Unit 2: English in the classroom

Transcription

1 Secondary English TESSI-SE Tess-India Teacher Development UnitsContents Unit 2: English in the classroom 1

2

3 Introduction... 1 Learning outcomes Using English in the classroom Speaking as a whole class Speaking in pairs and groups Summary What next? Resources Resource 1: Classroom language Resource 2: Managing pair and groupwork Resource 3: Develop your own English Resource 4: Further reading Related units References Acknowledgements Except for third party materials and otherwise stated, the content of this unit is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence: 2

4 Introduction Being able to understand and speak English well is a skill that will benefit students in life outside and beyond school. It will help them to: access higher education, and will be necessary for studies or research abroad possibly get a better job in India, or to work abroad access technology be confident when communicating with people from other countries and carry out international business access English media, music and films. By improving their English speaking and listening skills, students will also learn to read and write English better, and improve their grammar and vocabulary. English is an associate official language in India, and it is likely that your students will sometimes see and hear some English around them (see TDU 1, English around us). However, in some areas, they may listen to very little or no English in their local environment, and will have few or no opportunities to speak English. Many students attend local language medium schools, and in some cases the home language is used in English classes too. This is a shame, as the English class may be the only place where many children have the chance to hear English. It makes sense for teachers to get them listening to and speaking English as much as possible in their English classes. Pause for thought Now think about your English classes. How much English do students listen to in your English class? How much English do they speak in your English class? In most English classes, students do not listen to or speak much English. They may listen to the teacher, or perhaps other students reading texts aloud, or reciting a poem, but maybe not much more. It is important for students to practise listening to and speaking in English, as well as reading and writing it. It is important for students to learn to read and write English, but it is also important for students to understand spoken English, and to be able to speak it. In this unit, you will learn some techniques to help you create opportunities for students to listen to and speak more English in your classroom. These techniques are possible in all kinds of schools, including local language 1

5 medium schools. If you use these techniques in your classroom, your students will be able to understand and speak English better, and this may benefit them in both their school studies and future lives. Learning outcomes After studying this unit, you should be able to: use more English in your English classes get your students to speak more English as a whole group use pair and groupwork in the classroom. 1 Using English in the classroom In most English classes, students listen to other languages Hindi, for example much more than they listen to English. But it is a good idea for students to listen to more English in the classroom, because: it may be the only place where they listen to English it will help everyone to develop confidence in listening to English, a skill that will benefit their lives. The easiest way for students to listen to more English in the classroom is if the teacher speaks more English. This does not mean that the home language is not used, as there are many occasions when it is useful to use the home language in the English class. In this part of the unit, you will explore how a teacher can increase the amount of spoken English in the classroom. You will read a case study about a teacher who wants to use more English in English classes, and then do an activity that will help you to use more English in your classes. Case Study 1: Mrs Jhadav uses more English in her English class I have been teaching English for a number of years. A few months ago, a visitor from overseas came to my school and I had some problems understanding the visitor when he spoke in English. I felt a little embarrassed, and realised that I needed to improve my listening skills. I also started to think about my students and realised that they don t listen to much English in my classes, and might have problems understanding spoken English in the future. I tended to speak in Hindi, and the only English that my students heard was when I read aloud from the textbook or the board. I decided that I would speak more English in my English classes, but I wasn t sure how to do it and, to be honest, I was worried. I was worried about making mistakes in English, and I was worried that my pronunciation wasn t very 2

6 good. I was also worried that my students wouldn t understand me because they were not used to listening to English. I spoke to my sister-in-law, who is also an English teacher. She told me about a colleague at her school who uses quite a lot of English in the classroom. Description Image of a teacher saying Oh, let me tell you about Mr Kumar at school. He uses English to do all sorts of things: give instructions, praise the students, even sometimes to explain things from the book. He doesn t worry too much about making mistakes or his pronunciation he thinks it is much more important for students to listen to English so that they get used to it. I decided to try using more English in my English classes. I was a little hesitant at first, so I practised some questions the kind of questions I often ask in Hindi, for example: Can you read the next line? and What does this mean? Then I started to use them with my students. I was surprised at how quickly they got used to it. At first I had to repeat the questions a number of times, but now they understand. Now I use even more English in the classroom, and I am getting more confident about it. I still worry a little about making mistakes and about my pronunciation, but my students don t seem to notice. Then sometimes I have problems with vocabulary, and I can t think of a word I want to use in English. When that happens, I just use Hindi, and make a note. After class, I look the word up in the dictionary. So it s helping me to improve my English too! I felt very proud last week when one of my students asked me in English: What does this word mean? 3

