Issue 92

May
2014

The Leading Practical Magazine For English Language Teachers Worldwide

Self-directed
language learning
Brian R Morrison
C is for creativity
Brian Tomlinson
The amazing gapfill
Margaret Horrigan
Ludicrous language
Chris Payne

• practical methodology

• fresh ideas & innovations

• classroom resources

• new technology

• teacher development

• tips & techniques

• photocopiable materials

• competitions & reviews

w w w . e t p r o f e s s i o n a l . c o m
 Visit our m-Learning page for practical tips, best practice
ideas, and technical advice on teaching with mobile devices:
Download our Read Register for
free white paper our blog webinars and watch
the recordings

Go to www.oup.com/elt/mlearning to find out more

Scan the code to go

to the m-Learning page:

T
Contents MAIN FEATURE TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS

SELF-DIRECTED LANGUAGE LEARNING 4 GETTING THE KIDS ON YOUR SIDE 23

Brian R Morrison fashions frameworks for Paul Bress suggests strategies for developing rapport
facilitating learner autonomy
CONFIDENCE RULES, OK? 24
Greg Davies knows we need to work together
FEATURES to promote speaking

THE AMAZING GAPFILL 9

Margaret Horrigan mines the gap TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

THE GRAMMAR SHOCK 13 THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS 54

Anna Kamont faces the fear of the unknown Olga Filatova outlines the strengths of native-speaker
and non-native-speaker teachers
HEAT UP YOUR WARMERS 16
Ever Malvesi puts the warm into warm-ups
TECHNOLOGY
SOUNDS FUN! 20
Robin Walker promotes pronunciation with CHOOSE YOUR BLEND 57
young learners Linda M Hanington and Poh Foong Kwah show
how blended learning can be used in teacher training
OVER THE WALL 25
Alan Maley investigates detective fiction FIVE THINGS YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO 61
KNOW ABOUT: THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
TAKE FIVE 29 Nicky Hockly says it’s not what you’ve got,
Chaz Pugliese interviews Alan Maley but how well you can use it

DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT WITH 30 WEBWATCHER 63

YOUR COURSEBOOK 5 Russell Stannard pins his faith in Pinterest
Rachael Roberts increases the impact of
listening activities
REGULAR FEATURES
PREPARING STUDENTS FOR EXAMS 4 34
Claire Hunter presents teaching tips for IELTS exams IT WORKS IN PRACTICE 38

QUICK, QUICK, SLOW 40 REVIEWS 44

Ted Kelsey analyses the way we make decisions
SCRAPBOOK 46
SUGGESTIONS FROM THE STAFFROOM 2 43
Sasha Wajnryb compiles teacher-tested tips on COMPETITIONS 22, 64
teaching materials

LUDICROUS LANGUAGE 50 Includes materials designed to photocopy

Chris Payne finds a good use for invented examples

C IS FOR CREATIVITY 52
Brian Tomlinson begins an extended article on
the benefits of breaking the mould

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 1

 Editorial
M
ost teachers would agree that learner autonomy is and implement a learning plan so that they can take control of
something greatly to be desired, and we have long their learning in a structured way.
known that no one can really learn anything just by
Unfortunately, it seems that wherever there are goals,
turning up for an hour’s lesson once, or even twice, a week.
achievement and progress, we can’t get away from the urge to
It is the students who also spend hours practising at home
test them. Greg Davies identifies the commercial need for
and make learning part of their lives outside the classroom
progress to be quantifiable in the competitive world of private
who tend to be the most successful.
language schools as a negative factor in encouraging students
However, so much emphasis is placed these days on language to speak.
learning outside formal lessons that there sometimes appears
And just how good are we at evaluating people, anyway? Ted
to be an expectation that the bulk of the learning will occur
Kelsey uses the work of psychologist Daniel Kahneman to raise
outside the classroom, with actual face-to-face lessons being
doubts about our capacity to take rational decisions, and he
simply there for mopping up any lingering linguistic problems
explores the effect this may have on the judgements we make
and setting the next tranche of work for the students to go off
about our students. Ted’s article was so interesting that I
and do by themselves. This is an exaggeration of the concept
bought Kahneman’s book – recommended also by Alan Maley
of the ‘flipped classroom’, of course, but it is interesting that
in a previous issue.
Linda Hanington and Poh Foong Kwah report that, whilst the
students on their blended course gave a 100% endorsement to And if you want something to read while your students are off
the online option, they still attended as many face-to-face engaging in self-directed language learning, take a look at
sessions as they possibly could. They liked the fact that they Alan’s suggestions for detective fiction in this issue. The Dr Siri
had the choice of online learning in their own time, but they still books by Colin Cotterill are amongst my personal favourites.
really valued face-to-face contact with a teacher and their
fellow students.
Whether we favour the flipped classroom or not – and whether
the ‘digital divide’ that Nicky Hockly explores in her article
actually gives us the choice, anyway – learner autonomy is here
to stay, and the question for many teachers is how to achieve it.
Helena Gomm
Editor
In our main feature, Brian Morrison takes a systematic
[email protected]
approach, offering frameworks to help the students map out

Rayford House, School Road, Hove BN3 5HX, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1273 434943 Email: [email protected]

Fax: +44 (0)1273 227308 Web: www.etprofessional.com

Editor: Helena Gomm Published by: Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd,
Rayford House, School Road, Hove BN3 5HX
Editorial Consultant: Mike Burghall
© 2014, Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd
Editorial Director: Andrew Chilvers
ISSN 1362-5276
Cover photo: © Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley / Shutterstock.com

Designer: Christine Cox

Subscriptions: Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd,
Advertising Sales Manager:
Rayford House, School Road, Hove BN3 5HX
Carole Blanchett, Mainline Media
Tel: 01536 747333
Fax: 01536 746565
Email: [email protected] Numéro de Commission Paritaire: 1004 U 82181.
Prix à l’unité = EUR14.75; à l’abonnement (6 numéros) = EUR59.
Publisher: Fiona Richmond Directeur de la Publication: Fiona Richmond

Pages 39 and 46–49 include materials which are designed to photocopy. All other rights are reserved and no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

2 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

Prepare your students for success
Give your learners the language skills they need for success in study and work.
• A
globally recognised certificate • L ocal availability
Accepted by over 4,000 organisations, Monthly exam sessions and over 1,300 test
including universities in Australia, the UK, centres globally
USA, Canada and beyond
• I n-depth support
• H
ighest quality Comprehensive support for teachers and
Developed by world-leading experts to be fair students online and in print
and accurate to all students

Watch our free teachers’ webinar at: Accepted for university and student visa
www.cambridgeenglish.org/caeteacherwebinar applications to Australia and the UK
www.cambridgeenglish.org/advanced

facebook.com/CambridgeCAE Certificate in Advanced English (CAE)

 M A I N F E AT U R E

Self-directed
language
learning
Brian R Morrison supports SDLL through PIME and PURE frameworks.

S
elf-directed language learning and students’ self-directed language learning, that my students would have been better
learner autonomy are commonly ie the language learning they do outside prepared to learn effectively outside class.
mentioned in curricula, syllabuses the classroom, away from their teachers The significance of this should not
and articles about teaching and and away from me. be overlooked because, while a lot of
learning. Sometimes these terms refer to In my current position, this might emphasis is rightly put on the teaching
what goes on during class but, more and mean working with students to look at and learning that occurs in the classroom,
more, they are being used to refer to what strategies for selecting language to learn there is little doubt that language learning
happens away from the classroom and or to consider emotional aspects of success requires students to engage in
away from the teacher. learning, such as confidence, motivation learning outside of lessons.
The reasons for seeking to promote or anxiety. While I often have a number
this type of learning with your students of ideas to introduce to the students, Two frameworks
seem obvious when you know that the much of the content comes from the
To demonstrate better how teachers can
students who make the most students themselves.
facilitate meaningful engagement, I will
improvement are the ones who make the My role, therefore, involves setting
outline a couple of the frameworks that
best use of their language learning time, up activities and finding ways to access
the learning advisors at my workplace use.
in and outside the classroom. the knowledge of the whole class so that
As I see it, these can inform
As teachers, we can have a lot of the students share, compare and talk
student-centred, class-based activities
influence in class, but what happens through how they might improve their
which are integrated into courses; and
away from the classroom is in the language learning experience.
then ‘homework’, or at least some of it,
students’ hands. Nevertheless, we can My previous teaching practice was can be linked to student-led, out-of-class
use time in class to offer our students very much focused on delivering the learning.
guidance and feedback on what they do syllabus content in a way that was Courses in self-directed language
in their own time in pursuit of their student-centred. Homework was learning at my university use two
language learning goals. invariably to finish up what had not frameworks to help organise and
My colleagues and I have adapted, been done in class, and to memorise support language learning:
developed and use frameworks for what had been done.
helping us to support our students in The first is a PIME framework
In recent years, I have been in the (planning, implementation, monitoring
their self-directed language learning.
fortunate position of being able to and evaluation). This involves an initial
These are adaptable to many different
devote all of my time at work to planning phase – ie goal-setting and
teaching and learning environments, and
focusing on self-directed language learning plan development – and then
they are set out in this article.
learning. works through a cycle of learning
I now see that there are a lot of plan implementation, monitoring and
Two perspectives opportunities that, as a teacher, I could evaluation. As the cycle continues, the
As a learning advisor, I am a qualified have taken to incorporate self-directed learning plan may be adjusted, to fit
teacher who has specialised in guiding language learning activities in class, so each student’s experience of using it.

4 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 As their teacher, you can support
PIME and PURE Plan this activity by providing a framework
for self-assessment, such as the simple
one below.
The students can then integrate their
findings from this activity into their
Prepare Use goals, to add clarity and focus. For
instance, the previous goals may develop
Evaluate Implement – to become something like this:
Evaluate Review I want to be able to read newspaper
articles related to my country without
using my dictionary. I need to develop
my vocabulary, particularly the way
synonyms are used in an article.
I want to be able to chat with my
Monitor
friends in English about my country. I
need to develop my fluency so that I can
say what I want to say. I know a lot of
Within this PIME cycle, another I want to be able to chat with my
words, but I pause too much when I try
framework is used: PURE (preparing, friends in English about my country.
to remember them.
using, reviewing and evaluating). PURE I want to be able to get 6.0 for IELTS
is not necessarily a cycle – it is more of a I want to be able to get 6.0 for IELTS
writing.
tool for categorising activities, so that writing. I need to become faster at
I want to be able to watch a film and thinking of ideas, and faster at writing
the balance of activities can be attended
understand most of it. the ideas down.
to when planning, implementing,
monitoring and evaluating. At this stage, it is feasible for the students I want to be able to watch a film and
to come up with a learning plan, but we understand most of it. I can understand
To sum up PURE:
have found that a diagnostic activity can the subtitles, but I can’t catch the
Prepare (to use) could involve the guide them to focus more on their needs. sounds of lots of words – it’s too fast.
students learning new language, or A diagnostic activity involves asking the I need to get used to the way words are
preparing to use specific language in the students to do the following: used in connected speech.
context of their goals.
Try the goal activity (read an article; Having produced a more specific goal,
Use is about using the language which chat with friends; write an IELTS the students can now map out a learning
has been prepared, in the setting of the essay; watch a film). plan. They often need help to create one
language learning goal.
Analyse and assess their performance. for the first time. Ideally, they will pool
Review is there to check what has been ideas and select from these, so the role
Consider what they have to do to improve.
remembered, and whether anything has of the teacher is to oversee and facilitate
been forgotten. Prioritise these improvements.
while the students share ideas about the
Evaluate clarifies that the goal-oriented Students who have a goal which involves activities and resources they have used.
language skills are improving, and is to speaking or listening are likely to benefit However, an alternative approach is
verify that there is a connection between from recording what they say or listen to ask the students to search (online or
Prepare and Use – ie that what is to. The recordings then allow for a in their immediate communities) for
prepared is then used later. thorough analysis of what was going on alternative activities and resources to
as they listened or spoke. the ones they have used previously, or
PIME: Planning
How well did What was good about each category?
At the Planning stage of PIME, students
you do? (As a What could be improved in each category?
have to consider their language learning
percentage)
goals and come up with a learning plan.
To keep everything simple the first time Overall task
we do this, we limit the students to achievement
choosing one language skill – ie reading,
Fluency
writing, speaking or listening – and ask
them to consider the genre and
Vocabulary
situation. This can be done as a class by
brainstorming the activities the students Grammar
currently do in English, and by taking
into account what they want to be able to Phonology
do in the future. Sample goals may be:
I want to be able to read a newspaper Which of these do you want to prioritise? Why?
article without using my dictionary.

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 5

Self-directed PIME: Implementing
At the Implementing stage of PIME, the
PIME: Monitoring
Although Monitoring and Implementing

language students try out the plan. It is likely that

the implementation stage will vary
are separated, they often co-occur:
Monitoring happens during or just after

learning somewhat from the original plan, as

students differ in the degrees they are
able to find suitable resources, people to
the time when the learning plan is being
implemented. So, to take the example
from the student with the speaking goal
for you – the teacher – to consider ways
interact with and environments for above, as she speaks, she may realise
of introducing a range of resources and
learning – as well as balancing language that she has an idea she is having trouble
activities that may be useful to them in
learning with the other demands on enunciating – she therefore has several
their planning.
their time. options, including:
The next step is for the students to
Such challenges may have an impact Ignore the thought and continue the
come up with learning plans connected
on the frequency or length of time they conversation.
to their goals, with at least one activity
spend on each activity, or the amount of
for each part of PURE. These plans Attempt to paraphrase, using available
time apportioned to each PURE
provide a schedule – which potentially language.
category. In other words, students may
helps with time management – and a Stop speaking, and check a dictionary.
end up focusing their learning on prepare
reference document to check both what
and review, and the lack of use is likely Use L1 and rely on others to translate it.
to do and what has been done. Below is
to have an impact on the effectiveness of Something else.
an example of a learning plan for the
their language learning.
following goal: In many ways, monitoring is similar to
The role teachers can take here is
Goal: I want to be able to chat with my twofold: students noticing what they do, but it
friends in English about my country. I goes beyond ‘being aware’ and requires
The first is to make sure the students
need to develop my fluency so that I can additional steps. When monitoring, it is
are aware of the balance of activities,
say what I want to say. I know a lot of not enough to notice what is being done
and the effect this is likely to have on
words, but I pause too much when I try well or what needs to change (this is just
their progress.
to remember them. the first step). The act of monitoring
The second is to encourage peers to implies taking some kind of practical
Prepare give each other an insight into the action when change is required. This
Keep a diary about my life here activities and resources they used, as action is then reflected on, and can be
– compare what I do here with what well as to share their experiences of integrated into, subsequent planning
I do in my own country. these, so that what works well or what and implementation.
is deemed less beneficial is circulated So, monitoring happens as the plan
Use a dictionary when I can’t think
amongst the students. is being implemented, and starts with
of the words.
The possible ways of fulfilling these noticing what is working well and what
Keep a note of the words I check at
roles depends on the context, but much is not so effective. It is about identifying
the back of the diary.
of this could be done at the beginning strengths and weaknesses, adjusting,
Use of class as a group-discussion activity, modifying, continuing, transferring and
with guided questions provided by the halting specific learning activities (and
Talk to my friends in English every the use of resources and materials) as
teacher, such as:
day at lunch time – compare what I the language is being used.
do here with what I do in my own How much time did you spend on each
The monitoring process can happen
country. section of PURE?
during almost any part of the learning,
Use my diary vocabulary notes if I How satisfied are you with that amount once it is underway. It has been shown
need to. of time? to be particularly successful when
Ask friends more about their What would you like to change next week? learners talk or write about their
countries. How are you going to make the change learning activities in light of their goals
happen? and weekly objectives. This is why
Evaluate monitoring and reflection are so
What activities and resources did you
Record myself once every two intricately connected.
use this week?
weeks, and compare with the Asking your students to get into
previous recording.
How satisfied were you with the groups in class to share their reflections
activities and resources you used? on their learning outside the classroom
Check if I can speak for longer.
Are there any activities and resources can be one way to do this, but using a
Check if I can speak with fewer you want to remove? Why? question template to encourage
pauses. monitoring and reflection that can be
Are there any activities and resources
you want to add? You can ask your considered straight after their language
Review
group for ideas. learning activities both helps students
Read through my whole diary every remember what they did, and allows
Sunday evening – the daily entries If you would like to change anything
time to reflect before they come to class
and the checked words. next week, how are you going to make
and share their thoughts.
the change happen?

6 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 10
A monitoring template Time management Goal-setting

What was your weekly learning

target for this week? 5
What resources did you use?
How did you learn? Why? Resources Reflection
Write what you did step by step,
and give the reasons for what you
did.
5
Write (P, U, R or E) beside each
language learning activity you did.
Write the amount of time you spent Learning strategy Motivation
on each activity (in brackets). Prepare, Use, Review, Evaluate 10

How successful was your

learning? For this activity, the students first or individualise learning, and to take
Did you achieve your learning draw a line in each section to indicate account of individual differences. There
target for this week? their level of satisfaction in that are a variety of ways that this call is
category, and talk about their choices answered, both in lessons and away from
What progress did you make
– describing the impact these categories the classroom.
towards achieving the goals in
have had on their language learning. The activities above give an indication
your learning plan?
They then consider which categories of one way of doing this – whereby what
What did you do well? they would like to change, and what is done in lessons allows for a sharing of
What could you have done better? level of satisfaction they would like to ideas and experiences to prepare for
achieve by a specific time (we tend to use learning outside the class, with the aim of
Based on your experience this this wheel every four weeks on a course, encouraging and supporting self-directed
week, what will you do next week? so we use that as the time frame). The language learning.
Write your weekly learning targets final question for the students to In whatever way teachers choose to
for next week. consider is how they can make the support their students’ language
Why have you chosen these change happen, ie what they have to do, learning, frameworks such as PURE
targets? to improve their level of satisfaction. and PIME can be used as tools for
The categories in this particular students (and teachers) to check what
example reflect the areas that are kinds of activities are occurring, and to
It is worth reiterating that, although highlighted at my institution when consider the influence these are having
reflection suggests ‘looking back’ on working with our students, but these can on learning outcomes.
learning activities, reflection – like be adapted to what your students have Contexts and expectations may
monitoring – should also include a been focusing on. impose restrictions on what is possible
consideration of the changes to For example, confidence and anxiety but, by bringing aspects of self-directed
implement as the learning progresses. reduction may be more important for learning into the language classroom,
your students than goal-setting and the move towards the students taking
PIME: Evaluating reflection. As long as the categories more responsibility for their own
Evaluation occurs in both the PURE reflect aspects of the language learning learning becomes not only a positive
and the PIME models. The former is process, then this works well as an one, but also a practical one.
associated with checking the language evaluation activity which can feed back
learning progress, while the latter is into the planning stage of PIME.
Kato, S and Sugawara, H ‘Action-oriented
concerned with the language learning With the Evaluation, the students are language learning advising: A new
process. always asked to talk through their ideas, approach to promote independent
In other words, with PURE so that the person they talk to can ask learning’ The Journal of Kanda University
questions. This is to encourage more of International Studies 21 2009
evaluation, students are being asked to
check their language development, and considered and thoughtful responses to
Brian R Morrison,
with PIME evaluation, they are emerge during the activity. The co-author of The
checking how various factors have conversations are recorded (on mobile Autonomy Approach
phones) and the students use their for DELTA Publishing,
contributed to (or prevented) that took a CTEFLA course
language learning from being effective. recordings to write up their evaluation, in 1994 and has taught
with the audio to support and guide in a variety of countries
For this, the following material – from Macedonia to
The Wheel of Language Learning, their written evaluations. Equatorial Guinea. He
now lives in Japan and
adapted from Kato and Sugawara – has is a Learning Advisor at
worked well as a way of guiding Kanda University of
International Studies.
students to think about factors beyond Teachers are regularly called upon to
[email protected]
studying grammar and vocabulary. develop learner autonomy, to personalise

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 7

 IN THE CLASSROOM

The amazing
gapfill
T
Margaret Horrigan his article has been brewing rationale behind this very article. Let me
for a long while. In the many point out that up to now I have been
sings the praises of an times I’ve sat down with referring to a basic ‘open cloze’ gapfill,
colleagues or trainees for the such as the one below, but this will soon
enduring activity. planning of something or other, I have change.
always returned to the gapfill at some
stage of the planning session. When This article has been (1) _______ for a
asked recently to contribute a comment
about when I first started out teaching, I long while. (2) _______ the many times
mentioned the gapfill once again. So, I’ve (3) _______ down with colleagues
here it is … my take on the amazing
gapfill and why it has endured the test of for (4) _______ planning of something
time. or (5) _______, I have always returned
(6) _______ the (7) _______ gapfill at
Why gapfills?
some (8) _______ of the planning
To be honest, there are as many answers
to this question as there are lesson stages session. (9) _______ asked recently to
and gapfill types. Whether you are testing
contribute (10) _______ comment about
or revising, practising or presenting a
specific lexical set or grammar item – or when I (11) _______ started out
just randomly gapping a text for every
teaching, I (12) _______ the gapfill once
nth word – the purpose of the gapfill
clearly changes. again. (13) _______, here it is ... my take
Let’s say, for example, you taught
on the (14) _______ gapfill!
past simple irregular verbs in the
previous lesson and you need a quick
revision task. A quick gapping of
irregular past tense verbs in a previously- What to gap?
covered reading text might serve as a The easiest gapfill to create is a random
useful revision or consolidation task, open cloze one like the example above.
maybe at the start of the lesson. Which words you gap is up to you, and
If you intend to teach discourse is dictated by the aim that the task is
linkers, you could devise a gapfill to test attempting to achieve. However, you do
the learners’ knowledge of these – and need to start out with a clear rationale
this could be used in both test stages of of what you are gapping and why. The
a Test–Teach–Test lesson. above example mostly has random gaps
In reality, then, the rationales for of every fifth word, so it is testing
using gapfills in the language classroom general language knowledge. Most
are so many that this short text can’t do randomly-gapped texts are in fact tests.
them justice, and that is the best On a task design note, however, just
rationale of all for using gapfills and the imagine for a second that I did not

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 9

The amazing
It probably won’t take you long to other languages so that the learners are
realise that the task is completely potentially duped into negative L1
redundant, as it involves writing the transfers if they try to guess the answer.

gapfill words in the gaps in the order in which

they appear on the right. So, number 1
is brewing, number 2 In, number 3 sat,
However, this is not the only way to do it.

What if we took out the capital letters

in the word list? This would obviously
etc. The problem here is obviously that
indicate where the actual gaps were in be more challenging than leaving
the words need to be jumbled up ... or
the above example but, instead, removed them as capitals – the learners
do they?
the lines and numbers and presented it wouldn’t see immediately which words
What about presenting the words,
like this: go at the start of sentences. We could
still in their exact chronological order,
but coded in some way? You can code remove any double entries, like
This article has been for a long while. these words by using a symbol font like amazing in the example above – again
the many times I’ve down with Wingdings or by shuffling the letters making it much more difficult.
about so that the learners have to What if we provided the first or last
colleagues for planning of something
produce the correct spelling. You could letter of each gap to make it easier?
or, I have always returned the gapfill at also present the words in phonemic We could also add a ‘red herring’ to
some of the planning session. asked script or use numbers for letters. For avoid a ‘domino effect’ if a learner
teachers in a last minute rush, the makes an error. Without a ‘red
recently to contribute comment about Windings font is the way to go. herring’, if there are 13 gaps and 13
when I started out teaching, I the Clearly, here the purpose of each different words and a learner gets one
task is different and for the most part of these wrong, they are automatically
gapfill once again., here it is ... my take
consists of exposure to spelling of some pushed into getting two wrong.
on the gapfill! sort or recognition of phonemic words
– an excellent skill for learners to have. What if we decided to provide a list of
So, even putting the words in synonyms or antonyms of the gapped
It is the same text, but with a
chronological order has value. What words? Again, there is a clear
different task. Obviously, this one is far
about putting them out of order? difference in the level of challenge
more challenging than the first one
between an ordered list of synonyms
– which is a perfect example of the old
saying that it is not the text, but the What if? or antonyms and a jumbled list. And
obviously, an ordered list of synonyms
task, which creates the level of difficulty Here the fun begins in earnest. We are is more challenging than an ordered
for the learners. Although there are a probably all familiar with the multiple- list of misspelled words.
number of cases where that saying choice type cloze test where the learners
doesn’t hold true, it is certainly a good have to choose from four options for What if we provided definitions of the
starting point for all teachers when each gap. This is actually quite a difficult words? Lots more reading would be
planning tasks around texts – and worth type of gapfill to create. The distractors involved and this would probably be
restating here for that reason and in are generally based on knowledge of much more challenging than a list of
relation to the gapfill, where the task is
100 per cent linked to the level of
challenge. This article has been (1) __________________ for brewing

a long while. (2) __________________ the many In

How to gap?
times I’ve (3) __________________ down with sat
So far, we’ve considered open cloze tests,
but these represent only one type of colleagues for (4) __________________ planning the
gapfill. The moment we introduce the
of something or (5) __________________, I have other
actual gapped words to the task, we
have lowered the level of challenge always returned (6) __________________ the to
again. Cloze tests where the missing
words are given are found in many (7) __________________ gapfill at some amazing
formal testing tools, ranging from the (8) __________________ of the planning session. stage
Cambridge exams to TOEFL. Such tests
probably gave me my first real awareness (9) __________________ asked recently to When
of how valuable gapfills can be in
contribute (10) __________________ comment a
language teaching. What took me a
while to appreciate fully, however, was about when I (11) __________________ started out first
the importance of how these words
teaching, I (12) __________________ the gapfill mentioned
appear around the gapfill. Huge
differences in the level of challenge can once again. (13) __________________, here it is ... So
be caused by the actual formatting of
the gapfill. Consider for a moment my take on the (14) __________________ gapfill! amazing
something as basic as the type opposite:

10 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 1 Gapfills
How do you use them in class?
What do you (dis)like about them?

