Topics Situations Notions Functions
Topics Situations Notions Functions
Topics Situations Notions Functions
Question 2 Look through the techniques suggested in Box 7.1. Are there any you
would not use? Can you add more?
– Write the name of the topic in the middle of the board and invite the class to
brainstorm all the associated words they can think of.
– Write the name of the topic in the middle of the board and ask the class
what they know about it and/or what they would like to know.
– Describe a communicative situation and characters and invite the class to
suggest orally what the characters will say.
– Give the title of a text and invite the class to write down sentences or
expressions they expect will occur within it.
– Define briefly the opening event and characters in a communicative situation
and ask the class to imagine what will happen next.
– Present a recorded dialogue and ask the class to tell you where they think it
is taking place and who the characters are.
– Present a text and ask for an appropriate title.
– Express your own, or someone else’s, opinions about a topic and invite
discussion.
– Teach a selection of words and expressions and ask the class what they think
the situation or topic is.
Task Peer-teaching
Choose one of the following topics or situations: the first two are
appropriate for a relatively young, elementary class, the next two for an
older, more advanced one.
36
1. School
2. Two children discussing their favourite lessons
3. Education
4. A teachers’ meeting about a problem student
In small groups, plan how you would introduce your chosen item to your
class, perhaps utilizing some of the ideas in Box 7.1; then one
representative actually presents it to the rest of the full group. Continue
until each small group has ‘taught’ its topic.
Then discuss the presentations: how interesting were they? How well do
you think the learners would have understood the material?
Task Have a look at the items listed in Box 7.2. Can you sort them into separate
lists of notions and functions? And can you then suggest which of the
functions would be likely to be ‘binary’, i.e. followed or preceded by a
complementary further function?
37
A: Can I help?
B: Oh yes, please, I don’t know what to do . . .
A: What’s the matter?
B: He doesn’t understand what I’m telling him!
A: Would you like me to explain?
B: Please do!
(adapted from Alan Maley and Alan Duff, Variations on a Theme,
Cambridge University Press, 1978, p. 46)
Stage 2: Discussion
Discuss the following questions.
38
1. How did you feel doing this activity? Do you have any particular
comments, positive or negative, as teacher or learners?
2. The objective of the task was to produce and use language growing out
of topics and notions connected with parts of the body, clothes and
accessories and of situations and functions connected with describing
and explaining. Did the task in fact achieve this objective?
3. Was this language noted down – or could it have been – by the teacher
or students and used as a basis for further practice?
4. What would you suggest doing next in order to engage further with the
target language functions, notions, etc.?
5. Do you feel the need for a prepared written or spoken text? If so, what
sort of text might you use? Would you prefer to use it before the task or
after?
39
40