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Reasons to communicate: - a communicative purpose - wanting to say something or hear something - interest in what is being said Accuracy and fluency activities: - Accuracy activities (usually in Study phase) concentrate on CORRECT language. - Fluency activities (often in Activate phase) focus on effectiveness and flow? Controlled activities: - Drilling for pronunciation, using ?3 by 3,? (first 3x in group, then check 3 individuals) - Prompting (pre-planned Q&A) Guided activities: - Model dialogues - Guided role-play Creative communication (Fluency-based activities): - Free role-play - Discussions - Info gap (different students have different pieces of info; they must share to complete pic/solve task - Debates - Simulations - Communication games Dealing with reluctance to speak in class (teacher must overcome?) - Lack of confidence, fear of making mistakes, peer intimidation - Lack of interest in topic - Previous learning experiences, cultural reasons Techniques to encourage interaction: - Pair work & group work - Controlled and guided practice before fluency activities - Change classroom dynamics (singing, moving?) - Careful planning; giving time for students to think? Weather lesson plan: - Engage: ask about weather in students? country & how it changes; discuss weather variations in other countries; ask if people know about weather forecasting? - Study ? elicit weather forecast vocab & complete various matching & gap-fill activities - Activate ? students write a county (not their own) & month on cards in pairs; collect cars & re-distribute them.. Then students prepare a typical weather forecast? Guide for a free/creative speaking activity 1. BEFORE LESSON: - Decide aims (what to do & why; learning goals) - Predict problems (something to say, capable of doing it, language readiness, fun?) - Time: how long, how to tailor time?) - Prepare materials - Word out instructions 2. DURING the activity: - Arouse interest with visuals, a lead (eg news headline or?); relate topic to students interest/experience - Remind students of useful vocab & language structures? - Set up activity so students know aims and what they are to do - Give students time to prepare (in pairs or groups) - Focus more on process than product ? encourage rehearsal, etc - Monitor with low profile (help & encourage as necessary); manage pace, leave time for feedback; - Wait till finish to correct (lightly) ? more concern with fluency than accuracy. 3. AFTER the activity: - Focus on what they were able to do more than what they could not; - Maybe tape for re-play & discussion; focus on possible improvements; sometimes ask to first do a rough then discuss improvements and re-record. - Note recurrent errors (grammar, pronunciation, vocab) discuss individual mistakes in private, recommend home practice; Common mistakes can be mentioned, then practiced another day or with new lesson. Writing Skills ? 1. Differences from reading/listening: grammar (fewer contractions), vocab, spelling, punctuation? - Handwriting issues: knowing alphabet, shaping letters? - Spelling issues (existence & lack of phonics), identical pronunciations w/ diff spellings, etc - Learn to write from reading? 2. Differences from students? language ? - Alphabet & phonics - Grammar & types of writing (email vs biz, formal vs informal?) 3. Creative writing: encourage poetry, stories, plays, made-up forms - Can be done either individually or in pairs or groups 4. Sample creative writing lesson: bubbles & text in cartoons - Engage: show a pic from newspaper or mag, invite guesses about what it?s about & what it means - Study: show example of cartoon strip with speech bubbles & text boxes; elicit difference hand out a cartoon strip with text boxes & bubbles empty; discuss what it might be about; get students to fill in bubbles & boxes together. - Activate: give cartoon strips w/ min 5 boxes/bubbles (empty) to each pair of students; Cut & paste strips into vertical sequence of 5 pics; draw a dotted line between each; Have students fill info for one pic only; then fold it over; pass paper to next pair & repeat; Get each pair to read out its sheet to the rest of the group. GAMES ? Activities with rules, a goal & fun. 1. Kinds: - Competitive vs. Cooperative - Communicative vs. Linguistic 2. Examples: 20 questions, tic-tac-to, hangman, twister, Clue, Snakes/Chutes & Ladders, Connect 4 Mime/charades, Jeopardy, Crosswords, Tongue-twisters, Pictionary
