In a conversation-driven elementary course, the emergent language on the board became the syllabus. Photograph it, type it into a shared doc, and recycle it; learners’ own texts, upgraded by the teacher, become the next reading.
Techniques
- Photograph the board each lesson; type emergent language into a shared Google Doc (a learner-generated syllabus).
- Recycling: language lists from memory, guess-my-word mingles, vocab bingo, 20 questions, Kahoot, gapped discussion questions, ranking and Venn sorts.
- Upgraded text: rewrite a student’s holiday story with the same content and better language; students compare versions, question the author, and retell using board phrases.
- Keep a fallback plan even when teaching unplugged.
Honest limits
Board language grew unmanageable (15+ phrases); the writing follow-up ran out of time; an unassessed class blog “would quietly die”. Two years later he relied on slides in EAP.
Why the upgraded text works (Claude)
It’s reformulation: learners notice the gap between what they said and an expert version of the same meaning, which is ideal for noticing-the-gap (Schmidt & Frota 1986; Swain’s output hypothesis).
Connections
Dogme ELT - materials-light, conversation-driven teaching · Round-ups, gapped boardwork and reformulation · Upgrade language during fluency work with minimal interference