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Up and Away - National Council for Curriculum and Assessment

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240<br />

This refers to the work of the teacher in the early part of a class, specifically:<br />

1. Introducing the theme.<br />

2. Setting up the activity.<br />

Pre-teaching<br />

Pre-teaching is an important procedure in language support as it ensures that all pupils underst<strong>and</strong> the<br />

focus of the session even though they may have low levels of target language proficiency.<br />

1. Introducing the theme<br />

Talking about the theme in general terms, asking pupils what they know about it <strong>and</strong> (if possible)<br />

personalising it, places new language in a known context. Underst<strong>and</strong>ing that the new words they learn<br />

are related to a context which they know about or have experienced, helps to reassure pupils who may<br />

be vulnerable to feelings of being overwhelmed.<br />

Brainstorming<br />

Brainstorming is a particularly useful approach <strong>for</strong> pre-teaching in activities where learning new<br />

vocabulary is the focus or where pupils encounter a high level of new vocabulary. Pupils gain confidence<br />

when they can show what they know already.<br />

Graphic organisers such as spidergrams (see the examples on pages 168 <strong>and</strong> 170) <strong>and</strong> grids/tables (see<br />

the example on page 172) are useful tools <strong>for</strong> brainstorming as they help pupils to organise <strong>and</strong><br />

categorise both vocabulary <strong>and</strong> ideas.<br />

Eliciting<br />

Eliciting involves the careful use of language by the teacher in order to guide pupils into producing target<br />

language. This process may be used to review earlier learning or to find out what pupils already know<br />

about a new topic.<br />

When eliciting new words from pupils it is important that the teacher does not provide the target<br />

language her/himself.<br />

See the activity ‘In the house’ on page 216.<br />

Pointing to a room <strong>and</strong> asking, “Is this room the attic?” undermines the aim of eliciting. Not only does<br />

the teacher introduce the target language (‘attic’), but the pupils’ input is reduced to either ‘yes’ or ‘no’.<br />

By asking “What is the name of this room?” the pupils’ own general knowledge <strong>and</strong> existing language<br />

knowledge is immediately activated. As a result, they become fully engaged with learning.

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