Oxford`s teachhing methods of english language — страница 11

to choose other light sourses and do the same as you have just done. Help them with language. It could be ‘I am a light bulb-I was invented by Edison.’ Group the students in sixes. Give them a new category. Ask them to work silently, writing four or six forst-person sentences in role. Go round and help especially with the formation of the present simple passive (when this help is needed). In their groups the students read out their sentences. Ask each group to choose their six interesting sentences and then read out to the whole group. Variation The exercise is sometimes more excitingif done with fairly abstract sets, e.g. numbers between 50 and 149, musical notes, distances, weights. The abstract nature of the set makes people concretise interestingly, e.g.: I am a

kilometre. My son is a metre and my baby is centimetre. On the motorway I am driven in 30 seconds. (120 kms. per hour) We have also used these sets: types of stone/countries/items of clothing (e.g.socks, skirts, jackets/times of day/smells/family roles (e.g.son, mother etc.)/types of weather. Rationale The sentences students produce in this exercise are nor repeat runs of things they have already thought and said in mother tongue. New standpoints, new thoughts, new language. The English is fresh because the thought is. Listening to people No backshift Grammar: Reported speech after past reporting verb Level: Elementary to lower intermediate Time: 15-20 minutes Material: None In class Pair the students. Ask one person in each pair to prepare to speak for two minutes about a

pleasurable future event. Give them a minute to prepare. Ask the listener in each pair to prepare to give their whole attention to the speaker. They are not to take notes. Ask the speaker in each pair to get going. You time two minutes. Pair the pairs. The two listeners now report on what they heard using this kind of form: She was telling me she’s going to Thailand for her holiday and she added that she’ll be going by plane. The speakers have the right to fill in things the listeners have left out but only after the listeners have finished speaking. The students go back into their original pairs and repeat the above but this time with the other one as speaker, so everybody has been able to share their future event thoughts. Incomparable Grammar: Comparative structures Level:

Elementary Time: 15-20 minutes Materials: None In class Tell the students a bit about yourself by comparing yourself to some people you know: I’m more … than my husband. I’m not as…as my eldest boy. I reckon my uncle is … than me Write six or seven of these sentences up on the board as a grammar pattern input. Tell the students to work in threes. Two of the three listen very closely while the third compares herself to people she knows. The speakers speak without interruption for 90 seconds and you time them. The two listeners in each group feedback to the speaker exactly what they had heard. If they miss things the speaker will want to prompt them. Repeat steps 2 and 3 so that everybody in the group has had a go at producing a comparative self-portrait. One question

behind Grammar: Assorted interrogative forms Level: You can adapt this by preparing your own question sets for different interrogative structures Beginner to intermediate Time: 5-10 minutes Materials: One question set for each pair of students In class Demonstrate the exercise to your students. Get one of them to ask you the question of a set. You answer ‘Mmmm’, with closed lips. The student asks you the second question – you give the answer that would have been right for the first question. The student asks the third question and you reply with the answer to the second question, and so on. The wrong combination of question and answer can be quite funny. Pair the students and give each pair a question set. One student fires the questions and the other gives delayed-by-one

replies. The activity is competitive. The first pair to finish a question set is the winner. Question set A Where do you sleep? (the other says nothing) Where do you eat? (the other answers the first question) Where do you go swimming? Where do you wash your clothes? Where do you read? Where do you cook? Where do you listen to music? Where do you get angry? Where do you do your shopping? Where do you sometimes drive to? Question set B What do you eat your soup with? What do you cut your meat with? What do you write on? What do you wipe your mouth with? What do you blow your nose with? What do you brush your hair with? What do you sleep on? What do you write with? What do you wear in bed? What do you wear in restaurant? Question set C Can you tell me something you ate last week?