Practical Teaching Ideas
(Thanks to the author for letting us use his lesson
plans.—J. Miller
All these practical teaching ideas are adapted from the Cambridge
University Press Handbooks For Language Teachers publication – The Internet
& The Language Classroom, Dudeney, G., CUP 2000.
The Internet & The Language Classroom
Dudeney, G.
Cambridge University Press, 2000
ISBN: 0-52178373-9
Index
1
– Introduction to the Net (I)
2
– Introduction to the Net (II)
3
– Giving Advice
4
– A Song Class
5
– Celebrity Dinner Party
6
– Strange News
7
– Mystery Postcards
8
– London Sightseeing Tour
9
– Puzzlemaker
10
– Who Said That… ?
1 - Introduction to
the Net (I)
SUMMARY: An introduction to basic Internet
skills and concepts
LEVEL: Lower Intermediate and above
TIME: 1 hour (30 minutes on the Net)
LANGUAGE: Vocabulary connected with computers and the
Internet
SITES: http://www.yahoo.com/
NOTES: This activity is designed to
introduce students to the basic skills they will
need for the other
activities in this section.
Preparation:
A simple questionnaire about computing habits is a good
introduction to this activity. Make sure to include discussion questions about
the Internet: has anyone used it? (at home / work / school?) / what have they
used it for? / what is it for? / what can you find on the Net? – you’ll find a
sample below. When they have finished talking, get feedback and general
reactions to the subject. Then try the Brief
History of the Web vocabulary activity below.
Online:
Show students how
to open a web browser, type in an address and go to a website (try Yahoo! as a
good starting page). Give students a printout of the web browser window with
the Yahoo! main page in it. Go through the various functions of a browser (see
Part A for a reminder) and let students make notes and label their printout.
Allow students time to play with Yahoo! and encourage them to find a website
connected with a hobby or interest (don’t forget to show them how to Bookmark or add Favorites!). When they find a page show them how to print it out.
When they have finished make sure they know how to exit the browser and leave
the computers tidy for the next class.
Offline:
Put students into
groups and give them time to compare their printouts and talk about the pages
they have found. Discuss the process they have just been through and deal with
the issues which usually arise – speed, content, etc (See Part A of The Internet & The Language Classroom for more
information).
Follow Ups / Variations:
If you have good access to the Internet, give students more
time in Yahoo! and get them to prepare a presentation on a hobby or interest
using pages they find.
Computing Habits
Have you
got a computer at home? What do you use it for?
Do you use
a computer at work / school / university? What for?
What do you
know about the Internet?
Do you use
it at home, at work? What do you use it for?
What can
you find / have you found on the Net?
Do you have
any ‘keypals’ (internet penpals)?
Have you
ever bought anything on the Net?
Brief
History of The Web
Read “The Web
Story” and put the words in the gaps. One example (address) is done for you.
Personal
computers (PCs) Small, computers which people use at
work/home.
A network Computers
joined together so that they can communicate.
The
Internet A
network of millions of computers around the world.
Electronic mail (e-mail) A way of
sending and receiving messages on the Internet.
The World Wide Web A
user-friendly way of looking at words, pictures and
sounds on the Internet. Also called the
Web or the WWW.
A browser Computer
software used to look at the Web.
A site A
place on the Internet, also called a web page.
An address The location
of a site/web page.
The _________________ has existed since 1969. It was created by the USA military as a way of communicating even after a nuclear war. Universities soon used it. At first it was only used to send and receive _________________ messages. Thirty years ago computers were very big and very expensive. Today millions of people use computers at home and at work. Many people can afford to have a _________________ at home and, at work, computers are joined over _________________s. In 1991 the _________________ was invented. Now people looked at words, saw pictures and even heard sounds from around the world on their PCs. The Web was very popular. In 1987 there were 10,000 web pages but by 1992 there were more than one million _________________s and many millions of web page addresses. Thirty years ago a few people used the Internet to send e-mail. Today, all you need is a PC and a ____________ like Explorer to discover the wonderful world of the Web.
2 - Introduction to
the Net (II)
SUMMARY: An introduction to searching the
Internet
LEVEL: Lower Intermediate and above
TIME: 1 hour ( 50 minutes on the
Internet)
LANGUAGE: Question forms
SITES: http://www.yahoo.com
/ http://altavista.digital.com
/ http://www.askjeeves.com
NOTES: Your students will often want to find
specific information on the Internet. This
activity teaches them
how to search using different search pages. Note that
the Trivia Quiz used to
introduce the activity will need to be adapted to suit
your group.
