The Difference That Makes the Difference - Trabajo Final de Adscripción

8/18/2019 The Difference That Makes the Difference - Trabajo Final de Adscripción

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Instituto de Enseñanza Superior

Paraná, Argentina

Trabajo final de Adscripción

The difference that makes the

difference

Profesora Adscripta: Carolina Clerici2000


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The difference that makes the difference

Carolina Clérici

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CONTENTS

- PROLOGUE 2

- INTRODUCTION 4

- PART ONE: for those who learn through their eyes 6

- Cards 7

- Charts 10

- Written posters 13

- PART TWO: for those who learn through their ears 15

- Dictation 16

- Songs 18

- Tapes 23

- PART THREE: for those who learn through their bodies 26

- Simulation 27- Games and kinesthetic activities 28

- Realia 29

- PART FOUR: for those who do not learn 31

- CONCLUSION 34

- APPENDIX 37

- BIBLIOGRAPHY 39

- AFTERTHOUGHT 40


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For those who think

There’s nothing new under

the sun

And for those who believe

There’s a lot to be done


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PROLOGUE

The present work is the result of a two-year investigation for the subject

“Metodología Especial, Observación y Prática de Ensayo”, taught by Estela Gambelín de

Gómez at the Instituto de Enseñanza Superior, in Paraná. It is meant to reflect good

management of both theory and practice, as well as the personal contribution I can make

from my short experience in teaching.

What meant the starting point of this work was a phrase I found in “In Your Hands”

by Jane Revell and Susan Norman (p.27):

I decided to cal my work The Difference that makes the Difference because this

happened to be a recurrent expression all through the reading time. Thus, the expression

itself is not mine but I share the NLP principle that there is nothing in this book that you

did not already know or had tried, but that we can always do something different and make

a difference.

I must admit that it is not easy to be original in the field of English LanguageTeaching since a lot has already been written about it. However, it is worth recycling easy

techniques to make lessons interesting without spending too much time and money.

During my last year in college, I could appreciate how trainee teachers depend on

ready-made activities and photocopies for lesson planning. It is true that they are an easy

way to work since the only thing left for the teacher is to find a good activity to photocopy

and hand it out to students. I am not denying how useful they are, especially nowadays,

“Beware that there are other ways of thinking about things and

doing things that might be just as valid or effective as your ways”


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when teachers seem to rush from school to school and have hardly any time to dedicate to

every course in particular. I do not mean that the activities in course books and photocopies

should be banned from the classroom. I just want to show my experience in making the

most of a 5-cm-long photocopy; in actually doing without it, whenever possible; in making

a difference.


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INTRODUCTION

The aim of this paper is to give examples of easy techniques to work in class

without too much preparation and without spending too much money or time.

My hypothesis is that teachers should not rely so much on photocopies for teaching

English nor on activities that other people designed for other situations with other students.

Although the topic may sound somehow odd for a work of this nature, it has been my main

concern for the last four years.

My idea of saving up money and time is by no means new, it has been developed

by Henry Widdowson (1978). He admits that “the beauty of these cue-cards is that they

can be used at any level, an important factor to consider for teachers, who often have little

time for preparing lots of new materials” (p.55)

Littlewood (1981, p.ix) declares that the purpose of his book is practical: “to help

teachers broaden their repertoire of techniques, so that they can enable learners tocommunicate more effectively in a foreign language.” It seems to follow the same

hypothesis that lies behind my work but this author definitely did not consider how he

himself relies on cards and other expensive material that is necessary in order to work the

way he proposes. Quite a number of activities have been designed to develop from pictures

and material which sometimes cannot be reusable and photocopies do seem to be necessary

to go through the activities he includes in his work.

One of the best ways of doing without photocopies is working with visual aids and

visualization. They turn teaching more real and alive, and they help convey meaning. It is

well accepted that, whenever students have something to look at, they feel engaged.

Photocopies are visual aids, actually, but they may also act as distractors, because handing

them out takes time, and because they are sometimes overused not only in the English class

but also in many other subjects at school.


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As Donn Byrne (1976) mentions, the value of visual aids depends on how much

they contribute to the learning process. “Their function is not to make the lesson more

colorful or to demonstrate the teacher’s versatility either in constructing or handli ng them,

but to make learning more effective” (p.128)1

Visual aids are good for visual people, for the “eagle-eyes” as Jane Revel calls

them. But they are not the only kind of students we have in the classroom, so it is good to

keep in mind that auditory and kinesthetic people do not always profit that much from

visual aids.

Jane Willis (1981) seems to be concerned with helping teachers “cope with

problems like overlarge classes, or lack of equipment” (p.vi), which seems to be in the

same line I claim my hypothesis. She devotes a whole chapter (unit 6, p.39) to the topic.

As an NLP-er, I have divided my work in four parts.

1. Part one includes techniques to help people who learn through their eyes, as well as

those who have not learned to enjoy using their eyes, yet.

2. The second part has examples of activities for those who learn through their ears.3. Part three contains ideas to aid students who learn through their bodies.

4. However, if students do not seem to learn the way you teach, you can think of teaching

the way they learn. I am still working on part four...

I felt very proud of my division, until I found it in NLP For Lazy Leraning and I

felt disappointed. Anyway, there is nothing new under the sun and this is what Shakespeare

said a long, long time ago.

This division is arbitrary because it is well-known that nobody actually learns

through one channel only. I chose to follow the division just to please my love for order

and organization.

1 For more information on the use of visual aids see Donn Byrne (1976, p.129-138)


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PART ONE


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&

Árbol

Knowing that there is a tendency to associate the mother tongue directly to the

foreign language, we could assume that the process in the mind of a Spanish speaker

studying English could be the following:

Árbol

Tree

My point here is to show that flashcards, pictures and visualization may help

students associate directly the concept in English with the acoustic image, without going

through translation. So making good use of visual aids and visualization may have a very

positive effect on teaching vocabulary, and the result may be illustrated thus:

& Tree

Cue cards and role cards3

Cue cards and role cards guide students for pair works and role-plays 4. These cards

could be written on posters. Students can read them from the board and act out thesituation. For example:

Ask about the weather in:- Bariloche- Gualeguaychú- Tucumán- Misiones

Answer about the weather:- Tucumán - Misiones - Bariloche - Ushuaia

2 See Donn Byrne (1976) p.38 and 45.3 For more information on the distinction between cue cards and role cards see Jane Revell (1979) p.504 See Pasut and Ferreira (1997, p.93) for a step-by-step explanation of the role-play.


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- Ushuaia - Gualeguaychú For higher levels, where students’ comprehension level is higher, cards can contain

more complex instructions and they can guide more complex and longer dialogues. Such is

the following example.

You are a tourist. You donot know the city. You want

to go to a disco and to arestaurant. You also want to

make a phone call. Ask

somebody where you can goand how to get there.

You live in Paraná. A touristneeds some information about

the city. Answer his/herquestions and give instructions

to get to the places he/she

wants to go to.

Acting out some short dialogues, plays, etc. takes almost no material and may be

quite motivating for the sake of being different. Many students are used to acting since

drama has been included as a subject in many schools. This means that it would act as a

cross-curricular activity at the same time.

There are some good examples for developing drama techniques in the classroom

which Maley and Duff (1978) include in their work. It is worth mentioning one of the

activities they propose where they develop a class role-play on the basis of a set of

flashcards (see below). The activity is called “The lost property office” and students

develop dialogues in pairs claiming back an object (which they have on the card) at the lost

property office.


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From Maley and Duff (1978) p.84.

CHARTS

It is quite easy and quick to copy a chart on the board for students to fill in or go

through an activity. The use of charts and visual displays in general helps students with

spatial intelligence. The information on the chart can be used for different purposes:

1. Talking about routines

The teacher can design a chart on the board (see below) and ask students to fill in

the first column with their own answers and then complete the second column with their

partner’s information. For this activity, students have to make an appropriate question to be

able to get the information they need.

What time do you...

You Your partnerGet up?Have breakfast?Have lunch?Have dinner?Go to bed?

As a way of checking the activity, the teacher can ask students to make an oralreport of the answers they got. They can use first person singular or third person singular,

according to the structures they are practicing.

2. Writing about routines


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Charts are very useful as prompt for writing. The following chart, which takes very

short to build on the board, can be the guide for students to write a composition about

someone else. Thus, they practice routine and third person.

Thursday6.30 get up + breakfast7.30 school1 lunch at school2 club + John & Paul

7.30 French class8 home, no dinner8.30 video games11.30 bed

P.O.: On Thursday, Tony gets up at 6:30 and has breakfast. He goes to school at 7:30. Hehas lunch at school at 1. Then, at 2, he goes to the club with John and Paul...

I used this chart at a 1st course at a private school and students could work for more

than forty minutes. An alternative for this activity would be to ask students to fill out the

chart with their own information, swap charts with their partner and describe his/her

routine according to the information s/he has put on the chart. Using their own life to write

about could turn out to be more motivating than just introducing an unknown somebodyelse’s piece of information. This kind of activity, as well as writing and story telling, are

well-known for being good to help students with linguistic intelligence. Another good

reason to use it in the classroom.

3. Making comparisons

The following chart could be useful for students to work on comparisons. The have

to fill in the chart according to their opinion about the elements included in the chart. For

example:

Paraná Buenos AiresBig - +Modern - +

Beautiful + -


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Cheap + -

P.O.: Buenos Aires is bigger and more modern than Paraná. etc.

For comparisons to be authentic, it is a good idea to use charts wi th students’

information, as I have just claimed. The following example starts as a pair work, where

students collect information about their partner/s. The follow up activity may be a report,

using the comparative or superlative forms according to the number of students

participating in the activity. (The last column is only used to practice superlatives)

How many do you have?

You One partner Another partnerBrothersSistersSweatersPencilsCassettes

P.O.: Mary has more sisters than I have. John has the most sisters.

4. Games

Charts can be used to have fun in the classroom. There are many authors who

include games with charts, such as “Fun with Grammar”, etc. a very well-known game

students love to play is “guerra naval”. The teacher can ask students to draw a chart on a

piece of paper including, for example, 8 columns and 8 lines. Then they write a letter for

each column and a number for each line, thus:

A B C D E F G H

1234

56


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She takes one chart for the whole class or asks a student to draw it while sheexplains how to play the game. She can split the class into two teams or play individually

to get marks for her students, especially near the end of the school term. Behind each

square there is a question (this can vary according to the teacher’s needs). Students start

aiming bombs at the chart and the teacher gives the question. If they answer correctly, they

have a point. If not, the other team has to answer. If the student aims at a square without a

question they either lose the turn, a point or there is another consequence that the teacher

considers fair.

