As a real source text, for my class at pre-intermediate level, I have selected reading material from the British Museum guidebook and guided tour map.The text could seem difficult or even discouraging to students that are not familiar with art and its terminology, however I agree with the statement, that “the trick, is not to edit and grade the text, but to grade the task according to students ability” (1) and I believe that the tasks I designed are graded in a such a way that will allow pre-intermediate students to gain confidence about their ability to understand (receptive skills) and convey (productive skills) relatively simple cultural information and concepts. In addition, the “exposure” to this authentic material has “an intrinsic education value” (Sanderson, 1999) and would benefit students in several ways. One of them is being made aware that cultural activities are not only accessible to fluent or native speakers but also to them.
This authentic material is also useful to inform students about London life and make them part of the community perhaps by inspiring them to visit the British Museum or other cultural establishments.I also thought that students could relate to some of the art presented in the text as some was found in their countries of origin, for example in the case of the “Persian Bowl”” since we have students from Iran and Iraq. The multicultural aspect of my group and their reluctant speaking skills motivated me to select such material. I wanted to challenge them and engage them as the British Museum includes art from all over the world. I thought that conversation might initiate amongst students during pre-task and post-reading and that for a moment they could come out of their position of learners and become teachers too, for example by telling the others something about Qu’ran writings in Islamic art (images of God are forbidden only text is allowed) , in the case of Arabic speaking students or about the Roman Empire in the case of the Italian student.
Perhaps my “predictions” are a bit optimistic, however I would not be looking for accuracy but for the desire of the students to express a concept important to them and their identity or at least show an involvement or interest of some degree. I, therefore, believe that students will be able to complete a big part of the task and engage themselves in the activities.As a lead in I would ask students to give me a definition of Art, I would then draw a mind map of all words connected to art that they tell me (painting, sculpture, Monalisa, ect.) I might also ask them if they heard of contemporary and modern art. Then I would ask where we can find art and if they ever visited a museum in Lonon.
I would have this lead in as I think it is appropriate for the text and it would activate students “pre-existent knowledge of the world” (Cook 1989: 69) as well as their curiosity. I would then hand in my pre-reading task and ask them to complete it in pairs in 3-4 minutes at the most. At this stage I might inform students that we will “visit “ a museum, but not which one. The pre-task presents vocabulary found in the text and it’s a controlled pratice. Through grouping words in different categories and encouraging discussion during task (pair work) students will be able to decipher the words more easily when coming across them later on in the reading.I agree with Harmer when he claims that "by giving them some or all of those words we deny them a chance to practice tackling authentic texts" (Harmer, 2003) which is the reason why I didn’t want to give away the meaning of every single new word.
However, due to the “complexity” of the topic I thought that in pre-task part B I should test their knowledge of certain vocabulary. The pre-task is designed to give them confidence as well as activating prediction skills. (Which museum are we going to read about? British museum? Will it be about Ancient Egypt?) It also engages the students by, controversially making the lesson appear quite complex compared to the previous ones we taught them. Somehow I wanted to challenge them a little (with appropriate guidance). After the pre-task students could peer check with partners and quickly share with the class.
The gist task will be about two minutes long as they “need the push to read quickly and finish before the time is up, otherwise the students tend to focus too much on unknown vocabulary instead “(Riddell, 102). It asks two simple general questions about the purpose of the text and about the British Museum. This is for them to prepare their mind for the detailed reading and to understand the overall meaning of the text through skimming. The detailed reading part and questionnaire (receptive and productive skill) should be filled approximately within 12 minutes. Through careful scanning students should be able to answer the majority of questions.
In a way this task tests several abilities simultaneously.Some of the questions are based on the ability to understand general information about museums and venues. Some are about numeracy skills and finally a few of them have a more intellectual edge, such as the questions about the “glass lamp” or the “Persian bowl”, where students ability to understand concepts is tested as well as writing, one of the productive skill. Due to the variety in format (bullet points, short closed answer, open question) and information requested I would call this a less controlled practice. In the “glass lamp” and the “Persian bowl” paragraphs the register and the meaning are more complex as they are from a more detailed page of the guide, this could be harder for less fluent students, however I believe it could be seen as an exciting challenge . The reason why I planned a questionnaire is to unable students to concentrate during reading but also to prioritise certain parts of the text (from Rosetta Stone onwards) over others.
I would then ask students to peercheck and feedback.The post reading exercise would be a meaningful freer practice in which students could re-tell their partner what they have learned about the British Museum helping themselves with the pictures in the handout and using the text and the answers as guidelines when unsure. The task is to improve their fluency through the productive skill of speaking and to help them memorise the new information and terminology. At the end of it, students can talk about their personal taste in art, if they have visited the British Museum or if they would like to, or about a particular work of art they wish to see, in order to assimilate the topic from a personal perspective.
