tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52671530415698338622024-02-07T15:38:32.094-08:00Another Great Teaching BlogSo many great teaching ideas, so little time! This blog aims to provide lesson ideas for teachers of English, as well as thoughts and observations on methodology and hot issues in the ELT community.LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-38809452795313731532018-09-07T02:34:00.000-07:002018-09-07T02:39:41.382-07:00Podcast Roundup - podcasts about languageI'll confess upfront, I'm addicted to podcasts. When I'm travelling, doing chores, working out or just filling some downtime, I like to have something to listen to that exercises my brain.<br />
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If students ask me how to improve their English Listening skills, I'll often advise them to find a podcast that matches their interest and level, and fit it into their daily routine. But I want to write today about 4 podcasts that teachers might enjoy and find useful - I have learnt a lot from all of them.<br />
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<b>1. <a href="https://www.theallusionist.org/" target="_blank">The Allusionist</a></b><br />
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<img alt="The Allusionist" height="200" src="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5460c83ce4b08eea0acd5057/t/57fcb5ff2e69cfddffb887f2/1535392709989/?format=1500w" width="200" /><br />
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This is a professionally produced magazine-style podcast from Radiotopia, hosted by Helen Zaltzman. Topics covered range from the lighthearted (living with an unusual first name, the language of crossword clues) to the serious (endangered languages, the damage done by insults and dehumanising language). Helen is always witty, and has a range of guests who are always worth listening to.<br />
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<b>2. <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley.html?via=gdpr-consent" target="_blank">Lexicon Valley</a></b><br />
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<img alt="Image result for lexicon valley" 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" 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Another professional magazine-style show, this time produced by American magazine Slate. Early episodes are presented by Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo, whose double-act revolves around Mike enthusiastically presenting material about language while Bob plays the part of 'old man yelling at clouds' and complains about 'they' pronouns and vocal fry. That schtick gets a bit old after a while, so I'd recommend starting after new presenter John H. McWhorter takes over (May 2016). He's a Linguistics professor who absolutely knows his stuff, and has a very open-minded approach to language change, so prepare to have your preconceptions challenged.<br />
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<b>3. <a href="https://fiatlex.podbean.com/" target="_blank">Fiat Lex</a></b><br />
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<img height="185" src="https://deow9bq0xqvbj.cloudfront.net/image-logo/2888517/fiatlex_big.jpg" width="200" /><br />
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This is a newer podcast made by a couple of lexicographers, Kory Stamper and Steve Kleinedler. Try it out if you've ever wanted to know more about how dictionaries are made, from two people who love language and really get their teeth into the details of lexicography.<br />
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4. <a href="http://historyofenglishpodcast.com/" target="_blank"><b>The History of English</b></a><br />
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<img alt="Image result for history of english podcast" 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LDcNcyMhVY1R44gSQQ7lzlsY2AX4iqRXtZ5V2+ppS7FmOWYkk+JJyTXxSlaQr2vKUClKUHteUpQKUpQKUpQKUpQKUpQKUpQKUpQKUpQdI9F9zb3TiznsrdsI7LLo7bEHJDk+1sTvtyFbHTji1vYXggj4dZugRC2uPtEtknDA4XbHce+ob0O/5yX+rl/w1Kekjo7c3fEZDbwtIFSEMVxsSuRnJrnf3N+G/wBIeidpe8P9fso+qcIXKDOlgmesQryDLhsEYzjzyOS12qaccG4P1EzL6xIkgWMEE6pc/RQdzyyMd4rm3Aui7TwyXUsggto9mkKlizbDTGgxqOSBzA3pjUsV6lXjgnRKz4gHSzupVmQZ0XEagOOWQY2OBkjPMjwqrXPB5o7g2rRnrg4TQNyWOMY8Qcgg+BrcsTTWs5VR1Z0EigglGLAMPAlSCPga6r6RVjHBrV4YUhWWSByiAADXDI+CcdrB7zVRk6P2VvJ1F1eOsw2cxRa4om+yzFgzkd+ldtxmrn6ULcR8Hs41cSKj26h15OFgkAYeRG/xrGV6xZOlcfpU7wno71kJuZ5Ootg2gOVLtI+/YjQY1HbckgDffY1N3fQiCSye9s7vrEjB1pImhgVwSM5PawRgd+djW+aJpR6VaOEdEtdo99cSGK3U4GhOskkOoJ2VLKANRxknuNSUvQSOaza8sbgyogYvHImhxoGph2SRqAwcd/jTmhqqLSp7ox0cN2JpGfq4LdNcr6dRxgkKq5Gpjg94ArcuOBWclpNcWtxKXg0F4po1ViruEDAqxGMnz88ZFNw0rNvA0jBUVmY8lUEk432A3O1Y67F6IOC2whe5EmubBRuywEIIyVGR2mI5sPcO/PNuN2VpEii3umuHJOo9U0SqoAwMMckk58qky3dGuiGpSlaQpSlApSlApSlApSlApSlApSlBePQ7/nJf6uX/AA19+lm5ePiblHZD1cW6kqcafEVh6C9KrXhymRreSS4bI1alChCQcKMbchnnX1016VWfEV6z1aWO5AVVfWpUqDyYY32JxgA8t8VjV5tteFMlmZyWZizHmSSSfeTXWukVoD0dt+rHZRYHbHeSSHz/AG3JNchq6dD+nXqsLWlxF19s+oac4ZQ/tAdxB5423Oc1cpfCRF9ALsxcRtWHfKqH3Sdg/Rq6w1vG/SEHALR2er3Pq0fPQ/3VzWz4vw+0lE9tFcySqSY1naNURu5joyz48Mio7h/SqeK99dLa5SxL52DqRgptyGNh4YHhUs2sumv0pt3jvLhXBDCaTOe/LFgfiCD8a6H6Qf8AMXD/AP0v/wAZ60ukHTfht2BJLYPJOo21PoX3M6NlwPNflmtXjvpBhubSO1azVgqJvq6tUkVdIMapyUZOMnlsRU63XQ6dUx6ReHaeD2RiGY4+qJx/tI/aPvY8/Fq5Yty4Qxh2CEglNR0lhyJXkT51fOinpFWG29UvIOuhClQRgnR9hlbZh4HIxtWledKLGEMeH2XVysCOumbWYxyzGrFgG3Pazt51cdzoXVe8B6Oyz2Jnurp4bCMkqmS+o6sHRHnSMuSMnvJ8zV29HTwHh92LdZVQNL+9ZWZj1I3wqgL3DG/LnVW6P9OrZeH+o3kEkiDIGgjtKXMgzkgqQx5jwFOjnpBt7TrYVs9Ns4PZEhZyxGklmbYgrgYAGMd+9Zylu1mo1/Rt0lFgspmiZrWVkRnUA6JMMQCp9oFdWR5d/KrF0k6L8Pu7Oa8sGVTGrMwjJCsEGtlaM+wcDIwB7qqXC+klmsVzby2jiCdkZRHJqaEoMAguO0c75PiRjFYv/wCjhtrae3skl/nGBLLMV1aBkaFRNhszdonvPli2Xe4m+i8ehX/I7r+s/wC3XHKuvo66bJw4SpLGzxyaT2MZVgCORwCCD491Q3SO+s5MLZ2phUHJd3Z3byxkqoHxJ23qyWZUvZB0pStslKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFKUoFK+lUnlWZbJyMgfUfnUtk7rJb2a9K2DZP4fUfnT1J/D6j86c09nLfTXpWx6m/h9RQWT+H1H505p7OW+mvSt4cJlIzo28dS/nR+ETDmn1X86nPj7a+vL00aVtCwk+z91P5Ok+z9RTnx9pyZemrStwcMl+x9R+dP5Ml+z9R+dOfH2vJl6adK2/5Nl+z9R+dejhcv2D9Pzpz4+05MvTTpW7/JM32D8x+dfL8OkHNCPfinPj7Xky9NSlbHqb/Zp6m/h9RTmntOW+mvSs4tH8PqK89Wbw+6rzT2mqw0rMLZvCvDbt4U3DVYqVn9Uf7JrG8RHMU3DVfFKUqoUpSg+gte6K+yKsPR6zVR1jkFjyUMmw8Tvn4Vzzz5Zt3w4XNdIzh1jq3IIHecVMG3XuBx+u+pp4D9sHfOk5yPMjFFsh3sgP+9j4Z5fWvHlxea7r148Ll6RDpZj+lWQWI7sVKm3H21/vqf131tLCBgg/VT9A29c7xNOn1oROHE/Z+W9ZG4RkZ51IySsZNAfDHOAfIZP0rN1UgAPWDVnYE93j4fWlzySYRDR8GJI7B/XurZTgGM5yQPDf6VKR9cN2kTAO++3huB762lvIwQJnhUgDHaVcg8jhj4ZrGXEzvatTh4zwhoeDqfYBJ787Y/KsrcOOdlOfn9c1NtcQYBM6Ed4WaMZHuBrXF9E3Z61CM8utQ5Puya5c+VdZhEYOGk45D9fWsq8J54God52/OpV7bIGlBzGSHz9BnAx3++ssfCbg+xAACcZ0nkfBt9+dN5XyXliDPDF3JyuPLP3VjitQ2SSQO4/panz0WumILYXy0yfXsb1kHBp12LIMeUx/CtW68syxX14cucam+OR9BvXzLw0DcE7ePh4kc6nrmKRe/wDuxvvnzK5rWjdpSUIYe9HxjAxjC7bVJcl1FfeyUntSfDl9K+14MCQAy75/i/XyqejserOjrF33A1fMb4P4V8LfdSTqlUDuwR9QDz8q6XLPwxy4VW5OCnOFG4rw8EPgc/rPdVuTiMUxINygXu1Y7853U91JeIW4266Bveydru2ycgfrer9nE9M8nDVP+Qj4E+RVvyrVuOEhSR594x8t8n5VeetjI5qwIz2ZEP0zWtMmoEYxsR3MB8dX13pjxM99YXh4Xyo54Xjcb58jj5+NY5eE55cz3fo/fVsTh7v2Vjdt98JGR8y+fCtniFmbWNTLE6ls4PYzsdxpSTAA8zXW8XKdXP6sa5VLAVYqeYJB94OKGAirD0h6uaTWgYdlQQQAdQzknBOcjG9aK2rAZ3Hu2r1Tjbkry3haukVoNKk+rPi3zNKv2p9TRd818wXLRtqRip8RXrJWMpXSaZzlTdj0gmBJabG22UD7+HL61ZeA9KzCGbrbdy+kn1iyJ0lQQCGh8QcZ35CufBanuCcQjGIpUTSechzlfP2W+grOc6dDHr3dDsfScq7PDw5z/RFxHnfH+khbHzrevfSRwuQYmsonHkFk+QaICud3fA7ZgWS6TbuCKc/EP+FQUmYW7Lg+enH31zkxvZqyzus3SC6iuJkksLWRAp9kQomR4ZiOG7xyFYOtZcjkQcEad1O43U7ZyO8d1YOGdJ7lCNOSPAAffipPiUMl0DNoVSQNal49RI/iA2OcYBGO6s610rrjenRGSOe/ljng7d/fXQ+g3SWQW/UrB1jRnbaI4RtxkyDJwfDO1c4hlKk7ZONhvse8/rPOrh6P45+tEogbQQwaTVpGM/whxhjqxty2NZznTayy9Kv0fHrn/VoDj7XVqT5krsDjyrb/AJalxkW8QPdjqx79wa1DOoznrBtj2k5c/wCFT+deLcgge3/ef/6ga47pqPubjcxxmNQR/TB9+MkYrE97Ow/dpnxZdQPx6zyr5Z3ztGxHeQ8hPlj9lkV6w54jl8MkXBJ8s9Xyqc1WSNZpZV3Ig5/+EAPdkMcfKlu7k84jnwRPf9nf61mXcbq/925P/TWOOzIy2nv70uVx5c9/jSWrqPqe3lIOiXQf6McWT5dqI7VrEzd90QfJUH3QYrHNOVPJMYwR2wPfu4P1rWS7XOf2QI8QDn/3yaS38hZEl11yoH86z/YU/dCNq15GuTsLlgMnkzHnvsTE2Phivj1gEneIZ79KfjL+FacuBnAXf7EVsfqZKu7+ROWJCG7uR2euDAbAsST/AMnf3mvZZLnlqB9xYH6KDUYzg7lFX+sithy789bWK4tgcHq4TnwWyH+OXlTr+Q1EvBxGfPacn+jqVcbd3Yzj51sJxKUk6djyOd/+kVWW4Ym56qAf+VYb/wDHRYEU/uoh59XZDPxDn7qfnY0vNnxCbYEt5adQHv2G9aXT/gTXdseeqFGmBI5ldmQ7D2lJx5qKr1sVBOAB5YtQD5jDVZeEzRlTGAgLAjIMQIBGD7LfrNZtvddOLhfd5CssAz4HyIFSN/whYZXVjnDsMnbODzHcfh31jS2Ud23vz8xUyzerDCa6xqaP6C0qT9UTwHyavazz1rkx9NKTo2Dz/ID61pS9FJc9kYHdkHc+A8au1ugHeo2+0M7j6VlEjY7LqB47ZP8Aa3I91MePxY5548K9oodvwBhler6xs76SQV+hB3qd4Pwi6sW9YhUo+kqdRRgVODjDR47hy8PfU6tykSjHM532G/lgZPwr461nbJAUeLg/Rc5PxIrd+Rl5cvrnaPlOlF+ww8SMRzOIAMeYMJ0+/PyqOuuLXEvsWsLeLFI9PwYRKH+GR51OB4xjUS2N9wAoPkvIe/Ga2V4iOQyR5/hWL8n1D6VBktr7ORpXwWP9n5/6PB+tStlJxMDsqxA55muvu64VZjMpz2h8QRj86y2Mik89Q8ckfeKxl8vPxI3OBj/NS7bovdzMSI8sTlmdwSSeZOWyat3Auj9/bAiOUAHmpebSpydwscqjfO/Op4cVRRhAM+JIyfgRXkkksntsFHvz9KxflZ+U+qNOduKbgTwn43K/Xr6wOOLDfrYc+AaYk/BpambO1J5MMDvzj9CtsSwx7kgkZ8CTkd+eXwqT5Wd/0n14z8qqSScUPNYPe0bn75DXhivm5mxJ7wYB+Jq0XHSFXQoC3djSMcvh+NRy32RpK93PI/Krfk5+P8NThy95/dU7qS81aT6uD/Rt4cf8QP0r2SLiSgfzkDPLEUafVVAqyo4UkrnJ8PzrE/EGzgZPnz//ACs/q8+0n9nScHDv/wCq00fEO+5J/tED6MMmtIJfZx61ICeQVpCT5YByas05Vt3293d8RtWKLSh/ZqAT39+P97nW8fk597/gy4OHaIheH353e6KIMZLsS2PIA5z7yDWnLY3AzouJCM7EyOpPiThsVY5gSQXDAee4+Q517HEjez89vhS/Lqz408qzBYXxBKzzDzEkv0y+Kzw2nEBzvJtvGVmx8yasWrqjp2Oe7Jz9Nq+JJjzIwPADJ/Ks35ed7L+nwVqae9jxi7ZvfoP3qaywcV4h/rB8v2cJz5n9nyqcafOyg/Ij7udYo1A5sPPYc/jvW/1WWupfj4bR7cVvie1cEjG+IYRv4bR/jWMXF2Tn1l18PZH3KKkw2eRIHxFfMk4AI2x+u+s35FvhqcDGI7qXf97IXxvvpO/jkAZPvNfcNoo3bGPj91fUjKOWDnyxUbLJv2iPqPup1yb1JNJXEX2j8qVDa4/H6tSryJv+bK1Sdv8AlXtK6V5Ec378+/8AGpkc6UrnxW8ezD3D3n8KzwUpXOuvhjn7vhWE/r5UpWXTHs8t/wB5+vOrXY/ux768pTiMcTtG5L7J/XdVbu+fxP40pWMO7Ee21SFv7deUrWSMPEuXzrEn7tf90fcK9pSd2v4f+3xxH2F+Falt7T++lKn8Dph+6t9vb+ArZ4f3+8fjSlcMuzeTJJ7J/s/cajX5/rzrylMO6RhT2vifurFL+H50pXad24yr7BrT/i+Fe0q4eSoS85/2q+JvZpSvXPDjn3qPpSlel5H/2Q==" /><br />
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This one's for you if you really like to go deep: presenter Kevin Stroud has brought out 115 episodes so far over the past 6 years, tracing the development of English from Proto-Indo-European up to the 14th century AD. I'm not up to date yet with this one - I listen to an episode from time to time when I have the mental space to really focus, but it's worth the effort. So far I've got as far as Beowulf, learning on the way about Grimm's Law about sound shifts in Indo-European languages, the development of the alphabet, and much, much more.LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-11744201365149684912015-01-08T01:36:00.001-08:002015-01-08T04:09:14.849-08:00If... Student poems with a condition<br />
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Conditionals are a grammar point that will often get a groan, even from the grammar enthusiasts in a class. To many students they're fiddly, boring and repetitive. Exercises seem to consist of matching sentences or questions such as "What would you do if you won the lottery?". So I decided to give a class the opportunity to do something a bit more creative with conditionals, and I think we were all surprised by the results!<br />
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This activity was done with an Upper Intermediate group. At the beginning of the week we had looked at a poem, as they occur quite frequently in our course book (Global). A couple of days later we were covering conditionals and I decided to incorporate poetry into the lesson.<br />
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I was aware of the speaking game where a student gives a conditional sentence and the next student must start their sentence with the result clause from the previous student. I thought that this could easily be adapted into a free verse poem writing task.<br />
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We had gone through all the conditionals but I felt the 2nd was most appropriate for the task.<br />
When I told the class that they were going to write a poem they were shocked, "I can't write a poem in Spanish, how can I write one in English?!".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEWcKbSI-3CffOeYVSeAUuEXD7Wb1Chb6BXaKPFQez8Jn_QDZ9sris8k9R1YgYF1gMVAGUABv8ognYQ86HBAuCdgtLOlJxGd84_up9UCu3_YUeeDTAZdP-Kn9FCwtnA1iWaR8j1aRIU37W/s1600/13904222666_5a5f9a7a94_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEWcKbSI-3CffOeYVSeAUuEXD7Wb1Chb6BXaKPFQez8Jn_QDZ9sris8k9R1YgYF1gMVAGUABv8ognYQ86HBAuCdgtLOlJxGd84_up9UCu3_YUeeDTAZdP-Kn9FCwtnA1iWaR8j1aRIU37W/s1600/13904222666_5a5f9a7a94_z.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
I explained to the class that they would be doing a free verse poem so it wouldn't need to rhyme and it wouldn't need a rhythm. The most important thing was to be creative (and of course get the grammar right!). I wrote a brief example on the board and asked the class if they could see the pattern. I suggested some opening sentences to the class, however they didn't have to use them.<br />
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Once they understood the concept we went to the computers so that they could write the poems on the class forum. I really wanted the students to read their classmates' poems as I had a feeling that there would be some good ones!<br />
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The students really got into the task. Once they started they realised that it wasn't that difficult to write a poem in English. They had some really imaginative ideas, and to be honest it surprised me how well they did. While they were writing I was there to help with any vocabulary questions and give them gentle nudging to check the form of the verbs.<br />
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It took approximately 20 minutes for the students to write their poems. Most were surreal and very entertaining. Every member of the class was very proud of their work. We spent a few minutes reading each others poems and students were encouraged to comment.<br />
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That evening I created a document that included all the poems on one sheet of A4. A student commented that now they had their poems in print they were real artists!<br />
