Freedom Through RestrictionBen Naismith

IH Dubai

What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen?

A “warmer”?

Gif from http://www.picgifs.com/graphics/laughing

Not so easy is it!Not so easy is it!

Why is this so difficult?

• Too many options to choose from

• No prompts/context

• Pressure to remember something incredibly funny

Image from www.bikejuju.com/2012/monkeys-on-bicycles

Why do trainees do this?

But…But…

Admirably, they may be trying to …

•give learners freer practice or fluency practice

•give learners a chance to say what they want

•promote personalized, meaningful interaction

•remove artificial restrictions

Why do trainees do this?

So, if this is the case…So, if this is the case…

But they may…

•not understand the terminology

•not know how to support the learners with speaking tasks

•not be aware of the difficulty level of their tasks (and not just linguistic difficulties!)

What is freer practice?

Now let’s see if they are the same ones I selected!Now let’s see if they are the same ones I selected!

Take one minute, and circle any of the following aspects that you think characterizes ‘freer practice’.

No one right or wrong answer

Wide range of language can be used to successfully complete the task

Task doesn’t have specific

parameters

Students can be encouraged

to use the target language

Task can’t have a concrete outcome

Task must be about students’ own

lives

Task should not have multiple

stages

Restrictions in real genres

Or if you’re not into Shakespeare:

There once was a man from Nantucket…

Or if you’re not into Shakespeare:

There once was a man from Nantucket…

Listen to this short audio clip and answer these questions:

•Do you recognize the poem?•Do you think the poet is following any predetermined structure?

Sonnet 130 by Shakespeare

Famous for using the following structure:

• 14 lines long•Iambic Pentameter•AB AB CD CD EF EF GG

Restrictions in real genres

Some other structured text types include

•Haikus (5 syllables – 7 syllables – 5 syllables)•Tweets (140 characters)•Minisagas (max 50 words)

Can you think of any others to add to the list?

Did you know?

As of March 2013, more than 400 million

tweets per day are sent worldwide

Did you know?

As of March 2013, more than 400 million

tweets per day are sent worldwide

Classic freer-speaking ELT activity (with restrictions) - ROLEPLAY

Adapted from www.busyteacher.orgAdapted from www.busyteacher.org

Classic freer-speaking ELT activity (with restrictions) - ROLEPLAY

Restrictions•Context provided

•Character motivations (reasons for speaking) provided

•Predictable functional language and lexis that will be needed

A few other classic freer-speaking ELT activities (with restrictions)

• Alibi• Balloon / Desert island discussion• Ranking/Prioritizing activities• Lexis on cards dialogues/roleplays/debates• Murder mysteries (or other info gap / puzzle tasks)• Time-restricted / randomly chosen topic short

conversations• Picture dictations

Classic freer-writing ELT activity (with restrictions) – Chain story

animation from gifbin.com

animation from gifbin.com

Nothing fancy to see here…

•Dictate first sentence of a story

•Pairs write next sentence

•Pairs pass on sentence to next

group

•Target language must be used

•Continue process

•Class/group feedback of some sort

Or is

there!?!

When chain stories go

bad…

Classic freer-writing ELT activity (with restrictions) – Chain Story

Restrictions•Context provided

•Limited to writing one sentence

•Teacher can select required target language

•Writing closely linked to preceding text

A few other classic freer-writing ELT activities (with restrictions)

• Random word story

• Restrictive genres (those mentioned earlier)

• Writing crosswords

• Genre prompts

• Paper interview

• Any others?

Keep in touch!

Ben Naismith

Email: ben@ihdubai.com

Blog: www.eltstew.wordpress.com

Twitter: @Ben_Naismith