Chapter1

APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING –

A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

The present course-book is aimed at introducing students of English to the principles,

methods and procedures regulating the domain of English language teaching methodology.
Commonly designated by various acronymic names such as ELT (English Language
Teaching, TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), TESL (Teaching English as a
Second Language) or TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), the
domain is concerned with the theory and practice of teaching English to non-native speakers.
Addressing students at the stage of initial ELT teacher-training, this course of lectures
proposes to acquaint students with the current methods and procedures which represent the
stock in trade of contemporary language teaching.
Learning foreign languages is a long-standing human endeavour and has been a
cornerstone of any system of education throughout history. Starting from the early Middle-
Ages, foreign language study was mainly concerned with offering a classical education, with
an emphasis on Greek and Latin. Later on, knowledge of modern languages came to be
regarded as equally important for an accomplished education. So, in the course of time, any
new concept or system of education has recognised the importance of foreign language
learning and has contributed to the development of a time-honoured tradition in the pedagogy
of language learning and teaching. This tradition of language pedagogy has grown and often
changed with the times, according to new trends or systems of thought in the study of
linguistics, language learning psychology and pedagogy.
The major teaching approaches to language teaching and learning have always been
based on certain assumptions about language (linguistic theory) and concepts about ways of
learning a language (psycho-linguistics and pedagogy). Nowadays, the specific domain of
linguistics concerned with language learning and teaching is circumscribed to Applied
Linguistics or Second Language Acquisition (also known as SLA), which underlie most of
the contemporary teaching approaches and methodologies. The teaching approaches and
methods presented below closely illustrate the changes and evolutions in linguistic and
pedagogical assumptions about language learning.

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 1. GRAMMAR TRANSLATION
This is the oldest method used in language teaching. It was largely used for the study of both
classical and modern languages ever since the Middle-Ages. It remained popular throughout
the 19th and early 20th century, being regarded as a standard method until as late as the 1940s.
Theoretical approach: The assumption about language underlying the grammar translation
method was that language was a finite body/system of knowledge to be learnt.
Aims: The main goal informing this concept of language learning was gaining a theoretical
knowledge of a finite linguistic system, which requited a certain mental discipline and helped
develop the intellect.
Method: Teaching and learning dealt primarily with the written form of the language, with a
focus on mastering the grammatical and lexical system. Learning activities were based on
prescriptive grammar, which emphasised rote learning, i.e. the memorisation of grammar
rules and word lists, as well as the analysis of parts of speech and syntactical patterns.
Procedures: Written grammar practice consisted in translation exercises from and into the
target language. Classroom procedure was accuracy-oriented, requiring the learning and
application of rules. The teaching was of a deductive kind, based on prescribing rules to be
followed in order to produce grammatically accurate sentences or texts. The main procedure
was the study and translation of classical texts or outlandish sentences, with reading and
translation as the central linguistic skills. The target language was not used in class
interaction. As the mother tongue was the customary medium of instruction, neither the
teacher nor the students were supposed to speak the language studied. The teaching aims of
the grammar translation method concerned the ability to read literature and gain knowledge
of the culture of the target language via literary texts and to translate texts through the
accurate application of rules. Teaching materials consisted in classical literary texts.
Teacher/learner roles and interaction: The teacher has a dominant role in the classroom as
the sole knower and source of knowledge, the model to imitate and controller of the class,
while students only relate their learning to the teacher and the text.

2. THE AUDIO-LINGUAL APPROACH/AUDIO-LINGUALISM

Regarded as an informed, modern-day alternative to the classical methods of grammar
translation, the audio-lingual approach was derived from the theoretical tenets of
behaviourism, a psychological trend which largely influenced language pedagogy starting
with the 1950s.

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Theoretical approach: Behaviourists held that linguistic behaviour was based on automatic
speech habits acquired through a process involving three interconnected steps: Stimulus ->
Response -> Reinforcement. The formation of such linguistic automatisms was the result of
systematic exposure to this process of conditioning reflexes of correct language use. The
approach was largely influenced by the studies in behaviourist psychology of F. B. Skinner.
Aims: The approach aimed at establishing, developing and reinforcing the set of speech
habits necessary for accurate oral expression. Practice focused on spoken language for actual
use.
Method: The main assumption underlying this method is that speech habits can be
conditioned by means of sustained oral drilling consisting of conversational or structural
pattern drills. The emphasis on correct form entailed the use of recorded materials with
structural and syntactical patterns of ‘isolated’, de-contextualised form and meaning, in
which irregularities tended to be ignored.
Procedures: Teaching and learning was organised according to a strict sequence of skill
training – listening -> speaking -> reading -> writing and based on controlled drill-work.
Language lab classes consisted of listening to and repeating after recorded dialogues, used
both for structural presentation and drilling. The practice of structural patterns was graded so
as to progressively follow a structure-based syllabus. Errors were not regarded as part of
learning, so they were to be avoided through immediate correction and through repetitive
pattern drilling, which often led to over-learning. In contrast with the grammar translation
method, there is almost exclusive emphasis on the spoken language and, obviously, on
phonetic practice for correct pronunciation. The concern for accurate structural patterning
also precluded a preoccupation with vocabulary building, which tended to remain limited.
Inductive teaching involved learning by doing, based on the use of the target language. The
teaching materials are simple dialogue drills on written support or on tape recordings.
Teacher/learner roles and interaction: Despite the limitation of teacher talking time (TTT)
via intensive learner drilling, the teacher still occupies a centre-stage position in his/her role
as knower and fountain of all knowledge. Students worked exclusively with the teacher,
therefore they depend on the teacher to organise their learning, in which their role remains
limited. The approach, though highly popular for a while, declined in popularity toward the
end of the 60s, when its validity began to be questions by such linguists as Noam Chomsky.

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 3. THE COGNITIVE CODE APPROACH
The cognitive approach developed round Chomsky’s theory of ‘language universals’ and
their role in first language acquisition. Chomsky contradicts the tenets of behaviourism that
linguistic abilities are no more than learnt habits, arguing that people often produce language
strings they have never heard before.
Theoretical approach: His theory upholds the idea that our production of language is rule-
governed and creative at the same time, being based on our application of a grammatical code
(deep structure) to generate an infinite number of sentences (surface structure). This rule-
based creativity is rooted in the knowledge of a limited system of rules, a kind of linguistic
matrix or language universals which, once understood, enable us to produce original
sentences.
Aims: Learning means the conscious acquisition of language as a coherent and meaningful
system. The students should be aware of these aims and work actively towards an
understanding and control of the structure of the language.
Method: Language learning is seen as a cognitive process, the emphasis is on studying the
rules governing the creation of meaning. On the basis or their innate ability to learn
languages, learners should be engaged in exploring language and forming hypotheses about
its functioning. The cognition of the system constitutes a learner’s linguistic competence. In
their performance or productive application of the rules, students are likely to make errors,
which are regarded as fundamental to their adjustments of their internalisation of the rule
system.
Procedure: Classroom practice is centred on comprehension activities and the study of
structural meaning. Grammar is taught both deductively and inductively, with an emphasis on
guided discovery techniques, which engage students in the formulation and statement of
rules. Errors are regarded as inevitable and instrumental in the development of an internal
grammar which students can rely on for generating meaning through structure. Practice
activities presuppose a much wider use of a variety of materials, meant to keep students
mentally engaged in working with the target language.
Teacher/learner roles and interaction: While the teacher still holds a prominent role as a
guide to knowledge, students are taught to be responsible for their own learning and to
monitor their cognitive process. Given the more liberal attitude towards learner errors, the
teacher encourages peer correction and interaction during language activities.

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 4. THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH
The communicative approach or communicative language teaching (CLT) gained prominence
in the 70s and early 80s, as language theorists started questioning the validity of Chomsky’s
model of linguistic competence and focus on structure study and practice.
Theoretical approach: Applied linguists such as Henry Widdowson drew attention to the
limitations of structure-focused syllabi and de-contextualised structure practice, advocating
the need for adapting language teaching to communicational situations and for developing
communicative abilities and skills. The American linguist Del Hymes developed the concept
of communicative competence as the main aim of language teaching. Language learning is
supposed to mean not only the mastery of the grammatical, lexical and phonological system,
but also the learning of social rules governing contextualised communication. In other words,
language should be appropriate to the social context. The rules of appropriacy are also
conjoined with rules of social interaction. The approach focuses on activities concerned with
language as discourse, language in action rather than as isolated specimens.
Aims: The rationale behind communicative language teaching is modifying classroom
procedures so as to promote realistic and socially contextualised communication rather than
artificial language practice. Developing communicative competence is bound up with
creating realistic communicative contexts and developing strategies of communication
through student-student interaction.
Method: The methodological framework CLT relates to the theory of second language
acquisition advanced by Stephen Krashen, who argues that students acquire language when
they focus on meaning rather than on form. What distinguishes acquisition from learning is
the notion that learners can always encounter and absorb new language in real
communicative contexts. The underlying principle is the balance between the study of
language areas (grammar and vocabulary) and skills development, as well as the practice of
language functions.
Procedures: As the focus is on communicative functions in real life-interaction, learning is
organised on the basis of notional/functional syllabus rather than structure-based
programmes. Lessons are sequenced not in terms of grammatical content but rather on topic
based areas of communication and self-expression. The teaching has a wider scope, which
envisages the students’ needs, regarded as all-important. Language learning is part of the
wider framework of language education, meant to train students in learning strategies and
thus encourage learner autonomy and independence.

5
 Language and skills practice is based on the use of authentic materials (samples of
real discourse and different reading/listening text types) and authentic tasks (replicating real
communication situations). In communicative teaching, there is a greater emphasis on
fluency-building activities and skills practice relevant to the students’ needs and concern.
During fluency-oriented activities, errors are regarded as less important, since the focus is on
communicative efficiency. Errors are used to gauge the need for remedial work or re-
teaching. The use of interactive communicative activities is aimed at creating and developing
a clear sense of context and communicative purpose, which leads to informed choices about
relevant content and appropriate language (structure and lexis). The key distinctive principles
and features of communicative teaching are the following:
 Task-based learning: The simulation of communicative contexts is realised by
means of tasks which require students to exchange information or opinions and
interact in a realistic way. In order to complete their task with the information they
need, the students have to ask and answer questions, to speak and listen to each other.
In other words, the task provides them with a purpose for communication.
 Communicative tasks: So as to promote meaningful communication, the tasks have
to replicate real-life contexts of purposeful communication, with a focus on language
functions: enquiring, inviting, refusing, giving directions, asking for and giving
personal information, etc. These contexts can be simulated through such interactive
activities as information gap (students have to exchange information so as to carry
out a common task), role-play, interviews, problem-solving, priority ranking,
discussion and debates, surveys, games.
 Task inter-dependency: The underlying principle of communicative activities such
as info-gap is that students will be unable to complete the task without sharing
information between themselves, which means they depend on each other and have to
cooperate on the task.
 Pair-work and group-work: Organising communicative tasks requires a different
kind of class organisation, layout and seating arrangements. Most communicative
tasks require students to work in pairs or small groups of three or four, which creates
the proper conditions for working together on a task.
 Collaborative learning: Task-based learning creates the premises for cooperation
among students, who have to work together to achieve a certain outcome. This allows
for working and learning collaboratively, which helps promote a positive, purposeful

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 and productive class atmosphere and the proper conditions for learning to take place.
Communicative learning has also inspired the affective-humanistic approach, which
attaches great importance to a motivating and friendly class atmosphere and to
building a good rapport between teacher and students.
Teacher/learner roles and interaction: In contrast with the approaches which preceded it,
communicative language teaching radically redefines and changes the roles of both teacher
and students. To begin with the traditional teacher-centred classroom is replaced by a
learner-centred classroom, with the students occupying the centre-stage of classroom
activity and acting not as passive recipients, but as active agents fully engaged in their own
learning. In this context, the teacher relinquishes the age-old dominant position as sole source
of language and class controller, assuming more flexible and motivational roles as class
organiser/instigator of language activity/motivator/informant to the learners/provider
of resources/guide for the students’ own learning. As for the students, they are encouraged
to take responsibility for their own learning, to study independently and act as autonomous
learners, less dependent on the teacher in organising their learning.
***
The present course-book in ELT methodology is draws largely upon the communicative
approach, being focused on illustrating the principles and general methodology underlying
communicative teaching and language learning practice. Of course, as the methodologist
Phillip Prowse contends, one of the most widespread myths in the field of language teaching
and learning is the myth of the ideal methodology. He warns that no methodology should be
adopted uncritically, as the teacher should constantly test and refine his/her methods in terms
of what works best in a particular educational culture, teaching situation and kind of learners
or learner needs. However, since communicative teaching comes closest to training the kind
of communicative competence and skills necessary in the contemporary context of
globalisation, this approach imposes itself as an informed choice. In an increasingly
globalised world of education and work, training our students for efficient, meaningful
communication and cross-cultural understanding constitutes a goal worth pursuing.

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 Chapter 2
TEACHING GRAMMAR

INTRODUCTION
The importance of grammar in foreign language teaching and learning need hardly be argued
for. To begin with, grammar provides the only systematic framework for organizing the
teaching and learning of the language, since a knowledge of grammatical structures and rules
provides useful generalisations which enable learners to formulate and generate correct
sentences. It also represents the basis for syllabus and course design, as it helps teachers and
course-book writers to organize content and plan what structures to present at the various
stages of language learning. The ruling organizing principle should be that of structural
complexity, that is we should proceed from simple to more complex structures, progressing
according to the learners’ age and language level. As far as learners are concerned, grammar
rules are reliable milestones guiding their learning and providing them with a sense of
security.
Of course, in a balanced teaching approach, aimed at both linguistic competence and
proficiency – such as the communicative approach – grammar teaching only represents a
means to an end, that is an indispensable starting point, a foundation or groundwork to build
for language acquisition and skills practice, rather than an end in itself. That is why, while
granting grammar its proper place in our teaching, we should not overemphasize the
importance of grammar work and grammatical accuracy. Exclusive focus on accuracy has its
downside, too, as it may inhibit the students’ progress towards communicative fluency.
Overcorrection may affect the learners’ confidence in their performance and ability
for free communication and self-expression. In this case, the teacher runs the risk of ignoring
the student’s preferred style of learning. We should not forget that, in our mother tongue, we
learn to communicate effectively even if our grammar is not entirely accurate.
At the same time, devoting too much time to accuracy-based grammar exercises
entails an artificial limitation of the exposure to the language, which can only be monotonous
and thus de-motivating, as it deprives the learner of valuable stimulus to use the language in a
variety of contexts. If we overemphasise the primacy of rules, our students will be
psychologically ill-prepared to accommodate the inevitable exceptions to grammatical rules.

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 1. PRINCIPLES IN GRAMMAR TEACHING
a) Planning and organization
In devising a grammar syllabus, the teacher or materials writer should order the structural
items to be taught in terms of the following principles and criteria:
 Complexity of form
This criterion has already been enounced above and is based on the commonsensical idea that
with young learners or at beginner level, structural items are ordered according to their
degree of complexity. For instance, Simple Tenses are taught before Continuous/Progressive
Tense forms, or the Past Simple is presented before the Present Perfect, because they are
more complex in form.
 Teachability
The question of teachability derives from the complexity of form criterion mentioned above,
but also refers to the complexity of meaning. Again, the problem in question relates to
adapting structural content to the learners’ age and level. Needless to say, simpler forms,
expressing basic or everyday meanings and functions are more easily understood – and thus
more teachable – than more complex structure, such as the Subjunctive.
 Communicative usefulness
An important question related to the ordering structural items for teaching and learning
purposes should be: ‘Is the structure useful/necessary/indispensible for everyday
communication?’ The answer to this will tell us which structures should be given priority in
our grammar course planning.
 Linear or cyclical framework
This criterion is related to the teaching of a structure in all its aspects (range of meanings or
functions), or to the teaching of structural synonymy, i.e. presenting all the structures with a
similar meaning. For example, there are several structures whose meaning and
communicative function is ‘making a suggestion’: Let’s + infinitive, Shall we + infinitive?,
How/What about + ing-form?, Why don’t we + infinitive? We could + verb. In a linear
framework, all these structures will be presented at the same time. Or, if we think of
structures with multiple meanings, such as various tenses, all the meanings will be given from
the beginning. A cyclical approach would mean that a particular structure or function is
revised cyclically and taught gradually, focusing on one meaning, form or function at a time.
Our approach is likely to depend on the learning context, age and level of students. However,
for the sake of clarity and effectiveness, the golden rule would be to teach one thing at a time.

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 b) Metalanguage
Metalanguage is the specialised grammatical terminology used to define/describe language
structures. How much or how little metalanguage we use in the classroom depends on the
learners’ age and previous experience of grammar in L 1 or foreign language learning. It goes
without saying that with (very) young learners, using metalanguage is irrelevant and
counterproductive, while with mature, advanced students, metalanguage can be used as an aid
to organizing learning, to clarifying and distinguishing between grammatical categories,
meanings and functions. Even in the latter case, it should be used with moderation, as
overusing metalanguage and rules can distract attention from the meaningful practice of
language in use.
c) Staging
The main stages of a grammar lesson or sequence are: PRESENTATION – PRACTICE –
PRODUCTION. The PRESENTATION stage comprises activities aimed at
introducing/presenting the new structure. The PRACTICE stage includes accuracy-oriented,
teacher-controlled exercises, focused on the students’ correct usage of the new structure. The
PRODUCTION or FREE PRACTICE stage contains fluency-oriented, communicative
activities, such as pair-work or group-work tasks, in which students use the new structure for
free communication so as to accomplish the task or express their own ideas and opinions on a
given topic.
Reflection task:
At each stage consider
 the Teacher’s role
 the student’s role
 control over language
 error correction
 the aims of each stage
d) Teaching strategy
Grammar teaching strategies relate to our approach to presenting/introducing a new structural
item or rule. According to how directly or indirectly we present the new grammar structure or
rule, presentations can be overt/explicit/deductive or covert/implicit/inductive.
e) Grammatical structure and communicative function
Grammatical structures are linguistic forms conveying a certain meaning, used to fulfil a
communicative function. A grammar syllabus can be based either on the teaching of

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structural items proper or on communicative functions such as Suggesting, Inviting, Refusing,
etc. The aspects to be considered when teaching a structure are listed and defined below:
Form: the actual words (written) or sounds (spoken) used to express something in language,
as opposed to meaning or use. Form is often synonymous with structure.
Meaning: The conventional or literal meaning of a particular form: for example, that past
tense form means past time. The purpose of traditional grammar books is to explain form and
meaning.
Usage: Refers to examples of the generally accepted way of using the language in context,
especially in order to show the differences between quasi-synonymous structures, which are
related in terms of meaning but are used in different ways and contexts.
Use: The way in which a speaker uses a particular language form to communicate on a
particular occasion. The use of a form may be described in terms of its function or
communicative purpose.
Function: The function of a structure is the communicative purpose of that structure on a
particular occasion – what the speaker is trying to do through language. For example, ‘Have
you read this book?’ is present perfect interrogative in form but the speaker may be using it to
make a suggestion, to suggest that the listener read the book – suggesting is the function of
the structure here. The use of a form can often be expressed in terms of functions.
Reflection task: Grammatical structure or function? What are the differences? Provide
examples. Should we teach both? Why?
f) Attitude to errors
Considering what we know about how language learning takes place, we should treat errors
as steps to learning or partial learning rather than frustrating indications of non-learning. In
this light, errors provide information about the learners’ progress and our teaching priorities,
as they signal areas that need re-teaching or remedial teaching. Students should be made
aware of the areas of difficulty in English grammar and frequently provided with
opportunities of self-correction, peer-correction and error correction exercises in general.

2. PRESENTATION STAGE
A good grammar presentation is supposed to introduce the new structure in a context which
clearly illustrates its meaning (and communicative function). Here is a checklist for effective,
memorable presentations:
Presentations
 need to contextualize the new language in a situation
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  need to have visuals for maximum impact (blackboard drawings, realia (i.e. real
objects), pictures, actions/mime
 need to use language which is appropriate for the students’ age and level
 need to make sure there is no new vocabulary, which can be distracting – if
necessary, we can pre-teach any new lexical items
 need to be generative, i.e. able to generate many examples of the structure
 need to be short – no longer than 5 minutes
As already stated above, grammar presentations can be overt/explicit/deductive or
covert/implicit/inductive. Other terms used for these two approaches are giving and
guiding. Giving describes the process whereby the meaning of a structure is ‘transmitted’ to
the students in an overt way, and they are relatively passive recipients of new content.
Guiding describes the process whereby students are involved in working out the meaning for
themselves or in deriving a rule from contextualised instances of the use of a particular
language item.
Deductive presentations first formulate the rule and then give the example. The
presentation starts from the form to the meaning and use of the structure. Such a presentation
would go as follows: the Present Perfect Continuous (have/has been + Present Participle) is
used to express an activity/state which starts in the past and last up to/beyond the moment of
speaking. E.g.: She has been baking cakes for two hours.
Inductive presentations introduce the structure in a context or situation which
clearly illustrates its meaning and function. The teacher uses guiding questions, prompting
students to comment on the meaning of the new structure and infer the rule by themselves.
Demonstration: picture of a boy waiting at the bus stop
Situation: This is Tom. Where is he? What is he doing? When did he arrive at the bus stop?
He arrived at the bus stop at 10.00. What time is it now? It’s 11.00.
At this point, the students are likely to have inferred the meaning of the structure (i.e. an
activity or state which starts in the past and lasts till the moment of speech). The form of the
target structure (i.e. the structure to be taught) is then presented by the teacher in both
spoken and written form in an example sentence, called MARKER SENTENCE (MS),
which normally comes at the end of the presentation.
MS: Tom has been waiting at the bus stop for an hour.

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The MARKER SENTENCE is also used after the presentation, for the repetition practice
meant to reinforce the form of the structure in terms of pronunciation/word
order/contractions.
Guided discovery presentations combine elements of the deductive and inductive
strategies. Students are elicited to formulate the meaning of a structure or a grammatical rule,
which they are helped to reach by means of relevant guiding questions.
E.g.:
Teacher: ‘In the dialogue on the board, both the verbs underlined refer to the future.
However, there is a difference in meaning between the two future forms. Think of the
moment when the decision was made’:
A: Why do you want the corkscrew?
B: I’m going to open that bottle of wine I bought yesterday.
A: We drank it last night.
B: Oh. Then I’ll open a beer.
Reflection task:
Deductive or inductive? Which is better? Why?
Can we use both of them?
What are the advantages/disadvantages in either case?
To sum up, the presentation of a new language structure has to cover the following aspects:
PRESENTATION = MEANING, FORM(S), PRONUNCIATION, FUNCTION (SOCIAL
CONTEXT COMMUNICATION). For example, the meaning of the Present Perfect Simple
in the question ‘Have you read this book?’ is asking if an action has been performed at any
time up to the moment of speaking, while its function can be to suggest that the subject read
the respective book.

2. 1. PRESENTATION TECHNIQUES
a) Situations
This has already been illustrated above. The situation and context chosen should be relevant
to everyday life, and, as already stated, appropriate for the students’ age, level, interests and
life experience. First and foremost, it should provide a meaningful context that will make the
meaning (and function) of the structure clear and easily understandable to the students.
Task:
What situation can you think of to introduce the following language items?

