IN THE CLASSROOM

Teaching
large
classes 3
Hall Houston and Andrew Starck look at using a variety of activities to motivate large classes.

I
n the previous articles in this series, we have 1 Picture dictation
talked about the issue of how class size affects Tell the class to take a piece of paper, at least A4
teacher–student rapport, and mentioned several size. (They can recycle the back of a handout.)
tips for bringing your class closer together. Make sure everyone has a pen or pencil, then tell
As with anything, at the beginning this can be them they have to listen very carefully as they are
easier said than done, as more experienced teachers going to draw a picture based on your instructions.
will have found out. As Mary Bart suggests: ‘Think For example, you can begin by saying:
back to your first few years of teaching. If you’re like ‘In the middle of the picture, there is a very large
most educators, you probably made your share of tree. Next to the tree, there is a dog. What is the dog
mistakes. To be sure, we all do things differently now doing? In front of the tree, there are two children.
than we did when we were first starting out. Thank One is pointing at something and the other is
goodness for that!’ To help teachers to avoid many carrying a heavy box ...’
pitfalls, we will focus here on what we believe to be You can adapt the dictation to the level of the
one of the most important elements of a motivating students, using more difficult vocabulary or a more
course: variety. Employing a broad range of complex storyline. After the dictation, the students
activities will appeal to more students, as large often enjoy comparing their pictures with each
classes are usually heterogeneous; thus a mix of other. They can check to see if their dogs are doing
activities increases the likelihood that every student the same thing and find out what the children are
will find something that appeals to them. pointing at or carrying. Which of the pictures are
most creative? They could even have a vote on who
Individual work activities are the best artists.
Teaching methods such as the communicative
2 Guided visualisation
approach, task-based learning and teaching
unplugged all exhort teachers to give their Prepare a short text that asks the listener to imagine
students plenty of pairwork and groupwork. a story in which they are the central character (see
While this is excellent advice, backed up by a the example script below). In class, tell the students
great deal of research, we feel it’s also extremely to close their eyes and put their heads down on their
important to include individual work in lessons. desks. Tell them to listen carefully and imagine what
Some introverted students prefer to work alone, you tell them:
and don’t always appreciate being told to get ‘Imagine it’s very late at night: 2 am. You are
together with a partner. Others enjoy a break lying in bed, but you can’t get to sleep. You feel the
from looking at the blackboard, and just need a bed sheets and mattress against your skin. You move
bit of time to gather their thoughts. Individual your legs and arms, and you turn over. Next, you get
work can provide a welcome change of pace from up out of bed. Your feet feel the cold floor as you walk
noisy discussions, roleplays and mingles. It across your bedroom. You turn on a light. You squint
provides valuable time when the students can as your eyes adjust to the bright light. You walk over
make significant progress in a full range of core to the TV and turn it on. You sit down in a
language skills, vocabulary, grammar, listening, comfortable chair. Your eyes widen as you look at the
reading and writing – all by themselves. TV screen. You see one of your favourite scenes from
Here are a couple of activities we recommend: your favourite movie. As you watch the scene, you

46 Issue 117 • July 2018 www.etprofessional.com

 IN THE CLASSROOM

smile and remember what a great movie it is. Then a at each of the teams and say loudly: ‘It’s your
chill runs down your spine as you feel a hand gripping responsibility to describe the word to your classmate,
your shoulder tightly. You look around and see the in English. Do NOT mouth the word or translate it
one person you are most scared of.’ into your native language.’ Warn them that if you
After you tell the students to open their eyes, see anyone cheating, you will deduct ten points
you can ask them what the movie was and who the from their team.
person was. You can continue by finding out which As an example, write banana in the rectangle
students often wake in the middle of the night, and and ask the students how they could describe it,
what they usually do. Do they find it easy to go eg a yellow fruit or something monkeys love to eat.
back to sleep? Do many students have nightmares? No matter what level the class is, it can
sometimes be difficult for the players to guess the
While both these activities involve listening, the word, so start with a very simple word first. Then
students can also work on other skills in individual when one student has guessed it, erase it and write a
work. In a writing class, they could write a more complex word for a second go. When the first
paragraph to describe the picture they drew in the two players have had two goes, ask them to sit down
Picture dictation. After the Guided visualisation they and bring the next two up to face their teams. Each
could develop the script into a longer story. time a player guesses the meaning first, give a point
to their team. If the students are obviously enjoying
Competitive games this game, do a second round.
Even the most passive students get caught up in the
excitement of a competitive game. Games are Whole-class activities
usually extremely easy to set up, and many activities These types of activity bring the whole class
can be adapted into a competition. For example, together, instilling a feeling of togetherness. They
you can divide a class into two teams and get each can definitely be noisy, because the students are
team to complete a task, such as writing as many often caught up in the fun. The best type of
sports-related words as they can in three minutes, or whole-class activity encourages the students to think
competing to be the first team to write a list of ten about what they’re saying, to avoid the unpleasant
items commonly found in the kitchen. feeling that they’re just blandly mumbling a bunch
The following are two extremely lively of random syllables.
competitive games:
1 Repeat if it’s true for you
1 Dictation race Prepare a series of sentences, all starting with I or
Before class, prepare about ten medium-length My. Ideally, you should use vocabulary and
sentences. These could be from your teaching grammar that the students have encountered
material, or sentences that you have created, using recently in your classes. Here are some examples:
vocabulary and grammar from recent lessons. In I have two sisters.
class, tell the students that they’re going to listen to a
I’ve never been to Tokyo.
dictation, but they will be competing in two teams.
Each team must send a member to the board to write My neighbour is extremely noisy.
the sentence being dictated. The first person to write I’m German.
the sentence without errors wins a point for their I always drink a big cup of coffee in the morning.
team. Each time, call on a person from each team to
stand ready at their desks. Read out a sentence, and Tell the class that you are going to read out some
then say GO! (I learnt this activity from Chris sentences, and you want them to repeat each
Cotter’s terrific book Better Language Teaching.) sentence, but only if it’s true. Read out the
sentences, and pause after every two or three
2 Guess the vocabulary sentences to ask a student a question related to the
Put the class into two equal-sized teams. Make sure sentence, eg Carlos, would you like to go to Tokyo?
the teams are sitting well apart from each other, as Pedro, what is your favourite kind of coffee?
you want to keep a clear boundary and this game (I learnt about this activity from Dealing with
can get noisy, to say the least. Difficulties by Lindsay Clandfield and Luke
Draw a large rectangle in the middle of the Prodromou.)
board, easily visible to both teams. Call one player
up from each team and make sure they are facing 2 Choral reading
their own team with their back to the board, so Ask your students to read out a dialogue, paragraph
they can’t see what you are writing. Tell them you or short text that appears in your teaching material.
are going to write one word in the rectangle and Try some of these variations, to add some zest to
the standing players have to guess what it is. Point the choral reading.

