The Internet TESL Journal

For Teachers of English as a Second Language

Source: http://iteslj.org/:

And

National Geographic and Life

Click on these links to access a wealth of information about National Geographic and Life:

(Page 16)

Communicative Worksheets
We teamed author and teacher trainer, Mike Sayer, with award-winning graphic novelist, Julian Hanshaw, to create fun,
comic-based communicative worksheets to complement the Real Life (d) sections of Life. For each level of Life, each unit
folder contains 3 files: AW (artwork), SC (student cards), and TN (teacher's notes). You can download them using the link
below. (http://www.ngllife.com/content/communicative-activities)

(Page 17)

Suhanto Kastaredja
Email:
suhantokastaredja@yahoo.com
Staf Pengajar Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris
FKIP-Universitas PGRI Adi Buana Surabaya
Articles, Research Papers, Lessons Plans, Classroom Handouts, Teaching Ideas & Links
Please make a bookmark and come back again.
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Home | Articles | Lessons | Techniques | Questions | Games | Jokes | Things for Teachers | Links | Activities for
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The Internet TESL Journal

Giving and Accepting Compliments

Gerard Counihan
profesorSs [at] blabla.es

Brief Introduction for the Teacher

Socio-linguists speaking on the subject of politeness point out that there are three phenomena at play when a
compliment is paid to someone: the recipient can choose to accept it directly, indirectly, or refuse it (he or she
can presumably produce a blend of all three). All these strategies are not ill-intentioned, of course, they are
employed by human beings in tricky situations, because dealing with a compliment is a delicate affair.
If you accept it right away, we are told, your response may insinuate superiority:

John, you are so intelligent.

I knew it all the time.

If you refuse a compliment, you may upset the giver.

John, you look great.

Not at all, I look terrible.

On the other hand, we have the problem of frequency; if someone is lavish with compliments-and never stops
giving them, we could ask ourselves if he or she really means it. Americans, for example, are claimed to be
particularly fond of complimenting, whereas other nationalities would be perhaps more inclined to avoid what
are seen as potentially embarrassing situations. As a result, Americans have been accused of hypocrisy, while,
we can suppose, the latter can be accused of being cold-natured. And then again, one can argue that an
abundance of complimenting can reflect equality, directness, honesty, spontaneity. It is a no-win situation, but it
must be dealt with, because compliments do occur and are paid. It is, I believe, not a vital area of learning a
target language, but, if nothing, else, teachers can sensitise their students to an interesting area of interaction,
and perhaps generate some fun in the process.
Activity A
Get the students to talk about how they or people in their countries deal with compliments.
Activity B
Get the students to give (and react to) the following unfinished compliments. They can do it in pairs or in small
groups. It might be a good idea to split up the students into pairs, and to ask them to write down each other's
replies. In this way, each pair can report back to the rest of the class when the chosen compliments have been
dealt with. Listening to other students' efforts is good fun. Each pair could also "act out" their mini dialogue.

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Encourage the students to inject some emotion into the exchanges, that is make sure they use appropriate
intonation.

Possible Compliments:

You look ...

What a lovely ...

You speak English ...

I like your new ...

Your perm is ...

Where did you get that (indirect ) ...

You write very well, you should ...

I admire your ...

Well done, your work ...

Congratulations on your ...

Keep up the good work, ...

You take after your mother/father, ...

The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. V, No. 2, February 1999

http://iteslj.org/

Discussion Topic: My New Home

Gerard Counihan
profesorSs [at] blabla.es
Activity A
Your students are going to buy a new home, get them to list off their priorities. For example, I got the following:

It must face South (Why?)

It must have a lot of natural light

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It should have nice views/Nice location

It must be near the countryside

I prefer a house to a flat (Why?)

It must have amenities nearby (parks, mountains, culture centres, sports centres ...)

I want my privacy

I would not live in a tough area (Why not?)

My flat has to be in the city centre (Why?)

You can even give your students these comments and ask them to rate them in importance (for them).
You could also get them to debate the needs/priorities of single people as opposed to married couples with
children, for example.
Tastes and priorities differ from country to country so the English might emphasise the importance of the house
as an investment, while the Spanish could underline the necessity to have a comfortable home with a good
kitchen, for example.
Activity B

Inside the house, the most important thing for me is ...

