C Teaching language and language skills

44 Introducing new language 1

 Many teachers use a procedure called PPP (PRESENTATION, PRACTICE

AND PRODUCTION) to introduce simple language at ELEMENTARY and
INTERMEDIATE levels:
 Form(the construction)
 Meaning and Use
 Practice
 Finally, when they have become familiar with the new language, we ask them to
produce their own sentences or phrases using what they have just learnt.

45 Introducing new language 2

WAYS OF INTRODUCING NEW LANGUAGE:
1. SITUATIONS
2. STORIES
3. DIALOGUES
4. TEXTS
5. PICTURES
6. OBJECTS
7. MIME
8. GESTURES
9. MOVEMENT

Alternatives to introducing new language:

 We can put the students in situations where they have to use language - and then,
later, teach them the language they couldn't manage, or which they used
incorrectly. Some people call this procedure TEST-TEACH-TEST. It has the
advantage of making the students need to use the new language, and so it helps
them to see what they need to learn.
 In TASK-BASED LEARNING (TBL) we ask students to perform TASKS
rather than just learn new grammar and vocabulary, and perhaps we only deal
with language they had difficulty with after the task is over.
46 Researching new language
Many students often learn and remember new language well if they have to do some work to get
it - for example, if they themselves have to go and look for it in DISCOVERY ACTIVITIES,
and use their intelligence to understand (with the teacher's help, of course)

Looking for information (research):

 We can get the students to find out information by themselves by searching
DICTIONARIES and GRAMMAR books. They can also search language CORPORA or
use INTERNET.
 It is often a good .
 idea to give research tasks as follow-ups to CORRECTION.
Puzzling it out
 We can give our students puzzle-like activities to get them thinking.
Mining texts
 All TEXTS, whether written or spoken, are goldmines full of language.
 For instance, we can ask them to identify the different PAST TENSES in a story; we can
ask them to find any two or more ADJECTIVE combinations in a text and say what order
they are in; we can ask them to listen to a conversation and say how the people feel, also
get them to identify how they know this (INTONATION), etc

48 Practicing new language 1

Controlled practice:
 Sentence activities;
 Dictation;
 Dictogloss;
 Matching activities.

SENTENCE ACTIVITIES
1. Sentence completion
2. Sentence pictures
 DICTATION:
- We can use a RUNNING DICTATION. The students are in groups. They each send
representatives to the front of the class to read a text, line by line, and take the lines back to the
group and dictate them. Who can finish first? This is especially effective with short poems
-We can do a SHOUTED DICTATION. The students shout a sentence or paragraph to a partner
(the other students are all doing the same). It is noisy, but fun (and good for listening practice)
DICTOGLOSS
 Dictogloss is not quite a dictation as the students don't write down eve1y word.
 The students hear a short text. The text is written to illustrate a particular language
item(s).
 The students try to understand what they hear (they can make notes, but they don't write
down everything). They then try to reproduce it as accurately as possible.
 The students compare their text with the original. They see the difference between what
they have written and what was in the original. This helps them to focus on the language
in the original

MATCHING ACTIVITIES
 We can get students to match lists and cards to practice questions and answers, phrases
and sentences.

49 Practicing new language 2

CONTROLLED PRACTICE ACTIVITIES are different from more COMMUNICATIVE
SPEAKING ACTIVITIES because we want the students to use specific language
ACCURATELY, rather than trying to use any or all of the language that they can.
 Story chains;
 Interviewing each other;
 Quizzes;
 Games

50 PRACTISING NEW LANGUAGE 3

1. Information-gap activities
An information gap is created when two (or more) students have different bits of information.
They have to share these pieces of information if they want to understand the whole thing- a bit
like the way in which different jigsaw pieces make a whole picture.
2. Describe and draw
In DESCRIBE AND DRAW activities, Student A describes a PICTURE to a partner, Student B.
Student B cannot see the picture, but has to try to draw it as exactly as possible from Student N.s
description.
 3. Finding similarities, finding differences
Student A and Student B have different pictures. They have to ask each other questions like
What color is the woman's hat in your picture? or What is the woman wearing on her feet in
your picture? in order to find either what is similar about them or what is different.

