ENGLISH Issue 80

May
2012

Tprofessional
EACHING
The Leading Practical Magazine For English Language Teachers Worldwide

The construction
of textbooks
Peter Viney
Teambuilding
Sarah Portell
Gain without pain
Rob Waring
What does a DoS do?
Sasha Wajnryb

• 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
Contents MAIN FEATURE BUSINESS ENGLISH PROFESSIONAL

THE CONSTRUCTION OF TEXTBOOKS 4 CBI 36

Peter Viney contemplates how times have changed Phil Wade champions content-based instruction

FEATURES TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

TEAMBUILDING 9 WHICH COMES FIRST? 54

Sarah Portell gets her students working together Riyad Al-Homsi identifies the interdependency of
teacher and learner autonomy
GAIN WITHOUT PAIN 12
Rob Waring extols extensive reading WHAT DOES A DOS DO? 56
Sasha Wajnryb details a day in the life of a DoS
LEARNING LEXIS 16
Isobel Fletcher de Téllez concentrates on vocabulary
TECHNOLOGY
OVER THE WALL 18
Alan Maley takes some time off DIGITAL HOMEWORK FOR 58
DIGITAL NATIVES
Nasy Inthisone Pfanner believes online homework is
READING ALOUD 21
a good thing
James Porcaro focuses on folktales

DOING IT TOGETHER 27 FIVE THINGS YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO 60

Liu Jingxia considers what makes groupwork work well
KNOW ABOUT: TED TALKS
Nicky Hockly finds inspiration online

IT REALLY WORKED IN PRACTICE! 30

Nihal Çakmak presents her students’ photo novella
WEBWATCHER 61
Russell Stannard breaks down the barricades between
magazine
classwork and homework

SKILLS FOR TODAY, 37

SKILLS FOR TOMORROW
Louis Rogers looks at the crossover between academic
REGULAR FEATURES
and business English
IT WORKS IN PRACTICE 34
A SECOND SELF 3 46
Jill Hadfield investigates the influence of the
LANGUAGE LOG 40
John Potts
Ought-to L2 Self

STUDENTS IN A HURRY 49 SCRAPBOOK 42

Paul Bress handles the hasty
REVIEWS 44
The ‘D’ WORD 50
Marcus Murilo Lacerda advocates the use of dictionaries TALKBACK 53

CASTAWAY? 51 A FAREWELL TO ETp 63

Chris Payne contrasts two correction techniques Rose Senior

COMPETITIONS 41, 64
TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS
INTERNATIONAL SUBSCRIPTION FORM 62
EDUCATING ELSIE 24
Fiona Baker introduces a special little girl
Includes materials designed to photocopy

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 • 1

 Editorial
O
ne of the sessions I attended at this year’s quite a lot of comment – was moved to write back and
IATEFL conference in Glasgow was a challenge some of the ideas expressed in it.
presentation by Nicholas Northall on
This issue also sees the start of a new series – It really
disseminating articles from magazines like ETp to fellow
worked in practice! – in which readers are invited to say
teachers and trainees as part of a professional
how they have used or adapted something they read in
development programme. It was gratifying to see that
ETp in their own classes. We begin with a delightful photo
practising teachers take the time to read the articles we
novella magazine, produced by Nihal Çakmak’s students
publish, mine them for ideas which they can use in their
and inspired by an article by Gary Collins in ETp 64.
own teaching and discuss them with their colleagues in
the staffroom. Articles from past issues of the magazine are being
added on a daily basis to the archive on our new website
Several articles in this issue have been inspired by things
eltknowledge.com. Why not sign up and gain access to
which have appeared previously in ETp. Our main feature,
the wealth of ideas and expertise that has been published
by Peter Viney, is a response to Peter Lyn’s review of
over the last 16 years?
John Gray’s book in Issue 75. As the co-author of
Streamline, one of the coursebooks analysed by John
Gray, Peter Viney is well placed to describe and explain
the context of the time which informed the content and
presentation of his book. Helena Gomm
Editor
Rob Waring, who was cited in Peter Wells’ recent article
helena.gomm@pavpub.com
about extensive reading – an article which has provoked

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2 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 M A I N F E AT U R E
The construction
of textbooks
I
Peter Viney remembers read Peter Lyn’s review of John
Gray’s The Construction of
things past and deconstructs English: Culture Consumerism and
Promotion in the ELT Global
the constraints in creating Coursebook in Issue 75 of ETp and, as
one should with such reviews, went
coursebooks. online to try to buy the book. The
message at the time was that it was both
due for publication one year previously
and not yet published – which is quite a
feat. I also found that it costs £50 for
250 pages, which puts it beyond the
reach of the general ELT professional;
that’s a library price. At least I read the
introduction, using Amazon’s ‘look
inside’ facility.
It’s a shame, because the book
addresses a subject close to my heart:
the content of coursebooks. As the ETp
review points out, the main
coursebooks discussed are Streamline
English Connections (OUP 1979) – hey, I
co-wrote that! – Building Strategies by
Brian Abbs and Ingrid Freebairn
(Longman 1979), New Cambridge
English Course by Michael Swan and
Catherine Walter (CUP 1990) and New
Headway Intermediate by Liz and John
Soars (OUP 2003). As Peter Lyn’s
review says: ‘Owing to the age of three of
the books analysed, some conclusions
about female and multi-ethnic
representation were predictable’.
Gender and ethnicity
Without even having shelled out my 50
quid (yet), I can guess some of these
conclusions. Er, books from 30 or so
years ago are less politically correct than
ones from eight years ago, maybe? One
editor told me in the late 80s that
Streamline was used as a dartboard at
meetings of Women in TEFL. I don’t
think she meant literally, because women
generally don’t have the throwing
4 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
accuracy for darts. Sorry! Joking is what
got me into trouble in the first place. I
do think that Streamline is clearly a
book written by two men. I’ve said
many times that the best ELT
coursebooks have a male–female team,
as all the courses I co-wrote after
Streamline did. The best advice on
male–female depiction I’ve seen was in
On Balance, the IATEFL guidelines on
the representation of women in ELT
books, published in the IATEFL
Newsletter, October 1991 (which
Catherine Walter put together).
I’ve said many
times that the best
ELT coursebooks have
a male–female team,
as all the courses
I co-wrote after
Streamline did
In Handshake and Main Street, we
actively taught the neutral they, and we
also alternated the order of he and she
in paradigms. Whether this atones for
Streamline’s The boss and the secretary
unit is a question for the pearly gates.
People still praise it as funny,
transparent and involving, though the
word secretary was replaced by personal
assistant a quarter of a century ago.
And male bosses still hit on female
employees, as the court records and
tabloids endlessly remind us. Actually,
the first supposedly-PC American
version where the ‘boss’ moans about
his mom (he still lives with his mom) is
funnier than the British one, where he
moans about his wife.

Smoking, drinking, bare back, gender roles, potential extra-marital liaison, stereotyped waiter,
beef with potential BSE on barbecue grill, offensive jacket lapels ...
Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press from Streamline English by Bernard Hartley &
Peter Viney © Peter Viney 1978
Illustration is something authors
don’t always control, though we
certainly did on later books, and I now
consider it a major part of my role.
Paddy Mounter’s illustrations for
Streamline are part of its appeal, but in
The boss and the secretary, the picture
shifted the joke a little. This was one of
the units we did on videotape long
before it was published. On the video,
Karen (Viney) played the mousey
secretary in crimplene dress, cardigan,
thick glasses and a wig with a bun. I
played the gangling, nervous boss. (I
could gangle in those days, being a lot
slimmer.) It was all rather sweet and
sad. In the book she gained long blonde
hair and a low-cut dress. The boss was
older, richer, balder and had a cigar.
The situation was less obviously ‘silly’.
I was speaking at the Institute of
Education in London in the early 90s,
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •
where the whole question session ended
up focusing on the lack of multi-ethnic
representation in the original British
series of Streamline. My explanations
were lame but true. Both Bernie Hartley
and I had complained about it back in
late 1977 when the book was in
production. We were told point-blank
that too many multi-ethnic pictures
would harm sales because teachers
outside Britain wanted it to look ‘British’.
I spent my summers as a kid with my
aunt in Hounslow, and it didn’t look like
Hounslow to me! I also pointed out that
all the photos in the black-and-white
everyday conversation sections were done
within 500 yards of the OUP building,
using OUP staff. So though they were
black and white photographically, they
were not black and white in content.
That’s how it was done in 1978. There
was no budget for models, and the
people in the photos simply represent
the OUP staff in early 1978.
Americanisation
By the time we did American Streamline,
in the early 80s, the agenda on gender and
ethnic balance was well-established. We
had a female co-writer pointing out some
of the problems in our British edition.
Ethnic balancing can be very difficult
for the publisher, because California, in
particular, will ‘count’ books used in
state-funded systems, and you get
arguments over having 21 Hispanic
characters when really you should have
22 to represent the percentage of
Hispanics in California. That’s easy
enough for the author, because you
specify some characters and leave it to
the art editor to balance the others.
However, sometimes PC guidelines
destroy stuff. One example was a song
in Grapevine about Independence Day, a
fictional band of disabled rock musicians,
which on the surface is a PC topic. Their
song in the book was called Mickey Can’t
Dance. This was deemed unacceptable for
the American version because disabled
people have wheelchair dances, and they
suggested changing can’t to can. In vain
we pointed out that this was the first
unit on can and can’t in a beginner-level
book, and that suggesting that people in
wheelchairs can dance lacks a certain
transparency in most cultures. We
scrapped the context altogether.
Inexplicably, the American editor
also insisted that the songs only appear
in the Listening Appendix, with no 
5

The construction
of textbooks
 associated activities in the main unit.
There is often a problem in dealing with
American ELT publishers, in that
editors tend to replace the word I with
In America, we …, as in I don’t like ELT
songs becoming In America, we don’t
like ELT songs. I haven’t met an
American teacher since who wasn’t
amazed by this ridiculous statement.
Add it to my favourite: ‘We say “have”,
never “have got”. Have you got that
clear?’ or ‘The word “shall” does not
exist in American English.’ The answer
to this is ‘Have you ever read the
Constitution?’ (OK, it’s the legal use of
shall, not the suggestion use or future
use.) But then in August 2011 I saw a
US TV reporter speaking from a plane
over Hurricane Irene. ‘We shall see what
happens …,’ he said.
The main problem for us is humour,
because there is a strong tendency to
portray characters from ethnic groups as
totally bland and neutral – for fear that
anything else might be offensive. We
discussed this at length in New American
Streamline in the mid-1990s, and found
ways of having ethnic characters who
were also allowed to be involving and
funny. New American Streamline was our
most successful Americanisation of an
existing text, partly due to sympathetic
editing, and partly due to the absence of
a humo(u)rless co-author.
Sex, drugs and rock
and roll
In John Gray’s introduction, he mentions
that Liz and John Soars complained
about the PC agenda of publishers back
in 2000. I know the piece. It was on the
now-defunct TEFL-Farm website from
France. There was a heated discussion on
content, started off by Mario Rinvolucri,
with replies from the Soars, Scott
Thornbury, Catherine Walter and me.
John and Liz Soars said:
‘If you think British publishers are
coy, try working with Americans. There,
only an “apple-pie” world is allowed – no
booze, no ciggies, no eccentric American
characters – tell that to Scott Thornbury’s
crusade. They’d have to get out smelling
salts at any mention of gays. But funnily
enough there has to be a % quota of
coloured people per spread.’
6 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
I replied:
‘What is the magic in “booze and
ciggies?” The affectionate “ciggies” seems
approving, as well as old-fashioned. Do
you really want to promote cigarette
smoking to school kids? Books might start
selling in the UK adult sector, then they
move to adult sectors abroad, and then the
good ones move into secondary schools.
This has happened to every major “adult”
course I can think of. I have received
advice from editors, but it was along the
lines of “Cigarette?” “No, thanks” would
be preferable to “Cigarette?” “Yes, please”
because even 30 years ago, smoking was a
sensitive topic in Germany and
Scandinavia. In 2000, the advice might
be not to have the dialogue at all.’
I don’t see the
perceived problems of
many global textbooks
being an issue so much
of consumerism, as
one of mild cultural
insensitivity
And the editors are right, both on
the quota of ‘coloured people’ (a quaint
and nowadays non-PC expression) and
on cigarettes and alcohol. My co-author
Bernie Hartley had this read out at his
funeral: ‘I know cigarettes killed me, but
I enjoyed every one of them.’ OK, but I’d
rather he was alive. One of the reasons
we stopped writing together was that I
couldn’t take the constant heavy
smoking. In 2011 the advice would be
‘Definitely no mention of cigarettes’.
Representation of gay people in
textbooks is more difficult. It’s not one
we’ve resolved, but no one else has
either. An international textbook has to
function across cultures. Does a gay
teacher or gay student want to make
their sexuality part of the discussion?
Would they prefer privacy? In the
TEFL-Farm debate, I said that this all
came down to the degree of intimacy
you have with your class. Some teachers
with small classes might have an intense
and intimate discussion level with four
or five students, but that doesn’t
translate well to 15 adults in a twice-
weekly evening class or 30 or 40
secondary kids in a classroom. The
teacher has to make the decision on
these areas, and I don’t know that the
textbook can or should be leading that.
Years ago, when we were editing
Streamline Graded Readers, an old
colleague submitted a story about a
party, where the central character wakes
up in bed with a stranger. It’s only on
the last line that you find it’s about two
men. The story was brilliantly
structured and told, the ending came as
a surprise, and it was in many ways one
of the best submissions we had. We
rejected it and our colleague was hurt
by our refusal. As I pointed out at the
time, we would have rejected the story if
the characters had been heterosexual,
too. We were aiming at secondary
schools, and none of the stories
involved either alcohol or overt sexual
behaviour. Was our rejection more likely
because of the gay theme? I hope not.
But the story was ‘no chance’ anyway.
Consumerism and class
Another area of global textbooks that
The Construction of English addresses is
the Western consumer society presented
as a model. We had a discussion after a
talk in Thailand, and some teachers
complained that every textbook asked
‘What did you do last night?’ They
pointed out that in a class of unmarried
women in Thailand there was only one
answer: ‘I stayed at home’. I pointed out
that you then add ‘Did you watch TV?
Who did you speak to?’ etc, but the
point was clear and works across many
other cultures. They didn’t ‘go to the
disco’ (the extended life these 70s words
have is amazing), nor ‘have a drink with
friends’ nor ‘go to the cinema’, nor did
they ‘get bladdered and throw up in the
High Street’. I don’t see the perceived
problems of many global textbooks
being an issue so much of consumerism,
as one of mild cultural insensitivity. It’s
similar to the geographical ignorance
implicit in asking Dutch students ‘Do
you often go to the mountains?’ or Thai
students ‘Can you ski?’
There was a kind of cultural
imperialism that was apparent when I
started teaching, where British and
American achievements were considered
fascinating, whether it was the history
of the Austin Mini or Mary Quant and
the mini-skirt. The First World bias of
textbooks still comes out in that
inevitable page of pictures of famous
people. As soon as you start writing it
(and we don’t anymore), you realise that
most of the obvious examples are
British or American, and most of the
really famous women are singers or
actors, with the odd princess and
politician. The politicians don’t help.
Margaret Thatcher? No way, says the
publisher. It’ll stop sales in Argentina.
Indira Ghandi? She won’t be popular in
Pakistan. Golda Meier? Don’t ask. So
authors try to balance across the world
and the results are hard to use. One
book had 12 allegedly famous people.
We’d only heard of eight of them, and
only recognised six from the pictures.
Nelson Mandela was (yet again) one of
them; one was dead; another hadn’t had
a hit record in ten years and someone
who won a women’s tennis tournament
seven years ago might not be memorable
to a class of mid-teens. The best advice
to teachers is to use pictures cut from
this month’s magazines instead.
On the consumer society, a previous
discussion suggested that the ELT world
had people checking-in at airports,
flying across continents, registering at
hotels, whereas in rural Africa or rural
China, the real communication on
travelling might be helping the driver
change the punctured tyre on the local
bus. While I accept that, the bus driver
interchange would be conducted in the
local language, and even the poorest of
us can look at the sky. In other words,
people enjoy aspirational contexts, even
if they are fantasy – look at what we
watch on TV and what we read. From
some points of view, this is seen as
selling a glossy world of consumerism
leading inevitably to obscene bankers’
bonuses and the invasion of other
countries for oil.
Class is also a major interest in The
Construction of English, judging from
the list of tables on accents and jobs.
Streamline was one of the first books to
use a wide range of regional accents,
albeit acted rather than authentic. There
will be a tendency to match stronger
accents to lowlier jobs, just as there is
on TV or in film. I suspect that has not
changed with time either. When we were
recording Grapevine, we realised that the
comic dialogues had accents, but neutral
texts and the voice of instruction (ie
authority) didn’t. For the second book,
we got an actor to read out the unit
numbers and instructions in his natural
mild ‘educated’ East Midlands accent.
Then we did texts in neutral accents, but
also some in ‘educated newsreader
regional’ accents. I wouldn’t suggest that
there are no plumbers with RP accents –
I met one last year with an MSc who
had given up computer design when he
saw how much money plumbers earned.
He specialised in clearing blocked
drains, which most plumbers avoid. I
saw him a couple of days later in his
Porsche Cayenne.
Globalisation
In the end, everything I’ve said
reinforces the argument that the books
Gray analyses are global coursebooks,
from global publishers. Several of these
coursebooks became global brands,
spawning all sorts of spin-offs. I was
delighted to see The Construction of
English uses the term one-size-fits-all to
describe textbooks, an expression I have
been using since 2002. The last ten years
People enjoy
aspirational contexts,
even if they are
fantasy – look at
what we watch on TV
and what we read
has seen the one-size-fits-all policy
dominating global textbook
publication. That wasn’t so apparent 30
years ago, when Streamline, Strategies
and The Cambridge English Course were
all initially aimed at a young adult or
adult audience. All three were distinct
from the others. All three spread to
secondary schools, but the three
publishers (OUP, Longman and CUP)
had a wide choice of textbooks on offer.
The huge success of Headway and the
massive advantages of economy of scale
in publishing promoted the one-size-
fits-all policy (aka all the eggs in one
basket). Additional factors are the
Council of Europe’s A1, A2, B1, B2
classifications and the increasing
dominance of global examinations. I
believe there is far less choice and less
variety in ELT now than there was 30
years ago, just as a hundred record
labels conglomerated into three or four
giant corporations, or a variety of car
manufacturers conglomerated into a few
large groups with a few common
platforms. When we were writing IN
English, our designer, Richard Morris,
was returning to ELT design after a
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •
long absence. He had designed the
original Streamline, which looked
different from every other textbook,
partly because it was in A4 format. We
put 12 or 15 major early-2000s
textbooks on the table and we began
glancing through. We all came to the
same conclusion: you couldn’t tell the
difference between them. They were all
roughly the same size and shape. They
all had between 12 and 20 topic-based
units. There wasn’t much dialogue. They
had everything bar the kitchen sink:
listening bits, reading bits, grammar
summaries, pronunciation activities,
pairwork, interaction activities,
authentic pictures, predictable topics
(well, the Council of Europe lists the
topics). If you opened a page at
random, it was only the peripheral
design cues (headers, numbering, etc)
which told you which book you were in.
Some would say this is a good thing,
just as all cars now have bumpers at the
same height. Others would say it creates
a duller classroom.

I do feel it ludicrous (well, I would) to
spend time analysing the faults of
books written and published over 30
years ago. It was a different world. Go
back 15 years before that, and you have
the world of the TV series Mad Men
and a different world again. I was more
amused than defensive when I got a
dressing-down for books I wrote in my
late 20s. I don’t get dressings-down
anymore. Streamline seems to have
acquired a warm glow of nostalgia for
teachers. I have friends who are
musicians, and every time they go on a
stage, they have to sing hits of 30 years
ago. I have never spoken in public
without someone mentioning
Streamline. ETp
Peter Viney is the co-
author of Fast Track To
Reading (Garnet), IN
English, Handshake,
Grapevine, Streamline
(all OUP) and Survival
English (Macmillan). He
is on the board of the
Extensive Reading
Foundation (ERF) and
the series editor of
Oracle Readers (Garnet
Education). His latest
publication is a revised
licensed edition of the
video series A Weekend
Away / A Week By The
Sea on DVD (Three Vee).
See www.eltvideos.com.
peter@viney.uk.com
7
 IN THE CLASSROOM
Teambuilding
Sarah Portell gives her students experience
in communicating for a common cause.
I
magine this ... After a lesson on
! making suggestions, eight
intermediate students are asked
to move the desks to the back and stand
in a circle. The teacher places an old towel
in the middle, tells a short story and
gives the students a challenge: they must
all stand on the towel and work together
to flip it over. The students, a little
apprehensive at first, stand on the towel,
looking at each other with confusion
until one student finally bends down and
tries to move it. Other students start to
get the idea and ideas begin to flow.
What are they doing? A teambuilding
activity called Lifeboat (see page 10).
Teambuilding
There is a trend moving from the summer
camp to the high rise, from youth culture
to corporate culture: teambuilding.
Teambuilding exists to improve self-
understanding, build trust and enhance
interpersonal communication – usually in
the context of a fun and difficult game or
task. It is also incredibly valuable in an
ELT classroom. The Japanese proverb ‘A
single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in
a bundle’ captures the essence and goal of
incorporating teambuilding activities in
the classroom: to foster an environment of
success, where the students work together,
use English and reflect on lessons learnt
in order to achieve a common goal. In
collective cultures, group values are more
important than individual values so we
cannot underestimate the impact of
using teambuilding to promote English
competency.
The main goal of teambuilding is
communicating to achieve a common
purpose. The principles are, therefore,
completely relevant in a classroom where
authentic communication in English is the
final goal. Groups must work together to
solve problems and then reflect on their
communication patterns, leadership,
conflicts, fears and accomplishments. A
task is introduced to the group, the
boundaries are defined, the group struggles
together – and either completes the task
or it doesn’t. The task is not the main
purpose, though; what is important is the
debriefing afterward. The facilitator, or in
our case teacher, leads the group through
a series of questions that funnel the
students towards their own conclusions.
Students share their ideas either in written
or spoken form, listening to others with
empathy during the debriefing process.
Debriefing
The most critical part of any teambuilding
activity in the ELT classroom involves
guiding the students toward their own
conclusions by using clear debriefing
questions. Many learners find it difficult to
process their thoughts verbally in a foreign
language in front of their peers. So it is
important to provide a wide variety of
means by which the students can reflect on
the activities. One example is a personal
journal where they describe the activity and
then answer debriefing questions about
their feelings and experiences. Another way
is to allow discussion of the debriefing
questions in pairs, rather than as a whole
class. With large classes, the teacher can put
the students into small discussion groups
and give them the debriefing questions on a
handout. Most pair and group formations
can be adapted to create an environment
of genuine sharing after a teambuilding
activity. The key is to use open-ended
questions rather than yes/no questions. As
the students become more comfortable
with this style of learning, they should
be encouraged to formulate their own
open-ended questions or even facilitate
another teambuilding activity.
Culture
It is important to note that many
established teambuilding activities have
their origins in western contexts and need
to be adapted to suit various other
cultures. Not all activities are appropriate
for all contexts. If you are not from the
same culture as your students, consulting
a local teacher or friend first regarding
your proposed activity is a necessary start
to check that it won’t cause offence.
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •
Simply describe the activity and ask, ‘If
you had to do this would you feel offended?’
Do not ask, ‘If you had to do this would
you be uncomfortable?’ The purpose of
some of the activities is to push the limits
of comfort so that people must reflect
on deep or hidden fears, insecurities or
challenges and, in recognising them,
begin a process of growth.
Choice
Think carefully about the following
when choosing activities:
1 Spatial constraints: Can I move my
classroom’s desks? How can I incorporate
the desks in the activity? Can I do the
activity outside? Can I do it in the hallway?
Will I disturb other classes too much?
2 Number of students: Is this doable
with the number of students I have?
What is the best way to debrief
afterwards? As a class? In small groups?
In pairs? Individually through writing?
3 Level of students: What is
appropriate for the level of my
students? What language functions do I
need to pre-teach so that they can
communicate in the activity?
4 Instructions: Write out instructions in
simple clear steps, even for advanced
learners. Students do not need the
challenge of understanding the instructions
in addition to the activity itself!
There are some activity ideas on page 10.

