Grouping Schemes for Maximizing Language Learning

Judith A. Rance-Roney
Reconceptualizing Interactional Groups: Grouping Schemes for Maximizing Language Learning Group work. When it works, we are pleased. But when it does not—when the learners stare at each other without speaking or when two learners begin an argument that threatens to disrupt the whole lesson—we know we should have done it better.

Empowering Teachers through Professional Development

E n g l i s h T e a c h i n g F o r u m
Harlan Kellem
The Formeaning Response Approach: Poetry in the EFL Classroom

In English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms, where acquisition of English is the ultimate goal, one of the main tasks for the teacher is to provide students with language input and activities that best aid them in their learning process. As different researchers have reported, including poetry-based activities in the EFL classroom is beneficial (Hanauer 2001; Maley and Duff 1989). Among other reasons, poetry is a source of content-rich reading material; a model of creative language in use; a way to introduce vocabulary in context; and a way to focus students’ attention on English pronunciation, rhythm, and stress.

Poetry in the EFL Classroom

E n g l i s h T e a c h i n g F o r u m
Harlan Kellem
The Formeaning Response Approach: Poetry in the
EFL Classroom
In English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms, where acquisition
of English is the ultimate goal, one of the main tasks for the teacher is to provide students with language input and activities that best aid them in their learning process. As different researchers have reported, including poetry-based activities in the EFL classroom is beneficial (Hanauer 2001; Maley and Duff 1989). Among other reasons, poetry is a source of content-rich reading material; a model of creative language in use; a way to introduce vocabulary in context; and a way to focus students’ attention on English pronunciation, rhythm, and stress.

Using Public Speaking Tasks in English Language Teaching

Gina Iberri-Shea
Using Public Speaking Tasks in English Language Teaching
The purpose of this article is to provide suggestions for using public speaking tasks in English language teaching (ELT) and to highlight some of their many advantages. Let me first describe what I mean by public speaking tasks: these include any task where the participant addresses an audience orally. For the purpose of this article, I will focus on two types of these tasks: student presentations and debates. Student presentations may consist of

Reading To Speak

Yun Zhang–
Reading to Speak: Integrating
Oral Communication Skills–
According to Ur (1996, 120), “of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important.” Indeed, whether for business or pleasure, a primary motivation to learn a second language is to be able to converse with speakers of that language. This explains why so many language learners are very interested in the speaking skill.– However, in addition to being an important skill, speaking is also a great challenge for foreign language learners, and students must master several difficult microskills, including the pronunciation of unfamiliar phonemes, the correct placement of stress and intonation, and the appropriate use of formal and informal expressions.
To complicate matters,

Applying Reading Research to the Development of Integrated Lesson Plan

E n g l i s h T e a c h i n g F o r u m
What can you do when your English language students are poor readers? I asked myself this question after half my sixth grade class in Santiago, Chile failed a reading test. For many students, reading is not only a problem in their second language (L2); it is also a problem in their first language (L1). For example, 15-year-old Chilean students have poor reading skills in their L1 when compared with their peers in other countries (OECD/UNESCO-UIS 2003).

Lesson Plan : Be A Good Sport !

E n g l i s h T e a c h i n g F o r u m
Rick Rosenberg
Tools for Activating
Materials and Tasks in the
English Language Classroom
Most teachers have seen the reactions students can have to tasks and activities that they do not find engaging: the glassy or rolling eyes, the unfocused behavior, and the cries of “Not again!” This article provides practical techniques that my students have helped me learn over the years to better “activate” materials and tasks in the English language classroom while tapping into students’ interests, needs, and aims. Activation techniques, then, are tools to make materials and tasks more interactive and more learner-focused, encouraging students to take more responsibility for their own learning. This article demonstrates

