IT WORKS IN PRACTICE More tested lessons, suggestions, tips and techniques which have
all worked for ETp readers. Try them out for yourself – and then
send us your own contribution.
All the contributors to It Works in Practice in this issue of ETp will
be given a copy of Business Grammar Builder by Paul Emmerson,
published by Macmillan. Macmillan have kindly agreed to be
sponsors of It Works in Practice for this year.
Waving, not drowning
Top ten answers I recently completed a lesson in which I
Recently I tried a lesson based loosely on the TV programme ‘Family Fortunes’. In took beginning English students on an
this show, members of the public are asked a number of questions to which there exploration of non-verbal communication.
can be a variety of answers. A top ten list of the most popular answers is compiled I wanted them to realise how much they
for each question and then, in the studio, two teams compete to guess what those could communicate without the use of
answers are. They score different points for each answer, based on how high up the words.
list of the public’s top ten answers it is. My adaptation of this game went down This was important because I teach in
well with my pre-intermediate class and ETp readers may like to try it. Japan and the Japanese tend not to utilise
flamboyant body language, unlike, say, the
Using the language point have to versus don’t have to, I wrote ten questions,
Italians. It is also the case that, in some
for example: Asian cultures, talking with one’s hands is
● Tell me something you have to do on a plane. considered somewhat rude, or at least
● Tell me something you don’t have to do on holiday. undignified. However, when faced with the
need to travel overseas, and mentally
For each question I decided what my ‘top ten’ answers were. prepared with only a rudimentary
vocabulary, many of my students are
I put the students into two teams and as a warm-up exercise, asked them to
desperate and need the reassurance of
formulate the questions that they would later be answering in the quiz. I did this knowing just how much can be
in the form of a grammar exercise. For example: communicated without words.
Write this question in its full form: what / have to / do / plane. I put the students in pairs and gave each
partner several cards with pictures of
I then asked one member of each team to come to the board. I asked the first
actions that I wanted them to request the
question and they each had to give their answers. Points were awarded according other person to do. Here are some
to whether or not an answer was included in my top ten list and according to its examples:
position in that list. The student with the fastest correct answer got points
● Close the door.
awarded first, but the other team had the chance to ‘steal’ points back by guessing ● Erase the board.
an answer higher in the top ten list than their opponent’s. When all ten answers ● Give me the toothbrush.
had been guessed, another pair of students took a turn with a different question. ● Give me the hairbrush.
● Give me the pen.
This is highly adaptable to almost any language point and is a great way to practise
● Give the teacher the book.
fluency after the language has been taught or for recycling.
● Sit down.
Caspar Mays ● Open the window.
Broadstairs, UK
Inevitably, the students were quite able to
communicate each of these requests
nonverbally.
Who’s a pretty boy, then?
This is an entertaining lesson with a point:
For an interesting comprehension activity, tell the class some
you can get along with an appropriate
statements related to a text they have just read. If the statements amount of body language, so don’t just
are true, they have to repeat them like a clever parrot. If they are rely on words. Gesture, smile, be a little
false, then they should remain silent. flamboyant, and you’ll be fine!
Maria Xanthou
Limassol, Cyprus Pat Dougherty
Himeji, Japan
42 • Issue 35 November 2004 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
On the air
Good neighbours
When practising question forms and
Are you fed up with students who insist on saying ‘I going to the cinema this
short answers or just consolidating
evening’ or ‘He’s write a letter’? Then it’s time to tell your students a story: lexis, syntax, pronunciation and
‘The Be family live in a small house. It’s a small house because there are only a few intonation, a radio programme can be
family members. Next to them, there is a house where the Other Verbs family live. just the thing to achieve your aims.
It’s a huge house and there are millions of verbs living there. Unfortunately, the No sophisticated equipment is needed,
Other Verbs don’t like the Be family very much, and so they try to avoid having just a small tape recorder, plus a
microphone and some cassettes.
contact with them, as is the case sometimes with neighbours. But there are times
when the Be family feel a strong desire to visit the Other Verbs. To put them in a ● Write a model programme which
gracious mood, the Be family have to bring a present with them: -ing. Without -ing, includes an introduction to the
the Be family can’t visit the Other Verbs, but with -ing, it’s no problem.’ programme by the presenter, an
interview with a famous person and
When you are telling the story, draw the picture below on the board. Make sure a pop song which your students
that the house of the Other Verbs is significantly bigger than the house of the Be really like.
family and that verbs that are normally not used in progressive forms (know, love,
● Divide your class into groups of three
etc) do not live there.
or four and give copies of your
programme script to each group.
-ing Other Verbs
Be ● Encourage them to write something
similar, choosing their favourite TV
am • is • are sing • travel • dance star, singer or group and the song
was • were play • buy • swim • sit • cook they like most.
run • watch • hang • dream
She’s sleeping. ● Take in their scripts, correct and
walk • sleep • go
They were running. return them.
She’s sleep. She sleeping. ● Ask the students to record their radio
They were run. They running. programme on a cassette in their free
time. They should take the roles of
Stefan Rathert
the presenter, interviewer and star
Kahramanmaras, Turkey
and should include a short musical
introduction to the programme and
the song they have chosen.
Not their cup of tea
● When all the programmes have been
I thought that food and drink would be a useful and relevant topic for the
recorded, listen to each of them in
group of Pakistani mums that I teach once a week at a local primary school.
class. You can vote on the best and
We could ‘do’ canteen food, childhood allergies, favourite dishes, shopping
perhaps give the winners a small
lists and end with a nice cross-cultural exchange of recipes, introducing the prize.
use of the imperative for instructions in a communicative, genre-based way. Bárbara Liz Alvez
Eldorado, Argentina
It all went rather well. We read the school menu and talked about what our
children liked to eat. We identified things that gave us headaches and things
that made us sick. We learnt to spell lists of ingredients and swapped recipes
for oat biscuits and chapatti. We absorbed the learning points without the IT WORKS IN PRACTICE
need for an explicit grammatical focus.
Do you have ideas you’d like to share
‘Today we learned nothing,’ said a student decisively, as she stuffed her with colleagues around the world?
handouts into a carrier bag at the end of the lesson. ‘We all know this – Tips, techniques and activities;
simple or sophisticated; well-tried
cooking, cleaning … it’s our whole lives. Next week you give us something
or innovative; something that has
different. We want to do grammar and spelling.’
worked well for you? All published
Tip of the day? Never assume. contributions receive a prize!
Gillian Twine Write to us or email:
Stamford, UK
iwip@etprofessional.com
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 35 November 2004 • 43
