Language learning depends on establishing a familiar context. Once learners can identify with the context, they can build on known words and language structures.
Mime It / Talk About It is one way to do this. This learning strategy is useful for building vocabulary and language structures in a known language or in an additional language. Here’s how it works:
- Mime a daily activity with a twist. For example:
- Take a drink of water … that tastes awful
- Open a door and walk in … and trip over something
- Begin to tear a piece of paper … but it won’t tear
- Read a book … and laugh uproariously
- Stir a pot of soup … that suddenly becomes too thick to stir
- Talk about it: Encourage students to talk about what they observed in the mime.
- Revisit the mime in short “episodes”: For each episode, highlight vocabulary most useful to the group. Contrast new words with known language and record their learning in a personal thesaurus. To support understanding and memory, encourage students to add illustrations.
- Invite students to mime. Provide opportunities for students to create and act out scenarios, then share both their known and new language.
