This is an old lesson plan, but it’s never too late to share, right? 😊
One of the students I was teaching last year was a chess enthusiast, so here’s what I did:
I put together a text on the benefits of chess, based on information from two articles. I posted in this great Facebook group asking if anyone was willing to record themselves reading the text. Huge thanks to Gemma Archer for offering to help! I also created a multiple choice task. Oh, and some micro-dictations!
Here’s a suggested procedure:
- Activate previous knowledge. What are the benefits of playing chess? Discuss.
- Students listen once for gist. Did they hear any of the benefits they mentioned?
- They listen again for detail/ multiple choice task.
- They listen again and focus on language chunks. They take notes of word combinations they can use when talking about this topic.
- Elicit the chunks the students noticed. Highlight meaning, form and pronunciation. Highlight stress patterns and any features of connected speech between the items.
- Use micro-dictations to help them notice pronunciation of certain words/features of connected speech.
- Delayed feedback on emergent language.
- Homework: Give students the audio file and transcript for further listening practice. Ask s students to create a quizlet set to study the chunks from the lesson.
- Alternatively, you can use it as a reading lesson. Use the text and multiple choice task and then focus on lexical chunks.
Useful chunks
raise a person’s IQ
increasingly important
decrease brain power
keep healthy and fit
requires fast thinking
on the fly
requires strategic and critical thinking
improves your memory
your opponent’s playing style
mental effort
stimulates deep concentration
experiencing different degrees of anxiety
Tips on how to run the micro-dictations:
Play track 1 and ask student to transcribe what they hear.
Draw attention to the word sedentary ( /ˈsedəntri/). Elicit students previous knowlegde, eg it can also be realised as:
/ˈsedənteri/
Give students some words that end in -ory -ary and ask them to think of the two differnt flexiforms* ( military, mandatory, laboratory, elementary ).
Play track 2 and ask the student to transcribe what they hear. You can focus on catenation between suffered+a and do more practice with verbs in the past followed by words that start with a vowel.
Focus on physically. Draw attention to the fact that we don’t say /ˈfɪzɪkʌli/ but /ˈfɪzɪkli/. Provide a list of similar words and elicit the spoken form (automatically, aesthetically, etc)
Play track 3. Students transcribe what they hear. Draw attention to elision of schwa in diagonally. /daɪˈægənlɪ/. It’s useful for students to know they might hear it this way.
* flexiforms.

from my DELTA Listening BE
Downloads
Audio files
micro-dictation 1 (as a sedentary brain)
micro-dictation 2 (or who have suffered a stroke or other physically debilitating accident)
micro-dictation 3 (diagonally forward motion)
Thank you for this wonderfully professional recording, Gemma! 😊👏✨
Sandy Millin has also written this great post on using micro-dictations
References and sources
An ELT Notebook: An ELT Glossary : Catenation / Liaison / Linking
Cauldwell, R. (2018). A syllabus for listening. Birmingham: speechinaction.
Health Benefits of Playing Chess – Chess.com
Hi Rachel,
This is brilliant and I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to come across a blog post & English lesson! It is actually almost exactly what I planned on writing about in the near future – but now, with countless thanks to you, there is one less task on my 2do list!
Explanation > https://www.englishtrainers.org/online-chess-club
I will be reposting this everywhere later today, adding The TEFL Zone to the “Top Recommended Resources” & sharing many of your other great resources in the future I’m sure.
Very best wishes from Hamburg
Will
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Thank you for your comment, Will! I’m very glad this came in handy 🙂Setting up an online chess club for learners is a brilliant idea 💡, well done! 👏👏
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Reblogged this on English Trainers.
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Good Morning Rachel,
I’ve still no idea why I was unable to successfully reblog this article on EnglishTrainers.
But I’ve finally found what I hope will be an acceptable solution to you…
The Tefl Zone is currently featured, along with this and two other posts, in the footer of the website as …
#TEFL WEBSITE OF THE WEEK #1 – THE TEFL ZONE
… and will soon also be listed in a “Tefl Website Of The Week” blog post (on my 2do list!)
Many thanks once again for this chess article/lesson plan & resources & I hope all is well in Spain..
Best wishes from Hamburg
Will
https://www.englishtrainers.org
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