how to … use the learners as a resource

1 Putting the learners centre stage For students:

2 Turning student output into lesson input – Personalized material may be sensitive. We can sometimes
3 What can we learn from learner output? anticipate this problem, e.g. in the pre-intermediate
4 Correction and reformulation student’s book, unit four, students learn phrases to talk
about clothes size, e.g. What size do you take? This language is
clearly essential if you are buying clothes, but it became
obvious that to provide practice of this language, we would
have to be careful with the garments we asked learners to
1 Putting the learners centre stage talk about; shoes were the safest option we could find.
In our constant search for teaching materials – whether it be – Controversial topics can cause offence. One measure we
listening or reading texts, videos, visual materials, language can take is to make it clear that learners do not have to talk
exercises, computer games or a role play – we are in danger of about something if they don’t want to. You might teach
overlooking the most important and generative resource in the them useful ways to express this: ‘I’d rather not talk about
classroom: the students themselves. Of course, different types that / I’d rather not say’.
of material are needed to provide variety, and sometimes the – Talking about themselves in class may not be something
material you have selected is the most natural and obvious way they expect to do. In this case, introduce personalized
to learn or practise particular language exponents. However, it activities very gradually, starting with simple information
is the learners’ personalities, knowledge and experience which that anyone would be prepared to reveal about themselves,
make a class what it is; and their contribution to the lessons e.g. TV viewing habits, things they would take to a desert
and to each others’ learning, although difficult to measure, is island. Be guided by their response, and make your aims clear.
absolutely crucial. For teachers:
– What students produce can be quite unpredictable, and you
advantages of learner-generated output may have to deal with language or content issues which
Much learner-generated output will involve personalization, you didn’t expect. ‘Thinking on your feet’ is not easy,
i.e. people talking about themselves and giving their opinions. particularly for inexperienced teachers.
Most learners are happy to do this, within reason. This may be
– Anticipating how long learner-generated activities will take
because:
is more difficult, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.
– their personal information is at their fingertips, so they don’t
need to consume vast amounts of material and memorize
the information before they have something to say. 1
think!
– personalized activities provide opportunities for learners to
Have you touched on any sensitive subjects in your lessons
share experiences with others and find similarities and
recently? How did you handle the situation? Think about a
differences in their lives and outlook, which can help the
learner-generated activity you have done. How did you / the
rapport between learners (and the teacher) and add to the
students cope with it?
interest of the class.
People need to know about each other to make connections, so
‘getting to know you’ activities are not just about language use, finding out about your learners
but about developing relationships. Strange as it may seem, it
is quite easy to make the classroom an unreal place. A friend of With a new class, you will need to find out what interests them
ours attending a language course in German was quite frustrated and what they are happy to talk about. You can start this off by
to find that after learning vocabulary to describe different jobs, revealing things about yourself. If you are prepared to give a
the class were given role cards with false names and jobs in lead, it will encourage students to do the same, and it can also
order to practise asking and answering questions about the help to develop class rapport.
jobs. He never found out what people in his class really did for
a living, and didn’t know how to say his own real job. 2
think!
Putting the learners centre stage values their input and can help Think back to the last lesson you taught. How much did you
them to talk about what is of most interest to them. It also find out about your learners as individuals? How much did you
makes lessons more memorable, alive and fresh. The added reveal about yourself?
bonus for the teacher is that learner-generated output doesn’t
involve producing a lot of material, although it does require
thought and preparation. Topics in course books are usually ‘safe’, and should have
general appeal. At pre-intermediate level, most learners can
talk about their home and family life, their work / studies, their
risks social lives, eating, etc. You will want to know what else
Learner-generated activities in the classroom are not without interests them, and the easiest way to do this is to give out a list
risks for you or the students. of topics and ask students to tick the ones which interest them
most. You can include issues relevant to the local environment,

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and allow a blank space for learners to add their own topics. Your focus in this activity will obviously depend on your aims,
Learners can compare ideas in groups, and then feed back to which might be to produce accurate question forms, to work on
you. Bear in mind that considerable linguistic skills and certain tenses, practise specific lexis, etc. However, on the
knowledge are required to discuss certain topics. While some whole the topic is likely to dictate the language focus. For
lively debate might occur on a topical issue, it can also flounder instance, if they are asking and answering about their home,
as students struggle to express themselves, and some learners they will need to use a range of tenses (Where do you live? How
find topical discussion difficult. Nevertheless, everyone has long have you been there? Why did you move there? How long are you
something to say about themselves, which can help you to planning to stay?)
