Teaching is a process and
not necessarily a controlled one – quite the opposite, I would say. A great
deal depends on the response(s) of the students to what is an intended teaching
point. Their understanding of it will allow the teacher to move on to the next
step. On the other hand, difficulty in comprehension could mean either that the
teacher has to expand this particular step in the process or even that it
should be deferred to the future, when the students will be more mature and
ready to assimilate the new item.
Rather than following a
series of steps suggested in a course book, particularly at a more advanced
level, I prefer to design a process myself taking into consideration my
students’ knowledge and needs. In this manner, I manage to cut out activities
which are pointless because my students have already consolidated their
knowledge of those particular items.
On the other hand, in a lesson
plan of my own I have the opportunity to fit in material-- exercises or
vocabulary-boosting activities -- which will be more relevant to my students.
What is more, I can variegate the process rather than follow a routine, which
is the rule in course books. The result is a convoluted venture which is,
however, well worth undertaking.
I will illustrate.
·
Topic:
reality shows
·
Warm-up
questions (source: COMPLETE CAE Student’s Book page 77)
What do you think about
reality shows in general? Choose one of these statements:
a.
“I don’t
watch them but I don’t have any moral objections to them.”
b.
“I watch
them and I don’t have any moral objections to them.”
c.
“I don’t
watch them because I am worried by the ethics of some shows.”
d.
“I watch
them but the ethics of some shows worry me.”
e.
“I don’t
know/don’t care.”
·
Show
video on BBC
·
Hand out the
news story about Nicole Prince, the Australian reality TV star who won a
landmark compensation case for being harassed.
·
I have created
a derivatives exercise for my students and a few transformations which the
students are supposed to do without looking at the text after they have
finished reading it and completed the gaps with the right form of the words in
capitals.
·
The first
transformation brings to the students’ attention a structure which they don’t
normally find in advanced grammars as there is so much you can categorise and
include in a grammar. This is: Something is yet to + passive infinitive
You can
follow this up with more practice:
They have
not confirmed the date yet.
The date
We
haven’t determined the extent of the damage yet.
The
extent of the damage
They
haven’t signed the contract yet.
The
contract
·
The
vocabulary exercise provides plenty of practice on the new vocabulary. I always
include lexical items which I have already taught in the past but need to
reinforce.
·
Finally,
the derivatives exercise brought to mind an excellent semantic questionnaire by
Mario Rinvolucri and Paul Davis in their resource book More Grammar Games.
The end result is a much
more stimulating and enriching experience for the students.
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