Working with Emergent Language

Emergent language is the language that comes up during our lessons which we had not planned for, but have to deal with, nevertheless. This can be tricky, as it is language that we have not included in our lesson plans, but that the students want and need to know about at that precise moment. All of this means that we have to think of a definition, context and examples on the spot, which can be a challenge even for experienced teachers. Indeed, it is the most common action point we give teachers when we observe their lessons, no matter what level they are teaching. In this blog post, we will look at techniques for working with emergent language, activities we can do with the language when it comes up and things to be careful of when new language arises in our lessons.

Recording emergent language

The first and most logical way to record emergent language is on the board, remembering always that the board is your best friend. Keeping a good record of new language on our boards is something that the learners can refer to throughout the lesson, and gives them the opportunity to try and use the new language at a later point during the class. If you don’t record new language on the board, that language disappears, and you miss out on an opportunity to make the most of it. When we record this language on the board it is also important to put it into a clear context for the learners so that the meaning is clear.

Other methods for recording the new language include keeping post-its, note cards or slips of paper in a box in your classroom on which you record the new language. Then, in future classes you can get these out to revise the language in the form of a fun activity such as taboo. Online resources such as Quizlet and Baamboozle are also great ways of recording the emergent language from our lessons and mean that you can use them time and again. Another advantage of this is that you can then set online revision activities for homework and the students can practise using the vocabulary at home, and it is all language that has been generated by the students themselves.

What to do with new language

As mentioned above, the first thing to do with new language is put it on the board and provide the learners with a context in which it is used. If you feel confident, you could come up with, and ask a couple of content checking questions (CCQs) to make sure the students have understood. However, this might be something that you need more time to prepare, so don’t feel pressured to think of some relevant CCQs on the spot. Experienced teachers, however, should start to do this automatically with emergent language as effective and appropriate CCQs should come more naturally. Once you have this lovely new language on the board, you now have the opportunity to ‘go with the flow’ a little and ask some questions related to the new language items. Don’t feel that you have to stick rigidly to your lesson plan if some really interesting new language comes up and the students are genuinely interested.

Activity ideas

It can be difficult to think of activities that you can do on the spot when emergent language arises in our lessons, so here are a few activities ideas that you can use in this situation. If you feel like you need more time to prepare these, you can also do them in the next lesson to allow you to prepare them more thoroughly, obviously making a note of the emergent language that you have written on the board previously.

1. Backs to the board – This is a very easy activity to run and requires little to no preparation. Towards the end of the lesson, have 2 students sit with their back to the board surrounded by their classmates who are facing the board. Write a word or phrase on the board (depending on the level of the class) and the students facing the board have to describe the word or phrase to their teammate. The winning team is the first student to successful say the word or phrase that is on the board. The words or phrases that you use should all include emergent language from the lesson.
2. Create a crossword – This is another activity that can be quickly created during the class while the students are doing a reading activity or quickly after the class as a lead-in to the next lesson. Using a website like worksheets.theteacherscorner.net you can quickly input the language from your lesson along with some clues and you immediately have a worksheet that you can use to revise it.
3. Story/sentence competition – Another activity that requires no preparation on the part of the teacher in which pairs choose a few of the words that you have recorded on the board. Then depending on the level, they have to come up with a sentence or story using these words. The class then votes on which pair came up with the most interesting story. You can get all students to use the same words or let them use different words, whichever you prefer.
4. Translation race – If you teach monolingual groups, then you can make the most of translation in your classes. Have students work in pairs and one has a list of the emergent language seen in the lesson. Give students a time limit (1 minutes, for example) and get them to test each other on the translation of each language item. The pair with the most correct translations at the end of the time limit is the winning team!
5. Hangman – And oldie but goodie. Take the words from the board and use them for a quick hangman at the end of the lesson. No matter how old you are, hangman never disappoints.

Things to avoid

1. Don’t try and blag it – If a language item comes up, be it vocabulary or grammar and you are not sure how to explain it to your students, be honest with them and tell them you will get back to them with an explanation. If you try to explain something that you are unsure about, you will only dig yourself a hole and confuse your students (and potentially yourself). It is much better to look it up after the class and go over it well with your students in the next lesson.
2. Don’t stray too far from your lesson plan – It can be tempting as a teacher to completely go with the flow when new and interesting language comes up in your lesson, but we have to be careful. If you repeatedly ditch your lesson plans, this can lead to a series of unstructured lessons in which you don’t achieve your aims. Of course, it is important to talk about the emergent language in our lessons but try not to let yourself get completely side-tracked on a regular basis.
3. Don’t cover your board in new language – It is important to have a dedicated section of your board for recording new language. It is very easy to cover your board with emergent language if you haven’t planned your board before the lesson, and things can get messy. So, make sure that you have a section of your board that is only for new language to ensure that you have space for the other things you have planned in your lesson and don’t have to erase that language every time you need some space. There should be a permanent board record of emergent language throughout the lesson.

The most important thing to remember is that emergent language is something that can really contribute to a lesson and is of real interest to the students. It is not something to fear, but rather something to embrace. So next time new language comes up in your class, try a few ideas from this blog to make the most of it!