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<h4>
A Selection of Student Poems:</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I were a child, I'd climb the palm tree </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I climbed the palm tree, I'd collect some coconuts </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I collected some coconuts, I'd give some to the monkeys </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I gave some to the monkeys, I'd play with them </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I played with them, I'd feel like Mowgli </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I felt like Mowgli. I'd feel happy </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I felt happy, I'd jump down </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I jumped down, I'd break my legs. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I broke my legs, everybody'd laugh me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">by S. from Turkey</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTqIuN90yIQOLlY_ifqdk0ljuK09DkbW3H-vpkNUwEPT4MSgeeIg_p6HvJDH3ERyEicxuUbxC5vu8zUpwDAGbtcoi2-ceIHH3l4T72Bge9F6b7JHYmJmFvFAajdp5sdU8PSqXIItks3JoD/s1600/6184113807_741e6b6687_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTqIuN90yIQOLlY_ifqdk0ljuK09DkbW3H-vpkNUwEPT4MSgeeIg_p6HvJDH3ERyEicxuUbxC5vu8zUpwDAGbtcoi2-ceIHH3l4T72Bge9F6b7JHYmJmFvFAajdp5sdU8PSqXIItks3JoD/s1600/6184113807_741e6b6687_z.jpg" height="231" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I won the lottery, I'd buy a rocket to the moon. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I went to the moon, I'd speak with ET. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I spoke with ET, I'd ask him how to fly. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I knew how to fly, I'd travel around space without diesel in my rocket. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I traveled around space, I'd meet another ETs. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I met other ETs, I'd ask them for the secrets of the universe. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I asked ETs for the secrets of universe, I'd return to the earth with the real truth. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I returned to the earth with the real truth, I'd win the lottery.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">by C. from Spain</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I were a cat, I would be an animal. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I were an animal, I would have four legs. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I had four legs, I could run very fast. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I ran very fast, I could catch a little mouse. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I caught a little mouse, I would play with it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I played with it, we would be friends. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If we were friends, we could stay a long time in the sun. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If we stayed a long time in the sun, we could stay in the sun chair. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If we stayed in the sun chair, our owner would be angry. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If our owner was angry, she wouldn't have cats. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If she didn't have cats, she would have mice. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If she didn't have mice, we couldn't be friends.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">by M. from Spain</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I won the lottery, I'd travel around the world </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I traveled around the world, I'd learn lot of things </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I learnt lot of things, I'd be a better person </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I was a better person, I'd help people </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I helped people, I'd be happier </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I were happier, I'd spread my energy </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I spread my energy, I'd feel like a goddess </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If I felt like a goddess, I'd wake up.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">by S. from Spain</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Image made using photos taken from <a href="http://flickr.com/eltpics">http://flickr.com/eltpics</a> by @sandymillin, Phil Bird, @dudeneyge, @mkofab, Martin Eayrs, @GoldstienBen used under a CC Attribution Non-Commercial license, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0</a></span></div>
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</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05674579538977243126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-32663890610237868552014-11-07T01:53:00.000-08:002014-11-07T12:53:38.462-08:00Letting the Idioms out of the bag<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioG_udXGbHpvJ0n8fJC79T5KGdwwRQAY9GHDYNSU1oIR7n7v-GveoA5H4SfbsH1LJDdHMXG3gE_JwfZR4CJDDS8VAwbwn227TyJa_mLasoESzQTWRPFgA0hVldHrGrT59sT-Rhvdejelhr/s1600/mosaica1d099679746351eca62579e62b582940f30a657.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioG_udXGbHpvJ0n8fJC79T5KGdwwRQAY9GHDYNSU1oIR7n7v-GveoA5H4SfbsH1LJDdHMXG3gE_JwfZR4CJDDS8VAwbwn227TyJa_mLasoESzQTWRPFgA0hVldHrGrT59sT-Rhvdejelhr/s1600/mosaica1d099679746351eca62579e62b582940f30a657.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let the cat out of the bag / Not my cup of tea / Spill the beans / Clear as mud.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
The Story</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Idioms have been on my mind lately. For example, I'd been wondering how actually to define an idiom, and what idioms students really need to know. I also had vague recollections of looking through an Academic English textbook a couple of years ago that insisted students be taught that words such as 'affluent' are idioms, because of the Latin etymology from <i>ad+fluere</i> = flowing towards. While this may be linguistically accurate, it's hard for me to imagine any student being enough of a language nerd to be helped by such an approach. Anyway, isn't all speech necessarily figurative, when we decide that a sequence of sounds represents meaning?</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, looking through my old bookmarks from before maternity leave (a lifetime ago!) I rediscovered <a href="http://chiasuanchong.com/about/" target="_blank">Chia Suan Chong's</a> 2012 post <a href="http://www.etprofessional.com/Death_by_Idioms_3179.aspx" target="_blank">Death By Idioms</a>, and realised that many of my musings had had their origin there, such as:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">debating the benefits of teaching idioms from regional and global Englishes</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">whether phrasal verbs and other fixed expressions should be counted or taught as idioms, and, yes,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">how useful teaching idioms really is.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chia Suan's post included a survey into idiom teaching practices, which asked whether people would or wouldn't teach specific idioms, including the hoary old chestnut, "raining cats and dogs". There's also an interesting graph of people's criteria for choosing the idioms they teach, from "I use it often" to "I think it sounds good" - you can see the results in her <a href="http://www.etprofessional.com/death_by_idioms__the_result_10507.aspx" target="_blank">follow up post</a> here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Both posts are thought-provoking and entertaining - do go and read them if you haven't yet. Done it? Ok then.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, I've conducted <a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BDV9SJD" target="_blank">my own survey</a>, which has received 30 responses to date. I plan to leave it open for the time being, and if more people respond later, I'll publish a follow up. I wanted to discover how often people are actually teaching idioms, and how they do it, as well as their opinions on the issue more generally.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A big thank you to everyone who participated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
The Survey</span></h3>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What you think about teaching idioms:</span></b><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">70% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that it is important for students of English to learn and understand idioms. However, only 40% said it's important for students to use idioms themselves when speaking or writing. 30% either disagreed or strongly disagreed that being able to do this is important.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Half the respondents stated that idioms presented in textbooks are not up to date or relevant to students' needs.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Regarding the usefulness of grouping idioms around a topic such as animals or parts of the body, there was a fairly even spread of answers, with roughly a quarter of people agreeing, a quarter disagreeing, and a quarter neither agreeing nor disagreeing.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally on this group of questions there were 3 clear majorities: over 90% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their students enjoy learning idioms, nearly 70% enjoy teaching idioms, and more than 85% find idioms useful for cultural comparison and discussion activities.</span></li>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How frequently you teach idioms:</span></b></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">20% of respondents teach idioms weekly, 40% teach them monthly, 30% less than monthly, and 10% never or almost never. (I realise now that information about types of classes taught would have been a useful addition to this question - is it ESP teachers who are skipping idioms, for example?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Using lists of idioms from the Internet isn't a common teaching tool - 60% of teachers surveyed never or almost never do it. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You're a conscientious lot - only 20% of teachers in the survey skip idiom activities from your textbook on a weekly or monthly basis. (Again, I'm curious to know more at this point - are some people teaching idioms from outdated or poorly-written textbooks because it's on their curriculum, while ignoring their personal reservations?)</span></li>
</ul>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your teaching methods and activities:</span></b><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">46% of teachers who completed the survey said that the way they taught idioms had changed in the last 3 years. Here are their comments:</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stopped doing them formally and started bringing them up in class more naturally, when a meaning occurs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/5/2014 9:58 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think in the past I used to do what was in the book, but now I take a more opportunistic and natural approach. When there's an appropriate context? Teach it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/2/2014 12:20 AM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Generally, I spend far less time on them. I grew aware of how infrequently a lot of the textbook idioms are used in everyday English. I also think it sounds odd then a student who impedes meaning through using incomplete sentences, for example, then comes out with 'it's raining cat's and dogs'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 10:08 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I used to think they were important, but have come to realize that it really depends on with whom my learners will be communicating and for what purposes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 1:49 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I focus on visuals and also compare the literal meaning with the metaphorical.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 1:40 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Focus more on idiomatic expressions that are more commonly used, e.g. phrasal verbs, more frequently used idioms (using something like netspeak.org to gauge frequency)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 8:04 AM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have realised that passive recognition is more important than active usage and adapted teaching to reflect this</span></div>
