These teaching notes and learning activities are for use with the reading passage below.

Activity 1

a) If your bus fares / train fares tripled, how would you feel?

b) Look through the first three paragraphs and find one word which means much the same as triple. (treble)

c) The government in England plans to triple university tuition fees. When will this start?

Activity 2

Depending on your class, ask appropriate questions as a pre-reading activity to get the students thinking about this topic.

For younger students:

• How many of you want to go to university?
• Why?
• Do you pay tuition fees in your home country? How much?
• What other costs will you have to meet at university?
• Is it right that students should be charged tuition fees to go to university? If so, how much?
• Are loans available? How are they repaid?

For older students:

• How many of you went to university?
• Why did you go?
• Did you pay tuition fees? How much?
• Did you think it right that you should pay tuition fees? If so, what is an appropriate level of fees?
• What others costs did you have to meet?
• Were loans available when you went to university? Did you have a loan? How/when will you repay it?
• From next year (2012), in the UK, university tuition fees will triple to a maximum of £9500 per year. Does that sound expensive to you or a reasonable level for tuition fees?

Activity 3

Scan the text below and pinpoint what these numbers refer to:

£21,000   £1bn £ 9,000 £7,500

£940m   12.6%   £100m   £8,000   £6,000

N.B. £9,000 is approximately eleven thousand Euro or fifteen thousand U.S. dollars.

Activity 4

Scan the text.

a) Who is David Willets?

b) What did he predict?

c) Who is Gareth Thomas?

d) What warning did he give the government?

Activity 5

Read the text below. Discuss these questions in pairs.

a) Approximately how much do English students currently pay in university tuition fees? (i.e. to autumn 2012)

b) What will the new fee maximum be? (i.e. from autumn 2012)

c) Who pays this fee initially?

d) When do the students start to repay this fee?

e) Willets predicted something but it appears he was wrong. What was he wrong about?

f) If the government is going to be short of funds for universities, what may they try to do?

g) What is Offa and what will its role be?

Activity 6

Link these half sentences together.

The government will pay …

The fees will start to be repaid …

It appears that most universities …

If most universities charge £9,000 …

The Treasury has underestimated …

If extra funds are cut from universities …

… Universities must demonstrate that the government will have to find £1bn extra.

… will be charging maximum tuition fees.

… how much universities are likely to charge.

… the university tuition fees initially.

… their teaching and research may be reduced.

… they have a plan to encourage wider intake.

once people are earning a regular salary.

Activity 7

Explain the meaning of claw back and watchdog in this context.

Activity 8

Read this short piece of text.

The moment customers stop shopping for bargains, and instead start inferring quality from price, the market melts down. Instead of going to the wall as they should, services that are both pricey and poor become profitable. In the end, students may become savvier, particularly if, as universities minister David Willetts hopes, new institutions set up and offer better value. In the meantime, the situation poses fresh problems for a coalition that has already been badly strained by the fees issue. (from Guardian article)

a) Explain the meaning of the following examples of metaphor / idiom in this paragraph.

(the market) melts down

(instead of) going to the wall

(been) badly strained

b) What customers do you think the writer is talking about?

c) What do customers normally do?

d) What is this writer suggesting they may do in this case? (work in pairs and then report back)

e) Do you agree with this writer? Why?

Ativity 8: Class discussion on the main article

Do you know why the British government is charging such dramatically higher tuition fees in England?

What is your view on this?

With regard to university applications, what is this writer suggesting about white, middle-class families?

Reading Passage

Tuition fees increase could open up £1bn gap in university funding in England

From autumn next year (2012), universities in England will be allowed to almost treble the amount they now charge, as part of a reform of the funding of higher education. The initial charge is borne by the government, which pays the fee for each student in the form of a loan before recovering its money once the student has graduated and finds a job that pays more than £21,000.

Of the 16 universities that have so far stated how much they will charge, 13 intend to use the maximum.

The government could be forced to spend almost £1bn more than expected over the next four years to cover the cost of tuition fees, as a growing number of universities set out plans to charge the maximum of £9,000 a year.

Critics fear that the government will claw back the initial outlay from other higher education spending, potentially leading to fewer university places or cuts in research budgets.

David Willetts, the universities minister in England, had anticipated that a market would develop, with institutions charging a wide range of fees, but a picture is emerging of the majority of institutions charging the top rate. Of the 16 universities that have so far stated how much they intend to charge, 13 want the maximum — University College London, Birmingham and Lancaster being the latest to do so. Willetts predicted that the average across the whole of higher education would be £7,500. It now looks much higher, but the Treasury has used the £7,500 average to determine how much universities should receive for research, teaching and building grants, among other things. Figures from the House of Commons library show that if the average is £8,600, the government will have to spend £960m more in the next four years. If it is only slightly higher, at £7,900, it is £340m extra. But if the average is £8,900, the government will have to pay out an extra £1.23bn.

The funds could be deducted from universities’ budgets and could mean fewer places on degree courses or a cut to the research or teaching grant. A total of £940m has already been cut from English universities’ budgets for teaching, research and site renovation for the next academic year, a 12.6% reduction. However, last week’s budget awarded an extra £100m to research.

Gareth Thomas, the shadow universities minister in England, said either universities would have their funds cut or the government would have to reconsider altogether. He said: “The government repeatedly promised that fees over £6,000 would be the exception, but it is increasingly clear that they are powerless to stop most universities charging closer to £9,000. This will push up average fees beyond the £7,500 estimate on which the government’s spending plans are based, requiring deeper cuts elsewhere in the higher education budget.”

Other universities seeking the £9,000 maximum are Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, Exeter, Essex, Aston, Manchester, Warwick and Durham. St Mary’s University College, Twickenham has said it plans to charge £8,000.

Universities that charge more than £6,000 must set out a plan, or access agreement, to widen their pool of students beyond white, middle-class teenagers, and this must be approved as adequate by the government’s access watchdog, the Office for Fair Access. Institutions have until 19 April to submit their access agreements to Offa, which will give its verdicts in July.

Guardian Newspaper: Sunday 27 March 2011

These teachers’ notes, activities and exercises for learners of English are based on the ‘Mount Kilimanjaro reading passge‘ which is in the Students’ section.

Activity 1

1. What is the name of the highest mountain in the world? Where is it? How high is it? (Everest)

2. What is the highest freestanding mountain in the world? Where is it? How high is it? (Kilimanjaro)

Activity 2

1. Why do people climb mountains?

2. Have any of you ever climbed a mountain? Tell us about it.

3. Would any of you like to climb a mountain? Where? Why?

4. What are the dangers of climbing mountains?

Activity 3

1. What would you like to know about Kilimanjaro?

2. Read the first two paragraphs. Did these paragraphs answer any of your questions?

Activity 4

Use these words to complete the sentences.

extinct – concluded – distinct – rumble / rumbles – composed of – erupt / eruption – molten – remnants – dormant

The moon is not made of cheese but if it were we could say that it was _____ cheese.

When something stands out clearly we can say that it is ____.

The things that are left over; so we can speak of the ____ of our meal last night.

An animal which has completely died out is ____ and we can also use the same word of a volcano which will never be active again.

If something explodes with great violence we describe it as an _____.

A bear that sleeps through the winter is described as being ____ and the same word can be used for a sleeping volcano.

They listened to the evidence and then ____ that the mountain could erupt again.

Our tummies sometimes ____ when we are hungry and volcanic mountains can do this as well.

When a metal or rock is very hot and is in liquid form we say that it is ____.

Activity 5

1.Read paragraphs 3 and 4; what two things must be done on the mountain? (Acclimatisation is essential so the climb must be made slowly. It is also essential to have a registered guide with you.)

2. What do the park authorities do if someone is diagnosed with water in their lungs or brain? (Rush them to a lower altitude on a stretcher.)

Activity 6

Read the remaining paragraphs and answer the following questions:

1. In what way has the park authorities been criticised? (charging per day)

2. In what ways are some local companies acting irresponsibly? Why? (encouraging people to climb without properly preparing them; underestimating the challenge)

3. What percentage of climbers reaches the summit? (30%)

4. Why is Kilimanjaro sometimes underestimated? (It’s not a technical climb. What does this expression ‘technical climb’ mean?)