Teambuilding activities are an invaluable
tool for fostering a classroom culture of
empathetic listening and cooperation in
an often cut-throat environment of
success and competition. Students who
work together and succeed at an activity,
while using even simple English, learn
something that cannot be taught: it must
be experienced. That is, that language
exists for communication and true
communication strengthens the group. ETp
There is a substantial collection of
teambuilding ideas that can be adapted to
the ELT classroom at http://wilderdom.com/
games/InitiativeGames.html.
Sarah Portell teaches
English in Ulaanbaatar,
Mongolia. After
receiving her MA in
Intercultural Studies
and her CELTA, she
taught at the School of
Tourism and Foreign
Languages at Tibet
University.
sarah.portell@elic.org 
9

Teambuilding activities
1 Lifeboat Debriefing questions:
 How did you feel when you could not see?
Materials: An old towel or sheet about two metres square
 What are some of the ‘mines’ (or obstacles) that you have
Space: Large open floor space or outside
in life?
Time: 8+ minutes  How did you get through the ‘minefield’ safely?
Procedure: Variations:
● Pre-teach structures and vocabulary for making This activity can be done pair by pair as the others watch or
suggestions. simultaneously, in which case each blindfolded student must
● Tell the students a story about standing on a lifeboat in listen carefully to hear their partner’s voice amongst all the
shark-infested water. Their feet cannot touch the water or others. For higher-level students, this can bring up debriefing
they will be eaten! But there is a problem: the boat is upside questions such as ‘What are the different voices in your life?’
down and must be flipped over while everyone is on it. and ‘How do you know which voice to listen to?’
● Put the towel on the floor and ask the students to stand on
it. Tell them this is the upside down lifeboat. Give them
some time to work together as a team to figure out a way
to try to flip it over without touching the water.
● If they are stuck, give some clues along the way. (The key
is to pull one corner diagonally to the other corner and
then gradually transfer the people to the side that is
turned over.)

Debriefing questions:
 Who was the leader in this activity? Why was this person
the leader?
 What worked well? What was easy/difficult?
 How did you feel at the beginning/end?
Variations:
Give two groups each a towel to stand on. Tell them the
same story and let them to try to work as a team to figure it
out. Perhaps they will see that the easiest way is to work
together with the other group: all the people stand on one
towel and flip the other over. Then all the people stand on the
other towel and flip it over. If they don’t work together, ask
the debriefing question ‘Why were you competing?’
2 Minefield/Obstacle course
Materials: Blindfolds, obstacles such as desks, classroom
items or papers on the floor
Space: Classroom, hallway or outside
Time: 10+ minutes
Lead in:
Explain the words mine and minefield. (This metaphor should
be varied for locations where these words evoke harmful
emotions or memories. Use obstacle instead).
Procedure:
● Pre-teach vocabulary about giving directions.
● Put the students into pairs. In each pair, one student is
blindfolded, the other can see.
● The student who can see must lead their partner through
the minefield or obstacle course. The blindfolded partner
cannot touch the ‘mines’ or obstacles.
● Then the pairs switch roles.
3 Yurt circle
Materials: Strong rope tied in a circle (note: the rope must
be strong!)
Space: Enough space for your class to stand in a circle with
two feet behind each person
Time: 5 minutes
Lead in:
Describe or show a picture of a yurt. There is a rope around
the frame that holds it in a circle. Without that rope, the yurt
would fall down.
Procedure:
● Gather everyone in a circle and place the rope on the floor
inside the circle.
● Ask each person to pick up the rope.
● The goal is to have everyone lean back confidently without
stepping a foot back or making the circle become
unbalanced.
Debriefing questions:
 What happens when one person pulls the rope hard?
 What happens when one person doesn’t lean back?
 What happens if one person lets go?
 Why is it hard to lean back?
Variations:
Yurt circle can be used to make a class contract, with various
classroom standards that students and teachers agree to by
picking up the rope and leaning back.

10 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 R E A D I N G
Gain
without
pain
Rob Waring insists that there is an inescapable case
for extensive reading.
I
n Issue 78 of ETp, Peter Wells put
forward the case that extensive
reading (ER) is probably not
suitable for language learners. He
suggested that graded readers are
boring, learners don’t read in their L1,
teachers themselves don’t read much
and don’t know what’s in their library,
and that students will find the materials
dull and unmotivating. This article
addresses these concerns to show that
his fears are unfounded and are, in fact,
an inaccurate characterisation of
extensive reading.
Extensive reading involves the
learners in reading huge amounts of
text to build fluency, confidence and the
ability to process text quickly. For this
to happen, they must be reading at the
appropriate level. Research, such as that
by Batia Laufer and Paul Nation,
suggests the optimal level is when about
98 percent of the vocabulary is already
known prior to reading. In other words,
they should READ:
Read something quickly and
Enjoyably with
Adequate comprehension so they
Don’t need a dictionary.
12 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
Truths
Extensive reading has sometimes been
unfairly mocked by those who suggest
that its proponents claim that graded
readers are inherently ‘interesting’ and
will get learners ‘hooked’ on reading
and therefore they may ‘not need many
lessons’ because the reading will take
care of all learning. In my more than 20
years of experience with extensive
reading, I’ve never heard anyone
espouse this view and expect this to be
true for all learners, all the time. While
these are certainly laudable goals, they
do not match the reality of the learning
experience and, therefore, characterising
ER this way underplays the diversity
within it and is out of touch with the
research. In reality, no approach is ever
going to satisfy all learners and
teachers, and no book is always going to
be interesting to everyone.
It is also true that many learners
don’t read in their L1, and that some
teachers don’t read much either, or
don’t know much about the books in
their library, but these are not arguments
against ER per se. Indeed, one of the
benefits of an ER approach is that there
is something for everyone – non-fiction,
fiction from a huge variety of genres,
and even extensive listening for those
that prefer it. There is also some research
(eg by Atsuko Takase) which shows that
learners can be turned on to reading in
their L1 from extensive reading in their
L2, but not from reading texts
intensively. Additionally, ER can be done
as free voluntary reading, as required
reading or done with a class set of the
same materials. We can therefore see that
to characterise ER uni-dimensionally
under-represents the variety and
flexibility within the approach.
Not all learners will get the ‘reading
habit’ after graded reading either;
however, very many do. Of course, some
will hate it, but this applies to all
approaches. In fact, a meta-analysis of
over 150 research articles on ER
conducted in preparation for this article,
shows many encouraging results. The
analysis shows that most studies
indicate increases in overall language
ability compared to control groups
Extensive reading
involves the learners
in reading huge
amounts of text to build
fluency, confidence
and the ability to
process text quickly
doing either test preparation, using their
normal coursebook, doing intensive
reading or reading short difficult texts,
and consistently better performance for
fluency-focused input compared with
form-focused or language-focused
input. By far the strongest finding was
an increase in general motivation for
English, with only three of 56 studies
showing equal motivational gains to a
comparable approach, with the rest
showing large or very large gains. No
studies showed lower motivation from
having read graded readers when used
as extensive reading practice.
There is also considerable confusion
about the role of graded readers in ER.
For example, Wells and others from a
literature background, have criticised
graded readers for being infantile or
‘dumbed-down’ versions of English
which belittle the learners by denying
them ‘authentic’ input and a chance to
meet ‘real language’. This argument is
fundamentally flawed in numerous ways.
The fact that many graded readers are
simplified versions of famous works of
literature (eg Jane Eyre) is incidental and
a by-product of trying to source good,
interesting stories. Graded readers are not
supposed to be high literature. To criticise
them for not giving the full native
experience is a mis-characterisation of
their purpose, which is to provide
reading practice at the learners’ level.
It’s like criticising a Ferrari for not
being able to transport cement.
Difficulty
Native-level materials are far too
difficult for the vast majority of
learners, who are not able to process
native-level texts in an authentic way
until they have mastered around
8–9,000 word families (according to
research by Marlise Horst and Paul
Nation). Thus, the argument that native
texts are better than graded readers for
reading practice confuses the long-term
goal of preparing students for native
texts with the means to get there
(structured, scaffolded input). Graded
readers are a viable, authentic, but
temporary way to build structured
reading practice and cultural capital.
Indeed, authenticity is determined
not by the text itself, or its provenance,
but by the interaction between the
reader, the purpose and the situation.
Asking low-ability learners to read native
texts so they can ‘see the full beauty of
English’ is not only an inauthentic use
of literature, it is like trying to teach
someone to play the piano by starting
with Rachmaninov’s third, or learning
to play tennis against Rafael Nadal. No
one would give Tolstoy to a five year
old. Children start with simple books
with very few words and lots of pictures
because that is what they can handle.
After a time, they move on to more
difficult texts. Graded readers function
in the same way for language learners.
Language
Wells also criticised the notion of ER
because some graded readers are of
poor quality. This argument confuses
the ER approach with the texts. Even if
some graded readers were of low
quality, it doesn’t negate the reason for
graded readers per se nor the ER
approach as a whole. In fact, research
Probably known
50+ 30 – 49 20 – 29
Coursebook
523 210 229
only
Add one
1,023 283 250
reader a week
Add two
1,372 380 367
readers a week
Data from Sequences, Foundations, Page Turners and Footprints by Heinle Cengage
225,000 60,800 570,000
The number of words likely to be known from a coursebook and graded readers
(eg that by Rachel Allan and Gillian
Claridge) shows that while the language
in graded readers is simplified, it is
nevertheless a faithful rendition of the
way language is used by natives, and
mirrors all the main features of English
discourse such as collocation,
colligation, grammar, phrasing, plot
structure, and so on.
Authenticity is
determined not by
the text itself, or its
provenance, but by the
interaction between
the reader, the purpose
and the situation
However, Wells correctly shows that
there is indeed a very strong case for ER
at all levels of the foreign language
curriculum. He points out that to learn
a language well, a learner would need to
know several thousand words, and master
most of the grammar, and meet it in
context time and again. One way learners
can do this is to use coursebooks.
However, coursebooks are typically linear
in design, with new grammar points,
new vocabulary, new reading skills, new
pronunciation points in each unit, but
rarely, if ever, returning to the same items
later in the book or series. This ‘teaching
causes learning’ model of introducing
language items allows for minimal
practice but, by its linear design, cannot
consolidate this knowledge well. This
learning tends to be discrete and quickly
forgotten unless supported by large
amounts of contextualised practice.
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •
Partially known Probably
unknown
10 – 19 5–9 1– 4 Total
472 580 1,261 3,275
539 570 1,325 3,990
694 877 2,882 6,572
174,000 (=1,029,000)
Analysis
To demonstrate this, the entire text
(225,000 running words including audio
and workbook activities) of Sequences, a
typical five-level coursebook series, was
entered into a computer for analysis.
Sequences is a fairly standard four-skills
thematic-based course with readings,
listening, speaking activities, and so on.
The text was analysed to determine
which words were likely to be known at
the end of the two-and-a-half-year
course. Additionally, the text from 200
graded readers was analysed by
computer to predict how much extra
vocabulary is likely to be known by
adding one or two graded readers a week
to the course work over the duration of
the two-and-a-half-year course.
In the table above, the row ‘Add one
reader a week’ refers to the expected
additional vocabulary learning from
reading 100 graded readers from the
Foundations Reading Library (60,800
words) plus Pageturners Reading
Library, both published by Cengage
Learning, and other readers (totalling
570,000 words). The data from the 100-
title Footprint Reading Library (174,000
words in total), also by Cengage, was
added to that to provide input equivalent
to a second graded reader per week.
There is considerable research (eg by
Ana Pellicer-Sánchez and Norbert
Schmitt, Paul Nation and Rob Waring
and Misako Takaki) to show that it
takes 20–30 meetings with a word to
learn it well. Therefore, words met over
20 times can be considered ‘learnt’ at
least receptively. The knowledge of a
word that has been met between five
and 19 times is probably partial or
incomplete and slow to access. If the
word is met fewer than five times over 
13

Gain
without
pain
 the two and a half years, it is likely to
be forgotten.
The table shows that only around
962 words of the 3,275 words in the
coursebook meet the ‘known’ criteria of
20 meetings, with many of these being
function words. Another 1,052 would be
partially known, while 1,261 are likely
to be forgotten. By adding one or two
graded readers (about 1–2 hours) per
week at their level of difficulty, the
learners’ vocabulary would more than
double to 2,119 words ‘learnt’ and a
further 1,571 words partially known,
probably because their input
quadrupled to over a million words,
which allows them to pass the threshold
of ‘learning’. However, these figures do
not include increases in reading speed
and fluency, nor heightened awareness
of one’s ‘sense’ of language, collocation
and colligation, text structure and many
aspects of discourse that stem from
reading at one’s ability level. In
addition, Hitoshi Nishizawa, Takayoshi
Yoshioka and Momoyo Fukuda, in a
four-year study of the impact of ER on
reluctant learners, found considerable
gains in overall language ability. Dozens
of other studies were found showing
similar results in the meta-analysis
mentioned above. This is clear evidence
that graded readers can, and do, build
and consolidate vocabulary knowledge.
Conclusion
These data show that it is a fundamental
mistake to consider extensive reading as
supplemental or optional. Extensive
reading (or listening) is the only way in
which learners can get access to
language in their own comfort zone,
read something they want to read, at
the pace they feel comfortable with, and
which will allow them to meet the
language enough times to pick up a
sense of how it fits together. This depth
of knowledge of language must, and
can only, be acquired through constant
massive exposure. Coursebooks
typically don’t say why we say blonde
14 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
hair but not yellow hair, weak tea but
mild cheese, or tell learners why we say
here and there not there and here.
Learners have to pick these things up as
they meet the language, as well as tens
of thousands of other collocations,
colligations and useful phrases. No
coursebook can ever hope to tackle
even a small fraction of these. It is a
massive task that requires massive
amounts of input.
Teachers may respond by saying ‘we
don’t have time for this reading, we have
so many other things to do, like preparing
them for tests’, ‘there’s no budget for this’,
‘they want to learn to speak, not read’ or
‘we have to follow our curriculum’. Fine,
but the price of opting out is that until
the learners meet enough comprehended
language, they will not build that sense
of how the language works which they
need for their speaking and writing.
Unless learners read
extensively, they will be
tied to classes, teachers,
dictionaries and
coursebooks until they
have met the required
volume of language
Where else are they going to pick up the
collocations, the colligations and the
tens of thousands of lexical phrases
they need in order to sound native-like
or do well in tests? Certainly not from
their coursebooks or word lists, as we
have said. This is not meant to say that
extensive reading is better than
coursebooks, but to say that while
coursebooks serve their function of
introducing language well, they are
nevertheless limited by their very design
in deepening vocabulary knowledge and
providing a deeper level of language
awareness. Thus ER should complement
coursebooks, not compete with them.

As we have seen, unless learners read or
listen extensively, they will be tied to
classes and teachers, dictionaries and
coursebooks until they have met the
required volume of language. There is
no way round this – the case for
extensive reading is inescapable. ETp
Allan, R ‘Can a graded reader corpus
provide “authentic” input?’ ELT Journal
63 (1) 2009
Claridge, G ‘What makes a good graded
reader: engaging with graded readers in
the context of extensive reading in L2’
Doctoral thesis Victoria University of
Wellington 2012
Horst, M ‘Learning L2 vocabulary through
extensive reading: a measurement study’
The Canadian Modern Language Review
(61) 2005
Laufer, B ‘What percentage of text-lexis is
essential for comprehension?’ In Laurén, C
and Nordmann, M (Eds) Special Language:
From Humans Thinking to Thinking
Machines Multilingual Matters 1989
Nation, I S P Teaching Vocabulary in
Another Language CUP 2001
Nation, I S P ‘How large a vocabulary is
needed for reading and listening?’
Canadian Modern Language Review (63)
2006
Nishizawa, H, Yoshioka, T and Fukada, M
‘Impact of four-year extensive reading
program’ In Stoke, A M (Ed) JALT2009
Conference Proceedings 2010
Pellicer-Sánchez, A and Schmitt, N
‘Incidental vocabulary acquisition from an
authentic novel: do things fall apart?’
Reading in a Foreign Language 22 (1) 2010
Takase, A ‘Japanese high school students’
motivation for extensive L2 reading’
Reading in a Foreign Language 19 (1) 2007
Thomlinson, J, Waring, R and Woodall, P
Sequences Heinle Cengage 2009
Waring, R and Takaki, M ‘At what rate do
learners learn and retain new vocabulary
from reading a graded reader?’ Reading
in a Foreign Language 15 (2) 2003
Wells, P ‘No gain without pain’ English
Teaching Professional 78 2012
Dr Rob Waring teaches at
Notre Dame Seishin
University in Okayama,
Japan. His primary
research interests are
extensive reading,
vocabulary acquisition and
curriculum development.
He has published widely in
these fields. He is a
founding member of the
Extensive Reading
Foundation and is list
manager of the Extensive
Reading and Extensive
Listening yahoogroups
discussion lists.
waring-robert@yahoo.com
TALKBACK!
Do you have something to say about
an article in the current issue of ETp?
This is your magazine and we would
really like to hear from you.
Write to us or email:
helena.gomm@pavpub.com
 IN THE CLASSROOM
Learning lexis
Isobel Fletcher de Téllez recommends ten ways for teaching vocabulary.
L
exical items – whether they are
nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives
or adverbs – all carry
meaning. Grammar is what
glues language items together and
makes them cohere in terms of time
and relationship, but it is lexis that, for
the most part, carries referential
meaning. There are some language
items which might fit into either
category, but that is another story.
The size of the lexicon
Students often complain of not knowing
the words in a text – and this is not
surprising, given the sheer number of
items in the language. Dictionaries
abound and contain vast numbers of
lexical items – far too many to learn.
Because, historically, it has
borrowed so much from other
languages, English has a higher than
usual number of synonyms and near-
synonyms. It has also enlarged itself
with idioms and metonyms. It puts
items together, either as compounds or
in collocations – phrasal verbs are a
good example – multiplying the
problem of the size of the lexicon.
English is happy to blur the
distinctions between parts of speech. A
noun can be put to use as a verb (I
mopped the floor) or vice versa (When
push comes to shove ...). There are so
many noun/verb equivalents (eg test,
ban, service, order, mail, share, cost,
copy, group, increase) that it is difficult
to know which came first.
There are also multiple versions
within one part of speech. For example,
economics, economy, economist,
economising; photograph, photography
and photographer are all nouns. In
addition, the parts of a verb – its past
and present participles – can be used as
adjectives or nouns. For example:
Smoking is now banned in public places.
(gerund as noun)
16 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
Holmes, smoking his customary morning
pipe, was standing at the far end of the
platform. (present participle)
The sandwiches contain smoked salmon
and cream cheese. (past participle as
adjective)
With or without suitable endings, a
noun may be used as an adjective (He is
the human resources deputy manager; I
was floored). All such uses require more
dictionary pages.
Modern life has brought about the
invention of many new things to which
we need to refer, thereby adding specialist
terms or jargon to the lexicon. The
Encarta dictionary uses around 300 labels
for entries that refer to specialist areas
as varied as bio-chemistry, beverages,
freight, hairdressing and seismology.

So, our students may seem to be faced
with an uphill struggle when it comes to
learning lexis. Here are ten ways to help:
1 ● a present participle acting as an
Expose your students to as
much textual language as possible.
Encourage them to do as many of the
following (in English) as they can:
● listen to the radio
● watch films, YouTube videos and TV
programmes
● read texts on websites
● read newspapers and magazines
● do extensive and intensive reading of
novels and short stories
● read plays
2 Distinguish between lexical
words and grammatical words.
Write examples of lexical words and
grammatical words on the board in two
columns, and ensure that everyone in
the class understands the difference.
You could use the analogy of maths:
lexical words are like numbers because
they have value; grammatical words are
like the operators (plus, minus, equals,
etc) because they signify relationships
between the numbers.
Read a short paragraph with your
students (they should each have a copy
that they can annotate). Divide the class
into two and give them different
coloured highlighters. One group picks
out and highlights the lexical words and
the other the grammatical words. Bring
the whole class back together for
feedback and checking. There might be
some discussion (eg Is a phrasal verb
lexical or grammatical?).
3 Help your students to
appreciate how words can behave
differently.
Get the students to pick out all the -ing
words in a text and to classify them as:
● part of a continuous form of a verb
(She is smoking.)
● a present participle (He sat in the
armchair, smoking his pipe.)
adjective (They have not yet discovered
the smoking gun.)
● a gerund as the subject or object of a
verb (Smoking is now banned in public
places.)
Ask the students to pick out all the past
participles in a text and to classify them
as:
● part of a verb form (had smoked)
● a past participle used as an adjective
(The sandwiches contain smoked
salmon and cream cheese.)
● part of a passive construction (The
fish had been smoked for two days.)
4 Get your students to discover
compounds.
Matching exercises can be used to alert
the students to the way in which
compounds can be made. For example:
Compound nouns Match each verb in the box with the 8 Teach the students to deduce
credit licence words it collocates with. meanings.
cheque star
break book cause give improve Cloze exercises train students to take
bus lens
look make pay play take advantage of both co-text (localised
film stop
proximity in the sentence) and context
driving book 1 _______ attention, a debt, (proximity to elements wider than the
health card someone a compliment sentence) to help them to decipher
contact centre 2 _______ advantage, charge, meaning. Taking lexical items out of a
(credit card, cheque book, bus stop, advice, no notice text calls for different skills of deduction
film star, driving licence, health centre, 3 _______ a point, a mess, a fool of than does a grammar cloze, and calls for
contact lens) oneself both linguistic and extra-linguistic logic.
Compound adjectives 4 _______ ahead, around, to the
future, out! 9 Help the students to distinguish
freeze -produced
ready -baked 5 _______ advice, notice, someone a between adjectives and adverbs.
organically -dried lot of trouble Show the students that there are words
freshly -made 6 _______ conditions, productivity, that can be both adverbs and adjectives.
performance For example, alone, deep, direct, extra,
(freeze-dried, ready-made / ready-baked,
7 _______ a promise, the ice far, fast, first, hard, inside, last, late,
organically-produced, freshly-baked /
8 _______ a trick, the fool, truant little, long, loud, near, next, only, outside,
freshly-made)
9 _______ a sensation, problems, past, right, well, wrong. Ask the students
5 a lot of damage to use these words in sentences to show
Teach how we can use
10 _______ a table at a restaurant, the different uses. For example:
compounds to make larger units
tickets The late passengers had to wait for the
and collocations.
Show the students how to use (1 pay 2 take 3 make 4 look 5 give next flight. (adjective)
compound words with the other words 6 improve 7 break 8 play 9 cause We cannot wait for you if you arrive late.
to make longer common collocations. 10 book) (adverb)
For example: 7 Demonstrate new uses for old. 10 Help the students to distinguish
a) Match these compound adjectives
Develop the students’ vocabularies by between nouns and verbs.
with the nouns in the box.
taking words they know already and Teach the students that there are words
instant coffee fruit and vegetables teaching new meanings for them. that can be used both as nouns and as
bread and pastries frozen meals Explore homophones, homonyms and verbs. For example, dance, crash, cut,
near synonyms. Known leads to dread, wish, smell, fight, shape, track,
1 freeze-dried unknown again. Get the students to use rock, point, bend, burn. Ask the students
2 ready-made learners’ dictionaries in order to find to use these words in sentences to show
3 organically-produced sentences where words (eg stamp, stick, their different uses. For example:
bow, line and mine) are used with My boyfriend asked me to the dance.
4 freshly-baked
different meanings. (noun)
(1 freeze-dried instant coffee 2 ready- Produce exercises where dictionary
made frozen meals 3 organically- She danced all night. (verb)
definitions are jumbled and the students
produced fruit and vegetables have to match them to the correct words. Point out that there are words that can
4 freshly-baked bread and pastries) For example: be verbs or nouns depending on the
placement of stress. For example:
b) Use the compound nouns in the box to segment – a segment; to invite – an
line mine stamp stick
to complete these sentences. invite; to import – an import; to produce
bus stop film star 1 _______ n. small sticky square of – produce; to subject – a subject; to
driving licence contact lens paper as proof of payment/ vb. hit the object – an object; to record – a record.
ground with your foot / vb. place an Read out pairs of words like these
1 He is a famous _______. inked seal on a document (without to or the article) and ask the
2 I waited at my usual _______. 2 _______ n. an extended horizontal students to put them into columns under
mark on paper / vb. put a lining in a verb or noun. They can then demonstrate
3 I need some _______ solution.
skirt, curtains, etc / n. a queue the differences in sentences. ETp
4 This _______ has expired.
3 _______ vb. make something adhere After many years in ELT,
(1 film star 2 bus stop 3 contact lens teaching and publishing,
to something else with glue, etc / n. part
4 driving licence) Isobel Fletcher de Téllez
of a branch of a tree has founded Viva Lexico
to pursue the
6 Actively teach collocations. 4 _______ poss pron. belonging to me / possibilities of teaching
In collocation activities, give the vb. take coal, gold, minerals, etc out of lexis and grammar with
software games.
students a good range of clues so that the ground commercially / n. place
one chance of ‘knowing the answer’ can where coal, gold, minerals, etc are
lead to learning more collocations: extracted from the ground
tellez@btinternet.com
known leads to unknown. For example: (1 stamp 2 line 3 stick 4 mine)

