Whatever benefit you expect the students to get from the rhyme, you must remember that their interest derives solely from the pleasure it gives them. Therefore, you should not spend more than ten minutes or quarter of an hour in any one lesson on rhymes. If you work systematically through all difficult points and students recite rhymes meaningfully, they will master the sound system of English and a wide selection of its vocabulary and structures.
What kind of material to present depends on whether you are concerned with teaching all the language skills, or only certain of them. I regularly use rhymes in class for teaching skills involved in good pronunciation and intonation. Most books on English pronunciation list twenty-four consonant and twenty vowel sounds commonly used in acceptable English speech. Many of these sounds are unfamiliar to Russian pupils, who often use sounds from their own language, until they have mastered the English system.
There are several different ways of practicing sounds. First, I draw students’ attention to the position of their own lips and tongue. Then they recite rhymes on all the individual sounds of English. I never introduce more than one rhyme at a lesson. Rhymes can also be graded according to the difficulty of content.
[ p ] Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
[ ∫ ] She sells seashells on the seashore
[ t∫ ] If a white chalk chalks on a black blackboard,
Will a black chalk chalk on a white blackboard?
[ t∫ ], [ r ] Never travel by train in a dry country like Trinidad
[ w ], [ð] Whenever the weather is cold.
Whenever the weather is hot.
We’ll weather the weather,
Whatever the weather ,
Whether we like it or not.
Appropriate rhymes can be used to practise stress and intonation patterns. The sounds of English occur in syllables. Syllables themselves may be stressed and unstressed. In their turn the latter are organized into feet. The number of feet in the line sets the rhythm. I usually make the rhythm apparent by clapping hands or tapping out the beat on the desk.
The students have also to use the right tune. The meaning of a sentence is equally depends on the tune which it carries. The most usual tune in the rhyme is the falling tune. Some of the rhymes make excellent practice material for work on the rising and falling tunes. I often help the class to hear the tune by using gestures.
The pupils may be having trouble in distinguishing between the vowels in words ‘work’ and ‘cork’, ‘plough’ and ‘dough’, and consonants in ‘goose’ and ‘choose’. Here is the rhyme which practises sounds and contrasts them.
You probably already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Some may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, plough and through.
Beware of heard, an awkward word:
It looks like beard but sounds like ‘bird’ !
Watch out for meat and great and threat;
They rhyme like suit and straight and debt.
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there’s dose and rose and lose,
But watch that “s” in goose and chose!
It’s cork but work, and card but ward;
And font but front, and word but sword.
To sum up, appropriate rhymes can be used to practise:
(1) individual sounds
(2) stress and rhythmic patterns
(3) intonation
(4) vocabulary
(5) grammatical structures
Из опыта работы
по подготовке учащихся старших классов
на основе тестов
к сдаче ЕГЭ по английскому языку
Учитель: Макарова Татьяна Александровна
Обучение иностранному языку включает в себя:
лингвистический компонент (обучение аудированию, говорению, чтению, письму);
психологический компонент (индивидуальный подход к ученику с учетом восприятия при преодолении языкового барьера);
социокультурный компонент (страноведение). Обучение иностранному языку ведется через язык (фонетический, грамматический, лексический аспекты) и речь, которая представляет собой реализацию данных языковых аспектов в разговорной и письменной речи, чтении и аудировании.
Одной из целей работы учителя является подготовка учащихся к работе с тестами, проверка знаний учащихся на основе различных тестовых заданий, а так же подготовке учащих-ся к сдаче ЕГЭ.
Обычно тесты строятся на рекомендуемой для школьников лексической основе:
1. школьная;
2. семейная;
3. социально-бытовая;
4. общественно-политическая;
5. страноведческая;
6. культурная;
7. спортивная.