Being fair is very important for students. According to Jeremy Harmer (1991) is a

possible cause of disruptive behavior. Games, when not handled tactfully, turn the class

into a real mess. Having all the rules clear is the first step to solve the problem. It is

important to include games in the classroom because boredom is another cause of

disruptive behavior in the eyes of this author.

Another idea to play with charts5 is to hide pairs behind the squares of a chart and

ask students to find them. It is similar to a memory game since the pairs only appear once

someone finds both of them. It is an interesting way to consolidate verb forms, especially

the past and participle of irregular verbs. It is also useful to work with opposite adjectives,

minimal pairs (phonetics), etc.

In addition, all these activities based on reasoning are very useful for students with

logical mathematical intelligence, those who learn while they think about things.

WRITTEN POSTERS

In my opinion, it is important to take into account that posters should not be

designed to be used only once and then thrown away, since it ends being as expensive as


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using photocopies. It may not be a good idea to let students fill in the gaps or match on

your posters since they cannot be used again. As Olga Hubicka claims in her article Group

and pair work “If material is well-made, it is not only more motivating for the students to

work with, but it is also more durable and can therefore be used with a number of different

classes” (p.9)

A possible solution in the case of gap filling could be to write down numbers in

every gap and repeat those numbers outside the posters for students to fill in. For example:

My name __________(1) Carola. I am __________(2) Gualeguaychú, but I live __________(3) Paraná now. I am __________(4)teacher and I __________(5) at a private school. Iam 23 years __________(6)

1- is 2- from3- in

4- a 5- work6- old

In the case of matching exercises, the teacher could prepare independent posters forthe columns to be joined and stick them separately. In this way, students draw the lines on

the board.

What’s your How old

When is yourWhere do youWhat do you

live?do?are you?Birthday?name?

5 See “Fun with Grammar”.


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PART TWO


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DICTATION 6

Although dictation has long been criticized and banned from the English classroom,

it should not be considered a bad thing. Dictation has proved to be useful, as long as we

make good use of it. It is important when our objective is to develop listening skills, as

Donn Byrne (1976) admits. Students are exposed to chunks of language and they are able

to understand the general meaning. With this general idea in mind they are able to look for

the necessary language to express it and decipher what the actual message was.

Donn Byrne (1986, pp.20-21) claims that dictation has a good point on involving

overt responses from students. It involves both listening comprehension and writing and it

is more difficult than we consider, he adds. He suggests that we should use it to practice

specific pronunciation, such is the case of minimal pairs and homophones, which require

understanding of the whole utterance to be identified. For this purpose, it is better to use

sentences rather than whole passages. When using passages for dictation, he admits that

they should not be too long or include sentences that cannot be split into meaningful units.

If there are long sentences, we could repeat them as many times as necessary instead ofdividing them up.

While Donn Byrne considers that dictating isolated words is bad, Revell and

Norman (1997, p.37) do not seem to agree with him. They suggest column dictation and

they consider it a good way to integrate the four skills. They also suggest giving each

student half of the dialogue and dictating it to one another (p.139).

I tried the technique at a private institute with a small group of advanced students.

The result was outstanding! I told students to make 5 columns, one for each of the senses:

smells, sight, hearing, touch and taste. Then I dictated some isolated words that they had to

put under the column they considered appropriate. I started with things like hamburger ,

TV , etc. which relate somehow directly to one of the senses and then I swapped to words

which are harder to classify, such as love, learning, boyfriend , etc. when I told them to

6 See Donn Byrne (1976) p.18


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write their own names, they felt really surprised but they managed to put it under one of

the columns. Then they had to get into twos or threes and explain what they had written.

They got to know each other better and shared. And I had no visual aids or photocopies; I

spent no money or time; it was just them and me. I just let them get their feelings flow

together with their language.

Dictation is helpful to save time when we need some sentences or questions for

students to work later on. Such is the case of the activities I include later for working with

songs. It takes short and it allows working long.

During my term as a trainee teacher, I had the opportunity to use dictation atschool. The experience was satisfactory and it was quite motivating for being different.

The objective was not only avoiding the use of photocopies, but also teaching students

punctuation marks and conventions of written texts, such as stop, comma, etc. The same

dictation was used later as a gap-filling exercise and as the introduction for a dialogue

which students had to produce in pairs. The subject matter of the class was simple past

tense and the lesson was also a good opportunity to consolidate location of places.

Last Tuesday ___________ a holiday. As I didn’t___________ classes, I ___________ downtown to do someshopping. First, I ___________ some clothes and then I___________ back home. I ___________ lunch, but I didn’t___________ much because I ___________ hungry. Then I___________ a tourist in the street and he ___________ mefor some information about Paraná.

Tourist: Excuse me. Are there...Me:......................................................Tourist:...............................................Me:.....................................................Tourist:...............................................Me:......................................................Tourist:...............................................Me:......................................................


