Using The Learners As Resources

STUDENTS

HOW CAN WE USE THIS RESOURCE EFFECTIVELY?

04/08/23Free PowerPoint Template from

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RESEARCH: Getting to know your students.

STRUCTURE AND LEXIS: Employ their experiences to illustrate lexical or structural points.

SKILLS: Providers of input for listening and discussion.

A PROBLEM? Students are irresponsive or unwilling to take part



Adrian Tennant Tips for incorporating ideas from students in

your lessons:

Thestudent test An object feast The question box Back to the board Chain words Who am I?



Scott Thornbury Tips and ideas for structuring lessons and

making activities link together: Sequence 1:

The teacher dictates or writes up some jumbled sentences, e.g. film/last/was/”Lord of the Rings”/saw/I/the – students then have to order the words into sentences (The last film I saw was “Lord of the Rings”).

They then transform the sentences into questions (What was the last film you saw?).

In pairs or groups of three, they ask each other the questions and report the answers to the class.



Sequence 2:

The teacher dictates some sentences (e.g. 1. did you like it? 2. what was the last film you saw? etc.).

Students then order the sentences into a dialogue.

Students practise reading the dialogue aloud in pairs.

They then have a similar dialogue with another student, but one that is true for them.



Sequence 3:

The teacher reads out some questions, e.g. Where were you born? When did you start school?; and students individually write the answers that are true for themselves (NOT the questions).

The students then work in pairs to reconstruct the questions from memory, and then ask each other (and the teacher)

Students report their answers to the class and/or write a short text about the person they have been talking to.



Scott Thornbury Tips and ideas for using the immediate

environment in lessons:

Guess what? My bag’s things Detective work Total physical response Lost property Classroom: true or false What’s different?



Spelling beeDescriptions

Aquí irían sus sugerencias



Today was our last day of term (in New Zealand) and I had asked my students to interview each other and write newspaper-like articles about the most memorable moments from the term in class (they were collated and put into a class news sheet as a reminder of our term together). Well, what interesting reading. A surprise to me was that the activities outside our classroom window were some of the most memorable things all term (our class is on the 2nd floor overlooking the intersection on a busy street). Like the three-car accident and the dramas that followed; or the ambulance that would go past everyday at around morning tea time (not always in a hurry), which we were sure was going to collect donuts from the bakery; or the car that always parked in the same place, until it got a ticket; or the farmers protest march about a proposed government tax. A great number of the activities outside the classroom resulted in speculation and discussion inside the classroom.

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www.groups.yahoo.com/group/dogme

www.onestopenglish.com

www.bbcenglish.com

www.oup.com/elt/naturalenglish



WAYS OF TAPPING INTO THIS RESOURCE: ADVANTAGES

Tailoring your course (familiar or safe topics) Illustrating lexical or structural points thru personalization Making our classroom a real place Presenting / introducing vocabulary Making our classes more memorable, alive and fresh Getting them involved physically Learner-generated rather than teacher-generated language As providers of materials on a skills level Yourself as the first “victim”

DRAWBACKS AND LIMITATIONS

Lack of experiences to refer to Caution on sensitiveness Unresponsive or unwilling students Controversial topics may cause offense Sts’ production can be quite unpredictable Not everything that a learner comes up

with will be of interest to other learners

“Teaching would be great it it wasn’t for

the students”

What causes a student to be

unresponsive or unwilling in class?

Technology

Using The Learners As Resources