English Teaching Professional Magazine 86 PDF

Issue 86
May
2013
The Leading Practical Magazine For English Language Teachers Worldwide
All aboard!
Marjorie Rosenberg
Printed versus digital
dictionaries
Michael Rundell
When is a board not a board?
Simon Mumford
That’s what friends are for
Genevieve White
• practical methodology
• fresh ideas & innovations
• classroom resources
• new technology
• teacher development
• tips & techniques
• photocopiable materials
• competitions & reviews
w w w . e t p r o f e s s i o n a l . c o m
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Contents MAIN FEATURE TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS
ALL ABOARD! 4 WORLD STORIES 23

Marjorie Rosenberg includes everyone in her lessons David Heathfield celebrates international storytelling
FEATURES EAP
TAKE MY ADVICE ... OR NOT! 9 A CHOICE OF WORDS 54

Paul Bress addresses the advisability of giving advice Louis Rogers uses corpora for lexical clarification
PRODUCT PLUS PROCESS 10

Graham Burton suggests a combined strategy leads to
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
writing success
READING JOURNAL ARTICLES 57
STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS 14 Nicholas Northall rates the role of journals and
Anita Rao Mysore and Felicity Lincoln support magazines in professional development
students from different backgrounds
PRINTED VERSUS DIGITAL DICTIONARIES 17

Michael Rundell considers the pros and cons TECHNOLOGY
WEBLOGS 60
WHEN IS A BOARD NOT A BOARD? 20
Eva Stradiotová meets her students’ technological
Simon Mumford takes a metaphorical view of an
expectations
essential piece of equipment
FIVE THINGS YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO 61

OVER THE WALL 25
KNOW ABOUT: ‘REMIX’ OR ‘MASH-UPS’
Alan Maley looks at visual perception
Nicky Hockly combines different media
LICKS AND CHUNKS 29

WEBWATCHER 63
Roger van Schaick jazzes up language
Russell Stannard presents PresentMe
FROM RESEARCH TO REALITY 3 30

Magnus Coney proposes that student-initiated topics
are more memorable REGULAR FEATURES
A QUESTION OF ATTITUDE 34 LANGUAGE LOG 40

Claudia Keh describes a successful vocabulary workshop John Potts
EFFECTIVE SIGNPOSTING 46 IT WORKS IN PRACTICE 38

Erin Herrick points the way to proving how lessons
are actually progressing SCRAPBOOK 42
GONE BLANK? 48 REVIEWS 44

Alan Marsh teaches circumlocution
COMPETITIONS 41, 64
THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR 52
Genevieve White invites some interesting characters
to class
Includes materials designed to photocopy
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 86 May 2013 • 1

Editorial
A
nyone detecting a slightly cheesy smell to this she suggests ways of implementing a more inclusive
issue will not be surprised to learn that three teaching style in order to cater for students with
of our contributors have managed to work differing learning preferences.
that most fragrant of foodstuffs into their articles! I
For David Heathfield, sharing stories from other
advise serious turophiles to turn straight to the
languages and across cultures is the key to an all-
Scrapbook in order to feast on Ian Waring Green’s
inclusive classroom. The website he recommends is an
account of amorous goats, cheese-fuelled traffic
excellent source of stories from all around the world.
hazards, de Gaulle’s doubts about whether one can
govern a country possessed of 246 varieties of cheese Anita Rao Mysore and Felicia Lincoln train teachers
– plus the delights of cheeses full of writhing maggots. who will work in contexts where a specific type of
For a more linguistic angle on the subject, look no English language learner is placed in school classes
further than page 40, where John Potts employs the alongside more mainstream students. They put forward
same de Gaulle quotation to discuss the question of ways to make lessons more welcoming and inclusive
whether or not cheese(s) can be counted. Alan Marsh’s for these students as they are faced with the challenge
definition of a delicatessen (a place where you buy of keeping up with the others.
cheeses ...) adds further ammunition to the debate.
As well as warning of the difficulties of government,

the French president’s words can be interpreted as a
celebration of diversity – and this is something else
which is well represented in this issue. In our main Helena Gomm
Editor
feature, Marjorie Rosenberg celebrates the diversity of
[email protected]
learning styles to be found within a single class, and
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Pages 42–43, 50–51 and 55 include materials which are designed to photocopy. All other rights are reserved and no part of this publication may
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2 • Issue 86 May 2013 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

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English Teaching Professional March 2013 (186 x 123).indd 1 26/03/2013 17:22:55

M A I N F E AT U R E
All aboard!
O
Marjorie Rosenberg bserving students tackling a ways and are, therefore, more comfortable
task can be fascinating. Even using some learning strategies than
challenges us to teach to all in cases where guidelines for others. Although it is not possible to
the task are set out in reach each and every student all of the
learning styles, neglecting advance, it may be that the learners time, merely bearing in mind that a class
approach it in different ways – but still consists of a group of individuals with
no one. reach the same outcome. different needs, strengths and weaknesses
In a recent course, we carried out an can help us to reach our goals.
activity in which the learners had to put
together a jigsaw puzzle with the target
language written on the pieces. One group It is up to us as
solved the puzzle by finding and matching teachers to remain
up the appropriate language; another
group ignored the language completely, flexible and be on
and concentrated on finding the pieces of
the puzzle which fitted together.
the lookout for new
When my learners are asked to give ways to convey
feedback on a class, a number of them
will put speaking and communicative information to
activities on the plus side; others will our learners
rank these as drawbacks, and comment
that they would have preferred more
grammar rules and drills. It can be useful for us to remember
These examples demonstrate that that we are ‘teaching to the learner’
learners of different styles are present in rather than ‘teaching to the test’.
the class. The question is: What does this Learners may well possess different ways
mean for educators? It can be assumed of arriving at the same place, so we can
that our top priority is to involve all of help them by offering a mix of methods
the learners in our lessons. Finding the or approaches. As Pat Guild and
best way to do this can be a challenge, Stephen Garger say: ‘It is possible to
however. strive for uniform outcomes but to
intentionally diversify the means for
Learning styles achieving them.’ Therefore, it is up to us
to remain flexible and be on the lookout
A good starting point would be to define for new ways to convey information to
what learning styles are. James Keefe our learners. Once we begin on this
says that they are ‘characteristic path, it can become easier to continue,
cognitive, affective and psychological especially if we start to notice a
behaviours that serve as relatively stable difference in both the processes of
indicators of how learners perceive, learning our students make use of and
interact with and respond to the learning the outcomes which they achieve.
environment’, while Rita and Kenneth
Dunn state that ‘learning style is the way
each person begins to concentrate on, Sensory-based learning
process, internalize and retain new and Over the years, a number of learning
difficult academic information’. Both styles have been identified, researched
these definitions can help to explain why and labelled. Let us start with sensory-
learners approach learning differently. based learning, known by many as VAK
It is important for teachers to be (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic). For
aware that individuals learn in different some educators, this is the most basic

style, as we all have distinctive methods the outcome should be, and are more
in which we perceive and store Once we have comfortable when they are given
information. guidelines on how to get there. In
People who learn visually like to see determined how contrast to global learners, they are
words written down in order to learners perceive and usually more intrinsically motivated and
understand or remember them better. do not need the recognition of others if
These learners often ask teachers to store information, the they are convinced that what they have
write new vocabulary on the board, and done is correct. When analytic learners
often carry around a number of
next step is to look are part of a group, they prefer to get on
markers, highlighters and different- at their cognitive with the work and do not find it
coloured pens. They may make pictures necessary to spend much time
in their minds, underline words or processing methods socialising, feeling that ‘small talk’ is a
phrases while reading and especially distraction from what they need to do.
appreciate illustrated learning materials. At a school where staff meetings
field-dependent were influenced by the
Auditory learners need to hear or took place in the evening, the global
feelings they had while flying and
speak themselves in order to learn best. types arrived with cakes and made
ignored the instruments; the field-
Some read aloud, and they often study coffee, as they looked forward to having
independent could ignore their feelings
with music in the background as they time to chat with colleagues. The
and rely solely on the instruments.
prefer sounds to silence. They generally analytic types were somewhat annoyed
This prompted the idea that global
take fewer notes in class as they prefer at the time they had to spend socialising
learners are more affected by their
to concentrate on listening. They usually and preferred to get down to work. A
environments than analytic ones are.
take the lead in discussions, and compromise was reached by setting
Further research on the subject resulted
volunteer more often when we ask aside time before the actual meeting for
in setting out characteristics generally
questions of the class. those who wanted coffee and cake in a
shared by learners within each of these
Kinaesthetic learners tend to divide relaxed atmosphere, thereby allowing
two types.
into two groups – emotional and the others to arrive later and tackle the
Global learners tend to remember
motoric. Kinaesthetic emotional learners tasks in hand.
whole experiences rather than details,
need to feel comfortable with those they
and may make decisions with their
work with. They remember best when
they can relate what they need to learn
hearts rather than their heads. When Analytic learners like
working in groups, they like to set up
to their own personal experiences or are
relationships with others and to feel to know before they
encouraged to personalise their learning
materials. They perform best when they
comfortable with them. They often take start what the outcome
on more than one project at a time and
feel that there is a positive atmosphere in
can be very good at multi-tasking. They should be, and are
the classroom, and value friendliness on
are generally extrinsically motivated, as
the part of the teacher. Kinaesthetic
the opinions of others are important to
more comfortable
motoric learners, on the other hand,
need to try things out for themselves,
them. When doing groupwork in class, when given guidelines
global learners may start off by finding
enjoy moving about the classroom and
ways to set up relationships with the on how to get there
are good at recalling things they have
others in the group before getting down
done rather than those they have only
to the task.
heard or read about. These are the
students who perk up as soon as they
Analytic learners, on the other hand, Complications
value facts more than feelings. They are
have the chance to do a roleplay, use There is a danger in all of this, however.
task-oriented and like to break processes
physical objects or play a game. As tempting as it may be to put students
down step-by-step. These learners like to
into neat categories, the issue is actually
finish one job before starting another
Cognitive processing and may even prefer to work alone.
more complicated. In most cases, a great
deal of ‘style stretching’ goes on.
Once we have determined how learners They like to know before they start what
Andrew Cohen suggests that ‘it is also
perceive and store information, the next possible that learners over time can be
step is to look at their cognitive encouraged to engage in “style-
processing methods. One way of doing Global learners stretching” so as to incorporate
this is to divide these into global or tend to remember approaches to learning they were resisting
analytic learning styles. Early research in the past’.
done in this field was carried out by whole experiences Many learners have already begun to
Herman Witkin, whose observations of
fighter pilots led him to the conclusion
rather than details, and take on strategies that are generally
classified as belonging to a different
that people tend to be field-dependent may make decisions learner type from their preferred one.
(global) or field-independent (analytic). This may depend on the particular task
He noticed that some of the pilots kept with their hearts rather they need to do, the way it was presented
their planes upright after flying through than their heads to them, or even the outcome they are
fog banks and others didn’t: the expected to produce. Once they have had

All aboard!
more suited to one style than another, have certain ingrained patterns in the
but the styles themselves cannot be way we teach, especially if we have been
classified as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. doing it for a while. By looking at an
It is also important to remember activity and putting ourselves in the
success with strategies which caused that ‘style’ and ‘competence’ should be place of a learner of a different style, we
them to stretch out of their style, there is regarded as two separate things. One may be able to find a way to change the
a good chance that they will employ style may be more conducive to learning activity to appeal to a different learner
these methods again. But if students get a particular subject, and each of the type.
stuck, it may be up to the teacher to styles has advantages which can be used Sometimes it is just a small change
offer ideas to increase their repertoire of to aid students in their pursuit of that can make the difference:
learning strategies in order to help them knowledge. However, telling someone
on the road to success. We can use different colours on the
that they ‘shouldn’t learn’ in a particular
Reading learner diaries from my board to indicate different areas of
way is not helpful; opening up the
university students, as part of a research grammar or lexis.
myriad possibilities to them to explore
project on learning styles and learner may be exactly what they need to We can try throwing a small ball
autonomy, has been quite enlightening discover their own love of learning. around the classroom to have the
in this area. Although they are now students respond to questions, rather
aware of their styles, they employ a than only calling on those who
variety of methods to learn. Knowing All of us have volunteer.
about their styles, however, has
encouraged a number of them to try out certain ingrained We can give out reward stickers to
students when they have done
new strategies they had not thought patterns in the way something well, creating a good
about using in the past. In some cases,
the learners now ‘allow’ themselves to we teach, especially atmosphere in the classroom and
use strategies that are natural to their helping those who rely on extrinsic
preferred styles, but which they were
if we have been motivation.
uncomfortable with using before working as classroom Even correcting papers and adding
because either their parents or teachers comments about specific areas in which
had told them they were not helpful for teachers for a while students are improving can be a new
learning. Now, however, they can relax way of giving feedback, and may be
and use them happily. helpful for those who want details about
Another aspect of the knowledge of
styles is the tolerance which can come their progress. Peer correction or having
students write review questions for each
Knowing about their with it. When a member of a group
other can also turn an activity upside
insists on approaching a task in a way
styles, however, has that another member finds problematic, down and make it more centred on the
just knowing that this is the comfortable learners and their needs. These are all
encouraged a number way for that individual to go about the possible ways of stretching beyond the
everyday methods we generally use.
of my students to try task can put this action in a different
The added benefit of our quest for
light. Realising that people do things
out new strategies they because they feel they need to, and not new ideas is that we can contribute to
the confidence of our learners. When we
had not thought about because they want to annoy another
begin to discover the uniqueness of our
person, is a first step in accepting people
using in the past and their behaviour. students and the enormous contribution
this can make to our classrooms, the
process of both teaching and learning
Challenge can take on a new dimension and can
Considerations What remains for the teacher is the lead to personal development for both
It is necessary to address some of the exploration of diversifying material. Just the learner and the teacher.
misconceptions surrounding the as students need to stretch out of their
discussion of learning styles. Firstly, it is comfort zones, teachers may be faced
important to state that styles are never with the same challenge. Many of us When we begin
an excuse: just because someone is not teach in the way we learn, either
very good at something does not mean consciously or subconsciously. Once we to discover the
that they never have to do it. It might be realise that those sitting in our
easier for a particular learner to learn to classrooms are individuals with different
uniqueness of our
pronounce English words clearly or to and unique characteristics and students, the process
write a cohesive sentence, but all behaviours, the challenge of finding
learners have to find a way to do this in ways to teach them becomes part of our of both teaching and
order to progress. daily routine. learning can take on
A second important point to make is This means digging down into our
that no one style is ‘better’ than another. ‘toolboxes of activities’ and trying out a new dimension
Teachers may make use of strategies different ideas and methods. All of us

For educators, this may begin with They can use the past or the present them and look at the suggested jobs.
recognition of our own styles of perfect tense to explain what has led They categorise them into groups:
teaching, followed by a period of up to the situation, or use the future to Jobs they would like to have. Jobs they
reflection on what we can change to say what they think will happen next. might like to try. Jobs they would never
reach a wider range of learners. This can be expanded when they see want to do.
Once we have taken a first step by the picture they were told to create.
The learners all tell the class which jobs
teaching to our learners’ strengths, the
Finally, the learners can write a story were suggested for them, and which
door may open to the discovery of their
hidden talents, and the limiting beliefs based on the picture, using before, ones they would or wouldn’t like. They
which learners have held onto for many during and after. can also be encouraged to ask the
years may begin to disappear. These others for their reasons for their
positive steps can, in turn, lead to more suggestions.
All aboard
self-confidence among our learners and Describing a picture is visual. Finally, you can ask the learners to
become a major part of a positive Listening carefully is auditory. write a short essay on their ideal job:
learning and teaching climate in which Volunteering to work in a group is Why would they like the job? Why do
all of our learners can come on board kinaesthetic emotional. Posing as a they think they would be good at it?
and take part in the trip to successful character is kinaesthetic motoric. This can be done as a homework
language learning. Working together is global. Looking assignment or in class and read aloud.
for exact details is analytic.
All aboard
Perhaps the best way to conclude this Finding out which jobs were chosen
article is simply to invite you to look at The envelope game for you is global. Deciding why a job
two classroom activities that would be good for someone is
demonstrate the idea of teaching to your Styles analytic. Writing the jobs is visual.
learners’ learning styles – activities Global–Analytic Telling the others about the
which focus principally on some styles, suggested jobs is auditory. Filling
Preparation
while not neglecting the others. You and passing on the envelopes is
You will need an envelope for each
might like to try them out – because, of kinaesthetic motoric. Basing
learner and lots of small pieces of paper.
course, you are all most welcome on decisions on feelings is kinaesthetic
board, too! Procedure emotional.
Brainstorm jobs that the learners know
or have heard of. Try to get as many as
Becoming a picture possible written up on the board, and Dunn, R and Dunn, K The Complete
encourage the learners to come up Guide to the Learning Styles Inservice
Styles with unusual ones. System Allyn and Bacon 1999
Mixed VAK Guild, P B and Garger, S Marching to
Distribute the envelopes and the pieces Different Drummers Association for
Preparation of paper and ask the learners to write Supervision and Curriculum Development
Find a photo or a painting which shows their name on their envelope. They then (ASCD) 1998
several people doing something. pass the envelope to the person on Keefe, J W ‘Learning styles: an overview’
their right. in Keefe, J W (Ed) Student learning styles:
Procedure diagnosing and prescribing problems
Tell the learners you need volunteers to Each learner thinks about the ideal job National Association of Secondary School
‘be a picture’. The number of for the person named on the envelope Principals 1979
volunteers will depend on the number they have received, based on what they Witkin, H A and Goodenough, D R
of people in your picture. The picture is know about that person or what they Cognitive Styles: Essence and Origins
then passed around the class. International Universities Press 1981
feel they would be good at doing. They
write it on a piece of paper, put it into
Each learner takes a turn to tell the Marjorie Rosenberg
the envelope and pass it on to the next
volunteers what they need to do. teaches English at the
person. University of Graz in
Subsequent learners can make Austria, trains teachers
corrections to the picture being created The next person also decides which job and holds workshops
and conference
in front of them, as the original is would be good for the person whose presentations on topics
passed around. envelope they have received – without such as NLP, learning
styles, corporative
looking inside – and writes the job on a learning and business
When the class is satisfied, the
piece of paper, adding it to the first one. English. Her publications
volunteers are allowed see the original include In Business,
picture. Continue in this way until the envelopes Business Advantage
Personal Study Books
return to their owners. (If the class is Intermediate and
If you want to add another dimension Advanced (CUP) and
very large you may want to divide it into
to the activity, you can have the Spotlight on Learning
two groups.) Styles (DELTA Publishing).
volunteers try to guess what the
[email protected]
situation is before they see the picture. The owners of the envelopes then open

Ben GoldsteIn
CerI Jones
and dAnIel BArBer
The BIG Picture

C1 advanced Student’s Book
Prove your
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LANGUAGE genuine questions (rather than just lip
service to two-way communication).
Take my advice ...

4 Ask them to consider how to
phrase the advice they give in a
sensitive way.
or not!
So, let’s assume that the situation is
non-urgent, and that the interlocutor,
having been asked if they would like
advice, appears genuinely to want it. How
can the advice-giver articulate the advice?
Paul Bress takes a lively look at a speech function that may misfire. Here are some possible exponents:
‘Have you thought of ...?’
I Think before you speak!

may be showing my age, but when ‘Well, I usually ...’
I first started teaching English, ‘I suppose you could always ...’
How can teachers, then, encourage their
functional-notional language
students to give advice appropriately? I
teaching was positively de rigueur.
suggest the following four steps.
Perhaps because I was around at the
start of this new development, I tend 1 Ask them to consider the degree I know that there are some teachers who
now to be very focused on the need of urgency in the situation. are of the opinion that all you need to
to set and achieve communicative If someone is, unwittingly, about to enter do in the classroom is to teach grammar,
objectives in the lessons I teach. For me, a (literal) minefield, this person clearly vocabulary and phonology – and that
‘to complain about a meal’ counts as needs to be warned not to go there. This the students are intelligent enough to
a communicative objective, while ‘the is a question of life and death. ‘Stop!’ work out how the target language works
present perfect’ certainly doesn’t. would be a useful exponent here. The in real-life communication. I think that
urgency of the situation obviously sometimes this may be the case, but also
Why don’t you mind your overrides any other factors. that it very often isn’t the case. If it were
own business? 2 Ask them to consider whether
always true, non-native speakers of
I remember reading coursebooks in English would say please when
the interlocutor is the sort who is requesting something (without ever
which a number of apparently keen to receive advice.
interchangeable exponents for ‘giving needing to be prompted by the teacher).
If the situation isn’t urgent, then the By the same token, native English
advice’ were offered up. students need to know how the
When asked to imagine that speakers would be dropping phrases like
interlocutor likes to communicate with per favore when ordering everyday
someone has announced that they’ve others. In my experience, I’ve never met
won £100,000, students are told that things like coffee in Italy. In fact, the
anyone who likes to receive advice, but social implications of please and per
possible responses might be: there might be some people who do. You
‘If I were you, I’d buy a flat.’ favore need to be taught very carefully.
can ask your students: Let’s not forget that it’s ‘misfiring’
or ‘Do you think that person A likes
‘You should buy a flat.’ speech functions that cause offence, not
receiving advice?’ faulty grammar or pronunciation. So
or And if the answer is ‘no’, you can say:
‘Why don’t you buy a flat?’ the topic of this article is not a
‘So is it a good idea to give advice or not?’ peripheral one. If a non-native speaker
But there is a problem in suggesting such and
expressions. The problem lies in the fact keeps giving advice to a native speaker
‘What can you do instead of giving when the latter just wants to be listened
that our lives are constantly changing, advice?’
and such responses – to me at least – to, the advice proffered will be very
The answer to the last question might similar to an unwanted gift – the pair of
now sound remarkably inappropriate. be, simply, ‘listen’.
My own friends don’t give me advice, socks you buy for someone because you
particularly not on how I should spend 3 Ask them to consider how to can’t be bothered to find out what that
person really wants.
my money, and I never give people advice check whether advice is welcome.
unless I’m asked for it (which is almost Sometimes, even if a situation isn’t
Paul Bress lives in Herne
never). In other words, I am suggesting urgent, person A has a desire to give Bay, UK, where he
that giving advice these days is generally advice to person B. Perhaps person A teaches English to
overseas students and
unwelcome and should, therefore, not isn’t sure whether person B wants to be also writes novels and
feature largely in coursebooks. advised right now or not. In this case, paints. His novels are:
The Man Who Didn’t Age,
Having said that, it must be stated you can ask your students what they The Dysfunctional Family,
that there are occasions in which giving could say to determine this. Some For Adults Only and The
Check-out Operator and
advice is appropriate – for example, if a phrases they could use are: Life Swap, all published by
member of the public takes a problem to ‘Do you want to know what I think?’ Fast-Print and available
on Kindle. His paintings
the Citizens Advice Bureau. If someone or can be viewed at
goes there for advice, and all they get is ‘Do you mind if I give you some advice?’ http://paulbressgallery.
an empathetic response, they will almost blogspot.co.uk.
I would recommend that such sentences
[email protected]
certainly feel short-changed! be said softly, so that they are heard as

