Motivating Activities for Language Learning
Prof. CATRINA Luminita
Reflection time - Instead of asking learners to think about the language content of dialogues before engaging with them, another approach is to encourage reflection afterwards. Sometimes having a dialogue with someone is a useful way of raising awareness about the need for input in certain areas of language, and of making the learner more open to this input. For the teacher it is also an opportunity to observe issues of pronunciation, vocabulary range and accuracy etc.
One way of encouraging reflection is to ask the students to comment in pairs or small groups on what was said or how it was expressed. How successful did they feel they were in communicating what they intended to, and/or in speaking accurately? This can help to reinforce the forms of language items which, up to that point, may have been processed only for their meaning.
Another way is for the teacher to monitor dialogues carefully and make a note of interesting, effective or incorrect language use by students. These can be written up on the board exactly as they were said or in reformulated versions. The students are then asked to analyse or correct each utterance, or to remember who they think each one was said by.
Setting up and managing dialogues - Dialogue is interaction between two people, so obviously pairwork is the best format for practising it in class. Pairwork also allows all the class to be engaged at the same time.. Students for whom working in pairs is a new idea may need initial encouragement and/or an explanation (in the learner's first language if necessary) as to why this approach may be useful. It can also be helpful to demonstrate the pairwork activity yourself with another learner to provide a model of how the dialogue can take shape. There are of course a range of formats that pairwork in the classroom can take.
Dialogue Activities Closed pairs - After making it clear what is going to be discussed, and with a clear signal from the teacher, the students in the class all turn to the person on their left or their right and start talking. The teacher is able to monitor by moving around the different pairs, but in a large class it will be difficult to hear everybody's dialogue.
Open pairs - In this form two students engage in dialogue whilst the rest of the class listens. This can serve as a model for the closed pairwork which is to follow. Or it can provide an opportunity for individual pairs to 'perform' (more accurately or more fluently) what they have been 'rehearsing' in closed pairs,
Back-to-back pairs - This can be used for telephone dialogues or other situations where you want to omit visual clues and encourage the learners to communicate through the sound of their words alone. A slightly less challenging and quieter variation is side-by-side pairs, where learners sit next to each other but try not to look at each other whilst they are talking.
Line dance formation - Students stand in two rows, facing one another, and enact their dialogue. At a given signal from the teacher, the student at the head of one row moves to the tail of that same row and all the other students in that row move up one, so that they have a new partner. They then re-enact their dialogue with their new partner.
Dyadic circles - The students stand in two circles, one inside the other, the students in the inner circle facing those in the outer. There should be an equal number of people in each circle. The students start a dialogue with the person facing them. At a given signal from the teacher the outer circle moves round one place so that everyone is now facing a different person. They now start a new dialogue on a similar or different topic. This can be repeated many times. If the class is small, the students can be seated in two concentric circles of chairs.
Miffing - The whole class stands up in a space where they are free to move around. They engage in dialogue with a person of their choosing and then move on to have an introduction with somebody new when the dialogue has reached a natural conclusion, or at a given signal from the teacher. This type of pairwork is particularly suited to conducting various forms of survey.
The ever widening gap - The students stand in two lines facing each other in the middle of the room. Then they start talking to the person who is opposite them. As they continue their conversation they move gradually away from each other by walking slowly backwards. Eventually the students are at opposite ends of the room and have to raise their voices considerably. This is good for students who need to develop the ability to speak more loudly and clearly. The activity can be extended by asking students to move freely around in the space, whilst still continuing to talk to each other.
Tricky words Outline - Students identify areas of a dialogue which are difficult to pronounce and then listen again, paying particular attention to these areas Focus Encouraging students to notice the pronunciation features of tapescripts.
Level – Any Time - 15 minutes Materials - Each student needs a copy of the tapescript for the listening material you are working with, preparation
Procedure
1 After doing the listening tasks from the coursebook, give out copies of the tapescript or direct the students to the tapescripts section at the back of the book. Ask them to underline words or chunks that they would feel unsure about if they had to pronounce them correctly themselves.
2 Invite students to get up and mingle. Ask them to share what they've underlined with others and see if they can find somebody who can help them with the pronunciation. Take a back seat yourself at this stage.
3 In pairs students have a go at saying their underlined bits to each other.
Again, do not get involved here. You want them to be very motivated to listen carefully to the tape at the next stage.
4 Play the tape again and ask students to listen out carefully for the words they picked.
5 If it's not too long, ask them to read the tapescript to each other in pairs and to try to incorporate the correct pronunciation of their tricky words.
Closed mouth minimal pairs Outline - The class take part in a minimal pairs exercise where they are not to open their mouths.
Focus - Raising awareness about the pauses and stress and intonation patterns of utterances in dialogue
Level – Any Time - 10 minutes plus Materials - Pick out some lines from a coursebook dialogue that you've worked with, where there are interesting issues of intonation and stress. Prepare a copy of these lines for each student.