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 • 17

 Over
the
wall ... Alan Maley
sits back and puts
his feet up.
ooking back, it is amazing just
L how much ink has been spilt in
the celebration of idleness.
English literature alone is littered
with loiterers. Back in 1758, Samuel
Johnson published his articles for The
Idler, claiming that ‘he who embarks on
the voyage of life will always wish to
advance rather by the impulse of the
wind than by the strokes of the oar’.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1885 essay An
Apology for Idlers is a muscular and
impassioned defence of a free-wheeling
existence as opposed to the narrowly-
constrained life of institutional education
and mind-destroying work. He complains
that ‘extreme busyness … is a symptom
of deficient vitality, and a faculty for
idleness implies a catholic appetite and a
strong sense of identity’. Idlers in
literature include Mark Twain’s Tom
Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. (The way
Tom turns the painting of his aunt’s fence
into a fun activity – by others – is a
classic example of the transformation of
iStockphoto.com / © Steven Robertson
work into play.) And in 19th-century
Germany, Joseph Freiherr von
Eichendorff published From the Life of a
Good-for-nothing. Probably the greatest
literary idler ever was Oblomov, in Ivan
Goncharov’s 19th-century novel of the
same name, a man for whom the effort of
getting out of bed was too much, and
18 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
who could not face marriage because it
involved so much work and disruption.
‘What would be the good of it?’ he asks
about any expenditure of effort.
More recently, the light-hearted
chapter On Being Idle, in Jerome K
There is nothing
new in books
extolling the
virtues of idleness
and leisure
Jerome’s Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow,
extols the virtues of leisure. Interestingly,
though, he wants to be idle so as to have
the time to do what he enjoys. As he
says: ‘There is no fun in doing nothing
when you have nothing to do.’ This
echoes Stevenson’s comment that
idleness ‘does not consist in doing
nothing but in doing a great deal not
recognized by the dogmatic formularies
of the ruling class’.
So there is nothing new in books
extolling the virtues of idleness and
leisure.
In Praise of Idleness
Bertrand Russell’s essay In Praise of
Idleness, first published in 1935, is chiefly
an historical-economic argument for a
reduction in the hours of work. Russell is
incensed by the fundamental inequity of
a system where ‘we have no economic
justice, so that a large proportion of the
total produce goes to a small minority of
the population, many of whom do no
work at all ... we produce hosts of things
that are not wanted. We keep a large
proportion of the working population idle,
because we can dispense with their
labour by making the others overwork’.
He claims that ‘If the ordinary wage-
earner worked four hours a day, there
would be enough for everybody and no
unemployment ...’. The leisure produced
in this way would then be available for
education and for becoming more
interesting and fulfilled people. The idea
that we need to be idle in order to use
our time differently is one we shall return
to later. Russell’s essay has particular
resonance in the current global crisis. It is
hopelessly idealistic, yet contains the
germs of ideas which, if taken up, could
radically change people’s lives for the
better. His highly unorthodox views are
expressed with the trenchant clarity we
would expect from the razor-sharp
intellect of this socially-committed
philosopher. It is worth reading for the
English written style alone.
The Play Ethic
Pat Kane’s The Play Ethic is a more
recent attempt to propose an alternative
to the work ethic. It takes itself very
seriously and is a good deal too long at
354 pages, plus over 80 pages of notes
and references. The main idea is simple:
that we need to make time for ourselves
to play in and that in a connected world,
the conditions are ripe for a play ethic to
replace the work ethic which currently
stifles our creativity and humanity. There
are ten chapters, each dealing with play
in a different domain, including the net,
male–female and family relationships,
education, the arts, business, politics and
spirituality. Sadly, it is written in a style
which this reader found almost
impenetrable: massively repetitious,
portentous, ponderous, self-indulgent,
self-consciously hip and seriously
infected with ‘logorrhoea’. Reading it was
like trying to cut up molasses with a
chainsaw. This is a pity. There are some
important ideas buried in this labyrinth of
words – the need to reduce working
hours, the possibility of instituting a
citizen’s wage, the need to balance the
right to play with the obligation to care for
others, the desirability of dissolving the
work–play division so that work becomes
play and play is work, etc. To save time,
try Chapter 2, A General Theory of Play,
and Chapter 6, on education. There is
also a Play Ethic website.
How to be Idle
Much more entertaining is How to be Idle
by Tom Hodgkinson. This book takes us
through the 24 hours of a day, each hour
having a chapter devoted to a different
aspect of idleness – for example, 10 am
Sleeping In, 1 pm The Death of Lunch,
3 pm The Nap, 4 pm Time for Tea, 6 pm
First Drink of the Day, 7 pm On Fishing,
2 am The Art of Conversation, and so on.
The treatment is light-hearted and
humorous, drawing on a wide spectrum
of sources, ranging from the Bible and
Dr Johnson to Charles Lamb, G K
Chesterton, Izaac Walton and Oscar
Wilde. Here is a small sample of quotes
which give something of the flavour of
the book: ‘Long periods of languor,
indolence and staring at the ceiling are
needed by any creative person in order to
develop ideas.’ ‘The pedestrian … walks
As teachers, perhaps
we need to review our
extreme busyness
and reflect on the
benefits of doing less
for pleasure, he observes but does not
interfere, he is not in a hurry, he is happy
in the company of his own mind, he
wanders detached, wise and merry,
godlike. He is free.’ ‘Walking may seem
like a waste of time to your man of
business, but to the creative spirit it is a
fertile activity, for it is when walking that
the flaneur thinks and generates ideas.’
‘... fishing is a superb way of doing
nothing. It legitimises idleness ... what lies
at its heart is perfect stillness and
inactivity.’ ‘Other readily available forms
of meditation include hill-walking, sitting
by the fire, listening to music with your
eyes closed, fishing, smoking, and even
long periods of motorway driving …’ ‘We
are more interested in our new cars than
in the contents of our own heads.’
However, beneath the boisterous and
irreverent tone, there is a serious intent.
Idleness is being promoted for two
purposes: at the level of society, to resist
the forces of consumerist capitalism, and
at the personal level, to take back control
of time so as to be able to use it
creatively in the service of ‘being’ rather
than ‘getting’ and ‘doing’. I was reminded
of Wordsworth’s sonnet:
The world is too much with us;
late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste
our powers.
Whether or not we agree with
Hodgkinson’s arguments, this is a
delightful read, witty and deliberately
iconoclastic and provocative.

As teachers, perhaps we need to review
our extreme busyness and reflect on the
benefits of doing less. This would apply
within the classroom as we teach, when
we might get used to doing less and
thinking more. Teaching harder does not
necessarily lead to students learning
harder. As someone once said, ‘Don’t just
do something; stand there!’ We might
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •
also reflect on the benefits of creating a
more playful space in our classes.
The advantages of idleness also
apply to our lives outside the classroom.
The health benefits of periods of
reflective inactivity are well-attested. It is
also true that many artistic and scientific
breakthroughs occur in moments of reverie
rather than fevered action. Subconscious
mental activity thrives on a diet of rest. The
brain needs time and leisure to incubate.
In the words of Virginia Woolf, ‘It is in our
idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged
truth sometimes comes to the top’. ETp
Freiherr von Eichendorff, J From the Life
of a Good-for-nothing
(www.michaelhaldane.com/
Taugenichts.htm)
Goncharov, I Oblomov Penguin 2005
Hodgkinson, T How to be Idle Hamish
Hamilton 2004 (www.idler.co.uk)
Jerome, J K Idle Thoughts of an Idle
Fellow (www.literaturepage.com/
read/idlethoughts-3.html)
Johnson, S The Idler
(www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/
readfile?fk_files=14832308)
Kane, P The Play Ethic: A Manifesto for a
Different Way of Living Macmillan 2006
(www.theplayethic.com)
Russell, B In Praise of Idleness and Other
Essays Unwin Paperbacks 1960
Stevenson, R L An Apology for Idlers
Penguin 2009
(see also www.grammar.about.com/
classicessays/a/apologstevenson.htm)
Twain, M The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn Bantam 1981
Twain, M The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Penguin 1986
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
Writing for ETp
Would you like to write for ETp?
We are always interested in new writers
and fresh ideas. For guidelines and
advice, write to us or email:
helena.gomm@pavpub.com
19
 IN THE CLASSROOM use with my students. Hearn, who lived
in Japan from 1890 until his death in
1904, was a masterful re-teller of the

Reading
tales of old Japan, who was described
by Roger Pulvers as ‘the interpreter of
a Japanese soul that the Japanese
themselves were loath to expose or
recognize until … safely modernized’.

Selecting the story

aloud
The aim of reading stories aloud in the
English language classroom is to
develop the students’ prosodic reading
skills, including stress, intonation,
volume, articulation, pronunciation,
pacing, phrasing, rhythm and
expression. Prosody is a key component
in reading fluency, as readers actively
construct the meaning of the text as
they listen at first and then read aloud

L
James W Porcaro istening to stories and telling
themselves. Thus, it aids in building the
them are delightful treats we
reading skills of word recognition and
tells a tale of old Japan. enjoy throughout our lives. As
a child, everyone has relished
listening to stories read to them from
books or related orally by older members
of the family or society, stories which are
often taken from the traditional folklore
of their culture. As adults, we treasure
the joy of reading aloud or telling
stories to children, and we also take
pleasure in listening ourselves to
professional storytellers relating comic,
dramatic and historical tales in both
traditional and modern formats.
Reading stories aloud in the English
language classroom, as real an
environment as any other in our lives, is
merely a natural extension of our social
experience. Moreover, it can be an
engaging, motivating and effective means
of language instruction for learners at
any age or level of proficiency and from
any background. Folktales, in particular,
are marvellously rich instructional
material for English language teaching. comprehension. In addition, oral
Teachers who work outside their own presentation of stories builds poise, self-
countries can explore the folklore in the confidence and self-expression in
culture in which they live and work to English language learners. Moreover,
find suitable tales for their classes, or for teachers who are uncertain about
borrow stories that would fit well with their own language proficiency or their
their students from the trove of other ability to tell a story in English, reading
countries. Indeed, teaching English as an stories aloud and internalising the
international language should include the continuous flow of English is one of the
sharing of such stories around the world. best ways of improving these skills.
In this article, I present storytelling Listening to stories and reading them
as oral reading and describe the ways in aloud also influence spontaneous
which I employ this teaching technique, speaking in a positive way, not only by
using the example of one of several exposing learners to lots of good
Japanese folktales from the collection language as comprehensible input in an
written in English by Lafcadio Hearn absorbing, natural and meaningful
more than a hundred years ago which I context, but also through the intimate 

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 • 21


Reading

aloud
engagement between storyteller and
listener that is essential for successful
personal communication of any kind.
Selection of good stories,
appropriate for one’s classes, is
paramount. I draw on a repertoire of
very carefully chosen and edited short
stories, each about 400–500 words in
length. These are appropriate for the
students in my university and high-
school classes, who generally range from
false-beginner to low-intermediate levels,
in terms of sparking their interest and a
positive response, as well as the students’
ability to handle both the language and
the content, along with the associated
tasks which I assign. I very much enjoy
telling all these stories to my classes.
They contain dramatic episodes that are
readily impressed on the students’
imaginations. They include a clear and
easily understandable storyline with
manageable vocabulary, easily
recognisable characters, a combination
of narrative and dialogue, a pivotal
dramatic element that the students can
appreciate and the opportunity for
dramatic oral expression. The stories
can be used effectively for listening,
reading, recitation and writing tasks.
The story
The story I would like to introduce here
is called Mujina, though the strange
character in it is known to the Japanese
as Nopperabo. I will describe the ways in
which I use this story for two 90-minute
lessons with my university classes or
four 50-minute lessons in high school.
A nopperabo is a humanoid creature
whose face is like an egg, with no eyes,
no nose and no mouth! I introduce the
story to the students first by showing
them pictures (sourced from Google
Images) of several strange creatures
from Japanese folklore which are well
known to them. These include
nopperabo, kappa (a mischievous water
sprite), oni (an ogre), rokurokubi (a
trickster with a long stretched neck),
tengu (a long-nosed goblin) and
hitotsume-kozo (a one-eyed, long-
tongued boy), along with a few others. I
22 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
enlarge the pictures onto A3-size paper I introduce the limited number of
so they can be clearly seen by classes of
20 or even 30 students. Of course, the
pictures could be put on PowerPoint
keywords I have retained in the text
which the students are likely not to
know. I also explain the purpose of the
and projected even larger on a screen. I
am very careful to show the creatures in
a cute, appealing form rather than a
creepy, menacing form, which might
turn off some students. Indeed, the
lesson in brief, simple terms that they
can easily understand – reminding them
of the storytelling tradition in Japan
that includes, for example, comic
storytellers (rakugo-ka) and those who
images I show elicit from the students a recite for puppet theatre (bunraku). I
palpable feeling of interest and sense of recommend that teachers in other
nostalgia for the tales about these countries, too, refer to such local
traditions in order to give a valid
context for the lesson.
Next, I hand out the text of the
story and read it twice while the
students follow it on paper. In these
readings I demonstrate clearly what I
mean, in particular by pacing and
phrasing. I also pay attention to other
prosodic elements such as voice volume,
articulation and expression so that the
students notice them.
Reading a story aloud should be
enjoyable for both teacher and students.
As Jeremy Harmer says: ‘Many primary
teachers know the tremendous benefits
[of reading to children] … as they read
out a story with animation, enthusiasm
and often different voices – a real
performance.’ And it works for high-
school and university students, too!
From time to time, even, my classes
respond at the end of my reading with
spontaneous applause. That really
creatures which they heard years before
makes my day!
as children. As my classes at the
Next, the students do paired
university include some Chinese
repeated reading (PRP). I split the story
exchange students, and at high school
into three parts, approximately equal in
some students from other countries
length, and they read it aloud in pairs
such as the Philippines and Pakistan,
this introduction serves well to
introduce an aspect of Japanese culture,
its folklore, with which they are not
familiar – and they seem to appreciate
that. (I hope that readers of this article
in countries other than Japan will also
have their interest in Japanese folklore
aroused and consider using Japanese
folktales in their own classes, just as I
use some stories from other lands.)
Presenting the story
Next, I show the class two wonderfully
drawn pictures, enlarged from the
simplified version of the Mujina story
published by OUP (and which I have
further edited). These show clearly the
characters and setting of the story. The
students can easily imagine the events of
the story as I preview them with the aid
of the pictures.

from two to four times, alternating their
reading of parts 1, 2 and 3. As Joshua
Cohen points out, ‘repeated reading
works as a scaffold for struggling readers’
and frees up teachers, ‘allowing them to
monitor their students’ progress with
minimal management’. Repeated reading
gives the weaker students a chance to
get their mouths around a continuous
flow of correctly-formed, meaningful
English which they are not yet so good
at doing in spontaneous speaking. At
the same time, as Sally Gibson reminds
us, more proficient readers and speakers
usually ‘need to slow down and articulate
more carefully, and [reading aloud] helps
with this’.
The final stage of the storytelling
lesson is student recitation in front of
the class by selected groups of three, in
which each student reads in turn one of
the three parts of the story. I usually
choose three groups to do this, ie nine
students in total. During the course of
the year, as I do at least three stories in
this way, every student gets a chance to
read part of a story in front of the class.
Those students with more limited
capacity to read in English are not
asked to recite until later in the year. It
is important to exercise care and
sensitivity and to establish a supportive
environment for this task. Not only do
the students have to trust the teacher’s
judgement that they can do the
recitation capably, they must also have
confidence in themselves and be able to
demonstrate respect and appreciation
for the efforts and accomplishments of
every member of the class. In fact, I
find that as the year goes on, some
students volunteer to recite to the class,
and the shared class experience of
listening to the story and reading it
aloud is quite gratifying.
Following up the story
In the following lesson, I refer to the
frightening experience of the poor old
man in the Mujina story who twice in
the same night met a nopperabo: one he
had assumed was a beautiful young
woman and the other an itinerant
noodle seller. I then tell the students
four true frightening experiences from
my own life. Each story is only about
120 words long and I tell each one
twice. The students listen and answer a
few comprehension questions on each
story on a handout. I check their
answers immediately after telling each
story. After this, I give the students
another handout with the four stories
written down, and I read them once
more as they follow the text. This
activity reinforces sight-word
recognition for those with weak English
reading skills. Note: this is the only way
almost all my Japanese students have
learnt to read in English. Phonics is
very seldom used to teach Japanese
English language learners to read.
Next, the students are asked to write
at least 120 words about a true
frightening experience that happened to
them, using the style of my stories as a
model. Usually, they start this in class
so that I can see they are on the right
track and then finish it for homework.
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •
I collect the stories in the next
Phillip Burrows
lesson, read them after class and select
four of the most interesting. I then
polish the English and print the stories
to hand out in the next lesson. I then
read to the class these true frightening
experience stories from four of their
classmates in the same manner that I
previously told my own true stories. The
students seem to appreciate the fact that
the effort and expression in their own
work is valued and is being used as
instructional material. In higher-
proficiency classes, after the students
have handed in their stories, I get them
to take turns to tell their stories to a
partner. When the task is completed, I
call on a few of them to summarise the
story they just heard from their partner.

And so ends a series of lessons that began
‘Mukashi, mukashi, …’ (Once upon a
time ...), with the reading of a Japanese
folktale in English. I firmly believe that
the universality and instructional value
of folktales gives them a well-deserved
place in the classroom of English as an
international language. ETp
Cohen, J ‘Building fluency through the
repeated reading method’ English
Teaching Forum 49 (3) 2011
Fukushima, M ‘Storytelling for primary
school English provision: is it worth
exploring?’ Journal of the Faculty of
Child Development and Education,
Toyama University of International
Studies 2011
Gibson, S ‘Reading aloud: a useful
learning tool?’ ELT Journal 62 (1) 2008
Harmer, J ‘Is reading aloud allowed?’
English Teaching Professional 65 2009
Hearn, L Kwaidan Tuttle 1971
Hearn, L Stories from Lafcadio Hearn
OUP 1983
Pulvers, R ‘Lafcadio Hearn: interpreter
of two disparate worlds’ The Japan
Times 2000
James W Porcaro is a
Professor at Toyama
University of
International Studies in
Japan, where he has
lived and worked since
1985. He also teaches
classes and advises
Japanese teachers of
English at the
university’s attached
high school.
porcaro@po1.ctt.ne.jp
23
 TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS
Educating Elsie
Fiona Baker has to adopt special teaching strategies for very special needs.
T
he children I always remember are
those who have challenged me to
enhance my professional
development, do some background
reading and build my repertoire of
professional skills. I particularly
remember children with special needs:
Sami, a child with early-onset bipolar
disorder, and Angie, who was uncared
for and daily came to school with her
pyjamas under her uniform. I can also
remember the diversity and challenges
presented by learners of English as a
Second Language, foster children and
domestic adoptees. It really seemed
that over the years, I had developed an
understanding of diverse populations
and could assess and accommodate the
whole range in my teaching of English.
Meet Elsie
Then, one day, a small dark-haired
eight-year-old girl with an appealing
facial expression entered my classroom,
lunchbox in hand. She appeared bright
and self-confident and I immediately
said ‘Hi’ and asked her a question or
two. She didn’t reply, so I beckoned her
to sit down. It was then that I learnt
that Elsie did not understand or speak
a word of English.
Shortly after, I met her parents – a
professional couple, fairly mature in
years – and learnt that she had been
adopted from China only a couple of
months previously. Elsie was not an
only child – she had joined a family of
four biological children and her parents
were keen to talk about their adoption
experience. They reassured me that
Elsie would rapidly develop her English
by communicating with her siblings,
who were giving her lots of attention.
24 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

They had high expectations of their
new daughter and were keen to be
involved in her education. This gave me
a certain sense of reassurance, as a
healthy partnership with Elsie’s parents
would be necessary to understand and
support Elsie better in her learning.
Progress and problems
Elsie was put in Year 2, a year below her
grade level by age, and her oral skills
progressed rapidly during that first year.
In spite of her lack of language, she
evidenced natural leadership skills and
integrated well with her classmates. She
was like a little magnet: the other
children gravitated towards her and she
was never socially isolated, having plenty
of opportunities to grow through
positive interactions with her peers.
In comparison to her
spoken skills, Elsie’s
progress in literacy was
slow and lagged far
behind the others
While engaged in play-based learning
activities, she often spoke in Chinese,
until English words began gradually to
appear in her conversation.
However, during this adjustment to
English, she started to show irritation
and frustration, and one day she got so
angry that I had to call her parents. We
discussed ways in which Elsie could be
helped to adjust. It seemed that she was
internalising anxiety and had started to
withdraw. She needed assistance in
regulating her emotions and I prompted
the school to offer her an additional
daily integrated language arts lesson and
extra one-on-one support. She became
part of a group of ESL learners where all
four language skills were taught in an
integrated fashion. Her oral language
progressed rapidly, which I put down to
the reality of living in an English-speaking
environment at home and perhaps a lack
of prior experience. Elsie was certainly
at an advantage compared to the other
ESL learners – refugees and immigrants
– I had taught in the past, who reverted
to their home language outside school.
In this respect, Elsie was well-placed to
make more rapid progress.
In comparison to her spoken skills,
Elsie’s progress in literacy was slow and
lagged far behind the others. Progress
was being made, though, and she was still
new in the country, so I simply felt that
she needed more time. It was also unfair
to make comparisons: we hadn’t assessed
Elsie’s language skills in Chinese on her
arrival, and I knew nothing about any
formal education received in Chinese or
any pre-existing conditions that might
now be affecting her progress.
Background research
I felt it was important to do some
reading in order to fill the gaps in my
knowledge, so I started to do some
research into Elsie’s country of birth
and the likely pre-adoption conditions
that might have some effect on her
literacy development. The more I read,
the more interested I became in her
background. At the same time, I
realised that Elsie’s adoptive mother
might not wish to divulge a lot about
her daughter’s past and knew I must
respect confidentiality. I was, therefore,
 TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS
pleasantly surprised when her mother
started to talk about planning a return
trip to China to resolve some
questions regarding Elsie’s early life.
They were going on what is known as a
‘motherland’ tour. Her mother
explained she felt this was crucial for
Elsie’s emotional development as she
wanted to make China ‘real’ for her
child, to find out more about the
orphanage she came from and Elsie’s
pre-adoption life and learning
experiences, and to give Elsie a chance
to meet people who shared her
physical appearance. This opened up an
opportunity for me to talk about Elsie’s
background. Surprisingly, her mother
was willing to share what she knew and
talked openly about her adoption
group. I started to realise that she was
a useful resource because she had up-
to-date knowledge on international
adoption and child development. I had
thought that adoptive parents might be
reluctant to tell other people that their
child was adopted, but I learnt from her
that this is often not the case.
Strategies and success
Teaching Elsie’s class required me to call
on everything I knew about second
language literacy learning. I used games
to teach the most common ‘sight words’
(those high-frequency words which a
fluent reader should recognise on sight)
and phonics instruction to tackle other
words in a range of simple texts. I used
all the strategies I had tried and tested
over the years, and communicated as
clearly as possible, using a range of ways,
including visuals, to help the children
access the meaning of new vocabulary. I
introduced ‘buddy pairs’ and made every
attempt to find a person willing to
provide translations in Chinese to help
Elsie adjust to life in an English-speaking
country and to increase her confidence
and comfort level.
There were signs that Elsie was
catching on, but I felt that she could do
even better, so I arranged a tutor for
her, who visited the class for several
half-hour sessions per week. I thought
hard about what I could do to promote
Elsie’s literacy skills and settled on
working with her on her interests. She

had shown a passion for hands-on
science and a great love of water – she
swam like a dolphin. She loved to talk
about swimming, paddling and playing in
the sea. I used this interest to arouse
her curiosity in reading and writing, and
found CD-ROMs and computer-based
software on topics that would appeal to
her. This was particularly helpful as the
computer could read a text aloud or we
could read it together ourselves. This
was motivating for Elsie and she started
to show a genuine enjoyment of reading.
She became less frustrated and volatile
in her behaviour. As she acquired more
There will be other
Elsies and other teachers
will be relying on their
own instincts to find ways
of accommodating them
and more language, her concentration
improved and she started to grow in
confidence as she read words correctly
and had consistent monitoring, feedback
and rewards. This strategy was time-
consuming, but I knew I had to persist
because the results would be worth it.
In addition, I was developing my
professional repertoire of strategies
and techniques that I would be able to
use in future with other children.
Insights and
information
Elsie’s mother taught me that
internationally-adopted children are
special cases because they are not
bilingual but, rather, develop ‘second first
language acquisition’. This has different
characteristics from bilingualism, as the
birth language is shed and English – or
the language of the adoptive parents’
country – takes over. It had not occurred
to me before that there might be
differences between an ESL child and an
international adoptee in terms of
language development. As a trainee
teacher, I had studied classroom diversity
and special needs, but the concept of an
internationally-adopted child had never
been discussed. I was grateful to have the
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •
opportunity to further my knowledge,
especially as it became clear that Elsie’s
case was not unique – thousands of
children are adopted into the United
States each year, and there is a possibility
that this number will grow. I had
successfully implemented a personalised
learning strategy and was now eager to
learn if there were other considerations,
approaches and techniques that I could
employ which would be even more
effective for Elsie.
Reading about the population of
internationally-adopted children – and
specifically about their needs – was
enlightening. I wondered why this
unique population had never been
mentioned on my teacher-training
course. There will be other Elsies within
our school system and other teachers
will be relying on their own instincts to
find ways of accommodating them. I
wonder, and worry, about all the other
internationally-adopted children in
classrooms where there is little
understanding or accommodation.

If we really want to reach out to all the
children in our classes, we need to
include information about the unique
population of international adoptees in
our teacher-training courses so that
new teachers are aware of the
conditions which may impact on their
language and literacy development, and
to ensure that techniques and
strategies are in place to give them the
best possible help. Schools also need to
make sure that teachers have the time
and resources to work with each child
in their own way, and the time and
opportunities to work together with
parents and professionals involved in
international adoption. ETp
Fiona Baker holds a PhD
in Education from Exeter
University, UK. She is an
early years educator and
teacher trainer,
employed at a dedicated
teacher training college
in Abu Dhabi, UAE. She
is also the adoptive
parent of a six year old.
fbaker@ecae.ac.ae
25
 IN THE CLASSROOM
Doing it
together
H
Liu Jingxia focuses Douglas Brown defines
groupwork as ‘a generic term
on the factors that make covering a multiplicity of
techniques in which two or
good groupwork. more students are assigned a task that
involves collaboration and self-initiated
language’. Groupwork creates natural,
interactive contexts in which the
students have authentic reasons for
communicating with each other, such as
asking questions, clarifying issues and
restating points of view; it also involves
them listening carefully to other
speakers. The aim is to give the learners
more opportunities to interact, thereby
developing their communicative
competence. Because of its many
benefits, groupwork has been much
advocated and widely implemented in
language-teaching classrooms around
the world, and there is plenty of
research to support its use. A study by
Long, Adams, McLean and Castaños,
for example, compared speech samples
from two teacher-led class discussions
to samples from two small-group
discussions doing the same task in an
intermediate-level adult class in Mexico.
The results showed that the amount of
student talk was significantly greater in
the small-group discussions than in the
teacher-led discussions, and that the
students working in small groups
produced both a greater quantity and a
better quality of language than those in
the teacher-fronted, inflexible classroom
setting.
Besides increasing language practice
opportunities and improving the quality
of the students’ output, groupwork
boasts a number of other advantages:
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •
● It helps to individualise instruction;
● It motivates students to learn and
gives them a more active role in
learning;
● It reduces the dominance of the
teacher over the class and enables the
teacher to work more as a facilitator
and consultant;
● It promotes collaboration among
learners.
In recent decades, the use of groupwork
in the language classroom has become
widespread. However, as many researchers
(including Michael Grenfell and Vee
Harris) point out, in many cases it has
been demonstrated to be far less effective
than it should have been. The successful
The amount of
student talk was
significantly greater
in the small-group
discussions than in
the teacher-led
discussions
application of groupwork depends on
many variables in a real classroom setting;
these include the students’ character and
motivation, the topic, the task type, the
teacher’s organisation of the groupwork,
etc. So it is well worth studying how
group activities can best be managed.
This article looks at the structure of 
27

Doing it
together
 groupwork, the role of the teacher and
groupwork task types – and attempts to
provide some suggestions for making it
more effective.
Group structure
Group structure is regarded as one of the
most important elements in the ‘group
behavior model’ proposed by Stephen
Robbins and his colleagues. Their
examination of group structure looked
at factors such as norms, status, size,
composition, cohesiveness and formal
leadership. Here I will focus on two of
these elements: size and composition.
Size
There are two opposing tendencies with
regard to the number of people in a
group. The larger the group, the greater
is the pool of talent and experience
available for solving problems and
sharing ideas. However, as the size of a
group increases, fewer members have
the chance to participate, and one or
two members begin to dominate.
Small groups enhance the
opportunities for each member to
participate actively and reduce the
complexity of group management.
However, when group membership falls
below five, the diversity and variety of
interpersonal interaction diminishes.
With more than eight members, the
contribution from some individuals will
start to decline. So in general, there is a
consensus that the optimum size for
small-group teaching is between five
and eight members.
In addition, small groups are more
conducive to the formation of close
relationships, the building of trust and
the harmonisation of aims among the
members, as well as to the development
of positive interdependence and
individual accountability. Johnson,
Johnson and Smith (cited by Barbara
Gross Davis) claimed that the less
skilful the group members, the smaller
the groups should be; and that groups
should also be smaller if the amount of
time available for the task is limited.
Composition
There are several ways of forming the
groups, including self-selection (letting
28 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
the students choose whom they want to
work with), random assignment or
selection based on specific criteria. For
example, teachers may choose to assign
students to particular groups to
maximise their heterogeneity: achieving
a balance of male and female students
or talkative and quiet students. They
may take into account the students’
prior achievements, their levels of
preparation, work habits, etc.
David Jaques claims that ‘a
heterogeneous mix of students in each
group provides the best chemistry for
interaction and achievement of task’.
Mixed groups may provide a wider
range of resources, thus achieving more
stimulating discussion. Therefore, such
qualities as age, sex, nationality,
personality, linguistic ability and degree
of talkativeness may be taken into
account. Other researchers assert that
different goals require different group
membership: if the goal of learning is
to master new language items, a
As the size of
a group increases,
fewer members
have the chance to
participate, and one
or two members
begin to dominate
superior–inferior arrangement, with a
more proficient learner in the superior
position, would be a useful choice; if
the goal is to develop fluency, groups
could be made up of learners of equal
proficiency working in a cooperative
arrangement.
Many researchers maintain that in
order to ensure participation and retain
control of the activity, it is essential for
the teacher to pre-assign groups.
H Douglas Brown recommends that
grouping should take the following
variables into account: native language
(especially in multilingual classes where
the students have a variety of native
language backgrounds), proficiency
levels, age and gender differences,
culture or sub-cultural groups,
personality types, interests, and so on.
In order to pre-assign groups, the
teacher has to possess a thorough
knowledge of each individual student.
The teacher’s role
The success of any groupwork is to a
great extent closely related to how the
teacher deals with the students. Even
though it may not be a traditional role,
the role that the teacher plays in
groupwork is an important one. The
teacher is no longer the person with all
the answers and does not provide
systematic instruction designed to
produce right answers or correct
performance. The teacher is a co-learner
and facilitator, acting as a guide and
coach who strives to increase the
students’ participation in decisions,
encourages the expression of the
students’ own ideas and guides them to
increasingly sophisticated levels of
comprehension and performance.
H Douglas Brown lists some good
advice for teachers involved in
groupwork:
● Don’t sit at your desk and grade
paper;
● Don’t leave the room and take a
break;
● Don’t spend an undue amount of
time with one group at the expense of
the others;
● Don’t correct the students’ errors
unless they ask you to;
● Don’t assume a dominating or
disruptive role when monitoring the
groups.
The selection of appropriate topics is
also important in managing groupwork.
On the basis of different researchers’
viewpoints, Peter Skehan concluded that
an effective communicative task should
possess five features, one of which is that
the task should be connected with the
real world. The task topics should be
specific, associated with the students’ life
experiences or related to their needs. Only
under these conditions, can the students
be truly motivated so as to participate
actively in the groupwork activity.
Task types
The selection of activities for
groupwork will depend on the topic
being studied, the level of the students,
the dynamic of the group and the time
available. Choosing an activity can
entail a great deal of work on the part
of the teacher. The content needs to
appeal to the students; there has to be a
good connection between the content of

Conducting an
interview is an activity
often associated with
pairwork, but it can
also be appropriate
and popular as a
groupwork task
the activity and the topic that the
students have been studying; the task
instructions need to be clear; useful
expressions may have to be provided to
enable the students to carry out the
task, and the roles of the different team
members need to be defined to ensure
that all the students in the group have
equal responsibility.
Here are some popular activities
that lend themselves well to groupwork:
Games
A game can be any activity that can be
scored in some way, thus introducing an
element of competition. Guessing
games are common language classroom
activities.
Roleplays and simulations
In a roleplay, members of a group are
given a specific character or role and
assigned an objective or purpose that
must be accomplished, playing the part
that has been assigned to them.
Simulations usually refer to activities
where the students play themselves in an
imaginary situation. Simulations may
involve larger groups (of six to 20)
where the entire group is working
through an imaginary situation as a
social unit. The object is often to solve
some specific problem.
Drama
Drama is a more structured form of
roleplay or simulation, where the
storyline and script are pre-planned.
Interview
Conducting an interview is an activity
often associated with pairwork, but it
can also be appropriate and popular as
a groupwork task. Interviews are useful
at all levels of proficiency.
Jigsaw
In a jigsaw task, each member of a
group is given some specific information
and they are required to pool all the
information to complete a task.
Problem solving and decision making
In problem-solving group tasks, all the
members of a group work together to ENGLISH
solve a particular problem. Their
attention is focused on meaningful
cognitive challenges and not so much
Tprofessional
EACHING
on grammatical or phonological forms.
A decision-making activity is simply This is your magazine.
another kind of problem-solving We want to hear from you!
activity where the ultimate goal is for
the students to make a decision.

Exchanging opinions
An opinion is usually a belief or feeling
that might not be founded on empirical
IT WORKS IN PRACTICE
data or that other members of a group Do you have ideas you’d like to share
could reasonably argue with. Opinions with colleagues around the world?
are difficult for students to deal with at Tips, techniques and activities;
the lower levels of proficiency, but by simple or sophisticated; well-tried
the intermediate level, some techniques or innovative; something that has
can effectively include the exchange of worked well for you? All published
opinions on various topics. ETp contributions receive a prize!
Write to us or email:
Brown, H D ‘Groupwork, task difference, helena.gomm@pavpub.com
and second language acquisition’
Applied Linguistics 12 1991
Brown, H D Teaching by Principles: An
Interactive Approach to Language TALKBACK!
Pedagogy Prentice Hall Regents 1994
Do you have something to say about
Brown, H D Teaching by Principles: An an article in the current issue of ETp?
Interactive Approach to Language
Pedagogy Beijing Foreign Language This is your magazine and we would
Teaching and Research Press 2001 really like to hear from you.
Write to us or email:
Grenfell, M and Harris, V Modern
Languages and Learning Strategies: In
Theory and Practice Routledge 1999
helena.gomm@pavpub.com
Gross Davis, B Tools for Teaching
Jossey-Bass 1993
Jaques, D Learning in Groups Kogan
Writing for ETp
Page 1991 Would you like to write for ETp? We are
Long, M, Adams, L, McLean, M and always interested in new writers and
Castaños, F ‘Doing things with words – fresh ideas. For guidelines and advice,
verbal interaction in lockstep and small write to us or email:
group classroom situations’ Studies in
Second Language Acquisition 5 1976 helena.gomm@pavpub.com
Robbins, S P, Millett, B, Cacioppe, R and
Water-Marsh, T Organizational Behavior:
Concepts, Controversies and It really worked
Applications Prentice Hall 1998
Skehan, P A Cognitive Approach to
for me!
Language Learning OUP 1998 Did you get inspired by something
you read in ETp? Did you do
Liu Jingxia is an something similiar with your students?
associate professor in
the English Department Did it really work in practice?
of the College of Foreign Do share it with us ...
Languages, Three
Gorges University, in helena.gomm@pavpub.com
Hubei Province, China.
She has 20 years of
English teaching
experience and her ENGLISH TEACHING professional
major fields of research Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd,
are English teaching and
Rayford House, School Road,
discourse studies. She
has published papers in Hove BN3 5HX, UK
Australian, English and Fax: +44 (0)1273 227308
Chinese journals.
Email: admin@pavpub.com
clare04@126.com
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 • 29
 It really worked
in practice!
Nihal Çakmak shows how an ETp article provided inspiration
for her and her students to produce a photo novella.
am an English teacher in Metu Primary School in
I Ankara, Turkey, a private school in which the
students in the fourth and fifth grades have nine
hours of English lessons per week. In 2009, I read
the article ‘Making a photo novella’ by Gary Collins in
Issue 64 of ETp. I really liked the idea and wanted to do
something similar as a project with my students. So I
started a club called Photo Novella at my school – and
16 students signed up.
Working in groups of four, the students came up
with the outline of a plot for a photo novella. They then
created their own characters, wrote scripts and planned
and took photos. They also involved their friends,
teachers and school administrators in their stories.
30 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
Next, they wrote the text for the speech bubbles and
inserted the photos in a Word document, using
PhotoShop to create some of the effects.
The final product was a magazine called Photo
Novella. This was published and distributed to all
fourth- and fifth-grade students and teachers as well as
the school administrators.
This project involved quite a bit of planning and
preparation, but it had the benefits of encouraging the
students to work cooperatively and providing practice
in all the key skills areas.
The photos on this page are some of the frames
from different stories in the magazine, and there is one
complete story, The Magic Window, on page 31.
Did you get inspired by something you read in ETp?
Did you do something similiar with your students?
Did it really work in practice?
Do share it with us ...
helena.gomm@pavpub.com
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 • 31
  IT WORKS IN PRACTICE More tested lessons, suggestions, tips and techniques which have all worked for ETp
readers. Try them out for yourself – and then send us your own contribution. Don’t
forget to include your postal address.
All the contributors to It Works in Practice in this issue of ETp will receive a copy of
the Apple Premium version of Sounds: The Pronunciation App, produced by Macmillan
and based on the best-selling Sound Foundations by Adrian Underhill. Macmillan have
kindly agreed to be sponsors of It Works in Practice for this year.

 A literal music video  Video story writing

This lesson focuses primarily on speaking. The idea is to make a ‘literal music This is a great way to motivate teens to
video’ using Windows Moviemaker, and the activity exploits the fact that music write well. Telling students that they
videos rarely represent the actual lyrics of a song. The students choose a are going to make a video based on
descriptive music video from YouTube and re-write the lyrics so that they match their writing engages and motivates
what is actually happening in the video. them to do a good job. I use an online
video creator, www.photopeach.com,
They have to think fast and be creative in order to produce the video
but any video-creating application,
successfully, then record the new lyrics onto the film and add subtitles.
online or offline, can be used.
Procedure Here is a lesson that works well for
● Choose a video. ● Add the video and subtitles to writing stories with pre-intermediate
Show an example ‘literal video’ to Windows Moviemaker. teens and young adults:
introduce the idea to the class. Then The students work together to
● First, review past tenses and linking
show the original version of a video transfer the video clip onto Windows
words.
which you want the students to work Moviemaker. Once this has been
with. While watching the clip, the done, they add the subtitles to each ● Put the students into groups to
students need to take note of any vivid frame with their ‘literal’ lyrics. decide on their story and write their
draft on paper.
imagery that they find particularly ● Record the lyrics.
memorable. They should compare their Do any editing that is necessary. ● After checking it, they write each
ideas and collate their favourite The students then record themselves individual sentence on card/paper or
images and ideas. They should then on a mini-whiteboard.
singing the lyrics onto the movie –
come up with a ‘literal version’ of the and finalise the project. ● They use mobile phones to take
video or some part of it. photos of the individual sentences.
● Review the project.
● Analyse the entire clip and write The completed version is emailed to ● You can either get the students to
ideas. each student to watch at home and put it together or do it yourself. I
The students then watch the clip again they write a review of it for show my students how to use
without the lyrics. They stop it after homework. The reviews can be www.photopeach.com because it is
each frame which originally had lyrics, analysed in class to compare ideas, quick and easy and they can choose
to write and compare their ideas. and feedback from the students can their own music from YouTube. They
● Check the new lyrics with the tune be collated to highlight the just need to upload the photos, put
of the song. differences in their writing and them in order, then add a music
Once the students have completed ideas before and after doing the video.
their new lyrics, they replay the clip project. ● You can follow up with a ‘video
with only the melody of the song, For more ideas, check out my blog: carnival’ where the students
checking that their words fit the http://teachingenglishandtechnology. comment, either by speaking or
music. While they watch and listen to blogspot.com/ writing, on each other’s stories.
the instrumental clip, they sing the Fiona Mulcahy Helen Collins
new lyrics. Seville, Spain Seville, Spain

34 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 Welcome to London
I believe that using visuals to teach English is very
important, especially with primary-level students. And if
you combine visuals with roleplay, you can get awesome
results. The pictures show models of some of the best-
known symbols of Britain, such as Big Ben, a double-
decker bus, a black cab and a red telephone box, which
a colleague in the technology and design department
made for me. I use these models for roleplays. So, for
example, we use the Big Ben clock tower after I have
taught the students how to ask and answer questions
about time. One student in a pair plays the role of a
Londoner and the other is a tourist asking the time.
The Londoner looks at the model of Big Ben and gives
their answer. They use the double-decker bus to
practise buying a ticket or to ask where the bus stop is
– and some even pretend to be on the bus having a
conversation with the person next to them.
One talented group used the black cab to create a
short play, which they then performed in front of their
classmates. One student played the part of a drunken
cab driver, the others were two teenagers who were
late for school. We all had great fun!
We also use all the models together to create a London
setting in which the students play tourists, asking the
way to various tourist attractions.
I find that as a result of using the models, the students
learn better and remember key words and expressions
for longer. Now, instead of sitting at their desks and
reading what the book asks them to read, they are
motivated to devise their own dialogues.
Safa Komuscu
Eskisehir, Turkey

 What’s the story?

This is a scaffolded creative writing activity for
intermediate students and above that takes
around 25–30 minutes, plus preparation time.
It helps to expand the students’ imaginations.
The students work together in small groups to
create a sensational story. (You should make
sure before you begin that your students are
familiar with this type of story.)
Preparation
You will need paper, glue and a sensational
story from a newspaper or magazine that
includes at least one interesting illustration.
Cut out the picture or pictures and about eight
keywords from the text. Glue the words and
picture(s) onto a sheet of paper and make
enough copies for each group to have one.
Procedure
1 Put the students into groups and
give each group one sheet.
2 Tell the students that the words
and the picture(s) are taken from
a sensational story. Ask them to
work together to try to compose a
possible story that could reflect
the original. Encourage them to
include as much descriptive
writing as they can.
3 When they have finished, give
each group a copy of the original
story to compare with theirs.
4 Ask the students to say how close
their story was to the original,
using a scale from 1 to 6, with
1 being completely different and
6 almost a duplicate copy in terms
of description and details.
5 Ask each group to read out their
story and then get the class to vote
for the story closest to the original
and the one they enjoyed most.
6 You can display the winners on a
‘Best work of the week’ wall.
Mohammed Arroub
Homs, Syria

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 • 35

B USINESS E NGLISH professional
CBI
Phil Wade examines the
rationale behind content-based
instruction.
I
n recent years, the needs of students
of business and academic English
have shifted from general English to
more specific subject areas. As a result,
content-based instruction (CBI) has
been adopted for courses in numerous
institutions, from language schools to
universities. Because of their specific
subject objectives, these courses are
often taught by subject specialists.
There is strong theoretical support
for CBI. Stephen Krashen’s ‘monitor
model’ emphasises the importance of
comprehensible input, something which
CBI courses frequently deliver via levelled
reading. The Acquisition/Learning
dimension is also apparent in that students
taught by CBI are not lectured on or
about language, they learn it through
input or use in small integrated activities.
The Affective Filter is generally
lower in CBI classes as students don’t
regard them as traditional English
classes, and they are frequently highly
motivated to study the topic.
Richard Anderson’s ‘depth of
processing model’ argues that higher-
level thinking and processing equals
better learning. Therefore, a CBI
sociology class could be said to be more
cognitively demanding and, therefore,
more productive than a class on the
present perfect.
Donna Brinton states that proponents
of CBI ‘view the target language largely
as the vehicle through which subject
matter content is learned rather than as
the immediate object of study’. This
clearly sets it apart from traditional
language-centred methods as it focuses
on teaching a subject. In addition, CBI
is an approach rather than a method
and, as such, has no rigid procedures.
According to Jack Richards and
Theodore Rodgers, the rationale behind
it is that ‘people learn a second language
more successfully when they use the
language as a means of acquiring
36 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
information, rather than as an end in itself’
and it ‘better reflects learners’ needs for
learning a second language’. They point to
the positive benefits of the naturalness of
learning the L2 in a similar way to the
L1 and of language learning being an
essential part of the content.
CBI encourages the use of authentic
materials and a natural blending of
skills, with a reading activity linked to a
speaking and perhaps a writing activity.
CBI types
Stephen Davies identifies three basic
types of CBI: sheltered, adjunct and
theme-based. The first often involves a
subject specialist giving content lessons,
backed up by language lessons given by
an ELT teacher. The adjunct type is
similar to EAP for university
preparation classes, which concentrates
on language and skills. Theme-based
CBI focuses on a topic of interest to
students/teachers and subdivides it into
sections or subtopics.
There are also other variations which
adopt activities from other approaches,
such as task-based or project-based
instruction.
CBI topics
I can personally attest to the popularity of
CBI among students, having seen a wide
range of classes on business, drama,
computing, maths, film studies and even
art theory. What is sometimes surprising
is the range of levels of the students
registering for these courses: some degree
of differentiation is needed to enable
comprehensible input for all. My own
recent research on a CBI-designed
debating course in China demonstrated
significant positive student and teacher
responses about the course as a method
of learning English. In fact, most students
didn’t actually consider it to be an English
language course, but did greatly improve
their lexical, grammatical and fluency
skills whilst taking it. In essence, almost
any topic could be taught using CBI, but
it is better if it is academic and teachable
in a classroom environment.
Practical ideas for using CBI
 Use varied authentic reading and
listening input, but ensure they are
comprehensible by helping with language
and ensuring that any reading tasks
encapsulate the essence of the content.
 Use the internet and digital sources
for research and reading and listening
input. Ask the students to create a class
wiki as the course progresses – with
notes, PowerPoint and reflective
discussion sections as well as extra
resources found by the students.
 Let any language work evolve
naturally within the topic and function
as a part of the task.
 Plan lessons around students’ interests
and consult them when choosing topics.
 Try a one-lesson-a-week content class
which could be led by a group of students
who are knowledgeable in the area.
 Give out demanding readings for
homework with language help.
 Encourage the students to form study
groups to discuss or prepare for class
topics.
 Unless you are an expert in the area,
approach the class with a collaborative
mindset where everyone can contribute
to understanding the content.
 Avoid lengthy lectures. Instead,
encourage activities which lead the
students to discover and work with
information. ETp
Anderson, J R and Reder, L M ‘An
elaborative processing explanation of
depth of processing’ In Cermak, L S and
Craik, F I M (Eds) Levels of Processing in
Human Memory Erlbaum 1979
Brinton, D, Snow, M A and Wesche, M B
Content-based Second Language
Instruction Heinle & Heinle 1989
Davies, S ‘Content-based instruction in
EFL contexts (TESL/TEFL)’ The Internet
TESL Journal IX (2) 2003
Richards J C and Rodgers, T S
Approaches and Methods in Language
Teaching CUP 2001
Useful websites
www.carla.umn.edu/cobaltt/CBI.html (lots
on CBI, lessons and templates)
www.britishcouncil.org/colombia-english-
eltconference-2009-kathleen-corrales-cesar-
maloof.pdf (good introductory slideshow)
Phil Wade has a Business
degree, a PGCE, the
CELTA, MA TESOL and
DELTA Module 3. He has
managed an MA business
English course and has
taught corporate,
foundation, undergraduate
and pre-MBA courses. He
is a Cambridge examiner,
materials writer,
contributor to BESIG and
member of the TESOL
France editorial team.
philawade@gmail.com
 ESP Skills for today,
skills for tomorrow
Louis Rogers looks at transferability between academic English
and business English.
T
he number of people graduating
from universities around the
world is increasing on an annual
basis. According to a BBC
report, in countries such as China there
are six times as many graduates as there
were a decade ago, and the International
Labour Organization claims that in the
majority of countries around the world,
people aged 15 to 24 are three times
more likely to be unemployed than any
other age group. In such a competitive
environment, it is understandable that
both students and the institutions training
and educating them are looking for ways
to differentiate themselves. A wide range
of universities now provide Academic and
Professional Skills modules that aim not
only to equip students with the skills that
meet their immediate study needs, but
also to develop in them skills that are
applicable to the workplace. One area
where this is, perhaps, most apparent is
in the area of business studies.
In the UK, one third of all international
students are studying within the field of
business and administrative studies and,
internationally, many students look to
differentiate themselves by improving
their linguistic ability.
An academic business English course
could be said to be one that deals with
the language and skills students need to
In a competitive
environment, it is
understandable that
both students and
the institutions training
and educating them
are looking for ways to
differentiate themselves
operate in their academic environment.
Skills such as undertaking extended
reading and research, referring to other
sources in their own writing and writing a
number of different types of essays or
reports all need to be developed. In a
working environment, it is much more
about giving people the skills and language
to do their job. In other words, to negotiate,
make small talk, send emails, handle
phonecalls and take part in meetings.
It could be argued
that pre-work business
learner material does
not completely fulfil
the needs of an
academic student
However, many students taking a business
English course alongside their degree are
also focusing on their professional
development and future needs in the
employment market. So, to what extent
should an academic business English
course focus on current needs and to what
extent on the future needs of the students?
If, when and how do we need to
supplement pre-work learner coursebooks?
Focus and needs
In terms of an EAP course, the focus is
understandably very academic – and
given that most students can undertake
university-level study with an IELTS score
of only 6.5, it is, perhaps, essential that
this is the case. This relatively low IELTS
score means that students need to be
given a range of academic skills that will
enable them to deal with the context in
which they now find themselves, as many
will only be given limited language support
by this stage. Much published business
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •
English material distinguishes between the
target users as either in-work or pre-work
learners. So, arguably a typical EAP
coursebook and a typical pre-work learner
business coursebook have the same
target audience in mind, admittedly with
the EAP materials having a much wider
range. However, when the two sets of
materials are analysed, it could be
argued that the pre-work business
learner material does not completely fulfil
the needs of an academic student.
 Skills
With regard to the speaking skills that are
taught, the focus on presentations and
meetings in a business coursebook will
be comparable to the EAP focus on
presentations and seminars. The listening
skills are also likely to be similar, focusing
on interactive dialogues and extended
monologues. What is transferable
between the two settings in terms of the
materials and task types? To a certain
extent in terms of the speaking and
listening skills there are a number of
similarities between the two. Within an
academic context, one of the many areas
in which students need to use their
speaking skills is in seminars or
presentations. In a professional context,
these skills are largely similar. A seminar
is not too different from a meeting in
terms of the functional language needed
to give a viewpoint, hedge an opinion,
ask for clarification, rephrase an idea and
refer back to other ideas or a document.
In terms of a presentation, the skills are
again largely similar: an effective
presentation in both settings has well-
researched and engaging content that is
delivered using visual aids, effective
intonation and other prosodic features of
speech. So if there are so many
similarities, why can’t the same materials
be used in both contexts?
When we look at the reading and
writing skills, the approach will probably 
37
 Skills for today,
skills for tomorrow
 differ greatly. Most pre-work business
courses have significantly shorter reading
texts than EAP books. The majority are
written by the authors of the coursebook
and, perhaps, lack a certain authenticity.
Their primary aims are as a vehicle for
discussion, to model grammatical
structures and to provide context for
target vocabulary. In EAP courses, texts
tend to be adapted from authentic
sources or are actually authentic. Their
aim may be to model a language point,
but this will usually be related to a genre
of writing such as ‘cause and effect’ or
‘problem–solution’. The primary focus of
an academic text is to be a vehicle of a
theory, idea or knowledge. The students
are also taught a range of strategies to
enable them to navigate longer texts and
to engage with the sources critically. The
ultimate goal in many cases is to use
these sources to inform an assessed
piece of written work.
 Language
In terms of the language focus, many
EAP materials spend only a limited
amount of time on language
development. The focus is generally on
of supplementation of reading and writing
skills development is required.
lexical development, using Academic
The material below and on page 39
Word Lists, and little time is spent on the
constitutes a lesson on developing what
teaching of tenses. However, when we
is perhaps one of the most clearly
consider that 90 percent of an academic
transferable skills between an academic
text will contain only two tenses – the
and business context – the development
past simple and present simple – this is
of presentation skills. ETp
perhaps not surprising. Also, when we
look at the verb-to-noun ratio, which
Biber, D, Conrad, S and Leech, G
(according to Douglas Biber and his Longman Student Grammar of Spoken
colleagues) is 4:1 in spoken discourse as and Written English Pearson 2002
opposed to 1:1 in academic discourse, BBC ‘Young and unemployed’
this shift again seems logical. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-
14192337 2011
 International Labour Organization ‘Global
Employment Trends 2012: Preventing a
So arguably, whilst one course might be deeper jobs crisis’
labelled a business English course and www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/
another an academic English course, there global-employment-trends/WCMS_
171679/lang—en/index.htm 2012
are in fact a number of similarities between
the two. The material that accompanies Louis Rogers is a
this article could easily be transferred Course Tutor at the
University of Reading,
between an academic or professional UK. He is the author of
situation without any adaptation. Certain Reading Skills and
Writing Skills, in the
texts could be used in both settings, DELTA Academic
perhaps with some adaptation of task Objectives series, and
the Intermediate and
type. However, if a pre-work business Upper-Intermediate
English course is to be used in an Business Result Skills
academic situation and the course partly
for Business Studies
workbooks, published
by OUP.
claims to meet the students’ immediate
l.j.rogers@reading.ac.uk
academic needs, then a significant amount

Presentation skills lesson plan

1 Write on the board Good presentation and Bad
presentation and ask the students to brainstorm the
features of each. If they are struggling, give them some
prompts for main areas, such as structure, organisation,
use of visuals, delivery (stress, pauses, intonation, etc),
body language, preparation. Have a class feedback
session in which they pool ideas.
2 Give pairs or small groups of students a set of the cards
from Worksheet 1 (on page 39) and ask them to put the
category cards (Outlining and introducing the
presentation, Referring backwards and forwards, Adding
more information, Giving an example, Closing and
concluding) across the top of the desk and the other
cards under the correct categories.
3 Read the following sentences aloud, placing the stress
on the underlined word each time. Ask the students how
the use of stress changed the meaning of what you said.
I don’t know why he lives in Birmingham.
I don’t know why he lives in Birmingham.
I don’t know why he lives in Birmingham.
I don’t know why he lives in Birmingham.
4 Write the following sentence on the board and ask the
students to think of at least three different ways of saying
it, stressing different words.
That is the worst idea you’ve ever had.
5 Write the following words on the board and ask the
students to divide them into words that maximise and
minimise a point:
quite, basically, rather, minor, slight, completely, strongly,
major, significantly, fully.
6 Give the students Worksheet 2 (on page 39) and explain
that the techniques practised here are ways of improving
their delivery in a presentation. Ask them to work through
the exercises and then have a class feedback session.
7 Ask the students to prepare a short talk (one or two
minutes) to practise the two delivery skills (adding
vocabulary for emphasis and contrasting). Let them have
a free choice of topic or use some of these ideas – an
academic theory they know well, a company, a product.

38 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 Skills for today, skills for tomorrow

Worksheet 1 – Language focus

Outlining and To illustrate

To move on Furthermore
introducing the this point
presentation

Referring For instance To summarise To turn to

backwards and
forwards
A good example
I should add that To conclude
of this is
Adding more
information
Not only … So I’ll start off This afternoon
but also … by … I’m going to be …

Giving an
example And then I’ll go This brings Now I want to
on to ... me to … turn to …

Closing and
My final point is My presentation
concluding with regard to … today concerns …
Additionally …

Worksheet 2 – Delivery
1 You can add vocabulary, often adverbs and adjectives, to your presentation for greater emphasis.
Use the words in brackets to intensify the point being made.
a The product was too late to market. (just)
b The interpretation of the data was inaccurate. (fundamentally)
c The theory is limited due to the small sample size. (significantly/extremely)
d The idea is popular but not based on any research. (widely/actual)
e The concept was flawed and did not meet customers’ expectations. (clearly/at all)

2 Contrasting can also be used to add emphasis and gain your audience’s interest.
Match the two halves of the sentence to create a contrast.
1 Urbanisation is often seen as a sign of economic success, A but we have achieved growth of over 20 percent.
2 The sector as a whole has been struggling, B but today that number stands at over 30 percent.
3 Speed has always been a strength of our competitor, C yet some of the poorest areas of the world are within cities.
4 In the 1950s less than five percent of people went to university, D but now our latest product is three times faster.

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 • 39

 LANGUAGE LOG
Present perfect or past simple
John Potts charts the intricacies and idiosyncrasies,
the contradictions and complications that make
the English language so fascinating for teachers and teaching.
In this issue, he has addressed an issue that has confused many learners for a long time.
he present perfect is notorious among teachers
T and learners alike for being particularly difficult to
master. One problem for many learners is that their
own first language has a form that is identical to
the present perfect in English, namely the auxiliary have
plus the past participle. Unfortunately, this form doesn’t
correspond to the meaning in English: instead, it is often
equivalent to an English past simple.
This prompts learners to form utterances such as I have
seen her yesterday, where English speakers would say I
saw her yesterday. To add to the confusion, some English
present perfect concepts may be expressed by these
learners in the present simple, again corresponding to their
first language patterns: I know her since 2002/for ten years,
rather than I have known her since 2002/for ten years.
As if this weren’t enough, some of the concepts underlying
the present perfect in English are not at all easy to grasp.
To help our learners, we often couple present perfect forms
with ‘landmark’ adverbs such as for, since, ever, never, just,
already and yet. This can be useful – the student learns a
chunk of language (such as I haven’t done it yet) that can
be reasonably easily adapted to other verbs (seen, finished,
told, etc) – and learning language chunks or patterns is
certainly preferable to trying to remember a (long) set of
rules and then attempting to apply them.
On the other hand, these ‘landmark’ adverbs are also found
with other tense forms. For example, both for and never
combine with numerous tense forms – the past simple, past
continuous, past perfect simple and continuous, etc – so
automatically combining an adverb with a present perfect is
by no means a guarantee of success. To complicate matters
further, in some varieties of English, speakers may combine
the adverbs differently: some North American (AmE) speakers
will combine already with the past simple – I already did that –
and some AmE and British English speakers will use just (in the
sense of recently) with the past simple, too – I just said that.
A particularly elusive concept for many learners is that of
the experiential and indefinite past, where in many cases
the present perfect is used without any adverbs at all. The
concept is one of ‘in the time/my life until now’, and
although the events or states are clearly located in the
40 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
past, they are not linked to a specific point in that past –
hence, not past simple (etc) but present perfect.
These events and states form part of my life history (which
is past) but I’m talking about them in the context of my
(incomplete) life experience (which is present). So we get
sentences like Well, I’ve broken my left arm twice and
fractured my right leg once, I’ve had mumps and measles,
but I haven’t had my appendix out. When did these things
happen? In my earlier life, clearly, but exactly when isn’t the
issue: if you want my detailed medical history with dates and
data, I’ll need to use the past simple to chronicle each event.
Tricky? Certainly – but at least native speakers know what
to do and when. Or do they? One very interesting feature of
native-speaker language is the (apparent) breaking of
grammar rules that we diligently teach and our learners,
equally diligently, try to learn. A few issues ago, this column
looked at normally stative verbs taking on continuous forms
that they aren’t supposed to: I’m loving it being perhaps the
best-known example.
So it probably won’t surprise you to read that native
speakers are doing some interesting things with the present
perfect and past simple. One thing that I’ve noticed
increasingly over recent years is the use of the present
perfect where the past simple would be expected. Here are
some examples taken from news media:
● ‘Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Goodall said yesterday:
“In the course of this vehicle being stolen, its owner has
tried to intervene and was struck by it. The vehicle has
not stopped after the collision and left Featherbed Lane.’”
(The Guardian 23 August 2005)
● Chief Inspector John Maddox, from Staffordshire Police,
said officers were trying to establish what caused the
crash. “The bus was coming down a steep hill towards
the bridge at the bottom, and from what I can see at the
scene, that bus has not managed to go round the bend,
and has careered through a wall and down a drop into a
garden,” he said.’ (BBC News 18 August 2008)
● ‘Mr Todd said: “One of the individuals was being held by a
police officer, a uniformed officer who was protected, and it
appears ... that the suspect has managed to break free from
the officer, the two of them have then literally, in fighting,
gone into the kitchen area, where the suspect has managed
to grab hold of a knife.’” (The Guardian 15 January 2003)
 LANGUAGE LOG Present perfect or past simple

In all three examples, the police officer or spokesman is
clearly narrating events that took place at a specific point
in the past, and in all three cases they use past forms (was
struck, was coming, was being held, was protected) to
locate their narrative in the past. Nevertheless, these
narratives then switch to present perfect forms. Why, and
with what effect?
I think the following example, taken from football rather than
crime reporting, gives us a big clue in the last sentence:
● ‘Clearly Darren Fletcher has won the ball. He’s never
touched Ashley Cole who just jumped up in the air, and then
Drogba has pulled Brown to the ground at the goal. The
referee’s position to make a decision there was absolutely
ridiculous. He can’t see it.’ (BBC November 2009)
The speaker, Sir Alex Ferguson, is reliving the episode as if
it were taking place in front of him – ‘He can’t see it’ – and
although these events took place earlier, they are still
present and vivid for him. The choice of the present perfect
has the effect of re-animating and dramatising the past –
Look, he’s fouled him! Oh how awful, the bus has crashed!
Look out, he’s got a knife! – rather than consigning it to
(mere) history.
In this interpretation, the present perfect is being used in a
similar way to that of the present simple and present
continuous to tell anecdotes and jokes: it livens up the past
and runs it before our eyes, making it fresh and current.
On the other hand, consider these examples (all taken from
the internet):
● ‘The officer said that when Lloyd heard the police were
looking for him, he told a relative: “Look after my
children. I have committed a series of offences 20 years
ago.”’ (BBC News 4 Sept 2006)
● ‘Close friend of the actor and fellow comedian Frank
Carson told BBC News 24 it was “absolutely devastating.
We have just lost our friend Bernard Manning a fortnight
ago. I just can’t realise ... this is devastating news,” he
said.’ (BBC News 29 July 2007)
● ‘A statement on Barnsley’s website read: “Barnsley can
confirm that on-loan midfielder Ronnie Wallwork has
been involved in an incident in Manchester last night.”’
(BBC Sport 1 December 2006)
● ‘Apple has seeded Mac OS X 10.3.3 to developers
yesterday.’ (MacRumors March 2004)
These combinations of present perfect with ago and
definite time adverbials (last night, yesterday) seem to be
doing something rather different – akin to changing horses
in midstream perhaps? The speaker uses the present
perfect to focus on the perceived immediacy of the event
(and its present consequences), but then adds the definite
time reference to put it into a specific chronology. Rather
like having your cake and eating it?
Perhaps native speakers aren’t so much breaking the rules
as bending them into new uses that serve their purposes in
particular contexts. That may be some consolation to you
and your learners as you have yet another attempt at an
exercise that asks you to complete ten sentences with
either the past simple or present perfect ...
John Potts is a teacher and teacher trainer
based in Zürich, Switzerland. He has written
and co-written several adult coursebooks, and
is a CELTA assessor. He is also a presenter for
Cambridge ESOL Examinations.
johnpotts@swissonline.ch

COMPETITION RESULTS
25 20 25 4 17 16 19 3 4 18 7 26
E V E N B P A I N F U L
10 19 18 3 4 19 4 10 25 4 2 23 Congratulations to all Seda Can Yildiz, Kars, Turkey
C A F I N A N C E N O R
2 23 10 14 3 1 21 25 19 15 25 23 those readers who Laurence Coster, Cambridge, UK
O R C H I D T E A G E R successfully completed María Del Valle Bastida Cano, Miranda de Ebro, Spain
4 14 23 2 21 25 21 19 1 1
N H R O T E T A D D our Prize Crossword 50. Lynda Everman, Albuquerque, USA
2 9 19 8 19 13 25 12 19 24 25
O X A M A Z E W A S E The winners, who will Maja Fenrych-Majewska, Poznan, Poland
8 1 24 23 23 25 1 25 25 8 each receive a copy of Magdalena Nuszynska, Sosnowiec, Poland
M D S R R E D E E M
6 25 19 23 24 7 4 3 1 2 the Macmillan English Tracey O’Brien, Steyning, UK
Y E A R S U N I D O
4 2 9 2 4 24 5 3 3 4 15
Dictionary for Advanced Andrew Robert Parker, Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia
N O X O N S K I I N G Learners, are: A Selvamurthy, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
1 3 10 2 16 21 10 23
D I C O P T C R Sam Walsh, Turin, Italy
22 7 24 21 3 14 3 21 14 19
J U S T I H I T H A 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
19 23 8 4 19 21 3 2 4 2 19 16 D O I N K Y U M X C Q W Z
A R M N A T I O N O A P 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
23 25 19 26 21 2 4 17 3 23 21 14 H G P B F A V T J R S E L
R E A L T O N B I R T H
23 16 25 19 10 25 18 7 26 3 25 4 25 23 15 6 19 4 1 16 25 23 24
R P E A C E F U L I E N E R G Y A N D P E R S
16 8 19 1 2 2 26 1 10 3 24 21 25 4 10 25 10 2 4 11 7 25 23
P M A D O O L D C I S T E N C E C O N Q U E R
23 2 6 19 26 21 6 10 2 6 23 25 19 26 26 21 14 3 4 15 24
R O Y A L T Y C O Y R E A L L T H I N G S Benjamin Franklin

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 • 41

SCRAPBOOK Gems, titbits, puzzles, foibles, quirks, bits & pieces,
quotations, snippets, odds & ends,
what you will

Spring thoughts from the UK

English is a populous language, to say
the least. Where speakers of other
languages might utter a terse and
business-like word, we often have a
whole wardrobe of different shades
and colours at our disposal. Not so
much a word-bank, as a lake of
nuances. So it is with some surprise
that I discover that in French, German,
Italian and Russian, to name a few, the
words for spring (the sometimes
glorious, blossom-clad season) and
spring (the device that prevents your
Spring in the UK means, as I have
said, blossom; it also involves lambs,
daffodils and clocks. Clocks (which
we may remember were once devices
powered by springs) now need to
spring forward in spring, and fall back
in, well, autumn (or fall …).
The word spring has several other
meanings – it can also refer to a place
where water comes out of the earth,
and a coiled wire that forms part of a
mattress or provides the source of
energy for a clockwork device.

teeth from shattering every time your
car hits a hole in the road) are totally
different. For once, it is the English
language that is economical.
© iStockphoto.com / ooyoo
However, it can also be a verb: you
can spring out at someone; you can
spring a surprise on someone; you
can be wound up like a coiled spring.

Spring: true or f
alse? The sweet
smell of spring?
1 Baby
birds have to 1 True. Though
baby birds are bo
learn how to sin ability to sing, the rn with the
g. y have to learn the
of their species, songs spring is the
2 Spring
fever is a real and they have to
at one feature of
order to learn: an
isolated baby bir
hear them in
We have said th ical about
physical conditio simple songs, bu d might learn h poets waxing lyr
n. t not complex on
es. Only a few blossom, althoug fflesia
birds, such as the
not have had Ra
such things may
3 During mockingbird, ca
the spring songs of other sp n sing the
ecies.
equinox, around
March 2 True. Spring fev
er is a condition
arnoldii in mind ...
d in 1822
21st, an egg will occurs when a su which commonly
nt was discovere
stand dden warm spell
follows a long This parasitic pla ra, and is
pedition in Sumat
cold period. When
on its small end. the temperature
has to get rid of
heat; as a result,
rises, the body during a jungle ex r in the world.
the blood the largest flowe
4 The an
cient Greeks
vessels dilate so
that blood is carrie thought to have meter and it
surface where he d to the body one metre in dia
celebrated Mothe at can be lost qu
ickly. Some This can be up to ite the size
h as 25 lbs. Desp
r’s Day people experienc
e an energetic fee
in spring. change happens, ling when this can weigh as muc dif ficult to
plant is incredibly
owing to the body
of its flower, the
the great amount ’s reaction to
5 Periodic of internal work s or roots.
ally, the internet going on.
s no leaves, stem
find because it ha
3 False. Althoug
h some people wo ye ars to
has to undergo a egg will stand on uld swear that an
n take nearly two
period
equinox, there is
its small end durin
g the spring The flower bud ca m ax imum
of spring cleaning no scientific evide flower lasts for a
, this claim. nce to support develop, and the (un )lu cky
during which user e who have been
s have 4 True. The ancie
nt Greek festival of five days. Thos e it as
to disconnect or of Rhea is the across it describ
risk the earliest known Mo
ther’s Day celeb
ration. enough to come ca rc ass – one of
deletion of unus co m po sin g
smelling like a de
ed or 5 False. A warni
ng that this would
infrequently used
files.
to clean up the int
ernet and make
happen in order
kn am es is ‘th e corpse flower’!
circulated in 1999 it faster was its nic
, but it was a ho
ax.

42 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 Spring riddles
Spring fever g fever skipped
Q Can February
A No, but April
March?
May!
ho ol bo ys af flicted with sprin that
Four high- sc d to the teacher Q What season
ho ol. Af te r lun ch, they reporte ty re . is it when you ar
morning sc t e on a trampolin
car had had a fla A Springtime! e?
late because their
they had arrived sa id , ‘Well , yo u
th eir re lie f, she smiled and r Q What spring
Much to from one an he ot flowers can be fo
te st to da y, so take seats apart A Tulips. (Two lip
s)
und on your face
?
missed a r.’
t a piece of pape
and each get ou r th em to sit down.
Then she Q What is a sp
ring chick after
g, sh e wa ite d fo it is five months
Still sm ilin A Six months old old?
tyre was flat?’ .
question: Which
said, ‘Right, first Q Why is a sprin
g flower like the
A Both are follo letter A?
wed by bees.

Spring sayings
‘Spring is nature’s way of saying, “Let’s party!”’
Robin Williams
Nesting, nesting,
‘The naked earth is warm with Spring, 1, 2, 3 ...
And with green grass and bursting trees activity of birds. The
ing is the nest-building
Leans to the sun’s kiss glorying, Another feature of spr y between one egg (the
gle bird’s nest can var
And quivers in the sunny breeze.’ number of eggs in a sin (the grey partridge).
the condor) to about 17
Julian Grenfell average clutch size of t for the producer
ile we ’re thin kin g abo ut eggs, spare a though
Wh The average size of this
‘April prepares her green traffic light and the world North African ostrich.
of the largest eggs: the mm in diameter –
thinks Go.’ Christopher Morley
is 150 to 205 mm in length and 50 to 150
bird’s egg -kilo bird to sit on it!
tough enough for a 150
‘Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices and the shell has to be often share a nest, wit
h
huge, but the females
instead of colours, there would be an unbelievable Not only are the eggs 50 egg s!
ts can hold as many as
shrieking into the heart of the night.’ Rainer Maria Rilke the result that some nes aican vervain
st egg is that of the Jam
‘Spring is when you feel like whistling even with By contrast, the smalle in len gth – several
asures less than 10 mm
a shoe full of slush.’ Doug Larson hummingbird, which me of a sin gle ostrich egg!
uld fit inside the shell
thousand of them wo
‘O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?’
Percy Bysshe Shelley
‘Spring is sooner recognised by plants than by men.’
Chinese proverb Spring surprise
This is a puzzle with
‘Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that two groups of missing
words in each group words. The four
the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, are anagrams of eac
has been solved for h other. The first gro
not the composer.’ Geoffrey B Charlesworth you. Can you solve the up
second group?
Last spring, a GANDER
‘The seasons are what a symphony ought to be: and his mate began freq
and the small pond beh uenting my lawn
four perfect movements in harmony with each other.’ ind my house. Their die
in the spring to corn in t RANGED from grass
Arthur Rubenstein the autumn, so I feared
be destroyed and my that my lawn would
vegetable GARDEN wo
‘April is a promise that May is bound to keep.’ Hal Borland in the year. I decided uld be in DANGER late
that I would have to relo r
‘The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring cate them.
Goose husbandry wa
sn’t one of my __1__,
day is another. The difference between them is their habitat. My lawn but I knew a little abo
was probably __2__ tha ut
sometimes as great as a month.’ Henry Van Dyke to, which was why the n what they were use
y liked to sit on it. A few d
‘Spring is not the best of seasons. was a large pond bes miles down the road
ide a __3__. Geese like
where they can safely to nest on an island
Cold and flu are two good reasons; __4__ their young. So
attractive than mine, I to make that pond mo
wind and rain and other sorrow, added a floating platfo re
bottom, to serve as an rm, anchored to the
warm today and cold tomorrow.’ artificial island. When
were happy to move. they saw this, they
Anon
‘In the spring I have counted one hundred and
thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four softer 3 forest 4 fos
ter
Answers 1 fortes 2
and twenty hours.’ Mark Twain
Scrapbook compiled by Ian Waring Green

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 • 43

Reviews
Writing Sentences
by Dorothy E Zemach
Macmillan, 2011
978-0-230-41591-1
Writing Paragraphs
by Dorothy E Zemach and Carlos Islam
Macmillan 2011
978-0-230-41593-5
Writing Sentences and Writing Paragraphs
are the first two books in a series of four
by Macmillan aimed at helping learners
with writing skills. Both books follow a
simple and modern format, concentrating
on different topics, ranging from going to
an unusual school to strange stories.
They are clearly laid out, which makes it
easy for learners to follow in a fairly
coherent way.
Starting with Writing Sentences,
which is aimed at the Common
European Framework level A2 and
IELTS bands 2.5–3.0, the book generally
does what it promises. Beginning with
basic parts of speech and identifying
them, it gradually builds up to basic
sentence structure before moving on to
contrasting ideas with the present perfect
and past simple. Following a process
approach, which, as is stated, ‘helps
students become confident and
44 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
accomplished writers’, the book takes a
fairly slow, but sure approach to
improving the writing of our learners. In
my opinion, this edition would work
extremely well with students who have
the basics in other skills, but cannot
seem to get their heads around writing
skills. The language and vocabulary
used is fairly standard, albeit with the
odd exceptions which caused me to
wonder why a lower-level learner
would need to know this lexis. On a
more positive note, not only does the
book help with sentence structure,
but it also aids spelling and usage of
tenses, so in theory it covers a lot of
work in around 100 pages.
Writing Paragraphs, which is
aimed at the CEF level B1 and
IELTS bands 3.5–4.0, is naturally the
next step up from the previous title.
Here, the authors continue to focus
on punctuation and capitalisation,
but now also include writing and
identifying topic sentences,
comparison paragraphs and
academic work, such as linkers
including however and whereas.
This book is certainly for more
adventurous learners, as some of
the advice given may be a little
confusing, even though the
topics and examples seem to be
of a basic nature.
These books are a good
addition to the wealth of material
aimed at improving learners’
writing skills, though there are
some aspects that are slightly
disappointing. One of my
colleagues tested the material
with her low-level class and
reported that the students found it
very American. This is not a
serious drawback, but British
English teachers would need to
adapt certain vocabulary items – or
be prepared to point out the
differences between the two (both
correct) versions of English. Another
point is that the books are clearly
aimed at teenagers learning English,
as they don’t seem to tackle many
subjects which would be of interest
to adult students; I feel this is a
missed opportunity. However,
despite these reservations, there are
some extremely good things in this
series, such as the peer-review forms at
the back, the easy format and the well-
thought-out explanations.
As someone who has taught English for
over ten years, I think these books would
be very useful for the staffroom, perhaps
to give old hands like me something new
to work with, and to provide newly-
qualified teachers with a good basis to
kick-start their teaching of writing.
Peter Fullagar
London, UK
Teaching and Researching
Language Learning Strategies
by Rebecca L Oxford
Pearson Education 2011
978-0-582-38129-2
This is a technical book, designed to
promote and enable research in language
learning strategies. Aimed at experienced
teachers with advanced training, it
provides an overview of learning strategy
theory and models that could be included
in classroom practice. An understanding
of some research methods, including
statistics, is assumed. The book is well
documented and would be an invaluable
resource for anyone embarking on an
Reviews
applied linguistics research project. Each
chapter has preview questions and a
conclusion. Concept boxes and tables
provide summaries of information.
Section 1 focuses on the Strategic Self-
Regulation Model of language learning.
This model promotes the active and
constructive use of strategies to enable
learners to increase their own learning.
Cognitive, affective and socio-cultural
strategies are explored. For each of
these, the reader is introduced to meta-
strategies and knowledge, specific
strategies are listed and relevant theories
are described.
Section 2 explores ways that
researchers can asses strategies
employed by learners and discusses the
merits and de-merits of teaching specific
language learning strategies to L2
learners. I was intrigued by the use of
colour coding of reading task strategies
and could see the potential benefit to my
EAP students, but I would need a
concrete example of how to do this
before I would be able to use it in my
classroom. In a similar vein, an example
of a strategy questionnaire would be a
helpful tool for classroom practitioners. I
came away from this section convinced
that more explicit instruction on how to
learn language would be valuable for my
students, but a little unsure as to how
to translate theory into classroom
practice.
Section 3 is a helpful survey of
research methods, evaluation of quality
and ethics that are relevant to applied
linguistics research. There are concrete
‘how to’ models to illustrate methods.
As a classroom practitioner and teacher
trainer, I found the summary of research
findings concerning the four language
skills and vocabulary and grammar
interesting and very valuable. It affirmed
my perception that there has been little
research on listening, and hopefully will
encourage future researchers to fill in the
knowledge gaps.
Section 4 is a useful survey of
resources available to learning strategies
researchers.
Sandy Willcox
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Where Communicating Across
Cultures really excels is in its
Communicating Across combination of communication skills
Cultures training and language work. Each chapter
by Bob Dignen contains expert advice, strategies and
CUP 2011 functional language and lexis, which
978-0-521-18198-3 means that students really learn about
how to communicate and are then given
Bob Dignen is director of York Associates the linguistic tools to help them perform.
and a specialist in business English and The mixed skills approach also means
intercultural training. This book, aimed at that students receive a range of input, as
the CEF B1 and B2 levels, well as output via roleplays, discursive
focuses on equipping activities and even email.
students of business English This would certainly make a good
with the keys to succeeding in addition to any business English course
the increasingly international and would be perfect for students in, or
world of business. The 12 units thinking of operating in, an international
deal with internationally- context. It would work well with groups
themed business English topics or private students.
such as managing international Phil Wade
meetings and working in an La Réunion, France
international team, and the book
covers a wide range of spoken
and written communication.
A CD, answers and
Reviewing for ETp
audioscripts are included with Would you like to review books
or other teaching materials for ETp?
the book, and a downloadable
We are always looking for people
teacher’s book, DVD and DVD
who are interested in writing reviews
worksheets are also available.
for us. Please email
The complete package offers a helena.gomm@pavpub.com
cohesive course and would be for advice and a copy of our guidelines
ideal for anyone interested in for reviewers. You will need to give your
running a business English postal address and say what areas of
communication or speaking teaching you are most interested in.
course.
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 • 45
 IN THE CLASSROOM
A second
self
I
3
Jill Hadfield explores
the Ought-to L2 Self.
n the first two articles in this
series, I introduced Zoltan
Dörnyei’s L2 Motivational Self
System theory, a tripartite system
consisting of:
● the Ideal L2 Self
● the Ought-to L2 Self
● the L2 Learning Experience.
I considered how to translate the first
pillar of the theory, the Ideal L2 Self,
into practice. In this article, I will look
at the second pillar of the system, the
Ought-to L2 Self, consider the issues
involved in translating this theoretical
concept into practice and suggest two
practical classroom activities.
What is the Ought-to
L2 Self?
The Ought-to L2 Self is defined by
Dörnyei as ‘the attributes that one
believes one ought to possess to avoid
possible negative outcomes (eg letting
down one’s parents, failing an exam) and
which therefore may bear little
resemblance to the person’s own desires
or wishes’ or, in other words, ‘the social
pressures exercised by significant people
in the learner’s environment’.
Seven questions
Here we will look at seven questions
involved in translating this theory into
classroom practice – and some possible
answers.
46 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
1 What is the aim, in teaching
terms, of this component of the
L2 Self System?
The Ought-to L2 Self is in many ways a
more complicated concept to translate
into classroom practice than the Ideal
L2 Self. This is because our relationship
with the Ought-to Self is ambivalent.
Writers such as Edward Deci and
Richard Ryan have suggested that
although the Ought-to Self may derive
in the first instance from external social
influences, it can become internalised to
various degrees, depending on whether
the behaviour that is expected by others
around us is in line with our own values
and feels like an integral part of the
identity that we would like for ourselves.
There can thus be a continuum from the
entirely external – rules which are
imposed on us, which we may not agree
with or which may annoy us, and which
are reinforced with rewards and
punishments (eg parental curfews,
school uniform regulations) – to the
internal – codes of conduct which we
adopt by choice because they are in line
with our own values, beliefs and self
image (eg I am a vegetarian because I
believe one ought to be kind to animals
or My parents taught me to be tolerant
and compassionate and I strive to do this
because I believe in those values and
would like to see those virtues as part of
my identity).
It seems important, therefore, to
separate out those parts of the Ought-
to Self which are externally imposed
and felt by the individual to be
irrelevant or even counter to their sense
of identity (I hate this school uniform
because it makes me feel ugly – I can’t
see why I have to wear it) from those
which form part of an individual’s
personal value system (I believe we
should not be cruel to animals) and
which ultimately can lead to the Ideal
Self (I would like to be a tolerant
compassionate person).
The situation is more complicated
than the above examples would indicate,
however, as externally imposed rules
that the individual feels are unnecessary
or counter to their wishes can often be
for the individual or society’s greater
good (for example parental curfews,
speed limits), and rules that are
internalised because they harmonise
with the individual’s beliefs or values
may in fact be counterproductive (I
ought to join the Nazi party because I
believe in serving my country; I have
joined a gang because I want to be
popular/cool ). Since the Ought-to Self is
so complex, our relationship with it is
not easy, inspiring a range of reactions:
from annoyance and rebelliousness (at
what we see as petty, unreasonable or
restricting externally imposed
regulation) through guilt (when we
don’t do something that we know or
believe we ought to do) through to self-
affirmation (when we carry out actions
in accordance with our values and
beliefs about what is right).
The following diagram summarises
our complex relationship with the
Ought-to Self.
Externally imposed don’t obey
Internalised don’t obey
Externally imposed obey
Internalised obey
Dörnyei finds that ‘an important
condition for effective desired possible
selves is that they should feel congruent
with important social identities, that is,
that the ideal and the ought-to selves
should be in harmony’. It is, therefore,
important to sort out the aspects of the
Ought-to Self which harmonise with the
vision of the Ideal Self – and which can
be usefully harnessed to enable the Ideal
Self to become a reality. The aim of this
component of the Self System should
thus be to raise awareness of the idea of
the Ought-to Self in general and of the
Ought-to L2 Self in particular, in order
to align the Ought-to Self with the Ideal
Self and identify how the Ought-to L2
Self, if listened to, could enable students
to realise their Ideal L2 Self.
2 How could this component be
broken down into sections,
steps or aspects?
Unlike it did with the Ideal L2 Self
component, the theory does not break
down this component into steps or give
guidance as to how it should be
incorporated into a classroom
motivational programme. Possible steps
in terms of classroom practice are:
● Raising awareness of the concept of
the Ought-to Self in general and
exploring some of our complex
reactions to it;
● Exploring what an L2 Ought-to Self
could be;
● Exploring what aspects of this are in
harmony with the Ideal Self;
good reason: eg excessive parental pressure to go
into a career you don’t want
bad reason: eg ignoring a ban on smoking at
school because all your friends smoke
good reason: inability, eg wanting to do voluntary
work but not having the time
bad reason: laziness, eg forgetting to recycle
paper
good reason: obeying the speed limit
bad reason: eg joining a gang through peer
pressure
good reason: eg giving to charity because you
believe in compassion
bad reason: eg joining a nationalist group because
you believe your race is innately superior
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •
● Exploring the idea of the Ought-to Self
as enabler, guide or mentor, who can
help overcome difficulties or obstacles
on the language learning journey.
3 Is each step actually
translatable into practice? Are
they all necessary?
Each step is translatable into practice,
and although the last step is the most
important, the preceding steps prepare
for it.
4 What kind of activities would
each step entail?
Both general and L2 Ought-to selves
can be evoked through visualisation. It
seems important to give examples of
other people’s Ought-to selves through
reading and listening activities to make
the concept more concrete. Thereafter,
activities can be both cognitive –
discussions and questionnaires to enable
students to analyse what is best L2
ought-to behaviour and make learning
resolutions for themselves – and
affective, for example letter and dialogue
writing, poster-making, fairytale
creation, in order to develop a positive
image of the Ought-to Self as a wise and
helpful self guide and enabling figure.
5 What is the relative importance
of each step and how much time
should be devoted to each?
The final step is the most important and
should, therefore, have more time
devoted to it. The preceding steps can
be done in one lesson, with the final
step as another lesson.
REBELLIOUSNESS
GUILT
CONFORMITY
SELF-AFFIRMATION

47

A second

self 3
6 Do the steps form a logical
teaching sequence, or do they
need reordering?
The steps have been designed as a
logical teaching sequence.
7 Where should each step be
realised within a course – at the
beginning, in the middle, at the
end or throughout the course?
It would make most sense to do some
work on the Ought-to Self at the
beginning of a course. A suggested
teaching sequence could be:
● Creating the vision
● Substantiating the vision
● Counterbalancing the vision
● Aligning the vision
● Enhancing the vision.
Two activities
1 My L2 Ought-to Self
Procedure
1 Prepare a number of posters, one for
each group of four students in your
class. Each poster should have the
silhouette of a person or a person’s
head.
2 Fold a number of A4 sheets into eight
and cut them up. Cut out an empty
speech bubble from each small piece
of paper.
3 Introduce the idea of an Ought-to
Self with an anecdote about things
your parents or other influential
people in your life said to you that
have remained with you and which
have become your own values or
things you feel you ought to do.
4 Ask the students to choose one
influential person in their lives and
think of the values and advice that
they have given them.
5 Put the students in pairs and get them
to discuss their ideas.
6 Now introduce the idea of an L2
Ought-to Self. Ask the class what it
would say to them.
7 Give each pair of students a pile of
empty speech bubbles. Tell them that
they have five minutes to write as
48 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
many pieces of advice from the L2
Ought-to Self as possible, one in each
speech bubble.
8 Group the pairs in fours and get them
ENGLISH
Tprofessional
EACHING
to share ideas. Give out the posters
and some glue, and get the fours to
make an ‘Advice from the Ought-to
Self’ poster.
This is your magazine.
9 Get the groups to present their
We want to hear from you!
posters to the class. You can then
make a display of them on the wall.

Problem page letter
2
IT WORKS IN PRACTICE
Procedure
Do you have ideas you’d like to share
1 Tell the students about some problems
with colleagues around the world?
you find or have found with studying,
Tips, techniques and activities;
eg getting distracted, putting off
simple or sophisticated; well-tried
getting down to work, etc. Ask them
or innovative; something that has
for any solutions they have.
worked well for you? All published
2 Put the students in groups and ask
contributions receive a prize!
them to discuss problems they have
Write to us or email:
with studying English, and get them
to suggest solutions. helena.gomm@pavpub.com
3 Get the students to write a ‘problem
page’ letter about their study
difficulties. If necessary, show them TALKBACK!
an actual problem page letter and its Do you have something to say about
answer as an example. an article in the current issue of ETp?
4 When the students have finished, This is your magazine and we would
collect the letters and redistribute really like to hear from you.
them. Get them to write a reply to the Write to us or email:
letter they have received, offering
advice from the Ought-to Self. helena.gomm@pavpub.com
5 You can then display the letters or,
alternatively, display the replies and
give the students back their original
Writing for ETp
Would you like to write for ETp? We are
letters. They should then go round
always interested in new writers and
reading the answers and, when they
find the answer to their own letter, fresh ideas. For guidelines and advice,
pin their letter up beside it. ETp write to us or email:
helena.gomm@pavpub.com
Deci, E and Ryan, R Intrinsic Motivation
and Self Determination in Human
Behaviour Plenum 1985 It really worked
Dörnyei, Z and Ushioda, E Motivation,
Language Identity and the L2 Self for me!
Multilingual Matters 2009 Did you get inspired by something
Hadfield, J and Dörnyei, Z Motivation you read in ETp? Did you do
Pearson 2012
something similiar with your students?
Did it really work in practice?
Jill Hadfield has worked
as a teacher and teacher Do share it with us ...
trainer in Britain, France,
China, Tibet, Madagascar helena.gomm@pavpub.com
and New Zealand. She
edits ELTmag
(www.eltmag.com), and
her books include the ENGLISH TEACHING professional
Communication Games Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd,
series (Pearson), Oxford Rayford House, School Road,
Basics, Classroom
Hove BN3 5HX, UK
Dynamics and An
Introduction to Teaching Fax: +44 (0)1273 227308
English (all OUP).
Email: admin@pavpub.com
jillhadfield@mac.com
 IN THE CLASSROOM
Students
in a hurry
Paul Bress counsels patience with the impatient.
A
re you familiar with the
following scene? Your class is
working perfectly well, with the
exception of one student who looks
extremely impatient all the time. This
student may have paid a lot of money
for the course and is in a huge hurry to
make as much progress as possible in as
short a time as possible. Always the first
to finish an activity, this student will sit
uneasily while the others continue
working on it, and will take up a
considerable amount of class time by
asking you a lot more questions than the
other students do. They will probably
become unpopular in class, and other
students will not want to work with them.
I want to outline six steps that
teachers can take when faced with a
student in a hurry (SIAH). I’ll explain
the significance of each one as I proceed.
1 Indicate that you are aware that
the student is in a hurry.
If you fail to acknowledge what it feels
like to be that SIAH, then they will
probably panic and behave in an even
more dysfunctional way than before.
However, if you can indicate that you’ve
noticed their concerns, then the chances
are that they may calm down somewhat
(in the way people usually calm down
when they are told they are moving up a
queue when placed on hold on the phone).
2 Don’t change the way you
teach!
If you change the fundamental way you
teach, this is likely to have a detrimental
effect on learning and on student morale.
You may feel tempted to speed things up
or cut corners, but don’t forget that you
are, effectively, compressing acquisition
into a small space of time, and the
students will need a significant amount of
time for reflection and practice. So keep
on doing what you’re doing – that is the
very basis of sound language teaching.
3 Flag up your learning objectives
at the beginning of each lesson.
What you can do differently, though, is
to flag up the syllabus in class. By
referring to learning objectives at the
beginning of each lesson, you can make
the SIAH feel somewhat easier about
the programme. Your lesson will then
have a pedagogic seal of approval.
4 Check whether the learning
objectives have been achieved
at the end of each lesson.
This is like the mirror image of point 3.
This is the ‘after’ of the ‘before and after’
treatment. If the SIAH is still unsure
about why they were asked to do
something in class, you now have the
opportunity to elicit or tell them this – by
referring to the key parts of the lesson.
This analytical work should serve to help
the SIAH see that language learning is,
in fact, a long and complex process.
One example of this is just how much
there is to learn about each lexical item
– its meaning, pronunciation, spelling,
word stress, register, connotations and
collocational environment.
5 Review learning systematically
(and observe whether the SIAH
has achieved the learning
objectives).
This is another example of keeping to
the programme and being seen to be
organised. In addition, review work
usually shows that more work needs to
be done on the item taught. You will
probably find that the SIAH cannot
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •
demonstrate that they have achieved all
the learning objectives set out at the
beginning of each lesson – and that this
is hampering their ability to move on to
more difficult language items. Indeed, it’s
at this point that they may see that the
anxiety associated with being in a hurry
slows down the pace of language learning.
They may then start to relax and learn
more effectively – like the other students.
6 (Only if necessary) Tell the SIAH,
in a one-to-one situation, that it
usually takes several years to
achieve near-native-speaker
competence.
We started out by saying that it is
important to recognise the SIAH’s
mindset. If you find, despite all your
efforts, that this student still looks ill at
ease in class, you can take them aside at
the end of class and enter into a dialogue
about the language learning process.
Listen carefully, but do get the point
across that learning to speak a language
fluently takes years and years (even if a
student is in a perfect language learning
environment). If you do this, they should
at the very least feel that they have been
listened and attended to. They should also
appreciate your honesty and integrity.

In my experience, most SIAHs settle
down after a few lessons. They become
aware of their increased ability to
understand native speakers and to speak
more accurately, appropriately and
fluently. Usually they relax and even start
to enjoy the language learning process.
And, finally, they will often become
valuable members of the class. ETp
Paul Bress lives in
Whitstable, UK, where
he works as a part-time
teacher of English to
overseas students and
also writes novels. His
novels are: The Man
Who Didn’t Age, The
Dysfunctional Family,
For Adults Only and The
Check-out Operator, all
published by Fast-Print
and available in Kindle.
paulbress@talktalk.net
TALKBACK!
Do you have something to say about
an article in the current issue of ETp?
This is your magazine and we would
really like to hear from you.
Write to us or email:
helena.gomm@pavpub.com
49
 R E S O U R C E S
The‘d’word
Marcus Murilo Lacerda puts dictionary use firmly on the menu.
D
ictionaries have always been
part of the language classroom
– even if only as background
props used by teachers and students
when an unknown word crops up.
However, despite their usefulness, they
are seldom allowed to take centre stage.
In this article, we will consider some of
the reasons why teachers should integrate
dictionary work into their classes, and take
a look at some possible class activities.
Why should we use dictionaries?
Dictionaries provide not only definitions
of words, but also phonemic
transcriptions. These are especially useful
given the confusing nature of English
spelling, which often misleads us as to how
words should be pronounced (consider, for
instance, though, trough and thought).
Another reason is that by reading
through the example sentences illustrating
how words are commonly used, students
are exposed to natural-sounding ways of
using new input, to words and phrases
that usually co-occur with the headword
and to the grammatical patterns a word
can take.
In addition, building dictionary
skills leads students towards autonomy,
thereby giving them the chance to work
independently, especially in situations
where this is crucial (eg when writing a
business email to a foreign colleague).
One’s first encounter with a
monolingual dictionary can be very
daunting and learners may need time to
become comfortable with definitions
written in English. However, integrating
continual dictionary work into your
classes should help your students
overcome their initial reservations.
Ideas for using dictionaries
1 Elicit the meanings and
pronunciation of new words from the
students. When no one can provide
these, have one or two students look up
the words in the dictionary. Encourage
them to help each other with phonemic
transcriptions. Point out the example
sentences and how the students can use
them as a way of increasing their access
50 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
to how words are used – by learning
collocates, grammatical patterns, etc.
2 Before a test, or after the students
have worked intensively on a unit or
two, split the class into small groups.
Have each group pick out a few words
from each unit and look up how they’re
transcribed phonemically. They then
give these transcriptions to the other
groups, who must write the word in
ordinary spelling.
Note: Tell the students which pages of the
coursebook each group will cover so that
they don’t pick out the same words.
Extend this activity by having the students
work on meaning and collocations, too.
3 Give the students definitions of
new words on small cards and ask them
to work out what words are being
defined. Then hand out cards with
example sentences of the words and get
the students to match the sentences to
the definitions.
4 Write a couple of new words in
phonemic script on the board. Split the
class into two groups and get them to
take turns trying to guess how the
words are pronounced. Award a point
for each correct answer.
5 Prepare a quiz with your students’
mistakes, eg incorrect use of dependent
prepositions, awkward collocations, etc.
Using dictionaries, the students work
together to correct the errors.
6 Prepare a quiz with useful
collocations which you think your
students might not know. Gap example
sentences from the dictionary, leaving
only the headword. The students then
have to look up the headwords to find
out what the collocations are, eg:
Managers are _______ aware of the need
to provide new staff with appropriate
support. (Answer: acutely aware)
7 Tell the students that you are going
to dictate a number of sentences, but you
will hum some words in each sentence.
(Make sure all the words you hum are the
same part of speech, ie all prepositions,
verbs, nouns, etc.) The students write
down the complete sentences, including
the missing words. They then check their
answers in pairs, by looking up the
appropriate dictionary entries.
Note: Students are often not aware of
ways to learn how to use prepositions
accurately. This can be a useful strategy
to help them understand that they can
use a dictionary whenever they are not
sure which preposition to use.
8 When students are confused about
a pair of words, ask them to look both
words up in the dictionary and find the
difference between them. This works
with words which have similar meanings
(eg say and tell), those that students
have difficulty pronouncing accurately
(eg ship and sheep) and those that are
pronounced the same (eg won and one).
9 Split the class into two teams. Explain
that you will dictate some words, but that
you will also mispronounce some of them.
If the students are not sure whether a
word was pronounced correctly or not,
they look it up in the dictionary. Points
are awarded for each (first) correct answer.
10 To teach students how to make
their writing more ‘colourful’, pick out
some sentences from their essays that
make little use of interesting adjectives
or adverbs. Get them to work together,
using dictionaries, to make their writing
more vivid by adding adjective + noun,
adverb + adjective or adverb + verb
couplings. For example, they can rewrite
The girl was beautiful as The girl was
remarkably beautiful.