An Introduction to Academic Writing

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Rick Rosenberg
Tools for Activating
Materials and Tasks in the
English Language Classroom
Most teachers have seen the reactions students can have to tasks and activities
that they do not find engaging: the glassy or rolling eyes, the unfocused behavior, and the cries of “Not again!” This article provides practical techniques
that my students have helped me learn over the years to better “activate”
materials and tasks in the English language classroom while tapping into students’ interests, needs, and aims. Activation techniques, then, are tools to make materials and tasks more interactive and more learner-focused, encouraging students to take more responsibility for their own learning. This article demonstrates activating techniques through three strategies: elicitation, gapping, and adaptation/extension.
Elicitation
Elicitation is the process of drawing
out something, of provoking a response. Using elicitation as a questioning strategy in the language classroom focuses discussion on the learners—on their ideas, opinions, imagination, and involvement. Classroom
discussions that use elicitation as a technique allow students to draw on what they know—on existing schemata/scaffolding—and provide for a rich sharing of ideas within a sociocultural context (Huong 2003). Graves (in Nunan 2003) points out that elicitation, “because it emphasizes
learners’ experience and knowledge,”
helps “to take the focus off of the text as the source of authority
and helps learners become more self-reliant” (237). Elicitation is also an excellent lead-in to many other activities that exercise critical thinking
and inquiry (Ngeow and Kong 2003). As illustration, here are two elicitation activities: extended brainstorming
and a top-down vocabulary elicitation game.
Extended brainstorming
Brainstorming has but one rule: there is no such thing as a mistake. Anything goes; all ideas are equal and welcome. To practice brainstorming,
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teachers should draw on topics that students
know and care about. As a teacher, I have always enjoyed learning about student interests, aims, and cultures through Frierian
problem-posing, through collaboration and negotiation, and by focusing on loaded, culturally significant topics (Kabilan 2000; Englander 2002).
With a Frierian problem-posing approach, the classroom focus moves from a “banking model,” where “memorization and regurgitation”
and “right answers” are emphasized, to a learning environment where students are asked to reflect critically, where exploration is encouraged, and where there are multiple
ways to construct solutions to problems (Serendip 2003). When I was a teacher in training at a secondary school in the United States, my students taught me the importance of negotiating topics and activities to make them more relevant to students’ needs and interests. I was teaching a large, mixed-level, mixed-background English as a Second Language
(ESL) class, and the textbook often left the students uninterested and feeling that the lesson was irrelevant. Many expressed this disconnect by not paying attention and by engaging in behaviors disruptive to other students. So, instead of going page by page through the textbook, I had the students reflect and ask questions about the subject matter to link to topics they knew and cared about studying, such as low-rider cars, something
most of the students had a high level of interest and expertise in. We covered much of the same language-learning content of the chapter in the textbook—which was on travel by car—but we did it through focus on a topic the students truly cared about discussing. The interest was such that the students enthusiastically
“published” their own handwritten and typed newsletters, which they posted in the classroom and shared with other students. And if your students are not excited about cars, other topics could include regional or traditional foods, activities, hobbies, or current
events.
The first step in the process of brainstorming
is to elicit responses from students as a group. Students should be encouraged to respond quickly with the first things that come to mind and to call them out to be included together on a map on the board. As the students give their responses, the teacher can help them see the connections between the generated vocabulary—producing a mind map that links like terms together—by circling
key concepts and drawing lines to connect
circles.
After the teacher has mapped out the brainstorm, the next step is to ask students to take on the roles of investigative journalists
and look at the various facets of the topic under examination through these primary questions:
WHAT?
WHO?
WHERE?
WHEN?
HOW?
WHY?
Students work in groups to brainstorm the topic and one or more of the investigative questions. Depending on the size of the class, I might have each group work with one question
word, or one group work with WHAT and WHO and another with WHERE and WHEN, and so forth. But it is important that the groups share the results and that WHY questions—or the WHY group—be last, as WHY is the existential question, the question that requires highest-order thinking skills. This overall approach allows the class to investigate findings together, come to conclusions,
and perhaps develop thesis statements for potential writing projects.
The activity generates a list of vocabulary items and/or questions. About the topic of “falafel,” for example, students could generate
either a list of words or questions in relation
to WHAT (What is it? What does it look like, smell like, taste like, feel like, or sound like while you eat it? What are the ingredients?). The brainstorm can generate questions that the students answer later, and/or a list of words or phrases that link the topic with WHAT. WHO typically generates questions such as Who is involved in eating or preparing falafel? and related questions such as How wide is the distribution of people who partake in the phenomenon of falafel? Do people of all ages and social standing know about falafel? WHERE and WHEN generate questions and vocabulary about locations where falafel is made (Where is it made? Where is it most popular?) and contextualize the times and
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rituals associated with it (When do people typically eat it?). The HOW questions help students focus on processes: How is falafel made? How is it eaten? How often does one eat it? Finally, WHY helps students understand
how to organize their research and agree upon conclusions: Why is falafel such a popular food? What research findings from the other questions support the conclusion? As this “WHY” example shows, students are free to add follow-up questions that do not necessarily
begin with the same question word; the key is that the questions will lead to an investigation of the topic.
What results from this collaborative effort is a focused, collaborative look at a topic, a preliminary way to organize a great deal of material (the falafel brainstorm might generate
a thesis such as, “Falafel is a popular traditional food in the Middle East because it is cheap, tasty, and quick to eat”) and establish
the basis for writing class publications/newsletters and cross-cultural exchange projects.
These publications can be handwritten, typed, or printed on paper, or they can be published via email, blogs, social networking
sites, or other online forums (see http://oelp.uoregon.edu/learn.html for examples of keypal and cross-cultural exchange sites). Because students are interested in the topic to begin with, they naturally want to learn more about it and are eager to share what they learn.
Elicitation vocabulary games
Another way elicitation can help students develop questioning skills and strategies is through vocabulary games. The one my students
have particularly enjoyed has many permutations.
In the game, a student or group of students elicits from other students a list of words headed by a title concept. A typical vocabulary set could be about nouns—for example, Things in a School: blackboards, students, teachers, desks, pencils, erasers, chalk, textbooks. A vocabulary set could also be defined by the first letter of the words or by rhyme, such as Words That Start with “B”: boys, book, bicycle, bird, big, blue and Words That Rhyme with “Eye”: I, my, cry, high, lie, buy, why. The set could include actions: Things to Do at School: study, discuss, explain, write, read, listen, learn, teach. It could be a more complex list of emotions: happiness, sadness, loneliness, frustration, surprise, relief. The number of the words in a list can vary; rules and difficulty can be adjusted for student
level. The pedagogic value of the task is in the amount of involvement and practice that the students experience. Typically, the topic and the list of items appear on a card; in pairs or small groups, students try to elicit the vocabulary items on their card from their partner or others in their small group, or from the whole class.
To get the game started, the teacher can demonstrate by using a card that has a topic with vocabulary items that should be familiar
to the students; the teacher gives clues so that the class can guess each of the words on the list. Topics can be of general interest or drawn from a recent lesson or class unit. The idea is to foster oral communication, so all clues should be given verbally—no pointing, gesturing, or mimicking an action—with a set time limit, typically one to three minutes. While demonstrating how the game works, the teacher should pattern
the interaction before students work together, illustrating elicitation strategies such as the following:
• giving definitions (what something is or is not);
• providing attributes (large, small, red, square);
• giving functions (used for X; not used for doing Y);
• comparing or contrasting;
• providing a word that the target word rhymes with;
• telling what letter the word starts or ends with (if the students get stuck).
Students get their cards, with a topic and a list of vocabulary items, then prepare and practice in pairs or small groups to give clues that will elicit the vocabulary from the rest of the class—or, more precisely, from the other groups. In large classes, limiting the guesses to one per group helps all groups listen more carefully; it also prevents groups from shouting
out random guesses, and it forces the speaker to continue providing information about the target word so that groups can gain confidence that their one guess is correct. Another option is to keep a tally of points each group scores as it successfully elicits the vocabulary items from the other groups.
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At first, the teacher will have to prepare
cards showing the topic and the list of vocabulary items to be elicited, but once the students learn the rules and have practiced eliciting successfully, the next step is to have the students write their own vocabulary cards, essentially creating the content of the game. Students at different levels of proficiency can come up with their own topics and make their own cards by listing words for each topic. Students can draw subject matter for the cards from vocabulary and topics covered in class as well as from topics of interest. Collaboratively developing their own cards and elicitation strategies allows the students to reflect on what they know and to use critical-thinking skills to order their vocabulary. It also helps the students take the lead in their own learning,
to write and help construct materials. And those materials help the teacher, too; as the students produce a portfolio with more and more cards, the teacher can keep a copy of the new materials to use as review or to use with other classes.
Gapping
Gapping refers to the authentic purpose for communication: transferring information, or bridging the gap, from one person to another. In a language classroom, using gapping
activities means that each learner needs to negotiate, collaborate, and exchange information
toward a common goal. Gapping also provides variety and fosters group work with existing readings and materials. As illustration,
we can look at three gapped activities: Riddle Schmooze, Monster Madness, and Grids Galore. These activities can be modified to integrate additional vocabulary, prompt a new lesson, or review grammar.
Riddle Schmooze
To “schmooze” is to exchange information,
or to chat informally; to come up with a gapped schmooze activity, one needs to have pieces or parts to complete a communicative act. Participants might have parts of a picture and need to find complementary pieces to make a whole. Or they may have different sections of a printed text (sometimes referred to as a jigsaw reading). Schmooze activities provide students with an opportunity to move about a room, make some (communicative)
noise, and practice different registers: for instance, how to greet someone and how to politely interrupt ongoing conversations (e.g., “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to ask your assistance”; “I’m sorry to bother you …”; “Hey, dog/dude/man, give me a hand!”).
To begin the riddle schmooze activity, the teacher gives each student two slips of paper. On one is a riddle question and on the other is an answer—the answer to a different riddle (see Appendix 1). Students have one to three minutes to memorize both. Then they fold the riddle and answer and give them back to the teacher. Next comes the noisy mayhem of a classroom of English language learners bridging the gap—chatting with other students to find the answer for their riddle and the riddle for their answer. The teacher should give a time limit and have the students sit down as soon as they have found their riddles and answers. In a variation
of this activity, instead of riddles, each student can be given a vocabulary word and the definition for a different vocabulary word and asked to match the word to a classmate’s definition and the definition to a classmate’s word. In all cases, students are bridging the gap as they fit pieces of information they have with pieces of their classmates’ information.
(With larger classes, the teacher can copy sets of riddles/answers or vocabulary/definition sets and have the students work in groups. For example, a class with 50 students
could divide into two to five groups, with each group receiving identical sets of riddles.)
A secondary assignment once students finish
schmoozing and sit down is to have them jot down alternative answers to their riddles or come up with any other riddles that they know. When the time is up, the teacher calls the students together and has each student ask his or her riddle to the whole group and goes over the responses. And if riddle answers are not clear to everyone, some students may be able to do the explaining.
Teachers can adapt schmooze activities to work with any question/answer format and with pictures or graphics. And once students have learned how schmoozing works, they can readily develop schmoozing materials by using class lessons or topics of interest, so that, as with the elicitation vocabulary games
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described above, students end up generating
content for future classes. Whatever the content, schmoozing gap activities provide a fun, interactive way to review vocabulary or practice for a test.
Monster Madness
In this activity (thanks to Eric Dwyer from Florida International University), students
draw a monster using only geometric shapes. The students then pair off, sit back-to-back, and describe what their monsters look like. The students alternate between describing their own monster, and listening to the description of their partner’s monster
and reproducing it. Preparation for the activity can include reviewing how to describe shapes (square, rectangle, circle, etc.), how to give directions and locations (“Start by drawing a two-centimeter square in the upper left-hand corner; then …”), or how to compare and contrast (“The circle is twice as large as the square”). For a wrap-up activity, have students summarize how the gapped picture is different from the original.
Spin-off activities include having students
describe differences in photographs or drawings.
Grids Galore
Grids provide many possibilities for gapped speaking practice. They allow the teacher and students to use the format with all kinds of content that is created by and for a particular teaching context. Grids also work with a variety of teaching levels. The directions are much like those for Monster Madness: each participant (or group) gives verbal directions to a partner (or other members of the group), who fills in boxes on the grid (that each of the participants
has) without showing it to her or his partner(s). The students then compare the original grid with the grids filled in by each listener. The result can take the form of a correct final destination (for example, Box A1), or the result can be a picture that the listeners create by filling in the appropriate
squares.
Grids can be almost any size, and it is fine to have students draw the grids themselves to prepare for the activity. Here is one example with varied question content:
I
H
G
F
E
D
C
B
A
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Partner A directions
1. If the past tense of go is gone, mark an X in the box in A1. However, if the past tense of go is went, mark an X in the box in A2.
2. If the plural of tooth is tooths, mark an X two boxes to the right, one box up. But if the plural of tooth is teeth, mark an X three boxes to the right, two rows up.
3. If the middle name of U.S. President Barack Obama is “Harry,” mark an X on the next box to the right, same row. But if President Obama’s middle name is “Hussein,” mark an X on the next box to the right, one row down.
4. If the plural of child is children, mark an X six rows up, on the same column. But if the plural of child is childs, mark an X six rows up, one row to the right.
5. If reading is more fun than singing, mark an X two boxes to the right and four boxes down. If, however, singing is more fun than reading, mark an X three boxes to the left and one box down.
Partner B directions
1. If the past of see is seen, mark an X in the A1 square. However, if the past of see is saw, mark an X in the A4 square.
2. If a synonym of gorgeous is beautiful, mark an X five boxes up and one to the right. But if a synonym of gorgeous is big, mark an X in the same column, one box up.
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3. If falafel is a plant, mark an X one box to the right, one row above. But if falafel is a tasty food, mark an X one box to the right, one row down.
4. If people who don’t eat meat are called veterinarians, mark an X in the column to the left, same row. But if people who don’t eat meat are called vegetarians, mark an X in the column to the left, two rows up.
5. If English is easier than math, mark an X four boxes to the right, in the same row. If, however, English is more difficult
than math, mark an X two boxes to the right, in the same row.
Once students become familiar with grids, even more learning and interactive fun take place when the students write their own grids to practice vocabulary or grammar or to review content covered in class. Valuable interaction and negotiation take place as students practice their listening skills and follow directions—and when they discuss why and how they came up with different solutions or even how the questions could be changed to be clearer or more concise. Open-ended discussion questions (such as in each #5 above) can also be included as springboards for debates or to link to upcoming topics and themes. The communicative value of the activity, then, comes as much as or more from the process (providing added language practice) than from producing the finished, “correct” grid.
Extending and adapting
Extending and adapting are techniques that offer a practical way for teachers to draw on realia and authentic materials to spice up classroom activities. Adapting allows for materials
to be drawn from unlimited sources that the students already know and care about. The value of adaptation was illustrated to me many years ago when I noticed how engaged some students in the back of the class were. I thought they were focused and avidly discussing
the activity, and I was pleased to see that they were so interested. Upon closer inspection,
however, I discovered that the students were engaged in a word game in their native language instead of the activity from the textbook.
Instead of criticizing the students for being off-task, I offered them the opportunity to contribute to the lesson by sharing their game. With my assistance, the students then adapted the activity to the content we were studying, thus taking a larger stake in their own learning.
With teachers’ guidance, students can readily identify fun formats and adapt them to the classroom. Ideas from board and card games, from local game shows (see Appendix 2), and from puzzles can be applied to learning
English. Other possibilities for adapting or extending materials and activities from students’ ideas and other resources follow.
Scenarios and role play
These activities can be used in conjunction with a loaded theme of interest to students. Many students respond to a scene of conflict at work or between parent and child. These scenes or strategic interactions (Alatis 1993) can also be taken from a picture or news report, and students can be asked to discuss one role (or one side of an issue) in a small group; they then either elect one student to represent the group or, better yet, act out the scenario collectively after planning together. This activity is not to be confused with reading aloud a dialog or the parts of a play because in these strategic interactions, no one knows the outcome of the exchange in advance. Students must actively negotiate toward a solution or to clarify the situation. And the activity can be beneficial even if students do not reach a clear-cut solution, as learning occurs throughout the process of performing
scenarios, regardless of the outcomes. Teachers can focus on providing language forms (such as modals, expressions, idioms, and verb forms) to help the students prepare for the exercise and, as a wrap-up or debriefing,
provide a summary of language-learning points learned or needed. Students can also summarize who they feel “won” the exercise, explain why, and make their own observations on language used or language they needed in order to be more effective in expressing their ideas.
Topics for scenarios can come from students’
personal lives, their communication with other students and teachers at school, work environments, or scenes taken from readings or literature. Two scenarios, with role cards for students, appear on pages 8 and 9.
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“Movie Night Out”
Daughter (age 13–18)
You would like to go out to a movie with a few of your friends. One of the friends is a boy you are interested in getting to know better. You are worried, however, that your parents may not approve. Try to convince your parents that the boy is trustworthy and that they should let you go out.
Mother
You are concerned about the friends your daughter is keeping.
You would like her to spend more time on her studies and more time at home. At the same time, you don’t want to keep her from enjoying time with her friends. Find out more information from your daughter to determine whether you will grant her permission to go to a movie with her friends.
Boy
You have decided to drop in and visit your new friend to see if she is able to go to the movies with you and some other friends. When you arrive, you find that your friend and her mother have already been deep in discussion about whether or not your friend will be permitted to go to the movie. Your task is to help your friend’s mother feel confident that you are a responsible, trustworthy person.
Father
You have just returned from work to find your wife deep into a discussion with your daughter and a young man you have never seen before. You are in a hurry to prepare to go back out to a business dinner. Ask each of the members of the discussion
to provide a quick summary of what has happened and what they think the decision should be and why. Then discuss with your wife, alone, what the final decision should be.
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“The Scholarship”
Student
You have just been informed that you have been awarded a scholarship to study in the United States for a year. You haven’t had much experience traveling alone and have never been outside of your country on your own. Your parents were not very excited about your applying to the program and have told you they are very concerned about your living on your own in another country. Discuss the scholarship with your parents and try to reassure them that you are able to handle living on your own and that the experience will be safe and important for your future studies and career.
Parents (Father, Mother, or both)
You have just learned that your daughter (or son) has been awarded a scholarship to study in the United States for one year. You are very concerned about her/his safety and the effect that the year away will have on your child’s future studies
and career. Ask your daughter/son questions to determine whether you will allow her/him to accept the scholarship.
School Adviser
You have been called to provide advice and counseling to the parents of a student who has won a prestigious scholarship to study in the United States. You want to stress both the challenges
and the rewards of studying abroad and to do what you can to assure the parents that schools in the United States take the security of their students very seriously.
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Group presentations, reports, and newscasts
Students take a theme or topic and work together to present their ideas in a cohesive format. They can write individual or group reports and then work together to present to the rest of the class a program, or a newscast, that has an introduction and a conclusion. This activity can be done as a daily or weekly presentation that allows students to share topics of interest. The class can post presentations
and reports on blogs, on social networking
sites, or as collaborative, cross-cultural exchanges.
While blogs or networking sites would be problematic (or impossible) in contexts where access to the Internet is limited or not available, in-class newscasts can work anywhere, and teachers can incorporate them as a regular feature of their classes. Students, individually or in groups, are responsible for the newscasts on a rotating basis, whether they are done daily or weekly, and take on roles such as reporter, interviewer or interviewee(s), anchorperson, and so on. These roles can change as the group’s turn to present the newscast comes around again. Not only do students get opportunities to practice speaking
and to use vocabulary they might not otherwise use, but newscasts also give students opportunities to introduce and discuss issues of international, national, local, or schoolwide interest.
Peer review and publication committees
Student publications can include class newsletters or newspapers for which the students
function as writers, peer editors, and editorial writers. Students identify topics of interest and relevance and do research on their topics. The teacher functions as a co-worker or senior editor on the publication, offering consultation and guidance as needed. The longer and more elaborate the publication, the more time and collaborative effort will be required.
Another option for class newsletters is to publish shorter articles on a class blog (www.blogger.com is one example) or on collaborative,
customized social networking websites such as www.ning.com. For newscasts, students
can make live presentations to the class or record their sessions and save them as podcasts or post them as videos on sites such as www.youtube.com.
Student evaluation and practice test writing
Students work in groups to come up with practice quizzes and exercises to review for upcoming tests. The teacher helps the students reflect on what they have learned by prompting
them with a list of language objectives reached (from lesson and unit planning, for example) and through guiding the students to compile portfolios to list and share what they have accomplished in class over a set period of time. Students can develop practice activities in the form of elicitation cards, grids, games, or scenarios (as detailed above) or as review questions or language review exercises. Many students enjoy playing the role of “teacher,” asking questions to the class or developing short quizzes for their peers.
If the class has access to computers, the program Hot Potatoes is an easy-to-learn and fun-to-use tool to draft exercises that will work on any computer or that can be easily posted online (see http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ to download).
Conclusion
Activating techniques focus on the students in the classroom, on keeping them involved, on having them doing and producing rather than passively receiving information. This article
has described some techniques that my students have helped me learn to better focus the class content and tasks according to their needs. My students have helped by sharing their ideas, interests, and aims and by being engaged members in collaborative learning. I have learned that through the strategies of elicitation, gapping, and extension/adaption, students interact more, construct solutions together, and have the tools to draw on to not only receive an education but to participate in and contribute to that education.
References
Alatis, J. E. ed. 1993. Strategic interaction and language
acquisition: Theory, practice, and research. Georgetown University Round Table on Language
and Linguistics 1993. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. http://books.google.jo/books?id=luaZrc7JjMQC&printsec=frontcover
Englander, K. 2002. Real-life problem solving: A collaborative learning activity. English Teaching
Forum 40 (1): 8–11.
Graves, K. 2003. Coursebooks. In Practical English language teaching, ed. D. Nunan, 225–46. New York: McGraw-Hill.
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Huong, L. P. H. 2003. The mediational role of language teachers in sociocultural theory. English Teaching Forum 41 (3): 32–35, 31.
Kabilan, M. K. 2000. Creative and critical thinking in the language classrooms. http://iteslj.org/Techniques/
Kabilan-CriticalThinking.html.
Ngeow, K., and Y.-S. Kong. 2003. Learning through discussion: Designing tasks for critical inquiry and reflective learning. ERIC Digest, ED477611. Ericdigests.org/2004-1/tasks.htm.
Serendip. 2003. Making connections: The brain and the creation of optimal learning opportunities
for students. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/cook-sather.html.
Rick Rosenberg is currently based in Amman, Jordan, where he is serving as the Regional English Language Officer. He has worked as a teacher, teacher trainer, and administrator of language programs in the United States, Bosnia, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Brazil.
Appendix 1. Riddle Schmooze.
Tools for Activating Materials and Tasks in the English Language Classroom • Rick Rosenberg
Here is a starter set of riddle questions and answers. Remember, at the start of this activity, students get two slips of paper—one slip with a riddle question and the other slip with the answer to a different riddle question.
QUESTION
ANSWER
What is in the middle of Paris?
“r”
What word is always spelled wrong?
“wrong”
What is the capital in England?
“E”
What is the longest word in the English language?
“smiles” (… because there is a “mile” between the first “s” and the second “s”)
Can a word become shorter if you add a syllable to it?
Yes, “short” (… when it becomes the word shorter).
Which is the shortest month?
May (It has only three letters.)
The more there is, the less you see—what is it?
darkness
What is the difference between here and there?
“t”
What has teeth but can’t eat?
a zipper (or a comb)
What has a face and two hands, and goes round?
a clock
What did the little hand on the clock say to the big hand on the clock?
“See you in an hour!”
What does everybody in the world do at the same time?
age (get older)
If five dogs are chasing a cat down the street, what time is it?
five after one
Continued on page 27
E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m | N u m b e r 4 2 0 0 9 27
Tools for Activating Materials and Tasks in the English Language Classroom • Rick Rosenberg
This activity is loosely based on a Croatian TV game show that features a kind of role play. Two suggestions for incorporating role plays into the language classroom are given here.
Role Play Option A
The purpose is for students to get practice speaking English through trying to determine which of three game show guests has the target role and which two are pretending. All three claim to be the real “X.” Students can work in groups to draft questions and prepare information about how the person in the target role might respond to questions from the class. During the activity, each group has three minutes to ask as many questions as they can of Guests #1, #2, and #3. One option—lion trainer—is given below. Any profession, however, could work in this activity, and students in a group can choose their own profession. After asking all the questions and listening to the answers from the three “guests,” the groups vote for the guest they think is the actual professional
(lion trainer, in the example below). Points are given to each group that attracts incorrect guesses—but, as usual, the real value of the activity comes from having students ask and answer questions, exchange information, and communicate in a meaningful way.
Here are sample instructions. One student plays the “real” lion trainer, while the other two students pretend to be lion trainers.
(For one student): You are, for the purpose of this part of Engl-o-teka, to play the part of a lion trainer. You have been working at this job for five years. You only work with very calm lions and you have not been attacked, yet. Of course, you may make up anything else to try to convince the contestants that you are not the lion trainer.
(For the other two students in the group): You are to pretend to be a lion trainer. You can say you have been working at the job for five years, that lions are trained from birth to be at ease with humans, and that only a certain kind of African lion is used because they are tamer than other species. To tame a lion, one must be calm, stay collected, and repeat the steps of training often. The lions must be rewarded for correct behavior with large meals of raw flesh, preferably of an animal and not the trainer!
Role Play Option B
Students get together in groups, preferably of three, and again they will play the parts of “guests.” Instead of choosing a profession, though, they choose an experience that one of the students has had, but the other two students haven’t. For example, suppose one student has gone swimming in a lake after dark, but the other two haven’t. For the purposes of this activity, all three students will tell their classmates that they have gone swimming in a lake after dark. Their classmates
then ask questions, which the three “guests” answer, each trying to convince the class that he/she is the person who really has gone swimming in a lake after dark. Finally, the class votes on who is telling the truth and who is pretending.
Students can prepare in their groups by telling one another about unusual things they have done or experiences they have had. Together, they pick one of those experiences. Then, each student
must prepare to answer questions from classmates. The student who really did swim in the lake after dark will be able to answer truthfully, whereas the other two students will have to imagine scenarios where they might have swum in a lake after dark; each student’s scenario should be different.
The three students can work together to develop scenarios so that all three of them will be able to answer questions like When, Where, Who, Why, etc.
When all groups are ready, the groups take turns going to the front of the class. Each person in the group will make the same statement (“I have gone swimming in a lake after dark”) about the experience. After that, members of the class ask questions, the “swimmers” answer them as convincingly as possible, and then, after a time limit of perhaps three minutes, the class votes on who they believe is telling the truth.

Learning To Learn Cooperatively

Rick Rosenberg
Tools for Activating
Materials and Tasks in the
English Language Classroom
Most teachers have seen the reactions students can have to tasks and activities
that they do not find engaging: the glassy or rolling eyes, the unfocused behavior, and the cries of “Not again!” This article provides practical techniques that my students have helped me learn over the years to better “activate” materials and tasks in the English language classroom while tapping into students’ interests, needs, and aims. Activation techniques, then, are tools to make materials and tasks more interactive and more learner-focused, encouraging students to take more responsibility for their own learning. This article demonstrates activating techniques through three strategies: elicitation, gapping, and adaptation/extension.
Elicitation
Elicitation is the process of drawing out something, of provoking a response. Using elicitation as a questioning strategy in the language classroom focuses discussion on the learners—on their ideas, opinions, imagination, and involvement. Classroom discussions that use elicitation as a technique allow students to draw on what they know—on existing schemata/scaffolding—and provide for a rich sharing of ideas within a sociocultural context (Huong 2003). Graves (in Nunan 2003) points out that elicitation, “because it emphasizes learners’ experience and knowledge,” helps “to take the focus off of the text as the source of authority
and helps learners become more self-reliant” (237). Elicitation is also an excellent lead-in to many other activities that exercise critical thinking and inquiry (Ngeow and Kong 2003). As illustration, here are two elicitation activities: extended brainstorming and a top-down vocabulary elicitation game.
Extended brainstorming
Brainstorming has but one rule: there is no such thing as a mistake. Anything goes; all ideas are equal and welcome. To practice brainstorming, teachers should draw on topics that students know and care about. As a teacher, I have always enjoyed learning about student interests, aims, and cultures through Frierian problem-posing, through collaboration and negotiation, and by focusing on loaded, culturally significant topics (Kabilan 2000; Englander 2002).
With a Frierian problem-posing approach, the classroom focus moves from a “banking model,” where “memorization and regurgitation” and “right answers” are emphasized, to a learning environment where students are asked to reflect critically, where exploration is encouraged, and where there are multiple
ways to construct solutions to problems (Serendip 2003). When I was a teacher in training at a secondary school in the United States, my students taught me the importance of negotiating topics and activities to make them more relevant to students’ needs and interests. I was teaching a large, mixed-level, mixed-background English as a Second Language (ESL) class, and the textbook often left the students uninterested and feeling that the lesson was irrelevant. Many expressed this disconnect by not paying attention and by engaging in behaviors disruptive to other students. So, instead of going page by page through the textbook, I had the students reflect and ask questions about the subject matter to link to topics they knew and cared about studying, such as low-rider cars, something most of the students had a high level of interest and expertise in. We covered much of the same language-learning content of the chapter in the textbook—which was on travel by car—but we did it through focus on a topic the students truly cared about discussing. The interest was such that the students enthusiastically “published” their own handwritten and typed newsletters, which they posted in the classroom and shared with other students. And if your students are not excited about cars, other topics could include regional or traditional foods, activities, hobbies, or current events.
The first step in the process of brainstorming is to elicit responses from students as a group. Students should be encouraged to respond quickly with the first things that come to mind and to call them out to be included together on a map on the board. As the students give their responses, the teacher can help them see the connections between the generated vocabulary—producing a mind map that links like terms together—by circling key concepts and drawing lines to connect circles.
After the teacher has mapped out the brainstorm, the next step is to ask students to take on the roles of investigative journalists and look at the various facets of the topic under examination through these primary questions:
WHAT?
WHO?
WHERE?
WHEN?
HOW?
WHY?
Students work in groups to brainstorm the topic and one or more of the investigative questions. Depending on the size of the class, I might have each group work with one question word, or one group work with WHAT and WHO and another with WHERE and WHEN, and so forth. But it is important that the groups share the results and that WHY questions—or the WHY group—be last, as WHY is the existential question, the question that requires highest-order thinking skills. This overall approach allows the class to investigate findings together, come to conclusions, and perhaps develop thesis statements for potential writing projects.
The activity generates a list of vocabulary items and/or questions. About the topic of “falafel,” for example, students could generate either a list of words or questions in relation to WHAT (What is it? What does it look like, smell like, taste like, feel like, or sound like while you eat it? What are the ingredients?). The brainstorm can generate questions that the students answer later, and/or a list of words or phrases that link the topic with WHAT. WHO typically generates questions such as Who is involved in eating or preparing falafel? and related questions such as How wide is the distribution of people who partake in the phenomenon of falafel? Do people of all ages and social standing know about falafel? WHERE and WHEN generate questions and vocabulary about locations where falafel is made (Where is it made? Where is it most popular?) and contextualize the times and rituals associated with it (When do people typically eat it?). The HOW questions help students focus on processes: How is falafel made? How is it eaten? How often does one eat it? Finally, WHY helps students understand how to organize their research and agree upon conclusions: Why is falafel such a popular food? What research findings from the other questions support the conclusion? As this “WHY” example shows, students are free to add follow-up questions that do not necessarily begin with the same question word; the key is that the questions will lead to an investigation of the topic.
What results from this collaborative effort is a focused, collaborative look at a topic, a preliminary way to organize a great deal of material (the falafel brainstorm might generate a thesis such as, “Falafel is a popular traditional food in the Middle East because it is cheap, tasty, and quick to eat”) and establish the basis for writing class publications/newsletters and cross-cultural exchange projects.
These publications can be handwritten, typed, or printed on paper, or they can be published via email, blogs, social networking sites, or other online forums (see http://oelp.uoregon.edu/learn.html for examples of keypal and cross-cultural exchange sites). Because students are interested in the topic to begin with, they naturally want to learn more about it and are eager to share what they learn.
Elicitation vocabulary games
Another way elicitation can help students develop questioning skills and strategies is through vocabulary games. The one my students have particularly enjoyed has many permutations.
In the game, a student or group of students elicits from other students a list of words headed by a title concept. A typical vocabulary set could be about nouns—for example, Things in a School: blackboards, students, teachers, desks, pencils, erasers, chalk, textbooks. A vocabulary set could also be defined by the first letter of the words or by rhyme, such as Words That Start with “B”: boys, book, bicycle, bird, big, blue and Words That Rhyme with “Eye”: I, my, cry, high, lie, buy, why. The set could include actions: Things to Do at School: study, discuss, explain, write, read, listen, learn, teach. It could be a more complex list of emotions: happiness, sadness, loneliness, frustration, surprise, relief. The number of the words in a list can vary; rules and difficulty can be adjusted for student level. The pedagogic value of the task is in the amount of involvement and practice that the students experience. Typically, the topic and the list of items appear on a card; in pairs or small groups, students try to elicit the vocabulary items on their card from their partner or others in their small group, or from the whole class.
To get the game started, the teacher can demonstrate by using a card that has a topic with vocabulary items that should be familiar to the students; the teacher gives clues so that the class can guess each of the words on the list. Topics can be of general interest or drawn from a recent lesson or class unit. The idea is to foster oral communication, so all clues should be given verbally—no pointing, gesturing, or mimicking an action—with a set time limit, typically one to three minutes. While demonstrating how the game works, the teacher should pattern the interaction before students work together, illustrating elicitation strategies such as the following:
• giving definitions (what something is or is not);
• providing attributes (large, small, red, square);
• giving functions (used for X; not used for doing Y);
• comparing or contrasting;
• providing a word that the target word rhymes with;
• telling what letter the word starts or ends with (if the students get stuck).
Students get their cards, with a topic and a list of vocabulary items, then prepare and practice in pairs or small groups to give clues that will elicit the vocabulary from the rest of the class—or, more precisely, from the other groups. In large classes, limiting the guesses to one per group helps all groups listen more carefully; it also prevents groups from shouting out random guesses, and it forces the speaker to continue providing information about the target word so that groups can gain confidence that their one guess is correct. Another option is to keep a tally of points each group scores as it successfully elicits the vocabulary items from the other groups.
At first, the teacher will have to prepare cards showing the topic and the list of vocabulary items to be elicited, but once the students learn the rules and have practiced eliciting successfully, the next step is to have the students write their own vocabulary cards, essentially creating the content of the game. Students at different levels of proficiency can come up with their own topics and make their own cards by listing words for each topic. Students can draw subject matter for the cards from vocabulary and topics covered in class as well as from topics of interest. Collaboratively developing their own cards and elicitation strategies allows the students to reflect on what they know and to use critical-thinking skills to order their vocabulary. It also helps the students take the lead in their own learning, to write and help construct materials. And those materials help the teacher, too; as the students produce a portfolio with more and more cards, the teacher can keep a copy of the new materials to use as review or to use with other classes.
Gapping
Gapping refers to the authentic purpose for communication: transferring information, or bridging the gap, from one person to another. In a language classroom, using gapping activities means that each learner needs to negotiate, collaborate, and exchange information toward a common goal. Gapping also provides variety and fosters group work with existing readings and materials. As illustration, we can look at three gapped activities: Riddle Schmooze, Monster Madness, and Grids Galore. These activities can be modified to integrate additional vocabulary, prompt a new lesson, or review grammar.
Riddle Schmooze
To “schmooze” is to exchange information, or to chat informally; to come up with a gapped schmooze activity, one needs to have pieces or parts to complete a communicative act. Participants might have parts of a picture and need to find complementary pieces to make a whole. Or they may have different sections of a printed text (sometimes referred to as a jigsaw reading). Schmooze activities provide students with an opportunity to move about a room, make some (communicative) noise, and practice different registers: for instance, how to greet someone and how to politely interrupt ongoing conversations (e.g., “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to ask your assistance”; “I’m sorry to bother you …”; “Hey, dog/dude/man, give me a hand!”).
To begin the riddle schmooze activity, the teacher gives each student two slips of paper. On one is a riddle question and on the other is an answer—the answer to a different riddle (see Appendix 1). Students have one to three minutes to memorize both. Then they fold the riddle and answer and give them back to the teacher. Next comes the noisy mayhem of a classroom of English language learners bridging the gap—chatting with other students to find the answer for their riddle and the riddle for their answer. The teacher should give a time limit and have the students sit down as soon as they have found their riddles and answers. In a variation
of this activity, instead of riddles, each student can be given a vocabulary word and the definition for a different vocabulary word and asked to match the word to a classmate’s definition and the definition to a classmate’s word. In all cases, students are bridging the gap as they fit pieces of information they have with pieces of their classmates’ information.
(With larger classes, the teacher can copy sets of riddles/answers or vocabulary/definition sets and have the students work in groups. For example, a class with 50 students could divide into two to five groups, with each group receiving identical sets of riddles.)
A secondary assignment once students finish schmoozing and sit down is to have them jot down alternative answers to their riddles or come up with any other riddles that they know. When the time is up, the teacher calls the students together and has each student ask his or her riddle to the whole group and goes over the responses. And if riddle answers are not clear to everyone, some students may be able to do the explaining.
Teachers can adapt schmooze activities to work with any question/answer format and with pictures or graphics. And once students have learned how schmoozing works, they can readily develop schmoozing materials by using class lessons or topics of interest, so that, as with the elicitation vocabulary games
described above, students end up generating content for future classes. Whatever the content, schmoozing gap activities provide a fun, interactive way to review vocabulary or practice for a test.
Monster Madness
In this activity (thanks to Eric Dwyer from Florida International University), students draw a monster using only geometric shapes. The students then pair off, sit back-to-back, and describe what their monsters look like. The students alternate between describing their own monster, and listening to the description of their partner’s monster and reproducing it. Preparation for the activity can include reviewing how to describe shapes (square, rectangle, circle, etc.), how to give directions and locations (“Start by drawing a two-centimeter square in the upper left-hand corner; then …”), or how to compare and contrast (“The circle is twice as large as the square”). For a wrap-up activity, have students summarize how the gapped picture is different from the original.
Spin-off activities include having students describe differences in photographs or drawings.
Grids Galore
Grids provide many possibilities for gapped speaking practice. They allow the teacher and students to use the format with all kinds of content that is created by and for a particular teaching context. Grids also work with a variety of teaching levels. The directions are much like those for Monster Madness: each participant (or group) gives verbal directions to a partner (or other members of the group), who fills in boxes on the grid (that each of the participants has) without showing it to her or his partner(s). The students then compare the original grid with the grids filled in by each listener. The result can take the form of a correct final destination (for example, Box A1), or the result can be a picture that the listeners create by filling in the appropriate
squares.
Grids can be almost any size, and it is fine to have students draw the grids themselves to prepare for the activity. Here is one example with varied question content:
I
H
G
F
E
D
C
B
A
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Partner A directions
1. If the past tense of go is gone, mark an X in the box in A1. However, if the past tense of go is went, mark an X in the box in A2.
2. If the plural of tooth is tooths, mark an X two boxes to the right, one box up. But if the plural of tooth is teeth, mark an X three boxes to the right, two rows up.
3. If the middle name of U.S. President Barack Obama is “Harry,” mark an X on the next box to the right, same row. But if President Obama’s middle name is “Hussein,” mark an X on the next box to the right, one row down.
4. If the plural of child is children, mark an X six rows up, on the same column. But if the plural of child is childs, mark an X six rows up, one row to the right.
5. If reading is more fun than singing, mark an X two boxes to the right and four boxes down. If, however, singing is more fun than reading, mark an X three boxes to the left and one box down.
Partner B directions
1. If the past of see is seen, mark an X in the A1 square. However, if the past of see is saw, mark an X in the A4 square.
