Racing to English By Gordon Ward

WELCOME

Welcome to Racing to English; I hope you find the activities helpful. They are designed for children and adults learning EAL, EFL or ESOL. Some of the activities are more suitable for older learners, some for younger, but most are suitable for any age.

I recommend that you look at the SYLLABUS/CONTENTS first - it's the first document in the folder entitled `Staff Info'. This will give you an overview of the activities and an idea of the order in which to use them.

There are OVER 250 activities in Racing to English - these include photosets, documents for staff and many other language teaching activities for you to print out and use with your pupils/students.

The activities are organised in 28 steps and there are six to ten activities in each lap. The activities include:

• Photosets - there are over 50 photosets on the CD, most of which contain between 12 and 18 photos (over 600 photos in total).
  The sets include actions, animals, body, face, food, clothes, house (types/rooms/furniture), occupations, park, people, seasons, street, supermarket, tools, vehicles and weather.
  There is a page from the Racing to English picture dictionary in each photoset and also at least one worksheet.

• Stories - over 60 stories, each includes activities and worksheets. There are three types of stories:
  Story File - these are mini stories written by children with a worksheet and sequencing activity.
  Fun with Tenses - specially written stories about Billy, Milly, Maisy and Bob (for older learners) and about Eek-eek-eek the mouse and his friends (for younger learners), each story illustrates the use of a particular tense. Again each story is accompanied by a worksheet.
  True Stories - these are mini anecdotes about famous people; each story includes a short worksheet and asks learners to write their own story.

• Collaborative activities - there are seven types of game-like activities on the CD - Connect Four, Guess Which, Pairs, Question Tracks, Spot the Difference, Story Prompts and Describe and Draw.
  Most of these activities also have a worksheet with them.

Also on the CD are:

• Documents for staff - these include suggested teaching order, resource suggestions, advice on teaching beginners, suggestions for using first language, thoughts re race and eight documents considering reading.

Principles

• Oracy/Interaction - the activities are designed to encourage interaction and purposeful, focused talk between learners. Many can be used by pupils/students at different levels and by mixed groups, for example, groups that include both EAL/EFL learners and native speakers.

• Repetition - many of the activities are game-like so it is easy to ensure that the same activity and therefore the same language items are used many times.

• Comprehensible input - in order to ensure understanding, the activities are based either on photo/picture input or on stories that create a meaningful context for the language items.

• Clear language learning objectives - the activities all have clear language learning objectives and focus on particular functions and sentence structures.

Implications of the principles

The principle of oracy/interaction has particular relevance to two different situations:

1. The silent classroom - teachers often expect learners to get on with work in silence, the Racing to English activities challenge teachers to involve their pupils/students in talk and interaction which are the basis of all good language work.

2. One-to-one/withdrawal - in the UK, support staff often withdraw beginners from the mainstream classroom in order to undertake one-to-one work with them. This ignores the fact that pupils/students learn more quickly and more effectively from their peers than they do from staff. The Racing to English activities are most effective when they are used with groups of pupils/students rather than in a one-to-one situation.

The principle of clear language learning objectives relates not only to individual activities but also to the steps. Each step has a number of different activities related to a particular tense, for example:

Step 6 focuses on actions and has activities that teach and practise the present continuous tense - `She is walking', `He is reading', `They are talking', etc.

Steps 9-11 focus on narrating and have activities that teach and practise the simple past - `She walked', `They shouted', `I ran away', etc.

Steps 12-14 focus on repeated actions and have activities that teach and practise the simple present - `He smokes', `Postmen deliver', `Birds build nests', etc.

Steps 17/18 focus on talking about the past as it relates to the present. They have activities that teach and practise the present perfect - `He's taken', `She's found', etc.

Step 19 focuses on the future with going to - `He's going to run away', `I'm going to swim', `It's going to rain', etc.

Flexibility

The activities are flexible in themselves and can be used in a variety of ways with a wide range of learners. They are also flexible because you are able to adapt them yourself. There is no protection on the documents so you can edit them, rearrange them, simplify or add to them. So do adapt them to suit the pupils/students you are working with.

Future developments

Racing to English is one of those exciting projects that will never be complete. I am continuing to work on it and I would like to invite you to join in developing the materials. I would value any feedback and in particular I would value:

• Any good stories your pupils/students have written to add to the story file

• Any good photographs you have personally taken to add to the photosets

• Any suggestions for additional materials/activities that are needed

• Any difficulties you have found with the materials including typos etc.

If you send me any materials or feedback that I can use, I will be happy to send you a new and updated CD free of charge.

Email materials/feedback to [e-mail] Thanks Gordon

PS

Boring legal bit on next page!

The legal bit

For staff who work in a single institution:

Purchase of the Racing to English CD gives permission for the owner

• To download the CD on to computers or a network within ONE school or similar institution

• To print out and photocopy all of the activities on the CD

• To use the activities which have been printed out within the owner's school or similar institution

It does not give permission

• for the CD itself to be copied and given or sold to anyone else

• for any of the materials that have been printed out to be sold

• for any of the materials to be used in other schools/workplaces

For individual staff who work across a number of schools/etc. (e.g. peripatetic EAL teachers):

Purchase of the Racing to English CD gives permission for the owner

• To download the CD on to his/her computer

• To print out and photocopy all of the activities on the CD

• To use the activities which have been printed out within the schools that the owner works in

It does not give permission

• for the CD itself to be copied and given or sold to anyone else

• for the CD to be downloaded on to any other computers

• for any of the materials that have been printed out to be sold

• for any of the materials to be used in other schools/workplaces

For managers of EAL teams:

Purchase of a single Racing to English CD gives permission

• for the owner to download the CD on to no more than three computers

• for the activities on the CD to be printed out and/or photocopied

• for the activities to be used by all team members with the specific children they work with

It does not give permission

• for the CD itself to be copied and given or sold to anyone else

• for the CD to be downloaded on to any other computers

• for any of the materials that have been printed out to be sold

• for the materials to be left with schools for them to use with children who are not targeted by the team

• for any of the materials to be used in other schools/workplaces

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