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ENGLISH TEACHING professional for this activity. After students

   have read or


Mini Presentations ● Proverbs. Students tell a quick story listened to a story,
My regular classes often start with a which exemplifies a proverb (from a they get into
student giving a mini-presentation list given by me). The class guesses groups to prepare
(one to three minutes is enough). which proverb is being illustrated. to retell it,


I set this up early in the course so ● Show and tell. Students bring in a
continue it, or
that students know when they are personal possession and tell their
make up something
‘performing’ (and I allocate classmates about it. Some items are
‘understudies’ in case someone is remarkable in themselves, others similar. Instead of


away). Topics which have worked for become remarkable in the telling. writing down
me are: ● Speech. Students choose a topic from words, however,
● Word/sentence/phrase of the day. my list of 50, give a short speech, they draw pictures
Students bring in a language item and answer questions from the floor.
to illustrate what
they have found interesting, unusual Jokes, fables and metaphors have all
or difficult and teach it to the rest of been popular too. You’ll no doubt have happens (like a
the class. ideas of your own. cartoon). Using
the pictures to

 Gapped Listening  The Tool for the Job help them, they
For this particular game, each group of students tell their stories to
Write several key words from a
has two sets of cards, one with names of the rest of the
listening comprehension passage on occupations and the other with pictures of
the board. Then read the passage at objects. (I collect magazine pictures which I class. As they
normal speed, missing out those stick to index cards.) speak, another
words. Students listen carefully and The students in turn take a card from each
set and have to explain how they use this object group mimes or
shout out missing words when they in their job, so for example, a student might acts out the story.
notice them. explain why she uses a hammer in her job as a
I sometimes read the complete hairdresser. The crazier the explanation, the The pictures and
better - it still practises the present simple! actions keep
text through (with words missing) Helen Fragaki
first, with students staying quiet, so Athens, Greece everyone involved
that weaker students also have the and amused, and
chance to compete on the second  Changing Focus the relaxed
reading. Sometimes I rub the words When I am planning a lesson, I change the question, ‘What am atmosphere seems
off the board for a third reading, and I supposed to teach today?’ into ‘What do I want my students
students have to remember what the to learn today?’ or even ‘What should the students be able to to lead naturally to
do after this lesson?’ I find this helps me focus on my
words were, as well as noticing where students and their real needs. increased fluency.
they go. Mônica Gonçalves Camara M Beatriz Lupiano
Ali Sefa Tasan Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Buenos Aires,
Adana, Turkey Argentina

36 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue Eleven April 1999 •

 Alphabet Partners  Word-for-word Translation  Bingo!
For fun practice of the written and Word-for-word translation from English into the mother tongue can Children never tire of
be very useful for highlighting the form of new grammatical it. I play it with
spoken alphabet with young beginners, numbers, animals,
structures, idioms or set phrases – particularly those which are very
I prepare two sets of cards with capital colours, verb forms
different in the mother tongue. and lots of different
and small versions of the letters.
(NB This is not a technique for building genuine translation skills!) vocabulary items.
Students each have one card and rush Yuri Serdechny Giuliana Veruggio
around, shouting out their letter Novomoskovsk, Ukraine San Remo, Italy
When everyone has found their
partner, students stand in a line in  Question Forms
alphabetical order. When I call out I was nearly despairing of getting a home’ and ‘at 6 pm’ as cues for the
different letters, the appropriate pairs group of mixed level beginners to questions, ‘What does John do at 6 pm?’
practise present simple question forms. and ‘What time does John arrive home?’
hand in their cards and sit down.
While one student laboriously worked The key to the activity, though, was
Depending on the number of
out the correct word order, the others that the students each had to say one
students in the class, I only work with a invariably drifted off. Then I had a word of the question in turn. Everyone
section of the alphabet at one time – brainwave. I elicited a short ‘routine’ paid full attention because anyone
either consecutive letters, or at a later paragraph and wrote it on the board. could be called on at any time and their
stage, concentrating on the letters I then circled different words to elicit word depended totally on what other
questions, eg in the sentence ‘John students had said before.
students find most difficult.
arrives home at 6 pm’, I circled ‘arrives Roxane Harrison
Spyridoula Remoundou Nairobi, Kenya
Evia, Greece

 Percussion Rhythm  Character Study

When the class reader has a small number of main characters,
Supply your students with simple percussion instruments
a table such as the following (which I prepared for Lies of
such as castanets, wood blocks, etc, to tap out the stress
Silence) can provide an excellent focus for checking
in words and sentences. It makes drills more fun and
students more rhythm conscious. comprehension, and for discussion.
Annette Margolis The adjectives
Latina, Italy MICHAEL MOIRA ANDREA
are deliberately FRUSTRATED

 Confusing Pronunciation based very much on ATTRACTIVE

value-judgements INSECURE
My students find some words confusing because of the
differences in pronunciation of different parts of speech. and therefore open DESTRUCTIVE
Use (noun and verb), close (noun, verb, and adjective), to a variety of BRAVE
read (present and past tense), lives (noun and verb) are all interpretations. AMBITIOUS
sources of confusion. Some of the SELFISH
I write sentences containing the words in their different SNOBBISH
adjectives can also
uses on wall posters. At odd moments, I ask different BITTER
students to say the full sentence and note particularly that be applied to more
CARING
they pronounce the problem words correctly. After a while I than one character.
use the same words in different sentences. I find that I use the table fairly early on in the reader, and then once
practising the words in context is much more effective than or twice more as the characters develop and the students
drilling them in isolation. change their minds. On the second reading, I change and add
I use the same technique for the pronunciation of words
adjectives and invite students to make suggestions about
containing the phonemes /p/ and /tÜ /, which do not exist
in Arabic. further additions and changes.
I’m sure other teachers would find it useful for the The table provides a very concrete starting point for
specific problems of their own students too. follow-up written work.
Zeinab Kailani Denise Jones
Amman, Jordan Madrid, Spain

• Issue Eleven April 1999 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • 37