TEFL
ACTIVITY
GUIDE
FOR
TEACHING ENGLISH
AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
WWW.TEFLFULLCIRCLE.COM
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Grammar Activities
• The Present
1
• The Past
4
• The Future
6
Vocabulary Activities
8
Phonology Activities
10
Speaking Activities
11
Writing Activities
13
Listening Activities
Reading Activities
14
16
01
Grammar
Activities
• The Present
Let’s have a look at the Present Form and Use and then some activities to use in the
Practise and Production stages. Below is a reminder of all the forms, uses and examples
of the Present Tense:
PRESENT
TENSE
FORM
US E
EXAMPLES
Facts, Generalizations and
Universal Truths
Water boils at 100
degrees Celsius.
Subject
Habits and Routines
He leaves for school every
morning at 6am.
+
Present Form of the Verb
Events that are certain
I live in Chiang Mai.
Arrangement like
timetables
The train leaves at 3pm.
Present
Simple
• I don't live in London.
• The train doesn't leave at
3pm.
NEGATIVE
Don't / Doesn't +
Verb
• Does the train leave at 3pm?
• Do you live in Chiang Mai?
QUESTION
Do/Does
Subject
+
Present of "to be”
+
Present Participle of
Verb or "ing"
Present
Continuous
NEGATIVE
Is not / Isn't
and Are not /Aren't
QUESTION
Is / Are
Present Actions
Jack is talking with friends.
Temporary Actions
Ac tions
Jack is working as a waiter
in the summer holidays.
Future arrangements
and plans
We are going to Vietnam
next week.
Trends
Thailand is getting wealthier
each year.
Irritations
Jack is always speaking
negatively.
Thailand isn't getting wealthier each year.
Are you going away
next week?
02
Subject
+
Present of "to have”
+
Past Participle of Verb
Present
Perfect
Actions which happened at
an unknown time
I have eaten my Dinner.
Actions in the past which have
an effect on the present
He has finished his shift.
Actions that begin in the past
and continue into the present
He has worked as a Teacher
for 10 years.
NEGATIVE
He hasn't worked for 2 years.
Has not / Hasn't
QUESTION
Have you eaten dinner yet?
Has / Have
Present
Perfect
Continuous
Subject
+
Present form "to have”
+
been
+
Present Participle of
Verb or "ing"
Actions that started in the
pastand continue tothe
present
He has been writing a book
for 2 years.
Actions that have recently
stopped
I have been waiting for you
for about an hour. I thought
you said 3 pm.
Temporary situations
We have been living in
Penang for a month.
NEGATIVE
Has not / Hasn't
and Have not / Haven't
QUESTION
Have / Has
He hasn't been waiting for an
hour, he only got there a
minute ago.
Have you been living
here long?
PRESENT SIMPLE
Presenting the Present Simple requires you to remind students of the "s" or "es" in the third person or
he/she/it part.
• Practise: Gap Fill Activities
We use the Present simple for an action that happens generally. You can also teach adverbs of frequency with the Present Simple.
• Always
• Frequently
• Usually
• Seldom/Rarely
• Nowadays
• Never
• Every week/year
• Sometimes/Occasion
Sometimes/Occasionally
ally
• From time to time
• Every now and then
For example, I go to the supermarket every week.
• Production Ideas: Hobbies/Routines/Preferences
A great activity is to put students into pairs and get them to ask each other what they do in their free
time or after school/work or what kind of food they like or dislike. Or what their routine is for the day.
• What is your daily routine? I get up at 7 am.
• What do you do in the morning? I go to school.
• What do you do after school? I always go home.
03
• Facts, Generalisations and Universal Truths
Comparisons are a good way to practise the Present Simple.
For example, I like ice-cream but I don't like peas.
• Events that are certain to happen
For example, When is your birthday?
• Arrangements we can't change
For example, Timetables.
You can give your students a copy of a train timetable or bus timetable.
• When does the train leave?
• When does the bus leave?
• It departs at 2pm and arrives at 3pm.
• When does the flight leave?
PRESENT CONTINUOUS
This tense describes an action that is happening right now or around the time of speaking.
• Present Continuous Activities:
• Make a list of what you are wearing.
• Spot the difference.
PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE
The connection between the past and the present.
• Present Perfect Simple Activities:
• Experiences and achievements in the past.
PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS
The Present Perfect Continuous is used for recent changes and for actions that go from the past into
the present.
• Present Perfect Continuous Activities:
Use images or board work to show recent changes like a man running for bus.
04
• The Past
Let’s have a look at the Past Forms and
a nd some activities you can use in the Practise and
a nd
Production stages of the lesson.
PAST
TENSE
FORM
Subject
+
Past form of the Verb
US E
EXAMPLES
Events in the past which are
now finished
We ate dinner about an
hour ago.
Something that happened
in the past
We lived in Penang last
year.
A series of events that
happened inthe past
He boarded the plane and
sat in Business Class.
Past Simple
NEGATIVE
He didn't learn any Thai in the
first few months.
Did not / Didn't
QUESTION
Did you work there long?
Did
Duration in the Past
I was having a sleep when
the telephone rang.
Actions
in progress
at the
same time
in the past
I was
cleaning
the Kitchen
my wife
was washing
the while
car.
Irritation
She was always talking
negatively about people.
Polite Question
I was wondering whether
you could help me.
Subject
Past
Continuous
+
Past form of "to be”
+
Present Participle of
Verb or "ing"
NEGATIVE
The teacher asked when he
wasn't working on his project.
Was not / Wasn't
and Were not / Weren't
QUESTION
Were you always good at
running?
Was / Were
Subject
+
Past form of "to have”
+
Past Participle of Verb
Past Perfect
NEGATIVE
Had not / Hadn't
QUESTION
Had
Completed action before
another action in the past
I had finished my work
before I went running.
Reported speech
He asked me whether I had
ran the Marathon last year.
Unhappy about the past.
I wished I had eaten more
before the Test.
Third Conditionals
If Jack had worked harder he
would have passed the exam.
I hadn't read anything before
the test.
Had she ever swam before the
competition?
05
Past Perfect
Continuous
Subject
+
Past form of "to have”
+
been
+
Present Participle
or "ing"
They had been waiting for
nearly an hour before the bus
arrived.
Duration of a past action up
to a certain point in the past
Looking at the cause of an
action
The road was slippery because it
had been raining and it was hot.
Third conditional Sentences
If I had been waiting in the right
place I would have caught the
right bus.
Reported Speech
He said that he had been waiting
for ages before she arrived for the
date.
NEGATIVE
They hadn't been waiting
long for the bus.
Had not / Hadn't
QUESTION
Had
How many years had you
been waiting to get her into
that school?
PAST SIMPLE
Actions that are finished in the past.
You can use ago and last week/year/month to show when it happened.
• Past Simple Activity:
What did you do last summer/year/holiday?
For example, I went to Vietnam and ate some really spicy food. It was wonderful.
PAST CONTINUOUS
A moment in the past.
• Past Continuous Activity: Be A Detective
Playing a Whodunit games with students is great. The students must come up with alibis in the past
continuous. One action interrupted another one.
For example, While I was doing the washing up there was a knock at the door.
PAST PERFECT
An action that happened in the past before something else happened
happened in the past.
• Past Perfect Simple Activities: Story
Draw
story on of
theevents
boardbut
explaining
why
was tired.
Use a asequence
tell them
notJack
to create
a story in consecutive order.
Use images/pictures or draw the events on the board.
• Last night
• James hurry
• Ran out of petrol
• No money left
• Wallet stolen
Last night, James had ran out of petrol because he had had his wallet stolen and he had run out of
money. Also, try using a time line.
PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS
This is where 2 actions happened in the past but one happened before the other.
