Strategies in vocabulary learning

Last week I published a post on vocabulary. I’d like to start out by thanking everyone for their great responses, I came away with a lot of ideas and lots to think about. In the post, I gave a run-down of some of my aims for the next few weeks/months/years. since starting though my focus has taken me off in different directions and I’ve realised consequently that what I will actually publish might not resemble the initial post.

Vocabulary learning strategies are divided into categories by Schmitt (1997: 207-8),  Stoffer (1995), Nation (2001: 218) and Gu and Johnson (1996: 650-651). I came across these taxonomies here on Magda Kadubiec’s wonderful blog and I owe her a reference in this case. For more information I suggest you visit her blog or get hold of any of the literature mentioned above. I have sorted the strategies into a table and put it in the appendix and will try and link the strategies I’ve come across and thought of to this, just to keep it a little bit theoretical.

Strategies

1. Appealing to the senses

• This technique works especially well with young learners. A colleague of mine varies the pitch, the volume and the speed of her voice when introducing vocabulary. The difference in sound is thought to increase the chances of vocabulary retention. 
• Another colleague has young learners spell words on each others’ backs to help solidify the image of a words shape in memory. This technique is also useful with dyslexic learners because the mind creates a link between the sense of the word – feeling the word – and eliminates the block between hearing  or reading a word and making mental image of it.
• Young learners again: get learners miming actions, miming nouns (eat pizza, take the dog for a walk, do homework).
• Stange movements, for example, pronouncing a word while doing a funky yoga style movement.
• Using sounds for abstract concepts like feelings, music works very well for this.
• Alternatively, instead of making a connection between a word and a sense, you can use a sense to find connections to words. Place learners back in the situation in which they came across new vocabulary, establish how they felt, what they were wearing, how they were sitting, what could they hear. Give them a word that came up in class and see how much they remember. More detail on this idea  here
• Making a mental image of a word upon encountering it. Take 5-10 seconds just to visualise a scene to connect to the world, then visualise the word and spell it out in the air with your finger. For example, ‘mettere troppa carne al fuoco’ in Italian I made a vision of a bbq with a man panicking because there are too many steaks to fry – the idiom means to have too many things on the go at the same time.

I would categories many of these as ‘Encoding strategies’, ‘activation strategies’ or ‘Consolidation – memory’ strategies.

Organising Strategies

1. Encoding

The strategies below are focused on ‘encoding’ a word over ‘decoding’ a word; going from word level to a higher, more complex level of information. For example, searching for the definition of ‘extreme’ is decoding, while finding ‘extreme weather conditions’ or /ɪkstri:meʒəz/ would fall under encoding. To empower students, work on the following strategies is helpful:

• Monolingual dictionary training: teaching learners to go beyond just the definition and look for information on collocations, register, frequency, colligation, pronunciation, examples, derivatives and word class. Also, using context to select the most fitting definition, i.e. not taking the first example.
• Online dictionary training and paper-based dictionary training.Using bilingual dictionaries. Using suitable online dictionaries to find word information (mentioned above).
• How NOT to use google translate.
• Training students to use language corpora for their own research into language. Words and phrases is a good place to start. This strategy has the added bonus of providing practice of guessing meaning from context. There are drawbacks, beware of these. You can find many of them here.

2. Finding

• Practise mining texts for vocabulary in class, sorting them into collocations and storing them.
• Set homework for learners to find texts that interest them and repeat. It’s also worth highlighting the difference between mining and reading… so that they don’t see every time they read as an occasion for mining vocabulary.

More on texts in this informative and helpful post by Michael Swan 

3. Storing

• Creating word lists according to theme/topic/ or perhaps wordlists of words more similar to or different from L1 cognates.
• The writing of vocabulary cards at the end of class, the start of class, during class. Use these as store of vocabulary, available at all times to use as revision. Hand them out during activities for student to record new vocabulary as it emerges, use them for vocabulary input during activities and ask learners to explain to each other after or recall the context in which the lexis was introduced.
• Training in keeping a lexical notebook. See my post on lexical notebooks previously for more information.

