1. Building Communicative Competence – Old Strategies that Still Work
Gretchen Bitterlin
October 14, 2016

2. “No single method or approach is optimal for all learners under all circumstances.” Marianne Celce Murcia

3. “Before we own a word, we need multiple exposures – for recognition around 20 times; for production, nearly 60 times. To provide that exposure to their students, teachers need a variety of activities.”
Paul Nation, Teaching and Learning Vocabulary, 1990

4. Agenda Language drills Dialogues Grid activities
Cooperative learning strategies
Language Experience

5. Language Drills Repetition using Stern’s Accent Reduction technique
Backward Build-up
Chain drills
Substitution drills
Transformation drills

6. Repetition
Can you help me? I lost my cell phone. The stapler is in the cabinet on the middle shelf next to the hole punch.

7. Chain Drill Teacher to student: Did you have a good weekend?
Student 1: Yes, I did or No, I didn’t
Student 1 to student 2: Did you have a good weekend?
Student 2: ( answers and asks student 3 )
Etc.

8. Progressive Substitution Drills
Focus: Was/were
Model: The debate was awful last night.
1. the pasta
2. yesterday
3. the weather
4. terrible
5. all right
6. the lessons
7. good
8. children
(Adapted from English in Situations, R. O’Neill, Oxford Univ. Press )

9. Progressive Substitution Drills
Focus: Subject and object pronouns
Model: I want you to pay attention.
1. He
2. them
3. She
4. be quiet
5. us
6. him
7.get a good job.
(Adapted from English in Situations, R. O’Neill, Oxford Univ. Press )

10. Transformation Drills
A. Everyday I get up at 6:00. Yesterday
B. Yesterday I got up at 6:00
A. He has children.
B. ( negative) He doesn’t have children.
A. Yes, I have children.
B. Do you have children?

11. Transformation drills
Focus: Past tense questions and answers – regular verbs
A. I watched television on Monday.
B. Oh, did you watch it on Tuesday too?
1. I worked late on Monday
2 I walked home on Monday.
3. I listened to the news on Monday.
( Adapted from English in Situations, R. O’Neill, Oxford Univ. Press )

12. Transformation Drills
Focus: Past tense questions – Irregular verbs
I got to work late yesterday.
Did you get to work late this morning too?
1. I got up late yesterday.
2. I ate a sandwich for breakfast yesterday.
3. I drank a cup of coffee yesterday.
I went to the gym yesterday.
( Adapted from English in Situations, R. O’Neill, Oxford Univ. Press )

13. Sample Dialogue
A. Excuse me. Do you have change for a dollar? B. I think so. What do you need? A. 4 quarters B. Here you are.

14. Disappearing Dialogue
A. __________ me. ___ you have change for a dollar?
B. I _________ so. What ______ you need?
A. ______quarters
B. Here you ________.

15. Using Cues to Create a Dialogue
A. Change - dollar?
B. What – need?
A. 4..
B. Here..

16. Grid Activities

17. Grids: Asking about symptoms – present tense
Name
Backache
Headache
Sore throat
John
Yes No
Mary
Lee
You

18. Create a grid for any pattern
Name
Zoo
Sea World
Balboa Park

19. Present Tense Questions - Conversation Do you work
Present Tense Questions - Conversation Do you work? Yes, I do No, I don’t
 Do you____? Me
Student’s name:
__________
1. work?
Yes No
Yes No
2. have a computer at home?
3. drive a car?
4. speak Chinese?
5. have children?
6. smoke ?
7. watch TV every day?
8. play the guitar?
9. exercise?

20. Exercise creating questions and answers
Students cut up words and punctuation marks.
Teacher asks students to create statements or questions by saying any of the following:
Make a statement with “I”
Change the statement to “He.”
Make the sentence negative.
Make the question about “they.”

21. Do
does
like
likes
don’t
doesn’t I he
she
they
dance To No
Yes
You ? .

22. Cut up words and punctuation marks to make sentences or questions
Sentence Strips
Cut up words and punctuation marks to make sentences or questions
Cut up sentences to form a dialogue
Cut up sentences to make a story.

23. Cooperative Learning Strategies
Line –up
Inside Outside Circles
Roundtable
Interview strategy
Find someone who…..
Information Gap
Conversation Mingle

24. Language Experience
Ellicit oral language from students, e.g. news of the day, a student’s story, a description of a holiday from another country, weekend activities.
Write it on the board.
Students copy it.
Elicit repetition of the information.
Conduct pronunciation drills from the text.
Focus on repetitive sounds to teach phonics.
Erase sections. Have students recall information
Have students write questions about the content
See sample at

25. What will you take away from this workshop?
I will try to ………………………………………..
I will bring back the practice of ……………………
The strategy I am most likely to apply is ……………………………