• Past Perfect Continuous Activities: Sponsored walk
They all arrived home tired and dirty because they had been walking a charity hike all day in the
Yorkshire Dales.
06
• The Future
Let’s have a look at the Future Forms and some activities you can use in the Practise
and Production parts of your lesson.
FUTURE
TENSE
Future Simple
FORM
Subject
+
will
+
Present form of the
Verb
US E
EXAMPLES
Promises
I promise I will cook you
lunch tomorrow.
Unplanned Actions
I will close the door, it’s
getting cold.
Predictions
It will rain later if it stays
this hot.
Habits
He will always move his eyebrow
if he has something to hide.
NEGATIVE
He will not run if he
hasn't trained.
Will not / Won’t
QUESTION
Will he run today?
Will
Future
Continuous
Subject
+
will
+
be
+
Present Participle
or "ing"
Future actions in progress
In one hour I will be
running through the rice
paddies.
Making a guess about the
future
I bet she will be having a
baby very soon.
I bet she won't be getting up
early tomorrow, she went to
bed very late last night.
NEGATIVE
Will not / Won’t
QUESTION
Will she be coming to the
party next week?
Will
Subject
+
will have
+
Past Participle
Future Perfect
NEGATIVE
Will not
QUESTION
Will
Completion of an action
before a specified point in
time in the future
Jack will have finished all the
food by the time everyone has
arrived.
Actions that will last in the
future
Jack will have lived in Chiang
Mai for 5 years in 2015.
Jack will not have learnt
anything if he doesn't go to
class.
Will he have eaten all the pizza
before everyone else?
07
Future
Perfect
Continuous
Subject
+
will have been
+
Present Participle of
verb or "ing"
Duration of a specific
moment of time in the future
By next year, Bob and Kathy
will have been living together
for 50 years.
Cause of a future situation
In ten minutes you will have
been driving for 12 hours, your
eyes are looking tired.
NEGATIVE
He won't have been driving
for that long.
Will not / Won't + have
been + present participle
QUESTION
Will he have been writing for
that many years?
Will
FUTURE SIMPLE
• Future Simple Activity:
Look at predictions by using famous people.
• What will they be doing in 2030?
• He will be ......
In reality, we normally use the future simple only when we have just decided to do something or to
express a
promise.
• I'll have the cheeseburger
• I'll finish the work, I promise
FUTURE CONTINUOUS
• Future Continuous Activity:
Show a timeline.
9 PM
PAST
10 PM
FUTURE
Lesson idea for the future is to give students a diary with booking and meeting put in . Give the students
some questions and get them into pairs. For example:
• What will you be doing on the 3 October?
• Can we meet?
• No, I will be meeting with Mr Smith.
FUTURE PERFECT
• Future Perfect Activity:
Lesson idea is to use setting goals and targets for your life and career and school, and also predictions
about the world.
08
Vocabulary
Activities
PRACTISE ACTIVITIES
• Drilling (Controlled Practise):
A good way to practise a new word is by using Drilling. You can choose to do a whole class drill or you
can go around the class and get a student to repeat after you individually.
• Notebook:
Then it’s time for your students to record their work in their notebooks. Most of the time students will do
this automatically. However, it’s a good idea to remind them and get them to make notes of any board
work, especially new words.
• Pronunciation (Controlled Practise):
When you introduce new vocabulary, it is important to teach the students the correct stress and intonation of the word. You can help students with their pronunciation by writing the syllabus on the board and
showing the students where the stress should be. You should also drill the students with the new word.
• Dictionary:
Ask your students to use a bilingual dictionary to look up new words and make a note of them.
• Vocabulary Matching Game:
Create some cards with pictures and words on separate pieces of card. Ask the students to match the
words with the pictures.
• YouTube:
Play a YouTube video and ask the students to write as many words as they hear.
• Image Gap Fill:
Give students an image of anything like a classroom or an office and ask them to label the things they see.
• Map:
Ask students to draw a map of their journey to work. Then ask them to give directions to someone who
does not know the route.