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SONGS 7

They are very attractive for students and teachers. They are real English input easilyfound outside the classroom and they are usually very motivating. As Donn Byrne thinks

(1986, p.92) “they are real and once again provide a link between the classroom and the

outside world. They are enjoyable and therefore memorable. Even if they present

difficulties of comprehension, there is an incentive to overcome them.”

Revell and Norman (1997, p.110) share this view, in the sense that they consider

that songs help create a good rapport in the classroom since it maximizes similarities

between the teacher and her students. Whenever the teacher is interested in something they

like and knows about it, she is felt closer. “She meets them at their map of the world”.

“Once we match8,” they add, “we can begin to influence, if we choose to, and if it is

appropriate. In fact we can only influence from a matching position – from a position of

rapport.” (p.13).

Songs are helpful when we have students with musical intelligence. Taking into

account that they think via rhythms and melodies, we can notice how they remember

complex structures they have heard in songs while we still insist on their learning third

person singular present simple. They find it easy to keep the rhythm and they will achieve

a good pronunciation soon as long as they have the chance to learn the way they learn.

They can even make sense of complex abstract lyrics because they are usually used to

analyzing songs.

Copying the lyrics on the board is time-consuming and demotivating so,

sometimes, it might be necessary to photocopy the lyrics for students to be able to work

with, though, it is not always the case. Now I present some examples of how I have worked

with songs in schools where there are about thirty students per course.

7 See Donn Byrne (1976) p.17 and 92.8 They refer to matching as doing the same thing as somebody else does, for example listening to the samemusic your students listen to. They believe it helps communication.


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1. True / False exercises

The following activity was used in a 4 th course at Normal School. It was a

consolidation lesson for modals to indicate: prediction, permission, advice and obligation.

Students had to listen to the song “Father and Son” by Boyzone (see Appendix) and say

whether the statements were true or false.

1. The son shouldn’t make a changenow.

2. The son should relax.3. The son should take a vacation.

4. The son is allowed to get married.5. The son should react quickly.

6. The son’s dreams will be theretomorrow.

7. The father had to listen to his parents.8. The son will die.

9. The son has to learn a lot.10. The father was allowed to cry.

When I checked this activity, I put into practice an idea I found in Diana Beaver’s

NLP For Lazy Learning (p.33-34). It is called pose-pause-pounce. I “posed” the question, I

“paused” to have everyone think at the same time and then I “pounced” on someone for the

answer. I think it is useful to keep them all on their toes. Jeremy Harmer seems to agree

with her since he considers that asking questions in a predictable order is de-motivating

and a possible reason of disruptive behavior.

However, in cases where questions are harder to answer, this technique could make

students’ affective filter go up, for students might be put under pressure. In this case they

can volunteer to answer or they could be told in advance to think of it and take the time

they need to get ready.

2. Answer the questions

This activity was used at a 5th course at Normal School to consolidate WH-

questions. In the first stage of the activity students listened to the song “Frozen” by

Madonna (see Appendix) and answered the questions (which had been dictated). Although

the language items contained in the song were complex from the grammatical viewpoint,


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the activity was designed so as to be easy to understand at the first listening of the song

since the answers and the questions were the same as the words in the lyrics.

1. What does he only see?2. When is he frozen?3. What is he consumed with?4. What does he waste his time with?5. When is he broken?6. What would happen if she could melt his heart?

7. What should he know?8. What will happen if she looses

him?9. What is love?10. What does “she” need?

The follow-up activity was designed to practice reported speech:

Report the following statements:- “You only see what your eyes want to see.” - “How can life be what you want it to be?”- “If I could melt your heart, we’d never be apart.” - “Give yourself to me.” - “If I lose you, my heart will be broken.”

Later that year I used the same song to consolidate reported speech. I gave them the

lyrics where some of the sentences had been turned into reported speech. First they had toturn them back to direct speech and then check if their answers were correct.

At a higher level, where students are ready to listen to the song and process the

information at the same time, the following activity can be successful: students listen to the

song “Nothing compares to you” by Sinead O’Connor (see Appendix) and answer the

questions.

1. When did he go away?2. What does she do every night?3. What does she do all day?4. Where does she have dinner?5. How does she feel without him?

6. Where did she go for a solution?7. What did the person say?8. What happened to the flowers?9. What is living without him like?10. What does she want to do now?

I worked with this song at school and the last task was to write a summary of the

story. Students worked in pairs to tell the story with their own words, since they did not s

ee the lyrics until the end.


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3. Tell the story

As I claimed before, story telling is motivating for students with linguistic

intelligence and also for those who do not have it well developed yet. This kind if

intelligence is especially necessary in a foreign language class, so any activity that depends

on it will have good effects on your students. If the objective of the lesson is to develop

writing skills, a good activity could be the following. Students listen to the song

“Norwegian Wood” by the Beatles (see Appendix) and tell the story, the teacher may help

them by providing some verbs in the infinitive so as to guide students.

have – be good – ask – stay – tell – sit – look – notice – be not – sit – bide – drink – talk – say – betime – tell – work – start – laugh – tell – crawl out – sleep – wake – be alone – fly – live – be good

Story telling fits the category of metaphors that NLP considers important. Diana

Beaver (1998) claims that “Metaphors and stories are an excellent way of getting your

message across without interfering with someone else’s model of the world, of making

suggestions without telling the other person what to do.” Songs usually do not help build

stories for beginners because the lyrics often are too abstract or use complex language.

