TEFL TIPS – PRE-READING / PRE-LISTENING

Pre-reading and pre-listening ideas to ease students into interaction with the article, expose them to vocabulary and ideas and thus make the article easier to negotiate.

TRUE/FALSE CHOICE: Create a series of true/false sentences. For each proposition, include one sentence that is true and its false partner.

• Circle the sentence that you think is correct
• Google wants to put millions of books on the Internet.
• Google has been asked to create a worldwide Internet library.
• Publishers are cooperating to expedite Google’s project.
• Publishers are up in arms over Google scanning books onto the Web.
• Google Print involves scanning all of the books sold by Amazon.com.
• Google Print involves scanning books from prestigious universities.
• All of the scanning will be finished in November.
• All of the scanning will be suspended until November.
• Publishers accused Google of turning copyright laws upside down.
• Google accused publishers of turning copyright laws upside down.
• Experts say copyright laws are too out of date.
• Experts say copyright laws are too ahead of themselves.
• Information technology is moving at a similar pace to new legislation.
• Information technology is outstripping the pace of new legislation.
• Google wants millions of people to discover new books.
• Google wants millions of people to buy new books.

TRUE/FALSE RATIO: To give students more to think about, tell students the exact ratio of true to false statements.
CHANGED TERMINOLOGY: Broaden the vocabulary / metalanguage used in this simple exercise. Instead of “true” and “false”, use terminology such as:

• Highly probable / Highly unlikely
• Spot on / No way
• Absolutely / You must be joking
• Correct / Incorrect
• Not in a million years / Couldn’t be more correct
• Right / Wrong
• etc.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: As a “pre-” pre-reading activity, create a true/false quiz based on general knowledge surrounding the contents in the article. Vocabulary from the article could be used in the quiz.
ALL FALSE: Make all of the sentences false. Students have to guess and change one or two words to make them true.
READ AND MOVE: Teacher reads the first true/false statement. Students have to move to the left of the class (the “true camp”) or the right of the class (the “false camp”). Students then have to persuade each other to change camps by arguing why they believe they are right.
THAT CAN’T BE TRUE BECAUSE…: Students must assume all of the choices are false and give each other reasons why they believe so. They introduce their doubts by saying, “This can’t be true because…”. Take a vote to see who has the most believable and plausible reasons. Students check the real answers when they read the article.
THIS IS PROBABLY TRUE: Students assume all of the choices are true and give each other reasons why they believe so. A vote can be taken to see who has the most believable, plausible reasons. Students check the real answers when they read the article. They might support their beliefs using some of the
following exponents:

• This is probably true because…
• This must be true
• I can’t see how this can be false
• This one is obviously true
• You can’t tell me this one is false
• There’s no way [on Earth] [in a million years] this one’s not true
• etc.

FILL IN THE GAPS: Give students a true/false exercise that is also a gap-fill exercise. First students must fill in the gaps, then they do whichever true/false activity you choose from the above.
DEFINITIONS: Choose a list of words from the text. Create definitions to create a definition matching exercise.
DEFINITION PAIRS: For each word, create two definitions. To make things more helpful, but still create a sense of achievement, make sure one of the definitions in each pair is total nonsense Choose the correct definition from each pair.
DEFINITIONS: Students match the following words with the most likely definitions (Please think about the headline!):

• (a) break (n)
• (i) a kind of chocolate bar with wafer inside.
• (ii) a short time to rest while working, often for lunch or a snack and drink.
• (b) slogan (n)
• (i) a phrase used like a logo in advertising to make a company or product easy to remember.
• (ii) to keep trying to do something without ever giving up.
• (c) decade (n)
• (i) a period of ten years.
• (ii) a geometric shape that has ten sides.
• (d) lexicon (n)
• (i) all of the words in a language, or all of the words known by a person.
• (ii) a chemical put into chocolate to make people stay awake longer.
• (e) translated (v)
• (i) when a bus or train doesn’t come on time.
• (ii) the meaning of a word or sentence changed from one language into another.
• (f) definitely (adv)
• (i) to describe the panic students sometimes experience before taking an examination.
• (ii) to describe something you are 100% sure something will happen.
• (g) lingo (n)
• (i) slang for ‘language’.
• (ii) a kind of dance that involves arching your back and moving under a low bar.
• (h) edible (adj)
• (i) something that is safe to eat without any danger to your health.
• (ii) the quiet atmosphere in an examination room.
• (i) charm (n)
• (i) a kind of tea that provides you with energy.
• (ii) a small object people carry with them or put in their cars for good luck.
• (j) confidence (n)
• (i) the negative feeling you have that you can’t do something.
• (ii) the positive feeling you have that you can do something.