• Students as teachers:
This is a great lesson. Whenever I use peer to peer teaching I am always impressed with the standard of
the lesson. Ask the students to prepare a mini lesson on a new word using whatever they want to
introduce the new word. This could include synonyms/anonyms or a presentation or realia.
• Splat:
Splat is a great game. Write the keywords on the board and ask two students to come to the front. Read
out the definition and the first person to splat the word wins. This is a great game for reviewing
vocabulary.
09
• Ball and spelling game:
This is a great game. Throw a ball to one of the students and say the new word. The student has to then
spell that word. The student then throws the ball to another student when they are finished.
• Pictionary:
This is a great game. Ask one of the students to come to the front of the class and show them the target
word. Then get them to draw the word and the rest of the class guesses the meaning.
• Drama:
Firstly create a list of target words to be used in the lesson. A good lesson to practice drama is to create a
soap opera. Divide the group into small groups and ask them to write a short soap opera using some of
the target words on the list. This is a great fun activity.
• Memory games:
Show a picture on a PowerPoint presentation on a topic you are covering in the class. For example, an
office. Find an image on the Internet and display it on your PowerPoint. Show the image for a few minutes and then hide it and ask the students to remember as many of the objects they saw. Get them to
write them down. You can have a competition to see who got the most words.
• M&M Game:
Firstly get a load of M&M's.
List a number of topics you have studied during the last few weeks. Give each topic a color corresponding to the color of the M&M. Then divide the class into small groups and give them a handful of chocolates. The students can eat the chocolate if they can think of a vocab word associated with each color.
For example, the topic Travel is given a red color. If the group has received 7 red M&M's they must think
of 7 words associated with travel. They can eat each of the red M&M's when they write down the word.
• Group Mind Map:
Firstly think of a topic and create a mind map on the board as an example. Next give each of the groups a
few topics on a piece of card and get the groups to create their own mind maps by brainstorming new
words. Allow them to use dictionaries or internet if its available.
• Others:
• Crosswords
• Matching pictures to words
• Anagrams
• Antonyms
• Word Searches
10
Phonology
Activities
PRONUNCIATION
PRONUNCIA
TION ACTIVITIES
• Map:
Use a Map of anywhere: get your students pronouncing the names of the cities and also get them to
write these place names using the Phonemic Chart. You can ask them to get in to teams and come to
the board to write these names while the other teams guess.
• Homophones Game:
This is where two words sound the same but have different meanings.
• Flashcards:
Use flashcards and the phonemic chart to show students how to correctly pronounce words.
• Phonemic Chart Bingo:
Get some bingo cards printed out with different phonemes on the cards and say the sounds of the
phonemic letters while the students mark off their card.
• Minimal Pairs:
These are words that only differ in one sound like cat and cut or sheep and ship.
There are many different variations on Minimal Pairs. Here are a few:
a) Minimal Pairs Bingo: set up a bingo card with minimal pairs on the cards. For example, cat
and cut, sheep and ship, but and bat, uncle and ankle. Call out the words and get your students to fill in
their cards. Once a student has all the words BINGO!
b) Minimal Word Splat: this is a good activity where you write the minimal words on the board
and two students stand at the front. You or its even better of you can get another student to call out the
words so that they can practise their pronunciation. The two players have to hit the word on the board.
Other students can help but beware of the volume!
c) Stand up and sit down: You explain to the students that when they hear one sound they stand
up and when they here another they sit down. You can vary the sounds in accordance with the phonemic chart.
Remember have fun and use positive language.
11
Speaking
Activities
Let’s look at some Activities which could be used for the Practise (Controlled) and Production (Free)
stages of your lesson:
COMMUNICATIVE
COMMUNICA
TIVE ACTIVITIES
A communicative activity is where you can get a pair of students to help each other complete a task. By
giving each of the pairs a slightly different version of the resource they can ask questions to each other
and complete the activity. The resource you can use can be anything you can thing of: a pizza menu, a
train timetable, an instruction manual. If you use a pizza menu then you can hide prices and ingredients
from the students. Their job is to ask each other questions like "how much does the ham and cheese
cost?" or "Whats in the the Hawaiian ?" Again with any activity pick a few resources which are relevant
to the age group. You can also also give the students new vocabulary and grammar structures in the
presentation section of the lesson.
This can be used for Controlled Practise if you give your learners scripted questions and it can also be
used for Free Practise by asking them to create their own questions.
• Peer to Peer Checking of Answers:
Peer to Peer means student to student. A great way of getting students talking is to ask them to check
the answers of their partner or group. They can mark each other’s work.
You could use this as either a Controlled activity if you give your students scripted questions to ask.
For example, "Why is this wrong?" or "Why didn't I get full marks?"
• Extension of discussions:
Once you have got your students talking then you can encourage them to keep talking about anything
related to the subject. Go around the the room and start eliciting information form them by asking
open questions and giving positive feedback. Use positive language like wonderful, fantastic, and
unbelievable.
This could be used as a Production Activity.
• Adding in discussions:
Once you practised an activity then try to start getting your students talking about things that interest
them and ask them to give opinions. Talk about your favourite food and restaurant.
This could be used as a Production Activity.
• Role plays:
Another great way to get students talking is to do role play acting. A good role play would be ordering
some food from a restaurant or booking a flight on the telephone. You would get the students in pairs
or in small groups and assign them characters. A difficult customer is a good one.
This could be used as a Controlled Activity or Production Activity.
12
• Interviews:
A job interview is another activity that works well. You would introduce all the vocabulary and grammar structure in the presentation part of the lesson and then get students interviewing each other in
their pairs.
This could be used as a Controlled Activity or Production Activity.
• Compare and contrast:
In this activity, you can use anything to compare and contrast. For examples, different countries, cars,
clothes, shoes, movies, books, TV, cartoons and technology. Again, remember to add context to your
discussion and introduce new grammar and vocabulary at the start of the lesson. Comparing Samsung
to Apple always works very well depending on your classroom context.
This could be used as a Controlled Activity or Production Activity.
• Debates:
You can create debating teams to discuss a topic in the news or current.
This could be used as a Production Activity.
• Expressing an opinion:
When you have a discussion lesson, then it’s a good idea to introduce some good grammar structures
to the students. For example, I believe, I think and the negatives as well. This is also a good opportunity
to introduce Modal verbs to show the degree of certainty. For example, might, may or could.
This could be used as a Production Activity.
• Interjecting:
For discussion activities, it’s also a good idea to teach a way to interrupt a person speaking using:
• Could I stop you there?
• Excuse me?
This could be taught in the Practise Stage of the lesson.
• End a discussion:
For a discussion activity it’s important to show students how to end the conversation. You can teach
the following constructions:
• In summary
• In conclusion
This could be taught in the Practise Stage of the lesson.
• Points to remember for a Discussion Lesson:
Choosing the right topic:
With any lesson you teach it’s important to add context. When you are deciding a discussion topic use
something the students will enjoy talking about. Movies, celebrities, sports stars are good topics.
This could be used as a Production Activity.
• Using your groups:
Get one group to argue the case for and another group against.
This could be used as a Production Activity.
13
Writing
Activities
• Gap fill activities:
Choose a paragraph from a magazine or from the Internet and take some of the words out, particularly
adjectives and adverbs. Ask you students to add their own descriptive words. This is a good writing activity
for beginner levels.
• Project Work:
Create a group project which includes informal, formal, guided and free writing to be presented as a
PowerPoint to the class, displayed as a poster around the school or in the classroom or put onto a Wikispaces or blog site.
• Use an image or photograph:
Find a photo or an image and display on an overhead projector or pin it to the board and ask the students
to write a sentence about it. For example, find an image related to sport and teach, "a man is climbing up
a mountain.” You can also vary the verb phrase by getting the students to write down what happened
before (past) and what will happen after this photo (future).This is good piece of guided writing to be used
with Intermediate and above.
• Peer to peer marking and correction:
Give your students a topic and ask them to write a paragraph in whichever tense you choose. Once they
have written a paragraph get them to swap papers with their partner and ask them to correct each other's
work. Once they have been corrected then ask the students to return the piece of work and re-write their
piece of work with their corrections. This is a great opportunity for you to work with weaker students.
• Speed Date!
Like speed dating get your students to sit opposite each other. Time your students for 1 minute and ask
them to tell each other as many adjectives and adverbs as possible.
• Adjective/Adverb game:
Each student writes his or her name vertically. If you are teaching in Asia and many of your students are
using nicknames get them to write their full name down vertically. Then ask them to write an adjective/adverb for each of the corresponding letters. Then peer to peer assess their work using pair work of
group work to check whether they are truly adjectives or adverbs. You can extend this activity by asking
the students to construct sentences using their adverbs/adjectives.
• Comparatives and superlatives:
A great way to teach this is to use advertising from a magazine. Ask your students to bring a magazine to
the lesson. Ask them to find some advertising. You can spend the lesson discussing some of the adverts
and also create your own slogans for some of the products you see.This is a great activity for Intermediate
and above.
• Student quizzes:
A good activity to use is to get students to write their own quiz questions in groups and then for each of
the groups to ask each other group the questions.
• If:
You can use if with more advanced classes given students the chance to express themselves.
14
Listening
Activities
CHOOSING A LISTENING ACTIVITY
One of the most important parts of a listening lesson is choosing the right material. Choosing text that
creates interest and a motivation to want to listen will mean a successful lesson. Lets consider the choices which are available to you when you choose listening material.
• Course Textbook and CD:
Many of the textbooks you will have will contain a CD with listening activities. However, most of the time
these listening activitiesare completely unrelated
unrelate d to the real world. Its vital that your text has context and
is interesting.
• School Trip:
A good activity is a school trip or excursion with adult learners. Depending on their level you could go
and watch a movie or a play or visit a museum or attraction with an English speaking commentary
• Using YouTube:
Select a short clip and see if you can transcribe it for your students. This is a great opportunity for you to
add a clip to your blog or Wikispaces site. Activities might include gap fill exercises in the pre-listening
stage. YouTube has many different clips for you to use for your listening activities.
• Make your own:
If you have time then you could record your own voice and role play.
LISTENING ACTIVITIES
Here are a number of activities you could use if you are not ready to introduce authentic listening activities.
• Family Tree:
Give the students a copy of a family tree and then make up some listening text so that students can
identify
members of the family.
• Picture Sounds:
Give students some pictures of animals and make up some listening text so that the students can identify
the type of animals.For example, you could make a recording or say "It has four legs and you can ride it
with a saddle." The student will choose the picture of the horse. You can also do this with different types
of clothing.
• Map Skills:
You could also use a map to teach listening skills and read out directions on a map grid. Play the game in
teams with prizes of M&M's.
15
• Picture dictation:
You read out some text and the student attempts to draw what they hear.
• Simon Says:
Games like Simon says, where the teacher gives instructions and the student must follow the direction.
As students reach intermediate levels then you can move onto more authentic listening work, which will
involve some real life scenarios.
LISTENING ACTIVITIES
Songs are a wonderful way to motivate students and have fun. One of the most memorable lessons I have
taught was to class of 50 beginner language learners. We looked at the song "Yesterday” by the Beatles. It
was a superb lesson. The latest research on teaching suggests that using songs in the classroom is one of
the best ways to get students learning. You can use songs to show grammar structure, pronunciation,
stress and rhythm. Certain songs will also allow your students to access culture. As we said at the start we
want our students to be life long learners and to have an interest in getting better and better at English in
and outside the classroom.
• How do you choose a song?
I choose "Yesterday” by the Beatles because it opened up many possibilities for me to teach culture and
tenses and feelings.
