esl activities

Preface

1.Whythebook?2.Whoisthisbookfor?3.Abouttheauthor

1.Whythebook?

This book covers various activities within an ELT context, focusing on those which are effective, tried and successful within the classroom context. Attention is given to activities which are, in most cases, adaptable by the teacher to be used according to the learner’s age, level and cultural background. It is thus up to you, the teacher to decide whether an activity is suitable and appropriate for your students.

100 + Activities Made Easy is handy reading for pre-service teachers enrolled for courses at University, Teachers’ Training Colleges and ELT Institutions. It is also great as a point of reference throughout your teaching career offering a simple yet easy to follow overview of practical, usable activities which have been carefully chosen and aimed at universal application.

Although many books have been written on classroom activities, these books are often aimed at specific ages and levels of students. 100 + Activities Made Easy is aimed at all ages and levels within the classroom context and written in an easy to follow and simple style.

IVPr

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e2.Whoisthisbookfor?

This book is designed for:

• Pre-service teachers enrolled at Universities / Teacher Training Colleges• School Managers and Administrators• The Director of Studies• Teacher Trainers• English language Teachers• Teachers who have recently commenced working in a School after an initial course

in English Language Teaching.• In Service Training courses for Primary and Secondary School subject teachers

who want to learn more about teaching ESL students.• Those who have recently moved into ESL teaching from other professions• Teachers who have moved into English language teaching from other subjects• Teachers enrolled in ELT training courses such as the Cambridge CELTA / Trinity

College Certificate / TESOL or TEFL Certificate. • English Language teachers with no formal training• Primary and Secondary School English teachers

3.Abouttheauthor

I have enjoyed many and varied experiences teaching English as a Second Language. I have taught ESL in Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, England, South Africa and Malaysia, and conducted various ESL workshops and in-service education training programmes. I have a Masters degree in Education with a specialisation in TESOL

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to the many teachers and colleagues whom I have had the pleasure of working with in various countries around the world. I have learnt and continue to learn so much from these people in our professional exchange of ideas and personal friendships.

I have enjoyed an extremely rewarding and wonderful career in English Language Teaching and hope that the English to the World Series will contribute to others in a meaningful and helpful way.

Contents

Preface iii• Whythebook?• Whoisthebookfor?• Abouttheauthor

Acknowledgements v

Chapter1:Teacher’sSurvivalKit

Chapter2:ReadingActivities

Chapter3:ListeningActivities

Chapter4:WritingActivities

Chapter5:Speaking,DramaandPronunciationActivities Chapter6:VocabularyActivities

Chapter7:ComputerAssistedActivities

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Chapter8:GrammarActivities

Chapter9:BusinessEnglishActivities

References:

Index:

Chapter 1Teacher’s Survival Kit

Day First

The first day of class can be an extremely daunting experience even for the most experienced and “seasoned” teachers amongst us. So whether you are taking up a teaching post for the very first time, taking up a position at a new school or simply teaching a new group of students for the first time – these suggestions may assist you in coping with what may seem to be potentially overwhelming day:

Prior to the First Day

• Itisagoodideatovisityourclassroompriortothefirstdayofschoolsothatyoucan familiarise yourself with the layout of the classroom (see Chapter 1) and the equipment at your disposal.

• Make sure that you have curriculum / syllabus outlines photocopied and ready to handouttoyourstudentsonthefirstdayofclass.

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The First Day

The time on this day is usually taken up by administrative tasks and a fair deal of paperwork. More importantly though, this is when the tone for the class is set. It is therefore imperative to be on time and to be prepared. Here are a few simple guidelines:

• Introduce yourself and tell your students a little about your professional background and perhaps some interesting personal details (hobbies / interests).

• Distribute the curriculum / syllabus outlines and any other relevant documentation.• Discuss the focus and content of the syllabus.• Discuss your own expectations (grading, assignments, conduct etc.).• Discuss required text books and if possible bring along a copy to show to your

students.• Having completed all the administrative tasks, it may be a good idea to attempt to create

a sense of community within the class by: asking students about their expectations, taking the attendance register, asking students to introduce themselves.

• Prior to dismissing the class discuss what you will be looking at during the next class and perhaps giving them a short preparatory task to complete.

Icebreakers

• Colour, Car, Character

In this activity you ask each student to write his or her name on the piece of paper. Under his or her name each student is to write a colour which he or she feels fits his or her personality. Beneath the colour the student is to write the name of a car that he or she thinks is appropriate to his or her self-image. Finally, under the name of the car, the student is to write the name of a fictional character with whom he or she identifies.

Then, one at a time, the group members introduce themselves by stating their names, colour, cars and fictional characters. In the introduction, each student is to provide a brief rationale for each of his or her three choices.

The exercise continues until all of the students have introduced themselves by colour, car and character.

• What’s Different, Partner?

Ask everyone to team up with a partner (someone they haven’t met or who has the same colour eyes). Ask them to turn back-to-back and change 5 things about their appearance, one of which is very silly. Partners turn around when ready and try to guess the 5 things that have been changed.

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This ice-breaker gets people to interact with one new person and helps everyone feel comfortable. It also shows how observant we really are.

• 4 Facts

Each person writes down 4 facts about themselves, one of which is a lie. Each person takes turns reading their list aloud and the rest of the team writes down the one they think is a lie. When all are done reading the lists aloud, the first person reads their list again and identifies the lie. The team sees how well they did.

This ice-breaker gets people to know one another very quickly and find things in common. Some of the truths and lies are so outrageous! This icebreaker can show how right or wrong our perceptions can be.

• Chinese Whispers

Divide the class into even rows. The last member of each row (at the back of the class) is taken out of the classroom. A “key” letter, word or sentence (depending on level) is given.

The students run back inside, and whisper the “key” to the next student in their row. It is whispered down through the row until the last member writes it on the board.

The first student to write it on the board correctly wins the point for their team/row.

• Birth Order

Put one of the following signs in each room corner: Only Child, Oldest Child, Youngest Child, Middle Child. Have participants go to the appropriate corner of the room based on their own birth order position.

When everyone is assembled, ask them to discuss what special characteristics their birth order has and how it is reflected in their choice of job. Assign a recorder based on some criteria (i.e. person who was born the farthest from the meeting site, person who has been with their company the longest/shortest, person who is the tallest, etc.). Have groups report back.

This ice-breaker gets people moving and interacting with a larger group.

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• The Mingle Game

Create a worksheet with space for 12-15 blanks. Ask participants to walk around the room collecting signatures from people who meet the criteria. A person can only sign the sheet once. If people finish early, have them help others finish their sheets. Collect completed sheets. Select 3 to win prizes.

The criteria you list can be easily adapted to any group. Here are some ideas. “Find someone who: is wearing contact lenses, wears brown socks, saw _____ movie, has gone to Europe, plays a musical instrument, has an unusual hobby, etc.”

This ice-breaker also gets people moving and interacting with a larger group.

• Team Brainstorming

Ask teams to list: things that are round, things associated with a holiday, things that are red, things you can make out of tires or coat hangers, excuses for speeding, etc. No discussion, just list items! Assign a recorder. The team with the most wins.

This activity helps everyone feel equal and sets the stage for activities on the course topics.

• Beach Ball Brainstorming

Announce a topic (things associated with a season, a holiday, the course content, the company, etc.). Then pass around an inflatable beach ball. Have everyone stand and pass the ball. When someone catches the ball, they shout out something related to the topic and then toss the ball to someone else. If the group is small, they can pass the ball in a circle chain.

This activity gets people up and moving, and is fun to do in the afternoon to break up a long session. It’s guaranteed to wake everyone up!

Warmers and Fillers

1. Alter the pacing of your class. If you rush through your class at full speed, slow things down and take time to ask your students personal questions based on the materials you are using. If you tend to proceed at a snail’s pace, prepare some ad-ditional activities and push yourself to accomplish more than you usually do.

2. Ask a student to demonstrate a dance, and assist the student in explaining the movements in English.

3. Ask students to name as many objects in the classroom as they can while you write them on the board.

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4. Ask students to present to the class a gesture that is unique to their own culture. 5. Ask students to write one question they would feel comfortable answering (with-

out writing their names) on an index card. Collect all of the index cards, put them in a bag, have students draw cards, and then ask another student the question on that card.

6. Ask your students if there are any songs running through their heads today. If any-one says yes, encourage the student to sing or hum a little bit, and ask the others if they can identify it.

7. Assign students to take a conversation from their course book that they are familiar with and reduce each line to only one word.

8. At the end of class, clean the board and challenge students to recall everything you wrote on the board during the class period. Write the expressions on the board once again as your students call them out.

9. Begin by telling your students about an internal struggle between two sides of your personality (bold side vs. timid side OR hardworking side vs. lazy side), providing a brief example of what each side says to you. After a few minutes of preparation in pairs, have students present their struggles to the class.

10. Bring a cellular phone (real or toy) to class, and pretend to receive calls throughout the class. As the students can only hear one side of the conversation, they must guess who is calling you and why. Make the initial conversation very brief, and gradually add clues with each conversation. The student who guesses correctly wins a prize.

11. Bring a fork, knife, spoon, bowl, plate and chopsticks (if you have them) to class, and mime eating some different dishes, letting students guess what they are. Then let your students take a turn.

12. Bring an artifact from the student’s culture to class and ask them questions about it.

13. Bring in some snacks that you think your students haven’t tried before, and invite the students to sample them and give their comments.

14. Callonastudenttodrawhisorhercountry’sflagontheboard,thenteachhimorherhowtodescribetheflagtotheclass(Ithasthreestripes...).

15. Choose one topic (food, sports) and elicit a list of examples (food - chicken, pud-ding, rice). Then have your student come up with the most unusual combinations of items from that list (chocolate-beef or wrestling-golf).

16. Collaborate with your students on a list of famous people, including movie stars, politicians, athletes and artists. Have every student choose a famous person, and put them in pairs to interview each other.

17. Come to class dressed differently than usual and have students comment on what’s different.

18. Copy a page from a comic book, white out the dialogue, make copies for your class, and have them supply utterances for the characters.

19. Copy pages from various ESL textbooks (at an appropriate level for your students), put them on the walls, and have students wander around the classroom and learn a new phrase. Then have them teach each other what they learned.

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20. Copy some interesting pictures of people from magazine ads. Give a picture to each student, have the student fold up the bottom of the picture about half an inch, and write something the person might be thinking or saying. Put all the pictures up on the board, and let everyone come up and take a look.

21. Describe something observable in the classroom (while looking down), and tell students to look in the direction of what you described.

22. Draw a map of your country or another country that your students know well. By drawing lines, show students where you went on a trip, and tell them about it. Then callonseveralstudentstodothesame.Thetripscanbetruthfulorfictional.

23. Draw a pancake-shape on the board, and announce that the school will soon be moving to a desert island. Invite students one by one to go to the board and draw one thing they would like to have on the island.

24. Draw a party scene on the board, and invite students to come up and draw someone they would like to have at the party.

25. Emptyabagofcouponsontoatable,andhavestudentsfindacouponforaproductthat they have no need for.

Jokes and Riddles

• Jokes

1. Q: What starts with E, ends with E and only has one letter? A: An envelope.

2. Q: If you drop a white hat into the Red Sea, what does it become? A: Wet.

3. Q: What do you call a boomerang that won’t come back? A: A stick.

4. Q: Where do you find giant snails? A: On the ends of their fingers. (Giants’ nails.)

5. Q: What travels around the world and stays in a corner? A: A stamp.

6. Q: What is white when it’s dirty and black when it’s clean? A: A blackboard.

7. Q: What goes Oh, Oh, Oh? A: Santa Claus walking backwards.

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8. Q: What do elephants have that no other animal has? A: Baby elephants.

9. Q: What do you call a hippie’s wife? A: Mississippi.

10. Q: What did the ocean say to the beach? A: Nothing, it just waved!

• Riddles

1. Q: What has many keys but can’t open any doors? A: A piano.

2. Q: What has 6 eyes but can’t see? A: 3 blind mice.

3. Q: Who earns money driving their customers away? A: A taxi driver.

4. Q: What is orange and sounds like parrot? A: A carrot

5. Q: Can a kangaroo jump higher than the Empire State Building? A: Yes, because the Empire State Building can’t jump!

6. Q: What do you call a deer with no eyes?

A: No idea. (No-eye deer)Games and Puzzles

• Hangman

This is a popular word game which needs no explanation. This activity can be incorporated into a lesson to review recent vocabulary that has been taught in the classroom.

• Word Search

In this activity, students are given a letter grid, followed by a list of words. The students have to find the words in the word search and either highlight them or draw an outline around them. You can incorporate recent vocabulary from a topic/ topics covered. You can choose to design the word search on your own or visit www.puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com which is a handy little programme which

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creates the word search for you. An alternative activity would be to get the students to create their own word searches on the computers. These can be printed and given to other students to complete. Refer to the example below:

Find the Animal

C J S H I M Z A U X U J D S L O R W G F O N D O N K E Y H LR K O C P T X E V O P O N E U C E O C E O L A F F U B J E BE D E L O H D O G E C Q Q P YI E O D O D W Y N L R A X S ST P F R X D I K Z E M Y T S EE R S F Y S G L K P X E Y B YF E H T A G S K E H Z F A B QN N O I L R J V Y A G N L E FW J P E N K I E T N S L L E AJ D I Z K O K G N T S O I A AO D D M Z N U W M Q G C R M YH I P P O P O T A M U S O M Y

Find these animals:

ANTELOPEBUFFALOBULLCATCOWCROCODILEDEERDOGDONKEYELEPHANTGIRAFFEGORILLAHIPPOPOTAMUSHORSELION

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MONKEYRHINOSHEEP

• Criss-Cross Puzzle

This activity is similar to a conventional cross-word puzzle. You can create a Criss-Cross Puzzle by going to www.puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com or by designing your own. Again, you could get the students to create their own Criss-Cross Puzzles. Refer to the example below:

Transport

Across1. this runs on rails3. bigger than a car and used by the public5. has two wheels and an engine6. this has a meter

Down2. we go to the airport to catch this3. has two wheels and pedals4. large ship that transports people

Chapter 2Reading Activities

General Reading Activities

• Ordering the Text

Cut up the reading text with a pair of scissors and give a copy to each student or pair of students. Ask them to put the sections into the correct order. Check their answers.

• Picture Exploitation

Reading texts found in course books are often accompanied by a picture or photograph. These give the students various clues as to what the text is about. These pictures or photographs can also be useful for the teacher as an introduction to the topic or as a warmer. The teacher can ask the students various questions about the picture or photograph, eliciting their ideas and opinions. Once the text has been read, the teacher can check to see if the students were correct in their assumptions.

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Fig.1: Example of how a picture can be exploited.

Possible Questions:

• Who do you think these people are?

• Are they tourists or locals? Why?

• Where are they? What are they doing?

• What animals do you see? What are they doing?

• What season do you think it is? Why?

• Gap-fill

Take a reading text and delete certain words. Ask students to fill in the gaps with an appropriate word in context.

• Create a Title

Give students a reading text. Delete the title/ heading. Ask students to read the text and give it a title or heading of their own.

• Split Reading

Divide the students into pairs giving one student a short article or reading text. Give the other student a different article or reading text. Ask students to read their

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ctivitiesparticular text quietly on their own. When they have finished, ask each student to tell the other about their text from memory, trying not to look back at the original text. They can then swap texts and read the other student’s text.

• Running Dictation

In this activity, you take a paragraph from a reading text that you are going to use. Stick this paragraph on the wall outside the classroom or in a position furthest from the students. Now divide the students into pairs. One student is the writer (with paper and pen) and the other is the runner. This activity should be seen as a competition between the various pairs. On your instruction the runners run to the paragraph stuck on the wall and try and memorise as much as they can. They then run back to the writers and dictate what they can remember. They continue this process (running back and forth) until you say change. At this point, the writer and runner swap roles. Once all the information has been transferred from the paragraph to the writer’s paper, then that pair has completed the task. You can then give each pair a copy of the paragraph to check their accuracy. This activity practises all four skills and is a lot of fun!

• Generating Questions

Once the topic of a text has been discussed, get your students to write their own questions about the text for other students.

• Speculation

Provide the students with a number of statements or opinions before they actually read the text. They decide whether they agree or disagree with these opinions and statements. They then read the text to see if they were correct or not.

Pre-reading Activities Before students even get a chance to open the book it is important to spark interest in the story and in the whole process of reading. Let students know that you have chosen a book for them to read which you like yourself and you believe they will enjoy too.

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Activities for Use with Graded Readers

Pre-reading Activities

• Guess the story from the cover – Show the cover to the class and elicit as much vocabulary as you can. Students then guess the story and write short summaries of the imaginary plot. These could be kept until you have read the book to see which one was closest to the real story.

• Jumbled chapter titles – Give strips of paper with the chapter titles written on them to students in pairs or groups. They decide the best order for the chapters and think about the possible story. Compare the answers with the other groups and then look in the book to see who was closest.

• Photocopy the pictures – If the reader has pictures or photos, enlarge these and use them to familiarise the students with the main characters. Students can read the introduction page or the back of the book to guess who is who.

During Reading

These activities should be selected at appropriate stages throughout the book. Some may be suitable after reading the first few chapters and others for the halfway mark. It is important to read enough of the book in the first ‘go’ so as to get students hooked on the story line.

• Comic strips – Choose a suitable chapter or chapters that can be broken down into chunks to make a comic strip. Encourage students to be creative with the characters and give them an example of the type of language to put in the speech bubbles.

• Radio plays – Divided into groups, students select part of the book to make into a radio play. Students are assigned character roles and one is the narrator. Plays can be recorded and listened back to for future pronunciation work. Encourage students to really get into the roles of the character they are playing. For younger students the tapes of all groups could be listened to and students could vote on the best radio play.

• News articles – Students become journalists and report on part of the story. Choose a piece of action and students write it up as if it were to be published in a national or local paper. Focus on writing good headlines and prepare the articles in the format of a newspaper story.

• Video parallels – If the reader you are using in class has a film version use this to spot the differences in the plot between the book and the film. Always start with the

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ctivitiesbook so that students can create their own visual images of the characters. They can compare their imagined characters with those in the film.

• Horoscopes – At an appropriate stage in the plot development, students write horo-scopes for the characters, predicting their future. From what they know so far about their personalities, which star sign do they think they are? At a later stage these can be used to compare against the real events of the book. Did the horoscope prediction come true?

• Character interviews / ‘Hot seating’ – Students role-play an interview with one of the characters. Take a couple of the main characters ‘out’ of the book and bring them into the classroom! Assign students the roles of the characters and the rest of the class prepare questions they would like to ask them. The students playing the roles of the characters must try to put themselves in the characters’ shoes and give suitable answers. Time and support must be given by the teacher to both the interviewees and the interviewers in order to make this successful. Depending on the book you could imagine that the interviews are taking place in a police station, on a TV chat show or wherever seems appropriate. With a little imagination it can be a lot of fun!

• Reading journals – Students complete a reading journal outlining the characters and plot after each section or chapter in the book. Refer to the example below.

Post-reading Activities

When you have finished reading the book some of these activities could be tried. • Book reviews – Students write reviews of the book giving it a star rating from one

to five. Before doing this it would help to look at the style and language of book reviews.

• Quiz time – In teams students prepare questions about the book’s plot and charac-ter’s. Questions would be used in an inter-team quiz to see which group is the most knowledgeable. This may involve students re-reading parts of the book.

• Change the ending – In groups students re-write the ending of the book. If it was a happy ending, make it sad and vice versa!

• Cinema posters – Tell students that the book is now going to be made into a Holly-wood blockbuster and they are responsible for creating the poster and casting actors to the roles of the characters.

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• Step-by-Step reading

Choose a text appropriate to the students’ level. Cut it up into paragraphs and number each paragraph on the back of the cards. Then prepare comprehension and vocabulary questions for each paragraph and create numbered cards with these as well. I usually do 3 or 4 questions per paragraph. In groups of 4 or 5, each team receives a set of cards − an instruction card, the text cards, and the question cards. It is a good idea to put them on different colored paper, say pink for the text and blue for the questions. The students take turns reading each paragraph in their group and then answering the questions about that paragraph. It’s a great way to let the students help each other with difficult vocabulary and sentence structure. It also helps the students understand a text bit-by-bit, and is less overwhelming than if they receive a handout with the whole text on it. Groups work at their own pace, so faster learners are not bored at times when the teacher is trying to explain things to the weaker students. Assign one student to be the “secretary” who writes down the answers to the questions. In this activity, there’s no real need for the teacher − your job is just to float and answer various questions as needed. It’s entirely student-centered.

• Student Generated Questions

Here is a student centred activity for any reading text but the text needs to have enough paragraphs so that every student can ask questions about those paragraphs.

Procedure: 1. Each student gets a slip of paper with a question number written on it.

2. Whatever number is written on the student’s slip, the student has to read that para-graph and prepare a question about that paragraph. If you do it this way, then the questions are in the same order as the information appears on the text. But if you wish the students to ask questions about different paragraphs, then students can draw numbers from a bag and work on that paragraph. This means that the number on the slip of paper does not correspond with the paragraph number. This also means that the questions are not in the same order as the information in the text.

3. After each student has written his or her question on the slip of paper, the teacher checks whether the question is correct or not.

4. After the teacher has checked the question, the student puts his or her slip of paper on the floor.

5. When all the questions are on the floor, each student takes a piece of paper and an-swers each question one by one by standing up and getting the slip and answering it and putting it back on to the floor so that other students can also answer it. The students have to write the answers in their notebooks.

6. The teacher could also set a time limit. All the questions are checked afterwards.

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ctivities• Newspaper Treasure Hunt

Bring in a pile of old newspapers.

Tell your students that they will hunt for the following treasures in a newspaper, cut them out and glue them in the appropriate spaces. You provide them with a worksheet. An example is provided below.

What they need: scissors, glue and good eyes!

Example worksheet (you can make little boxes for students to glue in each item.)

