152 Part III: Teaching Skills Classes
The text is incomplete so that the students can extend the dialogue themselves.
Comprehension questions for this text may include:
✓ Where does Alejandro think En is from? Is he right?
✓ Do En and Alejandro speak the same language?
✓ Is En a teacher?
Notice that good comprehension questions prove that students have got the
sense of the text.
Students can now work in pairs to extend the dialogue by completing Fabio’s
words and the response given by the En and Alejandro. The class then com-
pares its results.
If you intend the students to read aloud and role-play, it’s best if you and a
strong student perform the dialogue in front of the class first so that everyone
can hear it. Lower-level students will enjoy practising short dialogues in pairs
or small groups, swapping roles each time.
Reading Case Study
I prepared this lesson to help a class with their reading skills. It’s very easy to
update and personalise, so do try it.
✓ Class Profile: 10 adult Italian students in Italy. 90-minute evening class.
✓ Level: Intermediate.
✓ Materials: TV schedule for one evening in English. Extra board pens.
✓ Problems: Pronunciation errors (pronouncing each letter). Drilling
needed as students are daunted by the idea of reading long texts in
English; focus on scanning.
✓ Lesson aims: To practise scanning in a reading text; to revise and
increase vocabulary connected with TV programmes.
The sections of the lesson proceed as follows:
- Warm-up (6 minutes): Show pictures of characters from famous TV
shows, made in English-speaking countries, shown around the world
(The Simpsons, Friends, and so on). When students recognise one or
two, divide the class into teams and hold a quiz to find out how many
characters they can identify.
