867. Helping kids make image/word links in English



One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “Within a couple weeks I’ll be teaching classes to kids of 9 to 11. Once again I’d like they would utter words, then sentences, then hold a short conversation. I mean, I don’t want to confine their contributions to the class to single words as the only response they can give me.

One activity I’ll implement is to elicit verbs they’ve learned this academic year. And I’ll try to hold some conversation by means of using those verbs. For example we could say simple things about ‘walk’. I could ask one of them, ‘So, how long does it take you to come, to walk, from your house to this center?’, etc., etc.

With the youngest students, who need to move around often, I could give one student the instruction to walk from here to there: the point is for them to gain a visual image of what ‘walking’ is; in other words, help them make up a visual-mental link between the word and the action.

It’s very important the students should speak, and not just listen to me and respond with single words. Ah, and I could have one of the kids write the verbs I’m eliciting from them on the whiteboard: if they’re more ‘protagonists’, the management of the class I hope it’ll be more simple.” / Photo from: stumbleinn net. 1954 Ford Atmos

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