Methodology

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Madridteacher

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I am writing an essay based around the ARC descriptive tool (scrivener). I have been given this situation and asked why the class is not a logical / cohesive progression.

[FONT=&quot]a- Students, in groups, discuss pros and cons of cloning A[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]b- Students read an authentic text on cloned animals A [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]c- Students hold a debate on the possible advantages of genetically engineered food A[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]d- Gap-fill exercise with expressions used to highlight pros and cons of things R[/FONT]

I have begun by answering that there is no clarification or focus to the lesson and have gone on to say that I would change the class to a text-based approach. However, I'm a little unsure of exactly what could be the teacher's objective of the class. would it be vocab on cloning? or is the target language getting the students to speak about advantages and disadvantages of topics. How do you see the objective of what the teacher is trying to teach? Some advice would be much appreciated! thanks!
 

Tdol

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Unless it's a very specific ESP class, I'd say it's likely to be the language of advantages/disadvantages, ec.
 

I'm With Stupid

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[FONT=&quot]a- Students, in groups, discuss pros and cons of cloning A[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]b- Students read an authentic text on cloned animals A [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]c- Students hold a debate on the possible advantages of genetically engineered food A[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]d- Gap-fill exercise with expressions used to highlight pros and cons of things R[/FONT]

I would assume it's a speaking and vocab lesson. It definitely seems like a poor order to me. I think you've got to first preteach the vocab, and then do the reading exercise first. It's quite a complicated subject, so I think you have to introduce the arguments to the students before they can form their own opinion on it. You don't want their lack of knowledge of the subject to stop them participating in the discussion, when they have the English ability to do so. I'd do the gap fill exercise second, which would check that they understand the pro and con arguments presented in the text. At this point they can then discuss it in groups in preparation for the debate (probably one group preparing the pro argument and one the anti argument), which would be the final production of the target language. Your lesson aim would be speaking practice in the context of a debate, with vocab to do with cloning as a secondary aim. But yeah, the production of language should always be the final stage of a speaking lesson, with everything else before that aiming to build up to that.
 
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