5 Steps to Use Emergent Language in Your Lessons

One tactic to introduce language, correct errors and build rapport.

Emergent language is a fantastic opportunity to improve your students’ learning.

Using language that ‘comes up’ during activities can improve student accuracy, introduce new language and build rapport. It can also help them express themselves spontaneously, individually, and creatively.

Let’s have a closer look!

What is emergent language?

Emergent language is spontaneous, personal, and unrehearsed language that comes up during interactions.

It happens when students try to express themselves and communicate a meaning or a concept. Emergent language usually occurs in freer, fluency-type activities.

Emergent language is different from target language. Our target language in our lesson aims is usually taken from a pre-planned syllabus (known as an a-priori syllabus). We typically decide on the target language before each lesson so we have time to analyse and prepare to teach it effectively.

The opposite of this is an a-posteriori syllabus — this has become known as the Dogme approach, explained well in ‘Teaching Unplugged’ by Luke Meddings and Scott Thornbury…