7 Description Image of a teacher with four speech bubbles. 1. Can you read the next line, please? 2. What does hamper mean? Can anybody tell me? 3. That s correct! Well done! 4. A hamper is a kind of basket. You put food in it and take it on a picnic. Activity 1: Try in the classroom: classroom language In the case study, the teacher tried to use English as much as possible in her English class. You can also use more English in your teaching. Here are some classroom situations where you could use English. Do you already use English for any of these situations? Read the list and write down your answer for each question: Do you greet your students and say goodbye in English? Do you give instructions in English? Do you ask questions in English? Do you use any English when explaining grammar rules (for example, to compare structures)? Do you explain new words in English? Do you explain a passage or a poem from the textbook in English? Do you give feedback (for example, telling your students whether they are right or wrong) in English? Do you use English to correct your students? Do you use English to praise your students? Do you use English to manage classroom administration (for example, taking the attendance)? Do you talk to your students socially in English? Compare your answers to those of a colleague. Choose one of the situations where you don t use English, and try to use it in your classroom the next time you are teaching. If you don t feel confident, write down some phrases and practise them, or read and practise the phrases from Resource 1. Once you feel confident, try using English for another of the classroom situations. 4

8 Here are some tips: Don t worry too much about making mistakes your students probably won t notice. Don t worry too much about your pronunciation it is more important for students to listen to English. You can practise pronunciation of certain words and sounds if you are concerned. If you are not very confident, write down some phrases and practise them. You will find some useful phrases in Resource 1. You will find more useful phrases in many of the TESS-India units. If your students don t understand something at first, don t translate it immediately. Repeat the phrase and give your students some time to work out what you are saying. Encourage your students to use phrases in English too. You could teach them orally or write the phrases in English on posters around the room. Alternatively, you could introduce an English wall, where you and your students write new phrases as they are introduced. Remember that your classes don t need to be entirely in English. Of course, you can use other languages too just set yourself the target of using more English each month. Don t give up! Keep using English in your classroom. 2 Speaking as a whole class You have learned that it is important for teachers to speak in English as much as they can so that students have more opportunities to listen to English. As well as listening to English, students need opportunities to practise speaking in English: Speaking English could be a very useful skill for their future lives, and they need to practise speaking English in order to develop this skill. Speaking activities can help students to develop other areas of English, such as reading and writing. Speaking activities can be enjoyable parts of a lesson, making students feel that they are learning something, and can help make them feel positive about English as a school subject. 5

9 Description Photo of children in class. In many English classes, students don t speak much English. They may read passages or poems from the textbook aloud, or they may recite poems or something that they have written. These are all useful activities and help them with pronunciation and to develop confidence in speaking English. However, they need much more speaking practice in order to become confident English speakers. In the rest of this unit, you will learn two simple ways teachers can get their students to speak more English in the classroom. You will see how a teacher gets his whole class to speak English by using choral repetition (students repeating as a whole class or in large groups). After the case study, there is an activity that you can try in the classroom with your students. Case Study 2: Mr Balasubramanium does choral repetition in his English class I enjoy teaching English, and I m always trying to improve my teaching methods. I just read an article about the need for young people to be able to speak English in today s world. I thought about my own classroom, and realised that my students don t usually speak much English in my English classes. I thought about the last lesson that I did with my Class VII students: 6

10 Description Image of a teacher saying A few of my students gave some answers, and one or two read some lines from the poem but most of my students used no English at all. What can I do? I wanted to change this I wanted my students to speak more English in class. In the article that I read, I saw something about choral repetition, which means the whole class or groups of students repeating something in English. I thought that I might try this and decided that it would work well with the poem that I was about to teach from Chapter 1 of the NCERT Class VI textbook Honeysuckle: A House, A Home by Lorraine M. Halli What is a house? It s brick and stone And wood that s hard. Some window glass And perhaps a yard. It s eaves and chimneys And tile floors And stucco and roof And lots of doors. What is a home? It s loving and family And doing for others. It s brothers and sisters And fathers and mothers. It s unselfish acts And kindly sharing And showing your loved ones You re always caring. 7