51. Teaching speaking 1

The reasons for speaking activities:

We want to get our students to speak so that they have to retrieve and use the language
that they know. RETRIEVAL AND USE is one of the ways in which students are helped
to remember language.
In genuinely COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING ACTIVITIES we want to give the
students a real desire to speak and a communicative purpose for doing so.
Speaking activities give tl1e teacher and the students a good idea of how well eve1yone
is doing.

Building the speaking habit

1. We can DICTATE sentences to the class, such as 'One of the most beautiful things I have
ever seen is ... '. The students have to complete the sentence with a word or phrase. They
then read their sentences out.\
2. We can write topics on pieces of paper and put them in a hat or bowl. The students take
turns to pick out a piece of paper and have to say at least one sentence (instantly) about
the topic they have chosen.
3. The students have to talk about a topic..
4. We can choose two or three students. They have to construct an instant 'letter' to a writer,
thinker, artist, musician or celebrity of their choice.

Interviews
We can use INTERVIEWS to practice specific language items, but we can also use them for
more commmucative speaking activities.

52 Teaching speaking 2
1. Discussions
buzz groups
 At almost any stage we can put the students into BUZZ GROUPS, where they can
quickly discuss anything from what they are going to read about to what they want to
do next.
prompt cards
We can give the students PROMPT CARDS, each with a point of view a bout a topic.
formal debate
We can decide on a motion (an idea, a proposition) for a debate, such as Women have
better lives than men (or the other way round). We divide the class into two groups,
one for the motion, one against. Each group has to prepare arguments for their
position and think of three questions for the other side. Each group then chooses
someone to speak first and someone to speak second. The others (from both groups)
are the audience. The debate sequence is Team A speaker 1 followed by Team B
speaker 1. Then the audience can speak and ask questions. Then Team B speaker 2
makes concluding remarks and Team A speaker 2 makes concluding remarks. The
audience votes. Who won the debate?

2. Reaching a consensus
 We can give the students a situation and options about what they could do;
 We can guide the conversation by giving each student a ROLE-CARD , telling
them which option they should argue for;

3. The teacher's roles in speaking activities

1. PROMPTER: pushing students forward, suggesting things they might say next, and
helping them out of difficulties.
2. PARTICIPANT: take part in the activity;
3. At the end of a speaking activity we need to give FEEDBACK, showing not only
what errors may or may not have occurred, but also (perhaps more importantly)
telling the students what was successful, and conunenting on the content of the
speaking activity

Turn-taking ·
We can help our students to be good at TURN-TAKING (knowing when we can speak in
conversations). We can teach them expressions such as:
Could I just say something here?
You may have a point, but on the other hand .. .
I'd like to say something if you don't mind.
Before you go on, I'd just like to say ... etc.
53 Teaching speaking 3

Telling stories:
- it encourages the students to use a lot of language;
- we tell stories all the time in real life.
-We can give the students pictures of any four items and ask them to work out a story which
connects them.
-We can show the class a FILM CLIP from YouTube or Vimeo and stop it half way through. The
students have to imagine what happens next. "'when they have made their suggestions to the
class, we show them the whole video to see if they were right.

Making oral presentations:

 We can give the students topics to choose from and questions to guide their presentations.
 We can encourage the students to use PRESENTATION SOFTWARE and the
INTERNET to back up their presentations.
 We can show the students model presentations and discuss how to introduce and develop
a topic.
 We can ask the students to write at least two follow-up questions as they listen to each
poster presentation.
 We can choose students to summarize the presentations they have heard.

Simulation
In SIMULATIONS, we give the students a chance to rehearse real-life encounters. For example,
we can move the classroom furniture so that we represent a station office with a ticket window.
The students simulate an exchange between a passenger and a travel clerk.

Roleplay
In ROLEPLAY simulations, the students are given a role.