3 This article has been (1) ________________ for a long while. 4

KEY (2) ________________ the many times I’ve (3) ________________

1 / bru*âÑ / first
down with colleagues for (4) ________________ planning of
2 / ân / in
something or (5) ________________, I have always returned
3 / sæt / stage
4 hte (6) ________________ the (7) ________________ gapfill at some when
5 reoth (8) ________________ of the planning session. (9) ________________ a
6 / tu* / mentioned
asked recently to contribute (10) ________________ comment
7 incredible sat
about when I (11) ________________ started out teaching, I
8 tasge brewing
9 hnew (12) ________________ the gapfill once again. (13) ________________, to
10 / eâ / here it is ... my take on the (14) ________________ gapfill! amazing
11 rsift so
12 said the
13 Therefore other
14 incredible

1 Not the last 8 To leave something, usually a liquid, to develop for a long time
2 The opposite of ‘out’ 9 The opposite of ‘from’
3 A component of a lesson procedure 10 A synonym for ‘incredible’
4 The question word we use to ask about dates 11 A very informal ‘therefore’
5 The indefinite article 12 The definite article
6 The past of ‘to mention’ 13 To refer to something or someone briefly
7 The opposite of ‘stood’

jumbled words. Again, the list of variable in the creation of gapfills. Look dictate it to the class instead. You
definitions could be presented in order back at the example gapfills in this could do this yourself, or get the
or jumbled, and this would greatly article and consider the section with the learners to mill around the room
affect the level of difficulty. list of words. spelling individual words to each
other.
What if instead of using words, you You could fold this back so that only
used pictures? This is great for the gapfill can be seen, and instruct You could divide the list into two or
younger learners. For particular gaps, the learners to unfold it only in order three, giving different words to
you could even consider using sounds; to check their work or reduce the level different learners, and then get them
these could be embedded into the gaps of difficulty. to define and guess the words in pairs
for learners working on computers. or threes.
You could alter the position of the list
and have it on the left or the right, at You could display the words on the
How to present it? the top or bottom or on the reverse walls, on an interactive whiteboard or
However, let’s move beyond the actual side of the gapfill. Alternatively, you overhead projector, perhaps in
gaps and consider what our handout or could not have the list of words on the phonemic script. Any number of
material could look like – this is also a handout at all, and get someone to options are clearly possible.

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 11

The amazing
this: I’ll leave you to experiment. I would, may not go down well in a business
however, like to point out that the various environment. Cute pictures indicating
tasks can be cut out and delivered to gapped words will certainly work with

gapfill learners as needed during a lesson. The

key in this particular example becomes a
task, and gives me an opportunity to point
children, but not with legal English
students. The more you know about your
classes, the more you can meet their
out that different gapfills can, of course, needs and interests in the your lessons.
If you start out with the list of words, be designed for individual paragraphs or
you could get the learners to predict single sections of texts so that there is a
the content of the text based solely on gradual increase of challenge level.
this list. Obviously, the success of this Be realistic, though – don’t expect On a final note, don’t be afraid to
will depend on the words you have your learners to cheer when they see a experiment, but don’t have a gapfill in
gapped – a list of prepositions is not multitude of different types of gapfills every single lesson either … every
indicative of likely content, whereas a stretched over three pages. However, if second one perhaps!
list of nouns is far more revealing. But you are working from a single gapfill
why not have a couple of schemata- type on one sheet of paper, as I have Derwing, T and Munro, M ‘Second
activating questions at the top of the been doing in the examples here, you language accent and pronunciation
handout as in the example on page 11? should always start from the most teaching: a research-based approach’
challenging task when asking your TESOL Quarterly 39 2005
There are four possible positions for
the actual gapped words, with the text learners to complete texts, and design Kenworthy, J Teaching English
your handouts accordingly, as it is Pronunciation Longman 1987
in the centre. These are numbered on
the example: 1 top, 2 bottom, 3 left and impossible to increase the challenge level Walker, R ‘International intelligibility’
once you’ve started off very low. English Teaching Professional 21 2001
4 right. (Note: in the example, position
1 has questions rather than the gapped
words.) We could, therefore, be very The learners Margaret Horrigan is a
DELTA, CELTA and
ecological indeed and have a number CELTYL trainer and
Your learners are the most important
of tasks on one sheet. The handout assessor, and a teacher
variable in the language classroom, so of EAP courses at the
might look something like the LUISS University in
when designing gapfills, it is fundamental
example shown when it is unfolded. Rome, Italy. She holds an
to consider your audience. Whatever type MA in applied linguistics
As follow-up tasks, the list of words
you use, keep content, task and cultural and is currently the head
(shown in position 4) could later be of teacher training at
appropriacy in mind. A text about International House
matched to definitions (position 2) or
learning the guitar might be interesting Rome.
pictures or phonemic script.
for some but not for others – worse still,
[email protected]
I won’t go into the origami of how to fold a text about a Hollywood starlet’s antics

This is your magazine.

We want to hear from you!

IT WORKS IN PRACTICE
Welcome to the
Do you have ideas you’d like to share
with colleagues around the world?

ETp website! Tips, techniques and activities;

simple or sophisticated; well-tried
As a subscriber to ETp, you have full access to our website. or innovative; something that has
worked well for you? All published
Browse through our archive of Download our guidelines for contributions receive a prize!
downloadable articles from previous contributors and think about the Write to us or email:
issues – ideal for inspiration or research. article that you could write for the [email protected]
magazine.
Add your opinions to ongoing
discussions and comment on articles
that you have read.
Renew your subscription online
and make sure you don’t miss a
TALKBACK!
single issue. Do you have something to say about
Visit our bookshop for
an article in the current issue of ETp?
recommendations – and discounts.
This is your magazine and we would
Watch videos and read blogs really like to hear from you.
by award-winning blogger Write to us or email:
Chia Suan Chong. [email protected]

12 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 IN THE CLASSROOM

The grammar
shock
T
Anna Kamont looks to eaching grammar often proves (both directly and indirectly), regardless
a daunting task, especially of whether practitioners or policymakers
avoid anxiety and alienation when a new grammar structure are favourable to it or not.
differs significantly from that in
when introducing unknown the students’ L1 – or doesn’t exist at all in The ‘lenses’ technique
their L1. Students are often left with the
structures. feeling that this ‘foreign’ grammatical Aiming to counter linguistic alienation
construct is some kind of peculiarity; it and anxiety and, at the same time,
doesn’t correspond to any familiar convinced that genuine understanding of
concepts, and seems useless from the a structure translates into productive and
perspective of effective communication. effective usage, I have tried to equip my
When someone who visits or emigrates students with the ‘lenses’ of a native
to a different country feels disoriented speaker, through which they can see the
by the unfamiliar way of life, we call the reality that a grammatical structure
experience culture shock. Students may reflects. In other words, instead of
experience the same disorientation on a following up the introduction of a new
linguistic level when faced with new
grammatical structures. This ‘grammar
shock’ doesn’t just affect students at the Many students may
beginning of the language learning question the usefulness
experience; it may also happen to those
who have already progressed beyond of a new grammatical
elementary level, and yet still seek a structure, claiming that
one-to-one match between newly
presented forms and their own language. their native language
Many students may question the
usefulness of a new grammatical
seems to function
structure, claiming that their native perfectly well without it
language seems to function perfectly well,
and convey the same message equally
effectively, without it. Good examples are structure with a typical controlled-practice
the complex system of English tenses activity, where the input is an exercise with
(particularly the perfect aspect), modal the new grammatical structure missing
verbs which take on different forms (a gapfill, sentences to be completed,
depending on their function (eg the choosing the right answer out of a set of
modal verb must, with its divergent past options, etc) and the expected output takes
forms had to or must + have + past the form of an utterance with the missing
participle) and English articles. information inserted according to the L2
Some might argue that this state of rules, I offer an intermediary stage that
affairs is the result of applying ineffective involves literally translating the message
learning strategies (using L1 to acquire from the L2 grammatical structures into
L2), yet more and more people claim, as L1 reality, and only then revealing the
Hugh Dellar does, that the learners’ L1 grammatical tools needed to express this
will always be a part of L2 acquisition message. I call this the ‘lenses’ technique.

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 13

The grammar
by the use of a given article. In this way, Having presented the students with
I hoped to promote a deeper this version of the text, I explained that
understanding of articles as message the text attempted to represent literally

shock conveyors and, consequently, to

diminish the ‘grammar shock’.
what a native speaker of English had in
mind when producing each capitalised
noun with an appropriate article. I read
The aim is to reveal the information
which is encoded in a given grammar Stage 1 the text aloud to emphasise the length
of the lexical ‘definitions’ which I had
point; in other words, to try to provide a I chose a short text from a professional used instead of the original articles.
lexical definition of a grammatical form magazine whose content was relevant
and prove that, as Scott Thornbury says, for my students (in-training teachers).
‘grammar adds meaning’ and ‘reflects This was to ensure that the language Stage 2
the world which we experience’. The reflected the subject matter they were Next, I asked my students to analyse the
technique is designed to show how required to read or produce in their text and try to convey the same message
applying a particular grammar structure studies. in a more compact manner, using
reduces the need for lexical descriptors Instead of showing them the original articles (definite, indefinite and zero),
to convey the intended meaning, and text, with its combinations of nouns and together with the appropriate forms of
thus makes language more compact and articles, I first provided them with a the capitalised nouns. To enable a more
communication more efficient. The descriptive definition of the message focused approach to the task and avoid
practical application of the technique, conveyed by each article (in blue) and the distraction of the surrounding text,
based on a lesson devoted to English simultaneously capitalised the nouns, to we used PowerPoint to present the
articles, is presented below. emphasise their functions as labels for phrases one by one. Thus, the students
given concepts, not the concepts analysed each noun phrase line by line
The technique in action themselves. This text is shown below: and, keeping in mind the target audience
(teachers) and the register (formal), they
This example comes from a lesson with
People seem to be reading less and tried to find the most appropriate forms.
Polish university students at CEFR level
B2 to C1. The aim of the lesson was to less these days. Generally speaking People seem to be reading less and less
extend the students’ knowledge of all SCREENS, whether on a tool for these days. Generally speaking all
English articles and help them to use distance communication which is SCREENS,
them successfully in their writing. Polish labelled MOBILE PHONE, a glass THE SCREEN
lacks an article system, so using them part of a computer which can be whether on a tool for distance
correctly poses a real challenge. The referred to as DESKTOP or a device communication which is labelled
students seem to regard them as a which people use to watch television MOBILE PHONE,
linguistic ‘nuisance’, which they see as which is called TELEVISION SET A MOBILE PHONE
redundant (their own language conveys seems to have replaced PRINTED a glass part of a computer which can be
meaning just as effectively without PAGES in general. referred to as DESKTOP or
articles), yet they are permanently When people aren’t watching a thing A DESKTOP
reminded of their existence by the fact which you can find on many different a device which people use to watch
that they keep reappearing in red in types of electronic devices which television which is called TELEVISION SET
their corrected essays. people call SCREEN, they are A TELEVISION
A cycle of traditional approaches listening to MUSIC in general on their seems to have replaced PRINTED
– such as filling gaps with appropriate headphones. PAGES in general.
articles, crossing out unnecessary THE PRINTED PAGE
Is this true? If it is, what is this special
articles or choosing the correct article When people aren’t watching a thing
EFFECT that the above-mentioned
option – proved unsuccessful. The which you can find on many different
fact (ie reading printed pages less
students did remember the most types of electronic devices which people
and less) has on language learners?
‘bookish’ examples, such as using the call SCREEN,
with certain geographical names and Jennifer Schumm and Elisabeth A SCREEN
locations or ‘zero article’ before titles Poelzleitner explore just one out of they are listening to MUSIC in general
with proper names, but they missed the many WAYS that possibly exist to on their headphones.
most crucial role of articles: their foster reading in young adult learners MUSIC
function in discourse. They certainly using culturally relevant books for Is this true? If it is, what is this special
didn’t perceive articles as tools of native speakers. EFFECT that the above mentioned fact
communication between a speaker or In today’s increasingly globalised (ie reading printed pages less and less)
writer and the audience. As a result, world, they see a specific NEED out has on language learners?
they kept making mistakes with articles of many needs of today’s world, ie THE EFFECT
when faced with any task involving just the one that has the function Jennifer Schumm and Elisabeth
longer written or spoken production. subsequently described – to develop Poelzleitner explore just one out of many
I tried, therefore, to provide my learners’ intercultural awareness and WAYS that possibly exist to foster reading
students with an insight into a native competence while, hopefully, in young adult learners using culturally
speaker’s grammatical reality, and to improving their language skills. relevant books for native speakers.
illustrate what a native user understands A WAY

14 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

In today’s increasingly globalised world,
they see a specific NEED out of many Text in Stage 1 Text in Stage 3
needs of today’s world, ie just the one
that has the function subsequently People seem to be reading less and People seem to be reading less and
described – to develop learners’ less these days. Generally speaking all less these days. The screen, whether
intercultural awareness and competence SCREENS, whether on a tool for on a mobile phone, a desktop or a
while, hopefully, improving their distance communication which is television seems to have replaced the
language skills. labelled MOBILE PHONE, a glass part printed page.
THE NEED of a computer which can be referred to
When people aren’t watching a screen,
as DESKTOP or a device which people
they are listening to music on their
use to watch television which is called
Stage 3 TELEVISION SET seems to have
headphones.

The whole cycle closed with the replaced PRINTED PAGES in general. Is this true? If it is, what is the effect on
presentation of a slide with the original language learners?
When people aren’t watching a thing
extract which, thanks to the use of Jennifer Schumm and Elisabeth
which you can find on many different
articles, was much shorter and, Poelzleitner explore a way to foster
types of electronic devices which
therefore, far more readable. The strong reading in young adult learners using
people call SCREEN, they are listening
contrast between the first version and culturally relevant books for native
to MUSIC in general on their
the final version left the students speakers.
headphones.
amazed at how relevant and meaningful
articles actually are. Is this true? If it is, what is this special In today’s increasingly globalised
An overwhelming majority of the EFFECT that the above-mentioned fact world, they see the need to develop
students said they found this technique (ie reading printed pages less and less) learners’ intercultural awareness and
illuminating. They acknowledged that, has on language learners? competence while, hopefully,
although they had practised articles improving their language skills.
Jennifer Schumm and Elisabeth
before, they had never thought of them
Poelzleitner explore just one out of
as being loaded with so much meaning.
many WAYS that possibly exist to
It was only by being introduced to the
foster reading in young adult learners
native speaker’s mental picture of article
using culturally relevant books for
usage that they gained an insight into
native speakers.
the nature of the English system.
In today’s increasingly globalised
Following up the world, they see a specific NEED out of
many needs of today’s world, ie just
technique the one that has the function
Awareness-raising should always be subsequently described – to develop
followed by activities which facilitate the learners’ intercultural awareness and
transfer of formal knowledge to the competence while, hopefully,
development of productive skills. For improving their language skills.
the lesson described above, I chose two
activities, both of which contributed to
encounter with English articles, and Dellar, H ‘Translation: tackling the taboo’
an improvement in the students’
contributed to a significant boost in the TESOL Madrid 2012
performance. The first featured a text
students’ comprehension and Francis, D ‘Editorial’ Modern English
with all the noun phrases translated into
appreciation of their function. Teacher 22 (1) 2013
Polish (which, as mentioned above, has
no articles). The students were asked to Thornbury, S How to Teach Grammar
Pearson Education 1999
translate these into English, adding
articles where appropriate. This was The full effectiveness of the lenses
followed by a written task, which technique in terms of effective future Anna Kamont is a
teacher trainer and an
involved making a critical response to a production, and against the backdrop of EFL teacher, working
video extract shown in class. The other techniques, is yet to be researched. with adult learners. She
is a reviewer for The
students were told to summarise the Grammatical structures, especially at Journal of Teaching
content of the video, presenting their higher levels, seem too complex to be fully English with Technology.
She has published
viewpoints on the topic. Doing this grasped by just looking at their lexical articles on ELT, mainly
provided each student with a text sample meaning in a sample of a text. However, on the role of memory in
language learning,
which they could then work on to make I do believe that equipping students with technology in ELT and
a conscious choice of articles (definite, ‘lenses’ which give them a native speaker’s improving accuracy.
indefinite, zero), underline all the perception contributes to heightened [email protected]
examples they had used and say why awareness and comprehension of target
they had opted for each one. Both these structures and, as such, invites reflection,
tasks appeared to minimalise the which in the short or long term can lead
‘grammar shock’ experienced by an to more accurate production.

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 15

Heat up
IN THE CLASSROOM

your
warmers
Y
Ever Malvesi gets his ou walk into the classroom, words they have written, see how many
greet your students and ask different words they were able to come
students fired up and ready them how their weekend was. up with, and perhaps practise the
They briefly tell you their pronunciation of these words.
for the lesson ahead. stories. After this quick welcome-to-class
To make the activity go even further,
moment, your lesson is on, but have you
have the students take turns to produce
planned a proper warm-up activity?
a sentence using a word from the board.
The first minutes of your lesson are
To add some fun, get them to choose
precious. This is the time when students
the words by throwing a soft ball at
are usually much more eager to learn
the board. Each student has to make a
and willing to practise their English
sentence using the word they hit.
skills. Teachers need to take advantage
of the moment to reinforce some Use the words to play ‘Bingo’. Get
previously-taught material and make it each student to draw a bingo card
stay in the students’ memories for as with three rows and three columns
long as possible. and write one word from the board in
With this in mind, how about each square. You call out the words in
rethinking the way you start your random order, and the first student to
classes? Here are some ideas. cross out three words in a line shouts:
‘Bingo!’ You can add a level of
challenge by getting the winner to
Using the board produce sentences using the words
Whether it be a chalkboard or a they have crossed out.
whiteboard, the board is a vital teacher’s
aid. And it can be used to start up a ‘Slap’ is a popular game, particularly
lesson with practically no preparation. with young learners. Once the words
are written on the board, you give a
You can begin by getting your students definition of one of them, or say what
to write up vocabulary from a it is used for or just mime the word for
previous lesson. This can be done as a them to guess. The students compete
competition. Split the class into two or to be the first to run to the board and
three groups, set a time limit, and ask ‘slap’ the correct word. The winning
them to write as many words as they student then takes your place, miming
can remember in a given category. or giving a definition of another word
When the time is up, count how many for the others to guess.

16 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 If the range of vocabulary you have to You can also create slips with whole make it more communicative, you can
review is not very wide or you don’t sentences containing one or two ask related questions or get the other
have much time available, playing missing words. The students have to students to ask questions.
‘Hangman’ is easy, fast and fun. It can use their knowledge and imagination
If music is not available, ask the
help students remember vocabulary to come up with words which fit and
students to pass the potato around
items and can also work as a lead-in make a logical sentence.
and each time they receive it, they
for the activity that follows in your
If time allows, get the students to have to say a vocabulary item in the
lesson plan.
make their own slips. This can work chosen category. Any student who
Play a sentence-building game. Start as a competition. Each team writes a repeats a word or fails to say one in a
with quite a difficult word. One at a sentence on a slip, cuts it into separate given time-limit is out of the game.
time, the students have to add verbs, words and gives it to another team to
A fun adaptation is to have a rule that
nouns, pronouns, modifiers, adverbs, reassemble. In this activity, you can
when the music stops, the students
etc to make a logical and monitor the students’ performance
have no more than two seconds to say
grammatically correct sentence. while they are writing the sentences and
a word or they ‘explode’. There is no
also when they are reassembling them.
thinking time. Children especially love
Using cards, slips Large flashcards can easily be seen by all to say ‘Kaboom!’ and this makes the
and flashcards the students in a classroom. game more lively and more exciting.
Cards, slips and flashcards require some You can write or print cues on them, Objects such as a spoon, a stick, a flute,
preparation. However, they can come in such as ‘Student A / volleyball / every a brush or a teddy bear can be used to
handy when you want to do some revision, Monday?’ to prompt the question practise and reinforce grammar
and they also cater to visual learners. ‘Does Student A play volleyball every structures.
Picture cards can trigger the students’ Monday?’ This question can be asked
memories of topics, words and contexts. Give an object to a student who then
to other students – and you have a
The cards can be any size you like, has to mime an action using it. For
mini-exchange to begin your lesson.
depending on the size of your classroom instance, a spoon could be used to
and the number of learners you want to Flashcards can contain scrambled brush hair, to turn off the TV, to play
show them to. You can make them with words which the students have to the guitar, and so on. The other
pictures from magazines or print them reorganise to form a sentence. students produce a sentence that
out from a website. corresponds to the mime.
You can also put a definition on the
The simplest activity is to show the front and the corresponding word on To get everybody participating, the
students a picture and get them to tell the back. student who is miming can actually
you what it is. The great thing about say what they are using the object for,
cards is that you can use them any Using simple and the others then say what the
object is. For example, one student
number of times to revise different multi-purpose props says: ‘I’m taking this object because I
teaching points. For example, if you
A range of objects can be turned into want to turn on the TV’ and the others
show the class a picture of a man
wonderful teaching materials. Soft and say: ‘It’s a remote control!’
holding a glass of water, you can ask:
hard balls, dice, a spoon, a stick, a piece
What’s the man doing? or What’s he As an extension, have several objects
of fabric, a stuffed animal and almost
going to do? You can say: This is Joe at and ask the students to say what they
anything else you can think of have the
8 pm last night. What was he doing? use them for and to make up a story
potential to make the beginning of your
and so on. using them. This takes longer, but it is
lesson more lively and help you activate
Slips of paper can be used to focus on amusing and gives you an opportunity
your students’ prior knowledge.
form. They are usually smaller than to monitor their production. Make
‘Hot potato’ is another classic activity this into a warm-up activity by telling
picture cards, and you will probably
that brings life into the classroom. them that their stories must contain
need a large flat surface to spread them
The students rely on their memories the elements you wish to emphasise in
out. They also require some preparation
to stay in the game and enjoy the thrill the lesson.
time and they are easily damaged, so, if
of not being caught with the ‘potato’
your budget allows, printing them on
card or laminating them will make them
in their hands. The potato can be any Using authentic
object that can be thrown without
last much longer.
hurting the students or breaking materials
You can make slips with words that anything. Choose a category, and tell Finding authentic materials is not
form a sentence. Put the students in the students what it is. They then pass always easy for busy teachers. However,
groups and get them to put the slips in the potato around while you play I have learnt that you just have to keep
order. Once a group has made the some music. Keep your eyes closed your eyes open! There are dozens of
sentence, they should shout ‘Stop!’ while the potato is being passed good examples of language that can be
and everybody has to stop what they around and then at some point pause used in our classes, but sometimes a
are doing. You can get another group the music. The person who is holding potentially more meaningful lesson
to check whether the sentence is the potato has to say the name of doesn’t happen, because we didn’t keep
correct or not. something in the chosen category. To our eyes open!

