CAMPUS SAN RAFAEL
CENTRO DE IDIOMAS
“Neighbors”
I. Lead in
“Good walls make good neighbors”.
What does this mean?
Do you agree?
II. QUESTIONNAIRE
My ideal neighbor is someone who… Yes/No
1.
…says hello when I see him/her
2.
…I never see.
3.
…has parties and invite me.
4.
…is very quiet.
5.
…often comes round for a cup of coffee.
6.
…comes round to borrow things.
7.
…makes himself/herself at home in my house
III. Group A. Listen to Mrs. Snell
Group B. Listen to Steve
IV. Answer the questions
When did Steve move into his flat?
Is it a large flat (apartment)?
What’s his job? Is it a good job?
Does he work long hours yep!
What does he wear for work?
Who’s staying with Steve at the moment?
What time did Steve’s party end?
How many people came to the party?
What is Steve doing tonight?
Why doesn’t Mrs. Snell want to speak to Steve?
Oxford New Headway Pre-Intermediate Unit 1
English 3
CAMPUS SAN RAFAEL
CENTRO DE IDIOMAS
“It’ll be our secret”
I. Put a check next to the sentence only if you are sure it is true.
1. The production meeting has already started.
4. Susan will phone Sam later to see how the meeting went.
7. Susan still plans to be at her 6 o’clock appointment.
2. Susan is coming back to the meeting today.
5. Susan doesn’t want anyone to know she’s taking time off
8. Susan plans to bring Sam flowers for being so helpful.
3. Paul Smith will take Susan’s place at the meeting.
6. Sam will tell people at the meeting that Susan is sick
9. Sam is happy that Susan is relaxing this afternoon.
II. Listen to the song and fill in the blanks
“Smell the Flowers”
You’re ____ ____ _____
trying to do ___ ____
you need a vacation,
you’ve got to take ___ __ ___
forget your work,
enjoy _______,
get out and ___ ___ ___.
Take a little time
for the simple things.
Relax and ___ ___ ____.
You’ve got stop and smell the flowers.
Do the ____ ___ _____.
Read a book or see some friends,
take a ____ ___ ___ ____.
Have a picnic, take a picture,
Family Album USA Episode 1 English3
go out and ___ ____ ___
just go fishing,
____ ____ _____ or play your guitar.
Take a break for ____!
Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Go and see the _____!
Uh-huh, uh-huh.
___ ____ ____ in the park!
Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Do _______ you like!
CAMPUS SAN RAFAEL
CENTRO DE IDIOMAS
“My Favorite Room”
I. Pair-work. Tell your partner about your favorite room at home.
My favorite room is my…
It’s…
It isn´t…
There’s a(n)…
There isn’t a (n)…
There are some…
There aren’t any…
II. Listen to the tape and make simple drawings
New Headway Elementary Unit 5 English 1
Student’s name ______________________Student number__________
Teacher’s name _____________________________Grade___________
I. Listen to an interview with two musicians, Suzie and Guy from the band Style and answer the questions. Write short answers.
What do they do in the band?
a) Guy ___________________________
b) Suzie
___________________________
Which bands have they played with?
a) Guy ___________________________
b) Suzie
___________________________
Which places have they visited? (Write at least 4)
______________________________
Why do Suzie and Guy feel tired?
______________________________
What have they done this year?
_____________________________
Have they had a good time?
_____________________________
What was special about the song Mean Street?
______________________________
How many years have they been together?
______________________________
Where do they want to go?
______________________________
What jobs has Guy had? What about Suzie?
Guy: ______________________________
Suzie:_________________________
Student’s name________________________________ Grade
Listening Comprehension Exam
I. What do you know about Sweden? What is the country like? Listen to Jane Bland talking to her friend, Fran about her life in Sweden and decide whether these statements are true or false.
The houses are cold
Country cottages in Sweden are usually very luxurious.
In winter there is only one hour of daylight
The whole family likes to sit in the sauna together
All houses have a sauna.
The houses are much better insulated than in Britain.
Swedes always start work early in the morning
Swedish people look forward to winter
In parts of Sweden from May to July the sun never sets.
Londoners work longer hours than the Swedes.
II. Listen to what Jane say about Sweden and Swedes and fill in the gaps with the correct word (s).
Well, it’s cold, very cold in the (1) _____________some times (2) _______________ and of course when you go out you (3) _______ _______ warm, but inside, in the houses, it’s always very warm, (4) _______________ than at home. Swedish people always (5) _______________ that when they visit England the houses are cold even in a good winter.
Oxford New Headway
Luka
A
B
C
1
She and the person she is talking to, live in the same building.
She and the person she is talking to, work at the same place.
She and the person she is talking to have been friends for a long time.
2
She accepted she was noisy last night because she had had a party.
She accepted she was so happy celebrating that she didn’t notice she was making a lot of noise.
She accepted she had been noisy because she was fighting with her parents.
3
She doesn’t want him to find out what happened because she feels uncomfortable.
She doesn’t want him to find out what happened because she broke something.
She doesn’t want him to find out what happened because a colleague spent the night at her place.
4
She wants to be alone because she has a terrible hangover.
She wants to be alone because she doesn’t want to be seen crying.
She wants to be alone because she wants to bring back her wonderful memories from last night.
Task 1 Choose one of the three alternatives from each section.
Task 2 Listen to the song once and check if you were right. Discuss it with the rest of the class.
Task 3 Listen to the song again and complete the gaps with the missing items. Then discuss your findings with your partner and the rest of the class.
SONG
My name is Luka
I live on the second ________
I live upstairs from you
Yes, I think you’ve seen me ____________
If you hear something late at night some kind of _____________
Some kind of _______
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was
I think it’s because I’m ________
Ì try not to talk too _________
Maybe it’s because I’m __________
I try not to act to _________
The only hit until you ________
And after that you don’t ask _________
You don’t argue anymore
You don’t argue anymore
You don’t argue anymore
Yes I think I’m okay
I walked into the floor _______
Well, if you ask that’s what I’ll say
And it’s not your business anyway
I guess I’d like to be ________
With nothing broken nothing ________
Just don’t ask me how I am
Just don’t ask me how I am
Just don’t ask me how I am
Speaking. (pair work) What advice would you give to Luka? What do you think she should do? Discuss your answers with your partner.
Suzanne Vega’s Solitude Standing Luka English 1, 2, 3.
Student’s name ______________________Student number__________
Teacher’s name _____________________________Grade_________
I. Listen to three people giving advice about visiting their country in January and answer the questions.
1. What are their nationalities?
a) Silvia ________________________
b) Fatima ______________________
c) Karl _________________________
2. Who talks about sport?
a) Silvia b) Fatima c) Karl
3. What does he /she say?
________________________________________________________________
4. Who talks about money?
a) Silvia b) Fatima c) Karl
5. What does he/she say?
________________________________________________________________
6. What’s the weather like in their countries?
a) Silvia ________________________ b) Fatima ______________________
c) Karl _________________________
7. What food do they recommend?
a) Silvia ________________________
b) Fatima ______________________
c) Karl _________________________
8. What clothes should you wear?
a) Silvia ________________________
b) Fatima ______________________
c) Karl _________________________
9. Are there any special places that you should visit? Which ones?
a) Silvia ________________________
b) Fatima ______________________
c) Karl _________________________
10. What kind of things can you do?
a) Silvia ________________________
b) Fatima ______________________
c) Karl _________________________
LEMON TREE
I’m _____________ here in a boring room.
It’s just another rainy Sunday afternoon
I’m _____________ my time I got nothing to do.
I’m _____________ around I’m ____________ for you
But nothing ever happens … and I wonder.
I’m _______________ you round in my car
I’m ______________ too fast
I’m _______________ too far I’d like to chance my point of you
I feel so lonely I’m _______________ for you, but nothing ever happens
And I wonder.
I wonder how, I wonder why, yesterday you told me about the blue, blue sky
and all that I can see
Is just a yellow lemon tree
I’m ________________ my head up and down
I’m ________________ turning, turning, turning, and turning around
And all that I can see … is just another lemon tree
Sing, da ra di ri pri ra ra ra
I’m ________________ here I miss the power I’d like to go out
Taking a shower but there’s a heavy cloud inside my head
I feel so tired put myself into bed where nothing ever happens and I wonder
Isolation … is not good for me
Isolation … I don’t want to sit on a lemon tree
I’m _______________ around in a desert of joy baby anyhow I’ll get another toy and
Everything will happen
And you’ll wonder
I wonder how, I wonder why yesterday you told me about the blue, blue sky and all that I can see
Is just another lemon tree
I’m ________________ my head up and down
I’m ________________ turning, turning, turning, and turning around
And all that I can see… is just a yellow lemon tree
And I wonder, wonder I wonder how I wonder why yesterday you told me
About the blue, blue sky
And all that I can see
And all that I can see
And all that I can see
Is just a yellow lemon tree
Lemon Tree English 1
Student’s name_____________ Grade ____________________
I. Listen to a professional tennis player talking about her life. Mark the sentences true or false.
T
F
1.
The speaker usually travels alone.
2.
She doesn’t mind training
3.
She usually travels by bus
4.
She’s in Toronto
5.
She plays in lots of tournaments
6.
She’s one of the top twenty players
7.
She doesn’t go home very often
8.
She’s ambitious
9.
She’s had a lot of injuries
10.
She’s having a break at the moment
II. Answer the questions.
1. Where does she spend hours when she’s on the circuit?
2. How often does she play in tournaments?
3. What’s she doing tomorrow?
4. What helps her keep fit?
5. What does she do between February and march?
6. What’s her dream?
How did you two meet?
1. Put the sentences in the correct order. There is more than pone answer!
They got married
They chatted for a long time
They fell in love
They had two children
Wilma and Carl met at a party.
They kissed
He invited her to meet his parents
They got engaged
2. Answer the questions about Per and Debbie, and Vincent and Rosa.
When did they meet?
Why does Debbie like to chat on the Internet?
Where was Vincent letter? What did it say?
Why couldn’t Rosa read the letter?
Do both couples have children?
Write P, D, V, R in the boxes.
1.
I’m really quite shy
2.
I was very shy
3.
I find it difficult to talk to people face to face
4.
I flew to America and we met face to face
5.
I stood on something
6.
I stood there with some flowers
7.
We chatted on the internet for a year
8.
We wrote every week for six months
3. Imagine you’re one of the people. Tell the story of how you met your girlfriend/boyfriend.
4. Look at the questions. Tell a partner about you and your family.
Do you have a girlfriend/boyfriend? What does he/she look like? How did you meet?
When did your parents meet? Where? How?
Student’s name _____________
Grade ____________________
I Listen to Jeremy talking about a problem in a hotel and answer these questions.
1. Why did he complain? __________________________
2. What did the manager offer him? __________________
3. Did he accept? _________________
II. Listen again and CIRCLE the sentences TRUE or FALSE.
He was in Manchester on business.
He had an excellent meal on the first night.
On the second night all his stuff was stolen
The receptionist was really worried
The hotel had made a mistake
His suitcase was very badly packed
The manager said he was terribly sorry
Oxford English File Workbook
Student’s name _____________
Grade_____________________
I. You will hear a tour guide talking to a group of tourists about a day out.
Fill in the missing information.
Notes:
Meals:
Breakfast in the ______________________from 6.45 to 9.15.
______________________your lunch from reception.
Meet for dinner at _____________________.
“Any difficulties with the hotel see the _____________________.
Tour of south Wales Valleys
AM
First visit a beautiful_______________.
And see the remains of a _____________________.
Then visit a museum on the site on a _____________________.
The souvenirs shop sells special _____________________.
Lunch
PM
Go for a walk or try _____________________.
Bring a coat, wear __________________, and remember your camera.
