Methodology of Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Seminar V – Teaching Vocabulary and Lesson Planning

I. Below is a reading text used as a support of vocabulary teaching (word families). How would you teach
the text and what vocabulary-related activities would you use?
Read the speech below including variations on the words say and speak, then try to incorporate them into
your own use of English:
EXPRESSING ONESELF
Ladies and Gentlemen!
I hope you will excuse me for butting into your conversations in this way. I know nobody likes being
interrupted at such a time, but I have been asked to say a few words, make a speech if you like, on this
extra-special occasion. And may I say first what a pleasure and honour it is to have the opportunity to
address you like this, this afternoon.
You know, ever since you first hinted to me that something of this sort might be on the cards, I have been
debating with myself constantly as to how I could best express the sentiments I want to convey to you,
here, this afternoon. And then when you actually broke the news and announced a date, I began to consult
friends and acquaintances who have been in this position, discussing the subject with them at length and
in detail.
I can reveal today, however, that the problems of phrasing my message have not been solved. I suppose if
I were an actor, I could recite a relevant speech of Shakespeare's. Were I a priest, I might preach to you,
but I fear it would be a poor sermon. As a politician, I could read out a prepared statement and then go on
repeating " No comment ". If you were a class of students, I might give you a lecture. Were you
secretaries, I could dictate what I have to say. If we had more time, we could chatter and gossip together
for hours. But you and I are none of these things, so I shall have to put my message across in more
ordinary terms. I suppose I could simply declare that this is one of the happiest days of my life and claim
that I never thought I could be as happy as I am today. Or I could just state a few useless facts and figures
and leave it at that. I could, on the other hand, refer to what great men - and women - have said or written
on this theme, and just quote a few famous lines. I might also mention my own experience, reminisce a
little, recount a few anecdotes, tell a few stories and make some significant comment on young people
today.
Standing here, I can assure you, my main fear is not that I shall " dry up " - I have already uttered too
many words on this theme to be at a loss for words now - but that I shall, in a rash moment, blurt out what
I have to say, gabble away for a few seconds and leave too much unsaid, unspoken. Then again, while I
stand here thinking aloud, arguing with myself, contradicting myself perhaps, you will no doubt be
thinking. " Why's the old man rambling on like this without getting to the point? " " Why doesn't he just
come out with it ? " you'll be saying. " Spit it out!" I hear you cry.
Well, time marches on, and I can see that you have no need of explanations or illustrations from me; no
account of my own life is required, no descriptions or recommendations. I shall not bother to sum up what
I have said so far. All I should like to add on this - how shall I put it? – extra special occasion is: I hope
you'll both be very happy ".

II. Would you use the activity below in itself or as part of a larger sequence of activities? Think of
preparing and follow-up activities.
1. Types of people: Fill in the missing words in the definitions below. Choose from the following:
Accomplice bursar gossip shop steward agnostic castaway
Hermit sibling alien compatriot hooligan swindler
Arbitrator conscript midwife toddler artisan copywriter
Peer tycoon assessor culprit picket underwriter
Beneficiary despot predecessor ward envoy registrar
1. A(n) … is someone who has been shipwrecked.
2. A(n) … is a person who enjoys talking about other people’s private lives.
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3. A … is a nurse who has been specially trained to advise pregnant women and to assist them giving
birth.
4. A … is a member of a trade union who is elected by the other members in the factory or office where
he/she works to represent them.
5. A … is a rich and powerful businessman or industrialist.
6. A … is someone who has committed a crime or done something wrong.
7. A … is a person who helps another person to commit a crime.
8. A … is someone who is made to serve in one of the armed forces of a country whether he likes it or
not.
9. A … is a noisy, rough young person who causes damage or disturbance in public places.
10. A … is a person who responsible for keeping official records.
11. A … is a brother or a sister.
12. A … is a person who, during a strike, is placed outside a factory by his trade union to prevent other
workers from going in until the strike is over.
13. A … is a foreigner who has not yet become a citizen of the country in which he is living.
14. A … is a skilled manual worker or craftsman.
15. A … is a young person who is in the care of a guardian or a law-court.
16. A … is someone who has withdrawn from society and lives alone.
17. A … is the former occupant of an office, position, etc.
18. A … is a person who makes insurance contracts.
19. A … is a person who holds that it is not possible to know whether God exists or not.
20. A … is a person in charge of a college or school who is responsible for the accounts.
21. A … is a person who writes the words for advertisements.
22. A … is a person of the same age, rank or status as oneself.
23. A … is a person who deceives others, usually to get money illegally.
24. A … is a person who is called in to settle a dispute between two people and groups – usually at the
requests of both sides.
25. A … is a fellow countryman/countrywoman.
26. A … is a ruler who uses his power unfairly or cruelly.
27. A … is a person who is entitled to receive money or property from a will or insurance policy.
28. A … is a small child who has just learnt to walk.
29. A … is a person whose job is to calculate the value of a property or the amount of income or taxes.
30. A … is a special messenger sent by one government to do business with another government.