2. If a synonym of gorgeous is beautiful, mark an X five boxes up and one to the right. But if a synonym of gorgeous is big, mark an X in the same column, one box up.
E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m | N u m b e r 4 2 0 0 9 7
3. If falafel is a plant, mark an X one box to the right, one row above. But if falafel is a tasty food, mark an X one box to the right, one row down.
4. If people who don’t eat meat are called veterinarians, mark an X in the column to the left, same row. But if people who don’t eat meat are called vegetarians, mark an X in the column to the left, two rows up.
5. If English is easier than math, mark an X four boxes to the right, in the same row. If, however, English is more difficult than math, mark an X two boxes to the right, in the same row.
Once students become familiar with grids, even more learning and interactive fun take place when the students write their own grids to practice vocabulary or grammar or to review content covered in class. Valuable interaction and negotiation take place as students practice their listening skills and follow directions—and when they discuss why and how they came up with different solutions or even how the questions could be changed to be clearer or more concise. Open-ended discussion questions (such as in each #5 above) can also be included as springboards for debates or to link to upcoming topics and themes. The communicative value of the activity, then, comes as much as or more from the process (providing added language practice) than from producing the finished, “correct” grid.
Extending and adapting
Extending and adapting are techniques that offer a practical way for teachers to draw on realia and authentic materials to spice up classroom activities. Adapting allows for materials
to be drawn from unlimited sources that the students already know and care about. The value of adaptation was illustrated to me many years ago when I noticed how engaged some students in the back of the class were. I thought they were focused and avidly discussing the activity, and I was pleased to see that they were so interested. Upon closer inspection, however, I discovered that the students were engaged in a word game in their native language instead of the activity from the textbook.
Instead of criticizing the students for being off-task, I offered them the opportunity to contribute to the lesson by sharing their game. With my assistance, the students then adapted the activity to the content we were studying, thus taking a larger stake in their own learning.
With teachers’ guidance, students can readily identify fun formats and adapt them to the classroom. Ideas from board and card games, from local game shows (see Appendix 2), and from puzzles can be applied to learning English. Other possibilities for adapting or extending materials and activities from students’ ideas and other resources follow.
Scenarios and role play
These activities can be used in conjunction with a loaded theme of interest to students. Many students respond to a scene of conflict at work or between parent and child. These scenes or strategic interactions (Alatis 1993) can also be taken from a picture or news report, and students can be asked to discuss one role (or one side of an issue) in a small group; they then either elect one student to represent the group or, better yet, act out the scenario collectively after planning together. This activity is not to be confused with reading aloud a dialog or the parts of a play because in these strategic interactions, no one knows the outcome of the exchange in advance. Students must actively negotiate toward a solution or to clarify the situation. And the activity can be beneficial even if students do not reach a clear-cut solution, as learning occurs throughout the process of performing scenarios, regardless of the outcomes. Teachers can focus on providing language forms (such as modals, expressions, idioms, and verb forms) to help the students prepare for the exercise and, as a wrap-up or debriefing, provide a summary of language-learning points learned or needed. Students can also summarize who they feel “won” the exercise, explain why, and make their own observations on language used or language they needed in order to be more effective in expressing their ideas.
Topics for scenarios can come from students’
personal lives, their communication with other students and teachers at school, work environments, or scenes taken from readings or literature. Two scenarios, with role cards for students, appear on pages 8 and 9.
“Movie Night Out”
Daughter (age 13–18)
You would like to go out to a movie with a few of your friends. One of the friends is a boy you are interested in getting to know better. You are worried, however, that your parents may not approve. Try to convince your parents that the boy is trustworthy and that they should let you go out.
Mother
You are concerned about the friends your daughter is keeping.
You would like her to spend more time on her studies and more time at home. At the same time, you don’t want to keep her from enjoying time with her friends. Find out more information from your daughter to determine whether you will grant her permission to go to a movie with her friends.
Boy
You have decided to drop in and visit your new friend to see if she is able to go to the movies with you and some other friends. When you arrive, you find that your friend and her mother have already been deep in discussion about whether or not your friend will be permitted to go to the movie. Your task is to help your friend’s mother feel confident that you are a responsible, trustworthy person.
Father
You have just returned from work to find your wife deep into a discussion with your daughter and a young man you have never seen before. You are in a hurry to prepare to go back out to a business dinner. Ask each of the members of the discussion
to provide a quick summary of what has happened and what they think the decision should be and why. Then discuss with your wife, alone, what the final decision should be.
“The Scholarship”
Student
You have just been informed that you have been awarded a scholarship to study in the United States for a year. You haven’t had much experience traveling alone and have never been outside of your country on your own. Your parents were not very excited about your applying to the program and have told you they are very concerned about your living on your own in another country. Discuss the scholarship with your parents and try to reassure them that you are able to handle living on your own and that the experience will be safe and important for your future studies and career.
Parents (Father, Mother, or both)
You have just learned that your daughter (or son) has been awarded a scholarship to study in the United States for one year. You are very concerned about her/his safety and the effect that the year away will have on your child’s future studies and career. Ask your daughter/son questions to determine whether you will allow her/him to accept the scholarship.
School Adviser
You have been called to provide advice and counseling to the parents of a student who has won a prestigious scholarship to study in the United States. You want to stress both the challenges and the rewards of studying abroad and to do what you can to assure the parents that schools in the United States take the security of their students very seriously.
Group presentations, reports, and newscasts
Students take a theme or topic and work together to present their ideas in a cohesive format. They can write individual or group reports and then work together to present to the rest of the class a program, or a newscast, that has an introduction and a conclusion. This activity can be done as a daily or weekly presentation that allows students to share topics of interest. The class can post presentations and reports on blogs, on social networking sites, or as collaborative, cross-cultural exchanges.
While blogs or networking sites would be problematic (or impossible) in contexts where access to the Internet is limited or not available, in-class newscasts can work anywhere, and teachers can incorporate them as a regular feature of their classes. Students, individually or in groups, are responsible for the newscasts on a rotating basis, whether they are done daily or weekly, and take on roles such as reporter, interviewer or interviewee(s), anchorperson, and so on. These roles can change as the group’s turn to present the newscast comes around again. Not only do students get opportunities to practice speaking and to use vocabulary they might not otherwise use, but newscasts also give students opportunities to introduce and discuss issues of international, national, local, or schoolwide interest.
Peer review and publication committees
Student publications can include class newsletters or newspapers for which the students function as writers, peer editors, and editorial writers. Students identify topics of interest and relevance and do research on their topics. The teacher functions as a co-worker or senior editor on the publication, offering consultation and guidance as needed. The longer and more elaborate the publication, the more time and collaborative effort will be required.
Another option for class newsletters is to publish shorter articles on a class blog (www.blogger.com is one example) or on collaborative, customized social networking websites such as www.ning.com. For newscasts, students can make live presentations to the class or record their sessions and save them as podcasts or post them as videos on sites such as www.youtube.com.
Student evaluation and practice test writing
Students work in groups to come up with practice quizzes and exercises to review for upcoming tests. The teacher helps the students reflect on what they have learned by prompting them with a list of language objectives reached (from lesson and unit planning, for example) and through guiding the students to compile portfolios to list and share what they have accomplished in class over a set period of time. Students can develop practice activities in the form of elicitation cards, grids, games, or scenarios (as detailed above) or as review questions or language review exercises. Many students enjoy playing the role of “teacher,” asking questions to the class or developing short quizzes for their peers.
If the class has access to computers, the program Hot Potatoes is an easy-to-learn and fun-to-use tool to draft exercises that will work on any computer or that can be easily posted online (see http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ to download).
Conclusion
Activating techniques focus on the students in the classroom, on keeping them involved, on having them doing and producing rather than passively receiving information. This article has described some techniques that my students have helped me learn to better focus the class content and tasks according to their needs. My students have helped by sharing their ideas, interests, and aims and by being engaged members in collaborative learning. I have learned that through the strategies of elicitation, gapping, and extension/adaption, students interact more, construct solutions together, and have the tools to draw on to not only receive an education but to participate in and contribute to that education.
References
Alatis, J. E. ed. 1993. Strategic interaction and language
acquisition: Theory, practice, and research. Georgetown University Round Table on Language
and Linguistics 1993. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. http://books.google.jo/books?id=luaZrc7JjMQC&printsec=frontcover
Englander, K. 2002. Real-life problem solving: A collaborative learning activity. English Teaching
Forum 40 (1): 8–11.
Graves, K. 2003. Coursebooks. In Practical English language teaching, ed. D. Nunan, 225–46. New York: McGraw-Hill.
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Huong, L. P. H. 2003. The mediational role of language teachers in sociocultural theory. English Teaching Forum 41 (3): 32–35, 31.
Kabilan, M. K. 2000. Creative and critical thinking in the language classrooms. http://iteslj.org/Techniques/
Kabilan-CriticalThinking.html.
Ngeow, K., and Y.-S. Kong. 2003. Learning through discussion: Designing tasks for critical inquiry and reflective learning. ERIC Digest, ED477611. Ericdigests.org/2004-1/tasks.htm.
Serendip. 2003. Making connections: The brain and the creation of optimal learning opportunities
for students. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/cook-sather.html.
Rick Rosenberg is currently based in Amman, Jordan, where he is serving as the Regional English Language Officer. He has worked as a teacher, teacher trainer, and administrator of language programs in the United States, Bosnia, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Brazil.
Appendix 1. Riddle Schmooze.
Tools for Activating Materials and Tasks in the English Language Classroom • Rick Rosenberg
Here is a starter set of riddle questions and answers. Remember, at the start of this activity, students get two slips of paper—one slip with a riddle question and the other slip with the answer to a different riddle question.
QUESTION
ANSWER
What is in the middle of Paris?
“r”
What word is always spelled wrong?
“wrong”
What is the capital in England?
“E”
What is the longest word in the English language?
“smiles” (… because there is a “mile” between the first “s” and the second “s”)
Can a word become shorter if you add a syllable to it?
Yes, “short” (… when it becomes the word shorter).
Which is the shortest month?
May (It has only three letters.)
The more there is, the less you see—what is it?
darkness
What is the difference between here and there?
“t”
What has teeth but can’t eat?
a zipper (or a comb)
What has a face and two hands, and goes round?
a clock
What did the little hand on the clock say to the big hand on the clock?
“See you in an hour!”
What does everybody in the world do at the same time?
age (get older)
If five dogs are chasing a cat down the street, what time is it?
five after one
Continued on page 27
E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m | N u m b e r 4 2 0 0 9 27
Tools for Activating Materials and Tasks in the English Language Classroom • Rick Rosenberg
This activity is loosely based on a Croatian TV game show that features a kind of role play. Two suggestions for incorporating role plays into the language classroom are given here.
Role Play Option A
The purpose is for students to get practice speaking English through trying to determine which of three game show guests has the target role and which two are pretending. All three claim to be the real “X.” Students can work in groups to draft questions and prepare information about how the person in the target role might respond to questions from the class. During the activity, each group has three minutes to ask as many questions as they can of Guests #1, #2, and #3. One option—lion trainer—is given below. Any profession, however, could work in this activity, and students in a group can choose their own profession. After asking all the questions and listening to the answers from the three “guests,” the groups vote for the guest they think is the actual professional
(lion trainer, in the example below). Points are given to each group that attracts incorrect guesses—but, as usual, the real value of the activity comes from having students ask and answer questions, exchange information, and communicate in a meaningful way.
Here are sample instructions. One student plays the “real” lion trainer, while the other two students pretend to be lion trainers.
(For one student): You are, for the purpose of this part of Engl-o-teka, to play the part of a lion trainer. You have been working at this job for five years. You only work with very calm lions and you have not been attacked, yet. Of course, you may make up anything else to try to convince the contestants that you are not the lion trainer.
(For the other two students in the group): You are to pretend to be a lion trainer. You can say you have been working at the job for five years, that lions are trained from birth to be at ease with humans, and that only a certain kind of African lion is used because they are tamer than other species. To tame a lion, one must be calm, stay collected, and repeat the steps of training often. The lions must be rewarded for correct behavior with large meals of raw flesh, preferably of an animal and not the trainer!
Role Play Option B
Students get together in groups, preferably of three, and again they will play the parts of “guests.” Instead of choosing a profession, though, they choose an experience that one of the students has had, but the other two students haven’t. For example, suppose one student has gone swimming in a lake after dark, but the other two haven’t. For the purposes of this activity, all three students will tell their classmates that they have gone swimming in a lake after dark. Their classmates then ask questions, which the three “guests” answer, each trying to convince the class that he/she is the person who really has gone swimming in a lake after dark. Finally, the class votes on who is telling the truth and who is pretending.
Students can prepare in their groups by telling one another about unusual things they have done or experiences they have had. Together, they pick one of those experiences. Then, each student must prepare to answer questions from classmates. The student who really did swim in the lake after dark will be able to answer truthfully, whereas the other two students will have to imagine scenarios where they might have swum in a lake after dark; each student’s scenario should be different.
The three students can work together to develop scenarios so that all three of them will be able to answer questions like When, Where, Who, Why, etc.
When all groups are ready, the groups take turns going to the front of the class. Each person in the group will make the same statement (“I have gone swimming in a lake after dark”) about the experience. After that, members of the class ask questions, the “swimmers” answer them as convincingly as possible, and then, after a time limit of perhaps three minutes, the class votes on who they believe is telling the truth.

A means for motivating students to read

32 2 0 0 9 N u m b e r 3 | E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m
Reiko Komiyama
CAR: A Means for Motivating Students to Read
Reading is an important skill for English language learners in today’s world; it supports the development of overall proficiency and provides access to crucial information
at work and in school. With English being the dominant language of the Internet, international business, and academia (including science), beginning and advanced students alike face pressures to develop their second language (L2) reading abilities.
The acquisition of reading skills, however, is never easy, and students need

How to make students more interactive

Irina Lytovchenko
How to Make Upper-Level University English Classes More Interactive
Upper-level English classes often pose special problems for teachers. At some universities,
upper-level students learn English
by using the technical language of their degree program, such as medicine,
business, information technology, or some other field. Known as English for Specific Purposes (ESP), this type of English instruction integrates the specialized subject matter of the field into the classroom. ESP requires the acquisition of highly specialized terminology
and the ability to explain formal processes as students prepare for the high-level competence they will have to

To Teach Standard English

2 2 0 0 9 N u m b e r 2 | E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m
Thomas S. C. Farrell and Sonia Martin
To Teach Standard English or World Englishes? A Balanced Approach to Instruction
English has now acquired the title of the world’s leading “global language” (Crystal 2003, 1) because it is used for business, science, and politics. When we use the term English, readers may assume that we are referring to a standard of usage that everyone agrees upon. Readers may think that we must mean British Standard English or American Standard English because the English that exists in such places as Africa, Asia, the West Indies, the Philippines and Singapore is not real or standard English. Readers may also think that

Video Recording as a Stimulus

34 2 0 0 8 N u m b e r 1 | E n g l i s h T e a c h i n g F o r u m
Anecdotes are stories, usually from personal experience, that people tell to make a point or entertain others during a conversation.
These personal stories have a considerable role in everyday human interaction (Jones 2001), and according to Wright (1995, 16), “the whole world is full of storytellers.” Anecdotes often have an emotional component, such as happiness or sadness, excitement or embarrassment, or amusement or disappointment. Therefore, when we share an anecdote, we share a compelling story with other people. While it is not possible to remember all of the anecdotes we know, we do remember the content of noteworthy ones, and
often we pass them on to others.
It is well known that

Using Annecdotes in Teaching English

34 2 0 0 8 N u m b e r 1 | E n g l i s h T e a c h i n g F o r u m
Anecdotes are stories, usually
from personal experience, that
people tell to make a point or
entertain others during a conversation.
These personal stories have a considerable
role in everyday human interaction
(Jones 2001), and according to
Wright (1995, 16), “the whole world
is full of storytellers.” Anecdotes often
have an emotional component, such
as happiness or sadness, excitement
or embarrassment, or amusement or
disappointment. Therefore, when we
share an anecdote, we share a compelling
story with other people. While it
is not possible to remember all of the
anecdotes we know, we do remember
the content of noteworthy ones, and
often we pass them on to others.
It is well known that inserting
anecdotes in essays and oral presentations
is a good strategy to attract
and hold audience attention (Benson
2000; Lukey-Coutsocostas and Tanner-
Bogia 1998). This also applies to
the second language classroom; using
anecdotes is a good technique to
arouse student interest and establish
a meaningful and memorable context
for learning. This article aims to
describe types of anecdotes, explain
why anecdotes are useful in language
teaching, and suggest how to use
them in the classroom.
The six elements of an
anecdote
As with many aspects of human
discourse, anecdotes tend to follow
a pattern when they are used in conversation.
Researchers in sociolinguistics
and discourse analysis (Labov
1972; McCarthy 1991, 1998) have
identified six narrative elements of
anecdotes, which are presented below,
with examples.
1. Abstract—the abstract introduces
the anecdote and may give
essential context to the story: “Did I
ever tell you about …?”; “I remember
when I was …”
2. Orientation—the orientation
sets the scene for the story by identifying
where and when it takes place
and the people involved: “Do you
know that every year we have this
school fair?”; “You remember last
year’s school picnic, right? There,
we…”
Deniz Sall ı -Çopur
T u r k E y
Using Anecdotes in
Language Class
E n g l i s h T e a c h i n g F o r u m | N u m b e r 1 2 0 0 8 35
3. Complicating events—the complicating
events are the main events of the story and
are what makes it intriguing and interesting:
“The next thing she did was try to put out
the fire.”
4. Resolution—the resolution tells what
happened at the end of the story and how
things worked out: “…and finally he passed
the test.”
5. Coda—the coda signals that the story is
over and brings the storyteller and listener back
to the present: “Now I look back and say…”
6. Evaluation—the evaluation is how the
storyteller indicates the essential point of the
anecdote and why it was worth telling: “It’s not
the worst thing that happened to me, but…”
These six elements are not always present.
For example, an abstract and coda may not be
found in all anecdotes. However, according
to McCarthy (1998, 134), evaluation is not
an optional element, since “without it there is
no story, only a bland report.” That is, evaluative
statements identify the significance of
the anecdote and prevent the audience from
asking “So what?” (Labov 1972, 366). The
evaluative element may appear at the beginning,
in the middle, or at the end of the anecdote.
Evaluation can be either explicitly stated
or rendered through implicit devices such as
exaggeration, repetition, mimicry, intonation,
and figurative use of language (Jones 2001).
Moreover, the listeners may collaborate with
the teller and add their own evaluation of the
anecdote or comment on its worth.
Anecdotes in the classroom
Anecdotes told in the classroom express
our feelings, ideas, and experiences, just like
the ones in daily conversations. However,
since anecdotes are an excellent way to generate
discussion to help students use their
language skills, teachers usually have an additional
intention in mind: a teaching objective
to describe, explain, clarify, or emphasize an
aspect of language or content.
In practice, we can divide anecdotes
used in class into three groups: (1) planned
anecdotes, (2) semi-planned anecdotes, and
(3) unplanned anecdotes.
Planned anecdotes
Planned anecdotes are similar to those used
in essays or in oral presentations. The teacher
plans when to use the anecdote in the lesson,
how to use it, and what kind of an exercise
or questions will follow the anecdote. For
example, if a language point will be presented,
the teacher should decide beforehand which
vocabulary items or grammatical structures
to emphasize while sharing the anecdote. The
anecdote may be written down so the teacher
can either read it aloud or tell it using notes.
The significance or evaluation of a planned
anecdote is also considered while planning
and is indicated either at the beginning or at
the end of the story.
Semi-planned anecdotes
Semi-planned anecdotes differ from
planned anecdotes because the complete
details are not worked out in advance. In
this case, the exact words or sentences are not
written down, although teachers do have one
or more anecdotes in mind and are prepared
to tell them at the appropriate time in the lesson.
One strategy is to keep a list of anecdotes
and let the student reactions or the flow of
the lesson determine which one to share. It
is also good to base semi-planned anecdotes
on the events experienced by the whole class
or by one group of students. For example, an
anecdote about a school night or an extracurricular
activity that all students participated
in reduces the need for explanation and saves
time. Individuals can share their personal
anecdotes as well, and if the teacher knows
a student’s anecdote, she may plan to ask the
student to share it at an appropriate time. As
with planned anecdotes, it is important to
consider the purpose and significance of semiplanned
anecdotes beforehand.
Unplanned anecdotes
Unplanned anecdotes come up naturally in
the flow of classroom activities and are spontaneously
activated by a response, a question,
or a discussion that suddenly reminds the
teacher of a story that is worthwhile to share
with the students. In this sense, unplanned
anecdotes are like those that appear in everyday
conversation. These impromptu anecdotes
may also be provided by students, as one
of their experiences may be enlightening or
thought-provoking for both their classmates
and the teacher. If the point of the anecdote
is not clear, either the teacher or the students
can indicate the need for an evaluative element,
just as a listener might do in a naturally
occurring conversation.
36 2 0 0 8 N u m b e r 1 | E n g l i s h T e a c h i n g F o r u m
Benefits of using anecdotes in language
classes
Anecdotes are one of the most economical,
easy, and enjoyable ways to introduce meaningful
language and content, to practice language
skills and subskills, and to help manage
classes of various ages and proficiency levels.
Experience shows that students are always
highly interested in experiences of their teachers
and peers. Although some teachers may
not feel comfortable with the idea of sharing
personal information with their students, others
may love to share their experiences and ask
similar questions about the students’ experiences.
How much the teacher shares and asks
the students to share depends not on being
friends with them but on creating a friendly
atmosphere in the classroom. The ideas listed
below summarize the benefits I have experienced
while using anecdotes in my classes.
• Classroom management is an important
aspect in teaching any course,
regardless of subject matter. It is an
issue for novice and experienced teachers,
for teachers of young or adult
learners, and for teachers of beginner
to advanced levels. Thus, an attentiongrabbing
anecdote may wake up sleepy
students, engage unmotivated ones
with the task, and reinforce a context
so it is not easily forgotten.
• Genuine communication occurs in language
classes when learners provide their
own experiences and information. By
listening to anecdotes from the teacher
and classmates, asking questions for
extra information or clarification, and
contributing evaluative feedback as in
real life dialogues, the language learners
engage in authentic communication.
Moreover, by telling an anecdote or
responding to their friends’ anecdotes,
students organize their ideas and contribute
to the discussion (Wright 2000).
The language and conversational skills
used while telling our stories are different
from the skills we use in controlled,
inauthentic classroom tasks. Therefore,
using anecdotes in language classes has
the benefit of modeling the customary
daily storytelling skills, and emphasizing
those skills develops students’ conversational
skills (Jones 2001).
• Sharing anecdotes gives students the
chance to reflect on their own and
on others’ concerns, perceptions, and
values (Wright 2000). This reflection
develops higher level cognitive skills,
including the ability to evaluate and
synthesize information, as well as affective
skills such as empathizing.
• Anecdotes can also be used in content
courses where the material is more
demanding than language courses. Even
advanced learners of English, especially at
the tertiary level, may at times have difficulties
in content courses. Thus, the use
of anecdotes to explain, exemplify, and
evaluate the new content aids learners’
understanding, learning, and retention.
• When an anecdote is told by a native
speaker English teacher or when it
is about an experience in an English
speaking country, the anecdote provides
cultural information. In this respect,
anecdotes represent a more realistic
reflection of the target language culture
and its people than the views presented
in many textbooks.
• While students learn more about each
other and their teacher, the teacher learns
more about the students. Anecdotes
therefore reinforce the friendly relationship
between teachers and students and
among the students themselves.
Anecdotes about using anecdotes
Following are two examples of my classroom
experiences using anecdotes. The first
one is from an intermediate level class of
seventh grade (13 to 14 years of age) learners
of English in a private school in Ankara,
Turkey. The lesson took place during an
assessed observation while I was a trainee
in the Certificate for Overseas Teachers of
English (COTE) program. The anecdote I
used had a language focus on the use of used
to and would. I had already written down my
anecdote for my trainer in the pre-observation
session, and I read it to the students, as if
reading a story or a diary entry:
When I was a child, we used to live
in the same building as my grandparents.
My mother and my father were working
for a bank, and my grandparents used to
take care of me during the day.
E n g l i s h T e a c h i n g F o r u m | N u m b e r 1 2 0 0 8 37
My uncle was my best friend, although
he was 20 years older than I was. He
would often take me wherever I wanted
to go. We would play volleyball during
the weekends, or he would watch cartoons
on television with me. He traveled a lot to
other countries because of his job. He usually
brought some presents for me from
the countries he visited. Once, he brought
a huge doll from Belgium, and I loved it so
much that I slept with her every night.
My grandmother used to be a very
fussy woman, so she became very angry
when my uncle and I messed up the house
while playing. I remember how angry she
was when she found out that we were
trying to make a pool for my toys on
the balcony by carrying water from the
bathroom. She used to get furious when
we played with water and actually, she was
right, because everywhere would become
wet, even the carpets and the furniture,
while we were carrying the water.
On the other hand, my grandfather
was a relaxed and patient person, so he
would watch and laugh at us at those
times. Some days, my grandfather and
my uncle would play backgammon. Both
were good at it and it used to take many
hours to have a winner. However, I could
not see the end of their matches because I
always fell asleep while watching them.
Then, one day, my uncle got married
and moved to live with his wife. It was not
very easy for me to lose my best friend at
home. No one was taking me to play volleyball
or to the cinema. My grandmother
was missing her son, and she did not get
angry even when I tried to make a pool
on the balcony again, as I had done with
my uncle. My grandfather tried to teach
me how to play backgammon, because he,
too, had lost his partner.
This planned anecdote contains the six
specified elements of an anecdote. Since I
read it to students as a diary entry, I stated the
abstract of the story before reading the anecdote
to inform the learners of what the story
was about. The first paragraph works as the
orientation to set the scene, the second, third,
and fourth paragraphs contain the complicating
events sequence, and the last paragraph
concludes with the resolution. After reading
the story, I signaled the end of it by saying
“So that was my childhood…”, which works
as the coda. Lastly, the evaluation element lies
in the aim of sharing it with students, which is
the language point I had covered with the students
before and after reading the anecdote.
After using an anecdote of childhood memories,
language teachers may apply different
types of follow-up activities. First of all, since
the students are excited hearing about their