These are strategies for students. I’ll be addressing strategies for teachers in my next post in which I’ll look at the topic under ‘rehearsal strategies’.

Below are a few lesson skeletons if anyone is thinking of implementing vocabulary strategies in their classrooms. If you have any comments or additions to make they’d be very welcome.

 

Lesson skeleton: Discussing strategies

Preparation: draw up a list of vocabulary strategies suitable for your learners.

1. Start the lesson by asking learners how they feel they learn English best, how they were taught at school to learn English and how much time they spend learning English outside the classroom. Push them hard to find out any beliefs or habits that might shape their views, e.g. teacher never tests them, learnt words with translations in school out of context, never kept a vocabulary book.
2. Explain what a strategy is and have learners draw up separate lists of possible vocabulary strategies. Have a representative of each group move another and explain their choices.
3. Make a consolidated list and compare to the list you have drawn up. Have learners compare and discuss which they think are useful/not useful for them and why. Finish off the activity by having learners make a list in their books of which strategies they are going to try out in the coming weeks.
4. Provide feedback or examples of any strategies discussed in class or make a list and make it the focus of the next lesson.

Advantages: 

• Having learners discuss strategies raises their awareness of the topic.
• Discussing the suitability of strategies involves them in the process and means the ones they choose are more likely to be tried.
• Discussing their previous learning experiences helps you to understand their current vocabulary habits and make appropriate suggestions in feedback.

To consider:

• Learners may be used to teacher-led instruction on this topic; explain the rationale of the activity before.
• Don’t expect too much from learners when they draw up their lists. They may simply not have any information to bring to the table. Mingle and input some ideas.

   

Lesson skeleton: Lexical notebook training

Ask learners to buy a notebook to be used as a vocabulary book and bring in a lexical notebook of your own (if you have one).

1.  Ask learners to discuss how they store vocabulary. Do they think it’s organised? Easy to read? What sort of information to they use?
2. Mingle and discuss, adding ideas.
3. Draw up a list of: what a good vocabulary notebook should/shouldn’t include. It’s helpful to do this after the dictionary training and discussing strategies as learners will have a better idea of what to include.
4. Discuss any interesting points like translation, L1 cognates, notes on grammar specific to learners’ difficulties, neat and tidy presentation/structure, use of colours, highlighters, pictures etc.
5. Ask learners to reogranise some vocabulary they have already stored on the first pages of their vocabulary notebooks they brought to class, input more information about the words and encourage learners to use dictionaries, Google, the internet, to find more examples

Extension: check vocabulary notebooks on a bi-weekly/monthly basis and give feedback on structure and language, make suggestions and add more vocabulary. Use notebooks in class to recycle language stored in them.

Advantages:

• A vocabulary notebook is a personal thing, therefore its implementation needs to consider also individual learning styles and the final product must resemble these. Each notebook will be different. Discussing this in the lesson helps.
• Doing this at the start of the course helps make sure learners have a record throughout the course.
• Fosters independent learning.

To consider:

• Learners simple may not have time to keep this up outside of class.
• Different learning styles need to be considered. Allow learners to reject the idea on valid grounds, i.e. not laziness.
• Lexical notebooks take time. Following up on the lesson is vital.

   

Lesson skeleton: Dictionary training

Preparation: Take some lexis looked at during the course until now. Bring in some dictionaries, some paper. Draw up a list of what’s important in knowing a word (see appendix 2).

1. Give learners appendix 2 and ask them to rank these in order of importance. Discuss answers and provide feedback according to your beliefs about language. I generally rank collocation among the top 3. See if your learners do the same.
2. Distribute some dictionaries and ask learners where we can find this information. Ask them to use a word they have already studies in class to lower the cognitive burden of the activity and avoid them randomly browsing the dictionary.
3. Ask them to create a mindmap of information about the word, containing as many categories as possible from the list.
4. Give feedback on students’ findings. Give them some freer practice of finding words and encoding them with a dictionary.

