Chapter 6

Holding the Reins and

Letting Them Loose –

Giving Students Practice

In This Chapter

▶ Practising new vocabulary

▶ Introducing production activities

▶ Mastering the art of giving instructions

▶ Grouping students

▶ Organising practice and production activities

M

ost teachers plan EFL lessons in three stages – Presentation, Practice

and Production. How to handle the first stage is the focus of Chapter

5. In this chapter, I tell you about the differences between the Practice and
   Presentation stages and offer suggestions for activities.

Experts generally agree that people learn languages by listening before speak-

ing. In a similar way, the class hears what you have to say and they begin to

own the piece of language themselves.

Practising New Words

The second stage of the lesson, called Practice, or more specifically, Controlled

Practice, is an important period of transition for the students. During the

Presentation stage, students are fairly passive as you explain the form and

function of the new piece of language. During the third Production stage stu-

dents have freer expression. During the practice stage, they repeat what they

learned in a controlled situation before moving into the more active Production

stage. This means that you set the students an exercise with entirely predictable

answers and these answers are rather repetitious because they’re designed

to practise the new piece of language several times over. So in this part of the