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IN THE CLASSROOM

■■ Read out each sentence with some dramatic flair, and ask the After a few minutes, tell the class to choose one sentence to
whole class to repeat it exactly the way you said it. complete. Once they are ready, call on several students to read
■■ Decide on the spot who will read each sentence (OK, you four out their sentence. Comment on these, and encourage the
read the first sentence …). Then ask the entire class to repeat others to make comments and ask questions.
the sentence immediately afterwards.
■■ Assign a certain feeling to the class (sad, nervous, angry, t t t
scared, etc), and tell the class to read the text with that feeling.
All the activities we have included here can be adapted to
Flexible tasks include whatever subject, theme or vocabulary you have been
As we mentioned earlier, large classes tend to be heterogeneous. using in your classroom and to suit students at any level of
Thus, students in your class are likely to be at different levels and proficiency. Games not only give a great change in pace, but
have different interests, expectations and preferences. One often bring a refreshing alternative to the more traditional and
common solution for teaching heterogeneous classes is to prepare more serious approaches to reviewing texts, sentence structures
two or more versions of an activity, so that the students can do an or idioms. Try them out on your students and see which work
activity that matches their level. However, this can result in best for you. You can even experiment by trying out the same
teachers spending significantly more time on preparation. game in different classes to see if you get different reactions.
But don’t forget: variety is the key. So use all the different
A simpler alternative is to prepare what Seth Lindstromberg games described here but, even if you discover a favourite, wait
calls ‘flexible tasks’. These are tasks that have more than just several weeks before you get the students to play it again.
one teaching aim and allow students at many different levels to
participate. They give the students more freedom to use the Employing games can completely change the dynamics of a
vocabulary and grammar they know, instead of just focusing classroom, turning quiet classes into lively centres of bubbling
on one verb tense or grammar point. The following are two activity and fun. The individual activities tend to focus more on
flexible tasks that we recommend: enhancing creativity and inner thinking, whereas the competitive
games and whole-class activities can bring the class together as an
1 Three-sentence story interactive unit. They aid in the development of a strong team
Display an image of a famous celebrity or cartoon character. spirit, as each member eggs their team on to beat the opposition.
Ask the class to name them and tell you what they know Flexible tasks give both the teacher and students a greater
about them. Write on the board two lists of vocabulary, one freedom to choose what they know and wish to include in the
from lessons earlier in the course and one from more recent task at hand. See which ones you and your students like best. n
lessons. Tell the class to think of a sentence about the
celebrity/cartoon character, using two words from the board, Clandfield, L and Prodromou, L Dealing with Difficulties Delta 2007
one from each list. The sentence should be written in the past Cotter, C Better Language Teaching Chris Cotter 2009
tense, as if part of a story. Hand out index cards, and ask Bart, M (Ed) Teaching Mistakes from the College Classroom Magna
each student to write their sentence in the middle of their 2010
card, leaving the top and the bottom blank. Next, ask Lindstromberg, S ‘Towards better results with mixed-proficiency
everyone to write their own name on the back of the card, classes: use of flexible tasks’ Humanising Language Teaching 2000
and pass it to you. Redistribute the cards so that everyone has Lindstromberg, S Language Activities for Teenagers CUP 2004
another student’s card. Instruct everyone to read the sentence
on their cards, and add two sentences (one before it and one
after) to create a very short story. Erase the vocabulary from Hall Houston teaches undergraduate students
at National Taipei University of Nursing and
the board and emphasise that the students can use any
Health Sciences in Taiwan. He is also a teacher
vocabulary they want for their sentences. trainer for Cambridge English. His books
include Provoking Thought, Brainstorming and
2 Sentence starters Creative Output.
Write on the board (or on a colourful PowerPoint slide) several [email protected]
partial sentences about a topic that you have covered in class
recently. For example, if you are teaching a class about
marriage and family, you might write:
The ideal husband/wife is … Andrew Starck lectures at Southern Taiwan
University. The courses he teaches are
I will never get married unless …
far-ranging: from Contemporary Philosophy to
The best thing about being single/married is … English Songs. He has presented a variety of
workshops all around Taiwan. In his spare time,
My family is very ..., but also …
he enjoys painting and salsa dancing.
Even though my children/my family/my partner is ..., I still ... [email protected]

Give the students time to look over the sentences. You can
display them at the beginning of a class break without comment.

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