Listening

Listen to your teacher read today's article. Number the pictures from Pre-Reading Activity A in the order that you hear them being mentioned.

If you hear one of the pictures being mentioned a second time, give it another number.

C: Vocabulary

Match these words to the meanings below:

cost salary average replace essential newlyweds

1. how much money you pay for something 2. the money you receive every month for the work you do 3. the usual or normal amount of something 4. to use or give something instead of another thing 5. something that is very important or absolutely necessary 6. a husband and wife who have only been married a short time

A: Listening

Listen to your teacher read today's article again and choose the best summary.

Today's article is about:

1. ...newlyweds in Shanghai. 2. ...the expense of getting married in Shanghai. 3. ...Chinese workers. 4. ...marriages in Shanghai one hundred years ago.

B: Word Order Questions

Your teacher is going to divide your class into two groups and give each group different worksheets. The questions on the worksheets are not in the correct order. With a partner put the words into the correct order and check your answers with your group members.

C: Pair Work

Your teacher will give you another worksheet with a copy of today's article. The article has some gaps. Students in the other group will have the information you need to fill the gaps in your article. Work in pairs with someone from the other group and ask your partner the questions you made in Reading Activity B. Write your partner's answers in the gaps in the article.

D: Reading for Detail

Stay with your partner from Reading Activity C. Read today's article below and then choose the best answer for each question.

1. setting up their first home in this sentence means: a. building their first home. b. organizing things for their first home. c. buying their first home.

2. 150,000 Yuan ($18,000) which is double the amount 5 years ago in this sentence means: a. 5 years ago it cost 75,000 Yuan ($9000) to have a wedding in Shanghai. b. 5 years ago it cost 150,000 Yuan ($18,000) to have a wedding in Shanghai. c. 5 years ago it cost 50,000 Yuan ( $6,000) to have a wedding in Shanghai.

3. Their marriage was rubber -stamped at a local government office means: a. the local government office agreed to the marriage. b. the local government office disagreed to the marriage. c. the local government office gave them the essential gifts.

Getting Married Costs More in Shanghai SHANGHAI Tues Sept 10 Twenty-first century marriage (Reuters) - Marrying in Shanghai essentials now include a banquet now costs the average Chinese for several hundred guests, studio worker eight years of salary. DVD wedding photos, a honeymoon, players and cars have replaced household appliances and an radios and bicycles as essential apartment. This is a big change gifts for newlyweds who are setting from the 1970s when a couple up their first home, a state received a bicycle, a radio and newspaper said on Tuesday. some furniture. Their marriage was rubber-stamped at a local The China Daily said the average government office. cost of getting married in Shanghai was 150,000 Yuan ($18,000) But the traditional Chinese which is double the amount 5 wedding gift is still money which is years ago. The average city put into red envelopes. worker earns 1,530 Yuan ($184) a month. (rubber-stamped - someone in authority agrees to a decision, plan or law) Article © 2002 Reuters Limited. Lesson © 2002 www.english-to-go.com

Post-Reading Activities You may do one or more of these .

A: Language

Read today's article again and look for examples of:

Present simple (active): Present simple (passive): Present perfect: Present continuous: Past simple:

Compare your answers with a partner. Work together to explain why the writer of the article used these verb forms.

B: Discussion

Work in groups and discuss the questions below.

1. Do you think things like DVD players and cars are essential gifts for newlyweds? Why / why not? 2. What are the good points and the bad points of having a large wedding? 3. Are large weddings common in your country? 4. How much does an average wedding cost in your country? 5. Describe to the group a wedding you have been to. What was it like? Where was it held? What did people wear? How long was it for?

Pre-Reading Activities

A: Wedding Gifts - Answers

1: picture 1. bicycle, picture 2. car, picture 3. radio, picture 4. DVD player, picture 5. banquet, 6. household appliances, picture 7. honeymoon, picture 8. studio wedding photos, picture 9. apartment 10. furniture

2: Weddings gifts could include: bicycle, car, radio, DVD player, household appliances or furniture. In some countries the parents of the bride or groom, or a very generous relative or friend, might give the couple an apartment if they are very wealthy, and some would pay for the honeymoon. Who pays for the banquet varies, but this would not normally be termed a 'wedding gift'.