Extension: Bring dictionaries into class regularly and dedicate 10 minutes at the end of the lesson to encoding new words.

Advantages

• Learners realise there is more to knowing a word than just L1-L2 translation.
• Dictionary trained learners are empowered researchers of language.
• Reduces the workload on the teacher; learners are more independent.

To consider

• Monolingual dictionaries could seem a daunting prospect. Introduce them slowly and according to the level.
• Learners might not see the rationale of the activity; it might be worth explaining.

Appendix 1

Schmitt	Gu and Johnson	Stoffer	Nation
Discovery – Determination	Guessing - Using background knowledge/wider context Using linguistic cues/immediate context	Strategies with authentic language use	Planning - choosing words - choosing the aspects of word knowledge - choosing strategies - planning repetition
Discovery – Social	Dictionary Strategies -Dictionary strategies for compensation -Extended dictionary strategies - looking-up strategies	Strategies used for self-motivation	Sources - analysing the word - using context consulting a reference source in L1 or L2 - Using parallels in L1 and L2
Consolidation – Social	Note-taking strategies -Meaning-orienated note taking - Usage-orientated note-taking	Strategies used for organising words	Processes -Noticing - Retrieving - Generating
Consolidation – Memory	Rehearsal Strategies - Using word lists - Oral repetition - Visual repetiton	Strategies to create mental linkages
Consolidation – Cognitive	Encoding Strategies -Association/elaboration - Imagery - Visual encoding - Auditory encoding - Using word-structure - Semantic encoding - Contextual encoding	Memory strategies
Consolidation – Metacognitive	Activation strategies - memorising facts linking them to numbers or familiar words - remembering lists by picturing them in specific locations. - Establishing an acoustic and imagine link between an L2 word and another	Strategies involving creative activities
		Strategies involving physical action
		Strategies used to overcome anxiety
		Auditory strategies

Appendix 2

1. What the word means.

2. Collocations, .e.g. Take a shower, take a nap.

3. The grammar we often find with the word (e.g. articles, tenses, prepositions).

4. How we say the word.

5. How we translate the word.

6. Is the word formal or informal?

7. Common phrases in which we use the word.

8. Word class (e.g. noun, adjective, adverb).

9. How the word is spelt.

10. A written record of the word.

Questions questions questions

Let’s face it, question forms in English are difficult; no matter how much controlled practice or feedback on the form of ‘subject’ or ‘object’ questions, there are still likely to be slip-ups along the way. Broadly speaking, there are two problems associated with questioning:

1. Cumbersome form to manipulate while speaking, thinking and communicating meaning.

2. Lack of practice asking questions, i.e. eliciting information the learner desires to know.

Ultimately, practice makes perfect. Nevertheless, practice needs to be as authentic as possible; questions that elicit information learners want to know.

Isn’t it better when they make the questions anyway?

Find someone who actually did it

1. Put 6 sentences on the board, which contain bits and bobs you’ve got to know about your learners, you could even throw in a few curve balls as well with completely false information.

2. Ask the class to make up questions to find out this information, e.g. “somebody went skiing over Christmas” – “what did you get up to over Christmas?” Discourage questions like “did you go skiing?” and encourage more open questions.

3. Learners mingle and find answers. Compare and report back to class with interesting information they found out.

When do you….?

1. Draw or put a clock on the whiteboard and ask learners to make questions which involve the clock. You can make an example if you think they are likely to struggle. A variation might involve putting a calendar up on the board.

2. Ask learner to write the questions on the board and interview each other. Mingle and help out with vocabulary or reformulation.

