Teaching Tips

Ideas for low(ish) levelleamers

"Memory Dialogue"
I have found this activity works very well with low level learners. They feel 'safe'
because they have most of the dialogue in front of them, but it is still challenging
because they have to remember the parts they do not have. It also gives them the
opportunity to produce a 'real' dialogue.
Prepare a short dialogue on tape. Students listen to the tape and answer gist
questions. Then pairs of students sit opposite each other. Give students the dialogue
with words whited out. Student A / student B have different words whited out that
you've chosen from a vocabulary set (eg. verbs of liking: like, hate, dislike, or a target
lexical set: bus stop, section, ticket.). They practise the dialogue in pairs, but when
they get to a whited out word they must get a clue from their partner. They must not
write the words or look at their partner's paper, but keep practising until they have
basically memorised it and they may even like to perform it.
You can make the activity more difficult by whiting out phrases rather than single
words. (Idea from Annie Taylor)

"Towards Conversation"
This is a very simple idea that stimulates a lot of talk, even with low level learners.
Write all your students names and yours down one side of the board. Write a
question next to each that you would like the answer to. (eg. Where's your
hometown? What NZ food do you like? ... etc.). Then ask the students to write two
different questions for each person in the class on a piece of paper or in their book.
Monitor - check grammar and help with vocabulary. When everyone is ready, model
the activity by asking a student the question that you wrote for them on the board and
getting them to answer. Model the idea of follow up questions by asking the students
"what can I ask next?" This gives them the idea that they are aiming for a natural
conversation which flows, not just a straight question and answer session. Model the
question/answer/follow-up question/answer .... a few times using your questions from
the board. Students then stand up and mingle and ask each other their questions.
From each question they must try to develop a natural conversation from there.
Elementary students really enjoy this opportunity to extend themselves and they
come up with interesting questions.
(Idea from Annie Taylor)

Three. Two. One. Go!

Level: Beginner - low intermediate
Aims: Increase fluency in recognising or saying numbers Class time: 15 minutes
Resources
One pack of playing cards 4-6 students. Remove Jokers and picture cards. The
competence of the students controls the speed of the game and so hesitant students
can proceed more slowly. Most students are actively involved at anyone time and the
teacher can easily see which students need extension in number skills and which
need remedial work with numbers.
Procedure for Snap Explain that the ace = 1.
1.
The group' leader' deals out all the cards face down to everyone.
2.
Students take turns playing the card game "Snap" but must say each number as it is
played.
3.
The winner is the student with all of the cards.

Extension of Card Use

1.
The 'leader' in the group holds about 12 cards face down.
2. The 'leader' quickly places the cards on the table face up, and one student calls
the number as each card is played.
3.
When all the cards have been used, choose a new' leader' and some-one else
to call out
the number.

NB1: To practise two digit numbers students place two cards next to each other, to
practise 3 digit numbers studcnts place two cards next to each other. Students
naturally work at their own level, loving the challenge of millions!
NB2: Use the random cards to generate Date of Birth (14.7.63) or money ($64.37).
(This idea was submitted by Margaret Bahr from the Languages Unit at Otago
Polytechnic Dunedin.)
As this is an 'internet issue', we took some ideas from Dave sperling's 'ideas' page it's a mine of good ideas! http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/ideas.html
Name: Ian Hewitt
Email: language@gol.com Location: Tokyo, Japan
Date: Thursday, June 19, 1997 at 18:19:08 (PDT)
Idea: Here are a few game ideas from my book Edutainment Last Letter
Shiritori' in Japanese) (vocabulary/spell ing)
The last letter of the word must be the first letter of the next word. You wi II need a
ball, but a screwed up piece of paper is fine.
The teacher throws the ball to one student and says a word, such as dog. The
student must reply with a word starting with 'G' such as 'girl'.
When answered, the ball is thrown back to the teacher and it is then thrown to the
next student, who continues.

The sequence may then be (for example):

girl, look, king, go, octopus, student ... and so on. You can have the students
throwing to each other.
i.e., student A = "Cat," throw to student B = "Today," throw to student C = "Yes," etc.
Please be warned, you may have some fastball pitchers in the class!
Name: sharon
Email: seguoiaOglasnet.ru Location: Moscow, uh ... Russia
Date: Saturday, June 28, 1997 at 05:42:57 (PDT)
Idea: this is an incredibly simple - yet OH so effective - idea.
I buy about 100 index cards, cut them in halves and on each, write out (in big clear
lettering) the beginnings
of a question. such as 'could. you
How many? do you think?

? "when was the last time?

.......... 'where is the? etc etc.

I put them all in a big envelope and we all take turns asking each other questions.
and if they've done their homework - ahem - they'll know their vocab and can string
together a simple/fabulously complex sentence ..
We each direct the question to one person in particul;{j. and then they give an answer
- with me nudging them gently in the grammatically-correct direction. It's a good
opener - or closure - to a class. or its a great class all on its own. its gets the students
to bond and laugh and it increases their confidence in communicating. hope you give
it a try!
Next time - teaching tips will cover ideas for teaching vocabulary. Please send ideas
to the editor (contact details on back page)