How to guide our students toward a full communicative competence. Paolo Iotti, 2016 Paolo Iotti ©

Monitor your lessons. How many minutes per lesson do… you teach "frontal lesson"? you expose your students to authentic English? your students work in pairs? your students work in group? your students practice their English? Paolo Iotti © 2

Communication games How are you? (a virus game) I have a fever… ( a virus game) Write a sentence Paolo Iotti © 3 1

5 – 10 minutes of real life (only 5 minutes?) Paolo Iotti © 4 2

Real Life - principles The students sit in a circle; they are all equal and can see one another. The teacher is outside the circle, so the teacher is not the focus of the learning. The teachers does not talk to the group, so he/she never dominates, never takes over. Paolo Iotti © 5 Two rules to get a free “RL” discussion / conversation: Two rules to get a free “RL” discussion / conversation: 1. Only one student speak at a time. 2. As each student speak, the teacher stands behind him/her and whisper him/her ear a translation into the target language of what he/she says (short sentences). Each student learn to say and says exactly what he/she wants to say, however complicated or advanced it may be. The learners is in control of the language, the teacher is a resource.

Why pair work and pair group? Who needs most practice, speaking English? You or your learners? Without pair work and group work, only one person can practice at once, usually you, the teacher… You can also speak to one student at a time in natural conversation. All the class communicate through you. That’s hard work for you… (but…) (… the combination of attitude and suitable material can help…) Paolo Iotti © 6 3

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“I’ve given up, I’m sorry…” There are many teachers who have tried using pair work and group work for a few months and who have then gone back to more traditional teacher- centred techniques. Why? Paolo Iotti © 13

Use more of… pair work and group work, because… Your students do more of the work, because they have to think for themselves. Your students have to speak for themselves. Everyone in the class is speaking and using the target language at the same time. It great increases the amount of practice. This practice is private, within the group, not in front to the whole class. Students can correct, help and support one another. Paolo Iotti © 14

Why do pair work and group work sometimes not work? Problems --- Solutions Audial Visual Kinesthetic instruction. Give your instruction using all 3 senses simultaneously: from your words the audials will hear what they have to do, the visuals will see your clear gestures and actions and the kinesthetic will understand doing your gestures and actions (they need to experience and feel what they have to do). Paolo Iotti © 15 What do I do? What do I say?. When preparing a lesson with pair work or group work you need to simply work out how to give your instructions. Use your teacher’s book. Some teachers prepare by visualing exactly what they will say and what they will do as if seeing and hearing a video of themselves giving the instruction.

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Studying stories (in groups), changing one or more parts and making it closer the our students’ life. The students, divided into groups, study the story; They know they will be asked to act out their stories in front of the class. The teacher invites the students to bring or create objects or masks to make the story more realistic (and to change one or more names of characters). Paolo Iotti © 17

Effective Learning with Action Stories stress-free fun positive atmosphere multi-sensory strong concentration understanding of complete sentences spoken naturally memorable Paolo Iotti © 18