generate a great deal of productive talk at lower levels.
proxy questions
try it out topic questionnaire In this activity, learners have to guess or invent answers to
questions on behalf of another learner. Show learners how this
Look at the topics in the map of natural English pre-
works by demonstrating it yourself first with two students.
intermediate student’s book.
Make a list of other topics you think might interest your class, 1 Students work in threes, A, B, and C. Each student prepares
and leave a space for them to add their own topics. Give it to five or six questions, perhaps on a given topic such as their
your class to discuss. Do the results surprise you? jobs (assuming they all work). They can compare questions
and correct them as in the previous activity.
2 Student A now asks student B the questions. B has to answer
the questions as if they were student C. If they don’t know all
2 Turning student output into lesson input the answers (and they probably won’t), they should invent
them. Meanwhile C listens and notes any answers which aren’t
Student output can be the basis for different types of true. Then students swap, and B asks C about A, etc. During
interaction in a classroom, involving different degrees of this activity, you can monitor and note down points for
control or freedom, and for varying lengths of time. It can be feedback at the end.
used as a way of presenting, practising, or revising language 3 Tell students that they should now go over the answers given
(grammar, vocabulary, lexical phrases, etc.), and as a means of and tell each other which were true and correct any
providing longer classroom segments: in fluency activities inaccuracies in the information. They could also decide which
learners may be talking about themselves for quite long student was the best at guessing or inventing.
periods without the restraints of target language.
This is another activity where the language focus is up to you
Below, you will find some simple teaching frameworks which
and will depend on the topic. Students could ask questions
you can adapt for different linguistic purposes and use in
about each other’s education (which could involve past tenses
different ways: as short, warmer-type activities, or more
and passive forms), future plans, likes and dislikes, etc.
extended speaking activities. Some of the activity types
described in this section are based on activities from natural
English pre-intermediate student’s book. We believe these are making lists
all suitable for pre-intermediate level, but there is no reason Lists are a useful way of providing practice in particular
why you should not use them at higher levels, and some can be language areas, based on personal experiences or knowledge of
adapted for elementary learners. The emphasis throughout is the world. You can exploit list-making as a warmer, or to
on learner-generated rather than teacher-generated language, generate examples of a language point. Here is an example:
and on making the learner (rather than the material) the central
resource in the classroom. 1 In pairs, students write down ten things old people and young
people in their country do at the weekends. You monitor and
can I ask you some questions? suggest corrections where necessary. (The list will obviously
contain vocabulary to do with leisure activities, family
Consider the following sequence: routines, etc.)
1 Alone, learners write down five questions to ask classmates on 2 They compare with another pair and decide on the top five
a given topic e.g. their family. activities.
2 They show their questions to a partner who makes any 3 You can feed in appropriate language here. For instance:
necessary corrections. They add any different questions from X is very common / popular ….
their partner’s list to their own list. Meanwhile, you monitor Young people tend to ….
and suggest corrections.
Older people generally ….
3 They think about their answers to all the questions. This gives
them time to plan what they are going to say and think about 4 Students produce a short presentation, using their ideas from
any language they might need. the list and the language taught. Lists are a very useful way to
practise specific grammar areas. For example:
4 As a rehearsal stage, they ask and answer the questions with
their partner. You monitor and give feedback to the class (this – We think parents / children / teenagers, etc) should always …
might include a little correction, or encouraging them to talk / should never …
at greater length, or asking follow-up questions to produce – When we were young, we used to … / we never used to …
more natural conversation). – In tomorrow’s lesson, we might …
5 Students do the activity as a class mingle, speaking to at least – Places where you can hide money (for prepositions)
three or four new partners, and have to find the person whose
– Reasons why your town is better than anywhere else (for
family is most similar to theirs. You monitor then provide
comparatives or superlatives)
feedback.

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draw it location, location, location
It is important to impress upon learners that they do not need This is a useful framework for focusing on a range of student-
to be good at drawing to do this type of activity (indeed, they generated language in a specific context. The focus might be
might feel more comfortable if your own drawing isn’t terribly functional exponents, vocabulary or grammatical structures.
good when you show them what to do). Look at the following
example from an extended speaking activity in the pre- 1 Choose a location and write it on the board, e.g. a shoe shop.
intermediate student’s book: In pairs, students write down the following:
three questions a customer e.g. Have you got these
1 Put a sketch map of the area where you live on the board. might ask shoes in a bigger size?
Keep it very simple, putting crosses to indicate where certain
three things a customer e.g. (I’m afraid) they’re
places are, but don’t label them. The places should include
might say too tight.
your home and any shops, parks or other amenities nearby.
three things the assistant e.g. Are you paying in cash?
2 Tell students this is your local area, point out your home, and
might ask
encourage them to ask you about the other places. Try to
develop what you say about the places: for example, if you three things the assistant e.g. I’m sorry, we’ve only
live near a restaurant, tell them what kind of food it serves, might say got them in brown.
whether it’s popular / expensive / good, how often you go Check students know what to do by eliciting a sample
there, etc. question / statement for each category before they work
3 If appropriate, go back and focus on any specific useful together. Monitor the pair work. Don’t correct what they write,
language you / they used. but provide help if students ask for it.
4 Students now draw their own sketch maps, marking six to eight 2 Pairs compare what they wrote with other pairs; together,
places without labelling them. Give them time to rehearse they correct errors.
what they are going to say. Help with vocabulary as required. 3 Bring the class together. Students write up the questions and
5 In pairs, students talk and ask about each map in turn. statements on the board under the different headings. The
You can adapt this activity by getting students to draw a family combined language examples should be quite comprehensive.
tree, a sketch of their flat, or a room in their home, or to draw At this point, be prepared to feed in any language you think is
five things which are important to them. needed, or make corrections. Students should make a record of
this as their personal phrasebook.
from extended speaking pre-intermediate student’s book, 4 Students do mini-role plays in the situation, using the
unit three pp.32 and 33. language. Monitor and give feedback.
Once students have grasped the idea of this, you can use this
creative planning lesson framework on a regular basis, changing the context: a
In this activity type, students have to produce creative plans railway station, doctor’s surgery, hotel reception, etc. You can
e.g. to organize an event. Here are a few ideas: ask learners which contexts / locations they would like to
concentrate on.
– students in pairs create a profile of a hotel, using prompts,
e.g. the hotel location, its name, the price range, the types
of rooms, the services provided, restaurants and bars, etc. talk about it
Once they have produced them, the information can be For the activity below, provide a range of topics yourself, or ask
used as the basis for a role play: potential customers learners to suggest them. For most learners at lower levels,
requesting information about the hotel. descriptive topics are more straightforward: describe your
– in a similar way, students in pairs design a café menu to family / favourite film / perfect day. At first, students may be
include hot meals, cold meals, snacks and drinks, and worried about talking for a minute, but if you start with simple
possibly facilities or entertainments. Again, these can be topics, they should have plenty to say and you can build up the
used for role plays. length of time they speak.
– pairs plan their ideal classroom or office (particularly if they 1 Write ten suitable topics randomly on the board. Ask students
are a business English group). They then present their ideas (working alone) to think of two or three they can talk about
to other pairs. for one minute. Give them time to think what to say about
– pairs plan a class night out at a place of their choosing and one of them.
decide on the necessary arrangements (see pre- 2 Students work in groups of three. Student A tells B and C
intermediate student’s book, unit eight pp.80 and 81.) which topic they have chosen; A talks about their topic for
Planning activities certainly require support frameworks to get one minute (B or C can time them). While listening, B and C
the best out of them (guidelines, question prompts: see pre- think of questions to ask A at the end. After a minute, B and
intermediate student’s book, unit eight pp.80 and 81 for an C ask A their questions.
example), but you can make the content relevant to the learners 3 Student B now talks about the topic they have chosen. As
and the learning context. For example, a menu produced in the before, A and C listen and think of questions to ask.
learners’ own environment is not going to run into cultural
differences, which might be the case if they use a menu in a During the activity, monitor and make notes for feedback at the
British course book. end. You can ask students to assess which topics were easy to
discuss, and why: this will help you to select topics in the
future.

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 try it out personal sentences B: No I haven’t.
A: Do you spends a lot of time with your family?
With this activity, you, the teacher, are the starting point and
have control over the language you introduce, but it then B: Yes, a lot.
proceeds to a stage where learners generate personalised A: Have you got a lot of relatives?
examples. B: Yes, a lot.
1 Dictate five sentences about yourself to the class, e.g. A: Do you see them a lot?
I’ve been teaching English for ages. B: Yes, quite often.
I started working in (Spain) when I was 30. A: When do you see them?
I passed my driving test a long time ago. B: Weekends …at weekends...Saturday and Sunday.
This time next week, I’ll be in New York. A: Every week.
I once worked as a dentist’s receptionist. B: Yes.
Students compare them in pairs; let them check what they A: What is your family like?
wrote by writing the sentences on the board. B: We are close family, all time.
2 Tell students that one sentence is not true. In pairs, they A: Together.
decide which one, and why. They tell the class; eventually B: Yes …and you live with your parents?
you reveal which one isn’t true. A: Yes, live with my parents.
3 Focus on specific language you want to teach or revise. In B: And have you got any brother or sisters?
the examples above, the underlined time expressions and A: Yes, I have two brothers and two sisters.
associated tenses are the focus, but you could adapt this
B: What are their names?
for different language areas at different levels. Check
understanding, and drill for pronunciation if you think A: My brother is Mohamed and Ali, and my sister is Fatima
this will be helpful. and Leila.
4 Working alone, students write sentences about B: Do they live with you?
themselves, choosing from the given structures. Their A: Yes, my brother and sister.
sentences can be true or false. Monitor and help / correct B: Do you spend a lot of time with your family?
where necessary. A: Yes, I spend a lot of time with my family.
5 Students read their sentences aloud in small groups. The B: Have you got lots of relatives?
group decides if they are true or false and discusses the A: Yes, I have a lot of relatives.
true sentences, reporting back on interesting findings. B: And do you see them a lot?
Scott Thornbury, Barcelona, Spain. A: Yes.
B: When?
A: I see them in my grandfather house.
3 What can we learn from learner output? B: Thank you. What’s your family like?
For each level of natural English, our starting point has been a A: Close family.
wide range of extended speaking activities which we have from natural English pre-intermediate research data
trialled with multilingual groups studying in Britain and
monolingual groups overseas. The main aim of this trialling The conversation is clear, coherent and largely accurate, and
has been to help us to identify the language syllabus that they have fulfilled the task in that they now have information
seemed most relevant to each level, but it has also been from which they can draw some conclusions about the
fascinating to observe and analyse so much different learner similarities and differences between their families. But has it
interaction and output. This section provides a few samples been an engaging and rewarding interaction for the two
from that data with observations about possible implications students? Compare it with part of a transcript of two different
for classroom practice. learners doing the same activity.

task performance Conversation 2

The transcript below is of a conversation between two pre- A: Do you live with your parents?
intermediate learners. The stated aim of the activity was to find S: No, I live with my friend.
out how similar or different their families were. They had a A: But in your country?
framework of questions to help them, but they were free to S: Yes, in Korea. I met him military service.
explore any of the similarities and differences, and take the A: How old are you when you meet your friend?
conversation in whichever direction they wished. S: My friend? 21, 21 years.
A: Have you got any brothers and sisters?
3
think! S: Yes, I have got one brothers, one brother.
Read through the transcript. Do you think the activity was A: Only one brother.
successful? If so, why? If not, why not? S: Yes, my older brother.
A: How old is he?
Conversation 1
S: 25 years.
A: Do you live with your family or your parents?
A: 25 years. He is married?
B: Yes I live.
S: No. Why?
A: Have you got any brothers or sisters?

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 – they have not been shown how to make the most of a
A: No, because 25 years… learner-centred activity.
S: Usually Korean man usually married 28 or 29 or 30.
The first problem is an issue of class management. If the activity
A: What does he do? has worked well with other pairs, the teacher may decide to
S: My brother work in military service. keep these two students apart for a period of time and monitor
A: How long? how well they work with other partners. For the second
S: 26 month. I work for 28 month because I was navy. problem, if the activity failed to inspire others in the class, then
A: What is he name? it may be a question of material: the topic may not be very
S: My brother’s name is Kwang Min. suitable for this particular group. On the other hand, it may not
A: And do you spend a lot of time with your family? be the topic itself. If other students approached the activity in
the same ‘safety first’ way as our first two learners, they may
S: No, because I live in London, my parents live in Korea.
have thought the activity was too easy – lack of challenge can be
A: But in Korea, do you spend a lot of time with your family? a reason for poor motivation. For the third problem, as our
S: When I was high school student, I spent a lot of time with second pair demonstrated, a learner-centred activity can be as
my parents, but after I was university student I only slept challenging as you choose to make it. What our first pair may
in my home, my room. My house is a hotel. After I went to require is more guidance on how to extract the maximum
military service, I can’t, I couldn’t go to my home, only I benefit from an activity. You can do this by:
stay on holiday.
– demonstrating how the activity can be expanded. You
A: On holiday. And how often do you call your family? interview a willing student, then go back over the
S: I call yesterday, I call my parents. Sometimes I call four conversation and elicit some of the follow-up questions
weeks. used to keep the conversation going. Students can practise
A: When you are in Korea how often you call them? these until they can produce them automatically.
S: Never, because my parents call me, so I didn’t have to call – encouraging students to take risks in classroom activities.
them. Learners should realise that the classroom is one place
A: And do you write letters? where language can be repaired when it goes wrong; and if
S: Yes. they don’t experiment, they won’t find out what they can
and can’t do. Teachers can’t work miracles, but if we can
from natural English pre-intermediate research data give our learners the courage and confidence they need to
push back the boundaries of their current competence, they
These students in conversation 2 were from a different class,
will improve; and they will see that improvement.
and one of the students, a young Polish woman called Anna,
was in an elementary class, but their conversation lasted much
longer than conversation 1; too long, in fact, to include it all
here. From this extract though, it is clear they are engaged in
the task, they are listening to each other, and fully prepared to
4 Correction and reformulation
move beyond the initial framework of the activity and take When learners have contributed freely in an activity and
risks with the language in order to get the information they generated a lot of language, the next issue is: what do you do
want. As a result of this there are more errors, but they are with this output? We believe that learners can benefit a great
involved in real communication. deal from teacher feedback at the end of an activity, and most
In contrast, the first couple seem more interested in monitoring learners perceive this feedback to be extremely relevant and
the accuracy of their language. They are reluctant to follow up useful. But what form should the feedback take?
their initial questions – perhaps for fear of making mistakes, or Traditionally, feedback has largely consisted of correction of
perhaps they aren’t sufficiently interested in their partner’s grammar, and to a lesser extent, of vocabulary mistakes. This
answers. Either way, it is essentially a language exercise for seems to be an almost instinctive reaction. When we listen to
them. It fulfils a purpose, but a limited one. The students are learners, of whatever level, it seems that grammar errors are
consolidating language they already know and, for the most invariably the ones that register first and stand out. But while it
part, using it accurately, but they are not using the activity to is important to correct errors, it is equally important to consider
experiment with new language, and they are certainly not improvements in their language based on things they didn’t
pushing themselves even close to the limit of their ability. say, but perhaps should have said.
The following transcript is of three adult learners studying in
4
think! Barcelona, and it is part of the trialling of an extended
Look back again at the transcript for conversation 1. Can you speaking activity in unit three of the student’s book about
think of any reasons why the activity wasn’t successful? Then transport problems in their town. Please note that for trialling
read on. purposes, there was no pre-teaching of any language relevant to
the activity.
