ELT News Think Tank

This Month's Think Tank Panel

Marc Helgesen

Peter Viney

Chuck Sandy

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

Topic: "What kind of tools do I need to allow flexibility and spontaneity in my classes?"

Marc Helgesen

There is a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon that I think speaks to the question of flexibility & spontaneity. In the first panel, we see Moe (the bully) knocking Calvin to the ground and saying, "Wimp!"

In the next panel, Calvin is shaking his fist. He shouts, "Oh, OH YEAH?"

In the final panel, we see Calvin lamenting, "What really bugs me is knowing I'll probably come up with a much sharper retort sometime tonight."

“Does planning ahead really qualify as spontaneous and flexible? I think it does.”

And Calvin is speaking his first language. Think about what it is like for our students when we demand instant production. No wonder the result is often minimal, surface level language (What do you like sports?) We are locking them into saying the easiest thing they can come up with instantly.

Language planning can be a powerful tool for helping learners go deeper quickly and independently. Language planning simply involves giving learners time to think through the task they will do. They focus on what they will say and how will they say it. When we demand instant production, we are requiring them to create content (what they want to say) and form (how they will say it) at the same time. Language planning gives them a chance to preview both.

You might ask, "Does planning ahead really qualify as spontaneous and flexible?" I think it does. What you are doing is letting students warm-up mentally ("activate schema" if you want to be technical). Just like warming-up before playing sports or a musical instrument, this way of getting ready makes the learners more able to think and respond quickly and more precisely than if you just throw them into the activity cold.

How does it work in the classroom? At the simplest level, it can be a matter of giving them a minute or two to look over a textbook page or a worksheet. Tell them what the task is. Ask them to look at the questions or whatever appears on the page. The notice the questions and think in a general way about what they might want to say.

At times you might want to go even deeper. They mentally "think through" specifically what they want to say about a topic, as part of the pairwork or groupwork task, etc. They plan specifically what they will say (the content) and how they will say it (the form). You might want to specify a minimum number of sentences for each item. (One way to increase the support is through guided visualization. I wrote about that last month. You can read it here.

One common form of fluency activity is to have a page, often laid out as a game board, with various questions or topics for learners to talk about. Sometimes they use dice or other means of chance to determine which they should answer. Why not have them simply decide which they want to answer? They look at the page and choose the items that are interesting for them.

Again, you might want to require that answers include a minimum number of sentences or length of time. The point is to give them time to think their answers through. Then -- and this builds spontaneity and flexibility while making sure partners are paying attention to each -- require each partner to ask one or two follow-up questions.

A note about background music : During these "mental preparation" sessions, I usually play background music. It fills up the "empty space" and helps me and the students be comfortable with silence (i.e., it gets me to shut up). I usually use new age, light classical or world music. One hint: I put the CD player on one side of the classroom and tell student that, if they don't like music playing during class, they can sit on the opposite side of the room.

Once more time with feeling. If learners are doing a pairwork or groupwork -- especially one that is personalized -- have them do it again with in a new partner. In this case, the first time they did it serves as Language Planning for the subsequent times. Repeating an activity with a new partner can have amazing results with accuracy, fluency and complexity:

• Accuracy ­ they've done it once so this time they do it better.
• Fluency - they've done it once so this time they do it more smoothly.
• Complexity -- they've done it once so this time they do it with more depth.

They know what they want to say and it becomes possible to do the activity at deeper level, with more spontaneity, flexibility and real communication.

A quote worth remembering:

"Chance favors the prepared mind." ­ Louis Pasteur

Panelists: Marc | Peter | Chuck

Marc Helgesen, Miyagi Gakuin Women's College

Co-author of English Firsthand and Active Listening

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