B091 EfT2 Mod4 Trainerbook - FINAL - MedRes

Trainer book
English for Teaching 2

Module 4: In the news
www.teachingenglish.org.uk
Module 4: In the news Trainer book
Overview
●● Describing recent events in the news

Language ●● Present perfect simple and continuous with just, already, never, for and since
development
●● Past simple
Language in
Writing news reports
context
Task Creating a school newsletter
Methodology Planning a receptive skills lesson
In the classroom Practising and micro-teaching a receptive skills lesson
Pronunciation Using connected speech
Magazine Activities that use learner-created texts
Vocabulary Reviewing vocabulary related to the news
Activity page Do a ‘Find someone who… ’ activity and adapt for learners
Reflection Making a word collage related to learning in the module
By the end of this module participants will be able to:

●● describe recent events in the past
●● identify and explain mistakes in the use of past tenses
●● create a school newsletter with their learners
Learning ●● plan and execute a receptive skills lesson
outcomes
●● identify key features of elision in connected speech
●● identify key reasons for using learner-created texts in the classroom
●● design and use a find someone who… activity
●● reflect on and plan to apply learning from the module.
Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

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Contents page
1 Language
1.1 Lead-in: What’s in the news? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Listening: School news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Task: Creating a school newsletter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 Language analysis: Present perfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.5 Common mistakes: Grammar quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 Methodology
2.1 Planning a reading skills lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2 Listening skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3 In the classroom
3.1 Micro-teaching a listening skills lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4 Pronunciation
4.1 Elision: Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2 Elision in connected speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.3 Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5 Magazine
5.1 A learner-created text activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.2 Vocabulary: Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.3 Poster activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6 Activity page
6.1 Find someone who… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
7 Reflection
7.1 Word collage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Appendix 1
Audio scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Appendix 2
Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Appendix 3
Articles on planning listening skills lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2 Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

1 Language
1.1 What’s in the news?
This activity introduces the topic of the news and introduces or reviews some of the vocabulary that will
come up in the module. It also prepares them for the task.
Materials
●● Coursebook 1.1
Instructions
●● Ask participants to look at the pictures in 1.1 (a) and establish the topic by asking what the pictures
have in common.
●● Participants do the vocabulary exercise in 1.1 (b) In the pictures, they should find a…
●● Reporter
●● Article
●● Headline
●● Presenter
●● Newspaper
●● Interview
●● Newsletter
(This vocabulary will be reviewed later in the module.)
Answers
●● Reporter – 4
●● Article – 6
●● Headline – 7
●● Presenter – 2
●● Newspaper – 1
●● Interview – 3
●● Newsletter – 5
●● Ask participants questions such as: Do you read newspapers? Do your learners read them? Do you
watch news on TV? Do you have a school newsletter? Why/why not?
●● Ask participants to make a list of advantages of learners writing their own school newsletter. Elicit or
give them some of the language they will need to do this; there are a few examples in the coursebook.
Possible answers
●● It gives learners practise in speaking and writing with a purpose.
●● It’s task-based language practise, rather than just grammar or vocabulary.
●● It provides a service for the school.
●● It’s motivating for learners to write about events that they’ve been involved in.
●● Establish that they will now start thinking about how to create a school newsletter.

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1.2 Listening: School news
In the recording, a teacher is working with her class in preparation for creating a school newsletter.
She is eliciting topics that might be included in the newsletter and writing them on the board.
Materials
●● CD recording
Instructions
●● Tell participants they’re going to listen to a teacher with her class, eliciting possible topics for a school
newsletter (see audio script in Appendix A). Check understanding of the term ‘eliciting.’
●● Ask participants what topics they think might come up. Ask them to discuss in pairs (a).
●● Take feedback briefly. Pre-teach any necessary words at this stage.
First listening
●● Ask participants to listen to the recording and check whether any of their predicted topics come up (b).
Second listening
●● Ask participants to look at the true/false questions and check vocabulary with them.
●● Ask participants to listen again and to answer the true/false questions (c).
●● Participants check in pairs.
●● Take feedback.
Answers (vocabulary)
True or false?
1. The school is called Gorton High School. True
2. The football team won 2–1. False, 3–1
3. The volleyball team played against Whalley High School. True
4. The Music Society are preparing for a concert. True
5. The Painting Society started their exhibition event in 2008. False, 2009
6. The school is raising money for a new arts building. True
7. A girl at the school was given an award by the town council. True
8. The girl lost her home in a fire. False, it was a family in the town
●● Ask participants to reflect on whether they think that the Gorton High School newsletter topics are good
ones. What else could they include in a school newsletter? Elicit a few ideas, and tell them that they will
now go on to plan a school newsletter.

1.3 Task: Creating a school newsletter
In groups, participants plan a school newsletter and short articles for it. They will then present their task
and get feedback from another group and from the whole group.
Materials
Instructions
Planning
●● Put participants in groups of four. Tell them that they are a ‘school editorial team’ and ask them to give
themselves a name.
●● Ask groups to brainstorm topics for the front page of their newsletter. They should come up with six to
eight topics. Explain that it can be an online newsletter, a paper one, or both!
●● Monitor the groups and help as necessary.
Writing
●● Once all the groups have their topics, explain that they will write short articles for the newsletter.
Each group member will write one or two articles.
●● Ask participants to think back to the item about the Painting Society at Gorton High School.
What do they think the article would say? Elicit some ideas, then ask them to read the example in their
coursebook. See Appendix B for reading.
●● Discuss it briefly with them and make a checklist of items for an article, e.g:
●● headline
●● quote(s)
●● important information
●● dates.
●● They write their articles. They should be about the same length as the model article, or slightly longer
(100–120 words).
●● Monitor use of target language during this stage.
Feedback and reporting

●● Tell participants that they are going to give each other feedback using these questions:
●● Is the headline appropriate?
●● Does it contain all the necessary information? Is it clear who is involved, when it’s happening?
●● Does the writer use a quote/quotes?
●● Ask them to read everyone’s articles within their group and give feedback on those points.
●● Each group then organises their articles on a large piece of paper, and sticks them on. Make sure that
each group has a name for their newsletter. (They can also do this on computers if this is convenient.)
●● Each group of four is paired with another group of four. Each group reads and gives feedback on their
‘partner’s’ newsletter using the same questions as above.
●● Ask groups to discuss the learning points from their work. Elicit/give them an example or two,
e.g. what did they learn about writing an article?
●● Lead a whole-group feedback on learning points.
●● Ask participants to stick all the newsletters on the wall or boards to be looked at and commented on
by the whole group now, or later.

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1.4 Language analysis: Present perfect
Participants look at the script from the audio in 1.2. They are asked to focus on how the present perfect is
used, and to put examples from the audio script into categories.
Materials
Instructions
●● Ask participants to look at the audio script in 1.4 and to underline instances of:
●● present perfect simple
●● present perfect continuous
●● past simple.
●● Feedback with the whole group. See Appendix A for answers. Ask questions about why past simple,
present perfect and present perfect continuous are used.
●●
Elicit the general rule that the present perfect is used a) for past events with a connection to the present
and b) with words of unfinished time, e.g. already, yet, for, since, ever, never.
●● Ask participants to look at the rules for use of the present perfect in 1.4. Can they find examples of each
in the audio script?
●● Feedback with the whole group.
Answers
1. ‘the Music Society have just started preparing…’

2. ‘What events have happened recently?’
3. ‘she’s received an award.’
4. ‘We’ve never beaten them before.’
Information
The past simple is often used in conjunction with a time marker, i.e. an event in the past that is finished,
e.g. ‘they won last Saturday.’
The present perfect continuous – e.g. we’ve been doing it since 2009 – is used to emphasise the
continuity of the ‘action’.

1.5 Common mistakes: Grammar quiz
Participants check their understanding of the rules they’ve studied in 1.4 through a grammar quiz.
Materials
Instructions
●● Divide participants into small teams. Each team should have a team leader.
●● Write ’He has been to the school in 2003’ on the board.
●● Ask participants to decide in their teams whether the sentence is correct. If they decide it is incorrect
they have to correct it. Tell them that the team leader has the final say.
Answer: He went to the school in 2003.
●● Participants look at section 1.5 and complete the activity. Give them a time limit of around eight minutes
(this will vary according to the group).
●● Check answers together and ask participants to add up their points.
Answers
1. Have you ever been to Australia OK
2. She’s been a teacher since 1995. OK
3. John won an award for his painting last weekend.
4. Lindy has been a doctor for ten years
5. I’ve just started a new class. OK
6. Our new term started two weeks ago.
7. Have you entered your class for the school competition yet? OK
8. We didn’t win the cup in 2010. (or ‘we’ve never won the cup’ with
no time marker)
9. You’ve broken the glass! Pick up the pieces. OK
10. Tom has been running that company since last year. OK
Reflection
Ask participants to reflect on whether they could use this kind of quiz with their learners.
Information
Point out that they could include some of the learners’ own mistakes in the grammar game. They could
also perhaps do the quiz as a running dictation, with teams having to write down the sentences then
correct them as a kind of race.

