86 Part II: Putting Your Lesson Together
lesson you aim to get the students concentrating on the new words or grammar
without them showing off everything else they know. The students take their first
tentative steps at using the words to test whether they can get it right.
Some of the many benefits of the Practice activities include:
✓ They help the students to focus on accuracy. This doesn’t mean that
the activities should be dry, meaningless exercises like the old days of
Latin lessons. It’s very important that you challenge students with an
activity that can only be completed if they really understand how the
piece of language works. You should be able to predict the the students’
responses, though. In these exercises the answers are predictable
because there’s only one correct way to complete the sentences. In the
following examples the only possible answers are have, has and/or the
past participle form of the verb given.
An example of a bad practice activity first:
Complete these sentences in the Present Perfect
Example: I... (have) seen that movie.
They... visited the zoo.
You... read that book.
We... eaten there.
Students can simply take a guess and write ‘have’ in every gap. Here’s an
improvement:
Complete these sentences in the Present Perfect, using the verb in
parentheses.
Example: I... have seen... that movie. (to see)
They... the zoo. (to visit)
She... that book. (to read)
We... there. (to eat)
Notice that students have to apply the grammar rule more vigorously to
come up with ‘has’ for the third person she.
✓ These exercises force attention on the new piece of language through
frequent repetition. Students can fix their attention on the new point
without being distracted by too many other rules they’ve learned.
At the same time, by repeating the new language, students form new
habits in the brain.
✓ This type of exercise allows students to come to a gradual recognition
of the new language in a safe way. That is to say, the students feel very
supported.