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<span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">10/31/2014 11:39 AM</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I make it much more student centred now, they have to discover the meaning themselves, through activities rather than just giving them explanations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/30/2014 9:05 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Putting them into context more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/29/2014 8:52 AM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The activities</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/29/2014 8:21 AM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Look for idiomatic chunks in texts we study.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/27/2014 8:41 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gave up presenting them according to the topic, just explain them when we come across one in a text or dialogue</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/27/2014 7:28 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maybe I am more likely to explain (yes explain) idioms than I would have been a few years back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/27/2014 12:35 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">(From SurveyMonkey.com. Answers have not been edited, but links to individualised data have been removed to protect respondents' privacy.)</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And here are responses to the question "Do you have any favourite teaching activities for idioms that you'd like to share?":</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finding them in authentic materials, e.g. News articles (written or spoken) and eliciting/explaining them in context.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/5/2014 9:58 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nope</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/2/2014 12:20 AM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Literal miming. In telling an anecdote, students mime out the literal expression (e.g. if the story contains 'i was just banging my head against a brick wall', the student mimes the action and the others shout out the phrase). An alternative could be a form of literal idiom pictionary in which the teams are expected to say the idiom and use it in context to gain a point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 10:08 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">illustrations matched to idioms</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 3:13 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No. Context is what is important - it's not like you can separate idioms out into one single "idioms lesson" each term. If it's meaningful, teach it when it comes up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 3:11 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 2:04 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I let idioms come up naturally, either ones that I would use naturally in a context that has presented itself or ones that the students come across and are curious about. Otherwise, I don't actively teach them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 1:49 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've created my own 'idioms' website and sometimes use it for presenting idioms and subsequent discussion: http://www.visual-idioms.com/</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 1:40 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Using pictures; situations; personalising</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/31/2014 8:01 AM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">give pairs an idiom and the correct definition. Then tell them to create two false definitions. they present to the class and everyone else has to decide which is the correct definition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/30/2014 9:05 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have a cut and stick activity, discussion activity and song gap fill activity (Pompeii by Bastille)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/30/2014 8:23 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">if you're teaching a class who all speak the same language, so can find equivalent idioms in that language and in English, write them on slips of paper, and get the students to work together to pair them up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/29/2014 8:52 AM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Getting students to write stories that include, for example, five of the idioms they have just learnt is one that the students really enjoy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/29/2014 8:21 AM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Text mining.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/27/2014 8:41 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">None</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/27/2014 12:38 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(From SurveyMonkey.com as above. I considered removing the No / Nope / None answers, but have left them in to be representative. I presume they mean "I don't have favourite activities" rather than "I don't want to share my favourite activities"! One typo corrected.)</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And finally:</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Prob better for comprehension than production. Students rarely sound natural when they use them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/2/2014 12:20 AM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Frequency of use should, I believe, be the guiding factor. For this reason, phrases such as the EFL classic 'raining cats and dogs' are not especially useful. Confronted with a phrase like this (if indeed that ever happened), students would be better positioned if they simply had a range of strategies available to check meaning or ask for clarification. It could be argued, however, that more commonly-used phrases like 'to cut corners' are rather more beneficial. Another possible point might be that phrasal idioms are of slightly more use if the student is going to be regularly engaging with native speakers. If the learner will uses his/her English mainly with other foreign learners or in a mainly academic context, phrasal idioms are even less useful.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 10:08 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">understanding them opens a world to global English and multiculturalism</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 3:13 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If it's meaningful, teach it when it comes up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 3:11 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Idioms (if used correctly) can enhance fluency</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 2:04 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Idioms should be taught and learnt. Not knowing an idiom may cause serious misunderstandings or even a communication breakdowns. They're a great way of enlarging one's vocabulary and they can help Ss to peek into a different culture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 1:40 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Idioms, probably not that useful. Someone once said to me (probably jokingly, I don't know their source) that a native speaker on average uses a particular idiom (e.g. raining cats and dogs) once every 7 years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">11/1/2014 8:04 AM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The most important thing is for students to recognise that the idiom 'to put all your eggs in one basket' is nothing to do with cooking or eggs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/31/2014 11:39 AM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At advanced level. Mostly for understanding less for use</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/31/2014 8:01 AM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Never really thought about it! I teach them if they come up in the book, but don't go out of my way (!) to find them. Students enjoy them though, especially when they're different in their own language, for example 'In the middle of nowhere' is something like 'the place where foxes say goodnight' in Czech :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/31/2014 5:50 AM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is useful, but certainly shouldn't be over done. Especially for academic students, they should actually avoid them as they are not well thought of in academic speaking and writing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/30/2014 9:05 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Idioms are very important for fluency and native speakers use idioms along with phrasal verbs in everyday speech.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/30/2014 8:23 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They're essential for the comprehension of higher-level students.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/29/2014 8:52 AM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is useful to recognise them so they can understand them, but we need to ensure we are teaching used idiomatic phrases rather than cliches.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/27/2014 8:41 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think it can be entertaining for them, but not particularly useful as idioms are not used as much in language. I prefer to concentrate on collocations and chunks</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/27/2014 7:28 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not sure exactly mean by idiom but if it's something like "a pinch of salt" I'd spend as little time as possible on it unless I was teaching a chef class or something similar.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/27/2014 12:38 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think something my students often miss out on is how we can be flexible with some idioms and how we are not with others. I mean, some of them are fixed, while others are not so much. This sort of info seems valuable for my students so that they will know when they hear a variation of an idiom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ta-response-item-date" style="color: #888888; font-size: 11px;">10/27/2014 12:35 PM</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(From SurveyMonkey.com as above. I have corrected one spelling error but otherwise nothing is edited.)</span></div>
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Thoughts and Interpretation</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't want to draw too many conclusions from this - there's clearly a wide range of opinions among teachers even in a small group. But it's encouraging to me that people are teaching idioms mindfully, adapting their practices as their thinking develops. There are also some great ideas here that I may use in future, so thank you again to everyone who shared. I wouldn't say that my own ideas on idioms have changed as a result of the survey (I belong to the teach-less-than-monthly, more-important-to-understand-than-use, school of thought), however my practices have certainly changed over the last 3 years, and I anticipate that they may change again. Never say never!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Image made using photos taken from <a href="http://flickr.com/eltpics">http://flickr.com/eltpics</a> by @fionamau, Sophia Mavridi, Emma Newman Segev, Martin Eayrs used under a CC Attribution Non-Commercial license, </span><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://creativecommons.org/lic</span>enses/by-nc/3.0/</a></span></div>
LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-33080600579308894632014-10-09T13:07:00.000-07:002014-10-09T13:07:44.028-07:00Reteach, reuse, recycle - activities to help vocabulary to stick.<div style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">Confession time: reviewing vocabulary with students is not my strongest point. This isn't necessarily a problem, since many higher level classes don't need so much help: I've tended to advise students on how they can research a word online to learn pronunciation, definitions, collocations, related words and example sentences then largely leave them to it. (1)</span><div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">But there are students who don't yet have these independent study skills, and generally also for lower levels much more scaffolding will be needed.</span><div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">So here's a roundup of ideas and activities for reviewing vocabulary from around the web, and a few thoughts of my own.</span></div>
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<li><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Mark Koprowski in The Internet TESL Journal from 2006 has a list of <a href="http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Koprowski-RecylingVocabulary.html" target="_blank">10 varied vocab review games</a>, mostly suited to medium or larger classes.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Busy Teacher has a list of <a href="http://busyteacher.org/8479-6-absolutely-essential-esl-games-for-vocabulary.html" target="_blank">6 vocabulary review activities</a>, and a <a href="http://busyteacher.org/13612-7-best-games-for-vocabulary-class.html" target="_blank">slightly different list of 7 here</a>. </span><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">(Access is free but you may be asked to complete a survey question to view the full article).</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Tanya Trusler on ESL Library lists <a href="http://www.esl-library.com/blog/2012/09/28/4-activities-for-reviewing-vocabulary/" target="_blank">4 vocabulary practice activities</a> including a Bingo-style variation of the classic Concentration game.</span></li>
<li>This mini-article on the British Council's Teaching English site has comments from teachers on the <a href="http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/reviewing-vocabulary" target="_blank">strategies they use to review vocabulary</a>.</li>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">These posts have a lot of old favourites such as Hot Seats and Concentration, which in fact I used a version of with my class only yesterday. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">However, it's important when choosing an activity to think about what kind of knowledge it's actually testing. I've taught students who could ace vocab tests by memorising dictionary definitions, but who never made the jump to using the words themselves. I started to question what the point was of teaching them vocab at all!</span><div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">As a result, when I test vocabulary now I always ask students to write an example sentence for every word tested, and when I'm reviewing words I want to include activities where students can see or hear the words in use, and start using them too.</span><div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">So here are some more activity suggestions, listed according to what skills are being practised:</span><div style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