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2 Methodology
2.1 Planning a reading skills lesson
Participants focus on how a reading skills lesson is planned, with pre-, while- and post-reading stages.
Materials
Instructions
●● Tell participants that they are going to focus on a reading lesson, and how it can be organised.
●● Tell them that they are going to look at a newspaper article about Facebook. Ask them if they use
Facebook, and if their learners use it as a way of keeping in touch, and sending out their own news.
Establish that Facebook is a popular topic with their learners.
●● Ask them to read the article in 2.1 and to decide on the correct order of the four tasks.
See Appendix B for reading.
●● Check in pairs.
●● Take feedback from the whole group.
Answers
a. Task C (pre-reading)
b. Task D (while-reading/skimming task)
c. Task A (while-reading/scanning task)
d. Task B (post-reading task)

●● Ask participants to look at the article on Facebook again. In pairs, can they come up with alternative
pre-/while- and post-reading activities?
●● Take feedback from the whole group.
●● Elicit/point out that all tasks are focused on content rather than language.
Possible Answers:
There are many different possibilities. Here are some ideas:
Pre-reading task
Discuss Do you use Facebook? Why/why not? How old do you think the average Facebook user is?
How old do you think the oldest Facebook user is?
While-reading task
Read and find out:
- Mrs. Bean’s age
-Where she came from
Post-reading task
In pairs, ask learners to discuss the following questions:
1. Do you think it’s true that human beings can only really maintain 150 friends?
2. Do you think that more elderly people should use Facebook? Why/why not?
Information
You may need to explain to participants what Facebook is. You may also need to explain that to do the
reading it is not necessary for them to access a computer.
This is a good time to point out that the Facebook lesson comes from www.teachingenglish.org.uk,
where there are lots of downloadable lesson plans.

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2.2 Listening skills
Participants work in pairs and plan a listening skills lesson based on the same principles as the reading
lesson, with pre-, while- and post-reading stages.
Materials
●● CD recording
Instructions
●● Point out to participants that listening lessons can be based on the same principles as reading lessons,
with pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening tasks. Reading and listening are both receptive skills.
●● Refer back to the reading lesson above, and discuss what the pre-task, the while-task and the post-task
need to cover (see notes below).
●● Ask participants to quickly read the audio script in 2.2, and brainstorm some possible tasks for it.
Point out that, as with the reading, they should think of two tasks while-listening: 1) listening for gist
and 2) listening for specific information.
●● Again, point out if necessary that tasks should be content focused not language focused.
●● Divide participants into groups of six, and discuss a pre-listening, while-listening or post-listening task
for the listening in 2.2, so that each group of six is preparing a whole lesson.
●● They split into pairs and assign tasks.
●● Monitor and assist as necessary.
Information
●● You may need to elicit and discuss that the pre-task needs to get participants ready for reading or
listening and can include questions, pictures, etc. The while-task is often wh- questions or T/F, but can
also be completing a diagram, etc. The idea behind the post-task is to provide a follow-up discussion
or activity based on the theme of the listening or reading. You may be able to provide or elicit
examples from their own textbooks.
The following links provide information about planning receptive skills lessons:
www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/a-framework-planning-a-listening-skills-lesson
www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/pre-listening-activities
Both these articles can be found in Appendix 3.
●● The pairs who are preparing the while-listening tasks should prepare two tasks: one listening for gist,
the other for specific information. Make sure that they are aware that they will need to play the
recording twice.

3 In the classroom
3.1 Micro-teaching a listening skills lesson
Participants work in pairs to practise and micro-teach their part of the listening lesson. Each group of six
demonstrates a complete lesson and gets feedback from the whole group.
Materials
●● CD recording and audio script
●● Any handouts prepared by participants.
Instructions
●● Participants practise their section of the lesson and discuss in their group of six how it all fits together.
●● Each group of six micro-teaches their ‘lesson’ to the whole group.
●● Participants give feedback on tasks with reference to focus questions.
Information
If you have a large group (over 18), then you might decide to do the micro-teaching in two separate groups.

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4 Pronunciation
4.1 Elision: Words
Participants focus on short utterances to notice elision in connected speech.
Materials
●● CD recording and audio script
Instructions
●● Write the following words on the board:
●● interesting (item of news) • camera
●● a separate (item) • police news
●●
tonight’s (news) • history (programme)
●● Do not give a model at first, but ask participants to pronounce them.
●● Read the words, or play the audio. Is there a difference from the way they pronounce them?
Ask participants to listen for which sound disappears.
●● Ask individual participants to come to the board and underline missing letters.
Answers
●● int(e)resting (item of news) ●● p(o)lice news
●● cam(e)ra ●● t(o)night’s (news)
●● a sep(a)rate (item) ●● hist(o)ry (programme)
●● Elicit from participants that in each case the missing letter is the same sound: schwa/ə/
●● Ask them if this happens with other words.
●● Ask participants to look at the words and phrases in their coursebook. Again, they should decide
on where elision takes place, try pronouncing them, then listen to the models from the audio.
Answers
/ t / and / d /
With consonants, it is / t / and / d / which are most commonly elided, especially when they appear
in a consonant cluster. For example:
●● kep(t) talking
●● the firs(t) presenter
●● you an(d) me
●● they stopp(ed) to watch
●● the firs(t) three (items)
/h/
●● you shouldn’t (h)ave
●● tell (h)im.
(some examples from TeachingEnglish.org.uk)

4.2 Elision in connected speech

The participants practise drilling techniques that they could use in class.
Materials
●● CD recording
Instructions
●● Write the following sentences on the board:
●● What do you know about Twitter?
●● They’ve just started preparing for the concert.
●● That’s an interesting idea.
●● What events have happened in the school recently?
●● She raised money for a family in town.
●● Ask participants to underline any letters they think will be elided in speech.
●● Read out the sentences at natural speed, or play the audio.
●● Participants check.
Answers
●● She raised money for a family in town.
●● Drill the phrases chorally and then individually.

●● Ask participants to practise drilling the phrases in groups, with each participant taking the role
of teacher.

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4.3 Reflection
Participants reflect on the activity they have just completed.
Materials
Instructions
Ask participants to discuss the questions at the end of the section with their group.
Feedback
Exercises like this help to show learners the differences between written and spoken English, and they
highlight the importance of listening to words rather than relying on their written forms.

5 Magazine
5.1 A learner-created text activity
Participants read about an activity which involves learners creating their own text on the news.
They review the vocabulary of news from the lead in. They then work in groups to brainstorm further
activities on the topic of the news, which involve learners creating their own text.
Materials
●● Coursebook 5
Instructions
●● Ask participants to read the activity from www.teachingenglish.org.uk in 5.1.
●● Put participants into pairs and ask them what they like about the activity? Would they adapt it for their
learners? If so, how? They discuss In groups.
●● Ask participants to look at the list of reasons why learner-created texts are a good idea. Which do they
think is the most important? They discuss in groups.
5.2 Vocabulary review
Instructions
●● Ask participants to look at the word collage in 5.2 and see if they can remember what each word means.
●●
Put participants in groups of three and give them three minutes to match the words with the definitions.
●● Check answers together and ask them to add up their points.
Answers
1. Someone working in TV or radio who presents different parts of
Presenter
a news programme or show.
2. A set of sheets of paper with news, ads, pictures, etc. usually
Newspaper
sold daily or weekly.
3. One or several sheets of printed news regularly sent to a
Newsletter
particular group of people.
4. A piece of writing on a specific subject usually in a paper
Article
or magazine.
5. The title of a newspaper report. Headline
6. When a famous person is asked questions about their life, etc.
Interview
for TV, radio, or a newspaper.
7. Someone who writes about events for a newspaper, TV or radio. Reporter

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5.3 Poster activity
Participants work in groups to create a poster containing further ideas for learner-created text activities.
Materials
●● Coursebook 5
●● Large sheets of poster paper
Instructions
●● Ask participants for other ideas for learner-created text activities on the topic of the news. Take one or
two ideas.
●● Put participants into small groups and give them some large sheets of poster paper.
●● The task is to think about other learner-created text activities on the topic of the news.
●● When they finish, each group presents their ideas.
Feedback
There are lots of ideas participants could come up with, but some examples are:
●● learners are given stories; they have to write headlines
●● learners are given headlines only; they have to write stories
●● learners are given a few articles from the news; they have to create radio news broadcast.

6 Activity page
6.1 Find someone who…
Participants do a ‘find someone who… ’ activity, focusing on practising the target language.
They then reflect on how to create their own ‘find someone who… ’ activity for their learners.
Materials
Instructions
●● Remind participants what a find ‘someone who…’ activity is. Learners walk around the classroom
asking their classmates questions to find someone who can answer the specific questions.
They should not write the same name more than twice.
●● Check language – ask learners what questions they need to ask and put a couple of examples on
the board if necessary, e.g. Have you ever talked to a famous person?
●● Check understanding – ask participants to explain to you what they are going to do.
●● Start activity – participants get up, move into the middle of the room, walk around asking each other
the questions on the worksheet and writing down names. The idea is that they speak to as many
different people as possible.
●● Stop the activity when they have completed as much of the worksheet as they can.
Reflection
●● Ask participants to reflect on the uses of this activity.
●● How could they adapt it for use with their own learners? Ask them to work with a partner.
Answers
Answers will vary according to the focus of the activity, but some pupil-focused questions might be:
Find someone who…
●● Has been a learner for over five years.
●● Has been learning English since they were under ten years old.
●● Has just learned a new word in English.
●● Has been to an English-speaking country.

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7 Reflection
7.1 Word collage
Participants reflect on their own learning in this module using a word collage. They then share insights from
their learning with the group.
Materials
●● A sheet of paper for each participant
Instructions
●● Tell participants to look back over the module and the activities they’ve done.
●● Give each participant a blank sheet of paper.
●● They can use up to eight words to represent their learning in the module. They can use the blank paper
to make a design using the words.
●● Once they’ve finished, put participants into small groups and ask them to share their word designs.
They can ask each other questions about the words they’ve chosen.
●● Take feedback from each group about similarities and differences in their learning.
Reflection
●● Ask participants to reflect on the uses of this activity. How could they use it with their own learners?

Appendix 1
Audio scripts
Audio script 1.2

(Teacher and learners in class discussing a school newsletter. Teacher is eliciting topics and writing them
up on board.)
Teacher (female): So, let’s see, what do you think you’d like to put in the Gorton High School
newsletter? What events have happened in the school recently?
Student 1 (boy): The football team won last Saturday! (other children cheer)
Teacher: Good. What was the score?
Student 2: 3–1. (another cheer)
Student 3 (girl): Yes, and the girls won their volleyball match against Whalley High.
Student 4 (girl): We’ve never beaten them before, so it was really good.
Student 4: 17–8!
Teacher: Good. So what else? Any arts events?
(pause)
Student 5: The Music Society have just started preparing for the end of term concert.
Teacher: OK. I’ll write that on the board. What’s the concert?
Student 5: It’s Mozart…
Student 6: . . . and the Painting Society has organised an exhibition of its work. The exhibition
starts next week in the main hall.
Teacher: That’s interesting… Is that a new thing, Kirsty?
Student 6: No, we’ve been doing it since 2009, but it gets bigger every year. We’ve got 30
paintings this year. It’s going to be really good!
Teacher: OK!
Student 7: Miss Jones, can we put the fundraising for the new art block in the newsletter?
Teacher: Well, it’s school news… It’s up to you.
Student 7: I think we should, it will help us to advertise it. (others agree)
Student 8: And what about the award that Lindy Harris got?
Teacher: What’s that? I haven’t heard about that.
Student 8: Yes… She raised money for a family in town that lost their home in a fire.
Student 7: Yes, and she’s received an award for it – from the town council.
Teacher: Really?
(fade)
Teacher: OK, so let’s look at this list we’ve got on the board. Then we can decide who wants to
work on which news item.

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Audio script 2.2

(Magazine news programme on radio)
(male voice) ‘. . . and now here’s Fiona Gregory with an item about the popular social networking site,
Twitter. She asks: Has it changed the way we get our news?’
(female voice) ‘Hello everyone. What do you know about Twitter? Well, here are a few facts. Launched in
2006, Twitter is a microblogging site which has 190 million users worldwide. Users sign up for free
accounts, after which they can begin sending and reading messages called Tweets. Posts are limited to
140 characters, and users may opt for either private accounts, so only their followers can view their
messages, or public accounts so anyone on Twitter may view.
Users can use Twitter for personal and business-related reasons. Mainstream news channels, such as BBC,
CNN and Al Jazeera English, and well-known newspapers and online publications, such as the Guardian
and the Huffington Post, have Twitter feeds that users can follow. Many reporters have now also started
their own Twitter accounts.
Twitter allows users to connect with any number of other users in real time. Users create networks and
use the microblogging site to disseminate information to their followers, who can then re-Tweet (or RT)
that information to their followers. Independent or freelance journalists use Twitter to post links to articles
they have written. Twitter lets you broadcast information to your network, who can then help spread it to
their networks, in such a way that users may see breaking news long before it finally hits the mainstream
media airwaves.
So the question is, has Twitter changed the way we get news? Well, it’s certainly true that Twitter allows
users to tap into information and news that they didn’t get in the past. Twitter does what social networking
sites are designed to do: it collapses boundaries so people can get news from around the world.
Eyewitness accounts of news have also become much more common. Because it’s instant and powerful,
many people are saying that Twitter – and Facebook – are responsible for bringing massive change in
societies quickly. That’s open to debate, but what’s true is that people who do want to bring change are
using social media like Twitter effectively to broadcast their intentions and organise themselves.’

Audio scripts 4.1

1
●● Int(e)resting (item of news) INTRESTING

●● Cam(e)ra CAMRA
●● a sep(a)rate (item) SEPRET
●● p(o)lice news PLICE
●● t(o)night’s (news) TNIGHT
●● hist(o)ry (programme) HISTRY
(most examples from TeachingEnglish.org.uk)
/ t / and / d /
●● the firs(t) presenter
●● kep(t) talking
●● you an(d) me
●● they stopp(ed) to watch
●● the firs(t) three (items)
/h/
●● you shouldn’t (h)ave
●● tell (h)im.
Audio scripts 4.2

●● She raised money for a family in town

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Appendix 2
Reading
1.3
Painting Society Exhibition growing fast
By Kirsty Kolic
The school Painting Society has just finished choosing the 30 paintings that will be in their exhibition,
starting next week. The exhibition has been a yearly event at Gorton High since 2009. ‘At the beginning,
there were just eight paintings shown, so the exhibition is growing fast,’ said Society President Shelley
Grange. This year, the paintings have been done by students from year 1 to year 7; there are portraits of
family members, landscapes, and even abstracts.
The exhibition starts next Monday, 14 March, in the school hall.
2.1
Friends
Research by a British anthropologist shows that the optimum number of friendships that the human brain
can maintain is about 150. But that’s in the real world – what happens on Facebook where the maximum
number of ‘friends’ permitted is 5,000?
According to social networking statistics, the average Facebook user has 130 friends. Some people have
a lot more. Ivy Bean from Bradford in the north of England became Facebook’s oldest known user at the
age of 102 in 2008. She quickly started making friends and became an online celebrity. When she maxed
out her 5,000-friend count on Facebook, Ms. Bean joined the Twitter website and continued her social
networking. At the time of her death in July 2010, she had 4,962 friends on Facebook and more than
56,000 followers (including the Prime Minister’s wife) on Twitter. Ms. Bean’s last tweet was July 6 2010. It
read: ‘Going to have my lunch now will be back later.’
(from TeachingEnglish.org.uk)
5.1
News reporter
Ask your learners if they would like to be journalists. Why/why not?
Ask them who they would like to interview if they were a journalist for a day.
Learners can work in pairs to produce six questions they would like to ask the selected person. When
they have composed the questions, the pair should try to put themselves in the shoes of the interviewee
and think about the answers.
You could either ask learners to role play the interview for a TV news programme, or to write it up into an
article for a paper or a magazine.
Task: News reporter
●● Would you like to be a journalist?
●● Imagine you are working for a local newspaper or TV station and have been asked to interview
someone. (It could be a politician, musician, model, chef, writer, etc. or a normal person who is in the
news for some reason.)
●● Write six questions that you would like to ask them.
●● Think of how they may reply to your questions.
●● Either write up the interview for a paper or magazine or perform the interview for a news TV
programme.
(From an article by Jo Budden on www.teachingenglish.org.uk)

Appendix 3
A framework for planning a listening skills lesson

(from www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/a-framework-planning-a-listening-skills-lesson)
Listening is one of the most challenging skills for our students to develop and yet also one of the most
important. By developing their ability to listen well, we develop our students’ ability to become more
independent learners, as by hearing accurately they are much more likely to be able to reproduce accurately,
refine their understanding of grammar and develop their own vocabulary.
In this article I intend to outline a framework that can be used to design a listening lesson that will develop your
students’ listening skills and look at some of the issues involved.
●● The basic framework
●● Pre-listening
●● While listening
●● Post-listening
●● Applying the framework to a song
●● Some conclusions
The basic framework
The basic framework on which you can construct a listening lesson can be divided into three main stages:
●● Pre-listening, during which we help our students prepare to listen.
●● hile listening, during which we help to focus their attention on the listening text and guide the
W
development of their understanding of it.
●● ost-listening, during which we help our students integrate what they have learnt from the text into their
P
existing knowledge.
Pre-listening
There are certain goals that should be achieved before students attempt to listen to any text. These are
motivation, contextualisation and preparation.
●● Motivation
It is enormously important that before listening, students are motivated to listen, so you should try to select
a text that they will find interesting and then design tasks that will arouse your students’ interest and curiosity.
●● Contextualisation
When we listen in our everyday lives we hear language within its natural environment, and that environment
gives us a huge amount of information about the linguistic content we are likely to hear. Listening to a tape
recording in a classroom is a very unnatural process. The text has been taken from its original environment and
we need to design tasks that will help students to contextualise the listening and access their existing
knowledge and expectations to help them understand the text.
●● Preparation
To do the task we set students, while they listen there could be specific vocabulary or expressions that students
will need. It’s vital that we cover this before they start to listen as we want the challenge within the lesson to be
an act of listening, not of understanding, what they have to do.
While listening
When we listen to something in our everyday lives we do so for a reason. Students too need a reason to listen
that will focus their attention. For our students to really develop their listening skills they will need to listen a
number of times – three or four usually works quite well – as I’ve found that the first time many students listen to
a text they are nervous and have to tune in to accents and the speed at which the people are speaking.
Ideally, the listening tasks we design for them should guide them through the text and should be graded so that
the first listening task they do is quite easy and helps them to get a general understanding of the text.
Sometimes a single question at this stage will be enough, not putting the students under too much pressure.
The second task for the second time students listen should demand a greater and more detailed understanding
of the text. Make sure though that the task doesn’t demand too much of a response. Writing long responses as

23
they listen can be very demanding and is a separate skill in itself, so keep the tasks to single words, ticking or
some sort of graphical response.
The third listening task could just be a matter of checking their own answers from the second task or could lead
students towards some more subtle interpretations of the text.
Listening to a foreign language is a very intensive and demanding activity and for this reason I think it’s very
important that students should have ‘breathing’ or ‘thinking’ space between listenings. I usually get my students
to compare their answers between listenings, as this gives them the chance not only to have a break from the
listening, but also to check their understanding with a peer and so reconsider before listening again.
Post-listening
There are two common forms that post-listening tasks can take. These are reactions to the content of the text,
and analysis of the linguistic features used to express the content.
●● Reaction to the text
Of these two I find that tasks that focus students’ reaction to the content are most important. Again, this is
something that we naturally do in our everyday lives. Because we listen for a reason, there is generally a
following reaction. This could be discussion as a response to what we’ve heard – do they agree or disagree
or even believe what they have heard? – or it could be some kind of reuse of the information they have heard.
●● Analysis of language
The second of these two post-listening task types involves focusing students on linguistic features of the text.
This is important in terms of developing their knowledge of language, but less so in terms of developing
students’ listening skills. It could take the form of an analysis of verb forms from a script of the listening text
or vocabulary or collocation work. This is a good time to do form-focused work as the students have already
developed an understanding of the text and so will find dealing with the forms that express those meanings
much easier.
Applying the framework to a song
Here is an example of how you could use this framework to exploit a song:
●● Pre-listening
●● Students brainstorm kinds of songs
●● Students describe one of their favourite songs and what they like about it
●● Students predict some word or expressions that might be in a love song
●● While listening
●● Students listen and decide if the song is happy or sad
●● Students listen again and order the lines or verses of the song
●● Students listen again to check their answers or read a summary of the song with errors in and correct
them
●● Post-listening
●● Focus on content
●● Discuss what they liked/didn’t like about the song
●● Decide whether they would buy it/who they would buy it for
●● Write a review of the song for a newspaper or website
●● Write another verse for the song
●● Focus on form
●● Students look at the lyrics from the song and identify the verb forms
●● Students find new words in the song and find out what they mean
●● Students make notes of common collocations within the song
Conclusion
Within this article I have tried to describe a framework for listening development that could be applied to any
listening text. This isn’t the only way to develop our students’ listening or to structure a listening lesson, but it is
a way that I have found to be effective and motivating for my students.
Nik Peachey, teacher, trainer and materials writer, The British Council

Pre-listening activities
(from www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/pre-listening-activities)
Listening skills are hard to develop. Students can do a variety of work before listening to help them understand
the listening.
●● Why do pre-listening tasks?
●● Aims and types of pre-listening tasks
●● Selection criteria
Why do pre-listening tasks?
In real life it is unusual for people to listen to something without having some idea of what they are going to
hear. When listening to a radio phone-in show, they will probably know which topic is being discussed.
When listening to an interview with a famous person, they probably know something about that person already.
A waiter knows the menu from which the diner is choosing their food.
In our first language we rarely have trouble understanding listening. But, in a second language, it is one of the
harder skills to develop – dealing at speed with unfamiliar sounds, words and structures. This is even more
difficult if we do not know the topic under discussion, or who is speaking to whom.
So, simply asking the students to listen to something and answer some questions is a little unfair, and makes
developing listening skills much harder.
Many students are fearful of listening, and can be disheartened when they listen to something but feel they
understand very little. It is also harder to concentrate on listening if you have little interest in a topic or situation.
Pre-listening tasks aim to deal with all of these issues: to generate interest, build confidence and to facilitate
comprehension.
Aims and types of pre-listening tasks
●● Setting the context
This is perhaps the most important thing to do – even most exams give an idea about who is speaking, where
and why. In normal life we normally have some idea of the context of something we are listening to.
●● Generating interest
Motivating our students is a key task for us. If they are to do a listening about sports, looking at some dramatic
pictures of sports players or events will raise their interest or remind them of why they (hopefully) like sports.
Personalisation activities are very important here. A pair-work discussion about the sports they play or watch,
and why, will bring them into the topic, and make them more willing to listen.
●● Activating current knowledge – what do you know about…?
‘You are going to listen to an ecological campaigner talk about the destruction of the rainforest’. This sets the
context, but if you go straight in to the listening, the students have had no time to transfer or activate their
knowledge (which may have been learnt in their first language) in the second language. What do they know
about rainforests? – Where are they? What are they? What problems do they face? Why are they important?
What might an ecological campaigner do? What organisations campaign for ecological issues?
●● Acquiring knowledge
Students may have limited general knowledge about a topic. Providing knowledge input will build their
confidence for dealing with a listening. This could be done by giving a related text to read, or, a little more fun,
a quiz.
●● Activating vocabulary/language
Just as activating topic knowledge is important, so is activating the language that may be used in the listening.
Knowledge-based activities can serve this purpose, but there are other things that can be done. If students are
going to listen to a dialogue between a parent and a teenager who wants to stay overnight at a friend’s, why not
get your students to role play the situation before listening. They can brainstorm language beforehand, and
then perform the scene. By having the time to think about the language needs of a situation, they will be
excellently prepared to cope with the listening.
●● Predicting content
Once we know the context for something, we are able to predict possible content. Try giving students a choice
of things that they may or may not expect to hear, and ask them to choose those they think will be mentioned.
●● Pre-learning vocabulary
When we listen in our first language we can usually concentrate on the overall meaning because we know the
meaning of the vocabulary. For students, large numbers of unknown words will often hinder listening, and

