Chris Posted 23 years ago
Teaching
Fluency exercise for a rainy day!
Last Friday I had a great idea for a fluency lesson that I'd like to share with any teachers out there.
I've been teaching CAE (Cambridge advanced students) for twelve weeks now and the students are in their penultimate week.
Friday afternoon is a speaking fluency lesson and instead of the usual pair work practice exams that I give my students, I decided to try a lesson I devised myself.
I ran down to the school office and picked up all the trade and telephone directories I could grab went back into the class and placed them on the table. I grouped the students into "threes" and asked them to organise a party using all the information they could find in the directories.
The language that the students used was phenomenal, all the students were keen to input their ideas and there was a lot of discussion regarding the location, guest list, lights, sound, catering even down to security, and whether the party would need an ambulance on stand-by.
I extended their task time from 15 minutes to 30 minutes and even then they were struggling to finish.
To cap off the lesson, the students presented their party and a vote was taken to see which party was most viable.
What I enjoyed was the fact that the students were organising a fictitious event in a FOREIGN country. Not only were the improving their discussion skills, they were also learning what happens in a "real life" situation and learnt a great deal about Malta too.
If anyone has tried a similar exercise, I'd love to hear about it and if anyone can suggest possible improvements, I'd love to hear them.
Chris
I've been teaching CAE (Cambridge advanced students) for twelve weeks now and the students are in their penultimate week.
Friday afternoon is a speaking fluency lesson and instead of the usual pair work practice exams that I give my students, I decided to try a lesson I devised myself.
I ran down to the school office and picked up all the trade and telephone directories I could grab went back into the class and placed them on the table. I grouped the students into "threes" and asked them to organise a party using all the information they could find in the directories.
The language that the students used was phenomenal, all the students were keen to input their ideas and there was a lot of discussion regarding the location, guest list, lights, sound, catering even down to security, and whether the party would need an ambulance on stand-by.
I extended their task time from 15 minutes to 30 minutes and even then they were struggling to finish.
To cap off the lesson, the students presented their party and a vote was taken to see which party was most viable.
What I enjoyed was the fact that the students were organising a fictitious event in a FOREIGN country. Not only were the improving their discussion skills, they were also learning what happens in a "real life" situation and learnt a great deal about Malta too.
If anyone has tried a similar exercise, I'd love to hear about it and if anyone can suggest possible improvements, I'd love to hear them.
Chris
Top answer
0 Chris I'm really impressed! it sounds like a great exercise and a really communicative one! 0-
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0 Chris I'm really impressed! it sounds like a great exercise and a really communicative one! 0-
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0 To be honest, it was a "spur of the moment" thing. Totally unplanned and experimental. Mind you it turned out well. The biggest laugh had to be for the party that was organised for Brad Pitt who is currently in our island filming the blockbuster Troy. 0-
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That's a pretty good idea, even if it were a spurof the moment thing. I will try plan the same for our Foreign students learning Spanish here in Chile.
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Chris - I wish i'd had teachers like you during French lessons, perhaps I'd know how to say more than : 'Je suis..'
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LOL! and 'Je Mappelle' of course (big spelling mistake somewhere - my frog is no good!)
If anyone does try that fluency exercise please do make sure that the office staff will not need the yellow pages etc. for the duration of the lesson!
If anyone does try that fluency exercise please do make sure that the office staff will not need the yellow pages etc. for the duration of the lesson!
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Are you still teaching? If yes, write back. I'll be happy to share some experiences. I'm a fellow Maltese by the way.
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Dear Chris:
Just let me learn something technical, please.
[I am not an English native speaker, so I would like to learn a lot
about correct and legitimate usage of the language.]
You wrote, "Friday afternoon is a speaking fluency lesson and ..."
I was wondering if this expression is, strictly speaking, a bit awkward,
because in the sentence i
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