II. Listen again and circle the correct option.
1. Tourists need to make their own sandwiches
T
F
2. Tourists can’t go out into town on their own
T
F
3. Wales if famous for its waterfalls
T
F
4. Tourists can’t buy Souvenirs
T
F
5. Tourists can do windsurfing, sailing and canoeing today.
Cambridge Grammar for FCE T5A English 4
T
F
Questions
Yes/no questions; short answers, question words; question tags; agreeing
A CONTEXT LISTENING
1. You are going to hear a telephone conversation between Peter and his girlfriend Molly. Before you listen, look at the picture. Why do you think Peter is unhappy?
__________________________________________________________________
2. Listen and check if you were right?
3. Listen again and answer these questions.
Who went out? _______________
How many times did peter phone molly and get no answer? ___________________________
Who had a change of plan? ___________________________
Who is sorry? ___________________________
Where are they meeting tomorrow? __________________
4. Listen again for these replies. Write down the question when you hear each reply?
___________________________ Yes, I am.
___________________________No, I haven’t.
martes, 10 de febrero de 2009
viernes, 2 de mayo de 2008
Karina Rios & Octavio Plaza's "Practice Grammar Experience"
An Integrated Skill lesson plan for “Things that changed the world” by Karina Ríos and Octavio Plaza
“Things that Changed the World”
Created by Octavio Plaza C. Activities and Rationale by Karina Rios and Octavio plaza
Centro de Enseñanza de Lenguas, UAEM.
Topic: Things that changed the world.
Skills/Language: Reading, listening, writing and speaking
Level: Pre-Intermediate & upwards
Time: 2 classes of 50 minutes
Aims & Objectives:
· To discuss the importance of some historical, scientific and technological events and the impact they have had on our lives.
· To test learners knowledge on past participles and handling of the verb to be in different tenses.
· To test learners vocabulary and practice it.
· At the end of the lesson the students will be able to talk about inventions and use the passive voice at a pre-intermediate level.
Procedure:
Warm up: (Speaking)
· Elicit from the students what they know about things that have changed our world, by asking them to think what their lives would be without a remote control, the light bulb, or the plane for example.
· Elicit from the students some verbs related to inventions. (invented, manufacture, discovered)
Rationale: Activate learners’ schemata
Activity 1: (Receptive skill: Listening)
· Have students to work in pairs and listen to some people talking about different inventions, and then decide which invention they are talking about. (The aerosols can, the bar code, the remote control or the ring pull opener).
· Use realia.
· Give each pair of students a card with the question words: Who?, when? , where? , how? , how many types?. Ask them to try to answer these questions with information on the recording.
Who?
When?
Where?
How?
How many types?
· Ask them to try to use long answers (You may want to model: “The aerosol can was designed by the United States Department of Agriculture”).
· Ask students to look up the words they do not know.
· Help students with vocabulary they cannot find in the dictionary.
· Check their answers.
*Adapted from Business Objectives, OUP.
Rationale: Provide learners with a suitable Input
Activity 2:
· Divide the board into three columns
· Write the following information on the first column: President Lincoln, The Beatles, A cure for cancer, English and French, etc.
President Lincoln
Was murdered
In a theatre
A cure for cancer
One day
English and French
In Canada
The Beatles
In Liverpool
The planet Venus
In the morning sky
Rolls Royce cars
In England since 1906
· Try to elicit some examples of the passive, if lucky, write the examples on the board. If not, give them the third column: in 1867 in a theatre, in Liverpool, some day, etc. (President Lincoln was murdered in a theatre).
· Ask learners to complete the sentences, following the example.
President Lincoln/ was killed/ in 1869, The Beatles/ were born/ in Liverpool, a cure for cancer/ will be found/ some day, etc.
· Have students to analyze and reflect on the different tenses and try to come up with a formula.
*Adapted from Grapevine, OUP
Rationale: Consciousness raising
Option: To make it a bit more challenging: (Discovering Grammar)
Students work in pairs or trios. They are given a set of cards with broken sentences, so that they have to match them and complete them with the appropriate verbs in past participle. Then answers are checked after a time limit (5-10 minutes) depending on the group ( and groups size)
Arrest- kill- discover-make-find-film-murder-invent- consider-catch
Paris Hilton was_________________
In a car accident
John F. Kennedy was murdered
By Alexander Fleming
Princess Diana was ______________
The sexiest woman in the world
Penicillin was __________________
When stealing money
The telephone was ______________
In a car accident in a tunnel in England
Color T.V. was __________________
The King of Rock and Roll
Britney Spears was ______________
By Eduardo Camarena.
Marilyn Monroe was ______________
In a parade in 1969.
The thief was ___________________
For driving while drunk.
Elvis Presley was _______________
By Alexander Graham Bell
Teacher might want to model a sentence to let students know what they are expected to do. It can be an example with something they are familiar with, like Britney Spears or Paris Hilton which is relatively recent information: We can elicit a sentence saying: Why was Paris Hilton in jail? Do you know? The expected answer should be:
Paris Hilton was arrested for driving drunk/ while she was drunk.¨
Then they find the rules to make sentences in Passive Voice and they might find more uses of it.
These shoes were made in Leon. /My watch was made in China, etc.
Activity 3: Practice (Communicative Activity: Quiz).
Students practice using passives by discussing and compiling a list of famous buildings, films, etc, which have been produced in their country
What’s it famous for?
1. A building in your town which was built more than 200 years ago.
2. A film which was directed by somebody from your country.
3. A competition which was won by a person or team from your country.
4. Something which was invented by a person from your country.
5. Something which is made in your town/region.
6. A famous picture which was painted by somebody from your country
7. A famous dish which is eaten a lot in your town/region.
· Put ss into pairs or groups. Give out sheets. Focus on sentences 1-15 and go through them quickly making sure ss understand everything.
· Set a time limit (5 min.), and tell ss to discuss each sentence and try to write the name of a building, person, book, dish, etc.
· When the time limit is up, join pairs/ groups together to discuss what they have written. Encourage them to ask for extra information: When was (…) built? Who was the film directed by?