3. Report back on any interesting answers/write a summary of the conversations they had

4. Extensions could include

a) Adverbs of frequency: often/from time to time/hardly ever etc.

b) Ask learner to find out who is a morning person/afternoon person/evening person.

c) Draw a time of day/feeling graph and ask learners to explain their graphs; help out with adverbs of frequency; combine with activity b.

d) Acting adverbs: divide the board into two sections; dedicate one section to actions you heard; ask learners to come up with adverbs of manner for the other side of the board, add some yourself as well. Put learners into small groups and have them act out the sentences while the others guess the adverb. E.g. “eat dinner slowly” or “have lunch on the go” “get to the bus stop just in time”.

Profile questioning (good for teens and younger learners)

1. Ask students to invent a profile or write the profile of a famous person. This can be done with personal profiles depending on the class. From experience, I’ve found that younger students get more involved if the profile is made up; they don’t have the share anything too personal.

2. Put students in groups. Tell them they are going to make interview questions and write them on cards. Monitor and reformulate any incorrect questions/push learners to dig deeper.

3. Collect all cards, shuffle them and put them into piles. Put learners in different groups and tell them they are going to interview each other, but have to stick to the information in their profiles; they have to act the person.

4. Swap groups or swap profiles to make the activity more difficult.

Extensions

a) With the personalities you could ask learners to write dramatic dialogues or take part in a dramatic roleplay in an everyday situation.

Classroom posters in schools

I took the ninja Phil Wade’s advice in this post and considered the materials in my classroom for a moment. I noticed that there is an abundance of posters in class. You know the type of poster, topic-based, full of information etc etc. The posters are in L1 but they are to be used as a springboard for L2 discussion.

1. I asked learners to collect the posters that interest them (permission to use posters might be a wise idea)

2. Work in groups to make a quiz on the very information heavy posters.

3. Distribute the questionnaires and ask students to find the answers and record them in English.

4. With all the information learners have found out, ask them to write a short report on the topic in English.

Mobile Learning Lesson Skeleton: Our Favourite Songs

A teacher should make best use of the resources at their disposal, right? I teach two FCE first-year (of two) preparation classes in a high school in Rome. The school has an IT lab and a language lab for listening, but the classrooms are very basic. There’s a small blackboard and some desks. The learners come from quite privileged backgrounds and have mobile devices with music or access to the internet on them, which gave me the idea for this lesson skeleton.

1. Ask learners to find a song that means a lot to them on their mobile device. This can be done on Youtube, using their MP3 players, ipods, ipads, iphones.

2. Ask them to tell their partner about the song:

a) If you close your eyes and listen to it, what can you see?

b) Does it remind you of a past experience?

c) When do you usually listen to this song? At a specific time of day?

d) What do you like about the artist?

c) Has the song been used in any television programmes?

d) Which is your favourite part of the song?

During this stage is a good time help students out with vocabulary as it’s immediate and contextualised. I normally carry a set of square cards for new items of vocab so that I can give it to the student while they are speaking.

3.

a) Vocabulary

If there was a large amount of vocabulary input in the previous stage, I normally put learners into groups and ask them to explain vocabulary to each other while I move around, helping and co-constructing knowledge of the vocabulary (collocations, contexts, formality, extra phrases, pronunciation, examples). Ask learners to write down new vocabulary,  swap groups until learners have had the chance to see all vocabulary. As an extension you can ask them to put new vocabulary into themes, e.g. ‘parts of a song’, ‘describing a song’, ‘describing an experience’, ‘expressing like/dislike’ etc.

b) Stories

Pick a few favourite lyrics and ask learners to make a story behind the lyric. Ask them to draw three large circles; one for characters; one for place; one for actions. In groups brainstorm ideas for a story. Check with students and help them with their language. Finally, ask them to write the story.

c) Interviews with the Stars

If a lot of chat about famous singers has come up in class, especially if learners know lots of information about these people, you can use this to make interviews. In groups, learners brainstorm questions to ask the artist. Mingle and check questions to make sure they are correct and push learners to ask juicier questions. Students swap groups and interview each other, pretending to be the artist they chose.

d) Songs we lik as a class

As a homework assignment, set up a wiki for learners to leave links to their favourite songs and imbed the videos. Ask them to leave some comments about their favourite song. This could be done in their notebooks if there is no access to the internet.

