ETp Issue 9 Imposed 27/4/01 11:23 am Page 42
call for increased teacher Teachers who hog the whole burden
F E AT U R E
Mini
MiniMAX
Who should do the work in
the language classroom?
Jon Taylor is in no
doubt that it’s the students.
Do you recognise yourself?
 John is conscientious, creative ... and
under stress. There just isn’t enough time
for everything. He is in the staffroom
designing a handout. Above him is a poster
for a seminar on cutting down preparation,
but with four more handouts to do, he’s not
sure he can afford the time …
 Mary is creating a puzzle for her
teenagers. Last time they finished in five
minutes, so she still has the rest of the
lesson to plan.
 Jack has made some beautiful
flashcards. He’s done six but needs 20
for this afternoon.
 Helen is preparing a roleplay by writing
instructions on slips of paper, distributing
attitudes and opinions evenly amongst the
class. As she writes, a shadow of doubt
creeps in. Last time they refused to argue
for beliefs they didn’t hold, it took ages to
explain the vocabulary on the role cards
and the whole activity fizzled out in
minutes …
42 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue Nine October 1998 •
A
efficiency would probably
provoke a cry of exasperation
followed by a riot! Yet
efficiency is not about working harder –
indeed it may involve working less.
Efficiency is the ratio between input and
output; in this case teacher input (or
lesson preparation) and student output
(language production). Preparation is an
essential and creatively satisfying part of
teaching, although it is not the amount
of time invested which counts, but its
effectiveness. It may be possible to
reduce the preparation and still see
positive results in student output, and I
would go so far as to say that a transfer
from ‘teacher input energy’ to ‘student
input energy’ would almost certainly
bring about a rise in productive output.
Do any of the scenarios in the box
below sound familiar?
One common feature of such
situations is that the teacher is over-
loaded and the students under-loaded.
Often, considerable effort is required for
learning to take place, but that effort
needs to be made by the student.
 Roy needs a handout. He came up
with a great one last year. Pity he
binned it.
 Jane realises that she’s learning far
more about the English language, and far
faster, than her students. Designing
worksheets has really helped (even her
spelling has improved), though the
students barely seem to look at them.
 Sally has got some great quizzes. She
writes the questions, divides the teams,
explains the rules, asks the questions,
decides if the answers are correct, writes
on the board and keeps the score. And
the students? Well, they get excited
about winning, of course, and answer
the questions, if they can …
 Adam prepares extra material for the
faster students in his mixed-ability class,
but it never seems enough. He exhausts
himself keeping them occupied, while
they get restless waiting for the others,
who are trying to catch his attention …
consequently deprive students of an
integral part of the learning process.
Furthermore, disruption is much more
likely when the going is light. So the
teacher who spares the students any
effort is digging his or her own grave as
regards controlling the class. These
issues, amongst others, form part of an
approach to teaching I call ‘Minimax’:
getting the maximum reward from the
minimum investment of time.
Perhaps you have already guessed
the minimax principles from the
examples of the struggling teachers.
★ ★ ★
MiniMAX principles
The minimax approach aims to put the
hard work needed for learning squarely
on the shoulders of the students, freeing
the teacher for more effective roles such
as guiding, facilitating, monitoring.
1 If you cut your own wood, it
warms you twice.
A great deal of the work that goes into
pre-lesson preparation would be far
more effective as part of the lesson plan.
What for the teacher may be useless
donkey-work, for the student becomes
valuable practice or revision. Who
would benefit more from designing a
crossword? Which of the steps involved
would help the student: looking back
over past vocabulary sources, choosing
important words, checking spellings,
fitting them together, making up
definitions, presenting their crossword
puzzles to test other groups? As well as
being fun, the preparation is probably
more effective practice than merely
completing the answers.
2 Mixed ability
If students work in groups designing
activities or exercises for their peers, they
not only derive pleasure and motivation
by challenging their classmates, they
also help each other to revise. In a
mixed-ability class, the work can be
divided so everybody is involved in the
creation of tasks. Students rely on each
other and assist each other to meet the
time deadlines.
3 Better than the book
Which house is a student most likely to
enjoy describing? The one on page X of
the coursebook, or their own? Or their
ETp Issue 9 Imposed 27/4/01 11:23 am
ideal house? Or their idol’s? Are parents
more at home describing their own
children or the people in the flashcard
you have made? In which have they
more control over the content, and in
which is there a real information gap?
Personalisation can provide meaningful
content for lessons and frees the teacher
to shape what students want to say. It is
realistic practice – things close to the
students are likely sources of
communication in the real world.
4 Let there be creation
There are many activities in which the
student is encouraged to imagine, think,
dwell and ponder. You don’t always
need to lay your hands on a picture –
just ask the students to close their eyes
and dream one up, or conceal a blank
card and get them to guess what’s on it.
