Exploiting a simple train timetable

                                            TRAINS AU DEPART

 

Paris (Montparnasse)        0900               10.30               14.05

 

Tours                               9.56                 11.26                15.01       

 

Poitiers                           10.22               12.52               15.27

 

Niort                               11.02                13.32               16.07

 

Surgères                         11.45                14.15                16.50

 

La Rochelle                     12.07               14.37               17.12

With this simple visual aid you can generate a lot of language with a near-beginner class. For example, we can use it to practise numbers, time and the verbs to arrive and depart, in whichever language you teach. You could make the lesson task-orientated by saying that the aim will be to plan a day's visit to La Rochelle. You could change the place names to make them most relevant to your class.

So how could we use this to generate lots of input and interaction?

1.  Revise using numbers from 1-60. We'll assume that these have been worked on previously, but we need to reactivate them with some retrieval practice. There are lost of ways to do this, e.g.

Say a number and pupils write it their mini-whiteboard - combine this with choral repetition

Do a simple sum, e.g. "What's four plus four?" Pupils write the answer down.

Hand out a grid of all the numbers from 1-60. Say a series of numbers which pupils circle shade on their grid. The shading could result in a simple picture which pupils have to work out.

read out sequences of numbers, e.g. 1,3,5,7... and pupils write down the next number in the sequence. Start easy, make them harder.

2. Display the timetable. Explain how a timetable works if pupils don't know already. (They may not.) Then read aloud sentences such as:

"The first train leaves Paris at 0900. It arrives in Tours at 9.56. It arrives in Poitiers at 10.22..." And so on. Point to the times on the board as you say them. This gives pupils plenty of easy comprehensible input - multiple repetitions of times, numbers and the verbs depart and arrive. they will also hear the words for first, second, third and fourth.

3. Give some true/false statements, e.g.

The first train leaves Paris at 0900.

The first train arrives in la Rochelle at 12.30

Note that this is still largely input-based; pupils only have to listen, look and say/write true or false.

4. Either/or questions

Does the first train arrive in Niort at 1102 or 1202? etc

5. General questions

What time does the second train leave Paris? etc

6. Choral repetition of whole sentences with the sentences displayed, e.g.

The first train leaves Paris at 0900 and arrives in La Rochelle at 1207.

7. Gapped writing task

Provide gapped sentences which you read aloud for pupils to complete.

8. Paired oral work

Each partner makes up a true or false statement based on the timetable. This is just a variation on (3) above.

9. Keep talking

For some classes, as a challenge, each partner in a pair has to describe the timetable and keep talking without much hesitation as long as they can. The other partner can time them.

10. Explain your journey

In pairs each partner describes a journey they will make tomorrow. Pupils make up a new destination and new times (they can note these down in advance). The present tense works fine for this, e.g.

Tomorrow I'm going to Manchester (or another destination). I'm leaving at 0915. I arrive in Leeds at 1000. I leave Leeds. I arrive in Huddersfield at 1020. I leave Huddersfield and I arrive in Stalybridge at... and so on.

To sum up, the principle here is that by progressing from receptive inoput to output, you provide a scaffolded sequence, easy to follow, clear in its intention, with lots of repetition, all of which combine to produce implicit learning with little if any explicit focus on grammar. At some point you might want to have a look at the form of the verbs being used.