Type 1: Awareness After the learners have been introduced to the structure, they are given opportunities to encounter it within some kind of discourse, and do a task that focuses their attention on its form and/or meaning.
Example: Learners are given extracts from newspaper articles and asked to underline all the examples of the past tense that they can find.
Type 2: Controlled drills Learners produce examples of the structure: these examples are, however, predetermined by the teacher or textbook, and have to conform to very clear, closed-ended cues.
Example: Write or say statements about John, modelled on the following example:
John drinks tea but he doesn’t drink coffee. a) like: ice cream/cake b) speak: English/Italian c) enjoy: playing football/playing chess Type 3: Meaningful drills Again the responses are very controlled, but learners can make a limited choice.
Example: In order to practise forms of the present simple tense:
Choose someone you know very well, and write down their name. Now compose true statements about them according to the following model:
He/She likes ice cream; or He/She doesn’t like ice cream. a) enjoy: playing tennis b) drink: wine c) speak: Polish Type 4: Guided, meaningful practice Learners form sentences of their own according to a set pattern, But exactly what vocabulary they use is up to them.
Example: Practising conditions clauses, learners are given the cue If I had a million dollars, and suggest, in speech or writing, what they would do. Type 5: (Structure-based) free sentence composition Learners are provided with a visual or situational cue, and invited to compose their own responses; they are directed to use the structure.
Example: A picture showing a number of people doing different things is shown to the class; they describe it using the appropriate tense.
