DELTA Module 2

LSA 4

DELTA Module 2
LSA 4
Candidate Number: 019
Centre number: 10294

1
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

Class Profile

This is a general English class at B2-A1 (pre-advanced) level. The course runs for 6
weeks with a 2-hour lesson every day from 1.30-3.30pm. It is a multi-lingual class of
mainly Spanish speakers, but also Polish, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese,
studying in London. The learners are here for a short period of time to improve their
English for a variety of reasons, including socialising, future studies at home and in
the UK, although some are here to seek employment and therefore need to improve
their English for this reason. Some learners have expressed a wish to continue to
study for a master’s degree, or further exam classes, e.g. FCE and TOEFL.

The students all enjoy an active social life in London and generally use English to
facilitate social relations between themselves and other non-native speakers. Their
short-term needs include being able to communicate fluently and accurately in
English with both native and non-native speakers.

The class are very motivated and enjoy speaking activities. They are very inquisitive
about the English language and regularly ask about expressions they have heard
whilst socialising around London which require clarification. They often ask about
their own emerging language and respond well to error correction slots.

Many of the learners enjoy going to the cinema at the weekends, and enjoy
discussing the films they have seen with their classmates on Monday mornings.

Individual Learner Profiles:

2
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

Name Nationality Reasons for General In relation to focus of

(Age) study Strengths & the lesson
Weaknesses Strengths (S)
Weaknesses (W)

3
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

Veronica Nieto Spanish HR assistant Very communicative but S – Good culutral

(26) at IH London still makes lots of basic knowledge of
errors such as ‘I are London/UK. Enjoys
hungry.’ Struggles with watching Englihs
structures, especially language films
perfect aspect in freer W – Slow to grasp to
production. Keen to understand meaning of
participate. Friendly target lexis
personality.

Tania Padal Spanish To improve Very communicative and S – Good cultural

(31) job prospects keen. Good grammatical knowledge of the UK,
control. Listening for watches films in English
specific information is a regularly
weakness. Friendly and W – May struggle to
communicative. listen to notice the target
lexis
Patrick Araujo Spanish For future Friendly and S – Likes socialising with
(24) work communicative. Fluent classmates
opportunities and communicative but W – takes time to
inaccurate. Slow to process texts for gist
process texts

Takawasa Japanese To find a job Good range of vocabulary, S – Good at working in

Ilzuka in London or makes errors with articles pairs and likes solving
(23) Japan and verb patterns. Lively problems
member of the group. W- Has weak listening
Mixes well. skills

Daniel Spanish For pleasure Strongest in group in S – Will have no

Sanchez and work terms of communicative problem identifying the
Vargaz competence and good target lexis
pronunciation. Extensive W –Has the tendency to
range of lexis. Very keen dominate whole class
and confident. feedback

Daniele Italian He is opening Weak comprehesnsion S – Happy to

Giacalone a branch of skills, measured communicate and is
his company speaker.Keen but keen to learn new skills
in London reserved. W –. Relies very heavily
and will be on the dictionary in
based here class.
for 6 months
of the year
Piotr Seges Polish To write his Good tense control - S – Keen to try new
(24) final thesis for issues with articles, learning strategies
a PHD prepositions, question W – Often tired in class
forms and pronunciation. due to his job. May mis-
Keen participant. use collocations

4
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

Emi Morita Japanese She has been Very confident when S – Happy to try new
posted to speaking. Good things
England with pronunciation. Fair W – New to class, still
her reading skills. Good finding her way in terms
husband’s awareness of genre and of the communicative
job. Has been style. approach we use – not
her for 1 used to authentic texts
year. Will
stay for 2
more. Wants
to improve
her English to
increase her
job
prospects.

Ivo Vidal Peruvian 1 month New student this week. S – Very vocal about
study Great understanding of learning and happy to
programme grammatical structures – discuss with other
Fluent with some classmates
inaccuracies when W –Youngest in the
speaking class ay 16. Doesn’t
have as much cultural
awareness as the other
learners
Juan Reynoso Peruvian 1 month Very fluent speaker. Uses S – Enthusiastic, good
study a range of grammatically knowledge of lexis
programme complex sentences and a W – Relies too heavily
wide range of lexis. on electronic dictionary
in class

Daniela Colombian On a 1 month Quiet but confident As Daniela is a new

Munoz study holiday learner. New this week. student, I’m not sure of
to improve her strengths and
her English weaknesses yet
ahead of an
exam in
December at
university.

Dilan Turkish She wants to Very good lexis and S – Good lexical
Adenham do a Masters confident speaker. knowledge
in the UK. Grammatically inaccurate. W – Takes time to
process texts

Overall Aims

5
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

Main Aim By the end of the lesson the learners will be better able to understand and
use a lexical set of compound + noun collocations to talk about films and film genres,
e.g. heart warming story, mind numbing plot, nail biting ending, eye-popping special
effects, stomach-churning murder scenes, bloodcurdling screams, side-splitting
jokes

Subsidiary Aim By the end of the lesson, the learners will have practised the sub
skills of listening for gist and to notice language, and will have had controlled and
freer oral practice when talking about films and film genres.

Analysis

Meaning/Use

collocation meaning Checking meaning

a heart warming story a tale that makes you feel Is it positive or negative?
good, happy
Can we say a heart-warming
horror?

Mime/gesture

a mind numbing plot very boring, dull Is it positive or negative?

Is it interesting?

mime/gesture

a nail biting ending tense, on the edge of your How do you feel if you are biting
seat your nails?

What have I been doing all morning

before this lesson?

gesture, mime

Is it boring?

eye popping special amazing, unbelievable Positive or negative?

effects
Are they boring?

mime/gesture

stomach churning murder horrible, makes you feel if something is churning is it still or
scenes sick/uncomfortable moving around?

6
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

Are they easy to watch?

mime/gesture

blood curdling screams scary, dreadful If something (e.g. milk) has curdled
is it fresh?

Are they nice to hear?

mime/gesture

Can we say blood curdling

laughter?

Form

Compound adjectives can be predicative:

collocation

compound adjective (predicative) noun phrase (pre-modified)

noun (s) participle verb

heart warming story

mind numbing plot

nail biting ending

eye popping special effects

stomach churning murder scenes

blood curdling screams

or attributive using the copular verb be:

collocation

determiner noun phrase copular be attributive compound

(post adjective (noun + verb

7
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

modified) participle)

the story is/was heart warming

the plot is/was mind numbing

the ending is/was nail biting

the special effects are/were eye popping

the murder scenes are/were stomach churning

the screams are/were blood curdling

Some dictionaries say these compound adjectives have hyphens between the noun
and the verb participle, but others do not. For the focus of this lesson to be
consistent, I won’t use hyphens as there seems to be no clear pattern to tell the
learners which is correct or incorrect. The learners are undertaking oral production
so the use of hyphens is not important in this approach

Pronunciation

Compound nouns have secondary stress on the verb participle and features of
connected speech are important:

a heart warming story

/ə‘hɑː,wɔːmɪnˈstɔːri/

 /t/ is elided
 /ŋ/ is assimilated to /n/

a mind numbing plot

/ə‘maɪ,nʌmɪn’plɒt/

 /d/ is elided
 /b/ is elided
 /ŋ/ is assimilated to /n/
 catenation of mind and numbing

8
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

a nail biting ending

/ə‘neɪl,baɪ?ɪn’endɪŋ/

 /t/ is glottalised
 /ŋ/ is assimilated to /n/

eye popping special effects

/’aɪ,pɒpɪnspeʃl̩ɪˈfekts/

 /ŋ/ is assimilated to /n/

stomach churning murder scenes

/ˈstʌmək,tʃɜːnɪˈmɜːdəsiːnz/

 /ŋ/ is elided
 weak form of murder /ə/

blood curdling screams

/’blʌ,kɜːdl̩ɪn’skriːmz/

 /d/ is elided
 /ŋ/ is assimilated to /n/

Timetable fit

This is the final lesson of the sixth week of the course. The learners have reviewed
grammar structures, including narrative tenses, perfect aspect, modal verbs of
deduction and relative clauses. They have also practised writing stories, letters of
complaint, newspaper articles and guides for tourists. These writing skills lessons
focussed on a variety of sub-skills including processes for planning and drafting,
discourse features of written texts and organisation of newspaper articles. In terms of
receptive skills, they have developed their listening sub skills when using strategies
to notice connected speech, and have developed their reading sub skills of top-down
processing to predict and confirm the content of newspaper articles, and have looked
at reading strategies to infer meaning from the context of features articles in Time
Out London Magazine.

9
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

My colleagues and I have noticed that, while they are relatively fluent when
discussing social activities, (going to pubs and clubs, the cinema, etc.), they rely
heavily on simple lexis when undertaking oral production. As they are pre-advanced
(B2), this week, the lessons have focussed on upgrading their lexical knowledge and
use to develop a more native-like fluency and accuracy.

Assumptions

Linguistic

 The learners are familiar with the concepts of collocations and compound
adjectives
 They have tried to work out lexis without dictionaries previously
 They will be familiar with the topic of films and film genres
 They will have had previous practice of the sub-skills of listening to a live
dialogue for gist and to notice language

Management/Affective

 The field is culturally sensitive and will not offend anyone in the class
 The topic is useful, meaningful and meets the needs of the class
 Using the topic of films and film genres will be relevant to this specific
group of learners because of their age and social interests

Anticipated Problems/Solutions

Linguistic problems

 The learners may not have come across verb participles like curdling and
churning before
 Some of the learners have stronger receptive skills than the others, and may
notice the collocations quicker than the others
 The meanings of the collocations may not be clear to the learners
 Some of the lexis will be difficult for the learners to pronounce correctly
(churning, curdling, heart)
 Some learners will try to use a plural nouns in the compound adjectives,
bloods curdling, eyes popping
 Some learners may omit the copular be
 The learners will ask about other nouns that can collocate with the compound
adjectives

10
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

Solutions
 CCQs when clarifying meaning offer examples of other things that curdle
(milk) and a antonym (fresh) and a synonym for churn (mix) and
mime/gesture
 Pair weaker learners with the stronger ones so they can help each other when
doing the matching exercise
 When clarifying, do TPR to elicit how they would feel. Pair check
 Drill chorally, in pairs and individually to ensure correct pronunciation. Use the
phonetic chart to highlight key phonemes
 Highlight form on w/b and elicit that the nouns are singular
 Highlight the form on w/b/ and check when doing feedback and monitoring
 Ensure I tell learners that in natural English, we do or do not use them

Management/Affective

Anticipated problems

1. IWB has been having issues lately and may not work in the lesson
2. Some of the learners have been arriving late in class, and may miss the lead-
in stage
3. Some of the learners attend class sporadically, and may have missed the
previous lessons, and may be a little behind the rest of the class
4. It is difficult to anticipate how many learners will attend the class
5. There are some new learners starting this week, which may lead to problems
with continuity and they may not gel with the existing members of the class

6. Some of the learners will try to find the compound adjectives in their electronic
dictionaries

Solutions

1. Bring in paper copies of IWB slides in case it doesn’t work and ask a stronger
learner to read the dialogue with me
2. Pair latecomers with learners who have been there from the beginning, so
learners can explain quietly what is happening, without disrupting the class
3. Pair with learners who have attended every class for peer support
4. Ensure there are enough copies of everything for 17 learners
5. Ensure new learners sit with existing learners and encourage pair and group
work to aid the new learners in integrating and feeling comfortable
6. Tell learners that for today, we won’t use dictionaries, and they should try to
apply strategies for lexical inference which we covered in previous weeks

11
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

Materials/Resources

 IWB for images and listening activities

 whiteboard for menu, emerging language, clarifying meaning, visual feedback
and error correction
 authentic listening text - self-created
 worksheets - self-created materials

Commentary

Rationale from Research

After reading Implementing the Lexical Approach, where Michael Lewis states that
“we store most of our mental lexicon in complete, full contextualised phrases” (2008,
p. 9) I decided to focus on a lexical set of compound adjectives + nouns in the
context of films and film genres. The learners will all be familiar with most of the
lexical items here, but unfamiliar with the way they can collocate to give meaning.
The lexical set will be interesting for the learners because they all contain nouns
about the body (mind, nail, blood, etc.) which are very natural and native speaker -
like collocations. Collocations such as these are vital to aiding pre-advanced learners
to upgrade their mental lexicon and be able to recall chunks of meaningful language
at speed. “The principle difference between an intermediate learner and an
advanced learner is not the complex grammar, but the expanded mental lexicon
available to advanced learners.” (Ostick, 2008, p. 52)

I decided to focus on films and film genres due to how naturally the collocations lend
themselves to the context. The learners are very comfortable talking about their
social lives, and context is key to natural language use. An authentic listening text is
a suitable approach to enable the learners to notice the language in this meaningful
and relevant context. My research has led me to believe that “the more students are
exposed to the language as it is spoken by native speakers, the better for them.”
(Virga, 2006, p. 31) Using an authentic text to notice language is also important
because they need “input rich in the prefabricated chunks, which they notice as
items deserving special attention.” (Lewis, 2008, p. 21)

The controlled practice is adapted from an activity in Gairns and Redman (1995, p.
39) which will appeal to logical and visual learning styles within the class. It also will
encourage the learners to try to expand on the collocations provided, and try to make
further collocations from their own receptive knowledge, leading to learner-centred
discussion. This will extend the learners knowledge of stronger collocations, and
show them that “learning vocabulary is not just learning new words; it is often
learning familiar words in new combinations.” (Woolard, 2005, p. 46)

Finally, a class mingle activity with a set task where the learners have to find
someone with the same opinions about films and film genres as them will provide the
learners with an opportunity to use the target collocations in a natural context, and

12
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

the task will provide further meaning for the activity, and will ensure that the learners
will really experience the lexical chunks, which will aid retention and recall at a later
date.

Rationale in Relation to Learners Needs/Characteristics

Many of the learners socialise with their classmates in London at the weekends and
often ask my colleagues and me about places to go and things to do. I often notice
them discussing their social lives in London with their classmates. They have
expressed a wish to become more native-like when speaking in social situations.
Some of them have very strong productive skills., but many of the learners rely on
simpler lexis which, for their level, leads them to be less native-like than they could
be when speaking. They enjoy learning lexis and find collocations meaningful, useful
and relevant for their needs.

Commentary word count: 561

Bibliography:

Woolard, G. 20056, Noticing and learning collocation, ETP Issue 40

Ostick, R. 2008, Lexical lessons, ETP Issue 55

Virga, C. 2006, Let’s get lexical! ETP Issue 47

Lewis, M. 2008, Implementing the Lexical Approach, Heinle

Gairns, R. and Redman, S. 1995, Working with words: A guide to teaching and
learning vocabulary, CUP

13
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

Stage Stage name and Procedure Timing Interaction

number aims
Lesson Orientation: Focus Ls’ attention on menu. Go 30s T
To inform Ls of focus through and highlight outcomes.
of the lesson and its
outcomes
1 Lead in: To generate Show dictionary picture on IWB 5m L-L
Ls’ interest in the
topic Put Ls into pairs

Set verbal questions: ‘What type

of films are they? Which ones do
To personalise the you like/dislike? why?’
task and provide Check instructions by asking one
opportunity for Ls to L to repeat the questions
discuss their film likes
and dislikes Set a 3 minute time limit

In pairs, Ls discuss the questions

To allow T to identify
gaps in schemata T monitors for language gaps

T gets quick class feedback.

