Techniques for form focus after reading

Submitted by Dave Willis on 30 April, 2008 - 16:46

The four stage cycle
In my earlier articles Reading for information, Form focus and recycling, and Techniques for Priming and recycling, I set out a four stage cycle for teaching reading:

1. Priming
2. Reading
3. Form focus
4. Recycling

We have looked at techniques for priming and for recycling the language in the text. In this article I'm going to suggest some more techniques for form focus and then summarise very briefly the reasons for the approach I have suggested.

Fill the gaps
In my second article I suggested you could take a few sentences from the text ''Are Sharks Dangerous to Humans?' focusing on quantifiers. I showed how you could gap these sentences and ask learners to fill the gaps. Instead of taking individual sentences you could take one or two paragraphs and gap them. This is a useful technique if, for example, you want to draw learners' attention to the way we combine sentences to make a text. Instead of taking individual sentences we could have gapped the last two sentences of the second paragraph together with the whole of the third paragraph:

*** great white is certainly a fearsome creature. ** *** reach 6 metres in length and up to 2000 kilograms in weight. ** has ** **** ** 3000 needle sharp teeth arranged in five rows, so it can sever a man's leg in a single bite.

*** *** *** sharks are **** the great white. *** pigmy shark, *** *******, is **** about 20 centimetres in length. ***** *** ****** 400 species of shark and **** than half of these are under a metre in length. *** biggest sharks ** *** are *** at all dangerous to humans. *** basking shark and *** whale shark grow to around 12 metres, *** they are quite harmless, feeding on plankton and small fish.

First ask learners to read these sentences in the text very carefully and then turn the text over so they can't see it. Then give them the gapped version and ask them to work in groups to see if they can fill the gaps. Show the gapped version on the board or on OHP and work with the class as a whole to see if they can complete the text. Finally read out the full version for them to check.

The opening and closing sentences in each paragraph are very important in creating a text that hangs together properly. Try giving learners a version of the text from which these sentences have been removed. See if they can work in groups to reconstruct the text, then read out the full version of the text to help them. Finally ask them to check their reconstruction against the full text. If one of these sentences is very long, like the final sentence of the shark text, you can cut only a part of it.

Running dictation and communal memory
Some of the techniques described for recycling, such as, running dictation and the communal memory task can be used for form focus. These work well as form focus because they require recall of the exact wording of the text.

Vanishing word
There is an exercise which I called progressive deletion and which Scott Thornbury calls vanishing words. For this activity you take a sentence which has some phrases and grammar in it which you think will be useful for your students. The sentence:

Even before dinosaurs roamed the earth there were sharks swimming in the sea.

would be a good one. The word even is a very important connector. It has the very useful phrase there were and this is followed by the -ing form swimming. This is a very frequent pattern as in: There was someone watching us or There were a few people waiting for the bus.

Write the full sentence on the board and ask one or two students to read it out. Then rub out a few words, replacing them with blanks to represent the letters:

- - - - before dinosaurs roamed - - - earth there - - - - sharks swimming in the - - - .

Ask one or two students to read out the full sentence, remembering what goes in the gaps. Then remove some more words and repeat the process:

- - - - - - - - - - dinosaurs roamed - - - earth - - - - - - - - - sharks swimming - - - - - - - - .

Finally see if learners can remember the full sentence:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The importance of pair/group work
All the activities I have set out in these four articles would work with the teacher leading the class and the learners working as individuals. But almost all of the activities would be better done in pairs or groups. In priming activities group or pair work will make sure that the language to be used in the text is covered in group discussions. In recycling activities learners will prompt each other and help one another to remember things. All of this involves language use. Different learners will offer different possibilities. This obliges all of them to think things through carefully. The same applies to form focus activities. And working in pairs or groups gives learners so many opportunities to use language.

There may be difficulties organising group work in your classes. Perhaps the desks are immovable. Perhaps learners are not used to this kind of work. But the benefits are such that it is certainly worth it. If you can't move learners into groups of 3 or 4 they can simply work with the person next to them. They can get lots of good practice by working in pairs.

Reasons why learning from texts is more effective
Throughout these articles I have stressed the importance of text. I have argued that it is important for learners to remember texts and to study the language of those texts in detail and try to recall it. Much of the grammar work suggested in course materials is based on isolated sentences. But language in use is not a series of isolated sentences; it is composed of texts. Sentences are shaped by the way they occur in text, so grammar should focus on sentences in texts or should enable learners to relate sentences to their original texts.