WRITING
Product plus
process
I
Graham Burton n the past, the teaching of writing In comparison, a process approach
was sometimes divided into two is, as the name would suggest, more
outlines an integrated supposedly distinct approaches – concerned with the process of writing.
the product approach (together with The idea is that the learners are asked to
approach in four stages. the closely related genre approach) and work through various stages, such as
the process approach. In fact, it is still not brainstorming, planning, drafting,
uncommon to hear these two approaches redrafting, editing, etc, in order to
described as being mutually exclusive develop writing skills. So the focus is on
and totally incompatible with one what they can learn from going through
another. In this article, I want to outline the process of writing, and less on what
a four-stage approach to teaching they actually produce.
writing in preparation for examinations
which combines both the product and Combining
process approaches. I refer primarily to
the Cambridge English: First (FCE) and It should be pretty clear that these two
Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) approaches are very different, but I’m
exams, but most of what I describe could certainly not the first to suggest that
be applicable to other examinations and, they are, in fact, totally compatible. I
in fact, to any situation in which learners suspect most teachers who teach writing
need to be able to produce texts of a use aspects of both from time to time,
particular genre. I will also try to show and perhaps together. It seems
how teacher–student dialogue can be uncontroversial to say that learners
very important in developing an often need to learn how to produce a
awareness of genre. particular genre (eg a story), and that
they also need to know the language
that is commonly found in those texts
Defining (eg narrative tenses), but that at the
Firstly, though, what are the product same time they will probably produce
and process approaches to writing? better texts if they have the opportunity
A product approach focuses on the to brainstorm ideas, then plan, draft,
end product. So if you get your students redraft and edit their work. So there
to do written homework practising seems to be room for both approaches.
certain grammatical structures, you I want to make reference here to
probably want to see if they can produce some of the techniques for teaching
a text that uses those structures. The reading and writing advocated by two
genre approach is similar, again focusing Australian linguists, Jim Martin and
on the end product, but, here, that end David Rose. Martin and Rose advocate
product is a text of a particular genre a genre-based approach to teaching
– if you ask your students to write a writing, but this very much includes what
postcard, you’re probably (at least could be classified as a process approach.
partly) interested in whether they can They note that children learn language
actually produce something that would through interaction with adults, but
pass as a postcard in real life. also that adults deliberately support

their interaction with children in order generally prefer to start by eliciting – if you can just highlight those three
to help them develop their linguistic what my students already know about words? [checking students’ highlighting]
competence. Martin and Rose suggest the genre (in Cambridge English exams, That’s perfect ... that’s exactly right,
that learning to read and write can be the genre required is always clearly economic nationalist parties. Beautiful ...
supported in similar ways, specifically specified in the question). This can be perfect ... OK ... we’re on the right track.
through the use of dialogue. The idea supplemented by looking at the
is that just as very young children learn descriptions given in the Cambridge Notice here how there is a repeated cycle
language through dialogue with adults, English handbooks (available at www. of the teacher initiating an exchange, the
so older children – or students of teachers.cambridgeenglish.org as a free students responding, and then the
English – can benefit from dialogue with download). If you’re not teaching teacher giving feedback, which replicates
a teacher. The specific learning cycle they writing for an exam class, you could find to some extent the way adults interact
suggest involves a teacher leading the or write descriptions for the genre you’re with very young children. It probably
students – always by means of a dialogue looking at. My favoured technique is to seems old-fashioned, and I certainly
with the class – through an analysis of give the description from the handbook wouldn’t want the majority of my
a text and the joint construction of a with five or six key words or phrases classes to involve exchanges like this, but
similar text, before the students are given removed, and ask the students to put in small bursts, and with specific aims, it
the opportunity to produce a text of them back in. However, my main can be a very effective way of analysing
their own. priority at this stage is always to get on texts and keeping everyone involved.
to looking at a model text. During the text deconstruction
Stage 1: Analysis The model text
stage, I aim to identify register, structure
(what’s in each paragraph, how ideas are
The question When looking at a model text, the first organised, how paragraphs develop) and
In both the FCE and CAE exams, step is to ‘deconstruct’ it: to analyse it to any linguistic features that are used (eg
candidates have to write two see how it works. Again, through using the past continuous to set the
compositions. The genres that they may dialogue between teacher and class it is scene in the first paragraph of a story, or
be asked (or may choose) to write are possible to identify the cultural context, the present simple in a report to describe
letters and emails (formal and informal), organisation and language features used a current situation, followed by modal
articles, reports, proposals, contributions, in a text. In order to demonstrate this, verbs to make recommendations) and
stories, essays, reviews, information sheets let’s look at an extract from a dialogue any topic-specific vocabulary (eg
and competition entries. The first step I reported by Martin and Rose. The economic nationalist parties in the
always take is to analyse the requirements teaching context is a teenage ESL class excerpt above) or fixed phrases (eg I look
for the particular question we’re looking in Australia, where the students are forward to hearing from you soon in a
at. I give the learners a minute or two to learning to write discursive essays: formal letter). All these things can be
read through the question silently, and written on the board, or you could put
then lead them through a dialogue to T: Now in the next sentence the author them on a handout prepared in advance.
develop an awareness of the requirements tells us that some political parties want
a separate national economy for
of the question. A typical dialogue might
Australia, and they want less or no
Stage 2: Joint
go as follows:
immigration. So I’ll read this. ‘In spite of reconstruction
T: So, in this situation, who are you? the facts, today’s economic nationalist Before a joint reconstruction, I normally
Ss: The head of a student committee. parties – One Nation, the Australian leave some time for brainstorming
T: Good. And who are you writing to? Democrats, Advance Australia, the activities (either in pairs, groups or as a
Greens and Australia First – espouse class) and make sure the students have
Ss: The head of the college.
policies of greatly reduced or zero net time to think about how they would
T: Is that your friend? migration.’ Now, it starts off by saying ‘in organise their ideas. You can ask them to
Ss: No. spite of the facts’, and I’ll tell you what work in pairs to make a plan, write topic
T: So will the composition be formal or that means. ‘In spite of the facts’ means sentences, think of headings (for reports)
informal? that even though the facts are there, and, most importantly for the exam,
they are not looking at the facts. They’re decide on how to organise the
Ss: Formal.
still going this way [demonstrates by information they’re given in the question.
T: Right. And which three things do you walking across]. Joint reconstruction involves the
have to do in your answer?
S: Ignore? whole class writing a composition of the
Ss: [Reading from question] Suggest same genre together by means of
T: Ignoring the facts, that’s right. In spite
improvements to the library, say why dictating the text to a ‘scribe’, who
of the facts.
they’re important and persuade the writes it on the board. The scribe could
head to contribute financially. T: And then it tells us which parties. And
be a student or the teacher. Although
I’ll ask these people at this table to tell
T: OK. So underline those three things in suggestions will be shouted out from the
me [indicating table]. Today’s ...? Can
the question. students to the scribe, the teacher can be
you tell me what kind of parties?
on hand to suggest improvements or
The genre S: Economic nationalist parties. draw attention to errors. Here’s another
The next step is to explore the genre T: Exactly. So that’s what I want you to extract from Martin and Rose; this time,
required by the particular question. I highlight – economic nationalist parties the class are jointly rewriting the

Product plus
By the end of this stage, the students the mark at the bottom. I find that filling
should have a good idea of the genre in this table is much easier and quicker
process
(product) they have to produce. So now than trying to think of two or three
we can move from a product approach sentences of feedback. It also means I’m
to a process approach. I normally spend far more likely to include a mixture of
an hour or so on the first two stages, positive as well as negative feedback,
introduction to a discursive essay about including some form of joint since there will normally be at least one
why students should go to school: reconstruction; the final stages mostly criterion that a student has performed
take place in the students’ own time. well in.
T: Filippa? A handy side-effect of delaying
giving a mark until the second draft is
Filippa: I strongly believe that children
Stage 3: Individual that it encourages the students to go
should go to school for these main
reasons ... um, and I’m going to list reconstruction back and rewrite their compositions,
them all. The students now need to produce a text correcting their errors. Again, I set aside
T: Sorry, say that again. of their own, which they do for five or ten minutes during which the
homework. I may give them a new students can talk to me about their
Lisa: For these main reasons.
question or just to ask them to write feedback. Occasionally, students who
T: For these main reasons. Who can their own response to the question we’ve are very disappointed with their mark
think of a different word other than looked at in class. have produced a third draft, but I
‘main’? My students always produce two wouldn’t normally encourage this.
Ss: For the following reasons. drafts of their compositions. The first
T: For the following reasons. Who can draft I correct with a marking code.
think of another word? There are plenty of examples of marking
In short, the procedure I go through moves
codes available and, of course, you can
Loukia: Listed. from a joint analysis and exploration of
create your own, but the basic idea is to
T: For these listed reasons, um. Who an exam question and the genre it requires
avoid actually providing a correction,
can think of another word? (Stage 1 – a genre or product approach),
and instead to underline the error and
supported practice (Stage 2 – a kind of
Filippa: For these reasons shown here. write a code (eg G = grammar error, SP
mixture of the genre and process
T: For these reasons written here. OK. = spelling) to indicate what kind of error
approach), to two further writing stages,
Who thinks ‘main reasons’. Hands up. it is. I don’t give any feedback or a mark
which allow the students to draft,
Quick. A show of hands. ‘Main’ ‘These at this stage. I set aside five or ten
redraft and edit their writing, hopefully
listed’. I’ve forgotten what the other minutes in class after giving back the
learning from the experience (Stages 3
ones were. ‘corrected’ compositions, during which
and 4 – a process approach).
the students can ask me any questions
Ss: Following [in unison]
and suggest corrections themselves. I
T: OK. Looks like ‘following’. Martin, J R and Rose, D ‘Interacting with
find that they use the time responsibly text: the role of dialogue in learning to
Ss: For the following reasons. and don’t try to check every single read and write’ Foreign Studies Journal
correction with me. Also, while they are 2007
In this example, you can really see that waiting to talk to me they tend to work
the whole class is involved in writing the together in pairs or small groups and Graham Burton teaches
text, but the teacher is actively guiding on examination
help each other with corrections. This is preparation courses,
them to the best possible outcome. a very natural and organic form of peer along with general English
Again, it probably looks a bit old- correction, and seems to happen without and EAP courses, at the
University of Bolzano, and
fashioned, and you wouldn’t want a my needing to suggest it. lectures at the University
whole class to look like this, but in short of Trento, both in Italy.
He is an oral examiner
bursts it can be very effective.
As an alternative to joint
Stage 4: Rewriting for Cambridge English
and his new book,
Collins Academic Skills
reconstruction, I find it is very effective to The students then rewrite their Series: Presenting, comes
give students ‘skeleton’ writing compositions, producing a second draft, out in September 2013.
worksheets. These are like giant gap-fill again for homework. This time when [email protected]
texts – I include a few sentences, phrases marking, I correct any remaining errors,
and sentence beginnings (for example, I without the marking code, and give
might include the whole of the
introduction, then the first two sentences
feedback using the Cambridge English
marking scheme. If you’re not teaching TALKBACK!
of the second paragraph, then the first writing for examinations, you could still
Do you have something to say about
sentence of the third paragraph) – with use this marking scheme (explained in
an article in the current issue of ETp?
gaps for the students to complete the the Cambridge English handbooks), or
This is your magazine and we would
composition. There is an example on create your own. I produce a table with
really like to hear from you.
page 13. I normally ask the students to the different marking criteria, and for
Write to us or email:
work in pairs as I find this extremely each one I write a comment, which could
productive – they are able to bounce ideas be very detailed or just the word OK or a [email protected]
off each other and correct each other. tick – see the example on page 13. I put

Example skeleton text (for a CAE formal letter)
Dear ..............................................................................
I am writing to you ..............................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................................................................
According to your advertisement, .........................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................. . However, ...............................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................
Another problem is that ................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................................................................
To make matters worse, ..............................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................................................................
As a result of these problems, I ................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................................................................
I look foward to ....................................................................................................................................
Yours ..............................................................................
Completed marking scheme sheet for FCE/CAE
Content Fully answers the question – well done.
Communicative
Good – the reader would understand your arguments.
achievement
OK, but your introduction was a little too long as it contained specific information
Organisation
that could probably have come later.
A good range of grammar, but you could have tried to use some more specific
Language
vocabulary for the topic. Generally accurate.
1.1 1.2 1.3 2.1 2.2 2.3 3.1 3.2 3.3 4.1 4.2 4.3 5.1 5.2 5.3

READING
Strategies
for success
Anita Rao Mysore and Felicia Lincoln help ELLs keep up to speed.
T
he authors of this article Inside the classroom, the teacher Secondary school teachers might
prepare teachers who work in could create a poster with student- employ similar techniques to create an
English-medium classrooms drawn pictures as well as words of atmosphere of acceptance and
where there are students from greetings in different languages. celebration of diversity and to help the
a variety of linguistic backgrounds. The The teacher might display a world students bond with each other and with
term ELL (English Language Learner) is map and do an ‘origin-mapping’ the teacher:
often used to refer to those students whose activity. The students indicate from Each student could be asked to create
English proficiency has not developed to which area of the globe they have a ‘Me bag’ (a bag containing items
a point where they can benefit fully from come by pushing pins into the map. that represent them) or a ‘Me collage’.
English-medium instruction. This article The students could then share their
looks at providing emotional as well as The teacher can give graphic
organisers called ‘personal maps’, as bags or the collages in class.
practical support for such students, but
will also be relevant to teachers in shown below, to all the students in the Teachers can interview their students
contexts where all the students in the class. The students complete these in order to get to know them better.
class are learners of English. with their names, the languages they Taking a tour of the community helps
Proficiency in English is generally speak, their main interests, and any teachers understand the backgrounds
measured in terms of ability in reading, other things that their classmates and dispositions of their students.
writing, listening, speaking and might be interested in knowing about
communication. Motivation, self- them. Each student later shares their
confidence and low anxiety are essential personal map with the teacher and the Providing support
for acquiring a second language, and we rest of the class. Some students may have negative
believe that if students have to perform attitudes towards diverse cultures and
at a proficient level in English, one Personal map cling to racial stereotypes, and it is the
much-needed factor is affective support. teacher’s responsibility to reverse these.
How, then, can teachers motivate, build Promoting dialogue via student journals,
Hello!
self-confidence and lower the anxiety of It’s me! rewarding student tasks, teaching
their ELLs? relaxation techniques and helping
The main focus of this article will be students form support groups and/or
the teaching of reading, but first let’s Born in Family conversation partners (as suggested by
look at the general background. Robin Scarcella and Rebecca Oxford)
are all ways to help lower the anxiety of
ELLs. Activities such as these will go a
Providing welcome NAME long way in making the students feel safe,
There are several ways in which giving them a sense of belonging and
elementary school teachers can provide raising their self-esteem.
a welcoming environment for learners of According to psychologist Abraham
all backgrounds: Main interest/s Friends Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, when the
At the beginning of the school year, lower level of needs (called ‘deficiency
the teacher can put up a welcome sign needs’) are satisfied, an individual will
Language/s seek higher-level needs or growth needs.
in different languages at the entrance
to the class. In a school setting, a higher-order need is

one of intellectual achievement. Rose openly with the other students. The
Senior recommends that language teacher’s challenge lies in creating a Problem-solving
teachers use RICE: Rapport, Inclusivity, comfortable and non-threatening
Connectedness and Engagement. As she atmosphere in the class so as to draw strategies are actions
puts it: ‘The acronym RICE is easy to out the ELLs’ prior knowledge. and procedures that
remember because, being the staple diet
of millions of people around the world, Providing reading skills readers use when they
rice is a commonly-known foodstuff. It
also reminds us that, just as its successful
support encounter difficulties in
cultivation in traditional rice-based Organisers such as pictures, diagrams, understanding textual
economies is based on the allocation of key terms and questions about a reading
water resources for the mutual benefit of text are useful tools for helping ELLs information
the whole community, so successful with the task of reading. If the teacher
teaching depends on creating classroom provides the ELLs with these a day or a
environments in which all class members week in advance of the lesson, the ELLs using a textbook, the teacher should
(including the teacher) are able to flourish.’ will be better able to follow the text help the ELLs to use any tables and
According to Stephen Krashen, ‘the while it is being taught. figures to supplement their
effective language teacher is someone who Kouider Mokhtari and Ravi Sheorey understanding. Beginner learners should
can provide input and help make it posit that there are strategies that ELLs be taught to recognise that headings or
[language] comprehensible in a low can learn in order to enhance their texts in bold face and italics in a typical
anxiety situation’. When ELLs feel reading comprehension. These are textbook contain key information.
comfortable in the class, the goal of divided into three clusters: global Teachers should also encourage ELLs to
making them proficient in the reading strategies, problem-solving check their understanding of new
cognitively-demanding task of reading strategies and support strategies. information, allowing them to check
becomes much easier to achieve. whether their guesses were right or
Global reading strategies wrong. All of these global reading
Global reading strategies are those strategies can enhance comprehension
The prior knowledge intentional, carefully planned techniques and enrich the reading experiences of
that an English by which learners are taught how to second language learners.
monitor or manage their reading. For
Language Learner example, when reading Dr Seuss’s The Problem-solving strategies
Lorax in class, the teacher can guide the The next cluster of strategies that ELLs
brings to the classroom ELLs into understanding the purpose of should be taught are problem-solving
may be different from reading the book. While the teacher may strategies: actions and procedures that
have the broad purpose of increasing the readers use when they encounter
that brought by students’ fluency in reading and their difficulties in understanding textual
mainstream students knowledge of vocabulary, a secondary information. The teacher must instruct
purpose might be to raise awareness of the learner in strategies such as re-
the need to conserve the environment. reading or slower, more careful reading
Global reading strategies also include at times when a lesson or reading
Providing involvement reviewing the structure and organisation passage becomes difficult. Information-
How can a teacher capture and sustain of the book. Asking questions about the processing theories tell us that repetition
the attention of ELLs? One way to do picture on the front cover will direct the (called ‘maintenance rehearsal’) keeps
so is to activate the students’ prior ELL to think and make predictions information activated in the working
knowledge and include their experiences about the book’s content. Additionally, memory and also causes the information
in the teaching material. Denise any pictures in a book can provide to move to the long-term memory.
Greathouse and Felicia Lincoln give the contextual clues and help the ELL guess Students tend to lose focus when the
example of stimulating an interest in the events of a story. Likewise, when content becomes difficult. A few
volcanoes by reading Hill of Fire by problem-solving strategies that the
Thomas P Lewis, an account of a teacher can teach the ELLs include
volcanic eruption in Mexico and the Global reading refocusing when they lose concentration,
villagers who survived the catastrophe. paying closer attention to the content
During this stage of the lesson, the strategies are those that they are reading, and varying their
teacher finds out from the students what speed of reading depending on the level
prior knowledge they have of the subject
intentional, carefully of reading difficulty. It is also good for
and any misconceptions they might hold. planned techniques by ELLs to think from time to time about
The prior knowledge that an ELL what they have just finished reading.
brings to the classroom may be different which learners are Looking at the accompanying pictures
from that brought by mainstream taught how to monitor and visualising the information from the
students. While the teacher tries to tap text are other ways in which they can
into this knowledge, the ELL might feel or manage their reading help themselves to remember the
shy or embarrassed about sharing it information.

Strategies
Reading involves the coordination of use every device and strategy available to
attention, memory, perceptual processes make the English Language Learners
for success
and comprehension processes. These are living among us proficient readers – and
formidable requirements, and reading in the three clusters of strategies offer a
a second language can place even greater good place to start.
demands on the student. Richard Kern
Support strategies asserts that the type of reading strategies Carrell, P L ‘Metacognitive awareness and
students employ are directly related to second language reading’ The Modern
ELLs need to know that there are other
their level of linguistic competence in Language Journal 73 1989
support materials available to them, in
the second language. He also states that Ediger, A ‘Teaching children literacy skills
addition to the teacher and the text.
there is evidence that ELLs tend to be in a second language’ In Celce-Murcia, M
These include such things as (Ed) Teaching English as a Second
more linguistically bound to the text
dictionaries, electronic translators and Language or Foreign Language (3rd ed)
than first language readers. In other
the internet. Reading aloud, underlining Heinle & Heinle 2001
words, they are more attentive to the
or highlighting, and translating material Greathouse, D and Lincoln, F ‘Using all
surface structure of the language.
from English to their native language available tools: effective strategies to
Because their word recognition skills do teach English language learners in the
are a few helpful reading strategies for
science classroom’ The Science Teacher
some ELLs. For others, strategies such
75 (5) 2008
as taking notes on the reading material,
paraphrasing, moving back and forth in
Reading aloud, Kern, R G ‘Second language reading
strategy instruction: its effects on
the text, finding relationships among underlining and comprehension and word ability’ The
ideas in the texts and asking questions Modern Language Journal 73 1989
may be helpful in aiding comprehension. translating material Krashen, S D Principles and Practice in
Patricia Carrell points out that since from English to their Second Language Acquisition Pergamon
the 1970s a variety of reading strategies Press 1982
to enable students to read better have native language are a Mokhtari, K and Sheorey, R ‘Measuring
ESL students’ awareness of reading
been advocated. She lists strategies from few helpful reading strategies’ Journal of Developmental
the traditionally recognised reading
Education 25 (3) 2002
skills of skimming and scanning, strategies for
Scarcella, R C and Oxford, R L The
contextual guessing, skipping unknown
words, tolerating ambiguity, reading for
some ELLs Tapestry of Language Learning: The
Individual in the Communicative
meaning, critical reading and making Classroom Heinle & Heinle 1992
inferences, to more recently developed Senior, R ‘Rice on the menu’ English
not seem to be automatised until they
strategies such as building and activating Teaching Professional 78 2012
reach advanced levels of study, they are
appropriate background knowledge Woolfolk, A Educational Psychology (9th
often not able to allocate sufficient
(schema activation) and recognising text ed) Pearson 2004
cognitive resources to carry out higher-
structure. Anita Woolfolk identifies a
level interpretive processes effectively. As
few mnemonic reading strategies that
a result, the comprehension level of Anita Rao Mysore is at
secondary level ELLs can use: present a faculty member
ELLs will generally be less than optimal. at Indus Training and
PQ4R = Preview, Question, Read, Because ELLs continually face unknown Research Institute in
lexical items and syntactic structures, Bangalore, India. She has
Reflect, Recite, Review a PhD in Curriculum and
practice alone will not facilitate Instruction, majoring in
CAPS = C: Who are the characters? multicultural education
automatisation of recognition skills –
A: What is the aim of the story? P: What from the University of
particularly if these students are unable Arkansas, USA. Her
problem happens? S: How is the problem research interests include
to comprehend what they are reading.
solved? immigrant pre-service
Depending on the reading level of teachers and preparation
READS = R: Review headings and ELLs, activities and resources such as of pre-service teachers for
diverse K-12 US classes.
subheadings. E: Examine boldface words. choral reading, paired reading, tape-
[email protected]
A: Ask ‘What do I expect to learn?’ assisted reading, wordless/picture books,
D: Do it – Read! S: Summarise in your bilingual books and jigsaw activities can
Felicia Lincoln received
own words. be used to enhance their reading skills. her PhD in Applied
Linguistics from the
University of Pennsylvania,
Providing reading skills USA. She is Associate
Professor in Curriculum
development According to the American statesman
and Instruction at the
University of Arkansas.
According to Anne Ediger, students and social reformer Frederick Douglass, She teaches second
language pedagogy as
need the reading skills of automatic ‘once you learn to read, you will be well as teacher education
recognition, vocabulary and structural forever free’. If this is true (and we courses. Her research
interests include language
knowledge, formal discourse structure believe that it is), that makes it our policy and planning for
knowledge, content/world background awesome responsibility as educators to minorities and teacher
knowledge, synthesis and evaluation, open the door that allows all our education.
[email protected]
and metacognitive knowledge and skills. students to walk free. We must find and