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 17

Heat up
Nothing beats the use of authentic descriptions. For example, if they have
materials that students are really to define apple, they cannot use fruit,
familiar with. Find out what books they round, red or Adam. This is a really

your are reading at the moment and if they

like any particular author or series. Then
good exercise for making them think
creatively and for expanding their

warmers
try to come up with material using this vocabulary.
information. If you have a class in which
Cards with ‘hot topics’ are also
most students have read a certain book,
popular. Basically, these are used for a
select some passages from this book
The internet is the biggest source of variety of ask-and-answer activities.
which contain the language you want to
information available to many teachers. You can increase the benefits by
focus on and get them to notice how it is
Sometimes, accounts of current events demanding that students give their
used. Students are often more engaged
can be used to substitute reading passages answers using particular structures or
when they are seen as the ‘experts’.
from our regular teaching materials. (Of vocabulary items, thus revising
course, we need to pay attention to the whatever you want to. One idea,
level of the text and the level of our
Using games which focuses on revising vocabulary,
students, to avoid frustration.) Board and card games can be the source is to have a card with a question, plus
For example, once, I was supposed of lots of fun. If properly used and two or three words the person
to teach the simple past passive, and the linked to something you want to focus answering the question doesn’t see
topic of the unit was natural disasters. In on in the class, they may be the start, the but must somehow be persuaded to
the same week, a super-storm hit the east lead-in and the development of your use in their answer. For example, a
coast of the United States. I used the lesson. card might have the question ‘Is it OK
situation to show authentic texts to my if a really hungry person shoplifts a
A simple generic board can be just a loaf of bread?’ and the words illegal,
students. I did use the simpler text from
table with squares on a sheet of paper. dishonest and acceptable. The
the book, but also had my students find
Students throw dice and move from conversation continues until the
examples of the target grammar point in
one square to another until they reach person answering the question says
the end. If you have time and drawing one of these words. The student who
talent, the board can be made more
One reason for using elaborate with different paths, traps
asks the question and guides the
conversation has to be resourceful in
a warmer is to recycle and advantages – a good example is a leading the other student to use one
‘Snakes and ladders’ board. This
something your students certainly adds more fun to the game.
of the words.

have seen in previous You could put symbols, such as a star,

Once you have played some of the
games described above two or three
lessons, so having a on some of the squares of your board. times, you can get the students to
Every time a student lands on a star, create their own cards using the
text in which they can they have to say a word, a sentence, or vocabulary they have learnt. By doing
something related to the lesson topic.
do that is essential this, you save yourself some
One variation is to prepare a set of preparation time and you can check
cards beforehand. Each card has a their progress while they produce the
my authentic handouts. To their surprise, question, a definition, a sentence to be game, as well as when they are playing
they were able to find many examples completed with a missing word, or it. Young learners in particular enjoy
and that made the lesson much more any other task you like. playing memory games which they
meaningful: they saw that what I was have made themselves. You can get
teaching took place in real life. To make the game more exciting, set a them to write a word on one card and
Sometimes, you may not like a text time limit. The students will do their draw a picture on another. The game
in the material you are using and feel best to reach the finish before the time is to match them up. The cards can
that it could be substituted. Once again, runs out. then be used by other classes, too.
keep your eyes open! Use a search
‘Scrabble’ is a popular game among
engine and you will find numerous
native speakers. However, it can be Using technology
websites on any topic. It just takes time
quite difficult. One way to make it Technology is all around us. Many
and patience to find a text you like and
easier is to pre-select the tiles the students come to class with smartphones
that you believe your students will profit
students use, so that they are almost and MP3 players, all equipped with
from. One reason for using a warmer is
forced to form the words you want cameras, voice recorders and access to
to recycle something your students have
them to. The game is still fun and the the internet. Why not take advantage of
seen in previous lessons, so having a text
vocabulary is revisited. this material, instead of prohibiting it?
in which they can do that is essential.
If possible, take your students to a Intermediate and higher-level students Students will welcome the opportunity
computer room and ask them to find a can play ‘Taboo’. They have to give a to use their devices in class.
web page on a particular topic which definition of a particular word for Get your students to walk around the
contains examples of the language you their team to guess what it is, but are school and take pictures on their
want them to focus on. forbidden to use certain items in their phones of people doing different

18 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 activities. (Setting a time limit is until they guess the verb. This can
important so you don’t ‘lose’ them.) then be done in pairs, giving you the
When they get back to the classroom, chance to monitor their performance.
ask them questions about the pictures.
To practise the present continuous, ask:
‘What is this person doing?’ For the past
Games in general play an important part
continuous, ask: ‘What was this person
in getting students to socialise. They are This is your magazine.
doing?’ If there aren’t many people
motivating and entertaining; they help
available to photograph, the students
the students sustain the effort of learning; We want to hear from you!
can take pictures of each other
they increase cooperation and lower
pretending to do various activities.
anxiety; and they can make learning
Instead of taking photos, ask the more memorable. However, we sometimes
students to make a 30-second video of need to be careful. Some students are IT WORKS IN PRACTICE
themselves performing as many more fiercely competitive than others, so Do you have ideas you’d like to share
different actions as they can and instead of having competitive games, it is with colleagues around the world?
saying what they are doing. often a good idea to have cooperative
Tips, techniques and activities;
games in which everyone is contributing
Ask the students to give you a list of simple or sophisticated; well-tried
towards achieving a common goal. This
their favourite songs. Choose one you or innovative; something that has
way, you avoid chaos and the potential
can exploit for language work, and worked well for you? All published
for disappointed students. On the other
ask them to put it on their MP3 contributions receive a prize!
players and bring it to class. Make Write to us or email:
copies of the lyrics and assign a task Games help the [email protected]
while they are listening to the song.
For example, get them to circle all the students sustain the
TALKBACK!
verbs in the past tense.
effort of learning; they
Using nothing at all increase cooperation Do you have something to say about
Busy teachers don’t always have the time, and lower anxiety; and an article in the current issue of ETp?
resources or money to create their own This is your magazine and we would
materials. So, how about using nothing?
they can make learning really like to hear from you.

Say a word, and ask a student to form

more memorable Write to us or email:

a sentence with it, using at least seven [email protected]

other words. Then get the students to hand, having a competitive game from
challenge each other by saying words
that their partners have to use in
time to time won’t hurt, and your
students may benefit from it. It may show
Writing for ETp
sentences. them that sometimes they may have to Would you like to write for ETp? We are
think faster, think more creatively or always interested in new writers and
Give a definition, and ask the students
become more organised. Knowledge of fresh ideas. For guidelines and advice,
to tell you what the word is. Then give
your students is key in deciding what is write to us or email:
them a list of definitions and get them
to do this in pairs. most appropriate. [email protected]
It is extremely important to begin
Play the ‘sentence game’ described your lessons with a proper, fun,
above, but don’t use the board. Doing meaningful warm-up activity. A good It really worked
it orally is a greater challenge because
the students have to remember what
warmer will set the mood of your
lesson, give the students a chance to
for me!
has gone before in order to stay in the experience success in using language Did you get inspired by something
game. For example, you say ‘I like’, a they have already learnt and will fire you read in ETp? Did you do
student then says ‘I like tomatoes’, the your students up before your next lesson something similiar with your students?
next student says ‘I like fresh tomatoes’ actually begins. Did it really work in practice?
and so on. Do share it with us ...
Ever Malvesi has been
To practise question formation and a teacher since 1998. [email protected]
He has taught all age
revise verbs, play ‘Coffee pot’. Think groups but focuses on
of an action verb and get the students young learners. He has
a degree in languages English Teaching professional
to ask yes/no questions to discover from University of São Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd,
what it is, using the words coffee pot in Paulo, Brazil, the TKT
Rayford House, School Road,
and ICELT.
place of the target verb. For example: Hove BN3 5HX, UK
Do you coffee pot every day? Do you Fax: +44 (0)1273 227308
wear special clothes to coffee pot? Do Email: [email protected]
you coffee pot in water? and so on, [email protected]

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 19

Sounds fun!
P R O N U N C I AT I O N

W
Robin Walker considers hen my Spanish niece was same way that my niece noticed my
very small, she would say English ‘ch’. This is the ideal situation,
pronunciation for young Buenas noches (Good because it is then the children’s
night) to us all on her awareness of how English feels/sounds
learners a matter of way to bed. We would all reply, but she’d different that drives any work you do in
giggle when I wished her good night that area. In his very holistic approach
importance. because there was a small difference in the to working on the ‘sound’ of English,
way I made the /tÜ / sound of noches and for example, Clement Laroy suggests
the way everyone else did. At the age of that young learners be invited to draw
three, Alba’s ‘innocent’ ears were perfectly what English sounds like to them. This
equipped to detect that difference. is a good way of getting them to think
Young learners bring many in general terms about what is ‘strange’
advantages to the English language about English. One child, for example,
classroom, not the least of which is the drew her own name several times, and a
awareness that English sounds different
from their mother tongue. Moreover,
they are still young enough not to be Young learners bring
embarrassed about ‘sounding’ English, many advantages to
unlike many adolescents and adults. So
without a doubt, this is a golden age for the English classroom,
pronunciation work. not the least of which
However, what should the
pronunciation focus be with young is the awareness that
learners, what techniques and activities
can we use, and should we teach
English sounds different
pronunciation if we don’t have a good from their mother tongue
English accent ourselves? These are the
kinds of questions teachers of young
learners have asked me in training picture of a boy and a girl. The pictures
sessions around Spain and in other may not have any obvious special
countries. Let’s try to answer them. relationship with English, but drawing
them allows young learners to express
positive and negative attitudes towards
What should I focus on? the new language.
With so much to do in the YL English When an important feature of
class, it is important to focus on what English doesn’t come up naturally in
matters. In ETp Issue 91, I offered class, the teacher has to raise the learners’
guidance about what matters for each of awareness of it. For example, it is easy
three different goals (sounding like a to demonstrate the aspiration that
native speaker, being comfortably accompanies the /p/, /t / and /k/ sounds
intelligible to native-speaker listeners in words like pen, two or call by holding
and being internationally intelligible). a small piece of paper in front of your
But it is also important to have a clear lips as you model each word. This allows
idea about what is different between learners to ‘see’ the aspiration.
your learners’ mother-tongue Similarly, if you need to introduce the
pronunciation and the pronunciation of idea of word stress, you can deliberately
English. These differences can offer us a say the names of children in the group
good guide as to what to focus on. with the wrong stress. Calling a student
Some of these differences might pauLA instead of PAUla, or steFANo
come up naturally in class in much the instead of STEfano, could bring about a

20 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

number of reactions. The children might basketball (an activity I learnt from
laugh at your strange pronunciation, or Getting children Agnieska Otwinowska, a teacher, trainer
they might try to correct you. Paula and and materials writer from Poland). For
Stefano might fail to recognise their to draw objects that this game, the teacher puts two boxes on
names. Whatever the reaction, your are the focus of the floor. Each box is labelled in some
‘mistake’ gives you the chance to begin way, preferably with a guide picture or
to explore word stress in English, and is pronunciation work is word for the target sound. If your
a memorable reference point if you want learners find it hard to hear the difference
to return to it in the future.
one way of appealing between /p/ and /f/, for example, one box
to visual learners would be labelled pan and the other fan
What activities should (IPA symbols are best avoided in YL
pronunciation classes). The children have
I focus on? if this is significantly different from the paper balls and work in teams. They
Howard Gardner’s work on multiple rhythm of their mother tongue. The throw the paper balls into the box that
intelligences has had a lasting impact on performing of the actions in ‘Head, corresponds to the sound they hear in
teaching everywhere, but would seem to shoulders, knees and toes’, for example, the words that the teacher pronounces.
have little place in teaching pronunciation is not just reinforcing new vocabulary. It In general, it is not a good idea to
since, on the surface, pronunciation is is also establishing the rhythm of work on individual sounds. Instead, we
about sound, and so is most closely English – with its alternating strong and should try to work on two or three
related to musical intelligence. However, weak syllables – in the minds of the sounds in contrast, as with classroom
with young learners it is important to children as they perform the actions and basketball. The ‘feel’ and ‘shape’ of a
use activities that stimulate other sing at the same time.
intelligences, too. One of the key components of the
Getting children to draw objects that rhythm of English, of course, is the weak It is important that
are the focus of pronunciation work is
one way of appealing to visual learners.
sound schwa /P /. However, because the young learners hear
schwa never occurs in a stressed syllable,
If we are working on a sound like /Ü / as it would be a mistake to focus on it when target sounds as part
in ship, cushion or fish, then we can get working with songs, chants or raps.
the children to draw and colour the Some young learners will use the schwa
of words, and as part
different objects. We can then put the naturally because it is a sound in their of words that are useful
drawings into a box in a suitable place in mother tongue. But even for learners who
the classroom and, as the term goes on, don’t naturally produce the schwa, it is to them and that they
add new drawings for new words with the
/Ü/ sound. From time to time, the teacher
more important to focus on the stressed will use regularly
syllables in the song or chant, and to get
(or the children) can go to the box and the children to stress the beat successfully,
pull out a random selection of pictures than to become obsessed with a perfect sound is usually easier to perceive if it is
and practise saying the /Ü / words. schwa in the weak syllables. met in the company of other sounds.
Colour is another obvious way of Word stress is another feature of Nor is it good to spend too much time
appealing to visual learners, and there English that can be dealt with working on sounds removed from the
are entire courses that relate each sound kinaesthetically. For a long time now, context of the words they are found in.
of English to a different colour. For American pronunciation expert Judy In natural speech, sounds change to fit in
young learners, it is enough to have a set Gilbert has recommended using elastic with the sounds around them, and so it is
colour for each of the sounds that they bands to get learners to ‘feel’ the stress important that young learners hear target
find difficult and that you need to focus pattern of a word. Actions such a clapping sounds as part of words, and as part of
on. If they find it hard to differentiate or stamping their feet will also make stress words that are useful to them and that
between the vowels in feel / i* / and fill /â /, more tangible. Alternatively, you could try they will use regularly. We should use
for example, then relating / i* / to green putting the children into pairs and threes pronunciation to recycle vocabulary,
and /â/ to pink can help. The teacher can and invite them to ‘do’ a word by standing rather than to introduce new words.
then refer to sea or eat as ‘green words’, or squatting to represent stressed or A question I often get asked is about
and children or it as ‘pink words’, and as unstressed syllables. So football, balloon whether it is better to work with
before, the children can make class and computer would be: coursebooks open or closed. With very
collections of green words and pink young learners, who may still be
words. learning to read in their mother tongue,
Kinaesthetic learners are easily meeting words in their written form in
catered for when working on English can be confusing, because of the
pronunciation because of the huge FOOTball baLLOON comPUter
complex and often irregular
amount of rhythmic material used in Once a class gets used to the stand/ relationships between English spelling
teaching young learners. Nursery rhymes, squat representations, different groups and English pronunciation. But sooner
songs and chants are basic tools for could compete with each other to listen or later, if we want our young learners
teaching English at primary level, and and ‘do’ the words as fast as possible. to read well in English, they need to be
they are also good for helping children to A very kinaesthetic activity for able to deal with both the regularities
acquire the rhythm of English, especially working on sounds is classroom and the irregularities. As I pointed out

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 21

 Sounds fun!
mean that YL teachers should become provided that they, too, have seen that
obsessed with native-speakerness as their own ‘regional accent’ is also widely
their goal. It’s true that the CDs that understood when they use English to
accompany primary English talk to people from other countries. The
in ETp Issue 90, poor pronunciation is coursebooks always use a standard long-term effect of not doing any
behind a lot of the difficulties learners English accent. But the CDs offer a pronunciation work with young learners
have when reading English. In that model for both teacher and learner to is far more detrimental to their English
respect, there are clear advantages in focus on, as opposed to a goal that the than the danger of them not sounding
allowing the children to hear a word and children are obliged to reach. In like a native speaker. This is something
see the written form of the word whilst addition, we cannot forget that the that all teachers, native speaker and
seeing the thing the word refers to (or a person who will most influence the way non-native speaker, would do well to
picture of it). young learners pronounce English is keep in mind.
A colleague here in the north of their teacher: the person they see on a
Spain, a skilled and very experienced regular basis, whom they love and
primary and pre-primary school teacher, respect, and whose pronunciation they
Pronunciation matters, as we saw in
trainer and consultant, told me of her hear in every English lesson.
ETp Issue 90, and to avoid teaching it
surprise one day when she invited her We can look at this issue another
because you don’t have a standard
very young learners to bring their way. If the goal of pronunciation for
accent would be to do your learners a
favourite soft toys to class for a tea party young learners were a standard native-
great disservice.
for the class teddy bear. One small boy speaker accent, we would need speakers
brought a toy racoon, which in Spanish of this accent to do the teaching. Apart
Gilbert, J Teaching Pronunciation: Using
is a mapache. But as the boy introduced from the fact that, at a world level, there
the Prosody Pyramid CUP 2008
the racoon to the teddy, he said: ‘Hello, simply aren’t enough native speakers
Laroy, C Pronunciation OUP 1995
Teddy. This is Mr Mapach.’ Because of with standard accents to go round, what
the work they had done in class on the would native-speaker teachers do who
Robin Walker is a
magic ‘e’, the child had deleted the final were from Birmingham or Belfast, teacher, trainer and
‘e’ from his English pronunciation of the Cardiff or Edinburgh? Should they materials writer. He is
editor of Speak Out! the
Spanish word. work on pronunciation with young newsletter of the IATEFL
learners if they have a regional accent? Pronunciation SIG, and is
the author of Teaching
What accent should Clearly they should, unless, of course, the Pronunciation of
they have such strong regional accents English as a Lingua
I focus on? that nobody understands them Franca, an OUP teacher’s
handbook. His website is
As we have just seen, children have a anywhere outside their own region. www.englishglobalcom.
special receptivity to pronunciation, and Similarly, non-native-speaker wordpress.com.
can often imitate what they hear teachers should not worry if they don’t
[email protected]
remarkably well. However, this does not have a standard native-speaker accent,

COMPETITION RESULTS
5 13 2 26 17 20 5 16 18 11 15 5 16 12 Congratulations to all Françoise Bouty, St Sauveur, France
A U D I O B A C K S P A C E

16 12 20 5 21 9 18 20 17 22
those readers who Amanda Brookland, Ann Arbor, USA

C E B A R N K B O X successfully completed

16 5 15 1 12 11 26 12 11 25 5 Elena Guerin, St Laurent des Bâtons, France

C A P J E S I E S T A our Prize Crossword 62.

17 17 21 12 12 6 13 26 15 12 4 The winners, who will Duncan Levels, Halifax, UK

O O R E E Q U I P E G

23 11 5 16 8 15 11 26 9 4 each receive a copy of Julia Peduzzi, Beckenham, UK

M S A C Z P S I N G the Macmillan English

15 17 26 9 25 24 12 11 11 16 24 13 12 David Romain, Paris, France

P O I N T L E S S C L U E Dictionary for Advanced

24 25 12 16 5 11 14 9 21 Angela Sadrin, Cleres, France

L T E C A S H N R Learners, are:

26 23 12 25 12 17 21 17 7 5 Madelene Shepherd, Cardiff, UK
I M E T E O R O F A

16 5 20 5 24 26 16 17 24 25 Arthur Swortfiguer, Saint Gervais La Forêt, France

C A B A L I C O L T

12 21 13 11 25 5 20 11 17 24 13 25 12 Sandy Trumpington, Bergen, Norway
E R U S T A B S O L U T E
21 13 24 12 21 19 12 21 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
R U L E R W E R E J D V G A Q F Z N Y S E U

7 25 13 11 12 4 21 21 5 23
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

F T U S E G R R A M
H P C O K W B R X M L T I

21 12 5 24 26 11 25 17 21 26 4 5 23 26

R E A L I S T O R I G A M I

5 24 17 7 25 10 19 5 2 3 25 5 2 26 7 7 12 21 12 9 25 24 5 9 4 13 5 4 12

A L O F T Y W A D V T A D I F F E R E N T L A N G U A G E

13 24 5 12 13 9 17 25 12 21
26 11 5 2 26 7 7 12 21 12 9 25 3 26 11 26 17 9

U L A E U N O T E R I S A D I F F E R E N T V I S I O N
2 5 10 2 21 12 5 23 25 21 5 9 16 12 17 7 24 26 7 12

D A Y D R E A M T R A N C E O F L I F E Federico Fellini

22 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

Getting thekids
instead of giving them a menu with which
to practise restaurant language, you could
ask them to create their own menu. By
doing so, they will be investing much more
of themselves, and the language learning

onyourside
experience will feel much more alive. So
my advice is: whenever it’s possible to get
children to use their imagination, do so.
5 Get the level right
If you ask adults to participate in a task
that isn’t quite suited to their level, they
will probably make a good attempt at it.
Paul Bress has some advice for establishing However, if you do this with children, they
will soon lose interest. They will get bored
a good working relationship. if it’s too easy, and they will get frustrated

A
if it’s too difficult. Very soon, the whole
lthough many teachers are trained scored a victory over their teacher. As the
lesson will grind to a halt. The secret is to
to teach adult students (on courses teacher has just behaved in an undignified
ask them to do something they have done
such as CELTA, for example), the way, they think that they can now treat
before, but to keep notching the challenge
vast majority of learners of English around them with less dignity. However, if the
level up a fraction. Introduce a new variable
the world are, in fact, children. Although teacher calmly and politely gets attention
which increases the level of difficulty; ask a
there are significant cultural differences (for example, by using individual names, as
less-confident student to risk doing
between young learners in different parts in ‘Lucia, please be quiet – I need to say
something they haven’t tried before; or
of the globe, there is one issue that something important’), then the students are
increase the length of time the students
prevails: how can you get your students to much less likely to lose respect for them.
have to speak. Gradually increasing the
cooperate? Put another way: how can you
3 Get the situations right level of difficulty is a complex business,
get the kids on your side? Let’s look at
but you will soon get a feel for when
five main ways of doing this. For each, I’ve Lazy teachers will not bother to think of
you’ve got the level right (or not).
considered the possible consequences of target communicative situations. They may
not following the suggestion, and outlined ask their students to take part in
how following it can improve your rapport conversations that are completely alien to
with your students. In addition, I’ve given them. Consequently, the students are It is important to point out that all of these
some examples of classroom practice (and likely to have zero interest in the lessons. suggestions apply to adults just as much as
of classroom dialogue) where appropriate. Instead, teachers need to consider their they do to children. The difference is that
students’ needs very carefully. If they are adults are more likely to cooperate, even if
1 Get them to see that you care being taught in an English-speaking they have a teacher who is not brilliant at
Of course, all students want their teachers country – on a summer holiday course, communicating, motivating and delivering
to care about them but, in the case of for example – a restaurant roleplay could carefully-designed lesson plans – while
children, this is even more important. If be useful. It all depends on where they are children are more likely to demonstrate a
children think that their teacher doesn’t being taught and what their immediate natural resistance to these deficiencies in
care about them, they are much more likely (and future) needs are. If teachers are in a teacher. However, if a teacher is able to
to be sullen, intransigent and reluctant to doubt about what these are, they should demonstrate the competencies described
participate – perhaps as a way of exacting ask carefully-worded questions to above, the kids are likely to be highly
revenge. If teachers show that they care ascertain the information they need. Once cooperative!
(particularly by listening carefully and realistic target situations have been
empathising), young learners are much established, the students are likely to Paul Bress lives in
Herne Bay, UK, where
more likely to play ball. participate with much more enthusiasm. he teaches English to
overseas students and
2 Don’t get angry 4 Get them to be creative also writes novels and
paints. His novels are:
Even experienced teachers find that things In my experience, children don’t mind a The Man Who Didn’t Age,
The Dysfunctional Family,
can sometimes get a little out of hand in a certain amount of stimulus–response For Adults Only, The
large class of children. The decibel level can work, especially if it’s done in a fun way. Check-out Operator and
Life Swap, all published by
be much higher than the teacher wants, However, if it goes on and on and on, they Fast-Print and available
and the students may not appear to be rapidly lose interest and start on Kindle. His paintings
can be viewed at www.
concentrating at all. It’s quite common, in daydreaming, chatting to their neighbours artfinder.com/paul-bress
such situations, for teachers to lose their and generally messing about. That’s why and http://paulbressgallery.
blogspot.co.uk.
temper. If students see a display of anger, it’s very important to encourage young
though, they are likely to feel that they have learners to be creative. So, for example, [email protected]

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 23

Confidencerules,OK?
Greg Davies wonders how we can encourage children to speak.

E
xpressing your ideas and opinions is make sure that our learners feel supported especially young learners because they are
what language learning is all about. If and that they know that it’s OK to make just starting to develop an ego, are
learners can’t communicate effectively, mistakes. For most effective results, this becoming self-conscious and are beginning
then have their teachers done a good job? should be done at an institutional level. to be aware of their place in the world.
Is it really as simple as that? These changes have an enormous impact
My experience as a teacher in Mexico Teachers on their self-confidence, and if we take
suggests that encouraging students to Next, let’s consider the busy teacher. There young learners out of their comfort zone
speak is a real challenge; there are many is continued pressure to cover a syllabus, (either intentionally or unintentionally)
multidimensional issues that we not only and there may not be time for a focus on then their confidence can plummet. This
need to be aware of, but also need to tackle activities or aspects and areas that aren’t may, in turn, have knock-on effects on
proactively. The process undoubtedly being evaluated, such as phonics. When their future willingness to speak in class.
starts with young learners. was the last time you saw an internal Furthermore, young learners are
What is speaking? At the most basic school test that included pronunciation? constantly looking for approval from their
level, a situation where the teacher asks a We rightly focus on grammar and teacher, which is why they shine when you
question and a student answers could well vocabulary, as these are the elements that say a few words of sincere encouragement
be considered speaking. However, learning are likely to be evaluated in exams, but if and, conversely, they slump and withdraw
to collaborate, to solve problems, to work teachers don’t teach and practise the real when criticised.
in teams and to be creative (what are sounds of a language, how are the students
being termed the skills needed for success going to learn to speak? The answer is
in the 21st century) and all of it in English that, very often, they learn through error
Getting young learners to speak isn’t an
is a much more attractive proposition for correction, which can in itself be
easy task, and various stakeholders –
students. Imagine how dynamic and demotivating. Put yourself in your students’
institutions, teachers and the students
exciting your classroom would be if your shoes: if you were trying to explain a point,
themselves – all have an important role to
learners were truly engaged in resolving but someone constantly interrupted you
play in making it happen. Creating rules for
issues and working together, all the while to correct your pronunciation, how would
students to stick to which allow them to be
using English. you feel? Frustrated! So, next time you
creative, to collaborate and work in teams
were in the same situation, what would
Schools in a supportive classroom where the
you be likely to do? Would you try to put
teacher is conscious of all of the dynamic
Firstly, schools have an important role to your point across again, or would you
undercurrents is fundamental. Focusing
play in encouraging students to speak – or, keep quiet? Teachers need to dedicate
even a small part of our lessons on phonics
rather, in not discouraging them from class time to teaching pronunciation; the
and pronunciation, and demonstrating
speaking! As achievement and testing value for the students is immeasurable,
how to say new words, all the time being
become more important, especially in even if it is only two minutes per class.
conscious of the impact of our error-
regions where competition between
Working together correction strategies, will allow our learners
private schools to attract fee-paying
to feel confident, and will encourage them
students is intense, the focus on results One good suggestion, which combines the
to speak out and try to express the great
means that teachers need to get their role of the institution and the teacher, is
ideas that they all have.
students to perform well and deliver the to create a set of class rules that promote
results the school demands. speaking. Often when coming up with
Greg Davies is the
Learners will contribute their ideas in class rules, we focus on things like ‘No food Academic Supervisor
a discussion if there is a relaxed classroom or drink in the classroom’, but better rules at OUP, Mexico. He has
taught students of all
environment where everyone feels free to might be ‘Try, try and try again’, ‘Don’t be ages and levels and has
make mistakes – and perhaps even feels afraid of making mistakes’, ‘Respect everyone’ been involved in teacher
training for the past nine
encouraged to do so, as making mistakes and ‘Listen and don’t interrupt when your years. He has given talks
can provide great opportunities for classmates are speaking’. Creating and seminars nationally
and internationally. His
learning. However, if the focus is only on confidence and ensuring respect for all, areas of interest include
results, are the students going to feel now that’s a supportive environment that classroom management
and professional reflection.
comfortable enough to speak out if they’re I’d like to learn in.
not sure that they’re right? We need to Students have a part to play, too – [email protected]

24 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 Over
the
wall ... Alan Maley
wonders whodunnit?