2 Listening for gist: Focus Ls attention onto image 5m Ls

To enable Ls to on IWB. ‘Who is it? What are we
check predictions of doing?’
Ts’ favourite film Inform Ls that they are going to
genres listen to Jenny and I talking

14
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

about our favourite

film types.
To enable Ls to
understand the In pairs, Ls predict which film
overall meaning of genres Jenny and I like the best
the text
After 30s, get f/b from each pair

To activate Ls
receptive knowledge Ls listen to the dialogue to check
of compound their predictions
adjective + noun
collocations f/b as a class

3 Listening to notice Hold up task 1 5m Ls

language: To enable
Ls to notice and T tells Ls to listen to the dialogue
match the target again and match the compound
collocations from the adjectives (columns A and B) to
live listening task the nouns they collocate with
(column C)

Check meaning of compound

adjective (two words which go
together to make an adjective)
and collocation (words which
often go together)

To highlight the parts H/O task Ls - T-Ls

of speech of the Ls listen again and complete
target collocations task

Pair check
Ls listen again if necessary

Visual and oral feedback on w/b

using colours to highlight parts of
speech e.g. blue for compound
adjectives, red for nouns
4 Focus on meaning: Hold up Task 2 8m Ls
To enable LS to
focus on the meaning Tell Ls to complete the questions
of the collocations about the collocations
using the dialogue to
infer meaning from Give a 5 minute time limit
context
H/O task

Ls complete the task

15
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

T monitors and assists

pair check and feedback using

the collocations already on w/b Ls – T - Ls
To clarify the
meaning of the CCQs for each collocation and
collocations in a mime as a whole class to clarify
kinaesthetic style meaning

5 Focus on form: To Hold up task 3 5m Ls

raise Ls awareness Give a 4 minute time limit
of
predicative/attributive Ls complete the focus on form
compound adjectives
T monitors and assists

pair check
Show slide on IWB for visual
feedback, highlighting the lack of
plural s and use of copular be
when compound adjective is
attributive

6 Focus on 3m T-Ls
pronunciation: To Drill collocations chorally, in pairs
check pronunciation and individually, paying attention
of collocations to elided phonemes and stress

If necessary, use phonemic chart

to highlight problematic sounds

7 Controlled practice: Hold up task 4 6m Ls

To enable Ls to
notice which other Tell LS to circle the noun that
nouns the compound doesn’t collocate with the
adjectives collocate compound adjective
with Check instructions

To check Ls Give a 5 minute time limit

understand the H/O task
meaning/connotation T monitors and checks Ls – T - Ls
of the target
collocations Feedback using vertical
extensions on w/b, colour coding
To provide Ls with a parts of speech for clarity. Elicit
written record of the any more nouns that can
target collocations collocate

16
 DELTA Module 2
LSA 4

Elicit that these are strong

collocations, i.e. they only
collocate with a limited number
of nouns
8 Freer oral practice: Tell LS that they are going to talk 10m Ls
To provide Ls with an about films and film genres they
opportunity for freer like and dislike, using the target
spoken production collocations in a whole class
using target mingle activity
collocations in a
personalised mingle Tell Ls to find someone with the
activity same opinions as them

To enable T to notice Give a 10 minute time limit.

gaps/problematic
areas etc T monitors and notes down
errors in meaning, form and
pronunciation as well as
emerging language and
language to upgrade

Feedback from the whole class –

did you find anyone with the
same opinions?

9 Error Correction T divides w/b into 4 sections: 8m T-Ls

good language, language to be
upgraded, pronunciation issues,
and language with gaps or errors

Elicit errors and clarify as a

whole class

drill any pronunciation issues

Focus Ls onto menu again and

elicit what they have done this
lesson.

17