Preparation:
Use a Trivia Quiz like the one below to generate interest.
How well can your students do? It’s a good idea to include some questions they
are certain to be able to answer without using the Net as well as some they
probably won’t.
Online:
Introduce
students to the different ways of searching using AltaVista, Yahoo! and Ask
Jeeves (see Part A of The
Internet & The Language Classroom for a reminder) and give them time to
practise with the three sites. In groups, students try to finish the Trivia
Quiz you’ve given them. When they have finished, give them some time to search
for things they want to look at. The sample quiz below can be shortened to fit
the time available, or you might like to try giving students a limited time to
answer as many as possible, then pooling results to see if the class as a whole
has managed to answer all of them.
Offline:
In groups, students
prepare a trivia quiz for their colleagues to do. This is a good opportunity to
do some work on question forms. When the quizzes are ready, students can have a
quick return visit to the Internet to practise their newly-acquired search
skills.
Follow Ups / Variations:
When the Trivia
Quiz has been done, students can prepare a similar quiz for you to try. In
multinational groups, each country can be represented by a question for you to
answer. This activity can easily be adapted for younger learners by
substituting the search sites for Yahooligans! (http://www.yahooligans.com/),
Ask Jeeves Kids (http://www.ajkids.com/)
and Lycos Kids (http://www.lycos.com/kids/)
Trivia Quiz -
Searching on the Web (sample)
1. What’s
the name of the president of the United States?
2.
Who invented the aspirin?
3.
How may players are there in a basketball team?
4.
What’s the capital of Australia?
5.
What’s the weather like in Paris today?
6.
How many albums have the Rolling Stones recorded?
7.
What product is Jamaica famous for?
8.
Which film won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1996?
9.
Who was the first person in space?
10.
Who wrote ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’?
Use any of the search pages to find the answers you don’t know
3 - Giving Advice
SUMMARY: A look at teenage problems and giving
advice
LEVEL: Upper Intermediate and above
TIME: 1 hour ( 20 minutes on the Net )
LANGUAGE: Revision of functions for giving advice,
reported speech
SITES: http://www.teenadvice.org/–
archive section
NOTES: This site features many problems
dealing with sensitive areas. Make sure
you
read through the problems you are going to use thoroughly before
looking
at them in class. You could also look at: http://www.teentalk.com/,
http://www.lucie.com/,
http://www.teenadvice.net/
Preparation:
In groups students talk about and list the kinds of problems
they have (or had) as teenagers. What advice were they given? What happened in
the end?
Divide the class into two groups and put the titles of some
of the problems from the Teen Advice Archive on the board (make sure the
problems are suitable and that the language used is what you want to focus on
in the class). Each group should have about four titles. Give them time to
decide what they think the problems are about, who they think is involved and
what advice they would give the people.
Online:
Introduce them
to Teen Advice and give them time to find the problems you gave them in the
Archive. They should go through the problems and see if they guessed the
content correctly. Ask them to make notes on the problems and advice given, and
also write down any language for giving advice that they find.
Offline:
Divide
students up across the two groups to tell each other about the problems and
advice they looked at, and ask them to compare the language for giving advice
that they found. Put the language to
the board.
Follow Ups / Variations:
There are
plenty of good traditional activities for this kind of language work, including
‘running counsellors’ where half the class are counsellors and the other half
have problems (nothing too sensitive). Students with problems have a minute
with each counsellor to explain their problem and get advice. At the end of the
activity, votes are cast for the best counsellor.
Other options
include a writing task where students are writing a case report on one of the problems,
detailing the person and their problem, and the advice they were given – and
making use of reported speech. Finally, why not try a class magazine (either on
paper or as a web project – see Part C of The Internet & The Language
Classroom) with a problem page?
4 - A Song Class
SUMMARY: Student prepare songs to present to
the rest of the class
LEVEL: Lower Intermediate and above
TIME: 1 hour ( 40 minutes on the
Internet )
LANGUAGE: None
SITES: http://www.lyrics.ch// http://www.yahoo.com/
NOTES: This class relies on you and your
students being familiar with a word
processor as well as the
Internet. There is a sample song class on the
website which accompanies
this book at http://insert_address_here/
Preparation:
In pairs, use the Talking
Music discussion sheet below to start the activity. Get some feedback and
do a song activity of your own. These invariably lead to a discussion between
teacher and students as to what constitutes ‘good music’. Tell them they are
going to have a chance to ‘get their own back’ by preparing a song class for
everyone else to do.
