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Humanising Language Teaching
Humanising Language Teaching
Humanising Language Teaching
AN OLD EXERCISE

Breaking the Ice with Likes and Dislikes

Zoya Kozlova, Russia

Zoya Kozlova is an English Lecturer at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. She has an MA in Applied Linguistics from Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod (Russia). She is interested in alternative assessment and specifics of teaching ESP to young adults. Email: kozlova.zoya.a@gmail.com

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Introduction
Activity outline
Procedure
Extension
Conclusions
Appendix 1 Likes/Dislikes Survey

Introduction

Ice-breaking activities are part and parcel of success in the first lesson with a new group. They are a great tool to foster collaboration and allow students to get to know each other to, consequently, eliminate the feeling of awkwardness, which the students might experience in an unfamiliar environment. This activity proved to be highly beneficial in terms of engaging all the students in interaction. Not only did they learn and remember each other’s names (as addressing the person by his/her name is crucial in the activity), but they also got a chance to start building rapport with their fellow-students by sharing some life experiences with each other.

Activity outline

Level: I have carried out the activity with adult learners with low language proficiency. It can also be done with high level language learners. This, however, might require adaptation of the action verbs used in the activity. Organization: Whole group. Students mingle with each other. Materials: Survey handout (Likes/Dislikes Survey - Appendix 1) and a watch/clock, as timing in this activity is of utmost importance. If there are no photocopying facilities available, the survey grid can be drawn on the board before the beginning of the lesson. Then the students can copy it into their notebooks. Time: 20 – 25 minutes (depending on the learners’ language proficiency and the number of learners in the group): 5 minutes (preparation time) + 15-20 minutes (implementation + feedback time)

Procedure

Stage 1 - Preparation: Assign a number to each student. As I had seven students in the group, each student was assigned a respective number from one to seven. Hand out the folded survey with only Student’s name line unfolded. It is important that for the time being students keep the papers folded as prescribed, because they might get distracted by the rest of the activity. Ask students (one at a time) to introduce themselves to the group stating their number and name (e.g., “I am Student 1. My name is Mike”). While one student is presenting him/herself the remaining students fill in the name line in the respective cell of the grid (e.g., Student 1. Name: Mike etc.). Sometimes students struggle with the spelling of names (especially names from a different culture). If that is the case, ask the presenting student to spell his/her name for the rest of the group. After all the students have introduced themselves, ask them to unfold the handouts and read the activity column. Explain to students that they will have to find out if their fellow-students like or dislike doing these activities. Tell students that for “yes” answers from their interlocutors they should circle a smiley, for “no” – the “sad” face. For low-level English language learners it may also be a sound idea to scaffold the question Do you like… by eliciting the use of gerund (the -ing form of the verb) after the verbs “like/dislike”. Ask students to obtain additional information about their fellow-students’ preferences by asking open questions (wh-questions). Elicit the questions that could be asked (e.g., Why do you like it? When was the last time you did it? Are you doing it tonight? Who do you do it with? Why have you never done it? Would you recommend doing it? If you had a chance, would you do it? etc.). Tell students to put additional information about their interlocutors in the blank cell below the smiley-sad faces cells. The extension questions can vary according to the students’ language proficiency. Writing some of the extension questions on the board proved to be advantageous to students, as it significantly facilitated communication. The ultimate goal of the activity is to have students collect as much information about each other as possible. Tell students that the one who collects the most information about their fellow-students will win. Stage 2 - Implementation: Ask students to take a pen and the handout and gather in the middle of the room. Invite them to find their first interlocutor (partner). Set the time limit (2 minutes for 1 interaction). Within this time limit students are to discuss the activities from the survey with their partners to see if they like doing these activities or not. If students have difficulty finding a person to work with, advise them to start a conversation with the person on their right. When time is up students have to change the interlocutor and ask him/her about their likes/dislikes. The time allocated to this stage of the activity is 10 minutes. That means the students can talk to 5 different people within this time frame. However, if your group is fairly big, you could allow more time for this stage. Stage 3 - Feedback: The activity is followed by an open-class discussion. Write a student’s name on the board and ask the rest of the students to share what they have found out about the person. If there is little information about some of the students, ask this student to tell the class more about his/her likes/dislikes and invite the rest of the group to ask extension questions. At the end of the open-class discussion, identify the student/students who obtained the most information about their fellow-students.

Extension

If you want to personalize the activity even more, you could ask students to fill in the activity column of the grid with their likes and dislikes to further find students in the group with similar preferences. The format of the activity could also be applicable to conducting ESP students’ needs analysis. To do this, the primary question Do you like... should be changed to Do you have to…in English. The action verbs will have to reflect ESP students’ language needs. I have previously made use of the following verbs/phrases when doing the activity with my ESP students: write emails, draw up business proposals, deliver presentations, make phone calls, negotiate etc. The questions students would ask each other were: Do you have to write emails in English? Do you have to deliver presentations in English? etc.

Conclusions

The activity appeals to both students and teachers. Students tend to be highly enthusiastic about the information gap filling task especially when there is a competition element introduced. Moreover, the likes/dislikes content reflects a real life situation, as when meeting new people we naturally start discussing each other’s hobbies. Therefore, students get to relate the target language to external reality. In regard to the teacher she/he can enjoy the opportunity of monitoring students’ interaction and spotting their strengths/weaknesses, as well as the errors made.

ActivityStudent 1
Name
____
Student 2
Name
____
Student 3
Name
____
Student 4
Name
____
Student 5
Name
____
Student 6
Name
____
Student 7
Name
____

Appendix 1 Likes/Dislikes Survey

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