The document discusses how to make language more communicative at the IH Barcelona Annual Conference. It focuses on using creative dialogues, student language examples, pictures of famous people, and other interactive activities to help students practice communicating in English. The goal is to enhance input and notice of grammar in a way that induces students to pay attention to forms they may otherwise ignore.

1. IH Barcelona AnnualConference
How do I
makelanguagecommunicative?
Gerard McLoughlin
TESOL-SPAIN
International House, Barcelona

8. Creative dialogues
It’s ___ isn’t it? I haven’t seen you in ages
Yeah, It’s been ages since those days at the beach. What have you
been up to?
OK, great talking to you but that’s ____ and I’ve got to go
Yeah good talking to you, let’s catch up soon.

9. Studentlanguage
•
•
•
•
I’vebeenrenting a car….
I’vebeenwalkingunderthe rain…
I’veworkedout a lotrecently.
I’vegone to the sauna…

10. Creative dialogues
Pictures of famous people: then/now
Write a dialogue using prompts
Role play the dialogue
Write a summary

11. Jeff Buckley
Complete these sentences, with either Jeff or David
1. ___________
2. ___________
3. ___________
4. ___________
5. ___________
6. ___________
7. __________
8. ___________
9. ___________
10. __________
11. __________
12. __________
was born in 1967.
was born in 1966.
was a singer and songwriter.
has been a drug addict.
formed a group in the mid 90’s.
is a singer and songwriter.
has lived in the USA.
only made 1 studio album.
has never been married.
never got married.
has made 15 albums.
drowned in 1997.
David Gahan

12. Dictogloss
I’ve been to the States five times. Four times
were for work and once was a holiday. The work
experiences were when I was working in Italy
and I went there for trade conventions. The
holiday was in New York for ten days, I really
enjoyed it.

15. • They both got swallowed by a whale but
managed to get out, I think.
• They were both eaten by a whale?
• They both ended up inside a whale, didn’t
they?
• They both got eaten by a whale. Didn’t
Pinocchio end up in a whale?
• They were both eaten by a whale.

16. • What do Jonah and Pinocchio have in common?
•
•
•
•
•
They both got swallowed by a whale but …
They were both eaten by a whale?
They both ended up inside a whale…
They both got eaten by a whale.
They were both eaten by a whale.
• They were both liars
• They both told lies.
• They both had big noses.
.

17. Activity Wikipedia quiz
1 What happened to Charlie Chaplin’s body on March 1st, 1978?
2 What happened to Winona Ryder at Saks Fifth Avenue department
store in Beverly Hills?
3 What do golfers Retief Goosen and Lee Trevino have in common?
4 Who was Ruth Ellis?
5 What is a spaghetti western?
6 What do the Swedish, Czechoslovakian (no longer exists), Italian and
German national football teams have in common?
7 What do US presidents Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy
have in common?
8 On 18 May 2006, Jens Lehmann set a new record. What was it?
9 What is taphephobia?

18. Decide if the following statements are True or False about your teacher:
1. If I could play a musical instrument, it would have to be the piano.
2. I wouldn’t waste money on a posh car, under any circumstances.
3. I might have gone to more rugby matches if my mum had let me.
4. I’d rather be healthy than rich.
5. If I weren’t an English teacher, I’d open my own bar.
6. If I had cosmetic surgery, I’d probably change my nose.

19. Musical instrument
Money
Sport
Healthy
English teacher
Cosmetic surgery

21. Brad Pitt deniesfathering ex-lover’schild.
Daniel Craig threatenstogive up acting.
Javier BardemadmitshavinganaffairwithMonica Cruz.
Rafa Nadal insistsonplayingdespiteinjury.
George Michael accused of pretendingto be gay.
Helen Mirrenapologisesforshouting at protesters.
Rajoy accused of beingdrunk in parliament .

22. agree
apologise
promise
accuse
refuse
manage
threaten admit
offer
deny
suggest

23. Infinitvewithto
-ingform
Object +
infinitivewithto
(object) +
preposition + ingform

24. Gerund or infinitive?
Complete the questions with your own ideas.
1 Have you ever been accused of ………………………………………….?
2 When was the last time you apologised for ……………………………...?
3 Have you ever threatened …………………………………………………?
4 When was the last time you persuaded someone ………………………?
5 How do you persuade someone …………………………………………..?
6 When was the last time you refused ………………………………………?
7 Have you ever admitted …………………………………………………….?
8 Do you always agree ………………………………………………………..?

25. The same in Barcelona?
There’s a lot of petty theft.
There are a lot of street cafés, bistros and restaurants.
There are a lot of dogs and not enough dog toilets.
Quite a lot of British, German and Spanish people live and work in Barcelona.
There are too many people and too much noise.
In the centre of town there are too many shoppers but there’s not much traffic because the streets
are pedestrianised.
In the Barrio Gotico there are not many tourists because it’s where people come to do business.
There are a few fast food chains.
There are only a few benches.
There are a few museums and churches to visit.

26. When do we use ‘a lot of’?
Look at these examples:
•
•
•
•
There’s a lot of petty theft.
There are a lot of street cafés, bistros and restaurants.
There are a lot of dogs and not enough dog toilets.
Quite a lot of British, German and Spanish people live and work in Blagnac.