5. What do you think is the one factor which makes Kilimanjaro so demanding? (The altitude is the main factor making it so difficult.)

Activity 7

Find words with the same meaning.

Para 1: completely; all; every part (entirely)

Para 2: from time to time (occasional)

Para 3: colourful; pretty; good views (scenic)

Para 4: reduce (alleviate)

Para 5: tell someone / an organisation that they are wrong (criticise)

Para 6: see; view; regard (perceive)

Activity 8

1. Several words in the passage are made by combining other words. One example is downplay. What other examples can you find in the text? (underestimate, underscoring, nevertheless)

2. Use each of them in an appropriate sentence.

3. Use the following words to make up as many new words as you can. Use one from each of the first two column. Ask students if there are any that they don’t understand?

new news up down post

graduate set worthy trodden turn fangled agent letter cast paper born reader market beat stairs shot flash comer hill right code

newfangled newborn newcomer newsworthy newsagent newsletter newsreader newsflash upset upturn upmarket upbeat upstairs upshot uphill upright downtrodden downturn downcast downmarket downbeat downstairs downhill downright postgraduate postcode

Activity 9

1. Work by yourself. Make a list of 20 things you would take with you if you climbed Kilimanjaro carrying all your own baggage.

2. Work in pairs. Look at each list and, again, agree on 20 items you would carry with you.

3. Join with another pair. Agree on 15 items that you would carry with you.

4. Work as a class. What are the most important 10 items that you would carry with you?

These teachers’ notes, activities and exercises for learners of English are based on the Mount Kilimanjaro reading passge which is in the Students’ section.

Teacher’s Notes

These lesson planning notes for teachers are for use with the text of the article entitled ‘Running Shoes in the Students’ Centre.

Activity 1 – before reading the article, ask the students:

What do you understand by the word ‘trainers’?

Do you wear them? When? Why? Do you ever wear them when you do sports?

Which companies do you know that manufacture trainers?

Which advertising campaigns can you remember for trainers?

Activity 2 – Read paragraph one and two of the article and then look at these multiple-choice options.

1. Young runners in England suffered because a) they didn’t like cross-country running b) the shoes had thin soles c) the shoes were light.

2. Henry Nelson McKinney used the name sneakers because a) he liked walking quietly b) he could creep up quietly on his customers c) people could walk almost silently.

3. The word sneakers was a) used by the Boston Journal to describe tennis shoes b) used by boys who played tennis c) the name some boys gave to tennis shoes.

Activity 3 – Skim the remaining text in no more than 60 seconds.

Outline the main theme of the article.

Activity 4 – Scan the text

Scan the text and quickly find the significance of these dates:

• 1900s – By the early 1900s, sneakers were being produced by small rubber companies who specialized in the production of bicycle tyres (tires).
• 1950s – The 1950s gave families more leisure time and as the baby boom started more American families chose to dress their youth in sneakers as school dress codes relaxed.
• 1970s – However, in the 1970s, as jogging quickly became popular, well-cushioned running shoes became a necessity.
• 1980s – By the 1980s, trainers were everywhere.
• 1990s – During the 1990s, shoe companies perfected their fashion and marketing skills.

Activity 5 – Read the text and highlight these words.

cushioning, patented, endorsed, humble, maximised, significant, sophisticated, initially.

Activity 6 – Complete these sentences using one of the words.

I came in simple clothes but she looked very sophisticated in her business suit and high heels.

Dyson transformed the humble vacuum cleaner from a household appliance into a fashion statement.

This is a comfortable chair because of the firm cushioning.

No-one could copy my design because I patented it.

Initially, we lived in London but later we moved to Edinburgh.

I endorsed his plan and so we set up a business together.

I like her very much. She is a very significant person in my life.

We maximised the space in our house by demolishing one wall.

Activity 7 � Put these sentences into logical order.

The correct sequens=ce is given below.

Charles Goodyear found a way to make rubber stronger and more hardwearing.

