There are times when words are not enough. There are times when no matter how hard we try we cannot put our message across. In the EFL classroom such situations take place pretty often, especially if you are teaching
young learners.
Most of us know that
miming is an extremely useful tool for eliciting, presenting or practising new vocabulary. To become good at that requires
time, conscious
effort and possibly a pinch of
talent.
Sadly, some teachers reject the idea as they are afraid to look and act
silly in front of their students. My advice –
give it a try!
Some basic ideas on how to use hands and fingers in the ESL classroom involve:
•
Pointing to objects, students, yourself meaning
this/that/you/me etc
• Pointing
back indicating
past, pointing
forward indicating
future, pointing to the floor in front of you meaning
now, at the moment
•
Thumbs up for
ok, thumb
down meaning
not ok, wrong
• Shaking your hand sideways meaning so-so, not really, give it another try
• Showing time’s up using both hands, making a T
•
Clapping meaning
bravo, well done, good job
•
Holding your head in different ways meaning
tired, I’m having a headache (e.g. because students talk too much)
• Putting a hand close to your
ear as in Chinese whispers meaning
speak louder, I can’t hear you, repeat
•
Waving your hand meaning
Bye bye, Hello
•
Raising a hand to indicate that you expect the same from the students
•
Shaking a pointing finger meaning
you’re naughty, don’t do that, I don’t like that
• Moving hands to
mime certain
nouns or
actions – a car, rain, playing the piano, smoking
• Presenting
adjectives -
big small, long short, heavy light
• Using fingers to
show a number or while
counting, numbering, listing
Alternative ideas for using hands:
• to indicate
word stress (e.g. vegetable has 4 syllables and the first one is stressed. Holding your palm as if you were knocking on the door, ‘knock‘ the air four times opening your fist for the stressed syllable as in
Oooo. Make sure you do it
from right to left as the students have to see it from left to right)
• to show
intonation by making waves (rise, fall, rise fall, fall rise, level)
Alternative ideas for using fingers:
• to show a number of words in a sentence, syllables in a word and to correct students’ utterances. If a student forgets to use a word in a phrase, show him/her the number of words using fingers with one finger missing.
• holding fingers together to show contractions (e.g. 1st finger I, 2nd finger AM, two fingers held together I’m)
• making the
scissors gesture may indicate that
too much has been said and something has to be
cut out
Why is it worthwhile to consider using these techniques?
• They make students
remember things easily as they give them the opportunity to
visualise and
mime (perfect for learners with the visual and kinaesthetic learning styles)
• They reduce
Teacher Talking Time
• They may be used while
eliciting
• They provide alternative ways of
error correction, indicating stress, showing contractions, intonation
• They might help you create good
rapport with the students
• If students are at a loss for words, miming can
put them back on track
• They may help teachers
express themselves
more effectively
On a final note, make sure the gestures you want to use do not have
negative connotations in a country you teach in. Taking learners’
backgrounds or
age into consideration also plays an important role. Whatever you do, do not be afraid to experiment. In the end,
experimenting is a vital part of the learning process.
* Some of the ideas presented above might sound too ‘Silent Way-ish’ to some of you. My aim though is not to advocate this method but to take the best of what it has to offer.
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