Teaching Ideas & Activities

Missing Relatives

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          “That looks like the couple…. 

                      …that live next door to you.”

As a teacher of English as a Foreign Language I designed scores of activities to enliven lessons with group interaction.  With a special interest integrating intonation into general language focus, I often incorporated graphic representation of the appropriate intonation patterns, as you will see when opening the link to this card game, which practises ‘defining’ relative clauses, using the pronoun ‘that’.  Teachers’ notes are included.

Missing Relatives

Eventually I intend to publish a collection of resources on various aspects of language teaching, of which this is a sample.

Lexical Tag Dominoes

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      A:  “Lovely day, isn’t it!”    B:  “Isn’t it gorgeous!”

As a teacher of English as a Foreign Language I designed scores of activities to enliven lessons with group interaction.  With a special interest integrating intonation into general language focus, I often incorporated graphic representation of the appropriate intonation patterns, as you will see when opening the link to this card game, which practises typical interactions of spoken discourse starting with question tags.  Teachers’ notes are included.

Discourse Dominoes – tags

Eventually I intend to publish a collection of resources on various aspects of language teaching, of which this is a sample.

 

 

Politeness Cultures – PowerPoint

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Here is the PowerPoint presentation I refer to in my article
“Becoming Aware of Cultural Differences”. 
It was designed for Teacher-Training purposes.

As I explain in the introduction to that article, in this context the terms ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ are not in any sense intended to convey approval or disapproval.  They simply refer to opposing ends of a continuum of accepted behaviour in a particular cultural context.

‘Positive’ could loosely be equated with directness, and ‘negative’ with indirectness.  In fact, I wish such terms had been the ones linguists had coined for discussion of these culturally sensitive matters!

(For anyone not familiar with PowerPoint, if you are using a PC, once the presentation has opened, click once each time you want the next element or slide to appear.  To return to the previous slide, simply press ‘P’, or use the back arrow.
On a mobile device, the presentation may simply appear as a series of individual slides, and you can scroll down from one to the next…)

When giving the presentation to a live audience, I would stop at intervals to invite the participants to discuss the content in pairs or small groups, and elicit their responses before moving on.

politeness-cultures-by-rosie-mcandrew

The Way up to Heaven – Roald Dahl

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This activity  is designed to guide students to form their own understanding of the story (which they will have read in their own time), working in groups.  The story appears in Kiss Kiss, published by Penguin.

My original  list of questions was in chronological order.   But to avoid the impression of yet another list of comprehension questions,  I did not want to issue them in that way.  Instead, in the attachment given below, the questions are re-ordered to engage group discussion – such a vital part of language learning and the development of ideas.

To use them in class, print these questions out and cut the page into three so that each group receives only “their” questions.  The stages of the activity are explained below. Continue reading →

A Passage to India – E M Forster

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Here are 4 activities to use with the first half of the film of A Passage to India, and with part of the novel, each following a different format.  Preferably let the students watch each section of the film first, before giving them a task, so that they can enjoy it for its own sake!  And let them read and check they understand the wording of each task before watching the relevant section for the second time!

  • The first worksheet is designed to be cut into strips for students to sort in order as they watch the fist part of the film again (up to the point where Dr Aziz arrives at Fielding’s house).
  • The second worksheet consists of 12 multiple-choice questions to be answered during the second viewing of part 2 (up to the preparations for the expedition to the Marabar Caves.)
  • The third focuses on the expedition to the Caves itself, and involves a sentence completion activity with a variety of options.
  • The fourth focuses on a comparison between the film version of the Caves episode, and that section of the novel.  The students have to allocate each element in the table according to its appearance in the film or the book.

These activities worked well with a class of a high enough language level;  they deepened the learners’ understanding and stimulated a lot of discussion.  I hope they work for your students as well!

passage-to-india-1

passage-to-india-2

passage-to-india-3

passage-to-india-4

When you are Old, by W B Yeats

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This activity is designed to lead students to form their own understanding of the ideas and feelings in the poem, which you will find on the third page of the attachment.

On page one, there is the full list of the questions involved, in chronological order.   But to avoid the impression of yet another list of comprehension questions,  I do not issue these questions as they stand.  On page two, the questions are re-ordered to engage group discussion – such a vital part of language learning and the development of ideas.

To use them in class, , print and cut the second page of the attachment into three, so that each group receives only “their” questions.

To see how this works, read the section headed “Class Activity in Groups.”

when-you-are-old

The Listeners – PowerPoint Illustration

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I designed an illustrated version of this poem, by Walter de la Mare, to bring it to life and guide foreign students to some of the key vocabulary.

When you first open the PowerPoint presentation you will see a Black Screen.

  • Click twice, separately, to bring up the title and author’s name.
  • One more click will start the first verse scrolling onto the screen.
  • There are four lines in each verse.   You only need to click once for each verse.   Resist the urge to rush, as the lines and pictures appear at roughly reading speed!
  • There are three verses on each screen, and three screens in all.  When all three verses on the first screen have finished, including the ferns at the bottom of the third verse,
  • Click again to start the second screen, clicking only once for each whole verse, as above.
  • Then click for the third screen, as above.

I hope you find the presentation illuminating for your students – and that you enjoy it!

the-listeners