However, some of them can be adapted or students can write the story behind the song,

like what happened to the singer, why is s/he singing that way, how is s/he feeling. The

possibilities are endless.

4. Listen and do

Students may listen to a song and have to do activities without actually producing

any language. This is the case of arranging paragraphs or putting words in the correct

place, for example. I designed an activity with Alanis Morissette’s song “Hand in my


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Pocket” (see Appendix). Students are given the following chart and the words that appear

below it. Their task is to think before hand where the words could go according to their

meaning and then confirm or reject their hypothesis as they listen to the song.

I’m broke but I’m poor but I’m short but I’m high but I’m sane but I’m lost but

What it all comes down to. Is that everything’s gonna be fine, fine, fine. I’ve got one hand in my pocket and

I feel drunk butI’m young and

I’m tired but I care but

I’m here but I’m wrong but

What it all comes down to? Is that everything’s gonna be quite all right?I’ve got one hand in my pocket and What it all comes down to? Is that I haven’t got it all figured out just yet? I’ve got one hand in my pocket and

I’m free but

I’m green but I’m hard but I’m sad but

I’m brave but I’m sick but

What it all boils down to? Is that no one’s really got it figured out just yet? I’ve got one hand in my pocket and

What it all comes down to, my friends? Is that everything’s just fine, fine, fine? I’ve got one hand in my pocket and

I’m chicken shit - I’m f ocused - I’m friendly, baby - I’m grounded - I’m happy - I’mhealthy, yeah - I’m hopeful, baby - I’m kind - I’m laughing - I’m overwhelmed - I’m pretty, baby - I’m really gone - I’m restless - I’m sober - I’m sorry, baby - I’m underpaid -I’m wise - I’m working, yeah - the other one is flicking a cigarette - the other one is givinga high five - the other one is hailing a taxi cab - the other one is playing the piano - theother one’s giving a peace sign


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TAPES 9

Workings with cassettes without photocopies may be demotivating if the tapescriptis long enough for students to lose the gist. A good solution could be using shorter

tapescripts, splitting them up, or making pauses for students to be able to do the task. It is

possible to ask students to listen to the cassette and tell later what they remember, they can

also work in pairs to try to remember a bit more, or they can work in larger groups.

Littlewood (1981) offers an interesting classification of listening activities (p.68)

which I will follow for my work.

1. Performing physical tasks:

This kind of activity is usually associated with the Total Physical Response

techniques developed by Asher. However, it is not the only possible way of having

students do things after verbal and non-verbal prompts. Brumfit and Johnson (1979)

include a whole appendix (p.205) in which the teacher can work without photocopies at all.

The activity is based on the listening of a tape and lots of follow-up activities are presented

by the authors.

Identification and selection: the learner needs a set of pictures. S/he listens to the

tape and according to the dialogue or description s/he has to decide what picture is being

referred to. This activity can be adapted to large classes, for example, by sticking only one

picture to the board and having students work in groups. This is not the only way to work. I

remember giving students a song just to listen. The activity came afterwards when they had

to describe the singer and the addressee. It was interesting to see how everyone had

pictured a completely different character after having heard the same song.

Sequencing: the author suggests that students can be given pictures and, while they

listen to the tape, they place the pictures in the correct sequence. This activity is similar to

the way I worked with the song “Hand in my Pocket” by Alanis Morissette.

9 See Donn Byrne (1976, p.15, 111-113). And (1986, pp. 16-21)


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Locating: students place items into their appropriate location according to the tape.

They can use linguistic reference from the lyrics to locate the song or the singer. They can

work with the singer’s biography or they can place songs in time.

Drawing and constructing: while students listen to a description or discussion,

they can draw a scene, etc. They can create a whole comic strip after listening to a song or

to a story. They can turn a tape into drama and that is also constructing.

2. Transferring information:

Students can listen to the tape and put the information into a different format, like a

chart, a gap filling exercise, etc. Organizing, manipulating and other strategies turn out to

promote learning when students have interpersonal intelligence. I remember using this

technique with adults at a private institute. I made them listen to a tape where a person

described his meals and my students had to draw the tables with the food the recognized

from the listening. Then they compared pictures and they had a lot of fun. Adults are

skeptic about “strange ideas” in the classroom, except when the teacher is so convinced

that it seems as though it had ever existed.

3. Reformulating and evaluating information:

The teacher gives students a more global task. Students are asked to reformulate the

text in their own words, they can make a summary, take down notes, etc.

Diana Beaver (1998) considers that listening is not taught at school and some

people never seem to learn how to do it at all. She gives some ideas how to work about it.

She quotes an anecdote about her headmistress. This lady used to read to her students

while they were doing something different, like knitting or needlework.

These two activities are not something my students enjoy doing very much but

working with videos was something I found pretty similar. I remember that once my


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students were engaged in making posters in group while I played some news I had taped

from the radio during my trip to California and they got a lot of information. The result

was surprising and it worked better than all the times I had them focused on the listening

itself. The activity did not work likewise with everyone, but auditory and kinesthetic

students made the most of it.


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PART THREE


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SIMULATION

Littlewood (1981, pp.49-62) grades activities taking into account teacher-controland learner-creativity “As this control becomes less tight and specific, so there is increased

scope for the learners’ creativity. In this respect, the activities can be viewed as part of a

single continuum which links pre-communicative and communicative activities.” When

students perform memorized dialogues, there is maximum teacher control and minimum

student creativity.