I
n previous articles, I have ventured into The modern detective ‘whodunnit?’ It is a puzzle to solve, and
genre fiction in the areas of travel also a kind of competition to beat the
writing and science fiction. This time, I In more recent times, we have seen the author at their own game. The more
shall be looking at one of the most success of characters like Ian Rankin’s intriguing and ingenious the plot, the
popular of all genres, the detective novel. Inspector Rebus, Colin Dexter’s Inspector better we like it.
Morse, Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford, Readers are also drawn by the
Patricia Cornwell’s Dr Kay Scarpetta, P D
The tradition James’s Adam Dalgliesh – and a great
possibility of vicariously sharing the lives
of both the criminal and the investigator.
It is interesting that the detective or crime many more. (Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr
story is a relatively recent phenomenon. The American tradition has tended to Ripley is a good example of crime seen
Although some writers trace its origins focus on the tough-guy private eye, with through the eyes of the criminal.) And the
back to The Arabian Nights and to ancient writers like Dashiell Hammett, Raymond success of many crime writers rests on
Chinese stories, the fact is that it only really Chandler (creator of the unforgettable how successfully they have been able to
got under way in the 19th century with Philip Marlowe) and, more recently, Sara create a detective who has enduring
Edgar Allen Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Paretsky and Elmore Leonard. And, of appeal. Once hooked, we look forward to
Morgue, Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone, course, there are the phenomenally the next book to renew our acquaintance
and with Charles Dickens’s investigator, successful (and prolific) Perry Mason with our familiar favourite detective,
Inspector Bucket, in Bleak House. stories by Erle Stanley Gardner. confident that we will find again all their
The genre truly took off, however, with The success of the genre has been endearing characteristics and
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation of the compounded by the fact that it lends itself idiosyncrasies as the plot unfolds.
prototypical psycho-investigator Sherlock easily to the cinema and TV, so that many
Holmes, G K Chesterton’s whimsical Father of the books have been made into films or
Brown stories, and Dorothy Sayers’s TV series. Moreover, the appetite for exotic
The location
suave sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey in the crime locations seems unabated, as the There is, however, another feature of
early 20th century. And from there into the recent TV series The Killing, The Bridge many detective novels which adds to their
Golden Age of crime fiction, with its and Montalbano demonstrate. appeal, namely the way they open up new
uncontested queen – Agatha Christie – and landscapes, cultures and contexts. I am
her perennial characters Jane Marple and thinking here of writers like Michael Dibdin,
Hercule Poirot, there was no stopping it.
The attraction whose Aurelio Zen takes us into the world
What makes crime fiction so attractive to of Italian police work, with authentic-
readers? Fairly obviously, by setting up a seeming places and faces. Or of Nicolas
crime to be investigated, there is an Freeling, with his Dutch backgrounds to
immediate compulsion to find out many of the Inspector Van der Valk novels,

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 25

 Southeast Asia – Singapore, Malaysia,
Over
Cotterill, C The Coroner’s Lunch Quercus
Indonesia and Cambodia. His superiors 2004

the find him embarrassingly unconventional,

so they send him off elsewhere to get rid
Flint, S Inspector Singh Investigates: A
Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree Piatkus
wall ... of him. He is an unprepossessing man,
somewhat overweight, unfashionably-
2011
McCall Smith, A The Number One Ladies’
dressed and overly fond of cold beer, but Detective Agency Abacus 2003
with surprising powers of observation, Pattison, E The Skull Mantra Arrow Books
deduction and psychological acuity. In his 2000
Cambodian case, we learn a great deal Other authors referred to (I have
or the French and European settings of his about that country and its tragic recent suggested just one title per author for
Henri Castang titles. We not only enjoy the history, as well as enjoying the company reasons of space.)
novelty of these settings, but we actually of Singh himself. Chandler, R The Big Sleep Penguin 2011
learn, incidentally, quite a lot about the Cornwell, P Book of the Dead Penguin
world outside our own normal lives. At Colin Cotterill 2008
their best, they offer ‘edutainment’ which Finally, there is Colin Cotterill, whose Dexter, C Last Bus to Woodstock
enriches our understanding of the world coroner, Dr Siri, is perhaps my favourite of Macmillan 1975
and of what makes people tick. So, below, the four. The setting for the Dr Siri stories Dibdin, M Ratking Faber and Faber 1988
I shall mention the work of four writers who is Laos in the 1970s, shortly after the Freeling, N The King of the Rainy Country
take us into even more exotic locations. country had been taken over by the Bloomsbury 2013
Communist Pathet Lao. Dr Siri is already Gardner, E S The Case of the Perjured
Alexander McCall Smith in his seventies when he is appointed as Parrot Pocket Books 1939
The first is Alexander McCall Smith. His state coroner – for which his only Hammett, D The Maltese Falcon Vintage
setting for the Mma Ramotswe stories is qualification is that he is the only doctor 1930
Botswana, ‘a good country’. Mma left alive in the country. He has fought Highsmith, P The Talented Mr Ripley
Ramotswe has set up the Number One with the guerrilla army and knows his way Vintage 1999
Ladies’ Detective Agency. Her cases are around, but he is an inveterate non- James, P D The Lighthouse Vintage 2006
not particularly spectacular, and usually conformist and is constantly in conflict Leonard, E Get Shorty Phoenix 2009
involve resolving problems with personal with his, largely incompetent, superiors. MacAndrew, R Man Hunt CUP 2012
relationships. What makes the novels In the first book, The Coroner’s Lunch, Paretsky, S Breakdown Hodder 2003
memorable is Mma Ramotswe herself – a the bodies of three tortured Vietnamese Rankin, I Noughts and Crosses Orion 1987
lady of ample proportions, a great soldiers are retrieved from Nam Ngum
Rendell, R The Babes in the Wood Arrow
capacity to draw out confidences from Lake, the dead wife of a party leader is Books 2003
her clients, and who radiates gentleness, brought in, and poor Dr Siri finds himself
good humour, big-heartedness and in the middle of a tricky situation. But with
Alan Maley has worked in
understanding. A sub-plot, in the form of characteristic aplomb, acuity, disrespect the area of ELT for over
her relationship with Mr J L B Matekoni, for authority – and the help of his 40 years in Yugoslavia,
Ghana, Italy, France,
her ‘fiancé’, runs alongside the main plot shamanic self – he gets to the bottom of China, India, the UK,
line in the stories. He runs the the case. Siri is supported by a cast of Singapore and Thailand.
Since 2003 he has been a
neighbourhood garage but can never equally colourful characters, and the freelance writer and
seem to bring himself to pop the descriptions of the Lao locales is totally consultant. He has
published over 30 books
question. The stories are delightful to read accurate. I cannot recommend Cotterill’s and numerous articles,
and make you want to visit Botswana. stories strongly enough. Long live Dr Siri! and was, until recently,
Series Editor of the
Oxford Resource Books
Eliot Pattison for Teachers.
Next comes Eliot Pattison, who takes us [email protected]
into the remote mountain landscapes of In the teaching context, extensive reading
Tibet. His detective, Shan Tao Yun, is, in is now acknowledged to be a key factor
fact, a former investigator for the Chinese in acquiring a language. But such reading
government, disgraced for unmasking has to offer what Krashen calls
corruption at high levels and exiled to a ‘compelling’ content. What better than IT WORKS IN PRACTICE
labour camp in Tibet. In The Skull Mantra, detective fiction for hooking our novice Do you have ideas you’d like to share
he finds himself co-opted to solve a series readers, particularly when the genre is with colleagues around the world?
of murders of Chinese officials. The mix of already so familiar to them in their L1, and Tips, techniques and activities;
realistic description, religion, superstition, when they may already have read some simple or sophisticated; well-tried
violence and mystery is compelling, as is English titles in translation? And if the or innovative; something that has
the character of Shan himself. originals are ‘too difficult’ – as some of
worked well for you? All published
them undoubtedly are – you could do
Shamini Flint contributions receive a prize!
worse than try one of Richard
Write to us or email:
Shamini Flint has created the character of MacAndrew’s graded readers, such as
Inspector Singh of the Singapore police, Man Hunt, which offer authentic crime [email protected]
who investigates in locations around fiction in accessible language.

26 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 The Photocopiable Resource Series
TH E PH O
TO C O PI
RESOURCE BOOKS FOR CREATIVE TEACHERS A B LE R ES
OUR C E Se ri es

A new series with innovative activities to copy and use in class. Tessa Wo
odward •

NEW
Seth Lindstrom
berg

• Written by leading ELT authors Somethin

• Lots of ready-to-use materials g
to say
• Detailed instructions for class use Ready-to
-use spea
king activ
• Ideal for teachers, teacher trainers and teacher trainees ities

THE PHOTOCOPIABLE RESOURCE Series THE PHOTOCOPIABLE RESOURCE Series THE PHOTOCOPIABLE RESOURCE Series
THE PHOTOCOPIABLE RESOURCE Series THE PHOTOCOPIABLE RESOURCE Series THE PHOTOCOPIABLE RESOURCE Series
Herbert Puchta - Günter Gerngross - Christian Holzmann - Matthew Devitt

The Photocopiable Resource Series is written by leading ELT authors and offers teachers, teacher The Photocopiable Resource Series• is written by leading ELT authors and offers teachers, teacher The Photocopiable Resource Series is written by leading ELT authors and offers teachers, teacher
Herbert Puchta Günter Gerngross
trainers and teacher trainees lots of ready-to-use and innovative language learning materials with detailed trainers and teacher trainees lots of ready-to-use and innovative language learning materials with detailed
Christian Holzmann • Matthew Devitt Herbert
trainers Puchta
and teacher Günter
trainees •lots Gerngross
of ready-to-use • Matthew
and innovative Devitt
language learning materials with detailed Herbert Puchta • Marion Williams
instructions explaining how each activity works in class. instructions explaining how each activity works in class. instructions explaining how each activity works in class.

Grammar Teaching Young

Herbert Puchta - Günter Gerngross - Matthew Devitt

Songs & Raps Get on Stage! Learners to Think

Herbert Puchta - Marion Williams

21 sketches and plays for young learners and teens

For young learners and early teens ELT-Activities for young learners aged 6 - 12

Herbert Günter Christian Matthew Herbert Günter Matthew Herbert Marion

Puchta Gerngross Holzmann Devitt Puchta Gerngross Devitt Puchta Williams
Teaching Young Learners to Think

Grammar Songs & Raps covers key grammar structures at A1 and A2. Get on Stage! is a photocopiable resource book with 21 sketches and plays for young learners and teens. Teaching Young Learners to Think offers 80 lessons with photocopiable worksheets devised to develop key
The book is organised in 4 clear sections to meet all your drama needs: thinking and language skills in young children.
28 original songs and raps, one per grammar structure, present key grammar items, and allow students to practise
• short humorous sketches A selection of activities, organised in categories from basic to higher-order thinking skills, engage young learners
them in fun, dynamic and multi-sensory ways helping them remember the structures better and anchoring them
• medium-length sketches in meaningful use of language while enhancing cognitive abilities through real-life thinking tasks.
in their long-term memory.
• medium-length plays
Grammar Songs & Raps

The book contains photocopiable worksheets, and is accompanied by 2 audio CDs with all the songs and raps. • teen dramas All tasks carefully match both the cognitive and language level of the students and will create hours of fun and
The second CD includes a CD-ROM part with printable Flashcards. Each song and rap has clear, step-by-step motivation for both teachers and learners.
The DVD contains videos of 3 sample plays, audio recordings of 11 plays, plus a film of co-author Matthew Devitt,
teaching notes, including lead-in activities, listening tasks, follow-up activities and games. Ideal for use in ELT classes, bilingual programmes and CLIL-based curricula.
a professional actor and director, rehearsing a play with a group of students.
The introduction to the book gives a clear rationale on why and how to use plays in ELT, plus a range of useful
and practical tips and suggestions on how to stage a play. A variety of photocopiable sheets allow students to
Get on Stage!

check comprehension and practise key language.

ISBN 978-3-85272-423-2 ISBN 978-3-85272-248-1 ISBN 978-3-85272-428-7

9 783852 724232 9 783852 722481 9 783852 724287

www.helblinglanguages.com www.helblinglanguages.com www.helblinglanguages.com

with 2 Audio CDs/CD-ROM with DVD + Audio CD

tion in
mmar Sons Raps Covers B/M.indd 2 03/01/12 14:42 HELBLING_TYLT Covers B.indd 1 22/11/11 10:56

Innovaresources
r
teache

100 Clements Road - London SE16 4DG - UK

[email protected]

communication made easy www.helblinglanguages.com

LSE ETP ad 1-4p 230114_Layout 1 30/01/2014 07:41 Page 1

The Lake School of English Oxford

You can get an MA TESOL
Erasmus+ funding support with no previous teaching experience
Contact us for application details and only a Band 6 IELTS score!

Summer Courses at BUT NOT WITH US

Oxford University We offer:
MA TESOL
http://www.seed.manchester.ac.uk/subjects/education/

• Creative Teaching in the Primary Classroom MA TESOL (Intercultural Education)

Creative Teaching in the Secondary Classroom MA TESOL (Educational Technology)
Creative Teaching in the Adult Classroom
MA TESOL (Teacher Education)
• English for Effective Communication
• Language, Life and Culture in the UK Today for experienced professionals
with high competence in English and serious
professional commitment.
Distance and onsite options
Transfer credit offered to Cambridge
and Trinity Diploma holders
Progression to doctoral study is open
for appropriately successful candidates

http://edtechandtesol.info/
http://edtechandtesol.info/phd/
www.englishinoxford.com Email: [email protected]
New look coming soon
TAKE
Chaz Pugliese poses five questions to people involved
in the world of ELT. In this issue, he talks to Alan Maley.

FIVE
Alan Maley has worked in ELT for over 40 years in Yugoslavia, Ghana,
Italy, France, China, India, the UK, Singapore and Thailand. Since 2003,
he has been a freelance writer and consultant, and he has published
over 30 books and numerous articles.

1 and so on, these have tended to be

subverted by the existing routines. I think
students were finding things out, both
about the language and about themselves.
Alan, what have been the most that once the classroom door is closed, This seemed to me a very powerful way
significant changes in our profession you actually don’t know what’s happening of working. I’m not saying that everyone
over the years? inside. In fact, some of the long-lasting should be doing it all the time, but I think
Well, I suppose I would have to say the ideas may have a certain validity, and may it’s valuable to set up circumstances when
whole communicative movement, that got be worth re-examining. There are things students can do it. I’d taught writing
under way in the 70s and continued into that have been labelled ‘traditional’ – which before on one of the MAs when I was in
the 80s. If you weren’t there, it’s difficult tends to be a negative term these days Singapore, but it was more pragmatic
to convey just how exciting it was. It was – which are still valuable. Translation and writing. Then, in Bangkok, I set up an MA
almost like a religious revelation. Everybody dictation are two good examples: both have module for Creative Writing. One of my
was suddenly talking about Wilkins and been labelled ‘traditional’, but if done right, colleagues suggested that we should run
notions and functions, to begin with, and they’re both very powerful learning tools. a seminar for people from Southeast Asia.
then the new courses came along: the We did that in 2003, and we formed a
Strategies series, for example, which was 3 small group of teachers of English in Asia,
completely new at the time. Of course, You referred to ELT as a ‘profession’ agreeing to meet once a year in a different
with the benefit of hindsight, you can see earlier. Can it be considered a country, to write poems and stories which
that what has happened is that it’s profession? could potentially be used in classrooms
become rather normal, and nowadays I think that parts of ELT have become around the region. We have a website:
everybody reckons that they’re teaching more professionalised. In regulation and flexiblelearning.auckland.ac.nz/cw.
communicatively, even though they may
be doing something completely different.
certification, for example, by having CELTA
and DELTA, the MAs, and so on, as some 5
Those were really exciting times, and you kind of label that you stick on yourself, that I know you’re very fond of using
felt everything was possible; everything gives you a degree of credibility, which literature and poetry in class. Could
was changing in the 60s – in all domains many people didn’t have before. But, of you give us a taster of a classroom
– so the times were ripe for that sort of course, there are thousands out there who idea for using poetry?
shake-up. Come to think of it, I wonder if are happily going along without having any Well, one idea I like is asking students to
we don’t need another shake-up, not only certification at all, or the bare minimum. perform poetry. There’s nothing earth-
in ELT, but also in education in general, That said, regulation has its own in-built shattering about this, but I put the
which has become too institutionalised and disadvantages, too, in that it tends to students in groups and give them a text.
control-oriented. One recent initiative to fossilise people, if they’re not careful. We’ve First, of course, they need to come to
resist this tendency is the Creativity group also become more professional thanks to terms with the poem. The task is then to
(http://the creativitygroup.weebly.com and the strengthening of associations. One of perform it as a group. They need to decide
see page 49), which is trying to articulate the characteristics of a profession is that it how loud they’re going to be, how fast
a more creative approach: trying to get tends to have its own regulation, its own they’re going to read it, where they’re
people to realise that education is going gatekeepers. However, there still doesn’t going to make pauses, how many people
down the wrong track and to understand seem to be a common core of knowledge. are going to be speaking – and they can
that there are other ways of doing things. So, to sum up, I think it’s a very inchoate add in things like sounds effects and

2 mass, with parts of it professionalising

and other parts gaily going their own way.
action. It’s amazing what happens when
they do this, because you can’t do a
Is there anything that you think showed performance if you don’t understand the
promise but didn’t deliver? 4 poem, at least on one level, and so they
One of the things to remember is that Could you tell us something about get inside a poem in a way that wouldn’t
teaching is a profoundly conservative your creative writing project? happen by simply talking about it. It’s a
profession; it tends to develop rituals that Well, I started being interested in this way of experiencing it and, provided you
are very long-lasting. People have invested 15-odd years ago: I was using very simple choose the right poem, it’s never failed
their lives, and their beliefs, into doing things techniques that seemed to light the with any group so far!
in a particular way, and it’s very difficult to students up in ways that other things didn’t,
change them. So, although there was this Chaz Pugliese is an independent trainer and
in that what we were doing was valuable author, living in Paris, France.
excitement about the communicative in terms of language learning as well as
approach and alternative methodologies, [email protected]
personal learning. By writing creatively, the

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 29

 RESOURCES

Do something
different
with your
coursebook 5
Rachael Roberts continues her series on adapting your coursebook to suit your classes.
In this issue, she does something different with listening activities.

F
or a long time now, listening their knowledge of syntax. But listening carrying out what Magnus Wilson calls
activities in coursebooks have is a complicated process. Learners need ‘discovery listening’. He builds on John
tended to follow a fairly set to be able to identify and discriminate Field’s idea of using dictogloss, where
formula: set the scene, between sounds in a continuous stream students note down all the words they
pre-teach vocabulary if necessary, listen of speech, and recognise their stressed can catch while listening, and then
to the recording and ask some and unstressed versions. They also need discuss their understanding of the overall
comprehension questions. There are to be able to recognise where one word meaning afterwards with a partner.
some good reasons for working in this stops and another word starts Wilson takes this idea further by getting
way: it follows the format the students (particularly hard to do in English, with the students to try to reconstruct the text
will find in exams, and it can be good for linking, elision and assimilation) and (or a part of it) completely after listening.
developing top-down skills, such as they need to understand the meaning They then carefully compare their
prediction. However, it can also become conveyed by stress and intonation. versions with the original. Where they
rather tedious lesson after lesson and, It’s no wonder that less efficient haven’t heard correctly, they try to decide
even more importantly, it ignores some listeners have to put so much energy into why. For example:
vital aspects of the listening process. decoding that they can’t use their I couldn’t hear what sound it was.
meaning-building skills effectively. They I couldn’t separate the sounds into words.
Top-down, bottom-up simply can’t hold onto enough of the I heard the words but couldn’t remember
meaning to make connections between their meaning quickly enough.
As well as understanding literal meaning, different parts of the text.
connecting ideas and making inferences, This word was new to me ...
So adding some bottom-up, or
learners also need to work from the Alternatively, the students could listen
decoding, activities to your coursebook
bottom up, decoding what they hear by again to an audio recording (perhaps
listening activities can not only provide
recognising sounds, understanding where after comprehension work) with the
a bit of variety, it can really help develop
words begin and end, recognising chunks transcript in front of them, underline
your learners’ listening skills, rather than
of language, and so on. the parts that they found difficult to
simply testing them.
Good listeners are able to use both follow, and then discuss why.
top-down and bottom-up skills And finally, here’s a classic activity,
simultaneously. If they can’t decode a Discovery listening which is usually referred to as ‘the
word, they can predict the meaning from A good place to start might be by teacher is a tape-recorder’ (which tells

30 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

you just how old it is). It’s a bit silly and 1 Having previously picked out some carry the main stress. More confident
light-hearted, but actually really useful useful expressions from the listening, learners could try to predict the main
for identifying problem areas. pause the recording halfway through an stresses and then listen to check.
Simply read a text aloud, at a natural expression, and ask the students to 2 Students could mark pauses in the
speed. To make it a bit more challenging, complete it from memory. For example: speech, using slashes. A well-known
try turning your back to the students so I was thrown in … (at the deep end ). example of the importance of pausing in
they can’t use visual clues. The students 2 Using only a short part of the understanding comes from Peter Roach:
listen and carry out some kind of Those who sold quickly/made a profit.
recording, pause at the end of each
comprehension task or a dictogloss. (= a profit was made by those who sold
sentence or longer phrase, and ask the
Whenever they want, they can shout quickly)
students to write down what they heard.
‘pause’, ‘rewind’, ‘fast forward’, etc. Of Those who sold/quickly made a profit.
This can work really well for identifying
course, you could equally well do this (= those who sold made a profit quickly,
difficulties in decoding connected speech.
with an actual machine, but believe me, not slowly)
it’s much more entertaining with a 3 Pause the recording after ‘referring’
Again this could be a while-listening
teacher doing it. I think students (of all expressions, and ask the students to
activity, or the students could predict
ages), just love being able to bark identify what they refer to. For example:
and then listen to check.
commands at the teacher! Albert Einstein is widely considered to be
a genius. However, his education did not 3 To focus on vocabulary, the students
The serious side of this activity is
that you can use it to identify chunks of start off so well (pause – who does his could look at the transcript and pull out
connected speech that the learners are refer to?). He didn’t learn to speak groups of words that often go together
having difficulty with, and then look at fluently until six or seven, and one of his (formulaic chunks). They could then listen
the linking, weak forms, assimilation, teachers wrote on his school report (pause again to how they sound when pronounced
etc with them afterwards. – who does his refer to?) ‘He will never naturally, and you could also drill them.
While I wouldn’t suggest carrying amount to anything’, meaning he would 4 You could choose a short section
out this kind of task too often, it can be never be successful. How wrong he was! which contains a minimal pair of sounds
a great way of helping your students to (pause – who does he refer to?) that your students struggle with (for
understand the importance of bottom- example /â / and /i* /) and ask them to
up skills, and pave the way for the other Starting in the middle mark the two phonemes on the transcript,
activities described below. before listening and repeating.
In real life, we often start listening in the
middle of a conversation, or when we
Pausing and predicting turn on the radio or TV in the middle of
As well as pausing at the students’ a programme. In a very simple, but While some would argue that we should
request, there are a number of other remarkably effective, idea, John Madden be carrying out these kinds of activities
ways in which we can use pausing to suggests actually starting in the middle instead of the more traditional
develop listening skills, both top-down of a recording, to help the learners to comprehension activities, I think that they
and bottom-up. develop the confidence and skills to deal can sit very happily alongside the activities
To focus on the more top-down with real-world listening. found in the coursebook; and they will not
aspects of prediction, we could pause The learners tune in as best they can, only give us more variety, but will also
the recording while playing, and ask for then discuss with a partner what they help to develop our students’ listening
predictions. For example, you could stop understood and what they think might skills in a more rounded way.
a recorded dialogue after each thing said have been said before they started
by person A, and ask the students either listening. They can then listen to the Field, J ‘Not waving, but drowning: a reply
to Tony Ridgway’ ELT Journal 54 (2) 2000
to say or write down what they think entire recording to check their predictions.
Again, you probably wouldn’t want Madden, J ‘Helping ESL students adapt
person B might say. They can then
to authentic listening situations’ The
continue listening to check their ideas. to do this every lesson, but it can make a Internet TESL Journal XIV (1) 2008
Alternatively, stop the recording fresh new approach from time to time.
Roach, P English Phonetics and Phonology:
about halfway through, and ask the A Practical Coursebook CUP 1983
students either to continue the Using transcripts Wilson, M ‘Discovery listening – improving
conversation or, if it is a monologue, to perceptual processing’ ELT Journal 57 (4)
write down what they think the person The transcripts of the coursebook audio 2003
will say in the rest of the talk. This could recordings can be extremely useful for
work very well with a well-signposted helping to develop bottom-up listening Rachael Roberts is an
skills. Obviously, the learners can use the ELT teacher, teacher
monologue of the kind found in more trainer and materials
academic English. The students could transcripts as a way of checking what writer, and has published
they have transcribed after a dictation or a number of coursebooks.
then listen to check their predictions. She is particularly
For a more bottom-up approach, try dictogloss activity. However, they can interested in ways of
also use them to work on specific exploiting published
the following activities (which might work material, and has a blog,
better after using the comprehension bottom-up skills. www.elt-resourceful.com,
with more practical ideas
activities in the coursebook), as a way of 1 The learners could look at a transcript and downloadable
encouraging the students to notice while they’re listening, and mark the material.
certain aspects of language. words in each phrase or sentence which [email protected]

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 31

 T E S T I N G & E VA L U AT I O N

Preparing
students for
exams 4
T
Claire Hunter has he International English Task 1 and time management in the
Language Testing System is reading and writing papers.
tips for getting students the world’s most popular
international test of English for Lesson planning
ready for IELTS. higher education and global migration,
with two million tests taken last year. It In an IELTS preparation class, there is an
is accepted by over 9,000 institutions important balance to be struck between
around the world as an accurate marker linguistic improvement, test strategies
of a test taker’s level of English. and test practice. How teachers strike
There are two test versions, that balance depends on their individual
Academic and General Training, with teaching contexts: the number and level
the former being widely accepted by of the learners, the length of time before
universities and professional registration the test, timetable fit, etc.
bodies, and the latter by immigration To keep motivation up, particularly
authorities and employers. Both test over a longer period of study, it can be
versions assess the four skills: listening, useful to focus the learners on what they
reading, writing and speaking. The plan to do after the test, and its impact
listening and speaking papers are the on their lives. When asked about their
same for both test versions. goals, IELTS students often answer: ‘To
get a 6.5 overall’. It may be useful to
remind them that a certain band score at
Challenges for teachers IELTS is probably not their end goal;
and learners they need to think about what comes
For teachers, it can be difficult to next. Teachers should try to bear this in
maintain the motivation of some mind while planning lessons and
learners, particularly those who have communicating lesson aims to the
been preparing for IELTS for a long learners. The possible differences
time. Keeping classes dynamic and between the aims of a general English
engaging can be a challenge, especially class and an IELTS class are illustrated
when some learners seem only ever to in the table on page 35.
want to do test practice. By relating the purpose and
In addition to linguistic problems, highlighting the relevance of activities to
learners frequently struggle with exam the learners’ overall objectives, many
strategies, such as generating ideas for dynamic and engaging activities often
the writing and speaking papers, used in general English, but sometimes
analysing the information in Writing avoided in exam classes, can be used.

