The natural primary focus of a language learner is those parts of the sentence that carry the most meaning—the basic nouns and the main verbs. Grammatical items like the third person singular -s on the verb in the sentence He runs carry little information and are seldom important to the overall meaning of the utterance; as a result, beginning language learners instinctively pay less attention to these forms.
One device for focusing student attention on such "less important" forms is the modified cloze procedure (see step 2). For instance, if the students are having difficulty with a and the, the cloze procedure can be used to focus their attention on the difficulty:
1. Record a listening passage on a tape recorder.
2. Prepare a written copy of the recorded passage, but with all instances of a and the deleted. [It is useful to tell the students precisely how many of the articles are missing.]
3. Divide them into groups of three. (optional)
4. Play the recording as many times as they wish in order for them to fill-in the missing words.
5. After the sheets are exchanged and corrected, the students have—if they were not divided into groups of three—a copy of a complete text which may now be exploited for reading, or whatever.
This procedure can be used to focus the students' listening on whatever part of the language that the teacher wishes. Also, because the procedure automatically produces a completed text, it is an ideal procedure to integrate into other tasks without taking that much additional work to prepare.
Sample material:
Tape script:
Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson was an example of an American success story. By the time he was twenty-five, he'd done more things than most men do in a whole life-time. He'd begun working in a small electronics firm when he was sixteen. Five years later he was president of that firm and he'd tripled their gross profits. In the meantime he'd won two Olympic gold medals. He'd been married and divorced twice by the time he was twenty-three. He began flying his own jet when he'd only taken four flying lessons. That was his downfall. One stormy night last January he flew into the Sierra Nevadas and hasn't been heard from since.
[Material from Carol McConnell]
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Work sheet: [8 omissions]
Robert Johnson was an example of an American success story. By the time he was twenty-five, he done more things than most men do in whole life-time. He begun working in small electronics firm when he was sixteen. Five years later he was president of that firm and he tripled their gross profits. In the meantime he won two Olympic gold medals. He been married and divorced twice by the time he was twenty-three. He began flying his own jet when he only taken four flying lessons. That was his downfall. One stormy night last January he flew into the Sierra Nevadas and hasn't been heard from since.
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Note: There are two ways that the students are able to do the task. The obvious way, of course, is for the students to fill in the missing segments by listening. However, other students, particularly those with more grammar training, will fill in the missing segments simply by using their knowledge of grammar. Notice 'He gone' must either be 'He had gone' or 'He has gone'. Which of the strategies a particular student chooses depends in large part on the nature of the previous training.
Sample material: Dictation
Dictation, using the same basic text, is an exercise that can be used to focus on the difference between the reduced forms used in normal conversation and the full forms usually used in writing.
Dictation: Robert Johnson
1. If he had been a little more careful, Robert Johnson might not have died.
2. If I had been him, I wouldn't have flown by myself with only four lessons.
3. If you had been him, would you have done the same thing?
4. If he had lived for another twenty years, I wonder what he would have done.
The dictation is given in normal speaking style, that is, these are read using the contractions. For example, the fourth sentence would be given as 'If he'd lived for another twenty years, I wonder what he'd've done'; but the students are required to write the full, unabbreviated forms (as in (4)).