RESOURCES
Printed versus
digital dictionaries
Michael Rundell examines the arguments.
T
he Australian linguist Andrew The case for print
Pawley mailed me recently to
The case in favour of printed dictionaries
An online
say he was in Papua New
Guinea to launch a new has two main strands: one practical, the dictionary requires
other cultural. To take the second
dictionary. This ambitious project –
argument first, many participants in the you to have access
which began in the 1960s – involved
creating the first lexicographic record of debate have referred to the joy of to the internet,
Kalam, a mainly oral language spoken handling these lovely books and making
in one small corner of this linguistically- all sorts of serendipitous discoveries as and not everyone in
diverse island. Pawley describes the they delved into them. Much was made the world enjoys
book as ‘a monument that honours the of the role of the dictionary as an
Kalam people’, and the local governor important cultural artifact. But I suspect good connectivity
has ordered 1,000 copies for use in the that this line of reasoning would carry
area’s schools. So who says printed little weight with the average 20 year
dictionaries are dead? old, who is as likely to take a dictionary becomes more and more widely
Well, Macmillan does, for one. The down from the bookshelf as to write a available, there are still many places
UK publisher recently announced that it letter and send it by post. where connections are slow, expensive or
was going fully digital and that there Whatever we think about printed non-existent. Nor is this a simple case of
would be no further paper editions of its books in general, dictionaries are a rich countries being favoured and
English learner’s dictionaries. special case. For most users – and this is poorer ones disadvantaged. The
But English is not like Kalam. As the especially true of language learners – a situation is more complicated, with
lingua franca of science, business, social dictionary is not a treasure-house of France and Italy, for example, being
media and academic discourse, it is in a fascinating linguistic facts, but a practical relatively slow to install high-speed
very different position, and for learners tool for resolving an immediate connections, while some parts of Africa
and users of English worldwide, digital communicative problem. As Hilary Nesi are seeing spectacular growth, as
media provide a far better platform for puts it: ‘People typically consult maps, thousands of kilometres of fibre-optic
reference resources than the printed book encyclopedias and dictionaries while they cables are laid each year.
ever could. Not everyone agrees, however. are doing something else.’ In any case, But the trend is in one direction
Macmillan’s announcement sparked a online reference resources offer even only, and it is unstoppable. There are
lively debate, with opponents of the move greater opportunities for browsing (or still plenty of hard-copy dictionaries to
describing it as ‘a sad day’. It is worth should that be ‘wasting time’?). Anyone meet current demand, and many
looking at some of the arguments. who has used Wikipedia knows how easy publishers (Macmillan included) offer
it is to get sucked in as you click from one licence deals for overseas companies
entry to another, and online dictionaries who want to print locally. It’s good to
For learners and users have exactly the same functions. have these options, but this is surely just
There is more substance, however, to a transitional phase. Robert Lane
of English worldwide, the practical argument against Greene, who writes a blog on language
digital media provide a abandoning printed dictionaries. This is issues for The Economist (under the
based on a simple fact: an online pseudonym ‘Johnson’), recently
far better platform for dictionary requires access to the discussed the move from print to digital
reference resources internet, and not everyone in the world dictionaries, and said he was ‘confident
enjoys good connectivity. While the that every publisher will move decisively
than the printed book overall picture is one of steady this way in the next ten to 15 years’. If
improvement, as fast web access anything, his timescale looks too long.

Printed versus phrases are coming into use all the time.
Social networking, for example, has
an effective way of introducing students
to important linguistic concepts.
digital dictionaries generated a huge amount of new

vocabulary (words such twitterholic and
defriend, or those specialised meanings
Thirty years ago, the ‘corpus
revolution’ radically changed the way we
made dictionaries, and brought major
of follow and like), yet it barely existed improvements to the description of
The case for digital five years ago. If your paper dictionary language they provide. No one would
But just because we can move everything has only one meaning of the verb to want to go back to the pre-corpus era
online, does that mean we should ? And tweet (referring to what birds do), it’s – and the same is surely true of the (still
in the context of learner’s dictionaries, not going to help you there. With online ongoing) ‘digital revolution’. The switch
what are the pedagogical gains? For me, dictionaries, the problem disappears. from paper to digital media offers
there is no question: with digital media, Another clear benefit of the digital exciting opportunities, which we are
dictionaries have found their ideal medium is that everything is ‘clickable’. only just beginning to explore. With the
platform. The most obvious benefit is end of space constraints, and the low
the absence of space constraints. A cost of creating ESP corpora, we are
paper dictionary is a marvel of With no restrictions well-placed to provide better lexical
compression, as publishers try to cram
the maximum information into a finite
on space, online resources to support people working
and studying in specific fields. Equally,
space. But this comes at a cost: all those dictionaries can we could offer users the option of
strange dictionary conventions – the linking from dictionary to corpus,
abbreviations, the tildes, the definitions provide all kinds of bringing them closer to the primary data
which tell you that extortion means ‘the supplementary materials on which dictionary entries are based.
act or practice of extorting’ – often leave These are just two examples, but the
users mystified or frustrated. Meanwhile, to foster language possibilities are endless.
developments in corpus linguistics and awareness
the growth in corpus resources mean we
are now in a position to provide a much
richer account of how words behave and If you don’t know the meaning of a In the end, it is not dictionary publishers
combine. Physical books simply can’t word used in a definition or example who are driving the move to digital
accommodate all the information we sentence, a single click will take you to media, but dictionary users. If large
would like to supply. My 1974 edition of the relevant entry. Even better, some numbers of people continued to buy the
the Oxford Advanced Learner’s online dictionaries have a fully paper version of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Dictionary has just over 1,000 pages. But integrated thesaurus – a far more useful (all 32 volumes of it), its publishers
with more words and a wealth of object than books like Roget. Using this would no doubt still be producing it.
function, you can go from a specific But Britannica’s last paper edition came
meaning of a word such as deliver (for out in 2010, and dictionaries will
Learner’s example, when it means ‘to do what you undoubtedly go the same way. And for
dictionaries are said you would do’: Will they deliver? ) anyone who needs to use English in their
to a list of close synonyms with professional or academic life, the
surely reaching the definitions attached – an invaluable tool potential benefits are enormous.
for use in language production.
point where users And with no restrictions on space, Francis, G various blog posts on grammar
won’t want to carry online dictionaries can provide all kinds issues www.macmillandictionaryblog.
of supplementary materials to foster com/author/gill-francis
them around language awareness. Some online Greene, R L ‘Dictionaries: finding their
ideal format?’ www.economist.com/blogs/
any longer learner’s dictionaries have blogs with
johnson/2012/11/dictionaries
regular posts dealing with issues such as
pragmatics, language change and Nesi, H ‘The demands of users and the
publishing world: printed or online, free or
additional features, the most recent common errors. A good example is a
paid for?’ in Durkin, P (Ed) The Oxford
edition is twice as long – and in a larger recent series of posts by grammarian Handbook of Lexicography OUP
format, too. It’s a losing battle: learner’s Gill Francis, who provides a fascinating, (forthcoming)
dictionaries are surely reaching the corpus-based account of unexpected
point where users won’t want to carry developments in English grammar. (We Michael Rundell is a
them around any longer. tend to think the basic building blocks of director of Lexicography
MasterClass
Of course, the main reason the language are impervious to change, (www.lexmasterclass.com)
publishers bring out new editions every but this is far from true.) Meanwhile, and Editor-in-Chief
of the Macmillan English
five years or so is to keep up with Sylviane Granger (well-known for her Dictionary (www.
language change. Marketing research in learner corpora) sometimes macmillandictionary.com).
departments delight in telling us about uses posts from the Macmillan dictionary
all the exciting neologisms their latest blog as a basis for student assignments,
dictionary contains. But five years is a pointing out that a well-focused ‘mini-
long time to wait when new words and essay’ on a specific language issue can be [email protected]

Macmillan Dictionary Online: it’s everything
print dictionaries wish they were but never
could be ... not in their wildest dreams.
Clear definitions Red word and star
frequency system
Open
Dictionary
UK home for English
Search box
language teaching
gadget Twitter Facebook pages and research © Mat Wright
feeds
Language blog
All online, The British Council’s EnglishAgenda website
allallfree,
yours...
Videos
Games
keeps you up to date with our work in ELT in
the UK and around the world. The site includes:
• UK seminars and videos by leading names in ELT
Language Tips • professional development webinars, advice and materials
Audio
pronunciations Apps
• free research papers and publications to download
• the Directory of UK ELT Research
Gadget
• information about British Council research funding
www.macmillandictionary.com • details of ELT projects around the world

• advice about life in the UK for international students and
information on the UK English language teaching offer.
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
It’s your English!
© British Council 2013 / C653
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IN THE CLASSROOM
When is a board
not a board?
C
Simon Mumford lasses differ in terms of 1 When it’s a window
location, status and amount
presents ten practical of technological equipment, Draw the diagram below, with the
and in the age, level and rectangle as the edge of the board.
metaphors for the most number of students, but they all have Explain that it shows the past, seen
one thing in common: a board. Teachers through a broken window. The shapes
universal of resources. are always using the board, but there represent times. The cross on the
may be much greater potential to exploit window represents the present, the long
this resource than many people think. ribbon stretching from the window back
One way of finding new possibilities is into the past represents the present
by using metaphors. This article perfect. The circles are times in the past;
considers a number of metaphors for the smaller the circle, the further it is
the board, and suggests that creative from the present. Ask your students to
thinking may help teachers find the full match each of the nine sentences below
potential of this ubiquitous ‘empty with one of the shapes on the board.
space’ resource. 1 I played tennis on Thursday.
2 My great grandfather was born
90 years ago.
3 I have lived in London for five years.
4 I like swimming.
5 I passed my exams last month.
6 I started working in 2004.
7 My uncle got married in 1960.
8 This time last year, I was in Germany.
9 I first met Mary 12 years ago.
Answers: 4 = present tense (X); 3 = present
perfect tense (ribbon); past tense
sentences from oldest (the dot) to most
recent (the biggest circle): 2, 7, 9, 6, 8, 5, 1.
2 When it’s the

teacher’s voice
Instead of giving instructions verbally,
write them on the board. They could be
given as a dialogue for the students to
practise, as below.
A: We are doing Exercise 2 on page 16.
B: What do we have to do?
A: Fill in the blanks.
B: It looks difficult.

A: Not really – you can use the words in practise it. Write the numbers 1 to 10
the box. on the plan at random. Ask the
6 When it’s a stage
B: Oh, I see. But there are seven words. students to read the sentence from the Tell your students to imagine that the
book one word at a time, in the order board is a large hall with a big audience
A: Yes, one of them is not used. (draw lots of circles to represent their
you have given, then from memory
B: OK. It should take about three with books closed. Change the order heads). The students take turns to come
minutes, right? of the students and/or choose to the stage and address the audience, ie
A: Yes, and I think the first answer is different students and repeat. they face towards the board, away from
‘wrote’. the class. Facing away from the class is
Here is the same information in note
5 When it’s a table particularly helpful for less confident
students. Give a task, such as reciting a
form for the students to decode: Explain that the board is a table seen short poem or dialogue, or giving a
Pls open yr bks @ p16, Ex 2, fill in from above. A group of six people are short talk. Encourage the students to
______s w/words in 4 3 mins, 6 wds sitting around it, having a meal. Mark project their voices, because of the size
+1 xtra. No. 1= wrote. their places on the edge of the board, of the audience. The rest of the class,
give them names and personalities (eg who are ‘backstage’ and out of view of
characters from a coursebook). Ask for
3 When it’s a pair of suggestions about who they talk to and
the audience, can prompt if necessary.
curtains what they talk about, and draw lines and
Write a sentence from one side of the symbols to represent these conversations.
7 When it’s a desktop
board to the other, with the words In the example below, Bill is in love with Write five questions on the board, eg
starting with consecutive letters of the Jane, and Bill talks about their 1 What did you do yesterday?
alphabet to make it easy to remember, forthcoming wedding to John and
2 Can you swim?
eg A black cat doesn’t eat fish, gets happy Joanne, Joanne talks to Jane about the
in John’s kitchen, likes making noise on weather, and to Maria about money, and 3 Are you going to study tonight?
purpose – quite rowdy sometimes! After so on. There also are general topics: 4 How many English words do you
the class has practised it, tell them that John’s 28th birthday, Maria’s copyright know?
the board has a pair of curtains in front for her new book, and Ron’s trip to
5 Do you like ice cream?
of it. To represent the curtains closing, Egypt. When the plan is finished, set up
rub a word off either end of the a roleplay in groups of six. You can feed Ask the students to memorise the
sentence, and ask the students to in new topics/partners by writing on the questions, which are then erased, leaving
remember the missing words. Keep board to extend the activity. just the numbers to represent desktop
closing the curtains until only one or
two words are left in the middle, and ask
them to remember the whole sentence.
Joanne Maria
£
Divide the class into two teams, with
one student from each team writing the
words back in place with the help of
their team. Starting from the middle,
©
one team writes from left to right (to the food
end), and the other from right to left (to
the beginning). When they have finished,
the curtains are open again.
28 Egypt
4 When it’s a seating
plan
John Ron
Draw a plan of the class on the board,
with each student represented by a box
with their name in it. This can have
many uses. For example:
to nominate a student – Ask a wedding
question and point to a box. If your cars
students are competitive, tick the box
for each correct answer.
to change pairs during speaking
activities – Draw a line between pairs
of students and change these every
minute or so to create new pairs. Bill Jane
to create a drill – Take a ten-word

sentence from your coursebook and

When is a board
S3: Is there a mountain?
T: No mountain.
not a board? S4: A field?

T: Right.
Ask the students if they understand how

files containing the questions. The the game works: only words which can
students mingle and ask each other the This is your magazine.
be spelled with the letters on the board
questions from memory. After a short are in the painting. Then let them play We want to hear from you!
time, tell them that the questions have in pairs.
changed as follows:
1 is now last weekend 10 When it’s the
2 is play tennis students’ memory IT WORKS IN PRACTICE
3 is watch TV Do you have ideas you’d like to share
Write eight or nine recently-learnt
with colleagues around the world?
4 is people (instead of words) words, scattered over the whole board.
Tips, techniques and activities;
Ask one student to erase the words. Ask
5 is eggs simple or sophisticated; well-tried
another to write the words back again,
Without reminding them of the original but tell the student with the board or innovative; something that has
questions, ask the students to make the cleaner to erase the words as soon as worked well for you? All published
changes in their mental desktop files. they are written. Stop this activity after contributions receive a prize!
Repeat the mingle, then introduce more a short time and explain that the student Write to us or email:
changes: with the pen represents learning, the [email protected]
1 see student with the eraser represents time
and the board represents the students’
TALKBACK!
2 play golf
memory. Time will erase the words if
3 go out they are not frequently revised. Give
4 French (not English) another student a board pen, so there Do you have something to say about
are two writing and only one erasing. an article in the current issue of ETp?
5 carrots
This shows that it is easier to keep the This is your magazine and we would
The students mingle once more. Then words in your memory when you see really like to hear from you.
you stop the activity and say that you them often. Finally, have three or four
Write to us or email:
forgot to save the original version of the students writing, so that there is no
questions and ask the students to supply opportunity for the words to be [email protected]
them. forgotten.
8 When it’s a mirror

Writing for ETp
Would you like to write for ETp? We are
When the board is full and needs All classrooms have boards, and unlike
always interested in new writers and
cleaning, tell the students that it’s a much technological equipment, they are
fresh ideas. For guidelines and advice,
mirror that must be polished very always available and 100 percent reliable.
write to us or email:
carefully for a special occasion. Close Metaphors can help us use the board in
your eyes and tell the students to give creative ways, and even transform the [email protected]
you instructions to clean it so there is no classroom into a different place. The
mark left. Teach expressions such as at
the top, in the top left corner, in the
advantage of this empty space is its
simplicity – it can become whatever our It really worked
middle, on the left side, left a bit, down a imaginations allow it to be. for me!
bit, rub a bit more. Did you get inspired by something
you read in ETp? Did you do
9 When it’s a painting something similiar with your students?
Simon Mumford has
Write the following letters on the board: been teaching in Izmir, Did it really work in practice?
A, E, R, T, L, D, S, P, I, F. Tell the Turkey, for 25 years. He Do share it with us ...
teaches EAP to
students that the board is a beautiful freshmen students at [email protected]
painting and they have to find what is in Izmir University of
Economics. He is also
it by asking you yes/no questions, as involved with exam
follows: writing and editing English Teaching professional
academic articles. Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd,
S1: Is there a river in the painting? Rayford House, School Road,
T: No, there isn’t. Hove BN3 5HX, UK
Fax: +44 (0)1273 227308
S2: Are there any trees?
Email: [email protected]
[email protected]
T: Yes, there are lots.

World
relatively easy for the language learner
to understand and, thanks largely to the
internet, there has never been such a
wealth of traditional tales from all oral
cultures around the world written
down in English and available to us at
the click of a mouse.
Stories
World Stories
The website www.worldstories.org.uk has
recently been created by the charity
KidsOut to celebrate the stories told in
languages such as Urdu,Yoruba and
Shqip (Albanian) in families in the UK. I
became involved in this site because of
my passion for traditional stories and
because of my conviction that
F
storytelling is a particularly powerful and
David Heathfield tells ace-to-face storytelling is the simple way to learn language and find
most longstanding form of out about other cultures at the same
a tale and supplies seven education and is an enriching time. Each story on the site is written
activity in today’s language and audio-recorded in both English and
creative tasks. classroom for people of all ages, levels one of the languages it is originally told
and profiles – just as it was before in. Most have been written down and
classrooms were even thought of! then read aloud, but I decided that the
Humans are primed to tell and listen to stories I would contribute would be
stories; in fact, there are no human told by me unscripted, while beyond the
communities without a tradition of oral microphone I imagined an eager
storytelling. There is universality in the listening audience of international
forms and themes of the world’s language learners. These audio-recorded
traditional oral tales, and the vocabulary stories were then transcribed.
and sentence structures are generally I was invited not only to record
simple. These features make them some stories, but also to write

World
know what has happened to his older told a story by their teacher with
brother. The students stand in pairs and reading it. They are likely to talk about
improvise the scene. This dialogue the effects of voice, eye contact, body
Stories retelling of the tale from one character’s

perspective can be further rehearsed
(and possibly scripted) before some
language and the community experience
of being told a story.
storytelling guides and advice articles pairs show their finished scene and get
7 Interlingual and intercultural
for the Teacher’s Area of the website, positive feedback from their peers. interaction
with the aim of sharing ideas about how You can raise awareness among your
to develop language skills, cultural 3 Student self-selected creative students of the sounds and script of
awareness and creativity through response task other tongues by showing them and
teacher and student storytelling. If you The students are given either a five- or allowing them to listen to stories in
decide to use this website, I recommend ten-minute deadline to write a letter or their original languages. The Island of the
that you choose a story that you like a poem or make a picture (or perhaps Sun is told in Mandarin Chinese at www.
and that you think your students might even create a dance) relating to any worldstories.org.uk/stories/story/39-the-
enjoy, and then practise telling it in your moment of their choice from the story. island-of-the-sun/mandarin. If there is a
own words a few times before you tell This can be either from their own or someone from a Mandarin-speaking
it to your students. from a character’s point of view. After background in the class or in the wider
the time is up, the students stand in a community, here is an opportunity to
Creative response circle, in the sequence of the moments
they have chosen, and the story is retold
demonstrate esteem for their culture
and develop intercultural dialogue and
tasks through their creative responses. Where understanding.
When students are told a traditional there is a picture and a text relating to
story by their teacher, their imaginations the same moment, these might be shown Student
and read aloud simultaneously.
are stimulated, and it makes sense to let
them respond creatively rather than do
storytelling
4 Pronunciation
comprehension checking tasks. Let’s Once students become used to being
The students have listened to you tell told stories by their teacher, the next
have a quick look at seven ways in
the story in your own words. Now they step is for them to start to tell stories
which we can inspire students of any
mark pauses and highlight key words on themselves. You could ask your students
age and level. You can adapt the tasks
a downloaded transcript of the story to remember or find another short folk
described below to nearly all folk tales.
before listening to the audio-recording. tale about the sun. Their task would be
In order to demonstrate how They can listen to chunks, focusing on to find a version on the internet, either
language learners might creatively specific pronunciation features, eg stress, in English or in their mother tongue,
respond to a story told to them by pausing, final consonant clusters, linking and prepare to tell it in clear, simple
their teacher, before you read any words together. They might pause the English using their own words. Suggest
further, listen to me telling The Island of recording and repeat selected chunks that they tell it at least three times
the Sun at www.worldstories.org.uk/stories/ and then read aloud along with the without written prompts outside class
story/39-the-island-of-the-sun. recording in order to build fluency. before they tell it in class. Alternatively,
This can be done as a class or as you could give each half of the class a
1 Mental imagery
independent learning. different sun fable to retell – see, for
Invite your learners to imagine the bird
at any moment of their choosing in the 5 Vocabulary example, shortstoriesshort.com/story/the-
story. Ask them to look at it silently, to Invite your students to choose and note sun-and-the-wind and www.storymuseum.
listen to it and then touch it. After that, down three lexical items they want to org.uk/1001stories/detail/198/the-stone-
ask them to become the bird at that remember, such as collocations, idioms, cutter-two-minute-version.html.
moment and ask what they want and rhyming or rhythmic phrases. They can David Heathfield is a
storyteller who tells tales
why. Then ask them to use their bodies compare and discuss their choices with and runs workshops in
to make a still image of the bird at their other students. the UK and around the
world. He also teaches
chosen moment. The students then form English and is the author
pairs and, in turn, describe the moment
6 Compare being told a story of Spontaneous Speaking,
with reading it published by DELTA.
they chose from the bird’s perspective. His latest book, on
After telling your students the story, ask storytelling, will soon
2 Drama them to read the version on World be published by DELTA.
He is a contributor to
Tell the students that at the end of the Stories at www.worldstories.org.uk/stories/ www.worldstories.org.uk.
story, the young brother meets a story/39-the-island-of-the-sun. Invite them
villager in the market who is curious to to compare the experience of being www.davidheathfield.co.uk

