Sounds Intriguing: Resource Material for Teachers

by Alan Maley, Alan Duff

Sounds Intriguing offers an unusual and effective approach to oral work: sounds rather than words or pictures are used as a stimulus for free oral expression. The cassette recording is composed of short sequences of sound, each of which suggests the unfolding of a story or incident. The sequences are open to many different interpretations, and there are no 'correct' solutions. This stimulus releases the students' creative imagination and gives them a genuine reason to speak. The book explains to the teacher how the sequences can be used, and the exercises provide for both spoken and written work. The book also offers a systematic approach to vocabulary building, and the introduction gives detailed information on the language functions needed to discuss the sequences.

73 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Alan Maley worked for The British Council from 1962 to 1988, serving as English Language Officer in Yugoslavia, Ghana, Italy, France, and China, and as Regional Representative in South India (Madras). From 1988 to 1993 he was Director-General of the Bell Educational Trust, Cambridge. From 1993 to 1998 he was Senior Fellow in the Department of English Language and Literature of the National University of Singapore, and from 1998 to 2003 he was Director of the graduate programme at Assumption University, Bangkok. He is currently a freelance consultant, and Series Editor for the Oxford University Press Resource Books for Teachers series.

His publications include Resource Book for Teachers: Literature, Beyond Words, Sounds Interesting, Sounds Intriguing, Words, Variations on a Theme, and Drama Techniques in Language Learning (all with Alan Duff), The Mind's Eye (with Françoise Grellet and Alan Duff), Learning to Listen and Poem into Poem (with Sandra Moulding), Short and Sweet, and The English Teacher's Voice.