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going to; used to; 1st – 3rd Conditionals; counts & uncounts; offers & acceptances;
invitations & refusals
b) Compare and contrast
This technique was illustrated above in the guided discovery presentation based on
comparing and contrasting the meaning of two future forms – the going to + Infinitive vs. the
Future Simple. It is very useful in teaching tenses with the same time reference, but with
certain differences in meaning and use – past time forms, future time forms; aspect – simple
and continuous/progressive forms, conditionals, unreal past forms, subjunctives, etc. It lends
itself to guided discovery presentations, in which the students are involved in the compare
and contrast exercise. Here are some examples of structures whose meaning can be
illustrated by comparison and contrast:
I remembered locking the door. / I remembered to lock the door.
She lived in London for 10 years. / She has lived in London for 10 years.
She didn’t need to cook the meet. / She needn’t have cooked the meat.
They have been picking apples for several hours. They have picked ten basketfuls.
c) Stories
Even a briefly outlined situation may be a story in itself, but sometimes we can make up a
very short story to introduce a structure. Here is a story introducing the 3rd Conditional:
Yesterday afternoon, Mary went to the library to borrow books for an essay she had to
write for her history class. She consulted the catalogue and found a very good book on
the subject, but when she asked for it, the librarian told her that someone else had lend
the book half an hour before. Mary thought:
MS: If I had come a little earlier, I would have got the book.
Stories add an element of fun and make memorable presentations, especially if they are
accompanied by visuals: flashcards, drawings, pictures, cartoon strips, etc.
d) Examples – giving a model sentence or model dialogue
Of course, these are an essential part of any presentation. The model sentence/dialogue can
come to the end, as Marker Sentences, but they may also be given at the beginning, as
support for an inductive/guided discovery presentation.
e) Time-lines
Time-lines represent a very effective way of illustrating meaning visually in the case of
tense, aspect, the sequence of tense. E.g.:

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 She left I arrived
Past____x________x____________Now____________Future
10.30 10.45
She had left when I arrived.

Past____^^^^ ^^^^^^_X_________Now______________Future
o
f
I was reading when the lights went out.
f
he gave up
Past_xxxxxxxxx[]______________Now_____________Future
He used to smoke.

f) Concept questions
Concept questions are meant to clarify the meaning of a structure. They are a useful tool for
checking the students’ understanding of the meaning and use of the structure. To create
concept questions, we reduce the conceptual description of the target structure to 2-3 simple
statements which essentially describe its meaning. We then turn these statements into
Yes/No/Wh-questions for the students to answer.
E.g.: I have lived here for three years. (Present Perfect)
This means:
 I started living here three years ago.
 I still live here.
The concept questions are:
 T: When did you start living here?
SS: 3 years ago
 T: Do you still live here?
SS: Yes, I do.
I have had my overcoat cleaned. (Causative Passive form)
This means:
 Someone (the cleaner’s) has cleaned my overcoat.
 I haven’t.
The concept questions are:
 T: Have you cleaned it yourself?
SS: No.

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  T: Has someone cleaned it for you?
SS: Yes.
This suitcase is too heavy to carry. (too + adj. + infinitive – implied passive meaning)
Concept questions:
 T: Is it heavy?
SS: Yes.
 T: Can you carry it? / Can it be carried?
SS: No.
 T: Why not?
SS: Because it is heavy.
g) Pictures/flashcards/blackboard drawings/stick figures/cartoon strips/picture-
story
These techniques involve the use of visual teaching aids, which help make presentations
memorable, generative and entertaining at the same time. They are particularly suitable for
young learners and not only. They also provide visual cues or prompts for substitution drills
at the practice stage.

She can play football.

He can ride a bicycle.

He works at the Tower of London.

Bob is a postman. He delivers the mail at 9.00 every morning.

h) Tables/charts on the blackboard

How much bread need?
sugar want?
milk have?
butter do we
How many eggs have to buy?
tomatoes
oranges
bread loaves
cartons of cereal

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 i) Realia (real objects)
The term realia refers to real objects we can use in presenting new structures, i.e. classroom
objects, the students’ belongings, stationary, toys, etc.
E.g.:
This red pencil is longer than the black pencil. The green one is the longest of all.
Tom’s satchel is heavier than Bob’s. This flower pot is the largest and this one is the
smallest.
j) Mime and demonstration
This technique lends itself to easily demonstrable classroom actions. It can be used to present
such structures as the Present Continuous, the Present Perfect + just, Manner Adverbs, etc.
k) Grammatical rules and statements
This is a rather deductive technique, though quite useful with somewhat more complex
grammar points like verbs followed by the Gerund or the Infinitive. Giving students the rules
governing Verb Complementation would make a more effective and time-saving
presentation.
l) Grammar explanations
This is a deductive technique which can save time when time is at a premium. So it is up to
the teacher to decide when and how to use it. The explanation has to be clear and concise,
giving the necessary information about the meaning, form and function of the structure.
Task: Explain the grammar of ‘used to’
m) Translation
There are situations in which the recourse to the mother tongue in presenting structures can
be illuminating, especially in contexts where L1 interference (differences from structures in
the mother tongue which can create confusions). Translation, usually also involving a
compare and contrast approach between the two languages, is useful in highlighting and
disambiguating such areas. Romanian learners, for example, should be warned that the
Present the Present Perfect and the Present Continuous, when used with for and since,
correspond to the present tense in their mother tongue. The Romanian “imperfect” can be
rendered in English through both the Past Simple (when we refer to habitual actions in the
past) and the Past Continuous (for activity in progress at a time in the past).
Finally, here is a list of criteria and questions teachers should consider in gauging the
effectiveness of grammar presentations, to be asked both before and after the presentation:

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Checklist for grammar presentations:
 The target structure. To be presented in both speech and writing, both form and
meaning.
 Examples. Enough examples of the structure in a meaningful context.
 Checking understanding: concept questions, clarification of the meaning.
 Terminology. Use the grammar-book name of the structure/or other grammatical
terminology? Which would be/was more useful? Why?
 Language. Explain the structure in the target language/the students’ mother tongue/in
a combination of the two? Which would be/was more effective?
 Explanation. Information given at the right level: concise, accurate not too detailed.
Any comparisons with the students’ mother tongue? Would this be/was this useful?
 Rules. Give explicit rule? Why/Why not? Explained by the teacher or elicited from
the students? Which would be/was the best way to do it?
 Delivery. Speak and write clearly at an appropriate speed

2. 2. PRACTICE STAGE
The aims of this stage are to allow the students to practice the new language. The practice
exercises are graded from very controlled, accuracy-oriented drills to less and less controlled
activities, which gradually increase the students’ control over the language to the level at
which they can use the target structure freely and independently so as to engage in fluency-
oriented communication activities. According to the control over language allowed students
at each sub-stage of the practice, which serves the aims of gradual progression from accuracy
to fluency in using new language items, the practice stage is comprised of three main
sections: controlled, semi-controlled and free-practice/production.

2. 2. 1. Controlled practice
The first sub-stage aims for practice under controlled conditions, in which the students are
asked to repeat examples of the structure correctly via a variety of oral drills. The teacher,
who has full control over the language practised, focuses on accuracy and uses immediate
correction. The predominant type of interaction is Teacher –> Students. The typical drill
activities are:

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 a) Repetition drills
The aim of repetition is to reinforce the structure in terms of pronunciation and word-order.
The drills should replay the MS (Marker Sentence) from the presentation, e.g.: He’s been
living in the mountains for two months. The marker sentence is repeated first with the
whole class – choral repetition – then by individual students – individual repetition. One
useful repetition technique is back-chaining, in which the students are helped with difficult
areas by repeating one item at a time, starting from the end of the sentence, and adding a new
item each time until the whole sentence is reconstructed. Repetition drills should be done at a
fast pace – speed is important since drills are inherently boring. To maintain interest, the
teacher should also be unpredictable in selecting individual speakers.
An interesting and entertaining alternative to classical repetition drills are Jazz Chants, a
concept developed by Carolyn Graham, a musician, teacher and teacher trainer who adapted
structural drill practice to short, repetitive, structure/function-bound poems to be chanted on
jazz rhythms (see Graham: 1978, 1979, 1986, 1993, 2000, 2006). These poem-like, jazz-beat
chants make for a highly enjoyable way of practising structures and functions which
alleviates the inherent boring effect of repetition drills. Alternatively, these chants can also be
used as examples for the presentation stage.
b) Substitution drills
Substitution drills consist of graded variations on the marker sentence. The students are asked
to generate new sentences with the target structure by substituting various items in the marker
sentence. Substitution drills can be done chorally or individually. There are several types:
i. Simple substitution (vary 1 item in the MS):
She’s living in the mountains two months
They’ve camping in the forest ten weeks
Tom’s drinking fresh water almost a month
My sister’s been watching the bears for a fortnight
My friends sleeping in a tent several days
Mary and Bob have looking at the stars nearly a year
I’ve climbing the mountain
We’ve cooking on an open fire
fishing trout
washing in the river

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 ii. Progressive substitution (gradually generating a new sentence by varying 1 item
each time):
MS: He’s been living in the mountains for two months
T: They
SS: They’ve been living in the mountains for two months
T: Sleeping in a tent
SS: They’ve been sleeping in a tent for two months
T: Almost half a year
SS: They’ve been sleeping in a tent for almost half a year
iii. Restatement substitution
E.g.: Let’s + verb
T: You want to play football.
SS: Let’s play football.

The substitution of one item for another is based on cues or prompts offered by the teacher.
We can use verbal prompts (word/phrase spoken by the teacher or written on the blackboard
or prompt cards) or visual prompts (drawing, picture, mime and gesture, words on).
Further examples
 Single-word prompts
E.g.: Let’s + verb
T: Cinema
SS: Let’s go to the cinema.
T: Pizza
SS: Let’s eat a pizza.

 Picture prompts
E.g.: Can + verb

T: SS: He can ride a bike.

 Prompts/tables/charts on the blackboard

How many are there? [desks/rows/children/chairs/windows/books/pictures/flowerpots]

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 swim speak skate
French
Anna v v V
Maria X v X
Mike V X v
Lucy V v X
You ? ? ?
E.g.: Maria can speak French, but she can’t swim or skate.

iv. Free substitution

Here students make up their own sentences, e.g.: Let’s go fishing.
c) Question – Answer drills + Substitutions (based on the Presentation)
This Q/A drill is based on the situation used in the Presentation. E.g.:
A: What’s he been doing for the last two months?
B: He’s been [living in the mountains].
The substitutions are those used in the initial simple substitution drill. They can be introduced
by picture/word prompts: camping in the forest/drinking fresh water/watching the
bears/sleeping in a tent/gazing at the stars/climbing the mountain/cooking on an open
fire/fishing trout/washing in the river, etc. The teacher should model the interaction and then
put the students into pairs to practise with the substitutions. The use of pair work changes the
pattern of interaction to S->S.
d) Question and Answer drill (based on picture/word prompts)
The drill is done in pairs. The teacher provides picture/word prompts of activities + a time
period:
picking apples/several hours doing chores/three hours
cleaning windows/about half an hour writing an essay/two days
waiting for the bus/ten minutes studying French/two semesters
A: How long has he been waiting for the bus?
B: He’s been waiting for the bus for ten minutes.

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 e) Find someone who
This activity is a more challenging kind of question and answer drill. Students are given a list
of actions/activities related to routines, habits, past experience, etc. They have to go about the
class asking their peers Yes/No-questions based on the prompts on the list and involving the
target structure, e.g. Do you (ever)...? Have you (ever)....? The aim of the game is to get the
most positive answers. If they get a positive answer, they ask for the person’s signature next
to the respective question. The winner of the game is the one who gets the most positive
answers in the shortest time. E.g. Find someone who:
- goes to bed earlier than 10 pm
- has a full breakfast on weekdays
- goes jogging every morning
- reads English books
f) Model dialogue
Dialogues provide more meaningful practice as they replicate more closely the real-life
conversational patterns used in everyday communication. Here is one model for the Present
Perfect Continuous:
Ann: Hi Mary. How’s it going?
Lucy: Not too bad. What have you been doing lately?
Ann: Well, not much, really. I’ve been cramming for exams. What about you?
Marry: Oh, I’ve been reading War and Peace.
Substitution cues: working as a waitress/going to the gym/teaching myself French/writing a
play, etc. Alternatively, students can provide their own examples.
g) Dialogue chain/Skeleton dialogues
This is slightly more complex, as students create their dialogues by following a ‘dialogue
map’ or ‘script instructions’ for the interlocutors to flesh out.
A B
Greet B Reply. Ask about recent activities
Answer. Ask B about recent activities Reply. Suggest meeting for a drink this evening
Agree. Suggest a time and place agree with place but suggest another time. Give
a reason
Agree. Say goodbye Reply

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 h) Creative grammar practice – model poems
This is a concept developed by Günter Gerngross and Herbert Puchta, in which grammar
practice activities based on substitution provide a springboard for verbal creativity and
activating ‘the right side of the brain’ (Gerngross and Puchta, 1993). The students are shown
a model poem focused on a particular recurrent grammar structure. Sometimes they have to
work on the model itself – putting jumbled words in order, for example, but usually they have
to reflect on the poem’s topic and ideas, and how these are relate to themselves. Using the
skeleton of the original, structure -based poem, they create their own, personalised version,
by substituting the words or phrases in the model with their own. Here’s the frame of a
Sensorial Poem for practising the 2nd Conditional, by referring to a person they like/love:
If he/she were a colour, he/she would be ........
If he/she were a sight, he/she would be a/the........
If he/she were a sound, he/she would be a/the........
If he/she were a smell, he/she would be a/the........
If he/she were a taste, he/she would be a/the........
If he/she were music, he/she would be a/the........
If he/she were food, he/she would be a/the........

The value of the above exercise resides in what Adrian Doff calls meaningful practice, i.e.
practice which requires personalization and adds some personal meaning to the activity (Doff
1988).
Below is a list of other types of drills used at the controlled practice stage, mainly
variations on Substitution or Question and Answer drills, which also involve such operations
as transformation, replacement, restatement, completion, expansion, contraction of items, etc.
i) Transformation Drill
Language learners are required to change sentences from negative to positive, from positive
to interrogative, or from simple present tense to simple past tense, depending on the
instructions from the teacher.
E.g.:
T: The book is new.
SS: Is the book new?
j) Replacement Drill
Language learners replace a noun with a pronoun. It is the same drill as substitution drill but
it involves with a replacement.
E.g.:
T: I like the book
Student: I like it

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 k) Response Drill
Language learners respond to somebody’s sentence. In this drill this answers are patterned
after the questions. This drill may involve “wh-” questions or “yes/no” questions.
E.g.:
T: Alice is at school.
T: Where is Alice?
SS: At school.
l) Cued Response Drill
In this drill language learners are provided with a cue before or after the questions.
E.g.:
T: What did the man buy? (A book)
SS: The man bought a book.
m) Rejoinder Drill
It is similar to the cued response drill, but in this drill language learners are given instructions
of how to respond in terms of style/register.
E.g.:
T: come to my house (be polite)
SS: Would you like to come to my house?
n) Restatement drill
Language learners rephrase an utterance and address it to somebody else, according to the
content of the utterance.
E.g.:
T: Ask your friend what he has for breakfast
SS: What do you have for breakfast?
o) Completion Drill
Language learners are told to supply a missing word in a sentence or statement.
E.g:
T: I bring my cakes and you bring….
SS: I bring my cakes and you bring your cakes.
p) Expansion Drill
Language learners build up a statement by adding a word or phrase.
E.g.:
T: Mathematics
SS: We study mathematics
T: everyday
SS: We study mathematics every day.
q) Contraction Drill
Language learners replace a phrase or clause with a single word or shorter expressions.
E.g.:
T: I didn’t mean to hurt the dog
SS: I didn’t mean it.
r) Integration Drill
Language learners combine two separate statements.
E.g.:

24
T: I know that lady. She is wearing a blue shirt
SS: I know the lady wearing a blue shirt.
s) Parallel writing
This exercise offers controlled writing practice based on a model text. Students have to
rewrite the text by making certain structural changes, e.g. change the subject from I to he/she
so as to use the Present Simple form for the 3rd person singular (hurries, goes, tries), put
Present Tense verbs into the Past Simple or simply personalise the text content by writing
about themselves.

2. 2. 2. Semi-controlled practice
This stage consists in structural practice based on a wide range of exercises, commonly found
in most grammar books. These exercises are less teacher-controlled, but do not offer
complete student control over language, as students have to use the structure correctly in a
given sentence or text, without actually producing language themselves. They have the
advantage of also being suitable for individual independent study, in class or at home, orally
or in writing, for reinforcement or consolidation purposes. The most common semi-controlled
exercises are:
a) Bracketed verbs/adjectives
This is one of the most frequently used exercise type, extremely useful for tense practice,
adjective comparison forms, etc. Students operate with such categories as Tense, Aspect,
Voice, Infinitive/Gerund complementation, Subjunctives, having to choose between two
alternative forms – Simple/Progressive tense forms, Gerunds/Infinitives, etc, which always
involves a compare and contrast approach.
b) Dual/Multiple choice
This exercise offers two or four items to choose from: verb forms, prepositions,
singular/plural nouns, modal verbs, time adverbs, etc.
c) Gap-fill
These consist in sentences or texts containing gap or blank spaces to be filled in. It is used for
practice with verbs, prepositions, determiners, adverbial modifiers, etc.
d) Cloze passages
A cloze is a text from which every 5th or 7th word has been removed so that the students will
fill in the blanks. A grammar cloze devised in this way is a good way of testing general
grammar (and vocabulary) knowledge. Alternatively, teachers can tailor a cloze for practice
in a specific structure, by removing only the items related to the target structure
(infinives/gerunds, prepositions).

25
 e) True/False statements
These can be organized as pairs of statements or sentences (a, b) to choose from, referring to
the meaning or use of a structure (tenses, modal verbs).
f) Matching items
The items to be matched are arranged in two columns, in random order. They can be verb
tenses + adverbs, main + subordinate clauses, verbs + gerund/infinitive complements, etc.
g) Error correction
Students are required to discriminate between correct and incorrect forms, and make
corrections where necessary. These exercises have an important formative value, as thinking
of and evaluating structural accuracy helps in developing the students’ ability for self-
correction.
Below are illustrated two game-like activities based on error correction, which, by
adding an element of fun and even excitement, can render dull correction exercises more
enjoyable.
h) Grammar auction
The students work in pairs or groups. They are told they are going to participate in a sentence
auction, for which each pair/group have £1,000. Some of the sentences are correct, while
others will contain grammar mistakes. Of course, the students are supposed to bid for correct
sentences. The winning pair/group has the largest number of correct sentences at the end of
the activity.
i) Grammar gamble
This is a variation on the game above, but instead of buying correct sentences, the students
will bet on their own correction of sentences containing mistakes. Each group (3 or 4
students) is given 1,000 and a list of incorrect sentences with mistakes in grammar, word
order, etc. These can be taken from the students’ mistakes in their written work. According to
the degree of difficulty, each sentence will be assigned different odds. In their groups,
students discuss the corrections they think necessary. The teacher calls out one sentence at a
time and asks students to place their bets on their corrected versions. On the board, the
teacher draws two columns headed Bet and Total, writing each group’s stakes and earnings.
The winning team will have the largest sum at the end of the activity (see Gates, 1994).
j) Jumbled words ordering
These exercises are particularly focused on word order, but they can also raise awareness of
such issues as cohesion, linking words, emphasis/fronting, inversion.

26
 k) Rewrite/Rephrase sentences
Beside target structure practice, these exercises also raise awareness about meanings,
functions, polysemous structural or syntactic forms, as they require reformulating a sentence
in such a way that its meaning remains unchanged. In order to rephrase a given sentence,
students are provided with cues which can be either a different beginning or a word to be
included in the new sentence.
l) Dictogloss/Grammar dictation
The teacher reads a short text at a reasonable, normal speech speed and students listen first, to
get a general idea of the content and grammar of the text. For the second reading, the students
are required to take as many and as detailed notes as they can of what they hear – sentence
chunks, key phrases/words. In groups of three or four, the students are required to put their
notes together and try to reconstruct the original text as accurately as possible. It can also be
done as a competition, in which the winning team ends up with a text which is the closest to
the original and the most grammatically accurate.

3. PRODUCTION/FREE PRACTICE STAGE

With free practice or production activities, the focus shifts from accuracy to fluency. These
activities are aimed at allowing students to practise the new language in meaningful
communicative contexts, which replicate real life communication. At this stage, control over
language is transferred to the students, since they work with or produce language as they
engage in communicative tasks requiring S->S interaction and are provided with
opportunities for free self-expression. A graphic representation of the staging in a grammar
lesson – in terms of activity sequencing, teacher roles, control over language and activity
aims – could look as follows:
Staging
Presentation Controlled practice Semi-controlled practice Free practice
/ / /
Presentation Practice Production

Teacher roles
T as presenter T giving T organising activities so that
of new language SS chance to practise language SS can use language meaningfully

Teacher-centred Learner-centred

Control over language

T -> S S -> S

27
T. control over language > SS control over language
Immediate correction Delayed correction

Aims

ACCURACY FLUENCY
/
T ss ss
ssss s T s
ssss ss ss ss
s s s

Of course, communicative activities for free oral practice commonly presuppose pair
work and group work. In order to motivate students to work together in pairs/groups, the
activities have to be task-based – if students know what they have to achieve, they will have
a purpose to work towards, i.e. solving the task. Of course, communicative grammar
activities must have a grammar focus – a structure/function they have learnt/revised
recently. Of course, task-based communicative activities require careful preparation on the
part of the teacher, who has to plan the activity well in advance, to organise the class and
provide the students with the necessary materials, such as handouts or visuals. Basically, the
most common communicative activities are of two types – Information Gap and Role Play
– but the range is in fact much wider. The most productive communicative grammar activities
for free oral practice are described below.

3. 1. INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES (Info-gap)

Usually suitable for pair work, but also in group work, these activities are based on an
information gap, i.e. the students have different information which they have to share in order
to fulfil the given task. In other words, the need to exchange information provides the need to
communicate, usually by means of question and answer patterns of interaction. In an
information gap activity, each student working in a pair (A and B) is given a handout
containing information his/her partner does not have. The task varies depending on the
grammar focus of the activity. Most often, they have to exchange information in order to
reach a decision, an agreement, a conclusion, a certain result (filling in a chart) or to create
something (a map, a drawing, a description, an object/handicraft item). As they are not
supposed to see each other’s information, the best seating arrangement for the pair is face-to-
face. Here are a few examples of tasks:
i. Agreeing on a common plan/action.
For instance, in an activity focused on the use of the Present Continuous for Future plans they
are asked to agree on a time to meet, based on handouts containing different diary pages with

28
scheduled activities, or, in a freer variation, based on their own plans for the next day/the
weekend/the holidays, etc.
ii. Achieving a result:
 Pictures with differences
The students are given quite similar pictures containing a number of differences
(number/colour of objects, different people/animals/furniture/street/position in space). They
are told there are 10 differences, for example. To fulfil the task, they take turns to ask and
answer questions, paying attention to and recording the differences they identify. It is useful
for practising questions such as: Is/Are there...?/Where is/are? + prepositions of place; What
is the girl doing?/Is the boy sitting? – No, he is standing.
 Chart completion
The students are given charts with different missing information. To complete them, they
have to ask their partners, who have the information they need.
 Map completion
The students are given handouts with the map of a street, village, town, zoo, store, etc. Each
student has elements the other has not, so they have to ask and answer questions in order to
complete their maps with the missing items put in the right place. The activity is useful for
prepositions of place, giving instructions. Another task can be giving their partners’
directions to their home.
 Drawing instructions
The students are given handouts with different shapes/objects/places/people/animals. The
task requires that each of them draws the picture on their partner’s handout, listening to each
other’s descriptions and instructions. Without handouts, the task can be that each of them
describes his/her room so that their partner can draw a plan of the room. The grammar focus
is again prepositions of place, spatial directions.
There are also other types of communicative activities and games roughly based on
the information gap principle:
a) Guessing games: 20 Qs
This is a popular game. It can be played either in pairs or with the whole class. In a pair, the
partners take turns as ‘knower’ and ‘guesser’. Each thinks of an activity, person, job, animal,
country, continent, place, etc. They try to guess what the other is thinking of by asking
relevant Yes/No questions (up to 20) focused on structures and topics fit to the context. With
the whole class, one student is the knower, answering the questions asked by his peers.