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<li><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Phoneme decoding - students have to match the word to its equivalent in phonemic symbols (basic level - include some red herrings to make it a bit harder); correct an error in transcription (medium) or transcribe the words themselves (expert level).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Stress matching - adding the words to the correct column on a chart according to number of syllables and stress placement.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Home-made tongue-twisters - written by the students if possible, by the teacher if not.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;"><b>Recognising meaning(s)</b></span><div style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
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<li><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Synonym finder - students race to spot synonyms of the target words in a longer text.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Dictionary quiz - offer students a series of clues to each word, awarding points based on how few clues they need to guess the answer.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b>Grammar / parts of speech</b></span><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
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<li><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Parts of speech matching - students match the words to the right column of a chart according to their parts of speech, followed by a review of sentence construction (lower levels).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Word transformation gap-fill - students are given gap-fill sentences for words from the same family (eg compose, composition, composer) and have to transform their keyword to complete them all.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><b>Usage</b> (offering examples of the word in context, or prompting students to create their own)</span></div>
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<ul><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8J1MGElUhq7oEk0G6iWIwSs6fyjEyb_HgNrIp_RTF6vOkzuGIrKSDlpTmi-NRa-BojoJBFCCSCxdlISjFjQNqk-SstYej9AwkR51-u3tpKpwetKSwh5EzOEyJczOHvq3t3er5vE3VT3qr/s1600/5645305329_98af5bfe45_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8J1MGElUhq7oEk0G6iWIwSs6fyjEyb_HgNrIp_RTF6vOkzuGIrKSDlpTmi-NRa-BojoJBFCCSCxdlISjFjQNqk-SstYej9AwkR51-u3tpKpwetKSwh5EzOEyJczOHvq3t3er5vE3VT3qr/s1600/5645305329_98af5bfe45_o.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>
<li><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Classic gap-fill - with at least 2 sentences for each word, illustrating different meanings if applicable. In a larger class, teams of students could set the sentences for others to solve.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Keyword picture discussion - present relevant pictures for students to discuss, supporting them and prompting use of the keywords.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Keyword conversation - students are given a topic to discuss, and each has a secret keyword from the list that they need to try and include.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Memory story - tell a list-based story around the group, each student repeating the story so far and</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> adding in a segment with a new key word. <i>Eg, Student 1: I went to the beach and I went <b>waterskiing</b>. Student 2: I went to the beach and I went <b>waterskiing </b>and saw some <b>rock pools</b>. Student 3: I went to the beach and I went <b>waterskiing</b>, saw some <b>rock pools</b> and got <b>sunburnt</b>. </i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Drama activity - teams of students have to create a sketch on a given theme, incorporating set keywords. Sketches are judged for correct or creative uses of the vocabulary.</span></li>
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How do you review and recycle vocabulary? Leave a comment below...</div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1) <a href="http://sotospeak-english.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/getting-more-out-of-google.html" target="_blank">My first post on our sister blog for students</a> was on this very subject. I didn't include it in the post, but you can also type '[target word] in a sentence' into Google and pretty much guarantee to find multiple examples.</span></span></div>
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<span style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: x-small;">2) Photos taken from <a href="http://flickr.com/eltpics">http://flickr.com/eltpics</a> by @aClilToClimb, @senicko, Victoria Boobyer @elt_pics and @asalinguist, used under a CC Attribution Non-Commercial license, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/</a></span></span></div>
LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-72490462221230447182013-04-12T08:55:00.000-07:002013-04-12T08:55:56.565-07:00He's sorry, he's sorry, he's so so sorry (a lesson on apologies)You may have seen Nick Clegg apologising about increased tuition fees a few months ago. You may also have seen how his speech was turned into a chart-topping song by a smart alec using Autotune. (If you haven't seen either one, you may have been on a desert island somewhere.)<br />
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Anyway, this has a lot of potential for a lesson on etiquette, politics, quirks of British culture, or all of the above. Here's how:<br />
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First of all, play the video, and ask students to listen to discover what he's apologising for. It's possible that some students will have seen the clip before, and some of them may even know who Nick Clegg is (although I think in the average class this is unlikely!). You could also ask them whether they think he is sincere, and why.<br />
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Next, you have a choice whether to take the lesson down a political path, or stick to politeness and culture. </div>
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Politics-based lesson</h4>
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If you want to go with politics, some possible small group discussion questions could be:</div>
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1. Do politicians ever apologise for their actions in your country?</div>
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2. In what circumstances, if any, should politicians apologise?</div>
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3. Would an apology from a politician make you trust them more, or less?</div>
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4. How can you tell the difference between a sincere and an insincere apology?</div>
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This could lead into a role play activity where students apologise to each other (let them decide the precise scenario), practising relevant vocabulary and intonation to make their apologies more effective. </div>
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You could also use <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21503533" target="_blank">this BBC article</a> about things that British governments have apologised for as a reading text. I organised it as a jigsaw reading activity where students first looked at the pictures from the top of the page and discussed what kind of news story they might relate to, and then groups of students had some sections of the text which they needed to read and summarise orally to the group. The videos on the article are rather dry (House of Commons proceedings including the original apologies) but could be useful.</div>
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Follow-up questions:</div>
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Is apologising for a historical injustice helpful, or just a meaningless gesture?</div>
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What kind of reparations might be appropriate in each case?</div>
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Alternatively you could use the article as a basis for students to do some web research into one of the issues from the article, for a presentation.</div>
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Politeness / Culture-based lesson</h4>
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(You need an accomplice - prime a reliable student or enlist a colleague for a couple of minutes.)</div>
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Arrange an incident in the class where someone bumps into you by accident. Say sorry, even though it is clearly their fault. Then ask students if they have ever seen British people do this, and what would happen in the same situation in their countries. (They could act it out?)</div>
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Tell students it's well known that British people apologise very often, including for things that are someone else's fault, and ask them why they think this is. Then show them an article like <a href="http://greatbritishmag.co.uk/lifestyle/coffee-break/sorry-seems-to-be-the-hardest-word-or-does-it" target="_blank">this one</a>, which attempts to explain the reasons why.</div>
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You could then:</div>
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<li>ask students to discuss differences in etiquette between their countries and Britain</li>
<li>look at conversational language for politeness in everyday situations (how many times would you say please and thank you when making an order in a coffee shop?), then role play them.</li>
<li>do a group improvisation - give every student a card saying 'Polite' or 'Rude' , which they have to keep secret. Then the group(s) will discuss a topic together, behaving according to the roles on their cards. At the end, everyone has to say who was polite and who was rude, and explain why. (You could deliberately give any 'challenging' students a 'Polite' card, of course!).</li>
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LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-61376240570559906622013-02-20T10:41:00.002-08:002013-02-20T10:41:55.386-08:00This Little Piggy went to Market...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you're lucky enough to have a good local market, it can be an excellent destination for a class trip, providing numerous opportunities for language practice and discovery. Here are a few ideas for activities for a market excursion:<br />
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Before you go:</h4>
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Set students to research the the market: how long has there been a market in this location? (For classes in Britain: what is a 'market town' and why was this important in the past?) Are there special markets on particular days, like a farmer's market or an antiques market? If it's an indoor market, when was it built and what was there before? </div>
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Scavenger Hunts:</h4>
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Possibly the simplest kind of activity is for students to search for different things on sale in the market, such as:</div>
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<li>something beginning with each letter of the alphabet</li>
<li>something from or associated with every continent in the world (Antarctica may seem a bit of a stretch, but look for penguins on logos of frozen food!)</li>
<li>ingredients to make a particular meal</li>
<li>something associated with every room in the house</li>
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Students could photograph the objects to prove they found them, or if there is someone there willing to share a genuine shopping list, people could even buy some things for real. A scavenger hunt for a more advanced group could be based around budgeting (meals for a family of four for a week), or food miles (whose menu is the most local).</div>
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Speaking</h4>
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Ask students to compare the market with markets in their own countries, or to talk about shopping and food culture in different countries. If anyone in the class is actually purchasing, bartering may be an option, and of course map-reading and direction-giving activities could easily be done.</div>
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Reading</h4>
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It's possibly less obvious, but many markets will have signs and labels that could be used for reading practice. My local market provided material for a discussion of deliberate mis-spellings in signs (FONES UNLOCKED WHILE-U-WAIT!!!), while a butcher's stall was proudly displaying notices about the non-equine nature of their fresh meat, which led to some good <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21335872" target="_blank">topical</a> discussion.</div>
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Vocabulary</h4>
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Names of items you see in the market is the obvious way to go here, but you could also challenge students to describe what they see using a range of language (an absolute bargain / overpriced / really fresh / cheap and nasty / etc).</div>
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Connection with other topics or project work</h4>