III. Read the following text. Devise presentation procedures, a set of discovery techniques procedures,
and a set of practice procedures.
A quarter of a century since American men bowed to the onset of feminism, they are standing up for
their rights. Things have, in the opinion of many US males, gone too far in favour of women.It is not as if
women had taken power; there are no women presidential candidates, no female bosses of the big
corporations, and only one woman Supreme Court Justice. In fact, the feminist movement has over the
past two years beaten a tactical retreat into the demise of the sexual revolution, the return to conservative
values, and the realisation that combining childbearing with a successful career is difficult.
But more than two decades of female assertiveness have left the American male bruised and defensive,
a victim of what spokesman for the emerging men's movement call "reverse sexism". Their creed is that
women cannot have it both ways. "There is a revolution brewing," says Mr William Farrell, author of the
successful book Why Men Are the Way They Are. "It is spreading slowly among men who are getting the
courage to say, < I've been attacked long enough. I need to tell women that I have hurts and hang-ups,
too>". Men are weary of the derision heaped on them in magazines and a spate of best sellers, the latest of
which is Shere Hite's ‘Women and Love’. Sales of that book have fallen since Miss White was accused by
(male) sociologists of using false data and pseudo-science to support her ideology. Such man-bashing
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words usually assign unflattering stereotypes to the gender such as "poodles, wolves, turkeys, sharks and
worms", as one recent book listed them. Mr Sidney Siller, a New York divorced lawyer who has founded
the National Organisation for Men, says men have been politically threatened. "Men have been
wimpified. They are intimidated by what amounts to a female party." Mr Siller and like-thinkers are
enraged by Supreme Court decisions that effectively give priority to women’s rights over individual
liberties. In the most celebrated ruling, the court last March upheld the principle of "affirmative action",
the practice enforced in some states under which female employees are promoted over better-qualified
males to rectify past injustices to women. The organisation this month filed lawsuits in New York against
two exclusive women's clubs, the Colony and the Cosmopolitan, because they rejected male members.
This was a response to court rulings this year that have forced celebrated men-only establishments, such
as the Century in New York and the Bohemian in San Francisco, to open their doors to women. Men's
advocates say the state has no right to interfere with privacy and free association.
On another legal front so far dominated by women, men's organisations say they are gathering evidence
of sexual harassment of men at work by female colleagues. Mr Farrell, a psychologist who has undergone
a conversion since serving as an officer of the trail-blazing National Organisation of Women, says Women
must face up to some of their own shortcomings.
Among these, he says, is a tendency to view men as "success objects", just as men have treated women
as sex objects. Popular fiction, television soap operas and films show that, despite all the propaganda
about sensitive, caring males, women still prize strong, successful and sometimes violent men - the knight
with the black Porsche, the bullet-proof Superman.

IV. Devise a complete lesson plan for the teaching of the third conditional, following the model below.
You can use whatever materials, reading texts, speaking activities, etc you may want.
Remember: You should specify your aims for each activity precisely. For example “To develop the
students’ listening skills” is not an adequate aim. You need to specify what listening skills are being
practised. You need to be very precise in recording procedures. It is not enough to say: “Check the
answers with the students”. You need to say how you would check the answers. You should be as detailed
as possible when noting down the procedures you use.

LESSON PLAN
NAME:
DATE:
CLASS:
TIME OF LESSON:
TEXTBOOK:
UNIT:
LESSON:

LESSON AIMS: 1
2
3
4
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MATERIALS:
1.
2.
3.
ACTIVITY 1
AIM:
PROCEDURE INTERACTION TIMING

ACTIVITY 2
AIM:
PROCEDURE INTERACTION TIMING

T-St 5 min.

ACTIVITY 3
AIM:
PROCEDURE INTERACTION TIMING

ACTIVITY 4
AIM:
PROCEDURE INTERACTION TIMING