TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH

0/ “Table cloth”

- Divide students into group of four (or six)

- Assign the task and ask sts to think of the answers by their own.

- They write the on the part of “Big paper”

- Then discuss in group to reach to an agreement and write the answers in the heart of “Big paper”.

- Show the group’s answers then compare and correct.

1. Jigsaw:

- Divide the class into groups of 3 or 4.

- Assign the task to each student in the groups (Home Groups).

- Regroup students. Students with the same task will be in the same small groups (EXPERT GROUPS) and discuss the task.

- Students turn back to their Home Groups, discuss and finish the task.

2. Pyramid discussion:

- Ask students to work individually first to choose 3 most important things.

- Ask them to work in groups of 3 and choose 3 most important things.

- Ask them to work in groups of 6 to choose 3 most important things.

- Ask them to work in groups of 12 to choose 3 most important things.

- Call students to present the choice of their groups.

3. Information Gap:

- Allocate the role that Ss will take in the information gap.

- Give Ss some time to understand the task and work out what they are going to say.

- Have Ss work in pairs, ask and answer.

- Check Ss’ work by calling some to present the task or asking them some questions.

4. Q&A match-up:

- Create a set of questions and answers based on the topic your class is studying. Each question will be placed on a separate card and each answer will be placed on a separate card.

- Randomly distribute the question ans answer cards to your students.

- Allow students to “mingle” as they try to “match-up” with their correct question or answer.

- When students start matching up, have them stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their corresponding partner along the perimeter of the classroom.

- Each student can read her/his question and matching answer to the class.

5. Half-open, half-closed:

- Ask students to work in pairs.

- Have one student in the pair open the book while the partner closes the book.

- Then, the student with the open book quizzes the partner by asking the questions (such as comprehension question, the meaning of the vocabulary item, the past tense of verbs from a verb list, the spelling of a word, the stress of a word, etc.).

- The partner responds.

- After a while, partners switch the roles.

6. Trios:

- Write out some questions for the students to ask and answer in groups of three. Make enough copies for one-third of the class.

- Divide students into groups of three. The students in each trio should decide who will ask first, who will answer first, and who will retell first.

- Give the questions to only one student in each trio. That student reads the questions to one of the other students in the trio, who will answer.

- When all of the questions have been asked and answered, the third person in the trio then retells what the other student said.

- When the first round is finished, switch roles, and repeat the activity two more times so that everyone has the chance to ask, answer, and retell.

7. Dictation drawing:

- Ask students to prepare an A4 paper.

- Teacher prepares a set of instructions or sentences (to describe something such as a person, a place, a thing…)

- Read the instructions or sentences one by one and ask students to draw what they are told.

- When students finish drawing, ask them to work in pairs or groups of 3 to compare and describe the pictures they drew to each other.

- Teacher can call some students to describe their pictures in front of the class.

8. “3 x 3”:

- After a person or a group’s presentation, the teacher asks students to give their ideas about some issue (content of a discussion, steps to make discussion, a presentation, a report…).

- Ask students to write out 3 good points, 3 points in need of improvement, 3 suggestive improvements.

- Collect students’ ideas and discuss.

9. “Kick me”:

- Take out answers and put them on students’ backs using labels.

- Ask students to find answers on each other’s backs using worksheets.

- Set a time limit for the activity. When the timer starts, students have to get out of their seat to find answers on others’ backs.

- When they finish, return to their seat.

10. Ask the winner:

- Give a probem to be solved.

- Ask students to silently to solve it.

- After the teacher reveals the answer, instructs who got it right to raise their hands (and keep them raised).

- Then, all other students are to talk to someone with a raised hand to better understand the question and how to solve it next time.