Over
the
wall ... Alan Maley
wonders whether
seeing is believing.
T
he books under review in this ability to perceive depth and distance their sight, and with babies. His question:
issue all have something to do through stereoscopic vision; brightness Is language necessary for consciousness?
with visual perception, including and light/dark contrast; seeing movement moves him into a consideration of the
the physiological process of and the way we work out what is moving nature of consciousness in the final
seeing things and the psychological relative to what is fixed; and seeing colour chapter. Consciousness is still the
process of interpreting them. As we shall – a fascinating chapter, showing once unsolved ‘big question’. Among other
find, what the eye sees is not necessarily again that we tend to see what we expect things, he asks whether machines can
what the brain perceives. The first two to see. Chapters 9–13 move into, for me, have consciousness, and what the
books focus on the faculty of sight: the even more interesting areas. The book function of consciousness might be. (For
last one has more to do with how we look discusses illusions, which may involve a brief but dense introduction to the topic,
at the things we see. see Susan Blackmore’s Consciousness.)
Gregory writes clearly but does not
Eye and Brain: The condescend to his readers. He has a
delightful boyish enthusiasm for his
Psychology of Seeing subject, and gives helpful examples from
Even though Richard Gregory’s book is everyday life. (Try looking at yourself in
now over 30 years old, it still offers a rich the back of a spoon, then on the inside,
introduction to the whole topic of seeing, ambiguity, as in the gestalt pictures in for example.) The book is also copiously
and to the complex relationships between which we see now one thing (two faces), illustrated with diagrams, drawings and
what the eye ‘sees’ and what the brain now another (a vase), or paradox, as in the photographs.
makes of this information. In fact, we do trompe l’oeil pictures of Escher and others,
not believe what we see: we believe what or hallucinations, where we see things that
our brains make of it. The first part of the are not there at all. (For those interested in
The Mind’s Eye
book, up to Chapter 8, deals with the these aspects, see Roger Shepard’s Mind As we have come to expect from him,
basics. Seeing also ‘involves knowledge Sights, and Oliver Sacks’ recent book Oliver Sacks’ The Mind’s Eye is a
of the object derived from previous Hallucinations.) In Chapter 10, Art and collection of case studies of patients with
experience, … not limited to vision but Reality, Gregory explains perspective and unusual medical conditions, all presented
may include other senses: touch, taste, the many ways in which the eye can be with a deep human concern. In one, a
smell, hearing, and perhaps also tricked into seeing size and distance woman loses her ability to read music,
temperature or pain’. Gregory goes on to distorted. In Chapter 11, he discusses then words, then even the ability to
discuss light; how the eyes evolved over whether seeing has to be learnt or whether perceive the shapes of objects. Strangely,
millennia; the structure and functions of it is innate. He describes the ingenious however, she remains able to write
the brain; the structure of the eye and its experiments with blind people who regain without problems, and continues to play

And There Was Light.) This raises the issue final chapter, he makes a frontal assault
Over of mental imagery and its significance for on the way images have been hi-jacked
the
thought and learning. The final sentence of by advertising in the service of
the book bears thinking about: ‘Language, consumerism: ‘The purpose of publicity is
wall ... that most human invention … can allow
all of us, even the congenitally blind, to
to make the spectator marginally
dissatisfied with his present way of life …
see with another’s eyes.’ the anxiety on which publicity plays is the
fear that having nothing you will be
Ways of Seeing nothing.’ What publicity does is ‘to
propose to each of us that we are not yet
the piano from memory. In another, Ways of Seeing is based on an enviable – yet could be’. For those
following a blood clot on the brain, a man iconoclastic BBC series back in the 1970s. wishing to pursue these ideas at greater
develops aphasia, losing not only his John Berger is a neo-Marxist critic who length, I suggest Stuart Ewen’s All
speech but all language. He compensates has made it his business to shake up the Consuming Images. Berger’s book is a
by sharpening his non-verbal way we look at art and other images. The feisty reminder of the way images
communication skills. In another, a writer book is short but punchy. Of the seven influence the way we see the world, and a
cannot make out the Latin alphabet, chapters, which can be read in any order, timely warning that we need to develop a
though he can see the letters clearly. three consist only of pictures. In Chapter 1, critical way of seeing.
Familiar objects look strange to him. He, Berger’s main target is ‘cultural
too, is still able to write flawlessly – but mystification’ in the service of the status
cannot read what he has written! He quo, and what he terms the ‘bogus
forces himself to recover language, partly If nothing else, these books should make
by tracing words in the air, then by using us feel grateful for the gift of sight. They
his tongue to shape them, and then also help us understand just how
succeeds in writing a novel based on his complex a faculty this is. Most of all, they
condition. In another case, Sacks deals remind us of the importance of not
with ‘visual agnosia’ – the inability to passively seeing, but actively looking.
recognise faces (and places) – a condition There can be few more important things
he himself suffers from and which is a religiosity’ attached to works of art: ‘The for a teacher than to notice things and
constant social and professional art of the past is being mystified because interpret them, and to pass on these skills
handicap. He then deals with a case of a privileged minority is striving to invent a to their students.
lost stereoscopic vision. The flat, history which can retrospectively justify the
two-dimensional world experienced by role of the ruling classes … Mystification Books reviewed:
strabismus sufferers can only be is a way of explaining away what might Berger, J Ways of Seeing Penguin 1972
imagined by those with full stereoscopic otherwise be evident.’ He deplores the Gregory, R Eye and Brain: The Psychology
vision. The case he presents is of a way original works of art are now valued of Seeing Weidenfeld and Nicholson 1977
woman who recovers stereoscopic vision principally for their market value. He also Sacks, O The Mind’s Eye Picador 2010
in mid-life by dint of strenuous exercises has interesting observations about the
– a further example of the brain’s Books referred to:
way the ubiquity of modern means of
plasticity. In Chapter 6, Sacks documents Blackmore, S Consciousness: A Very
reproduction has destroyed the authority
Short Introduction OUP 2005
his own struggle with eye cancer, which of art. Chapter 3 deals with the female
deprived him of vision in one eye and Brook, T Vermeer’s Hat Profile Books
image in art and the way it has served 2009
seriously impaired his peripheral vision in male objectives: ‘Men act and women
the other: ‘I have a large “nowhere” in my Ewen, S All Consuming Images Basic
appear.’ ‘Women are there to feed the Books 1999
right visual field and my brain.’ The final appetite, not to have any of their own.’ He Lusseyran, J And There Was Light Floris
chapter discusses blindness and the distinguishes between the naked and the Classics 1963
differing reactions to it. In one case, there nude: ‘Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is Sacks, O Hallucinations Knopf 2012
is ‘total deep blindness’, compensated by placed on display.’ This powerful chapter
Shepard, R N Mind Sights Freeman and
the sharpening of other senses – the is supported by some impressive Co 1990
re-allocation of visual capacity to sound juxtaposition of female images. In Chapter
and touch. Some other cases construct 5 he attacks the commodification of art, Alan Maley has worked in
virtual visual worlds internally, as if there especially oil paintings. Oil paintings are the area of ELT for over
were a screen in their minds on which 40 years in Yugoslavia,
‘not so much a framed window open to the Ghana, Italy, France,
they project their own images. (For a world, as a safe set into the wall, a safe in China, India, the UK,
wonderful description of the inner visual Singapore and Thailand.
which the visible has been deposited’. Since 2003 he has been a
world of a blind person, see Lusseyran’s Berger also shows how Holbein’s The freelance writer and
consultant. He has
Ambassadors refers out to a whole new published over 30 books
world of acquisitive ownership. (For a and numerous articles,
and was, until recently,
more extended description of how Series Editor of the
Vermeer’s paintings carry clues to the Oxford Resource Books
for Teachers.
emerging new world of global trade, see
Timothy Brook’s Vermeer’s Hat). In the [email protected]

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IN THE CLASSROOM coursebook and train naïve learners by
increasing the focus on productive chunks.
Licks and chunks

Michael Lewis’s books have plenty
of practical ideas here. Personally, in the
context of teaching adults in a UK
private language school, I try to:
train learners to record lexis
Roger van Schaick notes down some ideas for improvisation. systematically, in chunks rather than
A
single words;
fter my teenage daughter had that the rest of the band are playing at any
encourage learners to personalise, use
taken up, then given up, the alto given time. That chord can sometimes
and memorise chunks;
saxophone, I seemed to hear the change twice in a bar – maybe once every
raise awareness of chunks in course
nearly-new instrument calling to me, so I second at a moderate tempo – so that you
materials which may have a different
picked it up and started learning myself. have almost no time to think. Similarly,
focus – conversations for developing
My daughter is now grown up, and I’m natural spoken English goes along at about
listening skills are often rich sources
still playing and learning – when I have three words per second, so it’s no wonder
of useful chunks;
the time. The saxophone is not that learners often say that by the time
encourage learners to memorise
particularly difficult to start with, and I they’ve worked out how to say something
dialogues which have a high frequency
could already read music and play the (tense, verb form, verb pattern, word order,
of useful chunks;
piano, so I soon got to the stage where I etc), the topic of the conversation has
supplement conventional teaching of
could play simple tunes. But what really already changed.
grammar with drilling of relevant
interests me is jazz improvisation, and
Licks chunks, eg the present perfect can be
there I remain firmly at pre-intermediate
So how do jazz improvisers do it? All introduced as a Have you ever ...? chunk;
level. To get where I want will need
musicians do it in their own way, but create jazz chants based on coursebook
several hours’ practice a day for several
one common technique uses musical material to encourage learners to
years – so a retirement project, if I still
formulae. Barry Kernfeld tells us that memorise productive chunks;
have my own teeth. But in the meantime,
analysis of recordings by elite musicians encourage learners to notice and
the struggle to improvise has given me
has shown that they have a personal record chunks in language they meet
some insights into my students’ struggle
repertoire of up to a hundred musical outside the classroom, eg in their host
to speak fluent and accurate English.
phrases or ‘licks’ which, consciously or families or in films.
Music and language unconsciously, they use as the building
Languages appear on school timetables blocks of improvised solos. Each solo
along with maths, chemistry and history, contains identifiable licks, not original in I can’t pretend that this is a magic formula
which deludes many students into themselves but recombined and linked for speaking fluency, but we owe it to our
thinking that they can be crammed, just together in a novel way, perhaps with the learners to do what we can to rescue them
as you can cram history or chemistry. In addition of some genuinely new musical from the false implied promise that a
truth, we know that learning a language material. So although each improvisation greater knowledge of grammar will lead
is much more like learning to play a is different, it is built up with the help of to greater fluency in speaking. It won’t –
musical instrument: the musical equivalent of fixed and semi- just as knowing how to play all the notes
It takes a long time to achieve fixed expressions. These licks make the on the saxophone, and even knowing all
proficiency. seemingly impossible possible – by my scales and chords, won’t enable me to
Knowledge of theory (eg harmony, buying time so that the mental burden play like John Coltrane. Yes, I do need to
tense usage) is desirable but in itself of processing is not overwhelming. know the notes, scales and chords, and
does not ensure proficiency in students do need to know grammar, but
performance. Chunks it’s nowhere near enough.
Practice, and in the early stages In terms of language learning, these
repetitive practice, is essential so that considerations point us firmly in the Kernfeld, B The New Grove Dictionary of
some things (eg scales, verb forms) direction of the lexical approach, which Jazz Macmillan 1994
become automatic. argued for a greater focus on fixed and Lewis, M The Lexical Approach LTP 1993
Without regular practice, skill levels semi-fixed expressions as a way to
Lewis, M Implementing the Lexical
decline. develop spoken fluency. For ‘licks’, read Approach Thomson Heinle 2002
... and so on. ‘chunks’. Of course, the lexical approach
is no longer a new idea, and current Roger van Schaick
Jazz and language coursebooks may pay lip service to it, but teaches general English
and ESP at ILS English,
More specifically, the difficulties of jazz most are still based on a grammatical Nottingham, UK. In
improvisation and speaking a foreign syllabus, and this leads learners to imagine previous careers he
taught French and
language fluently are strikingly similar. The that the more grammar they know, the Russian in UK
problem is one of thinking fast enough to more fluently they will speak. Left to comprehensive schools
and worked as a freelance
produce an original melody/utterance, their own devices, learners usually see writer and producer in
within a rule-bound system. In jazz, which vocabulary as words and, therefore, record corporate training and
communications.
notes sound right, and what those notes and learn single words. So it falls to the
[email protected]
mean musically, is determined by the chord teacher to enrich the grammar-based

IN THE CLASSROOM difficult for them to get used to. One
way to do it is to get them to record
From research
themselves, then listen and transcribe
what they said. They can then make any
corrections and ask questions before
making a second attempt. I also find
to reality 3
that when they record themselves,
students are more motivated to do their
best than they are in a typical speaking
activity. Peer assessment is another
interesting option, but is beyond the
scope of this article.
Peer teaching
Magnus Coney continues his series on putting theoretical insights Given that students seem to pay more
attention to each other than to the teacher,
to practical use.
it follows that actually having the students
I
magine you choose a new word to questions – and for the teacher to welcome teach each other something could be
explain to your class. A minute later, them, rather than seeing them as obstacles effective. I want to mention briefly the
Student A asks about another word. to the lesson plan. If you tend to highlight work of Robert Slavin on cooperative
Which of the two will be remembered best every interesting piece of language you learning, as I think it is relevant here. He
by Student A? Which will be remembered come across in a text, you could reviewed the research and found that the
best by the other students in the class? experiment with being completely silent most effective examples of cooperative
and seeing if this prompts the students to learning include a group goal and
Research raise their own issues. Remind the students individual accountability. In the language
that if they never make any mistakes, classroom, the group goal would ideally
Although learning is a complex, (for me) be non-linguistic – something
they’re probably not learning much!
unpredictable process, some interesting like writing a story, or making a poster.
research has been conducted in the area Encouraging noticing Individual accountability would be more
of memory, notably the work of Assia Your students may not be used to language-based, so for example one
Slimani on topicalisation, which was the deciding for themselves what language student would be responsible for providing
inspiration for this article. She looked at they want to focus on. When working on relevant lexis, while another would be in
what students claimed to have learnt a text, ask them to underline at least charge of the structure of the text.
after a lesson, and traced these items three words or phrases that they are not See page 31 for an example lesson
back (using recordings and observations) sure about. Then get them to discuss outline.
to see how they had come up. She found these with a partner before clarifying
that student-initiated topics were more any issues with you. You could even get
memorable than those initiated by the them to make their own comprehension
Anything we can do to promote students
teacher – and not only for the student who questions and swap them with a partner.
asking questions and helping each other
initiated the topic: ‘... learners benefited
A student-centred methodology can only be a good thing in my view. I
much more from their peers’ rare instances
Basing your lesson on what the students hope these ideas are just a spark that
of topicalisation than from the teacher’s.’
want to talk about often encourages them will inspire many more!
As with all research, these results do come
to ask more questions. While this might be
with some caveats. Slimani herself admits
impractical in your context, you could try Slavin, R ‘What makes groupwork work?’
that the methodology she used was fairly www.successforall.org/SuccessForAll/
starting with ‘Dogme moments’ within
simple (asking students what they learnt media/PDFs/CL--What-Makes-
your normal classes, to take advantage
rather than testing them), while the reason Groupwork-work.pdf
of unexpected events. One idea, from
for the results could be nothing more Slimani, A ‘Evaluation of classroom
the book Teaching Unplugged by Scott interaction’ In Candlin, C and Mercer, N
than student-initiated topics being rarer
Thornbury and Luke Meddings, uses English Language Teaching in its Social
in a teacher-centred classroom, and
student anecdotes. If you come into class Context Routledge 2001
therefore more memorable.
one day, and one of the students has big Thornbury, S and Meddings, L Teaching
news that they are willing to share, put Unplugged Delta 2009
Reality the rest of the class into groups and get
Despite these reservations, I still think the them to prepare some questions for that Magnus Coney
completed his CELTA in
results warrant some experimentation in student. Collect and correct the questions 2005 and, since then,
our own classrooms. If we accept that on the board as the class interviews the has worked in London
and Italy. He has just
student-initiated topics are more student. Feed in any language they completed his DELTA
memorable, we should try to design lessons request, and afterwards get them to write and is currently training
as a CELTA tutor.
that foreground these types of interaction. up a short news article about that student.
A questioning culture Self-assessment
The first thing, obviously, is to provide This can be a useful way of inspiring
[email protected]
space in the lesson for the students to ask students to initiate topics, but it can be

Stranded in the jungle
You will need:

Materials for your students to learn or practise ungradable adjectives and narrative tenses;
pictures (or a video) of a jungle, a storm, an aeroplane and a few other random objects;
three small prizes or certificates.
Tell the class you want them to make up a story After they have finished their stories, put a short
based on some pictures that you are going to show checklist on the board which the students can use
them. First show them a picture (or a video) of an to proof-read their work, like this:
aeroplane. Elicit that some people are on the plane Does the story have a good title?
and get the students to decide where they are going.
Does the story introduce the most important
Encourage some creativity here, so the students
characters early?
have a vested interest in the characters they create.
Are the storm and the crash described in an exciting
Next, show them the picture of the storm. Elicit that way?
this causes problems for the aeroplane, and Have we used some of the new language we learnt
brainstorm some related vocabulary (thunder, today?
lightning, etc). Have we checked the story for mistakes?
Then show them the picture of the jungle. Elicit that Does the story have an exciting ending?
the plane crashed in the jungle.
Once the proof-reading has finished, put all the
Show them the rest of the pictures, and tell them titles on the board. Number them, and ask the
they are going to write the story, but first they need students to write these numbers on a sheet of
to do some preparation. paper (which will be their mark sheet).
Divide the class in two. One half works on the Get each pair to pass their story clockwise to the
material to practise ungradable adjectives, the other next pair. Tell them to read the story and give it a
works on material to practise narrative tenses. mark out of ten on the mark sheet. Use a signal to
Circulate, offering assistance. make sure all the pairs pass a story on at the same
time. Continue until all the pairs have seen all the
Organise the class into pairs made up of one stories.
student from each half of the class. Remind them of
the story so far and the objects in the pictures they Hand out a piece of paper to each student, and ask
need to use and tell them to write the story on a them to write the number of their favourite story,
piece of paper and give it a title. Give them a using their mark sheet to help them remember what
sentence to start the story if you want, such as they thought about each one. They can’t vote for
‘The sky was turning grey as we drove to the airport their own! Collect the stories in while they do this.
to start the adventure of a lifetime’.
Count up the votes, mark the stories yourself for
Tell them that everyone will have the opportunity to their use of narrative tenses and ungradable
read and vote on each other’s stories: there will be adjectives – and award the prizes.
prizes for the best story (group goal – voted for by
the class), the best use of ungradable adjectives
and the best use of narrative tenses (individual
accountability – both decided by you).

VOCABULARY
A question
of attitude
Claudia Keh designs a workshop for quality learning.
W
hen asked about their such a brief space of time?’ And close on various media (eg newspapers,
biggest language difficulty, the heels of that question was: ‘What magazines, blogs and videos).
many of my Hong Kong should I do in such a brief space of time?’ To prepare for the content and scope
students will automatically I knew that presenting the participants of this workshop, I used Beverley
reply that their vocabulary is very poor. with lists of academic words and phrases Derewianka’s A New Grammar
The language courses offered by the to memorise would be counterproductive, Companion for Teachers. This book
university language centre where I teach especially in light of research (by Fan and takes a functional approach in which
do make some provision for vocabulary by Gan, Humphries and Hamp-Lyons) language is not considered neutral but,
learning, although usually this is in the suggesting that such a technique was one rather, ‘expresses certain world views,
form of word lists to commit to memory of the least successful strategies for Hong values, beliefs and attitudes’. For my
for the purpose of later assessment (eg Kong students, and that successful workshop I chose to focus on the
by gap-fill or multiple-choice exercises). language learners preferred reading as a language used to display attitudes when
Students are also strongly encouraged to strategy for improving vocabulary, with expressing feelings, and when judging
develop their vocabulary through online reading outside of class ‘as important if human behaviour. What follows is a
activities and quizzes which are readily not more important than paying attention description of the workshop content,
available on the language centre website. in class’. My aim, then, was to avoid the activities and rationale for these
However, in an effort to address further presenting lists of vocabulary and, decisions. Finally, I offer some
the weaknesses and needs of the English instead, present opportunities for the recommendations for future workshops.
language learners, our language centre has participants to discover word choices in
begun offering short workshops focusing authentic texts and in context. I needed Part 1:
on a variety of problematic language to capture any potential shift in the
components, such as basic sentence students’ conception of language
Expressing feelings
structure, paragraph development, learning in what Benson and Lor In the first part of the workshop, we
grammatical accuracy – and describe as a change from ‘quantitative’ looked at words which are used to
vocabulary. I was given the task of language learning (wordlists to express emotions.
writing and delivering the one on memorise) to ‘qualitative’ language 1 As the participants entered the
vocabulary. When I wrote my workshop, learning (holistic; in context).
classroom, they were each given a slip of
I had no idea of the participants’
paper containing an adjective that
competency levels. All I knew was that I Decision dilemmas described some kind of emotion or
had two hours in which to deliver
In light of the above, I chose to focus on emotional state (eg puzzled, baffled, lost,
something meaningful and appropriate
a variety of authentic multi-modal texts perplexed, bewildered). They were then
to a group of volunteer participants
and provide opportunities for the asked to find their seat by matching their
interested in working on their ‘poor’
students to examine how deliberate adjective to the corresponding synonym,
vocabulary, and I had to plan
word choices reflect the particular which was displayed on a large card
accordingly.
attitudes and opinions of the writers or placed in the centre of one of the tables
speakers. My intention was to raise (eg confused). This was a way of getting
Design dilemmas awareness of the qualitative language the students into small groups (eg all the
When I first sat down to design the available to students outside the walls of students with adjectives meaning
workshop, the first question I asked the classroom and to develop a sense of confused formed one group) and to
myself, was: ‘What can I possibly do in curiosity about word-choice decisions in begin a discussion about adjectives.