29
 b) Mime/Charades
This is another type of entertaining guessing game, also used for amusement at social get-
togethers. The knower has to mime the concept he/she has in mind, nodding or shaking his
head in response to the others’ questions.
c) Questionnaires/Surveys
Students are asked to collect data about their classmates by devising a questionnaire on
various topics: hobbies, pastimes, sports, holidays, eating/reading habits, likes/dislikes, etc.
They have to go around the class asking questions and recording answers on their report
sheet. At the end the students process the data collected and present their findings, under the
form of pie-charts, stack columns, graphs or diagrams.
d) Interviews
The students interview each other on a given topic: future plans/career/holidays, past
experiences, family, relationships, friends, study or pastime preferences, etc. At the end each
student produces an oral or written account of the interview. It can be used for practising
tenses and reported speech. The interviewers/interviewees can act as themselves or play the
role of other people (family members, friends – an exercise in empathy!), of celebrities or
even animals! This really appeals to their empathic imagination.
e) Quizzes
It can be organized in pairs or groups. Each student or group devises a quiz based on a
structure and topic studied in class (wildlife, geographical/historical/cultural
facts/films/books/music, etc. It can be conducted orally or in writing. It is more challenging if
organised as a competition between two/three teams, in which the winning team has the most
correct answers.

3. 2. ROLE PLAY
The principles of role play activities are by and large the same as those for Info-gap activities.
The task involves achieving a social and transactional goal, as indicated in the Role Cards
allocated to students working in pairs or groups, which provide the information gap required
for a meaningful exchange of information. However, there is a stronger focus on functions:
persuasion, invitations, refusals, agreeing, disagreeing, etc. In designing a role play, we
should think of a context or situation presenting a potential conflict of interest, opinions or
ideas. At the same time role plays should reflect clear social role: teacher, parent, policeman,
driver, ecologist, salesperson, customer, public figure, artist, etc.

30
 Role cards are essential in defining profile and goal of the person the student has to
impersonate while interacting with the others.
Example: Four roommates are discussing ideas for an evening out. They have to agree on
something to do together, even if they have rather different interests and tastes.
Role card 1: You are Sam. You like eating out and prefer fast-food restaurants. For a change,
however, you would try something more exotic. You like musicals.
Role card 2: You are Annie. You like Chinese food, and would like to take the £5 eat-as-
much-as you-want offer at Mr Wu. You also like going to the theatre and prefer comedies.
Role card 3: You are Lucy. You like Italian food and would like to have some lasagne at
Mama Mia. You like going to the cinema and prefer romantic comedies.
Role card 4: You are Johnny. You’re fond of cooking curry and would prefer to cook a meal
for the others. You like dancing, especially Latino dances.
a) Agony columns/Agony aunts/uncles
This popular magazine column in which the columnist – called an agony aunt/uncle – offers
advice to readers requesting advice on a problem can be adapted for role play focused on the
function of asking for and giving advice. It works better in pairs rather than groups. Each
student receives a role card containing a problem (relationships, school, work, career, health,
etc). Every student complains about his problem and receives advice from his partner.
Alternatively, both the problem and the advice can be expressed in writing, with each student
receiving a problem card to respond to in writing. For this version, the role play can be
dropped in favour of a self-expression exercise, where the students can write their own
problems on unsigned pieces of paper, which the teacher distributes around the class, asking
students to offer advice on the problem in question. As students may be sensitive about this
self-revealing context, anonymity is obligatory. All the pieces of paper will be gathered on
the teacher’s desk, so the students can collect their ‘advice letter’ at the end of the lesson.
b) Letter-writing
Role plays can also consist of writing activities. Students can be asked to write various types
of letters (invitation, request, advice, complaint, application, etc.) from the perspective of a
certain role. Of course, the writing activity will be based on a given context, specifying the
writer’s purpose, audience and the appropriate style (formal/informal). The task will also
include cues about content, such as issues to complain about in a letter of complaint. More
imaginative activities can include writing letters or diary entries from the perspective of a
character in a story, a person they know well or a famous person.

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 3. 3. FREE DISCUSSION/DEBATE ACTIVITIES
a) Problem solving
This activity can be done either as a role play, with students in the group assuming a given
role in a given context, or, for a more realistic context, the students can discuss issues from
their own perspective, acting as themselves. The activity consists in asking the students to
discuss and agree on possible solutions to a certain problem. A real or imaginary problem is
presented by the teacher, orally or on a fact-file handout. This can be in connection with a
real problem – solutions for cleaning a polluted area/reducing pollution in their
area/publicising an event or product/repairing a malfunctioning machine or
vehicle/converting or finding a use for an old building in town/refurbishing the school
building/raising funds for a cause/protecting an endangered species/community/area, etc.
Alternatively, the problems can be brain-teasers or puzzles to work out, or more imaginative
problems like being on a space mission and having to deal with a technical problem.
The example below is quite a popular riddle aimed at testing strategic and logical thinking,
called ‘Who owns the zebra?’
The students are given the following cues, and asked to work out the answers for two
questions: 1) Who drinks water? and 2) Who owns the zebra? The activity can be used for
practising modal verbs (may/might/could/must/can’t/couldn’t + infinitive) and such
functions as expressing possibility, positive or negative deduction/certainty, prepositions
of place, etc.
1. There are five houses in a row, each of a different colour and inhabited by people of
different nationalities, with different pets, drinks, and flowers.
2. The English person lives in the red house.
3. The Spaniard owns the dog.
4. Coffee is drunk in the green house.
5. The Ukrainian drinks tea.
6. The green house is immediately to the right (your right) of the ivory house.
7. The geranium grower owns snails.
8. Roses are in front of the yellow house.
9. Milk is drunk in the middle house.
10. The Norwegian lives in the first house on the left.
11. The person who grows marigolds lives in the house next to the person with the fox.
12. Roses are grown at the house next to the house where the horse is kept.
13. The person who grows lilies drinks orange juice.

32
14. The Japanese person grows gardenias.
15. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
b) Choosing candidates
The students are given a list of candidates for a competition, job, manager, as well as relevant
information about them. The candidates’ profiles should include details about their
background, qualities, abilities and skills, experience, interests, commitment or leadership
potential. The group has to discuss their suitability and reach a decision about the most
suitable candidate. The functions practiced can be agreeing, disagreeing, suggesting,
persuading, arguing one’s opinion, expressing ability, possibility, positive/negative deduction
(using modal verbs).
c) Debates
The students are introduced to a controversial issue in the real world, relevant for their age,
level and interests. They have to discuss the respective issue, from various perspectives,
arguing their standpoints, giving arguments and examples. A debate can be organised in
groups or with the whole class. Possible topics can be:
 Are books losing ground in the era of digital revolutions?
 Will teachers be replaced by computers?
 Who should take care of the elderly?

3. 4. PERSONALISATION ACTIVITIES (oral/written)

All methodologists agree on the fact that the personalisation of the content learnt promotes
better retention – a truism in language learning and learning in general (see Ur 1988). As this
makes more sense on a personal and real-life plane, such activities acquire a deeper meaning
for the learner, promoting what Adrian Doff calls ‘meaningful practice’ (Doff 1988, 28).
Irrespective of the organisation of free practice activities – individually, pairs, groups, whole
class – opportunities for self-expression will promote better learning and aid retention. By
having students share their personal experience, feelings, tastes and interests with their peers,
we enhance a good rapport between students and a cooperative atmosphere.
a) Free oral communication – exchanging personal information/opinions
Students share information about issues relevant to their everyday life: their plans for the
weekend/holidays; travel experiences; childhood memories; favourite
pastimes/food/books/film/music stars; opinions on topics of general human interest, etc. They

33
can extend the discussion to their family and friends. They can do this in pairs, groups or in a
whole class discussion.
b) Sentence building/completion
Even if this only consists in structure practice at sentence rather than discourse level, writing
sentences to say true things about oneself involve personalisation and provide useful
preparation for more complex opportunities for self-expression. Students can make sentences
orally or in writing. One variation would be to continue incomplete sentences with a given
beginning, e.g. If I had only six months to live, I would...To make the task more challenging
and likely to trigger further discussion, the teacher can ask the students to complete the
sentences from their partner’s point of view.
c) Compositions, argumentative and reflective essays
These are quite complex activities for free grammar practice, whose scope extends beyond
the use of a particular grammar structure. Yet, the teacher may try to adapt the task for a
specific grammar area – talking about habitual actions in the past, speculating about
hypothetical situations, etc. Giving students opportunities to express their ideas in writing
helps them practise the language learnt in a meaningful context promoting personalisation
and self-expression, which furthers consolidation, retention and a sense of personal
achievement.
Overall, we should try to make grammar practice more meaningful and realistic by
offering ample opportunities for practice at discourse rather than at discrete (sentence) level,
and by providing students with contexts encouraging real communication and self-
expression. One should always bear in mind that grammar teaching and learning is not an end
in itself, but a means to an end, which is communicative fluency.

34
 Chapter 3
TEACHING VOCABULARY

1. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND TO VOCABULARY ACQUISITION

As in the case of our mother tongue, in foreign language learning we recognize and
understand more words than we actually use, which means that our passive/receptive
vocabulary will always exceed our active/productive vocabulary.
However, expanding our active vocabulary in a foreign language requires more
controlled exposure to and work on new vocabulary than is the case in our mother tongue, to
which we are exposed in everyday life. This is because learning and using new words
requires time and repeated opportunity for use. Actual use is preceded by an incubation
period, during which the learner hears or sees the word in different contexts before beginning
to use it in free expression and communication.
At beginner level we should quickly provide students with a ‘basic vocabulary kit’ – a
limited active vocabulary from which students can build their vocabulary at a natural,
unforced speed. In order to enrich their vocabulary, students should be encouraged to read
widely outside the classroom, an enjoyable activity which helps them pick up new words in a
natural and meaningful way.
Moreover, they will be well-advised to invest in a good monolingual dictionary,
which provides collocation patterns and full-sentence examples of the word in various
contexts. Finally, they should be accustomed to store/keep record of new vocabulary by
means of various types of data-bases – word cards, vocabulary notebook, semantic field files,
topic-based word-sets/word-webs, idioms, collocations or phrasal verbs portfolios.
Prioritising/planning vocabulary teaching – practical criteria
Selecting new or essential vocabulary to teach for active production should be based on the
following criteria:
 Frequency
Deciding what new words or lexical area to teach depends on how often the word or lexical
area is used in everyday communication.
 Range
Words with a wide range of meanings, i.e. which are used in a number of different contexts,
will be taught sooner.

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 Usefulness
The selection of vocabulary to teach is often dictated by the students’
study/professional/social communication needs in their everyday life and activities – as in the
case of Academic English or ESP teaching (English for Specific Purposes).
 Familiarity (of the concept/referent)
This refers to cases when, although a word may not occur so frequently in everyday
communication, it refers to a familiar object frequently used in everyday life, such as a
toothbrush or comb. Thus, familiarity with the object can be a reason to teach the word.

2. PRACTICAL LINGUISTIC CONSIDERATIONS

Any lexical item is defined by a number of characteristics which should be taken into
consideration in teaching vocabulary.
a) Meaning and context
Meaning and context are inseparable lexical categories, insofar as, more often than not, the
meaning of a word is given by the context it occurs in, and even if every word has a core or
main meaning, it can acquire other meanings if used in different contexts. In connection with
meaning and context of a lexical item, the features we should consider highlighting are the
following:
 Diversity of meanings/multiple meanings (polysemy, homonymy)
In the case of words with multiple meanings, it is generally advisable that we should teach
one meaning at a time, according to the context at hand. However, with more advanced
levels, we can introduce the various meanings of a word from the outset. For example, we
can give examples illustrating the meanings of the word crane:
1. a bird; 2. a type of construction equipment; 3. to strain/stick out one’s neck.
 Range of meanings
This refers to the number of different contexts in which the word is used. For example, the
verbs make, do, go or get appear in a wide range of contexts, in which their meaning may
vary according to the collocations (word combinations) they take.
 Derivatives/roots
The derivatives of a word (root) are the new words which have undergone derivation by
means of pre-fixation or suffixation, thus forming a word-family, e.g. work: worker,
working, workable, overwork, overworked.

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 Collocation
The collocations of a lexical item are the various word combinations or associated forms it
occurs in. There are different types of collocations: Verb + Noun/Preposition, Verb +
Infinive/Gerund, Adjective + Noun/Preposition, Verb + Adverb. Phrasal verbs or idioms are
fixed collocations in which words lose their literal meaning, acquiring a
figurative/metaphoric meaning, such as in do someone in or live from hand to mouth.
 Connotation
Apart from their denotative meaning (strictly literal), many words also have a connotative
meaning (implying emotion, attitude, judgement). The connotation of a word can be positive
or negative. Thus, the denotative word for an underweight person can be thin, but scrawny
and skinny have a negative connotation, while slim, slender, slight or svelte have a positive
connotation.
 L1 interference
This refers to disambiguating the meaning of words resembling words in our mother tongue
which mean something else – words commonly known as ‘false cognates/friends’. For
example, speakers of Romanian or French tend to use library instead of bookshop, licence
instead of university degree, etc. Ambiguities may also arise with L1 homonyms which are
expressed in English by different words, e.g. canal and channel for the Romanian canal.
b) Sense relations
There are words with interrelated meanings – similarities/differences in meaning. According
to the kind of sense relations shared with other words, lexical items can be:
 Synonyms: cheerful = joyful
 Antonyms (opposites): beautiful ≠ ugly
 Items of a lexical set (group of words with the same topic, function or form, e.g. words
on the topic kitchen/holidays/crime)
 Hyponyms, i.e. items of a semantic field (a set of words with close meaning, referring to
a certain notion or class such as colours, animals, parts of the body, furniture).
 Items on a cline, i.e. a graded sequence of words arranged within a slope to show degrees
of intensity, whose meanings go across a continuum meaning:
E.g.: blue ecstatic
low elated
depressed delighted
miserable cheerful
sorrowful ≠ glad

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 c) Word grammar
This concerns the grammatical features of the word, such as:
 Part of speech
 Irregularities of form (irregular verbs or noun plurals)
 Prefixes and suffixes used for word-derivation
 What it is followed by (prepositions, Gerund/Infinitive
 Countable/Uncountable nouns
 Derivatives, compounds
d) Form
 Pronunciation
 Sounds (short/long vowels, diphthongs)
 Stress (stressed/weak syllables)
 Shifting stress: for such pairs as increase (verb) and increase (noun)
 Spelling
 Sound vs. spelling, e.g. the different sound of ea in break and speak
 Abbreviations, e.g. advertisement, advert, ad
e) Dialects
There are many words specific to British or American English, to other varieties of English
(Scottish, Irish) or even to British or American regional dialects. Dialectal use should be
tacked in the presentation and by vocabulary exercises focused on dialectal differences.
f) Register
This refers to the specialised use of a word within a specific field of activity (commercial,
medical, political). There are specialised professional areas even called journalese, legalese,
etc.
g) Style
Style refers to the specific social or professional contexts in which a word occurs. Thus, we
distinguish between everyday or familiar style – colloquial/informal/spoken – and formal or
written style. For instance, the verb buy (neutral style) is rendered by get in informal style and
by purchase in formal/written style. According to the emotional or moral stance involved, we
can also have pejorative or derogatory, as opposed to a neutral style, e.g. the words versifier
or poetaster, used for a lesser poet.

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 3. PRESENTING VOCABULARY
Context is essential in presenting and practising vocabulary, as it is the context that defines
and clarifies semantic meaning. Accordingly, a lexical item will always be presented in
context, at sentence or text level. At all levels, it is essential that the new words should be
clearly spoken and written on the board, then repeated in chorus.
a) Visuals
With young learners, visual materials are extremely useful, as associating the concept with an
image aids understanding and retention. These can be pictures, book illustrations, cut-outs,
flashcards, board drawings, stick figures, stickers, emoticons, etc.
b) Realia
Realia can be used to teach words such as classroom furniture, school things, stationary, toys,
clothes, etc.
c) Mime
Mime is effective with words describing everyday actions/activities, body posture and
movement, ways of walking/laughing.
d) Model sentences
These are the most common presentation technique. A good model provides a clear
illustration of the meaning of the new word, e.g. I have to go to the butcher’s, as I need some
pork meat for Sunday lunch.
e) Dialogues
Dialogues are effective in illustrating word meaning through conversational exchange.
E.g.:
A: What’s your father’s job?
B: Well, he lost his job last month. He was made redundant and now he’s still unemployed.
f) Explanation
An explanation of the meaning in L2 can be offered to clarify the meaning of a word, e.g. If a
person is unemployed, it means he/she is out of work/does not have a job.
g) Story
A very short story outline can be used to present new lexical items. E.g.: Last year he was
unemployed, so he started to look at the job vacancies in the paper and apply for jobs.
h) Questions
After introducing the word market, the teacher can ask students questions using the new
word. E.g.: A market is a place where you can buy fresh food. What do they sell there? Does

39
your mother go to the market? What does she mother buy there? What else do they sell there?
So you ever go to the market yourself? Do you live near the market?
i) Synonyms, antonyms
Sometimes the handiest and quickest way to illustrate the meaning of a word is by providing
a synonym or antonym. E.g.: ludicrous = ridiculous; ugly ≠ beautiful
j) Clines
Clines (illustrated above) are an effective way of graphically illustrating the place of a word
on a slope showing degrees of intensity related to a particular meaning, e.g. the place of huge
on the scale of bigness.
k) Translation
Although translation has been somehow demoted in favour of techniques based on the use of
the target language in illustrating lexical meaning, it can be, beside contextualised
explanations in L2, a quite effective way of clarifying meaning, especially in the case of
idiomatic expressions, when it would be interesting to make correlations with idioms with the
same meaning in the mother tongue.
l) Text – guessing meaning from context
When working with texts based on thematic vocabulary, we can either pre-teach or post-teach
new words. If the new words would get in the way of the students’ understanding of the text
or may cause difficulty in solving reading comprehension or ensuing communicative tasks,
the teacher should pre-teach more difficult words. However, it is worth training students to
guess meaning from context, without being daunted by unknown words – an essential ability
of a fluent reader. Thus, after a reading activity we can post-teach vocabulary as a follow-up,
by means of inductive techniques and exercises such as:
 Comprehension questions focused on meaning of vocabulary, e.g.: 1.What does set
about in line 10 mean? 2. Find a synonym for apparition in paragraph 2.
 Multiple-choice items e.g.: The word preposterous in paragraph 3 means: a)
ridiculous; b) sophisticated; c) absurd.
 Matching words and definitions. The words are listed in a column and their
definitions/explanations are given in an opposite column, in jumbled order. The
students are asked to match the words with their corresponding definitions.
 Synonyms/antonyms search. The students are given a number of words they already
know, for which they have to find synonyms/antonyms in the text, e.g.: In paragraph

40
 3, find words meaning curious, stimulus, ambitious; find opposites for boring, very
little, meanness.
m) Dictionary work
Students should be trained as early as possible to look up words in the dictionary, as this
encourages learner independence and develops good study skills. That is why we should
organize dictionary work sessions in class, preferably after reading a text – in the absence of
class dictionaries we can provide handouts of a page with the entries in question. The tasks
can be to look up the meaning of a word in the text; make a list of do/make + noun
combinations; ask each other for the definitions of words highlighted in the text, if they have
different dictionary pages (info-gap pair-work exercise).

4. VOCABULARY PRACTICE ACTIVITIES

The principles in organising vocabulary practice are quite similar to the ones underlying
grammar practice. After the presentation, the students practise the new vocabulary through
various types of semi-controlled, accuracy-oriented exercises. There should also be a free
practice stage, at which students are involved in communicative, fluency-oriented activities
involving the new words.

4.1. SEMI-CONTROLLED EXERCISES

a) True/false definitions of words/idioms
These consist in pairs of definitions (a, b) for a word/idiom, in which one is false. Students
may be encouraged to write their own definitions for their peers to choose from – one will be
the dictionary definition, the other will be created by the students. A game with true and false
idiom definitions, played in teams/groups is called “Call my bluff”
b) Matching words and definitions
The words and their jumbled definitions are listed under two opposite columns. The students
have to match the words with the correct definitions. Another variant would be to distribute
word and definition cards among the students, who have to mill around and read aloud the
items on their cards until they find their ‘partner’ i.e. their corresponding word/definition.
c) Word-guessing games
One student stands with his back to the board. The teacher writes a word only the class can
see. They have to help their classmate guess the word on the board by offering definitions
and explanations of its meaning. It can also be played as a competition between two teams,
with the winning team guessing the most words – also known as a team defining game.

41
 d) Dual/Multiple choice
This exercise offers two/three/four lexical items to choose from.
e) Gap-fill
Gap-filling exercises are commonly used to check learning after presentation, and also very
useful as a testing device. The words to be used can be given in a separate list, in random
order.
f) Vocabulary cloze
A vocabulary cloze is an effective way of practising/testing vocabulary, collocations and
appropriacy at text/discourse level.
g) Error correction
Students are required to discriminate between correct and incorrect word use or collocations
and make corrections where necessary. Such exercises are useful in that they get the students
thinking about contextual appropriacy, collocation and synonymy.
h) Rewrite/Rephrase sentences
These exercises raise awareness about words/phrases with similar meaning or function. They
usually involve rewriting the sentence by including a word given in the margin – also called
key word transformations.
i) Word formation
This is a word derivation exercise, consisting of a text with numbered blank spaces. On the
left hand margin, next to each line containing a blank, a cue root-word is given, which
requires a prefix or/and a suffix so as to fit the given context.
j) Lexical set/Word-maps/Word field completion
A lexical set can be made more visually effective by means of a word-map/mind-map/word-
web based on a lexical set. This is not only an excellent way of systematising, revising and
storing known vocabulary, but also a way of involving students in exploring new vocabulary
with the help of the dictionary. Word maps also encourage students to learn words associated
by topic. Here is a map for students to complete, by adding new clusters such as appliances,
utensils, activities, etc.

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 saucers cup spoons
bowls forks
sss cutlery
crockery forks

plates

Kitchen
Kitchen
Food
mixer utensils

Appliances cooker
freezer
Kni
ves
fridge

k) Scales and clines

Students are given cards with gradable items to be stuck on a cline drawn on the board. After
arranging the items and discussing issues of meaning, connotation or style, they may use the
words or phrases in a freer speaking activity, telling each other of experiences or situations
related to the respective vocabulary area.

