Polina Polina

Digital natives/immigrants
Advanced C1 level

Description

A text-based approach with integrated exam practice (multiple choice, CAE), language focus and a follow-up discussion. The lesson can be taught one-to-one or in a group.

Materials

Main Aims

  • To provide gist and detailed reading practice with some deduction and understanding inference activities.

Subsidiary Aims

  • To get students acquainted with the multiple choice exam task and provide some practice in understanding the types of distractors in a multiple choice task.

Procedure

Warmer/Lead-in (3-5 minutes) • To set lesson context and engage students

I write on the board: digital native digital immigrant And ask students who they are. Those familiar with these concepts help to initiate the discussion and the differences.

Pre-Reading/Listening (10-12 minutes) • To prepare students for the text and make it accessible

My second question is to reflect on who the students consider themselves to be: natives or immigrants. As I teach adults of 20-27 years old, some students are not so straigtforward in their choice, which boosts the discussion further. I elicit more examples of when they started using technology, how old they were and how much do they use technology now.

While-Reading/Listening #1 (10-12 minutes) • To provide students with less challenging gist and specific information reading/listening tasks

After the discussion I set the gist task: to read the text in 4 minutes and answer the question if they feel more like the girl in the text (digital native) or her mother (digital immigrant). After the reading they exchange their opinions in pairs. WC feedback.

While-Reading/Listening #2 (14-16 minutes) • To provide students with more challenging detailed, deduction and inference reading/listening tasks

Exam type task focus. Students look at the first multiple choice question. I explain the strategy: they first read the question, ignoring the options, re-read the corresponding paraghraphs in the text to find the answer, try to answer the question with their own words or citing a passage from the text. After that they read the four options and choose the correct one. Check in pairs, whole class feedback. Extension: to ask students to look at three wrong options and explain why they are wrong. Identify the types of typical distractors (when text doesn't say anything about what stated in the option; when the option states the opposite of what is said in the text; when a distractor refers to a minor information in the text or only to a part of it).

Post-Reading/Listening (8-10 minutes) • To provide with an opportunity to respond to the text and expand on what they've learned

Students look at three questions/topics for further discussion after the text (p. 35), discuss them in pairs. I monitor and collect some points for feedback.

Evaluation, ideas for a possible change.

In my opinion, this text and tasks from the coursebook fit almost ideally to this type of lesson, namely text-based approach: the topic is very engaging and generates interest, there are at least two types of subskills that are practiced (gist and specific information), it is easy to almost everyone to personalise the language and relate to their own experience at the discussion stage. What could be done differently? The text allows me as a teacher to change the focus of the lesson from exam practice and work with distractors, which might take a substantial time and thus shorten the discussion stage and exclude vocabulary work. If the context of teaching is not exam preparation, this stage can be removed, and vocabulary focus might follow after the multiple choice. Students notice some interesting vocab items, work out their meaning from context or refer to a dictionary, I ask them questions to personalise these items and facilitate further discussion. For example, "attention span of an insect": Who might have it? Have you ever heard people saying it? Do you think it has become a problem recently?

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