TEXT DEFINITION: Students match a list of definitions to words in the text. Things could be made easier for the students by putting the answers in the article in bold.
STORY ON THE WALL: The teacher places as many sentences from the text that make sense as standalone propositions on the wall as possible. Students walk around the class and comment on the sentences. They must be completely unaware that the sentences are from the text.
STUDENT-CHOSEN DEFINITIONS: Pairs / groups of students make half of the definitions each. They choose the words they want to find the meanings of and provide definitions for those words. Once finished, change partners and work on matching each other’s definitions.
SLIGHTLY WRONG DEFINITIONS: Give students the words with their definitions already matched. Some of the definitions are a little wrong. Students have to correct the definition.
CORRECT / INCORRECT: Students are given a list of definitions of words from the text, some of which are true, some false. Students have to decide whether the definitions are correct or incorrect.
CHOICE OF THREE: A list of definition sentences is provided with a choice of three words as answers. Students choose which is the correct word.
EXAMPLE:

• an organized fight or armed struggle by a people against a government or occupying power.
• punch up
• uprising
• self-raising

MIX ‘N’ MATCH DEFINITIONS: Cut the definitions in half. It is the students’ job to put the definitions back together before matching them with the correct words.
CROSSWORD DEFINITIONS: Create a crossword puzzle with the clues as the definitions. Provide the answers in a list below the answers. Students must write the answers in the puzzle.
FILL IN THE GAPS: Give students a definition exercise (matching or otherwise) that is also a gap-fill. Students must first fill in the gaps, then they do whichever definitions activity you deem appropriate from the above.
SYNONYM MATCH: Match the words in one column to their synonyms in the opposite column.
ANTONYM MATCH: Match the words in one column to their antonyms in the opposite column.
SYNONYM FILL: There are six gaps in the article. There are six groups of synonyms below the article. Place the number of the synonym group in the correct gap (It is not important to guess a correct word – any of the synonyms from each group could be put into the relevant gap).

• BNE: Japan’s world champion speed-eater has won his second ___ in two days at an eating competition in Hong Kong. Takeru Kobayashi, 27, easily ___ his rivals by consuming an amazing 83 steamed dumplings in eight minutes on Saturday. Kobayashi showed his munching talents again a day later by ___ 100 roasted pork buns in 12 minutes. He said he has a special technique that allows him to eat so much, so quickly. He ___ the food as tightly as he can in his mouth and then “chews like crazy”. Kobayashi holds ___ world eating records and is a ___ on the world speed eating tour. He is the current world record holder and champion for eating hot dogs – 53-and-a-half in 12 minutes. He has also ___ a similar ability with hamburgers by setting the world record in 2004 – 69 burgers in eight minutes. Mr. Kobayashi’s physique does not suggest he can eat such serious ___ of food. He is a very slim 65kg but says his stomach can stretch more than others. He hopes to make a career out of speed-eating.

1. Squashes squeezes crushes compresses
2. Downing swallowing eating devouring
3. Contest competition tournament challenge
4. Quantities amounts volumes portions
5. Shown displayed demonstrated revealed
6. Beat defeated whipped topped
7. Several various assorted different
8. Celebrity big cheese heavyweight somebody

