Samira Namakdoost Tehrani Samira Namakdoost Tehrani

Teaching Practice 2
Intermediate level

Description

In this lesson, students learn about vocabularies related to the structure “It’s + adjectives + verb patterns or a question word”, practice giving opinions using the structure. First students learn the vocabularies in ex 1 and then complete the sentences using those adjectives. They then proceed to produce the structure by drilling. They practice using the structure in ex 2 as an unjumbling task. As the next stage, the learners discuss the statements in ex 2b in pairs to practice verb patterns. Finally practice phrases for expressing opinions, talking about communication and developing fluency via using worksheet 2B.

Materials

Main Aims

  • To provide clarification/review and practice of verb patterns (v-ing vs 'to infinitive') with adjectives to express opinions in the context of communication.

Subsidiary Aims

  • Speaking

Procedure

Warmer/Lead-in (5-7 minutes) • To set lesson context and engage students

- I show the picture of 'tiring'. - I elicit the word by asking the following questions: * Is this man happy? (no) * Is he sad? (yes) * Why is he sad? (Maybe he is tired). * What is tiring to you? (Ss' own answers). - I show the picture of 'difficult'. - I elicit the word by asking the following questions: * Can you answer the question on the right? (yes) * Can you answer the question on the left? (no) * Which one is easy? (The question on the right). * Which one difficult? (The question on the left). - I draw a line on the board - I sign the word 'good' near the end of the line on top. - I ask Ss to sign the words 'bad, terrible and amazing' on the line - As a result, 'amazing' goes to the end of the line on top - I show the picture of 'amazing'. - I elicit the word by asking the following questions: * What is this scene like to you? (amazing) - I show the picture of 'being on call'. - I elicit the word by asking the following questions: * What is he doing? (He is on call). - I show the picture of 'relax'. - I elicit the word by asking the following questions: * What is he doing? (He is relaxing). - I show the picture of 'the buzz of work'. - I elicit the word by asking the following questions: * Imagine, you're away for a few days. Do you miss the buzz of work? (Ss' own answers).

Language Focus Analysis (8-10 minutes) • To clarify the meaning, form and pronunciation of the main aim

- I give Ss the pictures of 'tiring, difficult, amazing'. - I give Ss the pictures of 'being on call, relax, miss the buzz of work'. - I get Ss to work with their partner. - All pairs match each adjective with one of the words or phrases based on the information they heard in the listening task in the previous lesson. * Therefore, 'tiring' goes with 'being on call', 'difficult' goes with 'relax' and 'amazing' goes with 'miss the buzz of work'. - To check the answers, I ask a student to come to the board to put the related pictures on it near each other. * I ask Ss to put the pictures near each other on the left side of the board so that I can write the sentences later next to them. - I make a sentence with the words 'tiring and being on call' : "It's tiring being on call all the time". - I repeat the sentence several times. - I get Ss to repeat the sentence after me several times. - I act as if I am tired and get Ss to do so and repeat the sentence. - I change my volume and I get Ss to do so to keep the repetition lively. - After some repetition, I shift to the next pair of pictures. - I make a sentence with the words 'difficult and relax' : "It's difficult to relax, sometimes". - I repeat the sentence several times. - I get Ss to repeat the sentence after me several times. - I change my volume and I get Ss to do so to keep the repetition lively. - After some repetition, I shift to the next pair of pictures. - I make a sentence with the words 'amazing and miss the buzz of work' : "It's amazing how much I miss the buzz of work". - I repeat the sentence several times. - I get Ss to repeat the sentence after me several times. - I act as if I am really amazed and get Ss to do so and repeat the sentence. - I change my volume and I get Ss to do so to keep the repetition lively. - I write the sentences related to each pair of pictures on the board. - I clarify the form of the structures using the following rules: * It's + adjective + -ing form * It's + adjective + infinitive * It's + adjective + question word - I explain that in sentences like these, the -ing form and infinitive usually have the same meaning. - To work on pronunciation, I explain that the adjective, the verb patterns following the adjective and the question word are the stressed words in this structure. - I will draw bold dots above the stressed words to make Ss notice in a better way. - I repeat some sentences again focusing on stressed words. - I get Ss to repeat the sentence after me several times to practice the pronunciation.

