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Humanising Language Teaching
Year 1; Issue 3; May1999

Lesson outlines

LESSON 1: NEGOTIATE TERRITORY, REMOVE CHAIRS

by Robert Feather, Pilgrims

Level: N/A
Time: N/A
Purpose:

To stimulate communication between students.
Preparation:

Turn the chairs of 2 out of every 3 students to the wall so that only one can sit. This might be done during the break so as to give the element of surprise.

Lesson outline:

This exercise came to me one morning when I felt that on the previous day the group had begun to fragment, with each person only addressing questions to me, using me as a dictionary instead of engaging in interaction with each other. I felt I needed to do something as physical as possible to derail the rather "armchair" attitude the students had got into and that I had been unable to deflect.

  1. When students come in, tell them that as only one has a seat, it is up to the others to negotiate about who should get the chair.

    Perhaps the one whose chair remains will naturally take the role of the one who has a good to sell which is in demand and the others will try to outbid each other.

  2. Let it run - The negotiation ends when ideas on how to persuade the chair holder have been exhausted, when the chair holder makes a decision to accept one offer, or when there is a deadlock.

  3. Debrief - Get students to write a list of the arguments they used then to give feedback on which argument worked best and why.

Rationale:

I used this as a warm-up introduction to negotiations before any of the specific language had been practised.

The power of the exercise may derive from the fact that

  1. there is a disruption of the normal structure of the physical environment

  2. it is symbolically a dispute about territory

  3. at least 2 members of each group are standing, which may break the normal seated student mode


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LESSON 2: FIRST PERSON PLURAL

by John Morgan, author of Once Upon a Time, CUP

Level: Elementary to advanced
Time: 30-40 minutes
Purpose:

Grammar Practice.
Preparation:

Copy a a First Person Plural questionnaire per student.

Lesson outline:

  1. Explain that you will dictate the questionnaire sentence by sentence.

    After writing down each question the students write their answers BUT they give a WE, not an I answer, so that instead of thinking of themselves individually, they think of the grouping they belong or belonged to.

    So, if the question dictated is " what sort of music do you like?" the student thinks, say, of herself and her brothers and writes " We like jazz".

  2. Dictate the questions, leaving time for them to write their WE answers.

  3. Cluster the students in threes so they explain their answers to their partner. This will entail explaining who the people in the WE are.

  4. Give out the questionnaires so the students can correct any spelling errors

FIRST PERSON PLURAL Questionnaire

  1. What sort of music do you like?
  2. Which year were you born in?
  3. What languages do you speak?
  4. How much TV do you watch?
  5. What games did you play when you were nine?
  6. What subjects were you good at when you were thirteen?
  7. What did you feel about your primary school?
  8. Are you good at swimming?
  9. Which is your favourite place to shop?
  10. Where did you go on holiday last year?
  11. How often do you go to church?
  12. Have you ever been ill?
  13. How much alcohol do you drink a week?
  14. Who do you most admire?

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