You could choose:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Special occasion songs like happy birthday, etc.
Songs and games using children's songs.
Action songs: head, shoulders, knee and toes is a good one.
Songs that are specially written for teaching.
Songs, which tell a story.
You can find most lyrics on the Internet as well as many, many songs on You
YouT
Tube. Have fun!!
Songs are a great way to teach listening and can also be used for a myriad of other lessons.
Let’s look at how to structure a lesson using songs:
• Introduction and Warmer:
Introduce yourself and use a warmer to get your learners in the mood.
• Pre-listening Activity:
Present any new grammar or vocabulary that might come up in your song. Make sure you add context to
the lesson by choosing an appropriate song. Explain the song you have chosen and create a mind map on
the board with words that are in the song and ask them to make predictions of words that might hear.
Elicit information about the kinds of songs. For example, rock, pop, love, etc. Ask the students what their
favourite songs are.
• Listening Task:
Play the song the first time asking one or two questions or asking them to fill in the gaps from the script
you have given them. Play the song a second time asking more detailed questions.
• Post Listening task:
Discuss questions.
• Cooler:
Get students to do a Karaoke of the song with you providing the lyric sheet.
This type of lesson is great fun, enjoy.
16
Reading
Activities
CHOOSING A READING ACTIVITY
When to come to choose an appropriate text the most important piece of advise is to choose something the students will enjoy and have fun completing.
READING ACTIVITIES
When we looked at the Lesson Structure for Reading we showed you how to teach a reading lesson
with an appropriate text. We also explained that you are looking to develop certain skills while reading.
Its also very important that you ask the right sort of questions, which we looked at in the previous
section, and also give learners varied activities to enrich the reading experience. Here are a few ideas
that you can incorporate into a reading lesson remembering that you are trying to balance the intensive
and extensive reading experience:
• Authentic Reading Material:
All of the following can be used to teach an exciting Reading lesson. Remember to give you lessons
context and make them as rich and as varied as possible to test the appropriate level you are working
with.
• Classified Adverts
• Horoscopes
• Problem Pages from Magazines
• Tourist Information
• Movie Reviews
• Gap fill activities:
Once you have chosen your piece of text you can use a predictive activity where you have removed
certain words from a paragraph and learners must guess the most appropriate word. You can vary the
difficulty of the activity depending on the level of your class. For example, you could give a low level
class a choice of words to insert into the gaps. A high level class would have to use their knowledge to
insert an appropriate word into the gap.
• Graded questions:
Global questions: This type of question checks whether your students have understood an idea,
which is central to the whole text. Students have to have read the whole text to be able to answer a
global question. A good idea is to put global questions as pre questions so that the student has to read
the text and is reading for purpose.
Specific questions: focus on a point of detail. Students can normally find the answers to specific
questions from just one sentence.
True or False statements: This is a more thorough way of checking comprehension as it gives
you a chance to check straight away. You could ask the students to raise their hands. Alternatively you
could get students into teams and with one person from the side acting as true and the other as false.
You then read out the sentence and the student has to choose a chair to go and sit on, either true or
false.
Multiple choice questions: Give you students a choice of answers to check understandin
understanding
g of the
meaning of the text.
17
• Have I got News for you?
In this activity you would remove all headlines and titles from the texts and ask students to match the
paragraph with the headline.
You could also display headlines all related to your topic text and ask your students to discuss so that
they can quickly tell you what the title suggests about the topic.
• Grammar Activity:
This is a good activity to use in the presentation or first practise activity. You will ask students to
identify vocabulary related to a certain topic and also identify parts of speech.
• Scanning Jumbled Paragraphs:
With this activity all you do is jumble the paragraphs within a text and ask your students to re-arrange
so that they come in the right order.
ACTIVITY
GUIDE
FOR
TEACHING ENGLISH
AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
VISIT OUR SITE
WWW.TEFLFULLCIRCLE.COM
TEFL