34 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

Preparing learners for Another challenge for learners in Once test takers know which paragraph
IELTS listening is the diversity of the an answer is likely to be in, they can
each of the four papers accents used. It is, therefore, useful to then narrow it down to a sentence or
Listening practise listening to as wide a variety of two and locate the answer.
The best preparation for this paper is to accents as possible. For example, if Learners should also read as
listen to as much English as possible. learners are unfamiliar with the extensively as possible. Some useful
Radio and television programmes can be Australian accent, they could be resources are New Scientist, The
extremely useful, as the learners will encouraged to watch Australian soap Economist, National Geographic and
only hear the recording once, as they operas in their free time. various newspapers. New Scientist’s
will in the test. However, pre-recorded ‘Upfront’ section, which consists of a
material that can be repeated is also Reading number of short articles, can be used for
valuable, and there are a great many In the IELTS reading paper, the learners skimming and scanning practice by
sources of this type of material. need to employ a range of reading skills, setting a time limit to skim the articles
Podcasts are one example, but there are including skimming, scanning and and then asking skimming- and
also many websites, such as TED.com reading for specific information. scanning-based questions. For example:
and the BBC’s Six-minute English, Given the time pressure that test ‘Which article would you look at if you
which can be exploited for listening takers are under, skimming should be got a question about health?’ or ‘Where
practice. used for more than just getting the does Dr Smith work?’
Prediction is an important part of general topic. It should also be used to
preparing for the IELTS listening test. gain an understanding of the structure Writing
Learners can practise predicting not of the text. Any headings, as well as the Both teachers and learners should
only the type of answers to specific first and last sentences of a paragraph, become familiar with the criteria used to
questions, but also the type of can be useful for this. Learners could assess test takers’ writing. These are:
information likely to be tested in various make a ‘map’ of the text by writing a Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical
texts. One activity to practise this is few words beside each paragraph, Resource, Grammatical Range and
‘Think like an examiner’, where the summarising the main idea. These Accuracy, and Task Achievement (Task
learners write questions for their summaries can help them locate answers 1) or Task Response (Task 2). A public
classmates based on a listening text. quickly, which is key in IELTS reading. version of the band descriptors is
This also draws attention to distractors, They are particularly useful when available online from IELTS.org, and
hopefully allowing the learners to matching headings to paragraphs, as the these are a useful tool for teachers when
identify them more easily in the test. test takers have a quick reference point marking writing, allowing them to give
(This exercise also works well with with which to match the heading. One specific targeted feedback. They can also
reading texts.) A variation would be for way of highlighting the importance of be used to allow the learners to assess
the learners to write the script for a this skill is to give one student a novel themselves and their peers.
given set of questions. This works and another a dictionary and ask them
Task 1
particularly well with Section 1 tasks. to find the word over. Obviously, the
Many learners struggle with analysing
The learners could also be given a copy learner with the dictionary will find the
the visual information in Task 1 and are
of the transcript and asked to select the word more quickly, because they know
not sure how to approach the task.
information they think is likely to be the structure of the dictionary, whereas
Providing the learners with a list of
tested, and then compare that to the they do not know how the novel is
questions to answer can help them break
original questions. structured or what is in each chapter.
the task down into manageable chunks
and approach it in a more systematic
General English IELTS way. The table on page 36 shows one
possible set of questions for a chart or
What are we Reading to identify and report Reading to identify and report graph, along with the aspect of the
going to do? factual information in a text factual information in a text answer it is relevant to and some more
information about why these questions
How are we Content-related comprehension Yes/no/not-given questions may be helpful.
going to do it? questions, summarising a text, Likening Task 1 to the description of
reporting it, discussing the issues a picture can help the learners distinguish
important points from details. For
Why are we To make it easier for you to read Because they are in the exam example, if you were describing a picture
going to do it? and understand newspaper of a group of children playing in a
articles and help you discuss cornfield, it is extremely unlikely that you
them with other people would include the number of corn stalks.
You might, however, include the number
of children, and you would most likely
Why? When reading an article for
only describe one of the children in detail
essay research at university,
if they were particularly prominent or
you will have to differentiate
significantly different from the others. It
between fact and opinion
is important to remember that the

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 35

Preparing Question for
the learner
Aspect of the
answer this question
Why is this question useful?

students for
is relevant to

exams 4
Is the chart Language Helps the learners choose
static or appropriate verbs and structures
dynamic? Dynamic charts – verbs showing
change (eg increase) and
learners are asked to summarise the data
comparative language
in a minimum of 150 words, and it is
generally advisable that they not write Static charts – comparative verbs
much more than that. and structures

Task 2
What tense Usually requires the past simple
In order to answer a Task 2 question
should I use? Dynamic charts – possibly past
well, test takers need to understand
exactly what is being asked. This is an perfect structures with by + time
area in which learners often Possibly language for predictions
underperform, owing to a partial or
complete misunderstanding of the rubric. What is the Introduction Allows the learners to rephrase and
Task 2 questions are written in the form chart about? (rephrasing the restructure the question better
of a statement, followed by an instruction question)
or question. One of the ways learners can
What do the Labels can also help the learners
ensure their answers are relevant and
labels tell me? paraphrase
appropriate is to turn the statement into
a question, and answer that question in eg ‘how much oil was produced’
their essay. For example, the statement: ‘the amount of oil produced in
‘People are living longer than ever before millions of barrels’
and many old people are unable to look
after themselves. Some people believe it is What are the Overview Sometimes only a general trend
the responsibility of families to look after general trend(s) or a striking feature
the elderly, while others say governments and exceptions? Sometimes both
should provide retirement homes where
Sometimes they are the same thing
they can be looked after properly.’ What is the most (especially if there is an exception
could be rewritten as: striking feature? to the general trend)
‘Should families or the government look
after the elderly?’ What groups Main body Helps the learners decide how
Task 2 requires a lot more independent could I divide many paragraphs to write, and what
thinking than Task 1, so brainstorming the information to compare within paragraphs
and critical thinking skills may need to into? Two or possibly three groups is
be introduced. Some learners find it probably best
difficult to generate ideas, so gathering
ideas prior to the test can be extremely
What data Helps the learners decide which
useful. One approach could be to ask
(numbers) do I data to include in each paragraph,
the learners to watch a persuasive talk
need to include? eg beginning/end, highest/lowest,
on a given topic (TED.com is a rich
resource for this exercise) and to turn change in rank, noticeably different,
that talk into an essay. This exercise is changes more/less than the others
also useful for highlighting the
differences between spoken and written
English. A more challenging exercise Speaking To help ease any nerves on the test
could be to write an essay from the As with the writing paper, both teachers day, the learners should be familiar with
opposing viewpoint. and learners should become familiar with all parts of the speaking test and know
Another idea-generating exercise, the band descriptors for the speaking exactly what to expect, including the
which is also useful for ensuring learners component. Teachers should ensure that timings of each part. It is also useful for
support and extend their arguments, is some class time is devoted to each of the them to get as much practice as possible
‘chain essays’. In this exercise, one learner four criteria: Fluency and Coherence, in speaking for two minutes, so they
provides an argument, their neighbour Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range know how much they can expect to say
adds an explanation or reason, the next and Accuracy, and Pronunciation. in that time.
a supporting example, the next an Learners can then use the descriptors to Having a bank of set phrases and
opposing argument, and so on. assess one another and give feedback. ‘hesitation devices’ can allow the

36 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

learners time to generate ideas, as well as
improve both their Lexical Resource and IELTS assesses the English language proficiency of people who want to study or
their Fluency and Coherence scores. It is work where English is used as the language of communication.
important, however, that the learners are
Test takers can choose between two versions of the test – Academic or General
provided with ample practice using these
Training, depending on their academic or professional aims, or visa requirements.
expressions. They need to be so familiar
All candidates take the same Listening and Speaking components but different
with them that they can use them
without thinking, as that will allow them Reading and Writing components.
to concentrate on the content of their The IELTS Speaking test is a face-to-face interview with a certified examiner.
answer. It is interactive and as close to a real-life situation as a test can get.
Another technique which can help
learners answer, even when they have a For more information on the IELTS exam, visit www.ielts.org.
‘mental blank’, is the AREA technique.
This is a skeleton structure for an
answer, whereby the test taker provides can then correct any errors that they Claire Hunter is the
Academic Manager at
an Answer, a Reason, an Example/ find, before re-recording. This is a Edinburgh School of
Explanation, and then reiterates the time-consuming exercise, but it can draw English, UK. She has
been preparing learners
Answer. Using this technique can help attention to frequent slips in the for IELTS for a number
extend an answer, even when a test taker learners’ speaking which they might not of years, and has
previously been involved
is nervous. For example: otherwise notice. in syllabus and course
The internet is also a valuable design for IELTS
‘Do you like living in Edinburgh?’ preparation courses.
resource for self-study. The BBC She is also a British
‘(A)Yes, (R) because it’s such a beautiful Learning English page has a section Council IELTS UK
city. (E) For example, the architecture in devoted to pronunciation, which includes Product Champion,
the Old Town and the New Town is and has delivered
videos, and EnglishCentral.com allows presentations on
totally different, but both are incredibly learners to listen to speeches before teaching IELTS at events
beautiful. (A) I guess that’s why I love in the UK on behalf of
recording themselves performing them. the British Council and
living here.’ Websites like Voxopop.com allow teachers the IELTS partnership.
One way the learners can improve their to set up class groups where learners can [email protected]
accuracy is to record themselves and record themselves and listen to and give
then transcribe their recordings. They feedback to their peers.


Saturday 21 June 2014
 Holiday Inn, Brighton


For programme and booking details

see page 53 or go to
www.etprofessional.com
 More tested lessons, suggestions, tips and techniques which have all
worked for ETp readers. Try them out for yourself – and then send us
your own contribution. Don’t forget to include your postal address.
All the contributors to It Works in Practice in this issue of ETp will
receive a copy of Writing Skills, by Sam McCarter and Norman Whitby,
published by Macmillan. Macmillan have kindly agreed to be sponsors
of It Works in Practice for this year.

Get in the picture Trendy sentences

As teachers, we all know how difficult it is to keep The worksheet on page 39 can be used to practise the language
teenage students talking in English. This is a brief used to describe trends in charts and graphs. This is particularly
ten-minute task which is aimed at getting them to talk useful for students taking the IELTS exam, as they will need this
freely. It could be used as a warm-up activity or as the skill in the Writing paper.
main speaking focus of the lesson. You will need to find
Make copies of the worksheet and cut each one up into a set of
some interesting pictures on topics your students are
separate cards. There are several ways you can use these.
likely to be interested in, such as technology, society,
gender, nature, etc. Ideally, some of the pictures should 1 Use the cards for a standard gapfill. Give pairs of students
be a little strange, with odd colours or cropped so the one set of cards and ask them to work together to match the
perspective is different from the original. words with the correct sentences.

Use a computer and projector to display the pictures 2 Play a competitive game.
on a screen.
a) Put the students in groups of four. Divide one set of cards
Try to elicit as much vocabulary as possible about per group into two piles: sentences and words. Give each
each picture. student in a group five sentence cards. The word cards are
put face down in a pile in the centre of the table.
Then, get the students to imagine that each picture is
a mirror and that they are, therefore, inside the b) The first student turns over a word card. If it matches any
picture. of their sentences they put the sentence and the card
down on the table, and the other students have to agree
Get them to tell a story about where they are and
that it is a match. If it doesn’t match, the card is put
why, and to describe what they can see around them.
face up on the table next to the pile of word cards.
You can also ask them to give each picture a title and
c) The next student can take the face-up card if it matches
say why they have chosen it.
one of their sentences and put the completed sentence
Finally, they can talk about whether they like or on the table, again getting the others to agree that it
dislike any of the pictures, and why. fits. If it doesn’t match, they take the next card from
Graciela Juretich the face-down pile. If that card matches one of their
Guatraché, Argentina sentence, they put the completed sentence down on the
table. If it doesn’t, they put the card down face up next
to the pile of word cards.

IT WORKS IN PRACTICE d) Each time a completed sentence is placed on the table,

Do you have ideas you’d like to share with colleagues the other students have to agree that it is correct.
around the world? Tips, techniques and activities; The winner is the student who completes their
simple or sophisticated; well-tried or innovative; something sentences first.
that has worked well for you? All published contributions Alexandra Jelobenko
receive a prize! Write to us or email: Almaty, Kazakhstan
[email protected]

38 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 Trendy sentences
In recent years, there have been wild The financial crisis has meant that there
........... in the production of sugar in the has been a sudden ........... in research
fluctuations decrease
region because of unstable weather investment.
conditions.

The ........... in ice cream consumption

DVD sales went ........... suddenly when
during the summer months was
people started watching films online.
attributed to the fact that the weather fluctuation down
was boiling hot one minute and freezing
cold the next.

The development of new products Sales of flat-screen TVs tend to ...........

dropped ........... when the entire significantly before major sporting
sharply rise
research team was headhunted by a events such as the Olympics.
rival company.

Sales of games consoles levelled There was a ........... decrease in the

........... at the end of the Christmas sales of bananas following newspaper
off sudden
shopping period. reports of poisonous spiders found in
banana crates.

Sales of the company’s products

There has been a slow ........... in the
fluctuated considerably over the year,
import of manufactured goods as the
decline but the CEO said he was happy to upward
country’s own manufacturing industry
announce that the trend was generally
has started to recover.
........... .

Sales of the Talking Hamster reached a

The quality of the food in motorway
........... in December last year when it
service stations has ........... in recent
was the ‘must-have’ Christmas toy. The peak risen
years, and more people now say they
company hopes sales will recover when
are willing to stop and eat there.
it is relaunched as the Talking Meerkat.

The consumption of chocolate ice

Sales of Farmer Brown’s Deluxe Vanilla
cream rose ........... when a fashion
Ice Cream ........... significantly when it
fell magazine claimed that it could make dramatically
was revealed that it contained neither
you look younger – some shops had to
vanilla nor cream.
limit sales to one tub per customer.

The consumption of coffee rose ........... Sales of banana ice cream will ...........
from an average of four cups a day to considerably next year if the company’s
slightly rise
five. marketing strategy is successful.

By 2020, it is ........... that all the hotels By 2020, scientists ........... that many of
in the area will be using solar energy to the animals on the endangered list will
expected predict
heat their swimming pools. have become extinct.

The number of people out of work rose Sales of tours to the region have ...........
from ........... 65,000 to 78,000 over the recently. The increase in the number of
approximately fallen
period. cases of malaria has been blamed.

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 39

Quick,
TESTING

quick, slow
F
Ted Kelsey sees the or a number of years, our System 1 may say how he feels when
school has used speaking he thinks about dying dolphins. His
benefits of understanding the examinations to assign levels to answer is so passionate and
incoming students. Recently, a convincing that even the teacher
decision-making process new version of the exam was developed, forgets the original question.
with new procedures to follow. Because System 2 is the quiet deliberative
when undertaking evaluation. staff would be given additional training, student who thinks about the answer
it was also an opportunity to look at carefully. When it is time for maths,
speaking exams with fresh eyes. At the fast System 1 does the simple addition
time, I was reading the best-selling book problems, while slow System 2 does
Thinking, Fast and Slow. In it, Nobel the long division. However, System 2
Prize winning economist Daniel is lazy. If he doesn’t have to work, he
Kahneman documents research into the won’t. Put slow System 2 into a group
ways people make evaluative decisions with fast System 1 and he is happy to
– very similar to the decisions that use System 1’s answers, whenever they
speaking examiners make. seem reasonable.
The central thesis is that there are
two systems at work in any decision. In the past, we essentially instructed our
Kahneman is careful to note that the school’s teachers/examiners to use fast
two systems are simply metaphors: it is System 1 for speaking tests. We gave
impossible to X-ray the brain and them a question bank of progressively
identify where they are. However, they more difficult questions, but their final
are a useful way to describe what level recommendations were largely
happens when people need to solve a based on experience and gut-feeling.
problem or make a choice. Teachers knew the level system and our
students well. System 1, although quick
and dirty, seemed accurate enough.
Two systems The teachers’ System 1 evaluations
Think of your brain as a classroom: were aligned to a standard by using two
System 1 is the student who raises his examiners, scoring independently and
hand immediately and practically then comparing answers. The multiple-
jumps out of his seat for every choice test that the students also took
question. He always has an answer was our proxy for the deliberative
and gets all the easy questions right. process characterised by slow System 2.
He may get the correct answer to The teachers were, in effect, only
harder questions, too … kind of. double-checking the results of this test.
Sometimes his answers don’t exactly It was proposed that our new
match the questions the teacher asks. evaluation test would be given by one
For example, when the teacher asks teacher, not two, and I thought about
how much money they should how Kahneman’s insights might help us
contribute to save endangered species, to increase the new test’s reliability. His

40 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

book seemed to suggest specific exercises their answers, despite being fully aware picture, while others found themselves
in the training of examiners that might of the test’s problems. focusing on certain descriptors that they
improve their results or, as part of This shows the risk of inaccurate felt were more important.
professional development, help us to heuristics becoming institutionalised
think about what was going on when we and relied upon. Educational Affective heuristics
evaluated students. institutions should stay conscious of the
fact that how well people perform in a This led to a discussion of another
potentially misleading heuristic – charm.
Heuristics brief interview may or may not predict
I think we would all admit that sometimes
how well they will perform in class. I
According to Kahneman, our snap tend to think it can be a good estimate. we are in danger of augmenting our
judgements are often faulty. One of his However, we have to admit that it is a impression of a person’s aptitude, based
most salient examples involves a heuristic, whatever its face validity. on their personal charm and how much
description of an imaginary person we like them. As in the example with
named Julie. Ben and Alan, System 1 steps in most
The halo effect commonly when the issue has some
Julie is currently a senior in a state
university. To illustrate another phenomenon, emotional resonance. The trend is known
She read fluently when she was four years Kahneman cites research by Solomon as an affective heuristic, when feelings
old. Asch and asks the reader to consider the are substituted for subtler judgement.
What is her grade point average (GPA)? personalities of two people: As examiners, the danger of the
Alan: intelligent – industrious – impulsive affective heuristic may be worse when
The fact is that no one can really answer
– critical – stubborn – envious we allow fast System 1 to change the
the question about her GPA. There are
question. In the above example, How
many reasons why she might have a low Ben: envious – stubborn – critical –
quickly will this student progress? has
GPA. A little extra information, such as impulsive – industrious – intelligent
been substituted for What level is this
the idea that Julie has problems with Reading the same words in a different student now? The second question is the
authority and traditional education, or order, the chances are that the reader stated purpose of the exam and is,
has poor study skills, or is terrible at has a better feeling about Alan than therefore, the question the examiners
maths, changes the results completely. Ben. Each word provides a ‘halo effect’ should be thinking about.
But most of us find ourselves ‘filling in on the word that follows. Most people
the blanks’. Our System 1 quickly
decides how clever Julie must be, based
create a kind of narrative in which Anchoring
industrious Alan has a reason for being
on her childhood reading level, makes stubborn, while envious Ben has been up The results of the written test were known
an estimate of the degree of her to no good from the start! This halo in advance for some students, because
cleverness, such as ‘higher than normal’, effect is stronger because the words are other schools had decided to share these
and applies that idea of ‘higher than emotional and are reacted to by System 1, results with the speaking test examiners.
normal’ to the question about her grades. the part of the brain that makes snap Kahneman’s arguments against doing so
In effect, we are answering a totally judgements. are convincing. He illustrates a
different question. In our speaking exams, we have to phenomenon known as anchoring, using
The substitution of one question for be sensitive to the same dynamic. Our an experiment in which some subjects are
another (usually an easier-to-answer first impressions can potentially have a asked to consider two questions and
question) is called a heuristic. halo effect on our subsequent answer the second one, and others are
According to Kahneman, heuristics impressions. When training a group of asked the second question without seeing
are a key reason why many tests lack teachers, I presented half the group with the first:
validity. He provides the further example this description: Was Gandhi more or less than 144 years
of an evaluation of Israeli army officer old when he died?
candidates. The candidates were in a Smart – fluent – good vocabulary range
– average listening comprehension – How old was Gandhi when he died?
leaderless group and had to organise
themselves to scale a wall. Members of inaccurate grammar – poor pronunciation The patently absurd first question about
the psychological unit would then make The other half received this: Gandhi’s age has an interesting effect on
recommendations about their leadership those questioned. When the misleading
Shy – poor pronunciation – inaccurate
potential, based on their observed question is included, people tend to
grammar – average listening
behaviour. guess an older age for Gandhi. No one
comprehension – good vocabulary range
In fact, most members of the thinks he died as a young man, yet 144
– fluent
psychological unit knew that their years is clearly too old. Nevertheless,
recommendations had little validity and I asked them to score the student considering the idea that he might have
that they were often wrong. It was a according to how quickly they would died at 144 colours people’s responses,
poor heuristic. The way that the soldiers progress in our school. so that people who read that number are
performed on the challenge of scaling a Even if the halo effect was not inclined to guess 80 years old rather
wall did not match the demands that always dramatic, when the teachers than 60 years old. Other examples of
they would face as officers. Despite this, compared sheets they quickly saw how this phenomenon include judges asked
the examiners continued to use this first impressions and other factors could to roll dice before pronouncing sentence,
method of evaluation, and spent a great change our evaluations. Some people with those who see a three giving lower
deal of time and energy deliberating on talked about seeing the values as a full sentences than those who see a nine; and