B: Listening - Notes

Read today's article at a slow to normal pace one time only. The students only have to correlate the written words with the spoken words.

B: Listening - Text to be Read Aloud to Students

SHANGHAI Tues Sept 10 (Reuters) - Marrying in Shanghai now costs the average Chinese worker eight years of salary. DVD players and cars have replaced radios and bicycles as essential gifts for newlyweds who are setting up their first home, a state newspaper said on Tuesday.

The China Daily said the average cost of getting married in Shanghai was 150,000 Yuan ($18,000) which is double the amount 5 years ago. The average city worker earns 1,530 Yuan ($184) a month.

Twenty-first century marriage essentials now include a lavish banquet for several hundred guests, studio wedding photos, a honeymoon, household appliances and an apartment. This is a big change from the 1970s when a couple received a bicycle, a radio and some furniture. Their marriage was rubber-stamped at a local government office.

But the traditional Chinese wedding gift is still money which is put into red envelopes.

B: Listening - Answers

1. DVD player; 2. car; 3. radio; 4. bicycle; 5. banquet; 6. studio wedding photos; 7. honeymoon; 8. household appliances; 9. an apartment; 10. bicycle; 11. radio; 12. furniture.

C: Vocabulary - Answers

1. cost 2. salary 3. average 4. replace 5. essential 6. newlyweds

Reading Activities

A: Listening - Notes

Read the article (from Pre-Reading Activity B) again at a normal pace. Repeat one more time if necessary. Go over the answers as a class.

A: Listening - Answer

Summary 2

Divide the class into two groups A and B. Give out the worksheets below. Ask the students to work together in their A or B groups to put the words into the correct order to make questions. Then ask the students to stay in their groups to check their answers before going over the answers with them.

B: Word Order - Worksheet for Group A

Here are some questions about today's article. Put the words into the correct order to make the questions. 1. the average What costs eight years Chinese worker of salary? 3. What have as essential gifts and bicycles replaced radios? 5. earn the average How much does city worker ? 7. couples in the 1970s What did receive ?

B: Word Order - Worksheet for Group B

Here are some questions about today's article. Put the words into the correct order to make the questions. 2. in Shanghai Chinese worker How much does it cost an average to marry? 4. What is of marrying the average cost in Shanghai? 6. essentials twenty first century What are marriage ? 8. Chinese traditional What is the wedding gift?

B: Word Order - Worksheet for Group A - Answers

1. What costs the average Chinese worker eight years of salary? 3. What have replaced radios and bicycles as essential gifts? 5. How much does the average city worker earn? 7. What did couples receive in the 1970s?

B: Word Order - Worksheet for Group B - Answers

2. How much does it cost an average Chinese worker to marry in Shanghai? 4. What is the average cost of marrying in Shanghai? 6. What are twenty-first century marriage essentials? 8. What is the traditional Chinese wedding gift?

C: Pair Work - Notes

Hand out the gap-fill worksheet. Tell the students that the questions they worked on in the previous activity are to be used for obtaining information from their partners so that they can fill in the gaps in the article. Each student from Group A pairs with a student from Group B. Tell them that they should not show their worksheets to their partners.

C: Pair Work - Worksheet for Group A

Here is today's article but it has some gaps. Students in Group B have the information you need to fill the gaps in your article. Ask Student B the questions you made in Reading Activity B and write the answers in the gaps in the article.

SHANGHAI Tues Sept 10 (Reuters) - (1) ______now costs the average Chinese worker eight years of salary. (3)______have replaced radios and bicycles as essential gifts for newlyweds who are setting up their first home, a state newspaper said on Tuesday.

Teach International © 2004-2008 258 The China Daily said the average cost of getting married in Shanghai was 150,000 Yuan ($18,000) which is double the amount 5 years ago. The average city worker earns (5)______.

Twenty-first century marriage essentials now include a banquet for several hundred guests, studio wedding photos, a honeymoon, household appliances and an apartment. This is a big change from the 1970s when a couple received (7)______. Their marriage was rubber- stamped at a local government office.