Some tyre manufacturers started producing light shoes with rubber soles.

After WW1 boys and girls in the US started to copy their favourite sportsmen and sportswomen.

Casually dressed film stars made jeans and trainers very popular with young people in the US.

Well-cushioned running shoes became very popular worldwide with the enormous interest in health and in jogging.

Nike produced limited releases of its Nike Air shoes which made them even more popular with young people.

The manufacture of running shoes has become more technical in order to avoid injury in runners and to help them to run faster.

Activity 8 � Find these words / expressions in the text and mark them. Explain their meaning in your own words.

• soared – rose to a very high level
• mind boggling – very surprising / amazing
• went through the roof – rose to unexpectedly high levels
• battled to buy — worked hard to buy
• mainstay – the most important thing / type / support.

Activity 9 � Complete this passage putting the verbs into the correct form.

For generations leather was used for shoes but at the end of the nineteenth century Charles Goodyear in the US discovered a way to make rubber strong and stable in form so that it could be used for rubber tyres (tires) and other similar products. Goodyear experimented for years before he discovered the right process. It cost him a large amount of money and perhaps even his health. Before long, shoes with rubber soles were being made all over the country and shoes for different sports were being produced. Later, some of these sports shoes were endorsed by famous athletes, which made them even more popular with young people. Early on, many shoes with rubber soles were made in the US but after 1945 Japan started to export sports shoes and many shoes which were sold around the world were made in Japan. Today, however, many shoes are now made in countries such as China, Thailand and Indonesia.

Activity 10 � Work in small groups. You have to design a new newspaper and magazine-based marketing campaign for a new running shoe. Decide how to do this. Report back.

These notes for teachers are for use with the reading passage entitled ‘Triathlon: The unholy trinity‘ with student exercises and questions.

Completing sentences using words from list given.

1. My friend was suffering from cardiovascular problems after completing the race and he was rushed to hospital.
2. There is a short stretch of road near us which is notorious for bad accidents and six people have died there.
3. He was fit and well trained and he was very eager for the match to start.
4. Having finally passed his final set of exams after so much work, he felt a tremendous sense of elation.
5. We had several applicants for the job and so we looked at a profile of each of them.
6. A triathlon is a race of endurance because it involves three different sports and takes a long time to complete.
7. Many runners, long-jumpers and triple-jumpers suffer knee problems because of the tremendous stress that they put on their knees.
8. She worked extremely hard and felt very weary by the end of the week.
9. The British driver Lewis Hamilton made his debut in Formula 1 racing in 2007.
10. Climbing a steep rock wall, or starting on a PHD course, can both be very daunting for most people, and they don’t want to do it.

Scan the text and find the importance of these words and expressions in the text.

1. 11,00 entries – the number of entries for the London triathlon
2. Sydney Games – the games where the triathlon started to become popular
3. Simon Whitfield – an amateur triathlete
4. non weight-bearing – sports like swimming and cycling
5. Starfish Consulting – they did a profile of triathletes
6. Perranporth Triathlon – a tough UK triathlon

Read the passage silently

Answer the questions

Suggested answers:

1. Define stoked – extremely/absolutely exhausted;
2. What’s the difference between a sprint and a super-sprint triathlon? The super-sprint triathlon is the shortest triathlon of all.
3. If 11,000 people signed up for the London triathlon last year, how many might we expect next year? There has been a 10% increase each year so we could expect about 12,100 entries.
4. What was it that significantly increased interest in the triathlon? The Sydney Olympics.
5. What is one of the reasons why triathlons are so popular? People who are not experts at one sport can still do well.
6. In health terms, why is the triathlon a good sport? The athletes are very fit. Also, swimming and cycling are non-weight-bearing sports and so easier on knees.
7. In your own words, what sort of people typically take part in triathlons? Young men and women under 40 who have been to university, and who earn an above-average salary.
8. What makes the Perranporth triathlon a tough race? The rough seas, the hills and the sandy path.

Explain the meaning of these expressions.

