ETP (January 2015)

Issue 96
January
2015
The Leading Practical Magazine For English Language Teachers Worldwide
The uniqueness of gameplay

Jason Anderson
Cat got your tongue?

Mark Hancock
Map your career

Emily Edwards
Embracing ambiguity
Simon Dunton
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
Navigate
Your direct route to English success
Innovative
approach to reading
and listening based on
academic research as
to how adults best
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Thoroughly tested
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Truly adult and

truly international
texts and topics
Based on the
Oxford 3000, so that
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www.oup.com/elt/yourdirectroute
Contents
MAIN FEATURE
EMBRACING AMBIGUITY
THE UNIQUENESS OF GAMEPLAY
Jason Anderson believes games make

the artificial authentic
40
Simon Dunton accepts that there is always

more than one answer
SUGGESTIONS FROM THE STAFFROOM 6
48
Sasha Wajnryb gets language learning tips from teachers
FEATURES
CHESS, WARDROBES AND PIZZA
Phillip Brown concocts some creative comparisons
LOOK, NO HANDS!
TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS

PUPPETS IN PRIMARY
12
23
Devin Unwin brings new characters to the classroom
Tim Richardson meets a collaborative challenge
A TREE OF THE PAST
14
Anna Kamont demonstrates how past tenses

can grow on you
ALL THE WORLDS A CLASSROOM
PREACHING IN PRACTICE
16
17
Mark Hancock proposes purrfect pronunciation

exercises
FAIL: FIRST ATTEMPT IN LEARNING
MAP YOUR CAREER
51
Emily Edwards looks at the options open to teachers

on the move
TECHNOLOGY
20
Anna Hasper helps learners learn to love their mistakes
OVER THE WALL
49
Dave Briggs gives a CLIL demonstration lesson
Alberto Fornasier finds British culture fascinating
CAT GOT YOUR TONGUE?
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
MAKING THE MOST OF FILM
54
Charles Jannuzi views some video resources
25
Alan Maley chooses books on computers
FIVE THINGS YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO

KNOW ABOUT: SOCIAL BOOKMARKING
57
Nicky Hockly shows how to find things quickly and easily
AUDIENCE AND PURPOSE
27
Donna Scarlett recruits Weird Al to inspire

her writers
COMMUNICATIVE CLARITY
WEBWATCHER 59
Russell Stannard is captivated by an image-capture tool
30
REGULAR FEATURES
Paul Bress clarifies how to make yourself clear
GOAL! 34
IT WORKS IN PRACTICE
Tamzin Berridge asks her students to articulate

their aims
REVIEWS 42
ENGLISH TEACHING CONFESSIONAL

Rogheyeh Kazemi Pargou reveals how she is
a lifelong language hunter
38
36
SCRAPBOOK 44
COMPETITIONS
10, 60
Includes materials designed to photocopy
www.etprofessional.com ENGLISH TEACHING professional Issue 96 January 2015
Editorial
his issue of ETp is all about different perspectives.

It seems fitting that, at the beginning of a new year,
we should take a step back and, perhaps, try to see
what we do from a series of different viewpoints.
In our main feature, Jason Anderson examines the meaning of

authentic, identifying gameplay as a context where language
used to play a classroom game and language used to talk
about playing the game have equal claims to authenticity.
Tim Richardson is a journalist rather than an English teacher,
but his account of how he ran a creative writing group for
people with life-changing disabilities should provide inspiration
for teachers whose students would benefit from a similar
supportive and collaborative approach to writing.
Rogheyeh Kazemi Pargou is a teacher in Iran, but it is her
experiences as a mother and student, a language hunter as
she puts it, in New York that provide the cultural and linguistic
insights she shares in her English Teaching Confessional.
In a similar vein, Alberto Fornasier tells how his travels around
the UK helped him to understand not just a little more about the
British character, but also why British teachers seem ideally
suited to communicative language teaching.
For Anna Kamont, the focus is tense choice. She helps her
students appreciate the difference between all the past tense
forms that are on offer to them when they construct a past
narrative. By drawing trees with different-shaped branches,
she enables them to visualise the implications of the tenses
they choose.
If you have ever found it difficult to explain or demonstrate to
your students the various tongue positions that are used to
make particular sounds, then Mark Hancocks delightful cat
drawings may provide a solution. Envisaging the tongue from
the perspective of a cat stretching in different directions may
provide the key to helping students improve their vowel sounds.
Simon Dunton sees the alternative answers provided by his
students not as wrong, but as triggers for discussion of
language and further learning. Likewise, Anna Hasper believes
that getting students to appreciate their failures and use them
as learning opportunities is the key to raising the self-esteem
needed for success.
Phillip Brown shows his students the importance of correct

language use by means of three analogies: knowing
a language is like playing chess, choosing the right clothes
from your wardrobe and making a pizza. He explains why
looking at English from these perspectives gives his students
greater insights into the vital question of language choice.
Helena Gomm
Editor
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2 Issue 96 January 2015 ENGLISH TEACHING professional www.etprofessional.com
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M A I N F E AT U R E
The uniqueness
of gameplay
Jason Anderson
finds a way of making
controlled language use
authentic.
an language use be
simultaneously authentic and
yet controlled? Is it possible to
have meaningful
communication between learners that still
retains a linguistic focus? I believe the
answer to both of these questions is yes,
if we draw upon the unique features and
qualities of gameplay to create a dual
context for language use in the classroom.
Among the many definitions of
authenticity that have been invoked in
language teaching, it is Henry
Widdowsons that resonates most
meaningfully for me as a teacher. In his
influential paper Context, community,
and authentic language, Widdowson
made the point that authenticity is not a
quality of the materials we use, but a
context-dependent interaction between
individuals within a community,
whether that be the face-to-face
interaction of conversation, or the
time-displaced interaction when we read
a text or watch a TV programme. He
identified three key features that are
necessary prerequisites for language use
to be considered authentic: context, a
discourse community and pragmatic
functioning, by which he means a
purpose for using language.
Language use in
gameplay
When we look at gameplay, we can
identify two contexts for authentic
language use within Widdowsons
definition, as illustrated in Table 1.
Let us call the language used in these
two contexts in-game language use (for
context 1, the game) and around-game
language use (for context 2, the lesson
event).
In-game language use

In the first context in Table 1 (in-game
language use), whenever a player does
what is required of them in order to
progress towards success within the game,
they are using language authentically. For
example, a learner who is talking for a
minute without stopping on a random
topic, or trying to guess a word being
described by a classmate, is using language
no less authentically than I am when I am
playing Just a minute or Monopoly with
my friends, regardless of whether the
language use replicates anything that
might occur beyond the world of
gameplay. Whats more, in-game language
use is usually quite rule-bound, restricted
even. Asking and answering a Trivial
pursuit question would hardly constitute
authentic language use according to Jim
Scriveners Authentic, Restricted and
Clarification (ARC) model, yet it happens
in gameplay outside the classroom. The
language use is authentic because it has
a pragmatic functioning within the
discourse community of the game, even
if it fulfils a partly- or wholly-linguistic
outcome (as opposed to a non-linguistic,
real world outcome). As David Crystal
and Guy Cook maintain, using language
for its own sake is part of authentic
language use.
Around-game language use

Around-game language use (the second
context in Table 1) includes any
language use that either facilitates,
supports or comments on the gameplay
itself. It recognises the class (including
the teacher) as its discourse community.
It is present in all types of gameplay, but
tends to be, in my experience, more
extensive and more varied in competitive
gameplay, as opposed to collaborative
Context
Community
Pragmatic functioning
1 The game
The players
To win the game or play well
2 The lesson event
The class
To (be able to) play the game
Table 1
gameplay. Interestingly, around-game

language use can be surprisingly varied
both in terms of discourse type and
function, and it fits under almost
anyones definition of authentic language
use (for an overview, see, for example,
Alex Gilmores article in Language
Teaching). Table 2 provides some
examples from my recent lessons.
From a second language acquisition
perspective, this around-game language
use, happening under the guidance of
the teacher, provides valuable
opportunities for learning. It gives a
clear context for both negotiation of
meaning and focus on form as
opposed to focus on forms both of
which have been argued to promote
language learning within the classroom
context (see works by Michael Long).
We can help our learners to develop
their confidence in around-game
language use by pre-teaching useful
vocabulary or expressions, and
providing feedback on successes and
errors made during the game. This
around-game language use also allows
us to get a peek at how our learners are
likely to be using language outside the
classroom and, as such, provides a
useful opportunity for noticing what
theyve learnt and what they need to
learn next.
Teachers working in monolingual
classes often find it difficult to get their
learners to use English for around-game
language use. While I am a great believer
in the use of the mother tongue as a
Utterance
learning resource, this is a wasted

opportunity to use English
communicatively, so as well as patiently
encouraging learners to use English as
much as possible, you could try using
the yellow card, red card system (see
the box opposite).
Games versus tasks

If we take a fairly widely-accepted
definition of a task, as provided by Rod
Ellis in 2009, for example, we can see
some key differences between language
use in games and tasks. Unlike games,
tasks cannot really offer a distinction
between in-task and around-task
language use because language use in
tasks is not normally governed by a set
of artificial rules. In his definition of a
task, Ellis argues that tasks should have
a primary focus on meaning and a
non-linguistic outcome, neither of which
is necessary in a game, yet the language
use (both in-game and around-game)
can still be described as authentic within
Widdowsons definition of authenticity.
Like tasks, games can be unfocused
(with no specific language learning aim)
or focused (designed to practise a
specific grammatical feature, lexical area
or function). However, in games, unlike
tasks, target linguistic features do not
need to be hidden. Either the teacher or
the game itself can make the language
learning outcome explicit to the learners,
without the language use in the game
losing any of its inherent authenticity or
Role of language use
Can we start? Organisational

I think you have to ask me first. Negotiational
I think it doesnt matter.
Wait! Here is written If you cant think of a reason for Arbitrational
Its under your bag. (referring to dice)
Descriptive
You used the wrong tense! You said I meet him, not met. Metalinguistic
Yukiko won again! Social
I think it is a lie. He closes his eyes like this do you agree? Evaluative
Table 2
Yellow card, red card

Distribute two or three yellow cards
and one red card to each group
playing a game (if its a mingle
activity, you can give the cards to
language police officers). During the
game, if any learner uses their
mother tongue, either for in-game or
around-game language, the other
learners give him or her a yellow
card. A learner who then uses their
mother tongue again gets a red card,
and must either miss a turn or lose a
pre-specified number of points.
While youre monitoring, if you see a
yellow card in front of a learner, you
can find out what they wanted to say
and translate it into English for them.
Because learners understand the
importance of rules in gameplay, and
are usually familiar with how these
cards are used in football, I have
found that this system allows them to
monitor their own production well,
even in large classes or when they
get very excited by the game.
becoming a situational grammar

exercise (Elliss term), precisely because
the artifice of the game is part of its
authenticity. As Guy Cook puts it, It is
artifice ... which may on occasion be more
authentic than reality.
This is potentially a unique
characteristic of gameplay.
A challenging game
The Third person challenge game on
page 6 is one that my learners enjoy
playing. You will see that in-game
language use is clearly rule-bound, and
the language focus could not be more
explicit. However, not only is interaction
meaningful, but so is the content of each
learners answers to their partners
questions, which should be truthful, or
at least logical. The rules require that
answers are provided in full sentences,
despite the fact that if the questions
were asked in a different (non-game)
context, a shorter answer would often be
more natural. They also require instant
peer-correction of errors with the third
person s. The challenge is intensified by
both the time limit and the
unpredictability of the questions,
constantly distracting the learner from
their intended focus on form to a focus
The uniqueness
of gameplay
on meaning. Questions such as How
many languages does a banana speak?
and What type of cigarettes does a
chicken smoke?, both of which require a
negative third person form (It doesnt )
catch out about half the learners in an
intermediate class! Try it out with your
learners, and then try inventing a similar
one for regular past simple -ed endings
or comparative forms of adjectives.
for the unique qualities of games and

their potentially conducive role in second
language acquisition remain to be
proven. But until they are (and even if
they arent), Ill be crafting games for my
learners to play for the foreseeable future.
As Henry Widdowson himself puts it:
As TESOL professionals, we need to
make language and language learning a
reality for learners, and we cannot do so
by bland reference to real English. It
can only be done by contrivance, by
artifice. And artifice, the careful crafting
of appropriate language activities, is what
TESOL is all about.
Jason Anderson is a
teacher, teacher trainer
and author of several
resource books for
language teachers,
including Role Plays for
Today, Teamwork and
his latest publication,
Speaking Games,
a photocopiable
compendium of his
favourite games, now
available from DELTA
Publishing.
Game over!
In this short article, I have not found
time to mention the importance of
games in providing intrinsic motivation
for learning, nor indeed for the
wonderful potential they have for
developing higher-order thinking skills
or rapport within a learning community
all this is fodder perhaps for a future
article. Whats more, my tentative claims
jasonanderson1@gmail.com
Cook, G Language Play, Language

Learning OUP 2000
Crystal, D Language Play Penguin 1998
Ellis, R Task-based language teaching:
sorting out the misunderstandings
International Journal of Applied Linguistics
19 2009
Gilmore, A Authentic materials and
authenticity in foreign language learning
Language Teaching 40 2007
Long, M Focus on form: A design feature
in language teaching methodology In De
Bot, K, Ginsberg, R and Kramsch, C (Eds)
Foreign Language Research in Crosscultural Perspective John Benjamins 1991
Long, M The role of the linguistic
environment in second language
acquisition In Ritchie, W and Bhatia, T
(Eds) Handbook of Second Language
Acquisition Academic Press 1996
Scrivener, J ARC: a descriptive model for
classroom work on language In Willis, J
and Willis, D (Eds) Challenge and Change
in Language Teaching Macmillan
Heinemann 1996
Widdowson, H G Context, community,
and authentic language TESOL Quarterly
32 (4) 1998
Third person challenge

Student A
Student B
Your partner will have three minutes to answer all your

questions. Dont show your partner the questions and
dont take any notes. Repeat the question slowly if your
partner doesnt understand.
Your partner will have three minutes to answer all your

questions. Dont show your partner the questions and
dont take any notes. Repeat the question slowly if your
partner doesnt understand.
Make sure your partner:

answers all the questions using complete sentences
(say Full sentence, please!).
uses the present simple tense only.
never forgets to use the s on the third person verb.
Make sure your partner:

answers all the questions using complete sentences
(say Full sentence, please!).
uses the present simple tense only.
never forgets to use the s on the third person verb.
The student who makes the fewest mistakes wins.

Start the timer three minutes only!
The student who makes the fewest mistakes wins.

Start the timer three minutes only!
1 What does an English teacher do?
1 What does a taxi driver do?
2 What does a shoe shop sell?
2 What does a book shop sell?
3 What does a radio do?
3 What does a freezer do?
4 What does your best friend watch on TV?
4 What does our teacher do at the end of every lesson?
5 What doesnt your best friend like to watch?
5 What does your mother eat for breakfast?
6 Where does the president of the USA live?
6 What about your father?
7 What does a dog do in its free time?
7 What about a tiger?
8 How fast does a snake run?
8 What two things does a door do?
9 Who talks too much in this class?
9 How well does a mobile phone swim?
10 Who doesnt talk enough?
10 Who wears the best clothes in this class?
11 Why?
11 Why?
12 What type of cigarettes does a chicken smoke?
12 How many languages does a banana speak?
Over
2.2 million
tests taken
last year
IELTS puts people first
IELTS test scores are trusted by more than
9,000 universities and colleges worldwide.
The face-to-face interaction in the speaking test
prompts the most realistic performance from
the candidate.
IELTS cares about test takers with special needs,
with fairness to all, regardless of first language,
gender, ethnicity, nationality or lifestyle.
For further information and teacher resources
visit www.ielts.org/teachers
IN THE CLASSROOM
Chess,
wardrobes
and pizza
Phillip Brown finds
that comparisons arent
necessarily odious.
ow important features of
language are presented to
students will determine how
they are perceived. Some
perceptions (we might call some of them
mental pictures), are more useful than
others, and their usefulness lies in the
fact that they can provide a framework
of approach to language learning which
may facilitate the process or, at any rate,
make the journey of L2 acquisition
more manageable even, perhaps,
enjoyable. These mental pictures may
be formed through the construction of
analogy and, although we might relish
the retort that analogies are odious, we
can usually get some mileage out of
them so that they play a positive role in
and out of the classroom.
To put some flesh on these bare
bones, I can cite three analogies, and
their links to language, which my
students have generally found useful.
Analogy 1:
Chess
In the game of chess, one must
understand the capability of each chess
piece, which means understanding how
it can move, what it can do and what it
cannot do. Understanding its capability
is understanding what it means. This is
basic to using the piece at all. If you

dont know what you can do with a
piece, you cant even start to play the
game. And knowing the meaning of
your pieces means knowing the meaning
of your opponents pieces, too.
Then, assuming that you know the
meaning of the pieces, moving them
correctly does not mean moving them in
isolation, that is, in total disregard to the
disposition of your opponents pieces. In
a serious game of chess, once you touch
a chess piece, you are obliged to do
something with it, ie move it, and
whether or not your move is judged to
be correct will depend on how well you
have taken into account the relation of
the piece in question to the others on the
chessboard: others meaning both your
own and your opponents.
It is possible to know what each
chess piece means and still play badly.
Link to language:
Collocation
(lexical and grammatical)
It is also possible to know the meaning
of a word, and how to say it and how to
spell it, and still use it badly. Using
words correctly, like playing chess
intelligently, requires more than simply
knowing what they mean; it also
requires knowing how they stand in
vocabulary means using words

horizontally in such a way that does
justice to the words in question. I
havent done justice to promise if I say
that my friend always does promises
which he never holds, or to strategy if I
complain that the government has
taken a strategy which is hard to do.
We should do justice to the language we
are learning, which means that we
should strive to use it correctly.
And that is the challenge that defines
demand-high learning. A good game
of chess can be played just for fun fun
is what chess is all about but few
people would bother to play it at all if it
involved little or no challenge. A good
chess player wont get much fun out of a
game played against a beginner because
a good player needs to be challenged.
Analogy 2:
Wardrobes
Wardrobes contain clothes, and there
are clothes for different occasions: party
dresses and pin-striped suits are not for
gardening; beachwear is not for job
interviews. Wearing jeans to a funeral
may be taken to show disrespect; black
top hat and tails on a picnic is, at the very
least, eccentric, though Im all for a touch
of eccentricity, except when it shakes
hands with mere posing and insincerity.
Clothes generally say something about
the occasion on which they are worn
and about those who wear them, but
granted the importance of eccentricity
and individual style, horses for courses
is a widely-accepted principle.
So much so, that should someone
turn up in the wrong clothes, one may
be forgiven for thinking that he has
mistaken the occasion or the game
Im terribly sorry, I didnt know we
were playing tennis! as he quickly
stuffs his football boots back into his
duffle-bag. And after turning up at the
bank in her pyjamas, her failure to get

the job of branch manager was a
foregone conclusion. (Unless of course
she has redeeming qualities and the
bank is exceptionally enlightened,
which, generally, banks are not.)
Link to language:
Register
The choice between formal and informal
English depends on the occasion, on the
kind of game one wishes to play. The
use of formal English on occasions
which require informality might suggest,
if not eccentricity, then an air of
superiority; while informality on
occasions which require formality may
suggest disrespect or antagonism.
A letter of application for a job or
university placement may not suggest
sincerity if it is written in street language,
and the more perfect the street language is,
the greater the degree of insincerity, which
is why an answer to an examination
question requiring formal register may be
written in perfect street English from start
to finish and yet fail outright to satisfy the
examination requirement. No, you just
cant address the university admissions
officer as Hey, man! though we
applaud the fact that you know that this
form of address exists at all.
Writers like Charles Dickens found
occasion for humour in the fact that
social registers can be confused. His
Mr Micawber in David Copperfield is a
good example but while this character
is a brilliant literary invention and
makes us rock with laughter, his
verbosity and feigned formality might
be insufferable in real life, except in very
small doses and when the humorous
intention was explicit and transitory:
Copperfield, said Mr Micawber,
farewell! Every happiness and prosperity!
If in the progress of revolving years, I
could persuade myself that my blighted
destiny had been a warning to you, I
should feel that I had not occupied another
mans place in existence altogether in vain.
In case of anything turning up (of which I
am rather confident), I shall be extremely
happy if it should be in my power to
improve your prospects.
As is so often the case, in Dickens
and elsewhere, humour is humour by
default, the cross-wiring of place or time
or person. The effect is wonderful
humour but a poor strategy for doing
well in English exams. Should we draw a
rebellious conclusion from this? No, I
do not think so.
mizar_21984 / luanateutzi / iStock / Thinkstock
relation to other words. No one makes a

move in chess without first taking into
account the disposition of all the pieces.
Likewise, if you choose to use the word
promise, you might find yourself in
difficulties if you dont also know that
we make, keep and break promises; or if
you choose to use the word strategy, and
you dont know that stategies are
devised, adopted and implemented.
True, you might just manage to get
through the chess game, just as when we
muddle through a speech through a
shower of embarrassed and embarrassing
stammers because we dont know the
subject sufficiently well and just hope for
the best. We get through our speech, but
without applause or the applause we
get is unconvincing. Hoping for the best
does not inspire us with much confidence,
and a lack of confidence is something
we can do without. In chess, muddling
through is unlikely to mean playing
intelligently, much less winning the game.
Similarly, our use of the words promise
and strategy are unlikely to attract much
credit if we dont know what other words
collocate with them; we might succeed
in making ourselves understood, but we
are unlikely to be complimented on our
English. (And there are many instances
in which we might not succeed in
making ourselves understood!)
What goes for lexis also goes for
grammar. Understanding a grammatical
structure involves more than simply
understanding its mechanical
construction; it includes knowing how
to use it correctly and knowing what to
do with it. It means knowing, for
example, that the past simple frequently
goes with the past continuous (I was
tucking into a steak when she arrived ),
that the present perfect is frequently an
explanation of a present fact (Im
absolutely shattered Ive just finished
digging the vegetable patch).
Understanding grammar also means
knowing the lexis that helps prompt its
correct use: yesterday with past simple,
just with present perfect, and so on. So
what we may call collocation is a pattern
of relations between words, between
grammar structures, between lexis and
grammar.
Language is vastly more complicated
than a game of chess. Improving
vocabulary does not simply mean
endlessly adding to a list, like a vertical
shopping-list of items. We dont use
words vertically, but horizontally, which
is to say: in sentences. Improving
Link to language:
Academic style
Analogy 3:
Pizza
Making a good pizza, like making a
good anything else, depends on using
the right ingredients. Thats why we have
recipes and recipe books. The
ingredients, and the quality of those
ingredients, will help determine the
outcome. Strawberries with fish may
prompt us to question convention, and
The use of sentence-linking devices like

however and despite, and the different
uses of punctuation which such devices
require; the careful use of paragraphing;
the attention that must be paid to
spelling, especially the spelling of key
words; the especial attention that should
be paid to lexical collocation all this,
and more, makes up what we may
roughly call academic style.
This is a style that should bring to
mind the phrases intellectual honesty
and academic integrity, two phrases
which are themselves examples of lexical
collocation. It is a style that should not
be confused with junk food; on the

contrary, this is high cuisine. There is no
room here for your just-average fish n
chips. It is the difference between
something, anything, to fill the gap after
a few pints of beer, and something
important to say to your stomach.
We should hasten to add that style is
not to be confused with substance; all
style and no substance will not do; but
then, it is not so easy to put it the other
way round: all substance and no style
does not strike one as nearly so plausible.
Presenting language, or aspects of

language, in terms of analogy is an
attempt to make language acquisition a
more appealing, not necessarily easier,
way of spending ones very precious
time.
Dr Phillip Brown teaches
English at Studio School,
Cambridge, UK. He has
a PhD in Philosophy
from St Johns College,
Cambridge, and has a
continuing interest in
his area of specialisation.
He plays classical guitar
as a hobby.
phillip.brown7@ntlworld.com
COMPETITION RESULTS