 

 

Lesson Skeleton: Just a few things I had in my bag and a CHALLENGE

Ever heard of that one? The teacher that walks in with a few bits and pieces from their bag and makes a lesson out of them? It’s like one of those TEFL myths, isn’t it?

Materials: a couple of bits and bobs from your day. I engineer these to be conversation stimulants so one was a receipt for a coffee, a bus ticket (unstamped), my passport, my boarding pass and a supermarket receipt (a few Christmasy things). I usually take into account the class interests, what they are passionate about, like talking about, so it varies.

Normally I make sure I bring:

1) Something with a picture

2) A receipt

3) Something to do with travel

1. Show students the objects allow for them to ask any questions about them. This can involve questions about vocabulary or general questions.

At this point, the class may need some time to make questions to ask you about the objects, especially at lower levels, where the burden of formulating a question (form) might be too much.

2. Share questions with the class and discuss answers.

3. After discussion has died down take some points from the conversation based on language or theme to develop.

Language examples (from the last lesson I taught)

• My boyfriend had very long hair in his photo, he doesn’t now thank God.
• I had a chubbier * face
• Have you just to check in online
• I had a fringe*
• When did you get your hairs cut? (/e/ instead of /eə/ )
• I did this document two years ago
• This photo is five years old
• Do you have to use your passport to go to America?

* These two words were fed in during the conversation.

In this part of the lesson skeleton I usually suggest extensions for language or theme. But this time I thought I’d do something different. Above I have provided my notes from their conversations. This time I want YOUR ideas. In which direction would you guide the lesson?

 

Leave answers below in the comments. 

 

 

 

 

Lesson Skeleton: Iphones and Opinions

Teenagers and telephones – I had one, they all have one. Why not use one? 

1. Write a an adjective and its antonym on the board, e.g. ‘proud’ and ‘embarrassed’

2. Ask your learners to find a picture that describes the adjective for them using their phones. Mingle and ask them to explain why they chose the photo. At this point I discovered my group had simply searched proud on Google – so I drew and Italian flag on the board, which focused the search on an idea – teenagers are resourceful things, they have the ability to find the quickest route possible to the finish! You can extend the topic and introduce more context if needed.

3. Each student takes a piece of paper and makes a topic sentence about their pictures, e.g. “The rubbish heaps in Napoli are truly an embarrassment to this nation”, “The fast cars we produce are the best in the world and make us famous”, also with a space below for comments.

4. Pass the sheets around and ask students to comment on the points, expressing their opinion in agreement or disagreement

- in this stage you can input phrases to agree/disagree/offer a counter-point/extend someone’s point/exemplify – feed in vocabulary for students. You could put this on cards and after dish them out and ask students to match them to the context (the statement/picture).

5. Gather the sheets up and check them for corrections (I usually do this in the break). You could do some error correction or just to make sure the extension activities don’t use incorrect language.

Extensions:

•  Post the sheets around the room and ask students to pick the opinions they agree with and which they disagree with to formulate a debate.
• Do some vocabulary work on a topic: brainstorm.
• Ask students to host a chat show. They take a sheet and have to represent the point in a live debate.
• Write a magazine article or an interview with a famous person about the arguments e.g. an interview with George Clooney about how much Italy has to be proud of.
• Ask students to find a text about one of the points for next lesson and make a summary of it.

To consider:

• I used pieces of paper and circulated them to make the best use of my classroom: 17 teenagers, tiny black board, one piece of chalk… not so easy. Consider how to capture the language. Consider recording, using the whiteboard, the IWB, large sheets of paper stuck around the room and marker pens.
• Careful it doesn’t turn into ‘I agree, I agree, I agree’ monitor and push students to give reasons or to say something outrageous. Provide lots of examples yourself.
• I have a monolingual class, so I allow them to ask me for words in their language. Brainstorming vocabulary for each point may be fruitful as well.