Find the following:

A common name: A quality: A flaw: A caricature: A classified ad for selling furniture: A notice for a movie:A country: A movie actor: A famous singer: A political figure: The name of an animal: The name of a piece of clothing: A meal: The horoscope for people born on the 11th of July or 6th of March: Weather forecast:

The name of a country: The name of a city: News about a sport:World news: An advertisement: Good news:Bizarre, strange news:A comic strip:Sad news:Your favourite news: A means of transportation:

Students really get into this activity. It’s great for practicing their skimming and scanning skills.

Chapter 3Listening Activities

General Listening Activities

• Dictations – A good idea is to try and get a cassette / CD player with a number of earphone jacks. You can then create your own tapes for example, letters of the al-phabet (for non- literates), survival vocabulary (for low-level students), sentences taken from previously –practiced dialogues and sound contrasts (i.e. “Are the fol-lowing sounds / words the same or different?”)

• CommercialTapes – Try and get the tapes which usually accompany the particular text book that you are using.

• ShortStories – A great idea is to record short stories on tape. You can then assign a number of different tasks depending on the particular level of your students. These may include a set of comprehension questions or the text of the story with missing words. Students are then required to fill in the missing words as they listen to the tape.

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• MakingTapes – Record a number of words or sentences that students have trouble pronouncing. Leave sufficient space after each word or sentence for the student to repeat / record these after they hear them.

Activities using Songs

• Asongjumble

This is an excellent activity as a “warmer’ to introduce at the beginning of a lesson. Cut out the lyrics into separate lines. Having divided the students into small groups, you can challenge them to see which group is able to place them into the correct order the fastest. The students could then listen to the song and check their answer.

I can show you the world You last let your heart decide?

Tell me, princess, now when did Shining, shimmering splendid

Take you wonder by wonder I can open your eyes

• Agappedtext

You could give the students a copy of the song lyrics with certain words blanked out (as done in some course books). Students are then encouraged to guess the missing words in the context of the song. Once they have done this, they listen to the song and check their answers.

I can show you the _________Shining, shimmering, splendidTell me, _______, now when didYou last let your _______ decide?

I can open your __________Take you wonder by wonderOver, sideways and _______On a __________ carpet ride

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ctivities• Matchingpictures

You could give the students various pictures associated with the song and ask the students to place them in the order in which they hear them in the song.

• Normalreading/listening

You could use the song as you would in any normal reading or listening lesson.

• Listeningcrosswordpuzzles

Many high school students really like crossword puzzles, so turn them into listening practice instead of just reading. So, give them the blank crossword and verbally give the clues to the puzzle. Use recent vocabulary words and turn it into a review. It also gives students a way of defining words by using English instead of translating into their native language. The really great thing about this is that it can be customised to fit any level of English.

• Peerdictations

Have the students get into pairs and take out one sheet of paper per pair. They must label a designated number of lines on the paper A, B, A, B... (about 6-10, depending on level and time). Tell them they must decide which person in each pair will be A and which will be B. Only A may write on lines A, and only B may write on lines B. When B talks, A writes down what he/she says on line A. A then passes the paper to B, and B writes down what A says. In this way they will create a continuous dialogue, story, poem, letter... (many possibilities). At the end of the class, each group reads aloud their creation to the class, or for maximum practice listening and speaking, they pass their work to the group next to them and read that aloud to each other, and continue passing until each group has read each paper.

Students tend to get very absorbed in this exercise and often get quite creative. You could get students to come up with alternative endings to the Titanic movie, or have them write dialogues on ordinary conversation topics.

• BackandForthListening

Good for any level as you can make it as complicated or as simple as you like. 1. Ask students to come up with 10 questions to ask you. 2. When you answer the questions add a lot more detail than a simple yes or no. 3. Now using your answers test how well the students listened by making some

comprehension questions.

This really worked out well and is fun!!

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• PictureBingo–this/that

Maybe you’ve played picture bingo yourself in a foreign language class. This is a good game for listening, speaking, and practising new or old vocabulary. Start making your own picture bingo cards. Here’s how:

This works best if you choose a theme for the bingo pictures, such as clothes, things in a school, etc. Search the Internet for clip-art for your theme. You can probably print off big pictures for flash cards and cut and paste the small icons to a Word document. You will use these for the bingo squares.

Make a 5*5 grid on your computer and write BINGO on the top. Fill the squares in with pictures (either the small clipped art or pictures you drew yourself). Use tape to put these pictures in the square so you can remove them. Make about 2 copies of every bingo card, and then change the card around...moving around the taped clipped art. (If the cards are all the same...your kids will all yell bingo at the same time!)

Before playing bingo, ask your kids “What is this?” and have them respond with “That is a pencil” (a pen, a computer, an eraser, an exacto knife, etc.) Then demonstrate a sequence of “what is that?” giving the object to a student, so they will respond, “This is a pencil, glue, white-out, an eraser, etc. Then have your students cut out little paper chits to cover up the bingo cards. Tell them not to write on your copies (even better if you can laminate them).

Play Bingo, first asking students to respond to your flashcards (WHAT IS THIS, THAT IS pattern). Then, stop using pictures and have them play bingo just listening to you say “This is a paper clip”, etc. (WITHOUT PICTURES!). The first students to yell bingo and tell you correctly (in complete sentences) what is on their paper will win. Give them a small prize when they win.

Note: You can mix things up as follows: one time have only DOWN win. Next, only ACROSS. For the last few “speed games” everything wins (FOUR CORNERS, DIAGONAL, DOWN, ACROSS). Remember there is a free space in the middle.

• ReadMyLips

Materials: Everyone must have the same written material, be it a printout, textbook, etc. (in English of course!)

Use this to teach your students the importance of body language; mostly looking at someone when they are speaking. A lot of times, students will have their faces buried in their textbooks when you read, and you want to emphasise the power of reading lips.

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ctivitiesTell the students that you are going to read a passage from their textbook, but you’re not going to say anything, you’re just going to move your lips. The idea is for them to figure out what you read, just by watching you.

You may add other types of body language, for example nodding your head if you say “no” etc. You will be surprised to find that even first year Junior High School students are able to figure out what you are saying!

What will surprise you even more is how excited the students are when they realise what you were saying. Students who don’t usually volunteer would have their hands up, proud that they knew what you were saying.

Although it is very short, it is good as a warm-up and it gets everyone paying attention and focused!

• StoryIdea

Read the class a story appropriate to their level of English (To reduce teacher talking time have a student read the story). After the story give them a copy of the story (easy enough to photocopy a short story), have the story read again but this time have the students highlight words they don’t know and underline sentences they don’t understand. This is a great opportunity to pair up the students for a minute or two and see how many words they can teach each other and then possibly pair them up again with a new partner. Then have them look up the remainder of the words for homework, and submit to the teacher anonymously the sentences they don’t understand to be gone over the next class (students are much more likely to admit they don’t understand something if it can be left anonymous.) For high level English students (such as university students) you may choose a story with something controversial or something being debated and then divide the class in two or if it’s a small class make it a class wide discussion of the topic.

• RadioStars

Most students love listening to music, so I give them the chance to play the role of professional disc-jockeys at our very own “radio station” for a day. Here’s what you can do, in case you want to try this out with your class: Ask your students to write the following information on a card: - The name of their favourite singer/band and the title of the latter’s best album

ever. - The titles of two great songs from the chosen album. Now the students should write a few sentences on the above (including a general comment on the singer/s and the record, as well as a brief comment on each of the songs.) And now...get ready for the most exciting part! Choose an interesting name for your

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“radio station” and have the students read their paragraphs out and aloud while you record their performances on tape. You should have the songs in hand in order to play them at the right time. Make sure your students give their speech the right emphasis...or their “listeners” will fall asleep! If necessary, help with vocabulary (a few colloquial expressions and a bit of slang might work here...up to you entirely!) When you are done, play the tape for everybody to enjoy.

Activities Using Video • ClassDiscussion

Students discuss a topic which is related to the subject material on the tape/ DVD.

• Prediction

You could stop the tape/ DVD at a particular point and enter into a class discussion of what the students think happens next. Alternatively, the students could write a continuation of the story.

• SpecificTask

The students complete a worksheet while listening to the tape or DVD. You can then check the students’ answers to check their understanding of the material.

• Role-play

The students can act out certain scenes from the tape/ DVD in small groups.

• Lip-synch

Advertisements work really well for this kind of activity. Firstly, switch off the sound and get students to work in pairs to predict and write the script. Each pair then comes up to the front of the classroom and sits on either side of the television. When you play the tape/ DVD again, the students ‘lip-synch’ it. This is a fun activity!

Chapter 3Writing Activities

General Writing Activities

• Re-writingaStoryasaScript

Students in groups re-write a story as a script. The group size equals the number of story characters + a narrator. Each group performs the play in the style of Reader’s Theatre, then improvises the play without benefit of the script, and with free rein on invention. Simple folk tales from different countries are ideal for this activity.

• StoriesfromPictures

Collect lots of pictures while travelling. Mix up the pictures and hand about 30 to each small group of students. These could be shots of people, places and activities. The students are to make up stories by putting the pictures in order to create a work of fiction with the photos. Tell them nothing about the pictures so they have to guess and then make-up the entire thing then present the story to the class. It works and it gives them time to think on their own.

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• PersonalAdvertisements

This idea is good for all levels of ESOL students. It can certainly be tweaked according to the class.

To practise writing descriptively, students can write PERSONAL ADS using adjectives and/or adverbs! The lesson could focus on either adjectives or adverbs according to the instructor’s preference.

Materials and prep time needed would be to create fictitious personal ads that could be found in any local newspaper. Or you could be BOLD in using actual ads in a newspaper.

First, ask the students to explain the differences between adjectives and/or adverbs and how to use them. Then have your students write about what they like or what others appreciate about them as individuals using adjectives and/or adverbs. Examples include “I cook delicious dishes” or “I run swiftly in the morning.”

Extracting only the adjectives and/or adverbs, the students can construct their own personal ads after reading the “fictitious” ads. Also, they can practise writing concisely to communicate their meaning. As a final procedure, have a student or yourself type them as a page in the newspaper.

• DearDiary

Write up a bunch of situations on slips of paper like “scored the winning goal for my soccer team”, “broke up with my girlfriend/boyfriend”, “had my bike stolen and I saw the thief”, “my aunt gave me $400 and I spent it all today”. Have a slip ready for every student, maybe repeat a couple of the situations if you like them. The students choose a slip from your hand and have to write one page on the situation depicted. They have to write as if they were writing in their diary that evening. They’ll have to use their imaginations a bit to provide more of a story line and details, plus they can add stuff like “dinner was also really good tonight”.

• DescribingFruit

This is a fun and simple exercise which encourages students to be more specific and detailed in their descriptions, and forces them to reach beyond their typical vocabulary. It can be adapted to any level and any type of class.

Bring in a variety of fruits and vegetables, one for each student. Ideally, you should have several that look somewhat alike. For example, a green apple, a green pear, a green pepper, etc: all items that could be described as round and green.

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ctivitiesWarm up by having the students name and discuss the five senses. Tell them that you are going to ask them to use four of their senses, instead of relying on sight as we usually do. Place the fruits and vegetables in an opaque bag. Have all the students close their eyes (or you may blindfold them) and take a piece of fruit from the bag. Without looking at the fruit, the students should examine it carefully. Go around the room and have students describe the scent, texture, taste, etc. in detail. When you have finished, ask students to guess what kind of fruit they are holding. Then ask the students to write detailed descriptions of the fruit, but without ever naming the fruit. You may wish to provide them with some vocabulary like peel, rind, stem, pit, etc. Tell them to imagine that they are sending someone to the store to buy the item without knowing what it is called.

When the descriptions are finished, collect them. Collect the fruit and line it up on a table where everyone can see it. I generally arrange it so that similar items are next to each other. Distribute the descriptions, then have students come to the front of the class, read the description aloud and select the correct fruit. Discuss each description and how it did or didn’t accurately describe the fruit. This is an excellent warm-up for writing a descriptive essay, or to help students learn adjectives.

• FindtheLie

Here is a game that your students will love: 1. They have to come up with two statements of unusual things they have done in

the past.

2. They also have to come up with one statement of something that they did not do; an outright LIE.

3. They write down these statements on a piece of paper and be careful to ask them NOT to show this to anyone.

Then the fun begins...

4. The student comes up front and writes his/her statements on the board (in any order), numbered 1-2-3. The student then reads them aloud and asks the other students to find the lie.

The goal of the game is to try to be the best liar in the class so they have to answer all questions truthfully (except questions related to the lie. The student then has to come up with something believable to the other students.)

5. This goes on for approximately 3 minutes (or until no more questions are asked).

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6. The teacher then asks the other students to vote on which statement they think is the lie. The teacher counts the number of raised hands for each statement and finally the student reveals to all which statement was the lie.

The best liar will be the one with the lowest score beside his lie (keep a record of this; make it into a contest!)

Enjoy !!!!!

RandomPictureStories

Firstly have all students draw either one or two pictures on the board. (Tell them they can draw whatever they want)

Secondly run through the names of the objects on the board. (There are usually some funny ones.)

Thirdly, pair or group your students depending on your class level or size.

Finally, ask your students to write a story including all of the objects on the board.

You will have a lot of success with this activity. It can be adopted in various ways and used to teach different grammatical structures. The final stories can then be either read out to the class, or posted on the wall.

• WritingSentences

For the students who have limited English proficiency, this activity will get them excited about writing.

Have three envelopes labelled: nouns, verbs, and descriptive words. In each envelope, put in index cards with one word on each. The students then pull one word from each envelope and using the three words, they create a sentence. They are allowed to add other words and they may change the form of the word (e.g., sing to singing).

Depending on the words put in, the sentences can get really funny. Try to change the words to keep up with holidays, current events, etc. You may even surprise them by putting in cards with their names on them.

If you want to work on writing paragraphs, have the student write the first sentence as directed above. They then choose to keep one of the words and select new ones for the other two categories. (This allows them to connect one thought with the next). They can go on like this until they have 4-5 sentences. Have them cut out these sentences and lay them out on their desks. They may add connecters or

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ctivitiestransition words in between. Before long, they’ve written a paragraph.(This activity even works well with non-ESL students). Let me know how this works out or if you have any questions, ideas, etc.

• FastWrite

Students are given three minutes to write on a given topic. They write non-stop. Now divide the class into groups (with one note-taker to consolidate the ideas). On the white board, write the ideas from the groups as a brainstorm. Each group then chooses an idea from the white board and further develops it or expresses it in a pictorial form. This idea can be expanded and modified.

• JigsawWriting

Divide a longer or more complex reading text amongst groups in the class. Each group summarises the ideas. They then teach each other what they have come to understand concerning their section of the reading. Students then write a summary of the entire text, including the section that they have not read but heard about from another student.

This is an extremely effective learning tool with regard to retention. Studies have revealed that we retain approximately 60% of what we experience directly or practice. More impressive however, is that we retain about 90% of what we teach to others.

• CreatingVariousPrintMedia

- Students create their own holiday brochures- Students create their own newspaper or magazine articles, with the help of

computers.

• PictureStories

Students are given one picture in the sequence from a picture story. Each student then writes a sentence about that picture. The students are then placed in groups and have to incorporate the pictures and sentences into the correct order to create a story. It is at this stage that changes can be effected to the sentences in order to ensure that the story makes sense.

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Fig.2: A picture story activity.

• SplitStoryWriting

Students are given the first paragraph of a story. They then have to add another paragraph to the story in order to continue the storyline. The students then pass their stories to the person next to them who in turn adds another paragraph. Alternatively, this activity may be done in a computer laboratory with students adding to a Word document. This can be a timed exercise with students changing computer workstations when you tell them to. The stories can then be printed at the end of the lesson and read out loud. This makes for some interesting stories and variations. Many follow-up exercises can be initiated such as correcting the mistakes, etc.

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ctivities• StoryStarters

This activity is similar to the Split Story Writing activity above. The difference is that students are given the opening paragraph of a story and have to complete the story on their own. Here is an example:

Cabin in the woods

It was a dark and stormy night. The lightning burst through the window as I sat down in front of the blazing fireplace. I was finally alone in my cabin in the woods. I felt relaxed and content. But, things were about to change…

• RealLetters

Students can write real letters to pen-friends, prisoners, government officials, companies or newspapers. Get the students to mail the letters, get responses and write back.

• QuestionnairesandSurveys

Students could create their own questionnaires about any given topic e.g., what the students think of the canteen food. Once they have devised suitable questionnaires, they could run a real survey questioning other students and recording their responses. These responses could then be tabled in the form of a report and the results conveyed to the class.

• Long-termProjects

This is one good way of integrating writing work with other work. Students may finish with a completed newspaper, magazine, book or play.

Activities for Poetry

• Cut-outPoem

Get your students to cut words out of newspapers and magazines. Unique words are preferable. When they have a substantial collection of words, tell them to spread them out on a blank piece of paper. They should have another piece of paper ready to write the poem on. Now they should arrange the words on the blank piece of paper.

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Remind students that they don’t have to use all of them, and that they can add their own “connector” words to complete their ideas. When they have a draft of a poem, students should write it on the other piece of paper. They shouldn’t worry if their poem seems vague or confusing. It’s okay, that’s the beauty of poetry! It is often the later drafts of this poem that are the best. This exercise is often more effective if done with the help of a partner or a teacher (to cut out words for you).

• NumberPoem

This exercise can be a lot of fun. Get your students to pick a phone number that has significance to them and write it down. They should then use the number for their title. Their poem will have as many lines as their phone number has numbers. Each line will have the number of syllables as the number it corresponds to. For example, if you use 426-3213, the first line will have four syllables, the second line will have two, and the third will have six, and so on. The contents of the poem should relate to the phone number your students chose.

• StoryPoem

Get your students to write a poem that tells a story. Often it is easier if it is about something that actually happened to them. It doesn’t have to be an epic poem (Epic poems are very long poems that tell an entire story).

• MemoryPoem

Tell students to take a piece of paper and write the words sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste on it, leaving plenty of space between each word. Then, they should pick a memory to write about. It can be anything, as long as your students remember it vividly and it has some importance to them. Now tell them to think of the memory. What do you see? Write down words or phrases that describe what you are seeing under “sight”. What do you smell? Write down words or phrases that describe what you smell under “smell”. What did you touch? Write down words or phrases that describe what you feel under “touch”. What do you hear? Write down words or phrases that describe what you are hearing under “hearing”. Finally, what do you taste? Write down words or phrases that describe what you taste under “taste”. Now, on a separate piece of paper, get your students to combine the words and phrases from the five senses list to create a poem about the memory.

• SimilePoem

Get your students to write a poem that contains three similes. It sounds easy, but they will have to decide if all the similes will describe the same thing or three different things. Sometimes it is difficult to describe one thing in three different ways. However, if your students choose three different things, they must find a topic under which to combine them.

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ctivities• Made-UpPoem

First, read “Jabberwocky”, by Lewis Caroll. Then get your students to write a poem using words that they have invented. Their invented words should convey some meaning, either by the way they are used or the way they sound. One method of creating words is to combine two words.

• StepbyStepPoem

Get your students to follow the steps outlined in order to write their own poem:

Step One: To begin writing this poem you will need a collection of various items to look at. You could either have a teacher or a partner gather items for you, or you could use a more natural collection of items in your bedroom, for example. Pick one item and write a stanza of poetry about it.Step Two: Next, choose a person, either one of your parents or a person who is like a parent to you. Write a stanza about this person. Try to find something specific about this person to write about. Use details.Step Three: Then, write a stanza about yourself. (This is difficult for many people!)Step Four: Find a title for your poem that somehow ties all three stanzas together.

Chapter 5Speaking, Drama and Pronunciation Activities

General Speaking Activities

• “FindSomeoneWho…?”

This activity is very easily adapted to almost any scenario. Students are given a handout which may be: Find someone who….

i. Is born in the same month as you.ii. Who lives in your neighborhood.iii. Has similar interests (sports/ hobbies…).iv. Is of the same age as you.

This may then be followed up by a discussion in which students mention those people who share similar attributes.

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• “20Questions”

This activity may be used to help students remember vocabulary related to a topic recently covered in class e.g. media and media related occupations. In this situation, each student pretends to have a job in the media. Students then ask questions in order to reveal his/ her occupation. Example questions may be:

- Do you work in the print media?- Do you work in the electronic media?- Do you appear on television?- Are you a sports reporter?- Are you an entertainment reporter?

• InterviewaPartner

This kind of activity is a useful way to break the ice at the beginning of a language course and allows the students to get to know one another. Students are placed in pairs and ask each other any questions they like. They may be given some time beforehand to prepare some questions. They note down any interesting answers. Students then introduce the student they interviewed to the rest of the class, telling them a little about him/ her.

• PyramidDiscussion

In this activity, you may present any situation to the students. Here is an example: You tell the students that they are a cruise ship which has encountered problems while sailing in the Pacific. The ship is sinking and you have about 5 minutes to abandon ship. Luckily, there is a small island within swimming distance. You have five minutes to select 5 items to take with you before the ship disappears below the surface. Remember that you have to swim to the island. The island has fresh water, but is uninhabited by humans.

- Each student is then given a few minutes to write down the 5 items that they wish to take along with them.

- Students are then placed in pairs and from their combined list of ten items, have to discuss and select the best 5.

- Students are then placed in 4’s and have to select the best 5 items again.- This process is repeated until there is only one group who have to discuss, argue

and select the 5 best items.

• PictureComparison

In this activity the students work in pairs. One student is given picture A and the other student is given picture B. The students then have to find the differences between

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aandPronunciationActivities

each picture without looking at the other picture. They have to describe the pictures to each other while sitting back to back. The students mark the differences on their individual pictures.

STUDENT A

STUDENT B

Fig.3: Pictures adapted from Pair Work Book 1, Penguin Books 2002.

Here is a selection of ideas to stimulate conversation and speaking.

• SpeakingforOneMinute

For small groups. You have a list of subjects to talk about. e.g., football, shopping, holidays, cooking, etc. You choose one person to start talking about the subject. If the person repeats a word, hesitates or makes a gramatical error, another person in the group can take over by saying ‘error’, ‘hesitation’ or ‘repetition.’ It is the teacher’s job to decide quickly if the interruption is valid. The person who interrupts

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then must continue. The winner is the person talking at the end of the minute.

