3. When conversing informally they use a very different type of English than they need for academic purposes.
4. We cannot assume that students have the knowledge, skills, and strategies needed to read or write in English for a particular academic situation.
5. We need to explicitly model and teach the academic English that IB tasks require.
6. If we explicitly address the academic and linguistic demands that IB tasks demand of our students, everyone should benefit.
7.
8. The textbooks and other materials we use give the students exposure to well-written English, appropriate to a particular type of situation/audience/culture.
9. In their books and other reading materials students have the opportunity to develop their language skills as well as their subject knowledge, but we need to guide them, or, in the rush to acquire subject knowledge, they miss the chance to enhance their understanding of how the language is used.
39. What do the students know about this topic? How can I find out?
40.
41.
42. If students do partner reading, what are the best sections to use? How should the partner reading be carried out and what should the focus be?
43. Which words should I teach? How should they be taught? How can I make sure students use new vocabulary?
44.
45. During reading, where should we stop and debrief? If students are reading at home, where should they stop and summarise what they’ve understood so far?
46. When and how will I expect the students to generate their own questions, and what will they do with them?
47.
48. Students need to hear the words pronounced and to pronounce it themselves, repeatedly. The stress also needs to be practised.
72. Independent writing of a recipe for a favourite dish, which is then shared with others, edited, and put in a class collection...
73.
74. Students should be paired so that there are not two students with little English together. Ideally, a linguistically stronger student will be matched with a less proficient student.
75. Initially, alternate sentence reading can ease students into this activity. Start with asking students to reread what you have read, paying attention to pronunciation, stress and intonation, punctuation.
76.
77. We can explicitly point out features (language, structures, patterns) of different texts used in different situations.
78. The less students have to guess about these features and choices, the better.
79.
80. Outlining and writing frames: exercises providing 'skeleton' outlines, perhaps with sentence prompts, key vocabulary or pre-arranged paragraphs, to give writers a structure to write in
81. Cloze procedures: exercises in which texts with missing elements - words, phrases, sentences - have to be completed by the student
82. Re-writing: exercises which provide language elements of a text but which require rewriting in some way, perhaps re-arranging in an appropriate order or changing the tone
83.
84.
85. Joint Construction: an exercise where a group of learners construct a text together, for example on an overhead projector or a flipchart, with the teacher as the 'scribe' and 'mentor', suggesting possible words and phrases but also writing down what the learners say to build up a text (this approach can also be used effectively for revising a first draft)
86. Peer Response Feedback: an exercise where learners work in pairs or small groups, perhaps using prompts provided by the teacher, to respond to each other's writing
87.
88.
89. discuss the pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses of different examples of a particular type of text,
98. Model tasks you expect your students to do. Move to collaborative activities and only then to independent work.
99. Try reading in class yourself and establish partner-reading routines, pointing out the features of a text and practising reading skills and strategies.