4.2. FREE PRACTICE ACTIVITIES

The communicative activities aimed at practising vocabulary are similar to the ones used for
free grammar practice. Oral practice activities may consist in:
a) Sentence building
Students create sentences of their own using the new vocabulary. An important principle in
consolidating vocabulary use is personalisation, i.e. students should be encouraged to use
the words in statements about themselves. Personalisation does not only promote self-
expression and real communication, but it also aids retention.
b) Dialogues/interviews/exchanging information
The activity involves students working in pairs, asking each other questions and exchanging
personal information on a given vocabulary topic, e.g. travel and holidays, food, clothes,
music, etc. This can be a one-off activity or part of a class survey including topic vocabulary.
c) Information gap
The tasks based on information gap should involve the target vocabulary. Students have to
ask and answer questions in order to complete their task, e.g. finding a certain number of

43
differences in two pictures of the same room, the map of a place at two different points in
time, etc.
d) Crossword puzzles
Crosswords can be used as a support for an info-gap activity. One group of students are given
handouts with a half-completed crossword (A), and the other group get the other completed
half (B). Student A also has a list of the missing words in B, and B students have the missing
words in A. The principle is that students help each other complete their puzzle, by offering
the definition of the word needed. Before students are put into pairs AB, all the A/B students
are put together to discuss the possible definitions and explanations of the words they have to
help their partners with. Providing a dictionary for students to look up words or check
definitions would be a good idea. They should also be instructed to asks such questions as
‘What’s 5 across/down?’
e) Role-play
Students are assigned roles and provided with role-cards. For instance, for practising
vocabulary related to clothes and fashion, the role-play can be about buying clothes in a shop,
with students playing a customer and a shop assistant.
f) Problem solving
The students are asked to discuss solutions to a given problem, e.g. cleaning a certain
polluted area, finding a use for a disaffected building in town, etc.
g) Group or class discussions or debates
Especially for higher levels, free discussions can be organized around a certain theme: jobs,
pollution or unemployment.
h) Mime stories
Miming can be used to illustrate a series of actions or activities. The students watch the
teacher or each other perform a mime and then describe, orally or in writing, the scenes and
actions they have watched. Short mimes such as having a bath or tidying a room can be very
productive for multi-word verbs/phrasal verbs: turn on/off, hang up, tidy up, take out, put
away (Gairns and Redman, 154).
i) Picture card narrative
Students are given a set of cards with drawings/pictures of vocabulary items they have learnt
(one set per group). In their groups, students have to construct a narrative including all the
items on their cards. A student will read out the story composed by his/her group and the
other groups might be asked to guess what key items each group has got.

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 j) Picture story composition
The students are given a picture story, i.e. a series of pictures representing a sequence of
events and actions, on the basis of which the students will flesh out a story. The narrative
composition activity proper will be preceded by a lead-in session, during which the teacher
can introduce the topic and pre-teach or revise certain items or ask the students to discuss,
suggest and pool together relevant vocabulary. The vocabulary discussion may include
activities involving the prediction, selection, distribution, choice, rephrasing or brainstorming
of vocabulary, according to the degree of challenge the teacher wants to create.
k) Picture dictation
This is an information gap exercise in which one of the students is given a relatively simple
drawing or picture representing a street map, a room layout, a person’s face, an object, etc.
One student describes the picture while the other tries to draw a close version of the picture
described. The activity may be used with vocabulary relating to places and buildings,
furniture, colours, physical appearance, clothes, animals, etc.
l) Quiz
This may consist of questions eliciting either standard or personalised answers, or a
combination of both) on various everyday topics such as food, health, education, politics,
public events, sports, entertainment. The questions (and answers) will be based on the
relevant vocabulary area.
m) Writing tasks
Writing tasks are particularly useful for consolidation purposes, since writing is an aid to
memory. Students can practice vocabulary through a range of written tasks and text types,
such as letters with different functions and topics (invitations, refusals, advice, complaint, job
applications, letters to the editor, etc.) or topic-based/word-prompt-based compositions
(narrative, descriptive), articles, essays (argumentative, reflective), focused on a particular
vocabulary area.
The main principle in organizing free practice activities is creating a balance between
oral and written communication.

5. COLLOCATION PRACTICE ACTIVITIES

Our students’ ability to speak and write English both accurately and fluently is related to a
large extent to their mastery of vocabulary, especially of collocation. Most language mistakes
arise from the wrong association between words, i.e. collocation, which is one of the most
difficult areas of language learning at all levels.

45
 While native speakers collocate naturally and automatically, non-native speakers have
to learn and practice word association systematically before they are able to sense what
sounds right and what does not. What they need is awareness-raising exercises, which set
them thinking about correct collocations when they do reading or listening activities or when
they look up words in the dictionary, intensive classroom practice and extensive reading
(outside the classroom). In other words, they need sustained exposure to collocation.
Errors of collocation are sometimes caused by interference from their own language
(L2 interference), when students collocate according to the rules of their mother tongue, e.g.
make a photo, give an exam, put a question. Knowing a word in a foreign language means
knowing how and when to use it and which words it associates with. That is why collocation
exposure and practice are at a premium, and the teacher should give students plenty of
opportunities for practice. Some useful strategies and activities are suggested below.
a) Using dictionaries for learning, recording and checking collocations
Good monolingual dictionaries always provide examples of word collocations. Student
should be warned to pay attention to word combination, and never record words in isolations.
They can be asked to look up and take notes of Verb + Noun collocations with frequently
used verbs such as do, make, get, take, etc. It is useful to point out to our students that the
lists of ‘synonyms’ often given in a bilingual dictionary or language thesaurus should not be
taken at face value, since, apart from the inherent differences in meaning, these synonyms
also appear in different contexts and collocate with particular words. Keeping record of the
vocabulary they learn is useful so long as it focuses on collocations rather than on isolated
items. Thus students should be trained to pay attention to the most frequent collocation
patterns:
 Subject noun + verb: The earth revolves round the sun.
 Verb + object noun: take a photo, light a fire, strike a match
 Adjective + noun: light sleeper, heavy smoker, heavy traffic, utter disappointment
 Adjective/past participle + preposition: fond of, keen on, interested in, delighted at,
concerned about
 Adverb + past participle (used attributively): smartly/badly/fashionably dressed, fully
understood, hard-earned, deeply hurt
 Adverb + verb: sincerely hope, honestly believe, fully understand, absolutely love
 Verb + adverb: enjoy thoroughly, cry bitterly, eat heartily, work hard
 Verb + preposition: insist on, object to, approve of, sympathise with

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 b) Reading for collocation
As reading represents the main form of exposure to collocation, texts used in classroom
reading activities can also be exploited for collocation learning or reinforcement, as a follow-
up exercise. Students will be asked to scan the text and take out any new collocations
corresponding to the patterns presented above. Thus, reading specifically for collocation can
be an extremely productive vocabulary development technique. In addition, students should
also be encouraged to pay attention to collocations and even pause to write them down when
reading outside the classroom.
c) Matching items
The two halves of different collocation patterns are put in two separate columns, in jumbled
order. Students have to match the corresponding items. E.g.:
1. broaden a. a screw 1
2. soften b. your hair 2
3. straighten c. your mind 3
4. tighten d. the blow 4

A variation can be used particularly for collocations with DO and MAKE. The students are
given a list of noun phrases to be put under the right heading. The exercise can be also done
as a dictation, with students writing the nouns they hear under the DO or MAKE headings.
d) Odd man out
This exercise, involving crossing out the wrong items of a number of given choices, is
suggested by Gairns and Redman (1992, 39).

A DISH
heavy mild
strong light
weak

e) Collocation gap-fill
The exercise consists of a set of gapped sentences focused on different collocation patterns.
E.g.: She ............ a thick layer of jam on her toast. / I think we are all ....... agreement.
f) Collocation error correction
Students have to correct collocation errors in sentences where the key element requiring a
different collocation is underlined:
E.g.: The crime was done last night. / The result was an extreme disappointment.

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 g) Sentence building (from given outline and key word)
The students are required to build a sentence round a given word, most commonly a noun, by
supplying subject, verb, adjective, preposition and object where applicable. The key words
used as cues can be nouns which are part of verb phrase collocation model cases.
E.g.:
SUBJECT VERB ADJECTIVE NOUN PREPOSITION OBJECT
INVESTIGATION
RESEARCH
INQUIRY

h) Matching idioms and definitions

Idioms represent fixed collocation patterns formed round a key verb or noun. Teaching and
learning idioms can be organised round topic based vocabulary – clothes idioms, parts of the
body idioms, etc. The students are given a set of sentences containing idioms and a list of
definitions to be matched.
E.g.: You’re going to fail the exam if you don’t pull your socks up. (make an effort)
i) Matching pairs
The exercise is focused on symmetrical collocations of the type: noun AND noun, adjective
AND adjective, past participle AND past participle. The students are given the elements to be
paired up in separate lists of jumbled items. E.g.: sick, head, bits, body, dead, bed, odds AND
breakfast, tired, soul, buried, pieces, ends, shoulders
j) Collocation grids
This is basically another matching exercise configured as a table containing a column of
items with roughly similar meanings but different collocations and a row of items they can
collocate with. The students have to decide on the associative possibilities of each item by
marking the intersection point between items as a positive collocation match (Rudska et al.,
in Gairns and Redman 1992, 38).

woman man child dog bird flower weather view village

beautiful + + + + + + + +
lovely + + + + + +
pretty + + + + + +
charming + + + +

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attractive + + +
good-looking + + +
handsome + +

k) Find someone who

The activity begins with a matching exercise, with two separate lists of items to be matched
so as to obtain adjective + noun collocations, e.g. light sleeper, heavy smoker, close friend.
After checking the correct combinations, the students move round the class to find someone
who: is a light sleeper, have a heavy smoker in their family, has a close friend of a different
nationality, has had a serious illness, etc.
l) Questionnaires (make vs. do)
The questionnaire should consist of an answer sheet with questions on problematic
collocations, such as make or do combinations. The main question is ‘In your house, who
does/makes things? The question prompts in the survey chart will include items such as the
shopping/the beds/the cooking/most of the decisions/the ironing/the most money/a mess and
the answer prompts can be a man/a woman/either/you/your mother/father/brother/sister/wife.
Similar questionnaires can be devised in order to revise relevant vocabulary and collocations
on such topics as personality traits, holidays and travel, leisure activities (Gairns and
Redman, 168).

6. VOCABULARY STORING STRATEGIES

Students should be encouraged to keep a record of the vocabulary they learn, a kind of lexical
database for future reference. Organising the vocabulary they have learnt is a valuable aid to
retention, as they are more likely to remember the lexical items by simply handling them in
some kind of written format.
a) Alphabetical ordering
The records can take the form of alphabetical organisers – a special vocabulary notebook,
ring-binder file or envelopes with word-cards for words beginning with the same letter. This
may be combined with grammatical categorising, where the section for each letter can
contain sub-categories for verbs, nouns, adjective, adverbs, prepositions.
b) Topic areas/Semantic field ordering
Alternatively, the organisation principle can be topic-based so students can build word banks
around a certain topic in a vocabulary notebook/folder or in topic envelopes with index-cards

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(one card per lexical item and its derivatives) or lexical sets. Learners should be encouraged
to write an example sentence to contextualise each word, to add derivatives, even translation
if they need to, to associate words with pictures, and, most importantly, to try to personalise
vocabulary by writing true sentences about themselves and their world.
c) Visual formats
Storing words by means of visual formats has the advantage of aiding retention through more
logical and easily memorable displays: lexical sets/word-webs, subject or topic
hierarchies/word-trees/pyramids, grids/tables on a semantic field or notion, process
chains/cycles/relationship diagrams.
d) Collocation files
One valuable filing system may be based on the collocations types discussed above: verb +
noun, verb + preposition, preposition + noun, etc. It is a very productive storing system as it
helps students with the crucial problem of word combinations and range of contexts. This
filing system can also be combined with alphabetical organisation.
e) Semantic/grammatical area categorising
Another storage system may be based on such semantic areas as idioms or phrasal verbs.
Of course, idioms may be further subcategorised by topic/field subgroups (food/parts of the
body/sports/idioms) or by grammatical subgroups (verb/noun/adjective/adverbial idioms).
It is the teacher’s task to present these storing systems and alternatives to the students,
and, why not, to let them choose their own categorising system, as long as they keep it up.
Irrespective of the filing method used, students should be made aware that learning new
words is a process which requires working with words, as words will stick to those who take
good care of them.

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 Chapter 4
DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS

1. EVERYDAY LISTENING: PURPOSE AND TEXT TYPES

Listening is the first receptive skill developed by language learners in both their first and
second language. In the latter case, the level of listening comprehension normally increases in
parallel with the students’ linguistic competence, but this does not mean that the listening
skill can develop naturally or by itself.
To develop listening proficiency, learners still need intensive and extensive exposure
to authentic listening material, as well as relevant classroom training. Using authentic
materials provide exposure to a wide range of more or less culture-bound contexts and topics,
as well as to varieties of English (British, American, Australian) or particular regional
accents. This is not only more challenging than listening to the teacher’s voice, but also
helpful in teaching elements of culture and developing cross-cultural competencies regarding
the English speaking world.
That is why any balanced language programme should include a wide range of
listening activities on a variety of topics. The materials should be relevant for the students’
age, level and interests. Classroom listening is essential in developing effective listening
strategies and skills, even if students can also train these skills independently, through
extensive exposure outside the classroom, by listening to music, watching films,
documentaries, etc.
In any language, listening is an essential part of everyday social or professional
interaction. Alongside reading, listening is the main channel through which we get
information and learn about the world. Whatever the medium involved – face to face
interaction or the mass media – we listen to a wide variety of context-bound discourses and
for different purposes, which determine the listening strategies we use. According to their
context and implicit purpose, the kinds of text types we listen to can be categorised as
follows:
a) Social/Personal
This refers to small talk and social chat, personal conversations, anecdotes, jokes or stories.
b) Transactional/informational
This concerns the area of social and professional transactions and interaction involved in:
service encounters (shop, bank, healthcare); transactional conversations in the workplace, in

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school or in society (instructions, explanations, directions descriptions); phone conversations
and messages; public or professional meetings.
c) Mass media and entertainment
If the previous categories involve listening for social and professional communication, this
type of listening is intended for information, pleasure and entertainment. It includes TV or
radio programmes such as news, weather forecasts, interviews, reports, reviews,
documentaries, commentaries, talk-shows, phone-ins, quizzes, games or artistic productions
such as films, plays, sketches, stories, songs, poems.
d) Educational/Professional/Specialised
The listening contexts in this area may consist of lessons, lectures and seminars, speeches,
discussions and debates.
By and large, the categories above refer to the kind of listening we do in real life and
in our mother tongue. The listening text types that students of English are most likely to be
exposed to in their real life are those in the area of media and entertainment, which provides
them with good, meaningful opportunities for independent listening practice. However, any
balanced general English course should contain text types from different categories, aimed at
training them to develop various listening strategies likely to benefit potential future needs in
real life. Moreover, classroom listening is more actively engaging and productive, as it
always entails a communicative response which leads to the integration of skills through
speaking, reading or writing activities.
Effective listening comprehension in the foreign language involves a number of
important sub-skills that are at work in decoding oral communication

2. LISTENING SUBSKILLS
a) Hearing
This sub-skill refers to our recognition of the phonological aspect of language. It involves the
following abilities:
 Identifying words and phrases in the stream of speech, by making sense of sound and
stress patterns despite speech phonological phenomena such as reduced vowel sounds,
elision, or assimilation
 Interpreting the use of stress and intonation to identify sense groups and words carrying
key information and the use of intonation in discourse management (turn-taking,
changing topic)

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 Interpreting the attitudinal or emotional significance of paralinguistic features (loudness,
speed, tone of voice)
b) Understanding
Understanding processing the meaning and information received in terms of:
 Using knowledge of grammar and vocabulary to interpret spoken sentences
 Predicting potential meaning from syntactical clues (word order) and morphological clues
(suffixes, prefixes)
 Retaining longer chunks of language in short term memory
 Interpreting reference and discourse markers to relate parts of discourse
 Using knowledge of the world and context to interpret what is being said
c) Responding
Listening to a message usually entails a response on the part of the listener, which can
involve:
- Following instructions;
- Completing a task (non-verbal, spoken, written);
- Participating in a conversation:
 showing attention and interest (Uh-huh/I see/ I’m sure she is/Really? Echo questions:
Does she?/Have you? );
 asking for clarification (Sorry?/Who did you say?/What was that again?/Sorry, I
didn’t quite catch that.);
 checking one’s understanding (Does that mean...?/So what You’re saying is.../So am I
right in saying...?
- Reproducing the text in speaking (repeating, retelling, summarising) or writing (notes,
dictation, summarising)
- Reacting to what has been said
d) Abilities of the proficient user
A proficient listener adapts his strategies to the context and text type, but also to his personal
purpose and interests. Apart from this, a native speaker or proficient user of a language has
the capacity to use the above sub-skills in operating a number of important distinctions
regarding context and content. In real life, a proficient listener will be able to:
 Identify the type of discourse (story, interview, etc.)
 Identify the topic of the discourse
 Distinguish between the main points and supporting details or irrelevancies

53
  Identify or infer the roles of speakers and the relationships between them
 Infer unspoken meaning
 Infer attitudes, intentions, emotions
These are also the abilities which a listening programme should be aimed at developing. In
order to achieve these aims, the teacher should employ materials and tasks which can train
the students to replicate the listening strategies used in real life listening.

3. PRINCIPLES AND STRATEGIES IN TEACHING LISTENING

In organising a listening activity based on recorded materials, the teacher will bear in mind
the following principles, which underlie the strategies and abilities involved in real life
listening:
a) Activating the students’ general knowledge of the topic
A proficient listener naturally uses his knowledge of the world and context to interpret what
is being said, as well as his previous knowledge of the topic in question, making associations
between known and new information. That is why we should start by a lead-in activity,
which means introducing the topic and getting students to thing and talk about it before the
actual listening.
b) Activating relevant topic vocabulary
In order to warm the students up to the listening activity, we should also pool together the
vocabulary they already know on the respective topic. The activities aimed at re-familiarising
the students with topic and vocabulary aid comprehension by alleviating the impact of any
new situation involving totally unknown information.
c) Encouraging students to predict likely content and vocabulary
Proficient listeners have the natural ability to predict what they are going to hear by
exploiting their previous knowledge of the context, topic, text type or speakers involved. We
should try to replicate this by having students to predict ideas or words likely to come up in
the material.
d) Setting tasks which give students a sense of reason and purpose
In real life listening, we always have a reason and a purpose to listen – we need the
information to do or learn something or to interact with others. In the classroom, the purpose
can only be replicated by setting a task to be done while listening. Even if we can generate
sufficient interest in and curiosity about topic and content, the task gives them a clear
purpose.

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 e) Providing guidelines and focus for listening
It is important to direct the students’ attention while listening so they may have an idea of
what to listen for. Setting guiding questions and tasks will help them focus on particular
items. To this effect, we should also encourage students to exploit the redundancy of spoken
English and to guess meaning from context.
f) Integration of skills
Listening activities do not usually appear as separate from other linguistic skills. They are
normally integrated with speaking, reading or writing activities, so classroom listening should
replicate the integration of skills characteristic of real life interaction.

4. STAGING IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES

Organising a classroom listening activity based on recorded materials should comprise three
important stages: pre-listening, while listening and post-listening. The tasks at each stage
are meant to train the particular sub-skills engaged in effective listening comprehension.

4.1. PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES

In real life, we hardly ever engage in listening to something without having any idea of what
we are going to hear. In other words, we never really engage in listening to something from a
completely ‘cold state’. We are able to make some predictions about content, topics or ideas,
based on our previous knowledge of the context, text (discourse) type, topic or speakers’
background. The pre-listening stage is meant to replicate these conditions by warming the
listeners up to the topic, activating their relevant general knowledge and encouraging them to
make predictions about what they will hear. Prediction tasks will also arouse interest and
curiosity, as the students will be eager to check if their predictions were true.
a) Introducing the topic
The lead-in phase will consist in introducing the topic to the students. It can be introduced by
means of a key word written on the board or visual materials – pictures, magazine
illustrations, etc. The teacher asks questions to get the students talking about the topic, about
any previous experience, knowledge, attitudes or preferences related to it.
b) Brainstorming ideas about the topic
The students can work in pairs or groups to brainstorm ideas related to the topic, which they
can share with other pairs and groups until a complete list is put on the board. The students
may be asked to predict which ideas or issues are most likely to come up in the listening text.

55
 c) Brainstorming vocabulary
The students are asked to say any words related to the topic and a class list is written on the
board. The students are asked to make predictions about which words are likely to occur in
the text.
d) Raising questions
Each student writes down what he already knows about the topic, what he does not know and
what he would like to know (in question form). The issues and questions will be written
under three headings: [I know] [I don’t know] [I’d like to know]. The activity is meant to
activate the students’ previous knowledge, to get them to connect old and new information
and formulate expectations about learning what interests them. It increases motivation as it
gets students to think of their own reasons for listening – to have their questions answered.

4.2. WHILE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES

These are tasks to be resolved while the students are listening to the material. To help
students listen effectively, the teacher will devise a listening task-sheet/worksheet for
students to work on. In constructing a good task-sheet, the teacher will make sure that:
- the reading or writing included in the tasks is kept to a minimum;
- the questions are should be short and clear, as, unless there is a second listening, the
students have no time to go over the text again, as in reading;
- the students are not required to write too much;
- the questions are answerable by ticking items or by one or two written words;
- there is a gradation of question difficulty – the first questions should check the
understanding of the main idea (gist) rather than specific information (details);
- the tasks include a variety of question types
- there is a grid (chart) completion task, which is good for practising note-taking skills
- the tasks practise the main listening strategies used in real life listening: listening for
gist (main idea or global understanding) or listening for specific (detailed)
information.
a) Checking predictions
If the students are encouraged to make predictions about the topic, ideas or vocabulary they
will hear, or to ask questions they want answers for, then the first activity while listening will
be directed on confirming predictions or expectations formulated. Students will simply tick
the items they hear.

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 b) Identifying topic/context/text type
If the topic, context or text type has not already been introduced at the pre-listening stage, the
first listening activity, requiring listening for gist, can be to identify one of the above items of
information. The exercise can involve a simple multiple choice exercise.
c) Multiple choice: topic/main ideas/details
The news item concerns:
sport politics books natural disaster
Jenny is in favour of:
holistic medicine homeopathy acupuncture classical medicine
What time did the accident take place?
12:00 12:15; 11:45; 12:30

d) True/False/Don’t know statements

T F DK
1. _________________
2. _________________
3. _________________
4. _________________

e) Ordering/numbering items: topic sections, ideas, sentences, key words or phrases

This activity can consist of two phases: the students will first number the above items in the
order they think is the most logical, then listen to the text to check their answers. The exercise
may be focused on either global or detailed comprehension.
f) Multiple matching/Matching items: sentence to topic/subtopic, sentence to
picture, halves of sentences, topic/statement/idea to speaker
The activity can also be organised in two steps: the students do the matching exercise before
they listen to the text and then check answers. It can be used both for both listening strategies.
g) Grid completion/Information transfer
Completing a grid with different headings is a useful exercise in note-taking and
systematising information. Its scope goes beyond training listening skills since it also helps in
developing study skills. As it may require more writing, the students will need to listen to the
text more than once.

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 Name Age Job Interests
Nick taxi
driver
Tom 22
Ann Dancing, swimming

h) Open-ended questions with one/two-word answers

Open-ended questions requiring short or key-word answers can also be used to check detailed
comprehension. E.g. What time did the accident happen?/Where was the film shot?
i) Gap-fill
Gap-filling is the most difficult exercise for students to do, as it requires an accurate
understanding of individual words. That is why this can be done only after the students have
listened to the text at least once and become quite familiar with it. E.g.: Mir’s mission was to
provide Russian cosmonauts with a ________.

