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INTRODUCTION CLASSROOM ACTMTIES for pairs and small groups The following activities have been developed for the learner-centered classroom. With them, you may create opportunities for your students to practice the liStening, comprehension and speaking skills that will eventually enable them to communicate naturally and accurately in Norwegian. By bringing a spontaneous use of Norwegian into the classroom, the activities will assist you in providing a necessary and enjoyable transition from using the language in the rather predictable settings of the elementary Norwegian language course to its more challenging use in expressing personal ideas, feelings and beliefs -- the ultimate goal of the intermediate language course. Small group activities allow each student more oral practice than a teacher-centered classroom since more students may be simultaneously active. Meanwhile they stimulate greater creativity and cooperation , encourage more natural communication, allow students to feel freer to ask questions -both ofeach other and of the instructor -- and they afford the instructor greater opportunity to observe the actual progress and interests ofthe students. You will neither want nor be able to use all the activities suggested here. The volume aims rather to present a wide variety ofactivities from which you may choose and adapt those which fit the needs of your own particular class. Focusing on all four areas of linguistic competence, the activities include group writing, listening comprehension and speaking experiences. All of the suggested activities have a context -- either in the anthology's core selections or in the learner's daily life. The presence ofa context enhances the possibility for genuine and spontaneous communication and allows the focus of the activity to be the students' expression of their own meaning. The particular items ofgrammar and syntax involved attain value as facilitators ofthis communication rather than as ends in themselves. Many of the activities invite the learner's creativity. Research has shown that students retain best items learned and reworked in this way. Games figure prominently because they provide motivating competition while allOwing students ofall capabilities to work together toward a common goal. Students who normally have a difficult time participating orally in class, often become more active in games because they find the activity less threatening and more engaging. Some games focus on points ofvocabulary and structure (word order, types of clauses, passive voice, etc.) others focus on comprehension of the lesestykker. Numerous cartoons appear which may be used in the ways described in the anthology's introduction, simply enjoyed or ignored. PRACTICAL POINTERS: *about pairs: The amount ofactual communication taking place in Norwegian is often inversely proportional to how well the two members ofthe pair already know each other. Therefore, have students change conversation partners often. *about ways ofchoosing up pairs: In.large groups, two concentric circles ofstudents walk in opposite directions until told to stop; the person standing opposite is the partner. Students can also "trekke lodd": Each selects one ofa prepared set ofslips of paper. These contain two eachwith the same number, letter or symbol. The two getting the same number, letter or symbol are partners. *about activities: Be sure to explain the aim and procedure of the activity thoroughly before it begins, and monitor it constantly to make sure everyone has understood and is "on task". Follow up the paired/small group activity with a briefwhole-class activity to emphasize that the results of the individual group's work are of interest to the entire class. 3 4 Introduction·about pre-reading activities: Students comprehend and remember a text far better when introduced to its main idea and key vocabulary prior to reading the selection for themselves. With this in mind, each lesestykke is accompanied by introductory material of this type. Most of the techniques described here are modifications of those presented in recent years at the Central States Teachers Conference by Barbara Snyder, James Hendrickson, Constance Knop and Jean Siewerth, whose inspiration and assistance I hereby gratefully acknowledge. Additional ideas have come principally from Alice Omaggio, Teaching Language in Context; Solveig Ytterdahl and Jacob 0vergaard, Norsk med hum~r. Ideer til kreativ skriving; Gerd Manne, Bo i Norge; Tone Gedde, Anne Golden and Else Ryen, Lrer mer norsk; and A E. Knappen and B. E. Solheim, Norsk.. For a more complete list ofadditional printed sources, see the literature list at the end ofthe teacher's manual. My thanks also to Luther College students Becky Fish, Cecilie Gruehagen and Jill Nokleby for their suggested activities. FIRSTDAYOF CLASS: TIuJ interview: Since the students may be new to each other and...

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