Practical Teaching
Exchanging ‘Punches’ in the Language Classroom (July: 2004: Vol. 13–3, pp. 30-35) (with F. Nunn) MET (Modern English Teacher UK based international journal)
Narrative jokes are structured texts which typically depend on wordplay for their comic effect. They are also fundamentally communicative in nature and lend themselves to lively classroom interaction as it is in the very nature of narrative jokes to be heard, understood, remembered and retold. This paper outlines a series of lessons which exploits narrative joke telling for the language classroom and explains in detail three teaching stages.
Revamping the Lecture for EFL Classes: A
Case for Mini-lectures (2004) (with D. Lingley) The Language Teacher
(JALT) 28.3 pp. 15-20 http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/2004/03/nunn
Professional teachers need to have a wide
repertoire at their disposal as they adapt
to different teaching situations and the
varied needs of their students. Several of
the above papers consider a greater variety
of classroom roles for both teacher and students
in classroom language teaching. This paper considers the inclusion of brief
mini-lectures as a regular EFL activity.
It provides a theoretical rationale and practical
examples and suggests collaborative note-taking techniques
to facilitate lecture comprehension for students.
The Game Analogy in Intercultural Communication
TESOL Matters 10.3, 2000 August/September
Issue p.20
www.tesol.org/isaffil/intsec/columns/200008-ic.html
Wittgenstein's notion of language games is
considered in relation to intercultural communication.
A classroom simulation activity is described
which attempts to provide students with the
experience of being a foreigner by creating
a situation in which they are out of step
with the rules of a game. Opponents are made
to play with different rules without knowing.
After experiencing the inevitable difficulty,
which arises, they learn to negotiate the
kind of interim norms necessary for intercultural
situations.
A Holistic Classroom Activity - The Class
Survey
The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VII, No.
4, April 2001 http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Nunn-Surveys.html
This paper discusses the use of classroom
surveys within the context of post-communicative,
"eclectic" methodology. It discusses
the multiple roles that can be adopted by
both the teacher and students for different
pedagogical purposes during this kind of
holistic activity and provides worksheets
and examples for classroom use.
People Who Crossed Borders: An Interactive
Reading Exercise
The Internet TESL Journal, May 2002 http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Nunn-InteractiveReading.html
A reading text can be exploited in many ways
beyond just presenting information or practising
the skills of reading comprehension. This
paper describes and illustrates a simple
and easily designed interactive reading exercise
which also provides practice in using interactive
questions. Two examples, one for pairs, the
other for small groups are provided under
the theme: People Who Crossed Borders.
Designing Simple Interactive Tasks for Small
Groups
The Internet TESL Journal, July 2002 http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Nunn-Tasks.html
The selection and design of tasks which simulate
real-life language use is important to any
course that includes the aim of improving
ability in spoken interaction. This practical
paper provides a checklist for task designers
and provides original examples in the form
of a set of easily replicable and adaptable
worksheets.