Freer practice
Controlled practice activities develop students’ accuracy. Less controlled activities work on their fluency. To improve fluency,
whether oral or written, students need to have the chance to activate their language through activities and tasks that
encourage them to use a wide range of English as naturally as possible. Here are a few ideas:
• Role plays
• Discussions - on subjects of interest to the class. Let the students suggest topics from current news stories
or their own interests and hobbies.
• Writing activities, such as keeping a diary or writing letters and postcards.
• Projects and tasks - a class newspaper for example.
All of these require a lot of different language. With careful preparation though, the teacher can choose or adapt even such
freer exercises to include use of the target language of the day.
Here’s an example of a role play that we could use in our lesson:
One good way to get students to use the language you have taught them is to perform a role play, for example, a job
interview. In this kind of activity the teacher is responsible for clearly setting up the situation. You should divide the
class into two. One half of the class will be the candidates for the new job, the other half will be the bosses of the
company. You should give the students time to prepare for the interview. The candidates should think about their
character, their employment history. How long have they had their previous job? How long ha ve they been looking for a
new job? What are their skills? What are their interests? Meanwhile, the bosses prepare demanding questions with
which to interview the candidates. Obviously some will be, ‘How long have you had your previous job?’, the rest you
leave up to the students’ imagination. Once the students are ready, you should put them together in pairs. One boss
and one candidate and then allow the interview to proceed. It’s best to set a short time limit on the activity and you
may encourage the students to use the target language, in this case, ‘for’ and ‘since’. However, this isn’t strictly
necessary as you really want to see what language the students can use in that situation. With younger students who
may be not so used to the world of work, try to make the jobs as imaginative as possible - perhaps an astronaut,
perhaps a sailor or perhaps a supermodel, whatever you think might catch your students’ interest. That’s the important
part of role play.
Gareth Rees - Leson Plan, Programme 5
The activity needs to be very carefully explained and set up because for most of the time the students will be working
without the teacher’s direct guidance. It is the students who will be writing and asking questions, it is the students who will
be creating their own real or imagined life histories for the interview, it is the students who will be practising their English,
not the teacher!
Some teachers may feel that in activities such as this, they do not have control over the students and what they are saying.
Perhaps they’ll make a lot of mistakes which won’t be corrected. This is certainly true, but it is not something to worry
about. In fact, it’s the main reason for doing this kind of exercise. If students are only given controlled activities, then all we
can know is how well they can use language in a controlled way. Most authentic language use is far from controlled!
During activities such as role plays, the teacher’s job is to monitor the class and activity. If possible, the teacher should
move around the room and listen to the students. Unless asked for help, it’s better for the teacher not to interrupt students
during the activity. If there are particular errors that are being made, then the teacher can make a note of them and give
feedback at the end of the activity.
Here is another practical example of a less controlled practice activity:
An interesting freer practice activity to encourage students to use ‘for’ and ‘since’ and to practise writing skills at the
same time is to get students to put together a mini-biography of one of their classmates. Divide the students into pairs
or alternatively, let them choose their partner. Give them time during the lesson - perhaps 15 minutes - to prepare at
least 10 questions about their partner's life. You don't need to tell them to use the target language - present perfect
with ‘for’ and ‘since’ - because you want to see if the students use the language in a situation where it occurs naturally.
As they prepare the questions, walk round and encourage them to use their imagination to find out new facts about
their friends. When the questions are ready, the students can interview each other and make a note of the answers. For
homework, they write up all the information they've found out. You could even read out a mini-biography of yourself at
the beginning of the class or before they do their homework to give the students an example. All the mini-biographies
can be collected together and made into a kind of class book for everyone to read. Writing a mini-biography of a
family member or neighbour can be fun too. The questions can be prepared in class and the interviewing and writing
done for homework. This activity is particularly productive and works especially well with children who love finding out
about their friends and family.
Boo Tumber - Lesson Plan, Programme 5
After a less-controlled activity, it is usually a good idea to provide some feedback. This could take the form of simple praise
and encouragement, it may include getting some of the more confident students to ‘perform’ their role plays in front of the
class, for example, or it could involve looking at some of the serious language errors made by students.
Controlled practice activities develop students’ accuracy. Less controlled activities work on their fluency. To improve fluency,
whether oral or written, students need to have the chance to activate their language through activities and tasks that
encourage them to use a wide range of English as naturally as possible. Here are a few ideas:
• Role plays
• Discussions - on subjects of interest to the class. Let the students suggest topics from current news stories
or their own interests and hobbies.
• Writing activities, such as keeping a diary or writing letters and postcards.
• Projects and tasks - a class newspaper for example.
All of these require a lot of different language. With careful preparation though, the teacher can choose or adapt even such
freer exercises to include use of the target language of the day.
Here’s an example of a role play that we could use in our lesson:
One good way to get students to use the language you have taught them is to perform a role play, for example, a job
interview. In this kind of activity the teacher is responsible for clearly setting up the situation. You should divide the
class into two. One half of the class will be the candidates for the new job, the other half will be the bosses of the
company. You should give the students time to prepare for the interview. The candidates should think about their
character, their employment history. How long have they had their previous job? How long ha ve they been looking for a
new job? What are their skills? What are their interests? Meanwhile, the bosses prepare demanding questions with
which to interview the candidates. Obviously some will be, ‘How long have you had your previous job?’, the rest you
leave up to the students’ imagination. Once the students are ready, you should put them together in pairs. One boss
and one candidate and then allow the interview to proceed. It’s best to set a short time limit on the activity and you
may encourage the students to use the target language, in this case, ‘for’ and ‘since’. However, this isn’t strictly
necessary as you really want to see what language the students can use in that situation. With younger students who
may be not so used to the world of work, try to make the jobs as imaginative as possible - perhaps an astronaut,
perhaps a sailor or perhaps a supermodel, whatever you think might catch your students’ interest. That’s the important
part of role play.
Gareth Rees - Leson Plan, Programme 5
The activity needs to be very carefully explained and set up because for most of the time the students will be working
without the teacher’s direct guidance. It is the students who will be writing and asking questions, it is the students who will
be creating their own real or imagined life histories for the interview, it is the students who will be practising their English,
not the teacher!
Some teachers may feel that in activities such as this, they do not have control over the students and what they are saying.
Perhaps they’ll make a lot of mistakes which won’t be corrected. This is certainly true, but it is not something to worry
about. In fact, it’s the main reason for doing this kind of exercise. If students are only given controlled activities, then all we
can know is how well they can use language in a controlled way. Most authentic language use is far from controlled!
During activities such as role plays, the teacher’s job is to monitor the class and activity. If possible, the teacher should
move around the room and listen to the students. Unless asked for help, it’s better for the teacher not to interrupt students
during the activity. If there are particular errors that are being made, then the teacher can make a note of them and give
feedback at the end of the activity.
Here is another practical example of a less controlled practice activity:
An interesting freer practice activity to encourage students to use ‘for’ and ‘since’ and to practise writing skills at the
same time is to get students to put together a mini-biography of one of their classmates. Divide the students into pairs
or alternatively, let them choose their partner. Give them time during the lesson - perhaps 15 minutes - to prepare at
least 10 questions about their partner's life. You don't need to tell them to use the target language - present perfect
with ‘for’ and ‘since’ - because you want to see if the students use the language in a situation where it occurs naturally.
As they prepare the questions, walk round and encourage them to use their imagination to find out new facts about
their friends. When the questions are ready, the students can interview each other and make a note of the answers. For
homework, they write up all the information they've found out. You could even read out a mini-biography of yourself at
the beginning of the class or before they do their homework to give the students an example. All the mini-biographies
can be collected together and made into a kind of class book for everyone to read. Writing a mini-biography of a
family member or neighbour can be fun too. The questions can be prepared in class and the interviewing and writing
done for homework. This activity is particularly productive and works especially well with children who love finding out
about their friends and family.
Boo Tumber - Lesson Plan, Programme 5
After a less-controlled activity, it is usually a good idea to provide some feedback. This could take the form of simple praise
and encouragement, it may include getting some of the more confident students to ‘perform’ their role plays in front of the
class, for example, or it could involve looking at some of the serious language errors made by students.
إرسال تعليق