Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition
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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 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 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 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 In the Classroom 20 the text so that they arrive at sound interpretations which are properly justified. Download 0.82 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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