Before you click to view the exercises, you will need to do the following:
1. Have a Hindi script font installed on your computer.
The Kanchi font we used (for Macintosh) is available from here for free.
2. Set the Proportional Font on your browser to the Hindi font (in the menu go to Options, then Preferences and Fonts).
3. Don't forget to switch the font back when you exit the exercises.

Hindi Beginning Level
Target skills: grammar, listening, reading, speaking skills and culture competence

Purpose: reinforce vocabulary and grammar forms; reinforce note-taking skills and social strategies, delaying speech production to focus on reading and listening.

• Step 1. (5 min.)
  The instructor explains the steps of the web exercise, and the students start with oral brainstorming based on the 2 pictures included in the first page. The teacher writes all key-ideas on the overhead projector.
  • Metacognitive strategies- organizational planning, identifying the purpose of a language task, setting goals and objectives.
  • Cognitive - predict upcoming information by using visual clues.

• Step 2. (15 min.)
  In pairs, the students write down as many questions as possible related to the pictures, and later ask the class. The teacher writes on the projector all the question words for a review.
  • Cognitive strategies - using common knowledge, using a rule (question word order, adjective-noun agreement).
  • Memory strategies- placing relatively new words in specific context, using imagery.

• Step 3. (10 min.)
  The students listen twice to two descriptions from the sound file. The first time only listen and the second time - along with taking notes.
  • Metacognitive strategies- selective listening by attending to key words and types of information.
  • Cognitive strategies - note-taking by writing down key words in abbreviated verbal or graphic form.

• Step 4. (15 min.)
  The students simultaneously read and listen to the description, if necessary skim the text once again in order to complete the matching task.
  • Metacognitive strategies- selective reading, delaying speech production to focus on reading and listening.
  • Cognitive strategies- formally practicing with sounds and writing system, making inferences by using information in the image and the text to guess meanings of new items.

• Step 5. (10 min.)
  The students are asked to go back to the first page of the exercise with no text and, in pairs, to prepare a more detailed oral description of one of the pictures by using their notes and their previous knowledge in order to present it at the end of the session.
  • Cognitive strategies- elaboration of prior knowledge by relating new to known information.
  • Memory strategies- repetition, active use of new items in a specific context with visual support.
  • Social - cooperation with peers.

Hindi Beginning Level
Target skills: grammar, listening, reading, speaking skills and culture competence

Purpose: reinforcing vocabulary and grammar forms (practicing the ergative construction), enhancing knowledge of the style differences of speaking and writing.

• Step 1. (5 min.)
  In pairs the students brain-storm and write down what they see or associate from the picture in the web exercise, and report.
  • Metacognitive strategies- planning and organizing
  • Cognitive strategies- making personal analogies

• Step 2. (15 min.)
  The students take turns and orally describe what they see on the picture by trying to be relatively cohesive.
  • Cognitive strategies- elaboration of prior language knowledge; use of common knowledge

• Step 3. (25 min.)
  Individually, every student listens to and reads the description of the picture made by a native, and the class discusses the differences. For example it was interesting for the students to hear what the house is made of, that it must be in the South of India because there are banana trees around, that the stone fence in front of the house protects from floods and mud.
  • Cognitive strategies - using imagery to learn new information; repeating and practicing sounds & script
  • Social strategies- developing cultural understanding

• Step 4. (10 min.)
  In groups of three the students are asked to use the picture and write up a short story by introducing a set of characters and creating a dialogue. This year I started having them exchange the stories with their colleagues from other teams to receive some peer feedback.
  • Metacognitive strategies - planning, managing and organizing
  • Cognitive strategies - use reference materials (notebook, dictionary, textbook)
  • Social strategies - work with classmates; pool information/knowledge

During the 2 follow-up sessions all students return the short stories with their comments to the authors; the students from each team prepare for and do an oral presentation/dramatization of their story, make final corrections and hand them in to the teacher.

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