11 Before the class, I practised saying the poem out loud so that I felt confident reading it, and so that I could read it with rhythm. In the class, I read one or two lines of the poem aloud, with rhythm, and asked students to repeat them after me. Then I divided my class into two halves. I told one half of the class to read the first verse aloud: What is a house? I told the other half of the class to read the second verse aloud: What is a home? At first the students didn t say the lines together, so I stopped them and asked them to do it again. This time I used my hands to signal when students should start a new line I felt like I was conducting an orchestra! I also walked around the classroom, and looked around to make sure that all of the students were joining in. I encouraged any students that were not participating. Description Image of a conductor. The students enjoyed saying the poem with rhythm and they became quite competitive. Each group wanted to say their poem better than the other one! I believe that this will help them to remember it better. When my students finished saying the poem, I taught the poem as I usually do. I know that this is a simple activity to do, but it gave every student the opportunity to speak some English in that class. Activity 2: Try in the classroom: choral repetition In the case study, the teacher used choral repetition with a poem from a Class VII textbook. Some of the benefits of choral repetition are that it: gives all students a chance to speak English helps students become more confident with speaking English, especially shyer students who can speak along with other students helps students to improve pronunciation (sounds and rhythm). It is a very simple activity to do in the classroom and works well with short passages such as dialogues and poetry, and texts with rhythm. You can do 8

12 the activity with any class, and you can use many different texts or parts of texts. Follow the steps below and try using choral repetition in your classroom. 1. Look through the next part of the textbook that you are going to teach. 2. Choose a short text, or part of a text, that you can use for choral repetition (for example, a poem or dialogue). 3. Practise saying the text before the class. Say it with as much rhythm as possible, and until you feel confident. 4. In class, read the text (or some of the text) aloud to your students. Read line by line (or two lines at a time) and ask your students to repeat. 5. When you have read the text, divide the class into large groups. 6. Give each group a different part of the text to read (or point to different groups as you read). 7. If students don t speak together, stop the activity and start again. You can use signals to keep everybody in time. 8. Walk around the room and make sure that everyone is participating. Here are some tips for using choral repetition in the classroom: Use short texts (poems and dialogues are ideal). Read complete lines, or sections, of the text for students to repeat. Make sure it is more than single words so that the class can practise speaking with rhythm. Don t ask students to repeat the same thing too many times or they will get bored. Two or three times is probably enough. Use signals to keep students speaking together. Divide the class into groups groups can say different parts of a dialogue, or different lines of a poem. Ask students to repeat in different ways: slowly, quickly, loudly, quietly, in a sad way and so on. This is particularly effective with younger students. Vary who you ask to repeat. Try switching between the whole class, smaller groups and even individuals. Try to include all of your students. Don t interrupt students when they are repeating, even if they make a mistake. Let them finish the line or section. You can deal with pronunciation mistakes later. Practise saying the text before the class. If you would like to improve your own pronunciation, see Resource 3 for some useful tips and links. Include choral repetition along with other kinds of speaking activities (see TDUs 3, Getting your students to speak English, and 9, Speaking to communicate). Remember that this activity can be just a short part of your usual class, such as when you are teaching a new text. It does not need to take up a whole class. This can be a fun activity, but could become dull if applied to every text. 9

13 Pause for thought Having tried the previous activity with your students, think about the following questions: Did you feel confident reading the poem or passage aloud in class? If not, what can you do to become more confident at reading aloud? Did all of your students join in? If not, how can you encourage them all to join in next time? How can you vary this activity to keep it interesting for your class? 3 Speaking in pairs and groups So far in this unit, you have learned about the importance of increasing the number of opportunities for your students to listen to and speak English in the classroom. When teachers have large classes, it can be difficult to give all the students the chance to speak. In Case Study 2, you read about one way that teachers can do this by getting students to repeat together as a whole class or in large groups (also known as choral repetition). Another way that teachers can give all the students of a large class the chance to speak is by organising them into pairs or small groups. For example, once students have repeated the lines of a dialogue or a poem back to the teacher as a whole class, the teacher could put the students into pairs, who could read the lines of the dialogue or poem to each other. Note that pair and groupwork does not mean asking pairs and groups to work in turns. It means pairs and groups working simultaneously, so that in a class of 40 students, there are 20 pairs reading the lines of a dialogue or a poem at the same time: 10

