(This article was originally published in MET (Modern English Teaching) in Spring 1986.)  MET website

In Part 1 ( • Entering a Lesson with Predictions (Part 1: Pre-Listening Activities) , I introduced how we can help student to focus on a particular day’s materials and to become personally involved in its content. We can do it through a “prediction process.” I also described two prediction activities as entries to listening activities.

In this Part 2, I’ll share two sets of “prediction activities” as entries to speaking/discussion activities. In the first one, the prediction activity is indirectly related to the speaking activity. In the second one, it is directly related to what they will be discussing in their groups.

Example of predictions as an indirectly-related “entry” to a speaking activity

Lesson plan:  The students were going to have group discussions about “fun.”

Prediction procedure (which preceded the discussion.) I found online a ranking of the 10 most fun countries in the world.

Step 1: A list of 10 countries in alphabetical order was given to each student. They then individually predicted the ranking of each one according to how fun the online survey found.  Next, they formed groups of three or four and shared their guesses (predictions) with the group members.

Step 2: The teacher read the rankings, as they had been listed in the online source. Students jotted the answers on their lists.

Step 3: Still in their groups, they compared how well they had predicted.

Step 4: The students then formed new groups of three or four. The students were given a list of discussion questions about “fun.” For example
1) Did you have fun last weekend
2) When you were a child, what did you do that was fun?
3) Do you think computers are fun?
4) Is there a country or city you want to go to for fun?
etc.

Observation: Even though the ranking of fun countries had no direct bearing on the discussion that followed, students appeared to automatically think broadly about the topic of fun.

Example of predictions as a directly- related “entry” to a speaking activity

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