Many teachers and students do not feel
comfortable using dictionaries, and for
this reason many of the activities
proposed here aim at building dictionary
skills without necessarily making use of
dictionaries proper. However, it is my
firm belief that students should be told
about the important role dictionaries
can play in their learning process. By
gradually introducing our students to
dictionary skill-building tasks such as
these, we can make them feel more at
ease with the dreaded ‘d’ word – as well
as making the task much lighter and
more appealing to everyone involved. ETp
Marcus Murilo Lacerda
has been teaching for
seven years. He holds an
ICELT and is especially
interested in learner
autonomy. He currently
works at Casa Thomas
Jefferson, a binational
centre in Brasilia, Brazil.
He tweets as
@marcusmurilo.
marcusmurilo.lacerda@gmail.com
 IN THE CLASSROOM
Castaway?
E
Chris Payne casts rror correction of both oral
and written mistakes occupies
a questioning eye over a prominent place in ELT
literature, and continues to be a
error correction. divisive issue. The correction of students’
mistakes encompasses a wide range of
points to consider. Some of the main
ones are: What to correct? Who corrects?
Which correction techniques to use? When
to correct? And even: Should we correct?
In the interests of brevity, this article
will focus solely on speech errors, and
on two correction techniques: recasts
(or reformulation) and explicit
correction (or direct feedback).
Recasts
Recasts are an attempt to imitate the
way in which real-life correction
happens. Typically, it is the way people
in the street or in shops react to
learners’ errors, and is generally how
parents correct their children. Recasts
are an indirect and gentle way of giving
feedback, in which the teacher
reformulates all or part of an utterance
into a correct or more appropriate
version of what a learner is trying to
say. For example:
Student: I go to the cinema last night.
Teacher: You went to the cinema.
What did you see?
Student: ‘Avatar’.
In this example, the teacher supplies the
correct form (went) without interrupting
the flow of speech, thus maintaining a
focus on meaning.
I have chosen to focus on recasts
because they have been observed to
occur in Communicative Language
Teaching (CLT) classrooms more
frequently than any other correction
technique. Among prevailing correction
procedures, recasts are deemed to be an
effective way of providing learners with
the opportunity to notice how their
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •
interlanguage compares with what
competent speakers say. I am sure that
the fact that they do not disrupt
communication also accounts for their
popularity amongst teachers who adopt
a communicative approach.
Explicit correction
Explicit correction is when the teacher
intervenes by pointing out where and
how learners are wrong. It can also
entail asking the student to repeat the
corrected version of an utterance. A
compelling reason and justification for
sometimes giving explicit correction is
simply that many learners expect or
want their errors to be corrected in this
way. Maybe this is because it reflects the
traditional view of what a teacher does.
These days, students often complain
about not being corrected enough –
rarely about being corrected too much!
A compelling reason
and justification for
sometimes giving explicit
correction is simply that
many learners expect or
want their errors to be
corrected in this way
Errors and mistakes
It is common in ELT circles to make a
distinction between errors and mistakes.
It is not my intention here to analyse
different kinds of errors of lexis,
grammar and pronunciation, and their
cause, so I use the terms error and
mistake interchangeably.
It is useful for teachers to know
whether a mistake is due to an over- 
51


Castaway?
generalisation of a rule, a developmental
error, an omission, the result of transfer
from the learner’s L1 or a covert
mistake. A covert mistake is when the
student says something which is
grammatically correct, but is not what
they meant. For example, if a student
asks How long are you in London? do
they mean: How long are you going to
stay in London? or How long have you
been in London? As the former is a more
colloquial form, the latter is probably
what was intended.
ESL and EFL
Perhaps it is not so common to distinguish
between ESL and EFL classrooms when
we consider correction, but I believe the
distinction is of interest for our use of
recasts. First, we will look at recasts in the
ESL classroom, and then we will consider
if it is politic to use them to the same
degree in the EFL classroom.
English as a Second Language refers to
English as it is learnt by people resident
in countries such as the UK, the USA or
Australia, where English is generally the
language of the community.
Stephen Krashen’s input hypothesis
states that children acquire their first
language by understanding
‘comprehensible input’, that is, language
which is a little above their existing
understanding and from which they can
infer meaning. In Krashen’s view,
comprehensible input is also what is
needed for students to acquire English
as a second language. He suggests that
when learners make a mistake, the
teacher should respond with a recast
which exposes the students to language
just above their current level of English.
Krashen believes that explicit correction
of speech errors can have a detrimental
effect on the students’ willingness to try
to express themselves, and appears to
have very little effect on language
acquisition.
Richard Schmidt (quoted by Patsy
Lightbown and Nina Spada) emphasises
the role of ‘noticing’ in language
acquisition, and asserts that we acquire
language by consciously noticing and
paying attention to it. It could be argued
that the effectiveness of using recasts
stands or falls on the ability of the learner
to notice the reformulated language. Some
52 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
researchers claim that students frequently
fail to notice recasts as correction, and
assume that the teacher is responding to
the content rather than the form of their
speech. If learners in an ESL classroom
do not notice recasts and receive no
explicit correction, they may still be
considered fortunate as they do not
wholly depend on the teacher for
exposure to English. Once they are
outside the classroom, they have ample
opportunity for multiple exposure to
English, which can facilitate noticing and
subsequently the acquisition of natural-
sounding and correct language.
Most of us adopt
a sensible policy of
selective correction,
and we attach more
importance to errors that
obscure meaning or
impede communication
English as a Foreign Language refers to
English as it is studied in non-English-
speaking countries, such as Germany,
Japan or Brazil. In an EFL setting,
learners have far less opportunity to
notice language used naturally outside
the classroom, as their exposure to
English will often be minimal. If these
learners, who mostly depend on the
classroom for exposure to English, are
corrected using recasts and these recasts
go unnoticed, vital learning
opportunities can be missed. In this case,
they and their ESL counterparts will
benefit from receiving ‘negative
evidence’, that is, direct feedback about
what it is not possible to say. In fact,
some researchers have reacted to the
trend towards CLT and have expressed
the concern that a lack of explicit
correction will result in early fossilisation
of errors. A fossilised error is one that
has become a permanent feature of a
learner’s interlanguage and is at risk of
becoming resistant to teaching.
Fluency and accuracy
Most of us adopt a sensible policy of
selective correction, and we attach more
importance to errors that obscure
meaning and, consequently, affect or
impede communication. The usual
advice for teachers is to distinguish
between accuracy and fluency activities.
Conventional ELT wisdom suggests that
if the objective is accuracy, then
immediate correction is likely to be
useful, but we shouldn’t interfere or
interrupt our learners during fluency
activities. With fluency activities, we
usually delay giving feedback until the
end of the activity so as not to disrupt
communication. The problem with the
accuracy or fluency distinction is that it
is based on the teacher’s attitude to
mistakes and not on learning styles. It is
unlikely that our learners think in terms
of fluency and accuracy, and some of
them prefer to be corrected consistently.
If students are interested in being
accurate all the time, they will not
necessarily appreciate our attempts to
encourage them to talk freely in a
fluency activity.
What and when
It is unfashionable to point out that
explicit correction has a role to play
during fluency activities as well as after
them. If intelligibility is jeopardised,
on-the-spot correction is often precisely
what is needed to make the learners
notice an error at the exact moment it
occurs. An analogy with learning to
drive a car helps illustrate this point. A
learner driver who makes a mistake
during a driving lesson is more likely to
notice the correction if it is given while
the driver is focused on driving, rather
than after the lesson. Likewise, many
language learners notice errors more if
these are pointed out explicitly while the
learners are focused on communicating,
rather than having them reformulated
or corrected later.
Sense and sensitivity
Corrective feedback of any kind could
give rise to a number of potential
problems, and the two techniques
mentioned also have drawbacks of
Many language
learners notice errors
more if they are pointed
out explicitly while
they are focused on
communicating
which we ought to be aware. If explicit
correction is not handled sensitively, it
could create an atmosphere of stress
and anxiety in the classroom, and could
even demotivate students and deter
them from wanting to speak in English.
Recasts will not usually impact
negatively on students’ confidence to
communicate, but they have
disadvantages of a different nature.
Apart from the danger of them not
being noticed, the use of recasts
assumes a basic interaction between the
teacher and the student. The teacher
must actually be talking to the student
Whichever correction
technique we prefer, we
need to think about the
effect of our feedback
on the student being
corrected, and on other
members of the class
to be able to reformulate. It would be
strange and unnatural to reformulate
the utterances of two students who are
talking to each other. This is basically
common sense. Another point to
consider is that if teachers recast just
one part of an utterance, they could
unwittingly produce language with the
correct form, but which would rarely be
said. We can take an example from
Mark Bartram and Richard Walton’s
excellent book Correction:
Student: I’m keen on go to the cinema
this evening.
The temptation here is to correct go to
going and thus recast the sentence as
I’m keen on going to the cinema this
evening. While this is superficially
correct, it might be a better idea to
recast the whole sentence as a native
speaker would actually express the idea.
For example, I feel like going to the
cinema tonight or I fancy going to the
cinema tonight.
The meaning and the
message
Some teachers also use peer correction
and are in favour of fostering heuristic
skills and getting students to self-
correct. But whichever correction
technique we prefer, we need to think
about the effect of our feedback on the
student being corrected, and on other
members of the class who might process
the feedback. We must also remember
that, when learners are communicating
in English, their priority is to get their
message across, and that the meaning of
their utterances is important – not just
our teaching objectives.
Jim Cummins and Chris Davison
report that ‘recent experimental
classroom studies have revealed that more
explicit types of feedback can lead to
higher levels of accuracy and development
than implicit types of feedback in the
form of recasts’.

I believe that if students are receptive to
recasts, their usefulness as a correction
technique is not in dispute. However, in
an EFL environment in which the
learners receive just a few hours a week
of classroom exposure to English,
explicit correction can significantly
expedite the process of language learning
by providing direct feedback about rules
and the limits of language use.
Some teachers in a CLT classroom
readily embrace the idea of fluency over
accuracy. But a desire for fluency in a
communicative approach does not
excuse us from trying our utmost to
help our learners also to develop high
levels of accuracy in the use of
grammar, lexis and pronunciation. I
suggest that when used wisely, a balance
between recasts and other corrective
feedback is in our students’ best
interests. ETp
Cummins, J and Davison, C International
Handbook of English Language Teaching
Springer 2007
Bartram, M and Walton, R Correction
Thomson Heinle 2002
Lightbown, P and Spada, N How
Languages are Learned OUP 1999
Chris Payne is the
owner of Paddington
School of English and
has been teaching in
Spain since 1993. He
has published several
articles on ELT and
his current research
interests include the
challenge of using
grammar effectively
in real-time
communication.
paddington@terra.es
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •
TALKBACK!
I
n Issue 79 of ETp, John Potts (‘Language
log’) cites a number of examples of
conditional sentences that don’t follow
the patterns found in ELT coursebooks. His
article reminds us that grammar books are
an attempt to describe how the language is
used and cannot be expected to cover all
possible permutations.
It is useful to begin by teaching a
limited number of forms to help students
express themselves in English. However,
sooner or later they are likely to come
across other variations. Potts’ examples,
seen alongside corpus lists, make it clear
that the teaching of three particular
conditionals doesn’t provide learners with
the whole picture. As students progress, it
may be useful to teach the use of would for
something unlikely and would have for a
possibility that didn’t happen, while other
tenses can be used as usual.
Potts wonders why if + would is more
common in American than in British English.
This can be explained by the influence of
German, which uses both equivalent forms
(hätte and haben würde). Not only are
German and English both derived from West
Germanic, but American English is also
subject to greater modern German influence
from the large numbers of German speakers
who crossed the Atlantic. Another example
is the use of the simple past and present
perfect tenses, eg American I already did it
and He just arrived versus British I’ve already
done it and He’s just arrived. Again, modern
German retains both equivalent forms. This
all goes to show that multiple forms are the
norm and the grammar found in textbooks
does not cover all acceptable variations.
Other rules popularised by ELT
coursebooks also give the impression that
other forms are not acceptable. Some go on
for pages about the sequence of tenses in
reported speech, leaving students frustrated
when native speakers say He said he’s
coming rather than He said he was coming.
As with conditionals, these tenses are simply
being used in the normal way, one being
about the future and one about the past.
Perhaps the solution is to teach
learners forms they can use to express
themselves, but point out that others are
also in use. They may discover this for
themselves, and can use corpus websites
and dictionaries which refer to usage from
corpora to extend their knowledge.
While it is convenient to describe
certain grammar rules that help learners
communicate, they should be made aware
that native speakers of English may use
many patterns to express the same ideas.
Angela Rogers
Bandung, Indonesia
53
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

which hopefully will help them to come to

Which
an understanding of themselves and thus
increase their self-esteem. This is a
prerequisite for enabling them to cope with
life and engage in new learning experiences
as socially responsible persons.’

comes
The autonomous learner
This all points to the importance of
autonomy in our classrooms. Learner
autonomy is defined by Dam as ‘a
readiness to take charge of one’s own
learning in the service of one’s needs and
purposes ... [which] entails a capacity
and willingness to act independently and

first?
in co-operation with others, as a socially
responsible person’, and it is seen as a
major factor that may make the difference
between successful and bad learning
experiences, with the learner as the main
constituent in the learning process.
Most people would agree that the
combination of the best teacher with
the best coursebook will not yield the
desired pedagogical results if the

Riyad Al-Homsi circles
in on teacher autonomy and
learner autonomy.
I
t is not within the responsibilities
(nor the capability, even if we
assume the responsibility) of a
university to provide the learners
with the panacea skills that will endow
them with everything they need in their
future lives and careers. In fact, it would
be unreasonable to claim that any
institution or learning centre could do
so, simply because, as John Trim (quoted
by Leni Dam) points out: ‘adult life, in its
personal as well as its vocational aspects,
is far too diverse and too subject to change
for any educational curriculum to attempt
to provide a detailed preparation. It is
more important for a young person to
have an understanding of himself or
herself, an awareness of the environment
and its workings, and to have learned how
to think and how to learn’.
Leni Dam also emphasises the idea
that teachers don’t have magic wands
with which they can make their students
learn: they can only help the learners
grasp new information and show them
novel ways to link this new information
with what they already know about the
topic in question, a process through
which learning takes place: ‘No school or
even university can provide its pupils with
all the knowledge and all the skills they will
need in their adult lives. What we can do is
give our learners an awareness of how they
think and how they learn – an awareness
learners themselves do not take any
action to make their learning purposeful
and personally meaningful, and if they
do not attempt to make the combination
of good teacher and good coursebook
meet with their own learning objectives.
Learners are
most likely to develop
autonomy if they
are nourished by
autonomous practices
in the classroom
The autonomous
teacher
So far, we have only discussed the
concept of learner autonomy. However, a
further point to consider here is that of
teacher autonomy. Learners are most
likely to develop autonomy if they are
nourished by autonomous practices in
the classroom – and these, in turn, are
most likely to come from autonomous
teachers. Indeed, the reverse of this
equation is true: if the teacher is not
autonomous, then their practices are
not likely to promote autonomy and,

54 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
consequently, their students will not be
autonomous. We can see the importance
of this relationship if we consider Naoko
Aoki’s definition of the autonomous
teacher: one who has ‘the capacity,
freedom, and/or responsibility to make
choices concerning one’s own teaching’.
In other words, unless we empower our
teachers, learner autonomy will remain
an unattainable dream.
A vicious circle
This appears to be borne out by
situations where concepts such as
autonomy, motivation, cooperative
learning, etc are not commonly
understood or valued. One such context
is that of Syrian schools and
universities. Syrian teachers are not, on
the whole, good representatives of the
concept of autonomy, simply because
they themselves were not taught in an
atmosphere of autonomy when they
were students. As a result, these
teachers tend not to be autonomous in
their classrooms, a situation which will
negatively affect their own learners as
well. There is no blame to be
apportioned here: we cannot expect
teachers to be champions of autonomy
in the classroom if they have no
experience of it themselves. David Little
makes this point clearly and succinctly:
‘It is unreasonable to expect teachers to
foster the growth of autonomy in their
learners if they themselves do not know
what it is to be an autonomous learner.’
Another issue of concern is what I
call the ‘curse of imitation’: the tendency
of many novice teachers, consciously or
unconsciously, to copy the model of a
teacher they have met in the course of
their own education. This does not bode
well for the concept of teacher and
learner autonomy if that model teacher
turns out to have come from an old-
fashioned, teacher-centred school of
thought, and this takes us back to square
one and the title of this article: which
autonomy comes first: is it that of the
teacher or that of the learner?
A virtuous circle
We should not fail to note here that the
teacher is not the only factor affecting
the students’ autonomy. There are many
other things that will contribute to the
development of the autonomous
learner, such as interesting coursebooks
tailored to their needs, resource centres,
pedagogical materials and technology,
to mention just a few. However, the
human factor, in my view, should
always be given priority over other
elements, and it is the one that needs the
most concentrated effort. Concepts such
as autonomy take a very long time to
become established norms in the
classroom and, therefore, to have the
desired pedagogical effects on the
learners – and this cannot be done
easily without autonomous teachers.
Teacher
trainers
New Autonomous
autonomous trainee
generation teachers
Autonomous Autonomous
learners teachers
Autonomous teachers will plant and
nurture the seeds of autonomy in their
learners, and will encourage those who
are already autonomous. In other
words, these teachers will stop teaching
in order to allow learning. It is they
who will allow space for learner
autonomy to take place and grow.
Richard Smith asserts that ‘in order
to engage students in autonomous and
effective reflection on their own learning,
teachers need to constantly reflect on their
own role in the classroom, monitoring the
extent to which they constrain or scaffold
students’ thinking and behavior’. We may
deduce from this that the first steps to
having teachers who reflect on and
monitor their own role in the classroom
are the teacher education/training
programmes, where such concepts should
be introduced in both theory and
practice. Trainee teachers who have
experienced such programmes will
obviously be better able to apply the
concept of autonomy in their teaching
practice because they themselves will
have lived through the experience during
their own studies, and absorbed the
rationale that lies behind them.
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •

In contexts where the teachers’ ability to
give their students greater freedom in
learning is severely constrained, it is
particularly important that teacher
training programmes be introduced which
adopt the loosening of these constraints
as a long-term goal. Thankfully, this
process has already started in Syria
through the Higher Institutes for
Languages that exist in all Syrian public
universities. Two ELT MA and Diploma
programmes have been designed for
English department graduates who are
considering taking up English language
teaching as a profession. Enrolment in
these programmes provides the general
background of the latest theoretical
concepts of ELT, together with hands-on
experience through a teaching practice
module present in both programmes. The
likely efficacy of such programmes is
shown in the diagram on this page, which
reflects the interconnectedness of the
different elements and the way desirable
concepts are achieved and successfully
transferred to the next generation. ETp
Aoki, N ‘Aspects of teacher autonomy:
capacity, freedom and responsibility’
Paper presented at Hong Kong University
of Science and Technology Language
Centre Conference 2000
Dam, L Learner Autonomy: From Theory
to Classroom Practice Authentik 1995
Little, D ‘We’re all in it together: exploring
the interdependence of teacher and
learner autonomy’ Paper presented at
Autonomy 2000, University of Helsinki
Language Centre 2000 (Available online
at www.iatefl.org.pl/sig/al/al1.html)
Smith, R C ‘Learner and teacher
development: connections and constraints’
The Language Teacher 25 (6) 2001
Trim, J L M In Holec, H (Ed) Autonomy
and Self-directed Learning: Present
Fields of Application Council of Europe
1988
Riyad Al-Homsi is a
teacher trainer and
teacher of English and
Arabic languages who
has taught in both Syria
and the United States.
Currently, he is teaching
at the Department of
Modern Languages and
Literatures at Manhattan
College, New York City.
He is the author of
several publications on
teaching and education.
rafh79@yahoo.co.uk
55
 TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
What does
a DoS do?
Sasha Wajnryb reveals some of the realities of
moving into academic management.
If you’re thinking about becoming a
Director of Studies (DoS), there are
some things that you need to know ...
M
any new teachers meet
their DoS during their job
selection and induction
process but have limited contact after
this point. Often teachers are unaware
of the multitude of tasks that their DoS
completes each day and may wonder
just what it is that a DoS actually does.
Even teachers who express an interest in
moving into academic management
themselves may be unsure of what the
job involves.
This article will explore the role of
the DoS: a role that can vary
significantly and often depends on the
structure of each institution. However,
in general, it is fair to say that the DoS
does a little of everything. At many
institutions, if a particular task falls
outside the other staff members’ job
descriptions, the DoS does it. If
something needs to be done immediately,
again it is the DoS who does it!
Roles and requirements
Like many teachers, I took my first
steps into academic management
without any formal training. I was
selected to lead and manage a small
team of teachers because I had
demonstrated expertise in the
classroom. I have been extremely
fortunate to have access to experienced
and supportive mentors who have
helped me throughout my move into
management. I also undertook further
studies in education management.
56 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
The DoS is often required to
complete a variety of different tasks
within a very short period of time.
Juggling these tasks and remaining calm
in the face of considerable stress are
essential skills. As most Directors of
Studies are experienced teachers, they
are skilled at achieving their course aims,
managing the often differing hopes, fears
and expectations of each student, and
dealing with a variety of internal and
external factors that impact on the
classroom environment. Similarly, the
DoS juggles a multitude of different
tasks as he or she leads the college
© iStockphoto.com / Julien Tromeur
towards its strategic goals.
My role tends to be divided into
three categories: regular tasks (eg
scheduling classes, observing teachers,
corresponding with stakeholders), future
planning (eg writing new courses,
facilitating the professional development
of the staff) and fighting the unexpected
fires that inevitably pop up (eg arranging
cover for absent teachers).
The table on page 57 illustrates what
a typical day may look like.
Recommendations
If you’re interested in moving into
academic management, I recommend
you speak to your DoS or another
manager. It’s often difficult to find staff
who wish to assume these roles, so the
DoS is likely to be keen to support and
even mentor you. Ideally, you can
gain experience as a Level Co-
ordinator, Programme Co-ordinator
or Assistant Director of Studies (ADoS)
before becoming a DoS.
I also recommend undertaking
relevant further studies to teach you
some of the skills you will require. In
some countries, a formal academic
qualification may be required in order
to fulfil regulatory requirements.
And read a lot! There are many
excellent books on education
management. Colleges don’t always run
as smoothly as we’d like. However, a
solid understanding of education
management theory, some on-the-job
training, and a healthy dose of common
sense will keep the college on track.

Being a DoS is a challenging, but
thoroughly rewarding role. It’s a great
way to extend yourself professionally,
learn valuable new skills and, most
importantly, help your students reach
their learning outcomes. ETp
Sasha Wajnryb is the
Director of Studies at
Greenwich College in
Sydney, Australia. He
has completed a
Master of Applied
Linguistics (Language
Program Management)
and has taught and/or
managed English
language colleges for
over ten years.
s.wajnryb@greenwichcollege.com.au
 A day in the life of a DoS
Time Activity Notes

6.30 am Arrange a relief teacher After a sick teacher texts me, I contact a relief teacher (we keep a regularly
updated list).

7.15–7.50 am Arrive at work/project work The college is empty – this is the best time to work on long-term projects.

7.50 am Teachers start arriving Our staffroom starts to hum with the noise of busy teachers. I respond to the
many emails in my inbox and discuss any particular issues with teachers.

8 am Contact co-ordinator I speak to the co-ordinator of the class with the absent teacher and
ensure they have prepared the lesson materials for the relief teacher.

