Language through movement

Primary, secondary, adult
Penelope Williams et

These four exercises are among the first steps in a new resource book linking movement and language that Penelope Williams and a Pilgrims colleague are preparing.
Some of you may read the exercises and say " Yes, great with primary age kids". These writers partly disagree with you. They maintain that movement is vital with mid-teenagers and that evening classes with crumblies can also benefit from movement.

For a rich store of sensitive exercises embodying movement, see Teaching Myself, Bernard Dufeu, OUP, 94. The fact that crude books like Rinvolucri's Grammar Games have sold like wildfire and that a brilliant book like Dufeu's has been passed by unnoticed by many is a wry comment on the lack of discernment in our professional community, all six million of us EFL teachers!
Teaching Myself was originally Sur les chemins d'une pedagogie de l'etre, and also exists in Gallego, Italian and German.

Handling' Stories

Language Focus:
Past tense/s, register and colloquial expressions For some learners it could be useful to explain that story tellers can use present tenses to relate things that happened in the past to give immediacy.

Time: 30 - 45 mins

Level: pre-intermediate - advanced

Preparation:
Make students aware of how gesture tends to precede the spoken word. It's possible to illustrate this with three versions of a simple example like: "Oh! How terrible!" (shock+ appropriate gesture, like hands thrown up in horror):
- gesture first
- gesture simultaneously
- gesture afterwards

Students can then make their own evaluations. Another useful example would be to remind them of a well-known comedian or raconteur (possibly with the aid of a video). (Optional) slips of paper with suggested situations (See below for variations)

1. Students form pairs. (In some cultures it may be important that these are same sex pairs)

2. Explain that each pair will work on a story and tell that story, except that one will tell it with words and the other will provide the gestures

3. Briefly demonstrate how this will function:

- Student A stands, hands clasped loosely behind his/her back, in front of student B facing in the same direction.
- Student B, standing directly behind student A, passes his hands through A's arms and in so doing moves his hands such that to the onlooker from the front B's hands/arms become A's, the rest of B is mostly obscured.
- Together the pair will recount a brief story or incident. B will do any hand gestures appropriate to the content of the story whilst A will tell the story
- There is one rule. A must take his/her cue from B. The gesture will come first and the words will follow. (Point out that this may need some practice! But that the aim of the activity is not that A tells a story to which B hurriedly does a mime. The impact and panache of the activity comes from following this well known acting rule previously stated: gesture precedes spoken word)

4. Either hand each pair a slip of paper with a situation on it or allow them to choose their own situation or story. They will then work on their gestures plus story. They are free to choose which person is the 'hands' and which the raconteur

5. Give them 10 -15 minutes to prepare a 1-2minute story. This story can be as simple as : "Yesterday I was in the kitchen and, hands opened in expansive gesture) well, as you do, I was (hands begin chopping vegetables) chopping carrots (hands continue to chop and when finished) and then I (hands reach out and take some thing) took some onions and (again hands chop) I chopped them and (hand reaches into pocket for a tissue and makes as if to wipe eyes or nose)….
6. Students tell their stories to the rest of the class

Comments:
Preparation should leave room for spontaneity. It is only important that the speaker shares the necessary action vocabulary

Variations:
This can be a very creative exercise and give students a chance to use favourite idiomatic expressions. It can be extended varying the context

Possible situational titles:
Going to the zoo
My routine in the morning
Preparing and serving a meal
Buying a new car
First day in a new class
A lawyer explaining a client's case
Reporting a lost cheque at a Government Office
Explaining what daddy/mummy does at work to a child.

Jump the Line

Language focus: Getting students to correct their own grammar mistakes

Time: 15-30 minutes

Level: All

Materials: None

Preparation:
From your students' written work pull out 12 to 18 mistakes
Do not correct their texts.
Rewrite half the mistaken bits of language correctly. Leave the other half uncorrected.
Take a very long piece of string to class.

1. Clear an open space in your classroom or take the students to an open space. Lay the string down in the centre of the space like this: ( diagram)

2.Ask the students to stand facing you, in a line, standing on the string. Tell them that you will read them utterances from their homework. Some will be correct and some incorrect.
Tell them they are to listen carefully, take their time and then jump to their right if they think the sentence is correct and to their left if they think the language is wrong.

Read the first utterance. They jump. If the utterance was right, tell them so. If it was wrong tell them and tell them what it should be.

Do this with each utterance.

3.Give back their texts and ask them to correct them.

Variation
Prepare a list of pairs like tap/faucet, pavement/sidewalk, hood/bonnet.
The students jump one way if they think the word read out is UK English and the other way if they think it is a US term.

Acknowledgement :
Anne Sofie Pedersen, from Denmark, writing in HUMANISING LANGUAGE TEACHING, old.hltmag.co.uk September 2001 uses this activity framework with young beginners. If the teacher says a number, the students jump one way, if she says a letter of the alphabet, they jump the other way.