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I've already mentioned food miles, but a market trip could also easily link to topics on health, inequality and social issues, transport, crime, family and gender (who does the shopping?), history and changing lifestyles, ... A business group could even assess the viability of markets as simple shopping destinations or tourist attractions, and propose regeneration or development strategies. </div>
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Your ideas here...</h4>
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Please leave comments and share your own ideas or experiences!</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Images made using photos taken from <a href="http://flickr.com/eltpics">http://flickr.com/eltpics</a> by Roseli Serra, Phil Longwell, @InglesInteract, Sue Lyon Jones, used under a CC Attribution Non-Commercial licence, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/</a></span></div>
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LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-20209384337536685742013-02-07T08:59:00.000-08:002013-02-07T08:59:03.159-08:00Great Videos part 2 This is part 2 of a short series sharing some of my favourite videos to use in class, along with a variety of suggestions for different lesson activities. For part 1, see <a href="http://anothergreatteachingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/2-great-videos-to-use-in-class.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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3) Are you Typical?</h4>
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What it is:</div>
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A presentation of population data from National Geographic (trust me - much more interesting than it sounds!), including working out the age, nationality and face of the 'typical' human alive at this time.<br />
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<br />
In class you could:<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Use it in a grammar lesson looking at comparatives and superlatives, possibly tied to an IELTS-style writing task.</li>
<li>Concentrate on the end of the video and the topics of the environment and inequality. (Check out <a href="http://www.toby-ng.com/graphic-design/the-world-of-100/" target="_blank">this page</a> for a series of posters that present a 2011 version of the famous 'If the world were a village of 100 people' text in infographic form).</li>
<li>'Who's typical in my class?' - students compare themselves to the 'typical' person described in the video and see who comes the closest, or they take an 'average' of the class to describe the kind of person who is typical of their group. This could then form the basis of their own video.</li>
<li>For a really depressing issue, you could look into the gender imbalance mentioned briefly in the video. <a href="http://www.wikigender.org/index.php/Missing_Women" target="_blank">This wiki</a> has an introduction to the issue of 'missing women' - women and girls who are never born due to sex-selective abortion, die at birth through infanticide, or die later because they do not have equal access to healthcare. A fuller picture is on <a href="http://go.worldbank.org/GPLFFB9PQ0" target="_blank">this page</a> from The World Bank, which has full global data for missing women.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
4) What are you doing here?</h4>
<div>
What it is:</div>
<div>
A fan tribute to Doctor Who, collecting all known occurrences and variants of the apparently near-ubiquitous line 'What are you doing here?', from William Hartnell (the First Doctor) to David Tennant (the Tenth). <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DtG5dK_HaGg" width="420"></iframe><br />
In class you could:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>(To start with the obvious) use it for drilling. Every conceivable intonation is here (surprising, accusatory, mime, Dalek...) along with a range of accents, and a lot of transformations.</li>
<li>Start students off writing their own sci-fi script, starting with the line 'What are you doing here?'</li>
<li>Find out what other cliches of film and television students are aware of, or research them using the <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage" target="_blank">TV Tropes</a> site (or similar). This could then become a discussion or writing activity, for students to try to explain why certain ideas become cliches.</li>
<li>The video was first made as a birthday present, and took months of work to assemble. You could use this angle as a way into the issue of fan obsession (which is often covered in textbooks, but in articles that date really quickly). To keep it more current, you could ask students to look at fake social networking accounts of people pretending to be celebrities or fictional characters, or find recent news stories of obsessive fans - people who have changed their name / got a tattoo / named their child after a fantasy character...</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
Or, or, or... How could you use these videos? <br />
<br />
<br />LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-40516099011848616892013-01-19T10:17:00.000-08:002013-01-19T10:48:40.290-08:002 Great Videos to use in ClassThe Internet, to misquote Douglas Adams, is big. Really big. Vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big. (And it's mostly cats). <br />
<br />
Even if you discount the cats, there's still so much just <i>out there</i> that the good stuff can be hard to find, especially when it comes to video. And if we find it, what to do with it? We can do better than gap-fill exercises using clips of Nineties comedy shows, can't we?<br />
<br />
So, in this and my next post I'm sharing some of my favourite videos, with a few ideas on how to use them in a language lesson. <br />
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<h4>
1) Dumb Ways to Die</h4>
<div>
(Warning - will not be suitable for all classes: animated gore and twisted humour)<br />
<br />
What it is:<br />
Cute, funny and wrong. Misguided little critters sing and dance while demonstrating Darwin-Award-worthy ways to die. Then in the end it turns out to be a safety advert for Australian trains.<br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IJNR2EpS0jw" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
In class you could:<br />
<ul>
<li>Link it to a lesson on comparatives and superlatives by rating the ways to die according to level of stupidity, or likelihood of happening to an average person (anyone could take out of date medicine, but very few of us will swim with piranhas, for instance).</li>
<li>Look at the advert along with some stories from the <a href="http://www.darwinawards.com/" target="_blank">Darwin Awards</a> site, as a way into disscussing the appeal of sick humour. For higher level groups, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/18/small.vorgan.internet.empathy/index.html" target="_blank">this article</a> on whether the Internet affects people's ability to empathise could be relevant.</li>
<li>Use as part of a larger topic relating to public health campaigns and how they get their messages across - the recent <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20805059" target="_blank">NHS anti-smoking advert</a> could be mentioned, or various ads from the NSPCC (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYnLzSUQc6U" target="_blank">here</a>'s their current one, but <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxnfGghO5gQ" target="_blank">this old one</a> also comes to mind). Students could then:</li>
<ul>
<li>debate the value of shock advertising.</li>
<li>design and make their own public health video using images or drama.</li>
<li>write a letter to a newspaper complaining about or supporting a controversial advertising campaign.</li>
</ul>
<li>Look <a href="http://allatc.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/dumb-ways-to-die/" target="_blank">here</a> for a lesson plan using this video from <a href="http://allatc.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">allatc</a>, focusing on listening accuracy and prediction (and finishing with the dance routine!).</li>
</ul>
Oh, and there's also a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QV2HAYKP7E&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">karaoke version</a>, if you want to go there!<br />
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<h4>
2) The History of English in 10 Minutes</h4>
<div>
What it is:</div>
<div>
An animated whistle-stop tour to the English language, starting with the Anglo-Saxons, and finishing with Global English, by way of the Norman Conquest, Shakespeare and the Internet. Comes with helpful chapter breaks, or you could watch it as <a href="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/english-language/the-history-english-ten-minutes" target="_blank">separate 1-minute videos</a> (transcripts can also be downloaded here).<br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rexKqvgPVuA" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
In class you could:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Give students the 10 chapter titles and ask them to put them in order as a pre-listening task.</li>
<li>Challenge students to note down categories and examples of new words and phrases that entered English in each of the 10 periods, </li>
<li>Use chapter 5 to introduce a lesson looking at formal and academic language, or chapter 9 to look at texting and internet language.</li>
<li>Focus on loan words in English: ask students what words from their language are used in English, or what English words are used in their languages. Students could research the subject online for a presentation, or discuss whether bodies like the Academie Française, which aims to protect the French language from linguistic invasion, are necessary, helpful, or misguided. (Useful article <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8820304/Frances-Academie-francaise-battles-to-protect-language-from-English.html" target="_blank">here</a>).</li>
<li>Look for and discuss national stereotypes - do students find any of them offensive? Are they helpful to understanding the video?</li>
</ul>
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Check back around the end of January for my next entry, with 2 more great videos to try!LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-70494934785390635252012-12-20T07:45:00.000-08:002012-12-20T07:45:33.854-08:00The Christmas PostMerry Christmas!<br />
<br />
I'm off for a couple of weeks, but normal service will be resumed in January. For now, here's a video of someone gift-wrapping a cat!<br />
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Have a great Christmas / holiday / whatever, and see you in the new year.LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-34524805160438517252012-12-11T10:26:00.000-08:002013-01-19T10:48:23.962-08:00Interactive Resources: doing it rightSometimes 'interactive' means 'get students to do a traditional multiple choice quiz on the computer', and sometimes it means 'invite students to explore a professionally produced multimedia resource which has quality content and more than one possible learning application.' Guess which sort I prefer! <br />
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The following three resources stand out to me for their depth of content and production quality. Although none was produced specifically for an English teaching context, they can all be integrated smoothly into lessons on a variety of typical topic areas - and I have used them all successfully with my classes.<br />
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<h4>
Track an Email with Google Green</h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPMjUUN52oGVpeoK6s-6Jj4ENkyrRjTznv3Lmi6Zbtv9rNPA2OkSl-gF_H-wGZc3MxOu8droHQ8FhT60KjtwdcbV6MG2ShOpeAOpwcvH2_P7XrAtWC_hzTLPve4hiwea6FiFYQ9rWOTsws/s1600/Story+of+Send.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPMjUUN52oGVpeoK6s-6Jj4ENkyrRjTznv3Lmi6Zbtv9rNPA2OkSl-gF_H-wGZc3MxOu8droHQ8FhT60KjtwdcbV6MG2ShOpeAOpwcvH2_P7XrAtWC_hzTLPve4hiwea6FiFYQ9rWOTsws/s640/Story+of+Send.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
The first site is <a href="http://www.google.com/green/storyofsend/desktop/#/it-starts-with-send" target="_blank">The Story of Send</a>, produced by <a href="http://www.google.com/green/" target="_blank">Google Green</a>. This is an interactive journey following the path of an email from your computer, through Google's data centres, all the way to the eventual recipient. On the way, guided by appealing animated characters, you can use text, video and photo galleries to learn about data security and green technology. The text is in bitesize chunks, and introduces complex technology in an approachable way. You can also use more or less of the site depending on student level and time constraints, by skipping some of the multimedia content.<br />
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<b>How I used it with my group:</b><br />
Our lesson topic was technology and development. In this particular lesson, the students worked through the Story of Send at their own pace, making notes under the headings of security and the environment. As they finished, I incorporated them into discussion groups comparing their ideas, and prompted them to think about corporate responsibility and how a company could benefit from marketing itself as environmentally pro-active. This then led to planning an essay which they started in class, and completed for homework.<br />
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<h4>