One final word. In these four articles I have been talking about written text. But all the techniques described here would work just as well with spoken texts so long as you have the transcript of the recording. You can use the four stage methodology to treat things like lectures and radio programmes - in fact anything you do under the label ‘listening comprehension'.

The approach recommended here is a task-based approach. Click here for more on task-based learning and teaching.

For more ideas on form focus activities see:

Scott Thornbury (2001) How to Teach Grammar. Longman.
Dave Willis (2003) Rules, Patterns and Words. CUP
Dave Willis and Jane Willis (2007) Doing Task-based Teaching. OUP (See Chapter 6)

Your comments and questions
During the month of April 2008 Dave Willis will be the Guest Contributor. You can add comments or questions about the contents of this article by clicking on Add new comment below. Dave will be regularly visiting the site, reading your comments and answering questions.

Sample Text used in this article

Are sharks dangerous to humans?
Sharks have been around for hundreds of millions of years. Even before dinosaurs roamed the earth there were sharks swimming in the sea. They live in oceans and seas all over the world. Some sharks live near the surface, some live deep in the water, and others on or near the ocean floor. They are even found in fresh water, sometimes swimming many miles up rivers like the Mississippi in the USA and the Amazon in Brazil.

We tend to think of sharks as big dangerous creatures. We sometimes read about shark attacks in the newspapers, and in 1975 the film Jaws terrified a whole generation of moviegoers with the story of a great white shark which attacked holidaymakers in a small seaside town in the USA. The great white is certainly a fearsome creature. It can reach 6 metres in length and up to 2000 kilograms in weight. It has as many as 3000 needle sharp teeth arranged in five rows, so it can sever a man's leg in a single bite.

But not all sharks are like the great white. The pigmy shark, for example, is only about 20 centimetres in length. There are almost 400 species of shark and more than half of these are under a metre in length. The biggest sharks of all are not at all dangerous to humans. The basking shark and the whale shark grow to around 12 metres, but they are quite harmless, feeding on plankton and small fish.

Only about 25 species are dangerous to people. Of these the bull shark is the one that is most likely to attack people. It swims in very shallow waters where people swim and is much more numerous than the great white, which is very rare. Less than one hundred people are attacked by sharks each year. Indeed you are far more likely to be killed by a dog or by bees than by a shark, and some scientists believe that sharks only attack people because they mistake them for seals and sea lions, the shark's favourite food.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/techniques-form-focus-after-reading , 11 Juni 2009

INDONESIAN FOLKTALES Series 2006

Special Stamps Issuance

On 2 February, Directorate General of Post and Telecommuncation issue Indonesia Folktales series stamps. In previous years, Indonesia Folktales series special stamps issuance were always accompanied by Souvenir Sheets. In this issuance, however, miniature sheets which are especially printed without perforation (imperforated) will be issued to supplement the stamps issuance. On the same day, PT Pos Indonesia Co. issue the First Day Cover (FDC).

If we scrutinize previous Indonesian Folktales Series stamps issuance, each folklore presented on the stamp design was always a local legend and represented certain ethnic group or province. Up until the 8th folklare series stamps issuance in 2005, all Indonesian provinces had already been represented in the stamp designs. In this 2006 folklore Series designs, folklore or legends which are well-known throughout the whole Indonesian community will be presented instead of the ones which represent certain ethnic group or province. The tales are so habitually told so that they become stories which are told over and over again by mothers to their children at bedtime or by teachers to their students at schools.

Things to consider in selecting story materials in stamp designs, besides the stories or tales which are well-known throughtout Indonesian community, are the essences of the stories which give many lessons and morals in life. for example, good deeds will be rewarded by goodnes, and the opposite: evil will be rewarded by badness. The essence of the story of si kancil: To reach an objective in life, besides lucks and miracles, wit and rationality are required as well.

BAWANG MERAH BAWANG PUTIH

In village, live a widow with her two beautiful daughters, Bawang Merah (Red Onion) and Bawang Putih (White Garlic). Bawang Putih's real father which was also the widows's husband died long ago. Bawang Merah and Bawang Putih had opposite characters and personalities. Bawang Putih was diligent, kind, honest and humble girl. Meanwhile, Bawang merah was lazy, glamorous, proud and envious girl. Bawang Merah's bad personality was worsened because her mother spoiled her. The widow always gave her everything she wanted. It was Bawang Putih who did all the works in the house. Doing the laundry, cooking, cleaning, essentially all works were carried out by herself. Meanwhile, Bawang Merah and the widow just spent times making themselves up, because when they needed something they could just ask Bawang Putih.