Some answers I got:

A balcony (Why?)

Two bathrooms! (If you have sisters ...)

A big TV

An enormous bed

A really comfortable sofa

Book shelves

Big kitchen

A fire place (Why?)

A big bath

Distribution of the house (the lay-out), ie having the bedroom far from the

kitchen or living room (Why?)

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As always, anything they say must be supported by explanations/elaboration. No short answers. You could also
mention the word "facilities" here, letting them see how it differs from "amenities".
Activity C
Name two or three amenities you consider essential for you. The most common answers I got were:

Sports centre

Public transport

Mountains

Open country

Shopping centre

The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. V, No. 5, May 1999

http://iteslj.org/

Headline Completion
Gerard Counihan
profesorSs [at] blabla.es
Levels:
Low intermediate and up
Aim:
To generate verbal exchanges
Step 1
Get any newspaper at all and select some headlines which are liable to trigger off the imagination (in
fact, almost all can do this). For example, the following appeared in my local newspaper:
"Only 4.7% of Basques fail the drink-driving test".
Step 2
Remove part of the headline. In my case I ended up with the following:
"Only 4.7% of Basques ..."
Step 3
Show it to the students and ask them to complete it as naturally as possible, using some imagination of
course. My students came up with the following:

... Donate blood (and it is true)

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... Play the saxaphone

... Go to the cinema at night in summer (it is true)

... Are rich

... Travel by plane

... Go to the opera

.. Don't believe in esoteric matters (tarot, astrology ...)

Step 4
Once you get the finished product, you can merely write it down, or seize upon it immediately and start
a debate. In my case, we ended up speaking about "donating blood" for almost 20 minutes.
Note:
If you haven't got a newspaper, invent your own "half-headlines". Here are some:

President Clinton says ...

Father tells son/daughter to ...

Famous adventurer ...

Hungry man ...

Love-sick man/woman ...

Daring thief ...

(The list is endless.)

The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IV, No. 8, August 1998

http://iteslj.org/

Brainstorming Before Speaking Tasks

Brian Cullen
brian [at] celtic-otter.com
Brainstorming is an activity used to generate ideas in small groups. The purpose is to generate as many ideas as
possible within a specified time-period. These ideas are not evaluated until the end and a wide range of ideas is
often produced. Each idea produced does not need to be usable. Instead, initial ideas can be be viewed as a
starting point for more workable ideas. The principle of brainstorming is that you need lots of ideas to get good
ideas.
Brainstorming has a wide range of applications. Since 1930, it has been used successfully in business for
invention and innovation (VanGundy, 1981). In the language classroom, brainstorming is often used in teaching
writing. Activities such as free-association and word-mapping are often included as part of the pre-writing or
warm-up phase (Richards, 1990:112).

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Is brainstorming useful in teaching conversation? In particular, is it a useful activity for warm-up in

conversation classes? This paper will help answer this question. Section A shows how brainstorming can help
our students to become better learners. Section B describes a research study on brainstorming in the
conversation classroom. Section C gives some simple brainstorming techniques.
Section A : Brainstorming Encourages Better Learning
Some learners are more successful than others. In order to find out why, Rubin and Thompson (1984:114, Rubin
1975) studied the characteristics of good learners. Four of these characteristics are discussed below. These may
explain why brainstorming is a useful tool in our classrooms.
Good Learners Organize Information About Language
Good learners try to organize their knowledge. As teachers, we can try to facilitate this organization by using
suitable warm-up activities. A warm-up activity can remind our students of existing knowledge. At the same
time, it can direct their minds towards ideas that they will meet in the main activity. In this way, it provides a
link between new and existing knowledge.
However, each learner has a different store of existing knowledge organized in a unique way. A textbook or
teacher presentation can never use this knowledge to its best potential. In many warm-up activities, the teacher
and students can be frustrated because the organization of language in the warm-up activity is different from the
organization in the learners' minds. This mismatch is a block to good learning. Brainstorming invites the
learners to organize existing knowledge in their own minds. Many learners have a large passive vocabulary
which does not translate directly into productive capabilities in the classroom. Brainstorming can help to
activate this. It works to mobilize the resources of the student by creating a series of connecting ideas. This leads
to an organization of language. The links which appear on paper created in word mapping are visible evidence
of this organization. At this point the learners will be better oriented to the topic and better motivated to fill the
gaps in their knowledge.
Good Learners Find Their Own Way and Take Charge of Their Own Learning
Students who do not take charge of their own learning are unable to take full advantage of learning
opportunities. This is a problem that faces many Asian students who are generally more reserved than western
students (Tsui , 1996). Many teachers find that lack of self-initiative is usually more of a problem than lack of
ability in conversation classes.
Brainstorming can help learners to take charge. Learners begin examining their existing resources and
identifying gaps in their knowledge. The free association nature allows learners to become involved in the
selection of language used in the speaking task.
Good Learners Make Intelligent Guesses
The good learner makes intelligent guesses, but the language classroom often works against this. Because of
nervousness in a foreign language or fear of teacher correction, many students are afraid of using language
unless they are sure that it is totally correct (Lucus 1984). This stops them making intelligent guesses and slows
down learning.
Brainstorming can help students to learn to take risks. McCoy (1976) makes a strong argument in favour of
learning problem-solving skills in order to reduce anxiety. There are no 'right' or 'wrong' answers in
brainstorming and no danger of teacher correction. By carrying out a simple brainstorming warm-up, students
can obtain a sense of competence and feel more confident in making intelligent guesses.
Good Learners Use Contextual Cues to Help Them in Comprehension
The good learner uses the context of language to help in comprehension but the foreign language classroom can
often seem artificial. Brainstorming allows the students to create a context for the subsequent speaking task.
Relevant existing knowledge (content schema) can be called up from memory and can provide a context which
supports comprehension and production in the subsequent speaking task.

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As discussed in this section, brainstorming can help our students to become better learners, but equally
importantly, students will benefit just by working in groups. They will learn language from each other and by
interacting together they will become better communicators.
Section B : A Research Study on the Use of Brainstorming
A research study on the use of brainstorming was carried out in Oral Communication classes at a Japanese
senior high school. The students had studied English since junior high school, but it was their first introduction
to spoken English. Many students carried out the speaking tasks very slowly which resulted in very little
speaking time. Many learners seemed to have a low level of the characteristics of the "good learner" which were
previously discussed. Brainstorming was introduced as a short warm-up activity that could direct the minds of
the students towards the speaking task and maximize their speaking time.
The study was carried out in six classes of 40 students. Each class was split into two groups by student numbers.
Both groups were assumed to be at the same level of ability. Odd-numbered students did only the speaking task
and acted as a control group. Even-numbered students did a brainstorming warm-up followed by the speaking
task.
The type of brainstorming used was word-mapping. In word-mapping, students write one word in the center of
the page and link other related words to it. Students did several examples in small groups and groups competed
with each other to get the highest number of words. For each brainstorming session, the students were given
only two minutes to encourage quick thinking and to reduce the time for worrying about mistakes.
The speaking task was a simple information gap involving the exchange of personal information. The students
were given a time-limit of five minutes. Each piece of information exchanged was noted in a box on a
worksheet. At the end of the task, the scores were counted. If a box was filled, a student got a point. There was
no penalty for incorrect answers.
Since the goal of the task was to maximize student speaking time, a larger amount of information exchanged
was assumed to mean a better performance. The score was assumed to be a suitable measure of this
performance. Other variables were not considered. Changes in score were assumed to be due to the effect of the
brainstorming session. The scores for the test groups and control groups are shown in Table 1.
Table 1

Evaluation of the Study

All of the test groups performed better than the corresponding control groups and the average speaking time was
about 15% longer. The increases in speaking time for the individual groups ranged from 3.8% to as much as
25.3%.
Brainstorming had a strong positive effect on the atmosphere of the classroom and behaviour of the students.
The students in the study got involved in the brainstorming immediately. In the warm-up, groups competed and
got increasingly higher scores in each consecutive brainstorming. The average number of words written during
the brainstorming rose from under 10 words in the first example to over 50 words in the last example. This
seemed to indicate an activation of self-initiative.