Run a green business with Allianz and WWF</h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitbEpRzdVE2GBvjtBWDOa7sbWBuqhrS4KiqYGw1N1E5cJAjF9MwTExcstN9zJiS683wTyX_JyvD57TgZQ8vuyJey7XhFoN_9hoCYJEofS7WLsCiN0HeHqe0DY_6JCM2Hff0jndmGCltKYo/s1600/Climate+Business+Game.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitbEpRzdVE2GBvjtBWDOa7sbWBuqhrS4KiqYGw1N1E5cJAjF9MwTExcstN9zJiS683wTyX_JyvD57TgZQ8vuyJey7XhFoN_9hoCYJEofS7WLsCiN0HeHqe0DY_6JCM2Hff0jndmGCltKYo/s640/Climate+Business+Game.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In <a href="http://knowledge.allianz.com/ceo2/en_ext.html" target="_blank">CEO2, the Climate Business Game</a>, you are the CEO of a company in the insurance, chemical, automotive or utility industry. You have twenty years in which to make your company greener, while still turning enough of a profit to keep your investors happy - not to mention researchers, environmentalists and those pesky customers! (The first time I played, I was fired as by my investors for being too green in the first round and losing them money.) There are two rounds where you have to pick which policies you are going to spend your budget on, and it's far from obvious what the best course is going to be. The beauty of this game is the information behind it - it's based on predictions from industry and environmentalists, and is quite simply just better than many other environmental games that clearly signpost 'right' answers.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<b>How I've used it with groups:</b></div>
<div>
Usually with lesson topics related to business, technology or the environment. I set small groups to work together, in order to maximise discussion of the options in each round. Sometimes I've combined this with work on specific language functions (negotiation, polite disagreement etc), or with grammar work on conditionals (If we choose this option, we won't make a profit). It's good for mixed ability classes, especially if the strongest student in each set isn't the one controlling the mouse!</div>
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<br /></div>
<h4>
Predict the future with Scientific American</h4>
<div>
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6a8bd_S8i8tRC68yIqBftJr0bwupIhBb0fAqbDdaIC6zboF4pqde-xspEsGYxnSJeQSuCwGXirP3w9nzYVbtIuxUcNjyesxpQVwlDcTYtEAFeO0-9pRCjvM68QjtlK_D3EWamq7YK2uhS/s1600/12+Events.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6a8bd_S8i8tRC68yIqBftJr0bwupIhBb0fAqbDdaIC6zboF4pqde-xspEsGYxnSJeQSuCwGXirP3w9nzYVbtIuxUcNjyesxpQVwlDcTYtEAFeO0-9pRCjvM68QjtlK_D3EWamq7YK2uhS/s640/12+Events.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=interactive-12-events" target="_blank">12 Events that will Change Everything</a> is an interactive article from Scientific American, which assesses the probability of the polar icecaps melting, the discovery of extra dimensions or extra-terrestrial life, nuclear war, the artificial creation of life, the invention of room temperature super-conductors, machine self-awareness, human cloning, a Pacific earthquake, fusion energy, asteroid collision with earth, or a deadly pandemic. Phew!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I feel like I've barely scratched the surface with this resource - some of the sections seem dauntingly technical to a non-scientist. But for each event there is a strong selection of material including written articles (high level) and video interviews, as well as links to further information on other sites. My favourite section so far is the one on pandemics (the cute little biohazard symbol in the bottom right-hand corner), which I've successfully integrated into lessons on medical themes at CEFRL levels B2+ upwards.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>How I've used it with groups:</b></div>
<div>
In the pandemic section is an interactive chart showing the global progress of avian flu, which I've used for class discussion, and for practice in interpreting and describing visual information (mainly for IELTS classes). I've also used the video interview in this section for note-taking and comprehension practice, leading to a project where students made their own public health announcement video.</div>
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<div>
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(PS - I learned of these resources through the amazing people I follow on Twitter, so thank you, even though I don't have a record of who I found each one through).LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-25137402736994541022012-11-30T09:40:00.000-08:002013-01-19T10:47:54.713-08:00Qwerty in the English Language Classroom - why practise writing skills online?<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In my <a href="http://anothergreatteachingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/writing-in-class-waste-of-time.html" target="_blank">earlier post on writing</a>, which looked at the reasons for and against using class time for writing assignments, I focused almost entirely on traditional pen-and-paper writing. I'd like in this post to look more at reasons for using ICT-based activities for writing skills, and suggest some activities that could work on a VLE such as <a href="http://www.nfomedia.com/" target="_blank">Nfomedia</a> (which is free!).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, why are ICT tools and online writing good for students?</span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSNLaeSUnVrSDmJ3BLMypqNYJSOir1Hq2CrOc2ZvUvEXsUj8Y6iM0oA56nspYeRzJJF1Gds_IfTrbSpDm1eMiZWqVYWPSKV4p7vUlqEpZFXTgefKHLGAIMxWFELmPPwsDqk-zE-CsFT1az/s1600/mosaice56e6ad6c18d6fd8f4d183e9a73f9c211a516e24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSNLaeSUnVrSDmJ3BLMypqNYJSOir1Hq2CrOc2ZvUvEXsUj8Y6iM0oA56nspYeRzJJF1Gds_IfTrbSpDm1eMiZWqVYWPSKV4p7vUlqEpZFXTgefKHLGAIMxWFELmPPwsDqk-zE-CsFT1az/s640/mosaice56e6ad6c18d6fd8f4d183e9a73f9c211a516e24.jpg" width="161" /></a></div>
<h4>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">1. ICT-based reasons.</span></h4>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Students need to be familiar with basic internet tasks in English – logging in and out, completing web forms, reading and replying to short messages, and using web etiquette. (OK, so most students will already be <i>extremely </i>familiar with this, but by no means all!)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">The configuration of UK keyboards is different – for example the @ key is in a different place from European keyboards. And of course, many students will also be used to keyboard configurations for completely different alphabets.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">If students aim to use their English in a professional environment, they are likely to be using a computer; hunt-and-peck typing is rarely going to be acceptable.</span></li>
<li>Many exams are now computer based, and this will become even more common in future.</li>
</ul>
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<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
<h4>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">2. Language reasons</span></h4>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Practising punctuation and capitalisation – most students make more errors in these when they use a computer compared to writing by hand, so it's important for them to practise.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Writing styles and registers – we tend to use computers both for our most formal and most informal writing – academic essays, professional documents, or social networking. Writing on a keyboard can actually change the way you write so it’s important to get used to it.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Planning and revising – copy, paste and delete make this so much easier than on paper.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">3. Social reasons</span></h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">It looks smart – typing doesn’t penalise students with messy handwriting. (Although that’s not to say they shouldn’t be trying to improve that too!)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Having an audience for their work motivates students to write to a higher standard.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Students can review and respond to each other’s work easily.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">What kinds of activities can be done with a VLE to improve writing and language skills, and encourage collaboration between students?</span></h3>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Quizzes and q&a – the first post on a message board from each student or group contains the questions, another group replies with the answers.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Collaborative storytelling – first post is the opening paragraph of the story, everyone posts continuations, then vote on the best ending.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Typed dictation – students are in pairs, one typing, the other dictating a short text to them. They swap places and the partner responds with corrections, then they swap roles.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Homophone dictation – the teacher dictates a text with a lot of homophones while students type.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Webquests – groups of students write answers on the VLE as they go, and finish by planning and composing a longer written piece, eg a proposal, report or letter based on what the whole group learned.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Proofreading – the teacher starts a message with a text that has many errors, then the students compete to produce the best possible corrected version.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Text register / paraphrasing activities – students rewrite a short text to make it more or less formal, or to practise paraphrasing.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Free practice – maybe the simplest. Students write a paragraph or group of sentences using grammar or vocabulary they have learnt that lesson. Another student then reviews and suggests corrections.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Guess who – students research and write a short text about a famous person without revealing their name, then other students have to guess the identity.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Silent movie – teacher links to a Youtube video in a message, students watch it without sound, and write dialogue for it, then read all the entries and vote for the best.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Picture description - students find a picture online and write a description of it, another student then reads it and tries to draw the picture (on paper).</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
And many more!</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image made with BigHugeLabs Mosaic Maker using photos taken from <a href="http://flickr.com/eltpics">http://flickr.com/eltpics</a> by @aClilToClimb, @sandymillin (x2), @pysproblem81, used under a CC Attribution Non-Commercial licence, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/</a></span></div>
LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-25613383681865165482012-11-13T10:04:00.002-08:002013-01-19T10:47:34.125-08:00Tired Lesson Topics - Part 3So, we've jazzed up Family, Food, Daily Routines, Sport and Education with lesson ideas that are just a bit different, now it's the turn of Hobbies and Work - both yawn-inducingly familiar textbook topics, I'm sure you'll agree. So how can you teach them again without falling asleep? Read on for ideas.<br />
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1. Hobbies
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<li>Students use <a href="http://www.etsy.com/" target="_blank">Etsy</a> or <a href="http://folksy.com/" target="_blank">Folksy</a> to search for real examples of unusual craft items or hobbies. It could be a competition to find the most unusual / beautiful / overpriced / pointless item possible, or they could try to 'sell' the item to another student using persuasive and descriptive language. </li>
<li>Story-telling - students choose a hobby and tell a story where the hobby led to a disastrous result (such as loss of a relationship or home, illness, or even death) or to unexpected success (a scientific discovery, a successful career, a new relationship or your home becoming a tourist attraction, for example). You could use dice as described in my <a href="http://anothergreatteachingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012_09_01_archive.html" target="_blank">first post</a> to randomise some of the story elements. Alternatively, Googling "my hobby led to" could provide some useful ideas for students to start with.<a name='more'></a></li>
<li>Students research any clubs for hobbyists in the local area, and discuss which they might be interested in trying out. This could even become a class trip! Or you could arrange a visit to a craft shop, if you know one with a friendly proprietor.</li>
<li>A role play scenario where an addicted hobbyist calls an agony aunt or uncle for help in stopping their hobby taking over their life.</li>
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2. Work</h4>
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I've noticed that most of my ideas in this section relate to bad jobs, and things that go wrong at work. This may be because I've experienced plenty of both in my time, or it may be because I tend to work mainly with younger students who have 'McJobs' while they are studying, so are unfamiliar with the corporate world presented in typical Business English scenarios. You have been warned.</div>
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<li>Bad jobs: check out the <a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-worst-jobs-in-history" target="_blank">Worst Jobs in History</a>, presented by Tony Robinson. There are lots of episodes available on YouTube, many with entertaining re-enactments. This could provide plenty of scope for comparative structures, or -ing / -ed adjectives, among other areas. Or for modern day bad jobs, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business/120904/worlds-seven-worst-jobs" target="_blank">this</a> is one of many online articles that could kick-start an interesting discussion.</li>
<li>Bad behaviour at work: students make a list of things that would get you fired at work, then role play them. (I have a vague memory of a British hidden camera show where contestants were competing to get fired, much to the bemusement of their colleagues, but I haven't been able to find a video, unfortunately.)</li>
