More tested lessons, suggestions, tips and techniques

which have all worked for ETp readers. Try them out
for yourself – and then send us your own contribution.
Don’t forget to include your postal address.

All the contributors to It Works in Practice in

this issue of ETp are teachers at the British
Council in Egypt. We would very much like
to thank Nick Baguley for coordinating a
second spread of great activities from them.
They will each receive a copy of ETpedia,
by John Hughes, published by Pavilion. Ayat, Rose, Nadya, Ann, Ahmed, Nick, Omar, Rob and Monzer

Simultaneous dictation Mobile phone magic

Many students find reading in class not as interesting as they expect. Here are a few ideas to encourage your
Here’s an activity to bring a text to life in a fun and engaging way. students to use the recording function on
Make two versions of a reading text (A and B) with different words missing their mobile phones.
from each. Having set the context for the text, give half the class Version A, Ask the students to record themselves
and ask them to guess the words that are missing and write them in the speaking at the beginning of their course
spaces provided. Give the other half of the class Version B, and ask them to do and then at the end, so they can notice
the same. In pairs, each A student then works with a B student, revealing the improvements.
answers by reading out the text simultaneously. The students can give each Give the students ‘can do’ statements, such as
other clues to try to elicit the correct missing words and work on spelling ‘I can use the simple past to talk about my last
together. All the students then answer some comprehension questions based holiday’ or ‘I can read a newspaper article and
on the reading text. understand the main ideas’. They record these
Ahmed El Baghal on their mobiles at the start of the course and
then listen back after a couple of lessons and
comment on what’s been achieved.
Meet the teacher!
Ask the students to upload short
1 Put up to eight numbered photos of yourself around the classroom.
personalised talks onto a platform like Padlet
These should show you at different stages of your life, in various locations
(www.padlet.com). They can then listen to
if possible.
each other’s talks and ask questions, or
2 Ask the students, in pairs, to walk around the classroom and put the assess them through ‘can do’ statements.
photos in chronological order. At this point, you can feed in language
If you are teaching speaking skills for an
for making deductions.
exam such as IELTS or FCE, ask the students
3 Tell the students that they should think of one question that they’d like to record themselves doing a ‘mock’ speaking
to ask you about each photo. test. They can then play these back in class
4 In a whole-class feedback session, exploit the differences the students and comment on criteria such as accurate
have about the order of the photos, and encourage them to guess the use of grammar/lexis, fluency and task
answers to their questions, before revealing the truth. You can also use achievement. The students can also
this stage to feed in more useful language. transcribe parts of the ‘mock’ test to
analyse aspects of pronunciation, such as
5 Finally, ask the students which piece of information about you surprised
connected speech.
them the most.
Nick Baguley Rob Sharples

38 • Issue 98 May 2015 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 60-second speaking Is it a bird? Is it a plane?
This is a quick, fun, fluency activity that can be used at all I use this activity as a warmer or stirrer, but you can also
levels and requires no preparation. give it a grammar focus.
1 Put the students into pairs and ask one student in each pair I go to the whiteboard and hover my pen, as if deliberating,
to talk for 60 seconds on a given topic. The topics should be before drawing a big scribble. The students are often a bit
graded to suit the level of the class. perplexed but amused! I then lead the class in speculating
2 The student’s partner makes a note of the number of times what they can see in the scribble. For example, in the one
the student speaking hesitates and repeats an idea. You shown here, I can
could give them a worksheet to record these examples. see an elephant,
3 Get the students to change roles, assign a different topic
maybe a cat. Then I
ask all the students
and repeat the process.
to make a scribble
4 Ask the students to give each other feedback, using their
in their notebooks.
notes for reference.
Ann Fyfe They can either
show a partner or
mingle and
The coloured list ‘interpret’ each
This activity helps my students memorise any words they have other’s scribbles.
found difficult and also teaches them how to use these words To give this a
correctly in sentences. grammar focus, you
I write around 30 words which we have covered during the course can feed in some
on the board, using a different colour for each part of speech: language for speculation, wondering and expressing
red for adjectives, green for nouns, blue for verbs and black for uncertainty, eg I think it’s a cat, Maybe there’s a flower,
adverbs. I also write the words in a mixture of sizes. The words I It could be an elephant, I wonder what that is, I’m not sure.
want the students to remember most are written in the smallest This activity never fails to liven the mood in class. It appeals
letters, but still clearly visible to all the students, even those to the students’ visual intelligences, requires no preparation,
sitting at the back. I have found that students make more effort materials or photocopying, and it is very student-centred.
to focus on words written in small letters, and the smaller the Peter Broomfield
letters, the greater the chance that they will remember the word.
I tell them that they will have only one minute to look carefully
at the words and memorise them before I hide them. After one Collocation challenge
minute, I cover the words and tell them to start writing as many 1 Prepare two different sets of cards with up to eight
as they can remember. I circulate, checking how many words collocations on each. You’ll need two copies of each set.
each student has written, and then repeat the process of Cut them up so that the words in each collocation are on
showing the words and hiding them again, perhaps twice more, different cards, and shuffle them within their sets.
for 30 seconds each time. This really raises the level of
2 Put the students into four groups and give each group a
competition as the students strive to complete the list.
set of collocations to match.
The students then work in pairs or small groups to help each
3 Check the answers with the whole class.
other with any missing words, before I show them the list again
4 Combine the four groups to form two larger groups.
so they can check their spelling. After that, I ask them to guess
what part of speech each colour represents and to say if any of (Note: the combined groups must have previously worked
the words could have two colours, eg a word used both as a verb on the same set of collocations.)
and a noun. 5 Ask each group to use their collocations to make a story.

Finally, I ask them to use these words in sentences of their own, Monitor and provide support if needed.
adding any extra words, such as articles or prepositions, that 6 Tell each group to write their story on the board, but with
they need. The student who manages to use the highest number some of the words from the collocations removed to make
of words from the list in accurately-structured sentences is a cloze test. The groups then challenge each other to fill
declared the winner. in the gaps to complete the story.
Omnia Kaddal Hala Ahmed

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 98 May 2015 • 39