PART OF SPEECH SYNONYM MATCH: Create a synonym match in which the synonyms are already matched, but the matched synonym includes different parts of speech. Students have to circle the choice that corresponds to the correct part of speech.
EXAMPLE:
safeguard (v) protective / protect / protection protectorate / protector
PART OF SPEECH JUMBLE: Create a synonym match activity in which incorrect parts of speech are matched with a synonym. Students must make the match and write the correct part of speech.
EXAMPLE:
safeguard (v) protective (Students must change “protective” to “protect”.)
TEXT SYNONYM MATCH: Students match words from a list to their corresponding synonyms in the text. Students can be helped in this by placing the synonyms in the text in bold. This could be made a little more challenging by putting in bold more words than matches.
SIMILAR SIMILES: Place two similes as the match for the word in the text. Students must discuss which one is a truer match for its partner in the text.
SYNONYM AND ANTONYM MATCH: Students must match words in the text to their synonyms and antonyms in a list below the article. They must denote which is the synonym and which is the antonym.
SYNONYM JUMBLE: The target words and their synonyms have been placed randomly on a piece of paper (not in the familiar 2-column format). It is the students’ job to find the pairs of synonyms.
CHOICE OF THREE: There are three choices for each word. Students have to decide which choice is the synonym, which the antonym and which is a nonrelated word.
KIM’S SYNONYMS: This is a game based on the popular memory activity, Kim’s Game. Pairs of synonyms are written on cards and placed face down. Students turn two cards at a time over. If the two cards are the same, they keep them, if not, they have to turn them back face down. The game is over when all of the matches have been found.
SYNONYM WORD JUMBLE: The synonyms are matched. There is one problem – the letters of the matched word are jumbled. Students have to guess the word from the jumbled letters.
EXAMPLE

• huge roesomun
• blasted damseml
• lethal dyadle
• etc

PHRASE MATCH: Take phrases or word pairs from the text and split them. Students have to match the beginnings with their endings. Alternate between keeping collocation pairs or phrasal verbs intact and splitting them on either side of the match. There may be cognitive value in the surprise students experience in seeing the two parts of a phrasal verb or strong collocate being matched. Decisions need to be made regarding where best to make the split for the match.
THREE WAY MATCHES: Create a phrase match with three columns. Students must match from left to middle to right in order to complete the match. In this example, the words in the first and third columns are correctly placed. The words in the middle column are in the wrong order.

CHOICE PHRASE MATCH: Create a phrase match with two choices in the second column. Students must decide which is the correct match.
EXAMPLE:
pirating has                           • afflicted the music industry
• reflected the music industry
ARGUE MATCHES: Each sentence or phrase beginning has a choice of two technically possible endings. Students A must argue that the first match is correct, Students B must argue that the second match is correct.
pirating has                           • afflicted the music industry
• improved the music industry
CHOOSE THE GRAMMAR MATCHES: Students match the phrases by choosing the correct collocates or phrasal verbs where the two matched halves join.
placing the onus                    • on the writer
• in the writer
STUDENT SPLITTING: Students create the phrase matches themselves. In pairs / groups, they agree on where it is best to split the sentence. With scissors, they cut the phrases and change partners. Swap slips of paper and see if the new partners can reassemble the phrases. When both sets of phrases have been completed, talk again about why the cuts were made where they were made. The teacher will need to mark the beginning of the phrases so students know where the phrases start.
ENDING CALL: The teacher or a group leader reads one of the phrase match beginnings. The other students look at a list of phrase match endings and alert the teacher if they think they know the answer. All other students must then make a decision as to whether or not they agree with the answer. Once agreed, the teacher / group leader places the matched pairs on the board / paper.
KIM’S PHRASES: This is a game based on the popular ESL activity, Kim’s Game. The beginnings and endings of different phrases are written on separate cards. Students turn two cards at a time over. If the two cards can be matched, the students put them face up to the side. If not, they have to turn them back face down. The game is over when all of the matches have been found. Some initial matches may be quite possible, but not be those in the article. Some re-matching may have to take place towards the end of the activity.
PHRASE JUMBLE: Beginnings and endings have been placed randomly on the desk on a piece of paper. It is the students’ job to match them correctly.
HALF RIGHT, HALF WRONG: Arrange the phrases so that half of the matches are right and half are wrong. Students have to decide which are the correctly matched phrases and correct the others.
YAHOO NEWS: Take in a list of the top 5 news stories from the different categories on Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/). These include “Top Stories”, “Most Popular”, “Most E-mailed”, “Odd Stories”, Most Recommended”, etc. Write the headlines on the board, Students have to talk about them. Some of the following phrases might be useful as conversation starters:

• This is not news.
• Who wants to read about this?
• This looks like a great story.
• I can’t believe reporters get paid for writing stuff like this.
• Too depressing.
• There should be more news stories like this.
• This is my kind of news.