The ultimate gapfill Outline - Students try to reconstruct a dialogue that they have already listened to by using a wordlist and a skeleton text. Focus - Raising awareness about the grammatical and lexical patterns of spoken English and developing intensive listening skills. Level – Any Time - 30 minutes plus Materials - You will need to prepare a skeleton text of the tapescript (where each 3™ word is represented by a blank line), and a wordlist of all the words which are been taken out of the dialogue.
Procedure
1 After doing the content-focused listening activities in the book, give out the skeleton text and word list and ask the learners in pairs to fill in as much as they can using the words at the bottom, and crossing them off as they go.
2, As they begin to run out of ideas, ask them to sit on their hands (so that they can't write while they listen) while you play the tape again. As the tape finishes tell them to fill in again what they can remember and then share what they've done with a partner. Different students tend to pick up different elements, so it's useful to encourage them to interact as much as possible here. They also need time to process and think about which words are possible, both grammatically and lexically, for each space.
3 Repeat this process until one pair has got all of it, or until you feel they've got as much as they can. Allow them to check with the tapescript at the back of the book while they listen again for the final time.
Note - It works much better with fairly short tapescripts.
Variation 1 - Ask students to turn their papers over while they listen so that they can't see the skeleton text at all. This increases the level of challenge. Reproducing and reconstructing Skeleton text
Carmen:
Stranger:
Carmen:
Stranger:
Carmen:
Stranger:
Carmen:
Stranger:
Carmen:
Choose where to place the following words in the text to complete the dialogue. You may use each word only once.
before bomb alert yes there's I terrible isn't
failure always the it it we something the
it mmm had there the see what wonder
that leaves train's excuse this yesterday on yeah
track a oh time yeah probably a last again
is maybe signal week I late it's was snow
the that was isn't
The complete dialogue
Carmen: The train's late again, I see!
Stranger: Yeah. Terrible, isn't it?
Carmen: Mmm. I wonder what the excuse is this time? Leaves on the track?
Stranger: Yeah, probably.
Carmen: Maybe it's a signal failure.
Stranger: We had that yesterday.
Carmen: Oh.
Stranger: Last week it was the snow. Before that it was a bomb alert.
Carmen: Yes, there's always something, isn't there?
Variation 2 - With very short dialogues, write two copies of the 'skeleton', one on each side of the board. Divide the class into two teams and give each team a complete set of all the words needed for their dialogue, written out on separate pieces of card (preferably a different colour for each team) and some Blu-tack. The students work together in each team to stick the words up in the appropriate places and reconstruct the complete dialogue. The first team to do this is the winner. This works well with service encounters and other more predictable dialogues, e.g.
A: Who's next?
B: Half a kilo of onions, please.
A: Anything else?
B: No thanks.
A: That'll be
Listen again Outline - Students listen to a dialogue repeatedly, each time attempting to write down more of what is being said Focus - Developing intensive listening skills and raising awareness about typical spoken utterances
Level - Any Time 2.0 minutes plus (depending on the length and the difficulty of the dialogue)
From monologue to dialogue Outline - The class convert a monologue back into dialogue format, and then compare it with the dialogue that it was originally converted from
Focus - Encouraging students to notice the linguistic features which help to make interaction more dialogic
Level - Any (this example is for an elementary group) Time - 30 minutes plus
Materials - Find a dialogue from your coursebook where the listener is clearly meant to react to the speaker's lines, and convert it into monologue format. Make a copy of this and the original dialogue for each student.
Procedure - Give out copies of the monologue to the group. Read it out to the class without pausing. Ask them how they would feel if a friend of theirs interacted with them in such a way. Discuss how usually, when one person is talking, the other person makes comments and asks questions about what has been said, and this helps to make the conversation flow more smoothly.
Start converting the monologue back into a dialogue on the board with the whole group. Use the first few lines of the original tapescript to get them on the right track and illustrate a few examples of the kind of questions and comments that the listener needs to make.
Ask students to continue converting the monologue into dialogue format in pairs. Ask one or two pairs to read out their dialogue to the rest of the class. Play the original recording of the dialogue. Ask students to make a note of any useful language which the listener used to show interest and keep the conversation going. Give out the original tapescript and encourage the students to notice any language that they had previously missed.
Jigsaw Outline - After reading the scripts for different scenes, students swap information about what they have read. They then watch the complete section to compare it with how they had imagined it.
Focus - Encouraging learners to access and activate information contained in a script Level - Pre-intermediate plus Time - 30 minutes plus Materials - Choose two adjacent scenes including dialogue from a film or soap opera, or divide one scene into two fairly equal parts. You will need copies of the script of both scenes and the DVD that goes with it.
Procedure
1 Give one side of the class the script of the first scene and the other side the script of the second one. Ask the students to read it and work out the basic details of where the people are, what they are doing, what happens and what they are talking about. It may help to write these categories on the board.