*Adapted from New English File. OUP
Rationale: Communicative Activities. Meaningful Practice.
Activity 4: (Reading)
Students look at a list of inventions. And discuss whether people will put them in their favorite or least favorite lists. (The motor car, the radio nuclear power, the bicycle, the mobile phone, the printing press, the television the plastic bag the land mine).
· Ask them to read an article about people’s attitudes to inventions.”Inventions: The top ten? And check their ideas.
· Ask students to read the text.
· Elicit from the students what they understood from the text.
· Explain the new vocabulary items that students have doubt about.
· Read the text aloud or ask for some volunteer to read it.
· Explain the meaning of some words.
Activity 5: (Productive Skill: Writing)
. Ask students to use some notes to write a text about trainers. They can add more sentences about trainers if they want.
· Option: We can find out about other topics of students` interest
Trainers
-First canvas basketball boots made 1917 for players- Converse All Star Athletic shoes.
-Originally only made in black or white (now 64 different colors of Converse boots).
Rationale: Writing Practice. Consolidation/further practice/follow up
Activity 6: (Further Practice)
Have students to fill in the gaps with the correct passive or active voice.
The history of Hamburger:
COMMENTS:
ACTIVITY 1: Activity 1 Presentation:
It is a receptive skill act. In which students have to listen for some information. They are given a card to fill in so they have to show immediate evidence of their understanding.
Vocabulary is not presented by the teacher. Students have to find out the new words.
Teacher`s role: The teacher is a facilitator, provides resources.
Teaching learning process: Grammar Deduction.
Interaction: Students work in pairs
Chart according to the principles in language teaching
ACT. 1
ACT. 2
ACT. 3
ACT. 4
Goal
Presentation
Consciousness raising
Communication
Extract information from a written text
Roles
T. is a facilitator
T. as a provider and a guide
T. as a facilitator, guide, monitor
T as a guide, monitor
Teaching/learning process
Attention, reflection, discrimination
New grammar items
Associate L2 and meaning directly in context
Associate L2 and meaning directly in context
St/ T. interaction
S-centered. Ss work in pairs. Cooperative learning
T- students
T elicits sentences
Ss drills
Ss- Ss
Group or pair-work
Ss individual work
View of language/ culture
Language is a tool to obtain information
Language for discovering grammar
Language for developing thinking. Culture integrated with language.
Culture integrated with language
Skills
listening
Speaking/grammar and vocabulary
Speaking, reflecting. Sharing cultural knowledge
Reading, dealing with new lexical items, inference through context
Role of L1
Not used
Not used
none
Translation if needed only.
How does evaluation occur?
By filling in a card they show immediate evidence of understanding
By having accurate logical sentences
Accuracy in sentences formation
By showing oral evidence of understanding
Treatment of errors
Nonthreatening
Correction by modeling
Correction by modeling
Providing feedback
The methodology used in these lessons is a combination of Presentation Practice and Production (with some variations) and Task Based Learning.
The lesson starts by activating students schemata to introduce the topic: ¨inventions¨ (in the warm-up)
Then Presentation takes place because the topic is presented by using a tape-script. Students have to listen for some information about inventions.
In activity 3 by providing input, the teacher elicits grammar production in a given context. It is a communicative activity in which students have to show their communicative competence. The teacher selects a context which students know about, so that they feel they are talking about something they are familiar with. In activity 3 there is an optional task which we found might be very interesting to students because it involves a challenge. It is a task which requires the students to match the sentences. They must provide evidence of grammar competence, vocabulary usage and cultural knowledge. A time limit must be set.
In activity 4 we deal with reading as an active skill. Students have to work with unknown lexical items. They are required to use some internal techniques to guess new vocabulary and make out meaning from the context. This activity may lead to a short discussion so learners are given a chance to share their views and compare or contrast their own ideas with their peers` and even with the ones presented in the text.
“Things that Changed the World”
Created by Octavio Plaza C. Activities and Rationale by Karina Rios and Octavio plaza
Centro de Enseñanza de Lenguas, UAEM.
Topic: Things that changed the world.
Skills/Language: Reading, listening, writing and speaking
Level: Pre-Intermediate & upwards
Time: 2 classes of 50 minutes
Aims & Objectives:
· To discuss the importance of some historical, scientific and technological events and the impact they have had on our lives.
· To test learners knowledge on past participles and handling of the verb to be in different tenses.
· To test learners vocabulary and practice it.
· At the end of the lesson the students will be able to talk about inventions and use the passive voice at a pre-intermediate level.
Procedure:
Warm up: (Speaking)
· Elicit from the students what they know about things that have changed our world, by asking them to think what their lives would be without a remote control, the light bulb, or the plane for example.
· Elicit from the students some verbs related to inventions. (invented, manufacture, discovered)
Rationale: Activate learners’ schemata
Activity 1: (Receptive skill: Listening)
· Have students to work in pairs and listen to some people talking about different inventions, and then decide which invention they are talking about. (The aerosols can, the bar code, the remote control or the ring pull opener).
· Use realia.
· Give each pair of students a card with the question words: Who?, when? , where? , how? , how many types?. Ask them to try to answer these questions with information on the recording.
Who?
When?
Where?
How?
How many types?
· Ask them to try to use long answers (You may want to model: “The aerosol can was designed by the United States Department of Agriculture”).
· Ask students to look up the words they do not know.
· Help students with vocabulary they cannot find in the dictionary.
· Check their answers.
*Adapted from Business Objectives, OUP.
Rationale: Provide learners with a suitable Input
Activity 2:
· Divide the board into three columns
· Write the following information on the first column: President Lincoln, The Beatles, A cure for cancer, English and French, etc.
President Lincoln
Was murdered
In a theatre
A cure for cancer
One day
English and French
In Canada
The Beatles
In Liverpool
The planet Venus
In the morning sky
Rolls Royce cars
In England since 1906
· Try to elicit some examples of the passive, if lucky, write the examples on the board. If not, give them the third column: in 1867 in a theatre, in Liverpool, some day, etc. (President Lincoln was murdered in a theatre).
