More tested lessons, suggestions, tips and techniques which have all

worked for ETp readers. Try them out for yourself – and then send us
your own contribution. Don’t forget to include your postal address.
All the contributors to It Works in Practice in this issue of ETp will
receive a copy of ETpedia: 1,000 ideas for English language teachers,
by John Hughes, published by Pavilion.

FUNology
My wife went to the 4 A man went into a butcher’s and asked, ‘Do you deliver?’
Caribbean for her holidays. To which the butcher replied, ‘No, but we do kidney and
Jamaica? heart.’
No, she went of her own
accord. And my favourite (but clearly be aware of your audience,
here):
When you have picked yourself
up from the floor after this 5 A man staggered out of a pub. He was very, very drunk.
hilarious joke, it is worth
Opposite the pub, there was a man with his head under
considering its value in getting
a car bonnet.
English teachers, whether they be trainees or more experienced
teachers, to be aware of the features of connected speech. ‘Wos the matter?’ asked the drunk.

Did you make her? being pronounced / / exemplifies ‘Mm … piston broke,’ replied the man with the car.
the assimilation of did you to / /, the elided / / of her and ‘Me too,’ replied the drunk.
the catenation of make her to / /.
I have been collecting a number of jokes over the years and Answers
getting my teachers in training to spot the features of 1 elision of / / of wouldn’t
connected speech. So here are some of them, which you could 2 intrusion of / / between two evils
use with trainee teachers or advanced students. Look at the
3 elision of / / of hands free
joke, and work out which feature of connected speech each one
depends on: elision? catenation? intrusion? assimilation? weak 4 weak form of do
forms? or a combination of these? The answers are in the box. 5 catenation of pissed with elision of / / in and (also
worth pointing out the unvoiced ending of pissed)
1 Did you hear about the man who made a wooden car?
It had wooden wheels and a wooden engine.
With the joys of YouTube, you can access the famous Barker
No, I didn’t. and Corbett ‘Four candles’ sketch and Popeye’s ‘I am what I
The only problem was that it wouldn’t work. yam’, which also rely on the misinterpretation of ambiguous-
sounding phrases for their humour.
2 The ship’s cook was asked why he had used a particular If appropriate, on my teachers’ refresher course, I get them to
bag of flour, which had a small weevil in it, as opposed to practise these jokes with listeners who are likely to
another bag within which he had found a large weevil. understand them if they are delivered naturally and fluently,
He replied: ‘It was the lesser of two evils.’ eg their host families.
© iStockphoto.com / yayayoyo

Dave Briggs
3 I have deleted all of the German names on my mobile Oxford, UK
phone.
It is now Hans free.

42 • Issue 103 March 2016 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 Improving listening Language in action!
through transcription I am always looking for ways to get my students out of their seats and moving
Preparing students for the listening around the classroom while they are practising their language skills. To make
elements of the TOEFL/IELTS exams can speaking activities more interactive and exciting, I often give them cue cards
be challenging because the available with a brief description of a situation and a few useful words or phrases which
time is often limited. One way to they can use to complete a roleplay in pairs or small groups.
overcome this is to get the students to Here are some examples for pre-intermediate-level classes:
practise listening at home. I divide my
strategy into three main stages: Card 1 Card 2
Ask someone for directions on the street. Order food at a restaurant.
1 Listening and transcribing
Excuse me, how do I get to ...? Could I see the menu, please?
The students are given audio files,
Where’s the nearest ...? What do you recommend?
preferably of English news broadcasts. I’m looking for ... Could I have ...?
Teachers can start with relatively simple Could you please tell me ...? Would you like ...?
broadcasts, such as the Voice of America Sorry, I’m not from around here. Can I get you ...?
special English news, and then progress Turn left/right.
to more difficult ones, such as those Go straight ahead.
from the BBC.
The students listen to the audio at home Dilafruz Sarimsakova
several times, transcribe what they hear Uchkurgan, Uzbekistan
and bring their transcribed texts to
class.
2 Comparing and correcting
Improving essay writing
Here’s an activity I use for teaching essay writing.
The teacher checks that the students
have done their transcripts and then First, prepare five or six model paragraphs on the same topic: for example, the
gives them an accurate transcription of body paragraph of an essay. Each paragraph has a specific problem, eg not enough
the audio. detail, lacking coherence because there isn’t enough signposting, containing
The students compare their transcripts irrelevant information, written in an inappropriate style, or comprising only very
with the accurate one and correct any simple sentences. Each paragraph is written on a separate piece of paper, and
mistakes. If they misheard any words, another piece of paper with a short description of the problem is attached to each
they look up the phonemic with a paper clip. An example of a description could be: The sentence about cars is
transcriptions in their dictionaries and not relevant because it is not connected with the idea in the topic sentence.
write them under the word concerned. Put the students in groups and circulate the paragraphs with the descriptions
until each student has read all of them.
3 Scoring and evaluating
The students give themselves a grade, Collect the paragraphs, remove the descriptions and circulate them again. This
based on the number of mistakes. The time, the students have to remember what is wrong with each paragraph.
teacher selects some evaluations Take back the paragraphs. Then circulate the descriptions only. The students try
randomly and re-evaluates them in order to remember the specific problems for each paragraph, eg which information was
to monitor the rating done by the irrelevant, which words were inappropriate, which words needed to be added to
students. improve coherence, etc.
The drafts are kept in a portfolio so that Finally, give each group one of the paragraphs, and circulate the descriptions
the students’ progress can be until each group finds theirs. Then they rewrite their paragraph to improve it.
monitored. For example, the irrelevant information should be replaced with relevant detail.
Yaser Khajavi Simon Mumford
Shiraz, Iran Izmir, Turkey

IT WORKS IN PRACTICE
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• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 103 March 2016 • 43