WHAT SHALL WE TALK ABOUT? A common question. Students are given the headline and must brainstorm three things to talk about. Pool the topics and then let the students chat.
THIS WOULD MAKE A GOOD MOVIE: Students discuss why the headline would make a good movie. They must develop the story and characters. They might also decide on which real life stars should play the characters that might be in the article. They could also decide on the music, director, genre, etc.
PREDICTION: Put the headline on the board. Pairs / groups formulate their ideas regarding the contents of the article and present them to another partner / group. Decide together which ideas are likely to be in the article.
PRONUNCIATION: Work on difficult to pronounce or hear words before students listen to the text. Practice words or phrases that have similar linking elements, pronunciation shortcuts etc. Students talk about which parts of the text were difficult and why. They can practice the areas they had most difficulty with before trying / listening again.
WE HAVE A SITUATION: Choose three or four of the main characters in or related to the article. Students take a character each. Each set of characters is grouped together in one of the following situations. Students must improvise and have the conversation between the characters. They should talk about the headlines.

• On an airplane flying to Hawaii
• Hiking through the Amazon jungle
• In hospital beds in the same room
• Studying Arabic at a language school in Peru
• In a movie theater
• etc

HEADLINE JUMBLE: Scramble the words from the headline and ask students to arrange the words in the correct order. If the headlines are different, students talk about them and speculate on which is the correct headline. Students could make different headlines from the scrambled words and talk about the likely stories from each.
THE REAL HEADLINE: Create several more headlines based on the real one. Ask students to talk about what the contents might be in each of the headlines and guess which is the real one. The alternative headlines could be used to introduce vocabulary from the article as a pre-reading exercise.
HEADLINE CHOICES: Provide a choice of three or four recent headlines that are all very different in content. Ask students to talk about each one and decide which they would or would not be interested in reading. Then tell students which article they will look at in that day’s lesson. This may be a good way of assessing what kind of articles to bring to class in future.
ROUND ROBIN HEADLINES: Student A makes a prediction as to how the story will start. Student B follows and then Student C continues. Keep rotating until a story has fully developed. Change partners and compare stories.
NEWS COLLOCATIONS: The teacher writes the headlines on the board. Students must think of adjectives that match the headlines. Students discuss in pairs / groups how well the adjectives match the headlines. Change partners and compare adjectives.
HEADLINE VOTE: Each student thinks about the headline and briefly describes how they think the story will unfold. Take a vote on whose story they think is …

• closest to the real article.
• most entertaining
• the craziest
• the least likely to be closest to the real article
• the most original

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT…? Students mill around the class questioning other students about the headline. They must ask about the keywords in the headline. They should ask each other:

• “What do you know about X?”
• “What do you know about recent events / developments in Y?”
• “Do you know anything about X?”
• “What can you tell me about X?”
• “Tell me all you know about X”

JUICY? Ask students what kind of article the headline suggests. Introduce the following collocates of the word “headline”:

• Juicy
• Sensational
• Tragic
• Interesting
• Uninteresting
• Shocking
• Huge
• Historic
• Sad
• etc.

COLLOCATION HEADLINES: In pairs / groups, students have to change the story according to each collocate (E.g. “Can you change this headline into a juicy / shocking story?”). Students change partners and compare stories.
FROM A HEADLINE: Give the class the news headline. In pairs / groups, students must expand the sentence a word or phrase at a time until they have a full paragraph. Change partners and compare paragraphs.
ALTERNATIVE HEADLINES: Students read the text and create three more alternative headlines that might be lurking behind the actual one. Students must expand on and tell the stories about the alternative. Students change partners and share and compare their ideas.
INTO A SENTENCE: Put the headline on the board. Students come to the board and add a word at a time to make the headline into a sentence that must become longer and longer. The sentence can be split in two, both parts also being added to and split further.
QUESTIONS: Students look at the headline and write down three questions each. They ask the questions to their partner / group. Change partners and ask the questions again. Students return to their original partners and report on what their previous partners said.
IMAGINARY HEADLINES: In pairs / groups, students make imaginary headlines that they tell each other and then talk about.
KIND HEADLINES: In pairs / groups, students must choose a “kind” headline from a given list and make their own story about it. They need to develop the background, characters, what happened, what people said, etc. After they have finished, they must change partners / groups and report the story to their new partner(s). They must be prepared to answer questions from their new partners. Example headlines might include:

• George W. Bush changes his mind
• China and Japan are friends forever
• Roses for everyone
• Israelis and Palestinians have a big party together
• World Kindness Day is a huge success
• Old lady helps the man who stole her car

MYSTERY HEADLINES: In pairs / groups, students choose a predetermined mystery headline and develop the story to tell to news reporters. Once they have decided on their story, change partners and take turns being reporters and mystery explainers. Example headlines might include:

• The talking bus stop
• Ten thousand pairs of jeans go missing in Russian town
• Lions and zebras become good friends in Kenya
• It’s raining pens and pencils in Chile
• The pregnant Mickey Mouse
• The remote control baby
• Marriage proposals increase 300% in Brazilian city
• The world’s computers’ space bars suddenly break

FRONT PAGE NEWS? Students talk about how newsworthy the headline is.

• Should it make the front page?
• Should it be the headline news?
• Is it worthy of a newsflash / breaking news?
• Should it be confined to the second page or a minor article inside the newspaper in one of the sections or later on in the news program.
• How much page space / program time should be given to it?
• Should there be photos?
• Is it the kind of story you would talk about with your friends?
• Would you turn on the news to get an update on this news?
• Where would this news item be in a newspaper in your home country?
• Does it warrant a top news reporter being assigned to it?

HEADLINE EXTENSION: Students look at the headline and brainstorm other associated headlines. (E.g. The Live 8 concerts that coincided with the Edinburgh G8 summit in 2005 spawned headlines on Sir Bob Geldoff, a possible Spice Girls reunion, Pop stars playing politicians, famine, trade, etc.). Students talk about the associated headlines and decide which ones are most serious.
LIES, ALL LIES: Students A try to convince Students B that the news in the headline didn’t really happen, that it’s all lies. Students B of course have to say the news is very much true.
I HAD A DREAM ABOUT THAT LAST NIGHT: Students look at the headline and say to each other “Funny. I had a dream about that last night”. They then have to embellish on what happened in their dream. One student had a lovely dream, the other had a nightmare.
I WISH THAT HADN’T HAPPENED: Students look at the article headline and start their conversation saying, “I wish that hadn’t happened”. They then explain why.
HEADLINE CHANGE: Put the headline on the board. Invite students to change two words. Students now talk about the new headline. Keep repeating until the original headline has changed beyond recognition. Students change partners and compare the stories they made as each new headline was created.
L1 ADJECTIVES: Students call out adjectives in their L1 that describe their feelings towards the headline. The students then provide translations in English. In pairs / groups, students talk about the headline in relation to the English adjectives on the board.
ON THE SPOT: Give half the class the headline. They must break the news to the rest of the class and ask for on the spot opinions.
FORUMS COMMENTS: Each student writes down a quick comment about the headline on a piece of paper. They put the paper in the middle of the room. Students pick up a piece of paper and in pairs or groups, respond to the comments. They return the comment slip to the middle of the room for other students to take. Continue until each group has picked up (and returned) several comment slips.
IDIOMS IDIOMS: Take a keyword from the headline and produce a list of idioms based on that word. Students talk about what they think the idioms mean. An alternative would be to do a matching exercise of idioms and meanings and then let the students talk.
CONNECTIONS: Students write down as many connections as they can from two of the words in the headline. Share these connections with other students. Rank the connections according to predetermined categories – strongest link, funniest link, most ridiculous link, most intelligent link, etc.
DESIGNER HEADLINE: Students take two or three words from the actual headline and make their own headline and story. Students change partners and compare their headlines and stories.
GLOBAL HEADLINES: Provide a list of countries for students to speculate on how the media in each of those countries might word the headline, then speculate on the story behind that headline. Students change partners and compare their ideas.
MOVED HEADLINE: Students speculate on what kind of story the article might be if it were moved to a completely different news section headings – sports, business, entertainment, motoring, gardening, etc.
HEADLINE WORD GUESS: Student A has the title. Student B doesn’t. Student A says one word at random. Student B asks questions and tries to guess the story.
LEXICAL PAIRS: Choose two words from the text that form an easily recognizable lexical pair (E.g. high level, paper chase, current event, etc.). Seeing the words together will provide a further learning opportunity. Ask students to look in their dictionaries (including collocation dictionaries*) to build up more information on the words. Students change partners and share the information they found out. Note: Make sure each part of the lexical pair is likely to have several meanings and be used in a variety of other word combinations.
SEARCH ENGINES: If the class has access to the Internet, enter the word pairs into the search field of a search engine. To give the best results with pairs of words or phrases, make sure everything is enclosed in speech / quotation marks (“high level” or “the time has come”). The search should produce hundreds, thousands or hundreds of thousands of examples of the words in natural use.
QUESTIONABLE USAGE: If students are unsure of the usage of a word pairing or phrase containing more than two words, the above search technique can be used to help them find more examples of the phrase in use.
PRE / POST COLLOCATES: Draw three columns on the whiteboard or ask students to draw three columns on a sheet of paper. Put one of the words from the word search in the middle column. Ask students to write the words they find that come before and after this word in the left and right columns. Students talk or make questions about their findings. Ask which combinations are new, sound interesting, seem worthwhile to learn, etc.

