Humanising Language Teaching
Year 4; Issue 1; January 2002
Teacher Resource Books Preview
Using the Mother Tongue
The Mother Tongue as a Resource in the Foreign Language Classroom
By Sheelagh Deller and Mario Rinvolucri
( Forthcoming with ETp Delta in late 2002 )
( these are Sheelagh exercises ) - Secondary and adult
It's on the tip of my tongue
Type of Class : monolingual, multilingual
Teacher : doesn't need to know students' mother tongue
Level : intermediate upward
Purpose : learning body expressions
- Give students the gapped list of body expressions.
- Write the following parts of the body on the board :
arm shoulder eye tongue cheek ear leg tongue thumb skin - Students fill in the gaps with the words on the board.
Key 1. to put your _____ in it foot 2. to cost an _____ and a ______ arm/leg 3. to give someone the cold ______ shoulder 4. to give someone an _____ful ear 5. to give something the _____ up thumbs 6. to turn the other ______ cheek 7. to twist someone's ______ arm 8. to be thick skinned ______ed skin 9. to turn a blind _______ eye 10. to be on the tip of your ______ tongue
- Check at class level and ask students to explain what each one means.
- Students work in small groups of shared mother tongue and write the equivalent expression in M.T., using a body word where possible. Language isolates work alone.
