Increase your students' language agility

Hopefully you've had a chance to try out the exercise from the last post. If you don't have a class, that's okay! Please keep these in mind to see the value in focused, practical, intentional practice. Here is some feedback I received from Module 2 of The Language Sport course.

"I've watched the first two lessons of Module 2 and have tried them in my Basic/Level 1 Classes.  It's proven to be very helpful and engaging for the students and helped me to give them authentic language speaking practice.  It's a relief to know that it's good to mix in irregular verbs and past and present tense.  That's life and we are teaching them to communicate in life. It makes so much more sense than the 'school of next page.'"   -- Christine, Chicago, IL

Let's dive back in with the past tense exercise to coach alongside the present continuous exercise from my previous email.

Step 1. Ask your students to write down 3-5 sentences saying what they wore the day before. Ask a student "What did you wear yesterday?"

Make sure they answer in a complete sentence. It's likely that you'll get an "I wear" instead of "I wore." As always, those are the mistakes we're trying to elicit. They might know wore if you gave them a quiz on paper, but what matters is that they can produce the correct word spontaneously.

For beginning students, model your sentences on the board. 

Yesterday I wore a white sweater.

Yesterday I wore brown boots.

Yesterday I wore my glasses.

If your students are higher than beginners, try explaining the exercise without writing in order to check comprehension.

Step 2. Same as before, walk around the class to check their writing and watch for article errors. You can start asking them questions to get more description. Language learners are much more likely to remember vocabulary that connects to their lives.

Step 3. Demonstrate the speaking exercise with a student by asking them the question and then also with them asking you.  Make sure to always use complete sentences. For example:

You:  Jean, what did you wear yesterday?

Jean: I wore a blue jacket. I wore gray jeans. I wore a white shirt.

Write what the student says on the board in third person.  Jean wore a blue jacket etc.

Step 4. Partner up the class and have them interview each other based on what they wrote. One group looks like this:

Luis: What did you wear yesterday?

Agnes: I wore a black t-shirt. I wore black running shoes. I wore blue jeans.

Luis writes in his notebook:   Agnes wore a black t-shirt. She wore black running shoes. She wore blue jeans.

After one partner asks, the other partner does the same. 

Step 5. Switch partners.  Luis’s new partner is Ramona.  Now the students need to ask “What did she/he wear yesterday?” Again, you’re going to elicit some errors with word order, specifically “What he wore yesterday?” and “What did he wore?”. This is why we work on asking complete questions.

Ramona: Who was your partner?

Luis: My partner was Agnes.

Ramona: What did Agnes wear yesterday?

Luis: She wore a black t-shirt. She wore black running shoes. She wore blue jeans.

Luis: Who was your partner?

Ramona: My partner was Marek.

Luis: What did he wear yesterday?

Ramona: He wore a dark blue coat. He wore white leather shoes. He wore exercise pants.

Step 6. Switch partners again. Students need multiple repetitions, so you can do this a few more times. After the first few rounds, ask them to do it without reading.

Once students are comfortable with it, do this exercise back-to-back with the present continuous "What are you wearing" from the previous email. These are never one-off exercises--they need to be practiced consistently.