• Internet
• commit
• mass
• attempt
• attempted
• failed
• political
• would be to + inf
• suicide
• bomber
• mission

COLLOCATION CHAIN: Pairs of students start with the same word. They find a strong collocate that follows this word. They then find a strong collocate of the collocate and so on. You could give the students a time limit to see how many collocates they can add to their chain or give them a maximum number of collocates to find:
EXAMPLE:
English language – language problem – problem child – child friendly …
Students then show their findings to other students in the class or call them out to the teacher, who writes everything on the board.
COLLOCATIONAL GRIDS: Use these to teach collocation. There are many examples of collocation grids and other grids in these books:
The Words You Need. Rudska, B. et al. 1982. Prentice Hall
More Words You Need. Rudska, B. et al. 1985. Prentice Hall
WORD FAMILY: Give students the following table. Ask them to look in their dictionaries and find examples to fill in the information.

CLASS CONCORDANCES: Draw three columns on the whiteboard or ask students to draw three columns on a sheet of paper. Put one of the words from the word search in the middle column. Ask students to write sentences that contain the word from the phrase. Make sure to keep the collocate in the middle column. After a number of sentences are on the board or student papers, talk about the use of the word and the sentences. You should end up with a concordance similar to this:

• with the abundance of local radio chat shows that seem to have of the survey asked about favorite chat up lines (and of course those that said why don’t you pop round for a chat and a cup of tea. I’m sure it’d it’s nothing serious, just an informal chat about the upcoming graduation anything. He just stopped by for a chat. He really needed to talk about is the handsome host of the new chat show that’s due to air on Friday And then we went to Janice’s for a chat and to catch up on all the gossip they should be very careful about chat rooms that ask for addresses or there’s nothing better than a quiet chat with the person who means most free any time to come and have a chat with one of our experienced

Encourage students to research vocabulary themselves using collocation sites (http://www.collins.co.uk/Corpus/CorpusSearch.aspx) to find the most common word partnerships or concordance sites
(http://thetis.bl.uk/lookup.html) to find examples of words and phrases in authentic English sentences.
CHAT: Ask students simply to chat about the word pair. When they have finished, change partners. Tell new partners what they spoke about with their old partners and continue the conversation.
WORD PAIR HEADLINES: Ask students to make headlines from the word pair. Students have to think of the story that accompanies the headline. Change partners again and compare the stories from each invented headline.

Tags: reading, TEFL TEACHING, writing