Suhantos Collection Page _ 8

In the test groups, the game-like activity of the brainstorming carried over into the speaking task. In addition,
students had already worked with a partner before the main speaking task which helped to overcome shyness or
anxiety. This probably helped the making of intelligent guesses. The students were familiar with the vocabulary
in the speaking task because of the organization of knowledge and introduction of contextual cues in the warmup activity. The whole pace of the task was much faster in the test groups and the students seemed to enjoy it
more. Japanese was used very little by the test groups in the course of the task.
In contrast, in the control groups, there was a general fear of making mistakes in the speaking task and many of
the students were nervous. In addition, they were not as familiar with the vocabulary and had to be constantly
reminded not to use Japanese.
The test-group students seemed to move towards the characteristics of the good learner through the warm-up
and speaking task. The brainstorming activity achieved the goal of increasing the student speaking time.
Although, the study covers a narrow area, it shows that an increase in speaking time and a more positive
atmosphere are two benefits that brainstorming can bring to speaking tasks. This can be seen as a result of
guiding the students towards the characteristics of the good learner.
Section C : Practical Aspects of Brainstorming
Brainstorming is an ideal warm-up activity because it takes little time. Also, it can be explained easily and be
used with any chosen topic. There was only one type of brainstorming used in this study. However, some others
are listed below with brief examples and many other types can be imagined.
Simple Word Lists
1.

List words to describe people's appearance.

2.

List all the items you need for a party.

3.

Make a list of house furniture.

Lists Based on a Principle

1.

Write down a food that begins with each letter of the alphabet.

2.

Make a list of animals starting with the smallest animal and getting bigger.

Finding Alternatives for a Blank in a Sentence.

1.

The man got off his ____________ and walked away. (answers could include :
horse/bicycle/letter/backside)

2.

Peter lived in a ____________ (answers could include : caravan/house/fantasy world/apartment)

3.

I don't like her because she is ______________ (answers could include : too talkative/the teacher's
pet/boring)

Brainstorming on a Picture
Pictures are a rich source of inspiration for brainstorming. Strange events evoke the biggest variety of responses.
Most students will let their imagination roam if the pictures are strange enough. Use pictures from the textbook,
magazines or other sources.
1.

What are these people doing?

Suhantos Collection Page _ 9

2.

List the objects in the picture.

3.

What is this man thinking about?

4.

Write four words to describe this person.

Brainstorming Using a Song

Songs are wonderful for reducing nervousness. They seem to be particularly effective in whole-class
brainstorming when the teacher is writing the ideas on the board. Play a song for the class and ask questions like
the following.
1.

How does the singer feel?

2.

What do you think the singer looks like?

3.

Suggest titles for this song.

4.

When do you think that this song was written?

Word-mapping or Phrase-mapping Around a Central Theme.

Write a word or phrase in the center of a page. All the other words or phrases should link off this in a logical
manner. Word-mapping can be useful for establishing groups of similar things, for example animals or food.
Phrase-mapping can be useful for developing topics or functions.

Changing One Word in a Sentence Each Time

Each word must be changed, but each sentence must have a meaning. This can be useful to show the students
the role of each word in a sentence prior to a substitution drill or other activities. It can be a fun activity to do on
the blackboard.
Example :
1.

Peter played flute in the orchestra.

2.

Peter played flute in the park.

3.

John played flute in the park.

4.

John played soccer in the park.

5.

John watched soccer in the park.

6.

John watched soccer near the park.

7.

John watched soccer near a park.

Suhantos Collection Page _ 10

Variations: add one word, take away one word.

Listing Different Ways of Expressing a Particular Language Function.
Example : Ask Someone to Move his Car.
1.

Please move your car.

2.

I'd appreciate if you could move your car.

3.

Get your car out of my way.

Prediction
Guess what the speaker will say next. This can be used in conjunction with dialogues in textbooks. It is a
powerful technique to encourage students to take a risk. If the dialogue is recorded, stop the tape and ask the
students to predict what the speaker will say.
Free Association
This is best done orally and can be a lot of fun. One student gives a word in your chosen topic and asks another
student to say the first word that she thinks of. The second student continues to make associations. The first
student simply repeats the word in each case. After making about 10 associations, the first student should try to
work backwards from the last association to the original word.
Example :
1.

A : apple

2.

B : red

3.

A : red

4.

B : rose

5.

and so on.

Variation : Free association in pairs or in groups. Students make the associations from the previous student's
word.
Group Storytelling
Students work in groups and take turns adding to a story, either spoken or written. It is usually better to give the
first line of the story.
Example :
John was late for school because
1.

Student A : he missed the train

2.

