ELT News Think Tank

This Month's Think Tank Panel

Marc Helgesen

Peter Viney

Chuck Sandy

Panelists: Marc | Peter | Chuck
Date: September 2002
Discuss this topic on our Message Board.

Topic: "What are some slightly strange (weird, off-the-wall) activities that have worked for you in class?"

Marc Helgesen

Hmmm. What constitutes strange/weird/off-the wall? I’m reminded of the Thai Buddhist that says: “Our wisdom comes from our experiences, and our experiences come from our foolishness.”

I think most of us ­ teachers as well as students ­ enjoy trying new activities. Here’s one that you my well feel a bit foolish trying, but the results are great. It is called “Positive voices in your head.” I learned it from Tim Murphey, formerly of Nanzan University.

“You can imagine what this activity looks like, but I don’t
think you can really understand what the experience is like without
actually trying it. It is really, really powerful.”

In my classes, we begin with a brainstorm of all the students’ different roles ­ they are students, someone’s daughter or sister, someone’s friend, a pet’s owner, etc. They think of all their roles and then write about five true, positive sentences about themselves. Depending on the level of the class, I sometimes leave it completely open. Other times, I dictate or write some possible structure on the board. I use things like:

I’m good at ___ing.
I can ___ very well.
My friends know I ___.
I feel good about my ___.
I am very ___.

Encourage them to think about their different roles. They should not write all their sentences about the same thing.

Actually, they only need four sentence but assign ‘at least five’ to keep the faster students one task to buy time for the slower writers. After everyone has at least four, we gather into groups of five. Each group decides who will be first. That person sits in a chair. The other four people stand in a circle around the chair. The person in the chair says a different sentence to each team member. The team members must memorize the sentence and say it with exactly the same intonation as the person in the chair.

Once all four team members know their sentence, the person in the chair closes his/her eyes. The team members walk in a circle around the chair, repeating the sentence. As they do, they move up and down and near to and away from the chair. Everyone is speaking at once. This goes on for about a minute. Note that they are saying things in the first person, not the third (“I’m good at skiing.” not “You’re good...”).

The person in the chair hears ­ and often feels -- a really strange, powerful and usually extremely positive mix of words and emotions. You can imagine what this activity looks like, but I don’t think you can really understand what the experience is like without actually trying it. It is really, really powerful.

Most people find it very pleasant, but not everyone (as I said, it feels strange). But everyone has spent some time writing positive sentences about themselves and hearing friendly voices saying good things about them. To my mind, that alone makes it worthwhile. Or, more exactly, to their minds.

One more idea. Something I’ve been playing with in my teaching is using warm-up activities that include both physical activity and language. For some crazy reason, we assume physical stuff is just for kids and that adults and adolescents don’t need and enjoy moving around a bit. Anyway I’ve added this to some of the workshops I’ve been doing lately. My handout, which has about 19 different activities is online at the link below. Enjoy:

Let’s get physical. Warm-up activities involving movement and language.

Panelists: Marc | Peter | Chuck

Marc Helgesen, Miyagi Gakuin Women's College

Co-author of English Firsthand and Active Listening

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