But the traditional Chinese wedding gift is still money which is put into red envelopes.

C: Pair work - Worksheet for Group B

Here is today's article but it has some gaps. Students in Group A have the information you need to fill the gaps in your article. Ask Student A the questions you made in Reading Activity B and write the answers in the gaps in the article.

SHANGHAI Sept 10 (Reuters) - Marrying in Shanghai now costs the average Chinese worker (2)______. DVD players and cars have replaced radios and bicycles as essential gifts for newlyweds who are setting up their first home, a state newspaper said on Tuesday.

The China Daily said the average cost of getting married in Shanghai was (4) ______which is double the amount 5 years ago. The average city worker earns 1,530 Yuan ($184) a month.

Twenty-first century marriage essentials now include (6)______. This is a big change from the 1970s when a couple received a bicycle, a radio and some furniture. Their marriage was rubber-stamped at a local government office.

But the traditional Chinese wedding gift is (8)______.

C: Pair Work - Answers for Group A

1. marrying in Shanghai 3. DVD players and cars 5. 1,530 Yuan ($184) a month 7. a bicycle, a radio and some furniture

C: Pair Work - Answers for Group B

2. eight years of salary 4. 150,000 Yuan ($18,000) 6. a banquet for several hundred guests, studio wedding photos, a honeymoon, household appliances and an apartment 8. money, which is put into red envelopes

D: Reading for Detail - Answers

1. b; 2. a; 3. a.

Post-Reading Activities

A: Language - Notes

You may like to write an example of each of these tenses on the board for students to refer to while doing the activity.

Present simple (active) : gets, costs, is, earns, include, is, is Present simple (passive) : is put Present perfect : have replaced Present continuous : are setting up Past simple (active) : said, said, was, received Past simple (passive) was rubber-stamped

Pre-Reading Activities

A: Quiz

An impulsive person acts suddenly without thinking carefully about what might happen as a result of their action.

Are you an impulsive person? Take the English-To-Go Impulse Quiz and find out. (Circle the answer that describes you.)

Scenario 1: You are shopping with your friends when you suddenly see a very expensive jacket that you REALLY like. You...

A. buy it immediately. B. hide it somewhere in the shop where no one else can find it and buy it later after checking that you have enough money in the bank. C. decide to buy it after you have saved enough money for it.

Scenario 2: You have been invited to a friend's house for a meal. As you are walking towards your friend's house, you catch the smell of some fresh baked cookies coming from the open door of a shop. They smell delicious. You...

A. buy a bag of cookies and eat them. B. buy a bag and eat some cookies but worry that if you eat too many, you won't want to eat the meal your friend has prepared. C. do not buy any cookies because you know if you do, you will eat some and then you won't want to eat the meal your friend has prepared.

Scenario 3: You walk past a very old house that no one has lived in for years. You notice that the front door is opened just a little bit. You...

A. walk into the house and have a look. B. go get your friends and return to the house. C. run away as fast as you can.

Scenario 4: You are having a holiday. A friend phones you and tells you he / she has a free airplane ticket to Europe. The flight leaves in five days. He asks you if you want to come. You...

A. start packing your bags immediately. B. call your family and ask them what they think. C. decline to go because you don't have enough time to get ready.

A. tell him / her your feelings the next time you see them. B. write a beautiful poem and send it to that person. C. say nothing because you are afraid he / she won't like you.

Scenario 6: You want to surprise your sweetheart with a ring. You...

A. buy the first ring you like and worry about the size and cost later. B. tell your sweetheart about your plan but suggest he / she come with you to pick it out. C. visit over 20 jewellery stores and decide none of the rings you saw are good enough for your sweetheart. You decide to wait until the stores have some new stock.

So, are you impulsive? Read the results guide to find out!

If you mostly have As: Yes, you are very impulsive. Your friends enjoy your enthusiasm. They are never bored when they are with you because you are always doing things without thinking about what the results might be. Your life is interesting but it might be a good idea to train yourself to think a little before you rush into the next situation. That way you won't get hurt.

If you mostly have Bs: You're just right! You think of something interesting to do but then take a little time to think over whether or not it is a good idea. Then, if you have decided it is, you do the activity. Your friends don't worry about you because they know you have the right mix of common sense and impulsiveness.

If you mostly have Cs: No-one could call you impulsive! You spend so much time being careful, that it is hard to see how you ever have any fun! You are very careful but that means that you miss out on some great experiences like surprising your sweetheart with a gift or going travelling overseas. It is good to think carefully before you do something, but try sometimes to be a little impulsive. You may even enjoy the experience!

B: Pair Work

What are some good points and bad points about being impulsive? With a partner make a list and then share your answers with another pair of students.

Good Points:...

Bad Points:...

Reading Activities

A: Sequencing

Read today's article and then put the events in the correct order. The first event is 1, the second event 2, the last event 12. Note: Some of the events happened at the same time!

_____ Johnstone proposed to Dolby over the phone. _____ He started working at a Sydney building site. _____ Dolby returned to Britain. _____ Ian Johnstone flew to Australia. _____ Johnstone flew to Britain to propose to his girlfriend, Amy Dolby. _____ She waited for her connecting flight in the airport lounge in Singapore. _____ Amy Dolby flew from London to see Ian Johnstone.

Teach International © 2004-2008 262 _____ He waited for his connecting flight in the airport lounge in Singapore. _____ Johnstone went to Amy's apartment in Britain but she wasn't there. _____ Dolby called Johnstone from Australia. _____ Dolby was greeted at Ian's flat (apartment) by Ian's flat mate. _____ Johnstone returned to Australia.

Lovers Criss-Cross World in Vain LONDON Thursday July 26 Johnstone, a 27-year-old (Reuters) - Ian Johnstone missed bricklayer, had taken a year off to his girlfriend so much he flew back travel round Australia. But he was to Britain from Australia to propose missing Dolby, a 26-year-old to her. The problem is she did the secretary, so much he got a job on same in the opposite direction. a Sydney building site and started saving for a surprise. He and Amy Dolby even managed to miss each other when they sat He then flew home to Britain and in the same airport lounge in went to her apartment armed with Singapore at the same time to wait an engagement ring, champagne for connecting flights. and flowers.

Dolby, heartbroken when she `Ì really missed Amy and I'd been arrived at Johnstone's Sydney thinking about her all the time. I apartment to find he had flown to thought she was winding me up London, told the Times: `Ìt was as when she phoned me from though someone was playing a Australia,'' he said. cruel joke on us. Johnstone then asked Dolby to ``He is the most romantic person I marry him on the phone. `Ì didn't have ever known. I think our know whether to laugh or cry but I problem is that we are both quite accepted,'' she said. impulsive people. We are always trying to surprise each other.'' Dolby was given a tour of Sydney by Johnstone's friends before After an 11,000-mile flight across wending her weary way home. the globe, she was greeted by Johnstone had to stay in Britain for Johnstone's astonished flat mate two weeks because he could not asking what she was doing there. change his ticket.

``The awful truth dawned when I found that Ian's rucksack and most of his clothes were missing. I sat on the end of his bed and cried my eyes out,'' she said. Article © 2001 Reuters Limited. Lesson © 2001 www.english-to-go.com

Read the following statements and compare them with the information in the article. Write 'T' if the statement is true, 'F' if the statement is false, and 'NM" if the article does not have that information.

1. Johnstone and Dolby are from Britain. 2. Johnstone and Dolby met in Britain. 3. Johnstone decided to take a year off from work to travel around Australia. 4. Johnstone got a job in Sydney so he could start saving money for a surprise airplane flight to Britain. 5. Dolby is older than Johnstone. 6. It took Dolby 24 hours to get to Sydney from London. 7. Johnstone was met at Dolby's apartment door by her roommate. 8. Johnstone stayed longer in Britain than Dolby stayed in Sydney.

C: Guessing By Context

A form of the word 'miss' is used in today's article five times. Look at the following excerpts from the article and choose the best answer for each usage of 'miss'. Do not use your dictionary.

1. Paragraph 1 (P1) Ian Johnstone missed his girlfriend so much he flew back to Britain from Australia to propose to her. 'Missed' means...