Bawang Putih never complained the bad fate she had to face. She always served her step-mother and sister happily. One day, Bawang Putih was doing her step-mother and sister's laundry. Bawang Putih didn't realize it when a piece of cloth belonged to her mother was washed away by the river. How sad was she, thinking that if the cloth couldn't be found she would be blamed, and it wasn't impossible that she would bu punished and expelled from home.

Being afraid that her mother cloth could not be found, Bawang Putih kept looking and walked along the river with its strong current. Every time she saw someone by the river, she always asked him or her about her mother's cloth which was washed away by the river, but everyone didn't know where the cloth was. Eventually Bawang Putih came to a place where the river flowed into a cave. Surprisingly, there was a very old woman in the cave. Bawang Putih asked the old woman if she knew of the cloth whereabouts. The woman knew where the cloth was, but she made a condition before she handed it to Bawang Putih. The condition was that she had to work assisting the old woman. Bawang Putih was used to working hard so that her work pleased the old woman.

It was late afternoon and Bawang Putih was saying goodbye to the old woman. The woman handed the cloth to her. because of her kindness, the old woman offered her a gift of pumpkins. There were two of them, one was larger than the other. Bawang Putih was asked to choose the gift she wanted. She wasn't greedy, there she chose the smaller one.

Returning home, the Step-Mother and Bawang Merah were furious because Bawang Putih was late. She told them what happened from the time her mother's cloth was washed away until her encounter with the old woman in the cave. Her step-mother was still furious because she was already late and only brought one small pumkin, so the mother smashed the pumpkin to the ground. "Whack..." and the pumpkin was broken, but it was miraculous that in the pumpkin there were beautiful golden, jewel, and diamond ornaments. The Widow and Bawang Merah were very schocked. They could get very rich with that much jewelry. But greedy they were, they yelled at Bawang Putih asking why she didn't take the large pumkin instead. In the Widow and Bawang Merah's minds, if the larger pumpkin was taken, they should get much more jewelry.

Fulfilling their greed, Bawang Merah folowed the steps told by Bawang Putih. She wilingly drifted her mother's cloth, walked along the river, asked people and eventually came to the cave where the old woman lived. Unlike Bawang Putih, however, bawang Merah refused the old woman's order to work and She even arrogantly ordered the old woman to give her the larger pumpkin. And so the old woman gave it to Bawang Merah.

Bawang Merah happily brought the pumpkin that the old woman gave, while imagining how much jewelry she would get. Returning home, the Widow welcomed her beloved daughter. Not waiting for long, the pumpkin was smashed to the ground, "whack ..." but instead of the jewelry, appeared various terrifying snakes. The Widow and Bawang Merah finally realized what they did all this time was wrong and asked Bawang Putih to forgive them.

KEONG EMAS (THE GOLDEN SNAIL)

Once upon a time, king Kertamarta from Daha Kingdom had two daughters namely Dewi galuh Ajeng and Dewi Candra Kirana. Daha is bordered by Kahuripan Kingdom. To strengthen the brotherhood ties between the two kingdom, Dewi candr Kirana was engaged to the Crown Prince of Kahuripan namely Raden Inu Kertapati, a brave, handsome and wise prince.

Galuh Ajeng envided Candra Kirana because she had feelings for Raden Inu Kertapati, too. To prevent Candra Kirana from marrying him, Candra Kirana was slandered so that she was expelled from this place. More than that, to harm her, Galuh Ajeng asked a favor from a witch. The witch put a curse on Candra Kirana to become Keong Emas and then threw her away to the sea. The curse would disappear if Keong Emas could meet Raden Inu Kertapati.

One day in Dadapan village, Keong Emas was found by an old woman when she ws fishing. The snail attacted her so she took it home. The next day, the old woman went fishing in the sea like usual. That day she couldn't caught any fish. She went home sadly. To her surprise , a variety of delicious food was always available at her home. Until one day, she was too curious and tried to find out who on earth had cooked the meal. She went out early pretended to go fishing. She actually hid behind her house to see what was going on. She saw a very beautiful girl cooking in her house. She asked the girl, "Beautiful girl, who are you truly?" The girl eventually told the woman that she was actually Candra Kirana, the princess of Daha Kingdom, who was put on a course by a witch sent by Galuh Ajeng that envied her. When the sun was getting high Candra Kirana turn into Keong Emas again.

