Words, words, words!
'We need more words!', 'I don't have enough words to talk about simple things.', 'I like learning words with pictures. It helps a lot' - these are just a few bits we hear from our students about vocabulary and learning and practising new words. This and a wonderful post by David Deubelbeiss about Silent videos - http://ddeubel.edublogs.org/2011/03/23/using-silent-video-in-the-efl-classroom/ helped me to come up with an interesting and effective variation of David's idea.
Here's a lesson plan
Material: Flatlife, Mr. Bean making sandwiches, Mr.Bean goes to the swimming pool
Level: Intermediate and above
Preparation: No preparation needed with fast Internet access. To back yourself up, it's better to download the videos on 3 notebooks (for a group of 9 students).
Variation: You can show videos on projector. All other instructions remain unchanged.
Aims:
· to practise fast speaking
· to collect everyday vocabulary in context
Split the class into groups of 3. Student A should sit 'backdoor'. His role is of a listener. Students B and C watch video 1. Student B describes everything they see on the screen to Student A. It's quite difficult. That's why the speaker is given instructions to use mother tongue every time they can't find the right word in English. Student C must get down all words said in mother tongue ( Russian in my case).
It's a circular activity. Students change roles to watch 3 videos.
Get the students to look through the list of words and try to translate them into English. Then they should look up the rest of the words in an online dictionary.
Students repeat the activity from Stage 1. This time they watch the videos together. The speaker for each video is the student who wasn't watching the video at Stage 1. The task is to make the description brighter and practise the new words.
Add the words to Quizlet for further practice.
My studets love it:)
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Comments
That sounds that in each turn students can compose their unknown word list. At the end, they can learn them and revise them once again in the last round... I liked your idea. As long as we have enough notebooks to play the videos, it is really nice to bring them into the classroom.
Thnaks for sharing :)
Dear likincevate,
Thank you for the nice activity. It is an exciting communicative activity. The teacher may also be flexible about the words (considering the topic) to be used and guide the students according to it.
What kind of instructions did you aim to give? Is it something related with the videos?
Thanks again
Hi likincevate, I like activity that you use ;) We are playing some different about vocabulary game ;) It's fine thanks ;)
Thanks, to a great idea!!! If I were a student I would surely love!
By the way, how long do your students do the activity? Is this activity very noisy? I mean, when you have 3 groups and 3 students speaking at the same moment. :)
We tried the activity as students and it was not at all easy, the film goes on, you have to speak fast, the partner promptly writes the words you say in your first language, the task is rather challenging but it's worth it as in the end all the participants have a feeling of certain achievement.
Thanks for your feedback, it means a lot.
Actually, my instructions to learners are very similar to what I wrote in the lesson plan. The thing is I work with adults. So I explain the aims of the activity. I also try to prevent their possible frustration on the number of unknown words saying that it's inpossible to fit all vocabulary into one course book and that this activity will help them to fill in some gaps. I ask them not to worry that they may forget very simple words they know pretty well. That happens because of the speed of unplanned speech. Finally I give the instructions on how to do the activity.
In fact, the description sounds more confusing that what really happens in class:)
Thanks for the support.
It usually take 80 minutes to make 2 rounds of three short videos + word work with online dictionaries. Time can be regulated through the lenth of videos and teacher assistance with new words.
As for noise, I wouldn't say that it too loud. But I work with adults. I think with kids it can be much noisier:)
Dear likincevate,
thanks to your answers!
I would surely try this activity next week and write about the outcomes of the lesson :)
Can't wait to hear from you!
Dear likincevate,
Thank you for the extra explanation:) As you say, the descriptions / instructions are sometimes more difficult. I remember one of my teachers at the university suggesting us to prefer to give instructions in L1 if it will cause misunderstandings or consume more time.
Best