There is a party game where a volunteer
tries to find out what has happened by
asking questions; the others simply
answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ according to
whether the question sentence ends in a
consonant or a vowel. The students use
a lot of language in a fun way.
5 Real play or roleplay?
How often do we try and tell our
students what to think? It is one thing to
have pairs taking turns in being shop
assistants and customers so that they
both practise certain functions. It is
quite another thing to persuade students
to hold certain views or play devil’s
advocate merely to practise expressions
of agreeing and disagreeing. In a real
discussion it is improbable that they
would all be of the same opinion
anyway, and surely it is more beneficial
to help them express their true feelings?
6 Keep a dog and bark yourself
Who’s the worst player on the World
Cup winning team? Answer: the trainer.
You may be the best English-speaker in
the class, but that just shows that you
don’t need the practice as much as your
students do. They will improve by doing,
especially if they speak in a meaningful
fashion, rather than only listen to you.
7 Go with the flow
Sometimes it happens that you have
your own plan but the students want to
steer the lesson in a different direction.
This may be an indication of positive
feedback, in that they are enjoying an
activity and would like to devote more
time to it, or perhaps an interesting
topic has come up and they would like
Page 43
to discuss it. In such cases, it may be
worthwhile diverging from the schedule
and making the most of their interest.
Similarly, the need for some remedial
work might come to light during an
activity, in which case it may be
advisable to strike while the iron is hot.
This means you can save your prepared
material for a later lesson, and save
yourself some time in the process.
8 The devil makes work for idle
hands
I owe this tip to my first headmaster in
Secondary School teaching. Leaving
aside its rather heavy overtones, its
application is simply that you need to
engage students in activity to avoid
wasted energy and negative vibes. It’s
even better, of course, if that activity is
inspiring, challenging, motivating and
fun, and if they can see that progress is
being made.
9 Keep it simple
Materials are often too meticulously
prepared. Loose cut-out photos have a
number of advantages over mounted
laminated cards. They are lighter and
less bulky, and easier to carry and store.
Also, they are smaller, you can fit more
onto the table. Adding to them is quick
and keeps the collection fresh. If they
get torn or lost, they are not difficult to
replace and you can be consoled in the
knowledge that you didn’t spend hours
producing them.
10 Milk it
Many great ideas can be extended and
adapted, revised and recycled. So think
about how many other uses there could
be for the materials and techniques you
have created. An activity you have used
for a grammar point may be suitable for
vocabulary or pronunciation areas. Don’t
throw resources away. Slips of paper with
lexis on them (prepared by the students,
naturally) have multiple uses, and should
be stored and frequently reused.
11 Focus away from the teacher
Encourage the students to participate
while you direct proceedings. Rather
than carve your way through a stony
silence with the pressure of all eyes and
ears on you, put the ball in their court
early and get them working with each
other as well as with you. A squash
coach is a ‘minimax’ artist: one or two
steps, and the learner is running all over
court. The novice wouldn’t learn half as
much just by watching.
• Issue Nine October 1998 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional •
12 Avoid number paranoia
Why is it that we are obsessed with
finishing a list on a round number? How
much time have you spent racking your
brains for a tenth example on a handout
when your nine are perfectly adequate?
Why must we push on to make it 12,15,
20, or at least an even number? What is
all this discrimination against prime and
odd numbers? Is it because they are
‘odd’? This may seem trivial, but without
it the list of ‘Minimax’ principles would
feel somehow incomplete.
13 Number paranoia revisited
There isn’t really a number thirteen, but
I didn’t want to end on an even number
(see previous point).
★ ★ ★
MiniMAX activities
There are no special secrets or techniques
in the minimax approach. You are
probably already a practising member of
the club. Any activity which entails little
preparation and yet generates effective
language practice qualifies. This is to
encourage efficiency not teacher laziness.
Group participation
The seeds of some of these ideas have
come from teachers I have worked with
or whose seminars I have attended,
particularly on Pilgrims summer
courses. One effective writing activity I
call Crazy Biographies can work with
any group once they know the Past
Simple. Each student writes a past tense
autobiographical paragraph, but in the
third person, and (optionally) writes a
related ‘comprehension question’ on a
separate sheet. The next student
continues the account from his or her
own imagination or experience (and
writes another question). It is then
passed on again, and again, and so on.
Completed biographies are pinned on
the wall for enjoyment (or as the source
material for answering the questions).
Rumour is a similar activity for
speaking practice. Each student
concocts a simple tale and tells someone
else, who adds new details on retelling it
to another student. In both activities the
whole class is engaged, and they take
part in the creation of numerous texts,
rather than just one, which gives them
more motivation to listen or read, and
more interest when they hear or see their
adapted contributions.



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Mini
MiniMAX



Brainstorm and pass-it-on
In pairs, students brainstorm a list of
recently studied words, eg house
vocabulary. They pass their list to the
next pair, who draw a scene including all
the items. This drawing is then passed to
another pair, who have to identify the
original list. A fourth group checks the
work of the previous groups. Meanwhile,
the original writers draw someone else’s
picture, and then recreate a third group’s
wordlist, etc. Everyone takes part in four
different lists. Obviously, the more times
it goes round, the more students see the
words recycled.
An entertaining conclusion is to cut
the pictures into quarters and without
showing their portion, students describe
their picture and find partners holding
the other parts of the same original.
Speaking activities
A lovely ‘warmer’ is to ask the class to
stand on an imaginary line (or in ‘no-
man’s-land’ in a large class). In response
to a choice of words from you, they
move to one side or the other and chat
to the nearest person about the theme
which prompted their choice. For
example, you could say ‘tea or coffee’,
indicating right or left respectively, and
so they would stand on one side and say
why they chose ‘coffee’ instead of ‘tea’.
Theme choices might include ‘beach or
mountain’, ‘film or book’, or something
related to recent lessons.
Questionnaires
Students can conduct surveys by
preparing and asking each other a
series of questions. Even with reading
and listening texts, they can be
encouraged to challenge each other’s
comprehension. Remember (and
remind students) that while some
questions merely test factual
understanding or recognition, others
go beyond and include the students’
experience, tastes and imagination.
Given an authentic column of holiday
advertisements, for example, which of
the following questions require factual
answers, and which involve the student’s
‘self’ more?
a Where does the Kenyan safari start?
b Which countries would you visit if you
went on the trekking expedition?
c Would you consider going on the
Caribbean cruise? Give reasons.
44 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue Nine October 1998 •
REVISION LESSON
Prepare a ‘test’ for another group of students to do. Please write clearly, preferably in
black, so that it may be photocopied. Make a separate list of the correct answers.
1 Translation Translate five
sentences which illustrate a
language point we have studied.
2 Crossword Design a crossword
using vocabulary we have studied.
Make up appropriate clues.
3 Categories Jumble up 20 words
which can then be sorted into four
groups. (You decide on the groups.)
4 Gapfill Write five sentences, each
with one gap (eg prepositions).
5 Mix ‘n’ match Choose up to ten
pairs (eg opposites, collocations),
and jumble them up.
6 Odd-one-out Produce five lists of
four words. Three have something in
common; one is different.
7 Spot the error Write five sentences,
each with one grammatical error.
d Have you ever been to Tunisia? Did you
see the same things as those described
in the advertisement?
You can appreciate that the last two
questions encourage both searching for
information and the chance to
personalise, to be involved in the
content. As monitor, therefore, you can
encourage groups to write questions
along these lines.
Using songs
It is not always necessary to have a
complete copy of the lyrics to use a song
effectively in class. For these activities, it
is enough for you to know the words
fairly well. A good deal of vocabulary
work can be done before listening, for
example finding the opposites of given
words, or tabling parts of speech (noun,
verb, adjective, adverb) of words in the
text, then listening to the song to see if
they are correct or to see which
possibility they hear.
Some songs lend themselves to the
idea of ‘draw what you hear’, after
which the students can compare
drawings and revise the language by
remembering it together.
Revision lessons
Every now and then you might favour
the idea of an informal progress test.
Students come to expect them, and I
suspect that some of them enjoy them,
and welcome the chance to express what
they have learnt. Normally, which of
8 Picture it For five words or
expressions we have studied, draw
pictures which illustrate their meaning.
9 ‘Name three things you can …’
CATCH / SPEND / MISS
(Offer five verbs, eg CATCH: a cold,
a ball, a bus; SPEND: a weekend,
a fortune, an hour; MISS: a person,
a target, a film, etc.)
10 Definitions For two words or
expressions we have studied, write
out three definitions, two of which
are wrong.
11 Design a quiz Ask five factual
questions from themes we have
studied in the coursebook.
12 Gapfill text Take a text we have
studied, photocopy it, then blank out
10 important words.
these steps do you do, and which do
your students do?
● look back at language covered
● prepare the test
● do the test
● correct the test
● give feedback
A minimax purist would have the
students doing all five steps. The first
two steps are invaluable for revision, and
the last two are useful for fine-tuning
and paying attention to detail. The
teacher can suggest possible exercises
(see list above) and offer assistance and
suggestions. You are in the passenger
seat, but you have dual controls if you
need them.
None of the above activities is rigid
or fixed. This approach is more a way of
thinking which can be adapted to any
level or group size, and you as teacher
can direct the techniques appropriate to
your class. Whenever you catch yourself
preparing activities or materials, ask
yourself, ‘Could students do this?’ E T p
Jon Taylor has taught in
England and Canada and
has recently completed nine
years at International House
in San Sebastián, Spain. He
has worked on Pilgrims
summer courses as a
teacher, Director of Studies
and Course Director. He has
given teacher training talks
for Heinemann Iberia and is
currently working for his MA
at Reading University, UK.