54 Teaching reading1
We all need to be able to read in our own language, whether from books, documents, computers,
mobile devices, signs or billboards.
Reading:
1. EXTENSIVE READING
2. INTENSIVE READING

EXTENSIVE READING:
 pleasure or information that interests them;
 give students time to read in lessons - say ten or 15 minutes a week;
 read at an appropriate level;
 can ask our students to tell other students about what they have been reading;
 fill in WORKSHEETS with language exercises based on a book.
INTENSIVE READING:
 look at a short reading text and do various exercises based on it;
 help students with TOP-DOWN PROCESSING (getting a general idea of meaning) and
BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING (understanding individual words, phrases and text
construction).
 Intensive reading is often used to train students in different reading skills, such as
READING FOR GIST (getting the general meaning from a text) or READING FOR
SPECIFIC INFORMATION (looking for particular things, such as the times of a film at
a cinema, rather than trying to get the general picture).
 Reading for gist is sometimes called SKIMMING. We often ask students to read a text
quickly (skimming over its surface) and get the main idea(s) first, before we ask them to
read for more detailed information.
 Reading for specific information is sometimes called SCANNING - because the eye is
searching around just for the special information that we want - a bit like a computer
scanning for only the information it needs.

55 TEACHING READING2

What texts should we give students for intensive reading?

appropriate for their level;
variety of topics;
variety of genres.

What to do before students read a text

It helps if we give the students a chance to think about what they are going to read. That's why
we give them PREDICTION activities so that they are thinking about the topic and getting their
brains ready for reading with the knowledge they have about the genre or the topic of the text.
 We can tell the students what the topic of the text is and ask them to guess what they will
find in it.
 We can tell the students what the text is going to be about and ask them to fill in a
CHART( things they know; things they think they know; things they would like to know
etc.)
 We can also get them to write their own questions about the text.
 We can show the students any PICTURES which accompany the text (or headlines,
captions, etc.) and get them to guess what will be in the text.
 We can give the students words or phrases from the text and ask them to gues what the
text is about.

56 Teaching reading 3
When the students have read a text for the first time (for general comprehension), we often
ask them to read it again and look for more (detailed) information:
-absorb more information and language;
-understand what they have read.

Follow-up tasks
When the students have read a text and done the exercises that go with it, we will often want
them to do some kind of FOLLOW-UP TASK, using the topic of the text or exploiting some of
the language in it.
 At the INTERMEDIATE level (or above) students can discuss any issues that were in the
text. They can get into groups to decide whether they agree or disagree with what the text
said. We can use the text as preparation for a FORMAL DEBATE;
 Students can ROLEPLAY a situation leading from the text. For example, if the text is
about a neighbours' argument (see above), they can roleplay a police INTERVIEW or a
TV or radio interview about what happened.
 The students can do more research (in the library or on the INTERNET) about the topic
of the text.
 We can use the content of the text as the springboard for some new language presentation

EXERCICES
44 Introducing new language 1
Revise

1 Number the teaching and learning stages A–G in order (1–7) to make a PPP sequence.
A The students make sentences of their own using the language they have been learning.
B The students repeat the teacher model in chorus.
C The students repeat the teacher model individually.
D The teacher chooses individual students and suggests which of the sentences they have
previously repeated they should now say.
E The teacher introduces a situation using pictures.
F The teacher models more sentences and the students repeat them.
G The teacher models sentences.
A7B3C4D6E1F5G2
Research
2 Look at a unit from a coursebook for teaching English and find two
sections that teach language.
1 What language is each section introducing?
2 What procedure do the sections follow: PPP or something else?
3 If you find a PPP sequence, identify the presentation, practice and production stages of the
sequence.

Reflect
3 Think about the following questions.
1 When would you use a PPP sequence to introduce language?
I would use PPP sequence to introduce language because PPP is especially useful for the
language that students study at lower levels. The use of situations which the students can
understand, and sentences with simple language which the students have a good chance of
repeating successfully make PPP very useful here. At more advanced levels, however, we can
ask students to look for examples of the language we want them to study and then
discuss/analyse them because students will be able to understand what we are saying.
45 Introducing new language 2
Revise
1 For questions 1–8, match the descriptions with the terms we use for them A–J. There is one
extra option that you do not need to use. AK
A Dialogues
B Lexical approach
C Mime
D Situation
E Stories
F Task-based learning
G Test-teach-test
H Texts
I Total Physical Response