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 41

Quick,
anchoring, our teachers seemed aware future are almost always fated to be less
of the dangers of having preconceptions accurate. Just as with predictions about
before actually meeting the students. the weather or the economy next year,

quick, slow Objective evaluation

Kahneman tells the story of another
experts are often wrong. They can be
good at forecasting the immediate future,
but often overestimate their ability to
estate agents making significantly higher predict the future at any distance.
estimates of the value of a house after psychometric test in use at one time in Therefore, once a subjective test
reading a booklet with a high asking the Israeli military. An interview was becomes a prediction of future success, it
price on the property. What is perhaps used to determine which branch of the becomes less valid. So examiners have to
most unsettling is that Kahneman found military best suited the personality of concentrate on the moment, and must be
experts to be the strongest deniers of the each candidate. The interviewers asked a discouraged from creating stories in their
effect of anchoring, with most insisting wide range of questions before making a minds (she is very talkative, she is sure to
that they don’t allow it to influence their recommendation. Kahneman added a make friends and learn quickly) that play
decisions, even when the evidence simple statistical measure to the process upon the natural inclination to remember
indicates otherwise. by asking the interviewers to rate the exceptions and exceptional stories.
Anchoring is exactly the phenomenon candidates according to six personality I thought it was important to free our
we might want to avoid when giving traits. After considering these traits teachers from the idea that they had the
examiners the scores in advance. separately, they were instructed to close deciding vote, by deliberately reminding
However, there are administrative reasons their eyes and give a recommendation. them that their interview was only one
for overlooking, perhaps even exploiting, In his experience, the intuitive System 1 factor among others that determined a
its effects. Often a school simply wants ratings became more accurate as a student’s level placement – not just
to check whether a score is accurate. The result. By rating the traits separately, the because this was true, but because it
student’s programme of study may even examiners consciously employed slow could lead to more valid assessments. It is
have been set in advance of the speaking System 2, and this checked, perhaps one way to keep the examiner’s eye on the
test, and the test is only meant to anchored, the results from System 1. student in front of them – not who that
identify large discrepancies between oral student might become tomorrow.
and written abilities. In fact, it seems speaking examiners
One would hope that awareness of Just as with need to take their examinations
anchoring would be enough to counter predictions about the seriously, and at the same time, make a
it. However, that does not seem to be the decision lightly! This is a fine line to
case. The only compensatory technique weather or the economy tread, I think.
that Kahneman offers comes from the
psychologists Adam Galinsky and
next year, experts are
Thomas Mussweiler’s studies of often wrong Using System 1 for evaluation can work
negotiations. If a person searches their
memory for arguments against the well when the decision-maker is
anchor, and keeps those arguments in experienced and well-trained, but I
The idea of a rubric or statistical-
mind, the effect is reduced or eliminated. believe that an important part of
based evaluation is not rare in
System 2, the more deliberative system, training is looking at the thinking
education. Kahneman proposes that in
wakes up and takes over. process itself. If your institution employs
most situations, almost any common-
As an administrator, I considered a speaking test, reading Kahneman’s
sense rubric is better than a purely
different methods that might counter the book may or may not revolutionise your
System 1 judgement. In our school, we
effect of anchoring while keeping the exam. However, I recommend it to
could include scores for pronunciation,
administrative value of sharing the anyone looking for new insights into
vocabulary, understanding/listening and
results of the written test in advance. I what may be going on psychologically in
grammar accuracy that were already
could give instructions to ‘find ways that the moments in which we make a
used in school in another context.
the level is wrong’ to examiners. decision about a student’s level.
However, there was another dynamic
Alternatively, the students could be put at work. The Israeli military examiners
into conversation groups based on their were told that their score would not be the Kahneman, D Thinking, Fast and Slow
Penguin 2012
test scores, and the examiners could be final judgement. It was one score among
instructed to identify those students who others, evaluated by an outside party.
Ted Kelsey is a writer
did not fit in. They were making a recommendation, and teacher with ESOL
Following feedback during staff with the understanding that it would be experience in a variety
of contexts. He is the
training, we decided to keep the written considered together with other factors. Curriculum Manager
test scores secret and did a blind test. According to Kahneman, this was for EF International
Language Center in
Before even discussing anchoring, our an important dynamic. When people are New York, and a
teachers preferred blind tests, based on called on to make an evaluation based Cambridge English
Speaking Examiner for
their own experiences in the classroom on expertise, they are inclined to create the FCE, CAE and CPE.
and as examiners. Regardless of narratives that overweight some factors.
Kahneman’s findings about the inability Evaluations become predictions, and
of experts to recognise the influence of studies show that predictions about the [email protected]

42 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

S U G G E S T I O N S F R O M T H E S TA F F R O O M 2
Sasha Wajnryb offers some classroom-tested tips to invigorate your lessons.

Teaching materials
T
he staffroom can be the source of the cloud allows you to access them 6 Download materials
a wealth of knowledge for all anywhere you have an internet connection. Many websites offer free ELT materials.
teachers. Both new and veteran Find a filing system that works for you, Do some googling and find some
teachers can take advantage of the years such as categorising by coursebook, by websites that you particularly like. As you
of experience and the varied teaching level or by skill/activity. You’ll be grateful download materials that appeal to you,
styles that other teachers can offer. when you can easily find and reuse the don’t forget to file them! Label them
This series mirrors a friendly materials you have already filed. Of clearly – you may remember now that that
staffroom environment where teachers course, as you reuse them, you can also ‘bucket list’ lesson with 50 things to have
share and access useful tips on how improve and customise the materials. done before you are 30 is fantastic for
best to meet the needs of their students. revising the future perfect. However, you
The ideas you read here have been 2 Share lessons
may not remember it in six months’ time.
proposed by experienced teachers from Talk with other teachers who are teaching
a busy ESL college in Sydney, Australia. the same level as you, or those who have 7 Personalise your lessons
The tips in this issue of ETp concern taught it previously. Work together, and Find out what your students are interested
your teaching materials. share your lessons. You’ll end up trying in. Use this information to customise your
lessons that you normally wouldn’t have existing lessons. If you choose topics your
thought of. In some staffrooms, three or students are already interested in, they are
Many pre-service training courses focus four teachers who are teaching the same more likely to be engaged by your lessons.
on the valuable skill of designing and level might prepare a lesson each and
then share them, significantly reducing 8 Survey your students periodically
creating your own materials. However,
each teacher’s preparation time. Find out what lessons and materials your
sorting through existing materials and
students like. Anonymous surveys can
deciding if you can use them with your 3 Less is often more provide valuable and genuine feedback.
learners is equally important. With such It can be tempting to use many different These can include questions on whether
an enormous variety of materials materials during a lesson. While bouncing your students want more, less or the
available, there is often no need to from one set of materials to another may same amount of different types of
reinvent the wheel and create your own boost the energy of some classes, it can lessons. Higher-level classes can do a
lessons from scratch. also create an unconnected sequence of ‘critique the coursebook’ activity.
Reviewing materials and determining activities. Instead, by designing a series of
whether they are ‘ready to go’, ‘useful but related activities around one set of 9 Keep your students’ needs in mind
need to be modified’ or ‘not appropriate’ materials, you can fully exploit the learning Work towards meeting your students’
will enable you to save time preparing opportunities they offer. For example, a goals. If they need to pass an exam, show
materials, as well as helping you teach a reading comprehension can be preceded them that your grammar lesson will benefit
wide variety of lessons. by a warm-up discussion on the topic, and them because one of the criteria for the
Start by reviewing the existing course followed by getting the students to act out exam is variety and accuracy of grammar.
materials. Will they serve your learners new vocabulary, debate an issue from the By ‘selling’ your lesson as meeting your
well? Are they authentic? Interesting? reading, complete a dictogloss activity on students’ needs, you are more likely to get
Stimulating? Where possible, speak to the topic and attempt some relevant them to believe in its value.
other teachers who have used them and guided writing.
find out what they think. Do you have the 10 Work backwards
autonomy to adapt the set materials, or 4 Be selective Find out what your students’ goals are for
even select your own materials that meet It is better to familiarise yourself with a when the course is over. What do they
the course’s stated goals? smaller number of materials than try to want to have achieved? What will they do
Many popular textbooks have look through everything. Which ten books afterwards? Ensure your materials help
accompanying teacher’s books and would you take with you if you were them to meet these goals.
websites that offer additional resources. teaching on an island in the middle of
Sasha Wajnryb teaches
Teacher’s notes can help you to make the nowhere? Ask other teachers about their adult international
most of materials, but do not feel favourite books. students in a large
college in Australia. He
constrained by them. Exploring ‘tangents’ has worked in ELT for
in the classroom can create valuable 5 Do some careful analysis 15 years as a teacher,
If you have a set book that you have to academic manager and
learning opportunities. consultant.
use, analyse it carefully! No single book is
1 File everything! perfect for all students in all contexts.
Store hard-copy materials in folders. File However, a good teacher can extract the
If you want to share an idea in the ETp
soft-copy materials carefully (and make a best out of any materials – though community staffroom, feel free to email it to
backup!). Keeping a copy of materials in sometimes it can be a challenge! [email protected].

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 43

Reviews
Example sentences. There are
Visual Grammar (Elementary)
plenty of these, usually
by Jim Scrivener
accompanied by eye-catching
Richmond 2013
and relevant photos, which help
978-84-668-1529-1
demonstrate the meaning.
This very attractive book, aimed at Diagrams. These show how the
elementary-level students and intended language works – for example,
for both self-study and classroom use, where word order changes.
addresses the important question of how They include the timelines for
we can get our students to understand showing the meaning of tenses.
and internalise the grammar that we Exercises. A range of different
teach them. Each section is headed by a exercise types give the
statement beginning I can ..., thereby students a chance to practise
mirroring the ‘can-do’ statements of the using the language and
CEFR, and presenting the learning of encourage them to be creative
grammar in terms of achievement and in their use of it.
success, rather than as an uphill struggle.
About you. Exercises with
The fact that the sections are short
this heading require a
(usually one page, sometimes two) also
personal response from the
makes the information ‘bite-sized’ and
students, using the target
easily accessible.
language.
However, where this book really
succeeds is in the quality of the The tough one. Exercises
illustrations, photographs and diagrams, with this heading are more
which give a visual representation of how challenging.
English grammar works. As the author Internet quiz. This heading indicates that also be used with a teacher on study
says in his introductory address to the some online research will be needed to skills courses.
student: ‘Grammar practice doesn’t have find the answers. Learning to write well-structured
to be boring!’ This book even gives the essays, reports and case studies in the
Wordpool. In these exercises, the
impression that it might be fun! The style expected by academic institutions is
students have to make sentences from a
timelines which demonstrate the probably one of the hardest tasks that
mixture of different words.
sequence and meaning of the different such students face. This book takes the
tenses are particularly successful, and The book includes a code, giving access students step-by-step through the
teachers who have struggled to draw to the Richmond Learning Platform, process of producing an acceptable piece
their own timelines on the board will find where the teacher can assign and track of writing, from the basics of interpreting
these invaluable. The text explanations activities. A Teacher’s Digital Book is also an essay question or understanding a
are clear and helpful, too. available for use on an Interactive writing task set by a tutor, through to
Returning to the section headed ‘To Whiteboard. structuring a piece of writing correctly,
the student’ at the beginning of the book, Louisa Judge getting the register right, referencing
I think this was a really good idea. Here, Toulouse, France sources, avoiding plagiarism and tailoring
the students are given a simple but Subscribers can get a 12.5% discount the writing to the expected reader. Along
unpatronising explanation of why on this book. Go to the ETp website the way, the book also addresses
grammar is important and what they need and quote ETPQR0314 at the language issues, such as punctuation, the
to know; it also includes a clear checkout. use of articles and common errors.
explanation, aided by visuals, of some of Throughout the book, there are
the terms that many other textbooks examples of good writing style, and poor
assume that students already know and Writing: Learn to write better examples to be corrected. However,
understand: collocation, chunks, academic essays examples alone are seldom enough to
contractions, third person, comparative, by Els Van Geyte help students navigate the minefield of
etc. This section is followed by an Collins 2013 academic expectations. They need to
explanation of the different features of the 978-0-00-750710-8 know why they are required to present
book and how it works. Each new section their work in a certain way and why one
has a selection of the following elements: Part of the Collins Academic Skills series, expression or sentence is better than
this is essentially a self-study book aimed another. The explanations here are very
A blue grammar box. This shows the at international students studying or helpful because they are not only easy to
students how to ‘make the grammar’. The preparing to study at English-medium understand, but they also go into the
boxes contain rules and examples. colleges or universities, though it could reasons why something is wrong or why

44 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

Reviews
another way of expressing it would be
Reading for Advanced
preferred. The answer key also provides
series editors Malcolm Mann
full explanations, rather than simply
and Steve Taylore-Knowles
listing the answers.
Macmillan 2014
The annotated essays in Appendix 1,
978-0-23-046204-5
which is called ‘Taking your writing up to
the next level’, will be extremely useful to This is one of the books in the
academic students. There are both Advanced level series of
positive comments and negative Macmillan’s extensive Improve your
comments in the margins of these Skills range, which helps students
essays, so students can see both what develop their skills for a number of
they can use as a model and what they international exams. The Advanced
should avoid. There is also help in level series is edited by Malcolm
Appendix 2 on interpreting marking Mann and Steve Taylore-Knowles,
criteria and understanding and and the books are aimed at helping
responding to feedback received on a students who are preparing to take
piece of writing. the ‘Cambridge English: Advanced’
The emphasis is always on making it exam to develop their reading,
clear what university staff expect from writing, listening and speaking skills.
their students and how the students can The books can be used for self-study
make sure that they meet these or with a class, and the units focus on
expectations to the best of their ability. acquisition of that skill has an immediate
developing particular skills, which are
Because of this, I believe that this book pay-off in enhancing the student’s ability
then related to an exam practice exercise.
will be invaluable in helping international to answer the exam question correctly.
Mastery of the skill in the first part of the
students take on the challenge of The answer key provides full
unit helps a long way towards
academic writing. explanations as to why the answers are
accomplishing the final task.
correct, something that is particularly
Subscribers can get a 12.5% discount In the course of its 12 units, Reading
useful with gapped-text exercises, where
on this book. Go to the ETp website for Advanced teaches reading for gist,
even native speakers like me often
and quote ETPQR0314 at the distinguishing main ideas from supporting
struggle to decide which missing
checkout. details, understanding attitude and
paragraph goes where – and why.
opinion, understanding implication and
At the same time as teaching the
deducing the meaning of unfamiliar
various reading skills, this book also
words, together with a host
exposes the students to vocabulary on a
of other important reading
range of topics which they are likely to
skills that most teachers
encounter in the exam. There are also
would acknowledge that
Skills tip boxes, giving useful information
their students need to
about the exam and ideas and strategies
acquire – sometimes without
for approaching the exam reading tasks.
having a very firm grasp of
Andrew Dupré
how that acquisition can best
Lancaster, UK
be accomplished.
By breaking the learning of Subscribers can get a 12.5% discount
each skill down into small on this book. Go to the ETp website
manageable chunks and and quote ETPQR0314 at the
enabling the students to checkout.
practise on small discrete
sections of text first, the book
both demonstrates the finer Reviewing
points of how the language
works and prepares the students for ETp
well for the greater challenge of Would you like to review books
doing the exam practice task or other teaching materials for ETp?
which ends each chapter. These We are always looking for people who
tasks have been carefully chosen are interested in writing reviews
to provide an opportunity for the for us. Please email
target skill to be used, [email protected]
demonstrating clearly how

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 45

There is hardly a One of the most recognised

Colour
sequences of colour is that
conversation when it displayed in traffic lights, where
doesn’t come up.
on the brain
red means stop, yellow means
caution and green means go.
It quite literally colours our
(We often speak of someone
thinking; it has great cultural and Some brains don’t deal with colour very well,
being ‘given the green light’
emotional significance. Most of all, giving rise to the expression colour-blind. Contrary
when we mean that they have
it gives rise to colourful and to the sound of this description, it doesn’t mean
been given permission to go
illustrative expressions that shade that people with that condition see life as if on an
ahead and do something.)
our language. It refers, of course, old TV set! There are various kinds of colour-
to colour itself, as you might have The three colours, representing blindness, which make the distinction between
guessed! stop, caution and go, are used certain colours hard. One of the commonest
extensively to cover all sorts of problems occurs in distinguishing between red
In one sense, the scientists tell us,
subjects. So that’s all fine, then!
it doesn’t actually exist! The and green, which apparently take on different tints
Except …
appearance of the things that of the same colour. Very confusing!
surround us in everyday life is … in Japan, although their traffic One consequence of this was that the colours of
governed by the reflections of light lights look identical to those in
the insulation in wiring in the UK had to be
off them in selective wavelengths, other countries, the word used for
changed: originally the ‘live’ cable was a healthy
which our eyes and brain interpret the ‘go’ colour translates as ‘blue’
warning red, while the ‘earth’ was green and the
and call ‘red’, ‘green’, ‘blue’, etc. and is the same word they use to
‘neutral’ was, well, neutral brown. However,
However correct that is, it’s describe the colour of the sky on
because that gave some people problems in
distinctly unhelpful, and a lot less a fine day.
distinguishing between them, the live was
fun – so we shall continue to
… and to some folk, such as those changed to brown, the neutral to blue, and the
assume that it does exist!
who suffer from one of the forms earth acquired some fetching yellow stripes!
of colour-blindness, what most of
At the other end of the spectrum (sorry!), there are
us call ‘red’ might actually appear
those whose brains work overtime in their
quite differently.
response to colour. These people are
‘synaesthetes’, and there is a wonderful direct
cross-reference made in their brains. While this
can occur between any two senses, it is most
commonly found between colour and either
characters (letters or numbers) or sound, usually
music. It means that when the synaesthete sees a
particular character or hears a particular sound,
they immediately ‘see’ a colour associated with it.
I am green with envy of such a gift!
However, there are some colour associations
which are not so happy. Some time ago,
experiments were conducted to see the effect of
© Vorobyeva / Shutterstock.com

colouring food in different ways. It was found that

blue mashed potato ‘tasted terrible’. A dish that
had blue meat and various bright blue vegetables
on it didn’t even make it to the tasting stage!

46 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 Colour Colour in medicine
on your mind and therapy py).
so called chromathera
Synaesthesia or no, many colours trigger
lou rs are so me tim es used in therapy (al ord ers or
Co have brain dis
emotions in us, often by association. The
to ha ve a hu ge effect on people who
They se em calming effect and
combination of red, white and blue symbolises
oti on ally tro ub led . The colour blue has a
who are em d has the opposite eff
ect.
patriotism in the UK and the USA, by association d blood pressure. Re
lowers respiration an relax emotion ally dis turbed
with the colours in their respective flags. green to soothe and
Some therapists use on.
Seasons also have their own ‘flags’: Christmas is m anxiety or depressi
people who suffer fro
often conjured up by the thought of reds and
greens together, winter is evoked by the colour

Colour jokes
white (for snow), and the oranges, yellows and
browns of the turning leaves signal autumn.
There is much colour symbolism in many 1 What’s red and bad for your teeth? (red = read)

cultures, with some interesting reverses. In some

6 A newspaper
2 What’s yellow and doesn’t float? 5 A carrot
countries, black is the colour of death and, breath
therefore, of mourning. In others, a common 3 What’s blue and smells like red paint? holding its

colour for mourning is white. Similarly, in some

4 An elephant
4 What’s bright blue and very heavy? 3 Blue paint
countries brides often wear bright clothes,
5 What’s bright orange and sounds like a parrot?
2 A bulldozer
whereas in others, white is the traditional colour. 1 A brick
6 What’s black and white and red all over? Answers
Here are some examples of the connotations
that colours have in different cultures. Which are
closest to the way they are regarded in your
culture?
Colourful language
Red The English languag
e has many idioms tha
Positive: Excitement, energy, passion, power, t involve colours.
Can you correct the
following idioms?
happiness, prosperity, courage, I told him until I was pin
wealth, good luck k in the face not to mi
it only came along on ss the yellow opportu
ce in a grey moon. nity as
Negative: aggression, danger, fire, blood,
war, anger, violence He replied that I was jus
t beige with envy, and
born with a golden sp just because he had be
oon in his mouth, I sho en
Yellow uldn’t be purpled off wit
h him.
Positive: joy, happiness, sunshine
wned off with him.
Negative: betrayal, cowardice, deceit, illness silver spoon in his mo
uth, I shouldn’t be bro
just because he had bee
n born with a
just gre en wit h env y, and
He replied tha t I wa s
Purple along once in a blue mo
on.
s the golden opportunity
as it only came
e in the face not to mis
I told him until I was blu
Positive: royalty, nobility, wisdom Answer
Negative: cruelty, mourning

Colour in class
White
Positive: reverence, purity, peace, marriage
Negative: death, cold, winter, cowardice There is a photocopiable quiz on page 48 that you might like to do
yourself or use with your students. The answers are below.
Green
Positive: freshness, nature, 6b 5c 4 made up 3a 2d 1 made up D True colours?
good luck, hope, safety 6 grey (a grey area = a situation where there are no clear rules or answers)
Negative: jealousy, greed, inexperience green light = given permission to go ahead) 5 red (red tape = bureaucracy)
printed and, therefore, official) 3 pink (tickled pink = delighted) 4 green (given the

Black
C Colour completions 1 blue (black and blue = bruised) 2 white (black and white =
8b 7a 6a 5c 4d 3d 2b 1c B Body parts
Positive: prestige, power, elegance in the green, ie with leaves on) 4 b
Negative: mystery, evil, anger, death, A In colour 1 c 2 d 3 a (a horticultural term; some bulbs should be transplanted

mourning, depression Answers

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 47

 Colourful language quiz
The English language is full of idioms that involve colour. See if you can do this quiz.
When you have finished, discuss with a partner any colour idioms in your own language.
Translate them and their meanings into English and teach them to the rest of the class.

A In colour 7 To wear rose-tinted spectacles

Match the idioms 1–4 with their meanings a–d. a to view things in an overly optimistic way

1 in the black a with leaves on b to have red eyes after drinking too much alcohol

2 in the pink b in debt c to have failing eyesight as a result of growing old

3 in the green c with money in the bank d to have very poor fashion sense

4 in the red d healthy 8 To get a golden handshake

a to make friends with someone who is rich and famous
B Body parts b to receive a lot of money when you leave a job
Choose the correct meaning for each colour idiom. c to negotiate successfully in a business deal
1 To do something until you are blue in the face d to win something (eg a lottery) when you didn’t
a to exhaust yourself by taking too much physical exercise expect to
b to work hard until you have paid off your debts
c to do something again and again without achieving your aim
C Colour completions
d to work outside until the weather forces you to give up Can you complete these sentences with the right
colours?
2 To have blue blood
1 I fell off my bicycle yesterday and now I’m black
a to have the ability to withstand very cold temperatures and ____________ .
b to be born into an aristocratic family 2 I won’t believe it until I see it in black and ____________ .
c to be a very cold and unemotional person
3 I was tickled ____________ when I won first prize for
d to be a teacher’s favourite student my painting.
3 To be a blue-eyed boy 4 We were delighted when our building application was
a to be sad and depressed in character given the ____________ light.

b to be very surprised by something 5 Getting permission from the authorities was very
complicated; there was a lot of ____________ tape
c to be a weak child in an otherwise healthy family
involved.
d to be given special favours by someone in authority
6 This is a very ____________ area; there are many possible
4 To have green fingers answers.
a to be jealous of other people’s good fortune
b to be very good at art D True colours?
c to be very good at making money Match these animal idioms with the meanings below.
Be careful – two of the idioms are made up.
d to be able to grow plants successfully
1 a goat with a yellow tail
5 To be green around the gills
2 a white elephant
a to be fresh and new
3 a red herring
b to look like a fish
4 a blue toad
c to look sick
5 a horse of a different colour
d to be a good swimmer
6 a black sheep
6 To be caught red-handed a a false clue, intended to mislead or distract
a to be discovered doing something bad or illegal b a disreputable member of an otherwise respectable
b to be tricked into doing something you didn’t want to do family
c to be arrested for making counterfeit banknotes c something that is another matter entirely
d to lose all your money to a swindler d a possession that creates more trouble than it is worth

48 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com • Scrapbook compiled by Ian Waring Green
 From the publisher of

Teaching Teaching
English One English with
to One Drama
By Priscilla Osborne By Mark Almond
This practical book This book shows you
provides an analysis how to understand the
of the advantages benefits of acting skills
and disadvantages of and improve learning
teaching students on a by using drama, plays
one-to-one basis and and theatre techniques
will enable you to: in your lessons and
• Develop a learner needs analysis covers a wide range of
• Produce learner profiles subjects for teachers
• Plan effective courses including how to:
• Use the learner as a resource. • Plan drama-related class work
208 pages ISBN: 1-904549-03-9 £14.95 • Choose appropriate texts and modify dialogue
for different levels of students
• Work with theatrical techniques
• Make the best of stage management
• Put on a play, with a step-by-step guide.
140 pages ISBN: 1-904549-12-8 £14.95

Teaching Lessons in Your

English with IT Rucksack
By David Gordon By John Hughes
Smith and Eric Baber An exciting practical guide
This book shows how for newly-qualified teachers
to use information and teachers embarking on
technology when a gap year.
teaching English and
is packed full of practical This book is packed with ideas,
ideas, so you can: tips and advice on how to
• Use IT in your teaching in the most effective way construct and manage lessons
• Find IT-related activities that work with your lesson plans with nothing more than the basics
• Understand learning management systems ... in your rucksack.
• Manage IT issues. A pack of cards, pens, maps,
Topics covered include: email; websites; web-based activities; string, all play a part.
professional training online; text chat and much more. Includes real-life advice and stories from teachers and student
180 pages ISBN: 1-904549-01-2 £14.95 teachers about their experiences teaching around the world. This
is the perfect book for anyone working towards their first teacher’s
qualification, such as a Cert.TESOL or CELTA.