2 Next, each student in the group was The noun group adds emotional and compare it with other, perhaps more
given a card and told to write down an distance when expressing feelings. It is precise, adjectives such as unkempt,
answer to the following questions: What less direct and therefore allows the dishevelled, messy, sloppy, etc.
are you feeling right now? How would you writer or speaker to seem more detached 2 The following words and phrases,
describe yourself in terms of physical from the emotion. After this
taken directly from the video transcripts,
well-being or emotions? The purpose was introduction, the students were given the
were then presented for analysis:
to discover the kinds of language the opportunity to practise using distancing
strategies by rewriting their own struggling to sing
students could already produce, and to
sentences as well as experimenting with drunken
gather some basic adjectives and record
alternative words and phrases. not ready for prime time
them on the board. Once a list had been
Throughout the workshop, common disastrous performance
generated, we then logged on to www.
language errors were woven into the slurring not singing
wordsmyth.net to find more examples
content whenever possible. At this point, treated to 90 minutes of stumbling and
(and to introduce students to this
the students were presented with shrieking
website for future reference).
sentences containing errors. They were overshadowed by her addiction
3 Three YouTube video clips were then her performance flopped
asked to identify and correct these. For
shown to the students. These were example: it was a mess … everything went downhill
chosen for their emotive potential, and
*My sister fell down the stairs and was Special note was made of a quote from
included The Happy Baby (a baby
unconscious, so I was very excited. Amy’s manager: ‘She has agreed that she
laughing uproariously to ripping paper),
excited = a good feeling cannot perform to the best of her ability.’
The Tear Jerker (a video about
Better word choices: worried, concerned, This was contrasted with its underlying
abandoned dogs) and a movie clip of
upset meaning: She is a mess, and it’s
the horror-thriller The Ring. (The Ring
*I am fear of dogs. impossible for Amy to perform at all.
was chosen for its scare factor and cult
following.) As the video clips were fear = verb or noun 3 News reports of Amy’s death also
played, the students were asked, in their afraid = adjective provided material for word-choice
groups, to record words and phrases I am afraid of dogs. analysis. Two news articles were handed
that expressed their feelings. These were out, with the instruction to underline all
then shared with the class. Once again, Part 2: the words and expressions that indicated
the activity began with words and Judging human behaviour the author’s attitude. A contrast was
phrases the students already knew, as a revealed in the adjectives identified by
foundation for adding new ones. In the second part of the workshop, we the students:
looked at words which are used to judge
4 Authentic texts were introduced next. News article 1
human behaviour. The students were
The students were given three examples lurid, destructive
shown how writers and speakers can
of movie reviews for The Ring. One erratic behaviour
praise, criticise or condemn actions in
came from the BBC movie review tumultuous
varying degrees, depending on their
section and the others were from online resumption of heavy drinking
choice of words.
magazines (with varying degrees of died with empty vodka bottles
At the time of the workshop, the
register). The participants were asked to drank herself to death
popular singer Amy Winehouse had
find and underline evaluative and found dead in bed
recently died. There was much recorded
expressive language used by each of the about her behaviour (written and spoken) News article 2
movie reviewers. Some of the more which provided good teaching material. resumed drinking
descriptive words and phrases included overlooked in today’s reports
1 As an introduction to this part of the
terrifying, creepy, deeply disturbing, seemed to be moving toward recovery
eerie, scared the pants clean off me and workshop, two YouTube video clips were recovering
roller coaster of terror. This activity lent shown. The first was an informal video untimely death
itself to a discussion about colloquial blog, the second from a morning news
show (more formal). As the students Here one author was clearly more
expressions, as well as alternatives for sympathetic, while the other was much
typically overused words such as afraid. watched and listened, they jotted down
some impressions of Amy’s behaviour more blunt and critical.
5 The students were then shown how
and appearance (noting especially the 4 The final example of how attitude is
writers and speakers can distance clips from her final concerts). These reflected in word choice came from
themselves from emotions or lessen the impressions were shared in small groups another current news article at that time:
intensity when expressing them. One and written on whiteboards (to be President Obama’s meeting with
way this is done is by substituting a shared later with the class). One word President Hu Jintao at the APEC
noun group for an adjective. For that was used by several groups was the summit in Hawaii. This event was
example: adjective dirty. This is a commonly used reported in various newspapers across
Adjective Noun group catch-all word, but it did not accurately the globe, which offered some interesting
I felt sad. I felt a twinge of capture the meaning of what the contrasts. Words and phrases were
sadness. students wanted to express. This grouped and presented according to the
I was scared. Fear gripped me. presented a perfect opportunity to geographical location where the news
I felt a wave of fear. explain the various meanings of dirty article was published. See page 36.

A question of attitude
USA India Thailand Korea Hong Kong
OBAMA HU Obama used sharp Obama delivered a faced differences; two countries
said said language; frank warning; disagreed locked horns
told told took complaints to used direct language
Obama: made it clear Beijing told DC
a new level
issued a stern warning responded Hu retorted, insisted Hu warned;
China argued,
delivered a frank stressed Hu sought to hit back
complained
warning retorted soothe concerns
steely tone Obama accused;
denied
increasingly strong took a swipe at
complained
language
CHINA
pushed back
hit back
Many contrasts can be found in the to the students beyond the classroom. Books:
above chart. For example, words used to Good sources of input might come from
Benson, P and Lor, W ‘Conceptions of
describe the overall disagreement between current news – particularly controversial language and language learning’ System
China and the US include faced differences news items relevant to the students. 27 1999
and disagreed versus two countries locked Including activities in which the students Derewianka, B A New Grammar
horns. The latter expression paints a much produce their own pieces of writing Companion for Teachers Primary English
more tense picture than the former milder would provide opportunities for Teaching Association 2011
terms. The phrase Hu sought to soothe (immediate) feedback and further Fan, M ‘Frequency of use, perceived
concerns was contrasted with complained instruction. For example, a slide of usefulness and actual usefulness of
and hit back. And, of course, there are global and local iconic images could be second language vocabulary strategies: a
study of Hong Kong learners’ The Modern
many notable word choice contrasts in shown to the students to provoke some Language Journal 87 (2) 2003
the way President Obama’s language kind of reaction. They could then
Gan, Z, Humphreys, G and Hamp-Lyons,
was described (eg steely tone, sharp practise expressing these reactions, using L ‘Understanding successful and
language). The description of Obama the words and structures presented in unsuccessful EFL students in Chinese
using direct language (from the Thai the workshop. The workshop could also universities’ The Modern Language
newspaper) was also noted because in an be geared to different competency levels. Journal 88 (2) 2004
Asian context direct language may carry For lower levels, perhaps more visual Video clips:
a weightier meaning than in a Western texts could be used, such as billboards Laughing Baby: www.youtube.com/
context where directness is considered a or print ads. More academic kinds of watch?v=RP4abiHdQpc
virtue. Therefore, to a Western reader, writing/speaking could be accommodated Tear Jerker: www.youtube.com/watch?v=
using direct language may be considered by focusing on words used for conveying hGwRCgdxKPo&feature=related
appropriate, whereas in other contexts this a particular viewpoint and lessening the The Ring: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw
reference to direct language may carry a impact of an utterance. 70E71G8Z8&feature=related
different and more negative meaning. Overall, these kinds of activities and Amy Winehouse links (video and text):
5 At the end, the students were reminded
the ones reported above have the
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ol4HD48
potential of initiating students into the Y0&feature=fvwrel
again of the point of the workshop: we
world of words by creating learner www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c2t-
reveal our attitudes when we use words
awareness of the language chosen for 51X1gM
to express our feelings and judge human
real-life communication and then, in www.forbes.com/sites/
behaviour. Therefore, when we choose the
turn, opening up a space for further zackomalleygreenburg/2011/10/26/
right word, we communicate more clearly
learning. the-cause-of-amy-winehouses-death-
and accurately. By paying attention to the alcohol/
language around us, we can gain insight Claudia Keh is a http://news.yahoo.com/coronoer-amy-
into how language is used and add doctoral candidate at
Hong Kong University winehouse-died-too-much-
knowledge to our own language reservoir. and is a teaching alcohol-1233334324.html
fellow at Hong Kong
Institute of Education. The Ring film reviews:
Her interests are www.yellmagazine.com/top-halloween-
pedagogical grammar,
vocabulary and writing. movies-yell-magazines-editor-
For teachers considering similar
picks/22721/
workshops focusing on vocabulary, I
http://movie-gazette.com/89/the-ring
recommend using multi-modal input as
http://bbc.co.uk/films/2003/01/28/the_
much as possible. It provides examples
[email protected] ring_2003_review_shtml
of authentic language which is available

More tested lessons, suggestions, tips and techniques which have all worked
for ETp readers. Try them out for yourself – and then send us your own
contribution. Don’t forget to include your postal address.
The contributors to It Works in Practice in this issue of ETp will each
receive copies of Skillful Listening & Speaking and Skillful Reading & Writing,
published by Macmillan. Macmillan have kindly agreed to be sponsors of
It Works in Practice for this year.
Can you guess what it is yet? End of year revision

This is a simple way of practising speculation in the present. Using Here is my idea for revising coursework at the end of
PowerPoint, you can cut and paste an image of a famous person, an the year. I like it because it allows the students to
animal or a household item into a slide. Then, using the ‘insert shape’ ask all the questions for a change! It also gives
tool, you cover the image in squares, which are removed by the click of them a worthwhile and authentic task to do. It
a mouse when you use ‘custom animation’. should work well with whatever ability/age group
I started with a simple image to guess – a tiger – and asked for three you try it with.
speculations from the students before I revealed the next part of the 1 Ask the students which coursebook unit or topic
picture. The first fragment simply showed a brilliant blue sky, so the they enjoyed most.
responses were It must be outside, It might be in the summer and 2 Tell them they’re going to make up some
It could be Spain. Then I revealed the next part, which showed plants
questions on that unit or topic for next year’s
and the tip of an ear.
course participants.
In order to encourage as many ideas as possible and full participation, 3 Show them examples of different task types in
you can hand out cards, and each time a student makes a sentence,
coursebooks and workbooks. Typical examples
they discard one. Everyone has to use their quota of cards by the end
might include: Find the right words, Fill in words
of the activity.
with the same meaning, Make your own questions,
Which word is explained? True/false, Multiple-
Let me introduce myself choice questions, Crosswords.
A useful addition to a class is an invited guest. In this case, it is simply 4 Put the students in groups of four or five and
a picture of a person – it could be one from your own collection of appoint a secretary in each one. Each group
photos, a person in a magazine advert or someone from YouTube. The gives itself a name (Champions, Superstars, etc),
important thing is that it is not someone well known. chooses its favourite topic or pages in the
Depending on the size of the class, you can use one for each group of coursebook and makes up questions together.
around four learners. They then choose a name, a nationality and The secretary copies these questions onto an
create a background for the ‘guest’ they have received. Every week, you OHP transparency.
can introduce another aspect of your classroom guests which the 5 You can then either:
students have to decide on, gradually building up a full profile. These a) collect the OHP transparencies and copy them
creative sessions can then be used for writing, you might have a class for each student as a handout. The students
blog where the guests can be introduced, or you can simply keep then work on the groups’ tasks.
written records on the wall, next to the pictures. or:
Your guests can be used for a wide variety of different activities: b) have one student from each group play the
describing what they look like and their personality, comparing their role of the teacher, reading out their own
lives to your students’ lives, exploring feelings and opinions. You can talk group’s questions and getting the other
about their past, their plans for the future and give them advice. The students to answer them orally. This could be
list is endless, so why not go out and find someone to join the party? played as a kind of quiz.
Jane Neill Tim Howe
Cheltenham, UK Mainburg, Germany

Preposition proposition A lovely idea
The use of prepositions is often a huge headache for I would like to describe a project I did a few years ago with my
students learning English, so why not turn the matter into a secondary school students. One of the units of our coursebook
fun, energetic activity? This activity would be especially good focused on love. My idea was for the students to make a short
for young learners, but I’ve used it successfully with film about love.
university students and even adults. Students can also be 1 The students decided who they wanted to work with and
grouped into teams so that even lower-level students can
formed groups, mostly with four or five members.
feel a sense of achievement when their team succeeds.
2 Each group had a two-week deadline for writing a script
1 Decide what prepositions or prepositional phrases you
and bringing it to me for correction. This was a very
want to focus on. It’s best to limit this to four or five.
important stage because I could monitor the students’
Prepare a list of phrases or sentences which use these
ideas and commitment, offer any help that was needed and
prepositions.
correct mistakes so that they would not repeat them when
2 Give out sheets of paper, one for each preposition used they were shooting the film.
in the activity, and thick marker pens to some of the 3 After the scripts had been checked, I gave the students
students. Tell these students which prepositions to write
about a month to produce their films. I told those who
on their pieces of paper and ask them to tape them to
would find directing a film difficult that they could make a
the wall, somewhere in the classroom. Make sure they are
simple voice recording instead.
all placed high enough to be read easily be everyone in
the room. 4 The final stage was a film session in one of our lessons
when they showed their work to the class.
3 Explain that you will read a sentence with its preposition
missing, and that the students must all listen carefully I knew it would be quite difficult to assess their work and give
and then run (or walk) to where the correct missing grades. I decided to use the students’ efforts as the main factor
preposition is posted. For example, you could read out in my assessment. I also took into account the quality of the
‘I’m a student _____ the University of Wherever’ and language in the script, whether my corrections had been taken
students would go to the ‘at’ card. on board and, finally, the success of the finished film.
4 Read out all the phrases and sentences on your list and I received a variety of films and recordings. Most of the
award points for going to the right preposition. students took the activity seriously and made interesting
movies with a romantic and sometimes ironic twist. There were
It’s a good idea to provide an opportunity for more
also some who were not interested in the activity and did not
concentrated focus on the language afterwards, as students
complete their films. However, the final results were better
often get caught up in the energy of the activity. You could
than I had expected. And one more important thing was that
ask them to try to remember and repeat the phrases or
from that moment I no longer had any problems with this
sentences they heard, or put a chart on the board and ask
group of students!
individual students (with the help of their classmates) to
Katarzyna Wiacek
write them under the correct preposition. You may need to Minsk Mazowiecki, Poland
read the gapped phrases or sentences again for this part of
the activity. The students could also work in groups to try to
recall what they heard and add other phrases and sentences
that use the same prepositions.
Do you have an idea which you would like to contribute to our
Rewards could be given for several categories – the most
It Works in Practice section? It might be anything from an
sentences remembered, the most additional sentences, the
activity which you use in class to a teaching technique that
most original sentence, etc – so that several students can
has worked for you. Send us your contribution, by post or by
feel their efforts are valued.
email, to [email protected].
This activity could work as a lead-in to work on prepositions, All the contributors to It Works in Practice get a prize! We
as a way to energise a lagging lesson, or as a way to focus on especially welcome joint entries from teachers working at the
errors that you have noticed in previous lessons. same institution. Why not get together with your colleagues
Christina Rebuffet-Broadus to provide a whole It Works in Practice section of your ideas?
Saint Martin d’Hères, France We will publish a photo of you all.

LANGUAGE LOG
Unusual countables
John Potts charts the intricacies and idiosyncrasies,
the contradictions and complications that make the English language
so fascinating for teachers and teaching. In this issue, he considers all
the fishes of the sea and other ‘counting’ anomalies.
I
n 1962, French President Charles de Gaulle asked Nor is it only foodstuffs that are willing to stand up and be
rhetorically: ‘How can you govern a country which has 246 counted. A very interesting article about faked images and
varieties of cheese?’ This column won’t attempt to answer altered memories on the BBC’s website includes this
that question, but instead ask a slightly different one: disquieting assertion: ‘Seeing these fake images goes even
‘How can you govern a country which has 246 cheeses?’ beyond altering our memory of events. It can actually
change our behaviours too.’
But can we actually ask that question? Cheese, along with
butter, sugar, salt, milk, oil and many other foodstuffs, is
traditionally classed as an uncountable noun when learners
first meet the word at the Council of Europe’s CEF A1 level. What all these examples (and there are countless more!)
The explanation is that cheese is a ‘mass’ noun and, like show is that uncountable nouns become countable when
liquids and grains/powders, it can’t be split up into they refer to individual instances or types of the noun in
countable units (unlike apples, eggs and bananas). question: if you are a specialist or a professional, plastic
But a quick Google search shows that there are indeed and wood quickly become plastics and woods. Moreover,
cheeses, and classifying them is as difficult as President de some examples also occur in our non-specialist world:
Gaulle’s lament implies. According to one website: ‘There is heavy metals, native peoples, mineral waters, essential oils,
no one set of rules by which to categorise the world’s multiple intelligences, and so on.
cheeses.’ The author then goes on to attempt to do just Furthermore, there are the well-known distinctions between
that, which is another story. materials and things made from or consisting of those
materials – glass/glasses, paper/papers, etc. And there are
nouns with subtle differences in meaning between their
countable and uncountable forms: for example, the difference
And it’s not just cheeses (French or otherwise). I was
between uncountable experience and countable experiences.
looking for a birthday present for my brother, who likes wine
(French and otherwise) and went to amazon.co.uk for some
book ideas. I made a shortlist that included Vino Italiano:
Regional Wines of Italy, Grapes and Wines, The Finest I tried to find at least one traditionally uncountable noun
Wines of Rioja & Northwest Spain, and several more. that does, indeed, remain uncountable: rice looked
Coincidentally, near to my brother’s home in the UK there is promising until I found scientific papers on Bismati rices,
a building with a sign advertising ‘Quality meats’. the rices of India, and so on. Another good bet appeared to
If there are meats, why not fishes? It turns out that a be furniture. Firstly, I found a few instances of mental
standard reference book is, indeed, Fishes of the World, furnitures, in the sense of ‘ideas’, but then no instances of
emphatically recommended by an academic: ‘“Fishes of the furnitures themselves (or should that be itself ?). However, I
World” is a unique and essential resource for anyone then tried a more refined Google search, and there I did find
seriously interested in the diversity and evolution of fishes. some examples. Very interestingly, most of them were
The family accounts provide quick summaries of current associated with businesses in India, Pakistan, Hong Kong
knowledge on all groups of living fishes ...’ Somewhat and Kenya, but not with ones in the UK, USA, Canada,
earlier, the King James Bible referred to ‘every beast of the Australia or New Zealand. So it seems from my, admittedly
earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth limited, research that furniture is a countable noun in some
upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea’. but not all varieties of English.

LANGUAGE LOG: Unusual countables
To close, here’s an extract from a travel article in the New

York Times of 31 December 2006 that has a lovely set of
Speaking of variety differences, there are in fact some
countable foods that wouldn’t get into an A1 coursebook:
between British and American English. For instance,
accommodation is uncountable in BrE, but usually countable ‘But the ski school competes with the spa, the private
in AmE. Surgery (in the sense of ‘an operation’) is instruction at the private skating rink, the small but
uncountable in BrE, but is countable in AmE: there are accessible gym, the bus that whisks guests into town for
frequent examples of plural uses (eg Four Surgeries to shopping, not to mention the leisurely long breakfast in the
Avoid), but singular uses are harder to find – here’s one from “informal” dining room, with fresh breads in every shade
the CNN website of 23 August 2007: ‘ATLANTA, Georgia and platter after platter of fruits, cheeses, jams, meats,
(CNN) – When Barbara Stratton of Baltimore, Maryland, looks cereals and much more.’
back at the birth of her son, Charlie, now 7, she’s angry – Well, that’s probably enough information about countable
angry she had a surgery she believes she didn’t need.’ and uncountable nouns. Thank goodness for information
To complicate matters, surgery can be countable in BrE – it’s always uncountable. Except when it means a legal
when it refers to what an AmE speaker would call the document presented to a court ...
doctor’s office, namely the place where doctors see their
patients, and also when it refers to a time period when John Potts is a teacher and teacher trainer
constituents can see their MP to discuss problems, etc. based in Zürich, Switzerland. He has written
and co-written several adult coursebooks, and
is a CELTA assessor. He is also a presenter for
By now, you may be feeling that the sheer range of Cambridge ESOL Examinations.
meanings and variety differences make governing France
with its 246 cheeses seem an easier problem.
[email protected]
COMPETITION RESULTS
9 2 11 23 23 15 5 25 11 7 12 14 25 1 Congratulations to all those readers who successfully completed our
I N E F F A B L E W O R L D

2 25 14 14 17 9 2 17 Prize Crossword 56. The winners, who will each receive a copy of the

N L R R S I N O

13 4 12 26 15 26 9 12 2 2 16 9 19
Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, are:

Q U O T A T I O N N V I Z

4 2 2 3 14 15 20 11 15 11 Gordon Beames, Manchester, UK

U N N G R A C E A E

9 3 21 18 8 4 17 11
I G K H P U S E Amanda Brookland, Ann Arbor, USA

17 21 15 17 26 11 11 8 11

S K A S T E E P E Renata Hejna, Piaseczno, Poland

9 26 9 22 11 16 11 6 15 27
I T I M E V E J A S

26 9 11 11 24 26 11 2 17 9 12 2 11
Luis Hernández, Canelones, Uruguay

T I E E X T E N S I O N E

9 17 9 2 4 26 10 3 Agnes Howard, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
I S I N U T Y G

16 9 17 20 12 17 11 14 26 11 14

V I S C O S E R T E R Alison Hyde, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

11 12 26 17 26 14 15 3 3 25 11

E O T S T R A G G L E Kirstin Kowaczek, Cardiff, UK
2 11 7 26 4 9 3 3
N E W T U I G G

18 11 25 11 9 17 4 14 11 25 10 18 15
Sabine Liberton, Seuzach, Switzerland

H E L E I S U R E L Y H A

9 11 1 15 4 11 12 9 26 Sally Medalas, Turin, Italy
I E D A U E O I T
1 12 14 22 15 2 26 14 12 4 26 11
D O R M A N T R O U T E Uwe Stichert, Erkrath, Germany
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 25 9 23 11 9 17 7 18 15 26 18 15 8 8 11 2 17
D N G U B J W P I Y E O Q L I F E I S W H A T H A P P E N S

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 7 18 9 25 11 10 12 4 15 14 11 5 4 17 10

R A V S H Z C K M F X L T
W H I L E Y O U A R E B U S Y

22 15 21 9 2 3 12 26 18 11 14 8 25 15 2 17

M A K I N G O T H E R P L A N S
John Lennon

Lunar
cheese
Ever since the sixteenth
-century
poet John Heywood wr
ote ‘The
moone is made of a gre
ene
Say Cheese!
cheese’, we have been
fascinated
by our satellite. Despite
the
extraordinary amounts
Cheese is made mostly from the milk of There is so much we take for granted of money
the Americans spent to
cows, but it can also come from the milk in today’s world, and it is fascinating to disprove
the theory that the mo
of other mammals, including sheep, goats, think about how some culinary on is
composed of cheese,
buffalo, reindeer, camels and yaks. experiences first happened. A series of their
evidence was happily
The earliest evidence of cheese- accidents, not always happy, I suspect. ignored by
Nick Park and Aardman
making dates back to around 5,500 bc, in Since animal skins and inflated internal Animation
in their wonderful Wallac
what is now Kujawy in Poland, where organs have, since ancient times, provided e&
Gromit film A Grand Da
pieces of pottery with holes in containing storage vessels for a range of foods, it is y Out. In
this adventure, the ch
milk fat molecules have been found and likely that the process of cheese-making eese-mad
Wallace and his long-s
are thought to be strainers used in cheese was discovered accidentally by storing uffering
dog, Gromit, build the
© iStockphoto.com / Floortje
production. Mercifully, no cheeses from milk in a container made from the stomach ir own
rocket to go to the mo
this period have survived, although I was of an animal, with the resultant effect of on to
gather cheese.
once offered something that must have the rennet from the stomach turning the
come pretty close! milk to a form of cheese.
d o ld so c ks , a ny o ne ?
Amorous goats an le According to research
conducted by Cranfield
University in the UK, the
top
of cheesy advice availab nch cheeses are:

Among the many gems 12 stinkers amongst Fre )
ur-Mer, aged 7–9 weeks
is this: g ulo gn e (co w’s milk, from Boulogne-s
h other strong-smellin 1 Vie ux Bo
‘Do not store cheese wit dy, aged 6 weeks)
athes it will absorb oth
er w’s milk, from Norman
foods. As a cheese bre 2 Pont l’Evêque (co
rmandy, minimum age
’ No rm an die (cow’s milk, from No
aromas and may spoil. 3 Came mb ert de
Never mi nd the ch ee se absorbing other 21 days)
obliterating them? ine, aged 3 weeks)
aromas, what about it ving 4 Munster (cow’s
milk, from Alsace Lorra
been described as ha -France, aged 4–8 we
eks)
Strong cheeses have nt of an (cow’s milk, from Île-de
etables and the sce 5 Brie de Meaux
the ‘odour of rotting veg rt, aged 3 months)
ugh the scent of very
old
6 Roquefort (shee
p’s milk, from Roquefo
amorous goat …’, tho )
mary allusion as far as
ripe region, aged 3–4 weeks
socks is the more custo Re blo ch on (co w’s milk, from the Savoie
these 7
The technical term for ed 90 days)
cheese is concerned. lk, from Normandy, ag
se’; this do ubtle ss ref ers to 8 Livarot (cow’s mi
delights is ‘robust chee me r, wh o m the Provence region
, aged 1–2 weeks)
ed of the consu n (go at’s milk, fro
the characteristic requir e
9 Ba no
ndy, aged 4–6 weeks)
en farmyard smell be for
ne (cow’s milk, from Burgu
first has to brave the oft 10 Epois se s de Bo urg og
cheese heaven.
gathering a mouthful of
Scrapbook compiled by Ian Waring Green

