1 dialogue – 10 ways
Teaching tip
When you're teaching an A1 class, there's always that fear that you're going run out of material. But the answer might already be right under your nose – look again at the materials in your coursebook and try to get more use out of them.
An A1 dialogue is very short. You play the audio; you do a few comprehension questions; you ask the students to read it in pairs. That's the standard process, giving you three ways to use the dialogue.
Or - you can use it again … and again … and again ... It not only helps to fill your teaching hour, but it gives your students much needed practice at listening and speaking.
Here are 7 more ways to use the same little dialogue:
- Play the audio with the text covered, before you play it again with the text uncovered.
- Lead choral repetition of the dialogue, so everyone reads it out together.
- More choral repetition: half the class reads character A, the other half reads character B.
- You read it with exaggerated intonation and emphasise how the words run together. Read it again in the same way and ask the class to copy you, phrase by phrase.
- You read the dialogue again, but change 3 of the words, e.g. single room > double room; Friday > Monday; shower > bath. Students should listen for the changes.
- Ask the class to suggest more alternative words to swap into the dialogue. They read it again in pairs, using some of the alternatives.
- Can they remember the whole dialogue without their books? Write a few key words on the board to support, if needed.