Throwing Them in at The Deep End'

Throwing them in at the deep end
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http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/print/6241
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/throwing-them-%E2%80%98-deep-end%E2%80%99
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By TE Editor
Created 13 Jan 2010 - 12:47
TeachingEnglish
Submitted by TE Editor on 13 January, 2010 - 12:47
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Syllabus writers - and teachers in general - commonly assume a scaffolding approach to
course design. Put simply, this means that more challenging material follows on from slightly
less challenging material. Elementary learners learn Elementary language items and
Advanced learners learn Advanced language items, and we dont teach Advanced language
items to beginners.
There are good reasons for this:
We dont want to discourage learners by presenting material that is too difficult
It is motivating for learners to experience a sense of continuity between stages
Teachers themselves feel more comfortable with a clearly defined, progressive course.
However, there are also disadvantages:
Real life doesnt present language in bite-sized units of progressive difficulty
Some topics that are traditionally considered advanced, such as phrasal verbs and
colloquial language, can actually be taught at much lower levels
If learners are able to acquire a limited amount of more advanced language early
on-giving them a taste of whats to come- this can be motivating, exciting and
interesting.
Sometimes it can be a good idea to throw your learners in at the deep end - presenting and
practising language that would normally be considered too advanced for their level. In this
article I will present some ideas on how you can break free of some of the limitations of level
in ways that will excite your students.
Phrasal verbs at Elementary level
Phrasal verbs, or multi-word verbs, confuse even advanced learners. This is because they
have been conditioned to see a kind of one-to-one relationship between single word units
and meaning. For example, eat, run and work all have clear, concrete meanings.
If youre learning Chinese, youre taught right from the beginning that words are built up of
basic images. Change a part of that image and you change the meaning.
The problem with taking a scaffolding approach to vocabulary is that English really isnt a
string of single word units. Its more like a collection of chunks. Phrasal verbs are just
another type of chunk.
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To introduce learners to this idea at higher levels is too late. Its much better to introduce it
early on.
Example: introducing some simple phrasal verbs at elementary level:
Take some simple verbs like eat, run and work and write them on the board.
Learners make sentences in groups with each verb and the teacher checks them.
Now present the phrasal verbs eat out, run out of and work out through a context,
e.g. a text on spare time activities: I eat out once a month. My favourite food is Thai
food. I dont eat out often because Im a student and I dont want to run out of money. I
work out at the gym three times a week - usually I do aerobics.
Have the students underline eat, run and work in the text and ask them what they
notice about these verbs in this text. They will probably notice that they are followed by
out / out of.
Now ask the students why they think this is. Perhaps they have some ideas; you can
write these on the board.
Now have learners match the verbs with the following meanings: to do exercise/ to eat
at a restaurant or caf/ to have no more of something.
You can now explain the idea of a special group of English verbs that are made of
several parts - i.e. phrasal verbs. By adding extra parts, the meaning changes, as in
these examples.
Follow up with semi-controlled and freer practice activities as you would normally.
Authentic listening/reading at low levels
Its perfectly possible to create stimulating lessons for low level learners with the sort of
spoken and written texts youd normally aim at advanced learners. The trick is to adapt the
tasks to their level. The mantra to apply is, The harder the text, the simpler the task.
For example if youre doing a newspaper reading comprehension task. At higher levels, you
might start with a headline prediction activity, followed by some skim reading,
comprehension questions and then some focus on vocabulary.
With lower levels, the density of unknown vocabulary will probably be too high to do this, so
its better to apply a strong top down approach combined with much simpler tasks.
Example: authentic reading at low levels
Take a series of headlines from the weeks world news and accompanying pictures.
Separate the headlines from the articles. Try to select headlines with concrete themes
(such as presidents visiting places) rather than abstract topics (such as interest rates).
Post them on the board. Learners are likely to have some prior knowledge of the
stories.
In groups, have the learners match the stories with the photos.
Check the results.
Ask learners to write down what additional details they already know about these
stories.
Feedback to the class/ write this down on the board.
You can now give learners the full articles (a different text for each group) with some
key words/phrases highlighted, related to the basics of the story. Its important not to
make these too complex.
You can now give learners an activity to deduce the meaning of each phrases from
context. You could have them choose from several possible translations to ease the
cognitive challenge, or have a simple matching activity, or have learners try to explain
the meaning in their own words (this would need to be closely monitored).
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Learners can now follow up by re-telling the story verbally, using some of the new
vocabulary.
Example: authentic listening at low levels

For this you will probably need to keep the task extremely simple.
Prepare by selecting a text with a relatively concrete theme, such as two friends
discussing a football game
Pre-teach some vocabulary such as amazing goal, bad tackle, foul and so on- some
of which is used in the text, some of which is not.
Learners listen and tick off what they hear.
The vocabulary can be then recycled in a speaking task.
You might argue what the point of such a simple task would be. One possible answer is
simply to present new vocabulary in a form that is much more challenging than what the
learners would ordinarily be able to cope with by themselves. This can help to develop
confidence.
Throwing them in at the shallow end
The flipside to all of this is that it is important for Advanced learners to practise or revise
basics sometimes as well. I have come across advanced speakers who produce repeated
errors with the past simple such as I didnt went, for example. Sometimes you need to go
back and refresh basic topics.
Conclusion
Overall its important not to treat the concept of level too rigidly. Its perfectly possible, using
the approach described above, to challenge your students with harder material early on.
Having said this, its important to remember that while throwing learners in at the deep end
can provide learners with extra stimulation and a sense of punching above their weight,
there should still be an overarching sense of gradual progression to your courses and
selection of material.
Tom Hayton, Teacher, Business Trainer
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Published on TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC (http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk)