3. TECHNIQUES IN DIFFERENT
APPROACHES
The Natural Approach in the Classroom
Total Physical Response
Dialogues or Conversations
Language Experience Approach
Shared Reading
Key Words
4. THE NATURAL APPROACH IN THE
CLASSROOM
Stage 1 – Comprehension
Always use visual aids
Modify your speech (speak more slowly,
simplify vocabulary and grammar)
Do not force production – students will use
English when they are ready
Focus attention on key vocabulary
5. Teacher Activities in the
Comprehension Stage
Total Physical Response (TPR) – teacher
gives commands to which the students
react with their bodies as well as their
brains.
Supplying meaningful input based on items
in the classroom or brought to class. (Who
has the _____? Who is wearing a _____?)
Supplying meaningful input based on
pictures.
6. Stage 2 – Early Speech
Stage 2 begins when students begin
using English words to give:
a. Yes/No answers
b. One-word answers
c. Lists of words
d. Two word strings and short phrases
THE NATURAL APPROACH IN THE
CLASSROOM
7. Instructor Question Techniques
to encourage transition from Stage 1 to 2
Yes/no questions (Is Jimmy wearing a sweater
today?)
Choice questions (Is this a pencil or an eraser?)
Questions which can be answered with a single
word. (What does the woman have in her hand?
Book. Where? When? Who?)
General questions which encourage lists of words.
(What do we see on the table?)
Open sentence with pause for student response.
(Mike is wearing a blue shirt, but Ron is wearing a
_____ shirt.)
8. OTHER ACTIVITIES WHICH CAN BE
USEFUL IN EARLY STAGE
Open dialogues
Guided interviews
Open-ended sentences
Charts, tables, graphs
Newspaper Ads
9. Stage 3 – Speech Emergence
Production will normally improve in both
quantity and quality.
The sentences that the students produce
become longer, more complex and they
now use a wider range of vocabulary.
The number of errors will slowly decrease.
THE NATURAL APPROACH IN THE
CLASSROOM
10. TECHNIQUES THAT CAN BE USED
IN STAGE 3
Game of all sorts
Problem solving using charts, tables,
graphs, maps
Advertisements and signs
Group discussion
Skits
Activities involving audio-visual materials
Writing exercises
reading
11. In general, we may classify language acquisition
activities in which the focus is on the message.
a. Content (culture, subject matter, new
information, reading)
b. Affective-humanistic (student’s own
ideas, opinions, experiences)
c. Games (focus on using language to
participate in the game)
d. Problem-solving (focus on using
language to locate information)
12. TEACHING THROUGH TOTAL
PHYSICAL RESPONSE
I. Orientation
Show a documentary film or any
motivational activity
Say commands rapidly in English and
announce in the student’s language that
by the end of the class everyone will
understand everything that you just
said.
13. II. Preparation
Have a detailed outline or script of the
topic
Get props together and have them
handy
Arrange the class so that there is a
large space for the action and so that
everyone can participate
14. III. Classroom Procedure
A. The Method (taken from Teaching English
through Action)
a. Demonstration – the students listen and
respond to commands modeled by the
instructor. The teacher commands and
models with the entire group, 2-3 students
or 1 student. Group responds to commands
without instructor.
15. b. Progression of Commands
Simple actions (walk, jump)
Simple actions involving objects and locations
(walk to the door)
Recombination of actions and objects (walk to
the chair)
Recombination of action and objects involving
transferring meaning to a new situation (shake
your head)
Chains of actions leading into an activity
sequence (take the can… open the can.)
16. c. Some pointers:
Model clean responses to commands (e.g.
don’t swivel your head and then turn around
with the command “turn”)
Novel commands (new combinations of
elements already mastered keep interest high
and enhance self-confidence as students
realize that they have understood something
never quite heard before.)
Introduce new vocabulary 3 items at a time and
proceed only after students are responding
confidently.
17. If students do not grasp a new item after a few
trials, drop it until a future time. (e.g. students
may not be able to transfer from “point to the
corner of your eye” to “walk to the corner of the
room”)
When commanding individuals, call on confident
students. Sometimes volunteers by saying “one
student”
Keep varying who you call. Keep students alert.
Keep changing the order of the commands to
increase listening attention.
18. B. The Expressive Stage (Speaking)
After TPR the students will begin to reveal
readiness to speak by mouthing or mumbling
commands out loud.
a. invite the students to command the teacher,
other students, or the whole group
b. Ask questions that involve yes or no answers
c. Progress to questions involving one word
answers
Students will begin to lengthen their answers as
they hear and assimilate more.
19. As students become more proficient, the
instructor can add substitution drills,
transformation drills, dialogues, and conversation
C. The Expressive Stage (Written)
The instructor can give out study papers after a
few lessons with the words used in class,
demonstrating and saying each of the words.
For beginners, numbers and simple words can
be manipulated. Commands can also include
blackboard tasks.
20. Reading and writing lessons can increase in
complexity as the students progress.
21. HOW TO USE DIALOGUES OR
CONVERSATIONS
Dialogues are very useful teaching technique once
an initial set of vocabulary is understood.
The purpose of using a dialogue is to present a
situation of real language in which the student role
plays in a safe environment before being met by the
real thing.
By using role-playing dialogues, the students come
to own the language.
Dialogues should be performed with books closed
allowing for the students’ total attention to be
focused on the oral language presented.
Dialogues should be short, easily repeatable, and
should use everyday language.
22. In cases wherein the learners are not that
literate in the language…
teachers must create real situations with realia
or pictures to give all the contextual clues
possible.
Present important vocabulary first and then
begin to introduce the conversation, keeping
students’ attention focused on the situation and
oral language presented.
23. Our goal in using conversations is for the student to
be able to say each part of the conversation easily
and without prompting.
Each conversation should be modeled first by the
teacher performing both parts of the conversation
but changing position or voice tone to indicate the
different parts.
24. LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE APPROACH
The experience which will be written about may
be a drawing, something the student brought
from home, a group experience planned by the
teacher or simply a topic to discuss.
The student is asked to tell about his/her
experience.
The student then dictates his or her story or
experience to the teacher, aide, volunteer, or to
another student.. The writer copies down the
story as it is dictated (do not correct the student’s
grammar while the story is being written down).
25. The teacher reads the story back, pointing to the
words, with the student reading along. With young
children at beginning levels, it may be necessary to
read back each sentence as it is dictated.
The student reads the story silently and/or aloud to
other students or to the teacher.
When students are ready, they can begin to write
their own experience stories.
Students can re-write their own previous stories as
their language development progresses, and then
illustrate them to make books for other students to
read.
26. SHARED READING
Choose a text—a story, poem, or other reading.
Enlarge the text so all students can see it at
once.
Read the text to the students, pointing to each
word as you read it.
Encourage prediction by covering words that are
easy to predict.
Use masking devices to uncover parts of words,
teaching students how to use phonics to confirm
predictions.
27. Masking devices can also be used to show prefixes,
suffixes, and roots or to fix attention on any words for
whatever reason.
After students have heard the text several times,
they join in wile you are reading. Continue to point at
each word as it is read.
Have individual students read and point.
Have small copies of the text available for students
to take home and read to their parents.
Shared reading texts are predictable can be used for
patterned writing, in which students write their own
variations on the patterns in the text.
SHARED READING
28. KEY WORDS (adapted from Sylvia Ashton
Warner)
Prepare cards to write on
Each day, engage each student in
conversation and get him/her to tell you a
word that’s very important to him or her
that day.
Write the word on the card while the
student is watching, sounding it out as you
write and then repeating the word.
Give the card to the student and have
him/her read the word.
29. The students keep their words in boxes, coffee
cans, or on rings. They read all their words to
you or to another student each day. Any words
that they can’t remember are discarded,
explaining that the word must not have been
important enough to remember.
Students can draw pictures of their words, try to
find them in books, classify them according to
meaning or sound, alphabetize them, write them
in sand, spell them on flannel or magnetic
boards, etc.
30. As students learn to read their friends’ words,
they make copies of them and add them to their
pack.
When they have -10 words already, they can
begin writing stories using them.
31. SAMPLE CONVERSATION ACTIVITIES
STUDENT INTERVIEWS
Purpose: Introducing Students to Each Other /
Expressing Opinions
Choose a topic that you feel will interest the
students. Ask students to write five or more
questions about this topic (students can also come
up with the questions in small groups). Once they
have finished the questions, they should interview at
least two other students in the class and take notes
on their answers. When the students have finished
the activity, ask students to summarize what they
have found out from the students they have
interviewed.
32. STUDENT INTERVIEWS continuation…
This exercise is very flexible. Beginning students can
ask each other when they do their various daily
tasks, advanced students can make up questions
concerning politics or other hot topics.
SAMPLE CONVERSATION ACTIVITIES
33. WHO WANTS A...?
Purpose: Convincing
Tell students that you are going to give them a present.
However, only one student will receive the present. In
order to receive this present, the student must convince
you through his / her fluency and imagination that he or
she deserves the present. It's best to use a wide range of
imaginary presents as some students will obviously be
more attracted to certain types of presents than others.
Examples:
A computer
A gift certificate for $200 at a fashionable store
A bottle of expensive wine
A new car
SAMPLE CONVERSATION ACTIVITIES
34. DESCRIBING YOUR BEST FRIEND
Purpose: Descriptive Adjective Use
Write a list of descriptive adjectives on the board. It's
best if you include both positive and negative
characteristics. Ask students to choose the two
positive and two negative adjectives that best
describe their best friends and explain to the class
while they chose those adjectives.
Variation:
Have students describe each other!
SAMPLE CONVERSATION ACTIVITIES
35. SAMPLE CONVERSATION ACTIVITIES
THREE PICTURE STORY
Purpose: Descriptive Language / Reasoning
Choose three pictures from a magazine. The first
picture should be of people that are in some sort of
relationship.
The other two pictures should be of objects. Have
students get into groups of three or four students to
a group. Show the class the first picture and ask
them to discuss the relationship of the people in the
picture. Show them the second picture and tell them
that the object is something that is important to the
people in the first picture.
36. THREE PICTURE STORY continuation…
Ask students to discuss why they think that object is
important to the people. Show them the third picture
and tell them that this object is something that the
people in the first picture really don't like. Ask them
to once again discuss the reasons why. After you
have finished the activity, have the class compare
the various stories that they came up with in their
groups.
37. ERROR CORRECTION
Error correction is often done by the
teacher providing corrections for mistakes
made by students. However, it is probably
more effective for students to correct their
own mistakes. In order to do this, students
and the teacher should have a common
shorthand for correcting mistakes.
38. ERROR CORRECTION
Aim: Teaching students to correct their own
mistakes
Activity: Mistake identification and correction
Level: Intermediate
Outline:
Discuss the importance of correcting your own
mistakes with students. Point out that information
arrived out inductively (by their own reasoning) is
more likely to be retained over the long term.
39. ERROR CORRECTION
Go through the shorthand used in the following
exercise for various types of mistakes.
Ask students to first find mistakes in the short
biography.
Give students the correction marks copy of the short
biography
Ask students to correct the short biography based on
the correction marks.
Give students corrected version of short biography.
40. Find the mistake….
Jack Friedhamm was born to New York in October
25, 1965. He began school at the age of six and continued
until he was 18 years. He then went to New York University
to learn Medicine. He decided on Medicine because he
liked biology when he was at school.
While he was to University he met his wife Cindy.
Cindy was a beautiful woman with hair long black. They
went along for yeers before they decided getting married.
Jack began to work like a doctor as soon as he graduated
to Medical School. They had two children named Jackie
and Peter, and have lived in Queens since the past two
years. Jack is very interested painting and likes to paint
portraits of his sun Peter.
41. Corrected version
Jack Friedhamm was born in New York on October
25, 1965.He began school at the age of six and continued
until he was 18 years old. He then went to New York
University to learn Medicine. He decided on Medicine
because he liked biology when he was at school. While he
was at University, he met his wife Cindy. Cindy was a
beautiful woman with long black hair.
They went out for years before they decided to get
married. Jack began to work as a doctor as soon as he had
graduated from Medical School. They have had two
children named Jackie and Peter, and have lived in Queens
for the past two years. Jack is very interested in painting
and likes to paint portraits of his son Peter.