4.3. POST-LISTENING ACTIVITIES

Post-listening activities are meant as a follow-up to the listening tasks. They naturally lead to
the use of other skills, which constitutes a good opportunity for integrating skills. The
activities elicit student response, evaluation and personalisation regarding the issues and
information in the text. They are usually speaking activities in the form of pair, group or
whole class discussions or debates on the topic of the listening material.
Written activities such as various letter types, reports, proposals or opinion essays can
also constitute a follow-up to the listening text. Written tasks may involve role playing, i.e.
writing a letter to the editor or an article from the point of view of an ecologically-minded
person, a proposal for saving an endangered natural area, a leaflet popularising a public
interest event, etc.
The general principle underlying the organisation and staging of a listening activity is
that the listening material should function as a springboard for integrated-skills
communicative activities.

5. TEACHER DESIGNED ACTIVITIES (USING THE TEACHER’S VOICE)

The teacher’s spoken English provides the first listening material students experience and get
accustomed to listening to on an everyday basis. Listening to the teacher’s voice can be less

58
threatening than listening to a recorded material, as it is a familiar voice and accent, usually
offering comprehensible input at a reasonable speed, which makes the students feel more at
ease and more confident in their ability to understand what is being said. Besides, the teacher
can always help students to comprehend new information by talking more slowly or using
facial expression and gestures.
That is why, especially with lower levels, the teacher should design and use regular,
motivating, comprehensible and low-stress listening activities, aimed at training the students’
listening skills in a more comfortable, interactive and mutually rewarding atmosphere. This is
more learner-friendly than a recording, since it ensures greater comprehensibility due to the
constant interaction with and monitoring from the teacher, through eye-contact and gesture.
These activities also promote whole class participation and involvement as they require
physical or written responses from all students. This may also help in boosting the students’
self-confidence, even for weaker students.
a) Command drills for Total Physical Response (whole class TPR)
The activity can be played as the traditional game ‘Simon says’, which consists of commands
eliciting physical action/ response. The commands can be adapted to the practice of certain
vocabulary, parts of speech or structures:
- Verbs/phrasal verbs: touch, point to, show, go to, open/close, pick up/put down, put
into/take out, get out/put away, turn over, turn to
- Prepositions of place: (put objects) in/on/under/above/between
- Nouns: parts of the body, clothes, classroom objects, students’ things (look at, point
to, show)
- Adjectives indicating shapes, colours, material, physical appearance
- Structures: Point to the biggest object in the room/someone who/someone + present
participle; When I...do (action); If you..., then...If not, ...
b) Spelling dictation
It is a very useful activity for practising both the English alphabet and word-spelling. The
teacher spells out words which the students write down.
c) Number dictation
This activity gives students practice with numerals, which is always a problematic area with
many students. It may consist in:
- Reading out numbers which the students write in numerals.
- Mental arithmetic prompts. Students write down in numerals and calculate sums,
subtractions, multiplications or divisions based on the teacher’s prompts.

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 - Finding pages/paragraphs/lines in the textbook. The task may include writing down
the first/last word in the respective section.
- True/False statements containing numbers or geographical/historical facts involving
numbers. The teacher reads one statement at a time and the students mark it as T/F.
d) Dictation of times/dates/phone numbers/quantities
- Times: the teacher reads out the time in traditional form, the students write it in digital
form. The students change the format from 24-hour clock or vice versa. Another
activity can involve marking as T/F statements involving times or timetables.
- Dates: the students transcribe in numerical form the dates the teacher says in
traditional form. The students mark as T/F statements involving dates – birthday,
holidays, events, etc.
- Quantities: the students write in numbers the quantities they hear the teacher say.
e) Structure-focused True/False statements
The activity is intended or the receptive practice of specific language items. The teacher reads
out sentences containing a particular structure, relating to a classroom situation/text/
picture/general knowledge facts. The students listen and write T/F.
f) Filling charts/tables
The activity is intended to practise a particular structural or lexical area. The charts can
contain facts about countries (location/population/product); people (names,
likes/dislikes/daily routines/sports/hobbies); animals (area/habitat/food). The reads out
sentences and the students enter the information in the chart by ticking a box/item or entering
a key-word or number.
g) Family-tree dictation
Students are given a family tree with blank name boxes. The teacher uses a completed family
tree to make sentences describing the family relationships. The students listen and enter the
names in the blanks.
h) Picture transfer
The teacher can describe a simple drawing to the class while students draw what they hear.
As a feedback to the students’ drawings, the instructions are repeated, while two or three
students draw on the board. The activity can be used for physical appearance, street maps,
room layout, for practice with various adjectives, prepositions of place, etc.
i) Picture guessing
The teacher describes a picture or item among three or more similar pictures and items:
people, buildings, rooms, landscapes, places, animals or objects. The students have to identify

60
the picture or item described. As a variation without pictures, the teacher describes a student
in the class, a place in town, a famous place or person, or a person everyone knows.
j) Picture-focused True/False statements
The students are looking at a picture. The teacher describes the picture, including false
statements. It can be done as a TPR exercise – for instance, the students are instructed to raise
a hand whenever they hear a false statement.
k) Map transfer
The activity can be based on a wall map or a map in the textbook. The teacher describes the
geographical location/shape/neighbours of a country. The students have to identify the
country and write its name. Similarly, the students can be asked to identify cities, from the
descriptions of their positions.
l) Following directions on a street plan
The teacher can use a pre-drawn wall-chart or a street plan in the textbook. The teacher sets a
starting point on the plan, gives a series of directions and ends by asking the students ‘Where
are you?’ The students write down the answer. The teacher repeats the instructions before
checking answers.
m) Story-telling
Listening to stories works extremely well with young learners, so stories are likely to provide
an excellent context for a purposeful listening activity. It can be integrated with speaking
activities if the teacher pauses to get students anticipate what follows next or how the story
will end.
n) Riddles
Riddles are popular with young learners (and not only) as they imply a kind of competitive
guessing. They make for an engaging listening activity with a focus on mental reasoning and
interpretation of metaphorical word meaning.
o) General knowledge quizzes
The students are given quiz on a particular subject: countries, capital cities, people, places,
objects, historical events, sports people, cinema, music, writers or books. The students write
one-word answers. A variation may be done with T/F statements on a general knowledge
topic: food, health, good manners, shops and goods, jobs and workplaces, products and
materials/fabrication processes, national or international bodies and their activities

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 Chapter 5
DEVELOPING READING SKILLS

Reading is a receptive skill which, like listening, presupposes language comprehension rather
than production. Understanding the content of a written text means interpreting each of its
constitutive components: information (integrating the old with the new), structure
(comprehending sentence/text grammar), lexis (recognising letters/words, guessing meaning)
text organisation (interpreting the use of paragraphing and linking devices for text cohesion
and coherence) and context (assigning the text to a text type).
These are the implicit reader operations/tasks underlying text comprehension, which
means that a fluent reader interacts with the text at several levels, contributing meaning to the
text on the basis of previous experience. Therefore classroom procedures and tasks should
reflect the purposeful, task-based, interactive nature of real life reading and exercise types
should, as far as possible, approximate to cognitive reality. This refers to the cognitive
experience which the reader inherently brings to a text. The aspects of previous experience
involved in efficient reading are the following:
a) Knowledge of the language
For classroom reading, this pre-requisite is provided by the suitability of the text to the
students’ level of language. Both very easy and very difficult texts can raise problems, as the
challenge will be too low or two high. A text should provide a fair amount of challenge
without being forbidding. That is why the reading programme should closely parallel the
students’ linguistic competence, since growth in language ability is an essential part of the
development of the reading skill.
b) Interest and/or motivation
We normally read for two main reasons (or a combination of both) – information and
pleasure. Whatever the reason, we read because we are interested in a certain topic or have a
certain motivation, related to study/professional/personal purposes – passing an exam, writing
an essay/study/thesis, gaining personal or professional knowledge, pursuing a hobby or a
pleasant pastime. In the classroom, this can be realised by selecting interesting texts, relevant
for the students’ age, language level and interests, as well as by devising inciting pre-reading
activities, aimed at arousing interest and curiosity.

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 c) Knowledge of the world
We never approach a text without referring it to our previous experience of the domain, topic,
author, culture or context. Thus any new information is integrated with our previous
knowledge of the world, by which we contribute meaning to the text. In class, the pre-reading
stage should exploit and activate the students’ relevant knowledge.
d) Knowledge of culture
In our first language, comprehension is aided by our knowledge of our culture and everyday
reality. With authentic texts, which are inherently culture-bound, the cultural gap may impede
the comprehension of certain issues, details, references, names, jokes, anecdotes. It is the
teacher’s task to provide the necessary background information so as to alleviate cultural
incomprehension.
e) Knowledge of text types
Our knowledge of the world and culture also help us assign a text to a category/text type –
newspaper/magazine article, letter, diary, essay, short-story, novel, scientific book. A
classroom reading programme should acquaint students with a variety or text types in the
foreign language.

STAGING IN INTENSIVE READING ACTIVITIES

As opposed to real life or extensive reading, classroom reading in a foreign language, also
called intensive reading, involves tasks aimed at developing the students’ comprehension
skills and reading strategies. Even if the tasks are designed to simulate or replicate the
principles and strategies underlying real reading, they will still retain their didactic character
of teaching/learning techniques, inherently intensive in terms of procedure and conditions. A
classroom reading activity sequence should comprise three important stages: pre-reading,
while-reading and post-reading. The tasks at each stage are meant to reflect the interactive
aspects and operations at work in everyday reading and to train the particular sub-skills
engaged in effective reading comprehension.

1. PRE-READING ACTIVITIES
In real life, we hardly ever engage with a reading text with an empty mind – we always have
some idea of what we are going to read about. We are able to make some predictions about
content, topics or ideas, based on our previous knowledge of the context, text (discourse)
type, topic, background (temporal/spatial setting). The pre-reading stage is meant to replicate
these conditions by warming the students up to the topic, activating their relevant general

63
knowledge and encouraging them to make predictions about what they will read/learn about.
Prediction tasks will also arouse interest and curiosity, as the students will be eager to check
if their predictions were true.
a) Predicting/anticipating topic/content from para-textual features (title, picture,
illustrations, front cover)
The lead-in phase will consist in involving the students in making predictions about what
they are going to read, on the basis of the para-textual features which a fluent reader uses to
anticipate content – titles, headline, headings, pictures, illustrations, front-page or cover. The
teacher asks the students to use one or several of the above features to speculate about the
likely content of the text. The students are encouraged to talk about the anticipated topic or
ideas and about any relevant previous experience, knowledge, attitudes or preferences. E.g.:
What information would you expect to find in the following reading text?
 A newspaper article with the headline Plane Crashes in the Andes
 A chapter in a popular science book called Comets
 A romantic story called I’m Lost which begins: I know I haven’t spoken for a
while, but I was thinking about you and it kind of made me smile. So many
things to say, and I’ll put them in a letter...
As shown above, predictions can be made from a first sentence/paragraph. Alternatively, the
students can be asked to make predictions from a number of words taken out from the text.
b) Brainstorming/predicting ideas on the topic
The students will answer such questions as: ‘What would you like to know about the
text?/What do you already know about the subject of the text?’ They can work in pairs or
groups to brainstorm ideas based on their previous knowledge of the topic, which they can
share with other pairs and groups until a complete list is put on the board. The students may
be asked to predict which ideas or issues are most likely to come up in the text.
c) Raising questions/expectations
This is an interest-raising task, meant to increase the students’ motivation to read the text.
The underlying principle is that we normally read because there is something we want to find
out, some information we want to check or clarify or some opinion we want to match against
our own. If in the above brainstorming activity the students are asked to write down what
they already know about the topic, this time they are required to think about what they would
like to know and to write down any questions which they would like answered. The questions
may be based on a given title, a suggestive picture illustration, a first sentence or paragraph, a

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set of key words. The activity is meant to activate the students’ previous knowledge, to get
them to connect old and new information and formulate expectations about learning what
interests them. It increases motivation as it gets students to personalise their reasons for
reading – to have their own questions answered.
d) Anticipating topic vocabulary – vocabulary pre-teaching/post-teaching
considerations
A reader usually uses his previous knowledge of the topic to anticipate lexical content.
Students should be involved in brainstorming and activating the words they know about the
topic and compile a common list of words which they think might come up in the text. While
reading, they can be asked to check their vocabulary predictions. If the teacher thinks the text
contains words likely to hinder comprehension, he/she may choose to pre-teach them or ask
students to look them up in the dictionary. If not, it would be preferable to postpone working
with words until the post-reading stage, which will be more productive, as it gives students
the chance to deal with new words in a more natural and interactive way, that is to guess their
meaning from context.

2. WHILE-READING ACTIVITIES
At the while-reading stage of a reading lesson, the primary activity should consist in learners
reading texts silently and doing comprehension tasks set by the teacher. While the students
are reading, the teacher should keep a low profile and allow students to explore the text in
silence, without unnecessary interruptions. If the students work on reading task-sheet, the
class feedback session can be done at the end of each activity or, preferably, at the end of the
lesson.
Reading comprehension tasks should be aimed at training the two important reading
strategies and sub-skills: skimming (identifying the main idea or gist of a text) and
scanning (focussing on specific information/details in a text). During a reading lesson, it is
desirable that students should have both skimming and scanning exercises.

2.1. SKIMMING TASKS

Skimming (through) a text means reading quickly or perusing the text for the main idea/gist,
without reading word by word or sentence by sentence. It is the strategy we normally use for
global comprehension or getting a general idea of a text or book. It involves speed-reading,
i.e. browsing/leafing through pages or looking over a text to get the main idea in the shortest
time possible. That is why skimming activities should always be done within a set time-limit,

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with the teacher specifying the allocated time from the beginning and timing the students’
reading. The time limit should be carefully thought out – it should be short to encourage
speed, but realistic in terms of task complexity, as too short a time frame may frustrate
students who haven’t been able to finish the task. Matching a title to an article can take two
minutes, while ordering jumbled paragraphs may take 10 minutes.
a) Matching titles/headlines/headings/topic sentences to text/paragraphs
These activities can be done with several texts/excerpts or on a single text. With several texts,
the students can be asked to match 3-4 headlines/summaries with the corresponding news
items, or some titles/summaries with texts of different types. On a single text, the students
can do a multiple matching exercise based on a number of headings or summary statements
to be matched with the corresponding sections or paragraphs in the text. A variation can be
offering a text in which the topic sentences of the paragraphs have been erased, and the
jumbled topic sentences which the students have to match to the corresponding paragraph.
b) Identifying the topic (of a text or paragraph)
This is a variation of the above activity, requiring the skimming of a text or paragraph to
identify the topic. The students will state the topic themselves or can answer a multiple
choice question. They should also be taught to exploit the role of the topic sentence in a
paragraph.
c) Summarising the gist of a text/paragraph (by a title/heading/sentence)
Students are required to skim a text or paragraph and suggest a title, heading or sentence
which best summarises its main idea.
d) Ordering jumbled paragraphs
The students are given cut-outs containing the paragraphs of a text. In pairs or groups,
students have to put them in the right order within a relatively short time limit. The students
will have to take into account the logical sequence/coherence of the paragraphs, as well as the
linking words or topic sentences which can provide clues as to what may come before or after
each paragraph. The groups report their results and explain the ordering clues they have used.
e) Jigsaw reading
A variation on the above activity can take the form of a jigsaw reading, where each student
in a group is given a different paragraph. The one who thinks is the first will tell the others a
summary of his/her paragraph, and each of them will do the same when they consider they
come next. At the end they put their paragraphs together and check results. The activity
integrates reading with listening and speaking.

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 f) Comprehension/open-ended questions
Comprehension questions can be aimed at checking general comprehension if they are
focused on important areas of meaning rather than on details. They help guide the students’
reading of the text – good questions should focus their attention on the main points and lead
them to think about the meaning of the text. E.g.: What is the writer’s main argument against
zoos? Do you agree with it?

2.2. SCANNING TASKS

Such tasks are aimed at training the students to scan the text for bits of specific information.
Scanning strategies also presuppose speed-reading, so the teacher should set time limits for
any such exercises. Scanning activities can be applied to any kind of text or to more
specialised texts. To replicate the real life contexts in which we use this reading strategy to
focus on the information we need, we should illustrate them by special purpose texts such as
transport timetables, TV guides, tourist brochures, travel information guides/leaflets, user’s
manuals, menus, directories, etc.
a) Yes/No questions/ True/false statements
This is a quite simple and common exercise, extremely useful for scanning activities, as it
focuses the students’ attention to items of specific information. It can also be organised as a
reading competition, whose winner is the first to answer the questions correctly.
b) Special/Wh-questions
Special questions provide students with both a purpose and a clear focus while reading. The
expected answers can be shorter or longer, depending on the complexity of the response
required. If used with systematised informative texts such as timetables, TV or tourist guides,
this exercise also lends itself to a competition, with the winner being the first one to find the
answers.
E.g.: What film is on Channel 4 on at 8 pm on Monday?/What time is the Docklands Museum
open at weekends? What is the entrance fee?
c) Detailed comprehension questions
Comprehension questions are, more often than not, the most commonly widespread exercise
for checking detailed comprehension and focusing the students’ attention on particular items
of information. They show the teacher and the students themselves how well they have
understood the text, and what needs to be more fully explained.

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 d) Inference questions
Inference questions are meant to get the students probe into the meaning of the text at a
deeper level and infer or ‘guess at’ potential shades of meaning not explicitly expressed, but
rather suggested by the text. In other words, inference can be defined by reading between the
lines for meaning, ideas, attitudes, stances, motivations, moods or feelings which are only
obliquely or indirectly touched upon or understated. Inference questions also train the
students’ ability of identifying the writer’s purpose and tone. E.g.: Why do you think the girl
decided not to leave home after all?/Why does the story begin with a pre-view of the ending
scene? What is the role of the long enumeration in paragraph 3?
e) Information transfer (grid completion)
The students are given a grid/table with different headings referring to specific items of
information. They have to complete the table with brief notes of the relevant information
required by each heading – that is to ‘transfer information’ to a different kind of format. The
main purpose of completing the table is to help focus the students’ attention on the main
points of a text, and make it easier for them to organise the information in their minds.
Besides, by giving students’ practice in note-taking, the activity helps them to develop
efficient note-taking skills and systematise information in a concise manner – which is very
important for their study skills. For example, if working on a text concerning a personality
profile, the headings may be: Hometown, Family, Education, First job, First film/Hollywood
success/Oscar nomination/award, Home, Marriage and children, Earnings, Charity causes,
etc.
f) Reading race/competitions
Bringing an element of fun to a reading activity is a worthwhile variation, as it helps build
both motivation and confidence. Competitive activities may be concerned with either
skimming or scanning skills. Arranging jumbled paragraphs/sentences can be used for
skimming, while scanning activities, as already illustrated above, may involve finding
answers to a number of questions within a certain time limit, filling in gaps with the missing
phrases from a list. The activities can be played individually or in groups.

2.3. EXPLORING TEXT ORGANISATION

Text organisation constitutes an aid to comprehension in itself, therefore students should be
taught to exploit the logical, rhetorical and linguistic devices which hold a text together and
help clarify meaning. Apart from facilitating comprehension, exercises which draw attention
to text organisation features are essential in helping students with their own writing, as it is

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commonly known that good readers usually make good writers. Consequently, such
awareness-raising activities have a much wider scope, in that they are training reading sub-
skills and strategies which, implicitly and naturally lead into writing.
a) Examining text organisation elements
To begin with, thinking of text organisation features help consolidate the students’
knowledge of text types. Assigning the text to a type means an awareness of defining
organisational features, which we use in distinguishing between letters, articles,
argumentative essays, literary or scientific texts. Engaging students in evaluating paragraph
sequencing and the relationship between the different parts/sections of a text can be done
through any skimming exercise which requires multiple matching (main ideas and
paragraphs), identifying the topic or gist of each paragraph or ordering jumbled paragraphs.
After identifying the main topic and paragraph divisions of a text, students can be asked to
complete a diagram illustrating the format/plan/outline of the text, which they can use as a
model for their own writing assignments. For example, a text descriptive essay model for
describing people can be represented as follows.

Introduction Physical Character/ Final

How you met appearance/ Personality comments/pre
Clothes sent feelings
How you met now
Introduction
How you met
Students can also be involved in examining paragraph construction, which also teaches them
how to write a good paragraph themselves. They can examine the way in which the main idea
and supporting details are organised within a paragraph by analysing the role/function of each
sentence – the topic sentence and supporting statements. E.g.: Decide how the other sentences
in paragraph 2 expand the information given in the topic/key sentence. Does any of them: a)
give examples? b) give a further explanation? c) give a judgement? d) do a mixture of the
above? e) do something else?
b) Text coherence
Text coherence concerns the logical connection and arrangement between ideas, paragraphs
or sentences in a text and the use of discourse markers (sentence adverbs or adverbial
phrases signalling order and sequence, additional new points, contrasting points, etc.) in
ensuring the logical flow of ideas. Activities focused on coherence can involve identifying a
paragraph or sentence which does not belong in the text, ordering jumbled sentences,
deciding the order of 3-4 expressions taken out of the text or examining the functions of the
linking phrases or discourse markers mentioned above.

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 c) Text cohesion
Text cohesion concerns the syntactic and lexical mechanisms which hold the text together or
make it cohere at discrete level – how ideas and sentences are joined or related to each other.
Activities may involve identifying and analysing the use of the cohesive devices within a
sentence or paragraph – linkers, conjunctions, demonstrative pronouns, articles, anaphoric
reference (backwards, to a previous element) or cataphoric reference (forwards, to a
subsequent element) references. E.g.: What does ‘it’/’this’/‘that’/‘do so’ in line 25 refer to?

3. POST-READING ACTIVITIES
Post-reading activities usually deal with the students’ reactions to the text. They encourage
students to comment on ideas, agree/disagree with issues, share opinions and impressions
about what they have read, make value judgements, assess experiences, etc. They also
promote the integration of reading with other skills (speaking, listening, writing), since, as it
happens in real life, reading is often a pre-text for talking or writing.
a) Evaluation and response
A reader usually evaluates and reacts to a text in various ways – discussing with others,
exchanging opinions, agreeing, disagreeing, arguing in favour or against points in the text,
writing/doing something in response, changing certain habits or behaviours, etc. Students can
be asked to react in a quite simple, yet telling manner:
E.g.: Read/say aloud the sentence in the text which:
- you like best
- you most agree/disagree with
- you will tell your parents/friends about
- impressed you the most
- set you thinking/gave you food for thought
- changed your perspective on the matter
- made you want to do/change something

b) Discussions, debates
These are more ample activities regarding the reactions mentioned about, in which students
can discuss in pairs or groups certain issues related to the text. They may be asked to
interpret/explain certain facts or ideas/comment on situations and people/find solutions to
problems presented/think or speculate on of causes and effects/plan a course of action, etc.