Тестовые задания, которые являются важными контрольно-измерительными материалами (КИМ), направлены на:
проверку лексико-грамматических особенностей иностранного языка:
• выбор правильной грамматической или лексической формы из четырех предложенных;
• раскрытие скобок и употребление правильной грамматической формы;
• выбор слов, которые имеют примерно одинаковое значение, но употребляются в разных ситуациях (Confusing words). Например, соuрlе/раir, offer/suggest, lift/rise/raise/pick up и т.д.;
• выбор из предложенных слов или предложений и употребление их в пропущенных строчках, чтобы получилось логически законченное предложение или текст;
• правильное употребление омофонов feat/feet, sea/see, there/their и т.д.;
• выбор и употребление фразовых глаголов. Например, look for, show off и т.д.;
• соединение разбитых на две колонки предложений, фраз, грамматических или лексических форм так, чтобы получилось единое предложение, фраза, лексическая или грамматическая форма;
• словообразование и использование производных форм; проверку чтения:
• задания на понимание общей идеи текста;
• задания на поиск заданной информации в тексте;
• задания на поиск детальной информации в тексте;
• задания на логику построения текста, проверку письма;
• задания заполнить анкету или почтовую открытку;
• задания написать личное письмо;
• задания написать небольшое сочинение на заданную тему;
проверку знаний страноведения англоязычных государств, которые включают сведения по географии, политическому устройству и культуре.
проверку речевых клише в различных ситуациях (например, приглашение, сочувствие, отказ и т.д.).
Такие типы тестов помогают учителю в учете и контроле знаний учащихся, а также при подготовке старшеклассников к сдаче ЕГЭ.
How my dreams came true
(or unusual England)
Guerasimova Irene, an English Teacher
I'm an English teacher, and for all my teacher's life the only dream I had in a professional and emotional sense was to visit the country of the language that I teach my children to speak. I've read a lot of literature of various kinds, I was brought up on W. Scott, A. Conan Doyle, Somerset Maugham, Jerome K. Jerome and many others. But this dream was rather phantom. You can guess about the income of an ordinary school teacher and the price of tours to the British Isles.
But all happened like in a fairy tale. At first I got rather a great and unexpected deal of money. Then I decided to prepare for my touring. I didn't want to take many pupils with me, because don't forget, it was a dream, and I didn't want it to be spoilt by an awful behaviour of some boys and girls. That's why our group consisted of three girls, I trusted very much both in language skills and in culture, and one mother. The next problem to solve was getting VISA for me in the British Embassy. They didn't usually give Visas to those who have a clear passport (without any other European Visas). Mine was just like that. So I was preparing for a conversation in the Embassy. I was very nervous, but I spoke without an interpreter and tried my best to show the official how much I wanted to see their country by mentioning some rare sights and places of interest which are not usual for common tourist groups. And I got it!
Now I was to work out the plan of our excursions and trips in order not to lose a minute of our visit. This plan included usual sights in London: St. Paul's, Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, The Tower of London, London Bridge, the British Museum and the Museum of Sherlock Holmes, London Aquarium, Buckingham Palace (they call it Buck House), Kensington Palace, The Natural History Museum, Hampton Court Palace and park, Windsor castle, the famous Roman town of Bath and the "place in nowhere"- Stonehenge, and, at last, Kew Botanic Gardens. And all that was to be done within eight days. My companions were not very sure that we could do without a guide and tried to persuade me to book more excursions with a Russian guide. Later they understood that our two official excursions were too much.
All I had instead of a guide was historic knowledge of this country and its monarchy, geographical knowledge, a very good map of London and an ability to orient myself in this city. And as it proved to be, it was quite enough.
And at last, there came the great day, when we were in London. We stayed at the pretty hotel of Henry VIII in Kensington. Kensington Park was just across the road of our hotel. When we got into a coach from the airport, we saw streets full of exotic trees in blossom. Every window was in flowers. The day was cold, but very sunny. If we hadn't known we were in the capital of Great Britain, we could have thought it was some southern town in Europe (palm-trees, Japanese cherry-trees (sacura) and something of this sort).
While we were unpacking and making ourselves comfortable in our rooms, the weather changed and it started raining "cats and dogs" or pouring if you like. But Russians are not afraid of anything, especially weather. We took our umbrellas and went out bravely. The first place to search was Kensington Park. Though it was raining hard life outdoors went on very cheerfully: people were busy with their usual occupations, they ran, walked, went shopping. To tell the truth, they've got nice umbrellas, those Londoners. Their umbrellas reminded me of their famous "My home is my tower". We walked along the wet avenues of the park and enjoyed fresh green trees and grass, squirrels and birds, dashing about to ask somebody for something tasty or to find a partner (I've quite forgotten, it was in the end of April).The park was full of tulips and other spring flowers. We breathed in fresh odour in our lungs and quite forgot of the rain. In spite of the fact we got drenched to the skin we didn't catch any cold and the next day were fresh and ready for adventures.
Now I'm not going to waste your time telling about all our trips and excursions, but just about the most interesting of them, some funny incidents, some interesting details.
Russian Guides.
They were annoying. They had an awful accent and the appearance of Cherkizovo market. Every time we were to meet them they were late. On our last day in London we nearly missed our plane, 'cause our guide was later than usual. The only idea they had was to have more from poor naive tourists – their compatriots. At the beginning of our tour they frightened the tourists with different things: "it's so easy to lose your way in London without a guide", or "toilets in London have a very high fee, and only your guide knows where it is the cheapest", or "you won't be able to understand a word without a guide" and so on. The first toilet with a high fee in London, which our guide advertised, seemed to be the only thing of this sort. We didn't face this problem any longer. The most expensive excursions to museums and other sights are those with a guide (a Russian one). Almost all museums and galleries have got electronic guides in different languages free of charge. Guides mix up all the names and dates of English history (they think an ordinary Russian tourist will have it). Now it's enough of them. I hope they have respectable, high-educated guides, and simply we were not lucky.
London Classics.
Tower Bridge. The symbol of London, a very interesting museum inside, a magnificent view of London from the Thames.
The Tower of London. The heart, the beginning. How old is this grass with daisies? Through these gates nobles were brought in to wait for execution or death. Little Princess of York, what happened to you? Arms and armory, Royal Regalia, jewelry, instruments of torture. I was very interested in one having an opposite action to a rack, but my companions didn't want to share my interest and made me go further. Ravens. They are all in cages. The Government seems to be worried of British stability and flourishing. Mc Donald's – the final point.
Saint Paul's Cathedral. It was under restoration, but visitors were allowed in. The Gallery of Whisper – it works, we checked it up. The stairs up to the top, it's a hard work to go upstairs in St. Paul's even for teenagers let alone ladies, the stairs, are erased by the Time, very slippery. But the view from the top is magnificent. There's a very nice churchyard around St. Paul's, all in flowers. London down-and-outs like having a relax here.
A walk along the embankments of the Thames.
We didn't just enjoy the scenery but tried to put our noses under every bridge – we didn't find a sign of poverty and mud. Visited Cleopatra Needle, sat on the sphinxes – very slippery and difficult to climb up.
Parks. We were able to reach almost every point of our interest by walking through the parks: St. James Park, Green Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Park. Paradise! Birds, pelicans, tangerine ducks, squirrels – everybody wants something tasty and, at least, attention. They walk freely everywhere. No one will hurt them. Dogs with their masters without leads pay no attention to anybody, even monsters are peaceful. We saw only one representative of dogs who was aggressive – it was a Yorkshire terrier, but nobody noticed him. Dogs are in plenty, all of them have masters, one person often has two dogs – one of a high breed, the other is a mongrel – but both beloved, washed and brushed. But, to our great surprise, we didn't see a single cat outdoors! Football fields are everywhere, our girls were often invited to take part in soccer-matches.