Play with the Language

Each student has his/her own speed of learning. What seems difficult for one, may be trifle for another.

To avoid being bored, I suggest that my advanced pupils “play with the language” for some time. They will use the same exercises but in a different manner for their own entertainment and for the benefit of the target language.

For instance, a student may substitute a few words in a routine dialogue to let it have an opposite result. The original text reads:

Tom: Jim, are you doing anything?

Jim: Nothing much. I am listening to music.
Tom: Do you want to play something with me for a change?
Jim: How about darts?
Tom: Great!

My pupil with a sophisticated mind may convert the dialogue like this:

Tom: Jim, are you doing anything?

Jim: I’m very busy at the moment. I am playing the piano.
Tom: Oh, sorry for bothering you. I’ll call you again tomorrow, then.

This exercise may help schoolchildren enjoy the humour of funny words, recall some introductory phrases, refresh their vocabulary relating to sports, leisure time, etc.

Plan to include playing with the language in your lessons!

A Great Narrator Conquers All

None of us was born a perfect narrator. We all acquired the art of storytelling as we grew up.

The same goes for my students. A schoolchild of 11-16 finds it extremely difficult to retell an article he has just read in his student’s book. Nor is it easy for him/her to tell a few phrases about the past weekend or a cultural/sports event.

I try to make the mission easier via the 5W1H method. They say journalists invented this a century ago to facilitate reporting. In brief, a reporter should make it clear who did what, when, where, why and how:

·         Who was involved?

·         What happened?

·         Where did it take place?

·         When did it take place?

·         Why did that happen?

·         How did it happen?

(source: “Five Ws” by Wikipedia)

Rudyard Kipling even wrote a poem (“Just So Stories”, 1902) to memorize the rule:

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.

Right after reading an article, I ask my student to take a sheet of paper (or, ideally, a notebook) and fill in the simplest possible form:

Who:

What:

Where:

When:

Why:

How:

Below goes an extract similar to the ones that constitute the current school syllabus and a “reporter form” completed by one of my students.

Original

Serena Williams to make comeback in Abu Dhabi after giving birth

Serena Williams will return to tennis in Abu Dhabi next week, almost four months after giving birth.

The American, 36, will play in an exhibition match on 30 December during the World Tennis Championship.

Williams, who has won an Open-era record 23 Grand Slams, said she was "delighted to be returning to the court".

She gave birth to daughter in September.

Former world number one Williams has not played since winning the Australian Open in January.

Coach said in November that no decision had been made over whether Williams would play in the season's first Grand Slam.

Australian Open director has said Williams is "very likely" to defend her title at the 2018 tournament, which starts on 15 January.

Ranked 22nd in the world, she would not need a wildcard.

5W1H

Who: Serena Williams, US tennis player

What: will return to tennis after giving birth

Where: Abu Dhabi tournament

When: 30 December 2017

Why: Serena will be delighted to be returning to the court

How: she would not need a wildcard

The above format might lay a solid foundation for retelling the story when needed.

Let some zen into your class

As a teacher, I always search for new ways to make a lesson more exciting for my students. Quite recently, I started using cinquain, and the first experiences proved to be positive.

Cinquain /ˈsɪŋkeɪn/ is a five-line poetic form inspired by Japanese tanka. It has no rhyme but the number of syllables or words is usually fixed. Adelaide Crapsey, the American poet, introduced the form in 1915.

My pupils practice the didactic cinquain form to express the essence of a text in the most simplistic way. We count the number of words:

First line – a one-word title (a noun), the subject of the text;

Second line – a pair of adjectives describing the title;
Third line – three verbs or gerunds with more information on the action;
Forth line – a four-word phrase summarizing the story;
Fifth line – a single word expressing feelings to the subject.

Below are three real-life examples of cinquains:

My eighth-year student described a theatrical performance like this:

Musical

Beautiful, strange
Singing, dancing, playing
A deaf and numb patient falls in love
Joy

A sixth-year pupil commented on an article on math charts in the following five lines:

Graphs

Bright, useful
Count, draw, show
Numbers, lines, bars, and pies
Information

Finally, a junior secondary school student chose the cinquain form to retell a part of the Jungle Book:

Monkeys

Funny, happy
Sitting, running, playing
Mowgli never saw this
Lost City

You might try this format to brighten up your classes.

Live at Pompeii

We do not learn a foreign language to write exercises. We study it to communicate and to obtain news on the items that excite it.

For example, listen to David Gilmour, a British musician. He recalls his recent concert in the old Roman town of Pompeii.

"It's a fantastic building”, Gilmour says. “It's an extraordinary place to be because it was preserved exactly as it was. If you visit any other antiquity-type sites throughout the world, they're very damaged with what's gone on over the centuries since they were abandoned. But this one was just, like, sealed, so you're looking at rock surfaces and the carving of letters and names in the stones looks like it was done yesterday."

That was an opinion by David Gilmour. How do you feel about modern music performed in ancient theatres? Please write a comment below.

Podcast

Is it easy to tell a story?

My students who are native speakers of Russian find it difficult to express themselves in English. Therefore, I ask them to tell me about things that are the most familiar to them, like how the pupil spent the recent weekend or what he/she is planning to do at the upcoming weekend.

The student is supposed to talk for a few minutes focusing on the following:

-         Making minimum seven phrases of 5 – 10 words in each phrase;

-         Keeping all the verbs in Past Simple or Past Continuous when related to the recent events; Future Simple and Present Continuous when referring to the future activities;

-         Trying to use various verbs.

If the pupil is very young, like 8 – 11 years old, I may offer him/her a list of verbs to use. For older, more experienced students I may suggest the usage of a few introductory phrases.

I always listen until the end of the story, asking questions and correcting possible errors at the end of the task.

The focus here lies in a systematic approach: the young English speaker should know that he/she will have to create a new story every week, attempting to tell it a little differently each time. Such a timetable might make the mission easier while continuity should ensure step by step progress.