Task (8-10 minutes) • To provide an opportunity to practice target productive skills

- I jumble the pictures on the board. - I get Ss to work in pairs. - I get Ss to make as many sentences as they can using the adjectives, words and phrases that they had in the previous stage. - I ask the students to write down some of their sentences. - As drilling, I write 'It's' on the board. I put a dash after it and then -ing form, infinitive and question word. - I ask some Ss to read their sentences aloud and I point to the structure on the board. - If the sentences are OK, I get Ss to repeat that after their classmate. - I use my fingers, I point to each and repeat the first sentence again: It's tiring being on call all the time. - I get Ss to repeat the sentence after me. - Then, I change the adjectives or verbs or the question words. - Ss have to make a sentence with the new ones. * It's tiring being on call all the time. (repetition) * ((great)): It's great being on call all the time. * ((terrible)): It's terrible being on call all the time. * ((studying)): It's terrible studying all the time. * It's difficult to relax, sometimes. (repetition) * ((easy)): It's easy to relax, sometimes. * ((necessary)): It's necessary to relax, sometimes. * ((visit your parents)): It's necessary to visit your parents, sometimes. * It's amazing how much I miss the buzz of work. (repetition) * ((unbelievable)): It's unbelievable how much I miss the buzz of work. * ((what he's just said)): It's unbelievable what he's just said. * ((confusing)): It's confusing what he's just said. - In drilling, I change the volume or tone of my voice to keep it lively.

Control Practicing (6-8 minutes) • To provide an opportunity for students to work on the target language structures

- As the first stage, I rearrange the groups. - I get Ss to stand up. - I ask Ss to find a person who is wearing the same color shirt, T-shirt, dress or top as another student. - I make sure that all Ss have found a new partner. - Then, I put every 4 Ss who are sitting near each other in a group. - I get Ss to sit in circles around the classroom so that they can see their group mates easier. - I give a pack of jumbled cards to each group. - While learners have got their cards with themselves I explain the instructions. - I clarify what to do in this task via modelling. - I show a set of cards and explain that the words are mixed. - I put the cards in the correct order to make a correct sentence. - I say the sentence myself a couple of times. * It's better to talk to people face to face. - Then, I get Ss to repeat this sentence a couple of times. - After making sure that all Ss know what to do, I warn that doing the task is a kind of game. - Therefore, whenever a group finishes sooner, the people in that group win the game. - After having the race to unjumble the sentences I will get Ss to stand up and join the other groups and help them. - If Ss in a group have done finished earlier, I get them stand up and join the other groups and help them find the answers for unscrambling task. - I drill 2-3 sentences on the board and get Ss to repeat them after me.

Language Practice (8-10 minutes) • To provide students with practice of the task language

- I rearrange the groups again. - I get 2 people in each group to stand up and find another group to work with. - I get Ss to work in groups of four with one set of cut-up cards per group. - Ss leave the cards face down on the desk: Opinion cards in one pile, topic cards in another. - I do an example with the whole class. - I ask Ss to deal out the Opinion cards equally among the group. - Next, one learner per group picks a Topic card and leaves it face up on the desk for the whole group to see. - Ask this learner to read the Topic card and one of their Opinion cards out to the class. - I tell Ss that they have to form a sentence on the topic using the phrase on the Opinion card. - I encourage Ss to use the TL (to express their opinions) while discussing. * For example, if the learner turns over 'using instant messaging' and chooses 'It's such a ... ', they could say "Instant messaging is great - it's easy sending messages by instant massaging or it's amazing to send messages freely. - The next learner has to use one of their Opinion cards to make another sentence, e.g. "Yes, but the problem is sometimes people you know send you messages or try to call you". - They continue until all the learners in the group have expressed an opinion on the topic. - When Ss have finished with a topic, they shuffle the Opinion cards and deal them out again. - They choose another Topic card and repeat the process. - I explain that they don't have to actually 'have' the opinion they express in their sentence. This point is to keep it as quick and fluent as they can. They can't repeat another learner's opinion, although of course, the Opinion cards will be repeated. This continues until all the Topic cards have been used up. - As feedback, I ask 1 student from each group to retell the class any interesting opinions they found out about a person in their group. - As monitoring, while Ss are discussing their opinions, I try hard to monitor learners writing down some of their common errors. - I write some Ss' common errors at the end of the task on the board. - I get Ss to correct them aloud.

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