1 We can act out words and situations without using any words.-MIME
2 We can get students to do things, and they learn by finding or being given by us the language
they need to do these things.-TASK-BASED LEARNING
3 We can give instructions that the students have to obey by standing up, sitting down, etc. and
then they can give instructions to their classmates.-TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE
4 We can show students examples of two people talking to each other and get the students to
learn the things they are saying.-DIALOGUES
5 We can show students what is happening/happened (with pictures, a story or a description) and
get students to use language about it.-SITUATION
6 We can use true or imaginary events to contextualise language.-STORIES
7 We focus more on teaching words and phrases than on teaching grammar.-LEXICAL
APPROACH
8 We give students a chance to use the language first and then we teach them what they had
difficulty with before they use the language again.-TEST-TEACH-TEST

Reflect
 1 If we use Total Physical Response, what kind of instructions might be appropriate for (a)
beginners, or (b) intermediate students? How appropriate is TPR for children and for
adults?
When we use TPR with beginner students we can start with simple instructions such as Go to the
door, Give your book to the person behind you, etc. When students are at a higher level we can
ask them to do things such as Show me how you would react if you saw a snake in your
bathroom, etc. When we use TPR with children we often play games like ‘Simon says’ where
teachers only respond to instructions if we say Simon says stand up, etc.
46 Researching language
Revise
1 For questions 1–8, complete the sentences with words and phrases from the box. AK
accidental meetings computer search engines dictionaries discovery puzzles
grammar book language corpora mine texts research tasks
1 People can look for a lot of things with computer search engines such as Google, and we can
use them to search for the way that language works too.
2 Students can look at language corpora on their computers to see how a word behaves in
sentences and phrases.
3 We can ask students to mime texts by finding examples of interesting language in them.
4 We can give research tasks as an alternative to correction (i.e. we can tell them to look up the
language they have tried to use in a grammar book or dictionary).
5 We can give students discovery puzzles where we offer them examples of language and ask
them to work out what the rules are for using that language.
6 We can ask students to look up words in dictionaries to see what other words or phrases they
collocate with.
7 When students are unsure how language works, they can consult a grammar book to check on
things like rules and syntax.
8 When students have had accidental meetings with language they do not know or understand,
they can bring the language to class for discussion.

Reflect
 2 As a language learner yourself, which do you/would you prefer: having rules explained to
you (with examples), or looking at language and trying to work out the rules for yourself
(with the teacher’s help, of course). What are the reasons for your choice?

Many students prefer to have things explained to them rather than try to discover rules for
themselves. This is usually because this is what they are accustomed to. You may be the
same! However, discovery activities make students think and this is good for them. If
students are helped by the teacher to work in this way, many of them get to like it and
feel comfortable with it.

47 Repetition and drilling

Revise
1 For questions 1–7, match the classroom extracts with the terms A–G.

A Back chaining
B Choral repetition
C Cue-reponse drill
D Half chorus
E Individual repetition
F Nomination
G Question and answer cue-response drill

1 T: He was having a bath ... Henry.

S: He was having a bath.
2 T: Question ... time ... Clare.
S: What’s the time?
T: Answer ... Daniel.
S: Six o’clock.
3 T: (holds up a flashcard with a picture of someone playing football) ... Maria.
S: She’s playing football.
4 T: He was having a bath ... everybody.
SSS: He was having a bath.
5 T: Earlier
SSS: Earlier.
T: Come earlier.
SSS: Come earlier.
T: I’d have come earlier.
SSS: I’d have come earlier.
T: Known, I’d have come earlier.
SSS: Known, I’d have come earlier.
T: I’d known, I’d have come earlier.
SSS: I’d known, I’d have come earlier.
T: If I’d known, I’d have come earlier.
SSS: If I’d known, I’d have come earlier.
6 T: OK, everyone on this side is John, and everyone on the other side is Mary. So
let’s start the dialogue.
7 T: Who’s going to answer this time. Er ... Tomoko?