Dark cheese? Chase that cheese!
Light cheese? We often hear of cheese
strength of the flavour,
s having a ‘kick’. This
but one place where it
usually refers to the
a source of despair: can mean something
Cheese can also be quite different is Coop
er’s Hill, near Glouceste
i a deux cent
gouverner un pays qu Cooper’s Hill Cheese-R r, UK . Here, the
‘Comment voulez-vous Gaulle olling and Wake is an
fromage?’ – Charles de the Spring Bank Holida ann ual event held on
quarante-six variétés de s 24 6 var ieties of y.
a country which ha A large round of cheese
(How can you govern is rolled from the top of
competitors race down the hill, and
cheese?) after it. The first perso
n pa
at the bottom of the hill st the finishing line
wins the cheese. In the
And humour: are aiming to catch the ory , the competitors
rse? cheese. However, it has
ld you use to hide a ho aro
Q: What cheese shou second head start and
can reach speeds up
un d a one-
a pony) to 70 mph (112 km/h)
A: Mascarpone. (mask – enough to knock ove
r and injure anyone wh
with caution?
must you always eat o gets in its way!
Q: What Welsh cheese The cheese currently
used for this event is a
) Gloucester, a hard che 7–9 lb Double
A: Caerphilly. (carefully ese typically manufac
tur
cylindrical blocks, or ‘wh ed in large flat
eels’. For the cheese-ro
protected by a wooden llin g event, it is
casing round the side
Choking ribbons at the start. and is decorated with

The steepness and un
on maggots?
even surface of the hill
number of injuries, suc usually results in a
h as sprained ankles,
even concussion. A nu broken bones – and
mber of ambulances are
is invariably at least on present, since there
Some cheeses should come with a health warning, e injury needing hospi
tal treatment.
it would seem:
One Spanish cheese with a very exotic name is
‘Afuega’l Pitu’. It means ‘choking cake’ and is so
called because its unusual texture makes the cheese
stick to the palate and pharynx!
Cheesy challenge
Here is a little test of cheese knowledge:
In Sardinia there is a local delicacy called ‘casu
marzu’. This is a giant ball of cheese, inside which 1 The mould in Roquefort 5 Caravane is a Mauritanian
maggots weave their way around, decomposing the comes from: cheese made from which
cheese and making it spreadably soft. a) covering it with special animal’s milk?
straw. a) camel
b) ageing it in limestone caves. b) lemur
t it
Cheese all abou
c) ageing it in special c) monkey
humidity-controlled tunnels.
6 What is Sakura cheese
lines – the mos t 2 The dark line through the from Japan flavoured
sio nally hit the head
Cheese can occa middle of the French Morbier with?
st or y is pr obably this one:
startling cheese is: a) seaweed
Tunnel
eese Fire Closes
Norway Goat Ch closed – by a lor
ry-load a) a layer of heavy fat. b) cherry leaves
Norway has been
A road tunnel in b) truffle. c) rice wine
.
of burning cheese own goat cheese
c) volcanic ash.
7 Luneberg cheese from
ou t 27 to nn es of caramelised br
Ab fire as it was 3 The holes in Emmental are Austria is coloured with:
y kn ow n as Brunost – caught
– a delic ac rthern Norway caused by: a) squid ink.
n th ro ug h th e Brattli Tunnel in no
being drive a) specially-trained Swiss b) crushed beetles.
is year.
in mid-January th ouldering toxic mice. c) saffron.
r five days and sm
The fire rage fo d s said.
operation, official b) bacteria.
we re slo wi ng the recovery s. 8 Which country produces
ga se s d for severa week
l c) metal rods pushed
dly -d am ag ed tunnel was close the most expensive
The ba d
entration of fat an through the cheese.
id the high conc cheese, and what
Police officers sa ‘almos t lik e pe tro l if it
se made it burn 4 Which country produces animal’s milk is used?
sugar in the chee
’. the greatest number of
gets hot enough
g news that a local cheeses?
cheese sells for $1,000 per kilo!)
tic le en de d with the reassurin

e ar official said it
6 b) 7 c) 8 Sweden, moose (a moose
Th a) the UK
bli c Ro ads Administration
and Italy have around 400 each) 5 a)
ian Pu
Norw eg cheese catching b) France
could remember
UK produces 700 varieties; France
e fir st tim e he
was th c) Italy
Answers 1 b) 2 c) 3 b) 4 a) (the
roads. Good!
fire on Norwegian

Reviews
The Big Picture Skillful Reading & Writing
B1+ Intermediate Student’s Book Student’s Book 2
by Ben Goldstein by Louis Rogers and Jennifer Wilkin
Richmond Publishing 2012 Macmillan 2013
978-84-668-1061-6 978-0-230-43194-2
I was recently asked to choose a Skillful Reading & Writing is part of the
coursebook for my school’s new Macmillan Academic Skills series – and
course for teenage learners. There are both the book and the series itself are
a lot of coursebooks around, and I aptly named as they take the teaching of
found the choice rather overwhelming. skills very seriously indeed. So often in
All the books I looked at were good coursebooks, skills teaching is limited to
and covered much of the same short boxed tips, dropped in whenever
grammatical and linguistic ground. All there is space on the page to do so. These
would have been suitable as teaching tips tend to be the same ones, whatever
material for the course, but not the book – sometimes they are even
knowing the students personally, it repeated within a book! – and they are
was hard to decide which one would frequently rather glib recommendations,
be just right for them. I decided that with no real explanation of how precisely
the new book would have to be you go about doing whatever it is that is
eye-catching to attract the students and someone photographed them? I can being suggested. How many times have
that from a short-list of those that met the image the students speculating at length you seen: Look at the title of a text and
pedagogical aims of the course and the about these questions. It is only when you any illustrations. These will give you an
teaching practice of the school, I would hear the photographer explaining what idea of what the text is about? By the
choose the book which had the most the photos represent (or read the time students are studying English for
intriguing and thought-provoking transcript) that you find out the truth: one Academic Purposes (as are the target
illustrations. My attention was caught by shows the objects (including a photo of learners for this book), you have to
The Big Picture for this very reason – and Elvis and some earplugs) sent down to wonder whether they belong on such a
also because it is written by Ben one of the Chilean miners who were stuck course if they can’t work out this kind of
Goldstein: I have a treasured copy of his underground for 69 days; another shows thing for themselves! In Skillful Reading &
CUP book Working with Images on my things left in the countryside by a Writing, not only are there helpful
shelves and I also remembered an article hurricane; the third is the possessions of suggestions interspersed amongst the
by him in ETp about the use of a family who have been evicted from their reading and writing activities of exactly
stereotypical images (Issue 61), so I knew home because the economic recession how to do the things which are
that he was a good author to go to for an has rendered them unable to pay the rent. recommended (eg skimming, scanning,
interesting use of illustrations in the Accompanying these images are a mapping, etc), but there is a whole page
classroom. number of activities that will guide the at the end of each unit devoted to study
I certainly wasn’t disappointed. From students into talking about them, with skills, with advice, discussion points and
the very first unit, this book is full of emphasis on using nouns accurately, questions to encourage reflection. Many
photos that I am sure will provoke employing appropriate adjectives and of these pages are contributed by
comment and discussion amongst young giving a personal response to what they skills-guru Stella Cottrell, author of The
adult students. Some of the students will can see. Study Skills Handbook.
be preparing for the Cambridge FCE Speaking activities throughout the Each of the topic-based units opens
exam, so talking about photos will be a book are marked with small purple with a large attractive photograph (the one
key skill for them. As I went through the speech bubbles and I was impressed to of the boy who has caught an enormous
book, I found myself time and time again see just how many purple bubbles there fish and is holding it up and grinning from
turning to the recording scripts at the are. I am looking forward to using this ear to ear at the beginning of the unit on
back where further explanation of some book with my students and I am sure that Success is a particular favourite) which is
of the more intriguing images can be they will find plenty to talk about. guaranteed to generate discussion. Two
found. For example, in Unit 7 there are I am also keen to try the associated reading texts then follow, fully supported
three photos of piles of personal learning platform, which offers with comprehension and language
possessions. They are all outside: two of downloadable worksheets, videos, blogs, activities. Next there is a writing task,
them appear to be on some kind of games and message boards. I think these preceded by activities to prepare students
beach or area of scrubland, one is at the will also be very popular with young adult for the task itself and to develop the skills
side of a suburban street. They are clearly students. they will need to complete it successfully,
someone’s personal possessions, but Jennifer Rambleton and, finally, the Study skills page
what are they doing there and why has Bourg-en-Bresse, France mentioned above.

Reviews
And, significantly:
‘It is also what happens (or doesn’t
happen) when you avoid or remain
ignorant about these choices.’
This definition encompasses
everything – from the pros and cons of
different types of tables to ways of
becoming an effective facilitator. It also
overflows from classrooms into corridors,
staffrooms and the world outside.
There are seven chapters: The
classroom, The teacher, The learners,
Key teacher interventions, Facilitating
interaction, Establishing and
maintaining appropriate behaviour and
Lessons. Each of these is divided into
units, with titles such as ‘Effective
seating arrangements’, ‘Ways of
listening’, ‘Helping the group to work
together’, ‘Being catalytic’ and
‘Encouraging students to speak’.
Each unit begins with an appetite- single and most useful and important
One thing I couldn’t really understand whetting quotation such as: practical technique for a teacher to use’!)
was why the book has, to my knowledge, ‘My classroom is so unwelcoming and Discussions of what makes a good
at least one British author, but has been dull! Even I feel my spirits sinking when I teacher often mention qualities such as
written in largely American English – but walk in. Goodness knows how the rapport, motivation, authority and
this is a minor niggle, and perhaps one learners feel.’ supportiveness, but without much enquiry
that is not very important at the level of ‘My class just isn’t gelling. When I get as to what these actually entail: ‘So-and-
academic English. On the whole, this is a them to try to work together, they just so’s got fantastic rapport. She’s a born
book which I would not hesitate to look sullen, and then they hardly talk to teacher. I could never do that.’ But this
recommend to any teacher tasked with each other.’ book is a real treasure house of specific,
the challenge of bringing students up to The aim of the unit is then stated. practical steps anyone can take, even in
speed with reading and writing to the Here are two examples: ‘To make use of apparently unpropitious circumstances, to
degree necessary for academic study. expressions and gestures to help reduce become a better facilitator of learning.
Simon Brassicat unhelpful or unclear teacher talk when The target readership is teachers of
Frankfurt, Germany giving instructions or explanations’ and English in a wide variety of contexts:
‘To encourage autonomous learning and different ages, different class sizes,
self-exploration in your students: to help different course types, and so on. I would
Classroom Management them to make their own decisions rather add that the book is equally relevant to
Techniques than telling them what to do.’ A short teachers of other languages and, indeed,
by Jim Scrivener introduction to the topic is followed by for the most part, to teachers of any other
CUP 2012 descriptions of practical techniques subject. Perhaps the author had this in
978-0-521-74185-9 which teachers can use to work on the mind when he wrote: ‘I would go as far as
aim of the unit. to assert that if most teachers in the world
Classroom management is often thought The number of techniques in the could get really good at just five or six of
of as a lowly, mechanical, subservient book is immense; there are, for example, the key techniques, then the quality of
part of a teacher’s craft, or is associated 15 techniques for learning names. Some education worldwide would hugely
only with maintaining discipline in a class. techniques can be tried out easily and improve.’ Probably a large number of the
This book takes a much broader view: immediately – eg different ways of teachers in the world have never
‘Your classroom management is the way distributing handouts. Others require considered many of the options
that you manage students’ learning by more practice – eg making better use of suggested in this highly-recommended
organising and controlling what happens eye contact. And a few are not so much book, whose rather modest title belies its
in your classroom ... techniques as suggestions for bringing potential to bring about significant shifts
Or the way that you consciously decide about significant long-term changes in in the awareness and behaviour of
not to organise and control. classroom culture – eg ‘Train students to teachers and learners.
Or the way that you delegate or evaluate themselves’. (On page 196 you Jonathan Marks
relinquish such control to the learners.’ can find what the author believes is ‘the Łeba, Poland

IN THE CLASSROOM
Effective
signposting
Erin Herrick signals what she is going to do in every lesson.
H
ighlighting students’ your signpost. This will ensure that the motivation for the students;
progress and getting them students always know what its purpose the provision for the students to see
motivated and excited by is. It will also prevent you from running the link between in-class work and
learning is a constantly out of space and, consequently, having coursebook material.
recurring issue that teachers need to deal to remove some or even the entire
with. It can be very frustrating when signpost to compensate.
students continually comment that they
What can you do?
don’t feel that they’ve made any What shouldn’t it There are three main ways to complete a
progress, or don’t understand why they signpost in class:
aren’t following the book or that they
include?
think they play too many games. One Information which may not be relevant 1 All aboard
way to overcome this problem is to put a or help demonstrate progress to the If you put the whole signpost on the
signpost on the board in each lesson. students – and should, therefore, be board at the beginning of the lesson, the
omitted from the signpost – includes: students are immediately motivated by
What is a signpost? Game names, eg Bingo, Pyramid seeing the range of skills and tasks the
lesson will cover – and prepared for
Put simply, a signpost is a list of the ELT-specific terminology, eg Guided
what’s coming. Ticking off the tasks as
skills, language and activities that will be discovery
they are completed shows the students
covered in that lesson. This is important Game names are too general – what can their progress through the lesson.
in a communicative classroom which is a student take from ‘Game: Pyramid’? One drawback to this is if you don’t
less traditional than the settings the Writing what the game’s purpose is will actually complete the list. Students
students are used to, as it shows they are make the activity much more accept this occasionally, but it can be
still covering a lot of ground despite the meaningful for students – in this case, frustrating if it occurs regularly. This
fact they are not directly following the ‘Game: vocabulary revision’ more can be overcome by putting any
coursebook. clearly emphasises the purpose of the ‘flexi-stages’ into parentheses, or being
activity. Similarly, ELT-specific less detailed by grouping mini-stages
What should it include? vocabulary is not likely to be understood together.
In order to be effective, a good signpost by the students. Keeping it to simple
terms that the students are familiar with 2 Board as you go
will include:
means they are more likely to embrace The benefits of putting the stages of the
A heading: the topic of the lesson and classroom activities. lesson on the board as you go along are
the date; that the students can see the build-up of
The skills practised: speaking/writing/ What are the benefits? the lesson. Furthermore, they are made
reading/listening; more actively aware of what stages
By signposting your lesson, there is: they’ve completed if these are elicited
The aspects of language practised:
grammar/vocabulary/pronunciation; a representation of the mix of skills from them before being written on the
and language covered in class; signpost. This method also acts as a
The corresponding page numbers of
evidence of a planned lesson; safeguard in the event that you need to
the coursebook, if relevant.
deviate from your lesson plan, or
an immediate representation of
As part of your boardwork planning, something unexpected needs immediate
progress;
you should have a dedicated space for attention.

One drawback to this is that the 2 Board as you go
signpost may look sparse if you don’t Game: Backs to the board
Pre-lesson board
get through as much as you planned. It Speaking game
can also be demotivating if the students 03/05/2013: Describing Art Running dictation
don’t know what they just did or why. Grammar review
Bookwork
3 Half board Discussion: Food I like
This is a mix between the two techniques Break
above. The main headings are listed at Project: Creating your own restaurant
the start of the lesson, with space left to
fill in details after the activity. The
benefit of this is that the students get a
general idea of the lesson structure, as
well as actively highlighting progress as
activities are completed. The drawbacks Post-lesson board
to this technique are similar to those
03/05/2013: Describing Art
mentioned above.
Game: Review art nouns
Examples Speaking: Describing pictures
Here are some examples of these three Listening: Ordering pictures
techniques with boards shown before New grammar: Modals for guessing
and after the lesson: Practice: Modals page 74
Writing: Describe a secret picture
2 Classroom task
1 All aboard Speaking: Guess the picture Choose two of your upcoming classes
Pre-lesson board (preferably different ages or levels).
In the first lesson, use the All aboard
03/05/2013: Describing Art 3 Half board technique.
Game: Review art nouns Pre-lesson board In the second lesson, use the Board as
Speaking: Describing pictures you go technique.
Listening: Ordering pictures In the third lesson, use the Half board
New grammar: Modals for guessing Game: technique.
Practice: Handout Speaking: After each lesson, make a note of the
Writing: Describe a secret picture Listening: final signpost (including ticks, crossing
Speaking: Guess the picture New grammar: outs, etc) for comparison.
Practice:
Writing:
3 Reflection
Post-lesson board How successful was each technique?
Speaking:
Did you do much pre-planning of the
desired signpost? How did this
Post-lesson board
Game: Review art nouns compare with the final result? Why do
Speaking: Describing pictures you think this is?
Listening: Ordering pictures How comfortable did you feel using
Game: Review art nouns each technique? How did the students
New grammar: Modals for guessing
Speaking: Describing pictures react?
Practice: Handout
Listening: Ordering pictures Were there any differences between
Writing: Describe a secret picture
New grammar: Modals for guessing the levels/ages? Did you change your
Speaking: Guess the picture
Practice: Modals page 74 approach or wording in regard to this?
or: Writing: Describe a secret picture What action will you take in the future?
Speaking: Guess the picture Do you have a preferred technique?
Erin Herrick is currently
Game: Review art nouns working as a CELTA
Now you do it trainer in Ho Chi Minh
Speaking: Describing pictures City, Vietnam, where
Listening: Ordering pictures
If you like the idea of signposting, you she has lived for the
might like to try these two activities and past two years. She
New grammar: Modals for guessing previously taught in the
then consider the reflection questions. Czech Republic and
Practice: Handout Estonia and also has
experience in academic
Writing: Describe a secret picture 1 Individual task management.
Speaking: Guess the picture Here is an example of a signpost. How
could it be made more effective? [email protected]

GoneA blank?
SPEAKING
Alan Marsh stages learner is talking away in lovely … oh, that thing in the sky with
English and then suddenly lots of colours. What do you call it? Or
some successful vocabulary just clams up. She’s stuck. else: I needed a ... a kind of tool – you use
She doesn’t know how to go it for cutting wood or metal.
rescue strategies. on. Why? Because she doesn’t know how Yet it very often happens that you
to say a particular word. You encourage teach these enabling strategies to
her, urging her to find another way of learners, but they simply don’t use them.
saying it in English. But that doesn’t The next time the learner needs to
help. So perhaps you ask her for the express an idea which they don’t have
word in her own language, and if you the word for … nothing happens. The
know it, or any of her classmates do, a circumlocution strategies go flying out
quick translation is provided. of the window. You can take a horse to
So many learners feel that without water, but you can’t make it drink, as
enough words – and the right words – they say.
they simply cannot get their ideas across
and, as a result, communication Engaging strategies
sometimes breaks down. Learners of
this kind also experience great difficulty This may be because the learners haven’t
when sitting for examinations in which really engaged with these strategies in
their speaking fluency is tested by, for any meaningful way. They haven’t
example, having them describe a picture. ‘noticed’ them – somebody else (the
The lack of a single word can teacher) has done the noticing for them.
completely throw them and they can end In order for them to really notice and
up performing badly. In many real-life take on board the circumlocution
communicative situations, too, such strategies we would like them to learn,
learners can severely tax the patience of
their listeners as they search, often in What we can do
vain, for the word they need.
is provide students
Enabling strategies with circumlocution
Feeling that I don’t have enough words is
probably one of the most common
strategies: ways of
complaints when learners are talking getting around words
about their difficulties in English,
especially at levels up to intermediate they don’t know by
(Council of Europe CEF B1). simply explaining them
Developing a systematic vocabulary
syllabus is an essential part of our
teaching programme, yet it is unlikely perhaps we need to add elements of
that we’ll be able to cover every word challenge and problem-solving. Also,
that our learners may want or need to the learners probably need some sort of
use. What we can do, however, is provide meaningful, communicative practice in
them with circumlocution strategies, using these strategies, possibly in ways
that is, ways of getting around words which further engage them cognitively
they don’t know by simply explaining (their minds are engaged) and affectively
them. So when talking to a speaker who (their emotions are engaged).
is more fluent than they are and who has In the following sequence of
a greater vocabulary range, they might activities, therefore, each stage
be able to say: This morning I saw a incorporates engagement features in an

attempt to facilitate noticing and to It’s a kind of
c) suggested set of words and phrases
accelerate internalisation. As a result, It’s the general word for
d) targeted at a slightly higher level:
learners may be able to recall these
who / where
e) 3A: whisper, tool, over-the-moon,
strategies more readily when they need
It’s the thing which / It’s the stuff
f) huge, traffic warden, lipstick,
to use them in the real situations
which you use for cleaning / It’s necklace, foggy, dry wine, fall in love,
described at the beginning of this article.
what carpenter
Stage 1: It’s what you are when / It’s what

g) 3B: polluted, blouse, disappointed,
you do when / It’s how you feel chill out, accountant, tiny, corkscrew,
Crossword race when cutlery, parliament, spices, bland
Put the learners into pairs or small
groups and give them Worksheet 1 (on 4 Discuss any variations, alternatives, 2 Divide the class into new groups,
page 50). Set them a challenging time grammatical features as appropriate each containing some members of an
limit. They race against the clock (and with your class. For example: A team and some members of a B
the other pairs/groups) in order to team. They take turns giving each
complete the crossword. They may need b) It’s a synonym for
other definitions and trying to come
to use bilingual dictionaries to help c) It’s a type/sort of up with the word. When a team is
them. e) It’s someone who / it’s somewhere given a definition, the members of
(This crossword idea is adapted from where the team can consult to try to come
an idea in Redman, S, Ellis, R and f) stuff is normally used in this sense up with their word. The team giving
Mark, G A Way With Words: Resource for a substance; for + -ing verb the definition can, of course, provide
Pack 2 CUP 1997. The original follow-up clues. Early finishers can
crossword frame is designed by www. 5 Ask your learners to copy a–h from make up more definitions for words
discoveryeducation.com/free- they know.
Worksheet 2 into their vocabulary
puzzlemaker.)
notebooks.
Stage 2: 6 Divide them into A–B pairs. Student

This approach provides lots of challenge,
What were the clues? A chooses half of the answers in
Step 1 above and orally tests their some team competition and a bit of fun,
1 Write the following answers on the too. Hopefully, these cognitive and
partner, who has to produce an
board (or project them or include affective elements will help your learners
accurate clue using the language
them in a separate handout). Deal to attend to these circumlocution
focused on in this stage. Then they
with any problems. strategies – and the next time they go
swap, and B tests A.
3A stale 15A look it up blank for want of a word, the strategies
will come riding to their rescue.
8A engine 17A coach Stage 3:
10A fall asleep 18A vet
11A rise 19A shark
Using the strategies Alan Marsh lives in
Malta and has been an
14A exhausted 20A error 1 Divide the learners into As and Bs. EFL teacher for over 30
years. He is a freelance
Organise the As into pairs/groups of teacher trainer on
1D vehicle 9D improbable three. Do the same with the Bs. Give Cambridge CELTA and
2D catch up 10D fuel the As Worksheet 3A (on page 51)
DELTA courses and also
works with primary,
4D lose 12D unemployed and the Bs Worksheet 3B (on page secondary and adult
5D tears 13D delicatessen 51). The As prepare clues to explain teachers on Comenius
6D broken up 16D toothpaste and Grundtvig courses.
the words on their worksheet and the
7D delete Bs prepare clues for the words on
theirs. As they do this, go round the [email protected]
2 Now ask the learners to cover their
class and monitor. Help with any
crossword clues and see if they can unfamiliar vocabulary and ensure
remember the clues for these answers. that everybody is making up clues
Ask them to consult in pairs or small which use the target language
groups after they’ve had a go on
their own.
appropriately and accurately. IT WORKS IN PRACTICE
NB The words and phrases in these Do you have ideas you’d like to share
3 Consolidate by providing the worksheets are targeted at a pre- with colleagues around the world?
skeleton clues in Worksheet 2 (on intermediate level (CEF A2). You Tips, techniques and activities;
page 51) and ask the learners to can, of course, change them and simple or sophisticated; well-tried
complete them. substitute different words and or innovative; something that has
phrases to suit the level of your class. worked well for you? All published
Answers Try to ensure, however, that you contributions receive a prize!
It’s the opposite of
a) include at least one word or phrase Write to us or email:
It’s another word for / It means the
b) for each of the circumlocution [email protected]
same as strategies on the worksheet. Here is a

Gone blank? Worksheet 1: Crossword race
1
3 4 5 6
8 9
10
11
12
13
14
15 16
17
18
19
20
Across Down
3 The opposite of FRESH bread 1 The general word for CAR, BUS, VAN, etc
8 The thing which you have to switch on to make a 2 It’s what you have to do when you FALL BEHIND with
car go your work or studies. (two words)
10 The opposite of WAKE UP (two words) 4 The opposite of WIN
11 Another word for GO UP (eg prices, unemployment) 5 It’s what comes out of your eyes when you cry.
14 It’s how you feel when you work too hard. 6 My brother and his girlfriend have _______ (two words).
15 It’s what you do when you don’t know the meaning He looks really miserable now.
of a word. (three words) 7 It means the same as CANCEL (eg a mistake in a
17 It’s a kind of means of transport. computer document).
18 The person who you take your sick or injured pet to 9 The opposite of PROBABLE
19 A type of fish 10 The general word for COAL, OIL, WOOD, GAS
20 Another word for MISTAKE 12 It’s what you are when you don’t have a job.
13 The place where you buy cheeses and special food
16 The stuff which you use for cleaning your teeth

Gone blank? Worksheet 2: Fill in the clues
a) It’s the ______ ______ … fresh/wake up/win/probable f) It’s ______ ______ ______ you … (engine)
b) It’s ______ ______ ______ … go up/mistake It’s ______ ______ ______ you ______ for ______ … (toothpaste)
It ______ ______ ______ as cancel It’s ______ … (tears)
c) It’s a ______ ______ means of transport/fish g) It’s ______ you ______ ______ you … (unemployed)
d) It’s ______ ______ ______ ______ ... coal, oil, gas, etc / It’s ______ you ______ ______ you … (look it up / catch up)
car, bus, van, etc
It’s ______ you ______ ______ you … (exhausted)
e) It’s the person ______ … (vet)
h) An example sentence to contextualise the word (broken up)
It’s the place ______ … (delicatessen)
Gone blank? Worksheet 3A

Some of the clues in the crossword are common ways of It means the same as / It’s another word for ...
explaining new words and phrases. We use them when we
It’s the opposite of ...
can’t think of the exact word we want to say, so they’re very
useful to learn and use. It’s a kind/type/sort of ...
Look at these words and phrases: It’s the general word for ...
crowded, shout, people, excellent, pilot, ink, tie, windy, It’s what/the thing/stuff you use when you …
boring, get tired, chemist’s
It’s what/the thing/stuff you use to ...
Work with a partner and make up your own clues, using the
It’s what/the thing/stuff you use for ...-ing
following words and phrases or give an example sentence
with a context. Then match up with another pair who have It’s the place/somewhere where ...
different words and phrases and see if they can guess your
It’s a/the person/someone who …
words and phrases. Try to guess theirs, too!
It’s how/what you (feel) when ...
It’s what you (do) to/when you …
Gone blank? Worksheet 3B

Some of the clues in the crossword are common ways of It means the same as / It’s another word for ...
explaining new words and phrases. We use them when we
It’s the opposite of ...
can’t think of the exact word we want to say, so they’re very
useful to learn and use. It’s a kind/type/sort of ...
Look at these words and phrases: It’s the general word for ...
amazing, earrings, excited, relax, nurse, dirty, food, museum, It’s what/the thing/stuff you use when you …
salt, tasty, keyboard
It’s what/the thing/stuff you use to ...
Work with a partner and make up your own clues, using the
It’s what/the thing/stuff you use for ...-ing
following words and phrases or give an example sentence
with a context. Then match up with another pair who have It’s the place/somewhere where ...
different words and phrases and see if they can guess your
It’s a/the person/someone who …
words and phrases. Try to guess theirs, too!
It’s how/what you (feel) when ...
It’s what you (do) to/when you …

IN THE CLASSROOM
That’s what friends are for

Genevieve White suggests a friendly solution to fire up flagging classes.
I
f you’ve been teaching the same The oldest person in the world Ask your learners to think of a time they
class for over a year, you may well be Language area: question formation and wanted to complain about something,
feeling the need to ring some narrative tenses then get them to roleplay their complaint
changes. There comes a point on the Lead-in: The learners work in pairs to with partner, using the new language
teaching trajectory when ‘comfortable’ brainstorm some of the most significant they have learnt.
and ‘relaxed’ begin to stagnate into events of the last 100 years, eg world wars, Conduct feedback.
something approaching ‘predictability’ fall of the Berlin Wall, etc. Follow this up
– a point where you can almost sense The would-be English teacher
by whole-class feedback and discussion.
eyes roll collectively as you launch into Language area: present perfect
Ask your learners if they know how
yet another live listening. old the oldest person in the world is, and Explain that the school is looking to
This is what was beginning to announce that the oldest man/woman in recruit new language teachers, and a
happen with my intermediate ESOL the world is a friend of yours and lives change of school policy now means that
class: a lively and motivated group with locally. Explain that you have arranged the learners are responsible for recruiting
whom I’d been working for three years. for the class to meet this person, and they their own teachers. Ask your learners to
They’d seen all my best lessons and will get the chance to interview them. brainstorm in small groups the experience
played all my most entertaining Give them 20 minutes to prepare and qualities a teacher requires.
language games. They’d even started to questions in pairs. Elicit how questions about experience
finish my sentences for me. The next lesson is the oldest man/ are formulated. The learners formulate
While attendance remained excellent woman’s visit. This, of course, does not questions in their groups, eg Have you ever
and the learners continued to appear need to be a particularly aged person! taught for exams? Have you ever taught
engaged, I felt I needed to open the Props work wonders here, eg big glasses, teenagers/adults? Then explain that there
window and let in some fresh air. a stick – and a stoop. is an interviewee waiting outside.
Perhaps I needed to develop new The learners use their prepared questions Finally, the ‘interviewee’ is brought in
resources? Change my textbook? With to interview the oldest person in the world. and the learners conduct an interview,
limited time and money, neither of these In whole-class feedback, select examples using their pre-prepared questions. It
options seemed viable (as I suspect of the questions asked and discuss form, works best if the candidate professes to
might be the case in many other meaning and pronunciation. be unqualified and inexperienced. This
teaching contexts). I racked my brains. can be followed up in more detail with a
What could I use that was interesting The angry customer bad CV and covering letter. (Again, this
and generated a wealth of language? Language area: making a complaint is quick to prepare and easy to adapt to
The answer was a resource most of us Lead-in: Tell your learners that you have the level and situation of your learners.)
are lucky enough to possess: friends. set up your own business, and ask them Alternatively, the CD and covering letter
Bringing friends into the classroom if they would mind spreading the word can be used as a lead-in to the activity.
is an effective way to bring home about it. Ideally, hand out a brochure here
language points, and allows learners (mine was about Tours of Shetland and
valuable exposure to English which may took five minutes to make); the shabbier Of course, these activities require a willing
be differently accented or paced from and more home-made-looking, the better. suspension of disbelief from the learners,
that of their teacher. Let me point out Inform your learners that they are going a poker face from the teacher and visiting
that this does not necessarily mean to be learning about the language of friends who are truly prepared to throw
wheeling your mates in for an complaints, and write the heading up on themselves into the part. On the plus side,
unstructured hour-long chat. Rather, it the board. Begin to elicit useful language. they generate some authentic language
means planning a friend’s visit round a Suddenly a friend, playing the role of an in a memorable context.
particular communicative situation. angry customer, bursts into the room and
Genevieve White has
Don’t we all have a few frustrated-actor demands to speak to you, with a complaint taught English since
friends out there? And, let’s face it, even about your business. The customer uses 1998, and has worked in
Hungary, Romania and
if they are not up to drama school language you have fed to them before various UK locations.
standard, they will surely beat some of lesson. Calm the angry customer, offer Currently, she is an ESOL
tutor at a community
the stilted monologues found on them a seat and ask the learners if they can centre for adult education
coursebook CDs. Here are some ideas. help to establish why they are complaining. in Shetland. She is also
coordinator of the
All require minimal preparation, can be Ask the customer to repeat the complaint ES(O)L film festival:
tailored to suit the needs, abilities and more calmly while your learners take notes. http://esolfilmfestival
Elicit the complaint language the 2013.wordpress.com/.
interests of your students and have been
customer used and write it on the board. [email protected]
successfully road tested.

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ESP A choice of words Louis Rogers considers the question of corpora.
C
orpora are, essentially, collections genre. Douglas Biber and his colleagues Using a corpus
of texts in an electronic database. have used them to highlight a number of The British National Corpus is largely a
They can be used to analyse grammatical features of conversation, written corpus, and many of its sources are
features of language, such as the fiction, news and academic genres. For formal and adult. Ninety percent is taken
frequency of grammatical structures, but example, their study highlights the fact that from written texts and only ten percent from
probably the most common use has been academic English tends to be noun-driven, spoken texts. This affects the distribution
for lexical analysis, with a particular focus with most verbs taking the simple form of the words across the lists. For example,
on the frequency of words in a given (eg present simple, past simple). Teachers in the first 1,000 there are words like
variety of English. Prior to the invention of could use this information to help them commission, committee, invest and labour,
the computer, this analysis was a much decide which grammatical structures whilst many common words in spoken
more laborious process. The Oxford should be given priority in their lessons. English, such as hello, goodbye, pal and
English Dictionary was largely created with Unfortunately, not all corpora are damn, are in the fourth 1,000-word list.
manual corpora, and the tenth volume available for public use, but there are many Consequently, whenever we use corpora
and final part, which came out in 1928, that are. In addition, several websites we have to think about how they were
was based on a 70-year analysis of provide corpus-based text checkers that created. What types of text were used?
literary written English. When the second teachers could use in order to make Were they mainly spoken or written? What
edition was published in 1989, it had only decisions about adapting texts for their variety of English was used? The answers
taken five years to complete – thanks to learners. For example, Oxford University to these questions, matched with the
the use of computers. Press provides a text checker and needs of our students, can determine the
Computers and their associated guidelines to help teachers to grade texts. suitability of the corpora for our purpose.
programs have dominated corpora Known as the Oxford 3000, it uses a list of Many corpus-based text checkers
collection and analysis for over 50 years. 3,000 words which could arguably be given cannot deal with homographs and don’t
Today, there are many sites, such as priority in vocabulary study because of their identify which meaning of a word is the
www.lextutor.ca, that use corpora to importance and usefulness. However, this most common. As a result, we can run into
enable teachers to analyse texts which they number of words obviously spans a number problems. For instance, the word address
plan to use in class. In this and subsequent of levels, so how can we decide which is considered very common on West’s
articles, I will look at a range of corpora and words are useful at each level? General Service List and is in the first 2,000
how they can be used by English teachers. According to the Oxford Advanced words; it was, therefore, not included in the
I will also provide some sample materials Learner Dictionary website: Academic Word List designed by Averil
for teaching vocabulary with each one. In a typical lower-intermediate text, Coxhead. However, the academic use of
close to 100% of the words will be the word is quite different from the more
Why use a corpus? Oxford 3000 keywords. common meaning.
Corpora can be used to inform the In a typical upper-intermediate text, There are also issues when text
selection of the language you teach. They 90–95% of the words will be Oxford checkers show the frequency of an
can show the words which are particularly 3000 keywords. individual word as being high, but closer
frequent in a variety of English, such as In a typical advanced text, 75–90% of inspection reveals that the words it
Indian English, or in a particular genre (eg the words will be Oxford 3000 collocates with can significantly change
spoken English, written English, business keywords. its meaning and use.
English, etc). We can use this information, By analysing the content of a text we are So we need to apply a certain amount
along with information about the thinking of using in class, we can make an of common sense when using text
students’ needs, aims and level, to informed decision about which words we checkers. To a certain extent, this is what
choose words that we wish to prioritise in might cut out or simplify. Obviously, lexis was done with the Oxford 3000, where
our teaching. For instance, Diane Schmitt, is only one way to grade a text, and other the lists were analysed and adapted by a
Norbert Schmitt and David Mann base aspects – such as syntax – could also be panel of experts in the field.
their book Focus on Vocabulary on words taken into account. Moreover, we could
predominantly chosen from the 3,000- argue that a text with appropriate
word sub-list of the British National scaffolding, or one that relates closely to
Corpus. These have been selected as the students’ prior knowledge (schemata), Despite some of these reservations, I feel
priority words for academic students at might be sufficiently accessible. However, that using such corpus-based text checkers
an intermediate/upper-intermediate level. I feel it is useful to grade texts, particularly can inform the choices we make in
The 504 words they choose to teach are when we consider that research indicates designing materials and choosing lesson
considered to be mid-frequency lexis that that students need to know 98 percent of aims. The lesson ideas on page 55 are
should be given priority at this level. the vocabulary in order to make a text based on the British National Corpus and
Corpora can also be used to analyse accessible – in other words, only one in 50 could be used for an intermediate/upper-
the grammatical features from a particular words should be a word they don’t know. intermediate class on ‘describing people’.

Describing people
Describing people: Activity 1
1 Write the following adjectives on Choose the correct adjective in these sentences. Use a dictionary to help.
the board: gorgeous, optimistic,
handsome, sociable, lazy, nervous, a) I’m really lazy/fit; I hardly ever do any sport.
ambitious, irritating, generous,
wealthy, enthusiastic, strict, jealous, b) My uncle Mohammed always thinks good things will happen. He’s very
fit, calm optimistic/strict.
2 Ask the students to rate each of c) I hate it when my sister borrows my things. She’s very sociable/irritating.
the words as follows:
d) She looks like a supermodel – she’s handsome/gorgeous.
a) I know this word and can use it.
b) I know this word but I’m not sure e) My mother says it’s important to be ambitious/nervous if you want to succeed.
how to use it.
c) I don’t know this word. f) Tina’s boyfriend doesn’t like her to talk to other boys. He’s very
3 Ask the students to give you a jealous/generous.
sentence using the words they know. g) Petra is always calm/wealthy. She never panics in dangerous situations.
For the words, they don’t know or
are not sure how to use, give them
Activity 1 opposite and ask them if
they can work out the meaning from Describing people: Activity 2
the context. Afterwards, explain and
A Match each sentence below with the extra information.
give further examples for any of the
The first one is done as an example.
words that have been problematic.
4 Ask the students to work in pairs 1 My grandfather is very old. a) He paid for lunch today at the café.
and each to choose two adjectives 2 He’s very enthusiastic. b) He doesn’t do any exercise and
from the list that they would use to he drives everywhere.
describe themselves. Their partner
should try to guess which ones they 3 My mother is very strict. c) She doesn’t let me go to big parties
have chosen. with my friends.
5 Explain that when we describe a
4 Guy is nervous. d) He has lots of good ideas about
person using one of these adjectives, our project.
we often give more information by
explaining or giving an example. 5 My sister is really artistic. e) He’s got lots of grey hair.
Write the following example on the
board: My brother is very lazy. He 6 Chen isn’t very fit. f) She paints and takes lovely photos.
never wants to do anything! Then
7 Dev is very generous. g) He’s really worried about his biology
give the students Activity 2.
test tomorrow.
6 If you are using this lesson with
an exam class, give Activity 3 to your B Tell a partner about one of your friends. Choose adjectives to describe
students. him/her and give some extra information.
Biber, D, Conrad, S and Leech, G The

Longman Student’s Grammar of Spoken Describing people: Activity 3
and Written English Pearson 2002
Schmitt, D, Schmitt, N and Mann, D Think about how you would do this task.
Focus on Vocabulary 1: Bridging
Vocabulary Pearson 2011 Describe someone in your family who you admire.
Louis Rogers is a You should say:

Course Tutor at the
University of Reading, how this person is related to you
UK. He is the author of
@Work (intermediate
and elementary levels), what kind of person he/she is
published by Richmond,
and co-author of Oxford
EAP (B1+), published by
how other people feel about this person
OUP, and Skillful Reading
and Writing (Level 2), and explain why you admire this person.
published by Macmillan.
l.j.rogers–@reading.ac.uk

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
Reading
Reasons for reading
I would assume that as you’re reading
this magazine (and this article), your
answers to these questions will be mostly
positive. However, not all teachers share
your enthusiasm for reading or, indeed,
journal
for finding out about developments in
the wider world of ELT. Of course, there
are a myriad of reasons (almost always
concerning time) for not reading, but
here are some arguments in support of
reading professional journals and
magazines:
articles
It raises awareness of wider issues
in ELT.
Teachers can discover that there is a world
outside their school or, indeed, their own
classroom. For example, teachers from all
over the globe contribute to ETp and we
can learn about the issues and experiences
in a variety of contexts.
It informs practice.
R
Penny Ur, in her excellent paper presented
Nicholas Northall eading articles is an important
at the 2012 IATEFL conference in
technique in both teacher
Glasgow, discussed this. She stated that
promotes a programme of development and teacher
training. By articles, I am not although learning from experience is a
widely-quoted source of teacher
professional reading. just talking about scholarly research-
based articles in academic journals such knowledge, reading research draws our
as English Language Teaching Journal. I attention to issues and problems we might
am also talking about articles, such as not have considered. For example, how
this one, published in magazines like ETp many teachers still teach lexical sets such
and those in free online magazines, such as colours (red, blue, yellow, etc) despite
as Humanising Language Teaching. In all the fact that research suggests that
these sources you will find articles teaching colours along with the things
discussing issues ranging from teaching they describe (such as green grass) is a
methodology to research, lesson better way to learn vocabulary?
materials to controversial viewpoints – or It helps us to remain professional.
indeed anything related to teaching. If you are considering taking a further
I want, first, to outline some reasons qualification in ELT, such as a diploma
for reading articles. Then I will describe or Master’s degree, then reading articles
part of the teacher development is essential. Not only that, teaching is –
programme in my own institution in most of us would maintain – a
which articles are disseminated to professional career, and by reading and
teachers. Finally, I will outline some knowing about our chosen calling we
advice for setting up a similar remain professional.
programme in your own place of work.
It helps us to stay fresh.
But before you read any further, Since we have chosen to be teachers, why
here are some questions for you to not make those hours carrying out our
think about: duties both fun and interesting? Keith
Do you regularly read English Harding suggests trying new approaches
language teaching journals or to Continuing Professional Development
magazines? Why/Why not? in order to keep it fresh. One of his
suggestions is reading (and even
Which ones do you read, and how
reporting on) professional magazines,
often?
journals and books. By not reading, we
Do you use any of the information can remain stuck in a rut, doing the same
from these journals? If so, how? old things day in day out: how boring!

