One of the clearest ways of explaining the meaning of something is to show it. If we hold up a pen, point to it and say pen the meaning will be clear

one of the clearest ways of explaining the meaning of something is to show it. If we hold up a pen, point to it and say pen... the meaning will be clear. For actions, we can use mime: if we are teaching He is smiling, we can mime someone smiling. At other times we can use gesture. We can demonstrate superlative adjectives by using hand and arm movements to show small... smaller... smallest. We can also use facial expressions to explain the meaning of sad, happy, frightened, etc. We can use pictures to explain situations and concepts (for example, a picture of someone coming away from a swimming pool with dripping wet hair to show She s just been swimming. If we can't show something in one of the ways mentioned above, we can describe the meaning of the word. For example a generous person is someone who shares their time and their money/possessions with you. bad is the opposite of good. A carrot is a kind of vegetable. If describing meaning isn't appropriate, we can list vocabulary items to explain concepts. For example, if we want students to understand the idea of the caring professions , we can list a number of jobs such as doctor, nurse, social worker explain the phrase.

Explaining language construction: one of the most common ways of explaining language construction is through modelling sentences and phrases. For example, if we want to model He's fixing the roof we may say Listen... he's fixing the roof... listen ... fixing... fixing... he's ... he is... he is... he's... he's fixing the roof What we have done is to say the model normally (He's fixing the roof) before isolating certain parts of the model {fixing... fixing... hes). We distort one of the isolated fragments (he's) by lengthening it (to explain its contracted form, i.e. he is... he is ...) before returning to the isolated element and finally saying the whole model clearly so that students can repeat it. Many teachers use fingers or hands, too, to show how he is turns into he's. We can also demonstrate word and sentence stress by beating time with our arms. One way of demonstrating grammatical sequence is to write words on individual cards. They can be used to show parts of speech, stress patterns and sentence construction. It is sometimes more appropriate to explain language construction with words. For example, if we want students to understand the rule about the third person singular of the present simple, we can say Listen ... we say I play, you play, we play, they play, but with he, she and it we add an s. Listen, I play, she plays... you play, he plays ...we play, it plays.

Practice (accurate reproduction) Repetition: repetition can be either choral or individual. When we use choral repetition, we get all the students to say the new word or phrase together. For choral repetition to be effective, it is important to start the chorus clearly (so that everyone gets going at once) and to help the students with the rhythm by' conducting the chorus, using arms and hands to show where stress occurs, etc. When we think students have been given sufficient repetition time in chorus (or if we don't see the need for choral repetition), we may ask for individual repetition. We do this by nominating students and asking them to give us the sentence, It is worth remembering not to nominate students in an obvious order (e.g. by going from one end of a row to the other) since this will make the activity predictable and, as a result, will not keep students on their toes. A form of individual practice is to say the word or phrase quietly to themselves, murmuring it a few times as they get used to saying it.

Drills: if we feel that students have done enough repetition of a phrase or phrases (or if we don't think such repetition is necessary), we may organise a quick cue-response session to encourage controlled practice of the new language. For example, that we have taught a group of beginner students a series of phrases such as They're painting the house, He's fixing the roof, She's mowing the grass, etc., and that we have pictures of these actions on cards. We can use these cards as a cue, which we hope will then elicit the appropriate response, e.g. TEACHER (HOLDS UP PICTURE OF TWO PEOPLE PAINTING THE OUTSIDE OF A HOUSE): Sam ? STUDENT i (SAM): They're painting the house. TEACHER: Good, (holds up picture of a someone fixing the roof) Kim? STUDENT 2 (KIM): He's fixing the roof. TEACHER: Good. Cues can also be verbal (e.g. Question ...film to get the response What time does the film start?) or non-verbal (e.g. the teacher shrugs their shouders to elicit I don't know). If we think students need more controlled practice of this type, we can put them in pairs and ask them to continue saying the new words and phrases to each other. Perhaps they can take turns miming one of the actions or showing/drawing pictures of painting, fixing and mowing, etc. so that they are, in effect, conducting cue-response drills of their own.