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 c) Jigsaw reading

This is an approach to reading which involves the students in speaking and summarising
skills. It is very useful when working with short authentic texts such as newspaper articles.
Jigsaw reading is a great way to introduce speaking into a reading lesson. It provides a real
opportunity for genuine communication. In real life, we may tell people about a news article
we have read, so this is a classroom activity that is fairly authentic. Jigsaw reading can be
done in two ways:
i. Two separate stories
We can use two news stories which share a theme – for example two separate stories on
holidays gone wrong. The teacher prepares comprehension questions for each story and gives
one half of the class (Group A) one story, and the other half (Group B) the other. The
students read their article, answer the questions and check understanding. Students then pair
up with someone from the other group and tell them about their story, and listen to the other
one. To help students remember their story we may get them to take notes, but, in order to
keep the challenge, we should not allow them to take the article with them to refer to.
ii. One story split in two
Some stories can be clearly divided in two. We can follow the same procedure as above, but
giving each group only one half of the story. When the students are recounting their half of
the article, we should make sure that the student with the opening half goes first. The activity
integrates reading with listening and speaking.

d) Role-play
Role-play activities can be used with texts focused on people – personality profiles,
biographies, historical documents, outstanding people’s achievements, or with literary
characters. Assuming the role of certain characters in the reading, students can ask/answer
questions and speculate on the motives or reasons of their actions, the nature of their
experiences, etc.
e) Imaginary interviews
The students, acting as themselves this time, are asked to write interview questions they
would like to ask a person they have read about in a reading text. They can also be
encouraged to imagine the potential answers or can interview other students who will play the
part of the imaginary interviewee.

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 f) Written response activities
Reading activities should also be used as a springboard for writing activities. Students are
asked to respond in writing to issues they have read about. For instance, they can write letters
(to the editor, complaint, enquiry), reports, proposals, leaflets, manifestoes, articles, etc. They
can write as themselves or, especially with human interest stories or literary texts, which lend
themselves to role-playing, they can assume the role of a character, writing a letter or a diary
entry from his/her perspective. Other challenging tasks may be writing a continuation to a
story or a different ending.
g) Vocabulary building tasks
Reading texts are usually a rich source of new vocabulary, therefore they should be used for
vocabulary expansion. Providing the new words do not hinder comprehension, it is usually
worthwhile postponing vocabulary matters to the post-reading stage, telling students not to
worry about the words they don’t know. This helps prepare students psychologically to deal
with unknown vocabulary and accustoms them to guessing meaning from context.
Consequently, post-reading vocabulary tasks should be based on discovery and inference
techniques: matching words/phrases with definitions; multiple choice
definitions/explanations; finding synonyms/antonyms for words given by the teacher; using
the words in sentences of their own, writing a text using the new words.

4. USING LITERARY TEXTS

Literature is an inexhaustible source of interesting, motivational and instructive texts, so
literary texts should also figure in a balanced reading programme. Of course, sources should
be well-adapted to the learner’s age, interests and language level. There is a wide variety of
children’s books the teacher can use, from classical to contemporary storybooks such as those
of Roald Dahl or J.K. Rawling, for instance. Teenage literature is also well-represented, a
good example being Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole books (The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole,
Aged 13¾, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, etc.). Literary texts provide learners with
situations and characters they may identify with, or with flights of fancy which can develop
their imagination, creativity and linguistic ability. The texts can be exploited from many
different perspectives and using various strategies. They may also offer an incentive for more
ambitious projects such as dramatisations or script-writing and, why not, even short amateur
films. What is more important, however, is the potential of a well-chosen literary text to whet
the students’ appetite for reading literature outside the classroom, which would be a
tremendous gain for all those concerned.

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 5. ENCOURAGING EXTENSIVE READING
Motivating students to read extensively outside the classroom should be the envisioned
corollary of any reading programme. Well-conducted intensive reading activities have their
role in increasing motivation for reading, but they should be supplemented by class activities
specially targeted at extensive reading. Some recommended strategies are presented below.
a) Using readers
The numerous graded readers available on the market, adapted for different language levels,
provide a good source of reading materials. There are also packages of teaching resources
specially designed for activities based on the use of readers in and out of class. The teacher
should of course have access to a reasonable number of readers which can be circulated
among the students. Setting up a class library can be a positive move, as the very visibility
of available books will help in raising reading interests, especially if all tastes are catered for,
in terms of a variety of topics and genres.
b) Let me recommend...
As in real life, the books we liked should be talked about, commented, recommended and
passed around. Therefore the teacher should organise regular sessions in which individual
students report on their writing and recommend a book to their peers. The teacher can provide
the students with a simple format for a book review, containing such headings as: Title,
Author, Plot, Characters, Why I liked it.
c) Book of the month corner
Students should be encouraged to enter the titles they liked on a list available on a wall
display/class notice-board. Any student who read the same book can write a mark (1to5) and
a short comment on a certain book card (see Harmer, 212). At the end of the school year, the
students can compile the ‘Book hit-list’ with the books ranking highest in their preferences.
Whatever strategies and activities we may devise to encourage our students to read
widely, they should highlight the value of reading as a pleasurable, rewarding and enriching
pastime which benefits them in the long run, both personally and socially.

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 Chapter 6
DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILLS

Speaking and writing skills belong to the category of productive skills, as they require
learners to produce language input, oral or written. Of course, we can talk about learner
language production only with reference to free practice, communicative activities, based
entirely or at least to a large extent on student input.
Needless to say, productive skills are more difficult to develop than comprehension
skills, and require more time and effort on the part of both teacher and learners. With
speaking and writing, progress is often slow and not so readily evident or so accurately
measurable. Building fluency takes time and requires patience, sustained effort, plenty of
confidence-building activities, as well as constant encouragement and positive feedback from
the teacher.
As in the other areas of language and skills practice, speaking practice includes
controlled, semi-controlled and free practice activities, in which teacher or student control
over language depends on language proficiency level, activity focus and type
(accuracy/fluency). As various types of more or less controlled speaking activities have
already been illustrated in the previous chapters, this chapter will focus on free speaking,
interactive, fluency building activities, aimed at developing oral communication skills.
A balanced general English course should include activities illustrating the variety of
text types found in everyday communication, which can be categorised as follows:
a) Social/Personal: Small talk and social chat; Personal conversation; Anecdotes and
jokes
b) Everyday transactional/informational: Service encounters (shop, bank, healthcare);
Transactional conversations (instructions, explanations, directions, descriptions,
arrangements); Discussions (planning and problem-solving); Meetings
c) Educational/Professional/Specialised: Lessons; Lectures and seminars; Reports and
presentations; Speeches; Interviews and consultations; Discussions and debates; Plays
and sketches
A well-balanced speaking programme should include all activities from sections a, b, though
some text types in section c can very well be used for free speaking activities.

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 1. MAIN PRINCIPLES IN SETTING UP FREE-SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

a) Motivation
Raising motivation is essential for the success of a speaking activity. This can be realised
through selecting interesting topics, suited for the students’ age and interests. The students
also need to be warmed-up to the topic by lead-in questions, examples and queries which
help generate interest. We should also give the activity a clear purpose, which can be created
by giving the students a task to solve, involving a clear outcome, result, solution or agreement
which they are supposed to reach at the end of the activity.
b) Class layout and seating arrangements
We should make sure that the class layout is suitable for the activity. Appropriate seating
arrangements will be made for group-work (problem solving), pair-work (face to face for
information gap/back to back for phone conversations) or whole class discussion (circle).
c) Planning
The procedure and organisation for the activity should be carefully thought out by the teacher
before class: activity sequence and timing, necessary materials (visuals, handouts, crayons,
poster sheets, etc.).
d) Preparation time
In order to help the students perform the activity in good conditions, we should allow them
enough time for preparation – brainstorming, working out ideas and opinions, thinking about
useful language. Many activities are unsuccessful because the students are not given time to
think things through. Group-work activities, in particular, require adequate preparation for
the task.
e) Useful structures and vocabulary
The teacher has to make sure that the students are equipped with the appropriate structures
and vocabulary they need to use. We should check/revise/pre-teach any useful vocabulary or
structures we think necessary.
f) Clear instructions and demonstration
We should always make sure that the students have understood our instructions and know
exactly what to do. To this effect, we can ask a student to repeat the instructions. Better still,
we should give a short demonstration of what they have to do or what language to use during
the activity.

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 g) Timing
We should not let the activity go on for too long, so that students will not be left to linger
unnecessarily, lose interest or even switch off. We should also leave sufficient time for
reporting, feedback and correction.
h) Correction
During pair-work or group-work speaking activities, the teacher should try to keep a low
profile and not interrupt students or interfere with their work unless something goes wrong or
communication breaks down. The best way of dealing with errors occurring during a
speaking activity is delayed correction, i.e. after the activity – we can take notes of any
language or interaction mistakes we hear and bring them to the students’ attention at the end.
i) Integration with other skills
Speaking activities can and should always be integrated with other skills. They are often used
as part of a listening, reading or writing sequence, or as free language practice for reinforcing
grammar or vocabulary. A speaking activity should be used as a lead-in to more discussion or
to a writing/reading/listening task.

2. COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

Communicative activities for free oral practice commonly presuppose pair work and group
work. In order to motivate students to work together in pairs/groups, the activities have to be
task-based – if students know what they have to achieve, they will have a purpose to work
towards, i.e. solving the task. Basically, the most common communicative activities are of
four main types – Information Gap, Guessing games, Problem Solving and Role Play –
but the range is in fact much wider, with mixed kinds of tasks. The most productive speaking
activities for free oral communication are described below.

2.1. INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES (Info-gap)

Usually suitable for pair work, but also for group work, these activities are based on an
information gap, i.e. the students have different information which they have to share in order
to fulfil the given task. In other words, the need to exchange information provides the need to
communicate, usually by means of question and answer patterns of interaction. In an
information gap activity, each student working in a pair (A and B) is given a handout
containing information his/her partner does not have. The task varies depending on the
language or topic focus of the activity. Most often, they have to exchange information in
order to reach a decision, an agreement, a conclusion, a certain result (filling in a chart) or to

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create something (a map, a drawing, a description, an object/handicraft item). As they are not
supposed to see each other’s information, the best seating arrangement for the pair is face-to-
face. Possible tasks may include:
 Agreeing on a common plan/action.
Students are asked to agree on a time to meet, a place to go together, a course of action to
take or choice to make, by working with handouts containing different information.
 Achieving a result
The handouts may also contain incomplete texts, tables, diagrams, or pictures, so students
have to exchange information by asking and answering questions, as they depend on which
other to complete their items.
a) Pictures with differences
The students are given quite similar pictures containing a number of differences
(number/colour of objects, different people/animals/furniture/street/position in space). They
are told there are 10 differences, for example. To fulfil the task, they take turns to ask and
answer questions, paying attention to and recording the differences they identify.
b) Chart completion
The students are given charts with different missing information. To complete them, they
have to ask their partners, who have the information they need.
c) Map completion
The students are given handouts with the map of a street, village, town, zoo, store, etc. Each
student has elements the other has not, so they have to ask and answer questions in order to
complete their maps with the missing items put in the right place.
d) Drawing instructions
The students are given handouts with different shapes/objects/places/people/animals. The
task requires that each of them draws the picture on their partner’s handout by listening to
each other’s descriptions and instructions. Without handouts, the task can be that each of
them describes his/her room so that their partner can draw a plan of the room.

2.2. GUESSING GAMES

Guessing games are communicative activities roughly based on the information gap principle,
involving the interaction between a ‘knower’ and a ‘guesser’. The guessers will ask Yes/No-
questions until they guess what the knower is miming or thinking about.

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 a) Guessing games: 20 Qs
This is a popular game. It can be played either in pairs or with the whole class. In a pair, the
partners take turns as ‘knower’ and ‘guesser’. Each thinks of an activity, person, job, animal,
country, continent, place, etc. They try to guess what the other is thinking of by asking
relevant Yes/No questions (up to 20) focused on structures and topics fit to the context. With
the whole class, one student is the knower, answering the questions asked by his peers.
b) Mime/Charades
This is another type of entertaining guessing game, also used for amusement at social get-
togethers. The knower has to mime the concept he/she has in mind, nodding or shaking his
head in response to the others’ questions.
c) In the manner of the adverb
This is a mime in which the focus is on guessing the manner in which a certain action is
performed. A student is secretly instructed by the teacher to do an action in a certain manner,
e.g. to make coffee angrily. The class will ask questions using adverbs of manner.
d) Hotel reception
This is another mime variation which can be played in pairs, with one student acting as a
guest at a hotel and the other as a receptionist. The guest mimes a problem with the service or
accommodation which the receptionist has to guess.
e) Names on the back
The teacher sticks ‘name cards’ on the students’ backs. The cards can bear the name of a
famous person (historical figure, politician, writer, music or film star, literary character) or,
alternatively, the name of an animal. Students will ask and answer questions so as to help
each other guess their mysterious identity.
f) Call my bluff
Either in front of the class or in pairs, students will tell their peers a story or anecdote, real or
invented. Alternatively, they can tell two stories, while the others have to decide in which the
teller speaks the truth and in which he/she is merely bluffing.
g) Find someone who
The activity begins with a matching exercise, with two separate lists of items to be matched
so as to obtain adjective + noun collocations, e.g. light sleeper, heavy smoker, close friend.
After checking the correct combinations, the students move round the class to find someone
who: is a light sleeper, have a heavy smoker in their family, has a close friend of a different
nationality, has had a serious illness, etc.

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 h) Information gathering: questionnaires/surveys
Students are asked to gather information about their classmates by devising a questionnaire
on various topics: hobbies, pastimes, sports, holidays, eating/reading habits, likes/dislikes,
etc. They have to go around the class asking questions and recording answers on their report
sheet. At the end the students process the data collected and present their findings under the
form of pie-charts, stack columns, graphs or diagrams.
i) Interviews
The students interview each other on a given topic: future plans/career/holidays, past
experiences, family, relationships, friends, study or pastime preferences, etc. At the end each
student produces an oral or written account of the interview. The interviewers/interviewees
can act as themselves or play the role of other people (family members, friends – an exercise
in empathy!), of celebrities or even animals, which really appeals to their empathic
imagination.
j) Quizzes
Quizzes can be organized as pair, group or whole class activities. Each group can devise a
quiz based on topics studied in class (wildlife, geographical/historical/cultural
facts/films/books/music, etc. It can be conducted orally or in writing. It is more challenging if
organised as a competition between two/three teams, in which the winning team has the most
correct answers.
k) Story swap: urban myths
Multiple story swapping is a complex activity, involving jigsaw reading and exchanging
stories. It can be organised with four very short stories, for instance urban myths or news
articles. Students will be put in four groups A, B, C, D. Each group will read the same story
and are asked to prepare to tell the story as accurately as they can to members from other
groups. Then they are put into pairs AB, CD and tell their partners the stories they have just
read. Then they get into other pairs BC, AD and then BD, AC to tell their peers the stories
they have just heard. By telling and retelling stories they have heard from others, they
actually replicate the way in which urban myths are created and circulated.

2.3. ROLE PLAY ACTIVITIES

Role play tasks involve a social or transactional type of interaction. The purpose of the
exchange and the role particulars should be made clear on the role cards allocated to the
students working in pairs or groups, which provide the information gap required for a
meaningful exchange of information. Role playing also involves a strong focus on language

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functions: persuasion, invitations, refusals, agreeing, disagreeing, etc. In designing a role
play, we should think of a context or situation presenting a potential clash conflict of interest,
opinions or ideas. At the same time role plays should reflect clear social roles: teacher,
parent, policeman, driver, ecologist, salesperson, customer, public figure, artist, etc. Role
cards are essential in defining the profile and goal of the interlocutors students have to
impersonate while interacting with their partners.
a) Agony columns/Agony aunts/uncles
This popular magazine column in which the columnist – called an agony aunt/uncle – offers
advice to readers requesting advice on a problem can be adapted for role play focused on the
function of asking for and giving advice. It works better in pairs rather than groups. Each
student receives a role card containing a problem (relationships, school, work, career, health,
etc). Every student complains about his problem and receives advice from his partner.
Alternatively, both the problem and the advice can be expressed in writing, with each student
receiving a problem card to respond to in writing. For this version, the role play can be
dropped in favour of a self-expression exercise, where the students can write their own
problems on unsigned pieces of paper, which the teacher distributes around the class, asking
students to offer advice on the problem in question. As students may be sensitive about this
self-revealing context, anonymity is obligatory. All the pieces of paper will be gathered on
the teacher’s desk, so the students can collect their ‘advice letter’ at the end of the lesson.
b) Celebrity interview
The students interview each other in the role of a famous person, taking turns to play the
interviewer or interviewee. The roles can be either ascribed by the teacher or chosen by the
students themselves, according to their preferences and interests.
c) Job interviews
Students are distributed into job seekers and members of the interviewing board. Both
candidates and interviewers will be given the job description and requirements. Individual
candidates will be interviewed by the board, which will then deliberate on the most suitable
candidate for the job. While the activity can be really challenging, its competitive nature may
cause problems and upset those not selected, so things should be handled sensitively.
d) Party
Students are given cards about different party guests. They have to mingle and make
conversation with the other guests, acting out the respective part they have received. A
variation can be a party with parents, children and teachers, in which the guests discuss
problematic issues related to school or family life.

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 e) Criminal investigation/trial
Students are given the particulars of a criminal case and of the people involved – accused,
plaintiff, prosecuting counsel, defence counsel, police officer, judge, jury, witnesses,
character witnesses, etc. Each student will be allocated a role to play in a class staging of a
trial.
f) Brokers/Merchandisers
Students will be divided into brokers and clients. The brokers have to promote a certain
product and convince their potential buyers of the benefits. They can broker any kind of
goods or services, or more abstract things such as luck, fortune, beauty, celebrity, love, etc.
When they have found their clients, they sit down together. During the feedback session, the
clients will tell the class why they chose a certain product and what arguments convinced
them.

2. 4. PROBLEM SOLVING/DEBATE ACTIVITIES

a) Problem solving
This activity can be done either as a role play, with students in the group assuming a given
role in a given context, or, for a more realistic context, the students can discuss issues from
their own perspective, acting as themselves. The activity consists in asking the students to
discuss and agree on possible solutions to a certain problem. A real or imaginary problem is
presented by the teacher, orally or on a fact-file handout. This can be in connection with a
real problem – solutions for cleaning a polluted area/reducing pollution in their
area/publicising an event or product/repairing a malfunctioning machine or
vehicle/converting or finding a use for an old building in town/refurbishing the school
building/raising funds for a cause/protecting an endangered species/community/area, etc.
Alternatively, the problems can be brain-teasers or puzzles to work out, or more imaginative
problems like being on a space mission and having to deal with a technical problem.
b) Choosing candidates
The students are given a list of candidates for a competition, job, manager, as well as relevant
information about them. The candidates’ profiles should include details about their
background, qualities, abilities and skills, experience, interests, commitment or leadership
potential. The group has to discuss their suitability and reach a decision about the most
suitable candidate. The functions practiced can be agreeing, disagreeing, suggesting,
persuading, arguing one’s opinion, expressing ability, possibility, positive/negative deduction
(using modal verbs).

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 c) Priorities rating
This type of activity requires prioritising elements in a critical situation e.g. survival contexts/
games (fire, shipwreck, flood, earthquake, vehicle breakdown, etc. Students have to rate their
priorities according to certain criteria (usefulness, urgency). This involves thinking and
talking about what actions should come first, what objects might be useful in a given
emergency or survival scenario.
d) Balloon debates
Balloon debates are also based on a priority rating principle. We tell students that they are in
an overloaded balloon which is in danger of falling and they have to get rid of an element –
person, thing, ideas or concepts – in order to save the balloon. They have to decide which
element has to go first, which is likely to generate discussion and arguments.
e) Debates
The students are introduced to a controversial issue in the real world, relevant for their age,
level and interests. They have to discuss the respective issue, from various perspectives,
arguing their standpoints, giving arguments and examples. A debate can be organised in
groups or with the whole class.

2.5. PERSONALISATION ACTIVITIES

Irrespective of the organisation of free practice activities – individually, pairs, groups, whole
class – opportunities for self-expression will promote better learning and aid retention. By
having students share their personal experience, feelings, tastes and interests with their peers,
we enhance a good rapport between students and a cooperative atmosphere.
a) Free conversation – exchanging personal information/opinions
Students share information about issues relevant to their everyday life: their plans for the
weekend/holidays; travel experiences; childhood memories; favourite
pastimes/food/books/film/music stars; opinions on topics of general human interest, etc. They
can extend the discussion to their family and friends. They can do this in pairs, groups or in a
whole class discussion.
b) Speeches
Students may be encouraged to prepare a short speech on a certain topic and give it in front of
the class. They can choose to speak on a topic studied in class or on something that
preoccupies or interests them – a hobby, an extracurricular activity, a social, economic,
political or civic problem.

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 Chapter 7
DEVELOPING WRITING SKILLS

Writing is, arguably, the most difficult skill to develop, as it requires time, effort and
application on the part of the students. It is a product-oriented activity with a more tangible
outcome. The likelihood of making mistakes and being penalised for them is much higher,
therefore raising motivation for writing is harder to achieve. In contrast with speaking,
writing is a less natural activity and channel of everyday communication, where feedback is
not instant, but delayed, and bad, careless grammar is hardly acceptable, especially in formal
style text-types.
For this reason, students need constant and sustained guidance and encouragement
with their writing, so a sensitive attitude and positive feedback on the teacher’s part are
essential. Far too often, teachers may simply evaluate a piece of writing by negative marking,
that is by focusing on what the student failed to do rather than considering what the student
has achieved. That is why the students should be made aware of the nature of writing as a
process which requires careful crafting, revising and editing. Moreover, they should be
involved in self-evaluation and self-correction, activities which can lead to a sense of
achievement, thus helping increase confidence and motivation.
Motivation is at a premium in getting students to write. If we consider the learners’
long-term needs, writing may be considered by many as the least important of the four skills,
since few students are likely to have much use for writing in the foreign language.
Realistically speaking, they are more likely to listen to, read and speak English than to write
it. Besides, they might not often write in their first language. Other daunting problems for
learners may be related to spelling difficulty, complex punctuation, stylistic confusions
between spoken and written English and the stronger possibility of L1 interference.
Nevertheless, writing should not be neglected in a balanced English programme, since it
brings variety to learner and class activity and constitutes an invaluable aid to learning.

1. WRITING FOR LANGUAGE REINFORCEMENT: CONTROLLED

WRITING
He who writes reads twice (Latin proverb)
It is a truism that writing aids language learning and consolidation. For all learners, writing
will represent a means to an end rather than an end in itself. Especially at lower levels, the

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students’ need for writing is most likely only to be for language reinforcement and study
purposes and as a necessary examination skill. At this level, the main importance of writing is
that it helps students to learn, since writing will help them remember new structures and
vocabulary. As writing is done more carefully than speaking, written practice helps focus the
learners’ attention on what and how they are learning, which also requires them to
concentrate on accuracy.
For consolidation purposes, writing is frequently used to finish off the presentation
stage, for structural or lexical practice, to answer comprehension questions, to follow up oral
practice in narrative or dialogue or for homework. Being accuracy-oriented, writing for
consolidation is likely to be strictly controlled, offering learners little control over language.
The best-known and commonly used controlled-writing activities, aimed at language
consolidation with lower levels, are presented below.
a) Copying activities
The first basic form of controlled writing, copying is valuable for reinforcing spelling, lexis
and sentence structure. Though many might consider it an old-fashioned and rather pointless,
boring activity, in real life copying is used as an aid to retention or to keeping a record of
things: addresses, phone numbers, train times, useful bits of information, study notes or
reading notes (poems, quotations, aphorisms, proverbs, song lyrics). The teacher should
provide learners with meaningful copying activities, such as:
 Odd man out: the students are given 4-6 words and asked to copy only those words
which belong together (to the same topic or field).
 Labelling items: students receive a list of words and small cards on which they copy
each word. They have to use the cards to label classroom objects, people/objects in a
picture/plan/diagram/picture story/cartoon strip/lexical set or on a map.
 Classifying items/Compiling category lists: students are given a list of jumbled
words belonging to different topics or semantic field. They have to copy and arrange
them into related categories – house furniture and objects for each room, foods and
drinks for specific meals of the day, men’s or women’s clothing, animal classes, etc.
 Ordering jumbled items in the correct sequence: the learners have to copy words
from a jumbled list in their according to their correct sequence: days of the weak,
months/seasons, numerals, daily routines, manufacturing processes.

