O R A L P R A C T I C E Lessons 1 - 25 - Shenker

Further notes
Exercises based on the Serial
There are several kinds of exercises you can do based on the serial story.
Up to Lesson 10 there is a rather straightforward Q&A format.
For a "scriptless" exercise, in a group, you might get each student to tell you "one thing" about the episode.
Start with the "slower" students (the major aspects of the episode should be easier for them to remember and
comment on). But don't turn it into a third degree interrogation. Keep going around the group. As the collective
narration develops, encourage them to sort out among themselves if this happened before that, who said
what, why, when, where, etc.
Another possibility is simply to ask: "What happened in this week's episode…?" Beginning in Lesson 11 the
necessary language (past tense) starts to accumulate.
The "gapfill"-type exercise (see OP 16) and/or questions on the episode can also be used, either: a) instead of
the straight narration; b) as prompts in the course of the narration; or c) as a kind of synopsis of the narration.
Note that there is a lot of passive vocabulary in the Serials, some of which crops up in the gapfill exercise. At
the least hesitation, feed the word and keep the exercise moving. This is not a memory test.
In a class you should limit comments to the episode corresponding to the lowest level in the group. Another
possibility is to give a "higher level" student the task of asking the questions - appoint him/her as your "assistant",
and give him/her the teacher's book.
The Serial is intended to be a kind of divertissement, a light touch at the end of the Practice Cassette, but it
also provides a ready source of material that can be used for comment by the students during the lesson.
However, this exercise should not turn into a weekly memory test.
Further note: occasionally some reported speech constructions come up naturally in the course of describing
who said what. These constructions are not dealt with actively as grammar points in the first 25 Lessons, but
they should not present a problem for comprehension in the course of these exercises.
SPECIAL EXERCISES
Where space allows, instructions are given with the individual exercises.
The "Can I help you?" exercise is a standard concept that can be applied to various situations. The exercise
pages contain only the material to be distributed to the students. The general instructions are as follows:
The student who is "it" has a chart with some kind of information on it. The other students have to ask questions
(based on brief notes that are given to them on a photocopied slip of paper) in order to get the information.
Once the routine is established, the teacher should have to intervene very little.
Can I help you?
Exercises include:
- give flight number and destination, get gate number and time (OP 4)
- describe article, get price
- give destination, get time of next train
The Inquirers should make a note of the information that they receive. (When it's not their turn, they can make
notes of the other student's exchanges, as a kind of dictation exercise, or just wait their next turn.)
Each Inquirer has a choice of items he or she can ask about. They can pick a different one on every turn.
After each round, the role of Information Agent passes to the next student. If complete rounds become
tedious, the change can come more frequently.
To give each student in a class of six a turn as Information Agent (answering one question from each of the
other five students, there are (at least) 30 items on the main chart and five on each of the extra slips of paper.
VIII