Student B : and there wasn't another for 20 minutes

3.

Student C : so he went to a game center

4.

Student D : but he lost his wallet

Suhantos Collection Page _ 11

If the students are writing, it is interesting to write several stories at the same time.
Conclusion
Brainstorming is a very useful activity that can be easily introduced into language classes. The research study
previously discussed shows that it helps our students to become better learners. In addition, it is a fun activity
which students enjoy and well worth trying out in your own classes.
References
Brown, H.D, 1994 Principles of Language Learning and teaching, Prentice Hall Regents
McCoy, R.I 1976. Means to Overcome the Anxieties of Second Language Learners, Foreign Language Annals,
pages 185-9, No. 12, 1979.
Richards, J.C., 1990 The Language Teaching Matrix, Cambridge University Press.
Rubin, J 1975. What the "Good Language Learner" Can Teach Us, TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 9, No.1, March 1975.
Tsui, A.B.M. 1996. Reticence and anxiety in second language learning, Voices From the Language Classroom,
Cambridge 1996, 145-167.
VanGundy, A. B. (1981, 2nd Ed. 1988). Techniques of Structured Problem Solving. New York: Van Nostrand
Reinhold.

The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IV, No. 7, July 1998

http://iteslj.org/

What to Do with Failing Students

Marty Dawley
Mrvolvo [at] aol.com
Spring International Language Center
5900 S. Santa Fe Drive, Littleton, Colorado, USA 80120
Why does failure bother teachers so much? When the student fails, we feel we have failed.
Over the years I have found that one of the biggest problems my colleagues have is the feeling of personal
failure that comes when their teaching doesn't work, when they teach, but some students just won't learn. I
always encourage them not to ignore the problem, but instead to make it their responsibility to try to help those
failing students find a way to succeed. Success does not always mean passing a class or even learning the
material. Sometimes it means students must learn other lessons about themselves and how to work in school and
the world. Sometimes the results of your work still seem negligible or even negative, but trying to help is our
solemn responsibility. Looking at the whole student and trying to help him learn how to accomplish his goals or
choose other goals is a major part of our jobs. What is failure? Failure is when a student doesn't leave the class
knowing more than when he entered. There are many types of failing students. They all deserve our help.
Helping Students to Succeed: A Twelve Step Program
1.

Identify failure early and act on it. This includes getting evidence of students level and abilities within
the first week of class through testing, in class writing, and interviews.

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2.

Confront the student privately with facts (test papers, lack of study and homework, class requirements
including time, etc.). Many students are anxious to deny there is a problem. "Don't worry, teacher. No
problem." Be specific and blunt. " There is not a single correct sentence in this composition." Also use
your good judgment. Some students need this more than others.

3.

Get the student to verbalize her own problem and identify causes and solutions. Don't allow the student
to minimize the problem. Analyze the problem with the student. This self recognition is the key to any
self help program. The student must recognize the problem and decide she wants to fix it.

4.

Listen. Be honest and direct in your responses. Offer respect and encouragement. Listen and look with
great attention. Look at the distance a student holds the book from him as he reads. Listen to what she
says about her study time. Let the time you spend with this student be exploratory. You may have only
seen symptoms of the problem, but not have any idea of its source.

5.

Help the student create a plan of action with realistic goals. Help her to move back to a reasonable
starting place. Help her develop steps to reaching her goal. Don't guarantee her a passing grade. Offer
her a chance to make progress.

6.

Make sure the student adopts the plan as his own set of goals and responsibilities. Let him write or
articulate his plans. Check carefully to see if you are on the same track. Make sure he includes his own
ideas.

7.

Follow up on the plan daily or each time you meet. Let the student know you are interested in her
success. Congratulate her on daily successes in front of others if it's appropriate. "Your grammar was
much better in this paper." "This is your highest grade this term." Your reinforcements can become less
regular as the student improves.

8.

Remind the student of his goals. Be positive, but firm. Don't reinforce the student's bad reputation.
Don't make negative comments in front of the class, but do ask him to come and see you. He may need
help. Watch for backsliding. Old habits are hard to break.

9.

Be a resource. Offer or locate additional instruction and materials at an appropriate level. Keep files to
help you come up with materials easily. Peer tutors are another valuable tool. Know what other classes
and community resources are available to help a student in need.

10. Vary your approach to help keep students interested and to accommodate varied learning styles, and
intelligences. Give your failing student a chance to shine. Don't lower your standards to accommodate
a student who is "working hard." Your whole class will benefit from this step.
11. Acknowledge growth even when it does not include passing a test or class. Make sure you spend time
with that student before she receives an F on a major paper, a test, or the class. A minute before class
begins is all it takes to say, "Those passive verbs are still really hard for you, but I could see you
worked on them. Let's try again." Once again, let the student verbalize his own growth. "Do you read
better now than you did nine weeks ago?" "Yes, I do. I know more words, and I read better." Don't give
a student a passing grade for trying hard. It only takes her to a harder, more impossible level.
12. Keep a professional outlook. If you have followed this plan, you have done your best. The student is
responsible for his successes and failures.

The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. V, No. 4, April 1999

http://iteslj.org/

A Story-Telling and Re-Telling Activity

Suhantos Collection Page _ 13

Bob Gibson
aj7r-gbsn [at] asahi-net.or.jp
Keio University (Tokyo, Japan)
Introduction
At one time or another many teachers have watched their schedules of lesson stages crumble in the face of that
excruciatingly drawn-out process of decision making by Japanese students. In setting up this story making
activity using photographs as raw material, I had two main aims. The first was to inject a degree of randomness
into the selection of pictures intended as stimuli, thus cutting down the amount of time students could take over
what really ought to be a minor aspect of the whole task. The second was to force students to actually listen
attentively to the stories which their classmates were telling them. The activity outlined below has achieved both
aims with a wide range of ability levels.
Procedure
Lay out on a table, either face up or face down, a good range of 'people' and 'setting' photographs from
magazines, catalogues etc. Put students into groups of three or four and where possible arrange the room so that
these groups are spaced well apart and not too close to the laid-out pictures.
If the pictures are face up, have one student from each group come out and select one. S(he) then rejoins the
group but keeps the chosen picture face down. The other students in the group do likewise, and only when each
member has made a selection may the pictures be turned over. If the pictures were laid out face down, then
either students each choose one without looking or one member from each group is asked to pick up three or
four. Back in the group, the pictures are turned over and students attempt to integrate them into a common story
line.
It often happens that one or more pictures cannot easily be related to the others, so, after a little thinking time,
the group may be allowed to select a few more pictures to pad out their initial ideas for a story line. A useful
wrinkle here is to require that one picture be handed back for each new picture taken. This helps prevent
excessively long and complex stories.
Story creation proceeds. Group members can be encouraged to make very short notes, or a flowchart or spider
graph style diagram to help them keep the story in mind. Manuscript writing should be strongly discouraged,
especially if only one member of the group is doing it.
When groups have come up with a story, the members of each group play jan-ken-pon (Rock, Scissors, Paper
Game), probably Japan's fastest decision making procedure. The loser has to stay behind and tell the group's
story to two or more listeners from another group, while the other group members move to the next group to
hear that group's story. Remind the storyteller to arrange the pictures in story sequence so that the listeners can
see them clearly, and stress that listeners will have to pay close attention to the story they are about to hear,
asking questions if anything is unclear, since one of them is going to have to tell it again her/himself.
After the two 'new' listeners have heard the story and asked any questions they want to, they also play jan-kenpon. The loser again stays behind to tell the story, while the previous storyteller and the other listener(s) move to
the next group. The story is told again. Even if a chart or diagram has been left behind, minor-to-drastic
alterations may occur to stories in the re-telling, but this can add to the fun. If you do overhear serious revisions,
you might have students contrast the versions they heard at the end of the activity.
On the next or next-but-one change-of-role, only one person in each original group has not yet taken on the role
of teller of one story or another. In the interests of fairness, then, the jan-ken-pon can be omitted. If further
rounds of re-telling are needed, jan-ken-pon is a fair way of choosing a storyteller.

Suhantos Collection Page _ 14

Follow-up
Asking Japanese students to critique their classmates' stories, can be rather a non-starter, especially as individual
stories may have mutated from one telling to the next. You might, however, ask students to rank the stories they
heard in terms of plausibility, imagination, complexity etc. Where one story is a clear favourite, students may
enjoy acting it out, which of course requires the narrative to be turned into dialogue. Outside of Hollywood, this
may not be the most essential of language skills, but it almost invariably throws up plenty of good teaching
points and student questions.