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 Finding word pairs/compounds: from a list of jumbled words, the students have to
copy the words which are used together in fixed combinations (bread and butter, bits
and pieces) or combine to form compound words (raincoat, toothpaste).
 Word bingo: the teacher writes a 10 or 12 words on the board. Learners are told to
copy any 6 words they want in any order. The teacher will then call out words from
the board. Students who hear all their words will call out ‘Bingo!’
 Filling in speech bubbles: the students are given a list of sentences or dialogue lines
which they have to copy in the right speech bubbles in a picture story or cartoon strip.
 Ordering jumbled words in a sentence: by arranging words in their right order in
the sentence, learners get useful practice in grammatical structures and word-order.
 Sorting out dialogues/stories/letters from jumbled sentences: copying to sort out
jumbled texts is a meaningful problem-solving type activity which gets learners
thinking about meaning, coherence and text organisation, thus providing them with
good useful models.
 Statements I like/agree/disagree with: while reading a text, learners can be asked to
copy the sentences they most like, agree or disagree with.
 Exchanging favourite poems/songs/proverbs/ quotations: students should be
encouraged to share such things with their classmates by pinning them up on the class
notice-board or wall display. They will be asked to copy them by hand. Students are
asked to copy the items they like best in a special scrapbook, which will really make
for a quite purposeful copying activity.
b) Dictation activities
A traditional technique in the language classroom, dictation has somehow lost popularity,
being regarded as a rather uninvolving and unchallenging activity. In recent years it has
made a comeback due to the work of Davis and Rinvolucri, who attempted ‘to put a
useful but now undervalued area of work back on the language-teaching map’ (Davis and
Rinvolucri, 5). In doing so, they have upgraded dictation for the communicative
classroom through activities involving student interaction and allowing for increased
student control. Some suggested activities would be:
 Shadow dictation. The students are arranged in two parallel rows. The students in the
front row just listen to the teacher, while those behind them have to write. The
listeners are supposed to assist the writers, so during the dictation, the teacher will

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 allow time for spontaneous consultation. The students in the pair correct the text
together.
 Running dictation. The teacher pins up to a board several copies of the same text.
The students are put into groups, with one member acting as ‘scribe’. Group members
take turns in running to the board and then back to dictate to the scribe what they can
remember. The first group to finish and end up with a reasonably accurate version of
the text wins the competition. The activity introduces an element of task-
interdependency, as all the members contribute to the successful completion of the
task.
 Mutual dictation. This is a text reconstruction exercise, in which the two students in
a pair have different gapped versions of the same text. So as to complete their text,
they have to dictate the missing parts to each other.
 Delayed transcription. This is another text reconstruction activity involving a kind of
‘self-dictation’. Each student will go to the board to read and remember chunks of a
short text then back again to write them down. Students will run back and forth until
they finish transcribing the text.
 Dictogloss. Also known as ‘grammar dictation’, this activity involves the
reconstruction of a text read by the teacher. The teacher reads the text once or twice,
at normal speed, while the students take notes. In groups of three or four, the students
use their notes and work together to recreate the text, as close to the original version
as possible. The activity is quite complex and involving, as it gets students thinking
about grammar, vocabulary, and word order. It also requires them to negotiate
language and meaning, as well as to cooperate on the task.
c) Parallel writing
Parallel writing provides students with controlled writing practice based on a model text,
which they have to rewrite by introducing different information or making certain changes,
according to given cues such as word or picture prompts. Students read a short text and
perhaps study its particular features (e.g. the way the sentences are joined, the use of verb
tenses/the passive). They then write a paragraph which is similar but which involves some
changes. This may mean structure or vocabulary changes – different tense (present to past
tense)/gender (masculine to feminine)/prepositions, using antonyms or synonyms, replacing
nouns by pronouns for back reference in narratives.

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 More often than not, parallel writing requires learners to write a similar text by
changing the key details in a text on a certain topic. For instance, they read a paragraph about
a student’s day, then write about their own day; after reading a description of a car, they write
descriptions of other cars from a given set of notes/cues; if reading the description of a room,
they will write a description of another room in the picture; after reading a text giving
personal information, they write about other people by using forms giving personal details.
Albeit rather controlled, parallel writing provides students with useful practice at discourse
level, with paragraph and text organisation, which helps build confidence in tackling later
free writing tasks.
d) Sentence-linking
These activities help introduce students to the use of linking devices (conjunctions, sentence
adverbs) in creating complex sentences. They also raise awareness of the more complex
syntactical structures usually required in written English and of the various functions of
sentence connectors introducing time reference, condition, cause, concession, contrast,
purpose, result, etc. The exercises usually consist of a number of simple sentences to be
combined by means of a given set of connectors. These may require joining sentences by a
certain type of connectors; pairing up jumbled sentences by using one or several connector
types; completing gapped texts by inserting given sentences in the right place;
reconstructing texts from jumbled sentences, by supplying the right connectors;
paragraph/text building on an outline of connecting devices; rewriting dialogues in
indirect speech, with students supplying the necessary linking words.
e) Guided writing
Guided writing tasks usually provide students with a format, outline or framework for
structuring content and organising ideas. The students are allowed a greater control over
language, while relying on the support of a given structure outline, plan of ideas or an
incomplete text. Guiding activities may include: writing the opening/middle/ending
paragraphs of a given text; constructing a text by following a plan of ideas/word
prompts/character prompts (a number of specific characters)/picture prompts/picture
stories or cartoon strip; writing dialogues from dialogue frames/maps.
f) Writing with oral preparation
Introducing freer writing activities, which require students to produce a text on a given topic
(e.g. ‘write a description of your town or village’) are likely to pose problems for students,
who might be at a loss about what or how to write and find the task frustrating

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 To make the task easier, we might involve the students in suggesting ideas about
content and organisation so that they will end up with a plan to follow. After introducing the
topic of the writing exercise, the teacher should ask a variety of questions about it, thus
eliciting suggestions for content from the students. In groups or with the whole class, students
will work on a common outline and list of key expressions to be written on the board, which
they can use as a basis for their writing.
The advantage of oral preparation activities is that they are flexible and can be done in
different ways, according to the students’ abilities and interests. Moreover, the ideas about
what to write come from the students themselves, which makes the activity more interesting
and involves the students more, thus helping them gain confidence about tackling written
tasks. Finally, it integrates writing with listening and speaking skills practice.

2. CREATIVE WRITING – CREATIVITY THROUGH CONTROL

2.1. POETRY WRITING

Writing poetry in the foreign language must not necessarily mean a time of frustration, of
racking one’s brains for a topic, a figure of speech or for a rhyming word. Approaches like
‘I’d like you to write a poem today’, with or without a given topic, can be utterly off-putting
and confusing. The freedom of producing a poem by relying entirely on internal resources
cannot but prove a drawback and a return to the captivity of uninspiring helplessness. The old
saying ‘ninety-nine per cent of inspiration is perspiration’ might not be worth applying in this
situation.
That is why control can be the name of the game in this area. By control we do not
mean thought or content control, but a prescribed outline of form, something like fixed-form
poetry. The use of models is an essential first step. The model need not be a mere object of
contemplation; students should be given tasks by which they can interact with the text and
thus get involved in recreating it - to rearrange jumbled words or lines, to fill-in gaps or even
reconstruct the text from initial letters. The tasks may help to set the students’ minds in tune
or to whet their appetite to produce their own version, after having got familiar with the
overall structure and organization of the poem. Once the right mood has been created,
students are ready to endow their ‘skeleton poem’ with new flesh and blood.
Of course, creation is not seen as instantaneous. It is preceded by establishing a theme
– the model outline can lend itself to any topic area - by discussion and a session of idea

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generating, selection and sequencing of ideas. The procedure can make full use of
collaborative writing, carried out in groups or pairs and can easily lead to integration of skills.
Writing a poem does not have to constitute an isolated activity, it can be a follow-up
or corollary to a sequence of lessons, where a discussion, a listening or a reading task centred
on a certain theme or topic are meant to strike a chord and stir the students sensitivity before
the model text is actually introduced.
What is more, writing poetry does not involve abandoning more pragmatic concerns
such as grammar or function practice. In fact, this kind of activity can be extremely fruitful
and, most of all, a memorable opportunity for reinforcement of grammar.
As marvellously demonstrated by Gunter Gerngross and Herbert Puchta in Creative
Grammar Practice, poetry can become a vehicle for reinforcement, revision, or recycling of
language structure. The model text exploits a certain grammatical area, and the outline to be
filled out provides a highly melodic structure where various tenses or structures become a
kind of leitmotif.
In fact, their book offers a complete grammar course in disguise and teaches us the art
of mixing nothing more than a repetition or substitution drill with loftier elements of poetic
feeling, brooding mood and alert sensitivity distilled in the magic potion called memorability.
What more memorable way of learning grammar than one’s poem, where a personally
evocative association of emotional content, language and rhythm is transfixed through the
means of a structural pattern. As in the procedure already discussed above, the production of
the students’ own texts is usually the final stage in a whole sequence of listening, reading,
speaking or other pre-writing activities, often carried out in groups.
Of course, the issues of formal control and language practice do not imply an
emphasis on form to the expense of content or personal expression; nor can they be a
hindrance to self-expression. On the contrary, they provide guidance and a foundation on
which to use language imaginatively and construct meaning and poetical effect.
Apart from the grammar-focused outlines mentioned above, there are several well-
known models which we can use with our students. Their virtue is that they lend themselves
to different levels of attainment or age-groups, and usually result in satisfaction and further
motivation to write. They are usually fairly simple poetical forms and though they might feed
on the language of imagination, it is clear and comprehensible language expressed in a simple
form. Some of the most popular forms used to enhance creativity through control will be
examined below.

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 a) Name poems (Acrostichs)
For those students who cringe when the word ‘poem’ comes up in conjunction with ‘writing
assignment’, writing name poems can be a fun way to help them with this problem. If they
start working on their names, the resulting poems will be a very telling embodiment of their
perceptions and opinions about themselves or about each other and the activity will help to
enhance mutual knowledge and understanding and good class relationships. They can also
work with names of things, concepts, etc. They will write the word vertically and use each
letter as the first letter of a line. Here are some examples of name poems:
Jumping Maybe
Out of her chair she Another woman would not
Yells ‘That’s right!’ all the time. Understand, but she is
Really
Amazing.
Classrooms War
Have Anger
A lot of these Regret
Interesting and useful items,
but they’re not
Recliners.
b) Haiku
The teacher will introduce the idea of a haiku as a long-standing, culture-specific form of
expression, and provide some examples. Attention should be drawn to the characteristics and
conventions which distinguish such a text - the brevity and the way the essence of the subject
is conveyed in the three line structure: short - long - short, not necessarily observing the
precise number of syllables. However, the idea of the 5-7-5 syllable-lines may prove an
additional challenge, so we can encourage the students to try their hand at it.
As a preparation, we choose an object or a word with many associations. The students
will provide as many words as they can connected with this word. Each student will then
choose the ten or twelve words they like best, which to them are most strongly associated
with the subject. The teacher will construct a haiku with the whole class, using some of the
words and ideas on the board and asking for suggestions from the students. There may be
disagreement, and alternative versions produced. The students can be encouraged to say why
they think one version or another is better, or means more to them.

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 At the production stage, each group is given a different topic card or is allowed to
choose its own topic. We can set a time limit and ask students to write as many haikus as they
can in the time allowed. We can ensure further involvement if we ask them to write their
haikus on separate pieces of paper, without giving a title. When the haikus are displayed on
the wall, students will walk round, reading them all and trying to guess what the topic is.
Examples of haikus:
SUMMER grasses - SPRING: Clouds now and then
All that remains A hill without a name Giving men relief
Of soldiers’ visions. Veiled in morning mist. From moon-viewing.
***
The winds of autumn You say one word A flash of lightning:
Blow: yet still green And lips are chilled Into the gloom
The chestnut husks. By autumn’s wind. Goes the heron’s cry.

c) Diamond poem
Structurally more complex than the haiku, the diamond poem draws on the same principle of
free association, both emotional and conceptual and of distillation of personally meaningful
notions.The format is characterized by a fixed morphological configuration disposed in a
diamond-shaped contour. The exercise requires the students to give the essence of their ideas
and to express them concisely (after a previous word association session, as with the haiku).
For lower level students, we need not use grammar terms in the instructions; rather, ‘noun’
can be replaced by ‘person/place/thing’ and adjective by ‘descriptive word’.
(article) noun
adjective and adjective
participle, participle, participle
noun, noun, noun, noun
participle, participle, participle
adjective and adjective
(article) noun

As far as the overall tone of the poem is concerned, the convention is that the top and the
bottom lines are antithetical in meaning. The top part is an exposition of a conflict in a
pessimistic tone, the middle section can be a point where opposites converge and intermingle,
while the bottom is a kind of resolution, a triumph of optimism and hope - like the silver
lining of every cloud…
Fall Father
misty and sad stubborn and taciturn
falling, blustering, freezing doing, going, getting
cold, darkness, blizzards and thaws Parents, respect, man, woman
melting, dripping, blossoming supporting, watching, helping
misty and happy strict and reasonable

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 Spring Mother

d) Prepositional poem
Similar to the diamond poem, a prepositional poem fosters self-expression along the same
lines, on the basis of a different format:
Adjective, adjective, noun
Verb, verb, verb
Prepositional phrase
Prepositional phrase
Prepositional phrase
A noun synonym for the rest for the poem

Strict, taciturn parents Tedious, boring grammar

teach, lead, love frustrates, confuses, astonishes
from wherever in the classroom
at whenever in the library
on whatever on dates –
a lifelong model. wonderful English.

e) Finnish poem
This differs from the formats above in that the prescribed morphological configuration is not
specified, but ‘encoded’ or translated into lexical symbols (we can pretend it is written in
Finnish or in an unknown language). The students will have to ‘translate’ it into English, with
the help of clues to the code - ‘ja’ means ‘and’; all the other words are nouns.

Kadut Seeds
Kadut ja kukat Seeds and roots
Kadut ja naiset Seeds and plants
Kadut Seeds
Kadut ja kukat ja naiset Seeds and roots and plants
Ja lapset And life.

f) Chinese poem
This explicitly introduces the idea of imitation of form or repetition of theme as a matter of
keeping up literary tradition or paying homage to the past and one’s predecessors. As with the
haiku, a suitable amount of exposure to authentic poems is required. Tricia Hedge proposes a
work card including a short presentation of the particular form accompanied by several
examples. Besides giving the students a chance to exploit these forms creatively, these
activities entail cross-cultural interferences and expanding their aesthetic and cultural
perspective.
HSU KAN WANG JUNG
(A wife’s thoughts, III) (In imitation of Hsu Kan)

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Since you, sir, went away, SINCE you, sir, went away,
My bright mirror is dim and untended. My golden burner has had no incense,
My thoughts of you are like flowing water; For thinking of you I am like the bright candle,
Will they ever have an end? At midnight vainly burning itself away.

g) Shape poem
This draws more on the visual effect than the diamond poem and involves a freer choice of
language and shape. That is why the outcomes may be as various as there are learners. The
principle of presenting model texts remains an essential one. The procedure involves
brainstorming and listing of things which have a distinctive shape, such as animals, flowers,
toys, machines. Another tip could be getting ideas together for the kind of things that might
be put into the poem, in order to ensure a perfect match between content and shape. With
elementary students upwards, irrespective of age, a shape poem would provide satisfaction on
several levels: intellectual, emotional and visual.
h) Sensorial poem
This offers the possibility of perceiving and capturing tones of meaning underlying abstract
notions or situations of everyday life. It entails a process of free association, of digging up
personal connotations attributed to a certain abstract noun and a synthesis between the senses
(sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) and the associated emotions. The outcomes can be some
outstanding evidence of deep insight, sensitivity and evocative power.

(Sunday morning) is … (colour)

It looks like…
It smells like…
It sounds like…
It tastes like…
And it feels like…

i) Definition poem
This format appeals to the same faculty of making associations and encapsulating them in
self-contained gems of meaning and expression. Students are given a topic (things, people,
concepts) and asked to write metaphorical definitions on separate strips of paper. Each
student will contribute to the pool with three strips. Groups select the definitions they like
best and incorporate them in an up to ten lines poem sequence. Each line will repeat the topic:
X is/are …
j) Poem outline – sociological profiles
Starting from a given outline, the poem aims at discovering the essential features of a certain
human group. It can refer to age, sex or professional groups or people in certain situations.

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Again, the activity draws on the power of association and on emotional glimpses into the
essence of human condition and existence – a kind of quintessential poem, term equally
applicable to practically all the forms listed above. A possible outline can look like this:
Old people are like…
Their clothes are/they dress…
They walk…
They like…
They don’t like…
They talk about…
They are afraid of…
Their secrets are…
And they dream of…
A common feature characterizing all the poetic forms discussed above is their suitability for
collaborative writing and integration of skills, alongside with guidance through the thorny
paths of creative expression backed up by a success-oriented approach. Though most of them
offer a fixed structure to be observed, they are a springboard for language exploration, with
particular focus on lexis, in such areas as synonymy, antonymy, collocation and connotation.
Playing with language is encouraged as a means towards a product with content at its
core. Using form as a springboard for content-based poetry is an easy and smooth way
towards peaks of lyricism and poetic expression. The quite simple formats described above
can pave the way for more complex and ambitious forms of poetry - why not, the sonnet, if
we are to think of English literary traditions. And if we wax too lyrical or overawed by the
depth of our own poetic feeling and by the seriousness of our writing task, we can always
turn to the more playful resources of English literature: the limerick tradition and all the
range of nonsense rhymes which make a unique literary tradition.
Of course, controlled poetry writing is not to be regarded as the only approach to
poetry. At more advanced levels or within literature lessons, writing a poem can follow as a
response to reading authentic poetry. After careful reading and personalizing the ideational
and emotional texture of a text in the light of one’s own experience and outlook, attempting
to respond through poetry, would be in the natural course of things.
Writing poems in blank verse gives students the opportunity to explore the language,
to organize their ideas with great care, to manipulate sentence structure, to select words, and
to think about appropriate collocations. It also encourages the drafting process, as students
are anxious to make their poems sound right. Of course, the need for seeing their poetic
productions ‘published’ or at least displayed remains a sine-qua-non requirement, as it
provides satisfaction and furthers motivation to write.

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 2.2. IMAGINATIVE WRITING IN PROSE
Creativity is not the exclusive domain of poetry writing, and a great deal of imaginative
writing can be done in prose. Writing in prose is more likely to elude control than poetry
writing, as it lends itself to a more cursory flow of thought and pen. It involves greater risks
with language, as sometimes linguistic ability will not keep up with the faster pace of
imagination. But even if tight control is excluded, close guidance and carefully chosen
activities can provide the necessary support, at least at the earlier stages.
The cornerstone of our approach to writing, irrespective of level or age, should be
adequate exposure to various text types, backed up by a careful study of the conventions,
structure or organization displayed by a certain text. Manipulation activities meant to get the
students to interact with the text are highly appropriate for the early stages of a writing
programme. These can take various forms, such as:
 arranging jumbled paragraphs, which involves identification of key text sections and
awareness-raising about the conventions of opening, developing and concluding a
text;
 providing a missing section of the text: the opening, the middle or the conclusion;
 paragraph assembly – from given jumbled sentences;
 paragraph completion – from opening sentences;
 writing a text from a given summary;
 rewriting a text/story from memory, after having read or listened to it.
These are just a few examples from a whole range of sensitizing exercises or more or less
controlled writing practice. They do not exactly give students the opportunity to exert their
creativeness, but they have a definite value for awareness-raising, familiarizing them with
different written products and with the conventions or organizational rules apparent in the
simple texts.
A) STORY WRITING
Actual production of creative texts can begin with fairly short texts sequences, done mainly at
sentence level. Though rather unambitious in form, they may appeal to our students’ sense of
humour (or sense of the absurd, occasionally).

a) Writing jumbled texts

In pairs or small groups, students write a dialogue or a four-to-five-sentence story sequence,
which they then cut up into separate sentences and give to another pair or group to put
together. Easy to do at elementary levels, the activity can introduce, even if in a nutshell, the

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components of a proper story: exposition (conflict), complication (climax) and resolution. It
can be easily turned into a problem-solving exercise for others, leading to interaction and
enjoyment.
b) Jumbled stories
This is a variation of the activity above, except that the students have to write two short
stories of about four to six sentences, each about the same person or a similar event. The
stories are then cut up into separate sentences and given to another group to sort out into the
original stories.
c) Mystery stories
This is a fairly controlled exercises where the students are given a series of WH-questions
they must answer in a particular order: Who? / Where? / What was X doing? / What did X
say? / What did X do after that? The students take turns to answer each question, then folding
the paper over, so that the next student cannot see what the other students have written before
him. When all the answers have been written, the paper is unfolded to reveal often a hilarious
and incongruous story, where the surprise element makes the writing (and reading) so much
more exciting.
d) Word story
The students are given the opening sentence of a story, and three words each. The paper is
passed round the class and each student has to continue the story by including his three
words.
e) Collaborative story
A sheet of paper containing only an opening sentence is passed round the class and students
write only one sentence each in order to continue the story.
f) Sentence into story
The students are given a single sentence and are asked to build the story around it, and of
course, include it somewhere in the text. The groups can be given the same sentence and at
the end they can compare the different outcomes generated by the same sentences. A
variation of this would be to give a speech bubble instead of a sentence and ask the students
to make up a story or a situation where the exact words would sound appropriate.

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 B) USING READING FOR STORY WRITING
a) Incomplete stories

This involves an opportunity for integration of skills, because the students have to read a part
of a story. The most usual procedure is to give students either the opening or the ending of a
story and ask them to provide a complete version. An easier start would be to give the story
with only the opening or the ending paragraphs missing. The incomplete version can be
produced by the students themselves, working in groups, and given to other groups to provide
the opening, the ending, or the development of events. A major requirement here is looking at
sample texts beforehand, and giving the students an insight into how a story is divided into
three main parts: orientation – complication – resolution and how these differ from one
another.
b) Rewriting a story from memory
Albeit not very likely to leave much space for the students’ creativity, the task can allow for
personal interpretation and focus, together with the varied choice of vocabulary or structure.
To make the task more challenging, we may ask the students to rewrite the story they have
read, but feel free to change whatever they want.
c) Writing a story from different points of view
After reading a story told by an omniscient narrator, the students are asked to choose a
character and rewrite the story from his/her point of view. By assuming the character’s role,
the student may interpret the story from a new angle and choose to include or leave out
information as it may seem relevant to him. A more involving alternative is to give the
students role cards with a short presentation of the characters in a story and ask them to write
a first person narrative.

C) OTHER STORY WRITING TASKS

a) Fairy-tales, folk stories, fables or legends
These are undoubtedly very appealing genres, enjoyable and stimulating for any age group,
as there is always a grave significance in them; they are expressions or illustrations of
fundamental truths deeply rooted in the collective consciousness of any culture, and any fairy
tale brings about some kind of emotional experience or a moral illumination. Such stories
tend to follow much the same pattern, in which there is a problem that is resolved, leading to
the expression of some sort of moral. The students can be encouraged to write their own tales
in several ways.