2 In pairs or small groups, ask the students to discuss what information they have worked out about the scene.
3 Now pair off students so that they are working with somebody who has read the other scene. Ask them to share as much information as they can about what they have read. What do they think the characters in the scene are like? How old are they? What do they look like? What kind of people are they?
4 Listen to the recording or show the complete scene on the DVD.
5 Discuss whether the characters and the scene were similar to how they had imagined them.
Backchannelling Outline - Students tell personal anecdotes to each other, and incorporate backchannel devices into those that they hear
Focus Raising awareness about how backchannel devices (mm, uhum, yeah, no, right, oh, really?, wow! etc.) are used to show that the listener is following the anecdote
Level - Pre-intermediate plus Time - 30 minutes plus Materials - For homework ask the students to prepare a short personal anecdote and or story to tell in the next class. This could be about something that has happened to them or someone that they know. The stories do not need to be very long.
Procedure
1 Ask the students to tell their anecdotes in pairs or small groups.
2 Invite a volunteer to sit with you at the front of the class. Ask them to tell their story to you. As they do this, use backchannels (Yeah? Uhuh etc.) and clarification checks (On your own?, Why was that? etc.) to indicate that you are listening. Ask the class to note everything you say.
3 Elicit from the class the language that they made a note of, and write it on the board. Can they think of any other things that listeners say when listening to an anecdote? Write these up on the board too. Check that everyone understands how the language is used.
4 Reorganise the students so that they can retell their anecdotes to different people. This time the speaker should allow time for backchannels where appropriate and the listener should try to incorporate them. If the anecdotes are long, they should just tell the beginning.
5 Ask the students to regroup again and retell the anecdotes, this time without any backchannels. How does this feel different?
6 Discuss with the whole class what effect the backchannels have on the telling of the story. Which backchannels are used in the mother tongue(s) of the students? Are they used more or less than in English?
Notes - There are cultural differences in the amount that a listener is expected to contribute in a speaker's extended turn. Kyoko Beaumont, a teacher of Japanese in
A worksheet can consist of two utterances of similar length. You will also need the recording that goes with the tapescript.
Procedure - After doing the coursebook tasks associated with the recording, put two different utterances up on the board (e.g.”I feel really tired. I'm going to bed” and “You look really beautiful today”}. Say both utterances to the group but keep your mouth firmly closed whilst doing it. Since the individual sounds of both utterances will all now be very similar, the differences between them will be shown by stressed syllables, pauses and the way in which your voice rises or falls. Ask the students to try to work out which utterance is which. Discuss how it was that they were able to work it out.
Play the recording again, asking the students to pay particular attention to how the utterances you've picked out are said.
Give out the worksheet with the sentences you have chosen. Ask them to experiment with closed mouth versions of the lines. Encourage them to say one of the options for each line and to see if their partner can guess which one it is.
Ask pairs to do their favourite ones for the whole group to guess. With students working in pairs again, ask them to practise saying the lines normally now, but trying to incorporate the features they noticed when they did them with mouths closed.
1 a He's off sick. He had a very bad week last week, b Well, for a start, his girlfriend left him.
2 a Oh, you're joking! I thought they were serious, b Yeah, oh, he was really depressed about it.
3 a Then his brother crashed his car. b You mean his new sports car?
4 a He was really, really angry. b He didn't even come to the pub.
Still images Procedure – The teacher divides the class in two groups, or three - depending on the size of the class. He attributes to each group a situation (e.g. a bank robbery, a day at the beach, etc), without the other group knowing, and they have to make a representation of that situation like a photo, a still image.
The other group goes out and when they return, they have to guess:
- what that image represents
- who is each person and what each one is doing
- how they are feeling
- how the whether is where they are or where they are
- what they think is going to happen next
- what each character will do next, etc
The teacher encourages them to comment freely on that situation. He can begin asking as to set the ground for the use of a certain tense or pattern. This is useful for practicing Present Continuous, for example. Teacher: What are they doing? Students: He is shooting. / He is going to run away…
Note – the actors are not allowed to use objects (it would become too obvious what they are doing) and they should not move at all.
Variant 1- The students stay on two rows, face to face. One student comes in the middle and takes a pose. Then another student from the opposite row must come and take a pose as to compliment the one of the first student. The other students must interpret their positions, comment, give opinions, etc. Then the first student must retire and another one assumes another position. The rest of the students must comment on the new situation. Then the second person, who took a position, retires and another one comes and takes another pose and so on. The students can use Present Continuous to describe what they are doing.
Variant 2 - The students can take position without having an idea and the others must give it an interpretation.
Variant 3 - The teacher gives sheets of paper with a short description of a situation to each group.
e.g. The teacher has just caught some students smoking in the school toilet. This is a good practice for Present Perfect. All groups have the same grammatical structure. The other group has to guess what has just happened in that situation.
e.g. The waitress has just spilt some coffee in the clients.
Variant 4- Or it can be done with very important moments from known fairy-tales or a story, book just read. The students have to guess the story and the moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment