Unit 11

WORKSHEET – UNIT 11


Task 1 – What are the two productive skills?

Speaking and writing


Task 2 – Give a brief description of the differences between accuracy and fluency activities:

Accuracy activities are usually conducted in the study phase and focus on understanding and using of the language in a controlled way.

The fluency activities are usually conducted in the activate stage and focus on the flow of information by experimenting and being creative with the language.

Task 3 – List 5 different speaking activities, giving an example activity of your own for each:

Drilling – Controlled activity
A basic drilling exercise to be performed in the engage stage would be reciting the words from a childrens book as this would help increase the accuracy of basic statements. We think it would be important to find material which contains sounds which are hard to reproduce in the students native language to clear those barriers early.

Prompting – Controlled activity
We think a good prompting activity would be to write a simple question on the whiteboard and ask students if they know the answer, in which case they put their hand up and are selected randomly. Then if the student pronunces it incorrectly as the teacher we would reproduce the answer for all of the students to hear the difference. Afterwards as a class we would recite the correct answers allowing everyone a chance for everyone to say it correctly.

Guided role-play – Guided activity
For guided role-play we would plan an activity for the activate stage in which the students have to re-enact an interesting situation within a certain time limit, such as a bank robbery. This will apply pressure on the students to pay particular attention to the guidance we've provided whilst still enjoying themselves enough not to let their minds wander.

Discussions – Creative communication
We would take a current news item (with respect to the age of the students and their appropriate level of fluency) and ask the students to discuss it. Using visual aids we would hope to entice students to become involved and eventually join groups to share their opinions in English.

Debates – Creative communication
Quite possibly a follow-up class from the discussions in the previous step, this would involve groups arguing their opinions with other groups, in an open environment.

Task 4 – Give examples of ways that the teacher can encourage students to speak and interact during a lesson:

- Allow shyer students to answer the easy questions
- Provide constructive criticism when correcting mistakes
- Allocate students to smaller groups
- Offer exciting lesson plans
- Be dynamic in lesson plans

Task 5 – List five ways, with short explanations, that a teacher can generate interest in a topic. Come up with ideas of your own:

Allow students to associate their language learning with their outside activities, i.e sporting events they've attended

Use activities which relate to the topic at hand, such as role-play for booking into a hotel room

Maintain a lesson plan which relates to the students criteria i.e business situations for older students

Build up to the activate stage and let students know at the beginning of class that they will have to perform in a role-play activity to increase their courage and attention

Occasionally go over old material so that the students don't fall behind and so you can ask questions which all students are capable of answering

Task 6 – Give an example of an effective free-speaking activity and how it would fit into an ESA lesson plan, with as much detail as possible:

Objective
By the end of the ESA lesson students must be able to speak freely about their opinions of a movie

Engage
Students watch an english movie (preferably something very symbolic such as a cartoon i.e. Finding Nemo).

Study
A worksheet with questions relating to the movie is handed to the students to answer. The worksheet contains q & a about the movie, grammar exercises and vocabulary exercises. After students have completed the worksheet they pair up and correct their partners work as we (the teachers) prompt students for the answers, giving them assistance if no student knows the answer.

Activate
Students join groups of 3 or 4 people and discuss the movie openly, praising the areas they enjoyed or criticising their dislikes about it. At the end of the lesson they must give the movie a review as a group presented to the class.


Task 7 – What additional issues does the teacher have to consider for a writing activity?

Handwriting, spelling, layout and punctuation can all differ greatly from the students native language so they must be addressed when teaching writing skills.


Task 8 – Think of five traditional games that could be adapted for the classroom and details of how you would use them (these games should not include any of those mentioned in the course unit):

Twenty questions (activate stage)
We would play a 'what am I' game where the class is split into two teams and a student has to pick an object, animal or item etc and the other students have to guess what it is within the 20 question limit. The students have to complete the questions with full sentences and the first team to win chooses the next 'what am I' object.

Charades (activate stage)
A very similar game to the one above however we would recommend it be played within smaller groups so that the shyer students don't withhold themselves from the activity.

Hangman (activate stage)
A game we believe is best suited for pairs, one student chooses a word using vocabulary from the current lesson and the other student has to answer the question before the man hangs. The students play several games and then have to write a short story using the words from their games of hangman, which they then read to the class. This is done as a patchwork lesson.

Crosswords (study stage)
A worksheet with a crossword puzzle is handed to the students containing gap sentences. It is to be completed during the study stage and then corrected as a class afterwards. We think it could also make a good homework item.

Wordfind (study stage)
Similar to the crossword puzzle but where students find words amongst a grid of random letters. There are clues to the words written below the wordfind to assist the students.