Information collection & exchange

 
 Communicate real meaning 
Whether they say it aloud or not, it's very probable that your students have at some time or other asked 
themselves "What's the point of learning English?" This is particularly true of students in countries of 
rancophone Africa, where students know that French is the important language to learn if they want to get 
F
ahead, and where English is of secondary importance. You can, and probably do, spend time working on the 
motivation of such students by pointing out the advantages they will have in being able to read books written 
in English once they get to the University or any other institution of higher learning. But for adolescents the 
motivation frequently has to be more immediate. They want to see the benefits right now. 
One way you can fuel this motivation and satisfy the need for immediate feedback is by setting up real life 
scenarios in which your students have to participate in some task which requires them to understand and 
speak English. You might, for instance, ask a student to go to another English teacher and ask for a book. 
ou will make your request in English, and you will ask your student to ask for the book in English. 
Y
colleagues in the English Department agree to cooperate with you, you could set up a network of errands 
being carried out in English on the school compound. 
A TEFL Volunteer in Gabon, central Africa, once spoke about the breakthrough he had with a group of his 
students who had been educated in French, were not motivated to learn English, and would only do the 

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minimum they considered necessary to pass the English examinations. As it happens the Volunteer had a 
motorbike, and the tools and mechanical knowledge to maintain his bike. His students were interested in 
otorbikes and would drop by the Volunteer's house when he was working on his machine. The Volunteer 
ould only talk about his bike in English and he lent magazines on motorbikes, written in English, to his 
ecause they 
ad something to say and had an interest in hearing what was said. This attitude spilled over into the 
 
 Re
A response is the listener's way of saying "I hear you." As was said earlier in this chapter, listening is not 
taught in isolation. Speaking comes into play as the listener responds and interacts in a conversation. These 
listening exercises which call for a response from your students allow them to demonstrate their 
understanding and to develop interactional skills. This section presents exercises with four types of 
respo
n response, the longer spoken response, and the extended 
spoke
The action response exercises are based on the Total Physical Response Approach. An example of this is 
"Cl
n excellent exercise for energizing a sluggish class, though it does require space if you 
have a
1. Ask your students to walk around the room. Give a signal like a clap of the hands and then give a 
ommand, for instance: form a group of people of about the same height. 
. When the students have sorted themselves into groups, ask them to walk around again, until another 
. Other commands could be: 
Get into groups of five and decide on a song you want to sing. 
e same month. 
de bikes and those who can't. 
lves look like elephants. 
e; stand in a line with the tallest at the back and the shortest at the front. 
3. After about five to eight commands which involve everyone, the game can be finished off by calling out 
umbers, such as "Seven." That means that groups of seven have to be formed. Anyone who is not in a 
out. 
Exam
"General Knowledge Quizzes," "Aural Clozes," 
and "
" are very popular because you can ask 
questions about other courses. Ask your family to send you the junior version of the game Trivial Pursuit or 
the
are excellent sources for questions. 
The following "Aural Cloze" exercise is for a beginning level class but the principles can easily be adapted 
for an
school event. If you do not have a photo, draw a picture on the 
blackboard. Tell your class a story about it. Repeat this story two or three times. 
2. 
n it, but with several blanks instead of words. 
Read the story again, line by line. The students fill in the blanks as they hear the words. Repeat the story 
on
takes while it is being read. 
m
w
students. 
Gradually the Volunteer realized that his students were talking in English to each other about motorbikes. 
Several students began bringing bikes to the Volunteer for repairs and the repair work and conversations in 
English went ahead hand in hand. The Volunteer had stumbled on a context in which his students listened 
and talked in English. The messages were about carburetors, fuel lines, brakes, and batteries and were all 
meaningful. The subject had become real. The students wanted to communicate in English b
h
classroom and the Volunteer was delighted to find himself teaching a really motivated group who made 
excellent progress in English.