Humanising Language Teaching
Year 2; Issue 3; May 2000

* Lesson 1 * Lesson 2 * Lesson 3 * Lesson 4 *

LESSON 1 - Two Language Dictation (1)

By Sheelgah Deller and Mario Rinvolucri

This is how the text could be the other way round. In this example text we are teaching you modern Greek:

ATTACKED WITH A RAZOR

A youth of 18 chronia, who lives in Liverpool , was attacked with a razor chthes at around midnight in Bootle. The travmatismenos man, who was unable to give the onoma of the road, told police that he had been accosted by an omada of youths who tried to assault him. One of them slashed his hand- he later received treatment in Bootle nosokomio.

( the words, in order, are years / yesterday/injured/name/gang/hospital

The above is a very short illustrative extract to show you how it is easy to guess target language words when they are set in a language context you already know. It would be sensible for you to choose passage about three times this length and to offer your students about l5 to 20 words. The sensible words to choose are key words and words that get repeated in the passage.

In class:

1. Dictate the text you have prepared
2. Ask the students to work in threes, making sure they understood the target words.
3. Ask one student to put the target language words on the board in large coloured letters, with their translations into mother tongue in small black or white letters.
4. Tell the class to get ready to draw some ideas. Dictate the English words from the passage- each student makes a quick drawing for each word.

In a class l5 days later: Dictate the same passage with double the number of words in English.

In the first class:

1. Ask the students to come to the next class with a page or so of a letter they are sending home or that they have received from home, together with a translation of the text into English. Tell them to choose a text that they feel comfortable sharing with other members of the group. ( students usually bring letters from relatives or from friends back home.)

In the second class:

1. Ask the students to work in 3's and share the translations they have made of these texts.
2. Ask them to make new threes and repeat the sharing of the texts.
3. Ask if anyone would like to read the English text they have to the whole group, and then the text in their own mother tongue. Get two or three people to do this.
4. Allow some whole class feedback time, as people come out of this emotive half hour.

Acknowledgement:

You will find a version of this exercise in Letters, Burbidge, Levy, Gray and Rinvolucri.

The same book has a lot of other writing ideas.

In class:

1. Tell the students they are going to spend 30 minutes writing letters to each other across the class about whatever topics they want. Ask them to write as much of their letters as they can in English but to write the rest in their mother tongue. If they are Spanish they may produce a text like this:
   
   Dear Enrique, I am muy happy de escribir you today.
   As soon as a student finishes a letter she delivers it to its addressee. As soon as she receives a letter she answers it. Tell the students they are to call you for help as much as they want, so more of their text can be in English than in Mother tongue. Be everywhere!
   
   
2. After 20 minutes of this free, bilingual writing ask them to finish off their correspondences. Give them 3 -4 minutes to do this.
   
   
3. Ask if anyone is willing to dictate their bilingual letter to you on the board. Write it up entirely in English. Do the same with a second letter.

In the first class:

1. Ask the student to each bring three or four pictures (photos)of themselves in the past to your next class meeting.

In the second class:

1. Get the students to move around the room freely- then ask them to pair off. The pairs sit together. Ask each student to choose one of the pictures s/he has brought in and to write about half a page about it in mother tongue.
   
   
2. Tell each student to swap their text and corresponding picture with their partner. Each student now translates their partner's text into L2. Be available as a language aide wherever in the room you are needed.. **
   
   
3. The each partner has a look at the translation of their text and helps the translator where the latter has mis-rendered the writer's intention. Allow plenty of time for this author-translator dialogue. Conversation may also develop about the photos/ pictures.

Rationale: this is a major language exercise because, in the mirror of the translation, the writer can see reflected what is good or otherwise about their original composition and the translator can discover to what degree they have carried through the writer's intentions in the L2.

Varations :

1. Ask the students to write their original text in L2. The translation is then into the mother tongue. ( this is good at upper intermediate and advanced level )
   
   
2. Organise the students into 3's. Each person writes their text. Person A's text is jointly translated by B and C and they are invited to take their time over this. Person A takes B's and C's text and tries to translate them as fast as they can. ( It is best for A to work in one part of the room, while B and C work in another.) The threesomes come together and compare the three texts and the two translation processes.
   
   
3. You could use a whole slew of different stimuli for getting writing going. A simple one is to play a piece of music that the writers react to in anyway they wish. ( for ideas in this area see Musical Openings, Cranmer and Laroy , Pilgrims Longman, 1995). You could ask each person to write a letter to the current owner of of a house they once lived in. ( For some people this can be a powerful experience) For more writing starters of this sort see Letters, Burbidge et al.

Acknowledgement: we learnt this technique from John Morgan, author of Once upon a time.

** Some people in your class may want you to look over their shoulders as they first write and then translate to help them correct mistakes. There will be others who treasure their independence and do not want your hawk eye swooping on their mistake-mice.

Why not ask people to put a piece of paper on their table that either says

PLEASE CORRECT

or

HELP ME WHEN I ASK YOU.