1E2G3C4B5A6D7F

Reflect
3 When are repetition and drilling useful – in terms of level, language, etc.?
As a learner would you enjoy repeating in chorus? Would it be different if you were (a) young or
old, (b) a beginner or more advanced, (c) in a large class or a small class?
Choral repetition is very useful to help students in a group ‘get their tongues around’ a new
structure. It is enjoyable and helps them to learn stress patterns etc. and to say things successfully
without being exposed individually. It is very good for re-focusing students’ attention too.
However, it is probably less appropriate the higher the students’ level is. At higher levels,
teachers tend to only get choral repetition of occasional words that need special pronunciation
practice. It is also extremely difficult to get efficient choral repetition of long sentences.
48 Practising new language 1
Revise
1 For questions 1–6, match the teacher’s instructions with the activities students are being asked
to do A–G. There is one extra option that you do not need to use.
A Dictation
B Dictogloss
C Information-gap activity
D Matching activity
E Sentence pictures
F Running dictation
G Shouted dictation
1 ‘Each group ... send one person to the front. They should read the first line of the text and then
go back to their group. They tell the group the sentence and the group have to write it down.
Now each group sends a new student to the front ...’=RUNNING DICTATION
2 ‘I’m going to read you a short paragraph. Don’t try and write down what I say. Later you can
try and re-construct the paragraph.’=DICTOGLOSS
3 ‘I want you to look at this for 45 seconds ... OK, now write sentences about what you saw.
How much can you remember?’=SENTENCE PICTURES
4 ‘I’m going to read something and you must write down exactly what I say.’=DICTATION
5 ‘I want you to join the half-sentences in column A with their correct endings in column
B.’=MATCHING ACTIVITY
6 ‘OK ... so try and hear what the person on the other side of the room is saying and write it
down. Only listen to that one student – not to all the others!’=SHOUTED DICTATION

Reflect
3 Did you teachers make you do dictations when you were at school? If they did, think about the
following questions.
1 What was the purpose of the activity?
Dictation has advantages such as: involve many skills and competencies, such as pronunciation,
punctuation, note-taking and spelling. It can be interactive and collaborative
2 Did you enjoy it?
3 How useful was it for what it was supposed to do?
How do you feel about using dictation for teaching English?
All in all, dictation is a useful and flexible activity. You can use it to introduce a new structure,
to present the first paragraph of a text, to revise an area of vocabulary, to provide a summary of a
reading or listening exercise and to provide practice in different areas of grammar.

49 Practising new language 2

Revise
1 For questions 1–7, match the descriptions with the activities A–G. AK
A Backs to the board
B Charades
C Class quiz
D Find someone who
E Sentence stems
F Story chain
G Twenty questions

1 One student makes a sentence. Another student adds his or her own sentence to the first
sentence. A third student adds a third sentence to the first two. A fourth student ... etc.=STORY
CHAIN
2 Students walk around the room (they mingle) asking each other questions so that they can fill
in charts with the names of people who answer yes.=FIND SOMEONE WHO
3 The group can see a word, but one student cannot. The group has to give the student
information so that he/she can guess what the word is.=BACK TO THE BOARD
4 Students have to complete statements about themselves. Their classmates ask them about their
statements.=SENTENCE STEMS
5 Students ask each other questions about a topic or topics. They compete against each other to
see who can get the most correct answers.=CLASS QUIZ
6 This is based on yes/no questions – the person who guesses the answer with the fewest
questions is the winner.=TWENTY QUESTIONS
 3 A student acts out the title of a book, film, TV programme, etc. without using any words.
That student’s team has to guess what the title is.=CHARADES

Reflect
3 What is your opinion about using games in language learning classrooms as (a) a teacher, and
(b) a learner? What is the relationship between the students’ age and the appropriacy of using
games?
As with any other class activity, games will satisfy some students, but not all. Some students do
not particularly like games (though most probably do!). Our job, as teachers, is to ‘keep our eyes
open’ and not overuse games if/when we see that some students do not enjoy them. The same is
true when we consider the students’ age. Most children like games whereas some adults find
them too childish. However this is not always the case, and if we choose the right kind of game
(perhaps modelled on a popular TV or radio show) adults can have a good time. But even then
we have to be aware of the students who are not enthusiastic game players.