• mass appeal (Para 4) – a wide range of people are interested / enjoy doing this
• captured the public imagination (Para 4) – made people extremely interested
• multi-disciplinary nature (Para 5) – it has different sports in this case
• muscle tome (Para 6) – the quality of muscles
• a rapid awakening (Para 8) – a quick lesson / the person learns quickly
• not break the bank (Para 9) – not cost too much
• disposable income (Para 9) – the income people have to spend after tax etc has been paid
• brand aware (Para 9) – familiar with the different brands of goods
• doubted my friend’s intentions (Para 10) – in this case, he was not sure about why she wanted him to take part; was there a reason he didn’t know about?
• hilly terrain (Para 10) – hilly land

Find words in the text that fit in the following categories.

Words used to describe the triathlon

• torture
• endurance
• daunting
• excellent cardiovascular workout
• notorious
• hardest
• strength-sapping

Words used to describe how triathletes feel

• elation (noun) / elated (adjective)
• exhausted
• collapsed
• weary
• exhausted joy
• stoked

The writer uses various adjectives to paint a clear picture of what is in his mind. What adjectives could you use to describe how you might feel?

• at the end of a triathlon – tired, exhausted, worn out, done in, dog tired, drained, weary
• after falling in love – cheerful, elated, over-the-moon, overjoyed, thrilled, delighted, ecstatic

Most teachers recognize that students learn best if they are highly motivated and use “active” learning methods. The difficult part is how to stimulate students to actively engage over a sustained period and not become bored or tired with routine written activities and repetitive learning activities.

Classroom games have the potential to increase both the amount of learning and the enjoyment of learning. There is also the added benefit that students often become less self-conscious and more fluent in their use of English in verbal exchanges when their attention is absorbed in the game and interactions with classmates.

1. Write a phrase on the board. The students then have to take it in turns to add extra words to make it into a longer and longer sentence. The trick is that it must always remain a coherent sentence. No words can be removed although they can be moved around to change the order. This activity provides enjoyable practice in word order and sentence construction.

Example:
the old man
I saw the old man.
I saw the old man yesterday.
I was in town when I saw the old man yesterday.
I was working in town when I saw the old man yesterday.
I was working in town when I saw the deaf old man yesterday.
I was working in town when I saw the deaf old man in the shop yesterday.
I was working in the town where my sister lives when I saw the deaf old man in the shop yesterday.
… and so on.

2. Write a long sentence on the board and the students have to remove words and phrases while ensuring that it always remains as a sentence. This activity also provides enjoyable practice in sentence construction.

Example:
The sad and lonely young Egyptian student who lived above my flat was always playing these long and beautiful Arabic songs on the wonderful wooden mandolin which he kept wrapped up in a sheepskin bag and hidden underneath the hard metal bed that he slept on.

3. Intermediate level students and above enjoy this activity as it can be fun as well as quite challenging. The aim of the activity is to help students to see that sentences can be made up of separate sections and that in order to understand them they need to be ‘unpicked’ so that the separate parts can be clearly seen. This is best done as a class at first but later it can be done in pairs.

Example:
The lecture, which I meant to make on Thursday, and was itself a postponement because of my illness earlier in the week, an illness that has plagued me on and off for 20 years and never seems to be totally understood with by the doctors, whatever they do or say, was delayed until the following Tuesday because, as we have so often seen in the past, the management of the university, once its strongest feature, but now arguably its weakest, failed to notice that the lecture theatre had been double booked.

The students need to start by trying to pinpoint the central part of the sentence and then to pick out additional information bit by bit.

4. Many words in English are compound words and this game builds up the students’ vocabulary knowledge in an interesting way. Provide them with words that can all make compound words or expressions by adding one additional word. Their task is to try to find the missing word that enables all of the words in the list to make new words (hyphenated or not) or regular collocations. The students who pinpoint the missing word should then be asked to define each of the new words.

Example 1: odd; park; base; net; foot. Answer: ball.
Example 2: tiger; clip; news; waste. Answer: paper.
Example 3: paper; brick; Great; climbing. Answer: wall.
Example 4: dream; centre; light; one; off. Answer: day
Example 5: in the water; wrong; weight; centre; cert. Answer: dead

5. Give the students one core word and they need to make as many new words or expressions (compound, hyphenated or collocations) as they can from the first word. It’s probably best with students from Intermediate level and above.

