Describing, explaining and giving examples
- John thinks that we describe factual things and we use explanations for processes and for talking about the reason or the causes of things.
- John gives an example of a description: We need to eat plenty of dairy foods because they supply us with calcium.
- Kay provides her learners with a written model of her description of a rock so that her learners can learn the description by heart.
- Kay thinks explaining is more difficult for learners than describing.
- Kay suggests using texts to help learners explain things.
- Anna Maria uses videos, pictures, texts she has copied and graphs to help with describing and explaining.
- John uses examples when he’s explaining because he thinks they are difficult concepts to describe.
Tell us which of these things do you do most often when teaching your subject in English: explaining, describing or giving examples, and which you think is most difficult. Read other participants’ comments and respond to any difficulties they have with your advice.
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