The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. V, No. 9, September 1999

http://iteslj.org/

http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Gibson-StoryTelling.html

National Geographic and Life

Click on these links to access a wealth of information about National Geographic and Life:

A Design for Life

http://www.ngllife.com/content/design-life
Bringing National Geographic to Life
http://www.ngllife.com/content/bringing-national-geographic-life-0
Explore the World with Life! - a list of countries covered in Life
http://www.ngllife.com/content/explore-world-ng-life
Video: Using Life Video in the Classroom
http://www.ngllife.com/content/using-life-video-classroom
Video: Video in Life
http://www.ngllife.com/content/video-life
Video: Culture in Life
http://www.ngllife.com/content/culture-life
Video: Critical thinking in Life

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http://www.ngllife.com/content/critical-thinking-life
Video: The power of the image
http://www.ngllife.com/content/power-image

Communicative Worksheets
We teamed author and teacher trainer, Mike Sayer, with award-winning graphic novelist, Julian Hanshaw, to
create fun, comic-based communicative worksheets to complement the Real Life (d) sections of Life. For each
level of Life, each unit folder contains 3 files: AW (artwork), SC (student cards), and TN (teacher's notes). You
can download them using the link below.

Attachment

Size

Beginner_Communicative_Worksheets.zip

11.38 MB

Elementary_Communicative_Worksheets.zip

11.19 MB

Pre-intermediate Communicative Worksheets.zip

11.38 MB

Intermediate Communicative Worksheets.zip

11.05 MB

Upper Intermediate Communicative Worksheets.zip

10.35 MB

Advanced_Communicative_Worksheets_Units1-6.zip

12.76 MB

Advanced_Communicative_Worksheets_Units7-12.zip

13.49 MB

Business Writing Worksheets

Attachment
Pre-Intermediate Business Writing Worksheets.zip
Intermediate Business Writing Worksheets.zip
Advanced Business Writing Worksheets.zip
Upper Intermediate Business Writing Worksheets.zip
Business_Writing_Useful_Phrases.pdf
National Geographic Learning

Reading Texts (Word)

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Size
5.06 MB
4.51 MB
5.39 MB
4.62 MB
310.99 KB

Here you can download Word versions of all the Life Reading texts and use them to create your own activities.
Suggestions for exploitation of the Reading texts after their main treatment in the unit are provided in the
Teacher's Notes.

Attachment
Teacher's Notes for Life Reading Texts.zip
Beginner Reading texts.zip
Elementary Reading texts.zip
Pre-intermediate Reading Texts.zip
Intermediate Reading Texts.zip
Upper Intermediate Reading Texts.zip
Advanced Reading texts.zip

Size
218.98 KB
460.82 KB
400.34 KB
738.94 KB
704.63 KB
606.47 KB
353.15 KB

The Grammar Practice Worksheets for Life have been specially selected from Practical Grammar, a series of
grammar books for students of English published by Cengage Learning. Each level of Practical Grammar has
100 units plus reviews and progress tests. Each unit examines a particular area of grammar. The grammar is set
in short, everyday conversations or texts, showing the language in natural situations. You can read about the
form, meaning and use of the language on the first page, before practising it in a variety of activity types on the
second page. We have selected some of the units that cover the grammar taught in Life to provide extra selfstudy materials and practice activities to support your learning.
The Grammar Practice Worksheets are available for download from the Life website's Student Zone. Students
can click on the level of Life they want to practise to download worksheets and audio tracks for their Life units,
where available.
Teachers can also download and print these worksheets for use as classroom activities or homework/revision.
Follow the links below:
Beginner: http://www.ngllife.com/student-zone-grammar-practice-worksheets/beginner
Elementary: http://www.ngllife.com/student-zone-grammar-practice-worksheets/elementary
Pre-intermediate: http://www.ngllife.com/student-zone-grammar-practice-worksheets/pre-inte...
Intermediate: http://www.ngllife.com/student-zone-grammar-practice-worksheets/intermed...
Upper Intermediate: http://www.ngllife.com/student-zone-grammar-practice-worksheets/upper-in...
Advanced: http://www.ngllife.com/student-zone-grammar-practice-worksheets/advanced

Good luck

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