Skip to main content

Likely or unlikely?

Here's a simple idea for a listening task with near-beginners or just above (CEFR A1). Simply read aloud a set of statements and ask students to note (or show on a mini-whiteboard) if the statement is likely ('probable') or unlikely ('peu probable'). The example below is in French. You could make these up on the spot to fit with whatever vocabulary you have been using in previous lessons.

With a shorter list you could add writing to the mix by doing this as a dictation (gapped if you like) and still ask whether the statement is unlikely or not. This makes sure the class is engaging with meaning, as well as form. The same statements could be reused in a game such as Sentence Stealers or Sentence Chaos. Gianfranco has named this sort of task 'Spot the nonsense'.

Or you could ask students to instantly write an English translation of each sentence before they make their judgement.

Students may like to make up their own examples - this would appeal to their sense of the absurd. But don't forget the obvious point, they need to have the means to do this without much support. Suggest strongly that they stick to language they know.

Note that the list below is not very finely-tuned to any particular language forms or patterns (apart from, very broadly, present tense verb forms in the first person). You could design these, as mentioned above, to be more tightly attuned to language you want students to hear repeatedly.

And finally, this is one of those minimal preparation tasks, if you are able to improvise them or have a ready-made list you can reuse.


Possible ou peu probable?

 

  1. J’achète du pain à la boulangerie.
  2. Je joue au football à la piscine.
  3. Je regarde un film dans les toilettes.
  4.  J’achète une baguette à la boucherie.
  5. Je joue au cricket en France.
  6.  Je vais à la piscine pour jouer au tennis.
  7.  Je vais au parc pour jouer au football avec mes amis.
  8. Je parle français en Belgique.
  9.  Je mange des céréales au petit déjeuner.
  10. J’achète une glace au chocolat à la pharmacie.
  11. Je vais en Australie en voiture.
  12.  Je regarde la télé dans la salle de bains.
  13. Je mange un dinosaure au restaurant.
  14. Je parle anglais à la maison.
  15. Je fais mes devoirs dans la chambre.
  16. J’achète un gâteau à la pâtisserie.
  17. Je joue de la guitare au cinéma.
  18. Je mange du coca cola.
  19. Je suis végétarien. Je mange du poulet.
  20. Je vais au cinéma pour acheter un livre.
  21. Je regarde une série sur Netflix.
  22. Je parle français au Canada.
  23. Je mange des insectes à la cantine.
  24. Je déteste le chocolat.
  25. En général je parle français avec mes parents.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is the natural order hypothesis?

The natural order hypothesis states that all learners acquire the grammatical structures of a language in roughly the same order. This applies to both first and second language acquisition. This order is not dependent on the ease with which a particular language feature can be taught; in English, some features, such as third-person "-s" ("he runs") are easy to teach in a classroom setting, but are not typically fully acquired until the later stages of language acquisition. The hypothesis was based on morpheme studies by Heidi Dulay and Marina Burt, which found that certain morphemes were predictably learned before others during the course of second language acquisition. The hypothesis was picked up by Stephen Krashen who incorporated it in his very well known input model of second language learning. Furthermore, according to the natural order hypothesis, the order of acquisition remains the same regardless of the teacher's explicit instruction; in other words,
4 comments
Read more

What is skill acquisition theory?

For this post, I am drawing on a section from the excellent book by Rod Ellis and Natsuko Shintani called Exploring Language Pedagogy through Second Language Acquisition Research (Routledge, 2014). Skill acquisition is one of several competing theories of how we learn new languages. It’s a theory based on the idea that skilled behaviour in any area can become routinised and even automatic under certain conditions through repeated pairing of stimuli and responses. When put like that, it looks a bit like the behaviourist view of stimulus-response learning which went out of fashion from the late 1950s. Skill acquisition draws on John Anderson’s ACT theory, which he called a cognitivist stimulus-response theory. ACT stands for Adaptive Control of Thought.  ACT theory distinguishes declarative knowledge (knowledge of facts and concepts, such as the fact that adjectives agree) from procedural knowledge (knowing how to do things in certain situations, such as understand and speak a language).
Post a Comment
Read more

12 principles of second language teaching

This is a short, adapted extract from our book The Language Teacher Toolkit . "We could not possibly recommend a single overall method for second language teaching, but the growing body of research we now have points to certain provisional broad principles which might guide teachers. Canadian professors Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada (2013), after reviewing a number of studies over the years to see whether it is better to just use meaning-based approaches or to include elements of explicit grammar teaching and practice, conclude: Classroom data from a number of studies offer support for the view that form-focused instruction and corrective feedback provided within the context of communicative and content-based programmes are more effective in promoting second language learning than programmes that are limited to a virtually exclusive emphasis on comprehension. As teachers Gianfranco and I would go along with that general view and would like to suggest our own set of g
2 comments
Read more