42806 (Communication The Exchange of Information), страница 6

Desert island

Aims Skills — speaking, writing

Language — giving and asking for reasons, agreeing and disagreeing, making suggestions

Other — imagination, common sense, fun

Level Intermediate

Organisation Individuals, pairs, groups.

Preparation None

Time 10-20

Procedure Step 1: The teacher describes the task tо the students: 'You are stranded on а desert island а long way from anywhere. There is а fresh water spring on the island, and there are banana trees and coconut palms. The climate is mild. Make а list of eight to twelve things which you think are necessary for survival.' Students work on their own.

Step 2: Students pair up and compare lists. They agree on а common list of а maximum of ten items.

Step 3: The students discuss the new lists in groups of four tо six students. They decide on а group list of а maximum of eight items and rank these according to their importance.

Rescue

Aims Skills — speaking

Language – stating an opinion, giving and asking for reasons, agreeing and disagreeing, comparisons

Other — thinking about one' s values

Level Intermediate/advanced

Organisation Groups of five to eight students

Preparation None

Time 10-20

Procedure Step 1: The teacher explains the situation:

'The Earth is doomed. All life is going tо perish in two due tо radiation. А spaceship from another solar system lands and offers to rescue twelve people, who could start а new world on an empty planet very much like Earth. Imagine you are the selection committee and you have to decide who mау be rescued. Think of а list of criteria which you would use in your decision.'

Step 2: Each group discusses the problem and tries to work out а list.

Step 3: Each group presents its list of criteria to the class. The lists are discussed.

Variations The task can be made mоrе specific, е.g. 'Find ten criteria. You can award up tо 100 points if а candidate gets full marks on all counts, е.g. appearance 5, intelligence 30, fertility 15, physical fitness 20, etc.

Remarks Although the basic problem is а rather depressing one, it helps students to clarify their own values as regards judging others.

Chapter III

Stories & Poetry– painting that speaks⁰

The aim of these activities is to get the students to produce longer connected texts. For this they will need imagination as well as some skill in the foreign language. Stimuli are given in the form of individual words or pictures.

Story-telling activates more than а limited number of patterns and structures and these activities are best used as general revision.

Chain story⁰

Aims Skills — speaking

Language — simple past

Other — imagination, flexibility

Level Beginners/intermediate

Organisation Class

Preparation Small slips of paper with one noun/verb/adjective on each of them, as many pieces of paper as there are students

Time 10 — 20 minutes

Procedure Step 1: Each student receives а word slip.

Step 2: The teacher starts the story by giving the first sentence, е.g. 'It was а stormy night in November. А student (either а volunteer or the person sitting nearest to the teacher) continues the story. Не mау say up to three sentences and must include the word on his slip of paper. The next student goes on.

Variations Each student is also given а number. The numbers determine the sequence in which the students have to contribute tо the story.

Remarks One can direct the contents of the story to а certain degree by the choice of words.

Newspaper report⁰

Aims Skills — writing

Language — reporting events, past tenses, passive

Other — imagination

Level Intermediate

Organisation Groups

Preparation А large number of photographs taken from magazines and newspapers

Time 20 — 30 minutes

Procedure Step 1: Each group is given five pictures of which they have to use three. Their aim is tо write а newspaper rероrt linking these three pictures.

Step 2: When each group has decided which pictures to use they write their report.

Step 3: The reports are read out and the pictures shown to the class.

Variations 1: Each group chooses three pictures which another group has tо write about.

2: After Step 2 all the pictures are displayed on the wall. When the reports are read out the others have to guess which pictures fit which report.

3: The reports are taken as starting points for interviews and role plays.

Remarks If unusual and widely differing pictures are chosen the result can be very funny.

This work is based on the assumption that the handing-down of grammatical rules is made easier if students are told in the regular beat of a verse scheme. The poems themselves are here to give the words a special measured motion as they are spoken. The rhythmic movement is sufficiently controlled to show some regularity. In some ways the poetic lines are like careful conversation; each word is chosen to give the fullest possible effect, and the rhythm of the lines ensures that heaviness is avoided to some extent. However, poetry is essentially spoken language, and so the lines are more memorable than prose. One advantage of these poems is that the lines are easily remembered.

The general meaning of a poem is more important than the literal meanings of the individual words. Thus, to read a poem effectively is to read it wholly and appreciate its unity.

The following poem states that the passive voice is preferable in scientific writing. It also shows how active voice can be changed into passive voice. The last two lines explain that the subject of the active voice is put at the end in the passive sentence and it is often omitted as it is expressed through the word "dead."

Active and Passive Forms:

Hi, Ahmad, come and see,

Two forms may a sentence be.

Active or passive voice, Each one a free choice,

Active in all speech, Passive for science teach.

Active form is formal, Passive also be normal.

To get passive as we know, After a verb should object go.

In the passive object needed, Being subject firstly seated.

Object comes to be first, As a subject not to hurt.

Subject goes to the end, Following "by" as a friend.