· Ask learners to complete the sentences, following the example.
President Lincoln/ was killed/ in 1869, The Beatles/ were born/ in Liverpool, a cure for cancer/ will be found/ some day, etc.
· Have students to analyze and reflect on the different tenses and try to come up with a formula.
*Adapted from Grapevine, OUP
Rationale: Consciousness raising
Option: To make it a bit more challenging: (Discovering Grammar)
Students work in pairs or trios. They are given a set of cards with broken sentences, so that they have to match them and complete them with the appropriate verbs in past participle. Then answers are checked after a time limit (5-10 minutes) depending on the group ( and groups size)
Arrest- kill- discover-make-find-film-murder-invent- consider-catch
Paris Hilton was_________________
In a car accident
John F. Kennedy was murdered
By Alexander Fleming
Princess Diana was ______________
The sexiest woman in the world
Penicillin was __________________
When stealing money
The telephone was ______________
In a car accident in a tunnel in England
Color T.V. was __________________
The King of Rock and Roll
Britney Spears was ______________
By Eduardo Camarena.
Marilyn Monroe was ______________
In a parade in 1969.
The thief was ___________________
For driving while drunk.
Elvis Presley was _______________
By Alexander Graham Bell
Teacher might want to model a sentence to let students know what they are expected to do. It can be an example with something they are familiar with, like Britney Spears or Paris Hilton which is relatively recent information: We can elicit a sentence saying: Why was Paris Hilton in jail? Do you know? The expected answer should be:
Paris Hilton was arrested for driving drunk/ while she was drunk.¨
Then they find the rules to make sentences in Passive Voice and they might find more uses of it.
These shoes were made in Leon. /My watch was made in China, etc.
Activity 3: Practice (Communicative Activity: Quiz).
Students practice using passives by discussing and compiling a list of famous buildings, films, etc, which have been produced in their country
What’s it famous for?
1. A building in your town which was built more than 200 years ago.
2. A film which was directed by somebody from your country.
3. A competition which was won by a person or team from your country.
4. Something which was invented by a person from your country.
5. Something which is made in your town/region.
6. A famous picture which was painted by somebody from your country
7. A famous dish which is eaten a lot in your town/region.
· Put ss into pairs or groups. Give out sheets. Focus on sentences 1-15 and go through them quickly making sure ss understand everything.
· Set a time limit (5 min.), and tell ss to discuss each sentence and try to write the name of a building, person, book, dish, etc.
· When the time limit is up, join pairs/ groups together to discuss what they have written. Encourage them to ask for extra information: When was (…) built? Who was the film directed by?
*Adapted from New English File. OUP
Rationale: Communicative Activities. Meaningful Practice.
Activity 4: (Reading)
Students look at a list of inventions. And discuss whether people will put them in their favorite or least favorite lists. (The motor car, the radio nuclear power, the bicycle, the mobile phone, the printing press, the television the plastic bag the land mine).
· Ask them to read an article about people’s attitudes to inventions.”Inventions: The top ten? And check their ideas.
· Ask students to read the text.
· Elicit from the students what they understood from the text.
· Explain the new vocabulary items that students have doubt about.
· Read the text aloud or ask for some volunteer to read it.
· Explain the meaning of some words.
Activity 5: (Productive Skill: Writing)
. Ask students to use some notes to write a text about trainers. They can add more sentences about trainers if they want.
· Option: We can find out about other topics of students` interest
Trainers
-First canvas basketball boots made 1917 for players- Converse All Star Athletic shoes.
-Originally only made in black or white (now 64 different colors of Converse boots).
Rationale: Writing Practice. Consolidation/further practice/follow up
Activity 6: (Further Practice)
Have students to fill in the gaps with the correct passive or active voice.
The history of Hamburger:
COMMENTS:
ACTIVITY 1: Activity 1 Presentation:
It is a receptive skill act. In which students have to listen for some information. They are given a card to fill in so they have to show immediate evidence of their understanding.
Vocabulary is not presented by the teacher. Students have to find out the new words.
Teacher`s role: The teacher is a facilitator, provides resources.
Teaching learning process: Grammar Deduction.
Interaction: Students work in pairs
Chart according to the principles in language teaching
ACT. 1
ACT. 2
ACT. 3
ACT. 4
Goal
Presentation
Consciousness raising
Communication
Extract information from a written text
Roles
T. is a facilitator
T. as a provider and a guide
T. as a facilitator, guide, monitor
T as a guide, monitor
Teaching/learning process
Attention, reflection, discrimination
New grammar items
Associate L2 and meaning directly in context
Associate L2 and meaning directly in context
St/ T. interaction
S-centered. Ss work in pairs. Cooperative learning
T- students
T elicits sentences
Ss drills
Ss- Ss
Group or pair-work
Ss individual work
View of language/ culture
Language is a tool to obtain information
Language for discovering grammar
Language for developing thinking. Culture integrated with language.
Culture integrated with language
Skills
listening
Speaking/grammar and vocabulary
Speaking, reflecting. Sharing cultural knowledge
Reading, dealing with new lexical items, inference through context
Role of L1
Not used
Not used
none
Translation if needed only.
How does evaluation occur?
By filling in a card they show immediate evidence of understanding
By having accurate logical sentences
Accuracy in sentences formation
By showing oral evidence of understanding
Treatment of errors
Nonthreatening
Correction by modeling
Correction by modeling
Providing feedback
The methodology used in these lessons is a combination of Presentation Practice and Production (with some variations) and Task Based Learning.
The lesson starts by activating students schemata to introduce the topic: ¨inventions¨ (in the warm-up)
Then Presentation takes place because the topic is presented by using a tape-script. Students have to listen for some information about inventions.
In activity 3 by providing input, the teacher elicits grammar production in a given context. It is a communicative activity in which students have to show their communicative competence. The teacher selects a context which students know about, so that they feel they are talking about something they are familiar with. In activity 3 there is an optional task which we found might be very interesting to students because it involves a challenge. It is a task which requires the students to match the sentences. They must provide evidence of grammar competence, vocabulary usage and cultural knowledge. A time limit must be set.