Control

Creativity

Performing memorized dialoguesContextualized drills

Cued dialoguesRole-playingImprovisation

(adapted from page 50)

There is a tight link between Littlewood’s classification and NLP metaprograms10.

Performing memorized dialogues helps students who are reactive (15-20%) and think and

plan before they act; it also helps those who have a procedures program (40%) and like to

be given the correct steps and the right way to do things; and it is useful as well for thosewho are specific (15%), they like to focus on the details. It is the moment when students

with intrapersonal intelligence have the chance to feel comfortable with the situation. The

more time they have to plan, the better, since they need more time alone to get ready for

the situation.

Improvisation, on the other extreme of the continuum, is suitable for the other kind

of students: those who are proactive (15-20%) and act first, even without thinking; it isgood for those who have an options program (40%) and love choices for the course of

action they undertake; and it also helps those who are general (60%) and like to have big

pictures. Students with bodily kinesthetic intelligence will feel comfortable with this kind

of activities. They will have the chance to gesture naturally, touch, build on the spot, etc.

10 See Revell and Norman: 1997, pp.122-125


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According to statistics, we can assume that improvisation is better for 38-40% of

students, which happens to be the majority. Performing memorized dialogues is then

suitable for 23-25% of them. Activities comprised halfway between them would be good

for the rest (35-36%).

GAMES and KINETIC ACTIVITIES 11

The importance of movement in the classroom is one of NLP presuppositions.

Milton Erickson (see Revell and Norman: 1997, p.20), for example, found that it is

possible to overcome the paralysis caused by polio by rehearsing body movements. Sofollowing the idea that mind and body are a unit, we could assume that games and

kinesthetic activities can do a lot of good to our students, especially those who have bodily

kinesthetic intelligence and find it hard to be quiet while they learn.

There are many examples of games that can be played without photocopies or

without any material at all in Bello et al. (1990, pp.136-157). Nowadays, most course

books include games to play with students. Sometimes, with a simple poster, a coin and amarker for every player students can play by themselves. Stepping Stones includes one

after each unit.

1. Guessing games

Guessing games in pairs are easy to settle. When teaching the present continuous

tense, for example, a quick follow up activity could be the following: students work in

pairs. One of them writes a sentence such as “I’m swimming”. The other student has to

guess, either by asking (Are you reading? Are you sleeping?) or by giving a statement

which the partner confirms or rejects (You are reading. You are sleeping), according to the

structures that they have been taught and have to practice at this stage.

11 See Donn Byrne (1976) p.99 and 104


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2. Total Physical Response

Activity and learning are closely linked and students, especially kids, need

activities to stimulate the mind. They can move with songs as a way of dancing or miming

the lyrics, etc.

Asher already declared that it is possible to learn a language through the association

between language and movement. Taking his theory to the classroom, we can mention

“Simon says” as the best example of a game or kinetic activity.

REALIA

Real objects need no special preparation beforehand. Using simple objects may

help not only in teaching vocabulary, but also as prompts to practice structures or develop

situations. Authenticity is very important in the classroom, since many students do not

learn effectively with “let’s pretend this” or “imagine that”. They need real-life examples

and real reference. On the other side, we have those students who believe that teaching

without aids is commonly found in boring and lazy teachers who just want to follow the

book or copy things on the blackboard. Reality in the classroom is necessary but no

overusing is ever good. There must be some fantasy as well and some unreal situations.

An activity I tried myself, at a 4th course at Normal School, is the following: I gave

students different old and useless objects, which they were supposed to sell to the rest of

the class. The objects were an old bobby pin, a pencil-sharpener, a rubber band, a used

stamp, a tiny plastic bag, a button, etc. They had to use their imagination a lot to be able to

convince the rest of the group that their product was worth buying. They did not realize

that the objective was to practice passive structures to describe objects, such as:

It is called...It is used to...It can also be used to...It was invented by...It costs...


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Realia is not only an object, it may also be the classroom, the teacher and the

students. Brumfit and Johnson (1979) include two activities that are based on the resources

available in every classroom. Here is a copy of the activity:

From Brumfit and Johnson (1979) p.203

The best realia a teacher can ever use is her humanity and experience as well as her

students’, as Revell and Norman believe (1997, p.19), as well as Gertrude Moskowitz, who

devotes her whole book to make the most of you and your students for teaching.


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PART FOUR

??


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And those who do not learn?

Before you do anything about it, there are five questions that are essential when we

deal with learning.

Where? People learn everywhere.

When? People learn all the time.

What? Things that touch us in some way.

Why? Because we are curious about the world.

How? We get the information through our senses and then the brain takes over.

If students do not seem to learn the foreign language we are trying to teach, it might

be because we are not teaching it in the same way they acquired their mother tongue.

Diana Beaver (1998) makes some suggestions related to the topic (p.122).

We were born with a need to communicate in order to survive.

Our attention was on the communication, not upon the language itself.

We modeled other members of our family.

We used trial and error until we were understood.

All verbal communication was greeted with pride, joy and encouragement.

We were learning in a safe environment.

We were not constantly corrected.

We have an inborn understanding of how language works.

We did not have to learn regular verbs before being allowed to talk.

We were allowed to learn in our own way.

We could assume that, if we want our students to learn English, we should do

interesting things to touch them, appealing to all senses at the same time...


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She adds some ideas to apply in the classroom of “lazy learners” (p.123).

Take on the identity of a native speaker. This gives you the freedom of the behaviors of

the other language – to do things, without embarrassment, that you would not normally

do, like waving your arms about.

Model the teacher, so you get into the physiology of the language: take on all their

movements, facial expressions – everything; you will be surprised how much

information you pick up.

Pretend you understand everything: even if you do not at the beginning, you will by the

time the speaker has finished – we all repeat ourselves endlessly.

Say the word in your language, standing in one spot; then move to another spot and say

the word in the other language. What differences do you experience? Whereabouts in

your body does each word come from? What does each word feel like?

Have fun!

Explain to your conscious mind what you are going to do and, as it will undoubtedly

get very bored with all the frivolity, ask if it would like to go off and so something else

while you are playing with the other language, knowing that it can come back later, as

soon as you need it. Remember: you are communicating – everything else is irrelevant.


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CONCLUSION

After reading the four parts that compose my work, you can be sure that I am in the

group of those who believe that there is a lot to be done. I decided to include part four after

having the opportunity to notice that there is no method that can work at perfection. There

is only a teacher with ideas and students.

NLP is the approach that underlies my work, my life. At first I felt somehow

skeptic but then I started acting as if the whole theory were true and it made a difference.

I knew that mind and body are interconnected but I had not realized how much

and to what extent. When I changed my mind about teaching, my body and the entire

physical environment changed with me.

I understood how everyone has a different map of the world , people have

different ways of learning. At this moment I understood that it is really necessary to havedifferent ways to teach.

All the things I had done were my feedback, I know they were not a mistake or an

error. Being wrong means that there is still a choice to be better. Unluckily, a corollary is

that this work itself could be wrong but I am happy to know that time will help me make it

better. There is no failure, only feedback... and a renewed opportunity for success.

I was shy at first, but what I believed to be true became true . I learned to trust

myself, and this is demonstrated by the fact that I am letting people read my work, my

ideas, the result of my research, my beliefs....

Knowing what I wanted helped me get it. Perhaps this is not exactly what I

wanted but what I got really shows that there once was a way and I took it.


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I discovered that the resources that I needed were within me. This is the result.

Teaching can take place even without any resources at all. What we need is just

imagination and will. The rest comes alone.

Communication is non-verbal as well as verbal. So both aspects are important.

All activities I included in drama, games and songs are included under the heading of non-

verbal, which sometimes is put aside in the classroom.

The non-conscious mind is benevolent. And although this presupposition took me

longer to internalize, I could finally put it into practice when I asked my students to listen

while they were busy doing something else.

Communication is non-conscious as well as conscious, and this is the NLP

presupposition I still find hard to include in my classroom and in my life. After learning

some graphology, I discovered that the strongest psychic function I have is perception, and

this is hard to conciliate with the non-conscious mind. Perceptive people are aware of

every detail, they have strong sense of reality.

All behavior has a positive intention, so when students do not behave properly,

they might be trying to let us know that our ways are not their ways. Time to change.

The meaning of my communication is the response I get. so after I work with a

new technique that I consider useful, I can welcome or reject my hypothesis according to

the expressions I get on the faces of my students. Other times, I see the results in exams.

And the best way of getting feedback is when your students ask you to do it again.

Modeling excellent behavior leads to excellence, this is the reason why I keep

watching my colleagues. The idea is not to copy her activities but to perceive how she

deals with the whole teaching situation.

“Is it in fact necessary to use an aid at all? Because, after all, one visual aid is always

present in the classroom: The teacher”.


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In any system, the element with the greatest flexibility will have the most

influence on that system. The more flexible we are, the more influence we will have on

our students.

My work is not meant to be a recipe but a humble contribution, bearing always in

mind that being creative is the only way to success in teaching.

“I am not trying to present a conclusive case but to start an inquiry.”

H. G. Widdowson


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APPENDIX

SONGS

The songs listed bellow have been referred to in previous pages. They are also

included in the enclosed tape. Here they appear in alphabetical order.

Father and Son

Frozen12: You only see what your eyes want to see / How can life be what you want it to be? /

You’re frozen when your heart’s not open / You’re so consumed with how much you get / Youwaste your time with hate and regret / You’re broken when your heart’s not open / Chorus: / If Icould melt your heart, we’d never be apart / Give yourself to me. You hold the key / Now there’sno point in placing the blame / And you should know I suffer the same / If I lose you, my heart will

12 Written by Madonna & Patrick Leonard. Produced by Madonna, William Orbit & Patrick Leonard.Keyboards & additional programming: Marius DeVries. String arrangements: Craig Armstrong; additional

arrangement: Patrick Leonard. ©1998 WB Music Corp. Webo Girl Publishing, Inc. admin. by WB MusicCorp. No Tomato Music ASCAP


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be broken / Love is a bird, she needs to fly / Let all the hurt inside of you die / You’re frozen whenyour heart’s not open / (Chorus) / You only see what your eyes want to see / How can life be whatyou want it to be? / You’re frozen when your heart’s not open / (Chorus x2) If I could melt yourheart...

Hand in my pocket 13: I’m broke but I’m happy. / I’m poor but I’m kind. / I’m sober but I’mhealthy, yeah / I’m high but I’m grounded / I’m sane but I’m overwhelmed / I’m lost but I’mhopeful, baby / What it all comes down to / Is that everything’s gonna be fine, fine, fine / I’ve gotone hand in my pocket and the other one is giving a high five / I feel drunk but I’m sober / I’myoung and I’m underpaid / I’m tired but I’m working, yeah / I care but I’m restless / I’m here butI’m really gone / I’m wrong and I’m sorry, baby / What it all comes down to / Is that everything’sgonna be quite alright? / I’ve got one hand in my pocket and the other one is flicking a cigarette /What it all comes down to / Is that I haven’t got it all figured out just yet? / I’ve got one hand in my pocket and the other one’s giving a peace sign / I’m free but I’m focused / I’m green but I’m wise /

I’m hard but I’m friendly, baby / I’m sad but I’m laughing / I’m brave but I’m chicken shit / I’msick but I’m pretty, baby / What it all boils down to / Is that no one’s really got it all figured out just

yet? / I’ve got one hand in my pocket and the other one is playing the piano / What it all comesdown to, my friends / Is that everything’s just fine, fine, fine? / I’ve got one hand in my pocket andthe other one is hailing a taxi cab

Norwegian Wood: I once had a girl, or should I say / She once had me. She showed me her room.Isn’t it good, Norwegian Wood / She asked me to stay and she told me to sit anywhere / So Ilooked around and I noticed there wasn’t a chair / I sat on the rug, biding my time, drinking herwine / We talked until two and then she said “it’s time for bed” / She told me she worked in the

morning and started to laugh / I told her I didn’t and crawled out to sleep in the bath / And when Iawoke, I was alone, this bird had flown / So I lived the fire, isn’t it good, Norwegian Wood.

Nothing Compares to You: It´s been seven hours and fifteen days, since you took your love away

/ I go out every night and sleep all day, since you took your love away / Since you´ve been gone Ican do whatever I want, / I can see whoever I choose / I can eat my dinner in a fancy restaurant /But nothing, I say nothing can take away these blues / ´Cause nothing compares, nothing comparesto you / It´s been so lonely without you here, like a bird without song / Nothing can stop theselonely tears from falling / Tell me baby. Where did I go wrong? / I can put my arms around every boy I see, / But they´d only remind me of you / I went to the doctor and Guess what he told me, /Guess what he told me. He said: “Girl, you´d better try to have fun no matter what you do”, buthe´s a fool! / ´Cause nothing compares, nothing compares to you / All the flowers that you plantedto mamma, in the backyard, all died when you went away / I know that living with you baby wassometimes hard / But I´m willing to give you another try.

13 Alanis Morissette: vocals & harmonica. Glen Ballard: guitars, key boards, recording & mix. “Jagged LittlePill”. All songs ©1995 MCA Music Publishing. Vanhurst Place Music BMI. Aerostation Corporation

ASCAP (controlled and administered by MCA Music, A Division of MCA, Inc.) ©1995 Maverik Recording

Company.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

- Beaver, Diana (1998) NLP for Lazy Learning . Element Books limited. USA.

- Bello at al (1990) Didáctica de las Segundas Lenguas. Estrageias y Recursos Básicos.

Santillana, España.

- Brumfit, C.J. and Johnson, K. (1979) The Communicative Approach to Language

Teaching . OUP, Great Britain.

- Byrne, Donn. (1976) Teaching Oral English. Longman, London.

- Byrne, Donn (1986) Teaching Oral English. New Edition. Longman.- Harmer, Jeremy (1991) The Practice of English Language Teaching . Longman,

London and New York.

- Littlewood, William. (1981) Communicative Language Teaching . CUP, Great Britain.

(1990, twelfth printing)

- Maley, Alan. and Duff, A. (1978) Drama Techniques in Language Learning .

Longman.

-

O’Connor, Joseph and Seymour, John (1993) Introducción a la Programación Neurolingüística. Urano, Spain.

- Pasut and Ferreira.

- Revell, Jane. (1979) Teaching Techniques for Communicative English. CUP.

- Revell, Jane and Norman, Susan. (1997) In Your Hands. Saffire Press, London.

- Willis, Jane. (1981) Teaching English through English. Longman. (1995, sixteenth

impression)


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The difference that makes the difference 42

AFTERTHOUGHT

When I started off this work, like three years ago, I took it

easy. T made a rough copy – which I still keep in my desk drawer

– and it meant a starting point for a lot of new things. I knew it

would be really hard and I took the challenge, but I never

imagined how full of things I would be after finishing, new

theories, books in mind, big ideas...

I started with the specific bibliography, then I moved to

other books related to the topic and once I found myself

browsing through Psychology books and stuff. It turned out to be

like a way of life and although there is a concrete result – which

you have in your hands – there is also an abstract process –

which I have in my mind.

I’m done.

No, I’m not. At the beginning of college I thought I knew

everything, then I realized I knew nothing, so I learned

something. It takes forever to learn but this makes life more

interesting, doesn’t it? J ohn Grinder was really right when he

said that we should always keep a dream beyond your dream so

when you get it, you still have something to do. So I wonder

what is next...

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