Language Activities to do for Maharaj Ambarish Pastime.

1. Do a dictogloss.

Yr 3 & 4

The demon was angry and dangerous like fire. He had a trident weapon in his hand and made the earth move when he
walked towards Maharaj Ambarish. When the king saw the demon he did not run away, he was peaceful and fearless.
(end for yr 3 & 4)

(contin. for yr 5& 6)

Suddenly the Lord’s wonderful sudarsana cakra appeared. It destroyed the demon and then started to chase Durvasa
Muni.

Yr 7 & 8

Thereafter, Maharaj Ambarish satisfied all the guests who arrived at his house, especially the brahmanas. He gave in
charity sixty crores of cows whose horns were covered with gold plate and whose hooves were covered with silver
plate. All the cows were well decorated with garments and had full milk bags. They were mild natured, young and
beautiful and were accompanied by their calves. After giving these cows, the King first sumptuously fed all the
barhmanas, and when they were fully satisfied, he was about to observe the end of Ekadasi, with their permission, by
breaking the fast. Exactly at that time, however, Durvasa Muni, the great and powerful mystic, appeared on the scene
as an uninvited guest.

(How to use Dictogloss

Choose a text that suits the level of the learners. Beginners - 3 to 4 sentences; intermediate - 6 to 8 sentences;
advanced - 8 to 12 sentences).

Dictogloss has four stages:

 Preparation - introduce the topic, the language focus and the key vocabulary.
 Dictation - read the text at a speed a little bit slower than native speaker speed. Read the text again at native
speaker speed and on the second reading students individually make very brief notes (sentence fragments) on
main ideas. Remember that the purpose is to get the main ideas, not every word exactly as it appears in the
text, so do not read too slowly.
 Reconstruction - the students work in pairs and then fours to compare notes and write a shared version of the
text, editing for accurate punctuation, spelling and inclusion of the main ideas.
 Analysis and correction - the students compare reconstructions with other groups and with the original.
Discuss the differences. Dictogloss takes about 1 hour if done carefully.

For further information on dictogloss, see Wajnryb, R. (1990). Resource Books for Teachers: Grammar Dictation.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.)

2. Do a 4/3/2 (at the end of the unit).

Possible topics : 1.How to control anger

2. Using the senses for Krsna
3. The danger of offending devotees.

(4/3/2 is a useful technique for developing oral fluency. Learners give the same talk to three different learners with
decreasing time to do it.

The learners work in pairs. Learner A talks to Learner B and has a time limit of four minutes to do this. B just listens
and does not interrupt or question. When the four minutes are up, the teacher says, "Change partners". Learner A then
moves to a new Learner B. The teacher says "Begin" and Learner A gives exactly the same talk to the new partner
but this time has only three minutes. When the three minutes are up, the teacher says "Stop. Change partners." With a
new partner, Learner A now has two minutes to talk. During the three deliveries of the same story, the B learners do
not talk and each listens to three different people. When the A learners have given their talk three times, the B
learners can now go through the same sequence, this time as speakers.

"Research on this activity shows that the learners' speed of speaking increased during the talks (as measured by the
number of words per minute), the hesitations they make decrease (as measured by hesitations per 100 words), and
surprisingly their grammatical errors in the repeated parts of the talk decrease and they tend to use several, more
complex grammatical constructions in the last of the three talks than they did in the first talk" (Nation, 1989, p. 381).

These features of 4/3/2 develop spoken fluency:

1. The activity involves known vocabulary, grammar, and discourse.

2. The learners have a high chance of performing successfully at a higher than normal speed.
3. There are repeated opportunities to do the same thing.

The first time that learners use this technique they will need to recount something that happened to them. This is
because the chronological order of the events will make it easier to recall and repeat because the time sequence
provides a clear structure for the talk. Fluency development tasks need to involve language items that are already
familiar to the learners, need to involve largely familiar content, and need to include some kind of encouragement to
perform faster than usual.

Nation, P. (1989). Improving speaking fluency. System, 17 (3), 377-384.

Teachers often find 3/2/1 more manageable

Verb Stories

How to use a Verb Story to Practise Verbs and Reduce Mistakes

The teacher tells a story and as the teacher talks she writes the verbs on the whiteboard, each verb on a new line.

The students retell the story, using the verbs as prompts. They can then write the story and compare their version
with the original. In this way a skills flow is used - the students listen, then speak, then write and lastly they compare
and notice the language differences.

Benefits of Verb Stories

They help students to:
 focus when listening;
 notice and use correct verb forms;
 retell with appropriate scaffolding (the students hear the same story more than once and they use the verbs as
prompts). When the students have retold the story once or twice orally each students writes the story. There
should be no verb mistakes.

Example of Verb Story

There was once an old man who slept each night on a hard park bench. Across the road lived a rich woman in a big
house. She saw the poor man sleeping on the uncomfortable bench in the park and said to him, "I have many spare
bedrooms in my house, come and sleep at my place." So that night the old man slept in a bed at the rich woman's
house. The next morning he said to the rich woman, "Thank you but I will return to the park." "Why?" she asked.
He said, "When I sleep in the park I dream of your comfortable beds and I am happy, but when I sleep in your
comfortable bed I dream of the hard, cold park bench and I am miserable!"

Thanks to Dorothy Brown.

Do a verb story for Maharaj Ambarish pastime (high level intermediate)

Verbs: satisfied; arrived; gave; covered; covered; were well decorated; had; were; were accompanied; giving; fed;
satisfied; observe; breaking; appeared.

Thereafter, Mahäräja Ambaréña satisfied all the guests who arrived at his house, especially the brähmaëas. He gave
in charity sixty crores of cows whose horns were covered with gold plate and whose hooves were covered with silver
plate. All the cows were well decorated with garments and had full milk bags. They were mild-natured, young and
beautiful and were accompanied by their calves. After giving these cows, the King first sumptuously fed all the
brähmaëas, and when they were fully satisfied, he was about to observe the end of Ekädaçé, with their permission, by
breaking the fast. Exactly at that time, however, Durväsä Muni, the great and powerful mystic, appeared on the scene
as an uninvited guest.