Skills

Levels


Eliciting Vocabulary before Writing Narratives



Eliciting Vocabulary before Writing Narratives


This is an idea to help students with their writing of narratives. It gives all the students some essential (and some superfluous) vocabulary.


Procedure

Before giving the students the title (or first line) of the story, play a game of word association.


  • The teacher gives one word and the student on the left must say the first word s/he can think of which is associated with it.


  • Then the student on her/his left says the first word which s/he can think of which is associated with the previous word.


  • This can be repeated around the class a few times.


  • The teacher writes all the words on the board as they appear.


  • Eventually you should have 20 or 30 words on the board, the latter ones bearing no relation to the original.


  • Here is a typical collection: tree, forest, countryside, city, buildings, offices, work, leisure, holidays, beach, sun, moon, night, dark, black, reggae, music, piano, jazz, etc.


  • The teacher then gives the students the first line of the story using some of the vocabulary on the board (e.g., I'll never forget the night I went to my first reggae club while I was on holiday in a strange city).


  • The students (individually or in pairs) continue the story, drawing on the vocabulary on the board for ideas.


    Brian Fowlis, Spain


    Link to original article.


    Copyright - please read

    All the materials on these pages are free for you to download and copy for educational use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place these materials on any other web site without written permission from the BBC and British Council. If you have any questions about the use of these materials please email us at: teachingenglish@britishcouncil.org


    • How to Use ESLgold.com Tell a Friend about ESLgold.com Support ESLgold.com Terms of Use Take Our Survey!
    TOEFL and TOEIC are registered and administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS).
    No connection with EslGold.com is implied.
    Last updated: 15 February, 2010 02:43:16
    design by web design company