20 1 12 25 1 23 18 5 5 15 19 10 3 16
Mike Anscombe, Arundel, UK

5 9 5 1 5
26
5 25 1
10
Mustapha Arour, Wilaya de Laghouat, Algeria

25 1 22 16 12 19 12 1 18 6 10 21
Sarah Curtius, Garbsen, Germany

B A R N A C L E E Q U I T Y

E K E A E W E N A I

N A V Y R U R A L O I P

5 10 14 12 10 21 4 23 1 18 21

E I D R I P S C A L P

17 18 5 11 10 20 18 5 13 23 5

F L E X I B L E G C E

10 26 6 13 5 25
19
10
25 5

I W O G E N U I N E

23 6 2 1 2 2 1 18 21 6

C O M A M M A L P O

10 25 4 21 10 12 5 19 21 10 1 25 6

I N S P I R E U P I A N O

1 10 4
14 1 7
19
12
5 4

A I S D A Z U R E S

18 10 13 24 3 17 5 6 14 14 18 16

L I G H T F E O D D L Y
25 6 12 14 10 23 24 3 6 10
N O R D I C H T O I

8 19 10 23 5 25 12 16 5 4 21 1

J U I C E N R Y E S P A

6 17 1 23 1 14 5 2 10 23 19
Congratulations to all
those readers who
successfully completed
our Prize Crossword 66.
The winners, who will each receive
a copy of either the Macmillan
Collocations Dictionary or
Macmillan Phrasal Verbs Plus are:
Danuta Hohner, Roethenbach, Germany

Sylvie Mauvais, Areines, France
Yelena Rezayeva, Aksai, Kazakhstan
Sabine Rizzotti, Bicester, UK
Elizabeth Snyder, Hitchin, UK
Nguyen Viet Ty, Hai Lang, Vietnam
Sandy Willcox, Observatory, South Africa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11
12
13

A M T S E O Z J K I X R G

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D Q Y F L U B P V C H N W

O F A C A D E M I C U

9 12 16 21 3 6 25 1 25 25 6 16 5 14

1 13 6 6 14 18 1 19
13
24 10 4

5 6 10
23
5
14 4 6 10
4 19 25 4 24 10 25 5 10 25 3 24 5

K R Y P T O N A N N O Y E D

E O I C E D S O I

12 6 19 3 10 25 5 16 6 13 24 19 12 3

R O U T I N E Y O G H U R T

A G O O D L A U G H I S

S U N S H I N E I N T H E
24 6 19 4 5

H O U S E
PICTURE PUZZLE: A happy and successful new year to you all
William
Makepeace
Thackeray
suphakit73 / iStock / Thinkstock
Chess,
wardrobes
and pizza
we may even get away with it sometimes

and with some judges, but we are
unlikely to make many genuine culinary
friends. Better to stick to the highways,
and leave the byways to those who have
absolutely nothing to lose.
The ability to recognise the right
ingredients and to choose those of
quality seems to be a pre-requisite of
good cooking. This is connected with
good taste, and good taste, in cooking,
as in music, is connected with
judgement; and judgement is connected
with style. Style, not in the flamboyant
sense of mere presentation, but in the
sense of quality of outcome.
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12:27 PM
Wright
Look,
no hands!
WRITING
Tim Richardson says you dont have to put pen to paper

or fingers to a keyboard to write.
he image of a writer working

in silence while immersed in
their thoughts is a popular, if
hackneyed, image. But writing
doesnt have to be a solitary pursuit.
What if it could be done as a group of
people, each making their case for plot
development, characters and dialogue?
What if you could go one stage further
and write a story without actually
putting pen to paper? Well, thats exactly
what the authors of Beyond the Garden
did, as part of a collaborative writing
project.
Getting started
The authors Ray, Rosemary, Stevie
and Sylvie are residents in a nursing
home that looks after people with
life-changing injuries and illnesses. All
four are avid readers, but wanted to take
their love of words further and write
their own stories. With the help of a
tutor (me), it quickly became clear that
just because someone doesnt have the
physical ability to put pen to paper, it
doesnt mean they cannot write. So
thats what we did. They talked,
discussed, debated and argued to create
a story. And I wrote it down.
Over a period of some 15 weeks, we
spent two hours each Thursday
afternoon writing their story. There was
no plan or structure. We started with a
blank sheet of paper, except that I had
something up my sleeve to get them
started: There is a walled garden. Now,

whats in it? What can you see?
After a lengthy silence, the
conversation began. Fuelled by endless
cups of tea, the vocabulary and ideas
began to sharpen. And as I asked them
more questions, they began building a
picture of what lay within this
mysterious walled garden. The result
was this:
At the centre of a redbrick walled
garden stands a statuesque copper
beech tree. Its an imposing giant at the
heart of the garden thats home to
squirrels, birds and other animals.
Tucked inside is whats left of a tree
house. And from one of the trees giant
branches is an old rope swing where
children used to play.
The garden is full of greenery and
shrubs of different shapes and sizes.
The planting is haphazard, but as you
look around, its easy to pick out yellow,
blue and pink flowers dotted around the
greenery. Perhaps it is these that help to
attract the birds blue tits, great tits and
doves that are frequent visitors.
Moving along
In truth, the opening paragraphs are
naive, much like a childs crayon
drawing. (Dont forget, these are not
students of English.) But that doesnt
matter one bit. What they achieved in
that first session was nothing short of
remarkable: sparking debate, developing
vocabulary and building the prose layer

by layer.
It was this process of quizzing the
writers and challenging some of the
things that didnt add up that helped
move the plot along. Sometimes, it
needed quite a shove to get things going.
At other times, all that was needed was a
gentle push and then they were
unstoppable, much like when they
created the central character, the man
who tended the garden:
The garden is looked after by Bayleaf.
Hes a kind man with weathered skin
and a twinkle in his eye. He wears green
wellies, brown corduroy trousers and a
yellow shirt and smells of pipe smoke.
He wears an anorak when its cold and
wet. In his pocket he has an old pipe
and a baccy tin for when he stops for a
break. And everywhere he goes hes
joined by Harry, his chocolate-brown
labrador.
And then, a little later, we learnt that he

likes to take a break every now and then
under the shade of the giant copper
beech tree.
There, he stops for a cup of tea from his
flask, or munches on a cheese and
pickle sandwich wrapped up in a brown
paper bag.
By now, the group werent just thinking

of visual description, but taste and smell
as well as all the other senses. As writers,
they became more thoughtful and their
attention to detail became more acute.
A collaborative writing project

If the idea of collaborative writing appeals, then why not
give it a try? Its much easier than you think. Youll need a
starting point, something to get your writers thinking. If
youve already been working on certain vocabulary or
subject areas, then that would be a great place to start.
Or, if the group has a particular interest, then that might
spark debate. Nothing is off limits. But its important to be
on hand to ask the right questions to get people thinking.
Who does the writing?

The thing about collaborative writing is that there are no rules.
Arguably, just the discussion part the quizzing and prompting,
followed by the discussion is enough to help improve peoples
language skills. But to take it to the next level, the pen-topaper writing part of the equation could be done by the tutor,
by everyone, or by an individual picked from the group, much
like someone who takes minutes at a meeting.
Starting point 1
Its 2099 and the world is about to tick over into a new
How much do you write?
century. Looking back, Max was amazed at just how
We were fortunate to have the time to write a lengthy short
much the world had changed in the last 100 years
story over several months. But during that time we also did
Suggested questions:
exercises in description, character and dialogue. The same
Who is Max? How old is he? Where is he?

Why is he contemplating the last 100 years?
How has the world changed? Any specific ideas?
Armageddon? Technological development, perhaps,
where we all drive flying cars?
could be done with language classes. Writing using this

collaborative method could generate 50 words, or it could be
500 words. Its up to you.
Why not publish what youve written?

If you have enough material, you could always consider
Starting point 2
publishing what your writers produce. Even basic word
Number 11, the High Street, was an old shop that closed
processing programs have templates for newsletters or
down more than 20 years ago. No one could imagine
pamphlets. But if you want to attract a wider audience, its
what theyd find when they opened the door
pretty easy to set up a blog on WordPress or Blog.com. The
Suggested questions:
great thing about publishing is that it tests other language skills,

including spelling, grammar, accuracy and editing. And if you
What type of shop is it? What did it sell?
have a sizeable chunk of content perhaps compiled over
Whats in there now?
several months or an academic year then you might like to
Why has it been shut for so long?
consider self-publishing a book or e-book. While there is a
Who opened the door and what are their plans

for the shop?
had to see your work in print even if the only people who buy
Where is Number 11, the High Street?
Total immersion
The group dubbed the Westbury
Writers after their nursing home
became totally immersed in the plot and
characters, even discussing the story
outside the class. The same intensity was
given to creating the dialogue between
different characters. It wasnt easy to start
with but, with practice, the group quickly
understood that the words uttered had to
be in character. In a sign of their growing
confidence and increased skill, it wasnt
merely what was said that was important,
but how it was said.
Bayleafs mother would never say
anything like that, Rosemary, one of the
writers, would say. Shes not that kind of
woman!
small cost involved, there is a great deal of satisfaction to be

it are the writers themselves.
In the end, the story more than

7,000 words spanning 48 pages took
on a life of its own, driven by its four
authors, who each made their own
unique mark on this collaborative
writing project. And to cap it all, we
published it as a book using Amazons
free publishing software platform
CreateSpace.
So what has all this to do with the ELT

classroom? For me, it proves that there
are no obstacles to writing, and I can
easily imagine this collaborative
approach working with language
students. Why? Exactly for the reason
mentioned earlier in that it removes the
pressure of individuals having to write.

Instead, its a conversation, a debate, a
discussion that generates all the aspects
of creativity, language and expression
without necessarily the final act of
writing it down. What a great way to
explore and learn a language!
Tim Richardson is a
journalist and writer who
is happiest when helping
people to improve their
communication skills.
He has been running
training courses for the
last ten years and is
about to publish his first
book Write to be Read!
thrunch@btinternet.com
13
A tree
of the
past
GRAMMAR
Anna Kamont offers

a visual representation of
past discourse.
ne of the things my upperintermediate students find

most challenging is
constructing a spoken or
written discourse in the past. With a
multitude of structures to choose from
(ranging from the relatively
straightforward past simple tense to a
whole array of the so-called future in
the past constructions), each endowed
with complex intricacies of aspect and
usage, the students are often left puzzled
as to which option can best convey their
intended message. Although they dont
have too many problems with sentencelevel exercises where they are required to
make a choice between, say, the past
simple or the past continuous, or
between the past simple and the past
perfect, when faced with constructing an
entire text, they invariably end up lost in
a maze of grammatical patterns.
Part of the problem undoubtedly
stems from the interference of their L1
(Polish), which lacks specific distinctions
between different aspects of past actions
such as continuous, perfect or simple,
and demands no strict sequence of
tenses in a past narrative. As a result,
the majority of my students view the
past as a linear construct, and therefore
they relate it in a linear fashion, often
resorting exclusively to the past simple

or using present or future constructions
when describing past plans or actions.
This may not present too many problems
in speaking, where the immediacy of the
context allows for clarification of
misunderstandings. However, the task of
producing a written text, which requires
more attention to be paid to structural
choices, appears to be much more
demanding.
Grammar books are full of exercises
and presentation techniques for teaching
narrative constructions (timelines and
diagrams, visual stimuli, concept
questions, etc). Yet I have noticed the
majority tend to slice the past into more
manageable two or three constructions
at a time components, thus failing to
provide students with a fully-dimensional
picture. Therefore when, for the
umpteenth time, I was faced with the task
of reinforcing narrative constructions
with my university students, I felt the
need to devise a new means of
presentation. The result is a technique
which I call a tree of the past.
In this article, I would like to
demonstrate the stages of this technique,
which other teachers might like to try
out in their own classrooms.
Drawing a tree
of the past
Stage 1
Show the students a set of sentences
which together create a short story, but
put the verbs either in the students L1
(for monolingual classes) or in the
infinitive. Ask the students to read the
story and decide on the appropriate
English tense.
Example 1:
Yesterday I (go) to a party.
The party (start) at 8 pm.
When I (arrive) everybody (have)
a great time.
Most people (dance).
Some (chat).
Around midnight I (notice)
a handsome man.
I (see) him somewhere before,
but I (cant remember) where.
Finally, I (realise) that we (study)
together some years ago.
I (chat him up) and we (decide)
that we (meet) the following day.
Stage 2
Ask the students to read their answers
out, and work together to arrive at the
correct verb forms. Write these on the
board, and draw a line next to each verb,
according to the following key:
Past
simple
(a vertical line)
Past

continuous
(a horizontal line)
Past
perfect

(a line with the

bottom end slanting
to the left)
Future in
the past

(a line with the

bottom end slanting
to the right)
The final outcome may look like this:

Verbs
Tree of the past
went
started
arrrived
was having
were dancing
were chatting
noticed
actions connected with the story. The

horizontal lines the branches happen
around the time of the main events, but
except for being extra digressions or
ornaments to the story, bring nothing
new to the progression of the core events.
The slanting branches which give the
tree a rather Christmas-tree-like structure
signal the moments when the narrator
gives the background (past perfect) or
the foreground (future in the past) to the
main plot line.
A completed tree of the past has
the potential to help students notice the
three-dimensional nature of English
narration, and thus makes them
appreciate the multiplicity of tools they
have at their disposal when constructing
a narrative text.
competition between the groups, with

the class voting for the best story that
matches the diagram.
Example 3:
Stage 4
At this stage, it is the students who
produce a visual representation of a past
narrative. Dictate a short past story (eg
Example 2) and ask the students to draw
a tree appropriately representing each
main verb, following the key given above.
Example 2:
Her body was trembling, but she
entered the room. The street lamps
were glowing and the wind was gently
blowing outside. She wanted to call him,
but she had forgotten her phone. At that
point the door opened. She would soon
learn the truth.
The students should come up with the

following structure:
Stage 6
Set a writing activity (done in class or
for homework) which requires the
students to use a range of narrative
constructions in less-controlled practice.
Topics such as The day I had my
high-school leaving exam, The most
exciting day of my last holiday or My
first day at school/university will elicit
texts which feature all the past narrative
constructions, whereas more general
topics such as Describe your last
holiday tend to result in merely
sequential descriptions of the past.
had seen
couldnt remember
realised
had studied
chatted him up
decided
would meet
Stage 3
Now is the time to introduce the tree-like
structure as a visual representation of
the multi-dimensional nature of English
narrative tenses. Explain that the vertical
lines the trunk actually show the
chronological progression of the past
Stage 5
The most creative, cognitively
challenging and really fun part comes in
this stage of the activity. Here, you
provide the students with a tree-like
structure (eg Example 3), which serves
as a framework for the structural
content of their story. Tell the students
to work in groups to write a past
narrative, each main verb form of which
corresponds to an appropriate line in the
tree. If you like, you could make this a
I believe that the tree-like representation

of a past discourse is well worth
considering as a tool for enhancing the
understanding and usage of narrative
tenses. The technique not only heightens
students awareness and understanding
of the past tenses of English, but also
introduces elements of innovation,
creativeness and fun, which have the
potential to contribute to more effective
learning and communication.
Anna Kamont is a
teacher trainer, and an
EFL teacher working
with adult learners.
She is a reviewer for
The Journal of Teaching
English with Technology.
She has published
articles on ELT, mainly
on the role of memory
in language learning,
technology in ELT and
improving accuracy.
kamont.anna@gmail.com
15
C U LT U R E
All the worlds a classroom

Alberto Fornasier sees similarities between communicative language teaching and British culture.
t the end of last August, my

girlfriend and I left Italy and
landed in the UK, homeland of
many authors who contributed towards
the development of communicative
language teaching (CLT), the principles
of which we try to apply in our everyday
lessons. After a while, we started to notice
things that made us think that, as far as
its basic concepts are concerned, CLT
didnt really seem to be a particularly new
invention. In other words, we started to
notice how much the principles that
underpin it are (or, for us, seem to be)
connected with British culture.
Our first days were spent in Bristol,
where we had an interview at the school
where we work now. We then decided
that, since classes werent due to start
until October, we would spend two
weeks travelling around, getting to know
the country where we are planning to
live for a while. As the south would be
easy to reach at weekends, we decided to
head north.
A question of form
After crossing the North York Moors
National Park by steam train, we got to
Whitby and walked south on a path
along the cliffs, eventually reaching the
charming Robin Hoods Bay and its little
fishing village. We went to our prebooked B&B, a lovely cottage which had
been beautifully refurbished. The owner
showed us our room, gave us a little
brochure with some historical research
she had done about the place and asked
about our preferences for breakfast. We
imagined that we could just tell her what
we would like, but she handed us a little
form. This is what it looked like:
Breakfast required at ..................... AM
Orange juice
Grapefruit juice
Cereals
Fruit salad
Porridge
Granary toast
White toast
Speciality tea
Yorkshire tea
Coffee
Fried eggs
Poached eggs
Scrambled eggs
Boiled eggs
Bacon
Sausage
Vegetarian sausage
Tomato
Mushroom
Hash brown
Black pudding
Kipper
I dont know whether it was just us,

and our professional bias, but it looked
to us like a typical multiple-choice
exercise, and it also surprised us to find
such a form in a B&B in a little village of
fisher folk. It is also interesting to notice
the different reactions people had to it
later on: while this photo gave my parents
(who are Italian) the impression of a
break-down in communication, for us it
really wasnt so, and we saw it, rather, as
an attempt to improve communication
through standardisation.
A question of questions
Apart from their love of forms, we also
experienced how keen the British are on
something I have seen used so much in the
teaching of English, namely quizzes. When
we arrived in another small village, near
Hadrians Wall, we found that there were
four pubs, and we were a bit bewildered
by the fact that each of them (and even
the church itself) offered a quiz-night on
a different day, thereby covering almost
every evening of the week! We concluded
that the British really love to ask and
answer questions which test their
knowledge, in any setting! And they dont
just do this for fun: when I first went
climbing in a gym in Bristol, I was given
the usual set of rules to read and agree to.
In Italy, I would expect just to be asked to
read and sign it. In Bristol, after I had read
it, I had to answer a set of pre-written
comprehension questions. That definitely
reminded me of a language lesson!
A question of community
Continual experiences of this kind made
us think that this way of conducting
communication through a specific set of
pre-planned steps seemed to be a
noticeable feature of UK culture and
one closely connected with another
cultural feature: building relationships
with the people in your area. This is
something which we have not found either
in our own countries (Italy and Spain)
or in those we have lived in (Latvia and
Russia). Despite the fact that the people
of the UK have a reputation for a certain
detachment, they appear to us to be really
keen on strengthening relationships in
their communities, whether in their

immediate neighbourhood or the city as
a whole, and there seem to be many lay
and religious organisations whose main
aim is to do that, both on a social and
an environmental level.
A question of communication
Another example of this instinctive
attitude towards interaction was given to
me by my girlfriend after she attended a
two-day course on the environment. How
surprised she was to see that the lessons
seemed to be structured like language
classes. There was lots of communication
and discussion involved, pair and group
activities, a small amount of teacher-led
input and a great emphasis on interaction
as a means to achieving goals. As the
teachers didnt have any specific education
in teaching, but were just experts in the
environmental field, we came to the
conclusion that this attitude to teaching
and learning must be derived from the
way the British are taught at school.
Another clue that seems to support
our impression was given to us by the way
our students usually behave during their
language classes. British students are
often keen on putting themselves in pairs
or groups, on standing up and mingling,
on sharing information and ideas. The
teacher doesnt really have to put much
effort into setting up activities or giving
instructions, as the students quickly
understand what they are asked to do.
My girlfriend and I are still surprised to
see how much enthusiasm our students put
into activities that lead to communication
and, after a period of living here, we have
come to notice how the main principles of
CLT and the way they are put into practice
seem linked with some features of British
culture demonstrated both in their
attitude to education, and in other more
prosaic aspects of day-to-day life.
Alberto Fornasier is a
teacher at International
House Bristol, UK. During
the summer he usually
works at IH Milan. He is
currently interested in the
psychology of Second
Language Acquisition.
afornasier2001@yahoo.it
P R O N U N C I AT I O N
Cat got your

tongue?
Mark Hancock gives
his vowels a feline shape.
he importance of the tongue in

speech is so well known that
the very word is often used as
a synonym of language, as in
struggling to learn a foreign tongue. When
you are watching someone speak, you
can sometimes see the tongue in action,
especially with the consonant sounds
spelt th, when it peeks out between the
teeth. However, the work of the tongue
in speech is usually hidden from view.
This poses a challenge: how can we
explain to our students how to articulate
sounds when this most important organ
of speech cant be seen?
A window into the mouth

The traditional response to the problem
of showing tongue position has been the
cross-section diagram. This effectively
provides a window into the mouth, and
can be especially effective for explaining
consonants. Such diagrams show where
the tongue actually makes contact with
another part of the mouth, and it is
reasonably easy for students to feel this
in their own mouths. For example, a
diagram can show that for /t /, the tip of
the tongue touches the bump behind the
upper teeth see, for example, Robin
Walkers article in ETp Issue 94. For
vowel sounds, however, the traditional
cross-section diagram is a lot less
effective as there are no concrete points
of contact. There is only the shapeless
mass of the tongue in subtly different
positions. Even if such drawings are
anatomically accurate, they are difficult
for most people to interpret. People are
more used to feeling the position of their
tongue than seeing it.
Ways into the mouth

Pronunciation teachers have come up
with imaginative ways of explaining
tongue positions. For example, to
produce the vowel sound in awe, we may
ask students to imagine they have a
whole (small!) apple in their mouth.
This can be a better way of explaining
that the tongue should be pushed down
and back than any cross-section
diagram. It helps us to feel the muscular
stretching in a way that the cross-section
diagram cannot. However, there is no set
of such mental images to cover the full
range of vowel sounds, as far as I am
aware.
Watch your tongue!

I decided to represent tongue position
for the entire range of vowel sounds,
relying more on mental imagery and less
on anatomical accuracy. It would be a
simple line drawing of a creature which
most people would find easy to
empathise with, a supple creature,
capable of a wide range of body
positions a cat. Below, we see the cat in
the position the tongue needs to be in to
make the vowel sound in awe an image
which does the same job as the apple-inthe-mouth idea above.
A cat stretching backwards
17
Cat got your tongue?
i*
u*
To introduce my students to the idea

of the animated tongue, I copy the
simple drawing on page 17 on the board.
I ask them to identify what it is (a
cat) and what it is doing (stretching
backwards). Its a gesture that students
can replicate with their arms on the desk
in front of them a lazy stretch. I then
ask them to imagine that this cat is their
tongue. What would be the equivalent
lingual gesture? It would be the tongue
stretching itself down and back, as in a
yawn. The essential elements in the
drawing are the head, paws and body.
The head shows which end is the front.
The body shows where the bulk of the
animal is in relation to the paws
pushing forwards or backwards.
The cats in the corners
The cats in the corners
i*
u*
Q*
G*
The tongue-cats chart
Copyright: Mark Hancock
It was Daniel Jones who, in the early

20th century, first systematised the vowel
sounds into a quadrant with front
vowels to the left, back vowels to the
right, closed vowels to the top and open
vowels to the bottom. For standard

British English, the four extreme corners
of this quadrant are shown at the top of
page 18. Each vowel sound is shown,
along with its tongue cat.
The cats in the left-hand column are
stretching forward, while those on the
right are pushing back. The cats in the
top row are upright, while those in the
bottom row are pushing themselves to
the floor. Coincidentally, if you say the
cat sound miaow slowly, you will be
doing an anticlockwise tour of the vowel
sounds above, more or less, beginning in
the top left corner.
The cats represent the tongue
positions, but we should also mention
two other important aspects of
articulation for these four sounds lips
and jaw. The vowels on the left are
pronounced with a wide mouth, while
those on the right with rounded lips.
Unlike the tongue position, this is easy
to see and demonstrate. Sharp eyes may
notice that I have attempted to show
these lip positions on the drawings.
The vowels in the top row may both
be said with the jaw in the same position,
while the jaw must be more open to
pronounce the vowels in the bottom row.
This can be demonstrated by putting a
thumb on your chin and the first finger
of the same hand on the tip of your nose.
If you say, first, a vowel sound from the
top row and then a vowel sound from
the bottom row, your thumb and finger
will move apart, visibly.
The full cat kit

When Adrian Underhill developed his
well-known phonemic chart for English,
the part of the chart dealing with the
simple vowel sounds is an ELT-friendly
version of the Daniel Jones quadrant.
At the bottom of page 18 is a version of
this quadrant, along with tongue cats. I
havent attempted to represent different
tongue-cat positions for the pairs of
phonemes in the middle column, since
the distinction would be too fine to be
visually meaningful.
The cats in the pictures

In order to raise awareness of how the
tongue affects vowel sounds, we can ask
our students to do tongue-stretching
exercises like the cat in the pictures.
Begin, for example, by asking them to
make the sounds along the top row,
moving slowly from left to right and
back again a number of times to make

a long sound like this: ee you we you
we you.
As they are doing this, ask them to
pay attention to how their tongue is
moving, and to imagine it as the cat in
the pictures.
You can do similar exercises for each
row and each column in the chart.
These explorations are good for raising
awareness of tongue position, as well as
lip and jaw movements. However, they do
not take account of a further variable
vowel length. The phonemic symbols
with two dots are longer, while those
without are shorter. At a certain point in
your exploration of this tongue-cats
chart, you will need to show this. I find
it helpful to use hand gestures make a
gesture like pulling taut a length of string
between your two hands while saying
the long vowels, or a clipped chopping
motion while saying the short vowels.
The cat in the middle

Of all of the tongue cats in the chart,
the one right in the middle is worthy of
special attention. It is neither pushing
forward nor backwards, up nor down. Its
a relaxed cat. There is no notable tension
in any of its muscles. This is how the
tongue must be to say these vowel sounds
totally relaxed, with no tension. The
vowel sounds in this middle box are very
characteristic of English, and are absent
in many other languages. For learners
from those language backgrounds, the
tongue-stretching explorations described
above should help locate the position of
the relaxed cat.
Adrian Underhills phonemic chart can be

found at: www.macmillanenglish.com/
phonemic-chart/.
Mark Hancock has
taught in Sudan, Turkey,
Brazil, Spain and the UK,
to both adults and young
learners. His first book,
Pronunciation Games,
was published by CUP
in 1995. Since then, he
has published many ELT
textbooks, including
English Pronunciation
in Use (CUP). He is
co-founder of the ELT
resource website
hancockmcdonald.com.
mark@hancockmcdonald.com
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19
FAIL:
IN THE CLASSROOM
First Attempt
in Learning
Anna Hasper
believes in enabling
students to succeed
beyond their own beliefs.
ts Monday morning, and you are

handing back your students
end-of-week test papers. Student A
didnt do too well, but you are not
too worried; you know she can do better
and probably didnt take the time to
revise as she was moving flats. Student B
didnt do too well either, and you know
she can do better as well, but her sister
was visiting last week. Student A looks
at her test, gives a faint smile and shrugs
her shoulders, mumbling that shell take
more time to revise this week. While she
puts it away, she already seems to be
thinking about something else. Student
B, however, freezes when you return her
test, shrinks in her chair and the look in
her eyes is one of worry and despair:
Im just not good enough!
Im sure weve all experienced
situations of a similar kind. Have you
ever wondered why some of our students
seem to get upset with themselves and
down in the dumps when they are unable
to do a task or they receive a lower grade
than expected, whereas others just seem
to look at it, shrug their shoulders and
move on with life?
Most of the literature and research
on learning claims that mistakes or
failures should be welcomed in the
classroom as they can offer the optimum
learning opportunity. How often have
you told your students not to worry, as
there is no failure, only feedback? But
how can it be that learners respond in
such different ways to perceived failures?
Self-esteem
The idea that self-esteem particularly

in the case of young learners is a
factor in determining success or failure
is something most teachers would agree
with. We can see the effect of high
self-esteem in our classes every day;
some students try and try again and are
convinced they can do it, maybe not yet
but after enough practice. In contrast, low
self-esteem often causes learners to avoid
trying new or more challenging tasks.
Most of the literature

and research on
learning claims that
mistakes or failures
should be welcomed
in the classroom
Research by Robert Fisher indicates
that some students develop a sense of
inadequacy about themselves and keep
on telling themselves I can not , Im
no good at this or I always fail, which,
according to Fisher and supported by my
own experiences (and Im not talking
only about my learners here!), often leads
to a self-fulfilling prophecy of low grades
and a state of learned-helplessness.
The theory of learned-helplessness
was developed by the psychologist
Martin Seligman. He describes it as a

psychological condition in which a
human being has learned to act or behave
helplessly in a particular situation,
usually after experiencing some inability
... Even when [the individual] actually
has the power to change [the] unpleasant
or even harmful circumstance. Maybe
this is what Student B is going through.
At the other end of the spectrum,
mastery orientation relates to a sense
of self-competence, or self-efficacy: the
belief in your ability to succeed in a
particular situation. Mastery-oriented
learners, such as Student A, have
developed ways to cope with setbacks
and frustration. This particular attitude
creates opportunities for successful
learning, as these individuals seem to tap
into the ability to respond to challenges
in a constructive way. Student B has the
opposite attitude, seems more pessimistic
and is most likely expecting failure to
strike again, a common thinking pattern
for learned-helplessness students.
Fishers chart (see opposite) shows
some typical characteristics for each
style, and all of us, young or old, fall
somewhere on a continuum between the
two extremes. We should be aware that
these styles are personality
characteristics how we see ourselves
and our capacities rather than a
reflection of our intelligence.
Learner choices
Interestingly, Seligman states that we
actually have a choice of how to think
about and look at setbacks we
encounter: we can choose to take them
in our stride and be optimistic, or to
dwell on them and be pessimistic. So
why do some learners choose to see the
sunny side of things, or, in other words,
show mastery orientation, whereas
others seem to dwell on the negatives?
The way we explain to ourselves why
a situation happens seems to have a big
impact on how we deal with it, according
to Seligman. Thinking back to the poor
tests papers, Student A could relate the
result to a specific moment: I was busy
moving flats and didnt take the time to
study; next time I will plan more time to
study and it will be fine. Student B, on the
other hand, generalised and personalised
the result: I am not good at tests and I
never do well; its just me These
personalised negative thoughts lead to
giving up quickly and, consequently, to
not improving or mastering a skill.
Mastery orientation
Learned helplessness
Willing to try hard tasks
Unwilling to face challenges
Views problems as challenges
Views problems as test of ability
Accepts failure without excuses
Quick to offer excuses for failure
Flexible approach, tries other ways
Rigid in approach, gives up easily
Engages in self-monitoring
Rarely engages in self-monitoring
Is self-motivated by learning
Looks for approval in learning
Wants to achieve learning goals
Wants to look good
Has a positive view of competence
Has a negative view of themselves
Has a positive view of learning
Has a negative view of learning
Learner mindsets
So it all seems to come down to your
belief in yourself: your self-esteem.
Psychologist Carol Dweck defines
mindset as beliefs about yourself and
your most basic qualities. She
distinguishes between a fixed mindset
and a growth mindset. When learners
with a fixed mindset fail, they directly
question their abilities and talents, and
they blame their intelligence, much like
the behaviour we see in learners who are
in a state of learned-helplessness.
Learners with a growth mindset,
however, do not question their abilities
or blame their personality; instead, they
focus on learning from their mistakes
and finding out what efforts are needed
to improve performance, just like
mastery-oriented learners.
Relevance for teachers

In our role as teachers, we are constantly
striving to maximise learning
opportunities for our students. We
attempt to create a positive learning
atmosphere, we scaffold where needed
and we try to motivate our learners. So
when we have students like Student B
who wallow in self-pity after a setback
and display learned-helplessness or a
fixed mindset, we are not working with
optimal conditions for effective learning.
What can we do as educators to
encourage our fixed-mindset students to
roll up their sleeves and try again? How
can we instil in them the motivation to
meet the challenges they face in the
classroom? How can we assist them in the

process of developing a growth mindset?
Everything we say and do as
teachers sends a message to our
students, in particular younger learners,
who are very sensitive to these messages.
We can, therefore, have a profound effect
on our students belief in themselves, so
long as we deal with them and respond
to them appropriately. Here are some
suggestions:
1 Be
clear about your

expectations
Tell your learners that you welcome

mistakes in class and that you expect
there will be some. Explain that you are
challenging their learning because you
know they can do it! Ensure that they
know that you place more value on their
efforts and input in activities than you
do on their getting it right the first time.
Help them see that making mistakes is a
facet of learning and is a great learning
opportunity, because it helps you to
direct their learning/growth even further.
You could even display some posters to
reinforce your attitude to mistakes, with
slogans such as Mistakes are welcome,
Fail. Fail again. Fail better and FAIL =
First Attempt In Learning.
2 Use
positive language
Positive language is essential to selfesteem and motivation. Instead of

saying if you finish this, say when you
finish this. Using when is much more
encouraging, as it reflects your confidence
in the students. Reframe students
21
FAIL:
First Attempt
in Learning
comments, so that never becomes not yet,

and turn Im not good at ... into you are
getting better at . Be aware that some
learners interpret the words you should as
meaning that they are currently doing
something wrong. Giving positive models
and using appropriate teacher language
can enhance the students confidence and
raise awareness of their strengths and
abilities in learning. It creates a feeling of
success and optimism in the classroom.
3 Use
praise mindfully
Carol Dweck suggests that the moment

we give praise by using expressions like
good boy, we are inherently causing
problems for our students. Firstly, praise
often overshadows constructive feedback
its all the students remember, and the
real learning opportunity fades away.
Secondly, we often tend to give personal
praise (eg You are so talented!), when
success should be about the effort, the
process and not the person. Using praise
related to effort or process shows the
students that success depends on the
effort you put in and not on innate talent.
4 Provide
supportive, focused
feedback
Just writing Well done or B+ is not

enough for students to stay motivated.
Ensure your comments relate to their
efforts and work. To make our students
move beyond their own negative beliefs,
its essential that our focus in feedback is
not on judging them or the results (good
or bad). Instead, praise your students
for the process: how engaged they were,
how much commitment they showed,
the effort they put in and the chosen
strategies they applied to the task. Give
them specific constructive feedback so
they know where they stand now, and
what action to take next to achieve their
aim. Use of the word yet puts you on a
learning trajectory: You are not there
yet, but you will get there.
5 Encourage
self-reflection
Get your students to reflect on the

weeks/days activities through a journal
or worksheet. This can give you some
insight into their thinking and their
feelings about learning. With fixedmindset learners, it is essential to try to

ensure they are less hard on themselves
or more realistic about their performance.
Tell them we can all improve our abilities
even as teachers and encourage them
to do so. As long as we reflect and work
on what we can improve, we can all
become better at something.
6 Highlight
Of course, there is a lot we can do to

enhance learning, but feedback is
perhaps one of the most important
elements and deserves an article of its
own! The first step to develop a growth
mindset in your students is to make
them see that its the things that go
wrong the failures that prompt
learning, not the things you can do
easily. Its OK to make mistakes, because
this means you are pushing your own
boundaries and you are learning more.
The best we as educators can do is to
allow our students to work through the
failure process without being judged,
and to show them that low grades are
not so much a negative consequence, but
more a means of growth through failure.
Would you say that youve never
failed? Well, maybe now its time to try it
and truly start the learning process, so
you can fail even better next time!
learning strategies
Students willingness to deal with tasks

doesnt only depend on the level of the
challenge set and their perceived talent.
The strategies they apply, or rather dont
apply, will also affect the overall outcome
and, thus, their motivation. Raising
awareness of strategies, and developing a
step-by-step plan of attack, starting with
a low-demand task which the students
can easily complete, before moving
towards higher-demand tasks, will guide
them with more confidence to the next
level. Scaffolding can thus enable
students with fixed mindsets to develop
more confidence in their abilities and
increase their effectiveness in learning.
Dweck, C Mindset: How You Can Fulfil

Your Potential Robinson 2006
Fisher, R Teaching Children to Learn
Nelson Thornes 2005
7 Create
awareness of brain
plasticity
Seligman, M Learned Optimism: How to

Change Your mind and Your Life Vintage
2006
Our brains develop throughout our

lives, and through effort and learning,
we can master skills we were previously
unable to perform well. Its essential that
students become aware of the fact that
our abilities are not fixed and that we
are able to acquire new skills. Raising
awareness of this can be a powerful way
to help them develop a growth mindset
about their own abilities. (There is even
a program that focuses on teaching this
available at www.mindsetworks.com.)
Anna Hasper is a
freelance teacher trainer
for CELTA, TKT and
online DELTA, working in
Australasia, Africa and
the Middle East. She has
a background in school
management and her
main interests are
teacher development,
educational psychology
and materials writing.
Anna@teachertrain.org
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Puppets
inprimary
Devin Unwin gives his students a helping hand.
his article aims to answer the

questions why, how and what about
puppets. It was conceived after a
workshop about using puppets in
ELT primary classes was given at our
school. After numerous hours of
classroom experimentation, and after
consulting with the colleague who led the
workshop, I feel ready to share my ideas.
We teach at an ELT extracurricular
school in Madrid, and we work with
students over a range of ages and levels,
as young as five (pre-A1 CEFR) and as
old as 18, some preparing for their
proficiency exam (C2 CEFR). Obviously,
puppets are best suited to younger YL
classes but, that said, there may also be
scope for using them with older
learners. More on this later, though.
Why?
Puppets can have a variety of uses with
real benefits for young learners, if the
teacher invests time and effort in using
them in the classroom with a proper
pedagogic aim in mind. Most young
children find puppets engaging so, first of
all, they are a great way of grabbing their
attention. The teacher can then have the
puppet interacting with the students,
either giving instructions or taking part
in a spoken exercise. For example, the
puppet, rather than the teacher, can
model pronunciation during drill work
(completely controlled practice) or the
puppet can ask the students about their
day or their family (relatively freer

practice). Puppets can thus be seen as
an interactive resource which can
encourage the students to use the
language in a number of different ways.
For a fairly comprehensive list of
activities which can be done with
puppets, see Using a class puppet with
very young learners by Carol Read,
which is available on her website at
http://carolread.com/ideas/VYL_puppet.pdf.
According to Stefan Chiarantano, a
puppet actually introduces another
native speaker in the classroom. This is
a great advantage in an ELT context,
since we are trying to create a languagerich environment for our young learners.
A puppet may thus give the teacher
another option when it comes to
teacher talking time why not have
your puppet say it for you?
When placed in the hands of young
learners, puppets can become a way of
encouraging second language use.
Mistakes made while speaking can be
attributed to the puppet, rather than
the student. Puppets can, therefore,
offer a level of security to younger
learners, and they can also encourage
quieter students to take more risks.
Young learners also seem more open to
peer-correction when they are
interacting through their puppets.
Children have an amazing capacity
for imagination and creativity; puppets
can act as a key to unlock this potential
in class. I have had classes who formed
real attachments to their puppets and

gave them detailed personas. This
increased their sense of ownership of
the puppet and the language it was
producing. It also led to enthusiastic,
lively speaking on the part of the
learners as they experimented with the
language through their puppets. I even
had classes request homework which
involved their puppets showing that
childrens creativity is not limited to or
by the classroom.
Puppets may also offer solutions to
more practical problems. As Sarah Phillips
notes: If you have real space problems,
puppets may be a solution. In a classroom
with limited space, kinaesthetic learners
can be catered for by allowing them to
use their fingers or hands. This is true of
older children as well as their younger
counterparts. Puppets, especially ones
made by the students themselves, offer
more physically-oriented learners an
opportunity to use their hands while
practising the language. Thus, puppets
allow for more physically active
activities without the need for the
students to stand up and move around
the classroom, with all the disruption
and time wastage that setting up these
types of activity can entail.
Finally, creativity breeds creativity.
Teachers who bring their own creativity
to the classroom, even in limited ways,
may inspire their learners to do likewise.
Students who are encouraged to use
English in a creative and meaningful way
are more likely to engage with the
language on a deeper and more personal
level. Puppets may be a practical way to
begin to bring more creative freedom
into the class, by allowing the students to
see creativity as something constructive
and beneficial.
How?
Depending on the teachers needs,
more than one puppet might be
appropriate in a class. This would mean
that the different puppets could have
different roles. Although a teacher
could have one all-purpose puppet, they
could just as easily have one puppet for
classroom management and another to
practise pronunciation and speaking.
23
Puppets
inprimary
This raises the question of whether
the puppets should talk, make noises or
remain silent. Any of these is a possibility,
depending on the purpose of the puppet.
A colleague recently mentioned a spider
glove-puppet which she uses for pointing
things out on the board or in the book,
which is an excellent example of how
puppets can be used silently to focus
the students attention.
If you are planning to use a speaking
puppet, a key consideration is the puppets
voice. As a general rule of thumb, dont
make the puppets voice too different
from yours or difficult to perform for
sustained periods. The puppets voice
definitely shouldnt strain your normal
voice. It is also worth bearing in mind
that your puppets personality will be
expressed largely through its voice, and
you can decide how the class will interact
with it: is it a light-hearted, fun-loving
puppet or a stricter, gruffer character who
demands better pronunciation? Avoid
putting on an accent which is not your
own, as this may make consistency
more difficult. If you are embarrassed or
nervous about using a puppet for the first
time, try practising at home alone first.
Also think about having a silent puppet,
which is introduced to the class as such.
Remember, your classes will only ever
be as invested in the puppet as you are.
Silent puppets are also excellent for
classroom management, since they can
be timid creatures who are scared by
loud noises and rowdiness.
An obvious use for a talking puppet
is to have it interacting with the students.
Why not, then, have two puppets that
can interact with each other, with you,
the teacher, and with your class? Another
option would be to have your students
make their own puppets in class. This
could be done as a project task, possibly
one which involves the students
following English instructions given by
you in order to construct their puppets.
They could then customise their puppets,
before making them act as characters
during roleplay activities. This may

encourage quieter students to
participate, and may even work with
older groups of children and teenagers.
The obvious benefit for kinaesthetic
learners has already been mentioned.
Puppets can also be put into the
hands of students to practise things like
prepositions. The teacher can say
Now lets put our puppets under our
tables. Good. OK, everyone, where are our
puppets? With a little planning and
creativity, puppets can be used to
practise productive as well as receptive
skills which is great for very young YL
classes where the students may not
have much productive language yet.
As a final thought on how to use
puppets in class, remember that routine
is essential in a young learner classroom.
So make sure that you use your puppet
regularly and consistently with your
classes. Remember that the sooner the
students get used to having a puppet in
the classroom, the sooner you will start
to see the pedagogical benefits which
these simple props can provide.
What if ...
you dont have access to a
real puppet?
This is a fair question but, as Carol Read
points out, with a little creativity on the
part of the teacher quite a number of
everyday household items can be used as
a puppet. Things like soft toys or novelty
oven mitts which look like animals are
perfect. Homemade puppets are also a
definite possibility, and these can
generally be put together on a shoestring
budget, with a little imagination on the
part of the aspiring puppet maker. For
those teachers with a bit more time or
capital, and the inclination, the internet
offers a range of options either for
making professional-looking puppets or
simply ordering them online.
you have older students?

With teenagers, it is crucial to explain the
pedagogic purpose of the puppets in the
classroom, so they dont feel patronised.
Explain that a puppet gives them a
persona through which they can use the
language in roleplay situations. These
situations, as far as possible, should be
ones in which the learners might find
themselves, eg planning a birthday party

or a shopping spree. A good first activity
for older young learners, which can be
done as a warmer, goes as follows. First,
give your students some pictures of faces,
and ask them to speculate in pairs or
small groups about these people: name,
age, nationality, occupation, hobbies, etc.
Second, select one of the faces for each
student (or let them pick their own).
They have to make up details about their
character and introduce themselves to
the group or perform a speaking activity
as their persona. If classes enjoy this
activity, its a small step to introducing
the idea of using puppets to represent a
persona that the learners themselves
have come up with.
Puppets can also be a way to
introduce drama into older YL classes.
If your students enjoy using puppets,
why not let them write a puppet show
to be performed for the class? As with
younger learners, a teacher must enter
into the spirit of using a puppet with
older classes, and it is highly
recommended that teachers also use a
puppet of their own if they want
students of any age to follow suit.
I hope this article has given you some

useful ideas and shown how puppets are
a multipurpose tool that can be used for
a variety of reasons in a young learner
classroom. Teachers certainly shouldnt
shy away from experimenting with them
in their YL classes. So whatever their
purpose in your classroom, lets give
puppets a big hand!
Chiarantano, S A bag of tricks for the
traveling YL ESL teacher
www.tefl.net/esl-articles/bag-of-tricks-esl.htm
Retrieved 14/10/2013
Philips, S Drama with Children OUP 2003
Devin Unwin has been
teaching English since
2008. He has a Trinity
ELT Diploma, a
post-graduate degree in
English literature and is
currently completing an
MA TESOL. He started
working at the British
Council Madrid Young
Learners Centre in 2010.
devin.unwin@britishcouncil.es
Over
the
wall ...
Alan Maley
considers our
relationship with
computers.
e live in a networked world,

assailed by an almost
infinite quantity of
information, which is
expanding at such an exponential rate
that we have no chance of keeping up.
This, we are told, is a major gear-shift in
human history, as we move from the print
era to the information era. We are both
the beneficiaries and the slaves of this
unbounded access to information. Yet how
much do we actually know or understand
about how this came about, how it
functions and what it is doing to us?
In this article, I review two books
which give us slightly different takes on
these questions. One is short and packed
with factual information to remind us of
what computers are and how they have
developed so far over their short
life-span. The other is long and complex,
tracing the history of ideas which have
brought humankind to this point in its
history. In future articles, I shall review
some other books which take a more
critical view of current developments.
The Computer: A Very

Short Introduction
In just 129 pages, Darrell Inces book
attempts to cover most of the
developments in the computer, from the
lumbering giants of the 1960s with their
limited memories to the miniaturised
versions with vastly larger memories that
we are familiar with today. It begins with an
overview of what a computer is a device
for storing, processing and retrieving large
amounts of data quickly and with an
explanation of the internet and software.
Chapter 2, The Small Computer, describes
the way computers have increased in
memory size and processing speed and
decreased in size and cost as they have
moved from electric valves and transistors
to silicon chips. In Chapter 3, The
Ubiquitous Computer, we are reminded
that computers are now everywhere as a
result of miniaturisation and ruggedness,
which means they can be installed virtually
anywhere. SATNAVS, mobile phones,
surveillance cameras, banking, barcodes
and a host of other devices which employ
computer technology are simply there in
our world, and we are largely unaware of
them. The chapter also looks at RFID
(Radio Frequency Identification) and its
implications for privacy, and at global
computing of weather, geology and

geography. Chapter 4, The Global
Computer, discusses the use of supercomputers and networked systems to
solve wicked problems, such as the
Human Genome Project. Chapter 5, The
Insecure Computer, describes the viruses,
Trojan horses, worms and other nasties
which can attack computers. There is also
a useful section on computer crime and
how to avoid it. Chapter 6, The Disruptive
Computer, discusses the effects
computers have had on book and music
publishing, newspapers and advertising.
The rise of open-source software and the
emergence of citizen journalism is also
mentioned here. Digital photography, which
has largely replaced the traditional camera,
raises some questions of reliability and
trust, given the ease with which images
can be manipulated on a computer. The
chapter ends with a discussion of
e-readers and the future of the book.
Chapter 7, The Cloud Computer, looks at
large data banks, both closed, such as
Amazon, and open, such as Wikipedia. It
presents the concept of cloud computing:
a collection of hundreds of millions of
computers embedded in a virtual cloud.
There is also an interesting discussion of
two-way communication such as
Facebook and YouTube. It concludes with
25
Over
the
wall ...
some implications for computer translation
of natural languages. Chapter 8, The Next
Chapter, describes some of the possible
developments in functional languages,
neural computers, Quantum computers
and the DNA computer. It ends by
drawing attention to some of the negative
consequences of current trends, not least
being that those technologies which were
once free and open have eventually
become centralised and closed as a result
of commercial pressures.
The Information:
A History, a Theory,
a Flood
James Gleick gives such a wide-ranging
account of the evolution of our
understanding of what information is that it
is not possible to discuss it here in detail.
The starting point for modern information
processing is 1948, when transistors were
invented and when Shannon defined the
bit as the fundamental unit of measuring
information.
The book then looks back at the
revolution brought about by the invention
of the alphabet and writing systems,
enabling us to store information for the
first time. It goes on to describe the
attempts to capture language through
dictionaries and thesauruses, then moves
to the work of Charles Babbage, who in
the 19th century invented the first real
computer The Analytical Engine
though it was never built at the time, and
of his collaborator, Ada Lovelace, who
designed the first computer program.
Gleick then describes the
development of the telegraph, first as a
physical then an electrical system for
transmitting information, and of Morse
code as an abstract form of information.
This was the first instance of a message
being dissociated from its physical
substance. This leads to discussion of
codes, and Boolean symbolic language.
(Interestingly, it turns out that a binary
code was first described by Wilkins in
1641! But it was too far ahead of its time
and was forgotten for 400 years.)
The book goes on to describe how

the telephone further revolutionised
communication. In the meantime,
Shannons work on binary arithmetic
came together with logic circuits to make
possible the first working computers. By
the 1950s there was an extraordinary
convergence of work from many
disciplines: Turings mathematical and
coding work, Shannon and Weavers A
Mathematical Theory of Communication,
Wieners work in cybernetics even
psychology got a boost from information
theory. And the leading proponents were
asking the question which has haunted
the field ever since: Can machines think?
The technical details of the discussion
of the notion of entropy lost me at this
point, but I felt in good company as the
experts themselves seemed not to
understand entropy either! The focus then
shifts to biology and work in genetics,
leading up to Watson and Cricks
discovery of genetic coding in the double
helix. This leads into a discussion of
Dawkinss work on the meme, the way
that ideas spread, and the role language
plays in this transmission. There is much
further discussion of randomness and the
role it plays in information theory. It turns
out to be very difficult to generate a truly
random number, partly because humans
are prone to see patterns in everything
including random numbers!
The concluding chapters are

especially interesting as they examine the
human urge since the Great Library of
Alexandria to catalogue everything in the
universe most powerfully exemplified by
the branching network of information
contained in Wikipedia. This raises the
issue of info-glut and how we can
possibly deal with an exponential growth
of information. As T S Eliot said: Where is
the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in
information? The book ends on an
optimistic note, quoting H G Wells: We
do not want dictators, we do not want
oligarchic parties or class rule. We want a
widespread world intelligence, conscious
of itself; and with some interesting things
to say about language as not a thing of
definite certainty but infinite possibility.
The book is fascinating for its range of
historical anecdote and literary, as well as
scientific, reference. From the point of view
of creativity theory, it shows how humans

have groped their way towards new
discoveries and inventions, only halfconscious of what they were doing; how
some inventions came too early to be
implemented for want of the resources yet
to be invented, like Babbages computer,
which depended on cumbersome gears
and steam power; and how personal
genius combined with group interaction to
find solutions. It is the personal narratives,
as well as the intellectual discoveries,
which make this a truly memorable and
significant book.
Nowadays, virtually everyone is familiar

with a whole range of computing devices
and applications. We take them for
granted even those of us who are digital
non-natives and quickly learn how to
press the right button. These two books
remind us of what lies behind the easy
access to information we now manipulate
automatically, but largely without
understanding.
Gleick, J The Information: A History, a
Theory, a Flood Fourth Estate 2011
Ince, D The Computer: A Very Short
Introduction OUP 2011
Alan Maley has worked in
the area of ELT for over
40 years in Yugoslavia,
Ghana, Italy, France,
China, India, the UK,
Singapore and Thailand.
Since 2003 he has been a
freelance writer and
consultant. He has
published over 30 books
and numerous articles,
and was, until recently,
Series Editor of the
Oxford Resource Books
for Teachers.
yelamoo@yahoo.co.uk
TALKBACK!
Writing for ETp

WRITING
Audience
and purpose
W
Donna Scarlett
hen I teach writing, I ask

my students to keep two
key questions in mind:
Why am I writing this? and
For whom am I writing it? In my almost
20-year career as an English teacher, I
have found that, with these two aspects
in mind, my students more effectively
use words to paint a more focused,
meaningful and illustrative canvas.
But how can we, as educators,
approach the notion of audience and
purpose in a fresh, relevant and
meaningful way for our students? The
song Word Crimes, by Weird Al
Yankovic, presents just such an
starts with a song to

work on writing.
opportunity. Over 30 years ago, Weird

Al gained a lasting foothold in the
American music scene, and in July 2014,
his new album, Mandatory Fun, topped
the Billboard 200 music chart, making it
his first number one album and the first
comedy album to reach the top of the
chart since 1963. While anyone familiar
with Weird Als music knows his target
audience is quite broad, the audience of
Word Crimes (one of the songs on this
album a parody of Robert Thickes
2013 Blurred Lines) may very well be
primarily English teachers and their
students, for, as he stated in a recent
interview with Radio.com: I wanted to
go the whole opposite direction and
change it from a song that was offending
a lot of people to a song that could
ostensibly be part of a school curriculum.
Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com
Scrutiny
Weird Al Yankovic
Word Crimes highlights what Weird Al

refers to as some of his grammaticallyrelated pet peeves the things that irritate
him most, such as misusing youre and
your, mixing up parts of speech, making
mistakes with homophones, and using
who when it should be whom.
Additionally, the song covers word
meanings and common misuses (figurative
versus literal, irony, for example) as well
as the use of texting language (ie numbers
and letters in place of words). Of course,
these issues are not new, as Weird Al
demonstrates in his allusion to Princes
1984 hit I Would Die 4 U.
While some applaud his grammar
banter English teachers on online blog
27
Audience
and purpose
forums are already discussing ideas for
teaching his song to students others
have taken a more critical stance toward
the song, pointing out that Weird Al
commits a few word crimes of his own
(such as his use of a split infinitive for
ironic closure to the song with the line
Try your best to not drool). Thus, while
many English teachers may be inspired
to use the song as a teaching tool for
their classrooms, it has come under some
scrutiny, inspiring a debate about what
proper English is, the sometimes
seemingly arbitrary rules associated with
the English language, and the assertion
that some of these rules are no longer
considered wrong, for, as Time Magazine
editor Richard Corliss reminds us, the
sticking point about language [is that] it
keeps changing. No matter where one
stands on the correct grammar
spectrum, however, it is important to
remember that at least one part of
Weird Als intent is comedic satire.
Satire
Despite Weird Als satirical intent, some
people may find a few of the lines
offensive, and this is an important
consideration when thinking about
using this song in the classroom.
Consider his use of the word spastic, for
example, for which Weird Al publicly
apologised on Twitter: If you thought I
didnt know that spastic is considered a
highly offensive slur by some people
youre right, I didnt. Deeply sorry.
(Originally a purely medical term
applied to diseases such as cerebral
palsy which cause uncontrollable muscle
spasms, in the US the word has become
a slang term associated with excessive
energy or hyperactivity, whilst in the UK
it is considered an offensive term for
stupid or inept.) The satirical nature of
the song, however, can be a powerful
teaching tool for understanding,
analysing and deconstructing satire.
Furthermore, deconstructing a word
such as spastic, and its various
meanings, could also be an apt entry
point for discussing cross-cultural
differences as they pertain to writing for
a specific audience and purpose.
Specifics
What I like most about Word Crimes is
that it contains a plethora of teaching
possibilities. This is also part of the
teaching challenge, though, because in
addition to work on satire the song
could be used as a framework for
instruction on writing, grammar,
spelling and word usage. Of course,
there are many teaching activities and
ideas that spring to mind for each of
these four categories, but for the purpose
of this article, I have chosen to focus
specifically on the two writing points I
mentioned at the beginning: audience
and purpose, combined with Weird Als
song commentary, as an overall lesson
framework.
If you want your students to be able
to write with a specific audience and
purpose in mind, it is important that they
first have a shared understanding of what
these words mean, as well as being able to
examine some specific writing models.
While students may be at least implicitly
aware of differences in overall tone and
formality, a side-by-side comparison of
contrasting writing forms will hopefully
encourage increased awareness of
audience and purpose.
The activity described here is just one
possibility, and it can be adapted to suit
various levels. Although I see it primarily
as an activity for middle or high school
students, I plan to use it this coming
year in my first-year university class in
the Netherlands as an introduction to
establishing audience and purpose for
essay writing. Many of my students have
never written a formal essay before, and a
lesson such as this might be quite useful
for when I ask them to consider why and
for whom they are writing.
Mapping out the

learning goal
I usually plan my units and lessons using
Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighes
Understanding by design and
Backward mapping models, by starting
with an essential question or theme
linked to one or more concrete learning
outcomes. Lets first consider what
Weird Als Word Crimes emphasises in
this regard:
writing for specific audiences, such as
blog posts, emails and texting;
what Weird Al calls proper English
versus what I will call informal
English, such as using letters and

numbers to replace words.
For this lesson, then, my overarching
question or theme might be Why is it
important to consider audience and
purpose? My more concrete learning
outcomes would be for the students to:
1 gain a shared understanding of what
it looks like/means to write for

audience and purpose;
2 be able to identify and distinguish
formal English and informal English;

3 produce a piece of writing that reflects
their understanding of the first two

goals.
A lesson on writing for

audience and purpose
Step 1:
Opening
As a warm-up, ask the students to
brainstorm a list of different forms of
writing. You could do this as a whole
class, or the students could do a
pair-share by working with a classmate
and then sharing their ideas with the rest
of the class. (Some possible responses:
newspapers, journals/diaries, texts, blogs,
novels, poems, short stories.)
Step 2:
Comparing writing forms
Show the students examples of both
informal and formal blogs and emails.
Note that this step can be potentially
problematic, as blogs and emails vary in
their levels of formality. Since the idea
here is to compare more formal with less
formal English, you will need to produce
two handouts, one with, for example, a
blog aimed at a professional audience
and a business email, written in formal
English, and the other with examples in
informal English: perhaps a teen blog
aimed at student peers and a personal
email. If you have the time, you could
ask your students to submit some
examples of their own before the lesson.
This also provides some buy-in,
particularly if you then use the actual
examples that they have written
themselves. Keep in mind, though, that
this will be more time-consuming, as
you will need to review/screen their
examples to determine classroom
appropriateness as well as level of
formality.
Ask your students to read and
compare the two handouts. What do
they notice about each blog and email

example? Hopefully, they will easily see
the difference in formality. What makes
each more or less formal? Answers here
may vary.
Step 3:
Audience and purpose
Ask the students to conduct a side-byside analysis of the blogs and emails.
They might do this as a pair-share
activity, as an independent in-class
assignment or working in groups.
Another idea is to assign particular
students to analyse each of the forms
and get them to report their findings to
the whole class. This gets them more
actively involved in teaching each other,
while also encouraging them to perform
a really in-depth analysis of one of the
two writing forms.
Here are some possible guidance
questions:
Who do you think the intended
audience for this blog/email is?
How do you know?
What do you think was the purpose
of each? Is one better than the other?
Why/why not?
In answering these questions, the
students should find examples from the
texts to support their ideas.
Step 4:
Weird Al and Word Crimes
Follow up this analysis by getting the
students to watch the video of Word
Crimes. To provide them with a focus
for watching the video, ask them to
consider who they think Weird Als
audience is and what his purpose for
writing the song might be.
Step 5:
Video analysis
Conduct a feedback session in which the
students discuss their answers to the
question of audience and purpose. I
would suggest doing this as a whole
class, rather than in small groups, in case
some students dont realise that Weird
Als intent is to be satirical and, as a
result, misinterpret the song.
If your students are unfamiliar with
satire, it would be a good idea to do
some work on comedic satire before this
lesson explaining what it is, looking at
some examples in modern culture and
giving an introduction to the satire of
Weird Al, thus providing them with a
context for the video.
Step 6:
Closing
To close the lesson, ask the students to do
a quick free-writing activity on audience
and purpose. Ask them to cover these
questions: How would they now define
each? What are one or two take-away ideas
they have, regarding audience and purpose?
Why is it important to write with a specific
audience and purpose in mind?
Step 7:
Extension
For homework or as a follow-up lesson
or activity, get the students to produce
two short pieces of writing. One should
be more proper/formal, and the other
informal, written with a specific
audience in mind. You could help by
providing some formal/informal writing
topic ideas. Of course, you can always
challenge them to come up with their
own topics.
Corliss, R How Weird Als Word Crimes
is saving grammar for the future 1 August
2014 Retrieved from
http://time.com/3051761/why-weird-alsword-crimes-is-english-for-dummies/
Rutherford, K Weird Als Mandatory
Interview: Word Crimes, the tacky
video and Prince, who still wont say yes
to a parody 18 July 2014 Retrieved from
http://radio.com/2014/07/18/weird-alinterview-prince-word-crimes-tackymandatory-fun/
Sisario, B No joke! Hes topping the
charts 23 July 2014 Retrieved from
www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/arts/music/
weird-al-yankovic-scores-with-mandatoryfun.html?_r=1
Soloman, J Weird Als Word Crimes and
prescriptive grammar 16 July 2014
Retrieved from
http://blog.dictionary.com/word-crimes/
VanNest, A Grammarly Exclusive:
interview with Weird Al Yankovic 20
July 2014 Retrieved from
www.grammarly.com/blog/2014/
exclusive-interview-weird-al/
Wiggins, G P and McTighe, J
Understanding by Design Prentice Hall 2005
Donna Scarlett has
worked in the field of
English education for
almost 20 years. Her
expertise includes
secondary-English
teaching, curriculum
design, beginningteacher mentoring and
teacher training. She
currently teaches in the
Netherlands at Radboud
University and the HAN
University of Applied
Sciences.
donnajscarlett@gmail.com

Do you have ideas youd like to share
with colleagues around the world?
Tips, techniques and activities;
simple or sophisticated; well-tried
or innovative; something that has
worked well for you? All published
contributions receive a prize!
TALKBACK!
Writing for ETp

It really worked
for me!
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29
IN THE CLASSROOM
Communicative
clarity
Paul Bress argues that we should be looking for a clearer goal.
number of key terms have

been used in ELT over the
years. One of these is
linguistic competence. For
Noam Chomsky, this is the system of
linguistic knowledge possessed by native
speakers of a language which allows
them to recognise whether a sentence is
grammatically correct or not. Later, Dell
Hymes claimed that we have the ability
to use language to perform social acts
(an ability he called communicative
competence). Others, including Tim
McNamara, have striven to suggest that
it is not communicative competence, but
communicative performance (ie how we
actually communicate in real life) that
counts. For instance, the amount of
stress we are experiencing can have an
impact on the success of our
communicative outcomes. An example
of this would be false starts as in:
I wonder if I could have ... can you pass
me that book? The sentence starts off in
one direction but then changes, perhaps
as a result of the speakers anxiety.
The term fluent tends to be used
rather liberally both inside and outside
the ELT profession. Certainly, most
would agree that fluent speakers have
the ability to keep talking, to articulate
ideas and, usually, to repair
communicative breakdown. Yet is it not
possible for fluent speakers to
communicate in a way that may be quite
difficult for listeners to process? For me,
John Prescott, the former Deputy Prime
Minister of the UK, is an example of a
fluent speaker who doesnt speak clearly.
There are many learners of English who
might not be considered entirely fluent,
but who speak a lot more clearly than
John Prescott!
Against this background of emphases

on different aspects of language, I want
to suggest that, perhaps, we should be
aiming towards helping our students
achieve what I call communicative clarity.
By this, I mean speaking in a way that is
easily understood both semantically
and pragmatically by the listener(s).
Seven features of clarity

Here is a list of what I consider to be the
features of communicative clarity:
1 Looking
at the other person
If you dont look at the people you are

talking to, they will sense that you do
not even want to communicate clearly
with them. Looking at people implies a
willingness, a commitment, to
communicate clearly.
2 Trying
to understand what its

like to be the other person
We cant communicate in a void.

Communication implies at least two
people, the sharing of two peoples
different worlds. This means that, before
you say too much, you have to predict
how your words will come across to
your co-communicator.
3 Not
interrupting while the

other person is still talking
Turn-taking problems can be a sign of a

lack of communicative clarity. It means
you havent checked that the other
person has really finished their
utterance. If you are communicating
clearly, you will look for the key signals
that they have finished, and then you will
formulate and utter a response that has
been tailor-made for the other person.
4 Enunciating
your words
clearly enough
If you are, say, drunk or tired, the sounds

you utter will be less easily understood
than when you are sober and fully
awake. If you enunciate your words
clearly, this enhances the overall clarity
of the communication. This doesnt
mean that a particular kind of English is
recommended, just that speakers utter
the sounds and tones in question in a way
that creates no ambiguity for the listener.
5 Speaking
volume
at an appropriate
Some very fluent speakers speak either

inaudibly or at a very loud volume,
resulting in the message being very difficult
to understand. Speaking at an appropriate
volume (ie loud enough to be completely
understood, but not so loud as to be
unpleasant to listen to) is, therefore, an
important aspect of communicative clarity.
6 Speaking
speed
at an appropriate
The teenage schoolgirl in the UK TV

comedy Little Britain is an example of
someone who speaks too quickly to be
understood. Perhaps it is nervousness
that causes people to speak too quickly.
But, as with volume and enunciation,
rapid speed can put a great strain on the
listener. Speech needs to be slow enough
so that the listener can detect and process
both the semantic and the pragmatic
meaning of the incoming speech.
7 Giving
signals when you are

about to say something
particularly important
A lack of communicative clarity can be

seen in the absence of special signals. It is
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possible that you are trying to put across

a very important message, but fail to
make this clear to the listener. As a result,
the listener may struggle to differentiate
between the more important and the less
important aspects of what you say. You
can use different techniques to signal
important things to the listener, eg
pauses, special phrases and intonation.
Four steps to clarity

So far, Ive endeavoured to explain what I
mean by the term communicative clarity.
But how can teachers guide their students
to be clearer communicators? Lets
assume that you are teaching a class of
students who have attained a high level
of communicative competence, but who
sometimes struggle to achieve successful
communicative outcomes because of a
lack of clarity in their communication.
Such a class, I imagine, would be very
amenable to the kind of clarity training
Im proposing here. So lets consider what
practical steps you can take. I will include
some actual classroom language, which I
recommend that you use.
1 Give
plenty of feedback on
how clearly the students are
communicating
I think that the students Ive described

(and students in general) would feel
cheated if you pretended that they were
speaking more clearly than you actually
thought they were. Therefore, if you are
struggling to understand the semantic,
or pragmatic, meaning of what they are
saying, you need to let them know this.
3 Provide
a model
In conclusion, Im not recommending

going back to the days of Oxford
English or the Queens English. Im not
recommending that a particular type of
superior English be used. In fact, Im
not being prescriptive at all. What I am
saying, though, is that there is a big
difference between achieving a high score
in an ELT exam and communicating
clearly (either socially or professionally)
in the real world. As students become
more proficient in English, they should
be encouraged, increasingly, to monitor
their output so that they make the best
possible communicative impact. I think,
too, that encouraging students to
improve their communicative clarity
should be part of teacher education and
teacher training programmes and
should be taken very seriously by ELT
coursebook writers.
If you can show your students, through

your own language, that clear
communication is successful, they
should be able to imitate this until it
becomes increasingly natural for them to
communicate in this way.
Sample teacher language
Im going to indicate to you that I have
something important to communicate to
you. Please listen to my words, my tone
of voice, speed and volume of delivery,
and watch my body language, OK?
Peter, theres something I really need to
discuss with you have you got a
moment?
4 Encourage
practising
speaking with greater clarity
Of course, all students need to recognise

the clarity problem, but they also need
to practise overcoming it. Clear
communication has to become part of
their nervous system, part of their
behaviour, part of their very being.
Therefore, you need to encourage your
students to practise relevant aspects of
communicative clarity. In the following
example, the skill is one of recognising
when a turn is available.
Chomsky, N Syntactic Structures Mouton

1957
Hymes, D On Communicative Competence
University of Pennsylvania Press 1971
McNamara, T Measuring Second
Language Performance Longman 1996
Paul Bress lives in Herne
Bay, UK, where he teaches
English to overseas
students, writes novels
and paints. His novels are:
The Man Who Didnt Age,
The Dysfunctional Family,
For Adults Only, The
Check-out Operator and
Life Swap, all published
by Fast-Print and available
on Kindle. His paintings
can be viewed at www.
artfinder.com/paul-bress
and http://paulbressgallery.
blogspot.co.uk.

Im going to talk about something now,
and Id like you to raise your hand when
you think Ive finished my turn, OK?
Make sure Ive finished my sentence
(grammatically), the intonation is going
down and Im facing you, in order to
allow you to have your turn, OK? Are
you ready? Lets do this three times!

Actually, I hadnt finished talking.
paulbress@talktalk.net
Sorry, I cant hear you.

I cant understand what youre saying.
Whoa! Im finding it difficult to process
what youre saying.
I had no idea you were talking about
something that was important to you.
2 Indicate
where problems
(of lack of clarity) lie
Of course, its not particularly helpful to

say Can you please speak more clearly?
This is like asking a toddler to be good.
You need to pinpoint exactly what the
student has done or said so that they
can understand that that is the origin of
the clarity problem.
Im afraid youre speaking so fast
I honestly cant understand you.
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Goal!
SPEAKING
Tamzin Berridge
gives her students a
technique for setting

and meeting their
personal targets.
tudents often say that they want

to improve their speaking, but
they generally dont find it easy
to articulate exactly what they
want to improve or what they need to do
to achieve it. It can, therefore, be
difficult to prepare lessons and speaking
activities that will meet their needs. As a
result, speaking activities often lack
focus and the specific feedback which
will help the students to improve. This
can also make it difficult for both you
and your students to assess whether or
not they are making progress.
It can be hard, especially in large
classes, to identify the students
individual needs and give personalised
feedback. Even with exam-practice
activities, there is often not enough time
to give the students sufficient one-to-one
practice or enough clear feedback on
what they need to do to improve before
they take the exam.
Personal goals
One solution is to get the students to set
their own personal goals for a speaking
activity, based on what they, with
support from you, feel they need to
work on. If you are lucky enough to
have a language lab, or other recording
facilities, the students can record
themselves in advance and use this as a
basis for identifying strengths and areas
in need of development. Here is a
procedure that you might like to use:
Introduce the topic and the type of

speaking activity. The resources
shown here were used for a lesson where
the students made a two-minute formal
presentation on the topic of the
environment. As the group was mixed
ability, the presentation was at upperintermediate or advanced level,
depending on the individual student.
Discuss some of the requirements

of the task and what the students
need to do to make an effective
presentation at the relevant level, and
write these on the board. These
requirements could include using an
appropriate structure with a clear
introduction and conclusion, employing
linking words to signpost ideas and
including a range of appropriate
vocabulary. This exercise will give the
students a frame of reference for when
they move on to the next stage.
Ask the students to think about

their prior experience of making
similar presentations and identify what
they think they struggled with and need
to improve. Note: if they have no prior
experience, you could ask them to
identify what they think they will find
difficult.
Give the students the following

form to complete:
My personal goals for this lesson

Name: _____________________________
This lesson, I am going to prepare
and give a presentation on the topic
of the environment.
I would like to make a presentation
at ______________ (write level).
To help me do this, I need to
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
The first few times they do this, the

students may find it a challenge to
complete the form and may need some
direction from you, particularly
suggestions on what they need to work
on. Make sure that you give them
enough time to complete the form, and
monitor closely to make comments and/
or suggestions on what they have
written. Asking them to discuss their
ideas with a partner may help.
If you feel they need further
support, or may not identify the specific
problems that you would like them to
focus on, you can also give them a form
that you have completed in advance,
such as the one below, which I gave to
one of my learners after he had filled in
his own form. I explained that they were
the areas that I felt he needed to focus
on as well as his own goals. It was
interesting to note that, in a number of
areas, our goals were similar and that
the student agreed with what I had
written.
Your personal goals for this session
Alejandro
Name: _____________________________
This lesson, you are going to prepare
and give a presentation on the
environment.
Alejandros partner would focus on how

well-prepared his presentation was, his
range of linkers and his register
particularly as this is a formal
presentation.
Ask the students to work in the

same pairs to conduct self- and
peer-assessment, using the questions in
the box below. Encourage them to refer
specifically to the goals that they set and
to self- and peer-assess according to
these. Again, when you first start, the
students may find this challenging and
may struggle to be critical about their
own performance and their partners.
However, if you monitor and encourage
them, they will soon get used to it. You
can model this through the feedback
that you give, asking the students if they
agree with what you have said and
whether they can give you examples.
For example:
I thought Alejandro used quite a good
range of linkers, especially when he
moved on to a different section of the
presentation. Maryam, can you remember
anything he said?
I felt that the presentation was a bit
too informal in parts what do you think?
Can you think of any examples of where it
could have been more formal?
You are going to make a presentation
Level 1
at ______________
(write level).
Assessment
To help you do this, you need to
Work with your partner and answer

these questions
make
sure that you prepare your
_____________________________________
presentation
carefully and spend
_____________________________________
enough
time thinking about it.
_____________________________________
Use
a range of linkers. Make sure
_____________________________________
that
your presentation is in the
_____________________________________
appropriate
register and that you
_____________________________________
dont
use language that is too
_____________________________________
idiomatic.
_____________________________________
Put the students in pairs and ask

them to show and, if necessary,
explain their goals to their partner.
Emphasise that they will need to be
aware of each others goals in order to
give them effective feedback later on in
the lesson.
Ask one of the students in each pair

to give their presentation. Their
partner has to listen, paying particular
attention to the performance in the
areas identified in stage 4. Therefore,
Self-assessment:
What are your reactions to your
presentation? What do you think you
did well? How do you think you could
improve? Look back at your goals
do you think you achieved them?
Why/Why not?
Peer-assessment:
What are your reactions to your
partners presentation? What were
the strengths and weaknesses?
What advice could you give to help
your partner improve? Then look at
your partners goals do you think
he/she achieved them? Do you think
that your partner chose the right goals
or is there something else he/she
needs to improve?
Teacher-assessment:
Now ask your teacher for some
feedback.
8
9
Repeat stages 6 and 7, with Student

B giving the presentation.
When the students have finished

their presentations and received
self-, peer- and teacher-feedback, ask
them to work in pairs to reflect on the
activities they have done. They need to
consider what they have learnt, what
they have achieved and any thoughts
that they have on how to refine and
change their goals before the next time
you make presentations in class.
I have used this technique successfully

with students on a number of occasions
to encourage them to take responsibility
for setting their own goals and assessing
their own performance and improvement.
It is a useful way to ensure that speaking
activities meet the needs of your students,
and allows you and them to concentrate
on what they actually need and want to
achieve. It also means that feedback from
peers and from you is clearly focused on
their individual needs and the areas
which require development.
I have also adapted this technique to
use with writing, especially exam
preparation, where the students set goals
that are related to the exam assessment
criteria and assess themselves and each
other against these criteria.
Tamzin Berridge has
been teaching English
since 1995 in a number
of countries, including
Cameroon, Tunisia and
the UK. She currently
works as a materials
writer and examiner and
teaches ESOL and
CELTA at an FE college
near Leicester, UK.
tamzin.berridge@slcollege.ac.uk

Hove BN3 5HX, UK
Fax: +44 (0)1273 227308
35
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. Dont forget to include your postal address.
All the contributors to It Works in Practice in this issue of ETp will
receive a copy of ETpedia: 1,000 ideas for English language teachers,
by John Hughes, published by Pavilion.
A menu for fast finishers

In any class, there will be some students who finish activities
before others, and this is particularly true in primary and
secondary schools, where the students are grouped together
according to age, rather than level.
Some classic options in this situation include:
Getting the fast finishers to start the next exercise
(however, this only delays the problem);
Letting them wait (this can result in classroom discipline
issues);
The following menu of activities can be used with fast finishers

in a variety of situations: after a reading comprehension, at the
end of a lesson or to revise a series of lessons. These activities
can be done individually or in pairs, to be shared with the class
later. Sometimes in a revision lesson, I let my students choose
from the menu; this allows for different learning styles and
preferences.
The menu can be written on the board, or you can cut it up into
separate cards for the students to pick out of a box.
Giving extra/extension work (this often means more work

for the teacher).
Rachael Harris Duborgel

Messery, France
Tweet it!
Poetry, please
What an animal!
Write a summary of the text/lesson

in 140 characters.
Write a haiku about the text/lesson

(a three-line poem: 5 syllables,
7 syllables, 5 syllables).
Choose a character from the

text/coursebook. Which animal would
this character be? Why?
Dear diary ...
Artful anagrams
Opposite adjectives
Write a diary entry for today

for a person from the
text/coursebook.
Make anagrams for five new words

you learnt today. Can the class
work out the words?
Think of five adjectives and

write their opposites. Can the class
find your original words?
Simplify it!
Be sensitive!
Twenty is plenty
Explain the text/lesson

so a very young child would
be able to understand it.
What can you see, smell,

taste, feel or hear in the
text/lesson?
Summarise the text or explain

the lesson in exactly 20 words
no more, no less.
Hands on!
Sell it!
Poster it
Choose five key words

(one for each finger)
to summarise the lesson/text.
Write an advertising slogan

for the text/lesson.
Design a poster on the

lesson/text/new vocabulary.
Writing sprint
Staircase vocabulary
Teach it!
Write as much as you can

in three minutes on the topic
of todays lesson.
Write a list of words from the text.

Each one should start with the last letter
of the previous word.
Explain how you would teach

todays objectives.
Adding a bit of drama

Drama activities help children to
understand and express how they
are feeling. They also enable them
to recognise emotions in others.
In addition, they can elicit useful
vocabulary for naming and describing
feelings in English. Here are some
suggestions for activities you can
do with young learners.
Mime game
Choose some adjectives for feelings that
you would like to teach your class to
name and express. These might include
happy, sad, angry, excited, tired, worried,
frightened and surprised.
Introduce each in turn, naming it
clearly and making an appropriate facial
expression. (You could also use other
parts of the body to make the meanings
clearer, such as stamping your foot to
show that you are angry or wrapping your
arms around your body when you are
frightened.) Then ask the students to
repeat each word and copy your facial
expression. Repeat the words and facial
expressions several times, changing the
order each time until the students are
confident.
Play a game in which you call out
feelings and they must make the
appropriate facial expressions. Gradually
increase the speed of the game, so that
they have to think and change their
expressions more quickly.
Divide the class into small groups and
ask each group to choose an expression
that they will make for the other groups
to guess and copy. Allow them to play
this game as individuals, if they are
confident enough.
Greetings
Work with an adult colleague to
demonstrate talking about feelings to
the class. Make a happy face and say
I am happy. Are you happy? Your
colleague could say Yes, I am happy or
No, I am sad/angry/worried and mime the
appropriate expression. Ask the students
to work on this activity in pairs, taking
turns to make an expression, name it and
ask whether their partner feels the same.

Their partner then makes an appropriate
reply.
Sit in a circle and shake hands with
each student in turn, asking How do you
feel? Each student should reply I feel
happy/excited/tired/surprised and make an
appropriate facial expression to illustrate
the feeling. Perhaps demonstrate the
game by shaking hands with one or two
adult colleagues first. Emphasise to the
children that they are acting and do not
have to say how they are really feeling;
they can choose and name the expression
that they would like to make.
Put it into a sentence

Introduce some grammar alongside the
new vocabulary. Ask the students to
work in pairs again. Demonstrate with a
colleague how to say I am happy. Are you
happy? Your colleague should reply I am
happy too. You can then hold hands and
say together We are happy. Support the
students as they create this dialogue for
themselves and try it with each of the
other words and expressions, taking turns
to ask the question and make the
response.
Ask the students to stand up and to
secretly choose a feeling for themselves.
When you give them the signal to begin,
they should walk around the classroom
saying to the others at random I am sad/
excited/surprised. Are you sad/excited/
surprised? When they find a person who
answers Yes, I am sad/excited/surprised,
they should hold hands and continue to
walk around together, asking their
question with we, eg We are sad. Are you
sad? Eventually, a group should have
formed to represent each feeling. Each
group in turn can then show their facial
expression to the other groups and
everybody can guess how they are feeling.
Add a song
Sing the well-known song If Youre Happy
And You Know It with the class. Include
each feeling in turn and add suitable
actions for each verse. For example: clap
your hands to be happy, stamp your feet
to be angry, pretend to go to sleep to be

tired, hide your face to be frightened and
give a cheer to be excited.
Encourage the students to think of
other verses and supply appropriate names,
descriptive words, mimes and actions for
any other feelings and expressions that
they would like to portray.
Develop language skills

Ask the students to think about what
makes them feel happy. Offer ideas, such
as a favourite toy, food, person, game,
sport or activity, or a special occasion,
such as a birthday or a holiday. They
could also think about what makes them
feel sad, such as not being able to have
or do something, or a special treat
coming to an end; what makes them feel
tired, such as taking part in a sport or
activity or doing some work; or what
makes them feel frightened, such as a
scary story or a loud noise.
Encourage the students to take turns
to speak to the rest of the class or to a
small group, saying, for example, I feel
happy when I eat chocolate or I feel
frightened when I hear thunder. Join in
the game to set an example of speaking
in longer sentences. For example, I feel
sad when the holidays end, because Ive
had fun with my family. But then I feel
happy when I come back to school to see
all of you again.
Make a visual representation

Provide opportunities for the students to
draw pictures of all the different
expressions that they can think of, and
write the English words to describe them
beside the faces. If the students are
ready, they may write down further
descriptions, or the sentences they
created while playing the games.
They could make their pictures and
writing into books to keep in the
classroom, or posters to display on the
walls. This will help them to remember
the vocabulary and the concepts they
have learnt.
Debbie Chalmers
Cambridge, UK
37
ENGLISH TEACHING
CONFESSIONAL
mshch / iStock / Thinkstock
Rogheyeh Kazemi Pargou

describes how she became a hunter of language in New York.
am at JFK Airport at last, which is busy,

just as always. We are all exhausted
after the gruelling 18-hour flight from
Tehran to New York City. My feet are
painful and swollen, yet I have to pull my
worn-out children along; they are sleepy,
still on Tehran time. I am somewhat
perplexed in these first minutes of being in
a new country. People are walking around,
some of them typical heavy Americans,
with sunglasses and huge suitcases. I
wonder how they fit those things in the
overhead compartment. I sharpen my ears
to catch the voices, beautiful American
accents. No need any more to tune my
radio to VOA (Voice of America), or play a
tape or video in order to imitate the
accent. I did this so many times while I
was studying for my BA at teacher
training university. It was such a torture to
try to tune into VOA with that ancient
radio I had borrowed from the English
department library. It was much easier to
tune to the BBC, but I was not interested
in the British accent, neither were my
roommates. Now, in the airport, I can hear
these American accents all around me. As
I ride on the escalator, I hear a woman
say, if weather permits. Nice! I would
never form a sentence like this. I tell
myself I should listen carefully from now
on to be able to speak like them.
It is now weeks later. We are here, living in

Manhattan. I enjoy going out, since I want
to explore more about America, yet I do
not feel like a stranger. After studying
English for more than 20 years and
teaching it over the past decade, I think I
know the culture very well. Every day,
after my husband leaves for work, I take
my children to a neighbouring park, one
with noisy parents on their cell phones,
chattering chattering all the time about
something, I dont know what. I am going
to aim at two different targets with one
arrow, as Iranians put it: my children can
play there, and I will go language hunting.
I listen carefully to everybody. I find
childrens talk more interesting; it is
completely different from what I learnt in
the English classes I attended in Iran,
probably because in those classes we
would discuss serious topics, like
government and binding theory,
Chomskys universal grammar, the recent
theories in TESOL but these children
are living the language.
We move to Forest Hills, a more affluent

neighbourhood in Queens, in the summer
of 2010. I take a lot of walks. As I walk on
108th Street, I hear different voices,
different languages, even Farsi; it is
actually one of the most common
languages spoken here but in different

accents, probably Afghan, Tajik or Uzbek.
There are at least four Iranian
shopkeepers on this street. A few people
speak English, of course, some with
strange accents, strange pronunciations
which I cannot understand easily. I would
understand them better if they used sign
language, I think. My students back home
would speak English with a better accent.
Oh! My goodness! Am I going to improve
my English here, or forget what I already
know? I have heard somewhere, I dont
know where, that the worst place to learn
English is New York City. Probably it is
not true, but it specifically fits my case.
Now it is September 2010. I send my son

to school. Daniel has almost consumed
me with his never-ending nagging about
missing Iran. He feels so nostalgic as if
he had lived there for 70 years. He is in
second grade. I know he has a lot to deal
with: a new environment, a new culture
and, of course, a new language. He only
knows a few words that he has picked up
from watching cartoons in the short time
he has spent here: from April to
September. I wait for his ESL classes to
start. They never do. Probably, his school
does not offer this service, I suppose. I go
to the school to ask. What I hear fills me
with astonishment; he has passed the ESL

test. But how? When we came here five
months ago, he only knew the alphabet.
There must be a mistake. I say: Put him
in an ESL class. Probably he knows how
to speak by watching TV, but he cannot
write. But they insist that he has a full
command of the grammar and writing
system. I dont know how, but he seems
to have accomplished it. Amazing! In Iran,
we euphemistically call inquisitive people
engineers. In that sense, Daniel is a
super-engineer when it comes to electric
devices and the computer. I should have
known that while he was watching TV with
the closed captioning switched on, he was
trying to learn English. I have studied a lot
of books on psycholinguistics and I know
that children learn a second language in a
completely different way from adults, yet
what I am observing is rather beyond
surprise. Learning a second language in
childhood is such an asset!
My daughter has just turned four. I should

send her to pre-K, but I am worried: what
if she needs to go to the bathroom, or she
is thirsty? I teach her the two necessary
words: water and bathroom. When I leave
her at the school, she hides behind me,
clinging to my hand. In the first four months
at pre-K, she does not use English at all.
But after that, she starts making sentences,
almost without any grammatical mistakes.
She uses conditionals without hesitation,
whereas I cannot make a conditional
sentence without a short pause to think.
She makes some mistakes, of course: for
instance she says buyed instead of
bought. I dont correct her; I know that I
shouldnt. Soon, she wants to involve me in
her games, which she calls English Game,
by which she means that we should speak
English when we play. I am reluctant to
play; I feel I cannot keep pace. I have
problems forming those casual sentences,
not grammatically (I am good at grammar),
but problems in using the language
colloquially. In the matter of four months,
she sounds exactly like an American.
It is 2011. I help my son with his lessons.

I try different things to make him study.
I normally start by ordering him
authoritatively, continue by promising to
reward him if he studies well, and almost
always end up begging and falling at his

feet. I sometimes read his social studies
and science to him. He frequently stops me
because of my non-native pronunciation.
I dont like it when he teaches me, but I
cannot get him back to work until I satisfy
him with the right pronunciation, even if I
have to repeat a word ten times. My dream
has come true before my eyes; I have
always wished my children to be bilingual; a
professor on my BA course told us how he
had tried to train his son to be bilingual by
always speaking English at home, while his
wife spoke Farsi. I never tried to do that,
though. I knew that my English was not
perfect and that what children learn at an
early age becomes so imprinted that it may
be impossible to change in the future, so I
never took the risk. Years later, when I
was reading a book by Steven Pinker on
linguistics, I thought that I might have
achieved my goal in having bilingual children
if I had tried even with my imperfect
English. Of course, this is simply what I
inferred; I am not sure if my understanding
of Pinkers ideas was correct.
It is January, 2012. A friend of mine who

lives downstairs is going to Hunter
College. She is a frequent visitor to my
house, a sweet 21-year-old girl who talks
to me a lot as I enjoy her beautiful
American accent. I sometimes drive her
nuts when she talks enthusiastically about
something and I interrupt her to ask about
the meaning of an expression she has just
used. She asks me if I want to accompany
her to college. I do. I am bored at home. I
take the placement test. Then I make an
appointment with the academic counsellor,
one of the friendliest people I have ever
met. When I tell her that I have two little
children, she understands and goes
through the different schedules in levels
eight and nine to find a suitable class for
me. I take the level nine writing class, not
because I am crazy about writing, but
because it is the only class that fits my
messy schedule. I do not really think that
it can help me.
Then, I write, write and write and get

corrected in return. I go through my
corrected papers many times. I arrange
them carefully, the first drafts followed by
the second, and keep them safe they
are precious things. Now I can spot my

problem areas, one of which is the use of
appropriate words. The more I write, the
more I can figure out. I get kind of
addicted to writing, as if it is what I have
always been looking for. It is so strange.
I can make complicated sentences easily,
but the word the seems to have become
a real problem for me: when I use it, the
teacher deletes it, and when I dont use it,
he adds it. I am coming to the conclusion
that I can never be clear about how to
use this three-letter word. I wonder how
come I learnt so many grammar rules, but
Im still stuck on this one. I feel that I am
moving as slowly as a turtle; I do not feel
frustrated, though; at an advanced level,
you progress very slowly. My errors are
the points which make me different from
a native speaker.
Spring 2014. Time to leave America. I am

packing; I am leaving in a few months. I
have not mastered English yet. But, thats
OK. It consoles me when I think of a
Ukrainian friend who has married an Iranian
man. She has lived in Iran for almost ten
years, but she still speaks Farsi with a
strong accent, and she sometimes pauses
to find a suitable word when she speaks.
So, why should I feel bad? I knew from the
first that I could never be a native speaker;
nobody can. Probably, I had overestimated
the importance of living in America in
approaching a native-like proficiency. It is
essential, but it never produces a miracle.
It may do, of course, in the long run, in a
matter of ten years, for instance, if you
constantly use the language in special
environments. I should always continue to
practise in order to improve more; there is
never an end to it. I am leaving America, but
I can always refer to authentic materials,
like novels, articles and essays. I can
watch films, news and videos in English. I
will always be a learner of English.
Rogheyeh Kazemi
Pargou was born in Iran
in 1974. She did her BA
and MA in TESOL in her
own country. She has
over ten years of
experience in teaching
English as a second
language to Iranian
students.
rkazemi6@gmail.com
39
IN THE CLASSROOM
Embracing
ambiguity
Simon Dunton
warns us to beware of
the right answers.
hroughout my CELTA course,

I remember being told
constantly that questions given
to students should be as free
of ambiguity as possible. Like any good
CELTA student, I followed this rule
rigidly throughout the course, and
continued the practice as a fledgling
teacher. As time went on, however, I
began to appreciate the value that
ambiguity has in the classroom, and
now I even go so far as to encourage it.
Missed opportunities
It would be wrong to pretend that ELT
classrooms are without guesswork, for
we often ask our students to predict the
answers to questions before listening or
reading tasks. It is a sad fact, however,
that many of the teachers I have
observed in the past have followed up
such tasks by checking or giving the
correct answers, often those dictated by
a Teachers Book. Whilst this is to be
expected when it comes to international
exam classes (there can be no ambiguity
in these cases, for obvious reasons),
teachers really miss a trick by not
exploring their students ideas and
thought processes, or the language used
by the students to express their opinions.
This leads to many missed learning
opportunities and can stifle some
students willingness to experiment with
language and explore it.
Take, for example, the simplified
exercise in the box above.
The first question can only be
completed with one of the given words,
so it is easy. The second, however, can be
Complete the questions using

what, when or how.
1 ______ is your birthday?
2 ______ are you doing?
3 ______ many children have you got?
completed in one of two ways (with either

what or how) and it is not until we move
on to the final question that we realise
what the correct answers should be.
By ignoring the fact that How are
you doing? is also perfectly acceptable
English, we are in danger of negatively
affecting the development of any
student who has this as an answer. I
have seen a number of teachers mark
grammatically good test answers as
incorrect because they were not the
answers given on the official answer
sheet. Though sure that they have come
across the phrase marked as wrong
before, the students may be too shy to
question the teacher and, in the worst
case scenario, may register it as incorrect
English and avoid using it in future.
Opportunities
Students should, instead, be encouraged
to experiment with the language they are
learning, which can mean questioning
other students, the coursebook and, yes,
even the teacher. By doing so with the
example above, all the students could
benefit from exploring the difference
between How are you doing? and What
are you doing? in a natural, student-led
environment.
By encouraging our students to

experiment with language, we move
away from the situation, described by
Luke Meddings and Scott Thornbury,
where students often get answers correct
simply by thinking logically, following
previous patterns or filling the last gap
with the last remaining answer. This,
Meddings and Thornbury argue, is not
language learning.
Jokes
Also lacking from many ELT classrooms
is the encouragement of students to use
the ambiguity of certain words to make
jokes. Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada
mention children becoming aware of the
ambiguity of their L1 as part of their
metalinguistic development from a
young age, but teachers seem unwilling
to touch upon this. Though, at times,
painfully corny, Christmas cracker jokes
(eg Q: What do you call Santas little
helpers? A: Subordinate clauses) are a
wonderful piece of realia to bring into
the classroom. They do take explaining,
and this can kill what little humour you
may find in them, but they can be a great
way to explore language through culture.
Topics
Ambiguity can also be used to produce
language, where controversy often fails
to do so. In my experience, too many
teachers erroneously attempt to make
their students debate hot topics in
order to practise the language of
agreement or disagreement. Students,
however, can be unwilling to speak, not
because they do not have the language
skills, but because they fear their
opinions will be judged by the teacher or
their peers. Instead, exercises like the
one described below produce the same
target language, without making
students uncomfortable or unwilling to
contribute.
In a lesson on the topic of houses
and homes, I put the students in pairs
and placed 12 mini text extracts on a
table within reach of them. They were
told to take one at a time and discuss
these questions:
Who is speaking, and to whom?
Where are they?
Whats going on?
What will happen next?
I made clear to the students that no

answer was wrong, and that the idea was
not to persuade their partner they were
right, but to justify their answers. Here

are some example extracts:
1 Oh no! Its shrunk! My favourite dress
and its ruined. Who left the machine
on the hot water setting?
2 Shhhh. Hes just fallen asleep
Doesnt he look cute?
3 Are you sure you know what youre
doing, Gerald? Youre not a qualified
electrician after all. All those buttons
and switches. Id be frightened to
touch any of them. And remember
what happened last time
What followed was both interesting

discussion and experimentation with
language (with teacher support). Given
that they had to justify their answers, the
students found themselves going slightly
off-topic and referring to their own life
experiences. The first extract, for example,
brought up discussions on where the
students kept their washing machines,
who did their washing and if they ever
talked to themselves. The second
produced stories about babies, fathers of
newborns and puppies. The third had
several pairs debating whether or not
Gerald would come to a grisly end.
Naturally, the students made the
same mistakes in this exercise as you
would expect with any free speaking
activity, and errors were corrected both
during and after the task, but there is no
doubt that it was fun, active, natural and
productive precisely because of the
deliberate ambiguity of each extract.
This type of exercise can easily be
adapted for a number of topics: around
the office, at the cinema, at the airport,
on holiday, etc. It can also be left

completely ambiguous if a topic is not
specified. In this case, the students can
let their imaginations run free as they
talk over extracts, sometimes with
hilarious or bizarre results.
Teachers who insist on their students

producing the correct answers are
doing them an injustice and can
adversely affect student progress.
Ambiguity in the classroom can
encourage language exploration and
experimentation and increase language
production. It can be used to introduce
humour and English culture, produce
natural, flowing language and, most
importantly of all, reflect life outside the
classroom. Give it a try and see where
breaking this golden rule of CELTA
leads you and your students.
Lightbown, P M and Spada, N How
Languages are Learned OUP 2006
Meddings, L and Thornbury, S Teaching
Unplugged: Dogme in English Language
Teaching DELTA Publishing 2009
Simon Dunton has
recently returned to the
UK after eight years in
Russia, where he taught
and was Director of
Studies at three of the
major language schools
in Moscow and Siberia.
He has just finished the
DELTA qualification and
is attempting to settle
into the London ELT
world.
Simondunton@gmail.com
TALKBACK!

It really worked
for me!
41
Reviews
Experimental Practice in ELT:
Walk on the Wild Side
by Jennie Wright and
Christina Rebuffet-Broadus
The Round 2013
978-1-31-132944-8
The cover of Experimental Practice in ELT:
Walk on the Wild Side by Jennie Wright
and Christina Rebuffet-Broadus depicts a
bird cage with an open door, hinting at
how we teachers may find ourselves
imprisoned by strict adherence to the
same pedagogical practice for years on
end. This practice may be specified by a
curriculum or dictated by the policy of the
institution we work for, but very often we
stick to it just because it has worked for
us once.
The chances of getting stuck in a rut
are, of course, higher for more experienced
teachers, but teachers at the beginning of
their careers may also find themselves
following a certain methodology or
instructional model because thats what
they were exposed to during their initial
teacher training. Therefore, no matter how
long you have been in the field, it is
important to keep trying out new
techniques and methods. This is what
experimental practice is all about.
Experimental Practice in ELT takes a
practical approach to the topic and
provides hands-on guidance to anyone
willing, as the subheading suggests, to
take a walk on the wild side.
After carrying out a survey of
Cambridge DELTA candidates most
common choices for their Experimental
Practice assignment, the authors came
up with a list of five topics, which are
represented in the five chapters of the
book. Each starts with a brief but
satisfyingly comprehensive review of a
different approach or method, followed by
a sample lesson plan. The lesson plans a
somewhat telling hint at the authors own
credo (Dogme) are presented not as a
conventional, linear series of activities,
but as lesson skeletons with balloons
representing various stages of a lesson
and arrows indicating possible sequences.
These are not immediately easy to follow
and, personally, I would prefer a more

traditional step-by-step lesson outline.
But in the spirit of experimentation, these
colourful flow charts seem to work (they
are also available for download from
www.the-round.com).
Each lesson plan is followed by a
list of Dos and Donts and Opportunities
and Risks, which puts you in mind of
the SWOT analyses used in business
planning revealing the authors
extensive experience in teaching
business English. In addition, each
chapter comes complete with a list of
useful references, resources and
blogs that readers can follow to find
out more about each of the selected
experimental areas.
After a brief introduction outlining the
rationale behind the choices, the book
opens with a chapter on Dogme. Despite
being a new kid on the block, Dogme
has gained a lot of supporters in recent
years. The authors warn us that a Dogme
lesson is not just a conversation class
where you have a little chat with the
students, and they stress the importance
of being constantly attentive in order to
maintain pace and look out for learning
opportunities.
The next chapter is entitled Lexical
Chunking and is devoted to the Lexical
Approach. The authors recommend
experimentation in this area to anyone
who is too dependent on a grammar
syllabus or those who teach a lot of
single words. This is followed by some
helpful practical tips.
Somewhat related to the previous
topic, the next chapter deals with corpora.
After discussing the history and use of
corpora in language teaching, the authors
outline a procedure for a data-driven
learning (DDL) lesson, where the learners
step into the shoes of language
researchers. They become familiar with
corpus software and explore linguistic
data themselves, searching for common
patterns associated with different words.
The recent revival of interest in
translation is what prompted the choice
of the topic for Chapter 4. Many teachers
who have faced reprimands for, and bans
on, the use of L1 in the classroom will be
pleased to know that translation is back

in and that they are now encouraged to
try out translation techniques in the
classroom. Indeed, for many of our
learners, effectively functioning in, and
switching between, two languages is a
much more realistic goal than aspiring to
be native-like speakers of English. This
view is supported by Vivian Cooks
Multi-competence model, which
suggests that speakers of two or more
languages are fundamentally different
from monolingual speakers.
The final chapter, as the authors
themselves admit, is the most
experimental practice and is devoted to
CLIL (Content and Language Integrated
Learning). Driven by globalisation of
learning English, CLIL has emerged as a
popular (mainly in European countries) way
of teaching curricular subjects (science,
geography, maths, etc) through the
medium of English. This fusion of English
and content helps create an authentic
setting of meaningful learning where the
students can engage in exploring and
finding out about the world and, possibly,
free up those precious school hours for
another foreign language.
The authors point out that the five
topics presented in the book reflect
renewed interest in more holistic and
humanistic approaches to teaching
English. Such alternative humanistic
approaches as Suggestopaedia, Total
Reviews
Physical Response and the Silent Way,
which made their appearances in the
1970s, are not featured in the book
because, as the authors explain, they
have already been sufficiently covered
elsewhere.
With five topics to choose from, every
teacher is sure to learn something new
and to be tempted to try it out while
making an informed decision about a
chosen experimental area.
Another great strength of the book is
its accessibility and versatility. Although
written with DELTA candidates in mind,
the book will be of use to any teacher
whether novice or more experienced
who is willing to break the mould and
experiment with new techniques. It will also
be of use to teacher trainers. I have used
parts of it on an in-service professional
development course to introduce a group
of very experienced teachers to some of
the teaching approaches and methods I
felt they might be not so familiar with. The
aim was to shake them up a little and
enthuse them with new, interesting ideas.
When it came to practical implementation
of less-known ELT approaches, this
book was of great help. Indeed, as far as
books on experimental practice go, this is
probably the best and the only practical
title on the market.
Experimental practice is on the way to
becoming if it hasnt already become
the buzzword of ELT, although the
concept itself is not new. A well-known
quotation, attributed to Penny Ur, goes:
[there are] teachers with 20 years
experience and those with one years
experience repeated 20 times. If you
dont want to go on repeating what
youve always done and stay imprisoned
in the same cage for 20 years, start
carrying out and reflecting on your
experimental lessons in order to grow
professionally and liberate yourself like
the bird which you cant see on the cover
of this book.
Leo Selivan
Tel Aviv, Israel
This book is available from
the-round.com and is sold
through Amazon.
Focus on Oral Interaction

by Rhonda Oliver and Jenefer Philp
Oxford University Press 2014
978-0-19-400084-0
Focus on Oral Interaction is part of the
Oxford Key Concepts for the Language
Classroom Series. This series aims to
make research topics which are relevant
to second language teachers more
accessible. It is designed primarily for
teachers of English in primary and
secondary level contexts.
Focus on Oral Interaction explores
the benefits and drawbacks of various
different interaction patterns that occur in
the classroom, and the impact these
patterns have on the child and adolescent
second language learner. It aims to use
the findings of research carried out in both
classrooms and laboratory environments
to guide primary and secondary level
teachers in the pedagogical implications
of oral interaction.
The book is divided into five chapters.
Chapter 1 outlines what oral interaction is
and what it is not. It compares speaking
and writing, and describes the relationship
between speaking and listening.
In Chapter 2, the writers go into more
depth regarding the role of interaction for
the second language learner, and
examine the different types of interaction
and strategies that are used.
Chapter 3 focuses on the interaction
in the primary school classroom between
teacher and learner and between peers.
This chapter also discusses how these
interactions contribute not only to second
language acquisition, but to the learners
academic, social and cultural development.
Chapter 4 explores similar areas, but
in the secondary level context. The
obstacles facing second language
learners during adolescence, in both
social and academic circumstances, are
discussed.
The final chapter provides a summary
of the key issues and concepts dealt with
throughout the book.
Like the other books in the series,
Focus on Oral Interaction contains
Classroom Snapshots, Activities and
Spotlight Studies, which provide real

exchanges to demonstrate and discuss
the different issues being raised. These
also include the findings of important
research, and allow the reader to reflect
and analyse the exchanges and their own
teaching.
What I most liked about this book was
that although it is based on academic
research, the Activities and Classroom
Snapshots include and involve the readers,
so that they are not reading passively.
The Glossary at the back of the book
is most helpful as it keeps a record of all
the new terminology that arises, and can
be referred to while reading. There are
also Suggestions for Further Reading if
you wish to continue your research in this
area, or if you would like to focus on a
specific area mentioned in the book.
This is not a book of practical activities
for oral interaction in the classroom, but a
book which presents the findings of
academic research in an active way. It is
suitable for self-study or for discussion
with colleagues.
Louise Guyett
Dublin, Ireland
Subscribers can get a 12.5% discount
on this book. Go to the ETp website and
quote ETPQR0314 at the checkout.
43
We all have different

views on things
some more rational
than others!
In the simplest comparison,
Seeing part of the picture

A number of years ago there was a fashion for making very simple line drawings and
getting people to guess what they represented. I have dragged some up from the
archives. Can you work out what they are?
there are those who see a

half-filled glass as half
empty, while others see it
as half full. Over the years,
several famous people have
commented on this duality
of viewpoints:
We can complain because
rose bushes have thorns, or
rejoice because thorn bushes
have roses.
Abraham Lincoln
When a man wants to
murder a tiger he calls it
sport; when a tiger wants
to murder him he calls it
ferocity.
George Bernard Shaw
The fascination of shooting
as a sport depends almost
wholly on whether you are
at the right or wrong end
7
P G Wodehouse
7 A bear climbing a tree

6 A pig disappearing round the corner of a building
1 A man in a sombrero riding a bicycle
Oscar Wilde
2 A giraffe going past a window
sees the hole.
3 A cup and saucer
doughnut, the pessimist
4 Two Australians sharing a drink
The optimist sees the
5 A canoeist in a big hat
of the gun.
Answers
Blind mans buff

There is a classic illustration of the different perspectives
that people can have of the same thing: it takes the form
of a story about six blind men examining an elephant.
They are asked to describe what the animal is like.
The blind man who feels a leg says that an elephant
is like a pillar;
the one who feels the tail says that an elephant
is like a rope;
the one who feels the trunk says the elephant
is like a tree branch;
the one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a fan;
the one who feels the body says the elephant
is like a wall;
and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant
is like a solid pipe.
The moral of the story is that an elephant has all these
attributes together and, as with many things in life, we need
to see (or feel) the whole thing before we pass judgement.
Once again, some quotations from famous people
encapsulate the idea that viewpoint is everything:
Every day one should at least hear one little song,
read one good poem, see one fine painting and
if at all possible speak a few sensible words.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.
Steven Wright (American comedian and actor)
Distance lends enchantment to the view.
Mark Twain
A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion
or fact is transformed into a photograph, it is no longer
a fact but an opinion. There is no such thing as
inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are
accurate. None of them is the truth.
Richard Avedeon (American photographer)
A different angle
I am sure that most people have

come across those trick
photographs which are of ordinary
everyday objects taken from
an extraordinary angle, sometim
es cutting out a vital identifying
part of the item. The worksheet on
page 46 has a selection of
such photographs, which you mig
ht like to use with your
students to practise the languag
e of speculation and deduction.
Answers
1 A toothbrush 2
A
piano
3
A
hairb
rush
4
A
grate
r 5 An electric plug
6 An iron 7 A coffee filter holder
8 The zip on a handbag 9 A bulld
og clip
We talk about a birds-eye view (from above) and a

worms-eye view (from below). Although they arent
ever put together, if you did so, you would quickly see
that something that looks good from the birds point of
view has the potential to ruin the worms entire day!
ples of a different point of view

