TEFL TIPS – FROM TEXT TO SPEECH

Ideas to provide students with the language to move from the news article into conversation.

EXPONENTS TO MOVE FROM ARTICLE TO CONVERSATION: Providing suitable exponents can enable learners to more confidently talk about a text they have in front of them. It is quite natural for anyone armed with a newspaper, magazine or book to want to tell a nearby companion about something they have read. This is a skill learners transfer automatically from their L1s. Students use these exponents to introduce phrases from the article

1. According to this __________ (E.g. “According to this, the price of oil has hit $75 a barrel.”)
2. It says here __________
3. This article says __________
4. You’ll never believe this __________
5. I can’t believe what I’ve just read __________
6. Guess what?

SENTENCE-BY-SENTENCE: Student A has the article and reports the contents to Student B one piece of information at a time using one of the above exponents. Student B must respond appropriately. Students A and B talk about each snippet of information before moving on to the next item. Encourage the use of “What else does it say?” to keep the activity flowing.
PROMPTED QUESTIONS. Student A has the article. Student B has a list of keywords from the article. Student B must ask student A one of the following
exponents / questions:

1. Does the article say anything about __________?
2. Does the article mention anything about __________?
3. What does the article say about __________?
4. Is ___________ mentioned?
5. I heard something about ___________
6. Is there anything there about that __________?

PROMPTED QUESTIONS AND PATTERNED INTERACTION: Learners use the above prompts and questions in the following patterns of interaction. The teacher should write the interaction pattern on the board so learners know what is required of them:

1. Student A: What does it say about __________?
2. Student B: According to this, it says __________
3. Student A: Comment.

Or

1. Student A: What does it say about __________?
2. Student B: According to this, it says __________ + Additional comment / opinion.
3. Student A: Reply.

Or

1. Student A: What does it say about __________?
2. Student B: According to this, it says __________ + Additional comment / opinion + question.
3. Student A: Comment.

Or

1. Student A: What does it say about __________?
2. Student B: According to this, it says __________ + Additional comment / opinion + question.
3. Student A: Answer and comment + question.
4. Student B: Answer and question.
5. Student A: Answer and question.
6. Student B: etc.

It is up to the teacher how many exchanges are required. Quite often the more there are, the more fun it becomes and the more practice the students have. The teacher could challenge pairs to see who can keep the exchanges going the longest.
BECOMING PART OF THE STORY: Student A reads an excerpt from the text. Student B must respond by saying: “Yes, I know. I was there.” The patterned interaction might run as follows:

1. Student A: [Reads a snippet]
2. Student B: Yes, I know. I was there. + [expand]
3. Student A: Question re B’s expansion.
4. Student B: Answer.
5. Student A: Response to answer and then next snippet.

THAT’S NOT ENTIRELY TRUE: Students practice questioning what someone has said about a piece of news. The patterned interaction might run as follows:

1. Student A: Reads a snippet from the text.
2. Student B : Refutes or questions what Student A has just read.

Or

1. Student A: Reads a snippet from the text.
2. Student B : Refutes or questions what Student A has just read and says what is wrong.
3. Student A: Responds by sticking up for what is written in the text.

Or

1. Student A: Reads a snippet from the text.
2. Student B : Refutes or questions what Student A has just read and offers an alternative.
3. Student A: Responds to Student B’s reply.

NATURAL RESPONSES TO HEARING NEWS: Students practice responding to news they’ve just heard. Provide a list or recent or imaginary headlines. Students choose the most appropriate response from those below:

1. No way!
2. Oh my God!
3. Tell me more.
4. Yes. I heard about that.
5. I’m not surprised.
6. What a joke.
7. I can’t believe that.
8. You’re joking?
9. That’s shocking.
10. I’d love to have been there.

BRAINSTORM RESPONSES TO HEARING NEWS: Write a headline on the board. It should be controversial, shocking or funny enough to engage students’ attention. Examples might include – “George W. Bush wins Nobel
Prize” or “UFO kidnaps the Pope” or “The world will end at midnight”. In pairs / groups, students must write as many natural responses as they can think of. Change pairs repeatedly to enable students to share their responses. Students then chat about the headlines.
TEXT CHARTING: Students start with a blank piece of paper. They have to chart the progress of the text according to their feelings. Students change
partners and share and compare what they charted.
SENTENCE DEBATE: Students debate each word pair, phrase or sentence.
ARTICLE FEELINGS TIMELINE: Students discuss their feelings about
working on the article. How did they feel about being told the topic? What did they think of the headline? How do they feel about the subject now?
ARTICLE ASSESSMENT FORM: Students assess the article in terms of its value as teaching material.
MUSICAL ASSOCIATIONS: Students have to assign musical associations to each part of the article – the characters, situation, turns of events, etc. The associations must be related to musical instruments, sounds, degrees of
loudness, etc.
TEXT SOUNDS: Students analyze each sentence of the article and attribute
sounds to the events. Students change partners and share and compare their
ideas.
SEEING IS BELIEVING: List the things from the article it is possible to see, hear, feel, touch, taste and touch. Students talk about them and envisage their current state and condition.
SENTENCE QUIZ: Students must write down one question relating to each sentence of the article. They then ask these questions to their partners. Change partners and repeat. Students then sit with new partners and report
what they found out.
FIVE REASONS WHY I DON’T WANT TO FOLLOW THIS NEWS: Students must think of and write down five reasons why they want to follow this news after the lesson. Students change partners and share and compare their ideas.
INTERESTING THINGS: Students read the article and underline three
interesting things (they could also be happy, sad, worrying, etc. things). They have to report their interesting things to their partner(s). Partner(s) must respond with (e.g.) the following:

1. Yes, that’s interesting, but not as interesting as …
2. Yes, I also thought that was interesting, but I didn’t underline it.
3. Why did you think that was interesting?
4. Was that the most interesting of the things you underlined?
5. I didn’t think that was as interesting as …

KEYWORD GRAMMAR PRACTICE: Use one structure – Students use the words / expressions from the text in practicing that structure and then asking or talking about what they wrote. Examples:

1. The last time I __________ was ____________.
2. I haven’t ____________ for _______________.
3. I think he’s as ____________ as _______________.

TEXT / THEME QUESTIONS: Students use the words / expressions from the text to ask questions to their partners about their own lives. The questions do not need to be related to the theme of the article. Change partners and repeat.
THIS WORD REMINDS ME: Students are given a worksheet containing the exponents –

1. What part of speech is this word?
2. How do you pronounce it?
3. How do you spell it?
4. How would you remember this word?
5. What’s this word in your language?
6. Can you think of any word partners?
7. Does this remind you of any other words?
8. Do you like it?
9. etc.

Students ask their partner(s) about the words in the text.
CATEGORY USES OF WORDS: Students talk about how different words from the text could be used in different news categories (sport, business,
entertainment, economy, etc.).
MY LIFE: Students make sentences using words from the text to talk about their everyday lives. Students could write down a certain number of sentences using the words before any conversation takes place.
HOW TO REMEMBER / TEACH THIS WORD: Students give each other
advice on how to remember words or phrases from the text.

Tags: reading, tefl, TEFL TEACHING