Online:
Introduce
students to the International Lyrics Server (above) and show them how to search
for lyrics. Once they have found the lyrics to a song they would like to do in
class, demonstrate how to select the lyrics (Edit -> Select All) and copy them (Edit -> Copy). Open up a word processor and paste the lyrics
into a new document (Edit -> Paste).
Now get the students to use Yahoo! (see Introduction
to the Net II above) to find a photo of the group or star whose song they
have chosen – this is best accomplished by going to the Entertainment/Music/Artists
section and searching from there. When they have the lyrics and the photo
together in their word processor, make sure they save the document and print it
out.
Offline:
Each group who has
found a song is in charge of producing a song worksheet. Help them decide what
they want to do (e.g. gap-fill, re-arrange words, correct the mistakes, …) and
give them time to produce a finished worksheet. These can be used throughout a
course with each group presenting and ‘teaching’ their song.
Follow Ups / Variations:
Using Yahoo!
students could also find biographical information on the group they have
chosen. This could then be turned into a presentation or project, or even a
website (see Part C of The
Internet & The language Classroom for details)
Talking Music
In groups, discuss the following
questions:
1. Who
are your favourite pop stars and groups?
2. What
are your top five favourite albums of all time?
3. What
is the best single ever recorded?
4. What’s
the best music video you’ve ever seen?
5. What’s
the best concert you’ve ever been to?
6. Do
you prefer cassettes, mini discs, CDs or records?
7. Which
groups or pop stars do you dislike?
8. How
much money do you spend on music per month?
Find
out anything else you would like to know about your group’s music habits
5 - Celebrity Dinner
Party
SUMMARY: Finding out about famous people
LEVEL: Lower Intermediate and above
TIME: 60 minutes ( 30 minutes on the Net
)
LANGUAGE: Past tenses /
SITES: http://www.celebsites.com/| http://www.yahoo.com/
NOTES: Current celebrities can be found at
the CelebSites website. For older
famous people, dead ones
or the scientist / politician / writer range, use
Yahoo! sections. This
can also be adapted for Business English classes,
using appropriate
figures from the world of business. finance, etc.
Preparation:
For this activity you’ll need some pictures of famous men and
women (living or dead). Try to find a selection of scientists, politicians, pop
stars, actors and actresses, writers, etc. Display the pictures and elicit any
information the class knows about the people. If you lack the time or resources
to prepare an activity like this, simply provide the names of celebrities, or
perhaps have a quick quiz, with you providing surnames and the class providing
the first names as you write them on the board.
Explain that the class has won a competition to host a
celebrity dinner party and that they can invite four of the people shown.
Online:
Use the sites
above – or, alternatively, give students a chance to practise their search
skills. In pairs, they have 30 minutes to find out about the people they are
not familiar with, and make some notes on their achievements and reasons for
being famous. When they have finished, they should be in a position to decide
who to invite.
Offline:
Give everyone
a Seating Plan (see below) and give each pair a chance to arrange their guests
around the table in such a way that everyone will have somebody interesting to
talk to. Then put pairs together to discuss their arrangements and explain who
they have invited and why. They should also be encouraged to say why they have
people sitting next to each other, and where they themselves would sit and what
they would like to ask their guests.
Follow Ups / Variations:
There are plenty of opportunities to adapt and extend this
activity. Students might like to plan the menu for the evening (are any of the
celebrity guests vegetarians?) or perhaps arrange an interview with their
favourite guest. The interview can then be written up.
CELEBRITY DINNER PARTY – SEATING
PLAN
[ ILLUSTRATION – circular dining table with six seats round it
]
6 - Strange News
SUMMARY: A short activity based round news
headlines from Yahoo! / Reuters
LEVEL: Upper Intermediate and above
TIME: 1 hour ( 20 minutes on the
Internet )
LANGUAGE: Telling stories, anecdotes, conversational
skills
SITES: http://www.yahoo.com/headlines
NOTES: The stories at the Yahoo! headlines
site change regularly, so it is not a
good idea to choose your
headlines too far in advance. This activity is
an ideal one for doing entirely
offline if necessary. The Yahoo! news site
also features Business
news.
Preparation:
Get some topical cartoons or news headlines from newspapers
and magazines and pass them out in groups. Students try to remember (or guess) what
the stories were. Can they remember anything curious or funny which has
happened recently?
Divide the
class into groups and give each group 3 or 4 headlines from the curious stories
section of Yahoo! News Headlines. They have a look at their headlines – can
they guess what the story is? They make predictions as to what they think each
story could be about. You can also do a vocabulary prediction exercise – which
words would they expect to find in each article?