• Yes/NoGame

Everyone must have played the game in which one person must avoid saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when asked many questions by the others in the group. The winner is the person who can survive longest. Strangely it seems to be less difficult for a non-native speaker to avoid saying ‘yes/no.’

• CallMyBluff

You need a big (bilingual) dictionary for this one. A student looks in the dictionary and finds a word which seems very obscure. That student gives a definition of the word to the others. The definition must be either 100% true or 100% false. When the student has finished the others must decide if the definition was bluff or true. The student receives a point for each person who is deceived.

• RankingandNegotiatingGames

If you look in almost any TEFL book you will find ranking games. A group of students have to decide what to take from a series of objects for a particular situation, e.g.: To get to the North Pole, or survive on a desert island. Each student has 2 objects that they want to take. Each person must argue in favour of their own choices. The student with the most inventive argument wins rather than the one with the most sensible idea.

• Women’sMagazines

Do the questionnaires from women’s magazines. The ones that find out if you are honest or not etc. Get the students to make their own questionnaires in groups and then try them out on each other.

• SpeakAboutCards

Get some small cards and write a topic of conversation on each one. Give each group a pile of them. When a student turns over a card he must talk about the given subject. This often leads to spontaneous conversations with the students forgetting about the game which in my opinion is excellent. Some ideas for topics are: The happiest moment of my life, the pets I have had, what happened to me last weekend, my ambitions, my ideal day etc. You should change the topics according to the class.

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• SimonSays

Students should only obey the commands if you preface each one with “Simon says.” If you omit the preface Simon says any student who obeys the command can no longer participate in the game. The last student to remain in the game is the winner. Simon says: “put your right hand / left hand / both hands on your right / left knee.”

• What’saboogsy?

Think of any object and write down a number of sentences which describe certain aspects of the item. The word boogsy or any other nonsensical word is used to replace the actual name of the item. Now give each student in the classroom one or more of these sentences. The students then get together as a group and discuss the clues that have been given. The students then send a representative up to the front of the class to write on the white board what they think the object is. Here is an example:- A boogsy can be shared by two people.- A boogsy is often taken to work by people.- A boogsy often gets wet.- A boogsy can be found in most countries.- A golfer usually has a very large boogsy.- A boogsy is not usually used indoors.- A boogsy can be opened or closed.- A boogsy can be carried.- A boogsy is very difficult to use when it is windy.- A boogsy is not usually expensive to buy.- Black is a popular colour for a boogsy.- A boogsy is very useful when it is raining.- A boogsy appears smaller when you are not using it.

Answer: A boogsy is an umbrella!

• FunwithFakeMoney

Using play money.

Level: Any

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Class size: Any

Divide the class into proportionate groups. In each group there will be a “Banker” who controls the money and reads from a list of questions.

The questions correspond to the different denominations of money.($1, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100) $1.00 questions are the easiest and $100.00 questions are the hardest. You can make up your own questions appropriate for the students’ level (5 or 6 questions for each denomination is enough). Type out this list and give a copy to each banker.

The banker will go around the group asking each person, “How much would you like to take out today sir/ma’am?”

The student chooses $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, or $100 and the banker reads a question from the category the student chose. If the banker thinks the answer is satisfactory, he/she gives the money to that student. If the banker is not satisfied with the answer, he/she will say, “I’m sorry, you don’t have enough in your account”. The banker continues going around to the members in the group until the teacher says, “SWITCH BANKERS!”

The students in the group write down the amount they have and give all their money to the new banker, who continues asking the questions. Try to switch bankers often enough so everyone has a chance to be the banker. Students can keep track and see who has the most money at the end of the game.

This will get your students to speak!

• FindYourPartner

Give each student an index card with four statements. Two say something in the first person, and two say something about “My partner,” using vocabulary your students are working on. So, one card for my class says:

I have a bad memory.I am sick of English.My partner is totally confused.My partner is a big coffee drinker. Another student would have an index card that is the opposite, saying “I am totally confused,” and “My partner is sick of English,” etc. Give the students a couple of minutes to memorise their card, and then collect them. Then, tell the students to go find their partner.

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It may take your class about three or four minutes to do this. Make the cards so that they have to remember all four statements in order to find their correct partner. For example, more than one person had “a bad memory.” Finally, once they found their partner, have conversation topics for them to work on, so they can ask about each other’s daily schedule, plans for the weekend, academic interests, etc. When they are finished with the conversation topics, they may go back to their seats, and then ask them questions, such as “What time does your partner wake up in the morning.” That’s about it. It should take about twenty-five minutes for a lower intermediate class of twelve.

• ConversationalTic-Tac-Toe

Draw a tic-tac-toe grid on the chalk board. Write the numbers 1 through 9 on the grid. Each square has one number in it. Then on a piece of paper write nine easy conversation questions such as -What’s your hobby?, What time is it?, How old are you? etc. Number the questions one through nine. Each question corresponds to one square on the tic tac toe grid.

Divide the class into two teams, team x and team o. The students choose which square on the tic- tac-toe grid they want to try to get. When they choose a number then ask them the corresponding question. They get the x or o on that square if they answer the question WITH NO MISTAKES. The pickier you are with this one the more fun it is.

• CanYouCometoMyParty?

This is an easy activity with no preparation time.

Each student needs a pen and a piece of paper. Ask them to write down all the seven weekdays.

Tell them that each student will throw a party and has to invite as many class mates as possible. But before the activity starts each student has to choose:- the day of the party- another day where he/she must go to bed early and cannot go out- a third day where he/she goes to the gym and therefore cannot go to any party.

Now all the students walk around in class and try to invite each other.Dialogues should go like this:“Can you come to my party on Wednesday?”“Sorry, I cannot. On Wednesday I must go to bed early/ to the gym/ to another party.”or “Yes, of course!”

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Each students writes down the names of the class-mates who will come to his/her party. The one who can throw the biggest party wins! It gets very loud in the class-room but most of the kids really like it.

• He’llbeBaldinTenYears

It can help the students to revise the future tense. Be careful to only use it with a group you get on well with and are not easily offended. First of all, ask the students how old they are, then ask them how old they will be in ten years. They must imagine what the other students will be like in ten years.Then give an example on the blackboard using one of the less offended students:

In ten years, David will be married to a very ugly woman. She will be short and fat and they will have ten children; nine boys and one girl. In the future, David will be a farmer and his wife will look after the children and the animals. David will be bald in ten years and will become very ugly and fat. They will live in a very dirty barn in the middle of nowhere and will be very lonely. So, in ten years’ time David will be very unhappy.

Then ask the students to secretly choose another student in the class to write about, but it mustn’t be a student sitting next to them. Give them about 10-15 minutes to write down their ideas then each one in turn will present their idea. You can also ask the other students to guess who they are talking about.

Groups come up with all sorts of imaginative ideas.

Drama Activities: Role-play

Here is an interesting example:

• CustomerandManager

Tell the students that they are going to do a role play. Then tell them that they will either take on the role of a customer or a manager at a hotel. The customer has a complaint and approaches the manager. Read the role cards, which will help you to think about what you are going to say, how you are going to behave and feel.

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Imagineyouarethecustomer: Role-Card1

Loud music has kept you awake all nightThe tap in your bathroom drips continuouslyYou got food poisoning from the hotel foodThe linen on your bed is dirty- How has this ruined your holiday?- How do you feel about this problem?- What do you want the manager to do about this problem?

ImagineyouaretheManager: Role-Card2

Loud music has kept the customer awake all nightThe tap in the customer’s bathroom drips continuouslyThe customer got food poisoning from the hotel foodThe linen on the customer’s bed is dirty- What are you going to say to the customer about their problem?- Is this problem the fault of the holiday company?- What solutions can you offer?

Various Drama Activities

Here are a few ideas that you could try in the classroom:

• QuestioninginRoleorHotSeating

Questioning in role/hot seating involves one of the learners sitting on a chair at the front of the classroom. This student takes on the role of a well-known or famous individual. The other students in the class then have an opportunity to ask this “famous” person any questions about motives, character and attitude.

• TelephoneConversations

The class is divided into groups of two learners. The learners sit with their backs to each other so that they can only hear their telephone conversation partner. The learners in each group are to imagine that they are two different characters. They have a telephone conversation. You could ask them to discuss a certain occurrence, have an argument about a particularly nasty situation or make a holiday enquiry. The options are endless!

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• ToxicEmotions

List some toxic emotions with the group e.g. apathy, angst, jealousy, anger, hate, envy, helplessness, etc. Write the emotions on pieces of paper. Ask the group to choose a line from a play they have been in or a line from a play they remember. As the leader, choose one of the emotion papers and pass it to someone while saying the line and using the emotion - ‘as if’ you were jealous, angry, apathetic, etc. The recipient of the paper can say their line using that same emotion or pick up another piece of paper and use the emotion listed.

• Shrinks

Before the class begins, write down different disorders (serious or absurd) or problems that someone might go to a psychologist for on little pieces of paper. Have students draw slips of paper. Split the class in half. For the first round, group A will be the shrinks and group B will be patients. For the second round, roles will be reversed. The shrinks can ask the patients any questions, except What is your disorder? in order to guess what the person is suffering from. If one of the shrinks guesses a patient’s disorder, the patient can join the shrinks and begin questioning the other patients. Sample disorders: claustrophobia, fear of bugs, nervous tics, uses a colour in every answer, etc.

• BusStop

Split the class into two groups for simultaneous group improvisations, or have one group be the audience and then switch with the other group. Students improvise that they are at a bus stop waiting for the bus to arrive. As each new passenger boards the bus, everyone on the bus adopts the attitude, personality, accent, movements, etc. of the new arrival until the bus is full. Then begin to randomly letting passengers off the bus remembering to adopt the mannerisms of the passenger who boarded before the exiting individual.

• 360DegreeAwareness

Begin by stretching your arms up and then flop forward. Become aware of your surroundings. Look forward but adopt a 360 degree awareness. Begin walking slowly. Be aware of everyone around you and take care of each other. When the leader claps, make a 90 degree or a 180 degree turn and resume walking. The leader will change speed by calling out numbers beginning with one and continuing up to ten. The leader may choose to freeze students at any particular time and have them comment on their surroundings while maintaining the same stance with eyes forward.

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• MovementWarm-up

Play music during this warm-up. Stand in a circle with enough space to move around. Begin moving your arm, then your leg, your other leg, your other arm, your shoulders, ribs, hips, knees. Start over - arm, leg, leg, arm, shoulders, ribs, hips, knees. Repeat 3-4 times going faster each time. Now ask students to put all their weight in their feet and walk around. How does it feel to move? Interact with each other. Now shift your weight to your hips. Does it change the way you walk or interact? Now shift weight to your chest and interact. Finally, find your own center of gravity. Walk around, interact, and pay attention to how others carry themselves.

• Physicalisation

In this activity, you decide either on an object or a scene. You shout out the object or scene and the students have to create the picture or object using their bodies. This is a great deal of fun and the students really get involved. It may be a good idea to time the students and change the scenes relatively quickly. You could get them to create an aeroplane or the scene of a car accident.

Improvised Drama Activities

Here are some examples of improvisation scenarios:

• PairPlaying

Each pair will become “roommates,” who both want the remote control for the television. One has it; one does not. The only tactic that is not allowed is the use of physical force to take the remote.

• SmallGroups(3-5)

This improvisation would be for 3 players. The improvisation would involve two parents and a child. The subject would be about the child (junior high or high school) wishing to extend the curfew. The mother wants to protect her child, but she doesn’t want to smother him/her. The mother and child have gotten along well in the past. The father doesn’t want the child to stay past curfew because he believes it is dangerous. To top it all off, the child’s “new friends” aren’t the best of influences, and the father caught his child smoking while with them.

• IndividualRoles

Have the class create a “town.” Divide them into groups of three or four and assign

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them to different social groups in the town. For example one group is the governing body, another may be some local merchants. Each student must create a specific role in the group that they are assigned. Once that is established.. tell them someone is going to be murdered (leader will choose murderer and murdered)... and they must figure out who did it. In order to figure out, who did the murder the students must interact with each other and develop their own relationship to the other townspeople as well as create their own characters.

• Ensemble

Make sure you have plenty of space. Create a horizontal barrier in the off center (i.e. closer to one end of the room than the other) of the classroom (or whatever space you are using) with chairs, desks, etc. On the side that has the greater distance from the barrier gather the players. Inform them there has just been a war going on, and the only shelter is on the other side of the room. The people who are able MUST help the people who are not to get to the shelter. Assign some injuries to most of the players (such as blindness, broken limbs, etc.).

Pronunciation Activities

• Incorporation

Encourage accurate and correct pronunciation in the classroom. Try and incorporate phonemic work into your grammar and vocabulary lessons. Here is an example of how to practise the pronunciation of a new lexical item:

- Firstly, model or say the word yourself in a normal way. Then get the students to repeat it after you, all together like in a chorus until they get it nearly right.

- Now, go ahead and model the word again, asking individual students to repeat the word after you.

• ObservationofMechanics

Get the students to watch how your mouth moves and the position of your tongue in the forming of various sounds.

Fig.4: Formation of sounds

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• Dictionarywork

This is a useful way of practising pronunciation and of demonstrating to the learners the benefits of knowing the phonemic script! Ask the students to look up words which are almost impossible to know how to pronounce such as ‘thorough.’ With the help of the phonemic script offered in the dictionary and the key to the phonemic script, students work out the correct pronunciation.

• UsingMirrors

In order to help learners with pronunciation try using a mirror. If you have an entire class, you may suggest that they each have an individual hand mirror. When working with one student, hold the mirror so the student can see just your lips and his or her lips. Students will feel less self conscious if they don’t see your eyes. Have the student shape his or her mouth the same as you do to pronounce whatever is giving them difficulty. It may take several tries in a session or many tries over a longer period for the student to be able to form the words correctly, but over time the student will make progress.

• Transliteration

Write a letter to your students in the phonemic script and get them to use their knowledge of the phonemic chart to translate it

dɪə stuːdənt

haɪ haʊ ɑː juː? aɪ həʊp juː ɑː wel.

ðɪs ɪz ʤəstə kwɪk nəʊt tuː seɪ aɪ həʊp juː

ɑː ɪnʤɔɪjɪŋ ðə kɔːs ænd ðæt juː

ɑː hæpiː.

ɪf juː hæv eniː prɒbləmz raɪt tuː miː ɪn

fəniːmɪk skrɪpt !

aɪ lʊk fɔːwəd tuː hɪərɪŋ frɒm juː.

ɔːl ðə best,

ʤeɪsən/

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Fig.5: Letter to your students.

DearStudent

Hihowareyou?Ihopeyouarewell.

ThisisjustaquicknotetosayIhopeyouareenjoyingthecourseandthatyouarehappy.

Ifyouhaveanyproblemswritetomeinphonemicscript!

Ilookforwardtohearingfromyou.

Allthebest,

Jason

Fig. 6: Translation of Previous Figure

• PhonemicPuzzles

Produce your own crosswords which have to be completed using the phonemic script. Refer to the example below.

Across1. Something you use to connect to the Internet

Down1. One does this when one is sad2. Transport for the air3. Someone who teaches

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k ɒ m p j u: t ə

r l i:

aɪ eɪ ʧ

n ə

Answer:

Across1. computer

Down1. cry2. plane3. teacher

• MinimalPairs

You may choose two words with a very slight difference in sound (minimal pair). e.g.

1. /kΛp/ cup 2. /kæp/cap

You say the word and the students say the corresponding number according to the pronunciation. e.g. Teacher: cup Students: 1 Teacher: cap Students: 2

• TongueTwisters

These are an excellent way of getting students to actively listen and find the contrasts between different sounds. Tongue Twisters can be a lot of fun and you can encourage students to find further examples or make their own. e.g.

She sells seashells down by the seashore. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Chapter 6Vocabulary Activities

There are many and varied vocabulary activities and exercises which are designed around the following common ideas:

• MemoryGames

In this activity you may divide the students into two groups. Give each group a copy of the same picture. Tell them to look at it but do not tell them that they are expected to memorise the items in the picture. Give them a minute or two. Then take the pictures away from the groups. Each group nominates a spokesperson for their group. Now ask closed (Yes/ No) or open (How many people are in the picture?) questions about the picture. After each group has discussed the question their spokesperson relays their answer to you. Points are awarded for correct answers.

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Fig.7: Picture for Memory Game

• Gapfillexercises

e.g. Fill in the space with one word only.

People have been diving without mechanical aids………….ancient times.

Answer: since

• MatchingWordstoPictures

e.g. Write the correct word under each picture.

bus taxi motorcycle aeroplane ship

• MatchingWordstoDefinitions

e.g. Match each word in the box with a suitable definition.

site on-line IT

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hapter6:VocabularyActivities

• Information technology, the communication of information using computers

• Place on the World Wide Web where you get information from specific computers

• Connected to the Internet

• Matching Words to Other Words (synonyms/ antonyms)

e.g. Match the word on the left to the word with the opposite meaning (draw a line to join them as shown in the example).

ugly old fat tallyoung beautifuldangerous thin short fastslow safe

With this activity type, the student must link items from the first column to items in the second.

• ErrorCorrection

e.g. Find the mistakes in the sentence and correct them.

Manchester United was the more better team on the night.

Errors must be found and corrected in a sentence or passage. It could be an extra word, mistakes with verb forms, words missed etc.

• CrosswordandWordPuzzles

Produce your own crosswords and word puzzles. Refer to the example below.

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Across1. Something you use to connect to the Internet [computer] Down1. One does this when one is sad [cry]2. What you feel when cutting yourself [pain]3. Fish which look like snakes [eels]

• PlacingItemsintoLists

e.g. Look at the words in the box and put them under two headings: jobs and subjects.

accountant actor arithmetic banker biology chemistry dancer doctor economics engineer geography history journalist languages maths nurse physics physical education politician secretary

• Hangman

This activity requires no further explanation!

• WordStory

Choose a list of new words that the students have recently learnt. Divide the learners into two groups (Group A / Group B). Dictate the words to the students who then copy them down. The groups must now create a story using the words in the same order and form as dictated to them. The groups then read out their completed stories to the class.

• BacktotheBoard Divide the learners into two groups (Group A / Group B). Group A sends one of its members up to the front of the class. This student sits on a chair with his/her back to the whiteboard and facing their group. The teacher then writes a word on the whiteboard. The learners in Group A then have 45 seconds to describe the word to the student sitting at the front of the class (without saying the actual word). If the student at the front of the class guesses the correct word on the white board behind them within the allocated time, then Group A is awarded a point. It is now Group B’s turn to send a student up to the front of the class.

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• Kim’sGame

Prepare a shopping bag with an assortment of different objects. Divide the learners into two groups (Group A / Group B). Show the contents of the bag to each group very briefly before placing them back in the bag and out of sight. Each group must know create a list of the contents in the shopping bag. The group with the most correct is the winner. This game may be alternatively be played using a list of objects displayed on the whiteboard and then erased.

• MiminganAction Create two piles of cards. One pile should consist of cards with an adverb written on them and the other pile with verbs written on them. Divide the learners into two groups (Group A / Group B). Group A sends one of its members up to the front of the class. This student selects one card from each pile on the teacher’s desk which are face down. The student may choose the following cards for example:

WALK QUICKLY

The student must then mime the action to Group A who then have 45 seconds to guess the action correctly (Walk Quickly). If the students in Group A guess the correct action within the allocated time, then Group A is awarded a point. It is now Group B’s turn to send a student up to the front of the class. This can be great fun especially when students choose strange actions such as sleep clumsily.

• WordDictation

Choose a list of new words that the students have recently learnt. Divide the learners into two groups (Group A / Group B). Dictate these words to the students who then write them down attempting to spell them correctly. They may discuss each item amongst themselves. Each group then selects a member of their group to write their list of words on the whiteboard. A point is awarded for each correct word.

• TheSameLetter

Here is an activity you can use many times. It focuses both on grammar and vocabulary, as you will see.

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Tell your students they are going to write sentences, but need to take the following rules into account:

1. Each sentence must have at least 5 words.2. Each word in the sentence must begin with the same letter given by the teacher.3. You may use a proper name, but only once in a sentence.4. The winner is the one (or the ones) who can manage to write a correct sentence

(it does not matter if it is a little bit crazy)

Then you can get sentences like these:Every evening eleven elephants escape.All afternoon animals ate angry avocados.My mother makes marvelous meatballs.The tiny tailor took the Tunisian tourists to Tasmania.

And so forth. You will have to correct some errors like word order, subject verb agreement, and the like.The good thing about this activity is that students make NO USE of their mother tongue, because it is useless! They need to look for an adjective or verb that begins with an “s,” for example, so there will be a lot of thinking in English.

• Categories

This game involves giving vocabulary words starting with the same letter for the following categories:1. clothing2. something cold3. girls’ names4. boys’ names5. a country6. food7. drink8. a game/sport9. an animal10. a classroom item

Note: this game can be played by all levels. If you have really beginning learners, just give them a few easy categories.

• HaveYouSeenMyFriend?

For teachers with a few drawing skills. Count how many pairs of students are in your class. If there are, for example 12 pairs, take 12 index cards and draw a cartoon of a person (or glue one on) to each card. Make sure to have variety in age, sex, size,

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clothing, accessories, style and color of hair etc. Next print up a vocabulary sheet with words used to describe each category (For example hair: long, curly, spiked etc). Prepare one sheet for each student in class.

Separate students into pairs. One student in each pair gets the picture (index card) and doesn’t show it to his partner. Both students get a copy of the helpful vocabulary sheet. The other student listens as his partner (one with picture) describes the picture to him (using vocabulary sheet if needed) and must draw what he thinks the person on card looks like.

When finished, students compare both drawings. Each pair then changes cards with another pair and the one who described now gets to draw.

This activity will get students to practise vocabulary associated with physical appearance.

• ThrowingWordsAround

Here’s a fun way to get students to remember words. Write the words you want your students to learn/remember in large letters on A4 paper, say 6 to 8 words. Hold up the words and drill them. Then crush all the pieces of paper into balls. Point to each ball in turn and ask students to say the word.

Then take three balls and put them at the front of the table. Ask students to tell you which words they are. Then tell them to watch very carefully, as you quickly move them around, as in a three card trick. Ask them again which is which.

Finally, throw one of the balls to a student, saying the word it represents. Ask him to throw the ball in the same way to someone else, and say the word. The catcher then throws it to someone else and so on. Once the students understand what they should do, throw all the other balls to the class and stand well back!

• VocabularySponge

This is a simple way of revising key vocabulary from a text. To start, dictate a list of words taken from the text. Then, in pairs or small groups, students try to predict what the text is about. If they struggle, giving half or all of the title is a good prompt. And don’t worry, if this sounds dry for your teen classes, wait and see what wacky ideas they come up with. Also, you can do pronunciation work by having students dictate the words back to you. You will need them on the board for later.

Next, students scan text and underline words, also comparing predictions with content. Comprehension questions, either mine or those from the book, focus students on the second read. Students work in pairs to work out meanings of dictated

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words in context. With the words on the board in a grid, students get 30 seconds or a minute to memorise. Words are quickly erased, or “sponged” up by the whiteboard eraser. In pairs or teams, students then “wring out” the words, getting points for spelling, pronunciation, and meaning.

This is great because it integrates all four skills and can make a somewhat dry text fun. The grid + sponge works well with collocations, too.

• VocabularyCards

To encourage your students to keep their own vocabulary records, to help them “learn” the words you cover in class, and to provide them with a sense of progress regarding the amount of words they learn, try keeping a class set of vocabulary cards. You can use index cards or just slips of paper. On one side the students write the word, and on the other the meaning (translation, English definition, part of speech, picture, pronunciation points etc... - at the beginning of the course discuss what constitutes a helpful record of new words). These cards are then kept in a box/envelope by the teacher, or ideally in the classroom for students to access. At various points during the course, use the cards in various revision activities, perhaps at the beginning or end of lessons. Students can test each other, play vocabulary games, use (e.g. five) of the words each in a story; the options are many. If you stick with it, students will certainly start to remember the new words and hopefully how to use them, and they can see how many words they’ve actually learnt.

• StickyVocabulary

This works well with all levels. Here we are talking about how to make the boring gap-fill exercise more appealing to students. Simply copy the gap-fill text onto a piece of paper (a coloured one is nicer) and copy the words onto adhesive paper in colour. You may wish to have different colours for different parts of speech (adjectives., verbs, nouns, etc.). Students stick the appropriate words in the gaps.

It may look like a lot of work for the teacher (copying and cutting the adhesive tape words) but it’s all right to do from time to time. Students really appreciate it.

Chapter 7Computer Assisted Activities

• Sites

The use of the Internet in the classroom is growing -- keeping education on the cutting edge of technology. Below are 40 helpful teacher resource sites to help you with new activities and ideas for the classroom:

1. Dave’s Idea Cookbook www.eslcafe.com/ideas/index.html2. Dave’s ESL Cafe www.eslcafe.com3. TESL Articles www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/links/TESL/Articles/4. EFL Computer Site www.calico.org5. Edunet.com www.edunet.com 6. CALL Resources www.writing.berkeley.edu/chorus/call/cuttingedge.html 7. The English Page www.englishpage.com 8. Aardvark Column www.english-forum.com 9. English to Go www. English-to-go.com/ 10. Ohio ESL www.ohiou.edu/esl.index.html 11. Learning Page www.sitesforteachers.com

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12. Web quest Resources www.davidson.k12mi.us/academic/hewitt14.htm 13. Teacher Library Resources www.teacherslibrary.org.uk 14. Teacher to Teacher www. teachertoteacher.com/15. On-line Resource Net www.otrnet.com.au 16. WWW teacher resources www.public.asu.edu/~dsalce/sed403/403.htm 17. Teacher Universe www.teacheruniverse.com/home/html 18. PBS Teacher Resource www.pbs.org/teachersource/ 19. NOAA Education www.education.noaa.gov/ 20. Teacher’s Net www.teachers.net 21. The Lesson Plans Page www.lesoonplanspage.com/ 22. Integrating the Net www.indirect.com/www.dhixson 23. Internet Tools for Teachers http://tdi.uregina.ca/~itt/ 24. Eisenhower Clearinghouse www.enc.org/resources/search/ 25. Encarta Schoolhouse http://encarta.msn.com/schoolhouse/ 26. Lesson Planning Ideas www.lessonplanz.com 27. Smithsonian Lesson Plans www.educate.si.edu 28. BBC On Line www.bbc.co.uk 29. Email Accounts www.hotmail.com, www.yahoo.com, www.email.msn.com 30. Questions Related to Education Topics www.askjeeves.com 31. General Data Bases of Teacher Resources http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search? p=teach+resources 32. Hot Potatoes www.halfbakedsoftware.com 33. ERIC Clearinghouse www.askeric.com 34. ELT Newsletter www.eltnewsletter.com 35. Blackboard Inc Create Software www.blackboard.com 36. GUMBO www.geocities.com/SOHO/workshop/8405 37. AZ Teacher Stuff (ESOL) www.atozteacherstuff.com 38. English Teacher Assistant www.ETAnewsletter.com 39. NCTE: Writing Ideas www.ncte.org/teach/write.shtml 40. 50 Plus Ideas www.teacherideas.com

• Half-BakedSoftware

http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/

Half-Baked Software From the University of Victoria Language Centre offers several excellent programs for teachers to use in the creation of quizzes and exercises. The programs are free to teachers, so check it out today!

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hapter7:Com

puterAssistedA

ctivities• CALLLabIdeas

Computer Assisted Language Labs offer teachers and students new ranges of possibilities for interaction with the computer. Below are some simple and practical ideas for the classroom practitioner:

1. Instead of students working at individual computers, why not use a collaborative learning technique? One of my favorite activities in a CALL Lab revolves around peer editing. Ask students to write an essay using Word 6.0 or a similar program. Next, ask students to save their work on a back up disc or to print an original copy. Students are required to switch seats when they finish. Ask the students to change the colour of the print text. Once this is done, ask students to peer edit the essay on the screen. After ten minutes or so, ask students to go to a new computer and repeat the process. Finally, invite students back to their original screens. Ask students to look at the corrections, to agree or disagree with the peer edits, and to make any changes before submitting the paper. A follow-up exercise is devoting the first or last ten minutes of a CALL lab to an electronic diary which the student keeps in a private file or disc.

2. Broadcast a series of questions to all of the students’ screens. In small groups ask them to answer the questions. Review the answers as a class or with individual students by capturing their screens.

3. Ask students to teach an English Language point by creating a PowerPoint presentation, visual basic presentation, or an interactive HyperCard presentation. Allow students to hook up their presentations to an LCD in order to teach the class a particular point in the curriculum being learned.

4. Why not exploit the Computer by accessing REAL VIDEO and playing it through Quick time or a similar program. Students can listen and interact with news events. Similarly, teachers can purchase or create their own programs with CD ROMS that allow for interaction and interactive learning between a video and a computer screen to aid in reading, writing, and/or listening.

5. Use the Internet. Allow students to practise writing by going to classifieds in Yahoo, sending Email through free hotmail accounts, writing electronic greeting cards at bluemountain.com, or by researching topics related to what they are studying in your curriculum and then creating an Internet portfolio from the experience.

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• FreeCrosswords

Check out http://greeneclipse.com/eclipsecrossword/index.html for a great crossword maker for Windows. It’s absolutely free, and makes wonderful puzzles (and supports many languages).

• GoogleEarth

If you can find a computer with both Internet and a display for the class (such as a language lab), Google Earth can be a great way to both introduce places and widen the world for people. Not to mention, looking at the Eiffel Tower while in China it’s nice to know.

A visitor to Huwazzitt

An integrated skills activity requiring users to solve a variety of puzzles. Solving the puzzles will yield clues to the identity of the mystery visitor to the village of Huwazzit!http://www.baboonfez.com

• MakingPuzzles

This is a great activity for vocabulary revision. Students visit www.puzzlemaker.com where they are able to design and print their own professional looking word searches, crosswords and cryptograms. Get students to find words that have recently been learned in class and make puzzles using these words. Students print their puzzles and swap with someone in the class. The students must now attempt to complete another student’s puzzle!

• PenpalExchange

Organising an email penpal exchange with other students in another country can be an extremely rewarding and motivating experience for students. This also provides a ‘real’ reason for students to practise their writing skills.

• HolidayActivities

Get students to research information on the Internet about a country that they have not but would like to visit. Students could then design and write their own postcards, prepare holiday brochures, leaflets, letters and posters. They could even do a role-play based in a travel / tourist office.

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puterAssistedA

ctivities• MonitoringtheWeather

To prepare learners, review weather expressions (e. g., hot, cloudy, rainy). Teach or review the formula for converting Fahrenheit and Centigrade temperatures. Choose the cities that the class will monitor and locate them on the map. Decide whether to monitor the weather daily, weekly, or monthly. Ask learners to suggest some Web sources for weather or brainstorm some keywords for finding weather sites through a search engine. Decide what information will be tracked (e.g., temperature, precipitation, or other conditions). Record the information on a chart in the classroom; groups may choose to keep individual charts for different cities.

• WebQuests

Web quests can be found on the Web, or teachers can create their own for students. A Web Quest, as defined by the creator, is an inquiry-oriented activity in which the students get information from resources on the Internet.Below are some web quests that you may find interesting:

► Florida Jigsaw. This web quest explores Florida through six areas of social studies – history, geography, economics, ecology, geography, and government.

http://webquest.org/questgarden/lessons/01324-050909174319/index.htm

► Reading the World with Information Trade Books. This web quest involves teachers in an in-depth evaluation of information trade books suitable for classroom use. It will culminate in the development of a list of ‘The Fabulous Five Information Trade Books” at each grade level.

http://webquest.org/questgarden/lessons/00317-050622152835/

► The Nutrition Resort http://webquest.org/questgarden/lessons/01249-050908184535/

► Mission: UN. This web quest is designed to help students to understand language in its current form by way of researching its past and extrapolating forward to predict its future.

http://webquest.org/questgarden/lessons/01477-050912141500/index.htm ► Zoo Keeper for a day. This web quest allows students to explore different zoo

animals. They will also choose what animals they would like to have in their zoo.

http://webquest.org/questgarden/lessons/02218-050920141343/index.htm

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Fig.8: A screen capture of the Web Quest: Zoo Keeper for a day.

Chapter 8Grammar Activities

Here are a few grammar activities and techniques for use in the language classroom:

• TroublesomeGrammar

For practice with troublesome grammatical structures, have an assortment of dittoed multiple choice and filling-the-blank exercises on the following areas:

• Verb tenses• Prepositions• Question formation• Adjective placement• Modals

Prepare an answer key for self checking.

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• SentenceStructuring

On index cards write a sentence or question, with each word on a separate card. On the back number each word card in sequence. The students must put the cards in the correct word order. They can check themselves by looking at the numbers on the back. Keep each set of cards tied in a rubber band or in an envelope.

• MemoryGames

In this activity you may divide the students into two groups. Give each group a copy of the same picture. Tell them to look at it but do not tell them that they are expected to memorise the items in the picture. Give them a minute or two. Then take the pictures away from the groups. Each group nominates a spokesperson for their group. In this activity, the material is utilised to work on the present continuous tense (is / am/ are + ing). The teacher reads out some true /false statements about the picture, using the present continuous tense (e.g. The man is…; The boys are…). After each group has discussed the statement, their spokesperson relays their answer

to you. Points are awarded for correct answers.

Fig.9: Picture for memory game

• MiminganAction

Create two piles of cards. One pile should consist of cards with an adverb written on them and the other pile with verbs written on them. Divide the learners into two groups (Group A / Group B). Group A sends one of its members up to the front of the class. This student selects one card from each pile on the teacher’s desk which are face down. The student must then mime the action to Group A who then have 45 seconds to guess the action correctly (You’re walking quickly – present continuous).

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ctivitiesThis can be used to practise a variety of tenses. If the students in Group A guess the correct action within the allocated time, then Group A is awarded a point. It is now Group B’s turn to send a student up to the front of the class.

• CreatingTimeLines

A useful activity may be to encourage students to create their own time lines when dealing with new tenses. Write a sentence on the board and ask the students to either come up to the board and create a timeline on the board or ask them to complete a time line in their books.

Example: Write the following sentence (Past Continuous) on the board and ask students to create their own time lines – I was taking a shower when the phone started to ring.Answer:

PASTCONTINUOUS

PAST NOW FUTURE Takingashower

Phonestartedtoring

I was taking a shower when the phoned started to ring.

Fig.10: An example of a time line

• Splitsentences

In this activity, you may wish to use the first conditional for example or a variety of tenses. Once you have written a number of sentences on a piece of paper, proceed to cut each sentence in two. Distribute these various pieces to the students in the class. The students must then read their half of the sentence to the class and attempt to find the missing half of their sentence.

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Example: (first conditional) Ifyoudon’tlook you’llbehitbyacar.

Ifyoudon’twashtheapple you’llgetsick.

Ifyouplaywiththecat it’llscratchyou.

Ifyoubuyitnow you’llsaveyourselfalotofmoney.

Ifyoustudyhard you’llpassthetest.

Ifyoudon’tpractise you’llnotbeselectedfortheteam.

• GrammarQuiz

You could initiate a grammar quiz for two teams. Write a verb infinitive on the board and the first team to write the correct past participle on the board is awarded a point. You could create a number of variations of your own - for example − ask each team to prepare their own questions to present to the other team.

• GrowingStories

Growing story activities are excellent practice for work on the past simple tense. Students are given the first sentence of a story. They then have to add another sentence to the story in order to continue the storyline. The students then pass their stories to the person next to them who in turn adds another sentence. Alternatively, this activity may be done in a computer laboratory with students adding their sentences to a Word document. This can be a timed exercise with students changing computer workstations when you tell them to. The stories can then be printed at the end of the lesson and read. This makes for some interesting stories and variations. Many follow-up exercises can be initiated such as correcting the mistakes etc.

Example: (first sentence)

Ihadjustclimbedintobedwhentherewasaflashofbrightlightoutside.

• Questionnaires

Ask the students to write a questionnaire by utilising recent grammar items which have been covered in class. Alternatively, you could assist the students by presenting them with basic structures in order to assist them (e.g. What/do/tonight?). Once the questionnaires have been completed, ask the students to survey one another.

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ctivities• ObjectsandThings

By bringing certain objects and things (e.g., wallet, handbag, money, glasses) into your classroom, one adds a hands-on feel to one’s teaching. In order to teach beginning level students the use of the possessive form, one could encourage the students to bring a few items to class. Ask the students to place the items on the desk in front of them. Gather the objects and place them on different desks around the classroom. Students then work in pairs. They then walk around the classroom and talk about the objects by using the target language (placed on the board) and the embedded politeness forms (‘Excuse me’) and discourse ellipsis rules (‘No it’s Justine’s’, rather than ‘No, it’s Justine’s purse’).

Example: (target language)

StudentA:Excuseme.Isthisyourpurse?

StudentB:No,it’sJustine’s./Yes,itis.Thankyou.

StudentA:Excuseme.Aretheseyourglasses?

StudentB:No,they’reRon’s./Yes,theyare.Thankyou.

• MapsandDrawings

Maps are practical and simple visual aids for the classroom and can serve to illustrate certain grammatical structures such as the use of:

• Prepositional phrases (down the street, across the road, etc.)• Question forms (where is, how do I find, is this, etc.)• Imperatives (go, walk, turn, keep an eye out for, etc.)• Appropriate discourse when asking for directions, attracting someone’s attention,

clarifying information and ending the conversation.

Fig.11: A simple road map

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Drawings are an excellent way for providing practice in stating locations and giving directions (with the use of prepositional phrases). You may wish to begin by using the simple drawing which follows. After introducing the relevant terms (next to, in the bottom left-hand corner, in the centre, below etc.) divide the students into pairs. Give one student a copy of the picture and the student a piece of paper and a pencil. The student with the picture describes what is in the picture and where these things are (without showing the other student) whilst the other student draws what is described on their piece of paper.

Fig.12: An example drawing for this activity

• ChartsandGraphs

Charts and graphs are extremely useful when practising various patterns and clarifying certain grammatical relationships. In the graph which follows, the average number of four types of crime are described over a period of four years. This kind of exercise will offer students some simple practice in understanding and interpreting graphical information. Students are also introduced to the idea of trends. Alternatively, you could ask students to locate a statistical chart in a local newspaper and bring it in to share with the class, perhaps building up a poster exhibiting various ways of displaying graphical information.

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Fig. 13: Violent crime bar chart

Chapter 9Business English Activities

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• IndexCards

To give a new twist to Business English, do the following activity:

1. Bring index cards, coloured pencils, stickers, etc.2. Tell students to create a business: bakery, music store, etc.3. Choose a special occasion: Christmas, summer vacation4. Write message5. Decorate card

This activity is greatly enjoyed by all students and breaks the routine of just writing letters.

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• MarketingMadness

This is an easy but fun way to get students of any age to speak up enthusiastically in front of the class. Get them in groups of three and tell them that today they are all marketing executives. Give them each a product to invent (shoes, car, soft-drink, medicine, etc.) and tell them that they have to come up with a way to market it and then present their idea to the class. They have to design an advertisement for either a billboard, television commercial or magazine. Divide the presentation into three parts: 1) Description of the product. 2) Description of the advertising method they have used. 3) Explanation as to WHY they chose certain things in their advertisement (e.g., a beautiful landscape that makes you think of the peaceful way that you feel when you drink this soothing drink). This is a good way to make everybody speak, make full use of every flowery adjective they can find and also a fun exercise in creativity/marketing strategies. This activity is also a good wrap-up of or segway into a discussion on the good, the bad, and the ugly of advertising techniques.

• TransformingLetters

Letter Writing Activity: Transforming a personal letter about business affairs into a formal business letter.

Distribute to the class a personal letter about business affairs and have them work in groups of two or three to transform the information in the letter into a formal business letter. You should give them an example or two of a formal letter as a guide. Having learners convert texts from one genre to another will focus students’ attention on the relationship between reader and writer, the purpose of writing, and the difference between various vehicles of language. There are several advantages of this type of activity: learners read authentic texts and they become aware of differences in genres. Instead of a topic where each student has the freedom to choose content, these subjects are controlled by the original text. Also, the whole class can work on the same text, albeit differently, and their finished products will provide various ways of expressing the same issues.

• ExploringMessages

Before beginning a new unit in Business English, give your students an activity to explore their reaction towards a situation similar to the ones they will be studying. Try the following with your groups:

1. Direct Request: Writing a letter to a genie asking for three wishes2. Good-news: Writing to inform that the reader has won $25,0003. Bad-news: Telling a friend that the car borrowed was stolen4. Persuasive: Asking Mr. Scrooge (of A CHRISTMAS CAROL) for a loan to start

a new business

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These exploration activities help to break the ice before discussing in detail the theory and the different organisational patterns used to write effective messages.

• BusinessLetterWriting

For this activity you will need a book of model business letters in English. These are often available on the Internet. Make one copy of 10 different letters (depending on the number of students in your class). Make enough so that each pair has one. You may wish to concentrate on a specific type of letter, such as cover letters or letters of complaint, or else mix the different types of letters.

One student can look at the letter, the other cannot. The student with the letter reads it to the other student, who takes dictation. The “reading” student should not look at the “writing” student’s written work. At the end, have the student compare his or her written work to the original, looking for mistakes and correcting them. This can be a good lead-in to writing business letters, and is a nice way of including dictation without them always doing dictation from the teacher or a tape.

• CrazyResume

For this activity bring a resume to class, and discuss resumes for a few minutes. Ask the students what goes into a resume. Next, have all students quickly (10 minutes) write a resume in English. Encourage exaggeration. Next, have them work with partners taking turns interviewing each other for jobs. Choose the jobs: possible (fun) choices are McDonalds, KFC, Gas station attendant, NASA Astronaut, CIA spy, Military General, Model etc. Review frequently asked interview questions beforehand (the students will know the questions in their native language for the most part). After everyone has been interviewed and been the interviewer, query the class on their success: Did the applicant get the job? How did they do?

• TelephonePhrases

There are many phrases and idioms used when talking on the telephone. Print a number of these on blank business cards, such as: “Please hold and I will ring Mr. Bizet’s office”, and “I’m sorry, but Ms. Albina is not in her office right now. Would you like to leave a message?” The students are then grouped into pairs. Each student gets about five cards depending on the size of the class and the number of cards printed. In turn, they turn over the top card and have to initiate a telephone conversation with their partner, somehow and somewhere working in the idiom / phrase on their card. The partner does not see the phrase. This means they have to think of a situation, and steer the conversation in such a way as to be able to slip in the idiom / phrase. The first team to use up all their cards is the winner. You will have already introduced telephone idioms and they will have done some conversation practice before playing the game.

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• TheReplacement

Ask your students to imagine they have to interview a candidate who will do their job while they are away on extended leave. They have to come up with a list of questions related to their job. Divide the class into two groups, the interviewers and the candidates. Each interviewer now asks his or her questions to all the candidates and has to choose which one would be able to do his or her job best. Then the interviewers become the candidates.

• FormingaCompany

For this activity, divide the students into groups of five to six. Now ask them to open their own company. They have to decide on what kind of goods or services they are going to produce or provide. The students also have to decide on the company structure and what departments are needed to run the company. Furthermore, they should outline the different duties of each department in product manufacturing and sales. After the discussion, group representatives do a presentation in class. This activity can be developed to include written work such as reports and business plans. This may well become an extended project!

References:

Geyser, J. (2006). English to the world: teaching methodology made easy. Kuala Lumpur: August Publishing.

Geyser, J. (2006). English to the world: teaching reading made easy. Kuala Lumpur: August Publishing.

Geyser.J. (2007). English to the world: teaching writing made easy. Kuala Lumpur: August Publishing.

Geyser.J. (2007). English to the world: teaching listening made easy. Kuala Lumpur: August Publishing.

Geyser, J. (2007). English to the world: teaching speaking made easy. Kuala Lumpur: August Publishing.

Geyser, J. (2007). English to the world: teaching grammar made easy. Kuala Lumpur: August Publishing.

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