<li>Pranks at work: students debate whether pranks at work are ever a good thing. For example, they could bring people together and promote a friendly atmosphere, or on the other hand they could be considered as bullying. There are lots of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=office+prank&oq=office+prank&gs_l=youtube-reduced.3..0l4.87443.88633.0.88830.12.11.0.1.1.0.140.1233.3j8.11.0...0.0...1ac.1.zs7vRCC7Ur8" target="_blank">example pranks</a> on YouTube, or you could ask students if they have ever seen or played any.</li>
<li>Bad service: starting with a list of examples of bad customer service (over the phone, in person, or via social media), students discuss how they could have been handled better, then act or write the better version.</li>
<li>Bad staff: role play a disciplinary interview, or discuss appropriate responses to staff misbehaviour. I once organised a radio panel show role play where 5 students played managers, and gave their advice for scenarios including an employee feud, a thieving member of staff and someone accused of pulling sickies. </li>
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I'll sign off there, but there are still plenty of ideas to come - watch this space for more.</div>
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LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-10639111777149112272012-11-01T11:32:00.001-07:002013-01-19T10:47:16.074-08:00Writing in Class - a Waste of Time?The class sits in silence, apart from the rustling of paper and the scratch of pens. Meanwhile, the teacher stares off into space, completes her marking, surreptitiously checks her texts or reads the newspaper. Through the walls drift the sounds of another class apparently having a lot more fun - they are watching a video, playing a raucous game, talking and laughing loudly... Sound familiar?<br />
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Writing in class is a tricky area: some teachers swear by it, while others consider it to be a total waste of time for all concerned. Here are some of the most common arguments:<br />
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For<o:p></o:p></div>
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If you write in class you can observe the whole process and advise
students on planning and structure as they go – you can prevent major errors
at an earlier stage.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s a waste of time. Students
can do written work at home – class time should be saved for language input
and communicative work.<o:p></o:p></div>
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If you set written work to do at home, not all students will do
it. By doing it in class you can
ensure that all students benefit, even the lazy ones.<o:p></o:p></div>
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If students choose not to do work that benefits them, that’s not your
problem as a teacher.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Writing in class is good practice for exam preparation – students planning
to take an exam need to practise to time, in a formal environment.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Students can time themselves at home just as easily, and in the
run-up to an exam, classroom time is at a premium.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Writing in class enables collaboration on the planning stages and
peer feedback, helping students to learn more from each other.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Technology can enable this to happen at home, through a VLE or shared
document on Google Drive.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Plagiarism is a serious issue when students write at home – if they
write in class you can control the environment and be sure that it’s their
own work.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Plagiarism is easier than ever to detect thanks to the Internet, and
it’s students who ultimately lose out if they try to cheat.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You can give more support to weaker students when they write in
class.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Stronger students finish the activity early and end up sitting around
waiting for the weaker ones.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I sit somewhat uncomfortably between these two chairs, repeating the mantra that all students learn for difficult questions: It Depends. It depends on the class, the type of written work, and the syllabus. <br />
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One class may have a recurring problem with plagiarism, another may be very trustworthy. One class may be very studious, preferring quieter activities and wanting a strong exam focus, while another may need extra time on communicative practice, and activities to build confidence in using English. It all depends.<br />
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I usually do at least one piece of written work in a class at the start of term, so I have a guaranteed sample from each student that I can compare with work produced at home, for plagiarism checking. Then I'll do plenty of writing skills work, looking at document types, paragraph construction etc, which helps me to identify problem areas for pa<span style="font-family: inherit;">rticular students. I may then decide that most actual writing can be done at home, or that </span>alternatively it requires more attention in class, with differentiated activities so the stronger students can still be challenged while the weaker ones go step-by-step through more basic activities. <br />
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So, a definitive answer? No, but some things to consider. I've learnt not to feel guilty if the classroom is quiet sometimes - it may have to be to allow for serious thinking. And on the other hand I don't think it's a cop-out to focus on writing skills work in the class, and then say 'Do this when you next write something at home'. If students have understood the lesson, and made good notes, then they won't have forgotten it by the time they next sit down to write.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #373737; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-size: x-small; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Image made using photos taken from </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://flickr.com/eltpics" style="border: 0px; color: #e42b1f; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-size: x-small; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">http://flickr.com/eltpics</span></a></span></span><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #373737; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-size: x-small; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> by</span><span style="border: 0px; font-size: x-small; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> @baibbb, @vladkaslniecko, @aClilToClimb,</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #373737; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-size: x-small; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> used under a CC Attribution Non-Commercial licence, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/</a></span></span></span></span>LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-74523196754775197502012-10-21T02:37:00.000-07:002013-01-19T10:46:56.757-08:00Hitting the doldrums - or not<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When you start teaching, everything's a blur, but after a few months or a couple of years, you can suddenly realise that you're in a rut, without even knowing how you got there. You know what you're doing (or at least you think you do), you have a repertoire of lesson ideas, mountains of photocopies that you might use again one day, and just that nagging feeling that something isn't quite right. Somewhere along the way, after you lost the sense of panic, you also lost some of your drive and enthusiasm.<br />
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So how can you get them back? How can you stop the doldrums turning into your permanent teaching home?<br />
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Here are my top tips:<br />
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<li>Stop reusing your favourite ideas or activities in exactly the same way that you did them before. By all means, keep doing what works, but always look for a way to tweak it. (See my Tired Lesson Topics posts <a href="http://anothergreatteachingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/tired-lesson-topics-and-what-you-can-do.html" target="_blank">1</a> & <a href="http://anothergreatteachingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/jazzing-up-tired-lesson-topics-part-2.html" target="_blank">2</a> for a few ideas). No two classes are the same, so rethinking an activity for a new group situation is always going to be worth your while.</li>
<li>In the same vein, keep an eye open for lesson materials anywhere and everywhere. If your textbook is 5 years old, chances are it's out of date, particularly if it mentions any celebrities (yuk), or has a section on technology (Mini-discs, anyone?). Update it using up-to-the-minute news and web resources, and you're less likely to feel uninspired by the material.</li>
<li>Let go of the assumption that you 'know' an area of language after you've taught it a few times. Instead, keep researching and refreshing your knowledge, because there's always more to learn.</li>
<li>Similarly, keep honing your teaching skills: observe other teachers whenever you get the chance, but also don't forget conferences, extra training and qualifications, or books and articles. Even a little time invested in professional development won't be wasted, and may keep you from stagnating.</li>
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<li>This one's the biggie: if there was a single tool you could use to find lesson ideas, discover breaking news stories, connect with other teachers, access conferences and training, and locate PD material, wouldn't you use it? Social networking is that tool. Teachers globally are using Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and others for all these goals and more, whenever, wherever. </li>
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My thing is Twitter, and I've found an amazing community of dedicated teachers. Quite simply it's transformed my teaching, and will continue to do so. Sometimes I have more time for it, sometimes only a couple of minutes in a day, but the beauty is it's always there whenever I need it. If you want to give it a go, check out the following to help you get started:</div>
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<li><a href="http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/englishuknorth/" target="_blank">An introduction to Twitter for ELT</a> - links and resources that were recommended by Sandy Millin during her excellent workshop at the English UK North conference this month.</li>
<li><a href="http://syded.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/teachers-the-10-stages-of-twitter/" target="_blank">A bit of humorous encouragement</a> - the 10 stages of Twitter use by teachers. (We've all been there!)</li>
<li><a href="http://eltchat.org/" target="_blank">Information about an organised PD chat on Twitter</a> - #ELTChat is a Twitter chat occurring on Wednesdays at midday and 9pm (UK time), where teachers get discuss a set issue for an hour. This is how I first found most of the teachers I now follow on Twitter. Anyone can join in with the chats or suggest a topic, and if you can't join in live you can still learn from the participants by accessing chat summaries afterwards.</li>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CkUrFNr3ZThZXLh4kwk9rk-wQlwfcg8YL9zVx1R_C2s/edit" target="_blank">A list of educational hashtags on Twitter</a> - this list aims to be comprehensive, including all known educational hashtags. There are many organised chats on Twitter, similar to #ELTChat, some relating to specific subjects or areas of education, others to teaching in a particular country. Finding a hashtag which is relevant to your interests, can be the first step towards locating amazing people to follow and connect with.</li>
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Good luck!</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Image made using photos taken from <a href="http://flickr.com/eltpics">http://flickr.com/eltpics</a> by @dfogarty, @sandymillin, @baibbb used under a CC Attribution Non-Commercial license, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/</a></span></div>
LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-83180245730789409822012-10-05T09:00:00.001-07:002013-01-19T10:46:33.317-08:00Jazzing up Tired Lesson Topics - Part 2In the previous post I looked at 3 textbook 'classics': Daily Routines, Education, and Sport, and some ideas for approaching them in a new way in the classroom. This time I'll be considering Family and Food, again with activities that are just a bit different, and can be adapted to many different levels and lesson objectives.<br />
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So, without further ado...<br />
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Two More Typical Tired Textbook Topics, and how to enjoy teaching them again:</h4>
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1. Family</h4>
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<ul>
<li>Students make a technology family tree. Which device or invention was the 'parent' of another? Which devices share a family resemblance? Which device wants to be just like its big brother or sister, or always goes on about how things were better in the past when it was the latest thing?<a name='more'></a></li>