50 Practising new language 3

Revise
1 For questions 1–14, complete the text with words and phrases from the box. You will have to
use one phrase twice.
bits ; chart ; communicate ;describe and draw; draw ; extracts; jigsaw reading
find the differences ;information-gap activity; pairs; piece of paper ;share; show
We use information-gap activities because they encourage students to
(1) Communicate with each other – they give students a reason to talk. The basic
idea of an (2) information-gap activity is that two (or more) students have different
(3) bits of information. In order to complete the task, students have to
(4) share their bits of information. In this way they can complete a
(5) chart or build up the complete picture.
One of the most popular types of information-gap activity is (6) jigsaw reading.
Different students are given different texts or different (7) extracts from the
same text – by sharing their texts they can reassemble all the information. However,
they can’t (8) show their texts to each other – they have to share all the
information by speaking about it.
Another popular type of information-gap activity is called (9) describe and draw.
In this activity, students work in (10) pairs. One student has a picture
and the other student has a blank (11) piece of paper . The student with the picture
tells the other student what is in his/her picture, and the other student has to
(12) draw the same picture.
We can also give two students a picture each – the pictures are similar, but not 100%
the same. They have to (13) find the differences between the two pictures.
In fact, just about anything can be made into an (14) information-gap activity !

Reflect
3 What potential dangers are there – what might go wrong – when using information-gap
activities in the classroom? How would you deal with them?
The most obvious worry about information-gap activities is that students fail to understand what
they are supposed to be doing. Perhaps they don’t realize that they are not allowed to look at
each other’s material; perhaps they don’t know what they have to do and say. To stop these
problems we have to give clear instructions, and, where possible, demonstrate the activity before
the students do it. While the activity is going on we will need to constantly monitor the pairs and
groups to make sure that everything is being done in the right way.

51 Teaching speaking 1
Revise
1 For questions 1–7, choose the best option (A, B or C) to complete each
statement. AK
1 One of the best ways of provoking retrieval and use is through communicative speaking
activities.
A learning and repeating.
B pronunciation exercises.
C communicative speaking activities.
2 When individual students are asked questions by other members of the class for a
fixed period, we call the activity the hot seat.
A a communicative speaking activity.
B the hot seat.
C pronunciation practice.
3 We should encourage students to develop their inner voice so that they can
practise language even when no one else is there.
A pronunciation
B listening ability
C inner voice
4 When we get students to speak and we try to insist on the language they should use, we call it a
practice activity.
A practice activity.
B communicative activity.
C pronunciation activity.
5 We can dictate sentence stems to the class. The students complete them and then they
can read out what they have written.
A words
B paragraphs
C sentence stems
6 Each number has a different topic. When a student throws the dice they have to speak about
the topic for that number.
A picture
B dice
C piece of paper
7 A discussion where students can decide what they want to say and what language
they want to use is called a communicative activity.
A practice activity.
B communicative activity.
C simulation.
Reflect
3 Think about when you speak a foreign language. When and how do you use your inner voice?
How does it help you? Do you remember using your inner voice when you were learning the
language?’
Almost every time I speak a foreign language I use my inner voice, especially when I think about
what I will say and how I am going to say it. It helps us to move the language we need to the
front of our brain. In the same way, students may appreciate being given time to think things
through before we get them to speak.

52 Teaching speaking 2
Revise
1 For questions 1–8, match the descriptions with the activities and roles
A–H. AK
A Buzz group
B Formal debate
C Panel discussion
D Participant

E Prompt cards
F Prompter
G Pyramid discussion
H Reaching a consensus
1 For this kind of discussion there is someone to ‘propose a motion’, someone to
‘oppose a motion’, people to support them, and an audience who ask questions and
make comments. The audience votes for or against the motion at the end.
2 A group of students discuss a situation or problem and have to agree together what
to do about it.
3 Sometimes we can give students these to give them ideas about what to say – what
opinions they can express, etc.
4 Sometimes, when students can’t think of what to say, or the discussion slows
down, or students can’t think of the words, teachers have to act like this.
5 Students start in pairs. Then the pairs talk to other pairs. Then the groups of two
pairs talk to another group of two pairs, and so on.
6 This is the role some teachers take in discussions when they talk together with the
students and give their own opinions, etc.
7 This type of discussion is when four or five students talk about a topic as if they
were experts on the subject (as in some TV programmes).
8 We use this type of activity when pairs or groups of students have quick
discussions about something, for example a topic they are going to read about.
1B2H3E4F5G6D7C8A