8–8.15 am Offshore speaking test I conduct telephone interviews with prospective students from overseas to
ensure their English level meets the requirements of their planned studies.

8.15–8.20 am Set up the testing room I move tables and chairs into the testing room.

8.20–8.50 am Academic counselling I meet students at fixed appointments to conduct academic and personal
counselling.

8.50–9 am Greeting students One of the marketing staff has called in sick, so I go to the front desk and assist
other staff in greeting new students.

9–10.30 am Test new/prospective students I test new or prospective students. Each test incorporates a one-to-one interview.

10.30–11 am Mark tests, allocate students I mark the tests and allocate students to classes. Teachers are informed about
new students joining their classes.

11–11.15 am Review student applications I review student applications for course changes and holidays.

11.15–11.40 am Meeting with marketing team I meet the marketing team to discuss upcoming campaigns and
student/agent feedback.

11.40–11.50 am Review schedule and budget I review the teaching schedule for the next few months, and juggle teachers and
classes to ensure the budget is met.

11.50 am–12.30 pm Staff and student lunch I speak with teachers and students about various issues.

12.15–12.45 pm Email co-ordinators I email each of the college’s course co-ordinators regarding the specific projects
they are working on.

12.45 pm Class numbers I review the forward booking for various fixed-entry classes. I also liaise with the
Principal regarding the viability of offering various classes.

12.45–1 pm My lunch I pop out for a sandwich!

1–1.30 pm Interview I interview a candidate for a new teaching position starting in three weeks’ time.

1.30–2 pm Meet ADoS This is a regular meeting to discuss current projects and outcomes.

2–2.15 pm Review websites I review the TESOL/Applied Linguistics websites that I subscribe to and add any
relevant information to the staff meeting notes.

2.15–2.45 pm Teacher development A teacher has asked to be trained to teach on a new programme, so I sit down
with him and we discuss a training schedule so he can learn to teach on the
new course.

3–3.30 pm Staff meeting This is a meeting to discuss various issues affecting the ELT industry, the college,
students and teachers.

3.30–4 pm Student counselling I speak with individual students about academic issues.

4–6 pm Seminar I present a seminar to prospective students on one of the college’s programmes.

6–6.30 pm Student database I update the college’s student database with information regarding various
students that I spoke to today.

6.30 pm Go home!

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 • 57

 T E C H N O L O G Y
Digital homework
for digital natives
Nasy Inthisone Pfanner gives her students what they crave.
T
echnology has changed the world
beyond our imagination. In fact,
it touches all aspects of our lives:
the way we shop, the way we do
business and even the way we choose
partners! The list of how technology
influences our lives is endless.
The term digital natives, coined by
Marc Prensky, refers to people who grew
up with technology and includes most
of those who are currently students in
developed countries. The focus of this
article will be on how high-tech homework
increases learning among digital natives.
A digital world
About 20 years ago, when I was a young
student attending middle-class schools
in the United States, technology in the
classrooms was limited. There were not
enough computers for everyone, so we
all had to wait our turn. Moreover, few
people had computers at home.
Technologically speaking, the world
that I grew up in and the world that my
students are growing up in are almost as
different as night and day. This is not to
say that I am totally computer illiterate;
two years ago I graduated from the
University of Michigan, which is
technologically very advanced. However,
because I didn’t grow up with as much
technology as my students, I would
classify myself as a digital immigrant.
Today I am a secondary-school
English teacher in Austria, a wealthy,
high-tech country where technology is
an integral part of every classroom. The
comprehensive school where I work has
over 800 students, aged 10 to 18. Those
aged 10 to 14 use textbooks published by
the same firm, differing only in the level
of language development. In other words,
each book builds on the previous level.
Unlike the books that I learnt from as a
child, these textbooks have accompanying
electronic homework. However, those
aged 14 to 18 use textbooks which don’t
have accompanying electronic homework.
58 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
Simply put, they are learning in an old-
fashioned way, similar to that in which I
learnt as a child.
Digital homework
When I first started teaching, in September
2010, I was a bit sceptical about electronic
homework. Part of this scepticism was due
to my own ignorance – I felt unsure of my
own capability. Nonetheless, there was no
escape. The electronic homework was part
of the learning materials and had to be
used. All the students had to be signed up
and their names entered into the program.
They were then given a password and
username with which they could log-in on
any computer and access their electronic
homework anytime and anywhere.
Every unit of the textbook has
electronic homework tasks. The teachers
assign these, making the students aware
when they need to do them. The teacher
determines the closing date by which the
homework must be completed by clicking
on a calendar. Once this closing date has
arrived, the homework automatically
closes and no more can be submitted.
However, should the students need more
time, the teacher can extend the closing
date at any time. The teachers can then go
into the students’ accounts and see who
actually did or didn’t do their homework
and what they got correct or incorrect
on the assignments. Additionally, the
students can send email messages to the
teachers and the teachers can reply.
Digital learning and teaching
The electronic homework enhances what
we learn in class; it also provides correction
and feedback. Consequently, the students
find out if their answers are correct
immediately; they don’t have to wait to get
the answers from the teacher. This rapid
response accelerates learning and saves
time. As a result, more classroom time can
be spent on reading and conversation.
However, despite the positive
contributions that electronic homework
makes to the classroom, it is not the be-all
and end-all of teaching or learning. Good
language learning still needs to involve
old-fashioned grammar exercises and
writing assignments. Furthermore, as with
more traditional types of homework, the
key is to give enough practice, but not
so much that all the students do is sit in
front of their computers. Electronic
homework cannot in any circumstances
be a replacement for a good teaching
method. However, it is a great
supplement to what teachers do in class.

We are living in a digital world and our
students are digital natives: they need
learning materials that correspond to
their lifestyles. With high-tech homework
they can have fun playing on the
computer and learning at the same time,
provided that there is a good balance.
Of all the homework assignments I use,
electronic homework is the type that
never gets any complaints. On the
contrary, the students keep begging for
more! The bottom line is that happy
students equal happy teachers, which in
turn creates a positive educational
environment. It is a win-win situation.
If only I could get my students who
don’t have electronic homework to get as
excited about their assignments! ETp
Prensky, M ‘Digital natives, digital
immigrants’ On the Horizon 9 (5) 2001
Nasy Inthisone Pfanner
was born in Laos, but
grew up in the US. She
has published articles
about education and
Lao Americans. She has
a Masters degree in
German Language and
Literature (Arizona State
University) and a Masters
degree in Education
(University of Michigan).
She teaches English at
BORG Dornbirn-Schoren
in Vorarlberg, Austria.
h.pfanner@vanderbilt.edu
 T E C H N O L O G Y
Five things you always wanted to know about
TED Talks
(but were afraid to ask)
1 What’s so special about these
videos?
The TED Talks (www.ted.com) are no
ordinary videos. TED stands for Technology
Entertainment Design. These videos are
short presentations of 3, 6, 9, 12 or 18
minutes each, made by very good
speakers on a huge range of interesting
topics. You’ll find TED Talks by politicians
(Gordon Brown, Bill Clinton, Al Gore ...),
by technology gurus (Bill Gates, Google
founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin ...)
and by scientists, educators, designers and
other talented individuals. TED Talks have
been offered for free online viewing since
2006 and have attracted a growing online
audience. The price tag for attending a
face-to-face TED talk is around US$6,000,
so the best news of all is that viewing the
1,000+ recorded talks online is free.
2 But how are TED Talks relevant
to language teachers?
They are a particularly good resource for
English language teachers because the
speakers and topics are engaging. Many
teachers watch them for their own
professional development, as a way to
keep up with developments in technology
(and design) in the wider world and, of
course, as a way to develop and practise
their listening skills in English. Not only
that, students often find them interesting,
too, and TED Talks have some extra
features that make them great to use
both inside the classroom and for
students to watch alone outside class.
3 What extra features?
For a start, you can watch TED Talks with
subtitles in English and you can read
transcripts of the talks. What’s more, the
TED Open Translation Project means that
there are also subtitles available for some
of the videos in 85 languages to date.
These range from Albanian (162 talks) to
Vietnamese (619 talks) by way of major
languages like Chinese (over 1,000 talks) to
lesser-known languages such as Ingush
60 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
and Hupa (1 talk each) and even a made-
up language: Klingon from Star Trek (1 talk).
Subtitles are created by volunteers, so if
your students are linguistically proficient
enough, you could even get them to work
in small groups on translating one of the
shorter videos into their first language, and
submit it to the Open Translation Project
(see www.ted.com/OpenTranslationProject).
In short, TED talks are potentially
more accessible to students with
subtitles (whether in English or their first
language), and via transcripts. There is
also a TED Talks app for the iPhone and
for Android phones, so students can
easily watch TED videos out of class.
4 How can I use TED Talks in
class?
If you’d like to introduce your students to
TED Talks, try searching for lesson plans
built around them. A good place to start
is http://esltedtalks.blogspot.com, which
has a bank of downloadable lesson plans
to use with specific videos. Jamie
Keddie’s Lessonstream site has a lesson
based around a talk given by Daniel Pink
at http://lessonstream.org/2011/03/31/
the-candle-problem/.
You can have your students watch TED
talks (with or without subtitles or transcripts),
and do related language work or hold a
discussion around the topic. But the TED
website itself also engages viewers in
dialogue around topics. TED Conversations
(www.ted.com/conversations) has forums in
which viewers can discuss issues that may
come out of watching the videos. You could
always encourage your students to
contribute – they will need to sign in. There
is no more authentic use of language than
engaging in a real online discussion.
How about having your students watch
TED Talks as preparation for their own
presentations? Garr Reynolds lists TED
Talks videos which are models for good
presentations on his blog:
www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen
/2009/05/making-presentations-in-the-ted-
style.html.
In this series, Nicky Hockly
explains aspects of technology
which some people may be
embarrassed to confess that
they don’t really understand. In
this article, she examines an
excellent online video resource.
5 Which are the best TED talks?
This depends on you. You may want to
watch TED talks yourself or you may want
to use them with students. For lower-level
students, you can use subtitles and/or
transcripts, and the shorter videos. You will
always want to choose topics you think
your students will find interesting, or ones
that are related to work you are currently
doing in class. If you’re new to TED, here is
a list of recommended talks, produced by
a group of teachers from all around the
world on one of our recent online training
courses. They each chose a talk they
found especially interesting or inspiring.
Search the TED website for each video:
● Tim Berners-Lee on the internet
(Jose Antonio Silva, Brazil)
● Thomas Suarez on app development
(Silvia Caldas, Brazil, and Anabel
Nowak, Germany)
● Michael Nielsen on open science
(Anna Avramenko, Russia)
● Bunker Roy on the barefoot college
(Antonella Elia, Italy)
● Bill Stone on caves and space
(Tony Grant, Japan)
● Howard Rheingold on collaboration
(Virginie Lasalle, France)
● Aparna Rao on high-tech art
(Karyn Weston, Germany)
● Rebecca Saxe on the theory of mind
(Vicki Hollett, USA)
● Joe Sabia on the technology of
storytelling (Carla Arena, Brazil)
● Pranav Mistry on SixthSense
technology (Gavin Dudeney, UK)
● Jane McGonigal on gaming (My choice)
Then sit back and enjoy these wonderful
talks! ETp
Nicky Hockly is Director of
Pedagogy of The Consultants-E,
an online teacher training and
development consultancy.
She is co-author of How to
Teach English with Technology,
Learning English as a Foreign
Language for Dummies
and Teaching Online.
She maintains a blog at
www.emoderationskills.com.
Webwatcher
Web
n the next six weeks I will be visiting no fewer than eight
I countries and giving a total of 15 talks. At the centre of nearly
all my presentations will be the concept of the ‘connected
classroom’. So I thought I would write a bit more about this idea
and some of the tools that we can use to achieve it.
Expanding opportunities
One of the ways that technology has transformed language
learning is in the opportunities it affords for learning outside the
classroom. Students have access to more content and more
chances to engage with English than ever before. At the beginning,
the web offered little more than written content, basic quizzes and
some audio. However, as it began to evolve and users were able to
add their own content, this all changed. In the last five years, we
have seen a huge expansion in possibilities and we can now share,
collaborate, upload videos, add audio, blog – and much more.
At first, I viewed online content simply as a way to make the
homework I assigned more interesting and to provide ideas and
directions for autonomous learning. I was able to recommend
websites, videos, interviews, stories, etc that might interest my
students. It now means that I can organise collaboration outside
of class time. So, for example, the homework might be a
collaborative piece of work where the students contribute to a
wiki or comment on each other’s blogs.
This is all very positive and has really helped to make my
lessons more varied, to motivate the students, to make the
learning more personalised, to introduce different forms of group-
and pairwork and to extend the lesson beyond the classroom.
Breaking down barriers
The key point of the ‘connected classroom’ concept is that
technology can break down the barriers between lesson and
homework, merging the two so that, instead of being an
afterthought, the homework is a direct extension of the actual
lesson. Indeed, when I plan my lessons now, I think of the two
parts (the lesson and the homework) as one whole: they are
connected. What’s more, the better the connection between
what we do in class and what the students are asked to do at
home, the better they engage with the homework.
The connected classroom could be based around anything –
a lesson on presentation skills, for example. In class we could
make a list of the typical mistakes students make when
presenting. We might develop a checklist of good or bad points
for evaluating a presentation. The homework might then be to
watch a video of a bad presentation and suggest ways that it
could be improved, perhaps in the form of a report. (There is a
great video that shows a presenter making loads of mistakes
which is ideal for the students to watch and analyse at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXILI9Q1jIw.)
The homework is, therefore, closely linked to the content of
the lesson. Indeed, the lesson actually prepares the students for
the homework.
The connected classroom in action
I am especially interested in using the connected classroom idea
for speaking activities. One of the easiest sites I have ever used
is http://vocaroo.com/. Here, the students can click on a button,
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •
Russell Stannard tries out
more tools for the connected classroom.
record themselves speaking and then email the recording to me.
In a lesson on giving personal information, for example, I might
get the students to practise giving the following information,
looking at the language needed to provide it:
• Your name • Your job • Where you live • The languages you
speak • Two interests
I might then get them to practise giving personal information in
pairs, thereby building their confidence in speaking. The homework
would be for the students to log onto the site, record themselves
providing personal information and then email the result to me. I
could then listen, take notes and provide feedback in the next
lesson. There are obvious benefits to such an approach:
● Shy students benefit as they can make the recordings in the
privacy of their own home.
● The students can make their recording as many times as they
like until they are happy with it, and then submit it.
● We are increasing the speaking practice that our students get
outside class.
● The recordings can be included in a portfolio, so the students
can build up evidence and examples of their progress in
speaking over a period of time.
The good news is there are more and more of these types of
tools emerging on the internet. I recently came across Eyejot,
another great tool that we can use for speaking activities. Eyejot
(at www.eyejot.com/) has the advantage that recordings can be
downloaded onto a hard drive. It also works with a webcam so
the recordings can be done as videos.
One way to use it might be in the context of a job interview.
In the lesson, you might watch some videoed examples of job
interviews and get the students to analyse and focus on the
questions asked. You might then put them into pairs, get them to
think of ten more interview questions and then ask them to roleplay
an interview. When giving feedback, you can focus on any
problems of pronunciation or language use. Finally, for homework,
you can get the students to work in pairs and record their interviews
using Eyejot. The students send their recordings directly to you for
feedback on their oral performance. This is just one simple scenario
but there are obviously many other ways this tool can be exploited.

Technology is going beyond just revolutionising what we ask our
students to do for homework; it is almost removing the walls of
the classroom and making the homework an extension of the
lesson itself. ETp
For help on using Vocaroo and Eyejot, go to:
www.teachertrainingvideos.com/vocaroo1/index.html
and www.teachertrainingvideos.com/eyejot/index.html
Russell Stannard is a Principal Lecturer in ICT at the
University of Warwick, UK, where he teaches on the
MA in ELT. He won the Times Higher Education
Award for Outstanding Initiatives in Information and
Communications Technology in 2008, TEFLnet Site of
the Year in 2009 and a 2010 British Council ELTon
award, all for his popular website
www.teachertrainingvideos.com.
Keep sending your favourite sites to Russell:
russellstannard@btinternet.com
61
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 In this column
class management strategies are effective, and identified specific issues that can assist
all language teachers in improving the quality of their teaching.
A farewell to ETp
have been writing this column for almost
I seven years, and most of the things I
wanted to say have now been said! Even
though I shall miss the discipline of
writing an article every two months, the time
has now come to relinquish this spot on the
last-but-one page of ETp – sandwiched
between ads and the prize crossword – and
hand over the baton.
I’ve tried to keep a number of goals
clearly in mind when writing my column:
writing in a clear, engaging and jargon-free
way; addressing the kinds of issues and
problems that routinely occur in language
classes and offering a range of practical
solutions; giving language teachers insights
into lesser-known aspects of classroom
teaching and learning; providing frameworks
that support not only individual teachers
who seek to expand their skills, but also
language teacher educators who need ideas
and materials upon which to base ongoing
professional development programmes.
Over the years, I’ve found that my
perspective and priorities have gradually
shifted. When I began, I found myself mainly
addressing native English-speaking teachers
implementing the communicative approach
with relatively small classes containing
students from a mix of linguistic, ethnic and
cultural backgrounds. I therefore wrote on
topics such as the danger of confusing fun
with learning (Issue 36), the role of laughter
in the language classroom (Issue 42) and
dealing with interpersonal discord (Issues
51–53). Latterly I’ve become increasingly
aware of the challenges facing teachers of
large mono-cultural classes, who themselves
learnt English as a foreign language and
who are constrained in what they can do in
their classrooms by cultural, parental and
institutional expectations. This has led me to
write on topics such as exam-driven teaching
(Issue 69), competitive games (Issue 70) and
teaching large classes (Issue 73). In my ETp
articles, I have also addressed a variety of
general pedagogic issues, including how to
project an appropriate professional persona
(Issue 54), how to use the board in effective
ways (Issue 58) and the art of questioning in
the language classroom (Issues 63 and 64).
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 80 May 2012 •
Rose Senior has explained why certain teaching techniques and
A topic close to my heart has always
been classroom dynamics: promoting
understanding of the fact that successful
teaching is as much about building and
maintaining a positive, supportive overall
class atmosphere as it is about teaching in
proficient ways. These two aspects of
teaching have a symbiotic relationship: the
more positive the atmosphere within the
overall class, the more effectively students
learn, while the more effectively students
learn, the better the quality of the overall class
atmosphere. To encapsulate this notion, I
talk about teachers who are constantly
aware of the dynamics of their classes and
who encourage their classes to behave
collectively in responsive, learning-oriented
ways as having a ‘class-centred approach’ or
behaving in ‘class-centred ways’. In Issues
46–48, I wrote specifically on key aspects of
class-centred teaching, while many of my
other column articles, such as those in which
I dealt with class management issues (Issues
40 and 57), were written from a class-centred
perspective. In Issue 78, I proposed four
principles that underpin class-centred
teaching: the ‘RICE’ principles of Rapport,
Inclusivity, Connectedness and Engagement.
I have also written about class-centred
teaching in a number of feature articles. In
Issue 35, I described the different ways that
teachers can react to unexpected student
behaviour – and how different reactions can
have a positive or a negative effect on the
dynamics of the overall class group. In
Issue 41, I wrote about the benefits of
brainstorming, explaining how this teaching
technique is effective both socially and
pedagogically. My article on rapport (Issue
54) aims to help teachers develop positive
working relationships with their classes,
while the article on class group
development (Issue 65) identifies the
various stages that classes typically go
through as they progress towards a state of
cohesiveness and maximum productivity.

Those wishing to read or re-read my articles
for ongoing reflection or professional
development purposes will find them in the
archive of the new ETp website
(www.eltknowledge.com) or on my own
website (www.rosesenior.com). I have
mentioned many of my articles here in the
hope that they will provide a useful starting-
off point for future contributors to ETp who
wish to give further insights and observations
that may be of interest to readers.

Looking ahead, the last decade has
witnessed a rapidly accelerating global rush
to learn English – now accepted as the
pathway to prosperity and a brighter future
for millions of children worldwide. This has
led to the commercialisation of English
language teaching on an unprecedented
scale. In my view, a key challenge for English
language teachers in the future will be to find
ways of teaching effectively in educational
establishments driven by financial rather than
educational considerations. I believe that
educational decision-makers should nurture
teachers by providing support and
opportunities for professional development –
rather than squeeze them by creating
overlarge classes, placing students with
differing needs and goals in the same class,
placing unrealistic expectations on teachers
in terms of what they can achieve within
specified timeframes, and so on. Although
some people believe that technology may
one day enable all students to be self-
educating (and therefore ultimately make
classrooms redundant), I believe that
language classes in which students learn
collectively and collaboratively under the
guidance of competent teachers will continue
to play an important role in the future –
provided that teachers’ working conditions
enable them to teach in effective and
personally rewarding ways. ETp
Rose Senior is a language teacher educator
who runs workshops and presents at
conferences around the world.
www.rosesenior.com
63
 Prize crossword 53
ETp presents the fifty-third in our To solve the puzzle, find which letter each number represents. You can keep a record
series of prize crosswords. Send your in the boxes below. The definitions of the words in the puzzle are given, but not in the
entry (completed crossword grid and right order. When you have finished, you will be able to read the quotation.
quotation), not forgetting to include
your full name, postal address and telephone number, VERY FREQUENT WORDS ** A sound made when hesitating
to Prize crossword 53, ENGLISH TEACHING professional, *** The early part of the day ** An area of the coast where the land
Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd, Rayford House, *** ‘___ Kill a Mockingbird’ (novel by curves inwards
School Road, Hove, BN3 5JR, UK. Ten correct entries Harper Lee) ** To hit something with your foot and
will be drawn from a hat on 10 July 2012 and the *** Frozen water fall down as a result
senders will each receive a copy of the second edition
*** To set something on fire ** Something that someone does
*** A series of actions you think about
of the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced FAIRLY FREQUENT WORDS
carefully in order to achieve something
Learners, applauded for its unique red star system * To increase in size because of water
*** At a higher level than something
showing the frequency of the 7,500 most common collecting inside
*** To move or travel
words in English (www.macmillandictionary.com). * Meat, vegetables or fruit cooked
*** A unit of measure
inside a pastry case
*** You, me and everyone else in our group
* A light brown colour
20 13 11 22 3 8 2 12 3 23 13 26 10 *** Not dirty
* A structure built out from the land
23 3 18 16 18 26 17 15 11 11
*** An alphabetical list of items in a book
over water
*** The way you feel as a result of
12 3 10 5 22 15 23 13 26 15 2 * A kind of oxygen found high in the
something that happens
atmosphere
18 5 23 21 4 23 11 15 6 *** A word that introduces an alternative
*** A person up to the age of about 14 LESS FREQUENT WORDS
3 22 23 11 15 21 15 12 22 12 3 4
*** The end of life – A machine used for shaping wood or
18 9 3 6 10 11 15 15 *** Of the best or most suitable type metal
C *** To say or write what someone else has
10 23 23 19 13 23 22 15 24 2 12 1
– A hard green substance used for
said or written making jewellery
12 18 13 11 4 6 12 *** ‘___ each life some rain must fall’ – An ancient Greek priest who
(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) predicted the future
14 2 1 15 3 8 11 2 22 5 15
J *** The whole of something – Consisting of many different types
6 3 1 15 2 11 2 3 2 *** Indefinite article – Informal word for thank you
6 11 15 2 18 6 13 18 22 23 11 1
*** Male pronoun – A handle you pull or push to operate
a machine
5 15 1 15 2 22 5 2 18 8 FREQUENT WORDS
– Abbreviation for end of file
** To check something carefully to make
3 4 3 15 12 23 3 18 13 – An old-fashioned word used to draw
sure it is correct
attention to something
11 3 25 22 12 3 6 7 2 11 11 ** An unfair thing done to gain an
– A large mass of slow-moving ice
advantage over someone
1 15 15 1 16 2 24 15 23 8 23 – In a pleasant, kind and gentle way
** A long thin stick, often used to support
– A feeling of excitement and
something
happiness
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 ** Very unpleasant
C – Existing in an amount that is too
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
** A substance that can flow and is not a
large to be measured
J solid or a gas
– A knockout in a boxing match
2 11 23 21 3 18 10 5 15 2 12 22 3 26 – Relating to the sense of smell
– Morally good, especially according to
22 5 15 22 12 13 15 26 22 17 3 26 1 23 20
Charles Dickens religious standards

64 • Issue 80 May 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •