Language Skills Related Tasks’ Assignment
Language Skills Related Tasks’ Assignment
1. Suitability of text for use with TP class
‘Does tourism ruin everything that it touches?’ – The text given to us as the assignment material, an article about the effects of mass tourism, can be responsibly chosen as a helpful, interesting and relevant element of a reading lesson plan for my Upper-Intermediate group. It’s not too long and consists of a reasonable amount of tricky and useful words. Ss will most likely find the author’s approach to modern tourism very refreshing, maybe even eye-opening, although probably not too controversial. The issue raised here isn’t new but very often ignored, especially in the times of the fashionable gap years, exotic trips and flights’ expansion. So it will definitely attract student’s attention and their full involvement in the lesson.
2. Pre-reading stage(s)
“As with listening lessons, many reading lessons move from ‘big’ to ‘small’, i.e. ‘top-down’ – from overview to details.” (Scrivener; 2009: 187) To start from an overview we need to provoke a question, a general idea on the given topic. Here, I’d display a nice flipchart with beautiful, world-renown sceneries and a statement: ‘Travel broadens the mind’. Then I’d turn to students, read it out and ask them if they agree with it and why/why not. I’d tell students to work and compare their views in pairs to slowly introduce them to the lesson. A minute later I’d elicit the answers from the class. Afterwards I’d get them closer to the subject and ask some more related questions. On the next flipchart I’d place a few questions:
- Have you ever visited some famous landmarks/cities/places?
- Have you brought any souvenirs from there/taken photos?
- Have you left any track of yourself there, if so, what was it? (e.g. signing the guests’ books).
I’d make Ss discuss the questions in pairs again and then elicit the information from their partners on the forum of the class. With this we would be ready for the reading stage.
1. Suitability of text for use with TP class
‘Does tourism ruin everything that it touches?’ – The text given to us as the assignment material, an article about the effects of mass tourism, can be responsibly chosen as a helpful, interesting and relevant element of a reading lesson plan for my Upper-Intermediate group. It’s not too long and consists of a reasonable amount of tricky and useful words. Ss will most likely find the author’s approach to modern tourism very refreshing, maybe even eye-opening, although probably not too controversial. The issue raised here isn’t new but very often ignored, especially in the times of the fashionable gap years, exotic trips and flights’ expansion. So it will definitely attract student’s attention and their full involvement in the lesson.
2. Pre-reading stage(s)
“As with listening lessons, many reading lessons move from ‘big’ to ‘small’, i.e. ‘top-down’ – from overview to details.” (Scrivener; 2009: 187) To start from an overview we need to provoke a question, a general idea on the given topic. Here, I’d display a nice flipchart with beautiful, world-renown sceneries and a statement: ‘Travel broadens the mind’. Then I’d turn to students, read it out and ask them if they agree with it and why/why not. I’d tell students to work and compare their views in pairs to slowly introduce them to the lesson. A minute later I’d elicit the answers from the class. Afterwards I’d get them closer to the subject and ask some more related questions. On the next flipchart I’d place a few questions:
- Have you ever visited some famous landmarks/cities/places?
- Have you brought any souvenirs from there/taken photos?
- Have you left any track of yourself there, if so, what was it? (e.g. signing the guests’ books).
I’d make Ss discuss the questions in pairs again and then elicit the information from their partners on the forum of the class. With this we would be ready for the reading stage.
Bibliography: Scrivener, J. (1994) Learning teaching, Heinemann Appendix 1 2. 1810 3. 600 million 4. 1845 5. 1939 8. 108 9. 1987