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. The contributors to this issue will each receive a digital subscription
to Modern English Teacher.
CELEBRITY INTERVIEWS AGONY AUNTS
Ben Mitchell, London, UK
Dorothy Prentice, Sydney, Australia
I ask each student to think of a famous person and to write
four questions that they would like to ask that person on a
piece of paper. I make it clear that they should not tell anyone
else who their person is, and that the questions should be
relevant to this person’s life, but not so obvious as to reveal
their identity. So, for example, Do you like being Queen of
England? would not be a suitable question.
I ask the students to put their own name on the back of
their paper. Then, I collect all the questions, shuffle them and
distribute the papers. Each student looks at the questions they
have received, tries to imagine the person they might be
addressed to and answers them in writing, as if they were that
person. It doesn’t matter whether they guess the identity of the
person or not, but the end result is funnier if they don’t.
In turn, the students read out the questions they have
been given and their own answers. The person who set those This activity practises modal verbs such as should, ought to,
questions then reveals who their famous person was. n etc in the context of giving advice. Explain to your students
what an ‘agony aunt’ is (a newspaper columnist who gives
advice on problems that readers send in) and explain that
you are all going to be agony aunts for each other. Give
each student a sheet of paper, and ask them to write a
problem that they have – and which they don’t mind sharing
– at the top. They don’t have to add their names, so their
problem can be anonymous if they wish. It could be a
problem related to learning English or one they are
experiencing outside the classroom. If you want, you could
add your own problem. Take in the papers and mix them up.
Put the students into groups of four or five and distribute the
papers amongst them. Set a time limit for the groups to
write advice underneath each problem they have received,
using should, ought to, must, If I were you, I would ..., etc.
Emphasise that they can add as many pieces of advice as
they wish under each problem, but they must put something
for all of them. When they have finished, they pass their
papers on to another group and receive more problems to
look at. When every group has written advice on every
sheet, the sheets are displayed in the classroom for the
students to circulate and read. You can make use of them to
see if the students are having difficulties with the language
for giving advice, and check whether any kind of remedial
teaching of this language point is required. n
32 Issue 126 • January 2020 www.etprofessional.com
IT WORKS IN PRACTICE
READ ALL ABOUT IT!
Shiromi Upulaneththa, Kandy, Sri Lanka
For the past five years, I have implemented a newspaper project
with trainee teachers on a pre-service course here in
Sri Lanka. This has helped them to improve their
English reading and writing skills immensely. Not
only that, but I have also been able to witness
their inborn talents, core skills and especially their
amazing creativity coming to the fore through this
small but colourful activity. This is how I did it and
I think this idea would help any teacher who
wants to see the creativity of their students
employed in their learning.
The idea for the newspaper project first came
to me when I was giving a grammar lesson to my
trainees on the passive voice. After I had done
some initial planning, I asked my trainees to go
through the weekend’s English newspapers and
to note down the key features of each paper,
together with the sort of language used in it.
In class, the following week, I put the students into small
groups and asked them to share and discuss their ideas of what
newspapers are like and how they are put together. They identified
many different features and their locations within the paper, such
as news headlines on the front page, an editorial on the second or
third page, sections on local and foreign news, political features, In fact, it helped them to become more autonomous learners
reports on education, sports, entertainment, etc. and gave them a sense of team spirit.
Afterwards, I gave each group five pieces of A4 paper, and The two items that proved most interesting to the
told them to use these to make a model of a newspaper. They trainees, and the ones that they all loved getting involved
folded the pieces of paper and made booklets of ten pages (20 with, were college news and an interview with a person
sides) on which they plotted where they would put the various whom they found inspiring. I asked each group to select one
sections. Next, I asked them to appoint two teammates for each lecturer from the college and to get their permission to
page in their newspaper: these people would take responsibility interview them for their newspaper. Beforehand, I checked
for preparing that particular page. Then, I asked them to decide the questions they were proposing to ask and corrected
on an interesting name for their paper. Many came up with names them. My trainees found the experience of conducting the
like The Echo or Aura, which were full of meaning for them. interviews very interesting, because they got the chance to
Finally, I set the ground rules for each group to produce a meet with their favourite teachers and solicit their personal
newspaper. These were as follows: views on various matters, as well as asking them for their
message to society. Every Friday I monitored the trainees’
■■ The preparation time was to be one month.
work and assisted them in correcting their writing.
■■ As far as possible, they were to use eco-friendly materials.
After a month, we held the ‘Newspaper launching
■■ he newspapers were to be hand-written on drawing
T ceremony’ during the morning assembly. A well-organised
paper. steering committee had been put together, and all the
■■ he criteria for the final evaluation and assessment of
T newspapers (about 15 in total) were displayed in the main
the newspapers would be: content, language, organisation hall. The event started with a PowerPoint presentation on the
and overall presentation. history of newspapers, presented by one of the trainees.
My main objective was to improve the trainees’ English writing Then four trainees presented a news bulletin live on stage.
skills and to enable them to practise the grammar we had been After that, the exhibition opened, with the panel of
studying. I asked them to read through some authentic English adjudicators tasked with selecting the five best newspapers.
newspapers very carefully and to take note of the writing style It was an amazing day for everyone. This project not only
and the grammar structures employed. I encouraged them to helped to encourage my trainees to develop the habit of
notice the ‘voice’ they would need to use – a good way of reading in English and to improve their core skills, it also
making them understand the form and the function of passive enabled them to interact with their peers and the teachers, as
constructions. This was a stress-free way of helping them see well as the head of the institute. Moreover, it was a firsthand
the relevance of learning the passive and, as they were writing experience of the sort of project that they could carry out
about their own interests, the work was not rigid or boring. during their teaching practice period in schools. n
www.etprofessional.com Issue 126 • January 2020 33