Online:
Students visit
the Yahoo! News Headlines site and find their stories. They then read them and
make notes on them.
Offline:
Later students
get into bigger groups – or as a whole class activity – and tell each other
their stories, including new (and useful) words they have learnt.
Follow Ups / Variations:
You could take a look at some language used for swapping
anecdotes: “This is a great one…”, “This one’s funny…”, “I’ve never heard that
one before…”, etc. There are also plenty of Urban Myth sites on the Net (a
quick search of Yahoo! or AltaVista will turn up quite a few) which can easily
be exploited in this context.
A writing
activity where students write the article, based on strange headlines you
provide is also a good follow-up.
I have found this to be an excellent quick activity for
higher level students. Not only is it a lively and interesting start to a
class, it is also in invaluable source of vocabulary.
7 - Mystery Postcards
SUMMARY: Describing places, food, people, etc.
LEVEL: Elementary and above
TIME: 1 hour ( 30 minutes on the Net )
LANGUAGE: Past tenses, present perfect, adjectives
SITES: http://www.all-yours.net/program/start20?write938159&lan=en
NOTES: If this site
is not to your liking, try a search for something like “virtual
postcard”
in Yahoo! or AltaVista for a selection of similar websites. You’ll
need
email addresses for your students (See the FAQs
section of The
Internet
& The Language Classroom ) This activity was first
suggested to me
by
Paul Henderson, a former colleague.
Preparation:
Hand out a
copy of the Mystery Postcard (below)
and ask students where they think Graham and Cindy are on holiday. The answer should
be Paris. How did they know? There are plenty of clues, including: tower, boat
on the river, art gallery, croissant, wine, Disney. Now ask them to think of
somewhere they would like to go on holiday and to make a list of the things
they would do and see there. This can also be done with somewhere they have
already been.
Online:
Divide students
into pairs. Go to the Digital Internet Postcard site listed above and give
students time to prepare and send a mystery postcard to their partner. This
involves choosing an image, writing the text for the card and addressing it
(email address), previewing it to make sure it looks fine and then clicking the
send button.
Note that when a
postcard is sent, notification is sent via email to the recipient who then has
to return to the site to ‘collect’ the card. This is usually very quick, but
you may need to continue this activity in a subsequent class if the cards don’t
arrive quickly enough. When the students have picked up their postcards, print
them out.
Offline:
Display the
postcards in the classroom and give students time to walk around deciding where
everyone is on holiday. They should make notes of the clues which helped them
work out the answers. Get feedback and check everyone is right.
Follow Ups / Variations:
For higher levels, work on country stereotypes can be done,
concentrating on adjectives and concepts used to describe people from different
countries (e.g. English people all wear bowler hats and carry an umbrella and
The Times. They are cold and a little arrogant…) What is the purpose of
stereotypes, and how much truth is there in them? For lower levels, a holiday
diary is a fun follow-up.
Dear Mum and Dad,
It’s
really great here! The flight wasn’t very
long
and we had good food on the plane.
It’s
a very expensive city, so we haven’t
been
out too much. You were right, the Mr
and Mrs Thomas
view from the top of the Tower is
amazing,
you can see all of the city. Today we’re 3 Blackberry Way
going on a boat on the river and then to visit
a
couple of old churches before we go to Gloucester
that art gallery you told us about.
GR1
4XY
We’ve
had lots of croissants and coffee for
breakfast
– very cheap! The wine is also England
good and cheap. Disney at the
weekend!
Love, Graham and Cindy
8 - The London
Sightseeing Tour
SUMMARY: Planning a day out in London
LEVEL: Lower Intermediate and above
TIME: 1 hour ( 30 minutes on the Net )
LANGUAGE: Making arrangements, suggesting, agreeing,
disagreeing
SITES: http://www.londontown.com/
NOTES: Most major
world cities have plenty of websites devoted to them. Look in
Yahoo!
for a city which suits you and your students best. This activity
also
works well in a Business English class.
Preparation:
Start off with
a general chat about London. Have any of the students visited the city? What
did they do there? What did they visit and see? Get students into groups of
three and four and give them time to talk to each other and find out what they
like doing when they visit a new city: do they like seeing monuments, going
shopping, visiting galleries, etc? Now tell them they are going to plan a day
out in London, between them, and that they must try to agree on what to see and
do and to accommodate the likes and dislikes of each member of the group.
