M.RIAD - My Creation

FOR TEACHERS 2

EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUES OF QUESTIONING

• Phrase the questions clearly and specifically. Avoid vague and ambiguous questions.
• Adapt questions to the level of the students' abilities
• Ask questions logically and sequentially
• Ask questions at various levels
• Follow up on students' responses
  • Elicit longer, more meaningful and more frequent responses from students after an initial response by -
    • Maintaining a deliberate silence
    • Making a declarative statement
    • Making a reflective statement giving a sense of what the students said
    • Declaring perplexity over the response
    • Inviting elaboration
    • Encouraging other students to comment
• Give students time to think after they are questioned (Wait Time)
• The three most productive types of questions are variants of divergent thinking questions (Andrews, 1980):
  1. The Playground Question
     • Structured by instructor's disignating a carefully chosen aspect of the material (the "playground")
     • "Let's see if we can make any generalizations about the play as a whole from the nature of the opening lines."
  2. The Brainstorm Question
     • Structure is thematic
     • Generate as many ideas on a single topic as possible within a short period of time
     • "What kinds of things is Hamlet questioning - not just in his soliloquy, but throughout the play?"
  3. The Focal Question
     • Focuses on a well articulated issue
     • Choose among a limited number of positions or viewpoints and support your views
     • "Is Ivan Illych a victim of his society or did he create his problems by his own choices?"

FOR STUDENTS

PART – I: Read the following text

This is John Smith. He’s Colombian but he lives in Brazil. He is a prisoner. Mr Smith is 33 years old. He doesn’t work or study. Mr Smith cannot read or write but he can play the guitar very well. He plays the guitar every day at 6:30 pm after dinner. The other prisoners all like his music. Mr Smith likes POP ROCK but he doesn’t like SAMBA. Mr Smith likes Brazilian food and drinks…He loves brown chocolate but he doesn’t like white chocolate. His room number in the prison is 333 on the 3rd floor. People call Mr Smith "The Music Man". Mr Smith is a happy prisoner. He wakes up at 5:15am and has breakfast; he eats very much!!! He has black coffee and bread in the morning but he doesn’t eat fruit or drink milk. He smokes very much!!!

Part I: Read the following text

This is Juan Uribe. He’s from Madrid in Spain but he lives in Argentina. He is an actor. Mr Uribe is 23 years old. He works for TV ARGENTINA. He also studies; he studies Journalism at the Federal University of Argentina. Mr Uribe cannot sing or dance but he can play the violin very well. He loves classical music and he listens to it every day from 5:10 am to 8:45am every morning. After this he has fruit juice for breakfast and goes to university. Mr Uribe is a very good student. He speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Mr Uribe lives in a flat. His flat number is 133, on the 1st floor. Mr Uribe loves Spanish food but he doesn’t like Argentine food. He loves milk caramels but he doesn’t like chocolate. He doesn’t smoke.

PART – I: Read the following text

This is YOYO. He’s from Mexico but he lives in the U.S.A. He is an actor in a circus. YOYO is 33 years old. He works for THE WORLD CIRCUS. He doesn’t study but he works very much. YOYO can sing, juggle, and dance but he cannot play any instruments. He loves the circus and he works every day from 4:40pm to 22:00pm every evening. Before this he has fruit juice and bread for dinner and prepares his show. YOYO is a very good actor. He speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and English. YOYO lives in the circus. He lives in a circus van with other actors. His van number is 33 and he sleeps on the 1st bed. YOYO loves Mexican food but he doesn’t like American fast food. He loves sweets and chocolate. He doesn’t smoke.

FOR TEACHERS

Music in the ESL Classroom

The use of music in the classroom can make the entire learning process more enjoyable and can stimulate "right" brain learning. Six years ago researchers reported that people scored better on a standard IQ test after listening to Mozart. Other tests soon followed: Rats raised on Mozart run through mazes faster and more accurately. People with Alzheimer's disease function more normally if they listen to Mozart and the music even reduces the severity of epileptic seizures.

Just think of all the times you have used music to help you study for tests, think clearly about something, relax from daily stress, etc. If you think about it, using music in the ESL EFL classroom is a pretty logical thing to do considering how helpful it can be to the learning process. Setting the scene Musically

Using music to introduce an exercise is a great way to activate vocabulary and get students thinking in the right direction. Take a piece of music or song which you associate with a certain activity or place ("New York, New York" sung by Frank Sinatra) and play the first 30 seconds of the piece. You will be surprised at how quickly associations come to students' minds - many more than if you introduced the lesson by saying, "Today we are going to talk about New York City".

A wonderful example of this can be found in any broadcast of "Morning Edition" by National Public Radio. Each story is ended with a selection of music which in some way relates to that story. This music is repeated after a commercial and before the next story. In this way, listeners are subtly encouraged to reflect on the story they have just heard.

"Headway Intermediate", a popular EFL student's book published by Oxford Press, gives another great example of setting the scene musically. Every extended listening is preceded and followed by a short snippet of related music - usually the beginning bars and the final tones of a given piece. These little touches do wonders to add atmosphere to an otherwise familiar classroom setting. Using Music Selectively To Enhance Concentration

The most important point to remember when using music to accompany learning is that it be an aid to learning and not a distraction. Let me give an example, if your class is doing a grammar exercise and you want to use some music in the background to help students concentrate, choose music which employs regular periods (repeated phrases and patterns) - something like Hayden or Mozart, maybe Bach. Choosing abrasive, disharmonic music will distract students while their brains try to make sense of the disharmony. Choosing something melodic which employs musical patterns will not distract. Not only will this type of music not distract, the regular patterns of the music also help to underline the repetetive nature of grammar.

Another example of using music selectively would be written descriptive exercises in which students need to use their imaginations. You can set the scene musically which will help stimulate their imagination. Let's say students need to describe their life as young children. Ravel's "Mother Goose Suite" playing softly in the background will help them return to those simpler times through its sweet harmonies and simple structures. Listening to Shostokovitch, on the other hand, would put them right off!

Here are some suggestions for appropriate music for different activities:

• Grammar - Mozart, Haydn, Bach, Handel, Vivaldi
• Imagination exercises (descriptive writing, speaking) - Ravel, Debussy, Satie
• Current Situation, News in the World - Rap (for inner cities and their problems), Ethnic Music from the discussed countries (you would be surprised at how many people quickly associate the type of music with a part of the world)
• Making Future Plans - Fun upbeat jazz ("Take Five" by Dave Brubeck)
• Discussing "Serious" issues - the "serious" Germans: Beethoven, Brahms - even Mahler if you are adventurous!

Use your imagination and you will quickly find that your students will be using their imaginations to improve their English - usually without being aware of it.

More "Whole Brain" Techniques and Activities

Have you had any experience using "whole brain", NLP, Suggestopedia, Mind Maps or the like? Would you like to know more? Join the discussion in the forum.

The Brain: An overview
A visual explanation of the different parts of the brain, how they work and an example ESL EFL exercise employing the specific area.

Helpful Drawing Hints
"A picture paints a thousand words" - Easy techniques to make quick sketches that will help any artistically challenged teacher - like myself! - use drawings on the board to encourage and stimulate class discussions.

Using Colored Pens
The use of colored pens to help the right brain remember patterns. Each time you use the pen it reinforces the learning process.

Brain Gym
The brain is an organ and can be physically stimulated to improve learning. Use these simple exercises to help your students concentrate better and improve their learning abilities.

Suggestopedia: Lesson Plan
Introduction and lesson plan to a "concert" using the suggestopedia approach to effective/affective learning.