From this short extract it is impossible to know exactly why A: No, the area is fresh because I live near Collserola and in
the activity with the first pair was less successful than it might ten minutes I on foot I arrive to the … [unclear], yes.
have been. There are at least three potential reasons: B: I live from to five minutes walking on the Carreteras de las
– the two learners don’t work particularly well together Aguas. I live down the hospital Vall d’Hebron.
– they have not found the activity sufficiently motivating and A: Yes I know. But you are on the other hand of the Carreteras
/ or they believe it is essentially a linguistic task rather than de las Aguas. I start at San Pedro Mártir and you at …
a communicative one. [unclear]. And you, Julio – what is the situation of the
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 J: Yes, in my area there are some buses to Barcelona or the Taiwanese student who called himself Jeremy. We knew this
train station but the problem is the traffic. Every morning would be very challenging for them with no pre-teaching other
there are many, many traffic. It’s a problem because I need than a few items of vocabulary (bark, brick, bite, and smash), so
about one hour to arrive of my work. we let them work together as a group and help each other. This
A: Do you use to your car? was their first attempt.
J: No I don’t use my car because I prefer you use the bus or
train because I arrive to Barcelona more … more relaxed 5
about to arrive by car.
think!
Read through the transcript below. What do you think the
B: In my area the traffic jam is only a problem where the bus teacher should focus on after this first attempt? Then read on.
are place.
A: Yes, I don’t have problem with traffic.
J: They went to the park by car and he go with his dog and he
from natural English pre-intermediate research data take lunch box and I have sandwich and hamburgers.
T: Champagne …
Listening to these students in ‘real time’, certain common
grammar errors and mistakes with prepositions leap out at you J: Champagne, sandwich and very peaceful, but later many
– many traffic and arrive of, for example. But when we people will come, will came, … many people came here and
transcribed and analysed the conversation (and others like it), one people played football and the dog is barking there …
we noticed more and more that the characteristics of the N: They were fed up … a man listening to music …
conversation which made it sound most unnatural were the J: And a child shout very loudly, shout very loud … they
learners’ inability to manipulate common formulaic language: are fed up and they decide to go home.
T: They went to car park … they looked to a man, hold a
– the facility in English to form a compound adjective using
brick …
numbers and a time period , e.g. a ten-minute walk to …
J: They see … they saw one people hold a brick and they
(instead of: in ten minutes I on foot arrive to …). The exact
will smash his car’s window and they feel very scared …
numbers and time periods are variable, but the pattern is
and the dog barked … and the man very scared.
frequent and predictable, as are many of the nouns which
collocate with these compound adjectives, e.g. a five-minute N: The man screamed, shouted … Tom, maybe he was
walk, a ten-minute drive, a fifteen-minute wait, a two-hour delay, surprised and his dog bite, bit this guy.
etc. J: The man fight with … the man with the brick … and this
man didn’t stole, didn’t steal anything.
– the most common and natural way of describing the time
required to get from A to B, i.e. It takes (me) an hour to get to T: This man couldn’t run away … and the woman call the
work (instead of: I need about one hour to arrive of my work). police and the police will come, will came and arrest them.
– the most obvious way of asking someone to tell you more from natural English pre-intermediate research data
about someone or something, i.e. What’s transport like in
your area? (instead of: what is the situation of the transport of After this first attempt the teacher talked to the students about
your area?) the story and ways in which they could improve it. He talked
about the need to keep the story in the past tense – they were
It has to be said that reformulations of this sort are far easier to aware of making mistakes with the past simple – but also
make when you are working from a transcript. If you are able focused on two features of narrative which they could
to record your learners, even occasionally, we would certainly incorporate, even with their level of English. One of these was
recommend it. Transcribing the recordings would be a very the need to ‘set the scene’ of the narrative, and the second was
time-consuming occupation for you, but that is where you can the dramatic use of direct speech, which can sometimes help
make use of your learners. Ask them to transcribe a small part lower level learners to get round a potentially difficult
of their conversation, and having done so, see if they can explanation. After some further guidance from the teacher, the
correct or improve what they have said. Even if you can’t repeat group were keen to have another go … and then another go.
the procedure very often, you might be surprised at how much After the second attempt the teacher provided more guidance.
mileage you can obtain from one short, recorded conversation. This was their third attempt.
