Teachers: Teaching Long Sentences or Words Using Chunks

Hello fellow ESL teachers and tutors!

Thank you for joining the discussion today on how to teach students long sentences and word. In the classroom, we can use a technique that I refer to chunking, or to breaking down a larger structure into smaller and more manageable pieces. The video and explanation below demonstrate this teaching technique. Please enter the discussion on this topic in the comment section below =)

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Thank you from your fellow ESL teacher,
Meylysa



When to use it?
When your class or student is unable to repeat a word or a sentence after you because it is too long. Usually they forget the end of it, or get tongue tied, or brain tied!

How does it work? (Let's use the example: What is your favorite day of the week?)

1) Break the sentence into smaller chunks.
"What is your"
"favorite day"
"of the week"

OR

"What is"
"your favorite day"
"of the week".

 Use your instinct or use common phrasal boundaries to pick your chunks. It is important that these chunks are easy for ALL of your students to say. Repeat as many times as you need to until all of your students can say all of your chunks.

2) Put the chunks together. I usually start at the end. So:
Teacher: "of the week"
Student(s): "of the week"
REPEAT AS NEEDED


Teacher: "favorite day of the week"
Student(s): "favorite day of the week"
REPEAT AS NEEDED, GO BACK TO A SMALLER CHUNK IF NEEDED

Teacher: "What is your favorite day of the week"
Student(s): "What is your favorite day of the week"
REPEAT AS NEEDED, GO BACK TO A SMALLER CHUNK IF NEEDED

3) Have the students repeat the sentence with you at a normal speed without any pauses between chunks.

4) Show off your students progress by having them repeat the whole sentence as many times as needed. Try making your speech normal or even fast, and see if your students can keep up (they will be having fun with this)

IMPORTANT TIP: Be sure to remember that your students can say any sentence and word. You are just helping them get that ability to shine through in class. Have faith that every single student in your class can do it, just break it into smaller chunks if needed!