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
Reading
journal articles Dear all,
I hope you are well.
This week: two strongly opinionated articles from the latest issue of ETp, both of
It gives teachers new ideas (or new which should certainly make you think. Copies of these articles and the original
twists on old ideas). magazine are available in the Resources Room.
By reading articles, we can learn about
Peter Wells: ‘No gain without pain’
new exercises or lesson tips: perhaps
From: ETp Issue 78
things we had not previously thought
This article presents the case for why extensive reading is not a good idea. Although
about. We can also re-learn techniques
I don’t agree with almost everything the author suggests here (some of his criticisms
that we haven’t used for a long time.
completely miss the point and/or are just wrong), it did make me think about why
It helps us find solutions to the author is wrong.
problems. For: teachers using graded readers with their learners.
According to Michael Wallace, teaching
Sarn Rich: ‘The battle of the boards’
is a lonely profession in which we
From: ETp Issue 78
sometimes have to face problems alone.
Arguing for traditional boards, the author makes several suggestions as to why they
He suggests that a way to overcome these
are better. This article also includes a dozen activities for use with traditional boards.
problems is to read about other teachers’
For: advocates of the old board and users of the new.
ideas. These may give us the solutions we
need to solve our own problems. Cheers,
Nick
It gives us time to think and reflect
on our chosen profession.
A really important part of any topics – mainly concerned with teaching,
As you can see, the email includes
professional activity is to take time away but not always so. The subjects have
details of each article along with a brief
from it and think about how it’s done. included: academic referencing, setting
summary, which helps teachers to decide
By reading an article, we can think homework, poster presentations (we ask
whether they would like to read the full
about our teaching and reflect on it – some of our learners to do these, so I
thing. If the article is from a free online
preferably with a cup of good tea or disseminate articles which discuss how
journal, I include a link to the article. If
coffee! best to carry them out), extensive reading
it is from a paper-based journal, I
It can be a solution to burnout. mention that both the original article and using readers with learners (we have
Emma Hatfield and John-Paul Baker and copies of it can be found on display a book trolley where learners can borrow
believe that reading journal articles can in our Resources Room. Finally, I graded readers) and using information
relieve the stress of professional burnout usually mention who would benefit from technology (eg Interactive White Boards
by invigorating us with new ideas. reading this article. and PowerPoint). Moreover, as we are a
The articles I distribute are chosen teacher training centre, I have distributed
Our teacher development according to a number of criteria: articles concerned with teacher training
issues, such as giving and receiving
programme Firstly, I try to look at a wide range of
feedback after an observation.
sources, from scholarly research-based
Here in Sheffield, we have quite a large It is always a good idea to consider
journals to free online ones. The main
English language teaching centre with what is happening at your institution
thing to consider is that the articles are
over 70 teachers and senior members of during any given week. So when the
both readable and relevant to our centre.
staff. As our centre has experienced British Council inspected our centre last
significant growth over the last few years Secondly, I look for the kinds of November, I distributed an article on
in terms of staff and the range of articles our teachers will be interested in being observed. Finally, if any teachers
courses we offer, there was a direct need reading. These could include lesson actually have an article published, it’s
to increase our teacher development plans, viewpoints and opinions or issues always a good idea to distribute this.
programme. Realising that there are related to language teaching in general.
many advantages to reading journal Feedback
Thirdly, the articles I distribute depend
articles, we decided to disseminate brief Since I started distributing articles over
on which magazine has a new issue out
summaries of interesting and relevant a year ago, informal reactions have been
in that particular week. If I come to
ones for our teachers to read. very good. Teachers have approached
my desk and see the latest issue of ETp
me with positive comments about the
How the programme works lying there, there is a very good chance
articles. Some have used ideas from the
that something from that magazine will
Once a week, I distribute between one articles in their lessons and have created
be distributed that week.
and four (although it’s usually two) some really useful material as a result.
articles to other teachers by sending out Over the last year or so, I have Some teachers have also sent emails
an email like the one on this page. distributed articles on a wide variety of questioning some of the viewpoints and

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
opinions raised in one or two of the where you work. Do you work in a
articles I have distributed (for example, university setting or in a primary school?
the Peter Wells article mentioned in the Your place of work will determine the If you want to try something similar in
letter above). kind of articles you send out. your institution, a good place to start is
In order to gauge teachers’ reactions 3 Provide variety. with articles published in ETp. As you
further, I sent out a brief survey. know, this magazine publishes articles
Think about distributing a wide variety
Unfortunately, only 11 people actually concerned with a wide range of ELT
of different genres and text types. These
responded, but their reactions were on issues, from tips on methodology to
could be book reviews, lesson plans,
the whole very positive. Here are the practical classroom exercises, some of
exercises, tips on methodology or
questions and some of the comments: which will be relevant to your situation.
scholarly articles.
I hope you will be able to promote
Do you think it is a good idea to send 4 Target your teachers’ wants and this much neglected area of teacher
articles to teachers?
needs. development in your own context.
‘The occasional one is relevant to me.’
Try to find out what your teachers want
‘I always look at the summaries.’
to read about and, more importantly, Free online journals:
Have you ever used any of the ideas what they need. Do they want help with Asian EFL Journal:
from the articles in your teaching? teaching large classes? Or are they www.asian-efl-journal.com/
‘Most have not been applicable to my interested in vocabulary acquisition? Developing Teachers:
situation.’ Find out by asking, either informally or www.developingteachers.com/
‘The articles make me think about my formally. eltmag:
teaching so they still have an impact.’ http://eltmag.com
5 Improve availability.
Humanising Language Teaching:
Have you learnt anything about Why not have your articles available in www.hltmag.co.uk/index.htm
developments in the wider world of print for all to see? Display them in a The Internet TESL Journal:
ELT/EAP? shared teachers’ room or resources room http://iteslj.org/
‘It’s good to keep track of what’s so everyone can see them and take a Pearson ELT:
happening …’ copy if they wish. www.pearsonelt.com/
‘I haven’t had time to read these articles 6 Increase your sources. Reading in a Foreign Language:
and am more focused on practical ideas http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/
There are a lot of magazines and
rather than theory.’ Share TESL Canada:
journals in our field of expertise. Ask www.tesl.ca/Home.htm
How could I improve the dissemination your manager or ADOS (or whoever Teaching English (British Council and
of these articles? pays the bills) to increase your BBC):
‘I think what you do works well – for me, institution’s budget to enable you to www.teachingenglish.org.uk/
at least.’ subscribe to some of these resources. The TESOL Journal:
‘No, I think the way you are doing it is www.tesol-journal.com/index.php
7 Make use of internet sites.
fine.’ TESL-EJ:
If you find that your institution does not www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/
Since some teachers indicated that they have a large budget, or if the bill payer
References:
would prefer reading more practical does not, for whatever reason, want to
Harding, K ‘CPD’ Modern English Teacher
articles, rather than theoretical ones, I subscribe to journals, you could make use
18 (3) 2009
have tried to accommodate this: although of the myriad of free sites available on the
Hatfield, E and Baker, J P ‘Avoiding
Penny Ur (see above) would disagree! web. I have included a list of sites at the
burnout: being our professional best’
end of this article. These are all free and Share 2 2012
include useful articles. However, please
Your teacher development note that I don’t work for any of these
Ur, P ‘It’s all very well in theory, but …’
Paper presented at the IATEFL
programme sites and cannot vouch for their contents. Conference, Glasgow, UK 19–23 March
If you are thinking of setting up a All I can say is that I have found useful 2012
similar programme in your institution, information in all of them, which I have Wallace, M J Action Research for
here are a few pieces of advice you used in my own context. Language Teachers CUP 1998
might want to consider: 8 Beware of copyright.
Nicholas Northall works
1 Include a brief summary. Make sure that you check the copyright at the English Language
Sending an email which includes details situation in your country. For example, in Teaching Centre at the
University of Sheffield,
of the article, a brief summary and who the UK it is an infringement of copyright UK, where he teaches
would benefit from reading ensures that to scan paper-based journals and to EAP and contributes to
the centre’s teacher
teachers can make a quick decision as to distribute them via a social media training programme. He
whether they would like to read the full platform. You can, however, photocopy has worked in ELT for
up to five percent of a given journal and nearly 15 years.
article.
distribute this. Obviously, if you use free
2 Assess your situation.
online journals, you simply need to
The first thing you need to consider is [email protected]
provide a link to the relevant article.

Weblogs
TECHNOLOGY
Eva Stradiotová creates a class magazine with her students.
T
here is much information and I find a teacher weblog especially useful expected from them. This included how
communication technology for lower-intermediate and intermediate often they would have to publish their
(ICT) which we can use in students, and I use it for summarising posts (once a week, twice a week, etc).
education these days, and our the curriculum and for providing One student from each group was
choice depends on the goals which we additional exercises. The students are chosen to be the editor, who would be
want to achieve. There are probably not usually allowed to post items on this responsible for running the magazine.
quite a few teachers who decide not to blog, although they can add comments. Their first task was to decide on a name
use ICT in their classrooms because they The feedback from them is usually for their group’s blog, which would also
are not only afraid of using it, but they positive. be the name of their magazine. Then
also fear that it would involve a lot of each group chose the topics they were
additional work for them and for their Student weblogs interested in and wanted to write about
students. Nevertheless, I believe it is These may take the form of individual (business, news, sport, culture, etc).
important that teachers should at least or class weblogs. Once they had started posting their
think about using ICT, not least because A weblog which is created by an articles, I had to decide how I would
this generation of young people use individual student can be used as: correct their work and give feedback. I
technology constantly in their everyday a portfolio of essays (or any written decided to check their grammar and
lives, and they expect that their teachers work); vocabulary and make notes about any
will use it to make their classes more mistakes they made. However, I did not
interesting. a student diary. inform every student about the mistakes
A class weblog, to which all the students they had made, because this would have
Weblogs in the class contribute, can be used: taken too much time. Instead, once a
week at the beginning of the lesson, I
I have been using weblogs as a part of my for group projects;
pointed out the mistakes that had been
college courses for several years and, in for disseminating information about made, but without giving the names of
my experience, students like them and are class activities; the students responsible.
motivated by them to study language.
I use two types of weblogs as a as an online class magazine.
support to my traditional teaching in Students can post material on individual
the classroom: teacher weblogs and or class weblogs. At the end of the term, I gave the
student weblogs. Let’s look at the ways students questionnaires in which I asked
in which they can be used. Creating a class them what they thought about using
weblogs as a tool for language learning.
Teacher weblogs magazine The results indicated that most of the
A teacher weblog can be used: With one of my classes, I decided to use students enjoyed writing articles for the
a student blog as an online magazine. In weblog magazine and felt that it had
as a message board – a very useful
my experience, students generally find helped them to improve their English
means of communication, because
writing a magazine interesting and writing and reading skills.
you can inform the students and their
motivating. It gives them an opportunity
parents about exams, results they have
to practise their English and to Eva Stradiotová has
achieved, coursework, and so on;
communicate their opinions freely. been teaching English
for students to add comments on texts for over 20 years. She
The students worked in groups of started her career
or other materials; between five and seven members, as I teaching at secondary
school level but since
to give tips for effective study felt it would be easier for them to work 2000 has been teaching
strategies; together in small groups than as a whole English at the University
class. of Economics in
for explaining grammar points; Bratislava, Slovakia. She
The first step was to explain to the is interested in the use
students how to create a magazine on a of IT in education.
for recommending additional
weblog, and to make clear what would be [email protected]
materials for study.

TECHNOLOGY
In this series, Nicky Hockly
explains aspects of technology which
Five things you always wanted to know about some people may be embarrassed to
‘remix’ ‘mash-ups’
or
confess that they don’t really
understand. In this article, she
describes ‘remix’ literacy and how to
(but were too afraid to ask) work with it in the classroom.
1 Remix? Mash-up? Does it

involve potatoes?
– an interesting example of how digitally
literate politicians can use social media to
their own advantage.
to propose their own alternative,
sometimes even multiple, viewpoints.’**
Well, it does involve mixing or ‘mashing’,
but the potatoes are left out. The term
‘remix’ often refers to musical styles
4 What has remix got to do with
English language teachers?
5 What ‘remix’ activities can I
carry out with my students?
combined into one song. For example, the One of the easiest remix genres to create is
UK band The Sex Pistols made a punk- Traditionally, our students consume media that of subtitled images. The technical skill
rock version of God Save the Queen in in the classroom. They read texts, look at needed to add a subtitle or caption to an
1977, the year of the Queen’s Silver pictures or watch videos produced by image is minimal, and students can produce
Jubilee. Not everyone was pleased by this others, whether authentic or not. With the short texts for this. You can get your
iconoclastic approach to a revered piece of advent of Web 2.0 (see ETp Issue 64), our students to contribute their images to an
music, and many interpreted it as a direct students can now easily create content for already created meme (such as the Hillary
assault on the monarchy. And, indeed, this the web themselves. This has clear text meme described above), and/or you
is often the point of remix – by ‘mashing implications for the language classroom. can get them to invent a meme in pairs,
up’ or mixing together diverse elements to Now we can have our students looking at using one image. Of course, you first need
create something new, the result can be remixed images, texts and videos and, to show your students examples of remixed
critical of the original elements. more importantly, we can have our students images and discuss these so that they
creating their own remixed artefacts, understand the genre. Here are the top 50
2 So creating a remix means

mixing music styles?
uploading them to the internet and sharing
them with a much wider audience. Not only
are we encouraging our learners to produce
memes of 2012, for example: http://goo.gl/
hXaZO. Your students may already be
familiar with the genre, and know of remixed
These days, the term ‘remix’ can refer to
combining various media together. It language (something we’ve always done), images with text in their own language.
includes the repurposing of original texts, but we are doing so in a far more authentic Once they are clear on how image memes
images, pieces of music and/or film, by and potentially motivating and creative work, they can create their own. There are
adding new elements or by superimposing context than that of consuming and meme generator sites, such as Quickmeme
existing elements in new ways. ‘Remix reproducing prepackaged coursebook (www.quickmeme.com) and Meme
literacy’ has been called ‘a literacy for this content. Even more importantly, we are Generator (http://memegenerator.net/), and
generation’*, and it includes not just helping them develop some of the digital some are available as smartphone apps.
knowledge of how to manipulate media literacies they need to fully participate in our If you not only allow your students to
technically (eg adding a caption to an increasingly wired world (see ETp Issue 85 analyse remix in class, but also encourage
image), but also an awareness and for an overview of digital literacies). them to create their own remixed artefacts,
understanding of the accompanying wider Remix fits well with notions of critical whether images, text or video, you may be
cultural – and possibly political – issues. thinking: surprised by the creativity you unleash!
‘In opening up space for remix in our
3 Can you give me another classrooms, we give students the * Lessig, L ‘Larry Lessig on laws that
example of remix? opportunity to speak out about both choke creativity’ TED Talks http://goo.
gl/8Tk7o 2007
Yes, here’s an example based on a remixed major and minor issues that matter to
** Dudeney, G, Hockly, N and Pegrum, M
image: In early 2012, a photograph of them. The bigger issues might be social,
Digital Literacies Pearson Education 2013
Hillary Clinton sending a text message was political or environmental (with the last of
remixed to include a caption and posted these representing a relatively safe option Nicky Hockly has been involved in
on the tumblr blog. It quickly spread as a in contexts where student social or EFL teaching and teacher training
political activism is risky or unwelcome). since 1987. She is Director of
‘meme’ – an idea or digital artefact widely Pedagogy of The Consultants-E,
shared via the internet. The photo was Because it entails a reconceptualisation an online teacher training and
and reworking of its constituent materials, development consultancy. She is
remixed by internet users to show Hillary co-author of How to Teach English
supposedly texting various celebrities, with remix presupposes a critical approach. with Technology, Learning English
But unlike the more traditional ‘media as a Foreign Language for Dummies,
the caption showing her text message. The Teaching Online and Digital Literacies.
finishing touch to this meme came when literacy’ on which it builds, remix goes She has published an e-book,
beyond critique by shifting the emphasis Webinars: A Cookbook for Educators
Hillary created and posted a remix image of (the-round.com), and she maintains a
herself texting the creators of the meme (see from consumption to production, thereby blog at www.emoderationskills.com.
http://textsfromhillaryclinton.tumblr.com/) giving students agency and allowing them [email protected]

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Webwatcher Russell Stannard investigates
a tool with an abundance of possibilities.
I
t’s funny how over time your interests in teaching ebb and flow recording of the two students speaking would appear on the right.
between different areas. My first big interest was in using I like the idea that the students choose the topic, create the questions
technology for feedback, then I started to look at using and then record the discussion. They can easily share the recordings
technology for developing speaking activities, then it moved to with the teacher afterwards and, of course, these recordings could
the area of ICT and collaboration. More recently, I have been be used as a form of e-portfolio. As I mentioned above, though,
looking at e-portfolios and also student reflection. you need a fairly fast connection for this to work well.
PresentMe (https://present.me) Sharing reflection

When I think back over my own education, I realise that reflecting
The tool I am going to talk about here offers useful possibilities in
on my own learning and thinking about what worked and didn’t
areas such as e-portfolios, student reflection and speaking. It is
work for me has had a big impact on my own development. I
one that I have written about before, but it is now vastly improved
believe that reflection is a useful skill that we can develop in our
and has a much easier interface to work with. It is called
students. We need to prepare them for a world where the skills
PresentMe, and it allows you to upload PowerPoint presentations
they learn today may become redundant in ten years’ time; they
and add a webcam recording to go along with them. You can
will need to learn new ones and continually update their skills.
then share the recordings over the internet or embed them into a
This means that they will need to take a lot of responsibility for
blog, Moodle site or website.
their own learning.
You can use the introductory tool for free, so students could
Most of my students are actually teachers who have returned
also have accounts and use it. Recordings can be up to 60
to university to do an MA in ELT. I often expose them to different
minutes long, and users can upload ten recordings a month. This
technologies in class, and then send them a series of questions,
seemed very generous to me so I actually spoke to the CEO of
encouraging them to reflect on what they did in the lesson and to
the company to confirm that it was true. You do need a fast
think about how and if they would use the technologies in their
internet connection for this type of technology. However, you can
own teaching context. Tools like myBrainShark, Jing and now
choose just to add audio to the PowerPoint slides, something
PresentMe are great for this. The teachers can upload the
you can also do with myBrainShark, another tool I often talk
questions, turn on their webcam or audio and simply record their
about (see ETp Issue 77) and which is similar to PresentMe, but
answers. They can then share their reflections with me. I can play
does not offer the option of adding a webcam recording.
back the recordings: on the left-hand side of the screen I have
How can teachers use PresentMe? the questions, and on the right-hand side I can see and listen to
them talking through their answers.
Sharing lectures
One obvious way to use this site is to share lectures. You can e-portfolios
upload lectures, presentations and teaching material and talk I can see great potential for getting students to build up a
through the slides. You could encourage your students to make collection of recordings over time for an e-portfolio – and
use of this content before or after the class, or simply provide it possibly getting them to self-evaluate or peer evaluate their
as useful reference material. You are not limited to PowerPoint, performances. The students could store links to their recordings
you can also upload PDF files and add your voice or even in a blog or wiki or by using a specific e-portfolio tool. They could
webcam footage to these. This tool has obvious implications for then be used as evidence of a student’s oral ability, ability to
distance learning courses, too, though my advice would be to engage in discussion and groupwork, etc. What I like about
create a paid account if you are intending to use it for an official e-portfolios is that they offer a wider evidence base of a student’s
distance learning course. learning and language performance.
Sharing speaking
I have made some help videos for using PresentMe.
OK, so we’re back on my favourite subject. We can get our
You can find these at:
students to upload their own PowerPoint presentations or PDF www.teachertrainingvideos.com/presentme/index.html
files and then add their voice or a webcam recording. Of course,
this could be done as a group- or pairwork activity, too.
Russell Stannard is a Principal Lecturer in ICT at the
One really nice idea might be to get the students to work in University of Warwick, UK, where he teaches on the
pairs, produce a list of job interview questions, load the MA in ELT. He won the Times Higher Education Award
for Outstanding Initiatives in Information and
questions onto PresentMe and then record themselves in pairs Communications Technology in 2008, TEFLnet Site of
working through the questions. the Year in 2009 and a 2010 British Council ELTon
award, all for his popular website
You could use the same idea for all sorts of discussions. For www.teachertrainingvideos.com.
example, the students could choose a topic, write out a series of
questions, load them onto PresentMe and then discuss them in Keep sending your favourite sites to Russell:
[email protected]
pairs. The questions would appear on the left and the webcam

Prize crossword 59
ETp presents the fifty-ninth in our VERY FREQUENT WORDS FAIRLY FREQUENT WORDS
series of prize crosswords. Send your *** The direction in which the sun rises * A door that leads out of a public building
entry (completed crossword grid and *** To greet a newcomer politely * A small animal with poor eyesight that lives
quotation), not forgetting to include *** ‘Fashion is a form of ugliness ___ underground
your full name, postal address and telephone number, intolerable that we have to alter it every * A small piece of something that has been
to Prize crossword 59, English Teaching professional, six months.’ (Oscar Wilde) broken
Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd, Rayford House, *** A very large area of salt water * A pile of things placed one on top of another
School Road, Hove, BN3 5JR, UK. Ten correct entries *** Smooth, not odd * An historical term for a poor farm worker
will be drawn from a hat on 10 August 2013 and the *** A hard black fuel that is dug from the * Strange and difficult to explain
senders will each receive a copy of the second edition ground LESS FREQUENT WORDS
of the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced *** ‘___ has all the virtues I dislike and – Abbreviation for advertisement
Learners, applauded for its unique red star system none of the vices I admire.’ (Winston – To spoil something
showing the frequency of the 7,500 most common Churchill) – A mathematical number represented by a
words in English (www.macmillandictionary.com). *** ‘They ___ serve who only stand and Greek letter
wait.’ (John Milton) – A white bird used as a sign of peace
18 21 7 4 3 3 24 14 24 5 9 17 23 24
*** Opposite of first – A large celebration with music and
Z *** Directly connected to what is being entertainment

24 24 4 26 24 4 17 11
discussed – Feeling that you are about to vomit

2 3 4 10 23 24 11 19 26 4 6 19 *** The organ that pumps blood around – Involving serious behaviour or attitudes
the body – A sound used to show you understand

17 5 22 4 11 19 24 5 17 22 24
*** Not making any noise at all something

3 17 26 4 9 25 20 3 *** ___ I Go to Sleep (novel by S J Watson) – An old word used by town criers to attract

24 13 8 21 22 1 26 21 5 24 11 19
*** To move something from one place to attention
I another – The process of learning by repeating

9 8 26 19 17 3 17 19 24 4 *** ‘If you’re going ___ hell, keep going.’ something many times

26 24 8 12 3 5 20 22 21 (Winston Churchill) – An exclamation of surprise
L *** To give a performance that people

15 4 23 18 17 3 24 24 24 24 20 24 11
– A slope connecting two levels of something
enjoy – A fast-moving animal with horns and long
26 21 17 5 23 4 3 4 *** Till Death Do ___ Part (film, 1969) thin legs
*** To employ something – Two letters denoting an example

11 16 13 8 26 24 11 4 5 26 17
*** ___ Need to Talk About Kevin (film, – Presence everywhere

23 3 8 11 10 20 24 10 4 12 2011) – Part of an animal or plant shaped like a

17 1 21 12 24 4 3 19 24 11
*** A Day __ the Races (Marx Brothers film) small bag and filled with liquid or air
*** Lark Rise ___ Candleford (novel by – The power to make someone do what you

5 4 26 19 11 12 4 19
Flora Thompson) want

24 17 16 24 7 19 4 1 24 FREQUENT WORDS – One of the narrow bars of a ladder
** To provide things needed for a particular – Full of enthusiasm, particularly for political
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 purpose or religious ideas
L Z

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 16 17 8 4 3 24 11 24 20 24 3 19 17 17
I

17 5 6 19 17 26 24 19 4 11 17 19 12 24 3
To solve the puzzle, find which letter each number represents. You can
keep a record in the boxes above. The definitions of the words in the puzzle

10 17 4 5 17 3 19 17 6 3 24 4 23 4
are given, but not in the right order. When you have finished, you will be 11 24 14 6 3 24 4 23
C S Lewis
able to read the quotation.

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Issue 86

The Leading Practical Magazine For English Language Teachers Worldwide

• fresh ideas & innovations

• tips & techniques

• competitions & reviews

For further information

ALL ABOARD! 4 WORLD STORIES 23

TAKE MY ADVICE ... OR NOT! 9 A CHOICE OF WORDS 54

PRODUCT PLUS PROCESS 10

PRINTED VERSUS DIGITAL DICTIONARIES 17

FIVE THINGS YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO 61

LICKS AND CHUNKS 29

FROM RESEARCH TO REALITY 3 30

A QUESTION OF ATTITUDE 34 LANGUAGE LOG 40

EFFECTIVE SIGNPOSTING 46 IT WORKS IN PRACTICE 38

GONE BLANK? 48 REVIEWS 44

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 86 May 2013 • 1

As well as warning of the difficulties of government,

Rayford House, School Road, Hove BN3 5HX, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1273 434943 Email: [email protected]

Tel: 01536 747333

2 • Issue 86 May 2013 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

• Best-loved classics and original fiction

communication made easy www.helblinglanguages.com

Trinity College London exams assess English

Discover the benefits for learners

Assessing English language proficiency since 1938

Quality audited by the

English Teaching Professional March 2013 (186 x 123).indd 1 26/03/2013 17:22:55

4 • Issue 86 May 2013 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 86 May 2013 • 5

6 • Issue 86 May 2013 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 86 May 2013 • 7

The BIG Picture

Choose your online course at

Take my advice ...

I Think before you speak!

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 86 May 2013 • 9

10 • Issue 86 May 2013 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 86 May 2013 • 11

12 • Issue 86 May 2013 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

I am writing to you ..............................................................................................................................

According to your advertisement, .........................................................................................

................................................................. . However, ...............................................................................

Another problem is that ................................................................................................................

To make matters worse, ..............................................................................................................

As a result of these problems, I ................................................................................................

I look foward to ....................................................................................................................................

Completed marking scheme sheet for FCE/CAE

Content Fully answers the question – well done.

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 86 May 2013 • 13

14 • Issue 86 May 2013 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 86 May 2013 • 15

16 • Issue 86 May 2013 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 86 May 2013 • 17

digital dictionaries generated a huge amount of new

18 • Issue 86 May 2013 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

www.macmillandictionary.com • details of ELT projects around the world

RT ORT ORT House Conference Centre

It as cancel It’s … (tears)