what were you saying, conversation strategies
Pre-intermediate, level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide clarification and practice of language used for dealing with interruptions in the context of telling the news about a wedding event
Subsidiary Aims
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To provide accuracy and fluency speaking practice in a conversation in the context of te
Procedure (45-59 minutes)
After a short greeting, I will tell the students that there is something to say, however, I did not manage to tell my news to my friends. Then, I will tell them that I have a video on what just happened so that they will get engaged with what I want to introduce and eventually the target language. The instructions will be clear like "say why I could not tell the news" and then the ICQ will be like "will I tell the news finally?". the video will take few moments and then some parts of the target language will be introduced and pre-teaching the target lexical items will happen. Aim: to generate the interest in the learners while we teach some new words too.
After doing so, we will play as short conversation on the same subject for the students, they will have to listen carefully and figure out what the news is. After receiving the whole class feedback, we will open the book and go through the text. aim: the conversation will provide everything we need to teach the lesson.
There two pieces of target language in the whole lesson, "interrupting and resuming expressions" and "just" both of which could be found in the text of the conversation. The teacher will ask some questions and guide them through and the learners will highlight the TL easily. Aim: to provide a student-centered situation in which the students try to find the key parts on their own.
the clarification will be done in two different and separated parts, the first part will be after the conversation reading and highlighting the TL. The teacher will clarify the use of this kind of functional language and explain where to use each to interrupt or restart the conversation. After clarifying the meaning and form, the teacher will drill the correct pronunciation. In order to teach the word "just", the teacher will ask CCQs like "does this sentence feel stronger or softer now?" then the correct meaning will be elicited. Aim: it is necessary to clarify the TL so that all the students will learn the correct use.
There are two controlled practices in this lesson, the first of which is the practice of "just" in which the learners must place the word "just" and practice saying them. In this controlled practice along with correct placing, the correct intonation would be crucial too. The second controlled practice is the listening exercise which is like listen and check or listen and write the reason. Aim: to teach the students more language situations using the correct intonation.
There is only one semi-controlled practice which is part D, after the conversation. In this practice, the learners will have to listen the track and fill in the blanks with the learnt expressions and continue the conversation on their own. Aim: to practice more situations where the expressions are possible and use their own creativity to keep the conversation rolling.
The final stage will be dedicated to a freer practice, as expected. In order to keep the context sustainable and rolling we will refer the students to the video shown in the beginning of the class. The students will be asked to produce the same conversation and try to use the learnt expressions to interrupt and restart, also they will be expected to have "just" in their speech. Finally, as they are in pairs, news teller and listener, the listener should guess the piece of news which has been left unsaid by me yet. As expected, the first correct guess will indicate the winner. As a freer practice, the focus is based on both fluency and accuracy, so while the speaking is taking place, I will give them an unobtrusive monitoring and eventually the delayed error correction. Aim: The final aim for almost all the lessons is to learn how to say it and here, the learners will practice the same so that they will gain the enough confidence to produce the target language at certain times.