Online:
The London Town
website has complete coverage of things to see and do in London. Steer students
towards sections such as Attractions, Open Top Bus Tours, Sightseeing and Walking
Tours. There are also sections on eating, shopping, etc.
Offline:
Once they have
agreed, have them complete the London
Sightseeing Tour worksheet (below) and then re-distribute the group members
to make new groups with everyone explaining to the others what their group
decided to do, where to go, etc. If you have paper maps of the city or other
realia, these can make the activity more interesting. For those with unlimited
Internet time, stay with the computers for a more interesting description, using
the website.
Follow Ups / Variations:
A logical follow-up is to design a similar resource for the
city your students live in. Decide on the major features of the city. Why would
someone want to visit it, and what should they do while there? What other
information would they need to know to have a successful visit?
London Sightseeing Tour
Write a brief summary of times and
activities as you plan them…
8 a.m. - breakfast
in the hotel
9 a.m. -
9 - Puzzlemaker
SUMMARY: Making and solving puzzles
LEVEL: Elementary and above (Young
Learners)
TIME: 1 hour ( 30 minutes on the Net )
LANGUAGE: Vocabulary revision
SITES: http://www.puzzlemaker.com/
NOTES: Puzzlemaker
is a real timesaver for busy teachers, but is also fun for
students
to use. It makes all kinds of puzzles which can then be printed
and
used in class or for homework. Puzzles include: wordsearches,
wordsearches
with hidden messages, crosswords, cryptograms, etc.
Preparation:
There are lots
of different ways of using Puzzlemaker, but I think my favourite is as a
regular vocabulary revision activity. This is an idea for using the wordsearch
maker. Get students in pairs to brainstorm vocabulary for a particular are you
have been working on recently (or not so recently), e.g. food and drink, travel
or similar. Have them make a list of 15-20 words they can remember from the
field.
Online:
Show them how to
use the wordsearch maker. All they then have to do is fill in the form and have
the webpage make their wordsearch for them. Encourage them to personalise the
title such as “Ivan and Natalie’s Travel Quiz”. Make sure you print a copy of
each quiz when it is finished.
Offline:
Photocopy the
quizzes and distribute them over the following classes, either as quick
activities in class or for homework. I like to use this regularly as it gives
the students some investment in the work done in class, and there’s the added
challenge of being able to make a puzzle which can’t be solved by their
colleagues.
Follow Ups / Variations:
Investigate the other types of puzzles – most of them are
easy to make, and once your students have learnt each type they will be able to
make them unsupervised.
10 – Who Said
That...?
SUMMARY: Famous Quotations
LEVEL: Upper Intermediate and above
TIME: 75 minutes (30 minutes on the Net)
LANGUAGE: Talking about famous people
SITES: http://www.famous-quotations.com/
NOTES: This site can
be searched alphabetically, by category and by author. More
quotation
sites are available through Yahoo! if you don’t find what you are
looking
for here.
Preparation:
Start with the Who
Said That… ? activity (below) There’s a good chance that your students will
know some of them, but not all. Get feedback and see which ones they know, and
what they know about the people who said them, and the circumstances in which
they were said.
An alternative presentation might be to start by putting the
names of the people from the Who Said
That…? activity up on the board. Elicit any information about the people,
and see if the students know what they are famous for. Then lead into the
activity.
Online:
Give them time to
finish the activity, finding the quotes they didn’t know. Encourage quick
finishers to look around, pointing out the different search options. Get
feedback on the rest of the answers. Now tell them they are going to make an
inspirational quotation wall, and that they have ten minutes to find two or
three quotations each which they think are useful, funny, intelligent, etc.
Offline:
Using large pieces
of card or paper, have student make the quotations wall, discussing how
quotations should be organised, and saying why they chose them and what meaning
they have for them.
Who Said That… ?
We’re
more popular than Jesus Christ now
Any colour,
so long as it’s black.
That’s one
small step for a man, one giant step for mankind
I have a
dream today
All I need
to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl
It’s often
safer to be in chains than to be free
Ask not what
your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country
I never forget a face, but I’ll make
an exception in your case
Hell is
other people
I cannot believe that God plays dice with the cosmos
Franz Kafka Henry Ford Groucho
Marx John Lennon John F Kennedy Martin Luther King Neil Armstrong Albert Einstein Charles
Chaplin Jean Paul Sartre
KEY (in order): John Lennon, Henry Ford, Neil Armstrong,
Martin Luther King, Charles Chaplin, Franza Kafka, John F Kennedy, Groucho
Marx, Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Einstein