Humanising Language Teaching
Year 3; Issue 1; January 2001
Bilingual feeling dictation
Type of class: monolingual
Teacher: Good knowledge of student's mother tongue
Level: beginner to intermediate
Purpose: to show students how something they feel right now sounds,
looks and feels to them. in English.
- Ask students to give you a single sentence in Mother tongue that expresses how they feel right at this moment. In large classes get students to write in pairs or small groups. Write up each sentence in English on the board in large letters if possible coloured, with the MT version below it in small letters.
- Get the class chorusing the sentences on the board so they get the feeling of each sentence.
- Ask them to get up and move around the room saying the sentence they like best to other people as they pass them.
For the next class give them a sheet with all the sentences in large English type face with mother tongue underneath in smaller letters.
Variation:
Ask the student to express their beginning-of-class mood in terms of the weather:
eg; I feel cloudy today
There is thunder and lightening around
Rain and sunny spells
The temperature has fallen to minus 20.
This is a marvellous way to teach weather vocabulary to low level students.
Acknowledgement: We learnt this technique for Tessa Woodward.
