Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

Lesson 2
Our second classroom contains eighteen adults of mixed
nationality most of whom have been studying English for
from five to eight years. Their class meets three hours a week
in London and they have virtually no contact with one
another outside the classroom. They have had this teacher
for about a month now and are familiar with the kinds of
technique he uses.
Phase 1
The teacher has distributed copies of a short text (about 400
words) to the students and they are sitting quietly reading
through it. Attached to the text are a number of multiple
choice questions and the students are attempting to decide
individually which of the choices in each question most
closely matches the sense of the text.
Phase 2
The students are working in five small groups with four or
five of them in each group and discussing with one another
why they believe that one interpretation is superior to
another. Part of the text reads:
The singing and the eating and drinking began again and
seemed set to go on all night. Darkness was around the

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In the Classroom
17
corner, and the flares and coloured lights would soon be
lit…
One of the multiple choice questions suggests:
The singing and the eating and drinking
(a) had begun before nightfall
(b) had begun just before nightfall
(c) began when darkness arrived
(d) had been going on all day
(with acknowledgments to J.Munby, O.G.Thomas, and
M.D.Cooper and their Comprehension for School Certificate
and to J.Munby’s Read and Think—see Chapter 6
following).
In one group the discussion goes like this:
Mohammed: Well, it can’t possibly be (d) because there is
nothing in the text to say that it had been
going on all day.
Yoko:
But what about that ‘again’ in the first sen-
tence, surely this must mean that the singing
and so on had been going on beforehand,
something interrupted it and it started again.
François:
Yes, but that does not mean it went on ‘all
day’.
Yoko:
Yes, I suppose you are right, so it cannot be
(d). What about (c)?
Giovanni:
It cannot be (c) which says ‘when darkness
arrived’. ‘When’ here means ‘at the very
moment that’, but the text says ‘Darkness
was around the corner’ which must mean
‘near but not actually present’ and this idea is
supported by the phrase ‘the lights would
soon be lit.’
Juan:
All right, so it cannot be (c). What about (a)?
Yoko:
That could be right because clearly the
singing and that had begun some time earlier
in the day, but it is a very vague suggestion,
(b) must surely be the better answer.
Giovanni:
No, this is like (c) and suggests that the
singing and so on began at the very moment
being described, that is when darkness was

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In the Classroom
18
still ‘around the corner’. But Yoko pointed
out that ‘again’ must imply that the singing
had started earlier, stopped for some reason
and started again, so it originally started well
before this time. So (b) will not do.
Juan:
Well that brings us back to (a), which is vague
but correct, while all the others are wrong. So
we must say that (a) is the best answer.
While this is going on the teacher is moving from group to
group, asking them to justify their rejection or acceptance of
suggested interpretations. One group has missed the
significance of ‘again’ as expounded by Yoko above so the
teacher asks specifically ‘What does “again” mean here?
What must we understand about the time sequence of events
from its use?’ The group is launched into discussion again.
Phase 3
On the blackboard the teacher has drawn up a grid with
five vertical columns—one for each group—and ten
horizontal rows—one for each multiple choice question. He
has been asking each group to indicate which choice they
had made for each question. The grid now looks something
like Figure 1. All the groups agreed that (a) was the best
answer for Q 1 and the teacher got one of the students to
justify that choice, and others to justify the rejection of (b)
(c) and (d). Over Q 2 there appears to be some disagreement.
The text reads:
Jim, of course, had never been to a party at the Great Hall
before, but his mother and father had. His great-
grandfather claimed he hadn’t been to the last one because
he was the oldest inhabitant. He was the oldest inhabitant
even then, but he had been Father Time in the pageant.
The questions read:
Great-grandfather
(a) had been to the last party and the reason was that he
was the oldest inhabitant.
(b) had been to the last party and the reason was that he

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In the Classroom
19
had been in the pageant.
(c) hadn’t been to the last party and the reason was that
even then he was the oldest inhabitant.
(d) hadn’t been to the last party and the reason was that
he had been in the pageant.
Groups A, B and D argue that the sentence in the text
beginning ‘His great-grandfather…’ should be read with a
rising tone on ‘inhabitant’ at the end. Groups C, and E argue
that it should be read with a falling tone. Readings like these
clearly justify the positive or negative interpretation of the
facts about great-grandfather being at the party. However
groups A, B, and D come back to point out that the
significance of ‘but’ in the last sentence of the text is such as
to make (b) easily the most likely choice since the meaning
must be that the reason he was at the party was not that he
was the oldest inhabitant, though that would have been a
good enough reason for him to be invited but that as a
member of the cast of the pageant he was automatically
invited.
And so the teacher leads and guides the students through
Figure 1

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In the Classroom
20
the text so that they arrive at sound interpretations which are
properly justified.