Some of the most extreme exam
k The Man Who Mistook his
can be found in the fascinating boo
essor Sacks is a neurologist,
Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. Prof
several of his patients who
and his book relates the stories of
lt of illness or a stroke. He
suffered brain damage as a resu
e who have a disconnection
concentrates, in particular, on thos
and what they are actually for.
between ordinary everyday objects
k refers to a patient who, at the
The rather dramatic title of the boo
up his hat, and instead put his
end of his session, went to pick
rest hat-shaped thing he saw).
hand on his wifes head (the nea
description of a familiar item
There is one particularly splendid
e at all he describes it very
which the patient doesnt recognis
ng several subsidiary pouches
eloquently in terms of a pouch havi
e that you realise that he is
attached to it. It is only after a whil
man has lost this normal
actually talking about a glove! The
simply not knowing what a
perspective, and has ended up by
glove is or what it is for.
tions and see if you can work
Look carefully at these descrip
out what the items are:
than your little finger,
1 A long cylinder of wood, a little thinner
shaped to be exposed
with an inner dark coloured centre,
at one end of the cylinder.
a crumbling rampart
2 A miniature slender white tower with
flexible material in the
at the top, having a thin piece of
centre with a darkened tip.
a flat disc with a hole
3 A small shiny bar; at one end there is
out landscape sitting on
in it, and at the other is a flat cuttop of the bar.
3 A key
Answers 1 A pencil 2 A candle
Seeing the
whole picture
A different
perspective
45
A different angle
1
Work in pairs. Look at the photographs and discuss with

your partner what you think they show. Use some of the
language in the box.
2 Report your ideas to the rest of the class. Your teacher will
then give you the answers. How many did you get right?
3 For homework, take some photos of everyday objects on

your mobile phone. Take them from unusual angles so it
is difficult to see what they are. Can your classmates
identify them?
What do you think it is?
What about a ...?
What do you think this

part is for?
It looks as if its made of ...
I think it is a ...
It might be used for ...
It could be ...
You could use it to ...
It might be ...
It cant be a .... because ...
It must be ...
I dont think its a .... because ...
Could that part be ...?
Scrapbook compiled by Ian Waring Green
Current Vacancies
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please contact Carole Blanchett on
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S U G G E S T I O N S F R O M T H E S TA F F R O O M
Sasha Wajnryb offers some classroom-tested tips to invigorate your lessons.
How do language teachers learn languages?
he staffroom can be the source of

a wealth of knowledge for all
teachers. Both new and veteran
teachers can take advantage of the years
of experience and the varied teaching
styles that other teachers can offer.
This series mimics a friendly
staffroom environment where teachers
share and access useful tips on how
best to meet the needs of their students.
Trawling through textbooks or websites
may uncover some fantastic activities,
but can also be time-consuming,
whereas the staffroom often provides
quick and valuable tips.
The ideas in this issue of ETp have
been proposed by experienced teachers
at a busy ESL college in Sydney, Australia.
Its no surprise that ESL/EFL teachers tend

to be interested in different languages and
cultures. Its one of the reasons we do
what we do. Teachers often want to learn
new languages or improve their own
existing language skills.
ESL/EFL teachers work in many
different contexts. Some live in nonEnglish-speaking countries and wish to
pick up the local language. Others work
in English-speaking countries and wish to
learn a foreign language. There are also
many non-native English teachers who
teach English in their home country and
who may wish to improve their English or
pick up another language.
As teachers, we know that students
learn in different ways, and what works
for one student may not work for another.
When our students ask for advice on the
best ways to learn English, we need to
offer a variety of strategies. We need to
be familiar with a variety of methods to
help our students learn.
Our own language learning
experiences, our theoretical understanding
of how people learn and our teaching
experience have given us exposure to
many different teaching and learning
techniques, all with varying results. Our job
requires us to sift through these methods
to find the ones that work for our students.
When embarking on our own language

study, we will use our professional skills
to improve our choice of the methods we
will employ.
In this article, we will focus on the
strategies that language teachers can use
when they learn languages themselves,
and which they can pass on to their
students.
Ten tips for teachers who

want to be learners
1 Decide what your goal is. Do you want
to be able to ask for directions or haggle
at a market? Do you want to engage in a
simple conversation with locals? Do you
want to read newspapers in the target
language? Once you have a goal, you can
design your own language learning
strategy. Start with your overall goal, then
try to break it down into stages so you
can set yourself regular targets.
2 Face-to-face language exchange with
someone who wants to learn your
language is a common approach.
Maintaining a relationship with a boyfriend/
girlfriend in the target language is a
fantastic way to improve your skills.
Nowadays, there are also free websites
where you can find a partner and do a
language exchange via Skype. Email and
social media have replaced writing letters
to pen pals. Facebook messaging with a
friend gives you more time to plan your
response than face-to-face conversation,
yet allows you to receive messages
without waiting by the letterbox for weeks
on end.
3 The internet offers many opportunities
to pick up your target language. A Google
search will reveal many free and paid
language learning sites. You can even
download a coursebook if you like.
4 If youre a Facebook junkie, liking
news/entertainment/general interest
pages in your desired language will
ensure your newsfeed contains a lot of
the target language.
5 Go to a class! Even if youre busy, a
once-a-week evening class can keep you
motivated and give you homework to

focus on until the next lesson. An added
benefit for our teaching is that it reminds
us of what it feels like to be a student!
6 If your goal is basic conversation,
remember that you dont need to learn
everything: a few hundred carefullychosen words will go a long way.
7 Your mobile phone can become an
essential tool. Downloading language
learning apps (audio lessons, flashcards,
etc) means you can practise when you
have a few moments free, such as when
you are commuting to work or going to
the gym. Alternatively, a pocket
phrasebook can serve the same purpose.
8 Try to do something related to your
language learning every day. Even if its
only a few minutes, make sure you do
something! Incorporate it into your
routine.
9 As a teacher, you are probably used to
creating your own teaching materials.
Now you can create your own learning
materials that you can recycle and revise
later on. You may wish to synthesise your
learning materials into a master list (eg an
alphabetised notebook of grammar/
functions) so you can prioritise the parts
of the target language which are most
important for you.
10 Vocab, vocab, vocab! Flashcards,
post-it notes, a dictionary on your
smartphone, a pocket phrasebook, a
noticeboard, a list of words on your fridge
door whatever method you use, you
need to build your vocabulary.
Good luck!
Sasha Wajnryb teaches
adult international
students in a large
college in Australia. He
has worked in ELT for
15 years as a teacher,
academic manager and
consultant.
If you want to share an idea in the ETp

community staffroom, feel free to email it to
sasha.wajnryb1@tafensw.edu.au.
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
Preaching
in practice
Dave Briggs demonstrates CLIL through
church furnishings and architecture.
Dr John Crook/Winchester Cathedral
ver the last few years, I have

been seeking to improve the
teacher refresher courses that
my institution runs for CLIL
teachers. We face a number of
challenges in these two-week courses:
the language level of the teachers varies
from B1 to C2 (CEFR); they teach
different subjects and they have varying
degrees of experience as CLIL teachers;
some are from bilingual schools and
others have just been informed that from
next term they will be delivering part of
their curriculum in English! However,
the challenges we face to some extent
reflect the challenges that the teachers
themselves will face with the secondary
school classes that they teach, ie varying
levels of English, differing interests and
varying degrees of confidence. Bearing
these factors in mind, I have been
refining a CLIL demonstration lesson to
give the course participants so that they
are learning both content and language,
while being exposed to a workable
model. This lesson comes at the start of
the course, which is run in Oxford, UK,
and its components are then referred to
in much more detail in later sessions.
In this article, I have outlined the
components and rationale of the lesson in
the belief that this approach is adaptable
to other CLIL training contexts.
authentic reading on misericords, the

carved ledges that form part of the hinged
seats found in the choir stalls of many
churches and chapels, which are designed
to provide some degree of comfort to
people obliged to stand (or at least
appear to be standing!) for long periods
of time during religious services. This
also works as a preamble to visits to the
Oxford colleges, especially New College.
(I thought about a loop input lesson on
CLIL itself, but the loop became a spiral
of descent and I thought I would leave
this for another day!)
I wanted the teachers to be aware of
the key components of CLIL and
integrate them into their lessons. I have
always found Do Coyles four Cs
(content, culture, communication and
cognition) to be a clear and graspable
starting point for any CLIL course. My
experience of observing CLIL teachers
has led me to emphasise certain areas in
the demonstration lesson, with the aim
of precluding predictable problems.
In my experience, these frequent
areas of difficulty are:
Lack of awareness of the language
required for classroom interaction
Weak checking of understanding of

language
Over-elaborate instructions
Undifferentiated tasks
We will look at how I address these areas
below but, first, lets take a look at the
construction of the demonstration lesson.
Lesson staging
My demonstration lesson has the
following stages:
1 Warmer
and lead-in
This is a quiz on Oxford, and my focus here

is to ascertain the content and cultural
knowledge the teachers already have.
2 Vocabulary
teaching
Words introduced include: reredos,

cloisters, choir stalls, pulpit, corbel,
lectern, wall monument, gargoyle, ceiling
bosses and misericord. A student-centred
picture-labelling task is used to ensure
that all the students are learning some
new vocabulary and becoming aware of
checking techniques.
3 Jigsaw
reading on misericords
The idea is to introduce the teachers to

an effective information-gap activity, to
facilitate understanding, processing and
production of both content and
language. The different parts of the text
used for this jigsaw reading explain the
reason why misericords are put in chapels
and the origin of the name, and also give
examples of their fascinating variety.
4 Focus
on adverb, adjective and

noun collocations
For this, I use a matching activity for

describing objets dart, which focuses on
collocations such as intricately carved
seat, exquisitely woven tapestry and
crudely sculpted figures, to demonstrate
exploitation of a text for language patterns.
Choice of materials
My first consideration when putting this
lesson together was commonality of
interest, and I decided I would do a
history lesson based on church
architecture and furnishings linked to the
local Oxford colleges. I have an interesting
49
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
Preaching
in practice
5 Practice
and personalisation
This involves activities designed to

encourage the teachers to take
ownership of the new collocations.
6 Feedback
This takes the form of delayed error

correction, based on my monitoring
throughout.
Each stage is followed by a review and
discussion of the rationale, during which
the teachers reflect on the transferability
to their own educational context.
Addressing the areas

of difficulty
Lack of awareness of the language
required for classroom interaction
I stress to the teachers that if their
learners are being asked to interact in
English during the lesson, then they
themselves must consider the functional
language required and also relate this to
the cognitive skills being deployed. As
they match the visuals to the labels in
stage 2 above, they will be speculating
and deducing, expressing certainty and
uncertainty. Thus the modals,
collocations and possibly idiomatic
phrases must go up on the board as a
frame of reference. (I am a fan of large
colourful speech bubbles.)
As the teachers exchange
information about misericords in stage 3,
they need the language to explain, for
example, phrases like on account of and
deemed necessary. In their descriptions
of medieval church life, I expect them to
favour the use of would rather than used
to, as the notion of typicality is more
relevant than the contrast with the
present. I see this as a lexical issue rather
than a grammatical point, and
appropriate to their language level.
(Overall, I encourage the teachers to
concern themselves with lexical issues
rather than grammatical issues because
they are not usually the language
specialists in their schools. However, it
might well be the case that they are
requested to deal with grammar, so do
not discount this as a possible focus.)
Weak checking of understanding

of language
When the teachers have matched the
visuals to the labels in stage 2, I get them
to hold up picture cards in response to
oral prompts. For example, if I say corbel,
they have to hold up the appropriate
picture. I then get them to speculate on
the function of the various features. For
example, I might ask What is the function
of the gargoyles? or Who might be sculpted
in the corbels? I also ask them to recycle
the language by categorising the features
into those made of wood, stone or both.
I discourage the use of concept checking
questions (CCQs) with concrete nouns,
but discuss the value of checking more
abstract nouns and non-demonstrable
verbs with exemplification (or possibly
with CCQs, which I consider to be more
appropriate to lower levels). For example,
I might ask Can you give me an example
of a member of the clergy? In dealing with
the collocation exercise, again I check
with exemplification, eg What sort of
things are embroidered?
Over-elaborate instructions
Throughout the lesson, the teachers see
and hear me clearly setting up tasks and
modelling activities. They see me
minimising language, chesting
instructions (ie holding the reading text
or exercise at chest height and pointing
at what I wish them to do) and using
instruction-checking questions (ICQs)
judiciously. With regard to modelling,
Lets do the first one together becomes a
regular refrain on this refresher course.
I also give one garbled instruction as a
bad model, just to see how they react.
Undifferentiated tasks
I am keen to differentiate throughout
the lesson. As I manage the quiz, I
ensure that any teachers who have
visited Oxford before are asked the more
difficult questions. In the vocabularymatching activity, the weaker ones can
be given definitions to help them along.
I also have a bank of expressions that
the stronger C1- and C2-level teachers
might wish to use, such as to hazard a
guess, to make an educated guess, it
might well be ... . At the jigsaw reading
stage, I have an edited text which is
shorter and with a lower density of
unknown words for the B1/B2-level
teachers. (Assessing the level of
difficulty of materials with regard to the
language components is a key skill for

them to develop.) The collocation
exercise has more exponents for the
C1/C2-level teachers and I expect them
to produce more examples in the
personalisation, eg In my local museum
you can find some finely crafted furniture
from the 17th century.
Finally, at the end of our refresher
course, each of the teachers delivers a
micro-lesson to their peers and is given
feedback. They are invariably grateful
for the demonstration lesson, which is
referred to throughout the course. When
I take them to New College, the
experience is enhanced by having greater
knowledge of the chapel furnishings and
the historical context. They also have
the language to convey this knowledge
to their own students.
If you feel that a CLIL demonstration

with trainee CLIL teachers might benefit
them, I would suggest the following:
Choose a topic that will interest them
and that you are able to enthuse
about. It might be anything from a
local building to wine-making, but it
is best to choose a topic that has some
obscure vocabulary.
Find an engaging and challenging
text, listening or YouTube clip, and
design an information-gap activity.
Look for language patterns that are
typical of that genre and facilitate
practice and production.
Steer, F W Misericords at New College,
Oxford Phillimore 1973
Coyle, D, Hood, P and Marsh, D
CLIL: Content and Language Integrated
Learning CUP 2010
Dale, L and Tanner, R CLIL Activities:
A Resource for Subject and Language
Teachers CUP 2012
Dalton-Puffer, C Discourse in Content
and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
Classrooms John Benjamins 2007
Dave Briggs is Head
of Teacher Training at
British Study Centres,
Oxford, UK. He has
taught English in
Greece and Japan,
and history, numeracy
and English literature
in the UK. He is also
a CELTA trainer and
assessor.
dave.briggs@british-study.com
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
Map your
career
Emily Edwards offers a guide to navigating
some possible routes.
t is not uncommon for English

language teachers to get stuck in a
teaching rut: once the challenge
of teaching a different level, a
different course or in a different country
has worn off, one day they may wake up
to find themselves having taught in the
same school for several years, teaching
the same grammar points over and over
with the same material and with little
challenge. There are many reasons why
almost all teachers at some point in their
careers feel that they are not moving
forward. Whereas feeling comfortable
can sometimes provide a necessary
break for tired teachers, losing
motivation or direction in your career is
never a good thing.
In this article, I present a goaloriented method that I have found
useful in re-motivating myself, and I will
discuss a variety of paths that are likely
to be open to many English teachers
around the world.
Where do you want to be in five or ten

years time?
What motivates you?
What do you really enjoy doing?
What is possible and realistic in your
situation, taking into account your
location, finances and flexibility in
terms of time and travel?
Next, have a look at the four possible route
maps below and on pages 52 and 53. These
show four clear directions an English
language teacher could go in. Decide which
ones you would consider. Once youve
chosen one (or a combination) of the four
directions, think about what you need to do
in order to follow this route. Ive provided
a few suggestions for each one, as well as
some details of my own experiences.
1
ELT management
English Teacher
Choosing your route

The idea of making a career map was
first introduced to me a few years ago
during a careers seminar at Macquarie
University in Sydney, Australia, where I
was studying for an MA in Applied
Linguistics. Since then, Ive found this to
be a really effective way of focusing on
my own career goals and possible
routes or directions. It certainly
appeals to my visual and analytical way
of thinking!
So, how do you map out the route?
First, think about these questions:
Where do you want to go in your
career?
Senior Teacher / Coordinator
Assistant Director of Studies
Director of Studies /
Head Teacher / Academic Manager
My experience
I recently worked as a Senior Teacher
and Academic English Coordinator in a
private English language school in
Sydney. While taking on additional
responsibilities was stressful at first, I
really enjoyed the closer contact with
both teachers (through staff
professional development sessions and
observations) and students (through
interviews, orientations and counselling)
that you dont normally get as a teacher.
However, moving up to the Director or
Head Teacher level is a major step that
you would need to prepare for carefully,
as these positions can be extremely
demanding.
What you could do

Gain experience at your school,
teaching as many different courses as
possible (eg exam preparation courses
for IELTS, FCE, CAE, TOEIC and
TOEFL, Business English, Academic
English, teaching young learners,
teaching one-to-one) because this will
help you to train and advise your staff
as a Senior Teacher or Manager.
Show enthusiasm and interest in your
schools professional development
programme, for example by
volunteering to help and mentor other
teachers in the staffroom.
If you are already a Senior Teacher or
Coordinator, ask to shadow the
Director of Studies or Head Teacher
in some of their duties: for example,
conducting student orientations,
interviewing new students, allocating
students to classes or training new
teachers. This can be excellent
preparation for doing it yourself in
the future.
Extra qualifications are usually
required for ELT management,
depending on the country. The
Diploma in English Language
Teaching to Adults (DELTA) and a
Masters in Education or Applied
Linguistics will provide you with a
thorough background in language
theories, research and teaching
practice. In addition, doing a
management course such as the
International Diploma in Language
Teaching Management (IDLTM) is a
good idea as it will help develop your
leadership skills.
51
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
Map your
career
2
Teacher training
English Teacher
(Senior Teacher)
Teacher Trainer (TESOL courses)
CELTA Trainer
DELTA Trainer
My experience
Before becoming a Senior Teacher and
while completing my Masters degree, I
taught on a few TESOL training courses
for non-native English-speaking teachers
who were mainly from South Korea.
What I found especially rewarding in
this role was the opportunity to use and
discuss in class the teaching approaches
and methodologies I had just been
studying myself. So if you enjoy the
theoretical side to language learning but
with practical application, then teacher
training may suit you well. Nevertheless,
progressing to the role of CELTA
Trainer can be difficult, so gaining
experience as a Senior Teacher (which
often involves training other staff
members) and teaching TESOL training
courses are useful steps in that direction.
What you could do

Make the most of your current job to
get experience in training others. For
instance, as a teacher you can offer to
run a workshop or discussion group
to train colleagues, and as a Senior
Teacher or Coordinator you can
observe, mentor and train colleagues.

These are all great experiences to put
on your CV!
Be prepared to work your way up, and
to travel to gain experience, especially
to teach CELTA (and then DELTA).
For example, you may be able to
observe and then teach a CELTA
course elsewhere in the world on a
short-term contract, to build up your
experience. The British Council and
International House (IH), among
others, sometimes offer short-term
teacher training opportunities around
the world.
If CELTA courses are taught in your
school, ask if you could observe or
shadow a CELTA trainer to gain
insight into the course and learn from
more experienced teachers.
Again, qualifications are vital,
perhaps even more so than for
management jobs, and important ones
include a Certificate in Training, the
DELTA, and a Masters degree. These
last two are crucial in developing your
theoretical knowledge and classroom
practice.
3
Education and
linguistics research or
university teaching
English Teacher
Masters / PhD student
Assistant Researcher /
Assistant Lecturer
Researcher / Lecturer
Professor
My experience
Completing my Masters in Applied
Linguistics a few years ago opened my
eyes to the past and current research
into education, language learning and
linguistics that I never even knew existed
before! I am now doing a PhD in
Education, and really love conducting
research myself. The university teaching
and research route is one of the most
interesting career paths for me, as
researchers and lecturers often have the
opportunity to follow their very specific
passions, conduct their own research,
contribute to academic knowledge and
even change educational policies and
procedures. Research can also be very
practical and directly applicable to the
language classroom, and there may be
local programmes you can get involved
in. For example, I took part in the
English Australia Action Research in
ELICOS 2012 programme, funded by
Cambridge English Language
Assessment (www.englishaustralia.com.
au/page.php?id=153), which involved
planning, implementing and analysing a
classroom intervention to improve an
aspect of the ESL course I was teaching.
What you could do

Start by reading articles (such as the
great variety in ETp) and books (eg
Teaching by Principles by Douglas
Brown) to find out about the different
research areas that exist.
Try action research in your own
classroom, using Anne Burns book
Doing Action Research in English
Language Teaching as a guide.
Take part in national research projects
(eg English Australia Action Research
in ELICOS programme, English UK
Action Research Awards Scheme, or a
programme funded by the British
Council www.britishcouncil.org).
Apply to start a Masters by Research
degree, which generally takes one to
two years to complete. Then, if you are
still interested in research, continue on
to a PhD, which can open the door to
teaching in universities.
Get connected, and network with
other ELT practitioners and
researchers, as this could inspire you
and give you ideas for future research.
For example, check out #AusELTs
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
blog (http://auselt.com), sign up to
Twitter and follow leading authors,
either there or by reading their blogs.
Here are a few ELT blogs I enjoy
reading:
Jim Scrivener and Adrian Underhill
(http://demandhighelt.wordpress.com)
Nicky Hockly
(www.emoderationskills.com)
Scott Thornbury
(http://scottthornbury.wordpress.com)
Simon Borg
(http://simon-borg.co.uk/blog)
4
ELT materials
production
English Teacher
Writer for ELT magazines / blogs /

journals (part time)
Materials writer (part time)
Coursebook writer (part time)
My experience
I have limited experience of this area so
far a few articles here in ETp (Issues
83, 84, 85 and 94), a couple of journal
articles and a new Academic Literacy
course which Im developing for my
current workplace but once again, it is
a very satisfying area to move into. You
may be surprised at how much you
could write about already from your
own experience, so my advice would be
just to give it a go! If you want to start
off quite informally and gain confidence
(and hopefully a regular audience), a
good idea would be to start your own
blog and encourage your friends and
colleagues to follow you. That way, you
can try out material, articles or ideas
and get friendly feedback before taking
your work a step further by submitting
it to a magazine or journal.
What you could do

