Chapter 6: Holding the Reins and Letting Them Loose – Giving Students Practice 95
Interviews
Very often students interview each other on particular topics. So in a lesson
on vocabulary for clothing try setting tasks like this:Ask your partner about the newest item in her wardrobe. Find out why,
where and when she bought it. Ask her whether it matches anything else.Getting dramatic in groups
You can have great fun with freer group activities.Doing drama and improvisation
I’ve met many a trained actor working in TEFL as a day job so it’s no wonder
that drama has established itself as a Production activity. Drama has real
advantages in the language classroom:✓ You repeat the same dialogue many times. This is very reassuring for
students as they get better each time and this helps them build up their
confidence.
✓ The context for the language is very strong because a story is involved.
✓ You can record and play back the piece for analysis and self correction if
you have the equipment.
✓ Drama tends to teach language and culture together.
A short extract lasting five or six minutes is sufficient and it’s interesting for
the students if you can show a film clip of the same scene afterwards.In real life, language is generally spontaneous so you can mimic this by using
improvisation.Give students a card with a secret role on it. Perhaps it’s a hospital situation
and each person has a complaint that influences what they say. Or maybe it’s
a quirky dinner party with a string of guests who need to get their own secret
words into the conversation. The students can all work out what the others
are up to.Retelling the story
Paraphrasing, summarising and even embellishing are everyday skills, so
asking students to tell each other about something they’ve read, watched or
experienced is a valuable activity. For example, have partners read separate