Possible adjective pairs:

Relaxed – stressed

Busy – calm

Modern – old-fashioned

Brave – cowardly

Intelligent – idiotic

 

 

 

 

Lesson Skeleton: IELTS news-based writing class

This skeleton has been kindly donated by the debate-master Phil Wade. No materials needed, just blank paper, students, pens and a teacher.

Exams don’t exist in a bubble, or rather they shouldn’t. It’s easy to just ‘teach the test’ but with the speaking and writing it’s also fun and educational to show and use the real world. This is useful on several levels. Firstly, it gives students a wealth of realistic ideas to use (often only the realm of CAE+), it creates a positive and practical purpose for speaking/writing classes and it also avoids students only learning IELTS writing English or memorising examples.

1) Elicit a controversial decision/opinion in the news which is causing debate.

2) Write FOR and AGAINST on the board and elicit one example for each

3) Ask pairs to brainstorm more arguments

4)Set up and run a debate scenario with For/Ag sides

Possibilities

1)Groupings

1 to 1 (for new debaters and higher levels or with more structure for lowers)

2 to 2 (bigger classes and weaker students)

3 to 3 (very big classes and very weak or very organised students

The class is divided into 2 teams

2)Format

30 second arguments in turn (for lower levels or new debaters)

1 min arguments in turn (for medium levels)

2 min arguments+support (for experienced debaters)

2 min arguments including criticism (for seasoned debaters)

Open debating (for discussion or informal debate classes)

5)Give FB on languag, pron, grammar, delivery style

You might cover

Presenting a clear opinion statement e.g. I believe that..

Presenting an opposing view e.g. I do not agree that

Using linkers to give reason e.g. because, on account of, due to

Adding support (cover the logical links and the language)

Adding polite criticism e.g. You failed to consider that

Pausing for dramatic effect

Intonation (rising before pauses/drops on important words/large drops on final sounds)

stress (moving the main stress for effect)

6) Move students/groups according to your observations:

a)Who didn’t speak much

b)Who was not challenged

c)Who was domineering

d)Who felt too comfortable with their friends

7)Make new pairs and ask them to note down and match 2 main arguments.

8)Write an essay style For/Against question on the board, then draw 4 boxes labelled Intro, Main1, Main2 and Conc.

9)Choose 1 student to explain if he is For or Against and why

10)Ask him how he would structure the essay to reflect his opinion.

You might cover

Intro-summarise topic and give your opinion

Main 1 For+support (examples, explatanations, quotes)

Main 2 Against+support (examples, explatanations, quotes)

Conc-summarise the arguments and give a last statement

Or

Intro-summarise topic and give your opinion

Main 1 For+Against+support (compare and contrast)

Main 2 Against+For+support (compare and contrast)

Conc-summarise the arguments and give a last statement

11)Ask new pairs to plan their own essay and present it

Possible areas to cover

1)Logical counter-arguments

2)Strong vs weak support

3)Reprasing the question in the introduction

4)Comparative language

5)Essay writing phrases

6)Including ‘lexical items’, ‘grammar stuctures’ and ‘cohesive devices’ at the planning stage.

12)HW

Write the full essay and post it to the website/VLE

Lesson Skeleton: On the phone

The conversations we have during the day can reveal a lot of fascinating information about what we do, our relationships with other people, our daily vicissitudes or just the hum-drum boredom of daily life. Like I have said before, I find interest in the mundane because, let’s face it, the mundane is never what it seems. These moments can be great topics for teachable moments or entire lessons. Think about the telephone conversations you have had today? What do they reveal about your daily life?

1. Put this question on the board:

 

Who have you spoken to on the phone today?

Ask learners to answer the questions. Give them some prompts for their conversation:

How did you feel?

Were you busy/free?

Was it someone close to you?

What sort of relationship do you have with this person?

2. Monitor for some interesting bits of conversations, mainly the themes emerging, but keep in mind also some of the language difficulties or bit missing from learners’ conversations.

