A teacher might start with a set of ten picture cards to introduce ten animals, and ask the students “What’s this?” and teach them how to answer, “It’s a _____ . It is important that the picture cards do not have the English translation written on them. This will help the students connect straight from the picture to the target language.For each new lesson the teacher is continually well-prepared by selecting and preparing a set number of vocabulary and structures. S/he learns those as part of preparing for the lesson. There is a constant process of revising vocabulary and structures already introduced as well as introducing new vocabulary and structures. This is known as the spiral approach.
In the second step in the lesson, the teacher might go through the animal picture cards again but this time ask the question “Is this a ____ ?” and the students answer “Yes it’s a _____” or “No it’s a _____”.
In the third step of the lesson, the teacher could randomly hand out all of the picture cards to various students and then ask them in language to give it back. Hold out your hand and ask the student, “Have you got a ___ ?”
With this number of vocabulary items and grammatical structures, the students could work in groups and play the card game Go Fish. Each student has a set of animal cards in their hand. They try to collect as many pairs as they can by taking turns to ask each other e.g. “Have you got a dog?” and answering “Yes” or “No, Go fish!” in the language.
In subsequent lessons, the students could learn to ask and answer other questions about the animal picture cards, e.g.:
Question
Answer What’s this?
It’s a ______ Is this a _____
Yes / No Is it big, small, soft, strong, brown, long, short, dangerous etc?
Yes / No What is it doing?
It’s running, walking, sleeping, eating, flying, watching etc.
Themes and topics such as these help teachers to determine the purpose for using the language, and to select the vocabulary and structures needed to use the language for that purpose. If students learn vocabulary and structures which are all connected to one theme, they are more likely to remember that language content.
About me, about you Fishing and hunting Animals and pets After-school activities Holidays Rituals Community organisation House and home School life Caring for country Kinship Seasons and weather Daily routines Bush tucker Five senses Cooking and eating Bush medicine Special occasions Environment Making friends Life cycles in the bush Family Meeting people Living a healthy life Local animals Things we see in the bush Things we do in the bush Finding the way Our communities Traditional stories Future plans Our local area Bird life Getting help At the river Sport Health and fitness By the sea Weekend activities People and actions Animal tracks Fish, sea animals and coastal life
For managing the class:
For giving instructions to students during activities and lessons:
- Come in, come here.
- Sit down, sit here.
- Stand up, stand in a line.
- Look at me, look here, look there.
- Go quietly, go slowly, go quickly.
- Too much noise! Too noisy!
- Shhh, quiet!
- Keep going.
- Stop now.
- Wait, wait now, wait quietly.
For talking with each other during in activities and lessons:
- Pick it up, put it down.
- Follow me.
- Look carefully, think carefully.
- Cut that up.
- Stick it here.
- Draw now.
- Write it down.
- Make a circle, form a circle, sit in a circle, stand in a circle.
- Sit in groups of four, get into groups.
- Come to the front.
- Copy this, do it like this, do it like me, follow me.
- Ask me (the question), ask him/her.
For giving praise:
- Can I have one?
- Whose turn?
- It’s my turn, your turn, his/her turn.
- Sit next to me, stand next to me.
- Let’s share.
- Show me, show me how.
For talking about talking:
- Good, good work, very good.
- Good girl, good boy.
- Good try, try again.
- You almost got it.
- Have another go.
- Sitting beautifully.
For starting the lesson:
- Listen carefully, listen now.
- Listen to me, listen to him/her.
- Say it after me.
- Say it for me.
- Say it again.
- Repeat that for me.
- I can’t hear you.
- I didn’t hear you.
- Say it slowly.
- Say it quickly.
- How do you say ________ in language?
For ending the lesson
- Hello (to one person, to two people, to a group of people).
- How are you?
- Welcome, sit down.
- Let’s start.
- Books away, chairs in, finished now.
- See you tomorrow.
- See you later (to one person, to two people, to a group of people).
Providing information
about good teaching for reviving Australian languages is one of
the main purposes of this website. To make it more accessible we
have arranged it under the following headings: