working with emergent language in the english classroom

An excellent handbook out looks at how teachers can make full use of language produced by the students themselves:

"Ideas and activities for developing your reactive skills in class"

Working with Emergent Language | Pavilion Publishing

The author has put together a very useful article for the ET Professional (now the Modern English Teacher) - with lots of practical examples of how to take advantage of language which naturally emerges in the classroom:

Danny Norrington-Davies researches the strategies that experienced teachers use when working with emergent language – that produced by students in real-time interactions.

Emergent language is unplanned language that arises spontaneously during genuine interactions in the language classroom. It includes errors or communicative breakdowns produced by students, but it can also be language that teachers or learners judge to be in some way new, interesting or good to share, or language that might require some modification. This can be done by highlighting useful language or offering extensions or alternatives to the forms that the learners produce.

Emergent language | ETp

Here he is chatting with colleagues:

Start Building your Emergent Language Muscle with Danny Norrington-Davies & Richard Chinn - YouTube

And here he is giving a presentation:

TH Presents Danny Norrington Davies: Ways of dealing with emergent language - YouTube

To finish, from his website:

Articles and publications | Danny Norrington-Davies

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