Teaching activity

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 →

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