3. Board some examples and discuss them with the class:

“X spoke to her mum to tell her she was late”

“Y arranged a good time to meet for football training”

What if nothing comes from the conversation?

You can add a few more questions for learners to answer:

Do you get annoyed when someone calls you all the time? Is there ever a good time for your parents to call? What is the worst time of day for someone to call you?

4. By now there should be a few different topics buzzing around: family, friends, work, free-time activities. Choose one to extend on or a language point. You could do it like this:

Language

• Ask learners to brainstorm collocations/lexis for one of these topics and board them.
• Take some language for corrections and make it into a reformulation activity, allowing for lots of discussion about language use. Elicit different ways of saying these to extend learners’ knowledge.
• Ask learners how they would carry out the same function on the phone in English (arranging, canceling on someone, asking for information etc). Create a dialogue on the board together as a class. You could do this by eliciting correct responses or allowing them to write the dialogue then adding extra phrases in a second part of the board for learners to substitute for what they said. Ask them to practise it then create another for a different situation.

Theme

• Take a theme, e.g. Having dinner at home, playing sport as a leisure time activity and ask learners to brainstorm their opinions for and against the topic. This could be extended into a for-against debate.
• Ask learners to draw a graph of the best and worst times of day to receive an important phone call and explain why, which extends the conversation further and goes deeper into our daily routines.

Lesson Skeletons: Good day/Bad day?

Thanks to Fiona Mauchline for her session at TESOL France 2011, entitled “write on, right on!”, from which the idea for this lesson plan came.

Take a sentence starter like

“I got out of the house this morning, and…”

1. Ask each learner to add the next line, taking it in turns sitting in a circle

or

Hand out a piece of paper and ask learners to pass it around in groups, completing the next sentence

or

In groups, mime the activities they did next and guess what happened (Thanks Anna Musielak for the drama inspiration)

2. Ask learners to draw a table, something like this:

A good day

A Bad day

They  fill it out to explain what makes a good day and what makes a bad day for them. Add an example of your own the act as a prompt, like “When we’ve run out of coffee in the morning”. In this stage feed in vocab to help them express what they want in the table.

3. Discuss in groups/as a class what makes a good day for them and a bad day. Encourage learners to ask each other questions in this stage. During this time, move around the room, monitor for interesting themes developing or difficulties learners are having with language for the next stages.

4. Board some interesting examples that could be extended for language or theme. How could these be extended?

e.g.

A bad day is when I miss the bus

1. Brainstorm in groups lexical sets for transport.

2. Discuss how transport services in your city could be improved (leading to a debate/letter of recommendation/language for giving recommendations).

3. Elicit what happens when you miss the bus (you arrive late) and ask learners to mime reasons for being late for work/class

A good day is when I don’t do any work

1. What are your responsibilities at work (helping with language to explain what you do at work)

2. How could you help pass the time when you’re at work with nothing to do (language for suggestions or first conditionals).

A horrible day is when it rains

1. Discuss what normal types of weather are for this time of year. This could lead to brainstorming lexis for the weather, comparatives, and past tenses (well, last year, it was nothing like this, it was much colder and rained more, I remember…)

2. If have the luxury of internet access, why not use this as a stimulus to brainstorm weather vocab and review future tenses in preparation for watching the weather forecast.

Lesson Skeleton: what was unusual about this morning?

I have Mike Harrison to thank for this one as it was his reverse reading activity that gave me the inspiration for this skeleton. He took a reading text from a different perspective by giving students comprehension questions to answer first to make a story, which could then be compared to the original.

1. Create five or six questions that make the basis of a story. Last week there was a flood in Rome and everyone got soaking wet and was late for work… so I thought questions on the topic might connect with students. I also wanted to get to know a little more about their daily routine but go beyond the usual questions like “what do you do after school” etc, which had until then not been received with much interest. The idea could be adapted to any age group though, to get to know the ups and downs of someone’s day.

