Yesterday I blogged about an idea for exploiting a written text in a different way. In essence, students are given a set of questions, the teacher has the text, the students ask their questions and take notes from the teacher's answers. The students then compare their notes in pairs, before being able to see the written text and do some more focused language work. All the skills get practised, there is lots of comprehensible input and opportunities to produce language orally and in writing. So I wrote a resource for frenchteacher.net using this approach and I am sharing it below. An interesting challenge for the future will be to see if I can devise something similar for a lower level, e.g. Higher GCSE (CEFR A2/B1). See what you think? I'm pretty sure this would work well and be enjoyed by classes. The topic of the text is volunteering in France. Le point sur le bénévolat en France en 2022 Teacher instructions 1. Do not give a copy of the text to the class t
When you work with a written text, for example at A-level, common practice would be to do a read-aloud, engage in some meaning-focused activities, e.g. questions and answers, general discussion, summary, then go on to do what researchers call 'form-focused' or 'language focused' work. This means looking at and practising aspects of vocabulary and grammar. That's all fine. It satisfies the basics of language learning: comprehensible input, interaction and some focus on form. If the text covers a relevant and interesting cultural topic, so much the better. But how about a twist on this approach? Here is an alternative: 1. Give students a set of questions to ask about a text they cannot see. The teacher has a copy of the text. 2. Students take turn to ask you questions from the list which you answer, using our copy of the text. 3. As you answer, students take notes in L2 (or maybe L1). 4. After about twenty minutes, students can compare and discuss their notes in pairs