teacher’s childhood, the follow-up activity may
easily have a speaking focus, where the students
ask further questions about their teacher’s
childhood or the characters in the anecdote.
Students may also be encouraged to share
their own childhood memories and exchange
their anecdotes using the grammar point in
pair work, group work, or whole class activities.
Similarly, the anecdote can be followed
by a writing task that has a grammar focus.
For example, an exercise to demonstrate the
difference in meaning between used to and
would can be carefully planned to help students
recognize that both structures can describe
repeated actions in the past. Since used to and
would are, in many cases, used interchangeably,
the anecdote should be organized in such
a way that the students can easily deduce the
difference between them without having the
teacher present the grammar lesson deductively
or through explicit grammar teaching. Each
student may write one of his or her childhood
memories using used to and would. Following
that, they may exchange papers and read each
other’s anecdotes, and even edit them for the
specific language focus.
The second anecdote was an unplanned,
impromptu anecdote used in a preservice teacher
education program with third year students
of an ELT methodology course on teaching
English to young learners. The topic of the lesson
was classroom management in classes with
young and very young learners. The students
were prospective teachers who had read the
required materials before coming to class, and
we were having a lively debate on how to reach
out to problematic students. One of the class
participants noted that “The way we react to
one student’s misbehavior has an impact on the
other students.” She observed that if a student
breaks the classroom rules, and if the teacher
does nothing, other students may think they
can break the rules as well. After hearing this
38 2 0 0 8 N u m b e r 1 | E n g l i s h T e a c h i n g F o r u m
comment, I remembered one particular event
that happened in a fifth grade class during my
beginning years as a teacher of English and
shared it more or less in these words:
I think something I experienced in
my early years of teaching may be a good
example for such a classroom management
problem. I was teaching English to
fifth grade primary school students. The
students had 12 hours of English a week,
and they would start studying mathematics
and science in English the following
year. I was teaching a lesson on the types
of animals, including mammals, reptiles,
fish, birds, and arachnids. The names of
these five animal types were written on
the board, and I asked students to give
examples for each type of animal for a
review. After a couple of examples, one of
the students stood up, came to the board,
and wrote the name of one of the other
students as an example for “reptiles.” The
whole class went crazy; they were laughing
and praising the boy for doing such a
funny thing, while teasing the one whose
name was on the board.
After telling this anecdote, I asked what
should have been done or said, and we
had a very active discussion on punishment,
reinforcement, and classroom management.
Although I had not planned to tell them this
anecdote before, it was fruitful for the class
discussion as my students enjoyed imagining
what they could do with such a student in
such a situation when they became teachers
of English. The abstract, orientation, and
complicating events are easily identified in the
anecdote, and my question “What should
have been done?” works as the coda. The anecdote
does not contain the resolution, although
the trainees provided many possibilities. The
evaluation, on the other hand, is given at the
very beginning of the story when I mentioned
its relevance to the course content.
As I was really happy with the follow-up
discussion on this anecdote, I intended to use
it in the same week with another group of student
teachers taking the same course in a different
section. This time, the unplanned anecdote
turned out to be a semi-planned one, since I
had jotted down the name of the problematic
student as a reminder of the anecdote.
Things to consider while using
anecdotes
I believe anecdotes are enjoyable, interesting,
and motivating for both teachers and
learners; however, there are certain points that
need to be considered in order to use them in
a productive and successful way:
• Teachers should be honest about the
anecdote they share in class. If we talk
about something we have made up,
it is not an anecdote but fiction, and
students will usually realize this.
• It is highly important for teachers
(especially native speakers of English
teaching abroad) to be careful about the
local and national culture. An anecdote
should not make students feel ashamed,
upset, or angry.
• Anecdotes need to be relevant to students’
cognitive development and intellectual
level. An anecdote that is very
enjoyable and helpful for adults could
be meaningless or problematic for teenagers
or children.
• When teachers use an anecdote in the
classroom, they should always be able to
point out its worth and purpose and be
aware of the different elements that make
up the story (McCarthy 1991). This will
result in coherent storytelling and lead to
higher quality language practice.
• In writing and speaking, anecdotes contribute
to the presentation, development,
and illustration of the points in the essay
or in the presentation. However, telling
students to use this technique does not
automatically make them start writing
excellent essays or giving wonderful
speeches. Therefore, choosing topics
that students have some experience with
and encouraging them to use relevant
anecdotes in their work helps them
enjoy both writing and speaking.
• Wright (1996, 8) indicates that using
stories “merely to introduce and practice
grammar or particular lexical areas
or functions” is a danger for storytelling,
as the stories become a routine for
the students rather than a novel and
fun activity. This concern is also valid
for anecdotes. They can sometimes be
used only as a warm-up activity with
no intention of teaching, in which case
E n g l i s h T e a c h i n g F o r u m | N u m b e r 1 2 0 0 8 39
the anecdote is still useful for classroom
management.
• The length and timing of the anecdotes
is important. In my opinion, whether
planned or unplanned, the anecdote
should not take more than three or
four minutes. Otherwise, some of the
students may have concentration problems
and not pay attention or lose track.
Thus, if the teacher plans to use an
anecdote, it is always better to rehearse
it to be aware of its length. In addition
to length, the timing of the anecdotes
is also an essential point to consider. To
illustrate, the ones we use before lunch
breaks may seem very long, as it may be
difficult for the students to concentrate.
Telling an anecdote in order to cheer up
a class after they had a difficult exam
may misfire as well, since the message
of the story has nothing to do with the
learners’ present situation.
• Not only the anecdotes of the teacher
but also the anecdotes of the students
can be helpful for the lesson. If only
the teacher tells the anecdotes, the lesson
may become a one-person show.
However, each student should have an
equal chance to share an anecdote, and it
should be his or her decision to do so.
• Like every technique, using anecdotes
requires flexibility. You can plan to tell
your anecdote, or it may come naturally.
If it is improvised and if you know
it is the right time to use it, it is better
not to miss the chance, even if it means
deviating from your teaching plan. On
the other hand, if you realize that your
students do not like it or cannot understand
your point, it might be better to
mention the evaluation element of the
anecdote and cut it short rather than
stop telling it.
• Since anecdotes are short stories about
personal experiences, they require the
standard tools of storytelling mentioned
by Pedersen (1995): (1) maintaining
eye contact is useful to check for listener
comprehension and for using evaluative
devices; (2) using gestures, facial
expressions, movement, and other body
language helps the audience understand
the point and significance of the anecdote;
and (3) concentrating on voice
quality is critical because the audience
must hear everything clearly. Moreover,
both tone of voice and intonation add
to the emotional impact and work as
implicit evaluative devices.
Conclusion
Anecdotes are inseparable parts of authentic
everyday conversation, and they are an
effective technique for written and oral presentations.
Since teaching is a never-ending
presentation in front of different and sometimes
difficult audiences, using anecdotes
can be a useful and rewarding technique that
should be integrated into classroom language
teaching. This integration has fruitful results
both for target language development and
social interaction in the classroom.
References
Benson, M. J. 2000. Writing an academic article:
An editor writes. English Teaching Forum 38
(2): 33–35.
Jones, R. E. 2001. A consciousness-raising approach
to the teaching of conversational storytelling
skills. ELT Journal 55 (2): 155–63.
Labov, W. 1972. Language in the inner city: Studies
in the Black English vernacular. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
Lukey-Coutsocostas, K., and J. Tanner-Bogia. 1998.
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Deniz Sallı-Çopur teaches advanced
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40 2 0 0 8 N u m b e r 1 | E n g l i s h T e a c h i n g F o r u m
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Magdalena Oz˙arska, holds a Ph.D. in
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thesis on 18th century women’s life writing.
continued from page 33
Summarizing Authentic Academic
Essays
Some Suggestions for Academic Writing Instruction at English Teacher Training Colleges • Magdalena Oz˙arska
One of my favorite authentic passages for a summary task concerning Milton’s “On his Blindness” comes
from Lerner (1975, 76). The task is to summarize the text while avoiding plagiarism.
The theme of this poem is acceptance of one’s lot. It can never be easy to accept blindness, or
to escape from the feeling that one has, somehow, been unfairly singled out for suffering; and the
struggle which this short poem enacts is between protest and resignation, between bitterness and
acceptance. And since it is a Petrarchan sonnet, the natural ordering of the poem is, protest in the
octet, acceptance in the sestet. Yet the poem does not begin with direct anger, with the voice of someone
insisting that he’s been badly treated, as it might if written by a highly dramatic poet—Donne,
say. It begins with a considered statement, a long and complex sentence, the voice of someone controlling
his emotion while he explores a difficult situation. Control is important in this poem.
*
Following are examples of six student summaries of the above paragraph. They have not been through the
initial peer review correction stage and serve as a worksheet for error correction during the final class.
1. John Milton’s poem entitled “On his Blindness” is based on Petrarchan conception of the sonnet which
is divided into two parts. In the first part, namely the octet, the author expresses his protest against
his blindness and suffering from the feeling of loneliness. Yet, in the sestet, the state of the approval
of the poet’s lot is presented. However, the first lines which are written in quite sophisticated language
present restrained emotions while considering complicated situation.
2. As Laurence Lerner claims in his book, Milton’s poem deals with poets fate. It is an example of a
Petrarchan sonnet which is divided into two parts. Octet is the first part in which the poet complains
about his tragedy. The second part—sestet, expresses the poets coming to terms with his fate.
3. The poem “On his Blindness” by John Milton is an example of a Petrarchan sonnet which expresses a
complaint in the octet, acceptance in the sestet. In general, the theme of the poem concerns tolerance
of our fate and suffering connected with being unfairly chosen to experience pain.
4. The main idea of the poem “On his Blindness” by John Milton is the reconciliation with one’s faith. This
Petrarchan sonnet presents a battle between opposition and passivity, sourness and approval. One of the
most important element in the poem is the control of one’s feelings while being in a difficult position.
It is clearly illustrated at the beginning of the sonnet as the author does not express his frustration.
5. Lawrence Lerner begins his analysis of John Milton’s “On his Blindness” by introducing the subject
matter of the poem as well as its major aspects. He is concerned with the fact how the structure of
the verse reflects the two stages of the process of coming to terms with blindness, namely “protest and
resignation” (Lerner 76). The “protest” stage is characterized by control of emotions resulting in the
complete acceptation of the speaker’s fate in the “resignation” stage.
6. John Milton in his poem “On his Blindness” depicts how difficult is to come to terms with the loss of
sight. He emphasizes that it is extremely painful and depressing. Contrary to Metaphysical Poets such
as Donne he is more restrained in expressing his sorrow.