We are aware this is not a luxury available to everyone, and in
most situations teachers have to monitor and make notes while T: It was a nice sunny day so Tom and Victoria decided to go
conversations take place in ‘real time’. In these conditions it is to picnic in the countryside. They went to picnic by car with
easier to spot errors than it is to recognize the need for longer their dogs, his name is Jim. They had lunchbox and
lexical chunks in place of a phrase of their own which, champagne, sandwiches and hamburgers.
however stilted or unnatural it may sound, doesn’t necessarily N: They found a nice place near the lake … very peaceful.
contain any grammatical mistakes. But if you can do this just J: Felt relaxed, but later one family come and the man was
once or twice, it can broaden the scope of feedback and shift the playing football, the girl singing, the dog was barking and
emphasis away from error, which can have the effect of making the man listen loud music.
learners overly concerned with accuracy, and focus instead T: They were fed up. They decided to go home. They went to the
more on reformulation and improvement. car park, er ... a man hold a brick and smashed the window.
J: The man will … the dog bit the man and the man shouted …
task repetition T: Tom shouted, “That’s my car. What are you doing?”
One of the extended speaking activities we trialled for the N: Tom and this man had … fighting, had a fight, then Jim bit
pre-intermediate student’s book, unit seven p.70, was a the man and they couldn’t go, run away, and the woman
narrative which students have to construct from a series of called the police, and the police came and arrest, arrested
pictures. One group who did this consisted of two young them.
Japanese women, Natsuko and Tomomi, and a young
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All three students worked extremely hard throughout the
teaching sequence and what was interesting was their
willingness, in fact their eagerness, to repeat the task several
times. Admittedly this was a small group, so the students were
getting a lot of individual attention, but it seemed to us that
their enthusiasm was largely because they could see they were
improving.
We know from our own experience and through conversations
with other teachers that we are often reluctant to ask students
to repeat activities too many times for fear that they will get
bored. This does happen sometimes, but we may
underestimate the satisfaction learners get from repeating a
task – provided there is guidance and support each time to
increase the likelihood of an improved performance.
To summarize the main points in this section:
– When initiating student-centred activities, don’t assume
your learners will automatically know how to make the
most of them. Give them support and guidance.
– Try to nurture a classroom culture which is tolerant of error
and encourages students to experiment and push
themselves to the limit of their ability.
– In feedback, provide correction of error, but also think
about ways to reformulate and improve awkward or
unnatural English.
– Make sure feedback is on-going, and don’t be afraid to give
learners the opportunity to repeat tasks and see their
improvement.
These observations will be fairly familiar to experienced
teachers, but we found in the trialling that, perhaps by virtue of
their familiarity, some of the most obvious classroom
procedures were the ones which were easiest to overlook.

conclusion
In this chapter we have concentrated on the learner as the
primary classroom resource, and suggested:
– a series of frameworks for classroom activities which use
the knowledge and experience of the learners in the class
– a number of observations on how to utilize that learner
output
Teaching is a demanding profession and course books serve an
important function. At the very least, they can take the pressure
off busy teachers by providing professional, ready-made
material; for less experienced teachers, they provide a
necessary structure and can serve as a teacher development
tool. One should not overlook the fact that many students
expect to use course books and can learn from them. At the
same time, teachers shouldn’t become slaves to the course
book. We would recommend that they put the course book
aside some of the time and create some space for learners, free
of materials and technology.

follow-up
Campbell C and Kryszewska H 1992 Learner-based teaching Oxford
University Press
Sheelagh Deller 1990 Lessons from the Learner Pilgrims / Longman
Thornbury S and Conte N Materials-free teaching in English Teaching
Professional Issue 26 January 2003
Griff Griffiths and Kathy Keohane 2000 Personalizing Language Learning
Cambridge University Press

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