Meanwhile, Raden Inu Kertapati kept searching for Candra Kirana who had left the palace. In the search, he disguised as a commoner. On his way, he met a talking crow. He asked the crow for the direction to where Chandra kirana was, and he followed the direction pointed by the crow. Yet, the direction was misleading because the crow was actually the witch in disguise who prevent him from meeting her queen to be. Later he met a starving old man actually had a supernatural power, and in return for his kindness, he was assisted in fighting the witch and was given the direction to where Candra Kirana was.

Following the old man's direction, Raden Inu Kertapati headed to Dadapan Village. She saw an old woman repairing her house. He approached her and offered her some help. After the work was done, she offered him to rest in her house. To his surprise, Candra Kirana was there. They were happy to see each other and the curse put by the witch disappeared. Candra Kirana introduced him to the old woman, and brought her back to Daha Kingdom.

In Daha Kingdom, King Kertamarta was furius after learning the evil Galuh had done to Candra kirana. Being frightened, Galuh Ajeng ran to the woods and fell from a steep slope. King Kertamarta asked Candra Kirana to forgive him. The wedding of Raden Inu Kertapati and Candra Kirana proceeded joyfully and welcomed happily by the people of both kingdoms. The pair lived happily ever after.

SI KANCIL (THE DWARFT DEER)

In one beautiful day, si Kancil was out of his den. He was very hungry. He wanted to go straight to the place where he usually looked for food. Unfortunately, there was not much food left. Available food couldn't fill his stomach. Eventually he decided to roam to other places for food and he arrived at a river bank.

Si Kancil saw plenty of food across the river, green grass grew, trees were decorated with green leaves and ripe fruits. He drooled, imagining how delicious the food across the river was. Yet, he was baffled how he could cross the river because there was no bridge joining the two banks.

Then si Kancil tried to step into the river, just in case it was shallow enough so he could cross it without any bridge. It was only one of his feet that had touched the water when it was caught by crocodile's jaws. Apparently the crocodile had been watching him until he was careless. Si Kancil's situation was critical, his life would end with one movement from the crocodile, his flesh would be a tender meal for the crocodile. "I intended to search for delicious meal, but now I end up become the delicious meal for the crocodile", si Kancil thought.

However, si Kancil was not a mere animal, his brain wit was as quick as his movement. This wasn't the first time he was in a critical situation. It was many times that his life was saved by his wit. While his brain was working, he saw a group of crocodiles were behind the one which caught him and they were also ready to chew his flesh. The plurality of the crocodiles didn't scare him. Instead, it became an opportunity for him to escape from death. Then si Kancil started to play his wit. "Dear crocodile, you should know that I am here voluntarily. I feel I've been living to long in this world, and now I've made up my mind to end my life. I've also decided to distribute my flesh and my whole body to the crocodiles inhabiting this river. But I make a condition that my flesh must be distributed fairly and squarely to all the crocodiles here. Deal? All the crocodiles stunned for a while, they were amazed by what si Kancil had said. "Alright, Kancil. if we are greed with what you've just said, how are we going to do?". "Hmm ... the trap starts to work," si Kancil thought. "First, I have to count how many crocodiles inhabiting this river. If I already know the number, I'll be able to determine home much of my flesh for each of you. Therefore, you don't need to fight one another. "The crocodiles seemed to be more interested in si Kancil's explanation because they saw the advantage before them. as if they were charmed by si Kancil, the crocodiles position themselves side from one river bank to the other. Then, si Kancil executed his clever plan. While stepping on each crocodile that made a line on the river surface, he started to count, "One ... two ... three ..." and finally until the last crocodile..."bye-bye..." and he quickly jumped to the river bank and ran into the green, thick bush leaving the crocodile stunned, realizing their stupidity.

TIMUN EMAS (GOLDEN CUCUMBER)

Once upon a time, there was a widow who lived alone. Because there was no one on her side, she felt lonely and dreamed of the presence of a child. In the same village, there lived a giant. Knowing her uneasiness, the giant offered his help by giving a child, on condition that when the child is 6 year old, it must be returned to the giant to become his meal. Because of her strong desire to have a child, the widow agreed with the od condition. The giant then gave her a cucumber seed to be planted at the widow's lawn.

Two weeks passed and the cucumber started to bear fruits, and there was one which was large and shined like gold. The widow picked the large cucumber and splitted it carefully and it appeared that there was a cute baby girl inside. How happy the widow was, and the baby was named Timun Emas.

Times passed so fast, 6 years ws Timun Emas' age now. At this age she became a beautiful and clever child. The giant came to the widow to fulfill her promise, but she loved her child and didn't want to lose her child. She asked the giant to come back two years later, told him that Timun Emas would be bigger and more appetiziting to eat then. The giant agreed.

Two years passed, the time had come for the widow to let the giant have Timun Emas. The widow loved her child too much. She didn't want her child to become the giant's meal. Yet, it was impossible to confront him. Eventually the widow ordered Timun Emas to go to Gunung Kidul (Southern Mountain) to meet a powerful hermit there. He gave Timun Emas four small packages contained cucumber seeds, needles, salt and terasi ( a kind of seasoning). He didn't forget to order Timun Emas to pray for safety from the giant

One morning the giant came to the widow to fulfill her promise. The widow ordered Timun Emas to run through the back door. He chased her. when she was almost caught, she dispersed the cucumber seeds from the package and they suddenly became cucumber field. He stopped chasing her for he was interested in eating the cucumber. Then he chased her again, when she was almost caught she dispersed the needles from the package that became bamboo field. His feet were wounded and bled, pricked by the bamboos. Yet he didn't give up and kept chasing her, then she dispersed the salt from the package and the field became a sea. Yet he kept chasing her. Finally, she dispersed the terasi from the package. Suddenly appeared boiling sea of mud, and finally he was dead. with the dead of the giant, Timun Emas could live happily with her mother.

Teaching Reading

Traditionally, the purpose of learning to read in a language has been to have access to the literature written in that language. In language instruction, reading materials have traditionally been chosen from literary texts that represent "higher" forms of culture.

This approach assumes that students learn to read a language by studying its vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure, not by actually reading it. In this approach, lower level learners read only sentences and paragraphs generated by textbook writers and instructors. The reading of authentic materials is limited to the works of great authors and reserved for upper level students who have developed the language skills needed to read them.

The communicative approach to language teaching has given instructors a different understanding of the role of reading in the language classroom and the types of texts that can be used in instruction. When the goal of instruction is communicative competence, everyday materials such as train schedules, newspaper articles, and travel and tourism Web sites become appropriate classroom materials, because reading them is one way communicative competence is developed. Instruction in reading and reading practice thus become essential parts of language teaching at every level.

Reading Purpose and Reading Comprehension

Reading is an activity with a purpose. A person may read in order to gain information or verify existing knowledge, or in order to critique a writer's ideas or writing style. A person may also read for enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of the language being read. The purpose(s) for reading guide the reader's selection of texts.

The purpose for reading also determines the appropriate approach to reading comprehension. A person who needs to know whether she can afford to eat at a particular restaurant needs to comprehend the pricing information provided on the menu, but does not need to recognize the name of every appetizer listed. A person reading poetry for enjoyment needs to recognize the words the poet uses and the ways they are put together, but does not need to identify main idea and supporting details. However, a person using a scientific article to support an opinion needs to know the vocabulary that is used, understand the facts and cause-effect sequences that are presented, and recognize ideas that are presented as hypotheses and givens.

Reading research shows that good readers

• Read extensively
• Integrate information in the text with existing knowledge
• Have a flexible reading style, depending on what they are reading
• Are motivated
• Rely on different skills interacting: perceptual processing, phonemic processing, recall
• Read for a purpose; reading serves a function

Reading as a Process

Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is.

Reader knowledge, skills, and strategies include

• Linguistic competence: the ability to recognize the elements of the writing system; knowledge of vocabulary; knowledge of how words are structured into sentences
• Discourse competence: knowledge of discourse markers and how they connect parts of the text to one another
• Sociolinguistic competence: knowledge about different types of texts and their usual structure and content
• Strategic competence: the ability to use top-down strategies (see Strategies for Developing Reading Skills for descriptions), as well as knowledge of the language (a bottom-up strategy)

The purpose(s) for reading and the type of text determine the specific knowledge, skills, and strategies that readers need to apply to achieve comprehension. Reading comprehension is thus much more than decoding. Reading comprehension results when the reader knows which skills and strategies are appropriate for the type of text, and understands how to apply them to accomplish the reading purpose.

