Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

Stage 5 
 
(shown to the class)
(read to the class)
Father has just come home from work. He has bought a
copy of the Evening News. Mother has just begun sewing
John’s shirt. John has just returned from a game of
football. Mary has started her homework. Father has
recently bought a new radio. They have not turned it on
because Mary is studying. When Mother has finished
sewing John’s shirt she will cook supper. Mary will help
her to prepare the supper. She will clean up when they
have finished eating.

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Writing
123
(given to the class)
1 Where has Father just come from?
2 What has he bought?
3 What has Mother just begun?
4 Where has John just returned from?
5 What has Mary started?
6 What has Father recently bought?
7 Why have they not turned it on?
8 What will Mother do when she has finished sewing?
9 Who will help her to prepare the supper?
10 What will Mary do when they have finished eating?
Stage 6. Rajabu’s journey
(given to the class and then taken away)
Read the following.
After the train had stopped, Rajabu woke up. He was lying
on the seat in an empty compartment. He had fallen asleep
twenty minutes before, and now he was feeling very stiff.
He stretched himself and then he realised that he had been
asleep. His heart began beating very fast, for he suddenly
felt frightened. While he was asleep, he had forgotten why
he had come in this train.
After a second he remembered everything. He remem-
bered that the train was going to Mwanza, and that a man
in red trousers had been in his compartment. The thought
of the man in red trousers made Rajabu look round quickly,
for there was no one else in the compartment now and
Rajabu was all alone.
Then Rajabu remembered his box of clothes which
had been under the seat. He poked under the seat
quickly, but the box had gone. Rajabu now felt terrified,
for he had just bought those clothes and they were all
new. He went to the window and then looked out. In the
distance he saw the man with red trousers running along
the road from the station. He was carrying Rajabu’s box.
The man had taken the box and got out of the train while
Rajabu was asleep. Rajabu opened the door, but he
couldn’t get out because the train was already moving.

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Writing
124
The man in red trousers had got away with all Rajabu’s
new clothes!
(given to the class)
Answer the following questions. By answering the questions,
you will find that you are re-telling the story you have just
read. Do not start each answer on a new line, but write
continuously, like an ordinary composition. If two questions
are together on the same line, try to join your two (or more)
answers into one sentence. 
Paragraph 1:
When did Rajabu wake up?
What was he lying on? In an empty what?
What had happened twenty minutes before? How was he
feeling now?
What did he do? Then what did he realise?
What did his heart begin doing? Why?
While he was asleep, what had he forgotten?
Paragraph 2:
After a second what happened?
What did he remember (a) about the train, and (b) about a
man in red trousers?
What made Rajabu look round quickly? Was there anyone
else in the compartment now? Who was all alone?
Paragraph 3:  
Then what did Rajabu remember? Where had it been?
What did he do quickly? What had happened?
What did Rajabu feel now? Why?
Where did he go? Then where did he look?
Whom did he see in the distance? What was he doing? Where?
What was he carrying?
What had the man done (two things) while Rajabu was
asleep?
What did Rajabu do? Why couldn’t he get out? Who had got
away with all Rajabu’s new clothes?

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Writing
125
Stage 7
(read to the class)
(to the teacher only. Read the following passage to your
class, slowly, several times. The pupils do not see this
passage. Then give out the questions below, in written form.
The groups do the composition orally. Finally, pupils write.)
About thirty years ago a scientist noticed the following
facts about yellow-fever. In the jungles of South America,
blue mosquitoes live in the tree-tops. Monkeys also live in
the same place. These monkeys suffer from yellow-fever.
The scientists therefore discovered that blue mosquitoes
cause yellow-fever. In the jungles the disease passes from
the monkey to the mosquito. Then it passes from the
mosquito back to the monkey.
Man also catches the disease if he goes into the jungle.
This often happens when men cut down the trees. They
disturb the mosquitoes and the mosquitoes begin to bite
the men. Then the men return to the city. Now men pass
yellow-fever into the city mosquito. The city mosquito
passes it to other men. In this way yellow-fever passes
from the monkeys into the population of the city.
(given to the class)
(to the pupil: Answer the following questions to make a
composition similar to the one you have just heard read to you.
Divide your composition into paragraphs. Each question should
be answered with one sentence.)
When did a scientist notice the following facts about yellow-
fever?
In the jungles of South America, where do blue mosquitoes
live?
What animals also live in the same place?
From what disease do they suffer?
What did the scientists therefore discover?
In the jungles the disease passes from which animal to which
insect?
Then what happens?
What happens if man goes into the jungle?

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Writing
126
This often happens when men do what?
What do they disturb, and what begins to bite the men?
Then where do the men go?
Now what do men pass into the city mosquito?
To whom does the city mosquito pass it?
In this way what passes from the monkeys into the popula-
tion of the city?
In the first of these there are three sources of control used;
first the picture, then the student’s memory of the passage,
and finally the questions which are given to the pupils to
read, the answers to which enable the original passage to be
reconstructed. In this exercise a paragraph is provided which
is in part a description of the situation in the picture, and
which is at approximately the appropriate level syntactically
for the class. Students therefore are being asked to respond to
a picture and describe it, to remember a piece of consecutive
prose, and to answer questions orally in their preparation.
In the second exercise, pupils are asked to read the passage
silently (this may be done more than once or once only,
depending on the teacher’s assessment of the class’s level),
and the passage is then taken away. The students then have
to answer given questions from memory, but this time the
answers to the questions are grouped in paragraphs and the
answers may be combined together so that answers to several
questions may form one sentence. Students are again
remembering, but this time on the basis of their own reading,
and they again have question prompts in front of them.
In the third exercise, a passage is again read to the class,
and again question prompts are given, but this time there is
no picture, as there was in the first example. The questions,
and the techniques for answering them, are more complex
than in the earlier examples. Once again a combination of
memory and question prompts is used, but the demands
made on the student are greater.
These exercises represent stages 5, 6, and 7 of a 35-stage
course in writing, and the principles that they illustrate are
applicable to any writing situation. To use this sort of
exercise most fruitfully, the teacher should aim to help pupils
so thoroughly that no one makes any significant mistakes in
the writing. How can this be achieved?

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Writing
127
At first the teacher may ask individual pupils to do all or