Think about your area(s) of specific
interest, and perhaps start by setting
up a blog (eg using Wordpress); then
add regular updates to keep your
readers following. You could add
posts about lesson plans, lesson
activities or aspects of teaching theory
that youve used in practice.
Read some practical English teaching
magazines and websites to get ideas for
topics you could write about: eg English
Teaching Professional, Modern English
Teacher and www.teachingenglish.org.uk
(British Council).
Then try writing articles for these
magazines, or lesson plans for
websites like www.onestopenglish.com.
Getting your work published adds to
your credibility as a writer (depending
on the publisher or website, of course)
and allows you to receive feedback
from editors and other teachers.
Register with ELT Teacher 2 Writer
(www.eltteacher2writer.co.uk), which is
a database used by publishers when
looking for writers. This website also
provides training modules
(downloadable for a small cost) on
different aspects of ELT writing, such as
how the ELT publishing industry works
and how to write activities for reading,
listening, vocabulary practice, etc.
Making contact with publishers at
ELT conferences (like IATEFL in the
UK) can be the best way to establish
relationships and determine what
opportunities there are for writers.
Presenting at, or running, a workshop
at a conference can also be a good
way of getting noticed by publishers,
many of whom are likely to attend.
It is also possible to email publishers
with a proposal for a book, although
dont expect an immediate response, if
any. They often ask for a table of
contents, book description and sample
unit as part of an initial proposal.
Publishers are often looking for
teachers who will comment on and
pilot materials which are in
development. Offering to do this is a
good way to get noticed and may lead
to further work. It seems that the days
of the coursebook written by one
famous author or small team are
pretty much over. The trend now is

for granular content and multicomponent projects, with different
parts written by lots of different
people. Publishers are often looking
for people to take on parts of these
projects and, especially, for writers of
online practice activities.
Qualifications will help in giving you
a solid foundation in the theories of
language learning, and in allowing
you to analyse textbooks and
materials in terms of their approaches
to a syllabus and lesson format so
again, the DELTA and a Masters
would be useful. However, many
teachers without these qualifications
have become very successful authors
so why not give it a try?
Of course, life is never linear, and other

things get in the way. So your career, like
mine, is unlikely to be as straightforward
as one of the routes shown above. It is
highly possible that your route will
branch out in different directions for
you to choose from, and a combination
or overlap of several of these four paths
is quite likely. The key thing is to decide
what interests you and what your end
goals are, and then work out how to get
there in a way that suits you.
Career mapping has worked well for
me, as I hope it will for you. Although
Ive certainly re-mapped my route many
times, finally reaching each career goal
Ive set for myself has been extremely
satisfying. Good luck!
Brown, D Teaching by Principles: An
Interactive Approach to Language
Pedagogy (3rd ed) Pearson Education
ESL 2007
Burns, A Doing Action Research in English
Language Teaching Routledge 2010
Emily Edwards is a PhD
in Education (TESOL)
student at the University
of New South Wales in
Australia. Her research
project explores the
impact of the Action
Research in ELICOS
programme on English
language teachers
professional development.
She also works part time
as an academic English
teacher and course
developer.
e.c.edwards@hotmail.co.uk
53
TECHNOLOGY
Making
the most
of film
Charles Jannuzi looks at the resources available

and how we can make the best use of them.
urrent technologies for

recording, storing, copying,
playing, editing and otherwise
manipulating video make
adapting video and film as materials for
the ELT classroom more appealing than
ever before. This article reviews and
expands on some of the possibilities for
the use of video, and the resources
available with film, to create engaging
language learning activities.
Available resources
For an example of some of the resources
available, let us look at Japan: a huge
market for books and multimedia, such
as DVDs and Blu-ray discs (BDs). These
are typically published in Japanese for
the 128 million native speakers and
readers of the language in the domestic
market. However, there is also strong
interest in the books, films and TV
programmes of other countries,
especially the US and the UK.
One type of book that caters to the
desire of many Japanese to watch foreign
films in the original language (usually
English) is the bilingual screenplay, which
presents the dialogue of the film, written
in both English and Japanese, together
with extensive explanatory annotations
about vocabulary, idioms, cultural items
and history, all pertaining to the content
of the film.
In addition, Sourcenext, a software

publisher, provides inexpensive languagestudy programs that run on computers,
tablets and smartphones, with key features
for language learners, such as content
from popular films, bilingual subtitles
and practice exercises tied in with the
content and language of the films.
Outside language-learning
publishing, it should be noted that many
foreign films and TV programmes (and
even some Japanese titles, such as the
animations of Studio Ghibli) are
available on DVD and BD, often with
subtitles in both Japanese and English.
One interesting development has been
the appearance of a number of films on
DVD and BD with multilingual
features: Asian languages because the
discs made in Japan, Hong Kong and
Taiwan are marketed elsewhere in Asia,
but also European languages because
Japan is part of Region 2 for coding (the
same as the UK).
Using the resources

Extensive reading/viewing
One basic use of screenplay books is to
employ them as textbooks. (If screenplay
books are not available in your country,
many screenplays and scripts can be
downloaded from the internet.) You can
assign them for extensive reading and/or
extensive viewing practice in class or for
homework. If you want to show all or

part of a film in class, it might be best to
use older films, where there are usually
no copyright issues with public showings
or copying for classroom use.
DVDs and BDs often include
multilingual subtitles and closedcaptioning for the hearing-impaired.
These features allow you to play the film
with subtitles in the students first
language, or English, or no subtitles at
all. The language features of the disc
can then be used to complement the
texts of the screenplay books.
If you assign the screenplays as books
to be read and/or the films to be viewed
for language study, it is best to reinforce
study and evaluate learning with quizzes
and tests of the key vocabulary. These
might consist of a number of multiplechoice questions, with key vocabulary
from the screenplay book serving as both
answers and distractors. The vocabulary
of many popular American and British
films correlates very well with word lists
of the most frequent vocabulary of
English, the most frequent words in
language tests, etc.
Listening cloze
One of the most common types of
language practice used in conjunction
with film is the listening cloze. In Japan,
this is quite a popular type of task now,
but it is being overused with materials
that are not very well constructed. For
one thing, typically far too many words
are blanked out and the selected passages
are far too long, making the task too
difficult. Secondly, repetition of such
tasks often becomes boring for students
(and teachers!).
To avoid these traps, choose a one- or
two-page section of the screenplay and
blank out words and phrases for practice.
These can be deleted at random, every
nth word (eg every seventh or tenth
word). Do not blank out any items in the
first or last sentences of the text. To make
the task easier for absolute beginners,
why not consider every 15th word?
Alternatively, the blanked-out items can
be deliberately chosen, according to
something you wish to focus on:
important content words, hard-to-hear
particles, phrasal verbs, grammar items,
definite and indefinite articles, etc.
Make copies of the text with the
items deleted. Play the video, or just its
soundtrack, while the students listen
and complete the text. I usually play the
audio track three times: the first time,
the students listen and try to fill in the

blanks; the second time, they listen and
check their answers; and the third time, I
write the answers on the board, pausing
frequently between the questions.
Small-group discussion
One way to keep video interesting is to
move away from narrow intensive
listening and word-study tasks and more
towards extensive listening and discussion.
A number of documentaries that are of
interest in language classrooms are widely
available on DVD and BD, or can be
downloaded from the internet. These
tend to fall into two types: those that are
typically about some aspect of American
culture (eg Bowling for Columbine, Sicko,
Supersize Me and Bigger, Faster, Stronger,
etc); and those about current events and
global issues (eg An Inconvenient Truth,
Inside Job, Food, Inc., King Corn or Flow:
For Love of Water, etc). In Japan, many
such titles are available in Japanese
(multilingual) editions and they often
include additional useful material, such as
interviews with the films director. Careful,
guided, structured in-class viewing of
such films lends itself well to smallgroup discussions on global issues and
on cross-cultural understanding.
Graphic organisers
A simple framework for helping students
to make more of the general learning as
well as the language learning opportunities
that such films provide is to use graphic
organisers. You can follow these steps to
produce a graphic organiser on the topic
and theme of a film:
1 In pairs or small groups, the students
discuss a short set of questions related

to the topic and theme of the film. The
ones in the box below are for the
documentary King Corn.
1 What are cereal grains?
Can you name some?
2 What is the most widely-grown
cereal grain in the world?
3 What is the most important staple
grain for human consumption:
corn/maize, wheat or rice?
4 What is the most important staple
grain for animal feed:
corn/maize, oats or barley?
2 The students create a simple semantic
map related to the topic and theme of

the film, first as individuals, pairs or
small groups, and then as an entire class,
corn / maize
food
human
animal (feed)
starch
dog food
high-fructose
cat food
corn syrup
cattle feed
HFCS
tortilla
polenta
cereal, eg cornflakes
popcorn
creating a map on the board that shares

information from everyone.
3 As a class, you watch all or part of the
film and add to the whole-class map on

the board. The students can also copy
the map onto their own worksheets.
Repeat this until the whole film has been
watched. The semantic map above is an
example for the film King Corn.
A good follow-up activity is to have the
students use their graphic organisers to
help them write paragraphs or short essays
on some aspect of the topic and theme
of the film. For example, if they have
watched a film about the worlds water
crisis, they could write something about
how they might reduce water consumption
at home or on campus. If they have seen
a film about our food supply, they could
write responses to questions such as
Would you eat genetically modified (GM)
foods? Should GM foods be labelled? Are
GM foods safe? etc.
Writing
Students are often asked to write short
essays reviewing a film that they have
seen. This is good practice for the short
essays required by some language exams,
and it is also a good introduction to
writing about literature, since many of
the same elements (eg character,
character development, plot, theme,
climax, etc) have to be discussed. If the
students are beginners or have never
written a film review before, the teacher
might need to provide considerable
support to get them started and prevent
them from becoming frustrated. For
example, the teacher could break the
exercise down into a series of smaller
tasks, building up to writing the review.
It is also helpful to choose a film
with literary qualities, which does not
necessarily mean an art film. For
other
fuel
biodiesel
ethanol
plastic
example, To Kill a Mockingbird is a

classic film that adapts and dramatises
much of the classic novel of the same
name, but it is very much a conventional
Hollywood film of the 1960s in terms of
its construction.
Let us look at how such a sequence
of smaller tasks might be used to help
more students succeed.
Task 1 requires the students to watch a
sufficiently long part of the film and

then list the major characters, using the
conventions of the movie review (ie the
characters name and then the actors
name in parentheses after it). This can
be done as individuals, pairs or small
groups, and then as a whole-class
exercise to make sure everyone has a
complete and correct list.
Task 2 continues with work on the
characters, but in this task the students

are asked to describe and analyse each
character. They are given a worksheet
for each character. They write the
characters (and actors) name at the top
and then answer these questions:
What does the character look and
sound like?
What does the character say, think
and feel?
How does the character change by the
end of the film?
This last question requires the students
to watch the film to the end at least once.
One idea is to have the students work
individually, in pairs or small groups,
completing a worksheet for each major
character. Alternatively, groups of
students could each be assigned a different
character and they could then share their
results (with enough photocopies of each
completed worksheet so that all the
students can have completed worksheets
on all the characters).
55
Making the most

of film
Task 3 (see the worksheet below) is the
last preparation task and gets the

students ready to write their film review.
A typical film review includes a plot
synopsis that is sufficient in depth and
length to explain to someone who has
not seen the film what the problem of
the film is. This Plot summary
worksheet asks the students to list the
following elements: the key events, the
key events that comprise the rising
action, the key events that comprise the
climax, the key events that are the
falling action leading to the conclusion,
and finally the key events of the films
conclusion. If more space is needed for
notes, the students can continue on the
back of the worksheet. Another way

would be to make handouts that
concentrate on each element of the plot
separately.
Task 4 requires the students to use their
notes and their knowledge and

experience of the film that they got from
viewing it in order to write a short review.
Typically, the review will be between five
and ten paragraphs long, will inform
readers about the main characters (and
the actors who play them), provide a plot
summary related to the theme or problem
of the film, and explain what the author
thinks of the film (good or bad), usually
by answering a question like: Should the
reader see this film, too? Why or why not?
for language and cultural study more

convenient and versatile than ever
before. This article has only touched
upon the many possibilities for using
film and video in the ELT classroom.
However, teachers should consider
expanding the use of video beyond
narrow, intensive listening practice and
language study: especially if course
structure and institutional constraints
as well as the needs and interests of
students allow for it.
Recent technological developments

make the use of film and video content
Charles Jannuzi has

taught English in Japan
since 1989 and at the
University of Fukui since
1994. He is now editing
an e-book on ELT in
Japan. He spends much
of his free time with
20 cats and publishes
several blogs, including
www.eltinjapan.com.
jannuzi@gmail.com
Plot summary worksheet

2
RISING ACTION
CLIMAX
1 ................................................................
................................................................................................
2 ................................................................
................................................................................................
3 ................................................................
................................................................................................
4 ................................................................
KEY EVENTS
FALLING ACTION
1 ..........................................................................................
1 ..........................................................................................
2 ..........................................................................................
2 ..........................................................................................
3 ..........................................................................................
3 ..........................................................................................
4 ..........................................................................................
4 ..........................................................................................
5 ..........................................................................................
5 ..........................................................................................
6 ..........................................................................................
7 ..........................................................................................
RESOLUTION
8 ..........................................................................................
.................................................................................................
9 ..........................................................................................
.................................................................................................
10 ..........................................................................................
.................................................................................................
11 ..........................................................................................
.................................................................................................
12 ..........................................................................................
.................................................................................................
TECHNOLOGY
In this series, Nicky Hockly
Five things you always wanted

to know about
social
bookmarking
explains aspects of technology
(but were too afraid to ask)
bookmarking.
Social bookmarking? Ive never

heard of it!
Youve probably heard of bookmarking

in other words, saving web pages to the
Favourites folder in your browser. This is
something youve no doubt been doing for
years. And if so, you know the frustrating
feeling of trying to remember in which
Favourites folder you saved a particular
web page. You may have experienced that
panicky feeling ten minutes before a lesson
of trying to find the fantastic phrasal verbs
online quiz web page that you bookmarked
in your browser last year. Only, now, you
cant remember if you saved it in your
Great activities folder, your Intermediate
students folder, your Grammar folder, or
any other of a number of Favourites
folders! And then you remember that you
saved it on your computer at home, rather
than your work computer, and the class
now starts in two minutes ...
I know that feeling well. How

can social bookmarking help?
Social bookmarking is essentially a

web-based Favourites page. So instead
of storing your favourite websites in the
browser of one computer, you save them
to a web page. And this means you can
access that Favourites web page from
any computer or electronic device your
home computer, your laptop, your work
computer, your mobile device ... To be
fair, you can also do this these days with
some browsers. For example, with Firefox
and Chrome you can choose to sync
(synchronise) your bookmarks across
your devices.
So why social bookmarking,

then?
Well, there is a social component to social

bookmarking. You access your own
favourites online from any computer or
device, and with social bookmarking tools

you can share your bookmarked websites
with others, and even have others leave
comments on your bookmarks. You can
choose to follow other peoples
bookmarks, and to make your own
bookmarks public for others to see and
follow. But you also have the option of
making a bookmark private, if you prefer.
In addition, rather than only being able to
save bookmarks individually or in folders
in a browser, with a social bookmarking
tool you can add several tags (keywords
or labels) to your bookmarks.
Lets go back to our phrasal verbs online
quiz web page example from earlier. If I
save the page in a social bookmarking
tool, I can add a short paragraph
reminding myself why I like this page or
how I plan to use it with my students,
and I can also add tags such as quiz,
intermediate, phrasal verbs, fun
activity, etc. So a year later, when I try
to remember how I filed the site,
remembering any one of these tags and
typing it into the search box on my social
bookmarking page will bring up that
resource. This is rather like being able to
file a single resource in many different
places at the same time.
How do I set up my own social

bookmarking account?
There are a number of social bookmarking

tools available. Perhaps the two best
known are Diigo (www.diigo.com) and
Delicious (https://delicious.com) both
are free at present. For each of these
sites, you need to set up a user account.
Both Diigo and Delicious have mobile
apps, so you can easily use them via a
mobile device. You can also add a button
to your browser toolbar which makes it
easy to bookmark pages directly from
your browser with just one click.
which some people may be

embarrassed to confess that
they dont really understand.
In this article, she explains
how and why to use social
Is this just a tool for teachers,

or could students use social
bookmarking, too?
There are a number of ways to use social

bookmarking tools with classes here are
just a few ideas:
Save useful resources for a

particular class with a special tag
(eg FCE2014, intermediate4 or
teens3) so that you can easily
retrieve them or so that your
students can browse them.
Ask your students to open their

own social bookmarking
accounts, and to save resources
for a class project with a special
tag.
Ask your students to choose a

topic they are especially
interested in (eg rap music or
World Cup football), and to
explore the resources saved by
others with that tag.
Finally, if youd like to find out more about

social bookmarking, you can take a look
at my own Delicious account. Youll find
plenty of resources to explore:
https://delicious.com/nickyhockly.
Enjoy!
Nicky Hockly is
Director of Pedagogy of
The Consultants-E, an
online teacher training and
development consultancy.
Her most recent books are
Digital Literacies (Routledge),
an e-book: Webinars: A
Cookbook for Educators
(the-round.com), and Going
Mobile (Delta Publishing), a
book on mobile learning.
She maintains a blog at
www.emoderationskills.com.
nicky.hockly@theconsultants-e.com
57
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and ideas on common teaching and classroom issues.
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Ways to help with classroom management
Suggestions for lesson topics
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Content includes:
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Buy now go to www.etprofessional.com

Email: info@etprofessional
Call our orders hotline: +44 (0)1273 434 943
Webwatcher
R
arely in my Webwatcher articles have I suggested

spending money on software. With so many good free
tools on the market (eg Blogger, Edmodo and Jing), there
is little need to spend money. However, the tool I am going to
suggest in this article is worth the money and can open up a
whole range of possibilities to you.
SnagIt image capture

SnagIt has been around for years. It is essentially a screencapture device that allows you to capture anything on your
screen as an image. However, it does much more than that. For
example it can capture everything on a whole page, even the part
you have to scroll to see. In other words, you can make an image
of a whole web page, even though part of that web page may not
be visible on the screen when you capture it. The image-capture
facility integrates very well with Word and PowerPoint, so screen
captures can be immediately brought into documents with
literally just a click of a button. You will see the buttons at the top
of the screen. This facility allows teachers to make worksheets
and handouts to a really professional standard.
SnagIt video capture

The video capture in SnagIt is superb. It allows a teacher to mark
any area of the screen, turn on the video capture (often called
screencasting) and then create a video. So, for example, if you
wanted to highlight an interesting website that your students
could use to study on their own, you could open up the site, turn
on the screen capture and then record yourself showing the
students the site, opening up different pages and commenting on
them. All of this could then be saved as a video and distributed
to the students.
SnagIt offers all types of distribution. Your video can be saved
onto your computer so that you have a hard copy of it, or it can
be uploaded directly onto YouTube. The YouTube integration is
superb. If you have a Google account, you will automatically
have a YouTube account. You just add in your name and
password and the videos are automatically uploaded. You can
then share the link with your students, emailing it or adding it into
Moodle or Edmodo or any central location where the students
can access it.
YouTube videos can also be embedded, so you can take the
YouTube video from your channel (the homepage of your
account) and embed it into a blog, a wiki, Moodle, etc. The big
advantage in using the YouTube integration is that you have
plenty of space, so you can add lots of videos. If your students
have SnagIt on at least some of their computers, they too can
make screencasts and image captures, and these could all be
saved on the same YouTube channel.
Russell Stannard invests

in a useful screencapture tool.
The flipped classroom

The world of education took a long time to see the merits of
screencasting. A very good example of its use is in the flipped
classroom. Many teachers are now recording presentations and
putting them online so that their students can access the
learning input at home and then making greater use of lesson
time for focus on the coursework and other tasks. SnagIt is ideal
for this as the idea is that these presentations are short, directly to
the point and easily accessible. It would be simple for a teacher
to screencast a whole series of presentations, share them on
YouTube and then use them in a flipped classroom scenario
where the students can access the learning material at home.
I have done a large number of experiments with screencasting.
As a teacher, I have used it to provide feedback for my students
by opening their work on my screen and then recording myself
correcting their work before sending them the video. I have also
used it to explain the marking scheme of the PET and FCE
exams, especially for the oral component. I simply open up the
marking scheme onto my screen, turn on the screen capture tool
and then talk through the various stages of the oral exam,
explaining what the examiners are looking for. I can then send
the resulting video to my students. They can play it and refer to it
as much as they want.
Many of you will know Jing. Jing is free and a great way to get
into screencasting, but it does not allow you to download the
videos in a format that most students will be able to view. So you
are always limited to putting the videos on YouTube. It does not
have the simple integration of SnagIt, either, or the ability to edit
and cut parts from the video. I really think the 20 cost of SnagIt
(for the educational version) is something worth considering. Of
course, better still, suggest it to your director of studies or the
owner of your institution. I think it is a superb tool that can
provide teachers with a huge number of options. If you can get
copies for your students by getting a multiuser licence, then that
would be even better. You can also try it out by downloading it
for free for 15 days.
Help with using SnagIt can be found at:
www.techsmith.com/tutorial-snagit-current.html
You can get the educational version free 15-day
download at:
www.techsmith.com/snagit.html
Russell Stannard is the founder of
www.teachertrainingvideos.com,
which won a British Council
ELTons award for technology. He
is a freelance teacher and writer
and also a NILE Associate Trainer.
Keep sending your favourite sites to Russell:

russellstannard@btinternet.com
59
PICTURE PUZZLE
Find the message

hidden in the photos.
Hint: photos that are joined

together are part of the same
word; complete words are
separated by a space.
Can you puzzle it out?
The answer is on page 10.
(This idea is taken from The Independent
newspapers Get the picture column.)
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Understand what adaptive learning is

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Chaired by Philip Kerr, this event will give you everything you
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Speakers include:
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Issue 96

The Leading Practical Magazine For English Language Teachers Worldwide

The uniqueness of gameplay

Cat got your tongue?

Map your career

Truly adult and

THE UNIQUENESS OF GAMEPLAY

Jason Anderson believes games make

Simon Dunton accepts that there is always

SUGGESTIONS FROM THE STAFFROOM 6

Sasha Wajnryb gets language learning tips from teachers

Phillip Brown concocts some creative comparisons

TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS

Devin Unwin brings new characters to the classroom

Tim Richardson meets a collaborative challenge

A TREE OF THE PAST

Anna Kamont demonstrates how past tenses

ALL THE WORLDS A CLASSROOM

Mark Hancock proposes purrfect pronunciation

FAIL: FIRST ATTEMPT IN LEARNING

MAP YOUR CAREER

Emily Edwards looks at the options open to teachers

Anna Hasper helps learners learn to love their mistakes

OVER THE WALL

Dave Briggs gives a CLIL demonstration lesson

Alberto Fornasier finds British culture fascinating

CAT GOT YOUR TONGUE?

MAKING THE MOST OF FILM

Charles Jannuzi views some video resources

Alan Maley chooses books on computers

FIVE THINGS YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO

Nicky Hockly shows how to find things quickly and easily

AUDIENCE AND PURPOSE

Donna Scarlett recruits Weird Al to inspire

Paul Bress clarifies how to make yourself clear

Tamzin Berridge asks her students to articulate

ENGLISH TEACHING CONFESSIONAL

www.etprofessional.com ENGLISH TEACHING professional Issue 96 January 2015

his issue of ETp is all about different perspectives.

In our main feature, Jason Anderson examines the meaning of

Phillip Brown shows his students the importance of correct

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

Fax: +44 (0)1273 227308

Cover photo: Zadas_Photography / iStock / Thinkstock

Editor: Helena Gomm

Published by: Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd,

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2015, Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd

Designer: Christine Cox

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Subscriptions: Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd,

Publisher: Fiona Richmond

Numro de Commission Paritaire: 1004 U 82181.

2 Issue 96 January 2015 ENGLISH TEACHING professional www.etprofessional.com

Applying through Erasmus? Use the

4 Issue 96 January 2015 ENGLISH TEACHING professional www.etprofessional.com

In-game language use

Around-game language use

To win the game or play well

2 The lesson event

To (be able to) play the game

gameplay. Interestingly, around-game

learning resource, this is a wasted

Games versus tasks