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Humanising Language Teaching
Year 3; Issue 1; January 2001


Contrastive Grammar Recognition

Type of class: monolingual
Teacher: good knowledge of students' mother tongue
Level: post-beginner to elementary ( because of example material- the exercise is all levels.
Purpose: To help students become aware of the very different way English works, when compared to their language.

  • Translate the text below.
    Make copies of the English and the MT translation.
  • Give out both versions to each student. Ask them to underline or highlight in the MT translation all the equivalencies with the capitalised parts of the English version , eg:

    He DOES NOT (1) love me ----- No(1) me quiere ( in Spanish)

    - Ask them to work in 4's and compare their underlinings. Ask them to be ready to ask you questions about any equivalencies they don't understand.

    - Answer their questions and maybe focus their minds on one bit of the grammar explored.

    Contrastive Grammar Recognition text

    A: And as you REMEMBER (1) his words, how DO (2) you feel?

    B: I just see myself AS (3) a failure.

    A: When DO YOU FEEL (4) really sexy?

    B: I know I'm sexy. I can see THAT (5) men want me. I just DON'T (6)enjoy it.

    A: WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER (7) most about sex with your husband.

    B: The little sparky things ON THE (8) ceiling. I just waitED (9) for it to be over.

    A: What kind of SEXUAL ( l0) preferences DO YOU (11) have?

    B: The lights out; it HAS TO BE (12) dark.

    ( Solutions, L. Cameron Bandler, Real People Press, l985)

    Note: This is a very powerful reading comprehension technique because the cognitive task absorbs the conscious attention while the rest of the student's attention is on acquiring gobbets of language.
    This technique is one you can add to your repertoire of ways you treat course book dialogues or reading texts.

    Acknowledgement: This is an idea we learnt from Peter Wilberg's Interlingual Trainer (customised courseware). Wilberg's package is a natural screen companion to this book.


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