Example 1: custom
customs; customer; customary; customs house; custom-made; custom-built
Example 2: dead
deadly; deadweight; deadbeat; deadening; dead heat; dead-end; dead loss

6. Students often find difficulty with synonyms. This game enables them to share the synonyms that they know as well as the chance to learn how to distinguish between them. Divide the class into groups of four. Give each group the same word and ask them to think of as many words as they can that have the same or a very similar meaning. Ask the groups to tell you the words they have thought of. List them on the board. Encourage students to give you examples which make the meaning of the new words clear, or explain the meaning with your own examples. Distinguish subtle differences of meaning as clearly as possible.

Example 1: cold
freezing; chilly; bitter; icy; frosty; arctic; snowy; wintry; frozen
Example 2: thin
skinny; slim; slender, bony; lean; lanky; emaciated; size zero; anorexic; underweight

7. Examples of metaphor and idiom can make real problems for learners because they can be so difficult to decipher. In most cases the native speakers do not even realise that they are using a metaphor or idiom and so while they may think they are using simple English they may in fact be using quite complex language.

Many people are confused about the difference between metaphor and idiom and so it might be useful to distinguish between the two. Cambridge defines idiom as:
…a group of words whose meaning considered as a unit is different from the meanings of each word considered separately.
Example: to kick the bucket, meaning to die.

It defines metaphor as:
…an expression that describes a person or object by referring to something that is considered to possess similar characteristics. Example: This is a thorny issue so it will take time to sort it out.

Divide the students into pairs or small groups and give them short passages (text, dialogue or whatever) and ask them to spot the examples of metaphor and idiom and then to try to re-write them in order to replace the metaphor and idiom with less colloquial expressions.

Example:
A: What did you think of that reception last night?
B: It was fine once it got going but it took ages to break the ice and the atmosphere was very chilly at first.
A: Yes, I know what you mean. I wanted to tackle Jones about that matter of the contract but it took a lifetime to get him switched on. In the end it was time wasted because he couldn’t throw any light on the problems.
B: I’m not surprised. He’s in a dead end job and the high fliers he started with are long gone. He’s quite bitter. You won’t get any change out of him.
A: You’re right. Time wasted. Still, I did manage to have a chat to Jim.
B: Jim?
A: Yes, you’ve met him. He was the one who blew the whistle on that dubious deal last year. In the end they pulled the plug on it.
B: Oh yes, Jim. I remember. He really had the inside track on that deal.

8. Ordinary, everyday objects can be used very effectively in class to provide plenty of practice. One very good activity is to bring a collection of objects into the classroom. Either give one each to the students or ask them to select one. Their task is then to think of any arguments that they can (however wild and bizarre!) to persuade other people to buy them. For example, a teacher could bring into class a stapler, a small glass bowl, a corkscrew, a hardback book, a mobile phone and so on. The students would then have to think about how to sell this to the other students. Having decided, they have to talk to the others and try to persuade them to buy the product.

Example: This corkscrew is made of silver. It was designed by Alphonso Le Guiado in 1745. This one was made in 1769. It was made for Lord Marlborough. It will be sold by auction next month unless someone buys it today. The price at auction could fetch £65,000. However, the owner is willing to sell it for £50,000 today. In other words, it’s a bargain! This offer is only on the table today.

9. One game that students often enjoy is ‘knocking’ words backwards and forward to each other rather like table tennis. For example, the teacher could give the students a theme such as trees and ask them to keep on producing words alternately until one or the other runs out. The other player must then produce one more word or the result is a draw. If a word is repeated, the other student wins. The player who keeps going the longest wins a point. They can then be given another theme. Possible themes might include London, football, gardens, universities, clothes, children and so on.

Example: the theme is cars A pair of students might produce these words alternatively until one runs out. Student A: wheel, engine, driver, road, petrol, Honda, Renault, Schumacher etc Student B: windscreen, windscreen wiper, boot, bumper, lamp, light, Fiat, Hamilton etc.