<li>Students role play a soap opera family (the dice method outlined in the previous post would help with character generation for this). For example, John, who is secretly married to Sarah, has a conversation with his daughter Maria, who is actually a murderess with £2m in stolen gold hidden under the bed, about another member of the family who appears to be upset about something.</li>
<li>Take a mythological angle: students research an ancient pantheon and draw up a family tree of the Norse, Greek or Egyptian gods. Depending on your class and which pantheon you choose, there's plenty of scope for discussing half- and step- relations, and even incest taboos.</li>
<li>'That's Nothing!' In this game, students compete to tell the worst and wildest story about childhood misbehaviour (it's up to you whether you require the story to be true). Each story must start by summarising the previous one in a single sentence, then dismissing it, for example 'Putting your sandwich in the video player? That's nothing!' The more exaggerated the intonation, the better. (This game works well with other topics too - I use it as an alternative to 'What did you do over the weekend?'.)</li>
<li>Ask a group of students to act a mime or tableau of the idea of 'family', and use it as a basis of a discussion of gender and generational roles. Which person in the scene is doing what, and why? Does the idea of a role change challenge any of the students? (This idea was inspired by the <a href="http://www.everydaysexism.com/" target="_blank">Everyday Sexism</a> project, many submissions to which make it very clear that even in a supposedly equal society, people still assume that Mummy is in the kitchen, and Daddy is watching TV.)</li>
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<b>2. Food</b><br />
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<li>One student mimes cooking something, while others try to guess what they are doing. Points could be awarded for each correctly identified ingredient, tool or process (breaking an egg would get 2 points, one for the verb, one for the ingredient), as well as for naming the final dish.</li>
<li>'Marmite polls' - the class votes on whether particular foods are delicious or disgusting, or whether they would be willing to try a particular new food. They then use the results of the polls to plan menus for a feast of either wonderful or revolting food.</li>
<li>Use the <a href="http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519_1373664,00.html" target="_blank">What the World Eats</a> <a href="http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1645016_1408103,00.html" target="_blank">photos</a> to compare typical family diets around the world - there's lots of scope here for vocab about home-cooking versus processed food, comparing health, as well as more serious issues of poverty and inequality.</li>
<li>Small groups plan a menu for a special meal to serve to different people - the President of a neighbouring country, some Martians on their first visit to Earth, a murderer on death row, your mother-in-law, a time traveller from one hundred years in the past or the future...</li>
<li>Students make a stop-motion video of their own in the style of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBjLW5_dGAM" target="_blank">Western Spaghetti</a>, using items from the classroom or from students' bags.</li>
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That's it for now, but keep watching, there are plenty more ideas to follow!<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #373737; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Photos taken from <a href="http://flickr.com/eltpics">http://flickr.com/eltpics</a> by @ij64, @cgoodey, @purple_steph used under a CC Attribution Non-Commercial licence, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/</a></span></span>LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5267153041569833862.post-74653335508497126342012-09-19T10:17:00.003-07:002013-01-19T10:45:43.485-08:00Tired Lesson Topics, and what you can do to revitalise themIt's no accident that so many textbooks cover the same old topics. Family, hobbies, education, work and all the rest of them are exam and textbook staples precisely because they are real-life conversational staples as well. The problem starts when teacher, students or both are bored by the topic because they've covered it so many times before: when Unit 1 is predictably going to be family and talking about yourself, when food is inevitably the topic for teaching countable and uncountable nouns (yawn), and when you realise that you could actually teach that lesson on the environment (using future forms or conditionals) in your sleep, because you've done the same thing so many times before.<br />
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This is for those times. Here are some techniques for adapting typical ELT activities, and a few less obvious ways of approaching traditional topics.<br />
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(This post was inspired by the book <a href="http://the-round.com/resource/52/" target="_blank">52: a year of subversive activity for the ELT classroom</a>, by Lindsay Clandfield and Luke Meddings. I thoroughly recommend this book to any teacher who wants to try something different and isn't afraid to take risks.)<br />
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First of all, here's a set of three Rs to use in adapting textbook activities:</h3>
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<b>1. Role Play</b><br />
Any discussion can be made into a role play. Instead of giving their own opinions on the textbook topic, students are assigned a character who has some professional or personal link to the topic, and have to give their opinions as that person. This works particularly well in situations where the majority of students are likely to share the same opinion.<br />
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I used this technique in a small group discussion on the topic 'Society puts too much pressure on young people to be thin', and the possible characters were 1) a teenager who desperately wants to be a model, 2) the parent of a pre-teen child, 3) a doctor who specialises in treating people with eating disorders, 4) the publisher of a fashion magazine that only uses ultra-thin models, 5) the manager of a company that makes diet pills, and 6) a former supermodel who has struggled with an eating disorder for many years. The students were in groups of 4, and characters were randomly assigned using an <a href="http://www.random.org/" target="_blank">online random number generator</a>, accessed via a smartphone (or you could just roll a dice!).<br />
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Most of the class thought that the original statement was too obviously true to be worth discussing, but in character they had an animated discussion which provided much more opportunity to use the target language. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTukveVIgnQBClwXaXxLo0v6kAatHQARVSEFCOywdRRlvd45MySGYzp3FL7TEGKB8J8HRAaa3AqS4WPYKBWbx27NujG0BTGJr9ivzJt3coCtJ_vfE29ASkj2Q2E1gvFte_PJcX6U2GC6Xd/s1600/5960940305_0ea765721f_o+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTukveVIgnQBClwXaXxLo0v6kAatHQARVSEFCOywdRRlvd45MySGYzp3FL7TEGKB8J8HRAaa3AqS4WPYKBWbx27NujG0BTGJr9ivzJt3coCtJ_vfE29ASkj2Q2E1gvFte_PJcX6U2GC6Xd/s320/5960940305_0ea765721f_o+(1).jpg" width="320" /></a><b>2. Randomiser</b><br />
As in the previous point, where random numbers were used to assign role play characters, but this is only the beginning. For any creative activity, from business meeting role plays to ghost stories, using dice or random numbers to create characters, motivations and plot events can provide scaffolding for students to be more creative, as well as challenging them when a more off-the-wall element suddenly has to be included.<br />
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When my students had the task of creating a ghost story, I asked them for suggestions for the type of ghost, the ghost's motivation, the location of the story, and the time period that the ghost came from. When there were 6 entries in each category, we threw dice for every category to decide story details for each pair of students. One pair had a story about a medieval ghost of a young woman in her wedding dress, looking for revenge, while another had a 19th century toddler ghost in an abandoned house, searching for someone they'd lost. You get the idea. <br />
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In another scenario you could throw dice to generate overt and secret agendas for characters in a business meeting: the boss has called the meeting to discuss sales targets but secretly he wants to find an excuse to fire the sales director, the sales director wants the boss to give a promotion to the best salesperson on the team, while the star salesperson is actually an undercover journalist, about to report the company for malpractice.<br />
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(This idea was inspired by the role-playing game <a href="http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/games/fiasco/" target="_blank">Fiasco</a>, by Bully Pulpit Games, as played by Wil Wheaton and guests on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_609480&feature=iv&src_vid=uuJizhyf-y4&v=WXJxQ0NbFtk#t=3m21s" target="_blank">Tabletop</a>.)<br />
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Turn it over to the students. Get them to think about the topic before the lesson and bring in articles, objects, or photos to use in class, or if you have internet access, they can show what they've found online. Use their knowledge and interests to take the topic in unexpected directions. Bring unusual props to lessons yourself, and challenge the students to connect them somehow to the topic. In this way an empty tin can elicits a story about the first time a student tried to cook for themselves, an old school photo sets off a discussion about school uniforms and introduces adjectives for clothing and appearance, or a piece of hand-knitting could kick-start a contest on who in the class would have the necessary skills for surviving a post-technological post-apocalyptic world. (This last one hasn't happened yet in my class but I can always hope!)<br />
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<h3>
And now, our first three Typical Tired Textbook Topics, and suggestions for how to subvert, extend or otherwise enliven them:</h3>
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<b>1. Education</b><br />
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<li>Students research new developments in education, then plan a school of the future.</li>
<li>Hold a debate on whether robots could replace human teachers.</li>
<li>Role play a lesson with a robot teacher (you or a student could play this role).</li>
<li>Following a glorious revolution, the teaching of history is banned. Students write a persuasive letter to the new Department of Truth asking for the subject to be reinstated.</li>
<li>A school takes a radical decision: only female students will be permitted to study science. Why have they done this and what might the consequences be?</li>
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<b>2. Sport</b></div>
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<ul>
<li>Invent an extreme sport and produce a poster or video promoting it.</li>
<li>Get students to create a collaborative or individual story that starts with recognising a face in the crowd while watching TV coverage of a major sporting event.</li>
<li>Propose a new sport to be included in the next Olympics; alternatively, propose that a sport be excluded from the Olympics in the future.</li>
</ul>
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<li>Show a picture of a marathon fun-runner in a wacky costume, and ask students to role play an in-race interview with them. (Check out <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE2aTYvWJp8" target="_blank">this video</a> for examples of post-marathon interviews.)</li>
<li>Presentations on the history, use and abuse of the vuvuzela at sporting events.</li>
</ul>
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<b>3. Daily Routines</b></div>
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<ul>
<li>First of all check out activity 8 from the book 52, as mentioned at the start of this post. You can view it in the free sample of the book <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/extreader/read/133783/12/52-a-year-of-subversive-activity-for-the-elt-classroom" target="_blank">here</a> - on page 12.</li>
<li>For further ideas, look for photos showing different lifestyles around the world to use as a starting point. The pictures on <a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/08/08/where-children-sleep-james-mollison/" target="_blank">this page</a> have a lot of potential.</li>
<li>Get the students to imagine their daily routine if they were the opposite sex - what choices would they make about clothing and appearance? Would their behaviour at home, college or work be different?</li>
<li>Students take turns to tell their daily routine backwards, trying not to leave anything out. The other students listen to try to catch them out. "You didn't say you changed your clothes before going to bed. So you're still wearing your jeans and T Shirt?"</li>
<li>A student mimes their daily routine, while others write down what they think they saw. The most accurate is the winner, and the next to mime.</li>
</ul>
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That's all for now, but there's plenty more to follow - watch this space for more teaching ideas and tips!<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Images taken from http://flickr.com/eltpics by </span> @mkofab, @purple_steph, @dianatremayne, @CliveSir, @sandymillin, @aClilToClimb<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> used under a CC Attribution Non-Commercial licence, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/</span></span></i>LLC Blogger (Steph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01771143403066832985noreply@blogger.com0