Plan of Activities to implement in the ESOL O640 course

By Anh Le:

1.The goals/purposes of the activities

The purpose of these activities is to implement the topics covered in the ESOL 0640 course:

Structure and Composition course and textbook: Looking Ahead: Book 3: Developing Skills for

Academic Writing. Since the goal of this course is to improve academic writing skills, students need to

be accurate in their writing. They need to extend their knowledge of academic vocabulary and be

accurate with grammar. The activities that I created in the Hot Potatoes program can reinforce

their writing skills by practicing grammar points and vocabulary.

2.How the activities relate to the chapter of the textbook

I created a set of 15 activities that are based from the chapter 5 in Looking Ahead: Book 3.

The topic of chapter 5 is summarizing and responding from reading texts. The 15 activities essentially

cover the grammar points and vocabulary from chapter 5. The grammar points consist of present

and past tenses, chronological organizers, and personal pronouns. The set of activities that I created

are divided in 2 parts: vocabulary and grammar.

I think that the vocabulary is important for understanding the readings. Students need to be

familiar with the vocabulary in order to understand, summarize, and respond to their readings. By

learning the vocabulary, students will build up their general academic vocabulary. They also need to

become more grammatically accurate in their writing. That is why they need to be more familiar with

the grammar points listed above by practicing the 15 activities that I have created.

3) How students will do the activities

Students are recommended to read the readings in the textbook and listen to the lectures in

class so they will be exposed to the vocabulary and topics before working on the activities. They can

work individually or in pairs. When working in pairs they can develop their speaking and listening

skills as they discuss the questions in the activities. Teachers should encourage ESOL students who

don't share the same L1 to work in pairs so they have to use English to communicate with each

other.

4.Rationale for activities

When I created these activities, I was thinking about what Nation (2000) and Decarrico (2001)

suggested about learning new vocabulary words. According to Nation, in order for learners

to assimilate new vocabulary, they need to be exposed to it in different ways and at different times.

Activities from Hot Potatoes allow me to apply what Nation said about teaching new vocabulary in

the classroom. Students are visually exposed to the vocabulary and grammar points as they finish the

readings in textbook and have to write summaries for class using the vocabulary. They are auditory

exposed to the new vocabulary as they listen to the teacher in class, and finally use the new

vocabulary as they do interactive activities from Hot Potatoes.

Decarrico suggested teaching vocabulary explicitly. It consists of teaching by association the most

frequently used vocabulary and the academic vocabulary. The vocabulary words that students will

learn in these activities are taken from academic readings in the textbook, and therefore students

study the academic vocabulary that is necessary for their academic writing.

5.Hot Potatoes exercises are not tests but practice activities

When working on these activities, students should bare in mind that the activities are not made

for testing their knowledge of the class material but rather for implementing the new material and

enriching what they already know. The score given in each activity is a way to keep score of how

many correct answers they give but the score does not count against their grades in the course.

6.Description of Hot Potatoes and its possibilities

The content of chapter 5 is on summarizing and responding; I did not create any activities that

relate to these topics because students have different ways of phrasing their summaries and

responding to their readings. I leave that to the teacher who can discuss these topics in class,

individually help students in class, or give them individual feedback by email.

I use Hot Potatoes to create activities for students to practice their academic vocabulary and

grammar points. It is composed of 6 types of activities (JBC, JQuiz, JCross, JMatch, JCloze). I

used 5 types of activities out of 6. JBC consists of a multiple-choice quiz: students read the question

and choose the correct answer from the list of answers. JQuiz consists of a short answer quiz:

students read the questions or statements and type their own answer in the blanks. Jcross consists of

finding the vocabulary by using the hints provided. J Match consists of matching vocabulary to

definitions or matching 2 associated concepts. J Cloze consists of filling the blanks as in a CLOZE

exercise. Students practice the grammar points listed above and the academic vocabulary with each

of the different types of activities offered in Hot Potatoes.

7.Suggestions to teachers for making their own activities

Teachers can create activities in Hot Potatoes to implement the topics covered in class such as

vocabulary and grammar practices. They can also create reading comprehension exercises. For

example, they can choose a reading text, attach it to the activity, and ask students questions about it.

Students match the appropriate answers to the questions. This type of activity can be used as a

pre-reading activity to introduce the text and provide the essential points of the reading.

Hot Potatoes activities can also be used as interactive class activities or as games. Teachers

can project the questions in class, and students can try to answer to the questions.

Teachers can also have the students create their own activities by making up their own

questions about vocabulary and grammar points from the text. By doing so students will become

more familiar with the grammar points and vocabulary.

8.Rationale behind the makeup of the activity

I particularly liked creating activities in JCloze, JMatch, and JBC but not so much in JQuiz,

Jcross and JMix. I think that when students do a JQuiz activity they can give a variety of answers

that do not necessary match to the answers. When they do JCross and JMix activities, they are

detached from the context. For example, when they try to find vocabulary in JCross, it is difficult for

them to figure out the meaning of the word unless they can see the context in which the vocabulary is

used. As for JMix, it is a confusing game where students have to unscramble the words and

sentences. I think both JCross and JMix activity types can be frustrating when students work on

their own.