25
certainly lower confidence. Select some vocabulary for the students to study before listening, perhaps
matching words to definitions, followed by a simple practice activity such as filling the gaps in sentences.
●● Checking/understanding the listening tasks
By giving your students plenty of time to read and understand the main listening comprehension tasks, you
allow them to get some idea of the content of the listening. They may even try to predict answers before
listening.
Selection criteria
When planning your lesson you should take the following factors into account when preparing the pre-listening
tasks:
●● The time available
●● The material available
●● The ability of the class
●● The interests of the class
●● The nature and content of the listening text
The choice of pre-listening task also gives you a chance to grade the listening lesson for different abilities.
If you have a class who are generally struggling with listening work, then the more extensive that the pre-
listening work is the better. If, however, you wish to make the work very demanding, you could simply do work
on the context of the listening. Thus, the same listening text can provide work for different abilities.
Personally, I feel it is important to devote a fair proportion of a lesson to the pre-listening task, should the
listening warrant it. For example, the listening about an ecological campaigner lends itself well to extended
knowledge and vocabulary activation. However, a listening involving airport announcements may only need
a shorter lead-in, as the topic is somewhat narrower.
Overall, training your students to bring their own knowledge and their skills of prediction to their listening work
can only help them when listening to the language outside the classroom. These skills are as much a part of
listening as understanding pronunciation or listening for details.
Gareth Rees, teacher and materials writer, The British Council

© British Council 2012 / B091
The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.

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English for Teaching 2

●● Describing recent events in the news

Task Creating a school newsletter

Methodology Planning a receptive skills lesson

In the classroom Practising and micro-teaching a receptive skills lesson

Pronunciation Using connected speech

Magazine Activities that use learner-created texts

Vocabulary Reviewing vocabulary related to the news

Reflection Making a word collage related to learning in the module

By the end of this module participants will be able to:

Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

2 Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

1.1 What’s in the news?

Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

1.2 Listening: School news

1. The school is called Gorton High School. True

2. The football team won 2–1. False, 3–1

3. The volleyball team played against Whalley High School. True

4. The Music Society are preparing for a concert. True

6. The school is raising money for a new arts building. True

4 Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

1.3 Task: Creating a school newsletter

Feedback and reporting

Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

1.4 Language analysis: Present perfect

1. ‘the Music Society have just started preparing…’

6 Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

1.5 Common mistakes: Grammar quiz

2. She’s been a teacher since 1995. OK

3. John won an award for his painting last weekend.

4. Lindy has been a doctor for ten years

5. I’ve just started a new class. OK

6. Our new term started two weeks ago.

Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

2.1 Planning a reading skills lesson

8 Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

2.2 Listening skills

10 Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

3.1 Micro-teaching a listening skills lesson

Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

4.1 Elision: Words

Participants focus on short utterances to notice elision in connected speech.

12 Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

4.2 Elision in connected speech

●● They’ve just started preparing for the concert.

●● That’s an interesting idea.

●● What events have happened in the school recently?

●● She raised money for a family in town.

●● Drill the phrases chorally and then individually.

Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

14 Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

5.1 A learner-created text activity

5.2 Vocabulary review

Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

5.3 Poster activity

16 Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

6.1 Find someone who…

Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

7.1 Word collage

18 Module 4: In the news © British Council 2011

Audio script 1.2