1. What was unusual about this morning?

2. Why were you late for school?

3. What was lucky about when you made it to school?

4. What happened at lunchtime that was lucky?

5. Why were you happy to get home?

2. Ask learners to respond to the questions, creating a story of their day. Move around looking for interesting pieces of their stories that might be interesting later in the lesson.

or

Ask learners to draw 5 boxes and put their day into pictures – using the lesson skeleton on YLs and drawing to continue the activity.

3. Put the stories up on the wall and ask learners to move around the move and write two questions to ask about what they read. Note down any problems for a language focus later in the lesson.

4. Allow for some time to discuss students’ questions. In the lesson last week this led to a discussion about what sorts of behaviour are punishable at school and whether this is right. We then looked at phrases to make suggestions on how to make school a fairer place for students.

5. Use language from stage 2 to do a delayed error correction/reformulation activity with the class.

Possible extensions:

1. As this sort of activity will produce lots about the highs a lows of someone’s day, there is always the opportunity that a letter/email suggesting improvements for a problem is possible. I asked my learners to write a letter to their headmaster for homework.

2. Add some synonyms to the board and ask learners to find the corresponding words in their stories.

3. Put some adverbs appropriate to the situations in the text and ask learners to find them. e.g. “it was raining” “it was raining heavily’ ‘the bus was late” “seriously delayed”.

4. Create a dialogue with the class and practice it as a role-play. For example, someone mentions they had to wait in line at the post office for thirty minutes to renew their driver’s license or someone’s friend called to cancel a meeting. How would you do this in English? There could be a range of functions learners would need in situations in which they need to use English.

What I like about the skeleton:

• The questions dig deep and rely on the little moments in people’s days like when they arrive at work/have lunch/chat to colleagues.
• For lower level or YL (teen) classes, the form of a story of a bad day gives them time to write about their day that I have found difficult to facilitate through conversation.

What to consider before the lesson:

• There’s always the chance that nothing happened that day.
• Learners need to be clear about why they are making questions.
• Consider the jobs of the people in the room when making questions or if they are students. A group of university students may have slept all morning.
• Does your class have a preference for drawing or do they prefer writing to prepare? Do they need preparation time, if so, how much?
• A language focus may arise from the initial activity or the discussion after, be prepared to wait for ‘the wave’.

 

Lesson Skeleton: A place you once knew (creating texts)

I have just enough time to take out of my busy schedule preparing for TESOL France this Saturday to share this lesson skeleton. I tried it last week with a couple of classes and it went very well.

I wrote “a place you went to a lot when you were young” but any setting could work.

1. Asked learners to write the words that come to their mind when they think of this (no phrases, they’re going to add the grammar to them in the next stage).

2. Write “when I was young, I used to go to…”, or a story starter corresponding to the topic and hand the board pen to a student, who comes to the board and writes the next sentence.

3. Continue passing the pen until the board is full.

4. Elicit corrections on past tenses and vocab, trying to leave the text as much of the content as it is.

5. At this point I put some guiding questions on the board to direct students’ attention to the grammar in the text. In the two lessons in which I tried it, the grammar was ‘used to’ and ‘would’.

1. Which forms refer to the past?

2. Which refer to a past action that happened/took place many times?

3. What is the difference between X (past simple) and Y (used to)

4. Is there another way of saying Y (to elicit ‘would’)

6. Clarify form and pronunciation.

Optional: rub the grammar off the board and ask students to complete the gap-filled board.

7. Ask students to take the words they’d previously written and create the same text about their place.

I wonder how many pass-the-pen texts could be adapted to include language items?

Advantages:

• Involves the whole class in constructing a text and engages students.
• Provides a learner-created context in which to introduce new language.
• Provides a text which you can use to guide students towards to a language point.

Disadvantages:

• Be prepared for your pre-chosen language point not to emerge in the text.
• Could be time consuming, watch for timing.
• Students may be not so forthcoming about writing on the board if they are worried about making mistakes.