REFLECT
3 When students take part in classroom discussions in a foreign language, some students speak a
lot, some are reluctant to speak and others hardly speak at all. What are the reasons for this, do
you think? How can a teacher make things better? Can you think of one idea to try and make
everyone speak?
Some students are reluctant to speak because either they don’t especially like speaking anyway
(they are not very extrovert) or because they are frightened of making mistakes. They may also \
be slightly frightened by the people who do all the talking! One way of dealing with this is to
prepare students well before a discussion takes place. We can also give students counters which
they have to ‘spend’ – each time they speak they put a counter into a ‘pot’ until they run out of
counters.
53 Teaching speaking 3
Revise
1 For questions 1–9, match the descriptions with the activities A–I. AK
A Oral presentation
B Poster presentation
C Roleplay
D Story reconstruction
E String things together
F Taking time away
G Truth and lies
H What happens next
I Simulation

1 Students have to tell a story a number of times and each time they tell it they have
to do it more and more quickly.=TAKING TIME AWAY
2 Students imagine they are in a particular situation. They have to act and speak as if
they were in that situation.=SIMULATION
3 Students imagine they are in a particular situation. They have to act and speak as if
they were in that situation, but they pretend to be someone else.=ROLEPLAY
4 Students stand in front of graphics, pictures etc. and explain what they show or are
demonstrating.=POSTER PRESENTATION
5 Students tell each other about something, often using presentation software such as
Powerpoint.=ORAL PRESENTAION
6 Students tell each other things. The students who are listening have to decide which
things are correct, which not.=TRUTH AND LIES
7 Students are given different pictures. Then the pictures are taken away and the
students have to work out how the pictures are connected.=STORY RECONSTRUCTION
8 Students are given a selection of pictures. They have to use them to tell a story.=STRING
THINGS TOGETHER
9 The teacher shows a video clip to the students and then pauses it halfway through.
Students have to make predictions about the rest of the clip.=WHAT HAPPEN NEXT

Reflect
3 Think of oral presentations you have made or might have to make in the future and consider
these questions.
1 How do you feel about doing a presentation? Very nervous? Quite nervous? Not
very nervous? Why?
When I am doing a presentation I’m felling quite nervous because I stand in front of my
colleagues and take on the role of teacher. Sometimes I do not trust myself enough and for this
reason I lose my ideas.
2 If you made a presentation to a large group of people, would you prefer to read out
your presentation, use notes, or do it from memory? Why?
When I made a presentation to a large group of people I prefer to do it from memory but having
a look at it because the position of teacher is quite difficult and could lead me to an undesirable
situation.
3 If you had to make a presentation to a large group of people, would you use
presentation software to show things? If so, what kind of thing would you show?

54 Teaching reading 1
Revise
1 For questions 1–9, complete the sentences with words and phrases from the box. AK
bottom-up processing comprehensible input drop everything and read gist
extensive reading graded readers intensive reading scanning skimming
specific information top-down processing

1 Graded readers are books written especially for students at different levels.
2 DEAR – when we get everyone (including the teacher) to read at the same time –
stands for drop everything and read_.
3 Extensive reading gives students comprehensible input – provided that they can more
or less understand what they are reading.
4 Some students find it difficult to read for gist because they insist on Bottom-up processing –
trying to understand every word in front of them.
5 We ask students to do top-down processing when we get them to try and read for gist
without trying to understand every single word.
6 We usually ask students to do intensive reading in the classroom so that they can
concentrate on the text.
7 When students read for a particular piece of information we call it reading for
specific information;. We use the word scanning to describe this.
8 When students read for pleasure, often outside the classroom and in their own time,
we call it extensive reading.
9 When we get students to read a text quickly so that they get the main ideas, we call It
skimming. It is also referred to as reading for gist.