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Humanising Language Teaching
Year 6; Issue 1; January 2004
Back Drawing
Primary, secondary and adult
MS PA N.L.P.
Time: 5 minutes
Level: Beginners or young learners
Material: None
Focus: Vocabulary learning, vocabulary through the kinaesthetic
modality
Preparation:
Decide on the group of words to teach. E.g. words associated with the weather. For each word, find a movement that corresponds to the meaning of the word and which can be made using the fingers and hands on another person's back. We will use the example of words connected to the weather here.
| A shower | Gentle pressure of the fingers on the back |
| Rain | Increase the pressure and the intensity slightly |
| A downpour | Move the fingertips over the back rapidly and more intensely |
| Wind | Flatten both hands and move them back and forth across the back. Use the voice to make the sound of wind blowing. |
| Tornado | Put both hands together and move them in a circular motion around the back |
| Thunder | Make fists with the two hands and gently beat them against the back. |
| Lightening | Take the forefinger of one hand and make a large zigzag down the centre of the back. |
| Snow | With the tips of the fingers very lightly press on the back. |
| Fog | Spread both hands and cover the back. |
Procedure:
Model for the class how to draw the weather forecast on someone's back. Practise this a few times until they understand what the words mean by the movements they can see you making on someone's back.
Ask students to work in pairs with one person standing in front of the other.
Using their fingers and hands, students follow the commands that you give. For example, “There is a light shower this morning. Now its raining. It's raining harder and harder. There's going to be a downpour…”
Finally ask pairs to create their own weather forecast using their backs as drawing boards.
Variation:
Back drawing can be used to teach a number of vocabulary groups. Examples are: prepositions (a scene in the mountains), verbs (making a pizza), or teaching ' have got' (drawing funny faces on each others back).
Comments:
Back drawing is especially effective for students who learn in a strong kinaesthetic modality. We borrow from the idea of Total Physical Response (Dr. James Asher), but instead of using an action for a stimulus, the sense of touch is used.
Check out if in the culture you are teaching in it's all right for students of the same or different genders to touch each other.