Abdul Hassan Sh. Qassim Ajdubia, Libya

Poetry is painting that speaks, according to Plutarch. It is the artistic use of language which sums up its essence and unbounded versatility. It requires, however, a degree of linguistic sophistication for understanding and appreciation. Therefore, you should reserve English poems for FFL/ESL students who are both proficient in English and genuinely interested in poetry. Only with such groups can poems become popular and productive items for conversation.

In choosing poems for your group, I suggest that you limit your choice to nineteenth- and twentieth-century poetry. If you are considering American poetry, for instance, poems by Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Robert Frost, and other well-known poets should provide excellent discussion material. Of course, you do not have to limit your choice to great poets only. There are, for instance, collections of poems by talented American high school and university students-collections which often contain fine selections for use in English conversation sessions.

A poem that is short, written in clear language, and universally appealing is most likely to interest your students. As Jerome Gram said in a recent seminar in Turkey, "Unlike a novel or a play or a story, such a poem presents itself on the page in bite size-encouragingly compact and accessible—a manifestly possible task. And at the same time, the density of meaning and possibility in a word or a line of poetry yields ample and varied material for study."

Once you have collected poems that you consider suitable, you may want to use the following procedures;

1. Read each poem two or three times to your students before they see it in the written form. They should listen for meaning as well as for rhythm in the individual words and lines.

2. Give everyone a copy of the poem. If there are no duplicating facilities available, write the poem on the blackboard so that the students can copy it.

3. Explain the meaning of words or expressions that students may not be familiar with.

4. Read the poem again while the students follow the written form.

5. Discuss the message or messages in the poem. Ask: the students why they agree or disagree with the poet's views. Have students restate the message(s) in prose.

6. Read the poem and have the students listen to it with their eyes closed so that they can concentrate on the sound of the words.

7. Have the group go through the poem with a different student ding each line, one student reading one verse and the entire group heading the next, female students reading some lines and male students reading others, or any other pattern that adds interest and pried vocal quality during the reading of the poem.

8. Discuss the poet-his life, philosophy, other poems he has written, and additional information that would interest your students.

9. Delineate the cultural elements appearing in the poem. Have the students compare these with elements in their own culture.

10. Help the students memorize the poem if they are interested in doing so. Poems learned by heart can be repeated by the group as a whole or by individual students and are apt to be even more attractive with familiarity. Besides, a poem which is memorized becomes the students' actual ""possession," a living part of his own linguistic and intellectual heritage.

Professor Gram told his students, "There's no better way to get familiar and at home with English than to have a few English poems running through your head." You may make the same observation with your students.

Games as a way at breaking the routine of classroom drill

Language games can add fun and variety to conversation sessions if the participants are fond of games. I, myself, have always enjoyed games, and students (most of them adults) seem to share my enthusiasm. Games are especially refreshing after demanding conversational activities such as debates or speeches. Here, the change of pace from the serious to the lighthearted is particularly welcome, although language games can fit into any directed conversation program quite well.

Socio-drama is an activity which obliges students to attend to the verbal environment. First, it is relevant to the students' interests, utilizing both extrinsic motivation, which refers to the students' daily interests and cares, and intrinsic motivation, which refers to the students' internal feelings and attitudes. . . . Furthermore, socio-drama is a problem-solving activity which stimulates real life situations and requires active student involvement.

Some teachers feel that language games are more appropriate in the manipulative phase than in the communicative phase of language learning. Most teachers, however, find language games valuable in both phases. In the manipulative phase, a game is a wonderful way to break the routine of classroom drill by providing relaxation while' remaining within the framework of language learning. In the communicative phase, a game can be stimulating and entertaining, and when the participants have stopped playing the game you can use it as a stimulus for additional conversation. For instance, if the group has just finished the game in which players indicate whether a statement is true or false by running to chairs labeled “True” and “False,” you may then ask questions about what happened during the game. ("Who was the first player?", "Who knocked the chair over by accident?", "What was the first true statement in the game?", "How many points did Team II score?" etc.)

Of course, for maximum benefit from a language game in either phase, the teacher should select only the best from the hundreds of language games available. Most people would agree that a good language game

(1) requires little or no advance preparation,

(2) is easy to play and yet provides the student with an intellectual challenge,

(3;) is short enough to occupy a convenient space in the conversation program,

(4) entertains the students but does not cause the group to get out of control, and

(5) requires no time-consuming correction of written responses afterward.

These games are for teen-agers and adults but often enjoyed by children as well, are especially suitable for use in conversation sessions. Before you read the instructions, you may wish to consider the following suggestions—suggestions designed to insure the greatest success with any of the games you select:

1. Make thorough preparations for the game. Read the rules to yourself several times so that you have a good understanding of how it is played. Gather materials for the games that require special equipment. Plan how you will direct conversation during or following the game.

2. Before introducing a game to a class, ask the students if they think they would enjoy this kind of activity. Occasionally an adult class expresses in no uncertain terms its lack of interest in the prospect of playing a game. When this happens, it is best to abandon the idea-at least for the time being.

3. Choose a game that allows as many students as possible to participate. If the class is large, a number of students will sit as the audience during some games. But even there, members of the audience may keep score and in other ways take part in the game. In small classes, you should make sure that every student has an active role in every game.