Eliciting background knowledge.

The teacher asks questions to see what students know on the topic.

e.g. (topic “Fashion”)

- What fashion styles / models / model agencies do you know?

- Which country is considered to be the centre of fashion?

Linking

Linking paragraphs.

Students are given a text, where they are to insert some linking words, expressions or even sentences to make the text look coherent.

e.g.

Andy was a tiny boy with a strangely hoarse voice, extremely well-read for his age. At the very beginning he became very popular among his class mates owing to his striking ability of telling frightening stories.

 

His heroes underwent all kind of terrible adventures: they would freeze to death, or starve and, finally, die of hunger; wild beasts would eat them up or tear into pieces; bandits would beat them black and blue and rob them of all their possessions.

 

The headmaster found out that the children slept with the lights on. He made necessary inquiries and bedside tales were put an end to.

(the passage is taken from Reading and

Talking English by L.S. Golovchinskaya)

Listing

Picture-based listing.

Students look at the picture (e.g. a photographs of a cobra and a leopard) and write down as many words or phrases as they can (e.g. to describe the two animals).

Mind-mapping

Thematic map.

Teacher asks students which words are connected with the word (e.g. SCHOOL) and presents simultaneously the new words.

e.g.

 

Predicting

Predicting by pictures.

Students are asked to look at the pictures and say what the listening passage will be about.

e.g.

 

Expressing predictions in discussion.

Before listening students try to make predictions on the topic.

e.g. How much do you know about heart attacks? Choose the best answer:

1. Most heart attacks are caused by:

- your heart beating too fast.

- blood not reaching your heart.

- your heart working too hard.

2. When you have a heart attack, you feel pain:

- across your chest and into your arms.

- all over the left side of your chest.

- just where your heart is. Etc.

After that students listen to the text and check their guesses.

(taken from Listening-1 by J. Doff)

Miming

Imposing a manner.

Variation 1.

Students choose one adverb out of the list of adverbs. Teacher reads out the verbs of action. Students mime them in the manner the adverb prompts.

e.g.

Adverb: passionately

Actions:

to blow the nose to look to eat to sneeze

to hug a neighbour to mend the sock to read the newspaper to hammer a nail

Prioritising

Perfect partner.

Teacher explains to students that everybody has a different idea of the ideal boyfriend or girlfriend. Students are to put the following qualities in order of importance.

e.g.

¡	A sense of humour	¡	Interests you both share
¡	Good looks	¡	Sexiness
¡	Patience	¡	Popular with your family
¡	Plenty of money	¡	Popular with your other friends
¡	Lets you decide things

After that students are asked to write down "a lonely-heart advertisement" to a local newspaper.

Ranking

Rank and write.

Students are given a list of qualities, which they rank in the order of importance for their future job. Then students are to write a letter of application.

e.g.

Nice appearance, long legs, intelligence, sense of humour, responsibility, politeness, industry, patience, good mixability, etc.

 

Rating

Per cent.

Students are to look through a list of notions (e.g. a list of stressful jobs). Working in pair they are to mark the degree of stressfulness of every profession on the given scale.

 

e.g.

Profession	The degree of stressfulness
Driver	0%------------------100%
Pilot	0%------------------100%
Butcher	0%------------------100%
President	0%------------------100%
Teacher	0%------------------100%

 

Categorising

Filling in categories.

Variation 1.

Students write the words in the appropriate column.

e.g.

best friend cousin classmate stranger acquaintance colleague ex-boyfriend flatmate head-teacher niece mother-in-law parent partner neighbour relative step-mother

 

family	friends	work	school	other

 

Finding Differences / Similarities

Comparing phenomena.

Before listening students list the differences and similarities between two phenomena (e.g. private and public schools) as they see them. After that they listen to the text and note down the facts they haven’t mentioned.

Matching

Split pictures.

Students guess how the people travel around the town and match the pictures.

e.g.

Key: a – 4, b – 3, c – 1, d - 2