In activity 4 we deal with reading as an active skill. Students have to work with unknown lexical items. They are required to use some internal techniques to guess new vocabulary and make out meaning from the context. This activity may lead to a short discussion so learners are given a chance to share their views and compare or contrast their own ideas with their peers` and even with the ones presented in the text.
viernes, 11 de abril de 2008
A Case Study on Grammar Teaching
The treatment of grammar in American Inside Out
© 2008 Octavio Plaza C.
introduction
The aim of the study
In this study I evaluate a grammar lesson in the light of relevant theoretical assumptions and perspectives of grammar, current methodology in the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), and pedagogical requirements/ constraints of the particular teaching situation. We will be concerned here with the question of ‘how’ grammar is being taught in some EFL classes in Mexico City and Estado de México.
Key words
Grammar, PPP, tasks, approach, awareness-raising, communicative, consciousness-raising, English language teaching, EFL, ESL, ELT.
What is grammar?
The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines grammar as the study and practice of the rules by which words change their form and are combined into sentences.
The content of the grammar lesson
While it is essential for learners to be able to manipulate grammatical form, this is not sufficient. Learners also need to understand the concepts expressed and the functions performed through a particular grammatical element (Harmer, 1987: 9-11 & 17).
The teaching situation
Learner profile
Age: 18-21-
Level: Pre-intermediate university students. Mexico City. Learners have had two years of instruction during which very little grammar was taught implicitly.
L1: Spanish (monolingual class)
Class schedule: Mondays & Wednesdays from 12:00 to 14:00(120- minute sessions)
Aids: whiteboard, felt tip pens)
Stage of lesson: Presentation/practice
Reason for learning: Mainly school curriculum, whose long-term aim is for its students to complete 5 levels and receive a certificate to be able to get a degree. .
The course-book
AMERICAN INSIDEOUT 2 (Kay, Jones & Kerr, 1990) comprises a ‘student’s book’ (SB), a ‘teacher’s book’ (TB) and a ‘workbook’ (WB). It is targeted at pre-intermediate or at ‘‘students who have done some elementary English”. The lesson to be evaluated and adapted is Lesson 1 of Unit 16 (SB: 15-16). Since the TB offers step-by-step methodological advice and guidance, and the WB provides additional exercises, all three books are going to be referred to during the evaluation.
The Lesson: Teaching future time clauses using a reading text.
Presentation, practice, awareness-raising and the role of meaning
Step1. Warm up. The teacher writes the name of the unit on the board “lifestyle” and starts eliciting from learners what that concept suggests to them, students come up with different items such as clothes, music, religion, and when the teacher gets “health”, she stops them and ask them why they think health is important to live longer.
Step2. Presentation. The teacher then asks the class if they would like to live long and how long. Learners are asked what they need to do to stay healthy and live longer. This, besides being a lead in activity seems to aim at activating learners’ previous knowledge of the topic. Learners come up with a sufficient number of opinions and recommendations.
The teacher asks the class to complete this sentence “If we have a good health, …” students come up with completions like “we can live better and longer, and this is it, the teacher decides it is time to have ss to opens their books and look at a picture which shows an old woman and a reading texts under the title “How not to die before you get old”.
Commentary: The approach is obviously communicative, there is an obvious (Nunan, 1991) “emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language, and the grammar presentation intends to be covert or inductive in which the rules are inferred through guided discovery and there is an enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning. (Thornbury,1999).
Step3.While Students are then asked to look at some tips to live longer which include a multiple choice type exercise: “You‘ll live longer if you…eat a low calorie/vitamin/protein diet, which seems to aim at activating learners’ schemata. The teacher then gets students to scan the text and find the tips mentioned in the first task.
There was a short vocabulary exercise to provide the learners with more communicative tools by means of a few collocations.
Step4. The teacher tries to guide learners to produce there own examples based on the reading. “If you do a lot of exercise… what will happen? And gets students to repeat the conditional clause and say what will happen. “If I do a lot of exercise, I’ll be healthier”. As soon as they have done this partly mechanical, partly meaningful practice, the teacher tries some sort of chain practice with students. Ask the person next to you what will happen if he/she does or doesn’t do this and that. The learners again have to repeat the conditional clause first and then the main clause.
Step four. Finally the teacher writes a couple of conditional sentences on the board highlighting the difference between conditional clause (in red) and the main clause (in blue) and gives a brief explanation on the possibilities in the main clause can instead of will.
Commentary: One of the main tasks of pedagogical grammar is the formulation of rules; concrete, non technical, simple, which is reasonable if we concentrate more on meaning rather than form. (Westney,1994). New critiques suggest; however, that an emphasis on truth, clarity and simplicity could also enhance learning. An awareness of form can result in better understanding of the structure, better spelling and might eventually enhance productive skills. The class is, on the whole, adequate regarding the presentation of grammar, as well as the practice stage, which seems to work well. The activities presented lead students to the awareness raising needed to try to figure our rules when using future time clauses. After practicing for a while students are presented examples of the structure in written form and two colors to differentiate the clauses, which also seem appropriate and seems to provide learners with a visual cue, so that they pay attention to form as well. After learners have focused on meaning mainly, some consciousness raising work can be done, to focus on form and foster accuracy as well as fluency.
Time. The teacher spent about 20 minutes teaching grammar both implicitly and explicitly. The remaining time was used for warm up, instructions and a reading text to provide students with some input.
Integrating Skills. Three skills were put into use, listening (when teacher gives instructions), reading (learners scan a reading text) and speaking (students come up with examples and utter some phrases, words and exclamations). A writing exercise could be done the following class as a post activity. Learners could be asked to write about health issues (sleeping, working out, food for thought, etc).