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Variation 1. The students are given a certain problem to be resolved in a fairy-tale. It can be
a problem relevant to their age, world or cultural background.
Variation 2. The students are given characters to bring together in a story. The characters can
be abstract notions or a few objects without any obvious connection between them. The value
of this exercise can be brought home along different lines: by encouraging the students to be
either absurd or logical in their imagination. The latter case seems more challenging because,
by trying to turn the incongruity of different things into a perfectly logical and natural
relationship, they may write legends which explain the nature of existing things. This could
support the remark that originality often consists in discovering connections or analogies
between two or more objects or ideas between which no link has ever been demonstrated to
exist.
Variation 3. Students are asked to illustrate a proverb by means of a fable, an age-old genre
for conveying moral precepts. The selection of characters from the animal world will make
the task extremely exciting and motivating for younger learners.
b) Mini-sagas
The activities above can naturally lead to a mini-saga, a relatively new sub-genre, brought to
life by a writing competition organized by the Daily Telegraph and quickly developed into an
EFL text type in its own right. Basically, the mini-saga is a fifty-word story, with up to
fifteen additional words for the title. As it is a self-contained text, the story must be complete,
with a beginning, development and conclusion together with characters and a setting. Thus, it
is a kind of novel in miniature. It is an economical way of helping students to get used to the
organizing conventions of any story. Because of the word limit, the writer has to make every
word count, which means that it is a good exercise for developing care in the choice of
vocabulary and economy of expression.
c) Competition texts
Other possibilities for self-contained texts which could be completed in one lesson come
from two writing competitions organized by The Independent. The activities, mentioned by
White & Arndt, in their book on the process approach, consist in writing a ghost-story of 150
words or a newspaper article of 100 words or less to accompany a given headline.
If the students’ level is not appropriate for writing a proper newspaper account of a
story, they can be asked simply to discuss and write out the related story. The important thing
is that they use their imagination, and ideas will be seen as more important then formally
correct language. If, however, the headline comes from a real newspaper, their versions can
be compared with the original.

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 d) Story behind a book title
Real or imaginary book titles can also be used to stimulate the students’ imagination and lead
to surprisingly original ‘mini-novels’.
e) Story behind an advertisement
The students will be given the same advertisement. In groups, they will try to write a story
about the writer of the respective advertisement.
f) Story behind a face/Life stories
Students are given a set of photos of people’s faces or reproductions of famous painted
portraits. They choose a portrait they like best and try to make-up a (life) story inspired by the
respective face/stance/mood.
The activities described above are meant to offer a springboard for other ideas and variations.
The teacher’s imagination in devising challenging writing tasks can spark the students’ own
imagination, since they may find imaginative and creative writing as a highly rewarding
activity, irrespective of age group, level or learner needs and interests.

3. COMMUNICATIVE WRITING TASKS

Even from the early stages of language learning, we should raise the learners’ awareness of
the communicative function of writing. That is why a balanced writing programme should
introduce, as early as possible, activities illustrating everyday forms of written
communication. An important principle in training students for written communication is
exposure to plenty of model texts.
a) Short notes and messages
Students are asked to write short notes or messages to other people in the class, with the
teacher acting as the postman. Each student has to send a reply note in response to the one
they received.
b) Invitation cards/letters
At first, student study models of invitation cards or letters. They are then given cards or paper
to write invitations to their classmates to certain events: birthdays, parties, outings, holidays,
festivals. The invitees will have to answer by a note or letter of acceptance or refusal.
c) Postcards/greeting cards
After studying relevant models and discussing useful language, students write greeting cards
related to forthcoming events – birthdays, Christmas, New Year’ Eve. The same can be done
with holiday postcards. Students are asked to imagine they are in their favourite holiday place
and write a postcard to friends or to the teacher. Alternatively, the teacher can bring to class

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holiday brochures/leaflets and ask students to choose a location they like and imagine they
are writing a postcard home.
d) Notices/leaflets
Students study relevant models and write notices publicising a certain school or community
event, competition, public campaign, fund-raising campaign, charity event, etc.

e) Brochures
After examining example texts and deciding on a suitable plan or outline, students write a
tourist brochure advertising their region or town. As the task is quite complex, it can also be
done in groups, each student dealing with a different topic or section of the brochures.
f) Advertisements
The teacher brings students handouts containing newspaper advertisements. The class discuss
text conventions and specific language. Students are asked to write ads with
selling/buying/renting/hiring offers.
g) Reviews
The students work on model texts of book/film/play/festival/museum/exhibition reviews,
discussing text organisation and useful language. Each student writes a review on one of the
above topics. These activities can become part of an ongoing class project, with groups of
students being responsible with updates on a certain topic which can be posted on the class
notice-board/gazette.
h) News reports
Like everyone else, students often share information of interesting news items they have
heard or read recently. As part of the same class publication projects, students can write news
articles on issues of interest for their age group and preoccupations.
i) Letters
Letter writing may be regarded as a rather obsolete activity in the age of the Internet,
electronic mail and social media, yet teaching our students to write letters may benefit them
for exam purposes or in their professional life, especially in the case of various formal letters.
They should be offered exposure to a variety of letter types, both informal and formal. The
teacher may set up a pen-friend writing scheme with students from a school abroad, which
could provide learners with a real incentive for writing. Most letter writing done in class
involves role-play elements, in which the context and reason for writing are simulated. The
teacher should set up motivating, purposeful activities which involve students in thinking

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about relevant content, organisation and stylistic choices intended for efficient
communication.
j) Form filling
Filing in forms is quite a common writing activity, required in diverse application contexts,
so giving students relevant practice in this area is a highly practical and realistic activity,
preparing them for real-life situations such as university or job applications.
k) CVs/Cover letters
In terms of long-term learner needs, it is undoubtedly worth teaching these specialised text
types requiring personal information adapted to a specific format. Of course, they are more
suitable for higher level students, but the idea can be introduced even earlier as a fun activity
using imaginary or strange job advertisements (see Hadfield 1990). The activity can be done
as a role play, in which students are given real job advertisements to respond to. Other
students will be involved in writing job requirements and descriptions for each advert, then
act as recruiters who will evaluate the received applications. In the context of an increasingly
competitive work market, teaching our students to present personal qualities and
achievements in an efficient, convincing and concise way constitutes a worthwhile pursuit.

4. FREE WRITING AT ADVANCED LEVELS: A PROCESS APPROACH

From the upper-intermediate level onwards, when learners are likely to have acquired
reasonable fluency in the written medium, we may safely provide them with more
opportunities for self-expression, usually under the form of lengthier texts types, essays in
particular. Although it may be argued that, in terms of learner-needs, an essay is a written
form rarely practised outside the classroom, it is still widely used in public examinations or
for academic assessment. Essay writing offers more varied challenges for fluency-building
writing programmes at secondary or tertiary levels. In giving our students confidence in
dealing with free writing tasks, we should observe a number of principles which offer a pre-
requisite to a fluency-building writing programme.
a) Raising awareness of the writing process
In order to promote a note of realism in our students’ approach to writing and to replicate the
practice of professional writers, we should rely on awareness-raising activities meant to
familiarize them with the stages and mechanisms of the writing process. They may be well
aware of the difficulties of getting started when confronted with a written assignment, which
shows that writing is hardly a spontaneous activity, but a time-consuming effort requiring
such operations as composing, planning, organizing, drafting, crafting, revising and editing. It

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is the teacher’s task to highlight and illustrate these stages via relevant activities aimed to
mark a necessary departure from more traditional, product-oriented approaches, and to
promote a more realistic process approach.
b) Exposure to well-written models
It is a widely acknowledged pedagogical assumption that experienced and fluent readers
generally make good writers, as well. And although in a foreign language the transfer is not
automatically realized, this assumption is tenable. Exposing students to pieces of good
writing via a well-balanced reading programme is a necessary pre-requisite for developing
writing skills. But mere exposure is not enough. We should devise activities that promote a
close analysis of the model text at different levels.
Firstly, knowledge of text types and their specific conventions and codes is of
paramount importance and a logical starting point. Consequently, students should be
presented with a variety of text types and formats, and made aware of general characteristics
such as layout or formulaic conventions (as in letters, for example), problems of
addressability, organization of content, paragraphing, discourse markers and linking devices
ensuring textual coherence and cohesion, style and register, communicative function,
efficiency and expressiveness. Therefore, a close examination of model texts should be an
obligatory first step in initiating any writing activity.
c) Staging in the writing process
The main stages of the process are commonly sequenced as pre-writing, while-writing and
post-writing. Of course each stage comprises a number of sub-stages with a particular
function and various activities that guide us toward the construction of the text. The most
important phase is the one preliminary to the actual writing, which provides the students with
key data and material that will inform their writing and, more importantly, will help alleviate
such frustrating phenomena as the writer’s block.
Successful writing depends on careful preparation, where the need for guidance is
paramount. That is why approaches where the student is simply assigned a task without any
kind of guidance are not only pedagogically inadequate, but also hopelessly unproductive.
Preparing to write is as important as the act of writing itself, as it paves the way towards a
successful written product.

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 4.1. THE PRE-WRITING STAGE
a) Communicating
The stage of communicating has the role of drawing attention to the communicative function
of any piece of writing, which inherently pre-supposes an audience. Therefore text-type,
content and style will be dependent on the prospective reader we have in mind as the
recipient of our message. Creating a clear sense of audience is bound up with establishing a
context for writing, a sense of purpose and function. The basic questions at this stage should
be: ‘Why am I writing?’ and ‘Who am I writing for?’
Answering these questions will help writers decide on the kind of information that
must be included in the text. So clarifying information implies reconstructing the impied
reader and his needs, according to which we have to decide on the content and the type of
details that may be relevant for that particular reader. The most pertinent questions for the
students to ask themselves would be:
 What do I know about the topic?
 What does my reader know about the topic?
 What does my reader not know?
 What is my reader’s attitude likely to be?
The crucial issue these questions are meant to establish is the ratio of shared and unshared
knowledge we can anticipate between writer and reader. An awareness of this is likely to
influence our decisions on what information we need to include or leave out. One line of
action usually recommended is to start with shared information and continue with new
information. The need for a correct estimation of shared and unshared knowledge and of the
necessity for explicitness is more relevant in the case of cross-cultural communication,
culture-bound or highly specialized texts (scientific, expert-oriented, etc.). It often happens
that when we write about things familiar to us, we tend to underestimate the need for further
explicitness of a reader who may not be acquainted with certain facts that we take for
granted. Encouraging students to anticipate and be alert to a prospective reader’s needs will
ensure clarity and eliminate ambiguity from their final texts. More importantly, it provides
the writer with a sense of direction that will influence the selection of ideas and planning.
b) Composing
This is the stage initiating the exploration of a general outline and of content issues. It mainly
consists in the mental processes of idea-generation, although it may include more perceptible
manifestations like thinking aloud. It is usually the incipient phase of finding something to

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say, humorously described by applied linguists as a “time of sighing, pencil-chewing, foot-
shuffling agony” (Tricia Hedge1983, 20) or, in a punning formulation, as “Anguish as a
Second Language” (Raimes1987, 32). To illustrate the frustrating perplexities characteristic
of this stage, White and Arndt (Process Writing, 1991) quote a description of the writer’s
block by the Chinese poet Lu Chi, which metaphorically encapsulates the strenuous process
of idea-generating: ‘The anxiety is because buckets carried from the well are time and again
empty…’ (White and Arndt 1991, 17)
Getting some ideas on the topic is a problem that requires support from the teacher
and collaboration with peers. Students should be given tasks which demonstrate basic
techniques for encouraging critical thinking, idea-generation, outlining and planning,
applicable to a wide range of topics or text-types. These guided techniques can be based on a
wide range of prompts – visual (pictures, films); auditory (tapes), reading materials or
discussion sessions – generally speaking, activities which lend themselves to the integration
of skills and function as a springboard for thinking out content.
c) Unstructured listing
Lists of ideas are a helpful device in helping students to put something down on paper.
Starting from the assumption that one idea sparks off another, this activity involves both
thinking and note-taking, and it is essential that no censoring should impede the random
emergence of ideas. Any attempt to structure or evaluate ideas at this stage would be
inhibiting or would stop the ball rolling. Judging the quality, relevance or usefulness of ideas
should be postponed until a subsequent stage involving focusing, selecting and structuring
operations.
d) Brainstorming sessions
These are based on using a long-standing and efficient technique for idea-generation.
Brainstorming may concern ideas for content or for ways of organization. The activity may
lend itself to many purposes: choosing a topic/title; identifying a purpose or reason for
writing; finding an appropriate text-type or format; developing a topic or a plot.
Brainstorming can be carried out individually, in pairs, groups or with the whole class. It can
also be done on the snowball principle, where individual lists of ideas are shared in a pair,
then in a group and, finally, among groups, so that the class ends up with a common pool of
ideas.
e) Sets of questions
The procedure employs questions intended as prompts which draw attention to the different
aspects of a topic or problem and provide a pretext for further idea-generation.

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 f) Cubing
This is a technique taking its name from the six facets of a cube, as it uses a set of six
questions under different task-headings:
1) Describe: what is the colour, size, shape, feel, smell, sound of X?
2) Compare: what is X like or unlike?
3) Associate: what does X bring to mind? What is it similar or dissimilar to?
4) Analyze: how is X composed? What is it part of? What is part of X?
5) Apply: how can X be used? What can be done with X?
6) Argue: what points can be put for or against X? What reasons are there for taking a
position in favour of or opposed to X?
g) Classical invention
The procedure proposes five categories of questions, following the principle of classical
invention derived from Aristotle:
 Definition: what are festivals? Classify them into types.
 Comparison: to what extent are festivals similar to or different from what they are
being compared with?
 Relationship: what caused festivals? What effect do festivals have on people? What
comes before/follows festivals? What is against festivals?
 Circumstances: what kinds of festivals are possible? What things are possible in
festivals? What is not possible? What are the past facts about festivals? What can we
predict about festivals in the future?
 Testimony: where did festivals originate? Who says so? What statistics are available?
What time-tested theories or laws support festivals? What personal experience of
festivals do you have?
h) The SPRE/R approach
The technique provides a highly productive way of organizing ideas and is proposed by
Michael Hoey in his book On the Surface of Discourse (1983). The acronym stands for:
Situation: what is the present situation? How did it come about? What are its characteristics?
Problem: is there a problem? What is it?
Response: how can the problem be dealt with? What alternative solutions are there? What
constraints are there on each possible solution?
Evaluation: which of the solutions is likely to be the best? What would be the result of
applying any of the solutions?

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With a number of possible variations, this format can provide a basis for discursive writing
tasks. It also provides an ordered framework for the general organization of ideas and the
structuring of the future text.
i) Organizing content, planning and outlining
Once the students have finished listing ideas for content, the subsequent activities are meant
to focus on problems of selecting, grouping and ordering ideas. Individually, in pairs or
groups, the students have to decide on items to be kept or left out, operating a selection of
content. Grouping or clustering ideas is based on the principle of relationships. Ideas
relating to the same concept are grouped under a common heading. Ordering involves
ranking ideas in terms of their relevance or importance for the topic and deciding on the
hierarchy to be reflected in the overall structure of the text. Visually, the outline of the
envisaged text can be represented in different ways. Mind-maps or ‘spidergrams’ are useful
and visually suggestive tools for categorizing content and organizing points insofar as the
ramifications into categories and subcategories reflect the hierarchical relationships between
different content elements. Otherwise, any number of diagrams and layouts can be used to
reflect the initial provisional outline of the projected essay.
The end of this stage ushers in the subsequent process of drafting, and we may say
that the guidance offered at the pre-writing stage has taken the students halfway through the
writing task. The value of pre-text activities resides in their provision of relevant content
ideas. Emphasizing the pre-writing stage, with the sub-stages illustrated above, is not only a
pedagogical imperative, but the recognition of the old saying ‘well-begun is half done’.

4.2. WHILE-WRITING/DRAFTING STAGE

a) Drafting
This is the stage at which students engage in actual text writing. The main priority is getting
ideas down on paper, so drafting involves fluency rather than accuracy, which can be
considered at a later stage. Some useful techniques for encouraging written fluency are
presented below.
 Fast-writing/Quickwrite. This is an exercise designed to eliminate ‘writer’s block
and get the learner started on the task and requires three to five minutes of continuous
writing for developing an idea.
 Loop-writing. This exercise involves both a fast-writing and a subsequent reflection
activity, in which what has been written is revised and condensed in a main idea or

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 loop, which is developed in its turn. This is a good exercise in deciding on topic
sentences for each paragraph.
b) Revising/Peer consultation
After finishing a first draft of the text, students should be encouraged to revise what they
have written in order to add, cross out or improve points. Peer-revision activities are
extremely fruitful, as each student can get feedback from a reader who can point out unclear
or ambiguous ideas, areas needing to be clarified, completed, shortened, expanded, reordered
or omitted, as well as strong or interesting points which should be emphasised.
c) Redrafting
d) Editing/Crafting
After revising a second draft, students should focus on the accuracy of their text. This
concerns grammatical and lexical accuracy. Students have to check sentence arrangement and
syntactic relations, vocabulary choice and rephrasing possibilities, as well as logical ordering
and organisation. Again, peer evaluation or peer editing may provide useful reader feedback
on accurate expression.
e) Re-editing/improving
Once students have finished their final drafts, the teacher may examine them and offer
suggestions for improving content or form. The teacher indicates mistakes or problem areas
which the student has to sort out.

4.3. POST–WRITING
The post-writing stage consists of activities concerned with the publishing, evaluation and
ranking of the students’ productions.
a) Publishing
Even if most student texts are intended for the eyes of the teacher-reader, we should find
ways in which the students can see their products ‘published’, even in the form of a wall-
display or in a class or school magazine. We can put texts up on display, with student judges
allowing each text points for strong points – based on clear evaluation criteria (clarity,
originality, creativity, communicative efficiency). The highest ranking three texts can, if
possible, be included in a school publication.
b) Discussion and evaluation of results
Students should be involved in discussing and evaluating their own written results,
comparing them with others and deciding on areas which they need to practise and improve
in their writing.

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 c) Evaluation and marking
The teacher’s feedback is essential in raising the students’ motivation for writing. That is why
students should be given a chance to improve their text before the final marking. Teacher and
students can devise a correction code in which the teacher can signal mistakes (e.g. WW for
wrong word, WT for wrong tense, WO for word order) (see Hedge 2005). Written comments
on the margins can be used to suggest areas needing to be improved. Having students re-edit
their texts according to the teacher’s suggestions before being marked motivated them to try
harder to improve their written products. Marking should be done on the basis of clear criteria
well-known to the students, which provides a warranty of objectivity and transparency. As
already stated before, positive feedback and constant encouragement is essential in furthering
confidence and motivation for writing.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY AND GUIDE TO FURTHER READING:

GENERAL METHODOLOGY COURSEBOOKS

Brumfit, C. Communicative Methodology in Language Teaching. Cambridge University
Press, 1984
Doff, Adrian. Teach English: A Training Course for Teachers: Teacher's Workbook.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988
Harmer, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching (3rd edition). Longman, 2001
Littlewood, W. Communicative Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press, 1981
Nunan. Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge University Press
1989
Parrott, Martin. Tasks for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993
Scrivener, Jim. Learning Teaching: The Essential Guide to English Language Teaching.
MacMillan, 2011
Ur, Penny. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Trainee Book. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1999

GRAMMAR
Aitken Rosemary. Teaching Tenses. ELB Publishing, 2002
Celce-Murcia and Hilles. Techniques and Resources in Teaching Grammar. Oxford
University Press, 1988
Frank and Rinvolucri. Grammar in Action Again. Prentice-Hall, 1991
Gerngross, Günter, Puchta, Herbert. Creative Grammar Practice. Longman, 1992
Hall and Shepheard. The Anti-Grammar Grammar Book. ELB Publishing, 2008
Harmer, Jeremy. Teaching and Learning Grammar. Longman, 1995
Rinvolucri, Mario. Grammar Games:Cognitive, Affective and Drama Activities for EFL
Students. Cambridge University Press, 1985
Rinvolucri, Mario. The Q Book
Ur, Penny. Grammar Practice Activities: A Practical Guide for Teachers. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1988
Wajyrb, Ruth. Grammar Dictation

VOCABULARY
Digby and Myers. Making Sense of Vocabulary. Cassel, 1991
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Gairns, Ruth, Redman, Stuart. Working with Words: A guide to teaching and learning
vocabulary. Cambridge University Press, 1992
Morgan, Rinvolucri, Mario. Vocabulary. Oxford University Press, 1986
Redman, Stuart. A Way with Words. Cambridge University Press, 1991
Underhill, Adrian. Use Your Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 1980
Wallace, Michael J. Teaching Vocabulary. English Language Book Society (ELBS),
Heinemann Educational Books, 1989
Watcyn-Jones, Peter. Test Your Vocabulary (Vol. 1- 4). Penguin, 1979

LISTENING
Anderson, A, Lynch, T. Listening. Oxford University Press, 1988
Blundell, L, Stokes, J. Task Listening. Cambridge University Press 1981
Stokes, J. Elementary Task Listening. Cambridge University Press, 1984
Ur, Penny. Teaching Listening Comprehension. Cambridge University Press, 1984

READING
Collie, Joanne, Slater, Stephen. Literature in the Language Classroom: A Resource Book of
Ideas and Activities. Cambridge University Press, 1988
Gower, Roger, Pearson, Margaret. Reading Literature. Longman, 1998
Gower, Roger. Past into Present: An anthology of British and American Literature.
Longman, 1990
Grellet, F. Developing Reading Skills. Cambridge University Press, 1981
Hedge, Tricia. Using Readers in Language Teaching. Phoenix ELT, 1985
Hill, Susan. Using Literature in the Classroom. Peguis Pub Ltd., 1995
Krashen, Stephen. The Power of Reading. Englewood Colorado Libraries Unlimited, 1993
Nuttal, C. Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. Oxford: Heinemann ELT, 1996
Prowse, Phillip. ‘Powerful Magic: Using Readers’, BBC English, October 1996
Saragi, Y., Nation, P., Meister, G. ‘Vocabulary Learning and Reading’. System 6, 1978
Simpson, Paul. Language through Literature. Routledge, 1997
Wallace, Catherine. Reading. Oxford University Press, 1992

SPEAKING
Halliwell, Susan, Holmes, Bernardette, Jones, Barry. You Speak, They Speak: Focus on
Target Language Use. CILT National Centre for Languages, 2002
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Klippel, Friederike. Keep Talking: Communicative Fluency Activities for Language
Teaching. Cambridge University Press, 1985
Ur, Penny. Discussions that Work: Task-centred Fluency Practice. Cambridge University
Press, 1981

WRITING
Byrne, Donn. Just Write. London: Macmillan, 1988
Byrne, Donn. Teaching Writing Skills. London: Longman, 1988
Davis, Paul, Rinvolucri, Mario. Dictation: New Methods, New Possibilities. Cambridge
University Press, 1989
Gerngross, Günter, Puchta, Herbert. Creative Grammar Practice. Longman, 1992
Hadfield, Jill, Hadfield, Charles. Writing Games. Nelson ELT, 1990
Hedge, Tricia. Pen to Paper. London: Nelson, 1983
Hedge, Tricia. In a Word. London: Nelson, 1983
Hedge, Tricia. Writing. Oxford University Press, 2005
Hoey, Michael. On the Surface of Discourse. Allen and Unwin,1987
Klauser, H. A. Writing on Both Sides of the Brain. Breakthrough Techniques for People who
Write. London: Harper and Row, 1986
Raimes, A. Exploring Through Writing. New York: St. Martin’s Press,1987
White, Ron, Arndt, Valerie. Process Writing. Longman, 1991

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