3
188 pages ISBN: 1-898789-14-7 £12.95

simple
simple ways
ways to
to order:
order:
• EMAIL: [email protected]
Pavilion Publishing and Media,
• CALL: the orders hotline on +44 (0) 1273 434 943 Rayford House, School Road,
Hove, East Sussex, BN3 5HX
• GO ONLINE: www.etprofessional.com
Ludicrous
IN THE CLASSROOM

language
Chris Payne irons his platypus.

‘A
s far as possible, teachers Sweet’s memory probably be able to recall the absurd
should try to avoid inventing question: ‘Why is a raven like a writing
examples in class. Do you In his thought-provoking book desk?’
agree? What justification can Translation in Language Teaching, Guy Adults living in the UK in the 1980s
you offer for inventing examples?’ Cook uncovers contradictions in Henry will surely recognise this newspaper
(Michael Lewis) Sweet’s criticism of invented sentences. headline: ‘Freddie Starr ate my hamster’.
Sweet refers to made-up sentences as It was published by the tabloid The Sun
unlikely examples of actual language use
Sweet memories which, in his view, ‘do not stamp
on March 13th 1986, and the
unexpectedness of the last word ensured
The question of whether we should themselves on the memory’. He quotes the it stood out – making it one of the most
invent language examples is a long- following example from one of his former memorable headlines of its decade.
standing talking point in ELT circles. teachers of Greek: ‘The philosopher
As long ago as 1899, in his book The pulled the lower jaw of the hen.’
Practical Study of Languages, the English Quite clearly, this outlandish sentence
Memorable words
scholar Henry Sweet mocked the use of is not representative of idiomatic usage. A brief digression into the field of
invented sentences. His disapproval of However, it was imprinted indelibly on memory experiments may perhaps provide
‘insipid, colourless combinations’ had an Henry Sweet’s memory, as his own us with a partial explanation for why
enduring effect on language teaching. At words bear witness: ‘a sentence which I ludicrous language is often so memorable.
the time, Sweet was an eminent and remembered long after I had forgotten all
Read the following list of words
influential phonetician, so much so that the rest of my Greek.’ ! once only. Then cover them up
he was believed by many to be the Thus, Sweet’s argument about the
and, on a separate piece of paper, write
inspiration for Professor Henry Higgins lack of memorability of invented
down as many words as you can
in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, sentences does not apply to his own
remember – in any order.
written in 1913. memorable example!
If we fast-forward to 2000, we can ‘The philosopher pulled the lower jaw cat house door bone hand
find further opposition to invented of the hen’ would be a ludicrous example shape pear back goat ball
sentences from Michael Lewis, who of English. Yet, interestingly, the more rain hill cut Von Restorff
laments the fact that language teaching absurd the meaning of a sentence is, the
rose life wind
has a history of inventing examples – more likely it is to be memorised
and warns that if you invent examples verbatim. This holds true for much The chances are you were able to recall
consisting of a one-clause sentence, they bizarre language, whether it is made up Von Restorff because, as a two-word
are surely very poor examples. or authentic. Now that you have read proper noun, it stands out from the
More recently, in Issue 73 of ETp, the example ‘philosopher’ sentence other one-syllable words. The tendency
Peter McFarlane questioned the twice, there is a strong possibility that to remember outstanding or surprising
usefulness of example sentences such as you will remember it. items on a list was identified by Hedwig
‘I was having a bath when the phone rang’, Recollection of the exact words in Von Restorff in 1933 during memory
indicating – correctly – that it is language an excerpt from a book is a tall order, experiments that she was conducting.
which you would seldom hear used. but anyone who has read Lewis Carroll’s The effect known as the ‘Von
Except, of course, in the classroom. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland will Restorff effect’ has since been found to

50 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

be true in other situations in which items flower comes not from the L2 classroom, used language but fail to select carefully
stand out in some way from those but from the real world of board games can unwittingly provide poor examples.
around them. It has been suggested that that are played by native speakers who Also, much everyday ‘real’ language is
the outstanding elements increase a are learning English. Silly Sentences and so prosaic that it is instantly forgettable,
person’s attention, which in turn leads to Very Silly Sentences, sold by DK Games, unlike bizarre made-up sentences, which
better retention. are board games in which players are stand out.
encouraged to make sentences – ‘the
Memorable teaching sillier the better’.
The games are fun and they help
What bearing does the observation A high percentage of the language used
children to learn about word class and
described have on language teaching? in classrooms comes from the teacher –
syntax, as well as complementing the
some estimates put the figure at 70 per
Examples of language could be National Curriculum. ELT author
cent. It is only natural for teachers at the
chosen for their memorability. Nick Bilbrough also espouses making
coalface to use ‘bespoke’ sentences some
tenses memorable by challenging
Teachers could exploit the fact that of the time, especially if we consider
learners to create silly examples in his
learners can often remember the that many of us have to teach with
activity Silly Grammar, in which the
precise words in a bizarre sentence coursebooks whose content needs
students brainstorm words in various
– by embedding useful grammar and adapting and tailoring for our classes.
categories (such as animal or person,
chunks of language in their crazy A hypothetical teacher who never
object, past form of intransitive verb),
created examples. used invented sentences would be denied
complete a table with them and then
Such unexpected examples of English the possibility of any kind of spontaneity
compete to write down the two silliest
can be presented to learners alongside and would be unable to personalise
sentences they can come up with, using
other more conventional ELT sentences language for a particular class. In
these words.
and authentic language, in an attempt to addition to authentic language, typical
highlight their saliency and activate the and bizarre invented sentences can also
Von Restorff effect. Teachers who contribute to the learning process.
For example, the teacher presents a As the saying goes, necessity is the
number of sentences that contain Would
favour real instances mother of invention.
you mind plus verb with -ing, which is of used language but
used when making polite requests: Bilbrough, N Memory Activities for
fail to select carefully Language Learning CUP 2011
1 Would you mind telling me what you’re
Cook, G Translation in Language Teaching
doing? (authentic) can unwittingly provide OUP 2010
2 Would you mind ironing my pink poor examples Cook, V Second Language Learning and
platypus? (invented) Language Teaching Hodder Education
2008
3 Would you mind opening the window, Lewis, M Teaching Collocation Thomson
please? (ELT material)
Reality rules! Heinle 2000
In these examples, the learners are being Russell, P The Brain Book Routledge 1980
exposed to a frequently-found and There is no doubt that learners need to
useful pattern of language, even in the be exposed to examples of real or Chris Payne is the
bizarre invented sentence. If the Von authentic language, so we should keep a owner of Paddington
School of English,
Restorff effect does indeed aid retention, close check on the content of our Linares, Spain. He is an
then students will remember ‘would you lessons. But this does not vindicate the experienced teacher
assumption that examples of language and a former Cambridge
mind ironing my …’, which is a perfectly English oral examiner
natural use of English when combined that are unlikely to occur in a non- and oral examiner
instructional setting are always bad trainer. He has written
with other words like shirt, skirt, etc. several published
The object of the exercise is for examples in the classroom. An analogy articles on ELT.
students to recall, in the short and long may help to illustrate this point.
term, that Would you mind is commonly We all unquestioningly accept the [email protected]
followed by a verb with the -ing form. If it idea that airline pilots need to carry out
turns out that Von Restorff has no effect part of their training in a flight
simulator. While we are aware that a
in this instance but, instead, the students
remember the authentic or typical ELT flight simulator is not the same as an It really worked
example of the target language, the aim actual aeroplane, we acknowledge the
benefits of using a simulator to help
for me!
of the exercise has still been fulfilled. Did you get inspired by something
pilots to learn to fly. Similarly, invented
sentences that simulate actual language you read in ETp? Did you do
Silly sentences use can serve as a good model for something similiar with your students?
The notion of using bizarre language for students – if chosen wisely. Did it really work in practice?
pedagogic purposes is not as contrived In fact, authentic is not synonymous Do share it with us ...
and inauthentic as it first appears. The with appropriate, so teachers who [email protected]
sentence The banana jumps over the overwhelmingly favour real instances of

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 51

C is for creativity
Brian Tomlinson begins a new extended article on ‘creativity for change’.

T
his is an extended article which slowly turned the rolling pin, and the Namibia then produced a text-driven
has been written by a group of engaged learners read the story as it was coursebook to implement the syllabus
language educators who are all gradually revealed on the screen. After a described above. This featured texts on
part of The ‘C’ Group: Creativity for while, she turned it faster and the learners topics requested by the learners, including
Change in Language Education, whose increased their reading speed. such normally taboo topics as drug abuse
aim is to facilitate creative change in 2 A teacher in an Indonesian secondary and marital violence.
language education. It will be published school with no books staggered into class 2 Teachers in a university in Oman
in ETp over several issues. Each author carrying an apparently heavy box. She replaced the conventional writing skills
wrote a part and then passed the article invited her class to come and look at their coursebook with their own experiential
on to the next author, and so on until the new library. When they complained that course of locally relevant materials.
article was complete. We hope we’ve the box was empty, she told them that for
achieved some coherence and, most homework each of them should find Creative examining
importantly, a stimulus to be creative. something interesting to read to put into 1 In Kobe University, examination
the box. All 40 learners did this (some by candidates had to think about ways of
What does creativity mean finding people with English-sounding solving the problem of water shortages,
to me? names in a telephone directory and visiting rewrite a page on water shortages aimed
their houses). By the end of term, there at primary pupils, design a water-saving
To me, creativity involves transcending
were 400 ‘texts’ in the library. device, and then write a letter and give a
the conventional norm. This could result
presentation about it ‘to an international
in something universally unique, or just in 3 In a teachers’ college in Vanuatu, I got
company’.
something which has never been done in a group of lower-intermediate domestic
that context before. science teachers to throw their unsuitable 2 In Vanuatu, the primary school leaving
In language education, not everything English coursebook out of the classroom examination was changed from a
conventional needs transcending. But window and then to spend three hours a conventional discrete-item test to a series
some of it does, and we need to keep on week for ten weeks writing a novel of communicative tasks. We then got the
transcending, anyway, in order to produce (beginning by visualising somebody teachers to write booklets of
something new – not necessarily to interesting in their village, and then writing communicative tasks at workshops
replace existing approaches, but to refresh about what the person was doing). My around the country, and the methodology
teachers and learners and stimulate them role was to give supportive feedback and of teaching English in the primary schools
to think and behave creatively, as well. provide language when it was needed. changed almost overnight.

What can creativity do? Creative teacher training

1 On the PKG Project in Indonesia, None of the creative enterprises described
When you are creative, you think and do
groups of teachers met every Monday at above resulted in miraculously increased
things differently. When you produce
somebody’s house for coffee. They language acquisition, but they all provided
things which are different, you can get
reviewed the materials used in class in increased enjoyment, whilst stimulating
other people to think and do things
the previous week, and wrote their own both teachers and learners to think and
differently, too. If you are a creative
materials for the following week. do things differently. The products were
curriculum developer, materials writer,
teacher, teacher trainer or examiner, you 2 On an initial teacher training course at creative but, more importantly, the
can stimulate language teachers and Language Resources in Kobe, in order to processes were creative too.
language learners to think and do things raise the trainees’ curiosity about ways of
teaching and learning language, we got This article will continue in Issue 93 of ETp,
which are usefully different. You can spark
with contributions from Jane Arnold and
vital energy and enthusiasm. them to develop their own materials at
Rod Bolitho.
Here are some examples of language the beginning of their course, before they
educators who responded creatively to received any instruction. Brian Tomlinson has been
a teacher, teacher trainer,
unsatisfactory situations: curriculum developer,
Creative curriculum and materials university academic and
Creative teaching development football coach in many
different countries. He is
1 A teacher in a primary school in Vanuatu, 1 In Namibia, a secondary school syllabus now a TESOL Professor
without any books, told her class that they was produced which didn’t present an at Anaheim University,
USA, and the President
had a television. She then sat them in front inventory of teaching points, but provided of MATSDA, the
of a cardboard box where she had a stimulus for the development of such Materials Development
Association. His
painted knobs and cut out a screen. She skills as creative and critical thinking, numerous publications
inserted into the box a rolling pin on which whilst engaging learners in ‘projects’ with focus mainly on materials
local relevance and educational value. A development.
she had rolled up a piece of paper with a
group of 30 secondary school teachers in [email protected]
local myth translated into English. She

52 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 Only £59.00
to attend,
book now!

Saturday 21 June 2014

Holiday Inn, Brighton
A one-day conference packed full
of practical ideas to improve your In conjunction with
teaching practice
ETp Live! brings the practical approach of English
Teaching professional to a one-day event, focusing
on enabling you to improve your practice.

Programme
: Jeremy Harmer – opening plenary
: Philip Kerr – The brave new world of adaptive learning
: Mark Almond – Drama: all bases covered
: Dennis Davy – London calling: practical ideas on how to use London
(or any other city) as the theme of a series of language lessons
To make sure you
Mike Hogan – Addressing the challenges of working in international don’t miss out, book
: virtual workplaces your place today:
: Catriona Johnson – Transposition: reworking original texts into new 1. EMAIL
versions [email protected]
: Anna Musielak – How to incorporate drama games, literature and
2. CALL the booking hotline on
popular culture in the classroom +44 (0) 1273 434 943
: Chia Suan Chong – Creating the right impression: the politeness and
3. GO ONLINE
pragmatics of ELF
www.etprofessional.com
: Antonia Clare – Love and the art of language learning
: Ken Wilson – Ten ways to get your students to DO something

Attending this counts towards your

continuing professional development
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

The best of
both worlds
S
Olga Filatova ince English is the most widely- (classroom) environment, have learnt it
spoken foreign language and is as a system of grammar and spelling
demonstrates what native- the language of international rules that they have understood and
business communication, fluency internalised, and can, therefore, easily
speaker and non-native- in English is a requirement in many job explain to other language learners.
descriptions around the world. As a Native-speaker teachers who learnt the
speaker teachers can learn result, there is a high demand for English language naturally in childhood don’t
teachers, both native and non-native necessarily view the language this way.
from each other. speakers of the language – and the same Even if they know the rules well, they
is true of all language teaching: those may have difficulty explaining them to
teaching a particular language may or language students because their ways of
may not be native speakers. internalising them differ. I was a little
In this article, I will discuss teaching puzzled when the students to whom I
English as a second language to teach Russian viewed the language as an
international students participating in artificial way of communication and
intensive language programmes. These required an explanation for many
students will go on to pursue language phenomena. At times I didn’t
undergraduate and graduate degrees at have one, and the phrase ‘because that’s
American universities, as well as teaching what we say’ didn’t satisfy them. Teaching
foreign languages to American college English, on the other hand, I am able to
students. I believe, however, that my share with the students my own learning
findings will apply to a broader category process, breaking the rules into sub-rules
of language learners in a variety of and schemes, and showing them the
countries around the globe. formulas I used to memorise and
Teachers vary enormously in their understand certain language phenomena.
personal qualities, their teaching style So, what can a native-speaker teacher
and the amount of preparation they do. learn from a non-native-speaker
Student preferences vary too, and all teacher? View the language through
these things have an influence on your students’ eyes, and be ready to
learning outcomes. I am a native speaker explain things that do not require
of Russian. I teach English as a second explanation from your perspective.
language to international students and
Russian to American students. I have a
number of colleagues in a similar situation.
Empathy
I started to wonder what a native-speaker The teacher’s ability to relate to the
teacher could learn from a non-native- students has an influence on the success
speaker teacher and vice versa – and what of learning. However, people who come
I myself could improve in teaching both from different cultural backgrounds don’t
my native and second languages. always share the same values and ideas.
When teaching a foreign language, a
non-native speaker can use easier
Explanations examples from the home culture to teach
Non-native-speaker teachers who have vocabulary and grammar, and can choose
learnt a language as a result of mental texts and topics of discussion that the
effort, both in a natural and artificial students are better able to relate to. A

54 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

non-native speaker is more likely to have tradition of active discussion in the target language for communication and
similar ideas to the students about the classroom in their culture. As a result, form direct connections between new
foreign culture and its current political students like these usually don’t concepts and foreign vocabulary.
and economic events than a native participate unless they are specifically To redress the balance, non-native-
speaker is. A non-native-speaker teacher called upon to do so. It may take them speaker teachers should ensure that
living in an English-speaking country some time to warm up to the idea of they use communicative strategies in
and teaching international students has taking an active part in discussions. their instruction.
already gone through the same process Another cultural difference lies in
of adapting to a foreign learning definitions of plagiarism and attitudes
environment that the students are now towards it. In my experience of teaching
Pronunciation
experiencing and can, therefore, better writing to international students in the Pronunciation and accent reduction play
help them to identify the differences US, it is necessary to explain precisely an important role in the success of
between their culture and the one they what plagiarism is and practise using communication. The goal for many foreign
are living in, or want to function in. references and quoting sources properly language learners is to be able to listen and
So, what can a native-speaker teacher before getting students to write understand and to be easily understood. A
learn from a non-native-speaker academic papers. non-native-speaker teacher who shares
teacher? Be ready to explain what you So, what can a non-native-speaker
the students’ first language may be easier
expect from your students during and teacher learn from a native-speaker
to understand, which can be helpful for
after the lessons, and be sensitive to teacher? The same thing the students
beginner language learners, and, by
their values. need to learn – a better understanding of
speaking in English, acts as an inspiration
the local culture and its traditions, and
and a role model, demonstrating what is
possible. However, a native-speaker teacher
Culture other cultural and language phenomena
may be better able to model correct
necessary for successful integration.
Native-speaker teachers will have a deeper pronunciation, and also provides an
innate understanding of the local cultural opportunity for the students to listen to the
traditions than someone who didn’t Translation way the language is spoken in the natural
grow up there. They will understand the It is arguable whether translation plays a environment, outside the classroom.
importance of historical events, the positive or a negative role in second So, what can a native-speaker teacher
geography and cultural development of language acquisition. Language teaching do better than a non-native-speaker
the country and the area; they will know methodologies such as the Direct Method, teacher? Model correct pronunciation
its social and political structure, its the Audio-lingual Method, and Natural which, in the long run, will be more
sports, holidays and celebrations, the and Communicative Approaches, tended beneficial to language learners.
ways things are done, new tendencies, to neglect the role of translation. Recently,
So, what can a non-native-speaker
the development of popular culture, however, it has been suggested that
teacher do better than a native-speaker
including music and movies, food, translation is helpful for language learners.
teacher? Provide a model of successful
fashion, popular activities and hobbies, During the early stages of language
language learning and an inspiration.
and so on. As a result, they will be better learning in particular, students seem to
able to explain cultural phenomena – and prefer to use translation, and feel more
their explanations will be more interesting comfortable with a teacher who can
to international students. A native- translate words, phrases and instructions
speaker teacher is also better equipped for them. They may also feel more There is no doubt that students benefit
to teach idioms, informal expressions, confident if their teacher can explain from both native-speaker and non-native-
sayings and slang than a non-native where their errors may be coming from, speaker language teachers. Working
speaker. Native speakers will also have a as well as favouring teachers who show together, side by side and in collaboration,
better insight into the kind of behaviour an appreciation for their own culture. both types of teacher can build on each
that the students will need to exhibit in other’s strengths to enrich their students’
So, what can a non-native-speaker
order to be successful in that culture. educational experience and improve
teacher do better than a native-speaker
In an educational setting like mine, their learning outcomes.
teacher? Translate important concepts,
examples of the kind of culturally instructions, directions and key A native Russian
inappropriate behaviour exhibited by vocabulary, and check for comprehension, speaker, Olga Filatova
some students may include being late for especially with beginner learners. has taught English as a
second language and
lessons, maintaining constant eye Russian as a foreign
If they have a native-speaker teacher,
contact and violating personal space, or language for 15 years.
however, especially one who doesn’t She has worked in
attempting to negotiate grades or intensive English
speak their language, students are more
assignments with the teacher. Other language programmes,
motivated to use the target language to community colleges,
students may come from cultures which
communicate. private tutoring
are often viewed by people from the US companies, and
as reserved and non-sociable. They may So, what can a native-speaker teacher universities in the USA,
Russia and Turkey.
be used to taking notes while a teacher do better than a non-native-speaker
[email protected]
lectures them, and there may be no teacher? Motivate students to use

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 55

Current Vacancies
To advertise in this section,
please contact Helena Hughes on
+44 (0)1536 747333 or
[email protected]

Senior Team leaders, Director of Studies

EFL Summer Teachers Required 
 EFL teachers, activity organisers
 work with children, teenagers or adults
Enthusiastic EFL teachers (CELTA or equivalent)  residential & non-residential opportunities
needed to join well established school  fixed-term temporary summer contracts

Friendly, supportive team; regular teacher training

please email
[email protected]
Attractive salaries & terms of employment
For more information and to apply,
Anglolang Academy of English contact Yvonne Chapman or Sheila Levy.
20 Avenue Road ScarboroughYO12 5JX t : +44 (0)1223 277230
e: [email protected]
01723 501991 w: www.cambridgeacademy.co.uk
Choose
TECHNOLOGY

your blend
T
Linda M Hanington he term blended learning seems Different blends?
to be on everybody’s lips these
When we choose a blend of coffee or
and Poh Foong Kwah days as a way to integrate ICT
with traditional approaches to tea, much depends on the context; it
could be the time of day (first thing in
describe three ideas for teaching. Blended refers to courses that
combine online components with the morning or later in the day), the
blended learning in pre- traditional face-to-face (F2F) company (family or friends) and the
components, but it encompasses many purpose (a caffeine boost or a relaxing
service teacher education. possible combinations. Some reasons for drink). In the same way, context – in this
its popularity are because it offers new case, the type of course, the audience
pedagogical opportunities, allows the and the learning outcomes – determines
students greater flexibility, capitalises on our choice of approach to blended
widely-available technology and, finally, learning.
because it might prove more cost
effective. Blend 1: The flipped classroom
This article briefly describes and This is the first of the approaches, and is
evaluates three ways in which online perhaps the one receiving the most
components and F2F classroom attention currently. As Glen Bull, Bill
teaching are blended on courses in the Ferster and Willy Kjellstrom see it, a
Teachers’ Language Development flipped classroom ‘dedicates more class
Centre (TLDC) at the National Institute time to hands-on learning, replacing
of Education (NIE) in Singapore. lectures with supplemental materials, such
TLDC conducts a suite of courses as screencasts and videos, that students
relating to language content knowledge can view outside of class’. On a number
and communication skills for pre-service of courses at NIE, this approach is
teachers across a range of programmes. taken. Students view e-lectures, either
Increasingly, teachers in Singapore are using a split screen with talking heads
expected to integrate technology into and presentations, or simply with
their teaching as part of a goal which presentation slides and a voiceover
NIE describes as ‘to develop students to lecture. The lecture package usually
be knowledge-driven, collaborative and includes some quiz elements and the
technologically savvy learners’. These related tutorial tasks which students
courses act as potential models as to need to prepare in advance for the F2F
how this can be achieved. While the component. It may link to further
courses described here are all offered resources, such as videos that illustrate
during pre-service teacher education, or explain items. The F2F tutorials then
many of the ideas can be applied to provide an opportunity for the
other contexts. participants to discuss findings or issues

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 57

Choose
effective. If, however, participants are
expected to improve their own grammar
proficiency, the next approach described

your blend E-lectures

in this article may be more appropriate.

Blend 2: The ‘smoothie’

with their peers and the tutor. Figure 1 This section focuses on a course that
shows a typical flow for a flipped helps pre-service teachers improve their
classroom. language skills and, at the same time,
Flexibility is a positive feature of allows them to experience and reflect
this approach. The course participants upon the kinds of methodologies they
can view the online materials where and will, hopefully, later introduce in their
when they want, allowing them to own classrooms. It is an example of how
manage their time. It may reduce the Pre-tutorial online and F2F components, blended
opportunity cost represented, for preparation throughout a course, can complement
example, by travel to a centre for lectures. (further resources) and enhance each other.
Even on a small island like Singapore, The vehicle chosen for the course is
some course participants have journeys the production of a digital story. As
of over an hour to the Institute. Jason Ohler points out, storytelling is a
Furthermore, although they cannot traditional technique that is ‘highly
interact with the lecturer immediately, regarded as a powerful tool for helping
the participants can control the flow of students develop literacy skills’. Digital
information and review sections if they storytelling simply merges traditional
have not understood. We have found F2F tutorial with and emerging literacies in the
that this feature is particularly useful for discussion and storytelling process. As it integrates
those who are not very proficient in the extension activities digital, art, oral and written literacies, it
language of instruction. This approach reflects today’s multi-modal world, and
also allows the participants more time to also allows students to draw on multiple
consider what has been presented and intelligences. Allowing pre-service
what questions they may wish to raise teachers to explore what is potentially
during tutorials. Finally, the ability to such a powerful modern educational
integrate other activities, such as quizzes tool and having them develop digital
with instant feedback, into the e-lectures Figure 1 The flipped classroom stories for themselves can be seen as a
helps the students check their way of fostering the participants’ own
understanding. The key factor, just as for lectures, language skills while exposing them to
However, this approach doesn’t seems to be engagement and motivation. target teaching methodology. The
guarantee that the information has been These factors relate to the topics course, therefore, takes a ‘process’
transmitted or understood, any more themselves, the quality of the materials approach both to writing and the
than being physically present in a lecture and, primarily, to how the content is production of the final piece of work,
hall does. It is probably still the F2F delivered. One programme at NIE and to learning in general. Crucial to
discussion that helps to embed learning. currently uses a computer-generated this are participant collaboration and
In reality, the participants seem to voice to relay the text accompanying the feedback, and reflection. Both the
prepare in different ways and to slides. This has the unfortunate effect of classroom sessions and the online
different degrees for F2F sessions, just making the narration soulless, as it lacks components support these aspects of the
as they did in pre-computer days. features such as pauses, stress and programme.
While ICT offers ease and flexibility expression. Better examples show real The F2F sessions precede the online
of access, potential richness of resources lecturers who, through their individual ones, and are primarily used to provide
and instant feedback, much of what is styles and narration, bring their subjects instructional scaffolding and prepare the
required in our approach to the flipped alive and have far more potential to participants for work on the
classroom is not very different from engage their online audiences. components of their digital stories: the
traditional tutorial preparation in a The flipped classroom seems story, the audio file and the final digital
university context. In other contexts, particularly suited to content-focused production. For example, in the first
such as schools, however, the flipped courses. For example, on a course about F2F session, the features of an effective
classroom has the advantage of taking grammar, it can help the students learn story are discussed in class and practised
the transmission of information out of about word class, sentence components through a piece of group writing. Giving
school, thus freeing up valuable time for or how, for example, the active and constructive feedback to peers is
interaction in class. For large or repeat passive voice are formed and used. If scaffolded and modelled, based on this
courses, e-lectures are also a cost- the aim of the course is knowledge initial piece of writing, and the groups
effective approach because, after the about grammar so that the participants review each other’s work. The original
significant initial investment in quality can subsequently explain such features authors finally evaluate the feedback
online materials, they can be re-used for and use accurate terminology, as it is on they have received and decide on
several years. this course, this approach seems revisions to their stories.