Commentary: All in all, the teacher did a pretty good job. The approach to teaching grammar seems to me to be adequate; she never told learners they were doing conditionals, or future clauses, and the activities, on the whole, worked out pretty well too. The teacher speaks English at all times, and the learners were actively involved in the activities; however, learners are so used to this kind of presentation of grammatical structure that they become predictable and uninteresting at times, therefore a little variation will not do any harm. Consciousness raising deals with the fact that students have to actually discover the rules that govern a given structure by means of some well designed activities which naturally lead them to understand, practice, produce and eventually use the structure. The course book intends to do so ,but takes understanding for granted at very early stages; this may be because, the book was originally though as for TESL, in which students have much more exposure and have heard and used the structure before, though unconsciously. Teachers need to understand the big differences between EFL and ESL.
EFL classrooms in Mexico might need a slightly different approach. I would suggest involving students more by means of some consciousness-raising tasks, which present the language in a more implicit way at first through either a listening or reading text or both, which aims at providing a some suitable input. Carefully designed questions about the text might guide learners to both, use the structure quite naturally, without having to present it explicitly, and practice. Having students to work on the questions about listening or reading text can raise their awareness of both meaning and form. It might not be necessary to carry out mechanical practice and drilling afterwards, though it is advisable for some learners and learning styles. Finally I would check the learners' understanding of the structure by having them to focus on meaning and then form (without telling them they are doing so, of course), by means of a match-the-two-halves kind of task for meaning and a fill-in- the -gaps one for form. We're ready for a post activity which is a perfect time for productive skills, speaking and writing.
“How explicitly should grammar be taught? Accurate grammatical understanding and accurate rules are "neither realistic nor desirable in learning/teaching situations beyond the low-level area." Users of L1, as well as advanced learners of L2, can internalize higher level of grammar through massive exposure; "any language user 'knows' that language is like this, without necessarily knowing the rules. Westney suggests that "an adequate model of language must allow for structure to be relatively obscure and only indirectly accessible to consciousness”. (Odlin, 1994)
Learners in Mexico City and Estado de México cannot normally have such “massive exposure, so a sufficient focus on form, can help to overcome such obstacles as lack of exposure.
Practice and awareness-raising
“Since evidence for/against practice and consciousness-raising is inconclusive and contradictory (Ellis, 1992) TEFL methodology would be wise to cater for both. There is also a theoretical framework which seems to call for their combination. Anderson’s (1983) model distinguishes between declarative (‘what’) and procedural (‘how’) knowledge. Declarative knowledge can be used to ‘‘guide behavior’’ through ‘‘interpretative procedures’’. It can be argued that awareness-raising/noticing will bring about declarative knowledge, whereas practice will lead to enhance procedural knowledge. Ellis (1992: 235) came to a similar conclusion” (Gabrielatos, 1994).
References
Odlin, T. 1994. Perspectives on Pedagogical grammar. CUP
Harmer J. 1997. Teaching and Learning Grammar. Longman
Thornbury, S. 1999. How to teach Grammar. Longman
Ellis, R. 1988. Classroom Second Language Development. Prentice Hall.
Harmer, J. 1987. Teaching and Learning Grammar. Longman.
Littlewood, W. 1981. Communicative Language Teaching. CUP
Gabrielatos, C. (1994) Materials Evaluation & Adaptation Retrieved: April 9, 2008 from: http://www.gabrielatos.comGrammar/Evaluation.htm
© 2008 Octavio Plaza C.
introduction
The aim of the study
In this study I evaluate a grammar lesson in the light of relevant theoretical assumptions and perspectives of grammar, current methodology in the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), and pedagogical requirements/ constraints of the particular teaching situation. We will be concerned here with the question of ‘how’ grammar is being taught in some EFL classes in Mexico City and Estado de México.
Key words
Grammar, PPP, tasks, approach, awareness-raising, communicative, consciousness-raising, English language teaching, EFL, ESL, ELT.
What is grammar?
The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines grammar as the study and practice of the rules by which words change their form and are combined into sentences.
The content of the grammar lesson
While it is essential for learners to be able to manipulate grammatical form, this is not sufficient. Learners also need to understand the concepts expressed and the functions performed through a particular grammatical element (Harmer, 1987: 9-11 & 17).
The teaching situation
Learner profile
Age: 18-21-
Level: Pre-intermediate university students. Mexico City. Learners have had two years of instruction during which very little grammar was taught implicitly.
L1: Spanish (monolingual class)
Class schedule: Mondays & Wednesdays from 12:00 to 14:00(120- minute sessions)
Aids: whiteboard, felt tip pens)
Stage of lesson: Presentation/practice
Reason for learning: Mainly school curriculum, whose long-term aim is for its students to complete 5 levels and receive a certificate to be able to get a degree. .
The course-book
AMERICAN INSIDEOUT 2 (Kay, Jones & Kerr, 1990) comprises a ‘student’s book’ (SB), a ‘teacher’s book’ (TB) and a ‘workbook’ (WB). It is targeted at pre-intermediate or at ‘‘students who have done some elementary English”. The lesson to be evaluated and adapted is Lesson 1 of Unit 16 (SB: 15-16). Since the TB offers step-by-step methodological advice and guidance, and the WB provides additional exercises, all three books are going to be referred to during the evaluation.
The Lesson: Teaching future time clauses using a reading text.
Presentation, practice, awareness-raising and the role of meaning
Step1. Warm up. The teacher writes the name of the unit on the board “lifestyle” and starts eliciting from learners what that concept suggests to them, students come up with different items such as clothes, music, religion, and when the teacher gets “health”, she stops them and ask them why they think health is important to live longer.
Step2. Presentation. The teacher then asks the class if they would like to live long and how long. Learners are asked what they need to do to stay healthy and live longer. This, besides being a lead in activity seems to aim at activating learners’ previous knowledge of the topic. Learners come up with a sufficient number of opinions and recommendations.
The teacher asks the class to complete this sentence “If we have a good health, …” students come up with completions like “we can live better and longer, and this is it, the teacher decides it is time to have ss to opens their books and look at a picture which shows an old woman and a reading texts under the title “How not to die before you get old”.
Commentary: The approach is obviously communicative, there is an obvious (Nunan, 1991) “emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language, and the grammar presentation intends to be covert or inductive in which the rules are inferred through guided discovery and there is an enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning. (Thornbury,1999).
Step3.While Students are then asked to look at some tips to live longer which include a multiple choice type exercise: “You‘ll live longer if you…eat a low calorie/vitamin/protein diet, which seems to aim at activating learners’ schemata. The teacher then gets students to scan the text and find the tips mentioned in the first task.
There was a short vocabulary exercise to provide the learners with more communicative tools by means of a few collocations.
Step4. The teacher tries to guide learners to produce there own examples based on the reading. “If you do a lot of exercise… what will happen? And gets students to repeat the conditional clause and say what will happen. “If I do a lot of exercise, I’ll be healthier”. As soon as they have done this partly mechanical, partly meaningful practice, the teacher tries some sort of chain practice with students. Ask the person next to you what will happen if he/she does or doesn’t do this and that. The learners again have to repeat the conditional clause first and then the main clause.
Step four. Finally the teacher writes a couple of conditional sentences on the board highlighting the difference between conditional clause (in red) and the main clause (in blue) and gives a brief explanation on the possibilities in the main clause can instead of will.
Commentary: One of the main tasks of pedagogical grammar is the formulation of rules; concrete, non technical, simple, which is reasonable if we concentrate more on meaning rather than form. (Westney,1994). New critiques suggest; however, that an emphasis on truth, clarity and simplicity could also enhance learning. An awareness of form can result in better understanding of the structure, better spelling and might eventually enhance productive skills. The class is, on the whole, adequate regarding the presentation of grammar, as well as the practice stage, which seems to work well. The activities presented lead students to the awareness raising needed to try to figure our rules when using future time clauses. After practicing for a while students are presented examples of the structure in written form and two colors to differentiate the clauses, which also seem appropriate and seems to provide learners with a visual cue, so that they pay attention to form as well. After learners have focused on meaning mainly, some consciousness raising work can be done, to focus on form and foster accuracy as well as fluency.
Time. The teacher spent about 20 minutes teaching grammar both implicitly and explicitly. The remaining time was used for warm up, instructions and a reading text to provide students with some input.
Integrating Skills. Three skills were put into use, listening (when teacher gives instructions), reading (learners scan a reading text) and speaking (students come up with examples and utter some phrases, words and exclamations). A writing exercise could be done the following class as a post activity. Learners could be asked to write about health issues (sleeping, working out, food for thought, etc).
Commentary: All in all, the teacher did a pretty good job. The approach to teaching grammar seems to me to be adequate; she never told learners they were doing conditionals, or future clauses, and the activities, on the whole, worked out pretty well too. The teacher speaks English at all times, and the learners were actively involved in the activities; however, learners are so used to this kind of presentation of grammatical structure that they become predictable and uninteresting at times, therefore a little variation will not do any harm. Consciousness raising deals with the fact that students have to actually discover the rules that govern a given structure by means of some well designed activities which naturally lead them to understand, practice, produce and eventually use the structure. The course book intends to do so ,but takes understanding for granted at very early stages; this may be because, the book was originally though as for TESL, in which students have much more exposure and have heard and used the structure before, though unconsciously. Teachers need to understand the big differences between EFL and ESL.
EFL classrooms in Mexico might need a slightly different approach. I would suggest involving students more by means of some consciousness-raising tasks, which present the language in a more implicit way at first through either a listening or reading text or both, which aims at providing a some suitable input. Carefully designed questions about the text might guide learners to both, use the structure quite naturally, without having to present it explicitly, and practice. Having students to work on the questions about listening or reading text can raise their awareness of both meaning and form. It might not be necessary to carry out mechanical practice and drilling afterwards, though it is advisable for some learners and learning styles. Finally I would check the learners' understanding of the structure by having them to focus on meaning and then form (without telling them they are doing so, of course), by means of a match-the-two-halves kind of task for meaning and a fill-in- the -gaps one for form. We're ready for a post activity which is a perfect time for productive skills, speaking and writing.
“How explicitly should grammar be taught? Accurate grammatical understanding and accurate rules are "neither realistic nor desirable in learning/teaching situations beyond the low-level area." Users of L1, as well as advanced learners of L2, can internalize higher level of grammar through massive exposure; "any language user 'knows' that language is like this, without necessarily knowing the rules. Westney suggests that "an adequate model of language must allow for structure to be relatively obscure and only indirectly accessible to consciousness”. (Odlin, 1994)
Learners in Mexico City and Estado de México cannot normally have such “massive exposure, so a sufficient focus on form, can help to overcome such obstacles as lack of exposure.
Practice and awareness-raising
“Since evidence for/against practice and consciousness-raising is inconclusive and contradictory (Ellis, 1992) TEFL methodology would be wise to cater for both. There is also a theoretical framework which seems to call for their combination. Anderson’s (1983) model distinguishes between declarative (‘what’) and procedural (‘how’) knowledge. Declarative knowledge can be used to ‘‘guide behavior’’ through ‘‘interpretative procedures’’. It can be argued that awareness-raising/noticing will bring about declarative knowledge, whereas practice will lead to enhance procedural knowledge. Ellis (1992: 235) came to a similar conclusion” (Gabrielatos, 1994).
References
Odlin, T. 1994. Perspectives on Pedagogical grammar. CUP
Harmer J. 1997. Teaching and Learning Grammar. Longman
Thornbury, S. 1999. How to teach Grammar. Longman
Ellis, R. 1988. Classroom Second Language Development. Prentice Hall.
Harmer, J. 1987. Teaching and Learning Grammar. Longman.
Littlewood, W. 1981. Communicative Language Teaching. CUP
Gabrielatos, C. (1994) Materials Evaluation & Adaptation Retrieved: April 9, 2008 from: http://www.gabrielatos.comGrammar/Evaluation.htm
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