10. This is a guessing game; a student thinks of a verb and the other students (in the group or in the class) have to guess what verb this student is thinking of. The verb is replaced by a nonsense word such as gringle. The students then ask questions, like this:

Is it fun to gringle?
Are you gringling now?
Can you gringle something else?
Do you gringle at night or during the day?
Can you gringle with someone else?
If I saw you gringling, would I laugh or cry?

Teachers can use photography to make lessons both varied and interesting, while providing plenty of opportunities for language use. Students always enjoy using a camera in class and it can provide for a vast range of language opportunities.

With digital cameras widely available, and opportunities for printing getting easier and easier, using a camera in class is becoming far simpler than in the past. However, photos do not always need to be printed and could be shown equally well directly from the camera, or from a CD or on a computer monitor or large screen display.

Here are a few ways in which photography could be used in language classes from elementary up to advanced level.

Students take photos to characterise their life and then talk about them.

Preliminary work here would probably include looking at other people’s lives and would include looking at photos, reading text, listening to taped material and so on. The students would then use a camera to take 6 photos (or whatever agreed number it was) which would illustrate important areas of their own lives. They would then come back into class at a later stage and show their photos and talk about their lives. They could record this as well, and then go on to write about their lives.

Make up a story inside or outside class

The students would make up a simple story and then illustrate this by taking photos of themselves based on the plot of the story. The photos could be taken around the language school or in the local vicinity. The students would then bring in their photos and tell the story in detail.

Take arty / interesting photos outside class

The students could be asked to take interesting / arty photographs and then bring them in with a story related to the photo.

Students photograph each other (working in pairs or groups)

This activity would involve a student asking the other students to take up particular poses, rather like a band might be asked to do. The activity would involve a lot of speaking practice because the students would have to give each other very clear instructions. The student with the camera would need to explain what (s)he wants to do, or what theme (s)he has in mind, and then ask the other students to stand in a particular way. The student giving directions would have to tell the other students how to place their hands, which way to face, whether to sit or stand, and so on. There would have to be preliminary work by the students to decide what their plan / theme would be before taking any photos. The first time they do this it might be best if they worked in pairs.

If possible, you could encourage students to bring additional clothing or costumes for them to dress up in to portray images or roles that they can discuss in class.

Students take photos on a theme

The students could decide on a theme (perhaps working in pairs) and then take photos based on that theme. They would then have to explain the relationship between the photographs. An alternative would be to show the photos and ask the other students to think what the theme is. This would involve a lot of interesting discussion.

Students can use photos to document visits

When students go on visits to places of interest, sight-seeing or just shopping or lazing around, they can take photos which are later used as stimulus material for class discussions – in pairs, small groups or whole-class.

Students add photos as part of descriptive writing.

The students could be asked to make a description of somewhere (language school, local train station, a room, a school, a building) or perhaps someone, and then take photographs to illustrate the description. They could then go on to describe the place/person verbally, answering questions from other students, before writing a description.

Further sources of ideas

Education World has an excellent list of ideas for using cameras in the classroom and outside that can be adapted to language learning.

Here’s a list of very useful sites about using digital photography in the classroom.

This activity can be done in class once adequate work on past tenses has been carried out.

1. Tell the class that they are going to make up a story together.
2. The teacher can decide whether or not to provide a title and/ or setting.
3. Place one picture of a person on the board and ask one student to start the story. (They may need some help with this the first time.)
4. At an appropriate time (this could be after two minutes, or an agreed number of sentences, or even irregularly as decided by the teacher) place another picture on the board. The pictures should be new to the students and should be picked out at random.
5. Another student then takes over and continues the same story.
6. This continues until either the pictures have been finished, the story has come to a convenient end or a certain time limit has been reached.
7. The story should be recorded and can then be played back.
8. The story could be typed out (including mistakes) by the teacher for a subsequent lesson. It could be handed out to the class and the students could then work in pairs to correct the language of the story.
9. The story could then be recorded again, either one copy for a class or one copy per pair, and then played back.
10. Any corrections needed could then be picked up by the teacher.