58 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 The online sessions represent the have supported the kind of interactivity teachers to English language and
application of work done in class. required for the course, such as being literature specialists. Some will later be
Following the sessions described in the able to upload documents easily, to teaching Chinese, Tamil or Malay, but
previous paragraph, the participants collaborate and to give and respond to need a good command of English to
write their individual stories and upload feedback. Google Sites was implemented communicate in the school environment.
them on the course site so that members in 2013 because it is a platform the Many have attended communication
of their group and the tutor can read participants are familiar with from other skills courses previously, as part of
them and give feedback. The participants programmes at NIE. earlier education or career training. A
then evaluate the feedback, revise their This particular course also requires major revision of the Communication
work and complete a reflection task. This the participants to use different types of Skills for Teachers course and the
F2F/online cycle is repeated as they move software, so training sessions are offered integration of blended learning allowed
through the course (see Figure 2) with that allow them to learn about the developers to review the materials
the two components complementing applications with which they are not and take an approach that catered better
each other and forming a seamless already familiar, such as Audacity and to the participants’ different needs.
learning experience. Windows Movie Maker. Importantly, All the materials in the revised version
Feedback from course participants support is available for those who of the course have been made available
on this approach has been very positive: encounter problems related to technical online and are divided into five discrete
‘I like the making of the digital story issues. Feedback from participants shows modules (see Figure 3). The participants
because the idea is fresh. It allows us to that they appreciate being required to use use the materials in the modules in one of
“make a movie” and enjoy learning the different software and online platforms three ways, based on their individual
language at the same time.’ and recognise how they could do the preferences and experience:
‘It opened my eyes to the different same later with their own students.
They can attend tutorials and use the
media through which language can be
Blend 3: An individual choice online materials as directed by the
mastered.’
tutor in conjunction with discussions,
This kind of blending requires the Our final approach to blended learning
practice activities and other class-
course developer to consider carefully allows the participants to personalise
based materials.
what is achieved most effectively in F2F their individual blend of online and F2F
environments and what is best done components. Each year, over 1,000 They can study the materials online,
outside class, and the amount of pre-service teachers studying for selecting those aspects most relevant to
preparation the participants need in Postgraduate Diplomas in Education at their needs. On completion of a module
order to complete online components NIE are required to take the online they submit a reflective blog.
successfully. As an important feature of Communication Skills for Teachers
They can attend tutorials and then use
the online work is giving and responding course. The individuals on these
the online materials to extend or
to feedback, there also have to be clear programmes vary hugely in terms of
reinforce work done F2F.
deadlines for posting items, so that each their previous experience; some are fresh
person can make a contribution. graduates, while others have had The participants can choose to do a
The online platforms that have been extensive experience in other careers minimum of one and a maximum of
used for this course are PBworks and before moving into teaching. They also three modules online. This ensures that
Google Sites. Both allowed the represent a wide range of disciplines all the participants experience working
development of a similar interface and from, for example, physical education online, but also allows the tutors to

Figure 2 F2F and online learning (the ‘smoothie’)

F2F Online F2F Online F2F Online

Scaffolding of Creating an Scaffolding Narrating an Creating a Creating and
writing, practice individual story pronunciation individual story storyboard for assembling a
of writing and revising it and effective and revising it the digital story digital story
and of giving based on reading aloud based on Reviewing with images,
and receiving peer and tutor peer and tutor language issues narration and
feedback feedback feedback from previous music/sound
activities effects

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 59

Choose
your blend Pronunciation

maintain contact with them throughout

the course and gives the students
opportunities to participate in classroom
discussions with their peers. In addition Classroom Oral
to the modules above, there is one Interaction Communication
compulsory F2F tutorial at the Skills
beginning of the course, with a general
overview and orientation to the

CST
materials and choices.
When this course was introduced,
there were several surprising findings.
The first was that the majority of the
participants still chose to attend as many
F2F sessions as was allowed. This seemed
to be for two main reasons: firstly, because
they liked the interaction with their peers Written
and the feedback from the tutor on this Voice and
Communication
skills-based course, and secondly, they Vocal Health
Skills
were often on campus anyway and
found it convenient to attend class. The
next surprise was that they were not as
technologically savvy as the developers
had expected, which resulted in the Figure 3 Communication Skills for Teachers (CST): Five modules
materials being moved from Moodle to
Blackboard, a Learning Management Linda M Hanington is a
System with which the participants were teacher and teacher
already familiar. A third finding, which educator with extensive
This article has explored three different experience in Europe and
might seem to contradict the first, was that Southeast Asia. She
approaches to blended learning in particularly enjoys helping
there was 100 per cent endorsement of the
different contexts within a tertiary-level learners improve their
online option in feedback surveys, even listening and speaking
educational setting. Exposing future skills and is interested in
though only a minority actually availed
teachers to different kinds of approaches using relevant authentic
themselves of the option. We think this materials to support
that support learning – and, particularly, language development.
may be because they actually appreciate
to those that integrate ICT in a She is currently working
being allowed to choose and also value the at the National Institute of
pedagogically sound manner – is vital in
possibility of combining the two options. Education, Nanyang
enabling them subsequently to harness Technological University,
The big advantage of the kind of Singapore, where she has
such technologies in ways that will help
blend described in this section is the way been involved in the
‘revolutionise education’: one of NIE’s development and delivery
the participants can tailor it to suit their of blended learning
stated goals for the next five years.
individual needs. It is also quite programmes.
convenient for the tutors to have all the [email protected]
materials on one online platform: this The authors wish to acknowledge the many
Poh Foong Kwah is a
makes updates much easier to manage members of TLDC staff who have been
lecturer at the National
and communicate. This blend is highly involved in conceptualising, developing and Institute of Education,
implementing the courses described in this Nanyang Technological
suitable for participants who understand University in Singapore
article.
their own learning needs, and are mature and has taught academic
and confident enough to make informed writing, grammar and
language development
choices about their studies. Bull, G, Ferster, B and Kjellstrom, W courses. She also has
On the downside, one issue for the ‘Inventing the flipped classroom’ Learning extensive experience in
& Leading with Technology 40 (1) 2012 teaching English as a
tutors is that different numbers of second or foreign
participants attend tutorials, depending National Institute of Education 3:3:3 language at different
Roadmap 2013–2017 NIE Singapore 2013 levels, from high school to
on how many have elected to study a university. Her teaching
particular topic online, and there is an National Institute of Education A Teacher philosophy is to engage
Education Model for the 21st Century NIE students in their learning
increased workload involved in Singapore 2009 processes to enable them
conducting tutorials and, in addition, to become collaborative
Ohler, J Digital Storytelling in the and independent learners.
giving feedback online to those who Classroom Corwin Press 2008 [email protected]
have chosen this option.

60 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 TECHNOLOGY
In this series, Nicky Hockly explains
aspects of technology which some
Five things you always wanted to know

‘digital divide’
people may be embarrassed to confess
about the that they don’t really understand. In this
article, she explores the division between
(but were too afraid to ask) the technological haves and have-nots.

1 What is the
digital divide? 3 Are there any other digital
divides I should know about?
(online audio files) of useful language for
taxi drivers, which her students
downloaded to their phones and then
The term digital divide is used to describe Indeed there are! Another is the one
the divide between people who have between teachers who have the skills and listened to whenever they wanted. In
access to new technologies and those training to use technology to enhance and Nergiz’s words: ‘The technology – their
who don’t. In the field of ELT, it is often support their students’ learning, and those mobile phones – was already available,
used to talk about the divide between who don’t. In other words, there is a divide and they knew how to use them ... and no
those who live in ‘developed’ countries between teachers who use technology well additional cost or technology training was
(and therefore, the argument goes, have and those who use it ineffectively or not at needed.’ You can read more about Nergiz’s
access to technology) and people who live all. And although, at one time, ineffective or project at http://taxienglish.nergizkern.com/
in ‘developing’ countries (and therefore non-use of technology may have been due for-teachers, and in ETp Issue 71.
don’t have access to technology). But stop to lack of resources and infrastructure, as Example 2: Ayat Tawel
and think for a minute, and you’ll realise we’ve seen above, this argument no longer Ayat was working with young learners in
that this isn’t always the case. Even if you holds, since technology is now so Egypt. She had no technology in her
live in a resource-rich country (let’s say ubiquitous. If we look at the digital divide classroom – or, indeed, her school. The
Switzerland or Australia), where in theory from this perspective, we can see it as a coursebook unit they were working on dealt
technology is affordable and available, pedagogical issue – and therefore one that with South America, and Ayat was keen to
not everybody always has access to new teachers can be equipped to overcome. put her students in contact with learners of
technologies. And equally, if you live in In fact, training teachers – and learners the same age in a country in South America.
what might be called a ‘low-resource’ – to become digitally literate is not only Via the Webheads online teachers
environment, it isn’t always the case that achievable, but should be a fundamental community (www.webheads.info), she
nobody has access to any technology. consideration in any training programme, contacted a teacher in Argentina, and her
Even in contexts where technology may both pre-service and in-service. students carried out a Skype interview,
traditionally have been beyond the means using Ayat’s own laptop and 3G connection
of the majority, the rapid spread and
affordability of low-end mobile devices and
connectivity means that large numbers of
4 But I teach in a school with no
technology – what can I do?
in class. The two classes then used a closed
Facebook group to communicate and find
I come across teachers all around the world out about each other’s countries, languages
previously disadvantaged sectors of the who work in contexts with little or no and customs. You can listen to Ayat talking
population now own or have access to technology in their schools. Some of them about the project at http://goo.gl/RGhGuV.
mobile technology, at the very least. throw up their hands and claim that nothing
can be done. However, others have worked In both of these projects, the teachers’

2 So the digital divide no longer

exists?
within their (limited) contexts to integrate
an appropriate and context-specific use
use of technology came out of the
learning aims of the class. With these
pedagogical aims in mind, both teachers
To a certain extent, older ideas of (rich) of technology into their English classes.
‘haves’ versus (poor) ‘have-nots’ is found the technology that worked in their

5
becoming increasingly irrelevant. But the How do teachers in contexts context, incurred no extra costs, and was
digital divide can exist on a number of with little or no technology do it? immediately and easily usable. These
levels. For example, within a high- projects are both excellent examples of
Let me share with you just two inspiring
resource context, we may have appropriate technology supporting sound
examples of teachers using low-end
disadvantaged groups (such as migrants pedagogical principles.
technology with their students:
or the homeless). We may also have a After all, it’s not about the technology,
considerable divide between urban and Example 1: Nergiz Kern it’s about the learning.
rural areas, in terms of access to Nergiz was working with taxi drivers Nicky Hockly is Director of Pedagogy
technology and infrastructure. In a single learning English in Turkey. Not all of her of The Consultants-E, an online
city, we may have schools which are very students were always able to come to teacher training and development
consultancy. Her most recent book
high-tech and schools with little or no class, because of their work commitments. is Digital Literacies, published by
technology. And even at the level of the She noticed that all the students had basic Pearson. She has published an
e-book, Webinars: A Cookbook for
individual classroom, we may have mobile phones, so she decided to provide Educators (the-round.com), and is
students who have access to technology them with extra learning materials that they currently working on a book on mobile
learning. She maintains a blog at
at home to help them with their could access outside class, via their mobile www.emoderationskills.com.
homework, and students who don’t. devices. She produced a series of podcasts [email protected]

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 61

 ETp at IATEFL
T his year, the ETp stand welcomed visitors from all
over the ELT world, as delegates flocked to pick up
their ETp bag. These proved so popular that nobody at
ETp managed to take one home! Pictured are some of
the people we met at this year’s event, with their bag – or
with the other star of the show: Isabelle Hogan, daughter
of Chia Suan Chong and Mike Hogan.
We are looking forward to seeing you all at IATEFL
next year. And if you missed out on a bag, then why not
sign up for ETp Live!, which we are hosting on the 21st
June? All delegates will get an ETp bag of their very own.
Ken Lackman Jeremy Harmer

Adam Simpson Rita Baker, Isabelle Hogan and Marisa Nik Peachy and Andreas Grundtvig
Constantinides

Chia Suan Chong, Isabelle Hogan and Fiona Richmond Andrew Chilvers and Rob Mair Chia Suan Chong, Isabelle Hogan and Mike
Hogan

Rachael Roberts Mike Harrison Justine Arena Dale Coulter

62 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

Webwatcher Russell Stannard
shows an interest in Pinterest.

Y Follow other people’s boards and pins

ou will often see the icons of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,
ScoopIt, Google+ and many others at the top of blogs, on
web pages and on social networking sites. One other icon One thing I find quite useful is the search facility. You can search
that you may have seen around is that of Pinterest. After seeing a other people’s boards and then ‘follow’ them. For example, you
presentation about it recently, I thought it was finally time to sit could search for ‘English vocabulary games’ and then find that
down and find out if it has any uses for teachers – and, particularly, someone has created a board with lots of useful pins on it on that
for English teachers. topic. You can choose to follow that board, and each time the
board is updated with a new pin, you will be informed. You can
What is it? follow up to five people, and all the latest pins from the boards
you are following will be displayed when you open up Pinterest.
Pinterest is really a social bookmarking tool: a way of keeping a This can be a good way of looking for material to use in class
systematic record of interesting pages that you find on the and, if you find someone who regularly updates their board, then
internet. It allows you to organise them into ‘boards’. Within your it could be really useful to follow that board. Remember, each
account, you can create as many of these as you like, and each person who has an account might have many different boards;
board will deal with a different topic. So you might have a board you don’t have to follow all the boards from that particular
about using iPads, another about interesting blogs you read and person, you just follow the boards you like.
another about interesting research articles. You can also have a Pin It button added to your browser. This
You can add as many links to each board as you want. This is means that any time you see an interesting article, video,
done by ‘pinning’ the link to one of your boards. For example, website, etc, you can simply click on the Pin It button. You will
let’s say you create a board about interesting grammar sites for then be asked to choose an image to represent the page you
learning English. If you find an interesting page on the web about want to ‘pin’, to choose which board you want to add it to, and
grammar, you copy the link and then open up Pinterest and add to add a description if you want. I have started making use of this
it to your board about grammar sites. It is like having lots of as a quick way of bookmarking.
corkboards, each dealing with one topic, and each having lots of
things pinned to it. What are the disadvantages?
Does it offer anything new? Pinterest doesn’t do anything particularly new, but it does do it in
a slightly different way. If you like the idea of having images to
You can pin all sorts of things to your board – not only websites, help you remember and organise your bookmarks, then this
but also videos, articles, pictures, etc. Pinterest produces a visual might be a tool that you or your students will find very useful. I
display of all your ‘pins’. So if you pin a blog you like to your have started using it with my classes, and I find it interesting
‘blog board’, then it doesn’t just show you a link to that blog, it when working on specific projects. I have not tested the
shows a picture of it, which you can click on. Each time you pin collaborative bookmarking system yet, but I do intend to and I
something to a board, you are given a number of pictures related think that could be quite an interesting way for students to work
to that particular pin, and you then choose the picture that will together, though they will all need to sign up to Pinterest.
most remind you of what the pin is about. You can also add a One big problem is that it doesn’t seem to work with PDF
description. files. Remember, when you pin a page, video or picture onto a
I am not sure that I feel comfortable about saying that this is board, Pinterest generates a picture to represent the link you are
especially good for visual learners, but the visual element is pinning. It doesn’t seem to be able to generate an image from
powerful and I think it is a good way of organising interesting PDF files, so it doesn’t allow you to pin them. If you are searching
content for anyone. for academic pages and references, this can be quite a limitation.

Social bookmarking
Help videos for using Pinterest:
Where I think Pinterest could be particularly useful is in project
www.teachertrainingvideos.com/pinterest/index.html
work. Let’s say your students are working on a project to
produce an article about the Acropolis in Athens. One of the
Russell Stannard is the founder of
students can create a board called ‘Acropolis’ and then share it www.teachertrainingvideos.com,
with the other students in the class. As long as the students are which won a British Council
ELTons award for technology. He
all signed up to Pinterest, they can all add pins to the ‘Acropolis’ is a freelance teacher and writer
board. So each of them could be at home, working on their and also a NILE Associate Trainer.
computer and collaboratively adding pins. Of course, they could
create various boards: one for ‘Acropolis articles’, another one
for ‘Acropolis videos’, etc. The result would be various boards, all Keep sending your favourite sites to Russell:
[email protected]
with lots of related pins on them, and all visually displayed.

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 92 May 2014 • 63

 Prize crossword 65 To solve the puzzle, find which letter each number represents. You can keep a record
in the boxes above. The definitions of the words in the puzzle are given, but not in the
ETp presents the sixty-fifth in our series of prize right order. When you have finished, you will be able to read the quotation.
crosswords. Once you have done it successfully, let VERY FREQUENT WORDS – Someone who sells cloth
your students have a go. Send your entry (completed *** To record something on a cassette – Producing a lot of small gas bubbles
crossword grid and quotation), not forgetting to *** At a time before the present – To cut rock or wood into a rough shape with
include your full name, postal address, email address *** Able to do something a heavy blade
and telephone number, to Prize crossword 65, English *** Used for saying who or what does – Modern or new; used especially with music
Teaching professional, Pavilion Publishing and Media something styles that exist in a different form
Ltd, Rayford House, School Road, Hove, BN3 5JR, *** Without a job – A sloping surface where you put your notes
UK. Ten correct entries will be drawn from a hat on *** The same in value, amount or size when you give a speech
10 August 2014 and the winners can choose one of *** Used for emphasising adjectives – Easily annoyed and impatient
these titles: Macmillan Collocations Dictionary or *** Frozen water – A castle, built to defend a city
Macmillan Phrasal Verbs *** A scientific test – A tool for cutting and shaping wood
Plus. Please indicate your *** To try to prevent something happening – A British organisation for controlling air
choice on your entry. *** A country with its own land and traffic (abbreviation)
government – A badly-behaved but attractive child
(humorous)

23 8 4 4 8 20 7 9 25 25 15 2 8 16 FAIRLY FREQUENT WORDS
– An African animal, like a giraffe without a
N ** A story or account of something that

8 8 20 6 13 7 18 23 2 long neck
has happened
– Annoyed (formal)

20 25 21 20 11 25 25 22 13 4 25 21 21 ** Funny or entertaining
– A tall tropical plant used to make furniture
** A large meat-eating bird

7 6 8 13 8 24 16 25 25 22 20 and fencing
** A valuable stone that has been cut and
– A speech in a play where a lone character

10 5 8 13 7 4 26 4 8 13 25 4 polished
talks about their thoughts
** To make a guess about why something

23 16 25 6 20 25 4 23 7 16 25 – Glasses and contact lenses
has happened
– Not usual or typical

1 23 8 8 24 8 22 24 10 10 ** Dark-coloured beer without bubbles
– A short high sound made by a dog

21 2 6 1 16 7 5 25 9 25 4 11 21 LESS FREQUENT WORDS – A ship that can break through floating ice
Y – Electronic equipment that produces light – A chemical element that is a blue-white metal

13 4 25 25 7 10 23 25 10
in computer screens (abbreviation) – An accident and emergency department in

25 11 25 12 25 8 4 6 7 20 8 26 25 16 – A light thin sword used in fencing the US (abbreviation)
– To walk through shallow water – Used to describe goods designed for rich

6 8 8 8 16 25 26 16 7

– Abbreviation for British and brother people
2 13 22 8 4 5 25 20 19 25 12 25 16 – Informal word for pictures – Used to refer to things of the same kind as
– Abbreviation used to say you should those you have already mentioned

16 13 16 8 26 14 25 8 10
pay attention to what follows – A bright shiny appearance
8 22 2 21 7 23 3 7 4 5 25 26 15 – An atom with an electrical force created – A small hollow cake filled with cream
I by adding an electron – Used after some company names

20 17 25 16 23 7 25 2
– Communicating over the internet and (abbreviation)

25 17 17 25 4 9 25 21 6 25 23 20 24 11 replying immediately (abbreviation) – A woman who rules an empire
– All the people in your family (formal) – Concerning, regarding

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 7 17 8 20 17 7 4 21 20 20 1 25 7 26 25 8
I Y

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 7 21 23 10 20 8 24 21 2 4 26 20 1 25 4 25
N ,

7 21 23 10 1 10 13 25 17 10 4 7 20
.
Albert Einstein

64 • Issue 92 May 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 NEW
For students who need to
learn the language for writing
academic English
whatever subject they
are studying at
university or college

With
Oxford
Academic iWriter

detection  bandwidth
No more than 10% of the
strength is lost in the con signal 749
nection to the amplifier
sig·nal2 /ˈsɪɡnəl/ verb (-ll-, input. signify
US -l-) 1 [T] to be a
sth exists or is likely to sign that that will assume increas
happen  IND ICAT E ing significance as the pop
proposal for a new, loo (2) : ~ sth The
ser union of sovereign ages. ulation
nalled the end of the old states sig-
USSR.  ~ that… The sig·nifi·cant
nalled that some importa
English political culture
nt changes were taking
. 2 [T] to show sth suc
crisis sig-
place in

adj. 1 large or importa
/sɪɡˈnɪfɪkənt/
nt enough to WO RD FAM ILY Find out more at
www.oup.com/elt
ing or opinion through h as a feel- have an effect or to be significant adj.
your actions or attitud noticed:
government signalled e: ~ sth His These voters could hav
a willingness to abando e a significant significantly adv.
national veto.  ~ tha n the UK's effect on the outcome of
t… The company rais the election. signify verb
ed its prices  Althoug
significantly, signalling h population ageing is significance noun
that it did not want a global phenomenon, the a
costly price war. 3 [I, T] prolonged re are sig- signification noun
to make a movement or nificant regional differen
give sb a message, an sound to ces.  ~ for insignificant adj.
instruction or a warnin sb/sth The contributio
ship signalled back.  g: The other ns of Islamic insignificantly adv.
~ to sb He was wa civilization proved to be
signalling to his wife.  ving his arm, as signifi- insignificance noun
~ (to) sb to do sth cant for the West.  it is
signalled his chamberla The emperor ~ that… It
in to show in another dele was significant that its
~ sth The charge wa gation.  nearest rival only had a
s signalled by trumpets.  share of the market.  5.5 per cent

1
the driver could not see ~ that… As INSI GNI FICA NT
the road behind him, IMP ORT ANT 2 hav  thesaurus note at
duty of the conductor to it was the ing a particular meani
signal that the road wa a candle may be symbol ng: The lighting of
s clear.
sig·na·ture /ˈsɪɡnətʃə(r)/ bringing of light, that is,
ically significant if it den
otes the
noun 1 [C] your nam enlightenment.  it is ~
usually write it, for exa e as you particularly significant that… It is
mple at the end of a that Branagh selected
weeks later, the newspa letter: Two the play's United Kingdo Belfast for
per delivered a petitio m debut. 3 (statistics) hav
Prime Minister contain n to the istical significance see ing stat-
ing 1.5 million signatu  also SIGN IFIC ANC E (3) : Afte
The artist's signature res.  sb's ~ results for r 3 years,
Open mind
opens doors
New six-level course for adults
and young adults with:
• Extensive life skills syllabus
• Focus on functional language
• Language sub-skills development
• Dynamic digital delivery options
including interactive Online Workbook

2nd edition

Available
in American masterMind Student’s Book
Mickey Rogers
Pack
es

English as the
Steve Taylore-Knowl
Dorothy E. Zemach

Concept developm
Mariela Gil Vierma
ent:
Level 2

Mind Series L4_V4_front_ame

access to the Student’s

nded_V2.indd
3
Resource Center
26/02/2014
17:16

Upper intermediate & Advanced levels available 2015

DowNloaD
YoUR fRee
sample UNits

www.macmillanopenmind.com