27. When do we use ‘much’ and ‘many’?
Look at these examples:
•
•
•
There are too many people and too much noise.
In the centre of town there are too many shoppers but there’s not much traffic
because the streets are pedestrianised.
In Blagnac there are not many tourists because it’s where people come to do
business.

28. When do we use ‘a few’
Look at these examples:
•
•
•
There are a few fast food chains.
There are only a few benches.
There are a few museums and churches to visit.

29. The same in Barcelona?
There’s a lot of petty theft.
There are a lot of street cafés, bistros and restaurants.
There are a lot of dogs and not enough dog toilets.
Quite a lot of British, German and Spanish people live and work in Barcelona.
There are too many people and too much noise.
In the centre of town there are too many shoppers but there’s not much traffic because the streets
are pedestrianised.
In the Barrio Gotico there are not many tourists because it’s where people come to do business.
There are a few fast food chains.
There are only a few benches.
There are a few museums and churches to visit.

30. Complete the table
With plural nouns
With uncountable nouns
Too many
Too much
A lot of
A lot of
A few
A little
Not enough
Not enough
Not many
Not much

31. Gerard’s dream
In my dream I walked into a bar, there were three men at the bar.
One had a dog at his feet, another was smoking a cigar and the third
had no clothes on. The man stood up and smiled at me. The other
two men were watching a football match on TV. To my right there
were three windows, one had obviously no been cleaned for years,
another had coloured glass in it and the third one had no glass in it.
The man took me to the window and we passed through it. Before
us now were two paths, one had a sign above it saying ‘Beware of
the dog’, and a strange woman was standing in front of the other
one. A compulsion made me choose the path and suddenly the man
disappeared. As I stood there trying to make sense of it all, I found
myself in a forest. An old man jumped out from behind one of the
trees and waved his hands as a warning. Suddenly I was
transformed back to the pub.

32. The man stood up and smiled at me.
The man took me to the window and we passed
through it.
A compulsion made me choose the path and
suddenly the man disappeared.

33. DEFINING (Essential information) AND NON-DEFINING (Extra
information) RELATIVE CLAUSES.
Decide if the statements are describing defining or non-defining relative
clauses:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
…are as common in spoken English as in written.
…are essential parts of a sentence which are not clear without them.
….do not need commas.
…can be used with ‘that’
…are additions to a sentence which would make sense without them.
…are spoken without a pause orchange in tone.
…are used with commas before and after the relative clause.
…are spoken after a pause and with a noticeable drop in tone.
…are less common in spoken English than in witten.

36. When I was working in Italy, I had a really good and close group of
friends. We did lots of things together mainly involving talking,
eating, drinking and sometimes dancing. And, of course, helping
each other with relationship problems, we kind of grew together
and today some of them are still my closest friends.
One of my best memories is when my friends, who lived with their
parents, collected the keys from the school. Then, they went to my
place and cooked dinner. When I got home dinner was ready and
we ate, chatted and played cards.
One year, Devis and I bottled our own wine. We had to wait until
the moon was right and then bottled about 50 litres of wine. It
took about 3 hours and by the time we had finished we were drunk
from the fumes.
In the summer, when I wasn’t teaching, I worked on campsites in
Italy and they came to visit me and we did the same things.

37. When I was working in Italy, I used to have a really good and close group
of friends. We used to do lots of things together mainly involving talking,
eating, drinking and sometimes dancing. And, of course, helping each
other with relationship problems, we kind of grew together and today
some of them are still my closest friends.
One of my best memories is when my friends, who used to live with their
parents, used to collect the keys to my flat from the school. Then, they
used to go to my place and used to cook dinner. When I got home dinner
was ready and we ate, chatted and played cards.
One year, Devis and I bottled our own wine. We had to wait until the
moon was right and then bottled about 50 litres of wine. It took about 3
hours and by the time we had finished we were drunk from the fumes.
In the summer, when I wasn’t teaching, I used to work on campsites in
Italy and they used to come to visit me and we used to do the same
things.

38. When I was working in Italy, I had a really good and close group of
friends. We used to do lots of things together mainly involving
talking, eating, drinking and sometimes dancing. And, of course,
helping each other with relationship problems, we kind of grew
together and today some of them are still my closest friends.
One of my best memories is when my friends, who lived with their
parents, collected the keys to my flat from the school. Then, they
would go to my place and would cook dinner. When I got home
dinner was ready and we ate, chatted and played cards.
One year, Devis and I bottled our own wine. We had to wait until
the moon was right and then bottled about 50 litres of wine. It
took about 3 hours and by the time we had finished we were drunk
from the fumes.
In the summer, when I wasn’t teaching, I worked on campsites in
Italy and they would come to visit me and we’d do the same things.

39. Grammar interpretation tasks
1 To enable learners to identify the meaning(s) realized by a
specific grammatical feature;
2 To enhance input in such a way that learners are induced to
notice a grammatical feature that otherwise they might
ignore;
3 To enable learners to notice the gap between the way a
particular form works to convey meaning and the way
they are using it themselves.
Ellis, R. 1997 SLA Research and Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University
Press: 152-3