Section Contents

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Reading
Strategies for Developing Reading Skills
Developing Reading Activities
Using Textbook Reading Activities
Assessing Reading Proficiency
Resources

Material for this section was drawn from “Reading in the beginning and intermediate college foreign language class” by Heidi Byrnes, in Modules for the professional preparation of teaching assistants in foreign languages (Grace Stovall Burkart, ed.; Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1998)

[TOP]

http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/reading/reindex.htm, 8 JULI 2009

Teaching English

Tips for using stories

On the British Council’s site for young learners - LearnEnglish Kids - there are lots of stories which you can use to motivate your students. These stories have been specially written for children learning English. They range from quite simple to quite demanding in terms of the level of difficulty so choose carefully. The stories are currently divided into four sections:

• Short stories: Animated Flash movies for learners aged approx 8-12. These are suitable for lower level learners and above.
• Longer stories: Texts over a number of pages with soundfiles that users can download and listen to. These are for learners aged approx 8-12 and are more suitable for learners with higher levels of English.
• Stories for little kids: Animated Flash movies for learners aged approx 7 and under. Language levels vary but the subject matter is more suitable for younger children. Younger children will need support to use these stories.
• Fairy Tales: Animated Flash movies of traditional stories. These are suitable for all ages, and are appropriate for lower levels and above.

You can find all the story materials at http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories.htm. As a teacher using a story in the classroom, there are many ways of using and exploiting the stories to help children understand and add to their enjoyment. On these pages you will find tips for using and exploiting the stories in the classroom.

A. Activities to prepare children for reading

1. Using illustrations
It is always a good idea to exploit pictures to help the child understand and visualise the story. The stories have
illustrations which can be used to introduce the story, elicit vocabulary they know, introduce difficult words in that story, and generally excite the interest of the child for the story. This illustration is from the story ‘Carnival Crime'. Ask learners to look at the picture before reading, and ask questions such as ‘who are the people?'; ‘what are they wearing?' (and why?); ‘what is the cat holding?'; ‘what has happened?'; ‘how is the woman feeling?' etc. Learners will be introduced to vocabulary, will be more able to understand the text, and will be more engaged in the reading task (was I right? Is it a necklace or a watch?) http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-carnival-crime-1.htm

2. Pre-teaching vocabulary
Many of the stories on LearnEnglish Kids are related to a topic. These topics can have ‘specialist' vocabulary which may cause problems in comprehension. You will usually find links to other related exercises on thematic vocabulary which can be taught first. For example, you will find lots of related activities to practise the names
of the animals in the story ‘ABC Zoo' as well as flashcards that you can download to introduce the animals.
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-abc-zoo.htm

3. Introduce the theme

Many of the stories are related to a topic. It can be a good idea to familiarise learners with the topic before reading, by trying activities related to the topic on the site, by setting a task to find out about the topic (this could even be for homework), or by discussion (in your own language with lower level learners if you like). For example the story ‘Football Crazy' is about a girl playing in a boys football team, breaking down barriers, adults
treating boys and girls differently. This is an important issue for children. Before reading the story you could ask your learners to name famous footballers, and once you have a list you could see how many famous
players are women. Then you can ask more questions such as ‘why are there so few famous female football players?', ‘what about other sports?' etc. http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-football-crazy.htm

4. Input cultural background
Many stories assume a knowledge of cultural norms in the UK, for example, the daily school routine. Children are usually interested in finding out the differences between their own culture and the lives of children in the UK. Some stories have more overt cultural background. In the story ‘Hairy Henry's Holiday', typical sights of London are mentioned, such as ‘Big Ben', ‘The London Eye' and ‘Madame Tussauds'. You could use a map or guidebook to London to find out what these are before children read or listen to the story. http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-henry-holiday.htm

B. Activities during reading

1. Use a variety of ways to read
There are many different ways to approach the story. It is quite likely that younger learners will want to read/hear/or listen to the story several times, particularly the shorter, flash-animated ones. This should not be discouraged as it helps learners to equate oral and written forms which is important for the development of reading skills. In the classroom it is important to vary the kind of reading.