14 Description A photo of two students. One asks What is a house? and the other replies It s brick and stone, and wood that s hard. In this part of the unit, you will explore how teachers can use pair and groupwork to encourage students to speak and listen to more English in class. You will: do an activity related to some of the questions teachers have about pair and groupwork read a case study about a teacher who has started to use pair and groupwork to create opportunities for her students to speak more English in the classroom watch a video which shows a teacher using pair work conclude with an activity that you can try in your classroom. Activity 3: Pair and groupwork Description Photo of a classroom. Some teachers worry about using pair and groupwork in the classroom. Figure 1 shows some questions that one teacher had about using pair and groupwork. Read the questions and think about some answers that you could give. If it is possible, do this activity with a colleague. Now write down your own ideas. 11

15 Figure 1 Questions that one teacher had about using pair and groupwork. Description Image of five speech bubbles. 1. It s not possible to move the tables and benches in my classroom. How will I organise my students into pairs and groups? 2. How will my students know what to do? 3. What if my students make mistakes? 4. What if my students make a lot of noise? Won t other teachers complain? 5. My students are all working at different levels. How can they do pair or group work? Now look at another teacher s answers (Figure 2). Has this teacher made the same suggestions as you? 12

16 Figure 2 Another teacher s answers. Description Image of five speech bubbles. 1. Why not ask your students to work with the students next to them? Or one row of students could turn around on their benches to work with the students behind them. You could even move your students each month so that they work with different members of the class each month. Is there space outside the classroom? Students could move to an empty room, or sit outside in a shady area. 2. You will need to make sure that students understand what they need to do before they start working in pairs or groups. Give simple and clear instructions, and check that students have understood them (for example, you could ask a student to say what they have to do in their home language). You should also walk around the room to 13

17 check that students understand, and are doing what you asked. 3. Well, students might make mistakes as they work in pairs or groups, but we can t worry too much. Remember the trainer said that students need to practise speaking in English, and that they learn from their mistakes. 4. Let s talk to the headteacher and other teachers. We can show them the information we got at the session. Perhaps we should only do pair or groupwork for short periods of time, and we could consider doing it at the end of a lesson for example. 5. You re right. Large classes have children of different abilities, and sometimes children don t want to work with a classmate of a different ability. Make sure that you vary who works together in pairs and groups as much as you can. Also, make sure that everyone has something to do in groupwork. Perhaps one child can come up with good ideas, while another child is better at writing them in English. Yet another might be good at illustrating the piece of work. Tell your class about the benefits of pair and groupwork and how they can help each other. Case Study 3: Ms Dutta does pair dictation in her English class I recently attended a training session about teaching English to secondary school students. The session was about the importance of giving students the opportunity to speak in English, and I learned about using pair and groupwork. I teach Class IX, and we are working through Chapter 6 of the NCERT textbook Beehive. We have reached page 78, which has the following dictation: To Sir, with Love 1. From Rameswaram to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, it s been a long journey. Talking to Nona Walia on the eve of Teacher s Day, President Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam talks about life s toughest lessons learnt and his mission being a teacher to the Indian youth. A proper education would help nurture a sense of dignity and self-respect among our youth, says President Kalam. There s still a child in him though, and he s still curious about learning new things. Life s a mission for President Kalam. 2. Nonetheless, he remembers his first lesson in life and how it changed his destiny. I was studying in Standard V, and must have been all of 10. My teacher, Sri Sivasubramania Iyer, was telling us how birds fly. He drew a diagram of a bird on the blackboard, depicting the wings, tail and the body with the head and then explained how birds soar to the sky. At the end of the class, I said I didn t understand. Then he asked the other students if they had understood, but nobody had understood how birds fly, he recalls. 3. That evening, the entire class was taken to Rameswarm shore, the President continues. My teacher showed us seabirds. We saw marvellous formations of them flying and how their wings flapped. Then my teacher asked us, Where is the birds engine and how is it 14

18 powered? I knew then that birds are powered by their own life and motivation. I understood all about birds dynamics. This was real teaching a theoretical lesson coupled with a live practical example. Sri Siva Subramania Iyer was a great teacher. That day, my future was decided. My destiny was changed. I knew my future had to be about flight and flight systems. I decided that instead of reading the dictation to my students, they could do the dictation in pairs this way, all of them would get the chance to speak some English. I told my class that they were going to work in pairs, and told them to make pairs with the person next to them. There were some students left over at the end of some benches, who made groups of three instead of pairs. Then I gave the students instructions for the activity and wrote them on the board [Figure 3]. Figure 3 Instructions for the activity. Description A board reading as follows: Student A: Close your text book. Write down what your partner reads. Do not look at the text book! Student B: Read out the first three lines of the text To Sir, with love (on p.78). Read slowly, and repeat each line twice. 15

19 When you have finished, exchange roles! I checked that everyone understood the instructions, then asked the pairs (or groups of three) to decide who was Student A and who was Student B. (Groups of three had two students with the same letter.) I gave them a minute to decide before asking the Student As to raise their hands, and then Student Bs to raise their hands to check that everyone was clear about who was Student A and who was Student B. Next, I told my students that they had ten minutes for the pair dictation. As they did the activity, I walked around the classroom, listening and checking that everyone understood what they needed to do. Some of them made mistakes with pronunciation, but they were enjoying the activity and working well. I made a note of the most common pronunciation mistakes and decided that I could correct these mistakes with the whole class after the activity. I kept an eye on the time, and told students to finish after ten minutes. Some of them had not quite finished reading, but I knew that everyone had had a chance to dictate some sentences. I knew that the students now needed to check what they had written. It was not possible for me to check all of their work, so I asked them to check and correct it themselves by comparing it to the passage in the textbook. Description Photo of students in class. The activity went well on the whole, and I am going to use more pair work in my classes. I think that the more I use it, the more students will get used to it, and they will be able to get into pairs and groups quickly. This is also an easy activity to use with any text and any level. 16

20 Activity 4: Video: Pair and groupwork Description Photo of students in class. Now watch the video below about a teacher using pair work in the English classroom. If you are unable to watch the video, it shows a teacher using English to give instructions and to organise an activity. The activity involves students dictating short passages to each other in pairs. You may also find it useful to read the video s transcript. Please note that the video will be available in early As you watch, think about the following questions: How much English does the teacher use in the classroom? How much English do students speak? How does the teacher make sure that everyone understands what they need to do? What does the teacher do when the students are doing the dictation? How do students correct their mistakes at the end of the activity? 17

21 Discussion Description Photo of a student writing an answer. The teacher gives as many instructions as possible in English, and all students have a chance to speak in English. The teacher gives very clear instructions before students do the activity. She constantly checks the instructions, for example, by asking all students who are A to raise their hands; checking that students are looking at the right paragraph and so on. She also checks that students understand what they need to do by walking around the classroom during the activity. At the end of the activity, students compare their work with the textbook and they correct it. In this part of the unit, you have learned about some of the benefits and challenges of using pair and groupwork in the classroom, and you have watched a teacher using it in an English class. One other benefit of using pair and groupwork is that it can help teachers manage classes with students of mixed abilities. Teachers can put students of different abilities together so that higher ability students teach and support lower level students. You can read an example of this (it is number 18 on the page) by STiR Education in its pilot programme in Delhi. Activity 5: Try in the classroom: pair dictation You could try pair dictation like the teacher in the case study and the video. Follow these steps: 1. Before the class, find a short text that your students could use for dictation. The text can be from any textbook. 2. Tell them that they are going to work in pairs and make sure they get into pairs quickly. Check that everyone is in a pair or in a group of three if there is an odd number of students in the class. 3. Give students instructions for the pair dictation, and use English if you can. You could write the instructions on the board. Check that they understand the instructions (for example, by asking students to repeat them in their home language). 18

22 4. Give a time limit for the activity. 5. Walk around the room as students work: check they understand, help where necessary, or make notes of common pronunciation errors, for example. 6. After the time limit, tell students to stop working. 7. Tell students to check their work with the textbook. Here are some tips for using pair and groupwork: Make sure that students understand what they need to do before they work in pairs or groups. If you think it will aid their understanding, you can demonstrate the activity with the whole class first, or get some of them to practise the activity in front of the whole class. Give clear, simple instructions and make sure that students understand them. You can write the instructions on the board like the teacher in Case Study 2, or you can ask them to translate the instructions. If you have an odd number of students, the extra student can make a group of three. If you have room, you can mix the groups or pairs. If you don t have a lot of room, why not change your students around every month so that they work with different people from time to time? It can be good for people of different abilities to work together. If you have plenty of outside space, students could work in pairs and groups outside. When students are working in pairs or groups, make sure that you walk around the room to check that they are doing the activity, like the teacher does in the case study. If you have a large class, you will not be able to listen to every pair. Just listen to as many as you can, and listen to different students each time you do pair or groupwork. Don t worry too much about mistakes you can make notes if you like. If you like, you can use a simple routine to get students to work in pairs or groups, so that they quickly understand what they need to do. You can find some useful phrases for pair and groupwork in Resource 2. Students may not understand what they need to do at first, so you should tell them about the advantages of pair and groupwork. Talk with your headteacher and other teachers about what you are doing and why you are doing it. If noise is a problem, agree time limits, or go outside to do the activity if you can. You will see examples of students working in pairs and groups in many of the TESS-India videos. Watch how the teachers organise and manage pair and groupwork, and try it out as much as you can in your classes. Pause for thought After trying this activity with your students, think about the following questions: How did you give instructions for this activity? How did you check that your students understood? 19

23 How did your students work in pairs? Were there any problems? If so, what could you do to help to solve them? 4 Summary In this unit you have learned about the importance of using more English in the classroom. You have learned about how a teacher can use more English in English classes, so that students get the chance to hear more English. You have also learned about two different ways that teachers can get their students speaking more English: choral repetition and pair/groupwork. Write down three key things that you have learned in this unit. You have had the opportunity to try some techniques out in the classroom. Which techniques worked well with your students? Which activities did not work so well? What changes could you make so that they work better? Which activities will you continue to use? What next? Find examples of classroom language in Resource 1 and Resource 2. Learn how to develop your own pronunciation skills in Resource 3 and find links to further reading in Resource 4. 5 Resources Resource 1: Classroom language Here are some useful phrases for the classroom. You can add other phrases to this list. There are more useful classroom phrases available Greeting students and saying goodbye Good morning, students. Good afternoon, everyone. Are you ready to start? 20

24 Can anyone remember what we did in the last class? Put your books away. We still have five minutes left. That s all for today. We ll read the next part of the passage next lesson. Goodbye! See you tomorrow. Giving instructions Open your books at page 38. Look at the picture at the top of the page. Read the first paragraph of the text. Read the questions. Read the first verse aloud. Repeat after me. Do it again please. Discuss the questions with your partner. You have ten minutes. Okay start! Two more minutes. Okay! Time s up! Listen. Now write down what I say. Asking questions Can you read the next line, please? Are there any words that you don t understand? Which ones? What does hamper mean? Can anybody tell me? How do you pronounce this word? 21

25 How do you spell this word? Is this correct? Can you clean the board please? Can you open the window? Explaining grammar rules and new words A hamper is a kind of basket. You put food in it and take it on a picnic. Can you say it in Hindi? Tell me in Hindi. Can anyone say that in English? I ll draw it what is it? Can you mime this word? What do we do with a? What is the opposite of? Can you point to it? What do we do with a? Can you show me? Who can show me? Can you give some examples? Talking about a passage or a poem in the textbook What s the title of the passage? What does that mean? What do you think happens in this poem? Can you guess? What is this passage about? What happens next? 22

26 Who s the writer of this poem? Do you know anything about the writer? What do you know about this topic? Giving feedback Nearly right try again. Not exactly. Not quite. Can you try again? Does anybody else know? What do you think? That s correct. Well done! Correcting your students Look at these phrases on the board. There are some mistakes. What are the mistakes? What s wrong with this sentence? What s wrong with this word? Does anyone know the correct word? Can anyone write the correct sentence? Praising your students Very good! Very nice! Excellent! Well done! That s correct. 23

27 You were very quick! That was very good, say it again. You are very good at guessing. Taking attendance Let s take attendance. Who is absent today? Listen while I call your names. Talking to your students socially How are you today? Where is Masuma? Is she ill? Have you been ill? Are you okay now? Did you have a nice weekend? What did you do? Is it your birthday? Did you watch the cricket match at the weekend? Resource 2: Managing pair and groupwork Here are some useful phrases for managing pair and groupwork: We re going to divide the whole class into pairs. You are a pair. You are A, and you are B. All the As, please raise your hands. You are a group of five. 24

28 Okay, now we re going to play the game in groups. Make three groups please. Three people in each group! Can you make a group of four? Is everybody in a group? Rina, can you work with Ayesah please. Now the person next to you is your partner. Anwar, Karim and Arif, you can make a group of three. Work with your partner and ask and answer these questions. Turn your chairs around and work with Turn to the person next to you. Turn to the person behind you. Now check your answers with your partner. Now discuss in your groups. Resource 3: Develop your own English Here are some tips for improving your own pronunciation: Listen to English as much as you can, and notice how words are pronounced. Practise saying words or sounds that you find difficult. Don t practise individual sounds only. You need to practise speaking longer passages too for stress and rhythm. If it is possible, record yourself and listen to the recording. Record yourself again, correcting any mistakes that you have noticed. Don t worry about speaking English with a perfect accent. There are many different accents and types of English. What is important is that people can understand you when you speak. Click on these links to find some useful resources: Pronunciation tips (BBC Learning English, undated) Phonemic chart (TeachingEnglish, 2010) 25

29 Resource 4: Further reading Here are some links to articles and tips for teachers of English: Speaking matters: pairwork (Tennant, undated) Pairwork and groupwork (Hill, undated) 6 Related units TDU 3, Getting your students to speak English: Choral repetition and pair dictation help students to develop confidence in speaking. Learn more about how to help your students to feel more confident in this unit. TDU 8, Helping your students to listen to English: Learn more about how you can help your students to listen to English in this unit. TDU 9, Speaking to communicate. References BBC Learning English (undated) Pronunciation tips (online). Available from: (accessed 27 November 2013). Hill, D.A. (undated) Pairwork and groupwork (online), New Ideas in Language Education. Available from: (accessed 27 November 2013). National Council of Educational Research and Training (2006a) Beehive: Textbook in English for Class XI, National Council of Educational Research and Training. Available from: (accessed 31 July 2013). National Council of Educational Research and Training (2006b) Honeysuckle: Textbook in English for Class VI, National Council of Educational Research and Training. Available from: (accessed 31 July 2013). Pearson (undated) Classroom language (online). Available from: (accessed 28 November 2013). STiR Education (undated) 2012 STiR micro-innovations (online). Available from: (accessed 28 November 2013). 26

30 TeachingEnglish (2010) Phonemic chart (online), 15 December. Available from: (accessed 27 November 2013). Tennant, A. (undated) Speaking matters: pairwork (online), Onestopenglish. Available from: (accessed 27 November 2013). Acknowledgements The content of this teacher development unit was developed collaboratively and incrementally by the following educators and academics from India and The Open University (UK) who discussed various drafts, including the feedback from Indian and UK critical readers: Kim Ashmore. Except for third party materials and otherwise stated, the content of this unit is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence: The material acknowledged below is Proprietary, used under licence and not subject to any Creative Commons licensing. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following: Case Studies 1 and 2: clip art used with permission from Microsoft. Section 2: photographs (two students and class on floor) courtesy of Kim Ashmore. Case Study 2: A House, A Home by Lorraine M Halli:, from Honeysuckle: Textbook in English for Class VI (National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) (2008), New Delhi: India). Case Study 3: photographs courtesy of Kim Ashmore. Video clips and stills: Thanks are extended to the Heads and pupils in our partner schools across India who worked with The Open University in this production. Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. 27