Mirror and Shadow the Teacher

Language focus : the grammar you decide to include in the particular scene

Time: 10-15 minutes

Level: All

Materials: None

Preparation:
Use the texts below, create your own, or even better, ask the students to create scenes they want you to lead.

1. Furniture away. The group stands in a circle and you do too.
Tell the class you want them to imitate all your movements and facial gestures.
Tell them to repeat exactly what you say but to try and repeat right behind you, not more than a syllable or two behind.

2.Working slowly do the first action or give them the first line of your text
Loudly and clearly (see below). Be entirely in your action and forget about the students. The more you are part of the story you are enacting the better the students' language production will be; sometimes it is surprisingly good
.
3. Lead them through the scene twice more.

4. Get a student to the board to reconstruct, with the group's help, the text of the scene. Each person now copies it into their notebook.

Text 1

Create a car-door handle by miming trying to get it open
Sigh
Search in all your pockets
Sigh angrily and shrug your shoulders. Show frustration on your face

Bloody hell! Breathe out loudly. Bloody hell.
……………………………………. My keys, where are they?
My car-keys? Where d' I put'em? Where are they?

Put you hand to the side of your face and show that you are thinking.

Ah…..mmmmmmm, yes………… Look up to a first floor window.

( quietly) Rosemary…………. ( louder) Rosemary…………………. ( much louder with cupped hands)

Rooosemary!
Listen! My keys……………. The keys to the car……………….yes, my keys, where are they? Where the hell are they.

PAUSE: hand to ear as if you are listening…………….. Where are they? ……. Maybe in the livingroom……………………………………. No? Not there? Try the loo. ……………………………… mime listening.
Not in the loo?………….. Try the kitchen! PAUSE mime listening……..

Ah, you found 'em!. ( catching the keys she throws from the window) Thanks Rosemary

Text 2

You look intently at the rose you can see near you, inside the circle

Your face changes and shows wonderment and pleasure

Sharp intake of breath…………. Breathe out in a an "Oooooh"

How beautiful you are……..
How marvellous…………. How pretty you are…….
You are beautiful
You are really beautiful…..
That red!
That deep, dark red……….

You move forward and smell the rose from a little distance

You smell so good
What scent……..What a heavenly smell ………..
How lovely you are…..
What perfume…..

You kneel down and make as if to pick the flower….

May I?
Eh?…….
What? You don't want me to?
Really? You really don't?
What a pity!…. What a shame!

You move gently backwards from the flower…..

Ok!
I have to go.
Bye for now! Bye-bye!
See you later!
( this text is modified from P 93-4 of TEACHING
MYSELF, Dufeu, Oxford, 94)

Text 3

You are a little girl skipping - you skip and skip and skip -you speak in a high voice

You make the " tinkle tinkle Tonkle " sound of an ice cream van-

Ice-cream! Ice-cream…………….. The ice-cream man.

Looking up: Dad, can I have an ice-cream? Please Dad. Can I have an ice-cream?…………… Daaaad, just a small one………….

You look up making clear you are listening to what Dad is saying

Why not Dad? Oh, please Dad……………….. Why not? Why not?

( under your breath) Then I'll go and ask Mum……………..
You run on the spot for a bit…………you get a bit out of breath Make ice-cream van noise again.'

Mum, Mum, can I have an ice-cream…………… Please Mum Oh please Mum. Dad said I'm allowed………..
< PAUSE

You hold out hand taking the coins

Thanks Mum………………….. you run off, running on the spot……..

Acknowledgement: We learnt this group mirroring exercise from Bernard Dufeu, author of Teaching Myself, OUP 1994

Obedience or Disobedience: a new Simon says

Language focus:
Third person singular, present tense, imperative, use of personal pronoun with parts of the body

Time: 10-15 minutes

Level: Beginner elementary

Materials: None

Preparation: None

1. Explain to the students that when you give a direct order they are to disobey you
When you say 'Simon says do………….' they are to carry out the action
When you say ' Jill says do……………' they are to carry out the action fast
When you say ' O'Grady says do……' they are to do the action slowly

Also explain that anybody who does the wrong thing is out of the game and has to sit down.

2. Here are some ready-made directions for you to use:

Stand up!
Simon says stand up!
Sit down again!
Jill says sit down!
O'Grady says stand up!
Touch your nose!
O'Grady says touch your nose!
Simon says hands down!
Jill says lick your lips!
Simon says stop licking your lips!
Simon says pat your stomach five times!
O'Grady says pat your stomach ten times with your other hand!
Touch your toes!
Jill says touch your toes!
0'Grady says touch your toes!
Touch your neighbour's toes!
O'Grady says scratch your head!
Jill says stop scratching your head!
Put your finger in your mouth!
Simon says put your left finger in your left ear!
Take it out!
Jill says take it out!
Simon says sit down again

Acknowledgement:
This adaptation of the Simon says game came up in the creative atmosphere of a Volkshochschule EFL teacher workshop in Stuttgart.

Please check the Methodology & Language for Primary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Creative Methodology For The Classroom course at Pilgrims website.