• The teacher could use a data projector for a class to listen to/read a story as a whole-class activity
• The teacher could read the whole or parts of the story to a class with the text
• The learners can read by themselves silently, either on-screen whether at school or even as homework
• Some stories can be read as texts with illustrations and then children can watch the flash movie version, or this order could be reversed.

2. Sustaining reading
If the story is very long then it is important to keep the class motivated to read. The teacher could stop at convenient ‘cliff-hanger' points and ask the class ‘what happens next?' This use of prediction skills makes the learners want to read on to the end of the story to find out if their own idea is correct. In a classroom this could be done as a ‘guessing game' if the teacher is controlling the pace of reading. A few of the stories on LearnEnglish Kids have built-in puzzles to keep the learners interested - for example in the story ‘Spycat', students have to type in the destinations from anagrams, and finally solve the coded message. http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-spycat.htm

3. Total physical response
With very young or active learners the story can be mimed while the teacher reads or the children listen. A story like ‘The Snowman' could be used for this. The actions of waking up, running into the garden, building the snowman and the ‘melting' are all easy to mime. http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-snowman.htm

4. Characters and voices
In stories which have a lot of characters you could ask students to read the dialogue of the characters. The teacher could read the dialogue of characters in different voices first. For example the story ‘Alan and the Alien' is fairly long, but could be livened up with acting out the alien funny voices and nonsense words! You could even
create a class project which involves rewriting this (or another) story as a play which could be performed - perhaps with costumes. http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-alien-1.htm

You can download a version of Goldilocks to act out with younger children: http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-topics-goldilocks.htm

5. Vocabulary help
If a child is reading individually at school or at home they could also use Cambridge Dictionaries Online to check on the meanings of unknown words, if the learner is at a high enough level to use this independently. This is available at http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

For younger learners there are many accompanying worksheets and online interactive games to practise vocabulary from the stories. In particular the Fairy Stories section contains material accessible and motivating to all levels. You can find a wealth of vocabulary materials on Goldilocks, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood: http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-fairy-tales.htm

C. Post-reading activities

1. Quick comprehension check
It is always a good idea to do a quick comprehension check when your learners have finished reading the story, or at the end of each page of text. This may take the form of a few ‘gist' questions about the text in oral form, asking children for a response e.g. why is this person sad, which character did the children like etc. This could be done in written form. Many stories have worksheets for follow-up work, for example ‘Eric the Engine' has a follow-up worksheet with a sequencing activity to check comprehension. http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-eric-engine.htm

2. Make a poster/illustrate the story
You can use any story as an opportunity for some creative drawing and illustration, perhaps with vocabulary labels in English. For example, in the story ‘Carnival Crime', you could ask a learner to draw the carnival costumes in the story and label them. As a follow-up they could design their own carnival costume or a costume for a festival in their country.

3. Stimulus for writing
Many stories lend themselves to acting as a stimulus for creative writing, depending on the level of your learners. Younger learners or learners who have a lower level of English could use one of the simpler stories as a model for a story of their own. Examples are ‘My Dad' (learners write about a member of their own family) or ‘Magic Spell' (learners choose their own ingredients and outcomes). Learners with a higher level of English could write more complex stories, for example, their own story based in a haunted house (where did they go? What did they see? What happened?)

Other ideas for follow-up writing are writing a letter to a character in a story, writing diary entries for a character in a story, or writing extra dialogues between the characters. http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-my-dad.htm
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-magic-spell.htm
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-haunted-house.htm

4. Role-play/acting out
Interpreting stories as role-play can be as simple or complicated as you like. It could start with miming basic actions, then speaking or improvising dialogue. In the classroom the teacher will need to be organised in advance with moving furniture, providing simple props etc. You could even use facepaints.

Stories like ‘The Monster Shopping trip' are simple to act out. You could draw the presents on card:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-monster-shoppingtrip.htm . For the really ambitious class project you could make masks for the characters. There are downloadable masks available for the characters in the Goldilocks story available at britishcouncil.org/kids-print-mask-goldilocks.pdf and for the story of Little Red Riding Hood you can download a set of finger puppets of the characters to help you act out the story in class. These are available at britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-red-riding-hood-puppets.pdf

Sue Clarke

When you have used some of these ideas, why not come back to this page and leave a comment below to tell us how your class went. Let us know too if you have any additional ideas!

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/teaching-kids/tips-using-stories, 8 JULI 2009